Arts Integration and Lost Connections

As part of my involvement in the school community beyond the bell to bell classroom teaching and related duties, (i.e. correcting, meeting with kids, planning lessons, going to meetings, avoiding meetings, answering emails, updating the website....See blog title) I have been coordinating the Chinese Exchange program. For the sake of full disclosure, I will say that it is a stipended position,  and, also for the record,  I will also say that I happy to do it.

In the fall each year, 10 students from China and their teacher come for about 8 weeks to live with host families, attend classes, see the area and take a big weekend trip to New York City. In the spring, 10 of our students travel to China with one of our teachers for a “similar” experience. As a chaperone for the inaugural trip in 2008, I can tell you this really is a wonderful and unique opportunity. This year, the group from China brought traditional costumes and an iPod full of Chinese music and has been performing dances at our school. Recently I completed paperwork for them to travel to the Middle School to do the same there. This is the first year the visiting group has brought dance to us, and it has been warmly received by the student body and faculty. (Imagine 1000 American high school students sitting silently in the gym during a pre-Homecoming pep rally and respectfully watching a 7 minute Chinese dance then erupting into applause. This impressed me.) All well and good, right? As far as the experience goes, yes. The next step, to bring this experience to a group of students beyond our own hosting school, however, perhaps not so much.

My journey started with the field trip form; it has all kinds of bells and whistles on it relating to payment, transportation, contact information, and the like. At the very top, partially in red and in caps says the following:

“IMPORTANT-Purpose of the Trip. If this trip occurs during school hours, you MUST STATE CLEAR CURRICULUM LEARNING STANDARDS by number and description. If not completed well, this form will be rejected and returned.” {Formatting theirs}

 Nobody gets in to see the wizard. Not nobody. Not nohow.

OK. My concern really isn’t about forms (I have filled out plenty in my life and I get their usefulness). Nor is it about the request for a field trip from school having an educational connection per se. It more has to do with how education is defined and viewed.

Being a good girl (and not wanting to not complete the form “well” and then have it “rejected and returned”) I went online to look at the Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks to fulfill this important part of the mission.

I looked first in History (being a Social Studies teacher, I guess). The frameworks are in large part a list of facts to learn. Towards the end, there are some frameworks for critical thinking skills-building around said facts and events. As well, there are similar guidelines for the treatment of primary source documents. At the very end there is a list of primary sources and a fine bibliography.

Below is the extent of the frameworks for World History with regard to contemporary China:

“WHII.34 Identify the political and economic upheavals in China after the Chinese Revolution. (H, E)
A. Communist Party attempts to eliminate internal opposition B. the Great Leap Forward and its consequences (famine) C. the Cultural Revolution and its consequences (the terror of the Red Guards and the
expansion of labor camps)
the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration E. China’s economic modernization and its growing involvement in world trade

WHII.13 Identify major developments in Chinese history in the 19th and early 20th centuries. (H, E)
China’s explosive population growth between 1750 and 1850 B. Decline of the Manchu dynasty beginning in the late 18th century C. Growing Western influence D. The Opium War E. The Taiping rebellion from 1850 to 1864 F. The Boxer Rebellion G. Sun Yat-Sen and the 1911 nationalist revolution”

For starters, the world history standards are pretty much limited to political history; there is no mention of intellectual history really, or cultural history or the fact that China has many ethnic groups or anything beyond these facts. I also really love the “growing involvement in world trade” line. News flash: we’re into them big time for some serious change plus all the Apple products the school and its teachers uses (this one included) have a major Chinese connection; many of them are manufactured there, for one thing.  Bottom line, there was no curriculum connection to the arts here. So, I turned to the Arts Standards.

Right at the beginning, the “Guiding Principles” for the Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Frameworks stated the following:

“An effective arts curriculum promotes knowledge and understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of the arts.”

And the following (directly from the Frameworks pdf file) was also interesting:

“PreK–12 STANDARD 10 Interdisciplinary Connections
Students will apply their knowledge of the arts to the study of English language arts, foreign languages, health, history and social science, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering.”

Where is the interdisciplinary connection beginning in the History Frameworks? There is none. But right there at the beginning of the history frameworks, there is this:

“Our call for schools to purposely impart to their students the learning necessary for an informed, reasoned allegiance to the ideals of a free society rests on three convictions:

First, that democracy is the worthiest form of human governance ever conceived.

Second, that we cannot take democracy’s survival or its spread or its perfection in practice for granted. Indeed, we believe that the great central drama of modern history has been and continues to be the struggle to establish, preserve, and extend democracy at home and abroad. We know that very much still needs doing to achieve justice and civility in our own society. Abroad, we note that only one-third of the world’s people live under conditions that can be described as free.

Third, we are convinced that democracy’s survival depends upon our transmitting to each new generation the political vision of liberty and equality that unites us as Americans. It also depends on a deep loyalty to the political institutions our founders put together to fulfill that vision.”

