Believe!

I'm going to make this one short....
I believe in every single child that walked through my door on Tuesday, September 7, 2010! Today, I got their autographs to prove it!

Love it or Leave it!!

A part of who I am and what I do involves professional development. I am in the midst of developing a strategy to grow and enhance my sole proprietorship, a teacher training and tutoring business.

A couple of months ago, I conducted a workshop for a local YMCA's summer day camp staff. One of the things I briefly discuss in every training involving teachers, camp staff, or school age child care staff is to love what they do or leave for some other job. While that may be an unwelcome statement, especially given today's economic situations, being involved in the social, academic, and mental development of children and youth is nothing to take lightly.

My heart was made very happy when a staff member of the YMCA informed me that a particular individual who sat in the training had not even started the day camp season. Happy, you say? Why would such a thing make me happy?

Having been involved in teaching, tutoring, mentoring, supervising, orchestrating, and directing youth programs for more than 15 years now, one begins to develop a sixth sense about discerning people that love working with children and/or are willing to learn and those who are not going to make it. Just from the way this young lady presented herself in the training, I intentionally made emphasis to leave the profession because from my perspective she didn't have what it would take to last an eleven-week camp program.

Might I have been presumptuous? Maybe. But again, one begins to develop sixth sense about such things.

Now, allow me to explain why I respect her highly! While I do not know the real reason why she didn't start and while I do not even know her as a person nor could I call her name or recognize her walking down the street, I do respect the fact that she left. Perhaps realizing that this wasn't for her, she seems to be mature enough to realize that she would do more harm than good if she were to aggressively pursue remaining on staff.

To all of the hateful, spiteful, "I hate kids" teachers out there....either love it or leave it. It's bad enough this profession is generally not respected. Realtors can go through a 10 month course and teach 3rd grade and bus drivers can take a weekend workshop and teach 7th grade chemistry. So it's bad enough the profession isn't respected. The last thing we need are teachers who have the credentials and spent the time fine-tuning their craft complaining and being bitter. Goodbye! Your time is done!

Principal's Convocation Experience...

Today I had the opportunity to be among a group a teachers selected by their Principal's to be a part of the School District of Philadelphia's Annual Principal's Convocation. Today was the first day of the annual week long convocation and I had the opportunity to be among great educators both in the classroom capacity and in educational leadership roles. Principals, Vice Principals, and teachers descended upon the new Lincoln High School in the Northeast for workshops and other break-out sessions.

The session began with a wonderful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by a student from Meredith Elementary School. Super super kudos to that young man! This was followed by a speech by the School District Superintendent herself, Dr. Arlene Ackerman.

While I did get the opportunity to meet up with administrators and others I know throughout the district, what I liked most, though very vain was being able to update my facebook status with lines like "preparing for the Principal's conference" and "at the Principal's Convocation." Is this vain and silly, absolutely!

I am presently a classroom teacher, but I have spent several years as the Director of Youth Programming and Development with a local YMCA. So I know what it means to run a non-profit; what it means to put together a budget; what it means to supervise teachers of early childhood and other youth programs, grant writing, community partnering, paying company bills, etc. etc. etc. Sounds a bit like a principal does it not?

I am an aspiring principal and educational leader. The one thing that Dr. Ackerman said that stands out in my mind came when she introduced a new Associate Superintendent. As she introduced Ms. Penny Nixon, the entire auditorium gave her a thunderous applause. Dr. Ackerman's comment spoke to the fact that the only way she (Ackerman) would receive an applause like that would be if she grew up in Philadelphia, taught in Philadelphia, was a principal in Philadelphia and now in the position that she is in. With that comment came an even heartier applause for Ms. Nixon.

Dr. Ackerman went on to say that thinking was the Philadelphia way. AND SHE IS CORRECT! I have always held to that opinion and even blogged about it previously! That is my lot. I have grown up in this city. I love this city. I love teaching. I love youth. I love the idea that the sun rises and sets on leadership, good or bad.

I look forward to blogging about the steps that I will take and have taken to ultimately become one of Philadelphia's best and foremost educational leaders!

Should they be from Philly?

Again, everything on this blog is simply the opinion of a 6th grade teacher!

Would you vote for a Mayor who lived in Philadelphia for only a few months?
Would you vote for a Governor who lived in Pennsylvania for less than a year?
Would you elect a Senator who moved to Pennsylvania just for the job?
Would you vote for a City Council member to represent your neighborhood who lived in New Jeresy for all of their adult life?
Would you hire someone to head Philadelphia's Public School system who......I think you get the point!

