I love how enthusiastic my 3rd graders are about playing the recorder. They look forward to it, have a sad when we don’t do recorders and they genuinely enjoy playing the instruments.
Then 5th grade hits. I’m not going to get into why the enthusiasm disappears when they reach 5th grade, but I will say there is dramatically different. Many 5th graders openly dislike the recorder. The focus breaks down. It’s really hard to get them to work as a group. I’ve never been able to get them into a good groove working as a class.
So I gave up on teaching 5th grade recorder in the large group. It just wasn’t working. There wasn’t enough buy in for them to learn as a class. I could never strike the right balance, which resulted in advanced kids being bored, and students who fell behind confused. When 5th graders feel bored or are confused, often they express this by being disruptive.
I feel better about what I’ve figured out for my 3rd graders on recorder then what I do with my 5th graders. However, I have found some things that work, so here they are:
1. Recorder fun: I remember the moment when I realized that I could play pop music on the piano. It was through the songbook for The Little Mermaid. It’s a powerful moment when students realize that they can play music they know and like on an instrument. Hal Leonard has this series of recorder books, Recorder Fun! (here’s a link to the Adele one). Each book features a finger chart, basics on reading music and pop songs. Each song is written in big notes with the note names written inside the note name. Lyrics and chord symbols are also included.
Most of the time the rhythms are too complex for my students to read, however, if they know the song, then they are mostly using just the note names to play the song and ignoring the notation. I’m okay with that. At least they are being exposed to notation and feeling the gratification of playing a song that they know. However without knowing how to read rhythms, well it's hard to play as a large group which leads to. . .
2. Small group work: After students try some songs out of the Recorder Fun! series, they give me a list of their favorite songs and I put them in groups according to their song choice. They have the fingering, the notes, and they have an idea of how the song works. Then they can go at their own pace and figure out how to play together. This takes some doing, but I find that in a small group, they can usually figure out a way to play in sync with each other. I work my way from group to group giving them specific goals to work on during the lesson.
3. Alto recorder . . . or tenor?: I have all of my students try the alto recorder and in every class I have three or four students who love it. It fits the bigger hands of some students; many like the lower sound and more advanced kids often enjoy the challenge of the larger instruments. Alto recorder is in a different key then soprano recorder so there’s some transposing that needs to happen. Usually I give them a chart that shows how the transposing work and have them write out a transposed parts themselves. And surprisingly one of my 5th graders got really into playing the tenor recorder even though she could barely stretch her fingers out to cover the holes. Hey, she worked really hard at it and made it work.
4. Recorder as a unit: Instead of doing a little recorder as part of a class over a period of time, 5th graders seem to do better with recorder if they do it every music class for the whole period across a series of classes. 5th graders are ready to focus on projects for longer periods of time. It is also easier for students to see growth and feel success if they are working on recorder songs more often during a shorter span of lessons.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Monday, March 6, 2017
Parenthood: Week 194 – Getting Serious
I have a pretty good “teacher face.” You know that look a teacher gives student or a class that will get them stop talking or focus immediately (if you are ever hanging out with a teacher as them to demo their teacher face for you). Over the years, I’ve grown to enjoy having stern talks with kids. No, I don’t enjoy making kids feel guilty or cry, but I do like the mental challenge of figuring out ways to talk to kids to help them understand the consequences of their own negative or careless choices. I only have a finite number of these talks a day in myself and when I’m not sure what to say, these talks can be really stressful. However, when things click, it can be satisfying knowing you’ve helped a student grow.
My “daddy face” is another story. I really don’t like expressing frustration to Ollie or having to be really stern with him. Like my growth as a teacher, I’ll probably get better at it, but right now, it’s really not good times.
Last week, I was putting Ollie to bed. We had done the whole routine, story, and cuddling in bed. I sat in his rocking chair, which Ollie often requests I do while he goes to sleep. However this time, Ollie was not simmering down. He was bouncing on the bed, and throwing his blankets, pillows and stuffed animals off his bed. Calmly without any emotion (which is what is recommended), I placed him back in bed, but he giggled as soon as I let go. Then he slithered off the side of the bed and continued to be silly.