In a never ending battle for Truth! Justice! And The American Way!

So, the priority of the history curriculum is to teach our students to look at the world Superman defended, and through his X-Ray vision, all-knowing eyes, but the arts curriculum's purpose is to see how arts are part of all the other disciplines.  This is interesting both in terms of the particular mission of each as well as what it says about how the authors experience the world perhaps: left brain v whole brain? This might be a stretch, but maybe not.

As I would ask my own students, then: So What? What’s The Big Deal? The Big Deal is that while “facts” and events are certainly important in terms of understanding History, History is not just comprised of lists of casts of characters, dates, battles, and documents. And kids WILL fall asleep if that’s all you use in a Social Studies classroom. There is a wider world, a world that people have created and continue to create in other ways. Enter the arts and the technology created and used by them. The arts have been there through history and will continue to be. They should NOT be "extra", nor should they have to defend their worth by including their reference to other disciplines. They have value in and of themselves. And whether it is about defending their place in education or not,  Massachusetts Frameworks Arts authors have the vision to see their connection to other “disciplines”. Moreover,  students are connected to them. Even kids who are not enrolled in art or music courses draw on their notebooks, walk around listening to music, and consume arts and media. The other day, a student in my World Religion class identified music as one of the forces in the universe she most bonds with: it helps her focus, it changes her mood, she said. It is a way for her to connect with her peers. (I wager many of us might say many of the same things.) And, by the way, this student is the very type of student that public education and its critics are always crying out for us to reach.

But other disciples don’t always look to the arts or incorporate them. The Massachusetts History Frameworks doesn't, particularly. How limited. What kind of message does this send? What kind of world does it want us to teach our students about or prepare them for? Not one the arts sees. Fill in the blanks here: arts should be in the public schools, not cut, not extra, not relegated to after school or marginalized any other way. It should be enough that the kids from the Middle School get to see Chinese kids performing a Chinese dance because it’s different from what we do in America on so many levels, it's interesting, and because, yes, it shows discipline and focus and a myriad of other skills we want our students to possess.

Fortunately for me, and to be fair, I am sure, in my district they will get to have this experience. (If I filled out the form “well.”) Further, I would also like to point out the following: “even” the AP European History curriculum nods at the arts, though the bias is towards the visual arts and there are “key paintings”. (Not enough Durer in my humble opinion, even; they lean heavily on the Usual Suspects: you can name them, I bet.) Also, at my school, I have several colleagues who skillfully incorporate the arts into their teachings, and this is something my department head certainly more than marginally supports. This is both encouraging and positively challenging in terms of my own professional development; and, I will reiterate, the students can’t get enough of it.

Going to China, having Chinese people come here. It’s all good. Everybody is learning a whole lot. And some of it’s not on a list! This can’t mean it doesn’t "count", that it is not a valuable part of being "educated" or even "good citizens," whoever they are. In the end, no one will really care or even remember too much about about the rise and the fall of the Ottoman empire, except some of us, and that’s more than OK.

On being a teacher on 9/11/01

A colleague and a friend of mine walked by my room that beautiful, high-pressure brilliant sky Tuesday morning and motioned for me to come outside. I was a sixth grade teacher in a public school in a community that was home to several synagogues, a handful of churches and a large Islamic center which included a mosque and a school and a community center.

Becca’s summons to step out into the hall was nearly unheard of, and especially from this particular gal. If you saw a colleague actively teaching in the front of the room, with students’ eyes on her, you didn’t ask them to step out. It’s a courtesy and practicality that was tacit but understood and appreciated by all of us, I think. It’s a challenge to get elementary school kids to attend to something you’re doing on the board. I looked surprised, but she beckoned again. I excused myself and went out.

“Two planes have hit the Twin Towers in New York and I think I heard them say something about the Pentagon.”

“What?” This was confusing, and as usual, my friend was calm. Well, pretty calm. She repeated this information.

“They think it’s a terrorist attack.”

It was not making sense to me.

I wanted more information, more details, more everything, but there were twenty- five 11-year-olds in the next room where I had fortunately thought to shut the door to the hall. So I did what I needed to do for my job, and I went back in and taught Math.

Later, when the kids were at music or gym or something, I went down to the office. People were just sort of hanging around. I put myself down next to a young first grade teacher who was sitting on what I thought of frankly as the “bad kids’ couch” – it was right outside the principal’s office. We talked about how our cats had seemed strange that morning before we left for work, like they knew something was up. I really did think that, and so did she. Cats know all sorts of things; maybe they knew that a shift in the world was about to occur.

During lunch, teachers went into to the back room of the library and watched one of the only TVs in the building (this was before they were so ubiquitous in schools, or any place else except over bars.) There in the back of the library, hidden from children’s eyes, those two planes crashed into the towers over and over and then, the towers fell to the ground. Over and over. We didn’t tell the kids. All day, we would walk through the long halls of our school with trails of little kids behind us in line doing whatever kids do in line. The adults were silent, but we met each other’s eyes in the halls as we passed and said nothing. Our job was to hold a safe place for the children. I had the kids do reading, writing; I don’t know. I was distracted.

