I thought you'd be principal...

Just a few moments ago I came back from making a stop in an old neighborhood. I went to support a local businessman and the neighborhood that I once called my second home.

OK! Enough with the fancy shmancy, I went to a corner store down 'round de way to get me one of Baha's dope Kaiser roll turkey samich jawns! Ya dig? lol

As we briefly conversed and and inquired about the welfare of our respective families, I remarked on the closing a one of the private schools in the neighborhood. His comment to me was, "I thought you'd be the principal over there."

Truthfully, the prospect of such a venture was at one point a thought of mine. I thought to rub shoulders and politic my way into such a position but decided against it.

But, on this final day of 2014, I will note this. One day I do plan on becoming a building principal, one who has withstood the test of time as an ardent advocate for students and teachers in public schools. One who has been tried and proven true to the ideals of what it means to be a real classroom teacher in a real public school and not just for the few trifling years it takes to become a principal. One who is an instructional leader indeed. One who is not a jelly-back, spineless, and anemic when it comes to pushing, fighting, and relentlessly pursuing what is necessary to promote a culture of teaching and learning, to manage an effective operation, and to bring out the best in each and every faculty and staff member. One who will encourage teachers and school personnel to advocate, publish, teach in post-secondary institutions, build and maintain strong community bonds, write for grants, etc. etc. etc.

Oh, leave Philadelphia you say? I live in a dream world?

Maybe.

But hypothetically, if and when I do decide to lead a building in Philadelphia, if whomever I work for is not for children, teachers, parents, community, and the improvement of our public schools, I may just make their life a living nightmare! Mark. my. words. Hypothetically speaking of course.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode...

For those who watched the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when it was running, I'm sure you remember season one and the episode where Carlton and Will drove Uncle Phil's law partner's fancy shmancy car to the retreat area and were stopped by a cop along the way.

Episodes like this and others that I've been watching while relaxing remind me that we never had a funeral for racism, this because, it never died!

Even then, those episodes shot in the early 90s, reflect the issues of that day and of this day.

In that episode Carlton believed that the police were "just doing their jobs" and that the system "works". Will took exception to this, and rightfully so. He continued to show Carl that he would see a lot more of that system and that money and connections won't be able to save him from it.

Boy are we still seeing that today!!

What I choose to not worry about is how others perceive me! I choose not to live my life like that! I choose to continue to educate myself and walk the streets with the belief that I can and will do anything I set my mind to do. If and when I and others encounter racism, I'll act accordingly. Marching, rallying, emailing, calling, tweeting, blogging, talking, public speaking, and VOTING, I will do what I can, when I can!

What I won't be, is bound by the provincial, elitist, and racist thoughts of others! I'm not going to live my life thinking about what I think I can or cannot do because of the color of the skin that covers this black male soul! That's bondage and I'll have no parts!

York, PA poised to turn charter huh?

And the big story is...

So, just a couple of hours from Philly in York, PA, the York City School District's schools are poised to become PA's first all charter district, having just been taken over by the state...or wait, what are they calling it? "Receivership"??? Aside from the fact that the term sounds ominously like a term from Lois Lowry's The Giver, Pennsylvania hasn't been doing well with the whole, "we can run a district better" thing.

They've been "receivership"ping Philadelphia's public schools since 2001. It is important to note that under their omniscient (sike), all watchful (pshh), recievership eye, we've plunged further and further into debt, all the while experiencing a net-GROWTH in the size of our district by the acceptance of many charter schools!

Some nuts swear by charter schools and are headstrong in their belief that the management of real public schools by these quasi-public, pseudo-accountable entities and the dissolution of teachers' unions are the answers to what ails many students in public schools! Not so!

If teachers' unions are the roadblocks to education, then by default, our wealthier suburban counterparts and their students would be enduring similar struggles since they, too, have teachers' unions. But, I'm sure, *they* have access to functional libraries, a nurse, counselor, the arts, gym, and a myriad of extra curricular activities and tutoring services at their disposal! As they should, but so should we, but I digress...

If the choice advocates really believed in the idea of "choice" as they suppose, they'd be pushing for such free-market enterprise in areas beyond Philadelphia's city borders, and I don't mean in Chester, but rather Chichester. Not in Camden, but in Council Rock!

