Category: Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today’s Classroom
This is what a big storm looks like from 37,000 feet !
Okay so you aced the interview & nailed down the job! Congrats & well done Old Boy!
Now what?
Well the Principal is going to call the District and tell them that they hired you. So off you go to Corporate Headquarters & Human Resources*.
When you do go. Make very sure that you have all your paperwork squared away. The School Secretary can help if you are really nice to them by the way.
The key things are a copy of all your College Transcripts, Teacher Credentials and other Certificates. As they will determine your place on the pay scale.
Hint -you want to be on the far right side and down as far as possible on this chart. So see if your Substitute Teaching time can be credited to it under experience. This can make your pay check a bit bigger by the way.
So anyways you are going to due a huge amount of paperwork. Get used to it as you have just joined the Civil Service.
Be smart and do some research on Health Insurance so that it will fit your needs. Also you can get your spouse & kids on this. I like Kaiser- Permanente myself but to each his own I say!
Then you will be sent to an orientation briefing. Where they will try and scare the snot out of you. Just don’t sweat it.
This will be followed by going back to YOUR School and meeting your Department Chair. Who will then assign you your classroom. Then on with a side trip to the Textbook room for your students books for them to sign for later on.
Hopefully you will have a day or so to set up and decorate your classroom. Before the flood of students arrive.
More later on, Good Luck & Hunting!
- HR can be your worst nightmare as they are the ones who will “Investigate” any misconduct that might come your way. Be very wary of these folks and avoid if possible. They will also be the ones to screw up your pay & benefits.
So let us say that you have survived the first couple of months as a Substitute Teacher and you kinda like it. Plus you found a School District that is a good fit for you.
You might even have had a couple of long term assignments. Which really helps the old bank account & helps the old ego too!
Now what?
So you have a few options ahead of you & time enough to decide. Since you are drawing some semi regular pay now.
So if you want to go for the “big bucks” then its back to University for your Regular Teaching Credential. Sucks huh?
Plus that as a Sub you already have some real life experience. Which tells you that most of the stuff that they teach you will not work in the classroom. So just suck it up and soldier on.
Hopefully your District will help out some. Also if its considered a hard to staff district. (Inner City or Rural Areas) You can get some loan forgiveness for your student loans. Which is nothing to sneer at these days.
Also you will probably get Benefits life Health Insurance and possibly a pension. No too shabby
So after going thru the hoops at University. You then have to go and interview with the District for a job. Now if you have done any Substitute work there. You will have an inside shot at a job.
So when you come to the interview with the Principal. Make sure that you have a good outfit on and a positive attitude. Plus please remember this! That the Principal & or other staff at the interview is more vastly nervous than you are. (My Old Principal Bill told me this years later.)
The key questions to them are this. Does this person know their subject and will they fit in at my school. The second one being the most important.
More later on !
Grumpy
Map of space junk in orbit around us
Art
Do NOT trust anyone at work until you have known them for a school year!
The Administrators are not your friend or ally!
People think that yelling is “talking” to the student
If you let them and listen. The students will teach you a lot!
If you show respect to your students you will get it back two fold.
I was extremely lucky to have such great students in my career!
We do not challenge our students hard enough or well either
While we claim to want excellence. We settle for good enough
Why not the Best? God knows we spend enough money on education!
That we try to teach too much & badly for the most part
Most School Unions are only good for taking their dues out of your paycheck!
You either have too much time or not not enough!
You will always run out of work before the end of class
Your supervisor will alway show up when a disaster has just happened in your class.
Your students will always say something shocking to a class visitor.
Students can smell Bullshit a mile away & will call you on it!
Teaching is like herding a bunch of skittish cats!
Everything at School is Political
Never count on anything to happen
There is no magic bullet in Education
Seeing a students eyes light up because they now understand something that you taught them is a little miracle to behold!
There are a lot of folks out there drawing the pay of a teacher. But there are really very few real teachers out there!
Teacher training is a joke! I just Thank God that I was in the Army. Which actually taught me a lot about real education.
