Teachers have to fight all of the time.
Educators in America have to advocate for their clients (the students) and their value in society. Some of the things we wage war over are seems more personal like salaries and benefits. However, fighting for a higher salary effects people looking into being a teacher and how other teachers feel valued, so even those issues is more than just a personal one.
I often wonder how much other people have to fight in their jobs. Many of my friends who aren’t teachers negotiate their own salary and have to argue for materials and what they think is best for their client. I don’t find many people though who have to argue for their job's value in society.
Some of my friends who work in finance who got heat for the economy collapsing have to defend their jobs but at the same time, the level of financial compensation they get convinces most people that there is value in their work. If you are being paid a high a salary, that is a justification in itself because it means you are helping other people make money . . . theoretically.
What would teaching be like if we didn’t have to fight for enough money to buy basic materials for our students? How different would this profession be if teachers had high salaries that made people in other fields like medicine and business feel devalued by society? How much better would American education be if teachers spent less time fighting for our kids and more time teaching them?
The lower salaries mean that most teachers do their jobs for the love of the job. That’s the single greatest motivator for teachers, which means that you have less teachers in schools who are there for the wrong reasons. However lower salaries also mean that you loose amazing teachers who can’t afford to be a teacher so they go into other fields instead.
Every time someone says that teachers are overpaid, shouldn’t get the benefits that they do or are the nexus of the problems in American education it grates at our souls. One of the reasons that teachers are so optimistic is because if they weren’t, the negativity and lack of respect and value that people express towards teachers would crush them. Many people in society only see value defined by how much someone gets paid and those people need to see that expression being directed towards teachers in order for these people to taking teaching seriously.
Yes, there are plenty of bad teachers out there. There are deplorable business people in every major city. There are amazing ethical professional athletes and then there are ones who cheat. Judging all teachers by the worst among us has a negative spiritual effect on the teaching population.
The fight for pencils and basic school supplies is not a fight teachers should have to wage. We shouldn’t have justify why small class sizes are better and we shouldn’t have to spend out time convincing people why would should be paid a wage that is both fair and communicates a place of value to ourselves and people outside our profession. We shouldn’t have to fight to make sure kids have enough food and clean clothes every day.
We should spend our time in difficult conversations with parents over what is best for their chidlren. We should debate the value in federal versus locally mandated curriculum and healthy tension between them. We should work in a school focused on our jobs, to teach, education and facilitate the development of individual students as human beings and not as products.
American education succeeds on the energy, optimism and hope of teachers coming every day and fighting the good fight. If we're not careful, if our teachers are not buoyed up, those things that teachers bring, that light may run out and what we would be left with . . . well. . . would be nothing.
We have changes to make and battles to be won and teachers in America aren't giving up even though these fights take away from the energy our kids, your children need from us. We do it because it's right, it's what needs to be done.
We spend money out of our own pockets so kids don't go hungry, we can't ignore this need, so don't ignore our battles and think twice before you decide to take the other side.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
I'm Goin' Down by Bruce Springsteen
There’s a lot of reasons that I want to be like Bruce Springsteen when I grow up. One of the main reasons is because he has so much fun doing what he loves.
Seriously, look how much fun he’s having during the last chorus. You can’t fake that kind of joy.
Watching this recent performance of “I’m Goin’ Down” it’s clear that he is having the time of his life. Springsteen has many different songs that cover so many different styles and watching Springsteen perform this album cut from Born In The U.S.A. reminded me of another layer of this amazing artistry.
“I’m Goin’ Down,” is a simpler song than “Thunder Road,” or “The Rising.” It has a simply four chord pattern that is repeated through out the song and the melody, while catchy doesn’t have a lot to going on. Sometimes Springsteen channels Bob Dylan, sometimes he channels Motown artists like Smokey Robinson. With “I’m Goin’ Down,” Springsteen is challenging The Beatles when they first came to America in 1964.
You can hear it in the structure of the melody and even see it in in the way Springsteen bobs his head side to side just like Paul did back in the day. There’s an innocent joy in this song that is reminiscent the youthful joy that The Beatles came across the ocean with and inspired many American including Springsteen himself to be a musician.
The lyrics of “I’m Goin’ Down,” are kind of . . . down. He’s singing about a passion that has fizzled. There’s no turn around in this song or resolution. It just goes on and on about how things aren’t going very well. So what is Springsteen so happy about?
