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Teaching in the Rear View Mirror

Posted in Education, School, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 12, 2025| 1 Comment »

Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

Photo by Jake Weirick on Unsplash

The final bell, for me the sound of retirement and freedom, waited to ring on the last day of school, out of reach and far away. 

Then it shrilled in my ears, and in spite of the scramble of finals, grading, and packing, caught me unprepared. 

The last student out the door, the last box in my car, the last key turned in…

Now I’m home, trying to digest how this is different from any other beginning of summer vacation. 

No more repetitive compliance videos, completed every summer to prove I hadn’t regressed mentally.

No more assigned professional development of little relevance to my content.

No more student apathy, disdain, or disrespect.

No more learning 150+ names every August, taking attendance, or marking tardies.

No more Eduphoria, Skyward, or teaching software, ad nauseum.

No more policing cell phones, or cheating, or bullying.

No more begging for late/missing assignments from the unmotivated.

No more redundant paperwork of no benefit to students.

No more fear of a lawsuit for protecting myself or stating the obvious and the truth.

No more documenting of differentiating instruction for IEP’s or 504’s–otherwise known as good teaching.

No more lesson prep which I may or may not follow, as my best lessons are dynamic and adjusted on the fly to meet students’ immediate needs.

No more battles with a copy machine with a personal grudge against me.

No more grading approximately 2,000 assignments every six weeks.

No more wearing a “harness”–lanyard with keys and ID, required at all times and most definitely during security drills, preparing for the random school shooter. 

Also, no more student hugs, wholehearted and awkward, or clumsily worded notes of gratitude left on my desk.

No more camaraderie with fellow teachers, commiserating about yet another mandate from the state.

No more invigorating pep rallies with confetti and fan fervor.

No more moments when the lesson pops, and the kids get it.

No more returning to my language classroom, with vibrant curtains of Seville, my copy of Neruda’s sonnets, and an Aztec calendar on the wall.

No more meet-the-teacher evenings, with curious parents and apprehensive students, shy and eager. 

No more busy buzz of students returning after a break, eager to see friends and make a fresh start.

No more satisfying restocking of pens, pencils, journals, tape, glue sticks, post-it notes, and hand sanitizer.

No more finishing out a grading cycle with the satisfaction that comes with closure. 

No more classroom jokes gently binding my students and me together in an agreement of cooperation and good humor.

No more being among the young and feeling the energy of possibilities and dreams. 

I am tired. It’s been a good run. I am ready to let it go. 

But I still glance in the rear view mirror and remember.

© 2025 Joyce Martin. All rights reserved

Note: None of my content is AI generated. 

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Oh, You’re a Teacher?

Posted in Ecucation, Education, education;, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2025| 2 Comments »

Then do you have the right skills for the “real world”?

Note & disclaimer: These are my opinions and observations, based on anecdotal research, but please give them some consideration. I am a teacher approaching retirement from education, looking to transition to other employment.

With teachers leaving education in droves (due to unsustainable work loads, low pay, student behaviors, etc.), they obviously are seeking employment elsewhere. 

Though many are older, they are not necessarily ready for full retirement. They must transition into other career paths. While willing to take a pay cut temporarily, they need jobs with opportunities to advance on the pay scale. 

If the many posts on groups for transitioning teachers provide any indication, former educators face a particular kind of bias in the corporate world. 

They are told to revamp their resumes to downplay language related to education: don’t say “students”, say “clients”; don’t say “teacher”, say “manager”; don’t say “lesson plans”, say “project plans”, and so on.

This advice sounds disingenuous to me. If we have been teachers, how can we represent ourselves otherwise? That’s dishonest. 

However, some say that teachers have to, or corporate America (and the bots they use to screen applicants) will eliminate an application before a human even looks at it.

Then if the application and resume even makes it past that hurdle, those hiring still have a patronizing and inaccurate impression of educators and their skill sets. 

Interestingly, those employers who have given previous teachers positions as project managers, trainers, and so on, seem quite pleased with their performance. 

So where is the disconnect? 

Perhaps many recruiters simply do not realize what educators bring with them.

In the mid-sized high school where I teach, these are examples of skills implemented by educators on a routine basis:

1.The teacher of higher-level math classes also acts as the liaison between the local community college and students in dual-credit classes, organizes academic meets involving dozens of staff members and hundreds of students, and plans and submits budgets for those programs.

2.The coach teaches history and geography classes and handles his athletic coaching responsibilities while also coaching extemporaneous speakers, and still maintains a high teaching standard in his classroom.

