The following interaction has been edited only of names and profanity.
Enjoy.
Setting: 8:47am, the classroom is quiet except for a few crinkling chip bags; students are taking a quiz.
Me: Alright, when you're done, hold on to your quiz and check your work.
Student: HUH! (shoves quiz at me) Take this I'm done.
Me: Check it over, I'll come around and grab it when everyone's done.
Student: (to the person next to her) He's always getting smart. That's why I don't talk to him.
Me: Student, I wasn't being smart or sarcastic or condescending. I asked you polietly to hold on to your quiz until I collected it.
Student: (as though I'm invisible) Why's he always talking to me?!?! (now acknowledging my presence) Don't talk to me! Leave me alone!
(other students are not surprised by this student's angry outburst)
Me: I'll never stop talking to you because you're my student. I care about you and I want you to be successful.
Student: (grasping for words, but realizing that there's not much she can say back)
Me: Alright, when you're done, hold on to your quiz and check your work.
SCENE
Philly Teacher Man
Reflections on Teaching and Learning in the City of Brotherly Love
Friday, March 21, 2014
Saturday, August 17, 2013
A new standard for ALL schools
I just finished reading Kathleen Nolan’s Police in the
Hallways: Discipline in an Urban High Schooland am feeling at the same time encouraged and deflated.
In the text (which I highly recommend to educators in any
setting, but especially to administrators - and so-called ‘discipline deans’-
in urban schools), Nolan conducts ethnographic research at a large public
school in the Bronx. While she was
there, the school was a major focus of Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to “take back
the schools” (Bloomberg never mentioned who he intended to take them back from…
but I’ll leave symbolic action and hyperbole for another day) with zero
tolerance and order maintenance procedures. As a result, there was a major increase in police presence
in the school (and in schools across NYC). Incidents like dress-code violations, tardiness, and the
enigmatic “disrespect”, once school-based disciplinary infractions, now
resulted in citations and court summons issued by NYPD officers stationed in
the halls.
I have much more to say about Nolan’s findings in the text
and how they epitomize the experiences my students share, but that will have to
come later. What I want to explore
is the cause for my conflicted feeling upon finishing the text.
In her conclusion, she discusses the role that small schools
might play in eradicating this type of police state in schools. Nolan explains:
There is much promise in the
creation of small schools, but small schools can succeed only when they avoid
replicating the same inequalities and problems found in traditional large
public schools and when all small schools receive the resources and freedom to
adopt the kinds of educational and disciplinary practices that meet students’
needs. (175)
Later, she builds upon a piece by CUNY’s Michelle Fine about
a standard for “social justice” in small schools:
This standard gets ignored in
all the talk of standards. It asks, does a school offer a sense of respect and
dignity? Such a standard is met through establishment of democratic,
collaborative relationships with parents and communities, engaging classroom
experiences, and appropriate academic and social supports. When schools meet
this standard, violence and disorder are likely to decrease. (175)
Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to attend a talk
given by Michelle Fine. Though the
focus of the talk was on standardized testing, she took a minute to challenge
the audience to imagine, amid all the talk of anti-this and that, the type of
schools we’re FOR. This standard of social justice that Fine and Nolan discuss
is at the heart of the type of schools I’m for.
When I think about the conflicts that I’ve had with students
in the past year (even in the past month), the majority of them stemmed from
what the student or I felt was disrespectful or a challenge to our dignity -
whether real or perceived.
Imagine a school that put at the forefront establishing a
sense of respect and dignity for its students, staff, physical space, and
learning.
I’m certainly not naïve enough to think that we can just hang
a mission statement on the wall and this will happen. In fact, this is a real challenge, but I really think that
it’s a worthwhile endeavor. And here’s the best part: it doesn’t cost a dime.
Here are some steps to get stared:
- Stop yelling
at students, making empty threats to them, and generalizing and stereotyping
them.
- Stop “putting
kids out” of class and school. If
a student needs to leave class (which sometimes happens), the teacher, student,
and a 3rd party need to have a conversation about it.
- Try “I”
statements. For example, “You need to listen” vs. “I need you to listen”
Don’t think it makes a difference?
Think about how often adolescents are told what to do… and don’t
misunderstand, it’s not about begging your students, but rather shifting the
focus.
