Carie Juettner

Carie’s Lists: 11 Reasons for Teachers to Get Excited About Back-to-School

It’s that time of year again. Commercial breaks are filled with bright-colored backpacks and smiling children and actors portraying calm, confident teachers with not a hair out of place. Department stores put up giant signs shaped like pencils and everywhere you look, it’s SALE SALE SALE! It’s Back-to-School time.

But, the thing is, it’s NOT actually time to go back to school yet. It’s still a few weeks away, a few precious weeks for those educators who need every second of their well-deserved breaks. I see posts from teacher friends on Facebook, and I remember what it was like to have my summer cut short by insensitive advertising and early reminders.

Teacher 1– “Stop with all the Back-to-School stuff! It’s not even August yet!”

Teacher 2– “I can’t turn on the TV or leave the house without being reminded that summer is almost over. If you need me, I’ll be sitting at home in the dark eating chocolate.”

Teacher 3– “If I hear one more person say, ‘School is almost here!’ I’m going to snap.”

Poor teachers.

Hiding in your house eating chocolate will only save you for so long. Eventually, you have to accept that it is almost Back-to-School time. Since it’s unavoidable, you might as well get excited about it. Here are some things to look forward to.

11 Reasons for Teachers to Get Excited About Back-to-School

1. School Supplies

While the commercials for school supplies may be unsettling, the actual shopping for school supplies is kind of awesome. It was one of my favorite things about being a teacher. When asked why they teach, other people tend to cite things like: an affection for children, a desire to make the world a better place, and an interest in their subject matter. I quickly realized that “the smell of fresh composition books and a love of sharpening pencils” was not an appropriate answer.

2. Free AC

August in Texas means 100-degree temperatures, and 100-degree temperatures mean high electricity bills. Instead of paying for your comfort out of your own pocket, set your home AC to 80 and bask in the freezing cold temperatures of your classroom instead.

3. Get Away From Your Kids

I’m not a parent myself, but I assume that, no matter how much you love your offspring, two months straight with them is too much. I think I’m right, because there’s a lot less complaining about Back-to-School stuff from my teacher friends who have children. Look forward to those hours of kid-free inservice meetings and staff development seminars. Think of it as “me time.”

4. Once Again Be Among the Day People

If you don’t have kids, there’s a good chance you’ve become somewhat vampire-like as the summer weeks have passed. Going back to school is your chance to blink into the sunlight, see what’s changed in the world, be among the day people again. (That first morning, though, might be a little rough.)

5. Annual Strangest Name Competition

Yes, those last few inservice days before school starts can be stressful, but then there’s the moment when you get your class rosters and everything stops while you scan the lists and compare names. I always enjoyed looking for siblings of kids I’d taught and any celebrity impersonators. (I’ve taught Will Smith and Rachel Green.) But the most fun is competing with fellow teachers for the most unusual student names. Unfortunately, I can’t claim to be the winner here. A friend of mine once taught twin girls who both had the exact same name. True story.

6. Endless Possibilities

You have a brand new, unopened planner. The dry erase boards are clean. No one has been late to your class yet or forgotten to turn in an assignment. Maybe this year you won’t get behind. Maybe this year you’ll finally figure out how to grade everything and still have a life. Maybe this year there will be no ill-timed fire drills, few parent conferences, and free donuts every single Friday. Maybe, just maybe. Until it begins, the possibilities are endless.

7. The Old “Naked at School” Dream

With the start of school, you can also look forward to the school-related nightmares. Maybe the “I’m changing clothes in my classroom and I forgot to lock the door” classic or the “How have I taught all day without realizing I forgot my pants?” variation. Or perhaps you prefer the “I’m back in high school and can’t find the classroom for my final” or the “I just realized I never actually graduated college” options. It doesn’t matter what you choose—they’re all good. Just remember, the best part is waking up.

8. First Day of School

I always loved the first day of school. First days are full of excitement and enthusiasm and usually at least one poor lost soul whose day you get to brighten just by knowing where room 1132 is. It may be hard to look forward to the 100^th day of school or the 43^rd or even sometimes the 2^nd, but you should always look forward to the first. Read about some of my favorite first day traditions here.

9. Fresh Start

Part of the beauty of the first day is the fact that it exists at all. Teaching is one of the few jobs I know that has a clear beginning and a clear ending and a little (sometimes not enough) breathing room in between. The fact that you get that fresh start is a blessing. No matter how hard the year is, no matter how difficult the students (or the parents) are, no matter how far behind you get in your curriculum, the last day of school will eventually come, and two months later you’ll get the chance to start all over again. Be grateful for that.

The Many Faces of Ms. Kinder/Juettner - The middle left photo has got to be my first year of teaching because I look 12. — The Many Faces of Ms. Kinder/Juettner, a.k.a A Collage of Bad Hair Days: Here are 9 of my 13 faculty yearbook pics. (The other 4 are MIA.) The middle left photo must be my first year of teaching because I think I look 12.

