Ten-YearTeach's Blog

     It’s that time again, when we look back at the successes and short-comings of the year behind us and make plans to implement change in the year ahead.  No, it’s not late December, but late August, and the resolutions being made don’t (necessarily) involve dieting, improving our social lives, and reigning in our unruly expenditures.  Instead, they involve classroom management, lesson planning and assessment. 

     For educators, Labor Day often holds as much of a sense of hope, anticipation and uncertainty as New Year’s Day does for the rest of America.  This is a time of new beginnings, an opportunity to reinvent ourselves or rededicate ourselves to our long-term classroom goals.

     Personally, I consider the resolutions that I make at the end of August to be more vital – and, in many respects, more viable – than those I make in January.  And I find that I am much more likely to follow through on resolutions that are written, rather than just mental or spoken.  So this year, I’ve decided to share my resolutions, and to encourage other educators (or others in general) to do the same.

Resolution 1:  I resolve to blog more.  I originally started this blog as a way to share ideas, vent frustrations and celebrate successes.  But, as usual, I got so wrapped up in my own process throughout the school year that I all but shut out the rest of the world.  This year, I want to reach out and invite the rest of the world in, at least once in a while.

Resolution 2:  I resolve to use my time, particularly my prep blocks, more effectively.  It can be tempting to see prep blocks as “chill out” blocks, particularly on those difficult days.  But if I can accomplish at least a little something each prep block – grading a set of quizzes, updating my assignments on yourhomework.com, or simply hanging posters – it will be less to accomplish after school.

Resolution 3:  Tied into #2, my third resolution is to get assignments graded more quickly.  I am notorious for taking a longer time to grade written assignments, meaning that I am constantly stressed and my students are often in limbo waiting to see how they did.  It’s not that I procrastinate the grading process, but I agonize over each word, each answer, each point that is deducted.  If I agonize less and turn assignments around faster, my students and I both win!

Resolution 4: I resolve to continue improving my communication with parents.  This is an area where I have experienced some improvement over the last several years, making more contact particularly through email.  This year, I would like to expand that contact, hopefully creating parental email lists for each class and sending periodic class updates or perhaps (dare I dream it) a once-a-term or even monthly e-newsletter.  (It’s good to dream big!  Now if they just finish putting the new electrical and computer wiring in our classrooms, I might have a chance of pulling this off!)

Resolution 5:  I resolve to continue laughing.  On the first day, I tell all of my students – particularly my freshmen, who are often nervous and slightly overwhelmed by a new building, new teachers, a new schedule, etc. – that if they do nothing else in my class, they will laugh.  Sometimes it might be with me, and sometimes it might be at me, but before the year is over they will laugh.  I think laughter is an incredibly important tool in the classroom, because it loosens everyone up and improves their mood and outlook, if only for a moment.  Scientific evidence suggests that people tend to learn better when they are relaxed, and what better way to relax than to laugh?

With these resolutions now documented for myself and the world to see, I am ready to welcome a new school year!!  (And oh yeah, I wouldn’t mind losing a little weight, too.)

     Well, it seems that there are glitches even in the best laid plans...  This blog was intended to be an outlet, a place to vent, and yes, a means of procrastinating when I had less appealing things to do.  But it seems that instead, a host of classroom responsibilities has forced me to procrastinate my procrastinating!

     Virtually every day for the past month, the last bell of the day has rung and my classroom has filled with students.  A few, I must admit, have been there to atone for some minor sin of the day, but most have been there by choice.  Some have been there seeking extra help, missing assignments, or an explanation of the day's notes or homework.  Some have been there making up or retaking quizzes and tests, or asking for updates on their current progress.  A few have come by to ask if I would edit their essays before they turn in the final copy.  And a generous handful have been former students stopping by to ask for advice on their English projects, or help with their geometry or chemistry homework (yes, I know I teach social studies), or (imagine it) just to hang out and chat - about their classes this year, the progress of their athletic teams, or the television shows that are mutual favorites (House and Bones, of course, as well as a few others).  

     And when my students have left for the afternoon, headed to their practices and games, their jobs, or their homes, I have spent a few more moments in my classroom, reading and responding to email messages from  students who have graduated and are off at college,  or, more recently, reading postcards and email from a high school student who is studying abroad in Italy this year.

     It's been amazing, really - and a bit exhausting.  Not that I'm complaing - not this time; just the opposite, in fact.  I no sooner read Dylan's post about making a difference and have suddenly been bombarded in the most fabulous and life-affirming way with example after example of the differences we, as teachers, and I, as an individual, make in students' lives.   The truth is, if I think back on it, there have been many such rewarding moments in my career (though I don't  recall ever having so many happen is such a short span of time).  Unfortunately sometimes the clouds cover those rays of sunshine, and it takes a little patience - and an occasional reminder from those around us (physically or cyber-ly) - to ride out the storm.

