Carie Juettner

Interview With a Teacher #5: Ms. S

Thank you for participating in my interviews, Ms. S! Your unique teaching situation makes my head spin. So many subjects to teach (and all in the same class period) and so much fluctuation. But it’s obvious you’re the perfect fit for this particular population of students. Thanks for being there for them. ❤️

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A Note About These Interviews:

I taught seventh grade for almost twenty years and was constantly surprised at the difference between what friends, family, parents, neighbors, and community members imagined my job was like and what it actually was like. The few times I had the privilege of inviting a friend or family member to visit my classroom, they always left wide-eyed and exhausted. The purpose of these interviews is to allow the world a glimpse inside the lives of current educators. Now that I’ve quit teaching, I want to do what I can to support all the teachers still fighting the good fight, and I don’t want to forget what life is like inside a school.

All questions are optional. The teacher may write as much or as little as they want. If they don’t feel comfortable answering a question for any reason, they’re allowed to leave it blank or say “I prefer not to answer.” For confidentiality and privacy purposes, the name of the teacher’s school will not be published, and they may choose how they refer to themselves. (Full name, initials only, or even simply “Teacher.”) Participants have been asked to refrain from using student names or to change names. When describing student or parent interactions, they may be vague or change slight details to protect anonymity as long as the message/tone of the encounter stays the same.

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Interview With Ms. S:

I’m curious about what’s in those cups, Ms. S.

In no more than three words, describe how you feel right now.

need ice cream
What is today’s date?

September 28, 2022
How old are you?

46
How many years (total) have you been teaching?

13
Have you ever taken a break from teaching? If so, why and for how long?

Yes, 1.5 years to get a master’s degree and 10 years to raise personal kids.
What is your current salary?

$65,000
Is there anything you would like to share about your personal life or family situation?

1 husband, 2 sons, 1 cat
In what city and state do you teach?

North Texas
What grade(s) and subject(s) do you currently teach?

9-12 Integrated Physics and Chemistry (IPC), Chemistry, Physics – I teach at a public alternative school that is grades K-12. Some of our high school students are in our academic program which means they are 2 or more years behind in high school credits or are pregnant/ parenting. They generally stay for a semester, but can stay longer. Our DAEP (Disciplinary Alternative Education Program) students (all grades) are with us because they have gotten in trouble. Most of the offenses for high school students are drug use on campus, assault, terroristic threats, or public lewdness (sex on campus). These students are with us for 20 to 45 days.
How many years have you been in your current teaching position?

3
How many conference periods do you have per day?

1
How many students do you teach total?

34 today. This number changes frequently.
If you teach multiple classes, how many students are in your smallest class and your largest class?

Smallest = 1. Largest = 10. Unlike in a regular classroom, subjects are mixed in a class period. So my 6th period only has 4 students, but 2 are taking chemistry, 1 physics, and 1 IPC.
On average, how many meetings do you have per week?

2
What other responsibilities do you have at school besides teaching your own classes? (For example: bus duty, cafeteria monitor, after school club, chaperone, committee member, team leader, coach, etc.)

Morning breakfast duty, ESL (English as a Second Language) Coordinator
Are you compensated for any of your extra duties?

For ESL Coordinator
When was the last time you took a day off?

Last January
Describe the reason for your absence and the process you went through in order to take the day off.

I was sick. I filled out two forms, and sent directions for each student to my department head to print and pass on to the sub. I don’t remember if I had a sub or if other teachers had to cover my classes. None of my students completed any work.
Describe a positive interaction you’ve had with a student this year.

I do these engineering design challenges every couple of weeks (build a bridge out of straws that can hold the most weight, build a car that can propel itself, etc.) Some of my most struggling students really excel at these. I run them as competitions. Their reward for winning is a paper star outside the door with their name on it. They are so proud of those stars.
Describe a challenging interaction you’ve had with a student this year.

I have a 5th year senior who can’t stay awake. We are lucky to get 20 minutes of work done a day, and I have him for 2 class periods. He says he stays up late watching things on his phone. He is 19, he is an adult, but we can’t convince him to make adult decisions.
Describe a positive interaction you’ve had with a parent this year.

I called a parent to tell them how impressed I was with her daughter as a person and a student. The student came in the next day to tell me how happy her mom was about the call.
Describe a challenging interaction you’ve had with a parent this year.

Our parents don’t always want to be contacted. Some will never answer a call from a school number.
Describe a positive interaction you’ve had with a coworker or administrator this year.

Most have been generally positive.
Describe a challenging interaction you’ve had with a coworker or administrator this year.

