Introducing: Office Hours, hosted by Dr. Patricia L. Schall

NJCTE is launching a new regular feature on our blog, Office Hours. We invite you to digitally “drop in” to seek advice and chat about professional concerns.

I will host this new feature on our blog and respond to all questions and comments I receive. NJCTE established this dedicated email address for privacy purposes: NJCTEofficehours@gmail.com. I will anonymously post questions and responses in the style of an advice column, using “Dear Doc” as a salutation and “Inquiring Educator” for the advice seeker.

Let me introduce myself for those of you who don’t know me. It is important to know something about a person dishing out advice! I hold the position of Professor Emeritus at the College of Saint Elizabeth, where I directed and taught in graduate and undergraduate programs in education. I hold a BA in English from Montclair State University and an MA in Communications in Education and a Ph.D. in English Education from New York University. I taught high school English for 13 years, primarily at Watchung Hills Regional High School in Warren, NJ, before moving into higher education as the Director of the Educational Media Center at Seton Hall University. I served two terms on the North Plainfield Board of Education. Teachers College Press published a book I co-wrote and edited on teachers and academic freedom. I have written journal articles, presented at conferences, and currently am co-researching and writing a non-fiction book on a notorious 19^th century murder that happened in my town. I remain active as a retired educator in the National and New Jersey Councils of Teachers of English, the Morris County Retired Educators Association, the NJ Education Association, and the National Education Association. NCTE recently appointed me to a two-year term as a policy analyst for higher education in New Jersey. I am spending significant time in retirement working with organizations focused on social justice and political change. I am committed to continue advocating for quality teaching and learning.

While I’ll serve as the host of this new feature, I hope our readers will respond in the comments section and provide a lively and supportive forum, enriched by the knowledge and experience of the many educators who read this blog. There is strength in many voices. Of course in responding we will expect respectful on-line discourse—no flaming or trolling. NJCTE reserves the right to delete comments that are hostile or disrespectful. Please respect people’s privacy. Use pseudonyms to protect others if you describe people, incidents, or situations. Do not mention the names of communities, schools, or districts.

As a teacher educator, teacher, and educational leader, I have sought and offered advice on many issues. Here are some questions based on 40 plus years of conversations with students and colleagues. I pose them to “prime the pump” and launch this advice column. I am sure you can think of many more, and I invite you to submit them in the comments section. Here’s a start:

• How can I find a real mentor I can trust?
• How do I handle a new teacher who is my mentee and is not performing well?
• How do I handle professional jealousy, either as a new, untenured teacher or a seasoned educator?
• How do I challenge an evaluation I think is inaccurate or unfair?
• Is it possible to work for a supervisor who is not a people person and doesn’t understand my teaching?
• How do I handle the paper load so typical of English teaching?
• How do I resist the pressure to pass non-achieving students to maintain the graduation rate?
• How do I maintain my enthusiasm for teaching in a school with a toxic culture?
• How to I handle challenges to books, materials, or pedagogy?
• What do I do with angry parents?
• How do I handle a colleague or supervisor who is making biased remarks about kids? About others?
• How do I balance my private and professional lives and find time for myself?
• How do I cope with negative people at school?
• Can you recommend any strategies for doing advanced graduate work while teaching?
• How do I keep up with the rapidly changing demands of technology?
• How do I avoid burnout?
• What do I do if a colleague or supervisor is engaging in sexually aggressive behavior or language?
• How do I handle “needy” students who demand a lot of attention when I have 130 other kids?
• How do I cope with the exhaustion typical of workers in the caring professions?

I hope some of these prompts get you thinking about your work. Feel free to post more questions in the comments section below.

Remember, the office is always open here! Reach out to us at NJCTEofficehours@gmail.com. Let’s talk!

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

MAKE SCHOOLS SAFE PLACES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING: FOLLOW THE KIDS!

By Patricia L. Schall, Ph.D., professor emeritus, NJCTE Executive Board Member, republished from the NJCTE Newsletter e-Focus, Issue #38, Spring Conference Renewal.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. … Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our society can remove this sickness from our land.” 

Robert F. Kennedy

As I write, I am reflecting on Easter, a holiday my whole family celebrated with eggs, chocolate bunnies, new clothes, church, and traditional Italian food. When the family gathered around the holiday table at my grandmother’s house, the children were relegated to the kids’ table, a metal collapsible table brought out for the holidays. Joining the main table as a young adult was a genuine rite of passage.

