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Last summer, a local non-profit organization called Great Oakland Public Schools hired me to be the manager of teacher leadership. The primary objective of this job is to organize and lead a think-tank of Oakland teachers, who will analyze elements of education reform and policy with an eye toward creating an agenda that we can present to our district and union. In this role, I have been interviewing numerous teachers here in Oakland, CA. Two or three times each week, I got together with a fellow local teacher to sip coffee and chat about school reform and educational policy.
“Don’t surprise your principal,” I remember Mr. Faeth saying.
He was the principal who hired me for my first teaching job. I was teaching world history and civics at a continuation high school in Eureka, California. “If you are going to have your class read a controversial article or book or if you are going to watch a movie with any questionable content, I need to know about it in advance,” he continued. “That way if a parent calls me asking about the article or the movie, I can tell her that you and I have talked and these are the educational merits of the material.”
I am sick at heart today as I write. It’s taken me days to just deal with my grief.
Two weeks ago, a former student of mine was shot and murdered as he sat in his car listening to music. I was at his funeral last week. Sitting in the funeral parlor; waiting to bury another student; wondering if there was something else I could have said or done differently; and shaking my fist in impotent rage at the persistent violence and poverty that lurk in the neighborhoods of too many of my students; all of this is the worst part of my job.
Over December, my students at Skyline High School in Oakland worked on four school-reform proposals. This project is the child of summer work that my colleagues and I did with the Buck Institute for Project Based Learning and my recent trip to Finland.
Over December, my students at Skyline High School in Oakland worked on four school-reform proposals. This project is the child of summer work that my colleagues and I did with the Buck Institute for Project Based Learning and my recent trip to Finland.
Over the past month, my students at Skyline High School in Oakland have been working on four school-reform proposals. This project is the child of summer work that my colleagues and I did with the Buck Institute for Project Based Learning and my recent trip to Finland.
Last month, I went to Finland with PDK International for ten days of visiting schools and talking to teachers and educational professionals about educational policy and school reform.
I’ve been thinking about how to better connect the two parts of my job as a teacherpreneur. To closer tie the fifth graders in my classroom to the policy and teacher leadership work I do outside those classroom walls. Sometimes serendipitous moments erupt, and it all blends together.
What would our students say about transforming education? Well, I asked 'em! My fifth grade students give their advice on changing our schools.
This blog originally appeared on Ed Week Teacher and can be found here.
Crunched for time? Don't worry...here is the two minute version. Including two of my students explaining non-verbal cues in conversation (They are precious!). Watch it while you are pouring your coffee tomorrow morning.
Blogs
The Implementing Common Core Standards (ICCS) team blogs about best practices for integrating common core standards into the classroom.
The TeacherSolutions 2030 team blogs about improving the teaching profession between now and the year 2030.
Megan M. Allen is a National Board Certified Teacher and the 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year. She is a proud fifth-grade teacher in Tampa and a 2012-13 CTQ teacherpreneur.
Barnett Berry is the Founder and President of the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), Inc., based in Carrboro, NC. CTQ seeks to dramatically improve student learning by advancing teaching as a 21st-century, results-oriented profession. He wrote TEACHING 2030 with 12 accomplished teachers.
Dan Brown is a teacher and the author of The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle. His writing has also appeared in The Boston Globe, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, and Education Week. He is a co-author of TEACHING 2030.
Jessica Cuthbertson is a teacherpreneur who divides her time between teaching 6th-grade literacy in Aurora, CO, and supporting teacher leadership through the Denver New Millennium Initiative.
Bill Ferriter teaches 6th grade language arts in North Carolina, where he was named a Regional Teacher of the Year for 2005-2006.
John Holland is an artist, a teacher, a writer, and an innovator. After 12 years as a preschool teacher, John began working at Early Head Start/Head Start Program as a child development specialist. He is a co-author of TEACHING 2030.
Jessica Keigan is a secondary language arts teacher at Horizon High School in Thornton, CO, and a teacher leader for the Denver New Millennium Initiative.
Ryan Kinser is a 6th grade English teacher in Hillsborough County, Florida. After a career in television production, Ryan taught in urban Washington as a D.C. Teaching Fellow. He is a member of the Hillsborough New Millennium Initiative.
Renee Moore has taught English and journalism for 20 years in the Mississippi Delta region at both high school and community college levels. She is National Board Certified, a former state Teacher of the Year, and a co-author of TEACHING 2030.
Dave Orphal is a teacher in Oakland, CA. Dave serves as a veteran teacher leader for the Bay Area New Millennium Initiative and works with the California Teachers Association's Institute for Teaching.
Ariel Sacks teaches eighth grade English at a middle school in Brooklyn, NY. She has published articles about her work in Teacher Magazine and is a co-author of TEACHING 2030.
Mark Sass has taught public high school for 18 years and has been involved in various leadership positions and policy discussions in Colorado. Mark is a member of the inaugural Aspen Teacher Leader Fellows.
In addition to our regular transformED bloggers, we frequently feature guest posts written by teachers involved in CTQ communities. We welcome teachers to share their reflections and expertise on transformED.
Jose Vilson is a math teacher, coach, and data analyst for a middle school in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. He is a co-author of TEACHING 2030.
Noah Zeichner is a National Board Certified Teacher in Seattle. He currently serves in a hybrid teaching role, dividing his time between teaching social studies and supporting CTQ's global teacher leadership initiatives.
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