of getting ready for my fourth one...

Fourth year of teaching. Holy cow. My friend asked me a few days ago how long I had been at my current school and when I said "This is going to be my fourth year," I looked at my text... and I sighed. Asides from my job at CU in the dorms, where I stayed over four years doing lame shifts and making crap money - this is my longest stint in a job ever. I can't believe I am starting my fourth year! That makes me a professional, off cycle teacher! Whaaat?
I try to sit back and think to my first year of teaching, and then my second, and then last year and I realize I have learned so much, changed so much and grown so much. I am definitely not the same teacher I was last year. I am definitely very different from the teacher I was when I first stood in front of the class that will now be seniors and told them about me and who I was. My first graduating class, my first cycle of kids that is leaving. This is insane.

Things I have learned since I started teaching:

1. Never leave the electric pencil sharpener with a sub.
2. Always look when you are going up the stairs. Or down.
3. Stay far away from broken electric plug plates.
4. Don't ever laugh at "That's what she said jokes," if you can help it.
5. ONE cup of coffee a day is plenty, more than that and you will be shaking like a Polaroid picture.
6. Don't argue with kids about rappers, odds are you are wrong.
7. Stay AWAY from the mosh pit in school dances or you will be scarred for life.
8. Try to leave the things to be done at school, and try to leave by 3 pm to keep your sanity.
9. Don't join every committee imaginable. It's so not worth it.
10. Make friends with the secretaries.
11. Get to know your students, even the ones who think they are too cool to get to know you.
12. Know who Justin Bieber is, and they will come to you.
13. It's OK to buy a cute pair of shoes at Target. Or seven.
14. Don't tell your kids you don't do pop quizzes, and then give them one eight months later. They will remember.
15. Everything you say that is NOT school related WILL, and I repeat WILL, be remembered by your students - including that time you mentioned you had three boyfriends (and you were just joking), or the time you told you kid you were 42 and then a parent believed it and wanted to know "how you made your skin look so good"
16. Always finish that grading pile, or you will move on and not get back to it.
17. Never drink coffee and wear a white top. Bad things will happen.
18. Sometimes it's ok to drop the school work and have fun... watch a funny youtube video, sing to "Party in the USA," or show your kids the Fresh Prince of Bel Air intro in Spanish.
19. Everything in the classroom is made more memorable if you add background music to it.
20. Refer to #17, the same applies for any kind of pasta with red sauce.
21. No matter how cute those heels are, don't bother. You will never wear them, and if you do you will HATE them and definitely never wear them again.
22. Don't rock out in your car on your way home, your students are probably driving right next to you.
23. Always smile when your kids come into your classroom, it makes them feel welcome and loved.
24. Admit that you know the difference between Marvel and DC, and you will definitely get the attention of those kids who never talk.
25. If you kid has a harmonica, let them play it. Same applies if they have a rap, let them perform it. Or they will spend the whole hour telling you they have a rap or a harmonica and they want to play it or perform it.
26. If a kid is asleep, have them run a lap around the floor - they will never fall asleep again, and your class will get a kick out of it. 
27. It's OK to admit you're having a bad day.

The end. Happy new school year to all my fellow teachers!