As children at the kids’ table, however, we were expected to enjoy our dinner but keep the volume down, refrain from killing each other, and maintain the requisite distance from the adults and their conversation. In my family, kids were to be seen and not heard. Joe Giaquinta, one of my favorite NYU professors, once joked in class that his upbringing in a Sicilian-American home was not “an exercise in participatory democracy.” I’ll never forget that characterization of his family since it described my family so well.

I was a “nice” kid, and if I questioned the family rules, I mostly did so quietly, voicing my objections more often to my mother than my father, a man who did not tolerate children with opinions. My mother could be stubborn too, but she was more flexible; and, if you caught her at the right moment, more willing to listen to your grievances. Still, I knew my job was to listen and obey.

My quiet kid image persisted in school, which I loved and where I was the proverbial good kid. I did all my work and was eager to please teachers, though I remained quiet, especially while going through my adolescent years in middle school and high school. I rarely raised my hand to speak and would answer mainly if teachers called on me. While I might be roaring inside, I was reticent on the outside. I went through college as a student who faded into the back of the classroom, responding only if the professor called on me, and letting my political proclivities hang out as a writer and artist for the college humor magazine, Galumph. Once I started teaching and especially after I entered a Ph.D. program, I finally found the courage of my voice.

Perhaps my own history has made me admire the student activists at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. As I watch these students lead the nation in a fight for sensible gun regulations and school safety, I think about how unlike them I was at their age. They remain confident, exuberant, focused, articulate, and seemingly fearless in the face of many adults who aim to dominate them. They challenge legislators and well-funded, powerful groups like the National Rifle Association. They stand up to bullies in the media and especially in social media. Witness David Hogg’s takedown of Fox News commentator, Laura Ingraham, whose program lost many advertisers due to her media tirade against a high school student.

These young leaders refuse to back down when confronted by trolls whose vitriol and detached bravado grow exponentially with their virtual distance on Twitter and Facebook. These young women and men know how to use language to get things done in the world. They refuse to be victims.

When I was Emma Gonzalez’s age, I shook in fear when I had to speak in front of a class. Emma, however, addressed thousands of people from a stage in Washington, D.C. What courage! She now has 1.5 M followers on Twitter. David Hogg has 737.1K followers. Cameron Kasky, with 373K followers, summed up the student movement’s power in a tweet on 4/4/18: “For clarity–our elders are not bad people, I’m simply saying that social changes like this are so often brought about by the young and passionate. Countless people in generations before us have been infinitely kind to our movement, but we have to stand up. It’s never too early.”

Did these young men and women ever sit at the kids’ table? While the “Never Again” movement sprang from tragedy, these students were ready for action. They understand the power of solidarity and persistence. Adults are following their lead. Among those countless “kind people” who have supported the students and their initiatives are parents and teachers.

Some of the parents of the Parkland student activists have commented in the media about their continuing need to support their children as they pursue their hard-won mission and still provide them with the guidance all kids need to fulfill the typical responsibilities of students moving through high school, growing up, and preparing for college. Cameron’s father, Jeff Kasky, endorses his son’s mission, admitting, “We’re the ones who screwed this up and, fortunately, they have the wherewithal and the voice and the power to work on this.”

The educators and staff at Stoneman Douglas High School share the trauma of the losses, and many of them can take pride in their students’ commitment to a growing movement. As teachers ourselves, we can appreciate our colleagues in Florida who helped these students develop and manifest the literacy skills that have made them nationally recognized social activists. They can take some credit for helping them use reading, writing, speaking, and listening to get things done in the world. In harnessing the power of literacy, these students mastered social media to broadcast their message to the wider world. Parkland teachers  must proudly recognize in their students’ accomplishments that there is more to teaching and learning than preparing students for standardized tests. Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, for instance, credit a social studies teacher who taught them valuable lessons about citizenship.

Many of the Parkland teachers, led by their students,  participated in the March for Our

Lives too, while perhaps wondering about their own rights as citizens and educators who engage in protest and activism. The country may be seeing a new wave of civic activism as teachers engage in job actions, publicly revealing their frustration with legislators who refuse to hear their voices as educators and ignore their concerns about school safety, working conditions, benefits, salaries, and their right to more self-determination as professionals.