- Use please
and thank you with students. Thank them for coming to class. Thank them for
their work or attention at the end of class… It’ll rub off.
- Explain rules/ policies/ decisions to students rather than
giving directives.
For
example: “No more than 3 absences. After 3 you’re dropped.” vs. “Because this
course is accelerated, no more than 3 absences. We will be moving at a fast
pace and in 3 classes we’ll cover about 9 days worth of material. As a result,
if you miss more than 3 classes, you’ll fall too far behind and will have to
take the class over” - Easy
enough.
- Encourage
students to speak up and provide a genuine forum for their concerns… then
address those concerns.
- Give students genuine choices - in the
classroom and outside the classroom
- Remember: not
every interaction has to be a confrontation. Security and “climate” staff would do well to remember
this.
As I was thinking about some of these, I was heartened
because I feel like we do a pretty good job of creating a “social justice
standard” at my small school.
Certainly there are things to work on, but our students generally feel
respected and dignified and it does translate to fewer incidents of violence and
disrespect.
However, as I was generating this list I could hear the
naysayers in the back of my mind telling me this is too warm and fuzzy. It’ll never work with “these kids”
(ugh… there’s that phrase). You
have to be tough… no excuses.
To this, all I have to say is give it a try. I work with a tough population - 16-21,
dropped/ put/ pushed-out of school at least once, 60% involved with juvenile/
adult justice system, 60% pregnant or parenting - and though these tactics
certainly aren’t a silver bullet, they rarely hurt.
I’m not a softy who makes excuses for my kids, but I do
treat them with respect and dignity…
Thursday, August 15, 2013
The "Crisis" in Philadelphia Schools... or not
On Friday August 9th Philadelphia schools
superintendent Dr. William Hite held a press conference proclaiming that unless
the district receives $50 million to alleviate the budget crisis by August 15thschools may not be able to open safely on September 9th. With this
announcement it became official: Philadelphia schools are in crisis.
Except calling this a crisis - whether educational, budget,
or something else - ignores the bigger picture and completely misses the
point.
A crisis is a sudden, unexpected, or rare moment of
devastation or struggle. Hurricane Katrina was a crisis. As was the tragic
collapse of the Salvation Army thrift store at 21st & Market a
few months ago. Wildfires ravaging
California or Colorado could also be called a crisis. Though in hindsight there
may have been warning signs, these events were relatively sudden, unexpected, and
rare.
The current state of affairs in the School District of
Philadelphia, while devastating, hardly meets the definition of a crisis. It was not sudden - it is the
culmination of recent funding cuts at the state and federal levels, attempts at
short-term solutions and reforms, and decades of poor financial management. It
was not unexpected - anyone who didn’t see this financial “crisis” coming was
either naive or blissfully ignorant. It is hardly rare - large urban districts
across the country are experiencing their own versions of this same “crisis”
(look to Chicago, New York, Detroit, LA to name a few).
So if not a crisis, then what?
- A call to
action?
- Business as
usual?
- An
opportunity to break unions?
- An open door
for corporate reform?
- A supreme
injustice?
Perhaps all of the above…
The new normal?
In their text The Art of Critical Pedagogy (2008), Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade and Ernest Morrell
argue that even though they have alarmingly high dropout rates, excessive
teacher attrition, and low test scores, it is inaccurate to say that urban
schools are failing. In the face of concentrated poverty, under-funding, and
under-resourceing, urban public schools are doing exactly what they are
designed to do - fail.
It’s possible that what’s happening before our very eyes is
the next step in the already existing, to borrow Kozel’s term, system of Apartheid schooling. Cities will have two classes of schools. Those who are
willing and able will migrate toward private, charter, and magnet schools,
while under-resourced public schools will remain warehouses for an underclass
of students, those who couldn’t get in or couldn’t make it in the “real”
schools. In this way, we can still
claim to have a democratic education system, though that is hardly the
case.
An open door for reform?
Philadelphia has 84 charter schools, the new face of school
reform. One of the hallmarks of
these silver bullets, is the absence of unionized employees (Note: Teachers at
4 Philadelphia charters are unionized, the remainder are not). Charter operators claim that operating
outside of the union allows for more innovation and flexibility among teachers.
