More on Magee Middle School and 1973

Maybe I got it! Evidently, I have to right click and open as a new window to get anywhere, so I'll do some catching up. I haven't been able to post since I got home. I just don't understand these new machines. I've sure had my problems with this blogspot.

I started teaching at Magee in August of 1973, just a few days after I was married. We had to cut our honeymoon short so I could report to school. We were married in Dekalb, Illinois, where Liz and I had both just graduated from Northern Illinois University. Our reception was held at the old Holiday Inn, now a Best Western, right on the old LINCOLN HIGHWAY. Although, back then, the fact that it was a historical road didn't mean a thing.

I got the job just two days before the marriage. Back then, the idea was to give you a room, some books, then let the kids in. SINK or SWIM, BABY!!!! It didn't help much when my first class came in and I had 60 kids in a half a room with 25 desks. Oops, some sort of an administrative goof. After getting that straightened out, I was on my way to a 33 year teaching career.

I had student taught at Maine West High School in Des Plaines and was ready for high school students. BUT, I had junior high students, a different animal indeed. I had two classes each of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. It took me TWO years to get to like these kids.

I understand that they intend to renovate the rest of the building, including where I taught. I spent two years in the half room, where my kids had to walk through a special ed room to get to my part of the room. There were another five years in Room 224, and the last 24 in Rm 227.

I wasn't very happy to move to a new building in 2004 and wanted to spend my entire teaching career right at Magee. The only good thing was that I was paid to cleanup and eliminate 31 years' worth of accumulated stuff, so when I retired in 2006, it wasn't as bad of a job as it might have been.

The original building, as I said before, was built around 1905. A huge addition was made in 1955 and another around 1978.

....As a matter of fact, if they reopen my old Magee, I just might return to teaching.... Nah, I'm enjoying retirement too much.

--RoadDog