Blindspots and Button Pushers

This is another post I have saved for summer to reduce the chance of anyone seeing themselves or their child in it.

New teachers are idealists.  We have visions of what our classes will be like.  Kids will be rushing to our class, love us so much that they will follow every rule, and be so engaged in our classes that the thought of misbehaving wouldn't even enter their thoughts.  All parents will be so captivated by our philosophy of education that they will support everything we do.  Anyone who has been in the classroom for two days or more knows that this is insane.  Kids are kids; they come with their own agenda for the day.  Parents care little about our philosophy because this is their child.  The teaching profession is fun and wonderful, but it is NOT the image of our idealistic minds.

There is one reality that scares new teachers. When it happens (and it will), we feel guilty because we have been led to believe it wouldn't happen.  We suddenly realize that there are kids we like more than others.  We have been told by every teacher we ever had that they don't have favorites.  We were told in college that we weren't supposed to have favorites.  We made ourselves believe that it was possible not to have favorites.  That would be possible if we were those animatronic people on the "It's A Small World" ride at Disneyworld, but we aren't.  We are people, and our students are people.  Of course, we will connect with some more than others.  Of course, some of them will like us more than the others do.  Of course, we will view all of our students differently (which we were taught to do in our differentiated instruction training).  We should not feel guilty about this UNLESS we make decisions based on those feelings.  We must treat our students equally, but it crazy to think we will actually be able to feel equally about all of them.

There are two students that we all have that challenge our ability to treat all students equally.  They are our Blindspot and our Button Pusher.  I'll start with the Button Pusher because they are the easiest for you to identify.

Good teachers try not to show the kids where our buttons are; but no matter how hard we try, they find them.  There is one kid every year who manages to find ones even you didn't know you had.  This kid finds all your buttons and not only pushes them, he dances on them.  You know who this kid is.  Chances are, other teachers know who this kid is for you.  If you think about it for a while, you will probably find that what bothers you about your Button Pusher is that there is something about them that reminds you of something you don't like about yourself.  My Button Pusher is a girl who simply must control EVERYTHING.  As I have previously mentioned in this blog, I have a few control issues. It is one of the things I like least about myself.  She reminds me of that, which is why it is so irritating.  If you are a teacher, think about your Button Pusher.  Chances are, you will figure out the the quality that irritates you is something you don't like about yourself.  Perhaps, it will help.

Every teacher also has a Blindspot.  These, by definition, are difficult for you to identify yourself.  If you don't know who yours is, ask a teacher friend you trust.  They know who yours is.  This is the kid that you bend over backward to defend.  When other people tell you something they did wrong, you
are the first to jump in with an excuse for them.  You will find yourself saying, "Yeah, but . . ." about them in faculty meetings.  If you know yours is, sit down and think about them.  Do they also remind you of yourself?  My Blindspot is a girl who is impulsive with saying her thoughts aloud.  That's me as well.  I often get to the end of a faculty meeting and think, "Next week, you are going to keep your mouth shut," but I never seem to follow through on that.  I often wonder if my Blindspot says that to herself at the end of the day as well.

If you are a young teacher, you desperately want to believe that you don't have a Button Pusher or a Blindspot.  I promise you do.  I also promise that it is okay that you have them.  Knowing you have them will enable you to reduce their impact on your decision making.  It will keep you from knee jerk punishing of your Button Pusher or reflexively protecting your Blindspot.  It will make you a better teacher.

World Blood Donor Day

My blog is usually about eduction, but Sunday June 14th is World Blood Donor Day.  This merits a rabbit trail of its own. 

When I talk about donating blood, I get a lot of reactions, from awe to horror, depending on the audience.  There are still a few people who think it is a way to make money.  Don't get me started on that one because I look down on that practice.  It is liking taking your coat to the Salvation Army and offering to sell it to them.  Don't sell what you should give.

My students ask a million questions because they don't understand the process or why it is needed.  I talk to them about it A LOT in the hope that they will remember and want to donate when they are old enough.  I also have a wall in my room decorated with pretty much everything the Red Cross has ever given me.  For this blog post, I will treat you as a student answer the questions that they usually ask me.

