Tonight was the best Colloquium class ever. I could share the rest of the projects to counter my diary entry 12, but suffice to say among the presentations was an original acoustic guitar and singing performance that blew me away. The projects this semester were the most vast and the most creative yet. More important than the remaining projects however, was what happened after class was over.
I promised the students once the presentations were complete, I would conclude with a few words and then send them on their way. I was not interested in stretching the class longer than I needed to, just for the sake of keeping them there. We had a great time listening to the presentations and reminiscing about the field trips and other aspects of class, and then they were done with fifteen minutes remaining. I stepped up to the front of the room, told them how much I really enjoy teaching this class and how much fun I had with them this semester. I told them how much I loved their final projects and if they needed anything in the future to give me a holler because they had my email. They giggled and repeated "holla!" I think they appreciated that "I keep it real" with them. Then I let them go.
The thing is, only about half of them left. The others stood around the front of the room, kind of waiting in line to say goodbye. One by one, about 10 of them came up and said thank you. Four of them hugged me. Yup, my college students hugged me! I shot the shit with a few of them who told me how much they loved the class and we walked out of the classroom. There stood about seven or eight of them who just didn't seem to want to leave. They were talking to each other and back to me again, and one of them (the guitar player/singer) said, "this is kind of sad." I responded to him that it's the life of a teacher, the end is always bitter sweet because the work is done but it's time to say goodbye. So you'd think they would then say goodbye and leave. But no.
A few of them gathered around me outside the door and asked me what else I teach. I told them right now this was the only course I teach. What else do you normally teach? said Marc, the guitar player. I explained that I started as an adjunct for the College of Education and was teaching teacher education courses before I started teaching Colloquium, things like teaching strategies and children's literature. And he said, So if I take Children's Literature I could take your class? This was so endearing, because Marc is a junior IT major. There is no way he would ever be in any other class I teach. I laughed and told him he could take children's lit, but it wasn't likely I'd be teaching it any time soon. We laughed some more and I told them all I'd love to hear from them about how they're doing and if they need anything. One of the girls asked me for a recommendation letter for her internship.
And I walked out with two of them towards the parking lot, and as we split off to separate parking garages, one of them said, Thanks again. It was a really great class. So much better than I expected. I told him how glad I was he thought that and wished them both a relaxing, well deserved break.
Then I floated off to my car.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Monday, December 5, 2016
Diary of a Colloquium Professor #12
Last Thursday's class was fantastic! It was the first half of finals for this class, which is really the first of the two final meetings during which my students make final presentations. This is my favorite part of the class, because students get carte blanche to be creative and come up with any product they want to demonstrate the personal impact of their service learning and the rest of the course. My students out-did themselves and we're already halfway done.
Three students created original paintings, and they were all different:
Donne, who is an Art and English major, has had artist's block and hasn't done any nature painting in quite some time. She was inspired by a Great Blue Heron we saw at Corkscrew, and said Colloquium has brought back her desire to paint nature. She lives on the Estero River and is quite a lover of the natural world, but she hadn't painted any of it. She was re-inspired by the focus on her sense of place throughout the field trips and her service learning hours, helping clean up the Estero River. She sold this painting and the night she presented was the last she would see of it. I wish I could have kept it!
Mason also painted a really neat photo. He proclaimed he wasn't an artist, but he re-visited the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary on his own and took upwards of 75 photos and created a website devoted to seasonal photography at Corkscrew. He took one of the photos and put it through a filter, and then painted the filtered photo. I don't have the image to show, but it was quite something.
Alex, a relatively quiet and meditative student was clearly enjoying the field trips and the course. Though he didn't say much in class, he was always in attendance and was quite reflective in his assignments. He wrote exceptional papers, but was shy in group presentations. He got up and spoke about how much he loved working at the Campus Food Forest for his service learning hours. Then he read this original poem!
The heat on my skin, the scent in the air. The silent whisper of the breeze echoes.
Nathan made a Colloquium Game of Life with questions about sustainability and biodiversity. I might have to bring it to class one night next semester and see how my students do with it.
Doris, who is simultaneously working on a degree and going to interior design school, built a model with green materials and sustainable design. It even had LED lights on it! She didn't post a photo yet.
There were others, and I'm looking forward to the remaining projects this week, but one of the most impressive had to be from my self-proclaimed "biophobe." You may remember me early in the semester, writing about a student who said he didn't like nature and didn't like getting in the dirt. H really came around this semester, and embraced the course and the content. He ended up being a great student. I know he hasn't changed his feelings completely, but he did say he felt more comfortable by the end of the semester than he had previously, and he did his service learning hours in the Campus Food Forest, outside, in the dirt and the heat. And he said he enjoyed it! But here's the part I love. As mentioned previously, the students have the ability to do whatever they want during this project. I give them a basic rubric and then I tell them this: If I can't tell from your presentation, what the impact of this course and your service learning has had on you, you haven't done your job. Here is what Chris presented:
In a presentation he titled Colloquium and Me, Chris took a video game he plays, in which you create settlements. I'm not too familiar with games, but it is a building game he related to a Minecraft type game. He took a settlement he had built previously and applied all of the Colloquium course concepts related to sustainability to change his settlement. He changed a generator to be solar powered, and here he added a windmill.
