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Anyone Can Learn – Aviva’s Aha Moment
This week’s Aha Moment is shared by Aviva Dunsiger, also known on Twitter as @grade1, and she is a a Grade 1 teacher in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. She is an active member of my PLN who helps many teachers both new and old. She taught Kindergarten for eight years before making the move to Grade 1. Aviva loves using various Web 2.0 tools in her classroom to make learning more meaningful for students. As she says: Through my Grade 1 Website, Grade 1 Blog, Professional Blog, and Student Blogs, I share my own learning with others, and my students share their learning too. Many thanks to Pernille Ripp (@4thGrdTeach) for asking me to do the Guest Blog Post this week. I’m excited to share my Aha Moment with all of you!
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to teach. When I was in Kindergarten and Grade 1, I used to pretend to play school, and I even wrote my lessons on the wall. There’s a house somewhere in Thornhill, Ontario that still has my Process Writing Lesson on the wall underneath numerous coats of paint.:)
School never came easily for me though, and while I always worked hard, I never seemed to make the grade. In Grade 2, I had a Psych Assessment done, and I found out that I had a non-verbal learning disability. I will never forgot the feedback from that Psych Assessment: I was told that due to the severity of my learning disability, I would always struggle with school, and I would be lucky if I even made it to college. In other words, forget about university, and forget about my dreams of becoming a teacher. I was devastated!
Looking back now, I guess that I could have given up at that point. I never did though. Despite having a really significant learning disability, I also had some really significant strengths. I learned how to capitalize on those strengths. My mom and step-dad helped teach me strategies to be successful in the classroom and to advocate for myself so that I got the accommodations that I needed to be successful too. I always spent double the amount of time on the homework as my peers, and in certain subjects, like geography, the lessons would often lead to tears and frustration, but I never gave up. I wanted to teach!
Thanks to self-advocacy, amazing support from home, and strategies that really worked, I ended up graduating from high-school on the honour roll, and I even got a scholarship to university. It was when I got the phone call from the President of Nipissing University offering me a Presidential Scholarship and a place in the Bachelor of Arts and Introduction to Teaching Program, that I had my Aha Moment: anyone can learn! As teachers, we just need to find a way to ensure that all students do learn. I cannot thank my wonderful teachers enough: they didn’t give up on me, and as a result, I never gave up on myself.
This is my tenth year teaching, and every year, I get a new group of students and a new opportunity to make a difference. My own experience has taught me that we can never give up on our students, and that we need to find a way to ensure that all of them succeed. At the bottom of all of my e-mails, I have this signature: “If they don’t learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn.” I am thankful for the teachers that did just this for me, and I will always do this for my students too!
School never came easily for me though, and while I always worked hard, I never seemed to make the grade. In Grade 2, I had a Psych Assessment done, and I found out that I had a non-verbal learning disability. I will never forgot the feedback from that Psych Assessment: I was told that due to the severity of my learning disability, I would always struggle with school, and I would be lucky if I even made it to college. In other words, forget about university, and forget about my dreams of becoming a teacher. I was devastated!
Looking back now, I guess that I could have given up at that point. I never did though. Despite having a really significant learning disability, I also had some really significant strengths. I learned how to capitalize on those strengths. My mom and step-dad helped teach me strategies to be successful in the classroom and to advocate for myself so that I got the accommodations that I needed to be successful too. I always spent double the amount of time on the homework as my peers, and in certain subjects, like geography, the lessons would often lead to tears and frustration, but I never gave up. I wanted to teach!
Thanks to self-advocacy, amazing support from home, and strategies that really worked, I ended up graduating from high-school on the honour roll, and I even got a scholarship to university. It was when I got the phone call from the President of Nipissing University offering me a Presidential Scholarship and a place in the Bachelor of Arts and Introduction to Teaching Program, that I had my Aha Moment: anyone can learn! As teachers, we just need to find a way to ensure that all students do learn. I cannot thank my wonderful teachers enough: they didn’t give up on me, and as a result, I never gave up on myself.
This is my tenth year teaching, and every year, I get a new group of students and a new opportunity to make a difference. My own experience has taught me that we can never give up on our students, and that we need to find a way to ensure that all of them succeed. At the bottom of all of my e-mails, I have this signature: “If they don’t learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn.” I am thankful for the teachers that did just this for me, and I will always do this for my students too!
So Oprah Thinks I Care?
I got into education to be a teacher. Think of that statement fore it may be simple but it is powerful. I am here to teach. Not to save, not to comfort, not to emphathise, but to teach. Yet all of these other aspects of the job are things I do gladly, willingly, and often. In fact, every day I look forward to coming to my job, every day, I know that my students will surprise me, amaze me, question me. How many people have that intimate luxury of truly loving what they do. I do, and no matter what Oprah says, or the people who follow her every word; I am making a difference.
