Teaching is Hard

I'm have been teaching in some capacity since 2003. I started out as a substitute teacher and did that while I went BACK to school and got my teaching certification through a Career Switchers Program. This is a great way to go if you have already graduated from college, by the way. It took about six months to complete (going two nights per week and every Saturday morning) and I got a job right out of the gate. I interviewed at two middle schools and one of them offered me my first job. 

I started out teaching sixth grade ELA (English and Language Arts) and did that for two years in northern Virginia. Then I got married and moved to Maryland and taught a year of seventh grade ELA there. This brings me to my first beef - it is not easy to move a teaching certificate from state to state. Each state has different requirements for teachers. Moving oftentimes means going back to undergrad to take a history class or something that you did not take that they think you need to take. Ugh. Luckily, Virginia to Maryland wasn't too bad and I could start right away. I had two interviews and got a job offer from one of those.

My husband's job has us relocating quite a bit. We are not military family mobile, but pretty mobile all the same, moving every 3-6 years. After Baltimore, we moved to Bloomington, Indiana. There I went back to subbing because there were no teaching positions to be found. Indiana University is right there and it is a teacher factory. I had a second job during this time as a medical assistant, which I kept for four years - teachers don't make enough money to live off of one job. We often need to work two. I honestly had such a hard time getting back into teaching that I almost went to nursing school. I took more classes and tests, and got my Indiana teaching license. I subbed for two years and then landed a job at a private school teaching pre-K and then kindergarten. I even started a Masters program. Then, guess what? We moved.

To Illinois. For whatever reason, Illinois does not make it easy to get a teaching certificate. I subbed for a year, was an aide for a year and then got a job as a fifth grade teacher, which then segued into a first grade position (big jump here, and not legal to make a teacher do this, but did it anyway). I loved working with a predominantly Hispanic population. The families were as supportive as they could be and the I felt like I was making a positive impact. After those two years, Illinois changed the licensing requirements and I was no longer eligible to teach - after getting a Masters of Science in Education and teaching for eight years. Soooooo, back to school I went, and became a paraprofessional in the meantime. By the way, I was also working at a bookstore and tutoring students to supplement my income during this time. Finally, I landed my dream job teaching fifth grade math and science. Then we moved.

To California. For those of you who don't know, California makes it very difficult to get a teaching license. It was a big move for my girls and so I planned to take a year off to help them acclimate. I joined a gym and signed up for Pilate's. In that class, I met two teachers and they recruited me. I started guest-teaching at their school in February and was offered a job teaching fifth grade for next year. I have my substitute certificate in California, but since it is a private school, I do not have to be licensed in CA. I just have to have a teaching certification somewhere, and my Illinois license is still good. My plan is to apply for my CA certification while I am teaching and get that in place. I'm teaching in a private school again. The people are kind and the classes are small (~20 kids). I mostly teach math and science but have a reading and writing section thrown in as well. I have a teaching assistant and my partner, who teaches mostly humanities and ELA, and she has a teaching assistant as well. I feel very fortunate, and a little out of my element. The families are wealthy and the school provides for everything. Honestly, I have run the gamut in my career.

I have been in this field for 16 years. I have seen many teachers come and go. This is an honorable, difficult profession. We don't teach for the money - we do it because it is a calling. I work through the summer, planning for the next year, meeting with teachers, planning field trips, decorating and organizing my room. During the school year, I work 8-9 hours per day in the building and then work 1-2 hours per night at home. I stay late on Fridays getting ready for the week ahead. If I call in sick, I have to plan out every minute of my day for someone else to (hopefully) teach my students. If someone else calls in sick, I have to use my planning time to cover their class. I get multiple emails per day from parents, who are oftentimes asking questions that would have been answered had they read my weekly bulletin.  I get emails from students asking for directions that I have already given. I go to Bat Mitzvahs, soccer games, community plays, beauty contests, and spaghetti dinners at churches to be with my students in my free time. I go on overnight field trips that take me away from my family for days at a time. I have my own children help me put stickers on papers and my husband sometimes helps me grade.

I have countless mugs, apple themed items, candles and gift cards. I love every gift I get because I know that child was right there thinking of me. I have letters that I have kept for 16 years or less. I have crafts that are homemade and even some jewelry. I love my students and their families. I have held students after they received bad news, I have sometimes delivered that bad news because their parents didn't know how. I have bandaged bloody wounds, held ice packs to swollen eyes, and packaged teeth for the fairy to come that night. I have celebrated birthdays and half-birthdays and am learning about all of the Jewish holidays. I have taught half in Spanish and and now learning (slowly) some Hebrew. Teachers are always learning, so that we can continue to teach.

Love your teachers. We are tired and trying and loving your little people. We are human. We get sick and overwhelmed and sad. We are not paid enough to live on our own on one job, but we keep showing up. We pay for your kids supplies when you don't send them in. We give gifts from our own pockets and plan parties, escape rooms and scavenger hunts. We stay late for conferences and open houses and we miss our own children's school events to be at yours. We give all that we have. It is not a thankless job, but it is a hard one. And you could not do yours without us.

