Gamesmanship for Teachers: Uncommon Sense is Half the Work

Gamesmanship for Teachers Uncommon Sense Is Half the Work R YA N A . D O N L A N

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD EDUCATION Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Education A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmaneducation.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Ryan A. Donlan All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Donlan, Ryan A., 1967– Gamesmanship for teachers : uncommon sense is half the work / Ryan A. Donlan. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-60709-103-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60709-104-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60709-105-9 (electronic) 1. Teaching. 2. Teachers—Professional relationships. I. Title. LB1025.3D66 2009 371.1—dc22 2009004844

⬁ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America.

Content herein, for veteran teachers, includes unabashed straight talk, shrewd political insight, and a healthy respect for those who have been there and done that in education

This book is dedicated to my Master Teacher, Mentor, Friend, and Best Man, Dr. William A. Halls

Contents

Acknowledgments

ix

Preface: Teaching is the World’s Most Important Job

xi

Part One:

No Teacher Left Behind?!

1

Gamesmanship

3

2

Straight Talk and a Prelude to the Gray Cloud over Education

7

3

Getting a Proper and Just Handle on Oneself, One’s Village, One’s Place in the Universe, and the Gray Cloud

9

4

What Our Journey Entails

Part Two:

15

A Discussion for Seasoned Professionals Only

What Are We Seeing in Our Newbies? The Wrong Reasons to Teach

19

Thinking Back on Our Professional Beginnings: Why Did We Want to Teach?

25

7

Never Smile until November? . . . Not!

27

8

What is a Student? Philosophically, Theoretically, and Practically

33

5

6

v

vi

9 10

CONTENTS

Your Role as a Teacher Leader

37

Direct Advice that Teacher Leaders Can Use as Institutional Caretakers

41

Part Three:

Through a Side Door in a School That’s Not about Us

11

When Parents Enable

53

12

Instant Messaging for Parent Meetings

55

13

“It’s Not about Us”

57

14

More on Student-as-Product—Education’s Raw Material

65

15

Cherishing Those Baby Steps

73

16

The Most Important Furnishing in a Classroom—Hope

77

17

One’s Teaching Load, a Clairvoyant Perspective

79

Part Four:

Sharpening the Scythe for Healthier Teaching

18

Teachers as Surgeons

85

19

In the Trenches Now . . . the Toolbox

89

20

Power, and Brain-Compatible Elements

91

21

The Brainbox

93

22

Absence of Threat

95

23

Choices and Adequate Time

97

Part Five:

The 101s of Professional Supervision and Evaluation

24

Look-Fors for Principals

105

25

The Look-Fors You Don’t Want

109

26

Professional Evaluation

113

Part Six:

Making Your Life Easier through “Your Domain”

27

Organizational Effectiveness through Student Responsibility

121

28

The Grab Bag for Maintaining Order

123

29

The Grab Bag for Placing the Responsibility of Learning and Succeeding in Students

129

The Grab Bag for Minimizing Interruptions

139

30

vii

CONTENTS

31

The Grab Bag/Wrapping Up

143

32

Room Décor

145

Part Seven:

On The Road Again

33

Professional Development and Conferencing

151

34

People Watching at Conferences

155

35

When You’re the Presenter

157

Part Eight:

The Healthier You—A Light Heart Lives Long

36

You Call It Efficiency or Multitasking; I Call It Burnout

163

37

A Glowing Ember is Easily Rekindled

169

38

A Healthier Perspective on the Much-Maligned, yet Uniquely Lovable Lounge Lizards

173

39

Raconteurs in Lounges and the Follies of Leadershit

181

40

The Leaders We Need

191

41

Conclusion: What Will Come from the Briar but the Berry?

195

References

201

About the Author

203

Acknowledgments

I would like to offer my sincerest appreciation to my wife, Wendy Lynn Donlan, who has provided love, support, and patience as I strolled leisurely toward the publication of this book over the past few years—only wanting to share “Gamesmanship” and “Uncommon Sense” when the time was right. Further, my children, Sean Ryan Donlan and Katelyn Ryann Donlan, are my dearest inspiration for all that’s good in life and for all that veteran teachers can do for our students, our community, and our world.

ix

Preface Teaching is the World’s Most Important Job

A teacher has the world’s most important job. Coming close would be farmers, doctors, scientists, police officers, firefighters, and members of our armed forces. Yet, how many of those professions would exist today—would be able to do the work that they do—without teachers preparing students for those professions or preparing students to build the tools needed to carry out those professions? None. A teacher has the world’s most important job. Teaching is more of a calling than a job, more of a mission than a position—it is a true labor of love. One performed with very little monetary remuneration. One performed for more deferred gratification than immediate. The hours involved allow for little extra time for teachers to make “real money.” The number of years teachers work before retirement eligibility allows little chance for second careers. The stress of the job creates hardships on teachers’ families and loved ones. Retirement is not at all one of wealth and luxury. Teaching is total devotion of oneself and one’s family for a lifetime. A teacher has the world’s most important job. Teaching involves constant scrutiny of job performance, by at least 25–30 witnesses each second of every minute of every hour, each day. A teacher’s every word and move is the subject of possible complaint and contention, by hypersensitive children whose friends would line up to lie for them—those same children who need teachers for liberation from the social and academic

xi

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PREFACE

limitations of childhood, yet who are quite resistant in traveling along that path. Those who can, teach; those who can’t, do other things. A teacher has the world’s most important job. Teaching used to involve local professionals designing the what and how of education for our children in schools. It also used to allow us to decide under what conditions teaching and learning would take place. Now, the what, how, and under what conditions of education are being decided by people who don’t teach. Teaching today involves a political responsibility, with political advocacy so as to advance again a teacher’s right to determine what is important for children to know and to what degree all children should learn it. Teaching today involves advocating for a world where those not in education respect our job descriptions, as we respect theirs. A teacher has the world’s most important job. Teaching necessitates that we better prepare our students to out-engineer, out-invent, out-produce, out-perform, and out-think students from around the world. Children in China, India, Russia, and Brazil, as well as children from a host of other countries, are trying to eat our children’s futures for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their parents and their governments are encouraging them to out-work and out-think America in this global knowledge economy so that they can take the resources that we currently enjoy and redistribute them around the world to themselves and others. They’re trying to spread worldwide an anti-American sentiment and a complete disdain for our way of life, so as to limit the freedoms we currently cherish and the economic viability of a once-vibrant nation. Our future is wrought with challenge, indeed. Teachers must save us from a dismal and dire future. A teacher has the world’s most important job. You are a teacher. Thank you!

I

NO TEACHER LEFT BEHIND?!

1

Gamesmanship

I’m begging your patience for a moment, as I take you on a brief stroll through a bit of personal philosophy, based both on intellect and heartfelt emotion, before commencing our pragmatic discussion on our teaching careers. On that path, you and I will talk theory, we’ll share philosophy, and I’ll offer brass-tacks advice and straight talk to allow you as a professional to understand, deeply, your profession as it is today. In short, with the advice herein, and of course with my continuing observation that professional, veteran teachers—unlike many in the governmental bureaucracies that oversee us— are not in any sense “flippin’ idiots,” you’ll end up even more “okay” with your place in our profession—respected as you have been, admired more than ever before, and very, very happy with yourself and your professional success. One such analogy that may be helpful at the outset, especially in that I plan to toughen you up, right quick, by purposefully casting a dark gray cloud over our professional journeys of today, is the following: Please keep in mind that I do, and you should, view our professional world as a giant game board, with paths to the “win,” fields of clover, good guys, and valued treasures along the way, yet with combatants, scuffles, briar patches, idiots abounding, and wrong turns as well. Navigating one’s path on this game board oftentimes brings about some reality checks, which make us discover who we are and force us to admit what we believe.

3

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CHAPTER 1

Yet, it’s just a game board, my friend. Treat it as such and don’t make so much out of it that it becomes the be-all and end-all of your identity or of your existence. Keep in mind, also, in the spirit of my outlook on life and what’s truly important: one’s professional career, similarly, is just a game—an important one, yet just a game. This fact, if you so choose to accept it, will keep you sane through all the stupidity that we are now encountering in our chosen profession and will allow for better reflection of life’s true priorities that continue when each day’s game is ended—such as health, spirituality, family, friends, and community. Realizing this is truly one of the best favors you can do for yourself. Back to gamesmanship—one admission I must make is the fact that I like a good fight. I always have. At times, I have found that one must fight for what’s right in teaching. One must battle for what’s right in education. And that’s okay. We have to be willing to take some hits, and even at times lose some matches, with grace and dignity, yet not be so dumb as to stand flatfooted when taking a hit, which brings up my next point. You’ll find readily that the brute force of intellect, as well as unequivocal compassion for kids, is not enough in our profession today. You’ll need something much more strategic, for true success in teaching—uncommon sense. Uncommon sense is a “must have” to survive in teaching, in that the game of education, at times, necessitates a bluff here, a poker face there, smooth talkin’ and quite often, a true degree of manipulation and gamesmanship on the part of those who are making a difference with kids. It’s just a fact, so you might want to come to terms with that and have a little fun with it. This book will include a wee bit of everything—deep philosophy, key theory, and of course, a few powerful strategies for you to use as tools to win your game, to better enjoy your job, and to make a difference. Not so much a comprehensive nuts and bolts of classroom routines manual, as notable author Harry Wong (1998) has provided our profession, I might add. This book is more for the “thinker/strategist,” the figurative, educational chess player—one with a bit of tread wear—who wants to learn a craft at an entirely different level; for the multidimensional systems thinker who wants to stay three to five steps ahead of not only the students, but the institution and profession as well. It’s for the seasoned teaching veteran, not the beginner.

GAMESMANSHIP

5

In my sharing these contributions with you, please trust that I will offer such depth of substance and strategy of gamesmanship for truly and solely the right reasons—to truly transform your midcareer journey for the better—into a teacher leader—with a wink, a smile, a heart that’s properly positioned, and an arse that’s rarely exposed.

2

Straight Talk and a Prelude to the Gray Cloud over Education

Take a note, I’m beginning early—Here’s where I run the risk of pissin’ some people off, especially those overly sensitive types whose agendas are shallow and whose egos bruise easily. Some in education just don’t quite “get it,” and while oftentimes it’s not their fault, this doesn’t change the fact that the educator clue phone is ringing off the hook, and they just aren’t answering. Especially with those in leadership positions—central office, regional educational service agencies, and even state departments—some in our profession lost touch of the challenge of tasks and relationships that professional teachers are encountering with kids and communities today, as well as the psychological needs and interplay that takes place among all in a school. The reason for not “getting it,” many times, has to do with both nature and nurture—at times, deficits in their psychological health, and of course, the shortcomings oftentimes found in bureaucratic cultures that like to fix things by calling in air strikes, yet rarely visit the front lines. Too often, those who roll out educational initiative after initiative of bestpractice-this or standards-and-benchmarks-that fall short in communicating how to effectively play the game of establishing and maintaining relationships with students and fellow staff. They don’t have a clue! More seriously, during these rollouts, which keep bureaucrats nestled comfortably in their 40-hour-per-week cubicles, many in key leadership positions oftentimes fail

7

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CHAPTER 2

to consider, or even listen to, the perspectives of educators who will be working with kids. Why are these bureaucratic suits so shortsighted? Why does this culture continue to afflict our profession with out-of-touch perspectives at the 10,000-foot level? It’s an abject lack of proper leadership—too many people are interested in doing things right, as proscribed by national educational leaders and out-of-touch business folks, yet not so many are interested in doing the right things. Most state educational agencies are acting like neutered puppies rolling belly-up, awaiting an abdominal scratch from the federal government. This process repeats itself at lower and lower levels of the educational food chain. Hats off to you for continuing in our profession, in spite of this. You’re doing the right thing!

3

Getting a Proper and Just Handle on Oneself, One’s Village, and One’s Place in the Universe and the Gray Cloud Once upon a time, did you choose the teaching profession as a “first choice,” or a “second option”? And were you born, or made?—born into the profession by some remarkable combination of inherited personal attributes and intrinsic calls to service, or made into an educator, through ardent effort, field experiences, and pedagogical study? In any event, you have been aboard one intimately bold journey, this journey through our profession—one not to be undertaken lightly. Teaching is a calling or mission, more than just an occupational position. It’s a true labor of love, as you know. Yet, has anyone talked straight to you lately about what’s going on in education? Have you come out of your classroom to take a look? Brace yourself, because I can get a little caustic, and to some, I’m not the most politically correct at times. At least I sleep well at night, knowing that I’m speaking from both my mind and heart, and I truly believe that you as a career teacher need to hear these things, and you must think, think, think about what they mean to your professional life. Think what these things mean to your professional responsibility as a classroom teacher. What I’m asking you is simple—Do you still have the “guts” for teaching nowadays, especially with the gray cloud that’s been cast upon us? Are you still smiling?!

9

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CHAPTER 3

Schools have been declared “failures” all over the nation. With nary a nationally realistic, open-dialogued, bull’s-eyed analysis of why underperforming students in schools aren’t able to make the grade, coupled with a seeming refusal of the media, bureaucrats, and a plethora of other idiots to hold the real problem makers, i.e., families and communities, accountable for their own roles in the degeneration of today’s youth, shallow thinkers on bully pulpits continue to profess bold, moral agendas of the need to improve schools. Yet they do so while not often enough stepping foot in our schools, or into the home lives of kids, to look deeper at the real issues confronting school performance today. This truly frustrates hardworking teachers. Government officials have recently laid blame on the lackluster standards that they allege exist in our nation’s schools, imposing punitive measures entitled restructuring, measures that are meant to do good, but in actuality, affect little the bureaucracies that exist in larger districts. Restructuring does, however, penalize the many saintly teachers who serve the most needy in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Maybe even you. Because of this and other factors, such as a system that, at times, allows elected idiots with agendas no deeper than “fire the football coach” to serve on local boards of education, principals and superintendents have been turned into independent contractors, climbers of sorts, searching for their next jobs as soon as they accept their present job contracts. It’s not uncommon to see them continually scanning for the pastures that are less fraught with challenged students or lower socioeconomic variables, so that they can nest forevermore—with job security—in communities where affluent families, themselves, educate their children, between soccer matches, piano lessons, and trips abroad. Here’s where the cloud darkens even further—schools today that actively recruit the kids who are toughest to educate are doing the equivalent of God’s work with modest, at best, public tax dollars and little support from the communities in which they serve, and are getting beat up on, all over the nation. By whom? Business leaders and governmental bureaucrats, as well as all the other knuckleheads, including the media, who think they know better. What’s the whipping stick, or the switch, you might ask? Standardized test scores, that’s what! And graduation timelines. Most of the time, schools serving our most needy, at-risk kids get pummeled, beaten over

GETTING A PROPER AND JUST HANDLE ON ONESELF

11

the heads with their kids’ scores on big-impact, once-per-grade-level, highpressure, high-stakes tests. Pass or fail! Do or die! And since we all know that kids learn at exactly the same speed and are equally equipped for academic tasks, the National Governors Association has now declared that schools should graduate all students in exactly four years or they will be devalued. Wow . . . thank goodness they know best! Sadly, teachers in special purpose schools (for example, alternative schools and/or charter schools) whose mission it is to recruit kids off the streets, the academically untalented kids who have been on the streets for years, crafting their own personalized, advanced degrees in welfare scams and crime, are being bludgeoned by bureaucrats. To penalize the folks who are trying to turn those lives around is patently ludicrous, but it’s happening all over. Are you one of these wonderful folks? That’s the plight of our chosen profession. It’s in crisis! It’s unjust and unfair, yet this is the educational scale upon which teachers are currently graded. If you teach in rich schools, in rich communities, with caring parents and with well-adjusted kids who will learn in spite of you, then in most cases, you will be deemed a success. If you teach in poor schools with poor kids who come to you far below grade level, with parents nonexistent and deplorable family situations that are beyond your control . . . then there’s a good chance that you, and/or at least your school, will be deemed a failure. So, the question is this: As a veteran in our profession, how will you keep smiling? And will you continue helping the needy kids if your reputation is the one on the line? Will your school continue to recruit kids from the streets back into their classrooms if you are penalized for those who are not on track to graduate on time? Our profession actually provides disincentives for doing God’s work. Bleak enough? Well, I hope not, ’cause I’m not done yet. Stated again, for emphasis yet it bears repeating—How many times, I say how many times do we hear of failing schools in affluent communities? We don’t! Schools labeled failing schools are in failing communities; I say it again: failing schools are in failing communities—or in the special schools sense (such as alternative or charter schools, etc.)—the schools that are labeled as failing schools are oftentimes those that draw their student audience from failing families and communities. Teachers are blamed. Yet, it’s not the teachers’ fault!

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CHAPTER 3

Given this dire state of affairs, will you want to help those in failing communities? Have you been helping? Do you have what it takes? Are you willing to put your career on the line to help solve a national problem when those ordering you to solve it may stab you in the back? When those in charge of your job security and your school’s future on the planet just don’t have a clue?! I oftentimes put it like this to friends and colleagues in my own state government: Using a military analogy—Just because the Marines are the first in and take more casualties with harder resistance, does it mean that they are less effective than the regular Army? Nope! Smart folks would say, “It’s the ‘incoming,’ stupid”! Another, a hospital analogy—What about inner-city emergency rooms in hospitals—Just because they lose more trauma cases on the gurneys, are they continually threatened with being closed? Nope! Even dumb folks would say, “It’s the neighborhood, stupid”! Most frustrating is that in many cases, around our nation, the federal bureaucrats who are drafting and enforcing the rules and regulations for us in education continually, with professed morality and ethics, state, “Schools should be able to do better.” Yet, they do so by imposing broad, brush-stroked national solutions that may not apply effectively in local communities—taking away states’ rights to direct the education of their own children, and further doing so without looking at the community and family variables contributing to student failure— ones that are so obvious that they could block out the sun. Then, most heinous of all, these same folks who blame the hardworking teachers in our nation’s high schools fail to do anything about our system that gives free money to the losers who drain our wallets of tax dollars, such as dysfunctional parents who show lackluster support for their kids’ homework or the men and women whose only manufacturing job is pumping out crack babies with their unwed pregnancies. And of course, a day at the welfare spigot would not be complete without government blaming schools, yet at the same time subsidizing the pure, unadulterated lazy asses who suck the government tit for everything they can get, because, according to them, “Nothing involving hard work or personal responsibility is worth wakin’ up for.” Do something about that, you frickin’ morons at the federal and state levels, and we’ll do something about school failure!

GETTING A PROPER AND JUST HANDLE ON ONESELF

13

As a reality check: Are you willing to continue in your professional position, a place under this gray cloud in this profession deemed in crisis, wherein your hard work may only garner criticism and disdain from present-day governmental bureaucrats, business leaders, and the media? If you’re like me, you’ll be ready and willing for this good fight! And you’ll enjoy the challenge. Most of all, you’ll keep smiling. With that having been said, we can’t afford to just shut our classroom doors anymore. We can’t afford to stick our heads in the sand and hope idiocy will go away, and we must perform at such a higher level than what one could reasonably expect of us if we want to remain employed happily and successfully in our profession. That is, if we want our school to stay out of trouble. ’Cause if our principals are not smiling, rarely are we. Yes, even with all the lunacy abound, we must rise above the status quo and do better ourselves. Our futures depend on it! Our kids’ futures depend on it! You see, present-day student academic performance is not good enough. Our kids just can’t compete with other students around the world! Many of our local economies are down the tank, and our future is mired with challenge. Why is it so? I would argue that one factor is this, at least in the small part of blame our schools and universities can take: An invaluable component of continuing professional development has been left aside for years, leaving those working in our profession with an incomplete toolbox with which to confront the challenges of the politically challenged, perceptually marred educational marketplace that has become our new home, one much different than that we purchased at the price of our college degree. Tools are missing, ones that I will share in this book—ones you’ll surely need if you are to continue in the profession with the right combination of skills, theories, perspectives, and experiences to not only survive, but work beyond that to a position as an educational solution and improvement leader. These tools are for veterans, who have paid their dues and have refined their skills. Consider it professional development (PD) for experts, some basic, some advanced, yet PD that will sink in, because you have walked the walk in a way that preservice teachers can only dream. Many in the nationwide school redesign movement have said that the problem with today’s schools is not that they are not what they used to be but that they are (Daggett 2004a, 2004b). As former high school redesign chairperson

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for our own state’s department of education, I agree with them. I agree that schools must be given a facelift, with higher standards for our students’ part of that. Further, I agree that teachers must teach better; that principals and superintendents must lead better. We can all do better. I also admit that learning in some of today’s classrooms is not what it should be. Yet, I also agree that educators are not entirely to blame, as some would contend. We can lead! We can lead other teachers and at the same time, reprogram the paradigms of a school-blaming society and make change happen for the better.

4

What Our Journey Entails

Throughout the course of this book, you’ll hopefully begin to understand that I am an advocate for a serious, critical examination of many educational practices and issues that we face today. I’m one, who is at times, quick to comment; one who is not afraid to render an opinion; one with many off-the-mainstream views of certain educational issues; yet, in all senses of the word, one who is an unabashed advocate for a system of public education and the service it provides to our youth and communities. Admittedly, in the course of my conversation with you, on behalf of the plight of the current system in place and in the spirit of what I believe is the right thing to do, I am going to attempt to convince you how to think about current issues in teaching and to teach you what to do as teachers in spite of these issues. Think openly for a while, even if I seem a little too blunt. Trust me that much, will you? In support of the marginally dysfunctional, societally marred, enthusiastic, and challenging youth for whom you are guiding, leading, and directing into their next 50–75 years, I will definitely talk straight with you, for your own good and mine, to ensure that you are continuing with your lifetime commitment to education for all the right reasons, and with all the right skills intact. Many of the best-intentioned, career educators don’t consider or realize what we are about to discuss, and thus, they themselves, as I mentioned before, become part of the problem, and not the solution for what ails us.

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CHAPTER 4

In this book, we’ll discuss philosophies, situations, and strategies—all in the context of allowing you to view your profession, and the decisions you make therein, from a clear lens of mature, contextual thought and multilevel thinking that many educators have difficulty mustering. Welcome aboard; your journey begins now.

000 II Part Two

A DISCUSSION FOR SEASONED PROFESSIONALS ONLY

5

What are We Seeing in Our Newbies? The Wrong Reasons to Teach

Oftentimes, veterans like ourselves are thrust into positions as new teachers’ mentors, caretakers of those new to our profession. This is a critical responsibility, as with the launching of any 30-year endeavor, a good beginning is half the work. Are we as veterans on the same page for what we are looking for in new teachers? Do we know the red lights and green lights that require intervention, or not? Are we protecting our own profession from those who just shouldn’t be let in the door? Let’s discuss. Three hazardous paths or circumstances, admittedly off-the-chart oversimplified for our purposes here, have led countless misplaced, otherwise good people, into our profession. Most times, if these are in play, these newbies can’t be helped. As you work with student teachers, consider offering some frank advice to those in need of hearing the phrase—“Run, not walk, into a different profession.” Tell some of them that other degree programs will accept them; that other vocational paths will be honored to have them along as lifelong partners. And please, don’t forget to tell them not to let the University Educational Department door hit them in the ass on their way out. The hazardous big three are: 1. They were exceptionally good at their academics and wanted to spend a lifetime displaying their prowess in their academic content area

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2. They were marginally accepted as students or as people, and in either their conscious thoughts or in their unconscious minds, they felt that being in charge of a captive audience would fulfill their needs 3. They relished the fact that 365 days are on the calendar in any given year, and they wanted to work less than half of them Let’s take number one: The Academician. This person has what I call a corrective lens difficulty, which may be uncorrectable. An example of what I mean by lens is simply this: When I’m asked, “What do you teach?” My response has always been, “students.” I seldom ever have referred, without external inquiry specific to subject area, to English or social studies, my certification areas. Why? I truly view my job as student centered, not content centered. It’s a lens thing. If kids connect with me, and I with them, they will want to connect with my content. If not, they won’t. It truly is that simple; it’s that important, and it will happen for new teachers in the same way. The underpinning message here may seem to run counter to a prevailing national agenda regarding highly qualified teachers under federal rules and regulations, but it truly does not. Do I need to be excellent in my content area? And more important, do they as new teachers? Absolutely. In fact, I have always believed that teachers should be proficient to the point of being able to give their students a real-world, relevant-to-kids example for every academic task or theory under study. Greatness and excellence in content are nonnegotiable. However, the naturally excellent academician, the brainiac who always got the As in school and loved course content over playtime, friends, and teenage experiences, will probably make the absolute worst teacher for struggling kids. How will they truly and accurately know their students? These types just cannot relate to the stresses and challenges of real-world kids. Heck, when was the last time one of these pencil pushers dated intimately, equated a first roll-inthe-sack with true love, and had a heart smashed by a breakup, just before the big assignment or final exam in a class. That’s real living. Have the academicians ever tried to navigate school with a pounding hangover? Did they face the ups and downs of teenage indecision and bad decisions? Did they really screw up and hit their own personal rock bottoms, or were they forever insulated with their textbooks, studies, online research, or worse yet—their video game simulations?

WHAT ARE WE SEEING IN OUR NEWBIES?

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The academicians thirst for their content; they lust for their textbooks. They have affairs with their academic disciplines and may not be able to understand why the vast majority of kids in their classes do not. They answer questions with academician-ese, not real words. They are unable to build bridges for the kids depending on them because they did not experience and study the human condition, as they did their certification area. The bottom line, again and again, is more importantly this: Through which lens does this teacher view students as they walk through the class door each day—through the person-with-needs lens, or through the academic-lessonplan-that-needs-to-be-delivered lens? Kids will be able to tell within a few seconds and will be forever frustrated if lesson plans are more important than their interpersonal needs. This student frustration is, in my opinion, one of the biggest reasons for classroom control problems, for teacher burnout, and for overall failure in education today. Let’s take number two: the insecure misfit, all grown up. Probably the most dangerous situation we can encounter with those new to our profession is a truly insecure person empowered to make decisions that will affect the lives of a captive audience. It’s disheartening to imagine an insecure kid, now grown into a dysfunctional adult, who because of his or her own issues believes in his or her heart of hearts that teacher title, and title alone means, “They’ll have to respect me!” Then, they look to us as mentors for support? I don’t think so! Admittedly, I’m stretching the boundaries of human capability here; I’m envisioning a process wherein I as a humble author or you as a professional teacher can read the minds of sick puppies as they present themselves professionally, and that’s not the case. So let’s say that this entire section is simply my best guess at why we may have some of the problems in the psyche of insecure educators—not scientific in the least, but I would bet anyone a pint or two that I’m right on, at least some of the time. Back to the insecure misfit. Continually trying and trying to prove something to themselves through controlling others, these poor souls often, for a time, navigate their way through college with little difficulty—very committed to their quests of becoming teachers. The misfits are very driven to succeed, and tragically, in most cases, do not realize that trouble lies ahead. They gravitate toward people like themselves in college groups or societies, not realizing that their particular world view and mannerisms are truly out of sync and will be subject to the

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scorn and ridicule of the audience of kids that they will soon meet—eerily similar to the ones who hazed them in their high schools years ago. A latent manifestation of their dysfunction appears usually during student teaching, wherein it becomes readily obvious that classroom control problems are on the rise. Students sense this misfit-like insecurity and react to it like pit bulls on bloody puppies; bless their little childlike or adolescent hearts—they go for the jugular. I know this firsthand as a student who both witnessed and participated in these cruel hazings of unsuspecting student teachers and new staff members. In all truth, we actually ran some out of the profession and didn’t, at the time, realize that our mean-spiritedness was in a sense performing a societal service, and although immediately painful, probably one of service to the insecure misfit also. A few of these troubled folks, who make it into teaching as our protégés, continue to raise more defense mechanisms and control issues than they do the performance scores and/or levels of interests in their students. Not only can they not relate with the students, which was the case with the academician noted earlier; they in many cases neither realize nor truly relate to the psychological problems within themselves. Thus, they are even more severely screwed up than the academician and thus, more destined to failure. Those who do survive the first few tumultuous years possibly do so by performing some service to the school that is seen as all-important (or sucking up) to mentor teachers like yourselves or to an administrator, such as working as a class or activity advisor, or a coach for an unpopular sport, and then over their careers, climb into protected positions of leadership or management either as insecure administrators, themselves, or possibly within the teachers’ unions—in both cases, so that their needs to control and exercise power over others are themselves insulated, protected, and perpetuated. Just what type of monsters do we help create?! With psychological help, and much, much professional development, I would cautiously state that these poor folks can be marginally helped toward improvement over time; yet at what cost to the many students who deserve better? And at what cost to themselves? Please encourage them to run, not walk, to a new profession, if we see them on their way in the door. Let’s take number three: Joe Blow without a work ethic. Anyone going into education with an eventual goal of working less and getting paid more is both

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misaligned in thinking and misplaced in service professions. Too bad this type wants to be treated as a professional, yet bolsters the mentality of a manufacturing shop rat who’s punching in and punching out at the time clock, with relatively little buy-in to the big picture of the school’s mission or service on behalf of students and community. It’s sad to conceptualize that from the time the first educational seed was planted, this person thought, first and foremost—June, July, and August, as well as of a school day that ended long before most other professionals’ workdays. It’s embarrassing to us as professionals. What will happen when this teacher is asked to return to the school in the evening to meet with parents who get out of work at 6:00 p.m.? Well, before teacher tenure, no problem. Teacher tenure, available in some states around our country, is further protection of one’s teaching job status, beyond that of even an employment contract or collective bargaining agreement. Afterward, however, I can tell you what oftentimes happens, and it’s professionally embarrassing for the rest of us to explain to parents and others why a salaried professional considers all time spent outside the contractual obligations an aggrieved circumstance. These folks, once insulated with job protections, pollute the minds of many, fostering a spirit of laziness and divisiveness. Administrators, unfortunately, do not normally possess the skills or time to help or force these folks to higher levels of professional introspection and accomplishment. And they don’t have the money it takes to fire them, with the resultant attorneys’ fees and such. Students, again, get hurt and deserve better. If it sounds like these folks could be your protégés, my advice to you is to get them out of the profession before they get in it. They may not experience the daily stress and unhappiness of the two aforementioned educational misfits, yet they will receive much criticism from students, especially after they have had them as teachers. Former students will know how little they truly worked for them, and they will make no secret of this when discussing school memories with others. The lazy ones will be seen as “some of those lazy ass, whining teachers”—the reason that people won’t support schools with local taxes through school elections—and they will need to surround themselves with others like them to justify and rationalize why they have and/or had such a distorted and shallow sense of professional commitment.

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Trust me, eventually, these teachers will realize that these like-minded associations are not true friendships either. They may end up quite lonely, old, and gray, probably at a coffee shop, shopping mall bench, or on a bar stool somewhere with folks whispering criticisms of them from a few yards away. As they propel themselves upward in their own minds’ eyes to great levels of educational commitment and perceived professional impact, they probably will be unable to notice that it’s more their imagination in overdrive, or more likely, the beer thinking, than it is reality or history. For the sake of the students, if any of the descriptors above sound familiar in your student teachers or those new to the profession—the Academician, the Insecure Misfit, or the Workless Wonder—please seriously help them take another professional path. We deserve the best to follow us in our profession.

6

Thinking Back on Our Professional Beginnings: Why Did We Want to Teach?