10. School Pictures

In these days of phone pics and selfies and constant photo documentation, there’s nothing quite so old school as sitting on a stool in front of a blue backdrop and having your picture taken for the yearbook. Back straight, feet on the X, chin up, aaaaaaaaaand SMILE! As a teacher, I never knew what to do with the sheets of photos I was given each year, which is why I have a box full of them now. Still, picture day is a classic school moment and should be appreciated accordingly.

11. You Love What You Do

The best reason to get excited about Back-to-School time? Deep down you love what you do. Yes, you wish the summer were longer; yes, you deserve a much higher salary; yes, there will be days when you will have to force yourself to get out of bed and go back to that classroom. But you’ll do it, and most of the time, you’ll like it. Being a teacher is not just what you do, it’s who you are. It’s who I used to be too and honestly, all those Back-to-School commercials just make me wistful for seating charts and first day packets and decorating the covers of writer’s notebooks.

So embrace the Back-to-School time. Shop for glue sticks with gusto, come up with a wacky new way to organize your classroom, and revel in every unexpected jeans day the administration throws your way. When the first day comes, you’ll be ready. And I’ll be cheering for you.

Review: Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers

Writing Irrisistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers by Mary Kole

If you’ve been within ten feet of me over the past two weeks, then you’ve most likely heard me talk about Writing Irresistible Kidlit. I’m pretty stingy with my five-star ratings, but I cannot say enough good things about this book.

In order to keep myself from rambling, here is what I loved about Mary Kole’s writing guide in bullet form:

* Straightforward, To-the-Point Advice: I love reading books about writing. I’ve read many of the classics like On Writing, Writing Down the Bones, and Bird By Bird and enjoyed them all. But most books about writing craft are at least part memoir. The author’s advice is mixed in with the author’s story. Kidlit isn’t like that. Mary Kole doesn’t take the reader on a journey through her life with books or go on tangents about the beauty of writing and our connected passion as lovers of the written word. She stays focused on the task at hand, and that task is to make the reader a better, more successful writer. She does not sugar coat or soliloquize, and I appreciate that.

* Enjoyable, Easy to Read: Saying that the book is straightforward does not mean that it is dry. The format is logical, and the language and style make it easy to read. Kole is also funny. She’s obviously a fan of puns and peppers the book with them. It’s like she can’t help herself. It cracked me up.

* Great Examples & Quotes: In every section of the book, Kole provides specific examples from literature to back up her points and show authors at their best. The quotes come from over forty different middle grade and young adult novels, most of which were published in 2008 or after. I’ve added SEVERAL titles from her recommended reading list to my to-read page.

* Recent & Relevant: You know that moment when you’re reading a book on writing craft and feeling so inspired and then the author says something like, “Whether you’re writing longhand or using a typewriter…”? That won’t happen when you read this book. At least not for another ten years or so. Kidlit was published in 2012, and Mary Kole is a current lit agent who is (as of July 30, 2014) actively seeking MG and YA manuscripts. The advice she gives is extremely relevant, and there is absolutely no mention of typewriters.

* What, When, Where, Why, and How: This book covers every aspect of writing a good novel, from diagramming your plot to creating a good hook to finding the theme of your work to understanding your reader’s mindset to crafting your query letter. (And a lot more.) And Kole does not just tell us what to do, she also provides a plethora of exercises along the way to help us understand how to do it. Seriously, there is so much useful stuff here. I just flipped through my copy and it’s difficult to find a page where I haven’t highlighted at least one thing.

If the above points aren’t enough to sell you on this book, then try this: The best thing about Writing Irresistible Kidlit is that it not only made me want to write, it made me want to rewrite and revise and outline and start over and keep working until I get it right. And really, isn’t that what a writing book should do?

If you are an author or an aspiring author of stories for children, go get this book. You won’t be disappointed.

Her Earliest Work

Someday, if I publish a book that people read and love, someone might want to interview me. And, if I’m lucky enough to pen a bestseller, and my name begins to be mispronounced* on tongues all over the literary world, someone might want to know, “But what was her earliest work? What did she write before she was famous?”

Well, I’ve got a little time on my hands, so I’m going to go ahead and save you all some trouble.

[*Note: Juettner is pronounced YOOT-ner. It’s German, and was a gift from my husband. My maiden name, Kinder, is pronounced like kindergarten, not like more kind than you. Kinder is also German and means children.]

Publications from my 2nd grade, 4th grade, and 6th grade classes at Terrace Elementary School

Opening the Vault (And By “Vault” I Mean the Door to My Parents’ House)

My parents keep everything. I’m tempted to add the word “literally” to the end of that sentence, but since you won’t see them on an episode of Hoarders, I’m going to leave it off. They keep ALMOST everything.

