With some support from Jim Davis I organized and directed a Southeast Iowa Writing Project institute in Mt. Pleasant. It was held in the cafeteria of the high school. I had dreams of it being packed with local teachers. The truth is I had to beg people to take it even though they got four hours of graduate credit and a stipend to participate.
I was disappointed and confused about the reluctance of teachers to participate. Perhaps I had come out too strong or something. Teachers who I thought would embrace the idea were not even interested. I am afraid some just didn’t want to admit that it might be good for them and their students. Teachers are an interesting group that are sometimes turned off if innovation comes from a colleague, but will readily accept it if they perceive it is from the outside. I was the morning instructor in this institute and many didn’t feel I had anything to offer them that they didn’t already know.
Karen Pelz was the afternoon instructor for the class. She had 20 years of experience at the university level. We met at a training session in the spring. She was a kind and gentle person and we got along well. Her job was to respond to the participant writing. My job was to get the participants to look at research and professional opinion and their own practice.
Twenty-one teachers signed up to participate in the institute. Thirteen of them were from the Mt. Pleasant district or a local pre-school. The rest were from Burlington, Winfield Mt. Union, WACO, Fairfield, Wapello, Iowa Wesleyan College and Central Lee.
Use of facilities, computers, and copy machines had to be arranged. I note in my journal that the secondary administrators were uncooperative. The high school English teachers were the same way. None of them participated. I thought they would have embraced it and realized that their students would benefit. Part of it, I think, was that they just didn’t think they could learn anything from an elementary teacher.
Just a few days before the institute we were informed that computer lab would be off limits for us even though the room sat empty during the entire three-week institute. The high school principal and the computer teacher just decided they didn’t want us to use it. Maybe they thought if they made it difficult for us we would go away. They moved the class from the school library to the school cafeteria. One was a comfortable learning environment amd the other was very uncomfortable. To this day I am not sure who was behind the whole thing but do know there were jokes about it among the administrators.
It had something to do with jealousy and not wanting others to be successful or receive any kind of recognition. I have since heard it described as the “tall poppy syndrome” in Australia. In a poppy field if one poppy grows a lot taller than all the others it is chopped off so the field looks uniform. In education if one of the teachers excels above the others some try to “cut them off” so the others don’t look bad. A strange practice for educators!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Journal Entry
The teaching journal I kept for the SWIP III is fascinating reading for me. I am continually amazed as I read the entries. Each one is a story. Some were beginnings and some were endings. The following is a part of a journal entry from January 15, 1985.
In language, of course, we have been doing a lot of writing and nothing else. I have done some grammar, punctuation, and capitalization instruction a long with the writing but not much. There isn’t a single person in my room (including the teacher) who can’t communicate better now than at the beginning of the school year. We have done some additional work together on sentence parts. This was done as a whole class activity. (I don’t know if that is better or worse.)
In spelling we have used writing in an attempt to help the student take ownership of their work by using the word in a self composed sentence. My students do better on the final spelling test when they have used the word in a sentence.
In science and social studies we have used writing in note taking summarizing, writing about units or chapters before we read them, and writing questions prior to reading.
Keeping the log (this journal) has helped make me aware of what my students are doing during various times of the day. It has helped me in that I have worried that maybe the students were off task. I have discoved that they usually are on task. I have discovered that they are doing many different but acceptable activities. I have discovered the students are developing study and time management skills as the year progresses. I have discovered that checking on the students from time to time puts the student in the position of thinking about what he is doing and he should be doing.
Using the conference form and taking notes on the conferences I have with the students I have learned a great deal about the students and seem to be right on top of what they are doing in writing. I like that. It is also very useful to refer as the writing and the school year progresses.
I am not sure where all of this journal writing is taking me. I have used my journal to plan. I have used it to describe what I have done. And, I have used my journal to celebrate my victories and vent my frustrations. I haven’t written in my journal enough and I have written in it too much. As I talk to myself I sort out my confusion but sometimes raise new questions. Sometimes solutions jump out of my journal, but as often, new problems jump in.
That’s a taste of what is in that journal. I am taken back to the time it was written as I read it and realize what a time of discovery it was for me. All of us come to teaching from different places. Some grow and change over time and some stay pretty much the same. I remember someone describing the latter as teachers who have twenty years of the one experience. I know some of those people.
In language, of course, we have been doing a lot of writing and nothing else. I have done some grammar, punctuation, and capitalization instruction a long with the writing but not much. There isn’t a single person in my room (including the teacher) who can’t communicate better now than at the beginning of the school year. We have done some additional work together on sentence parts. This was done as a whole class activity. (I don’t know if that is better or worse.)
