“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.  

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.

The Forbidden Act of Class Punishment or Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is

I have always taught music, and in elementary school, that means that I don't have a "class" of my own.  I see other teacher's homerooms all day long.  It's a privilege, because I get to call every student in the school my 'kid'.  I've said many times that it's very special to me to be able to teach kindergarten through fifth grade.  By the time they leave elementary, IF I have taught them every year, I've been their music teacher for over half their life.  I know them, they know me; what a wonderful job I have.

At my very first job, the principal was demanding.  Our names were circled in red ink if we didn't sign in on time on the morning clipboard.  Our lesson plans were scrutinized, commented on, and required to be sitting on the corner of our desk at all times.  There was a meeting a couple years into my time at that school at which he stated "Please avoid class punishment.  Do not punish the entire class by silent time, taking recess, etc.  There are students in that group that were not at fault and that is not fair.  Deal with the individuals."  My brain said "Wow!"  because I had pulled the 'sit in silence' bit as a disciplinary measure before for an entire class.  I also liked what he said because I am a rule-follower.  I do not want to get in trouble or have a policy changed because a few bad apples can't toe the line.  They should get in trouble, not me.

I was reminded of this event in my teaching career when I kept seeing all the "protest" that involves our flag and our national anthem.  Throughout history, protest has been a means of change, whether valid or not.  I'm not even speaking to whether any of these current events are anything I am in agreement with or not.  That's not my point here.  I think these protesters are punishing the class.  It's unfair.  Not every American is at fault for the things you are protesting.  Find an organization that sets up dialogue with the two sides, write your congressman, volunteer for programs that work to heal the problem you're yelling at with your actions.  Then you'll be fair AND you'll be doing some good.  Put your money where your butt/knee is.