First Day short and sweet...

I only have four classes and an advisory this year, I got a little help on the schedule as I took on other responsibilities. So not having students until almost 10:30 was a different experience for me. 

The first assignment was to “draw America at its inception”. An activity I picked up from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s book An Indigenous people's history of the United States. I was very impressed with My first class’s response. with few exceptions most students caught the instructions and attempted to draw the 13 colonies. My other blocks not so much. It provided for some fun discussion and brought Home a critical point of historical study, “what happened before matters”. This is an exercise in unconscious buas and erasure. The America you and I know did not come into its physical borders until the very end of the 19th Century. Its easy for us to miss all that came before if we don’t make an effort to see what we aren’t shown. 

The exercise also provides the perfect jumping off point for My focus of Historical study… “How far back do you want to go?” This question has to be addressed before any valuable historical study can take place. In the US History course I teach there are clear beginnings and endings of events but there was always something before that event. And something before that. That isn’t to say you just perilously Fall down the wormhole of time and history, but understanding what was before, and acknowledging all elements of a culture’s history not only begin, but are usually a continuation of some other process or situation. 

Four classes one eclipse, one advisory, and one dismissal later, day one is in the books. I’ve got some wonderful students this year and I am excited to see what They can do and what they will accomplish. 

And so it begins...

More times than not my birthday falls on some official school event, either the first day or reporting day, or meet the teacher night... It's always Something. I got lucky this year as it fell on a weekend. But regardless of when it falls, I always associate it with the start of school. My profession makes that much easier... full disclosure, this started as a fb post and has turned into a blog entry. It just got wordy and it that anyone reads it here but the never ending fb posts are somewhat annoying and I don't want to be annoying on my birthday. So I'll just continue and start with what's happened? 

Since my last birthday I graduated with my Master's, I've taken on several new responsibilities at my school. Began teaching a different course. Traveled to LA, Israel, Washington DC, And Boston. I've strengthened friendships, and have lost some friends. The loss hurts but the memories are still good. I've reconnected with a few old friends and met several new people. There are so many positive memories and events I cannot begin to list them all. My kids have grown so much and I'm so proud to be called their father. My family had helped me in so many ways and I'm so thankful and greatful for who I have in my life now. 

I'm excited for this school year as I mentioned yesterday (two days in a row!!! I KNOW!) we have a new principal and assistant principal. And since I taught 8th grade only last year I don't know any of these kids really... so it'll be an adventure in so many ways. I like that my birthday coincides with school. I used to hate it but for me it is the beginning point. I have these students for a year. Really less than that. But right around my birthday every year I get to begin a journey with a new group of students. I like that. 

This year did not turn out the way I thought, at all, and I've even been able to surprise myself once in a while. I love the statement "I didn't end up where I thought I would, but I think I ended up right where I need to be." Thanks all for the birthday wishes and here's to another great school year...

I am ready...

We all get there at some time, and in someway, mine happened this morning. Yeah, this Saturday morning, as I was driving to school, on a Saturday...  It has been really mild this August and it just feels like we should go to a football game or something... And we will get to soon, since the start of school is the start of football and Fall! 

Our students show up Monday. I've been doing this for 10 years, this will be My 6th year at Carver and it comes with many changes. Our Principal and Assistant Principal left for other positions and we have two new young men at the helm. Here’s hoping for a good year.

Of the many things we have going against us in public education, one thing we have going for us is each other. Our staff here at Carver is quality. We love what we do, we love who we teach and we love where we teach. We will be leaning on each other this year and I hope it will make us better and stronger.

along with leadership changes I have taken on more responsibility, serving as athletic director and a few other positions. I have a good schedule and a remarkably small population of students so I am looking forward to learning and developing more as a professional with these new responsibilities. 

I spent the Summer developing unit guidelines and mapping out My year. I'm excited to see if it works and we can stay focused in our study and journey through American History. I mentioned long ago I am making My students journal this year and I'm excited to roll that out. I have a lot to be excited for but I am really just excited for the students to get here.

