The Last Teaching Post

Well, the grades are all in, the room is shut down, boxes taken home, and keys turned in. It's been an interesting 30.5 years but all things must come to an end so it is time not only for retirement but also to put this blog to bed. I have a new blog called Retired and All That Jazz at http://retiredandallthatjazz.blogspot.com which you all are welcome to visit and bookmark. It will detail the new directions I will be traveling in and I am looking forward to the challenges that await. I definitely want to get back into photography, something I considered as a career years ago. A lot has changed in the intervening years and my old darkroom and 35mm Pentax has been replaced with a digital camera and computer software.

I had to skip the end of the year luncheon today because of a reason I went into in my first post on the new blog. The secretary was shocked and told me that the principal was going to "recognize me", whatever the heck that means. It probably means having the faculty applaud and giving me a gift certificate or some such item. Those who have read my blog in past months know how I feel about retirement accolades. I prefer acknowledging people while they are actively with you rather than patting them on the back to say goodbye. So... I consider what I did during the lunch hour time well spent and do not regret missing the pat on the back. Read my new blog and I think you will understand.

What did I find out by spending more than half of my life teaching? That is a very difficult question to give a coherent answer to. I've already documented most of the highs and lows of my teaching career on this blog so I won't bore you and myself by repeating them. I think the most amazing thing I've discovered is how dedicated the average teacher I worked with is. Every damn day they have challenges thrown at them. They work for a substandard salary and are often asked to accomplish miracles by teaching children under conditions that would send most people screaming out of the room. Teachers rarely receive praise when they accomplish this miracle. They are taken for granted and usually just hear the negative gripes by parents and administrators when things go wrong. They sacrifice their time, their money, their health, and their sanity so their classes can exist in a caring learning environment. They are often given conflicting commands and are expected to carry them out. Teachers are asked to do the impossible and they usually come through. That appreciation is what I value the most and what I will carry with me always. The next time you see a teacher you should hug them and tell them just how valuable they really are to you. They deserve it.

So goodbye to this blog and a fond farewell to my readers. Check out the new blog and you will see what my next steps are.

The Week

Well, I said goodbye to the seniors today as it was their last day before final exams.

One of my former students who is finishing his degree in Biology and is working at a medical lab part time came in to give a presentation to the Biology group. He showed a Powerpoint he made of his activities in the lab, The students started agar plates for specific bacteria and looked at algae used in a research study. They really appreciated this glimpse into the real world of science.

I am relaxing at the end of a busy week teaching. One of the cats just found a way to slip the elastic bands that close the cat food cabinet and is tossing cans onto the floor. I guess it is feeding time!

Just Shoot Me

The old Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times" has struck again. Yesterday at school the air conditioning died. We were working on the music projects in two classes so I was doing a lot of moving around as well as playing guitar. I am not a great guitar player so it takes a lot out of me to run through songs with the kids numerous times. When the air went out the room temperature quickly rose to 88 degrees F (and unlike Arizona it sure as heck was not a "dry heat"!) We didn't have much choice except to suck it up and keep working. I chugged water a lot and wiped my face every few minutes so I wouldn't drown the guitar in sweat. Thankfully I got through it with just a little nausea and a headache.

At home last night the nausea remained and the headache gradually got worse. I took some over the counter pills for the headache and went to bed early. The headache woke me up at 4 AM so I staggered into the kitchen, grabbed more pills, slapped a couple of ice packs on my neck, and waited for the pills to kick in so I could go to work. No temperature but I felt horrible. While showering the nausea kicked back in and I threw up. Lovely picture, huh? By this time I couldn't ignore the fact that I had suffered a heat stroke and my chances of going to teach were nil. I made it into the living room, asked the wife to dry my hair for me since by this time I couldn't hold the dryer. I threw together some hasty lesson plans and phoned in for a substitute. I've been lying down most of the day and just got back up. I still feel pretty crappy but have been drinking a lot of water to rehydrate. Pity party for one, please!