Why? - Because there are people who need blood.  According to the American Red Cross, there is a need for blood in the US every two seconds with the average transfusion requiring about 3 pints.  A single car accident may require up to 100 pints.

How often do you give?  I give as often as the Red Cross allows, which is every 56 days (8 weeks).  That amounts to six pints per year.

Why so often?  I have type O negative blood.  This is the only blood type that can donate to anyone.  If a person is in immediate need with no time to type their blood, they will be given O negative.  This means my blood type runs out faster than other types.  Since there is no such thing as artificial blood, it must come from people. 
  
What do they do?  You go in and read some stuff.  They take you in a room and take your blood pressure, pulse, and temperature.  You answer a bunch of questions to make sure you aren't at risk for AIDS or hepatitis or West Nile Virus.  They prick your finger to test your red blood cell count.  Assuming you are clear on all those things, you lie down on a bed.  They put a needle in your arm.  The needle is attached to a tube that leads to a bag.  You just lie there for a couple of minutes while gravity does its thing.  They put a bandage on your arm.  Then they let you eat cookies.  From start to finish, it takes less than an hour.  The actual blood giving part takes less than 10 minutes.

Does it hurt?  Only for a fraction of a second.  When the needle goes in, I wince a little.  That's it.  The finger prick is actually more painful than the needle, and it's just a quick jump.

Do you get sick or dizzy?  Rarely.  If I am well hydrated before giving, I often feel no different at all.  A few times, I have been extra tired for a day or a little dizzy if I stand up to fast.  I've never had any real problems from it.

How old do you have to be?  The Red Cross allows people to start donating at the age of 17 (or 16 if a parent is present).  I started giving at school when I was 17 because I wandered by the gym when they were having a drive.  The early you start giving, the more likely you are to stick with it.  However, it is never too late to start.

Do you give at blood drives?  I have, but I prefer donating at the permanent Red Cross location.  They know me and my mom.  They even commented that we were there earlier than usual when we went last week.  I have found also that they are more likely to work with me at the permanent location if my vein rolls or is hard to find than they have been at blood drives.

Since beginning at age 17, I have given 96 pints of blood with only a few interruptions due to international travel and college student eating habits.  I am on track to reach 101 pints by my 40th birthday.  The need is highest during summer and holiday times because of increased traffic accidents during these times, but these are also times when donations are lowest.  If you are eligible, let me encourage you to give one pint this summer.  If you try it once, you will find that it is easier than you thought and might be encouraged to do it regularly.  Only 10% of the eligible population donates.  I once read that if that were raised to 11%, there would never be a shortage.  You can make that happen if you donate, take a friend with, and encourage others to donate.  I'm going to make it even easier for you.  Click here to schedule your appointment.

If you have questions I haven't addressed, you can read Blood Facts and Statistics from the Red Cross, which provides a lot more detail than I have here.  

One other thing - There are other collection organizations besides the Red Cross (the Red Cross is responsible for 40% of donations in the United States).  I have never donated at any of the other places, so I can't speak to the donor experience in them.  I do know people who have given directly to Rex Hospital and have had positive experiences with that.  It's not important where you give.  Just give.


 

Human at the Other End

There are a few posts that I have saved for summer so that no student or parent will read and think I am referring to them because of something that happened earlier in the week.  These are topics that may have been inspired by specific events but that have them valuable to sharing generally, not just as a vent for a specific event.  This is one of those posts.

Your keyboard does not have feelings.  It is made of plastic and wires that exist at room temperature.  If you hit the keys a little harder, it doesn't respond with a cry of pain or recoil in fear.  It can't read your message and tell you that you are being a little harsh.  Your keyboard dutifully reflects whatever you have typed into it.

Your keyboard doesn't feel the words you type, but the person at the other end of your e-mail, tweet, or post does.  Our culture has become desensitized to the impact of the written word.  You can blame this on a myriad of things.  E-mail was probably the first thing to separate us from our words; handwritten letters were often thought through more carefully as you felt the words more profoundly when you were writing them.  The over-sharing that came with social media has probably played a role as we now consider tact to be a sign of falseness; if we don't share absolutely everything, we aren't being real somehow.  I personally hold the smart phone most responsible because it has removed even the slightest amount of lag time between the thought in our brain and the send button.  There are probably more factors as cultural change rarely results from one thing. 

