For the third time in my combined total of merely 4 ½ years of teaching, I have resigned. I’m sure this doesn’t come as a shock to many considering I had decided to take the year off to stay home with Owen, and this past year hasn’t exactly turned out quite the way I planned. The “plan” was for my mom to move here to Tucson sometime during my year off, and then she would be Owen’s caregiver when I returned to teaching. Instead, I found myself dealing with a bizarre medical mystery which required us to fly her out here last minute to help out with Owen while I attended numerous (and I mean NUMEROUS) different appointments and tests. We thought she might be here a few weeks, but instead my condition kept her out here for over three months. Throughout those three months, she was working with a realtor and ended up putting offers on three different condos adjacent to our neighborhood. Her offer for the third condo was actually accepted. At that point it was decided that my 89-year old grandmother would make the move out here to live with her, since the two of them have been living together in Kansas for about 10 years. Well, long story short (or at least less long), my grandma ended up having a heart attack, Mom put a stop-payment on her earnest money check for the condo, she rushed back to Kansas on yet another ridiculously expensive last-minute flight, and has been there ever since. My grandma went straight from her hospital stay into an assisted-living facility there in Wichita. She has been continually fighting a bad infection off and on which quarantines her to her room, so needless to say it has been a very rough transition. Of course my mom feels obligated to be with her in Kansas right now, so any plans for her to move to Tucson have been indefinitely put on hold.
Whew! My intention for this blog post truly wasn’t to be about my personal situation, but rather how I felt about the job I left. Well, it’s time I lay it all out there. Here’s how I really and truly felt: I loved it. I loved the students, their families, the staff and my principal. I loved my classroom that I had worked so hard to set up just perfectly. I loved the school community, which truly felt like one big family with all of us “in it together.” Many of the staff members have become my close friends. They’re people that Justin and I enjoy socializing with, and even consider them our families away from home. I loved teaching first grade, and had the amazing opportunity to be pregnant at the same time as my grade-level colleague. That same colleague is someone I consider one of my best friends here in Tucson, and I truly adore her whole family. Working with her was like working with a sister. She made the silliest little things about work so much fun. If there is one thing I miss the most about each day, it’s sharing lunches with her. Speaking of lunches, I loved my 40 minute lunch! I had never had that amount of time to eat before in my teaching career. Honestly, I loved my whole daily schedule! I loved the resources available to me, including the classroom technology, curriculum materials, supplies and especially the resources provided by other school professionals. I know it seems like I’ve done a little “bait and switch” by saying I’m going to put it all out there only to gush on how much I loved my job, but I do have an angle. Believe it or not, this post was not intended to be about me.
Whenever I’d explain to my out-of-state family and friends that I worked in a renowned school district here in Tucson, no one could really understand how it made sense. That district has an overall low socioeconomic population of students, and most can understand the challenges that come along with that. Yet, this district has extremely high standards for its students as well as its educators, and overall they are very successful in achieving those high standards. This comes from a cohesiveness across the district in the way their teachers teach and the type of expectations they set for all students. Whether in a preschool classroom or high school chemistry, a principal or district administrator can walk in and expect to see the same kind of teaching taking place. The content may be different, but the “Essential Elements of Instruction” are the same. This is what makes the Flowing Wells School District here in Tucson so successful. I know my educator friends from across the country are all familiar with the “Teacher Bible” which is the required reading for all education undergraduates and first-year teachers: Harry Wong’s The First Days of School. Well, as a testament to Flowing Wells awesomeness, I can tell you that it is acknowledged in that book 4 different times. Trust me, I know. As a perpetual “first year” teacher, I now own four copies.
Tucson is home to the University of Arizona. While I didn’t attend U of A, I’ve gotten the impression that Flowing Wells is THE school district in Tucson where all education majors hope to teach once they graduate. One of my friends who teaches in a different school district said, “Flowing Wells is hard to get into, but once you’re in, you’re IN!” Well, I managed to get “in.” I truly lucked out when after only 6 days of subbing for the district, Homer Davis Elementary needed to hire a first grade teacher in the middle of the school year. Little did I know when I accepted the position, though, all that would be required of me. I thought the district job application, the interview process and the requirements for my Arizona teaching license were grueling enough! I wasn’t aware that I’d have to take a crash course on their Essential Elements of Instruction only to be assigned a mentor and district coach who, in addition to the school principal, would be observing my teaching to make sure I was putting all that EEI into place. The thing with Flowing Wells is they don’t care whether you’ve had zero years of teaching experience or 100 years of teaching experience, they have the exact same requirements for all of their new teachers no matter what. To give an idea of just how serious they are about it, I had just ONE final EEI day left after attending all of the others, and that just so happened to be the day I went into labor. I was dressed and ready to go, even though my water had broken. I was actually calling the EEI instructor asking what time I’d need to be there for the final test, and then asking the nurse at the hospital if I could make it there by 11 a.m. I had asked weeks earlier if I could take the test in advance “just in case” I ended up having the baby before then, but I was told, “Oh don’t worry! If you can’t make it that day, you’ll just make it up next year.” Even as I was on the phone saying my water may have broken, I was told again, “If you can’t make it by 11 a.m., you can make it up next year!”
