Why We Must Boldly Promote Creativity in all Students

     For twenty years my junior high students published an art and literary magazine to showcase our campus artists and writers.  In the process, they read hundreds of poems, short stories, essays, and plays and viewed even more drawings, prints, and paintings.  They worked to match artwork to literature by topic and often had to appeal to the campus artists to create specific works to accompany a piece of literature. Next, they created thematic sections to organize the magazine according to the works they had chosen. After that, the editing process began as the pieces were revised and edited and made ready for print. Page layouts were developed to be aesthetically pleasing while meeting the strict page size guidelines. All the while the section editors were swinging deals with each other while the managing editor kept the peace and pushed to meet the deadlines set by the students themselves. In another corner of the room, the advertising group was hard at work preparing the ad campaign for selling the magazines while our resident artists put their talents to work designing the section covers and creating a magazine cover to best previous editions. It was a tedious process with lots of heated discussions and more compromise than consensus.  Some days simply wore everyone out as they tried desperately to create a quality product that did justice to the artists and authors while serving the creative needs and visions of these student publishers.  In those moments, my classroom was a hotbed of imagination, creativity, and innovation, complete with laughter and tears, shouts of joy and groans of heartache, and we all loved it! 

     Did they learn the state mandated TEKS?  They had to in order to do the job.  Did I teach the test? Absolutely.  Only they didn't know it.  They were using their reading and writing skills to do a real job for real people to make real money.  The sad part of this story is that this project was limited to the identified "gifted and talented" students.  Why?  Well, it is the thinking of those in charge of such programs that their curriculum must be differentiated from that of the "others".  My contention is that all students benefit from this kind of project and that it should not be something that is made accessible to a select few.  When people are thinking, there is the possibility of creativity.  Notice I said "people" and not "gifted and talented" people.  Creativity exists in each of us, and that can be seen in any kindergarten class in the country.

      When I watch very young children, I am amazed at their incredible capacities for creativity.  They will try anything. How many kids have tied a towel around their necks and leaped from a tree, fully believing they can fly?  How many of them adjusted the cape or added man-made wings or climbed a little higher to overcome the first failure at flight?  Check the emergency room records, and I am sure that you will find the numbers are quite large.  Of course, we don't want kids doing things that will get them killed, but a broken arm for the sake of scientific discovery might be considered a reasonable sacrifice.

    I have grown to envy the kindergarten teacher because she gets these little ones before this wonderful quality is literally "tested" out of them as they enter the world of standardized education. This doesn't mean that I don't understand the need for a core curriculum that provides a common knowledge base that provides us with what J.D. Hirsch calls "cultural literacy".  In order to understand each other, we must have this foundation.  However, when the purpose of acquiring this knowledge is to take a multiple-choice test that proves they have the knowledge so that school districts can get a passing grade and much-needed funding, then we have a problem, and a big one.

     Once again, our school districts are in a panic.  As a result, many are buying a one-size-fits-all curriculum because they fear that their students won't perform well on the state exams if the development of the curriculum is left up to the professionals who actually teach the children.  The developers of these programs, in an effort to belie these accusations, sprinkle the terms "rigor" and "critical thinking" and "creativity" throughout the documents to assure parents and teachers that the end goal is not to pass the test but to turn out highly educated individuals who are college- or workforce-ready. What savvy parents, teachers, employers, and professors of freshmen courses understand is that this is not the case.  While the skills may be intact in a minimal way, the ability to think, reason, create, and view failure as an opportunity to move forward are often not evident in the behaviors displayed by graduating seniors.

     It is my goal to write and speak and act in order to convince anyone and everyone that we must transform education to promote all students in the area of creativity and not just a select few if we plan on meeting the unique challenges the future holds.  I encourage teachers of all levels to use their own creative talents to develop projects that allow students to use the knowledge they have attained to develop rather than repress their natural abilities and talents so that they will have experience in solving problems creatively. I implore administrators to trust their teachers and put them at the heart of selecting or creating curriculum and materials to meet the individual needs and passions of their students. Finally, I ask legislators and local school boards to look beyond the data and actually visit classrooms at all levels so that they can see for themselves how their decisions actually affect our teachers and students.  As servants of the people and stewards of taxpayers' dollars, they have a responsibility to see for themselves how their decisions affect their most important clients.  

