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

THE ONE WHEN I GOT A HUGE PAY RAISE 2004-2005: Wichita Public Schools: Funston 2-5, White PreK-1 Library I can not find my school photo from the 2004-2005 School year so I have included three staff shots from Funston that I did not put in early blog entries.  Funston Staff 2001-2002 The completion of my Masters degree meant that I got a HUGE pay raise. Sadly if you are going to be a lifelong Teacher, you either need to go into Administration or get your Masters degree to make a decent living wage.  A rainy spring and summer delayed the opening of the blended White/Funston Elementary School. We were told in July to prepare for a January 2005 move. That news greatly upset one parent who felt like it would be too much for the incoming second graders (who had attended first grade at White) to have to go to Funston for just ½ the year. That one parent came up with a committee of other parents to push for 2nd graders to stay at White. The parent group got their way and 2nd graders ...

THE ONE WHERE I FINISHED MY M.ED. PROGRAM 2003-2004 :* Wichita Public Schools: Funston 2-5, White PreK-1 Library 2003-2004 School Year Photo I was in my second year of my M.Ed. program and Funston and White Elementary Schools were now considered one building with one Administrator and an Assistant Principal. A lot of stressful things seemed to be added to my plate.  We were told of a new fantastic opportunity for the staff of USD 259 called PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY.  I was already used to teaching my classes (one session a week) in isolation, now  I would have one day of my week dedicated to a rotating schedule so teachers could receive in house professional development. Every minute of the day would be used for this and on PD I would NOT have planning time.  Each grade level got a half day a month for PD. We specialists got a full day a month: building level and district level. Ours was on Tuesdays and meant that classroom teachers would not get planning time on...

o 2002 School Year Photo 2002-2003 THE ONE WHERE WE NO LONGER NEEDED DAY CARE  2002-2003 :* Wichita Public Schools: Funston 2-5, White PreK-1 Library Brad’s new USD 261 School Psychologist job was at Haysville Elementary. I would drop the boys off at school and after school they would walk from Rex Elementary (next door to HMS) and Brad would take the boys home. For the first time in a long time we no longer had the expense of daycare.  Before the start of the school year, I had made arrangements to drop down to a 4 day a week position. I had Fridays off and I used them to work on my Masters degree. I initially felt alone in my M.Ed. program as I was the only “Specials'' Teacher in the group. I sought out other like minded Techie Teachers early in the program to work group projects with. My first official Friday at home though bought our first assignment. I remember taking a break and hanging laundry out on our clothesline. I was sobbing and certain that I made a HUGE mistake ...