Designs on Life

One of the levels I’ve taught is middle school English–6th, 7th, & 8th grades. When graduating in secondary English, fellow graduates were less than interested in teaching middle school. Let’s be honest; they’ve gotten a bad rap:). They’re spirited, sarcastic, good-natured, and moody. Don’t get me wrong; sometimes they require reigning in, but overall, they’re a fun bunch with creative, thought-provoking ideas. The truth is they’re looking for acceptance and friendship, pretty much most of the time.

I loved teaching them–mostly, because they were old enough to understand and absorb what you were trying to teach them, but not preoccupied with the business of being in high school. They could come after school for help (no pressing activities), and you could “reach them” if you were determined to give them the time.

If you have or will soon have one of these rays of sunshine, I thought I’d share some insights.

There are many opinions regarding what students should be learning in middle school. While there are multiple avenues to achieve these results, here is what they should be learning–in English, at least:

1. Diagramming sentences: These are the years that they learn the part each word plays in a sentence, which leads to an understanding of run-ons, fragments, comma splices, etc.
2. Level appropriate vocabulary: Students learn about using a thesaurus to bring writing to a suitable standard, while adding additional grade level vocabulary.
3. Writing a three part thesis: This is the basis for essay writing.
4. Writing an essay: Students start with an introductory paragraph (and the three part thesis) then add three supporting and a concluding paragraph. Essay types include expository, descriptive, compare/contrast, and so on.
5. Analyzing Literature: Reading, interpreting, and expounding on literature builds an understanding and appreciation of reading and writing. Students gain confidence in their own ideas at the same time.
6. Writing research papers: Learning about researching a topic, compiling information to inform others, and understanding their own ideas versus other’s ideas (plagiarism) matures throughout middle school.

Quote of the Day

“Whenever one person stands up and says ‘ Wait a minute. This is wrong,’ it helps other people to do the same.” Gloria Steinem

I recently read an interesting analogy referencing young brain development in All is not Forgotten by Wendy Walker. Walker compares our developing brains from teenage years through age 25 as a “construction project”, or the building of our own house. We can make adjustments to the house, but we can never recreate the foundation.

The premise is every decision–positive or negative–will forever be a part of our house’s foundation, whether its opportunity, drugs, emotional tolls, relationships, etc. Your brain’s “reward center is trying to sort out what behaviors lead to rewards, so it can lay down some wires, some bricks.” If your “bricks” tell you to like drugs (alcohol, cocaine, prescriptions) or risky behavior, for example, or conversely, grit (hard work or determination), you will endure those tendencies for the rest of your life.

I’d hate to think that mistakes during our youth become lifelong struggles–not insurmountable–but, if our experiences, at least, do predispose us to behaviors and opinions; it would make sense that chemicals would as well.

The challenge is to communicate this idea to young people in a meaningful and actionable manner. Most of us understand through personal knowledge and/or raising our own children that the very reason we’re susceptible at that age is caused by our own perceived invincibility.

Neuroscience continually progresses, so there’s always promise of advancement. Here’s hoping they figure out a delivery of that concept.

Quote of the Day

“A wise man never knows all; only a fool knows everything.” African proverb

Today, we remember and celebrate one of the people who gave us a sense of self, confidence to begin, empathy for living things, strength to stick in there, and on and on.

My own mother, Patrician Jean Tybuec Cummings, braved ten of us, a feat I don’t think I’d survive. She was head dispatcher at EMS, retiring after 20+ years, a military wife for 20 years, moving as the Navy saw fit; an island girl and hula dancer, Girl Scout leader, volunteer in every conceivable capacity for church, school, sports, etc.; she’s an athlete; confidante; healer of wounds, both physical and mental; and continues to be a strong example at 84 years old.

I hope you are able to spend time with your own Mom—thank her for loving you. Mother Theresa said it best, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

I just read a quote on Pinterest (yeah, there’s lots of great stuff on there) that says, “My ability to remember song lyrics from the 80s far exceeds my ability to remember why I walked into the kitchen.” Too funny—and true at times! Why do I mention it? No reason…just made me laugh:)

Seriously, though, I’ve debated about whether or not to describe my shocking experiences in the schools. While I realize all schools are not the same, I can give what I encountered. When I subbed in several schools, if there were plans—and often there weren’t—the plans were insufficient for the amount of class time. These were middle and high schools—where classroom management goes hand in hand with valid learning, not a sheet to keep them busy, or worse, a reliance on the class to inform where they are in the text.