     

     I close this piece with a quote from John Cleese, British actor and writer:

"We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately spend most of their time in the closed mode. Not that the closed mode cannot be helpful. If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies. When you charge the enemy machine-gun post, don't waste energy trying to see the funny side of it. Do it in the "closed" mode. But the moment the action is over, try to return to the "open" mode—to open your mind again to all the feedback from our action that enables us to tell whether the action has been successful, or whether further action is needed to improve on what we have done. In other words, we must return to the open mode, because in that mode we are the most aware, most receptive, most creative, and therefore at our most intelligent."

     
     Have a creative day!

Are You Feeling Lucky?

     Growing up I came to understand that two numbers ruled the universe, 7 and 13.  My father was a gambler by trade, and he put a great deal of stock in this philosophy of lucky vs. unlucky. Good fortune, according to him, was either "meant to be" or not; "in the stars" or not.  I believed in it, too, but not the same way he did.  Where he saw it as something cosmic and mystical, I looked at it as something concrete and controllable.  I learned to turn 13s into 7s by looking for the good in what was seemingly bad.  I am not one to allow ill fortune to beat me.  I move quickly to take control of a situation that is showing signs of becoming a true 13.

     For example, some folks may have thought it unlucky that my sister and I had to close ourselves up in the room we shared to lock out the wrath of our father.  Actually, it was quite lucky.  It was during these "sessions" that we played school.  My sister assumed the role of "teacher" and taught me what she had learned in school that day.  As a result, I was able to read quite well by the time I entered kindergarten.  The luck continued when I asked Mrs. Abbott if I could read to the other kids, and she agreed. It was in those early days of my life on the planet that I became a teacher in my heart.  Lucky?  Perhaps.  Blessed? I'm certain.  But I did my part.  I worked for that luck and those blessings.  My "pot o' gold" did not come from a leprechaun; it came from a positive attitude toward my aptitude and a movement to action. God blessed me tremendously with a gift, and I spent the rest of my life thanking Him by working hard at perfecting my art.

      Richard Wiseman, author of the The Luck Factor, has identified four principles that characterize lucky people.  Wiseman writes, "Lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good."  It is this very kind of "luck" that we need right now to transform our schools into places that will feed the spirit of every kid who graces the doorstep.   

     How do we do this?  It is not as difficult as some might imagine.  First, educational leaders must understand the lives the children are leading and the special gifts of their teachers.  Second, only people who are passionate in their disciplines and gifted at connecting with children should be allowed to teach.  Third, these knowledgeable, devoted educators must be given the freedom to adjust the curriculum to meet the individual needs of the children in their classrooms so that the lessons connect to the real world in which these kids live.  Fourth, all learning must have practical application.  When kids see a reason in their own lives for learning a concept, they are much more motivated to do the work.  Finally, school boards and administrators must create a climate where passionate and creative teachers are empowered to create environments where everyone is inspired to grow creatively.  Even in light of the current budget crisis (a 13), we can make the necessary changes to turn our schools into places that teach students and not tests (a 7).

     So, I ask every educator, administrator, school board trustee, legislator, and taxpayer, "Are you feeling lucky?"

     

Change in Title

     After much confusion and deliberation about the title of this blog site - and the fact that I could not get a URL that matched the title of the site - I am changing the name of the site to match the URL.  "Call Me Teacher" will now match http://www.callmeteacher.blogger.com.  I hope this helps.

Tread Softly on their Dreams

     How long have I been a teacher?  As long as I can remember.  You see, I truly believe that I was born to be a teacher.  I have a natural aptitude combined with a passion to offer people the means to achieve their greatest potential.  I started teaching at the age of four, and I am still doing it.  True teachers are not limited by the confines of walls or institutions or oppressive leaders.  Natural-born teachers do it with almost every breath.  If we are fortunate, someone actually pays us to do this and then gives us the freedom to do what comes naturally.  We do it in spite of all hardship or threat of persecution.  All a real teacher needs is a student, even an unwilling one. What a challenge the unmotivated and disinterested students are because they push a true teacher to excel even more.  They are like the unworkable problem for a mathematician or the highest peak for the mountain climber.  We can not rest until we teach them something that will help them find their own ways in the world.

