Teacher PD -- Professional Development or Please Don't?

 Teachers are gearing up to head back to their classrooms to get them ready to go for their students -- quick side note -- they do this on their own time; they don't get paid for this! (If you do, bravo!!!)But part of this getting ready to go back to school routine also includes required trainings for things like blood-borne pathogens, basic first aid, and the super fun topics like ethics and sexual harassment. Raise your hand if the 3 letters of the alphabet you hate most are G, C, and N! Also part of the routine, it seems, is expressing dissatisfaction over having to do these really boring required trainings and then having all sorts of first day professional development heaped on top of everything! Spend any time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok spaces where teachers are and you will find a plethora of posts, comments, memes, and videos all about the horrors of crap teacher PD -- everything from funny posts to ludicrous to angry and just downright pissed off for being forced to do something that is irrelevant. 

Teachers know they have to do professional development. It's necessary. But it doesn't have to be a necessary EVIL. So I am challenging administrators out there to to read this post with an open mind and an open heart. I know it is too late for your first day of school to change anything, but maybe, if you read this and take it to heart, you can change things during this year and do something different for next year and all the years to come!

So, why do teachers react so violently to professional development? Here is what I think are the top issues, in no particular order:

• Relevancy -- whatever is being shared isn't relevant to the teachers and what they're doing in their classrooms with their students.
• Connection -- the presenter is a paid presenter with either limited classroom experience, or hasn't been in a classroom in a while, or actually has zero classroom experience.
• Adults vs Kids -- teachers are treated like kids as opposed to professional adults. What works for kids in the classroom -- assigned seats, random partnering or grouping, hype up activities, getting up and moving activities -- are so demotivating for teachers. Seeing chart paper, stickers, and markers will immediately turn a teacher off to whatever it is that's about to happen.
• Processing -- when teachers are forced to process what they're learning with people they don't know or who are outside their comfort zone or who simply don't teach the same subject area/grade level, they actually process NOTHING. They shut down, say the bare minimum, just to get through it. Likewise, if they don't get time to process and apply what they learned later in the day, week, month, and/or year, it's meaningless.
• Overload -- there is only so much time a teacher can spend listening to a presenter -- even a really good one. At some point, they will start to have their brains overtaken about all the things they need to finish up before the kids show up.

So, what can an administrator do? Here are my suggestions, and I know they might not be popular, but I'm confident this is what teachers would say to you if they felt they could (and I promise you, most of them don't feel like they can).

• Relevancy -- find out what teachers want to learn! Talk with them -- not just put out a survey. Meet with them and ask them. If they can't come up with anything, throw suggestions out to to them and get their feedback. What if you had a PD committee of teachers who helped develop PD in you district? If you have an initiative that you're working on that you simply must dictate the PD, then still go get feedback from teachers. "Hey, we're going to be 1:1 with Chromebooks in the classroom this year. What do teachers want help with? Who do you want to hear from? What kinds of resources do you want?" Please, I am begging you, give teachers a VOICE! And when you can, please give them OPTIONS! Set up mini sessions and let teachers choose the sessions they want to attend. Run your opening day edcamp style -- start with a brainstorming session on what teachers want to talk about, then assign rooms and times to topics, and let teachers go where they want and talk and problem-solve together. And please, after ANY PD, get an evaluation from the teachers -- not just the state required stuff -- get internal feedback and then use it!!!! Keep what works, ditch what doesn't.
• Connection -- please do your best to find people who are still in a classroom because no one likes someone coming in telling them how to do their job when that person has no clue what the job actually entails. Tap into local talent -- ask your own teachers to present. Ask them who they know who could do a good job presenting. AND THEN COMPENSATE THEM, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!! If you're willing to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to bring in a presenter, then you can pay your teachers to run the PD. You could spend $2000 for a presenter who is going to be demotivating to teachers who will give you BS feedback on the state evaluation (waste of money) or tap into the experts you currently have in house (great investment of money, and no one's time is wasted).
• Adults vs Kids -- please don't have teachers do ice breakers, hype up activities, stand up and move around, 3 truths and a lie, anything with stickers or markers, give assigned seats, make random pairs or groups, dance, shout, cheer, role play, or use terms like "elbow partner" or "think-pair-share" or any other little phrase we use with kids. Also don't use things like flashing lights, using a song, or saying things like, "1-2-3, eyes on me" to teachers. They're not kids. They're licensed professionals and adults. Let teachers learn by getting information to them in engaging ways without gimmicks, and let them talk with the peers they're most comfortable with about what they're learning. Will they get off topic sometimes? Sure. Will they get loud? Likely. But it's okay. They WILL talk about what they're supposed to if they're being respected as adults.
• Processing -- allow plenty of time for teachers to talk and brainstorm and question with people they're comfortable talking and brainstorming with, and people they're comfortable asking questions to. Give teachers random people to talk with, and they'll clam up and just be resentful that they can't get any meaning from what they're learning because they're not in a safe setting to learn and maybe be vulnerable. Circle back to PD topics throughout the year. Nothing feels worse than having something dumped in your lap at the start of the school year and knowing damn well it will never be spoken of again. If it's important enough to spend money on training teachers, then it should be important enough to be addressed throughout the year.
• Overload -- please don't cram every minute of a teacher's day with PD. First, no matter how great it is, teacher brains are like all human brains -- there comes a point where they're saturated. Give plenty of processing and debriefing opportunities. Give teachers the chance to be social for a bit. And please, please, please, give them a MEANINGFUL AMOUNT OF TIME TO WORK IN THEIR CLASSROOMS! Yes, PD and meetings are going to have to happen. But do your level best to keep those things efficient so teachers can go do the hands on things they need to do. It's not dedication that teachers will stay at work until 4, 5 or 6 o'clock on those first days; it's what they have to do to be ready because they didn't have enough time provided to them. Ideally, you have more than one day to start the year officially before the kids come because then you could allow at least one full day of time for teachers to work in their classrooms. 

Now a couple of caveats: first, I am sure there are some teachers who will disagree with some of the things I wrote here. Some teachers enjoy being put in groups so they don't have to try to do it on their own or because they love the chance to meet new people. Some teachers really like being able to get up and move. Some teachers really appreciate the modeling of strategies. Overall, teachers just don't want their time wasted, and they want what they're learning to be valuable. Operate from those two principles and some other stuff, like using sticker dots, will be palatable. Second, I know there are some teachers who simply won't respond well no matter what PD looks like. You'll have teachers who are negative and complain no matter what, or who are off task or water their own time. Teachers aren't perfect -- they're people. If you've got teachers who are like this, deal with them individually and privately. It's ridiculous to say, "I'm not giving teachers the day to work in their classrooms because Teacher X and Teacher Y never do any work -- they just goof around. Instead, I'm going to fill their day." This kind of thinking will make teachers resent you, and they resent the teachers who "caused" you to do this. It's a lousy way to build a team.

If you can't bring yourself to do all of these things, then pick what you CAN do and start with that. You can be a leader that teachers follow begrudgingly because you've got the title and they want to stay on your good side, or you can be a leader that teachers follow because they know you value them and their expertise and their time and their experience.

Signed, a retired teacher who was also a presenter who tried her level best to do all of the things mentioned in this post because she loved good professional development and wanted other teachers to love it, too.

