Going Back to School: A Big Kid's (a.k.a. Teacher's) Perspective

Kids grovel over it; parents rejoice about it; and now I am here to give you an inside look at how one teacher feels about going back to school. I am currently entering my 16th year as a professional educator and I can honestly say that each and every year it gets harder and harder for me to return to the field. I am aware that there are pros and cons to every job and my intention is not to make it seem as though we teachers have the hardest job out there, but I would like to debunk a few of those ideas about our profession that make it appear as though we educators have it made.

The second I mention that I am just not ready to start another school year any non-teacher will look at me and say those five words that make me want to smack them upside their head: “but you have summers off.” I personally have worked a summer job EVERY summer since I started my career as an educator, the exception being the summer I had my knee surgery, and that was only because I was physically unable to work. I will admit that after 15 years of teaching and earning my masters I do sit pretty nicely on the pay scale, but I am also single, have a mortgage and all the other bills that come with home ownership as well as all the other unforeseen consequences that come along.

So while I would love nothing more than to spend my summers traveling and living in the lap of luxury, I instead spend it working so I can pay off that new hot water heater I needed, or the new bathroom I had to take a loan out for when it sprung a leak into my dining room, or the car payment I had to take out when my car that was about to be paid off in 5 months got totaled. And it isn’t just the single teachers like myself that struggle… I have many colleagues with families who struggle financially as well. And those that are financially stable still spend their summers trying to earn those act 48 credits that are so vital to maintaining their certificate to continue to teach. NEA has put it so eloquently:

“MYTH: Teachers have summers off.

FACT: Students have summers off. Teachers spend summers working second jobs, teaching summer school, and taking classes for certification renewal or to advance their careers.

• Most full-time employees in the private sector receive training on company time at company expense, while many teachers spend the eight weeks of summer break earning college hours, at their own expense.

• School begins in late August or early September, but teachers are back before the start of school and are busy stocking supplies, setting up their classrooms, and preparing for the year's curriculum.” http://www.nea.org/home/12661.htm

The reality is that very few teachers actually have summers “off. “ I am fortunate that I have at least found a summer job that I enjoy and that does not feel like work at all, but the fact of the matter is I still spend my hours working over the summer rather than sipping martinis poolside like so many members of the general public tend to think I do.

Then there are all the added jobs that keep getting thrown on our plates. When I entered this profession I thought it was to teach biology, which is what I am certified in. Now I am expected to be a guidance counselor, a police officer, and a reading specialist…perhaps Zoolander was onto something when he wanted to open the “Center for Children who Can’t Read Good.”

Since when did it become my job to teach my high school biology students how to read? On top of teaching them reading skills, it has also become my job to teach them morals and respect. As a teacher you practically become a part time parent to 100+ kids every year. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could somehow write that off in your taxes?

Then there are all the additional courses and trainings that get thrown at you that they try to dress up with fun acronyms like “NCLB,” “CFF,” “KTO,” “SWPB,” “TPS’” to which I just want to say “WTF?” and “STFU.” We are told to differentiate, develop lesson plans for each individual student based on their learning style, only to have every single one of them take the same standardized test to determine if they are proficient in that particular area of study. We are told to have them make “real world connections” and teach more by “inquiry” and less by lecture and explanation, but then we are put on a strict timeline to get the material covered in time for the life determining “Keystone Exam.” Nothing pisses me off more than when I have a student ask a great question and want to research something more but I have to say “That is a really good question, and I can see you are really into this, but it isn’t on the Keystone Exam, so maybe after you are completely burned out from taking all those standardized tests in May we can come back and revisit this?” Basically kids are allowed to be curious, but only about items on the standardized tests. And they have a time limit to their inquiries because curriculum must be covered in a timely fashion.

