“Remember that you are in a launch window right now. You need to focus on the launch.” — C. Issacoff, Ph.D.
In the Fall of 2017, in the midst of navigating my first few years as a school district administrator and as new homeowner, I decided to go back to school one more time. Balancing the demands of my doctoral program with my personal, family and career obligations has been pretty demanding at times. Someone who I respect immensely equates my present situation to a launch window, a term used to describe a time period in which a particular mission must be carefully managed in order to be successful.
I started this blog to journal my experience about everything and anything related to the launch.
My most recent post is below this one. Thanks for visiting!
Earlier this week, the Hochul administration circulated a press release announcing the Governor’s “Back to Basics” education plan, a major proposal in her upcoming 2024 State of the State address. This news is likely to send ripples through the education community, particularly among elementary school teachers who utilize the kind of workshop-based instruction that is or similar to Heinemann’s Units of Study. While the focus on reading proficiency is welcome, the proposed emphasis on “Science of Reading” best practices raises questions about how this might impact the way we teach reading in middle and high school.
To be clear, we do not utilize Units of Study in my district, though some in our region do. Units of Study, which was designed by Lucy Calkins and colleagues from the (now defunct) Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, is a curriculum product that includes four reading and writing units per grade level that includes minilessons, texts, and assessments. It taps into the core philosophy of what makes a “workshop” classroom different from a more traditional classroom (which I’ve detailed below), but it has also come under scrutiny by experts who cited its lack of phonics instruction as its tragic flaw. In October of 2023, Teachers College formally withdrew its endorsement of Calkins’ work, leaving many school districts throughout the country wondering if they might have wasted millions of dollars on “ineffective” literacy curricula (and many teachers questioning their near hero-worship of Lucy Calkins herself).
Traditional English classrooms and workshop-based English classrooms have distinct approaches to learning, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a breakdown of their key differences:
Traditional English Classroom:
Teacher-centered: The teacher acts as the main source of information and instruction, delivering lectures and leading discussions.
Text-focused: The curriculum revolves around analyzing literary texts, with close reading and comprehension as primary goals.
Whole-class instruction: Students learn together as a group, with limited opportunities for individual exploration or differentiation.
Passive learning: Students tend to be relatively passive recipients of knowledge, with less emphasis on active participation and engagement.
Workshop-Based English Classroom:
Student-centered: The teacher acts as a facilitator and coach, guiding students in their own learning and exploration.
Process-focused: The curriculum emphasizes the writing process, with activities like brainstorming, drafting, revising, and publishing.
Independent learning: Students work on individualized projects and activities, choosing their own books and exploring their interests.
Active learning: Students are actively involved in discussion, collaboration, and critique, taking ownership of their learning.
A large body of research, including research conducted locally by my team in Bellmore-Merrick, validates the use of both models for secondary students. Our 2019-2020 action research project implemented a modified model of the reader/writer workshop that makes room for instruction utilizing some teacher-selected whole-class texts. This model, described in detail in Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle’s 2018 text 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents is rooted in the philosophy that we need to do whatever we can to equip students to become lifelong readers, writers, and critical thinkers. We need to do this in the face of many challenges: globalization, social media & the attention economy, Artificial Intelligence and the coinciding conundrum of disinformation, misinformation and malinformation, and perhaps most importantly, a general lack of interest in reading for pleasure among younger generations. If we believe that choice drives engagement, then student choice is vitally important in a secondary English classroom.
What is the “Science of Reading” and does it align with our use of “workshop” approaches in ELA classrooms?
The Science of Reading refers to a set of evidence-based instructional methods that prioritize explicit instruction in foundational skills like phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and vocabulary. This contrasts with workshop models at the elementary level, which often emphasize student choice, independent reading, and social learning in a less structured environment. While this may work for children with a well-established background in early literacy, it does not work for children who need more direct instruction on the process of decoding and making sense of words on a page. Therefore, Governor Hochul’s plan calls for the use of curricular materials and teacher training that supports the development of phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension. While most children typically learn how to read in the early elementary grades, a child’s literacy development actually begins at birth. While we can credit Calkins’ understanding of how children come to school with different cultural backgrounds, language development, and literacy capacity, what her work lacked was a method to meet each child where he is with necessary core skill instruction to facilitate more confident, fluent reading.
While there are undoubtedly weak readers at the secondary level, with some students reading far below grade-level norms, it would be highly uncommon for a child to reach middle school without literacy interventions already in place. For some, this may include work with a reading specialist trained in teaching methods to support children with poor skill development or learning differences such as Dyslexia.
So the Science of Reading isn’t merely a passing trend?
No. While it may seem “trendy” based on how often the phrase has come up in the last few years, the so-called “Science” is one side of a seesaw that includes what we’ve come to know as “Whole-Language Instruction.” We run into problems when that seesaw is out of proverbial balance.
This initiative may (and probably should) change the way we support struggling readers at the secondary level, which could mean leveraging the knowledge of our literacy specialists to provide students with necessary scaffolds to make reading more accessible for all students, not just those with Dyslexia or other learning differences.
It is important to note that this initiative does NOT signal the end of workshop-based instruction in secondary English classrooms. The Science of Reading and workshop-based instruction aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, many experts and seasoned educators would argue they can be complementary approaches. Here are some potential ways to bridge the gap:
Integrate Science of Reading principles into your mini-lessons: Use short, focused lessons to explicitly teach foundational skills relevant to the chosen texts or student reading goals.
Include direct instruction of academic language. In addition to teaching literary devices and techniques, expose students to a wide variety of grade-level Tier II (general academic) and Tier III (content specific) vocabulary words.
Provide students with masterful read-alouds of complex texts so they can make audio/visual connections between letters and sounds in unfamiliar words.
Consider to what extent there may be opportunities to incorporate phonics instruction into secondary ELA classes. There are some ideas here.
Differentiate instruction based on student needs: Assess individual reading levels and provide targeted support for students who struggle with decoding or fluency.
If you have a co-teacher or occasional push-in support, seek opportunities to differentiate instruction through parallel teaching.
Focus on depth rather than breadth of content, making time for students to read and write in the classroom rather than at home.
Use workshop time to practice and apply skills: Encourage students to apply newly acquired skills during independent reading and small-group discussions. Create time to conduct frequent 1:1 teacher/student conferences to learn more about each student’s unique abilities, interests, and needs.
Focus on building a love of reading: While the “Back to Basics” plan emphasizes skills, remember that fostering a passion for reading remains crucial. Choose engaging texts, create opportunities for student choice with teacher-curated Book Clubs or free-choice/independent reading units, and celebrate the joy of reading by modeling “the reading life” with students.
So what are the most important takeaways for my secondary school English department?
The “Back to Basics” plan presents an opportunity to strengthen reading instruction in New York, but it doesn’t necessitate abandoning workshop models – especially at the secondary level when most students would benefit from subject matter and texts that fuel intrinsic motivation. Therefore, implementing these changes will not likely require significant adjustments to our curriculum and teaching practices.
Integrating Science of Reading principles CAN enhance the effectiveness of workshops and support student reading development. This includes direct, meaningful vocabulary instruction and the use of content rich unit plans to help students build context about important topics spanning various subjects.
