A Classroom of My Own

Recently, and by recently I mean last week, I started my very first teaching job where I work with seventh and eighth grade students. In the past week and a half, I have realized how much I truly I have to grow. However, I also gained a little more confidence, and I realize that I can do this!

I would like to share some "pros" and some "room to grows" that I have noticed. If you have any helpful advice for me going forward, please leave a comment or find me @matharguello on Twitter. (I am more likely to check that). I am always open to suggestions!

Pros

1. My strength is giving directions. My old cooperating teacher really instilled in me the importance of giving good directions, and man, that has stuck. While I do have a few kids who don't listen, my typical go-to's are standing in one particular place in the classroom while I give directions and giving them one task at a time if I am planning on going over something as a class. While I certainly am not an expert, I am proud that I can say that this is a strength and I really notice the difference in this version of my teaching self compared to the version that started out student teaching. 
2. Kids love building relationships. Some kids are more open than others to getting to know me or talking to me, but I have definitely begun to establish a relationship with many of my students. They are comfortable asking me questions, and they respond to my directions well. I hope this will only improve as I continue my time at the school. 
3. I am pretty good at winging it. Part of coming into a curriculum that I have never taught before is winging it, and I have had my best teaching moments when improvising. For example, I got an unexpected question of "why?" when we were talking about one solution, no solution,and infinite solutions, which led to me graphing different equations of lines in Desmos and showing what each solution type meant. This led to an awesome discussion with my kids I never would have had otherwise! 

Room to Grow 

1. I am still incredibly wary of working with notoriously difficult students. I have one student in particular who is a huge challenge in one of my hours, and I am frustrated that I am lacking experience in working with this type of student. I know I have a lot of support, but I wish I had greater confidence in working with difficult students. Thus, any experience that others have or words of wisdom that can be shared in this regard would be helpful! I try to remind myself that it will take me time, and to utilize the resources I have (for example, I have some help in my classroom during a couple of hours). 
2. I am not organized at all. While I typically have a pretty good gauge on what I am doing in class (for example, I have an agenda on the whiteboard and I borrowed my former cooperating teacher's idea of a calendar to give parents important dates), my workspace is a disaster. I am a weird mix of Type A and Type B in that my perfectionism is more linked to myself rather than my space, and thus I find myself being pretty messy. So, if anyone can give me any tips for how to better organize myself and my classroom, I would be grateful. 
3. My newness. Due to the fact that I am literally right out of college, I am less than informed about standards, evaluation tools, and testing requirements. I know, again, this will take time and using my resources, such as fellow staff members, but if anyone has some resources telling me more about these things, I would feel much more confident. 

This new job is certainly a balancing act, and I find myself incredibly exhausted by the end of each day. I spent all last weekend just enjoying my free time and lazing around my apartment. However, I'm loving it. Sure, there are some challenges, but while I wish I could be perfect at everything immediately, I know these challenges will help me to grow as an educator. I look forward to sharing more of my ideas as I grow and learn, and I am excited to continue my teaching journey.