Last year in my final blog for Teacher Magazine, I wrote about my hesitancy to wear my Brighton t-shirt for fear that by wearing the shirt I was somehow forcing myself on the faculty; a faculty I had brought more attention to than I had ever intended.
Last week, I missed several days of school due to my father's declining health. When I returned to school, many of the children came running up to me calling out "Mrs. Doctor Rogers, where have you been?" (I earned my doctorate a few years ago, and this is what the children have decided to call me.) The children's reaction to my absence was not a surprise—they have been very accepting of me from the beginning. However, many of the teachers hugged me and told me they missed me, and this has not been the norm. I cannot tell you how good this made me feel. I finally belong.
It is difficult when a teacher who has received national recognition goes into a new school setting. You're not just any person, as much as you want to be. This was a hard lesson for me to learn last year, and I've really come to see how important it is for adults in schools to have a sense of belonging.
Last week, this sense of belonging became a reality for four teachers on our staff. Two veteran Brighton teachers and two new Brighton teachers presented a session at the Alabama Reading Association Conference. This was another important step in our effort to transform the negative culture of a failing school into a positive learning community.
When you are a Title I school under School Improvement sanctions for numerous years, the pressures of No Child Left Behind become a way of life. One of the NCLB regulations states that no teacher who works in a "failing" school is allowed to teach in the after school programs funded by federal Supplemental Services. While I can somewhat understand the reasoning behind this regulation, it is very devastating to the teachers in this school. One of the veteran teachers who presented at ARA last week told me that when she learned of this rule three years ago, she decided to drop her pursuit of National Board Certification because she felt unworthy.
Due to my father's poor health and much to my disappointment, I was not able to attend the Alabama Reading Association Conference and be a part of the presentation with this group of teachers. Since I was the one who convinced them that they were ready to present their hard work, I felt I was abandoning them. However, they called me right after the presentation, full of elation. There was standing room only for the session, and several people asked them to come to their school and share the presentation. An instructional specialist from our district attended and took pictures, and they even saved the door sign to bring back to Brighton!
This is a new day for Brighton teachers as they seek a higher level of professional recognition—something they have been denied in the past. I have seen the look in people's eyes when I tell them I work at Brighton. It's a look that says, "What is wrong with you?" I am so proud of the four teachers who stepped out and took a risk. They have moved us farther along the path to dispel this longtime reputation of failure and build a tradition of excellence.
Betsy,
It's great to hear about the presentation your colleagues made. One of the activities of the NYC Writing Project is a Teacher-to-Teacher Conference in which teachers present to each other exciting things they have done in their classrooms. It is one of my favorite events and I've been able to guide a few teachers through the presentating process. It never fails to remind me that wonderful things are happening in the classrooms of MY failing school, and that the "failing" part often has little to do with teacher abilities or efforts. In fact, the challenge of being among truly needy students often produces superior teachers. That is part of the reason I have absolutely NO understanding of the provision of NCLB that you mention. I find it amazingly stupid. Can you imagine telling a student, "Since you come from a failing school, you are not allowed to take part in federally funded sports"? Can you imagine telling a parent, "Since your child attends a failing school you are not allowed to be a member of the PTA"? Can you imagine telling a principal, "Since you have taken on the responsibility of a failing school, you cannot administer extra curricular activities"? Can you imagine not allowing the custodians to work maintaining the lights at a federally funded conference held in their school, not allowing District Administrators to run Head Start Programs, not allowing secretaries to work for federally funded after school activites--simply because they have chosen to help failing schools. Can...you...imagine...the...politicians...who...passed...that...law...not...accepting...federal...pay...because...their...districts...have...failing...schools!!! Teachers are singled out because they are easy targets for cheap shots; because every wrong headed bureaucrat thinks of them not as professionals providing a vital service under the most challenging conditions (which are never of their own making), but, instead, as greedy, tax-guzzling, lazy, unaccountable drones. In my experience, and it is a wide experience at this point, teachers in failing schools (in general) have classroom management skills and instructional skills that teachers of elite, well-prepared, fully funded, small classroomed, parent-supported schools can only dream about.
NCLB is a driverless truck that cannot get out of its own way. But I'm not worried because teachers like you and your colleagues will do their best every day to protect the children from it and guide them to the back doors to opportunity that good teachers always have had to find for the children society has backhanded.
I'm so sorry to hear about your father's declining health.I will include you both in my prayers.
Joe
Posted by: Joe Bellacero | November 06, 2005 at 07:27 AM