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

  THE ONE WHERE I CHANGED MY LAST NAME 1990-1991: *Winfield Public School K-8 Library  1990-1991 School Year Picture  Part Time School Employees get taken advantage of.......... Brad and I were newly married and living in Derby which was sort of a halfway point between his fabulous new job at Project Bridge and mine in the Winfield Public Schools. I drove the 72 mile round trip Tuesday-Thursday. Do the math, I worked MORE than ½ of the contract days. When you are part time and work a Tuesday-Thursday combination you often will be working for about 10 extra days that you WILL NOT BE PAID FOR!  Made me think that perhaps I should have looked into the USD 259 interview? My other observation was that not all the schools were equally staffed. My part time gig had the same number of weekly classes as another Librarian with a full time job at another Winfield Elementary School. This made no sense to me. I worked in two schools, Lowell K-6 and now closed country school K-8 w...

THE ONE WHERE I LEFT BEHIND TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL 1989-1990: Larned Public Schools K-8 Library, 8th Grade Literature 1989-1990 School Picture (what was I thinking with that hair?) I knew it was going to be hard to be away from Brad. We decided that every other weekend I would come home to Belle Plaine. On the weekends I did not come home, Brad would come and see me in Larned. I was assigned to three buildings Pawnee Rock K-8, Phinney Elementary K-2, and Hillside Elementary 3-4.  Pawnee Rock was my base school that I had to travel to every day. I provided K-6 grade Library Classes which allowed for the classroom teachers to have a plan break. I did not have a Library Clerk and had to maintain both the Elementary and Middle School Libraries. I also had to teach an 8th grade Literature class. In the afternoons I would return to Larned and report to  Phinney K-2 or Hillside 3-4. I had a Library Clerk at both buildings that did all the Library book checkouts, shelving and maintenan...

THE ONE WHERE I WAS PUT ON A PLAN OF ASSISTANCE 1988-1989: Argonia Public Schools K-12 Library, 9-12 Speech/Theatre 1988-89 School Photo A taboo topic among ALL Teachers is the dreaded PLAN OF ASSISTANCE. A POA will contain suggestions and changes that a classroom teacher will need to make in order to continue teaching and eventually be granted tenure. A POA that is used properly can be a great tool that can really help a struggling teacher. A POA can also be used to get rid of a Teacher that Administration simply does not like. In this blog entry I will tell you about my POA. Perhaps if my school district would have mentored me my first year I could have avoided a POA my third year? I am not embarrassed to tell you about my Plan of Assistance. Ostracized at enrollment THE YOUNG NEW PRINCIPAL We got a new Principal the fall of 1988 who was maybe 3-5 years older than me. The new Administrator took a dislike to me early on.  I had an extremely challenging student my third ...

THE ONE WHERE I MET BRAD JOHNSON   1987-1988:   Argonia Public Schools K-12 Library, 9-12 Speech/Theatre School Picture 1987 I do not think that the School Board was happy with me in the fall of 1987. I defied them by NOT living in Argonia, I really had no choice, because financially I was not making it. Many people in my boat simply lived off of their credit cards, I am proud to say that I have NEVER had credit card debt. I was lucky that my parents welcomed me back home, RENT FREE. It allowed me to add more to my monthly student loan payments as well as save some money. My sister Michelle and her son had moved out and she was going to be getting married that November. Her son Brad had a raspy voice. The Speech Pathologist at Belle Plaine Elementary suggested that Michelle talk to the School Psychologist Brad Johnson about her son's voice. They met and it was determined that his voice was not out of the ordinary. Michelle and I loved attending Debbbie Vargus's aerobics c...

The One Where I Was A Hot Commodity 1986-1987: Argonia Public Schools K-12 Library, 9-12 Speech/Theatre *As I begin my Blog chronicling  my 37 years as a Specials Teacher you will  occasionally notice my use of they/them/their when referring  to some of my colleagues that I had negative relationships with. Some of you that know me personally will know who I am talking about, others will not. My story is mine to tell, not theirs. I do not wish to identify them by name.  Last Day at JC Penney Summer 1986 I quit my job at JC Penney so I could begin my Library Media Specialist certification classes at WSU in the summer of 1986. If I paid for my classes up front, the school board would reimburse me my tuition at the end of the semester. I did not have the money to pay for the classes so I asked the school board if they would pay for them up front. They agreed to do so. I was thankful for that because I did not want to take out any more student loans. The Library classes w...

THE ONE WHERE I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER GO INTO TEACHING 1985-1986 Student Teaching & Substitute Teaching Fall 1985 BA, University of Oklahoma 1985    When it came time for me to do my student teaching, I knew that I wanted to be placed with Marianne Stitch at Noble High School. She was well known as being the BEST Speech/Theatre Teacher in the area. I will never forget my first meeting of the staff at Noble High School. I got up and introduced myself and let the staff know that I was going to be student teaching Speech/Theatre under Marianne Stitch. No said anything and there were confused looks around the room. Finally Katheryn Hartney spoke up and said that she was Marianne's replacement and no one told her that she would be having a student teacher. No one had bothered to tell me that Mrs. Stich had moved on to another school district. I didn't know what to do and really did not have a choice at that late date to move to another school. I liked working under Kathery...

I AM YOUR PLAN BREAK! The one where I explain my blog to you We have all had teachers, The ones we remember stand out as being something larger than life. More often than not when I ask friends about their favorite teachers nine out of ten times they will mention someone like their second grade teacher.  It is a rare occasion when a "Specials" Teacher is mentioned as ones favorite past teacher. It is my hope with my blog to let your know that often a Specials Teacher really can make a difference. I also want you to know that my job might look easy to some but there is truly an art to teaching all of the students at a school. Being a Specials Teacher is not easier than being a classroom teacher, it's just different.   How did I come up with the name for my Blog?   My Bog is titled I AM YOUR PLAN BREAK because after 37 years as a Specials Teacher I truly "get" and understand why a classroom teacher simply needs a break. I see it in their eyes as they bring their c...