I have been out of the classroom for four years now, after serving 24 years as a classroom (math) teacher. These past four years I have been “teaching teachers”; two years as an academic coach in two of our district’s lowest-performing high schools, and the last two years as a Professional Development Coordinator for our large urban district. In both positions, it has been challenging and rewarding work, helping teachers become the best teachers they can be. This work was not entirely new to me; I have been working as a consultant with teachers in schools and districts up and down the east coast for 10 years now.
But this blog entry is not about my work experiences with adult learners; quite the contrary, it is about my missing being in the classroom. Since leaving the classroom four years ago to work with teachers and “impact the most students”, I have continually said to my wife It is only a matter of time before I attach myself to a school and once again work in the classroom.
I miss lots of things about working directly with kids. I miss the excitement and anxiety that accompanies the first day if school. I miss the feeling of seeing faces of students as they are engaged in learning. I miss rooting for the down-trodden, struggling students as they make great strides of progress, or the curiosity of gifted students as they are sparked by some advanced mathematical tangent that spontaneously erupts from the otherwise pedantic curriculum. I miss the gratitude expressed by parents who feel fortunate that their sons and daughters are in my classroom. I miss pushing student to think really hard, especially when they believed they could not think or achieve at high levels. I miss saying You did great! to that stressed-out student who stops me in the hallway to ask how she did on yesterday’s big test. And I miss being the “class clown” at mundane and boring faculty meetings.
I could go on and on, for there are so many aspects of teaching that I miss dearly. And I although there are many things I do not miss, I choose not to bore my readers with those.
One day – in the not so distant future – I will once again reside in my elemental place, the classroom, where I will again thrive to be with my own students. In the meantime, I will do my level best to help other teachers be the best they can be, to thrive in their own classrooms with their own students. dven.
[If you might be interested in inviting Mr. Venables to your school or district to help your teachers be their level best, contact him directly at danielvenables@mac.com]
July 16, 2009 at 2:50 pm |
FYI: The lyric “To them I must return” comes from a little known Jackson Browne tune, “Our Lady of the Well”.
July 17, 2009 at 4:18 pm |
In the classroom in 1984, your rapport with us students was excellent, and I can only imagine that your positive influence on your students grew even greater over the years. It must have been a hard decision to leave the classroom, but I’m sure that you’ve touched many students, albeit less directly, in your current capacity. Personally, I can never imagine a time when I would prefer to be away from my students, pretty much for all of the resons you described above. What a rewarding career teaching is! I only wish I had started teaching earlier in life, but better late than never:). Rick
July 17, 2009 at 6:41 pm |
The classroom is where it’s at, as far as I’m concerned. I really think school districts need to invest more of their money in teachers and students and less in the central admin whoo-haw. We had staff cuts in our district this year, some affecting classroom teachers. If they’d cut one-quarter of those middle-management folks, they would have solved our fiscal woes without harming the people who deliver the real services in education…the teachers.