How to Walk Backwards and Other Things I Learned While Teaching in a Catholic Elementary School
Retirement was great. After teaching for thirty-three years in middle schools or high schools in this country and overseas, I became an educational consultant. I was enjoying working with school districts and individual schools, community organizations, private educational firms, regional offices of education, as well as giving presentations at conferences.
Then, three years after retiring from full time teaching I was asked to take the seventh grade position at St. Thomas More School, a pre-K through grade 8 school in Elgin, Illinois. STM School was one of those I was working with, giving workshops and mentoring teachers and other staff. Penny Reid, the principal of STM, had asked me to assist her in interviewing prospective teachers. The request came unexpectedly. When discussing the parameters of the teaching position with her, she casually asked ‘Would you consider taking the position’’ Though I had kept my teaching certificate valid, I had no intentions of teaching full time again and abandoning my consulting business. Cool Lessons Consulting (coollessons.org) was just beginning to really take off. Putting the consulting work into hiatus and letting my clients know that I am no longer available was something that wasn’t even considered. It surprised both of us when I didn’t respond ‘No’.
It came down to two reasons why I eventually agreed to teach full time again. The first was that I enjoyed working with Mrs. Reid and the staff of STM School. The second was that I needed to ‘walk the talk’. For years I had been suggesting teaching ideas to these people who would become my fellow teachers, but have never personally been through the day-by-day trials they go through as elementary school teachers.
The following is a list just some of the things I learned while teaching in a Catholic elementary school. One is that elementary school teachers are extremely pressed for time. I realized that it takes any new teacher time (measured in years) to develop a variety of educational experiences to help students learn. In the middle and junior high schools I am familiar with, we would have, on an average, three preparations (different lessons plans) each school day. Some years we would have fewer preps and very infrequently did I hear about more.
As an elementary teacher we had six preps. For those who don’t think this is a big deal (obviously people who haven’t tried it), someone once said “Teaching is an easy job to do poorly, and a tough job to do well.” I won’t get into the fine details of lesson preparation: just suffice it to say it takes an immense amount of time to plan. First one has to evaluate student progress and then prepare learning experiences you feel will be successful. Therefore, my workday extended from about 5 a.m. through 11 p.m. On school days I had no other life than education. On weekends, one of the two days was devoted to school related matters. During a weeklong vacation, typically at least two of the days were like wise taken up.
Included in the ‘pressure of time’ theme, I liken elementary school teachers’ jobs to images of pony express riders who, without a break, arrive on a galloping mount, jump off, run to the next horse and, without stopping, climb aboard while their chargers are moving on the dead run towards the next destination. This analogy expresses exactly the feelings of time pressure teachers experience as learning experiences flow from one to another in order to keep students on task and on time. Add to this the ‘extra’ things to consider, some happening each day, and some sporadically, which can make for a hectic experience. Some of these are: picture, lunch, field trip and magazine money collections; schedule changes; morning, lunch and closing prayers; rehearsals for singing at Mass; helping students get ready for the morning scripture readings and for mass readings; and going over to the church to attend masses, participate in Reconciliation (the Sacrament of Penance for all you old timers), Eucharistic adorations and the Way of the Cross.
Related to the ‘pressed for time’ theme is something that is easily forgotten by some who claim teachers have it easy because of their shortened work day. As mentioned before, we are one of the few professions in which our clients (the children we teach) are physically with us throughout the day. Lawyers are not legally responsible for knowing where their clients are and having to constantly physically supervise them; neither are doctors, accountants, businessmen and women, policemen, etc. Few of these have ever had to ask someone to ‘cover for’ their clients for a needed washroom break. Of course, teachers do have a thirty minutes lunch break (unless one has playground duty and gobbles down food, rushes out the door to supervise children and to take heed of assorted ‘owies’ and problems in caring ways. Even that thirty-minute lunch break many times is only twenty minutes (it takes time to accompany your students to lunch and to pick them up afterwards). I was amused by an article written by a journalist who taught in an elementary school for a day. She went home totally exhausted, wondering how people can do that kind of work without opportunities to mentally refresh themselves as the journalist had while working in her office.
