Parent Teacher Conferences

I just got home a few hours ago from our Fall P/T/S conference. I saw quite a few students and some parents I had wanted to talk to. This year I was more relaxed than my first conference. I just feel better, although I am extremely worn out and will probably stay up past my bedtime. I need some me-time that I didn't get during our school frenzy.

The Year in Full Swing

Last year at our "Mentoring and Induction" meetings for new teachers, a chart was shared with me of the rising and falling anxiety during one's first year. I can still feel those vibrations now in my second year.
Basically, the beginning of the year is mostly anticipation and settling into a routine. As the year progresses and dynamics emerge, teachers get worn down. Conferences usually result in physical debility. Insecurities fester if the work environment is hostile or uncertain.
By midyear, many teachers are at their worst: downright depressed. The first semester goes by in the blink of an eye, and second semester promises state assessment. I find it challenging to keep kids from believing they are what they bring home on their grade card. By second semester some have invariably failed, "been left behind."
The end of the year is just as exhausting, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. May is pretty good. Your assessments are over and you just get to enjoy the last month of teaching.

The reason I had mentor and induction in quotation marks, is that these programs are a facade. The state now requires new teachers to be placed with a mentor and receive training, but in my experience, most districts do not use this opportunity to make new teachers more effective. We get placed with a mentor who herself is overworked and laden down with job responsibilities. We are hardly afforded the chance to form learning communities, even in middle school, which calls for integrated learning experience!

This is not a post of complaint, though. There is no one to blame. We teachers are left to figure this out on our own: how to achieve the school's goals when there is no time or support to do so. Carrying that load alone, too many kids fall through the cracks. And teachers, too.

Next post may be about cooperative learning. My school is enforcing it as a necessity to middle school learning. I enjoy using it but can't implement it without a lot of support. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if high school teaching demands less of my instruction style.

Today I'm looking into programs to fund my masters degree in education. Not so much because I want to teach forever, but because I feel pressure to finish my degree and make more long-term career decisions. Found a state service scholarship and now just need to contact my advisor and see what can be done. Whoopee! I might be going back to school.