In spelling we have used writing in an attempt to help the student take ownership of their work by using the word in a self composed sentence. My students do better on the final spelling test when they have used the word in a sentence.
In science and social studies we have used writing in note taking summarizing, writing about units or chapters before we read them, and writing questions prior to reading.
Keeping the log (this journal) has helped make me aware of what my students are doing during various times of the day. It has helped me in that I have worried that maybe the students were off task. I have discoved that they usually are on task. I have discovered that they are doing many different but acceptable activities. I have discovered the students are developing study and time management skills as the year progresses. I have discovered that checking on the students from time to time puts the student in the position of thinking about what he is doing and he should be doing.
Using the conference form and taking notes on the conferences I have with the students I have learned a great deal about the students and seem to be right on top of what they are doing in writing. I like that. It is also very useful to refer as the writing and the school year progresses.
I am not sure where all of this journal writing is taking me. I have used my journal to plan. I have used it to describe what I have done. And, I have used my journal to celebrate my victories and vent my frustrations. I haven’t written in my journal enough and I have written in it too much. As I talk to myself I sort out my confusion but sometimes raise new questions. Sometimes solutions jump out of my journal, but as often, new problems jump in.
That’s a taste of what is in that journal. I am taken back to the time it was written as I read it and realize what a time of discovery it was for me. All of us come to teaching from different places. Some grow and change over time and some stay pretty much the same. I remember someone describing the latter as teachers who have twenty years of the one experience. I know some of those people.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
SIWP III
During the 1984-1985 school year I took the Level III Southeast Iowa Writing Project. The course lasted the entire year and we met every two weeks except over the holidays. We met at the AEA office in Coralville. Anne Weir and Sandy Moore and I took the class together. It was good to have someone to ride with and take turns driving.
The course was designed around our journaling. We actually kept two journals. We would journal in one for two weeks and then turn it in and journal in the other for two weeks. We would exchange journals with Jim Davis, the instructor at each class session. He always responded to the comments we made in the journal and the first thing we wanted to do when we got them back was read the comments. They were always positive and supportive.
I wrote about my teaching almost everyday day that year. It was the most intense learning experience I have ever had. I think I grew tremendously as a teacher that year. It seemed as though one idea after another kept exploding inside my head. I wrote about what I planned to do in my classroom and then afterwards wrote about how it went and what I would do different next time. It was a period of intense reflective practice. I am convinced to this day that reflective practice is unparalleled in value to growing as a teacher.
Very early that year I wrote about having my students write to the local city council thanking them for the recent swimming pool renovations. I gave the kids the basic format for the letter and asked them to tell the council what they liked best about the pool. The pieces were so well received that they were read aloud at the council meeting and the newspaper did a story about them. The students were energized by the experience.
Another project we started that fall was having the students write letters to the high school football team. I delivered the letters to the local radio station. At half time during the games they picked two or three letters to read. The students were thrilled. I learned that writers need an audience and if that audience responds like the city council or the radio station did the writer feels empowered and anxious to write again.
It’s all about audience and reason to write. The job of the teacher is to help the student find both. With an audience and a reason the motivation is within the writer. It may sound simple but it is a profound truth for teachers. Most of them do it backwards. Rather than giving the student an audience and helping them find a reason they try to motivate them with the threat of a bad grade. It just doesn’t work for most kids and never has.
My reason for writing my journal was to help me better understand where I was going in my classroom, what I was really trying to do and why I was trying to do it. Jim Davis created a non-threatening environment and I wanted that for my students.
The course was designed around our journaling. We actually kept two journals. We would journal in one for two weeks and then turn it in and journal in the other for two weeks. We would exchange journals with Jim Davis, the instructor at each class session. He always responded to the comments we made in the journal and the first thing we wanted to do when we got them back was read the comments. They were always positive and supportive.
I wrote about my teaching almost everyday day that year. It was the most intense learning experience I have ever had. I think I grew tremendously as a teacher that year. It seemed as though one idea after another kept exploding inside my head. I wrote about what I planned to do in my classroom and then afterwards wrote about how it went and what I would do different next time. It was a period of intense reflective practice. I am convinced to this day that reflective practice is unparalleled in value to growing as a teacher.
Very early that year I wrote about having my students write to the local city council thanking them for the recent swimming pool renovations. I gave the kids the basic format for the letter and asked them to tell the council what they liked best about the pool. The pieces were so well received that they were read aloud at the council meeting and the newspaper did a story about them. The students were energized by the experience.
Another project we started that fall was having the students write letters to the high school football team. I delivered the letters to the local radio station. At half time during the games they picked two or three letters to read. The students were thrilled. I learned that writers need an audience and if that audience responds like the city council or the radio station did the writer feels empowered and anxious to write again.
