Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Category: Classroom

By Any Means Human – What are yours?
Summertime is a unique time in the life of a teacher, at least in the life of this teacher.

a – it gives me time to take back my self after the non-stop of the school year.
b – it also allows for reflection on the teaching I have done and will do.
(c – and of course summer is a time for fun, without thinking about having to preserve my energy for the classroom in the morning!)

TracyRosen.com via kwout

…back to the reflection…

Beyond (or before) the academic content and the tools that we teach to help students master that content is us.

Us as teachers and as people.

Who we are as humans and what things human we bring to our classrooms.

It’s our humanity that makes us unique as teachers.

So I ask, what is the human gift that you bring to your classroom (be it K-12 or conference/workshop/lecture room)? I think we all bring a whole bunch of different gifts, but I’m asking for your #1.

Think about it.

Mine? I bring calm. I’ve been told by a few students over the years that they appreciate this – “Miss, you’re so zen!” – and so I try to create more pockets of it in their lives.
How do I do this?
- I’m consistent with my expectations and follow-up so they know what they’re getting themselves into
- I keep my voice low – loud teacher=loud classroom
- I smile a lot, but not like an inane ninny, just because working with kids all day is the hottest thing I know. It brings my calm to me.
I’m calling on some teachers to answer this one with me. Pass it on to others if you like by linking back here.

Jose
Damian
Elona
MrMayo
Steve
Dan
Joel
Heidi
Scott
Greg
Ken

And, it goes without saying, if you are reading this and are somehow not on that list, sorry I left you out. Didn’t mean to, please join in!
July 31, 2008
Who are teachers?
“Today’s topic…self-construction”

KRS-One **audio from 1vibe.net, April 22, 2008

7 months ago (though I just discovered it) Clay Burrell wrote On Leaving Teaching to Become a Teacher:

More and more I wonder: is school a good place for teachers who want to make a difference in the lives of their students, and to the future of the world? Is there a way to leave the daily farce of gradebooks, attendance sheets, tests, corporate and statist curriculum, homework assignments, grade-licking college careerist “students” (and parents), fear of parents and administrators, and fear of inconvenient socio-political truths – and at the same time, to make a far more meaningful impact on the lives of the young?

I’m thinking yes. I’m thinking, moreover, obviously. I’m not sure how much longer I want to work for schools. I’d so much rather teach.

Coinciding with that discovery was 2 others:
- this video, reminding me of KRS-One’s moniker ‘The Teacher’. (originally found here)
- Jeff Wasserman‘s article from 1999, From Klezmer to Clerks, where he wrote:
  
  Everyone has a story, every individual and every culture.
  
  Tell yours.
  
  Tell it in words or in sounds or in images or squishy things to touch. Tell it to yourself, or tell it to others. Be creative and unafraid. You know what to do.
But really, there are no coincidences.

My mission as a teacher has to do with teasing out the stories, with helping people find their stories – the most positive ones they can.

Like Clay, I don’t think that teaching is relegated to the classroom. In fact most real content that affects peoples lives is not found in the classroom, it’s found in the experiences that make up each of our stories.

Example: KRS-One is truly a teacher. He inspires to create a positive story.

“Today’s topic – self-construction”

“… This is an opportunity for you to rise to your highest self. There it is.”

I’m not going to tell you his story, watch the video up top, and you’ll get an idea of where those quotes come from.

The point here, is that teachers are found all over.

So why do I choose to teach in the classroom?

Classroom teaching is a unique opportunity to help young people choose their direction and write their stories. It’s like living is research, and the classroom is the lab where we get to make sense of all that cool data.

My job has so much more to do with helping kids organize the information that comes at them (the stories of the world) in a way that makes sense for them, then it does with teaching them the stories of the world, and so much more than it does with “…gradebooks, attendance sheets, tests, corporate and statist curriculum, homework assignments, grade-licking college careerist “students” (and parents), fear of parents and administrators, and fear of inconvenient socio-political truths…”

Yeah, there’s some paperwork and politics. I keep my mind focused on student need and my core values of relationship and hope for the future, and the paperwork and politics don’t seem as important. Everything falls into place.

Cause this is what I am supposed to be doing.
It’s the best way I know to rise to my highest self, and to help others do the same.