This song isn’t one of those “let’s sing a happy song with sad lyrics to deal with the pain” –songs. It’s more like “hey, there are these issues, but I’m naive enough and young enough to think that my pleas will turn you around, because chances are you are actually still into me, but you’re just playing a game, right?" It’s capturing a level of innocence and hopefulness, which from an older perspective seems ludicrous, but hey, that’s what it means to be young.
Another way you can look at this song is a man getting payback and stating “look, at what I used to do for you, if you’re not careful, you will loose this amazing man you see before you.” “My kisses used to turn you inside out,” has a sly wink, which makes this song feel more like a flirtatious game then a reflection of a relationship falling apart.
It’s so remarkable how a song can feel so good and be about something that doesn’t seem that happy. In some ways, this dichotomy makes the song even more joyful. There’s dirtiness and there's tension. It’s not an ideal love, it’s something you can relate to. All relationships ebb and flow and we fight to stay in the game because of how good we know it can be.
That’s really what this song is about. It’s about that feeling that is lost but brings us so much joy in our memory that we can’t help but smile when we think about it even when we are faced with sadness.
Seriously, look how much fun he’s having during the last chorus. You can’t fake that kind of joy.
Watching this recent performance of “I’m Goin’ Down” it’s clear that he is having the time of his life. Springsteen has many different songs that cover so many different styles and watching Springsteen perform this album cut from Born In The U.S.A. reminded me of another layer of this amazing artistry.
“I’m Goin’ Down,” is a simpler song than “Thunder Road,” or “The Rising.” It has a simply four chord pattern that is repeated through out the song and the melody, while catchy doesn’t have a lot to going on. Sometimes Springsteen channels Bob Dylan, sometimes he channels Motown artists like Smokey Robinson. With “I’m Goin’ Down,” Springsteen is challenging The Beatles when they first came to America in 1964.
You can hear it in the structure of the melody and even see it in in the way Springsteen bobs his head side to side just like Paul did back in the day. There’s an innocent joy in this song that is reminiscent the youthful joy that The Beatles came across the ocean with and inspired many American including Springsteen himself to be a musician.
The lyrics of “I’m Goin’ Down,” are kind of . . . down. He’s singing about a passion that has fizzled. There’s no turn around in this song or resolution. It just goes on and on about how things aren’t going very well. So what is Springsteen so happy about?
This song isn’t one of those “let’s sing a happy song with sad lyrics to deal with the pain” –songs. It’s more like “hey, there are these issues, but I’m naive enough and young enough to think that my pleas will turn you around, because chances are you are actually still into me, but you’re just playing a game, right?" It’s capturing a level of innocence and hopefulness, which from an older perspective seems ludicrous, but hey, that’s what it means to be young.
Another way you can look at this song is a man getting payback and stating “look, at what I used to do for you, if you’re not careful, you will loose this amazing man you see before you.” “My kisses used to turn you inside out,” has a sly wink, which makes this song feel more like a flirtatious game then a reflection of a relationship falling apart.
It’s so remarkable how a song can feel so good and be about something that doesn’t seem that happy. In some ways, this dichotomy makes the song even more joyful. There’s dirtiness and there's tension. It’s not an ideal love, it’s something you can relate to. All relationships ebb and flow and we fight to stay in the game because of how good we know it can be.
That’s really what this song is about. It’s about that feeling that is lost but brings us so much joy in our memory that we can’t help but smile when we think about it even when we are faced with sadness.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Parenthood: Week 35 - Learning To Ignore Crying
I still remember the first time I heard Ollie cry. The sound of his voice crying out to the world right after he was born filled me with relief, joy and a euphoria that I had never felt before. Even though there was a sense of anguish in his voice, the overwhelming feeling of joy overcame any other feelings knowing that he was okay after being born.
In those first couple weeks after he was born, my reaction to his crying was less about joy and more like sheer panic. I would rush over whenever I would hear any sign of crying to see what was wrong. Any thought that he had to suffer for a second longer than necessary haunted me and I did everything I could to attend to him every single time he cried.