I was a so so teacher & a legend in my own mind
The older I get the better I was!
After all these years, I still do not know how folks learn anything
I guess that I was one hell of an actor as I fooled them all after 24 years of teaching!
Right, Now moving on smartly!
Here are somethings that worked for me & who knows? They might work for you also.
Faces / Masks
Now I am sure that you are thinking “What is the Old Duffer going on about this time?”
As a Teacher or Leader for that matter. Since I most firmly believe that all good teachers have to have Leadership Traits or habits.
One must learn to have a mask to hide behind. By this I mean the following. That you have to develop a sort of Poker Face when you are in the presence of Students & others.
Where you seem calm and collected even though you are on the verge of blind panic & or rage.
Because of the really dumb things / outrages that one of your so called students have just committed.
“Why did you just crucify the Class Hamster? Uh huh! Okay go to the office and we shall talk about this later. All right class let’s get to work!”
This was one of the hardest things that I had to learn. But if you do not learn it. The kids will run roughshod all over you!
Now I mean the following in the nicest way possible.
But for a lot of our students. They are savages that have no clue on how to behave in civilisation. So it is up to the teachers to show them the way. By our actions, behaviors and examples.
And if you think that they are not watching you very closely. Then brothers & sisters are you in for a surprise! As they note all your mannerisms, habits, dress, deportment, views, opinions and prejudices.
Plus if you lose your composure / cool, then you have lost face & the respect of your kids. And there a lot of kids & “adults” who just live for that by the way.
So do not kid yourself ! Especially since there is no such thing as privacy or secrets at school. By the by. The biggest bunch of gossips by the way are your fellow teachers.
This is why I avoided the Teachers lounge like the plague when I was still in the game.
That and teachers are some of the most depressing folks to be around at times. Plus some of them are the biggest booze hounds outside of the service.
Also now that we live in the age of the Cell Phone. One has to conduct themselves knowing that that they are under constant surveillance. Which will never go away either!
So try and remember that and conduct yourself accordly. Like from the minute you step out of your home and until you get back to it from work.
As Big Brother is alive & well out there.
God am I ever glad that I am retired!
Ah the good old Days, Sadly though this has gone the way of the Dodo! But that is just the way it is.
So what is today’s teacher suppose to do? Especially when you get called to the office to “talk” to your supervisor. About their “concerns” of your classroom management.
(Yes Teachers also get sent to the office for screwing up!)
Here are a few thoughts of mine that you might want to ponder upon.
Almost everyone at school does NOT want to be there! Shocking huh? I myself could rattle off a dozen or so things or places that I rather be & or doing. But since I have these horrible habits of paying my bills & eating. Guess what!
School can be & is extremely boring most of the time! Plus we teach a lot of stuff that nobody will most likely never use. I am retired now so I can safely say this heresy.
Most students only go to school to see their friends & not get hassled by their parents. (If the parents actually care which most Thank God do!)
So here we go!
- Learn to make deals with your students! If you do this & is then I will do this and this in return.
- No student is a like but they all have some things in common.
- That is respect, fair dealings and reasonable standards
- They all have something to give & will give it if you give them a chance.
- There is going to a good chance that you will be the only REAL Adult that they will see & deal with all day. Scary huh?
- You represent the State & Authority. Which can cause a lot resentment for no reason whatsoever. Who ever said life was fair was lying & an idiot too! So what does this mean in the Queen’s English you say?
Deals – Now in real life a Teacher has really got zero juice when it comes to real power. But the Kids generally do not know this.
So here are a few things that worked for me. “If the student shows up and does not screw the pooch for say the week. Then I am prepared to do this….(Call the parent & say Junior is really doing well this week. Write a positive letter to them or commendation, give out a reference for a job etc etc.)”
I myself had a student of the week / month program & good grams based on GPA & behavior/ That worked pretty good.
Student Contracts – Where both you & the student agree that WE are going to do our best! Strangely this really works!
Some more stuff later on!