It was getting late. We had been at this for probably forty-five minutes. I had things to do, and it had been a long day for me. I could feeling the frustration build. I had been here before as a teacher, and I knew that I couldn’t loose control, but I decided as I have at times at school to let some of the steam out in a careful and controlled way. I picked up Ollie put him in bed and said quietly but sharply, “YOU are going to sleep right no! Daddy does not think this is funny. He is not happy. Go. To. Sleep.”
Ollie lay there silent, looking at me shocked, not knowing what to do. I tucked his blanket over him, and left the room. I checked five minutes later and he was asleep. I proceeded to hug him, stroke his head gently and tell him as I do every night, “Goodnight Ollie, you are my special little guy, daddy loves you and daddy is very proud of you.”
I felt horrible.
I know that is was good for Ollie to see that there were limits. I also know that it was fine that I said what I said in the way I said it. However, part of me really dislikes having to be that way with my boy and I’m a little sad that this works.
You don’t have to convince me about the importance of being a parent who sets limits and lets their children see the natural consequences of their actions. These consequences are sometimes anger and frustration. I get all of this logically, but in my heart, I’m not there. I only want my words to bring my child joy and I don’t want anything I ever do to make him unhappy even for a moment.
Sometimes the things we do for those we love aren't things that we love to do. It is exactly our capacity to do these things out of love that make us parents. Not friends, or mentors, but parents.
Maybe someday, I'll be fine being more stern with Ollie, but if I'm not, that might be such a bad thing after all.
My “daddy face” is another story. I really don’t like expressing frustration to Ollie or having to be really stern with him. Like my growth as a teacher, I’ll probably get better at it, but right now, it’s really not good times.
Last week, I was putting Ollie to bed. We had done the whole routine, story, and cuddling in bed. I sat in his rocking chair, which Ollie often requests I do while he goes to sleep. However this time, Ollie was not simmering down. He was bouncing on the bed, and throwing his blankets, pillows and stuffed animals off his bed. Calmly without any emotion (which is what is recommended), I placed him back in bed, but he giggled as soon as I let go. Then he slithered off the side of the bed and continued to be silly.
It was getting late. We had been at this for probably forty-five minutes. I had things to do, and it had been a long day for me. I could feeling the frustration build. I had been here before as a teacher, and I knew that I couldn’t loose control, but I decided as I have at times at school to let some of the steam out in a careful and controlled way. I picked up Ollie put him in bed and said quietly but sharply, “YOU are going to sleep right no! Daddy does not think this is funny. He is not happy. Go. To. Sleep.”
Ollie lay there silent, looking at me shocked, not knowing what to do. I tucked his blanket over him, and left the room. I checked five minutes later and he was asleep. I proceeded to hug him, stroke his head gently and tell him as I do every night, “Goodnight Ollie, you are my special little guy, daddy loves you and daddy is very proud of you.”
I felt horrible.
I know that is was good for Ollie to see that there were limits. I also know that it was fine that I said what I said in the way I said it. However, part of me really dislikes having to be that way with my boy and I’m a little sad that this works.
You don’t have to convince me about the importance of being a parent who sets limits and lets their children see the natural consequences of their actions. These consequences are sometimes anger and frustration. I get all of this logically, but in my heart, I’m not there. I only want my words to bring my child joy and I don’t want anything I ever do to make him unhappy even for a moment.
Sometimes the things we do for those we love aren't things that we love to do. It is exactly our capacity to do these things out of love that make us parents. Not friends, or mentors, but parents.
Maybe someday, I'll be fine being more stern with Ollie, but if I'm not, that might be such a bad thing after all.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Year 7: Week 24 - Recorder Wars
The recorder is one of the most ridiculed instruments. Probably the only instrument that gets as much grief as the recorder is the viola, but probably as not as much because most elementary school teachers don’t hand every single one of their students a viola in 3rd grade.
I taught recorder for the first time for one year before I got to this school. The recorder was part of the 3rd grade curriculum when I got here so I’ve kept it up.
Teaching the recorder is a true test of a teacher’s ability to carefully plan curriculum and effectively instruct students. My first year, I just gave the kids the recorders and then attempted to teach them. That was a disaster. It was a headache-educing, chaotic cacophony. I remember taking Tylenol before trying to teach the recorder and that still didn’t help. I had songs to teach and I knew how to teach the instrument but I didn’t know how to teach the recorder to 3rd graders.
