Skip to main content

Try Not to Be THAT Teacher

Last Friday and Saturday, I had two amazing professional development experiences. On Friday, I was able to visit a nearby high school and see three different reading teachers in action. On Saturday, I was part of a panel of dedicated teachers that are committed to changing the narrative about teachers and teaching within their schools. I'm thankful for these PD opportunities--especially for the opportunity to visit others' classrooms. I am nowhere near as courageous as they are to allow complete strangers to observe my practice. 

Saturday's presentation by teacher consultants for the Eastern Michigan Writing Project made me think about the two teachers I sat next to on Friday's PD. They don't teach in my district, but I know people like them and even I have been them at times. I heard about their contract (no raises in seven years), large staff turnover (they felt the principal could have done more to protect them), and what they would like for our next meeting (more money). 

Saturday was starkly different. I heard about teachers that are effecting change--real change--because they are beyond complaints.  One is fighting to implement teams within his school, another is trying to build a positive culture within her newly formed senior building, yet another is helping colleagues see that reading IS a social justice and equity issue, and a very dear friend is working to help districts see that there are quality parent professional organizations, like NCTE, that teachers should be a part of. 

With that said, Saturday's workshop reminded me not to be that teacher. We all know them. It's the teacher that focuses on the negative, even when they're surrounded by amazing pedagogy and learning opportunities. After all, if we can't behave professionally, how can we expect our students to? And if we aren't willing to be a part of the solution, like those EMWP folk, then what are we?


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Handwritten Cue Cards in the 21st Century

I just stumbled upon this behind-the-scenes clip of Saturday Night Live's cue card process. This is intense writing. This is writing that is dependent upon trust and checks and balances. Over a short period of time, skits are written, drafted on cards, revised, and the cards revised over and over again. I also really love that SNL continues to use cue cards and not a teleprompter. Like Wally points out, technology can fail. Handwritten cue cards ensure the show goes on. Comedy is hard work. Writing is hard work. Changes are made up until the last minute to get things just right. This is a form of real-world writing.

Six Things to Keep in Mind When Your Class is NaNo-ing

Students recently drafted their reflections about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so I wrote beside them about the lessons that I had learned. Here they are: Limit the other work you give . While you may feel the pressure to have copious assignments in your grade book (there tends to be a sort of teacher shaming if you don't have many assignments in, as if there is a magical number), you have to recognize what is valuable and what is not, especially during the 30-day writing frenzy that NaNoWriMo is. I tried to make every assignment relevant for the month and their novels. Students encountered "daily challenges" (these quickly turned into every-other-day challenges) that focused on many of the necessary elements to good novels: dialogue, story world development, character creation, subplots, etc. Everything was designed so that students could use their work in their novels, and it allowed me to have short glimpses of the types of things they were writing abo

Past Secretaries of Education

After last night's hearing with nominee DeVos, I decided to research past education secretaries. Senator Alexander talked a lot about "precedent" when it came to procedures regarding the HELP Committee. Let us remember that the first education secretary was appointed in 1979. That's the same year that Congress created the department under Jimmy Carter. This is also the same department that Ronald Reagan promised to abolish. Even the first education secretary had experience in government. Shirley M. Hufstedler was both a federal and state appeals court judge. I'm going to say that because of that experience, she's probably familiar with law and how laws work. As we saw last night, when Betsy DeVos was redirected a question because her answer implied that states could choose to implement federal law or not, she might need a refresher. Then we had Terrel Bell, who was a high school teacher, bus driver, and served in the Marines. Again, a long list of public