The confused English teacher

Just a normal Saturday with some AP Lit kids watching some Gatsby at Crane's house One of my greatest talents is my ability to criticize and rant. I’m really, really good at it. People who know me will tell you, I can spit fire. I can offer scathing critques that wither souls and melt faces, but most of the time, this isn’t wonderfully productive. In fact, it usually changes very little.  So rather than compose another diatribe about the inherent injustice of being a classroom teacher, this post is about being resourceful, about finding a way. Changing the inertia that plagues our education system is a Hurculian task, beyond my scope and abilty. However, changing my classroom, changing those 50 minute periods,  as flawed as they might be, is well within my scope. I am the master of that universe, so what will I, what will we, do with that power? I’m choosing to try. I recently invited my AP students to come over to my house to watch the Great Gatsby movie. It was n

The secret truth is that I made it all up. After 20 years in the classroom, National Board certification and recertification, teacher leadership teams and distinguished evaluations, I feel I have just enough job security to admit the painful, embarrassing secret I believe most teachers keep. We make it all up. In my first job, teaching English at Lake Roosevelt High School at age 23, the truth came as quite a shock. There was no real “curriculum” or even a scope and sequence that laid out the standards or assessments. There was none of that. There was a cupboard of marginally useful books, six 50 minutes periods a day, and three different preps. My job was to make it work. To blend, weave, create, and fake my way through it, take a deep breath, and then do it again the next day. It was incredibly difficult, but I made it. I gradually found my voice and philosophy. I created systems and assignments and units. I developed projects and lessons that seemed worthy of re

Finland To Become The First Country In The World To Get Rid Of All School Subjects This article talks about how Finland is moving away from the isolated, six subjects a day model and embracing the idea of Phenomenon-Based Learning. Basically, a student chooses something to discover, research, learn about and their schooling is built around these topics. Teachers become facilitators and guides, working individually with students to meet their needs and challenge them. Obviously, this is pretty far away from where we are today, but it isn't that far. It reminds me of my Adventure School days at EHS 10 years ago. Once upon a time, we combined English, Social Studies, and Science into thematic, project based  quarter long classes with topics like Environment, Commerce and Trade, and the Cascades. All 9th and 10th graders would take three field trips a quarter based on their theme while doing various project connected to the theme. The big capstone each quarter were projects that st

Our district’s “theory of action” this year is summed up in the acronym IDEA.  Make your classes Irresistible, Deep, Exciting, and Authentic. “Engage your students,” they cry, “make learning electric.” Adding to that idea, I am now in the Instructional Leadership Cadre, which in all honesty I did not understand before I signed up. The cadre’s mission seems to be to take risks, to push our lessons to incorporate deeper thinking, increase student agency and the authenticity of our lessons, to find ways to better leverage technology, and then to share those efforts. It seems I have thrust myself to the forefront of this initiative. But how does one do all  that? While the district message is loud, it is short on details. What does one put aside? What about common assessments, state standards, and the scope and sequence we’ve built over the years? Is this just another slogan that will join the stack of slogans that have been championed for a year and then pushed aside? How does this