     I am a firm believer in reaching students where they are, that is, through their passions and dreams.  Oh, yes, there is a curriculum to teach, but it runs a far second behind teaching the living, breathing human being who has his own agenda in life.  There are times when the lesson of the day must be set aside to teach that which is necessary at the moment.  I have fashioned entire discussions and writing assignments around a single student in one of my classes, unbeknownst to him.  I have often opened up the final product for discussion, allowing my students to choose a path that best suits their natural-born gifts and talents and passions.  Ah, it is a beautiful thing to watch a child rap the comma rules or paint the setting of a scene in a novel or construct a building in the Gothic style or act out a scene in a short story in order to get him to learn the material that is at hand.  

      When teachers no longer have the autonomy to make these decisions about the individuals they have in their classrooms, then the most important element of education, individualization of material, has been removed.  Without it, we can not customize education for each child; all we can do is produce assembly-line dolls who can take a test.  We make poor use of their talents - and ours - and we turn out people who have been dislocated from their natural resources.  They are like fish out of water.  Yet, we do it rather ruthlessly in the name of a standardized test when we direct all of the curriculum and all of our precious teaching time to this man-made monster that strikes fear in the hearts of administrators everywhere.

       One man called this a "Fast Food Model of Education".  Everything is standardized, choices are extremely limited, and partaking in it will never feed him; in fact, it might even kill him. If a child is a musician or an artist or an actor in his spirit, then his dreams and natural abilities will be pushed to the bottom of the academic heap.  We must be careful not to tread so heavily on another human being's dreams that we kill them.  Real teachers who are being held back by the fears of school boards and administrators, who feel that their ideas are not valued and worthy of use, who feel their dreams are being trampled upon do not desire to do this to children and will buck the system for the sake of their kids.

       Below is a poem by Yeats that might shed some light on the emotional aspect of teaching.  Imagine yourself as a student writing this to his teacher; then imagine a teacher who cries in the night because she knows the gods of education and their cohorts will strike her down if she deviates from the curriculum to do the one thing she knows will save a child from dropping out of school and ultimately out of life.

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. 

                                      ~William Butler Yeats

 

 

 

I Never Use a Cookie Cutter

       When I bake cookies, I never use a cookie cutter.  Of course, they all have the same ingredients, but each one is unique, taking on its own shape as it fully develops in the oven.  When I remove them from the pan, I marvel at how each one turns out.  Then, I watch as people select the one that appeals to them the most.  There is usually a great deal of thought that goes into picking just the right one for the person's individual tastes.  This is why I don't believe in a cookie cutter curriculum either.  I prefer not to live in a world of cloned teachers and students who look and act the same.  Where is the beauty and excitement and fun in that?  

       I recently read a piece on the cookie-cutter approach to education by a community member . It reads: "The cookie cutter approach to education, by design, should produce teacher clones with identical classrooms and indeed identical classes. Why would administrators want clones, when mere observation discloses that every teacher has his or her own interests, talents, and vision, and all the good ones seem to use those to sculpt lessons that are completely centered around their style and personality? The short answer is that administrators are generally inept clones themselves, who were by the way, ineffective or outright failures as teachers.  Certainly, we could all name a few exceptions here, but I generalize." 

       I have indeed worked for a handful of incredibly innovative, bright, talented administrators who valued their own autonomy so much that they ruled, not with an iron fist, but with an Andy Griffith spirit that always allowed the best in everyone to shine through. They created an environment conducive to creative thinking and problem-solving where teachers could offer their very best.  Bud Dennis, one such principal, used to say, "My job is to take care of my teachers so that they can take care of the kids.  If my teachers are happy and and like coming to work every day, then I have done my job."  

       Well, I can tell you that I did some of my very best work when this man was my principal.  I always felt at home with him there.  He encouraged me when I had an idea, counseled me like a caring parent when he could anticipate a problem, and gave me enough free reign to create a curriculum that served my department extremely well for many years while allowing me to develop a teaching style that was uniquely my own.  

       He knew all of his teachers well because he was always in the halls listening to his teachers work their magic on their students and appearing just in the nick of time when a teacher needed help.  My first year of teaching was like that of every teacher, a bit shaky as I learned to discipline while teaching.  Mr. Dennis was known for opening the door, glaring at the kids who were a bit unruly, then leaving after everyone was back on task.  This was not followed by a reprimand or a piece of paper telling what he did in his "walk-through".  It was just the way he was.  He cared about all of us, and we knew it.  Years later I asked him why he did that.  His response was simple:  "You needed a chance to re-group and get on with your lesson.  I was just helping you do that." Does this kind of leadership ever become outdated?  I certainly hope not.

