Picture yourself in the hallways of a modern high school between classes. The conversations vary from football games to a new job that’s not working out to whether watching “Jersey Shore” kills one’s brain cells. Teenagers of all shapes, sizes and colors swirl around you. Some of them
might accidentally bash into you, their eyes so focused on the text messages they’re
sending that they neglect to look up to see where they’re going.
Every now and then, you’ll spot someone who doesn’t quite blend with the rest of the crowd, scurrying around the hallways with an overstuffed bag and navigating the hallways with a look that suggests they’re not completely sure of their next destination. My teacher friends and I can always identify them as the new freshmen in the building. This year, though, I can count myself among those freshmen as well. I’m the new kid on the block. With two signatures – one on my resignation from my old district, and another on my contract in my new one – I’ve gone from being a woman with lots of answers in my old school to the one with all the questions in a completely new and unfamiliar place.
Starting over in a new school is not a new concept for me; after all, the past ten years have seen me in four different buildings. But there’s no denying that the already-crazy ritual of starting the school year is exacerbated immeasurably by the added layer of starting out in a new building. When I haven’t been unpacking my classroom or trying to memorize my students’ names, I’ve spent the last month trying (and generally failing) to learn my new colleagues’ names, find the copy machine, ask the right questions of the right people, and get a real sense of the building culture. This last point is not always easy when you’ve become so accustomed to the culture in another school.
I’ll admit that I’m a little envious of my younger, fresh-out-of-the gate colleagues because in the sense of a school’s culture, they are starting with no preconceived notions, nor ideas of how things could be different. On the other hand, there’s a tradeoff. While my younger colleagues have the freedom of not having preconceived ideas about school culture, they also have the added burden of being first-year teachers. At least I have the safety net of feeling perfectly at home in the classroom, of having the experience of planning lessons and having already created a number of tried-and-true activities.
I suppose that this year for me will be like that of the freshmen… every day a little more at home, focusing on the really important stuff. When I’m teaching in my classroom, I don’t feel like that little freshman anymore. That above all else makes all the other collateral nuttiness worth it.
