No More "Normal"

 

No More “Normal”

A big takeaway from this article was that funding  in public education has already existed even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our new “normal” is working through problems that have existed for a long time. Educators should not have to struggle like this. 

Talking Points:

1. “Return to normal? Normal was awful, it is time to be bold”. I really liked this quote because was there really ever a normal before? Unfortunately educators have always been on the back burner. Forced to adhere to unrealistic expectations. If we as educators continue with these expectations, we allow inequalities of wealth/privilege to exist. I have a personal experience that I feel is similar to “being bold” in a situation that is considered “normal”. I am a school nurse, so a bit different from an educator. For the past two and a half years of my employment I have been silent about not having a scheduled lunch break because it was just “normal” I have not had time set aside for one. Recently I have started to realize that it is not “normal” and I should be getting a lunch break just like everyone else in my building. Experiencing more and more burn out is what led me to finally bringing this up. It was time for me to be bold and not to continue to conform to the “normal”. Another example I can think of is my educator friends in the building. They have been missing a lot of their prep periods due to staffing (no one able to cover specials or their classrooms during meetings). This has been resulting in them not being able to have materials prepped which is affecting their classrooms. They are not able to get out the curriculum and stay on track. One way myself, and these teachers, have been getting our point across is reporting these missed lunches/preps. This in turn is costing the district extra money and making administrators realize there is not enough help to go around. 

2. “One of the insights of Jaffe’s article is that teachers’ mental health and longevity in the profession is linked to the strength of our unions”. I can agree that how strong our union is can directly impact how educators feel. With a stronger union comes more pushback and a sense of control comes. I think that a common issue for educators is not feeling supported. Educators give, give, and give, and many times do not get anything back. It is no wonder burn out occurs. Especially now during a time where there is little funding for education.  In the No More “Normal” article it states “The city says there’s no money, but they’re doing a multimillion-dollar renovation to the Eagles’ stadium down the street from here. But we just make do.” (Did you watch the Super Bowl? According to the Los Angeles Times, the LA Rams’ SoFi Stadium cost more than $5 billion). The fact that our children's education is being put on the back burner is a shame and hurts our future generation. 

3. “In the class period where my new student has just joined, there are more students than desks. My invaluable teacher’s aide now sits on the counter. I feel helpless and trapped. I’m a type 1 diabetic, which means I am immunocompromised. I’m also a probationary teacher, which means my job is not promised for next year. Should I take time off? I don’t want to jeopardize my position. Was that sore throat this morning nothing, or do I need to call my endocrinologist and set into motion the plan we worked out in September, when I realized how much I was increasing my risk by returning to work? Am I sick? Will I get sick? Will I pass COVID to my family? To my students? These thoughts race through my mind as my classroom fills up with students because there is no time to process a COVID exposure”. This quote from a teacher really resonated with me. Not only as educators are we worried about our students, but ourselves. If we are not taking care of ourselves, how can we properly take care of and educate our students? I can relate to this because as the school nurse, it is very hard to take time off and get a cover when I am sick. There have been times where I have truly needed a mental health day, and I cannot take it due to lack of help/support. I push through for my students, but at the end of the day I am hurting myself. The more we continue to think “Oh I will just work through it” or “I could not get coverage so I will just have to go in” should not be the new norm. I know I touched on this a lot in previous paragraphs, but it is something I feel strongly about. Working as a bedside nurse for years prior to my school nurse job, I knew what burnout was, and I am still currently experiencing that. I feel I am stretched very thin as the sole medical person in the building. The demands and medical needs are very high and sometimes it can be a lot for one person. The same goes for teachers. It can be very difficult to have to call out. The complex sub plans that need to be made and also the need for subs is slim. Many times these classrooms are being covered by many different people throughout the day. Teachers then return to school overwhelmed with guilt and have to play catch up. Needing time for yourself becomes a burden and it shouldn't! We need to prioritize the overall well being and mental health of our employees. 

Argument Statement: 

The underfunding of education systems is largely caused by governments prioritizing business interests over the needs of students and teachers.

