The Teacher Diaries

The HBO series “Insecure” has cultivated many discussions. More recently, the subject of discrimination has been highlighted in a most creative way. We see the standard example of workplace discrimination in a black female lawyer who earns substantially less than her white male counterparts with as much or less experience and time on the job. I am interested to see where the writers of the show go with this storyline. On a similar note, they’ve included an additional example of discrimination that is not talked about too often in contrast to its lack of subtlety: racial discrimination in our schools. Since this is a delicate topic, I want to preface this by saying that the example that I provide is my own personal experience and does not represent educators as a monolith. Let me begin by providing the context for which I based this post. On the show “Insecure” the main character, Issa, works for a non-profit organization that goes out to the schools to provide various re

Here I go again sharing my two cents on something that came across my feed on Facebook. The title of the post “My Title 1 Kids Have $300 Shoes. And It’s Nobody Else’s Business” immediately caught my attention, because 1) I teach at a Title 1 high school and 2) I do judge the students and their parents when I see them with expensive products. The author of this article wrote with a strong tone of sympathy and compassion for her, presumably, immigrant student and his choice to purchase a pair of $300 soccer cleats. She doted on the fact that his family struggled financially and that he actually paid for the shoes himself by working with his father doing landscaping. She complimented the student’s motivation to work hard to get what he wanted and warned teachers against making assumptions and judgements about what our students and their families chose to purchase with their money. Now this is all fine and good, but it is not the narrative for most of the students that I t

I have always said that I appreciate professional development that is well-executed and practical. With that being said, during the first two days of my summer vacation, I attended professional development workshops that focused on backward planning and improving school climate and culture. All presentations were led by the same consulting firm, but each presenter was vastly different. The first presenter, on the first day, was engaging enough due to her personality, but she was solely “teacher-centered” and did not provide any activities to break up her lecturing, nor did she provide any handouts to accompany the many slides that she read from and referenced during her presentation. The second presenter was excellent! Since she presented in the morning on the second day, she set the tone for the rest of the day. She began with a fun ice-breaker and implemented (modeled) practices that we could use throughout her entire presentation. She also provided handouts, included vide

It seems that every year there are changes in pedagogy. However, in my opinion, these new concepts are really old ones that are just repackaged and given fancy new names. With the constant influx of theories and research that dictate how we are to teach comes the teacher training workshops usually run by well-paid consultants who have rehearsed their presentation dozens of times to schools across the country, but never actually implementing them and of course not with the at-risk students that I teach. And let’s say that they have worked with students in a school district similar to mine. They most likely worked with a group of hand selected students or at a charter school. Needless to say, this is the case for me yet again this summer. My Title 1 school was awarded a grant to make improvements and one of those improvements is working with a program to improve overall academic performance and to give all  students the option to attend college. That’s perfectly fine with me, but

I may be a bit selfish, but I am also extremely reasonable. Our school district is pretty generous when it comes to the number of sick days that are given to the staff. When some teachers retire, they have as many as 200 days because if they don’t use their days during a school year, they rollover to the next year. Some school districts even compensate retiring teachers for their unused sick days for a portion of their daily value. With that being said, teachers take sick days each year for mental health, to rest or recover when sick, to take care of a sick family member, and many other personal reasons. I am fortunate to have days left over each year. Again, I can be compensated for these days when I retire, or If necessary, I can use these days should I ever need to take FMLA. In my school district, we are allowed to donate our unused sick days to other staff members who have exhausted their own so that they can continue to receive pay while on FMLA. Our district does

Since my school district administers final exams two weeks before the last day of school, it’s pretty safe to assume that there’s not much teaching occurring for those last ten days at the high schools. You would think that high school students would opt to stay home, but the demographic that I serve continue to come to school. Some because they come from troubled homes. Others want to hang out with their friends for a little while longer because they don’t live near each other. Some of the kids date each other and their parents don’t know, so coming to school is the only way they’ll see their boyfriend or girlfriend. Some parents won’t allow their children to stay home. Some don’t want to be there anyway. Others come for the breakfast and lunch. Our school has faculty volunteers who make the students hot breakfast that’s much more appetizing than the school’s standard offerings. Also, the culinary arts class cooks lunch for them. So, they get to eat all day and hang out. W

I am only one teacher. What do I know about what every other teacher does during the summer? I don’t. But, I do know what my colleagues and I do and it’s definitely not as elaborate as many think. Here is a list of the 12 real things that teachers do during summer vacation. Teachers have major surgeries and other non-emergency procedures that they postpone during the school year so that they don’t miss too many days of instruction. Teachers work summer school because they are 10-month employees and don’t get paid during the summer months. If they do receive pay, it is because their 10-month salary is divided into 12 months making their biweekly checks even smaller. Teachers work at summer camps to supplement their salary. (Oh yeah, and they tutor during the school year too.) Teachers officially become full-time chauffeurs for all the activities that they’ve signed their children up for so that they are not cooped up in the house for two months. And they are home instruct

Have you ever met the parent(s) of one of your students and left the meeting thinking “Now I know where they get it from” or were reaffirmed that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree? Well, I had another enlightening experience yesterday when observing the behaviors of the parents at graduation. Having taught the seniors for the past ten months, I’d like to think that I can confidently conclude about the temperaments and personalities of the students who sat in front of me on an almost daily basis. Presumably, you’d think that I would have had plenty of opportunities to match those personalities to their parents and their level of involvement and corrective actions for negative behaviors. But, ah no. That has not been the case. Out of about 80 students, I have only met maybe 15 parents or guardians. I won’t go on another rant about the lack of parental involvement when it comes to academic progress. Today, I just wanted to share my observations while attending the graduati

