By Mark

This time of year is filled with platitudes and pats on the back. Many scholarship dollars have been awarded, certificates of achievement handed out, and now that June is here, cute little embossed diplomas in little padded booklets are being divvied out all across the nation to folks in awkward gowns and cardboard hats. Kids who no one thought would make it will, and scores of teenagers will be the first in their entire genealogy to accomplish the feat of completing a high school education.

We high school teachers will always say that graduation is a bittersweet time. It is a familiar rite of passage wrought with (of course) pomp and ceremony. Each ceremony across the nation likely follows a similar pattern: a few songs from young musicians, a few words from the top scholars, a guest keynote speaker who reminds the robed young'uns just how very very special they are before they march proudly across the stage, shake a few hands, and cross that critical threshold into adulthood.

I have a few wishes for the class of 2010, some typical, others perhaps not so.

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 By Mark

The education blogs lit up recently about a technologically-botched conference call between a group of accomplished teachers and USDE bigwigs (including Big Arne), and Duncan's subsequent personal calls to Anthony Cody and Marsha Ratzel, two of the educators who lead the outreach from teachers to the USDE. After reading Cody's descriptions of the conference call and the follow up phone call from Arne, I came to the same conclusion that many other teachers have:

They may be hearing us, but they're certainly not listening.

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 By Mark

I've managed to have a pretty successful career so far. I've earned some awards, National Certification, recognition. Like many of us, I have those kids that come back and call me their favorite teacher, sometimes offering unfair or unkind comparisons to subsequent teachers who the student disliked. But I've had an internal struggle about where my success is rooted, mainly because I am, without contest, the least well-read English teacher (let alone department chair) to ever hold the title. In lofty discussions on the fringes of department meetings or around the lunch table, when the topic turns to high literature, grand philosophy, or big names, if I don't physically retreat, I do so into my own little mind hoping and praying no one asks for my ideas on the Bacon/Shakespeare authorship debate or what I think about hermeneutics or philology.

Sure, I managed to get a degree in English from a university. But I only read what was assigned–and though I did so with dedication and interest–I've never really been a bookworm, even though I am a strong proponent of helping my students channel their inner bookworm. What I do think makes me an effective teacher seems to appear nowhere on any of the rubrics or standards for effective teaching. When I did my National Boards, it wasn't there. When I look at models of merit pay, its not there. Aside form the rubrics by which my recent student-teacher was assessed (and even there it was vague), I've not seen it anywhere.

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By Mark



A friend of mine in Clark County (Washington) sent me this link
from the local newspaper which details that the Westboro
Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group known for its frequent anti-gay protests
as well as protests at military funerals, will be targeting a school in the
district neighboring hers.



From the article:

No one’s sure why the Orchards school was singled out for a
30-minute demonstration, which would be the notorious group’s first in Clark
County… Early June 1, the group will picket Portland’s Grant High School
before the first bell, the [Westboro Baptist Church] website shows. That
same day, it will gather at Heritage from 2:15 to 2:45 p.m., chiefly “to picket
the rebellious brats and lying teachers,” the website explains.

I'm curious to see how the school, and the students, handle
this "constitutionally protected exercise of free speech." If you
knew this group was coming to your school, how would you recommend that your
school, students, and community respond? 

And there are so many other questions I'd love to ask…but
this blog is probably not the appropriate forum for them…so let's focus on
how teachers, administrators, students, and the community can best respond to
this provocative and potentially volatile situation.

 By Mark

This last week, I came across two articles: one was clearly satire, the other not so much.

The first was a faux-article from The Onion about how more parents are choosing to have their children "school-homed," where parenting responsibilities are to be taken on by schools rather than by ill-equipped parents.

The second was an AP wire article about punishing schools when bullying takes place within their walls. 

I have to admit that I laughed at both.

Before I cast myself as a heartless pro-bully part-of-the-problem educator, please know that I was not laughing at the bullying being described in the second article. The heinous psychological and physical abuse at the hands of peers–so intense as to result in suicide–is of course not a laughing matter. I do believe that schools can and should work hard to cultivate safe environments for students. Ultimately, the second article suggested punishment for schools for failing to take the advice of experts about how to curb bullying–this was the part I had mixed feelings about.

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 By Mark

It is a rare day when watching FoxNews inspires me to be a better teacher.

Obama's recent tete-a-tete with Bret Baier on FoxNews certainly wasn't the first nor will it be the last evidence that our country has lost its capacity for reasoned discourse, whether the home court is labeled conservative or liberal. Neither side is free of culpability. Why is it that we cannot speak to one another, civilly disagree, offer substantive evidence to support our own positions–rather than treat a conversation as a battle to be waged, where ad hominem attacks or unsubstantiated accusations rule the rhetoric? It is great for when I teach rhetorical fallacies, but as a citizen I'm sick of it.

So FoxNews has helped me revise instructional goals from here forward: in every unit I plan to include opportunities to teach students how to disagree with civility and reason. Whether it's a discussion about a bona fide controversial topic like healthcare or the Iraq War or stem cell research, which all come up during our unit on research and persuasion…or whether we think Romeo or Juliet was more to blame for their mutual tragedy… I pledge to encourage dissent amongst my ranks; I pledge to challenge every student to defend their position with rational grace (regardless of my personal convictions on the issue); and in the process TEACH my students that it is okay to disagree but for crying out loud it isn't okay to interrupt.

Sheesh. How many of our problems would be solved if we would just listen to each other and use our silence to consider other perspectives rather than to ready our next offense.