Frustrating

I'm working on stuff for the new school year, and as I'm pulling things together, the fact that so few resources exist for high school teachers when compared to lower elementary is being pounded into me once again.  If you don't believe me, check any place.  Google.  Get on Pinterest.  What you will find is a world of "cutsie" graphics and stripped-down, bright and happy language that are nearly impossible to adapt for anyone over the age of 10.

I did, in fact, do a quick search for "education" on Pinterest.  What comes up are thousands of pins, but the vast majority of them are elementary or middle school oriented. The pins for classroom organization have great stuff, but so much of it revolves around "setting up centers" for different subject areas in the elementary room, or outlines for items and procedures that do NOT exist in my universe (for example, the ever-popular discipline chart in which kids move up and down using clothespins...great if you have 30-ish students. Not quite so useful when you have more than 100....)  If you search for "high school education" on the same sight, you only get a few hundred pins, and the vast majority of them are actually the same social media usage poster pinned and repinned by teachers probably desperate to find something, anything that works for them.

High school and elementary school do not work the same way.  It is different enough that most people are licensed for K-6 or 7-12.  We are different tribes.  If you have a big meeting or conference, if you are a careful observer, you can tell the difference between the elementary folks and the high school folks.  Generally, the elementary folks will be dressed in bright garments, school shirts, or "teacher" accessories consisting of apples, rosy-cheeked stick people, crayonish drawings. They tend to move around in large groups.

High school teachers also tend to have an identifiable appearance, but I suppose it is somewhat variable.  There are the immaculately turned-out ones who are always in suit-ish garb.  There are the "rumpled professors" who look just a little bit out of place, stare at things, and wander around.  Their clothing tends to be slightly threadbare, old-fashioned, or in need of an iron.  Finally, you have the quirky ones who wear jeans and and maybe a shirt with something from their subject matter on it.  I guess you can think of them as the geek-teacher squad.  I personally am one of these.  Most high school teachers tend to move around in smaller groups or alone.

Everywhere I go, the scales tend to tip toward the bright tribe.  At conferences, the materials showcase usually is much more about those first years than it is about my students.  Sellers of school stuff tend to make the majority of it in primary colors with adornments that I can only think of as "precious."  When I go online and try to find resources, the majority of those things have something for elementary school on it, such as how to make a chart for the car riders, the bus riders, and the walkers.  (And yes, I know this is a middle school thing, too....they fall into a grey area between the other two.)

I teach seniors.  I need something interesting visually but age appropriate.  I need things that talk with adult phrases and situations instead of toys and balls and big-eyed puppies.  While it's true that I still have students who carry SpongeBob backpacks, they will look suspiciously or outright reject things that they think are "too childish" for them when it comes to instructional material.  Teens are so sensitive to being talked down to, and I think they see these things as a condescension.  They will treat with suspicion or outright disdain and refusal anything that looks too "babyish" (a word that I have actually had students, especially struggling learners, use for things).

In addition to the problem with the students' perceptions is the fit to the teachers' personalities.  Let's face it.  If you know anything about me, you already know that cutsie is not a part of my universe.  I would feel like I was trying to be something I'm not if I had a room full of "ABCs and 123s."  It does not suit me.  I think there are a lot of people it doesn't suit.

There is nothing wrong with any particular style; it just needs to be with the appropriate people.  The content that I have in my room would probably not be appropriate for elementary school.  It would not stimulate them or entertain them.  It might consist of things they haven't experienced yet or contain language that is over their heads.  I know that, and I don't pretend otherwise.  What I wish is that manufacturers of educational materials, be they of decor, resources, or just online handouts, could realize that what works in one age group might not necessarily transfer, or simply push things at us and expect the high school teachers to "adapt them."

Maybe the elementary school teachers just buy more and therefore demand more of the makers' attention.  Maybe the image of the 1950s rosy-cheeked school kid persists, everybody innocent and juvenile.  Maybe most high school teachers are not inclined to decorate or look for things online.

I don't know the cause of it, but I wish we could ALL find what we need.  I have students who are mothers themselves now, students who are working every minute they are not in school so they (and their families) can eat, students who don't have a regular home that they go back to at the end of the day.  I think you can understand how these people, who perhaps have had maturity forced upon them too soon, would not find teddy bears and quaint tiny schoolhouses to be engaging or terribly applicable to their current reality.

Oh, there are companies that do both the elementary and the high school.  Teacher's Discovery has fabulous and appropriate resources and decor for every age.  I can't say enough good things about them.  Trend, the famous poster and bulletin board company, has good posters and borders that can work for everything, but even most of their bulletin board sets are for students much younger than mine.  (I love their stuff, but if I use it, my kids are going to laugh me right out of my room or think I'm one of those teachers who lives in a fantasy world.  And I might be, but I don't live in THAT fantasy world....)  Prestwick House, too, makes great efforts at balance and has many wonderful things for high school.

What I'd love to see (and not have to MAKE), though, is a great bulletin board set of vintage images, maybe from 1930s clip art.  Or owls (since I love them so much) that aren't quite so adorable.  What I have for owl decor in my room is vintage collectibles.   Maybe somebody could do some vintage owls, too?  And as for the same kind of printable resources that ABOUND for elementary school, where do I start?

I know that this probably seems like a minor issue, but it frustrates me constantly.  I spend vast amounts of time creating things that I need when other age groups seem to be able to tap into a fountain of premade items.  While I enjoy making some things, it would be nice to have all those well-made products and options available to me.  Until that day comes, though, I will just continue doing what I have always done: improvisation, creation, and creative junking.  It has worked out okay so far....