Day 16: Marriage and Teaching #AprilBlogADay Challenge

I'm actually going to go rogue from my own prompt today and here is why: Today is the 10th anniversary of my first date with my husband, Charles.  We had our first date the day I received my acceptance letter to graduate school at NYU.  I had put all my eggs in one basket (I only applied to NYU), I was getting by in my NYC life- coming up on my 1 year anniversary at the time and if I had not been accepted I was seriously thinking about moving back to Seattle, my hometown. April 16, 2006 was a major turning point in my life.  

I remember that first year of grad school Charlie reminding me that he knew what he was getting himself into when we started dating.  I was busy, a bit crazy and learning how to be a student again.  That first year of school was hard but I was thankful I had his levelheadedness and love on those nights when I had more to do that I thought possible.  He was my voice of reason, he made sure I had dinner every night and was always my go to when I needed to talk something through.  We made it to graduation but little did I know, it was just the beginning.  He had worked in a huge high school in LA for many years before we met and understood the teacher's life.  

The last 8 years of teaching has been a roller coaster: mentally and emotionally.  However, it is not lost on me the part he has played in this epic tale. I am thankful every day that I have a partner who understands my career, who doesn't get mad when I call at 6:30 to say I am just leaving school and will be home in an hour, who rolls with with it when I finally say at 7:30pm: What should we order for dinner?, who understands that I have 130 teenagers in my life, and who never questions a weekend of grading papers and lesson planning like I am doing this weekend.  

This fall, when I went back to grad school again he didn't miss a beat.  We resolved to make Saturday night: Date Night and that it has been.  We have had some wonderful nights out this year, but we have also had many fun nights in.  Tonight I made steak to celebrate and we are watching episodes of our favorite shows.  It is a near perfect night.  Having someone to share this teaching journey has made all the difference for me.  I know not everyone has what we have and I am lucky.  Thank you Charlie, for the last 10 years.

Day 27: Let Go In Order To Grow

Prompt: How to Build a More Powerful Classroom by Letting Go

On Friday, my most difficult class of 9th graders came into class and one young woman was all fired up.  She was going to get into it with a young man.  The tension was palpable.  As they began trading barbs, I stepped in and asked the young woman to walk down to our social work office to cool down and check in with someone there.  I knew she would be pissed at me.  I had to let that go.  Kids get over things.  What I couldn't let go was what it would mean if the two kids got into a fight in my classroom and one or both got suspended... on a Friday.  So, the student grabbed her things, and headed out ready to work independently for the period.  Class went on as planned and I had a surprise informal observation, of course!  Isn't that always the way.  Letting go...

Being a good teacher is often about picking moments to dig in and moments to step aside and let something else run a  course.  Some classes are so fantastic at things like leading conversations, accountable talk, project based learning.  Others need lots of hand holding, micro managing, sentence starters, and guided notes.  No matter what the group, I eventually need to get out of their way and let them lead, learn, grow.  It's not my job to control or manage each moment of each day.  School is organic and amazing things can happen when I get out of MY own way.

This morning, I stopped by Guidance and that very student who had to step out to avoid the fight was sitting there. I didn't know if something else had happened, but either way-she was not in class.  She was sitting with two of our Social Work interns so I pulled up a chair next to her, not before catching that daggers she shot at me with her eyes when I came in the room.  I spent a few minutes talking with her, asking questions like that would eventually lead us through a dialogue about why teachers have to make choices like the one I did on Friday in order to protect our students and that I watched the boy pushing her just to get a response because he knows she has a short fuse.  I also asked her about the work she did, questions she had and asked her to come in for tutoring tomorrow after school and that was that.

I few minutes later I got an email from one of the interns who had been sitting at the table: 

You are the only teacher that comes in and talks with students like that and it's amazing. It's so hard to tell the kids they had to leave cause the teacher cares [about them] when the teacher's not there. I greatly appreciate your being.

Over the years, I have learned to let go, to get out of the way and grow with my students with each choice we make.  I could have easily not gone to talk with the student and she would have come into my class this Thursday, still mad and not understanding my decision and seeing it as a punishment.   But I didn't and we both grow as a result.

Day 10: What's Left? #AprilBlogADay Challenge

Prompt 10: What is left to do with your students? In your classroom? With your colleagues? Personally?

I had started a post this morning that over the course of a few hours became irrelevant so I am starting over.


1.  With my students...

• prep for the AP exam in May!
• Move the 3 kids who are not "college and career ready" to get at least a 75 on the NYS ELA Regents
• Read A View From The Bridge with 9th grade
• Teach 9th graders about theatrical design

2.  In my classroom...

• I am expecting to have to change rooms again so I suspect packing up is going to have to happen.  Ugh...yuck.  Packing.
• Find ways to share a classroom that I feel comfortable with and can still be proud of the space and what it reflects.

