A window to next year

Due to the fact that my Year 11's have finished and my literacy support student was not at school, yesterday I only taught 2 periods - and the first two of the day at that! Instead of being disappointed at this lack of class time, I actually started planning for next year. I know at this time of the year it might seem a bit odd to say that I started planning for next year, but I am actually really excited about next year. I guess that it will be like a new beginning in a lot of ways, but with familiar scenery and subject matter. I know that I will be having at least 1 Year 7 English class next year ( I had 2 this year) and so I have gone back to the beginning of this year in my mind to work out what I would do differently next year. It is funny to look back on what I did - all perfectly okay lessons, but I remember how I felt during the lessons. I was so new in the first week of this year, that I was learning as much if not more than my little scared year 7's were!
I was juggling planning with teaching with learning about the school and the discipline policy and the bell times and all the other things that you have to deal with in a new job, let alone a teaching position.
But I have been there and done that, and nothing is as hard as your first time doing something new. I am so much more confident than I was at this time last year, and so much more relaxed about the year to come. At this time last year I had just finished uni, and I had been hired by my school already, but I really had no idea what to expect.
I think I have come a long way in a year. It is easy to forget just how big an adjustment a new career is, and I think most of the time, because I just get on with it, people forget that I am new and that I might not really know what the hell they are talking about!
There has not been a single day this year, even when my year 8's were hanging from the rafters or when a lesson just really didn't work when I thought that I was in the wrong career. No matter what has happened during the course of this year, I have known all along with certainty that this is what I want to be doing with my life at this point in time, and that I will hopefully continue to love the job for many more years.