Another thing I learned is how like a loving family the STM School is. One positive aspect of working in such a small (about 240 students) school is that everyone seems to know everyone else. The STM School office and teaching staff not only knows the names of each student, they also know their siblings and parents by name, as well as their family background. Students regularly come into the office just to say hi, or for a hug, or for reaffirmation in one way or another. They are always greeted in a loving fashion. People pitch in and help each other. When something happens, someone is there to provide backup. It’s truly amazing what a group of people can do when they have a common vision and the will to reach it.
The vast majority of teachers I have known are caring people. You have to enjoy associating with children and want what is best for them in order to be a good teacher. Jaime Escalante, of ‘Stand and Deliver’ fame, states that all schools should show and teach respect, hard work and discipline. STM School does all this under an aura of true Christian love. On a side note, one advantage of teaching in a Catholic school is that we could address the entire child’s educational, physical and spiritual growth. Kids many times have a strong sense of ethics and want opportunities to talk about events. When ‘stuff’ happened, we could deal with it within a moral framework. Another lesson was that my STM students really knew the system. In my previous teaching jobs, I established classroom management procedures due to the fact that students fed into my middle school from a half dozen or so different schools. However, because my STM School students had been together as a group for years, they were used to doing things a certain way and as a new teacher I had much to learn about their established routines.
My students frequently made suggestions as to how I could improve classroom management techniques such as which ‘jobs’ needed to be done and how they should be done, based upon how they did it in previous years. Included is the routine of how the class should be moved from one location to another, such as to the LRC, lunch, music or art. When it was time, the girls and boys automatically got into separate lines and marched down the hallway with the teacher in front walking backwards to assure discipline in the ranks. I had marveled at seventh and eighth graders doing this when I started teaching there, and vowed that you wouldn’t catch me walking backwards in front of a class. However, due to the nature of the seventh grade students’ need to establish their independence by the class forming a moving, talking amorphous blob in the hallways, I had to admit I was wrong and learned to walk backwards without running into obstacles.
Related to this, I learned that there are some good and also not-so-good things about students being together as a group for a number of years. The good was that they treated each other like family members. They basically cared for each other and did much sharing. They knew the strengths and weaknesses of each person in class much better than I did and when, in private conversations, they expressed their thoughts on whether or not certain individuals would come through as part of group learning activities, their prognoses were right on the money. They knew who could carry home the homework for ailing students, and who could get rides after school with whom. The no-so-good was that they treated each other like family members, brothers and sisters. They had their alliances with others already established when I came. It was difficult for a person to move from one clique to another. They also knew exactly what buttons to push and how far they could push with each person in class before that person would be set off.
Because of working with the same students most of the day, I knew my students as individuals more quickly and better than ever. It’s more difficult for a student to ‘hide’ academically in such a situation than it is if the teacher only sees the person fifty minutes a day as in middle or high school.
The list of what I learned is by no means all encompassing. All and all my experiences just reinforced my belief that people who work in schools deserve all the respect we can give.
In my middle school teaching career, I have heard some people hope to have a chance to move ‘up to’ high school. I think that the State of Illinois allows high school districts to tax 150% that of elementary or unit school districts, seemingly implying that the high school has an exalted status (money does speak). These attitudes seem to me to turn what should be the true priorities of education on its head.
I had to resign from teaching full time due to medical concerns (it was difficult when faced with the fact that one can no longer perform up to the standards one sets) and am back to being an educational consultant. I did ‘walk the talk’ and found that engaged learning principles do work in an elementary school setting. My consulting business has picked up again surprisingly fast, at which I am as busy as ever.
In the end, I can proudly say that I was an elementary Catholic schoolteacher.
