End of year... 2!

Well, dusting off the ole keyboard today and getting back into blogging sounds like the plan for today.  I started this blog almost 2 years ago to document my life as a first-year teacher.  Seeing that I am now a soon to be 3rd year teacher, I'd say I'm overdue for some posts!  To catch you up, I've been teaching Spanish 1 & 2 for the past two years at a small rural high school in Ohio.  I have to say while the job definitely has its ups and downs, overall I love my job.

Highlights of Año 1:

• Surviving :)
• Teaching an awesome group of students who made my job easy
• Having the only classroom with air-conditioning! (don't worry- that was short lived :( )
• Creating relationships with colleagues that are both strong in school and out
• Being asked to coach JV cheerleading
• Chaperoned the 10th grade trip to 

Highlights of Año 2:

• Being trained in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, and becoming a trainer for my school
• Coaching JV cheerleading, and being promoted to Head Coach
• Two planning periods :)
• Slowly worked at perfecting pacing for my classes, and actually got a through a lot more content with both my 1's and 2's
• Only 4 failures for the year!
• At the end of the year, having a 95% retention rate of Spanish 1 students moving on to Spanish 2
• Nominated by my school as a County Rookie of the Year teacher (an honor given to only 1 teacher in each school district)
• Continued to develop relationships with my fellow staff

There were I'm sure many more, but that is all I can brainstorm right now.  It feels so good to reflect and share my experiences.  I plan to add a post soon about some of the "lowlights" of the past two years, and also some goals/changes I want to make for the upcoming year.

Feel free to share thoughts/advice for me about teaching/blogging/life :)