Then there was the first time that I slept through his cries. Diana and I realized at a certain point that one of us needed to get sleep for our family to function. As Diana was nursing Ollie, it made sense for me not to get up every time he needed to eat in the nighttime. Even though I agreed with her, I still got up after we had this conversation but one night I slept through his cries.
I heard him crying, but I knew Diana would take care of him and the sense of urgency now dissipated. This sound no longer roused me up out of my half-sleeping stage as it did before.
Over the past eight months of Ollie’s life, my reaction to him crying has become far less panicking and depends much more on the situation. Part of this has to do with the fact that I can now kind of identify his different cries.
When Ollie has a dirty diaper he has a whimpering cry. When he is tired, his cry is whinier and when he wants attention his cry is louder and more demanding. It’s not that I don’t attend to these cries as immediately as I can, but sometimes I just need to worry less about comforting him and more on fixing the problem.
Ollie doesn’t like having his diaper changed, nor does he like wet diapers. So let’s say he starts crying because of a wet diaper. As I change his diaper, he starts crying louder because I’m holding him down, which he really doesn’t like. All my focus at that moment is on getting the diaper changed as quickly as possible. I’ve found that I can’t really focus on comforting him at the same time. I just need to get the diaper changed.
I don’t feel bad about his crying in these moments because even though I’m doing something that makes him upset, things need to get done. He hates putting on his winter jacket and cries whenever we put it on. Well, we live in Chicago, so he was to deal with it. So he cries and someone it doesn’t bother me because it’s for his own good.
Other times I need to ignore his cries for attention when I place him in his playpen and I need to use the bathroom. I know he’s fine and I only need him to wait for a couple minutes, so surprisingly, he cries at the moment don’t really have a strong emotional effect on me.
Part of the initial panic about crying is that you don’t want your child to be permanently scarred from crying too much. But the reality is that babies, even if they are attended to 24 hours in a day, cry. So as heart breaking as it is something, a reasonable amount of crying really doesn’t hurt a baby.
I’m not advocating ignoring your baby while he or she cries. I just find it interesting how a sound that once instilled such panic in me, now hardly phases me. Well, that’s not entirely true.
Remember how I mentioned the different types of cries earlier in this post? Well, when Ollie cries a “I’m in pain and I’m scared,”-cry, it brings tears to my eyes. The volume of this cry is unbelievable and it’s not so much a series of cries but a full out scream. Hearing this thing is really rough. Thankfully I’ve only heard it a couple times but when I hear it, I panic.
We have a lot more crying ahead of us. Diana and I will have to be thoughtful how we react depending on the cries as we deal with sleep training and toddler crying which requires varied reactions from parents depending on the situation.
Right on cue, there's Ollie crying. It's a dirty diaper cry. Time to head over and take care of this diaper change. He'll probably cry a little bit while I do it, but it'll be okay. As soon as its done, I know, I'll be able to get a little smile out of him.
In those first couple weeks after he was born, my reaction to his crying was less about joy and more like sheer panic. I would rush over whenever I would hear any sign of crying to see what was wrong. Any thought that he had to suffer for a second longer than necessary haunted me and I did everything I could to attend to him every single time he cried.
Then there was the first time that I slept through his cries. Diana and I realized at a certain point that one of us needed to get sleep for our family to function. As Diana was nursing Ollie, it made sense for me not to get up every time he needed to eat in the nighttime. Even though I agreed with her, I still got up after we had this conversation but one night I slept through his cries.
I heard him crying, but I knew Diana would take care of him and the sense of urgency now dissipated. This sound no longer roused me up out of my half-sleeping stage as it did before.
Over the past eight months of Ollie’s life, my reaction to him crying has become far less panicking and depends much more on the situation. Part of this has to do with the fact that I can now kind of identify his different cries.
When Ollie has a dirty diaper he has a whimpering cry. When he is tired, his cry is whinier and when he wants attention his cry is louder and more demanding. It’s not that I don’t attend to these cries as immediately as I can, but sometimes I just need to worry less about comforting him and more on fixing the problem.
Ollie doesn’t like having his diaper changed, nor does he like wet diapers. So let’s say he starts crying because of a wet diaper. As I change his diaper, he starts crying louder because I’m holding him down, which he really doesn’t like. All my focus at that moment is on getting the diaper changed as quickly as possible. I’ve found that I can’t really focus on comforting him at the same time. I just need to get the diaper changed.