I spend more of my time teaching students how to take a test and make “educated guesses” and eliminate choices rather than teaching them science. I am constantly having to reassess my curriculum to make sure it aligns to the state standards. If the state wants everyone to be on the same page, then why don’t THEY write the curriculum for us and give us all a “cookie cutter” book that details what we will be teaching each and every day, how the lesson will be administered, and provide us with all the assessments we will need to give, complete with answer keys and rubrics? Oh that’s right, that means PDE will have to do some work. The amount of instruction time that is lost to give benchmarks, quarterly assessments, and practice exams is ridiculous. In addition to that there is the time lost to actually administer all the standardized exams when they roll around. It is no wonder we have students who are clueless when it comes to living in the real world. “What do you mean you don’t know how to balance a check book???” Oh, right, that wasn’t part of the Keystone Exam.

On top of all this we educators are trying to figure out a way to reach the generation “Z” students. These students are technology driven and love their gadgets so we are told to use more technology in the classroom. Almost every single student has some hand held technological device they carry with them 24/7. And they love to use them; albeit not usually for classroom purposes. Unless it is a question on “trivia crack” my students couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the molecular structure of a lipid versus a carbohydrate. They would rather be snap chatting, instagramming, facebooking, tweeting, pinning crap on pinterest, or playing games. I once had a student who asked me a question, phone in hand, that I did not know the answer to. Rather than me look it up on my time and get back to him I told him to look it up on his phone. His response to me - “Nah, I don’t need to know the answer that bad.”

I just always came from the school of “if you choose not to pay attention in class that’s on you.” So I never really felt the need to police cell phones. But they have become such an issue lately that I am coming up with some guidelines for use in my classroom that come with consequences. I also feel that in a way, technology has made us lazy. In today’s age we are so accustomed to getting what we want with just a tap of our fingers. Long gone are the days when you had to use the “Dewey Decimal System” in a card catalogue at a library to find a book to do research. Now we just Google it. Back in the day if we didn’t understand something our teachers said in class, we went home and read our textbooks. Now if a student doesn’t understand something IMMEDIATELY the material is either “too hard” or the “teacher sucks.” Teachers have a lot more to contend with now than they did years ago. The job isn’t getting easier, if anything it is getting harder.

Not to mention that as a teacher you are always “on.” It doesn’t matter what is going on in your personal life: dad has cancer, you got dumped, you are fighting with your friend/family member. None of that matters, you are expected to show up with a smile on your face and pretend that everything is just peachy… if you have a bad day and act out of character you are a bitch and unprofessional. Funny how you aren’t allowed to let anything personal affect you while on the job, yet somehow what you do in your personal time gets scrutinized and judged. God forbid you have a picture on social media with any kind of “adult” beverage in your hand. Newsflash – Teachers are People too!

One issue that seems to have crept up recently for me personally is this idea that because I teach AP and Honors courses my schedule is somehow a breeze because I have all the “good kids.” While I will admit that I may not have the discipline issues that some other teachers have, let me just say that there is a definite trade off. Having the “higher level” courses doesn’t mean easier work. When you have 50 AP students and give a test that has two essays you now have 100 essays to grade (at least I think I got that right… I simply multiplied 50 students X 2 essays each to arrive at that answer…I did not use the common core math method to solve that so I may not be proficient). If it takes me 15 minutes to read each essay (using Missy Math rather than common core math) that comes to:

15 minutes x 100 essays = 1500 minutes / 60 minutes = 25 hours of work

I am given one 42 minute period per day to do my planning, copying, respond to emails/ phone calls, set up labs, help students when they need it, etc… but let’s just pretend I have that entire 42 minutes per day to just GRADE…

42 minutes/ 15 minutes per essay = 2.8 essays graded

Lets just round to 3 to keep it a whole number…actually lets say I am a super grader and managed to grade 4 essays in that period… so 100 essays/ 4 essays per 42 minute period = 25 periods to get all the essays graded. Do you think parents would be ok not knowing how their student did on a test for 25 days? So what does this mean? This means I spend A LOT of time outside of my regular teacher hours getting shit done. While most people would get paid overtime for that, I don’t get anything… Oh wait… that’s right… I get summers “off “(which if you calculate the amount of time I spend OUTSIDE the regular school day I am fairly certain I could spread those hours out to equal 40 hour weeks for the duration of summer. Keep in mind that is just for ONE class and ONE test. I teach two other courses aside from this one.