Of course, I was as outraged as most after the infamous show on education. Who wouldn’t be when something that they work so hard at every day, that we shed tears over, comes under attack? And then you distance yourself from it, remove yourself from the equation and think about what was truly said. Yes, the educational system in America is in crisis, and yes, there are “bad” teachers, or ineffective ones as Michelle Rhee called them,. And yes, the show forgot to highlight the incredible people that love what they do. And why are we surprised? It is not sensational to tell people that you love your job, or that you work 14 hour days, or you come in on the weekends to set up your room and get ready. It is not shocking that you give students’ rides so they can come to school functions. It is not newsworthy that you spend your summers learning how to be better, smarter, more accountable. And yet, that is what we do. And we do it because we want to.
Teaching is a choice for me. It was never a calling in the true sense of the word, but when I came to it, it was right, and I knew it. I knew that here was a chance for me to reach out and make a difference. Yes, it is a cliche to some but cliche can also mean that it is a universal truth that we all accept and repeat. If you do not believe that you can change the world then you don’t have any business being a teacher. And so what if Oprah focused on the negatives. That is the type of society we have become; negativity sells. Negativity makes people do. And doing is what we need! So while some are waiting for Superman, I keep on going to my job, that I cannot even call a job because I love it that much. And yes, I know I will never be rich and in this society that is a hard truth, but so what? I breathe teaching. I live for these kids. They are my family as much as my husband and daughter are. I am not worried about what Oprah says or anyone else for that matter as long as I know I am making a difference. And no one can take that away from me. So don’t let it be taken away from you!
We Are Not Role Models
The following is a guest post I wrote for @Mrmacnology’s blog, I asked him if I could also post it here.
I am not a role model, nor do I ever fool myself into thinking I am one. Of course, it would be a fabulous designation to have but when I look at my true self in the mirror, I know that I am flawed. Not flawed in a deep serious way, but in a human way. My path did not go straight to teaching but rather to ragtag jobs where I gained human experience, failed attempts, and people to celebrate it all with. And I am proud of that. These scars, bumps and bruises along my life path are what make me, well, me. If I were a role model I would never fail, never falter, always know the right course. If I were a role model, I would know which method lead to direct success rather than bumble along and discover knowledge with my students. The journey would be mapped out with no room for detours and the teaching would take care of itself.
Role models are up there with heroes. People like to proclaim teachers as everyday heroes, as role models, elite self-sacrificing angels that give up their whole lives to rescue the future of America. Yet, we are not self-sacrificing or perhaps even heroes and I think that is a good thing. We are every day people trying our hardest to reach every kid and to more importantly make every kid believe in themselves. If we were heroes or angels, no one could attain to reach our status, no one could want to be like us because we would be too perfect.
So perhaps we are role models in a bruised and battered kind of way. We are role models for the believers, for the thinkers, for the can doers. We are role models for the kids that we embrace, the kids that we cheer on, the kids that we believe in. We are role models for ourselves. But we are not heroes, just ordinary people and that is how I want to stay.
You are Not Alone – Lisa’s Aha Moment
This weeks aha moment is shared by Lisa Dabbs one of the most inspiring and essential members of my PLN. She is an Educational Coach and Consultant and also a former Elementary School Principal and Fed Prog.administrator. Lisa has a B.A. in Child Development and a M.Ed in Educational Administration. but started her career as a Kindergarten teacher. She has also worked as a Project Director of a Language and Literacy program. Lisa is also the creator of the new teacher chat on Twitter #ntchat, which is NOT just for new teachers and involved in many other projects. More importantly, Lisa is a friend and mentor to many and I was honored to have her share her moment with us. Her blog is a must add to your RSS and she is always a must follow to any new educators that stumbles upon Twitter.
Teaching and Mentoring are my Passions!
Sometimes though, good teaching is lost in the busyness of life or due to challenging times, struggling students, feisty kids or tragically; lack of support.
Today is the sharing of my Aha moment. I’m so honored to be asked by Pernille Ripp to guest post on this “moment”. The moment I truly knew that I needed to start a “blog to mentor”. This came in February of this year when I sent a response to a young, new, would be teacher who posted on an education website that she was “Losing hope”…
The teacher will remain anonymous, but the cry for help is so typical of many, creative, enthusiastic teachers I’ve met over the years. Starting their careers passionate about teaching, only to be cut off at the knees by one simple fact: the lack of a mentor who is willing to support, guide and inspire.
The teacher started the post by saying that they had a dream. A dream to be the best teacher they could be. To be the kind of teacher that students would be inspired by. Unfortunately, there were no clear expectations set for this teacher, and worse, no support. This teacher’s perception was that they would be supported, as a first year teacher. Not an unfair expectation by any means. Instead they were placed in a “sink or swim” position. So this teacher sank. And so did my heart…This is absolutely not what you do to new teachers.
