Second-Year Perspective

My initial impressions were, I contend, accurate. At first meeting, they came across as a hard-pressed team of survivors. Few looked a little world weary. Alas, first-year teaching does that for you.

The many with whom I have had the chance to speak with were open and very honest, putting their experiences, both good and bad, into a positive light. They continuous admit their faults and know there is room for growth. As is now clear, I hold them as masters of perseverance, much as I did this summer. No one in the bunch came across as a defeated person bereft of fight.

The second years who had troubles with their administrators and districts, I feel an especial kinship with. They explained to me early on principals and district staff do things that make sense to absolutely no one, save said principals and district staff. There are those days when a memo goes around. One never knows if it is a joke or not. Then there are those days where one does not know if he should laugh or shout. So I combine the two. I go to my empty class and have a shaugh.

Now as the year moves on, I know I have not had as much interaction with the second years as I would have liked. But seeing on them on those Saturday mornings is refreshing. They are there to offer a kind word and, at the very least, willing to ask how one is and how the students fare. To be sure, I do not expect much more than that. Though there is comfort in being a second year, there is little time to shoot the breeze when they have just as much as work as we first years. So the niceties suffice. Pulses are checked; hearts are beating. The school wears one down; the second years know this. But they are pleased to know that the first years are alive, maybe not well, but alive nonetheless.

I hope to answer this post again in May. The second years will have come full circle with a host of information and tips and strategies to impart. I look forward to that. Their faces will show looks of resolve and loss. Not loss in the sense of tragedy. But loss in terms of two years flew by with nary a moment for the second years to stop and catch their collective breath.

In sum, my impressions are the same. A great group of people were presented back in June 2010. Thus far, they are shared great things with the first years. I am sure it was not half as much as the second years would have liked, but I am grateful for the information already given. “Keep in touch” sounds so trite. With the second years, it is said with such professorial urgency, the first years had better heed their requests.