After a month of enjoying my last summer as a public school teacher, I think I'm finally ready to think of myself of as a private educator. It feels good, and it feels scary all at the same time, every day, but I know it's the right thing for me right now.

I must admit I've become a statistic in the education field; I'm one of those teachers who left before their fifth year in the classroom. I certainly started off as bright-eyed as most rookie teachers, and I'm proud to still claim that fire to educate that I had when I was training. I can still remember the annoyance I felt toward many of the future teachers I trained with, because I could tell they were in it for the salary and the summers, not for any passion for knowledge. I later encountered their veteran counterparts in the high school where I ended my public teaching. More on that in a moment.

I had the serendipitous privilege of being--or becoming--the newcomer specialist at the high school level in my large school district. What's a newcomer? My newcomer students were immigrants who tested below an English comprehension level that can function in a mainstream classroom. Thus I was assigned the task to take them into my nest of foundational English and put them through a crash course in academic language, plus all the basic vocabulary and idioms that can be piled on along the way. Some learned fast (mostly because they wanted to), and a few seemed to resist English like rocks; it always depends on the student's desire to BE a student. I'll be filling many of my future posts with discussions on ESL and newcomers, so I'll move on to the next subject.

I was surprised that the single-most annoying thing about teaching in public school was the teachers, not the kids or the endless list of to-do's. First let me say that I worked with many awesome educators who do fit that stereotype of friendliness and colleaguial respect I remembered from my school days. I found many exceptions and anomalies to this reasonable expectation of professionalism in the world's most important field; sadly, there are many jerks with teaching creds, and they are found in dozens at the high school level. It might well be universal, since high schoolers are so tough to teach and tolerate for all the obvious reasons. Still! I do wish I had a dime for every time a teacher passed me in the halls last year without so much as a sidelong glance of acknowledgement. when no one else was in the hallway near us. Pathetic. And it was all across the faculty, even a couple of the "vice" principals.

Hard to believe and impossible to tolerate. I had my share of discomfort with some of the juvenile delinquents at the school, but I expect less from children than I do from educators who are supposed to apply the higher ideals I was taught as a new teacher. If you can't be idealistic about the behavior of public teachers, then there's no reason to aim high at all.

Certainly more on this topic in the future as well!

What I'm really excited about and focused on in the aftermath is a new beginning as Mr. C. The first and constant point of business is The Grammar Wheel. It's an invention that I consider my special opportunity in this life from our maker. I know it is a learning tool that will likely outlive me and become the legacy of my existence, or perhaps the cornerstone of a many more epiphanies I'll be blessed to enjoy in the years to come. To me, the Wheel is truly a miracle, and I have only to polish it and show it to the world while I continue teaching on my own terms in a global classroom.

Mr. C! ESL, English, Spanish Instruction