Yesterday, school started. And it started without me. I can honestly say that I didn't even have mixed feelings. I was just so glad NOT to be starting another school year. If you think about school from a teacher's perspective (which is a whole lot different than either a student or parent perspective), school is on a sliding scale continuum - like a number line.
On the negative side of the continuum are (1) curriculum restrictions - Think: "If it's Tuesday the 29th, we should be on page 4" (2) unreponsive managment - translated: The principal/vice-principal doesn't back you up when he/she has to chose sides in a crisis. (3) the PAPERWORK - Ok, I've changed my mind - this item is the supernegative. Paperwork: Count the kids for this, fill out form, send it to the black hole. Gather together all the work Johnny is going to miss because he's suspended for 7 days. (I did this ad nauseum and I never, repeat, never got a single paper back from Johnny - kids who get suspended for 7 days don't do school work). Count the kids and separate them as to race, reading ability, writing ability, left handedness, extra-curriculars, possiblity of failure, TAKS scores, NCLB ratings, library fines, book returns, honor role, male, female, birthdate, size, etc., etc., etc. - send paperwork to the black hole. Read and responding to email where you have to furnish "a sample". And finally, preparing for, organizing and attending meetings - approximately 3 per week lasting between 3-4 hours a week. And finally, last be certainly not least - this item costs about 10 hours of time every year - the CEIP (that would be the Campus Education Improvement Plan) that everyone is required to help write. Then it's sent "downtown" and ignored by everyone unless the administration needs a scapegoat.
Getting closer to the center of our mythical continuum but still on the negative side: Continual, constant, unremitting grading of papers. I graded 35 regular papers PER STUDENT every six weeks. I also graded 6 involved papers (like projects, major essay exams, writing projects) PER STUDENT every six weeks. If you have 75 students, that's 75 involved papers every week, plus 6 x75 = 450 regular papers PER WEEK. Grading papers tends to eat into your sleep, your social time, your family time. It's a grind. But it's the only way to be fair to students - I didn't teach college - only the ninth grade, and no one should have to stand or fall in a class based on five or six grades for an entire six weeks. Since, I assigned the work myself, I could hardly complain. A sure sign of teacher burn-out is when they stop grading papers. And I was lucky - I had a class load of 75 - 100 kids. I've known English teachers who had class loads of 225 kids. (When the teacher- this was just 2 years ago at Arlington Heights- complained to the principal that she couldn't effectively teach 225 kids, his answer was, "Oh, it will be OK, some will drop-out". Of course, not many left and she was a physical and nervous wreck by the end of the school year.) [SEE ABOVE - PRINCIPAL DOES NOT BACK YOU UP]
Moving slightly into the positive side of the continuum is "discipling of students". You are considered a failure as a teacher if you can't discipline your own students. Nobody in the main office wants to see a kid with a referral (a disciplinary complaint from the teacher to the administration - ie: "he won't do what he's told, and flips me off, and calls me profane names") You can write maybe one of those a year - you're expected to handle these little problems yourself. I used my lunch hour and my planning period to help students work through their discipline problems - That means they had to come and spend time with me when it should have been their free time. I tried various strategies all of which take time, time, time and energy. - Of course, it also meant that many days I inhaled lunch in 10 minutes or had to take a shoulder breaking amount of work home in my shoulder-strap briefcase.
If you still can't get Fred to do what he's told, stop flipping you off and calling you a "fucking bitch", then you personally have to track down the parent/guardian/warm blooded adult Fred lives with through non-existent phone numbers, return to sender addresses, and contacts through next door neighbors, divorced Dads/Moms, or Grannies. Some kids hid themselves from the school district so well that I NEVER knew where they lived or who they lived with.
On the positive side of the continuum is planning lessons that will interest students and be challenging. Unfortunately, this is being taken away from teachers in favor of "canned curriculum" -meaning that everyone in the entire district who teaches 9th grade English (or whatever) is doing the same thing at the same time. The justification for this is to standardize the curriculum. The theory is that you will have the same opportunities if you go to Paschal or if you go to Polytechnic. The reality is that no one is satisfied except for: the average student, the below average teacher, and the administration.
Finally, the only real reward on the positive side of the continuum is the actual teaching - where you see the aha's and the positive energy that learning in a safe environment can provide to both the students and the teachers.
If you look back at this post, it's a sad commentary on the public education system that the things that make the job so difficult are the longest paragraphs while the enjoyable, rewarding part of teaching is the shortest paragraph. I guess that explains clearer than anything I could write why I was glad school started without me this fall.
So, now I'm just looking for a new identity..............................in some ways I feel like an adolescent again - just not as scared.