I don’t feel bad about his crying in these moments because even though I’m doing something that makes him upset, things need to get done. He hates putting on his winter jacket and cries whenever we put it on. Well, we live in Chicago, so he was to deal with it. So he cries and someone it doesn’t bother me because it’s for his own good.
Other times I need to ignore his cries for attention when I place him in his playpen and I need to use the bathroom. I know he’s fine and I only need him to wait for a couple minutes, so surprisingly, he cries at the moment don’t really have a strong emotional effect on me.
Part of the initial panic about crying is that you don’t want your child to be permanently scarred from crying too much. But the reality is that babies, even if they are attended to 24 hours in a day, cry. So as heart breaking as it is something, a reasonable amount of crying really doesn’t hurt a baby.
I’m not advocating ignoring your baby while he or she cries. I just find it interesting how a sound that once instilled such panic in me, now hardly phases me. Well, that’s not entirely true.
Remember how I mentioned the different types of cries earlier in this post? Well, when Ollie cries a “I’m in pain and I’m scared,”-cry, it brings tears to my eyes. The volume of this cry is unbelievable and it’s not so much a series of cries but a full out scream. Hearing this thing is really rough. Thankfully I’ve only heard it a couple times but when I hear it, I panic.
We have a lot more crying ahead of us. Diana and I will have to be thoughtful how we react depending on the cries as we deal with sleep training and toddler crying which requires varied reactions from parents depending on the situation.
Right on cue, there's Ollie crying. It's a dirty diaper cry. Time to head over and take care of this diaper change. He'll probably cry a little bit while I do it, but it'll be okay. As soon as its done, I know, I'll be able to get a little smile out of him.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Year 4: Week 19 - Hiring Season
Like many schools we are in the hiring season. This process continues in the spring as summer and people’s lives change and develop and lead them away from our school.
As a young teacher, I was insulated from the hiring process and the hiring cycle. When I was getting years of experience as an assistant, my position did not allow me to be an integral part of the process. Now in my fourth year at this school and a department chair, hiring has become part of the yearly cycle of events just like the Winter Assembly and the last day of school.
Being put in a position to be part of the hiring process is like many other things about being a more experienced teacher. The ability to give more feedback and have a voice in the direction of the school allows me to influence change and help foster ideas. The flip side is that there is a lot of responsibility and there’s fewer people up the ladder that I can lean on to make the tough decisions.
It’s easier to let other people make decisions. You can complain about these decisions, they weren’t yours, someone else made the call. However, when you make a decision about hiring, there’s no one you can blame if things don’t go well.
I’m glad that my school does a lot of these hiring through committees and that’s great but doesn’t necessarily spread the responsibility if something doesn’t go well. There is still a hierarchy of responsibility and like any organization certain people make the final calls and are accountable for those decisions.
In my younger years I thought, well, if you hire someone who is wrong for a position, just fire them and hire someone else, what’s the big deal? Well, it is not easy to fire somebody. It’s something to be avoided, not relied upon as a way out of mistakes.
If you understand that approach then it puts much more pressure on the hiring process to get it right. The interview process for my first job included them calling my references and interviewing me for and hour and half and then offering me that job, that day.
The interview process for my current job included three teaching samples in front of students and about three hours of interviews over three different days. Only after all of that did the school invite back to be officially offered the job.
At the time I thought this was crazy. At a certain point, it seemed like they were taking advantage of me for free teaching. What, they are too cheap to get a sub? And every time I was interviewed there were at least four people in the room asking me questions.
The downside to this process was that it took a lot of time away from the tasks of being a teacher. Also, many people are part of this interview process who may not have a lot of experience or training on how to interview someone.
The positives however outweigh the negatives significantly. You get different perspectives from other people in the community and it becomes shared experience with the faculty, which is important. The teaching samples are key. They need that “it” factor that you can only gleam from watching someone teach.
It’s a crazy time of year and these are long and involved processes, but our kids are worth it. The worst thing that happens if you get the hiring wrong is not that you fire them but that they stay on because they aren’t bad enough to get fired but are doing damage. The best thing that happens in inspiration to kids and the community that goes beyond expecatations.
