Nine Years; Twelve minutes at a Time

 It’s my last year teaching music. For the past nine years, since I married Robbie, my precious husband has gotten up in the morning to fix my coffee and breakfast. 

Robbie doesn’t have to do this, he chooses to do this. All nine years. I started noticing last week that I appear for this breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and I’m typically in my car driving by 6:42 a.m.  Twelve minutes with my love each morning. 

During those twelve minutes, we say a prayer, I eat my breakfast (carefully guarding it from the hungry-all-the-time kitty), I gather my bags and leave. Leave - always being told “Be careful” and “I love you”.

Twelve minutes - every work day for nine years. A regular day routine that I don’t usually brag about or share on social media. Regular work days aren’t that exciting. What IS exciting is the fact that I have been so immersed in love and care for the past nine years. There was a point where I thought that would never be again. Thank you Robbie. 

Give your person twelve minutes a day full of nice gestures and ‘I love yous’. It will make nine - or many, many more years just fly by. 

"I Can't Be By Him"

 "I can't sit by him!"  "I can't be by him in line!"  I hear it at least once every two weeks.  I have a serious question, though.  By encouraging children (11 and under) to play into this mentality, are we being helpful?  Is it possible that we are giving a child the impression that they can control the humans in their environment indefinitely?

Here's some background as to why I ask: I teach elementary music. For the past thirty years, my class has been a part of "enrichment", "fine arts", "specials" and my least favorite term, "large group".  We are the last bastion of teachers that have a little freedom left in choosing how to teach our requirements. These groups - I'll use "specials", my current nomenclature, see students only once or twice a week.  WE are also fully certified teachers, so are left to arrange and run our classroom as we choose.  I am a firm believer in assigned seats.  Talk to each other a lot? Not sitting together. Argue? Not. Giggle? Not. And so on and so forth. Is it you where you will Learn. Yes, with a capital L. Even music. 

So evidently I also control and manipulate their environment. However, I am not so sure I want anybody under 11 telling me where they can and can’t sit!!!  It actually boils down to other teachers and administrators communicating with specials teachers. We’re the last to know if Susie and Johnny got into a fight and their parents don’t want them sitting by each other. I’ve been asking for 32 years but it hasn’t changed so I guess I’ll just do the best I can!

I want to talk to my mom

 I can handle life. I just sometimes want to run things past the one that knows my entire history. Nobody understands you like your mom. I don’t need financial help or material things. I just want

1.  To tell her what my husband and I are doing

2. To tell her what the students did today

3. To discuss the shows we’re both watching

4.  To tell her what the pets are up to

5. To share what my kids are doing or going through

6.  To share what my friends are doing or going through

7. To listen to how she is, what she’s thinking, what she’s doing or planning to do

8. To tell her I love her.

Call your mom today. 

“Why yes, I‘ll work for free, who wouldn’t?”

 As I enter year thirty-two of teaching, I am excited to see my students. I am excited to see my colleagues. I have new ideas for what to teach and how to engage today’s screen-oriented children. I am also mad as a hornet, once again. Evidently I am expected to get in my classroom and have it ready to go - for free. 

A strongly worded note from the boss insists that we spend days for which we are not paid to get our classroom ready. You see, we are required  to pack anything away over the few weeks of summer break, because the floors must be polished. So we have to put back all the furniture, rearrange and re-assemble everything s well as update the decor and bulletin boards. Most teachers do this alone or in teams of friends. Music is fairly isolated, so it’s mostly alone for me, unless I ask for help. 

I know that everyone has seen how many extra hours teachers work. It’s a fact that walks alongside a profession that is the scapegoat for society’s problems.  My contract pays $$ a year for 186 days of work. (And by $$, I mean kind of enough. But that’s another story.) Of course, since I am flat out told to have that room ready by close of business on the day before the 186 days begin, I’ll work for free. Wouldn’t anybody? Grrrr. 

Counting the minutes

 It's been happening as long as I've been teaching; but especially more since we went back to school during a pandemic.  Teachers with planning time are asked to fill in as substitutes for any other teacher that may have to miss work.

This afternoon, I am a fifth grade teacher, yanked from the comfort of my beloved music room.  I bear no ill will against the absent teacher.  I have also taken days off that required "coverage", as it's called. I say I bear no ill will - however there have been occasions when I am thrown into one classroom or another with no plan, no work for the students.  I don't mind using my wits, but some sort of emergency preparation is greatly appreciated.  Today, they have work to do, thank goodness!

