Hang In There, Newbies!

     It is a fact that our education system here in the US has been attacked by nearly every media source in this country.  It is a fact that many of our citizens believe that teaching is a cushy job where the workday is over at 3:30, and that summer vacation for the "Haves" isn't fair to the "Have not's."  It is a fact that many people in this country feel that teachers are already overpaid, and that any talk related to higher income for teachers is a conversation meant only for the idle minded.  It is a fact that political entities have slashed budgets at the expense of Art programs, Theater programs, and any other programs related to the Arts!  It is a fact that teachers have been placed under a microscope, and scrutinized to the point of mass paranoia.  It is a fact (According to the National Education Association) that one-half of all college graduates who majored in some form of education with the dream of becoming a teacher, leave the profession after two years.  It is a fact that teachers are now expected to cater to the whims of parents, and subjected to the caustic rants of mom's and dad's who believe that their child's teacher must be a liar, or a tyrant for taking recess away.  It is a fact that we have lost good teachers, and that optimism for the staying power of future educators is very low. 
     It is to this last point...the staying power of new or future teachers...that I wish to take issue.  Everything else in the above paragraph?  If my intention here was to write a 1442 page War and Peace type novel, I could then scratch the surface of the above factoids.  I haven't the time, nor the inclination to do this.  This post is for our NEW EDUCATORS, and those who are aspiring to teach.  First...you will become well versed in acronymous speech.  NCLB, RTTT, DCAS, DSTP, PTO, PLC, RTI.  You will come to know what each is, what each stands for, and to what importance your district and government has placed upon each of them.  Allow this knowledge to be cerebral...learn it consciously!  The only acronym I want you to absorb, to assimilate into your very being, to make as much a part of you as your capacity to love, honor and cherish is this...FELPS!  Fight the good fight, Endure, Love your students, Persevere, and Stay the course! 
     To fight the good fight!  You have to know going in that educating young minds is not an easy task.  As an educator you must (On a daily, moment to moment basis) engage, educate, entertain, encourage, and evaluate your kids.  You have to do with 30 kids what most parents try desperately to do with two!  You must regard your homeroom as you would regard your own home...it is yours!  In time it will become a second home to your kids, but it IN NO WAY belongs to the parents of your students.  The rules, expectations, and overall atmosphere of your classroom comes from you, and you alone.  Chances are phenomenally good that you will encounter parents who have control issues (every year), or feel that their way is far better than yours!  STAND YOUR GROUND!  Be upfront with your parents right at the off!  Send home your mission statement, classroom expectations, and any other written communication about you and your Way in the classroom on the first day...better yet...prior to the beginning of the school year.  Then, at Open House...drive your Way home!  Don't let there be any surprises for your parents.  Be professional, but do not be afraid to fight for what you know is right.  Be open, be empathetic, but most of all be honest, and show strength in your convictions.  Like some of your students, some parents will be under the delusion that they can get anything they want if they display certain behaviors.  You must be able to show that those behaviors do NOT work in your classroom!  There have been a few times where I have had to deal with parents who felt that their Way was far superior to mine.  After some talking, and explanations (To no avail) my response (s) was...it is my way or the highway...you can like it or lump it...the door you came in will also lead you out, I will miss my student!  Don't be an ass if you can help it (No matter how much of an ass the parent might be), but don't be wishy-washy either.  If you have a principal who supports you...get them involved.  There is nothing wrong with having a boss at your back, but the first line of defense will always come from you!
     Endure!  You will be confronted with a multitude of tasks that will not include the time for educating your kids.  Grading papers, grading tests, attending mandated PLC meetings before or after school, planning lessons, planning them again...and again, attending faculty meetings, inservice attendance, entering data into the I-tracker data base, running reports, filling out paper work, keeping up with Common Core standards, staying on track with pacing, writing audits, planning field trips, maintaining correspondence with parents, keeping classroom supplies stocked (Supplies you will purchase) will occupy a huge chunk of your time.  You can expect to not get out of your classroom daily until close to 5:00pm  (Unless you take work home with you) and that may be on a good day!  In addition, you will have to deal with your students' behavioral issues all day (Good and bad).  There is no real Age Appropriateness for behavioral issues in school...every grade level is peppered with them.  You must endure!  Know going in (Every year) that...unless your kids are automatons who sit quietly; programmed to listen and obey your every word...you will have kids that chat, pass notes, gossip, bully, joke, and zone out every day.  This is a given...it WILL be.  Though you must endure, though you must carry on, it will be up to you as to what frequency and degree these behavioral issues impact your class.  YOU are the guiding force.  You are the leader down the path.  Grow eyes in the back of your head, and strengthen your sixth-sense.  Through consistency, your kids will come to know where the line is.  Your kids will come to respect you, and quelling these everyday behaviors will come down to...a look from you...a short reminder or prompt, or a letter of encouragement for a job well done.  You will have to endure, but that does not mean you will ever have to accept defeat, or become controlled by your class.  Things will happen...everyday.  Don't allow yourself to hope that all will be perfect.  Perfection is subjective and can walk hand in hand with unrealistic expectations.  I have had a perfect class every year, and no one alive could ever convince me otherwise, yet I never had unrealistic expectations!   I have loved my kids every year in spite of the fact that I have had to raise an eyebrow, or call a kid back from the abyss daily.  It isn't a temporary thing (Behavioral issues).  It is an everyday, it will happen kind of thing!  Your job is to give your kids a reason to make better choices.
