Wait. People work during these two weeks?

I'm at work. The kids are at home on their holiday break. That just doesn't seem right. After 28 consecutive years of being on an academic calendar, this just doesn't seem right!

Nonetheless, I hope you are all rejuvenating and getting geared up for the seemingly endless stretch between now and Spring Break. Yikes.

As for me, I'll continue to work on my boy's Erector set. I'm four hours in, and here's all I have to show for my labors. Someday this will be a helicopter. Enjoy your break. You've earned it.

Entering through the side door into teaching

The Minneapolis StarTribune had an interesting article yesterday about a new program in the St. Paul public schools in which professionals from other sectors other than education will be brought on board, be given intensive teacher training, and enter the classrooms immediately in an effort to fill vacancies and also increase the diversity of the workforce.

The program is Run through the New Teacher Project, which claims the following:

In the fight to eliminate educational inequality, teachers matter most.
The New Teacher Project works with school districts and states nationwide to recruit, select, train and hire exceptional teachers.

There is a great deal of work being done to explore new ways of getting teachers into the classrooms. There is no question that this work is a result of good intentions and progressive innovations.

What I'm most curious about will be how the systems that bring these new teachers into schools will work to merge these new teachers with the "traditional" teachers already in place. Since St. Paul is in our backyard, this will be a fascinating process to observe. The jury will be out for sometime in regards to how these programs affect student achievement and the the teaching force writ large.

Do programs such as these rub any of you the wrong way or is this an innovation that you can embrace?

Ending the week with some good news!

I don't know if you're like me, but I spend a lot (too much?) time combing the internet for stories about education and educators. It's not too surprising that it's exceedingly easy to find negative, disparaging, or somewhat depressing news about schools. That's why whenever I find a positive story I'm always especially alert.

This recent story from the NY Times is one of those stories. It reports that the overall academic strength of the teacher pool has increased significantly. This is the type of story and the brand of trending that education needs more of, and it's always encouraging to see teaching cast in a positive light.

Happy reading and have a great weekend.

Nate

Video Greeting!

Well, I've completed a bit of a trifecta for the week. I've successfully posted a YouTube clip, a podcast, and today a home made video. Just click the title above and off you go!

Whereas I'm hopeful that the posts of this week were of some value, I'm afraid today's is almost entirely intended as a technological test run. Not a whole lot of content! That said, you get to "meet" my three-year-old son Peter. He's pretty darling, so that's enticement enough.

Again, thanks for viewing and stay connected.

Nate

An Introductory Podcast

I mentioned in a prior post that I was concerned I might not be able to have enough words rambling around my head to write a book and a blog simultaneously. To that end, I'm experimenting with multiple formats of communication just to spice things up.

Yesterday's YouTube vid is quite excellent, and I encourage you to give it a look.

Today I'm trying a quick podcast. We'll see how it goes. Let me know if it's working for you. Just click on the title above and you'll be taken to a site called zshare, a place that hosts audio files. Then sit back and enjoy my dulcet Midwestern twang.

Hope all is well with you. Enjoy your day.

Some serious fodder

Happy Monday!

If you've ever wanted a concise way to survey the challenges that we face heading into 21st century education, this video is pretty staggering. Give it a view and then let us all know what you think. I'll throw my 2 cents in later.

The Family of Teachers

Here's a bit of what I wrote yesterday:


The “Secret Life of Teachers” is really remarkable. Educators have a separate language, a distinct body of stories, and a niche of experience that only other teachers can understand. The taxation and joy of teaching is a connective sinew between educators that transcends place and time. Meet a retired teacher, and there is an instant connection. Meet a teacher from another country, and there is already a commonality. There is a global (if not universal) familial nature of educators.

I ruminated for a bit yesterday on this notion. Admittedly, my passions reside in the Humanities and Cultural Anthropology, so I might be a bit more apt to lean toward universal musings. Add to that my particular penchant for Whitman and the American Transcendentalists, and I suppose my thinking at times REALLY skews toward the nether-regions of big thoughts!

