Wind, Breezes, Blowing and Reeds

Whoa...first day of the second year of teaching is SO different than the first day of the first year of teaching. It didn't dawn on me until today how badly the difficulties of the first year are stacked against you. On top of knowing nothing about teaching and constantly feeling like I was failing (but needing to appear as if I was earning at least a "proficient" mark), I had no relationships within the school system my first year of teaching. I've since come to realize that a significant part (probably the most important part) of teaching is cultivating relationships, and on that first day of that first year I had zip, zero, zulch in that department. 

Today I saw familiar faces, faces that I was happy to see and faces that seemed happy to see me. I have a few of the same students in my classes, and I have two whole freshmen classes that were less familiar with the school than me. Granted, I wasn't a huge help giving the freshmen directions (I'm still unable to tell anyone exactly where room 323 is), but it felt good knowing I have a place in my school's community. I'm not expecting this year to be a breeze, but I'm already feeling like I might be able to scrape by with a solid "needs improvement" this year and I won't have to fake anything to anyone. 

I just thought of a my own middle school's old slogan, which I probably haven't thought of since I was in middle school over ten years ago. The principle used to say, "The wind still blows warm across Swampscott Middle School." Today I felt warm breezes blowing down the English corridor. I love breezes, especially the ones that connect me to the scenery around me. Maybe that's what Yeats was talking about when he wrote "The Wind Among the Reeds"; when you feel the wind blow over your arms and body while also seeing and hearing it blow through the reeds of grass, suddenly it all makes a bit more sense.