The Joys of Fresh Starts

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One of the great joys of a teaching life is how often you get a fresh start. You know that "New Year's" kind of feeling, when you've got the possibilities of "new" in front of you and you can set new goals to do better at whatever you wish to prioritize? Or like moving into a new house, or starting a new job. It's like that, but more often. 

Depending on the specifics of your teaching assignment, you might get new classes and new students at different intervals. 

For me, currently, I get new 6th graders every 9 weeks, new 7th graders each semester, and new 8th graders once a year. 

I'm the only Spanish teacher at my school so there's some carry over from year to year (kids I teach more than once), but they're never combined in the same way, so each new class is its own entity. I get this interesting combination of longevity in relationships and getting to know new students at the same time. I love it. 

Yesterday, the start of my new semester, I got four brand new classes: two 6th grade and two 7th grade. My eighth graders, I get to keep a bit longer yet. 

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That clean slate feeling helps keep me motivated and excited about my work. If I tried a new organizational system and it failed, I can scrap it and try something else entirely. If a group of students struggled with a topic, I can reassess how I presented that material and try again from a different angle. 

That combination of "brand new" and "next iteration" feeds my practice and helps me continue to grow even though I've been teaching a similar set of classes for many years now. 

How about you, fellow teachers and other readers? How often do you get a chance to start fresh in your lives? How does it feel to you?