With all of this discussion of the wrong reasons for new ones entering our profession and the dwelling on the characteristics of those who approach teaching from that perspective, let’s discuss briefly some positive reasons newbies want to teach. A few of the most noteworthy are as follows: 1. Having a role model or hero as a teacher, one who truly made a difference in them or helped make a difference in the lives of others. Notice, I did not say someone who necessarily taught them the most within a particular academic discipline— remember, if this is the case, they could be in actuality that academician noted above who is not really focusing on the student-centered aspect of teaching. 2. Having parents who were true teaching professionals and who inspired them to think of teaching as one of the highest callings of human service. Listen carefully, did their parents spend a lot of time talking of their summer vacations and complaining of students? If so, they are probably the teachers who do not need their seeds planted any farther than their own retirements. 3. Having a frustration with the way education is currently delivered and possessing a true desire to improve it by their own contributions. Please ensure that if this is the newbie, that he or she does not devalue all that is present in our system today. Newbies should take great care to value the contributions of

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their elders and seek out things that do work to add to their toolbox. They should view systems with a critical lens, but not alienate themselves with criticism of others and should use positive contributions in a manner that will allow them to propel themselves in a position to make change in a way that doesn’t harm those currently within the system. In any event, the reasons for their choices should have fallen within the context of a few important variables or qualities that most, or all, who are true to the calling of teaching possess: a. b. c. d.

commitment to serve others and the profession, not simply themselves desire for a professional calling and mission, not just a job determination to affect and embrace change and improvement psychological wellness and the ability for quality introspection

Beyond those qualities, true educators make promises to themselves and others as part of their decisions to enter this lifelong profession: a. a commitment to studying theory and best practice as lifelong learners b. a commitment to working with whatever raw material comes through the door (students) and realizing that the raw material, because of societal degeneration, may only get worse over time c. a commitment to working with others toward exemplary service on behalf of students and community d. a promise to defend and improve the educational system of our communities, states, and nation

7

Never Smile Until November? . . . Not!

It’s always easier to start out tough and firm, then to relinquish a little from your reins as time goes on, than it is to start easygoing and regain control if it slips from your grasp. Don’t take any crap from your students, don’t smile too often, and only lighten up once students understand who’s boss! Remember . . . you’re not their friend; you’re the teacher, and you’ve got to be respected as a professional at all times. —Typical College Prof Advice from Long Ago

We’ve all heard this at some point or another during our professional preparation for the classroom, and many of us have received this lecture, not only as a bit of advice, but also as a directive from our supervisors concerning the way we will interact with our students and establish the rules and regulations of our classrooms. The thought behind this rests on the assumption that control is everything in a classroom teaching experience. Those who have control will make it; those who don’t will not. To achieve control, they say, we all must follow the aforementioned age-old advice; after all, we have the remaining 180 days of our instruction, each year, to lighten up with our students; that is, if we establish that control right away. Right?! Is that what you really have found as a high school teacher? Well, I am of the perspective that the degree to which high school teachers will have satisfaction and true student success during their years of teaching is

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inversely proportional to the degree that they focus on the aforementioned bit of advice as a priority in their instructional delivery persona. To state it my favorite way, in real terms, to you, my friend: This viewpoint is a complete and total ass-backward way of launching the classroom teaching and learning experience each year, as well as our relationship with students. It’s just plain ludicrous, from a brain research standpoint, from a practical survival standpoint, and even from a human relations standpoint. “Never smile ’til November” is a bunch of crap! C’mon, you know this too, don’t you? I’m now going to give you some researched permission to have a bit more fun teaching each fall season, if you haven’t had it in a while. FROM THE BRAIN RESEARCH STANDPOINT—WHY SMILING BEFORE NOVEMBER WORKS

What’s the matter with having a little fun? Why not spend the first few days or even a week or so each semester on team-building or class-building activities that bring you in touch with the personalities and relationships within your classroom? Why not smile, laugh, and joke? Haven’t we all heard the terms fun, freedom, love, and belonging before? Age-old, of course, you probably read this way back in the day . . . William Glasser, MD, ring a bell? Basically the ideas that Glasser (1998) has shared with us are as follows: All human beings, and especially kids, strive for certain aspects of the human experience, that if fulfilled, allow them to proceed along toward high levels of cognitive activity and scholastic success. Thus, if you’re able to foster these qualities—fun, freedom, love, belonging, etc.—you will naturally have a classroom that establishes relevance for itself with students, and thus, the typical issues of control and discipline do not present themselves as problems. Fun works. Smiles and laughs and good times help, not hurt. To support this, let’s consider other factors of the brain’s functioning with respect to the environment or context in which things are delivered to it (i.e., the classroom). Kovalik and Olsen (1995) offer the following: Items in our environment, such as all that going on around us (classroom lessons, friends’ conversations, teacher’s information, etc), once perceived by our senses, enter our nervous system as stimuli; they then travel through our receptors up into the brain, and upon reaching the brain’s limbic system (a filtering mechanism or gateway of sorts), these stimuli will be filtered up into the higher levels of the cerebral cortex

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. . . that is, only if the information comes alongside feelings of comfort, free of stress or anxiety. Yet, if the perception or the stimuli is ridden with discomfort, fear, stress, or anxiety, the perceptions and stimuli may very well be bounced back from the limbic system (the gatekeeper), into the brainstem, where we know that one of two things will naturally occur from that point: flight from the experience, itself, or fight with whatever we are encountering. Usually, in a classroom sense, it’s fight or flight from the academics we’re trying to teach kids, because that, exactly, is what we are trying to pass to the higher levels of their brains. Sound familiar from your perspective? When fight or flight ensues, classroom control problems rear their ugly heads, and that’s most simply why I contend that “Never Smiling until November” is dead stupid for veteran teachers such as ourselves, and that having a little fun and establishing a comfortable, engaging, and enjoyable—even friendly—classroom for all involved is really the appropriate way to enjoy a classroom experience. Believe me, teachers who put on a stiff, autocratic personality each fall not only look like idiots, but their students’ levels of anxiety will in many cases elicit the very types of behaviors they are hoping to stave off during teaching. I especially implore you to think about your current personality, as you are employing such with the pressure of standardized test success and the rigors of content requirements in your academic area. Are you the same teacher that you were before these demands? Is your personality the comfortable you or a pressure-ridden you? In an era of the federal and state governments’ pummeling of teachers, have you left your positive personality somewhere in the career path behind you? Ford (1997) suggests that with an overly stiff or autocratic personality, the technical description of what will happen to you is this: The students will, through observable and unobservable behavior, make an attempt to align their perceptions of what is taking place in their world with their schematic representations and thoughts about how their world should, in fact, operate, from the standpoint of their needs, their psychological wellness, and their developmental capabilities. My straight talk description of it is much more down to earth: When students don’t feel good about you, let alone your class, they’ll “get ya.” It’s just a

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fact, and it’s what will naturally tip their world back toward one of “balance” for them. FROM A SURVIVAL STANDPOINT—WHY SMILING BEFORE NOVEMBER WORKS

Frankly, if during your teaching you notice colleagues who are so focused on control and autocratically infused instructional activities, and if they are blindly driven to maintain respect and control, then you’ll see that they will not be able withstand the predictable, certain, and of course, natural disciplinary situations that arise in their classes, especially those behaviors that are directed at them for the sole purpose of embarrassing them, hurting their feelings, or making them look like they are unequipped to deal with the challenges of the classroom. As a respected veteran teacher, you’ve got to expect misbehavior—you’ve got to weave it into your lesson plans, as if it were as natural as your content instruction, and you’ve got to enjoy it—for survival’s sake. And you’ve got to smile as you’re handling it—at least inside, you gotta be. Teachers who are not expecting that some kid will attempt to end their careers perennially with hurtful comments or nasty unpleasantries are naive indeed. Veterans like yourself are not so. This is the real world. These are real kids. And although we love them, kids can be really, really mean. Our tread wear reminds us not to forget that. In many senses, we go into a battle each year, to liberate the kids from their own developmental indiscretions, to raise them to higher levels of performance and human decency, even when it hurts (both them and us), and to help sand off the natural rough edges that come with children moving toward adulthood. We’re not so naive as to think that the kids will always like what we are doing to them, or for them. We don’t expect our thank-yous right away, do we? And certainly, we don’t think that we will always get parental or even administrative support when delivering a teachable moment or a disciplinary corrective to a student. We must be strong; we must be resilient. And we must smile. Yes, we must certainly, if we want to survive this new generation of kids, be pliable; we must be able to bend and sway with the forces that will oppose even our best-intended efforts.

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Take this analogy of leaning hard on a door, trying to enter a room when the other person was applying force to the other side. What happens when the other person releases? We fall through the door and land on our noggins. This one is quite similar to any teacher so hell bent on getting through the lesson that he/she has planned, that no time for disciplinary distractions exists in the process . . . yet, something unsuspected happens. Let’s not be too focused on tasks when relationships may play in as intervening variables. Another example: What about a boxing analogy? Why are boxers light on their feet, rather than keeping them steadfastly planted on the floor? So they can move, parry, and dodge, and in the event they get hit, they can better absorb or roll with the force and step away from it. A boxer with planted feet would soon be seeing the 10-count from the floor, up. This is sadly similar to the teacher who steadfastly will not tolerate any disruptions of the teaching environment and threatens severe action if any occur. Drawing lines in the sand and daring one to cross: not a good thing for any one person against thirty—thirty who have the potential to be much more energetic. Other analogies: bridges that aren’t engineered to sway in high winds end up breaking; so do ocean freighters that don’t allow for bending through the forces of ocean waves. We must be able to move with the normal ebbs and tides of childlike or adolescent activity. We will pay a price if not so—maybe not in day one, week one, or even marking period one. But trust me, we’ll take a fall before any given year is over. FROM A HUMAN RELATIONS STANDPOINT—WHY SMILING BEFORE NOVEMBER WORKS

Teachers should not be so stiff and firm in their demeanor that they prevent students from seeing the real person with whom they should be getting familiar. Remember, many of us became teachers because we believed in people; responded to those whose personalities we enjoyed and admired. How can anyone, let alone students, admire autocratic automatons that neither understand humor nor desire to see humor in themselves? Think about this: as teachers we probably spend more time with these kids than their parents do each day. As a caring, successful adult, just what do we want kids to equate with success? What do we want kids to learn about our personas, or with us, as successful people? That we have to be assholes to be

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successful? That we never can smile? That we have to control others because that’s what the ones controlling us are telling us to do? C’mon, we went into teaching once upon a time to make a difference. Now’s our time. We’ve earned our stripes; we’ve paid our dues, now let’s enjoy ourselves. Childlike or adolescent misbehavior is the epitome of a teachable moment. It’s fun! How we respond, what we say, and what we do for that student is insurmountably more valuable for that kid than anything else going on at that moment, than anything we could have put in our lesson plans for that day. During the first few weeks of school each year, let’s establish connections with our students through mutually enjoyable experiences, trust-building activities, and fun-filled life experiences that will be invaluable in helping them through the challenging bouts of learning that will occur throughout the entire duration of the school year. Think about this: Many of our students will have great difficulty doing what we ask them to do. The coursework will be hard; their feelings of accomplishment and reputations with their own friends will be, to them, on the chopping block every single time they perceive that they may fail something in the company of others witnessing. Time and time again, we will need to lead them through these very scary experiences. And if we were scared in a true-life situation—to the degree that many kids are scared of academic content—would we want someone we trust to help us with it, to lead us through it? Or would we select and desire one who cares little for our needs or feelings as people; one who cannot relate, and, as stated before, one who is an asshole. Think about it. Never smile until November? How about instead: Don’t worry; be happy (McFerrin 1988).

8

What is a Student? Philosophically, Theoretically, and Practically

I ask this question not as an intended solicitation for what you, over the course of your experience, have considered “the ideal” student to be, and certainly not with a quest for a lofty, idealistic answer, such as We are all students; the kids and I are lifelong learners together. My motives, remember, are straight, much as my talk. This question—What is a student?—is probably one of the simplest, most direct, and yet one of the most important questions in professional education today, the answer to which and our ability to articulate it will be allimportant as we communicate our intentions as veteran teachers to others who may question our motives and methods. We need to internalize this definition, believe in it, and act consistently upon it when we make decisions as professionals. A few years back, I knew an educator (probably an administrator, if I remember correctly —a phenomenon that begets in some a seeming need to act as if they know everything) who relayed to his fellow graduate level students something he said to his teaching staff at a meeting earlier that day. Boldly proclaiming in response to a new policy, procedure, or initiative, he stated: Is what we are doing good for the students?! As educators, it is our professional responsibility to, at all times, keep the needs of the students in mind!

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As he finished, many of his classmates were nodding at each other, exchanging a group gloat (similar to a group hug, only more lofty and smug in actuality) in celebration of their self-professed progressivity as studentcentered educators, ready to take on the fossilized generation of allegedly entrenched elder colleagues and subordinates who had, in their opinion, “lost sight of the 8 ball.” Then they looked over at their professor of educational leadership who was sitting wryly nearby. After nearly a 10-second pause, his professor said: “Did anyone tell you that you were all full of shit?” He paused. “Because they should have.” The professor then smiled. Silence hit, then a few nervous chuckles slipped out, which had an effect of testing the waters in the newly neutered atmosphere of the room. The professor went on, “For the students; for the students . . . foorrr the students. That’s all I seemingly hear from educators nowadays . . . Fooorrrr the Students!” “What about . . . Foorrr Teachers! What about . . . Fooorrrr Society! . . . After all, it is society who is putting up with these little delinquents in the first place.” “Saying that schools are for children is the same as saying that Kentucky Fried Chicken is for chickens,” he concluded. Wow! That really got me thinking. I relay to you now the true, three-part definition of a student. Students are three things. They are customers as they are referred to by the contemporary, self-professed, student-centered folk of today. Students have needs as customers do. In a sense, they can shop for things like customers do, even for schools in many cases, and if they know how to manipulate their school counselors, they can even shop for the teachers they like. You might say that in their little microcosm of society, students can even manipulate economic principles of supply and demand, as do customers in the global marketplace. More students want a class, more sections are offered; fewer students sign up, fewer are offered. A really neat analogy, this studentas-customer thing. Yet, a significant problem exists with this conception of students, however, if we use it exclusively in our definition: In our society, the customer is always right! Or at least, that’s how the saying goes. Taken to the nth degree, this depiction of a student as customer can cause problems; however, used judi-

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ciously to advocate for the need for a certain degree of customer service in our schools, this analogy fits and works quite well, yet must be aligned with the following two other depictions of “students.” The second: students are clients. Much like patients who see a doctor, students see teachers to find out what is making them unhealthy (in their case, it is a lack of an education) and to obtain a prescription from us. We prescribe courses in English, math, social studies, and science, not to mention a host of other career technical, physical fitness, and fine arts opportunities. As professionals, we do this all in the spirit of making students healthier and happier people. We are licensed and authorized by a governing board—in most cases state legislatures or assemblies—to perform the service we provide and to work with the clients that we do. Unlike the customer, a client is certainly not always right and should rarely, if ever, profess that he or she knows better than the professional under whose care he/she receives. How far can we take this analogy? Standing alone it tends to ignore factors of the marketplace that affect the survival and continuation of our schools; in the context of the aforementioned definition and the one to follow, however, it complements both nicely. Finally, students are products. A man and a woman, who bring them into the world, manufacture them at some point. Enhanced or marred both by nature and nurture during their first four years of life, they eventually come to us to be molded into something productive or unproductive, high quality or flawed, much like raw material coming into a manufacturing plant. This conception of a student brings with it the most challenging task for us as educators. Unlike most other businesses, we are obligated to take whatever raw material, in whatever quality level it comes to us, and under some severely constrained timelines, we are required to exit students as products capable of functioning effectively in a society—from an occupational standpoint, as well as from the standpoints of social well-being, mental health, psychological stability, and citizenship (Grabinski 2002). Those that push, push, and push students to achieve at higher levels are keenly aware of this “product” conception, and if judiciously utilized along with “client” and “customer,” it is quite valuable, and one all-important for our schools in meeting the demands that society places upon us. Yes, students are all of these three things, not just one. We should all keep this in mind when making decisions in the profession. Why are all three

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depictions of a student important to teachers? Well, they help us keep the focus, while doing the right things and simultaneously covering our asses. Here’s how. Oftentimes, we know that even the best teachers are called on the carpet to defend decisions they make in classroom discipline, as well as the academic decisions they made in assessing students’ work. When viewing the strategies we use or the choices we make, if we are keenly aware and are able to articulate, to others, the three-pronged definition of a student that we are relying upon, then we can justify telling students the way things are going to be and working students hard even when they complain . . . that is, if we do it with a certain degree of finesse and customer service. Keep all three in mind. This is not to say that factors of customer/client/product always need be evenly balanced through our professional viewing lenses, but they must be considered carefully, rank ordered for our particular goals under consideration, as well as weighed against each other to determine which have preeminence immediately and which do, of course, over time. Again, having this knowledge of a student as customer, client, and product will become very helpful to us as teachers and will be all-important as we make lifelong decisions about students throughout the remainder of our careers. In particular, as alluded to above, this information may be most conveniently utilized when we are confronted with abrasive, enabling parents who envision their children solely as customers (and by definition 100% right in every case), and we the service industry providers who in their minds should be saying, “Yes, madam. Of course, you’re right, madam . . . whatever you say. And can I get you anything else, such as ‘fries with that’?”

9

Your Role as a Teacher Leader

Leadership involves three main responsibilities: Getting those who report to us to do things that they typically wouldn’t do by themselves, taking those whom we are entrusted to lead from where they are to a better place, and expanding our sphere of influence and professionalism so that administrators stay off our backs and let us do our jobs. This is very challenging! How are we doing with our teacher leadership? Let’s talk about our first responsibility. Students come to us with a variety of interests, aptitudes, and abilities—many of which are not conducive, naturally, to in-class academic assignments, let alone the focus they need to achieve success. How can we lead? How can we get them to do things they typically wouldn’t do by themselves? The magic formula is as follows: First, focus on relationships and the how of communication, rather than the what we are communicating. With every connection you make, match your style of communication ever so subtly with each student’s preferred method of reception. It’s almost as if you need to speak in different languages, again, ever so subtly. Connect with your kids, yet spare yourself the embarrassment of trying to do so with adolescent vernacular. Remember: subtly. Express an interest in what students are saying and what they do in their spare time. Be real in your inquiries, giving due deference to the generation gap that you and the students enjoy. Try not to be too hip. That’s a mistake many younger educators make, or those in alternative education programs.

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Nothing’s hip about a 40–50-year-old, and that’s okay! Question students about pop culture and current, contemporary perspectives of children and young adults, but don’t feign admiration of such, if it runs counter to your values. Act your age, but be a warm, receptive adult to student viewpoints, student voice, and one with a solid barometer of ethics, responsibility, and morality. In short, be a nurturing parent in the absence of the much good parenting that many of your students need, as many biological mothers and fathers are serving more nowadays as friends, than they are as parents. Kids will do things for adults they trust, for adults that value them. They’ll even do academics, and that’s the real goal here. Focus on students’ self-efficacy. Let kids know about the struggles you had, and how you overcame them. Part of what we’re doing here in the building of self-efficacy in students is fostering a belief in them that with hard work and effort, they can accomplish. Self-efficacy can be built vicariously through relevant and real stories about how you, as a young adult or child, had to overcome. It can also be built through direct, successful experiences, where you design opportunities for success in students, again based in part on an analysis of their interests, aptitudes, and abilities. A quick trip through a group activity, where roles are assigned based on your analysis of the talents therein, is one of the many such ways to foster success for all. Self-efficacy needs continued verbal reinforcement from you as a teacher, on how most all things in life that are valued are worth working hard for . . . and demand hard work for their acquisition. A friend of mine, and master teacher, has taught at times a college preparatory class for at-risk students—a capstone experience of sorts for those who are graduating. The class demands an 8–10 page, APA-style research paper, among many other components. He’ll say to kids, “Do you know why it’s called research . . . ? Because you have to search . . . and re-search. . . and re-search again, before you find any valuable and pertinent information!” (Russiter 2008). When teaching, I focus as much on process of completing academic tasks, and the tricks of the trade for accomplishing process in academic assignments, as I do on product, with students in my classes. Show students the shortcuts, work alongside them, and roll up your sleeves with them on the grunt work of academics. That will not only show kids that you will walk your own talk, but it’s also darned necessary to build in them a sense that they want to work

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for you. Like any good leader, your troops are relying upon you not to ask them to do anything that you wouldn’t do yourself. The second aspect of your teacher leadership brings much responsibility— You must take students from where they are to a better place. Allow me to argue here that the only way to do this is with higher academic standards for all. In All Academic Disciplines. Long gone are the days, I believe, where we can track kids based on what they are good at, and forgo other academic areas of study. I still hear it all the time. “Where will kids use Algebra II in their lives?” “Where will I ever need to write a research paper?” “My kid’s going to be a welder; why does he need this stupid history credit?” Be strong, my friends! What our society needs today is people who can think. People with strong and vibrant minds. People who can process with different parts of their brains. People who can compete on the world stage, in an arena where we as a country are currently using the vast majority of the world’s resources with a very small percentage of the world’s population. That’s going to end very soon. We’re in real trouble in our society, in our country. The old story, “I’ll go to work in my uncle’s body shop,” is simply a bunch of crap, if people are in such dire straits that they can’t even afford the fuel in the cars they drive. Taking the students we lead from where they are to a better place demands that we readjust their paradigms, as well as those of their parents and even fellow educators. “I’ll never use Algebra II as a nurse.” Well, that may be true, but I’m tired of hearing that, and I don’t even care if Algebra II will ever be used again or not. You see, it’s all about intellectual and creative calisthenics. Algebra II is calisthenics. English papers are calisthenics. History lessons and textbook assignments are calisthenics. Saying that we don’t need these intellectual calisthenics for our world of work is as ludicrous as saying that the pushups and sit-ups in military basic training are unnecessary for a soldier’s eventual tour of duty. So, let’s get over that “I’ll only use it if I directly need it” mentality, and as true teacher leaders, let’s turn the paradigms of the naive and ignorant toward ones of enlightenment. After all and again, the Russians, Indians, Chinese, and Brazilians are currently eating our children’s future opportunities for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Do we want our kids to have a place at the world’s dinner table?! Finally, are we leading by expanding our sphere of influence and professionalism so that administrators stay off our backs and let us do our jobs? Or,

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conversely, are we boldly professing our professionalism as teachers, yet acting much akin to manufacturing-era shop rats with our time clock mentality and our by-the-hour philosophies. Admittedly, one may think that this has more applicability in states with teachers’ unions than those without, but it really doesn’t. This is not an indictment of labor unions, as I have worked with many fine union leaders and members, and was even written in as a building union rep myself many years ago. Yet, a cancerous, leaderless perspective exists in our profession and because of such, we can all benefit from this brief description of what teacher leadership is, and what it is not. In short, I’m not asking that we become company men to a fault. Yet, when our school is in need of a problem solved, do we lend our time and intellect, or do we ask how much we’re getting paid to do so? When the school leader (principal, director, or otherwise) calls for an extra staff meeting, do we attend with interest, or do we file a grievance, stating that it was not on the master calendar? Do we proactively call parents and solve problems of achievement by addressing them head-on, early on, or do we wait until parent/teacher conferences to host a line of despondent parents of failing students? Do we wait until a new curriculum is shoved down our throats by yet another group of regional or statewide experts who have no direct contact with students, or do we step up and partner in its development, so it can have real relevance to us? Do we participate in professional organizations, even if the dues for such come out of our pockets, or do we only involve ourselves to the degree that our school’s checkbook will allow? To say it again: Many educators profess professionalism, yet demonstrate a “time clock mentality” that appears more as a paycheck collector sucking on the public tit than a true leader in any sense. Will you work with me to encourage out of our profession those who are not true teacher leaders? They truly embarrass us all.

10

Direct Advice that Teacher Leaders Can Use as Institutional Caretakers

As teacher leaders and institutional caretakers, we know that new teachers must be taught institutional politics by veterans such as ourselves so that they can develop a nose for politics, as well as an understanding of the power and control in an institution and their need to positively politick in the school in which they work. They need to do so not only for the health of the system from within, but because of the perception of the institution from without. You as a veteran will help them establish their newfound political ability. Give them this advice, from Veteran to Protégé: 1. [From Veteran to Protégé] Ensure that you are always at school, each morning, at the moment the school is opened, or if you have a key, long before others arrive. Normally, if your classroom can be seen from the darkness outside as the only light on in the building as others arrive, you will be good to go here. 2. [From Veteran to Protégé] Never stand in line, in the morning, for copies at the copy machine. Do all of your copying during late nights and on weekends. That way, you will never raise the ire of the veteran staff members like myself who have had their slots at the copy machine at 7:20 a.m. for the last 17 years! 3. [From Veteran to Protégé] Normally, you will find that each day begins with about 15 minutes of high traffic activity, where teachers are shuffling

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papers, writing on their boards, running copies, and racing for coffee. Some teachers are oftentimes especially busy with last minute preparations during this time. You, like me, however, will not be, because you will have had all of this work done already. Make sure that during this time, you stand in the hall near your doorway and greet students, both yours and those you don’t have, with a smile and a “hello” as they walk by. Never fumble around and look hurried as others do. You may wish to have inviting music playing from within your room that can be heard faintly in the hall, during this time. I do in mine. 4. [From Veteran to Protégé] Ensure that if your school begins the day with student announcements or a whole-school televised news broadcast, your students are paying careful attention and not talking to each other during this time. Oftentimes, this is the time during the day when administrators are wandering around, ensuring that all students have made it to class and that the day has started without a hitch. They will see our performance during this time, and our students’. Know how to play the game. 5. [From Veteran to Protégé] Always leave your door open during your lessons so that the principal can walk by and be impressed. I always like it when the boss catches me on my A-Game. 6. [From Veteran to Protégé] If the principal or other teachers walk into your classroom, greet them warmly as I do, yet continue with the lesson. Do not rush toward them with a nervous greeting and a request to inquire as to why they are there. The answer is this: They can be there if they want to be there! Get over it. If they need to talk with you, they will ask you over. Most of the time, they will simply be in the room to truly enjoy a brief visit—it’s called visibility or Managing by Wandering Around (Frase and Hetzel 1990), and if our classrooms are inviting and fun places to stop by, the principal may be using them as a form of therapy to get away from a hectic office. Don’t discourage these visits. A classic technique that I use is to greet the principal warmly, then as you are talking to students, quietly walk over by the principal and without missing a beat, slip him a copy of your lesson plan for the day or a handout that you are working on with students. If at all possible, mention your visitor’s name, in passing, as an example in your lesson to students (make sure it’s complimentary).