When I decided to accept a position in a school, these were the situations that played out over the course of 3 months, ending the second day of school:

1.No textbooks—kept being promised them throughout the summer, but were never produced ( I hear they received them 3 weeks after school started).

2. Salary agreement changed repeatedly—ended up accepting less because school was starting, and there were bigger things to worry about.

3. Tests can be taken several times, requiring reteaching in between each test. Who tests students before they’re ready to take a test? What would be the motivation to do well on the first test? Or the second or third?

4. Homework, classwork, and class participation didn’t count towards students’ grades. For those of you who’ve taught, I don’t even need to explain. I’m sure all students would be motivated to participate in these because it’s good for them.

5. The school is data driven, so there would be an hour class each day for students to be pulled out for extra concentration in math and English. What about the rest of the kids? Oh, just teach them your subject again, or take turns with your level teachers to vary subjects! Or, they can read quietly. Hmmmm…. Oh, by the way, we won’t start testing for three weeks or more.

6. There will be AR (Accelerated Reader) testing as well, but we have no library or books for your classroom.

7. We will test students approximately 10 times over the course of the year—that doesn’t count your subject tests.

8. Students must keep their belongings with them; there are no lockers.

9. You must escort your middle school classes to the bathroom three times a day. Fit it into your schedule.

10. Rosters aren’t ready yet for your classes, but just use the ones from parent night. If someone is on the roster but not present, call the parents and ask them if they plan on coming. We don’t have our numbers yet.

I could go on with examples of a poor school environment, but the one that demanded my exit was being undermined by the principal with the school’s own behavior policy. We were given the policy and were executing it, and the principal would tell the students they didn’t have to follow it.

I loved teaching, and it pains me to realize that this is sometimes the best our kids have. I know there are good schools here. I just know there are quite a few that aren’t.

So, continuing on the subject of teaching as a profession… To make a clearer analogy, if we tutor a child in a subject, we give an evaluation to understand the child’s knowledge level and distance needed to attain grade level or higher. If, as a parent, you are paying a tutor, you want your child taught according to what would benefit him or her, not necessarily in the manner the previous student was taught. In other words, there’s no “one size fits all” lesson plan.

The same holds true for each classroom, given multiple variables. Students are evaluated, and a plan to accommodate those students takes shape—each classroom in its own unique configuration. We may have groups, varying expectations, or different grading accommodations, etc.

If teachers are expected to teach the same principle the exact same way—including materials—to each student or class, we have once again negated the professionalism of teachers. There is no “one size fits all” in teaching—and there’s also no one way to teach. The variety is essential—who would want to learn the same way in every class anyway!

Those are the expectations present in our schools. Subject and grade levels must plan together to teach the same concepts at the same time with identical materials. Teachers are not given the latitude to teach, to practice and perfect the art of teaching.

Our children are paying the price.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

So, here goes my first blog post.  I’m hoping to share ideas and information, but also provide different points of view.  While the content will be varied, today I’d like to begin with a subject close to my heart—the education of our young people.

We read about salary, class size, testing, standards, discipline…but what about professionalism?  When did we stop treating teaching as a profession?

Imagine this scenario when you arrive at the hospital:

“Hello! Today I will be substituting for your nurse, Mrs. Baker, while she is out.  I’ve taken the required workshop, so I think I have you covered; plus, she’s left copious notes.  The shot will be tricky, but I’ve been practicing.”

This is certainly not meant to be unappreciative of the many substitutes who have come into our schools to be positive replacements for our teachers; however, would we value substitutes in other professions? In our police force? Doctors? Washer repair? Most restaurants wouldn’t even allow a substitute server. Yet, we allow substitutes to be responsible for teaching our young people with no qualifications to teach.

We’re not even just talking about substituting for a day; we have long term subs in our schools who are unqualified to teach.  In other words, we don’t view teaching as a profession.

It doesn’t matter that we taught our own Johnny how to read any more than we successfully extracted glass out of our own foot one time.  Teaching is as multi-faceted as any other profession and should be regarded as such.

What is the solution?

The same solution that you have for every other profession.  If a teacher is out, you need a teacher to come in.  Period.  Each school or district should employ a sub list of teachers.  These subs need to be paid decently as well.  Which leads to the problem of paying classroom teachers enough to stay…