Life since 2008, Part I, Teaching

It is in the middle of June, and I’m think I’m totally rested and ready to return to school. It usually takes me an entire month longer. I’m not sure why this summer is different. Maybe the fact that this past school year was less stressful than the few previous school years were. I wasn’t conflicting with the administration as much, which is great. Overall, all my students were wonderful, which I might add, AS USUAL! Or maybe it was all the green tea I was drinking this year.

One day I saw Bonnie, a fellow teacher about my age, smiling and relaxed. I asked her what made her look so happy and relaxed. Her answer was green tea. So I started drinking green tea every morning and every afternoon. I already take a handful of vitamins and supplements, and I firmly believe they help me stay well and keep going straight from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. or later. Between the flu shot, the vitamins & supplements and the Green Tea, I was healthy all school year.

Anyone who spends their days with 12 and 13-year-old people will probably agree with me that they can be very challenging. I should add exciting, fun and never boring. Oh yes, and frustrating. Not everyone should work with kids this age, but there are those of us who thrive doing so. It takes patience, a lot of love and a strange sense of humor. It takes faith that no matter how unlikely it seems, somehow your work is meaningful no matter what parent yelled at that day, or student who tells you they hate you, or even an administrator who is angry because they want “easy” & you prefer “right” over “easy.”

This year I had some twelve-year-old female screamers. Every once in a while I’ll have a girl in the seventh grade that screams when she interacts, but this year I had three in a class. Screamers always remind me of María, a student of mine who was in my class over 15 years ago. As a seventh grader she drove me nuts because the only way I could interact with her was with mutual screaming. I wondered if there are some people who need to be yelled at for assurance that they are cared about. A big part of it is being twelve and having hormones bouncing around that one isn’t use to yet.

María ended up being in my eighth grade U.S. class the next year. I held my breath as I saw her walk into my class at the beginning of our second year together. She was one of the best eighth grade students I’ve ever had. If one of my students even started giving me a hard time, María was right there scolding them to not disrespect Ms. López. I love you María. I was already about halfway through my teaching career, yet I learned so much from you.

I don’t usually like to write about my job, especially in the middle of the school year and to anyone who happens upon CyBeRGaTa the BLoG. I just left school this year, my 34½ year, feeling so positive. No matter how tough the end of the year is, and containing twenty-seven twelve and thirteen year old people in a classroom with summer break around the corner is pretty tough, the end of the year is great when your students have been working hard and learned so much.

Anyone who teaches knows the feeling. The feeling when a student comes back and remembers how cool it was learning about the Aztecs or Benjamin Franklin. The feeling when a student with a puzzled look on their face asks a great question, and you reply with a question, then the look on their face when the question makes them see the answer, and maybe beyond. The feeling when a student tells you they did “better than the smart kids” on a test in high school because of what they learned in your class. Or looking at your students, all engaged in what they are doing. Or when a student tells you that they never realize how many cool things happened here in New Mexico. My father, also a teacher, called this feeling a “physic paychecks.” I call it the reason teachers keep coming back year after year after year.

Holloween as an Alien at Taylor Middle
School, late 1970s or early 1980s.


Me at Jefferson Middle School,
late 1980s early 1990s.

Starting a New School Year

Back to School for 2007-2008 School Year

I'm back at school, and after the first week of being with children, I am happy to be starting my thirty-second and one-half year of teaching. Of course the first week is our honeymoon period. Ever student is on their best behavior. I'm still in their good graces and haven't asked them to do too much, yet. The smiles on my student's face makes every day I'm there worth the hard work it takes to do my job. We also have many new and young teachers on our staff. There is a lot of very positive energy and enthusiasm which I know will really help my school.

Every new school year is a new start with new hope. I even know that students who were difficult to work with last year, can be very different in the next. I'm often asked why I don't retire, well in what other profession can I begin a new each August, and have as much love in my life as I do with teaching. What other profession can I know that I have made a difference in some way for at least some of the people I've worked with. Also, in most other professions there are always “down times” that can be boring. There is never a boring minute in teaching.

I had a wonderful conversation with a girl in my advisory class about the death of Dulce and that of her first dog. The empathy of some 12 year old girls has delighted me over the years. Twelve year old girls often reinforce my belief that we have past lives and old or young souls. I've know too many twelve year old girls that had the grace, wisdom and presence that can only go with an old soul.

I'm still mourning the loss of Dulce, my cat that lived over twenty years. I miss waking up and finding her curled around my head on my pillow. I miss our twice daily ritual of the past 20 plus years of my stroking her soft back as she eats. I miss having her curl up in my lap, and the worst is not seeing her in the window watching and waiting for me to come home from school each day. I haven't stopped missing Tesuque, my other cat who died about one and one-half years ago. Or Polly, but the year that has passed helps. Dulce's death is so close by, and she was with me for so very long.

It is unfortunate to have had all our cats be about the same age because the loss of so many so close to each other has been devastating to us. We still have Quatro and Cassy, and we are giving them all our love. The death of their fellow cats has hit them in many aspects. They were always on the lower rung of the kitty social ladder. They were always the cats that weren't into cuddling. Quatro has always been on the edge between feral and tame, yet lately he is crawling into my lap more often. Of course never for very long, but I feel honored that he comes in the first place.

To my fellow teachers beginning school soon, remember that the love and caring you give your students will repay you time and time again. Start each year viewing every student, even those you already know too well, as perfect children. They will be more responsive to you if you do. Remind them everyday just how glad you are to be there, how much you love your subject and how much your job means to you. Show passion for your work, and tell them something unusual about your subject. Smile, smile, smile until your face knows nothing but smiling. Take the time to say something nice to as many students as you can. Thank your students for their good behavior from the first minute, and always try to be positive. Work hard to learn their names by their faces, not by where they sit, as soon as possible. I promise you this is the best way to start a new school year.