In response to Emily (2/13/2016):

You bring up a good point about the standardization and behavior protocols which make lose sight of their values. This section in the text (about the environment being a greater influence on the behavior and attitudes of teachers regardless of their values) really resonated with me, too. However, until your comment I didn’t connect this with standardized tests and curriculum.

I really enjoy your last few sentences. I wonder if teaching truly is selfless or if we do it for the feeling it gives us to be the provider of “ah ha” experiences.  

Having personally been in some not-so-great environments, I have felt genuine discord between my values and the work environment’s actions. It sucks. My attitude is usually the first thing to be affected. It gets harder and harder to wake up in the morning. My irritability fuse gets shorter and shorter. It takes a strong will, but I try not to let crappy work cultures influence my value-based-behaviors. I still go to work on time, keep a strong work ethic (but extra curricular duties are the first to be neglected), practice honesty and integrity, et. al. (though the profanity usage levels skyrocket). Workplace culture is everything. Everywhere. 

At one of my teaching positions, the students visibly bore the signs of a crappy environment - beyond the typical teenage angst. There were real issues that were affecting us all.

To Emily's point, standardization of curricula and of tests can drain the motivation out of people right down to the value system. Standardization of curriculum is a top-down approach that suggests teachers do not know nor have the ability to develop teaching materials for their own classrooms. I'm recalling our readings to that effect. And standardized tests. I mean, we are starting to get the data to show the data-mill of testing affects students negatively (ironic?). 

Emily also mentioned we teach out of selflessness, but I'm not sure that's true. People say teaching is one of the most rewarding jobs - the reward being the thanks of those we have helped along the way. Since we seek that "thanks" and "reward" (not to mention the paycheck and the holidays) I'm not so sure we are being truly selfless.

In response to Lori (2/13/16):

I could not agree more on training on different work environments! Of course, nothing quite prepares us for the real world like the actual real world. I really enjoyed reading your post. You have a great writing style and I absolutely related to your ramblings, especially the skills teachers have to manage and balance the emotional roller coasters of a school day. You’re right; we don’t get enough credit!

Wow! I'm really hitting this environment thing hard this week. Bad work environments have been a really, really heavy weight on me for a long time. They have left me distrustful, resentful, and highly suspect of new places.

I agree with Lori, it would have been nice to have some people/co-worker/administrator management courses in addition to the run of the mill (and very important) classroom management courses. Because of my crappy work environments, I am the recent owner of "Dealing with Difficult People," a book on workplace management. It's helped some.  The book also calls for the reader to reflect on their own behavior. Asking the reader to consider if they are the ones being difficult/part of the problem?

Lori was also right about teachers not getting enough credit for the emotional tightrope they have to walk. There were many days when my acting classes from college came into play - putting on a smiling face after an awful first block, resetting with a student the day after they've driven you up a wall...you know, the usual.

Visual Metaphor

completed visual metaphor for my classroom & teaching

"Quick Label" 

This found-object collage weaves together elements of nature and surprise in the same way teachers approach their classrooms.


The metaphor I played with was "teaching is like weaving" and the process for me was way more important than the final outcome. I don't want to put too much here yet, because I recorded an hour of the beginning of my process and made SO many connections and metaphorical lines of flight that I will surely share later. Also, I want to stick to the "primarily visual" condition of the assignment.

Key:

The Weaving : is the literal visual of the "teaching is like weaving metaphor"
The branches/sticks : (1) bring in the natural aspects of teaching, it's innateness, it's gift (2) come directly from my backyard - I have ALWAYS needed outdoor space for reflection.
I actually used a bit of metallic bronze-y spray paint on the tips of the branches to "crown" them as a very important element.
Nest: the nest is a symbol of returning, home, and new life
Bird: I have put birds in LOTS of my artwork (go ahead and make a Portlandia reference, but I'm hipster and was doing it before they made it a thing:)). It's not only a motif in my works, but it's a representation of one of the assignment points "where are you in the classroom?" I'm kind of like this bird, fluttering around, picking at the students, checking on them, and encouraging them to work their own wings.
The Bag: it's full of mystery. My Abba Felix said today (not in relation to and AFTER I had finished this project) "Teachers create mysterious and intriguing places." That's what I was getting at when adding the bag, but didn't have the words until hearing them today. 

Details

Process

What motivates the impulse to teach?

In thinking about the teachers represented on my lineage tree and the authors who passionately wrote their thoughts, experiences, and years of research for our benefit, I come to the conclusion the most potent impulse that motivates people to teach is 

love of people. 

It's as simple as that.

 

NOT EASY, 

but simple.

The "12 Qualities" article called it love of kids, but unlike Trix teachers aren't just for kids. 

Okay sure, lots of people love other people and don't become teachers -some become those "free hugs" guys at concerts. So in addition to the love of people, what else motivates the impulse to teach?