Whatever the cause, the result is a sort of verbal ADHD based on whatever feeling we have at the instant we have it.  If you child comes home upset about something that happened at school, you fire off your first thought to the person you immediately hold responsible.  You don't take the time to think through the idea that your response to a hurting child is to hurt someone else's child.  You don't see the expression on the face of your target like you would if you were actually talking to them.  If you did, you might not say the second or third sentence because you would realize your first sentence had already had its impact. 

I began my teaching career when e-mail was first being used as a method of communication with the teacher.  At that point, most people still treated it with the formality of letter writing.  You got a lot of context and explanation.  This is no longer the case.  We have shortened our e-mails to the length of a couple of tweets; and because of that, we have removed any of the softening words that we previously included.  What has not changed is that there is a still a human receiving your message.

You may have to address difficult issues with your child's teacher.  You may have to do it by e-mail because circumstances don't allow for a drop by.  You may to do it relatively quickly, depending on the situation.  Just remember that you never have to do it so quickly that you don't think one thought: "There's a human at the other end of this keyboard." 

Goal Setting

I am a person who needs goals.  During the school year, this isn't hard.  You are always working toward something - a test, the end of the quarter, exams, a project presentation, yearbook deadline, or just Friday.  During the school year, goals are a given.  During the summer, goals are essential.  Without them, it is possible to end the day, realizing you have done nothing (like I did during snow days).


I divide my goals during the summer into reading goals, school goals, home goals, and personal goals.  This summer I will:

- Read for at least an hour a day.  I just finished Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins, a book I have had for years but finally started reading during the school year.  Last night, I started Dewey, a book about a cat who lived in the library in Spencer, Iowa.  After that, I will read a few Sherlock Holmes stories.  My friend, Cheryl, keeps telling me I need to read The Martian, so I will be getting that one soon as well.

- Proofread the textbook I wrote last summer.  Getting the book finished took longer than I thought (see my posts Hyperlinking Brains from January), so there was no time for proof reading.  As a result, my students and I found many errors.  They spent the year sending me any errors they found in e-mail.  I will soon be fixing these, so it will be better when it gets handed out next year.  The other thing I need to with the book is a media credit page.  I want to model proper crediting of the work of others, but I ran out of time to complete that as well. 

- Read several books specifically for school.  I just finished Checking for Understanding, a required reading book about formative assessment.  I checked out Drive by Daniel Pink, a book about motivation and How We Learn by Benedict Carey.  I love that we are starting to translate brain science into curriculum modification; it has taken a while.

- Make my home organization match my school organization.  When people ask what I am going to do during the summer, I usually reply, "All the things I don't have time to do at home during the school year."  Yesterday, I was waiting for my new refrigerator to be delivered, so I started organizing the kitchen cabinets.  I am not done with that yet, but my junk drawer looks amazing.  I have some repairs to do, but most of this summer's goals at home are related to cleaning and organizing.

- Use my Reformation Study Bible.  In depth Scripture reading takes time.  I always feel like I don't give it enough attention during the school year.  During the summer, I will get to spend time reading all of the notes and insets.  I printed a chronological reading plan, an approach I have never tried before.  Today, Cain killed Abel, and Seth was born. 

- Walk 500 miles.  Last year, I wanted to accomplish a half marathon for myself (walking - I don't run), and I did.  Once I accomplished, it however, I didn't walk again until spring break.  This year's goal will ensure that I don't stop (although I must reduce) when the school year starts.  Using The Proclaimers song "I Will Walk 500 Miles" as inspiration, I have set a goal of walking 500 during the summer and following up with 500 more during the following school year. 

- Donate Blood.  I am in the middle of an ongoing goal, to reach 100 pints of blood donated by my 40th birthday.  My 40th birthday is next May, and I am on track to hit 101 by then.  One of those blood donations will happen this summer.  Since they only let you give every 8 weeks, I can only do one during the summer.

Well, I have an appointment at the Apple store, which is seven miles away; so I better get ready to knock out 14 of these miles.