By Tom
Recently I was part of a radio show. It was on BAM Radio, which I think is only broadcast over the internet. Our host was Rae Pica and the topic was teacher advocacy. Besides me, there was Anthony Cody, who blogs at Living in Dialog and who was instrumental in planning the Save Our School March in Washington DC; Karen Horwitz, who wrote a book about teacher abuse after she was fired from her teaching position; and Marilyn Anderson Rhames, who blogs at Charting My Own Course and teaches science at a charter school in Chicago.
I won't say too much about the content, since you can listen to it yourself. One thing you'll notice is that all four of us have strikingly different opinions on the issue of teacher advocacy.
Enjoy!
The first week I really tried to memorize certain aspects of my cooperating teacher’s mannerisms and how she conversed with students. I noticed that while she doesn’t raise her voice often in class, she does tend to speak with a clipped, hard tone whenever she is trying to get the class under control and make sure they realize that she is the one in charge. I used the same technique when I taught my classes the first time. I didn’t think it would work but it did, and I only had to raise my voice once to get students settled down after they returned from lunch. Don’t worry, you’ll get a sense of your students once you start full-time and determine the level of “teacher” you need to have in your voice soon enough! 🙂
What an interesting listen! I’m going to have to agree with Anthony Cody’s statement that it depends upon your particular administration regarding whether or not it is safe for teachers to share their voice. I guess it only takes one experience to teach you that. Ironically, I’m not sure how safe it is for me to explain my opinion right here, right now.
I will say, that when I went to the SOS march in DC, I encountered two surprises. One happened in the months that led up to it. My very own 5th grade teaching partner/team member asked our local union the very same question I did, which was, “Can I go to DC to be a part of the march?” We both asked, independent of each other, never knowing the other was interested. It wasn’t until we received the confirmation email on the same day and saw each other’s email addresses at the top that we realized what the other had been thinking all along. The second surprise was when I arrived Thursday morning at American University, the site of the conference. ANOTHER teacher from my school made the long trek to join in.
Given this, and the previous experience I alluded to, I can say that the climate of teachers sharing ideas openly without fear is both appealing and absent in my teaching environment. I think this is shameful. I’m happy to contribute to the SFS blog; but I am careful. (Perhaps, a little less so right now.)
I will share just one other place teachers might choose to share their voice – a project I envisioned and WEA made real: http://www.ittakesanation.org With today’s technology, we can speak out. Although, I’ll understand if some choose to do so behind a mask.
A very important factor you will find is the fact that all individuals get noticeably distinct ideas for the problem involving instructor loyality.