A Project Promise 16 Reunion.

After much emailing and discussion, a number of the members of Project Promise 16 got together on Friday Afternoon.

Project Promise is the Career Transition Teacher Licensing program that I went through at Colorado State University last year that allowed me to become a teacher. This was one of the first social gatherings I had been to with my cohort since our graduation.

It was great to see everyone. In attendance was Carolyn, Robert, Abby, Sara, Stephen, Dave S. (and Jill), Keith, Jay and myself. Most of the rest of our group is scattered out about the state of Colorado and couldn't come to Fort Collins on such a short time schedule.

For the most part, we all seem to have the same opinions about our first year of teaching:

• Teaching is tough. They don't really tell you in teaching school how hard it is, or nobody would ever become a teacher.
• Grading is a true pain in the ass. To adequately and accurately grade student materials would likely take more hours than there are in a day. This is one of the reasons that teachers long ago invented Multiple Choice Questions, to make their lives easier.
• Students, by and large, are great. Unless they are being monsters, in which case, they aren't.
• Parents can be more of a problem than the kids.
• Paychecks are a wonderful, wonderful thing.

In hearing stories from my cohort members, I am more and more thankful that I am where I am. My experience at Highland High School has been a great one so far. I feel wanted, supported and respected, and this makes all of the other problems seem not really so bad. Thank goodness I came to a tiny school. I think that it has made all of the difference.