Stephanie Jankowski - Schooled: A Love Letter to the Exhausting, Infuriating, Occasionally Excruciating Yet Somehow Completely Wonderful Profession of Teaching

schooled

A Love Letter to
the Exhausting, Infuriating,
Occasionally Excruciating
Yet Somehow Completely Wonderful
Profession of Teaching

Stephanie jankowski

Founder of When Crazy Meets Exhaustion

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For my VHS family

The truth is, I never planned on writing this book. Sure, publishing my word babies has always been a pipe dream, a bucket list item, but so has being invited to Tina Feys house for drinks, so theres that. Without getting all sappy, I believe this book picked me. Whats weird is thats exactly how I feel about teaching: The profession picked me, not the other way around.

Schooled is the marriage of kismet and two decades steeped in education.

I started teaching straight out of college, which meant I was 22 years old while many of my students were 18. And yes, my first year was the cluster youre imagining. I punctuated nearly every school day with a good cry on the way home. But I stuck it out in the Pennsylvania public school system, where I worked as a high school English teacher, SAT preparation instructor and writing tutor before transitioning to the world of online learning, which is where Ive been for the last ten years. Teaching remotely has given me opportunities I dont know I wouldve otherwise had, most notably, being able to stay home with my kids. But this is a book about education, so lets focus, people. Virtual networking opened doors for me to write for educational websites, such as We Are Teachers, various colleges and universities and ed-tech companies. Somewhere in there I started a blog, When Crazy Meets Exhaustion, which is probably blocked from your workplace because of the inadvertent inclusion of the word sex in its URL. Ooopsie. The blog birthed a Facebook page where today, more than 60,000 pals and educators laugh and learn, two things I think belong together.

Look, I know theres a lot wrong in our schools today, and many of us have been tempted to throw up deuces and run away. But ohmygoodness, theres also so much about teaching thats right and good and amazing. The very soul of our profession is helping kids believe in themselves; is there a better feeling than watching a child succeed? Dear educators, the work we do matters. It matters. I know it doesnt always feel that way, but I promise you, teachers make an important difference. Bump into a former student at a baseball game or at the grocery store and watch her face light up when she sees you. Reread the thank-you notes you keep in the treasure box that is your bottom desk drawer. Remember the time that graduate came back to school just to tell you how much your class prepared him for college. I get it, you guys. Teaching is the best and worst profession all wrapped up in a job that resembles a lifestyle more than a career choice, and if you feel that in your bones, then you are my people.

All teachers have enough material to fill their own book. Their pages, much like mine, would be wrought with stories of the otherworldly joy, unfathomable anguish and the laugh-til-you-pee funnies our profession doles out in spades. This book is dedicated to those teachers and the hard stuff we do every damn day.

Thank you for reading.

xo,

Until theres a college course that throws us into a sweltering classroom with 30 students, enough materials for half of them and no time to pee, no one will truly be prepared to enter the profession of teaching.

Hall Duty, 2004.

Because my colleague had to cover another class, I was canvassing the halls solo that day. It was eerily quiet, the usual suspects nowhere to be found. Id grown accustomed to multiple trips around the buildingfront to back, up and down the stepsand learned that changing into comfortable sneakers was a necessity. Heels stashed under my desk back in the classroom, I was business on top and Nike runners on the bottom as I walked the halls of our high school that day.

In retrospect, it made sense: a young-looking female, tennis shoes, hair pulled back in a low ponytail. I shouldve seen it coming.

Rather, I shouldve seen her coming.

Passing the copy center, I continued down the long empty corridor, removed from the steady lineup of classroom doors.

As I rounded the corner leading to the gyms back entrance, the most remote part of the building, I heard a quick shuffling behind me. She grabbed me by the arm just above the elbow, spinning me around to face her. Stunned, I couldnt find words; there was no time. Her hot breath flooded my face, our noses mere inches apart. What do you think youre doing? Get back to class!

Sighing loudly, I rolled my eyes. Yeah, hi. Barbara? Weve been through this. I work here. Im a first-year teacher.

This was the eleventeenth time our school nurse had intercepted me in the hall with accusations of cutting class. Id run out of fucks somewhere around our third confrontation.

Barbara released her death grip and took a few steps back, studying me. Her eyes widened in surprised amusement to find me on the receiving end of her mistake once again. I just keep thinking youre one of the students! I fought the urge to roundhouse her. This level of stupidity was ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that she put her hands on meagain. Shes lucky I wasnt one of the students, because Id seen enough of them throw down with one another in those very hallways and one even try to fight our principal. Either our nurse was unaware of her handsy repercussions or she just didnt care. I was leaning toward the latter.

So many bizarre and blatantly inappropriate things happened during my first year of teaching, most of them simply because I was a young woman. Beginning a career at the age of 22 is a daunting task for anyone, but when your subordinates are only a couple years younger, and when those subordinates are actually juniors and seniors in your English class, situation and circumstance are complicated in a way I never learned about in college.