It is probably a good thing I stayed out. I just checked my school email system and found out that the air conditioner is still giving problems. They are supposedly working to fix it so I am praying that when I go back, hopefully tomorrow, the room will be tolerable. I won't survive much more of this and the kids are really suffering.

5 More Weeks Until Retirement

Well, the end is in sight now. The funny thing is that both my students and coworkers seem to expect me to be slacking off now since I will be leaving in the near future. Hah! I could never live with myself if I did that. Why should I not give my best to the last group of students I will ever teach? They don't deserve the same level of teaching that 30 years of other students have received? Well, if anything I am trying even harder to inspire this last group. Not that anyone other than them will notice. By now I am used to not being recognized for excellent teaching by the administrations. It is an old story for me and I try not to be bitter about it. I guess my lack of diplomacy and refusal to play politics has doomed me over these years to obscurity. During the past 30 years so many others have been selected for accolades around me. Some of them deserved it but a lot of them "played the game" and gained favor by sucking up and ingratiating themselves to others. I see it all the time in our school emails where some are involved in a continual self-promotion campaign. This has increased since the possible upheaval of jobs at the end of the year. Some may lose their jobs and others are jockeying to improve their job status and get better positions. It would be humorous if it were not so pathetic. I feel for those good teachers who may be out at the end of the school year at the expense of others who can't teach well but who are masters in promoting their own "brilliance" as educators.

They are already starting the fight over my job in Anatomy Honors and Biology Honors. It is a very nice position with a great room so there will be quite a struggle over who gets my old position. I am refusing to involve myself in this as any recommendation I would make might actually be detrimental to anyone's chances of getting my position. The honesty of this blog has upset a number of key people in the county school system and I think they are happy I am leaving. I am also happy but for different reasons. I believe that with the reduced funding and altered class period times that the quality of courses like Anatomy Honors will be drastically impacted upon. I am glad I will not be asked to teach under circumstances that may force a science teacher into abandoning most meaningful lab experiences. I hope I am wrong about this but I see a future where Anatomy will be a series of memorized lessons from the book with the occasional demonstration thrown in so the school can say they are still conducting lab exercises. Funding cuts are so deep this year that supplies for next year's Biology and Anatomy labs are a fraction of what they should be. Students will suffer due to the lack of labs that support their training. It is a sad thing to contemplate and I for one could never reconcile myself to it if I were to stay. Image is not everything. Teaching is.

So anyway I am wrapping up the year with final lessons and projects. Today I ran a carload of musical equipment to the school so the Anatomy classes can begin their "MTV video" on the brain. Final taping will be Thursday for this project. I and the students will watch and critique these projects. We will be the only ones to appreciate the effort involved in completing an assignment of this magnitude. It is creative, gets students involved who normally are turned off by regular school lessons, and reinforces important concepts we have been covering in class. Some students may become inspired by this project to seek a career in science. It will be one more event in my teaching that will not gain me recognition or accolades. My creative efforts will go unnoticed and I will sit in meetings applauding while others, some with dubious teaching skills, are praised for their excellence. Yes, I am sad that the long list of "teachers of the year" will not include me. It is only human to want their efforts to be acknowledged by their peers. At times like this I remind myself of the countless number of lives I have altered and the hundreds of former students who are now in the medical and science fields as a direct result of my efforts. I heard that a number of students who had signed up for Anatomy next year are very upset that I will not be teaching them. That lets me know that the ones here who are the most important people in my life appreciate what I have done. This knowledge will have to be satisfaction enough for me as I say goodbye to education.

Should you go into teaching as a profession today? Well, my feeling is that if you want to play politics and are great at self promotion you will go far. If you expect to be rewarded for excellence in inspiring young minds and changing lives you may be very disappointed. Being a top level teacher is an altruistic endeavor. You will give your life to others in sweat, tears, and blood. Your health will suffer as you put everything into your lessons year after year. The only times you will not be ignored is when something happens to bring down the wrath of the administration upon you. It is a thankless job and you have to be a little bit crazy to tackle it. It has also been the best 30 years of my life. I know that many former students out there have benefited from what I have given them and this is my primary inspiration for hanging in there through all of these years. For that I have no regrets.

