Ready or Not

In my last job, I helped to raise over fifty children from infancy through school age. I was a family child care provider for 12 years. That was a very satisfying job – exhausting, rewarding, and fun.

My two children grew up and left home for college and the rest of their lives. My husband Stephen loved the little kids and helped with the business. Still, he finally asked, “If our kids are grown, why is there still a high chair in our kitchen?” I took it to mean it was time to consider finding another job. It’s hard to enjoy an empty nest when it’s repopulated with little ones every morning at 7:30.

Ideally I would have liked to work from home but without the toys, equipment, client issues, and legal liabilities that a home-based childcare business involves. I could do freelance or consulting work: but, like most of us, I needed to earn a steady income to contribute to the household.

So when the newspaper announced a “Career Changers” night at the county’s Board of Education, I decided to go. I listened to Board administrators, who basically said that in order to teach, one had to have a degree in education. Since mine is in anthropology, I was getting ready to leave – when someone else mentioned that the county had a new program to recruit special education teachers. The need was great, and the funding was in place to provide intensive training and master’s degree-level college classes, so my “wrong degree” was less of a problem. I went home with a name and email address to send a resume to.

The Resident Teacher Certification (RTC) program is an opportunity for non-education professionals to become teachers. This program recognizes that many people have the skills and desire to become teachers, but lack the credentials required by most systems. Under this program, which I joined in June 2004, new teachers take three classes over the summer while working in the extended school year program as instructional aides. My cohort of 16 included people who had some experience with education, like me. It also included a financial advisor/pizza delivery person, a publisher’s rep, a restaurant server, a retired computer programmer, and a social worker among the group. People with very different knowledge and skills. After our intense summer, we began teaching in Fall 04, while continuing to participate in seminars and college classes.

This program succeeded – all but three of our cohort have continued, and successfully survived the first year in the school system. The RTC members have received great reviews from principals, and the county started an RTC-II cohort this year. Why did this program succeed? First of all, those who joined the program were highly motivated to becoming special education teachers. Secondly, the program’s director, Dr. Tom Conner, was highly committed to giving his teachers the support needed to become successful. This included not only training in educational methodology and theory; but mentoring, seminars, frequent visits to our schools, and a lot of hand-holding. Most especially, he offered praise to encourage us, and passed on the praise he heard from our administrators. When we were successful, we knew it, and that provided motivation to push through the exhaustion. It would have been very difficult to succeed as a career changer without this kind of guidance, and I am grateful for it.

In Year 2 of this program, I am still taking college classes, but will finish my master’s Degree in Spring 06. I am teaching secondary special education, and hold certification in English and Social Studies content areas. I have taken four Praxis exams, and passed all. In return for the help I’ve gotten from the RTC program, I have committed contractually to teaching four years in Special Education for the State of Maryland.

I have taught students new information and strategies for success, usually only a day or so after learning content and methods myself. I am part of an education team at Arundel High School that includes both young and older “new” teachers. I hope in another year or so no one will know that I started teaching later in life.

As a second year educator I am confident. I am excited every morning when I walk into the school, and I hope to spend the rest of my working days in the classroom.

I enjoyed my previous career in child care. Now I'm enjoying my new position as a public school teacher. This career, too, is exhausting, rewarding, and fun. Perhaps even more so.

Posted by at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Ready or not, here they come. They did come; the students, that is. All 2,086 ethnically, politically, economically, racially, religiously, ability diverse of them came. Arundel High School opened its doors after a two-day delay for construction. And I wasn’t ready! I admit it!

Were you ready? I’d love to hear what your first days were like. Hot? Exciting? Frantic? Enervating or energizing? Let me tell you about mine.

Arundel High is undergoing a two year construction project to (at long last) install air conditioning. All summer long crews tore open ceilings, moved boxes and furniture, and tried to do as much as possible without students and teachers present. Our school was closed for the summer to faculty. Teachers began to work in the classrooms only four days before students arrived. Some teachers didn’t even get that much time as we dealt with reassigned rooms, misplaced boxes and files, temporary trailers, broken furniture, etc.

The rooms were 90 degrees hot, the electrical system was spotty, and the humidity was so high not even hot glue guns would hold posters on the walls. But teachers, as always, coped. We put our up our hair, rolled up our sleeves, slipped on our flip-flops, and got to work. And amazingly, we opened. I believe the real thanks go to our custodial crew, who worked round the clock for several days to get done what was needed. Our school was clean; in fact, it was gleaming (even with one hall still closed for on-going construction).

The first day of classes, as we began the necessary procedural reviews with the students, the lights began to blink out, and on, brighter and dimmer. The class change bells were not working, the PA system was down. Finally, notes were passed to teachers. The electrical problems were sending us home early!

Since then we’ve kept as many lights off as possible, minimized computer use, and served cold lunches in the cafeteria. By limiting our electrical requirements, we’ve kept power, and stayed open all day. It hasn’t been easy – copiers don’t work, computers are not available, lights and fans are dim and slow. I am not complaining, though – we have water to drink, gas for our school buses, and homes to return to. Our staff still starts each day with smiles, the students are still learning the state-mandated lessons, and teachers come back every day. As our principle says (over and over), “Remember the key words – ‘flexibility’ and ‘patience.’” Sometimes Mrs. Stratton smiles when she says that, sometimes she doesn’t.

