Wonder Woman Doesn't Wait for Superman...

           "I'm a teacher"


           "Oh," pause. "So what grade do you teach?"


           "Middle School"


           "Ooooooh" 


It's not even "Oooooh, that must be a challenge" its like "Ooooooh, you must have been desperate to find a job."  


No, I was not desperate.


Yes, I am a teacher...to 13 year olds...in a public school...in New York City.


But the worst is:


           "I'm a teacher"


           "Nice...summers off...home by 3...every other week there's a holiday.  That's gotta be the easiest job in the world!"


             "Uh, no. It's actually one of the hardest."


There's nothing like being a teacher.  You're something different to every person in your community: educator, nurturer, disciplinarian, coach, event planner, tutor, best friend, role-model, safety-officer, resource, inspiration, facilitator, advisor, evaluator, behavior analyst, professional developer, babysitter, saint, psychic, magician! Just kidding about the last 3...sort of...


A teacher typically isn't all these things to one child; I have about 95 each year.  95 unique little people, with different personalities, issues, backgrounds and languages.  So the hats I wear switch from minute to minute...


Yet, we don't sit around complaining about the kids...each and every one of them fascinate me, challenge me and make going to work a pleasure. No, it's never the kids we complain about...It's all those people who want to tell us what to do as if we don't know any better.  As if education isn't the passion that drives us to pursue this career.


So what's not to love?


1) True: You get the summer off, in addition to a Holiday Break, Winter Break and Spring Break
   - However, I teacher summer school every year
   - I go to professional development during each break
   
2) False: You're home by 3:30
   - Only if you have kids to run home to.  I teach after school programs and stay late to catch up on grading, organizing, planning, meetings...
   - My commute to work is almost an hour when there's traffic (and when isn't there traffic in NYC?)


3) False: The Facebook Guy just might give you $100 million
   - He gave the district $100 mil.  In Newark, not New York and I doubt the teachers in Newark will ever see a dime of it.



4) True: Oprah will love you 
   - You might never get to meet her or get a trip to Australia, but its the thought that counts... 


5) True: John Legend might make a song for you...
   - Thanks  
   
6) False: You get inspirational movies made about you like Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers and The Blind Side
   - Aside from To Sir With Love, these movies are only about caucasian people who reach out to under-privleged kids or bash teachers for choosing to teach in poor neighborhoods.  These movies ARE NOT about me.

So you wonder, why do you teach? 

September has always been my favorite month - not only is it my birth month - but because it has always been Back to School Month. I've always loved school.  I loved it as a student and I've loved it as a teacher.  Thanks to some great teachers along the way, I've become the type of person who loves learning.  

Somehow, after college, I ended up processing class action lawsuit claims.  This was incredibly interesting at first...but I wasn't learning anything...I wasn't moving - physically and mentally.


Late one night in 2002 while I was searching the web for a graduate program, this annoying pop-up ad kept appearing, so I finally decided to click on it.


Free Master's Degree in exchange for teaching in NYC for 3 years
(well those aren't the exact words but that's the gist of it)


Free is good.  I began to fill out the online application.  How hard can teaching be?  It's only 3 years of my life...

Nine years later I still love my job - a job I never new I always wanted.


Let me re-phrase that.


Nine years later, I still love working with kids - but the job is breaking my heart.


Now while my intention was to get a free Masters Degree and run, I chose to stay in a New York City Public Middle School.  I chose to work with middle school aged kids.  I chose to teach ESL kids when no one else wanted to work with them in my school.

I fell in love with my career because of these ESL students and the freedom I had to introduce them to English and New York.  I took them on 5 trips a year - The Hall of Science, the Museum of the Moving Image, The Intrepid, and Brooklyn Academy of Music.  While the rest of the kids were preparing for this 8th grade ELA Exam, I was reading Romeo and Juliet with my class.  We even did a play from the Twilight Zone...

But then the rules changed...A student living in this country for one year is expected to pass the ELA (English Language Arts) Exam. ONE YEAR?  A test that even native English speakers have trouble passing. I want to know what other countries give you a test after one year expecting a child to be able to read, write, listen and answer multiple choice questions in another language?

Well, that put an end to trips. That put an end to art and music for English Language Learners.  

We now test them every week and post their scores on a chart for everyone to see.  We test them school-wide once a month.  We do practice ELA exams so many times throughout the year, the students hardly realize when the real test comes along.  

What is it all for?  I hear explanations with words like "standards" "benchmarks" "data analysis" "data-folio" "academic rigor" and it just makes me want to puke!  It all comes down to these scores and the teacher.  If the scores are low, something is wrong with that teacher.  The teacher should be fired.  The teacher should be re-trained.  The teacher needs to be put on probation.  The teacher needs more professional development, inquiry, assessments...

                                                   *               *              *

"You would have gone to Stuyvesant," my friend Maria insisted when I told her I wish I could have gone to her high school, Brooklyn Tech.

I remember wishing I lived in the city so I could apply to schools with cool "majors" like LaGuardia High School for Music and Performing Arts, Aviation High School, or Bronx Science.  However, we lived in Long Island, where you ended up in whichever district high school you lived near.

"Why Stuyvesant?" I 

asked.

"Because it's the top school; Brooklyn Tech is 3rd" she explained.

"Aw, you think I'm smart?" I had to laugh in appreciation and surprise.  After 9 years of being bashed as incompetent by the NY Post, Joel Klein and Bloomberg, I questioned my intellect.


When I hear people thanking their teachers for their achievements, I tear up.  It's so rare!  Why?

September is getting a bit harder to love each year.