Sestina for Susan Stitham

Oh Ms Stitham, bring on thou energy !

Fuel our flagging classroom with powered inquiry!

Dive into the fishbowl--

The clear waters of an authentic exam,

The metacognitive awareness of the mind vault.

Because, like clouds and starfish, different is each student.

 

How are we currently challenging each student?

Do we scaffold up from the literal text with any energy?

Help them bend and stretch; help them execute a limber pole-vault

Up, up and beyond the basest factual inquiry!

“To strive to seek to find” ways for them to look hard at each exam.

Though the word connotes containment, fluid swimming happens in a fishbowl.

 

Humans, if they still had gills, would feel at home in a fishbowl.

Comfort and ease is not true learning for each student!

At the end of the day, in a teacher’s final exam,

We should find within ourselves a deeper energy.

A bubble-peircing instrument for releasing the seeds of inquiry,

A muscled thrust and heave to open up the vault.

 

“An arched structure, usually of masonry, serving to cover a space”: is a vault.

Let us, as teachers, be this for our students above the fishbowl.

Let us be brick-bastions of inquiry,

Purveyors of discernment and thinking for each student

May we do this with quad-espresso Stitham energy!

And in the end we will pass the exam.

 

But to prepare only for the exam

Is to ignore how we are the overarching bridge, the vault,

The inspiring encouragers of student energy,

The challengers and gatekeepers of the fishbowl.

Leave not one behind as a straggler or bummer lamb- each student!

Kicking and bleating we will pull them into learned inquiry!

 

And after four sestets this gets tedious—this inquiry.

Why have I done this?  Is there some exam?

“Federally highly qualified” in archaic poetry forms—is this good for a student?

All my questions go unanswered, locked into a vault.

Like uneaten food-flakes drifting to the bottom of a fishbowl.

And I may not get it back, all this energy.

 

Somehow, some way, we should reach each student;

We should encourage individual inquiry.

 

We need to create and maintain our energy

To affect our students and to succeed at the genuine exam.

 

Answers and ideas are not locked into a vault

They are swimming, small and silent in a fishbowl.

 

 

 

Susan Stitham

Susan spoke about the Essential Learning Pyramid and the 3 level model of comprehension. Please add your thoughts about her presentation and how it may apply to your situation. Or, if you want to apply some of what she talked about, do it as a sonnet, from the perspective of Huck Finn, or through another connection. Actually, in the sake of time, your analysis can also be straight forward if you so choose.

Gayle's visit

This was a great presentation. I really enjoyed looking at her slides showing the different pieces of factual law that can guide how we should conduct our classes and what to be cautious of when it comes to discussions or projects.

I had some questions about the limits I can push as a teacher and I emailed them to Prof. Meath. Mostly my concern is what are we giving up by being extremely cautious in this day and age. Really, it comes down to doing what we feel we can afford to do as the teachers.

Ultimately, I am taking away a few things from this presentation. I have to be aware and I have to spend time thinking about the global implications of the things we do and say as teachers. Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and so do their parents. We have to be aware that everything we do and say will be sent home altered, so making sure we are very clear and well documented is obviously the big picture I now see more clearly.

Jealousy breeds contempt

I really wanted an interesting title for this post. I thought about it for a while and this saying just kept running through my head and I realized it was true.

Jealousy:
Rafe's class was, in my opinion, an anomaly. I've been battling with my frosh to read Romeo & Juliet for two weeks now and have to babystep them through it. It is tedious language and it took me years to get comfortable with it. How in the hell is he getting these young kids to not only read it but enjoy it and comprehend it? In short, it's not fair.

Romeo and Juliet is a great story. There's love, death, Leonardo DiCaprio, hatred...it's these 14 and 15 year olds lives. Forget Hamlet and his damn monologues and supposed psychotic break; teen angst is where it's at.

It was nice to see that Rafe had a good rapport with his kids. It's encouraging and heartwarming and blah blah blah. I want MY kids to have the same eager attitudes towards Shakespeare, hell, towards any book that his did. I can only hypothesize that his kids wanted to learn because they were inner-city castoffs. Maybe with the risk of losing everything dangling right in front of them they decided to take a chance with academic success. I know for a fact that every single kid in my freshmen class could do well if they just put the effort in.

Contempt:
I was slightly annoyed when I found out that the movie was glamorized. I want to see kids beating each other up, throwing paper around their class, spilling drinks, tripping one another, failing, passing, taking tests, walking through the hallway. I want real life not some dramatized edited cut and paste version.
We all have great days. We all have days that we wish we could go back and re-do. Which days do we have more of? How many yards of tape are laying on the editing room floor?
Sure, we learn from our mistakes. That's a given. Why can't we learn from other people's mistakes? Isn't that why "America's Funniest Home Videos" is still on the air?
I'm not saying he's a bad teacher in any way. I'm more upset that downs weren't shown along with the ups. It's very...disappointing.

Education vs. Students vs. Free Speech

When it comes to the topic of free speech, I'm all over it. I believe in free speech. For everyone. I also believe in moderation and self-control as well as a time and a place. I might be mired in hypocrisy (alright, I definitely am) when I say that 14-16 year old students don't have enough experience to have a political opinion, therefore they shouldn't even want to display it. They're entirely too young to know what is going on in regards to a president or candidate. They learn through/from their parents or adopt beliefs that sits in contrary to public opinion.

