Today was one of those days when, by 1pm, I wondered why I even got out of bed. The day began with me having breakfast with my 1st period students. I took over as their primary teacher two months ago after transitioning in from another single gender school in another district. I expected to encounter some resistance…what I didn’t expect was the chaotic mess I had inherited from my predecessor who, I assume, was all too happy to relinquish her duties to me.
I observed her classes for approximately one month before taking over. What I observed was class after class of bored, underperforming, restless, ill behaved boys of color. I quickly realized why I was brought in. Prior to taking the job, I assumed I was brought in for my content knowledge and/or pedagogical practices. I was wrong. I was brought in to bring some structure, order, and discipline to groups of boys who needed someone who had worked with students like them before. I never back down from a challenge so I did what I do…which brings us to today.
The morning was great…as it usually is for me. The kids were focused, quiet, did what they were told/asked to do and we got everything accomplished that I had planned. My afternoon, however, sucked. During my class after lunch the boys were completely unfocused…tired…and bored. They expect math class to ALWAYS be fun…and to always involve some sort of a game. I blame the proliferation of so-called single gender strategies for that…more on those in a later post.
My 5th period class only has six students in it. Today, that number was down to five. During this class we are typically able to accomplish everything I have planned with time to spare…since behavior problems, questions, and other management issues are nearly non-existent. Today was the day that THREE of my five students decided to have giggle fits for the first ten minutes of class. Instead of continuing with my regularly scheduled program I sat these three boys down, placed the other two on a computer based learning module, and had a roundtable discussion about their behavior and how it often negatively impacts that of their classmates. 7th graders and logic do not co-exist. Needless to say, that conversation did not go well.
There was one shining light in this day. One of my students was mature enough and brave enough to explain to his classmates how their behavior blocked him from learning. They listened to him…longer than they listened to me. Ultimately, they went back to their giggle fit…but the bravery of that young man…and his explanation to his classmates that he was here to learn while they were not…was the single point of light in an otherwise dark day.
I saw the movie Stand Deliver years ago…before I ever considered becoming a teacher…and the film always moved me because it depicted the TRUE story of a teacher of color working within his community to make the lives of young people better by exposing them to the opportunities that higher mathematics…and higher education could afford them.
Too many of the stories of educators of color go unrecorded, unreported, and uncelebrated. Thankfully, the life…and story of Jamie Escalante was not one of those who were/are overlooked.
R.I.P. to the man who inspired a generation of US to carry on his work.
In the beginning I kept to myself. I probably spoke more to my students than I did to any other adult in the building for weeks, if not months. I was there to learn how to be a teacher…not to make friends. But, as anyone who knows me, other people tend to make friends out of me.
My first friend at the new school was a guy named Brad Tate. He was just Coach Tate to the kids.He and I formed a friendship based on the fact that we were one of only three black male educators in the building.
Coach Tate was, and probably still is, a pretty interesting character. He has a few kids…and a few baby mamas! He is a little older than I am and VERY country. He is the kind of man who lives life with few regrets. He was always late to work and often disappeared for a period…or two…with no explanation ( he was usually at Arby’s grabbing a roast beef sandwich ). The kids loved him, so that made him an OK guy in my book.
When we talked, we usually talked about his issues with his kids’ mother(s), the new young girl he was dating, child support, taxes, and fishing. He and I were supposed to go fishing and I was supposed to do his taxes. Neither ever took place.
For some reason, another teacher at the school, Tisha Waller, hated Coach Tate. She would always ask me why I associated with a man like him…and she would tell me that he was no good…right in front of Tate. I always wondered if they dated and things went sour…or if she liked him…and he rejected her advances…or if she truly just didn’t like the kind of human being he was. Either way, her dislike for him…and his reactions to her openly aggressive and dismissive comments about him were always fairly entertaining. Their occasional back and forth helped me get through more than one boring faculty meeting.
I count them both as colleagues, if not friends, to this day. Collegiality is important in education…particularly for new educators. The old dogs help you navigate your way through the political ins and outs of the school…and they can often serve as sounding boards for whatever new and/or crazy ideas you may have.
Also, when you’re having a tough day at work…its nice to know that there is someone in the building you can go and talk to.
Nothing to do with Education…but Badu is the truth. Loving this new video. NSFW…or School.
My first day as a para in DeKalb was a little nerve wracking. Here I was, this young, tall, black, man…working with kindergarten students. You rarely see male teachers…at any level…but a young black male..working with kindergarten students is like seeing big foot slow dance with the loch ness monster on February 29th.
My class was very diverse. My students were Black, Asian, White, and Hispanic. Some were English language learners, some were well behaved, some were readers, some were bad at math, and they were all cute as heck. We played, read stories, walked in lines, ran around the gymnasium, and learned about learning together. I wiped noses and they gave me colds, fevers, and one MEAN stomach virus. It was one of the best times of my life.