3.  With my colleagues...

• I want to learn to ask better questions to when I mentor so teachers lead their own development through inquiry.
• I want to help new teachers to take on new roles in a growing school.  
• To help teachers build up their capacity as teacher leaders.

4.  Personally...

• I want to be better with each year I continue a career in education.
• I want to develop interdisciplinary curriculum with ELA/CS
• I want to get my admin cert 
• I want to be healthy 
• I want to love my work
• I want to inspire others to do great work
• I want to grow...grow....GROW

Day 8: What was the question again? #AprilBlogADay Challenge

Prompt 8: How should we foster question asking instead of answer getting?

I struggle with this.  Not in my design of challenging and rigorous questions to provoke higher level thinking but with the engagement of students in deeper thinking an questioning of each other and of the material....

I thought about this a lot today.  Here is what I came to:  in order to ask great questions, and engage in discussion means you have to LISTEN.  What I have seen my students do is this: they sit, they not, they can't really engage in discussion because they are NOT LISTENING. 

I did an exercise one day- having set a goal that I wanted my AP students to really work on note taking skills that they will need in the college classroom- I had showed them a brief 4 minute video on feminism.  There was a lot of information and the presenter spoke quickly, rattling off facts and figures interspersed with some humor and reflection.  The first time I showed them the video none of them took notes.  They watched passively, enjoying the video and laughing from time to time.  The following class I asked, "How many of you think you could pass a quiz about the video you watched on Monday?" A few, maybe 5 raised their hands.  "How many people took notes during the video?" Two kid's hands went up.  I knew I had missed the boat on this one.  It was a skill I should have been building in from day one.  Not just taking notes from lecture but from reading, class discussions, videos, reading homework!  These are the skills they are going to need to be successful in college.  Copious notes to digest, process, reflect, ask questions, thinking critically.

It's not a natural skill- it is something to be cultivated over time.  Accountable talk is great (and the prompts that we get students to use) but I need to do more to help kids develop the ability to listen, really HEAR and critically engage. 

Prompt 7: Champions #AprilBlogADay Challenge

The end week one. Prompt 7: Has anyone ever helped you in your career? Been your champion? How will you become someone else's champion?

Has anyone ever helped you in your career? 

Theatre is all about collaboration (and networking).  I have been lucky to have mentors who have, not to be cliché, seen something in me. My high school drama teacher, my costume design prof- who when I came to him at the end of my second quarter and said that I wanted to try my hand at design he jumped into the pool with me and put me on the Fall schedule to design my first show: The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and eight shows after that in a short 2 years.  

When I transferred to a larger university and a more rigorous program, I switched my focus to construction.  Mentors provided opportunity and new knowledge to help me develop in my field.  After I graduated, I did the Professional Artists Training Program at The Seattle Repertory Theatre.  I met amazing mentors and professionals while interning in the costume shop.  Drapers, First Hands, Stitchers, Wig Makers, Designers, and Milliners.  This is also where I began to focus and hone my craft, refining my focus to millinery.  I fell in love with making hats.  Each chapeau was a piece of art, telling a story about who the character was.   Again, mentors pushed me by making me work, taking chances, learning through doing to grow and improve.  It was this time and these relationships that ultimately brought me to NY to work as a milliner for Broadway, Opera, and Film, ultimately achieving all my professional theatre goals.

The challenges placed in front of me by each mentor over 10 years changed me.  Each step pushing me forward, improving, letting me make mistakes, and learning from them.  With out each of these mentors (and many others) I would not have had the career and opportunities I did.

Has anyone ever been your champion?

There have been many champions of me or my work over the years.  The most consistent has been Marci. I met her years ago when she was an ELA coach for the network our school was in. I always believed she understood my thought processes, my logic for choices and she was never afraid to speak frankly with me about my practice or advocate on my behalf when she felt it was necessary. When she left the network and I was so sad to not have her with me but I quickly saw that she had become part of my community.  In the years following she has served as a sounding board and become a friend. Her insight and thinking is always inspiring and helpful. Even though I don't get to work with her as I did, I know she is in my corner and will always be my champion and my friend.

How will you become someone else's champion?

Much of the work I have done this year, in addition to my teaching load, is as a mentor of new teachers.  Working in a school that is at its beginning has a host of challenges.  One of the biggest challenges has been that teachers in their first and second year don't know what their rights are, have not taken the time to read their contract, usually because they are busy with other things, oh, like getting through their first teaching year, writing and implementing curriculum and learning 150+ names and developing a working relationship with a new group of people.  So, beyond mentoring and supporting teacher development, I have been in a position to speak up when it comes to union issues and teacher rights.  Some things have been as small as making sure teachers have access to information on the different insurance plans each fall when the transfer period opens. Bigger things have been about working with Administration to develop structures that support teachers at school events like Parent/Teacher Conferences. Professionally I am at a place in my career where I am an advocate and able to be the kind of person people like Marci have been for me: Leader, Friend, Sounding Board, Advocate and Champion.