They don't speak English and I don't speak Madarin Chinese....

This past summer I had a very interesting eye-opening experience. First, I vowed I wouldn't teach summer school. I did. Second, I vowed I would chose a school where I knew the numbers would be low. I chose the right building, but the students I had, didn't go there, so my numbers were larger than expected. Thirdly, the students I did have, 1/2 of them didn't speak English....so there goes my "I'm choosing this building so that I can have an easy-going summer" theory.

This past summer I taught a 4th grade, self-contained class in South Philadelphia. It was a very enlightening and eye-opening experience for me and I truly believe that I am a stronger educator as a result. Of the 20 students in my class, nearly half did not speak proficient English.  I only found that out once I finished giving my "first day of class, you best know that I am here to teach and not babysit" speech. One of the chinese students told me that there were a group of students who didn't speak English. Uh oh!

For the next four weeks, I would be trying different teaching strategies including small group work, writing and talking at the same time, over use of my hands while talking, demonstrating what I wanted to happen next, etc. etc. etc.

Prior to this, I very little experience working with students whose first language was not English. In those prior cases one spoke French with an African-tribal accent. I spoke French too, so we did just fine. In another case, one student was bilingual Spanish/English and communicated in English very well. But never did I have a whole group of students in one class who were not proficient in the language.

I owe a great deal of gratitude to the ESOL teacher that worked in the building with us this summer who pulled out the students during the literacy block.  She was consistent with the pull out group and every now and again would stop in during the Math block to check up on me and them. That's what I call team work!

But I can truly say, I've grown as a teacher as a result of that experience. Once I knew what the summer would be like I started educating myself. I began reading "Getting Started with English Language Learners" by Judie Haynes. I definitely kept an open mind and learned from them how I can best communicate with them. Once I learned how to communicate with them, the challenge was to then provide them the necessary academic/remedial support; the reason for which they were in summer school from the start.

During the course of the summer, it was pleasing to see my native-English speaker getting the hang of communicating with our English Language Learners. They would assist me in communicating our next tasks.
It is important to note we had our challenges, the teasing, the taunting, the laughing. Allow me to also point out that children are children no matter what the language or culture and don't think for one minute that our non-English speakers didn't understand what was going on and didn't come back with taunts of their own AND VICE VERCA!!

Stay open-minded. Variety is the spice of life and it's what makes this country to "magical" at times....the differences in cultures and tradtions! Many of our schools in Philadelphia that do well academically are those who student populations are greatly diversed. Check it out for yourself!

$

A Philadelphia Daily News article in Thursday, July 29th's paper (pages 6 and 7) compared some salaries. All I will do is re-type what they printed and I'll leave it to you to express your opinion.

School District Superintendent
Dr. Ackerman hired at $325,000 and recieved a 4% increase now makes $338,000

Mayor of the City of Philadelphia
Honorable Mayor Michael Nutter, $198,658, took a pay cut so now makes $167,440

Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Honorable Governor Edward Rendell, $178,00, rejected a cost of living increase so now makes $175,000


School District head of human resources, $185,400
City's head of human resources, $129,232

School District CFO, $226,600
City's CFO, $162,559

School district chief communications officer, Evelyn Sample Oates $180,000 (recently demoted and salary is under review). Her replacement, Lisa Mastoon $190,000
Mayor's chief spokesperson, $114,000

School District's General Counsel, $190,000
City Solicitor, $162,559 "to run a much larger office" (7/29/10 Daily News pg. 7)

New School District position (less than 4 months), Chief of Institutional Advancement (I don't know either????)
$180,000, but that person was promoted (again, less than 4 months in) to "second in commnand". $50,000 increase. So Mr. New Guy was promoted, let's do the math...
$180,000 + $50,000 = $230,000

Oh, and a teacher's starting salary is, $42,755

Longer School Days!!!!! Yipee!!!

As is the case in many schools around the country there are attendance issues. Students coming to school can be a real problem and hindrance to a student's academic success. There are schools that have developed programs and incentives that work. Even in those cases there will still be those few students who could care less about stickers or candy.

In many schools it is a chronic problem not just for a selected few students, but with most of the students in the building. Most of the student body refuses to come to school, not just one or two students. Teachers, counselors, and administrators alike work to develop plans and schemes to get these children to come to school. Not only are the children missing out on the education that we are trying to give them, but get this....the school gets "spanked" if a parent consistanly keeps a child home. So short of driving to each child's home and picking them up, schools are doing everything they can to get a child to come to school.

