All that aside, there were so many great things about working at that school. I've written about the kids before. They changed my life, and I loved working with them. Many of my teacher friends are struggling these days with the highly stressful teaching atmosphere- the overemphasis on shaky accountability measures and unfair teacher evaluations. I got to thinking about that first year, and the subsequent five years I spent in that private school. The reason I stayed there so long is because so many things about it were so right.
For starters, I got to teach thematically. I had a self-contained high school class, and I taught all subjects. Yup, I taught English, science, math, and social studies, though by the state's standards I would not be considered highly qualified in all those subjects. I taught all of them, and I think I did a pretty good job. I was an example of a teacher who took the art and practice of teaching very seriously, so with the right materials and methods and a lot of studying for my lessons, I was good at what I did. Subject area specialists with no teaching background are often (not always) overrated. They may know a lot of stuff, but what do they know about child development and teaching? A good teacher can teach just about anything. More than anything else, this was important because my teaching was so organic. I had lesson plans with planned out classes, but if the kids learned something quickly, boom. We moved on. If the kids really took to something, were highly engaged and wanted more, heck we kept going.
I specifically remember a multidisciplinary unit we were doing on World War II one year. We were learning about the U.S. involvement in the war, and the Holocaust in Europe while reading the book Night. My students couldn't get enough. They were asking just the kinds of questions you want kids to ask about the horrific events and the lack of intervention by the U.S. They asked why America didn't stop Hitler, why the Jewish people in the camps didn't fight back, why the Germans let Hitler take over the country. Not gonna lie, we skipped math a couple of days. We just couldn't break away. But you know what? It was okay. We made up for it on another day. They still learned the math too. I taught to the standards, and I wasn't bound by 60 minutes of this and 90 minutes of that. I was charged with teaching certain things, and I taught them.
Our study of World War II wasn't just a study of the Holocaust. We also discussed the war in the Pacific, and we read Hiroshima. I was lucky. It was the year 2001 and the movie Pearl Harbor came out. I got permission from the School Director, if it was okay with the parents I could take the kids on a field trip to see the movie. My class of mostly boys, all struggling learners in one way or another, were motivated by movies. When we finished the unit successfully, I often showed a movie or took them on a field trip as a culminating activity. Yes, they were required to critique and discuss the differences and their reaction versus their expectations. I am a teacher. The parents all signs the slips and instead of dropping them at school that day, they were all dropped off at a diner in the parking lot near the movie theater. We would eat a family style breakfast and then walk over to the theater for the early showing of the movie. Most of them would be picked up from the theater, and those without rides would... eek! They came in my truck back to school. Could you imagine? One of the parents parked and walked her son into the diner, and came in to eat with us. She treated everyone to breakfast! That wasn't even planned. Then we walked over as a group and watched the movie. Just me and my 15-or-so students. Two girls, the rest boys, and me. Nothing made them want to talk more about what they learned than seeing the film. Score!
One year my students organized a schooled canned food drive. The local rock radio station held a yearly community food drive right around Thanksgiving. We had a K-12 school, and as the oldest, my students were kind of like the guardians or big brothers and sisters of the school. They decided they wanted to organize a school-wide canned food drive and bring the collection over to be weighed at Outdoor World where the radio DJ's set up a giant scale and weighed all the food as it accumulated. The school was also right on the Tri-rail line. That's the commuter train running through the ti-county area of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties. It has a stop right by the Bass Pro-Shop, so we organized a trip. I taught all the kids how to navigate the train station, buy tickets/tokens, and read the route maps. We hopped on the train and brought the food. The DJ's announced the contribution from the school, and the kids were pretty proud. Afterwards, we walked through Outdoor World and had lunch. It was another great community-based field trip.
We did a lot of things like this. We took all the kids to a local family owned and operated Cuban restaurant at the end of a semester of Spanish class. The kids ordered in Spanish and learned how to read a restaurant check, calculate tip, and pay the check. They also learned about public eating and table manners.
It really was a one of a kind learning environment. Basically, if the teachers had an idea related to learning and the curriculum, and the parents signed permission slips, we did it. The learning went beyond the standards and beyond the walls of the school. We had a yearly school picnic at the local park, and occasionally had a field trip just for the fun of it. Kids learned even on those. They learned how to interact socially and how to be a part of a community. It was a feeling I wish I could get back.
I suppose when you don't take funding from entities run by public policymakers, you can be driven by what kids need and the creativity of the faculty. I could go on and on about the great things we did, but my point is made (I think). It was proof it really can be that good.
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| Image retrieved from tablet.com |
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