New Job: Teaching English at Hogwarts!! FINALLY!!

 It's one of those things when the employer has offered me the position, I have accepted the position, but now I have to pass the drug test and the background check. I can honestly say there should be (and will not be) any issues with these two checks. Since I don't do drugs and will be laying off the poppyseed lemon bagels for a few days, I should not have anything pop on a drug screen.  What I do think is hilarious, is that every time I am offered a teaching position the new school or district wants to do yet another background check.  Maybe since the last time I was employed by a school (September 2021) I've robbed banks, murdered people, left myself open to being recruited as a mule for drugs, you just never know.  I would say "it could happen" but no, it can't happen.  Not with me anyway.  I'll pass the background check. 

    The new place is not a school, per se. I won't go into many details because I never want to give anyone a reason to know who my students may be. They don't need to be subjected to anything negative; they're already suffering enough.  My new students will be the ones who have no options left. They are not forced to be there, they choose to be there, and they are under contract to be there, so they will try a bit harder. It's not exactly a prison, it's not exactly a regular district. It's run by the federal government, and it is subsidized by an outside corporation that deals with many of these types of facilities where students try a bit harder to achieve since they have instructors who do give a damn, but will also enforce rules, regulations, laws, and policies. I am nothing if not a rule enforcer - - a Commander. Not a Demander.

    There is a running family joke with this one. First, I said I wouldn't go back into the classroom unless Dumbledore called me and asked me to teach English at Hogwarts. That was my only hope to ever teach again. I'm simply (absolutely) fed up with the attitudes of the kids today, their parents, the administration, and even the districts. It's a money-grabbing, non-educational place these days. The districts in my state literally crank out kids by the thousands who can't read, can't write, and don't understand simple or basic Math, but there they are graduating. Then they can't even muster up a resume to save their lives! If they do work they suck at customer service, they disrespect their employers, they hate their customers, and it all boils down to not being prepared at school.  

    Teachers (like me) have flooded the streets tearing up our teaching certificates and exchanging our instructional hopes for wealth management, corporate work, and even retirement. I'm also trading Forex on the side, learning Options, and I am getting my P&C Adjuster's license so I can do that on a privately hired basis. I accepted this position because it was a sort of a Dumbledore who called, and I will be teaching English at a pseudo-Hogwarts, but maybe more like a Hogwarts of the Hood. Due to my many (many) years of teaching in inner urban school districts my son has dubbed me a Hood Teach.  I accept that. I even embrace it because I am one who gives a damn. I want my thugs, sorry, students, to achieve. I won't lie, more than 30 of my students over the past 20 years have been arrested for rank felony charges.  It's really tough out there! Kids deserve a better education.

    The problem with Oklahoma education is the State Department doesn't listen to the thousands of teachers who have asked for stricter guidelines regarding communication devices, cheating, smaller class sizes, and the right to discipline. Forget asking for more money, money can't solve those issues.  On a DAILY and even HOURLY basis you're dealing with fighting, violence, sexual assault, cussing, biological hazard, and worse  -- and that's not counting the fact that the average 9th grader in Oklahoma reads at the 3rd or 4th-grade level.  I'm not talking about those kids who come from another country folks; I'm talking about home-ground kids who were born with a phone shoved in their face! Their parents (mostly) do not give a damn and expect the teacher to teach basic fundamental behavior and understanding. It's way past crisis levels in our state.

    I accepted the position.  I will be a Reading Instructor. Not a teacher. I am instructing. I am guiding. I am directing. I am not teaching. I am facilitating. I am putting it up on the board and watching them struggle. I am not hand-feeding these students. They must sink or swim, and I am NOT their life safer. I am the boat coming at them at full speed willing to pick them up but they have to want to be helped.  If they don't grab on with both hands and pull themselves up to the deck I can't do much more for them. Does that sound mean? No. It sounds like these kids are willing to stop talking on their phones long enough to listen.  It sounds like (and is) what it is, a true form of education!

    This place does it right! Everyone learns at their own pace. They all start with an assessment test, and they are placed at the module level they need to be at so they can begin their lessons.  They go from A-Z and after a set amount of hours they take a test.  They don't have to pass it. They can take it again. No one holds it against them. When they get to the end they have completed the course. BAM!  That's the way it should be. If a kid doesn't catch on he/she continues to research the part they don't understand and go back to and back through it.  I LOVE IT.

    Since I am a Reading Instructor we will read a book as a class and we'll read something classic so they can get a taste of culture. I am also teaching/instructing on the History of America as well as the History of Scotland, to show a connection between the two countries. I don't have to, but I am allowed, so yeah, I'm doing it. I was told that the students can ONLY speak English on campus and that it is a HUGE problem for them if they are caught speaking any other language as that may have been the reason they failed to begin with. Families in Oklahoma who refuse to speak English in the home cause a learning barrier for the student. We as teachers can't change that. We instruct in English.   The way I handle it (and have in the past) is to speak Scots Gaelic to a student who speaks another language to me. They do it to be funny or disrespectful. I do it to show them I'm not laughing. 

    The new assignment is a harder or tougher type place, but I'm used to that. I don't break, I bend a little, but I stand up and make myself clear when I'm in the classroom. When asked what my leadership philosophy was I told the employer that I am the Queen in my room, and I don't expect or accept any other rulers only those who will do what I say because I said it. That being said, I won't ask anything of anyone that I would not subject myself to. I don't demand, I command. I have a clear understanding and goal for the student, and I fully expect them to either get with the program or leave the room. I don't have time for arguments, just workers. I was hired on the spot and we'll see if I can pass that drug test! (anticipating that I will, I've been loading my car trunk with the things I'll be taking to the classroom next week.)  I think I'll hang a Ravenclaw banner next to the American and Scottish flags!  If my boss can be Dumbledore, I can be McGonagall. 

Photo Credit: DreamsTime.com