Self-Induced Sabbatical Begins….

Day in the Life Post:  12-26-2016

I cannot timeline this post because today I seem to have no concept of time.  Not only is it winter break, but it is the first day after Christmas; we were in school until December 22^nd.   The 23^rd was spent decorating and shopping, and then holiday festivities with the family for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day over the weekend.  This is truly the first day of winter break for my district, but it is more than just a break for me.  I will not be returning next semester to teach, so it is the first day of what I am going to call my self-induced teaching/classroom sabbatical.   I will still be working from home tutoring students, but I have chosen this time to step away from the classroom to physically get well (chronic illness) and refresh and rejuvenate my teaching soul.

I think I got up somewhere around 9am, and I have not done much of anything this day, nor did I plan to.  It allowed me to spend some time with my son early afternoon, which was nice just the two of us visiting.  He asked me if I was excited to be out of the classroom, and I told him it was a complete mixture of emotions.  Furthermore, I still have had zero time to even decompress from a long and challenging semester.  I know I am not going back to school in a couple of weeks, but that idea is a statement to me right now rather that a fact that has resonated with me enough to feel the excitement of a new challenge.

I have been in the classroom 12 years, so it is very strange to think of myself without a classroom of students to teach for an indefinite amount of time.  I know I will miss my daily interactions with kids and will face a new challenge in finding a schedule/routine to stick to outside of one that is provided for me.   I will still tutor students in mathematics, but it is much different providing follow-up instruction versus original delivery of content.  Given this, I know myself well enough to realize that I will find a way to still  make the mathematics more authentic to them even if it is not the first time they have exposed to the topic. 

I do not really know what my long term plans are, or rather I am trying my best not push myself into decisions about that when I am so worn out.   I am most certain I will teach again, but I do know that I must be very thorough in picking a school that is a good fit for me.   I do not know if public education is a good fit for me anymore, but I could feel differently about that months from now.  What I do know is that I need to take some of this time to learn and explore the world of teaching again just as I did when I was in pre-service teacher training.  There are so many things I have felt behind on in the past couple of years in the classroom that I would definitely like to learn about and gain knowledge in before I ever go back.  Some of that is technology based, some of that is looking deeper at current pedagogical methods, and also taking the opportunity to visit the classrooms of practicing teachers again just as I did during teacher training. 

My decision to leave the classroom was prompted by my body telling me physically to pull back and rest, but the desire to re-train myself is a goal I am pursuing to help me get back in touch with my passions for teaching.   I believe that re-connecting with my career passions will help re-store my physical health by replacing ongoing stress with the excitement of learning; endorphins and such.  Becoming more current on new ideas and best practices can also help when I go back to teaching.  A sizeable portion of my teaching stress was from feeling like I was never able to get a good grip on the change I wanted to make.  I am lucky that I have the resources to take this break and fulfill my goal to re-train, but I wish that all public school teachers had this opportunity.  College professors are afforded the opportunity to apply for sabbatical, spend a year researching and focusing on new ideas for their careers while still maintaining their seniority, tenure, and benefits.  I believe it is critical for K-12 teachers to be given the same opportunity.   Our world is fast-paced, challenging and constantly changing.  Educating children to function and thrive in our world is so much more complex than it was even 5 years ago let alone when I went through pre-service teacher training.   Given the in-flux of constant evolution of new ideas in best instruction and learning practices, I think it makes sense that every K-12 teacher have the chance to take a step back and focus on learning more and enhancing the experience they have already gained.   I know this would pose a tremendous financial undertaking for school systems, but there are districts that have found funding for this through private charitable donations.  I hope it is something that more school districts explore through stipends, continuation of benefits, or at the very least the retention of seniority and job placement upon completing a year of sabbatical leave. 

Educating our future means educating those who teach and nurturing the passions and talents they possess.  It is an investment worth making to preserve the presence of solid teaching and learning in classrooms as well as potential to counteract the problems with teacher retention.   I talked to Tina Cardone a month ago inquiring about still being able to write “A Day in the Life” blogs if I was going out of the classroom.  She was very supportive and said that she was totally open to it if I could find a way to make it work.  I think now I realize the direction I want to take in my “Day in the Life” posts is to share my “self-induced sabbatical” journey.   As I propose that more school districts consider this for their teachers, I would like to demonstrate an example of what this may look like by writing about what I learn, observe, and resulting reflections as I step away from role of teacher to teacher learner again for a period of time.

After Thanksgiving the Year is Over Right?

A Day in the Life Post:  November 26, 2016

6:00am:  We arrive at the Wichita Airport and catch our flight back home to Atlanta.  We have spent the week with my husband’s family for Thanksgiving.  We opted to go this week instead of Christmas because I was going to have a shortened Christmas break; well, that was when I booked the tickets and before I resigned from teaching.  Still, even though it was a shortened trip, we enjoyed seeing the family, and I always love spoiling my little nieces!  It is actually pretty relaxing at my in-law’s house or rather, I make it so.  I did get two books read this week after all.