As a young teacher, I was insulated from the hiring process and the hiring cycle. When I was getting years of experience as an assistant, my position did not allow me to be an integral part of the process. Now in my fourth year at this school and a department chair, hiring has become part of the yearly cycle of events just like the Winter Assembly and the last day of school.
Being put in a position to be part of the hiring process is like many other things about being a more experienced teacher. The ability to give more feedback and have a voice in the direction of the school allows me to influence change and help foster ideas. The flip side is that there is a lot of responsibility and there’s fewer people up the ladder that I can lean on to make the tough decisions.
It’s easier to let other people make decisions. You can complain about these decisions, they weren’t yours, someone else made the call. However, when you make a decision about hiring, there’s no one you can blame if things don’t go well.
I’m glad that my school does a lot of these hiring through committees and that’s great but doesn’t necessarily spread the responsibility if something doesn’t go well. There is still a hierarchy of responsibility and like any organization certain people make the final calls and are accountable for those decisions.
In my younger years I thought, well, if you hire someone who is wrong for a position, just fire them and hire someone else, what’s the big deal? Well, it is not easy to fire somebody. It’s something to be avoided, not relied upon as a way out of mistakes.
If you understand that approach then it puts much more pressure on the hiring process to get it right. The interview process for my first job included them calling my references and interviewing me for and hour and half and then offering me that job, that day.
The interview process for my current job included three teaching samples in front of students and about three hours of interviews over three different days. Only after all of that did the school invite back to be officially offered the job.
At the time I thought this was crazy. At a certain point, it seemed like they were taking advantage of me for free teaching. What, they are too cheap to get a sub? And every time I was interviewed there were at least four people in the room asking me questions.
The downside to this process was that it took a lot of time away from the tasks of being a teacher. Also, many people are part of this interview process who may not have a lot of experience or training on how to interview someone.
The positives however outweigh the negatives significantly. You get different perspectives from other people in the community and it becomes shared experience with the faculty, which is important. The teaching samples are key. They need that “it” factor that you can only gleam from watching someone teach.
It’s a crazy time of year and these are long and involved processes, but our kids are worth it. The worst thing that happens if you get the hiring wrong is not that you fire them but that they stay on because they aren’t bad enough to get fired but are doing damage. The best thing that happens in inspiration to kids and the community that goes beyond expecatations.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
Parenthood: Week 34 - Pushing Ahead and Missing The Moment
When a kid starts crawling around some people start getting obsessed with their kid walking. That’s kind of silly, enjoy your kid crawling around, one of these days you will miss how your kid used to crawl. Don’t be in too much of a rush to see your kids grow up.
-Electrician who came by today to fix a broken dimmer switch.Developmental milestones are exciting for parents. Moments like the first smile or the first time a baby rolls over demonstrate signs of health. More than this, these new “tricks” (as one of my friends called them) are important moments in life marking accomplishments and the passage of time.
As someone who studied child psychology and child development, I get extremely excited to see Ollie hit these milestones. I’m probably worse than most parents as it’s not only the big things like rolling over that gets me excited but also little things like Ollie holding something in his hand and turning his wrist.
One thing that bothers me is how sometimes people seem more obsessed with pushing babies to the next milestone than simply enjoying the place that they are at right now. I remember people trying to get Ollie to smile right after he was born. Why are you pushing so hard for this? It’s not going to happen. Stop trying so hard and enjoy the wonder that is newborn smell, the way that their little hands tighten and up and their bodies can be swaddled up into a cute little ball (oh, how I miss those newborn days).
I’ve heard of parents pushing their babies to sit up before they are ready or lead them around the room holding them by their shoulders in an attempt to get them to walk earlier. There’s people who try to get toddlers to do math that’s far too complex for their little brains and others who potty train their kids way too early.
I get it that it’s important to challenge and stretch babies capabilities. Right now, Ollie is really into saying “da.” It’s super cute but I don’t only talk to him with that syllable. I speak to him with other words. At the same time, I don’t sit him down in my lap and say words at him repeatedly hoping that he’ll replicate them.
I see this in parents of the students that I teach. They want so much for their students to be ahead of the curve, to master the next step and then immediately move onto the next point. While the motivation is great, wanting their kid to succeed and growing, constantly pushing onto the next goal in life seems to miss the point of . . . well. . . life.