All Means All -- Updated

 The text below this paragraph is a post I wrote in 2018. The message is still the same, all these years later: if you have the privilege to work in education, then you have a moral imperative to protect all your students. When I wrote this post originally, it was in response to a situation with a transgender student, but today, I reshare it with an updated emphasis on students who are in families facing immigration issues. Please note, the discussion is not done regarding transgender students. I just wanted to bring this up again in light of our newly inaugurated President's directive allowing ICE to make arrests in places such as schools. Be clear, to me, this is not a political issue. It is a human heart issue. If I am being totally honest, I acknowledge that there is an immigration issue in this country and it needs to be addressed. But I will never condone it to be addressed in a way that is harmful to kids or uses children as pawns. Allowing ICE to approach or come into schools is a (pretty effective) scare tactic designed to strike absolute fear into the hearts of families who face immigration issues of all sorts. Allowing ICE at schools has the very real potential to make schools a less safe space than so may school children already feel it is. Kids already regularly face bullying. Many fear school shootings. Now many will have to worry about being yanked from a classroom by someone or having their parents ripped away from them potentially right in front of their eyes. I understand the financial burden more kids can place on a school district before anyone decides to bring up that argument. It's legit. I get it. But for those who work in education, the first and most important thing is protecting kids. School boards can work on funding and resources (trust me, teachers already are doing this -- they always know how to do more with less: less money, less time, less support). In this day and age, political leanings seem to be a part of everyone's identity. However, for anyone who works in education, that needs to be put to the side when it comes to taking care of those kids in the classrooms, hallways, gymnasiums, and cafeterias. If you cannot commit to keeping the students in an environment that is going to be a safe space for them, get out of education. You don't deserve the privilege.

Earlier this month, I was incensed to read a story about a transgender middle school student who was not allowed to shelter with her classmates during an active shooter drill because nobody seemed able to decide if she should shelter in the boys or girls locker room. I had to wonder if the kids were all going to take a shower or change their clothes during this drill, because if they weren't, then I can't for the life of me figure out why it matters which locker room she or ANY of the other students went in. If there was a real active shooter, are students going to have to follow gender norms in order to stay safe? What would happen if the boys locker room was locked? Do all the boys have to stay outside while the girls get to be safe? Of course not! But that's not the point I'm trying to make.

Being in education can be tough. We have to think of the students first, not ourselves. That means we do things like pull ourselves together when the kids walk in the classroom after we had a fight with our teenager in the car on the way to school. That means we treat with kindness the student whose parent is a constant thorn in our side and we just don't like. It also means we protect all of our students when they need protection. All of them. We have to put aside any personally held beliefs or prejudices we might have. So when we see kids bullying the little girl who comes to school in the same clothes every day of the week, we step in and protect her. And when we hear kids use a racial slur when talking to a student of color, we step in and protect that student. AND when we practice how to shelter from an active shooter, we make sure all students have the safest possible place to take cover without regard to gender.

If you work in education and you take issue with students based on things like socio-economic status, religion, parents' political leanings, race, ethnicity, religion, immigration or citizenship status, health issues, sexual orientation, or gender, then you don't belong in education. Because as an educator, you have a moral imperative to serve all the students in your classroom and school -- you don't to pick and choose. And, by the way, when I say "educator", I am speaking of teachers, administrators, secretaries, aides, custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, and anyone else who works with kids in a school.

If you are an educator and you can't be an advocate and protector for each of your students because you let your own thoughts interfere with the total acceptance of the little humans in your care, then you don't deserve to have the privilege of being in a position of influence for those young lives.

World Teacher Day 2024

 I want to wish all the educators a Happy World Teacher Day today! I may be retired now, but one of the things I vowed to do in my retirement is champion those still out there, doing the work because they simply don't have enough support in this day and age. For most educators, teaching is a passion, a calling. They do it because they're compelled to teach. That's how I was. I wanted to be a teacher from the time I was a little girl. I loved playing school. I enjoyed doing workbooks for fun. I could never get enough school/office supplies (still can't haha). I was so fortunate to be able to do what I loved alongside some of the best in the business for more than 30 years.

Most teachers just want to do their jobs -- share their passion about a subject, impart a little knowledge to kids along the way, and maybe even ignite a spark. But doing their jobs sounds easier than it is. They also have to buy supplies for their students and classroom with their own money, and yes, sometimes even food and clothes. They are loaded down with mandates and paperwork and meetings (GCN training modules, data/IEP/department/curriculum/staff meetings, professional development, mandated reporting, discipline referrals, bathroom, hall and nurse passes -- the list goes on and on). They bring work home every night, weekend, and vacation -- papers to grade, lessons to plan, emails to write and respond to, phone calls to make, documentation to complete, grades to enter. 

Now add to all that having to deal with things like principals who often have little classroom experience, or who have been out of the classroom for so long they don't truly understand what it's like to be in the classroom anymore -- news flash, it is WAY different than it was 10 years or even 5 years ago before COVID. (Quick shout out to the principals who have purposely tried to stay connected to the classroom to be as understanding of what their teachers experience -- that effort does not go unnoticed by teachers, trust me.) The out-of-touch school leaders don't realize the burden of just one more thing added to the plate that only takes 5 or 10 minutes; once you add a dozen of those things across a school year, you're starting to add up the minutes. Or every time you send a kid back to class with a bag of fruit snacks after being sent to the office for discipline reasons, you just add to the burden. Being a principal is a hard job -- there's a reason (well, LOTS of reasons) why I never aspired to that role -- but please try not to get caught up in the job to the point where you can't support your teachers, because that's part of the job, too.

Me, in the middle, with my CJHS "squad" at my retirement party.

Pile on parents and the general public and politicians who love to jump on teachers for not having the same political leanings or for teaching a topic in a way that you don't like (or teaching a topic at all) or for not teaching a topic you think should be taught or for thinking they control you because "my taxes pay your salary." Or for thinking you're a shill for being in a union. Or you're indoctrinating students because you expect your students to be polite and kind to each other -- even the trans and gay kids, even the poor kids, even the undocumented kids, even the homeless kids. There is an entire litany of things the general public thinks teachers do that is wrong and bad and they don't hesitate to let you know in their social media posts, in their emails to you, in the media, and to your face.

Heap on to that kids who can't tear themselves away from their phones, their online games, or their social media. And kids who love to parrot what their parents say at home. These kids can't regulate their emotions or handle stress or being told no sometimes. They can be rude and belligerent, and when a teacher gets no help from the principal or parents, they're stuck. The kid wins. And trust me, the kids know it.

ALL of this while always, always worrying in the back of your mind about school shootings (well, for teachers in the U.S. at least). Always checking in your mind for where all your kids are at -- any out of the room at the moment? -- and the status of your classroom door and windows in case you have to lockdown fast. 

I'm exhausted just writing this and thinking of it all. I'm not living it anymore. But there are so many people I care about who are still there, still putting in the work, the effort, the sweat, the tears, and the laughter. Because there are still some principals who bring around a cart full of treats for teachers just because it's a Friday. Because there are still parents who send emails thanking you for the help you gave with a homework assignment. Because the PTO set up a great lunch during conferences. Because kids still have those moments when the light bulbs go on and it is an absolute rush when that happens. Because kids still hang out at your desk just to talk. Because kids will say hi to you in the hallway. Because kids will still give you a hug or a fist bump randomly. 

Happy World Teacher Day. For what it's worth, I see you. I respect you. And I will speak for you whenever you need me to.

The Reality of Cell Phones in the Classroom

 Maybe it's a coincidence, but the book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt is becoming very popular, and more and more schools are basically banning cell phones (which happens to be one of Haidt's suggestions -- phone free schools). I'm not sure it's a coincidence -- I think it's possible this book may just be what schools needed in order to give the concept of phone-free schools some legitimacy. I was inspired to write this post after reading the article in Education Week titled, "The Georgia School Shooting May Accelerate the Backlash to Cellphone Bans." I am a recently retired teacher, but I would like to share what cell phones in school looked like when I was still in education just a few short months ago and use that experience to attempt to explain why cell phone bans could be a positive thing.

Side note: I recognize that there are some students who may need their cell phones with them for medical reasons (example: many diabetes monitors now sync with cell phones) or for educational reasons (some students may use their phones for accessibility purposes, such as to record lessons, hear the teacher better, translate information, etc.). I don't want to suggest that students with legitimate need for access to their cell phone should not have that access. Instead, those cases can be handled individually by the schools. The truth is the vast majority of students probably don't need their cell phone with them during the day at school.