Nonetheless, I have always enjoyed the unspoken bonds that exist between teachers. When I meet someone who is a teacher or has been a teacher, there is a familiarity and bond that forms an undercurrent almost immediately. I've always enjoyed that.

I felt very much connected to this thinking as I imagined what it must be like to be a teacher in Omaha this week. I emailed Scott Butler, an assistant principal in Omaha and one of the nicest people I've met, to tell him that he and his teachers were in my mind this week as I thought about what it must be like to come together as a community of educators in service of a shaken community. Simply put, the macro community of educators is another family to which we belong and on which we can rely in moments of joy and trauma. It is a privilege not to be taken lightly!

Enjoy your weekends. Enjoy each other.

The Decision

At some point each teacher decided to become a teacher. The journey to that moment comes in myriad ways, on different time lines, with varying brands of a sense of calling to the profession. There are as many different stories behind the journey to the classroom as there are teachers in the classroom.

Those are the opening lines to a chapter of the book. The simple notion that we all chose to dedicate ourselves to serving young people in a variety of capacities is the centerpiece of exploring the adult asset of Commitment to Learning and Teaching.

My general contention is that our general health as educators can be measured by our relative connectedness to the values and principles we used individually in order to choose this profession. In simple terms, that means that the closer my teaching is to my core values, the happier I am. The further away my teaching feels from these core values, the more likely it is I'm losing (or have lost) my joy in teaching.

The challenge and promise of this thinking is that there are two levels an individual can engage to address this commitment level: internally what can the individual do to nurture and foster core values; externally, what can a group of adults do to create an environment that lessens the distance between practice and the collective values of a staff.

As a starting point, though, I encourage all to press rewind in our thinking and try to best recall the process we went through in deciding to enter into this work. What impacted your decision? How close are you today to following that decision? What distance is there today between your PRACTICE and your DECISION? What are you going to DO about the distance?

Enjoy yourselves! Have a joyful day.

The Prodigal Blog

"Welcome back!" the blog said to the blogger.

"Yeah, sorry about that," the blogger said, much chagrined at his prolonged absence. "I guess I sort of ran out of words for you. See I'm writing this book. And books take a lot of words. And sometimes I get nervous that I'm going to run out of words, so I try to retain them and stuff."

"And 'stuff'? You're using words like 'stuff'? Publicly?" exclaimed the blog.

"Well yeah. That's what I mean. If I write my book all the time and try to keep you alive, isn't there the very real prospect that I run out of words and then the book gets lots of 'stuff' and 'things' and other such claptrap?" the blogger said, sweat forming on his brow.

"Okay. I get it. Nonetheless, wouldn't it be sort of nice for you to have me around? You know, sort of like a trusted friend? Someone you could hang out with in your pj's? You know. Bounce ideas around? Ask questions? Let your guard down?"

"Well, yes," sighed the blogger. "That's why I came back today. I was writing and I realized I needed a story, some help. My brain started to hurt. I started to eat too much chocolate in one sitting. So I came back."

"Well it's good to see you."

"You too."

"Now, you said you have some questions? You need a story?"

"Well yes. I do. You see, I'm writing this chapter right now all about why teachers choose to become teachers in the first place. The chapter is loosely titled "The Decision." Then I got to ruminating about all of the 'things' and
stuff' that might get in the way of a teacher hanging onto those reasons he or she became a teacher. Federal mandates. District goals. Building policies. Department disagreements. Personal decisions. That sort of thing."

"Wow. That sounds great! You must be writing a great book!"

"See blog? THAT'S why I came back! Thanks for saying so!"

"So what do you need from me?"

"Well today, here's your challenge. I want you to go out into the blogosphere and find a story that sheds some light on the following question: Describe a time when your department or teaching team made a change in practice or procedure that allowed you to grow closer to your core reasons you became a teacher."

"Phew! That's a nice light question for this first journey out!"

"I know. I suppose another challenge we could throw out would be like this: As a department, make a change in your policy and procedure that allows you to grow closer to the core reasons you became teachers. Then tell me about it."

"Okay. Let's throw this out there and see what happens. One never knows."