He had previously planted using monoculture because as he said, this one plant is the best plant in the game. But as he revised his settlement for his project, he wanted to make sure his single plant crop would not be wiped out by a pest, so he created a biodiverse crop system using other plants (below).
He also created a recycling plant and did other things to improve his settlement to be more sustainable. His presentation was not only visually cool, but his ability to explain all he learned through his application to the video game was outstanding. All of his classmates were impressed and so was I! It really was an opportunity for him to shine, and that's what this assignment is all about.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... I love teaching this course! I can't way to see what the rest of my students have in store this week. I will be sad to say goodbye to this group. It was such fun.
Three students created original paintings, and they were all different:
Julian painted the world he wants to live in on the left, and the world we're in danger of living in on the right. He explained that though there are mountains, and this can't be Florida because of it, he used photos from the field trips to paint the other parts. For example, the prairie at the base of the mountain was painted from a photo of the prairie at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Isn't it beautiful?
Donne, who is an Art and English major, has had artist's block and hasn't done any nature painting in quite some time. She was inspired by a Great Blue Heron we saw at Corkscrew, and said Colloquium has brought back her desire to paint nature. She lives on the Estero River and is quite a lover of the natural world, but she hadn't painted any of it. She was re-inspired by the focus on her sense of place throughout the field trips and her service learning hours, helping clean up the Estero River. She sold this painting and the night she presented was the last she would see of it. I wish I could have kept it!
Mason also painted a really neat photo. He proclaimed he wasn't an artist, but he re-visited the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary on his own and took upwards of 75 photos and created a website devoted to seasonal photography at Corkscrew. He took one of the photos and put it through a filter, and then painted the filtered photo. I don't have the image to show, but it was quite something.
Alex, a relatively quiet and meditative student was clearly enjoying the field trips and the course. Though he didn't say much in class, he was always in attendance and was quite reflective in his assignments. He wrote exceptional papers, but was shy in group presentations. He got up and spoke about how much he loved working at the Campus Food Forest for his service learning hours. Then he read this original poem!
The heat on my skin, the scent in the air. The silent whisper of the breeze echoes.
Looking for a way to disappear for a moment in a land filled with life.
Blinded by the sun’s brightest rays, wish these moments would last a bit longer.
Now, I ask- What did you see, hear, feel yesterday or today?
Now, I ask- What did you see, hear, feel yesterday or today?
Will you say “I missed it all, or I don’t remember?”
Open your eyes, take it all it.
Make this world your sense of place.
Life’s a garden- dig it!
Life’s a garden- dig it!
Nathan made a Colloquium Game of Life with questions about sustainability and biodiversity. I might have to bring it to class one night next semester and see how my students do with it.
Doris, who is simultaneously working on a degree and going to interior design school, built a model with green materials and sustainable design. It even had LED lights on it! She didn't post a photo yet.
There were others, and I'm looking forward to the remaining projects this week, but one of the most impressive had to be from my self-proclaimed "biophobe." You may remember me early in the semester, writing about a student who said he didn't like nature and didn't like getting in the dirt. H really came around this semester, and embraced the course and the content. He ended up being a great student. I know he hasn't changed his feelings completely, but he did say he felt more comfortable by the end of the semester than he had previously, and he did his service learning hours in the Campus Food Forest, outside, in the dirt and the heat. And he said he enjoyed it! But here's the part I love. As mentioned previously, the students have the ability to do whatever they want during this project. I give them a basic rubric and then I tell them this: If I can't tell from your presentation, what the impact of this course and your service learning has had on you, you haven't done your job. Here is what Chris presented:
In a presentation he titled Colloquium and Me, Chris took a video game he plays, in which you create settlements. I'm not too familiar with games, but it is a building game he related to a Minecraft type game. He took a settlement he had built previously and applied all of the Colloquium course concepts related to sustainability to change his settlement. He changed a generator to be solar powered, and here he added a windmill.
He had previously planted using monoculture because as he said, this one plant is the best plant in the game. But as he revised his settlement for his project, he wanted to make sure his single plant crop would not be wiped out by a pest, so he created a biodiverse crop system using other plants (below).
He also created a recycling plant and did other things to improve his settlement to be more sustainable. His presentation was not only visually cool, but his ability to explain all he learned through his application to the video game was outstanding. All of his classmates were impressed and so was I! It really was an opportunity for him to shine, and that's what this assignment is all about.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... I love teaching this course! I can't way to see what the rest of my students have in store this week. I will be sad to say goodbye to this group. It was such fun.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Diary of a Colloquium Professor #11
Today was our fifth and final class field trip. It wasn't my greatest moment as an instructor, but nonetheless it was an enjoyable morning. I tried to pick up doughnuts for my students on the way to campus (there's a story there not worth getting into), and the Dunkin' Donuts on the way to campus has apparently closed. News to me. Strike 1. Surprised, but still running on time because I was early, I tried to stop at Target. Any doughnuts I got there would likely be less than awesome, but hey, they'd still be doughnuts. Got up to the door at about 7:40 to find Target doesn't open until 8. Strike 2. The only other option not completely out of the way, was a Publix a few miles past campus. I pulled out and headed toward campus and sped past the entrance. I looked at the clock and feared I wouldn't make it there and back to campus on time, and decided to hang a u-turn. Strike 3.