On September 12, we had a before school faculty meeting where we discussed how to handle the topic should it come up in the classroom. Those of us who taught the upper grades were encouraged to facilitate discussion as far as we felt appropriate. Sure enough, when the bulk of my class had come in and the day started, hands were up all over the room. I heard questions, comments about protesters they had seen and other concerns, observations speculation, and disappointment over us having school that day. Mostly, I was proud of my kids for being respectful in their discussion, and I did my best to give out the message that this was a small group of people; that it didn’t represents all members of the Muslim faith, etc, etc. Then, the phone rang.

The office called and said that some of my students would be coming a little late and that they were “carpooling.” These were the boys in my class and in the class across the halls that were Muslim. When I poked my head out of the door to check on them, I saw them, all walking down the hall in a line. They were all wearing Red Sox shirts, New England Patriots shirts and one had on that year’s Old Navy shirt with the American flag on it. Yesterday they were Omar, Faisel, Jawad, Kadir. in a suburban sixth grade class with Josh, Sarah, Luke, Jessica, and all the others. Today, they felt like they had to show they were American.

Omar, usually a truly happy camper, sat at his desk and put his head on it. Kadir, one of the most gifted and cheerful kids in the class sat on the windowsill and looked out at the playground for most of the morning. And really, I don’t remember the rest of that day or the days that followed. Kids are resilient, and as one of my former teaching mentors would say, “People return to type after a while.” We got through that day and days to follow.

9/11 opened my heart to the suffering of those particular boys on that day, I know that much. I try to balance what I know to have been the heinous actions of a few extremist people with politics, a work life in an increasingly diverse community, a home life where my neighbors put up flags and some who put “Terrorist hunting permits” on their trucks for months after those attacks.

How did 9/11 change the world? This is what we educators would call a great Essential Question. Regardless, 9/11 is a part of my memory as an adult and as a teacher, and for the latter reason maybe more than the former, it will always be a part of me.  

Response to a Recent globe Article

In education, as in all types of professions no doubt, sometimes one person, or in this case teacher, will get featured as a kind of wiz bang, amazing whomever, when in fact, whatever he is doing has either A) been done before or B) is currently being done by any number of others. . I know I am biased, but educators are really generally low key and hard working and those who are NOT in the limelight are no less dedicated or competent. I work with a number of highly dedicated teachers and really, I am fortunate to do so. Whatever & Anyway. This link is to a recent Globe article and below it is my "official" response.

Test of Faith (Boston Globe: August 28, 2011)

"Readers might be interested to know that the Sharon Public Schools have had a unit in the 9^th grade Social Studies curriculum that teaches about religion for some time, and there is an elective called World Religions offered since 2008 as well. As a Social Studies teacher in the district and the instructor and creator of the curriculum in the elective course, I can report that students are very interested in the subject and opportunities for breaking down barriers and enhancing understanding abound.

Harvard University also offers an excellent and rigorous Religious Studies and Education certificate program. This professional development program emphasizes not only pedagogical techniques, but also includes a focus on the Constitutional, legal, and historical issues surrounding teaching about religion in the schools. Presentations, discussions, readings and assignments in this program continually include the consideration that religion is a delicate subject matter and its inclusion in the classroom cannot be about indoctrination in any way.

Special courses aside, in my career as a Social Studies teacher, the subject of religion appears in one shape or another in AP European History, World History and in the conversations of many of our students outside of formal educational contexts. It is always a privilege to be able to participate and facilitate in the teaching and learning of this important subject. I know that there are colleagues in my own department who are doing similar and fine work.  

I applaud the willingness of Jonathan Rabinowitz as well as that of other colleagues within and outside my district to take on the subject with the sensitivity and scholarship it deserves; I know the students do as well."

We'll see if they print this. 

Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog - Yahoo! News

Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog - Yahoo! News

This was a cautionary tale to be sure. Teachers are in a gray area when it comes to free speech both in and out of the classroom, but to me one of the central concerns I have has to do with general confidentiality. How identifiable is this teacher on her blog? How identifiable are the students about whom she complains? I would hazard a guess that many a teacher in my own school might agree with some of the "concerns" she expresses in her blog, but for reasons of confidentiality, professionalism, appropriateness, and self-preservation, it might not be the wisest idea to overshare on the internet.

Still, we teachers know that our behavior, ideas, dress, pedagogical style, personal lives, you name it are fodder for discussion not only on the sidelines of suburban soccer fields and parents' cocktail parties, but on sites like ratemyteacher.com, Facebook, Twitter, student blogs, comments to articles, choices news media makes regarding newsworthy stories as well as nearly any other outlet you can think of. Just this past winter break, I had a woman I didn't even know attack my profession, accuse me of hiding behind my union and suggest that I wasn't a "true capitalist" because I questioned her rationale for merit pay. I guess if I was a doctor, I would be getting requests for free medical consults and goodness knows what else.

