Sad Goodbyes are the Best Ones

Tomorrow my 8th graders graduate. Today I suffered the requisite bout of sadness and nostalgia. I get downright depressed at the close of the school year. The thought of not seeing my students' smiling faces almost brings me to tears.

Then summer comes, the sadness vanishes and I wonder what brought me so low.

"Graduation goggles" (coined by the TV show How I Met Your Mother) accurately describes the rose-colored glasses we sometimes wear during big life changes. When a stage of life is coming to an end, we tend to view everything and everyone in the best light.

Teachers live in a rhythm of goodbyes and graduations. Every year I say goodbye to students I've developed relationships with over four or more years (I teach at a K-8). Students who I've watched transform from children who arrived in my class in 5th grade, to young adults leaving in 8th. This year its worse because I really liked these 8th graders. They were particularly kind-hearted and selfless, and excelled in my class.

Maybe I'm more nostalgic than most male teachers. Since I was little, the finality of the passing of time struck me as deeply somber. Each moment, day, year, only happens once and takes me a little closer to the inevitable end. So I find myself trying to hold onto all the moments, little and big. I blog and keep a journal sporadically. I never delete emails no matter how banal, and have kept every letter, note or card I've ever been given since elementary school.

As I've gotten older, I've come to realize that if I'm really down about something ending, it means it must have been pretty great. Sad goodbyes are the best ones because that means that period of time really meant something.

I'll be sad tomorrow. And it's a good thing. I love my job. I love teaching social studies. The constant stream of positive feedback and praise from students and parents boosts my soul. Being a teacher is part of my identity. It's tough to see it end.

Until summer comes and the graduation goggles come off. I'll find interests and hobbies old and new to pass the time. And I'll be sad all over again when summer ends and I have to start getting up early, grade papers, and deal with students plagiarizing Wikipedia and thinking I won't know.

I love summer and always will, but I hope I'm always sad at graduation. I hope I keep my graduation goggles. Because if I didn't care, it wasn't worth it.

Some Days

Some days I feel like a good teacher, and then there are days like Monday. Even the best laid plans go awry, and so they did. A primary source reading on Machiavelli that I thought would be awesome drew blank stares. I copied the wrong map for my Renaissance simulation. And I sadly came to realize that while I'm not yet ready for the end of the school year, many of my students are.

The great thing about teaching (and life), is that each day is a new day. A bad day used to make me despondent, but now I know there is always tomorrow. In honor of my slightly naughty students, I have prepared my list of top things that I'm wishing for this summer.

Things I Wish for Summer:

1. That George R. R. Martin will hurry up and publish the Winds of Winter. I devoured books one through five of A Song of Ice and Fire (otherwise known as Game of Thrones to HBO viewers), and love the amazing detailed and dark world he created.
2. That my current regime of eating healthy and moderate exercise will have me end up looking like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.



2A. That I grow the ability to make claws stick out of my hands too

3. That the Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow is actually as awesome as the trailers look, and not lame like Mission Impossible II. And I really hope Tom Cruise isn't sprinting in it. He's always sprinting.
4. That I actually write a book and it becomes as famous as The Fault In Our Stars by my hero John Green.
5. That my dog learns how to tug on a rope on command, so I can tie it around the refrigerator. Then I will teach him to bring me beer.

Please, leave another suggestion for me. Summer is coming.

Monday Morning Read: Wikipedia, Friend or Foe?

Note: Starting this week, I'm going to begin a blog segment called the Monday Morning Read. It will be some short tidbit for teachers that gives you something to think about to start your week, or something you can use in the classroom.  

Most social studies teachers have a love-hate relationship with Wikipedia. On one hand it is an exhaustive resource with up-to-date information on nearly every subject imaginable. On the other hand, it's cloud-sourced knowledge, meaning anyone can write anything. As I blogged just last week, a few years back I encountered a Wikipedia article that swapped out King Leonidas of Sparta for the fear-inspiring King Poopypants.

Single handedly stopped the Persian invasion and saved Western Civilization

This dichotomy makes Wikipedia a dicey source at best. But I do tell my students it can be a good one with a caveat: you must check the citations! To their credit, Wikipedia does a great job of requiring citations in their articles. I've even used Wikipedia to help teach students about citations.

But what happens when some miscreant writes errors on a Wikipedia entry, which is then read by an undiscerning journalist, who writes an article that is then used as a citation to prove the original mistruth? A raccoon turns into an aardvark, that's what.

"Call me whatever you want, just give me some bugs to eat."

