Settling In for the Long Haul

We've now gone through two and a half weeks of school. I'm getting to know my students better and better and we're coming to know what to expect of one another. In another couple of weeks we'll have settled in quite nicely. The good news is that the place where we're settling is a good one in which to be, while the place I landed three weeks in last year was no where close to what I wanted.

While not every one of my students is listening and completing their work, I feel that the few problems I'm experiencing with management can be dealt with. Last year at this time my class and I had settled in for a repeat of WWI- trench warfare for the rest of the year. Because the tone set was one of struggle and me fighting to take control of the class, that was the routine we settled into the first month of school and it was one I had to deal with the rest of the school year. On most days the students and I fought to gain ground while in the long run very little progress was made. We spent the entire year charging across No Man's Land, them throwing paper balls, pencils and pens and me firing angry directives back at them, what seemed like all day every day. It as exhausting and it ground us all down.

The bad news for first year teachers is that if you've gotten off to a rocky start, you have to wait until next year for a brand new one. The good news is that it's not too late to really dig in, make sure things are consistent and get to work. While the year is going to be a trying one, your learning curve can be drastic and your students can certainly learn a lot. Make sure you're talking to colleagues and always working to make things better. Start developing procedures and ideas with your students and, even if they don't seem to be working, stick to your guns as you get bigger guns.

If you're doing anything like I did last year, you may be trying a thousand different things right now simply to get the students quiet and working. That's a mistake. Pick a couple strategies and stick to them. The students need structure and if you are trying a new management strategy every two days they know that if they ignore you enough whatever "rule" you're trying to push on them will go away. Working to improve does not mean trying a thousand new things with your students. In part it means working to get your game face on and to keep it on, as well as figuring out your teacher persona. As you do that, variation will decrease and your management will improve.

Today's Wine: Laurel Lake Chardonnay Reserve. This was a wine we had on Saturday's wine tour. I haven't posted much about white wines because the big reason for posting about wine is to promote good health and the white wines don't do nearly as much for you a the reds. That said, when I come across a white I really like it's something I usually tell my friends about. This one fits the bill. It's smooth, hardly acidic and you can really taste the vanilla and fruit.

Here's to Cultural Sensitivity

Today New York City public schools get the day off for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. There is such a large Jewish population in New York and there are so many Jewish teachers in the public schools that the city has to recognize the holiday, or there wouldn't be enough subs to go around. Back in Kansas there are many fewer Jewish residents, so few in fact that when I was growing up I hardly realized that things such as antisemitism still existed, as I didn't realize there were sizable Jewish populations left in the U.S. While I can't be certain, I don't think a single one of my students is Jewish. There's also no way I can be certain their knowledge of the holiday, but I would guess that it's pretty minimal.

Today I'm taking the time to run errands and relax a bit. While still getting a few things done, it's important to take time out when it's given to you even at this point in the year. One nice thing about getting the federal holidays and the Jewish holidays off is that you get to run around and enjoy the lunch specials in the city that people with other jobs often get to take advantage on a daily basis. I'd like to chalk this one up to getting to know the city a bit better and thereby improving my ability to teach "local culture."

Today's Wine: Jelu Malbec 2005. This is a decent red, but you can probably get a better Malbec for the same amount of money.

First Year Mentors

Something that got me through the first year was the ability to rely on veteran teachers to advise me on how to fix the problems I was experiencing. During the two weeks leading up to school I was still suffering from the syndrome that struck a lot of us at the School of Ed: a confusion between enthusiasm/knowledge of new ed theories and experience in the field. I was also stricken with a bit of the assumption that being fresh out of college gave us unlimited advantages over our elderly colleagues.

After the shenanigans of the first day of school last year and a second day that wasn't much better, I trashed my carefully planned first unit and went on hands and knees to my mentor. I asked her to give me a lesson- any lesson that could possibly work in front of the students. I admitted for the first time perhaps in my entire life that I had absolutely no idea what to do to solve a problem. "Eating humble pie" seemed like an understatement.

She told me to stand up and walked me step by step through a very basic lesson plan that with which the students would be familiar and that they might actually attempt to complete. It was in that first week that nearly all the arrogance was washed out of me (not all of it, but close). I was so tired and defeated that there was no way that I could think that I was a hot shot of any sort, especially as a teacher.

