There were two really terrible years during my teaching career. I thought about one of those years today as a person who played a minor role in the havoc was brought to my attention. What made the year so terrible?
Sloppy system change
When the year started, sloppy system change was evident everywhere. New students' records had not been reviewed and mandated supports were not in place. Bus schedules were messed up--the busses were arriving too late and too early creating start-of-school and dismissal havoc. Furniture was insufficient. Parents were angry. The principal's time-on-task in the building was sliced in ways that left the building with no administrator for a large part of the day. Teachers were disgruntled. It was a big mess!
Started the year without recognition of the changes at hand
Despite the tremendous changes at hand, I didn't alter my start-of-school plans in sufficient, responsive ways. Right away I began to employ a program similar to the year before, a year when there was not sloppy system change. That was a big mistake. You can't begin a school year without a good review of the status-of-the-system and the changes at hand. Starting as I did before was too abrupt, fast and insensitve to the changes everyone was experiencing and that was a mistake.
Hasty decisions
I had a big class of children who didn't know each other well. The new students that year brought with them substantial IEP plans and none of their needed supports were in place. In fact, had their profiles been reviewed, the new students would not have been placed together in the same class. Mandated teaching assistance was not in place. I was alone with an unteachable class given their profile, needed supports and the lack of mandated help. I expressed the problem time and again. I even had a shouting match with the principal in the hallway because I was so frustrated (never a good idea). It took a long time to put the supports in place, and the decisions related to those supports were rushed and hasty.
I continued to promote a curriculum similar to the past. Again, this was a big mistake--there were too many challenges and those challenges created an environment when I should have quickly simplified the curriculum and focused on the social-emotional needs of the entire class including the teachers involved. Team building and sufficient support was the first priority, but I ignored that and that was a mistake.
Angry parents
Many parents were angry about the systemwide changes before the year started. Many brought that anger into the new year. Then, when the students started bringing home stories of the chaos in the classroom, a classroom without sufficient supports and a teacher who was trying to implement a hefty academic program too quickly, parents became even more angry. They started to complain about me and the class. This was worrisome. Those tasked with helping me were relegated elsewhere by administrative decree and their own choice in some cases. Further it was the fall of Obama's election and political discord also seeped into the classroom. I read both McCain's and Obama's biographies to the students. We studied their campaigns and had a schoolwide rally. Some parents who leaned in the direction of McCain were discontent with that and expressed their dismay.
Again, rather than step back and rethink the year, I kept moving forward. That was a big mistake, a mistake I did not repeat after that year.
Learn from your mistakes
The year had some positive projects and good result. Some children made incredible gains and developed confidence during the year, but others, sadly, were left in the lurch of a terrible year--the perfect storm of lack of supports plus hasty decisions plus poor planning plus not stopping and changing course to meet the reality of the environment created an overall tough year of teaching. At one low point in the year, a colleague did offer some stern advice--I took her advice and that helped. Yet, for the most part, no systematic support was put into place to help me or the class. It was a year that I deeply considered leaving teaching.
But instead, I sought as much new knowledge as I could find. I learned a lot about building a kind, caring class culture. I reached out to the administration with colleagues to remedy the sloppy systemwide changes that had occurred. The sliced administrative time was added back in, ed plans were reviewed prior to the school year, teachers who were relegated to work in classrooms were held more tightly to that expectation which increased supports and mandated supports were put in place ahead of time for the most part. I also learned more about how to deal with angry parents by not taking it personally, listening more, and seriously considering their critique. I adopted the servant leadership mindset which made a tremendous difference with all I could do as an educator. Most of all, I learned to slow it down and focus on the most important priorities in troubled times--make sure that children are safe, create a classroom culture that prioritizes wellness in all you do and then work on the most important academic goals.
A bad year can translate into a lot of good years ahead, and that's a good lesson I learned too.