Now let me get on with my thoughts, and I'm guessing I'm going to say some unpopular things.

The most common reason I have heard for why students should have their phones with them actually comes from parents who say they want to be able to reach their kids in case of an emergency. Now, I would like to know what kind of emergency parents are talking about? At the risk of being crass, I think of an emergency as being something like someone is hurt or dies, and I find it hard to believe any parent is going to call their child in the middle of the school day on their cell phone and say, "Just wanted to let you know Grandma died." Things that parents may constitute as an emergency really aren't -- like having to pick up a child after school instead of ride the bus because of an appointment. The truth of the matter is any parent can call the front office of the school and either ask to have their child taken out of class to take an emergency phone call or as for a message to be sent to the student. It is unnecessary for parents to distract their kids with a call or even a text during the day when the kids should be focused on learning. I think what parents are likely thinking when they talk about an emergency is when something happens at school. But even then, there are proper ways for kids to communicate with their parents. If a child gets sick at school, calling mom from the bathroom isn't the way to do it. Instead, the child should go to the nurse and let the nurse handle the contact. In most schools, illnesses are tracked by the nurse's office to try to watch for things like flu, lice, strep, etc. outbreaks. Let's just rip the bandage off -- kids carrying cell phones is kind of a security blanket for most parents; they gain comfort knowing their kid is only a text or a call away. I'm a mom and a grandma -- I totally get this! But as a teacher, that cell phone is a whole different beast.

When kids have their phones, they are just too tempted to check them. That buzz of an alert is a siren call. I know it is because I'm an adult and it does the same thing for me. I also know how easy it is to just take a quick glance at a notification, then decide to open the app for just a quick second, and end up down a rabbit hole of checking a few more things on my phone. If this is happening to me, then I know it's happening to kids. I also know it because I have seen it. Some kids will try to hide checking their phones by hiding it in their laps or under a book. Some kids will ask to go to their locker or the bathroom to be able to look at it outside of class and the teacher's eyes. And let me be real honest here: speaking from experience, I can tell you that you can ask the kids to put the phone away and some will comply, but many won't. They either wait for an opportunity to look at their phone again, or some just outright refuse. That was my experience with one of the last lessons I taught. A number of 8th grade students had their phones out and when I asked them to put them away, some just ignored me, some just moved it under a book, and one actually told me no, he would put it away when he was done "checking something." Now, if you're thinking then I should just take the phone away, well, I could, but let me give you another reality check: when a teacher confiscates a phone, some parents get huffy about that. Teachers shouldn't be touching student's personal property; what if the teacher violates the student's privacy by looking at what's on the phone? I remember when we used to take the phones and have a parent pick it up in the office after school when kids were repeat cell phone users; parents came in hopping mad at the inconvenience. Y'all, support from home would go a long way, but unfortunately, it's not always there, and even if it is a minority of parents who get angry, it makes teachers wary to try again with another student. 

I think what parents really want is the ability for there to be communication in case of something serious happening at school, like a fire, tornado, or shooting. Again, I get that. The text threads I've seen between kids in school shootings and their parents grab at my heart like they do for anyone who reads them. But, if I may, let me offer a teacher's perspective again on how the kids having phones can be problematic.

Depending on the situation, quiet, even silence, is important. Not just for kids to be able to hear instructions but for safety. If the most appropriate thing to do in a school shooting situation, for instance, is lock down and hide to be out of sight, the idea is for a shooter to think a room is empty. A cell phone that rings or pings could call attention to a classroom or other space where students are and put everyone in danger. In addition, kids need to be paying attention to the adults in charge of the situation to know what to do, and they can't do that effectively if they're too busy texting. In addition, kids may end up reporting incorrect information to parents, or a parent may rush to the school in a panic -- a natural reaction. But schools have protocols for emergency situations, and that includes rendezvous points that are safe. Parents who rush to a school in a panic may find themselves in the middle of a chaotic situation and their presence there may end up hampering efforts of first responders. Parents need to do their level best to stay calm, wait for official information from official channels, and be ready to meet their kids or responders at the appropriate location. When you're terrified your child is scared, hurt, or worse, that kind of rational thinking can be near impossible, but it's needed and the best way to help your child in that moment.

From a less emotional standpoint, some people may say that phones are needed to help with learning. And I couldn't agree more! The truth is some schools simply don't have the money or infrastructure to provide technology to all their students, so students are often allowed to supplement by bringing their own devices. In cases like that, I encourage the use of phones by students as long as they are following the rules for use Set forth by their school. But in a district like the one I used to work in, every student had a Chromebook to use, and that enabled them to be able to do what they needed to do without having to use their phones. Related to this, my district was also able to recently equip each classroom with a phone that can be used to lockdown a school with the touch of a button and call 911 and provide the exact location of where the 911 call came from. Not all schools may be able to do things like establish advanced phone systems or give every kid a device to use. In those cases, then maybe kids having cell phones might be a good thing. 

Every school and school district is different, and ultimately, we have to put our faith in the leaders of the schools to understand what is best for those students. Unfortunately, for many schools, that looks like a ban on cell phones for the time being. (If you don't have faith in your school leaders -- superintendent, principal, school board, etc., then I encourage you to contact those people directly to voice your concerns and have discussions, or maybe even consider running for school board yourself to be able to help make the positive change you want.) Maybe schools being phone free for a while can be used as a reset, and after a couple years of detoxing the classroom of the impact of phones, allowing them again can happen. Honestly, if kids and parents could just agree to follow some simple rules, bans wouldn't be necessary. The rules are actually pretty simple and straightforward: don't use or look at your phone during classtime without permission from a teacher. In an emergency, stay off your phone to keep yourself and others safe and so you can hear instructions. And when you do have the chance to use your phone at school, just use it appropriately.

I didn't even get into all the other issues that cell phones bring with them, like cyber bullying and cheating. Yep, those things happen, too. Teachers commonly found kids using their phones to cheat by looking up answers of using a calculator for math. And kids even harass other kids during the day. We actually had a rash of air drop issues a couple years ago where kids would air drop files that were grossly inappropriate, and kids whose phones could accept those air drops saw those files and it caused all sorts of disruptions.

I know it's not easy to accept a phone-free school. Even I feel a twinge of anxiety at not having my phone with me all the time. But I can tell you from experience that the impact of cell phones in the classroom right now is more negative than positive and probably calls for some drastic action to get set right again. 

Above and Beyond

 Yesterday, my community had a pretty significant weather event. A really bad storm came through, possibly containing a tornado, right at the time our students were being dismissed to go home. As kids were in the hallway to go to their busses or cars, we lost power briefly and a tornado warning was issued at the same time. Int the brief darkness, everyone -- teachers, administrators, bus drivers, custodians, aides -- jumped into action, herding kids away from doors and into interior rooms. Kids were scared and confused. Some were crying. Some were wet and chilled because they had already gotten on a bus or in a car and had to come back in through the punishing rain and wind. 

Teachers sat on the floor with their kids in cramped spaces where it was stuffy and talked with them, told stories, shared jokes, gave pats on the head or arm, handed out tissues to wipe tears, and reassured kids they were safe.

Once an all clear was given, students came out of their sheltering areas and back to the classrooms with their teachers as it took some time to determine how to manage dismissal now. It turns out that there were many trees, branches, and power lines down all around town, making it difficult and/or unsafe for school busses to get kids home. So we had to reach out to families to let them know they needed to come get their kids.

It was after 5:00 PM before the last children were picked up. And the teachers stayed. They played games with kids, read them books, and talked with them. They dug up snacks and made sure kids could get to bathrooms (lots of potty visits needed after the kids were done sheltering). They helped kids get their belongings together (since many had just left their bags and supplies behind as they went to their shelter areas). They contacted parents directly and sent pictures of their kids to the parents. They took phone calls from worried moms and dads. 

