Job Insecurity

Here’s an image from the recent rally at MPS Central Services. Yep, there’s me–at left, with the microphone.

This past weekend, I was unexpectedly laid off from my job as an MPS high school English teacher. I got the notice in the mail, the day before the last day of school. I’m one of 481 other educators–many of them friends–who lost their jobs due to budget cuts. In this, the first layoff since 1982, there’s confusion, uncertainty, and rumor abounding. We’re now hearing that there may be some reconsideration due to the public reaction, but nothing is certain. In any event, it’s a crime to remove excellent, energetic young teachers in mass numbers from the district that needs it most.

I’m a high performer who chose to teach in MPS because I know that the students of Milwaukee need and deserve the absolute best education possible. I love teaching urban kids. I come to work every day with a smile on my face. I worked hard this year, always with meaning behind my actions. But instead of celebrating the last day with my students, I unfortunately had to spend my last day bursting into tears in front of my seventh graders, who surrounded me in a giant hug. As I urged them, I encourage anyone who is upset about the layoff crisis to express your concerns directly to the board. A message to all school board members may be called in or emailed to the Office of Board Governance at 414-475-8284 or governance@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us   As I explained to them after I got myself together, neither crying nor yelling solves anything. Only well-thought-out action does.

I know that I will find another teaching job, and that I will devote myself to my next assignment wholeheartedly no matter where I arrive. That’s one of the great things about teaching: kids are kids. City, country, suburb. They all have problems to face alongside unique, mind-blowing potential to succeed. I love to teach and MPS can’t take that away. I just wish they wouldn’t take me away from the city I’ve grown so loyal to and the students that I will never stop advocating for.

Professional Development Plan, Phase I

I am proud to say that I’ve had my goal for my Professional Development Plan approved in my first year of teaching. Here’s a sneak peak at the research I’ll be doing over the next three-four years.

Reflection 

 English teachers have always put forth giant efforts to unlock the hidden joys of literature for young adults who don’t necessarily see the “joy” at first glance. However, in today’s modern age of technology, the gap that English teachers bridge is larger than ever. The dusty pages of the printed word seem passé to many youth, despite the fact that they are writing novels’ worth of sentences via text message every day! The online world is covered in text—both stellar and pathetic—and therefore the ability to navigate it and create it is more pertinent than ever before. Still, many youth fail to see the relationship between their constantly typing fingers flying across shiny devices and the dog-eared page of Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy. I’ve also watched my students struggle to write a literary interpretation, despite the fact that they post their own poetry on their blogs! My hope is not to drag my students back to the time before our online, globalized world; rather, it is to give them the tools to understand it, be prepared to work within it, and appreciate the rich literary past that they can now buy with the click of a button on Amazon.com!

 I have noticed that the few times I’ve attempted to integrate visual media and technology into my teaching, the students instantly perk up. The students that get confused by a page seem to gravitate with longing toward a screen, particularly if there are some stimulating images involved. I want to know how I can get better at making this tendency work for me, to inspire and enrich literature/writing learning experiences for my 21^st century kids.

Goal

I will research media/visual methods of language arts instruction and integrate visual media and technology into my literature and writing pedagogy so that students will increase media literacy, my instruction is better serving visual learners, and students leave my high school classes prepared to thrive as readers and writers in our increasingly media-saturated world.

Rationale

  By integrating visual media and technology in my classroom, I hope to raise student interest as well as performance on writing and literature tasks. I teach a diverse population of students in many ways; however, one thing they have in common is the media-saturated, technology-driven professional world that they will enter upon graduation. This is a situation that fascinates them, and also represents a crucial component of what “literacy” means today. It is my hope that as I involve more media and technology in my teaching, students will be better able to understand and exhibit skills in literature and writing. If all goes well, they’ll also be able to more easily transfer these skills to the modern workplace.

Three Weeks with Morrie

I finished out the final three weeks with my senior contemporary literature class reading Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. While Albom’s work is not generally my literary cup of tea, my students were crying for something that didn’t require intensive interpretation and decoding to understand, particularly at the tail end of their senior year. So, I thought something a little “lighter” might be fitting.

