Twenty-three

Four months pass...

I'm now 23 school days from the end of my career. What's that, you say? I wasn't going to retire until the end of the calendar year? No, that's correct. I will officially retire on December 31. My doctor has said that I should take a medical leave. I went in to see him two weeks ago for my viral bronchitis, which is stubbornly hanging on. And I asked him about my overall health. I haven't been sick this much in my entire career, except for the time I had a partially collapsed lung. That was slightly worse. Anyway, he looked at my chart, checked off each line, and said, "Everything I treat you for is stress-related. What do you do again?" I laughed and said, "I teach middle school." Then he laughed and said, "Well, I guess that explains it. Can you take any time off?" Then it was my turn again and I said, "Not really. Not with the new standardized test coming. I have enough sick days coming to take off almost the whole next semester though, before I retire. Can I justify that?"  "Oh sure," he said. "I can sign that piece of paper right now. Just bring it to me. Retirement can solve a lot of these problems. I've seen it happen."

Now, the funny thing is that after talking to him, I was going to gut it out for a month in August through mid-September so I wouldn't miss any time unpaid. But then, this week, someone took an out-of-context Facebook post of mine and gave it to my principal. I had written a comic book story and a presentation while the students were testing. What I didn't post was that it was written IN MY HEAD. I didn't sit down at my desk and use a keyboard. I didn't even hand write it. I doodled a couple of page layouts and simply played the rest of it out in my head while I walked the room, bored out of my mind. I was told later that my alleged "friend" (it was a friends-only post) was concerned that if someone from the state had read it that we could be cited. I thought, well, the only way that was going to happen was if one of my "friends" had turned it in. And it seemed to me that if one of my "friends" was that concerned about it, they could have simply pointed it out to me so I could edit it for clarity or even delete it. Instead, they went to my boss, who in turn wrote me a sternly-worded email. I decided right then and there that when I walk out on June 6, I will never set foot in that building again. It could have been an administrator or a teacher from another school. I don't care. I unfriended almost every single person on my list who works for the school system. That was just beyond the pale.

Negativity over. There won't be any more. No, seriously.

I have 23 days left. I'm not going out quietly. I'm going to make the most of them. Last semester I ran a Kickstarter with my students. It was for Poe and the Mysteriads, a comic book about a retired junior partner of a masked vigilante who has to come out of retirement at age 22 to solve the murder of her former mentor. We just needed money for printing and to reimburse me for the colorist I paid. The students helped me set the goal, price out the reward levels, create Poe merchandise, and set up the entire thing. Then we watched as, over the next 30 days, the campaign played out, using Kickstarter's incredible dashboard of mathematical information to analyze and predict where it would end up. Their reward for "helping" me do work that I had actually done ahead of time was that every student would receive a free copy of Poe #1, which are at the printer right now. Oh, I forgot. I got in trouble for that too. "Donations must be approved in advance by the school board." Good grief. I guess I lied about no more negativity. But in fairness, I had forgotten that stupidity until just now. Please forgive me.

For the last five weeks, we are going to create a new Solution Squad Kickstarter. It will be for Solution Squad individual issues to be launched later this summer when the other Kickstarter has been fulfilled. Jordan Searose (the artist formerly known as Rose McClain) is doing a brand-new cover for a new printing of Solution Squad #1. It will be their first Solution Squad cover, so I'm looking forward to seeing that. There will also be a printing of Solution Squad #2, The Trouble with Trains (with cover by Eisner-winning artist Janet K. Lee. Serena Guerra is just putting the last two pages together of a whole new story called "The Case of the Eight-Inch Action Figures," which does not appear in the graphic novel, and will be combined with her previous story, The Candy Crimes of the Confectioneer, to make a 20-page comic that we'll number Solution Squad #3. I'll reprint the illustrated prose story, "The Last Boy," as Solution Squad #4. Hey, comic book story or not, it's my book, and I'll do whatever I want. And finally, Solution Squad: Origins. I'm not going to number that one, because it doesn't need to be read in any particular sequence. You can buy it as a companion piece to any of the other books.

Each of the comic books will be available to be pledge rewards individually, or in sets. There will also be the opportunity once again to purchase a comic book for a student. For the sake of my sanity, they will be made available for a student who attends a Title I school in northern Indiana. Somewhere nearby. Somewhere I don't have to have them shipped. So, like, within driving distance, let's say. I'm sure I can find one.