Though I will post a few more times I wanted to wrap things up now with some of my final thoughts on teaching while I am still in the trenches. I hope this blog has helped a few readers to gain some insight into the world of teaching, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If so, then this blog has served its purpose.

Retirement Looms Near!

Earlier in this blog I remarked that after 30.5 years teaching I was planning on retiring at the end of this school year. Though I've spent my whole working life in this profession I am still relatively young at 54.

The fact that I was retiring hit me viscerally today when I went to a 2 hour meeting at the county office to fill out forms for insurance and retirement checks and to direct how I wanted payment for my unused sick leave and retirement bonus to be invested. It was a surreal feeling to be part of a line of "old people" who were herded into a meeting room. The thought crossed my mind that this must be how old horses feel on the way to the glue factory. It got even stranger once I was inside. I was greeted by John H. and Danny D., the first two science teachers I met when I started work in St. Johns county 24 years ago! They are both retiring as well after long careers in science education. Somehow it felt right to be going out with the same guys I first worked with at Murray Middle school when I was a young buck with 6 years of experience who thought he knew everything about teaching. I was wrong. These teachers and many others taught me so much about teaching during the next 24 years. Now I know that excellent teachers always keep improving.

I don't know what will happen to this blog at the end of the year. I will probably close it out for any new posts and start a retirement blog. It seems silly to keep up a blog on teaching when you aren't in the business any more. You know, it gives me a creepy feeling to be at this point in my life. It feels like I am in the process of dying, releasing my attachments to my coworkers and students as I gradually slip away. I wonder what I will be in my next life? Someone interesting, I hope!

It's been a very busy week!

Most of the week was spent studying fish and completing a perch dissection. The students presented information and posters about their chosen fish. The dissection went well. No lives were lost and no one had to go to the nurse. The kids really got into it and I was constantly running from table to table answering questions and giving advice. We finish up tomorrow with our perch practicum so I have to go in early and set up the lab stations for testing. With paper grading, the labs, answering parent emails, and all of the other little things that eat into my time like monitoring the hallway, counseling students, etc..., I rarely got a restroom break or a quiet moment to relax. An assistant principal came in for my last formal evaluation during one day of the dissection. It was my largest class and probably the hardest class this semester to motivate. The class did wonderful, staying on task and working hard the whole period. I was really proud of them. I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet weekend to recuperate and let the swelling in my feet from all of the walking go down. It will sure be a treat to prop my legs up for a day and do as little as possible. At least the students are still working before Christmas break, though I have seen some slacking off and several have been pulled out by parents for vacations. The teachers are all getting that vacant stare that comes with exhaustion. At a faculty meeting the principal said that we have three weeks until Christmas break. A teacher (not me this time!) shouted out, "Two and a half weeks!". We all laughed because we knew the feeling. We will make it if we pace ourselves and keep the kids motivated. I just wish I had the time to go to the restroom once in awhile. You miss those little things in life when you don't have them.

Teacher of the Month (nope, not me)

Something new at the old homestead. Each month now the administration chooses a "Teacher of the Month". They get a small gift certificate and appear on our Friday news show the students put together. This past Friday the students were watching the show which is mandatory viewing by all classes while I was waiting for it to be over so I could begin the day's lesson. The teacher chosen this month repeatedly jumped up and down and squealed loudly when the principal announced the teacher of the month. One of my students looked at me and said "Oh, you've got to be kidding!" I just kept my thoughts to myself and waited until the show finally ended so I could go back to what I was actually there to do, teach.

What We Have Been Up To In Class

In Biology we have been studying arthropods. The creepy-crawlies are a favorite with the students. Never underestimate the "gross factor" in keeping their attention! We had our first dissection, the crayfish. It went very well and the students were all excited and really caught up in the learning. At the end of the dissection I gave them their first lab practicum. This is where they move from station to station answering questions while looking at marked areas of the crayfish. College science professors love to give this type of test and many students who have not been exposed to practica will bomb the first test. You have to prepare differently for a test of this type. You can't simply memorize material from a book like they are used to doing. That's why I always break my students in gently to experiencing lab tests. With the crayfish I make it pretty basic. Even then some of them do not perform well. It takes some students a practicum to figure out how to correctly prepare for them. You can tell them over and over that they study for this type of test primarily by carefully completing the lab and then drilling with their lab partner over the material and some of them just don't get it. Experience is the best teacher and those who do not perform as well as they wanted to on the first practicum will quickly catch on and make a much higher score on their next dissection. For us this will be the perch since we are moving into the chapter on fish. It is always exciting watching their progress.