That’s why I teach.
July 24, 2008
(Pre)flections for Next Year

In Native American spirituality, the Raven is the messenger of magic from the great void where all knowledge waits for us. He is also the symbol of changes in consciousness, of levels of awareness and of perception. from http://www.ravenns.com/raven.htm

So, this year is done. Yesterday was my final pedagogical day of the 2007/08 school year – my first one at HSB. I don’t yet know what I will be teaching next year though I do know…

that I will be returning to HSB where I have been offered a permanent contract :)

and that whatever I teach I will:

…be more proactive in my teaching than ever before

…map out literacy competencies for/with my students and how we will get there

…introduce my students to youth twitter, thanks to Mr. Mayo

…need to balance teaching, studying, private life

Apparently we receive our teaching loads on June 30th, though they are subject to change up until October 15th! And apparently one should expect it to change by the beginning of the school year at the end of August.

After a few conversations with my principal, I seem to have basically two possibilities – Bridges teacher or Alternatives teacher. I’m focusing on Alternatives teacher. That is where I would like to be in the future. Alternatives is like a school within the school, for students in their last two years of high school (Secondary 4 and 5 in Quebec) who need an alternative approach to graduate. Here is the blurb from the HSB website:

Directions Alternative School
Using alternative methods of instruction, community-based learning, high structure and behaviour modification, “Directions” attempts to aid learners who, for a myriad of reasons, have lost touch with their own educational path. By redirecting their at-risk behaviours and helping them to face the obstacles in the way of their learning, the atlernative school program increases their likelihood of success. Directions has a comprehensive procedure for entry into the program which includes recommendations from teachers and administrators and interviews with prospective students and their families.

I had begun this year as a Bridges teacher working with students on life skills programs, though after 2 weeks they added 8 other younger students to my class of 5 older students. All in all it created a difficult dynamic to teach in – unfair to both groups, though necessary due to numbers. If I am offered the Bridges group again I fear that the same story will unfold. I don’t want that to happen. I would rather see them integrated into a new work-oriented program, with resource support, that the school is offering next year than integrated with the younger learning centre students as they were this year.

All in all I am excited about returning to HSB and excited about seeing what challenges are in store for me next year. Also, I’m glad that I have documented some of my reflections – both positive and not-so-positive – from this year so at I can return to them in the future and always move forward.

But for now…bring on the margaritas because I am definitely ready for vacation!

June 27, 2008
Ouch…important feedback

image found here –> Ms Teacher

Well, I thought that none of my students were able to complete the end of year feedback assignment due to technical difficulties at school, but evidently one was able to…and I quote:

…and what I didn’t like of this year was the teacher that I had becuase I she made us have meetings and she was yelling at my friends and I didn’t like that. and the outher thing that I didn’t like of thst year was peopple where picking on me more then last year…

Ouch.

That teacher was me. Her last memory of me was of me raising my voice at students in the class who felt that summer vacation had begun before it really had.

Regardless of the reason, she remembers me as the teacher who was ‘yelling at my friends’.

poo.

Note for next year…remember that the end of the school year is trying for everyone. And that there are other ways to give students a reminder of what they need to do than by showing them my frustrations.

And I don’t remember who said it, some have attributed it to Maya Angelou I think but…

…they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care…

and

…People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel…

June 15, 2008
End of year – closure, time, plans.

I forgot to have a good closure. Me, who knows of the importance of closure, forgot (me forgot? Whatever…).

image from: Organizational Systems 2, acrStudio.com

A group of kids didn’t come in on the last day and, of those who did, another group left after lunch. And a couple of them played a bit of a mean joke on me. But those who did stay were troupers – helping to move desks into the gym for the exam period, cleaning up the classroom, asking questions, displaying their concerns about next year.

And I forgot to design closure into my year. I started to think about it, with this final blog post, but when our school’s Internet service decided not to cooperate, I ditched the thought.

Rather than forgetting, I’m thinking I left out closure accidentally on purpose. I’m not entirely proud of this year. I definitely felt like I was treading water much of the year – reacting rather than planning and acting. With myself, my students, and the attendant who worked in my classroom with me. I don’t think I really wanted to hear what others felt about it.

So, here is my closure. A plan for the future. I never want to feel like this again. That much I learned this year.

Time is too precious to tread water for even a moment.

Tracy, who is feeling the echo of the clock in the rhythm of her veins

(‘who’ line borrowed from linkin park so I can howl with Jose, go check out his project by clicking on the link…)

June 11, 2008