A Survey About my Job

A survey for people who are not teenagers written by and stolen from moksha

1. what is your job title?

Right now, I am a retired teacher. I used to be a lion tamer AKA a teacher of writing and other language arts to seventh graders.

2. what does that mean?

Seventh graders have just moved into the time of their lives when the opinions of their contempories are much more important that those of the adults in their lives. This makes them hard to handle discipline-wise and fascinating to read writing-wise!

3. what skills are required for your job?

Well, I had to be a writer before I could teach writing. I had to be truthful with the students in telling them that in their daily journals they could write about anything they wanted and unless they invited me to, I would not read them. {These books were used as a source of their personal essays. We did many personal essays. I would put a prompt on the board and they were free to use it or write about whatever was on their minds. The only rule was that they were to write nonstop for the assigned time. At the beginning of the year, it was 2 minutes set with a timer; by the time we got to the end of the year, it was 15 minutes and often they asked for more. These outpourings were often the source of some excellent personal essays.}

4. who are you working with?

I was working with 13 to 15 year-old students bussed in from a wide area in a rural school in Mississippi.

5. d’you manage anybody?

Well, only my students! Actually, I had very few problems in the classroom. They liked my {English} accent. In the last ten of the 30 years I was there, I had students whose parents I had taught. In a private conference after class, I would say to the putative trouble maker, "What you are doing is really bothering me. Do I need to call your momma {or daddy} about this?’ And, since they knew I would call, they mended their ways almost always.

6. what experience did you acquire to get this job?

  Six years in college, many many courses after that in my own time, a teaching certificate and lots and lots of experience.

7. how long does the job last?

Technically, for one year. This gave authority figures power over us since there was no official tenure. The county I worked in was good about not transferring teachers unless they requested it. The local city schools, on the other had, transferred willy-nilly and if you objected, you were not offered a contract at the end of the year.

8. private or public sector?

Actually, I did both. I taught for three years at a very nice private school where the biggest class was 14 students. I transferred to the county schools because the money was very much better. I stayed in the same county school for 30 years

9. what are the benefits like?

Not too bad although MS teachers didn’t get any health benefits until the last two years I was there. We had generous sick leave which could accumulate . {I once had six weeks and made the comment, "I have enough sick leave to have a baby" One year later, my last son was born!} In the last three years, I saved my sick leave to turn in so I could retire early!

10. what are your hours?

Teachers had to be there by 7:30. {I was there by 7 am–yes, I AM a morning person!} School started at 7:45. If you were on duty, you had to be there by 7:20 when the bus drivers let the kids off the buses. The closedown routine started at 2:50 in my room. The bell to go to the buses rang at 3 pm. Teachers were required to stay at school until 3:30. I ALWAYS carried work home—I was a language teacher who read {although didn’t grade} every single word ny 180 students wrote… I got up at 4 am to make tests and finish grading. This was my choice because I am a morning person..

11. d’you have to wear a uniform?

No, but I was expected to dress professionally. This meant no trainers/sports shoes, no t shirts with messages, and right before I left, no jeans. I wore high heels to school and then changed to flats which lived under my desk.  I discovered students observed what I wore very carefully. One morning, I accidentally wore one black and one navy sock. I didn’t notice. My kids did. I told them I was making a fashion statement!

12. d’you like your job?

I LOVED it.  What finally made me put in for retirement was interference by admin people with what I was doing in my classroom. NOT my principal who was excellent and backed me in anything I wanted to do but a paper-pusher from the superintendent’s office who wanted her paperwork {which I had only got that morning} right now, in the middle of a class that was going particularly well. {Can you tell I am still  annoyed about this?}

Until later….