Over the past seven years, there’s been a lot of trial and error. However, I’ve kept at it and I’m at a pretty good place. My 3rd graders after playing for about a month, wrote compositions this week using G, A, B, & C. Only two our of my sixty kids needed a reminder to put their left hand on the top of the instrument, and almost all of the them are tonguing. Also I got most of the kids to hold the recorder with their right hand lightly to the side of the holes as opposed to a death grip at the bottom of the instrument, which forms band habits.
Even though all of the kids were playing at the same time during class, no one was squeaking or playing obnoxiously loud and they were all motivated and working. Here’s a couple things that I’ve figured out that has helped me find success teaching the recorder.
1. The introduction.
Starting about a month before the students get the recorder, I start playing for them and showing them videos of people playing the recorder. I make sure that the performances I show them feature children, adults, soloists, ensembles, different styles of music, men and women and people of color playing the recorder. I make sure that all of these videos that I show feature good playing technique and a quality tone model.
2. The Quiz
I give one quiz in the entire 3rd grade year. It’s the recorder quiz. This quiz is one page long and asks the kids about basic recorder technique.
3. Get them used to playing in small groups.
I usually have them sit in three rows and split them up into two groups. Once students realize how much easier it is to hear themselves play in smaller groups, they will wait their turn to play.
4. Have challenging material around for more advanced students.
I have various recorder method books in my room. If kids are moving ahead, they can grab one of these books and work out of it.
5. The iPad
I used to use Recorder Master on my iPad, but that program is no longer updated and doesn’t work very well on the updated OS. I’m currently using Flute Master. This program features songs that are displayed as a game first in which kids control a dragon that burns bats. Then the same song is displayed in traditional notation with a moving red line that helps the kids know where they are in the music.
Flute Master has a three songs that have nothing but B, which is great because it provides important repetitions to get technique established and it gives the opportunity to teach tonguing. Nothing motivates students to behave well on their recorder more than the possibility of playing the recorder game on the iPad in front of the class.
Next week, I'll talk about some things that I've gotten figured out for my older students on the recorder. . .
I taught recorder for the first time for one year before I got to this school. The recorder was part of the 3rd grade curriculum when I got here so I’ve kept it up.
Teaching the recorder is a true test of a teacher’s ability to carefully plan curriculum and effectively instruct students. My first year, I just gave the kids the recorders and then attempted to teach them. That was a disaster. It was a headache-educing, chaotic cacophony. I remember taking Tylenol before trying to teach the recorder and that still didn’t help. I had songs to teach and I knew how to teach the instrument but I didn’t know how to teach the recorder to 3rd graders.
Over the past seven years, there’s been a lot of trial and error. However, I’ve kept at it and I’m at a pretty good place. My 3rd graders after playing for about a month, wrote compositions this week using G, A, B, & C. Only two our of my sixty kids needed a reminder to put their left hand on the top of the instrument, and almost all of the them are tonguing. Also I got most of the kids to hold the recorder with their right hand lightly to the side of the holes as opposed to a death grip at the bottom of the instrument, which forms band habits.
Even though all of the kids were playing at the same time during class, no one was squeaking or playing obnoxiously loud and they were all motivated and working. Here’s a couple things that I’ve figured out that has helped me find success teaching the recorder.
1. The introduction.
Starting about a month before the students get the recorder, I start playing for them and showing them videos of people playing the recorder. I make sure that the performances I show them feature children, adults, soloists, ensembles, different styles of music, men and women and people of color playing the recorder. I make sure that all of these videos that I show feature good playing technique and a quality tone model.
2. The Quiz
I give one quiz in the entire 3rd grade year. It’s the recorder quiz. This quiz is one page long and asks the kids about basic recorder technique.
- Which hand is at the top of the instrument? Left or right.
- What type of air do you use to play the recorder? Fast or slow
- If the recorder doesn’t sound right, what should you check? Fingers completely covering the hole & make sure to use slow air
- How far do you put the recorder in your mouth? Right in front of the teeth.
3. Get them used to playing in small groups.
I usually have them sit in three rows and split them up into two groups. Once students realize how much easier it is to hear themselves play in smaller groups, they will wait their turn to play.
