"Does Barry Manilow Know That You Raid His Wardrobe?" --Breakfast Club

For almost all of my life, I love when a new school year started. When I was young, we had little money, but my parents and Memaw tried to buy us new clothes (or alter the hand-me-downs so they felt new:) Even though I went to school in a small town (graduating class was 76 students) and went to the school with the same people every year, it still was exciting. We had 2 or 3 classrooms for each grade level, so it was "who will be your teacher" and "am I in the class with my friends"--like it is now for children! I bet all of us can remember those fall mornings, getting new school supplies, and figuring out the bus schedule.

Since I loved school so much and was pretty good at it, I always wanted to be a teacher. Memaw and grandpa even bought me a 2 sided, stand alone chalkboard for me to play "teacher" with. I loved it and would spend hours on the chalkboard, making my class list, or drawing with colored chalk. I still remember all the chalk dust accumulating on the bedroom floor!

I had all the traits to be a good teacher and developed them in college--I was very organized, liked being in front of a class of people, tapped into some creativity for lessons, and helping people. I still have those qualities and when I retired, I starting writing this blog and this year went back into the classroom to teach senior citizens. I still enjoy teaching.

As a teacher, when the new school year came along, I had those same excited feelings. My teacher friends know what I am talking about. Getting excited to work on the classroom, start making new lesson plans, figuring out my goals for the year. Then, about 10 years ago, something changed. I wasn't excited about the new school year. I started dreading it. I would get the "Sunday Scaries" weeks before the school year started--usually when I got the "Back To School" letter from our principal. I still got excited going into my classroom and getting lessons ready but it was all the meetings that prevented me from setting up my classroom and creating my lessons that I dreaded. I wasn't alone. My teacher friends felt the same way. As the years continued, it got worse and worse--the scaries and the meetings.

When I retired and had some distance from the toxic admin, I thought things would get better. I would have a more balanced view of teaching. I still have some resentment but now I'm hearing from my fellow teachers and their pain and I'm back to being upset. When I am upset, I need to write...

We are all affected by teachers in some way. We all had teachers, some of you are teachers, and some of you have children who are in school and with teachers. Let me give you a glimpse of what teachers are going through right now...these are actual text messages and conversations from teachers in the past two weeks!

"Get me out of teaching. Please! Well, actually TEACHING is the only right part of my job. It is ALL the other things that are driving me crazy."

As teachers, we have a weekly meeting called PLC (or something similar). It is a Professional Learning Committee in which you meet with your colleagues to discuss curriculum, standards, lessons, etc. In any meeting, admin makes you set up rules or "norms" for the meeting. Norms like "I will be on time." "We will listen to everyone." "We will respect each other." Seriously??? We need to create norms about our teacher meetings?? What a joke.

"Yesterday, we had a half hour PLC in which we met as a first grade team with our 2 admins and some other lady and set the NORMS that we will be using in our PLCs. I am NOT joking...We had a half hour meeting to set up the rules that we will be using at our PLCs!"

"There's this new thing this year that came from the curriculum department. They have chosen two learning standards that they want us to be able to guarantee that each student will master. I'm sorry...What? Guarantee? How am I supposed to guarantee that a student will master something? I am not a wizard. I am not a miracle worker...I cannot guarantee anything about any person in this world."

"They also keep coming up with more acronyms for things...CFA, CL, CRA...I have no idea what anything means anymore."

"I teach first grade and have 20+ students in my class. I am keeping behavioral data sheets on two kids in my class already. I have to mark their behavior every 15 minutes of the day."

Teachers also hear things like this constantly....

"Teachers should work all those unpaid hours because they get so many holidays and summer off."

"Teaching is basically just babysitting."

"All classrooms should be teaching the same thing at the same time."

However, some administrators are finally seeing how unprofessional and unsupportive they are. Here are some dialogue from them....

"I use to say, 'Teachers, keep all of your students in your classroom all the time'. Now I say, 'His behavior is unacceptable. I'll keep him for the rest of the period'.

"I use to say, 'Bring your student work samples to our PLC meeting during your prep time'. Now I say, 'No meeting. Your planning time is your time."

"I use to say, 'Write down your 2 truths and 1 lie on this index card'. Now I say, 'No icebreakers. Use this time to work in your classroom'.

"I use to say, 'We will have a faculty meeting every Tuesday from 4-5 pm'. Now I say, 'No faculty meeting next week. I'll just email you with the important updates'.

"I use to say, 'Make sure your learning target is posted'. Now I say, 'How are you doing? Is there anything I can help you with?'

One principal has these 4 common sense strategies in his school.

1. Don't require teachers to submit lesson plans. Admin does not have time to read them. It doesn't make sense to require busy work.

2. We don't allow one student to ruin the learning environment for the other 29 students. Our admin is ready to support the teacher and not let them fend for themselves.

3. Give teachers planning time instead of requiring PLC meetings. We don't need to micromanage teachers' time.

4. Let teachers dress comfortably. We have bigger things to focus on then what people wear.

"Teachers don't need more micromanaging. They need more support."

I know all jobs have their good and bad. They all have the politics. Right now, companies are making employees come back into work. Why? So that their employees are more productive? No--it is because companies need to justify their rented space in the buildings!!

What's my advice (besides retiring as soon as you can!)? Be kind to others. We are all going through a rough time in our careers. It's difficult when you have good days and bad days and it seems the bad days are gaining strength. All careers, all professions are going through crap with their administrators, their managers, their bosses. Because of that, we all need to be kinder, gentler, more caring to each other.

Its Us against Them.