Mostly positive.
What’s the funniest or weirdest thing that’s happened at school this year?

My students can’t have phones on campus. New students go through withdrawals. You’ll see them feeling frantically around their pockets for their phones before realizing they gave them up at the beginning of the day.

I asked a student why he wasn’t at school the day before. He said he had court. I asked how it went. He said he had to stay out of trouble for 3 months. “Can you?” I asked. “I don’t know,” he said. “I do some pretty dumb s**t.”

At a training, we were discussing what kinds of disciplinary infractions should be handled in the classroom and what kinds could be referred to the principal. To reinforce my learning, I got to complete a word search covering Level 4 Infractions. Word list included: assault, felony, retaliation, murder, kidnapping, arson, robbery. FYI, these can all be referred to the principal immediately.

We fill out forms about our DAEP (discipline) students describing their behavior during our time with us. They then go over the comments at a meeting with their campus principal and our staff. One kid came back to my room mad. “Miss, you put on my form that I use inappropriate language in class. Why the f**k would you do that?”
What time did you arrive at work today?

7:40 A.M.
What time did you leave work today? If you are still at work, what time did you leave yesterday?

5:00 (I will end up working another 8 – 10 hours over the weekend)
Describe your lunch today. (Length, food, location, what you did while eating, etc.)

I had avocado on crackers, an apple, pretzels, a cookie and water. I ate in the classroom of another science teacher. Lunch is 30 minutes.
Describe one success you experienced today.

Half of my 4th period needed to take a test. The other half stayed quiet. This is a class that is never quiet.
Describe one challenge you experienced today.

A cockroach climbed up my leg. There may have been screaming.
What time did you complete this survey?

9:48 P.M.
How satisfied are you with your current job? (1 = not at all satisfied, 5 = very satisfied)

3
As of right now, do you plan to continue teaching next year?

Yes
What’s the best thing about being a teacher?

I meet some very interesting people.

Teacher, I want to tell you something, and I want you to listen. You are amazing. You are creative and smart and hardworking and beautiful. You are valued by those who are paying attention, and you deserve so much more than you receive from society. You are a superhero, and the world is a better place with you in it. Thank you for everything you do for your students, your community, and your fellow teachers. I appreciate you. Now, close your eyes and take three long, deep breaths, then open your eyes.
In no more than three words, describe how you feel right now.

ready for bed

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If you are a current teacher and would like to be interviewed for my blog or if you know a current teacher I should interview, contact me!

Interview With a Teacher #4: Mr. L

Thank you to Mr. L for taking the time to participate in my interviews! I love hearing from first-year teachers. Despite the fact that he’s facing some struggles, I can tell from his responses that he’s working his butt off and doing a great job. This is the second teacher to mention making a positive phone call home. Those positive parent interactions can make such a big difference, but they take time, and it’s obvious from these posts how little time teachers have in their day. BIG kudos to Mr. L for making the time to reach out with some good news. ❤️

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A Note About These Interviews:

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Interview With Mr. L:

Mr. L must have a great teacher voice if his students keep asking him to sing.

In no more than three words, describe how you feel right now.

defeated, hopeless, tired
What is today’s date?

September 20, 2022
How old are you?

24
How many years (total) have you been teaching?

0
Have you ever taken a break from teaching? If so, why and for how long?

no
What is your current salary?

$59,750
Is there anything you would like to share about your personal life or family situation?

I live alone in a 2 bedroom apartment, and my rent takes up nearly 40% of my monthly earnings.
In what city and state do you teach?

DFW, Texas
What grade(s) and subject(s) do you currently teach?

7th grade ELAR (English Language Arts & Reading)
How many years have you been in your current teaching position?

a month and a half
How many conference periods do you have per day?

2
How many students do you teach total?

68 for ELAR, 13 for Advisory (two of those have me for ELAR)
If you teach multiple classes, how many students are in your smallest class and your largest class?

9 kids in my Honors ELAR, 30 kids in my regular ELAR
On average, how many meetings do you have per week?

3
What other responsibilities do you have at school besides teaching your own classes? (For example: bus duty, cafeteria monitor, after school club, chaperone, committee member, team leader, coach, etc.)

I have hall duty once a day, and then I’ll have bus duty once this year in February.
Are you compensated for any of your extra duties?

Nope. However, when we get asked to cover another teacher’s class because we don’t have enough subs, we do get paid for covering. That said, teachers have been saying they aren’t seeing where they’re getting paid in their paychecks or pay stubs.
When was the last time you took a day off?

