The Three Things I’ll Miss the Most About Teaching

Depending on the source you believe, between 40% and 50% of teachers will leave the classroom in their first five years. In just over a month, I will be adding to that particular statistic by leaving teaching, possibly permanently. This will have been my fifth year teaching and the decision to change careers has not been one that came easily. It seems like each year there are more and more articles published in which former teachers and soon-to-be former teachers explain all the reasons why they are leaving teaching. At this point, it has all been said, often by professionals more eloquent and intelligent than I am.  If you want to know some of the reasons that so many teachers are leaving, Google “Why teachers quit” or check out this article, or this one, or this one. While those three articles range from informative to regretful to scathing and all have some viewpoints that I have shared at one time or another, I would rather end my tenure by reflecting on the three things I’ll miss the most.

1. The Kids (Most of the Time)

First off, it is time to admit that not all students get along with all teachers. Just like with adults, there are people you like and people you do not like. However, for the most part, I really like a lot of my kids, especially the ones who fly under the radar. By that I mean the kids who show up, do their work, laugh at my corny jokes, and are generally successful. Those are the students I feel bad for as I have to stop what I am doing and discipline the same students for the eighth time in a week.

This is what you get for assigning homework.

Realistically, even some of the students who are “problem children” are some of my favorites. As a grown up ADHD kid, I fully understand the ones who are bouncing off of the walls and need to roam the classroom a bit more. Teaching primarily freshmen over the past five years has allowed me to see some very bright and interesting young people (especially the problem children) mature and develop into impressive young men and women. I will really miss trying to push kids out of their comfort zone and helping guide the ones who are willing to take that push and run with it.

The Four Things that Young Men Can Learn from Fantasy Novels

In news that is not a shock to anyone who knows me, I spent a lot of time in trouble as a kid. I was rebellious, stubborn, and (to quote my mother) “lacking in any tact at all,” all traits that I am still waiting to grow out of. When I was grounded to my room (which was often), I had no TV, no cell phone, no video game system, and definitely no computer or internet access. However, what I did have was a shelf of books and could usually convince my dad to let me borrow some of his when I ran out of things I wanted to read.

A couple quick disclaimers before I get to this fancy list of mine. First off, I am going to be discussing a lot of things that happen in two sets of pretty commonly read fantasy series: The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter along with a few events from other novels. If you haven’t read those books before, crawl out of your cave and get on it! I mean at least check out the movies. You also may not want to read any more of this post.  There are probably spoilers here, but they are necessary. “But I want to read your blog!” you desperately say? That’s cool. Check out some of the old posts, like the one where I talk to myself or the one with all the ways to fix modern sports.

The second thing to keep in mind is that I am a man. When I pitched the idea for this week’s post to my girlfriend, she asked why I am focusing on young men. The best answer I can give you is this: I can only tell you why I believe young men should read these novels based on my own experience, and since my experience as a young female is severely lacking, I can’t speak to experiences with the ladies. If you have more experience growing up as a member of the double x chromosomed population, feel free to drop a comment on here letting me know how much of this applies to you!

Without further ado, my nerd card is being renewed below. Read on while I grab my glasses, pocket protector, and dice with too many sides.

1. When the Going Gets Tough, the Hobbits Save the Day (or Something Like That)

I believe Shakespeare was the first author to pen the lines “Crap rolleth downhill” or something of the like. Some days/weeks/years are just rough, especially for the walking hormone smoothies that are teenage boys. As a teacher/coach/retired teenager, I totally understand that. Nevertheless, you have to persevere through the difficult times or accept an inability to ever accomplish anything, a task modeled fully in fantasy novels.

It’s a fairly common element of literature that the protagonist has to hit a low spot before the climax and redemption, but who could ever have more persistence than Frodo from The Lord of the Rings? Frodo crosses miles upon miles, covered in cliffs, swamps, and volcanic ash, all to save the world at the risk of his own life and sanity. As he journeys closer and closer to Mt. Doom in Mordor, the ring gets heavier, much as our tasks appear more difficult when closest to their achievement. Yet Frodo, a simple hobbit from the Shire, is able to destroy the ring (with the help of Gollum’s pearly yellows) and save Middle Earth. Admittedly, no man (or hobbit) is an island, and even Frodo needed the help and support of Sam, bringing me to my next point…

The Big Mo!

