It Should Keep Getting Better

Projects - Love them or hate them, but you will have them.  This is especially true in science.  There are some concepts that simply must be learned by doing, not to mention all the non-academic learning that comes from projects (which I should write a post on in the future because it is so important).  Because projects matter so much, it is important that we use reflective professional judgment to decide how students can best use their time rather than throwing every good idea we have at them, overwhelming them with work.

When deciding on whether to do a new project, tweak an old one, or keep it exactly as it was this year, there are some questions you need to ask yourself.
1.  What is the academic objective?
2.  What is the "other" objective?  (This could be social, behavioral, or even spiritual)
3.  What are they learning from this project that they cannot learn by doing it some other way?
4.  If retooling a previous project, what can I do to reduce confusion or increase efficiency?  What did someone do last year that I can incorporate this year?

After asking those questions, you may reach one of three conclusions about your project.

1. It should be dropped altogether as it has become a Grecian Urn.  If you don't have time or inclination to read the excellent Cult of Pedagogy post about Grecian Urn projects, here's the summary.  A Grecian Urn is any activity whose time and effort are disproportionate to the learning outcomes.  Something might be fun, but if it is taking days of class time, it should also be rather meaningful.  If it is not, drop it or give it to kids as an optional at home (extra credit if you believe in that sort of thing) activity.  If it is that fun, they'll want to.  If they don't, it probably wasn't as fun as you thought.

2.  The project should stay exactly as it is.  I'm going to suggest that this particular conclusion is rare.  It is difficult for me to believe your project is perfect exactly as is and that making changes could only do damage to the result.  Some projects are classic traditions that everyone should do (e.g physics egg drop project) because it unites us as learners across generations, but that doesn't mean those projects shouldn't change with technology or renewed priorities.  Before you settle into this conclusion, give it some serious thought.

3.  Tweak the project.  I submit to you that this is going to be the answer about 75% of the time.  If you are a creative and interesting teacher who cares enough about your skills to be reading education blogs, you probably had a good idea.  The process of reflection should allow you to identify what was really good about that idea and what needs to be changed.  This may happen only a couple of times, or it may happen every year of your time teaching a course. 

An example will likely help, so let me tell you about a project in my physics class that used to be called "The Electricity Project."  Warning: It plays out over multipl years, so it is long.

I have a healthy respect (that sometimes rises to the level of fear) for electricity.  It's one of the few things in my home I won't tackle on my own.  I don't know what caused this in me, but I don't want to pass it on to my students; so fifteen years ago, I started assigning a project in which they simply had to do some electrical circuit building (series, parallel, and combination circuits were my only requirements).  Many of them built a model of a house and lit each room.  Some built models of car lots or airports and lit each car or plane in series but the runway or lot lights in parallel.  These were all fine and accomplished the instructional objective "recognize the three types of circuits" and my personal behavioral objective "don't be afraid of 9V batteries."  This was fine for a time, and the kids enjoyed it.  They were also nice to have at student showcase nights.

Seven years ago, two students asked if they could do something that was electrical but didn't fit the project instructions.  If you teach high school, you know why I heard this with a skeptical ear at first.  Then, they proposed their idea.  They wanted to build an electric guitar from scratch.  "Umm, that's the coolest thing I've heard.  Yes, of course, you can do that."  I changed the rubric, not just for that year but for the future.  Instead of "build a model with circuits," the requirement became "build a functioning electrical device."  It still fulfilled the objectives the previous version had, but you wouldn't believe the difference in creative projects I got.  I had students who built games that would allow a bell to ring or light to come on when you got a correct answer.  I had some fun electrical versions of tic-tac-toe.  A student attempted to build a theremin.  I even got a Jacob's Ladder and a tiny rail gun that fired paper clips one year and a Tesla coil that had to be operated outside the next.  Because they were so interactive, we had a day of electrical fun, setting them out all over the room and inviting people to come and play with them. 

Four years ago, our school started really pressing in on the idea of Challenge Based Learning.  What would kids do if we took the constraints off and gave them a real-world kind of problem?  Knowing that the addition of another project would be burdensome to all involved, I brainstormed with our technology coach about how I might adjust an already existing project to become challenge based.  I decided on the electricity project.  Given how many people around the world have limited access to electricity, that seemed an ideal problem to solve with their knowledge of physics.  Also, at that time, our IT director was a former missionary to Haiti, where he had his own challenges with keeping electricity consistent in his home.  "Out with electrical device building . . . In with electrical problem solving," I thought.  I don't have time to tell you about the epic failure we had in the first year of this project, and I've already written about it, so read that here.