"Thanks for listening," coddled the blogger.

"You're welcome," said the blog.

The cost of turnover

In a report just released by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, the cost of teacher turnover in 2003-2004 alone topped 7 billion dollars nationally. Seven billion!

If ever there was a need for progressive thinking about how we take care of our educators better, now is the time. My small piece of the puzzle is trying to revolutionize how individual school systems treats its employees. But clearly this is one approach of many that we'll need to address in order to stop this hemorrhaging. Honestly, this is a terrifying article.

I'm going to soak in this article for a bit, but I'll look forward to reading responses on the web to this report.

Happy Anniversary!

I was leading a focus group a few weeks ago in which I asked the teachers what has allowed them to remain healthy and happy in this work. One man said, "My wife. Without her support I couldn't do this." My response was, "I know what you mean."

Yesterday was my 10th wedding anniversary. All of those ten years were spent as a teacher, which means 10 years of being a teacher's wife. This was no easy role and one that required tremendous patience, support, and sacrifice from my wife.

So to her I give a massive thank you! I have no idea how (or who) I would be without you in my life.

Going to Camp

Here's a short essay I wrote while traveling last week. True story.

The plane was packed. Just a flight to Philadelphia on a Thursday afternoon. And then they walked on. About 12 of them, most of whom looked as though they had graduated from high school within the week. Most probably had.

They brought with them the same energy you’d expect to see from nervous kids heading away to summer camp. Two of them had never flown before, which we all learned because they were unbelievably loud. The laughed in riotous fits. They turned in their seats to yell back to friends in other rows. The two girls in front of me played “I spy…” which was difficult because one can only see so much from your seat on a plane. They played patty-cake games with verses recalled from elementary school and laughed at how much they were able to remember.

At times they all dozed off, the plane catching its breath from their kinetic energy. But then they’d awake and the din would continue. I liked them. They drove me crazy, but it’s strange watching 18 year olds experience their first plane trip. Who were they and where were they going? They complained about not wanting to actually land in Philly. Perhaps the camp they were going to wasn’t going to be full of canoe-tippings and smores.

As we banked around Philadelphia, one girl yelled across to the one boy in the group, “What’s the building with the Liberty Bell in it? You know, where we made the Constitution?”

His answer. “The Empire State Building.”

“No! That’s not right! I don’t think. Man! Philadelphia is flat! Where are the mountains?”

I rubbed my temples. Really? The Empire State Building? And then she said it. She said it, and my heart sort of paused a beat.

“You know it’s weird isn’t it? Here we are going to basic training and we don’t even know anything about our country.” She said it. Just that. I wrote it down, because I knew I was going to write about them. And I needed to get that quote right. They were going to basic training.

“We should just go AWOL.” That’s what the girl next to her said.

When the plane landed, they kind of got quiet. They talked about getting some Chinese food in the airport, before “getting on the bus.”

So now I’m sitting on a little 15 person twin-prop plane flying to Maryland to talk to young people about keeping their options open and working hard in school. And they’re on a bus heading to camp. And I bet they’re not as loud as they used to be.

Last day of 1st grade

This year added another layer to my involvement with public education: father of a student. So I've now been able to see my boy go through a whole year of curriculum, homework, bus conflicts, snow days, late starts, new friends, boredom, frustration, joy, excitement, and success.

I've also had a chance to see how a good teacher can affect students. My boy's teacher was fabulous and we reaped the benefits of her talents and work. To her, I say a huge thank you.

To my boy, I say, "Congratulations!" He's gone from reading very little to reading The Chronicles of Narnia. He's gone from doing some adding to filling whole sheets with speedy and accurate calculations. He's gone from being my little man to being my little big man. I could not be more proud of him.

Here he is on the first day of school and this morning.

Happy Graduation!

I went to graduation last night at the old school. While it was strange to not be in academic robes, it was wonderful to feel the excitement of graduation again.

So to those of you celebrating the last days of the year, have a wonderful summer and a rejuvenating time with friends and family.

If you NEED a fourth for your summer rounds of golf, you know where to find me...