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7. [From Veteran to Protégé] Impress upon students that you dismiss them; the bell does not. I do not let students crowd around the door toward the end of the hour; you should not either. 8. [From Veteran to Protégé] Ensure that you have a discussion with veterans like myself about your desire to respect our pet peeves, and if your lessons from time to time have greater degrees of enthusiasm, volume, or activity, make sure you run it by your neighbors to ensure that you do not interrupt their lesson plans. 9. [From Veteran to Protégé] Run occasional errands and handle clerical tasks for your academic department chairperson (preparing agendas for meetings, cleaning and sorting the department office, etc) or for me. And don’t make it appear as you’re sucking up while you are doing it. Just make our jobs easier. We’ve paid our dues; now it’s time you pay yours. Just impress us, serve us, and carry on without saying anything. 10. [From Veteran to Protégé] During lunchtime, vary your choices of the tables in the lounge where you sit. Don’t shy away from certain groups or others, especially if the lounge is unfortunately segregated by gender or culture, as they sometimes are. Sit with some groups on some days and others on others; and act as though you enjoy all of their company, even if you don’t. Don’t stay in the lounge for more than 10–20 minutes, however. Eat your lunch at a moderate pace, then exchange niceties and get right out of there to open up your classroom to students who may want a place to go. Notice, I did not say leave the lounge to prepare yourself for the next class. You should have done this the night before. 11. [From Veteran to Protégé] Always say hello or nod with a smile to the many folks you make eye contact with while traveling down the hall, both staff and students. I find that this has been worth a million dollars to me over my career. 12. [From Veteran to Protégé] Never appear that you are in a hurry to get somewhere or appear stressed, although you should never dawdle either. Walk with a charm, one that exudes confidence, purpose, and sparkle. 13. [From Veteran to Protégé] If you volunteer for additional duties, be yourself during those duties; do not try to assume the stereotypical characteristics of one in that duty. For instance, if you volunteer for lunchroom supervisory duty and if these folks usually have a scowl and a piercing eye

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as they watch for food fights or trays left on tables, do not be like them. Be yourself. Don’t be shallow. Don’t look like an assistant principal, for God’s sake! [From Veteran to Protégé] Read the staff news bulletin and any written, disseminated student announcements thoroughly each day, and always have knowledge of what is going on in the building: who is visiting, what time meetings are taking place, etc. I want you to digest my important information for me. In fact, some of us have long since stopped reading those publications and will appreciate your keeping us informed—that is, only upon our request. [From Veteran to Protégé] To avoid parental complaints, provide computerized grade sheets to your students each week, indicating to them what score they have received on every assignment to date as well as a cumulative grade for the entire class to date. Ask students to take them home and have parents sign them each week (to be returned to you). Keep these on file when students return them, and call the parents of those who don’t return them to inquire if they need another copy. [From Veteran to Protégé] Call all parents every few weeks of the students getting D’s and E’s in your classes, and call at least 10 parents per week with good news (such as A’s, B’s and/or citizenship) about their children. This goes over big! [From Veteran to Protégé] Return all, and I mean all daily assignments, to students the next day if you can do so, graded, with much feedback on them. If you do not want to stay up late each evening grading papers, you probably have gone into the wrong business. For extended essays or projects, it’s okay to take a few days or the weekend to grade, as long as you let kids know when they will be returned and stick to your self-imposed deadline! [From Veteran to Protégé] Stay longer, each evening, than any other teachers in the building, and I would suggest staying longer than most of us veterans. We have paid our dues in our earlier years; you need to now. Don’t, however, attempt to make yourself overly visible for the purpose of the right people, such as your principal, seeing you. This would be too obvious, and to some, it will ensure that you make an idiot out of yourself. Just quietly go about your business and plan for the next day. Here’s sort of a slippery (bordering slimy) way to stay visible, but if it works for you,

DIRECT ADVICE THAT TEACHER LEADERS CAN USE

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

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go for it: If you have other things to do at home, such as paying bills or sorting files, bring them to school in the evenings. From an onlooker’s standpoint (from afar), it will look as though you are doing schoolwork. And this isn’t really overt deception, mind you, just a little “blarney”; folks create their own personal perceptions of what you’re doing; you simply provide the platform from which they make assumptions. [From Veteran to Protégé] Feel free to go out with us, your veteran teachers, if asked, on Fridays for drinks, beers, etc. Yet, if we ask you to do so many times each week (such as on the midweek days), do not make it a rule that you join us all the time. We may invite you, but in actuality, we want you, oftentimes, to decline. After all and again, we paid our dues at one time too, and heaven forbid, you should not have to do so. Truth told, we like to see you toil at work—not to mention, we like to chuckle about your sweat, while we drink and revel in your neophytic circumstance. [From Veteran to Protégé] Try to refrain from being seen with a clubhopping, young bar crowd in the town that you teach. You should stay away from 18–24-year-old bars and clubs in all circumstances. If you want this type of club energy, go to a different town, far away, and get a hotel room. [From Veteran to Protégé] Volunteer for any summer school classes that are being taught and/or any evening classes in community education that are offered. I don’t have a lot of time for that anymore. [From Veteran to Protégé] Ask advice from us on what masters degree programs might be appropriate for you as a new teacher in that district. Do not start on this during the summer after your first year; wait until after your second. During the first summer, ensure that you are working hard on your unit and lesson planning, as well as curriculum mapping and instructional delivery, so that you slam dunk year two. That should be your main focus. [From Veteran to Protégé] Find a niche in the extracurricular activity arena—one that is hard for the principal to fill. Sink your teeth into it, whether it is school newspaper, sports coaching, drama club, etc., and make it an outstanding program. You want to pick only one or two and do them really, really well; however, because (1) your future in teaching will have more to do with classroom performance —far, far more—than with extracurriculars, in spite of what many “coaching types” will tell you, and (2) for ethical reasons, you don’t want to desert four out of your five

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extra duty posts once acquiring tenure in a district (if your state offers teacher tenure). This would place a hardship on your principal, school, and students. Be honest about the load you can handle; again, make sure it is an important one for your principal; and do it very, very well. 24. [From Veteran to Protégé] Coordinate one or two big events, very public events, per year, and play a visible part in those. And please don’t screw them up. Possible events are school fashion shows, school talent shows, awards nights, national honor society inductions, and school drama productions. The public, and your principal, need to see you land a few big, but manageable, events that have significance for your school. It will really help cement you as part of the bricks and mortar around here. 25. [From Veteran to Protégé] Never, never, never say a negative remark about fellow new teachers to even the most trusted colleague. People will ask you how you feel they are doing, even though you are new, yourself. This is the chance you have to play the selfless, forever optimistic, supporting colleague role and muster a few positives about the other that you can accentuate. Your place is not yet to have an opinion about others. You are an institutional caretaker and a teacher mentor. Your school’s reputation demands that you foster political savvy in your protégé. Help out our newbies. It’s a jungle out there. Professionals like ourselves are entrusted to impart the rituals and norms of the schools in which we work, as well as the political capital to navigate a new experience until newbies become part of the school culture. One such experience involves your giving new teachers advice on how to handle conversations with the principal. At some point during the first year or so of teaching your protégé will encounter the phenomenon—Going to the principal’s office. I was there countless times as a new teacher. Thankfully, it was normally because my ideas were too radical or my approaches to things unorthodox. In fact, my first principal once said to me, “Son . . . you’re probably going to drive me nuts with all of these wild ideas of yours. But I’d rather hold you down, than have to kick you in the ass to get some work outta ya.” That was the way it went for a year or so. It, however, came to the point where the inevitable struck. That principal retired; a new guy came to town, and from time to time, I was no longer in trouble for being a little too pro-

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gressive; I was called to the office for making my principal’s life too complicated. I was a rebellious teacher, plain and simple, and a freedom-of-thepress-expounding, student journalism advisor—which brings about its own share of headaches for principals—and I was lucky I didn’t get more of a kick in the ass than I did. In our mentoring roles, let’s tell our new teachers this: If you ever think that you are in a bit of hot water, oftentimes what appears to be major trouble to a newer teacher is probably in reality small potatoes for the principal on the job. Usually, if you are in bigger trouble, you may not have the ability to concretely realize just how much trouble you’re in, and you’ll need to be reminded. I say these for a few reasons. First of all, many new teachers who are summoned to the principal’s office for, let’s say, a parental or student complaint, are usually stressed and distraught over the situation. Claims of unfairness, allegations of singling students out and being out to get them, or even the call made home where your intentions were good, yet the parents claimed you were rude, unprofessional, or distant on the phone. All of these are huge in their minds, but they need to trust us as mentors on this; they are usually really small papers on the principal’s big desk pile. For the sake of efficiency and the perception of fairness, principals must discuss these with the new teachers. However, they only want to briefly deal with these and get them off their desks. The only real times when these things morph into a big deal are when the new teachers don’t know how to respond. The worst response being defensiveness; the second worst, overexplanation. Both lend themselves to the outcome of the principal spending more time on these problems than he originally planned. The former of the two, as well as the latter, leads the principal to make a mental note that this person is not resilient enough for the job; is insecure about his/her performance; or even worse, cannot accept constructive criticism (and thus, will eventually, once tenured, become a hostile, aggravating employee). How to handle this? Simply encourage your new teachers to ask the principal for clarification of the incident. Have them mention to the principal that the other person’s perception is and was certainly not their intent. Then have them ask the question, “What can I do to help patch up this situation?” Normally, the principal will ask them to simply make a mental note of the situation—deem no follow-up necessary—and admonish the new teacher to

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strive for it not to happen again. Sometimes, he will ask the new teachers to call home to parents and further explain their intent; however, this is often done in his office so that more perceptual inaccuracies or communication mishaps are not possible. In a few instances, he will state that he will follow up with the parents so that he can put this situation to rest. Above all, admonish your new teachers to avoid the mistake of bringing up the situation with the parent or student post-incident if the principal wants to close it. Tell them to not bring it up. They will do damage to the manner in which the principal is closing it. We never know. He may be dealing with a head-case parent who would like nothing more than to make the new teacher’s career end shortly or make life difficult for the school. The only way the principal, in this case, may be able to assuage the concerns of this parent is to say that he has taken due action to handle the mishap in a way that the parent feels that the new teacher has been disciplined. This may sound screwy, but it is often the only way to protect a teacher—to have the perception that the principal has handled it. Just think if your protégé brought up this situation later in talking with that same parent, with the parent saying, “We’re sure glad you got a good ass chewin’. If not, we would have gone to the Board of Education!” Then imagine your protégé saying, “What chewin’ are you talking about?” An even angrier parent could then go back at the principal and cause real problems with the board or superintendent, and a situation once put to bed is now one of even more hostility and distrust. Share with your protégé that a wise head keeps a shut mouth. On the issues of minor reprimands, butt chewings, and the like, your advice to new teachers should be quite simple: You will remember the incident and will brood over it long after your principal does. In fact, usually by the next morning, incidents such as allegations of unfairness, attitudes with parents, or lack of discipline in a classroom situation are oftentimes shoved so far off the front burner of a principal’s mind that these incidents will only engrain themselves (a) if teachers are defensive or overexplanatory when being talked to about it or (b) if they act in strange or stupid ways afterward. What do I mean by (b)? Well, your protégé shouldn’t be seen talking to other veteran teachers, in small huddles in the lounge, about the incident. That would be stupid. If they need advice, tell them to meet you at the coffee shop or at the bar, so that after a few drinks, they’ll probably realize how triv-

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ial the situation is to the big picture of their career. Another thing about (b), they shouldn’t continually remind the principal of the previous incident through insecure, offhanded, seemingly innocent and well-meaning comments, such as, “Mr. So and So, I think you’ll be quite happy with the way I handled Mrs. So and So on the phone last evening. Unlike the last time, when she said such and such, I said . . .” First of all, the principal probably already has something pressing on his mind, such as a school violence issue or the superintendent-chewing-him-outon-something-else issue, and he doesn’t want to hear about the situation again (but probably would feign his attention to their drivel as his mind wanders). Second, why should any new teachers remind the principal of something that he has already shoveled to the back of his mind? Nothing like stirring up the stink, while wasting their supervisor’s time, to throw crap on their own reputations as a solid, professional educator. Keep in mind—principals want new teachers to be a success without their help—most of the time—so that they don’t have to take themselves away from issues of building security, order, staffing, discipline, politics, and their own job security to help them. That’s what you as a veteran are for! Forget all that crap about principals wanting to help new teachers because of their profound desires to be instructional leaders over that of building managers; if the principal has building disciplinary issues to deal with, tell the newbie to stay the hell out of his way and out of his mind. What about big issues where your protégé screws up? They lost sight of a kid on a field trip, and the kid gets hurt. They forget to collect medication before the trip to the amusement park and someone has an asthma attack and an ambulance has to be called. They leave their classroom to run some copies, and a fight breaks out. A chaperone, who is a friend of theirs, drinks while at a school event or function and gets caught, and the new teacher was there, knew about it, and didn’t say anything. Believe it or not, because of the principal’s knowledge of school law, liability, negligence, and the legal standards of willful and wanton misconduct, the new teachers may not realize how serious these things are at first, but you can ensure that they do. The first thing I recommend is that you share with them the need to be completely candid with all aspects of the situation that pertain to the immediate safety of the students or school. It is no shame to tell the truth.

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The principal needs the information so that the students immediately affected are safe, and so that the school district, and even your protégé in many instances, are protected in the immediate steps they take, through the schools’ liability insurance coverage. The second thing I would recommend is that you share with them the need to immediately proceed to a union building representative or advocate, if one is available. In most all cases, these folks will strive vigorously to protect your protégé. They are there to represent and to protect all teachers’ interests, as you know. Now if your protégé has done something really wrong, let’s say, so wrong that he or she should go to jail such as committing a willful or hurtful crime, then that’s another story, and in good conscience, I’m not going to encourage you to offer support in that instance. In closing this chapter, I want to stress your significant responsibility of mentoring others into our profession and taking care of the institution. Teacher leaders should be providing the care and feeding for the young in the profession, so that their mistakes can be considered, as my friend and colleague, Fr. Patrick O’Connor, a Catholic Church priest terms my own: “Opportunities for wisdom that God has granted us.”

III

THROUGH A SIDE DOOR IN A SCHOOL THAT’S NOT ABOUT US

11

When Parents Enable

What part do parents play in helping shape raw material (i.e., students) for the better? Well, if we are very lucky, the parents will support our efforts and all that we try to impart upon their kids and will provide a home environment that supports learning and self-betterment. If it’s a normal day like any other, however, our students’ parents may work against—unknowingly or knowingly—the values and responsibilities that we as veteran teachers are trying to impart to students, and in the most serious of behavioral situations, anyway, parents will blindly defend their kids’ actions, blaming the school for picking on them, and giving all of us a deepened appreciation for apples, trees, and how far one falls from the other. Yet, I continually forgive parents for this, even though usually they are half the reason why the kids are out of control. After years of not doing so, I now understand them and have gotten better with my patience and at adjusting the lens with which I view parents and their interactions with school officials. Quinn (2001) planted this seed in my mind, when he stated (I’m paraphrasing from a speech): I didn’t understand parents, or where they were coming from, until I had a child of my own. When standing in the delivery room holding my new child, all I could think about was the unconditional love I had for my baby at that moment. From then on, when angry parents would storm into my office and accuse me of picking on their son or daughter, I would understand that they, too, 53

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could be very well looking at their child, albeit of teenage years, through the same lens with which I viewed my child upon birth, when this love of my life was solely dependent upon me for affection, protection, and survival.

In reality, as veteran teachers who know our profession, we must patiently educate bad behavior and plan on the parents fighting us every step of the way. Yet, let’s not prostitute ourselves to such a degree that we encourage the enabling behavior also, by letting parents steamroll us into a permissive position. Tact and diplomacy require us to stand our ground at times, to in a sense learn how to tell a parents to go to hell in a way that they look forward to the trip. Yet, we can’t devalue the parent in the process, certainly not in front of their child. We must, at times, plan for our message not to be reinforced at home and further, for our needing to reteach and reinforce the same message to students time and time again. They just can’t be expected to “get it” from the outset with conflicting deliverers all around them—friends, family, etc. We must understand that as the proverb states, there is not a tree in Heaven that is higher than the tree of patience.

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Instant Messaging for Parent Meetings

Building on the last chapter, I would like to offer some key utterances that can be interwoven into your conversations with parents, that are invaluable in establishing a partnership where the parents are on your side, rather than in your face or on your back. Please consider using these: “Thank you for your taking your time away from your busy day.” “Thank you for visiting. I need your help.” “You are the best expert on your son/daughter, [name].” “What more can I do, and how can I help?” [To student] “It’s obvious why you’re such a smart kid; you get it honestly.” [When being confronted by a parent about the way you have treated the child] “What is your understanding of the conversation that took place?” “I’m very sorry that you’re upset. Please let me try to offer something that will help.” “Parenting is much harder than teaching, I realize.” “Success for kids today is a ‘team sport.’ I can’t do it without your help; [child’s name] can’t do it without your help.”

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“You are welcome in my classroom at any time.” “Please let me offer a few ways for us to keep in touch.” More than anything else, when conversing with parents, we should spend the majority of time listening to them, rather than talking ourselves. We must nod and affirm what they are saying, and even if we disagree, we must value their input. We must listen, not simply wait for pauses where we can interject pearls of our own wisdom, but truly listen. Then, we can pause after they give input and give them the respect of our silent, thoughtful reflection of what they have shared, saying after a few moments, “May I try my best to respond?” We need to foster a sense of empowerment in parents through instant messaging. Again, they brought their children into the world. They love their kids. Oftentimes, we say to ourselves in teacher/teacher conversations, “Well, we don’t go into the parents’ jobs and tell them how to run them!” We certainly would if their jobs affected our own kids. A final note that if parents and kids are together, talking to you, then one of our main jobs is to value and cherish the parent, as a parent and professional, in front of the child. Parents do spend an inordinate amount trying not to be embarrassed in front of their children, and we must help them here.

13

“It’s Not about Us”

What is it about teaching that seems to draw to our profession people whose territoriality and need for control pale only in comparison to their collective insecurity and me-centered perspective? Politically incorrect, you say? A slam or criticism? Be careful, the defensiveness involved in your aspersion cast is a case in point, indeed. Admitting I may be onto something in my seemingly heavyhanded assessment above may be our first step toward a true understanding, a first step toward healing, and more important, our first step toward cessation of the unconscious, degenerative personality traits that may forever impair our profession’s ability to do good work, if we don’t get them under control. Let’s examine the symptoms further and reflect. Territoriality and need for control are not always bad things, if what we mean by them are as follows: The desire to set our stake in classrooms of our own, wherein we lead and design the learning experience, foster a climate that works for the learners, and utilize our room or sphere of geographic or pedagogical influence much as would an artist who wishes others to steer clear of his/her canvas. Positive manifestations of a need for control involve our professional desire to self-direct our careers, as well as empowering ourselves in making decisions for teaching and learning and expecting that school leaders and

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administrators will not micromanage our best efforts on behalf of kids, school, and community. Far more insidious, however, than the power and influence of these positive traits of psychology and personality are others that do not necessarily work to fashion us properly as professional educators—I’m referring to insecurity and the me-centered perspective. My definition of this insecurity can be demonstrated through the use of another term’s definition—my often-used definition of adolescence that I have borrowed from someone whose name escapes me—a speaker at one of those many, many conferences I attended over the years. Adolescence: A period in life wherein one spends 1,000 hours per week in a never-ending quest to avoid embarrassment in front of one’s peers at all costs, in many cases costs that at minimum are much more important than life, itself.

In short, adults who have not shed this adolescent trait and are employed in our field of teaching are bringing irreparable stress to themselves and harm to others. Examples of an adult’s manifestation of this trait are as follows: “Don’t you talk back to me as your teacher,” “Because I said so,” and “If you interrupt me one more time, I’ll send you down to the principal’s office.” What we’re really seeing is a person who in a sense is saying to the student whom he/she is correcting, “Don’t embarrass me in front of my peers, who are your classmates, because I’m insecure and if I avoid embarrassment in front of the class, I’ll get through the day feeling good about myself, because I’m a fairly fragile person.” And of course, “Since I am powerless to deal with you, I’ll send you to someone more equipped than I.” My question is continually this: Why must this person, our colleague, have his or her needs met in this fashion? I, of course, have an answer: Because this person is in need of psychological intervention, or at minimum, a motivational, self-help CD. So where do the me-centered characteristics rear their ugly heads? In the following responses from all of our colleagues that may seem all too familiar: “I have only so much time in a day, and I just can’t get around to everyone. You’ll just have to patiently wait your turn or ask another for help.”

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“I can’t be expected to call every parent of every failing student in my classes. When would I find the time?” “How much is the pay for staying after school beyond 3:00 p.m.? Is this in my contract?” It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand how this mentality works against the healthy education of youth in our schools. Put together, the four characteristics—territoriality, need for control, insecurity, and me-centeredness—are present as follows: Teacher to principal: “Did you hear what Johnny said about me . . . the names he used?! I will not have that sort of disrespect for me and my ability to teach coming from any students in this school. I will not have it! I demand that he’s suspended, and if I’m not supported, I’ll file a grievance.” Teacher to parent: “The paper is a “C” paper, as noted on the top of the page. Feedback? The students know what I expect. I’ve been teaching English for 24 years and need not defend my assessment of student work.” Unfortunately, the examples in this book can only highlight the verbal manifestations of the deleterious characteristics mentioned in this chapter. With a huge percent or portion of communication between and among human beings being nonverbal, imagine how many unspoken traits of control, me-centeredness, territoriality, and insecurity are part and parcel of a regular day in school, such as shrugs, grunts, rolling of eyes, curt tones of voice, sighs, and/or combative body positioning. It truly is pervasive in education, and it truly is sad. C’mon, we know this as veterans—we see this up and down our hallways. It doesn’t have to be that way, however, for our colleagues in schools. I pose to you that we adopt and share with others a new paradigm from which to operate; we should adopt a new lens with which to view every situation and a scale with which to weigh options for communication and relationships, and then model it for others. The paradigm, lens, and scale is: It’s Not about Us, with the us referring to the educators in the schools. It’s Not about Us is an expression used by my colleagues and I, over the years, during our time in a small, yet challenging school setting for at-risk teens from ages 14–20. We had kids with real problems!

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It means that no matter what we do, no matter to whom we speak, no matter which situations we find ourselves in, and no matter how stressful our days, we can’t afford to respond as professionals in a way that is perceived that we are meeting our own needs, as a primary goal, above those of the students. The reality, however, is that we unapologetically take care of our needs as preeminent, yet the perception is that we subordinate our needs to those of the students and other stakeholders, such as parents or community members. To say it another way—our jobs at school, our professional responsibilities, require us to set on the shelf our own personal baggage and shed our insecurities, as well as our bad mornings and disagreements with our spouses and difficulties with our own kids, at the schoolhouse door. We have other obligations that take center stage until we return home again: those to our students, to our school, and to our community. Again, it’s not about us. Again, the reality is that we take care of ourselves first and ensure that our needs are being met, so that we have the energy to give others the perception that our needs come second. What would this look like? Remaining calm in front of angry and combative people who are criticizing us. Hearing from the counselor’s office a student emoting and criticizing our performance in the classroom, yet not needing to enter the room and engage the student by defending ourselves. Choosing to listen patiently to an insane parent who is out of touch with reality. Again, the energy from which to deliver an it’s not about us persona comes from taking care of ourselves first—health, friendships, family time, and balance of work and leisure activities—yet the perception of others in schools is that we act as if our entire focus of attention is on the students’ success, even in situations where we are being besmirched antagonistically. Most students in the particular school from which this saying was coined have been the products of abuse and neglect, and many have turned, themselves, into perpetrators. A good portion of them have been in trouble with the law, some even convicted felons of both property and violent crimes. Countless have been expelled from other schools, and at times, upwards of 20–25 percent are either special education certified, special education needy yet uncertified, teen parents, or all three. Many, when they have come to us, had nearly given up hope for success and lifelong accomplishment, at least to the level and degree that we see is possible.

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To deal with these students—who themselves are insecure, territorial, me-centered, and in need of a personal sense of control, as well as really, really angry—without an it’s not about us philosophy in our toolbox, we would be using a recipe for abysmal failure. The same is true, however, for normal, run-of-the-mill adolescents. Part of adolescence is simply having real problems of insecurity and mecenteredness, at risk of graduating or not. An it’s not about us philosophy is quite difficult for some adults in schools, very uncomfortable for others, especially at the beginning of their trying it out; and yet for a distinct few, it fits like a well-worn glove. Very refreshing to those who are longing for new perspectives and have not yet found a philosophical, psychological, and practical application home, the it’s not about us approach is probably the antithesis of much regular interplay that exists between teachers and students. It’s not about us involves going into each day, then each class period, and finally into each student interaction, both verbal and nonverbal, with the following things in mind: First of all, we must ensure that all communications with students must be individualized in their deliveries to most effectively open the minds of students and prepare their schematic palates for the work of art we are about to create on them. Creating a receptive audience is of paramount importance, especially with those kids who bring baggage to school or who have had negative educational experiences in the past, or with those who are just plain in puberty or beyond, causing things to naturally go haywire. Second, as teachers we have to take the me out of our situations and make an attempt to view the I that is interacting with our students, from sort of an out-of-body perspective or third person he/she perspective. Through this uncommon sense approach, we watch ourselves and police our responses as others would view us from the outside, sort of like we’re watching our own reactions to and conversations with students on TV, with the appropriate captioning of each other’s thoughts and nonverbals, for our review. Psychologically, this helps us separate from the me who is talking to the kid. Third, we must think to ourselves, and reinforce in ourselves, that we do not need the student masses for self-worth or adoration, in order to feel good, to feel valued, and/or to maintain a good quality of life for ourselves. We need not need our students for issues of esteem or efficacy, and we need to focus on

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our other avenues toward self-concept building and/or find some if we have none. Certain life-actualizing events assist us along this path, such as having children of our own, as well as positive hobbies or recreational pursuits that bring us a great deal of personal satisfaction or psychological well-being. In any event, something else, besides our students, must create our wholeness and contentment, if we are to be successful. The next thing we do to maximize the it’s not about us is to realize that some things just shouldn’t be worried about. This concerns the concept of control. An old friend once told me, “Why worry about things you can control, because you can control them. And don’t worry about things you can’t control . . . because you can’t control them anyway. No use stressing yourself out.” We all must shed the notion of controlling students, and the notion of a need to control students. Now we certainly can influence them though our actions, and we can certainly react to them with varying degrees of proficiency, thus influencing positively or negatively how our situations with them will turn out. But can we really control other people? Not really. So we should try not to worry about it and spend our better efforts creating an environment that will work to influence the positive behaviors and outcomes that we are hoping for in the first place. In short, we need to devise strategies to get students to control themselves. This is what is meant by “going through the side door” with students. When communication occurs, it oftentimes seems natural to be direct with our students—to tell them, frankly, what’s on our mind. When we’re talking with students, especially when we are attempting to redirect their behavior, we often will have the temptation to shoot straight with them, letting them know what behavior we expect and what they should do to accomplish this. Many of our new teachers are even trained as such, and although a front door approach may work with most of the compliant anyway students, it does not work with all. The front door is a direct power play (often futile with at-risk students) wherein we attempt to gain compliance by telling students just what we want them to do; whereas the side door is much better in many cases, almost as if we’re visiting our students’ worlds alongside them, to take a mutual stroll toward the students’ realizing that their behavior is working against their best wishes, and therefore needs to change. This is truly using uncommon sense.

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Finally, to establish an it’s not about us framework, we must continually remind ourselves that when we communicate with students, we need to place in the forefront of our mind’s eye the three-pronged definition of a student noted earlier—customer, client, and product—and seek to influence the outcome of the situation with those parameters in mind. Doing this will take the us out of the picture, as well as any territoriality we may have. Applying this philosophy to our lives as teachers, for example, in our interactions with kids, we need to communicate with them to a certain degree as our customers; we are working to meet their needs with a certain degree of service and friendliness so that they will be more satisfied with what we are providing to them. Note the focus is on them, not us. We must also communicate with them as our clients—we are offering our professional advice to them, based on a deficiency they need to correct, for their own good so that they can become happier individuals. Note again that the focus is on doing something for them, not for us as me-centered teachers. Finally, we must also communicate with them as products being prepared for release into society; we are working toward goals that our community will find very important. Again, the focus is off of us and onto something such as the kid and community. Now this is not to say that we must give equal weight to all of the depictions—customer, client, and product—in all interactions. Some of our communication may be 90 percent customer, 5 percent client and 5 percent product. Others may be 10 percent customer, 40 percent client and 50 percent product. That’s up to our professional discretion, based on the intricacies of the situation and our keen knowledge of the student in question. The key is, again, in focusing on those three definitions so that we take our me-centered tendencies as a human being out of the equation. This is not to say that the term me can’t be used. It can. In fact, used judiciously and carefully, it can be one of the most powerful tools in our arsenals. This holds true in the context of I-messages, in which we share with the students some of the needs that we have. Here’s where it gets a little tricky. We are actually using a little psychological warfare of sorts. For example, we may say to a student who has had a history of making rude or snide remarks to us, “You know, when you say that to me in front of the class, I get a little defensive; in fact, we all do from time to time. I know that at times I may rub you the wrong way or say things that upset you,

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but please trust me, I don’t mean to do so. I’m just trying to help you out. But could we both do each other a little favor, so that I’m not getting defensive and you’re not either? (Side door approach; notice the “stroll” that the teacher and student are taking together) If we have a problem with each other, let’s give each other a sign to indicate that we need to talk after class . . . away from the class . . . the crowd, the audience, whatever. That way, I won’t react off-target, and you won’t either. And we probably can get what’s bothering us solved a little easier. Will you do this for me please?” And then I would suggest that we simply smile, nod, and turn and walk away and not wait for the response. We just walk away, assume compliance, and avoid a power struggle. We’ve just left the student something to think about, not argue about. Turning and walking works (Fay and Funk 1995). An Irish proverb fits well here, When wrathful words arise, a closed mouth is soothing. Well, if it isn’t about us, what is it about? Answer: Everyone else—i.e., kids and community. That’s the way education should work. That’s where the perceived focus should lie when we’re dealing with kids.

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More on Student-as-Product— Education’s Raw Material

Wow are kids screwed up! With single parent families the majority, some would argue, with fetal alcohol syndrome at alarming rates, with crack babies springboarding into our hospitals with little if any chance of lifelong normalcy, and with a generation of parents abrogating most all responsibilities of firm boundary setting and role modeling so that they can befriend their offspring and play buddy, buddy, it’s no wonder that educators complain about the 4-to-5-year-old raw material left on their kindergarten doorsteps each year (or the 5-to-20-year-olds attending grades 1–12). Many would say that nowadays, a larger number of poor little bastards are gimping sideways up the fallopian tubes than ever before, with the poor ladyegg having to select from a very shallow pond of perspective suitors—not that she’s any prize either—sort of like the belle of the ball at a laundromat’s singles night, next to the welfare office. You know it. I know it. We all know it. This situation, as much as we would like to wish it away, fix it, or in any event, improve it, is not going to improve. Society and its offspring are outside any of our cocentric universes of control. There’s a fool born every minute, and every one of them lives. We can, however, take these kids—our raw material—from where they begin with us, to where they have the capability to reach, given the natures and nurtures that they are dealt and the natures and nurtures as we can affect them. And we can affect, to a certain degree—and I say this despite my disdain

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for bureaucrats who blame us for everything—both nature and nurture, even if some educators say we can’t. Educators who give up on society’s most unfortunate are just exercising their shallow attempts to shirk accountability for student achievement. I personally believe that if one, such as myself, is to call many bureaucrats a bunch of clueless idiots, then I, while throwing the stones, should still try to perform miracles with society’s contemporary kids. Responsibility, pride, and a feeling that I’m only as good as my next day’s work: that’s just my way. What we cannot do is to become cynical. What we cannot do is lose our sense of humor about the human condition—yes, that dry, snide, off-themark humor that allows us to cope in spite of the abject treacheries around us—and we cannot allow our sense of responsibility toward helping those less fortunate than ourselves to dim with each disappointing soul we meet or with each challenging year of service. If we keep hoping for the raw material to get better, we’re fooling ourselves and shortchanging the present with a hope and a whim about the future that will never greet us. If we’re not ready to deal with a degenerating moral and social fabric each year we cut and shape the human cloth, then we need to take rapid steps toward a new profession so that others more well suited to the calling have a chance to serve. Remember, as mentioned earlier, it’s not about us. How do we cope, in general, with the degenerating raw material that comes our way, as well as the frustrations about the million and one things that seemingly get in the way of our teaching academics to those youth and demonstrating that they have grown in performance? How do we deal with quality control and improvement, when little quality exists at the outset? First of all, we must deal with the manifested characteristics of student behavior before tackling academics. We must realize that the path toward the brain is best traveled through the heart, as well as the human emotions. And to most effectively navigate that path, we all must do something so complex, yet at the same time so simple, that to actually carry it out defies most people’s comprehension. For students who are behaving in a manner that convinces us that society is truly screwed without a kiss—we must Forgive Them in Advance. The them I’m referring to are the students. Kids spread rumors, cheat, steal; kids will betray our confidence; and kids will think nothing about sacrificing our professional reputations for the sake

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of their short-term gain or interpersonal conquests. I forgive them in advance for doing so. Kids cheat on their assignments; kids hassle other kids; kids berate their parents; they write on desks and walls, and even pee on the toilet seats in the restrooms. For these, I forgive them in advance. Kids skip school, do drugs, smoke cigarettes, drive recklessly, break the law, fight, cheat on their boyfriends and girlfriends, and will even lie right to our faces, when the truth would serve them better. Again, I forgive them in advance. We must forgive. For the sake of argument, let’s say we should forgive most all things that kids can do in the context of normal adolescent mistakes and even juvenile delinquency. Part of a growing and developing kid’s job description will be to do most all of the aforementioned. If we don’t realize this going into the profession, then we are fooling ourselves. At the beginning of this book, I cautioned those who have never lived (i.e., made stupid teenage or adult mistakes) against going into teaching. In my opinion, we need to all be real before we can effectively deal with reality. If we hold students’ naturally occurring and developing job descriptions against them (which, of course, includes the phrase, “All other duties that kids can screw up as assigned. . .”) and thus misdirect or withhold our services to them, when they so desperately need our guidance and direction, we will be sacrificing the “most teachable moments” of childhood or adolescence. We can’t kill the naturally occurring kids in front of us, and then expect to teach to the lifeless corpses left behind after we berate them into submission. As the proverb states, It’s no time to go for the doctor when the patient is dead. Misbehavior must be seen as our teachable moment. If we see red when misbehavior occurs, then we won’t be able to teach to it, plain and simple. When surgery needs to be performed, the surgeons probably shouldn’t be harboring resentment toward the patients, should they? We’re surgeons too, just tugging on different wires and stitching up lost souls, that’s all. Over many, many sessions of playing with students’ internal wiring mechanisms concerning interpersonal, emotional, and behavioral issues, something miraculous will truly happen, even in the most resistant situations—a smidgen of trust develops.

