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Do You Have What it Takes to Survive Teaching?
By Alain Jehlen and Cindy Long, NEA Today
Some days it feels like the sharks are circling. Teaching is a challenge, especially the first few years. But for some, the dangers are more daunting than for others. Here are some colleagues whose first years were truly extreme, but they survived—and they’re still at it.
Stage Fright
During her first few weeks of teaching, Connye Lacombe struggled to be a good sport. She was bounced from room to room as her new school was painted and plastered (work that started, inexplicably, in September), but she never complained: “As a new teacher, mine was not to question why.”
But that was before her classroom was moved to the stage in the auditorium during the hottest October days on record in Minnesota.
She shared the space with another class, so the heavy plastic stage curtains had to be kept closed, cutting off ventilation. She stood under stage lights—sweat pouring down her face, glasses fogging—and attempted to teach a class of rowdy inner-city teenagers math, sans blackboard.
Then the workmen started replacing the metal lockers in the hall. “I had to yell to be heard over the banging,” she recalls.
Lacombe never thought she’d be grateful to have her classroom relocated to the basement. But with windows, ventilation, good lighting, and comfortable temperatures, it was like a spa vacation compared to the stage.
She’d visit her classroom from time to time to check on progress, only to discover nothing had been done. It wasn’t painted and plastered until February.
“The fact that they were trying to remodel a school while kids were in it was my first indication that common sense and logic do not apply in school administration,” she says.
Lacombe was brought up to follow orders (her father was a Marine drill sergeant) but she says new teachers shouldn’t have to do the same. “You don’t need to put up with extreme situations like that,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to speak up.”
Little Kid, Big Trouble
When Cari Molina was a new teacher, she was assigned to a cash-strapped elementary school in one of the poorest towns in Southern California. She expected to have at-risk students in her classroom. But she didn’t bargain for Jorge—a delinquent fourth- grader with a rap sheet.
At the ripe old age of 9, Jorge was already on probation with the Sheriff’s department, and Molina was required to fax in his grades and notes about his behavior to the probation officer. The news was rarely good. Jorge missed assignments, disrupted class, got into fistfights on the playground, and used language that would make a sailor’s jaw drop.
Still wet behind the ears, Molina had no experience dealing with students like Jorge, but she had a gut feeling about him, so she didn’t give up.
“They’re all tough guys. That’s how they make it through life and in the neighborhoods they come from,” says Molina. “I learned to get past that to see the child within.”
“Jorge taught me that at-risk students need second, third, fourth, and fifth chances,” Molina says. “As much as I taught him never to give up on his education, he taught me never to give up on students.”
Her continued faith in Jorge paid off. He became a better student and started behaving, if only in her classroom.
“Believe in your students,” Molina says. “They’ll always remember that you did.”
Continue reading on the next page.
johnleddy
about 1 month ago
4 comments
wow! These teachers are heroes! How uplifting to read about their experiences and their ability to overcome ... and, as always, how absurd that it is so o o o diffcult to get the disruptive and violent out of the public school classroom ... what about the learning of the rest of the students? What about the disproportionate allocation of scarce resources (monies, counselors, specialists, law enforcement involvement) at the expense of those who might put those resources to much better use in the form of better facilities, libraries and books, science and computer labs, physical education facilities ...
This misallocation toward those least deserving/most wasteful might well have been accelerated under the practical consequences of No Child Left Behind Act of 2001/2002 in which schools and their staff and student bodies are rated as no better than their lowest performing group.
Then there is that famous and sanctimonious 'at risk' designation ...
If schools are going to make such a big deal out of parental involvement and its benefits (and justifiably so), then they should at least recognize the converse: parental disinterest or actual lawlessness and parental incentives toward their children's misbehavior: truancy, non -compliance with rules and non performance in subject matter, are factors largely beyond the teacher's control. Instead, we are tasked with establishing strong home school connections partly for their positive results, but also partly to be able to hold us responsible for the behaviorally challenged component of the 'at risk' students. ("If you can't control the behavior of an 8 year old or a 9 year old, maybe you should not be in teaching").
A salute to those who somehow overcame this no-safety-net, no real support atmosphere. The extremely high turnover among new teachers (50% out of the profession altogether after just 5 years in Texas) attests to the weight these teachers put on what was their minimum expectation when they signed up: to simple BE ABLE TO TEACH!
lashawna
about 1 month ago
40 comments
I know I will be alitte scared my first year but I think I will be able to handle it. GREAT ARTICLE!
Kathie
2 months ago
2 comments
It was amazing to find another teacher from the rez. I, too, began my teaching career at Red Mesa. Only I taught at the elementary/junior high. I had a the special education population which consisted of a caseload of over 40 students from k-8. I had a group of 7-8th grade boys that were involved in gangs, drugs, truancy and lack of interest in school. It took a while but after getting on their level for a while and sharing with them my Cherokee background and the fact that my grandparents had lived with no running water or electricity much like they still did in the mid 90s, we all became a group with a common goal of them learning. After the principal and I had one of them arrested, they decided school was not the place for the drug/gang business but a place to learn and become more than they thought they could be. I really enjoyed the cultural environment and the elders came into my classrooms often showing approval in the way I taught and supported their culture. My daughter went to high school while I was teaching there and considers it an experience that really enhanced her life as well. I might return some day - who knows. Kathryn
cahela
2 months ago
6 comments
I have swam with the sharks; been backed against the wall from administration; central offices and students and parents....hold on to your goals and the reason you chose to teach - I have what it takes as well!
patomin
3 months ago
70 comments
Great article. It shows how we must be flexible and sensitive to each situation.
jjmiles8
3 months ago
4 comments
I think personal connection with difficult students is the single most effective behavior management strategy. Without it, nothing works. They have to know that you are vested in them and that you care not only about them, but about the other students as well.
christinaleebills
3 months ago
2 comments
This information was very helpful considering that i'm studying to be a high school choral director. I remember when I was in Jr. High and the district decided to do remodling to our school while school was in session. It was very frustrating on the count that not only the smell of paint and the dust blowing in the halls but, other students and I were having a hard time studying or being able to hear our teachers. In order for the teacher to hear us they would shut that door and considering the air conditioning wasn't working well it got very hot and syuffy fast.
SBonilla07
3 months ago
588 comments
I got what it takes!
sanmccarron
3 months ago
1138 comments
Three of my children went through high school while the school was under construction. I ditto the "Amen" to those teachers working there. The school did not have an auditorium for three years, yet assemblies and plays were still conducted (at the Middle School), and no cafeteria or gym for two years (cold lunches were sold and gym went out of doors; games at the middle school)
johnslat
3 months ago
1750 comments
“The fact that they were trying to remodel a school while kids were in it was my first indication that common sense and logic do not apply in school administration,” she says."
Can I get a BIG "AMEN?"
I guess I must "have what it takes", having survived thirty years (and counting.)