Here is a bit of the response that I posted to this young teacher who asked for “positive and encouraging words”:
When I read your words, “I believe I was under the illusion that I had support and help from all angles, when in reality, I hadn’t felt more alone and lost.” My heart went out to you. I was an elementary school principal for 14 years. During those years, I consistently spent time mentoring, supporting, guiding my teachers. If you read the research on why young people like yourself leave the teaching profession, it turns out that it is exactly for those reasons you describe. A school should work to foster a culture where its teachers collaborate and learn from one another. This is at the heart of how educators grow as professionals. However, some of my administrative colleagues still struggle with this piece. We need to do so much better.
I entered the teaching profession at 24 as a Kindergarten teacher. I was fortunate to have come from a long line of educators. However, even with this “DNA” I still encountered a great deal of frustration and anxiety in my first year. I too am a VERY creative person, and I had many ideas about how I wanted to teach my class. I quickly learned, by observing the culture of my school, and having to share a classroom, that I had to harness that creativity into focused, structured, well designed lesson plans. I did so by incorporating those creative ideas in such a way that measurable outcomes were clear and evident. This meant including, sadly, assessments of my Kinders, even “back in the day.” I used a few highly recommended teaching tools from my Child Development course work, as well as others that were recommended to me. I also asked to “observe” other teachers at my school to get a feel for, once again, the culture of the school and what was going to be expected of me. I lived and breathed “teaching” those first few years, and spent nights and weekends reading, creating, planning, all things “Kinder.” The kicker is I too felt very alone, as I did not have a supportive principal, or mentor colleague. My kinder team member was a tenured teacher who believed in “kill and drill” for Kindergarten kids and I was mortified!
The bottom line is that my first few years were rough!
What made me stick it out? I held on to my dream, desire and passion. I held on to the knowledge that I knew the research about what was good for children. I didn’t give up, even when 6 of my 8 K teacher team talked about me behind my back. Did I have a mentor teacher? No. Was it hard? Extremely. But I kept pressing forward because I believed in myself and cared deeply for my students.
We know so much more now about how to retain and support new teachers. The research is very clear and you need a good mentor (or two). You don’t have to stick it out alone, nor should you.
So, in the meantime, I extend a hand to you, as a “creative” tenured educator, if you’d like an on-line mentor. This is my passion. I’m here to offer help and HOPE. Don’t let this one difficult experience defeat you. You are not alone in the “tunnel”. The light is just up ahead. It’s time to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back in the game! I can hear them calling your name!
My Aha moment…my desire to “blog to mentor” and chronicle through photos, interviews and a few short words, what amazing teachers are doing to inspire is still evolving. The heartache this young woman felt, still resonates for me. It continues to motivate me to work to inspire, mentor, equip, teachers to “teach with soul.” I also hold fast to the belief that no educator should have to go through the challenges of the early years of teaching alone…ever. Through my blog and also on Twitter, I hope that I can come alongside and Mentor. The work ahead is challenging…but I’m excited to be on the journey!
When you reflect on your early years of teaching, how did you make it though the tough times?
So grateful to you, Pernille for inviting me to share, my passion.
Rulebreaker
I wasn’t born a rule breaker. In my hometown of Bjerringbro, Denmark, population 7,390, I did not strive to be a rebel without a cause. In fact I was your average tomboy, a middle of the roader, a child deemed living below their potential. I followed the rules set forth because that is what I was told to do. Not specifically by people, but as a child, you just know what the rules are and what the expectations were. Of course, there were small rebellions such as coming home just a few minutes late, or perhaps “forgetting” to do my spelling words (I knew them already so why did I have to write them out 5 times?). So my childhood was not an adventurous one and my adult life seemed to be kind of middle of the road as well. That is until I met my husband, Brandon.
Oh, the tales of love can inspire excitement or convulsions in people. Mine usually gets giggles and aw shucks. You see it was the classic tale of bartender meets bouncer and the rest they say is history. And yet something fundamentally changed for me when I met Brandon. He asked me what I planned to do with my life, and although many had asked that same question before, including my dear mother, with him, I really wanted to impress. I became a teacher, knowing I wanted to reach children, change them, inspire them, listen to them. And yet, I followed the rules. Good teachers graded. Good teachers rewarded. Good teachers told students that if their homework was not done then there would be consequences.
In my gut, I knew something was wrong and yet these were the rules and by signing up to teach, I had signed up for the rules. Never did I stop to question those rules, why should I? They obviously worked, until they didn’t. Last year, my class was a mixed bag of emotions. Various big personalities that needed a lot of love and a lot of patience at times. I learned more in that year of what type of a person I am, than I think I could have in any other profession. I started the year the same way, detailing how to get an A. How to earn a class party, how to get on the awesome board. Basically, how to be the best student they could possibly be. Or did I? Really all I did was tell them the rules and then tell the punishment there would be for breaking those rules. How is that for inspiring the youth of America?
