Last Day of School

Today was a bittersweet day – I am thrilled to be done with Institute and leaving Phoenix to get back to New Orleans, but it was sad to say good-bye to my students. We had a wonderful day with them. It was very relaxed; we talked to them, played math games, and of course gave them their grades. They were so excited to get them and you could see how proud a lot of them were of themselves – and they have every right to be! Before they got their grades we asked them to write a letter to each of us about what they liked about our teaching and what they didn’t like or would change. Some of them were silly, but some were really touching, and of course they made me cry. A lot said they liked how I explained things, but there were a few that said it was the best math class ever, favorite teacher, things like that. It made my day, and I know those letters will cheer me up in the future after not so inspiring days.

At the end of the day we had an all-school meeting and the staff had put together a PowerPoint with a picture of each of us teaching and a quote from one of our students about us. Mine was from L., an impressive guy who came into our class with a terrible attitude. He refused to take the pre-test on the first day and we expected to have a lot of trouble with him. After a pep talk and setting some high expectations for him, he excelled in our class. He’s very mature and extremely intelligent and got an A easily. A lot of the kids were drawn to him, which meant he spent a lot of time talking in class, but again a quick talk about how he’s a leader in the class and we need him to set a better example, he was wonderful. He clearly has a great deal of respect for me, which I did not expect to receive from him based on Day 1. Anyway, his quote was “Ms. Roedner is a really good teacher. I like how she explains things step by step – it makes math easy to understand. Because of her, I’m ready for my next semester.” Yeah, there were more tears after that.

So I have successfully completed my first math course as a teacher – it’s hard for me to believe. I never in a million years expected myself to become a teacher, let alone a math teacher, or even learn to like (maybe eventually love) math. However, I have successfully fooled my kids (and my advisory group apparently - I have a lot of notes referencing this) that I am a math geek. Stranger things have happened.

These past five weeks really were some of the most challenging of my life as well as the most rewarding, just as TFA promised they would be. They were certainly not without some frustrations, arguments, and boring lectures (as a math teacher, literacy sessions are really excruciatingly dull!), but overall I have made some good friends, learned an awful lot about teaching, and had the most amazing students. I was told Institute would be miserable – it was at times, but I wouldn’t exchange any of it. My students made every late night, bad dining hall meal, 5am wake-up, 117 degree day, boring session, and tedious TFA task worth it.

Tomorrow I leave for the 3-day trip back to New Orleans with a drive through Monument Valley, a night in Albuquerque, two in Austin with some awesome people, and then Tuesday back to the Big Easy! I can’t wait to be back!!