My point? Pick one! Any one! There are many!

It's easy to pick on teachers and an unrealistic measure of student achievement like a single (or even a few) test scores! That is easy to package, ship, sell, and unload on an unsuspecting and easily swayed general public.

The problems are much more complex than that! Issues of the limitation of resources and opportunities, issues of true poverty, issues of substance abuse, issues of 8-year old heads of households, issues of homelessness, domestic violence, sexual abuse and in some cases (unpopular though it may be to discuss) the poor choices of parents and guardians.

Converting a school or an entire system does NOTHING to ameliorate those problems! Converting a school or an entire system to a charter oversimplifies complex problems all the while vilifying most of the hardworking, dedicated, well-equipped, certified public school teachers who have dedicated their lives to the service of educating generations of students and their families!

If we should fix anything, it should be the narrow-minded, elitist, pompous, high-minded, racist way of thinking on the part of many in positions who not only make laws, but those who buy...ooops, I mean, "influence" laws!

Unthinkable tragedy on Christmas 2009

Everything was normal on Christmas Eve of 2009. After a rather difficult year, it was coming to a close and I was ever so grateful to God for that! But the Lord had one more test for me, one that I had NEVER ever experienced before and would not soon forget.

Christmas Eve night, I took something to my big sister and big brother's house and greeted my nieces and nephews who I love dearly. After exchanging funny pleasantries with my oldest nephew, who was always my ride or die and never ever had the sense God gave a billy goat, I went home for the night.

Christmas morning and afternoon was spent with family. A day of laughter, gift exchanges, love, fellowship, and fun ended rather uneventfully, until...

On my way home, driving on the eastbound Schuylkill Expressway, just past 30th Street, approaching South Street and University City, I received a phone call that would forever change the course of my life as I had known it to be up until that point. A close friend of mine was on the other end, crying, asking me if I had heard.

I hadn't.

As she told me and as I tried, in between sobs, to convince myself and her that she wasn't telling me the truth. She was. My nephew had been shot and killed, my oldest, my ride or die, my day one!

I raced over to the house to find crime scene tape ominously draped over banisters and the front door.

Done.

Crying. Sobbing. Yelling. Pounding on my '02 Accord.

Done.

Our family would go through a very rough time from that point forward. Our faith in God brought us through that time! The females of the family were the strongest. My nieces and their mother embodied strength. My nephews and I didn't take it as well. What we all had was each other and the Lord!

Five years later, I thought that I would be OK, that I could man up and handle it. The more I sat today and thought about the times that my nephew and I had, I was not OK and I was a man down and out for the count. I knew that if anybody had my back, it was Jordan. He'd always ask, "Unk, you cool?" "Yea Jordan, I'm cool. Calm down." "Oh ard then, because see I'll come up to Kelly and rock them ni---z" "Jordan, calm down. I'm cool. Ain't nobody giving me no problems."

Much as happened and changed these past five years. The kids have grown up. A devil, jealous of my relationship with my family, slithered in and did a number.

I love my family. God knows I do. And as a buddy of mine said on facebook as I reflected on that day five years ago...

"...but seeing that family's strength since that day has been absolutely amazing..."

Christmas in Ghana and Togo

Back in 2002 I was a member of a U.S. delegation of speakers/teachers/preachers to a Christian conference and camp meeting in the COUNTRY of Ghana on the CONTINENT of Africa. I taught a class numbering in the thousands on the camp grounds of this West African Christian conference. I remember having to teach slowly, speaking in phrases so that my two translators could translate my lesson into the various dialects and languages that the native Ghanians spoke.

I also remember the fact that I spent my first Christmas away from home. I spent that Christmas overseas and it was quite different for me.

Here are some pics from back then (coincidently enough on #tbt)

#ClassOnGeek

I believe that teaching and learning should be as experiential as possible. To that end, I try to make learning a pleasant and unforgettable experience!! From video chatting with experts to handling bugs, learning should be an unforgettable, positive experience!

Last Friday, we took a trip to a bug museum, Philly's Insectarium. Needless to say this was quite an experience.  Some of the brave kids and I ate mealworms, handled reptiles and an assortment of critters including a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach! (We also purchased one to be our class pet!)

