Adviser Update Spring 2016 | Page 20

Tips for Surviving as an Adviser in a Low-Income Area By Thomas J. Kaup, MJE 1. 7. 2. 3. 8. 9. 4. 10. Forget about the minimum six issues. Celebrate every issue you print. We just got our second issue done. Three family deaths, a robbery at gunpoint, in addition to all the usual adolescent angst got in the way. Work hard to turn off your competitive switch. Title 1 students need food, clothing, shoes, and electricity. Why do they need journalism? Journalism gives poor students and families a voice. Journalism can broadcast the struggles they face each day, just to keep the electricity on, the water bill and rent paid. Journalism can tell the story of 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade students who get on a bus for two hours to get to their shift at Taco Bell, work until 1:00 a.m. go home and clean the apartment, share a bed or piece of the floor, then get up after four hours of sleep and head to school. Advising journalism can burn a teacher out more quickly than five sections of 9th grade English. Many times the burden of economic challenges that weighs down on the shoulders of those kids in front of you each period is almost too much to bear. I haven’t found the answer. A few tips that I have learned along the way. Don’t let the need for money kill you or your program. Do what you can with what you and your students have. Forget about the rest. Making the journalism classroom a safe, warm, caring environment is worth the world to your students. Take time to be a family. 5. Buy pizza. A lot of it. Bread sticks too. And that Hershey Brownie thing. Feed your kids and celebrate how wonderful they are and amazing it is that you even HAVE a journalism program. 6. Broad shoulders help. You are probably the only stable adult in many students’ lives. You will need some other shoulders to lean on too. Find them. Set an end time and go home at that time every day. Leave the mess on the desk. My time is 4:00 p.m. Every day. Enough time to get home, walk the dogs around the block and watch the second episode of Judge Judy. It is OK to feel guilty once in a while, but don’t beat yourself up. Life will do a very good job of that, so don’t add to it. An enlarged heart is a must. You can’t solve even a minute amount of all the problems, but sending out and receiving waves of love works. The system is rigged. From the top down. Don’t stop screaming about it, or give up. But cut yourself some slack if some days it feels hopeless. Chip away. Help your kids find their voice and teach them to love themselves. That’s the best armor they will ever have to make it out there. 11. Smile.