This one goes out to my team!

I felt the need to do a little gloating about my team! :)

Going into my first year of teaching two years ago, I had no idea what exactly to expect.  Yes, I had completed a semester of student teaching and worked with a wonderful 1st grade team for planning so I had an idea, but boy oh boy I was in for a ride.  Student teaching is just a small glimpse of what it is really like to be a teacher. 

If my principal had asked me to list the characteristics of the "perfect" team and given me my "perfect" team, I would have been okay.  The team I joined though exceeded ALL expectations and dreams I had of a team.

Here are a FEW ways I would describe my team:

• Sharing:  We share everything, from a stapler, tape, scissors, and usb ports, to more important things like our ideas, creations, thoughts, feelings, frustrations, and celebrations.  We LOVE sharing!
• Caring: We all care about our children, their progress, ways to help them, what is going on in their life, and what more we can do for them. We also care so much about each other and what is going on each others lives, professional and personal.
• Compassionate, driven, and dedicated:  I believe all the wonderful ladies that I have had the privilege to work with have these past two years have all three attributes.  It is my opinion, that to be a "good" teacher, you must have these three things.  You must have compassion not only for your students, but also for what you are doing.  You have to let your students drive your instruction, where you want go, and your goals.  Being dedicated is also a must, if you think being a teacher is an 7:15-3:15 job, you're wrong.  Just because you leave at 3:15 doesn't mean the work is done once you get home or you don't have to work on the weekend and during your summers. (Today I finished 2 of 7 days of professional development for this summer alone.)
• Constructive Criticism:  I love, love, love that we are able to give each other criticism about an idea, situation, or lesson and it is taken in a way that is constructive, rather than taking it personally.  I think we all do a good job of this!

What brought me to the feeling that I need to share so much about my team?  Well, I had the pleasure of spending the last two days in a professional development class for Writer's Workshop, with two of my amazing teammates!!  I absolutely love the way we work together, the way we SHARE our ideas, the way we brainstorm our ideas all throughout our lunch break, and the way we think alike.

 

They are the best!  

I am blessed, thank you ladies. 

I plan to make a post SOON about the workshop we went to and some of the wonderful ideas that were shared with us, it makes me so eager and excited about teaching writing next year! 

--Kelli