Thoughts on Teaching

By Patty Arnold

It finally hit me that I have been “in the system” for over 30 years and it’s time to start making retirement plans. In our state, we have something called DROP where you “kind of” retire but continue working for another five years. This is all truly terrifying.

Retire? Only five more years? No way!

So now I’m vacillating back and forth between dread and excitement about maybe starting another career or long-term project in place of teaching middle school. And all of this has started a long train of memories – both good and bad. So I thought I’d share some of those memories from 25+ years with middle school kids. It will distract me from having to think that I’m actually old enough to retire.

• The first fight. My first month into my first year of teaching and a fight breaks out in the hall outside of my classroom – two ninth grade girls. Teacher to the rescue. Two of my students take me firmly (but gently) by the arms, walk me back into my classroom and tell me they’ll break up the fight. They don’t want me to get hurt. I guess I looked kind of scared and vulnerable back then. I did appreciate the gesture and the fact that they didn’t want me to get hurt. Of course now, stopping a fight before it gets started, is just second nature. But I still think about that first fight.
• The MLK speech. This was before I started teaching Science and was still a Social Studies teacher. All the kids had to give a report or present a memorized speech. One of the students was even more nervous than the rest. He was a big, quiet kid and we could all tell that he was terrified. He got up in front of the classroom when it was his turn and blurted out that he couldn’t do his speech (Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”) with everyone looking at him. The weirdest thing happened. The kids all got up and turned their desks to face the opposite wall. It looked choreographed, but it wasn’t. He gave his speech with hardly any hesitation. One of his friends prompted him when he got stuck. I was so proud of those children.
• The first experiment. Thirty pairs of eyes staring at me. We’ve been talking about chemical reactions. It’s my first year teaching Science. Now comes the hard part – our first experiment. We’re making silly putty. Think – lots of glue, food coloring, borax, and water. I think we used some glitter too. Came off without a hitch. No one got glue in their hair and everyone proudly took home their plastic bag of gooey chemical goodness. There have been a lot of experiments since then. But that one was probably the reason I’m still teaching science 15 years later.
• The first (and only) year as an administrator. One year I strayed. The position of curriculum coordinator came up in the middle of the year. I had just finished most of my Ph.D. coursework and everything logically pointed to becoming an administrator. So, I leave my kids in the middle of the year. They get a “permanent sub.” Then they come up with all these ingenious ways to really get on the sub’s nerves. They’ve figure out that if they do, they get sent to my office. Most class periods, I get at least five or six of them squeezed into my little office. They miss me and I miss them. I’m back in the classroom the following year. So, now I’m a Science teacher with a doctorate in administration with no plans to ever leave my classroom again.

There have been a lot of other “firsts” – some joyful, some sad, mostly successes with a few dramatic failures to bring me back to reality. I still remember the first time we got on the internet or the first time someone brought me a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. Or last year, when they named me Teacher of the Year at my school and everyone came in with balloons during my largest class and one of the kids yelled out “way to go, Patty”.

But the key thing is – the kids have always been amazing. It might sound like a cliché, but they’ve taught me more than I’ve taught them. I’m still in awe that I have this near perfect job (and they give me money for doing it).

So, probably no retirement anytime soon. There’s still too much to learn.

Patty Arnold is a middle school teacher in central Florida.