I also don't blame the administrator that assigned me to cover.  With health protocols right now, no substitutes are allowed in the school building.  The administration has no choice.  They actually divide the day amongst two or three teachers so that we can still accomplish our planning and nobody is in there too long.

I suppose if I were to direct my frustration somewhere, it would land equally on Covid 19 and students that have the mindset that they can get away with breaking known rules just because there is a different adult in the room.

Therein lies the reason I go home grouchy some days, or have that extra glass of wine on others.  I cannot fight the pandemic and its effects on my workplace.  None of that can be helped.  I DEFINITELY cannot change the decades-old practice of students misbehaving for the substitute.  Therefore, I will count the minutes, days, weeks, and years until retirement removes the pleasure of never knowing what a day may hold when I walk into my workplace.  

Ignored on a national scale - My thoughts on the Bonnet Carre' Spillway

We drove along Biloxi beach yesterday.  Yesterday, July 20th.  Height of summer.  We drove along the beach.  It was empty.  Absolutely nobody in the water.  Very, very few on the sand.  No jet skis or paddle boats or parasailing in sight.  The beach is closed right now.  Green algae bloom makes it dangerous for skin contact.  The algae bloom is caused by the influx of fresh water from the opening of the Bonnet Carre' Spillway.  The Spillway was built in the 1920s to alleviate flooding along the banks of the Mississippi River when there's been too much rain.  It's never been opened twice in a season until now, and as of now, the total of days opened is its longest spell open in history.

129 dolphins have washed up dead.  Entire oyster beds are dead.  It's questionable if the seafood from algae bloom waters is safe for consumption.  Our local news outlets are all over the story, and it has been mentioned a couple of times on a national level.  Our governor, attorney general, senators, representatives and other officials have met with the Corps of Engineers to plead our Coast's case for closing the spillway to let our waters and aquatic life recover.  Our state has been politely nodded at and pushed aside.

I realize there is so much involved in the situation that there is no simple solution.  I just hope that our local beach merchants, shrimpers, fishermen and others will not be left destitute and that the name 'Mississippi' will not cause the higher-ups in our government to immediately ignore our needs.

I have attached a very informative article from our local paper. We're all trying to get the situation noticed.

https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article231398673.html

And, because you will probably find that link behind a paywall (reporters need paychecks!!)  here's another, just not quite as much information:

https://www.wlox.com/2019/07/09/many-still-waiting-closing-bonnet-carre-spillway/

Presents Are Fun, But What Do You Give?

This music teacher had a lovely Christmas season.  The choir sang beautifully before the local Christmas parade, then sang the National Anthem for the Harlem Globetrotters.  The fourth graders performed their sweet little Christmas show with only a few glitches.  Little ones sang and danced and played jingle bells in class.  Who could ask for more?  I teach a bunch  (400+!) of sweet darlings that smile, laugh, hug, and love on a daily basis.

I got two sweet gifts from students this year. I am not a homeroom teacher, so there's never been loads of gifts.  As a one-time mom of elementary students, I understand it financially!! Anyway, I got a golden (my description to kids) cup with a lid and hot chocolate/marshmallows enclosed and a palm tree LED candle.  I love them, and I will keep them - if I may be truthful,in years past that hasn't always been the case. I think they are beautiful. I share this with you, my friends, so that you can see all sides of reality in the teaching world.  Please don't take this wrong - this is not a complaint!  I have, given the opportunity, always chosen the schools with a population that is more in need.  I choose to teach darlings that may not have much. I will state with no qualms whatsoever that sharing with these young people is more rewarding than any fancy basket full of gifts.  I get a deep satisfaction from what I can give them! If you are a teacher in a Title I or low-income school, you understand.  There are five things that I try to give children on a daily basis.  I believe giving these things is paramount to helping these young lives grow successfully.

First, I give them a positive interaction to start their day. It's a privilege to greet them at breakfast and call them by name.  Asking if they are all right and encouraging them to have a great day is a great start to my day as well.  Not all of these sweeties come from a routine of ease in the morning, so I do my best to instill confidence in them that school is calm, consistent and ready for them to do their best.

Second, I give small challenges.  I give challenges they can meet.  If they are a particularly rowdy individual, I encourage them to get right to work in the classroom without any fuss.  I encourage them to say "yes m'am" three times and just follow the instruction. All types of students rise to the challenges.  I encourage older ones to "kick their test in the rear end"! (I might even say "butt" and then act like I shouldn't have....it makes them laugh!) Sometimes they smile, laugh, or just hang their heads, but they all say that they'll try.  After that, I make sure I instill confidence and tell them "I KNOW you can!" - with my most brilliant you-can-do-it smile.