     Love your kids!  It is probably true (It happened to me) that some wizened educator, or a college professor told you to NOT TO GET TOO CLOSE TO YOUR STUDENTS.  To keep them always at an arms distance, and make education the forefront of your classroom.  What a bunch of horseradish!  You will spend nine months, seven and one half hours a day with your students.  How could anyone spend that much time with kids (More time than most of their own parents spend with them) and not fall in love with them?  You will love your kids!  If you have a heart and a soul...you will conjugate the verb to love!  In every child there is a part, a very significant part, that needs to be disciplined...that needs to be told NO!  All children will argue that this part does NOT exist.  What they won't argue with is their lists of respected, and most loved people.  Newbies sometimes think (So do some parents) that if I holler or hand-out a consequence my kids will hate me.  NOT TRUE!!!!   Your kids will PLAY YOU!    That kind of mentality hands all power over to the kids!  You will see the best and worst qualities in your kids.  You will witness heartache, and dry tears.  You will punish your bully, and UNteach him/her what he has spent 10 years learning.  You will say No, and mean it.  You will enforce rules without wavering, and you will encourage, congratulate, and celebrate your kids every chance you get.  Being mean...imposing belittling consequences, or just hollering at a kid cause you are pissed is like the saying about sitting in a rocking chair...it keeps you moving, but it gets you no where!  Yell if you need too, but never without instruction...never without encouragement...never without showing and modeling how to fix a mistake; showing how to ensure the same mistake never happens again.  New teachers...a happy kid will move mountains.  A kid who is validated, and shown honesty (Even if it is hurtful) is a kid who feels important.  When a kid feels important they feel loved and cared for, and this makes mountain movers!.  When your students trust you, when they know who you are and what you are about then you have a classroom.  This transfers to the parents, especially when they see that little Johnny actually LIKES school!  Your kids will do anything for you when they feel loved, and appreciated!  This can be profoundly powerful...wield that power wisely.  Lead your kids down the path towards each of their own destinies...not yours.  No matter what grade you teach, when you genuinely love your kids they will love you back.  You will find that your kids will come back again and again to visit throughout the years  You will make a difference!  Something else, Newbies...learn the difference between disciplining a kid for you, and disciplining a kid for the kid.  If that statement does not make sense...it will.  My fondest hope is that it will someday.  Also Newbies...remember...NEVER FORGET...you are educating kids.  Let them BE kids!  Have some fun!  Break up the daily monotony with a joke, or some music!  Have the kids do the Macarene after or before a test!  Every Friday...stop the school day a bit earlier (If the kids earned it), pack-up and pop in a movie for the last 20 minutes.  Throw holiday parties; let your kids help plan them.  Be a nutball...cut loose, especially when the subject is felt to be notoriously boring by your kids...like Math!  Your kids will relax, and they will know that no matter what...you and they are in it together!  (MOST IMPORTANT...don't force your kids to love you.  Don't spoil the kids, or your parents.  The return is false love...false respect from your kids.  The kids will do ONLY when you GIVE.  the one time you DON'T GIVE...the kids WILL attack!  Be REAL, don't be a phony.  Kids can smell a phony and an easy-target from a mile away...like sharks with blood!)
     Persevere!  This could be used as a synonym for Endure, but I believe this core value runs much deeper in an educators soul.  Newbies this is especially true for you!  New educators...the ones worth their salt...will constantly question themselves.  You may feel that you cannot control your class.  You will see other classes that seem so meticulously organized that it makes your class look like a pack of rabid wolverines.  You may find your kids constantly chatting during a lesson, or that the test you gave yielded more 70%'s than you thought it should have.  You may have administrators questioning your methods with parents tagging along side, further causing you to question yourself.  You may find that your nights are taken up with grading and lesson planning, or that you have had to reorganize dinner time for your family, because you never get home before 5:00.  You may realize (Especially if single) that you will have to find a second job during the summer just to keep up with bills.  You may find yourself asking...why did I ever do this?  Dearest new teachers, if you ever felt, or thought the way I have described above...give yourself a pat on the back!  You have the makings of an amazing, effective educator. 