Nate

ME AND THE BOY

The photo you see on the page today is utterly un-contextual and will be followed by almost no "deep thoughts." In fact, it's really the result of experimentation with PhotoBucket.

That said, I will mention that I'm just now coming to terms with the fact that for the first time in 28 consecutive years I won't be starting a summer vacation next week in which all I would normally do is play and fish with said boy...

ME AND THE BOY

Photobucket Album

I bet you need a nap

Let's see... It's the first Monday of June. That means that most of you are starting your last week of the school year. If that's true, then the following are probably also true:

1. You were up until 3:00 this morning grading some horrific final project and/or paper.
2. You're starting to think of "alternative assessments" in order to get everything else done by Wednesday.
3. You've told close family and friends that you'll see them in a week and that you can't be held personally responsible for anything you say or do over the next 100 hours.
4. You're considering whether or not PJs are appropriate dress for work.
5. You're hedging on your "no caffeine after noon" rule.
6. You're no longer signing yearbooks with quite the same generosity.
7. You're awaiting some sort of Old Testament-like plague to ravage the school thanks to outgoing seniors.
8. You haven't ironed/hung out your graduation robe yet.
9. You're looking forward to summer, and yet there's a part of you that's actually going to miss the chaos.
10. Survival mode has supplanted long-term curricular goals.

Good luck in these closing days. Next week will be different...


Nathan

Oh... they're real people?

With the passage of the current spending bills from the Minnesota legislature, it's far too easy to reduce education issues and concerns down to nameless "students" being taught by "teachers." Doing so is convenient and intoxicating, but often de-humanizes the process so badly that we forget that there are real people encapsulated in those common nouns.

That said, I encourage you to go and read some recent commentary from actual students offering some keen insights about technology in the Minneapolis schools. While their ideas and insights are excellent, what I really think is paramount is hearing the voices of students in an authentic manner. Somehow, these voices don't sound troubled or dysfunctional or failing, do they?

Funny things happen when we stop debating and start listening.

An Open Letter to my Former Colleagues and Students

Dear Friends,

So I got to spend the entirety of my morning with you yesterday. I was there for a spring soccer meeting, but really I just used that as an excuse to come visit. Since “alma mater” means “soul mother,” I think it was really my soul that needed the visit. And the visit worked in spades.

I’ve walked into that building thousands of times, but my heart was racing yesterday. Excitement and nerves co-mingled as my feet trod upon familiar paths. Stepping on the first step to the “my floor,” I knew it was four steps if I went two at a time. All of my senses were home again.

And then there you were. Students, teachers. Loads of new faces who had no idea who I was. (A certain brand of sorrow exists in that.) Of course there is the awkwardness at first, like bumping into an ex- girlfriend. Small talk. But soon rhythms as old as the tide settled in. And I was no longer pushed or pulled. I just was.

And then I left. Just a four hour vacation for my spirit. Admittedly, I left with no papers to grade, no faculty meetings to attend. I didn’t have to counsel one student through the death of dog while trying to plan my next lesson. No such weights burdened my buoyed self. I’m just smart enough to realize all of this.

But when I got in my car, I cried the same way I did when I left last spring. I had to call my wife. “When I left, I need to leave, right? I was ready, wasn’t I? It was time, wasn’t it?” She assured me that I had indeed been drawn to my next adventure. I knew that. But being around you was joy beyond joy.

Ultimately, I hope that’s what you’re able to see in your days together. Underneath the stress, tension, frustration, and daily challenges of teaching and learning, you’re being fed and are feeding each other in ways that are ineffable. If you don’t know that, if you don’t feel that in your core, then you’ll have to take my word for it. There is a privilege to your life that you might miss, but it’s there. And I thank you for letting me share in that privilege. Even briefly.

Yours,
Nathan

See you next year?

Here's what I know: look at the teachers in your building who have been in the profession fewer than five years and you're looking at people who have a 50% chance of being back in the classroom next fall. The other 50% (by national standards) won't be.