This excellent piece in the New Yorker lays it all out. Above is a coati, but a while back some snot-nosed New Yorker edited its Wikipedia page to say "also known as the Brazilian Aardvark." Which it was not. Yet, if you google "Brazilian Aardvark" now dozens of entries come up.

Disturbingly, it appears newspaper reporters do exactly what my students want to do when told to research something: 

1. Get on a computer, 
2. Type whatever it is into Google
3. Click on the Wikipedia link
4. Write down whatever comes up 

Once that reporter wrote an article calling the Coati a Brazilian Aardvark, someone on Wikipedia linked that article back to the original error on Wikipedia, making it seem credible. The Wikipedia lie became a truth.

The article makes a great point. With any crowd-sourced knowledge platform, if enough people believe a lie, it becomes a truth. Think about all the funny, fascinating, or sad beliefs that people have held throughout history:

• The Romans and Greeks believed a giant river named Oceanus surrounded the world.
• Medieval Europeans though urine could help cure the Black Death.
• Around the time of Lewis and Clark, many Americans thought Wooly Mammoths lived beyond the Rocky Mountains.

So, if Wikipedia were available at that time, we can imagine that the articles on Oceanus, Black Death cures and zoology of the West would have been authoritative and error filled.

While ignorance is one thing, in the coati's case the author willfully entered an error, that became cited so much it made its own truth. It's an invaluable case study for students to understand the limits of Wikipedia, and the potential of any source to be inaccurate purposefully or not.

Rubicon, the Best Book on Rome I've Ever Read

I'm sad to admit it, but until recently most of what I knew about the Roman Republic came from Gladiator, the HBO mini-series Rome, and my textbook. I knew they had a Senate and used the word veto. And I know that Julius Caesar put an end to it all and was stabbed a bunch for it.

A murder we recreate daily with a fork.

The Empire, by comparison, always seemed a little easier to grasp. Its Caesars alternate between fascinatingly horrible (Nero, Caligula) and fascinatingly grand (Augustus, Trajan).  Roads, aqueducts, battles against barbarians I understand. The intricacies of classical republican government? Less so.

The more I've dug into it the inner workings of the Roman republics government, the more confusing it became. The branches of government of the Roman Republic seem to compare to our own, but upon closer examination they devolve into a murky mess of praetors, quaestors and tribunes. Worse, half the time that don't even follow their own rules, exceptions abound. And why are there two Catos?!

Luckily, a trip to the ever amazing Powell's Bookstore in Portland led me to randomly select Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland. This book fascinated me endlessly, and finally gave me a better understanding of what the Roman Republic really was. Highlights:

• The Roman people expelled their cruel kings, and in their place created the position of consul.  The consul would have many of the powers of a king, but had to be elected by the people. He could only serve for one year.  And there were two of them!!

• The word Republic comes from the Latin Res Publica or "Public Business"

• Social class in Rome was determined by a censor, a guy who inventoried your wealth, and decided where you ranked.  The greatest achievement you could accomplish was to move your family up the class list. The greatest disgrace was to move down.

• Roman citizens were expected to strive for personal and political greatness.  The two were the same thing.  Ambition in the political and civic arena was encouraged, and rewarded.  But that greatness must only be for ultimate glory of the Republic. Strive to become to great, and be shunned for life.

• This system of government explains the aggressive nature of the Roman Republic conquered so much. Consuls, having climbed the highest highs of Rome's political ladder, were now expected to win honor and glory for Rome on the battlefield.  And they had only one year to do so.

• As Rome conquered more and more land, small farmers got displaced by unimaginably large estates that used slave labor.  Whereas early in the Republic, farmer citizen-soldiers fighting for Rome's honor comprised the backbone of its army, towards the end its legions were made of landless men, loyal to their general and not the Republic.

• As Rome grew richer and more powerful, so did its most eminent citizens. Battles for political office and power changed from debates between wealthy patricians into epic clashes between warlords with the treasure and strength of conquered empires behind them. 

After reading Rubicon, I'm convinced that the system of government that made Rome great was the same that doomed it to empire. Civil wars and Julius Caesars were an inevitable consequence of a system that rewarded ambition and daring. After so much infighting, the death of the Republic and reign of Augustus seemed blessedly peaceful. That's a weird thought for an American to have. 

Social studies teacher or not, I highly recommend Rubicon.

Bad Teachers and Good Teachers

Bad teachers boil my blood.

I spoke with a student teacher today who had a horrific experience with his mentor teacher. This teacher didn't plan lessons, showed up after class had started, and had a horribly creepy habit of soliciting hugs from middle school girls as he walked down the hall. Yikes.