I haven’t yet, but I plan to for a camp I teach once a year.
Describe the reason for your absence and the process you went through in order to take the day off.

When I take off for the camp I teach, I’ll have three days off. I had to submit a personal leave request form, which required me to secure my own sub if I wanted to get the days off approved.
Describe a positive interaction you’ve had with a student this year.

I’m off last period, and one of my kids from my fourth period comes in during the transition before 8th period to help me stack chairs on the desk for the custodian (so it’s easier for them to sweep) instead of waiting outside her science class. This student asks me every day if they’re my favorite, and they’ve been begging me to sing for the class (because I tell them I should be a famous singer) and audition for the school play with them.
Describe a challenging interaction you’ve had with a student this year.

I have a few kids who, when they’re not on their meds, physically cannot stop making noise or moving around the room. It’s not usually ill-intentioned, but it’s disruptive and distracts others. I’ve tried everything I can think of to give them the space and grace to get that energy out, but they abuse it because they like the attention they get from their friends in class. It’s been and will continue to be an ongoing struggle.
Describe a positive interaction you’ve had with a parent this year.

I called a dad to tell him his kid did a great job raising his hand to speak (the class was so out-of-control that I had to get them to only speak when allowed to after raising their hand) when his kid is one of the kids who really struggled to stay quiet. The dad was so excited because he usually doesn’t get good calls home from teachers.
Describe a challenging interaction you’ve had with a parent this year.

One parent is at her wit’s end with her kid, and she is constantly bombarded by school personnel about her kid’s behavior. She was cooperative and looking to come up with solutions with me, but she needed to vent about her kid and stayed on the phone for half an hour with me after my contract hours had ended.
Describe a positive interaction you’ve had with a coworker or administrator this year.

I’m lucky to be somewhere where several veteran teachers reached out to me to offer their support, advice, guidance, etc. for whatever I need. I took them up on that, and now one stops by every day during our mutual conference to check in on how things are going and catch up on how we’re doing. She keeps our conversations short so as not to waste my time, but it’s nice to have someone regularly checking in on me without consuming the little time I have to grade, prepare lessons/materials, contact parents, etc.
Describe a challenging interaction you’ve had with a coworker or administrator this year.

I’m basically making everything for our lessons from scratch because none of the other teacher pull their own weight when it comes to making materials, but they all want to use the stuff “we” have created. I wanted us to collaborate because I knew I couldn’t do everything myself as a new teacher, but now it feels like it’s just expected that if they don’t do their work, I will pick up their slack (and I will because if I don’t, I won’t have necessary material I need to teach my kids).
What’s the funniest or weirdest thing that’s happened at school this year?

I have a kid who signed all of their work “stan kpop” (if you don’t know what a stan is, look it up) so far this year, but today they signed their work “stan Mr. L.” I’ve never been prouder in my life.
[Note: Ok, I admit, I had to look up the meaning of stan. Also, kpop is a music style, short for “Korean popular music” in case anyone needed to know.]
What time did you arrive at work today?

7:00 A.M.
What time did you leave work today? If you are still at work, what time did you leave yesterday?

5:45 P.M.
Describe your lunch today. (Length, food, location, what you did while eating, etc.)

We give lunch detentions, but there aren’t enough desks in the cafeteria to accommodate the amount of detentions that get given, so we have to track down kids in the cafeteria and bring them up to our rooms for lunch detention. I had to gather about 15 kids today and herd them up to their respective teacher’s room for the person who gave them detention before I could sit down to eat my lunch. My lunch is 30 minutes long, and I had about 18 minutes to eat my lunch. I ate my salad while responding to parent emails and trying to plan with a coworker. I didn’t get to finish lunch because I rushed out when the bell rang to try to make it to the bathroom and back before the start of class. On the way back, I overheard a teacher trying to get a missing backpack back to a kid in my class, so I had to stop and get that before heading back to my class. I was two minutes late to class.
Describe one success you experienced today.

My rowdy class entered the room quietly and gathered their materials quickly for the first time in weeks. (We’ve been practicing this for weeks. You’d think they’d know how to do this in middle school, but they don’t.)
Describe one challenge you experienced today.

My rowdy class was actually the best they’ve been all year, but by the end of our 90-minute block, they just couldn’t focus anymore. Our discussion where they got to move around the room devolved into chaos, especially since the kids started a stealthy version of tag today and were trying to play in my class.
What time did you complete this survey?

8:38 P.M.
How satisfied are you with your current job? (1 = not at all satisfied, 5 = very satisfied)

2
As of right now, do you plan to continue teaching next year?

Yes
What’s the best thing about being a teacher?