At NJCTE’s Annual Spring Conference, attendees posted messages of support on a graffiti wall and wrote notes and letters that were mailed to Stoneman Douglas High School. As educators, we believed it was important to stand with students and teachers in Florida and beyond. The gun violence that has plagued schools and other public place needs to end. There are more mass shootings in the USA than in any other country in the world. America tops the list of per capita gun ownership throughout the world.

These gun statistics remind us that we have reached the 50th anniversary of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Despite the undeniable progress made through the Civil Rights Movement, too many unresolved problems remain. Many residents of cities, especially unarmed young Black males, die in police shootings.

The Black Lives Matter Movement continues to fight hard to hold police accountable for these killings. Even people who are licensed and trained to use guns contribute to needless deaths. The concern with guns and their use extends beyond the statistics on mass shootings. As Robert Kennedy said, “Violence breeds violence.”  People need to be safe where they live and learn.

NJCTE will continue to support teachers as they advocate for the school safety and a stronger voice in shaping the laws and regulations that govern their work. Professional organizations can help. NCTE has many resources for teachers to build their awareness of issues that affect their professional lives. Teachers also can look to their unions for additional support through the NJ Education Association (NJEA), the National Education Association (NEA), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

As I consider these options we have to make our voices heard as professionals, I return to my reflections on my own life growing up in a home that was not an exercise in “participatory democracy.” I think my mother recognized my capacity to challenge the rules of the family and perhaps the world beyond. She had a good feel for her kids’ personalities and a habit of characterizing us with pronouncements about us as people. Her favorite comment about me, even into her old age, was, “Patty, well, Patty is a pain in the ass.”

Well, Mom, you were right! I finally escaped from the kids’ table, and I am confident that all of us can do the same. As Cameron Kasky said, “It is never too early.” I say, it is never too late.

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

 

A Child Shall Lead Them: March for Safe Schools

The students at  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are teaching the country a powerful civics lesson. I applaud them for showing the supposed adults in their world what it means to persist and take action as vocal citizens. They are demonstrating to all of us how to be responsible and make change.

The teachers at MSDHS must be proud of these kids, and let’s give these teachers a round of applause too. They lost colleagues and students, and they lived through yet another gun massacre. They can take plenty of credit for teaching these impressive kids.

As teachers, we are supposed to educate, guide, counsel, and care for our students. I’ve had many education courses in my life and plenty of experience working in schools and colleges, but no one ever suggested that I should learn to use a gun to protect my students. Only people who know nothing about the culture and climate of schools would recommend arming teachers and other school personnel.  When was the last time legislators in Tallahassee attempted to navigate a crowded hallway at passing time in a high school or middle school or stood at the entrance of a school as the buses arrived and kids charged in the doors?

After 13 years of teaching high school English, I spent the next 30 years teaching students who aimed to be teachers and school leaders. As teacher and school leader educators, we were constantly adapting our curriculum based on demands from state and national governments, testing services, and accrediting bodies. We routinely found ourselves defending our thinking and practice to pundits who knew little about education but fancied themselves experts based on the fact that they went to school. A new governor generally meant a different commissioner of education, new members of the state board of education, code changes, new standardized tests, revised cut scores, and additional demands of all kinds. We found that those who made the rules and code rarely listened to us.

What awaits us now from legislators in the pocket of the NRA? Will teacher educators have to adjust courses, clinical experiences, and testing to accommodate gun skills? Will the complex and costly Pearson edTPA contain a section on gunmanship, complete with videos of teachers armed with AK 15s hitting the bull’s eye with 98% accuracy? Will future PD sessions in schools be devoted to gun handling? Think of the potential for NRA-endorsed PD providers! Will the Danielson Rubric need a new domain to assess gun skills? Shooting for a “3” anyone?

OK, I may be joking here, but let’s not underestimate the power of the NRA to set law and policy in this country. A retired N.J. educator, a former colleague and friend of mine, who lives in Naples, Florida, recently posted this message on my Facebook page, “In Florida, there is what is known as a YRO (Youth Resource Officer) in every school: in uniform, wearing a Kevlar vest, and fully armed with billy club, handcuffs, and holstered gun. Not a retiree from military or retired deputy. When I worked in a Naples middle school (’06 -’08) part-time, I was shocked to see this. They handled routine disturbances…like those I handled as a VP (pre-Columbine). Their function is to ‘build rapport’ with students, as well as ‘insure’ safety.”