Continuous professional development and collaboration will be crucial in navigating this shift, even for secondary educators. Most of us will have never had formal “literacy” training beyond one or two required classes in our pre-service teacher programs, and for those of us in the profession for 10 years or more, some of what we learned may not be functionally obsolete! The $10 million investment in teacher training is a promising step towards equipping educators with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively blend the Science of Reading with their existing teaching styles. While we may see some benefits from this, I imagine the most urgent and pressing work will focus on early-childhood and elementary education.
Remember, the ultimate goal is to empower all students to become confident and proficient readers for life! By embracing evidence-based practices while staying true to the core values of workshop-based instruction, we can create a dynamic learning environment that fosters a love of reading and equips students with the critical thinking and discourse analysis skills they need to succeed in college and beyond.
One more parting thought…
Maya Angelou is often credited with a version of the following statement: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
Whether or not Angelou actually said this is uncertain, but the wisdom behind the statement is worth considering.
Several years ago, while attending NYSED’s EngageNY training during New York’s John King “era,” I had an opportunity to attend a meeting with David Liben, an unusually well-rounded educator who has earned accolades for his research about and consulting on literacy acquisition and achievement. He and his wife Meredith presently run Reading Done Right, but they have also done significant work with other literacy-based consulting groups and organizations.
I attended several of these NYSED “Network Training Institutes” in Albany, where I had become one of my school district’s designated “experts” in the use of the Common Core ELA modules.
Yes, they were unpopular. They were controversial, and they were occasionally problematic.
[Two full weeks of close reading & analysis of Letter from a Birmingham Jail? No, Thank You.]
They [the Modules] were promoted by outspoken people who didn’t try to tiptoe around teachers’ feelings. There was federal money involved, and political rhetoric made things… messy.
From firsthand experience, I can say that the Modules weren’t perfect, but they weren’t wholly bad either. With the benefit of hindsight and a healthy dose of the learning that comes from leadership experience, I’ve since come to see the EngageNY Modules as – at least – a decent effort to bring consistent content-rich curricula to secondary ELA classrooms. But that’s another topic for another day…
I know that many of my colleagues, especially those of us who have been around two decades or more, tend to be skeptical of educational initiatives, shifts and trends. Many of us have seen this pendulum swing back and forth over the years. Just like popular fashion, what’s old is new again, until it’s not. Then the next “old” thing is “new.” And so on.
But we need to consider that learning about education does not occur in a vacuum. Research about best practices is ongoing, and some new research puts old research into question. This is how we innovate nearly everything from medical advancements to technology.
The Libens’ 2019 book, aptly titled Know Better, Do Better, addressed the Science of Reading before it became the buzzworthy topic that it is today. I haven’t yet read it, but it is on my list of books to get to at some point early this year.
Dear Reader: This blog post is something that I began drafting last year, but had evidently abandoned for a reason that I don’t quite recall. As I looked through my “unpublished drafts” folder today for a bit of housekeeping, I was triggered by the title. This need still exists; there has not been nearly enough movement in this direction in the last three years. The emergence of AI only complicates this matter more. 2024 will bring us another Presidential election, one that promises to be just a tumultuous as the 2020 and 2016 elections. I am troubled by two questions: How can we ensure that our students know how to access credible, reliable and nonpartisan news sources? Do we know how to equip students with the tools they need to identify disinformation, misinformation and malinformation?
When I taught 10th grade, I frequently incorporated Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s screenplay for Inherit the Wind in my curriculum. I recall students having a hard time wrapping their heads around the Scopes Monkey Trial, flabbergasted that there were so many intelligent American adults that refused to accept Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, or science in general, because it worked in opposition to the Judeo-Christian mythology anthologized the Christian Bible.
True story: I once got in a little bit of trouble for referring to the Holy Bible as “an anthology of Judeo-Christian mythology” in class. Apparently one of my students went home and repeated what I said to a parent, and the concerned parent called my supervisor to inquire about “the heathen in the English Department…” (insert rolling-on-the-floor-laughing emoji here).
I would have loved to speak to the parent myself and explain my choice of phrases, but many of these calls never came my way. My supervisor addressed it and moved on. The parent was placated. My job was safe.
But gone are the days when a mere phone call to someone’s supervisor could clear up a misconception. Now folks take their grievances to social media, where an echo chamber of talking heads are ready and willing to like, comment or share what they see. Even if it’s not accurate. Even if it’s made up of only “alternative facts.” Even if it’s so illogical that there’s no way it COULD be true.
Any efforts to repudiate that information with actual truth is rationalized with the dangerous idea that mainstream media is controlled by an abstract evil-Left who will stop at nothing to suppress the truth.
In September, a Facebook friend shared a photo that she took of a sign she noticed on the lawn of her child’s middle school. It read, “We believe Black Lives Matter, Love is Love, Feminism is for Everyone, No Human Being is Illegal, Science is Real. Be kind to all.” She posted without any further comment.
I clicked “Like” and went to leave a comment about how nice this was to see, but I was stopped dead in my tracks by some comments already there:
“This liberal indoctrination is absolute garbage. Call the principal and demand it be taken down.”
“Time to send the kids to Catholic school, where ALL Lives Matter.”
“It figures. Overpaid school administrators spewing their [expletive] as usual.”
The comments go on in a similar tone, some with more heated and colorful language.
I’d like to say I was surprised, but I wasn’t. In the last few years, it has become apparent that more and more people are willing to share their uncensored opinions about almost everything, regardless of how prejudiced, illogical or devoid of facts these opinions appear to be. I’m watching folks that I’ve known for 20 or more years use their social media pages to share the most alarmingly untrue information and then get upset when people argue the point. They do not believe that fact-checking is real. They believe that efforts to censor misinformation are efforts to censor the truth. They tout their belief that “mainstream media” lies and that the real truth comes from TikTok, YouTube, and extreme Left or Right blog posts.
You can’t argue with these folks, no matter how much you want to. They will often get angry and upset. They will call you blind and stupid. They will try to get you to doubt everything you’ve ever learned about how to read, watch, listen and think critically. They may delete you or block you from their social media pages. They may avoid you at social gatherings.
It’s 1984. It’s The Wave. It’s The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. It’s all of the dystopian literature I loved never thinking that someday it would be our reality.
I agree that, perhaps now more than ever, teaching news literacy is essential in schools.
I agree that the spread of “false, fabricated and misleading content” further divides us.
I agree that this spread is dangerous -not only because it is easy enough for foreign influences to manage- but also because it shows how easily the American public can be manipulated.
I fear that, because so many people have built up walls against the so-called “lamestream media,” efforts to teach media literacy in schools can be further curtailed by at-home ideologies rooted in fear or misconception.
To that end, I fear that efforts to teach students the informational literacy skills that they need could be dismissed at home as “liberal indoctrination.”
I believe that digital literacy, media literacy, news literacy – whatever you want to call it – is literacy. This is important work, and it’s not something that can be left for English or social studies teachers to do in isolation. If State Education Departments will not lead the charge on affecting change through policy, than it’s up to school district leaders to consider what can be done locally to ensure successful outcomes for students in their communities.
