I've been teaching since 1996. My first job was working at an inner city school, teaching a sixth grade drop out prevention class. Sadly, at the "20 Day Count" my position was cut because of low enrollment. (Not that there weren't enough kids who needed to be earmarked in sixth grade as potential drop outs! The entire school had a low enrollment and the "last one hired is the first one fired rule" applied...to me.)
Then I went to another inner city school (just down the road) and taught fifth grade for the rest of the year. This position was funded by something called "School Wide Project" and was just a one year gig. So, in June I packed up my personal belongings and moved BACK to the first school that was no longer a "Sixth Grade Center" and had transitioned to a traditional elementary school.
I was rehired and assigned to teach second grade. I did that for a number of years until a position opened to be the "Reading Specialist" for the intermediate aged students who were taking the FCAT.
I did that job for a number of years until the school was slated to shift from being a traditional school to a magnet school for the visual and performing arts. As teachers who had invested years in these kids, the community, and the school, we wanted the school to go out with a bang! And it was at that time that I chose to leave my part time "reading gig" and return to being a full time classroom teacher. There were "helpers" crawling all over the place. Tutors, volunteers, even the coaches and music teachers were assigned to offer assistance with pull out reading groups.
Another unit per grade level was added and that was when I agreed to return to the classroom. Since there were so many helpers helping, what I was doing as a pull out reading program was really moot and totally watered down. I could do more for the school as a whole by "helping" less.
I can remember working on my schedule for my class and having to work around having kids pulled out for and by ELL services, special ed. groups, an AmeriCorps tutor (who was an amazing rock star of a guy but not even a college graduate!), the PE coach pulled kids to do a scripted reading program and/or flash cards, a new teacher hired as a permanent sub who also used the scripted reading system and flash cards, and district level people came to "help" and people who were retired school teachers also came to "help"...! After a few moments of this chaos, I played my "Reading Specialist Card" and took a stand by reminding the "helpers" that I was the one who was more qualified to "help". Really?!? Pull the kids out of a qualified teacher's classroom and do flash cards with a "warm body"? I don't think so!
(I had just become a mother and was pregnant with my second child when I chose to take the self-contained fourth grade teacher until after the FCAT... when I took my maternity leave.)
The end result of that year was that ALL...EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY...kid did a fabulous job on the FCAT. My class average on the FCAT Writes was a 4.6!!! (And that was back in the day when a 3.0 was considered proficient! And I had zero instruction in how to teach writing 'cause I was a "reading teacher"! BANG!
But the school closed as a traditional elementary and all of the staff got new jobs at other sites. All new hires to the school had to be "magnet" teachers who were pumped to teach visual and performing arts in addition to the regular curriculum.
The next school year brought me to a darling small school in an upper middle class neighborhood. I had driven by this school for years and marveled at the building that was on the list of "Historic Buildings" as "Preserved". I chose to teach in a very unique situation: a small class of learning disabled and language impaired students who were taught by a regular education teacher AND a special ed. teacher. But once I got there, I was assigned to teach second grade. Oh, well.
I only stayed at that site for one year because the gal who was the Assistant Principal of the inner city school from
1996 became the principal of another school and she hired me to teach second grade at HER new school. Ah! Back to working for someone I knew and loved and back to working for someone who knew and loved me!
She hired me to teach second grade. I stayed in that position for about three years until I became the "Writing Specialist", working with mainly fourth graders preparing to take the FCAT.
Changes in staff, testing procedures, curriculum, and countless ups 'n' downs, and it was eventually time for a change.
My own babies are now 10 and 12. I had driven a half hour each way every day for nine years. The Common Core State Standards are on our doorstep, the FCAT is in its final year, a new assessment called PARCC is taking its place, the subjects of Reading and Writing are now called "Literacy"...and on and on the pendulum swings.
I have chosen to embrace all of these shifts! I know that as educators we are always adapting. And, although some of these implementations will eventually be written into history books as failures, I like upping the rigor and working to find new techniques and potential solutions to ages old problems. In that sense, I LIKE change.
But, then there's another kind of change that is TERRIFYING...and that's "real change"!
With my ears down, tip of my tail wagging ever so slightly, I walked into a new school yesterday. As an introvert and a slightly socially phobic person, these were some of the most difficult steps of my life. I was told to park in the front of the school and to meet in the cafeteria, but I didn't know where the parking lot was and I didn't know where the cafeteria was.
I didn't want to arrive too early because that would mean that I'd have to make small talk. (And I am terrible at small talk!) So, I sat in my car until 7:27, choking back the rising tide of nervousness. When I got out of my car, I flipped on my "teacher switch", inserted a smile where the pursed lips had been only a second before, gathered my belongings and entered the door that I suspected might lead to the main office. (The school was being painted and all the signs were covered.) Inhale. Exhale. Prevail! (Cry after school if necessary.)
Change is good...or so I've been told!
No comments:
Post a Comment