Dreams, Routines, and Dreams...

DREAMS

Two and a half years ago, I started a new teaching gig. I aspired to work hard and inspire and to even perhaps earn some semblance of legendary brilliance. This educator, me, this middle-aged middle-grade teacher had stars in his eyes and big plans to plan harder, teach harder, and even write harder. To share life lessons with my incoming adolescent students.

All admirable goals and measured dreams. Looking back, I seek to be that person for my students, and I believe my efforts are worth it, but my writing took a different form. I was busy writing my Induction and clearing my credential. My first blog post in my new position two and a half years ago was my last post.

Until now.

Feel free to click on Of Ukes, Chewing Gum, and that Sore Knee and note those dreams.

Alas, the routine of a new job took over. The learning curve was much steeper than I had planned, and I found myself spending all my energy just climbing into the next day's lessons.

ROUTINES

Note the shift in voice as we dive into a teacher's everyday.

You might think we wait for that 3:00 bell to ring and send our students back to their homes, out into the world, newly inspired, duly courageous.

Then we leave and don't consider those students and where they are and what they're into until the next morning when that 8:30 bell rings again.

This is not the way it works. In fact it's the complete opposite of the truth.

The job follows you wherever you go. If not physically (as in taking grading home for the evening), then at least mentally, even emotionally.

Do you know why? It's because we love our students. It's because we want what's best for them. To some degree these children that we spend hours over each day become an extension of our own families. My wife knows about them because I talk about them constantly. My children know about the stories that make me laugh. They hear about the events that make me cry.

Why does an F bother me so much, or a D, or a C for that matter? It's not my kid. Is it maybe because I see the lack of effort that can send that student down a dark road? Is it because I feel horribly about how they misunderstood my lesson? Am I upset when I realize that what I had carefully planned out, the lesson or strategy I thought would open all the doors and blow each mind, just completely exploded in my face instead?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Why does a student's smile brighten my day? Why am I overjoyed when a student catches me making a mistake in my division algorithm?

These routines and concerns, these sorrows and joys, occupy a teacher's mind nonstop. And in my situation, I do not know a teacher that will ever give up on their students.

It is important, though, to make an attempt to detach a bit. Maybe we have a rule about not taking the work home and instead show up well before the school bell rings. That could work.

Except that there's a meme online in the evening that explains my day exactly, and I have to share it with my teacher friends or my family:

An idea strikes me, and I pull out the computer and adjust a lesson or create a quick document.

A tough phone call, a direct email.

Teaching is more than what we do. It's who we are. In my opinion, one cannot be a teacher by trade only. One must be a teacher at heart.

Summertime is similar, to be honest. Teachers get 3 months off, according to the average parent. That's why we get paid less than the average parent, according to the average parent.

I will admit to this extended vacation, though it's 2 months, not 3. But if the teacher is the major breadwinner in the family, you can bet that the teacher has some sort of other job, maybe Door Dash, Amazon Flex, or Insta with those flexible hours. Summer school or a summer sports camp even.

My teacher dad drove truck every summer to put us through Christian school. He left at 3:00 am every day of the work week. He sold hot tubs and stoves. Trust me, teachers do what they can to make an extra buck, but nothing surpasses the time and energy each teacher invests into their students.

Most professional development, certifications, extensions of degrees, and restructuring of long term plans for the school year occur during the summer. It's as if we can't stay away from the classroom.

But that's what it's all about. We commit ourselves to helping students learn and think because we are ourselves learners and thinkers.

Over the summer I decided to begin a routine. I would finish the novel I began years ago. It's an adventure story that has been an adventure in itself.

AND DREAMS...

I once had an 8th grade student who destroyed her typing lessons, and I didn't have the budget to invest into a more advanced program for her to begin upon finishing her task. I decided to begin writing my own story for her to type. I decided, too, that I would create a character in her honor, a legendary figure known as Killjoy Kelly who weaves her way throughout the story.

It was difficult to stay ahead of her blazing fingers, but it was motivating to give her and other students who followed in her footsteps a story to enjoy.

Each new computer class I taught in the following years hosted students who earned the same right. Anybody who made it through all their typing lessons were rewarded with a new character within my story. You can read the origin of this adventure in my post from way back when: Digital Storytelling and TypingClub.

It's difficult for me to see that this unplanned project took so long to complete. However, this past summer, 2020, after the completion of what felt like an all-consuming entrance into a new district and the long road to tenure, I was able to refresh the story and continue the novel. The Cylinder is now complete at 97,000 words, and it has been revised again and again.

The dream began with my students, and the never ending influence they offer continues to inspire me. My new dream is to have the novel published as the first installment in a planned sci-fi adventure trilogy. Query letters are out now, and this old The Throw-In blog is reborn.

I really believe the teacher life is a cycle of dreams, routines, and dreams...

It's a cycle that never ends, and the teachers I know welcome that cycle back into their lives year after year. We work to inspire, but it never fails that our students are the ones who inspire us to reach for more.