    So, I'd like to take a moment to say thanks - to Dylan, for publicly and deliberately reminding me about the sunshine, and to all of those students, current and former, still in high school or moved beyond, who have provided me with so much sunshine through the years.  And I'd also like to offer this reminder to those who are educators: if the sky is looking grey, grab your umbrella or put on your galoshes - or just wade...or splash...your way through the puddles, but don't lose hope, because if you are patient enough, into every teacher's life, a little sunshine must fall!

I am sick and tired of everyone asking "what's wrong with the world today?" and then turning an accusatory glance toward our school systems, questioning teacher credentials and trying to measure outcomes with standardized testing and the whole nine yards.  It's not that I don't think there's value in establishing accountability - by all means, I think accountability is one huge key to fixing the world's problems.  But when we look at causes, I think we're pointing the finger in the wrong direction.

Do you want to know what I think is wrong with the world today?  (Oh well, I'm going to tell you anyway.)  The simple answer is sports.

Now, before you decide that I'm wrong, that I don't know what I'm talking about, that I'm just another of those fat, lazy people who hate to admit there's merit to running around after a ball or other projectile, hear me out.  It's not that I think all sports are bad, nor do I think that sports are all bad.  In fact, I played sports for years and know that there are many wonderful things to be gained or learned from sports - a sense of teamwork and the value of working together; discipline born of hard work and practice; self-confidence when you are able to do well or show improvement; how the win AND lose gracefully....

Unfortunately, though, sports - originally a recreational activity - have taken on a life and an importance that was not originally intended.  Professional athletes are among the most highly paid individuals in our society today.  They are recognized wherever they go, are often met with fanfare and cheering (and the occasional jeering), and frequently top our students' lists of heroes/role models/people they look up to. 

In and of itself, this may not be an indictment of our society.  Role models, particularly very public ones, provide us with an opportunity to learn about social norms, socially acceptable behaviors, and our society's values.  This is where the problem begins.

Given the state of professional athletics today, what are we teaching our children about our society's values?  First of all, the very fact that we are willing to pay millions of dollars just to talk to athletes about the possibility of playing for our team - not to mention paying millions more dollars to get and keep them on our team - tells our students that athletics is more valued than virtually any other profession.  It doesn't matter that there are no tangible benefits for communities or nations from the "work" of these athletes.  No athletic team can boast finding the cure for a disease, building low-income housing so our nation's poor have somewhere to live (or even welcoming a neighborhood's poor into the extra dozen rooms of their multi-million dollar mansions), putting their lives on the line daily to protect people in their community from fire or crime, or even making the coffee and burgers that fill the stomachs of those too busy to be able to stop and cook for themselves.  But you don't see construction companies spending millions to recruit the most skilled carpenter or police departments spending millions to entice the officer with the most arrests and convictions.

And we are just as guilty of perpetuating this system as the team owners.  You don't see your neighbors spending hundreds of dollars to take the family to watch the local storeowner unload supplies or the local construction crew build the new town hall or the local barber cut dozens of heads of hair.  Yet we will pay hundreds of dollars for the family - or sometimes just for ourselves! - to watch a group of adults play a game for a living.

Second, despite the work of teachers across the nation, we are teaching our students that it is much better to cheat than to try honestly and make a mistake or fail.  Our athletes, those whom our students idolize and emulate, have so little faith in themselves and their teammates that they take performance-enhancing drugs, steal each others' signals, throw pitches at each others' heads, and start bench-clearing brawls.  Why?  Because somewhere along the line, society has told them that winning is more important than trying, than working hard, than being honest and truthful.  And when our leagues just hit these cheaters with fines, they tell our children that cheating is okay, that it will be tolerated, as long as you have the money to pay the price later.  Realistically, when you make millions of dollars a year, how serious is a monetary fine?

I'd like to be able to say that in our smaller communities, we have taken on the social responsibility of helping our children to understand what is and is not acceptable and admirable behavior in our athletes.  But unfortunately, the opposite is the case, and all that is corrupt about professional sports is filtering into our community athletic programs as well.  Parents, rather than being pillars of sportsmanship, encouragement, and consolation, are getting into fistfights with each other, officials, and even children over judgment calls and mistakes on the field.  We downplay the importance of education by allowing our professional sports leagues to draft students right out of high school, with no provision or accommodation for them to further their education or receive training in some sort of saleable skill or trade.  Even our high schools are to blame.  When a star athlete agrees to attend a particular college or university, we often have big public signings.  But when our valedictorian receives a full-ride academic scholarship to one of the Ivies, no one hears about it; when the class artist or musician gets into a highly selective fine arts program, no one knows.

