The End of a Career

 

After teaching in a dozen schools across six countries on 5 continents, I would like to end on a high. I am feeling more tired these days, more skeptical and less interested in earning money. My current superintendent just sent me a sealed note I had written to myself about why I got into teaching. The unfortunate fact is, I fell into teaching due to the fact that most expected me to be a teacher like my mother, and I wanted to explore the world.  Overseas teaching allowed me to do both, and the life style seemed to suit our family. 

 I have had moments of success that have convinced me to stay in teaching, and other catastrophic failures that haunt me in my dreams.  I desperately want some highs to minimize the low points when I look back over my 31 years of teaching. However, I am finding out that it doesn't work just to "try harder". Students will let you do all the work if you are not careful, and that means I end up learning more than they do. I also do not enjoy all the policing and ineffective motivating I do in my Media lessons.  How to make lessons fun and still be educationally engaging without the students running riot?

So in the last few weeks before I retire, I have been thinking of how I can make a difference to those who need it the most.  Although most schools I taught in cater for high income families, there are always a few students who have fewer opportunities in life: the ones who have no books at home; no access to a library; no technology or wifi; no time for clubs; no money for travel...  If I can provide a experience for these children that they would not otherwise have had, then I have made a difference. Their genuine smiles, as they choose books in the library or get a robot to work, make my day, and my career. 

These students don't really understand the value of  new opportunities that others take for granted. They simply appreciate being able to do something that makes them feel happy, successful and empowered. I notice how our 'scholarship' kids love coming to the library and take full advantage of our opening hours and collection. They have become my assistants, knowing how to find books and use the online catalog. For them school is both fun and serious business. Their parents are even more appreciative for this opportunity, being very involved however they can.  

More than anything, students from less privileged homes are getting more than an education from me, they are learning to take charge of their learning and their future. I thank my Marshallese Rikatak students for the memories they have given me.  I will always remember the little Kindergarten students asking me each time they come to the library: "Can I go to the big kids side?"

A Day in the Life of a Military Contract Teacher

 

I know, there is no such thing as a Military Contract Teacher, because military schools are run by DoDEA. However, I live and work on Kwajalein, which is the only military base with a school run by the military contractor.  Not only is this school unique in the fact that it is on a remote island atoll n the middle of the Pacific, but it also is run by a company with no experience in running educational establishments.  Let me give you a peek into a day of a teacher in a school run like a construction project or a supermarket. 

We teachers are paid by the hour, which is meaningless. I arrive at work, where I am the media specialist, when I please. I might delay my commute if it is raining, or decide to walk the one block to school. I unlock the library and check the AC. If it is not working (not infrequent) I have to plan to relocate and replan my lessons for the day. Last Saturday, a school day here, the AC was working, and I readied my space for the day's Library and STEM classes. Then I check my emails and see that three teachers will be out today, with no coverage or substitutes available. 

One of the teachers out today has been absent for over two months, but each day there is need to find a sub as if she just called in sick this morning.  Another teacher is battling illness, unexpected to complete the year, yet no one has considered finding her help or back up. Other teachers are in a position where they are either stressed out, or feel guilty about taking time off.  So we start the school day without three teachers, seeing what events unfold.

A specialist teacher is roped in to teach grade 1. She arrived late in the school year, due to another hire balking at the prospect of not being assigned housing on island, and didn't want to live in Batchelor Quarters without a kitchen and eat in the chow hall.  Since arriving, this teacher has found herself subbing nonstop for absent teachers in the ES, leaving little time for her assigned role. Systems are 'flexible' in our small island school, so when someone is replacing the regular teacher they are faced with no lesson plans or up-to-date schedule... just do whatever it takes to get through the day. As a consequence, students show up at the library at unscheduled times and without much warning. 

Half way through the day, the Kindergarten sub must of bailed, because the little tots showed up at my door looking like sheep without a shepherd. I lined them up and marched them back to their homeroom, hearing their complaints all the way. Half way there, some lively students decided to barricade the door, shutting their classmates outside. It took several administrators to unblock the door, but by then the students were trying to pull the fire alarm in the hall. After some stern words, I finally succeeded in corralling the little ones on the Library carpet ready for a story. At that point the teacher assistant announced that she needed the restroom, and I realized that I would be going it alone.

These students are like those is every other school... they need stability. It is already hard to lose students and friends as military families take on new assignments around the world. Starting a school year without a full teaching staff is never easy.  But seeing your colleagues come and go due to inappropriate military contract guidelines is just heartbreaking.