You can only copy, read, meet, discuss, email, organize desks, count books, set up laptops, prep your Google Classroom so much before you just scream “give the the kids already!!!!” this is to say I am ready. 

I am ready for EVERYTHING that comes with school. I am ready for school crossing lights to flash.

I am ready for the big yellow school busses to clog up the streets.

I am ready for Parents who trust us with their kids.

I am ready for My colleagues to shatter expectations and succeed with students.

I am ready for Jr High and High school football!

I am ready for Fall and the colors it brings. 

But I am ready for the students. 

I am ready for their questions, their jokes, their stories, their experiences, their gossip and “drama”, I am ready for them to be at school. 

Ive spent a lot of time at My site this Summer. It's become a special place when its empty. I’ve always loved classrooms and how special They can be. 

   

That's not to say it will be easy and all fun... There are things happening in our community and country that impact our classrooms. We have choices to make and there are sides in some of these situations. Keep in mind our profession is in a remarkable postions to be a powerful force of change. 

But we have to make those decisions. We have examples...

Our students are counting on us and many in our communities are counting on us. We have a big job to do...

So, after all the asking and all the prepping, and all the copies, and emails, yeah I’m ready… 

Let’s have us a school year #oklaed!

Should I stay or should I go

Between stories of teachers not getting a raise and how rich teachers are in neighboring states the topic of career movement is something every teacher in Oklahoma has to deal with.

Totally unrelated but on the topic of them moving careers, Oklahoma’s highest paid public employee,  Bob Stoops retired. I'm sure most people care more about that than the fact that I'm staying but being that my family and friends are here I don't see myself going anywhere soon. I'm from a family of teachers and just finished my 10th year with Tulsa Public schools. I absolutely love my job my students, my building, my coworkers, my administration, and I don't want to leave. I mean maybe I told myself I don't want to because I can't either way I'll be here next year.

And before we all get on the “Oklahoma cares more about football than education”... I really don’t care if it's true or not (It’s not a new phenomenon either way) but please stop interlinking the two. It’s zero-sum at its worst. It is possible for people to care and be engaged in multiple things at once. It is frustrating to know that, yeah, some people do care a lot more about a coach for a team they will never be a part of than their children’s teacher but you’re not helping with the sanctimony.

But back to me and my people. Let me begin by making it crystal clear, there absolutely needs to be focus on teacher pay. It is embarrassing. I knew what it was when I started and I have worked multiple jobs on top of teaching to make ends meet. I also have ambitions to do more within the profession of education. I also have nothing against a teacher leaving for better pay and conditions. Like I said, maybe I would be too if my situation was different. But it’s not, so Oklahoma is my reality.

I never bought into the animosity and hatred for Kevin Durant leaving. First, it brought out the worst in people and looked incredibly racist and hateful. Also, because, like I said before I would leave to (as would most everyone) and I'm not begrudging any teacher for leaving to make more money.

But what I've been thinking lately is we still need people here too. The kids aren’t going anywhere (until they graduate and can leave). And while I'm in no position to ask anybody to make that sacrifice something has to be said for those not leaving, and the help we will need while we are still here.

To go back to the Bob stoops story Rob Miller, on the local level, along with Key and Peele, on the national level, have shown where many of us think the prestige and praise teachers should really receive. Maybe the hyperbole is a bit too much.

The rebuttal is to channel James Caan from The Program

“Yeah, but when was the last time 80,000 people showed up to watch a kid do a damn chemistry experiment?”

Sick burn huh… I mean I don’t know about that, but I’ve seen Dr’s offices and Er’s about as full as stadiums waiting for those doctors. And as always behind that are the teachers. But I digress…

Let’s frame it a better way, Perhaps a better way of looking at our profession would be this sentiment.

