by jphilo | May 1, 2015 | Reflections on the Past
This Fantastic Friday post, which debuted on Down the Gravel Road, is a look back at the last gathering of the last group of elementary students I taught. They were ready to graduate from high school in May of 2011. This year, many of them are graduating from college. Though Bryant School where we had spent their fourth grade year together, had been closed, it was still standing. Bryant School is gone now, replaced by single family houses. Time passes. Change comes. But the lessons learned at their Time Capsule opening 4 years ago still hold true. And when I think of them all grown up, the children they once were still make me smile and cry.
Endings and Beginnings
Yesterday’s Time Capsule Opening was a strange mixture of endings and beginnings. The graduating seniors who gathered were Bryant Elementary fourth graders in 2002-2003, my last year of teaching. Until this spring, the students returned to Bryant to open the capsule.
But not this year because Bryant School is no longer open. So we gathered in the new, bright, and sunny lunch room at Franklin School instead. The seniors were so busy thinking about graduation and parties and new beginnings, they barely noticed. Plus, they were having too much fun looking through old pictures, sharing memories, and discovering what they put in the Time Capsule to get all mushy and maudlin.
I, on the other hand, felt like a kid in uncomfortable, new clothes that didn’t quite fit. This place wasn’t the well-worn school where we made fourth grade memories. Seven years older, the little children I taught and loved for nine months barely peeked out from beneath whiskered cheeks and prom sun tans.
Their eyes are on the future.
Their hearts are full of hopes and dreams.
Their lives are full of beginnings, not endings.
For me, this spring filled with endings: the end of time capsules, the end of graduation invitations from former students, the end of Bryant School, which will soon be demolished.
I am ready for this ending, as ready as these brave young people are for the end of this phase of their lives. I just need a moment to cry and savor these sweet and tender endings. Then, I’ll learn one more lesson from these fresh and lovely students.
With them, I’ll look at the future,
examine new hopes and dreams,
concentrate on beginnings rather than endings.
With them, I’ll finally graduate from public school.
by jphilo | Sep 9, 2013 | Reflections on the Past
I dreamed of you last night,
Three students who graced my teaching days.
Last night, a decade after the last good-byes
Of my final class of children faded away.
Why now?
My sleep-drugged brain wondered.
Out of all the students
Why these three?
The first question I could answer.
After a day of writing a mystery novel
With a elementary teacher solving crimes,
School was on my mind.
But why these students?
I can not answer, though a reason there must be.
So I whispered a groggy prayer to the One who knows,
Then fell into a dreamless, restful sleep.
by jphilo | Aug 13, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
My teacher friends and former co-workers in our school district went back to work yesterday. Speaking from 25 years of personal experience, here are 10 reasons to be kind to teachers for the next few days and weeks.
10. Contrary to popular opinion, most teachers didn’t sit around the pool eating bon bons all summer. Most teachers spent much of the summer going to school to hone their skills. They even turned in assignments, sat at the other end of the red pencil, and received grades.
9. During summer school classes, teachers wore flip flops. At home they went barefoot. And now they have to shove their feet into teacher shoes. Remember those teacher shoes? Not a pretty sight.
8. The first few days back to school, before the kids return, are packed with meetings about exciting topics such as Proper Procedures for Cleaning Up Bodily Fluids (I’m not making this up) and the latest No Child Left Behind government regulations. The powers that be grant these topics higher priority than things allowing teachers preparation time in the classroom.
7. Teachers know those meetings will eat away their preparation time, so they’ve already donated several unpaid days to get their classrooms ready, plan lessons, and prepare materials. And because of budget cuts, they often pay for materials out of their own pockets.
6. At some of those meetings before the kids come, teachers learn about newly assigned duties that take away their scheduled planning time and in some cases much of their lunch hour.
5. Once the students return, teaches spend much of their lunch hour doing one of the following: running home to let the dog out, eating at their desk while preparing for afternoon classes, or supervising students.
4. You know how hard it is for your kids to adjust to the school schedule every fall? It’s that hard for teachers, too, because they’re big kids at heart. That’s why they’re teachers.
3. Teachers would rather help kids succeed than mark assignments with red pencil and fill out report cards. But their job description requires they do both.
2. Teachers spend all day supervising 25–30 people who are crowded together reading and doing paperwork in a small space without privacy cubicles. Can you think of businesses that ask adults to work in conditions like that?