The truth is that sports alone are not the cause of all of society's ills.  But it is all of our responsibility to educate and shape our young people.  It is all of our responsibility to be accountable for our own actions.  It is all of our responsibility to choose and perpetuate the values that we want to instill in our children.  If we continue to allow our professional athletes to behave badly without real reproach, without real consequences; if we continue in our own communities and our own lives to repeat and recreate the behaviors that we disapprove of in others; if we continue to show our students by words and example that their physical, mental and moral health are secondary to winning, we can expect nothing less than the decay of our society. 

This is a problem that cannot be solved by the schools alone.  Standardized testing and teacher training can go only so far.  We need to start re-valuing honesty, integrity, hard work, intelligence and effort - not just in our students, not just in our teachers, but in our parents, in our businessmen, in our politicians, and yes, in our professional athletes.

First aid/personal health

            It is also a great myth among many people that teachers somehow have everything they need to deal with whatever medical situation arises in their classroom, from the common cold to blisters caused by new shoes to skinned knees.  In many school districts, the reality is that in a good year, a classroom teacher might be provided with several pairs of disposable gloves and a handful of band-aids.  So when I head out for school supplies, I often try to add:

            *  tissues - no school district I've ever been in provides these to their teachers.  Without them, students and teachers alike must resort to blowing their noses on the above-mentioned roll of brown paper; 

            *  band-aids in assorted sizes - not just for students, but for the teacher as well.  You'd be surprised how often you get paper cuts and hang nails, not to mention the occasional cut from a pair of scissors, a broken mug, or a damaged desk.  [A word to the wise about band-aids - make sure they're latex-free.  The number of people with latex allergies seems to be on the rise, especially in public schools.];

            *  alcohol swabs and Neosporin (or some other antibacterial ointment) - especially for your own injuries (you have to be careful with what you put on students' injuries due to allergies).  Considering the number of germs in the average classroom, it's better to be safe than sorry;

            *  Airborne and hand-sanitizer - simply put, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure;

            *  cough drops - for those inevitable times when the Airborne and hand-sanitizer aren't enough to protect you from the common cold.  (Hard candy will also work in a pinch, and usually also finds its way to my list.);

            *  your favorite antacid tablets - because with less than a half-hour for lunch, you're likely to get heartburn at least once in a while;

            *  Advil, Tylenol, or some other pain reliever - because you WILL get headaches.  [Be sure to keep pain relievers and any other personal medications, prescription or otherwise, under lock and key!!!]

Personal hygiene and appearance

            As teachers, we are expected to be role models for our students in many ways, including our own appearance.  But sometimes our rushed schedules make it difficult to always look and feel at our best.  And you never know when the building principal may bring a visitor to your classroom or a parent may call or stop by for an impromptu meeting.  For this reason, I always find it helpful to keep a collection of personal hygiene items tucked into my desk.  These include:

            *  Tide stick, Shout wipes, or some other stain-prevention product - I admit that right now, I have both the Tide and Shout products in my desk, because I have a tendency to spill virtually everything...my morning coffee, the juice I had on my prep block, the soup I had for lunch...you name it, I've spilled it;

            *  baby wipes - this is one of those "what is THAT for?" items that seems out of place (particularly in my high school classroom), but is actually vital to my survival, because, through some inexplicable chemical process, baby wipes are the only thing I know of which quickly and easily remove all copier toner.  No kidding!  And, if you buy the right ones, they keep your skin moist and leave your hands smelling as fresh as a baby's bottom...well, you know what I mean;

            *  toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss or toothpicks - to combat the tuna, onions, spinach or broccoli in your lunch;

            *  nail clippers and/or emery boards - not just to keep your nails looking good, but because broken nails can be painful and dangerous (I have often torn a nail off and then tried to relieve an itch on my face, only to leave a bright red gouge from the jagged nail.);

            *  tweezers - for the occasional splinter that you will get from the bookcase, broom handle, or knocking on wood;

            *  feminine hygiene products of various sizes and strengths - because sometimes Mother Nature can be cruel and hit you when you least expect it;

            *  brush and deodorant - for those quick fixes and refreshers, especially if it's been a tough day.

(Truth be told, I also keep a blow dryer in the bottom drawer of one of my file cabinets, in the event that I get caught in the rain before parents' night or if I spill something particularly big and need to do more than a quick spot-cleaning on my shirt!)

(There's just one more part coming, but I don't have time to finish it today...guess I'll have to leave you hanging...NOT!  :)

Ah, September...time to go back to school.  It's almost as if the entire world (at least here in New England) just flips a switch on Labor Day and suddenly declares that summer is over.  As if on cue, temperature (usually) drop from the 80s and 90s to the 70s, the nights become so cool and breezy that you have to dig out a blanket, the air takes on a crisp quality...  Even our economy makes a marked shift in preparation for a much-anticipated burst of consumerism...  Enter the Back-to-School sales!

