Jon had a sense of humor and much patience. Really, he was
exactly what we needed at the time we needed it on the third floor of our
little school. Most of us had been teaching 20 years and had perhaps fallen
into a comfortable way of teaching. But Jon made us examine how we were
instructing our young mean and made a challenge he didn’t know he issued. We
all looked at our instruction and perhaps tweaked it here and there to step it
up. He always had great suggestions at staff and grade group meetings and was
always eager to try any suggestions we had for him. I would meet with Jon every
so often to discuss possible field trips, projects, and performances at school.
Our meetings always had a give and take about them that we were both
comfortable with. We even traded papers to grade so we’d be sure the kids were
getting a fair shake in their essays. He was a joy to work with.
He was fun, but relentless in his demands of the class. They
didn’t get away with much, believe me. He was consistent and creative in his
handling of discipline problems and the kids always knew what the consequences
were. I’d like to think he learned a few things from us oldies but goodies,
too. One thing I know we pushed him to do was to step it up where assembly
programs for our grade groups were concerned. On particularly memorable
assembly was when he cast one of his behaviorally-challenged kids as the
Grinch. The young man in question happily stayed up at lunchtime to rehearse.
He went from no confidence to a fairly good rendition of the Grinch. I never
saw him happier than when he was learning his lines and songs. Although the
actual performance didn’t pan out exactly as Jon had planned it (T. got stage
fright), it did boost his confidence, which I took advantage of the next year
when he was assigned to my class.
Jon worked tirelessly at classroom management and planned
his lessons with the class in mind. He always was fair, extremely competent,
and a great spurce of ideas and comfort when I had “one of those days.”
Unfortunately, or perhaps it is fortunately after all, he had a higher calling
and is now running a church in Brooklyn, NY. I cannot express how much I missed
his camaraderie and friendship. He was a true educator. I am sure his
congregation values him as much as I do.
Jon was replaced by a Charter School ship-jumper. I was in
on the interview process when she was hired, as I would be her grade partner.
She was the opposite in personality, but seemed to be a very competent
educator. She had been in an administrative position at the well-known charter
school and now she had a child, couldn’t deal with the time she had to put in
at the school. Pretty much, administrators had to work until after 6-7 PM
during the week and on Saturdays, too. But she had some great ideas and seemed
to be a valuable asset to our school. So she was hired.
Our grade group meetings were interesting; Alice (not her
real name) was your basic Type A person, always super-organized and needing to
know her schedule way in advance so she could plan every minute of her day. She
had a system for everything and her class had to be just so. It was almost like
walking into my Catholic grade school with children sitting with hands folded
and all facing the same direction. My class, on the other hand, was loosely
arranged in tables and rarely super-organized. Wait, I should be honest here,
NEVER super-organized. I believe that discussions and projects that happen
spontaneously have more merit than most lessons in the lesson plan. I am fine
in going with the flow, but I am always aware and can relate to you exactly how
this discussion or project relates to the Standards for our grade. I have never
been one to be strictly held to a schedule or a script. In fact, my wonderful
principal came up to me several times to see how laid-back Mrs. T was dealing
with Type-A Alice. I dealt.
Alice thought that all of the children in her class ought to
be able to change their ways and bend to her rules. She worked on the theory
that she knew what she wanted, how she wanted it, and the kids better step up.
Many of the children in her class did, in fact, step it up and made it through
the school year successfully. The handful who didn’t conform to her rules
protested loudly all year long and consequently, so did their teacher. She
seemed to think that ALL the behavior problems in grade 5 were in her room, and
that ALL the kids who couldn’t read were assigned to her class. During our
faculty meetings, she incessantly complained about her teaching conditions, not
realizing that we were all in the same boat. She hardly ever listened to any
suggestions given by teachers with many more years of experience. People
learned to tune her out.
The year before I retired, we were required to plan lessons
together so that our students would be doing the same things each week. THAT
was a mistake. I really could not reconcile my teaching style to hers and
finally just let her plan the lessons with some of my input. When I went back
to class, I just did my own thing regardless of what was on the paper. I really
don’t see how teachers can make one lesson plan since you don’t have the same
combination of kids in each class. Since I was very patient, I was often given
students who were a bit out of the ordinary, and I have found through the years
that I can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes. Kids
that flew off the handle easily were assigned to my class because she would
push the kids to the brink on behavior.
At any rate, out of the five years she spent at the school,
she was out on maternity leave twice, so she only actually spent 2 years from
September to June teaching. After I retired, she stayed one more year and lo
and behold! She is now acting Principal at a charter school. The staff, I
think, was relieved at her going. I have my suspicions she just stayed for the
medical benefits and left as soon as she could. I have read that she is the
same kind of principal as she was a teacher – driven, strict, and inflexible.
Good luck to her in her future endeavors.
So here is an example of two teachers who only stayed a
while, but who had totally different impacts on our school.
The most valuable thing I learned from Alice was the tricks
that the well-known charter school uses to “counsel out” those students with
behavior problems and those who couldn’t hack it academically. I learned that
the school’s curriculum consists only of that information and concepts that are
tested heavily on the standardized tests, and anything else doesn’t get taught,
no matter if it’s in the standards or not. Out of the hundred or so standards
each in Math and Language Arts, this charter only teaches 38 of them. I was
grateful for this information and it has encouraged me to become more informed
about the truth of the charter schools. In fact, she is probably the reason why
I joined the Badass Teachers Association, to fight against the charters and
standardized testing. There is so much more to education than bubbling in
answers to 70 multiple choice questions. Much more.
Jon helped me add to my teaching repertoire. He was and
remains a trusted friend to whom I would trust the education of my own
children. He opened my eyes to great new ideas and made me a better teacher. I
cannot express how much I learned from being his grade partner and neighbor
teacher. I admire his tenaciousness in sticking with it in our urban school,
and I know that his students are the better for his being there. Jon’s
contributions to our school community were great and lasting. A true educator.
Badass Teachers Association - http://www.badassteacher.org/
Still learning!
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