Mind racing. Heart pounding. Hoping. Anticipating. Anxiously awaiting.<\/p>\n
The first day at a new job is always scary, but for teachers, it happens twice the first year and every September thereafter. Once when entering a room full of strangers in a new school in the final week of summer. Again, when the students arrive for the first day of school each year.<\/p>\n
Make a good impression.<\/p>\n
Make others feel welcome, safe, and noticed.<\/p>\n
Make an effort to be thy true self, but the BEST version.<\/p>\n
These thoughts raced through my head as one big day arrived, followed by the next.<\/p>\n
Up until this point, I had only ever scoffed at the prospect of being a teacher in a middle school. I swore to myself and everyone I knew that the day would never come where I would enter this space.<\/strong><\/span> If I could erase middle school from my childhood memories, I\u2019d do it in a second. Middle school was a jungle of hormonal pre-teens, confusing moments, and unclear expectations. Only the craziest and most daring teachers ventured to these parts.<\/p>\n In the first two years of my career, I taught third grade. I didn\u2019t realize it at first, but my heart ached for more. For deeper connections. For greater discussions. For a sense of fulfillment, I couldn\u2019t grasp. One day, the Lord laid on my heart a calling to the jungle. To the place, I had sworn never to cross the threshold (again).<\/p>\n It was time to be one of \u201cthose\u201d teachers.<\/p>\n The first day of school approached quickly. I felt ill-prepared. I felt ill-equipped. These were 11- and 12-year-olds. They were not the little 8-year-olds I had come to know and understand.<\/p>\n I stood in the field watching these \u201cbig\u201d kids climb off buses and out of cars. They shuffled their way through the crowds. Only looking up to find a sign indicating the awaiting teacher and line of students they were meant to join.<\/p>\n I smiled. I waved. I made light conversation. All the time, unaware of what kind of adventures lay ahead for us.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We quickly settled into our new, shared space. With a looming list of tasks to accomplish for the day, we spent the morning going through the first-day motions. By midday, we were able to make room for some curriculum.<\/p>\n I had nervously prepared this content; hoping things wouldn\u2019t get too awkward. These kids were older but there would inevitably be empty space for me to fill when trying to engage them on the first day.<\/p>\n I cannot tell you exactly the topic, nor the specifics of the discussion that followed, but that isn\u2019t what matters. It was the depth of thought. The questioning. The curiosity.<\/span><\/p>\n I was astonished.<\/p>\n Never had I bared witness to such a fruitful, mindful, or thoughtful discussion as a teacher. Ever. Let alone on the FIRST day of school. This was EXACTLY what I had been missing.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t cry right there in front of a bunch of pre-teens I was trying to impress. But when I returned home that night, I cried. I wept tears of great joy as I came to the Lord with a very full heart and a posture of thankfulness.<\/p>\n THIS. This is where I belong. This is where my heart is. This is where the Lord has called me.<\/p>\n This jungle is my home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mind racing. Heart pounding. Hoping. Anticipating. Anxiously awaiting. The first day at a new job is always scary, but for teachers, it happens twice the first year and every September thereafter. Once when entering a room full of strangers in a new school in the final week of summer. Again, when the students arrive for […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":5958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5953"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=5953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}First Day Jitters<\/h2>\n
I Cried<\/h2>\n