Guess Who's Back? It's Me! (Because I Never Left)

I graduated four weeks ago on Wednesday, May 14th. Graduating meant I'd be done with Rowan and done with student teaching at GCIT. It was a very happy and bittersweet day. However, on Thursday, May 15th I got to start a new job - being the long-term substitute teacher for the classes I student taught! That means I essentially took three days off and then came back, only this time I'm without my wonderful CT.

It's been a crazy and chaotic month: I moved out of Glassboro, commuted back and forth between Wildwood and Bucks County to GCIT, did a ton of cool events with GCIT, and earlier today I got to watch my seniors graduate! Here are some of the highlights:

1. Academy Awards - as a way to celebrate the end of the school year, the drama department holds a celebration hosted by the senior class. It's a dinner and award ceremony for the students, celebrating the different shows and pieces the students worked on and honoring the graduating senior class! Getting to watched my students get recognized for their work and having an evening celebrating them was so much fun and I was incredibly proud! Me and Sharon Falkenstein actually received awards for being the student teachers which was cute. The seniors also made a cutesy montage of their four years at GCIT which included a section where they imitated the teachers and it's a "slay"-demic with how often I say "slay".

2. Award Ceremonies - There was an array of award ceremonies the students got to go to for their class productions and the musical. Between the Foxy's, BergenPAC, and PaperMill Rising Star Awards the students came away with a lot of recognition for the incredible work they put on and getting to go along to some of them was a joy!

3. Sophomore Cabaret - The sophomore class had their musical theatre cabaret as the culmination of their musical theatre unit and it really demonstrated how much growth they have had from September to today. It's like they're completely different people and getting to witness their transformation has been incredible.

4. Songs for a New World - Singing for the Actor was my baby this year and one of the most rewarding parts of that was their final. From the beginning I wanted there to be some kind of performance the class put on and that turned into Songs for a New World! Getting to build this class from scratch has been one of the most difficult (and fun!) challenges I've had this year and knowing that I got to create such a beautiful piece of art with my students is something I'm going to hold onto for a very long time.

5. Graduation - All things must come to an end, and graduation marked not only my senior's time at GCIT coming to a close, but mine as well. Looking back at my ceremony last month, it felt like a mixed bag. I was excited to be done at Rowan but I was barely on campus this year, most of my friends left the previous year, and while I'm proud of having my Master's degree, it doesn't hold the same meaning to me as my BA. However, getting to be a teacher watching his students graduate and move-on to better and brighter things? Tears were shed, hugs were given, and words cannot describe just how proud I am of all of them. I may have been teaching for the past few years but I consider them to be my first students and they have an incredibly special place in my heart no other students can replace. Proud is a massive understatement.

Now I get to hang up my lanyard and stop being Mr. Shields. It's time to navigate my post-grad life and start focusing on my new job starting on Monday!!!