6 to 50: Get gold stars for 'plays well with others'...

How many of you remember paper report cards?


Stolen from the interwebs...don't judge!



Stolen off the interwebs...you think I would show you mine from first grade!?



We do grading electronically nowadays, but I remember the grade card. Take it home. Get it signed. Spend an indeterminate time grounded so you could 'reflect' on the error of your ways and how to improve. Six to nine weeks later, rinse and repeat.
 

Today, we write comments and have a mandatory parent-teacher conference in the fall, but there are students for whom I want to institute paper grade cards. Not the kids you think. We spend a lot of time 'remediating'...struggling students need help and we give it. We can argue methods and effectiveness, but most students who struggle academically or socially are met with a plan by the time we hit conferences.

 

Its the other kids I want to send grade cards home to...the kids who play well in the sandbox or work harder for a B or C than some of my A students do on their papers/projects/homework. I do a mediocre job catching kids doing something right and telling them thank you and over the summer, I am putting a plan in place to fix that for next year.

What is we gave citizenship grades to adults? Here is the sixth thought prior to my countdown to 50:

 

Don't be an a**, think about the others around you before you ...

 

Case in point...movie theaters. We went to X-Men last night at the late show and the people behind us talked during the movie. Mostly they talked to each other about the movie and what was happening. At one point, they spoke a critical piece of dialogue right before the actor did. It was irritating. I looked behind me twice during the movie. You know, the unspoken signal that your actions are affecting other people. Think of it as a Canadian 'Shut up', if you will:

 

 

It worked until the climax of the movie when they couldn't hold back anymore. By then you do the social shaming math and decide it isn't work the drama to say anything for the last ten minutes of the movie.

 

They would not have gotten a gold star for 'plays well with other'.

 

I work with kids who live in the own personal fable. It is all about them and all others are secondary players in their epic Shakespearian masterwork. But they are 14 and part of my job is to help them grow out of it. I spend a lot of time throughout the year talking about John Locke and Social Contract Theory. Civics is all about 'plays well with others'.

 

I would argue that many of our institutions would get middling marks for 'plays well with others', but that is another blog post.

 

Self-interest has always been a part of our DNA-and that is alright. To quote another Marvel movie:

 

Pepper Potts: Is this about the Avengers? Which I know nothing about.

 

Tony Stark: The Avengers initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify.

 

Pepper Potts: I didn't know that either.

 

Tony Stark: Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, and don't play well with others.

 

Pepper Potts: That I did know.

 

But self-sacrifice for the benefit of others has always been a part of that DNA as well.

 

 

Have a great Saturday!

7 to 50: Surround yourself with 'unwitting mentors'

Good morning...

For the next week I am hijacking my own blog.

In one week I will hit one of those milestone years. I am not a birthday person. I don't remember others very well and I don't get too palathered over mine. Yes, Maggie, last year I got palathered, but that was more the iPad than the birthday.

I am reading a interesting book The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out a Window and Disappeared. BTW-I would recommend the book, I am about a third through and it is a charming read. Apparently they've made a movie of the book in Sweden which should be released in the US soon. The trailer is below:

 

 

The book has had me thinking the past few days about turning half a hundred. What advice would I give at the halfway mark. So, for the next seven days, I'm playing with ideas. The first one:

 

You shouldn't be the "smartest", "kindest", "most athletic", "most talented" (insert whatever adjectival whatever here) in the room.



I like to find people who are better than me at something and figure out what I can learn from them.

 

For example:

• A young man who is just starting his career in music has been working with me to be a better singer. He is half my age and he is the teacher and I am the pupil.
• There are history teachers I travel with and collaborate with who unwittingly mentor me to be better at my craft.
• There are countless people who have made me a stronger person of faith by their presence, example, questions and challenges. My first mentors, Bob and Rebecca, challenged me to seek those sorts of people out.

 

It relates to my work with youth as well. In a middle school classroom, I may be the most knowledgeable, but I can promise you I am not the smartest. I work with some gifted kids and there will be a time when their knowledge and abilities will exceed mine. And that is a good thing. That is what is supposed to happen.

 

You can only do that if you are confident in your own abilities. I am a talented singer--but I want to get better, even if the only people who hear are the people in my choir and the church on a couple Sundays a year. (I could get all Kierkegaardian and talk about God as the audience, but we'll save that blog for another day, okay?) I am a good teacher, but I would be a fool not to glean as much from other great teachers. I am also confident in my faith, but in listening and reflecting humbly on whether God is using that person to speak words He needs me to hear, I am strengthening my it. (Sorry, got a little Kierkegaardian again. My apologies.)

You also need to humble yourself. I don't care how old you are, there is more to learn. There is more growth available. There is a great song that refers to stones in a river being washed and honed so that when God picks them up God will: /notice that I am /just a little smother in your hand." My job isn't to be perfect, just a little smoother.

Some of my best experiences have come when humility and confidence align. Sometimes my job is to just get out the way.

