Teaching: A study in contrasts

I love being a teacher. There are so many wonderful things about this job. Usually this is where people laugh and say..."Yea, you never work weekends, you get summers and all major holidays off. Of course you love your job! What's not to love about your job?" Mostly I agree with all those people who say that.

Here's what I do love: I love my students and each class is different every year. All those personalities combine in a magical way. Sometimes that magic tends to be a bit black or maybe dark gray, but it can be magical. I love when the lights go on and they understand some new concept I've taught or we read a truly wonderful book that makes us laugh or cry together. I love discovering each of my students' strengths and cry sometimes over their weaknesses. I love being part of a classroom of learners. I love when we create poetry or art that is fabulous. I especially love when I find some new aspect of one of my students: perhaps they are the poorest reader in the class, but the art they create is beautiful. I do love not working weekends or holidays or during the summer, although summer is getting shorter and shorter as they extend the school year. I love being with my own children. Except for a few days here and there when they aren't in school, neither am I.

Here's what I don't love though.... I hate having to make CPS reports. I hate spending 30 minutes filling out the form and then spending 30 more minutes on the phone, recounting exactly what I put on the form, only to have them never to investigate what I report or find that the allegations of abuse, neglect, etc are unfounded because they waited too long to come out to see the bruises on the child's body. I hate the standardized testing. I can almost see these people in rooms maniacally rubbing their hands together cackling about how to fool 7 and 8 year olds. Approximately 6 hours of testing is far too much for children, even spreading it out over a six day period is insane. Another thing I hate having to deal with a system called, "No Child Left Behind". How can a child that has had severe brain trauma either at birth or born with some sort of problem be expected to pass a test so insanely hard that most "normal" kids struggle with.

So being a teacher isn't all its cracked up to be. There are wonderful aspects to this job, and like all jobs frustrating ones too.

David

I love my job, I love my job, I love my job. Most of the time. One unfortunate aspect of it is occasionally having to write referrals. I don't write them very often, but sometimes they are needed. They are for students who break the rules big time. Not talking in class rule breaking, but bigger issues. I have a young man who I will refer to as David, (as in Goliath). He has gotten 3 referrals in less than a month.

#1 March 10th - The yard duty lady brought him to me and informed me that he and another student had been throwing rocks at each other. David got hit in the head. The other student got hit in the leg. I asked, "Why shouldn't we throw rocks, David?" He looked at me and said, "Because it is nature." Really nature? What does that have to with anything? I calmly explained again (we had already had a discussion in class) why we shouldn't throw rocks and told the duty lady to write him up. He lost a couple days worth of recesses.

#2 March 25th - The class came in from P.E. and I was told that David was throwing rocks at a student from our class. Me: "David why did you throw rocks?" David: "I don't know. I forgot." Me: "Ok David I have to write another referral." He got in-house suspension for a day.

#3 March 31 - During our math test yesterday he was throwing crayons at another student. Me: "Why are you doing that?" David: "I don't know." I wrote a behavior report instead of a referral.

#4 April 1 - After P.E. (again) the class came in and someone told me that David was throwing rocks at a student from our class. I asked the victim if he got hit and yes he did. Right under the eye. So again I wrote another referral and took him to the principal. The VP had been dealing with this before and it keeps happening. So I took him to the Big Guy. My principal suspended him and really talked turkey to him. So I hope this will be our final incident, because I'm tired of writing referrals and being the mean one.

That's Me the Wal-mart Greeter

My extra duty this year is to watch the quad area of the school in the morning. The children come in through the cafeteria and either eat breakfast before heading out to the playground or just head out. I make sure no one runs, goes into activity centers 3 and 4, and no one walks on the upper sidewalk next to activity centers 3 and 4. I basically feel like a Wal-mart greeter. "Good morning and good morning to you."

One bright spot in my morning is seeing 3 former students who I adore. One is a sixth grader who I had as a second grader, one a 5th grader who I had for two years in a combo class first as a 1st grader and then a 2nd grader. The last student is a 3rd grader who I had last year. These 3 girls are probably all on my top ten favorite student list, so it really makes my day to get hugs from them. The other bright spot of my day is this cute little 1st grade boy. Everyday his clothing style changes. One day it is a neat little dapper vest, dress shirt and one of those newsboy type caps. Oh and he carries a soft briefcase instead of a backpack. He is adorable! That's what he wore yesterday. Today he was in full cowboy regale. Hat, shirt, boots, jeans. I wish I could stop him everyday and take a picture. That probably wouldn't be good though.