What rational person would claim that school employees armed with pistols and billy clubs would build rapport with students? More guns will only result in more violence and death. The Parkland kids understand this better than most people, and they are not giving up. Those involved in the Black Lives Matter movement live with unspeakable loss and know all too well that many Black lives are lost in frequent shootings on neighborhood streets and in confrontations with the police. It is time to say “never again” to needless slaughter.

On March 24, 2018, the same day as our NJCTE Conference, citizens will participate in the March for Our Lives. During this event “the kids and families of March for Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington, D.C. [and in other cities and towns throughout the nation] to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end this epidemic of mass school shootings. The collective voices of the March for Our Lives movement will be heard.”

NJCTE recognizes that many of our conference attendees may feel conflicted and wish they could attend the march. I know I would be marching in Morristown or Washington, D.C. if I weren’t participating in the conference. We set the date and site and started inviting speakers like renowned author Jason Reynolds more than a year ago and could not reschedule such a big event. So, we plan to recognize the march with a number of activities at the conference. Come prepared to write messages for the marchers, join marchers on social media, and share an exciting and productive day with a group of people, who understand what it means to teach and learn in safe environments that cultivate student voices and celebrate their lives.

Let’s heed the call from Cameron Kasky, a MSDHS junior, who calls us to action with these words:

I’m just a high school student, and I do not pretend to have all of the answers. However, even in my position, I can see that there is desperate need for change — change that starts by folks showing up to the polls and voting all those individuals who are in the back pockets of gun lobbyists out of office.

Please do it for me. Do it for my fellow classmates. We can’t vote, but you can, so make it count.

 

 

Written by Patricia Schall, NJCTE board member

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

NJCTE Spring Conference – Questions and Answers

How can I deepen students’ engagement with texts by viewing them as windows, mirrors, and doors?

How can I organize virtual author visits for my own classroom?

How can I build a culture of independent reading, assess student progress, and still address the standard curriculum of my school?

What role can interactive read-alouds play in supporting student comprehension and building a culture of reading in my classroom?

What kind of digital tools can I use to help students comprehend complex texts and to support their learning from upper elementary through high school?

Is there harmony between English language arts and technology, and what kind of easy-to-apply digital tools can I integrate into the classroom to improve learning?

How can I encourage students to write unique stories starting with two simple words: What if?

How can I provide the attention, encouragement, and challenge students need to become lifelong readers who continue to read for pleasure?

What kind of games, discussions, and self-assessments can I use to improve literacy engagement and create a participatory culture in my classroom?

How can I encourage the free, open discourse fundamental to a democracy and still handle unwanted and offensive speech?

In our current climate where immigration can be a heated topic, what strategies and resources can I use to help students understand the important role immigration continues to play in our culture?

Is poetry dead along with all the poets? Are there resources to help students become better poets and develop their own creative voices?

Come to the NJCTE spring conference to hear discussion and answers to these and other questions. Go to the NJCTE website conference page and scroll to the bottom of the page to register.

Written by Patricia Schall, NJCTE board member

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

NJCTE Spring Conference – Sessions for Teachers at all Levels!

We have an engaging spring conference planned with a variety of session topics. Sessions on literacy will appeal to teachers at all grade levels, especially middle school and high school.

We look forward to a diversity of speakers and presenters. We have sessions that directly address advocacy issues, such as a presenter from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Philadelphia) discussing “free, open discourse in schools in a functioning democracy” and providing suggestions for teachers on “how to handle unwanted or offensive speech.”

Sessions will help teachers advocate for and develop a “liberation pedagogy” that will support students’ literacy and learning and put teachers in the position of professional decision-makers and collaborators as they help students make choices about their own learning.

We have presenters from NY, PA, and even from Minnesota. From NJ, we have presenters from schools in Morris, Ocean, Union, and Essex Counties. We are also lucky to have two NCTE Lead Ambassadors who will attend the conference; one is giving a session on “Poetry Isn’t Dead (and Neither Are the Poets).”