I pulled into the garage and parked my car. I was early but there were a few students already there. We stood around and talked, waiting for the bus and the rest of the class to arrive. At 8:00 I noticed there was no student naturalist present. I didn't know we wouldn't have a student guide, and I felt a little nervous. I had never guided students on the Downtown Fort Myers trip on my own. Admittedly, I am not all that versed in the history. I knew I wasn't going to be able to give them as educational of an experience as I would have liked. We had no tour and no time in the museum scheduled. It was the city, my students, and me. Had I known I was flying solo today, I sure would have studied up a bit and I would have been more prepared.
We walked through Centennial Park, and along the river.I shared with them some of the tidbits I did know. The history of the cattle business, the river basin, the treescapes and other restoration projects. And then I walked them over to Starbucks, where one of their classmates treated all 20 of them to beverage! Then they broke into groups and I gave them a Downtown Fort Myers scavenger hunt along with a link to a map to look at on their phones. We made a meeting spot and I set them free. One group asked me to walk with them, so I did. I was happy to be asked and I was able to show them a few more things I knew about, like the palm park, the River Basin Project, and the Florida Reparatory Theater. We walked up to the courthouse and back around to Harborside and the park.
I asked my students if they felt slighted. There was another group from our campus that was on the professional Downtown Tour. My students said no way. Many of them had never been downtown before, and they enjoyed walking around and exploring. It was a beautiful day. I even convinced them to allow their dorky teacher to take a photo of all of them in the park before we left.
On the bus ride back a couple of them told me how much they loved the class. They said it was a lot of fun and they're going to miss me. I had a lot of fun with them too, and I'll be sad to say goodbye. I always am, it doesn't matter whether it's 4th grade, high school, or college. There's something bitter sweet about letting them go.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Couldn't It Be You?
The
The first academic quarter came to an end last week. That means grades, report cards, and quarterly progress monitoring tests. It can be a stressful time for students, but I assure you it is equally if not more of a harrowing time for teachers. Last minute make-up work from students, pleas for leniency or late work allowances, teachers can be completely bogged down. And at a time when teachers are largely blamed when students fail to achieve, it's a time some teachers are reminded they, just like their students, aren't making the grade.
I work very hard as an instructional leader not to create that atmosphere at my school. Yes, we look at data. We are required to report it in many formats to several stakeholders, as we are funded by multiple entities who require we do so. This year however, we have been given an interesting tool for consideration. It remains to be seen if it's legit, but the district/Renaissance Place/whomever, has provided us with a predictor chart correlating a student's percentile rank on the STAR Assessment with the achievement band they are likely to score in on the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) or the EOC (End of Course exam) given at the end of the year. I am cautious not to be sold on these magic 8 ball tools, as we have never had this chart before and I am not sure how they created it. That being said, it is nice to have something to help the kids connect their progress monitoring assessments to how they are preforming towards their overall goal.
I have to stop here for a side bar. The fact I'm even talking about assessment data in this way, especially on my blog, is cringeworthy. I believe in so much more than the numbers, and I know numbers can be manipulated, both positively and negatively. But if you stay with me here, you'll see the qualitative me you know and love is about to surface. Please be patient.
Tomorrow night I have to report my first quarter data to the (SAC) School Advisory Committee. I could explain what that is and who it is made up of, but I won't. Suffice it to say, it's a group of adults, some voluntary some required, who are invested one way or another, in the success of the school. I have been reviewing attendance records and program requirements, the SIP (School Improvement Plan) goals, and of course, student assessment data. Over the past couple of days, each student was required to take both the STAR Reading and the STAR Math Assessments, to monitor their progress toward mastery of the state standards.
As I worked throughout the day on my reports, I also checked in and out of school business, including emails. There was an email from one of my reading teachers. Take a look at "Student C's" STAR results, I'm curious what you think, she said. I was pulling up all the reports, so I scrolled through to the student in question. I wasn't quite sure why the teacher asked me to look. I searched for a discrepancy, and made sure she spent adequate time on the test (the report spits out the amount of time the student spent testing). I just wasn't sure what had red flagged her about it, so I walked over to her classroom during her planning time.
Did you notice how much she improved? She had a perplexed look on her face. She is a second year teacher, a career changer. She's extremely committed to be an excellent teacher, and we are so lucky to have her. I looked at her and gave her back all the reasons she wanted to hear.
Well, I said. And before I could even say it, she finished my sentence.
I know, she could have tanked the baseline assessment. This is not uncommon of students in our program. Many of them are disenchanted with school, and many of them are dealing with emotional stressors and trauma, making academics a bigger chore than it is for most people. It is not unusual for our students to take several weeks or even months to be healthy enough to focus on school, more so than just going through the motions. So the first tests they take aren't always true indicators of their current abilities. Some self-sabotage and don't even try. Others are nervous being at a new school.
That's always possible, I said. It's also possible she wasn't attending or wasn't engaged in school prior to coming. Just attending to academics daily after a lapse, can result in big improvements. She smiled and I smiled back.