Things got better in large part because I started asking questions. I asked a lot of questions. In addition to the mentor that the school assigned me (one of the best teachers I've ever met and one of our most senior staff members at the ripe old age of 38), I took on two other mentors- the woman who taught my course the previous year and the assistant principal who actually went through my School of Ed back in Kansas fives year before I did and who had my job a couple years prior. This team of mentors propped me up throughout the year, gave me feedback, lesson plans, and unit plans and saw to it that I survived. Without them it's quite likely I wouldn't have made it.

My advice to newbies is to find a mentor or two who you respect and trust at school. If the mentor the school assigns you is not helpful, which has been the experience of a lot of my friends, do what you have to for them and find another one to actually talk to, bounce ideas off of, and from whom you can get the support you'll need. Make a habit out of talking to them and running ideas by them. They should be able to give you ideas on management and planning that you probably won't think of otherwise.

Today's Wine: Yesterday I went on another wine tour out on Long Island to celebrate the birthday of one of my mentors. We had a lot of wine of course, but I thought I'd slip in a dessert wine to mark the celebration: Duck Walk Vineyard Boysenberry Fruit Wine. It was really tart, but really good and would go well with any fruity dessert.

Very, Very Tired

After a couple weeks last year I was aching for more sleep and wondering how it was at all possible that the teachers at the school didn't look like zombies. Going into the year I thought that working harder would do the trick when it came to planning and management. Incorrect.

Last year's journal quote:

At the end of the second week I'm experiencing am exhaustion I've never experienced before. It's worse than the semester in college during which I was averaging about four hours of sleep a night over the month leading up to finals week; worse than fourteen hour shifts at a short-order restaurant during which I tried to convince sixteen year-old potheads to clean coffee machines while at the same time being hounded by the elderly for more jelly packets they intended to steal.

I came home on Friday with the very real intention of drinking a bottle or two of wine to numb whatever I could feel. I made it through most of dinner and half a glass of wine and passed out with my head on my folding table and slept nearly through the night.


This year I'm a bit tired, but the reduced stress level and the fact that I'm not yelling at all in my classes has helped me keep from being fatigued. Last year I hit a level of exhaustion that wasn't healthy. While I'm pretty tired writing this right now, and a bit stressed out about getting everything done for this unit and for Friday, I know that I'll at least get something planned and that it will most likely go relatively well. Last year I was scrambling every waking hour to try to make my life at school better. That just made things worse.


Tonight's Wine: Charles Shaw Cabernet. I'm going out to Long Island again this weekend for a birthday wine tour, so I should pick up a few things that are a bit more interesting. The catch is that I need to drink more Charles Shaw to be able to afford those more interesting things.

Follow Through

Last year as I began the year I was wrestling with a lot of assumptions that were based on my experience student teaching and substitute teaching. The problem with these assumptions were that many of them were wrong and/or applied to a vastly different setting. The result of many of these assumptions and my presumed success as a student teacher left me incredibly confident. That, paired with my inexperience with the urban population my students were part of, led me to make a major mistake: telling students how I was going to act and what I was going to do to help them and being able to follow through with those statements.

It is impossible to know exactly what to do on the ground if you haven't already been there. Telling students exactly what you are going to do for the entire year when you have no real experience is ludicrous. It writes your own sentence on the wall and paints you into a corner that's very difficult to get out of.

An example of something I promised last year was that I wouldn't be absent a single day. Because I hadn't missed a single day as a student teacher or substitute teacher I made the assumption that I could make it the entire year without missing day. Clearly this is a stretch, especially for a first year teacher who will almost definitely become ill at least once during the year. I had to leave school early and call in one day last February because I was deliriously sick. I barely made it home from school, nearly passing out on the train and on a platform when transferring, which could have been pretty bad news.

It may seem pretty commonsensical, but make sure that you do not make a single promise unless you are absolutely sure you can keep it. Don't say things like all papers will be graded and returned the next day or that you're going to take every student who finishes all their homework to the movies. That's unrealistic, and the first time you don't follow through with what you say you're students will call you out on it and their trust in your word will be shattered, sometimes permanently. Many of these students have been lied to by adults all of their lives. If you follow suit I can guarantee you'll lose those students and the chances of you getting them back are slim.

Today's Wine: Dry Creek Old Vine Zinfandel. A lot of people hear the word "zinfandel" and assume the wine is a terribly pink, terribly sweet beverage that a lot of "wine weenies" (as my own parents have dubbed themselves) drink to show their friends they can drink wine like adults. Zinfandel is in fact a legitimate variety and the old vine zins that I've had have generally been pretty good and spicy.