It Isn't Over till it's Over, UVA

I stood in the crowd and sang the Good Ol' Song as I was glad that Pres. Sullivan had been reinstated. She was doing a fine job with the tough hand she had been dealt before the events of the last sixteen days. To want that job back after what she's been through speaks to her honor, grace, and determination -- all solid Virginia values.

But I don't think this episode can be over yet. The University is still under investigation from our accrediting agency given the underhanded way in which Pres. Sullivan was originally asked to leave. The person who orchestrated the whole opaque scheme remains in her position as rector. Gov. McDonnell has the choice to reappoint her by Friday.

I am a Christian. I believe in forgiveness. I do believe that Ms. Dragas thought she was acting in the best interests of the University. But I also believe in stewardship. The people of Virginia have asked Ms. Dragas to be a steward of the University and she mismanaged that stewardship. Admitting a mistake is not enough to correct it. Until Ms. Dragas leaves the Board of Visitors, we have no real reason to believe that the Board of Visitors has learned anything about the value of transparency and community buy-in.


I think this situation has given us an opportunity to talk about a lot of things -- the political nature of the make-up of the Board of Visitors, the need for a voting faculty member (and perhaps a voting student, as well), and just what FOIA laws mean in terms of closed meetings (note that there was room to make a personnel decision in front of everyone today). Before those conversations can continue, however, the University needs to be healed as a community. I do not see how that can happen until Ms. Dragas leaves.

If the board's vote of support for Ms. Dragas was a kind way to let her save face until she steps down on Friday, they have done something civil. If the vote signals an intention to allow someone capable of such mismanagement to remain in power for another two years, I cannot in good faith donate to the University until Ms. Dragas is gone and more sensible leadership installed. If you feel the same way, I encourage you to let Gov. McDonnell know. I reckon we'll see what happens later this week!

Summer Reading List

As I finish up with my yearly re-reading of Cold Mountain, it's time for the summer reading list! This summer's list is going to be much smaller in than in years past. Hopefully, I can get through these few great titles.

Fiction
River of Earth - James Still (suggested by many great people at the writers' conference I attended; still not sure how I haven't gotten to it yet)
East of Eden - John Steinbeck (because it's finally time)

Nonfiction
The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin (an Easter present from Mama that I still haven't read)
The Defining Decade: why your twenties matter and how to make the most of them - Meg Jay (She's a UVA professor who I've heard talking about this book on NPR. Plus I've only got four and a half years left in my twenties)
The Political Brain - Drew Westen (started but never finished)

Young Adult Literature
Looking for Alaska - John Green (because Dr. Matthews-Meth said so)
Wonder - RJ Palacio (because Kate said so)

I'm still looking for one other YAL book to round this group out. Any ideas, y'all? Also, I'm purposefully staying away from teacher books this summer. I've read so many since starting grad school in 2009, I think my brain needs a break to process all the ideas floating around up there and make them my own.  

Guest Blogging

I wanted to take a moment and thank all the great folks who have had me as a guest blogger lately. My lovely first-year RA Ann studies best practices in data collection and use. She was kind enough to ask me to write about how teachers should and shouldn't evaluate (and by evaluated by) data. Her blog on evaluation provides an important voice for those trying to balance qualitative and quantitative measures of success.

The amazing Kristen just finished up at Curry and is traveling the globe seeking an international teaching job. She's so brave and awesome. She also helps run a blog for teachers in the Curry community called Curryed Away and asked me to write a little bit more about my search for my own classroom management strategy.

Jessica is working on a project about Faithful Democrats. While I try to keep my faith and my politics out of the classroom, both did inform my decision to become a teacher and I will have a post a little bit about that on her blog in the future.

Please add these lovely blogs to your reading lists!

How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation

Hello friends! In case you were wondering, I do plan to update the blog over the summer. Today is just the first day that I've gotten a little breathing room to do so. I went immediately from the end-of-year teacher work day to a two-week writers' conference at Radford University. This conference not only gave me a lot of wonderful ideas about prompts in the classroom and helped me work on my own writing, I'm now only one class away from being able to teach dual enrollment English!

My first weekday back in town, I headed over to the new school where I'm working to meet with the twelfth grade curriculum team. I went back the next day to put the finishing touches on my first week plans and continue to get a feel for the space (I anticipate having to ask students for directions a lot in the first couple of weeks). Now, I'm spending most of my mornings planning because I have two completely new-to-me classes next year. In the afternoons, I volunteer at a campaign office. It's not hiking the AT, but as far as summer goes, it'll do.

I think I'd be remiss to talk about how this isn't really a vacation. I have work to do every day. I'm trying to plan through my first unit for tenth and twelfth grade so I can take most of July off to rejuvenate and be ready to go when I start my new teacher orientation in the first week of August. This is the first break I've had where I haven't had grading or reading to do. And before you think "Oh, Maggie is my friend and she's a hard worker. What about all those other lazy teachers?" let me tell you that one of the science teachers at my old school just took the SADD club to a national conference for her start to the summer, one of my curriculum teammates was headed to a conference on how to make the senior year English curriculum align best to the worlds of work and college, and a lot of my teacher friends have found summer jobs in the service industry to supplement what they make during the year.

