It’s time for our back to school check in!
We all joke about that first back to school essay assignment…”What I did on my summer vacation.” Ours would be better titled, “What we didn’t do…” We didn’t blog. 🙂 We are making a commitment to doing better. Here goes…
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What I love about these kinds of posts that Kris and I make, is the fact that it’s two sides of the same coin basically. One from a former student/current educator and one from a former student/current mom to a current school-age child. Both are about back to school, but from different perspectives. Different things to get ready for – one shops for herself and the other shops for her 13 yr old boy and so forth. Along with all of that, we talk about all the things, thoughts and feelings that come along with this time of year for each of us!
from Kris B.
August 22nd marked my 55th first day of school. Though the details of each of those first days have been different, the energy that surrounds each new beginning is similar.
As a kid, I always loved school. During my K-12 years, I only had a handful of teachers that perhaps had not made the best career choice. The rest were pretty darn good.
My first grade teacher encouraged my love of writing stories and poems, My fifth grade teacher was the first to introduce me to painting. I still remember )and use) the sponge technique for painting rocky cliffs. My seventh grade teacher, my first male teacher, was the one who helped me discover my interest in literature. Then there was my high school French teacher who taught me well enough to surprise two guys with my French skills as they tried to pick up a friend and me in a hotel elevator while visiting Quebec as a senior in high school. She also taught me well enough to successfully navigate my way through a two week pilgrimage to France, never getting lost or eating food that I could not identify. And it goes without saying that all of the band and orchestra directors that I had during my K-12 years influenced me in ways that can not be easily or succinctly described.
All that to say that I always looked forward to starting school, to learning something new, to doing my absolute best to meet new challenges head on and exceed expectations. I worked hard, though often really didn’t need to except for in chemistry. I had to work hard in that class, but maybe not as hard as the football coach who was my teacher. Let’s just say that neither of us was in our element during chemistry class.
My undergraduate years were the most formative years of my life. I attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina on a music scholarship/. I thought I wanted to be a band director. After one semester of music ed classes and two semesters with the most amazing music theory professor, I realized that music theory was my thing. I also studied composition, but I am a music theorist down to my core. My only regret about my time as an undergraduate is that I finished in three years, at age 20. What does a 20 year old with a Bachelors degree in music theory do? Go to graduate school!
I attended the University of North Texas studying music theory with an emphasis in computer assisted instruction. That was back in the eighties when computer assisted instruction was intended to support classroom teaching, not replace face-to-face learning. During this time, I was also a graduate teaching fellow with full responsibility for teaching freshman and sophomore music theory classes. I was now a whopping 21 years old, had never taught, and had students older than I was, something that seemed very strange at the time. All I knew about teaching was what had been modeled to me by all of the amazing teachers I mentioned above. Fortunately, I was taking theory pedagogy during my first year as a teaching assistant. To all the students I had during that year, I bet you felt like I did in that chemistry class. Please accept my heartfelt apologies! In case you are wondering, in the last forty years, I’ve gotten a lot better! That first year of being both a student and a teacher simultaneously was also the first year I remember starting school filled with more anxiety than excitement.
After finishing my Masters degree, I continued as a graduate teaching assistant while I worked on my PhD. I was then offered a job teaching music theory at Dallas County Community College District, the old “junior” college model. I thought that would be a great stepping stone thing to do to get some “real life” experience to ready me for applying for a university position.
Thirty years later, I am still in that same position. Not because I “couldn’t get” another job. Well, maybe I couldn’t, but I don’t know that because I have never applied for another job. I discovered very quickly that I love this environment. Many of my students are those that did not grow up with opportunity and privilege but have an amazing desire to learn and work hard to make their dreams come true. Though my academic training was to become a “scholar,” I am truly a teacher. (In my head there is a big difference between the two.) When I am in the classroom, I feel like I am at my best. So for thirty years, I have greeted each first day of school by giving thanks for the opportunity to be doing exactly what I want to be doing every single day. And with every new first day of school I am overcome with gratitude for that first music theory professor that I had at East Carolina. Despite many good professors throughout my years in graduate school, I always tell my students, “I am the teacher and person that I am because of Mr. Searl, my freshman music theory professor. My hope for each of you is that you will find that one person who sees and nurtures the gifts that you hold inside and who helps you to become the very best that you can be.”