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The students, even in some miniscule, microscopic way, will eventually trust our advice, or someone’s advice, if they’re treated right. That, there, is the very same pathway—tread ever so lightly—that must be used to offer encouragement toward academic achievement, high school completion, employability skills, and all other main responsibilities or outcomes of school, as most would view them. That’s our goal: the end product, if you will, of our raw material. We must forgive students in advance; and as you can see, it’s not because of some perverse, liberal, pillow-soft notion of loving all children for the sake of love and loving, and all of that hogwash. It’s about what we must do to take a piece of raw material to a greater and higher level of refinement and output. Notice I didn’t say forget. Just like the saying goes, we can forgive but of course, we should not forget the behaviors in the students whom we have forgiven. A good educator would never do so. I also didn’t say enable or ignore. Forgiving is not a sign that we are doing either. This author/educator (yes, me, myself, and I) has either directly or indirectly sent more youth to juvenile detention centers and/or testified, resulting in adult students going to county jails, than probably many in the schools today. We all must set boundaries, and the students should know that if they cross them, we are going to do something about it. However, they also should know and believe that we will not devalue them as people, even if we happen to be quite disappointed in their actions. Even if we send them to jail. Even if we refuse to enable their behavior while they are in trouble. One example illustrates these points: Recently, I received a call late one evening, as I sat on my deck with wife and children, from a kid, well, a 17-year-old young man named, let’s say, Josh, for confidentiality’s sake. His dad didn’t have a phone, Mom changed her number, and Josh didn’t have anyone to call from jail. He had recently moved in with friends, and Mom and Dad were splitting up—a sad situation. His oneand-only call so to speak was made to me, as his mentor—well, today, inmates in our county jail can make numerous calls, as I soon found out, if we are willing to accept them collect. Josh was distraught, seemingly unwilling or unable to handle jail, as it was his first time. Of course, many of his older siblings and friends had traveled that path before—one of which I had to send back to jail two years earlier while on school release at my school.

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Josh had been arrested—a pretty bad case, yet this seemed a true wake-up call. Pleading for bail money, Josh insisted that he would pay me back if released—he was good for the money as he claimed. He then stated that he couldn’t do jail, and he didn’t know what he was going to do. I feared that he would do something stupid, or harmful to himself and others. Well, I talked at length to him—on my dime, of course—and assured him that he truly, probably deserved to be right where he was, at present. I did, however, offer to contact family and even his minister to alert them to his incarceration, so that if they deemed it appropriate to lend support, that they could decide to do that. I also secured an immediate psychological assessment for him at the jail, taped a note to his father’s new address’s doorway alerting him to the incarceration, tracked down his mother’s number through the church they attended, contacted his minister who would be allowed in jail, and again reiterated to Josh that I would not be raising or contributing to his bail/bond money. Speaking with his older brother, whom I had sent to jail a few years ago— we shared an understanding that a wake-up call was what Josh needed to redirect himself. Josh was released, pending sentencing, a few weeks later, found me in the drive-through of a bank, and while his father and I awaited our turns in line (adjacent lanes), Josh thanked me for the help, offering to pay back the hefty phone charges that I accepted. I thanked him for that, and mentioned that his never making the same stupid mistakes again would be payment enough. He insisted again that he pay. I thought in the back of my mind—Does this mean he PLANS on doing the same thing, again? Yet again, we must all forgive, help, care, assist—but we shouldn’t be so naive that we enable and lose sight of the tendencies inside. I valued Josh as a person, supported him through a tough time, forgave him for his stupidity, yet did not enable through what little help I offered, and he appreciated receiving. He still calls from time to time. Oftentimes, when I am in court testifying either against some of my students, or on behalf of them, as the case may be, I use the following line with the judge, prosecution, or defense, which speaks to my own philosophy about forgiving and forgetting: “My school is all about second chances; however, I

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make darned sure that students take full responsibility for their first mistakes, first!” I believe strongly that part of our teaching students how to take responsibility for themselves and to be successful is to forgive them for their humanity, then afterwards, to move on to a more clinical analysis of their behaviors, the context, and the consequences, so that the students can thoroughly analyze what has occurred, what they have done, and what has come about as a result of it. Then, over time, their raw material can be refined to the point— via our educational manufacturing process, as it were—wherein they can make better decisions. I mentioned earlier that both nature and nurture affect those students coming to our classrooms at early ages and leaving upon graduation. In realizing that our raw material is not quality control checked on the way into our educational plants, we can still take measures to upgrade it in a way that results in improvements, even with both nature and nurture fighting us to a large degree. How to affect nature? We can learn about learning disabilities, emotional impairments, and what specific types of classroom and behavioral strategies bring about improvements in learning, given those conditions. Great improvements have come about in understanding how instruction in a multiple intelligences format can greatly enhance the chances of students succeeding who may have certain cognitive impairments or genetic limitations. For physical appearance, we can counsel students toward certain medical interventions or the use of certain hygienic products or practices, and can even provide makeovers to older students. Service organizations, such as the Lions Club, provide eyeglasses to those who can’t afford them. Can we affect nature to a great degree? Well, we can do what we can do, and we’re learning more all the time. How to affect nurture? The list is endless: peer tutoring, homework hotlines, peer or older adult mentoring, counseling—both individual or group, student clubs and activities, adventure education, extended-day programs, community education, small learning communities, double-dipping academics to attack skill deficits, drug intervention, evening sporting activities, weekend camp opportunities, boys and girls clubs, crisis hotlines, and all other activities that help bring assets into the lives of kids who do not have those assets at home with their families. Think ideally, that if these surface assets are

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provided to students, coupled with a deeper systemic asset development approach—such as valuing the way we feel about, behave toward, and provide for youth in society—imagine the inroads we would make toward higher achievement and personal satisfaction for all! The main goal of efforts in this area of nurturing is to break the degenerative cycle of bad life decisions, by partnering up students with good experiences, filled with good people, who make good decisions. The results will come—with time, with patience, sometimes with resistance and/or disappointment, yet in any event, with resolve and continued effort on the part of schools and teachers.

15

Cherishing Those Baby Steps

This reteaching of expected pro-social behaviors requires us to be realistic about the growth that we can expect from students—even and especially in high-school-aged students—over the course of the time we have a direct influence over their lives. This is one area that our federal and many state governments just do not understand. I actually heard once from a federal governmental agency representative, who said to the statewide team we were serving upon, appointed by our state’s chief state school officer to lead high school reform, “If you have schools that accept those at-risk kids, with baggage, as you say, and the schools can not get them up to grade level very quickly, then close those schools! The promise these schools make when we open them is that with a smaller setting and more interventions, they can produce results!” Well, especially with high school at-risk kids who have tuned out from education for years, and/or those who have been on the streets and away from it altogether, it’s simply not that simple. It’s simply not that basic. Colleagues of mine, working in a direct intervention role with at-risk high school students, use the term baby steps to describe the pro-social growth that students with whom we work make over a period of years with us. Yes, I did say years. “Baby steps over years, you say?! Why is it worth it then?”

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First of all, it’s worth it for the sake of your perspective as an educator. You must look at the overall size of the piece of raw material you receive—the figurative size, not necessarily the literal (but it could be so). During its most formidable years, it has been shaped, squeezed, churned, and sculpted with the greatest of seismic forces during its most malleable of stages. When the raw material arrives at school, those forces, the ones that developed it between ages 0–4, have figuratively hardened your 5-year-old to oak or steel, at least (when we’re very lucky, we still get hard clay or pine). The new student is then given to a sculptor, with a very small chisel, with many other pieces of work laying about. The sculptor, a caring teacher, must then move between countless raw works per day, edging here, etching there; and in some fashion trying to make art out of all of them. From the standpoint of human resources and available time, much stands in the way of success. Realizing this as an educator protects your heart, protects your sanity. It’s a perspective thing. We all must sleep well at night. Baby steps are also important to us in valuing the growth that is made in our students over time. As I previously illustrated, some expect the world from these kids overnight. Government bureaucrats are known for this—especially when they continually criticize the performance of at-risk students on standardized tests, after these kids have spent one or more years on the streets, thereafter dropping back in to alternative schools and second chance programs. Bureaucrats expect miracles from students who have tuned out for years at a time. It’s just not going to happen the way bureaucrats want it to, and although I rarely if ever make this argument, because way too many make the piggy bank argument: It’s not going to happen, in part, because of the way they fund education. Age-zero-to-five programs do not get enough financial support. To avoid the piggy bank argument and the resultant throwing-money-at-aproblem-doesn’t-work contentions that can, with legitimacy, be made, I can state, with assuredness, that aside from money solutions, it goes without saying that if performance is going to improve, then kids need to be praised for right-doing, and baby steps are our opportunity. From an evaluative and comparative standpoint, however, baby steps should be addressed cautiously so as not to over-invoke shallow or false praise. If we’re truly seeing kids making baby steps, then we need to praise them pro-

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portionally, so that we do not cheapen praise or devalue true, extraordinary growth when it does occur from time to time. Baby steps are also helpful in communicating to each other, in our schools or academic departments, about the situations kids are facing and their abilities to navigate them effectively. In debriefing among staff members in a situation involving students—let’s say a conflict or behavioral issue—utilizing baby steps in an assessment of whether or not students made good decisions given their ability to handle stress, conflict, etc., and utilizing baby steps in analyzing whether or not situations—and/or our interventions—are truly helpful in the big picture; it brings with it a shared language or a common culture barometer from which to judge and evaluate, as well as to decide on appropriate courses of action for students if further action is needed. Baby steps are good reality checks for us all, as well as solid benchmarks and effective evaluative tools.

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The Most Important Furnishing in a Classroom—Hope

What do the messed-up kids inside your classrooms, who have given up on school, teachers, and learning, need more than anything else? What can you provide so that all kids feel comfortable opening up their minds? What, in my opinion, is the most sorely lacking ingredient in public education—an ingredient that all the high fives in the world, shoulder slaps, funding increases, handshakes, and how ya doings, as well as shallow professions of false praise, cannot foster without something truly magical and genuine inside the heart of a teacher? What can you foster by being real, by being there, by listening—not just waiting for a pause in the conversation, and thus a chance to give another prescribed bit of advice—but by being true and respecting kids’ perspectives while offering them the chance to see the good side of themselves, buried often so deep inside? What can you offer by looking someone straight in the eye and smiling—a warm smile—because they’ve arrived? What can you elicit by admitting you don’t know the answer either, but that it’s okay not to know? What can you encourage by saying, “Trust me,” and, “Give me time to prove to you I care”? The answer’s obvious. When Hope is not in sight, all is for naught.

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One’s Teaching Load, a Clairvoyant Perspective

Often, teachers are asked about their teaching load. How many preps do you have? How many students per class? How many extra duties? A high school teacher’s true teaching load, I would argue, goes far beyond that. Imagine what clairvoyance would show us regarding the true load that we all carry in any given class period. Does anyone who is not in education really understand? Second class period, any given day: Front row, hand in the air, Jasmine, an A student asking for clarification on an assignment, who will, five years hence, enter medical school. She leaves the state for a lucrative practice in a major metropolitan area and e-mails often, as you were her favorite teacher. You are very proud. Next to her, LaShandra, another A student who will receive a graduation gift in a just few months—pregnancy. Despite all advice to the contrary, she decides to forgo college—just until the baby is in school, she claims. Six years later you see her, minimum wage job, counting cigarette packs at the gas station near the expressway off-ramp. Bottled water in hand, sunken eyes, LaShandra awaits her next customer. She shares pictures of her little one. Second row, Brad, class comedian. Knows when to rein it in most of the time. Pulls a senior prank, putting a car in the high school media center. Speaking of media—lots of media attention. Says he got the idea from one of your nostalgic stories during teaching advisory period. Lands you a spot in the principal’s

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office—your union comes to your defense. A bit of angst, you feel, for a few evenings. Next to Brad is Lyn, a junior. Big crush on you, writes, “I’ll be thinking of you over the summer . . . xoxoxo,” on a test booklet. You share this with your department chair, who addresses it with Lyn’s parents. Lyn despises you for her entire senior year and never communicates thereafter. Third row, Whitney, an average student. Tries very, very hard, earning a C. Quiet, productive, you don’t pay much attention. Graduates from high school, disappears from the radar. You see her six years later, as a new teacher in your department, settling in to her classroom next door, taking over for your good friend who just retired. You can’t remember her name as she enters with a smile. A bit embarrassing. Behind Whitney, Justin, a spontaneous, creative, and fun-filled kid. Always a twinkle in his eye. Cracks yet another joke at your expense, yet with such timing and depth, you can’t help but laugh yourself. The next Robin Williams, you believe. Fast forward a month—killed in an automobile accident on prom night. Closed casket funeral—hardly any closure for anyone, even with the crisis response team in place and social workers abounding in the school hallways. Driver of the car is Robert, your teacher’s aide; alcohol was a factor. Sports scholarship to university, out the window. Vehicular homicide. Robert, sentenced to 15 years, is released after 60 months for good behavior. You see Robert working for a lawn care service, premature balding, yet very muscular—prison tats and bitten fingernails obvious as you stop to talk. Has one child, another on the way. Two different mothers, complains of divorce court and dreams gone awry. Last row, Kendra, lost in her own world. Graduates, tries community college, drops after two semesters. Can’t connect. Writes children’s books, gets published and becomes a wealthy, renowned author. She credits you with understanding her during the very difficult time of high school in a CBS morning show exclusive. You just about spill your coffee in hearing this. Special education inclusion student, Phil, is driving his motorized wheelchair forward, bumping Zach as he passes. Zach, with an abusive father and alcoholic mother, lives between two poverty-stricken households. Not at his best, Zach pushes Phil. Phil punches Zach. A skirmish ensues in the blink of an eye. You intervene immediately, appalled at Zach’s lack of respect for the handicapped.

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Over the next two weeks, your principal responds to questions from advocacy groups regarding hazing and bullying of special needs students. Your classroom control becomes the subject of the next board meeting. Your union supports you. Most other kids in class—Amy, Greg, Richard, Ed, Lynn, Jackie, Kim, Brad, Scott, Ryan, Wade, Teresa, Connie, Diane, Bill, Richard, John, Kevin, Scott, Kim, Penny, Norman, Lisa, Mike, Tracey, John, Mike, Jackie, and Eric—good kids, typical teenagers, some off to college after graduation, some wander before they grow up. That is one’s true teaching load seen with clairvoyance, possibly mild compared to some, maybe heavier than others, with the hundreds of decisions you make each day and the lives touched. Oh, and did I mention that academic content is your primary responsibility? On to third class period.

IV

SHARPENING THE SCYTHE FOR HEALTHIER TEACHING

18

Teachers as Surgeons

Our conception of a student as a client can be taken one step further to that of a patient, especially when the student has some serious conditions affecting his or her ability to learn or to gain life skills necessary for success beyond school. Our schools—they are hospitals, of sorts. In this sense, the teacher is in a healing or intervention mode—as a surgeon would be to a patient. How often do we envision ourselves as teacher/surgeons?! How often do we envision our teaching as performing the most important surgery known to mankind? Not often enough, I would argue. I bring this up because it relentlessly irks me that teachers are considered, and consider themselves, either (a) working class folks or (b) folks climbing a ladder. This often spills over into an outlook that demeans the stature of teachers in the institutions and the degree to which they are accorded the respect and admiration they deserve—from themselves, students, parents, and even the administrators who supervise them. Let’s consider the following: Do we walk with the confidence of surgeons? Do we professionally render opinions on teaching, learning, and the educational system as surgeons would do concerning their hospitals at, let’s say, one of their organizational staff meetings? Do we consider ourselves—teachers—as educational leaders who have the professional responsibility to educate our administrators in the best professional practices and effective, researched methods of classroom instruction,

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much as the surgeons would school their hospital chiefs of staff on effective medical treatments? Or do we leave educational leadership and true, exalted status to others in the institution whose main responsibilities, in all practicality setting idealism aside, fall more toward the building management end of the spectrum than they do to instruction. Remember, we as teachers are surgeons, or should be thought of as such. Teachers are truly surgeons, in that they help heal sicknesses in learning ability, as well as emotion, temperament, self-esteem, motivation, and personal outlook on life, itself. Countless successful adults in this world can tell their own personal stories of the teachers who made them believe in themselves, the teachers who made them realize that dreams were possible, and teachers who allowed them to rise beyond the challenges life brought about so that goals could be reached and dreams discovered. These are lifegiving experiences! Why then in America do teachers, themselves, paint themselves more as laborers and subordinates, rather than exalted and trusted specialists whose jobs are all-important to the comprehensive success of schools and students? All teachers should truly consider themselves surgeons of intellect, of emotion, and of self-esteem, as well as motivation and a love of learning. Knowing in our hearts as teachers that we are on our game and are performing educational surgery each and every hour of the day is truly a key ingredient to our success both in our schools and with our students. Our school is a hospital for sick kids—those whose intellectual infirmities prevent them from learning what they need to have great qualities of lives. Our classrooms are our operating rooms! We are the surgeons. We give them life! Think about this on a practical level—What happens if you’re teaching and the principal walks into your room? Do you stop? Do you divert attention away from your lesson to inquire as to how you can meet his needs? Most do. Most alter surgery, and many stop altogether. Yet ask yourself this—Would a surgeon stop performing surgery just because a hospital chief of staff enters the operating room? No, he’d ask a nurse to ensure that the administrator is properly scrubbed and sterile. Your perspective, as a teacher, should be the same. Do you carry yourself as a surgeon? Do you have as much pride, or more, in your job than you have envy and admiration for the school administration?

TEACHERS AS SURGEONS

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A friend and former colleague of mine refers to the principal’s duties as the paper shuffling that goes on down in the less important end of the hallway. Others, at times, have affectionately stated to me that after I get done disciplining the students whom I call to the office, please send them back up to the real school on the second floor. I encourage this sort of banter, with a smile and a sense that my teachers truly are surgeons. Do you truly see yourself as important, or more so, than the assistant principal who is counting tardies in the office or supervising the school’s cafeteria or the parking lot after school? Do you truly feel as capable and valuable during parent/teacher conferences as the principal greeting and smiling to parents as he hovers over the cookie table? I would certainly hope so. Carry yourself like you do! It will allow you to reap great rewards— personally and professionally. You must think professionally from within, with great pride for your responsibilities, for your job, and for your status of institutional importance. You need to think like a surgeon. Think about this from a visual standpoint. Do you look as professionally sharp as your administrators? Do you carry yourself as professionally? Are your shirts professionally laundered and pressed? If you and your principal walked into a room together, would you be considered as professional, from a Fortune point of view? You should be. It’s all about the way you carry and package yourself. Do you do it well? After all, you are the surgeon! You should look like one. Do you act, around students and others, in a manner that gives folks the impression that you are subservient to the whims and occupational mandates of the school/institution, hurrying from task to task, such as feverishly taking roll at the beginning of the hour, and acting as if you must handle this or that because you are being told to do so? Or do you seamlessly and smoothly ensure that routines are handled and that the institution is satisfied with your clerical tasks, all the while exhibiting the poise and charisma of a confident, competent surgeon of teaching and learning. How do you carry yourself? How do you envision yourself? How do you act and feel? What sort of persona do you exude? Are you a subordinate in belief and action? Or are you a surgeon? Now here’s the kicker for those who think they truly are surgeons already, or could be with a little personal attention and training. Probably the

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toughest part of being a surgeon is exhibiting the professional code of ethics that any profession of that status would require. A few notable difficulties are: Policing your own ranks for the incompetent and seeking to evaluate other surgeons in the performance of their duties Seeking the truth about best practice and utilizing it, even if it brings with itself a 60-hour workweek Caring about patients and wearing a figurative, if not literal, beeper for periods of emergency Acting with honor and not hiding behind a labor association when personal or professional mistakes are made Working toward holistic institutional wellness by ensuring that negligent mistakes are rarely, if ever, made in the operating room that could place the institution as a whole in jeopardy. The list truly goes on and on. Probably the biggest mistake one could ever make is to profess oneself a surgeon, yet act as a common laborer, whose only allegiance to the institution is a paycheck and personal job security. Yet, oftentimes, this is done in schools, especially by those who have amassed a certain bargaining unit veteran status (the union higher-ups), and unfortunately, this all-talk-and-no-walk results in a degenerative environment that is more combative than collective, more autocratic than democratic (as a reactionary tool from insecure administrators), and more divisive than educationally decisive. Surgeon status involves not only professing prowess, but demonstrating it in positive ways through appropriate channels and venues, ensuring that the figurative scalpels are used only for the right purposes—to operate and heal rather than to cut harmfully—and by providing the educational leadership wherein teachers exhibit tolerance and understanding to those, such as administrators and support staff, who have different institutional lenses through which to view issues and wrestle with the challenges that confront a human services institution. True teachers are the surgeons, and their professional positions, as well as their operating rooms, should be valued as all-important to the mission of a school. “Administrators . . . take a memo.”

19

In the Trenches Now . . . the Toolbox

Something magical happened when I stepped into a classroom for the first time. Like a well-fitting shoe or a snug baseball cap, something just felt right. I knew I belonged there; I knew that I cared for students, and I knew I had something to offer. I was your typical save-the-world, well-meaning, enthusiastic, and excited new teacher. After a rather uneventful, yet fun and self-assuring start, I soon learned that novelty wears off in any classroom situation—no matter how nice or hip, we as new teachers once were. Fast forward to our current careers—We’re master teachers. Yet, have we had a shot in the arm lately, one on procedures and routines that will make our lives easier? That’s what I hope to provide at this time, from one expert to another. We all rely upon the tools we bring to the educational setting—some developed in college, some during student teaching, and most all developed in life, itself, over the course of our careers. I always use the analogy that we all carry a toolbox. It has a compartment for philosophy, a compartment for best practice, a compartment for communication, a compartment for conflict resolution, a compartment for street smarts, a compartment for professionalism, and a compartment for personal psychology—all of which contribute to the skills and competencies that we as teachers are called upon to use throughout the course of a busy, rapid-paced school day. Our toolbox is opened hundreds of times each day.

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When selecting tools, we must do a couple of things. First, we must know where to look —in which compartments to search. Second, we must decide which tool will do the job most effectively and judiciously. We don’t always need a sledgehammer to pound a finishing nail. The same holds true for educational tools in the toolbox. To say it another way—the main reason that we reach into our toolboxes is to deal with a situation that is, to some degree, stressful. A natural reaction will be to get ourselves out of that stressful situation and return to normalcy as quickly as we can. But that’s not always best practice. An example—if two students are in a conflict over an interpersonal issue and are arguing in the classroom, we could reach into the toolbox and pull out the, If you don’t stop arguing and interrupting my class, then I’ll send you down to the office tool. The argument would oftentimes stop. However, the pent-up frustrations could spill over into a fight in the hallway after class. We called in an air strike to deal with small arms fire, yet after the big blast, the combatants crawled back out of their bunkers. Pulling a smaller tool from the box, such as the Can we step out in the hall for a few seconds tool, may have allowed us to identify that a larger problem existed, and possibly could have either handled a conflict resolution with the students, or better yet, could have referred them to the appropriate counselors to help them sort out their issues. In this situation, a smaller tool was used; it took a bit longer, yet peace was maintained and no one got hurt. The same holds true in hundreds, if not thousands, of other interactions we have with students. This brings up a point concerning toolbox selection—the power issue.

20

Power, and Brain-Compatible Elements

We are all very, very powerful human beings as teachers. And we bring great power into most every situation involving students, as well as their parents. Quite often, we don’t realize this. Chadwick (2001) inspired the following when we dined together: In dealing with kids, just think about all the power we bring to the situation. We bring intellectual power, we bring college degree power, we bring professional salary and oftentimes, nice car power, we bring age and wisdom power, and we bring the natural power that comes in any situation involving educators and those being educated.

If we think about it—if our interactions with students were conceptualized as a fight for power, we would already be at a decisive advantage, wherein the weaker may choose flight or fighting dirty. Nothing but degeneration could happen from this point forward. Thus, we need to be very careful to realize that as we reach into our toolbox, we oftentimes already are at a decisive advantage without the necessary tool, so let’s always ensure that the tool is surgical in nature and used toward an end of good and fairness. Let’s ensure that we have a thorough understanding of power in our situations with students, so that we can effectively navigate through the situation toward a successful resolution—where it is psychological, academic, or interpersonal.

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We as teachers have the power to introduce what Kovalik (1995) calls “brain-compatible elements” into any situation involving communication and interaction with students. In our toolbox, we would find these in the psychology compartment. The following elements help students to succeed in any situation, because they work well with the kid’s psychological depiction of how they, their brain, or even their heart and emotions should feel at any given time: absence of threat, meaningful content, choices, adequate time, and collaboration. Notice how many of these can universally pertain to situations, whether they are academic in the classroom, interpersonal with adults, emotional with friends, etc. If these factors are evident, things will go well in most any interaction that comes about. If not, then the interaction could very well degenerate. Who has the power to ensure that brain-compatible elements are present? We, as teachers, of course. Whose responsibility is it to ensure that braincompatible elements are present in classroom situations, as well as disciplinary communications? We, as teachers, of course. Let’s take a few minutes to examine our psychological compartment in our toolbox in detail. Mastering this is a must for any master teacher.

21

The Brainbox

Kovalik (1995, 2002) used the term “triune brain” to describe what goes on in a human being as it acts upon sensory images in its environment. The basic idea is as follows: A triune brain can be conceptualized as three brains in one— with the lower portion termed the brain stem, the middle portion as the limbic system, and the higher portion as the cerebral cortex. That area, the cerebral cortex, is where all of the higher level thinking and learning takes place—it’s also the area where we hope teenagers will be when they communicate with others, in that it is the area wherefrom pro-social and adultlike behaviors resonate from in situations of communication and decision making. Each part of the triune brain has a function. Their jobs begin when sensory input comes in through the five senses—sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. As mentioned previously, all input heads toward the limbic system, which serves as a gatekeeper or a sentry for the well-being of the organism. If braincompatible elements are present in the stimuli coming through the limbic system, the system catapults the input to the higher levels of the brain, in the cerebral cortex. After which, great thought and introspection can be applied to pro-social, positive, and higher level thinking outcomes in that person receiving stimuli. In other words, everything feels good coming in, so the limbic system allows for a transfer of input to top-notch output concerning thinking decisions and actions (Kovalik, Olsen, and Frei 1995).

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And again to repeat, because this is such an important conceptualization and/or fact to keep in mind—another catapulting action happens, however, if brain-compatible elements are not present in the input traveling to the limbic system. Like any guard on duty, if danger is sensed, then battle mode is an immediate outcome. Immediately, the limbic system shoves the input down into the brain stem, or lower level of the brain. Herein, just as in the Neanderthal days of human existence, two avenues now exist as behavioral outcomes— fight or flight. Blood pressure increases, and the entire organism takes steps to fight the incoming stimuli so that dangers can be repelled and so that the organism can go back to normalcy and safety (Kovalik, Olsen, and Frei 1995). As we can see, the necessity for teachers to use their power to shape an environment so that brain-compatible elements are present is obvious and allimportant. It’s as simple as prepping your opponent for either (1) a conversation or (2) a fight. The power is truly in our hands; we must understand the psychology involved and use it to the best end. One of the most important brain compatible elements is absence of threat. I’ll begin with a discussion of this, followed shortly by a few others.

22

Absence of Threat

Can students truly say that they can take risks, stretch their talents, make mistakes, and even have an interaction with us, without our hurting them, violating their trust, and without our criticizing their efforts in an embarrassing fashion? In many more cases than necessary, even for the master teachers in our profession, this is not the case. Why is this so? Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that children and adolescents are more naturally hypersensitive to situations of interaction and communication. I often relay to my colleagues that the main goal of children and teenagers is to spend 1,000 plus hours per week trying their hardest to not get embarrassed in front of their friends, and any time left over is spent with schoolwork, family, and other incidentals of life as they see it. Yet, even if we can’t bat a thousand on this brain-compatible element thing, do we keep it in mind each and every time we have a conversation with students? An example, if a student says, “This is stupid; why do we have to do this worksheet?” and then grumbles, “You know, this really sucks!” Do we feel the need to one-up the kid? Maybe. But the best of us will not need to operationalize that feeling. After all, it would be unfair. Remember, we have knowledge power, age power, professional power, and life experience power (Chadwick 2001). Putting that student in his/her place in front of the rest of the class would be an easy task for most of us, but why

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do it?! Some would say, “Well, because as a teacher, I won’t have that sort of disrespect!” My suggestion to those who would answer that way would be, “How often do you feel the need to win every little battle against adolescent hypersensitivity? Isn’t that being a little hypersensitive and adolescent, yourself?” My suggestion would be for us as teachers to strongly realize that allowing students a certain freedom of expression and latitude for emoting is a very important component of absence of threat. If patterns occur wherein particular students are becoming a true interruption to the teaching and learning process, then we can separately and privately deal with that aspect of their behavior. Let’s be strong enough only to deal with those things that are truly messing with the teaching and learning in the classroom, ignoring the little things that students employ to pit us against particular students—it’s not, or shouldn’t be, an us-versus-them issue; the only standard that we should worry about is their behavior versus the teaching and learning. Now if it is truly a us-versus-them issue, according to the student, and he/she won’t give it a rest, then oftentimes, we may need to seek out a higher degree of intervention with a neutral facilitator. Again, what is absence of threat? It is a concept whereupon students are allowed to learn, grow, communicate, and wrestle with stressful academic and behavioral expectations, in an environment that understands the integral components of a teenager’s job description, at least to the degree that students will not be embarrassed in front of others and one in which adult power is used very strategically and judiciously to bring about good ends, positive decisions, and successful academic performance.

23

Choices and Adequate Time

Choice, as one of Kovalik’s (1995) brain-compatible elements, is oftentimes misused by adults in the classroom, as well as by parents and other supervisors of human beings. The first problem that I see is a threat issue; the second problem I see is a temporal issue. Here’s what I mean. “Either you do this, or something really bad will happen.” That’s your typical choice/consequence disciplinary or academic scenario that has been used for generations with schoolchildren. It’s engrained into our psyche—into our culture. And kids certainly know that choices bring about consequences—at this point in their lives, many have rebelled against this for a number of years now. That’s not the brain-compatible element of which I speak—and thus, that’s why I see the threat choice as a problem. Choices, from a brain-compatibility standpoint, have a few integral components to help us promote positive decision making in students. First of all, I believe that a trusted adult must facilitate the examination of choices that the situation brings about for a student. This would be a person normally outside the immediacy of the situation, either from a conflict standpoint or a disciplinary standpoint. Second, I believe that we must ensure that adequate time is given for the students to do two things: (1) vent or share their frustrations and (2) select from a range of options in the choices we identify. We’re not talking about

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either/or here in a situation that must be decided right now. That’s where most situations of choice degenerate. We’re talking about something that takes a great deal of time and interaction, with a trusted and skilled educator leading a student away from immediate, degenerating, and dangerous choices, to an examination of larger issues involving pro-social choices toward adequate and mature problem solving. Remember the proverb, If you don’t know the way, walk slowly. One such case can be illustrated, below: Let’s say a student has heard that at a weekend party, his girlfriend was cheating on him with another young man in school. The student is hurt and angry, and an initial conversation with his girlfriend was fraught with anger, denial, and an unsatisfactory resolution. Still hurt and angry, the student has stated that he was going to beat up the alleged male violator/perpetrator, and has begun the process of seeking him out at lunchtime. Thankfully, a teacher who has a trusted relationship with the hurt, angry, and potentially hostile kid has intervened. A conversation has begun, in which an examination of choices is taking place. Of course, if the proper tools are used, the statement to the kid should not simply be: You know, if you fight, you could very well be suspended from school. That fact of life may be worth it to the student, at least on the surface. Skilled handling of this intervention would involve a more comprehensive analysis and information-seeking situation, such as the following scenario illustrates: Student John shares the entire story of the weekend rumors with his trusted teacher. Teacher listens with respect and offers no interruptions while the play-by-play is being relayed by John. Emotions run rampant, and John shares that shortly after lunch, he is kicking the student’s ass. Further conversation ensues. Teacher: Well, John. Let’s look at the worst thing that can happen. John: He gets his ass kicked for messing with my girl; that’s the worst that can happen!!! Teacher: I agree that would be bad for him . . . after all, you’re pretty good at kicking ass from what I hear. But let’s take a look at what will happen to you. John: I’ll get suspended, and I don’t give a shit. This school sucks, anyway!

