A Letter to My September 2013 Self: Talks with Teachers May Challenge Week #1

I am currently on medical leave from my job as I prepare for the arrival of my twin daughters. However, I have used some of my time on leave to investigate online resources for teaching, and I was fortunate enough to discover the Talks with Teachers website, and I have entered the Talks with Teachers May Challenge.

The challenge takes place on Facebook, and it enables me to connect and reflect with teachers from all around the country. I am so happy to have this online environment to stay connected with my passion for education.

The theme of the challenge for this week is REFLECTION – very appropriate for the end of the year. Each week, participating teachers are provided with resources as well as a project to complete. This week’s project is to write a letter to oneself at the beginning of the school year. Below is my letter to my September self.

September 2013: Bending over, circulating, and actively interacting with students

April Me: 7 months pregnant, posing next to affirmations in my colleague Melissa Shearer’s classroom

Letter to September Self from May Me

Dear Jennifer in September:

Do you remember the end of last school year when Ms. Lugira advised you to “sit at the table”? You have begun to take that advice to heart – beginning your metamorphosis from an inspired teacher to a teacher-leader. In the past, you did great work inside the classroom, but now you are expanding your sphere of influence at the school level and beyond. You are about to embark on a year of reinvention and achievement, a year full of change and surprise.

This year, you will finally became a union representative, something you had always thought of doing! After your election, you will help to organize your school’s first ever faculty senate. Every Friday morning, you and your fellow elected leaders will meet with the brand-new school administration to plan special initiatives and discuss issues connected to the faculty and students. Your collaboration will result in faculty senate breakfasts, teacher-led professional development, special events, long-term planning, and improved communication with the school’s governing board. You and your colleagues will bond more than ever this year as teacher voice begins to shape the present and future of the school.

You have begun your journey as a leader in other ways. You will formally mentor a fantastic second year teacher (Alice Laramore) who has masterfully transformed a seventh grade class with many needs into a community of scholars. You will receive notice that you have earned your National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification. You will serve on the Teacher Advisory Board of the Boston Foundation. You led a PD for your colleagues on Positive Behavior Intervention and Support.

But most importantly, this year, you will to be a creative and inspired teacher for your fabulous middle school students! This year, you will implement your knowledge from your reading specialist certificate into providing word study services to your students, and by April, your students will improve by 1 to 4 grade levels in reading! You will successfully engage students with language-based learning disabilities in learning phonics and building fluency – and all of them will build their confidence and ability in reading! You will connect with Boston Partners in Education to provide 1:1 support and attention to students who need it most – and you received the very best tutors! (Ms. Tarsha, Ms. Karen, and Ms. Moshay). You will organize field trips to 826 Boston, American Repertory Theater, and the Boston Book Festival. You will coordinate an author visit from local author Michael Patrick MacDonald, and you will host guest speakers Ms. Berta (your own mentor) and Ms. Emily (the fantastic librarian from the Uphams Corner Library). You will plan arts-integrated lessons for and publish writing projects with the students in your ESL class.

Ms. Emily, Upham’s Corner Librarian Extraordinaire, with the 6A cohort students

But this year will not be without challenges. Your biggest challenge will be learning to rely on other people for help. Guess why? You will be the pregnant teacher. Not only will you be the pregnant teacher…you will be the teacher pregnant with twin girls. You will be exhausted, but you will also be very lucky.

Your students will help you carry your bags whenever you need it. The 8th grade girls will ask you a million questions about your babies, and you will be the center of attention. The boys will be disappointed when you announce that you are having two girls. The students will argue about your babies’ names. They will tell you to relax and promise that no one will behave badly because they don’t want to stress you out.

Your colleagues will remind you to take it easy, and they will help to cover you when you have to go to about a million doctors’ appointments. Still, you will feel guilty for the (less than 10) sick days you take when you are too exhausted or when you have back to back doctors’ appointment. You will cry when your doctor tells you (after hospitalization for pre-term labor) that you can’t go back to work and you will use your last ounce of energy to get your students’ grades in on time for report cards. Every morning at 9:25 am, you think about the smiling students at morning meeting, chanting the Academy 2 Creed: WHO is success? WE ARE SUCCESS!

You will realize that you have the best students and colleagues that anyone could ask for and you will realize how much you miss them. You will think – when I go back to work in January, I will be a teacher and a mother. And you know that your career has prepared you for your role as a mother because you will know how to educate your daughters and prepare them for school. You will be prepared for the turmoil and excitement of their adolescence. And you will better be able to connect with your students’ mothers because they will see you as a mother too.

Good luck and enjoy the journey,

Jennifer in May (31 weeks and 5 days pregnant)