Laura Nicosia and Jim Nicosia have, as usual, worked hard on all the arrangements for this conference at Montclair University.

Written by Patricia Schall, NJCTE board member

Click on the conference poster (at right) to go to the NJCTE website. Scroll to the bottom of the page to register.

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

The Return of Light

I sit here at my computer today, glancing out the window at the frigid white landscape in my yard. I watch the winter birds scrambling with each other, devouring seed in the feeders, desperate to stay alive.

A “bomb cyclone” has delivered snow and sub-zero wind chills to our area and probably a coveted snow day or two for our students and teachers.   Random thought: why do the weather gurus try to scare us with increasingly violent weather vocabulary? Bomb cyclones, derechos? Really? Well, I guess the terms are good for our science vocabulary. But I digress.

Looking at the frozen, cyclone-bombed landscape outside my window, I struggle to remember that the Winter Solstice passed in December. We are living in the freshness of a new year. I must remind myself that the days, though hardly perceptible now, really are growing longer as we creep toward spring.  Light is returning, and with light, hope.

I needed some poetry to match my mood today, and a search online yielded a Marge Piercy gem that felt just right to me today:

Winter Promise

Marge Piercy

Tomatoes rosy as perfect baby’s buttocks, 
eggplants glossy as waxed fenders,
purple neon flawless glistening
peppers, pole beans fecund and fast
growing as Jack’s Viagra-sped stalk,
big as truck tire zinnias that mildew
will never wilt, roses weighing down
a bush never touched by black spot,
brave little fruit trees shouldering up
their spotless ornaments of glass fruit:

I lie on the couch under a blanket
of seed catalogs ordering far
too much. Sleet slides down
the windows, a wind edged
with ice knifes through every crack.
Lie to me, sweet garden-mongers:
I want to believe every promise,
to trust in five pound tomatoes
and dahlias brighter than the sun
that was eaten by frost last week.

The poem was just the antidote I needed to dispel my winter blahs. I saw the hope in Piercy’s seed catalogs and found that I too wanted to believe the lies of the “sweet garden-mongers.” I craved the “five pound tomatoes” and the “dahlias brighter than the sun.” The poem made me hope.

The poem also led me to reflect on Winter Solstice and what we might call “return of the light” assignments that I might use with students in the post-holiday doldrums.

I could see a lesson that begins with some winter poetry—there is plenty of it from classics by Shakespeare and Frost to more contemporary poems by Mary Oliver and Billy Collins—and wraps up with original writing in any format—poetry, prose, mixed media—about the ”return of the light” and the hope implicit in the increasingly longer days. I can see using an open-ended prompt like: “We are beginning a new year. If you could give a gift to the world or a particular person in the world, a gift that would bring light and hope in the New Year, what would it be?”

I know I am in the mood for dahlias these days, and I am tired of being “eaten by frost.” So why not “believe every promise” and welcome the “return of the light” with the writing of hope?

Written by Pat Schall, NJCTE Board Member

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

An Invitation to Write Banned Word Poetry

Greetings, NJCTE Blog Readers! This is your friendly and vigilant citizen activist English language arts educator, Pat Schall, returning with yet another suggestion for making your voices heard in a challenging political climate.

This time my suggestion for activism encourages more creativity and less correspondence and calls. Sound interesting? Hey, the holiday break should give you a little more time to charge those creative batteries.

Have you heard about the seven words/phrases the Trump administration put on a usage “hit list” for the CDC (Center for Disease Control)? The Washington Post reports that the CDC employees may not use these word/phrases in their writing: “vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based.”  How about entering a banned word poetry/poetic language contest with several options for creative expression using these forbidden words?

Recently, I was checking some social media postings and found an entry from Sara Freligh’s blog. Sarah is an author and a recipient of an NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) fellowship in poetry. She and Amy Lemmon are hosting a poetry writing contest using the CDC banned words. You will find specific guidelines for writing and submission in the blog post.

Freligh and Lemmon are flexible about the format and encourage “prose poems/microfiction, or even short plays. Forms that use repetition and/or use the required words in inventive ways are especially encouraged. Work may include visual or multimedia elements within the range of literary work.  Video or audio submissions should be accompanied by text transcript.” There are so many possibilities and formats, traditional and non-traditional. They advise writers that “poems will be accepted on a rolling basis for publication on the blog. One new poem by a different writer will be published each week day, Monday through Friday starting January 1, 2018.”