In short, the teachers stayed with their kids until the last ones went home because it had been such a scary, long ending to the day. When parents said, "Thank you," the teachers just kind of shrugged and smiled because to them, this was just part of what they do for their kids. Nothing extraordinary happened. This is the job of a teacher -- you're there for your kids, no questions asked.

Some people may say that this indeed a teacher's job and they shouldn't be thanked for doing what is expected of them. I understand that logic. But I disagree. Once the all clear was issued, teachers could have easily went home. There were plenty of other people available to keep an eye on the kids until they got picked up. No one would have blamed the teachers at all for wanting to get home to check their property themselves or to get to their kids who were home through the storm. But the teachers stayed. 

I stayed, too. My kid is grown, and my husband was home safe with my dogs. We had no real property damage. I tried to make myself useful -- I helped talk to parents and get kids to their rides and brought them to staff bathrooms when the kids' bathrooms were full. But really, I wasn't needed since all the individual classroom teachers were there. So I got to kind of be an observer, and it was just heartwarming to see the genuine care the teachers showed their students. It made me feel so proud to be able to count myself among their ranks -- making me cool by association :-) 

I wanted to be sure the whole world knows just how much the teachers did for the kids yesterday. Above and beyond is an understatement. 

The scene outside my school after the storm. The teacher in this picture had her car damaged in the storm, but she was outside clearing debris so everyone could walk safely on the sidewalks.


Also, an uprooted tree about a block over from my school.

Teaching During a Pandemic -- We're Not Being Babies

 A friend of mine recently shared this article on Facebook, explaining why teaching during this pandemic is not sustainable. It was a great read, pretty brutal in its honesty. It explains what so many people who don't work in education need to know. Last spring, people were cheering the work teachers did; now, they're calling us babies. We're not babies. But we are running ourselves ragged going above and beyond. Lots of people are. It just seems to be a by-product of a pandemic -- everything we do seems exponentially harder. But teachers are getting hit hard, and when they say they think we should not be doing in person teaching, it's a clear indicator that the hell that is remote teaching is better than the hell that is teaching in a school right now.

Let me offer a couple things before I launch into my rant. I am a teacher, but I am no longer a traditional classroom teacher, so I am well aware that the amount of work I am doing is nowhere near the amount of work my colleagues are doing who have actual classes of students. I'm tired from the extra effort my job takes, and I know I have it easier than my co-workers. The district I work in a relatively small, and we are offering in person instruction with the option for families to choose remote instruction if they do not want to send their kids to school in person. I personally feel my district has done a good job with this in terms of safety protocols. I do not worry about getting sick when I am at work. But I am starting to wonder if shifting to remote instruction might be worth considering. Here's why.

It comes down to bodies: we are running out of bodies to run the classrooms.

Let me use myself as an example. On November 1, my husband told me that he had a stuffy nose. That alone was enough to exclude me from going to work the next day; I was in a home with someone who had one of the symptoms on the COVID self-certification list. My husband needed to go get tested so I could go back to work. He called his doctor Monday; he got tested Tuesday, and found out that day he tested positive. That kept me in the house for his 10 day quarantine period. We tried to keep apart from each other -- slept in separate rooms, kept 6 feet apart in other parts of the house. But when his 10 days was up, because I had been in the same house with him, I needed to start my own 14 day quarantine to see if I would develop symptoms. That took me through Thanksgiving break, and I was set to return to work on November 30. But as luck would have it, on November 28, I had some chest congestion and a low grade fever, so I went to get myself tested, and now I'm working from home still, waiting for my test results. So I've been working from home. Now, I don't have my own class of kids, so my district did not have to hire a sub to cover for me. But what if I was a regular classroom teacher?

Well, I could teach from home, provided I felt healthy enough. I could video into my classes, but I still need a sub in the room to monitor the kids. This is where the massive staffing chess game begins.

Substitute teachers are hard to come by in the best of conditions. It's not a steady job, it pays notoriously low, and too many kids see it as open season on a stranger in the room. My district has tried to anticipate the need for subs, so they hired 2 full time subs per building to cover classes when teachers had to be out. We have since had to hire more subs because the 2 per building wasn't enough. We are also trying to hire day-to-day subs as well. People who are common subs are not subbing right now -- they're often retired teachers, and they are wary of coming into schools because they may be health compromised. So in order to get bodies in rooms, subs are having to cover more than one teacher's class in a day, and teachers and instructional aides are being pulled from plan periods or support roles to cover classes. 

Teachers and staff aren't necessarily gone because they're sick. But they have to be out if they've been exposed or if they even have the sniffles. And it's usually not just a day or two. It tends to be for 5 - 14 days at a time. 

Some teachers in my district are teaching in person learners and remote learners at the same time. That means they're teaching 2 classes at essentially the same time. This requires two very different methods of teaching, plus a heavy reliance on technology. Inevitably, one group of kids seems to get more attention than the other. If the in person kids need help, they get the attention while the remote kids are left to find a way to be more visible or vocal to show they need help. Or the teacher gets so wrapped up in trying to help remote learners not only with the lesson but also any tech issues, the in person kids lose out. That's why in my district, we use subs and aides in as many classes as possible to assist the teacher with tech set up and monitoring and troubleshooting the remote learners. But when those subs and aides start getting pulled to be the lone adult in a class to cover a teacher who is out, things can go south quickly. Teachers are working tirelessly to keep all kids engaged however they can.

Then once the kids start having to stay home -- again, not necessarily because they're sick -- they can easily fall behind. Teachers end up fielding a flood of emails from students and parents with questions about what was covered or with tech issues they need help with. Teachers have to lesson plan for in person and remote learners, plus make sure those plans are detailed enough for a sub to follow in case the teacher has to leave abruptly -- maybe the teacher gets sick, or the teacher gets notified in the middle of the day that he or she has been identified as a close contact and will have to go home and isolate for 10 - 14 days.

Teachers are in a hamster wheel. They're spinning plates. Is your head in a fog just trying to make sense of all these moving parts? Imagine living in it every day. 

I believe the vast majority of teachers love being able to teach in person with their students. I think they're worried about getting sick, but it's not a pervasive fear. I think rather most teachers are afraid of literally collapsing from exhaustion from trying to keep up with everything they need to do. If teachers talk about wanting to teach remotely, it's because they are reaching levels of desperation. Teachers all know that remote teaching isn't the best for the kids, but is it better to have a teacher in and out of a classroom, having the kids being taught by different people every day while a teacher is out quarantining? None of this is ideal. None of it. But please realize that teachers are not being babies. They're not giving up on their students. They're not being lazy. They're being the opposite of all those things. They're being complete professionals. They're desperately trying to find ways to reach all their learners. And they are working harder than they ever have in their careers.

COVID-Era Education: Pirouette Instead of Pivot?

In the era of COVID-19, school has been turned upside down and inside out. When everyone was in lockdown, decisions were pretty simple. Now that states are reopening to various degrees and with different levels of success, the decisions about returning  to school are about to get really, really hard.

I am thinking off the top of my head here, so if there are lots of unanswered questions and problems and holes, I get it. This is off the cuff writing and thinking happening here.