While scrolling through Twitter, I noticed that someone had a strong reaction to an article titled “To My Student, on the Death of Her Grandmother(s).” This person shared the article with the comment that the professor should leave academia if they hate students that much. After seeing this, my interest was certainly piqued. So, I read the article and what I read, to me, wasn’t offensive at all or suggested that the author hated her students. I got the impression that she was just tired of excuses. In the article, the author speaks to an unnamed student whose grandmothers died six weeks apart. One during midterms and the other (conveniently) during finals. The student was requesting permission to turn the final project in late. The author’s response to this request was a list of ridiculous steps to prove that indeed her grandmother(s) passed away and proof of mourning since the student couldn’t complete the project by the due date. I thought that it was hilarious. However, the

About five years ago, my state decided to not use the HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment) any longer as the required test to determine that students have met the minimal requirements for graduation. This test assessed their knowledge of basic skills in reading, writing, and math. They replaced that test with PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College & Careers). Previously, when students did not pass HSPA, they were 1) required to take it again and 2) given the opportunity to complete the alternative option which was to complete several tasks after school or in the morning to build a portfolio to prove that they have mastered the skills needed to graduate. Now, our students are given more options. To meet the testing requirement for graduation they must take and pass or meet a minimum score on the PARCC, ACT, or SAT.   Here’s my complaint. The seniors at my school haven’t met any of these requirements. They protested the PARCC, because boo to Common Cor

I teach high school seniors. I teach a core course that is required for graduation, English IV. There have been three parent-teacher conference days this school year. One lasted from 3:00-5:00 and the others were from 1:00- 7:00. I teach all of the seniors in the school with the exception of the self-contained special needs students. I have met seven parents and two older siblings. That’s it.  There have been special meetings for the parents of the seniors to speak with the staff about graduation requirements. Ten parents show up. Academic awards dinners, 12 parents. Sporting events, maybe 20 parents. Individual conferences for misbehaving students or failures that jeopardize graduation, they have to work and can’t come.     This week the students were told that there would not be a toast off celebration for the prom. They lost it! They circulated a petition and parents called the school to complain. Seriously?! The prom isn’t canceled. There just won’t be a toast off prior to t

  In my early years as an educator, I was always told that a good teacher does not teach from her desk. I agree. It’s impossible to truly engage with your students if you are sitting behind the barrier of your desk. It’s sets a negative tone and gives the impression that you are only there because it’s your job and not because you want to build relationships. Also, due to the demographic of students that I teach, sitting behind a desk would make it quite difficult to put out the fires that are sure to arise with all of the colorful personalities that fill the seats. Again, I don’t sit at my desk too often. Since the computer is across the room from the teacher’s desk, I spend most of my time there when I’m not teaching. I don’t even grade papers at my desk. I tend to sit in a student desk to do that. I don’t know what keeps me from sitting there, but for me the teacher’s desk isn’t where I sit to be the most productive during my down time. With that said, I allow students to sit t

  Year 13 teacher here. It’s safe to say that I am officially part of the seasoned crew. With the years of experience comes one of two things: higher or lower expectations. That’s because older teachers tend to be stuck in their ways or highly experienced with a wealth of teaching strategies for every type of learner. I’m a mix of the two. Because of my experience, I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to be a model teacher. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I try to pretend that I’m not and I have everything under control. With that said, no matter how many years of experience and how comfortable you are in your tenure, you have to be observed. No one is exempt. Well, that time for me was about two weeks ago. In the past, even as recently as last year, I would always plan a spectacular lesson to present. Even if it meant veering from my lesson plans. It would include activities that showed that the students had learned a lot about a topic and would be very hands on and creative to

Just when I felt like I was at my wit's end, a sign of hope crossed my path nudging me to push forward. By now it is no secret that there is a lot to be desired in the role of a teacher in today’s society. I have mentioned in several posts how displeased I am with the policies, expectations, unrealistic demands, and challenging student behavior. It is a lot to deal with and has proven to even be anxiety inducing. I have, on numerous occasions, seriously entertained the idea of leaving the profession, but the fear of not finding the best footing in a different field has made me a bit apprehensive.  I know education. I know how to teach. I am a teacher. I have been for over ten years. Even though I have been feeling stuck lately, this is what I know and I’m pretty good at it.  So what caused this change in attitude toward switching careers? A perusal of the contract book. While checking on a totally different topic, I took a look at the salary guide and realized that I am a lot cl

Is it ever too late to change careers? According to Sarah of   Life Comma Etc.  the answer is no. In her blog, she details all of the reasons why teachers should seriously consider changing careers even after dedicating several years to the profession. She explains how unrealistic expectations are placed on teachers and the amount of teacher accountability that has been tied to everything from test scores to student attendance. She highlights how the stress of the job impacts the health of teachers. More and more teachers suffer from anxiety and depression which leads to other illnesses. She provides the contrast of how in other careers you eventually master the things that you struggle with, but as educators we are presented with a new group of unpredictable students each year who bring their own set of challenges. Finally, she explains that teachers have marketable skills that can transfer to other careers. I enjoyed reading every word that was written and saw myself in each e

It is extremely rare that you find a teacher who has perfect attendance. There are so many unpredictable events in life and we work in a profession that understands that and provides both sick and personal days that accrue each year. But because we are teachers, we are expected to be perfect and ignore the things that occur in life that may prevent us from performing our best in the classroom. Even though these days are provided for us, we aren’t expected to actually use them. This guide is for the teacher who is hesitant to use those days. Here are the steps for taking a day off from work. 1. Gauge your mood.  Are you tired, hungover, anxious, depressed, stressed, sick, backed up on paper work, PMSing, had a bad break up, stubbed your big toe, have a pimple, ran out of contacts, having a bad hair day, or just detached? If you are experiencing anything that may negatively impact your performance in the classroom or distract you, it is likely that you may need to take a day. 2. C