Third, I give assistance. Someone took your headphones on the bus?  Let's go get help. You accidentally came to school with you shirt inside-out?  You have permission to go fix it.  You lost the homework sheet?  Let's try to find another one.  Goodness knows my own children probably needed help in the morning in elementary school, in spite of my best efforts as a parent.  The students know that they can trust me to help.

Fourth, I give hugs.  Some little ones need "their hug" every day.  Others just occasionally need a "hey, you're great" hug.  We load them with responsibility and talk to them about how grown up they are all the time; but they are children.  And sometimes they need a hug.

Fifth, I give them love. I started a few years ago telling my students that I love them.  Saying it out loud, to their face.  It felt weird at first, I've always been somewhat reserved, but when it comes to children, those words are magic.  I tell them I love them with the first morning hug and I tell them when I am re-directing or correcting them.  At the end of the 2017 school year, a little six-year-old in Jackson, MS was murdered during a car theft.  It was driven home to me that these precious children can never hear those words enough - and I can do my part to say it.

Education has changed so much in the past century - I've personally witnessed the past thirty-five years from the teacher point of view.  As we collect data and reduce children to scores and graphs, it's more important than ever to remember that love helps them grow equally as much as any work they may be doing. I am so grateful to work at a school at which every adult knows this; they greet, challenge, help, hug and love the children the same way I do. It's worth it.

Teacher Talk

Tomorrow - my twenty-ninth first day of school as a teacher.  Considering I took five years off, I started teaching thirty-three years ago.  Boy, a lot has changed!  My first year teaching we used paddling as a consequence.  Like I said, times have changed.

Today, the last "teacher work day" before students come tomorrow, I realized something that has not changed.  Teacher talk.  Teachers can spend literal hours talking about teaching.  Do we talk about your children?  Probably; it's our job to help them grow and learn.  We rejoice with them when we do so successfully, and get frustrated when we can't help them reach every goal.  More often, though, we just talk about "how to teach".

"How to teach" is our favorite topic of conversation.  There is no outline, no agenda, just laughter, curiosity, and soaking up knowledge.  What about when they can't hold their pencil?  Try a giant crayon.  How did you get them to write complete sentences?  I used the peers that had it down as the 'sentence police'.  What about the one that blew snot bubbles to get out of standing on the wall at recess?  Oh no, you'll have to be a teacher to hear how to solve that one!

In the space of one hour at lunch today, seven of us learned more about classroom management from each other than we did from the "professional" that lectured us for three hours straight last week.  Because everything we attend must be structured, outlined, documented...on and on with the adjectives, we are never just given meeting time to just sit around and talk.  

Here's a novel idea, school districts, state CEU agencies, instructional specialists, etc.; create a meeting and call it Peer Mentoring.  Have a sign-in sheet, a cold classroom (from what I've seen it's a necessity for these meetings), snacks, water, and just let the teachers be.  Let them talk.  Let the experienced ones tell how they do this and the novice ones tell how they do that.  Let a group of teachers use their experience and knowledge to build each other up.  Teacher talk.  The meeting of the future.

Hey Y'all, who are you, where are you from?

I've been writing and tracking this blog for five years now.  I had hoped to change the world, but I know in reality that world change happens one person at a time.  As I track, it shows me what country you read from. 

It doesn't show any personal information about you, don't worry.  That's why I'm curious.  Who are you?  I would love it if you would leave a comment about where you're from, what you do, how you stumbled across these writings, what you thought (it's ok, I can take it...), anything you'd like to say or ask. 

So read on  - I even go back and read them myself sometimes. 

Love and Peace to all of you,

Diane
"Grace Under Pressure"

Hold a grudge? Not me........

I've been struggling with something for a while now.  Let's see if any of you have a similar problem.  Years ago, about 24 years ago to be exact, somebody was very mean to me.  Flat-out rude.  In front of quite a few people - some of whom took up for me and tried to right the situation.  Thank goodness for those people, because I didn't end up thinking that the entire room hated me.  Twenty-four years?  How would that affect me still?  ......you might ask.

Here's the deal.  I imagine myself coming in contact with that person in the present.  (It could happen, although chances are it won't.)  Instead of imagining my gracious self saying "Oh, I remember you, hello!"  I scheme and pet my cat, a' la Dr. Evil, and dream up ways to tell the whole imaginary crowd that they were very mean to me in the past and don't deserve my attention now.

