I'm almost fully recovered from Freddie the Frog and more good news came yesterday! I received a surprise email about my Polaroid cameras, another special teacher tool. Just waiting for some verification before I draft it. Until then, here are some more important teacher tool stories.
These don't look like much, but they were important teacher tools for me!
I was an inner city teacher at a school that was year round, which means we roved or moved from room to room, which means, not one teacher had their own classroom. Each teacher had a base room with 3 storage closets, if it was your year to rove, you had one closet per room. Three teachers shared two classroom, not all at once, although that did happen one year. If it sounds confusing, it's because it is!
Anyways, depending on which year round schedule your school followed, you could move every three weeks, six weeks or three times a year. So I had an "essential" teacher box that I stored in my car, in case I was stuck bare boned with nothing. For example, many times you'd return to find your room a vandalized mess!
Basically "my essential" teacher box was a file box with a ream of third grade paper, 32 journals, 32 pencils, erasers, crayons, chalk, referrals, a couple pens and these two items, my trusty service bell and receipt spike that held all my documented student office referrals for the week or month.
I didn't think anyone would order these, but they were vintage, so I listed them!
To my surprise, someone did and thought they were cool!
Note from Buyer
So I wrote her this:
Invoice: www.etsy.com/your/orders/63116904
Thanks for the order! Glad you think they are cool too! If there is a story behind your purchase, I'd love to know it! Please email it back to me, when you have time! Thanks in advance. If not, no problem, your item will be shipped out on Friday! Thanks again!
Then she wrote me back!
I kept well documented anecdotal records of my students and was known for helping many students cut down their time in the office and turn a new leaf, in many cases even through the next grades. Also, I was the "go to" teacher when another teacher needed a break from one of their students.
Side Notes: I loved being a teacher and my love for teaching carried me through many many years of jumping hurdle after hurdle, difficult decisions about what is good for one student vs. the class, even as a school community as a whole, trying to better ways for teachers and students within an ever changing yet rigid institution and teaching with basically nothing.
I've had an amazing intriguing conflicted stressful life as a teacher. Just imagine, as a first year teacher, I had 26 Spanish readers and 4 English readers with only 6 books!!!! 4 Science books in Spanish and 2 Science books in English, no Reading or Math books or any other books for that matter.
Nor, was I a certified bilingual teacher, nor do I speak Spanish, but spent over eight years teaching predominately Spanish speaking students. Out of all my years, I've had only one class that had the same 30 students from the beginning to the end of the year.
It's hard to imagine, but as a third grade teacher, I've had students with criminal records, student born crack babies, at least one student a year from the school got shot, many drive by drills, I never found any guns or drugs, but I did find bullets and confiscated a shank, pagers and cell phones, I had one student who had never been enrolled in school until mid year third grade and many students who didn't know how to read, let alone know the alphabet in either English or their home language or count to hundred or name the colors in their crayon box and the list goes on and on. I have many stories, but that would be a whole other blog.
What I learned:
1. It never occurred to me that requesting "a story behind the purchase" would be considered odd or even none of my business. Nor should I take it personally when I don't get one, especially from something I'm whole heatedly attached to or simply just curious about. I will keep it in mind now. I'll just keep focused on the ones I do get and remain in gratitude for them!
2. Letting go of Freddie brought back many good memories I have from teaching and it seems these two teaching tools brought mainly the not so pleasant ones!
3. Another layer of the onion has been peeled back! My hoarding is not only connected to my childhood memories, all kinds of other memories and who knows what else, but it is connected to my years of teaching memories and/or trauma drama.
Even though I've donated a three car garage chuck full to the ceiling of all different kinds of boxed teaching styles: theme teaching, cooperative learning, Individual Educational Programs, center based teaching, my own sets of bilingual books, teacher lesson plans, and resource books (3 tall filing cabinets) from my first eight years of teaching and core bilingual worksheets, notes homes, etc. I had translated and created myself, practically a complete science laboratory, all types of realia for ELD, show and tell and demonstrations, and on and on. I still have more than I thought from those days!
4. Focus on breathing, letting go, forgiveness (of myself and whatever it is I'm letting go), gratitude and acknowledge that life is not always just and move on! Keep a balance between staying busy and intermittent quiet times to help process my feelings and memories.
Parting Thoughts: What am I thankful for today? Even though everything I had in my three car garage would have sold well on etsy, I'm thankful I don't have it! That would take years and years of etsying! Even though I'd love to get a story from every order, if I did, I wouldn't be able to process it all and I'd probably quit! I am thankful for all the students I've had because everyone of them taught me so much! I am thankful it stopped raining over here and it was sunny today and I was around to watch the finches play in the Hibiscus tree.
Thank you for taking part in my HoarderRehab!
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