Still, I would love to see an article about the sort of day-to-day that teachers live. Most of us are neither villains nor heroes exactly.

Our Brains on Technology, take two

This time it was NPR in their story Digital Overload who provided more information on the impact our technological world has on our minds. And of course that would mean our students' minds as well. Ironically, I found out about this not from the radio, but on my Facebook newsfeed which provided me a handy link to the article. And of course, you can subscribe to NPR's podcasts on technology or for Fresh Air, should you miss the broadcast on the radio because you were probably busy doing about a million other things. (Like, I don't know, planning lessons,revamping/ maintaining your class website, finding a school appropriate lunchbox. Oh wait, that looks like my to-do list. So why was I on Facebook anyway? And now, on the blog? Uhhh...)

With back-to school on my mind, I seized upon the section where the author discussed the dopamine "squirt" video game players get or how people become conditioned to check their email and other devices constantly. It's addictive, and when you don't have that option, like ostensibly in a classroom during History class, say -- which to some kids unfortunately is so, well, yesterday-- you, or they the students in this case, can get bored.  Trust me, I have seen this in real life.

Yes, I know it is my job as the teacher to keep students' attention and make History relative and interesting. But when students' neurological pathways are being set up in a certain way that find them free-falling into a dopamine crash, we educators need to keep creating ways to counteract the challenge.The latest trends include, again ironically, using technology. And other pedagogical practices, I will say, including changing the activities during a class period or increasing student participation by appealing to their social interest in one another, just to mention a couple. Humor helps, too, even if all of History itself wasn't really a laugh riot century in and century out. Part of my "summer off" was spent in three different classes in which ways to deal with this was approached, studied, practiced, discussed and generally kicked around in a professional way, actually. If you are a teacher, of course you know of what I speak; I know that.

It's great the research is out there supporting what we know to be true in the classroom. Hello? Hello? Are you still listening? Is there an app for that?

Some thoughts on Fixing Education – Part I

Sam Dillon’s article in today’s New York Times, Inexperienced Companies Chase U.S. School Funds, framed several disturbing trends in education that bear examination. For one, his well-chosen title illustrates a two-pronged problem rather simply: a) inexperience and b) fund chasing. Or, to put it another way, everyone’s an expert, so let’s make it pay. Education is far too important and complex to let these two issues of lack of experience and fund chasing to be the primary forces to shape it.
In so many of these articles, there is also an elephant in the room, frequently the elephant in the room in so many contexts that do have to do not only with education, but so many other things: socioeconomic class or demographics. The district in which I teach has a high status – my High School is a silver medal school, boasts college acceptance in the high 90% range, consistently ranks high in the MCAS and AP races, and people keep moving there “for the schools.” But the community is generally middle to upper middle class and actively “supports” education in that parents and guardians email with concerns, have jobs which allow them to take time off for meetings, and attend extracurricular events. Do my colleagues work hard? Absolutely. Are we well-educated ourselves? Yes. Do we care? Certainly. Do we know our students? Yes. Do we spend unpaid time with them after school for academic help, clubs, activities, or because they want an adult to talk to other than their parents sometimes? Yes. Are we teaching to a test every day? No. Is there a threat of violence hanging over the student body or faculty or the town itself? No. Can we as a school district take full credit for the successes of our students? Absolutely not. There is a confluence of reasons that result in the success of the district and students and socioeconomic class and the fact that most families in town are living above if not well above subsistence.
There are many things we can and will and already do in fact do to ensure the quality of the education of our students, including what some of these consulting companies suggest.

Teach for America or Teach for Oneself?

An article appeared in the The New York Times recently discussing the clearly competitive Teach for America program, and as a professional educator, I found myself taking issue with the program and focus as presented by the Times.

The article discussed a few people who had graduated from elite colleges and university who have pursued participation in Teach for America -- I really cannot call them educators just yet. There were several problems expressed by the article, as near as I could tell.

First of all, the slant of the article seemed to indicate that these elite grads were either doing something self-sacrificing, heroic or possible beneath what they might be doing as lawyers or business professionals by "trying out" the teaching profession. Why is it that teaching -- especially public school teaching -- seems out of the realm of elite college grads? For one thing, this isn't even true. Some of my colleagues -- as well as myself, I will say here -- attended elite colleges and universities and became teachers not because we couldn't get better jobs or because of the economy. We became teachers because there was something about the profession that spoke to us.  Furthermore, being a graduate of one of those colleges  mentioned in the article -- yes even Harvard or Duke -- is NO guarantee that you will be a better teacher than someone who went to a public or state college. I have absolutely seen the truth of that, I will also say.