Maybe we need to take a cue, kind of sort of, from school choice advocates and restructure school districts where families have some choices. For instance, thinking about the district where I work, there are 4 school buildings. Currently, the buildings are divided according to grade levels. Rather than dividing by grade levels and trying to come up with a schedule that fits as many as possible while allowing for those who need/want exceptions, maybe we change each building to manage the learning environment different ways. One building can be "school as usual" where everybody just goes back and does what we have always done. Another building can be an environment where the strictest possible health protections are put in place: very small, self-contained groups of students, 6 feet apart, wearing masks, no shared materials. The other 2 buildings could be varying degrees of the 2 extremes -- maybe bigger class sizes, masks, semi-self contained. Maybe split schedule for families who have some flexibility with their time and who want kids to not have to wear a mask all day. Then finally, there can be a pool of teachers who have offices instead of classrooms who run online instruction for families who don't feel sending their child to a school environment right now is safe or beneficial. Families can choose the configuration that suits them best. Or I think about my local high school district, which has 2 buildings: grades 9 and 10 in one, and grades 11 and 12 in another. One building is a 3 story building; the other is a 1 story building with many wings. Buildings like that could be reconfigured by floors or wings. A change like this would really shake up education in this country. So often, school doesn't look like what it did when today's parents were in school, what with Common Core, technology, standards-based learning, and an emphasis on 21st century skills. This kind of change would really be mind boggling. It's an incredibly different way to think about how to structure the learning environment and experience. But we are living in such a strange time, maybe school needs to uber, ultra flexible. This would be a massive undertaking by any school district, one that would require a great deal of planning and preparation. But schools could do it. After all, most schools were able to pivot to remote learning with very little notice. Education could pivot again -- this time, it's just going to look more like pirouettes.

MacGyver-ing Education

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced at 4 PM on Friday, March 13 that Illinois schools would close starting Tuesday, March 17 through Monday, March 30 (this has now been extended through April 7). This announcement gave schools all over the state little time to prepare for what to do for kids who would not be in school. Since these were called "act of God" days, there were no requirements for schools to provide instruction. And in fact, some schools did just that -- nothing. But lots of schools started a mad scramble to learn all they could about what e-learning looks like and what tools could be used to deliver e-learning instruction. That's exactly what my school district did.

Speaking for myself, I spent all last weekend reading about e-learning to understand the best way to structure e-learning lessons for students. And believe me when I say there was a LOT out there to read. I worked to synthesize what I learned to share it with teachers in my district. Then I spent the rest of the time looking at the myriad of tools out there and tried to narrow them down to a short list of easy-to-use, effective tools for students AND teachers. And then I worked on putting together what I could for teachers and students so when we were all in school on Monday, we could do some front-loading before we separated from the kids at the end of the day. I can't say for certain what other teachers in my district did, but based on the high level of successful learning that happened this week, I would say they all did the exact same things I did. Everybody researched, synthesized, constructed, and collaborated so when we did our first e-learning lesson Wednesday (Tuesday was a teacher institute day), it was a success. High levels of participation (over 90% attendance, and some teachers individually reported 100% attendance) and quality learning taking place (for a sample, check out the Twitter hashtag #CSD17Learns).

We also managed to arrange getting devices to families who needed them for e-learning as well as meals for students who needed those, too. Arranging everything required the work of literally every staff member -- teachers, administrators, custodians, secretaries, cafeteria staff, social workers. Everyone mobilized throughout the weekend, came to school to serve our students Monday, then used Tuesday to finalize the plans. Every day, we debriefed and fixed what needed fixing. This required all of us to work well beyond a traditional day. Most of us were working from 7 or 7:30 in the morning until well after dinner time.

And nobody complained. In fact, everyone really celebrated. We knew we were still connecting with our students and their learning was continuing. Parents got involved and supported what the teachers were doing, too, and that is why we had such a successful week.

I have never been more proud to be an American public school teacher than I am now because I witnessed and experienced a level of dedication and commitment to kids this week that defies explanation. And when I saw this post on social media, I felt I had to reiterate what is said. Teachers ignored obstacles to learning and made sure their kids still got the best possible education available, one these kids have a right to.

In my district, we are on spring break this coming week. We are all telling each other to rest, relax, and enjoy this week off because we earned it. But I know that I will have some rest time, but I will also be working to make sure that when we "return to school" on March 30, there are meaningful learning experiences in place for my students. All the teachers I work with will be doing the exact same thing over spring break, I am sure.

Because that's what teachers do. We work tirelessly for our students.

The Why

Have you ever heard someone say, "Why do kids need computers at school? I didn't have a computer when I went to school and I did just fine." Or maybe you've heard comments like this: "Why do kids need to learn coding? They're just playing games. They're not really learning anything useful." Or even a statement like this: "What's the point of the kids making videos? That's not teaching them anything that's on the tests they take."

I can answer that question in one Tweet.

Showing me her google slides of hybrid animals that she’s making with a friend. Silly mom thought it was for school, nope just for fun! pic.twitter.com/C1dYm0YAoi

— Holly Psinas (@PsinasHolly) April 26, 2019

The learning that kids do today -- from what they learn to how they learn -- is not the same as it was for most adults. It's not even the same as when my own daughter was in high school less than 10 years ago. That Tweet I shared is a prime example why kids need access to computers, the internet, and tools that allow them to create, communicate, and collaborate. Because that's how kids learn.

Sometimes teachers feel like kids don't want to learn. But that's not really true. They DO want to learn. They just might not want to learn things the way we are presenting them (or even the things we are asking them to learn). Obviously, there are some skills that are just necessary to learn, but if we can give kids the right tools to learn with -- meaning the tools they are accustomed to use for learning -- and if we can give them some autonomy in their learning, then we as teachers just might be able to hook them into the things we want them to learn, like photosynthesis, geometry, the Constitution, or Shakepseare's sonnets.

When kids have the right tools and when they have some voice in their own education, they do indeed learn. But when we try to force a square peg (learning today) into a round hole (learning the way we used to), it sure looks like kids don't want to learn. But look at that Tweet again. There she is. Learning, Creating. Collaborating. For FUN!

What a profound lesson Miss P taught us.



This post also appears on my work blog for staff in my school district.

A Non-Expert Based Opinion About SBG

The district I work for is in the final year of implementing SBG across all grade levels, K-8. I am admittedly still learning about SBG, so it is entirely possible I have no ever loving clue what I am talking about. I was skeptical about SBG at first -- not the learning, but the grading. SBL has been happening in some way, shape, or form for as long as I've been teaching, but SBG, especially in upper grade levels, not so much. But here's the epiphany I had that made me think it might be something good:

My daughter struggled mightily with math in high school. It was rough waters her freshman year, hurricane her sophomore year, and a full on tsunami her junior year. I refused to let her take a math class her senior year lest she fail and not be able to graduate. She had enough math credits to graduate, so despite how much it pissed off her counselor, I kept her out of pre-calc her senior year. Instead, I opted to have her get caught up in math through Kumon Learning Center (they were a Godsend, if I'm being honest). One the problems I ran into with her math teachers is they couldn't tell me where her holes or weaknesses were, and one teacher actually told me he didn't have the time to figure it out and help her. I was grateful for that honesty -- I knew I was on my own to figure out how to help her.

As I've learned about SBG, it had dawned on me that this would have been so helpful for my daughter in high school. I could have had a better idea where she was struggling instead of just assuming she sucked at all of it.

An added benefit might have been less of a blow to her self-esteem. My daughter was convinced she wouldn't get into college because of her grades (she did get into college, AND she graduated, AND she got a good job after graduation). By using SBG, there is less of a stigma associated with the labels used (in my district, they are EPAL -- Exceeds, Proficient, Approaching, Limited). None of them are clearly an A, B, C, D, or F, so maybe she would have seen herself as lacking or weak in math instead of stupid (she idled in the D range for a lot of math).

I've got zero research to use, and I have zero expertise in this topic, but when using my kid as an example, I gotta say, I see some merit.

All Means All

Earlier this month, I was incensed to read a story about a transgender middle school student who was not allowed to shelter with her classmates during an active shooter drill because nobody seemed able to decide if she should shelter in the boys or girls locker room. I had to wonder if the kids were all going to take a shower or change their clothes during this drill, because if they weren't, then I can't for the life of me figure out why it matters which locker room she or ANY of the other students went in. If there was a real active shooter, are students going to have to follow gender norms in order to stay safe? What would happen if the boys locker room was locked? Do all the boys have to stay outside while the girls get to be safe? Of course not! But that's not the point I'm trying to make.

