Could Someone Inform me What Makes a "Real" Educator?

Ed Reform... Public Education is failing. Do people disagree with that? We need good teachers in classrooms, any arguments there?  As a democracy it is vital that we have a public schools to educate our population. There are schools all over the country, public, public-charter, charter... that are having success. 

I think one of the things that no one anticipated with NCLB was this idea of stress and pressure. I have seen really wonderful principal forced to move into failing school, and fired after not being able to turn it around in two years. I see teachers and principals feeling stressed looking at students formal benchmark assessments leading up to state exams. I see students performing well below grade level, continuing to be passed on, and budgets being cut to prevent students from receiving the academic assistance they need. When animals are backed into a corner they fight back. Right now I feel like urban public schools are somewhere in this process... some have given in and given up, some are still fighting back against Ed Reform, some are just going through the motions, many are desperately trying to change with the common core, larger class sizes, and staff cut backs leaving the teachers over worked and under supported. Many strong veteran teachers have moved to closing their door and just doing their thing. 

In my time off I get to read a lot of articles and blogs. I read frustrated teachers venting about Common Core, blaming administrators, blaming charter schools. I get it. I was definitely there. So stressed out and frustrated you lose an element of rationality. So I understand where the teacher who had originally written this statement comes from. She writes "To real educators, corporate education reform ideas are simply insane." 

I would really like to know who are "real educators"? And perhaps this is why I feel like I'm a limbo teacher. I have an BA in Education, I've taught in public schools, my time in charter schools made me a better educator, and my masters program focused more on data, teacher performance, and teaching techniques was a great balance to my much more theoretical background from undergrad. 

I believe in public education. I think competition from charters should be allowed. I think we can all learn from each other. I believe in the long run common core is good for education. I think there is an element of "Fit" for teachers, administrators, and it's okay to admit things might not be a good fit, fit for age, fit for subject. We all need to breathe, relax, and remind ourselves why we got into this profession in the first place. We are at our best when our hearts and minds are at peace. 

I believe that I am a "real educator" and I don't think that every idea coming out of education reform is insane. Is it hard? Yes. Does it need to be financially supported? Yes. Do we need to re-educate teachers to make these changes? Yes. But just because something is hard doesn't make it insane. Think about our kids with learning disabilities, we can't just give up when things get hard, we have to keep fighting, just like so many of our kids do each and everyday. 

Technology is NOT the Key It's a Tool

I wrote this topic down a while ago and finally the research is coming out about the poor results of cyber charter schools. Technology is NOT the key!! This idea that we can spend $2,500 to set up a student with a computer and software and they receive a quality K-12 education is complete crap. I am not negating all online course options or that online education might be a good option for special cases. The olympic gymnasts are good examples of this idea of unique cases.
Technology is a tool, but tools are only as good as the people using them are skilled. And technology in the classroom can be hard. It's time consuming, takes a lot of prep, and can waste valuable classroom time. On the other side, it is an absolute necessity of not only college readiness but any type of career readiness.
It's fascinating to see and read about different ways teachers are using technology in their classroom. From my old cooperating teacher using wiki pages to have the students write their own history textbook, to using clickers to engage students and work towards accurate calculations, to the school I read about in California with 7 math teachers in a computer lab with 200 students, and little rooms around the outside for small group instruction and culminating projects. Everyday I'm finding new tools, Glogster is my newest.
But there is no way teachers have the time or resources to keep up with the ed tech world. It has been almost a full time job for me to follow blogs and tweets, to be familiar with new resources, forums, and not to mention everyone is re-inventing their curriculum for the common core... it is exhausting.
I love using technology, I love teaching with technology, and it has really amazing things to offer, but it is not the solution to all our problems. And video taping great teachers and putting them up on youtube might seem like the way to go so everyone receives great teachers, but I assure you a youtube video does not show empathy, or a kind smile, or a handshake. Perhaps there is a segment of our population that wishes to create a troop of isolated, robots, working from home, completing tasks, and checking off boxes of objectives to be reached.
 I don't want to live in a world like that. I want, no, I crave art, and music, and movies... I love creativity, and humor. But most of all life is about people. People are what make our lives worth living, building relationships with actual people. And the skill of building relationship start in the home and in schools. One could even make the case that part of the reason charter schools might be out performing public schools (in the places they are), someone is looking out for the child. There is clearly a relationship in that child's life.
I left teaching feeling more like a mother sometimes then a teacher, and when I returned to visit my students after my travels and was greeted by hundreds of hugs and grade updates. There are just no words... smiling from ear to ear, a sad place in your heart missing them, so proud and surprised of how much they have grown.
And then you think how many millions of kids just like them are out there fighting everyday.

