Looking Back on a 1st Year of Teaching

An interesting story from Caitlin Sullivan, a new teacher at KIPP DC: KEY Academy – see: http://www.pcw-dc.org/article.html?aid=783&nl=124

As a first-year teacher at KIPP DC: KEY Academy, I now embrace the
adrenaline and pace of fall mid-terms week every day. There are a
couple complicating layers, though. The first is the gratitude I feel to
be learning to teach in such an exceptional setting. I am so lucky to
have landed at a school that has soaring expectations and full
confidence in its students, families and teachers. The second is that
the stakes of my work are now exponentially higher than what I was
responsible for as an undergrad. A few years ago, the consequences
of turning in a half-baked paper were restricted to my transcript. Now,
eighty-seven 11 year-olds are testing me, as they should, at every turn.
They will only be sixth graders once, and the urgency of now makes
me strive to be at my best at all times.