My favorite part of the summer so far is being able to go to the ladies' room whenever I need to without getting someone to cover for me. My second favorite part will be catching up with all of y'all I missed during my crazy first year. Drop me a note so we can hang out!

I Am

I've been wanting to tell you all about some of the tools I used to help first block get focused on our academic community for the last few weeks of school, but things have been so crazy here! I had to blend some more punitive measures with some more information about why making the choice to be kind can benefit us and the people around us.

We had to pause both our sharing time after free writes and our weekly community meetings. I told students that I wanted to hear their voices but that the voices they share with the community need to be helpful to the group as a whole. It's a distraction from the work we have to do when I have to spend my time policing sexist jokes, students calling out, and words that are just plain mean and unhelpful.

Instead, I used the random acts of kindness slips our school uses to hold weekly drawings to have students think about who has helped them throughout the week. After two weeks of no sharing and no community meeting, I saw students really thinking about who they wanted to honor with their slips. We added back in free write sharing and the responses were longer, more thoughtful, and helped create a more positive atmosphere. A week after that we went back to our community meetings where students were then able to ask for things like a checklist of end-of-semester work and a more consistent enforcement of the bathroom/break policy. Throughout the second half of the semester, students have been able to earn points and when they get to ten as a class, there is a reward. They are just over halfway toward their third reward.

To get us all thinking about why the way we treat others matters just as much as the content we need to study, we watched Tom Shadyac's wonderful documentary I Am at the recommendation of another English teacher. Shadyac, who directed a slew of Jim Carrey movies, explores the science behind kindness (he is also a fellow 'Hoo!). The scientists he interviews explains that evolution has created in us a genetic need to help other humans. Our attention was captured by the scientific study of how a person's feelings can physiologically affect another person's feelings by electricity given off by the heart. At one point during the film, Shadyac sits facing a small dish of yogurt that is hooked up to a device that measures the electricity flowing through the yogurt's cultures. When Shadyac, who is not physically connected to the yogurt, thinks about experiences and people that are stressful (ex-wife, lawyer, agent, etc.), the electricity increases in the yogurt. Students had to analyze the documentary as a vehicle for presenting research as well as explain how they could apply what they learned from the video in our classroom community.

Finally, two girls from my eleventh grade class offered to come and speak to the ninth graders. I knew this would be risky, but I was proud of how the girls explained that they used to cut up in school and disrespect teachers. As they have grown up, however, they have realized just how beneficial learning and positive relationships with teachers can be. A few days after that, Student J wrote that letter I shared in my last blog post.

We aren't perfect in first block. I had to refer a student to the office after he lied to me about his whereabouts during an extremely long bathroom break. That student, however, ended that day coming to talk to me about how sorry he was about lying, that he didn't realize he was lying when he did, and that he also knew that our conversation didn't affect his consequences. He said he just wanted me to know that he was sorry and hadn't meant to be disrespectful when I tried so hard to show him respect and understanding after the recent passing of his older brother.

 Knowing what I do about the crazy teenaged brain, I believe that he was  telling the truth about lying instinctively rather than maliciously. I also know that we built some trust in the last few weeks. What fifteen-year-old boy comes to shed a few tears about his older brother's death with a teacher he doesn't trust? I will be grateful for the rest that comes after the school year ends, but I can't really say that I will be glad to see the students go on Friday.

Dear Ms. Thornton

Dear Ms. Thornton,

I want to say that I am sorry. I just want to let you know some things. First is that when I came to your class I thought you were kind of weird. But that's how I feel about all my teachers at first. Then I learned that you care but we were blinded by stupitity and obnoxiousness. Over the past month I think that I've seen you trying to reach out and help us. I think that the talking is going to stop. Second being in your classroom helped me realize when there is a time for fun there's also a time for work. It's not always possible to mix the two in a way that's not distracting. You have helped me grow up. You have helped me see that what I was doing was distracting and that it needed to stop. I now realize now that ou are a very interesting, fun teacher. And that just as much as I think I need respect, so do you. And if you're wondering, my mom didn't make me write this. I felt responsible, too. So, I just want to say sorry. Senseriously.

Your new friend,

J

An Update from First Block

Good morning friends! I'm rushing off to work in a few minutes, but I wanted to share something that happened in first block with one of my very toughest students.

Ms. T: We're going to do silent sustained reading today for just about fifteen minutes today so you can wet your whistle with your new books.

Student who is Typically Trouble (under his breath and upset about spending less time than usual on reading): Awww, man.

Student Who Loves to Call Out: What does wet your whistle mean?

Student who is Typically Trouble: Dude, you know what it means. Stop talking so we can start reading.

I've got approximately one and a half kids I can't quite get to in this class and just three and a half weeks left to do it, but I could have ended the school year on that exchange right there.