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Personal Reflection/Anecdote

a brand new teacher. Ms. Dennis is the reason I didn’t "pull a Mr. Hall" and run out
of the building screaming, “I can’t do this!”
Every day, she made sure I knew what to teach and had the materials needed
to implement those lessons. She dealt with unruly students by taking them into her
classroom. She showed me how to create a gradebook and record attendance. She
reminded me about daily routines of clerical maintenance and helped me to turn
in accurate and timely paperwork to the office. She was my complete and constant
support system. She was never assigned as my official mentor. She did not get
extra pay to help me do my job. She also was not given extra rewards for taking
charge of disciplinary actions for my students. Ms. Dennis smiled at me every day
from across the hall, and she always
made me feel like I was going to be OK.
Thank you, Ms. Dennis.
The next year, our junior high
school went through some radical
changes. The middle school concept
(with which I was very familiar because
I was in the first graduating class of a
university system that offered middle-
grades education as a degree) was being
implemented in school systems across
the country. Junior high schools were
out, and middle schools were in. During
this time, Arnold Junior High School
transitioned into Arnold Middle School.
Like many other schools nationwide, Arnold had more students than space, which
presented a host of challenges for administrators and staff. In my case, because I
was the last hired, it meant that I didn’t have a classroom. Code word: “floating
teacher.” I was in shock. I had just survived the final 6 weeks of the previous
school year during which I felt like I had been trapped in a black hole Mr. Hall had
created. I wondered how I was supposed to teach and conduct hands-on labs in
earth science with 125 students without a room? I was definitely feeling I was not
valued as a professional. I was actually terrified that I was going to fail at being a
teacher. Had I made a terrible mistake choosing teaching as a profession? How was
this happening again? What was to become of this beginning educator?
I once again found myself teaching in an unusual situation. My classroom
was a grocery cart from the local grocer … yes, from the local Lewis Jones down
the street. I pushed that heavy cart filled with lab supplies and teaching materials
through the entire building every day for 181 days to empty classrooms made
available during other teachers’ planning periods. It was the worst of situations:
a novice teacher with limited subject knowledge, no experience in effective
classroom discipline, and dealing with unfamiliar rooms. Most teachers resented
another teacher coming into their established classroom routine. If things were lost
or broken or messed up? … of course I was blamed. Students didn’t see me as a
real teacher either. One child said, “You can’t be a real teacher because they didn’t
even give you a room.”

Collegial Exchange · 23