Well, I AM flexible, I AM patient. After all, I AM a teacher. I feel like I'm not ever ready enough, but still I get the job done. I think those two characteristics are requirements for all of us, don’t you? Flexibility and patience. Do you have them? Don’t you have to have them to be a successful teacher today?

The first school days at Arundel High School have been amazingly successful. Were yours?

Posted by at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I am so touched by the response from so many other new teachers. I have heard from people around the country about their fears and their triumphs as teachers. Thank you; please continue to let me know how it’s going. I like making new friends.

I will tell you more about myself and my educational situation soon, but I have just to make a quick post to share a lesson from yesterday.

I was using email emoticons to introduce a lesson. If you don’t recognize the word, emoticons are the funny smiley faces you can add to your email messages to express emotions. I was helping 9th grade special education English students understand that icons are representations of something else. I had each child pick three emoticons to express how they were feeling during the first days of high school. Then they shared – bored, happy, excited, anxious, sleepy (who wasn’t, at 7:17 in the morning!), aggressive, shy. I also shared what I am feeling. I am satisfied, because I like my classes, my schedule, my job, my marriage, my life. I am excited, because so much good stuff is happening. And I am grieving.

I am grieving. Because while I think about the good things happening for myself, my family, and my students – I am also thinking about Louisiana, and Mississippi, and now the rest of the United States as we try to deal with the devastation of the Hurricane (I can’t even say her name). I know a good teacher shares, and so I told the students about my grief, and how I cry as I see the TV news stories or read a paper. I cry as I read and re-read the email from my niece, a New Orleans refugee now in Texas. My students understood. We live in Chesapeake Bay Country, and two years ago our county was hit by Hurricane Isabelle. There are still people in our area trying to rebuild homes. And Isabelle was not anything compared to what just happened. My students can’t really understand how desperate people are who have lost all they own, and now fear for their lives. But they could understand that there were tears in my eyes, and grief in my heart, for those suffering. And when one of the school clubs came around with a bucket to gather change for the relief effort, my students reached in their pockets and found some.

My niece, Michelle, has lost everything she owns. She and her brother Nick live in New Orleans. Michelle can’t go home to see if anything is left, but she’s watched the news and isn’t fooling herself. She left her car, to drive out her brother’s car. He was out of the country when the storm hit, and hasn’t yet returned. He has nothing to return to – except a car, which his sister saved for him. Michelle left her clothing, her mementos, and her tangible life. She doesn’t have a place to live, she doesn’t have a car, and she doesn’t have a paycheck coming. But because she had a Mom who welcomed her home, she isn’t asking for anything for herself. She has the intangibles she needs – knowing her family is well, youth and the ability to earn a living, and the safe haven a victim needs to recuperate.

Michelle is asking her family and anyone she can reach through the internet, to donate to relief organizations. She wrote to everyone in her address book, “There are many poor areas in New Orleans that are flooded up to the rooftops of 2-3 story buildings. These people need your help. I appreciate all of the love and support that has been offered to us New Orleanians during this time. We loved that city so much and we are all so sad to see it this way. I encourage anyone who possibly can to make a donation to The Red Cross.”

I’m passing on her message. Thank you. Talk to you soon.

Posted by at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I am really nervous about the first day of school. That’s what I keep thinking. I am very excited about this upcoming year, but I am really nervous about the first day of school. Every young teacher, I’m sure, worries and frets, anticipating that moment of first standing in front of the class. How will they see me? Will they respect me, or be laughing inside? What if they’re laughing outside?

I am a “young teacher”. Well, to be honest, I am almost 47 years old, and that’s not very young. But I am a new teacher, ready to begin only my second year in the classroom. In terms of experience, I am very young; green even. So I AM nervous, worried and fretful, and excited as I prepare for the first day of class.

With the beginning of this new school year, I have knowledge that gives me a huge advantage over the first-year teacher. I know people. I know procedures. I know a little bit about the curriculum and learning goals of the school system. I know all the programs and initiatives of my school. I even know a bit about students. I know who to call for help. I know when to cry for help.

But there is so much to learn still. To be a teacher you must be open to learning yourself. You must metacognitive - to use a teacher word - so you will recognize the learning opportunity each day, each moment, brings. You must seek out mentors who can teach you and are willing to share their great ideas. And you must share in return. Sometimes new teacher ideas are great ideas.

How am I preparing for that first day of school? I’m looking at my textbooks again, to refresh my memory of how each class begins. I’m studying the pacing guides we’re required to follow. I’m reading the newspaper each day to make sure I’m current on what’s happening in the world. I’m trying to sleep late, eat well, and get my positive energy flowing. I’m connecting with my fellow teachers, tapping into their positive energy flows. I’m trying to forget about being nervous, worried and fretful. I know that, ready or not, those students will arrive.

Posted by at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)