This is my tenth year of teaching.

When I first decided to spend my career in an elementary classroom I knew it would a consuming profession. I anticipated late nights, work on the weekends, days on my feet struggling with the emotions and wills of children just beyond my sphere of influence. But I think I imagined it would get easier with time. I could visualize a day when my systems were in place, my lessons long since written, and I could relax into expertise, turning my focus to my own family. I thought I would put in a few good years of sweat, and then become one of those teachers who is sustained by her reputation, for whom teaching is just one part of what she does and she does it well enough.

Ten years later, teaching has not gotten any easier for me. But it is so much better.

In this blog I will reflect on my decade in the classroom. I have worked in five public schools and one public charter, both rural and urban, in elementary schools with student bodies as large as 1,200 and as small as 80. I have taught sixth grade, fourth grade, third grade, fifth grade, third grade, second grade, third grade, and fourth grade, in that order (only once have I taught the same grade in the same school two years in a row). I have had six different principals and taught with eleven different grade level colleagues. And not for a minute have I had the chance to catch my breath and reflect. I've been too damn busy.

I have always been skeptical about teacher blogs, believing that if someone has time to be blogging, they probably aren't working hard enough. However, writing is an exercise for myself and my practice. For this year, I will make it a habit and a priority.

After ten years and more than 10,000 hours in the classroom I wish I could say I am an expert, but I am not. I am not one of those teachers who is featured in texts and on videos. I rarely have the confidence to tell anyone else "how to do it." My classroom is a continual work in progress. I still flounder and regard most of my colleagues in awe, all of whom seem to be having an easier time of things than I am.

But after ten years I have learned that if I do anything well, I teach from the heart. I love what I do, and it has taken me a decade to realize that this alone is worth a lot. In this blog I hope to shed some light on the trials of our public education system, but mostly to just communicate the pure Joy of Teaching.