Unencumbered

Week Two of Life as An Instructional Assistant

I guess you could say that I’ve had a little bit of writer’s block recently. During the past two weeks, all my attempts to craft an essay have felt forced and and have fallen flat.

While it’s true that I’ve moved houses and changed jobs this summer, both have been positive changes, so the lack of inspiration to write has caught me completely by surprise. Fingers crossed it’s just a slump. (That happens to my pickleball game. Sometimes I’m on fire; other times I miss easy shots.) Maybe the lack of writing mojo is because none of the books I have been reading have rocked my world this summer.

So, with apologies to those who read this weekly essay for book recommendations, today I am instead going to write about what it’s been like to return to high school for the first time in more than 40 years. (If you don’t already know, at the end of the last school year, I decided to step down after eight years teaching elementary school and take a job as an instructional assistant). Other teacher friends who had once worked as instructional assistants said, “It’s the best job ever.”

Everything they said is true. As an instructional assistant, I don’t have to plan any lessons or grade any work. I don’t have to email parents. I don’t have to come into school hours before the students arrive and stay in the building hours after they leave. Instead, my work day is of reasonable length, and its entirety is focused on supporting student learning. My weekends and evenings are unencumbered. Unencumbered. It’s my new favorite word.

As an instructional assistant, I work with five special education teachers and one longterm substitute teacher in self-contained special education classrooms. That means that all the students in the classes have individualized education plans as a result of either a disability or some other factor.

As a writer, it’s fascinating to watch how other people teach. My schedule is such that every other day I spend two periods in the classroom of a truly gifted teacher. Let’s call her Beach Girl. Beach Girl is as a master teacher not because of the way she delivers content-- it’s the first two weeks of school-- there is no content yet-- but how she builds community. What I love about Beach Girl is the rapport she has with the students. She’s firm but fun. She knows what environment her classroom needs in order to flourish. She teaches kids that school is formal and that it’s not respectful to have a hoodie on. Kids in her class do not sit with their head on their desk sleeping. Beach Girl insists that phones be put away.

Beach wants kids to have fun but to also take themselves and their learning seriously. Beach posts the class agenda and then sticks to it. She uses lots of positive reinforcement. Every minute of Beach’s class time (and in high school the class periods are endless) consists of well-planned lessons that are varied and engaging. 

I wish every class was like Beach’s.