It is hard to tell with any new teacher how long they will last in the profession; true enough. Part of the job requires a willingness to learn and participate, however, in order to be successful. Being "recruited" doesn't mean you are suited. My advice would be to listen and learn, not assume your past laurels will propel you into instant success and appreciation in a profession where even on the best of days you need your heart, humility, sense of humor, and mind intact, perhaps in that order. Trust me, no one really cares where you went to school or what your SAT scores and GPA were. It does not automatically make you a better teacher or some sort of gift to the profession. Wait, did I say that already?

As for staying up until midnight working on lesson plans, I can also say that MANY first year teachers do that. It's because you don't know what you're doing yet, to some degree. It doesn't make you a hero - it's what happens until you figure things out including how to balance teaching with the rest of your life.  As for Ms. Nyugen's "Fun Math game" that she "created", I want to say Oh really? I know that Math game, as does nearly every other teacher I know who's taught elementary school Math. You can also do it to create a history timeline, or as an icebreaker at the beginning of the year where you use birthdays to order the line. Maybe Ms. Nyugen (someone really needs to tell her to lose the heels if she's teaching sixth grade) was experiencing one of Eleanor Duckworth's "Having of Wonderful Ideas". She would know about that if she went to Harvard instead of Stanford maybe. Or maybe not if she's just marking time until a job opens up 'in her field".

Another Reason Why Teaching Isn't Like a Desk Job: Sub Plans

This Memorial Day Weekend, I took my 78 year old mother to the emergency room where, it turns out, she needed a two hour emergency procedure to deal with a ruptured appendix. I am her only family other than a brother in West Virginia, so I officially began this new phase in my life where I am her caretaker if need be.

I waited for her to get out of the OR, still not knowing what her situation was-- they didn't know going in it was ruptured --  and pondered what to do about going to school the next day. There were several factors to deal with. One is that there is a rule about taking time off before or after a three day weekend or other holiday. You can't unless there is an emergency. Well, Mom's prognosis was good, but after thinking about it, I decided it was an emergency and I could take the time off, even if it wasn't my own personal illness. Secondly, I needed to deal with plans for a substitute.

My school has an emergency sub plan set-up: you make up emergency plans and if you can't prepare something for your classes ahead of time to do that is reasonable, you can implement the emergency plans you have created., But I had recently fallen ill myself on the way to school with a Joan Didion Virginia Woolf style true migraine, and had to call from the side of the road and ask the answering machine to please use these emergency plans. This is already a problem. I get migraines, and unless you or someone you know gets them, it is often my experience that people have NO idea that they are debilitating, sudden, and mind and psyche melting experiences. And then, suddenly, like a window thrown open, you are fine. Better than fine, which is suspicious in and of itself. Usually I slink back to school after these attacks feeling guilty for being out a day where I am in terrible pain and quite physically ill. So even before she was out of surgery, I was already trying to figure out what to do about my mother. I know this is crazy on some level, but I also know that leaving your class to sit in a study hall is not ideal. When I taught elementary school, I always got sub plans together in detail no matter what: driving ill, pulling over, calling in favors from friends and my partner,many times while being actively sick. You can't put a class of 10 year olds in a study hall all day -- they have you all day. You need to help them and the sub. The first year teacher who recently took over my class the day I used my emergency plans because I was ill had the nerve to tell me "they didn't have anything to do with the curriculum." The assignment I left was a reading about an ethics dilemma that required the classes to write an essay about whether laptops should be used in the classroom. Not only was this greenhorn insensitive, he was limited in terms of his understanding of education, perhaps understandable on some level, granted. Actually, the kids care much more about the use of laptops in the classroom and the potential distractions they can cause than about the Ottoman Empire. Or even World War II which usually rates far above the Ottomans. (Who can blame them, really?) And it was an exercise in essay writing, a skill needed whatever the topic. But anyway.

So, I called my acting department head, left a message for the sub lady, and then wrote an email to both of these folks plus the vice principal. I will make the 70 minute round trip commute tomorrow (assuming no traffic) to make sure there are materials for my classes in case, god forbid, I need to spend more than full day in the hospital with my mother. I actually feel better making the trip in to do it, and it is better for the kids than having them sit in a study hall. My point is not to be a martyr, but to point how it is not a simple matter of calling in sick or dealing with family leave in some osrt of a vacuum. Most of my colleagues in fact would probably do the same, and will likely cover for me as I have covered for them. It is a little odd, however, to be rating levels of emergency; however, teaching is like this: shifting in a moment, triaging changes in the situation, ever moving, thinking, preparing.

I'm sorry. What?

In his Wired Magazine article "The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains", Nicholas Carr brings science to one of my personal theories as an educator, heretofore based only on anecdotal evidence  (And one I previously based on correlation and not causation, that old bugaboo we soft scientists and armchair philosophers favor.) What is this theory?Bottom line, kids’ reading comprehension is compromised due to the internet.