         Most of the time, all teachers really need is that Mr. Dennis kind of trust and support .They need an administration that understands the importance of a positive working environment.  If this personal account doesn't mean anything to you, then perhaps something a little more research-based might.  Read on. 

The following is an excerpt from http://www.teacherworkingconditions.org/index.html , a website dedicated to improving the working environment in schools.  The website has outlined what everyone should do to make it possible for teachers to do the best job possible for their kids.  All recommendations are research-based and offer what great teachers understand about what must happen in schools if we truly expect to get the best out of our students.  Please note that these three recommendations put the teacher in charge of his/her classroom. 

What We Know

As noted by Richard Ingersoll, in his 2003 book Who Controls Teachers’ Work?  Power and Accountability in America’s Schools, “Those who are entrusted with the training of this next generation are not entrusted with much control over many of the key decisions in their work.”  He goes on to say the result of this disenfranchising of teachers will be schools that “deprofessionalize and demotivate teachers.” 

Ingersoll attributes problems with recruitment and retention in part to the way schools are organized and to a lack of respect for the teaching profession.  These factors must change for the quantity and quality of the teacher workforce to improve.  In many schools, key decisions are made with minimal input from teachers, but in schools where teachers are more empowered in decision-making, he says there is “less conflict between staff and students and less teacher turnover.”[1]

What The Toolkit Provides
Empowerment can include a variety of levels of teacher involvement in decision-making – from simply providing feedback on options being considered by someone else, to making the final decision themselves.  Specifically, education stakeholders should consider: 

Recommendation One:

Providing teachers access to resources (financial, time, opportunity, etc.) to identify and solve problems related to their classroom in order to ensure they can help all students learn.

Recommendation Two:

Creating opportunities, both formal and informal, for teachers to influence, design, create, and implement school and district policies and procedures.

Recommendation Three:

Encouraging the inclusion of teachers in community, school, district, and state level discussions related to the welfare and ability of all students to academically achieve at the highest levels.

---

[1] Richard Ingersoll. (2003) Who Controls Teachers’ Work? Power and Accountability in America ’s Schools. Harvard University Press. 

         Do I pine for the good old days?  No, but I do pray that teachers and students will have the opportunity to work with a leader who has the ingredients that Mr. Dennis had.   He had his own special style that appealed to me and many others.  More importantly, he created a school environment that allowed me to teach in a way best suited to reach my students and allow them to use their unique abilities.  As a department chairperson, I afforded my fellow teachers this same privilege.  Our curriculum was always a work in progress that was amended yearly, weekly, daily, and even period to period based on student need at that given point in time.  I worked hard to be the kind of leader Mr. Dennis would have been proud to have on his campus.  I was not his clone; I was who I was meant to be because he believed in allowing us to grow as individuals.  "The better my teachers are," he said, "the better I look."  And then he grinned that famous grin of his.  I fear he would not be grinning right now if he could see what teachers are facing in this new, cookie cutter approach to education.

The End? I Think Not

 There is no end to school; there is just a transition from one year to the next.  At least, that’s how I’ve always felt.  No doubt, teachers and students will enter a new realm, one without bells and slamming lockers and children’s voices filling the halls of a building that I saw come into being.  As a child, the final week of school was always exciting.  “No more rules; no more books; no more teachers’ dirty looks.”  Doesn’t every kid feel that way?  I would surmise that most do.  But, what do I, as a teacher, do to make the final week as meaningful as the first week? 

God had a pretty darned good plan for the first week of – well – everything.  He covered all the big stuff.  Then, the Apocalyptic stories outline the noteworthy end of all things as told by various prophetic humans such as Black Elk, medicine man and prophet of the Sioux, Snorri Sturluson, chronicler of the Norse Edda , and John, writer of the Book of Revelation.  According to them, the last days will be chaotic.  All order will be lost as the great battle between good and evil is fought.  It will be a time of unknowns, a scary time for many but a glorious time for others.