The number of truly bad teachers one comes across is small in my experience. Yet the damage they do to children, to learning, and to my profession can be immeasurable. Learning is awesome, and if it isn't, there is something wrong in the delivery. Teachers need to have something good for their students every day.  Something that challenges, engages, and excites them.  

What challenged, engaged, and excited you in school? You probably didn't think of filling out worksheet after worksheet, or coloring in countries on a map. You definitely didn't picture reading out of the textbook every day.

A typical day in my freshman geography class.

No, you probably thought of those teachers who made learning fun. Who taught you in a variety of ways. And that you knew cared about you.

What makes a bad teacher? Mostly someone who doesn't care. Someone who has the system figured out so they can collect a check every month with little sweat. People who care, but can't  handle a classroom or don't know their subject material are rarer, since the difficulty and frustration of the job usually wash them out quickly.

So why are there bad teachers? I'm not sure if this is the whole answer, but I do know it's damn hard to fire a teacher. Especially after our three years probationary period is up. Teaching can be a pretty easy job if I'm copy worksheets to give the kids every day. I'm not saying lets dismantle union protections, but if we want to demand better pay and more benefits, there needs to be a way to get rid of those teaches that don't do what they're supposed to and aren't working to get better. That's why I'm all for performance pay, teachers who care will have nothing to worry about.

If you're a teacher and reading this, you might be thinking "Am I a bad teacher?" The answer: probably not. Teaching takes a little bit of skill, a little bit of knowledge, and a whole bunch of caring. A struggling teacher is not a bad teacher. If you love working with kids and care about them learning and growing, then you're probably a good teacher.

That doesn't mean you won't make mistakes, have really bad days, or feel like a bad teacher on occasion. My first year was so tough I had to write "I am a good teacher" on my bathroom mirror. Even now, I look back and cringe at mistakes I made. Lessons that bombed, classroom discipline that went awry. I even ripped the crotch in my pants once right in front of the class stepping up on a chair. Seven years later, I still teach a lesson and think ,"well, that sucked."

I'd go so far as to say if you think, "I'm a bad teacher" and it makes you sad because you want to be a good teacher, then you are not a bad teacher. Because you care. A defining characteristic of the bad teacher: he/she does not care.

Good teachers learn from each experience, and work hard enough to fix their mistakes so they don't happen again.  One of the coolest things I've ever seen in my profession is the growth of a math teacher I know.  Starting out, he struggled with pretty much everything.  But I've never met a more self-reflective and hard working person.  He puts in countless hours planning better lessons and now he teaches the best middle school math class I've ever seen. He made math fun for them, and in doing so got them to care about it. Now not only do kids love going to his class, his test scores are shooting through the roof.

That's the kind of teacher our communities can be proud of. Why accept anything less?

Zombies are Great Teaching Tools, Ask the Pentagon

You will be glad to know that if a zombie apocalypse did break out, the United States military has a surprisingly thoughtful plan on how to respond.

Highlights include:

• Distinguishing between zombies made through black magic and those made from excessive radiation.
• Using robots to remotely operate critical infrastructure.
• Preparing nuclear weapons for use in the United States to eradicate the hordes.

Comfortingly, it does address how to restore civil authority after the threat is gone.

It's safe now!  I promise...

The Pentagon uses a zombie outbreak as a training tool to teach "basic concepts of military plans and order development through a fictional training scenario."  Which sounds like the coolest class ever.  Sign me up, please!

I'd love to fight zombie hordes.  It'd be nice to fight an enemy with no moral qualms about taking a human life.  The older I get, the harder it is to see black and white in our military conflicts.  Zombies would be a refreshing change.

Another thing I like about the zombie apocalypse; it provides an excellent parallel to the disintegration of the Roman Empire in Western Europe.  Central authority breaks down, trade screeches to a halt, regional warlords take control.  And while survivors in the Walking Dead always have to keep an eye out for roving zombie packs, survivors in Western Europe soon had something much worse to worry about.  Vikings.

The original apocalypse.

In truth, the Walking Dead with the prison and Mayberry does a remarkably accurate job of showing the logic behind and development of small feudal kingdoms.  These are the kind of connections that 7th graders love.  Them, and our military leaders.

One Teacher's Thoughts on Standardized Tests and Teacher Pay

It's May, so its standardized testing time here in Oregon.

The standard line among teachers is we don't like standardized tests.  We complain about having to teach to the test.  We say its not fair to judge us by those tests because our students come from diverse backgrounds, some might have parents who read to them every night, while others might spend every night on a different couch.

