Teacher Appreciation Week

Howdy!

Since this week is Teacher Appreciation Week, I figured I had better write something.  It's been too long since my last post, and I'm really trying to keep up with things.

First, in honor of T.A.W. there is a sale going on at TeachersPayTeachers that can give you up to 28% off your purchase!  My store currently has 23 items, all marked $5 or less.  That means you can get my arrangement of Chameleon for beginning band at a low price of $3.60!  There are tons of products created by thousands of great teachers, and a great deal of them will be on sale for the next two days.

Second, a bit of commentary.  Yesterday I was a bit amused to find the PTA at my school had given us all boxes of bandages with a note that said something about how we "hold the place together."  I suppose I understand the sentiment that was intended, but I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed.  Not because I didn't appreciate the thought, and not because I have no use for bandages.  My disappointment was that they weren't latex-free, so I can't really use them in my classroom.

And that's when it hit me that I've been teaching long enough for my thought process to go there first.

I used to wonder when I would feel like a real teacher.  I spent my first year waiting for someone to find out how inadequate and unprepared I felt. My second year I felt like I was keeping my head above water, but just barely. My third year I felt like I was being tugged in multiple directions all at once.  My fourth year I started a new school, so in many ways I was back to the drawing board.  But my fifth year?  For the first time in my professional life I think I may have a handle on some things.

I am definitely not yet to the point of feeling like I have everything covered.  I wonder sometimes if I will ever feel that way.  This has been a year of experiments, of reorganizing, of trying to push myself beyond my own comfort zone.  In many ways I think this has been one of my most productive years for myself, but in many other ways I feel like I am becoming more and more aware of all that I have not done or not done well enough.

Let's get back to teacher appreciation week for a moment.  Do you know what really makes teachers feel appreciated?  The little gifts and whatnot are nice, but for me that's not really what does it.  Personally, I feel appreciated by my principal and my content supervisor, which is a huge change from where I was not that long ago.  Beyond that I have positive relationships with many of the parents at the school, which is a huge plus.  That is appreciation to me.  I feel valued as a professional, I feel like my viewpoint matters to my colleagues (ok, some more than others, but still).  I feel like I'm past the stage of worrying about being unmasked as a phony (thank you, Holden Caulfield!).

You know what would make me feel even more appreciated?  Not having my salary and general livelihood on the chopping block when there are budget issues to solve.  Not having my judgment questioned by people whose only classroom experience as an adult is for a photo op.  Not having my friends and colleagues (and myself) forced to take on multiple part time jobs to make ends meet.  Knowing that the money I spent and the debt I incurred to take on this profession is both money well spent and debt that can be paid off.

Too many of us (and that's a general "us," not just teachers) feel the pressure of financial burden.  I worry that if the trends continue, teachers will be forced out of teaching because we cannot afford it.  Personally, I have over $60,000 in student loan debt.  I am working on finding yet another job (current count is 4, the next one will make 5) just to try to keep up or (dare I say it?) possibly get ahead financially.  I am starting to wonder if anyone in a position of power will ever notice that they could not have gotten there without teachers who were not only there to collect a paycheck, but that often had to go above and beyond with little to no compensation just to push students to be their best.

Doctors make a lot of money, and they should.  The same goes for anyone in a position that helps create the modern world we live in.  I just wonder when the time will come that the people in positions to do something about it understand that everyone who is anyone got there with a lot of help from those of us in the classroom.