April 30, 2015
by BulgingButtons 2 Comments

Why I Teach

Medium.com posed the question, “Why do you teach?” The prompt seemed like a good opportunity for me to take a step back and reflect on my own reasons.

When you receive handmade gifts like this flying pig, how could you NOT want to teach?

Why Does Anyone Teach?

Oh sure, teaching is a noble profession. Teachers expand the minds of young people and expose them to the wonders of the world. Teachers light the way for the next generation; the future explorers and researchers, the future biodiversity specialists and truth-tellers. Yes. We do that. But that’s hardly all we do. We also spend a gazillion hours lesson planning and grading papers, calling parents and attending trainings. We deal with outbursts and tragedies, anger and heartbreak. We are on the front lines, but we’re not in combat. Our job is not only to educate our charges, but to protect them.

When I began teaching a million years ago, I thought it was all about education. I thought that if my students could distinguish between obtuse angles and acute angles I would have made some impact on the future. How wrong I was. Yes, my fourth graders can tell you all about angles, surely way more about them than I could have when I was in fourth grade, but that isn’t how I measure my success as a teacher.

Many districts have gone to complex rating scales that depend largely on test scores to rate their teachers. There are rows upon rows of check boxes that administrators must wade through in order to share their observations and opinions of a teacher’s worth, then test scores are factored in, and voilá! a rating appears. Fabulous. We’re trying to do the same thing with children, but children refuse to be forced into those check boxes.

I don’t teach so that all of my kids can read aloud at a rate of at least 115 words per minute. I don’t teach so that my kids can surpass the standard deviation for the expected growth of students with their normed scores (you’re shocked, right?). Like all the good teachers I know, I teach for the kids.

I teach so that A. can take home a happy note to her stressed out single dad, and get that hug that she desperately needs. I teach so that J. can be challenged because he’s surpassed the elementary school curriculum and he’s bored. I teach so that V. can finally write (with lots of help) the story of his cousin’s visit from Mexico. I teach so that Z. can know the joy of far surpassing a goal after putting in a lot of hard work. I teach so that M. has a trustworthy adult to talk to while her family tries to put itself back together. I teach so that I can hear G.’s funny yet sad story about the short life of his birthday hamster.

You still wonder why I teach? I teach because teaching is my small way of trying to make the world better for kids. I teach because I want kids to know that they have a voice. I teach because I want kids to have tools to help them become competent, successful adults. I teach because I don’t know how NOT to.

I don’t measure my success by the myriad test scores that my students produce. I measure my success by how my students feel about coming to school each day and being in my class. Do those scores play into it? A little. My students take pride in their achievement, and I take pride in their effort. We support each other, we grow together, and, in spite of some pretty sad stories, we generally come out all right on the other side.

If you really want to know why I teach, come walk across the high school campus with me. On any given day I’m likely to get a big smile and a hug from a former student who turns to a friend, and brags, “She was my fourth grade teacher.”

April 29, 2015
by BulgingButtons 2 Comments

Buzzing Brain

I want to write about everything! My brain is bursting. I have too many thoughts. I want to stay up for four days straight and just write and write and write. Of course NONE of it would be any good. I’m a girl who needs her sleep. But I feel like there are all these words jammed into my brain and they have to get out. My buttons are still bulging and now my brain is bursting. I’m just a mess.

April 29, 2015
by BulgingButtons 15 Comments

The Allure of the Like Button

Recently I’ve been wondering how people use their “like” buttons. If you use social media at all you have them, and with them you wield power. So maybe it’s not great power, at least not by yourself, but it’s power all the same.

On Facebook, I notice that the like button is often used to simply acknowledge something someone has posted, and in that arena, I think that’s a perfectly acceptable way to use it, at least most of the time. You planted flowers? Great. Like. Your kid got a part in the play? Terrific. Like. That’s the dress you’re wearing to the party? Nice choice. Like. Grandpa Vito is in the hospital? That’s a shame. Like. Wait, what?

I think we should use our Facebook likes for things that we actually do like, or feel good about. Maybe it’s a puppy picture or a funny story about you and Aunt Vi on vacation in Bransonville. Why do people go to Bransonville? But the more challenging stuff in life? In my opinion a supportive comment in more appropriate. I know people don’t really “like” the bad stuff, but if you’re too lazy to type in a few words of encouragement, I think you should skip the interaction all together, until you have more time to put some thought into it.

That brings me to WordPress “likes.” I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a few more of these lately, which I really do enjoy, but they sometimes leave me confused. I get a little notification on my phone that so and so has liked my post about blah blah blah.

“Oh goody!” I think to myself, “someone has actually read one of my posts!”

That thought makes me want to check to see how many views the blog has received, so I click on that little button on my phone, and it brings up the exact same number as it did an hour ago, when I last checked. And, yes, I know I have a problem. The only thing I can think of is that people are seeing my posts in their reader and then clicking the like button from there, without actually visiting the blog.

Why would you do that? I mean I’m flattered that after just a few words you already know that you like what I’ve written, but really, you ought to jump in and read the whole thing! I’m kidding of course about the love at first sight thing. The truth is, people are busy, but want to show their support of their fellow bloggers, so they click the like button. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it seems like a friendly gesture. The only issue I take with it, is that’s it’s a hollow one.

I like making bloggy friends. I like having them around in my reader and in my comments. They are awesome people, and I enjoy their blogs. But here’s the thing, when I read them, I actually go to the blog and read! Yes, the whole thing (if I like it). For some reason, sometimes a post doesn’t click with me. I don’t hit the like button automatically. I’m sorry, I just don’t. I don’t like everything I read, so I save my likes for the ones that I do.

I do try to comment on most posts that I read. Blogging is a conversation, at least to me. Granted it’s kind of one sided, but it’s a conversation all the same. For it to work, there has to be some give and take.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the likes. In fact I’d love to see more of them. But what I really like to see are readers engaging with the writing and contributing to the conversation. That makes me far happier than the quick click of a button.