To counterbalance the easier reading, I decided to ramp up my in-class expectations and designed a complex unit that included student-led thematic discussions each day, student-created activities to explore the ideas presented in the text, and nightly journaling [this expectation had a plethora of options, including graphic novel style, collage, poetry, and interviews alongside traditional reader response writing]. For the final three weeks, my students essentially ran the class. And I must say, they did a mighty fine job of it.

Turning over the power and control in one’s classroom is a scary thing, but I thought it was fitting for seniors–they are soon to be considered adults in their society, and should be able to act as such. As one of my own mentors is fond of saying, “It should be every teacher’s goal to become obsolete.” By the time they graduate, my students should no longer need me. They should be able to do everything that I’ve taught them all by themselves. And, for me, they truly did.

The most incredible thing about this unit was the response that my students had to the text itself. If you haven’t read it, Tuesdays with Morrie is the true story of a man and his relationship with his dying former professor, Morrie. Morrie also happens to be a truly remarkable soul who chooses to turn his slow death from ALS into his final thesis–lessons on living. The book chronicles Morrie’s discussions with Mitch, touching on topics from marriage to money. Morrie’s overall message is very simple and pure: Love never fails. Be who you are. Give of yourself to others. Create your own culture.  To me, these are messages with great value, but I was worried that my class might reject them as “too sappy” or even unrealistic. In fact, they acted quite the opposite.

My kids took to Morrie like a prophet. Every day there were new reactions to the musings of this old man, declarations of “I never even thought of that before” and “this book is changing the way I look at my life.” There were tears, there were public apologies and vows, there were major life choices being turned around. As the reading progressed, our class, too, became centered around discussions on How to Live. I got inspired and required the students to commit a random act of kindness, leave behind a Pay it Forward card and journal about it. The unit was a huge success and produced some of the best writing, thinking, and discussion I saw all year long. Many students even thanked me for including the book in my curriculum–even those who fought me on every single other text.

What this leaves me thinking about is the thin line that we walk as educators between academic directors and life coaches. In our Morrie unit, my students started engaging me personally on discussion topics like “What is real love?” or “How do you have a fulfilling life” or “Why do we need to forgive others?”  While I am a public school teacher and neccesarily skirted any religious-based theories, I did give them my ideas. They seemed fascinated and thirsty for someone to tell them about what is truly important, and how to live life the “right” way. As I always do, I stayed very open in my own contributions–there’s no ONE right way to live, but I was intrigued at how closely they listened to the story of how I chose my career in comparison to my lectures on how to avoid a comma splice.

I am the first one to demand that quality teaching be based off of rigorous, objectives-based academics. Still, when you really talk about what it means to be a teacher, things are a little more complex. A big part of this job is letting students know that you also support them as people, that you’re there to cheer them on, guide them, and support them.

As I congratulated my students on graduation night, I knew that the hugs were not for the semicolons. They were for giving knowledge as well as wisdom. How blessed am I to be in a career where I can share so much of myself with others? Very.

I agree with Morrie: “The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning” (43). I consider it my privilege to have guided this first group of 12th graders through a full school year.

Congratulations, Class of 2010!

Awesome Teacher Alert

WCTE, or the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English is a professional organization for English Educators in our state. They provide many great resources and a home for those teachers among us who see this job as something alive and important. I was lucky enough to be honored by them for my student teaching last year, and I was ridiculously fortunate to be nominated for the first year teacher award this year. Before I had even heard of that happening, I was already in the process of writing a letter of recommendation for the award on behalf of my colleague and friend, Ms. S.  To me, she’s just the teacher du jour, and learning about what she does in her classroom always inspires me to up the ante in my own! To introduce her, briefly, I’ll provide an exerpt from my letter:

In a place where poverty-fed tensions run high, Ms. S is an oasis of peace and consistency for her students. She runs a class where kids always know what is expected of them and how they can reach that goal. Her many classroom management strategies diffuse the intense anger, hunger, and fear that are a daily reality for her students, allowing them to focus on the mysteries of literature. She will stop at nothing to delight and intrigue her students, from incorporating hip-hop lyrics into literary analysis, to bringing digital photography into a unit on identity, to raising enough money so that each and every student can buy a new book of their choice for Christmas. She’s also a master of more traditional instructional forays, particularly when it comes to helping students construct organized, effective essays. She’s giving her students the tools they need to come out of high school as adult readers and writers. An accomplished writer herself (and a National Writing Project fellow), this is one of her greatest strengths.