It also affords administration the ability to hire and fire at-will.
It’s easy to see why charter operators (whether they’re
non-profits or for-profits) wouldn’t want a unionized workforce. For better or worse, it gives them more
control and flexibility. That
doesn’t mean that it’s all-bad - after speaking with teachers at several
different non-union charters I am the first to admit that there are some great
perks. However, as someone who is
not a union member (my school is managed by a non-profit and we are not
unionized) the lack of a clear contract or collective bargaining power can
easily result in a high degree of uncertainty and bullying, particularly around
time and job responsibilities.
…Or union busting?
The most recent developments in this so-called “crisis” have
underscored the goal here is not to create strong schools, but rather to push a
particular brand of school reform. The benevolent Governor Corbett, no friend
to organized workers, said he’d give Philadelphia schools $45 million, but later attached the caveat that in order to get the money unions must make concessions.
Initially Dr. Hite supported the PFT and rejected Corbett’s
demand, encouraging the masses that perhaps we finally had a superintendent who
actually supported educators. Last
night, however, Hite reminded us that he was a product of the corporate
reform-y Broad Leadership Academy when he called on the SRC to suspend the state school code and eliminate seniority in rehire decisions. This crucial
step, which may or may not be taken later this afternoon, would effectively
negate union contracts and render them powerless.
But just like in the movies, the conditions and public
opinion have to be right to take such a step… and perhaps that’s where we
are. People are frustrated with
the schools and have bought in to the rhetoric of lazy, greedy, overpaid
teachers. In the face of schools not opening, they’re anxious of any action -
unjust or not.
But it’s a “crisis”, what
can you do?
- Eliminate
property-tax based school funding.
- Reinstate
local control over schools.
- Collect
delinquent taxes and revisit city tax codes re: non-profits and corporations.
- Create
leadership opportunities for teachers
- Address
overhead/ administrative costs within the district.
- Create small
schools (see upcoming post on this concept)
- Sell vacant
schools.
- Relocate
central office into “under-utilized” schools and sell 440 N. Broad… school
staff should be in schools!
- Work with the
PFT to create contract and pension plan that allows for long-term success
(realize this is not the same as “demand concessions from”).
- Stop quitting
on “failing” schools and contracting them out to charters.
These are just a few quick thoughts… but of course, these
would all require rational discussion, long-term planning, and the desire to
maintain a strong, equitable public education system.
Monday, June 24, 2013
World Lit, Single Stories, and "Drop-outs"
Though Philly education is being cut to the bone, my program
was fortunate enough to set aside money to run our 60-student summer
school. The program fits in with
our year-round, accelerated model and allows my students to continue their trek
to graduation by earning 3 credits in 6 weeks. I’ve taught summer school for the last three years and I
love it. Though three 90-minute blocks back to back to back is a little
grueling, I love having more time with my students and the smaller class sizes
that this program affords.
Anyway, all of this is mealy background for a sort of
revelation that we had in one of my classes yesterday. I’m teaching two
different classes this summer, Memoir (English 3) and World Lit (English
4). Because it’s the summer and
some of the students have already taken (and failed) my English 3 & 4
classes, I like to use this time to try out some new ideas, texts, projects,
etc. This summer, I’m totally reshaping
my World Lit class and I wanted to start by setting the stage with the question
“Why bother reading stories from around the world?”
It may seem like a simple, even elementary question, but I
posed it genuinely and I think it’s an important one to ask, especially since
some of my students have very Philly-centric world views (when a student asked
where I went to college, I said “in Vermont, up north”. He nodded his head, “oh north, I don’t
really go up that way” [implying North Philadelphia]).
I asked them to individually brainstorm a “quick list” of
reasons why reading world lit could be beneficial and then we started to
discuss. First, several students
parroted the answers they thought I was fishing for:
“Understand
different cultures.”
“See what life
is like outside of Philly.”
“Think about
different people, religions, and foods.”
“Expand our
world view”
“In case we
travel:
All great answers, but I felt like they Googled my question
rather than thinking about it.
After pushing farther, a few students started to get
frustrated and offered:
“Because the
District says we have to read it.”