Then I gave her an answer perhaps she wasn't expecting. And of course, there's always the chance she's learning. Like maybe you are a great teacher, and you are having an excellent teaching and learning interaction. Maybe it actually has something to do with you. And she modestly shrugged it off and we exchanged a smile as I left the room to return to my office.
When I returned to my desk, I sent myself an email about our interaction. I knew I was going to write about this tonight. The email said, Couldn't it be you? I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Is the system so broken, are teachers so beat down they don't even know how great of a job they're doing? We're pretty quick to let others make us feel shitty for our students' low performance. We try to push it down and away so we don't forget about the student who wasn't attending school at all and now has an 80% attendance rate, or the student who spent most of her time sleeping or putting her head down in class until she came to us. We can't forget about the student who professed she hates reading and now she hangs at your desk when you bring in a new load of books for the classroom library, because she wants first dibs. We won't discount the student who insisted she sucks at math and would shut down before she even tried, and now she keeps a math journal, asks to do problems at the board, and stays after for extra help.
Maybe, teaching is more than just teaching reading strategies or content. Maybe it's not just curriculum standards they need to learn. Maybe, just maybe, there's more to the teaching and learning relationship than the content and skills. I would bet if it was measurable, we would find that a caring teacher, a desire to be in attendance and engaged, and all the other intangibles, are just as much contributors to increased achievement than subject material. Maybe increased self-esteem and confidence, maybe love from a teacher are all part of the equation.
Instead of explaining away her students' successes, I sure wish this teacher was able to acknowledge her hand in it. She is a devoted teacher who is always looking to grow and improve her practice. She loves what she does and her students can see it. She gives 100% of herself to her teaching. She is a teacher of so much more than reading. I wholeheartedly believe she had a hand in the success of this student. I'm going to remind her again tomorrow, it is her. Together, a student and teacher can accomplish great things. These two did.
 |
| Image from picturequotes.com |
The first academic quarter came to an end last week. That means grades, report cards, and quarterly progress monitoring tests. It can be a stressful time for students, but I assure you it is equally if not more of a harrowing time for teachers. Last minute make-up work from students, pleas for leniency or late work allowances, teachers can be completely bogged down. And at a time when teachers are largely blamed when students fail to achieve, it's a time some teachers are reminded they, just like their students, aren't making the grade.
I work very hard as an instructional leader not to create that atmosphere at my school. Yes, we look at data. We are required to report it in many formats to several stakeholders, as we are funded by multiple entities who require we do so. This year however, we have been given an interesting tool for consideration. It remains to be seen if it's legit, but the district/Renaissance Place/whomever, has provided us with a predictor chart correlating a student's percentile rank on the STAR Assessment with the achievement band they are likely to score in on the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) or the EOC (End of Course exam) given at the end of the year. I am cautious not to be sold on these magic 8 ball tools, as we have never had this chart before and I am not sure how they created it. That being said, it is nice to have something to help the kids connect their progress monitoring assessments to how they are preforming towards their overall goal.
I have to stop here for a side bar. The fact I'm even talking about assessment data in this way, especially on my blog, is cringeworthy. I believe in so much more than the numbers, and I know numbers can be manipulated, both positively and negatively. But if you stay with me here, you'll see the qualitative me you know and love is about to surface. Please be patient.
Tomorrow night I have to report my first quarter data to the (SAC) School Advisory Committee. I could explain what that is and who it is made up of, but I won't. Suffice it to say, it's a group of adults, some voluntary some required, who are invested one way or another, in the success of the school. I have been reviewing attendance records and program requirements, the SIP (School Improvement Plan) goals, and of course, student assessment data. Over the past couple of days, each student was required to take both the STAR Reading and the STAR Math Assessments, to monitor their progress toward mastery of the state standards.
As I worked throughout the day on my reports, I also checked in and out of school business, including emails. There was an email from one of my reading teachers. Take a look at "Student C's" STAR results, I'm curious what you think, she said. I was pulling up all the reports, so I scrolled through to the student in question. I wasn't quite sure why the teacher asked me to look. I searched for a discrepancy, and made sure she spent adequate time on the test (the report spits out the amount of time the student spent testing). I just wasn't sure what had red flagged her about it, so I walked over to her classroom during her planning time.
Did you notice how much she improved? She had a perplexed look on her face. She is a second year teacher, a career changer. She's extremely committed to be an excellent teacher, and we are so lucky to have her. I looked at her and gave her back all the reasons she wanted to hear.
Well, I said. And before I could even say it, she finished my sentence.
I know, she could have tanked the baseline assessment. This is not uncommon of students in our program. Many of them are disenchanted with school, and many of them are dealing with emotional stressors and trauma, making academics a bigger chore than it is for most people. It is not unusual for our students to take several weeks or even months to be healthy enough to focus on school, more so than just going through the motions. So the first tests they take aren't always true indicators of their current abilities. Some self-sabotage and don't even try. Others are nervous being at a new school.
That's always possible, I said. It's also possible she wasn't attending or wasn't engaged in school prior to coming. Just attending to academics daily after a lapse, can result in big improvements. She smiled and I smiled back.