While I don’t think she really needed my help, I was proud to offer my two cents on behalf of this exemplary first year teacher. To my delight, it was recently announced that Ms. S. is, indeed, the WCTE first year teacher of the year. Congrats, Ms. S!  It’s great to see you recognized for everything that many colleagues and students already knew: you are awesome.

And as if that couldn’t be any cooler, WCTE also sent me a letter stating that, while I did not receive the award, they were deeply impressed at my own classroom innovations, professional esteem, and devotion to my students and colleagues. They generously provided me with a year’s membership to the organization, with hope to see me at next year’s conference.

Two acknowledgements are needed here:

1. WCTE  Chairs and Officers- Thank you for recognizing young teachers. We need it. We work so hard, often against great odds, and often with a passion that outweighs our short experience. This celebration of the “new blood” is exactly what we need to feel like we are welcome and vital to the profession. It is also great to know that the world of English Education is bigger than just our schools or even our districts. Your professional support is so important to seeing the big, collegiate picture of this career that we share.

2. First Year Teachers- Thank you for working yourselves to tears, to exhaustion, to joy. Whether you’ve got an award to show for it or not, you are a hero in my eyes. We’re shaping the future of education, hopefully for the better. We can do it. We’re smart, and we’re here. To all of you, congrats on completing Year One!

Student Teacher of the Year!

Today, I got the official notification that I have been selected as the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English Outstanding Student Teacher for 2008-2009! I will be recognized for this honor at the WCTE convention in Milwaukee this coming October. I am extraordinarily proud of this accomplishment. What an honor!

I’m excited to represent UWM and the amazing community of educators that have taught me and helped me grow so much over the past year!

Assuming my proposal is accepted, I’m also planning to present at the convention on the topic of teaching grammar in context through visual arts. This is a happy day indeed.

Graduation Day

As of May 17th, 2009, my five years of hard work as an undergraduate have finally paid off! I now hold a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Education, with an English minor. I graduated with commencement honors and good friends by my side. I am so proud of this accomplishment and would like to thank the many people who supported me steadfastly throughout this journey. Family, friends, and professors were all instrumental in my success. I am particularly indebted to my mom and dad; my brother, Mike; my fiancee, Jacob; Donna and Tom; and my fellow EEA members. Our English Education program has been a true family to me over these past two years. Thank you all so much for a great, great ride.

Now let’s go out and change the world!

Looking back at Semester One, 2008

I really cannot believe how fast my first semester of student teaching flew by. It was absolutely incredible, and I miss my eighth graders so much already. Since I unfortunately don’t have time to do a full post on each of my many, many learning experiences, I’m going to use this post to cover some of the highlights of my first semester as a student teacher in Milwaukee.

*As soon as I was designated as the adult in control of the classroom, before my students even really knew me, I was suddenly, instantly trusted, looked to for leadership, and asked for advice, permission, or explanation. That was amazing to me—I never really got that until it happened. Once I was “teacher,” I was given this remarkable gift of trust. It reminded me how these kids were letting me lead them because that was what I was there to do. So I worked as hard as possible to earn that gift that they gave me by default.

*I had two classes, and the different personalities and chemistries of each definitely created challenges. My second hour class of nearly 40 kids practically cartwheeled into the room, bursting with energy and noise. Singing, laughing, hitting each other, and bombarding me with questions, this group was incredibly wild, but also enthusiastic and really bright. It was my daily goal to harness and focus their energy. My third hour class (about 25 kids), on the other hand, was very withdrawn and apathetic at first. As the semester went on, I worked to draw these students out of their shells, to engage them with me, the curriculum, and each other. By the end of my stay, they were a truly interdependent group. I was so proud of them!