9:00am:  We land in Atlanta.  I am exhausted still even though I slept most of the flight home.  These early morning flights kill me – it is hard enough to be up by 6am for school let alone on an airplane.  Hartsfield-Jackson airport is dead, and we somehow make it from landing gate to our driveway up in the north suburbs by 10:10am.  Anyone reading who lives in Atlanta knows that is a miracle within itself. 

10:30am:  I am at home and just made a cup of coffee.  I am trying to relax and catch up on some fun reading and social media before getting back to the grind on Sunday (tutoring lined up for students testing the first couple of days back from Thanksgiving break).  I am dreading going back to school on Monday because I am still so exhausted from the pre-thanksgiving push in the classroom as well as traveling.  One of my colleagues from my former school once said:  “once you make it to Thanksgiving the year is over.”  Why don’t I feel this way?  Especially when my year is truly over at the winter break?  There are 4 weeks left (finals included) before winter break, and I literally do not know how I will get through them.   I decide to take a nap; I am still so tired.

3:00pm:  Wake up from nap on couch – apparently I was snoring…  I cannot believe I have slept most of this day away already.  I spend the rest of the evening in my chair with my i-pad, scanning twitter, facebook, and then streaming Netflix.  I completely went into vegetation mode.  The one good thing I did for myself the Friday before break was stay at school until 7pm to get materials ready for both classes for the first week back.  I knew that would relieve stress the weekend before returning, and that certainly became a fact today.  I am so glad I am ready to go for Monday in my classes and can spend my 1^st hour planning period to mentally get back in the game.

8-10pm:  I am wide awake and will not get to sleep early tonight for sure.  I decide to pick and print my tutoring materials for the next day.  Big Pre-Cal, AP Calculus, and Honors Algebra 2 tests coming up at the local schools I tutor for this week as well as continued prep for some students for the Geometry EOC coming up before winter break.

12:00am:  I go to bed and hope to fall asleep soon as my working world begins again in just over 12 hours.  I realize I have not completely shut it off this week, but I am not sure a teacher ever does.   I think Thanksgiving break is about pulling back for a few days and resting enough to have energy for the final push to winter break.

Reflection Questions

1) Teacher make a lot of decisions throughout the day.  Sometimes we make so many it feels overwhelming.   When you think about today, what is a decision/teacher mover you made that you are proud of?  What is one you are worried about?

I have not made any daily decisions regarding teaching in over a week, and that actually feels great!  I feel like this will give me the energy to face the daily decisions again coming up again in a couple of days.  One decision I am worried about is that I chose to tutor tomorrow instead of enjoying the last day of my break.  The kids need it though, and this is the work that will sustain me when I am out of the classroom in a month.  It is hard for me to say no to my students whether they are in my classroom or my tutoring students.  This is what wears me and so many teachers out.  Caring about their progress, their needs and what is best for them when they don’t realize it themselves.  It is both grueling and rewarding –double edged sword sort of thing.

 

2)  Every person’s life is full of highs and lows.  Share with us some of what that is like as a teacher.  What are you looking forward to?   What has been a challenge for you lately?

It has been challenging to keep Algebra 1 students on track in this long push to Thanksgiving break.  Our Unit 2 lasted through 6 assessments, and starting our 3^rd unit on Exponential Expressions and Equations has been hard to do so late in the semester.   I am looking forward to the graphing portion of this unit because I am going to use my transformations activity together with Desmos to push exploration of the asymptote and transformations of exponential graphs.  This is just the spice we need after Thanksgiving break to keep it interesting in these last weeks until winter break.

3)  We are reminded constantly of how relational teaching is.  As teachers we work to build relationships with teachers and students.  Describe a relational moment you had with someone lately.  

It is really about a relational past few weeks with a group of students.  I had mentioned in an earlier blog about my 3^rd period Accelerated Algebra class being the toughest group of honors I have worked with.  In past weeks they have stepped out ahead in their pursuit of learning and understanding in our current quadratics unit, which has been the hardest unit so far this semester.  A few weeks ago, they were so reticent in experimenting and struggling with concepts.  They have pulled back on that resistance while also working with a more involved type of function in our toughest unit so far this year.  I feel we have brought our communication and teacher-student interactions into a rhythm that works better for all.   It may have been easier to do because they are a smaller class, but seeing them work hard and subsequently find more success is so rewarding. 

4) Teachers are always working on improving, and are often have specific goals for things to work on

     Throughout the year.  What have you been doing to work on your goal?  How are you doing?

     I feel like I am working well with spiraling homework within a given unit, but not as good with

     spiraling homework for the semester; the time factor beat me on that.  I am still pushing as much

     as possible to keep integrating Desmos and exploration of concepts in every chance I get, and that

     part is a win; especially given that it is on the front-loading part of instruction.