This blog will be reflections on my upcoming first year teaching. I am an ENL and French high school teacher. I hope to keep myself reflective, creative, and accountable through posting on this blog throughout the year. I aim to write about my experiences teaching. I may toy with pedagogical techniques I earn through PD (professional development) and PLN (Professional Learning Network) from Twitter and beyond.
Teach Write is a company I found through Twitter aimed at helping empower teachers to be writers as well. Their current topic is joy. Below, I will unpack my feelings on joy and how to find it.
Joy is a difficult one for me. As someone who plans, perhaps excessively in many areas of my life, joy is not necessarily something I come by easily. Joy is comfort and most of my life is lived in discomfort. I live in anxiety ridden dreams where I don't the job I already accepted or I can no longer reside in the apartment I already moved into. I find comfort in planning for every possible contingency. I overpack for weekend trips and dream about lesson plans for classes I haven't even been assigned to teach yet.
Joy is not something I can look at easily because I tend to see life in peaks and valleys. Joy is something temporary and joy doesn't solve problems or cross off to-do lists.
But as I've thought about the idea of joy, I think about small things in and around me. One source of joy for me is writing. I have journaled since as long as I can remember and I have attempted poems, song lyrics, short stories, and novels. I have had a few blogs that I've shared publicly, but for the most part my writing has been mine and mine alone. In thinking about teaching, there's a new push to encourage teachers to be writers so as to encourage them to empower students by writing together. I have often felt like I do not have a real voice or anything original to say.
Writing and joy are two things I struggle with. As much as I'd love to claim the identity of a writer I never have. I also have trouble claiming or finding joy. I do enjoy many things: Netflix, GoT, reading, music, sining, theatre, musicals, movies. However, I do not feel connected to joy, just as I don't feel connected to writing.
I hope to challenge myself this year to find joy in everyday. To find something with my students that made even a bad day good in some way. I know this will be a struggle but I hope to push myself to find comfort in writing and to write about joy I find. I hope that in my writing this bog, I keep myself honest and somewhat vulnerable and can use this experience to help empower my students to feel that their voices and their stories matter.
Teach Write is a company I found through Twitter aimed at helping empower teachers to be writers as well. Their current topic is joy. Below, I will unpack my feelings on joy and how to find it.
Joy is a difficult one for me. As someone who plans, perhaps excessively in many areas of my life, joy is not necessarily something I come by easily. Joy is comfort and most of my life is lived in discomfort. I live in anxiety ridden dreams where I don't the job I already accepted or I can no longer reside in the apartment I already moved into. I find comfort in planning for every possible contingency. I overpack for weekend trips and dream about lesson plans for classes I haven't even been assigned to teach yet.
Joy is not something I can look at easily because I tend to see life in peaks and valleys. Joy is something temporary and joy doesn't solve problems or cross off to-do lists.
But as I've thought about the idea of joy, I think about small things in and around me. One source of joy for me is writing. I have journaled since as long as I can remember and I have attempted poems, song lyrics, short stories, and novels. I have had a few blogs that I've shared publicly, but for the most part my writing has been mine and mine alone. In thinking about teaching, there's a new push to encourage teachers to be writers so as to encourage them to empower students by writing together. I have often felt like I do not have a real voice or anything original to say.
Writing and joy are two things I struggle with. As much as I'd love to claim the identity of a writer I never have. I also have trouble claiming or finding joy. I do enjoy many things: Netflix, GoT, reading, music, sining, theatre, musicals, movies. However, I do not feel connected to joy, just as I don't feel connected to writing.
I hope to challenge myself this year to find joy in everyday. To find something with my students that made even a bad day good in some way. I know this will be a struggle but I hope to push myself to find comfort in writing and to write about joy I find. I hope that in my writing this bog, I keep myself honest and somewhat vulnerable and can use this experience to help empower my students to feel that their voices and their stories matter.
Thank you for joining this challenge. I like how you challenge yourself to find joy! It's a worthy challenge. Writing about that is such a great idea. I believe you can do it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your encouragement and thank you for reading!
DeleteHey there, Thanks for sharing your post. Amazing you'll be a first year teacher with a blog - I didn't start writing until about 4 years ago. How I'd long for some entries from my first year!
ReplyDeleteWriting brings me joy because it's peaceful. It has increased my confidence exponentially. It has connected me with other teachers and I've made friends IRL with bloggers who I had first met online! You'll love this community!
I hope this year brings you tons of joy, and just wanted to share one more thing on this topic - I was reading Brené Brown this summer, The Gifts of Imperfection, and she believes Joy is created in everyday moments that are strung together with Trust, Gratitude, Inspiration, and Faith. See more on this post I wrote last week, cultivating joy is something she believes we can do! http://www.bigtimeliteracy.com/2017/08/tgif.html
Glad to connect with another teacher writer!
:-)Michelle
Thank you so much fro your kind words! I am enjoying connecting with other teachers! I enjoy your blog as well :)
DeleteThank you for adding your voice to this conversation! I second Michelle's suggestion of Brene Brown's book. It is really good and helped me a lot too. I hope you also find lots of moments of joy in your coming year. They are there if you look for them. Right now, everything is just so overwhelming because there are so many new beginnings for you. Keeping a gratitude journal also helped me a lot. Keep being brave, Michelle! Your words DO matter. We hope to see you back at the chat again next month (9/4) for the topic of BEGINNINGS. Keep writing!
ReplyDeleteYou are sharing so much honesty in your post and I appreciate that. I could relate to so much that you stated too. Start small and look for the joy in the simple things. I wish you a joyful new school year and hope to see you again here and on Twitter. ~Amy
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts about joy. You must be quite a bit younger than me. I can remember a time I had all these anxieties you experience as a first year teacher, but I didn't write. Now ( after 30 years of teaching), I've found that writing is a gift that helps me feel gratitude and joy. I hope you will keep writing and joining in with TeachWrite.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on starting your blog. I think you will find much joy in sharing your words. I know I have. Your first year as a teacher will be challenging, but being reflective is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. I wrote a letter to new teachers two years ago when my daughter started her teaching career. Maybe you can find some nuggets of hope there. Here is the link: https://adayinthelifeof19b.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-letter-to-first-year-teacher.html Thanks for joining #TeachWrite this month.
ReplyDelete