My Speech (SPU Master of Arts in Teaching Banquet, May 2013)

Good evening. I have to say that I’m fairly nervous. I am much more comfortable talking in front of students than my peers. Put me in front of a high school class and I can talk extemporaneously for hours. I don’t know what that says about me that I feel more comfortable talking to fifteen year olds than any of you, but there you go.

One year ago, I was exactly where you are now, on the verge of a full-time teaching job and wondering what comes next. Now that I am here, I can say that I am at T minus 19 days before collapsing. However, it will be bittersweet. These are the first students I’ve spent an entire year with and I will miss them terribly.  As I told my students (and forgive me if I get a little emotional), while some people say their favorite part of the day is to go home and change into sweat pants, my favorite part of the day is seeing my kids’ faces as they walk in the door every day.

Dr. Denton spoke about the advice I have for you, and specifically mentioned advice on how to get a job. I’m not sure how much advice I can give you in that area. I was one of the few lucky ones to be hired by my internship school. I hope that some of you had that same kind of luck.

Your first year of teaching will contain many other firsts. Just this week, I had a few firsts. Monday night was the first time I had been a judge in a “Mr. LW” pageant. Yesterday was my first contract negotiation meeting, and along with that, the first time a teacher, sitting behind me, had fallen asleep on me, physically. Never before had I experienced that, oddly. This is also my first ever speech. And, it was the first time I nearly missed a speech thanks to traffic.

To reintroduce myself, my name is Terry Terich, or at least I thought it was before I became a teacher. I started out as Mr. Terich, but during my internship, it became the easier, and perhaps more recognizable, Mr. T.  (I’m sure you can see the resemblance, right?) Some of my students choose to call me simply “Terich” as surnames by themselves seem to be the fashion at Lake Washington High School. Then again, there is a small but growing contingent that have chosen to address me as “T-Dawg” as repeated calls of “Mr. Terich” apparently, and unintentionally went unheeded, but “T-Dawg” was an attention getter. (To my horror, I realized later that the character of “T-Dawg” on the Walking Dead came to an untimely end. I tried not to jump to conclusions or take it personally). On top of that, at one time or another, each one of my students has called me by another teacher’s name, the way that my mother used to call me by all of the names of my siblings before finally setting on mine, finally remembering who I was.  

And this brief introduction is simply to point out, that like many misconceptions and apprehensions I had at the beginning of my internship and first full school year, this one did not turn out as I had planned or expected, and, in the end, it didn’t much seem to matter. As you already know, teaching is a lot of hard work, but that’s why you will all be paid ridiculously well. But seriously, as we all know, teaching is one of the most rewarding endeavors in life. I feel lucky to have begun this journey as I hope you have also.

As I was saying, there are things that you will worry about, or are worried about, and you may be filled with questions. It was at this time last year that I was about to hear that I had been hired by my internship school. I hope that some of you are so lucky or at least that you are having little difficulty in finding gainful employment in this field. As a side note, I can tell you that at least two science teachers, two language teachers, and at least one Special Education teacher will need to be hired at LW. And although I have no say in the hiring process, I usually find it difficult to refuse gifts.

But, let’s assume you do all get that first year job, whether a 3-year provisional contract, or like me, a one year contract. (Don’t worry, I got the 3-year just before Winter Break. It was the best Christmas present I’ve ever received). If you are lucky like me, you will be in a district that provides a New Teacher Support Program, which is invaluable for professional development. If not, you will be on your own, a boat adrift in these stressful waters. So, here is my one survival tip for you, and one only, as you navigate these seas:

Trust in yourself.

Trust in yourself and reflect.

Okay, two survival tips for you: Trust in yourself, reflect, and don’t be afraid to fail.

Three! Three survival tips for you: Trust in yourself, reflect, don’t be afraid to fail, and put the kids first.

Four simple survival tips as a first year teacher: Trust in yourself, reflect, don’t be afraid to fail, put the kids first, and have fun.

Sigh. Five simple tips.

As you can tell, there is not just one easy bit of wisdom I can impart. In fact, if I were to go on long enough, I’d have another fifteen to add to that five. And this, in a way, is really the wisdom I am going to impart: wisdom that can only come from 161 days of teaching full time. You won’t always get it right, and that’s ok. In fact, it’s more than ok, it’s expected. Sure, my kids give me a hard time about my mistakes, (one student made her new year’s resolution to be more forgiving of my mistakes. How magnanimous!) but students like to see that you are human, that you make mistakes just like they do, and that you have the resilience to keep going. Many of my students don’t have that resilience, give up when things are “too hard,” and persistence is one of the many soft skills I am trying to instill.

I’ll give you a few examples. I teach sophomore English and History. As such, I assign and assess a lot of writing. At the beginning of the school year, coming off of an internship in which students were already used to the idea of school and writing, I was having a hard time getting students to not only share their writing, but to write at all. As much as I prodded, poked, and pleaded, some students just wouldn’t write, or would write one or two sentences and then stare at the page, or even more disconcerting, at me, as if to say, “Yeah, I only wrote two sentences, what are you gonna do about it?” The prompt I had given to my students, aptly enough, was to write about a regret, something for which they could get a “do over,” a mulligan, a freebie.  

I was at first greeted with confused looks, then told over and over, by multiple kids in three different periods, in an attempt to avoid writing at all costs, “I don’t regret anything. Everything happens for a reason,” I realized that I needed to take a different tack. I told them my own story, an embarrassing one, and one that I can’t believe I am now going to share with all of you:

Back when I was in junior high, and maybe some of you are in my generation, there was a show called “The Wonder Years.” The characters in the show were also in junior high, specifically one Winnie Cooper, the object of the main character’s crush. Just like Kevin Arnold, I also had a massive crush on Winnie Cooper.