We are coming up on about 5 weeks remaining in the term. Boy, time flies when you are trying to cover so much material. Ultimately you have to pick and choose what material to study and what to leave out because of the vast amount of information in the book. I try to include everything that will help those who are going on to take more advanced biological courses to succeed and to give those who are not science oriented a new appreciation of the world around them and the ability to think critically. This will aid them even if they are not meant to be future scientists or doctors. One of my goals is to enable them to help make their own decisions for medical treatment rather than just relying on the knowledge of their doctor.

Sebastian, AKA "Little Old Man"

Here is a nice shot of our little old man Sebastian. He is 10 years old now and was rescued while eating from the dumpster behind my wife's lab. He is a tiny little guy and fits very nicely in the kitty playhouse. The other furkids here are too big now to get inside.

On a different note, the A/C in my room is fixed for now and doing great. The bad news is that the A/C is now down for about half of our upstairs rooms and the classes there feel like a tropical jungle. According to an email "they are working on it." I am just going to enjoy my room's cool air while it lasts.

No A/C Again

Friday was not a good day here in sunny Florida. The room air conditioning was out again in what has become an old story here. Things weren't too bad while sitting down but when we started moving around during a lab the kids and I suffered. By the end of the day I could hardly stand up and the sweat was dripping off of my face onto the table. Several students were dizzy and had to leave class to cool off. I emailed the head of maintenance who informed me that Siemans was working on it. At the end of the day I went to the (nice and cold) main office for a few minutes to recover before driving home.

All weekend I've been very nauseous and dizzy and have had to stay in bed. I can't take much more of this while trying to teach and the students are barely able to perform as well. With the county funding cutbacks the A/C thermostat has been raised to 74 degrees so when my air conditioning goes out, as it seems to often do, the temperature quickly goes up to 80-85 degrees inside. At the last faculty meeting we were told not to open our doors or windows so I can't even find relief by bringing in cooler air from outside. I've emailed anyone who could do anything about it but with no change in the regular breaking down of my room's system.

What I've Learned From 30 Years of Teaching

1) I can really make a difference in the lives of many students. I am proud of my efforts to change lives for the better. There is rarely a week that goes by that I don't hear from a former student who says they are going into a science field because of my teaching.

2) I am too honest and direct for many administrators. This is the 30th year that I have not been nominated or selected as teacher of the year. If I "sucked up" more and was more diplomatic my photo would be on the wall of my school next to most of my fellow teachers. Fortunately my self esteem doesn't depend on this or I would be emotionally crushed by the yearly lack of appreciation by the powers that be of my efforts. I care more about honesty and integrity than kudos from superiors.

3) County administrators are very wasteful of money. They don't give teachers raises and then they turn around and spend huge amounts of money on silly things like online teacher monitoring. Educational priorities are completely screwed up. I also have found that no one wants to hear my thoughts on this.

4) Most teachers really do care about students. They have to fight daily against all of the time wasting things at school that distracts from learning.

5) Teachers should quit when they are there just to earn a paycheck. I value money as a way for me to help abandoned animals but I don't teach just for the money. At the same time I am ticked off that the county doesn't value teachers enough to increase their salaries. It would really help me to better support the 9 cats and bunny I have at home.

6) All students can learn and have potential to go far beyond their current goals. Many are lazy and they need to be motivated by master instruction and a varied curriculum. It is sad that today the most important thing in their school life is to excel on a standardized test. It saps their spirit and dampens motivation. We are increasingly being pushed to teach for these silly tests at the expense of true learning.

