Educators are the Veruca Salt of Working Professionals (Part 2)

 

Oompa-Loompa Doopiti Doo...Turns out this blogpost has a part 2!

After the above article came out in my local newspaper, I decided I had to revisit a recent blog post. To reiterate, "Educators are the Veruca Salt of working professionals...Part 2...Electric Bugaloo" (Working Title)  

After reading the title of the article, I decided I had to read it in order to understand why a district wouldn't want to take free money from the State to incentivize educators with bonuses for those who have proven to be, in the words of Will Smith, "The best of the best of the best." As some background, the state of Utah is piloting a program that would allow districts to apply for a pot of money that they could use to award educators based on criteria they choose. The criteria have to be put into a formal plan and approved by a university that was chosen for this specific purpose. 

In terms of dollar amounts, the program will award bonuses to the top 25% of teachers in the following allocations: 

Top 5% = $10,000

Top 6-10%  = $5,000

Top 11-25% = $2,000

The kicker is if you work in a high-poverty school, those figures could be DOUBLED!!! This means educators could earn upwards of $20,000 a year! 

Why would districts turn this money down when all we hear about is the horrible pay educators receive? Some of the reasons they state in the article speak about teaching as a cooperative field and when you make them compete for money, they no longer want to cooperate. Valid point, I suppose. 

Another complaint is that the districts wouldn't know how to make it "fair" so that all teachers have a shot at earning the money. What criteria would they select to be eligible for the money? Are they only going to offer it to those teachers who teach in areas that are tested? What measurements would they use to understand which teachers are performing better than others? It's hard to compare a teacher who is assigned AP students to someone teaching remedial reading or math in high school. 

These types of decisions are not easy to make, but they are especially difficult in education. That's why districts post their payscales online because they can never show that they are being unfair. There are only a handful of ways to earn an educator salary increase and most districts boil it down to two things: the length of employment and your educational level of attainment. It's very cut and dry because it needs to be. They can't have a pathway that says one teacher is actually better than the other because teachers don't like being compared and contrasted.

They will gladly accept more money as long as everyone gets an equal share, but dividing the pot based on student performance...that is unfair. This is why education will never change in the ways that it needs to. The people in administrative roles who actually have the power to make changes lack the backbone to make hard decisions. They lack the intestinal fortitude to make those decisions because as soon as they decide who deserves the money, the ones who didn't will be screaming back at them "But I want a Golden Goose too!"

"I Don't Think About You at All"

 

During a scene in "Mad Men" Don Draper, the main character of the show, decides to pitch his ad idea to a company and purposefully leaves another pitch from an up-and-comer behind. The co-worker, rightfully angered by Don's attempt to sideline his ideas, calls him out during an elevator ride. During their brief conversation, he say's to Don, "I feel bad for you." Don's reply is simple, but cuts through the young up-start. He merely says, " I don't think about you at all." With that one line, Don leaves the elevator as a sort of mic drop moment. 

This is probably one of the more memorable scenes from the show, and for good reason. It's brilliantly acted and very relatable. I know the scene is meant to show that people so high up on the totem pole of business don't waste their time thinking about those lower down than them, because it would be wasted time. Their job is to stay above the fray and move forward. I know I often felt like our district administration had this same thought about teachers, which is sadly true in my experience. Lately, I've come to think about this scene in a different light.

My mentor Rafe Esquith wrote in one of his books that he would often get the question about why he decided to teach. He said he stole a line from a movie about a baseball player that once said he worked so hard so that years from now people would ask "who's that walking down the street?" and they would respond, "that's Rafe Esquith, the best teacher there ever was." It took his future wife to look him in the eyes and say that's the most narcissitic thing she's ever heard. The sad thing is, I used to aspire to such praise and adornment early on as well. 

Recently, a coworker passed away due to cancer. I never really worked with her, but she was always friendly and we would say hi as we passed each other occasionally. I had no idea she had cancer and it came as a surprise when I saw the email announcing her passing. They sent along the obituary, which was nice, but not a lot of other fanfare. I had another coworker pass away several years ago quite suddenly. I went to his funeral and some coworkers showed up to say some nice things, but in the end, they replaced him and the work moved on without him, just like they did with my most current coworker. 

My dream of becoming that teacher that everyone knew and respected while walking down the street was just that, a dream. Maybe some students would remember me if they saw me in the newspaper's obiturary, or maybe a handful would come to my funeral, but I know the district wouldn't care one bit. At most, they may send a box of Crumble Cookies to my family. I know this because of how I was treated when I left teaching back in 2016. 

When I originally left teaching, I cried several times thinking about the students and teachers I'd be leaving behind. It was a hard decision for me to make, but one I knew I had to make at the time. I put a lot of thought into my letter of resignation, stating how hard the decision was and how I'd love to come back and work someday. The only response I got back from the district was a letter stating I was in breach of contract and owed them $1000. Just remember, they don't think about us at all!

