I didn't, because at four years in I am still very new and I am certainly still transitioning. Many days I question my decision to take on this job and stay with it. Working with adolescents is both exhilarating and disheartening, sometimes both emotions are separated by mere milliseconds.
There is never a day when I come away feeling I did my job particularly well. Teaching writing is tough, but teaching it to 184 16-year-olds in 55-minute blocks shot full of Deans' Office summons, announcements, and more good questions from students than I can possibly answer make it impossible to teach with any focus.
Our school has now entered its third year of just missing making AYP as determined by the state in its efforts meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. As a result, we are polishing our books, printing binders full of charts, and changing the format of our lesson plans. Anyone who has worked for government agencies that are inspected by other government agencies knows exactly what all this polishing, printing, and changing is designed to do.
I just want to figure out how to better teach my students. Maybe I can't.
