Marilyn M. Buda
Publication Venue
December 1, 2010
The Teacher’s Voice
Ø The editor’s description of essays accepted into this publication include creative nonfiction, poetry, short stories, and essays that discuss reflections on different experiences of teachers, as well as other education-related staff, within the United States. This venue publishes thematic issues, so their schedule, format and pieces they use vary from year to year as well as issue to issue. While they may find your piece interesting and worthwhile for publishing, they may not be putting out your particular theme in a given year. They also frequently run Chapter Book contests and Poetry Contests.
Ø This publication provides a place and a voice for anyone involved in the educational environment. Very often, individuals in a teaching career go into a turn style mode and many leave as a result of disillusionment. Therefore, we never are able to gather the data on the cause and effect of this situation. Additionally, due to the current battles going on between the government and our country’s public school systems, this is now an even hotter item and place to express your thoughts and experiences. They emphasize the even more critical aspect of schools in low-income and working class communities. The people that are putting down the public school systems may be able to place these children in a prettier situation at school, however, that will not resolve all the other issues that interfere with their learning. They need to realize that most of us are not just here for the paycheck and the benefits. There are also writings about state testing, overcrowded classrooms, and finally why teachers become teachers. The teacher’s Voice is less interested in political rants and more interested in authentic experiences. They remain a “work in progress” for any and all stakeholders in education.
NOTE: The majority of the items published in this venue seem to be poems, all related to authentic experiences. There were however a few creative non-fiction essays, so the one I have written would certainly be a potential entry.
Ø Representative Essays:
“The Writing Teacher” –
Written by a teacher of English with great use of dialogue, segmentation, and ultimately humor. The teacher describes the exaggerated physical and emotional reaction of one of her students who goes into a supposed seizure upon being given her writing assignment. While in this seizure, the student is spouting a litany of story starters, transitions, and blurbs she must have learned in class. The teacher is on the floor trying to help her and the only thing that brings her out of it is telling her she doesn’t have to complete the assignment. Suddenly another student falls to the floor with similar symptoms.
“The English Patients” -
A poem, describing the varying group of students in a typical high school classroom in an inner city, shocking but real. A pregnant student, another with a baby in tow, (our high school has a day care center), students who take classes on their lunch breaks from a job, gangstas with crooked hats and low risers so you cak peek at their boxers, and the ones who will be playing in the NBA and NFL, so they don’t really need to be there. You come in with the tools to teach, but not necessarily to deal with all this.
“Drama Queen” –
A poem about the prospect of retirement for a teacher. It doesn’t seem to be as easy as it might be in other careers. I mean, whatever will you do with all that free time – weekends of course were made for grading papers and strategizing on each individual’s learning style. If you’re not a teacher, I guess we all look like drama queens. This poem uses dialogue and the residuals of the many leesons taught by the teacher that she cannot ever let go.
“The Face on the Coin” –
This essay is written by a man that spent most of his career as a substitute teacher. I don’t think I like him, but I know and understand him. He vows to practice his art in writing, but can’t seem to get paid for it. Therefore, he subs in a local junior high, but doesn’t, of course, have to teach like a real teacher. While he is there all day, he does a minimal amount of working with the kids and spends most of his time writing. The school environment and especially the students, give him lots of material for his writing. He is happy to have this job he has been doing over twenty years, because it allows him the space to work at his real dream. Interesting. He uses dialogue, and a great deal of sarcasm, enveloped in selfishness.
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