     In college you were given all of the knowledge in order to teach a subject, but there is no college class anywhere that can truly teach you how to BE a teacher!  Like anything else done well, you must develop it.  You have to find your style, your WAY in the classroom.  You will discover that what you tried in the beginning was thrown out the window after your first year.  Like new parents...there is NO guide on how to be truly effective.  You will make mistakes, and you will have monumental blunders.  Don't give up...persevere!  When you are questioned by administrators, or mentors...keep a stiff upper lip!  Explain, be open to advice.  In time...show them what you've got!  Be adaptable, be pliant.  Be willing to work a lesson until you achieve all 90's and 100's!  Realize that not every grade has to go into your grade-book!  Practice should just be practice...no kid should have to pay for practice!  Once mastery is achieved...then grade-book it!  Find a veteran teacher (One that you respect, or is respected) and latch on!  Swallow your pride and ask questions!  You won't feel so alone when you have a respected mentor at your back.  If one plan of attack (Regarding behavioral issues) doesn't work...mold a new one!  Realize that incentives work a hell of a lot faster than consequences.  Establish yourself as the alpha in the room, and roar if that is what is needed to get your kids' attention. 
     So many new teachers find that...once in the classroom...being an educator is REAL WORK!  Dealing with the kids on a daily basis is work to the 7th power!  Stick with it!  Once you find your Way...your kids will follow.  Once you gain your confidence, administrators will stop questioning.  Once you gain control...your kids will love you!
     Stay the course!  Ahhh yes!  The key word here is STAY!  Teaching will never become less busy!  Recent history shows that our workload will only become MORE loaded!  You will never get rich teaching, yet the rewards are far more valuable.  Like various parables, and fables state...we don't feed our kids turnips, we teach them how to garden (Something to that effect).  Is it tough?  YUP!  Is there a tremendous amount of work and responsibility?  YUP!  Will it be frustrating?  Double-YUP!  Will you feel like pulling out your hair sometimes?  YUP! 
     Realistically speaking all of the above is true, but think of what you are charged with doing.  In your class there could be the future doctor who cures cancer....because of you!  You may be teaching Science to the kid who one day will find the answer to the Everything Theory...because of you!  You could be nurturing the kid who will write the next, great American novel, or who achieves Gold in the Olympics...all because of you!  Will all the good come quickly?  No...afraid not.  You must endure, and persevere.  Will the bad come quickly...yup, but isn't that always the way? 
     We are artists and entertainers in the classroom.  Great art takes time, and anything worth doing is worth doing well.  Keep your eye on the prize, dearest Newbies.  Stay the course, hurtle the obstacles, charge through the blockades, expect the unexpected (Everyday).  Think of it this way, you have at your disposal a kind of magic.  This magic opens doorways to the future.  The influence you have on the young minds that you teach...or will teach...may be monumental...they could be the minds that change our world.  The broken hearts that you encounter along the way, will heal or remain healed just because you stayed.  Pound the walls when you need to.  Bang your head on the white board if it helps.  Scream from the mountaintops if only to release your frustration!   Just stay the course!  FELPS it, teachers...give it the time it needs.  Your life...just as the lives of the students in your class...will be forever changed!
    
    

New Age Kids!

     When I was ten we didn't have cable.  In 1974 many people on my block were also riding the antenna, and we were all at the mercy of the weather.  A clear sky meant good reception, a cloudy sky meant none.  In those days cable meant a clear picture (Clouds or not) with a maximum of 12 channels.  Saturday mornings found kids my age in front of the TV watching cartoons till about noon.  After school we had the same lineup until dinner time...Tom & Jerry, the Three Stooges, Wee Willy Weber!  Saturdays, and after school were the only two times mainly geared to kids and TV.
     Everyone on my block did share one item...land line phones.  We had the standard rotary phone upstairs, and a NEW, streamline, push button model that hung on our kitchen wall.  Unless our grandparents wanted to speak with us, we kids had no need of the phone...we called no one, and no one called us.  We really didn't care about the phone at all.
     We played Hide and seek, Red Rover, King of the Mountain, and Red light - Green light.  We rode our bikes everywhere. We played every game of tag we knew of (Freeze, TV, etc.) and built forts in any room my mom allowed us too, with anything we could find that wasn't off limits.  Sometimes I would play my 8-track tapes to pass the time, or really loudly to annoy my sister.