The next year, as I reflected on the project, I decided that clearer instruction was needed.  Perhaps I had taken the challenge based learning tenant that the teacher shouldn't have an end in mind a little too seriously.  I assigned groups and adjusted directions but had essentially the same project (check here for those adjustments).  Things were better but still not what I was hoping for (I've blogged about this a lot, apparently - see here for that year's result).  I wanted some real ideas, not just windmills.  The next year, we began our year with brainstorming groups in teacher meetings.  If you had an idea but needed input, you presented it to other teachers (mostly outside your own area).  Two teachers said, "It sounds like your idea is a little too hypothetical.  What if you gave them a real place?"  When we began brainstorming sessions last year, I was astounded by the difference that made.  Suddenly, I heard them taking weather into account because "you can't have solar panels in a place with sandstorms all year."  They were discussions about how difficult it would be to find diesel fuel in their particular part of the world or whether it was even windy there.  The fact that they were researching the resources of the area brought this project so much closer to what I envisioned.

Then, the biggest change happened quietly and almost accidentally.  The group that was assigned to Yemen came to me and said that the biggest problem with their lack of electricity was that they had so little clean water.  "Can we build a solar-powered water pump?"  As with the electric guitar, I didn't want to say no to a good idea just because it didn't fit what I had in mind.  Of course they could build a solar-powered water pump.  Aside from the atrocious spelling in their video, this was the best project of all the groups and the one people talked about the most.  They were compelling and knowledgeable and, most of all, invested in their solution.  This challenged me to change this project once again.

I consulted with our current tech coach about broadening the project.  Instead of focusing on electricity, I would assign the area.  Then, they had to decide what was the most critical challenge before them that could be addressed by physics/engineering.  Not knowing what they would decide, I wasn't sure building something was practical, so he suggested grant-style presentations with PSA videos.  Yes, this was coming together.  Of the 8 groups, six said lack of access to potable water was the biggest need in their area, one said flooding led to disease and water problems, and one said sanitation was an issue (because they had garbage and raw sewage in their streets).  In the six groups that addressed water access, there were six different solutions.  This showed me that they did, in fact, research what made the most sense for that country.  I was so proud of their results, and we got great feedback from those who attended the forum.  This was finally the challenge based learning project I wanted it to be.

You may have noticed that the objectives had changed.  No one built anything that had to do with circuits.  I accomplished that objective in one day of handing out 9V batteries, wire, and Christmas tree light bulbs with the instructions to "play and tell me what you learned" after a day of teaching about the different circuits.  That was a memorable day as one group pretty much tased themselves for twenty minutes by linking 32 batteries together and touching wires, showing that they weren't afraid of it.  This project is so much more meaningful that I can't imagine going back to building a simple model to show you can make circuits.  They can learn that another way.  This project now gives them things they couldn't have learned in another way.

If you teach for several years, your project should be getting better.  You may not have one that changes as much as this one did, but don't be afraid if you do.  Share the progression with the students.  They need to see that we continue learning.  They need to know that you have deep thought about the reasons for what you assign them.  They need to know that we haven't arrived at perfect ideas yet but that we are always reaching for them.  If you want them to keep getting better, you should be too.

Education - More Complicated Than We Have Patience For

Given that I had already written about the Oklahoma walkout, my general opposition to strikes/walkouts, and the fact that I haven't been a public school teacher since 15 years ago, I had not planned to comment on the rally taking place in North Carolina on May 16.  Some blog posts, facebook comments, and a conversation with a teacher who just left the NC public school system last year changed my mind.  Warning:  It's going to be quite long.  The title should tell you that.

Can't we all just disagree?  
Because we live in the age of social media, we speak only in superlatives (every meal is life, we respond to moderately amusing jokes with "I'm dead," a description of even the mildest scenario leaves us "shook).  Because of this, every conflict in society is painted as an epic battle between good and evil, on the level of The Oddessy or Harry Potter.  Online conversations about the relationship between educators and legislators have become like that.  The NC GOP is Sauron, and the poor teachers are Hobbits in the minds of many people.  (For those on the other side, reverse characters.)  I keep seeing teachers post that they've been suffering for "the last 8 years" as though education hasn't been a political football for many decades.  I see those against the rally describe teachers as lazy and overpaid "when you consider they have summers off."  The worst posts imply the other side is morally bankrupt.  Notice that we can just be in disagreement anymore; one of the sides has to be evil.  What kind of example does this discourse set for our students?