Yes, my going-into-labor story makes Flowing Wells “Essential Elements of Instruction” program sound a little bit ridiculous, but it’s “ridiculousness” is also what makes it effective. You’ve got to understand that this is actually really hard for me to admit as a perpetual first-year teacher. I mean, I’m really really REALLY sick of being a perpetual “first year” teacher! However, even so I still cannot deny how great it is that every staff member across the school district from preschool to high school shares the same set of expectations. That’s pretty awesome. The EEI teaching methods are good, too. I mean...really and truly effective. I feel like every one of Flowing Wells teachers could hop into some other school district and wow everyone with the way they teach. These teachers are not only amazing at what they do, but they work incredibly hard. They are 110% devoted to their jobs. Not only are they fully committed to every aspect of effective teaching, but they do everything that it takes to help improve their students’ personal lives, many of which could use some major improvements. This was the third school that I taught at, in a third state, that sent home Friday food bags for kids who may potentially go hungry over the weekends. Hunger is just one of the many needs for this student population. Given our proximity to the border, students would leave unexpectedly, and often it was suspected that they were deported. This is very challenging for teachers who invest so much of their energy, not to mention their heart and souls, into students who often disappear with no warning. I lost 13 students from my original class list last year. Thirteen. Yet, I was held accountable for students’ test scores who were only in my classroom for a brief portion of the school year.
I don’t need to dwell on all the obvious details to describe how hard these Flowing Wells teachers have to work. I think the important thing to dwell on is that they WANT to work hard for their students. They know that those hours of the school day are most likely the best hours of those kids’ lives, and they do whatever it takes to make the most of that time. These teachers know that by setting high expectations for their students, they are providing them a legitimate chance at success in life. A chance that may seem very slim based on their upbringing. Somehow in the midst of all this hard work, though, this school manages to have FUN! School assemblies, spirit weeks, holidays, Love of Reading Week, evening activities...they’re all truly a joy to behold! There is nothing “obligatory” about these special events; everyone gets so into them! I had a you’re-not-in-Kansas-anymore moment when I first attended Water Play Day. Picture the entire school’s worth of students outside in their swimsuits hitting beach balls over volleyball nets, sliding across a slippy-slide made from a giant tarp, running around in the sprinklers...palm trees and sunshine overhead. Yes, that may be only one day out of the entire school year, but the spirit of it remains throughout.
I suspect at this point people are wondering how this school is truly different from the others where I taught in Kansas and Washington. Well, the truth is it’s actually very similar. Being a teacher in those schools was a lot like being a teacher for Flowing Wells, except in Flowing Wells I had to work even harder...only to get paid substantially less. Yup, there’s the big juicy angle you all have been waiting for. It’s no secret that teachers don’t make much money, but teachers here REALLY don’t make much! Arizona is one of the lower-paying states, Tucson is one of the lower-paying cities, and Flowing Wells is the lowest-paying public school district in Tucson. That’s the part which no one could really understand it when I told them I worked for a renowned school district. How could a school district be “renowned” if it pays the lowest? Well, remember what I said about U of A grads all coveting a job at Flowing Wells? Teachers are willing to get paid less if that means they’ll be in a better work environment. I can tell you that the massive Tucson Unified School District does not have the best reputation for “job satisfaction,” but Flowing Wells most certainly does.
I’m not an Arizona legislator whose job it is to allocate funds to education, so I certainly don’t have the knowledge or experience to throw around criticism. I can, however, tell you something in the system isn’t right when the hardest, most dedicated teachers are getting paid the least in order to have the “best” jobs. I cannot commend Flowing Wells employees enough for doing all that they do despite getting paid what they do. This isn’t meant to be a personal complaint of mine. I realize I am extremely fortunate to be in a position to where I can extend my time as a stay-at-home mom. Even though it would be hard for us to justify paying full-time childcare for me to return to work, I still tell my friends I feel like I “gave up gold” by resigning from this teaching position. The riches of the teaching profession are many, even if they’re not monetary.
Keep doing your thing, Dragons. I hope to be back someday. In the meantime, though, you can still expect to see my face around Homer Davis from time to time :-)
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