Then I gave her an answer perhaps she wasn't expecting. And of course, there's always the chance she's learning. Like maybe you are a great teacher, and you are having an excellent teaching and learning interaction. Maybe it actually has something to do with you. And she modestly shrugged it off and we exchanged a smile as I left the room to return to my office.
When I returned to my desk, I sent myself an email about our interaction. I knew I was going to write about this tonight. The email said, Couldn't it be you? I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Is the system so broken, are teachers so beat down they don't even know how great of a job they're doing? We're pretty quick to let others make us feel shitty for our students' low performance. We try to push it down and away so we don't forget about the student who wasn't attending school at all and now has an 80% attendance rate, or the student who spent most of her time sleeping or putting her head down in class until she came to us. We can't forget about the student who professed she hates reading and now she hangs at your desk when you bring in a new load of books for the classroom library, because she wants first dibs. We won't discount the student who insisted she sucks at math and would shut down before she even tried, and now she keeps a math journal, asks to do problems at the board, and stays after for extra help.
Maybe, teaching is more than just teaching reading strategies or content. Maybe it's not just curriculum standards they need to learn. Maybe, just maybe, there's more to the teaching and learning relationship than the content and skills. I would bet if it was measurable, we would find that a caring teacher, a desire to be in attendance and engaged, and all the other intangibles, are just as much contributors to increased achievement than subject material. Maybe increased self-esteem and confidence, maybe love from a teacher are all part of the equation.
Instead of explaining away her students' successes, I sure wish this teacher was able to acknowledge her hand in it. She is a devoted teacher who is always looking to grow and improve her practice. She loves what she does and her students can see it. She gives 100% of herself to her teaching. She is a teacher of so much more than reading. I wholeheartedly believe she had a hand in the success of this student. I'm going to remind her again tomorrow, it is her. Together, a student and teacher can accomplish great things. These two did.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Remember
A writing group friend posted the poem Remember by Joy Harjo. She wrote her own version to model for her students with whom she used Harjo's as a mentor poem. She also shared some beautiful poetry written by her middle school students. Then, another writing group member wrote one of her own. Together they all inspired me to write my own Remember poem. Here it is.
experience and discovery are what they need.
Remember what it is like to wonder. We were young once too.
Remember teaching by inspiring, your enthusiasm was contagious.
Remember sunrise and the excitement of a new day.
Remember their faces, how they lit up
when you started a new story or introduced a new lesson.
Remember why you wanted to be a teacher. How much you love to learn
and wanted to share the love with others.
Remember when you knew why you were here. When you were trusted to
do what you do best.
Remember you know what kids need.
Remember Dewey, and Whitehead, Bruner and Freire,
and remember your beliefs about learning.
Remember poetry and prose, and the importance of the narrative.
Remember doing is learning.
Remember experience.
Remember who you are.
Remember what you know.
Remember what they need.
Remember transformation.
Remember
Remember what the great ones told you,experience and discovery are what they need.
Remember what it is like to wonder. We were young once too.
Remember teaching by inspiring, your enthusiasm was contagious.
Remember sunrise and the excitement of a new day.
Remember their faces, how they lit up
when you started a new story or introduced a new lesson.
Remember why you wanted to be a teacher. How much you love to learn
and wanted to share the love with others.
Remember when you knew why you were here. When you were trusted to
do what you do best.
Remember you know what kids need.
Remember Dewey, and Whitehead, Bruner and Freire,
and remember your beliefs about learning.
Remember poetry and prose, and the importance of the narrative.
Remember doing is learning.
Remember experience.
Remember who you are.
Remember what you know.
Remember what they need.
Remember transformation.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
I've Lost that Loving Feeling
When I started this blog, I decided writing was important in my life and I wanted to make a commitment to write daily. I coupled that drive with the notion I needed to look for love in my life and in the world, because it's all around us. Even when we have bad days, even when we feel like the world is going to shit, somewhere out there or somewhere inside, we can find love. It's all around us. Hence the blog title. So far I've tried mostly to point to the beauty, the wonder, and the splendor of love. But truth be told, because of how powerful and important love is to the human spirit, sometimes it can bring us pain and heartache as well. And if I am to be an honest writer, there will be occasions when I have to work through the pain and hurt too (see Brokenheartsville).
Today was bittersweet. It was in timely contrast to the post I made last night about the beginning of my teaching career. Now, about seventeen years later, I am an academic administrator in a nonprofit private school for girls. It is a wonderful program, staffed by caring and dedicated people who provide school and counseling to at-risk girls. Did you catch that? ALL GIRLS. My two year anniversary with the organization is quickly approaching, and I have accomplished a whole lot professionally, too much to get into the nitty gritty here. I have partnered with a counseling administrator with whom I work seamlessly, and have come to think of as a dear friend. And then there are the girls...
I know by building a stellar program- by working with my faculty to ensure the best possible academic program, and by working with the counseling team to provide an integrated and holistic approach to school- I am indirectly making a difference in the lives of our students. I even counsel them on occasion (about school-the way a guidance counselor would), meet with them to discuss plans and goals for the future, and help them process and reflect on negative behaviors in the classroom when they surface. But I don't connect with them in the way I have with my students in the past. Much of this is because my role in their lives is different. I can't help but think a little bit of it is because they're girls. Though I'm not sure about the latter.
