I know my Calculus

In my first year of teaching, I taught an AP Calculus class. I only had 5 students in the class because it was a really small rural school. Since it was such a small class, I became really close to my students. It also didn't hurt that I'm only five years older than these students. We could relate about a lot of things since we were so close in age, but I was still an authority figure for them. It was a really hard class, but we all worked together to get through it. It was absolutely nuts to have a first year teacher teaching the AP Calculus class, but we made it through!

I'm now Facebook friends with all five of my students from that year, but I'm closest to one of them. At the school I taught at, every teacher would "adopt" two seniors to be their senior kids. I had a Senior Son and a Senior Daughter, both in my Calculus class. I still talk to my Senior Daughter, Kyla, pretty regularly. In fact, I've been texting her today! She is in college to be an elementary teacher, and I could not be more proud of her.

It is so much fun to talk about education stuff with her. It feels like we're coming full circle, with her becoming a teacher too. I love it. Even though my year and a half teaching at her school was so hard, so much good came from it. And one of my favourite good things that came from that small rural school is my relationship with my daughter Kyla. I expect many more good things for her in the future!