I met with a group of teachers yesterday, two of whom reported that they didn't feel connected to the staff for their entire first year. A whole year! I also know that the reasons teachers cite for leaving almost always center around issues of collegiality and professional relationships.

So there you have it. As an educator and colleague, you now have about three weeks left to reach out to a new teachers and offer the sustenance they need as they ponder their own futures in your school. What have you intentionally done to make sure they're by your side when the first bell rings next school year?

Tell me your stories.

UGH #2:

Less vs. fewer
We use "less" when what we're comparing cannot be counted and "fewer" when it can. Another way of saying it is this: Trust your ear: if you'd use "much," use "less"; if you'd use "many," use "fewer."

Examples:
I have FEWER dollars than you, which means I have LESS wealth.

I have FEWER commercials on my radio station which means I cause LESS stress.

You have FEWER fears than me which means I have LESS courage.

Let's do lunch

I’ve posted only a handful of times, and yet I’ve brought up lunch twice. I think this hearkens to my love of my two favorite things: food and conversation. I love eating. I love talking. And yes, I’ll talk with food in my mouth.

But today I’m going to scratch a little deeper on the importance of meals while working. I’ve realized that one of the greatest parts of teaching was lunch with my colleagues. It’s near the top of what I miss. [note: this says nothing of the people with whom I presently eat lunch – very wonderful lunches and conversations I assure you.]

But what I miss is the tremendous variety and passion we brought from our respective areas of expertise and interest. On any given day around the table in our staff lounge we might talk literature, anthropology, politics, history, science, current affairs, NCAA basketball picks, or any myriad of topics. The conversations were loud, well-informed, bawdy, and generally delicious. I think we would be hard pressed to match the quality of debate and insight in any other setting.

I led of focus group of teachers a week ago and one teacher said he and the rest of the math department have eaten lunch everyday together for the past 10 years. He cited this as one of the primary reasons he has been able to sustain himself in his career.

Another teacher in the same group said that she never eats with her colleagues and that for the most part they don’t share any brand of relationship. You could almost sense her longing to share in the same type of collegiality shared by the math department.

So there you have it. Posting #2 about lunch. Perhaps it’s not as random or unimportant as we might think. If you don’t already eat lunch with your colleagues, give it a shot. It might be the very thing you’re looking for. If you already do, turn the volume up to 11 and enjoy.

Heavy Stuff for a Friday

I read today about a chapter from former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige's new book. In it, he tackles head on the notion that teachers' unions, especially the NEA are actually hindering forces when it comes to improving education, and ironically, the lives and careers of teachers. Granted this is the same man who called the NEA a "terrorist organization."

Nonetheless, I actually appreciate his comments, even if I don't agree with them. Frankly, I don't think we have enough transparency about the most uncomfortable issues facing education. Some of the conversations we're going to need to have about the transformation of public education are going to have to be brutal, painful, and very public. Polite conversations about the status quo or overly-politicized speeches about "failing schools" aren't going to cause the sea change that is going to need to happen.

But if we as educators are willing to throw everything on the table and have those uncomfortable conversations, how quickly will agendas shift? The entirety of debate about education in our country cannot happen until the gloves come off. I listen with a close ear to the new batch of candidates for president frame their conversations about education issues. I assume you do too. I'll look forward to tracking what the conversation actually becomes. I for one hope it's a drag out, knock down, but utterly productive one.

How about some Short-Term Thinking?

I met with the president of a local teachers’ union on Friday for a cup of coffee and a truly excellent conversation about education writ large, the state of teaching, and the future of the profession. It was a wide-ranging and provocative conversation.

In the course of our conversation, though, I was reminded of something that’s been gnawing at me for weeks. She was telling me about a local middle school teacher who was bummed out because her school only had 20 minute lunches. Add to that standing in line for lunch, walking to the lunchroom, or stopping to use the bathroom, and all of a sudden you’re left with a 10 minute lunch. This story is repeated in schools all over, but this particular story struck a chord with me.