To me this is a good way to describe the end of the school year.  For some of our students it means traveling to far-off places, sleeping in, watching untold hours of television, and just being a carefree kid.  For others, it means going to church camp, cheerleading camp, basketball camp, volleyball camp, chess camp, and camping camp, all serving as ways to enrich their lives, hone their skills, and replace the presence of a working parent.  Still others will be left alone to get into mischief of all kinds.  For the unfortunate few, it will mean a summer blanketed by fear as they face the demons of their own homes.  So many kids come to school even when they’re sick or tired or both to escape the horrors of their own houses. Because of a tyrannical father, I was one of those kids.  I didn’t love school really; I just loved the consistency, the order, the safety.  Summer meant dodging bullets on a daily basis.  Summer meant trying to be invisible.  Books and movies were my escape.  I know many like me walk the halls of our schools every day.

So, what does a teacher say to those exiting her classroom in the last week?  How do you touch the hearts of all?  How do you wrap it up?  I don’t.  I’m a “see you later” not a “goodbye” person.  I guess I just don’t believe in endings.  There’s always something better on the other side.  You know, the “light at the end of the tunnel”, the “grass is always greener”, the “tomorrow is another day” kind of thinking with no endings, just beginnings.  Perhaps that is why I chose the theme of “Beginnings” to teach through: beginning to be on our own, beginning to understand self, beginning to understand others, beginning to see the future.  Then, I wrapped these themes in two questions:  What is man?  Who am I?  (I’ve always been a big picture thinker, and that means there is no end, not as long as humans inhabit the planet.) Just as we search for the depth and eternity of a piece of art, whether it’s a painting, a book, a poem, a musical score, or a famous quote, we must seek the depth and eternity of self.  Simply put, I never end.

“The summer months are the biggest test of all,” I tell them.  “All that we’ve discussed about what man is will become clearer as we live our lives outside these walls.”  Some people (even people who are teachers) think that such words are wasted on kids.  I don’t.  We must constantly plant the seeds of wisdom.  I once likened teaching children to sowing wildflower seeds.  You plant, you feed what you can, and you let nature take its course.  When you least expect it, you look out, and there is a field blanketed in blossoms.  As the years go by, the wildflowers die out because the wind has blown their seeds to lands far away.  Then one day across the field you spy one tiny dot of color that decorates the world.  That one seed that failed to germinate so long ago has finally found just the right time and place to take root and grow.  It is often undersized and an imperfect specimen, yet it is the most precious of all.  It somehow has survived all the droughts, the freezes, the mowing and has forced its way to the top, reaching upward toward the sun.

Still, what do I say?  “Have fun?”  “Be careful?”  “Learn something?”   “Be kind to everyone you meet?”  “Read a book?” Accomplish something? “ No, I say, “Each day when you wake up and look in the mirror, ask yourself, ‘Am I the person I would want my own child to become?’ “   You see, that way there is no end even when I retire because it has never been about me.  It has always been about the children, and they are forever.

The Role of a School Board Trustee

       In an effort to prepare for my new role as a school board trustee, I have been hitting the books! So, why am I studying the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States, plowing through pages upon pages of federal, state, and local laws and policies concerning education, and actively enlisting the thoughts of the people who, by the way, appear at the top of the "Administrative Organizational Chart" of our district?

     What it comes down to is the meaning of the Oath of Office for school board trustees, which reads:

OATH OF OFFICE

“I, __________________________________, do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will faithfully
execute the duties of the office of School Board Trustee for the
______________________________ School District of the State of Texas, and will to the
best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United
States and of this state, so help me God.”
Tex. Const. Art. XVI, Sec. 1(a)

     This very short oath is loaded with all kinds of duties and responsibilities. It is a serious oath defined by the word "solemnly".  "Faithfully" tells me I need to get busy preparing for the job, preparing for every board meeting, and preparing for the future of our district, our state, and our country.  This preparation is ultimately to lead to decisions that will "preserve, protect, and defend" (a string of specific, strong action verbs) the "Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state" (the heart and soul of our country). Last but not least in any sense of the word is "so help me God."  This tells me that I need to seek His wisdom in the decisions that I make as a board trustee. 

     I cannot as a person entrusted with the education of our children take this lightly or fail to do my homework.  Through this blog site I hope to educate all people who are stakeholders in our district and, likewise, be educated by them.  Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, said: "[Education] is favourable (sic) to liberty.  Freedom can only exist in the society of knowledge.  Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can neither be equal nor universal." (1786)