Some of my favorite people call me Miss Post:

I have just finished my second year of teaching.  There have been a lot of things that I have learned in my second year of teaching.  I have definitely continued to grow and develop not just as a teacher but really as a person.   It was a very hard year while teaching in a pandemic.  Over half of the year, we had to make sure we were teaching the lessons in both class and for those who are online, and this includes those who were at home sick with COVID and in quarantine.  Then even when that time both in person and online ended, there were many new rules and regulations that we had in place while students were in the school.  Besides that, I was making it through the very first year of teaching for the full year in person.  Last year, my year was cut short, and so I get to experience a regular fourth quarter like I am this year.  

I noticed that in my first year I had a new name which was Miss Post.  It was hard to get used to.  It also was hard for some students to get into the habit of saying it because they didn’t know me, and they probably didn’t have the respect for me quite yet.  They instead would just call for me with a “Hey” or they would call me “teach.”  However, this year there are many who are now finally used to calling me Miss Post, and I am even getting used to being called Miss Post.  While there are some variations.  For example, all of my middle school students call me Miss Posta.  I have no idea why.  I don’t know where that started, but that is what they call me. Then there are many Jr.’s that like to call me Miss Pueste.  Again, I don’t know what happened there, but that is now what they call me. 

It is still a little weird though, when I think about how really Courtney (my first name) and Miss Post have to be slightly different people.  The one can be a bit more crazy, lazy, and emotional.  Courtney has the ability to kind of do things on her own and do the things that she solely wants to do.  Courtney for a majority of her life was focused on her goals, getting good grades, getting all of her meetings and focused on the hobbies and things that she wants to do.  However, Miss Post has to be more focused on her students and what I can best do for them.  

I have realized that I have a great amount of responsibility when it comes to being Miss Post.  I have to live my life in a more selfless and loving manner than I do when I am just Courtney.  Yes, I should have high expectations when I am Courtney, but I definitely need to have higher expectations when I am serving my students as Miss Post.  Miss Post needs to be more understanding, more patient, more kind, more loving than regular Courtney.  She is serving students, so therefore she needs to be more focused on everyone else as opposed to herself.  

I am very happy that in this second year of teaching I have developed myself more in the school building.  I have had students, even ones that I don’t necessarily know that well and that don’t necessarily know who I am all that I’ll have conversations with on a regular basis.   They are starting to recognize me more and more, and therefore they will strike up conversations with me.  This has given me a great chance to get to know students that I don’t even really have in my classes.  I even got some invites to graduation parties from some students that I didn’t have in class, but because I had them in Speech as an extra curricular and because I just talked to them enough in the hallways.  

I am also very happy that in my second year I have developed relationships with the teachers and the other members of staff at North Iowa.  There have been new teachers that have come to town and to the school, and we have all become pretty close friends.  I am glad that I can really look to them for comfort and for advice while we are all in this struggling year.  For the first year teachers that came this year, they were in the middle of teaching their first year in a pandemic, so they have had an extra hard first year.  I have had the chance to give them some comfort while also being comforted and helped out in my second year struggles.  

Lastly, I feel as though I have just grown as a teacher.  I am still going to hopefully grow as a teacher, but I am more and more happy with how I am establishing myself and how I am planning and delivering my curriculum.   I have become very happy about what I have done for my Spanish I and II classes, while I still want to include more speaking components.  Then I also want to create better Spanish III and IV classes. I want to continue to develop relationships and help my students that I have already and the future students that I will have.  I know that this last year was very hard on students, as well as the teachers, so I am going to need to continue to have to be there for them next year. 

The good news is that I know the Lord will help me to continue to grow as both a person, Courtney and as a teacher, Miss Post.  In John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”  If I continue to set my sights and seek help from the Lord, I know that he will continue to help me grow.