victory shrimp

For months my grade-level partner and I have talked about how on the last day of school before break we would get ourselves some shrimp from Captain Somethingorother's to celebrate our survival. If we made it.

Now here I am. Eating my shrimp. Maybe it doesn't seem like that big of a deal -- for some people the first few months of teaching are a small fraction of the amount of time that they will spend in the classroom. Regardless, the past few months have easily been the most difficult thing I have ever done. Not because there have been massive everyday challenges, but because as a teacher you are expected to keep an even pace no matter what happens, and its exhausting.

At first, you're flying. High on adrenaline. Like this.

Then you start to wear down. Like this.

Next comes the anger. Pure bitterness. Like this.

But, finallyfinally you get here.

According to some, I have proved myself by lasting this long, but my goal in the new year is to stop just surviving. I have a classroom full of 21 beautiful little people, and we all need to enjoy that together. I want to make every day positive, not tolerable. I want to stop raising my voice. I want to cash in on the months and months of community building.

Before all that, though, I'm going to get some sleep.