Retirement was great. After teaching for thirty-three years in middle schools or high schools in this country and overseas, I became an educational consultant. I was enjoying working with school districts and individual schools, community organizations, private educational firms, regional offices of education, as well as giving presentations at conferences.
Then, three years after retiring from full time teaching I was asked to take the seventh grade position at St. Thomas More School, a pre-K through grade 8 school in Elgin, Illinois. STM School was one of those I was working with, giving workshops and mentoring teachers and other staff. Penny Reid, the principal of STM, had asked me to assist her in interviewing prospective teachers. The request came unexpectedly. When discussing the parameters of the teaching position with her, she casually asked ‘Would you consider taking the position’’ Though I had kept my teaching certificate valid, I had no intentions of teaching full time again and abandoning my consulting business. Cool Lessons Consulting (coollessons.org) was just beginning to really take off. Putting the consulting work into hiatus and letting my clients know that I am no longer available was something that wasn’t even considered. It surprised both of us when I didn’t respond ‘No’.
It came down to two reasons why I eventually agreed to teach full time again. The first was that I enjoyed working with Mrs. Reid and the staff of STM School. The second was that I needed to ‘walk the talk’. For years I had been suggesting teaching ideas to these people who would become my fellow teachers, but have never personally been through the day-by-day trials they go through as elementary school teachers.
The following is a list just some of the things I learned while teaching in a Catholic elementary school. One is that elementary school teachers are extremely pressed for time. I realized that it takes any new teacher time (measured in years) to develop a variety of educational experiences to help students learn. In the middle and junior high schools I am familiar with, we would have, on an average, three preparations (different lessons plans) each school day. Some years we would have fewer preps and very infrequently did I hear about more.
As an elementary teacher we had six preps. For those who don’t think this is a big deal (obviously people who haven’t tried it), someone once said “Teaching is an easy job to do poorly, and a tough job to do well.” I won’t get into the fine details of lesson preparation: just suffice it to say it takes an immense amount of time to plan. First one has to evaluate student progress and then prepare learning experiences you feel will be successful. Therefore, my workday extended from about 5 a.m. through 11 p.m. On school days I had no other life than education. On weekends, one of the two days was devoted to school related matters. During a weeklong vacation, typically at least two of the days were like wise taken up.
Included in the ‘pressure of time’ theme, I liken elementary school teachers’ jobs to images of pony express riders who, without a break, arrive on a galloping mount, jump off, run to the next horse and, without stopping, climb aboard while their chargers are moving on the dead run towards the next destination. This analogy expresses exactly the feelings of time pressure teachers experience as learning experiences flow from one to another in order to keep students on task and on time. Add to this the ‘extra’ things to consider, some happening each day, and some sporadically, which can make for a hectic experience. Some of these are: picture, lunch, field trip and magazine money collections; schedule changes; morning, lunch and closing prayers; rehearsals for singing at Mass; helping students get ready for the morning scripture readings and for mass readings; and going over to the church to attend masses, participate in Reconciliation (the Sacrament of Penance for all you old timers), Eucharistic adorations and the Way of the Cross.
Related to the ‘pressed for time’ theme is something that is easily forgotten by some who claim teachers have it easy because of their shortened work day. As mentioned before, we are one of the few professions in which our clients (the children we teach) are physically with us throughout the day. Lawyers are not legally responsible for knowing where their clients are and having to constantly physically supervise them; neither are doctors, accountants, businessmen and women, policemen, etc. Few of these have ever had to ask someone to ‘cover for’ their clients for a needed washroom break. Of course, teachers do have a thirty minutes lunch break (unless one has playground duty and gobbles down food, rushes out the door to supervise children and to take heed of assorted ‘owies’ and problems in caring ways. Even that thirty-minute lunch break many times is only twenty minutes (it takes time to accompany your students to lunch and to pick them up afterwards). I was amused by an article written by a journalist who taught in an elementary school for a day. She went home totally exhausted, wondering how people can do that kind of work without opportunities to mentally refresh themselves as the journalist had while working in her office.
