For the love of the game.
Today was my last teaching day for the school year.
“What? You retired from teaching two years ago.”
True.
But every Thursday from January to June I volunteer to teach ukulele to a mixed age class of kindergarten and first graders in Little Village.
No assessment to be done. No Common Core to worry about. No accountability.
Except the looks on my students’ faces.
Trust me. Sometimes it isn’t a good look.
And I worry far more about that assessment – that look – than any performance review I ever received from a principal.
I’m not a trained music teacher. I have worked with some great ones though, so I know what I don’t know.
Knowing what you don’t know is a key to being a good teacher by the way.
One of my criticisms of Teach For America is that with the average TFA teacher lasting two years in the classroom there is not enough time for them to know what they don’t know. To know what the questions are.
It took me at least five to even become aware of what the right questions were. And much longer to figure out the answers. Some questions still remain unanswered.
But I know how to teach. And my uke skills are passable. Passable enough to demonstrate some rhythm patterns and to demonstrate a few chords.
Our play list includes This Little Light of Mine, This Land is Your Land and Yellow Submarine.
A good Thursday morning involves a half-dozen first graders and kindergarten kids belting out the chorus to Yellow Submarine so loud in can be heard down the hall.
I don’t want to admit it but I am a senior volunteer.
When I was a teacher I used to have senior volunteers. Our schools are filled with them. We senior volunteers contribute millions of dollars of free service to our country’s public schools.
I love doing it.
You know that look on the faces of professional basketball players in the NBA play-offs when they hit the big one? You know that at that moment it isn’t about the money.
Teachers too.
That is what is meant by a calling.
So many of us senior volunteers used to work in classrooms as paid certified professional teachers.
Turns out that teaching is a hard habit to break.
Something else to remember when the politicians go after our pensions.
Fred Klonsky 
Thanks for this post…made me smile. I train senior volunteers, mainly grandparents, to work in classrooms and help with language skills. It is the most rewarding activity for retired seniors, even the many who are not professional teachers. And you are so correct about TFA students not even knowing what they don’t know…or what questions to ask, and answer.
“You know that look on the faces of professional basketball players in the NBA play-offs when they hit the big one[?]”
All of us who are lucky enough to be passionate about what we do, know that look. I hope those who haven’t yet experienced it, will. Soon.
Thanks for the reminder, Fred.