It’s all about audience and reason to write. The job of the teacher is to help the student find both. With an audience and a reason the motivation is within the writer. It may sound simple but it is a profound truth for teachers. Most of them do it backwards. Rather than giving the student an audience and helping them find a reason they try to motivate them with the threat of a bad grade. It just doesn’t work for most kids and never has.
My reason for writing my journal was to help me better understand where I was going in my classroom, what I was really trying to do and why I was trying to do it. Jim Davis created a non-threatening environment and I wanted that for my students.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Expectations and Opportunities
With additional education comes higher expectations and opportunities. Spending a lot of money and time in classes should have its rewards. I never really had a sense of where it would take me but was optimistic about the opportunities.
Initially, there were more opportunities to do in-service for other teachers. Unfortunately, those things didn’t pay well. Additional education did move me along on the district salary schedule.
I did some writing in-services in the district. They weren’t as well received as I had hoped. Sometimes your colleagues are reluctant to give you credit for knowing something maybe they didn’t. Some were just jealous. Most were complimentary but there were a few who were downright nasty.
In-services I did outside the district were usually much better received. It was satisfying to get positive feedback about my efforts from other people in the profession.
I went to talk about the writing/reading connections at a meeting of the Tri-Area Reading Council. The meeting was held at the Winfield Mt. Union High School. I was on the agenda with another person. I knew the other person from graduate school and I knew he had a tremendous jealousy streak.
He was to give a brief overview of some things he was doing with his students and then I was to be the featured speaker. For some reason he did not want me to talk. He was prone to exaggeration and drew his time out to well over an hour. Most of the people in the meeting realized what he was doing was deliberate.
When he finally finished people were ready to go home. I gave a brief overview of what I had planned to say. I got several apologies from members of the group. Several joked with me about it for several years after that. The group did invite to speak to them a few years later. I did. It was a dinner held in Crawfordville and the offender was not invited.
In the fall of 1984 Great River Area Education Agency had an opening for a Language Arts consultant. I wanted to continue teaching 4th grade but they called me repeatedly and asked me to apply. I offered to do some contract consultant work for them but they decided they needed a full time person. I finally did apply and was interviewed. Not long after that they offered me the job.
It would have been a great opportunity except for some problems. Wanting me to move to Burlington was one of them. We liked Mt. Pleasant and didn’t like the idea of moving the girls. Some of the things they were doing I didn’t agree with and couldn’t see myself compromising. And lastly, and probably most importantly, they could only pay me what amounted to about a thousand dollars less than I was making in Mt. Pleasant and their benefits weren’t as good.
I was honored to be offered the job and sometimes, have wondered what would have transpired had I taken that job. As things turned out I am confident I made the right decision.
Initially, there were more opportunities to do in-service for other teachers. Unfortunately, those things didn’t pay well. Additional education did move me along on the district salary schedule.
I did some writing in-services in the district. They weren’t as well received as I had hoped. Sometimes your colleagues are reluctant to give you credit for knowing something maybe they didn’t. Some were just jealous. Most were complimentary but there were a few who were downright nasty.
In-services I did outside the district were usually much better received. It was satisfying to get positive feedback about my efforts from other people in the profession.
I went to talk about the writing/reading connections at a meeting of the Tri-Area Reading Council. The meeting was held at the Winfield Mt. Union High School. I was on the agenda with another person. I knew the other person from graduate school and I knew he had a tremendous jealousy streak.
He was to give a brief overview of some things he was doing with his students and then I was to be the featured speaker. For some reason he did not want me to talk. He was prone to exaggeration and drew his time out to well over an hour. Most of the people in the meeting realized what he was doing was deliberate.
When he finally finished people were ready to go home. I gave a brief overview of what I had planned to say. I got several apologies from members of the group. Several joked with me about it for several years after that. The group did invite to speak to them a few years later. I did. It was a dinner held in Crawfordville and the offender was not invited.
In the fall of 1984 Great River Area Education Agency had an opening for a Language Arts consultant. I wanted to continue teaching 4th grade but they called me repeatedly and asked me to apply. I offered to do some contract consultant work for them but they decided they needed a full time person. I finally did apply and was interviewed. Not long after that they offered me the job.
It would have been a great opportunity except for some problems. Wanting me to move to Burlington was one of them. We liked Mt. Pleasant and didn’t like the idea of moving the girls. Some of the things they were doing I didn’t agree with and couldn’t see myself compromising. And lastly, and probably most importantly, they could only pay me what amounted to about a thousand dollars less than I was making in Mt. Pleasant and their benefits weren’t as good.
I was honored to be offered the job and sometimes, have wondered what would have transpired had I taken that job. As things turned out I am confident I made the right decision.
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