CHOICES AND ADEQUATE TIME

Teacher: Yes, sometimes it does, especially when you hear through the rumor mill that others are moving in on your girl. But my first question is this . . . do you really know for sure that this happened? And if you’re in a fight, will you just get suspended, or will something worse happen? John: Hell yes! I mean, I know because my friend caught them at the party. Teacher: Maybe so. But what about the second part? I’m asking if other bad things could happen to you if you kick a guy’s ass, one whom you haven’t even talked to personally about a rumor that you heard? Can anything else happen to you that wouldn’t work to your advantage? John: Are you saying he can kick my ass?! That’s bullshit. I’ll whip his. . . . Teacher: No, not really that. One concern I have is that you are 17, and he is 16 years old. You’re at the point where you can be tried as an adult for assault and battery. He’s not. I know it sounds unfair, but that’s just our reality. John: It would be worth it!! Teacher: Would it? What about your senior year of football? You know how the athletic director would feel about your fighting. You’d sit for 20 percent of the season, maybe even more. You and I both remember when you got in trouble during your sophomore year for that minor in possession of alcohol charge. I’m sure the coach hasn’t forgotten that one yet. John: Yeah . . . I know. Teacher: And you haven’t been exactly getting along with the assistant principal lately. Just think about it, if he had a choice of whether or not to call the police after you totally kicked another kid’s ass . . . do you think he would call them? John: I don’t know. Probably. Hell, that’s his call; not mine. I can’t control his bullshit. Teacher: Yes, but you can control your own business, don’t you think? Bear with me for a minute, because I think I’m beginning to understand some of the issues here. As a young man in this situation, no longer a boy, you have some choices to make. You’re in control. I can’t make them for you. The assistant principal and coach can’t make them for you. Your girlfriend can’t make them for you; even the police can’t make them for you. Only you have the power to make this choice. John: Yeah . . . and I just might do that.

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Teacher: Well, first of all, as far as I can tell you could proceed as you had planned and kick the guy’s ass. Possible drawbacks to that are the fact that you will probably get suspended, if not expelled; you will lose a good portion of your senior year football season . . . maybe even lose scholarships, but I’m not sure about that. Most likely, the police will be called, and charges will be pressed. [Pause . . . nonverbals . . . take breath and exhale, as if sharing the pain with the student] Teacher: Another choice you could make would be to completely ignore the rumors, letting this one go for now. John: No way, man. Teacher: Okay . . . just an option. A question, again . . . did you tell me that you hadn’t yet talked directly to the guy rumored to be involved? John: Yeah, I was afraid I would just punch him. Teacher: What about your girlfriend? John: Man . . . she’s denying the whole thing. Says she was just talking about some problems one of her friends had with him and needed some privacy. Teacher: Two other options might work then—maybe you could talk to him, away from her, so that you can get a true gut feeling if something went on or not. [Pause] Teacher: Or you could talk to both of them, with a few of us around whom you trust, so that things don’t get out of hand. John: Any others? I’m not sure I can talk with either of them without flippin’ out. Teacher: Well, another option would be to have me privately talk to the person whom you heard the rumor from in the first place so that I can really see if he knows what he’s talking about. A lot of the time, when people hear bits and pieces of an event, they patch other things in there, unintentionally, that may or may not be totally accurate. It’s just that I want to make sure you have all the information before you make your next move. How about I propose this . . . Let’s not do the fight as the very next step, especially with other options we can try first. Is that okay?

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John: Yeah, I suppose. Teacher: The only bad thing I see is that you may be out of class for a while when we iron out some of these issues. Will you be able to handle the makeup work for any missed assignments? John: No problem. Teacher: Okay . . . well then, I’m going to leave you for a few minutes, so that you can think about which next step to take. Can I trust you to keep yourself under control? John: Yeah. Teacher: After all, we can give you a time-out, off campus, for the rest of the day while you think about it. That way, your dad can pick you up, and we can talk again tomorrow morning as soon as he drops you off. This might prevent me from worrying about you a little. John: Okay . . . I’ll take the time-out. Can I use your phone to call my dad? Teacher: Here you go. Hang with me until he gets here, okay? John: Okay.

Again, the formula is as follows: Discussion . . . emotions validated . . . situational analysis conducted . . . choices identified (with the teacher using the power to craft and present the immediate choices as pro-social ones . . . later choices can be worked on later) . . . and the student given time to select from the pro-social choices in a supervised setting wherein bad choices are minimized—the epitome of a side door approach. The biggest mistake that we as educators make is to shortchange the amount of time that it takes to thoroughly work through these issues with students so that they do not feel hurried or pigeonholed, let alone tricked, into choice options that don’t work for them. Again, in this situation as in many others, remember, it’s not about us. It’s about student positive decisions and empowerment. Brain-compatible elements can get us there. They take activity away from the brain stem and allow for higher level processing in the cerebral cortex. We have the power to control the input so that the limbic system sends it in the right direction.

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It behooves all of us to realize that this entire discussion above of conflict and teenage emotion can be applied to the choices that teenagers want to make in a myriad of situations, from interpersonal to academic. We don’t always have to take an either/or approach. Developing the trust with our students necessary to be able to hold the same types of conversations wherein we discuss, validate their emotions, analyze the choices involved, and then give them time to make the choices is truly within the capabilities of all of us in the classroom. It takes a certainly confident artisan to realize that our classrooms are as full of emotional choices and tasks as they are full of academic choices and tasks. Just as all students are not on the same academic level, they are not on the same emotional playing field. Thus, it’s okay to give some a little time to digest their own intrinsic analysis of the relevance of your content material, and whether or not they wish to tune in at every given moment. It bears mentioning that another brain-compatible element is meaningful content (Kovalik, Olsen, and Frei 1995). Thus, great care in lesson planning and design—from the perspective of bridging a gap between our students’ world and ours—will reap great rewards in student compliance when the lesson is given. If not, offer choices and requisite analyses and, of course, time.

V

THE 101s OF PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION AND EVALUATION

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Look-Fors for Principals

New teachers nearly always wonder what their principals are thinking. I did. Most do. And most overthink it. Yet, veterans like us don’t really sweat it anymore. However, it never hurts to get inside our principals’ minds and make a mental note of how to play their game in a way that will work for both us and them. It’s gamesmanship, and no matter how many years we have in this business, playing chess smartly with our bosses just plain works well for us. So, please allow me to share some midcareer tips, those that I have gleaned from my own experiences in school leadership, surrounded by master teachers who are incredibly gifted, and those who have met my needs on a daily basis as I have run schools. I’ll now share with you my personal “Principal’s Top 25” tips for seasoned veterans, those I have put together by wandering through the hallways watching great teachers like yourself perform surgery. 1. Does this teacher have the effective intangibles that I know are important . . . you know, the positive climate, the acceptance of students, the support for students’ taking risks and volunteering? What about encouragement? Do students feel as though the class is fun, where they have a sense of freedom, love, belonging and empowerment?

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2. Does this teacher greet students at the beginning of class and dismiss them at the end, or are the students and the teacher automatons to a bell, sort of like Pavlov’s dogs? 3. Is the why question answered for students? Why is what we’re studying important? Without that, we all would fail miserably on connecting the world of academics to the world of kids. 4. Are processes and procedures in the classroom modeled, assessed, taught, and reinforced? You know, how are papers handed out, collected, and how is makeup work handled? 5. As far as clerical procedures—grading, marking, sorting, handing back— do they help facilitate the one goal of maximum use of active learning time? Or do they get in the way and waste that precious time? 6. Does the teacher effectively use time given, or are students given an inordinate amount of time to complete homework? Ten minutes a day is 1,800 minutes a year. That’s 30 hours of wasted time! 7. Does the teacher have a solid mastery of content knowledge? Is it without question? Can this teacher, through this mastery, bridge the gap between the world of students and ours, to get them to connect to the information being presented? 8. Can the teacher effectively check for understanding, and does he/she use active questioning wisely with enough wait time for answer formulation? Or does the teacher simply call on the smart students when I’m visiting so that correct answers are given and the lesson goes more smoothly? 9. Are principles of motivation being used, such as success, knowledge of results, goals, and of course, knowing why things are being studied? Is positive anxiety appropriately being used, and does the teacher know how to use it? Does motivation transcend the external and move toward the internal with students? 10. What is the instructor’s role in guided practice? During this phase, is the instructor able to maintain adequate control of class members whom he/she is now helping or guiding? 11. What tutorial and enrichment opportunities exist for students, and are students encouraged and motivated to seek them out? 12. Is cooperative learning truly cooperative in the theoretical sense, such as with resource and product interdependence, group member roles, etc., or is it simply kids socializing while copying from each other?

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13. Are social skills taught and reinforced with high standards, no matter the content area or grade level? 14. Is self-efficacy considered more important than self-esteem? Further, is effort and true quality on assignments reinforced and demanded, and equally important, is false praise used sparingly? Remember, not every answer is worthy of a “good job” response. We should be building selfefficacy in students over and above our worries for their self-esteem. Selfefficacy is a student’s belief that no matter what obstacles present themselves, success can be attained through hard work and effort. An overemphasis on self-esteem in our classrooms over the last 20 years has created a generation of narcissists who have shallow skills and cannot think deeply or substantively. 15. As far as planning and instruction, does the teacher demonstrate that he or she has truly task analyzed the steps necessary in the learning sequence so that lower level competencies are practiced and refined in students before the higher level competencies are expected of them? In other words, can students crawl before they walk, write sentences before paragraphs, understand core democratic values before debating, etc.? 16. Can the teacher model what he/she teaches? Yes, can the teacher truly compute the math problems without the help of a text, or write an essay from scratch on an overhead or a computer LCD display—right in front of the students? Can a journalism teacher interview a subject and write a feature story under deadline pressure in front of the class, itself? Can the science teacher pull off the experiment as a model for students? Better be yes on this one! 17. Does the teacher have effective disciplinary management of students and the classroom environment? Are communication and interaction strategies proactive so that disciplinary problems are curtailed before they are even devised in the minds of students? Is the structure of the classroom conducive to solid supervision and discipline? 18. Is the instructor at ease with the role of teacher, as well as disciplinarian? If so, does he/she use discipline as a way to augment a lesson, rather than as something that causes an interruption? 19. Does the teaching and instruction, as well as the discussion with students, align itself with the building and district missions for appropriate student

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content and outcome goals? Is the curriculum being taught aligned with or mapped to state benchmarks and objectives? Is closure evident at the end of a lesson? Does the teacher provide evidence of parental contacts and knowledge of the families in discussions or through classroom conversations the principal witnesses between teacher and students? Is learning style, personality typology, and multiple intelligences theory incorporated into practice, as well as through a variety of researched, effective pedagogical mediums? During the lesson, does the teacher facilitate higher order thinking, substantive conversations, connections beyond the classroom, and focused sustained inquiry? Is supervision prudent, reasonable, proactive, and foreseeable? And as a former supervisor said to me as a junior administrator—“The main thing in the classroom is to keep the main thing, the main thing. And that main thing is student achievement” (Jeffrey 1997). Is that the case?

25

The Look-Fors You Don’t Want

Okay, let’s cut to the chase. Even with all of the aforementioned good things that a principal can identify, the “Big 5” exist, ones that will get even the most senior of us fired if they rear their ugly heads in our professional performance. I mention them here so as to be quite sure that if we are accused of any of the following, we realize that we are probably in danger of corrective action, up to and possibly leading to dismissal. That’s firing, plain and simple. We should all watch for these key terms or phrases in any write-ups we may receive (MASSP 1998). Here they are: 1. Improper Conduct or Conduct Unbecoming of a Teacher. Here, the employee exhibits behavior which is in violation of written and/or unwritten standards, or the behavior is so abhorrent to the reputation of teaching, itself, that conviction or accusation of such could significantly impair a teacher’s ability to teach and promote positive discipline or respect in a classroom or school. Examples could be indecent exposure, partying with recent graduates, or committing shoplifting at the local mall, etc. 2. Failure to Perform Duties Properly. The teacher, on paper, has certain prerequisite qualifications for the job, yet can’t just seem to operationalize these in a practical fashion. Usually, these behaviors involve safety issues, such as supervision of science experiments, inadequate hallway supervision, and/or

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making poor decisions on field trips. This is often a tool used to fire someone who is incompetent, and is a lot easier because of the fact that the administrator can claim that a person had the skills necessary when hired. 3. Incompetence. When a teacher seriously lacks the innate ability to perform the job of education, incompetence is a possibility. Oftentimes, this leads to real messy dismissals, so a keen administrator would try to turn this situation into one of failure to perform as mentioned above, or better yet, into outright insubordination, as described below. 4. Neglect of Duty. Oftentimes, this happens when teachers are in supervisory positions and take their eyes off the ball, so to speak; such as, when they leave their classroom to run off copies and a fight breaks out between two students. This is really serious, and usually its seriousness is directly proportional to any legal claims made against the district by the parents of victims who were harmed, they claim, in part because of a teacher’s neglect of duty. 5. Insubordination. This is the easiest of terminable offenses for many administrators. It’s when our supervisor asks us to do something that’s reasonable, and we decide not to do it, or fail to follow through when we knew that the expectation was that we do it. The key is to never get into a situation of insubordination, even if we feel that the request of us or directive to us, is slightly unfair. Unless the request or directive puts us or someone else at risk, or subjects us to extreme disgrace or embarrassment, let’s just do it! Our teaching contracts typically will have a provision that allows for a grievance procedure to address the unfairness of any requests afterwards, if they are truly unfair. We must remember to follow our grievance processes, but in any event we must not be insubordinate. For this, we can lose our jobs. Rest assured, in most cases, we are probably doing a fine job unless we are made aware of certain points of contention. A few hints follow: 1. Let’s reread our collective bargaining agreement if our buildings have them, or at minimum, let’s review our teaching contracts. Becoming familiar with all of the bad terms that principals can use if they want to fire someone is a smart move in our professional game. Let’s not be hesitant in asking our union or association reps for help. Some of these terms were

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mentioned above, and include unsatisfactory performance, negligence, insubordination, conduct or performance unbecoming of a teacher, willful and wanton misconduct, and the like. 2. Ask ourselves, “Is the principal adhering to the timelines of my evaluation process?” If the contract calls for x number of visits in the springtime, did he stop by for that many visits? If so, things are probably okay, unless two visits are hurriedly conducted within a week or so without any rhyme or reason, then the subsequent language in our evaluation looks bad. If the principal misses the timelines, let’s not by any means worry about it. And let’s not remind him of it. This is good in many cases. Probably, the principal has so much confidence in us that he does not care about the evaluation timelines. After all, why would a teacher’s union, if we have one in our school, contest a good evaluation? The other possibility is that the principal screwed up the timelines, and under the strict timelines for evaluations in a labor union agreement, he probably can’t dismiss us even if he wanted to, unless we give him a really big fat reason to do so, like drinking on the job or something similar. 3. Let’s again focus on keeping the main thing, the main thing. And that main thing is student achievement (Jeffrey 1997). In the end, this will be the best proactive occupational job security that you can give yourself.

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Professional Evaluation

Three key ingredients to our slam dunking our professional evaluation opportunities are: 1. 2. 3. 4.

maintaining respect among department members, flying above some radars and under others, keeping our dirty laundry in the house, and mastering the dogs and ponies, as well as the show.

Truly effective principals offer instructional leadership to the working professionals in their buildings. This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that the principal must be the be-all-and-end-all, pedagogical leader in the building. Truly intelligent principals surround themselves with a court or cabinet of trusted instructional leaders, one from each department, who keep principals abreast of best practices in their domains, as well as the instructional competencies of teachers therein. You might be one of these instructional leaders. If so, please share these tips with others: (1) MAINTAINING RESPECT AMONG DEPARTMENT MEMBERS

This involves a delicate balance of professional assuredness and competence, along with a distinct ability to ask the right questions of colleagues for your

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own professional growth and development. Just what are the right and wrong things to be doing and asking? Do—Teach to district and state benchmarks and standards and strive to progress through a curriculum that will ready students for the next level. Do Not—Throw care to the wind concerning the curriculum because you have “make it and take it” fun lesson plans that you have used for years or that will popularize you with students, over and above that of your colleagues. Do—Excite and engage your students to the point of youthful exuberance and a rallying toward the learning taking place. Do Not—Forget to ask hallway neighbors when these activities, sometimes loud and exuberant, will interrupt other necessary school wing activities, such as silent reading time or focused study time before the big test next door. Do—Enjoy your status as a master teacher. Do Not—Forget to handle your talents with a bit of humility. (2) FLYING ABOVE SOME RADARS AND UNDER OTHERS

Teachers are ironically notorious for acting as the world’s most destructive schoolchildren when it comes to relationships with others in the professional arena, in their rumormongering, gossiping, and judging the trials and tribulations of students, staff, and supervisors alike in the school arena. As a seasoned veteran, you do not need your struggles, trials, and tribulations to be fodder for lounge talk and bookroom gossip. As a veteran, you need the confidence of a Teflon persona, so that you are not mired in wrestling matches with every pig that comes along. You want to be seen as the thoughtful, dispassionate, mature midcareer or elder statesman—one who bridges the divides and is well-respected by both faculty and administration, alike. Not painting yourself on radars via telegraphic perspectives or squeaky wheeling will pay huge dividends and will assure you a deferential nod in professional performance reviews.

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(3) KEEPING YOUR DIRTY LAUNDRY IN THE HOUSE

Most master teachers keep what goes on in their classrooms in their classrooms—all the minor challenges, anyway. With that being said, I must also state quite emphatically that you must keep your laundry in-house, yet with your door open. Yes, open. What does this mean? As master teachers, we rarely send kids out into the hall for disciplinary infractions. We know strategies that will keep them inside. Kids who leave for the hallway are winners; they get to continue their misbehavior unsupervised. And then we’re the loser; just ask the teacher next door whose classroom your hallway cherubs are now disrupting. Disciplinary interactions are teachable moments. Let’s not rely on the easy way out. A cynic would say: Isn’t this allowing the disruption to interfere with the instruction of the other 29 students?! An honest answer is no. All students can learn from a brief, behavioral correction, especially if the redirection is nonthreatening, efficient, behavior-building, and in-line with the expectations of the class and school community. Class then proceeds; and contrary to some Chicken Littles in the profession, the sky doesn’t fall; everyone does not roll headlong into curricular hell on roller skates, and the learning continues. Of course, if we as teachers allow a cat and mouse game, in which the end result is removal from class for free time, then we will certainly deal with disruptions begetting more disruptions, because everyone knows the end result, and to many the end game—an insecure teacher needing order and willing to sacrifice personal laundry management to do it. Let’s face it, from the kids’ point of view, this is just plain entertaining. A second point—trips for students to the principal’s office should be so rare that we can count a year’s worth on one hand. Let’s exhaust all other efforts first. Principals are not paid enough to handle all of their responsibilities, and ours too. Think of it that way. Some might ask: What if I just can’t handle the job without removing kid after kid from class and sending them to the principal? Three possible answers: (a) This teacher didn’t pay attention to the teachings of this book concerning the psychological needs of students and our responsibility to meet them; (b) This teacher is working in a seriously dangerous school that has

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been the subject of leadership flaws for quite some time, and the behavior therein has degenerated cancerously to the point where the whole place should be nuked and started over; or (c) This teacher is truly an incompetent and should leave the profession. Sorry, just sayin’! (4) MASTERING THE DOGS AND PONIES, AS WELL AS THE SHOW

Imagine this. It’s evaluation day; the principal arrives, usually three to four minutes into our lesson, because of interruptions or questions in the hall on the way to our classrooms. He walks in. You, without missing a beat, are talking to the students and questioning them, while reinforcing the start-up activity that our students are already focusing feverishly on at that point. You then hand the principal a copy of the lesson plan for the day. At your desk, where the principal finds a seat, you have a copy of your weekly lesson plans, copies of former weeks’ plans underneath in your lesson plan booklet, with each activity/lesson linked or mapped to the district’s curriculum expectations, readily apparent to the discriminating administrator who reviews them with a glance. A note thanking the principal—very brief—for stopping by is awaiting him, as is a cup for coffee with the coffee maker nearby. As you proceed through the lesson, you ensure that as you pass materials to the class, you simultaneously hand the principal the items, as if he were one of the students. This allows him to follow along, as well as to determine the applicability and worth of classroom materials that you have prepared for students. Oftentimes, it behooves us to gracefully refer to the principal in a teaching/learning example to the class, but never put him on the spot by asking a question of him. Quite possibly, if content-related, he can’t answer it. How can we do it? Well, here’s one way (teacher-to-class): “As we review the core democratic value of liberty, let’s think back to the school assembly last week, where Mr. So-and-So, our principal who’s visiting today, said to our school . . .” and so on. Again, this acknowledges a presence, maintains respectfulness for the superordinate nature of the visit, as well as his leadership role in the school, yet does not place the evaluator in the spot of demonstrating his own competence to the students (sometimes, as hinted above, principals have serious deficits in academic skills, and this is better left undiscovered during our evaluation observations).

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As teachers, we should not under any circumstances select only the smart students for quick answers to questions. Many do this with a desperate need and/or overriding goal of maintaining the flow and progression of class activities, as well as with a desire to demonstrate the comprehension level of content therein. This, however, is a shallow move that is readily identifiable. Principals know the smart kids; after all, high achieving students usually have the most involved parents in the school (booster types, National Honor Society types), and they can readily identify shallow attempts to bolster comprehension facades via smart kid selection. To impress a principal, master teachers can offer a balance of questions, allowing for more challenged kids to answer lower level questions at first to build self-efficacy, then allowing for a progression of higher level thinking challenges with students slightly stretching their capabilities and achieving success. If we’re really confident, then we can offer a long shot and give the true special needs kid an opportunity to work with a very difficult question, wherein we encourage him to success through shaping and supporting his responses along the way. While delivering the lesson, master teachers like ourselves make a transition every fifteen minutes or so, going from questioning, to lecture (yes, a little lecture is still a good thing), to technology (computer LCD screen), to video, to written work or text-based learning, even tossing in some hands-on activities, yet only if they’re relevant to the learning at hand and are directly related to the instructional competencies that we wish to get across. In other words, students can color maps all day long, and seemingly love to do it; likewise, they can paint, sculpt with clay, or build with wood; but do these activities allow for an efficient delivery of higher learning through hands-on instruction, or do they simply offer a hands-on activity that takes up time? Principals can tell the difference. Do we allow for teachable moments? Hopefully so. Our lesson plans should not be so rigid during the principal’s visit that they cannot be amended to accommodate for wonderful things that may take place. What about the state representative who’s touring the building or the fire drill that takes place awkwardly? Can we roll with these, offering smooth supervision, direction, and a teaching/learning environment along the way, or do they rock our foundations like a well-delivered punch to a flat-footed person?

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We better be able to roll with it, deal with it, and enjoy the variety that unintended variables offer. If so, we will be duly commended for it in our evaluations. Finally, as I mentioned previously, who dismisses the students? The bell or ourselves? It’s obvious what the answer should be. We must ensure, in fact, make damned sure, that students do not arise suddenly (and uninvited), much akin to zombie-like Pavlovian dogs salivating for their opportunity at hallway interaction, when the bell rings. If at all possible, we should deliver an appropriate closure activity that reinforces the knowledge learned and serves as a springboard for lessons to come and leave only 15 seconds or so for materials organization and the loading of book bags and the like. Never underestimate the value of thanking students for their hard work and wishing them well as the bell sounds. Then, as students sit, post-bell-ringing, and await our cues, we say, “See you all tomorrow,” and then, and only then, the mass exodus should occur. Under no circumstance should you then ask the principal how you did during the lesson. The master teacher would thank him for stopping by and encourage him to return at anytime, then proceed to the doorway to greet a new class period of students. If you’re really slick, you would then have the next period’s lesson plans and materials ready for the principal, just in case he takes you up on the feigned offer to stick around for the next class. Providing him such, if he stays, is what we might call the double slam dunk. Eventually, as a follow-up to this observation, the principal will call us in for a meeting and may utilize a variety of methods to evaluate our performance—everything from scripting to rubrics to checklists. Master teachers then deal with whatever awaits and will act as if the principal is God’s gift to pedagogical advice and supervision. Principals have already usually made up their mind on how our evaluation will be filed anyway; so it’s best to play the role of collaborative veteran master looking for knowledge and input, while confidently explaining one’s philosophies, pedagogical methods, and lesson goals, yet willing to adapt to meet the desires of the principal’s leadership advice, as well as students’ best interests.

VI

MAKING YOUR LIFE EASIER THROUGH “YOUR DOMAIN”

27

Organizational Effectiveness through Student Responsibility

I conduct inservices entitled Organizational Effectiveness through Student Responsibility, wherein I train teachers on a carefully limited list of strategies they can pull from their grab bags. Even veterans with their own arsenals of ideas can benefit from these. So for a timely shot in the arm that we all can use from time to time, I offer these bits of advice, with all pertaining chapters entitled Grab Bag. The overriding theme of these chapters is that teaching does not, and should not, have to be difficult or overly taxing on the veteran practitioner. We should be smiling throughout. Teachers must prepare thoroughly of course; yet, while in the classroom, students must work harder than the teacher. To accomplish this, however, teachers must skillfully pull from their grab bags of professional competencies so that they get maximum student effort with appropriate instructional delivery. Established well, this organizational effectiveness and student responsibility works like a well-seasoned orchestra, with teacher as conductor and students as accomplished musicians. In it, we as teachers can truly enjoy ourselves and not get buried in the myriad of minutiae, as well as the clerical variables, that confront even the most seasoned of practitioners. In short, this section allows us to enjoy our teaching; it will give us time to smile and truly do what we want to do in the classroom. It will allow our content knowledge to continue dancing without constraint.

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The Grab Bag for Maintaining Order

Classroom control and order comes both from within the teacher and from without. Remember when it started within us many years ago as a small fire of desire, deep inside a formative educator; it sparked slowly at first, then rose as more confidence developed. The embers then burned inside us as we were dreaming what our class would be like. Questions for the mind included, “Will they behave?” “Will they listen to me?” “Will they be interested in what I have to say?” “What will I do if . . . ?” This fire of desire evolved within us as experience grew, as theories of adolescent psychology were studied, methodologies were discovered, and practice ensued during our yearly responsibilities. Eventually, with content knowledge on board and a few years under our belts, this fire transcended desire and exuded from within—personified as action, burning brightly as we all honed and crafted our professional roles—in real jobs, in real classrooms, with real kids. Then, it hit us. As veteran teachers, we began believing, I am the show, I am on stage, and I am the teacher—the most important game in town and the only one that’s being played in this ballpark. Do we still believe? Kids can tell at a country mile if this is the case; that’s when they buy into our worlds and forgo their option of misbehaving in most cases. The next step in maintaining classroom control is what I call Understanding the Resume. Kids have resumes, psychological ones, for sure, that bring to

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the classroom normal temptations to fidget, swear, poke fun, play grabby ass, and all other manifestations of adolescence as we know it. Let’s not under any circumstances devalue or operate in denial of those givens. Let’s not take personal offense when the behaviors arise. If we’re the teacher, if we are the show, then we can magically and humorously turn the misbehaving moment into a teachable opportunity, wherein egos are preserved, content is cemented, and youthful enthusiasm is capitalized upon. This is where the art of teaching trumps the science, and this is what every student looks for in order to tell their friends that our classrooms are fun, exciting, and engaging in every sense of the word. Misbehavior is not, in and of itself, indicative of bad classroom control. It is, however, an opportunity for valuable communication and intervention, through which our classroom control will surely be judged, and through which our relationships with students will be strongly affected, for better or for worse. Expect it, engage it, and enjoy it, with one goal in mind—to bring all learners into a better appreciation for themselves and into a better understanding of content. Then, after we mentally gather the teenage resumes and comprehend the job descriptions of all in the classroom, let us please shed all notions that we are running a democratic operation, which necessitates that you get permission from the electorate on policies and procedures. The classroom is not a democracy, no matter how nice we are and no matter how much students like us. Remember, only one-third of the student’s embodiment is that of a customer. Err to the side of client and product, and elicit buy-in and compliance with our benevolent dictatorship, wherein no one moves (figuratively or literally) during whole class instruction and educational movement is the only allowable action during guided practice and activity-based learning. Now, of course, we don’t have to be dogmatic, autocratic, or in any sense a jerk about this. If we have a sense of humor, this is the time to use it. Dry humor or self-deprecating humor, while reinforcing the benefits of a dictatorial regime, is okay as well, that is, if it builds kids up rather than tears them down. Again, once the fire’s burning, the resumes are understood, and the dictatorship established, then it’s time to employ some key, beneficial strategies to ensure our class runs like a well-organized machine—which isn’t a rigid one, mind you—just one that runs the way we want it to. One that allows us to smile.

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Consider these, even if you have settled in to comfortable habits that have worked for you: Begin with a lightning fast start each day, and expect students to begin their class as soon as the school structure allows us to do so (the bells, the tones, or otherwise). Ensure flow and control all the way through, with ebbs and tides of activity directed by us, the teachers, based on the learning needs of students. Sometimes, we may need to move fast, even ringing bells or blowing whistles, for deadline adherence; sometimes, we may need to move slower, especially if students are practicing a skill that requires careful thought and extended time on task. Establish variety, so that students’ attention spans can be maximized on our learning goals, and ensure that we allow for bouts of cooperative learning and project-based or thematic instruction. Lecture, by the way, is not a bad thing—but only if we have prepared carefully, only if we are not tethered to our lecture notes, verbatim, and only if it lasts no longer than 15–20 minutes or so. Flowing with a class effectively involves careful and considerable planning, which if done well often lasts long into the night before. It also involves our personal rehearsal and a confident delivery, one that carries through the goals we have established, yet one that can also adapt to teachable moments based on student needs and situations that arise. Remember, lesson plans are just that—plans. They are not mandates or edicts from God. One edict, however, that bears mentioning again is the fact that we dismiss students; the bell does not dismiss them. I realize I have shared this with you before, but I can’t state this enough! Probably one of the worst cancers of classroom control is the Pavlovian nature of many students to rise up as they hear a bell and walk out while teachers are still talking. Have Pavlovian tendencies reared their ugly heads over the course of your career? Certainly, we never want this witnessed by others. Imagine if a classroom guest or speaker were speaking and the bell rang! Heaven forbid, you don’t want kids getting up at that point, do you? Eliminate this notion and perennially learned student behavior by talking about it frankly and expecting compliance. Sports fans can use off-sides analogies before the snap, with appropriate and possibly humorous penalties for transgressors.