Today we had a transition ceremony. This is when we celebrate students who have completed their time with us and are preparing to return to another school. We have these ceremonies every semester, as the public school semester comes to a close. We talk about all the accomplishments of the girls, how much they've grown, the transformation we often see in them from the beginning through the current time. It's a reflective and celebratory time. The transition counselor usually shows some sort of video montage and everyone reflects on their thoughts and feelings about sharing time with these students. Today, the video consisted of interviews with each of the girls who was leaving, as well as their friends, and their teachers and counselors. There were kind and reassuring words all around, and while I was touched and proud of all the girls and the relationships they built with staff, I realized I was nowhere in the mix. I had been locked away in meetings and conference calls, and never got to record a message. Not one girl had anything to say about the influence, inspiration, or impact I had on them during their time with us. I was not even on the radar, and it made me a little bit sad.
It might sound like I'm whining a poor me sob story. Please don't misinterpret my feelings about the event as self-pity. What it was for me was a reminder. When I went to school to earn my doctorate, I had no intention whatsoever of becoming a school administrator. I never even filled out an application to enter the administrative pool. I even stayed in my 4th grade classroom teaching position for an additional year after earning my doctorate. The job I have now is a great one, but it wasn't in my plans, it just kind of happened. And now I remember why. I never wanted to feel this far removed from the students. I don't want to be thought of as that lady in the office, or the one who does all the testing, or the one who handles discipline. And now, I am that lady. I'm all of them and then some. And while someone has to do all those things, I wish it didn't have to be me. I want to be the favorite teacher mentioned in the video, or the one who helped make something hard easier to learn for the first time. I want to be the one the girls always knew cared about them. I want to connect with students more.
I'm not necessarily saying I should go back into a K-12 classroom. But I'm not saying I shouldn't. I just need to find a way to really connect with students (of whatever age) the way I have in the past. It's what has made me so passionate about my work and my career.
I just want to love teaching again.
Today was bittersweet. It was in timely contrast to the post I made last night about the beginning of my teaching career. Now, about seventeen years later, I am an academic administrator in a nonprofit private school for girls. It is a wonderful program, staffed by caring and dedicated people who provide school and counseling to at-risk girls. Did you catch that? ALL GIRLS. My two year anniversary with the organization is quickly approaching, and I have accomplished a whole lot professionally, too much to get into the nitty gritty here. I have partnered with a counseling administrator with whom I work seamlessly, and have come to think of as a dear friend. And then there are the girls...
I know by building a stellar program- by working with my faculty to ensure the best possible academic program, and by working with the counseling team to provide an integrated and holistic approach to school- I am indirectly making a difference in the lives of our students. I even counsel them on occasion (about school-the way a guidance counselor would), meet with them to discuss plans and goals for the future, and help them process and reflect on negative behaviors in the classroom when they surface. But I don't connect with them in the way I have with my students in the past. Much of this is because my role in their lives is different. I can't help but think a little bit of it is because they're girls. Though I'm not sure about the latter.
Today we had a transition ceremony. This is when we celebrate students who have completed their time with us and are preparing to return to another school. We have these ceremonies every semester, as the public school semester comes to a close. We talk about all the accomplishments of the girls, how much they've grown, the transformation we often see in them from the beginning through the current time. It's a reflective and celebratory time. The transition counselor usually shows some sort of video montage and everyone reflects on their thoughts and feelings about sharing time with these students. Today, the video consisted of interviews with each of the girls who was leaving, as well as their friends, and their teachers and counselors. There were kind and reassuring words all around, and while I was touched and proud of all the girls and the relationships they built with staff, I realized I was nowhere in the mix. I had been locked away in meetings and conference calls, and never got to record a message. Not one girl had anything to say about the influence, inspiration, or impact I had on them during their time with us. I was not even on the radar, and it made me a little bit sad.
It might sound like I'm whining a poor me sob story. Please don't misinterpret my feelings about the event as self-pity. What it was for me was a reminder. When I went to school to earn my doctorate, I had no intention whatsoever of becoming a school administrator. I never even filled out an application to enter the administrative pool. I even stayed in my 4th grade classroom teaching position for an additional year after earning my doctorate. The job I have now is a great one, but it wasn't in my plans, it just kind of happened. And now I remember why. I never wanted to feel this far removed from the students. I don't want to be thought of as that lady in the office, or the one who does all the testing, or the one who handles discipline. And now, I am that lady. I'm all of them and then some. And while someone has to do all those things, I wish it didn't have to be me. I want to be the favorite teacher mentioned in the video, or the one who helped make something hard easier to learn for the first time. I want to be the one the girls always knew cared about them. I want to connect with students more.
I'm not necessarily saying I should go back into a K-12 classroom. But I'm not saying I shouldn't. I just need to find a way to really connect with students (of whatever age) the way I have in the past. It's what has made me so passionate about my work and my career.
