ALMOST IN THE CLASSROOM

 

My first few weeks were anxious and bliss.  Bliss because I didn’t actually have to teach for at least one month.  The state was driving 5 miles an hour to get our background checks done and I had to do all the training before they would let anyone near the kids.  The trainings were interesting – respecting LGBTQ students, suicide prevention,  informative  stats on where the kids come from and how they get to us through the courts.  The anxiety was from all the scenarios they told of how the kids had harmed people in the past. Mostly the guards but a few teachers too.  So we have a two day training on how to de-escalate and then how to get out of a physical attack without hurting the student (some patented training program that most states use).

Since I couldn’t be near the kids until all the background checks came through and I had finished all the training, I had plenty of time to plan my classes.  At least 4 weeks of not being able to prep the room or do anything else except to use the new laptop they gave me.  So I planned 7 weeks of classes.  I still use most of those lessons today.  I was eventually allowed one week in the classroom but still couldn’t talk to the kids.  My two or four or one hundred background checks came through but we still had more trainings left.. The other two hires were still stuck in the kitchen -  the checks are so precise that they got dinged for forgetting to mark a maiden name or a former husband or something like that. They did pass and were thrown into teaching. I had time to count all the markers and put them in bags - able to count them back to make sure none ever go missing. And to look around at all the toys and materials former teachers had purchased.  The other teacher never had that luxury and never caught up once they threw her in teaching.  Future teachers barely had planning time either. The state got faster and the facility trained quicker and they were shot into the classrooms and learned on their toes.

I also was lucky enough to be hired the year of the state’s conference. They only have it every few years and lucky for me, they choose a five star hotel. It was in a smaller town so the rooms cost the same of a bed bug infested motel in most major cities.  I had to stay at the regular old hotel to sleep but that was fine with me. We would just take the shuttle over where they treated us to breakfast and two snacks a day and endless water and coffee as we heard about trauma, de-stress, child trafficking, making your classroom active, etc. It was overwhelming.

One afternoon I was rocking on the front porch of the elegant resort when I started up a conversation with someone who works at a juvy across the state. He said I would love working there. I doubted him.  How could I? It’s Juvy?  And all these scary kids who do all these attacks?  Plus I didn’t want to explain to him that I had sworn never to teach again (for the 3rd time specifically) and that I didn’t  even want to interview for this job since I had to take off time for my practicum hours of becoming a counselor.  Yet,  I only got one counselor interview and everyone perked up to my ELL license.  There was one glimmer of hope – I liked teaching GED at the jail.  Maybe I will like this environment.  

It only took a month to realize he was right. In fact, most teachers don’t know that teaching in secure environments can be quite rewarding.