All those concerns are valid, but I love standardized tests.

Weird I know.  And I don't teach in some rich suburban school.  I teach at a school where 20% of the kids  speak English as a second language and 57% percent are economically disadvantaged.

I like the challenge standardized tests provide.  I like competing against myself, year after year.  I like looking at a curriculum at the start of the year, and finding the best way to teach it to that unique group of students.  I like teaching my kids something in October, and seeing if I taught it in a sticky enough way that they remember it in May.  Having a standardized test makes me a better teacher.

I also love the idea of performance pay for teachers, based in part on standardized tests (no, not entirely).  Yes, the tests need to be valid.  And yes, we need to measure year-over-year growth and not just the bottom line of who got the highest scores.  Still, performance pay is hearsay in teacher unions.

Teachers are so important.  I believe I'm in the most important profession that exists.  Our Founding Fathers believed we needed to have free public education because a republic can only function with a well-educated citizenry.  And research shows that the largest factor in student growth isn't class size, or technology, or even socio-economic background.  It's teachers!

But we aren't paid based on our teaching ability. At all.  That's because teachers get paid based on
1.)  How long we've been teaching.
2.)  How much schooling we have.

That's it. I could go to school every day and give my kids maps to color and crosswords to fill out (I'm talking to you Freshman geography teacher), and I'll still get a raise next year.   That's insane.

The weird thing is, most a lot of teachers hate the thought of tying pay to test performance in any way.  We always complain about how little we get paid, but mention paying us more for our students performing well, and all the excuses listed above come out.

The thing is, most teachers I know would have nothing to worry about.  To teach right it takes a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of skill and a lot of art.  Nearly every teacher I know at my school works their tail off.  Drive past my school any given day at 5:00 or 6:00 PM and I bet you'll see a dozen cars or more still in the parking lot.  And that hard work has been reflected with some really amazing growth in our test scores in recent years, which is a source of immense professional pride for me.

And I think that should be rewarded.

Just one teacher's thoughts.
     

Random Acts of Kindess

One of the awesome things about being a human being is our ability to absolutely make someone's day.  Many of us don't utilize this power we have, we very naturally tend to focus on ourselves for most of our waking hours.  My daily thought pattern from waking to sleeping is often something like this:

"I'm tired."
"I'm hungry."
"I'm late."
"I'm busy."
"I'm tired."
"I'm hungry."
"I want to watch the Walking Dead."
"I'm tired."

Essentially, other than struggling to get to work on time and wanting to watch a TV show, I have the same impulses of my dog.  There is a lot of "I" in my life.

To combat my natural selfishness, I decided recently to go out of my way to perpetrate Random Acts of Kindness as I went about my school day.  A list of my deeds would be boring, and a little self serving.  I can tell you though, there is great joy in brightening in someone's day, and ample opportunity in the school setting.  Sometimes all it takes is a smile or a compliment.  Sometimes it takes more.

So far my tale is nothing special (my blog rarely is), but there is a cool twist.  Randomly in discussion with a few 8th graders, they liked the idea, and it led to the formation of the R.A.K. (Random Act of Kindness) Club.  We established the criteria for a Random Act of Kindness as this.  The act must be:

• Genuine
• Meaningful
• Unexpected

Members got points for each R.A.K. that met the criteria.  Soon we started holding meetings, scheming of grand R.A.K's while eating cookies and drinking tea.  The club ballooned into two thirds of my eighth grade class and we are holding a mass "Random Act of Kindness" this Saturday.

I have to say, appealing to our better sides is refreshing.  Human beings do have a unique capacity for altruism that is mind boggling  Kids come up to me every period of every day telling about their R.A.K's.  8th graders have done the dishes randomly for their parents, they've carried books for other students, played volleyball at recess with the younger kids and more.   I feel like this "club" has changed the whole demeanor of the entire class for the better. 

The moral of the story?  Awesomeness is in us all.  And the potential to do amazing things is all around us, we just have to look for it.  

Best and Worst Teaching

As a teacher I get the unique privilege of interacting with young people on a daily basis.  I think I'm good at teaching.  I know my content.  My kids test scores blow the state averages and district averages out of the water.  Kids usually like my class.

Yet, teaching is so much more than what I teach, I've come to find.  It's who I teach.  There are 125 very unique souls I see every day, each with their own hopes and dreams and fears.

After 7 years, I find that on my best days, I focus on the kids.

On my average days, I focus on the content.

And on my worst days, I focus on myself.