1. Your child’s teacher cares about your boy or girl. A lot. Your child’s teacher cares about every student. But teachers know they can’t give students everything they need. Teachers know that no matter how hard they works, at some point they will fail students. They will obsess over every failure and try to do better the next day, knowing they will fail again. But they keeps trying because they believes kids are worth their best effort. And if you tell teachers they’re doing a good job, they’ll remember your kindness and pass it on to a child. Because that’s what teachers do.
What would you add to the list? Leave a comment!
by jphilo | Jul 29, 2013 | Reflections on the Past
A couple weekends ago, I turned 57. Not a Big–0 birthday, but big nonetheless. Because I’ve now been out of teaching for an entire decade.
This 1–0 anniversary is a good reason to think about what’s happened since my wonderful co-workers gave me a send off that included the granting of a childhood wish to be a flower girl by making a “Mrs. Philo Phlowergirl Phorever” sash for me. (Which, by the way, is still in my closet.) Here’s a smattering of where the decade went:
- We said good-bye to both Hiram’s parents.
- We hosted a foreign exchange student from Japan.
- My daughter and I went to Europe.
- My daughter graduated from high school and then college.
- Hiram and I adapted to the empty nest smoothly.
- Mom moved from her home to my brother’s house.
- Mom’s house sold 4 hours after it was listed on the market.
- Both our kids got married…within 3 months of each other.
- We helped them move from here to there to there to….
- Our first grandchild lit up our world.
- Hiram and I celebrated 10 more anniversaries, with the count now standing at 36.
- We’ve vacationed together in Alaska, Idaho, Savannah, Wisconsin, and probably other places that slip my mind because I’m 10 years older than I used to be.
- I’ve traveled to speaking gigs all over Iowa and in DC, San Diego, Long Beach, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Texas and other places that slip my mind because of jet lag.
- Only my mother, 2 of her sisters, and 1 brother-in-law are left of her 7 siblings and spouses who filled my childhood with security and a sense of belonging.
- I worked for our church part time 4 years.
- God allowed our congregation built a new church, and He provided everything needed to furnish it.
- I’ve published scads of magazine articles and 2 books with contracts for 2 more.
- Those books have led to friendships with the most amazing people in special needs ministry around the country.
- I’ve gained enough tech savvy to be dangerous, but not enough to be proficient.
- My retirement pension started sending checks 2 years ago.
The list could go on and on, but you get the picture. God blessed my step of faith out of education and into writing and speaking. He’s been with us through every joy, every sorrow, every good-bye, and every challenge. Sometimes, He even provides opportunities so I can wear my Phlowergirl Phorever sash at speaking engagements.
What more could I possibly want?
by jphilo | Mar 18, 2013 | Out and About
Last Thursday I went back to school for the first time in a long time. A former teaching colleague had asked me to represent the world of professional writing at the local high school’s career fair and then speak to some English classes after that. Due to a scheduling snafu that can be blamed on my calenderally-challenged brain, I arrived an hour and a half late for the two hour career fair.
That’s a story for another post–except for one thing.
Flustered by my late arrival, I totally forgot Thursday was the last day of school before spring break and a short day at that, due to parent-teacher conferences. If that realization had dawned earlier, maybe I wouldn’t have been so discouraged by the lack of response from the first two groups of students. To say they weren’t impressed by the life of a writer would be an understatement. They were a hard crowd, and I flopped. Miserably. During the passing time before the last class arrived, I finally remembered. The kids are just marking time until spring break.
So when the class settled in, I asked, “How many of you are counting the minutes until spring break?”
Every hand went up.
“Well,” I leaned toward them with a conspiratorial whisper, “If you’ll just pretend you’re interested in what I say, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”
They leaned toward me.
“Every teacher in this building is counting the minutes, too.”
They laughed.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. “Do you know exactly when in the sweep of the second hand, the dismissal bell will ring?”
They nodded.
“Would somebody in the back of the room wave one minute before it rings, so I can finish and you can get out of here right away?”
Everyone in the back row gave a thumbs up…and we were off.
They asked questions, one after another.
Good questions.
Perceptive questions.
They laughed at my jokes.
They cracked a few jokes, too.
They talked about their writing likes and dislikes.
Their eyes sparkled.
Their faces glowed.
The magic was so strong,
we were all surprised when the dismissal bell rang.
Most students headed straight for the door.
But several stopped to say thank you.
I left the building with tired feet, a renewed appreciation for teachers, and a memory of why teaching had been my chosen profession for 25 years. It feels good to connect with students again, to hear them share their ideas, to see their potential, and to urge them to follow their dreams and use their imaginations.
When a teacher gets her mojo back, she can work magic in young lives.
photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net