This year could have been my 56th first day of school, but last year I took what I am now calling a year off to practice retirement. I’m not going to lie, moving to online teaching because of the pandemic was a big factor in that decision. I love teaching in the classroom. I despise teaching online. Ironic being that I have that degree emphasis in computer assisted instruction.
I was asked to come back this semester in-person and part time, teaching only four classes. With almost no hesitation, I said “yes.” The tiny bit of reservation came not from anything to do with going back to actual teaching, but rather, as is the case for all teachers everywhere, from the conditions under which teachers teach and students are expected to learn in this country.
Because I was away from our campus for a full year, I did have to do some of the required onboarding training for new hires. Before the first day of class I had to complete two mandatory training series. One was on FERPA, policies assuring student rights to privacy. Important. And the second was Active Shooter Training. Sadly, more important. No training was immediately required about using our online grading platform and central location for student communication, both significantly updated in the last year. Or on services for student success. Or even the dreaded sexual harassment in the workplace videos.
Because of this mandatory active shooter training and because I know that any day I could see the “this is not a drill” message come across my phone, I have to admit to a little anxiety each day when I walk onto campus. And if the day comes when I don’t walk away from school at the end of the day, I want everyone to know that I was lucky enough to get to spend my whole life doing something that I love.
For now, on to week three, for me, of this semester giving my best every time I step in front of a room of students and hoping for the best for each of them.
from Tracey G.
Honestly, it feels like school just ended yesterday, and here we are starting all over again. This summer vacation seemed to disappear very quickly, and before I knew it, we’re back to the beginning again.
With every start to a school year for Harry, it brings back a lot of my memories of each grade for me. For example, I remember my first day of Kindergarten, I met one of my very best friends that day – I remember standing along the wall with our moms, and she and I getting into a giggle-fest, that was all she wrote-a lifelong friendship was born. I met and made quite a few of my good friends that year – but, that first day I will never forget.
This year, it’s just so hard to believe he’s starting 8th grade when I swear it was just yesterday he was starting Kindergarten! So the fact that he’s getting “up there” has seemed to shadow any other of my usual back-to-school musings!! It’s been a difficult year to get ready for as well, seems like he’s ever-growing and now is nose to nose with me, which hasn’t made clothes shopping very easy to be sure!! It was such a joy and a breeze when he was much younger, pretty straight forward actually, and he didn’t care much what I got him. Easy peasy. Of course, we’d hit a few weird phases where the old standbys didn’t fit right anymore and we had to find new etc. But this year has been much more of a challenge – he’s at another in-between phase, leaving it hectic and stressful to make sure he’s properly clothed (don’t even get m started on shoes) and he’s much more picky, but doesn’t want to put the time and effort in to making choices.
Getting back to routine in general has been a challenge as well. I am still not back into the 5:20 alarm routine at all. Not that I can say I ever really was able to get into that sort of routine, as I feel I’m a night-owl forced into being a morning person, but it’s felt particularly tough this past week. I usually have our mornings choreographed fairly well, alarms on my Apple Watch helping to make sure we’re doing what we should be doing at any given time in the morning to keep things moving along. This year school times have been changed up a bit so my usual alarms aren’t quite right yet, and it’s been kind of a circus these past few mornings around here! Harry and Jeremy laugh at me for doing this, but I’m not the sharpest in the morning, so I need those little nudges from my watch to remind me when it’s time to start bugging him that it’s time for us to hit the road so we don’t miss the bus! They may laugh, but I keep us moving forward with these little helpers.
Back to school also means back to a bed time – not just for Harry, but for me as well! That, needless to say, is a struggle for me even on a good day. I am just one who is loathe to go to sleep, I want to keep doing and keep going. But it is something I intend to work on more this year right from the start. I had made a good attempt last year during the last few weeks of school at a good nighttime routine. In bed at a certain time, read for x amount of time and then turn out the light and call it night. I want to be sure I get enough sleep and since I can’t change wake up time at all, the only thing I can change is bedtime. Here’s hoping I’m more successful at this than I have been lately, because it seems once summer vacation started, all bedtime routines went out the window!
As new as things feel now, it’s hard to believe that in just a few weeks it’ll be old hat, and feel like something that has always been there. Routine will set in – hopefully a good one because bad routines are so hard to fix lol, and before I know it will be summer vacation, again. And to be honest, I’m already missing the any-time dinner routine, any-time laundry routine and any-time bedtime routine that summer vacation brings along!!
But in the end, as much as I may complain, I do know that these school years are short and won’t last forever – so I am going to appreciate them no matter how tired and cranky I may be!