I feel incredibly lucky to be on this journey to become an art teacher! What could be a better fit for me than to work with young children and art, all day long, all week long, all year long??
I'm also grateful for the support and resources available to me as a new teacher. I never realized what an incredible school district we live in (I suspect Obama will be at our Motivation & Engagement conference, but for security reasons his people can't actually tell us that.)
As a perpetual student, anything new I can learn is fantastically appealing. For example, learning to Blog is something I never thought I'd do (or care to do). But aside from it being a condition of new teacher employment, I do believe I might actually enjoy it!
At this moment, however, things are somewhat overwhelming...and I'm not easily overwhelmed. Since I'm enrolled in an alternative teacher's licensing program, the year ahead is filled with professional development hours (in the neighborhood of 250!), meetings with mentors, and observations by the administration. No pressure there.
I also need to fulfill some art requirements. Five weeks from now I must pass an enormously important art exam, plus I need to take 4 art classes by the end of the school year. At least the classes will be enjoyable (painting, drawing, art history, ceramics!); it's just keeping all the balls in the air, along with managing a family in the "off hours," that worries me!
I am truly looking forward to the time, say, 5 years from now, when I have the entire thing totally dialed. Then I can put my efforts into finding new and exciting ways to make art meaningful and fun for my students.