The real fun for this Kickstarter will be the add-ons. First, each comic book can have added to it, a digital version with a 150-device site license. This means the comic can be projected onto a smartboard AND pushed to student devices via software like Canvas for individual use. There will also be lesson plans to go with each comic. Those who purchased this level in the original Kickstarter will NOT have to pay for this feature. The plans are my first priority to finish when school lets out and they'll be in people's hands before I ever launch this one. It's been too long already, I know. This reward level will be for those who are new to the Squad. Naturally, the hardcover book will still be available as an add-on, so anyone who missed it the first time around can get a copy of it.

I'm going to turn my students loose in creating whatever kind of merchandise they want to make. They'll have to price it out, take into account the fees that Kickstarter and Backerkit will take, and still set the prices to make a profit. Shipping will be an issue for them as well. It will be interesting to see their reactions when they figure out why things are so expensive!

My plans for the summer and the fall are to re-tool and to gear up for post-retirement years. I'm really going to try to avoid going back into the classroom as much as possible once my official retirement starts in January. I don't really want to substitute teach. I still want to go to schools and talk to kids about making comics, but I really don't feel the need to be cursed out and threatened by kids anymore. One of my favorite side hustles from 25 years ago was selling action figures and comic books. So, I have enough stuff to get that started for now. I also plan to teach English to kids in China via VIPKids. I am going to do lesson plans for Teachers Pay Teachers, tutoring, and whatever else I can think of. And most of all, I'm going to draw and make more comics. I'm going to do the things that have made me happiest for the past seven years. The summer and fall are going to give me time to de-stress and figure out just how, what, and when I'm going to do everything.

It's an exciting time. I just have to make it 23 more days.

It's The Pensioneer!

How does a teacher manage to retire at the tender age of 55? Well, first you have to work for 33 years or so in the same job in the same state at a rate of pay not commensurate with your education. Second, you have to pay 3% of your gross salary into a pension fund for the same amount of time. That pension fund is managed by the state. It grows and shrinks with the guesswork of the fund managers who get paid to make it grow as much as possible. And third, you have to live long enough to collect it.

When I made the transition from teaching in Gary to Elkhart Indiana, I met a science teacher who was battling cancer just as she was approaching retirement age. She missed a huge number of days and could have actually retired early, but she gutted it out despite her illness and stuck with it just long enough to receive her full pension. Then she died two months after she retired. I will never forget the lesson that she taught me. You take it when you can get it and you don't look back. No one is promised tomorrow.

Here's how it works: In Indiana, to receive your full pension, your years of Indiana service and your age have to add up to 85, so long as you have reached the minimum age of 55. Since I started in Indiana (after two years in Michigan) at age 24, I am hitting the sweet spot just about the moment I turn 55. So, for those of you keeping score at home, here you go: Take your years of service plus your age, subtract it from 85, and divide by 2. That will tell you how much longer you have to go before you are eligible for full retirement. You know, unless State Representative Wes Culver finally gets his way and increases it to the rule of 95, like he tried to do in 2016. There's nothing to motivate teachers like extending their careers by a mandatory five extra years!

I did the legwork with the Teacher Retirement Fund, and I will retire with about 40% of my salary intact, which means I still have to work for the other 60%. But how I look at it is, if I don't retire, I'm only working for 60% of my salary, because I'd be getting 40% of it if I just sat on the couch at home. So, it's time for me to find something else to do.

And I have some things in mind...

Endings and Beginnings

So, here I am at the end of my 32-year teaching career. It seems odd to type that. No, it seems bizarre to type that. At the end of this calendar year, I will be retired. Can I afford to be retired? Oh, heck no. I'll have to work; more on that in a minute. But my span as a full-time teacher will have come to an end, with all of the planning and data and testing behind me. I still plan to hang around. I'll be in classrooms substituting. But I won't have the day-to-day responsibilities that make the job work instead of fun.

I offer on this blog reflections on my career. Things that have come and gone, and things that have come back again; things that worked, things that didn't, and things that never will. One of the myriad impressions that I wish to change is the idea that older, more experienced teachers are all burned out; not all of us are. Some of us are still working all the time to improve and adapt to changing times. And from long experience, we have knowledge that just might be valuable to younger people just entering the profession. Don't worry, kids, we already know you think you know everything. We knew everything once too! And the more experience we got, the less we knew everything.

As I make the transition into professional development both as a former educator and a comic book creator, I also offer reflections on my life in general. I have led an interesting life, and a colorful one. I will include passages that may be troubling for some to read. I suffered from child abuse, and one of the things that helped me survive was comic books. I will write a lot about them, and what they have meant to me personally.

Come follow along as I stroll down Memory Lane on the path to Future Street!