7) Science is a wonderful, creative area of teaching. It should be fun for the kids and should make them enthusiastic about learning.

8) I am really going to miss teaching. I am not going to miss the anxiety created by school agendas that stress image as everything. I don't give a damn about school image for its own sake. I want to give students a thirst for learning that will go with them long after they forget about our little school. Let others worry about school image. My students will have a future in science or at least will better appreciate and understand how science affects them. They will be able to intelligently discuss medical issues with their doctors when the need arises. School image is a selfish concept for those who only care about how parents and fellow educators view them. It adds nothing to the life of my students. If I do an excellent job preparing my students for their lives then our image will be a good one as a result. Anything else is just politics and useless window dressing that means nothing. I am not there to be a poster child for the school. I am there for the students. Our school is a good one in spite of the distractions. We have a core of educators who are great at what they do. We also have a very few educators who should be working in another field because they only care about self promotion. This is poison for true learning.

9) If teaching is done properly it is one of the most exhausting jobs you could ever have. It take a huge investment of time, emotional energy, and intellect to succeed. Many new teachers are not being taught how to maximize their skills to benefit students.

10) I love teaching!

Stress and good news

On the teaching front nothing too unusual to report. I am close to exhaustion now with all of the demands of teaching. It has been a good year so far overall but most days teaching is a little like dancing through a lion's den while juggling. I am trying to motivate all of the students and get them excited about learning science with mixed results. Many really get into the lessons but I have had discussions with several students who don't complete assignments or bring their books to class. These students come into class with the attitude "make me learn". I have changed seating assignments for a few of them and called several parents concerning their lack of effort. It is the same old story. 95% of my students are trying hard to learn the material and the other 5% are just marking time until they get out of high school and move on to another phase of their life where they once again will have no goals and no ambition to succeed. My impossible task here is to keep the good students on track and interested, to keep those few who are just taking up space from interfering with the learning of others, and to draw some of these recalcitrant students into the motivated camp. It requires a huge investment of energy to do this. Throw in the little irritations like having students pulled out of class for ring sales and similar meetings, losing students from class due to sporting events, and having a science FCAT progress monitoring test dumped on us this Friday with
no warning and the stress level has been over the top this week. With the progress monitoring test I have had to revise my lesson plans at the last minute to accomodate the time needed for administering the test. All of this is occurring while students who need extra help from me bombard me with questions all period. It can be quite overwhelming and every once in awhile I have to just step back and take a few deep breaths before jumping back into the fray.

Last week i got a call from a coworker here who needed help with finding a home for two Hunter hounds who had been found lying exhausted in the road near her home. She put out posters but no one responded. She lives in a condo and had no room to keep the dogs so she took them to our county kill shelter. Normally they would keep them for 40-60 days before euthanizing them but our city shelter is closing at the end of the month due to a lack of funds and they have been flooding the other shelters to capacity with their animals. These dogs, whom we named Elvis and Priscilla, had roughly a week before they would have been killed. I swore this would not happen to them so my wife and I spent all weekend calling and emailing around 30 rescue groups in our state. They were all overflowing with dogs like my own rescue group and had no available foster families. One email I sent to a friend finally paid off and a local woman offered to take Elvis and Priscilla in and to bring them into Petco on Sundays so my group could try to adopt them out to permanent homes. My wife and I adopted them out of the shelter yesterday and took them to our vet for a bath, exam, and tests. They go back Monday for their spay/neuters and rabies shots. Elvis and Priscilla apparently escaped from a deer hunter in the area. They are both the sweetest dogs who seem to really appreciate any attention. I got a huge tongue slurp across my face the first time I met them. I am really a cat person but I couldn't see these wonderful guys put to sleep just because they had no one who wanted them. The photo at the top of this post shows them at the vet just before we took them (they actually dragged us!) for a walk. Elvis and Priscilla are now with their foster mom and if all goes well we will be looking for a home for them very soon.