I’ve always thought that momentum has a massive effect on how a day goes. With some momentum, I can roll through a day of teaching and coach afterwards then still get stuff done. However, when I feel like I can’t get a rhythm going, even getting off the couch can be hard.

When I began this blog about two and half years ago, I intended to make it a weekly(ish) blog to replace posting constant Facebook statuses about different crazy things that have happened while I have been teaching. Thus far, I have not even come close to achieving that goal. Time has been part of the issue, but a lack of ideas that I thought anyone would want to read about has also been issue. BUT, after a bout of equal parts boredom and motivation on Friday night, I wrote about why I coach. At some point this week or weekend, I should have “Why I Teach” written.

So what I need from you are some topics you want to hear about so that I can keep the momentum going! What do you wish you knew about teaching or coaching? Or a particular educational theory? Or rugbying? Or the life of a teacher outside of school? Or…other…stuff? I will provide the disclaimer that there are certain things that, as an actively employed teacher, I’m not particularly comfortable posting on the internet. So comment on this sucker and give me some ideas! Help me help you!

Why Do I Coach?

People often ask me, “What made you want to become a teacher?” There is a lot to that question, but a big part of it was so that it would be easier to be a coach. But that just raises another question: why be a coach? Why do coaches do this to ourselves? It is Valentine’s Day night, a night on which almost everyone I know has made plans of some sort, even if it is a singles thing. Yet, as a head coach, I am worrying about Field Day tomorrow and our first scrimmage of the season, pouring over my roster, making sure my paperwork is all taken care of, debating groupings of players, and wishing that we had not lost Wednesday’s practice. So what makes a person prioritize a sport that they don’t even typically play anymore over their personal life? What makes us invest days of our own time? And tons of our own money?

So I sat. And I thought. And I pondered. And synonyms to make me sound smart. And I had a beer. And came up with this:

It fuels our inherent competitive nature.

Along with several other people who I have had the pleasure to be coached by, my high school football coach, Karl Buckwalter, has been a huge influence on my life.  One day at practice, he said something that perfectly illustrated the way I feel about winning: “I don’t care if it is football or tiddlywinks; I want to win everything. If my mom is going up for the last point in a game of 1 on 1, I would cut her legs out.” While paraphrased and obviously used as hyperbole, that is absolutely the best way to describe how competitive I am. Anyone who has ever been unfortunate enough to play a board game against me can likely attest to this, as can four years of rugby players at my school. As I have reflected on my athletic career, I begun to realize that I am not all that fast, strong, big, or naturally talented; any personal success that I have had as an athlete and member of a team has been almost solely due to my desire to win and soak in every possible ounce of technique; to try to be great, even when that was out of my reach. Coaching has allowed me to demonstrate and encourage a desire to be great in the kids that I am around, even though I hope most of them do a better job than me of not being overly competitive.

You see the kids differently.

Many of the kids whom I have coached during various rugby and football seasons have troubles in the classroom. However, it is rare that I see those same issues when we are out on the field. In many ways, an athletic practice is many things that a perfect lesson would be; it is constantly engaging, everyone gets attention in turn and participates, the coach never talks for more than about five minutes, and individual help is typically available. There is one key difference that keeps these kids coming back: they chose to be a member of the team. Kids don’t choose to go to school every day and, if given the choice, many would opt out of most of their education. Part of being a teenager is not necessarily being able to see the benefits of education, yet a sport allows these young men and women to see almost immediate gains and results. An increase in the weight you can lift, boosted endurance, a positive change in physical appearance, or victories in competitions are all more tangible and important to an athlete than the number that represents their grade in a class. Coaching gives the opportunity to see kids that may be knuckleheads in a classroom work towards something they are passionate about; it is hard to argue that there is anything more exciting than seeing someone living out their passion.

We love these kids.