Teachers Are Not Monolithic
If you want to show solidarity, dress the same.  These t-shirts (which, in case you haven't been following, are exactly the same as the ones in Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, and West Virginia - they just change the state shape) automatically present the impression of uniformity, not just in clothes but in opinion.  Obviously, anyone not supporting the rally, or even disagreeing with some nuance of the argument is against education and teachers and for ignorance. 

The problem with that impression is that teachers are intelligent, educated, thinking people.  When you put more than one thinking person in a room, you are likely to get disagreement about important things.  (This is a lesson I learned from a teacher in middle school, by the way).  There are teachers who don't believe they would do their jobs better if they were paid more money.  There are teachers who don't believe all their problems would be solved if there were democrats in office.  There are teachers who don't believe the lottery has benefitted their classrooms.  There are teachers who keep their mouths shut because their opinions are not in line with the t-shirts and bumper stickers, but there are some willing to speak.  Consider this courageous post from a Durham school teacher who has elected not to participate in the rally.  

Real Progress is Slow Progress

Real problems aren't created in a day, which means they also won't be solved in a day.  No matter how many teachers gather at the state house on Wednesday, they aren't going to return to their classroom on Thursday with their problems solved.  They'll have gotten media coverage, but that's not the end goal, is it?  What is the end goal?  In all the online conversation, I haven't been able to find it.

Real progress involves the painstaking work of sitting down with motivated experts, gathering and analyzing relevant data, compromising on difficult issues, and passing laws.  These activities can't be summed up with a hashtag.  They don't get you on the news.  They do take time.  They do require calm and deliberative action.  They do get results.  Isn't that the goal?

Money is Mismanaged at the State and County Level

Here's what gets lost in the funding conversation.  Education in NC is not underfunded, but individual schools are.  According to their website, the per-pupil expenditure in Wake County is $8570, on par with private school tuition (results must be caused by something other than money - more on that in a minute).  That means, if we are going to have a rally, we shouldn't really be having it at the legislative building.  We should be having it at the county office.  

Fifteen years ago, when I taught in Wake County, there was a different rally.  There was a mandatory celebration at the PNC (then RBC) Center, required for all employees of the WCPSS in spite of the fact that there weren't enough seats.  I don't know how much it costs to rent that arena, but I feel like it would buy a lot of paper and copier toner.  The speaker was Jim Hunt.  While I know he prides himself the education governor, he didn't speak for free.  Two days before school started, we would have all rather been in our classrooms, but we were required to fight traffic find seats (or not, I sat on the floor) at this very expensive event.  I am unable to find how many people work in the central office, but I know they are inefficient.  "Keep four copies of anything you send to the central office," I was advised, "because that's how many times they are going to lose it and tell you that you failed to send it."  That person was correct.  I finally had to show up in person and hand walk my test scores from secretary to assistant to higher level assistant until I was certain that I wouldn't lose my license for failing to send something I had thrice sent.  

By the time money gets to the school level, you are limited to a tiny number of copies per month, but it isn't because SCHOOLS in the plural are underfunded.  It's because the money didn't get to you.  That said I don't recall ever getting turned down for budget reasons when I needed to buy something.  I was talking to a friend last week who just left public education, and she said the same.  "There was never something I asked to buy for my classroom that I couldn't," she said.

Money Can't Solve All Problems

That conversation with my friend is what prompted me to write this.  When we started swapping stories, they didn't sound fifteen years apart.  She had a student chuck a backpack at her head; I had a student take his shirt off during class.  In both cases, the kids in the room were more supportive than our administrators or the students' parent.  She and I agreed that the biggest problems we had in public school weren't the kinds of problems that could be solved with more money.

The goal of public education should be education, but that has changed.  The general public now expects schools to do everything from sunup to sundown from ages three to twenty-one (you only think it's 18).  In addition to educational needs, schools are expected to meet students' nutritional, emotional, physical, and social needs.  Expectations of schools have become unmanageable (I wrote about it in this post).   Thirty years ago, if a kid came home complaining about a bully, his mom would have called the other boys' mom.  Now, she calls the school.  Dads used to teach kids about cars; now we expect auto shop to be a required course (and if a school doesn't offer it, the person complaining about it online doesn't volunteer his time to teach it).  Replace that with your pet skill (sewing buttons, chopping vegetables, balancing a checkbook, making change, character education, obesity prevention, athletic ability, penmanship, drug prevention, bullying prevention . . . do I need to list more?  because I can).  Meanwhile, no one wants to add minutes to the day or days to the year.  Money won't reduce these expectations; it may increase them. 

