How I Became a Teacher. A Webcomic.

My newest Stories from School blog entry answers the question of why I became a teacher.

The webcomic doesn't display very well on that blog, so I'm going to also put it here:

I forgot to post my last two entries on this blog...  about the limitations of using release time to get teachers to do good innovation and leadership work.

Teacherprefakeurism: Sound Awkward?
Teacherprefakeurism Part 2: The Story Behind the Rant

Having it All, as a Teacher

Here's my newest Stories from School blog entry.

I have more resources than I've ever had in my new teaching job.  In this entry I reflect on the implications of that a bit.

http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/08/what-if-4-what-if-teachers-had-it-all.html

Enjoy!

Live from the Teacher Leadership Institute...

My latest Stories from School AZ blog entry, reflecting on the ideas presented yesterday at the Arizona K12 Center Teacher Leadership Institute by guest experts Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves.

Enjoy!
http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/06/a-cat-a-washing-machine-and-a-tornado.html

You Must Write Your Teacher Life

In my last Stories from School post of the year, I explain why every teacher should take time to write about teaching: http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/05/you-must-write-your-teacher-life.html

On another note, here is why every parent should take time to put their daughter in pincurls at some point: 

The Obstinacy of "Hope"

Hope won't let go of my neck. Find out what I mean by reading my newest Stories from School blog.

http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/05/the-obstinacy-of-hope.html

The Handout Ghetto

I told my writing class that I wanted to write a hip hop song and they laughed at me.  So I wrote one.

My most recent Stories from School post is about an issue that may appear to be petty-- the lack of funds to provide any kind of color in my handouts to kids.

The overall issue of how to make info. available to students and venues for having students interact with content and skills is much larger than colored paper or a color printer, but my main point is that the materials and resources available to most of us have a hard time competing with the media and color kids encounter outside of the classroom.  Which messages will win the war for the minds of humanity?

http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/04/can-a-girl-get-some-color.html#comments

Thanks for reading (or rapping).

Proctor Sounds Dirty

Well, it kind of does.

But I promise, this blog entry about what might change if teachers didn't have to spend their professional time proctoring exams is much more professional than its title might imply.

Enjoy my latest on Stories from School.

What if? Stories from School

What if?

Asking this question frees us from the rut of continually analyzing the failings of a system and opens up possibilities.

In my most recent Stories from School blog entry, I explore the idea of teachers having administrative assistants.  Why not?  (Okay, I know why not.  $.)

A Proper Thank You

I just posted a blog entry on Stories from School offering a big thank you to Tucson Unified for the support they gave us through the NBC process last year.

http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/01/a-proper-thank-you-note.html

The Tassel's NOT a Hassle

I hope I haven't put myself too far out on a limb, here, with my latest Stories from School blog entry.

I'd like to further explore the issue of whether or not I am in the classroom as a "brick in the wall" or as someone who equips students to tear down the walls, metaphorically.  This is just the beginning.

Please read, and I welcome comments and perspectives...
http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2013/01/the-tassels-not-a-hassle.html

Why Teacher Salary Schedules are Fictional

Here is my newest Stories from School AZ blog entry (http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2012/12/teacher-pay-the-opaque-fiction-of-salary-schedules.html)

I focus on inequities in teacher pay that make the publicly published salary schedules into works of fiction.

We were asked to try to find juicy topics.  I think this one is juicy.  My worry is that it will appear to target my current district for criticism.  I use my district as an example, but honestly, this happens all over the place, at least in Arizona.

Enjoy!

Teaching for Creativity

My next Stories from School blog post.

Too tired to comment further for now!  Comments appreciated, especially on the SFS site.  

Who Are We Protecting? My first SFS blog entry

I have been invited to blog for Stories from School AZ, a blog devoted to stories about teaching that show how policy affects teaching practice.

My first entry is, of course, too long. However, I'm happy with it. I'm anxious to see what kind of comments it gets.

I can say from my own experiences that, next to losing a student to suicide, one of the worst feelings a teacher can have is the kick to the gut that comes when she is put in the position of being an arm of an institution, to the detriment of other important things in the classroom, like the mutual trust and respect of her students.  Makes me feel like Nurse Ratched.  Except that she is more purely personally evil.  Or does she truly think she is doing the right thing?

Is there any personal redemption in the acknowledgement of our failings?

Anyway, through a specific school story about a suicidal teen and mandatory reporting, I hope I've addressed an important topic about the need for institutions to address individuals.

Please read (and hopefully enjoy... and comment!)

Who Are We Protecting?  http://www.storiesfromschoolaz.org/2012/08/who-are-we-protecting.html

City Lights, Bats, and Teacher Voice

I'm sitting on the balcony in the dusk watching the silhouettes of small bats flit through my line of sight to the valley of city lights brightening slowly below me.  The lights sprawl in fits and starts, hedged into irregular shapes by the foothills of the other three mountain ranges around town... the Rincons, Santa Ritas and Tucson Mountains.

Above me, dark wood beams neatly divide strips of night sky.  I should get to see some extra stars from up here tonight.  They appear one by one, teasingly.

I came out here, out of my Loew's Ventana Canyon room, to relax after a heady day of thinking about teacher voice and teacher leadership at the AZK12 Center's Teacher Leadership Institute.  I am observing things around me, trying to clear my mind.

It is day one of five days, and I'm finding it hard to encapsulate and process what is in my mind.  We viewed the film American Teacher and heard from one of the producers, Nineve Calegari, and one of the teachers profiled in the film.  We had breakout discussions defining teaching as a profession.  We were asked to define our own vision of teaching as a profession, and to make a plan as to how we would find our teacher voice and use our spheres of influence to make our voice heard and to affect policy.

[As I type, a small spider keeps dropping down in front of my screen.  I suppose it thinks my light will attract its dinner.  I keep having to flick it off of me.  Hopefully it doesn't have friends.]

At a dinner meeting, I encountered my new position as a blogger for Stories from School, which I will begin in August.  As I shared my idea for a juicy topic and heard what other bloggers were going to write about, and about some of the stories they had already shared, my amazement at this opportunity grew.  And the weight of the responsibility I feel to be both honest and yet professional... that weight also grew. The rhetorical situation of a teacher with both the best interest and privacy of students in mind, and the responsibility not to directly criticize or implicate individuals with whom I work, to make the stories specific, juicy, sincere, personal, and yet speak to broader issues-- this is a tricky rhetorical situation.  I want to take risks, provoke conversation, thought and change.  And yet I like my job and profession, and Tucson is a small town.

Right now my teacher voice wants to scream and cry, both in joy and frustration, for a thousand reasons.  I think I need to narrow my message.

[Also, I need to decide if I'm going to go home to turn off the coffee maker, or just assume it has an auto-off function.  I haven't used that one in so long that I truly cannot remember.  I'd rather stay here, in the balmy evening, with the almost cool breeze and the--WOW-- amazing full moon now rising over the Rincons to my left.  I hear breezes and no traffic... I can no longer see the bats... the stars are out... my spider friends have apparently given up...  I have some tough choices to make]