My typical day began with me greeting the students in the morning and helping them out of their cars. Once they were in the building I would head down to my classroom and help to prepare their supplies for the day. I would spend the first half of the day in the media center, repairing books, checking books in and out, and placing books on shelves. The second half of my day was spent escorting students to and from the bathroom, working with small groups or individual students (typically the English Language Learners) to learn sight words, or making copies. I also had to perform lunch duty and afternoon bus duty. All in all, the day was typically enjoyable. The work was easy and the pay was much better in DeKalb than it was in Henry County.
Better pay aside, it still wasn’t enough to completely cover all of my living expenses…so I worked another full time job as well. I worked from 7am to 3pm at the elementary school and then from 4pm to 12am at the IRS as a tax examiner.
Needless to say, most of the time I was exhausted. The kids kept me awake and alert during the day. Monster Energy drinks, no doze, and red bull kept me awake while I checked tax returns for errors. I slept when I could.
I did this for 5 months, 16 hours a day, 80 hours a week…
I only managed to last for a few months in Henry County. I wasn’t making very much money, and other than the few hours each day that I worked with students in the computer lab, I wasn’t learning much about being an actual classroom teacher so I looked elsewhere.
I found out about several jobs in DeKalb county school system. I applied for them all and went on about four interviews before getting a call back for a job. I remember that last interview like it was yesterday.
The school was located in a small subdivision on the north side of DeKalb County. The streets were tree lined, the lawns were manicured, and the homes were very nice, but not fancy. It was the kind of neighborhood I wanted in which I wanted to live. The school was very small and “U” shaped. One wing was for the lower grades, the other for the upper grades, and the wing that connected them was where the cafeteria was located. The media center windows were very large and shaded with the old metallic blinds that are common to most public school classrooms. I parked my car and went to the front office.
The foyer of the school seemed very dark to me as the tile floors were dark brown and very shiny. There was a trophy case to my right and the entrance to the front office on the left. I went in and told the school secretary that I was there for an interview with Ms. Waters.
The interview took place during Ms. Waters planning period. She was small in stature, had shoulder length strawberry blond hair, and a big smile on her face. We sat at tables sized for 5 year olds and began our interview.
I shared by background with her and some of the reasons why I wanted to go into education. She explained the duties of the position. This interview, unlike my others, went very well. I wasn’t nervous at all. I didn’t feel rushed or uncomfortable at all.
A few days later I got an email from Ms. Waters telling me that I got the job. I put my notice in with the school in Henry County via email. My interview took place at the end of November of 2004 and I was working in DeKalb County Schools by January of 2005.
I began working as a teacher’s assistant ( paraprofessional ) in the Henry County school system not long after my stint as an after-school instructor. I was hired as the technology/computer lab para…and I was still making peanuts. However, I was given the opportunity to work with kids..full time.
The school was great. The student population was racially, religiously, and financially mixed. Nonetheless, the demographics were skewed towards white, middle class, Christian students. The staff was pleasant as well.
My job entailed monitoring students during their computer connections time while they took tests on the Accelerated Reader program. I held umbrella’s for students on cold, rainy days during the fall and winter as they were dropped off by parents in the morning. I was also the school’s Online Assessment System administrator. Somehow, I also ended up serving as a substitute teacher, PC hardware/software troubleshooter, and analyzer of the school’s standardized testing data.
I felt like I was being played. They were getting as much out of me during an eight hour day as possible. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was getting valuable experience…particularly with dealing with test data. Other than that…I was pretty unfulfilled, underpaid, and overworked.
I quickly set out to look for other, more fulfilling employment opportunities in education.
I graduated from Georgia State University in the summer of 2004. The economy had already begun to turn sour. I had a degree in Marketing that wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Working in my field was out of the question. I was fishing without a pole.
My mother suggested that I look into teaching. I had always expressed a desire to open a school one day…after I had made my mark in the business world…so going into education was never an afterthought…it just wasn’t something that I, or anyone that knew me, thought would be happening so soon. The only thing was…I didn’t know if I liked working with kids.
With her help I managed to find a job in an after school program. I ended up working in the Henry County School system as an after school instructor for peanuts. I was responsible for one class of 1st/2nd grade students for 4 hours a day. It didn’t take long before I realized how happy working with kids made me. I was hooked.
While working with the after school program I decided to pursue a career in education. I researched alternative routes to certification and found out about a number of programs in Metro Atlanta, particularly GATAPP and Atlanta PLUS. More on those later. Those were long term plans. In the short term, I needed something that would pay more money and give me more experience.
To those that regularly read my blog you know that I’ve been teaching mathematics in Metro Atlanta for the last 5 years. For a full year before that I worked as an after-school instructor, paraprofessional ( aka teacher’s assistant ), and an IRS tax examiner.
The First Five is part memoir, part journal, part instruction manual for new teachers, and part….something else.
I’m ending the first half decade of my career and I wanted to take the time to reflect on the good, bad, and ugly of the last five years. Names will not be changed to protect anyone. This is America damnit!
All jokes aside, I hope my old readers learn something about me…or themselves…that they didn’t know before…and I hope the First Five will serve as a nice little introduction/catch up for my newer readers.
It is going to take awhile for me to tell this story…hopefully you’ll all stick around for the whole thing.
Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to read.
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