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

THE ONE WHERE WE WATCHED THE TOWERS FALL: 2001-2002: Wichita Public Schools: Funston 2-5 Library 2001-2002 School Year Photo. Almost everyone I knew cut their hair short after 9/11/01 Most teachers remember their 9/11/01 school day story. Here is mine. I would love to hear yours. It was an ordinary September day that soon would become memorable. I dropped the boys off at Rex Elementary and arrived at school about 20 minutes before report time. I was getting ready for my day when Jeff Dohlman, our Art Teacher ran into the Library. He told me “Quick GET THE TV ON!”  Our school had one TV that had cable and it was located in the library. We watched in horror and disbelief as the first of many terrorist attacks began taking place.  My Principal Sonja Seeman made the decision to cancel my Library classes for the day so that the staff could have access to the one TV in the school which was in the Library.. It was a scary day. Because my classes were cancelled I used my time taking ...

THE ONE WHERE I GOT TO GO TO BOSTON 2000-2001: Wichita Public Schools: Funston 2-5 Library 2000-2001 School Year Photo I felt pretty fortunate that I was offered the job at Funston Elementary. The school was 6 miles from my home. I was happy that my friend Bianca Butler was able to take care of our Kindergartener and Second Grader. This made my returning to work full time not that bad. I remember an incident at the book fair I was hosting during conference time at my new school.  Due to low sales at the book fair before I was the Librarian, Scholastic decided to not send a cash register as a part of the book fair I was hosting. OK, no problem. I would get a cash box and a calculator and do all sales by hand. I was going great until one out of control parent did not like the line he had to stand  waiting for me to cash customers out. By the time he got to the front of the line he had thrown his checkbook in my face. He cussed at me for having to wait so long. It was the last b...