The Dog Days of Summer-Back to School!

Greetings to you, my fellow BETs!

Today is the last day of summer vacation for me.  Every year, I struggle to understand the way the summer progresses.  It goes fast and it goes slow.  It seems like it will last forever, and then it is gone in the blink of an eye.   As I reflect on these last eight weeks, I can’t help but consider a few very important thoughts.  Like, where did my summer go?! And, why do we have to go back so early?!

Firstly, my summer went exactly where I thought it would go…away.  During the first few weeks, it seems like the summer will last forever.  In the midst of vacation and general loafing, I would stop in to the school, and haphazardly work on some things for the fall.  Going into early July, my frequent visits to the school lessened, and my anticipation for the fall semester grew.  I went in to school yesterday to do some fine tuning to my plans for the fall, and realized that I had made very few plans, and that I had spent most of my time during those visits cleaning and getting my room reorganized.  It smells really nice!

Secondly, we have to return to school so early because…er…um…okay, I don’t know why we have to return to school so early!  When I was growing up, the earliest I ever remember school starting was about August 23^rd or so.  I even remember when we didn’t have to return until after Labor Day!  That’s not the part that is so frustrating.  The frustrating part for me is how we were able to start so late, and still not have to go to school into June.  How does this make any sense?  How does this disparity work out to better education for our kids?  It must be the new math!  I was never good at math.

So, I sit here in my recliner typing and watching golf, wondering where exactly my summer went.  I really don’t think I will ever figure this out.  What I do know, is that although I am wishing there were just a few more days left to not wake up to an alarm, I am equaling excited for what this new school year will bring.  I have missed the kids this summer and I look forward to their stories of conquest and ease, and their general sense of awe in navigating a new stage of the teenage journey.  Just to be a part of that is worth heading back to school in the midst of summer.  And just think; Fall Break is a mere 79 days away!

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Family Comes First

Good Evening/Morning Break Even Teachers!(depending on when you read it.)

Once again, I start with an apology for not writing more.  Time seems to fill up with so many things I want to do these days.  I guess once a year is not that bad. (He says, with a truly John Lennonesque tongue in cheek!)

Anyway, we are only into the summer a couple of weeks and it has already been a whirlwind.  Just to keep you up to speed, I just finished my second year at Culver Community Schools as the Business and Computers teacher.  When I started this journey two years ago, I really thought I would be back in Sales and Marketing field pretty quickly.  At first, it just wasn’t clicking for me.  So many nights of thinking, “What have I done?  I can’t do this!”  But this last year and a half or so has been truly amazing.  There are so many stories I want to share with you.  Maybe another day, hopefully not a year from now.

So, this summer, I was offered another teaching job in another school district.  It was for more money.  It was a bit closer, so the commute would be less. It would be teaching more Business and less Computers, which is what I had wanted originally.  It seemed to be a perfect fit.  But the more I thought about it, something just wasn’t right.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt as if I would be letting my family down.  Not my wife and sons, but my other family…my Culver Community Schools family.

Now I’m not one to use that terminology loosely, either.  When I first started here, the teachers in my wing talked that way.  “You’ll love it here…it’s like a family.” they would say.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Everybody says that about the place they work, right? After a few weeks with the kids, I felt like I wanted to be more of a foster family.  I just didn’t seem to be connecting with them.  Then, everything changed.  All it took was one student, (who shall remain nameless), that stood up for me to her classmates.  She jumped in there and had my back!  I couldn’t believe it!  It was great!  From then on I started to treat the students differently, and they started to treat me differently, as if we had some kind of connection.  This then, became a wonderful self-fulfilling prophecy, so to speak.  There WAS a connection!

I have wondered for two years what I would do if I were put in the position to make a move.  Now I have my answer.  These students and teachers and administrators and parents have all become a part of me.  I get excited when they get excited.  I mourn when they mourn.  I look at the kids every day and wonder how I can be of help to them today.  They have become my family, and I couldn’t be happier.