Hold on just a cotton-pickin’ second here. I signed up for 1st grade. That included sitting on a colorful carpet with “crisscross applesauce” legs while enjoying a graham cracker and a great story. Maybe in the 1900’s, but not in the classrooms of today. Yesterday, I attended a serious new teacher training. So many things happened, I don’t know where to start, so I’ll start with the union.
Our teacher’s union is a very small group of dedicated people that do wonderful things for us. Yesterday, they fed us a tri-tip lunch complete with beans, mac and cheese, beans, and salad. Add some sodas and cookies and it was delicious. While doing that, they gave away $1,000 in $100 amounts to lucky teachers that joined yesterday. Nice in every way. And then came the plea to join them. I mean, really join them. Pay $$$ every month to join them.
Here’s the thing. I’m not buying what they’re selling. In my first career as a teacher, there was no choice. At that time, $80 a month was stolen from my paycheck over 20 years to support a machine. The California Teachers Association. Never did I run for office or go to their functions. No little BBQ’s or raffles held there. All the money was syphoned to the mother ship supporting causes in which I had no say. Robbed. We were all robbed.
Without ever willfully giving the money, it was quiet thievery of the worst kind. A large portion went straight to support the NEA head-quartered in Washington, DC. I visited there one time with VST. I just wanted to get a pencil that said “NEA” as a souvenir. A guard at the door interrogated me, refusing us entry unless we had a scheduled meeting time. I bought them a lot of pencils over the year. We couldn’t even enter the building.
No. In California you have no choice. If you take the job, you will be robbed. Period. Please remember that when you talk about teachers and the union. In California, teachers do not have a choice. If they did, I assure you, the Union would lose a huge portion of their membership.
In Nevada, things are different. Teachers DO have a choice. We are not judged if we say NO. And, for the 3rd time in a row, I’ve done just that. I do thank the union for the lovely lunch. It was great! We’ll see you all at our schools, for we are all united in teaching our students.
The meeting with new teachers was wonderful. The youngest teacher was 18. The oldest teacher looked to be 70-something. From 8 until 2:30, information was pumped into our brains. We met District Administration. We got an adorable T-shirt. And then, it got very real. We broke up into groups with our team leaders and went to work on language arts.
Language Arts is my favorite subject to teach because it was my favorite subject in school. Very early on, writing became my passion. The paper heard every word I said, displaying it in slashed charcoal words shooting across the page. I had the most wonderful teachers throughout school. Intelligent and wise, they were experts in their fields. There was no retirement back then. Teachers taught until they couldn’t, and then, maybe they just died in the closet.
Some girlfriends that started teaching in 1981 made $6,000 a year. Of course, by the time they retired, they were paid back in full. But, at that time, there were no big pensions or paychecks. People taught because they loved children.
For hours yesterday, I learned about our reading program and how best to implement it. There are no colorful student books or workbooks provided with our program. This is an authentic program in which the children read out of books of their choosing and write stories through pictures and words. Our goal is to work up to 35 minutes of both reading and writing by the end of the school year. I think my class will surpass that because I already know I’m getting the writers. All kids have stories to tell. Great ones.
I’ll have 23 children in my room. 23 busy little people with opinions, troubles, and happiness to share. That’s 46 little legs running as fast as they can to an open door and 1st grade. That’s a lot of energy.
My teaching group is a solid group of women in this for the right reasons. We will provide a united front to conquer the masses. All the while, we will find things about which to laugh. We’ll also comfort each other when we need to cry, which will probably be every day at lunch.
Yesterday was another wonderful day. Chapter 1 in a book of memories. I’m not committing to more than this year. Time will tell whether or not this will prove that I am really old, or prove that I will be the oldest teacher in the school that dies one afternoon correcting papers at her desk. Today is the first real day of the school year for all teachers. The new has rubbed off. Off I go to school!!!!!
More tomorrow.