4. Have challenging material around for more advanced students.
I have various recorder method books in my room. If kids are moving ahead, they can grab one of these books and work out of it.
5. The iPad
I used to use Recorder Master on my iPad, but that program is no longer updated and doesn’t work very well on the updated OS. I’m currently using Flute Master. This program features songs that are displayed as a game first in which kids control a dragon that burns bats. Then the same song is displayed in traditional notation with a moving red line that helps the kids know where they are in the music.
Flute Master has a three songs that have nothing but B, which is great because it provides important repetitions to get technique established and it gives the opportunity to teach tonguing. Nothing motivates students to behave well on their recorder more than the possibility of playing the recorder game on the iPad in front of the class.
Next week, I'll talk about some things that I've gotten figured out for my older students on the recorder. . .
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Bedtime Buddies
Ollie's bedtime buddies (left to right):
- Gigi the Giraffe
- Chu from "Chu's Day" by Neil Gaiman
- Polka (baby toy, infants do best with high contrasts like B&W)
- Bailey from Finding Dory
- Tùzǐ (rabbit in Chinese) from my mom
- Cookie Monster
- Moana
- Maui
- Super Dog
- Bowser (dragon with Frozen shirt).
Monday, February 27, 2017
Parenthood: Week 193 – How To Play With A Toddler
Sometimes it’s easy.
Ollie requests, “Daddy watch!” so I sit on the floor and watch him play and he is content but other times it's more complicated. When a toddler asks you to play with them, they can be requesting a range of things. The little one could simply want you to watch, they may want you to play a board game with them, or they want to order you around and tell you what to do in the guise of “playing.”
Watching how children’s sense of play develops is another fascinating thing to witness like speech acquisition and the development of locomotion (e.g. crawling to walking).
In toddlerhood two things start coming to the fore in the realm of play: extended independent play and interactive play. Much of what babies and younger toddler do is parallel play. This is when two kids sit near each other and play sitting next to each other but don't actually interact with each other while playing. It’s like two adults sitting next to each other on a plane reading books individually. There is a sense that the other person is there which can be comforting, but the activity is not reliant on human interaction to progress forward. This parallel play refers mostly to peer interactions as babies do a lot of interactive play with adults.
When Ollie is in the right mood and he has the right activity in front of him, he can individually play for a solid half an hour. It’s a fascinating thing to watch. Also, this can be really convenient when this time lines up time I need to spend on chores.
Then there are moments when I Ollie asks me to play with him.
Sometimes it’s all good. We play with blocks, we are on the same page and it’s fine. However there are times, when I don’t put the blocks where Ollie wants and he gets frustrated with me and gets bossy. Sometimes I just do what he says after making him ask politely and others times I put up resistance explaining that I want to play a different way. Yeah, this often doesn’t go very well. It’s a process, but we are getting there.
While I’m trying to help Ollie learn to play in a way that he “should.” I find myself hesitating at times and letting Ollie teach me how to play. Today we played a game called “traffic jam.” We put his cars and other toys in a row, Ollie would describe the lights changing and at some point we would move the cars a couple inches. Then we would add more objects to the traffic jam. We repeated this a bunch of times for a solid half an hour. It took me a while to understand what he was doing and what he wanted me to do, and I still don’t completely get what he got out of this game, but it engaged him and he wanted to share this time with me, so I went with it.
Next time a toddler asks you to play, go with it. There may be some frustration and some confusion, but don’t forget, the most important thing is not how you two play but rather that you play together.
Ollie requests, “Daddy watch!” so I sit on the floor and watch him play and he is content but other times it's more complicated. When a toddler asks you to play with them, they can be requesting a range of things. The little one could simply want you to watch, they may want you to play a board game with them, or they want to order you around and tell you what to do in the guise of “playing.”
Watching how children’s sense of play develops is another fascinating thing to witness like speech acquisition and the development of locomotion (e.g. crawling to walking).
In toddlerhood two things start coming to the fore in the realm of play: extended independent play and interactive play. Much of what babies and younger toddler do is parallel play. This is when two kids sit near each other and play sitting next to each other but don't actually interact with each other while playing. It’s like two adults sitting next to each other on a plane reading books individually. There is a sense that the other person is there which can be comforting, but the activity is not reliant on human interaction to progress forward. This parallel play refers mostly to peer interactions as babies do a lot of interactive play with adults.