You're Not Going To Believe This One

This post is not about the week's teaching as nothing really different happened on the school front. It was the the usual experiences of great teaching moments with inspired kids, dealing with kids who have crappy attitudes, and struggling with some personal health problems. This is about our cat Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Yesterday I heard a rustling noise in the kitchen and immediately knew that Elvira was raiding the catfood cabinet again. This time when I went in I saw her boyfriend Beau sitting on top of the aquarium outside the cabinet. A sack filled with cat treat pouches was sticking halfway out of the cabinet. In a few seconds out popped Elvira's head with the sack of treats in her mouth. She passed the treat sack to Beau who took it and jumped down on the floor. Elvira followed and they ran out of the kitchen with the treats. Beau gave the bag back to Elvira and I finally caught up with them in the living room. I retrieved the sack, though Elvira did growl at me and slapped at my hand. While searching for a secure place to store the treats I temporarily stashed them in the stove. Elvira ran over and studied the stove door. She then pushed on the door in several places but did not manage to get the door open. I didn't get any photos of the "great treat escape" which is probably a good thing as most of you would have thought I had doctored the pictures. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it!

One of my students

I don't quite know where to begin. This morning at school we received the information that one of my students had died in an accident. One day he was in class and now he is not here. Quite a few of my students in that class were crying and upset. I think that part of their angst was grief over his loss and perhaps part of it was the sudden realization that they were not immortal. When you are young you think you will live forever. Something like this really drives home the fragility of our lives.

I will miss this student. He had a great sense of humor that I really valued. It is a tragic loss for his family, the school, and the community. He was talking about the future recently, not knowing that his time was limited on Earth.

The students are dealing with this by talking with counselors and making a card to send to the parents. Sometimes life is just not fair.

All Sorts Of Things

A lot has been happening this week on different fronts so instead of a theme post I am just going to throw all of these thoughts together.

1) School preplanning is in full swing. Along with the usual mix of meetings I have been putting supplies away and trying to get everything ready for the kids' first day Friday.

2) Good news about the supplies! It looks like almost all of my order was approved and came in. I was really worried about not having necessary lab supplies this year due to the budget cuts but everything is ok for now.

3) Bad news. Class sizes are large and still growing. Where are all og these kids coming from???

4) Humorous news. At least one or two of the administrators must be reading this blog since a rumor has been circulating that I am going to retire in the middle of the year. They probably got this idea from an earlier post of mine. Rest assured that I intend on staying the full year. It would not be fair to the school or students to leave like that. The future? Well, let's just say that I will look at things at the end of this school year and decide then about teaching beyond that point. If I am still having fun it might be a possibility. This is going to be sad news for one of the other science teachers here who has already stated her desire to take over my Anatomy classes and room. I feel a little like a mortally wounded robbery victim whose body is being stripped by robbers while they are still alive. As far as my retiring from teaching, the undertaker will have to wait a little longer.

5) I am going to make a real effort to be more positive about teaching this year, not to take things so seriously in education, and to have more fun teaching. I will laugh at the silly things instead of letting them eat at me. I am also going to smile more and try to help the other teachers here.

6) Very sad news. The wife came home yesterday in tears, She called her parents who live in another state. When she talked to her dad, who has Alzheimer's, he did not know he had a daughter and didn't recognize her at all.

7) I am going to adopt out our cat Elvira. The little vixen keeps raiding the cat food cabinet and stealing treats out of it. I have tried blocking the door with heavy objects but she always finds a way to get in. If it keeps up I will probably have to put a lock on the cabinet.

That's all for now. Sorry for the scattered nature of this post.

6)

Where Our County Is Going With Education

We are not unique here in education. This year we are facing the worst monetary crisis we have ever had in Florida. A combination of finance reductions at the state level and overextending in starting new schools in our county means that 25% of our funding has evaporated.

