A Quarter of the Way

It’s November 1 and in my world that means it’s the end of term 1! We are officially 25% through this school year.

This term always goes by the fastest for me. The weather is beautiful and no one is burnt out yet (students or staff). It’s also my favorite time of year, so that helps.

I mentored a teacher last year and in our mentor/mentee handbook they did a line graph of the emotions you go through in the course of a school year. September starts at “anticipation” and mostly hovers in “survival” (accurate). In October, you begin the plummet into “disillusionment”, which bottoms out in November. I think as a new teacher this is definitely true. As a veteran this is only partially true. By the end of November the newness of the year has worn off and some real behavior start to hit the fan - kids start turning in stuff late (or not turning it in at all), some behaviors start to come out. Shit gets real.

As I get older, I know that these things start to happen by the end of term 1, so I’m not quite as disillusioned as I used to be. At the end of the day, I think I’m an outlier. I love the fall and I love that we’re 25% of the way through the year already. It’s gone by in a flash.