3. The theater teacher raises money for, directs, and brings to fruition two large productions (one for competition) every academic year, while also teaching theater classes and mentoring the junior high program.

4. The special-ed teacher plans (and finds funds for) hands-on activities that help students learn life skills and interact with regular-ed students and the public, all while following detailed educational plans to satisfy the requirements of state and federal law.

5. The regular-ed classroom teacher leads her science department, mentors other teachers in her field, and wins student respect and trust through her excellent and consistent teaching style, preparing her students for success in post-secondary education and careers. 

I could go on and on, just thinking of individual educators in my small circle. Keep in mind all these folks have bachelor’s degrees, and many advanced degrees as well, and years of experience communicating, prioritizing, managing, and implementing their assigned responsibilities. 

Yet, these same educators would likely encounter bias and skepticism in the “real world”. I would challenge corporate employers to step into our “real world” and see how they do! 

Believe me, nothing is more realistic than teaching in the current cultural and political climate!

Give us a chance, y’all!

If you would like to see more articles on education, culture, and personal well-being, please connect to and support my writing. 

© 2024 Joyce Martin. All rights reserved

Note: None of my content is AI generated. Ever.

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You may also find my writing on Joyce Martin on Medium

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Another Teacher Down

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Teachers drown every day.

They disappear beneath the surface of overloaded classrooms, waves of paperwork, and micromanagement with hardly a splash or a sound. With every teacher that surrenders to the deep, our public education problems worsen. We are hemorrhaging the best, brightest, and most experienced teachers.

I’m a teacher, and I’m drowning. In the metaphorical sense only, thank goodness, but I imagine being overwhelmed and hopeless somewhat resembles physical drowning. All my flailing and reaching for a handhold just takes me deeper. 

I am exhausted and stressed, which exacerbates my health issues. While working two side hustles on top of my teaching job, I am still not able to pay my bills. When I am awake, I am working (about 60 hours per week on teaching tasks, and another 20 to 30 on my side jobs). Having a healthy work/life balance is a pie-in-the-sky dream.  

This is my thirtieth year of teaching junior high and high school in Texas. The continual buffeting through the years of the unrealistic expectations of standardized testing, federal and state regulations, and the demands within the classroom and from the community have eroded my resilience and positivity. That’s on top of the blatant disrespect and misbehavior we often deal with in the classroom, hostility and mistrust from some parents, and administrators with a “gotcha” approach. 

At least I am now in a situation better than many of my peers, where some of my students are respectful and want to learn, and many parents work with us to help their children succeed. The administration in my school supports staff as best they can, trying to ease the tides of federal and state expectations and smooth the waters between parents and teachers. 

I’m exhausted, folks, and I’m not alone. The teacher shortage is real and growing every day. How do I motivate students who see no value or purpose in learning? How do I help those who are 2 or 3 grade levels behind, while challenging a few high achievers, without neglecting the average students? More often than not, I teach to the lowest common denominator because they require more of me. That is the reality. 

I’m tired of policing cellphones and trying to determine the fine line between teaching the correct use of technology versus using it as a crutch. Now we have AI to deal with. The widespread cheating just became exponentially easier. Yet AI can be a useful tool that students need to learn to use when appropriate. No one knows where the perimeters are anymore. It is all changing too quickly. 

Teaching has never been easy, and never will. As one colleague said long ago, “It’s only easy to be a bad teacher. If you want to be a good one, it will be one of the most difficult jobs you’ll ever have.” A good teacher pushes to be great against a current of unrelenting pressures: unmotivated students, unreasonable parents, micromanaging administrators, and the rapidly changing topography of education. All that struggle comes at a high price.

For me, this all culminates in retirement from teaching at the age of 61, probably next year. Then I must find enough work that my pension plus wages will equate to a living wage. My heart will break because I still enjoy many aspects of teaching, and it is a huge part of my identity and purpose. Yet I cannot continue. All things unsustainable must come to an end.

I’m going under, and I am one of many teachers. Did anyone see us?

Note: I understand that many jobs are quite demanding–not just teaching. My sympathies to all! The demands of my life at the current time have severely limited my ability to grow my writing, but I won’t give up. Please don’t give up on me!

© 2024 Joyce Martin. All rights reserved

Note: None of my content is AI generated. Ever.

Thank you for reading! Please subscribe below!

You may also find my writing on joyous Road on Substack & Joyce Martin on Medium

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