What Can I Say?

What can I say?

I love teaching.  I have played "school" since I was 7 or 8.  I always wanted to be the teacher.  I love school supplies.  I wait anxiously for July when Target starts making room over in the seasonal section for all the notebooks, pens, pencils, markers, etc.  Nothing better than that. 

Except maybe getting that new batch of students each fall.  As full of possibility as the new supplies I have purchased with my own money.

What can I say? 

I love getting up at 5:25 am to be at school by 6:30 am to start preparing for my day.  Grading papers, planning lessons, answering emails, managing Student Council projects, and this year--helping other teachers chase down students who have failed to attend tutorial sessions in a timely manner to make up assignments because all assignments must be completed and mastery must be 80 %. 

I teach from bell to bell each class period, and I have the privilege of teaching upper level students.  They present unique challenges, but my master's degree is gifted and talented education. I only have three preps this year.  Last year I had four.

What can I say? 

I stay for tutorials even when it's just me and the crickets because the kids decide they don't need to come to tutorials.  I grade more papers, search for the next great lesson or when I can't find one to suit me, I write it myself.  I have to always keep differentiation in mind, even in a gifted classroom.  Are everyone's needs being met? 

What can I say?

I go home exhausted every day. I have earned every penny that I will be paid.  I will never be rich.  I have student loans I am still repaying 15 years later a dribble at a time.  I originally got an English degree; I would be an editor, a writer, something grand.  It wasn't until a few years after graduation and languishing in retail that I gave in to the call of the siren...the classroom was calling.  I had to answer. 

 Lately the kids have asked me several times what I would be doing if I was not a teacher.  I have no answer.  I honestly don't know.  This is who I am.  This is what I do.  I cannot imagine not getting to go to school every day. 

What can I say? 

The kids teach me most days almost as much I teach them.  I wouldn't trade that.  I wish I could do more for them; many of them have so many needs beyond the classroom. 

I am a counselor, a nurse, a mom, a comedian, an entertainer, a writer, a coach, a disciplinarian, a cook, a confidante, and a cheerleader. 

What can I say?

I cannot understand why a job like mine is under attack.  It's been explained to me a thousand ways, so I do understand and yet, I cannot get my mind around it.  The best way  I understand it is, that frankly we are so busy being dedicated to what we do and the young people we are responsible for, it's been a sneak attack. 

Fair doesn't really come into it, I guess.

I still would like to extend this invitation.  Before you slash school district budgets and the lavish salaries you imagine we are paid, come visit me.  Come see any of us.  Talk to the kids.  Ask them what they think about having to do more with less in the coming years.  Tell them that you expect them to go to college and succeed, but you are going to do even less to help them get there and stay there.  

What can I say?

I've been given a new life lesson to share with my students.  However all this turns out it will not end well for the teachers.  I can feel that.  We will get the short end of the deal.  It's already happening to some teachers, I hear. So I will have real life examples to exhibit for my students of "Life isn't fair."

What can I say?

I plan to be there in the fall, no matter how many faces are looking back at me each class period...and we will make it work...one marshmallow at a time.  I will not be squished!