Slice of Life Challenge #23: Day 8/31: Season of Change

 For the month of March, I am writing and posting a slice of my life, hosted by Two Writing Teachers. 

Slice of Life Challenge #23: Day 8/31: 

Season of Change

As I sliced about yesterday, I proctored the ACT exam for a large chunk of the school day. Prior to testing our staff was provided with strict instructions while proctoring:

• Wear soft-soled shoes
• No drinks or food in the testing room
• No lesson planning
• No reading a book
• No correcting
• No cell phones

Of course students could not have their cell phones or any kind of a device that could transmit information. They could not read a book when they were finished testing. They could not even use their own scrap paper. All of the ACT was on their Chromebook.

I read the testing instructions verbatim. Students quietly followed directions. They took the test. Since the juniors were the only students in the building, school was eerily quiet. 

Aside from proctoring the test, there were few interruptions. Unlike a normal teaching session, I did not have to stop class multiple times to ask a student to put away their phone. No email notifications chimed. It was mostly silent. Most kids were on task taking the ACT. 

In the forced quiet time yesterday, I reflected back to my first year as a full-time teacher. I was a middle school Language Arts teacher. That was nearly twenty-three years ago. The more I thought about my first year, the more I couldn't believe how we did school back then. 

Back then, I didn't have a cell phone. There was not even a landline telephone in every classroom, including mine.  There was a telephone across the hall in the teacher lounge and in a few colleague's classrooms. We only had fire and tornado drills - intruder and ALICE drills were not a thing yet. 

Most information was communicated through announcements on the loud speakers. When you needed to get in contact with the office, you used the intercom system (and everyone in the class heard). My first year of teaching was the first year that staff email was required in my district, but many of my colleagues were hesitant to use it. Information for staff was often posted on a bulletin board, fastened with a tack in the teacher work room. We also frequently had handouts printed off and placed in our mailbox or taped on the table in the staff lounge. Short meetings after school were often scheduled to discuss upcoming important information - there were no email reminders so I had to take copious notes! 

There was no digital method to take attendance. We took attendance on paper/pencil. I also kept records in a hard cover red notebook. The daily first hour and eighth hour attendance was put on a clip outside of the doorway. Student helpers collected attendance slips from all of the classrooms and delivered them to the office. 

We did not have Smart boards or even dry erase boards. I mainly used my chalkboard and my overhead projector. Due to a slim building budget, we had to ask for a transparency sheet one at a time. 

Discipline was punitive. We had a school-wide points system (an honor level and reward system) that was unfair to many kids. They received infractions for forgetting a pencil or chewing gum. I am horrified to admit that I was proud of my quiet classes, even if my students weren't engaged. There was little emphasis on building positive connections and getting to know students.

School is so different now. Technology has played a huge role in this. 

What has changed since you first started teaching?