As teachers, we set high standards for ourselves and for our students. After all, reaching for the stars is how one gets off the ground. But sometimes, when we reflect on our performance in the classroom or on our interactions with kids and parents, we tend to be overly critical of ourselves. I stumbled across this graphic yesterday, and decided to share it. It offers good advice for everyone who tends to be too self-judgmental, not just teachers. Enjoy!
Here’s a teacher who really knows how to celebrate her students. She’s Haley Curfman, a second grade teacher at Blackwell Elementary School in Blackwell, Oklahoma.
For the second year in a row, she brought a white dress to school and encouraged her students to fill the fabric with their art work. “This is something I’d seen on Pinterest a few years ago, and I fell in love with the idea,” she says. “I think every teacher should do this! It’s a great project and an even better keepsake.”
Haley says she purchased an inexpensive white dress, and pre-washed it before she brought it to the classroom. With fabric markers she purchased from Walmart, she set up an activity station that featured the dress, the markers, and pieces of cardboard to place between the layers of fabric. She reports that it took approximately a month to complete, because the students worked on it intermittently as time allowed. When the students were finished adding their artwork, she wore the dress for a class party, and then put it on display.
“It’s been pointed out that this idea has been around way longer than Pinterest,” discloses Haley. “Teachers have been sharing their dresses, aprons, quilts, T-shirts, etc. with me that they’ve been creating since the 1950’s with the same concept. Which is awesome, and I love that you are sharing them with me! Thank you all so much for your kindness and support!” she concludes.
For more of Haley’s classroom projects, check out her Facebook page at The Weary Teacher.
As a nation, we are now attempting to recover from yet another school shooting, this latest one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 14 students and three teachers. The tragedy has sparked yet another heated debate about best practices for protecting students in our nation’s schools. Much of the current debate has centered around such strategies as enforcing stricter gun control laws, strengthening mental health services, bettering law enforcement responses to reported threats, and arming teachers in schools. Are there any other strategies that could be considered? I think so.
After the Columbine shooting, the California legislature mandated that a school violence prevention counselor be placed in every high school. Unfortunately, state funding for these positions was cut about a decade ago when the economic downturn hit, but it would certainly be a good idea to consider passing a similar mandate on a federal level.
A school violence prevention counselor can develop beneficial instructional programs on such topics as anger management, conflict resolution, anti-bullying, stress management, depression, or domestic violence. As for “see something, say something,” there are times when a student may be more willing to share about a potential threat with a counselor than with a resource officer, who, as a policeman, may seem like an intimidating person to approach. School violence prevention counselors have been specially trained to recognize and respond to potential threats, serving as a front-line defense. Because they have more training, more resources, and more time than other school personnel, they are better able to sift through rumors and reports and identify those threats that are the most likely to pose real danger. They may even be able to reduce the tensions that sometimes give rise to violent incidents.
When considering strategies for preventing further tragedies like the ones that have occurred at Columbine and Stoneman Douglas, it’s important to remember that there is no one single fix. We must use a combination of approaches that are both vigorous and innovative. Let’s include federal funding for the training and hiring of school violence prevention counselors in the conversation.
As educators, it is always fitting and proper to think about how we can best serve the needs of the students of color who comprise our classroom population. This is particularly true during Black History Month. In this TED Talk, the issue is explored by Dr. Melissa Crum, an education consultant, diversity practitioner, and artist who conducts workshops with many educators in urban schools. Dr. Crum was inspired to do this work when she remembered incidents from her own childhood, and when she observed that many teachers have challenges teaching and relating to students who do not share their same cultural background. In response, she worked with a museum educator to create an arts-based professional development series that helps educators reflect about how they are interacting with their students. Here she shares her inspirational and eye-opening message that everyone who works with students should hear.
Many talented educators come from humble backgrounds, yet manage to make the most of their modest beginnings. Such is the case with Marva Collins, a Chicago educator who earned national recognition for her innovative teaching methods.
Marva Delores Knight was born August 31, 1936, in Monroeville, Alabama, the first of two daughters born to businessman Henry and Bessie (Nettles) Knight. Raised in the heart of the segregated South, Marva attended a one-room school house and learned first-hand about the substandard educational opportunities offered to African American students. Nevertheless, her father expected her to study hard and succeed.
As a young woman, Marva attended Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. After college, she taught school for two years. In 1959, the young woman moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she met and married draftsman Clarence Collins. The couple had three children. For the next 14 years, while raising her family, Marva worked as a substitute teacher in the Chicago School District.
Marva became concerned with youngsters she believed were not being served well by the school system, so in 1975 she withdrew $5,000 from her retirement account and founded a private school on the second floor of her home in the Chicago neighborhood of Garfield Park. Thus was born the Westside Preparatory School. Only a few students enrolled, but the dedicated educator resolved that her school would be open to any student who was not succeeding in the larger school systems, particularly low-income children, and those who’d been diagnosed with irremediable learning disabilities. At the end of the first year of the school’s operation, every student enrolled in Westside Prep earned test scores significantly higher than they had scored in previous years.
Marva’s methods became known as the Collins Method. Her program centered on phonics, math, reading, Language Arts, and the classics. She was also a big believer in the Socratic Method, which emphasizes learning through asking questions and engaging in dialogue with peers. “The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another,” Marva once said.
The talented educator and her innovative school quickly became a national story, featured in stories in the magazines Time and Newsweek and in television news programs 60 Minutes and Good Morning America. In 1982, the story of Marva’s life and school were the subjects of a television movie starring powerhouse actors Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman.
For her pioneering teaching methods, Marva was honored with the Watson Washburn Award from the Reading Reform Foundation (1978), the Jefferson Award for Public Service (1981) and the Humanitarian Award for Excellence. Marva also received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Monroe County Heritage Association during Black History Month (1994). In addition, she was awarded honorary doctorates from Amherst, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame. President George W. Bush honored the chalkboard champion with the National Humanities Medal (2004). To read more about this amazing teacher, click on the link for www.biography.com or the link For the Kids’ Sake.
Marva Collins died of natural causes on June 24, 2015, in Beaufort County, South Carolina. She was 78 years old.