     I ran down, or up to a friend's house.  When it was time to go in (When the street lamps came on in the summer...dinner time in the winter) I left my friends and went home, not seeing them or talking with them until the next day.  Dinner time was 5:00, and bedtime was 9:00 sharp (I was the oldest, all of ten years old...I got to stay up late!)
     Was it a simpler time?  Certainly it was.  Comparing what we had then with what we have now is like comparing an apple to Apple (You know...the computer company?)  Was it a different time?  Again...certainly it was, but in what way different?  George Carlin (Loved him), in one of his stand-up masterpieces, stated that we have simply acquired too much stuff!  Everywhere there is stuff, and more and more people are trying to get more stuff!  Mr. Carlin was right.
     In the last 38 years technology alone has blown up exponentially; expanded to the Outer Limits, and has become integrated into nearly everyone's life in one way or another.  The stuff that we crave and acquire today can instantly message someone from anywhere to everywhere, find a restaurant at a click or a flip, play a wall-sized movie in your home, allow you to call someone without using your hands, play video games that rival major theatrical productions, surf an invisible-all inclusive-informational-entertainment in all forms web that encircles the Earth in the time it takes to press a few keys.  We have major cable conglomerates that give us access to hundreds and hundreds of channels for television viewing, and we have portable devices that allow us to do everything from chat to friends in other countries in the blink of an eye, to finding the exact location of a friend via a GPS satellite link-up!  In 1974 we had the board game Operation and sticks (Don't chuckle at sticks...I had some real fun pretending to be King Arthur!)
     The above paragraph pertains to everyone...including kids!  Kids are doing and experiencing everything stated above, and they are doing it far better than this old Irishman.
     I have heard scholars and politicians....educators and administrators state that our youth has become desensitized.  That our children are exposed to every kind of information that is available in the world!  Whether it be from the Internet, or television NOTHING is sacred any longer.  A kid can google anything they want.  If parents have imposed Parental Control on the TV or computer...chances are real good that the kid involved can hack the system when the parents are asleep and cyber where they want! 
     Communication is no longer person to person, it is smart-phone to smart-phone.  Bullies are no longer on the playground, or hidden in a hallway nook...they are on FB or Twitter!
     Video games take kids through gory, epic battles with aliens, or zombies, or pimps!  Kids can choose how to kill an enemy, or simply choose to kill any character any way they wish.  Online gaming allows kids to play these games over the Internet with other kids from all over the globe using headsets so they can talk, argue, or cuss at one another.
     Desensitized?  When the cavemen were exposed to tools, I doubt they ever looked back to the time without.  When ancient explorers breached the horizon to find they did not fall off the earth...they traveled to new horizons, did they not?  With every innovation comes human change as well...right?  Do kids know more about the world; what is in it both good and bad?  YUP!  Do they have the means to find out whatever they want at a key stroke?  Is it a good thing...darn tootin!  Could it be a bad thing...darn tootin!  Either way I believe desensitized is a harmful, inaccurate way to describe our kids, our NEW AGE kids.
     The kids today are different from the kids of yesterday.  Technology rules the kingdom, and the kids of today wield the power.  It isn't their fault that each of them were born into the world of today.  They, like all of us have done in turn, are taking what is available and surviving, thriving and future striving!
     Now...go back 50 years...60 years.  Kids went down into mines where adults feared to tread.  They worked for 12 hours a day in factories, and even fought in wars!  Kids are far more resilient than most of us give them credit for.  Let us NOT diminish there importance, or their differences by using words like desensitized.
     Here is what I know about my kids...my ten year old fifth-grade students.  Not just from this year...from every year I have taught.  In so many ways what is available to my kids is far and above different than what was available to me.  In countless ways my NEW AGE kids are different from my generation of kids mainly, almost entirely, because of all the STUFF.  What IS the same...what my New Agers and my generation have in common...what we share about being ten?  We share being a kid.
     My ten year olds giggle at inappropriate things.  They are afraid of ghosts, and even though they each will deny it...they all sleep with a light on.  They play tag, and hide-n-seek.  They cry when they are hurt, and want friends to play with.  They make forts, and play dress up.  They have sleep overs, and play outside till the street lights come on.  They ride bikes, and scooters and run races competitively.  They mostly know that Santa is a myth, but harbor a hope that he IS out there...somewhere.  They want attention, some need attention.  Some fidget in their seat, others fidget out of their seat.  They play their I-pods to pass the time, or while doing homework.  They rejoice, they fight, they make-up, they love to eat candy.
     My kids are still kids.  Highly advanced in technology (Hell of a lot more than I), but still kids.  They all have stuff, but internally they are all as I was...as you were.  Just as it has always been, and just as it will always be...kids will be kids!