“What day is it?" "It's today," squeeked Piglet. "My favorite day," said Pooh.

The last time in a suit and tie for three months!


 

I always warn kids not to wish for some future thing too much. It's fine to look forward and its fine to look back, but it should never get in the way of the now. It was a lesson taught to me by so many coaches, mentors, teachers and parental-types in my life and I am so grateful.

 

Today was the last honors assembly of the year. Tears and laughter and hugs and high fives. The frustrations and dramas of the year are put aside, even if only for a moment, and we come together to send off our young women and men. This last week is a week of moments. We take the eighth grade to a day-long adventure at a YMCA camp in the Flint Hills on Monday. On Tuesday is the Dodgeball Tournament and Talent Show (not at the same time, but ... hmmm). We change locker combinations and start putting awards and medals in the envelopes they get at the end of the assembly. It is an exhausting gauntlet-so out of the schedule we maintained for nine months-but so worth it.

 

I am looking forward to the summer. More time to write and read. Time with family and those grands! I have some ideas I want to play with for next year. I love the break, but truth be told...I start getting excited to be back in the classroom in mid-July. Not ready for grading and meetings, but...to work with my young charges...yeah, mid-July.

 

For my teacher friends who still have a few weeks of school...I hope you enjoy your last few moments with this set of students!

 

For those of us who have said goodbye to the last kiddo and all that is left is preparing the classroom for a summer without students...enjoy that too.

 

I know I will.

 

Only a few times each year is the grading bin empty...it is today!

I love seeing that sign. it means I can read a book and play with a grand without feeling guilty!

 

 





"Don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no orators"

declaration address and dream note--Ford's Theater asked me to write a post for their blog on my experience as a National Oratory Fellow. I asked if their post could be a post on my blog and they said yes... The images and some of the hyperlinks are mine, not theirs.

Charlie Marie McIntire

Editor’s note: Dave McIntire, a middle school teacher at The Independent School in Wichita, Kansas, is a 2013-2014 Ford’s Theatre National Oratory Fellow. Here, he reflects on his experience with the program and the May 2014 National Oratory Retreat and Performance.

I became a grandfather about the same time my students performed on the Ford’s Theatre stage on May 5, 2014. This isn’t my first grandchild, so no Father’s Little Dividend moments happened at the retreat. However, the convergence of these two events has me thinking about how planning for a baby’s arrival and preparing my students for a weekend in Washington, have surprising similarities.

Both events are a long time in coming. It hasn’t escaped my attention that both processes take about nine months. My class started focusing on oratory in September. We played with Podium Points, wrestled with sonnets, explored historic speeches, closely read speeches by Jefferson, Lincoln, King and Roosevelt, and then put pen to paper to express our own thoughts.

For me, the National Oratory Fellows Retreat is a wonderful time, but the process of teaching oratory all year long is the true payoff. Now back from the Retreat, I have been working with my students on their original speeches. This is as rewarding as watching my two young charges, selected from the full class to attend the Retreat, on the stage at Ford’s. That isn’t to take away from the Retreat; it’s just that my students’ insights and courage awe me. What we ask of students as teachers challenges them, and when students meet and exceed these challenges, they inspire.

It’s difficult, even at its best. Learning (and teaching) oratory is hard work. You are asking young women and men, in some of their most awkward moments, to stand in front their peers and open themselves up in a manner even most adults avoid. It requires courage on the part of the student and tenacity on the part of the teacher. And this is when things go well.

Success looks different for each student, and me. Teaching oratory to students in different places as readers or writers means creating various roadmaps, and the act of public speaking itself can make teaching oratory difficult. In some cases, teachers have to encourage students with little confidence to use what they’ve learned to “fake it until they make it.” In other situations, you’re encouraging students who mistake confidence for preparation. You’re telling them that “faking it” isn’t a substitute for hard work. Even the process of selecting two students to represent their class in Washington, D.C., for the retreat made for awkward moments, leaving some kids disappointed. As part of his Ford’s performance, one of my selected kids wisely spoke about how losing hones you for later success; but that knowledge may be little consolation in the moment when you learn your best just missed the mark.

Good teaching transforms those difficult moments into teachable ones. That occurred under the watchful eye of a talented team at Ford’s and the other National Oratory Fellows, who encouraged and cajoled the best out of each other and their students.

 

The people surrounding you are essential to your success. One of my most profound moments  at the retreat was watching the dress rehearsal. As they stood on the Ford’s stage, energy and nerves got the best of some of the kids and they struggled with memory or delivery. You could tell some wanted to step away from the podium, but Lead Teaching Artist Thembi Duncan proved a kind but implacable director. She imbued those kids with a will to adapt and move on. Not one student walked away!

Throughout the year I watched our teaching artist, Victoria Reinsel, work tirelessly with my students and then, as part of the cadre of teaching artists, with (selected students) Reid and Will during the retreat. Victoria is a talented woman who is investing in these students in ways many of them won’t fully comprehend until they’re older.

