From a PLC member:
We’re about 3 weeks into the school year now and things are going pretty well. I have a really good group of students this year and as long as I can remain consistent in my classroom management, I should have a pretty good year.
Last year had me burnt out and worn down. My emotional state last school year was so ravaged that I wasn’t reading anything for professional development, went to no workshops, conferences, or anything.
I had one class with a group of mean girls who feel they run the school and led a complete rebellion in class one day that completely extinguished any spark that I had in me, in addition to that my last class of the day had a group of 5 boys who were wild and shouldn’t have been scheduled in class together.
It was so, so hard. I was burnt out and my teaching skills just completely deteriorated. In fact, on the first teacher day of this school year, I had a complete breakdown on my way to school in the car and cried more than I have in the past 5 years.
I don’t really cry that often, sometimes it feels like I’m incapable of crying, but I had a solid 15 minutes of full sobbing on my way to school. But, for some reason, after that first day with students, with the clean slate of a new school year, I felt great and ready for this new school year.