I’ve been officially retired now for almost three weeks. However, it really does not feel like retirement yet; it feels like summer vacation. Of course, that’s what it is to my still-working colleagues. I keep reminding myself that this wonderful schedule of getting up around seven a.m., leisurely preparing for the day, having opportunities to make business calls during the business day (rather than trying to remember to make those calls between 3:30 and 5:00 p.m., or before 8 a.m. if the business is in the eastern US), and actually having sovereignty over my own day will continue for the rest of my life.
But, when my colleagues have to return to work, will I still feel the same bliss? I have given this some real thought. I taught kindergarten in the same school for all of the twenty years it has been in existence. I feel very much as if that kindergarten is “mine.” I was very instrumental in giving it the structure it has now. My kindergarten colleagues who will continue to teach there have every right to re-structure things (within the confines of No Child Left Behind, of course). And I have an obligation to keep my opinions to myself – an accomplishment that my family and close friends know does not come very naturally to me. It is not at all unlike raising one’s children to adulthood, then letting them go out into the world to live their own lives, making their own mistakes, and suffering the consequences of, or reaping the rewards of their own choices. I must release. I must relinquish.
The releasing and relinquishing will be easier because of my plans to keep working with children and literacy. It might be volunteering at the public library. It might be “hanging a shingle” and beginning a tutoring service. It might be volunteering as an “intervention tutor” at the school from which I just retired. It might be a combination of all three things, or something as yet undiscovered. Whatever the future holds, I intend to grab on and enjoy the ride. In the process, I intend to help enrich the lives of children and their families. Bring it on!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Whew!
Well, it’s officially done. I am a retired teacher now. My last work day was Thursday, June 11, 2009, a day without students. The students’ last day was Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
My decision to retire this year was made easier by at least two factors: first, as my previous blogs have indicated, I have become fed up with the way public education is being conducted now. Second, due to the dismal economy, my school district offered a generous Supplemental Employees’ Retirement Program (SERP) as a way to entice us expensive long-term teachers to retire.
As this school year progressed, I became more and more uncomfortable with the things I was expected to be doing in my classroom. A new, one-size-fits-extremely-few teaching strategy was being forced upon us. Not only were we expected to eagerly participate in two-hour planning sessions – for one lesson, with our students being taught by a substitute teacher – but a few days after the planning session, we were observed by no less than two clipboard-holding, note-taking people while we taught the afore-planned lesson. We were being observed to see if we were following all the prescribed steps, in the prescribed manner, without any unnecessary side trips or taking advantage of “teachable moments.”
I feel as if all my individuality and creativity was not only undesired, but downright discouraged. For example, we were required to use some sort of device on which the students’ names could be written, such as craft sticks, key tags, etc. for the purpose of randomly selecting students to respond to questions. We were not allowed to use our best teacher judgment and call on the students whom we felt would need to be brought back from their apparent day dream, or a student whose answer we felt would benefit the responder as well as the class.
Here is where the frustration began: I was progressing through the ever-so-scripted lesson, teaching, asking, pausing, and picking responders. At one point, I had only asked two randomly-selected students and proceeded with the next question whereupon the coach interrupted me to tell me that I must select a third student to respond to the question. It could not be just two, it had to be three. It seems like such a minor thing, but it is an indication of the absurdity of it all.
The idea behind all this is the theory that, with all this somewhat-scripted lesson delivery, the students will make bigger gains in learning, which would raise their scores on the standardized tests, and therefore make the school look good. Students have become nothing more than data generators.
This is just one thread in the fabric of reasons why I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to teach in the public school. Thankfully, I am at an age, and have the years necessary to be able to retire without losing too much.
I may not be a public school teacher anymore, but I fully intend to keep my hand in education by volunteering. I also would be very good at tutoring children who are struggling to become emergent readers. I have so many wonderful, creative ideas! I cannot wait to put some of them to good use.
My decision to retire this year was made easier by at least two factors: first, as my previous blogs have indicated, I have become fed up with the way public education is being conducted now. Second, due to the dismal economy, my school district offered a generous Supplemental Employees’ Retirement Program (SERP) as a way to entice us expensive long-term teachers to retire.
As this school year progressed, I became more and more uncomfortable with the things I was expected to be doing in my classroom. A new, one-size-fits-extremely-few teaching strategy was being forced upon us. Not only were we expected to eagerly participate in two-hour planning sessions – for one lesson, with our students being taught by a substitute teacher – but a few days after the planning session, we were observed by no less than two clipboard-holding, note-taking people while we taught the afore-planned lesson. We were being observed to see if we were following all the prescribed steps, in the prescribed manner, without any unnecessary side trips or taking advantage of “teachable moments.”
I feel as if all my individuality and creativity was not only undesired, but downright discouraged. For example, we were required to use some sort of device on which the students’ names could be written, such as craft sticks, key tags, etc. for the purpose of randomly selecting students to respond to questions. We were not allowed to use our best teacher judgment and call on the students whom we felt would need to be brought back from their apparent day dream, or a student whose answer we felt would benefit the responder as well as the class.
Here is where the frustration began: I was progressing through the ever-so-scripted lesson, teaching, asking, pausing, and picking responders. At one point, I had only asked two randomly-selected students and proceeded with the next question whereupon the coach interrupted me to tell me that I must select a third student to respond to the question. It could not be just two, it had to be three. It seems like such a minor thing, but it is an indication of the absurdity of it all.
The idea behind all this is the theory that, with all this somewhat-scripted lesson delivery, the students will make bigger gains in learning, which would raise their scores on the standardized tests, and therefore make the school look good. Students have become nothing more than data generators.
This is just one thread in the fabric of reasons why I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to teach in the public school. Thankfully, I am at an age, and have the years necessary to be able to retire without losing too much.
I may not be a public school teacher anymore, but I fully intend to keep my hand in education by volunteering. I also would be very good at tutoring children who are struggling to become emergent readers. I have so many wonderful, creative ideas! I cannot wait to put some of them to good use.
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