Connections/Reflections:

“For years we’ve heard that “our children are our future.” It is a platitude doled out at every teacher inservice and award ceremony. But it’s time to put actions in place of sentiment”. This is something we do see everywhere. So if this is something we see time and time again, why are education systems still left to struggle. This article mentioned renovated schools-this is something that seriously lacks. There are a handful of schools I know of that are original builds, decades and decades old. Ceilings are leaking, bathroom sinks broken, faulty heating and cooling systems. Yet, football stadiums and other unrealistic things are being “fixed”. At my school when the ceiling leaks we just know a bucket gets put there and we walk around it. One year I had a student lean on the sink in the bathroom the wrong way and the entire sink fell off the wall. This student even sustained a serious injury and had to go to the hospital. None of the other sinks were ever replaced with new ones. Lack of funding is the main reason for this. “Our children are our future" yet we cannot even fix our schools.

Teach Out Project Proposal

 

The Teach Out Project Proposal

CHOOSE A TEXT: The text I decided to go with from my project was What is Neurodiversity. As a school nurse, this one really intrigued me and talked about a lot of what I see in the clinic. This is a topic that matters to me because I see a lot of autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit, sensory processing, and executive function disorders. These students I find really struggle and often find themselves in the clinic. This is something I wish to share with some of my coworkers who work with this population of students as well. Another article I am going to include is Shifting the Paradigm by Shannon Renkly and Katherine Bertolini. This is an article that interested me because as educators we need to focus on how we speak to students and refraining from focusing on what students are missing. There definitely needs to be more focus on student strengths. I look forward to sharing this with my coworkers.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO SHARE WITH? I would like to share this information with two people I work with closely. These two people are TA’s in the behavioral program at my school. They work very closely with some of my neurodivergent students so I feel this may be a topic of interest for them as well. I also would like to bring this article up to my husband because as a child he always suffered with ADHD/dyslexia and never had the right resources. Shifting the Paradigm is another article I wish to share with my two coworkers as this is something they can apply to their classroom.

WHAT FORMAT MIGHT WORK FOR YOU? The format I plan to use for this project is sitting down and explaining both articles to my coworkers. I will sit down separately with my husband for only the first article as I am curious his thoughts. After this, we will chat about their thoughts and or responses. I will write up summaries for both my articles and what my coworkers' thoughts were. Sitting down and chatting amongst each other I feel will be the easiest way to gather information. A very easy going environment will lead us to good conversation.

Queering Our Schools

 Talking Points:

1. “How do we create classrooms and schools where each child, parent, and staff member’s unique, beautiful self is appreciated and nurtured?” This quote from Earley really stood out to me because allowing students to feel that sense of belonging is key. Every student should not only feel heard, but safe. I find something I do often is include my students in decision making. Being the school nurse, it is a little different, but allowing them to have a sense of control can make a big difference. “Do you want your medicine with applesauce or juice? It can be something as simple as that. As Earley states, many students do not feel safe in schools anymore. They are being harassed for being themselves. Earley mentioned how talking about “bullies” can make it seem as an individual problem and not a whole problem. This can cause us to shrink the greater issues at hand. Instead of addressing the bully, we need to address what beliefs are at play here (race, gender, sexuality, etc). 

2. “Educators and scholars of color have argued for many years that multicultural education means moving beyond “heroes and holidays” to integrating the history and lives of people of color into curriculum at every point. The same is true for LGBTQ issues and people”.  An example of this is incorporating multiple perspectives on events. Someone in class mentioned during Thanksgiving week not teaching solely based on celebration. Taking time to teach that there is a deeper understanding behind it, that there was a lot of violence and displacement. It is also important to address LGBTQ not just during pride month, but all times of the year. 

3. One student looked at the example in the book: “My mom is swimming.” After hesitating for a minute, the student pulled out a solution:“My parents are swimming.” The teacher moved on to the next child. Later, the mentor suggested gently, “You know, that was an opportunity to mention the fact that some kids have two moms, and that it would be fine to say, “My mom is swimming.” This example from Earley shows just how much inclusion is in our everyday lives. In this example, the teacher should have acknowledged that the student has two moms and that some students may have two dads, and that is okay. It is the norm to mention mom and dad as the parents and we as educators need to normalize different family structures. If we do not talk about these things, these students may not feel heard and be uncomfortable. 

