Is teaching weird, or what? I mean, I spent the last few weeks of school running around like the proverbial decapitated chicken, then… it’s done. I have nothing work-related to do. I could be a good egg and begin making lesson plans virtually the moment school lets out. I don’t know for sure what I’m teaching, so that’s out.

It’s weird. Today felt like Saturday, as yesterday was my last day. One of the things I want to do this summer is restore some of my older blog entries that were nearly lost when my old host had some problems.

I also want to work on my presentation on using blogs and wikis in the classroom, as I’m not sure how much time I’ll have when school starts.

In about two weeks, two of my colleagues and I are going to a workshop in North Carolina. That should be a fun roadtrip, as they are two of my favorite colleagues. I have a book to read before I go. Better get started on that, I guess.

I suppose I have more to do than I thought, but it is weird. Sort of like slamming on your brakes. Your body still wants to go forward, though the vehicle has made a sudden stop.

ChemJerk recently posted about term papers for sale on eBAY.  Join us in submitting a complaint to eBAY.  If they won’t allow teachers’ editions of textbooks for sale, then I can’t see how this should be allowed, although I didn’t find it listed explicitly in the list of prohibited items.

I broached the subject of our school using the services of Turnitin.com with the IT at our school.  It’s looking more and more like a good idea…

Miss Hazel Haley is retiring after teaching high school English for 69 years.

It is estimated that she has taught approximately 13,500 students over the years, 67 of which she has worked at Lakeland Senior High School in Lakeland, Florida. She has conducted class in the same room for the last 54 years.

I cannot conceive of how Miss Haley must feel at the close of a career like hers. I am in awe, and the only word I can think of is “service.”

I can’t imagine the things she must have seen over the course of her career. Think of this — she has been teaching long enough to have taught as many of four generations of the same family. Can you imagine having a teacher your great-grandmother had? I think that puts her accomplishment in perspective.

In 2001, I was completing my fourth year of teaching. I was burned out. I had a rough year. I had personal problems in my life, but more than that, I just didn’t think I had made the right career choice after all. I really struggled. In the end, I decided to quit teaching and do something else with my life. Something more rewarding. Something people might actually respect me for.

I searched fruitlessly and discovered in the process that not many folks were interested in employees with a teaching background. It is difficult sometimes for teachers to change careers. I can’t find the company now, but one temporary staffing agency actually stated baldly on their website that companies don’t like to hire former teachers. The perception is that there’s not much in the way of marketable skills that we can offer. I really wish I could find the website now, but after a half hour of fruitless surfing with only the vague recollection that the letters “B” and “H” were in the agency’s name, I’m afraid I’ve come up with nothing, so you’ll have to take my word for it. The point is, I interviewed for jobs copyediting (it would have been a paycut) and writing insurance textbooks. I interviewed for a position as a dental assistant. I was this close to walking down to the Mellow Mushroom and taking them up on the job offer I saw in the window. No one else was interested, after all. After four months of joblessness, I found a position teaching pre-K that was tolerable until something else came along. Yes, I was back in school. By the end of the school year, I had made up my mind to go back into the secondary classroom. I accepted the first job I was offered, which turned out to be a mistake, but that’s OK. I moved on, and I am extremely happy in my current teaching position. So happy, I can well imagine staying until my retirement if they let me.

What I figured out when I had decided to turn my back on teaching forever is that I measure out my life in school years. I like kitschy apple knick-knacks. I like working with teenagers in all their unfuriating teen-ness. I like teaching students how to become better communicators, how to become better readers. I like learning.

One of the things I learned when I absented myself from teaching is that all the clichés are true: 2 teach is 2 touch lives 4-ever… A teacher affects eternity; s/he can never tell where his or her influence stops.

It’s easy to scoff at these platitudes, but we just don’t know, do we? I can remember the names of most of the teachers I had, starting with kindergarten onward. In their ways, they each had an impact.

Mrs. Karr taught me that I wasn’t stupid — I thought I was. She taught me that I could read well.

Mrs. Jones taught me there was a time to be serious and on-task.

Mrs. Elliott taught me that I had a talent for writing and was an excellent speller.

Miss Shearer made such pretty cursive D’s that I copied them and still write them the same way — with the large sloping top loop — to this day. She also taught me to be careful with a compass.

Mrs. Esquibel taught me to keep my promises.

Mr. Velando taught me to celebrate my talents.

Mr. Schmeisser taught me to love books I had to read for school.

Mrs. Keener was my role model and mentor. I wanted to be the kind of teacher she was.

Being a teacher is special. I imagine Miss Haley will miss it. I know she will reflect upon her years as a teacher and know that she affected the lives of her students in profound and positive ways. One day, I hope that I can look back upon a lifetime of service in education and feel some pride in my accomplishment. I won’t delude myself into thinking I will accomplish anything like Miss Haley has, but that isn’t the most important thing. The most important thing is that I served. To me, that’s what teaching is all about.  In the end, I can’t think of anything more rewarding or more worthy of respect.

I just found out via the Education Wonks that a former colleague, Phil Carroll, was recently threatened by a student at Peachtree Ridge High School in Gwinnett County.  The two of us taught together at Snellville Middle in Gwinnett.  His room adjoined mine.  He was very knowlegeable about languages, very soft-spoken, very intelligent.  Here is the AP story.

From what I know of Phil, I am 100% positive that there is no way he has any sort of “vendetta” against this student, and I think it is preposterous for the mother to claim such a thing.  I find it inexcusable and very sad.  It’s one thing to protect our kids, but it is quite another to make baseless accusations and blame the teacher for what is clearly her daughter’s problem.  I am only glad that the student was suspended and that Phil was supported.  When we worked together, as a general rule, we were not supported by our administration.

