A true teacher....

Although I've only been truly "in the field" (i.e. in classrooms) for a week and a half, it feels like school's been in session for months. Some background info: last week consisted of half-days, a period of time when we get to know the students, introduce routines, procedures, etc. The purpose of this week is to get the students accustomed to the school routine, and take small steps that will help them become more successful when the full 9-hour day schedule sets in, and hence, it is dubbed "Small Successes Academy" (cute, eh?).

Throughout the past couple of days, I've started to learn about not only about the life of a school teacher (the distinction between a school teacher and a classroom teacher is that a school teacher is any teacher in the school, whereas a classroom teacher is one that is teaching in the classroom. So intuitive...but not.), but also about the life of a special education teacher (as a literacy specialist, this would be the best way to categorize me, which has its pros and cons. However, that's a reflection/venting session for an entirely different post). Although there's a lot of overlap in the experiences of a school and special education teacher (in fact, special education teachers are under the umbrella of school teachers), for simplicity's sake, I've decided to categorize experiences into these two buckets. For those of you not in education, consider this an educational glimpse (har har...) into the life of a teacher. After all, this is a blog about the life of an elementary school teacher. For those of you in education, feel free to empathize or add on! Disclaimer: these observation-reflections probably only scratch the surface of teachers' lives and may even be non-applicable to some teachers.

School teachers...(at my school anyhow)

• wake up early. The school day starts at 7:15, which means that I wake up at 5 am to take a 5:30 train. This means that it's pitch black when I wake up and leave the house. And nothing is open, including the Dunkin Donuts. The only place that is open is a local breakfast joint called Homefries (I'm determined to try it once I am more functional at 5:20 AM). It's a lonely, lonely walk to the station. Fortunately, the moon and stars keep me company
• ideally know all the names of at least 75% of the scholars in the school
• constantly reinforce aspects that make a "strong classroom community," such as "Mmm...you were just running in the hall. Walk back and try again....Much better-I knew you could do it!", "Check your uniform-tuck that shirt in!". Or my favorite interaction, and quite possibly one of the most frequent-

T: Good morning [insert scholar name]. Reach out for handshake.

S: mumble mumble mumble. Limp hand and looking everywhere except at the teacher

T: Nope. Look at me when you say it. Try again.

*on a side note-yes, still not 100% there, but you absolutely have to celebrate the small successes! Otherwise, you might be in the dumps feeling like you're an inefficient teacher for weeks on end.

S: Tries again. Repeat until gets it right

• pop up everywhere to scholars' surprise and mild displeasure ("I walk by the bathroom just as you're causing a ruckus-what a 'coincidence'")
• can be seamlessly integrated into classroom teaching

Special education teachers...

• are often summoned to relieve the classroom teachers of children that are:

a) crawling on the floor

b) sprawled out on the floor

c) standing on tables

d) hiding under tables

e) all of the above (aka glorified babysitting)

I can't say that any of these were in my job description (not that I really had a job description to begin with...), but it is primarily a result of our Small Success Academy support system, as all non-classroom teachers were oscillating in and out of the classrooms to help make the beginning of the school year as strong as possible; whether or not that actually happened...that's another story. Thus, we often found ourselves hauling out small peoples, some of whom are actually quite large for their age, which brings me to my next point...

• extracting scholars that are making unsafe decisions. Sometimes, this can be civil, with two human beings walking side-by-side. Other times, this can look like a 5 minute chase around the room, or a literal picking up of a child (though for what it's worth, it's a really great arm workout), or a dragging out of a screaming child (or at one point, a scholar laughing maniacally). As a result, there have been some bruises and scratches. Occupational hazard.
• at times, I feel shafted (secondary to classroom teachers)

Still, I'm completely new to the world of special education, so this might all change in a couple of months. On that note, because we're such a small team, and my "supervisor" (special education coordinator) is so swamped with so many things (e.g. there's currently a para crisis), I've had minimal to no direction, and so I'm mostly winging everything. Unfortunately, with my lack of expertise, this is a dangerous situation. Blah.

I've formally been inducted into the teaching world, and yet I still don't necessarily feel like a true teacher. Now to put my finger on the factors that are preventing me from feeling like a true teacher....