It’s tough as a teacher to get even “bright” kids to read. I had a student today say that the problem with “Tale of Two Cities” is that it just had way too many words in it. Another recently opined that being a lawyer is a “wordy, boring profession” although he conceded “you can make a lot of money at it.”  Still another said that she had no trouble a few years ago reading for four hours (she actually does like “Tale of Two Cities”) but now simply doesn’t have the concentration. She is all of 16, maybe.

“The Internet is an interruption system. It seizes our attention only to scramble it,” says Carr. And it provides an experience that permits shifting one’s focus — just click to another site — when one’s attention wanders (or when one feels that somethings is God forbid “boring”. I wonder if this is a word that has changed its meaning over time.) There is no opportunity to develop discipline, or any kind of mental “stick-to-it-iveness” that may build character but certainly will provide additional time to absorb material or, as Carr notes, learn it at all. Sometimes to comprehend and appreciate new information, we need time, a sleeper effect, a chance to shift our mental gears. But the sheer volume of information available to the brain via the internet results in what Carr names as cognitive load — or perhaps more closely cognitive overload —and the depth to which understanding can take place is threatened.

In a classroom, of course, there is no other site to switch to — at least not as long as the students don’t have laptops with internet access available to them. Education is beginning to learn how it can as a profession create pedagogical styles and learning experiences that engage these learners. It must. We teachers could complain all we want about this phenomenon, but it is out there. We biblio and logophiles lament about something else though, of course. True, it is easy enough to come by new information, but to hold a book in your hand, feel its pages, or savor the prose of anyone who takes the time to craft words are activities that have almost become anachronistic. The real has become virtual, a strange sort of metaphysical downloading, an inverse the full consequences of which we have yet to see in the classroom or anywhere else, for that matter.

Working it Out

Never have I regretted my decision to become a public school teacher. Well, on less than stellar days I have been known to joke about staying at my job at the accountant's or working at Petco. I am actually not dissing Petco -- I worked at Trader Joe's,another retail establishment, during grad school and seriously, it was the best part time job I ever had, and I didn't mind going to work. I have several pets, including reptiles and fish and sometimes I think it might be easier to deal with customers in that  department of Petco than teenagers. But maybe not.I wouldn't rule out Petco as a retirement job, no kidding. (This schtick I am sure got me a gift card to Petco one year from a mom -- this was before you couldn't take gifts without reporting them to the IRS, saying three or for hail Marys or rending your garment for the sin you were committing by doing so, to throw in some Christian imagery -- absolutely no offense to any other people. Insert your own atonement as needed.)

Not infrequently, however, I run across people who have various things to say about public schools or teaching or something about education that is less than flattering And I'm not even talking about what happens if you open up the newspaper. I wonder sometimes what the motivation behind this sort of thing is, since I of course, like to think of myself as relatively harmless. On my most compassionate days, I think the at-times diatribes are a result of bad experiences they had with school themselves or possibly some experience they had with their kid's teacher. Last night's weirdness may have well been the latter.

I am taking a course about Islam at night and while waiting for the class to start, was chit chatting with people outside. Someone I knew asked me what I was doing for April break, so this prompted a woman to ask what I taught. I knew I was getting into trouble already by her tone (patronizing, including, "Oh you're a high school teacher." As opposed to what? A college professor? I was taking a college course right there wasn't I?) and was starting admittedly to feel defensive when she asked me what I taught. I gave what I wanted to be the short answer: World History, Psych and an ethics class. The Ethics class is really called the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Altruism, known in school as the Love class, but I wasn't feeling any of that from her. Of course it was the "ethics" class she wanted to talk about, and she proceeded to interrogate.

What did it cover? And to her the million dollar question; What age group took it? Juniors and Seniors was my answer. Oh. (That sealed it, apparently.) *Her* kids took it in *public school* in 10th grade. [Insert triumphant trumpet flair here.] I wasn't sure what this was all about. Oh and I *must* be teaching about John Stuart Mill "You know, utilitarianism." Yes, I know about utilitarianism .(I hoped she didn't see my internal eye- roll.)

I thought the whole thing was very bizarre and like I was in a minor sparring match with someone I had just met.  What was her angle? Did one of her kids ace the ethics class, signifying that her child was "gifted", that she was a superior parent, that her kids' school was better than my school???? Did some teacher not think one of her kids was god's gift? Were her shoes too tight and her heart too small? 

I have been on the receiving end of a number of commentaries about public school education, from people who have had kids in a public system and people who put their kids in private schools, to people that say their kid needs to be home-schooled. Rarely are these comments, I am sad to say,  complimentary. Every once in a while people will say "You people don't get paid enough,"but that is uncommon.