Having the “good kids” also means having a lot of requests for letters of recommendation come college /job application time. Last year I wrote upwards of 40 letters of recommendation, again, something I do not get paid overtime for. Now it has been suggested to me that perhaps I should stop working so hard, make a template and just “insert student name here” and “insert college name/ job here.” While that may work for some I am afraid it just doesn’t work for me. Could I half ass my job? Sure! But let me ask you this… would you want your surgeon to half ass your procedure? Or an engineer to half ass that bridge you are about to drive over? Would you be happy if someone thought that less of you that you were simply “insert name here?” My guess is no. I look at my students and I see future doctors, physical therapists, physician assistants, oncologists, and researchers. I want to give them the best opportunities possible. I am not the “I don’t feel like teaching today or I have too much shit to grade so let’s just throw in a video today” teacher. Nothing frustrated me more in college than when I had to teach myself because the teacher didn’t teach.

It also aggravates me that people just assume I was handed this glorious schedule. Um, you may not have been there to witness it but my first 7 years was no cakewalk. I didn’t start out with all the “good kids.” I had my fair share of discipline issues, conferences with parents, administration, guidance, etc. I was given the AP course because frankly, no one else wanted it because they knew the amount of work that came with it. I wasn’t given any honors courses until last year. And while some teachers have a study hall in their classrooms (which is almost like an extra prep period for them) as their duty, I am often running around the building covering In School Suspension or other classes as part of mine. So some of you can quit your bitching because I paid my dues. And yes, I am aware that there are some teachers who have it worse than me and I feel for them.

I know this post makes me come across as someone who despises my job, but the fact of the matter is I love my job, WHEN I AM ABLE TO ACTUALLY DO IT. When I am allowed to teach the way I feel comfortable, and not have data constantly crammed down my throat to analyze and constantly be told that my value as an educator is dependent on how my students perform on some standardized test, I truly would not want to be anywhere else. Imagine if you told an ICU nurse that their job was dependent on the number of patients that survived, would they not be on pins and needles (pun intended) every time they were on shift in fear that if one more person dies they lose their job? If you told a dentist that their practice was being evaluated on the number of patients that come in with cavities despite the dentist educating them about proper dental hygiene, would that be fair? And what about those new patients that come in that have cavities but were not taught about how to care for their teeth from their former dentist, should that be held against the new dentist?

It’s so easy to tell a teacher that we have the best job out there just because you think we have summers off. But remember, that is our paid vacation time – you know, like the paid vacation time you get but can take WHENEVER you like. We just have to take it June-August. We don’t have the luxury of taking a three week trip to the Swiss Alps in February to go snowboarding, instead we get 3 days of “personal time” to use should we need time off during the duration of the school year. We also can’t just walk out of our classrooms to take a shit whenever nature calls, if we don’t have someone to look after our class while we need to attend to our “business” we can be held accountable if something happens in our absence.

In closing, all I really ask is that when a teacher comments that they aren’t ready to go back to work yet that you simply refrain from making the “summers off” comment. Maybe a simple “good luck” or “I hope this year goes smoothly for you” would suffice. Or you could just follow the good ol’ “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” deal. Or if you still really think we have the best job on the planet then I encourage you to enroll in these special places called “college” and get your teaching certificate so you too can enjoy your “summers off.”

PS – Snow days must be made up… they are not free days that we just magically get off for. We do not have the option of counting work done from home as an actual teacher day.

#melissa #rant #backtoschool #highschool #teacher #standardizedtests