I have to admit, I'm a huge fan of back-to-school sales, with their buy-one-get-one-free packs of pencils and their 2 for $1 packages of filler paper.  I know many teachers who save their pennies (some quite literally) all summer, then start collecting sale flyers in August so that they can go store-hopping to get the best deals on those items which will supplement the school-purchased supplies.  (There is a common misconception among those who have never taught in a public school system that the school/district provides teachers with all the materials that they need or want for their classrooms, everything from markers to binders to colored paper and bulletin board borders.  For those of you who have been in education a while, you are well aware that school budgets get tighter with each passing year, and that, at the very least, many of the more fun or creative supplies you desire must be purchased out of pocket.)

The stores - and the education departments at colleges and universities across the country - think that they have a clear understanding of the "essentials" not only for students but for teachers as they head back to school.  They remind you to get an ample supply of pens, pencils, and erasers; crayons, markers, and color pencils; staplers - and staples to fill them; tape of the transparent and masking varieties; paper clips and rubber bands in an assortment of colors and sizes; chalkboard and/or dry-erase board supplies; rulers, scissors, hole punches; folders, binders, notebooks, filler paper, index cards - lined and unlined, post-it notes, construction paper, highlighters, pushpins and thumbtacks, glue - in liquid or stick form, and a vast array of correction-making, mistake-obliterating products.  And they're right...all of those things are important, even necessary tools of the trade.

But there are a number of equally useful - nay, vital - items that cannot be found in the back-to-school aisles, and which are unfortunately often overlooked by the ed. departments.  I have discovered the importance of some of these items on my own; others were suggested to me by veteran teachers when I myself was a new teacher.  Some are the sort of thing that make you slap your forehead and say "Of course!  Why didn't I think of that?", while other items make visitors to your classroom ask "What's THAT for?"  At any rate, I thought I would share my list of classroom essentials...

(I have tried to group them into categories, because that's what we teachers do...  And, at the advice of friends, I will be posting this in pieces.  Please feel free to make suggestions of your own!  Sharing our collected wisdom benefits all of us!)

Cleaning supplies

            I'm sure most folks outside of education believe that classrooms are thoroughly cleaned every night - floors swept and mopped, blackboards (or, in newer schools, white boards) and desks washed, windows cleaned - by the janitors.  The truth of the matter is that, while the trash cans are emptied and the classrooms are generally swept at night by the janitors or the cleaning company hired by the district or perhaps the broomfairy, little else is done regularly by way of classroom maintenance unless it is done by the teacher.  (To be fair, the janitors are often busy sweeping and mopping halls and scrubbing the bathrooms, and their numbers have taken just as much of a hit from the budget cuts as anybody else's.)  For this reason, my back-to-school supply list always has the following cleaning supplies on it:

            * multi-surface spray cleaner (antibacterial ones are the best) - this is great for cleaning desks and tables, windows, spills on the floor, etc.;

            * cheap paper towels - anything has got to be more absorbent than the school-issued rolls of brown paper "towels" that are approximately the consistency of math paper;

            *  dish detergent and a dish sponge - for the requisite coffee/tea mug, as well as the occasional real dishes (as opposed to disposables) that arrive full of goodies for a classroom celebration;

            * Febreze (or other air deodorizer) - for days when the various odors produced by students naturally (body odor, flatulence, etc.) and artificially (perfume, smoking, etc.) are too much to bear.

            Welcome to my blog!  This is a first for me.  In some ways, this experience is very natural for me.  I tend to have something to say about almost everything (my friends sometimes tell me I have too much to say, that I overanalyze everything) and I have a long-time habit of working out my thoughts and frustrations in writing.  But I have to admit that, in many ways, this experience is totally new to me.  I'm a bit old-school, even somewhat of a technophobe.  I confess - the draft of this blog was written with pen and paper!  I am always skeptical about embracing the latest technology, mostly for fear that it will crash and lose all of my hard work, a fear that I attribute to a Commodore 64, loaded with a word-processing program called EasyScript, that overheated and froze 10 pages into my freshman English research paper the night before it was due.  (I had last printed at page 4 and last saved at page 6, and the computer, after being shut off for an hour, had still not decided to unfreeze.  Good thing we still had the old Smith-Corona in the closet...  It saved my paper and my grade!  ...But we won't talk about what it did to my night's sleep!)  I think this early trauma has made me much more understanding and sympathetic (or perhaps gullible?) when my students tell me they're having technical difficulties completing assignments.

            So,what the heck am I planning to write about?  I thought I would write about the thing I spend most of my time doing - teaching!  As I start my tenth year, I like to think that I have collected a few bits of wit and wisdom on the subject (and I know that my friends and family are growing weary of the stories), so I thought that I would try to share my thoughts with a wider audience.

            Besides - it will be a great way to procrastinate when I should be grading!