We teachers are all kinds of people, which is a credit to the profession and a benefit to the kids. I am very glad to say by and large the teachers I know are working very hard and care about what they are doing. This is a testimony to my district and to the community that supports it, to be sure. It is distressing when someone doesn't take the time to understand what you are doing -- or granted doesn't have the time to -- but is quick to judge or question it. If my estimation of this woman's age is correct, I would guess that her kids are probably out of college now. It was sad that she still had some kind of bone to pick with public education. Or maybe she just building her kids (who I have never met) up. It's sad. I like kids and like my job, and the defensiveness on both of our sides in this brief (albeit civil) conversation was a waste of energy and put a barrier between us that didn't need to be constructed.

Sunday Sunday. No sabbath here.

The Weekend ! Yay! Time for Wii Guitar Hero, reading the paper, exercise, family, housecleaning, pet and yard care AND (insert ominous chords here) CORRECTING. It is the end of the quarter and the ball is on the 5th yard line. Must. Get . Essays. Corrected. Meaningfully. With comments that are instructive. It all matters, and sadly (worth another post, I am sure, or a whole raft of them) the grades are at stake for the students and their families.End of the quarter work means collecting all overdue work, grading it plus normal end-of quarter work, entering grades and comments for 100 or so students into the computer and re-examining the schedule. Part of the rhythm of school, to be sure, but a high tide swell in terms of energy. (Like The Busy Season for tax preparers, but shorter and recurring three more times in the academic year.)  This is an example of how our work is ongoing, is part of what we take home, even given focused weeks and days. It is also what I signed on for. So, despite wanting to see how Tiger does in the Masters, I have used up today's discretionary time with a hot breakfast and a rapid March through the NY Times and the Globe's funnies. And now, 50 essays on British Imperialism in China in the 19th Century.

Student Government Day and Real Conversations

 Student Government Day in Boston was an interesting break in the routine and like all breaks in the routine -- trips away from school during a typically busy week -- it meant making a conscious choice about whether the cost in terms of work missed and impact on the kids would be worth it. Fortunately for me, I had the advantage of having alternately the acting department head and another Social Studies teacher available to take take my classes that day. This meant that real work could get done in the class and that the kids wouldn't even be uprooted from the regular classroom and shuttled off to the cafeteria or library to do what I'd left for them.

I met two boys at the local commuter rail station, all three of us in suits as requested/strongly suggested by the literature and we took the train into Boston. The boys were both juniors and had been elected by their peers to participate in the day. I knew one of them from a different extra-curricular activity, and the other I'd seen around, but had never really talked to before.  I felt very privileged to be able to spend some time with students outside of school -- something I had done on my trip to China two years previous.  I think it is good for both the kids and the adults as it allows us to see each other as people in the real world rather than the school world where we default -- appropriately enough -- to roles magnified by that structured setting.

We were early and the boy who was not the alternate got to sit on the panel at the front where students had the opportunity to question their peers as they presented their views.Our "alternate"was relegated to sit in the back with teachers and other alternates, at least initially. He was disappointed at first, although to his immense credit made the best of it, and as we waited for the day to begin he and I talked about everything from music to colleges to local politics to the value of school. He was a self-proclaimed "science guy" and really didn't understand too much about how the government worked. I appreciated that he just frankly asked questions throughout the day about the House and Senate, what people were complaining about with regard to the governor, etc. He also was very interested in how hard it was for teachers to keep their personal opinions out of Social Studies classes (it isn't) and how we managed our own social issues in school. I navigated all of this without giving too much away I don't think, but both boys seemed to gain a greater understanding that there are all kinds of teachers because in our school, the teachers are represented by SO many different types of people with regard to social class, background, race, sexual orientation, family life and the like. Plus teaching styles, personal interests and skills and life pre-teaching.  And everything else. I think this is important information for students because it is too easy to objectify adults, to objectify teachers, and the mutual respect that needs to support the work done in public schools can be built around this sort of greater understanding. And the flip side of this, is when you as a teacher have a chance to spend some time talking to students -- and just as importantly listening to them -- you learn about them as well, further breaking down that objectification trap. Negotiating the boundaries is an interesting exercise, and one one the adult needs to careful manage, I think, but it is possible to have real conversations with adolescents and still remain "professional".

Students had prepared remarks for and against two real bills pending before the House: one about banning texting while driving and the other about funding a study that would examine school start times and the impact on learning in the Commonwealth.These bills were incredibly relevant not only for the Commonwealth but to these teenagers as well; it was a great example of how the day really was for the students. The "alternate", took full advantage of his opportunity to be heard, and managed to speak out both during the committee stage of the proceedings and when he got out onto the House floor. It was impressive. Without the arrogance that some of his at-times entitled peers assume, he just decided to make the best out of the day, and take his prepared comments forward. There were many kids from schools across the state-- both boys and girls -- who did speak up, some of them more polished than others, but all of them sincere and quite passionate.