When Ollie is in the right mood and he has the right activity in front of him, he can individually play for a solid half an hour. It’s a fascinating thing to watch. Also, this can be really convenient when this time lines up time I need to spend on chores.
Then there are moments when I Ollie asks me to play with him.
Sometimes it’s all good. We play with blocks, we are on the same page and it’s fine. However there are times, when I don’t put the blocks where Ollie wants and he gets frustrated with me and gets bossy. Sometimes I just do what he says after making him ask politely and others times I put up resistance explaining that I want to play a different way. Yeah, this often doesn’t go very well. It’s a process, but we are getting there.
While I’m trying to help Ollie learn to play in a way that he “should.” I find myself hesitating at times and letting Ollie teach me how to play. Today we played a game called “traffic jam.” We put his cars and other toys in a row, Ollie would describe the lights changing and at some point we would move the cars a couple inches. Then we would add more objects to the traffic jam. We repeated this a bunch of times for a solid half an hour. It took me a while to understand what he was doing and what he wanted me to do, and I still don’t completely get what he got out of this game, but it engaged him and he wanted to share this time with me, so I went with it.
Next time a toddler asks you to play, go with it. There may be some frustration and some confusion, but don’t forget, the most important thing is not how you two play but rather that you play together.
Friday, February 24, 2017
Year 7: Week 23 - Of Thee I Sing On
“The time to hesitate is through.”
The evening of election day, I was away from home, sitting in a dorm style cabin with the other fifth grade teachers during a outdoor education retreat. The students were asleep and all of the teachers were sitting together seeing the election results as they came in over our smart phones. As the evening grew later and later and it began to sink in what was happening, we created a plan of how to address the students. One by one, teachers left the group to go to bed. We had another long day of us and even with the election, we were committed to keep the retreat focused on the work that we brought for our students to experience on this retreat.
I was in shock as I settled into the bottom bunk of the bed. I lay lost in a sea of confusion and uncertainty. My phone was on the floor next to me and I kept myself from picking it up and checking the news, knowing that I needed to get sleep. But I had to do something, I needed to do something.
I picked up my phone, but instead of checking the news, I turned on the flashlight, grabbed my journal and started writing. I had waited five years to get to work on this project; the time to start was now.
In the summer of 2011, I attended an Orff Certification Workshop in Boston. Orff is a approach to music teaching that is the foundation of much of the way I approach music education. One of the teachers, Prof. Baruch Whitehead from Ithaca College shared a musical presentation built around President Obama’s picture book, “Of Thee I Sing, A Letter To My Daughters.”
This beautiful book presents thirteen great Americans. The idea of the presentation is that after reading the part about one of the people students could make a connection with a song. For example, after Jackie Robinson, students could sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”
Ever since that workshop, the idea of expanding Prof. Whitehead’s idea into a broader presentation for my school had been in the back of my mind. Every couple months, I would come to a point and think that it was the right time to put this project together and then I would decide it was too much work at the time. And that’s how this project existed for five years, something I was excited to do and thought about a lot, but never took action to make happen.
By the light of my iPhone, I sketched out an outline of this presentation, pulling from memory the people featured in this book. I wanted to have the whole school involved. I planned to get different faculty involved from different parts of the school and involve different subjects. I started thinking about who I needed to talk to in order to get buy in, what obstacles I would face and I wrote out a plan. After vigorously writing for a while, I finally felt myself starting to settle. I couldn’t do anything about the election, but I could do for my school and myself to reaffirm what it meant to be American. As much as I felt our country needed this book to be read to them, I felt that I needed this book to be read to me. If I needed this, then so did my students. And then somehow, I slept a couple hours.
As I mourned the election results in the coming days, I kept coming back to this project as a focus. It didn’t lessen the grief or speed my through the process of coming to accept a new uncertain status quo, but it did give me a sense of purpose, a positive reaction to all of the chaos.