Tuesday was our class "Read In". This is an event that I've put on with the kids for a 7th year. The focus is on extended reading for pleasure, while also enjoying some goodies! In the last week I've adopted the phrase and hashtag, our class is on geek (a spinoff from a newer slang term for "nice"---"fleek"). So my #ClassOnGeek and we're proud to be! Intelligent, witty, scholars, thinkers, movers and shakers!

"Pedagogilese"

So, I think I'm making up a word in pedagogilese, (ped-a-gog-a-lese) (sad, I know) to mean terms of or related to pedagogy (pedagogy meaning the practice of teaching and its theoretical framework).

Blah, blah, blah

I'm making up the word in order to emphasize how much I despise being told to frame lesson objectives on board space using pedagogilese. Acronyms and "teacher-words" mean nothing to the student. And it is my belief that ANYTHING that I put on a chalkboard, whiteboard, overhead, etc. is for the benefit of the student!

Using pedagogilese on a chalkboard in no way benefits students!

As a high school student, quite familiar with teaching, and as a pre-service teacher, I didn't even believe in putting objectives on the board, period. I saw no point. I've come around to doing it, even though I still don't consider it one of the ten necessary commandments of teaching and learning.

But *if* I'm going to put an objective on the board, it will be in the first person and it will kid-friendly language, student-lese, if you please!

What's paper mache?

Some of my 3rd graders wanted to present their 3D insects and other critters to the class, so I let them. One girl described her butterfly and said that she used paper mache.

The same kid who asked when they would have art, asked what paper mache was? His question reignited my disdain for those who chose not to fully fund our schools so that ALL of our schools could have BOTH a full time art teacher and music teacher!

I vented with the kids for a minute or so about how I wish that they had a real art class and not just Mr. Flemming trying to infuse art into our academic program. I told them of where the art suite used to be in the building and all of the space they would/could have to do a whole lot of art projects!

John B. Kelly does have an art teacher. Once a week. On Tuesdays. Well over 600, probably near 700 students in the building. I wonder if the schools in Lower Merion or Upper Dublin have a similar arrangement?

Why am I even typing this? Why is it that a quality art program is a luxury or something that we'd have to try and fit into the budget? This is ludicrous! smh

First thougts??

Mr. Backwards Hat with a gang sign?

OR

Young man who holds a Bachelors and Masters in Education, three teaching certificates including Secondary English and Reading Specialist, studies and speaks French with a certain degree of proficiency (since 7th grade), traveled to Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Switzerland, France, England, and Canada, loves teaching and will often get into character in a judge's robe, assume a rapper's mode, or even use street code to get his point across to his students?

Which one did you assume at first glance?

P.S. There are great educational raps out there, add a little spice to playing them by dancing, waving your hands, or throwing on a cap---backwards. Let them know you're a human, with rhythm....or not lol

We don't get books for homework...

As I sit and await the arrival of parents for report card conferences, I'm taking a look at the similarities and differences my students found between a one-room schoolhouse they read about and our school.

One difference a child listed, "They get books/We don't get books for homework."

Hashtag Activism

My little post-script to what I just wrote re: my not being able to breathe...

I tried to read some #CrimingWhileWhite tweets and saw that #ICantBreathe was also making the hashtag activism circuit as well and I'm all for it. I have nothing against this show of solidarity, unity, and sounding of the proverbial clarion call. I couldn't get as involved as I normally would have, because I was too "done" with everything. I'm all for the outcry, I have my share of outcrying (and, to be honest, real tear drop moments...)

But what next?
Now what?

We've marched, shed light, shared stories, exposed bias, passed certain laws, reviewed policies, now what?

Wait?
Hope?
Wish?
Die?

No, I REALLY can't breathe!!

It was sickening to learn that a grand jury, yet again, decided not to indict a white police officer on charges in the death of an unarmed black man, one, Eric Garner. Despite what was seen in the video and the medical examiner's report, no indictment....again!

Last night, as I learned of the inaction taken by the grand jury, my thoughts raced all over the place as I decided not to entrench myself in what normally would have been a twitter tirade complete with hashtag activism and the retweeting the words that were in my head but couldn't come out the way I wanted!

I just couldn't and still can't seem to....breathe!

Even this post could go on and on and on and on and on and ON!!! But I really need to sit back and catch. my. breath!