White Water Rafting

White-Water Rafting

What do white-water rafting and teaching have in common?  Not much was my first thought but after I read through Chapter 1 of our textbook I began to see the connection. 

As Snoopy & Woodstock's eyes in the YouTube video show us we don't see everything that is in front of us, around us, or behind us and then BOOM! There is the light and the next set of rapids are dead ahead! 

Then the waterfalls.; the moments where I hold my breath and hope that I won’t crash before the raft hits the bottom of the fall.  Snoopy & Woodstock float through the falls while others scream, crash, and splash out of the waterfall. 

Finally, the moment where the finish line (end of class) are just ahead and BAM! Boredom hits!  Boredom teaching the same thing day after day to the same group that does the same thing day after day.  As Charlie Brown and his group near the finish line it should be smooth sailing but the same happens to them….BAM! Men overboard.  The girls must go back and save them.  Once again regrouped Charlie Brown and rafters return to the finish line.  

Holding on, adjusting ourselves in our rafts (chairs), faking it until we make it, and regrouping is what white water rafting and teaching have in common. 

I have a level of excitement for each new class, each new semester, and each new year.  It is similar to the adrenaline rush I get when a trauma comes into the Emergency Department (ED) that requires me to take a series of radiographs.  The thoughts that run through my mind are:  can I handle this? Am I prepared?  Will they appreciate what I am doing?  Do I have everything I need?  Can I get everything accomplished in the time allotted? What will they learn from me?  Will I prepare them for what they need? Etc.

Problems that I have faced as an x-ray technologist are similar to those I have faced as an instructor, the environments are different, but the problems, solutions, failures, and successes are all drawn from the same well:  my experiences before this current moment.  I draw on each profession to help me through the white water rapids of teaching. 

One rapid on the white-water rafting trip that I have been faced with is teaching people that I know.  I always fear if I measure up to their perceptions of me, will I fail them, what will they say about me after our time together is complete?  I have intellectually learned that I cannot control what others feel about me after our time together but it never takes away the fear or concern I have about my character after our time together is done. For example:  when I teach a student whose parents I know personally or professionally I worry that the student and my personalities will clash, there will be disciplinary problems, or that the student will get upset with me and then the parents will try to get other parents to get rid of me.  Yet, I would not want to divulge this fear to anyone, especially the students that I teach. 

Another moment is the fall from the waterfall on the white-water rafting trip called teaching I have faced is the moment of silence.  That awkward moment after I pose the question, allow ample time for reflection and then nothing but………………………..S.I.L.E.N.C.E.  My mind rushes through a series of thoughts, questions, and solutions but I feel helpless.  I feel that the students, along for the white-water raft ride, feel the same way too.  What do we do?  What do I do?  Do I step in?  Do I call on someone?  Do I allow the same student to offer and answer like she does every class at this very moment?  Do I move on to the next question or lecture point?  Each time this moment happens I feel panic.  I hate this feeling.  I feel like I should have been prepared for this because I have been on this ride before.  Yet, here I am again……falling…..down the waterfall…..into S.I.L.E.N.C.E.    I don't want anyone to know that I struggle with this as a teacher.  I want my students, parents, and colleagues to believe that I have it all handled. I fake it until I make it.

The smooth sailing portion of the white-water rafting trip is the final few weeks before the semester is over.  I am ready to be done teaching and the students are bored with the same routine that they once were grateful for two months ago.  I find this to be a teaching dilemma that will always be present in my teaching career and one that I will probably take to my grave with no solution.  How can this be?  Surely there is an answer to mix things up.  I don't want to admit that I am bored with something that I love so much such as teaching.  I wouldn't want the students to say that they are bored with me.  I would be hurt.  They would be upset to know that I was just as bored as they are in class.  How do I shake things up without throwing anyone overboard like Charlie Brown and the guys did in the YouTube video?  Is that what is needed?  Maybe I do need to throw a few people overboard?  Maybe I need to jump overboard?  This moment in teaching requires regrouping.

As I compare teaching to white-water rafting I agree that there are similarities between the two.  I have to accept that there will be teaching dilemmas that I may never have the answer to and that I will take to my grave.  The rapids, waterfalls, and smooth-sailing moments present opportunities to hold on, adjust ourselves in our rafts (chairs), fake it until we make it, and regroup is what white water rafting and teaching have in common. 

Below I have included a letter that an Anonymous Teacher shared about teaching dilemmas……Enjoy!

A TEACHER'S DILEMMA

Let me see if I've got this straight.

You want me to go into a schoolroom full of kids, and fill their every waking moment with a sense of being nurtured, and a love for learning.

Not only that...I'm to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior and observe them for signs of abuse, drugs, and T-shirt messages, all while television is teaching them that sexual perversion is okay, and killing people is cool.

I am to fight the war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons, and raise their self-esteem, without damaging their fragile egos by telling them that such behavior is wrong.

I'm to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, while answering their snickering questions about how it is okay for politicians to subvert the Constitution, take illegal campaign contributions, molest women and bomb innocent people to death, just to divert the media's attention from certain unlawful political behavior.

I'm supposed to tell them how and where to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook and how to apply for a job, even if I know they are in this country illegally.

I am supposed to check their heads occasionally for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of potential antisocial behavior, and provide them the sound advice and guidance that used to come from their parents and pastor. I am to be held responsible for deciding who might be potentially dangerous and/or liable to commit crimes in school, and I can be sent to jail for not mentioning these suspicions to those in authority.

I'm supposed to instill the idea in them that respect for cultural diversity means being a clone in dress, achievement and political philosophy, and that it is wrong to excel over others or be different by working harder or being innovative. In short, that individuality and personal liberty are bad things. I'm to write letters of recommendation for student employment and scholarships, and, oh yes, to teach them the three R's, in two languages, always making sure to equally distribute my attention according to sex, race and ethnicity.

I'm to demonstrate my school spirit by sponsoring the cheerleaders or some other collateral class activity, and after school I am to attend committee and faculty meetings and participate in staff development training in order to maintain my current certification and employment status.

I'm required by my contract to be working on my own time, at my own expense, summers and evenings, towards advanced certification and a master's degree, so that the school I work for can maintain its accreditation and reputation, and continue to receive federal dollars.

I am to collect personal data on students and their families, and maintain all records to support and document our progress in the state-mandated program to "assess and upgrade educational excellence in the public schools."

I am to be a paragon of morality, larger than life, such that my very presence will awe my students into being obedient and respectful of authority. I am to pledge allegiance to supporting family values, a return to the basics, and loyalty to the National Teachers Union and the current political administration, even though they and their "progressive" entertainment and media friends demonstrate none of these virtues.

I am to take time away from teaching the basics to incorporate Internet technology into their learning, but I'm to monitor all Web sites for appropriate content, while at the same time providing a personal one-on-one relationship with each student.

I am to make sure ALL students pass all classes, and state- and federally mandated tests, whether or not they attend school on a regular basis, cooperate with me, or complete any of the work I assign them. I am to communicate frequently with each student's parents by letter, phone, newsletter and grade card.

I'm to accomplish all these duties with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books and a bulletin board, in a 50 minute class, while exuding a friendly, nonthreatening smile, on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps in many states.

I'm to remain loyal in all ways, never breaking ranks or disparaging anyone's agenda , even though I have to sign this lament as "anonymous" in order to protect my job and my future.

Is that all?

And you expect me to do all of this without praying, or without being able to seek help and guidance from my Bible?

Anonymous