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...

  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...