Being in education can be tough. We have to think of the students first, not ourselves. That means we do things like pull ourselves together when the kids walk in the classroom after we had a fight with our teenager in the car on the way to school. That means we treat with kindness the student whose parent is a constant thorn in our side and we just don't like. It also means we protect all of our students when they need protection. All of them. We have to put aside any personally held beliefs or prejudices we might have. So when we see kids bullying the little girl who comes to school in the same clothes every day of the week, we step in and protect her. And when we hear kids use a racial slur when talking to a student of color, we step in and protect that student. AND when we practice how to shelter from an active shooter, we make sure all students have the safest possible place to take cover without regard to gender.

If you work in education and you take issue with students based on things like socio-economic status, religion, parents' political leanings, race, ethnicity, religion, immigration or citizenship status, health issues, sexual orientation, or gender, then you don't belong in education. Because as an educator, you have a moral imperative to serve all the students in your classroom and school -- you don't to pick and choose. And, by the way, when I say "educator", I am speaking of teachers, administrators, secretaries, aides, custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, and anyone else who works with kids in a school.

If you are an educator and you can't be an advocate and protector for each of your students because you let your own thoughts interfere with the total acceptance of the little humans in your care, then you don't deserve to have the privilege of being in a position of influence for those young lives.

Looking Back

I have been not so great about keeping this blog updated, probably because I maintain two other blogs -- one that is personal and not related to education and one that is for work, sharing items with my coworkers. But now that I am part of ISTE Blogging Buddies, I am going to blog here more, so look out :-)

It is interesting to go back and look at my previous posts, to see what had been important to me over the years, to see how my attitudes have evolved. I am so passionate about education. I love to write about it. I love to talk about it. I love to share it. A number of years ago, I used to be an adjunct at a local community college and I taught a class called Intro to Teaching. It was Education 101 and it was a ton of fun to teach! Of all the classes I got to adjunct, that one was my favorite!

That's why I'm excited to be in this Blogging Buddies group. I've got a group of fellow educators whose blogs I can read, and I've got people to read my thoughts, and it keeps me motivated to write.

So I guess I'm back in the blogging saddle! Stay tuned for more!

The Energy Bus -- Reflection #2

As I read chapter 10 in The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon, I kind of thought to myself, "Been there, done that." Chapter 10 is titled "Focus" and features the rule, "Desire, Vision, and Focus Move Your Bus in the Right Direction." I consider myself living proof of how true this is.

In 2015, I considered myself a novice runner. I was slow and plodding, but I could run a 5K with little trouble. But I got inspired that year to run a half marathon, the Chicago Half Marathon specifically. So I researched training plans and diets and bothered all the really good runners I know with all sorts of questions about how to train for a half.

But one of the most important strategies I used was visualization. Every single time I went out to run, all I did was picture myself on that half marathon course. I imagined myself on Lake Shore Drive, I pictured all the other runners around me. I imagined coming around the final curve where I had stood before to cheer on my cousins as they ran that race in previous years. I pictured myself crossing the finish line. What did I want to do -- cry? shout? throw my hands in the air? fist pump? So many possibilities for what would happen when I crossed that finish line.

So, I did everything right. I followed my training plan faithfully. I ate the right foods. I wore the right shoes. I fueled properly. I hydrated properly. And I crossed that finish line, But I know that running isn't only physical. There is a huge part of running that is mental, and I properly prepared myself mentally. I am confident that visualization played a huge role in my ability to finish the Chicago Half Marathon.

And it is a key strategy I employ now as I prepare to run the Chicago Marathon on October!!!!!!

Crossing the finish line at the Chicago Half Marathon.

Wearing my hard-earned hardware!

The Energy Bus -- Reflection #1

Our superintendent gave us all a little homework for the summer -- he asked us all to read The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon. I just started it today, and I am already having a-ha moments. I'm the kind of person who likes to process things by writing about them, so I've been inspired to share some of my thoughts here as I read the book. I'm sure that some people will say this is all one big suck up to my boss, and to them I say, fine, feel that way if you want. But people who know me know that I look for reasons to write, so here I am, expressing myself the way I enjoy it best.

I didn't even get past the foreword written by Ken Blanchard before I got smacked with a truth. Written in the foreword is this: "Every morning you have a choice. Are you going to be a positive thinker or a negative thinker? Positive thinking will energize you." Now, I'm going to get a bit personal here, so I apologize for that upfront, and I hope it doesn't upset anyone who might happen to read it (spoiler: it has a happy ending).

I learned this statement to be quite true, and I learned it the hard way. In 2001, my mom and dad split up after more than 30 years of marriage. It knocked me for an absolute loop. That summer, I made a conscious decision to be angry with and actively hate my father, since he was the one who initiated the breakup. And I also allowed myself to feel the same anger and hatred toward my dad's girlfriend as well. At first, I felt really strong and powerful, spewing all the venom and vitriol I could about them. I had some pretty powerful emotions to let out, and I felt energized by releasing them.

The I woke up one day and realized how exhausted I was -- mentally, emotionally, and physically. I realized that it was a direct result of all the hatred I had been actively harboring. It was hard to get up every day and decide to hate my dad. It made me feel lousy. And as I sat there, thinking about how miserable I felt, I realized I was making other people miserable, too. Nobody enjoyed being around me -- not my husband, not my daughter, not my friends. That active hostility permeated outside the bounds of who is was meant for and poisoned every relationship I had. So that morning, as consciously as I had decided to hate my father, I decided NOT to hate him anymore. The situation with him was beyond my control, so I decided to let go of the hostility. I purposely decided to do and say things that showed my father I loved him. I wanted to have a relationship with him. I wanted my daughter to grow up loving her grandfather, not being poisoned by my awful attitude. I wanted to accept the new woman in his life; if she was important to my dad then she was important to me, too.

And by making that conscious decision to stop being negative and instead be positive, everything around me changed. I felt better, I looked better, my relationships improved. It has been 16 years since that summer, and I get along well with my dad and his girlfriend who is now his wife. I remember that summer of 2001 -- it was filled with angst, turmoil, and darkness. But somehow, someway, I found my way past all that. Positive thinking really is energizing. It is powerful. It is life altering. And it doesn't just happen. It has to be a choice, a decision you make. It has to be done deliberately.

I jumped on the energy bus when I made the decision -- and I didn't even know it!

Why I Teach: Teaching in the Balance #FBCALbook

The following post was written to be shared with the "Fueled by Coffee and Love" book project. Learn more about this project and maybe submit your own story!

Recently, the high school I graduated from held a career day. They asked alumni of the school to come speak to students about their chosen careers. I briefly considered applying to share with students my experience as a teacher and how I found this career, but I doubted anyone would be very happy to hear what I had to say.

For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a teacher. Even as a little girl, I always wanted to play school with my brother and my friends. A woman who was a family friend was a principal and she would often bring me copies of sample workbooks and textbooks or extra copies of worksheets from her school and I would be giddy with excitement at these gifts. Interestingly enough, I also knew very early on that I wanted to be an English teacher. Science and history were interesting, math was a challenge, but reading, writing, and even grammar were so much fun for me! I was an avid book reader and creative writer from the time I could read and write. And if I’m being honest, there’s something fascinating to me about grammar and the way our language works. I get enjoyment from creating clarity of ideas from the way words are arranged on a page. So, English language arts teacher was my chosen career path from the very start.