Lately I’ve been increasingly convinced that now more than ever, we need to de-mystify the state of teaching and teachers. While I’m certain teachers are indeed worried about achievement gaps and long-term strategic goals for a district, I have a feeling what matters even more are the daily realities of working in a school. We study “burnout” and “attrition” like they’re some sort of mystery vexing education. Perhaps we don’t need national think tanks and teacher studies to solve some of the problems facing teachers. Maybe we need humane, basic treatment of teachers everyday. How about starting with a reasonable lunch?

This isn’t rocket science, but it’s also not a particularly popular notion either. In an age of so much teeth gnashing, it almost seems counter-intuitive to imagine that such simple transformations as a lengthened lunch hour or good lighting or a staff lounge could effect meaningful change. Barring Long-Term Strategic Planning, how about we institute Short-Term Daily Thoughtfulness and see what happens?

So what did you do?

As promised, I said I'd log what it is I got off my mind this week. While not too grandiose, I did nibble at the edges of some stuff that's been bugging. At the most basic level, I cleaned my desk. This, however, was no minor feat, and also caused me to unearth multiple scraps of paper reminding of other things I hadn't gotten done yet. Yikes. Nonetheless, it was hanging over my head, and it isn't anymore.

On a slightly grander scale, I also had a series of conversations with people at work about what my future might look like. I'm utterly phobic of stagnation right now. One of the reasons I left teaching was to have grand adventures and find out things about myself that I didn't already know. And I'll darned if I re-settle into new ruts. I need to keep freaking myself out.

And if you feel like you didn't get enough done to help yourself or the world out this week, you're probably right considering that this teacher did.

Lastly, tonight is Prom at the school where I taught. For the past 10 years my wife and I chaperoned Prom. I won't lie. I'm utterly bummed that we won't be there. "Date night" can't compare with "take your wife to Prom night."

Have a great weekend.

Over the Hump

A beautiful Wednesday afternoon lies ahead. The trees are budding. The air is warm. It's just the kind of day that students love to sit in their desks and learn! How I love Spring!

Here's my two-day challenge for us all:

PICK ONE THING THAT'S BEEN HANGING OVER YOUR HEAD AND GET RID OF IT.

That's it. We have two days to get this done before the weekend. Colleague bugging you? Talk it over. Student worrying you? Talk it over. Papers piling up? Work your way through them. Missing the sun? Grade outside.

Please POST your successes for others to read. My Friday post will explain what it is I tackled personally. I'll practice what I preach.

When the news and reality just don't match up

I had a great day on Friday. There are a lot of integers I use to judge whether or not my day was great, not the least of which is the weather, what time my kids wake up, what I eat for lunch, etc. But there is one factor that almost always results in a great day: going to visit a school.

Now that I'm away from a school for the first time in my career, I cannot describe how much I miss the energy and intensity of a school setting. I realize it is this very same energy drain that led to some serious exhaustion and tension at times, but the "buzz" from a day of teaching is hard to replace in any other job. Do I sound sad and lonely?

So on Friday I went to have lunch with the teachers at Patrick Henry High School here in north Minneapolis. If you read the local papers, and I do, it is hard to pass a single day without reading some disparaging, depressing story about the state of our schools, especially on the north side. Wide achievement gaps, closing schools, tumbling enrollment, and a host of other very real problems are splashed across the headlines all the time. I had never been to Henry myself, so I had no idea what to expect. "North Minneapolis" has become so deeply encoded for our educational, racial, and socio-economical issues, that walking into the school as a visitor I could have expected anything from Alcatraz to complete chaos.

In fact, I found nothing of the sort. In fact, I found just the opposite.

I was invited to come to Henry to talk about my project during the staff's professional development lunches in their professional development room full of professional development resources. It was fantastic. Between lunches I went on a tour of the school where I saw students who drop everything for 20 minutes a day, as a whole school, and read self-selected literature. Students said hello to teachers. Teachers said hello to students. There was no graffiti, no yelling. No chaos. This was a school that was vibrant and alive and working.

I left the school not depressed about the "State of Education" or the "Achievement Gap." Instead, I left reminded of the critical truth that media stories about teachers, administrators, and students aren't words about some theoretical body of people. Rather, these are professionals and students working hard to combat the very ills that we read about. I didn't leave feeling all that sorry for anyone but myself. I didn't rush out to my car, but instead walked slowly away, the wonderful din of public education ringing in my ears.