Once people decided they wanted schools to raise kids, they stopped supporting them.  Discipline a kid in school, and the parent you haven't seen all year will show up to complain about it.  Have all the rallies you want; money won't create discipline or solve parenting problems.  

Conclusion

Public schooling is the most complicated problem this country has.  You can make a case that it is immigration or foreign relations or health care, but education is the only thing we promise to every single citizen whose expectations are always changing.  Methods cannot be assessed in the short term, but the clientele has no patience for the analysis of the long term.  As teachers, we should model patience.  That's not going to happen with a hashtag and a rally, no matter how snazzy the t-shirt.

An Open Letter of Apology

This is to the young man my father and I encountered on our way out of the North Hills movie theater on Saturday.  I don't know your name.  You appeared to be about twenty years old and were wearing a blue ACLU t-shirt.

As my father and I walked down the sidewalk from the theater to our cars, I saw you and knew that your very presence would anger him.  You see, my dad is a dyed in the wool Trump supporter and one of the angry white men that got him elected.  I was prepared for him to talk trash about you after we walked away or rant about you at dinner.  I had my mouth open, ready to say, "No, thank you" to whatever you were about to ask.  I was not prepared, however, for him to address you directly, and I am sorry that he did.

You could not have been more polite.  As we approached, you leaned out slightly into the sidewalk, but you didn't block our path.  You smiled broadly at the two of us and even greeted us with "Hello. I am with the ACL . . ."  I'm sorry that you didn't even get to finish your sentence before my dad responded to you with his filthy suggestion of how you should treat yourself. 

While you and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and would have disagreed on most issues, please know that if you and I had engaged in the discussion you were hoping to have, we would have had a respectful discussion in which I would have acknowledged the genuine nature of your beliefs, as evidenced by the fact that you gave up your Saturday to do volunteer work. 

What I am most sorry for is that I did not stop in my tracks and apologize to you then and there.  I laid into my dad as we continued walking.  He is not and will not be sorry for what he said, but I am, and I wish I had stopped to tell you so.  His justification was that you had "drunk the Kool-Aid."  How he thinks he knows that without having let you get out more than five words, I do not know.  He remains unaware that his Kool-Aid is just a different flavor. 

As I have processed all of this for the past twenty-four hours, I have had a number of thoughts.
1.  No human being should ever be spoken to as my dad spoke to you.  You are an image bearer of the Almighty God.  He treated you as though you were a wad of gum not worthy of wiping off his shoe.  I hope you know that are valued and pursued by the God who made you.
2.  I'm sorry that my party which once identified itself as the party of family values is now led by a man that made my dad think this was okay.  I remember when conservatives said, "Character matters."  Apparently, that was only true for some of them when the president was a Democrat. 
3.  As a high school teacher, I keep coming back to the idea that you could be one of my students.  You weren't at home playing video games, smoking pot, or complaining about your life on social media.  You were volunteering on a Saturday to do what you believed to be good in the world.  While we disagree on how that good should be accomplished, I respect that you were doing what you believed to be right.  I'm sure you have been treated rudely by others, and the fact that you were still standing there was a testament to your courage and convictions.  Agree or disagree, I couldn't ask for more from my students.
4.  You represented yourself, your organization, and your generation well.  Your polite approach and self-control in not responding to my dad in kind are a credit to you.  You behaved much more maturely than the 70-year-old man to whom you were speaking.  He should be setting an example for you, not the other way around.
5.  As I had the odd experience of reprimanding my own father on a public street, I told him that he didn't represent our side well.  You weren't going to go home that night and think, "Well, now I'm convinced conservatism is the way to go since my encounter with that man."  I hope that you have encountered conservatives that gave you a more complete picture of who we are than he did.  We aren't all like that; I promise.
6.  My dad claims Christianity, but I know Jesus would not have addressed you that way.  In fact, the only people Jesus was harsh with were the self-righteous.  He engaged everyone else with great mercy and kindness.  I don't know if you have encountered Jesus, but if not, I hope you will be open to His grace in spite of this incident.

Sir, despite our differences, I encourage you to keep going.

Keep being engaged in the world.  Keep pursuing good.  Keep giving your time.  Keep being polite.  Keep learning.  Keep growing.

Take Your Kids Outside

The biology teacher next door to me has a fantastic project in which students are assigned to groups and are asked to grow food plants that will provide 1500 calories.  The learning that happens in this project goes so far beyond the biology that it's hard to describe how great it is.  To see plants go from seeds in the bare dirt to bean poles over five feet tall gives a feeling of accomplishment, and those whose plants are less vigorous learn an appreciation for how difficult farming is.

