From the Inside Looking Out

It's a brand new year which means that for many people it is time for a fresh start and new beginnings. Unless you are a teacher. January brings about a lot of feelings for teachers. We are feeling refreshed after winter break and excited that we are about to hit the halfway point in the school year. But January also brings about a time of anxiety and stress. Because we are about halfway through the year, the time comes when it seems like all we do is test, test, and more tests. I can speak for my current school I work in, we got back from break and our students took a mid-year reading assessment. Students who are considered ESOL begin taking their WIDA assessment which consists of multiple parts and multiple days of testing. We will be giving a Math Benchmark assessment and a mid year science assessment. Our students will also begin taking the SLO post-assessments, which are given in each subject area and used to assess the teacher. All of this testing occurs on top of still bei...

This year has made me notice the desperate times we have in the eduction world. I am experiencing first hand how important it is that we figure out a way to support new teachers. The education world already has a bad rap. We don’t get paid enough. It’s a demanding job that just seems to be piling more on teachers. We deal with challenging kids.  And yet people are still going to school to become teachers. So why is it that when these teachers finally make it to their first classroom we throw them in there like we are feeding them to a pack of wild dogs?? If we had some sort of support system in place for EVERY new teacher (not just the ones who show they need it), I bet the retention rate of new teachers would soar. This support system can’t be after school sessions that they can attend, because let’s be honest we are all exhausted at the end of the day. It can’t be extra professional development that takes them out of the classroom because the classroom is where the...

Let me start off this blog by saying I absolutely love my children. The good days way outnumber the bad days, but man sometimes those bad days can be rough. I just want all my fellow mommas to know that parenting is hard... like really hard. I need you to know that you are not alone.  I’ve said this before, that social media often allows us to see the “perfect” side of our lives. We post all the cute and fun things our kids do. But please know this is not real life. Kids are kids and there are times they are DIFFICULT! Let me tell you about last weekend. My dad came to town to help with the kids while my husband and I were at the overnight field trip for my school. (Yes, I make my husband come as a chaperone because we are always short on male chaperones) Disney on Ice also happened to be in town that weekend. So I figured this could be fun, let’s take the family! Flash forward to Saturday. Our 4 year was awful. Like downright awful. She talked back like she was a ...

Lately we’ve been seeing all over the place about how teachers work hard for little pay. Well I have another example of this for you... This past week we took 85 fifth graders on an overnight field trip to Camp Schmidt. Now this is a field trip sponsored by the county to an environmental center so it is absolutely free for the students which is amazing! Side note... I taught in Virginia for 3 years before moving to Maryland. When I first started working with 5th grade in another county I heard about these overnight field trips that I’m assuming all counties in Maryland take. At first the teacher in me was like wait, we take students on a field trip overnight? We have to make them go to bed and then we ourselves have to try and sleep? And we have to make sure we get all of these kids back in one piece after 30 hours?! Clearly I had never had an experience with this growing up or in my 3 years teaching. But I digress. This was my 4th experience and honestly if I ever stop te...