Not only do we need them to come to school, but we need for them to eat the meals the schools provide. We need them to eat our breakfast and our lunch so that we can "meet our numbers." (Topic for another day).

So with all of these attendance issues, which ultimately affects test scores, which ultimately affects AYP, someone came up with a very intelligent idea....let's extend the school day!! Yeah!!! Let's keep them in school for an extra hour and have them come two Saturdays a month and even extend their school year into July! Yes, that should work! This should make them come to school now if they didn't come to school before! Longer days in school will help!

"Outstanding" Teachers

My mind briefly goes back to my undergraduate studies at Temple University. While matriculating there, I had a professor of Social Studies Education, Professor Ruby Peters. Known for her elaborate style of dress and those (in)famous 5X8 cards, she challenged us as pre-service teachers. Her challenge to us, "be an outstanding teacher." Her challenge to us was to not be ordinary, but extraordinary; not to be regular but irregular and not with the negative connotation one would assume.

My mind also goes back to my years at Bodine High School for International Affairs in Northern Liberties.  Particularly to another Social Studies teacher, Mr. Young. Known for his lecture approach to teaching and college professor-like dress every day, he too, believed in rising above the norm. One thing that drives my teaching today is something he said to us as freshmen in his World History class in room 205 at Bodine. He told us that there were white people in the suburbs that believed we (primarily urban blacks) "couldn't" learn, not that we were lazy and didn't want to, but that we didn't have the ability. Mr. Young wanted us to rise up and prove them wrong.

Teachers like Professor Peters, Mr. Young and countless others that I could name have encouraged me to become an outstanding educator. One who teaches with passion, with skill, with "finesse" so to speak; developing and executing lessons rooted in sound pedagogical principles that not only teach the concept but that teach the  students to think, to apply, to appreciate, to teach others, to become well informed, knowledgeable and contributing citizens.

So, Professor Peters, Mr. Young, Mrs. Wynn (kinder), Mrs. Patterson (1st - deceased), Mrs. Bolden (2nd), Mrs. Ross (3rd), Mrs. Wood (4th), Mrs. Woodlin, Mr. Molowitz (deceased), Ms. Ton, Mrs. Owens (counselor, high school), Mrs. Thompson (counselor, elementary) and the countless others teachers, counselors, and administrators throughout Middle School, High School, and college...thank you!

Charter Schools...

As a teacher in a traditional public school, I am not a huge fan at all of the whole Charter School idea. I am not a huge fan of huge amounts of money of other resources being poured into these charters, where that same amount of money and energy could have gone into the improvement of the traditional public school the students are leaving. I use the term "traditional" because charter schools are public schools (sort of).

In Philadelphia, as in other large urban areas nationwide, there appears to be a brouhaha over the conversion of the traditional public school to these charter schools that tout themselves as having superior academic programs to those of the traditional public school. I pause and I wonder. What is it that you are doing, oh Mr. Charter School, that is so drastically different from what we are doing? Mrs. School Head, why is it that we cannot implement some of these same "superior" academic programs in our traditional buildings? Why is it, too, that we seem to receive students back in our traditional school buildings who, for whatever reason, didn't last in your charter school? I pause and I wonder. Are you able to keep the students who are the "creme of the crop" and send the "others" back to us? Is that why you appear to be so successful? I wonder.

I believe that parental involvement and caring educators are two very large keys to the success of students no matter where they are! The charter schools with which I am familiar often have these "hours" that parents must put in or there would be repercussions. So parents scramble to fulfill these "hours" requirements. Why couldn't that parent be just as involved in So-N-So Elementary School where their child once went? Wouldn't that school be better if each parent put in their "hours" at So-N-So Elementary and there be no need to open up a charter school? Hmmm!

Just wondering???

Greetings...

Greetings to all who would read this! My name is Stephen R. Flemming and I am a public school teacher in the city of Philadelphia. This is my very first experience with an official blog. I'd like to think I'm pretty tech savy, but I have yet to try my "suave" on the blog side of things.

I intend for this blog to be a place for me to simply share my opinions on a myriad of educational topics. I am a passionate teacher in Philadelphia. I believe that every single child has the potential to be something great no matter their living conditions, the amount of money they have, their parent's educational level, etc. They all have the potential to be successful. With the help of a few good, passionate, knowledgeable and caring teachers, they can achieve greatness!

So this blog will likely reflect those strong beliefs! If I don't get the hang of this, I'll keep trying unitl I get it right!