Over the last year, we’ve followed three first year teachers – from their college graduation, through the first school year. Sara Draper taught at Helmsburg Elementary School in Brown County. To conclude the series, she and the other two teachers reflect on their first year of teaching.
For Sara Draper, teaching second grade was a long, slow journey– she likens it to running a marathon.
“It starts out and you’re feeling really great when you first start running, then by the middle you’re doing ok, you get some water,” she said. “By the end you’re exhausted but you think you can still make it because there’s only a few weeks left, or a few miles left.”
And after the last day of school, Draper had mixed emotions.
Draper’s confidence went up and down all year, and her perspective changed. When she graduated college, she says her expectations were idealistic.
“Every lesson is going to be life changing and exciting and they’re all going to be excited about it, but that’s just not realistic,” Draper said. “That can’t happen every minute of every day. It’s not always exciting and that’s something I had to get used to.”
And the low points were frustrating. After breaks in school, her kids struggled to get back into the classroom routine, and she had a hard time ushering them into it.
By October, Draper was feeling worn down. The kids’ behavior wasn’t consistent, and she wasn’t sure how to address it.
All of this uncertainty was on Draper’s mind winter break, when she was asked to sum up the first semester in six words and answered, “Am I doing the right thing?”
Many of the same issues continued second semester, but Draper started paying attention to the victories she did see.
“I was looking at writing samples from the very first day of school, an then from the last few weeks,” Draper said. “There’s sometimes where you think, ‘Wow, have I taught them anything?’ And when I compared those I did feel proud because I could see how they were changing.”
Although she found her first year very challenging, Draper says she sees herself teaching for a long time.
“And I would not necessarily think that at the beginning of the year I would have said that,” Draper said. “It’s just so stressful getting your classroom ready and figuring out what I’m going to teach for 180 days all day, and that was really stressful for me. But I already feel so much more ready for next year, so I can only imagine it gets easier and easier.”