Halp! When Does This Ride End??

I have two daughters and a bonus-daughter (who I sadly don't see very often). My oldest (biological) daughter is 13. Dealing with her on a daily basis is like riding a roller coaster. She is happy. She is angry. She is crying. She is happy again. IS THIS NORMAL? I have not been able to spend a lot of time with my bonus-daughter during her teen years because she is living in another state, so I don't have a lot of personal experience.

I am a fifth grade teacher, but my students are better behaved than my sweet baboo of a daughter. Plus they are younger, so maybe not on the hormone-a-coaster that A is on.

Today's episode of How the Teen Turns is brought to us by me. She loves to play the flute and has been at it for four years. I signed her up for flute camp at George Mason Community Arts Academy. (Insert vision of riding a roller coaster up the hill. Slowly. Clackety clack, clackety clack.) She is excited because she gets to stay the week on a college campus with a flute-playin' roommate and everything. Clackety clack. She is excited because she gets to eat at the student union and play her beloved Betsy (do all musicians name their instruments?) all day every day. Clackety clack. She is excited because she will be in charge of herself (with an RA nearby, of course). Why can I only see sky?? Where is the rest of the track??

Now, picture the zooming downhill at an uncomfortably steep angle and speed. Here we go. Too late now. She is NOT excited because I signed her up to play at the student recital, which is where she plays part of a song for her peers. She is very upset with me for this and threatening to stop playing flute forever. Really? REALLY?? This thing costs a lot of money (to a teacher, anyway) and she is pissy with me for pushing her out of her comfort zone.

Pushing kids out of their comfort zone is what I do for a living. I am a fifth grade math and science teacher. I LIVE outside of the comfort zone. Just do it, kiddo. Like that time you didn't want to learn to ride a bike because you fell. Get back on and do it anyway. Try again. Like the time you did not want to learn to swim because the water was too cold/deep/scary. Take a breath and jump in and do it anyway. Have I ever pushed her to do anything that was bad for her?? Now, she rides her bike to middle school two miles each way every day. She loves it. She prefers it to the bus. Now she is on the swim team at our fitness club. She is a beautiful, graceful, fast swimmer. She advanced faster than Coach Bill has ever seen anybody advance.

She will succeed with the flute, too. But for now, she is angry and scared. One day, she will be past this difficult time in her life. One day, she will appreciate this. One day, she will love me again.

Oh, and she got a ukulele today from her uncle Greg. She is over the moon about it. I am off to search for a ukulele camp for next summer...

A Note to Teachers

I am in the position where I can view the classroom from a visitor's eye - as a guest teacher (commonly referred to as a substitute).  Over the years, I have come up with a list of suggestions (pleas, really) for classroom teachers.  And I know of what I speak - I am a teacher myself.  I am simply a "homeless" one at this point.

If you are going to have a substitute in your room...please:

1.  These people are not substitutes.  They are guest-teachers.  They are doing your job for the day (or week, or three-month maternity leave).  They deserve the respect of being called guest-teacher.  Not sub.

2.  When you see them in the hallways, don't ask them, "Who are you today?"  They are themselves - everyday.  They are not morphing into the teacher for whom they are guest-teaching.  My standard (read "cranky") answer to that is, "I am Mindi (everyday).  I am guest-teaching in Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So's room."  Nothing makes a guest-teacher feel lower than not being called by their own name.

3.  Overplan.  Have more plans than what the school day can hold.  You never know when the Promethian Board won't come on, or the school will have a fire drill, or the sub can't find the materials for science.  Give them other options from which to choose.  The worst thing that can happen is that the guest-teacher has to come up with something for the kids to do.  That is your job.  It is their job to make sure that it gets done.

4.   Leave a class list and a seating chart, for pity's sake!!

5.  Leave detailed instructions on how to call the office and/or the teacher next door.

6.  Leave them an hour-by-hour schedule of your day.  They need to know if they have time to use the restroom between classes or if they have a break at some point during the day.

7.  Leave them a list of students with allergies or behavior/medical problems.  This is necessary.  Really.

8.  Leave them a map of the school with pertinent places (office, restrooms, lounge, playground, fire exit) highlighted.  It is a courtesy, and a greatly appreciated one.

9.  Don't leave them a movie to watch unless it is part of your actual curriculum.  Kids choose this time to misbehave - believe me.  If you do leave a movie, provide an assignment to go along with it so that the students are forced to pay attention.

10.  Leave out the materials that the guest-teacher will need in nice, neat piles.  Don't make them take their eyes off the class so they can hunt for something you could have left out for them.

11.  If at all possible, schedule tests for the days that the guest-teacher is there.  This makes their job slightly easier.  You can even leave an answer key and I bet they will grade them for you!

12.  If they did a good job for you, request them again.  They do not have job security like you do.  They get jobs based on their performance.  Many of them are licensed teachers (like me).

That's all, folks!

Mindi