Educators are the Veruca Salt of Working Professionals (Part 1)

 

Oompa Loompa Doompa-dee-do, I have another blogpost for you!

One of my favorite movies is Roald Dahl's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." While channel surfing on a boring weekend as a young lad, I would always stop on a channel if the original 1971 movie was playing. I loved the story, the sets, and the music. I consider Pure Imagination one of the greatest songs of all time. One of the other things I have enjoyed about this story is how my understanding of it has changed as I have grown older. 

After watching the new Broadway production of Matilda one year (another favorite of mine), I decided I was going to start every year reading Roald Dahl as part of our guided reading groups. I'm not even sure guided reading is a thing anymore, but the way we did it at our school was by splitting up students according to reading levels and Dibels scores. Each of my student groups ended up reading either "Matilda," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," or "The Twits." 

My main focus during these reading groups was to help them learn how to read and understand punctuation and dialogue. I would give them specific characters to read and they would have to use expression to act out their parts. Another thing we focused on was the parts of the story like the setting, characters, and theme. We talked about the elements of a story arc like the exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. 

One interesting thing that stuck with me when we were reading "Charlie and Chocolate Factory" was our discussion about the protagonist and antagonist. The Protagonist is somewhat easy to understand, but it wasn't until we really thought about the antagonist that we realized it wasn't even a person. The antagonist in this book is not Willy Wonka, but it's the Factory. Every room had something that tempted a kid to throw caution to the wind and prevent them from becoming the heir of the chocolate factory. 

Each character has a nasty behavior they manifest like Augustus Gloop (Gluttony), Violet (Pride), and Mike Taevee (Sloth). All of the characters are memorable in their own way, but Veruca Salt holds a special place in our hearts because I think we all know that type of person and have had to deal with them at one point.

When I think of Veruca Salt I think of an entitled girl who wants her daddy to give her everything she wants without having to work for it or earn it in any way. This is why I think, educators are the Veruca Salt of working professionals. I gave away the plot in the title of this post, but I'm a sucker for exposition I suppose. 

The additional point I wanted to make is that the machine, which is public education, is merely enticing them to act on their worst desires. Every year they want more, but what are they willing to do for what they want? Work more days or hours? Improve student outcomes? Before we cave into Veruca's screams of "I want it now!" we should first ask, what are you willing to do to in order to receive the golden egg (or squirrel, for the book lovers)? If we keep giving into demands without getting anything in return, our education system will surely end up in the same place as Veruca. 

To end on a positive note...

You can't handle the truth!

I came across the video linked below and it really made me think about the answers they gave in this roundtable interview. Every question they are asked, they continue to parrot the talking points that teachers feel like they need to give so that they can be seen as a "good" educator. 

Talking points I've heard throughout the years that don't seem to ever go away.

- Teachers don't make a lot of money.

- We can't blame the students for their behavior because you never know what's going on in their life.

- Teachers lack the resources to be successful

- The system is set up to fail these kids

- Teachers still do a lot of work in the Summer. 

- I love being a teacher because of that "ah-ha" moment.

I take issue with a lot of these answers because most of them simply don't hold true. 

Firstly, in Utah, the starting salary for a new teacher is between 50-60k. It may not seem like a lot compared to a Tech or Finance Bro, but it's a livable wage right out of college. Some states are still far behind that number, but every teacher jokes that they didn't get into it for the money. If that's the case, don't complain about it. 

We can definitely blame students for their actions and behaviors. Full stop. 

Teachers don't lack the resources they need to be successful, they lack the will to ask for those resources. If your administration is unable or willing to give you what you need, there are dozens of grants and organizations out there that you can write to and receive funds. I was able to purchase thousands of dollars worth of resources. Some teachers I worked with resented me for it because I had a classroom set of Chromebooks and iPads. These teachers could've also had these same resources if they had just written for the same grants I did. 

How is the system set up to fail the kids? Many of them receive free meals throughout the day, daycare after school, food and supplies for the weekend, and a free education. I lived in a poor African country for a couple of years and most were too poor to afford school. What is the definition of "failing"? The only failure I see is when we continue to move students through the system when they haven't shown that they are successful with current grade level content. But I am not allowed to say that because failing a kid only hurts them in the long run...so they say. 

Most teachers I know choose teaching and refuse to leave because of the summers. Almost everyone that applies for a job at the State Board of Education will always ask if we are required to work summers. The answer, of course, is yes. Just because we are in education doesn't mean we get our summers off. I loved my summers as a teacher and think about going back into teaching for that one reason alone. We recently had an employee leave the State Board for this very reason. 

