In less than twelve minutes, National Board Certified Teacher and author Roxanna Elden with humor and candor distills the crucible facing new teachers and their students. I’ve embedded the video below; it’s an extremely worthwhile watch.

Within the TED-style talk, Elden mentions her book See Me After Class, which I’ve read and can attest is a must-have for any new and prospective teachers. She facetiously refers to it as “Hard Liquor for the Teacher’s Soul.”

 Anyway, Elden, a Miami high school teacher who just finished her tenth year in the classroom, is one to watch. My favorite line in her speech: "...New teachers propping themselves up on energy drinks and constantly measuring themselves against a fictional [superteacher] character are a lot more likely to make avoidable mistakes."

We need more teachers with her communication skills. Here is the video: 

The Myth of the Super Teacher from EdWriters on Vimeo.

What Teaches Make

Taylor Mali’s brilliant performance poem “What Teachers Make” has over 3.8 million views on YouTube. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s a must-see.

Mali, a former teacher and now full-time globe-trotting poet/advocate/recruiter for the teaching profession, has followed up his most successful poem with a book of the same title.  I read it in 2 sittings and it made me feel great— it’s a highly recommended “just-cause” or end-of-year gift for a teacher in your life. 

The small, novelty-sized hardcover is broken into 26 vignettes, with several of Mali’s poems mixed in. The book has heart and Mali’s love of teaching shines through. What elevates What Teachers Make above the next paean to teachers on the shelf is Mali’s irreverence and a keen ability to tell big stories with short word counts. He also gave me a few ideas for tweaks in my own classroom, most notably in the chapter titled “No One Leaves My Class Early For Any Reason.” I do need to tighten up about that. 

What Teachers Make is filled with enjoyable anecdotes and nuggets of wisdom. It’s a light, recommended read. Here’s one epitomizing pearl to from the first chapter, ”Making Kids Work Hard”: 

“[Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger asked an aide to produce a report. The aide submitted his report, but it was returned to him later that afternoon with a note from Kissinger that said: “I’m sorry. This is not good enough.” The aide felt like he’d been busted because he knew Kissinger was right. He made the report significantly better and re-submitted it, but it came back again with a similar note: “This is still not nearly good enough. Now the aide was scared! He canceled his plans for the evening and stayed up all night working on the report. He caught careless errors he hadn’t seen before and added a section of analysis that tied the whole thing together. He felt he had done his absolute best, so instead of just submitting the report as he had done twice before, he made an appointment to deliver the report to Kissinger personally. “Mr. Secretary,” he said, “I have written this report three times and twice you have sent it back saying it was not good enough. Sir, what I am handing you no is the absolute best I can do, so if it is still not good enough, then I am not the right person for the job.” Kissinger thanked him, smiled, and took the report, adding, “Excellent. This time I will actually read it.”

We did it. It’s winter break.

The lurch to the holidays is traditionally one of the hardest stretches of the year— the wastelands of early November and March are the up there too— but it’s all over now. We made it!

I’m about to take a few days away from classroom thoughts. I’m not going to worry about the midterm exams and study guides I have to create before January 3. Or my formal observation that happens the week we go back. Or my seniors who are melting down at the crux of college application season.

 It’s a sweet feeling. I started watching Breaking Bad, and it’s extremely good. I’m reading a novel— City of Thieves by David Benioff— purely for pleasure and I’m relishing every page. Today I slept till eight o’clock. Eight o’clock!

But before I let myself go into an interim period of mental hibernation, I want to take a glimpse back at 2010, and invite you to do the same in the comments section. As teachers, reflection is our lifewater.

BEST 3 MOMENTS TEACHING

1. My students performing scenes from Henry V onstage at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. They completely impressed themselves after initial murmurs at the start of the unit that it was an impossible mission.
2. Distributing copies of the senior class literary anthology to which all of my students had contributed.
3. Finding out one of my top students had been accepted to his dream school, USC.

Observation: All of my favorite moments came at the end of the year. For most of the year you plant seeds, and the fruits rarely show until the end, after the end, or out of your sight.

WORST 3 MOMENTS TEACHING

1. Realizing that I had not adequately kept in touch with a parent whose kid was failing. The parent gave me an earful and I deserved it. The focus should have been on the student who had fallen down on her responsibilities, but I muddled the situation by not being on top of my end.
2.  Drawing significantly lower than hoped-far attendance at parent-teacher  conferences.
3. Witnessing one of my favorite students experience a complete academic collapse.

Observation: Some things are out of my control, but I need to do everything I can to encourage kids on the fringe. When I don’t, catastrophe ensues and I’m a complicit party. It feels awful.

BEST EDUCATION BOOKS

1. The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch
2. The Flat World and Education by Linda Darling-Hammond
3. A Set of 35: Notes of Those Who Made It by the SEED Public Charter School Class of 2010

BEST STUFF TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2011

1. Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools… Now and in the Future by Barnett Berry & the TeacherSolutions 2030 team of brilliant teacher-heroes.
2. The American Public School Teacher: Past, Present and Future, a comprehensive volume drawing on 50 years of education data and featuring commentaries from a host of stakeholders, including yours truly. More information to come as publication nears.
3. Race to Nowhere, a documentary film on pressures plaguing our teens 

What was memorable in your 2010?

Maybe you don’t need to see Waiting for Superman to get the gist of the movie. Taiwanese animator-geniuses already have it covered. What’s unnerving in the clip is how frighteningly accurate the documentary’s presentation of public school teachers as hapless, self-interested clowns actually is.