While reading Educational Agents for Positive Change, I began to think about a new role I have taken on at school as a “check in/check out monitor”.  This role gives me the privilege of helping three students monitor attendance, homework, and tardiness.  These three students are to check in with me in the morning and afternoon to discuss these three issues that they struggle with at school.  I use a hole puncher and a card with the date on it to help regulate their good and bad days.  When three good days are achieved, they get a small prize (candy, snack, pencil, etc).  We have about 80+ students on the check in/check out system at our school (CICO), some for behavior, some for other issues like my students.

While I encourage any and all positive engagement with students, I wonder if this system is actually helping anyone at all.  Let’s talk about students on my list.  I will call them Jane, John, and Ron for this story.  Jane comes to me for homework and attendance concerns.  Without being given any background on Jane ( I am an art teacher, I see Jane once a week for 45 mins, I am not her homeroom teacher) I am asked to help her with these problems.  So week one, we start discussing homework, she is absent 3 of 5 days that week.  Needless to say, homework is not done.  I am trying to give her strategies to help time management, “get it done as soon as you get home, that way you won’t forget”, trying my best to be helpful.  Week two goes by, same situation.  I’m focusing on Jane here because she is the only one coming to see me for CICO.  John came once in week one, never saw him again.  Ron never came at all, came to find out he is now home schooled.  So week three comes along and I start asking questions, “why is Jane out 3 out of 5 days a week, and how the heck is she passing school, why are we focused on her homework here?”  I am seriously confused.  I find out Jane is in a terrible situation at home where she is up at night caring for young siblings, mom is not reliable, and Jane is acting as mom at least half of the time.  WHY IN THE WORLD ARE WE TALKING TO THIS GIRL ABOUT HOMEWORK!!!!!   This child needs other services that address her home life and mental stability.  I get it that she still has to show up to school, but this is a bit ridiculous.

As I was reading the words injustice, oppression, activism, I couldn’t help but think of this story, and think about what an INJUSTICE my school is doing to this child that needs so much more help than checking in on her homework.  It’s nice that someone cares that she isn’t doing her homework, but shouldn’t someone care that she isn’t sleeping?  Can’t get to school because mom won’t take her?  These are not issues that a fourth grader can fully grasp and take control of.  I feel helpless in this situation that I have been put in as a CICO monitor for this child.  I wish there was a better system to address high risk students like Jane.  And what about John and Ron?  There situations could be so much worse if I have never even seen them for CICO.  John’s teacher informed me that he missed entire weeks of school.  Again, that is not a child in fourth grades issue.  That is a parental, home life issue.  I feel terrible that I have been given this responsibility to add more pressure to these kids lives, and I feel I will not be a CICO monitor for very long.

This poem sums up this situation quite well:

Klein’s article states that “Self-awareness is necessary for breaking one’s silence and moving toward public disclosure of one’s personal and professional struggles that can no longer remain private.” (pp 2)  I am very aware that my school is mostly below the poverty line, and that many of our students struggle.  In the art room that is not always apparent.  I do not see bookbags, jackets, notes from home, etc.  The homeroom teachers are much more aware of these situations than I am, and have much more of an ability to connect with students than I do.  One of our school wide goals for the year is positive personal connections with students.  I see 150 students a day, my head is spinning by 3:00.  I have a hard time with the names of my 1200 students, never mind making personal connections.   Jane made me see that this personal connection is so important, and no matter what I do in my teaching, that is something I will strive to get with as many students as I can.  The introduction of STEAM into my curriculum could have the potential to change my schedule.  The current STEM teacher sees students for 15 days in a row before switching to another class, which offers more time for personal connections.  I would have to research how to make this possible in my STEAM plan.

While listening to the TED talk on parking signs, Ethnography described as seeking out the obvious by watching people made a lot of sense to me.  So in my situation, I know our students are low income, but it took me watching this one particular case (Jane) to really understand how that affects student life, and how our school is focusing on the wrong aspects of that problem.  The shift in my schedule from 1 class every week to 15 days in a row, would give me greater insight into my students, and greater ability to connect with those students, and hopefully foster positive change such as letting guidance know that Jane needs a lot more help than the CICO system.

Listening to Wanda Knight speak about her drive to get an education and get out of small town North Carolina was really interesting.  Teachers giving positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement really can make a difference in a child.  When she speaks about “knowledge of self” that really makes sense that we as educators have to figure out why we are teaching what we are teaching.  My curriculum is 100% made by me, therefore I am 100% responsible for what I teach (or what I don’t teach) so looking at myself and what I may be afraid to dive into could be a great way to broaden my curriculum.

I really liked what Bill Doan says about being creative in his interview, when asked why he takes breaks every day to write or sketch.  I think I have that same creative twitch, that has to be served daily, and I am lucky enough to work as an art teacher where I have a ton of opportunity to make that happen in the classroom.  I have never heard it described like that before, I enjoyed hearing him speak.

References:

Educational Agents for Positive Change (2011 © Sheri Klein, Elizabeth Delacruz, Karen Keifer-Boyd)

StoryCorps: Wanda Knight Talks with Karen Keifer-Boyd (Links to an external site.). Posted in StoryCorps, 2011-02-24