Dealing with immature high schoolers isn’t a “new” problem for educators. Immature kids have been annoying their high school teachers basically since the inception of high school. Yet, for some reason, the post-pandemic landscape has ushered in a unique wave of adolescent bad behavior. Most of my colleagues in the greater NY metro area, but especially those presently working with 9th and 10th grade students this year, are reporting that student immaturity seems to be at an all-time high. Most students (whether they have a diagnosis or not) appear to have some form of executive function malfunction, they lack the social awareness of what’s okay and not okay subject matter for kidding around, and they blurt out the kind of provocative phrases that would make Archie Bunker look like Fred Rogers.
What in the what is going on these days?
I fully understand that goofball behavior is universally expected among younger high school students. Each and every single one of my 9th grade English classes had a class clown, and sometimes two. But when I see my teaching colleagues, many of whom have been in the classroom for 15-20 years or more, clutching their pearls, I wonder (and I worry) to what extent the well-behaved, focused and engaged kid is now the outlier.
Of course, we all want to blame the pandemic. Everything that is wrong in society these days seems to be directly correlated, yeah? I am not so sure about that.
But the kids in question missed a pretty big chunk of 5th grade, and depending on where in the country you live, they may have missed some of 6th grade as well.
I contend that my own 5th and 6th grade years were a long time ago, but I do have a pretty good memory. They were important transitional years in my social AND my physical development. These were the years when boys and girls were separated to have the “deodorant and menstruation” talks. Most of us no longer required supervised “after care” when school ended, and we became latchkey kids.
In the absence of parent-tracking apps and Ring doorbells, it was easy enough to go outside to hang out with kids in the neighborhood without mom or dad knowing about it. A lot of learning how to be a well-adjusted adolescent happened in these years, at least for me. I literally cannot imagine what that would be like on some state of “lockdown.”
But that’s what it was for many of the kids who are giving teachers the most trouble this year. They weren’t fully back in school feeling some sense of “normalcy” until 7th or maybe even 8th grade.
There are seasoned educators, social scientists and mental health experts far more qualified than I to weigh in on the social emotional capacity of our present-day high schoolers, but it doesn’t take an advanced degree in anything to experience the visceral effects of this phenomenon.
And furthermore, since we’re not quite sure just how stressful this can become, and because we don’t want to have these behaviors hijacking all four years of these kids’ high school experiences, we need to figure out how to work with it.
And fast!
Dear reader, I will not do you the disservice of pretending like I know where or how to begin this work, especially since most of the resources I have access to was mostly field tested on kids who were way past high school before things started getting ugly. And there’s not enough proof to show that techniques geared for today’s students are actually effective. So we have the educational equivalent of putting together a meal with leftovers and substituted ingredients. Sometimes these meals work. Sometimes they end up in the trash.
But I am trying to figure it out.
At the very minimum, I can at least share some of my thoughts and resources with you in case they prove to be helpful. Continue reading →
Some of my colleagues and I had the opportunity to facilitate a workshop at the Long Island Language Arts Council/Nassau Reading Council 2022 Spring Conference held yesterday at the Melville Marriott. Our session was about the work we’ve done in our district to make a shift to workshop-based instruction using the work of Penny Kittle & Kelly Gallagher’s 2018 professional text 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents as our “field guide” for implementation.
After most professional organizations were forced to either cancel or shift their conferences online in the head of the pandemic, I was thrilled to have learned that LILAC/NRC was planning an in-person conference this year. While I’m still a tiny bit apprehensive about being in the company of large crowds, I didn’t hesitate to submit an enthusiastic response to their call for proposals. Thankfully four of my colleagues who have successfully shifted their practice (either in conjunction with or as a result of my initial research study) agreed to co-present with me. I felt that their presence and input was essential, as they are the teachers whose daily work with kids gives this idea breath and legs.
Our workshop was very well attended, and we truly enjoyed having the opportunity to share our work with colleagues from around the region. At the end of our session, several of us were approached by one or more members of the audience to receive feedback or answer questions. That, itself, was validating.
I don’t expect that our 60 minute presentation will have moved mountains or changed decades of instructional methodology, but if it inspires just one English teacher to experiment with workshop-based instruction in their middle school or high school classroom, than we were successful.
There are some things I think I need to make clear before I back into the point of this post. First, we submitted a proposal for this workshop; we were not “approached” or asked to present by any entity involved in the leadership of this association. Second, we understood that we would not be compensated for facilitating this workshop. In fact, we were still required to pay admission fees to attend. We neither expected nor received any kind of tangible “reward” for facilitating this workshop.
Though our team had been preparing for this conference for months, we didn’t meet in person as a full group until earlier this week. In the few hours we had together, we assembled our Google Slides presentation and discussed which one of us would take the lead for each subtopic within our session. As we assembled our slides, we included hyperlinks to various resources: teacher-created organizing documents, handouts and materials, ready-to-use assessments, samples of students’ work, links to the professional texts we found useful, etc. Most of the hyperlinks go right back to materials that “live” in teachers’ Google Drive accounts.
As we entered our assigned space and began setting up for our workshop, a few of my colleagues placed a 5×7 flyer with a QR code linked to a copy of our presentation. We told participants that they were welcome to download the presentation, access the resources, and use any or all parts of it to turnkey this work in their own school districts. We expect nothing in return.
Why did we do this? Because we believe in the value of this work. We want for it to be shared, to be modified, to be made even more useful for specific purposes. While I suppose it would be nice to receive some kind of attribution, that is, quite literally, the furthest thing from our minds. To be honest, I’m not even sure to what extent “attribution” is warranted… very few of these materials were developed completely in isolation, and with the exception of my published dissertation, nothing is copyrighted to any of us. Make no mistake – we did not pass off others’ work as our own. We did not link to other party’s handouts or materials that weren’t already in the public domain or that we didn’t have a right to share. Any work we might have created that was modified from an original source offered due credit to that original source.
That’s what teachers do, right? We don’t re-invent wheels… we modify them and make them our own.
And, quite honestly, this fits in with the “big idea” that we wanted folks who attended our workshop to understand: there is not a singular “correct” way to incorporate workshop-based instruction into a classroom. Though models may be provided, such as we have with Gallagher & Kittle’s text, it’s not practical to follow those models in lock-step and expect them to work beautifully within different settings.
Before I stray too far away from the point of this post, I’ll go ahead and get back to it.
I happened to be scrolling through my Twitter feed yesterday to see what kind of discussion was brewing from our conference. I was soon distracted by a series of tweets from an influential teacher-turned-author/consultant lamenting about being repeatedly asked to share her presentation slides after speaking engagements. She continued to explain how being asked to share her work is an example of how “the education system continues to exploit its people…”
This is where I need to pause and take a breath… because I have some strong feelings about this, but I also need to acknowledge that I am not walking in this person’s shoes, and there are some things from her perspective that I might not understand, including the context of her experience that motivated these posts. There’s not much information you can provide in a tweet or two.