Funny, I’ll bet that if this mother’s daughter were the subject of such a threat, then Mama would be the first in line to demand appropriate punishment, and I doubt a “suspension” would suffice.  I hope for Phil’s sake that they remove this girl from his class.

Since I work at a Jewish school, our Spring Break is timed with Passover. We have two weeks off this year. I think it is because a lot of our students go out of town to observe Passover. I am definitely not complaining. I need the time to re-energize. It is so nice to have the luxury of time to waste. I have actually even been playing video games!

I do have to grade some papers — it seems like English teachers never get out of that one, do they? — and one of my co-workers pointed out that I created a sense of enslavement for myself when this holiday is about freedom from slavery. At any rate, my Writing Seminar’s research paper first drafts must be graded before we go back so they can get started on the final drafts.

I also want to finish my reading project: Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook. In my personal blog, I often review books I read. The fact that I don’t have many any book reviews here indicates to me that I should probably be doing more professional reading. When I finish my professional books, I’ll review them here.

On the other hand, it is Spring Break. And a huge part of me wants to waste it playing video games.

This is something that should be abundantly clear, but in case it isn’t, I want to make it clear.  If you want to make a comment, even one in which you criticize my line of thinking, that’s fine, but you will stand behind your words with a real e-mail address or your comment will not appear.  I am sharing my thoughts here with my real name, and I can be contacted through a real address that is accessible on this site.  If you are too cowardly to say what you have to say in the fear that I might disagree and let you know that, I would suggest you not bother commenting.

I got a comment from a person known to me only as Erik H., and he called me a bad teacher, insinuating that changing the way I assess and test is completely within my control.  My thinking is that this person does not work in conditions in which there is sometimes a prescribed curriculum that requires some subjects to be taught in certain ways.  I have no trouble being challenged to think about my practices, but I will not be heckled by cowards who will not stand behind their criticism.

Once again, I have fallen behind. I have stacks of papers to grade. I have about three or four education articles to read and write about. Oh, wait. Make that five, because Jay McTighe is coming to our school for a professional development day, and I have a large article to read in order to prepare for that. On top of all that, this blog sits, neglected. I haven’t had time to work on restoring it, nor have I had time to write much new content. I know that people are having trouble finding their way around, too, because my statistics show what I imagine to be desperate searches for material I had in a more easily accessible place on the old server.

None of it goes away if I procrastinate, either, darn it.

If passed into law, a new bill in the Virginia General Assembly will require teachers to educate their students about online dangers.

Are there online dangers students need to be worried about?  YES.  Why shove one more parental task off on the teachers?

I’m usually a pretty nice person, but what I’m about to write might be considered by some to be somewhat mean.

I was friendly with a woman in college. She had the same major as I did — English Education. She was a sweet girl, but let’s be blunt — she was dumb as a rock. The prospect that she would be a teacher used to make me feel very uncomfortable, and I would never have wanted her to teach my children. She wasn’t smart enough to be a teacher, in my opinion.

I can’t remember where, but in the EduBlogsphere of late (I would appreciate links, if you have them), I have seen more than one post about education majors having low test scores and grades compared to students in other disciplines. The implication is “those who can’t, teach,” and as a teacher, I just know that you are not going to make it if you aren’t intelligent. You won’t be able to answer student questions. There is nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” If you have to say it all the time, then one must wonder why you’re in front of a classroom. Teachers have to know something in order to teach it, don’t they?

My friend didn’t make it as a teacher very long. I reconnected with her when I was back in college finishing my degree. She complained to me about an English Education professor she said was “mean” to her, who had discouraged her at every turn. I couldn’t bring myself to say so, because I am just not that direct when I know it could be hurtful, but the thought definitely crossed my mind that her English Education professor was trying to do the best thing for both that woman and her future students and convince her that she wasn’t cut out to be a teacher. Predictably, she lasted about year and quit teaching. I wonder about the high statistics involved with teachers.

According to research by Richard Ingersoll, a professor of sociology at the University of Georgia, 11 percent of teachers leave the occupation after one year on the job. After two years, 21 percent have quit; after five years, 39 percent have quit.

I agree that it is sad that so many teachers quit because they feel a lack of support. I myself have been in that situation, and it is absolutely insufferable. I can remember hating my teaching job so much that I cried on the way to work, especially after a break, and I checked off days in the calendar so I could say to myself that I made it through one more day and was one day closer to the end of the year. It is a sad state of affairs when adminstrations allow discipline problems to become so pervasive that teachers feel as if students run the schools, and it is equally sad when teachers are blamed for those problems instead of supported and assisted.

I included this information to make it clear that I am not saying that I believe a majority or even a sizable percentage of teachers quit because they can’t cut it intellectually. But there must be some, and I do wonder what part of that percentage they make up. There is a notion that teachers are not intelligent, and it doesn’t come from nowhere. And what do you do if you have a colleague that doesn’t cut it? I’m not sure there is really anything you can do, except complain about it (not necessarily to the administration).

I think one way we can solve the problem is to make teachers a part of the hiring process. After all, we are the ones who will be working most closely with these potential colleagues. Should we not have a say in who those colleagues will be? Some schools have implemented this sort of hiring process, and I myself have been involved. I think I could have interviewed my friend for about five minutes and discovered she wasn’t going to work out. I don’t think principals can always do this alone, especially if they are interviewing someone outside their discipline.