From Tuesday at Sundown to Wednesday at sundown was the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. For those not well versed in the matter, this holiday is one of the most sacred that Jews hold dear to our hearts as it focuses on reflection and repentance from sins committed in the past (and potential ones in the future). I try to take the holiday quite seriously in my personal life but want to note that it has a large effect on my professional life as well.

For the past three years on Yom Kippur I have spent an hour or two sitting next to the Wissahickon Creek in Valley Green, Philadelphia, in an effort to reflect upon what I have done in the past year and what I will do in the future. Obviously my thoughts drifted between personal goals and professional goals as well as the people I've harmed along the way (without malice, of course). But one major theme connected between them both: vulnerability. 

Vulnerability is a hard state to be in: it could promote help or harm; it could allow danger or love. But, more importantly, it allows the possibility of positivity. 

One of the other things I did on Yom Kippur was watch a TED Talk from a woman named Dr. Brené Brown, a self-titled "storyteller researcher" from the University of Houston. Her talk focused on how vulnerability can bring us closer to each other and allow great things to happen. This is a lesson in which I take heart in this time of seasonal change and the beginning of a new school year. We each need to be humbled by our students as well as teach our students to be graceful in their interactions. Making a mistake is part and parcel to learning so we should demonstrate that. We should celebrate those who persevere and show the "grit" that makes great learners. More importantly, we should celebrate the tiny voice in the back of the room that will try again tomorrow.

Interestingly enough, a new close friend I've made told me about the sermon Rabbi Marc Katz of Congregation Beth Elohim gave at Kol Nidre services at the start of Yom Kippur.  He references Dr. Brown's research and I think concludes these ideas well enough to be the end of this blog post:

Take risks with your heart. Embrace mistakes. Let yourself love deeper. Laugh harder. If you do, you’ll be more present, more available, and more engaged with the people around you, with yourself, and with God. Then you might live out the ideal of our ancient author of the Hineini prayer:

Kol tzarut v’ra’ut, hafach na lanu…k’sason u’lisimcha. L’chayim u’lishalom.
That through our fears and affliction we find joy, life, and peace.

May we each find ways to be vulnerable and help our students do the same.

Everyone in the world of education is focusing on the Chicago Public School system and the current strike taking place. For the past week teachers have been on the picket line to defend themselves against attacks on their salaries, job security, and evaluation. The most recent update includes a tentative deal that will be vetted tomorrow by the 29,000 teachers across the city with the hopes of ratifying the contract and getting kids back into schools on Wednesday. 

Many pundits are throwing harsh words back and forth, criticizing teachers, the Union, Rahm Emanuel, and the idea of collective bargaining. It begs the question: why do teachers strike in the first place? Don't they care about kids enough to stay in the classroom and negotiate in their spare time? One Teacher For America alumna has posted an insightful piece on why she is supporting the strike, directly referencing how the strike will help ensure Chicago students should not have to focus on test prep nor do Chicago teachers have to be demoralized. As the first strike in the city since 1987, the Chicago Teachers Union is certainly making noise - hopefully enough to get their point heard.

And this is the sticking point: teachers want their voices to be heard on what is best for kids. 

The national debate on collective bargaining and teacher unions has come to a head with the Chicago strike, leaving many on both sides of the fence unable to understand their counterparts. Political big names like Michelle Rhee (former Chancellor of DC schools), Arne Duncan (US Secretary of Education), and more are attempting to craft policy without respect for what we have to say, yet citing "research" that disagrees with much of what I see every day.

Possibly the most contentious issue for me (and many other teachers) is that of teacher evaluation. Politicians and conservative foundations are advocating for using more and more student standardized assessment data to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers. This is an issue in Chicago but has been drawn out all over the country. As an avid reader on the subject, I have to say I whole-heartedly disagree with most of what is being advocated in this realm. Many support the concept of "Value-Added modeling" which is essentially a mathematical algorithm used to normalize comparisons of teachers to themselves. As you can read in Gary Rubenstein's extensive critique, however, these scores do not correlate at all and thus are almost useless. Instead, I would argue for a system like Peer Assistance and Review, currently being used in Montgomery County, MD.

So, why do teacher strike? Because we want what's best for kids. We believe that evaluation systems like VAM will force high-quality teachers out and narrow teaching to a small curriculum. We believe that pay scales should improve to entice new recruits with lots of skills. We believe that workplaces should be fair and teachers should not be removed due to grudges. 

If that is not evident to you from the general media, please be sure to read closer.

I made an offhanded comment at a meeting recently regarding my distaste for the concept of merit-based pay and was taken aback by my reluctance to talk about the subject except in joke form. To that end, I asked a friend of mine to provide me some examples of what she thought might be beneficial for teachers when it comes to compensation reform. I do not necessarily espouse all these views but I find them interesting. 

She forwarded me to this website which discusses a particular type of merit-based pay: one that compares teachers to themselves only and provides compensation to all, regardless of how they perform in relation to another. Since one of the major criticisms is that this type of pay-for-performance would foment competitiveness between teachers and therefore negatively affect students, it seems to be a good idea. Additionally, if the evaluation criteria for "merit" includes test scores from students, there is plenty of potential of cheating and manipulation in order to boost salary. 

What evaluation criteria are used is probably the most important point in this debate. Specific things like test scores or "using hand gestures" might be easy to check off a box, but it does not tell the quality of a teacher. But what if we were evaluated by peers using evidence from the classroom itself - would that be better?

Even though teachers overwhelming care about other aspects of teaching more than merit pay as evidenced by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation study, it is still a hot-button issue. As a math teacher in Philadelphia I get an annual bonus of $1500 due to my teaching in a "high need field." Additionally, every year one teacher from each school receives the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teachers, which comes with a check (I believe it is over $2000). So what if there were better criteria that didn't make me focus on test scores or compete with other teachers - would I want that? Perhaps.

This past week has been amazing - the staff I work with (both from last year and newbies), the freshmen entering the doors for orientation, and my student-teacher - all astound me. Yet, the most incredible thing I will point out is that I am at the same school for the first time ever! At the end of each of my years thus far I have had to switch schools (from West Philly HS to School of the Future to the Academy at Palumbo) yet now I get to benefit from teaching the same classes in the same environment with the same teachers. It's great.

I'm sure there are those of you out there who do not have this luxury, however. Or, maybe you have to teach an entirely new set of classes. Or, perhaps, you have been given totally new responsibilities without being prepared for them. It is for those of you out there who want a support structure that I write today. I am working with a small group of education-minded folks to create a document that will quickly and easily describe any and all support networks out there for teachers to utilize.

If you - like me - think collaboration is the way to improve your practice, then check out this Google Doc to connect with other like-minded educators in the Philadelphia region.

If you have any ideas to add, please email me or comment below to let me know. I'll update the Google Doc as often as I can.

In the meantime, good luck on your first day of school (even if it already happened)!