Day 44 - First Timers

In 7th and 8th grade I participated in a great program called MathCounts, and loved it. At the time, if you'd asked me, I was going to do anything BUT teach when I grew up. Engineering and journalism were my two careers of choice... unless you counted my dream of playing in the AVP.

In my 10th, 11th and 12th grade year, I coached my sister's school in MathCounts (which meant I was competing against my own school/teacher), and sent either whole teams or individuals to state all three years. My favorite was when I had to go up and accept the coaches award for my state-bound team or individual, and people would start whispering and wondering who that skinny high school girl was - a coach? A sister? Well, the answer is both, but at the end of the competition I was bombarded with teachers and competition sponsors asking me if I was planning on becoming a teacher. Enough of those questions, and I eventually changed my, 'No way!' attitude on teaching.

I haven't been at the last four competitions since I was in college and didn't have a team to coach, but now that I'm finally a teacher, I had to sign my kids up. Unfortunately, I lost all of my 8th graders and many 6th and 7th graders to a basketball tournament this weekend, but I'm still a proud coach of my 4 first timers (2 6th and 2 7th). They're not going to state, but they tried something new, and they did their best. That's all I asked.