I think it's a better answer to the problem I just don't know how to  make that a reality. And before I fully contradict myself my job isn't mission work and schools aren't charities. But doctors without borders hasn't diminished the profession of medicine…

We need to be paid better here and continue to fight for that but in the meantime the kids will still be here next year and the year after…. And they, I, and everyone else who stays could use some allies and some assistance.

I wrote after the election we have to talk to one another. We have to meet people where they are and get them to where they want to be… then they will get to where they need to be. It's not in humans to hate… we have to be taught it, I really believe that.

I have changed the minds and perspectives of several of my close friends   And they have changed mine. I've often joked of how long and draining of a process it can be. I totally understand not wanting to do that. But it might make us better humans.. It can be hard to forge new relationships and it is so much easier to just sit in our own camp, but that’s not going to help anyone.

So to those on their way out. Go rock (insert state here)’s world. Show them what we've been doing here in Oklahoma. Share the stories. Tell the jokes and yes explain some of these people are real, like this guy, and this guy. This happened, and this. And yeah, he’s our's . But please for the love of god do not kick the dust off your heels and relegate this space to “that red flyover country”. Many are still here, like her, and her, not to mention the thousands of us #oklaed-ers still here, as well as the students.

Kinda not my President

A weird thing happened to me in January. We inaugurated a President I didn’t vote for. I know, I’m not supposed to be political and I don’t think I am by acknowledging I participated in our collective civic responsibility. I also don’t think anyone that knows me really questioned who I voted for so, let’s move on. I didn’t vote for Bush either but I began teaching in August of 2007. The tail end of NCLB. Enough has been said about that so I’ll leave it be, it is not the focus of this post. 

I don’t have to remind you 2007-08 was a remarkably energizing time in American politics. Regardless of the primary winner the Democratic ticket would be historic. I’m a political junkie so I followed the race like the good little political science degreed person I am. I talked about it a lot to a lot of people. Which brings me to this...

I’ve recounted this story with my students and it bears repeating here. Prior to teaching I worked at what is now Hard Rock Casino as a Hotel Supervisor. One of the last conversations I had with my supervisor was about the 2008 election. I won’t bore you with the whole thing but I will tell you in August of 2007 I remember thinking and saying “I don’t know who this Barack Obama thinks he is, he’s got great ideas but has no chance.” 

7 months later I voted for him in a primary and then in a general. I took students from my alternative high school to the inaugural ceremony at Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa. I had my dad bring my oldest son so he could witness it too. I told you that story to tell you, I was surprised but not as much as most, when Trump came from nowhere. Obama had done it… And NOONE knew who we was. We all knew Trump, whether we wanted to or not. 

I need to tell you another story too. Again, in my pre-teacher life I worked on political campaigns (I know big surprise). I worked on Brad Carson’s 2004 Senate campaign. Again, what happened in November surprised me, kinda… Because as election night lurched on I felt the exact same way I did in ‘04. If you remember it, you know why, if you don’t, that was a rough cycle for the Democratic Party in Oklahoma. 

So in a way I had been here before. It was a remarkably awkward time for me, but I did feel like I knew what I should do. I did what I did then, I started reading. It’s kinda why I haven’t blogged much at all lately. I just wanted to peripherally participate as much as I could. Arguments had become draining and maddening. I just didn’t want to do it. I also hid and watched a lot of Star Trek. 

But here I am now. With a President I don’t agree with and whose actions appear to show little or no regard for a number of my students, their families, and communities. The election absolutely changed the atmosphere and environment of classrooms, and schools. Perhaps equally (if not more) than communities. Schools, despite their history, and present can serve as remarkable places of safety, growth, understanding, and cohesion. The tenor of this election and the atmosphere created by its early months have made some of those places more difficult to achieve. 

I wrote about how there is just an atmosphere of anger and fear. We as a people are so mad at so much. Most of which we have little or no control over. We find ways to gain some control. And often quit thinking about those around us and those affected by us and our actions. 