I just want to love teaching again.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
I Love to Teach
I had two degrees from two different universities, and a lot of knowledge. Theoretical knowledge, that is. Ask any teacher and they'll tell you. No matter how good your teacher preparation program was, no matter how much you feel like you learned, nothing compares to on-the-job training. Internships are great, and they're getting better. But a one semester takeover of "someone else's" kids is hardly enough to be considered on-the-job training. I'm talking your first year as a full time teacher. For me it was really my second year. My first year was spent as a resource teacher split between two different schools. My second year, now that was my initiation year.
In addition to my two resource teacher positions the previous year, I had worked as a part-time tutor for a specialized private school for students with learning disabilities (LD's) and attention deficit disorder (ADD). One of the part-time positions didn't work out so well, so we mutually parted and I needed some more work. A teacher in the private school announced she would be going over to Europe for a year when the semester was over, so I assisted her for a couple of months before she left and then I took over.
Meet the boys who taught me how to teach.
It probably won't surprise you to learn that 80-90% of the students at this school were boys. Boys were more commonly diagnosed with LD's and ADD, and they certainly had more trouble in traditional schools because of their learning difficulties. Each of their stories and how they ended up at our school is worth its own piece of writing. But having mostly boys in class wasn't what made the experience so unique. At this school, with a population rarely reaching 100 students, all of high school was in one self-contained classroom. That's right, I had all grades 9-12, and all subjects, in one room. English, Reading, Writing? Yup, I taught them. Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, sure thing. History, Government, Economics, no big whoop. Yes, I even taught Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. I think back and I still don't know how I did it! I was studying almost nightly and I worked many hours after school and on the weekends. Because it was a small school, we all had keys. I would spend all day Saturday in my classroom sometimes, just preparing myself for a big unit or lesson.
I had a lot of flexibility but little guidance. We used a highly specialized language-based curriculum to address reading, spelling, and written language, but the rest was up to me and a book room with a random selection of retired and donated books, and piecemeal purchases by previous and current teachers. I also searched teacher resource stores and the library. The internet was just starting to flourish and was nowhere near the plethora of resources it is now. But let me tell you, when a teacher is allowed to focus on the students and what they need, and teach from standards rather than a set of course materials, the sky is the limit! I learned to build units and lessons, to teach cross-curricular, to use broad-based themes to tie together history and literature, even science and math- though that wasn't as easy. I took them on several field trips each year and helped facilitate service projects in and outside of school. All of it was worth it, a labor of love, because let me tell you about how much I loved these boys.
Most of them landed on our doorstep sometime mid-stream ninth or tenth grade. This is just before the height of standardized testing craziness. Some of them had taken the FCAT, but the year I started at this school was the first year Jeb Bush attached the scores to school grades and student advancement. So these students weren't fleeing their public schools to avoid the testing, their parents were seeking alternatives because their kids weren't learning. One of them came to us because of a conflict with a principal who put him in a chokehold, another was left to sit in the back of the room all year because he didn't "act out" and no one communicated with his parents about the problems in school. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't about how much the public schools sucked, because many of them just struggled because of the sheer size of the schools and the classes. They all had one thing in common. They weren't learning in their previous schools because they had learning needs no one understood. This is not the time or place to talk about the needs of students with learning disabilities, but it is a topic that needs much attention, even more so today. Anyway, the school was designed to give them what they needed in a year or two, boost their reading and/or language skills so they could return to their schools to be more successful. The content areas were secondary to the reading skills- not less important, but helping them to read and write with proficiency was the main objective.
"Problem" was, the culture in our classroom, the safety, the sense of family became so strong kids didn't want to leave. Many of them didn't. Two of the boys in this photo were with me all four years and I had the pleasure of issuing them their diplomas. I had two others who were with me for all four years, and several who were with us for one to three years. But they changed my life. We had so much fun, I developed relationships with them and their families, and I got a sense of what school should really be like for kids- not because their parents paid for it (and some of them went through great lengths to afford it) but because all kids deserve to feel safe and cared about at school. That door, all the way on the left side of the photo, entered into a magical place. It was a classroom in which I felt as at-home as I did in my own house, and I think the boys did too.
We learned geometry together and struggled through Shakespeare together. We ventured into the land of human reproduction and development and I saw the boy all the way to left turn green while watching NOVAs Miracle of Life. He almost vomited and exclaimed. "I'm going to go home and hug my mom and thank her!" He's the same grown man with a full beard who called out to me at a campsite in a state park a couple of years ago while my family and I were driving out. My husband had his window cracked and stopped, asking me if I heard that. I stepped out of the car, and there he was running toward me as he called his mom on his cell phone. It was like I was a celebrity. He was 27- ouch! The boy next to him jokingly asked me embarrassing questions about sex (not personal questions), just to see if I would lose my cool. For the record, I didn't. I just gave them honest answers. He just turned thirty and has a daughter. We've been talking on FB about some challenges he's been facing in his life. Unfortunately, our collective world was rocked when the boy all the way to the right, suicided the summer before their senior year. I remember crying at the funeral with the boys and consoling his single dad who was raising him. We were a family.
These boys taught me so much about myself as a human being, as a teacher, as a new mother. I learned that I didn't have to know everything as long as I didn't pretend to. I learned that a teacher can learn content if they first learn what their students need. I learned that trust and caring go a long way to creating a path for learning. I learned that I could love someone else's children the way I loved my own. I am indebted to them in a way they will never know.
