School House Diary: Reflections of a Retired Educator

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I interviewed my mom, Sharon Slovak, who two years ago retired after 30 years in the classroom. After teaching grades from kindergarten through 12 th grade English, she found her niche in upper elementary and spent 24 years teaching 4 th – 6 th grades. Read on for 10 surprising and enlightening items about teacher retirement.

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So...why did you choose MIDDLE SCHOOL? It's the question that is always, and I mean ALWAYS asked in conversation about my job. It's usually accompanied by a wrinkled-up nose or another look of distaste from the asker. I mean, I get it. They're 12, 13, 14 years old. NO ONE likes this age, am I right? Somewhere around the age of 12, you go from being called "Mommy" to "Mom" to "Bro." Throw in a "whatever" and an eye-roll, and you get the picture. So this is who I am. It's not just what I do for a living. It's a solid, tangible part of me. It consumes my daily thoughts and has shaped my life into who I am today. The thought of NOT doing this? Retiring? It's like saying I'm going to stop being...me. How so I say goodbye to a significant part of myself. And who would I be without this?

Ben was gaslighting Peter by now,” says DS Earl. “He was saying, ‘you have dementia. You’re going to die soon and need to make a will’. Ben was hiding things in the house and insisting that Peter was forgetting things.” The link between them was Field. Just ­before they died, Peter and Ann both changed their wills to make him the ­beneficiary of their homes. Investigating officers were able to delve into Peter’s relationship with Field thanks to Peter’s beautifully written journals, found after he died. I used up my very best for other people’s kids. There was very little energy left for my own. I never figured out the home/work balance. That had less to do with my dedication to my profession than my need for approval from strangers. Thank you. I retired from teaching at NKU in 2008. Your words remind me of my own students and those moments I will always remember and I am sure there are many that I have already forgotten. I’ll never know which moments were most significant to my students – but I know what I have learned from my students. I love teaching in retirement – it’s a whole different adventure! Thanks for your honesty about the joys and heartbreaks of teaching. Katherine Reply

‘Something that actually matters’: four retirees on why they

Another 27% raised concerns about stress and workload with a further 15% feeling that, as an older teacher, they would be unable to give the children in their care the very best education that they deserved. It took me quite a time to find the role I wanted, but now I've found it. After 30 years in primary schools and middle schools, I'm now teaching adults. While teaching for 27 years at the Lehman Alternative School in Ithaca, N. Y., he developed an innovative curriculum in English, Philosophy, History, Drama, Martial Arts, and Psychology, and refined a method of mindful questioning. He writes a blog on education and mindfulness. Ira is the author of Compassionate Critical Thinking: How Mindfulness, Creativity, Empathy, and Socratic Questioning Can Transform Teaching . Although there is a comfortable groove in teaching the same grade for years at a time, sometimes the school’s need for a teacher to switch grade levels can bring great things. Those years you will stretch your skills and grow professionally, and those benefits will always outweigh the loss of complacency in the end. But once the “umbrella drinks on the beach” daydreams fade, we are all a little hazy on just how we will truly feel once retired. What will we really miss, and what will we happily leave behind.The retirement stage is where someone turns inwards to answer life’s deepest questions. They leave home, even their spouse and family, and become a “forest dweller” or a wanderer. They give up all ties and live with “nothing” between them and reality. Their life is driven by questions: What makes life worthwhile? Is old age worthwhile? Is self-understanding truly important? What is the secret of ‘I’? Retirement can be a time of transcending the five senses “to dwell in the reality which underlies the natural world.” I finished my career as a headteacher an Oxfordshire primary school at the age of 60. It felt like the right time to go and I thought I would explore leisure for a bit. But of course retiring from a job like this leaves a huge gap in your life. As a teacher your job is always in your head; it's a huge wrench to stop. But I digress. Let me answer the original question, "Why middle school?" Middle schoolers have open minds. They are still finding their voices and discovering their preferences and opinions on everything from their own behavior and tolerances to the behavior of others in our society. They are open to hearing opposing viewpoints, open to accepting alternative lifestyles, and open to discussing their newly-formed opinions. They are the KEY to societal change in our world because they truly ARE the future. As their teacher, I can guide them to make educated choices and to judge situations based not on the opinions of others, but on their own educated opinions. Austin Hutton, 45, has moved across the country to Fort St. John, British Columbia, but he told CNN that his mom told him about the post. After 38 years of happy marriage .....with 23 of those years spent on a self-sufficient smallholding....my dear husband Colin was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and died in May 2018. Our 3 grown up children have given me 5 wonderful grandchildren. In 2021 I moved 3 miles from a cottage at the end of a lane to live on the edge of a village in Mid Suffolk.

Diary of an (almost) retired teacher | FiguringOutFifty

I've got professional indemnity and public liability insurance, which I got discounted as I am still a member of the NUT. It's definitely worth staying with your union after retirement for these kind of benefits. Maria Warren retired in 2004 and now teaches physics at the Royal Hospital School in Suffolk I work for the Workers' Education Association, a charity set up to offer adult learners a huge range of learning opportunities. I teach two courses for people who want to volunteer or work as teaching assistants in schools, one accredited by the Northern College of Further Education. It's wonderful to see the adults I teach grow in confidence and go on to get jobs. Police tried to arrest Field in an early-morning raid but he leapt out of a window of a flat he had bought with the proceeds from Peter’s will. “I eventually read the charges to him,” says DS Earl.As the teacher of said adolescents, I get the pleasure of having up to 31 of these amazing ,yet immature, complex, yet hormonal, independent, yet whiny young scholars in one room at one time. This fosters an environment of peer-pressure-driven behavior that is not for the faint of heart. --Like, I dare the average citizen to spend ONE day being a guest educator in my classroom and leave with all wits in tact. Bring. It. On. Trade me jobs for ONE DAY and tell me how easy and insignificant it is to be in the teaching profession. Retirement was OK, but I realised I could have 30 more years ahead of me. To keep my brain young, I needed to engage with new things and new people, in particular, young people. Peter was duped in to believing Field’s feelings were real. But Field would admit in court they were faked and part of a plot to seize his money. Sandy, I always look forward to your wonderful blogs. This one is so beautifully written it has left me in tears. You truly depicted how fortunate we were to be educators. Nobody but those two will ever know if that happened. And while Field was eventually jailed for 36 years, the ordeal for Peter’s family goes on.

Retired teacher killed in chilling plot just like a real-life Retired teacher killed in chilling plot just like a real-life

I read so much about Ben from Peter’s journals, I wasn’t going to miss that. He was very unimpressive in person. Perfect manners, very clever but not at all confident with people who were in authority and he couldn’t control.” With workload, increased stress and motivation causing serious concerns in the profession already, we must consider our options.Whilst online tuition remains a fantastic way to maximise tutor time and deliver high quality lessons to anywhere in the world, there is a growing demand for home tutoring sessions. Here, Holly takes us through some of the benefits and frequently-asked questions about home tuition.