Hopefully, Not the Impossible Dream of Education

This entry is for the new teachers and all of us that were once new teachers.  This week, as we completed Parent Teacher Conferences, I took some time to reflect on what today's teachers must do to be successful, the pressure that they are under, and the lack of support both financial and empathetic.  Yet, the one constant is that public education is beckoning for more young educators than ever before, but we find fewer and fewer of our young people choosing our profession.

My reflection took me back to those first two years as a high school teacher.  Those of you who shared that time with me, students and staff, I hope that you didn't notice how scared I was.  After all, I wasn't really hired to teach English as the first prerequisite.  I filled two coaching voids: assistant football coach and head baseball coach.  Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to coach, but I wanted to be a good teacher too.

It helped that I team taught all of my classes.  I have told about the morning block with Orv Schlatter and Mark Tipple, but I also was teamed with Ken Miller in a US History and English 11 block in the afternoon.  Each of them had experience, so I could rely on them if I questioned myself and what I was doing.  That didn't matter when the door shut and I was in a room with 30 faces staring at me, or worse, not paying any attention to me.

Most of what happened in those early days is a blur now, but I do remember going home at the end of a long day and spend quite a bit of time getting ready for the next day.  I had to.  You see, I still hadn't finished my license in English, so while I was teaching all day, I was also taking the English classes at IPFW that would make me legal to teach the classes that I was already teaching.  I had agreed to do this as soon as possible.  In my mind that meant that year, so I did it

Another factor that made me so unsure in those early years was the fact that the classes that I was teaching had no real textbook.  In their infinite wisdom, the schools had gone away from traditional texts to modular texts that were divided by genre: nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and drama.  That wouldn't have been too bad, but I had read none of the pieces that were contained in the books.  And, did I mention that there were no teacher's editions or supplemental materials that went with the books?

So each day I went into school scared.  Scared that I would be found out.  Hoping that the students wouldn't realize that I was barely prepared each day, that I might have known less than some of them about literary devices or anything else that I was required to teach.

What got me through those times was observing the experienced teachers with whom I worked.  I don't even think that they were aware that they were building the teacher that I eventually became.  I gained confidence when I realized that each of them built strong relationships with their students.  They related what they were teaching to their lives and experiences.  At first I doubted that at 24 years of age that was possible, but it did work.

The message that comes to mind for all young teachers is what they should have found out by now.  Every student in your class comes in with their own individual story.  Most won't tell you their story, but most want you to try to find it out.  If you were meant to be a teacher, the only true way to be successful in the classroom is when you have built the relationships that opens the door to the stories.

The message to everyone else is that we will continue to lose our young teachers if we don't comprehend that the current environment in which we place them makes relationship building extremely difficult, if not impossible.  Forty years ago, I had 98 students in my full day of teaching.  Today's teacher in high school has 180!  At the same time, the English class that I used to teach have numerous assessments that they are required to administer, taking away time from interaction with the students.  Is it any wonder that we lose good young teachers?