Two months have passed since I last stepped into my classroom.  I think that’s the longest I’ve ever allowed time to elapse before going back. Before leaving for the summer, I took everything off the walls, cleaned off the desk and counters, put everything into cabinets, and instruments into boxes.  Today I walked into a beautifully clean room thanks to a great custodial staff, and smiled as I looked at the blank slate that was my room.  It was time to begin setting up for the year.

One of the reasons I love school is that everyone gets to begin with a clean slate, both teachers and students alike.  As I set up my room I think about how the kids will see things, traffic patterns, and access to materials.  I also think about things that will capture their attention like the latest dead guy, inspirational posters and bright colors.  Not so much that they distract but enough to get their attention.

There’s something about a new year with a blank lesson plan book, new posters to laminate, new seating arrangements, and new music that makes me feel good.  It’s an opportunity to try new techniques, new materials, and new ideas.  I can’t imagine doing a job where every day just melds into the next.  There’s something refreshing about a clean ending and a clean beginning.  No matter how hard the year before was, there’s always hope going into a new year that things will be better.  And yes, I was one of those nerdy kids who loved getting the new school  supplies at the beginning of every year.

So if things are so great at the beginning of the year, why are so many young people leaving the teaching profession in droves?  Part of me thinks that we, and by we I mean those of us with more experience, have not honestly prepared them for what’s to come.  They get all excited about the preparation for the teaching, the anticipation of standing in front of a group of kids and watching the light bulbs go off.  What they aren’t prepared for are all of the meetings, the endless paperwork for accountability sake, the uncomfortable parent teacher conferences, the lack of funding and necessary materials, the long hours, the wear and tear on a person physically and emotionally.

We don’t tell them that if they’ll stick it out a little longer that it might not get easier but that they’ll get smarter about how they spend their time and effort.  Someone once told me that once you’ve been teaching about 10 years that you finally begin to feel like you know what you’re doing.  If someone only teaches for five years, which seems to be the average, they’re only halfway there.  Are we sharing this with our young teachers?  This is not a profession where you can just walk in and do the job.  It takes years to learn the craft of teaching, more than you could ever get in the degree process or from student teaching.  Just like practicing your music to become a better musician, you have to practice your teaching to become a better teacher.

Practicing takes time and in teaching there has to be that investment of time – time for your students, time for preparation, time for study.  So many of our young teachers are under the impression that teaching is an 8:00-3:00 kind of job with summers off.  Again, we are doing a disservice to our young teachers if we allow them to believe that.  It’s one of the reasons why I insist that my student teachers go to all the before and after school meetings and expect them to work on lesson plans on their own time, not on their teaching time.  I want it to be as close to a real experience as I can so that they know what to expect and not be surprised when they realize that they may be putting in an average of 12-16 hours per day.  NEA (National Education Association) says that teachers put in about 50 hours of instructional time and an additional 12 hours of time to non-compensated school related activities.  At this point in my teaching career, I see it as the nature of the beast and I’ve accepted it.  However, if we’re going to recruit and retain teachers, it’s important to be honest with education majors early in their decision making so they know what they’re getting into.

So, is it worth it?  As I begin my 28th year of teaching, sometimes I wonder.  I do get more and more physically and emotionally tired as each year goes by.  But at the same time, I know that on the first day of school, I’ll have those bright shining faces who will smile and give me a hug when they see me because they’re excited to be back at school and to begin with a clean slate.  And it’s more than enough to get me through another year.