My feelings about their tendency to over-collect are hard to express. During visits home, I can often be heard saying things like, “I can’t believe you kept all this stuff. Why did you keep all this stuff? You know, eventually, you’re going to need to get rid of… OOO! Is that my She-Ra coloring book? Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Apparently I send mixed signals.

The truth is every time I open a box at my parents’ house or rummage through an old cabinet, I find more treasure. I then move the treasure to my house, while shaking my head at myself.

Recently, I unearthed a pretty good find.

My First Published Pieces

Three things I remember about second grade:

It rained a lot that year. We ended up with a lot of “indoor recess” days where we played games and worked puzzles on the floor instead of running around outside. I now know that these were probably not fun days for my sweet teacher, Mrs. Medina. One of the games we had was Memory. In my memory, no one would play Memory with me because I was too good, but in reality it was more likely because I was a sore winner.
We kept eggs under an incubator in Mrs. Medina’s room and hatched some of them into chicks. However, we also cracked open several of the eggs at various stages of chick development to see what was going on in there. It was VERY educational. I have no idea what happened to the hatched chicks.
We made a book—a real, honest-to-goodness book—called All About Friendship. My story “The Runaway Horses” was published in it. Here it is in its entirety:

Not bad, but I'm not sure the horses have a strong enough motivation, and the farmer character needs a lot more development. — Not bad, but the horses could have had stronger motivation, and the farmer character needs to be more developed.

I also designed the cover of All About Friendship. While my writing has been published in various places over the years, I believe this may be the only professional illustrating I ever did.

In fourth grade, Mrs. Hammack took us on our first trip to Enterprise City. Enterprise City is a fake city inside a building where kids get to practice for the “real world.” We learned how to write and cash checks and make out receipts and everyone had a job—You could work at the bank or a store or the post office… There was even a police officer who could write tickets for anyone breaking the laws, like walking across the grass (carpet) where we weren’t supposed to walk. We all had work shifts, for which we were paid in Enterprise City money, and then we had time to walk around “town” and shop or hangout. It was pretty cool. I worked at the newspaper as the reporter.

Unfortunately, I was extremely biased in my reporting. Here’s a sample article, written in cursive like all good newspapers:

Ah, the purple ink of the mimeograph machine... — Ah, the purple ink of the mimeograph machine…

Paul Toal was my friend and coworker at the newspaper, Kelley Hamrick was my cousin, and Carie Kinder was… Oh, wait! That’s me! Yeah, the whole paper was like that. I dedicated an entire page to my best friend Camille’s store (Cami’s Snacks) but wrote not a word on the town’s crime statistics. Oh well.

In sixth grade, our teachers produced an eighty-page (eighty actual pieces of paper because page numbers were only written on one side) book called Reading and Writing Work Together! which included multiple writing pieces from every student in the sixth grade. This mammoth publication was printed on bright orange paper and a copy was given to every student. (80 pages x 40-something students = a number that would give any principal today a copy-budget-related heart attack, but these were different times.)

By this time, a boy named David Liu had taken over the job of cover artist, and rightly so. We were in awe of his dragon drawings. But I was well-represented in the pages of the book. My work in the anthology included two poems about Halloween, a descriptive paragraph about spring, a persuasive piece entitled “GIRLS’ RIGHTS,” and a personal narrative about the day I got braces. [Excerpt: “As we were about to pull into the driveway, I asked my mom if I could punch my brother if he called me names. She said no. I punched him anyway.”]

However, my favorite piece was my short story, “Mystery Mansion.” Here it is, with present-day commentary:

* “Mystery Mansion” was previously published in Reading and Writing Work Together!, by Mrs. Fordyce’s sixth grade class, Terrace Elementary, 1989.

Hmm… a horror story with a cliffhanger ending? Yep, I’m still partial to those today. For proof, you can check out “The Jack-in-the-Box.”

My earliest work has taught me that I’m on the right track. I’ve abandoned my dreams of illustrating and have (wisely) veered away from a career in investigative journalism. Fiction, poetry, and memoir writing seem to be my niche, and I’m sticking to them. Who knows, maybe I’ll turn “Mystery Mansion” into a full length novel someday.

Thank you to Scott Montgomery for the illustrations on my poem.

Thank you to my 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade teachers– Mrs. Medina, Mrs. Hammack, Mrs. Fordyce, Mrs. Cottam, and Ms. Ouzts– for providing me with such a great start in my writing career and for giving me such wonderful souvenirs of my time at Terrace Elementary. Thank you also to my 3rd and 5th grade teachers– Mrs. Jonas, Mrs. Henderson, and Mr. Dodd. I have so many wonderful memories from your classrooms.