When you are a teacher, Sunday night has a special place in your life. You are winding down the weekend and gearing up for the week. You are apprehensive about what lies ahead and feeling like you didn't accomplish as much as you should have, but you also are eager to get back to the classroom to share in the energy of your students and the atmosphere of learning. Oh, dilemmas!
I have had a good weekend, and I am ending it by sort of watching the 6oth Emmy Awards- more interested in seeing the dresses than knowing who wins. I have put down plans through the first 9 weeks in my plan book, and I am thinking about how our Monday morning will go. I baked muffins earlier today so that we will have an easy breakfast in the morning. Once the roller coaster of the week gets started, I will be on my way, and planning will take a backseat as I navigate through the days.
Middle schoolers are not generally good at planning ahead, and maybe a little bit of that spirit is rubbing off on me. We as teachers spend a great deal of our time asking our students, "Why can't you be more organized?" Poor students- we need to recognize that even all grown-ups are not organized. How much more can we expect of them?
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Courage to Move On
It is a sad fact that human beings hunger for new things but run from change. We get tired of the status quo, but we are afraid of novelty. We doubt that we are up for the challenge of a new opportunity, but we feel stale in our current situation. Maybe that is the human paradox.
Part of what makes teaching Middle School so challenging is that you are dealing with a large group of people who are constantly changing and constantly wishing things could stay the same. Their lives, bodies, and minds are changing, and they need the confidence and courage to move into those changes--to fight the desire to run away from those changes.
Currently I am also fighting the fear of change. Our school is being impacted by budget cuts, and we are going to lose teachers. I could be one of them. I know I should welcome the opportunity to expand, but I tend to feel the need to mourn the loss of what was, and then move on. We'll see what the future holds. What really upsets me is that rather I am directly impacted or not, my students are going to have to deal with yet more change. Sigh!
Part of what makes teaching Middle School so challenging is that you are dealing with a large group of people who are constantly changing and constantly wishing things could stay the same. Their lives, bodies, and minds are changing, and they need the confidence and courage to move into those changes--to fight the desire to run away from those changes.
Currently I am also fighting the fear of change. Our school is being impacted by budget cuts, and we are going to lose teachers. I could be one of them. I know I should welcome the opportunity to expand, but I tend to feel the need to mourn the loss of what was, and then move on. We'll see what the future holds. What really upsets me is that rather I am directly impacted or not, my students are going to have to deal with yet more change. Sigh!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Remembrance
Will anybody forget what they were doing on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001? My two children had both been delivered to their respective schools. I had made an early morning run to the grocery store, and was on my home with the radio on when I heard the first report. I brought my groceries home and went to a rehearsal for a play I was doing. When I got to the theater, the radio was on and we heard the reports of the second plane, the plane in DC, and the one in Pennsylvania. It seemed weird and surreal. We cancelled our rehearsal and went home. One of my friends was visiting from out of town, and he called me and told me to turn on the television. I did. The images are still in my head.
It was so difficult to be watching something so horrible that was so far and yet so close. I wanted to pick up my children. I wanted my husband to be home. My parents were overseas on a European trip, and I started to worry that they wouldn't be able to get home if the governments shut down the airways. What a morning- what a terrible waste.
The students I am teaching now have only vague memories of that horrible morning. They were 6 and 7 year olds who now live with the aftermath of terror. Waiting in long security lines at the airport is commonplace for them. Using airplanes as weapons is also a concept that is familiar.
I am asking my students this morning to write about what freedom means to them. It should be interesting to find out.
It was so difficult to be watching something so horrible that was so far and yet so close. I wanted to pick up my children. I wanted my husband to be home. My parents were overseas on a European trip, and I started to worry that they wouldn't be able to get home if the governments shut down the airways. What a morning- what a terrible waste.
The students I am teaching now have only vague memories of that horrible morning. They were 6 and 7 year olds who now live with the aftermath of terror. Waiting in long security lines at the airport is commonplace for them. Using airplanes as weapons is also a concept that is familiar.
I am asking my students this morning to write about what freedom means to them. It should be interesting to find out.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Wow, I've Got a Lot to Learn
I went looking at some other blogs, and boy, this is boring in comparison. Where do people find the time to add the doodads and thingy-dingies?
Anyway, the school where I teach is a gem. We have a smaller than average middle school population and an administration that is committed and caring. I don't think I could have landed in a finer patch of clover.
I liked school when I was younger, and I still like school today. I like the rhythms of the school year, I like the camaraderie, and I like the energy of possibility. The wonderful thing about middle school students is that every day is a new day. In some ways, middle school teaching is similar to training puppies. They are clumsy, in-between childhood and adulthood, frequently eager to please, but often unsure how to do it, and life is difficult to imagine beyond today.