What happens on the first day of this project each year is interesting.  Students come down the hall and say, "Aggh, what is that smell?"  They come to me and say, "How are you standing next to this room?  It smells terrible."  The first time it happened, I didn't understand what they were talking about.  Nothing smelled bad to me.  After I finally figured out that the smell was dirt, I realized the problem.

Our kids don't know what outside smells like.

They didn't grow up rolling down a grassy hill.  They didn't make mudpies on the playground.  They didn't get buried in the sand.  Their brother didn't shove a handful of grass in their mouths.  They didn't sit on a rock in the middle of a stream and poke at the dirt with a stick.  They didn't rake leaves and then dive in them, throwing them over their heads.  Someone told them these things were too dangerous or dirty for them to do.  They are rarely truly outside.

Before you tell me how your child is outside a lot because they play soccer, ask yourself if that is truly outside.  I mean, I know it is under the sun, but it is still a very human-planned place that is usually well graded, perfectly mowed, and surrounded by a fence in order to protect them from nature.  I know a lot of kids are at the pool all summer.  Again, I say, this isn't really outside.  Perfectly constructed concrete surfaces with deck chairs surrounding chlorinated or salt water pools are hardly nature.  Every time a kid goes outside, we slather them in sunscreen and/or bug spray to protect them from outside.

It's no wonder our students think that dirt smells horrible while the adults in the building don't understand the problem.  To us (I'm speaking as a 41-year-old), outside smelled like dirt and grass and water from the hose.  To them, outside smells like bug spray, sunscreen, and chlorine (and of course, hand sanitizer if, God forbid, they actually do touch some nature).  They have no idea what outside actually smells like.

Human beings were designed to live outside.  There wasn't a house in the Garden of Eden (or for a pretty long time afterward).  Even when people lived in caves, they spent most of their days outdoors.  Now, according to the National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS), conducted by the EPA, humans spend 90% of their time inside. 

In honor of National Parks Week, I implore you to take your kids outside for real this spring or summer.  If you can make it to an actual national park, here are my best recommendations.  If you don't want to go to the places on my list, the Parks Service website is quite helpful for a government site.

If you can't get to one of these wonderfully preserved places, you can probably find a state park in your area or a local greenway.  If none of that is available, just go outside your house, choose a direction, and walk in it.  Look at trees and plants and squirrels along the way.  Watch some birds.  Dig a hole in the dirt (and don't wash your hands until you get back home).  Don't go back inside as soon as you get thirsty; drink from the garden hose (It actually tastes different).  Examine a caterpillar; blow bubbles; watch a bug; run in the sprinkler; see if you can find a lizard; catch a firefly; literally stop and smell the roses.

Just spend some time outside.

Geeking Out and Finding Your Tribe

Human beings have always lived in tribes.  Tribes have changed since the days when people who were related by either blood, geography, or both lived together for protection, but we still have them because God designed us to live in community with each other.  Now, thanks to the internet in general and social media in particular, our tribes can be spread out all around the globe, consisting of people who share our interests, hobbies, political philosophy, or religious affiliation.  While I think it is important to sometimes venture outside the tribe for the purpose of learning from others, I also believe it is good to have these groups as a way of knowing that we are not alone in our love of whatever "weird" thing we love.

Twice per year, I get to see this demonstrated on a very large scale.  My school has a Latin club, and because I am friends with the Latin teacher, I help to chaperone two trips to the North Carolina Junior Classical League.  These are events in which people who appreciate the study of ancient Rome and ancient Greece gather to enjoy each other, compete in athletic and artistic expressions of these cultures, volunteer to take tests (on history, grammar, and mythology), compete in a quiz bowl style competition called Certamen, and listen to lectures from college professors about topics related to the ancient world (everything from the Olympic games to blood sacrifices to papyrus).

While all of that is astounding enough on its own, the most interesting part of these events is a competition they called "Spirit."  Each group has created a song or chant or dance (or all three).  Often, the chants are in Latin or themed to something related to the classics.  It is very exciting, very loud, and it goes on for about ten minutes.  I have a difficult time relaying it to be people who haven't experienced it, so here is a small sampling of this weekend's spirit competition.

I know you cannot see the facial expression of the man standing against the front wall with his arms crossed, but he is grinning from ear to ear.  He is a professor of Classics at UNC Chapel Hill.  In fact, he was the person who presented the seminar on animal sacrifice.  When he got up to speak, he said, "Anyone who calls Latin a dead language wasn't in this room a few minutes ago."  He was thrilled to see young people geeking out about Latin.  He knows that it bodes well for the future of classics education.  He was looking at the future of his tribe. 