*Finding my classroom management style was the biggest revelation for me. I tried out a bunch of different tactics, but I soon figured out that there’s only one surefire fact about classroom management: there is no magical solution. However, my current thinking is that the best strategy is to work to create a true classroom community, where each member has a role and an understanding of his or her responsibilities to the class community, and all are respected, welcomed, and listened to. It works well for me to build positive interactions between students and teacher, so that when (not if) problems arise, there is a sense of “we’re all in this together” that keeps everyone working as a group to get through the rocky spots. I hate “lording over” students—it doesn’t work, they just spit at you behind your back. I want my authority as a teacher to spring from a place of respect, not fear of threats. I definitely mean business in my classroom, but I also leave room for students to work together to solve their own problems. That’s what they’ll have to do in the real world anyway!

*Students need to work together to learn. They are social animals, and they need to learn skills of cooperation, compromise, tolerance, tact, and communal problem-solving just as much as they need to know the meaning behind symbols and how to write a good conclusion. Whenever possible, I incorporated that into my instruction. Clearly, students need to achieve individually, but human beings also need to interact to learn. Especially at the introduction of a concept, my students’ best resources were often one another.

*Eighth graders can handle college level work. I have no doubt about this. As long as they have support, and as long as the students trust their teacher, they can achieve at way higher levels than the state expects them to. Over the course of my semester with my eighth graders, I had them writing metaphor-filled poetry, practicing sophisticated grammatical constructions (like compound contrasting sentences joined with semi-colons), discussing the effectiveness of various literary techniques in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, relying on logical argument backed up by research for their persuasive essays, and interpreting paradoxes in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I expected my eighth graders to do each of those things, never doubting that they couldn’t. And I was so right. Obviously, I often got complaints about things being too hard or too complicated, but in the end, once they got beyond their own inhibitions, they could really handle it. I can now say from experience that high expectations work. There is no reason to dumb anything down. All students are potential scholars. And I expect mine to become them.

*A supportive community of peers is absolutely invaluable. I cannot express enough how vital my fellow teacher candidates, professors, and co-operating teacher have been throughout everything. The wisdom of experience as well as the understanding of shared learning creates so many human resources that I’d be a fool not to take advantage of. It is so nice just to sit with another educator and toss around different scenarios, ideas, and solutions. One of my favorite collaboration opportunities this semester was a seminar that I attended with my co-operating teacher and another student teacher. We participated in activities that taught us some ways to incorporate movement into teaching—it was so much fun, but it was also a wonderful time for the three of us to talk about what was going on in our classroom. What was good? What made it that way? What wasn’t working so well? How could we improve it? The constant reflection, revision, and creative nature of teaching is so fulfilling when it’s a collaborative effort.

*Every day is different, and you can never be too prepared. Anything and everything will happen. The powers that be warned me of these things, but I didn’t quite believe them. Now I do.

*Confidence. Plainly put, I wasn’t sure I could do this. I wasn’t sure I could be a teacher at all, much less in an urban district notorious for its safety concerns, low parent involvement, and achievement gap woes. Once I got there, though, I realized that the hype never measures up to the reality, that my students were amazing people, and that I was a perfect fit for this job. This realization brought so much joy to me. After such a long time of being uneasy about my career path, I finally feel secure. I love teaching. It’s such hard work, but it’s the right work for me.

*Basic overview of what I taught this semester [over 15 weeks, with an observation period]:
-poetry (devices, terms, literary interpretation, composition, revision, reasons to write poetry)
-The Outsiders (characterization, vocabulary, theme, connections to current society, making inferences, point of view, author’s purpose)
-Proctored for WKCE testing
-Persuasive writing (grammar in context, basic essay structure, acknowledging/refuting the opposition, distinguishing between fact and opinion, writing a solid argument hinging on logic, using reliable internet sources to conduct research and incorporating direct quotations into writing)
-Creative writing (Conflict, setting, characterization, classic plot elements, show vs. tell)
-Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Who was William Shakespeare?, translating Shakespeare’s English, basics of reading dramatic works, summarization, paradox, making predictions)

It was an insane 15 weeks! Here’s to a great semester. I’ve learned so much already, and I’m ready for more.