Achievement Gap or Innovation, The Impossible Challenge of Both

We as a country, state, district, school, classroom have hundreds of decisions to make each day about the education. I find two of these ideas very much at odds. The Achievement Gap focus on getting minority students to the levels of their white or asian counter parts. But here's the problem according to our schools the bar that the white and asian students are hitting is still not adequate to complete in the global market. It's like a person being trapped in the middle of a ladder 3/4 of the way up a building. Then you have this group sitting at the bottom... So you push that bottom group, and push them and hoist them up with all your might. And by golly they make it. They reach out and grab on to that group 3/4's the way up the ladder. Now you have this whole group of students stuck 3/4s of the way up the ladder. Ok, perhaps not my best analogy but I think it kind of gets my point across for my frustration of these two ideas at odds. We spend so much time and energy getting these students caught up to where they should be that the ones who start off in good shape never get any further to keep progressing the group forward.

In the world of education we are limited by time, by resources, but quality educators, parent support, ya-da, ya-da ya-da... but as we spend so much time, energy and money getting everyone 3/4s of the way up the ladder, couldn't we be using some of those resources to get the kids 3/4s of the way up all the way to the top. Can't we have some of the most amazing minds making it to the top of the ladder, can't we invest some resources and energy into pulling those kids up towards the top? As a result the kids that move quickly from the bottom aren't stuck 3/4's of the way up too. I think my brother put it as if our goal as a nation is to get every student at or above grade level haven't we created a large group of mediocrity?

When we focus on getting every student achieving a minimum bar, the only students that are having opportunities to learn how to be innovative are the ones who's parents acknowledge this creative gap in formal education and pay for other opportunities to develop this skills. Real, true, concrete learning, takes place through experience. That experience can be calling out flash cards over and over again, it can being memorizing the problem solving technique CUBB (Circle the key words, Underline the question...oh wait I don't know what the last two letters mean) And yes there are students that need the flash cards, and students that need the problem solving technique but the more authentic, simple, interactive the experience is the more memorable.

2 quick stories: First in 7th grade I worked in a group to create and ending project for our mythology unit. Now I know the name of the game was Journey Through Tartarus. I think there were 4 of us in this group and if I remember correctly I was the only girl. I remember Kevin and Jon were in my group, and one person that was absent all the time. I can't really tell you much of anything about Greek Mythology that I haven't seen in Disney's Hercules (was that even greek). The point is that I remember Tartarus, I remember trying to make the board look more dark, more hellish like. I remember being surprised that we got such a good grade on it. And I remember what different perspectives we had when we sat down to start the project. I remember the project but most of all I remember having to get along with these guys with completely different ideas about the direction we should take. I wouldn't be surprised if Jon could still rattle off some random facts, and Kevin remembered his awesome design on the game board... and they probably don't remember my name. But my social intelligence is a strength and I had opportunities to develop it and feel successful, and so did they.

Story 2: Kids at play is one of the most wonderful, fascinating things to watch as both an educator and a math teacher. I was visiting my friend Lauren who has a son Alex who's not quite 2. He had letter blocks that he was stacking. He used the blocks in the area built a small tower. Clapped for himself when it stayed up and toppled as he tried to add one more. He collected all the blocks he had and started to build again. This tower was much straighter. He had to stand-up to add the last couple blocks. He used every block and built a tower with a similar level of ability that any adult would build. He used every block available and when he finished he clapped for himself. But he noticed the top block was not straight he moved to make it straighter and the tower toppled but some may say... isn't that showing some understanding of priniples in physics and the idea that the wider the surface area of the base the more structurally sound (that is so wrong, someone that knows something about physics feel free to help) but at the same time he is reasoning, he is finding patterns and putting them into practice...

Every person's mind can be opened in a different way, the question is are we going to just make sure everyone can read and write, that be our only goal and focus, or are we going to find ways for students to discover for his or herself their way to a great life in the academic world.

Outcomes of My Gap Year thus Far

So first I just owe an explanation to anyone following the blog. It is REALLY hard to type long messages on an iPhone. And although the app to let me update the blog worked well. I resorted to working mostly in my journal. I believe somewhere in the ADD journal from this trip there is in fact a really wonderful fictional story to tell. So let me say this about the story and that will be the end of it until the book is in a coherent form. It was a wonderful exploration of myself. Love, Passion and Life.

The blog is going to steer clear of the big themes of the book. They are smaller ideas that I had thought about and have feelings about that I want to get down but aren't necessarily connected to anything in any big way.

View from my window

It's much more challenging to type from my phone and have spent most of my time writing in my journal. But this picture I have to share. It was the view out my window when I woke up this morning. What a fantastic place to conclude my trip!