Back to School

As summer comes to a sweltering end, I look ahead to the impending start of school.  I am just about to embark on my fifth year in the classroom.  I haven’t exactly taken a straight-line route to the teaching profession.  After graduating from the University of Wyoming with a degree in Business Administration, I have worked a number of jobs mostly in sales and management.  Despite having some success, I was never able to find the satisfaction I was seeking in my jobs following college.  I found that my favorite aspect of management was training my new employees; I also witnessed the career satisfaction which found my beautiful wife (she’s a kindergarten teacher).  In addition, I have been fortunate to be the product of a long list of quality educators, and those teachers of my past also helped shape my decision to jump careers.  Changing careers to a high school teacher is not as easy as it sounds.  I have endured three years of graduate courses, countless hoops, three separate two-hour tests, and a few tears in order to earn the title of a “highly qualified secondary teacher.”  Despite the obstacles and detours, I made the second best decision of my life (the best decision was asking Amanda to marry me).  Education has turned out to be my absolute dream job.  I have never been so happy, and I have never felt such satisfaction.  I am extremely happy and proud to call myself a teacher!

However, that’s all water under the bridge.  What I need to focus us right now is ensuring I am on top of my game.  I am about to open my door to 71 young impressionable minds who are looking to me to guide them towards a successful and meaningful life.  All of these students will come to me from different backgrounds.  Some will come in speaking broken English.  Some will show up from extreme poverty, happy to be back to school so they can eat.  Some of my students will have complicated family dynamics, including deceased and incarcerated parents.  Some of them will understand the importance of education.  Many of them will not.  And still, all of them will be looking to me.  I better be ready!

To make things tougher, I need to compete.  See, somehow I need to collect (and maintain) the attention of each of these 71 brains for eighty-two minutes at a time.  This task is getting tougher and tougher.  Facebook, video games, movies, television shows, smart phones, advertisements, drugs, sports, peers, hormones, texting, and money are all competing against me for their attention.  I have to admit that those are pretty fierce competitors!  I better make sure I’m ready!

Did I mention I am also a coach?  I coach middle school football and wrestling.  A perk of becoming a teacher is that they allow you to coach sports (and they even pay you extra)!  One of my favorite parts of the day is being dismissed from the classroom and heading out to help challenge young athletes to develop their athletic skills and abilities.  It’s like getting paid to play!  But, coaching can also be very serious business.  I am tremendously excited to begin a new season!

It all starts VERY soon!  I’m excited, nervous, anxious, happy, sad, and optimistic.  I am hoping this blog will give me an opportunity to air new ideas, share hilarious stories, seek wisdom, vent frustrations, and allow you a peek inside room M140 at Dodge City High School in Southwest Kansas.  Please feel free to offer advice, encouragement, suggestions, ideas, or stories of your own in the comment section.  For now, I need to go.  I have got to GET READY!!