My heart knows, however, that such a reaction would be wrong, immature and against everything I teach and try to live.  I really don't think I have it in me to confront anyone in that way, no matter how I feel inside.  I could probably type it, from the comfort of my own home, constructing all the phrasing to show me in the best light, them in the worst.......oh wait, that sounds so familiar.

Maybe we all have a past incident that we would love to re-visit in today's time, just to show "I was right" or "You were wrong" or "Look where I am now!" I suppose it's human nature.  In reality though, we need to remain gracious and kind.  I have stalked the mean person from my past and seen them in family pictures, having fun, looking oh so nice.  I suppose I could change my heart and be my sweet self if ever a chance meeting happened again.  Thinking about payback is amusing, but in real life, I vote for being nice, all the time.

Dogs and Cats Living Together.........

Mass hysteria. Marches. Media wars. Social media wars. Young people, older people. Politicians, neophytes. Name-callers, silent sufferers.

It's ugly right now.  Uglier than I remember anything being in a long time. The outcry against guns is met by an immediate "don't tread on me" defense.

I'm going to weigh in here.  Hardly anyone reads this so I can unload a bit. It's my right to own a gun.  It's also my responsibility to make sure nothing bad happens with that gun. Americans that are asking for more controls and law changes are begging to be treated as if they were in nursery school.

I do believe the current laws should be followed. I don't mind you doing a background check on me. I'm a responsible person.

I do mind if you try to take away my constitutional rights. Have any of those that are crying to be treated like infants aware of how many firearms there are in our nation? Enough where any change in law would not make an inch of a difference.

Step up, innocents.  Fight for better mental health care, more rights for schools and parents to discipline wayward children, more money for education and secure educational facilities.  There are concrete things that can make a difference.  Perhaps take a look at them?  Or..... just keep ranting about how all of the sudden the laws need to change and turn us into a day-care.

Fifth Grade Thunderdome

Once a year, the weather starts to warm up, Easter decorations hit the stores, weekend festivals abound and the fifth graders that I teach are put through a grueling experience.  No, not testing, not a spring dance, not a sports competition: the grueling experience is called "Mass Choir".

How can singing be so difficult?  Children singing; just the words evoke sweetness and light, love, hope for the future, and everything that is right with the world. Most of the time, that is true for me.  I love my school and I love the darlings that I teach. We sing the cutest, sweetest songs and have so much fun.  Mass Choir, though, looms over me like a giant monster most of the school year.  Here's the background, as I am aware of it.  The superintendent declared that since the seven elementary schools feed into only two middle schools and one high school that the fifth graders should celebrate the end of the time in elementary and their coming together "as one" by performing an hour-long concert for their parents.  Every fifth grader in the district.  Whether they want to or not, whether they enjoy singing or not.

Have you ever experienced eleven-year-olds (or twelve or thirteen....) in the springtime?  I am reminded of the young creatures that spring around the barnyard, all mischief, joy and self-awakening.  I'm not saying they are badly behaved, I'm saying that by nature they are reaching for independence and acceptance among their peers.  The way in which they do that reflects whether they already possessed good behavior or not.  As planners of Mass Choir, the respective music teachers from each school do our best to find engaging and contemporary songs that these young adults will enjoy.  We also attempt to keep their "antsy" young selves busy by adding "moves" (less than choreography, more than finger-snapping) to all the songs.  From August to January, we choose songs and create moves.  We teach songs, send home lyrics and CDs, have competitions, do any positive behavior encouragement that we can to prepare the students for the big night.  We also take care of the logistics of the evening, but that's another complete story!

Imagine the last week of rehearsal. There are sixty students, in my case, one hundred at some schools, standing on risers together knowing that they're supposed to sing and move.  The superintendent never sees this part of the process.  It is the reason I came up with the term "grueling".  If not for a super-supportive specials team, fifth grade teachers and administration, it would not happen!  By nature, it is a Thunderdome of sorts - who can make whom laugh, who talks about someone else's mama, who can pass gas at just the right time - you get the picture. Somehow, some way, we manage to get them to sing and move enough to look like they know what they're doing. The only one that doesn't get the picture is the one that ordained it and will show up next week and talk about how wonderful that they can all sing together with energy and smiles and grow up to be the pride of the district.

Then the music teachers turn and smile and wave.  Within the next week we evaluate the year's show and start discussing next year's engaging music.  They all enter, they all come out, but the music teachers stay for another Thunderdome, year after year.