Seeing kids smile and say “hi” when they see me in the halls

Teacher, I want to tell you something, and I want you to listen. You are amazing. You are creative and smart and hardworking and beautiful. You are valued by those who are paying attention, and you deserve so much more than you receive from society. You are a superhero, and the world is a better place with you in it. Thank you for everything you do for your students, your community, and your fellow teachers. I appreciate you. Now, close your eyes and take three long, deep breaths, then open your eyes.
In no more than three words, describe how you feel right now.

better, supported, encouraged

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If you are a current teacher and would like to be interviewed for my blog or if you know a current teacher I should interview, contact me!

Looking Back on a Little Piece of Horror

It’s October, my favorite month. We’re only a couple of days in, but already the season looks promising. I have a new home to decorate, so my favorite old frightful friends have come out to play on our porches. The weather has turned cool enough to open the windows in the mornings and cook chicken stew in the crockpot. (Can you smell it? Mmmm…) Oh, and that empty lot by our house where hubby and I like to walk our dog in the evenings? Yeah, we’ve started experiencing random (or not so random?) cold spots as we meander through. So… my spooky specters might not be the only ones hanging around this Halloween. It’s fine, I’m keeping an eye on things (and making my husband walk in front of me).

This October marks the anniversary of one of my horror publications. Nine years ago, I entered the 24-Hour Short Story Contest on WritersWeekly.com, and my piece, “The Devil’s Plaything,” won the first place prize. The email announcing the good news arrived the day before my birthday, and I was thrilled with the acceptance and prize money. However, the part that made me smile the most was the editor’s comment about my story. She wrote, “Your story FREAKED US OUT!!! Made us want to go to church and get right with the Lord to avoid Hell. Ha ha!!” I thought that was a pretty cool endorsement of my horror writing.

What’s strange is that the story I wrote didn’t really freak me out at the time, but it does now.

The 24-Hour Contest works like this: You sign up to participate. At noon on the contest date, WritersWeekly sends all participants the prompt and word count. Entries must be submitted by noon the following day. Stories have to touch on the prompt in some way, but details can be changed, and entries cannot exceed the word count, or they won’t be considered. For the Fall 2013 contest, the word limit was 900 words, not including the title (mine was 898), and the prompt was the following:

She wiped her hands on her apron, peering out the window. Red and orange leaves hurried by as the cold autumn wind battered the small cabin. The girl should have been back from the errand by now. At that moment, she saw the flying, fiery red braids. The devil’s mark on her right cheek, a constant reminder, was clearly visible, even at dusk. The girl, breathless, burst through the wooden door.

“Ma! Come quickly!!”

When I read this prompt, my mind immediately leapt to a setting and characters and an idea, and I got to work. I didn’t submit my story until 10:56 A.M. the following day, just over an hour until the deadline, but I spent the majority of that time revising the story down to 900 words and editing it. (I also slept and ate, etc.) But the big idea, the vision for the piece, never faltered. While my story grew and became flesh and then whittled away beneath each stroke of my delete button, its essence remained. And it didn’t creep me out, not really. It was just a story that came to my mind that I was giving life to. That’s all.

But now…

I re-read this story a couple of weeks ago and thought, Yikes! How disturbing! Then I remembered those disturbing images were my own creations and felt a bit chagrined. Is this the plight of horror writers? We’re too close to the writing while creating it to see what others see, so our work only scares us after the fact? Does Stephen King shiver when he re-reads The Shining today? Or did that terrifying tale always make him shiver? And, more importantly, did I just compare myself to Stephen King? Because I definitely did not mean to do that. *more chagrin*

Anyway, today I’m sharing my 1st Place story, “The Devil’s Plaything,” here on my blog. Be warned: This story made the editors of WritersWeekly.com feel the need to go to church, and they published the following disclaimer with it: READER DISCRETION ADVISED! Some readers may find this story offensive. If you are sensitive, or easily offended, click back now…before it’s too late!

So, if you feel like reading a little horror story, enjoy! If not, that’s fine. Go open a window and bask in front of a cool fall breeze instead. October is yours to appreciate however you like.

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The Devil’s Plaything

by Carie Juettner

Charlotte peered through the gash in the wall of the shed. Sparks leapt from the ditch outside where lava glowed red and orange in the always-dusk. She squinted her eyes through the gray smoke, wondering where Delilah was.