The idea of a “rolling basis for publication” appeals to me and may provide just the kind of incentive and flexible deadline a busy teacher/writer needs to participate and to take a stand against censorship that matches NCTE’s mission to preserve intellectual freedom.

NJCTE will host our Annual Conference on Saturday, March 24, 2018, at Montclair State University. This would be a good forum for sharing some of the poems our members submit to this contest, whether or not they are chosen to appear on the blog. Why not get your creative juices flowing and participate? Here is another chance to be a creative citizen activist and stand up for freedom of speech.

Enjoy the holidays, the break, and this opportunity to let your voice be heard!

Written by Pat Schall, NJCTE Board Member

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

Ready to Throw in the Towel?

Do you ever wake up and just want to throw in the towel? I had a day like that yesterday. I couldn’t bring myself to read the first section of the New York Times.  I fled for safety in the Science section (a favorite of mine);  and while I gained some strength from reading that “Cataract Surgery May Prolong Your Life,” I ran screaming from articles about how “Air Pollution May Harm Babies Even Before they are Born” and “The Scallop Sees with Space-Age Eyes.” I guess I didn’t want to think about eating shellfish that could see their human predators.  Let’s not even talk consider the story about ice melting in Greenland.  The day was off to a bad start even before I finished my coffee.

So, how do we cope with the barrage of bad news that can assault us daily? How do we process stories about dubious tax reform, sexual harassment, nuclear threats, concealed weapons, massacres of innocent people in public places, discrimination, the loss of public lands, the assault on immigrants, and the ongoing devaluation of public education? Hey, our members of congress have even proposed to eliminate the small deduction educators can take for classroom supplies purchased out of their own pockets! And I could go on, but I will spare you since I am sure you have had days like mine.

I recognize that I am now a retired educator, and I have more time to obsess about these issues.  I would be compelled to put them in some better perspective if I still had to address all my classroom and administrative responsibilities.  Working educators do not have my advantages.  So, since I have the time, I have started to think more about how to stay sane in this world of daily offenses. Here are some of the strategies I use, and perhaps they could help you cope too.  I resolve to:

• Control the impact of troubling news by establishing a pattern for reading newspapers. I often start reading a section I find appealing—arts, science, food—and then work my way into the harder news by hitting the editorial section next. I read my favorite columnists, the editorial statements, and features that catch my attention. Once I am inoculated with some good writing by trusted authors, I move to the first section and tackle the headlines. I admit that I might reverse the process if some critical event has occurred.
• Visit my favorite social media platforms to see what is cooking on Facebook, Twitter, and my favorite blogs. Because I signed on to these feeds that interest me, I often find they are places to connect with people and issues I find compelling.
• Sign off social media before getting ready for bed. Hey, do we really need all that chatter echoing in our heads when we try to go to sleep? I find myself waking up in the middle of the night with the troubling news interfering with a night’s sleep. Twitter before bed doesn’t help.
• Avoid trolls on line. I enjoy reading Twitter and Facebook postings by people I respect, including political leaders, but I do not interact with the trolls on their feeds. I think there are better uses of my time than confronting haters on line who use the cover of distance and anonymity to spew venom. I try to remember that some of these trolls could be fakes, bots created to disrupt. I am not going to change a troll’s mind. I believe there is a time and place to call out the haters and to try to reason with those who can reason, but social media may not be the best venue.
• Do something concrete each day to address troubling issues. Again, I recognize that this is much easier for a retired person to accomplish. Still, even a busy working person with family responsibilities might find that it doesn’t take long to Tweet, post a comment on Facebook, send an email, make one phone call, or use Resistbot to send a fax to a legislator. Even taking action only once or twice a week can make us feel more in control.
• Remain professionally active. I like to stay connected with other educators. Professional organizations like NCTE, NJCTE, NJEA, and CEL can give us the means to interact with colleagues who care about their work. Remember to write. Keeping a journal helps us reflect. Write for publication. Contribute to professional journals, newsletters, and blogs (WRITE FOR THE NJCTE BLOG!). Draw strength from your caring network of like-minded professionals.
• Exercise to beat the stress. I know, it is easier said than done when you are working full time and have family responsibilities. But it truly helps to reduce stress if you do something you enjoy—walking, yoga, jogging, exercise classes, dancing, whatever appeals to you and fits your schedule.
• Continue to have fun. I think we all benefit from taking little family excursions, meeting friends , watching a favorite TV program, carving out time for pleasure reading, pursuing hobbies, meditating, whatever works.