The first step was getting an approved date to do this presentation. I asked a date around Presidents’ Day and got the Wednesday after. I couldn’t get all of the students together for one presentation, so we planned to do a grade JK-2 assembly and a grades 3-12 assembly. I wrote up a script and started asking teachers to be speakers. I immediately felt affirmation and support from the faculty. Everyone immediately bought into the spirit of this project. I deliberately made sure that we had teachers who taught different grades and also included administration and assistant teachers. There was no convincing that had to be done. Each "yes" I heard brought me joy, hope and motivation.
I decided to honor every other person to keep the flow of the book intact. One of the art teachers was already planning to do work inspired by Georgia O’Keefe, so that was set. “Take Me Out To The Ball Game,” for Jackie Robinson, I kept from the original concept. One of the high school choirs sang “God Bless The Child” for Billie Holiday and for Maya Lin, a high school trumpet player performed “Taps.” We all sang “Ain't going to Let Nobody Turn Me Around” to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The 7th grade Spanish teacher enthusiastically brought back a unit on Cesar Chavez and some of her students put together a video about Chavez, including a reworking of “Alexander Hamilton,” from Hamilton, but with lyrics about Chavez. Finally, after George Washington, another high school choir sang “History Has Its Eyes On You,” from Hamilton. To bookend this presentation, we sang “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee.”
For the JK-2 presentation, we made some changes. We showed videos for the Billie Holiday, Maya Lin and George Washington sections. The elementary Spanish teacher led the students in a wonderful “Si se puede!” chant for Cesar Chavez. We also featured JK-2 teachers in this presentation as speakers along with some administration.
I purposely set up the presentation, so that I would do nothing during the actual presentation. I wanted this presentation to be as much about the school as possible and not about me at all. If this was going to be what it needed to be for our community, it needed to be owned by all of us, not just one individual. All I did during the presentation was say, "go" to the first reader to start once everyone was in the auditorium.
While I watched, I sang, laughed, smiled, and almost cried a little bit. Every word that was spoken on stage came from a place of personal belief that reflects the values of our school. The spirit of collaboration my colleagues demonstrated which are a foundation of progressive learning came to life. The pride they showed sitting on stage watching others speak and our students' brave and important work showed our whole community what it meant to value each others' voices as citizens.
Diversity, equity and inclusion work is often hard, challenging and uncomfortable, but it can also be joyful and celebratory. The teachers and students brought that joy. Sometimes we need to take a chance and put ourselves out there to demonstrate what diversity, equity and inclusion looks like and feels like. By choosing to include themselves in the MX yesterday, the teachers and students demonstrated what it meant to be inclusive and to celebrate the diversity in our community.
What is the state of our union? I'm an optimist, and while I'm hopeful, I'm not sure. However, I am sure of the state of my school. This presentation is one example of many that shows that the state of my school is strong and getting stronger, unified by a shared philosophy, and strengthened every single day by our faculty, administration, students, staff and families.
I am proud to have worked on this presentation, I am proud of colleagues and I am proud to have the privilege to share this school community with such amazing people.
President Obama, have I told you how you inspired an entire school with your words? Have I told you how grateful I am for all that you have given our nation? Have I told you how you continue to bring hope into my life?
The evening of election day, I was away from home, sitting in a dorm style cabin with the other fifth grade teachers during a outdoor education retreat. The students were asleep and all of the teachers were sitting together seeing the election results as they came in over our smart phones. As the evening grew later and later and it began to sink in what was happening, we created a plan of how to address the students. One by one, teachers left the group to go to bed. We had another long day of us and even with the election, we were committed to keep the retreat focused on the work that we brought for our students to experience on this retreat.
I was in shock as I settled into the bottom bunk of the bed. I lay lost in a sea of confusion and uncertainty. My phone was on the floor next to me and I kept myself from picking it up and checking the news, knowing that I needed to get sleep. But I had to do something, I needed to do something.
I picked up my phone, but instead of checking the news, I turned on the flashlight, grabbed my journal and started writing. I had waited five years to get to work on this project; the time to start was now.
In the summer of 2011, I attended an Orff Certification Workshop in Boston. Orff is a approach to music teaching that is the foundation of much of the way I approach music education. One of the teachers, Prof. Baruch Whitehead from Ithaca College shared a musical presentation built around President Obama’s picture book, “Of Thee I Sing, A Letter To My Daughters.”