Letting go of a pronoun

I'd like to officially request a Reasonable Suspension of Pronoun Ownership. Since I'm not in the classroom teaching right now, I struggle to let go of "we" and transition to "you." In other words, when referring to teaching, students, and schools, I still feel utterly compelled to use "we," which includes me in the mix. When I say "you" to a group of teachers I feel horribly removed and detached from the realities of teaching. Since I still scan the high school sports scores first, salivate at my old lunch bell (11:23), respond seasonally to the weather shifts, and feel awkward in a tie, I'm going to hang onto the "we" as long as possible.

So from here forward, "we" is code for "teachers," unless otherwise noted.

I'd like to also add a new feature to this blog, which I'll call UGH! This stands for Unsolicited Grammar Help. I've taken my writing soap box global and virtual baby!

So here's UGH! #1:

Commas and periods always go inside quotation marks. Always. Forever.

Example:
I like the word "tacos". That's bad. That's wrong. Really wrong. Always.

I like the word "tacos." That's right. Really right. Always.

When I watch "LOST", my heart races. That's wrong. Always. Wrong.

When I watch "LOST," my heart races. That's right. Always.



Okay, I'm out. Have a great weekend. Sleep, eat, be merry. See you Monday.

Nate

What do I mean by "healthy"?

I'm going to reserve the first few posts for providing a general sense of where my thinking is about teaching and teachers. My brain is like a caffeinated bee in a jar, so I hope I can get my thoughts out in a "few posts." At the very least, I want to establish a general premise of what leads my thinking and efforts toward improving the lives of educators (and adults in general I might add).

While I certainly do want to encourage all of us to be healthy - I've heard that eating well and exercising are good for you - I also want to cast a wider net over what healthy might look like for people involved with youth and schools.

Ultimately, I think we need to re-think our sense of mission and responsibility. If we're dedicated to successful youth and we let that be the singular controlling factor in all that we do, we leave ourselves highly vulnerable to some serious burnout. Anyone ever stayed at school until 10:30, grabbed a few hours of sleep, got up at 6:00 to grade, and then show up at school exhausted, grumpy, and bitter? And that leads to successful youth how?

So a lot of my work revolves around a fuller sense of the responsibilities that we really have. We are responsible to ourselves, our colleagues, our students, our friends, our family, and our mission. In much more equal measure than we might lend credence.

So that's the "Healthy Teacher" towards which I strive. Chiseled abs would be nice, but it's not exactly what I'm talking about.

Welcome to the Healthy Teacher

So here we are.

I've created this blog for two primary reasons (and with two different personal perspectives). One element of this blog is personal. After teaching and coaching for 12 years (high school English), I still identify myself as a teacher in my thinking and my life in general.

Professionally, I'm on a leave of absence from teaching and now working at Search Institute, a Minneapolis based non-profit that does youth development work. My official title is "Education Liaison," which means that if we're doing work with, for, or around schools I try to involve myself.

Specifically, I'm developing a new branch of thinking for Search. Since almost all efforts being made in the name of supporting youth usually use schools as conduits, I came to Search asking what they were doing specifically for teachers. One of our best selling books is titled Great Places to Learn. I asked the question: What are we doing to make sure that we create great places to TEACH?

Search agreed that seeking an answer to this question was worthy of our time and efforts. And thus my project was born. I now spend my days researching teaching and teachers, talking with educators, reading, following stories about education in the media, and generally getting my head around the issues and policies that affect teachers and their job/life satisfaction.

On this blog I'll share stories from my work, current research, glimpses of what I'm developing, links to stories about education, and general musings. I hope you find this site informative, perhaps humorous, maybe inspiring, and at the very least - current. Selfishly, I look forward to gathering stories and input from you. Whether you're a teacher or someone involved with schools, the more I know, the better.

With that in mind, I encourage you to read this story about this year's Teacher of the Year winner. Those are some lucky students!