I know I'm generalzing/stereotyping/making snap judgements overloaded with fallacious statements. But I have experience with this sort of thing. I had an opinion when I was their age. I did things just to piss off administration. And I did them well. For some reason, kids need to test the limits of everything. Speech, actions, quality of work, etc. Maybe it's the cause and effect. Maybe they're just out to ruffle status quo.

This brings me to my next point: How do they know they've gone too far? As asinine as it was to have "Bong hits 4 Jesus" on a poster, did they know the laws/rules they encroached upon? I suggest that within their education they learn about these cases. Maybe they'll come up with new ways to surprise us.

And where the hell were the parents??!

Comments on Gayle Pierce's presentation

It was interesting to have Gayle come and speak with us on the topic of free speech and to learn about some of the background behind some of the court cases. It is a challenging situation for teachers, I think, in this time when we have to be so very careful about what we say and teach. I think we live in a time of social insecurity, when people are afraid of opinions that contradict their own, and as a result, we must be exceedingly sensitive when we teach. As teachers, we are challenged to teach our students to accept opinions that differ from their own, but we must do it in a way that is politically neutral.
I do think it's important to keep in mind that students are impressionable—and that our own opinions might sway theirs. But at the same time, I struggle with having to reserve our own opinions when asked direct questions. In a way, this seems disingenuous.
I guess it boils down to playing the game and jumping through all right hoops—without losing sight of our goal ... to teach students to think critically.

Thinking it Through: Gayle Pierce's visit

      The hardest part about deciding the legalities on each of the case studies presented in our last class session was coming to terms with the idea that there was "no going back".  The actions had already been committed; it wasn't time to replay the scenario and discuss what should have been done differently.  What I learned from Gayle Pierce's visit was that, as a teacher, before I speak or act in a way that curtails student expression I need to always ask 1) is this (action or phrase) my only option? and, if not 2) is it the best option? In some situations there may be time to consult with an an appropriate friend/administrator.  Some times there may only be a few minutes available in which to make a choice.  If no one is in immediate danger, as a teacher, I should take those minutes to think it through.

       I found Gayle approachable, clarifying, patient, and kind.  She seems like a wonderful student advocate.  I wouldn't hesitate to ask her advice if needed. 

Education and free speech

Gayle Pierce presented a number of scenarios and court cases regarding free speech and education. How does this impact you as a classroom teacher?

be kind; work hard

    I genuinely enjoyed watching "The Hobart Shakespearians". I was a little put-off by his sense of propriety of the students and their future, or the phrase "I want them to be Americans".  There are layers there (laden with my baggage) about what American success looks like, that make me uncomfortable.  What is apparent is that his day-to-day modus operandi nurtures these kids emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually.  He does this by teaching "by any means necessary" and by putting in 12-hour days, 6 days-a-week.  Such dedication can tap into any teacher's sense of inadequacy in comparison.

     But what is really working in his classroom, and what can we take away?  I keep thinking about the boy who talked about how, when he asked for clarifying questions, other teachers always responded "I just said that, you should've been listening" but Mr. Rafe would "repeat it 500 times" if necessary.  I see the former SO often in my internship it breaks my heart.  Many times even I, the focused adult, "didn't get it", or my mind slipped back to something for a second and I lost the instructions.  There must be some way to minimize the need to ask annoying repeat questions, while communicating to students that they aren't 'bad' for asking again.

      Mantras.  Be kind; work hard.  In lesson planning we should begin with the end in mind, but wouldn't it be powerful if each classroom had a 'bottom line' mantra that framed how the class was run?  Maybe mine will be:  "Be patient; always ask." If we introduce this on the first day of school and come back to it again and again, kids have something to hang their hat on.

     Immediate gratification.  Rafe talked about this in terms of deciding what hotel to check into and what kind of food to feed the kids, but in the classroom the immediate gratification of success, I think, is very important.  Don't let students delay success.  Let them see it now.  This probably involves allowing each student to fully define what success means to them and finding a way to bend the curriculum or the daily lessons to accomodate it.

    Finally, running the classroom on its own 'cash' economy is a very transferable reality.  The only thing I'd change for the high school level is make the most expensive seats the ones in the back of the room, not the ones up by the teacher.

Hobart Shakespeareans

Rafe Esquith's work with inner city Los Angeles kids at Hobart Elementary School has received multiple awards and accolades. His mantra of "There Are No Shortcuts" is modeled with his work ethic--students voluntarily arriving at school at 6:30 and staying until as late as 6 p.m. each day. His students typically are identified as living below the poverty level and from families whose first language is not English, yet student scores are in the top 5-10 percent on standardized testing. While , admittedly, this model is not for everyone let alone the faint of heart, what can we learn from his story even for classes in middle and high school, a decidedly different audience than Rafe's.

Big Projects

It seems that to assign a big project it would take a lot of planning, forethought, and anticipation—all of which may be reasons that a teacher would stray away from them. But the excitement and effort that students put into them, and the learning that results seems to far out-weigh any excuse about time and planning on the teacher's part. After all, isn't that what we're here to do—inspire our students to stretch their limits, making those connections that come so easily with big projects?
I was really impressed with the student visitors' enthusiasm for the projects, and equally impressed that they did not mind admitting the frustrations they had with the project. One thing that was really clear was that they had developed a very open and easy communication with their teacher, and they were able to bounce ideas off of her without feeling intimidated. I keep coming back to this, but I think that creation of community in the classroom is really crucial and seems to be a really important piece in the success of large projects like this.