Phillip Done - The Art of Teaching Children: All I Learned from a Lifetime in the Classroom

You will smile the entire time you read this book. The reflections are priceless. Harry K. Wong, author of The First Days of School

The Art of Teaching Children

Phillip Done

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.

Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts, since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

J OHN S TEINBECK

O ne, two, three, four, five I continued counting on my fingers. When I stopped at thirty-three, I shook my head. It cant be that long. Disbelieving my own fingers, I recounted them. Then my hand rose to my forehead and rubbed it. Yep, its thirty-three. I had just counted the number of years Id taught children.

Teaching plays tricks with time. As the school years come and go, you dont realize that youre getting any older. Your students are always the same age. Their parents are always the same age too. The book characters you read about to your kids never age either. And then one day, as happened to me not too long ago, time holds its mirror in front of you when one of your third graders announces, You taught my mom!

I never thought about getting oldprobably because my world was always young. Where did the time go? Children who once played soccer at recess are playing on high school teams now. Boys and girls who sang their hearts out during music time are performing in the high school musical. Kids who could barely write a sentence are writing essays to get into college.

I remember the very first lesson I gave when I was a student teacher. I was pretty nervous, even though Id practiced the night before in front of the bathroom mirror. I can recall my first interview for a teaching position, wearing my dads tie and trying to act confident while answering questions such as Whats your teaching philosophy? when I really didnt have a clue. Or a philosophy. I can also recall the day I was offered my first teaching job: a third-grade class in Sunnyvale, Californiamy hometown. The pay was $19,300 a year. I thought I was rich. The advice I got from a colleague at my new school was: Dont worry. The first twenty years are the hardest. And I remember my first year of teaching, tiptoeing at night into the classroom next to mine and reading Mrs. Gonzaless plan book to see what she was teaching that week. Mrs. Gonzales had been teaching forever. She claimed to have taught Abraham Lincoln.

Over time, I didnt need to sneak into Mrs. Gonzaless classroom anymore. I learned my craft. For the past thirty-three years, I have taught in public and private schools in the United States and internationally. Ive coached teachers on different continents, taught adults, and was even an on-set teacher for child actors in television and film. Ive had good teaching years, bad ones, and years I wanted to quit. All in all, it has been a rich and rewarding career. For most of it, I taught grades three and fourmy sweet spot. Third and fourth graders can do so much more than the little ones, arent as sassy as the older kids, and they still love their teacher. As the years passed by, I attended graduations and weddings and baby showers of students I had in elementary school. I guess Ive come to the place where I can say that I taught Lincoln too.

I always wanted to be a teacherever since I was in second grade with Miss Greco. I used to bring home my papers from her class and trace over them so that I would have worksheets for playing school. I loved to play school. I always insisted on being the teacher and would make my younger brother be my student. Sometimes Id get the whole neighborhood gang to play school too. Id set up a classroom in my garage and pass out my worksheets. But they didnt like this. Once, they all mutinied and walked out.

I have come to the conclusion that playing school as a child is one thing that all grade school teachers have in common. One afternoon when I was in the staff room at lunch, I asked my colleagues how many of them played school when they were kids. They chuckled and nodded and raised their hands. Then I asked, And how many of you insisted on being the teacher? All hands went up again. In my Back to School Night talks, I used to ask the parents if their children liked to play school. To those who raised their hands, Id smile and say, Your child is going to be a teacher.

This year is an important one for me. I have just finished my last year in the classroom. After thirty-three years, I have decided to retire. Its time. I am happy to report that I am retiring while I still love my work. I never wanted to be one of those teachers who holds on long after theyve lost their love for it.

When I packed up my classroom for the last time, I had thirty-three lesson planners, thirty-three class lists, and thirty-three years of paint on my smock. I had sixty-six class photos toothirty-three with me fake smiling in the back row while saying Stand still between my teeth, and the other thirty-three with several pairs of bunny ears above my head because the photographer had just said, Okay. Now, lets take a silly one. I also had all of my own individual school portraits from my first year of teaching to my last. Looking through them felt like I was seeing one of those time-lapse videos you find online where people who take snapshots of themselves for years become older before your eyes. As I thumbed through the images, I watched my hair get thinner, my wrinkles deeper, and my ties get narrower, then wider, then narrower again. I laughed at my most current photo. My new eyeglasses were exactly the same style as the ones I wore in my first school picture in the 80s.

I am looking forward to retirement. Im looking forward to having more than ten minutes to eat lunch. Im happy about being able to use the bathroom when I want to and not having to hold it till recess. Ill enjoy not having to take the 7 a.m. dentist appointment and make up a years worth of doctor visits during my summer break. Im looking forward to going to the dry cleaner without pointing out the glue and marker on my clothes. Itll be nice to watch TV without a stack of papers on my lap. I will like sleeping in. Ill admitI wont miss the paperwork and the politics. I wont miss the grading, report writing, or all the meetings either. I know Ill miss the kids.

Now that Im retired, I wonder if my teacher muscle memory will kick in, and Ill find myself doing certain things just because Ive done them for so long. I wonder if, come August, Ill be itching to buy school supplies, and if, around Halloween, Ill be hankering to carve a pumpkin. Im curious if Ill still collect cottage cheese containers and egg cartons for class projects. I wonder if, when I drive by a group of students walking on a field trip, my first instinct will be to check that the stragglers in back arent too far behind. And if I see a new childrens book in a store, will I have the urge to read it aloud to a group of kids?

My teacher friends at school gave me a nice send-off. One colleague got me a T-shirt that said Schools OutForever! Another bought me a mug that read Retired TeacherEvery Child Left Behind. A third wrote in her card: You realize that you can never really get out of here. You know too much. And one of my friends gave me three bottles of wine, each with a tag. The first said To enjoy when we have to go back to school, and you dont. The second: To have while were holding conferences, and youre not. And tied on the third: To drink when you are home, and were still in the staff meeting.