This beautiful book presents thirteen great Americans. The idea of the presentation is that after reading the part about one of the people students could make a connection with a song. For example, after Jackie Robinson, students could sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”
Ever since that workshop, the idea of expanding Prof. Whitehead’s idea into a broader presentation for my school had been in the back of my mind. Every couple months, I would come to a point and think that it was the right time to put this project together and then I would decide it was too much work at the time. And that’s how this project existed for five years, something I was excited to do and thought about a lot, but never took action to make happen.
By the light of my iPhone, I sketched out an outline of this presentation, pulling from memory the people featured in this book. I wanted to have the whole school involved. I planned to get different faculty involved from different parts of the school and involve different subjects. I started thinking about who I needed to talk to in order to get buy in, what obstacles I would face and I wrote out a plan. After vigorously writing for a while, I finally felt myself starting to settle. I couldn’t do anything about the election, but I could do for my school and myself to reaffirm what it meant to be American. As much as I felt our country needed this book to be read to them, I felt that I needed this book to be read to me. If I needed this, then so did my students. And then somehow, I slept a couple hours.As I mourned the election results in the coming days, I kept coming back to this project as a focus. It didn’t lessen the grief or speed my through the process of coming to accept a new uncertain status quo, but it did give me a sense of purpose, a positive reaction to all of the chaos.
The first step was getting an approved date to do this presentation. I asked a date around Presidents’ Day and got the Wednesday after. I couldn’t get all of the students together for one presentation, so we planned to do a grade JK-2 assembly and a grades 3-12 assembly. I wrote up a script and started asking teachers to be speakers. I immediately felt affirmation and support from the faculty. Everyone immediately bought into the spirit of this project. I deliberately made sure that we had teachers who taught different grades and also included administration and assistant teachers. There was no convincing that had to be done. Each "yes" I heard brought me joy, hope and motivation.
I decided to honor every other person to keep the flow of the book intact. One of the art teachers was already planning to do work inspired by Georgia O’Keefe, so that was set. “Take Me Out To The Ball Game,” for Jackie Robinson, I kept from the original concept. One of the high school choirs sang “God Bless The Child” for Billie Holiday and for Maya Lin, a high school trumpet player performed “Taps.” We all sang “Ain't going to Let Nobody Turn Me Around” to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The 7th grade Spanish teacher enthusiastically brought back a unit on Cesar Chavez and some of her students put together a video about Chavez, including a reworking of “Alexander Hamilton,” from Hamilton, but with lyrics about Chavez. Finally, after George Washington, another high school choir sang “History Has Its Eyes On You,” from Hamilton. To bookend this presentation, we sang “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee.”
For the JK-2 presentation, we made some changes. We showed videos for the Billie Holiday, Maya Lin and George Washington sections. The elementary Spanish teacher led the students in a wonderful “Si se puede!” chant for Cesar Chavez. We also featured JK-2 teachers in this presentation as speakers along with some administration.
I purposely set up the presentation, so that I would do nothing during the actual presentation. I wanted this presentation to be as much about the school as possible and not about me at all. If this was going to be what it needed to be for our community, it needed to be owned by all of us, not just one individual. All I did during the presentation was say, "go" to the first reader to start once everyone was in the auditorium.
While I watched, I sang, laughed, smiled, and almost cried a little bit. Every word that was spoken on stage came from a place of personal belief that reflects the values of our school. The spirit of collaboration my colleagues demonstrated which are a foundation of progressive learning came to life. The pride they showed sitting on stage watching others speak and our students' brave and important work showed our whole community what it meant to value each others' voices as citizens.
Diversity, equity and inclusion work is often hard, challenging and uncomfortable, but it can also be joyful and celebratory. The teachers and students brought that joy. Sometimes we need to take a chance and put ourselves out there to demonstrate what diversity, equity and inclusion looks like and feels like. By choosing to include themselves in the MX yesterday, the teachers and students demonstrated what it meant to be inclusive and to celebrate the diversity in our community.
What is the state of our union? I'm an optimist, and while I'm hopeful, I'm not sure. However, I am sure of the state of my school. This presentation is one example of many that shows that the state of my school is strong and getting stronger, unified by a shared philosophy, and strengthened every single day by our faculty, administration, students, staff and families.