In addition, most of my students will never comprehend how Associate Director for Arts Education Cynthia Gertsen, the rest of the Ford’s staff and my fellow Oratory Fellows invested in me with their time, resources and camaraderie. Teaching can be a lonely profession and these educators and staff members partnered with me in ways that made me better as a teacher.

It’s a milestone, but it is far from over. Two days after the retreat, I held my grandchild, Charlie Marie, for the first time and I thought, “This is just the start of the adventure.” As my charges move from the middle to the upper school this coming September, this is just the start for them as well. Thanks to Ford’s, my two student delegates as well as their classmates move to their new adventure with skills and insights to build upon.

That’s all a teacher (and grandfather) can ask for.

Dave McIntire is a social studies teacher at The Independent School in Wichita, Kansas, teaching American, Kansas and European History, as well as Civics, Oratory and Research. Before he became an educator nine years ago, he worked as a reporter, youth pastor and professional trainer. He is a 2013-2014 Ford’s Theatre National Oratory Fellow and Remembering Lincoln Teacher Representative, and also has been a Catherine B. Reynolds Civil War Washington Teacher Fellow.

Fun (well fun isn't the word for this but...) with maps

 

 

A PhD candidate from Brandeis University came up with this interactive map showing the spread of slavery in the United States. I'm putting it here so I can book mark the page, but also because its a great tool for both adults and youth to use as we explore how slavery develops where it does.

 

The idea of doing this kind of digital history with my students fascinates me...I want to learn how to teach this to them.

 

BTW-Lincoln Mullen's blog is interesting apart from the map. You should check it out.

Winning and losing a bet... (the day before the Ford's retreat)

 

After a week of ERB testing (don't ask me what the name stands for because I don't know) and working on This I Believe speeches, we needed to blow off some steam. During a break all three of us delivered our speeches for their peers. I had been bet that I wouldn't get my speech done. Two pies to the face. Its been pretty close to done since the weekend, but I didn't tell them that. Since I had the stuff for the pies...why not.

 

BTW-Both of the delegates did a nice job presenting. One is doing an excerpt from King's I Have a Dream speech and one is doing an original oration on how losing teaches you perseverance and problem solving skills. We haven't really played with speechifying for a month or so and they were rusty. that is to be expected. And their audience is trained to call them on it. That being said, they are ready for the Ford's retreat. I am excited to see where the teaching artists take them as speakers over the next few days. But for now, they are ready.

 

I will be too if I can find a sub...my Friday sub just called in sick. Will post more as I go along.

Slavery isn't done with me ... and I am okay with that.

I know its April Fool's Day but a photo has me thinking. I will leave it to Netflix to play with the hearts and minds of Firefly lovers with their announcement. This photograph is no joke.

Source: Library of Congress

Thembi Duncan, a Teaching Artist at Ford's Theater, tweeted the picture yesterday. I had never seen it before and analyzing it was chilling. These young men are the same age as the students I teach. It's title: Juvenile Convicts at Work in the Fields and was taken around 1903.

I have a student who is researching Jim Crow and so I showed it to him and several other students. Their reaction was similar to mine. These are their age-mates. It made segregation and sharecropping and peonage real to them. The fact that this was some 40 years after the Civil War is as unsettling.

When we say slavery ended in 1865, we have to add an asterisk. It ended formally, but the sharecropping system and black codes reconstituted it into a legal status quo that we wouldn't address for another almost hundred years. It is always interesting for my students to realize that there was one group of people who could still be held as 'slaves'. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery except in the case of incarceration-where it was not uncommon for convict to be given 'hard time'. Southerners used that loophole to use the legal system to enslave generations of free blacks, whose only crime was being in the wrong place when a work crew was needed.

A great documentary on peonage--Slavery By Another Name. I've talked about this film before in a previous post.

 

Now, in regards to the title of this post... I know some of you are going to say that slavery then needs to end during the modern Civil Rights era--when most of the Jim Crow laws were struck down and peonage ended. We can argue that the affects of peonage and economics oppression of free blacks still has repercussions today, but that's not where I want to go. These are import issues about which to have a conversation, but I want to move out of the affects of the past to the affects of present.

 

In a post from a couple summers ago, I introduced Slavery Footprint. Slavery Footprint is a quiz you can take to assess how modern day slavery and human trafficking affects you by looking at what you buy, what you eat, what you drive and where you live. The goal of the website is not to shame but to educate. I took the quiz again just now and I currently have 45 slaves working for me. That is still too high, but I am a work in progress... What I like about the website is that, in addition to challenging us to look in the mirror as consumers, it gives us steps to take. I can't change my past, but my actions can change the future.

 

Slavery isn't done with me ... and I am okay with that. Thembi's picture reminded me that I still have work to do in this area. Its hard to admit and even harder to change, but I honestly believe that, by confronting a painful past and a present laced with landmines I sometimes (in my short-sightedness and apathy) don't know even exist, I grow.