“cause we need
this credit to graduate”
Fair, although I have a ton of autonomy and probably could
work around the world lit side of things if
I wanted.
Just when I thought they were tapped out, a quiet guy
sitting in the corner mumbled something.
“to combat ignorance.”
I had to ask him to repeat it:
“To combat
ignorance.” he said plainly.
I wrote it on the board. Paused and asked him to explain.
His peers chimed in and it was settled.
That’s the answer we -as a class- had selected.
It served as a great segue to the clip from Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie‘s TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” that I wanted to
share with my students. As they
watched I asked them to break down some of the different “Single Stories” that
she discusses - reading & writing stories about white British people and
snow because she thought that’s what books had to be about; pitying a local boy
who worked for her family only to find out his family, though poor, were
incredibly talented weavers; and being greeted by a college roommate at Drexel
who was surprised that her Nigerian roommate could speak English and didn’t
listen to “tribal music”.
I was first exposed to this clip in one of my masters’
classes at Temple and was taken aback by her seemingly simple, yet poignant
message. I’ve wanted to use the
clip in class for a while, but this was the first time I went for and, as with
the first time using any text, is was a little nervous.
After discussing some of these and the impact of “single
stories”, I asked my students to describe a time when they fell victim to the
danger of a single story.
As they often do, my students blew me away.
First some students told stories about times they had
stereotyped others. They judged
their peers and even total strangers based on “single stories”. Wanting to forge an even more personal
connection with “single stories”, I pushed for times when they’d felt like
Adichie when she first arrived at college.
A few students shared stories of being stereotyped because
of their skin color or dress. They
talked about being followed around H&M in Center City or being harassed by
police in their neighborhoods. Others
mentioned being told by teachers or even family members that they’d never
amount to anything. One young
mother described the judgment that she faced the first time she took her
daughter to the pediatrician. She
even teared up a bit remembering the harsh words and demeaning tone as the
doctor asked her accusatory questions about her child. However, she beamed with pride as she
described how she proved the doctor wrong and talked about what a wonderful mother
she is.
The final “single stories” centered around being out of
school and labeled “drop outs”. Working at an alternative school for the last
five years, I’ve become keenly aware of the danger of the single “drop-out”
story - that of the kid who quits school in favor of life on the corner. While I have encountered students who
openly admit this was part of their story, it is hardly emblematic of my
population. To be sure, my
students are not defined by their past, but it is an important part of their
identity and when they share it with me I realize that the “single story” of
the drop-out is so far from reality.
Many of my students faced trauma, chaos, and crises that I wouldn’t wish
on my worst enemies. They recount
crowded classrooms and dispassionate administrators, harsh judges and unfair
incarceration, homelessness and accelerated adulthood. When I first started teaching, these
stories led me to pity my students, but even in that reaction I was falling
victim to a “single story”.
As we wrapped up our discussion, I brought it back to the
student’s comment about world lit as a way to combat ignorance. I reminded
students that as we work through our World Lit stories and texts in general,
we’ll continue to break down “single stories” and combat ignorance.
These are the kind of classes that can’t be measured by the
Common Core and high stakes testing.
Labels:
autobiography,
Chimamanda Adichie,
classroom,
Dropouts,
Summer School,
TED Talk,
Urban ed,
World Lit
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Playing Chicken with Philadelphia School Funding
The last few months have been pretty devastating for the
state of public education in Philadelphia. At the beginning of March, despite impassioned pleas from
students, parents, teachers, and community members, the School Reform Commission (SRC) voted to shutter 23 schools.
At the end of May the SRC again convened, heard testimony
from a long list of folks concerned about the fate of the city’s public
schools, and proceeded to approve a “doomsday budget”. This $2.3 billion budget includes the
elimination of art and music classes, extracurricular activities, and sports. It also necessitates the termination of
hundreds of teachers, aides, assistant principals, NTAs, and counselors. While
each member of the SRC and the Superintendent expressed dismay with this
budget, all but one voted to approve it, stressing that the District must “live
within its means”. This phrase
struck a raw nerve with many school employees (myself included) as the District
recently awarded a massive contract to testing giant Pearson, gave raises to
many central office employees, and created a number of new top-level
administrative positions. The use
of the phrase “live within our means” prompted one teacher to ask why 440 (the
District’s beautiful, gigantic headquarters at 440 N. Broad Street) continued
to operate its air conditioning.
