MEA President’s Message - Snakes on the Steps

Lois Kilby-Chesley MEA President

Do you have a question for Lois? Send it in an e-mail to lkilby-chesley@ maineea.org

Maine Educator April 2017

SNAKES ON THE STEPS

I started my teaching career in Special Education K-12 in a rural school in Colorado – total enrolment 90 kids - having graduated from UMaine with a major in child development and minors in psychology and special ed. I had completed student teaching with an experienced mentor, felt confident in my knowledge of curriculum, and was ready to take on the world.

Preparing for the new year, I reviewed the IEPs, put up bulletin boards, stocked the classroom with books and materials, and wrote lesson plans. I was pretty sure it would all go as planned. Because of the school’s location most of my colleagues were young and new to the classroom as well, though of course there were some veteran teachers who had settled in the community, and had an historical perspective. We all expected the only the best.

Excitement overwhelmed me on that first day. The buses pulled into the schoolyard, and the kids came into my classroom. A familial group of older brother, middle sister and two younger brothers. A pair of brothers who could have been a textbook example – they had grown up in isolation on a ranch and had developed their own language. A young man who had been tested to the hilt both locally and by specialists in hospitals and the nearest university, but for whom no diagnosis could explain his inability to read at 15. And my oldest, who had sustained a brain injury when he was hit by a car.

Before long my oldest student, who was only a couple of years younger than me, had a seizure. I did not know what to do. No one had prepared me with the medical information or with the protocol of how to respond and care for him. He convulsed on the schoolroom floor while all I could do was watch.

A few days later, while opening the outside door to our classroom for ventilation, a large snake was sleeping on the step. As I disturbed it, it began to shake its tail. Prepared for that surprise? Hardly. The kids explained it was a Bull snake one of the largest (and most common) constrictors in the area that vibrate their tails like a rattlesnake. Phew! Later, as things really did begin to go as planned, I realized that for all the education we get in college, and in life, we really don’t know what may confront us in our classrooms. Admitting to not knowing what each day would be like, and being able to laugh about it, probably kept me from throwing up my hands and giving up entirely.

Because in that rural school I had colleagues on whom I could depend, and to whom I could talk candidly about my new life in the school and on the plains of Colorado, with their help I was able to build a repertoire of responses to the unexpected. I may not have had a mentor assigned to me, but I found just talking to my colleagues was helpful. When we go into classrooms and shut the door our jobs become isolated and lonely. Having a support system on which you can depend is essential.

That’s why I am so excited that the Young Education Professionals (YEP)—MEA is available to you. Having friends to bounce thoughts off, having a shoulder on which to lean after a tiring day, or having someone to cry with on the worst of the worst days lets you know you aren’t alone. Plus it’s always nice to have new friends who really, truly understand the realities of being a young teacher at the beginning of what will turn out to be the most rewarding career on this planet!

Thank you for all you do, and for what you will do for our students far into the future.

In Unity,

Lois Kilby-Chesley MEA President