Many people have told me advice like that electrician did jokingly referring to the fact that once you teach your kids to talk, you will wish that they never learned how to talk. While I get this joke, I think there’s something more to this comment.
Don’t worry so much about your baby’s next milestone. Yes, be aware of what your baby should be doing and help them learn to do new things. Remember, the meaning of the milestone isn't in making it there but rather in the process of getting there that you share.
Every stage of your child’s life will have things that you will wish you could experience again. Each stage has their little special moments and magical things about them. Enjoy those moments for what they are, not where they lead.
Don't love your child for what she can do or who she will be.
Love her for who she is.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Year 4: Week 18 - Curriculum
In an in-service day earlier this week, my department discussed articulating our own curriculum. We were asked some questions to consider at the beginning of the day. Here are some of my answers:
1. What sort of curriculum do we need?
Curriculum works in concert with assessment and instruction to inform these other parts of teaching as they inform curriculum. Curriculum is a reflection of the philosophy and priorities of not only the school but also the larger community of education and the broader society.
The need for curriculum is to organize our thoughts and also to express to others the viewpoints, the perspectives and the ways of thinking that best reflects the values we hold dear.
The sort of curriculum that we need is a framework for us to work from and build, not the kind that is a cage that limits us as teachers. It should inform us when ideas are sparse but also steer the ship when ideas are plentiful. It should be holistic in thinking about the broader perspective between grades but should also hold value by itself in isolation of what came before and what is coming after.
The fluidity of curriculum is based on different possibilities that can come as an expression of these values and should not come from a lack of clear understandings of philosophy and priorities of the school.
Curriculum are choices are made based on the values which grow from the philosophy of the school which is both structured enough to provide guidance but fluid enough to allow teachers to respond to the reality of the human condition and not the idealized student.
2. What form should curriculum take?
Curriculum should take the form of a multi-layered document that shows the broad scope of the department with other additions that can provide details. Examples of repertoire are important but also fundamental character building is vital. This form should reflect other forms that curriculum take on in other parts of the school. For the form must serve not only the teachers but also the wider school community.
3. What will we do with it?
Leave it on shelf and forget about it. Kind of. . .
Here's the thing, if the curriculum is done well and truly reflects the philosophy of the school and the teachers, then the curriculum is not something that needs to be opened up every day for a guidance. Many things in the curriculum should be innate in who we are as teachers.
This document should be used used long term planning and also helps when someone is absent. So yes, leave it on the shelf, most of the time. I feel that curricula hold their value more in the process of creating them, than in their everyday use.
1. What sort of curriculum do we need?
Curriculum works in concert with assessment and instruction to inform these other parts of teaching as they inform curriculum. Curriculum is a reflection of the philosophy and priorities of not only the school but also the larger community of education and the broader society.
The need for curriculum is to organize our thoughts and also to express to others the viewpoints, the perspectives and the ways of thinking that best reflects the values we hold dear.
The sort of curriculum that we need is a framework for us to work from and build, not the kind that is a cage that limits us as teachers. It should inform us when ideas are sparse but also steer the ship when ideas are plentiful. It should be holistic in thinking about the broader perspective between grades but should also hold value by itself in isolation of what came before and what is coming after.
The fluidity of curriculum is based on different possibilities that can come as an expression of these values and should not come from a lack of clear understandings of philosophy and priorities of the school.
Curriculum are choices are made based on the values which grow from the philosophy of the school which is both structured enough to provide guidance but fluid enough to allow teachers to respond to the reality of the human condition and not the idealized student.
2. What form should curriculum take?
Curriculum should take the form of a multi-layered document that shows the broad scope of the department with other additions that can provide details. Examples of repertoire are important but also fundamental character building is vital. This form should reflect other forms that curriculum take on in other parts of the school. For the form must serve not only the teachers but also the wider school community.
3. What will we do with it?
Leave it on shelf and forget about it. Kind of. . .
Here's the thing, if the curriculum is done well and truly reflects the philosophy of the school and the teachers, then the curriculum is not something that needs to be opened up every day for a guidance. Many things in the curriculum should be innate in who we are as teachers.
This document should be used used long term planning and also helps when someone is absent. So yes, leave it on the shelf, most of the time. I feel that curricula hold their value more in the process of creating them, than in their everyday use.
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