Tuesday, October 08, 2013

I Was Just Reminded . . .

. . . of something that I wish I'd thought of a month ago.  In the fall of 1963, 50 years ago, I walked into a classroom on the second floor of Corsicana High School and began my teaching career.  I taught four sections of junior English and had to keep a study hall.  Do they still have study hall?  It was a great experience in most ways, and I remember the students from my two years in Corsicana very well.  Some of them are on Facebook, so I even get to keep up with them a little bit.  I really enjoyed those classes, and I might still be teaching high school if it weren't for all the little things I didn't particularly like, which were all the little additional duties besides the teaching part.  I went to grad school one summer and then got a teaching assistantship at North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas.  And that was the end of my high school teaching career.  It was short but sweet.

4 comments:

Rick Robinson said...

You started teaching high school the Fall after I graduated from high school.

Deb said...

The high school where I work has a 30-minute Study Skills period just before lunch. Students who are maintaining a C or above in their classes can use the time to do homework or work on projects. Students who have Ds or Fs in a subject are assigned "Intervention" with a teacher in the subject(s) they are failing. It's all a bit chaotic, but our school's reading scores have increased significantly since this program was implemented.

And, yes, most of the teachers I know love teaching but hate, hate, hate the massive amount of paperwork associated with it.

Anonymous said...

I was starting my junior year in high school then. Had I been in Mexia rather than Brooklyn I could have had you as a teacher!

Every time one of these stories comes up - testing and the like - Jackie (like Diane Kelley and so many others) gives thanks she is retired and out of it.

Jeff

George said...

My first teaching experience was in a Junior High School (they didn't call them Middle Schools back then). Like you I taught Eight Grade and Ninth Grade English. It was the most draining job I've ever had (doing everything for the First Time). Tons of correcting! But, this is where I really learned how to Teach.