I was thrown into the classroom on January 20, 2021. I say “thrown” in the figurative sense — no one physically lifted me and tossed me into room 205 — but I also say “thrown” in a somewhat literal sense. When I awoke that morning, I did not know I would be teaching within a few hours. My computer pinged with an email during breakfast, and a little while later, I found myself reading the prologue of Romeo and Juliet to high school freshmen.

As I prepared to move to Spain, people often asked me what grade level I wanted to teach. Honestly, I never had a good answer. Some days, I wanted to partake in the intellectual conversations that can occur in a high school literature course. Other days, I wanted the smiles and laughter of teaching elementary children. Still other days, I wanted the joy of influencing middle schoolers during their “transition years.”

In hindsight, I see that my indecisiveness has been a blessing. My daily teaching schedule now includes 9th grade English & middle school “Sheltered English” in the mornings, elementary library after lunch, and 7th grade study hall at the end of the day. I’m getting the best of all three worlds.

The classroom has brought various emotions over the past four weeks. I laughed alongside the ninth graders as they pretended to fall dead from sword fights and poisons, and I stared blankly at my computer while searching for the best way to teach research writing. I cheered as an eighth-grader wrote a hilarious story about his sibling, and I fought hard to “keep my cool” when other students refused to observe the 15 minutes of silence at the beginning of study hall. With my grin hidden behind a cotton mask, I have jumped and hopped through the library in an attempt to excite the first graders (because I learned the hard way that it’s easy to lose the attention of a six-year-old).

Yet, through it all, being in the classroom has brought me joy. I enjoy the informal debates about Romeo and Juliet’s decisions. I love reading to elementary students and helping them engage with the stories. I look forward to the days when we play games in study hall because students don’t have homework.

God knew what He was doing when He threw me into the classroom four weeks ago.