on integrity.

Shortly after The Oprah Show aired it’s last hour of heart-wrenching, influential programming in 2011, I would lean on google for inspirational Oprah quotes when I needed a pick-me-up.  Today I do the same with Michelle.  

"At the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and  your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are." -Michelle Obama

We are the presidents of our classrooms where values matter.  

Reflecting on this revelation, I’m thinking more and more that education is all about integrity.

Do we respect the process of teaching and learning and everything in between?  Do we commit to doing what’s right, despite the potential backlash?  

The truth is, teachers become teachers to make a serious impact.  Many believe it’s their duty to contribute to social justice in this country.  We work thirteen hour days instead of eight, because we refuse to offer our kids mediocrity.  

Integrity, like most core values, has a spectrum, and being the human beings that we are, sliding up and down the scale at times is understandable.  

As educators though, why aren’t we holding on to this value for dear life?  Why do we end up selling out to  fear, pressure or our competitive nature?  

Good people teach to the test.  Good people use sterile formulaic processes to teach the art of narrative writing.  Good people teach science all year out of a textbook.  Is this integrity?

Teachers know what’s right, but we cave.  And if we don’t cave we must swallow our pride and stand tall when our effectiveness is questioned and our student projects are overlooked for a shiny piece of golden assessment data.  

For me, the integrity pieces falls hard here: Why don't the things that count in life, count in schools? Why don’t our assessments match the creative and critical thinking experiences required for real life success?

What message is this sending kids?  And would you teach your own child the way you teach your students?

I think schools do a fantastic job praising and encouraging core values.  Students are recognized for honesty, compassion and perseverance by committed school communities.  There really is nothing like a kid’s face when he gets a solid compliment.  

But as for high stakes, we reward the bottom line. Numbers. Numbers count.  

No, not introspective poetry.  Not a killer hypothesis proved correct by the good ‘ol scientific method. Not a historical case study to be analyzed with evidence and theory.  

Although this kind of learning is celebrated, it’s not what we use to measure student mastery or teacher effectiveness, which is why so many teachers skip the projects and the deep rooted socratic seminars just to cover more content.  

In the end, teachers have to make a choice whether they want breadth or depth.  Breadth can pull some good scores in the short term, but depth holds strong for life.  Depth and meaning sticks.  

Staying true to your integrity can be a lonely road in education these days, but the long term effects on kids can be monumental.  And worth it.  

So what then?  I think the first step is being honest with ourselves about what kind of teacher we are, and who we want to be...loving ourselves but pushing to be better than the day before...

What kind of teacher do you want to be?

Power to the teacher!

on parent communication.

Backyard barbecues are where it’s at.  Burgers and beer, family and friends and (unless you’re grilling) nothing to do but kick back and catch up with your people.   

No matter the occasion, we are usually welcomed with the basics, like, “How’s your job going?” Or, “What’s new with you?”  And almost always, “How’s so and so doing?”  

These days, I’m usually greeted with inquiries about my baby girl, and I can’t help but wonder how these questions will evolve over time.  “How’s she doing in school?  Is she still dancing?”

Parental pride is something fierce.  Although I’m still a rookie, there’s no denying that sprinkled over the cupcake of unconditional love, lies pride.  

In education, I sometimes have to remind myself that this is someone’s child.  After mentally running through the phone conversation, but before I press call on the saved parent contact, I take a deep breath.  Be honest, Kelli, but don’t be harsh.  This is someone’s kid.  

Wishing I reported more positive behaviors to parents, I recently asked myself...why don’t I?  

Making a pros and cons list, I came up with six pros and just one con.  The obvious con will go unnamed because we all just know.

Pros for Increasing Positive Parent Calls

1. Praising students to parents may improve parent/child relationships.
2. Praising students to parents may improve teacher/student relationships.
3. Valuing academic or social/emotional student accomplishments reinforces positive behaviors in the classroom.  
4. Calling home about school, might bring conversations about student learning to a family’s 21st century “dinner table.”   
5. Taking the time to acknowledge the little things, may build self-confidence, especially in students who need it.  
6. Kids who always do the right thing want their parents to know, too.   

In this reflection, I’ve dared myself to take on a ten day challenge.  Contact one parent per day regarding positive student behavior. Ten days, two school weeks.  

I dare you to do the same...  You just might change backyard barbecue conversation for months!  

How’s Jacob doing?

Oh, he’s so good.  His teacher just called about how he always asks great questions in science class.  Tell em, baby.  Tell ‘em about science!  (insert proud mama grin)

And who knows, becoming habitual about positive parent phone calls might lift our teacher spirits, too.

Power to the teacher.   

on schools on boats.

Imagine teaching on a barge.  A barge.  No not because you are homeschooling your children as your family transports goods from state to state.

Imagine teaching on the kind of barge that facilitates projects that tackle erosion problems, social and community issues and aims to improve environmental conditions in your region, Southeast Louisiana.  

The rapid loss of land makes the region more vulnerable to storm surges caused by hurricanes, and Plaquemines Parish experienced severe damage from storms in 2005 and 2011.

“We literally have populations that are going to have to move,” Cochran said. “And America has really never done that.” (USA TODAY)

Check out the two minute video of New Harmony High School here.  It’s revolutionary!

