Students began classes on Wednesday, so I am getting back into the rhythm that has been so much of a part of my life for the past two decades or so. And is my wont I take some time on a Saturday morning before returning to the tasks associated with being a high school social studies teacher to reflect upon my teaching life. There have always been at least a few people here who are interested in what I choose to share. And as I have found out in the past few days, there are going to be some more, because some of my students have already found me here!.
So let me set the context of where I teach, the time spent preparing for this school year, including a few glitches, and what has happened in three days of teaching.
I invite you to join me below the cheese-doodle as I describe my new position at Catonsville High School in Baltimore County Maryland.
Some quick background for those readers who do not know me. I retired from teaching in June of 2012, at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt MD, where I had taught for 13 of the previous 14 years. I thought I might write and/or consult and do other things to earn what money I might need. Shortly before the following Thanksgiving I got a call from my first principal who asked if I would fill in at a high needs middle school in DC (94% free and reduced lunch), I began the Monday before Thanksgiving, it was the hardest and most challenging work I had ever done, but I had to leave when my wife was diagnosed with cancer and for a period I became her fulltime care-giver.
I decided to return to teaching, both because we had lost a lot of my wife's income, but also because I realized I was ready to stay in the classroom. An old acquaintance offered to create a position suited to my talents at North County High School in Glen Burnie Md. After the position was officially offered but before I accepted it, he decided to take another position. Despite knowing he was living, the position so suited me I stayed at North County. I loved the students, and am still in contact with a good number, but during the course of the year the STEM program for which I was hired was being changed in ways I did not think I could support.
As it happens, the man who had hired me for that position was able to offer me my current position at Catonsville, where we have 4 periods a day, each around 85 minutes.
On A days I teach primarily 9th graders - 2 sections of Gifted and Talented students in Government, and one section taking Advanced Placement Government. B days is economics and seniors, 3 sections of AP Micro and Macro Economics in a combined course.
I am also going to serve as one of the coaches of our award winning Speech and Debate team.
About teaching economics - I last completed an econ course in January of 1968. Simply put, economics as a field has changed a great deal in the last 4 plus decades. Having gone through the curricular material and received a week of training for teaching the subject at the AP level (from the spectacular Bruce Damasio), I feel confident of my ability to teach the subject, but I am still not certain how I am going to approach it, and I have shared with my students that this is going to be a joint exploration.
As a retired/rehired teacher, it was considered of lesser priority to get all my paperwork signed - I already had an advanced contract which guaranteed my employment, so it did not matter that I did not formally sign my actual contract until this past Monday. I did NOT receive a paycheck yesterday because it was too late to get me into the system, but I will be paid for the 13 days I have already worked - 3 days of new teacher orientation (very useful because I got to spend some time with a long-time teacher of AP Econ who has share a lot of materials with me), and the 7 days of teacher preparation as well as the three days of instruction. Unfortunately I could not get my computer sign-on until after I signed my contract, and did not get my id card until I attended an official orientation meeting on Thursday after school. As result, even though my students are in the computer assigned to me, for some reason I do not have the ability to take attendance or put in grades or put anything up (assignments, resources, explanations) on class web pages. With the sign-on I can at least use the technology in my classroom for instructional purposes, and can now receive school related emails. But I will still have to spend some time learning full use of technology and computerized grading and attendance once I have full access.
The Catonsville community is strongly supportive of the school. My principal, Dr. Bill Heiser, is well respected by parents, students, and the faculty and staff at the school. I am very much looking forward to being a part of this community, even though I have a long commute - the shortest path is 43 miles, the quickest is actually about 5 miles longer but because of higher speed limits and more traffic lines is an easier drive. The first is 2 traffic lights to school, the second is 3. Coming home adds two more lights (don't ask).
My predecessor in economics was very well liked by the students. Thus when my seniors found out he was leaving, they went on line to find out what they could about his replacement once they knew my name. Some of them have already commented upon what they have encountered, including reading me here and seeing how many twitter followers I have. My 9th graders, whom I have seen twice on Wednesday and Friday, are beginning to look me up as well. A few of them have siblings among my seniors.
I usually prefer to orient my room in portrait layout, with students facing the long edge. But on one side I have window and on the other cabinets. My technology is at the end of the room - most notably my Promethean board. To have the students as close as possible, they sit in groups of 4 desks. Two rows of three groups, one of two groups, for a total of 32 seats (so far my largest class is 30, but only 29 have shown up).
I asked my students what they thought would happen when they took tests. Most thought I would either turn the desks to the front or pull them apart. I asked what that might imply if I required that. The answer was obvious - that I did not trust them not to cheat. I then asked what it would imply if I left the desks as they were. They responded it meant I trusted them. I then told them I would trust them unless they gave me a reason not to. I was going to ask them to go well outside their academic comfort zone, so they would have to trust me, and I had to model that by trusting them.
I had them fill out student information sheets, and took a little time to go through them in class - where students might want to go to college, what they might want to do after schooling, what activities interested them. I had given them a chance to ask me questions, some of which I answered then, some of which I will answer as I go along.
Wednesday evening I began to call parents. I made 55 phone calls representing 57 of the 132 students on my rolls (of whom only 130 have so far shown up) where I either spoke with a parent/guarding or left a message. Thursday I was not able to make calls - I had my orientation for personnel until 7 PM, then had to help a friend get ready for a foreign trip she was making leaving yesterday. Last night I made an additional 30 calls representing 32 more students. I will finish those calls today.
In the process I discovered that several parents already read me here, and a few more had looked me up!
I call my parents because I want to know my students. The information sheets gives me some information. But sometimes students are reluctant to share things that are important for me to know. I tell the parents I am willing to answer any questions, but of greater importance I want to know any concerns they may have for their children. As is always the case, I have found out about some divorces either in process or that have already happened. I learn about some students who can be shy, others who are wrestling with the appropriate levels of medication for ADD and ADHD. Last night I found out about one who has had serious problems with migraines and why s/he cannot stay up late to complete work. Since s/he is in AP Econ, where I have not yet put together a plan for the entire first unit, I assured the parent that I would be flexible in what work I would expect until I could give the student several class days notice of when assignments would do.
I have students in assigned seats so that I can learn their names and faces more quickly. Since I only see them every other day, it is probably going to take a few weeks before I will feel comfortable that I know them all, including those that rarely volunteer. I have assured them once I do they can sit where they want.
Dirty Harry, as played by Clint Eastwood, says in Magnum Force that a man's got to know his limitations. For better or worse, I am a teacher of adolescents. Yes, I can write. Yes, I have a pretty good political mind. But compared to what I can do when I dedicate myself to teaching, my other abilities matter little. Consider it a gift or a limitation, but so long as I can do so with integrity, I belong in a classroom, preferably at the high school level.
I have again begun a school year.
This is my 6th school. It is my fourth school in four years, each in a different district (out 5 total). I very much hope I will stay put as I had at Eleanor Roosevelt. I like being part of a community. Even more so, I like continuity with students over time, watching them grow up and develop.
When I retired I wondered if I should change my moniker since I was no longer a classroom teacher. Having decided to keep teaching, even at the advanced age of 68, at least I do not have that concern.
To teach I must reflect.
I share some of those reflections here.
These will continue to include reflections about the implications of policy upon the lives of my students and what I must do as a result of those policies.
But that is not why I teach.
I teach because of the students, because I know nothing more satisfying than seeing a young person grow in skill, knowledge and self-confidence.
I teach because I am good at it. Of that I do not doubt.
More important, I teach because it is how I am most myself. It is how I connect with the world around me, how I give back.
It keeps me young.
Hell, it gives me a reason for living.
Peace.