Glen Cove Elementary, 20 Years Later

From 1995 to 2006, I taught fourth and fifth grade at Glen Cove Elementary School. My last day as a teacher was May 17, 2006, which was a Wednesday. I left at lunchtime. There was still a month left before the school year ended. I loved my job and I had a great class that year, but I had a very good reason for leaving midday, midweek, a month early: I was nine months pregnant. My doctor wanted me resting as much as possible. I'd been leaving school at lunchtime for the past month. With state testing finished that morning, I would be home full-time until the baby was born (exactly three weeks later, as it turned out). Fortunately, I'd used so little sick leave during my 11 years of teaching that I had enough time to cover a month of afternoons off in addition to the month of full days I was taking off, with plenty left over. 

I visited my former coworkers at Glen Cove fairly often for the first few years after I stopped teaching, until eventually almost everyone I knew there had retired. The last time I was at Glen Cove was in May 2016. I attended the retirement party of Greg Allison, the principal I'd had all 11 years I taught. Spending time at Glen Cove, with so many of my former coworkers, was like coming home. 

Somehow, ten years have passed since then, meaning it has now been twenty years since I ended my teaching career. I decided that I would mark 20 years out of the classroom by visiting the school. By happy coincidence, the current principal at Glen Cove, Kensaburo Daniels, is a leader in our Scout troop, so it was easy to make the arrangements. Since May 17 fell on a Sunday, I visited Glen Cove on Monday, May 18. 

My first surprise was immediate. There is a fence around the school! This used to be completely open. It looks so different with the fence there. 

Time to check in at the office!

The building is the same, but so many things are different. It was surreal. Back in the day, the teachers had a dedicated work room across from the main office. Now it is office space and the copier and laminator are in the staff room. Areas that were used for storage when I was there are now offices and spaces we used for storage are used for small group work with students. 

The cafeteria hasn't changed much. 

The trophy case now has photos from the construction of the school, which began in 1988. 

Glen Cove was named a California Distinguished School in 2000. I was part of the group that worked on the successful application.  

This is the school library. There was a class in there when I visited, so I photographed the only area without kids. The room has more tables in it than when I was a teacher, but otherwise is pretty similar. 

B-Pod was my building for all 11 years that I taught. It has six classrooms, B1-B6. I started in B5 when we were a four-track year-round school. Every three months when we went off track, the students and I packed up every single item in our classroom and stored it all in the middle of the pod. After a month off, we came back into the classroom that had just been vacated by another class. It was a weird schedule, but I loved it. (The schedule, not the packing and moving. That part was terrible.) The school year started the first week of August in B5, then we had the entire month of September off. We moved into B6 for October, November, and December, then we had two weeks off for the holidays, plus the entire month of January. We came back to a third classroom, B4, for February, March, and April, then had all of May off. We were back in B5 for June and most of July, then the school year ended. There was a week off before the new school year started. 

When Glen Cove went to a single-track modified year-round schedule, whatever classroom each teacher was currently in became their permanent home. Mine was B4. 

Now B4 is used as an art room. 

So many things are different, most having to do with technology. The first thing I noticed is that my beloved chalkboards are missing! So are my pull-down maps and the screen I used with an overhead projector. I had one single computer in my classroom that I used for writing worksheets and parent letters and the kids used for Accelerated Reader; we had no Internet access. When I visited, there were Chromebooks out on most of the desks, as the art room was temporarily being used for state testing. 

The Dutch doors that we had (and weren't allowed to use for fear someone would lose a finger) have been replaced with normal doors. There are proper screens over the porthole windows. Most teachers left their windows uncovered back in the day, but since B4 faced the playground, I covered mine with curtains so that the primary kids didn't use their entire recess staring at us like zoo animals. 

That area on the left used to be grass. 

The playgrounds are similar to how they used to be, other than the now-dead grass. You'll have to take my word for it; there were kids playing on all the structures and at the basketball courts, so I didn't take pictures of any of that. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the painted map of the US was still visible on the concrete. I was there when it was painted. My students and I used it all the time for geography games and general fun. 

See those painted storage units? They were painted during Glen Cove's 20th birthday party in 2009. 

I wasn't teaching anymore, but we attended the party and had a great time. In fact, the smallest child on those storage units is Trevor! Check out these pictures I found. Trevor was 3.

Back to present-day. There is a fence separating the playground from the field. We used that field for PE, Presidential Physical Fitness testing, field days, outdoor art activities, and so much more. 

Another major change at Glen Cove: the people. There is exactly one person left from 20 years ago, Mrs. Ochoa. It was great to see her. By the way, I wore my 1995 Glen Cove Hawks t-shirt for my visit. I got a lot of comments about it. 

In some ways, my teaching career feels like it ended yesterday and in other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago. 

I had such a such a great visit. It was the perfect way to mark the milestone of 20 years out of the classroom. Huge thanks to Mr. Daniels for his time and to everyone at Glen Cove for their hospitality.