On average, a student that we teach for a full school year will be with us for a maximum (no absences or extended time out of the classroom) of about 135 hours (90 days seeing the student for a block of an hour and a half). Compare that to about 150 hours which the rugby players will spend with me this season alone (about three hours a practice, three times a week for 14 weeks, plus at least six game days). This will be my fourth year coaching, which means the players who have been with me for four years will have spent somewhere between 500 and 600 hours with me, assuming they ONLY played rugby. The bond that this creates cannot be overstated – there is a reason that I regularly call one of my four year players my “son.” No matter how my day went teaching, I get to start over with these kids for practice. When I have a bad day, it is inevitable that we will have one of the best practices in weeks and I will head home wondering what was so wrong earlier. I have been lucky enough to hug every senior after the last game of their season and tell them that I was proud of them and (sappy as it is) that I love them. When I was engaged last year, I was not sure if I would be able to continue working at my school after this year. If I ended up teaching at another school next year, the thing I would miss most by far would be coaching these young men (and now, women).

We needed to be coached too.

This is the most important of all my points. I will be the first to tell you that if I had not played football and run track in high school, then I would not have graduated. Not a chance in the world.  Without sports, school had almost no meaning to me at that age. A remarkable number of the coaches that I have spoken to about this topic have voiced similar opinions. We went to school because you had to be there to practice. We passed classes because there was a minimum GPA requirement to play in games. We were respectful (usually) and paid attention (sometimes) because our coaches, some of the people we respected most in the world, told us to. Without Karl Buckwalter, Tori Arther, Allen Baskin, and several other coaches, I would not have made it through high school or the death of my younger brother my senior year. When I had to be strong for everyone else, these are people who saw me weak. When I thought it was OK to switch to lazy, these are the people who gave me a swift kick in the rear. When I was ready to quit, these are the people who showed me what it meant to push through adversity.  When I think about my greatest influences in my life, these are the people who I think of.

More Teaching Advice, Now With 85% More Tenure!

It’s been quite a while since my last post. I would love to give all kinds of excuses, but really it is just because blogging is hard. It takes time and focus and effort and focus and I’m really…lazy. Like extremely, debilitatingly, unimaginably lazy.

This was my third year teaching which means a whole lot of things, but most importantly it means that I am now part of the tenure club. It’s really hard to fire a teacher (not that I give them reasons to fire me), but it is borderline impossible to fire a teacher with tenure (again, not trying to get fired, just pointing out a fact). According to NEA statistics, about a third of teachers quit before finishing three full years. Since I not only made it through the first three, but also have signed my contract for a fourth, I have been feeling a bit reflective about all the things I have learned over these three years. The first blog entry I ever wrote was advice to first year teachers. Since it has been almost two years since that list (which I cannot stand to look at anymore, by the way), I wanted to cover some bits advice to get through your first three years.  So…yeah…segues are lame.