I’m working with some assumptions here, but let’s assume that this particular author/consultant was paid to give a presentation at an educator conference of some kind (as, in this case, I doubt this particular individual would work for “free”). I find it somewhat odd for an author/consultant to accept an honorarium to give a presentation and refuse to share materials with the audience. Is the honorarium not inclusive of access these materials? Or should the materials themselves cost extra? Are the attendees expected to purchase a book? Pay a subscription fee for a “product?” Pay for that author/consultant to come to their school district and host the presentation again?
Consultants, especially those who are published and have made a name for themselves, are costly for many valid reasons. Yes, they deserve to be compensated for their work, but is it not somewhat “exploitive” for a consultant (or their publisher) to charge a school district or a professional organization a thousand or more dollars to appear and speak for 45 minutes or so… and that’s it?
I get it. Teachers are busy enough doing the work of “teaching,” and those who have worked beyond the four walls of their classroom to author professional texts and make themselves available for consulting opportunities work even harder. They deserve our respect and, to an extent, our gratitude. But are they not appropriately compensated for this work? If they are not, why do they do it? Because I’m sure that if work was being done for the sake of educational progress, sharing slides after a presentation wouldn’t be a sticky widget.
I can imagine that a great deal of earnings from authors’ text sales go to the publishers, but author/consultants are not “martyrs” to the cause. They made the choice to work with a publisher rather than to self-publish or write in a blog. They need the publisher as much as the publisher needs them. So perhaps the angst should be directed elsewhere, and not upon the teacher probably paid $150 out-of-pocket to attend a conference featuring them as a keynote speaker.
The way I see it, authors/consultants provide a service and/or a “product” that earns proceeds. By effectively marketing themselves as consultants and workshop presenters, they not only earn additional proceeds for their engagements, they continue to build credibility and create pathways for future opportunities to monetize their work. I find it surprising that anyone who is paid to give a presentation would refuse to share the presentation itself. I understand that, to an extent, the content in workshop slides will include some intellectual property… but should that not part of the “package deal” in their speaker fee?
I have never seen this particular consultant speak, nor have I read any of her published materials. I honestly cannot say for sure how much of her work was created in a vacuum and to what extent her ideas are truly unique. To me, a blanket refusal to share slides from a presentation seems a little counter-productive in the grand scheme of things. Does she expect that a member of the audience would use her slides to personally benefit from her intellectual property? It’s far more likely that an attendee would use the slides to somehow enhance the experience of the kids in their classrooms. Why else would a teacher-turned-author/consultant do this work if not, among other things, to benefit kids?
Perhaps I’m in left field here, but this didn’t sit right with me. Or maybe I myself am a part of the problem… maybe each time I share my work with others for free, I allow myself to be “exploited.”
From Focus on excellence, not perfection by Naphtali Hoff. The full text of this article is here.
Before I dive in here, let me explain what writing “from” something means.
What you see here was inspired, in some way, by the article I linked above.
This is a concept I’ve come to understand from reading and learning from educators such as Kelly Gallagher, Penny Kittle, and Linda Rief. One thing I’d like to do this year (that is, as I chase my non-resolution to create more) is to use texts as sources of inspiration for my own writing.
I’m mentoring an aspiring administrator this year, which is a first for me. As I brainstorm a list of things I’d like for her to take into her first administrative role, my mind goes to some conversations I’ve had with colleagues about lesson observations. That is not what Hoff’s article is about; however, reading that first and coming back to this might offer some additional context for the brain dump that follows. It’s a response, but it’s not a response. Perhaps its better to explain it as an idea that leapt from the platform of the one that came before.
Mr. Jones teachers another perfect lesson. Photo by mentatdgt on Pexels.com
I’ve been a school administrator for nearly seven years. In the context of my role, I conduct one formal observation for each veteran (tenured) teacher that I supervise, and at least two formal observations for probationary teachers. Most of the teachers I work with are around my age, give or take a few years. We have at least 10 – 15 years of classroom experience, with much of that from the same school district. Sometimes that experience is tipped, if not exclusive, to one or two grade levels.
Mr. Jones* has been teaching 9th grade English for about twelve years. He’s an excellent teacher, often one of students’ favorites in their high school days. His lessons are thoughtful and creative, at least as far as I can tell… In the seven years that I’ve worked with Mr. Jones so far, he has consistently arranged for me to observe him teaching one of his tried-and-true, already exemplary lessons. Each year it seems that I see a lesson that Mr. Jones has had plenty of time to develop, self-assess and perfect. Our pre-observation meetings are typical: Mr. Jones shares a summary of the lesson I will see, and he explains the context of where it falls in the unit. Sometimes this idea is accompanied with an already-written lesson plan, sometimes it is not. Either way, Mr. Jones speaks through his plan expertly, confidently, justifying each procedure and explaining with explicit detail how long each activity will take. His matter-of-fact demeanor suggests that he is neither looking for nor wants questions or suggestions. If I’m being honest, I don’t often have any questions or suggestions because everything is plausible and clear. Mr. Jones already knows that this lesson has been field tested and perfected. While he can’t always control for what will happen in class that day, more often than not, everything goes as just as expected…just as he planned.
Ms. Davis* is also a veteran teacher. Though I suspect she’s been in the classroom for the better part of twenty years, she’s bounced between different grade levels and between the middle school and high school. For the last eight years, Ms. Davis has been teaching 8th grade exclusively. Ms. Davis rarely comes to our pre-observation meetings with a solid lesson plan. More often than not, she has an idea, a seed. Our conversations fascinate me because she walks me through her metacognitive processes, and I watch that idea become a plan. While Ms. Davis doesn’t usually ask for feedback or suggestions, she’s open to both. She welcomes my questions, and she does not feel challenged by them. It might be fair to say that Ms. Davis has no clue what’s going to happen when I see her class for our observation. She will often say, “This sounds good in theory, but I’m not sure how it will go in practice.” Sometimes her lessons are executed beautifully. Sometimes they tank.
I am the direct supervisor for both teachers, and I’m the only administrator who has seen them every year for the last seven years. In that time, Mr. Jones has not demonstrated, at least to me, any growth in the design or execution of his lessons. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Now I am smart enough to know that Mr. Jones, because he is such a great teacher, is often experimenting with new lessons and ideas. For whatever reason, he chooses not to show them to me. Ms. Davis, while not particularly proud of those lessons that fail while I’m in the room, is at least OK with it.
I actually love the bad Ms. Davis lessons, and others like them. They make me feel useful, at least, as there is an opportunity for the two of us to roll up our sleeves. We can consider what went wrong from both perspectives, and we can work together to fix it. I learn so much about good teaching from these exchanges.
I don’t so much love the Mr. Jones lessons. While I got to see a nice show, I’m not being utilized well for the observation. I can give nothing but praise and validation. There’s nothing to fix, nor is there anything to suggest. Gold star.
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on why far more folks share the same mindset as Mr. Jones, “My supervisor needs to see a perfect lesson.” I don’t have an answer, but I have this… In my own classroom days, I’ve had excellent supervisors, and I’ve had terrible supervisors. I’ve had supervisors who were compassionate and real, and from whom I’ve learned a great deal. I’ve had others who did things like use the chromebook I offered to follow along with an activity to check e-mail and do some shoe shopping, or forget to swap English for math in the paragraphs they clearly copied and pasted from another teachers’ observation to mine.