Another thing I learned is how like a loving family the STM School is. One positive aspect of working in such a small (about 240 students) school is that everyone seems to know everyone else. The STM School office and teaching staff not only knows the names of each student, they also know their siblings and parents by name, as well as their family background. Students regularly come into the office just to say hi, or for a hug, or for reaffirmation in one way or another. They are always greeted in a loving fashion. People pitch in and help each other. When something happens, someone is there to provide backup. It’s truly amazing what a group of people can do when they have a common vision and the will to reach it.
The vast majority of teachers I have known are caring people. You have to enjoy associating with children and want what is best for them in order to be a good teacher. Jaime Escalante, of ‘Stand and Deliver’ fame, states that all schools should show and teach respect, hard work and discipline. STM School does all this under an aura of true Christian love. On a side note, one advantage of teaching in a Catholic school is that we could address the entire child’s educational, physical and spiritual growth. Kids many times have a strong sense of ethics and want opportunities to talk about events. When ‘stuff’ happened, we could deal with it within a moral framework. Another lesson was that my STM students really knew the system. In my previous teaching jobs, I established classroom management procedures due to the fact that students fed into my middle school from a half dozen or so different schools. However, because my STM School students had been together as a group for years, they were used to doing things a certain way and as a new teacher I had much to learn about their established routines.
My students frequently made suggestions as to how I could improve classroom management techniques such as which ‘jobs’ needed to be done and how they should be done, based upon how they did it in previous years. Included is the routine of how the class should be moved from one location to another, such as to the LRC, lunch, music or art. When it was time, the girls and boys automatically got into separate lines and marched down the hallway with the teacher in front walking backwards to assure discipline in the ranks. I had marveled at seventh and eighth graders doing this when I started teaching there, and vowed that you wouldn’t catch me walking backwards in front of a class. However, due to the nature of the seventh grade students’ need to establish their independence by the class forming a moving, talking amorphous blob in the hallways, I had to admit I was wrong and learned to walk backwards without running into obstacles.
Related to this, I learned that there are some good and also not-so-good things about students being together as a group for a number of years. The good was that they treated each other like family members. They basically cared for each other and did much sharing. They knew the strengths and weaknesses of each person in class much better than I did and when, in private conversations, they expressed their thoughts on whether or not certain individuals would come through as part of group learning activities, their prognoses were right on the money. They knew who could carry home the homework for ailing students, and who could get rides after school with whom. The no-so-good was that they treated each other like family members, brothers and sisters. They had their alliances with others already established when I came. It was difficult for a person to move from one clique to another. They also knew exactly what buttons to push and how far they could push with each person in class before that person would be set off.
Because of working with the same students most of the day, I knew my students as individuals more quickly and better than ever. It’s more difficult for a student to ‘hide’ academically in such a situation than it is if the teacher only sees the person fifty minutes a day as in middle or high school.
The list of what I learned is by no means all encompassing. All and all my experiences just reinforced my belief that people who work in schools deserve all the respect we can give.
In my middle school teaching career, I have heard some people hope to have a chance to move ‘up to’ high school. I think that the State of Illinois allows high school districts to tax 150% that of elementary or unit school districts, seemingly implying that the high school has an exalted status (money does speak). These attitudes seem to me to turn what should be the true priorities of education on its head.
I had to resign from teaching full time due to medical concerns (it was difficult when faced with the fact that one can no longer perform up to the standards one sets) and am back to being an educational consultant. I did ‘walk the talk’ and found that engaged learning principles do work in an elementary school setting. My consulting business has picked up again surprisingly fast, at which I am as busy as ever.
In the end, I can proudly say that I was an elementary Catholic schoolteacher.
posted by Rich Levine | 1:38 PM
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