[…]phone rang with an unfamiliar number. In the job game, they only call with good news—bad news comes in the mail. The relief I experienced after this was the first sign that I should have made a change sooner. That night, as my son yelped along to the music of my husband’s dissertation performance by the symphony orchestra at Indiana University Bloomington, I felt pure elation. My choice to leave the classroom in that moment was incredibly easy. I was miserable, and having an end in sight changed everything. But I still felt this huge sense of loss when the […]
[…]those needs. Emphasizing that he was there to support our principal helped Mr. Alvarez gain comfort with the idea of leading this protocol. Although I did not see the results of the protocol or receive any details of the meeting, when I followed up, both Mr. Alvarez and Ms. Gillingham told me they were pleased with how it went. While having the leadership engage in a protocol was nice, the reason I consider this such a success is how it impacted Mr. Alvarez. I’m in my last semester as the math department lead, and Mr. Alvarez is set to take […]
[…]people worked together. As I reacclimated to my new life in the United States, I wondered what “working together” might look like for me. I did not have to wait long to find out. While I was a graduate student and research assistant at the University of Missouri, the university announced the day before our health care was set to be renewed that they would no longer be providing it. We were workers, the university calmly explained, but we were not employees. How could this be? I heard the story of the grad student in the hospital, about to give […]
[…]of the existence of a feeling That makes some teachers magical, inspiring, and appealing. This “it” factor of sorts cannot be learned from a book; Sometimes it’s wit and humor, or a reassuring look, Sometimes it’s being flexible when no one else will budge, Sometimes it’s holding ground when students need a steady judge, And sometimes it is age, gender, background, race, or creed That helps establish bonds that a certain student needs. So what is the persona that I’ve crafted and presented? Is this really me, or a character I’ve invented? If I’m always intentional, does it make me […]
[…]the regional teacher observation group I helped organize helped me appreciate the importance of working with “machines.” How I came to see the machines around me Sometimes, the work of a group is reliant upon the superhuman efforts of a few individuals manually catching every ball in the air and tying each loose end. There is no defined process; it is just “Alex’s thing.” Nobody really knows how he does it, but thank goodness he does! The group’s outcomes are dependent on a few specific crank-turners; without them, nothing moves, and the group ceases. We all know these sorts of […]
[…]and struggle to make new friends. I will always remember how welcoming they were and how comfortable they made me feel. I knew the support I would gain from being a part of this group would make a difference for me from the start. At lunch, I learned how the group was established. Two teachers in the region, Meg Gildea and Abby Daane, wanted to develop a larger learning community among teachers in the Pacific Northwest to increase opportunities to learn from each other and their different contexts. Abby and Meg started NWRF with informal dinner meet-ups. As the group […]
[…]Week 3 to Week 5. The students provided insight to me that, because they didn’t learn anything “new” and instead were just revising old work, the week didn’t “feel” hard. I was able to not only explain the rationale for having weeks like this, but also hear from them about how we could ensure that their brains were still working hard (like having a warm-up with a new idea or a short lecture at some point during the week). In the end, improvement science and our entire network helped me identify new ways of collecting data about my students. Furthermore, […]
[…]are part of how my students and I work together and how we talk together, and how I can be there for them.” Content warning: This story contains themes of childhood trauma and mental illness. Download Article Download Audio Transcript Kirstin Milks, a Knowles Senior Fellow and an editor-in-chief of Kaleidoscope, learns with and from AP Biology and Earth/space students at Bloomington High School South in Bloomington, Indiana. She’d like to thank the participants of the Beyond Words workshop at the 2018 Knowles Teacher Initiative Summer Meeting, the staff of Kaleidoscope, and her family for helping her learn to tell […]
[…]directions than you planned for. I’m a flexible person, but not every teacher is going to be comfortable with this. Much like the situation with my students in their stoichiometry unit, I had (in a sense) set the teachers in my district up for failure. I didn’t want teachers to run to their classrooms and try this strategy, then discover it looked nothing like the video I showed. They might blame me, or themselves, or (even worse) the students. I realized I needed to re-think how I might engage teachers in training. I was given that opportunity just a few […]
[…]to remain in places of concern or fear. With support, it is possible to move toward a place of comfort. One avenue for support to engage in conversations about race is to attend a Beyond Diversity seminar, a “two-day seminar designed to help leaders, educators, students, parents, administrators and community participants understand the impact of race on student learning and investigate the role that racism plays in institutionalizing academic achievement disparities” (Pacific Education Group, 2018). This article describes the range of emotions and subsequent learnings of two Black women who engaged in the Beyond Diversity seminar. The questions that preface […]