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On our part, we should try not to make students late for their next class, and if this does happen from time to time, let’s honor those situations with an excused pass to the next teaching situation. Our classrooms should be arranged so that we see everything that is going on—off task or on. No hidden cubbies or arrangements where our backs are turned the majority of time should be allowed. We should be able to get to everyone discreetly for help, without disturbing or bumping past students. The flow of our classrooms should be conducive to the activities therein, with noise at whatever level our learning goals require. Sometimes, students must be silent. Other times, they may be required to talk, sing, or yell out loud. Noise is okay, as long as you are the conductor and call for mezzo forte. Ensure, however, that you have the control over your orchestra to immediately revert back to pianissimo if you desire. The most important thing to do while maintaining order is to allow students to rehearse our expectations for them. If we want them to be able to go from loud activities to soft, rehearse. If we want them to quickly go from project activities to text assignments, practice this also. If we want them to quickly put assignments into a bin, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Flow does not flow, until flow is practiced. Did I mention a seating chart? Have one! Even if you haven’t had one for years. Just do it! For all classes, each and every day. Ideas on how to implement? The best way to go about this is to let students sit where they want for a few days at the beginning of any given semester, but casually mention that to them that we’ll probably be putting a seating chart together before they get too far into the class. Then watch for what I call proximities that don’t work. And figure out a viable seating chart—one that works for us. On the third or fourth day, the seating chart is implemented, by having all students take a number out of a hat when they arrive in class. Students then stand against the wall or around the sides of the class. The number thing will give most the idea that they will get to select where they sit, based on their preference and the numeric order that they have selected. Well, that’s not entirely true, and it’s fun to watch the reactions of those who figure this out at different rates and speeds. At this point, when the students think they have figured out how things are going to work, ask them, “Who has number one?” Show that person where he/she sits, based on the chart you have designed. Then do the same for num-

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bers 2–30. Expect compliance; ignore those who sputter as you move to the next. Things will settle in eventually. At the end, someone will probably ask, “Why the numbers?!” Then tell them that it’s for the door prize, for which you will draw a number out of a separate hat and award something nice to the winner. A few consolation prizes can also be drawn, which will get their minds off the seating chart, hopefully—at least it always worked for me. An excellent tool for maintaining order while providing a lightning fast start to class is to not call roll from a class list. Draw yourself, on a piece of paper, an overhead/aerial view of the classroom, with students’ names inside the depictions of desks. Then simply look for empty desks while beginning each class, and write down, on the attendance/absence form, the names of those students from your schematic who are missing. It takes only seconds and can be done while we are talking or teaching. Wander to the door while talking to students about the day’s activities, hang the attendance, and celebrate another successful, lightning-fast launch to the class. Oh, have I dated myself? I mean, use the aerial view schematic to enter in your attendance on your classroom computer. Not only will you be accurate, but just think how many instructional minutes you save, per year, if the normal two-minute attendance procedure takes only 14 seconds. The last bit of advice I have in order for you to maintain excellent order in your classroom is for you, yourself, to have fun while teaching. If you’re having fun, you’ll be surprised how comfortable and compliant your students will be. Basic brain research, again, supports it. Comfort and an absence of threat give students no reason to consider fight or flight. Think about it.

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The Grab Bag for Placing the Responsibility of Learning and Succeeding in Students

Although the teacher is the show, the teacher shouldn’t, necessarily, be the hardest working person in the classroom—and certainly shouldn’t be the one responsible for students’ learning. Teachers are responsible for teaching; the students are in reality, the ones responsible for learning. Teachers are bringing education to the table and should do their best to prepare a gourmet meal of it. Consuming what’s taught, however, is plainly the students’ responsibility. How do we ensure that students are encouraged to take responsibility for learning and succeeding, and how do we engrain this notion in parents also? Make sure that the following are in place. ROOM RULES

We should ensure that they are detailed, signed, and make sure that the evidence of parents’ reading and understanding the rules is returned to us for our records. That will certainly help when students and parents claim, later on, that they did not understand their obligations. A sample of room rules is provided later in this chapter. QUALITY CONTRACT

Implement an agreement wherein we all promise to work hard—Quality is job 1—and parents do as well. This is a compact for best effort, as well as

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reinforcement of who has the responsibility for teaching, and who has the responsibility for learning. I also provide one later in this chapter for your review. FOLDER AND CALENDAR

I suggest implementing a personal organizational system, uniform for all students in all of your classes. Let’s not let them get away with telling us that they have their own systems that work fine for them. They don’t, or at least, their systems, no matter how good, don’t work for our loftier goal for them (organizational tool for students; teaching tool for teacher). This is how we could arrange everyone’s personal organizational system. Get each student an 81⁄2-by-11-inch colored folder that opens up, housing two pocketed sections inside, one on the right side and one on the left. Take a copy of a standard 81⁄2 –by-11-inch monthly calendar, for September, let’s say, downloaded from the Internet, and staple it, vertically oriented, to the bottom of the right side pocket, so that you can peel it down and forward and stick things in the pocket behind it. Label the left pocket Work in Progress, and label the right inside portion, above the stapled calendar, Resources. Fold up the folder, and inside of it stick a manila folder, labeled Things to Turn In. Label the outside front of the pocket folder with the name of your class. This folder will go home with students each day, and will come to class with them each day. Give the students, then, a second manila folder, but different colored than the one labeled Things to Turn In, and have them label this folder the Cumulative Folder. This is how the system is used. Every Monday, students open up their two-pocketed folder, take the manila folder out (Things to Turn In) and set it aside, and with your direction, they write, on their calendars (stapled at the bottom on the right side), the lesson plans and assignments, as well as due dates for the week. Notice that this necessitates that we actually have planned for the week and know what we’re doing. As students are finishing up their Monday class, they place their homework in the left-sided Work in Progress pocket to take home. They also place helpful resources, such as assignment sheets, examples you provide as the teacher, etc., in the right-sided pocket entitled Resources (they must peel their calendar down and forward to do this). Then students place the manila folder labeled Things to Turn In back into the pocketed folder and take their folders home.

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Once home, they complete the activities and place the completed assignments into the manila folder entitled Things to Turn In. They then bring everything back to school and take out the items in the manila folder, turning them in to you. This process repeats itself over and over again, day after day, week after week, month after month. Why not allow students their own systems? First of all, any system we apply uniformly with students is a system that we can use as a teaching tool—it is defendable, it is organized, and it is explainable to parents and principals. It also lends itself to careful sorting and control, as well as group buy-in to procedures and the culture of how our classes are run. We do want to create almost a unique culture of how things are done in our domains. And by the way, once students get their graded papers back, they place them in their cumulative folders (which stay with you in the classroom)—most recent assignments on top—so that they can keep all assignments completed if they ever need to contest a grade or report card given. It’s evidence that they don’t want to be without, and these cumulative folders are excellent conversation tools for parents and principals when they visit your classroom, such as during parent/teacher conferences or occasional drop-bys. Again, cumulative folders should stay in the room at all times and are passed out and collected each day. COMPUTERIZED GRADEBOOK

Teachers, in my opinion, must rise from the dark ages of yesteryear and keep all students’ grades in a computerized grade book program and should provide students, once per week, computerized printouts of their individual grades in the course. These grade reports have the capability of highlighting all assignments completed to date, as well as the grades on those assignments and an overall grade given at that point in the class for that student. I have even asked students to take their grade sheets home each Monday and have them signed, bringing them back by the next day, Tuesday, for 10 points apiece toward their class grades. I then would keep parents’ signatures on the signed grade sheets on file, which significantly help at parent/teacher conferences. Every once in a while, I would be confronted by complaining, enabling parents, with the claim that they didn’t know about the weekly grade report process and that I as the teacher should have informed them. That’s when I

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would have a copy of my room rules handy—which they had signed indicating that they had read them—room rules that described the grade sheet process in detail. Hopefully, their signatures weren’t forged. In any event and more important, grade reports and a computerized grade program allow students to thoroughly understand how their grades are calculated—week by week—so that they can truly internalize what their responsibilities will entail if they want their grades raised. STUDY BUDDIES

I have students pair up and share phone numbers, so that in the event one is absent, he/she can check on makeup work information with a peer in the class. I also ask students to see their study buddies for makeup work information, after they return and before seeing me. Allowing them to work together on assignments from time to time is also a great way to help them cement a positive relationship. CONTRIBUTORY SERVICE CREDIT

Students who want to go above the call of duty and provide something that the entire class can benefit from are awarded what I term contributory service credit. This helps to enhance their grades and allows them an opportunity to practice going above and beyond the call of duty—especially if their efforts involve tutoring others at lunch, etc. PROCEDURAL QUIZZES

Especially at the end of the first week of class, but from time to time throughout the semester, I suggest that you quiz students on the details of class policies and room rules, procedures for makeup work in the event of absences, particulars of your quality contracts, etc. Although an extrinsically motivated approach, it certainly jump-starts the students into at least taking the responsibility to study your policies and procedures on their own time, above and beyond the necessary modeling and rehearsal that you do in class. ORGANIZATIONAL SPOT CHECKS

A few times a semester, I would spot check my students for organization, and give them credit for this effort. The way to do it is simple. Have students open

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their cumulative folders, and give them exactly one minute—timed with a bell—to submit a certain assignment, already graded, to a certain bin in the classroom. If they are organized, most recent (and dated) assignment on top, and if they have kept current their cumulative folder, then the process should be a piece of cake for them. Stick rigidly to the “one minute” rule, however, and enjoy the last minute rush to the bin. Be a little careful here to not allow hurdling of desks and running. I often used a rule that they could only use baby steps, yes, literal baby steps, while traveling to and from the submission bin. Yes, this worked with high school kids—it was a riot. DUSTBUSTER

Many of you probably remember the name brand Dustbuster, the wallmounted rechargeable portable vacuum cleaner that became popular in the late 1980s. Well, I have mounted one on the wall and have asked that a particular student dust bust the classroom at the end of each hour. This would allow for the quick vacuuming of all the serrated edges of paper from spiral notebooks that fell to the floor and would keep the classroom spotless. Students who performed the task one day could select any student of their choice for the next day. This duty was not optional, and it was fun, from time to time, to see students volley the responsibility at each other, day in and day out, repeatedly with malice and friendly malcontent. I am providing, next, an example of room rules that worked well for me. SAMPLE FOR CONSIDERATION MR. DONLAN’S POLICIES AND PROCEDURES Classroom Appearance

Classroom arrangements and decorations provide an appealing, relaxing, and exciting atmosphere. Many hours of planning and decorating have been put into the classroom by both students and the teacher. Student assistance in keeping the room free of debris is expected and is greatly appreciated. At the end of each class period, we will work together to make the room spotless—it is our responsibility. A daily “dust buster” (a student who cleans while the others are being dismissed) may be appointed by either other students or the teacher. Participation as the dust buster is mandatory. If late dismissals occur

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because of a messy classroom, tardy passes “excusing the students” may or may not be issued for students who are late for their next classes. Student/Teacher Preparation

The teacher and students will come to class every day with the required texts, folders, calendars, papers, and writing utensils. Student who enter the classroom without the required materials will be asked to go back to their lockers and gather them. They will also be counted as tardy if this occurs (after all, students are not “ready to learn” on time if they don’t have their materials). Assignments will be completed with quality in mind . . . papers will be graded carefully and will be handed back quickly to ensure adequate feedback for students’ efforts. Student/Teacher Behavior

We will all act like conscientious young adults, respecting each other’s feelings, opinions, and efforts. The classroom will be a supportive learning community at all times. Problems/Concerns

If a student has a concern with the assignments, the teacher, other students, or with the general direction of the course, he/she should talk with the instructor as soon as possible. For those who would prefer to remain anonymous, a classroom suggestion box is provided. Mr. Donlan is always willing to consider adjusting procedures and policies. Late Assignments

Students will only receive full credit for assignments if they are handed in on time and properly labeled. Weekly calendars are provided by the instructor to ensure that students are well aware of due dates. Students will keep these inside of a take-home folder. Calendars are filled out on Monday of each week. Students absent on Monday are to copy a calendar from a fellow student; it is the student’s responsibility. A student will receive 1⁄2 credit for any late assignments handed in during the same school week in which they are due. The only exception to the “1⁄2 credit during the same week” policy is when Mr. Donlan verbally informs the class that an assignment has a “deadline.” In that case, papers not handed in by the deadline will receive no credit, even if they are

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handed in during the same school week. Papers handed in following the school week in which they are due will receive no credit. Papers handed into the wrong “classroom slot,” papers handed in with no name written clearly on the top of the front page, and/or papers not properly labeled at the top with the name of the assignment and due date are considered “not handed in.” Also, assignments must be handed in separately; any assignments stapled to the back of other assignments will be counted as “not handed in.” Weeks in this classroom, for the purpose of general assignment deadlines, run from “Tuesday” to “Monday of the next week,” not from “Monday” to “Friday of the same week.” This definition of a “week” is at the request of the students, so that they can have the weekend to finish up any assignments that they may be “behind” on completing, before the “end” of our week, as we define our week. This organizational system, though demanding, is manageable and beneficial to the students. Organizational skills are necessary for success both inside and outside school, and certainly for professional success. Classroom Submission Bins

Students should exercise great care when handing in or retrieving assignments from the submission bins. After all, other students’ assignments are in there also. Students have the responsibility of keeping both theirs and others’ assignments in order. Mr. Donlan does not take responsibility for papers that students “thought or knew for sure” that they turned in properly, but are “now missing.” For Mr. Donlan to give credit, assignments have to be tangibly in front of him, presented by the student. Students are encouraged to make copies of everything they turn in, so they will always have evidence to back up their claims. If they don’t make copies, they run the risk of having others misplace the products of their efforts. Absences

In most cases, students will receive one day for each day they are absent to make up assignments. Students may be given alternate assignments of the same point value if they miss tests, quizzes, or certain types of writing activities. This will be up to the discretion of the teacher. Grade reports will not be accepted for credit if the student fails to turn them in during the same “week” (Tuesday to Monday) in which they were distributed because of an absence on

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Thursday, Friday, or Monday (primarily because grade strips are handed out on Tuesday and should technically be turned in the next day—“Wednesday”). Students attending sporting events or school-sponsored activities must complete their assignments on time. Any school-sponsored absences during the middle of the week will not extend the deadline for something due later in the week. Papers and assignments due on the date of the school-sponsored absence must be turned in before the student leaves for the event if the student wishes to receive any credit. Also, if the point total in the course changes while the student is absent, the student, for athletic eligibility purposes, will have a lower percentage in the course until the work is made up. Cheating

Cheating on an assignment will result in zero points for the assignment, no matter the point value. “Stop by” Policy

Students are welcome in Mr. Donlan’s room while he is there, anytime during the school day. Mr. Donlan is proud of the learning community in his classroom; he has an open door policy. If students have obtained passes from their teachers, they can simply walk in, relax, and enjoy themselves. Visiting students should be careful not to disturb other students who are engaged in the lessons being conducted. Mr. Donlan reserves the right to remove people from the classroom who are inhibiting the educational process taking place. He will try to do this without embarrassing the individuals involved. Grades

Most assignments will be given a point value. These values will be totaled at the end of the marking period to determine a marking period grade. Marking period grades, along with final examinations, will be put together to determine semester grades. Students will be given weekly feedback on their grades through the use of a computerized grading system. Parents will receive weekly grade strips; they will sign these, and the students will return them to school. These will be worth 10 points apiece but will only be received for credit during the week they are issued. The grade ranges for Mr. Donlan’s classes are as follows:

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100%–90%—A range 89%–80%—B range 79%–70%—C range 69%–60%—D range 59% or below—E range The range of grades will involve ⫹ or ⫺ grades, depending on the actual scores and their corresponding percentages. Mr. Donlan’s computerized grading program does not round up for percentages in the tenths or hundredths. Tardies

Students are tardy if they are not in their assigned seats with all classroom materials ready to go within 15 seconds of the bell. Students without their materials will be asked to return to their lockers and obtain them. If the students refuse, they will be considered insubordinate under the school’s disciplinary policy. On every third tardy, Mr. Donlan reserves the right to refer the student to the attendance office for corrective disciplinary measures under the school’s tardy policy. Students may be allowed either “academic” or “productive” buy-back time from Mr. Donlan in lieu of referral to the office. Mr. Donlan will allow for this at his discretion when he considers it educationally sound and/or convenient for him. Passes

Passes will be issued when students feel the need to leave for educationally sound reasons. Privileges can be revoked here for a variety of reasons as determined by Mr. Donlan. After-School Assistance

Mr. Donlan tries to make himself available for students and parents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If he is unavailable at school, he can often be reached at his home telephone number, which is listed in the telephone book. An answering machine is available most of the time in case Mr. Donlan is unavailable at either number. When leaving messages, please leave your name, number, plus the “latest time” Mr. Donlan can call you back; otherwise, he won’t call you back. Please sign, date, and return to me the bottom of this sheet. Also, have your parents/guardians do the same. Your signatures will indicate that you have

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read the sheet and understand the class policies. Your signatures also indicate that you plan on adhering to the procedures during your stay in the class. Thank you . . . I hope you have a great year. ______________________

_____________

Student’s Signature

Date

______________________

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Parent/Guardian’s Signature

Date

Also included below is a sample Quality Contract that we as veteran teachers can utilize as Compacts of Effort and Quality Work with our students. SAMPLE FOR CONSIDERATION Quality Contract for Mr. Donlan’s Students

I, _______________________ , hereby agree to have a great time in Mr. Donlan’s classroom during this school year. I realize that others are also trying to have a positive experience, so I will do my best to make their time in class enjoyable. I will be myself, and I will not be afraid to let my feelings, expectations, and demands be known throughout the course of daily events. I will work to the best of my ability every day. Of course, some days might be better than others for me, but I will always put forth a great effort. My work will be completed at the quality level, and any writings or assignments turned in will represent my best effort. I will be proud of everything I turn in to Mr. Donlan. I expect to have input into class discussions, policies, and practices. If I am uncomfortable with anything, I will let Mr. Donlan know as soon as possible. I may do this either in class or away from the class. I agree to use the suggestion box on Mr. Donlan’s desk whenever I feel like it. I realize and understand that I really do have the power to change things if things need to be changed. But I must come up with clear, coherent, and convincing reasons why change is needed. I will do my best as a member of our learning community. ______________________ Student’s Signature

______________ Date

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The Grab Bag for Minimizing Interruptions

The final grab bag item that I must mention under the topic of organizational effectiveness for veteran teachers has to do with interruptions. AVOIDING INTERRUPTIONS

In a classroom, some interruptions are absolutely fine—students’ questions, visits from principals, even student misbehavior as we have discussed can be turned into a teachable moment. What many teachers may not realize is that numerous interruptions occur daily in other areas—ones that can be avoided through proper structuring of time, space, tasks, and energy. A few follow: ■

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The Slow Start: Having a focus activity on the board for students, as they settle in and as we take attendance, is a great minimizer of this interruption. Taking Attendance: Again, as mentioned previously, an excellent tool for maintaining order while providing a lightning fast start to class is to not call roll from a class list. Again, draw on a piece of paper an overhead/aerial view of the classroom, with students’ names inside the depictions of desks. Then simply look for empty desks while beginning each class, and write down on the attendance/absence form or enter into the computer the names of those students from your schematic who are missing. Clerical Lag: For handing back papers and assignments, you can use students as Administrative Assistants, giving them weeklong tours of duty in

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these roles for extra credit. Designated students, when they arrive to class, could possibly go to a prearranged bin and hand back corrected assignments to other students, as well as the cumulative folders. Makeup Work: “I was sick yesterday. What did we do?” How often do we want these questions interrupting our day’s successful launch? Devising a slick system for providing these students what they need immediately is allimportant; after all, until they get their concerns assuaged, they will be unable to concentrate on today’s lesson and may pose behavior problems.

WALL POSTERS

The first best friend you can have is a wall poster system. Simply get a standard-sized piece of poster board, and divide it up, for the most part, to look like a calendar. How to do it? Orient the poster board the long way from top to bottom (portrait, not landscape) and start by measuring from left to right, across the top, 2 inches. Make a mark. Then make a mark every 4 inches after that. From top to bottom, make a mark every 4 inches. Connect your marks with horizontal and vertical lines. You’ll end up with 6 or more rows starting with a 2 ⫻ 4 inch square, then continuing with enough 4 ⫻ 4 inch squares to put Monday through Friday’s assignments—one day at a time, in each square in the row (the 2 ⫻ 4 inch square at the beginning of each row can be used to label the week’s beginning date, such as “The Week of 9/24.”) We then use these squares to write down the work that was completed on any given day. Then, when students arrive after being sick, they can simply visit the poster board and write down the assignments that they missed. After that, they can proceed to the makeup work bin, wherein we leave copies of all of the previous week’s assignments for students who were absent. If they missed Monday and need to copy down the assignments for the entire week ahead, as others have in their folder calendars (Remember how we fill out weekly calendars in our folders on each Monday?), we can have these waiting for students in a lesson plan book, sitting atop a podium or music stand by the classroom door. This also looks great to principals who wander by from time to time. After this, students can ask their study buddies what they missed, to ensure they have picked up all the assignments.

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Finally, students can ask the teacher any additional questions they have— later on, during guided practice. What about the question from all students, “What are we doing today?” Yes, even though it is on their calendars, students are still inquisitive if the reality of the day matches the plan set forth yesterday. This is where you have advanced organizers on your chalkboard or whiteboard, where you, in outline form, spell out what the daily activities will be. An advanced organizer is a fancy name for a List of Things We’re Going to Do. After a while, students will become accustomed to these, even if you don’t actually refer to these, and they will find a source of comfort in knowing what’s ahead for the day at hand.

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The Grab Bag/Wrapping Up

As master teachers, if we truly want a classroom atmosphere geared for success, let’s never forget the following thoughts in a nutshell. We must: 1. Encourage . . . encourage . . . encourage. 2. Promote . . . promote . . . promote—ourselves as teachers, as well as the importance of our lessons, and the importance of being supportive and civil to others. We’ve got to sell these things! 3. Provide a variety of work areas: tables, desks, comfortable chairs, reading areas, etc. —all visible to us. 4. Arrange plants and lamps around the room . . . offer music and other environmental options. 5. Consider bright (not overly splashy) décor—student centered, and relevant to the lives of students (posters, photos, etc.). 6. Keep our rooms clean and cared for, with messes cleaned up immediately, desks free of marks. Police this; let’s keep our eyes open. Marks beget other marks, and they also beget a loss of respect for the environment and the teacher. 7. Maintain fluid, open activity, yet supervised and directed. 8. Direct our classes as master conductors would lead a symphony of master musicians.

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And promise ourselves: That we can explain why something is important and show students how it applies to the world around them. That we will have no downtime in courses where students can say, “We’re doing nothing today.” That we will have no videos or DVDs, unless they can be tied directly to the curriculum in place, and if shown, we as teachers show a portion, then we break for a relevant curricular activity or teachable moment. That we will truly understand our content well enough to give 3–4 examples that are interesting and relevant to students, at any given moment in time, sparked by student interest and questions. That we will not solely rely on text-driven instruction. Yet, conversely, that we will not universally discount the value of textdriven instruction. And again, that we will think of ourselves as the greatest show on earth, because we are, and those in other professions cannot do what we do! And finally, let’s stay on top of our game, by: Shedding the notion that we need to be controlling to control. Ensuring that we never engage or rile a situation when another, more acceptable, and safer avenue is available. Broadening our senses of humor to include an appreciation of students’ senses of humor, or at least an understanding of theirs. Preparing our classrooms, as I have said before, thoroughly and with multiple tasks available for educational delivery. Working with and stealing from others—ideas, methodologies, even their one-liners. Staying calm, remembering, it’s not about us. Keeping the focus on the students first—and remembering their roles as customers, clients, and products.

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Room Décor

With all of these methods and grab bag components, it may come as no surprise to you that you will need to have a slightly unique room, both in operation and in appearance, to carry this out. The truly effective teacher will have a different atmosphere and will realize that it’s not only the person, it’s the furnishings that help bring this about. We must have awe-aspiring rooms. They must be warm, impeccable, functional, friendly, and fun. They must be impressive! They cannot simply be cinder blocked and institutional. Let me mention that at the outset, I believe in all my heart three things: (1) that if we build something, like our classrooms, treasurable and magnificent, those who enter will respect them, (2) that from time to time, someone won’t, and we can’t give up on our masterpiece—we can’t tear down Rome because of one dysfunctional Roman, and (3) that if students see that we maintain our classrooms as palaces and expect them to help, they will rise to the occasion and our instances of mischief and vandalism will be minimal. Oh, and a fourth—We can’t build the world’s best room with our school budgets. We must spend our own money, not always lots, but some. What do we need? We need beanbags, recliners, and couches for reading, writing, and thinking. We need pillows and lamps and posters for ease of mind and comfort while thinking. We need a combination of desks for individual learning and tables for collaborative learning. Square tables for

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organizing and round tables for conversing. We need clipboards and cushions and bins and organizers, calendars, and coffee machines, and dust busters, and filing cabinets. Kids need shelves and storage and markers and poster board, pens and paints, construction paper and charcoals. We need games and areas for competition, VCRs and televisions, DVD players and stereos, computers and printers. Yes, we need all of this, whether or not the school pays for them. Why? If you truly are a standards-based, research-supported, activitydriven teacher, you must have all of these at your fingertips, so that students can effectively engage in a variety of activities, without the need for extensive setup or cleanup, heaven forbid the runs to other teachers for supplies. What happens if a teachable moment was on last night’s evening news, and you want to show it? Well, you better have your own VCR or DVD, rather than awaiting one’s availability from your media center. And what about the students who want music while they work? A stereo works for this, one that the entire class can listen to, when you deem it acceptable. I’m not a fan of headphones and iPods, as they allow students to tune out. And think about it—when you have a reading assignment to do at home, do you pick the least comfortable plastic and metal chair in the house to sit in, or do you sit in a recliner, or lay on the couch? Kids have the same needs, and why shouldn’t they be provided these in each classroom? I would argue they should. The only folks that might get in your way are (a) other teachers, suspect or even jealous, (b) custodians, if you aren’t keeping the room easy for them to clean, (c) your administrator, if he just doesn’t like what you’re doing, and/or (d) the fire marshal or health inspector, which may deem your couch a fire hazard, or in some cases a health hazard (in the event of one of those nasty building lice outbreaks, which can afflict even the best classrooms and schools). My advice: go ahead and launch into a palace of a room, and if the complaints ensure, do your best to defend your practices based on brain research, the characteristics of Integrated Thematic Instruction (Kovalik 1995), Multiple Intelligences (Gardner 1993), or even just plain good teaching. Where can we get lots of great things? Resale shops are great, but I wouldn’t suggest them for couches and chairs that could contain the creepy crawlies (al-

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though leather, suede, plastic, or vinyl finishings are fine, such as beanbags, pillows, etc.), and garage sales are magnificent (same cautions). Let’s make our rooms real, fun, and real fun. But at the same time, let us allow for them to be a magnificent example of hard work, quality scholarship, and energetic, substantive learning in the twenty-first century.

VII

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

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Professional Development and Conferencing

Professional development (PD)—or, teacher training—and conferencing can be intellectually stimulating, or conversely, can be a pure and unadulterated waste of one’s time. The degree to which PD can be one or the other has as much to do with how you navigate the PD opportunities, as it does with who is presenting that which is being presented. Allow me to offer a bit of advice, as well as a few permissions to the seasoned veteran. After all, we give so much to kids and the profession that it’s okay to take a bit back as well. First, let us begin with a cardinal principle. It’s okay to be self-ful at PD events and conferences. Self-ful is not at all selfish; it simply means that we are not going to subordinate our needs in situations where our time is being wasted. Second, it means that we owe ourselves reasonable outlets for personal comfort if we are to be stationary for long periods of time, such as in meeting rooms where talking head after talking head is giving us information. Finally, being self-ful means that we give as much weight to the how we navigate the professional development experience, as the what we take away. Here’s a more detailed explanation. Oftentimes, conferences and professional development days have a mix of whole-group sessions and breakout sessions. Whole-group sessions typically present themselves as welcome and introduction sessions, keynote speaker opportunities, and even whole-group dining experiences. Most of the time, a certain key message or theme exists at these whole-group get-togethers, one

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that is integral to the event, itself, so in most cases, it is not a waste of anyone’s time. One typically marries this whole-group event, this message, when the event is scheduled, sort of like taking a vow of participation. Breakout sessions, or smaller-group sessions, are different. Typically, peddlers of the many next educational innovations attempt to sell their sessions in conference program blurbs while suggesting to you that through attendance at their sessions, you will get some specific, pertinent information that will make your job easier, and you, better at doing it. Sometimes, these peddlers of information or best-practice gurus make good on their promises; sometimes, they don’t. My advice is to get to these breakout sessions promptly, so that you can get copies of the materials (as many presenters do not bring enough materials for everyone) and so that you can get an optimal seat. Optimal seating is limited. By optimal, I do not mean close to the presenter; I mean close to the door or close to an aisle. You’ll see and hear just fine, no matter where you sit. But you need an escape route. Let’s face it—in the last 20 years of education, I believe I am running a 5050 average of selecting great breakout sessions, with the remaining 25 percent of the time selecting average ones, and failing miserably the other quarter of the time. Sometimes, I just select wrong; yet at other times, I am sold a bill of goods and am sorely disappointed almost from the moment the session begins. Well, I’ve been in this business long enough now to give you this advice. If breakout sessions are bad, just leave them. Quickly and quietly, without fanfare, proceed from your choice seat to the nearest exit, and try your best to leave with the door shutting quietly. If a conference worker tries to inquire as to your reasons for exiting, simply say, “Thank you, I have to take a call,” and pull your cell phone from your pocket. Pretend you are talking quietly as you walk away. Everyone’s dignity is preserved. Let’s face it. You must be self-ful. Your time cannot be wasted. You work too hard. A quick exit oftentimes allows you to attend a more valuable session, or even an opportunity to commiserate in the event hallway or commons with someone with whom you should network. Walk away unapologetically. Visit the vendor booths until the next session begins. My next suggestion has to do with your personal comfort. Plan on arriving early to events, especially the bigger, whole-group events in large conference

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rooms, not so much so that you can get a front row seat by any means, but so that you can get a seat by the refreshments, coffee, rolls, and exits. I have been to events that are overplanned and overbooked to the degree that the only breaks allowed during the 8-hour day were for lunch (and that was still served at the tables where we had been sitting all morning). Gather your refreshments—have a glass of water, one of juice, one of coffee, and a few dishes full of fruit and rolls on the table in front of you. Don’t be shy. Spread out; be comfortable. Ensure that you are sitting where you are facing the speaker, rather than with your back turned, as your back to the speaker will almost ensure that you will have to turn around haphazardly, losing all of the valuable table space for food, drink, and conference notebook/writing space. You will be uncomfortable all day. Move around if you need to do so. Even with the speaker talking during large sessions, feel free to get up and refill your drinks or eats. Move in and out of the conference room quietly, and stand up, leaning against the back wall of the room, if you need to stretch out a bit. Again, be self-ful in a way that is not disrespectful, yet in a way that respects that you or your school district has paid good money for this professional development opportunity, and just as the students in your classrooms, you are a customer, as well as a client and product. Finally, take great pride in the manner in which you navigate the how of the professional development opportunity or conference. If at hotels or conference centers, arrive well dressed and avail yourself of valet parking. If the district disapproves, pay the fee from your own wallet. It’s all about style, comfort, and being self-ful. Plus, in certain urban areas, valet parking keeps you safe. Keep a few bucks in your shirt or coat pocket to tip the valet officials or concierge, so that you can stride with class to the counter and check in to your room. Host a social in your room for other colleagues, with snacks or spirits, if the opportunity presents itself, as these times out of town are great for bonding and socializing. Attend the socials sponsored by educational sales reps, as the snacks and drinks are usually free and the situations are ripe for networking with others in your profession. If you are more the introvert, attend with a trusted staff member or two and find a quiet place to enjoy each other’s company, over a snack or beverage.

