Teacher Paddles of Practice: Practical Tips to Keep You from Being Up A Creek in the Classroom

Every teacher in America is expected to take students and paddle through a year of life with a group of students who believe you are a celebrity. You have been given a canoe and paddle large enough to carry your students through the creek of the academic year. By definition, a creek is a narrow, winding path. Ideally, you enter the classroom and all students attend ready and willing to learn with family support at home and all of their basic needs met. So, you are able to help them learn, make all their dreams come true, and fix all of the problems of the world. Oh... if only it were that simple. But, anyone who has spent time teaching, or learning about teaching, knows that our creek is full of rocks—curriculum, policies, lesson plans, parents, paperwork, etc. And, unless you teach in a magically perfect world, you also have some low hanging limbs—jobs that you have as a teacher that you didn't know existed, reports you don't know how to read, students who create chaos so easily, etc. These are the things that knock you out of your canoe because no one told you before you began teaching that they were coming. Young or old, novice or experienced, every teacher has faced times like this both professionally and personally. I can't help you with personal challenges, but I can share with you that I understand. As a mother of two children with unique and special needs, I know the impact of personal challenges. And, I am still happily standing in the classroom as an educator every day. But, it is not because I have not been up a creek; it is because I have picked up a new paddle and kept going. This book is meant to offer practical advice to teachers who are finding themselves up a creek in the classroom feeling like they have lost their paddle. I cannot cover every topic in one book. This is the first of what I plan to be a series of collections that gives practical paddles to teachers to prevent being stuck up a creek in the classroom.