For My K-12 Teaching Friends Kicking It Off @WritingProject @Cwpfairfield @ncte

Here's to you.

No, seriously. Here's to you.

You are amazing, and before anyone tells you differently, get it into your head, "YOU ARE AMAZING." You teach, therefore you are. I am channeling Taylor Mali here. He gets it. He knows. I feel it, too, from Linda Darling Hammond, Kelly Gallagher, Diane Ravitch, Mike Rose, etc. and all the others who champion educators and spend their life advocating for the profession.

Teaching is the work of mad men and mad women emptying the ocean with a fork. BUT YOU DO IT. You do it with passion, flare, dedication, commitment and purpose. I am guessing, too, that if you have a Twitter account and are reading this right now, you are also connected with other professionals  in the field who are also in search of the most effective and best practices for your schools and for your students.

For this reason, I'm applauding you.

I'm entering 40th grade this year, meaning that I've never left this idea of school and have always made school my life (well, from birth to 5 I wasn't formally in a building to be educated, so I'm not counting those). I still come home at nights and shower, trying to wash away the profession. "I am not a teacher. Yuck, Crandall. You did not choose to live your life this way. You have not become everything you hated about being a student and you are not doing to them what so many did to you."

But that is only on bad days.

Most days I hold my head up proud and say, "I teach." Actually,  I say, "I stand to celebrate teachers and their students."

Yesterday, I worked with a faculty of 20 English educators at Darien High School in Connecticut with writing initiatives they are kicking off at the school. My colleague, Beth Boquet, led the way to discuss the potential of a student writing center and the power of conferencing with youth. I was in awe of these teachers. I told Beth on the way there that is is EXTREMELY difficult to start off a new year with so much PD. A good educator simply wants to get in the room to get organized. Ah, but that's not teaching. Every second is taken by the needs of others. That is teaching. Imagine if a dentist or a doctor, or a lawyer or an investor, came back from vacation and were told, "You can't have your office, or your chair, or your table, or your stock market because we've brought in experts who will tell you better how to run your office, use your chair, work on your table and tabulate your stocks."

That happens to teachers.  It happens on the days before a new year, in afternoon meetings, on breaks, and even in the summer. And they take it. They absorb it. They put their fork into the ocean and empty as fast as they can. That is how they survive.

I'm now at a University and first to admit that it is extremely difficult work. It is, however, different work from that of K-12 teachers. No one but teachers can understand what their work is. It is amazing work. It is challenging work. It is necessary work. It is impossible work. It is rewarding work. It is 24/7, 365 days-a-year work. There is no clocking out and, despite the rumors, no such thing as a vacation. There are books to read, conferences to attend, plans to be made, and reflection to occur. It is a way of life. It is all-consuming.

The work of teachers is immeasurable and, sadly, it goes unnoticed too often. The labor is scapegoated, abused, blamed, harassed, challenged, and belittled. Yet, teachers persevere. They build supportive communities, they head to the library, they talk with others in the field, and they recall that very moment when a student, in their care, has an a-ha movement.

I used to hate the expression of "being in the trenches" when I taught high school in Louisville, because I never felt like I was at war (at least with my students....the bureaucracies of state departments, assessments, administrators, etc - that is a different story). Yet, now that I'm in a different location where I don't have the demands and expectations of K-12 teaching (and can reflect on this), I see how true the "trenches" really are. I try, as much as possible, to be in the field with them and hope not to make a career of theory, publication, and disconnect with the practice; rather, to be a part with teachers (and youth) to bring theory into practice so that it works and makes a difference. Nancy Cantor at Syracuse University referred to this as Scholarship in Action.

That's what I believe in.

And as someone who has never been out-of-school and who continuously works tirelessly in-school to invest in the future and to make a difference in the lives of young people, I want you to know that see you. I see the value of everything you are doing each and every day. I'm cheering for you. I'm high-fiving you. I am hearing you, and recognizing that the work you are doing is nearly impossible.

Yet, I love that you refuse to believe this and that you are setting out for another wonderful year.

Here's to you...my teaching friends: the artists, the warriors, the dreamers, the doers, the writers, the believers, the thinkers, the meaning makers, the care-takers, the graders, the jokesters, the pranksters, the curmudgeons, the visionaries, and the listeners. In our current world of natural and man-made disasters, I realize that our young people need us more than ever before. Nothing sits still and, although there are those who like to claim otherwise, there's never ben an absolute answer to any of this...it doesn't sit still.

There are, however, fabulous questions and these questions deserve to be explored with those enrolled in your room. Ask them. Encourage those of others. Explore together.

Believe in the power of learning, and aim to reach those who are most reluctant and defiant. Why? Chances are, they will teach you as much as you are able to teach them.

Good luck. You got this.

Ubuntu,

Bryan