Cursive, Corn, and Jerry, the Aloe Vera Plant

Reporting back after about a month back in the classroom- The short answer is: it’s a mixed bag- highs and lows, but I am so incredibly grateful to be there! Overall, I love being a teacher again and I feel like out of my 13 years on the job, this is the strongest I’ve been. Being able to experience 3 different schools, different grade levels, and different curriculums and philosophies has given me a wider perspective and I understand the bigger picture better than ever. 

And 5th Graders are my favorite! Don’t get me wrong- I loved those sweet little kindergarten babies last year, but this is where I belong- reading chapter books, teaching the love of writing, and being able to make jokes that they actually understand. It’s fantastic, or as my students would say, “it’s lit.” Actually, that might be too old of a reference at this point. The slang is hard to keep up with these days which is why I instituted “Mrs. Peavey’s Vocabulary Lessons.” Every Friday, the kids teach me a new word or phrase. Obviously, I have to immediately look it up to make sure it’s appropriate, but it’s been fun to let them be my teacher. Plus, they get a huge kick out of it when I use my new slang words.

I also let them name all the plants in the room. It was a very serious democratic process, involving narrowing down votes until we had the perfect ones. “Jerry” is our Aloe Vera plant. “Tom Sawyer” is the spider plant that resides above the classroom library shelves, and of course, we have a “Travis,” in a nod to our beloved Chiefs player.

Anyway, here are the highlights- the people and things that make the job the best:

The Families

I was very resistant to making an Amazon wishlist for my classroom because I was clinging to this idealized world where we shouldn’t have to do that, damnit!  None of us, parents or teachers, should be pouring this much money into education when it should be fully funded by the government.  Alas, that’s not the world I’m living in. So, I made one, and man, oh man, was I blown away by the generosity I received! Parents I had never even met were purchasing items for our class. I received box after box for my classroom- snacks, markers, file folders, a diffuser with lavender oil, organizational items, office supplies, fidgets, a calendar, and more! One parent even brought me a comfy chair for our cozy corner. People really showed up. Besides the relief and gratitude for the functionality of the items, it made me feel supported and loved. These parents are the best!

An Old-School Resurgence

No school or district is perfect. There are a handful of things I have to shake my head at (more on that later).  There are a few things, however, Lawrence is doing that I wholeheartedly agree with. 1) We are officially teaching cursive again. They purchased the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum and we get 15 minutes a day to dedicate to handwriting. My students are excited about it and working hard to form their letters correctly. What they don’t fully realize is that by learning this, they are forming new pathways in their brains and a lost art is coming back into the world. Studies show, pen and paper outweighs typing when it comes to learning and retaining new information. And that brings me to 2) The district has come out with a policy limiting the use of student screen time. Kindergarten through second grade will not be using ipads except for assessments. Third Grade can use devices for a maximum of 30 minutes a day and Fourth and Fifth are limited to an hour per day. I remember they asked me about technology during my interview and I gave what I thought could have been construed as a controversial answer. I don’t want kids on ipads and Chromebooks. Sure, there are great tools for research, learning apps, engaging content and interactive ways to learn. Plus, I’ve used Google Classroom, especially during the Covid days. It makes everything super organized and easy to manage. There’s software that will grade everything for you and design lessons with the click of a button… but at what cost? Our kids are addicted to screens. Their social skills and attention spans are suffering. Rates of depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders are on the rise. I am worried about this generation and I do not want to contribute to the problem. I can’t help it if kids are going home and spending hours on a device. Lord knows I’m not perfect. I’m battling those same temptations with my own children. But when my students are at school with me, they will not be staring at an ipad screen for hours on end. In fact, I’ve only used the student ipads twice this year and that was to take an assessment required by the district. In my classroom, we will be reading books made from paper, writing in composition notebooks, talking face to face with one another, and playing outside.

