Blow it all up

Let's face it, we'll be in distance learning soon. It's a terrible way to teach and learn.  We lose all the wonderful parts of school, the human interaction, and replace it with screen time. 

We need courageous leaders now more than ever.  They need to be willing to blow up the traditional model to best support the needs of students and staff.  

How about this.

Right now, trimesters are 12 weeks with 6 classes.  What if we spend two weeks with each class and create courses that teach the essentials. We'd have to commit to a full trimester of this. We could do this distance based AND in a hybrid model.

WHY?

Kids and families would only have to focus on ONE class, ONE teacher at a time. We'd get to know our students and build strong relationships. 

Yes, it would be weird to not have an established "prep", but if we put our best into our two weeks of teacher workshop creating lessons and building out our courses, think of all the time we would free up to work and be with students. Let's say a teacher with period 1 prep teaches intermediate algebra, they could support the team in building out coursework online for our courses.  We could make wonderful, magical things happen in two weeks of learning with one group of 30 students.

What would that look like?

In my math class, I could have math talks every day with my class of 30 students, get them started on a desmos investigation and have them watch a video on their own. Then after lunch we'd come back for a group assignment instructions and I would let them get together to dig deeper in teams while I was on standby to support various teams.  

In an Art class, the teacher could hold class at school on occasion so the students could spend the day spinning pottery.

In Auto class, students could come to school and build an entire engine as a class after spending a part of each day learning about different components.

Science could have a few experiments each week in the classroom, in small teams, for the teacher to support them.

This most certainly would revolutionize how we teach and learn, but wouldn't it be great if a student who did get sick with COVID-19 only had miss a credit or two as they joined back up when it made sense for them? (Instead of the alternative of making up weeks of work for 6 classes.)

Now is the time to transform what we do.  

Why are we trying to fit a square peg in a round hole?  

Now is the time to blow it all up and make amazing things happen.  Let's seize this opportunity to be creative. 

Why this teacher has considered leaving the profession

When I can look around with gratitude at all the students doing math in my classroom I know I am exactly where I need to be.

Then there are times when the kids aren't around and I wonder what am I doing here?  Does this make me happy?   Is it all worth it?  Can I function in this environment for another year, another month, another day?

When we consider why good, great and even mediocre teachers leave the profession what the data reveals doesn't surprise me.  It's exactly the reasons I've considered leaving the profession. 

It isn't pay. None of us went into this profession looking to make lots of money. (29% of the teacher surveyed said pay was one of the factors they left)

It isn't the students.  Teenagers are weird, exhausting, wonderful, creative, sad, lovely people.  I adore them and all the complexities they bring to the table day in and out. (What percent?)

It isn't what teaching is.  It's what it isn't.

It hasn't been a place where teachers are considered professionals.  Look at the conversations around school board nominees in the last election.  I read countless posts on social media where people expressed their belief that teachers shouldn't be on a school board. One poster even stated that not having kids should make you less effective at being on a school board even if you are a teacher?  In what other profession do we not want the professionals at the table making the decisions?  A medical board should not be filled with just business people and patients.  It needs to include (and should primarily consist of) the professionals on the ground doing the work and seeing where there are issues.

Unfortunately good teachers learn to hunker down in their classrooms and focus on what they can control. They spend their energy on their group of students and ignore the rest. These good teachers are capable of doing so much more.  They can help build equitable schools, districts and communities.  They witness first hand the negative impact policies have on their students and are creative in thinking up solutions. 

Here's the irony.  This post (above) was drafted in November 2019.  We now find ourselves in the midst of the most challenging times in school planning, how to reopen schools during a global pandemic. And guess who is not at the table?  The teachers.  

Hunkering down in our classrooms isn't an option. Our health and the health of our students is on the line.  A committee of 20 with only 4 teachers just isn't adequate.  Conversations that talk about how to schedule our students with out looking at how to keep people safe first is completely backwards.  Typically when there is a policy that we don't agree with, we can make it work and work within the policy.  We can't do that now.  We can't hunker down in our classrooms and focus on what we can control without feeling like we are risking our lives. 

In normal times, teachers don't feel valued.  Right now, August 1st, 2020, it's especially hard to feel valued.