Three more days of school before break and everyone is tired and grumpy, students and teachers alike.  The busyness of the holidays have caught up with everyone.  With school holiday programs, holiday concerts and parties, shopping and family visits, everyone is staying up too late and not getting enough sleep.  Holiday goodies are taking their toll on our nutrition and weight, everyone doing carb and sugar crashes.  I stopped by a student at lunch today who was dipping their finger into a plastic container and eating whatever was in it.  I assumed it was maybe a fruit dip for her apple.  I assumed wrong.  It was frosting.  She had a tiny container of frosting to have with lunch.  And we wonder why the students are literally bouncing off the walls.

These are the days when you see what teachers are made of.  Anyone can stand in front of a room of quiet, well behaved students and talk at them, but it takes a real teacher to completely engage a room full of sugar crazed elementary students.  I’ve watched as teachers have calmly but firmly insisted on expectations being followed – “it’s still school as usual for three more days!”.  Lesson plans are being taught and assessed in a professional manner and while we recognize that there are outside forces at work here, we continue business as usual.  It’s a great opportunity to teach the skill of “I can do my job even when I don’t want to” to our students.

I have always said that our schools do not need mediocre teachers.  The profession is hard enough without having teachers who are at the top of their game or at least have the potential to be once they gain more experience.  Teaching is an art form.  Anyone can have a head full of knowledge, but it takes a gifted teacher to transfer that knowledge to another person and motivate them to learn.  In my experience, I’ve been able to tell pretty quickly whether a student teacher is a natural or not.  I have also recommended that a couple of my student teachers not go forward.  Why would I encourage someone to do a job that is so important if they cannot grasp the art of teaching or lack the passion to work hard to hone their craft?  It certainly does not benefit the student and because a teacher can touch thousands of students in their career, it should be in the best way possible.

The same can be said about older teachers.  Those teachers who are close to retirement age and are just going through the motions, doing the same lessons the way they always have, not seeing a reason to learn something new because they’re going to be finished in a few years anyway.  And while most of these teachers have more tricks in their bags, and can “fake” their way through the day, students can tell if the teacher really doesn’t want to be there.  In so many cases however, the teacher can’t afford to retire early or is considered too old to enter another career.  And so they hope for a student teacher so that they can sit at their desk and relax for the remainder of their careers.

This afternoon I attended my monthly PLC meeting (Professional Learning Community) with all the other general music teachers in my district.  The group ranges from first year teachers to veteran teachers of 30 years or more, coming with different strengths and philosophies.  The young teachers are so young and enthusiastic, speaking with great animation about how their students are doing and all the great activities they’re doing.  Then there are the teachers who have been there awhile who have a nice solid background and speak with authority.  And then there us oldsters, the ones who sit back and just watch everyone else.  Comparing activities to what we already do, tweaking in our heads any changes we might make to those tried and true lessons.  Maybe a little less enthused than we used to be.  Maybe a lot less enthused.

And this is where teachers like me need to make a decision.  I believe with my whole heart that there should be no mediocre teachers in our classrooms, but what if you realize you may be one of those mediocre teachers?  Not because you lack experience or passion but because you’ve burned out.  Burned the candles at both ends.  Expended your energy on something you believe in so strongly that you need to step away for awhile.  Or begin planning what you want to do next so someone else with more enthusiasm for the job can take over one day.  I LOVE working with college students and young teachers, but my energy for being in the classroom is slowly dying.  So what to do?

I believe you begin working on the next chapter.  I’m certainly not ready to stop working.  It would be like the wind not blowing in Nebraska.  I would probably fall over!  But now is the time to begin taking steps so that I don’t end up being that teacher who just hangs on until retirement because they don’t know what else to do.  Because our students deserve better than mediocrity.  They deserve only the best teachers.