Obviously, language arts class was always my favorite class in school. I was the dork who read every single book and story assigned to me and loved talking about them with people. I was the nerd who loved writing essays and research papers. I was the girl who wrote scores of poems -- most of them lousy, mushy love poems -- as an emotional outlet. I was the person who took meaningful moments in my life and tried to preserve them by writing them as scenes from a story. I was the one who heard a song with exceptional lyrics and thought, “How I wish I had written that song!” or, “I wonder what the backstory is for this song?” I would then proceed to develop a story for the meaning of the song if I couldn’t find one through research!

I’m the same way today as an adult. I love reading and discussing books. I love reading and analyzing poetry. I still become mesmerized by beautiful song lyrics. I love doing my own creative writing. I love doing research projects. And I love doing all these things with students as well as teachers, friends, and family. My love of the language, especially in written form, is just part of my fabric. But it took just one single teacher to almost rid me of that fiber.

She was one of my high school English teachers. Mrs. Jackson (not her real name) taught American literature. Since literature classes were always my favorite, I looked forward to this class very much. But it didn’t take long to discover that Mrs. Jackson didn’t appreciate literature the same way I did.

I can remember three very distinct experiences with her that could have broken me but instead increased my resolve. The first incident came during a class discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown.” Mrs. Jackson was discussing symbolic elements in the story. She talked about the character of Faith and the pink ribbons she wore in her hair. Faith’s pink ribbons are traditionally seen as a symbol of her purity or innocence. I raised my hand and asked, “Is it possible that maybe Faith isn’t as pure and innocent as she seems? Her ribbons are pink, but isn’t white the traditional color of purity? Maybe Hawthorne was trying to show us that Faith isn’t as completely pure as we think she is. That’s why he had her wear pink ribbons instead of white.”

Mrs. Jackson’s response was swift and stinging. “Absolutely not!” she told me. She then went on a rant that sounded something like this: “Her name is Faith. The ribbons are pink, which is a color we associate with innocent little girls. For years and years, experts have explained how her ribbons represent her purity, but you come along as a teenager and think you know this story better than the experts? You don’t know anything. I know this story. I’m the teacher. I’m the expert. You need to understand this the way I teach it to you.”

Teenager though I was, I can remember thinking, “I don’t think that is the way a teacher should tell a student she’s wrong. I just had an idea. I just asked a question.” It was shocking and a little upsetting, but not demoralizing. Because I was a teenager and prone to being obnoxious, instead of being beaten down by Mrs. Jackson, I preferred to be a pebble in her shoe. I spent that year continuing to ask questions about literature -- sometimes legitimate, sometimes absurd -- just to irritate her.

The “Young Goodman Brown” incident quietly rallied my classmates around me. This was evident in the second distinct incident I remember. It was near the end of the school year, and being the grammar geek that I was, I had finished all the exercises in our grammar workbooks already. Mrs. Jackson had given us a few pages to complete in class. As my classmates worked, I made a little show out of closing my workbook and pulling out a novel to read. Mrs. Jackson glared at me from her podium for ten minutes. When it was time to go over the answers in class, she immediately called on me to read the answers, which I did -- and all correctly, I might add! When I finished, my classmates looked at Mrs. Jackson, who was clearly flabbergasted at not having caught me being lazy or defiant, and they broke out in spontaneous cheers. When they were finally quiet, Mrs. Jackson looked at me and said, “You’re not as smart as you think you are, Renee.”

The final incident came at the end of the school year when it was time to register for next year’s classes. Mrs. Jackson refused to recommend me for honors level English, despite having a high B average in her honors level English class and all the honors level English classes previous. She met with my parents and me and told us directly, “Renee doesn’t have what it takes to be an honors student.” That was the only rationale she offered. And just as an FYI -- my parents fought her recommendation and had me placed in honors English the next year, where I maintained a high B average.

When people ask me why I became a teacher, I tell them I was inspired by Mrs. Jackson. Often, people are taken aback by this. Mrs. Jackson was not a very good teacher -- it is easy to see this from the three anecdotes I just shared. How could she possibly be inspirational?

I always imagined that teachers are in a balance: good teachers on one side of the scale, bad ones on the other side. As long as Mrs. Jackson was teaching, then that scale would always be tipped slightly in favor of the bad teachers. I became completely resolved to even out the balance by being a good teacher.

I vowed to myself never to tell a student he or she is wrong, stupid, or silly for having an idea or asking a question. I vowed to myself never to make a student feel any of those things, either, so I would have to be thoughtful in my language and interactions. I vowed to myself never to play “gotcha” with a student or make a deliberate attempt to humiliate him or her. I vowed to look for reasons to help students achieve their goals rather than find reasons to squash them. I vowed never to let students know who I liked and who I didn’t like (because I am only human, after all -- there have been some students I didn’t like). I vowed to myself to be the things Mrs. Jackson was not -- open-minded, friendly, helpful, and most of all, kind.

Why do I teach? I teach to keep the scale balanced, and maybe even tipped in favor of the good guys!

What is the Purpose of Education? #IMMOOC

If I had been asked the question, "What is the purpose of education?" a decade ago, I'm sure my answer would have focused on things like learning material, understanding the mechanics of writing, and other curriculum-based skills. In answering this question today, I still see an absolute need for kids to learn some core skills -- reading, writing, 'rithmetic -- I think the purpose of education has finally gone beyond learning those skills.

In his book The Innovator's Mindset, George Couros says on pg. 3  in the introduction, "Consider this: students have access to better resources online than what teachers could possibly offer." Facing this fact can be a real ego blow for some teachers who fancy themselves "experts". I certainly don't discount the knowledge that teachers have about their areas of expertise; teachers definitely have important information that is worth sharing with students! But teachers are no longer the main conduit for getting that information to students. Teachers need to embrace the myriad of excellent resources available to help them educate their students; other people have done all sorts of legwork for us -- we teachers would be silly not to use what's out there!

So to me, the purpose of education now is to make sure students learn the important information in all sorts of subject areas, but then they also must find ways to put what they learn to use. They also need to learn all sorts of other skills that we used to consider part of the "hidden curriculum" -- things like cooperation, communication, organization, collaboration, research, speaking, presenting, analyzing, evaluation, application. Without opportunities to put these skills into practice, all the content learned will be useless, just sitting there in their minds (if we're lucky, it stays in there -- it's more likely it just fades away).

Innovation plays a critical role in education today because the nature of information is constantly changing. There is always new information -- both factual and false information -- and new ways that information is shared and accessed. In order for education to remain relevant for students, schools need to constantly reassess how their students are learning and change with the times. Without innovation, schools just update themselves but then become stagnant -- and we end up back in the situation so many schools are in now: facing the need for change but fighting the system to make it happen.

It's Not The Device, It's You

News flash: I don't think technology is the be-all and end-all of education. I'm sure this makes some people raise their eyebrows. I am the Instructional Technology Resource Teacher, after all. Without technology, wouldn't my job be moot?

Just because I am an advocate of using technology in the classroom doesn't immediately mean that I think all technology use is good. I don't think books and teachers should be replaced by computers and online schools.

Good education is about meeting students where they're at. To do that effectively, we need to make sure that we are using the wide variety of tools available in our toolbox. Sometimes kids need a book. Sometimes they need to write something down on paper. Sometimes they need to play a game. Sometimes they need to see a video. And sometimes they need to use a computer or the internet.

When people complain about kids being addicted to technology, it is so quick and easy to blame the technology itself. Common complaints blamed on technology:

• Kids spend too much time on their phones/iPads/game systems/computers that they don't know how to interact socially with other people.
• Kids don't get enough sleep because they're on their devices all night long.
• Kids don't do as well in school because they pay more attention to their device than their homework.
• Kids have short attention spans and need to be entertained because of everything they do online.
• Kids can't spell or write coherently because they always use "text speak".
• Kids suffer health issues from so much time spent staring at illuminated screens.