By the way, I'm saying this blog is a part of meeting one of last week's stated goals: "It is my goal to be able to articulate my "educational orientation." Understanding what motivates people (and myself) to teach helps to identify values that influence educational orientations.

Natural ability to lead; natural desire to share.

My Abba Felix is naturally able to lead, because he shares. He values the voices of his students. He unpretentiously, leans in, looks students in the eye, and shares a personal story to lead learners to understanding. 

In my classroom, I liked to do the projects, too - ahead of the lesson if possible, otherwise in real-time along with the students. I value the importance of understanding the process and the problems that arise. I also love when the students and I would share solutions and help one another work through the problems. 

I think leadership ability comes naturally as such it is unique (what works for one leader doesn't work for another). It is an impulse as well to know that others will follow you and to use the skills to help others learn. It is the desire to share that determines the direction of the leader/teacher.

Though we desire to lead and share, the impulse to teach also stems from the motivation to build communities. We value places of belonging and build our classrooms and our schools into such places. When students, teachers, or parents violate the community through negative words or actions, the rest of the community pulls together to come up wth solutions and a forgiveness plan.

Because we don't just love people, we desire to help them. We help them by showing them ways to understand our world and one another. We are motivated by the excitement  of learning and enjoy watching and participating in moments where the light bulb illuminates.

Deep interest in subject matter also motivates our impulse. As we learn more about it (scroll up) we want to share!

The impulse to teach is also motivated by meaningful work that provides a sense of purpose, because we naturally desire to lead, naturally desire to share, build communities, and get excited about learning.

And finally motivating the impulse to teach - summers off!

A couple of reading notes:

"so much of teaching is rooted in how we perceive the world."

Does this make me a hippie? (See entire blog up to this point)

Teaching as emotional labor. 

That phrase is resonate and powerful. I have some good friends who are tremendous labor activists and I immediately connected this image of emotions labor with their emotional labor activism. They care so much about the fair treatment of others and the labor conditions of others, that they pour themselves into a life of activism which often means suffering the same unfair treatment they are protesting against.

I met a lot of education and labor activists through my work at the museum and helped organize "Join the Movement: Find Your Match in Local Activism" as a career-fair type of event to bring them all together.

Teaching is labor intensive, but it is also emotion intensive. It demands nature and nurture in a delicate balance. It demands a responsive teacher. It demands long hours and little thanks. It demands. And yet teachers invest in their labor and take pride in their work and they give. Almost until they can't give anymore. Then they do it again.

However, the text is very spot on with the quote "teachers end up relying less on their own experiences and values and being affected more by the institutions in which they work." Work-place culture is EVERYTHING. This is a lesson I have learned over and over.

Reflections on My Comments to Classmates - Intro to Reflective Teaching

Well, I had this queued up a week ago and forgot to "publish"

In response to Alison (2/6/2016):

Hi Alison,

This was a great, in depth blog post. It's very interesting to read about your experiences as an online teacher. i'm sure that is new territory many of us do not have experience with. Two points in your blog resonated with me:

1) The grey areas that emerge from working together. I once heard someone describe good deliberation as "apple, banana, potato." Rarely are there true dichotomies. An extra voice is great to say, "you two are both wrong. It's neither apple nor banana; it's POTATO!"

2) "By being able to be active in these processes [designing curriculum], it allows me to advocate for my students." This is a GREAT point. No one knows a group of students' needs better than the teacher. Reflection will always be different, because each group of students is different. Curriculum should always be flexible for the same reasons. Being active in curriculum design provides another tool for articulating student needs. Nice one!

"Apple, Banana, Potato" came from workshops I participated in with the Kettering Foundation when they were interested in a partnership with the National Civil Rights Museum. We were learning about the National Issues Forum model of deliberation. The model was not intended for dichotomous discussion, but alternate valid theories and perspectives. There are a lot of (as Alison puts it) grey areas to everything! We can never be sure of Apple versus Banana, because Potato!

Student advocacy is vital and I think that the teacher's voice in curriculum design is a no-brainer. Sadly, administration and governance does not always think this way. I'm really glad to see that point in Alison's response.


In repsonse to Kaj (2/6/2016)

I appreciate your comments on learning from others and particularly your point about perceptions of expert others. I think we all have degrees of imposter phenomenon when entering the field of education, whether as a student or teacher. I like your sentiment about understanding the importance of our own ideas and contributions in the field as equal to those of the experts.

I also enjoyed your discussion about individuals changing their perceptions subconsciously and find it an interesting point to reflect on.

Imposter phenomenon! Hearing that dissertation in 2015 made a world of difference. I have shared the theory with several people since then. It always seems to bring a sense of validation to learn that others feel just as intimidated as we do. When we can recognize this, we can move beyond it and truly begin learning from each other.

The subconscious shift in perspective is very interesting and comes with the territory in education. As we learn, we change. We don't usually say "I'm learning right now" or "at this moment, I know that I am changing." It is usually after we have learned and after we have changed that we begin to reflect on both. Then we can say, "I learned" and "I changed."