Coming off Mother Earth’s Rebellion of 2017, it makes me think that schools like this, are exactly what we need.  

Like many metropolitan cities (though New Orleans feels far from metropolitan), we have a thriving arts scene here.  It’s the birthplace of jazz, a culinary paradise and just driving through the French Quarter or Bywater will make you feel like you're in an actual painting.  

We have one of the best creative arts schools in the country, NOCCA, and the middle and high school marching bands performing at Mardi Gras keep the crowds dancing hard in the moonlight.  

Money talks, though, and school funding comes from test scores, not from student-run urban gardens.  Unless your child has the privilege of being accepted to one of these innovative and thriving schools that kids absolutely love, then these things become extracurricular.  

Sticky, make it sticky they say.  Well if we want to make the curriculum sticky, then why not embed the core subjects into projects that matter?  

We don’t all need a 10 million dollar grant, like this cool school on a boat, but we do need the freedom as teachers to integrate the core content areas into learning experiences that matter to kids.  

So, until teachers have that freedom and as benchmarks and bubble sheets slowly swallow us whole, we will dream of a day when the testing obsession bubble pops...and our students won’t have to wait until once a year for The Science Fair.  

Thirteen years from now, I will send my daughter to a school like NOCCA or New Harmony High. And I will be that crazy mom that does whatever it takes to get her in.

By then though, I hope this kind of education is the norm...just how we do things in this country. Imagine the possibilities...

Power to the teacher!

on being yourself-not the teacher next door.

Names and locations have been protected in the following teacher tale so that I may never receive an angry email or lawsuit for slander, but this is real talk, my friends.   

Blatant sarcasm, yelling at kids, laughing at kids, out-right embarrassing kids was common practice in Ms. X’s classroom.  Only two years my senior, she intimidated me more than I care to admit.   

Bible verse preaching and snarky threats echoed throughout her classroom in Some City, USA.  Middle schoolers cried outside her door.  Administration often turned their heads on some cringe-worthy threats she made during her militant silent transitions.

At least the halls are quiet, they thought.  

Despite my initial gasp at this sort of teaching and management style, whatever I was doing was not working, and whatever she was doing earned her straight up respect and compliance 98% of the time.

Oh, did I mentioned we shared the same students?  Same kids, different subject.  

Still in my early teaching years, I played it safe and rarely pushed boundaries, so this was new to me.  Several years later, this kind of teacher behavior doesn’t surprise me.  There’s at least one in each school, with their “whatever it takes” practices.  Maybe not this extreme, but close enough.  

As a newbie, I remember thinking, nothing about this teacher will ever be me.  

And as the story goes, though, she had control of her students and I did not.  Her students always listened and mine did not.  The parents loved her.  

Students feared Ms. X but they laughed in my face.  Needless to say, one of my administrators suggested I collaborate with her on classroom management practices and assigned me to a “Classroom Management 101” mandatory PD class with seven of my fellow teacher friends.  

Should we be more like Ms. X? We debated.  It was only October and we wanted our students to learn, already!

“Off the record, Kelli.  That kind of management doesn’t work, long-term,” my favorite teacher coach explained.

It was November by now, and things were improving slightly.

“Well, why do her kids listen and mine don’t?” I whined.  

“Do you want your classroom to feel like that?

“Um, no.”

“Well then have patience and you will get your groove and so will your kids.  Just be patient,” he whispered.

And so I did. I used my cheesy rap writing talents and focused on building student relationships until eventually I gained more respect.  

Flash forward to June of that year...all staff gathered to celebrate yearly student gains and our freshly released state test scores.  Sharing my “team table” with Ms. X, while making class lists for the following school year, she confidently reminded our table that she doesn’t have behavior issues with any of the students, so we could put them wherever.  

Smiling and nodding while simultaneously pinching my other colleague, it was time for the big reveal of the state test results.  

“Drumroll please..” Our principal hummed.  

In true charter school fashion, teacher names projected on the screen, ranked by overall raw test scores.  Although this practice makes me wanna vomit, I looked anyway.

Guess who was number one in grades 3-8 and guess who was at the bottom?  Yes, (shameless brag) my kids rocked the test.  

At that time I didn’t know any better, and held on to test scores to prove teacher effectiveness.  So I’ll reiterate that, at the time, I was proud.  Not because they bombed in her class, but because with the help of family, friends and teacher coaches, I stayed true to my educational beliefs and my students succeeded.  

I share this teacher tale not to persuade you to ignore the teaching practices of those different from you.  We should learn from each other, and even more so from teachers outside our comfort zone.  In the case of Ms. X, I learned not only who I was, but also who I wasn’t.   

Ultimately though, we know that what’s best for our kids is that we are comfortable in our own skin.  We have to believe that we are doing what’s right for our students, so that they can reach their true potential.

More than a decade later, I still compare myself. I still wonder why I can't be like the teacher next door. Even though I know, I still do it way too much.  

Thinking back to my favorite teacher coach, I know he had it right.  Be patient, you’ll eventually get your groove and so will your kiddos. It really is the truth. 

Power to the teacher!