I hate the "ah-ha" moment. I don't mean I hate seeing that in students, because it can be rewarding, but I feel like it's a fake answer. As an educator, our job is to build off previous knowledge, not present them with some new and fascinating concept they've never thought about. My goal is to limit how many "ah-ha's" for my students because if I'm doing my job, it should come naturally to the students and they should be able to grow in knowledge gradually. I know this is kind of a stupid point to make, but I really dislike when teachers use this as their "why" for teaching. If we were being honest, a lot of teachers would refer to the paragraph above as the real reason they love teaching. 

The interesting thing about this video is that throughout the video, they slowly drop their defenses and say things they are originally hesitant to say. These are things I'd love to talk about in a future post. For example, a few moments of truth that I found interesting were:

- I'm afraid of the students because they are bigger than me and could harm me.

- Teachers need help with the student's behavior 

Memories

And just like that, another year has passed me by. It's almost Memorial Day and I still get that giddy feeling in my stomach that school will almost be out for the summer. This time of year was one of my favorites as a teacher for many reasons. 

End-of-year testing was done. We could work on projects that were a little more creative and fun. Students are well trained on classroom procedures which makes classroom management easier. We would go to Hogle Zoo and This is the Place Park for our Salt Lake City field trip. One of my favorites, the weather was warming up enough to play scatterball with the students (Insert clip of Billy Madison pelting kids with balls). 

The last day of school was always fun for me as well because we would do three things. I would give out awards to the students for different achievements which included academics as well as behavior. (This may be controversial now, but only a handful of kids got awards in my class) I would hold our final auction of the year which was the biggest and best auction of the year. Lastly, I would create a yearbook video for the class using pictures and videos I had taken throughout the year. I would spend a month making this video and the mere process of making it would choke me up a little because it would be a reminder of how far we had come as a class that year. Watching it with my students on that last day was always a bonding moment for our class because sometimes you're so caught up in the minutia of the day-to-day that you forget all of the fun you had along the way. (See Example Video Below)

It made me think back to when I was a student. I don't remember learning the alphabet, the phases of the moon, or long division. I know I learned that stuff because I can still recall all of those items...except the moon stuff. (Science was never my strongest subject) What I do remember were the field trips, story-telling assemblies, and fun classroom parties put on by the teacher and parent volunteers. 

One thing I realized at the school I taught at was that we had a unique and positive school culture. I think this is mainly because our principal and staff made it a priority to create these fun activities that cement lasting memories with our students. We sacrificed our own time to blow up balloons to make professional-caliber decorations for Valentine's Day. We spent weeks setting up our spook alley in the basement that the neighborhood would use after school for a food drive. My brother would spend all year creating a yearbook video for the school to watch at the end of year, which left everyone with a salty discharge in their eyes. To this day, whenever I see an old student from Ellis, whether they are 15 or 28, they ask if my brother and I still make the Garbage Monster movies. 

Without a doubt, every year the media will do a story about whether or not we should be celebrating Halloween, Valentine's Day, or Christmas in our schools. Now that I've been out of the classroom for eight years, I can affirmatively say that I don't miss being in the classroom as much as I thought I would. But every time a holiday approaches, I long for my teaching days because those were the days we got to have a little fun where we didn't have to focus so much on the curriculum. We could just focus on bonding with our students and create some lasting memories. 

I mean, it's a long video, but you can't tell me that our students didn't have a blast at Ellis. 

Teacher Hungover on the First Day of School

Note: This is the first blog post I wrote for the EdTech startup company I worked for when I left teaching. I wanted to document it here because I think it still rings true for teaching, but also for any career or job change. Enjoy

Every year I show up hungover on the first day of school. An intoxication not produced by the consumption of liquor, spirits, or tainted fruit.  It’s produced from the lingering memories of the previous year.  As new students walk into my class for the first time I would get nostalgic about the students I had the previous year. When I meet my new students I slowly start to remember that we are starting from square one. They don’t know classroom routines and they definitely don’t know the new curriculum which we will be working tirelessly on all year long.  

This is what I call the hangover effect. I’ve been teaching for six years and it always hits me during the first week of school, but it always comes as a surprise for some reason.  When it does hit, I go through a series of stages similar in nature to the five stages of grief, but I only have three.   First I become angry, then I become depressed, and eventually, I accept the fact that I have to work just as hard this year as I did last year. The great, but difficult thing about teaching is that you start fresh every school year. 

To help me with this teacher hangover I’ve incorporated a principle that I learned from a teacher and mentor that lives in Los Angeles. He told me he adds one new thing to his class every year in order to push and motivate himself so that he doesn’t get stagnate. I’ve taken that advice to heart and have implemented something new every year in my own classroom.  Some are successful and some are not so successful, but the point is that it fires me up for the new school year. It keeps my mind busy during the summer and helps me get over my hangover quicker because the class and I are doing something that the previous class didn’t do. We’re learning something new together.  