The State House itself is an impressive building with all of its marble and polished tile and I found myself thinking about all of the famous politicians and historical figures who had been in there. Keynote speaker for the day was Attorney General Martha Coakley who was warmly applauded despite her recent loss in the Senate race. She gave an articulate non-partisan speech about the importance of participating in our democracy even though it is an imperfect system. The theme really centered around the importance of effort and participation and she told an old story about a boy who was rescuing starfish one by one who'd beached themselves by the ocean. When a friend suggested that it might not be worth it because he was only saving a few, the other boy responded that it mattered to those starfish he could get to. Later, a boy who was arguing about the need for legislation against texting while driving quoted Coakley saying that the lives that were saved by the legislation were worth it even if there were only a few of them. A great moment for that boy and a great example for Coakley; at least one student heard her.

"Only" two kids from school got to go to Student Government Day; I know for sure it was a special day for at least one of them. And me. Two maybe three more starfish. So, yes, the right choice.

Teachers as Pirates

Students reach out to teachers in a variety of ways, some of them good, some of them bad, some of them just outright humorous and some of them disturbing. A very often gratifying yet potentially draining aspect of the job is when a kid really just wants your attention. For whatever reason. It's important to keep a perspective, very often some sort of distance, and also a sense of humor.

I have a student who is negotiating a path into my psyche beyond the history I am attempting to teach her and the rest of the class. So she "hangs around." Lots of students do this, this "hanging around". It's a kind of corollary to "dropping by" after school when I am either correcting papers, trying to find something on my desk, surfing Amazon.com or trying to get the heck out of the building. Recently, this girl opined, somewhat without pretext, or "randomly" as the kids themselves would say, that "Teachers, like chefs and artists are pirates."

Pirates?

In actual fact, I was flattered to be lumped into that group, particularly with regard to artists, as on positive self-esteem days, I fancy myself a sort of artist, both in and outside of the classrroom. But, pirates? I thought I knew what she meant, but wanted to hear (albeit briefly and succinctly) what this was supposed to mean.

I asked my ever-useful opened ended question, saying, "Really? How so?"

This gal rambled on about how teachers are really all kinds of people and that they don't go about their job in the same way as any other teacher. She also said that teachers don't always follow a "box-like" path to their profession like doctors or lawyers or accountants, a point I thought was kind of interesting. Pirates don't follow a box-like path either apparently. I mentally attempted to flesh out other aspects of this comparison, trying of course to make sure it came out in a positive way. Pirates sail the seven seas looking for treasure, yo ho ho-ing and carry cutlasses. Most of what I know about chefs is that they have famous moods and tempers (oh no, I thought, I can see where THIS is going) and any notions of them is based on stories my partner a former waitress tells me plus what I have seen on "Chopped" the TV show. They also sort of carry cutlasses. Artists are an interesting lot, and I have known quite a lot of these -- kids who turned into musicians, friends who were visual artists, writers,  friends who are musicians. And yes, they really are all different people who did not follow a box-like path to being an artist.I know poets and photographers and painters. No cutlasses per se, but many of these people have interesting personalities. Well, truth be told, I am interested in people with interesting personalities, so maybe I look for them or focus on the details of people's personalities for my own amusement.

I found myself imaging the Pirates of the Caribbean flourish and color and majesty. I wouldn't mind being Johnny Depp, and he seems a sort of pirate in and out of character. I shuffled through the inventory of teachers at our school and SOME of them seemed like pirates, but the notion of the Pirates of the Carribbean style pirate (as opposed to the truly bad-guy Somalian pirates of the news) didn't always fit.

Like a lot of interactions with kids, you really have to seize the moment. I doubt we will return to the pirate theme, but I will look out for them at school.

An Introduction: About Me

Long ago and far away in another galaxy, I had several iterations of post-college "adulthood" that did not included being a public school teacher. Along the way I have been

•  a house cleaner
•  a personal care assistant for disabled people
•  a church musician
• a bookkeeper
• a massage therapist
• a tax preparer
• a real estate agent (I was even Rookie of the Year!)
• an assistant in special education  classrooms
• a substitute teacher

And I was fairly dissatisfied. When I began working in schools, I started to feel like I was in the right work environment -- there is a culture to public schools, and while they are each unique in their own way, every time I stepped into a school building, a familiar sense of purpose and clarity settled over me. I always loved school as a kid, although I was not immune to some of the cruelty and social trickiness dealing with other students could create. I always thought school was important and it was a place where I was successful. I was a good student, while not being a suck up, and I would consider myself a Life-long learner. I have continued my formal education with graded coursework at a variety of institutions, lately Harvard, and have also studied a variety of spiritual traiditons, martial arts and yoga. And I read everything, pretty much.



The reader's digest of my story is that after 9 years in California, I moved back to the Boston area to complete a Master's program in education. I taught elementary school for 6 years, and am in year 4 of teaching high school. I am not a young woman, but am not old, either. This blog is about what teaching is like from my perspective.