"See you in September..."

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized." - Haim G. Ginott

     The summer's over and a teacher's anxiety begins in real time.  It's not just nervous anticipation about the classroom that is felt.  Turn on the news, and witness all of the changes taking place throughout the country with respect to public education and you will witness genuinely serious concerns.  The cultures of schools are changing with necessary vengeance.  The blinders are off. 

     There's a great deal we could say about our experiences in public education.  As a young person, it was never my intention to become a teacher.  All I wanted do to was to help people, to be of service or work with the public in some capacity.  I wanted to be a pastor,  writer, an actor, a baker, a butcher, a candle stick maker.  I wanted to do everything and anything.  Who needed focus when there was so much ahead in "adult-land?" I could do anything I wanted to do when I turned 18 and I did. The beauty and the stupidity of youth was never wasted on me.

     At 57, in my thirteenth year of teaching, every summer that has gone by there has been the personal ritual of licking my wounds from the school year and regrouping from the exhaustion from all of the middle school interaction. (Five performances a day folks. Don't forget to tip your waitress.").  As years go by, It would appear that the older I get, the less important it is to be "right."  Being kind, seems to have taken precedent and as September looms, it's that emphasis that has me fixated on making sure I am above all, teaching from the heart. 

     For any teacher, September means starting with a fresh outlook, and hopefully fresh ideas as well.  Creativity becomes our greatest motivator.  The slate is clean.  We will be observed and critiqued and observed again and let's not forget about tested.  Our students get tested and we will be tested. In those moments, individuality and personal care goes out the window.  Scores become the indicator.  Did we in fact do our jobs or not?  My physical exhaustion in June, tells me all I need to know about how hard I worked. That unfortunately is not an acceptable measurement of teacher effectiveness. 

     Teaching is a political adventure. In September, we begin not only answering to our students, but their parents, their guardians, our colleagues, our administrators, our school boards and the public at large.  We answer to local, state and federal decision-making.  When a student fails, we all fail. Parents, teachers, administrators, society at large. It will be up to the one who failed to reestablish personal priorities and figure out how to regroup.  This has happened time and time again.  We feel we are the ones who failed when a student fails. I am not speaking for my colleagues, but I know how are hard it is to watch a student sabotage themselves and turn their backs on the help that is readily made available to them, each and every day.  I think most of my colleagues would agree. We show our concern each and every school day. We're not perfect by any means. We lick our wounds.  We move forward because we are committed to do so. 

With September looming,  I hope for nothing more than a year filled with success and joy for all of us.  Let us not forget to laugh.  For our kids, their families, our colleagues, support staff, our administration and everyone else who has a part to play in the well-being and safety of a public school, my respect and my heart knows the value you give without asking for anything in return. This may sound dramatic but we all answered the "calling" to work with the young.  It is a "calling."  September looms...we are again called to perform the multitude of responsibilities to protect and educate those kids in our charge.  So I'll be there in September with my colleagues and when the bell rings, we will all be ready with all of the survival skills we've accumulated and some, some that remain to be learned...