(shameless plug for the company I worked for)

If you’d like to add something to your class this year I’d suggest finding a tech tool that you’d like to learn and integrate with your students. Great technology tools can be found in the ever-growing video library that Kyte Learning has available. My new favorite tool is EdPuzzle. Find a tool that works for you at KyteLearning.com. 

The Substitute!

There was a movie that came out in 1996 called "The Substitute." I haven't seen the whole movie, but I've seen clips on YouTube. I always criticize movies about education because they often exaggerate or leave out certain aspects of the profession. This one used to fit into that category, until last year.

My mentor, Rafe Esquith, would often say movie producers wanted to make a movie about him and his role as an educator teaching at an inner-city school in Los Angeles. He always turned them down because he never wanted to give the wrong impression about teaching. 

Odds are students won't be standing on a desk reciting poetry as you are being led out of the classroom for disobeying the headmaster of a private school. 

Odds are you aren't going to save an entire group of inner-city youths by having them write in a journal. 

Odds are you aren't going to walk into a school in Harlem as a teacher is quitting and then immediately take over the class where you learn more from the students than they learn from you. 

However, the movie after which I've titled this post after, was more correct than I wanted it to be. 

This last year, our state had a shortage of substitute teachers. It was so bad that the governor asked for state employees to take leave in order to substitute teach. In fact, the state would give us additional time off so we didn't have to use our personal leave. I don't know how many people took him up on this offer, but I do know the governor made time to substitute teach at a middle school long enough to get a few photos for the newspaper. (see below)

I thought this idea was awesome and I had even been talking about it with my colleagues at the state board of education. I know this sounds crazy, but I thought it was important for those of us working in education and making rules for educators, to dip our toe into the classroom occasionally in order to get a feel of what teaching is like in our schools. I stopped teaching in 2016 and I know our schools and students have changed drastically since then. 

I was lucky to find several opportunities to work in a number of school settings as a substitute. I worked at some jr. highs, high schools, and even an elementary school. I thought it would be just like riding a bike and I was somewhat correct. That is if the bike had two flat tires and no handlebars. 

It was a miserable experience. I know having your own classroom is a very different thing than being a substitute teacher, but I used to substitute teach back in 2009 and I felt like it was much easier back then. Almost every school had the same problem and it made me realize why we were having a substitute teacher shortage in the first place. 

The last substitute job I took was at an elementary school teaching 4th grade. This is the grade I used to teach and I was looking forward to it because I was a good 4th grade teacher. Sure, I had problem kids in my teaching days, but the classroom as a whole was good. Students got along and we had a good class culture. I thought I would be able to bring that same energy to this new classroom. I knew that might have been a bigger task than I expected as the principal continued to drop in throughout the morning. It was still early, but the principal had already come in twice to check in on me and the class. I soon realized why. 

After an hour or so, the first problem happened. Two students were starting to argue about something and then they started telling each other to eff off. This didn't sit well with me, so I sent them to the office. As I was watching them walk down the hall, some noise was coming from inside the classroom. It turns out one of the students, who was larger than most kids his age and bound to a wheelchair, was being teased by other students. I soon found that this was very common and he would often fight back and only make the teasing worse. 

As I went back inside to handle this fire, the school's counselor and learning coach came down to ask what the other two students had done. I told them that they were telling each other to eff off and the learning coach sighed and said, "When they use language like that we just remind them to use professional language." I could tell she knew that this was something that never worked in their school, but that is how they were taught to handle these types of situations. 

The only ray of light about this day was that they were being released early, so I only had to be there until 12:30. If it had been a full day, I would've left at lunch because it was that bad. There are many awful events that took place that day, but nothing worse than the email I got from the agency that was in charge of placing substitutes. 

I was told that MY behavior was unprofessional that day because a student had told a parent or teacher that I had said the class was awful (which they absolutely were). I was reprimanded for saying this. However, the context of me saying that to the class was it was AWFUL how they were treating that poor student in the wheelchair and they should stop bullying him. I wrote the company back and told them they didn't have to worry about me because I was never going to substitute teach for that school or district ever again. 

I left that school with a lot of feelings, none of them good. It made me really angry because this was a profession I loved, but it only took one day...ONE DAY!!! to make me so disheartened and bitter about it that I decided I'd probably never teach in the classroom again. I could talk about some of the other experiences I had during my short stint as a substitute teacher, but this is the one that stuck with me and impacted me the most. 

If you've ever substitute taught, my hat is off to you. If you're a teacher, please make that day as easy as possible for the substitute. Simple things like a seating chart or a class leader to help the substitute can make their day 100% better. 

Pro Tip: FERPA allows you to leave notes about specific students if you think it is applicable to their job for the day. Take advantage of this.