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Dress up, not down, for all events, as you want to appear on your game and polished, making a professional and positive impression on others in your field, especially those who may report back to your bosses how you looked, what you did, and whom you were with at the events. Finally, give yourself the gift of escaping the conference for a while, taking time to dine or shop in the town of the event, as many times these are held in larger cosmopolitan areas that you would not typically visit during the course of your very busy life.

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People Watching at Conferences

From the bums panhandling in the alleyways below your hotel window to the locals living their busy lives among you, people watching at conferences gives you a great opportunity for a deepened understanding of our profession as we know it, our world as we know it, and it also gives you great fodder for lounge talk when returning to school. People watching is just plain fun, so enjoy yourselves! Some typical folks to look for include: 1. Higher-ups from the national government or our state departments of education making presentations on new rules, regulations, or even strategies for teaching, yet doing so in a way that bores us to tears or puts us to sleep. Many couldn’t teach their way out of paper bags, yet they are writing the rules under which we should teach kids. 2. Housekeeping crews that seem to yell “Housekeeping” not from the outside hallway, but as they are midstride into hotel rooms, typically at times when hotel guests will be standing naked at their mirrors, blow drying their hair for the morning’s events. They feign an embarrassed and apologetic look as they leave the rooms, while probably thinking to themselves, “Slam dunk baby!” 3. The charming, semi-quiet, yet good-looking “30-to-40 something,” drinking alone at the bar, typically within conversation distance of the bartender, yet with a convenient seat available next to him/her, as well as a faint

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impression where the wedding ring had been just taken from the ring finger at the hotel room upstairs. Slimeball! The flowing-haired, handsome, and nationally renowned keynote speaker from earlier in the day, gyrating while singing karaoke with a group of young reading teachers fresh from college and attending their first national conference. A player, for sure! An incredibly intoxicated group from a neighboring school, their athletic director on a chair yelling “Another round,” as they hoist another of many shots in the air, followed by beers as chasers. It would be great to see them the next morning at breakfast, if they attend. The incredibly important, educational leader whose many electronic gadgets seemingly have a constitutional right to be answered, as they chime, ding, and ring repeatedly in annoyance of the many in proximity of one so highly regarded. With the constant flurry of cell phoning and text messaging and an abject disregard of the needs of those around, this leader gives one the impression that his/her district cannot survive without the everpresent need to be overcommunicated and micromanaged. The sales reps—gotta love the sales reps!

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When You’re the Presenter

So you have been invited to present at a breakout session at a conference. A master teacher sharing your craft. Congratulations! Yet, I must implore that you separate yourself from the herd. Transcend the oft-witnessed limitations of a vast majority of the presenters in educational breakout sessions today into heightened degrees of education and entertainment. Let me give you some advice that will make you truly an extraordinary presenter. Here goes: 1. Realize that your presentation anxiety may be radically different than the butterflies you once felt in teaching to students. How are you at presenting to your peers? Confident? Nervous? Anxiety ridden? The adult nature of the audience changes the name of the game, so be cognizant of that. 2. Find out what time you can set up for your session, and arrive in that room at the earliest possible moment. If you’re able to do so, visit the room days ahead of time. Ask yourself: Where are the electrical outlets? Where are the lights? Will I need to bring extension cords for LCD projectors and my laptop? How much table space will I get for my materials? Move the furniture to suit your needs. Ask for more tables and table coverings. Befriend the staff. 3. Never trust that the room will come with the promised equipment. Never trust that the equipment therein will arrive on time, or when it does, that

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it will even work. Bring your own as a backup, even if they say they will have equipment available. Definitely, you should bring your own laptop if using presentation software. Bring your own LCD projector as well. Further, bring extension cords and power outlet strips. Most of all, bring a wireless clicker to advance your presentation slides, so that you are not tethered to your laptop. You’ll need to move around. Set up early enough so that when people start arriving, you are able to focus 100 percent on relationships, not at all on tasks. You’ll want to be greeting warmly and engaging your audience from the moment they arrive. Ensure that background music is playing softly, either through a CD player or through your computer’s media playing device. Soft jazz or easy listening is good for many occasions such as this. Also, never underestimate the power of a seamless fade-out of the music, just seconds before you say your first words of introduction. When the music fades, you start your presentation—make it flawless. You will look like a million dollars. Offer an engaging introduction that hooks the audience into your topic, for approximately 20–30 seconds, then announce your name and title to the audience. You’ll be amazed how confident you appear if you sequence things in this way. Don’t worry about housekeeping announcements at breakout sessions (such as “Bathroom is down the hall on your right,” etc.). If you are moving your podium at all during the event, please ensure that you know where its center of gravity lies. You may have to place a hand halfway down the podium, and another at the top, in order to move it. Presenters will, at times, place both hands atop of a rolling podium to move it, then to realize that they actually inadvertently tip the podium instead, because of its center of gravity. Do not remain behind your podium at all times when presenting. Come out nearer your audience, especially if you are evoking emotion or tapping into their feelings regarding a portion of your presentation. I call this the humble aside, where you move around from behind the podium and closer to the hearts of your audience as you attempt to move them emotionally, then returning to your behind-the-podium position when engaging their intellect, as opposed to their emotions, once again. Ensure that your presentation software augments the points that you are making, rather than supplants them. Further, ensure that you are not

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looking at the presentation screen behind you, but at your audience instead. You can accomplish this by having your laptop strategically placed as a video monitor so that you can cheat a glance off the laptop in front of (and slightly below) you as you bring in your bullet points. Only turn to the screen if you want the audience to analyze or review a chart or graphic with you, together. 11. Deliver a captivating conclusion, answer a few questions, then fade in the music once again, leaving the presentation area and moving into the audience so that you can be all about relationships as people exit your breakout session and head toward another. Remember, your responsibility, if you use your educational/professional knowledge as a teacher of other teachers, is to both educate and entertain. Your job is edutainment!

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THE HEALTHIER YOU— A LIGHT HEART LIVES LONG

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You Call It Efficiency or Multitasking; I Call It Burnout

The 30-year veteran who states, “Summertime: the best part of my current teaching career.” The cynical critic who says, “Been there; done it. Always a new administrator . . . always a new strategy of the month.” The lounge lizard who seems more focused on reading fly-fishing magazines during planning and prep time than he does preparing for his next class. A true picture of “burnout”? Not necessarily. The first may be lazy, conversely a joker, or just an exceptionally honest guy. We never know on first glance, yet you as a veteran have him figured out. The second may, in fact, be right. Administrators do come and go with a swinging door quite often. The third may simply love fly-fishing, and may be recharging for another eventful experience in his classroom in his own way. These folks do not epitomize burnout; they epitomize the reality of the human condition, and that’s not always that bad. Moreover, these renditions above, the quotes rendered and/or snapshots described, are not processes—as burnout is. They are products, who are, or who are not, doing just fine in and of themselves. This is where administrators oftentimes go wrong in their cautionary statements regarding the cancerous negativities pervasive in educational circles. They’re looking at the wrong symptoms and are misdiagnosing. “Get involved,” one principal says. “Don’t hang out with those people,” another states. “Surround yourself with positive influences,” another admonishes.

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Probably the most oft-quoted suggestion is as follows: “Avoid the lounge at all costs; all those folks do is criticize, criticize, criticize.” Hoping to protect all from burnout, I contend that with these bits of advice, principals unintentionally may drive teachers right into the need for educational chemotherapy for the same, stealthlike, burnout cancer that they are hoping all teachers will avoid. Burnout, as I see it, is not so much a product. Burnout, as I envision it, is truly a process, an invisible and progressively degenerating cancer on the best of educators, one that gains its foothold in stealth where identification would be too great a gift; unawareness is actually the bigger curse. Burnout can strike anyone, yet not necessarily at any time or any place. It can and should be avoided. I know, because at a time long ago in my career, I became temporarily afflicted. I surmise that teachers can effectively stave off the deleterious and crippling process of burnout by getting a solid handle of two aspects of their lives that they may never have thought about before— life-charging and life-draining activities. I never thought of these things in my first years of teaching. Anyone familiar with personality typology testing knows what lifecharging and life-draining activities are all about. For some people, reading books is life charging. It excites them, energizes them, and gives them a glow and a comfort, almost like the filling of a gas tank. Some bury their heads in books for hours and come out refreshed and inspired—energized. For others, reading books does not recharge them. It tires them out. They come out drained and can’t wait to dive into more physical or tactile activities, such as sports or crafts. Some folks like speaking to others—they are very social and find the process rewarding and life charging. Others are deathly afraid and find it taxing—some are even good at it but don’t really like it—it wears on them. Think of the proverbial cocktail party or after-hours social, with folks exchanging small talk and business cards, and most walking up to total strangers and striking up conversations. Would this pick you up or drain you down? Most would say one or the other. These are prime examples of a life-draining or life-charging activity, depending on your social type and personality type. Fast forward to the teaching profession. Certain aspects of teaching charge up folks in the profession; others drain them. These are different for different people. Think of your role. Do you love slam-dunking a concept or lively les-

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son with a group of 20 kids, who have just finished a fast-paced activity with much enthusiasm and success, or would you prefer working with a small group in more quiet, thoughtful, scholarly introspection and analysis? You may be good at both. But what drains you and what charges you? Another example. Do you find classroom disciplinary challenges as taxing, trying situations, ones that wear you out and beat you down? Or do you get charged up at the challenge and walk away with a glow and energy about how you handled those interactions, in the best interest of kids, teaching, and learning? Some would prefer them; some not. This is even trickier because the adrenaline rush can make even folks who are drained by them feel, at first, charged. Here’s the bigger, and much more important picture. From a huge perspective—whether you’re great in front of an audience, or even with individuals, or not—does the experience of being around lots and lots of people drain you or charge you up? You might be surprised to find out that you may be in a profession that drains you, rather than charges—even if you’re really good at what you do. And if this is the case, don’t worry. You are probably still wonderfully right for the profession; however, you run the risk of burnout if you don’t recognize what your personality type requires for you, after each school day is complete. To be in education and to have education as a life-charging experience, in most cases, you have to be an extrovert. The opposite, of course, is an introvert, wherein being around education is life-draining, even if you don’t realize it at first. Neither deems you a better educator, and I must state that emphatically. How do I know? Well, after years of performances in a show band, after years of public speaking and social group interaction, and after 15 years or more in education in a variety of roles, I found out and came to terms with the fact that I’m an off-the-chart introvert, not the extrovert that I was demanded to be every day. I had a psychological need for limited group interaction. Yet, I always thought of myself as an extrovert, because of what I was doing professionally, not necessarily from the perspective of what I needed personally. And that realization allowed me to come to terms with my flirtation with burnout long ago, and it has helped shape the beginning of my next 20 years in education. My advice to any and all teachers: Get a personality typology test. Find out what your psychological needs are, and remember to balance activities that fill

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your gas tank with those that empty it. How do I now do it? I do it by spending some time with my wife and children each evening, and being alone, or with my wife, on my backyard deck in a hot tub after the kids go to bed, under the moonlight and stars. That recharges my battery for the next, very public, day. What does burnout look like? Well, according to my depiction of it as a process, at first, it looks like a great teacher who is really popular with students, one who keeps his or her door open at all times of the day and one who stays late into the afternoon and evening, helping with activities and tackling problems. It looks like a person who really cares and takes the extra time to do the very best possible. It looks like a person who is working 60 hours or more per week on behalf of the school and getting rave reviews from principals. But what then starts to happen? Gas tank depletes a little. A person should probably cut back, or do something, for energy efficiency, then mulls the following: Number 1, Do I continue to keep my door open at all times and remain available to students? Or, number 2, Do I shut myself in my room to get just a little planning done? Or, number 3, Do I keep my door open and do both, or stay even later at night? Burnout is usually at the spark level by those who choose number 3, at least at first. What’s sad is that the person could very well do some life-charging things outside of school, but oftentimes, this teacher doesn’t see this as an option. The burnout creep begins. What do you see in the beginning stages of burnout? Well, the popular teacher, with the same flow of students into the room, but the teacher moving about a little more, with more runs down the hall or to the copy machine. Note: Earlier, I mentioned the appropriate time to be making copies, and this isn’t it. More conversations with students that last 10 minutes rather than 30. In some cases, problems begin to be solved for the students in as little as 5 minutes, with pearls of wisdom delivered extrinsically, through the front door, rather than fostered internally in students, through the side door, as the 20minute sessions formerly allowed. The teacher still smiles, to everyone, yet the smile fades between bouts of eye contact. Still very popular with all, the teacher begins to be the master of exit lines and one-liners, so as to stop one conversation and head to another— or to another location where he/she feels pressed to accomplish some task that awaits, so that he/she can end the day sooner for what appears as needed rest.

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Burnout continued: Paper shuffling and organizing, as well as task manipulation and juggling, become the norm in the classroom, rather than deep, substantive conversation with students. Students are cranking out more paper, yet with shallower depth of expectation. The number of grades in the book and number of tasks accomplished is the rule of the day; the substance becomes the exception. The teacher is then seen as the mastery of organization, as a well-oiled machine, and is lauded for his/her ability to crank out more academic energy in students than colleagues far and near. However, machines, no matter how well oiled, do not think. And this is beginning to wane in the classroom setting. Next stage—worse, the stress begins to build, because psychologically, the mind is telling the body that something is wrong. And rather than a healthy meeting of life-draining needs and life-charging rejuvenation, more often than not, bad habits may develop that interfere with rejuvenation outside of school. Working too hard on outside relationships, moving too fast in them thinking that your next stage in life will be better than that of the present, are some examples. Improper diet or drinking to excess can result. Either way, the physiological automobile is rusting, and the teacher is being less efficient, while traveling faster down city streets and not enjoying meaningful country drives. You know something is wrong because you are always looking for a way for friendly interchanges—greetings and salutations with students and staff—not conversations with them. You want to be a listener, but you are listening for an appropriate time to get to the next socially correct exit line so that you can return to the tasks that you’re juggling. Stress further builds, and others may or may not be seeing a change in you. Friends, who know you better, may ask you if you’re working too hard; they may not be witnessing the you that you are trying to portray. Either way, you are changing from the inside out. Eventually, all people, not just your closest confidants, soon notice it from the outside in. You are not yet ready to accept that the best looking glass is the eyes of a friend. At this point, I suggest that with your descent through burnout, you must now run, not walk, to a thorough analysis of life-charging and life-draining events in your personal calendar. This is simply an analysis of input and output, and the equation cannot change no matter how intelligent you are, no matter how much you love kids and the profession, and no matter now good

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of a person you are inside. You must take inventory, and you must adjust accordingly. Take note—new personal or even romantic relationships will not solve your problem; they will only give you an adrenaline charge that will crash like a sugar buzz once normalcy sets in. Geography can’t solve your problem— moving to a new job in another school or city. Diet fads and short-term exercise plans can, for a time, help you, but these are not answers, in and of themselves—they just help to keep rust off the car, so to speak. You must change the way you fuel the engine and hit the gas. You must have a balance. Your life must have balance. What those in Eastern societies say about the yin and yang is true—very true. Save yourself by structuring your charging and draining activities before you lose the psychological and physical elasticity to bounce back from the degenerative path of fuel deficits and output overload. Think both long-term and comprehensive in your new, balanced journey of life-charging time— time for yourself. How will you know you’re cured? When you’re listening again—enjoying relationships as well as tasks, and when you’re comfortable tuning in to the conversations happening with another, not looking for an exit. When you’re ready to make a difference for someone by being there—the whole you, engaged, and involved. When you’re ready to slow your pace and plan your steps. When you can think again in school—and smile to yourself. When, on balance, you feel balanced.

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A Glowing Ember is Easily Rekindled

Life-charging and life-draining activities? Yin and yang? I have found that using an analogy of turning the dial helps rekindle that glowing ember that will supercharge our professional lives. We can go from burnout to being on fire once again. We can turn that dial in five ways: Philosophically, physically, aesthetically, politically, and practically. Have we been so caught up with the demands of our building, our principal, or even of our spouses and families that we have swayed away from our invaluable philosophical beliefs about teaching and learning, students and schools? Do we operate in a way that supports our teaching philosophically, or are we creating philosophical discord within us? Getting back on track requires that we start from the inside out once again. Why are we teaching? What in our content is important? How should kids be treated? What is the role of knowledge in kids? The role of parental participation in schools? Skills versus seat time? Should content be mastered, or should only certain benchmarks be reached? The role of extracurricular activities versus in-class experiences? Issues of academic freedom and local control of education? We must turn our dials back to our educational philosophies, and stay true to them. Let’s remind ourselves of our philosophies in how we adorn our classrooms, in the quotes we affix to our desktop letterhead, in the gifts we give to

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others on staff, and in the points we bring up at staff meetings. Let’s wear our philosophies as badges of pride and become who were really are once again, so that others can see the real educator within us. That will help rekindle the ember. What about our physical dials? Have we turned them back toward what we need? Physically, we must devote at least a half hour of time per day in a physical activity that either raises our physiology to our target heart rate or calms our senses to a level of serenity and mind/body oneness. This is a gift that will allow us to think clearly about ourselves and our profession—to reflect upon the demands placed upon us in a safe setting unencumbered by others who pull at us for our time. I’m not arguing for a weight loss program or aerobic regimen; I’m suggesting to all of us alone time within our own bodies. It’s a time to become grounded—a time to think, to feel, to reflect, to hypothesize, to speculate, to thank, to admire, to celebrate, to mourn, and to grow. We must pencil in this activity and give it as much weight as we do breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even class time with our students. It is not being selfish with ourselves and our alone time, as much as it is being self-ful. Aesthetically, we can rekindle the ember by allowing ourselves to appreciate the parts of our lives that are the more intangible, whether our interests are spiritual, natural, musical, artistic, or eclectic. We must turn our dials back toward asking ourselves, “What makes life more satisfying to me?” and in paying attention to this, we give ourselves a rootedness that allows us strength in times of stress and calm in times of turbulence. My time for me is on my deck in my backyard, with kids playing and dogs running, with soft jazz music playing, with barbecue grills cooking, the sun shining (or setting) and neighbors waving from afar. Now aesthetically, I prefer that these neighbors stay a part of the backdrop, rather than approach with a desire to talk, as I like to be one with my thoughts; that is, unless my children approach. Then, I scoop them up for a hug or a bit of playtime, as I throw another ball for the dog. That’s how I rekindle my embers aesthetically. How do you? What about our political dials? Have we ever even turned them on? Many in education have not, even though another invaluable technique for rekindling a professional ember is political involvement. Now I don’t mean running for office, although if that works for you, so be it. I’m suggesting that as a professional teacher you find the time to become more active, statewide, in your

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academic content’s teachers’ association, or even your statewide department or office of education. Attend the statewide board meetings, testify during the public comment, and avail yourself the opportunity to meet the leaders who are empowered to affect your professional life. Ask your school leader for permission to do so, and if not allowed on school time, then use your personal days from time to time for that activity. I am continually amazed at how much personal and professional satisfaction I enjoy when I am able to sit with colleagues in our teachers’ lounge and speak knowledgeably regarding the newest and latest initiatives rolled out to those of us in the field by the folks in our state capitol. I hear the testimony, I read the reports presented to those in leadership, and I develop a knowledge of the context through which educational policy or regulatory rules are created. Through these activities, I also become known to the rule makers and knowledgeable about how the game can be changed if the regulatory minutiae are harmful to those in classrooms working with kids. Political involvement and knowledge of what is happening to us, from those who make the rules, can rekindle any master teacher’s ember. You will be sought after quite often by colleagues for advice and comment, as you will be one of few with the 10,000 foot perspective that is needed as local policy is crafted. Finally, if you wish to rekindle the ember and infuse a much needed boost into your professional life, you must turn your dial practically, and answer a key question about your reputation, your need for affiliation, and your daily behavior: “Do you want to be respected or liked?” During your last 10 years, for sure, I would argue that “respected” is the key. Think about it: you will eventually retire, and your once-close circle of likable lounge confidants will wane away. Yes, those same close colleagues that you have spent the last 20–30 years working on how much they like you, and you, them. Upon retirement, the daily talk about the trials and tribulations of teaching or of the administrator who is getting under everyone’s skin will no longer include you. You’ve been put to pasture. Get over it! You’ll be retired, and no longer in the game. Even if former colleagues invite you for drinks, their minds will still be wrapped around shop talk as you sit and try your best to enjoy the context of what they are saying. Your life will change, and so will the circle of those you like, and those who like you. So, keep your professional reputation at the forefront—work on being respected, not liked.

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That’s your legacy, one of respect. What will the history books of your institution write about you? Did you play a hand at developing a part of institutional culture that uplifts learning, or simply were you well liked at staff socials? Did you design and craft institutional ceremony and ritual that will outlive even the junior staffers for generations to come, or were you simply one who was affable—one who played “got-ya” with the administration, much to the delight of the rank and file? Were you one who brought factions together through a respect of your viewpoints and principles, or were you a loyal and well-liked member of a toxic culture? Keep in mind, if the latter, that same toxic culture will abandon you once you are no longer of use to them. Rekindling the ember—not always easy, but worth it, as a lifetime of personal and professional pride will insurmountably make life much more worth living. It’s not just a matter of surviving ’til retirement, but also of thriving thereafter.

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A Healthier Perspective on the Much-Maligned, yet Uniquely Lovable Lounge Lizards A natural segue into the mentality of those in the teachers lounge, the chapter on burnout leaves with it the question—If the negativity in a school system’s lounge is not the result of burnout, just what is it a result of? I would surmise that negativity is a result of a few variables, that I will entitle: (1) Ring around the Administrator, (2) Site-Bashed Management, (3) the Big Chair Passover, (4) the Independent Contractor Syndrome, and (5) Environmental Defects. Again, remember that burnout as I describe it is a cancer, a process—not a product. Conversely, lounge lizardness is a product based on previous process phenomena. The first is probably the least harmful, yet it results in teachers of many years hazing over and dulling in their perspectives of the importance of institutional zeal. “Ring Around the Administrator” is a process by which, over time, a school building sees administrators come and go, all with lofty ideals about the teaching and learning process—all with rallies for action and team bonding in the spirit of children and learning—yet all with a deep-seated need for the administrator singing the songs and chanting the chant, rounding the troops and rallying the causes, to concurrently climb, climb, climb the professional ladder. How many times do teachers rally to support a new principal’s (or assistant principal’s) committee or initiative, to find out that each three or four years,

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the administrator has moved on, and the committee’s work has taken a different direction—usually to disbandment in favor of the new person’s pet project? For example, Administrator One runs with a student assistance program, wherein a small group of teachers spend time after school and on prep periods, mentoring and counseling students toward better decisions and greater attentiveness, only to find that this is set aside as Administrator Two comes in, seeing more of a need for a teacher assistance program, wherein if teachers help other teachers, then the natural result of this teacher assistantship trickles down and across to each classroom, transcending the effectiveness levels of the small group of teachers. Exit Administrator Two for that first opening in a larger school and enter Administrator Three, a younger sort who sees it his mission to open his own version of the program, yet with lofty and fairly unrealistic expectations that the student assistance program should be reborn, but with students mentoring other students. And so on and so on. I would surmise that we veterans really do want to contribute, we do want to make the difference, but we are professionals who realize that initiatives sometimes need as many as 5–7 years to become part of the institutional/ cultural fabric of the school, and at least that long before the kinks are worked out or the implementation dips subside—certainly that long before the work gets smarter, not harder. “Ring around the Administrator” is not an intentional, hurtful phenomenon that occurs in a school setting. No malice or malcontent is involved. It’s just that once teachers are exposed to an educational diet of a different flavor of the month or fad solution by yet another this-year’s guru, they become desensitized to the desire to try, as they see it an exercise in futility. They passively put up with the approaches—in part because they truly are good people and have an indelible desire to see things work for kids—but they are also realists who, after a time, say the much needed and oft appropriate, “give me a break.” “Site-Bashed Management” is a phenomenon that occurs, wherein a lot of people at the grassroots level perform much heartfelt work, only to have the fruits of their efforts set aside as another basket is selected by those who, as leaders—central office or building administrators— have the power to decide what happens and how.

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This happens in two ways. First of all and most obvious, it occurs when the central office of a school district preaches that the system is site based, either through the contents of an annual report, or through the selection and organization of stakeholder committees that work on certain initiatives and make certain decisions, then thereafter, that same central office makes a decision that falls outside what the grassroots stakeholders would have desired. The second way is at the building level, where the same happens, yet between principals and staffs, rather than between central offices and buildings. In any event, this enrages people. And it can be avoided, but the problem is that site-based claims, at their outset, are not framed carefully with borders and guidelines upon which decisions will rest in that court and which will not. And this is the leader’s responsibility, be it the principal or superintendent. Not taking time to clearly articulate at the outset of a project that includes multiple people, whether or not stakeholder involvement will be advisory, democratic, or based on consensus, results in what I call “Site-Bashed Management,” and it pisses people off. Over time, folks with key talents will flatly reject participation in these endeavors because they have worked hard in the past, only to be snubbed at the end. And I’m not contending that these folks will work hard for their leaders only in circumstances where their input will be binding on the result. For instance, if a principal stated to teachers that the building’s schedule (who teaches what) depends on student enrollment, and teachers’ majors and minors under state and federal guidelines, yet at the same time, the principal is asking for advisory input on who desires to teach what—and if the principal makes it clear that he will listen to all viewpoints, but that student need will drive the schedule (maybe even as well as other things, such as seniority, extracurricular assignment loads, etc.), then as long as the teachers know that the umpire reserves the right to consider their input, yet set it aside if other factors trump it, they are typically okay with that. It’s the principal who glad-hands folks and tells people what they want to hear, such as “You are the stakeholders, and we will decide this by site-based management,” then sets aside the opinions and takes a different course. Folks don’t need to have their decisions or desires implemented in every case; they just need to know if their input is advisory or binding. Otherwise they have an incomplete notion of how much effort to put into it, or how far to go to convince one and advocate for a viewpoint.

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Also, if the stakeholders’ decision is binding, then those participating need a clear understanding of whether or not the issue will be decided by majority of folks, by a plurality of folks, or by consensus of all involved. Further, if not by consensus, who will break the tie? Not knowing these things before decisions are made is the heart and soul of “Site-Bashed Management,” and it drives people up a wall. Negativity will surely result from this. And make no mistake about it—that negativity will reap a good deal of discussion about the principal’s or superintendent’s competency level, because many lounge lizards have received credits or degrees in educational administration, and they clearly and keenly know the rudimentary aspects of leadership theory and the situational dynamics of decision making in business organizations involving groups. They will quote researchers, song and verse, as they spread their negativity. The third key variable in bringing about lounge lizardness, and its resultant negativity, is what I call the “Big Chair Passover.” Teachers spend evenings and weekends, springs and summers, taking classes toward higher levels of education and degrees. Oftentimes, a few are interested in a possible career in administration, after years of service to teaching. In many cases, they have strong beliefs that schools and institutions should take care of their own, and after many years of dedicated service on behalf of kids and community, they feel that schools should promote from within—when administrative jobs open. Now keep in mind that after a number of years in teaching—with the resultant 9-month contracts and steps/rails of higher salaries—administrative jobs, from a monetary standpoint, get less and less lucrative. After all, most administrators work 11- or 12-month contracts, cannot find time for additional income opportunities, and oftentimes work as many hours during the day, or more, than teachers. They also are not oftentimes accorded tenure protection in their administrative jobs and do not get paid for additional duties, as per the terms of the collective bargaining agreements. My point? If you have a long-timer who has paid his/her dues and wants the “Big Chair,” it’s not for the money. It’s for heartfelt vision, or because of perceived qualities of leadership; it’s for self-esteem, self-worth, or for something else, some other need not addressed in current professional psyche. But it’s not for the money.

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Now just think what happens if the institution passes him by for an outside applicant—especially a younger one, or heaven forbid, just think what would happen if the institution picked a newer, younger teacher without nearly the experience or years of service! The next variable causing an extension of the habitat of the lounge lizards is what I call “The Independent Contractor” phenomenon. Actually, I get this notion, or angle on the phenomena, from a longtime friend and former colleague, who was incensed when teachers were teaching, and kids were learning, and then all of the sudden, Bam! the teacher was blindsided with a summons to the principal’s office. Usually, with a “see me” note with no explanation, except the principal’s name. Upon walking into the office, the unsuspecting teacher would find the principal sitting with an angry, upset parent—usually red with irritability or strewn with tears, whichever the case may be, and the teacher would be asked to take a seat. The conversation would then go something like this. Principal: Mr. So-and-So (teacher), you know Mrs. Such-and-Such (parent, enabling of course). Well, she states that she has grave concerns about the way you have been treating her son, Little Johnny, unfairly . . . picking on him, not letting him go to the bathroom, etc. Now as principal, you see . . . my job is to serve as an intermediary between concerned parents and teachers having problems, so that we can come to the fairest possible resolution on behalf of the child. So what I’m going to do is to ask Mrs. Such-and-Such to relate to you what she has related to me, so that you can respond and hopefully we’ll be able to problem solve and put this whole situation behind us. Mrs. Such-and-Such. . . .

Enflamed, surprised, shocked, and certainly in an unprepared fashion, the teacher has been invited to dinner with a cannibal, with the principal seemingly stating,“I’m simply the concierge, hoping everyone’s dinner is appropriately enjoyable to his/her role at the table”—an independent contractor, so to speak, who simply serves as a conduit of conflicts that meet other conflicts and sort themselves out in sort of a semisupervised, ineptly facilitated, Darwinian fashion, of squeaky wheels and community power brokers demanding deference

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from schoolfolk to their enabling parenting styles, with teachers tossed into the fray as punching bags, minus the proper preparation, support, headgear, and backup. Teachers lose trust and faith in the “Independent Contractor” and feel that they are not supported, in any way whatsoever. In reality, the principal, if he were a true leader and education-centered administrator, would engender much trust and mutual respect by taking a much different approach: (1) hear the rough framework of the parent’s compliant (2) request that the parent speak with the teacher involved directly (3) give the teacher a heads-up that the parent is coming, and (4) offer to be there as a diffusion agent if necessary, but definitely to alert the teacher that he/she may need collective bargaining advocacy. Back to the point—what enflames good folks and turns them into lounge lizards is, in part, the phenomenon of the politically operative, “Independent Contractor” administrator who simply feels that his job is to blow in the winds of political and parental sentiments, and independently exercise his autonomy not to make a decision that would endanger his own job or enflame the public who he has an inability to stand up to, in situations where their kids are disrupting the school and getting in the way of teaching and learning. Teachers need to feel that their leaders are strong. Teachers must believe in the courage of their supervisors. Make no mistake about it; teachers do not need administrators to support them, carte blanche; I’m not saying that here. But they do need to rely upon the fact that they will be treated as professionals and will be duly shielded from unwarranted and unforeseen intrusions into their professional days, as well as aspersions cast against their professional conduct and instructional effectiveness. The final variable leading toward lounge lizardness is, again, not a result of any burnout the teacher has experienced; it is a result of what I would like to term “Environmental Defects.” That’s when an innocent child is born into the world and, for some unexplainable reason of environmental influence, grows into an insecure, adult asshole, then after college becomes a teacher. This environmental defect then perches in the lounge for the next 20 years, bitching about anything requiring teachers to have a work ethic or to care about kids. Make no mistake about it—“Environmental Defects” in lounges abound. Do you have one in yours?