This is not hyperbole. These things actually happened to me.
But perhaps those not-so-good experiences that I’ve had with certain supervisors taught me, more than anything else, that this role needs to be taken seriously. We will never earn respect if we don’t give the task the respect it deserves. We will never earn trust if we dole out “developing” scores punitively.
I’ve also learned from my good experiences. Our relationships with our colleagues need not over-emphasize hierarchy. School administrators like myself are neither experts or gurus. We can’t let our egos lead us, no matter how many gold stars we ourselves received on our Danielsen rubrics. While I’ve learned so much about good teaching from the context of this role, and while I’m confident that I could be a better teacher tomorrow than I was on my “best” days from 2000 – 2015, I know there is no way I’d be able to pull off executing mistake-free lesson plans for the rest of my days. Absolutely not.
But I can promise this… I will not fear those mistakes in front of a supervisor who works hard to earn my trust, who takes the process seriously, and is going to do what she can, however much or however little, to help me be the best teacher I can be.
I wish all of my teaching colleagues were more like Ms. Davis and less like Mr. Jones. I wish all of my teaching colleagues knew that its ok to be vulnerable. It’s OK to take risks. It’s OK to step away from their comfort zones when I’m in the room.
I celebrate those moments in pre-observation meetings when teachers indicates that they are trying something new and are not sure how it will go. If I’ve earned their trust, if I’ve walked my talk, they will never see any feedback from me as “judgey,” and the narrative I will eventually write to accompany a not-so-great lesson will certainly never, ever be punitive. I know that there are performance indicators on that rubric that run the gamut from awesome to awful, but I make no apologies in saying that, in my opinion, an effective or a highly-effective teacher is not made so by the language of a rubric. In my eyes, the truly highly-effective teachers are the ones that leave room for growth, no matter how long they have been teaching.
This is a plea to all of my fellow administrative colleagues: please do not create an environment where the teachers you supervise feel like they’ve done something wrong if their lessons aren’t perfect all the time. Let teachers know that it is safe to take risks in lessons that will be observed. How else can they get authentic feedback from a colleague? Please behave in a manner that celebrates the occasional failure as a teachable moment. If something goes wrong, or if something can be improved, don’t check the “bad box” write about it in the narrative… roll up your sleeves and offer to help. Allow a do-over. Show your colleagues that it is OK to be vulnerable by acknowledging that we all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. The best we can hope for, in all circumstances, is growth.
If you want to do any of the things I mentioned above, but you are fearful that your supervisor simply won’t have that, feel free to print this blog post and share it with them. As a matter of fact, give them my phone number, too. I might be small, but I’m mighty.
That being said, even after seven years, I have so much more growth to accomplish. I need to find a way to make Mr. Jones and teachers like him feel more comfortable showing me a lesson that needs peer feedback. I need to find a way to create a circumstance where he can accept that feedback without losing confidence. I’m working on it.
The good news is that I have a number of exemplary role models and leadership mentors less than a phone call or a five minute drive away. I am blessed to have learned what I have from their leadership. If I, if we, ever figure this out, I’ll let you know!
*Mr. Jones and Ms. Davis are fictionalized characters, created as amalgamations of real people and real situations I’ve encountered both as a teacher and as an administrator.
While on a date in early February of 2019, my husband (then fiancee) and I had come across a Little Free Library situated a small community park near our restaurant. Though I had stumbled on a few these before and was familiar with the concept, this was the first one I found on Long Island.
A few weeks later, the two of us went to a meeting at Brightwaters Village Hall to pitch the idea of building a Little Free Library to be installed on our local community park. Everyone seemed to love the idea, and we promised to get started at some point in the spring.
Then March 2020 happened, and suddenly we found ourselves with a lot more free time. Our Little Free Library was finished and ready to be installed by early July. Over the last year or so, the idea born from the last date my husband and I enjoyed before the world shut down is now thriving. Though Rich and I are “stewards” (meaning we built it, purchased the charter, and promise to maintain it), the library’s success is due to many members of the community who are regular patrons. Before we installed the library, we amassed a collection of donated books from friends and co-workers. A few of them were placed into the library for its soft opening, and others are in several boxes in my attic. We have not once needed to go back and “re-load” the library; the community has made it their own.
At the suggestion of other Little Free Library stewards, we created an Instagram account to promote our library and engage with its users. I know there are many folks in this world who are incredibly skilled at leveraging social media for engagement, I’m not one of them. I haven’t posted to the Instagram account much, so there hasn’t been much engagement at all. I’m going to try to improve that in 2022.
The mere presence of the library might have helped some folks re-discover a natural love of reading. This year, I’d like to use he library and its Instagram account as a way to engage with members of the community and help all of us connect with one another. This is where the idea for the Reading Challenge came from, and topics are posted for each month as suggestions to help stretch readers beyond their comfort zones.
You don’t need to live in the community of visit Little Free Library #103103 to participate in this challenge – it’s open to everyone! I hope that we can use the Instagram page as a way to share and review our selected titles each month. There are no “prizes” for completing this challenge other than the personal satisfaction that might come with it. If a few friendships are forged through this process, that’s a bonus!
January’s suggested topic is A Recently Published Memoir. I have my title picked out, which I’ve shared on the LFL103103 Instagram page. I hope you check it out!
Whether or not the idea of this reading challenge is for you, I encourage you to read beyond your comfort zone in 2022. Where will you start?
I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions because, quite frankly, I am definitely someone who begins with the best of intentions and then fails almost immediately. There are obviously those things I want to do (and NEED to do) when January rolls around again each year: lose the weight I put on through the holidays, clean and organize my home, get back into a steady exercise routine, spend less time doom-scrolling through social feeds, etc. etc. You know the drill…
I will say with certainty that I will not set grandiose life-changing goals for 2022; however, I do want to spend more time doing things that make me feel more positive and whole.
How much happier would we be if we made, and kept, that one promise to ourselves?
Like many others, I was a giant stress magnet at the end of 2021. While I’m grateful that it was a personally good year and that I and my family made it through relatively healthy and unscathed, the last twelve (or – more accurately – the last 22) months doled out a fair amount of tough love. In reflection, I’m grateful that the pandemic gave me the introspection needed to reflect on those things that make me happy and those things that hold me down. To make a long story short, I went a little “Marie Kondo” on my psyche in December. I’m learning to let go of those things that used to make me happy, but for whatever reason, are stressful in the here and now. I am also learning that closing one door does not mean that I have to immediately open another. I will try not to fill gaps with other “stuff” (ie: trying to pick up a new hobby) and will instead try to focus on my day-to-day well being.
Regular Goodreads nerds like me might know that users can set a personal Reading Challenge for themselves at the beginning of each year, and there’s a nice social aspect in tracking your progress along with the progress of your reader-friends as you finish and rate titles. Last year I set a goal for 50 books and exceeded it by one. I’m not going to raise that number this year; actually, I’m backing off a bit. Though I read many incredible books last year, reading for pleasure took up a fair amount of my free time, which is always in short supply. That’s not a bad thing, but spending so much more time reading created an imbalance that left little space for writing. I’d like to fix that.