In the same way that tribes of old lived and traveled together for physical protection, the modern tribe looks to each other for social protection.  This is especially important for students.  It doesn't matter how offbeat your quirky interest is if there are a few other people that share it.  I've seen kids band together over the love of a television show or video game, speaking a language to each other that no one else would understand.  I've watched friendships develop the moment one kid realizes that someone else read and enjoyed the same book they thought no one else liked.  As the great CS Lewis said in his amazing work The Four Loves, "Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another 'What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .'"   

In the age of cyber-bullying, these online tribes provide a safer place where people who have the same interest protect each other from the belief that no one else likes the thing I like.  It helps to prevent isolation and insecurity because there are others who understand.  Whatever your thing is, I promise there is a tribe for you if you look around just a little.  If you don't believe me, try typing a random combination of interests into Google.  I just did it with the words "star trek knitting club," because it was the strangest combination I could think of.  Not only were there over 7 million returns, I found some amazing work from Star Trek knitting enthusiasts.  I'm going to leave you with their work.  Enjoy.

Thoughts on the Oklahoma Teacher Walkout

Today is day 8 of the teacher walkout in Oklahoma.  I have avoided commenting on it much because people I dearly love and respect and don't want to even accidentally offend are involved.  See, I am on record as being against walkouts.  I blogged about it a few weeks before this one began, so it would be easy for my Oklahoma teacher friends to think I don't support them.  That's why I am finally writing about it here.  My feelings are too complex for a #oklaed tweet, and this blog gives me space to express how much admire and support these educators even while not believing in walkouts.

First a few disclaimers:
1.  I lived in Tulsa, OK for seven years, four in college and three as a professional educator.
2.  I student taught at Union High School.  I also student taught, subbed, and taught my first two full years in Jenks HS and the Freshman Academy.
3.  I never visited schools in other parts of the state.
4.  It has been 17 years since I lived in Oklahoma.

It is important that I mention those things because my experience in Oklahoma education is limited to seven years in two districts almost two decades ago.  I may romanticize my memories of my first few years because time does that.  All that said, here are my thoughts.

I love the way Oklahoma divides its districts.  After moving back to NC, I have held up the Oklahoma model as an ideal to others.  Wake County, the largest district in NC is huge and spread all over the map (I mean, snow days here are weird because it can be 65 degrees in one part of the Wake County district while there are still treacherous snow conditions on the other side.  If you have drastically different weather in different parts of the same district, it's probably a sign that your district is too big).  As a result of the size of districts here and the explosion of people moving here because they saw Wake County on some kind of "best places to. . . " list, we are in a constant mode of reassignment.  As a result, no student in Wake County has the security of putting down roots and developing spirit.  After teaching in Tulsa and seeing kids who, unless their family moved, were Jenks Trojans from kindergarten through graduation, I have loved this model.  At the time I lived there, most districts had 7-8 elementary schools which fed into 3-4 middle school, which all fed into one high school.  Now, that was one big high school (about 3000 students), but the school spirit of the community was amazing. 

I have always been grateful that I started my career at Jenks.  I'm sure I have referenced Stephen Matthews on this blog before.  He was my first principal, and I couldn't have asked for a better trainer in my first few years.  He corrected my boneheaded rooking mistakes me without making me feel like a failure.  He encouraged me to try things I really didn't have time to do but didn't overwhelm me with expectations of perfection in all areas.  He was awesome, but he wasn't the only one.  Because of the district's size and layout, the superintendent, Kirby Lehmann was able to tour schools frequently.  He personally walked into my classroom four times in the two years I taught there.  He met with every new hire for a twenty-minute discussion of educational philosophy.  Just before I moved back here, I approached him at a book fair to ask him something.  When I introduced myself, he said, "I know who you are.  I know you are leaving, and I don't like it."  Let me assure you that this does not happen in Wake County.  The superintendent when I was there was named Bill McNeil.  Here's what I know about him.  1.  He was African American, which I only know because of the times I saw him on the news.  2.  He didn't like the responsibility of calling snow days.  He knew half the people would be mad at him no matter what.  That's it.  That's all I know.  With thirty thousand employees in the district, that's all I could have ever known.

Funding in Oklahoma has changed.  Eighteen years ago, I was in a well-funded district.  I never lacked for anything in the years I taught at the Jenks Freshman Academy.  If I needed a chemical or piece of equipment, we usually had it.  If we didn't, no one turned me down when I asked to order it.  My books were brand new because I came in at the beginning of a textbook cycle.  While teacher pay was something like 48th in the country, the cost of living in Tulsa was so low that I had plenty of expendable income as a young, single teacher.  Keep in mind disclaimer #3.  My experience in this one district may not have been representative of the entire state, even at the time. 

