I Am Your Plan Break: My 37 years as a Public School "Specials" Teacher

THE ONE WHERE I GOT A MORTGAGE 1993-1994: Wichita Public Schools: Peterson K-5 Library 1993-94 School Year Picture Brad's parents offered us daycare for our son Logan at no cost. This allowed us to have enough money for a down payment on a home. In the summer of 1993 it was a sellers market. Homes would go on the market only to be sold within the same day. We finally found a home in Haysville that was four years old. We moved in the day before the 1993-1994 school year began .  Brad doing a gymnastics demonstration for Peterson's second graders At school many teachers did not like the flexible scheduling model that we used. Some of the teachers would glare at me during their students' library lessons because they were required to stay in the library with me as library was not contractual planning time. I feel like a few of the teachers like my bestie’s Penny Carter and Shelley Nikel really appreciated me and what I was doing for the building. One of the best examples of fle...

1992-1993 THE ONE WHERE I MET MY TWO BESTIES 1992-1993: Wichita Public Schools: Peterson K-5 Library 1992-1993 School Year Picture When I interviewed for my new job in July, I was 8 months pregnant and would have to start my job with a maternity leave. This did not seem to concern Mary Schumacher (Director of Library Media Services). Mary had  two schools available, one was full time and the other was part time. After being taken advantage of while working part time the past two years, I opted for the full time position. I was assigned to the BEST Elementary School in Wichita, Peterson.  I instantly liked Mary and loved that we both shared the same philosophy of Flexible Library Scheduling. Flexible Library Scheduling means that as a Librarian, YOU ARE NOT A PLAN BREAK! Contractually speaking, the Library was not plan time in USD 259 and classroom teachers were to utilize the library as an extension of their classrooms. Flexible Library Scheduling was not  going to be lo...

  THE ONE WHERE I WAS PREGNANT 1991-1992: *Winfield Public School K-8 Library 1991-1992 School Picture I started my second year with the Winfield Public Schools in the fall of 1991. They still wanted me to work two full days Tuesday and Wednesday. My ½ day on Thursdays was 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM which meant I could no longer accept ½ day substitute jobs. It affected our income. After a while though I did not care because I found out that I was pregnant with our first child. Brad and I decided to see what it would be like income wise for us if I did not substitute on my days off. It would be nice to have two days home per week with our new baby. I’m glad we made that decision because my pregnancy was exhausting. Book Character Week: HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON A gifted 6th grade class was added to my weird ½ day. I enjoyed working with these students as they were eager to learn. I used to walk them over to the Winfield public Library for some of my class sessions. Fire Safety Week rea...