Opinion
Teaching Profession Opinion

At-Risk Teachers: Before You Quit, Try Blogging

By Marilyn Rhames — October 03, 2012 1 min read
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I’m still in bed

The small hum of my husband’s car backing down the driveway

My hand gropes for the pull-chain on the nightstand lamp

I place my laptop on my old cutting board and slowly open it up

The chill of the wood now warming against my thighs

Click, click, clicking of keys

It’s 4:30 a.m.

Papers from school still in my bag, ungraded

Students will ask for them and get mad

Daughters asleep in their bunk bed

Dolls once snuggled and cuddled now on the floor

I will learn of their midnight dreams and pretend to care in about two hours

Click

Click

Clicking of keys

I backspace statements that could get me fired

I reword—constantly reword—to bring clarity and limit the hate mail

Encouraging readers to redraw their circle, and then think outside of it

(Boxes are boring)

Telling the truth about working in an inner-city classroom

Teaching vs. Being a Teacher

The first is learning, adventurous, passion overflowing

The second is full of politics, mandated busy work, pressurized pressure

Blogging and blending the roles

It centers me—empowering, more hopeful

I excavate my heart to discover my true self: The life I want, the job I want

Today I just might be heard in the White House

Or at one lonesome teacher’s scratched-up metal desk

Responses from Ireland, Hawaii, Uganda, Canada, Saudi Arabia keep me a-clickety-clicking

Earth becomes my classroom

My blog posts are my handouts in this virtual curriculum

With all its joys, teaching within the four walls can be confining

So I click, click, click at 3, 4, 5 in the morning, at least once a week

Or else ...

I just might quit.

*edited on 11/1/12

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