These are a mere sampling of complaints. But when it gets right down to it, here's the ugly truth: if theses things are happening, it is not the fault of the device; it's the fault of the parent or the adult who should be paying attention to the way the technology is being used by the child. If a child is up until 3:00 in the morning playing video games, it's not Nintendo's fault. The parents should take steps to make sure the child is in bed. If a student turns in a report littered with IMHO's and FWIW's and spellings like "wut" and "b4", that's not the phone's fault; it's the teacher's fault for not taking the time to help the child write correctly for his or her audience.

And while I'm sharing unpopular ideas, adults who can't put their phones down during dinner or act like internet trolls or compulsively post selfie after selfie -- the technology isn't at fault there, either. As adults, we are all responsible for our own behavior. It's a cop out to say, "I'm addicted to my phone."

Placing blanket blame on the technology and then deciding that the way to fix the ills that exist as a result of the abuse of the device is to simply ban the technology is utterly laughable. The technology is here to stay -- the internet isn't a fad. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and our kids' lives. The best way to make sure all that technology gets used appropriately is to model proper usage ourselves and guide our kids through using it safely, meaningfully, and effectively.

Professionalism

Here's a news flash: teachers are people. For some people, this is hard to believe. Teachers are mere humans like the rest of the people in this world, but they are sometimes expected to act in super-human ways. And in my opinion, sometimes that is exactly what teachers need to do -- set aside their humanity; otherwise, teachers might end up behaving unprofessionally. So here comes a rant.

Because I am human, there are times when I show up to work and I am having a really bad day. Maybe I had a fight with my husband or daughter, or maybe I'm facing a family crisis (like last fall when my father nearly lost his life due to a cardiac arrest or last winter when I had to deal with my grandfather's suicide), or maybe I dropped the gallon of milk minutes before I left the house and had to clean it up. But in the name of professionalism, I push all that humanity aside and do my job. This doesn't mean I can't tell my students or coworkers that I'm having a bad day or that I'm dealing with some really tough things in my life at home. What it means is that I don't get to take out my anger and pain and frustration on my students and coworkers. I don't get to be snippy and crabby with them. I don't get to be rude to them. Instead, I behave professionally and interact with the people at work respectfully and civilly and pleasantly, if I can muster that. Doing otherwise is unprofessional.

Because I am human, I do not like every student in my class equally. Some students I like more than others; some I actually don't like at all. But the funny thing is that they don't know that. My students don't necessarily know who I really like, and they sure don't know which ones I don't like. Showing favoritism or partiality or dislike or hostility would be unprofessional. And this can be hard because kids are perceptive little creatures. They can sniff out fake people really quickly. As a teacher, I have to set aside my humanity and behave in a super-human way in order to be professional.

Because I am human, I do not like every person I work with. Some people I consider to be really good friends; some are work acquaintances; and some are people I am stuck working with despite the fact that I don't like them or trust them or even respect them. But just like my students, those people don't know who they are. The people I have issues with are still treated with kindness and friendliness and respect. I don't get to ignore them or be short with them or blow off their email messages when they ask me for help because doing all those things would be unprofessional.

Because I work with humans, I have to deal with people who have bad days and people who don't like me. They are short with me, ignore my emails, and behave in an unprofessional way. But I don't get to respond in kind. Instead, I behave professionally and meet rudeness with kindness.

Really, being a professional requires remembering one simple thing: treat other people the way you would want to be treated. 

Applause

A couple of weeks ago I attended an incredibly motivational conference on innovative teaching and educational technology (Leyden Innovative Teaching and Learning Symposium). Not only were there high quality keynote speakers and presenters (such as Josh Stumpenhorst and Jaime Casap), but it was also limited to a maximum of 425 participants, so none of the breakout sessions was ever overcrowded. I highly recommend this conference -- it is well worth three days out of your summer vacation!

But one thing happened there that for some reason has stuck with me -- and kind of left me scratching my head. On the last day of the symposium, the keynote speaker did one of those quick little audience surveys to find out how long people had been teaching. She started out asking for first year teachers to raise their hands. If I remember correctly, there was no one who raised their hand. Then she asked for anyone who had been teaching 1 - 5 years, and there were a few hands. Then she asked for 5 - 10 years; there were a few more hands. Then 10 - 20 years, a nice number of people raised their hands. The she asked for 20 - 30 years; there were lots of hands for that group, including mine. And then something really weird happened. The people in the auditorium broke into spontaneous applause. When the speaker then asked for people who had been teaching for more than 30 years to raise their hands (and there were a few), there was more applause. Being part of a group of the receiving end of spontaneous applause like that was humbling but weird. Every day, I go to work and do my job -- and I'm not denying that it can be hard, arduous, draining work -- but I get to work with great teachers and fun students, so my time at work really is enjoyable. Having fun seems unworthy of applause. But then when I started to think of what it takes to be a teacher for more than a quarter century, I guess I can see why people would celebrate that. There is a constant state of flux in education, and to be quite honest, being a teacher doesn't always generate a whole lot of respect and admiration. So I guess I'll just be humbled and grateful that someone out there actually thinks that what I do and have done for so many years deserves a moment of applause.

But after the applause was all done and the speaker got back to her presentation, I had a thought that baffled me a bit. I realized that here, at this three day conference on innovating education, learning how to change up the way teaching and learning happens in the classroom, there were many more of the "older" teachers than the "younger" teachers. And I wondered why that was. After all, it is so often the "older" teachers who get the bad rap -- they're the ones who are stuck in their old ways of doing things; they're the ones who don't want to change. At least that's what the prevailing attitude seems to be so often. The veteran teachers are stuck in the past, the jaded ones. The fresh-faced college kids are the eager ones, the innovative ones, the hope for the future. Yet at a conference devoted fully to significantly changing the way education looks, there sure weren't very many of those fresh-faced innovators.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not naive. I know that there are PLENTY of veteran teachers who are sitting around on their tenured butts whining about "kids these days" and still using the same tests they were using 5 or 10 years ago. I also know that there are plenty of teachers out there who are new to the job and eager to change the world. But this conference isn't the first time I've run into this. A few years ago, I attended a two day workshop on grading practices presented by Rick Wormeli. My colleague and I were seated at a table with another 5 or 6 teachers from a different district. They all looked pretty young -- barely pushing 30 -- so I'm guessing they hadn't been teaching more than 5 - 7 years max. And THEY were the ones bucking everything Rick Wormeli said. THEY were the ones complaining that this was stupid and there was no need to change anything. But there sat my colleague and I -- with our years in the classroom being more than double of those young teachers -- and we were digging what Wormeli was saying.

I don't know why there is this weird divide, or if it really exists. But it sure feels like it.

No Surprise

Last school year, I spent a lot of time with the teachers in our grade 3/4 building helping them familiarize their students with the PARCC test interface they would be encountering. The kids were so great (the teachers, too) -- they tried every single tool they could in the PARCC tutorials. We showed the kids how to navigate the PARCC test; we had the kids work on it while we modeled it; we has the kids try it on their own at their own pace; we had the kids try it on their own in a timed situation to simulate what the PARCC test would be like. We answered their questions over and over and over again. And so many of our kids worked so hard on their actual PARCC testing days. But that doesn't mean all the preparation we tried to give the kids worked flawlessly.

It was in the forefront of all of the teachers' minds that in the actual testing situation, we would be unable to answer any questions the kids had about how to navigate through the testing site. That meant that if a kid forgot how to go to the next page, teachers were not allowed to tell the student how to do that. Conceivably, a student could waste a meaningful amount of time just trying to determine how to go to the next page.

This made me really mad. Because it was grossly unfair. I worried that the kids taking the online version of the test could be at a disadvantage to the kids who were taking the paper/pencil version of the test. After all, those kids wouldn't waste any time trying to figure out how to go to the next page of the test.

I tried to convince myself I was being paranoid. I told myself I was making a mountain out of a molehill. I assured myself that the teachers had prepped their kids so well that it would be silly to think the kids would be at a disadvantage.

And then I read this.