Yelling online and in person about issues we know we cannot fix, and are probably not going to do anything about is what we have diluted our politics to. We get a sense of “we did something” but did we really? I’m not saying stop debating, I’m saying be smart about it. And just be smart. Read, study, learn what affects you and focus on those issues. 

The last thing I want my class to turn into is just a grinch and moan space. So we did some things a bit different in the second semester.

How I’ve managed this has not been smooth, I’ll be the first to admit. But, the historical lens I see the world through puts Trump in our cultural narrative. One of the things I’ve always said is “worst President ever is a high bar to reach. Several owned slaves.” Another perspective is what that office does regardless of who is there. 

For someone who hasn’t studied and is unaware of the deep history of this country, “back channel” sounds spooky. But, it’s not anything new. Context matters, and that is where the discussion can occur. Here’s another one,  “travel ban” HAS to be unconstitutional right? Immigration and deportations? Yeah, that too. Time and time again, context and conversation… 

Much of what President Trump has done and will do, has been done before in one way or another. I remember spending the last 8 years intrigued by the silliness of the anti-Obama crowd. The racism, vitriol, and just mean hatred was demoralizing. I lived through the Clinton Presidency and the conspiracy theory culture of the 90's. 

That is NOT what I want my classroom to become. But it needs to become something. Teachers do NOT have to become social and political. But Clara Luper was a teacher. And several other teachers and school personnel that stood up for their students and other points in our history. That action is a part of our professional legacy. I like that it’s coming back. I like that dozens of teachers put it on the line and ran for office. I hope that continues. But it won’t if we become complacent. 

Let me be clear, our obligations as teachers isn’t to teach kids what to think, it is to teach them how to think. We don’t force them to do things, but we shouldn’t get in the way either. We have to be there to encourage and assist. To provide guidance and, of course, be proud of those that do get engaged. Challenging them with that charge also emboldens me to it. It has made be a better teacher and forced me to take account of what I prioritize and on what I focus. 

So my solution is this, the best thing I’ve come up with using the teachable moments. Giving them a perspective of a historical event they can relate to is what will help make it real to them. It can show them how these events, choices, and people really do affect what they can and cannot do. It can and will stir emotions, but we live in a political world, one does not have to participate, but you give up a whole lot when you make that choice to sit it out. 

Like I said yesterday (I know two days in a row!!!), we have been given several opportunities to see our past actions in real time. The above examples are just a few. And this administration is showing no signs of changing course, so we can only expect more examples. This is how I’ve decided to manage this. I hope it works. 

What do you do when history happens??? Write I guess...

It is Summer so I have time to write a bit. @BlueCerealEduc decided to share something that made me think and feel guilty about not writing. Not that it’s worth reading, but it is something I tell my students all people should do. The article is a plea from academia to make your voice heard. Go read it here. History is happening folks and it's our job to write it. We discussed in class several times this year “the past is what lasts” and you cannot tell your story once you are gone.

The story makes some remarkable points and is absolutely something that needs to be done. I’m going to keep up with this more especially since I plan to make my students do something similar this upcoming year. They have no idea how much they are going to love this!

I’ll discuss current topics of concern as they come up and in future posts. For this entry I want to discuss something else. I’m teaching a seminar for TPS Summer Professional Development (shameless plug check it out here) on teaching History in Today’s world. I can blog more about that after I present but as I was doing laundry at 4:30 this morning (I have a weird sleep schedule) a thought came to me. I spent countless class periods last year discussing the importance of studying the outcome of historic events. More often than not, the aftermath is more critical than the instance.

Too often our discipline focuses on the timeline. Just what and who happened. In doing so we, as has been stated before, dilute history to rote memorization of names, dates, and body counts.

There were faces to those names and stories before and after those dates. There are narratives (notice plural)  that go along with that timeline. There are also scarring, traumatic, and corrosive open-wounds metastasizing beneath the lost voices of those body counts. Those wounds are not going to heal on their own. And we are going to keep making them worse, and creating quite a few new ones along the way if we don’t alter our behavior. They will continue to flare-up, and we will continue to have the same conversations over, and over, and over.

