Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End.

Yes. I did just quote "Closing Time" by Semi Sonic, and I do realize how cheesy that is... but it also fits by feelings right now almost perfectly.

This past Friday I finished my first year of teaching and I can tell you that day was an emotional roller coaster. My first year as a teacher basically proved all the tired cliches I heard throughout college true. It was one of the most difficult, rewarding, and exhausting years of my life.

I spent the better part of the past 8 months with about 75 teaching and learning from 7th grader students in a rural Wisconsin town. Even though I loved my students, coworkers, and the unique challenges of teaching middle school I made the difficult decision to move to a new district and a new challenge for next year. Leading to the tear-soaked, emotional last day of school that was Friday.

I love all my 7th graders, even those that challenged me on a daily basis and I will miss them so much. I have such high hopes for their futures and I know that each of them has the potential to achieve anything that they put their minds to.

On the last day of school I showed my students a clip from "The Buried Life" (included below) and I asked my kids to come up with their own list of things they wanted to accomplish in their lives. It was the perfect send off, and I loved hearing the goals of each students. I was pleasantly surprised with the depth and creativity in their responses.

Leaving my first position was one of the most difficult things I had to do.... maybe that is why this blog entry isn't coming out quite as smoothly or eloquently as I had hoped. I'm still processing through all the bittersweet emotions of that day, as well as re-hydrating from all that crying.

Really the title of this entry/cheesy song lyric sums everything up pretty well... I am sad to be leaving my students, coworkers, and friends that supported me, listened to me, and taught me so much about who I am and who I want to become. I am also so excited to start the next stage of my teaching career at KHS (I'm not going to actually tell you the name of my new school just in case any of you are creeps). I have already received warm welcomes from so many of my new coworkers and the curriculum outline already has my creative juices flowing!

This new beginning at KHS is going to be fantastic I know, but it has had to come through the end of another great beginning....

I may have overreached on the poetic wording of that last bit, but I'm trying to stretch my artistic limits... even though I'm an English teacher writing has never been the strongest skill in my repertoire....