At that moment, Charlotte saw the fiery red ponytail, bouncing like a flame of lava that had broken free of the creek bed. Watching the girl emerge from the semi-darkness, Charlotte wiped a scaly arm across her brow. Then, tentatively, she rubbed her palm over her entire head, wincing at the sparse strands and flaking scalp. Most of her hair was gone, singed off from the heat of this place, the searing winds and suffocating dryness. But Delilah’s flame-colored ponytail seemed immune to the environment. Delilah herself seemed immune to it. From the movement of her hair, Charlotte could tell her daughter was skipping again. What kind of person skips through Hell? she thought, and stepped away from the wall.

She was poking at the fire in the stove when Delilah burst through the doorway. Charlotte looked up, determined to meet her daughter’s eye, but her glance landed, as usual, on her right cheek instead. On the Devil’s mark.

“Where’ve you been, Deli?” she asked, tearing her gaze from the crescent-moon scar to her daughter’s hazel eyes.

“Mom, I want to show you something!”

“Delilah, I asked you a question.” Charlotte placed her hands in the spot on her emaciated frame where her hips used to be and tried to put on a serious face. It was difficult without eyebrows. “Where’ve you been?”

The little girl twisted her finger through her ponytail and looked around the dilapidated shack before fixing her eyes on her mother’s mangy scalp. Then a tiny smile grew out of the left side of her mouth. “He said I didn’t have to tell you.”

Charlotte stiffened.

“But I will.” The smile expanded, and Delilah looked down at her hands. That’s when Charlotte noticed they weren’t empty. “We walked down by the cliff,” she said, turning the thing over and over, letting it slip between her fingers and curl up in her palm. “You know, where the chained ones are? By the pit?”

Charlotte nodded.

“We walked along there and He showed me how He does it, how He rakes them across the coals until…” She paused, inspecting her new toy. “Until it just pops out!” She held her cupped palms aloft. The thing in her hands was part solid, part smoke. It writhed and squirmed and seemed to reach for something.

Charlotte stared at it in horror.

“He said I could keep it.” Delilah grinned devilishly. “He said I need to learn.”

Charlotte sewed a smile onto her face, stitch by painful stitch. “That’s great, Deli. I’m really proud of you.”

Delilah kept her eyes on the grasping, groping figure. “He said you wouldn’t like it.”

“No, I do, I do!” Charlotte swallowed. “Can I… can I hold it?” She reached out her raw, cracked, shaking hands.

The little girl seemed to consider the gesture, consider her mother. Then she pulled her prize close to her chest. “No. I don’t trust you.”

Charlotte dropped her hands and breathed a long sigh. “Well, why don’t you go… play with it while I make dinner. I’ll call you when it’s ready. Don’t go far,” her voice cracked. “Please.”

Delilah said nothing, but she turned and went outside.

Charlotte stared into the coals. I don’t belong here, she thought. I don’t belong in Hell. She remembered the “accident”, remembered the pain and then the absence of pain. She remembered the verdict placed upon them both, though only one of them deserved it. It’s her fault I’m here. Charlotte remembered the way the Devil had looked at Delilah, the way He had run His thorn-like fingers through her fiery red ponytail, smiling.

She peeked through the space in the wall. Her daughter kneeled in the always-dusk, holding the writhing soul against a large rock and pounding away at it with a smaller, sharper stone. Smash, smash, again and again, her ponytail bouncing with each thrust, her lips curled into a smirk.

Later, when Delilah returned, she was alone. No sign of the soul. “I’m hungry,” she whined.

“Where’s your… toy?” Charlotte asked.

“It broke.”

“The food’s ready. Be a good girl and get it out of the oven?”

Delilah sighed dramatically, then opened the metal door with her bare hand and peered inside. “There’s nothing in here! Where’s–“

Charlotte pushed against the little girl’s body with all her weight, shoving her inside the empty oven, raking her across the burning coals. She slammed the door and held it. Blood-curdling shrieks erupted from within, drowning out the lava’s hiss, muffling the sizzle of the earthly flesh of Charlotte’s hands cooking against the scorching metal. The girl twisted and writhed, cursed and kicked. Still her mother did not budge.

Finally, stillness. Silence. Charlotte stayed where she was, pushing her charred, skeletal fingers against the door, waiting. What happens now? she thought. When does it ‘pop out’?

And then, laughter. From inside the oven, atop the white-hot coals, a little girl’s giggles. “He said you’d try something stupid like this,” came Delilah’s voice from behind the oven door. “He’s on his way, you know.” Her giggles grew louder. Charlotte’s body shook.

“Thanks, Mom. Now I’ll have a new toy to play with.”