I am proud to have worked on this presentation, I am proud of colleagues and I am proud to have the privilege to share this school community with such amazing people.
President Obama, have I told you how you inspired an entire school with your words? Have I told you how grateful I am for all that you have given our nation? Have I told you how you continue to bring hope into my life?
Monday, February 20, 2017
Parenthood: Week 192 – The ThIrd Shift
There’s always work I could be doing when I’m home with Ollie. I’m not talking about chores around the house, I’m talking about actually work, teacher stuff.
I have it pretty good with my teacher load and prep time, but it’s still a little crazy. Before Ollie was born, I would typically get to school an hour before class started and stay an hour after. So that’s 7am to 4pm. Again, this really isn’t too bad for teachers. Most of the time there would be at least half a dozen hours some time in the weeknight evenings or weekend when I would need to do more work to prep.
When Ollie entered the picture, I committed to getting home earlier so I could spend more time with him. The idea is that I would displace that after school time in the evening. First shift is school, second shift is housework and the third shift, and evening time doing schoolwork became the third shift.
There have been times that this worked out great. Ollie goes to bed right at 7:30, that leaves me an hour or two to do work, but some nights he doesn’t go to sleep on time or he needs extra cuddles.
It’s really depressing sometimes on long days to think about how little time I get with my boy. In the morning, it’s like ten minutes, sometimes less and on long days when I get home at six after meetings, I got like maybe hours with him. This is part of the reason I don’t get super-annoyed with him when he climbs into bed at 4:45am to cuddle.
I try to tell myself that my work at school benefits Ollie and that is for him. Every parent tries to rationalize the time they spend away from their kids, but sometimes, it just doesn’t all balance out and it can be hard to deal with this fact. Sometimes life is about fulfilling obligations that takes us away from our kids. And that sucks.
It’s a tough balancing act, wanting to do the best you can in your job and wanting to spend time with your kids. Now that Ollie is older and he is down to one nap, which sometimes he skips, that third shift is becoming more and more a deliberate choice to prioritize work over my son. This doesn’t ever feel good.
Most of the time however I’m prioritizing Ollie over work as often the third shift disappears into extra bedtime stories or extended cuddles. Most of the time this feels pretty great and even though I’m left with a pile of work and some added work stress, I never regret the time I spent with my little one. Because while not everything I do at work benefits Ollie, every moment I spend with Ollie makes me a better teacher.
I have it pretty good with my teacher load and prep time, but it’s still a little crazy. Before Ollie was born, I would typically get to school an hour before class started and stay an hour after. So that’s 7am to 4pm. Again, this really isn’t too bad for teachers. Most of the time there would be at least half a dozen hours some time in the weeknight evenings or weekend when I would need to do more work to prep.
When Ollie entered the picture, I committed to getting home earlier so I could spend more time with him. The idea is that I would displace that after school time in the evening. First shift is school, second shift is housework and the third shift, and evening time doing schoolwork became the third shift.
There have been times that this worked out great. Ollie goes to bed right at 7:30, that leaves me an hour or two to do work, but some nights he doesn’t go to sleep on time or he needs extra cuddles.
It’s really depressing sometimes on long days to think about how little time I get with my boy. In the morning, it’s like ten minutes, sometimes less and on long days when I get home at six after meetings, I got like maybe hours with him. This is part of the reason I don’t get super-annoyed with him when he climbs into bed at 4:45am to cuddle.
I try to tell myself that my work at school benefits Ollie and that is for him. Every parent tries to rationalize the time they spend away from their kids, but sometimes, it just doesn’t all balance out and it can be hard to deal with this fact. Sometimes life is about fulfilling obligations that takes us away from our kids. And that sucks.
It’s a tough balancing act, wanting to do the best you can in your job and wanting to spend time with your kids. Now that Ollie is older and he is down to one nap, which sometimes he skips, that third shift is becoming more and more a deliberate choice to prioritize work over my son. This doesn’t ever feel good.
Most of the time however I’m prioritizing Ollie over work as often the third shift disappears into extra bedtime stories or extended cuddles. Most of the time this feels pretty great and even though I’m left with a pile of work and some added work stress, I never regret the time I spent with my little one. Because while not everything I do at work benefits Ollie, every moment I spend with Ollie makes me a better teacher.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)