1. Get a bedtime. This comes first for one primary reason: I suck at it. Seriously. I would love to blame my lovely fiancée for being my reason to always stay up later than I should, but realistically I rarely have a reason to actually stay up late. Even though I learned this lesson during student teaching, my ability to go to sleep on time has barely gotten better since then, despite the fact that the effects of a lack of sleep have definitely become more adverse. In my first year, a student being annoying when I was tired usually got some sort of request to shut his/her mouth hole. Now, my reaction is a bit closer to Bilbo’s when Frodo refuses to let him see his old ring. Eventually, no amount of coffee that you can drink will give you enough patience to deal with the sometimes frustrating actions of a teenager the way a decent night’s sleep can.
2. Don’t physically take your work home with you (if you can avoid it). My first year, I was always taking stuff home to grade. It sucked out loud. I always felt like I was working against the clock, I regularly ran behind on grading (like two weeks behind), and it got worse each time there was a big assignment. Because I forced myself to always do these marathon grading sessions, even simple grading became torturous, causing me to avoid all grading whenever possible, which of course led to more long grading sessions.  It took most of my first year to figure out that planning periods are for, get this, planning. And grading. And proctoring. And all of the other things that have to be done on any given day. And not reading every meaningless article that I spent years of college training myself to find. Basically, as is the case in most of teaching, if you are doing what you are supposed to do, you don’t have as much crap to do later. The questions that I always use before putting papers in my bag are these: First, does this HAVE to be graded and given back tomorrow? And if not, will I have a chance to grade it in the next day or so? If you have a planning period that doesn’t have to be dominated by meetings, proctoring, or what have you, then why take work home?
3. No one likes standardized tests. Deal with it. With the exception of the companies that make and grade them, everyone hates standardized tests. Students hate them because they are hard (for some kids), can keep them from graduating, and require them to sit still and pay attention for a long time. Administrators hate the tests because they have so much influence over the amount of funding and the accreditation of the school. Teachers hate them for more reasons than could ever be listed. For those of you not actively involved in the modern education system, think of standardized testing as a bench press. You walk in, I throw 225lbs on the bar (the standard for the NFL combine), and tell you to do as many reps as you can. You can practice all year, but realistically, some people will throw the bar up 40 times and some will struggle to keep it from crushing their ribs. Such is the case with standardized tests; some students have done enough in the past and have learned enough over the year to pass, and some hope it doesn’t crush their brains. HOWEVER, you have no control over it, so get the complaints out as quickly as you can. One day America will move away from standardized testing, but that is a long way off.
4. You do not need teenage friends. There is a fine line between a teacher that shows respect for his/her students and one that students know they can walk all over. I wish I could claim to be an expert on classroom management and making sure you are always positive with the kids, but I make mistakes here still because of that whole being a human thing. Just remember, you do not need these students to be your friends for them to respect you and for your classroom to be a place for learning. Some days they will hate you. Tough. They are teenagers and have a long life to get over it. Do not let their opinions of you on a particular day break you down at all. Which brings me to my next point…
5. You HAVE to have a way to blow off steam. Or like five ways. I imagine this is the case for any job, but teaching has stress coming in from so many different directions that you HAVE to have a few different ways to blow off steam. Two of my personal favorites are contact sports and a standing appointment for a few beers with other teachers on Fridays. I know teachers who are into pool, or kickball, and even one who is into cleaning and organizing her life into a rainbow of color coordination (seriously, OCD is a disease). My first year, I barely did anything outside of teaching and coaching; I didn’t work out, I didn’t play sports as I had the previous eighteen years of my life, and yet I was more exhausted and stressed than I have ever been. By making time for things that let you blow off steam, you will be less stressed. You owe that to yourself and to the kids who have to deal with you daily. Otherwise, you might punch one in the face, which is typically frowned upon.
6. Coach or sponsor something at your school. Many teachers come in, teach their lessons, plan, grade, and go home. When you do that, you miss out on a huge opportunity to see your kids in a different light. I’ve coached rugby for three years and cross country and football for one each. I started coaching because I love sports and remember the benefits that I received from playing them growing up, but I have kept coaching because it gives me a chance to see many kids in a very different light than in the classroom. I get to see kids who are like I was and care about as much about school as they do about a Milli Vanilli cassette tape. But when that kid steps onto a practice field, suddenly they are dedicated, focused, and excited to learn something new. The same opportunities are there for the non-athletically inclined; our school has a drama club, anime club, and had a video game club for a couple years as well. Anything you have a passion for, there are probably kids who do too. It also carries the added benefit of making you look even more important and indispensable to the administration, which cannot be overstated in this day and age.
7. People are going to think you are a grown up when you tell them what you do. Even if you laugh every time one of a kid tries to discuss what something “do do” (I am actually smiling right now at this), people see teachers as grown-ups. This year at graduation, I had a parent of a kid I coached thank me for everything I did over the past two years. Times like that remind me that when people look at teachers, they assume teachers all have their lives together. I still have to hold back laughter when a kid rips a loud fart, yet somehow I helped this kid. Things like this happen regularly; especially when you feel as though you have done nothing of value and then suddenly a kid tells you thank you or explains how you helped. Even if you are like me and still don’t feel like any kind of an adult, to a kid you are a wellspring of information. Also crotchety. You are crotchety and out of style.  Might as well invest in some suspenders, reading glasses, and holiday themed sweaters!