If you’re surprised that you’re seeing two blog posts from me this week, don’t be. One thing I’ve done successfully since beginning this blog was neglect it. This isn’t because I don’t have ideas. I do. It takes me a long time to get them on the page. As the words appear, I perseverate on revision. Instead of moving from one stage of the writing process to the next, I attempt to write and revise at once. I want to be careful about what I say, as to not say the “wrong” thing. I worry about how I might be perceived if I share my opinion on a debatable topic. I worry about whether or not my voice atrophied from lack of practice. I worry about using too many semicolons. I worry about still having the chops for this. Is it worth it? Or would I be better off writing in my notebook for an audience of one. Who is even reading this anyway?
Despite the negative self-talk above, I really enjoy writing. I’m convinced that making space for writing in 2022 will help me move in the direction of being that more positive and whole person I want to be.
So if I’m making a “resolution” for 2022, that’s it. There will not be a “new” me this year; I want to get back to the old me. To do that, I will create more space for writing. Maybe some of it will appear here, or maybe it will go into that notebook on my nightstand. Maybe I will finally take something from my dissertation and submit a journal article for publication. Maybe I will write a poem that doesn’t stink.
Or maybe it doesn’t matter if I do or don’t do any of these things, as long as I’m leveraging my free time to do something that makes me happy.
Happy News Years Eve to all of my teacher-pals near and far!
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it’s time to toss those cloth masks you were wearing in 2021. Those cheap-y disposable masks are probably no good, either.
I know… this hurts! While cloth masks were useful in a time when there was limited supply of surgical masks and N95 respirators, their usefulness is questionable amid the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant.
I’m not sure where you are in the nation, but here in New York, K-12 students and staff are required to mask up indoors regardless of vaccination status. I know that this is not the case everywhere. For this reason (and for reasons noted here and here and here), I recommend that you ditch any remaining cloth masks and upgrade to higher-quality face coverings NOW.
Why bold and all caps? Remember back in 2020 when it was hard to get paper products and cleaning supplies unless you knew a guy who knew a guy? We now know it’s because everyone realized how much they needed them all at once, and we panic-bought as many supplies as we could. You can probably recall how disruptive and borderline traumatizing this was.
Here’s the kicker, though. At that point the US did not have the same supply chain issues that exist now. In fact, the supply chain was working just fine back then. The lack of availability of these products was all about supply-and-demand. Today’s supply chain issues are mostly blamed on critical workforce issues due, in part, to the so-called “Great Resignation.”
I’m not clairvoyant, but it seems as if the urgency of this latest surge is starting to sink in. Those of us who are vaccinated and boosted are vulnerable. Those who recovered from previous infection are vulnerable. We’re all vulnerable. Given this, I sense a possibility that high-quality masks may once again be hard to find, despite the fact that they are in good supply now. Yes, I can log into Home Depot’s website and pre-order an 80 pack of 3M’s N95 masks to pick up later today if I want to. Two weeks ago we were all able to get at-home Covid test kits from CVS. Today? Good luck with that.
See where I’m going with this?
I hope I’m wrong, but I’m also not willing to take that risk. While my husband and I appear to have dodged the Omicron this holiday season, we don’t know for sure because we don’t have tests on hand to know for sure. We understand that those testing positive with this latest variant run the gamut of having mild to moderate cold or flu-like symptoms, but others have no symptoms. It’s not beyond the scope of reason that there will be lots of COVID-positive folks walking around without knowing it.
And let’s not forget that there’s still a fair number of folks who refuse to wear masks at all, with inconsistent (if not inadequate) consequences for those who challenge and defy mask mandates.
I’ve read enough dystopian novels to know that those who emerge victorious at the end had the resources and common sense to keep themselves safe along the way. So, for those who intent to emerge victorious in 2022, here are some tips on how to arm yourselves with better-quality masks. I am not an authority on this matter. What I present here comes from actual research, not social media ding dongs.
TIP 1: Educate Yourself on Mask Ratings and Quality
Apparently the N95 is well-regarded as the “gold standard” for mask quality in the United States, but actual NIOSH-rated N95 masks do not come with the ear loop option. That’s because ear loops make it harder for a wearer to achieve a tight seal around the nose and chin, which is necessary in order for a mask to be effective. I didn’t know that until recently when a friend who is a nurse supervisor explained it to me, and it makes perfect sense. From my own experience of wearing masks with ear loops and masks with headbands, the masks with the headbands even feel more secure.
That being said, if you purchased an N95 mask from Amazon, and it has ear loops instead of a headband, it is not NIOSH rated. That does not mean that the mask is ineffective, it means that you need to make extra-sure that it fits you well. Also, it’s important to be careful when purchasing masks from Amazon unless you are 100% sure that the vendor is selling you authentic products. Read this for more information.
KN95 masks are also said to be very effective. The KN95 rating is issued for masks made in China. Given that, may the buyer beware. While KN95 masks may be sold by US suppliers, they are created in China and “regulated” by the Chinese government.
You may have heard of KF94 masks as another option. These are from South Korea, and they are similar in quality to N95 and KN95 masks (this is explained in more detail here).
Any of these three options, assuming the masks are legitimate and authentic, will give the user more solid protection than a disposable surgical-style mask or a cloth mask.
TIP 2: Use Trusted Vendors
These were purchased from a “trusted” vendor. Be sure to read the fine print no matter who you buy from!
Up until recently, I used VIDA to shop for KN95 masks. Though the company has been positively featured in news stories and appears to be legitimate, I was not happy when I received an order of M95i masks from a brand called Lutema instead of the KN95 masks I actually ordered. Though the masks were made by a US company, the “M95i” rating is not recognized nationally and is instead a Lutema marketing trick. Lutema’s website will tell you all about how their “independent tests” show these masks to be effective, but a few paragraphs down in small print, you’ll see the disclaimer. I don’t want to take any chances with that, so I don’t wear these masks in higher-risk situations. On a second VITA order, I received BK Dokkaebi masks from Korea that may or may not be KF94 masks. I have not been able to find any reputable news articles or studies about the legitimacy of these masks. I’m done with VIDA.
I’ve used WellBefore in the past, but I was a bit sketched out when I received 3M N95 masks in what seemed to be a plastic ziplock bag and not authentic 3M packaging. According to what I found here, this is a red flag. WellBefore’s customer service response was that they purchase masks in bulk and have no choice but to send the masks out in different packaging. I’d love to take their word for it, but I will no longer buy 3M products from vendors who are not listed as “authorized resellers.” This is not to say that WellBefore is no good. Use caution.
I recently learned about Project N95. Check them out!
TIP 3: When Possible, Buy Directly From The Source
Honeywell sells face coverings directly from their website, but make sure you read the fine print before you make a purchase.
I know that the CDC has been the butt of some unfortunate jokes lately due to this 10-day-5-day isolation thing, but they do have a helpful resource on their website that can serve as a guide for purchasing PPE to keep you safe.
