Teacher Appreciation

Two weeks ago was Teacher's Appreciation Week and every day that week different businesses had different promotions going on for teachers. The corporate shitty pizza buffet chain (I guess that idea sounds good...or does it?) Cici's gave me free dinner one night and I remember thinking, "wow, not bad being a teacher." There was never a 'salesperson appreciation week,' because that's not a job people appreciate. It kind of validates my decision to do what I am doing this year. One time earlier this year I was late for a doctor's appointment and when they found out why they were so much more sympathetic because everyone knows or has a child or family member where someone is in school. If not, at some point they themselves were in school and remember how teachers changed their lives.

Even more recently I had a similar experience. It was funny asking Maya and then taking Maya to prom at 30 years old (actually the first time she been 'taken' to prom) for my school. It was a little bit awkward being there as the adult seeing my students all dressed up and grown up. Add to that the music (trap: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_music) and our whiteness and we kind of stayed on the sidelines and ended up not staying that long. However, we stayed just long enough that we got back to our car at the meter 3 minutes late where a parking attendant was writing us a ticket. The woman was sympathetic and swore she couldn't change it once it was written but we could try to appeal it. We both knew that wouldn't work (since we were still in the wrong) and I pleaded with her and told her I was a teacher coming from our school's prom. Once she heard those magic words I could see her face change, soften, and she told me to give her back the ticket. Just amazing.

We are in the home stretch now and my job has improved for the moment somewhat but it's been a long year. One of the longest I can remember for a long time. As the school year winds down I've started to think about my options for next year. What type of place do I want to be if I am going to continue trying this crazy thing out? How can I make this thing more sustainable? How much do I really enjoy it? What age and type of students do I want to teach? Can I tolerate another year of having my students fail at watching a movie for example? I showed Selma recently and told my students that all I wanted them to do was watch the movie (I've actually not shown any full movies this year besides most of Glory and they always complain about not watching enough movies). They didn't need to take notes or do a worksheet, and they would get a 100% on a class assignment for successfully watching a movie. Most of them couldn't actually do this and a few of them failed even. I took 10 points off for talking, being on their phones, listening to their headphones, sleeping, playing cards, or causing disruption. I can't imagine this being a scenario back when I was in high school but this is a different world.