Peggy Joines: You can help offset budget cuts in the schools

Though I don't have an opinion about how the state should address its education-budget woes, I know that any action will likely have an impact on our students and classroom teachers. Change does that. I'd like to offer a non-expert point of view on the inside of a classroom and ways we can offset the impact.

I graduated with a degree in education, however I spent my career in corporate America. Though community service was my main calling after leaving Wachovia in 2009, I chose to spend some of my time teaching. With that in mind, I became an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a substitute teacher in the local school system.

My substitute work led me to Konnoak Elementary School. At Konnoak I experienced an engaging environment with dedicated teachers and staff. This relationship led to a call last August asking me to consider a long-term fourth-grade substitute assignment beginning the first day of school. Lesson plans were already developed, so all I needed to do was follow the weekly plan. The 8 – 4 schedule allowed time at the end of the day to meet my other volunteer obligations. No problem, I thought, I can do this — how hard could it be? Certainly after spending as much time as I have doing the challenging work required by corporate America, I could handle an elementary school classroom. I will pause for a moment to let every elementary school teacher reading this laugh at my complete naivety.

Little did I know what was in store when I met the children who would change my perspective: Axel, Bryan, Cynthia, Derik, Fernando, Hayley, Isaac, Jacquez, Jose, Katie, Kelli, Keshaun, Luis, Matilda, Michaela, Mickael, Myric, Robert, Stephanie, Sterling and Vincent arrived on the first day of school ready to learn. These 21 unique human beings with 21 different levels of skill, knowledge, language ability (almost 40 percent are English-as-a-second-language learners), and family support systems called me "teacher." It is difficult to describe the overwhelming responsibility I felt to overachieve in this role. As an aside, because Konnoak is a Title I school, the class size is smaller than others I've experienced.

I quickly learned that since the children arrived at 8:30 a.m. and left at 3:30 p.m., my work time would bleed far into the early morning, late evening and weekend hours, given the responsibilities of differentiating lessons, so that all skill levels could engage, creating worksheets and tests, making copies, grading papers, creating bulletin boards, conferring with parents and taking care of the myriad other duties assumed by elementary school teachers. Without a doubt I worked longer hours in those seven weeks than any equal period of my corporate career. And the worry level was much higher. I feared that Mrs. McDonald would return to her fourth-grade class and, after gauging student progress, ask, "What the heck did Mrs. Joines do for seven weeks?"

It was a most rewarding experience. And although I don't know how the school system should manage through the very real budget issues, I do have a couple of thoughts about what you and I can do to offset their impact.

First, we can give of our resources. Each school is different in the level of financial support it gets from parents and the community at large. I challenge you to find a school that serves a less-fortunate population and ask for a wish list. My bet is that for a small amount of money you can make a difference. As budgets get tighter, this may become even more critical.

Second, we can give of our talents. Many of you have the skill and ability to help in a school. Though many schools have all the volunteer help they need, schools that serve less-fortunate students may not have the same level of support. Each teacher's classroom needs are different, however I am certain that you can find an opportunity that meets your needs as well as theirs.

Last but not least, thank a teacher for the work he or she does, because I think it is going to become even more difficult.

Leaving my assignment, I promised myself I would never do it again. I've softened a bit. When I now recall my experience, the two things I remember are the reward I received each time a student "got it" and the smiles and hugs that squeezed my heart until it lodged in my throat.

Peggy Joines, a teacher and community volunteer, is married to Mayor Allen Joines. The Journal welcomes original submissions for guest columns on local, regional and statewide topics. Essay length should not exceed 750 words. The writer should have some authority for writing about his or her subject. Our e-mail address is: Letters@wsjournal.com. Essays may also be mailed to: The Readers' Forum, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. Please include your name and address and a daytime telephone number.