All,
Another week has gone by and the floodwaters are receding in most places. Sadly, they are only revealing the true damage, both monetary damage and emotional damage. The floods are far from over, but the last week gave most parts of Iowa very little rain, so hopefully we can start the healing process now. This week I offer you the behind the scenes look at how I decided to change my career path.... This process actually started 2 years ago when I asked the district to increase our science staff to 3.5 instead of just 3 teachers. I was not requesting a "little person" to join our staff and be the 1/2, but was instead proposing for me to become the .5 position and thus allowing the district to use my wide-ranging and rapidly increasing skills elsewhere. They thought I was silly. So I said, well fine, don't use me, I will stay at home with the kids. Jack and Abby thought I was silly for saying that. When all was said and done, we couldn't find anyone that could replace me, so they kept me full-time teaching science and hired an "older" gentleman to teach science 1/2 time with me. It worked and got us through the year, but with my 3rd year of grad school approaching (commonly known as"do your internship and get the heck out of our program...you have been here to long...but we still like your money), I needed to modify my career so that I could complete my internship. I floated many ideas around and finally an idea stuck. It was not my idea, but it worked anyway. I would become a 1/2 time science teacher at the high school and a 1/2 time Guidance teacher at the Middle School. So, after 7 years of teaching and ranking in the top 10 in years of experience at the high school and in the top 25% in experience in our district, I jumped at the chance to: 1. Move rooms 2. Move out of the best science room into an old Spanish room 3. Move into a room with no running water, no phone, and no windows. 4. Travel over my lunch break (I know, its only 1 mile, but it's still travel! I will submit my miles of course!) 5. And use my 2 planning periods to counsel At-Risk students. Apparently, I have not learned much by being a part of our school bargaining team these past 5 years. However, this will count as my internship and I am excited. I will actually be doing more teaching and "guiding" then I will counseling. I know for some of you, that is a relief. Many of you that knew me before the age of 13, probably would have never imagined me guiding and counseling others, especially in the areas of "anger management", but apparently 2 years of graduate school, $15,000 of school expenses, and 20 years later, I am almost certified to do just that. Now, I said "certified", not "certifiable"! I will actually start my day in the high school with a planning period with the rest of the science teachers. I will use this to plan lessons with our new (and great) science teacher and work with 9th graders who are labeled At-Risk. Again, they are labeled this BEFORE they come to my room, not while there. Although, they could be At-Risk with me to since I have not finished my Master's program yet. After working with these gems that were allowed out of the middle school on the understanding that they would listen to the advice of fine, young counselors like me, I will teach 3 periods of class and then hop in my car with my lunch and eat lunch at our middle school. I am sure some lunch duty will be mixed in there as well (lunch duty: duty #1 that Drake teaches all counselors to never do as it is not a good use of our skills and not a job for a Master's level educator....but a job that counselors do since it gives them kid contact time and allows that out of their room away from the troubles that come out and surface behind closed doors). The district then allows me, I am not sure why, to teach all of the 6th graders and half of the 7th graders about life. Yes....me teach them about life!! Things I will attempt to teach them: responsibility, respect, how to spell my last name (84% of 9th graders do this by year-end...very sad), the importance of collecting random items, and how to manage their first stock portolio. Things I will not teach them: how to bong a beer, how to get into a bar before age 21, how to back up a tractor and wagon (never did figure that out), or how to dance (but I will likely chaperone a dance and attempt to teach them by modeling). In fact, my 6th graders will spend most of the first semester preparing to run a little town at a place called BizTown for one day. I know nothing of this place or my curriculum, but that is what the next 45 days are for I guess. If I manage to survive teaching 9th and 11th graders in the morning and 6th and 7th graders in the afternoon for 180 straight days, Drake will likely let me get my degree and then I will likely have a party and practice most of the items I listed above that I would not teach the students (except for the backing a tractor/wagon up, Reagan won't even let me back the van into our garage!). It will be an interesting year and I am sure a good year full of unique experiences that I will be able to convert into an outrageously long email to all of you. Keep me in your prayers, or at least all of the kids that I try to guide through life next year. I am sure I will screw up at least a few of them for life. Have a great week and please continue to keep all of the Midwest in your prayers as we continue to try to recover and become an actual land mass again!
Love&Prayers,
Ben
Things to ponder this week...
1. Summer has now officially started, so technicallythis is my first EMU of the summer. Also, since thesummer solstice has come and gone (this past weekend),the days are now getting shorter by about 2 minutesper day. Winter is coming in other words...
2. One of my summer/yearly professional goals was tocreate a website for parents/students to use. Give ita look, I obviously have some work to do yet. I highlyrecommend Googlepages to all of you. Believe it ornot, I have never made a webpage before this, nor didI have any clue how (I may use the Internet alot, Ijust don't understand how it got there): http://barryb4384.googlepages.com/home
3. Finally, look at the attached pictures of my kidstoday. Here are my theories of the cause of Abby'sappearance:
a. We had so much fun at DADDY DAYCARE today, thatnoon was as far as she could make it today
b. I finally spent so much time on the computer, Ididn't realize that my daughter fell asleep in herhigh chair
c. I found a way to chemically add Tryptophan in herPB&J sandwich, but added to much (look up that bigword if you don't know what it is)
d. In my effort to save money, turning off the aircaused us all to feel a little sleepy.Enjoy the Monday and the week!
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