   
   
   
   

Argument Statement:

“Community is built by working through differences, not sweeping them under the rug” (pg.4). This was a very powerful statement because sometimes it is easier to “sweep things under the rug” so to speak. I do this in my daily life a lot, “Oh I’ll just address that later”. Getting into that cycle is not something I want to do, or to reflect on my students. I find in my place of work the most common thing I see is people not listening, and just dismissing. I can say from a personal experience this week I went to someone for comfort. Instead of them listening they said “Oh you just took that too personal”. That response in no way made me feel comforted and made me feel like the situation was my fault. This can tie into race, gender, and sexuality because we should never make someone feel less for being them. We need to listen and acknowledge our feelings. My example was very minor, so I can only imagine what others may deal with. 

Connections/Reflection: 

I did go ahead and look into my district's policies in regard to race, sexuality, and gender. We do have policies in place. In fact, my district did just revamp some of these this year. Recently there was discussion of putting in tampon and pad dispensers in all the bathrooms to ensure everyone has equal access. 

Inclusive criteria can help our students feel safe. This can help students feel comfortable when participating, ask for help, and advocate for themselves. Including LGBQT books can help change criteria for the better. Educators can then focus on promoting understanding and empathy. 

As a school nurse, I have had students with a preferred name different from the name on their birth certificate. For these students, I have respected them and used the preferred name. This shows respect for their identity. Something additional I have done is placing “safe” posters around my clinic-making it known that all students are welcome and all feelings are welcome. 

The Silenced Dialogue

Talking Points:

1. In the reading The Silenced Dialogue by Lisa Delpit she talks about the culture of power and the 5 aspects. The 5th aspect states, “Those with power are frequently less aware-or at least willing to acknowledge-its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence” (pg.2). I thought this was a very powerful quote especially in regards to education. People with power may not see there are barriers, they may not see advantages that are had. The power they have may make them blind to what
   is around them. Delpit mentions that white colleagues/instructors can establish what they believe to be truth, regardless of what others of color may think. She also brings up the example of the interview that was between white interviewees and the man from India. There was clearly a power differential, the interviewees did not have the cultural background to connect with this man. They were unable to acknowledge that there was an unfair barrier and this led to the man not getting the job. This can be similar to education because as an educator, if our students are not able to connect with us and or learn from us, we might be setting them up for failure. I work in a diverse population with students from different cultural backgrounds. This helped shed light that I may need to take more time to connect with my students from different backgrounds.

   

2. “The teachers cannot be the only expert in the classroom. To deny students their own expert knowledge is to disempower them” (pg.7). This was very powerful to read and I could not agree more. We need to empower our students and make them feel heard. This is another reason why direct instruction is not the answer our students need to learn in more indirect ways. Learning is not a one way street so to speak, there are many avenues. Our students can teach us about their culture/background and when they do so, they can grow their confidence. This can give them power. 

3. “Students must be taught the codes needed to participate fully in the mainstream of American life, not by being forced to attend hollow, innate, decontextualized subskills” (pg.13). As a former student, I can say I felt many times I was surrounded by these subskills. All the memorization and standardized tests really made me feel like I was a robot. If I did not do well, that was on me and there was no chance for redemption. As educators it is our job to ensure our students are given proper and fair chances to succeed. Delpit says that everyone should have a say in what instructions are best for their child. “The dilemma is not really in the debate over instructional methodology, but rather in communicating across cultures whose voice gets to be heard when determining what is best” (pg. 14). 

   
   
   

   
   

Argument Statement:

This author argues that it is our job to ensure that we keep the perspective that people are the experts of their own lives. I liked when Delpit said, “We must be vulnerable enough to allow our world to turn upside down in order to allow the realities of others to edge themselves into our consciousness” (pg.14).

Connections/Reflections:

Two weeks ago in class we watched Precious Knowledge which really shed light on the fact that students truly benefit from learning about their own culture/history. It is important to make sure that students that may have to learn at home are not at a disadvantage. Delpit goes into detail about this saying that student-centered conferences are important. That it is important to acknowledge that some students come to class with more accoutrements than others. I have seen this first hand where I currently work. Although I am not a teacher, as the nurse, I have seen some examples of how students may not have access to certain items which can impact their education. We give out chrome books to all of our students-many of these students do not have the resources at home to even use them (internet, support system, etc). I find they are at a disadvantage, but are still expected to learn and get their work done. Another example is the multilingual learners that we have. My district is great about accommodating these students and making sure they have the resources, however, I still find there is a barrier, like the class sizes. The class sizes at my school are very large. This definitely puts these students at a disadvantage as they may struggle to ask for help as the curriculum is geared toward English speakers.