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The Purple Marking Pen

Thoughts from the Grammarian About Whom Your Mother Warned You

Improv...teacher style

I have no idea what triggered the thought, but this morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I realized I might not have enough textbooks for all my students. It didn't send me into a panic, because I knew there would be some sort of solution out there, but it certainly was a nice motivator for me to go out to the school early this morning and start moving all the books out of storage.

My concern quickly came to fruition: I am around five books short of what I need in order to have enough books for all my students, a classroom set for those who don't come to class with the proper material, and books for the para-educators who will be in my room. When the new books were purchased last summer, I know the powers-that-be looked at the projected numbers based on last year's freshmen class. They were a large class for our district, around 86 students or so. We received 88 textbooks last year, and never had a problem with there not being enough textbooks for all students. From the projected numbers at the end of the last school term, it appeared that I would have that same number of students.

Flash forward to this school year, and because I have four students repeating their entire year of sophomore English and six students entirely new to the district, I am short on textbooks. From my calculations, we didn't receive back seven textbooks at the end of the last school year. In the past, I most likely would have panicked, but thanks to the need for local assessments, I'll have a few days where I won't have students in class. In addition, I have some supplemental activities I can use in a pinch. This will allow the necessary books to be ordered and delivered, as well as reinforce some vocabulary skills, but the entire situation has made me appreciative of the fact I work in a district where I have this privilege.

I sincerely don't know how teachers in bigger schools with less money do it. My hat goes off to those teachers because they are some of the real teacher-heroes out there. I know I have it good, and this isn't a whining post. It's merely a reflection on the state of schools today and the dividing line between those who have and those who have not in education. It makes me wonder about where money is sometimes invested in schools and school districts. It seems that the longer No Child Left Behind bears down on us, the more the schools already suffering, suffer more.

One of the things we were asked to focus on this year is giving students an opportunity to experience things they might not have experienced before or would have never had the opportunity to experience. How are these other schools giving these students those opportunities when teachers can't even provide their students with materials their peers elsewhere in the country use?

But, I digress. I'm almost ready for the year to start, and I look forward to the challenges and successes which lie ahead, textbooks or not.
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Posted: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 5:55 PM by the_frumious_snark
Comments

MysteryTeacher said:

You go girl.  I have been through this where kids have to share books.  Not fun especially when they have homework.  Hope you get the parents to complain at the board meetings.

# August 13, 2008 8:50 PM

A Student of Teaching said:

One of the reasons I love theater and wish to teach it is because so many of its skills are applicable

# August 14, 2008 11:01 AM

A Student of Teaching said:

One of the reasons I love theater and wish to teach it is because so many of its skills are applicable

# August 1, 2010 9:44 AM
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