Don't make yourself crazy.

This goes out to all of you starting up your school years, whether it's for the first or thirtieth time. In addition to having to learn names and do your actual jobs, you are going to be inundated with tons of crap that seems meaningless, counterproductive, and irrelevant to your present needs. 

If you are a rookie, you're going to be tempted to take it seriously. If you're a vet, you may forget how unserious it all is. This post is to remind you.

Rule 1: First, second, and third, pay attention to your kids. 

Get to know them well enough to enjoy them. Listen to them and they will tell you how you can help.

Do what you have to to hold on to your job, but all the rest of the nonsense foisted upon you by not-teachers doesn't even make the top ten.

Rule 4: Do not sweat your test scores. 

They are not your test scores. They are your students' scores. They reflect the SES of your students and their families, not your value (added or otherwise) as a teacher. The bosses know this. 

As long as you look like you care about the tests, you'll be fine. But for the love of John Dewey, don't let yourself be fooled into believing that they mean anything beyond the fact that this country continues to fail to address child poverty.

Rule 5: Don't sweat your job (too much). 

They need you much more than you need them. When they go on about "student performance" or "proficiency," they really only mean test scores, and that's something you have very little control over. Scores on the big standardized tests are not reliable and not valid, and they have nothing to do with what you are trying to teach. Pretend to care, but don't.

Rule 6: Other things you can't control.

Attendance. My administration used to try and chastise me for students missing class. By all means, cover your ass and make sure phone calls are going home and you reach out to the PSA counselor, but you have a job. Whether getting students into your room is a job for administration or the parents, it's definitely not yours. Again, pretend you are committed to whatever they think will work.

It might be somebody's job to check hallway passes and track down the wanderers and police the restrooms, but you have 20-40 human beings in a box and that's your job.

You can't stop every bad idea that trickles down from superintendent to local district to principal to you, but you can limit the damage. You can ignore some, and what you can't ignore you can sometimes modify. 

Rule 4: You have a job.

It is not your responsibility to make sure there's a teacher in every classroom. Cover a class if you want the money or can't get out of it, but either way make sure you get paid. When you cover, your job is not to teach geometry if you're an art teacher. It's to take attendance, get to know the students, and make sure nobody gets hurt. If they want a geometry teacher, let them find one.

Finally, join your union. My first union was the United Auto Workers in 1975. I'm a member of SAG-AFTRA and a life member of UTLA. UTLA is not perfect, no union is, and I've had my fights with them, but if you think things are tough now, imagine how much worse they could be. Then imagine worse than that, and that's where you end up without a union. 

The only thing between you and fifty kids in a class and unpaid training days and zero say in what you teach, is your union. The only thing between a satisfying if challenging career and being ground into dust ten years too soon, is your union. 

And if you are somebody who just takes the collectively bargained money and the delineation of duties and doesn't pay union dues, then fuck you.

Here's to a good start and smooth sailing. If you have tips of your own or any questions, don't hesitate to comment here or reach out to me at nowwaid@gmail.com.  In the meantime, good luck. Try to enjoy the ride.