She reminded the Superintendent that many schools don’t have air
condition and “every penny counts”. I think there’s only a bit of hyperbole in
this teacher’s statement. How can
the District administration even begin to talk about austerity and living
within our means when they’re sitting in a half-empty monument to excessive
spending (i.e. 400 N. Broad).
The looming final move of devastation took place on Friday
when 3,783 of the District’s 19,530 employees received termination notices.
These notices went out to everyone from teachers to food service workers,
assistant principals to counselors, custodians to support staff. In all, 676 teachers, 283 counselors,
127 assistant principals, 1202 noon-time aides, 307 secretaries, and a host ofother positions will be laid off as of July 1. The Philly Teacher Action Group
has taken up an effort to demonstrate the human side of these terminations
through the “Faces of the Layoffs” project. Check it out, it’s pretty
powerful.
All of these moves by the District (particularly the most
recent two) are motivated by the projected $304 million budget shortfall facing
the SDP. This shortfall developed
for a variety of reasons, including poor long-term financial management,
funding cuts at the state and city level, the end of federal stimulus money,
and the exposition of school choice options (charters and cyber schools), but
regardless of the cause it is no surprise and is nothing new for the School
District of Philadelphia which has faced budget crunches around this time of
year for the last several years.
What lies beneath all of this austerity talk of “doomsday
budgets” and layoffs is a game of political chicken. In the past it has played out like this:
Round 1:
- The District
says that it needs more money.
- The State
says no.
- The Mayor
says something non-comittal like we need to support good schools, but doesn’t
want to raise taxes.
Round 2:
- The District
says, “we need more money or we’re not going to be able to operate”.
- The State
says no.
- The Mayor
rebukes the Governor and proposes some “innovative” way to raise money for the
District (this year it was raising taxes on cigarettes and liquor by the glass,
in the past it has been the soda tax and a host of other things).
Round 3:
- The District
moves forward with closures, bare-bones budgets and layoffs in an attempt to
show what is happening without more funds.
- The next two
moves belong to the City and the State.
In the past, they have come through with additional
funding, though certainly not all of what the District asked for. Certain items are restored to the
budget and a percentage of the folks laid off are rehired. Schools reopen in the fall and some
things go back to normal… until the following March when the cycle begins all
over again.
Just because the City and the State have granted additional funding in the past, that by no means that they'll come though this year. It is a very real possibility that schools will open in September with more students, but fewer supports, teachers, and supplies. Time will tell.
Though my school has been spared the ax this year (we aren’t
District employees and exist in a nebulous provider-area), but we have been a pawn in this political chicken in the past. However, with the consolidation of high schools next year, our enrollment is
expected to jump (not that we have any additional resources to handle such an increase). My students are acutely aware of what’s
going on in the schools because it pours out into their neighborhoods. They talk about siblings and peers who
aren’t going back in the fall because their school is closing, who see it as
the end of the line. Another
barrier in a deck already stacked against them.
While my colleagues and I do everything we can to support
our students and their families, it’s exhausting fighting what feels like an
uphill battle. Especially knowing that it’s in many ways a “set up” - a game of
political chicken to see who can leverage whom to balk first and open their
wallet.
This is not the way to operate a school system and it’s not
the way to treat the students, teachers, and families of Philadelphia. While there may be a need for austerity
and living within our means, it certainly can’t be placed solely on the backs
of the students and the professionals who work tirelessly with them everyday
and it can’t be done without some long-term financial planning for the health
of the district as a whole (isn’t that what Thomas Kundson got paid an absurd
amount of money for over a year to do?)… that is, unless the plan is to
starve the district to death.
Labels:
budget,
School closures,
School Funding,
SDP,
SRC,
TAG,
Urban ed,
urban schools
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Dealing with "That Class"
We’ve all had them and if you haven’t, you will -- “That
class”… you know the one. The wild-card. The challenge. The pain in the ass.
The day ruiner. Call it whatever
you want, but it’s the one class in which things just never seem to come
together. I don’t have one every semester by any means, but I definitely have
one this spring and they’ve been driving me crazy.
