End of year musings

I don't know where this post is going, but I feel like writing something tonight. Right now is probably my favorite time of the school year. Tomorrow morning I give my final exams to my students, and I just finished my last tutorial session to help them prepare. Actually I finished about an hour ago, but I've been thinking about it since then. I love that time after everybody has left and I am alone on the math hall on this last night. The previous two hours have been a frenzy of questions and nervous energy, and suddenly all is quiet and calm. I feel good about the questions the students were asking and I believe they are ready for tomorrow. Another frenzy of work is coming up in a few hours as the students take the exam in the morning and grades are due in the afternoon but for a few hours there is a very satisfying quiet.

As our Headmaster often says in faculty meetings, our profession is one of the few where we have an endpoint when we can step back and reflect on a job hopefully well done and how we can do it better next year. For me, that reflection really begins tonight, between the last tutorial and the exam. Seeing how far these kids have come this year gets me so excited about the next year. What will I be teaching? Who will my students be? What can I do differently to get them more excited about the class? What was the best part of this year that I need to make sure I repeat next year? Will these kids be able to focus tomorrow and show what they really can do on the exam or will they be distracted by the last day of school? Did I connect well enough with that kid who's struggling with a tough home life to actually make a lasting difference?

Teaching combines the best of two different kinds of professions, I think. There is a repetitive routine, which is comfortable and gives you the chance to work on something and tweak it year after year in the hopes of some day perfecting it. At the same time though, everything is different every year because the classroom is full of a different group of students with different backgrounds, interests, and learning styles. We teachers get to enjoy the benefits of a repetitive task on which we can continually improve without the monotony that comes with such repetitive tasks in other jobs. When the ennui of teaching the same thing every year sets in, we can switch to teaching other classes or supervising other activities in the school. Every day teaching teenagers is completely different and new, exactly like the day before.