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Keep in mind that no matter the route to lounge lizardness, our friends— most of the crusty old souls in the lounge—are typically bright, capable, and for the most part, endearing people who have hopes, dreams, family, hobbies, and a distinct interest in giving school colleagues advice and direction that is, in most of its entirety, well meaning and genuine. Again, with a few exceptions. As masters of our game, let’s talk to these folks. Let’s learn from them, as well as share ideas, listen, and show due respect to them. In their condition and with all that they have to deal with, our kind words may be the only strokes that they have gotten, professionally, in quite some time.

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Raconteurs in Lounges and the Follies of Leadershit

You’re at a point in your career, I’m sure, where your confidence as a professional allows you, at times, to see colleagues, as well as those in school leadership as they really are: “just plain people.” No longer the omniscient, exalted ones that you believed your leaders were in earlier years, your bosses go about their business, putting their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us, and trying their best to make it from one day to another without screwing up their jobs. Some even have some major issues. Well, the foibles and follies of our school leaders, as well as their handling of day-to-day situations as they unfold, oftentimes provide us with a bit of humor and a brief reprieve from the heaviness that exists with the responsibilities we have with children. Thinking back over your careers, can you provide any stories of leadership folly to those with whom you work? Can you share them with those new to the profession, with a certain degree of lightheartedness? Your job as a master teacher, I would argue, requires that you become a raconteur of sorts, holding audience in the lounge with your colleagues, sharing stories and telling tales of fun and folly, while providing an entertainment that brings about smiles and a twinkle in everyone’s eyes. Your contribution will help bring about a grounding—a shared understanding that all of us, our leaders included, are human, and that we should enjoy each day we experience.

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Please enjoy a few of my favorite stories, some of which I have shared in my own teachers’ lounge—of leaders in our profession, some on their best days, and others not—some entirely accurate, some abridged and embellished a tad, yet all with names changed to protect those involved. Please as well, take my permission to share some of yours. New principal Jeff Adams, a recent hire from a large metropolitan area, was busily handling discipline on a Friday morning in a rural community. Report after report came in from students that a new kid from the city, recently enrolled, was disrespecting the womenfolk of the school, calling them sexually derogatory names and asking for after-school relations, as he favored himself quite adept at that sort of activity. The local boys were angry and did not at all appreciate the treatment of their school’s girls, especially from an import who seemed more an urban thug from a bad music video than a real kid, or one who was a fit in this farming community. Principal Adams investigated and engaged in a direct conversation with the student, resulting in a cease and desist order, even though the child denied all behavior alleged. School bells rang, signifying the end of the day and the beginning of an exciting football weekend. Suddenly, a commotion was heard near the parking lot next to the football field. Principal Adams descended upon the scene, noting quickly that seven or eight members of the football team were beating the pulp out of that same kid. Stopping the pummeling and helping the bloody thug to the office, Principal Adams placed a call to the student’s grandmother, his guardian, and began the first aid necessary. The perpetrators then filed into the office and awaited Principal Adams’ next step, his disciplinary action, as they were scheduled to play the game that evening. Grandmother arrived, taking the boy away. Principal Adams then decided to call Superintendent Karen Ross before issuing suspensions to the students. He said, “You know, Karen, one of the reasons I am calling is that their suspension will certainly result in some anger on the part of the students and parents; after all, they will not be able to play the game this evening and may be suspended from the team for a time as they have violated our athletic code of conduct.” Superintendent Ross responded, “Oh no you don’t, Jeff . . . with what you have told me about this new child,

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send those boys immediately back to their coach. Around here, we call the team’s behavior ‘community service.’” Strict disciplinarian Principal Sheldon Roberts was concerned that a number of students were not using school-issued padlocks on their lockers. They were using their own. This was in strict violation of the student handbook, which clearly designated the lockers as “school property.” A believer in procedural due process, Roberts made a series of clear announcements that students should immediately remove non-school-issued locks, as they could either be removed by the students or they would be removed by the school, by day’s end. He noted at least 75 violations in a preliminary morning inspection and was incensed to note at least the same number after students left for the day. Even after his announcements. With custodian in tow, Principal Roberts marched after school from hall to hall, using industrial-sized bolt cutters to sever the locks from their lockers. Students arrived the next morning, perplexed that their locks had been destroyed and whispering to each other, as Principal Roberts stood, marshalpose, near the student commons area. What the students knew that Roberts didn’t—The locks had been donated by the new school board member, a local hardware store owner, at the request of the superintendent while the principal was away at a principals’ conference. The high school needed to shave a bit off the school’s maintenance budget, and the board member offered to help. Someone didn’t check his e-mail. New assistant principal Bob Rivet ate yet another mint from his candy dish as he contemplated how he was doing while hot on the trail of a kid school leaders were calling “Shitman.” Bob had quite the sweet tooth, yet it was being soured, as in a very large school of over 1,000 students, a student was smearing fecal matter in the stalls of the boys bathrooms. Female undergarments were also found on the scene of each stall hit. So, Bob was very busy, with this fugitive, Shitman, taking up much of his time. He ate another mint as he discussed strategy for apprehension with his principal. Seemed that over the next few weeks, Bob was always a step behind, as the hits, or should we say, “shits,” were increasing. Students and staff were concerned that the school had a real sicko on their hands.

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A few days hence, Bob was collecting attendance reports from teachers when he saw special education student Billy leave his classroom with a hall pass. The two talked briefly in the hall, and Billy asked, “Mr. Rivet, can I have some candy?” Bob obliged, as Billy was one of the more frequent visitors to his dish, sometimes grabbing a handful numerous times each day. He asked that Billy help pick up attendance reports, with permission from his teacher if he had the time. Bob wanted to get back on the trail of Shitman, and the special education staff were more than willing to lend students for service activities. Entering a bathroom to plan an upcoming stakeout, Bob saw a pair of feet under a staff door with what appeared to be attendance reports sitting on the counter next to the sink. He said, “Billy, is that you?” No answer. “Billy, is that you?” No answer. “Billy . . .” he knocked on the stall door, “Are you in there?” “Yes, Mr. Rivet,” he replied. “Okay . . . just checking, as I don’t want you to forget these reports for the attendance office.” “I won’t, Mr. Rivet.” Leaving the bathroom, Assistant Principal Bob thought that it was best to stay in the area as Billy finished. Something just wasn’t right here. Billy left the bathroom with quick pace, avoiding eye contact and carrying the attendance reports hurriedly to the office. Bob re-entered the bathroom. He was curious. Peering in the stall, nothing seemed amiss. Stall intact. Bathroom spotless. No attendance reports left behind. Yet, a bit suspicious, Bob pulled back the paper towels that were near the top of the bathroom waste paper basket. A woman’s bra. I spooked Shitman! Billy! Eheww . . . my candy. Athletic Director Barry Wile was elated that his school’s basketball team was entering the semifinals of state competition. Competition was fierce, yet with an action-packed season of tough opponents behind, Barry was sure that his team had the chance to go all the way. A six-hour trip it would be for Barry’s

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entire community to descend on the state capital for the semis and finals, and with limited seating available for the tournament. Only 500 tickets per community were allowed; they would sell like hotcakes. A printing backlog resulted in a challenge for all schools participating in the tournament. No tickets would be available to schools until 48 hours before game time. Unacceptable to Barry’s community who needed to plan ahead for that major road trip—with the resultant hotel stays and needs for childcare behind—Barry decided to print vouchers and presell them to be later traded for tickets. Five hundred were sold in an hour, with many disgruntled community members not getting seats. Yet, when tickets arrived, well more than 500 were in line for tickets. You see, Barry created vouchers on a school computer and didn’t think of the obvious—that they could be replicated by tech-savvy, millennial malcontents and distributed “at full cost” to others. Whoops. Assistant Principal Victoria Anderson walked into veteran vocational teacher Rick VanCaster’s class to conduct her annual evaluation. Students were busily attending to their computer-aided design tasks and the room was abuzz with activity. Teacher was nowhere to be found. “Students, do you know where Mr. VanCaster is at this time?” she inquired. One responded, “I would imagine that he is taking his break now, Mrs. Anderson.” “Break?” Perplexed, Victoria left the room and walked down the hall. On a hunch, she entered the teachers’ lounge, noticing immediately Rick sitting back in a chair, feet atop a table, regaling his latest hunting conquest, an eight-pointer, as firearm deer season had just started the weekend before. With big buck embellishments, much to the adoration of fellow teachers who were visiting the lounge during their preparation periods, Rick said, “Hi, Victoria,” and continued waxing on. Victoria stated, aghast, “Mr. VanCaster . . . I was just in your class to begin your teaching evaluation!” Rick replied with a smile, “Well, Victoria . . . How am I doing so far?”

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Principal Don Smith had a drug problem in his school. A small, isolated community, once a haven for mining years earlier, had seen quite the increase in drug abuse in its student population in recent years. Taking a tough stand on the problem was needed, so Principal Smith decided to contract with a state police K-9 unit from a larger city, nearly 80 miles from his school, as this was the closest unit available. Drug dogs were coming in! Smith kept this plan secret from students and staff, alike, as he wanted his sting operation a surprise and a deterrent as well. Around 7:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, in the stealth of the predawn darkness, the K-9 unit quietly rolled into town, with officers stopping for coffee and a roll in a quiet bakery, parking their truck behind. Unfortunately, from the house adjacent sprang two high school students, delinquent types, who walked through the alleyway past the truck with a large “K-9 Unit” emblem as they headed to school. Kids arrived at school, on a day which turned out to be very lightly attended. Imagine that! Principal Smith placed a call to a predetermined K-9 unit telephone number once all settled in to class. Up the street rolled the truck toward the school. Over the loudspeaker, Smith asked all teachers to keep their students in classes, as lockers would be sniffed from specially trained dogs from the state police post. Dogs arrived. Up one hall, down another—no hits, no discoveries. Officers then suggested the parking lots. Principal Smith obliged. Almost immediately, the dogs went ballistic! At full attention, nearly clawing and scratching their way into a large truck parked closest the schoolhouse door, the specially trained drug sniffing dogs hit, with unanimity, on the truck of the school’s new assistant principal. Ouch! Principal Don Smith, on another occasion and in a different building assignment, desired to parlay a drug dog visit to his school into a teaching/learning experience for the entire student body, as well as one of deterrence from misbehavior. “Not only is he specially trained for drug identification, but also the latest in bomb sniffing techniques have become part and parcel of our new drug

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dog’s pedigree,” Smith stated to a hallway full of staff and students awaiting the dog’s arrival. The K-9 unit approached the school; students and staff alike lined the hallways to watch the demonstration. A specially trained deputy placed a small amount of sealed gunpowder in a locker at the very end of the hallway where the entire school stood, backs against lockers. Anxious anticipation was abounding, as drug dog “Blast” was led to the school’s doorway by his handler, Sergeant Bob McLain. McLain yelled, “Blast . . . find it!” and Blast was released. Charging forward with a four-legged sprint, Blast rocketed past the staff and students. Yet, much to his handler’s surprise, he skidded to a halt, halfway down the hallway, with legs spread sideways on the polished, gleaming terrazzo floor. Spinning twice in a circle, Blast tucked in his body, grimaced, and took a huge dump on the floor. Then, after a brief look of consternation, bolted past staff and students again, down the hall and out of the building. Sergeant McLain stood aghast. Principal Smith tried hard not to smile, while the entire student body broke into applause-ridden laughter, yelling “Blast, Blast, Blast,” much to the delight of teachers, who couldn’t help but chortle themselves. “Stop kicking our children out of school,” they cried en masse. Parents, desperately wanting an alternative to out-of-school suspension, asked school principal William Desher to create an in-school suspension program. The first of its kind in the district, it would ensure that when students violate school rules, that they no longer get to sleep in, watch television, and enjoy a vacation day. Yet, budgets were tight, and Principal Desher had to create this without additional funds to do so, and without additional staff. Without staff? Remodeling a former bookroom, Desher installed study carrels for quiet workspaces. He filled the room instructional supplies—everything a student could want to complete assignments; everything to keep kids busy and ontask. Students, while on suspension, would simply arrive at school in the morning and sit in one of the five or six spaces available, working on assignments that teachers provided. Yet, Principal Desher had no money to staff the room.

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An in-school suspension room without staffing? Quite cost-efficient, yet for sure, not optimal. Teachers in the building were not too keen on the idea. Fellow principals were skeptics as well; they wanted to see Desher’s unmanned in-school suspension room in operation, cautiously optimistic that this model could be applied in their own districts, as they had similar financial difficulties. Travel they did, meeting Desher at his school one afternoon. A parade of suits, students noted, with Principal Desher leading, marched down the hallway toward the in-school suspension room. It had been a quiet day, with only one student present. In fact, it had been quiet all week. As administrators crowded around, Principal Desher opened the door. Inside, a student, full frontal in his birthday suit, celebrating, as one could only do by himself, smiling at the crowd peering in upon him. Two well-intentioned suits, new principal Benjamin Thomas and assistant principal Bill Lancaster, were supervising students in a school’s commons area one morning, as vocational teacher Frank Grommins approached. “Hello Frank,” said Principal Ben. “What’s happenin’, Benny?” responded Frank. “How you boys doin’ today?” “Fairly well, Frank.” Principal Benjamin continued, “You know, I hesitate to mention this to you, Frank, but with your daily wearing of blue jeans and flannel shirts, as opposed to our expected teacher apparel of dress shirts and ties, it gives students the message that we’re all not on the same page,” Assistant Principal Bill remarked. “Could you work with us a bit on this, Frank?” Frank, a teacher of 25 years, pondered their remarks, as well as the cost of his $75.00 jeans and $54.00 flannel as compared to their $65.00 polyester ensemble, and said, “Sure, I’ll work with you, but first I gotta run. You see, with that big breakfast and three cups of coffee, I need to go take a Benny and wipe my Bill. I’ll get back with you boys later. See ya.” Principal Brad Walker and his girlfriend just split up. Athletic Director Ronny Jordan’s wife just left him for another woman. It was a Friday night, and both had plans to drown their sorrows with a bit of drinking and male bonding. They decided to go out together. Probably a good thing.

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Starting at a chamber of commerce event, they quickly became the life of that party, gathering a crowd of well-wishers and traveling with an entourage from bar to bar, nightclub to nightclub, forgetting for a time their troubles and living large with the highbrow crowd in their local community. As evenings often do, eventually things quieted down and the two settled into a small, dark watering hole near closing time, at one of the rougher ends of town. Too oblivious to realize how out of place they were, Principal Brad began high volume stories of his principalship, his leadership prowess, and how hard he worked on behalf of the kids of the community. “I am your principal,” he said to patrons, wandering from table to table. He toasted himself and his leadership, repeatedly, in full view of the crowd which was not impressed. Ronny quickly noticed that the crowd therein was much more apt to be the parents of the students that Brad would suspend, rather than the ones who would appreciate his good deeds. He grew worried, as fingers began to point, murmurs of troubling talk began, with Ronny seeing 20/20 the pickle they were in, near closing time. Principal Brad again toasted himself, as God’s gift to education, champion of kids, and drinker of the finest barley, then with abject drunkenness, slumped headfirst to the bar, snoring soundly, face down. A few patrons rose and approached. Ronny interceded smartly, “Hey everyone, looks like I’m drinkin’ alone now. Well, gotta hail a cab. How’s about I make a deal with you on behalf of my friend? A shot and a beer for everyone here, on me, if this guy’s alive, untouched, and still sleeping here when I get back?” The place erupted with applause. The evening ended with Ronny toasting the bar, glasses raised, while he carried his friend and colleague, Brad, over his shoulder, toward an eventual couch and a two-day hangover. What are your stories? What are your leaders’ gaffs? Have you served as a raconteur lately, offering fellow staffers the gifts of the foibles and follies of those around you? More than that of making fun of those to whom we report, sharing their trials and tribulations with levity brings with it a higher purpose, one that even the leaders should appreciate. When we can see our school leaders as people who happen to lead, rather than leaders who happen to be people, then we can better understand why

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they do what they do, why they expect the things they expect, and what their needs are when we disagree with them. Teachers and administrators have chosen different paths, for sure, but our needs as human beings are the same. Leaders have hopes, desires, dreams, fears, families, and mortgages just like all others in a school community. Just like teachers. They have problems as well, sometimes quite prolific problems, that need time, care, and attention. We can support them through story, via empathy. Do we understand that? Do we have the compassion? When was the last time you asked your school leaders, “How are you doing today?” How many times have you patted your school leader on the back for a job well done? You may be surprised at the reaction you get, from kindness long overdue. They just might laugh alongside you.

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The Leaders We Need

Where have all the truly effective school leaders gone? Are your leaders meeting your needs? Veteran teachers know best if their leaders are truly leading, if they are truly good for teachers and children, or if, conversely, they are simply shuffling papers and managing their own overstuffed chairs. Master teachers know best what attributes great leaders possess and have due responsibility to articulate the qualities necessary for effective building principals and school leaders. Veteran teachers, above all others, know what building leadership qualities are necessary to promote quality teaching and optimal learning. Veterans in the classroom should be involved in school leader interviewing, selection, and hiring, offering the following input during the processes. What would you say if asked about quality leadership in your building? What would you say to a candidate for your new school principalship if he asked what you expected of a leader? Would you say the following? Leaders must give teachers genuine answers to clear questions. Gladhanding from hallway to hallway and offering trite and shallow assurances of support when opinions are asked are unacceptable. If the answer is a “yes,” then say so. If it’s “no,” be clear about it. If you like something, be up front about it, and if you don’t, let us know. Address the bad apples on staff. Correct their behavior or dismiss them. Above all, please do not keep them in check by making constrictive building

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policy for us all. That’s unfair and serves to hinder what we are doing with our students. Be visible and accessible, and ensure that you have a bit of time for everyone. Don’t allow the blowhards on staff to monopolize your time while out and about, and please do not hang with the same crowd gathered, at the expense of the rest of us. Sure, you’ll be comfortable around some groups over others, but with the little time we have before school, after school, and between classes, we need you to earmark your conversations thoughtfully. We need you, as our leader, to be politically and educationally aware of the legislation, the rules, the policies, the regulations, and the mandates that will affect us in the classroom. If I hear something on the news, I rely on you to be able to articulate its applicability to me the very next morning. While I am reviewing my papers, correcting my tests, or preparing lesson plans, I need to be assured that you will be vigilant in a 360-degree awareness of what is occurring in our educational arena—locally, statewide, and nationally. As my leader, please be here when I arrive in the morning. Buildings need leaders to open buildings each morning—schoolchildren need in loco parentis fathers and mothers when they arrive. That’s what leaders do. That’s what leaders provide. The morning’s welcome into a school is arguably the most important time of the day. We need a paternalistic or maternalistic figure greeting us each day—students and staff, alike. Leaders should take a few minutes each week to write a few notes, to send a few cards, or deliver a few messages to those whom they have noticed doing good things. Not only does this reap dividends with the persons who are recipients of those messages, but also it helps others who see you in your travels to better understand that you are cognizant of the good things occurring in our school. Leaders are best presented in the light of ones who see the good in all we do, and make mention of it. Please take great care to avoid leaving “see me” summonses in our teachers’ mailboxes or on classroom desks. By a “see me” message, I’m referring to the type of message that does not explain why you need to see me, or what I should do to prepare for the meeting. Sometimes, I’ll even feel a bit set up, if I’m not in the best mind frame. While your motives may be well intentioned and while the news you are planning to deliver may be good, to me, a “see me” note moves to the forefront of my feelings of consternation and worry.

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I need a leader who will respect my space and my autonomy. My room may not be arranged exactly how a leader would appreciate, and my instructional methods may be a little unorthodox, but in this business, I am the one who is a professional teacher and should be respected as such. A leader who will respect our classrooms, almost as an empowered, yet decentralized confederacy of sorts, will amass great respect from veteran faculty who take great pride in what they do, and how they do it. Can you, as my leader, admit when you’re wrong? True leaders can. Beyond this, if you have been wrong and have moved the institution ahead with a policy or mandate, or worse yet, if someone has become upset or hurt because of your approach, a truly effective leader would make amends and would take positive steps to right the situation. Can you? Too many leaders, nowadays, cannot. Do you understand that sometimes my family and loved ones come first, and I may need to request consideration from you that goes beyond the typical employer/employee agreement that we have established. Maybe I’ll need to use a bereavement day to grieve the passing of my favorite aunt, but if you only allow this day spent for immediate family members, I’ll not consider you a true leader, no matter how clearly the policy indicates such or what went into the policy’s formulation in the first place. Do you have the strength to step outside of the box and treat people like myself equitably, or do you hide behind the typical collective bargaining agreement wall of treating everyone equally? I am a person, and a true leader would consider that fact if I make a heartfelt request of my boss. I’ll give back one thousandfold in effort, loyalty, and dedication to the leader’s vision and school mission, if I’m given this consideration.

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Conclusion: What Will Come from the Briar but the Berry?

Navigating as a master teacher in education today is very challenging and not to be taken lightly. Some may say, “You’re nuts!” How can you handle it, especially with the reality that your professional arena is very challenged indeed? Society continues to degenerate. Abuse and violence are on the rise with kids being raised in a media-driven society that seemingly values freaky sex, drug use, and cop killin’, over parental responsibility and community cooperation. And schools are to blame! “Not my kid; it must be the teacher’s fault” is not only an ever present remark in school offices, but is enabled by the institutions themselves, overly concerned with turning most politically difficult decisions into win/wins. No one seems to have any guts anymore to do what’s right; they’re all overly concerned with doing things the right way. Too many egg shells traversed, it seems. Even the zero tolerance policies toward school violence are in jeopardy by the it’s-no-big-deal crowd of enabling, foolish parents and civil liberties folks who think that an unsafe school, as compared to violent students’ responsibilities to seek education elsewhere, is the lesser of two evils. Heaven forbid, enabling parents, or others who have abrogated their parenting responsibilities, may have to pay for correspondence courses for their little suburban thug bangers, who seemingly have been educated for their entire lives, not around the dinner table or behind the woodshed as you and I, but with too much

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television, too much freedom to write the rules, and without the aid of many a necessary spanking. School leadership is likewise in crisis; the truly intelligent, and at the same time compassionate, are hard to find. They’re leaving the profession in droves in this nationwide, higher educational march past the oft-quoted leadership responsibilities of building management and instructional leadership toward psychometric rigidity and bureaucratic accountability. School leaders are escaping, seeking safe refuge elsewhere, tired of getting blamed for others’ shortcomings. One example could be your own leaders, such as your principal and superintendent, bludgeoned into accepting the burden of all of societies’ problems yet simultaneously horsewhipped into pulling their eyes away from those problems toward a focus on achievement-based stats and charts, as well as the media’s bully pulpit attacks on current test score negativity. Kids and teachers need school leaders’ paternalistic or maternalistic compassion, moreso than ever before in history; yet, these needs now often go unmet. That’s leadership in crisis. Schools are in crisis, as well. Other factors, however, will make challenging the sunset of your careers in education, so keep your eyes open and your gamesmanship on. As I mentioned at our outset, bureaucrats, especially those at the national level, aren’t helping; they are holding, with great force, school leaders’ noses to some very perplexing grindstones, as fairly it would seem as holding a leader dog’s nose atop another’s pool of piss. While society, itself, is causing achievement test score degeneration and while schools are getting drowned by the many things they can’t control, school leaders can’t even come up for air to address their own students’ and staffs’ emotional needs. Their job security is inescapably chained to their standardized test reports, shrinking budgets, and federal government belly scratches, instead. Meanwhile, national bureaucrats have their school microscopes focused so intently on data-driven benchmarks, statistics, and standards that they don’t even realize that the reason they’re only seeing the ’rrhoids and polyps of education is because their heads are inescapably nestled up many of their asses. “Failing schools, failing schools,” they cry, without taking a look at the true cancers right in front of them—broken society, split families, abject poverty.

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The realities of academic underperformance are indicative of a society run amok, not of bad quality teaching. We must all refocus, fixing the true problems as they lie—such as a contemporary liberal culture where anything goes, welfare systems that reward laziness and encourage out-ofwedlock childrearing, lackluster enforcement of the responsibilities of deadbeat dads, and a slew of other community atrocities that affect performance of kids in school. Why these things continue to be patently obvious to folks like Joe 6-pack and myself, but seemingly indiscernible to those in government and national leadership, I have no flippin’ idea. Check this out—a scary fact in contemporary America: No realistic or comprehensive plan to fix poverty, no national movement to curb drug abuse or to mend families, no real action on the federal deficit and debt—but if schools can’t fix student achievement in spite of this, by God, we’re going to close ’em down, or at minimum fire those within! The clue phone is ringing off the hook; someone with any sense at all, please answer! Thank God for veteran teachers, running classrooms day to day in this sea of lunacy. An undeniable fact now exists that with our nation’s tunnel-visioned adherence to our current mandate in education—that no children should be left behind or whatever the hell some guy from Texas professed to be accomplishing a few years ago—an unintentional consequence has arisen which penalizes the teachers and schools who work with our most difficult, at-risk students. We are being punished by recapturing kids from the streets when we leave no children behind, in an operational sense. Current systemic shortcomings are also enticing our most capable into working with those who need them the least. The logistics of the way schools are run relegate the newest of our teachers to work with our most at-risk students—teachers with great potential, yet not necessarily the best of our teachers. Our veterans are the best of the best. I’m encouraging and imploring you as our nation’s veteran teachers to not let this be the case as you sunset your careers. We need you. Kids need you. Our most difficult students and families need your help. And I believe that hope exists, even in a time wherein logic and common sense is the exception, not the rule. Stick with us. Work with those kids who are difficult to educate.

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Stick with us because the ones offering that biggest glimmer of hope will be you; you as veteran teachers in your classrooms working with kids, making differences in schools where it’s not about us—those with many side doors through which to stop in for a visit. You, my colleagues and heroes, are performing miracles each day in classrooms with properly smart gamesmanship and uncommon sense. Again, we need you. Kids need you. Our communities, state, and nation need you. Hopefully over time, more reasoned heads will begin redefining the true value of our profession, and we will reclaim, rewrite, and restate the national definition of what a healthy educational arena really looks like today. Meantime, all responsible for society’s degeneration must work to uplift other community assets and fix our kids, making all of our jobs easier. We, ourselves, as master teachers, should never again roll over and allow those at the national level who cannot teach to criticize the jobs that we perform and drive our educational system away from its core principles of state and local control. Until that time, please continue with your miracles, while society demands that we serve as not only teachers, but also parents, mentors, social workers, probation officers, politicians, surgeons, psychologists, statisticians, magicians, and whipping boys for the bureaucrats who have no answers. According to those in charge, we better do all of these well on a teacher’s salary. Sort of reminds me of a passage from one of my favorite 1960s childhood books (Charlip and Supree), where a doctor, riding atop horse and buggy, proclaims: I’ve got lotions and potions and powders and pills; I have all kinds of tonics for all kinds of ills—whether it’s itches or sneezes or twitches or wheezes or mumps or bumps or one single pimple. I’ll cure it . . . it’s simple.

I’m not sure that many of us signed up to be horsewhipped when graduating from college, but that’s where we are. So as you continue in our nation’s most important calling, that of an education career, get your own horse and buggy ready, and don’t let the bureaucrats take your whip and beat you over the head with it—well, not too often, anyway.

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They seemingly need to take a few swipes from time to time—helps them to feel closer to teaching, learning, real society, and real kids somehow. Good luck. Thanks for listening, my friend, and as you continue providing hope for America’s tomorrow, please use your gamesmanship and uncommon sense in the most important of life’s callings, and take with you, along your blessed journey, the following Irish toast, appropriately amended by this author to our situation. Here’s to a Long Life And A Merry One, A Quick Death And An Easy One, A Caring Teacher And An Honest One A Student Saved, And Another One!

References

Chadwick, Robert, Consensus Associates. 2001. Personal Communication with author. Bay City, Michigan, August 14. Charlip, Remy, and Burton Supree. 2001. Mother mother I feel sick, send for the doctor, quick quick quick. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle Press. Daggett, W. 2004a. America’s most successful high schools—What makes them work. Conference Proceedings Presentations and Conference Binder information (Section II) disseminated at the 2004 Model Schools Conference Proceedings, June 25–28, Hilton Washington and Towers, Washington, D.C. Daggett, W. 2004b. Preparing students for a changing world. Presentation (made available afterwards by videotape) at the 2004 Model Schools Conference Proceedings, June 25–28, Hilton Washington and Towers, Washington, D.C. Donlan, Ryan A. 2004. The Ancient Order of the Hibernians: Robert G. Shea Division, Bay City, Michigan. Interlude Magazine 1, no. 1 (March). Fay, Jim, and David Funk. 1995. Teaching with love and logic: Taking Control of the Classroom. Golden, CO: Love and Logic Press. Ford, Edward E. 1997. Discipline for home and school. Book one, Teaching children to respect the rights of others through responsible thinking based on perceptual control theory. Scottsdale, AZ: Brandt. Frase, Larry, and Robert Hetzel. 1990. School management by wandering around. Lancaster, PA: Technomic.

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Gardner, Howard. 1993. Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books. Glasser, William. 1998. A quality school: Managing students without coercion. New York: Harper Perennial. Grabinski, R. 2002. Department of Educational Administration and Community Leadership Course Information, Central Michigan University; Mt. Pleasant. Gregorc, Anthony F. 1985. Inside styles: Beyond the basics: Questions and answers on style. Maynard, MA: Gabriel Systems. Gusman, Jo. 1999. Leadership for Bodybrain-Compatible Learning. Delivered by Susan Kovalik & Associates at the Huron County Inservice Day, Summer 1999. Jeffrey, John. 1997. Superintendent of Schools. Guiding Principles for Leadership in the Public Schools of Petoskey, Michigan. Kagan, Spencer. 1994. Cooperative learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan. Kovalik, Susan J., and Karen D. Olsen. 2002. Exceeding expectations: A user’s guide to implementing brain research in the classroom. Kent, WA: Susan Kovalik & Associates. Kovalik, Susan J., Karen D. Olsen, and Linae Frei (illustrator) ITI: The Model. (1995) Integrated thematic instruction: The model. 3rd Edition. Kent, WA: Susan Kovalik & Associates. MASSP (Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals). 1998. Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, Professional Development Training IDP One, Marquette, Michigan. McFerrin, B. 1998. “Don’t worry, be happy.” New York: EMI Publishers. Phillips, Vicki. 1998. Empowering discipline: An approach that works with at-risk students. Carmel Valley, CA: Personal Development Publishing. Quinn, Tim. 2001. National Charter Schools Institute Leadership Styles Presentation. Workshop given at National Charter Schools Institute, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Rossiter, D. 2008. Senior Symposium Instruction, Bay-Arenac Community High School, Essexville, MI. Wong, Harry K., and Rosemary T. Wong. 1998. The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.

About the Author

Ryan A. Donlan, a longtime educator and “lifelong teacher,” has experiences in K–12 and higher education, non-profit boardsmanship, and communications consulting.

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