There’s no one thing that makes this particular group “that
class”. It’s kind of like Justice
Potter Stewart’s obscenity test: “I know it when I see it”, except I see this
group every afternoon at 2:03
The group that I’m struggling with this semester is not
terribly unlike other difficult classes I’ve had in the past:
- they get way off track
- they want to talk and argue and shout about rappers and
their neighborhoods
- they get irked/ frustrated/ irritated with me
- they cut class
- they disrespect each other
- they end up failing the class.
Also like many of the other challenges I’ve had in the past,
these guys (most of the class is male) can be brilliant and respectful and
insightful on an individual basis. In fact, I had a handful of them last
semester and they were completely different people.
However, last semester there were two major differences:
1) We saw each other 2nd period (9:40 in the
morning)
2) There were some very strong females in the class who
would never tolerate the childish behavior, nor would the males act that way
for fear of embarrassment (gotta love adolescents).
So this group has been giving me headaches on the regular
for the last month or so. But I work in an alternative school (not that it’s
different in traditional schools) so this behavior ought to be par for the
course and being the seasoned vet that I am… I reached into my pedagogical bag
of tricks.
My first instinct was to flip my frustration right back on
them. Make them accountable for
the material whether they wanted to engage it or not. This translated to independent reading, guided notes,
written thought questions, collecting and grading EVERYTHING, behavior charts,
blah, blah, blah. Basically I took
it way back to the basics… and the boring basics at that.
The level of success that this approach yielded depends on
how you define success. Some
students needed this kick to stay on task and get things done. Others decided
that they weren’t going to do it no matter what and continued to talk or
disengage. After about a week, I
was left with a small few who were doing very well, a middle group who did enough
to pass, but only barely, and a sizeable group who were failing miserably
because they hadn’t done any of my “you can’t have a scholarly discussion so do this seat work” assignments and
were now even more disengaged than before. At the end of the day, I could say that whatever their grade
it was entirely on them. The other
thing I could say for certain was no one was learning anything or engaging in
critical thought - least of all, me.
This type of “seat work” did not come naturally to me and I
found it soul crushing, especially after seeing the results. There had to be another way…
After a weekend of thought and some conversations with my
PLN and others, I decided I couldn’t do it anymore, I had to go in a completely
different direction. Willingly or
not I had traveled down the exact “basic skills” path of disenfranchisement
that I’ve railed against before and that drove most of my students out of their
traditional schools in the first place.
I had totally zigged when I should have zagged… and I ended up falling
on my face.
On Sunday night, I reworked the following week’s lesson
plans to be project oriented. The
students didn’t want to listen to me talk and that’s fine. After all, I shouldn’t be doing that
much talking anyway. I decided that my last period class would proceed with an
inquiry & project-based framework (I try to organize my classes around this
framework, but I sometimes slip).
In some ways, I suppose I would still put the responsibility back on the
students, but instead of mind-numbing seat work, I would challenge them to
elevate their game.
To offer a concrete example:
We’re working through a unit on irony, more specifically
dealing with the question: “Why do
authors use irony in stories?”.
We’ve looked at some interesting texts: ironic photos, news stories, a
Simpsons’ episode, Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter”,
O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper”, and Dorothy Parker’s poem “One Perfect Rose”. My
original intent was to power them through an analytical essay comparing
different uses of irony across these texts (and we did still do some formal
analysis, but on a much smaller scope).
Instead of guiding them through this analytical essay, I
first challenged them to go back to one of the texts and map the irony. I told them that these maps would serve
as the entire class’s refresher for that story so if they do a half-ass job
they’re not only screwing themselves, but also their peers (just as I expected,
they took this as a challenge and held one another accountable).
After presenting their irony maps, I hit them with stage
two of the irony final project: Developing
their own ironic work that teaches some lesson or accomplishes a goal. Just as O’Flaherty used irony to show
the devastation of civil war or Chopin used it to rally early feminists, so must
they craft an ironic piece that accomplishes some goal. Both the goal
and the medium were entirely up to them. In the end, many wrote short stories while some
wrote plays or raps. A few more
artistic students chose to do comic strips or other artwork.
