The Start of a New Year

Jennifer Wise

Richland One District Teacher of the Year

Hand Middle School Algebra & Geometry Teacher

Follow Mrs. Wise on Twitter @awiselearner

Each school year meets me with a flurry of emotions.  To say I get a touch of butterflies is an understatement.  Like many of my students, I lay out my first day outfit well in advance; I pack my book bag, and I anxiously await the coming August days.  This year has begun no differently.  As I begin my eighth year at Hand Middle School, I find myself reflecting on the previous seven.

I came to Hand fresh from the University of South Carolina.  With ideas I knew would revolutionize the teaching profession, I boldly began my next chapter.  I say with pride some of those ideas have been everything I thought they would be, and I say with honesty that some did not exactly go as planned.  For seven years, I have worked to perfect the craft that I will resume in just a few short days.  Just as in the fall of 2008, I have some plans sure to knock your socks off.  That’s the great thing about teaching, each year, each week, each day, we refine ourselves and our practices.  We strive to make ourselves better so we can inspire the futures of those in our care.  I want my students to be as successful as possible, and I expect the best from them.  In the same way, I want them to receive the best from me.  My best preparation, my best attitude, my best EVERYTHING.  You see in my seven years one fact has remained abundantly clear, I get what I give.  When I am excited, my kids are excited.  Enthusiasm for learning is like a wildfire, it spreads quickly and takes over everything in its path.

I wish each of you could be in my room when my students derive a formula.  They could not care less that someone else discovered it 200 years earlier.  What matters to them is that on that day they made their own personal math history.  That realization and the sense of pride that comes with it has power I cannot begin to explain.  I am sure you know this moment from experiences with your own students.  While for me it’s numbers, maybe it’s grammar or unlimited government or a jump shot for you.  No matter the source, as a teacher you know that moment.  And it is that moment that gets me up each day and has me trying on first day dresses the second week in June.  It is who we are, and so as the first day draws near I begin to channel my inner Katniss and encourage others to do the same.  This year, be a “Girl (or boy) on Fire!”