I understand that now, teachers are dealing with crumbling books, broken chairs (or just not enough of them), art supplies so scarce that teachers are soaking old markers in water to make watercolors, and that they have class sizes in the mid-thirties.  Some districts are so broke they are only holding class four days a week.  That might seem fun to you as a student if you didn't still have to learn all the same curriculum in twenty percent less time.  The photos below were posted on Twitter to show the extent of the problem (and I didn't cherry pick two, there were scores of similar shots).  I know that no legislator would want to sit in this chair every day or try to hold one of these books together in order to read them.

Oklahoma teachers haven't had a raise in a decade.  Most news stories I read mention that before the walkout, teachers in Oklahoma were given a raise but that it wasn't as big as they wanted.  Setting aside the oversimplification for a moment that pay raises and funding classrooms aren't the same thing, consider this.  Would you work the same job for ten years without so much as a cost of living increase?  In the past ten years, teaching got harder.  Teachers have had to implement Common Core, deal with testing, deal with kids on social media and parents who use the convenience of digital communication as a reason to complain way more than they would have if it weren't so easy.  They have more responsibilities, including the thought they might have to be responsible for the safety of children in an active shooter scenario.  All the while, the cost of everything from gasoline to food to housing has increased.  Oklahoma teachers have not gotten more money as costs have risen.  When I lived in Tulsa, my apartment was $300 per month (which was low even 19 years ago).  That same one bedroom apartment is now $600 per month.  If your housing cost doubled in twenty years, but your salary didn't change in ten of those years, would you be okay with getting some at the last moments before a walkout?

Oklahoma teachers (like all teachers) want what is best for their students.  I have not read one tweet, post, or blog from any teacher who wanted to walk out and looked forward to these days off.  I've seen a lot of discussion about how much they miss their students and can't wait to see them again.  Some are grading papers while sitting at the Capitol.  Others are holding class on the Capitol lawn.  Students have even come to OKC to protest alongside their teachers.  These teachers are not doing something because it is easy.  They are doing it because they honestly believe it is right.  They want to go back and say that these two weeks were worth the investment in your future.  Even if you disagree with walking out, you have to respect that.  Here are some of the people I love and respect most with their kids at the Capitol.

I don't know if these muddled thoughts clarified anything for you as a reader, but here's my conclusion:  I don't believe in walkouts, but I do believe in what they are walking for.

Life Moves Pretty Fast - But You Can Make Choices That Slow it Down

Even though we have the same twenty-four hours in each day that people have had since the earth started turning, we speak as though time is moving faster than it used to.  People say they don't have time for things (which is nonsense, you use the time for what you want to do).  People talk about the year going by quickly.  I know when November 1st arrived, I was thinking, "Hey, I just got used to it being September."

I have three theories about why modern time seems to move faster, even though it clearly doesn't.
1.  We are trying to get to so many places in every 24 hour period that we perceive time differently because we aren't stopping between activities.
2.  We are processing the constant stream of incoming data so often that we never reflect on it and incorporate into our being.  This all input all the time brain processing leads to the feeling of speed.
3.  Technological changes are happening at an unprecedented rate, and we feel the need to keep up.

Let me address each of these separately and give you some advice (you can decide if it is worth taking).


1.  You think you need to do everything, and you don't.  You think your kids need to do everything, and they don't.  I get it.  You don't want to miss out on an opportunity for an experience.  If you'll reflect for a moment, you may realize that by trying to take advantage of all the opportunities, you are actually missing out on all of the experiences.  You may be physically at a ballgame, but you are mentally planning your route to a movie or concert that night.  While you are the concert, you are mentally packing for the conference you are about to attend.  While you are the conference, you are thinking about the barbecue this weekend.  You have not experienced the ballgame, the concert, or the conference, and you probably aren't going to experience the barbecue either.  By trying to participate in everything, you experience nothing.  Consider the words of the great 80's philosopher Ferris Bueller, who said, "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

This fear is amplified all the more when you add the pressure of being a parent and wanting to make sure your kids experience everything.  Listen to someone who has spent the past two decades teaching teenagers.  You aren't giving them more opportunities; you are giving them more stress.  We all know this and do it anyway.  Stop it.  You are creating anxiety for them by being anxious yourself, which then only adds two more appointments to your week because now you both need therapy.   Pick one or two things, and then fully enjoy them.  You CAN make this choice.  You only think you can't.



