This is Teaching

Students to school return tomorrow. Everyone seems to have an opinion about education these days. Teachers are either heroes ("I don't know how you do it") or we are lazy ("I wish I got the summer off"). Everyone has taken classes so they feel like they know what it is like to be a teacher.

I have decided to bring you along for the ride this year. My plan is to write a blog every day until the final school bell rings on Year 19. I cannot include names or details because there are federal laws against that, but I will be honest. Join me.

My room is ready. My first week of lesson plans are completed. I added everything to my learning platform last week and then, on Friday, realized that students would not have their devices until the first Friday of school. I made 60 copies of all those digital assignments to make it through the first week. Doesn't that sound simple? I made some copies. If you are a teacher, you know... I had to find a time that a copier wasn't in use. I chose lunch when no one was around. However, 3 other teachers had the same idea. They waited behind me, gave me relatively good-natured grief for copying so much. 

In my school, we are divided into 9 different houses. There's roughly 25 teachers who use the same copier. We try to add everything online, but sometimes, you need to make copies. Then, you have to find an available copier. There's one in each house. Last year, the one in our house broke for over 2 months which meant, we had to go find a working one in other houses. Double the number of teachers using any one copier and it goes down. It was copier dominoes...The working copier may be out of toner. Hopefully, there's a replacement but not always. It may jam. Jammed copiers are the worst. I sighed as I typed that because jammed copiers ruin your day.

Students come tomorrow, but teachers have been back for a week already. What have we been doing? Meetings. Safety meetings. Department meetings. House meetings. Full faculty meetings. We have watched HOURS (not an exaggeration) of safety videos. We have discussed what to do in case there's an emergency. I won't go into this but it is in the mind of every teacher everywhere. The what if... It's a fear that is always there.

We have discussed what to do about tardies, dress code, homebound students, missing work, cell phones..ahhh... the dreaded cell phones... I cannot even explain to you how LARGE an issue phones are. You know what kills me too? Students always say oh, this is my mom.. AND IT IS! Quit texting your child during school hours! Send it during lunch. Have a set time. Don't do it when they are in class! They are IN CLASS. Rant over...

We have bus driver shortages in my district so some students may be late every single day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Do you start without them? How will they catch up? Do you wait for them? How is that fair to the ones on time who are now just sitting there? There are so many small decisions to make BEFORE the students arrive.

Our school is also down 4 custodians. We have 9 houses and then, the cafeteria, gym, main offices, weight rooms. We do not have enough people to keep all those areas clean. We have been asked to help in small ways - sweep rooms, put the trash cans in the hallway at the end of the day. I also clean my desks every day if I have time. Every other day without fail. I teach teenagers so I also hide air fresheners around the room because some kids come from gym class or just outside before class and they smell. However, if another student has allergies, I cannot do this. I have to take in the health and needs of around 90 students. 

So, teachers plan... we plan lessons, safety procedures, behavioral items. We clean our rooms. We make copies. We build relationships with students and co-workers. Oh, and then, when the bell rings, we go teach our subject matter. 

Meet me back here tomorrow and I will tell you if I planned enough... Hopefully, I did!