Since the 2013-14 school year marked my thirteenth year teaching, I found that this number can be thought of as lucky or unlucky. I’ve decided that it’s lucky even though I had my fair share of challenges and successes this year.

Challenge number 1 - Teaching English to students who are second language learners

For the third year in a row, I managed to have a student who is a non-native speaker. This particular student does know some English, at least more than “Hi,” which I had a student who fit this description last year, so I worked with the ESL teacher on adapting various work first semester. For second semester, we worked on giving her additional help, not completely adapting the required work. Unfortunately, she appeared to be more consumed with her boyfriend to bother with additional studying of English. But she did realize her dire situation during the last few weeks of school and managed to communicate with me to help her out. Finally, my offer of help was accepted.

Challenge number 2 - Teaching a home-schooled student

This grew from being awkward to simply crazy. When this student came into my classroom, she remembered calling teachers by their first name with a Miss. I realized at the end of the school year that the last time she was in an actual classroom was in the second grade, so this connection of how to address a teacher makes sense. Regardless, by the end of the school year, it came to my attention that she had the credits to graduate. This revelation really made this situation sticky because she not only lacked age appropriate social skills, but she was heavily deficient in academics as well. Even though she did not pass, she was able to receive her diploma. I wish her the best of luck.

Challenge number 3 - Ending my Career as a Yearbook Adviser

Due to a variety of personal reasons, I did put in my resignation back in February to aid administration in their planning for the next school year. This transition was bumpy, students accepted it, and I am really glad to move on. I took this role five years into my career, before I had children, due to a retirement. I started with nothing and am proud to say that I built a successful journalistically sound program that excelled beyond my expectations. Now is the time for me to go back to just teaching English.

Summer awaits me and I shall not be tardy in my attendance. More tales will resume this Fall. Happy Summer fellow teachers!