A few months back, I started buying masks directly from Honeywell. Yes, they sell NIOSH-approved N95 masks, and I have them and like them, but wearing masks with headbands is neither necessary nor convenient for me on a day-to-day basis. If you’re in an environment like I am when the mask comes on and off pretty frequently (ie: on when I’m outside of my office or have a guest, off when I’m alone in my office), a wearing a NIOSH-approved mask well can be annoying. Again, you can’t purchase a NIOSH-approved N95 mask with more convenient ear loops. However, Honeywell does sell a product that I like, and I’m willing to accept the risk that comes with it because I trust the brand. Honeywell makes and sells a washable poly-blend face cover with adjustable ear loops that comes with single-use filter inserts. With this comes with a wordy disclaimer that the mask is intended for “source control.” So let’s say that a member of your household tests positive for COVID-19 and isolating that individual is difficult. This is a mask that they can comfortably wear around the house to avoid infecting others. This is a mask that I will wear in situations where social distancing is possible and when others around me are wearing masks.
This product runs a bit large. I initially purchased the face cover for adults. It was huge, and I couldn’t get a secure fit without the top of the mask digging into my under-eye area. I found that the light gray youth/extra small size is much better for me. I also like that the mask comes with replaceable inserts that cover far more ground than the PM2.5 filters I had been inserting into my homemade cloth masks.
TIP 4: Assess Your Risk, and Adjust Accordingly
I know there are a ton of people out there that like to make fun of people driving around in their vehicles alone while wearing masks. True, I don’t really get it myself, but I can mind my own business.
That being said: don’t waste expensive high-quality masks on situations where you don’t really need them. If you are in crowded spaces where social distancing is difficult, wear a good mask. If you’re in an office most of the day with limited interaction with others, a surgical-style disposable mask with a cloth cover on top is probably more than enough. Until this Omicron surge passes, I’ll probably rock my Honeywell face covering on most days.
Good quality masks are not inexpensive, and I won’t know whether or not all of the masks I purchased in 2021 can be written off on my income taxes for at least another month. Whether they are or are not, I do intend to use these masks in higher-risk situations. If there comes a point when my supply becomes low, or if there is a “run” in masks that leads to price-gouging of any kind, I will re-use them if I need to.
Last year I used paper sandwich bags to “quarantine” and then re-use my good masks as long as I didn’t have to wear them for a prolonged period of time (ie: a 10-hour cheerleading competition) and they didn’t become soiled. I actually learned this trick from friends & family who work in hospitals. It’s a contingency plan for when supply is low, so you still need to consider the risks associated with this and decide if it is worth it for you. I have seen articles about how masks can be “disinfected” with an Instant Pot, but that’s far too complicated of a process for me to attempt. I know that there’s something science-y about the material of high quality masks that can break down over time, so I never re-use a mask after three wears. Remember, these are intended to be disposable.
I Swear I’m Not an Alarmist!
Friends sometimes joke that the pandemic has turned me into a “doomsday prepper” of sorts. While I appreciate the humor in the idea, I’m of the mindset that its better to proactively prepare for trouble than struggle to react. If you take nothing else away from this post, leave with this: regardless of what mask you wear, it’s better than NOT wearing one. It should fit well, and it should cover your nose and your mouth. You can be a mask-wearing all star. Let’s do this!
PS: If disaster strikes, don’t come to my house. Contrary to the lore among friends, my husband and I did NOT build a bunker in our 110-year-old haunted basement.
Despite the setbacks of Omicron, I am optimistic that we are past the worst of this pandemic and willsomeday soon be able to “get back to normal.” For some, the gut instinct may be to retreat into the hidey-holes we created for ourselves in the spring of 2020; however, we can’t hide forever. I am so happy to be back in school this year doing what I love, which is being present to offer in-person support to students and teachers. We have the tools to do this safely, so let’s use them! Be well in 2022, friends!Happy New Year!
I have a confession to make. It’s after 6pm on a Sunday, and I’m still in my pajamas.
In my defense… we’re more than halfway through a cold and sloppy holiday weekend. I don’t have any plans, and even if I did, I’d be concocting some kind of excuse to break them. So maybe I should extend myself a little bit of grace for my sloth-like behavior today.
After spending a few hours playing mindless video games, I did attempt to motivate myself to do some cleaning in the bedroom. That didn’t last long… a book I’d started and had yet to finish was sitting at the bottom of a small pile of “reading nows” on my nightstand. Any semblance of motivation to clean quickly fled, so I sat Indian style on my unmade bed and finished Being Jazz, My Life as a (Transgender) Teen.
And here we are. Though I don’t talk about its contents in explicit detail, this book is the impetus of this post, and what you’re reading is the product of many stops and starts… crap paragraphs replaced by lesser-crap paragraphs. What I’m saying here is messy, but it’s important, and I need to get it out of my head in into some kind of public discourse.
Here goes:
For weeks I’ve been doom-scrolling through my Newsday app and social media sites reading stories and first-person perspectives of what’s going on in Smithtown. The school district where I had enjoyed twelve years of teaching High School English has become Long Island’s epicenter of the anti Diversity, Equity and Inclusion movement.
I can and have shared my thoughts on this in private company, but will do no such thing on a blog or through social media. I have seen what happens to some educators who share their opinions on the Internet, and that’s not a tree that I wish to bark up. Further, I’m neither employed by nor a resident of the school district, so there are obvious limits to my understanding of the full story. But from what I’ve observed through print media and social media, it’s pretty ugly right now.
Also, this ugliness is not unique to this one community… it’s happening all over the country. Do a Google News Search using boolean-style terms “Critical Race Theory” and “Education.” You’ll get caught up and quick.
So let’s keep it moving, shall we?
I have a running mental list of texts, TED talks, conversations with others and learning experiences that shape my educator’s philosophy. One of these is an essay called Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors written over 30 years ago by Rudine Sims Bishop of The Ohio State University. Despite its age, the text is so very relevant today. Painfully relevant. In fact, if you’re not familiar with this essay, please stop here and go read it now. You’ll understand it even if you’re not an educator, and what it says provides some important context for my argument.
Here are two of the most powerful paragraphs:
I’ve been on a memoir kick lately. It’s not a purposeful reading goal, but instead something that happened somewhat organically. I love nonfiction, and I love hearing stories about people whose life experiences are different than mine. Hillbilly Elegy was not a “mirror” for me, but it helped me to rationalize why, though we share the same roots, I was raised differently than my first and second cousins who grew up in the podunk coal-mining towns of northeastern Pennsylvania. Between The World and Me was more of a window. I had an opportunity to peer into the mind of Ta-Nehisi Coates and see, maybe not understand, but see… the reason for his anger. Earlier this year I read the memoir of an ex-CIA operative. It helped me, in a small way, learn what it feels like to live in THAT world. It was part window and part sliding glass door.
Being Jazz was also part window and part sliding glass door. I think most children have experienced intense feelings of loneliness or abandonment, especially if they were ever the butt of a bully’s cruel joke. However, reading through the first person perspective of fifteen-year-old Jazz, I experienced the pain of bullying on a whole different level. It was an important read for me, not just as a cisgender woman, but as an educator who has worked with and will continue to work with children who are nonconforming in some manner.