The students I feel sorry for are the ones who have been turned into adults by unfortunate circumstances. I feel sorry for the ones who have parents in jail, who need to take care of younger siblings because mom (or dad, or both) have to work two or more jobs and are out of the home for 11-12 hours a day, and I feel sorry for the ones who are dealing with homes that are being strained by alcohol or drug abuse. These kids are growing up, but they are often forced to grow up way too fast and with too little guidance to help them keep to the paths that will take them somewhere better.
When I get the opportunity to get to know my students better, I admire their strength and resilience, and I go home and thank my parents for my "normal" upbringing.
Anyway, the school where I teach is a gem. We have a smaller than average middle school population and an administration that is committed and caring. I don't think I could have landed in a finer patch of clover.
I liked school when I was younger, and I still like school today. I like the rhythms of the school year, I like the camaraderie, and I like the energy of possibility. The wonderful thing about middle school students is that every day is a new day. In some ways, middle school teaching is similar to training puppies. They are clumsy, in-between childhood and adulthood, frequently eager to please, but often unsure how to do it, and life is difficult to imagine beyond today.
The students I feel sorry for are the ones who have been turned into adults by unfortunate circumstances. I feel sorry for the ones who have parents in jail, who need to take care of younger siblings because mom (or dad, or both) have to work two or more jobs and are out of the home for 11-12 hours a day, and I feel sorry for the ones who are dealing with homes that are being strained by alcohol or drug abuse. These kids are growing up, but they are often forced to grow up way too fast and with too little guidance to help them keep to the paths that will take them somewhere better.
When I get the opportunity to get to know my students better, I admire their strength and resilience, and I go home and thank my parents for my "normal" upbringing.
Why Did I Do It?
Two reasons really- my children are older, and I needed to do something productive with my English degree. During the early years of my children's lives, I worked part time and from home so I could be a mommy and still contribute to our finances.
I worked as a Box Office Manager at the local community theater, I worked for a nationally recognized academic survey research institution, and I toured as an actress in Storybook Theater Company in DeLand. I spent time in and around schools, and dealing with academic related issues. I also had been an adjunct instructor at the local community college in my early years of marriage, and teaching has usually come naturally to me.
In 2007, the time had come for me to contribute more fully to our household resources by leaving the house. Teaching allowed me to also have the same schedule during the year as the rest of my family.
I worked as a Box Office Manager at the local community theater, I worked for a nationally recognized academic survey research institution, and I toured as an actress in Storybook Theater Company in DeLand. I spent time in and around schools, and dealing with academic related issues. I also had been an adjunct instructor at the local community college in my early years of marriage, and teaching has usually come naturally to me.
In 2007, the time had come for me to contribute more fully to our household resources by leaving the house. Teaching allowed me to also have the same schedule during the year as the rest of my family.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Second Year and still Teaching
I waited over 20 years to become a teacher, and when I finally did, I ended up being a public school middle school teacher. I am hoping that my insights on this interesting often turbulent time in lives of our youth may offer some hope and comfort to parents and the general public that our futures may be fairly secure after all.
The 2007-2008 school year was my first foray in the world of public school teaching. My husband had been teaching at the middle school level for over 12 years, and I had a son in 7th grade, so the concept of middle school was not foreign to me, but I really did not know what "being in the trenches" would be like. I also was coming in as a Language Arts teacher- a subject that is definitely not dear to the majority of middle schoolers. Not only an Language Arts teacher, but an 8th grade Language Arts teacher with the attendant pressures of the state writing test to get the students through.
The reflections I will offer about last year and this year I hope will be humorous for most, and reassuring for some. Overall I discovered that middle schoolers are people too, and it is very important to remember that even though they are in a state of perpetual flux, most of them will come out on the other side as pretty good, solid people!
The 2007-2008 school year was my first foray in the world of public school teaching. My husband had been teaching at the middle school level for over 12 years, and I had a son in 7th grade, so the concept of middle school was not foreign to me, but I really did not know what "being in the trenches" would be like. I also was coming in as a Language Arts teacher- a subject that is definitely not dear to the majority of middle schoolers. Not only an Language Arts teacher, but an 8th grade Language Arts teacher with the attendant pressures of the state writing test to get the students through.
The reflections I will offer about last year and this year I hope will be humorous for most, and reassuring for some. Overall I discovered that middle schoolers are people too, and it is very important to remember that even though they are in a state of perpetual flux, most of them will come out on the other side as pretty good, solid people!
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