Where I came from...

and why it matters in today's educational setting.

I started teaching in 1999. It was a time of thematic units, integrated multidisciplinary learning activities and using technology as a learning support, not just a typing class. My first teaching position was fourth grade at St. Stanislaus in Cleveland, Ohio. I was 22.

I was charged with teaching all subjects, except spelling, to my group of students and teaching religion to another group of students. That’s the “fair” trade made…I teach religion to both groups and he taught spelling. Yeah, those are equivalent. Anyway, I don’t remember being given standards to teach, but I was given teacher manuals and student textbooks.

I was given no professional learning. It was expected everything I needed to know was imparted in college. NOT! Not only was I a green teacher, but I was also a new mom. My husband was working nights so we didn’t have to put our infant in daycare. It was a lot. By second semester I was pregnant with our second child and I remember being kicked by a student while pregnant. That is the exciting experience I had. I don’t remember anything else of that first year, other than I had a classroom in the basement of the 4/5 story building and the staff gave me a small baby shower. To say I was mentally distracted is an understatement.

So when I moved to Las Vegas and taught middle school, it was different. I was given power standards, the most important of the giant list of things to teach. I was on a team who collaborated daily. It was a wonderful shift from where I began. But the Common Core was still not around…Teachers were teaching. We became a NASA Explorer School the same year we began the magnet program. The materials provided by NASA for teaching were amazing. I wish I could still find them and integrate some of it into my science class today.

I attended 12 schools K-12, so I know about transiency as a student. Until becoming a teacher, I didn’t think about what new students meant in a classroom. It didn’t occur to me that I may have missed the lessons about long division or figurative language. Or maybe I learned about measurement and data twice because I came at that time.

Today’s students are not like me. I played outside DAILY. I created a circus in my backyard and charged the neighborhood kids to come. I played school with other kids and the stuffed animals in my room. I learned to play many different games: sports, board and card. I participated in t-ball, soccer, basketball, swim team, softball and cross country. I was an Air Force and Navy brat who was in girl scouts through high school and earned my Silver Award. I started babysitting at 10 and working in jobs at 13. Our house had 1 computer to play Oregon Trail, when I was in middle school. We went to church every weekend, even on vacation. The phone had a cord and there was NOT one in my bedroom until high school. That phone was the house phone…not mine. I wasn’t allowed to watch MTV, which didn’t matter since we didn’t have cable. I grew up sheltered and protected. I never did drugs or ditched school. I graduated #11 out of 210 students in my high school, and didn’t even really try…

I grew up DIFFERENT from my children who are almost done with high school and graduated; the last one graduates in June. My daughter had Sesame Street as a companion in her play pen while her father slept and I went to work. My kids had technology, but it was loaded with educational games and nothing else. They were involved with scouts until middle school. They each played a school sport for a season maybe two. With four kids, both parents working it was a lot.

After the divorce, life changed. They lived by two different sets of rules and learned to adapt. Today my daughter is a receptionist in a law firm, but has explored different options to find something that fits. My oldest son has followed his passion of cooking through high school and is a sous chef with a national household name brand. My middle son has followed his passion to the Army reserves and learning about how to run a shooting range. My youngest son is unsure of what he wants to do or where he’s going to go, but he has the skills to be successful and I can’t see where it leads him.

Today’s students have never lived life without a cell phone in the pocket of the person they are with. Maps are not on paper; they can find their way home in minutes with an app. Families are different too. Some limit technology, others use it to help cope with the stress of parenting and life. Teachers are competing with TikTok and YouTube. This group of students seem to have an attention span of 10 second Tom. (Watch 50 First Dates if you don’t know who I’m referencing.)

In my classroom, I have a curriculum to follow, standards to teach and I have to figure out how to engage all the different learners in my classroom. This is not new. Teachers have had to be inventive and innovative to engage their learners since schools began. Why does it feel so hard sometimes? How are teachers supposed to compete?

Share this with a teacher you know who is:

-trying to engage the learners in the classroom.

-taking risks and trying new things to empower students.

-wanting to collaborate with other like minded individuals to make a difference.

What was your experience like growing up? What was it like for your children?