These are kids in crisis. I don’t need to tell you that… I’m sure there are grim statistics that will show how LGBTQ+ kids are far more likely to do harm to themselves.
Yet there are politicians and pundits and parents who argue that these topics should not be addressed in schools. At all. Some laws have been passed that actually hurt nonconforming children. These laws are passed under the guise of “protecting” others from being exposed to this kind of information. As if this “exposure” was to a noxious gas.
So let’s stick to the basics, right? Let’s cram the traditional literary canon into the gullets of teens. Even if they don’t actually read the actual literature, they’ll learn from scanning Sparknotes that Tom Robinson’s outcome was hopeless because he was black. They’ll learn that Lennie had to die because he was mentally retarded.
These classic texts offer examples of what happens when humans are victimized by intolerance. Contemporary and YA texts do that, too. And this omnibus anti-DEI sentiment that’s out there, this rhetoric manifesting through social media posts in Facebook mommies groups or in red state legislature banning any discussions about potentially divisive current events in schools, it’s intolerance.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is not a movement to be feared. I suspect that those who fear it do not understand it, or they’re not in a place where they possess the empathy TO understand it, even if they can decode the words and gain the most surface-level comprehension of what it means.
Having discussions about current events in schools NEEDS to happen. Kids need a place where they can engage in discourse outside of the echo chamber of their home. They benefit from learning about what makes us different. They benefit from learning about and discussing history and science, and the evolution of these topics through research and innovation. Any parents who are triggered by these ideas should look deep within themselves and ask themselves why. We cannot send kids away to college bubble-wrapped in the myopia of their own experience.
Books like Being Jazz and its adapted children’s book should be available to kids, not banned. I can see how this book can be a much needed mirror for kids in crisis. They will see in Jazz a reflection of themselves, they will see that they are not alone, that their feelings are valid, no matter how rare or unusual those feelings might be in the eyes of the entire population.
More importantly, books like Being Jazz can help cisgender readers of all ages “window” into the experience of a trans peer. How wonderful would it be if more discussion of these real-world issues could mitigate some of the harm that comes from ignorance and lack of understanding?
Will Being Jazz make a typical boy decide, out of the blue, that he’s actually girl? Nahhh.
While we’re on the topic… books, fiction or nonfiction, that offer windows into the lived experiences of black lives treated unjustly by an inherently racist system should not be dismissed as fabrications of truth. The increased focus and attention on instances of black lives lost at the hands of police officers is not intended as or actually “indoctrination.” If this is the case, reading Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and watching all three films should be considered “anti-Sicilian rhetoric.” That’s just ridiculous.
I argue that the best thing we can do for kids is to help them develop rich literary lives where they learn how to be critical readers and think for themselves. We can do that by embracing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as a vehicle to bring more diverse texts into classrooms. We can do that by creating opportunities for kids to ask questions, to engage in discourse with others, and to make thoughtful connections between literature and the world at large.
The books need to be interesting and engaging. Kids should want to read them and discuss them. Also, we owe it to our black youth to have them see themselves in literature as someone other than Tom Robinson or Crooks or Bigger Thomas. We owe it to our neurodiverse youth to see themselves in literature as someone other than Boo Radley or Lennie. We owe it to our LGBTQ+ youth to see themselves at all.
So let’s discourse. If DEI is on your mind, or if you’re not sure how it intersects with Critical Race Theory, or if you’re not sure what Critical Race Theory is… please don’t turn to the pundits on the cable news station. Please don’t rely on the posts in the mommies groups.
Of course you can read news reports from left or right-leaning media outlets or news organizations, and there are plenty. However, if this ends up being your only source, you’ve reached the end of this post and missed my whole point.
One last recommendation… this is another of those galvanizing philosophical texts that I recommend to anyone who teaches or feeds/clothes/houses children: https://www.thecoddling.com . If you don’t have time to read or if you don’t consider yourself a reader, do yourself a favor and get the audiobook.
The pandemic has brought out the best of the worst on Facebook.
Love it or hate it, social media in general is now woven into the fabric of human discourse. It’s an omnibus forum for debate and discussion of all kinds. Sometimes this is healthy and maybe even useful. Where can I get the best Chinese take-out these days? Who has an affordable landscaper looking for work? What color should I paint this wall?
It’s also a place where one can get answers to questions that nobody asked: What does Mindy from high school think about mask mandates? Why does Allison never get a flu shot? Who did Patrick vote for in the election? (Who does Patrick think I should vote for in the election?)
As we’re creeping up to the holidays, I’m seeing lots of folks offer unsolicited advice on how to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. Some of this advice is quite passionate, especially here in New York where we have an additional talking point on the matter: The governor’s 10-person limit on group gatherings.
“If you look at where the cases are coming from, if you do the contact tracing, you’ll see they’re coming from three main areas: establishments where alcohol is served, gyms, and indoor gatherings at private homes. The reason we have been successful in reducing the spread in New York is we have been a step ahead of COVID. You know where it’s going; stop it before it gets there….
He then added that, “local governments are in charge of enforcement… I need the local governments to enforce this.”
I don’t always align with the governor’s ideologies, but he has earned more of my respect based on (some) of what he’s done (and has been doing) to manage COVID statewide. With that, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here. This measure, as drastic and over-reaching as it seems, is being taken to save New Yorkers from themselves.
Not everyone sees it that way, according to Facebook.
“I refuse to live my life in fear.”
“Who is this dictator to tell me who I can and cannot have in my home? It’s my business.”
“I’m just going to call Thanksgiving with my family a protest and then it will be fine.”
“Don’t you dare rat on your neighbors unless you want long-term trouble.”
“This may be the last Thanksgiving I will be able to have with [insert name of older relative]. I’m not going to let this pass.”
I may not agree with everything I’m seeing, but folks are not wrong to be upset. I, too, am uncomfortable with the dystopian-novel nature of all of this, but I’m even more uncomfortable with the idea that I’m not sure if all who are planning to have their big Thanksgiving celebrations in spite of what the governor says are fully aware of the potential consequences of their actions.
Or worse… maybe they are aware and just don’t care?
Sure, my husband and I could hop on an airplane and spend Thanksgiving in restriction-free Florida with our families. That would assume that we’re making the governor’s action a jugular issue.
We’re not.
There’s an issue with the travel restrictions and the fact that I would probably lose quite a few days of work. Though the restrictions may appear to be more-relaxed, they are certainly quite a bit more confusing. Further, the personal risk that I would assume in forcing the “Happy Thanksgiving” tradition… as a person with a compromised immune system, as a child of elderly parents with various comorbidities, as an educator working in a public school… it just isn’t worth the risk.
Not for one heavily-symbolic meal.
But I’m also hopeful that this overwhelming feeling of “ick” will only be for one Thanksgiving. One Christmas. One New Year’s. Hopefully by next Easter we can be together again without breaking any state mandates or putting loved ones at risk for the sake of tradition.
So I went to the market early yesterday morning to pick up, with my regular grocery haul, an overpriced bone-in turkey breast for two. We will make the best of a safe and low-key holiday, and we hope that our restriction-free Florida family will do the same.
Because, well… we’d really like to see them next Thanksgiving.
Inside the Launch Window 