We are told ad nausea (and as a history teacher I absolutely hate this phrase) “Those that don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” Here’s the thing, we know our history, and we are STILL repeating it. Why is that? This statement is logically false, if taken literally. We cannot do the exact same thing with different people, technology, and cultures. So only a fool would take it literally, right? Then why, when we try to make those comparisons we are constantly countered with the “well, it’s not exactly like that” argument. It almost feels like some institutions and people, at the very least do not want to talk about these problems, or at the worst, do not want these problems remedied for any number of reasons (see: money and power). And that is absolutely for several other blog posts…

To reiterate, there is no such thing as an identical historic event. But there are several similarities within several similar events. We have to be willing to see those similarities. We have to be willing to own our ancestors mistakes. They are our situation now. And we have to be willing to learn and grow or we are going to leave them, and any new ones we create for our kids and grand kids to deal with.

We cannot use our historic events as lessons if we don’t take the time to compare, analyze, and create an understanding of our common cultural and human nature. Of course we don’t have slaves anymore (well kinda), so why do we need to know how “personal liberty laws” played out? We just need to know it happened right? Wrong. There is a world of difference between the experience of American Slavery of the 17th and 18th Century and the situation Undocumented workers face today, but that’s the point. I picked this one because it is right in the wheelhouse of the “not exactly” crowd. It won’t be identical but it does give us a road map. I would encourage you to think about this when events happen. Ask, has this happened before? Go study and find out about those “other times”. What worked, and what didn’t. We don’t have time to analyze and road map how our decisions today will play out, but we can make good guesses off of past experiences.

If history teaches us anything, it is that our actions can echo through generations. We need to understand that when we make decisions. We need to understand that when we vote and when we support candidates and causes. And we need to be able to transfer what we learned from past experiences and make better choices the next time an opportunity presents itself. Because believe me we are going to have plenty opportunities to make big generation-echoing decisions in our near future.  

Star Trek TNG Darmok

SeeStar Trek Darmok.

Another night of insomnia, another blog post… Hmmm… pattern developing? Oh well, communication has been on my mind alot. As i posted last, there is power and strength in connectivity and relationships. My students are about to embark on our unit of westward expansion. The continual catastrophe that was contact between the Indigenous tribes and the American government and people was because of a number of things but communication and understanding was clearly deficient. I want my students to see that and to learn from that. They can only do better if we give them the tools to do better.

So as I laid in bed last night playing tetris on my phone (the ONLY video game I’ve ever enjoyed) I decided to continue my Star Trek TNG watching. I’ve slipped lately but before the episode began I remembered Darmok. If you haven’t seen it you need to. Its season 5 Episode 2. The short synopsis is Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew have to make contact and communicate with a species that they have never contacted before. There was no reference or prior understanding but they have to learn to communicate to survive.

The use of imagery and metaphor are relied upon heavily to resolve the situation. As I was watching I was typing out the guiding questions and tweeting with a few colleagues about my idea.

Let’s see how it goes…

And it began exactly like anything in a school needing technology does. The tech didn’t work properly. We did get it going though and all classes were able to watch the episode. It was really fun to see them get exasperated and frustrated with the miscommunication but began to understand what they were supposed to learn.

Then the magic word “codeswitch” came up. If you do not know what that is, read up here. The kids made connections with inside jokes, metaphorical stories, myths, legends, and other means of communication.

More exciting than successfully pulling this lesson off, I was just as excited about what I had understood better after watching the episode for the 6th time today, We have to know people to talk to people. Relationships take time, and I’m pretty sure that’s why they hurt when they go away. The support and structure those stories, memories, events, and jokes cannot just be “uploaded”. Again in partner with my previous post, we have to do this… We have to invest the time.

I cannot wait to read their responses next week!