Appreciation

Well Teacher Appreciation week came and went at my school...like elsewhere around the nation and world.  So with all the hubbub the real question to address is do I feel appreciated.  Yes and No. 

I will start with the bad. There is plenty of that.  In the recent past I am coming off another demoralizing budget season.  Sure money is tight, it always is.  But I have slowly come to grips with the fact I live in a community and a state that could do a better job supporting education, but chooses not to.  That's putting it gently.  Some outwardly decry taxes are too high and blame wasteful schools and dare I say...overpaid teachers.  Maybe so.  But more likely the levels of bureaucratic decision makers all take and redirect their share before it comes anywhere near me or my classroom.  I have what I need I suppose.  I know I have it way better than many around the nation.  So I learn not to complain or open my hand and whine too often.  But over the last few years most of the heavy lifting when it comes to balancing budgets, teaching more classes and more kids falls on guess who?  Mr. and Mrs. Appreciated.  But I don't like talking about money and few teachers start teaching in order to get rich.  If they did, they are dum(I like that one).

So there is one strike against appreciation.  But I get it elsewhere too.  Let's stick to the last week when a colleague who is a fellow coach couldn't get a sub for when he left early with the team he coached.  Maybe some of that was on him but this Spring has been crazy with cancellations so instead he had to struggle to find a colleague who could give up their unencumbered planning to cover his class.  A day before another teacher who wasn't feeling well heard the same thing.  That doesn't make me feel appreciated.   I was also informed of the Required Summer Professional Development where I was given no real choice.  Just choose among what and when I want to take it.  Next I dealt with the run up to next Fall when our overcrowded school will get another 100 or so 9th graders. 

During all that I kept focused in the hectic weeks before you guessed it, testing season.  ARGH! Already stressed and overworked with unrealistic and unsustainable expectations I had a young man in my class illustrate a point for me. I exist in a landscape  where  a 14 yr student chooses to put his head down, 3 minutes after I made a special effort to reach him about doing his best and what he is capable in the hopes I could get him through the 9th grade.  I felt more powerless than usual and that says something.   

I am in the not so sweet spot part of my career where I am devalued since I am not "new" and choose not to leave the classroom as a senior teacher in favor of some other role.  Most efforts on a national level seem to depreciate teachers.  From how they are evaluated to the ever tightening knot that limits how they practice their craft.  I did get the normal mass mailing letters of appreciation from the school board and division superintendent which I thought was nice.  But truth be told I am tired of being "told" I am appreciated.  But it wasn't all bad.

So how do I feel appreciated you ask?  There were some small gestures from students.  The applegrams, brief notes from students, yep... I received a handful.  I did get a small gift of appreciation from a family with a nice note.  I teach 135 kids so the odds were in my favor.  I did also get a few E-mail thanks which were nice gestures as well.  The most noticeable efforts were school wide in the form of some well timed and very tasty meals, snacks and treats from our parent teacher organization.  A thousand thanks to them!  So I do I suppose feel more appreciated than last week. 

Still what I appreciate has nothing to do with what week it is or what gets organized.  It is the psychological pay from countless seemingly meaningless interactions with the vibrant and infectious energy of youth.  It is seeing the world through their eyes and thinking of it as if they were my own children.  It is seeing the newness of learning brighten a day and the occasional light bulb go off.  Usually it goes off now on a cell phone first...  It is the unexpected thank you for something you did to help a student out.  It is the feeling of appreciation when students look to you for help, guidance and support.  The moments that are ever so briefly and arre, but also but also profound that make me feel appreciated as a teacher.  Thanks. 

The Best Teacher Appreciation

Last week at our school, students completed "Apple Grams"-- short notes students could choose to write to a teacher.  I got the following:

“Mr. Turner,
Your class has brought great joy to our frontal lobes.  Our sympathetic nervous systems are always activated in your presence.  You are the terry-cloth mother to our rhesus monkeys, the Robin Williams to our DeNiro.
Forever Self-Actualized,
xxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxx”

That's the best appreciation a teacher can get.  They expressed thanks to me as a teacher, and managed to show me they'd learned something at the same time.  (In case you couldn't figure it out from the note, I teach AP Psychology).

All Teachers Want for Christmas

The Holiday season has arrived.  The TU is excited to take some time off to spend with family and friends.  If you are not a despised teacher(which we hope we are not), this time of the year can mean gifts of appreciation from students and parents.  While the end of the year may also bring gifts, this season has special meaning and we find the gesture quite heartwarming.

There's the plate of cookies, the candy in a coffee mug, the ziplock of homemade delights with a small note affixed to it.   One family from our recent past was known for bringing in pineapples and leaving them on your desk.  There is the gift card to the book store or the paperweight.  Some will drop off gift cards to stores and restaurants.   Cookie or hot chocolate mix in a jar, jam and other tasty treats are great.    On occasion I've received cards with lovely messages inside expressing gratitude.  The people that take the time to do this will never know how much such things mean.

This year was pretty lean and I saw precious few gifts of appreciation.  I'm OK with that and my pride blames the poor economy.  I didn't give it any thought until my wife, who is a counselor at a neighboring school, came home with all kinds of edible loot.  I guess it is time for me to step it up.  You know give less homework, give kids better grades who bring me stuff or just generally treat them more favorably.  That was a feeble attempt at humor but if I worked in Alabama it wouldn't be so funny.

I came across a ruling in Alabama recently where the courts handed down a decision upholding a law that public employees(including teachers) could only accept "de minimis" gifts.  I didn't verify the specifics of what I found, but no dollar amounts were mentioned.   Among the first laws passed after elections, the law came about after some state legislators and lobbyists got a little too cozy.   This news prompted me to evaluate how I would do in Alabama.  I went through the list of gifts I've taken in the past and I figure I can avoid the year in jail and $6,000 fine, with a good lawyer anyway.

So students can no longer give their teachers money or gift cards, anything that can be resold, or even a holiday ham or turkey, according to the opinion.   I said to myself..."who gives a ham to a teacher?"  The governor spoke out and wanted to amend the law to exempt teachers.  I hope people listen to him because I really like ham.  I'd quickly abandon morals and professional ethics in exchange for a ham, but only if it was honey cured of course. 

I guess the only thing screwy here is that no legislator thought to try and remedy the predicament that finds classroom teachers spending out of their own pockets for classroom supplies or on their pupils each year.   As a secondary teacher I spend a little money, but not as much as most of the teachers I know in younger grades.   An AL state ethics commission said a gift card could be allowed if someone collected a few dollars each from several students and this could be combined to buy the card. Commission staff members suggested each donation be less than $5.  (At my school soliciting classrooms and students for funds, even for charity, is not really allowed but for different reasons.)

In the end it is just another example of when good ideas end up as misguided legislation affecting people in our schools.  While a minimal issue in this case, it illustrates the point that it is often the unintended consequences of laws that have the greatest impact. Many of these policies and laws just make schools a less desirable place to work.  Fortunately the innate rewards received from a profession like teaching endure and offset the less desirable aspects of our job.  So what do teachers really want for Christmas?   As teachers all we really want is the chance to do our job well, the freedom to practice our craft and for some influential people to listen for a change, as some of what we are complaining about is right.


Surprise surprise...kids end up last on the priority list.

PS
I recently placed a 40" LCD TV,  IPOD shuffle and of course a Christmas Ham on Craigslist.  I won't disclose where I got them :)  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.