Making the Shift

Last week was my first full week as the 7th graders' teacher.


I now deal with not only teaching and lesson planning...but managing the class as a whole as well. I have to say that it has been an interesting experience and something that I have had to adjust to.


The good news is that the adjustment has been fairly smooth. As strange as it seemed, I noticed that the students were having a more difficult time adjusting than I was. It seemed as though they were unsure as to how they should see me or act around me. I could tell that a few of the students almost felt uncomfortable talking to me the first couple of days.


I can't say that I blame them. Imagine being a 7th grader and being told that this one woman is your teacher and then two weeks later being told that wasn't the case and that you had a new woman there...who was your teacher...but she wasn't really a teacher yet? Wait...what? I get it.


I struggled with how to get my students comfortable with the idea of my being their teacher. I realized that all I needed to do be the best teacher I could be and let them see on their own that I wasn't going to bite them.


That's exactly what I did. I've made it a personal mission to know all of my students' names and greet them at the door each morning. I make sure I talk with them and hear about the different things going on at school and in their lives. Now, I no longer feel like an outsider at the middle school, and my students no longer se me as the strange lady in Mrs. Porter's classroom. I am Ms. Albert, their English teacher.


I have to say that the best part of teaching that I have experienced thus far has been getting to know my students (my wonderful, exciting, and very talkative students) and getting to hear them refer to me as their English teacher. The shift doesn't have to be so hard.