I won't try to second guess the decisions of our state and local administrators. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it won't help solve the current crisis. Besides, my area of expertise is not administration or politics. I am a teacher and I am very worried that I am not going to have the supplies this year to adequately train the future scientists and doctors I will be given charge of. What can I do to replace fundamental labs and dissections that they must have in order to get a full education in Biology and Anatomy? Many of these kids will be going into medicine and research. They deserve the best experience in my classes I can offer them and I am deeply fearful that I will be forced to cut so many corners that they will not be adequately trained or inspired. Books are great as a staple but the heart and soul of the biological sciences is laboratory work. It is not cheap and there are no good substitutes. I do not want to be placed in the position of just sitting there asking them to memorize material. That is not science and it is not teaching. Some things can not be adjusted for and this is one of them. In a couple of weeks I go back to teaching and then I will see how bad it will really be. I wish I could be more upbeat and positive about this but to me it just feels like the death of good science teaching. I pray I am wrong.

Why I Am A Vegetarian

Today is another school end of the year luncheon at a local seafood restaurant. As a vegetarian I haven't been to one of those luncheons in years because the only thing I can eat is salad and a baked potato. People are always asking me why I am a vegetarian. I turned to the dark side about 25 years ago. I'm not even sure myself of the honest answer to that question but here are the reasons I give:

1) 29 years of dissecting animals in classes for future medical staff has dulled my enthusiasm for meat.
2) The health benefits are great. I weigh 177 pounds now and am 6'2'' tall. My weight is stable and I lost 23 pounds since becoming a vegetarian. My cholesterol and triglyceride values are low in spite of the fact that high cholesterol values run in my family.
3) I love animals and have a lot of empathy for them. I am the type who rescues turtles from the road. The people at my rescue/adoption group Goliath and Bebe's World call me Dr. Doolittle because I can communicate with cats on a level that is almost spooky.

Vegetarian fare is so much better today than when I started out as a vegetarian. A lot of the processed foods tasted like cardboard then. Now I eat a wide variety of sandwiches, soups, stews, and soy strips that you would have a hard time distinguishing from chicken and fish. The food is very flavorful and I get more protein, vitamins, and minerals and much less fat than I would get on a regular meat diet.

I don't try to convert others to vegetarianism because I have always hated those preachy types. I do recommend it for anyone who wants to change their lifestyle. It really isn't hard to change. Check out some of the vegetarian foods on the market. The only drawback is that I miss those end of the year banquets my school puts out. I just refuse to sit there eating a salad.

Good News

Well, things have worked out much better than I dared to hope for with my schedule for next year. Another teacher was very unhappy to be teaching Biology so when she asked if I would be willing to swap courses with her I said yes. I just got the revised schedule and I am now teaching Anatomy Honors, Biology Honors, and Biology! I am back in my area of expertise now so even with 3 preps I am very happy with it. I know the students will get my best now. The end of the year is not a good time to make decisions about the future since I am exhausted so I am going to wait until the end of summer to decide whether to teach past next year. If I do it will be because I am still enjoying teaching and not for the money. Money has never been a primary issue with me. As long as I can get by financially and keep the furkids up in the luxury they are accustomed to that is enough for me. I may stay in the profession an extra year or so if I think I can still give a good education to the kids and inspire them. I will just take it a year at a time now. The physical demands will probably be what will eventually force me to call it quits.

Mixed Results For Next Year

I just got my tentative schedule for next year. The great news is that I am not scheduled to teach Chemistry! That is such a relief to me. The not-so-great news is that I have to move all my stuff to another room and I am slated for 4 preps. They have me teaching Biology I, Biology I Honors, Physical Science, and Anatomy/Physiology Honors. It's quite an assortment but considering the fact that our school is downsizing and we lost 4 science teachers I am not surprised at having to cover several subjects. I have taught all of these in the past and know I can handle it. The hardest part will probably be motivating the standard level classes. I hope they can be inspired to learn. Sometimes you get a standard group that is extremely low academically with a large percentage who are retaking the course. Memories of my "class from Hell" I taught a couple of years ago still send shivers down my spine. I will hope for the best and maybe I will be pleasantly surprised in that regard. Overall I feel I can deal with the schedule.

Addendum - They made a mistake about the room assignment number. I will apparently get to keep my room! Things are looking up.

Good news about the kitten Gabriella. The foster family who took her in fell in love with her and decided to adopt her! They say that Gabriella has quickly become an extreme "lap cat" who loves to snuggle. It's the first time the little gal has ever had a family who cared about her so she is really enjoying herself.

