"Don't Be a Teacher."

Looking at the title of this post, you're probably thinking, "wait, what? You're an education major!" And yes, I am, but these words were spoken to me earlier today, by another teacher no less. 

Because students took the PSAT today, our whole schedule was thrown off and administrators combined two lunches, so Allisa and I sat with two other teachers I don't know very well. When Allisa got up lunch early to make copies, I was sitting at the table alone with these two women, and as soon as Allisa left, the griping and complaining began (Allisa is very positive and only confides in me and one or two other teachers but always with a positive spin, and she does so to remain professional, so other teachers get annoyed that she isn't annoyed, if that makes sense). Anyway, one of the teachers was complaining because she teacher the Early Childhood Education class and because the schedule was thrown off, the only time her students could work with the pre-schoolers was during nap time, and she was thoroughly annoyed. She then blamed administration for the PSAT- which they didn't choose to give students the PSAT, the state did. So in her complaining she said, "Well I should just tell these students to NOT become teachers." And, um, awkward because I was sitting right there, so I laughed. She then turned to me and said, "I know this isn't what you want to hear, but RUN. Run away very quickly." 

Seriously lady?! You having a bad day gives you no reason to tell me to leave this career path. And I always get annoyed when people tell me not to become a teacher. I know I won't fully understand until I'm teaching full time, but right now, at this time in my life, I am called to be a teacher. God has done so much with me in the 10 weeks I've been a "teacher," that I know it's where I'm supposed to be. 

This made me more sad than anything else. My cohort members and I face it every day. We take a Young Adult Literature course and we have teachers at our placement schools tell us all the time that it's a shame we won't be able to teach such wonderful books because they don't meet rigor requirements. And I see this at RCA. The department head is on Allisa all the time about students getting to read choice books. Books are given Lexile scores which determine the difficulty of the text based on diction, syntax, vocabulary, sentence structure, etc. Anyway, these Lexiles aren't actually that accurate because it put The Boy in the Striped Pajamas in the 12th grade reading level based on ONE passage, when the book could be read by a "typical" 7th grader easily. Regardless, the department head is convinced we aren't giving students challenging books, but I'm sorry, the fact that we have students who have never read a book during an academic year that have read FOUR books in 10 weeks. FOUR! I read a lot, and I'm sure the majority of the 14 books I've read since school started wouldn't be a Lexile score above 9th grade, but my world is still widening because of the content of the books. He says he doesn't understand because he gives the students the texts they're going to read and they read them; he doesn't have to "pull teeth" to do so. And I'm about to sound like a fifteen year old, BUT NO DUH YOU TEACH AP AND HONORS CLASSES! I was that AP and Honors kid, I did whatever it took to get the grade, regardless of how difficult the text was. I'm not saying that students in CP (college prep) classes aren't capable of reading difficult texts- they are MORE than capable, but if I have a student who hasn't read a book of his choice since he was in early middle school, how am I going to get him to read The Scarlet Letter and not feel miserable trying to understand Hawthorne's language? The department head makes me so angry.

And this is the thing- I'm at a charter school, where being innovative and creative should be encouraged, and this guy is angry because students aren't being "challenged" enough. In a world where information comes instantly and people literally have the world at their fingertips, sitting down and reading a book does not come easily to these kids. But we had students read 44 books over their one week break. Don't tell me that's not overcoming a challenge. If I'm seeing the push back from being innovative at a charter school, what's it going to be like at a public school? My cohort members and I talk about how we want to teach at private schools so we can actually teach and not just throw information at students and act like babysitter. 

I want the government to wake up. You're asking teachers for data, scores, and evidence of students meeting standards. You're shoving standardized tests down students' throats. You're forcing teachers to focus on numbers and not on people. You're forcing teachers to stand behind a podium and deliver information hoping that students get it. And because you're encouraging the kind of teaching where students sit in their seats all day teachers are really just becoming glorified babysitters. I sat in on a faculty meeting earlier this week where faculty received information about their insurance under Obamacare. Their insurance rates DOUBLED. Doubled- a teacher, who makes roughly $35,000 a year. A teacher gets paid for working 40 hours a week. I could easily spend 50 hours at the school every week, not to mention the fact that I've spent, as a student teacher countless hours grading essays, reading notebooks, quizzes, and planning lessons. I'm not trying to say that teaching is more difficult than any other career, but I am asking that the government wake up to what's actually happening. 

My cohort, a group of 23 bright, young, energized, and creative minds is entering the work force in a less than a year, and we don't want to teach in the public education system. UGA is the 3rd ranked education school in the nation. We're supposed to be some of the best of the best, and we don't want to teach in public school. Does that not say something? Teachers are tired. On top of everything required of being a teacher, you are asking us for data on every single student. Our job isn't to make them get good grades, our job is to help them learn, and not every student can prove they've learned by taking a test. All you see is data, assessments, pre-tests, post-tests, evidence. This is what you don't see...

Based on a silly activity on personification, I got a student who wrote two sentences for an essay to write a full paragraph personifying a basketball. She did this because she was allowed to be creative. For the activity they got up and moving- we laughed, and now she knows what personification means.

We have student who was ashamed for anyone to know he was smart. Reading wasn't "cool." Thanks to the opportunity to read whatever books he wants- and everyone has to read, he's read 6 books and has made reading "cool." His friends now read. Yes, he's still failing because he doesn't turn in work, but his outlook on being smart has been transformed.

A student had a blank paper on his desk today. When I asked him why he said he's confused and was too timid to ask a question. I had to explain the assignment differently, and several times, but he left with a smile on his face and half a page written.

When I let students write a rap in order to demonstrate their understanding of metaphor, they giggled the whole time and wrote a very impressive rap. They talked about metaphor in class today in their writing assignment.

I watched with a smile on my face as a student walked to the cafeteria for lunch while simultaneously reading her book. She has a low Lexile score, yet has read 9 books so far this year. As a book mark, she keeps a list of all of the words she doesn't know and then looks them up- this isn't required. She's challenging herself. 

And finally...
I had to talk to a student in the hallway today because she broke down because she didn't get a good grade on her essay. She still has a very high B in the class, but she cried and cried because it wasn't an A and she has so much pressure on her to succeed.

What do we want- students who learn through laughter and hands-on activities where they can express their knowledge and understanding through different mediums, or students who cry hysterically because they got a bad grade on an assessment? 

These students are more than numbers. They're more than data. They are living, breathing, growing people. Life isn't easy, and forcing 35 students into a small classroom to meet standards and produce evidence of their learning isn't going to happen using one method. These students are bright, even if they don't show it. They go through a lot more than we give them credit for. And these students, they have my heart. I look forward to seeing them during the week. I worry about them. I have trouble falling asleep at night because I'm thinking of ways to make lessons fun and brainstorming ways to make that one student have a light bulb moment. 

So what do we want? Who do we want these kids to become? How can we help them?

Smile, God loves you.