The Devil's in the Details ...

As any teacher in the trenches will tell you, it’s not the big “what novel am I going to teach that best represents American Romanticism” decisions that are the most stressful ones to make. The hardest decisions – and the ones that most often come back to haunt you – are the seemingly insignificant ones. Those seemingly little “YES” or “NO” decisions on late work, accepting missing assignments, letting a student re-do a plagiarized paper, giving half credit or no credit, letting the summer reading assignment slide – or hold them to it – all those “insignificant” decisions add up. They set the tone. They are the line drawn in the sand that lets the student – and the parent know – just how far you will go. Just how much they can get away with. And, God forbid, you let ONE kid off the hook and not another. The “should I let this kid turn in his homework late, or not” questions that could have tremendous impact later on – and by “tremendous impact” I’m not talking about a decision of ours affecting a student’s grade – I’m talking about the dreaded “PC” – PARENT CONFERENCE. A dirty little not so secret about teachers is that, while we like your kids. (In fact, we usually love your kids), we don’t always like YOU parents. And we HATE the Parent Conference. The biggest reason is that it’s the parents who give us the most grief.

Of course, there are those – mature individuals who recognize us as professionals and treat us as such – those parents who wouldn’t dare to question our education, experience or motives* any more than they would question their child’s pediatrician. However, those parents – those angels sent from heaven - are as few and far between as the Lions winning a Super Bowl. Ok. Maybe not that rare. You get the picture. Oh how we love those parents who never bother us with “If you don’t let me child turn this assignment in 2 months late, he will lose his standing as Valedictorian” emails*, or phone calls accusing us of changing grades because a coach begged us to* or those “Let’s just see what your principal/superintendent/board member thinks about your decision”* discussions.

Another thing we hate about the Parent Conference – is that it wastes our precious time. If there’s one thing lacking in a teacher’s life, it’s time. Parent conferences usually are given on our prep periods – which, in my case, only come around every other day. Given we have a million papers to copy, papers to grade, lessons to plan, change or modify, our prep periods can fly by in a minute even without sitting in meetings where we find we have to defend our decisions. Those dreaded, little, “it didn’t matter at the time” decisions that we find out, later, too late, made all the difference in the world to that parent. They say “the Devil’s in the details” but when it comes to those of us in the teaching trenches, the Devil is actually in the decisions. ***Indicate all situations, accusations, emails, phone calls and parent conferences I have actually had.

"Said No Teacher - EVER"

A little humor as we start the school year ...

Summer "Vacation"

Here it is - my last official day of summer "vacation." It's been a break from the daily routine of school, but like most of my summer breaks, this has not been a vacation.  If I had a dollar for every time I heard some variation of  "Oh, you're a teacher. Must be great to have 3 months off" or "Teachers only get paid to work 9 months out of the year"  - I would have been able to retire to Hawaii by now.


How others view teachers spending their summers


The fact of the matter is, most teachers WORK over the summer. Some need to work because they need the money. Many teach summer school. I have known several teachers who mowed lawns over the summer to make ends meet.  Many get other part time jobs to help pay the bills during those tough summer months where we don't get a pay check.


The sad reality for many teachers


Many teachers, like me, are working on curriculum all summer. Since I teach AP courses, I assign summer reading to my students.  I could take it easy and assign the same books year after year, but instead, I assign different books each summer. This means I have to read, annotate, come up with discussion questions, essay questions, and tests for each of the books I assign. This summer I was particularly brilliant and decided to assign my 2 different AP classes 3 books each. Not that I mind reading ... but reading for fun and reading with the intention of teaching what you are reading .... are two very different things! This summer, I was promised a new textbook for one of my AP courses - which meant going through my sample teacher's textbook to decide which works would be studied and how, coming up with projects, questions, essays, tests, - only to discover that my textbook hasn't arrived and we have no idea when it will arrive. Yay! All that work ... for nothing!  This is also a summer that I attended a week long continuing education conference for AP teachers. I attend one about every other summer.



What my summer felt like (not that I'm complaining ... too much!)

In short, summer "vacation" isn't really a "vacation." It's a nice change from the routine of getting up early and reporting to class, but it's not always lazing around working on our sun tans.

A Teacher Gets Ready For School

A Teacher Gets Ready For School

I am surrounded by shouting, defiant kids. They refuse to sit in their desks, preferring instead to swarm my desk – a few leave the room without permission, slamming the door as they leave. I am desperately searching for my stack of referrals to give to the two students who were cussing each other out, and who, now that I’ve reprimanded them, are now cussing me out!  My classroom phone doesn’t work, so backup from the office isn’t coming anytime soon. Suddenly I realize: I’m not wearing any pants!!

- it’s a classic “Teacher Dream” – the kind I start having every night starting about  2 weeks before school actually starts.  It’s the reason why I look as bedraggled as I feel the first day of school.  The dreams vary in detail, but usually the chaos, defiant teenagers, and the embarrassment of missing some article of clothing are pretty consistent.

Although I’m beginning my 13^th year of teaching – which is difficult enough for me to believe – I find it even harder to comprehend the fact that I still have “teacher dreams” (nightmares really). I’m sure there’s some deep psychological stuff going on that even a half way decent shrink could figure out, but I can’t.

What’s weird about my “teacher dreams” is that nothing even remotely close to my nightmares has ever happened in my class! Sure I’ve handed out a referral a time or two (one infamous time for “abbreviated cursing” … but that’s for a later post) but I’ve never actually been cussed out by a student, and I’ve definitely never forgotten to wear pants! By and large, through the years, I’ve been blessed with great students.  They are the reason why I’ve been able to endure almost 13 years in a job I never wanted to do, and never imagined myself doing – and still talk about leaving.  Simply put: I love my students. Perhaps that is why I have these dreams – every year my biggest fear/dread is that THIS is the year the shoe is going to drop. THIS is the year when I get the students from hell – the uncontrollable class. My luck has run so far – every year I’m worried this is the year it all changes.

So far, that fear has been unfounded (as most fears usually are). And now, I’ve got 1 week to go till I meet the new crew – 1 week of heart pounding, sleep invading “teacher dreams” to go. Luck, be a Lady this year!