I was incredibly pleased with their focus and the products
of their work. More importantly,
my students were engaging in critical and authentic thought.
I realize now that one of the major elements missing from
that particular class was a clear and challenging goal… or at least one that
was visible to the students. In
Michael Smith & Jeff Wilhelm’s book Reading Don’t Fix no Chevy’s they
discuss the necessity of learning (and specifically reading) to be useful or
utilitarian, in other words, accomplishing or working toward a goal. Perhaps this was one of the issues with
my 7th period guys - they didn’t recognize what we were doing as
useful, or certainly not as useful as arguing whether “Ace Hood or Wayne is
more bubblegum”.
My advice on dealing with classes that try your patience and
could push even the most dynamic educator to pass out the worksheets: resist the urge to regress.
Believe me, I know the “basic skills” path is well worn, especially in
urban schools and with challenging kids, but you have to take the one less
traveled by, as it will make all the difference (excuse the
obligatory Robert Frost…)
Further, talk to your peers. Reach out on Twitter.
Ask the Google-man: “what do I do with a class that is awful”. You will
find resources. You are not the
first teacher to have a class that sends you running for the Advil in the desk
drawer at the end of the day and you certainly won’t be the last.
Labels:
Advice,
basic skills,
challenges,
classroom,
Inquiry,
instruction,
PBL,
Pedagogy,
students
Monday, February 18, 2013
Don’t Waste my Time: Seeking out Meaningful Professional Development
I’ve been teaching for
about five years and I can count the number of meaningful district-run
professional development opportunities I’ve had in that time on one hand. It’s
not for lack of trying on my part. I regularly scour the “PD Planner” on
SchoolNet. I’ve gone to schools
all over the city to attend workshops and classes on a ton of topics, but by
and large, they’ve been busts. Fed
up with District offerings, I broadened my search. Using my newly formed PLN (I joined twitter last June
and have found it to be an invaluable professional resource… check me out @MrTeachPhilly),
I started seeking out different opportunities. Below are some of the resources that I found:
#engchat -
This hashtag was the reason that I joined Twitter in the first
place. I read an article about a
teacher in Philly who started a weekly Twitter chat for English teachers and
how quickly it had grown. I thought I’d give it a try. The first time I tuned in, I just
“lurked”. I tried to join the
conversation, but it seemed to move too quickly and I didn’t yet understand
Twitter. After a few weeks of
slowly breaking in, I now look forward to #engchat every Monday night. There’s always an engaging topic and a
great group of educators from all over the country who contribute. I’ve gotten
some wonderful resources and inspiration from these folks. Not an English
teacher? No problem. There are
tons of #chats for different subjects and levels.
Educon 2.5 - Educon is another opportunity that I learned about through Twitter
(and felt foolish for not knowing about before). It’s a conference that takes place every year in
Philadelphia at Science Leadership Academy (SLA). SLA is one of the District’s “special-admit” schools and
exists in partnership with the Franklin Institute. The conference is put together by the school’s dynamic staff
and students led by Principal Chris Lehmann. The theme changes each year, but the focus is always on
building connections, transforming learning & instruction, utilizing
technology, and cultivating inquiry.
Workshops are led by educators, entrepreneurs, techno-folks, and various
others involved with education across the country. More than anything, Educon is about conversation and
learning from one another.
In addition to great speakers,
including the always powerful Salome Thomas-El whose words had me ready to walk
out of there and start my own school, I attended 6 workshops on a wide range of
topics including Fostering student voice, What does a 21st century
classroom look like?, Spoken word poetry, Cultivating the “ethic of care”,
Students’ lives outside of school, and Pushing back against high stakes
testing.
Though I really encourage
folks to come check out Educon 2.6 next year, there are experiences like this
in cities across the country. Sure I had to sacrifice a weekend and a few
dollars to attend Educon, but many of the workshops, panels, and conversations
were the breath of fresh air that I needed half-way through the school
year.
PhilaSoup -
Professional development absolutely does not have to be based in
instruction and it certainly doesn’t have to place in school. PhilaSoup is part of a growing “-soup”
movement where people concerned about a particular issue get together to
discuss innovative ideas and share a meal (in this case, soup). PhilaSoup takes place once a month at
different locations around the city.