A Sense Of Freedom!

Hi everyone! I just finished up a week of teaching and another trip today to the chiropractor. Here are the basic goodies of the week:

1) We dissected pigs in Biology Honors. One student got woozy near the end and had to go to the nurse. I would just once like to do a dissection where no one passes out!

2) The seniors took their final exam in Anatomy Honors. I'm left now with just the juniors so the two Anatomy classes are less than half the size they originally were.

3) As far as I know I am still stuck with the job next year of teaching Chemistry which I am so incompetent to teach. I say as far as I know since the principal never bothered to respond to my email to him explaining that my last Chemistry course was around 33 years ago and I am an established biologist with years of training and teaching experience in the field. Nope, no email, no call, no dropping by the classroom from the principal. I guess I am not important enough for him to waste his time speaking to me.

4) The A/C in the room has been out all week. Parts are ordered and it is supposed to be fixed next week. Until then we are working in a sauna and trying to cool things off a little with fans. It is hot!!!

Now for my thoughts that led to this post title. When I got stuck with the chemistry job I decided to quit teaching as soon as my 30 years are up. That gives me one year more. I could actually quit in the middle of the year next year when my 30 years are up and I just might do that. They can deal with trying to find a mid-year replacement for me and I won't shed a single tear. Suddenly after making this decision to retire I have the feeling that a tremendous burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I will be free of all of the crap that has gradually infiltrated education over the past few years. No more silly, pointless faculty meetings. No more pressure to enhance the school's image, sometimes at the expense of quality teaching. No more pressure to teach towards state tests that don't mean a damn thing to the learning of my students. No more cowering under administrative decrees that are sometimes contradictory and arbitrary, and that rarely take into consideration my feelings or thoughts. No more worrying about the possibility of being called in on the carpet because of this blog. No more being given no school recognition for the years I have given of my life to this profession.

I feel so incredibly free now. I will truly miss the teaching of my fine students. That is really all that I will miss. I realize now that my decision means the school "powers that be" have no power to make me upset any more. I know that I can be my own person this last school year, or 1/2 year, and be proud of having taught several thousand students the best that I could do. I see so many of my former students these days. An assistant to my chiropractor is one of my former Biology students. She is using some of the skills I taught her in her profession. There are many doctors, nurses, and technicians at our local hospital that I helped to train in Biology and Anatomy. Some of them have told me that I helped to inspire them to go into medicine. A number of my students have gone into biological research at laboratories and research stations. It is rare that I don't daily run into at least one student I helped to guide into a Biology related career.

Yes, I wish I would have been treated differently as a teacher after putting in 29 years training future scientists and medical staff. I have no control over that. What gives me great peace and joy is knowing I made a huge difference in so many lives. If I had been dealt with compassionately and respectfully by the administration and allowed to continue doing what I do so well in the field of Biology/Anatomy I would possibly have stayed in the profession another few years. I regret that I am not going to be allowed to continue training future leaders in the biological sciences. I could have inspired perhaps several hundred more students to pursue a biological career before passing on the torch to others. Though that makes me very sad, I suppose all good things must eventually come to an end. I must be satisfied with what I have been able to do these past 29 years in the face of constant educational obstacles and adversity. That will have to be enough. Now I am free to speak my mind honestly about education today. I am free to relax and not be concerned about what administrators will think. My impending retirement gives me the freedom to look back and be very proud of my accomplishments, even if they were not appreciated by anyone except my students and their parents. The important ones are all of those students I guided and inspired. They are my legacy. May all of my former students prosper and enrich the world with their contributions. This situation has broken off my shackles to an educational system that has lost its value of creative, intelligent teachers and the training of wonderful students to strive for success. Now everything is a numbers game. We are supposed to care about the FCAT test percentages, the number of students taking AP exams, the number of awards our athletes can win, the number of items I have to cut due to budget reductions, and how many image conscious newspaper articles we can get published. None of that concerns me now. I am free. What a catharsis this is!!!

"Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either." - Albert Einstein