The Staff

My school is full of stellar teachers and support staff. The office staff bends over backwards to get us what we need. The specials team is top notch. We finally hired a learning coach and she has been working so hard to get us up to speed. She is responsive, organized, and knows the school well. We also got a SPED teacher and, although she’s only been with us for about a week, I can tell she has the kids’ best interest at heart. The paras at our school are professional, kind, good with kids, and intuitive to our needs. They actually had zero turnover for paras this year which is unheard of. It’s been a bumpy start to the year, but the staff has handled every twist and turn with grace, kindness, and humor.

The Kids

Of course, the best (and most challenging part) of the job is the kids and I’ve got 22 great ones this year- a whole cast of characters! For confidentiality, I can’t share the stories, but trust me, I’ve got some good ones. These students crack me up daily. I’m pretty sure I’ve got some future authors, environmentalists, scientists, therapists, and maybe even some teachers. Some are so sweet and innocent. Others are like 18 year olds stuck in 5th Grade bodies. They are enthralled with our current novel. They were delighted when I shared a video of Roman ruins in Tunisia. They were fascinated when I told them about visiting Anne Frank’s house in the Netherlands. They ask great questions. Some are incredibly kind. Some are passionate; writing a persuasive letter to the principal asking for more recess time or starting a “Save the Planet” club. And I’m there, cheering them on and encouraging them to pursue their interests and be their best self. Some, I can give lots of freedom. Some need more hand-holding. And some need consistency and tough-love. But that’s the beauty of this profession: interacting with the kids, making all those split-second decisions to get through the day in a positive way, and balancing all those personalities and needs. It’s an art and a science.

But… This wouldn’t be honest if I said it’s all sunshine and rainbows. This school/district definitely has its challenges.  I’ll try to keep it brief.

• I’ve got some feelings about the Benchmark ELA curriculum. My first unit is about…. CORN- I am not kidding you… 3 weeks reading and writing about corn. Who at Benchmark decided that was a good idea? I can not imagine a single 10 year old who is going to be interested in learning about this. Kids want to learn about the Titanic, Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, and Harry Houdini… not corn. Also, the district spent serious money on this curriculum, but every teacher I’ve talked to says you have to either make or buy supplemental materials to make it work. Most teachers in the district buy slides and worksheets from the TeachersPayTeachers website. There just isn’t enough time to make materials to fix the curriculum.
• The Social Studies curriculum isn’t much better. Well, it’s nonexistent. My first unit is supposed to be about Native Americans, but there aren’t any lessons or materials provided. A fourth grade teacher was nice enough to send us a PowerPoint slideshow and there are a couple of old, dry articles linked on the pacing guide. There are some picture books in the school library as well. So it’s up to us to figure out how to teach this in a culturally sensitive and accurate way. I think I’ve figured it out now, but that’s no thanks to the district.
• I was told to give the LETRS spelling screener to my class which gives great data, but there are 2 tests and they take about 2 hours to grade, using a special template for each student. After spending evenings grading the inventories, I then had to use the scores to determine spelling groups. The district uses a program called Words Their Way which I like and have used before, but here’s the kicker- The LETRS screener doesn’t correlate to Words Their Way. Words Their Way has their own screener to use with their program, but I was told to use something different that doesn’t work with the program they bought. Just one of the many ways we seem to make this job more complicated than necessary.
• I am now on principal #3 for the year. I was hired by one principal before he moved to a Middle School position. Then I was introduced to an interim principal who worked with our school until Labor Day. Now we’ve got a new interim principal until they start the hiring process for a permanent person who will be principal #4 for the year. For a new teacher to the school with a completely new team (all three 5th Grade teachers are new) the leadership situation has not been ideal.

Like I said, no school is perfect. I’ve been doing this long enough to know how to follow what the district wants while still doing what’s best for kids. I like my job. I like staying busy and I like feeling like I’m doing important work. This summer I got a letter from a former student and it helped solidify my “why.” I’m exactly where I need to be right now and, despite the chaos, this feels like home.