Because of them, I love to teach.
In addition to my two resource teacher positions the previous year, I had worked as a part-time tutor for a specialized private school for students with learning disabilities (LD's) and attention deficit disorder (ADD). One of the part-time positions didn't work out so well, so we mutually parted and I needed some more work. A teacher in the private school announced she would be going over to Europe for a year when the semester was over, so I assisted her for a couple of months before she left and then I took over.
Meet the boys who taught me how to teach.
 |
| For their privacy, I'm not including their names. But you can tell how close we were by the body language in the photo. |
It probably won't surprise you to learn that 80-90% of the students at this school were boys. Boys were more commonly diagnosed with LD's and ADD, and they certainly had more trouble in traditional schools because of their learning difficulties. Each of their stories and how they ended up at our school is worth its own piece of writing. But having mostly boys in class wasn't what made the experience so unique. At this school, with a population rarely reaching 100 students, all of high school was in one self-contained classroom. That's right, I had all grades 9-12, and all subjects, in one room. English, Reading, Writing? Yup, I taught them. Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, sure thing. History, Government, Economics, no big whoop. Yes, I even taught Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. I think back and I still don't know how I did it! I was studying almost nightly and I worked many hours after school and on the weekends. Because it was a small school, we all had keys. I would spend all day Saturday in my classroom sometimes, just preparing myself for a big unit or lesson.
I had a lot of flexibility but little guidance. We used a highly specialized language-based curriculum to address reading, spelling, and written language, but the rest was up to me and a book room with a random selection of retired and donated books, and piecemeal purchases by previous and current teachers. I also searched teacher resource stores and the library. The internet was just starting to flourish and was nowhere near the plethora of resources it is now. But let me tell you, when a teacher is allowed to focus on the students and what they need, and teach from standards rather than a set of course materials, the sky is the limit! I learned to build units and lessons, to teach cross-curricular, to use broad-based themes to tie together history and literature, even science and math- though that wasn't as easy. I took them on several field trips each year and helped facilitate service projects in and outside of school. All of it was worth it, a labor of love, because let me tell you about how much I loved these boys.
Most of them landed on our doorstep sometime mid-stream ninth or tenth grade. This is just before the height of standardized testing craziness. Some of them had taken the FCAT, but the year I started at this school was the first year Jeb Bush attached the scores to school grades and student advancement. So these students weren't fleeing their public schools to avoid the testing, their parents were seeking alternatives because their kids weren't learning. One of them came to us because of a conflict with a principal who put him in a chokehold, another was left to sit in the back of the room all year because he didn't "act out" and no one communicated with his parents about the problems in school. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't about how much the public schools sucked, because many of them just struggled because of the sheer size of the schools and the classes. They all had one thing in common. They weren't learning in their previous schools because they had learning needs no one understood. This is not the time or place to talk about the needs of students with learning disabilities, but it is a topic that needs much attention, even more so today. Anyway, the school was designed to give them what they needed in a year or two, boost their reading and/or language skills so they could return to their schools to be more successful. The content areas were secondary to the reading skills- not less important, but helping them to read and write with proficiency was the main objective.
"Problem" was, the culture in our classroom, the safety, the sense of family became so strong kids didn't want to leave. Many of them didn't. Two of the boys in this photo were with me all four years and I had the pleasure of issuing them their diplomas. I had two others who were with me for all four years, and several who were with us for one to three years. But they changed my life. We had so much fun, I developed relationships with them and their families, and I got a sense of what school should really be like for kids- not because their parents paid for it (and some of them went through great lengths to afford it) but because all kids deserve to feel safe and cared about at school. That door, all the way on the left side of the photo, entered into a magical place. It was a classroom in which I felt as at-home as I did in my own house, and I think the boys did too.
We learned geometry together and struggled through Shakespeare together. We ventured into the land of human reproduction and development and I saw the boy all the way to left turn green while watching NOVAs Miracle of Life. He almost vomited and exclaimed. "I'm going to go home and hug my mom and thank her!" He's the same grown man with a full beard who called out to me at a campsite in a state park a couple of years ago while my family and I were driving out. My husband had his window cracked and stopped, asking me if I heard that. I stepped out of the car, and there he was running toward me as he called his mom on his cell phone. It was like I was a celebrity. He was 27- ouch! The boy next to him jokingly asked me embarrassing questions about sex (not personal questions), just to see if I would lose my cool. For the record, I didn't. I just gave them honest answers. He just turned thirty and has a daughter. We've been talking on FB about some challenges he's been facing in his life. Unfortunately, our collective world was rocked when the boy all the way to the right, suicided the summer before their senior year. I remember crying at the funeral with the boys and consoling his single dad who was raising him. We were a family.
These boys taught me so much about myself as a human being, as a teacher, as a new mother. I learned that I didn't have to know everything as long as I didn't pretend to. I learned that a teacher can learn content if they first learn what their students need. I learned that trust and caring go a long way to creating a path for learning. I learned that I could love someone else's children the way I loved my own. I am indebted to them in a way they will never know.
Because of them, I love to teach.
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