Educators and education-supporters pay $10 at the door then eat delicious
homemade soup and talk informally before listening to four short presentations,
each by a teacher who has an innovative idea for their classroom. After hearing the ideas, everyone votes
for the project they like best and at the end of the night, the winner gets a
grant (the money from the door).
The dinners have been a great way for my fiancé (also a teacher) and me
to get to know other teachers from all over the city and to support great
teachers directly.
TAGPhilly & ItAGs - The Philadelphia Teacher Action Group has a ton of great
opportunities for teachers and other folks who support education. Recently they
started this year’s ItAGs(Inquiry to Action Group) and I’m really excited to be
participating in one on Project Based Learning. These groups meet for six weeks around a common topic or
idea. They are not classes led by
an “expert” (though the facilitators are exceptionally qualified). The idea is
to participate in genuine inquiry about a specific topic, collaborate with
like-minded peers, and bring the topic back to your classroom. The groups are free and completely
voluntary.
This is the epitome of
professional development. A group
of teachers united by a common interest or objective collaborating, raising
questions and concerns, and working better understand a pedagogical practice. It is a sustained effort that can be
tailored for each individual educator.
There is no reason that school districts couldn’t co-opt this ItAG model
for professional development. In
fact, they’d save a ton of money on “so-called experts” who come in to do their
stock workshops and peddle their books…
Teachers Lead Philly - Another great network of teacher-leaders in the
Philadelphia area. This year, I’ve
been to two TLP meetings (both of which included a meal… a nice bonus at the
end of a long school day) and I left each one feeling a new level of motivation
and energy. The first meeting was
about teacher cross-visitation and observation and the other was about teacher
evaluations. Both meetings were
very well facilitated, with short information/ overview sessions and ample
opportunity for collaboration and discussion. This type of PD is a great step toward empowering teachers
as professionals and encouraging individual and collective development.
Reflective Teacher Network - Like the ItAGs, the Reflective Teacher Network is a
group of teachers that get together to engage in genuine inquiry. In this case, the meetings are once a
month and they’re focused on reflective practices, something that is absent in
too many teachers’ lives. In small
groups of three of four, teachers work together to discuss and address
challenges in their individual classrooms. The focus is on shared experience as well as action through
inquiry. I’ve had a great
experience with RTN as it brings a great new perspective to specific issues
that I struggle with everyday.
Other teachers helped me work through struggles with truancy,
differentiation, and a number of specific student concerns.
I have gained more from
these professional development opportunities in the last 6 months than I did
from four years of district-presented PDs that probably cost more and were
facilitated by “experts”. There are many aspects of these resources that make
them fundamentally different from what I have experienced as PD in the past and
maybe things like PhilaSoup and #engchat don’t fit into the traditional PD
category, but I think that’s the point.
Why so many schools cling to the “sit and get” model of professional
development is beyond me.
My wonderful and talented
fiancé (who teaches 4th grade) and I were talking about the nature
of professional development the other night. She was preparing to lead a PD workshop for her peers the
following afternoon and was lamenting the fact that she was required to make a
PowerPoint and have a Do Now for her colleagues. “Why can’t we just have a
discussion? We’re colleagues and peers, we should just be able to come together
and discuss pedagogy,” she bemoaned.
I couldn’t agree
more. Too much professional
development is pitched as “Here’s how you
“ when it should be “Let’s discuss or collaborate on “. This shift isn’t easy, I’ll be the
first to admit it. Workshops where
we work together to address a deeper issue or collaborate about pedagogy are
much involved and tiring. There
are certainly times when I’ve welcomed the opportunity to sit in a room, turn
off my brain and listen to someone else talk for an hour, but just as we know
our kids don’t learn much that way, neither do we.
As professionals, we need
to call for and seek out meaningful opportunities to develop and collaborate
with one another. We all know
teaching can be isolating and it’s easy to get wrapped up in our own
classrooms. But to do better for
our students and keep our own creativity (and sanity) we need to reach
out.
Labels:
collaboration,
Educon,
Empowerment,
instruction,
ItAG,
Pedagogy,
Professional development,
Salome Thomas-El,
TAG,
teaching
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