Cut to nine years later. I am attending UCLA as an undergrad. On my way to astronomy class one day, I look to the side and I see, sitting on a planter, as if in a dream, Danica McKeller, the young lady who played Winnie Cooper.

I couldn’t help but think, “this is my moment. Everything in my life has led to this.” I beelined over, but then chickened out at the last moment. I just couldn’t bring myself to speak to her.

One of my students, a young man who had barely said one word in the first month of school, finally decided to speak up and asked, “What does she look like now?” I indulged him and looked up a picture online. After I found a picture, a tasteful picture, I displayed it on the screen. There was a minute or so of silence and then, out of the calm came his voice again, “Yeah…you blew it.”

Everyone laughed for a good while, but then, almost miraculously, everyone started writing…and couldn’t stop writing. From that day forward, I never had a difficult time getting students to share their writing. In fact, I had the opposite problem. I didn’t have enough time to accommodate all of my students who wanted to share. I can’t get my kids to stop sharing their writing.

The point is: Adapt, revise, be flexible.

Education, for you AND the students has always been about trial and error, about making mistakes, and about learning from them and adjusting. Allow yourselves to err. Also, allow yourselves to take time FOR yourselves. This is sometimes hard for a first year teacher. It’s been difficult for me. The name of the game is usually, say yes to everything. Do you want to be the new advisor for the Brony club (even though it frightens you not just a little, but a lot?)? Yes, you do. Do you want to be a chaperone for the school dance and insert yourself physically between two students who are dancing far too close? Yes, you do. Do you want to be a part of the school pep assembly and compete in a dance contest, making a complete fool of yourself? Yes, you do. But, even though you are doing all of this, you also have to take care of yourselves.

Take that weekend trip. Use every holiday you can to your advantage. Don’t sabotage yourself in your planning, but find a balance. Balance is everything. I was teaching my kids about Taoism, specifically through the great book, “The Tao of Pooh”, and about the yin-yang, how everything is in balance, nothing is purely light or purely dark, there is a little of each in the other. I told a story to help them understand. (oh, by the way, with this and with the Wonder Years story, never underestimate the power of a good story, especially about yourself. Your kids will be listening with rapt attention. They want to hear everything they can about YOU.) Here’s that story:

A man named Sei Weng owned a beautiful mare which was praised far and wide. One day this beautiful horse disappeared. The people of his village offered sympathy to Sei Weng for his great misfortune. Sei Weng said simply, "Could be good, could be bad. That's the way it is."

A few days later the lost mare returned, followed by a beautiful wild stallion. The village congratulated Sei Weng for his good fortune. He said, "Could be good, could be bad. That's the way it is."

Some time later, Sei Weng's only son, while riding the stallion, fell off and broke his leg. The village people once again expressed their sympathy at Sei Weng's misfortune. Sei Weng again said, "Could be good. Could be bad. That's the way it is."

Soon thereafter, war broke out and all the young men of the village except Sei Weng's lame son were drafted and were killed in battle. The village people were amazed as Sei Weng's good luck. His son was the only young man left alive in the village. But Sei Weng kept his same attitude: despite all the turmoil, gains and losses, he gave the same reply, "Could be good. Could be bad. That's the way it is."

All this is to say that some things just are. Fight the battles you can handle and get help for the rest. There are going to be so many people in your building who will take the time to listen and help you, you will be utterly amazed. I can tell you this: Every single time I asked another teacher in the building the question, “Could I talk to you for a minute?” I ALWAYS got a “yes, of course.”

On top of creating lesson plans that have daily measurable goals, contain differentiation, have high levels of questioning, and are engaging, you have to make an effort to participate in school activities, get along with your coworkers, and even more: advocate for yourself. This isn’t the easiest thing in the world for most people. It’s not easy for me. But, I highly suggest you let your administrators know when you are doing something awesome. It’s worth the time.

One of the hardest things for me was to stop comparing myself to my peers. It is a fruitless endeavor. Just as we celebrate that all of our students have different strengths, we should do that with ourselves. I am a good planner and I am well liked by my students. However, I’m still working on different ways of ensuring kids of different levels reach the same targets.

One of my mentor teachers is phenomenal about meeting as many of the students as she possibly can. In her words, she likes to get into their “business.” I would guess she knows more of the kids in the school than the principal. And although this is admirable, I have to remind myself that I am not her and that I may not have that capacity. I came on board with two other dual endorsed English and History teachers. One is full of energy and puts a bit of drama into every lesson. The other is a good disciplinarian and gets his students in line. I am not either of them. They have their strengths and I have mine. I try to add what I can, but I don’t beat myself up about it. Not that it wasn’t tempting. I’ve had a few minor beat-ups, but then I pick myself up and carry on.

Just as Sei Weng didn’t jump to conclusions, but instead merely accepted what “is,” I found that when I did the same, didn’t judge myself, but instead said that this is what “was” but can make it better next time, I felt better about what I was doing and had a more positive outlook, which affected every other part of my teaching.

I want to leave you with one last thought and then I’ll leave you alone. Don’t forget that every one of your students is an individual. But also remember that you are an individual. It is where you all meet as individuals in a group for a collective purpose that matters. That is chemistry. That is the equation. That is humanity. Your kids will want desperately to learn from your life experiences, because they haven’t had that many. Share them with your kids, tell them stories, you won’t regret it, I promise you. Regardless of the names your kids choose to tag you with, you will likely end up to be their favorite teacher.

Thanks and good luck.