So this summer, after having accepted the fantastic challenge of a combination classroom and joining Twitter searching for others, searching like me, I came upon a tweet from Jeremy (@MrMacnology) to Joe (@Joe_Bower). I stopped because I was surprised. They tweeted about perhaps not grading, perhaps not rewarding, perhaps breaking the rules. I lurked on their conversations, wondering if they would not mind another person asking questions. Finally I held my breath and wrote to Jeremy asking if I could ask him questions. We have collaborated since on a regular basis and I am proud of knowing him.
Grading degrades. It tells a student that no matter how hard they worked, if it does not fit into our rubric, our vision, our plan for them, then they may not get the success they so hoped for. Grades tell students that even though their parents are violently fighting and they can’t do their homework because they are scared, they lose 10% off their grade and get a zero if I don’t get it in a week. Grades tell students that even though they devour books, when they leave the title and author off on a book report, they must not be A+ readers. Grading tells students that have way too much responsibility at the young age of 10, that I don’t care that they had to watch their 4 younger brothers and sisters instead of doing their homework.
We know this as educators. We see the defeat in students’ eyes when they get that grade they did not hope for. We see it in parent/teacher conferences when parents’ zero in on the bad grades rather than all the plusses we so meticulously planted on the report card. You cannot blame the parents; after all, they were part of this system too. We all are. Well, I am not anymore. Or at least I strive to break the rules on this one. I strive to follow my instinct and speak to students about their successes. Listen when they tell me answers that they didn’t know how to spell right. Think when they give me an unexpected explanation. I may not have been born a rule breaker but I have certainly become one. It is in the best interest of my students and myself that I break these rules. There is a better way to teach, we just must not be afraid to try it. Will you break the rules with me?
Oh, the tales of love can inspire excitement or convulsions in people. Mine usually gets giggles and aw shucks. You see it was the classic tale of bartender meets bouncer and the rest they say is history. And yet something fundamentally changed for me when I met Brandon. He asked me what I planned to do with my life, and although many had asked that same question before, including my dear mother, with him, I really wanted to impress. I became a teacher, knowing I wanted to reach children, change them, inspire them, listen to them. And yet, I followed the rules. Good teachers graded. Good teachers rewarded. Good teachers told students that if their homework was not done then there would be consequences.
In my gut, I knew something was wrong and yet these were the rules and by signing up to teach, I had signed up for the rules. Never did I stop to question those rules, why should I? They obviously worked, until they didn’t. Last year, my class was a mixed bag of emotions. Various big personalities that needed a lot of love and a lot of patience at times. I learned more in that year of what type of a person I am, than I think I could have in any other profession. I started the year the same way, detailing how to get an A. How to earn a class party, how to get on the awesome board. Basically, how to be the best student they could possibly be. Or did I? Really all I did was tell them the rules and then tell the punishment there would be for breaking those rules. How is that for inspiring the youth of America?
So this summer, after having accepted the fantastic challenge of a combination classroom and joining Twitter searching for others, searching like me, I came upon a tweet from Jeremy (@MrMacnology) to Joe (@Joe_Bower). I stopped because I was surprised. They tweeted about perhaps not grading, perhaps not rewarding, perhaps breaking the rules. I lurked on their conversations, wondering if they would not mind another person asking questions. Finally I held my breath and wrote to Jeremy asking if I could ask him questions. We have collaborated since on a regular basis and I am proud of knowing him.
Grading degrades. It tells a student that no matter how hard they worked, if it does not fit into our rubric, our vision, our plan for them, then they may not get the success they so hoped for. Grades tell students that even though their parents are violently fighting and they can’t do their homework because they are scared, they lose 10% off their grade and get a zero if I don’t get it in a week. Grades tell students that even though they devour books, when they leave the title and author off on a book report, they must not be A+ readers. Grading tells students that have way too much responsibility at the young age of 10, that I don’t care that they had to watch their 4 younger brothers and sisters instead of doing their homework.
We know this as educators. We see the defeat in students’ eyes when they get that grade they did not hope for. We see it in parent/teacher conferences when parents’ zero in on the bad grades rather than all the plusses we so meticulously planted on the report card. You cannot blame the parents; after all, they were part of this system too. We all are. Well, I am not anymore. Or at least I strive to break the rules on this one. I strive to follow my instinct and speak to students about their successes. Listen when they tell me answers that they didn’t know how to spell right. Think when they give me an unexpected explanation. I may not have been born a rule breaker but I have certainly become one. It is in the best interest of my students and myself that I break these rules. There is a better way to teach, we just must not be afraid to try it. Will you break the rules with me?
Pernille Ripp 