2.  Put down the phone!  Put down the phone!  Put down the phone!  You can live without being in touch with the screen all the time.  I know this because I do not now, nor have I ever, owned a cell phone.  I'm not dead, so it can be done.  In fact, I would imagine my life is more peaceful as a result.  I'm only distracted by a screen when my laptop is open, and that is only happening in places where having it open makes sense.  I also close it when I am in meetings and feel that I am not listening.  This is possible.  The anxiety you feel by being disconnected from a screen will pass if you give it a few minutes.

I am not crazy enough to believe that everyone is going to make the choice I made, but you can make the choice to put it down for an hour.  I watch people scrolling through their phones at movies.  How much more stimulation does your brain need that you have to add to what Marvel or JJ Abrams or Disney is giving you?  I watch people scroll at church, and I'm pretty sure it is interfering with their worship because it is interfering with mine.  I watch people scroll in restaurants, parks, ball games, concerts, and during conversations with loved ones.  I don't know what treasure you think you are going to find at the end of the scroll, but to an unconnected observer, it looks like you believe you can reach the end of the internet if you scroll long enough.

The upshot of all this scrolling is that you are only putting information in.  You are never allowing your brain to deal with the information you got.  There are some neurological problems with this.  You weren't designed for the massive input, never process, never rest the brain, more input cycle.  This disruption of normal brain activity leads to anxiety and exhaustion that we wouldn't feel if we were taking the time to reflect.  Trump is going to do what he is going to do whether you see the live stream of his press conference or not.  Missing out a Kardashian making news is a gift you should give yourself.  It really will be okay if you don't find out the moment a member of the royal family announces their pregnancy.

Instead of putting more input in your brain, put the phone down for an hour.  Breaking addictions is hard work, so maybe you can only handle ten minutes for right now.  Whatever time causes you a little anxiety, start with that.  Use that time to ask yourself some questions about the last thing you read.  Do I agree with what he just did?  Why or why not?  How does the thing I just learned about fit with my worldview, my faith, or my past experiences?  How am I better or worse reading the blog post I just read?  If you just told someone on Facebook that you are praying for them, put the phone down and actually do it.  Allowing your brain this time will decrease the impression you have that time is racing past you.  If you combine number 1 and 2 by putting your phone down while you are at an event, you'll actually experience the event.

3.  It's okay NOT to have the latest model.  I know the rest of this post has revealed me to be a Luddite.  That's fine because I live the life I want to live without the need for more.  It's pretty nice, actually, and you can implement it on a much smaller scale than I do.

Technology used to change pretty slowly.  Consider this.  There was a 50-year gap between the invention of the food storage can and the invention of the can opener.  It seems crazy to me that it took that long to realize the need for a better method than stabbing the can with a knife.  There were 56 years between the invention of the airplane and landing on the moon.  When I point out how incredibly fast that is, my students don't see it.  They can't figure out what was so difficult about JFK's challenge to land on the moon because they had nine whole years.  This is because they now have new products coming out 10-30 times per year.  In January, I stood in the school parking lot taking photos of the Super Blue Blood Moon with a digital camera.  The last time this phenomenon even occurred, photography hadn't yet been invented.  In my 13 years as yearbook teacher, I've gone through four different camera models (and that's progressing at a pretty slow rate because I am me).

As a high school teacher of upper-middle-class kids (many of whom have parents in the tech industry), I have constant exposure to the newest and latest tech.  The first Apple watch I ever saw was on the wrist of a student.  Because I see new products often, I see the rate at which new products are arriving on the market.  It's practically every week that there is a new model of something.  Apple and Samsung upgrade each product about once a year (but they space them out for maximum hype), and no student wants to have the "old" model.  They drop a fortune on new tech.  It's not just phones; there's the need to have the premium package of everything, from the best shoes to the latest watch to the multiple streaming services.  I still have the rabbit ears I used in college sitting on a tv I've had for 13 years, and I have no shortage of things to watch.

I know there is nothing we can do about the pace of technology, but we do have the choice of what to adopt.  It is okay to make the choice to keep your old model of iPad.  You'll spend far less money and have fewer bugs to work out if you stay a couple of generations behind.  Have the perspective to realize how fast that three-year-old model of computer is compared to the one you had before it instead of comparing it to the one that came out yesterday.  Tell yourself what one of my wise students wrote, "Sometimes, when I am impatient with a text not going through fast enough, I tell myself, 'It has to go to space and back.  You can calm down.'"

Time is not moving faster, and you can make these choices.  You can be an adult who makes decisions or allow the world to push you around.   Technology should make your life easier.  Don't let it bully you.