How to avoid a cringe moment like this….

Something horrifying happened to me in the classroom…

And I’m finally ready to talk about it.

It was my first time teaching in a Title 1 school, and I wanted more than anything to get these students to love math, and fall in love with learning.

I only had a few weeks to prepare for the school year, and I spend that time formulating algebra dances, songs, raps, and anything I felt could light their fire. I asked the principal when I could go into my classroom, and he said it wasn’t ready yet. A few days before school started they showed me my classroom. It was filled with literal trash. I’m talking sandwiches, banana peels, ungraded assignments, and heaps of things that smelled. It was terrible. The worst part, we had mandatory meetings every day until school started.

So I did the best I could and cleaned 8-10 large trash bags worth of stuff off the shelves every moment I had until the first day of school.

The first few days of class were going well, and procedures were being learned. After school I worked on removing stains, and scrubbing surfaces to get rid of the mold smell. After a week I moved to what I felt would be a fun activity – a kinesthetic math activity.

Ya’ll. It flopped. It flopped worse than anything I had ever experienced in my life. It started going well, but while the students were on their feet, one opened a cupboard door. Due to the limited amount of time, I hadn’t even looked in those cupboards yet. In the longest moment of my life, a student pulled out an XXL-stained pair of women’s underwear as a mountain of food and soiled clothing fell out onto the floor. You can imagine the screams that erupted. The accusations. The Jokes. The horror.

It was incredibly embarrassing. The horrification was real. All sense of order went out the window.

Now, I share this to give you insights into what many of our teachers experience.

Here’s what I gained from the experience.

• Teachers can’t focus on what matters when they are focusing on the next day’s survival.
• Even the best-laid plans can fail. Teachers need a daily backup that’s provided for them, ready to go.
• The curriculum needs to be well designed so that the teacher can complete all prep in their 45-minute planning period.
• Always check the cupboards

But it shouldn’t be the teacher’s responsibility to shell out of their own pocket for random, unaligned Teacher Pay Teacher resources. They need a comprehensive, well-prepared, aligned curriculum that is vetted, versatile, and ready for however and whenever they need it.