So the next time you are ready to throw in the towel, take a little time to think about some options to keep you focused and happy. Don’t give up!

Written by Pat Schall, NJCTE Board Member

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

Notes from the 2017 NCTE Affiliate Breakfast

Yesterday, I wrote about attending the NCTE 2017 Annual Business Meeting. I also had the honor to represent the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English at the NCTE Affiliate Roundtable Breakfast.

NJCTE was among the many affiliates to be honored in a number of categories: Affiliate Membership Recruitment Award (for affiliates whose membership grew by 5% or more in 2016-2017); Affiliate Newsletter of Excellence Award (for NJCTE e-Focus, edited by Patricia Schall  and Susan Reese), Affiliate Journal of Excellence Award (for New Jersey English Journal, edited by Liz deBeer), and NCTE Affiliate Excellence Awards (for NCTE affiliates that meet high standards of performance).

NJCTE Board Member Audrey Fisch accepts the 2017 NCTE Journal of Excellence Award on Behalf of New Jersey English Journal

We won the latter award for the 6^th year!

We have done some good work together. But there is more work to be done!

NJCTE is beginning an examination of our website, which may need an update. Are you interesting in participating in this task? If yes, please reach out to NJCTE Board Member Sarah Gross (@thereadingzone), who is spearheading this initiative. We are also planning to submit an application to the NCTE Fund Teachers for the Dream Award, which is a grant intended to support initiatives aimed at recruiting English language arts teachers of color. Reach out to NJCTE Board Member Audrey Fisch (@audreyfisch) about helping with this initiative.

Finally, I want to add that the most inspiring and impressive element of the Affiliate Breakfast was hearing from the winners of the NCTE Student Affiliate of Excellence award winners. These are the amazing teachers and NCTE leaders of our future, and they were a phenomenal group of young people. NJCTE needs to develop a student affiliate (or more than one). Do we have a teacher educator who might help with this initiative? Reach out to NJCTE President Susan Reese (@mrsreese) if you are interested. Or reach out to us through the comments section of this blog or the NJCTE website. We welcome your interest!

Meanwhile, congratulations to all who have worked to make NJCTE a success. Let’s continue to build on that success!

Written by Audrey Fisch, Board Member, NJCTE, Professor of English, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

Wide Awake and Ready for Action: Part 3

In Wide Awake and Ready for Action: Parts 1 and 2, I discussed how teachers can stay awake and remain alert to our “brave new world” without getting overwhelmed. Here are some more ideas.

Everyone wants to tell teachers how to do their job, and everyone seems to know more about schools and teaching than teachers do.  Needless to say, this is frustrating.  I doubt that many patients tell their dentist how to do a root canal because they have had them done before. Why do so many people assume that they know more about teaching than teachers do? Don’t accept those assumptions. Use your own writing and speaking skills. Be proud that you are a teacher who specializes in the teaching and learning of language. Be heard! Let your authentic, informed teaching voices be heard!

Write letters to the editor.  Be sure to check the requirements of each newspaper or magazine, since they often have word limits. Include personal stories. They always get the attention of readers. Challenge yourself to write as clearly and concisely as possible. This is a good exercise for us, since we teach writing and expect our own students to master these skills.

Contact lawmakers in writing. It is easy to reach out to members of congress now via their websites or through social media like Twitter and Facebook. Old-fashioned letters often garner a greater level of attention. Use aps like Countable or Resistbot to easily reach your legislators. Countable provides summaries of legislation and other initiatives moving through congress and allows you to easily contact your members of congress. Resist Bot will let you FAX your legislators.

Call or visit your legislators. Develop and use a script when you call. Stick to the script and do not ramble.  If you call, be patient. It could take you some time to get through to the office. If you get the answering service, hang on if you can and wait to speak to an aide. If you cannot get through, leave a succinct voicemail. It is better than nothing, and it will be logged in. If you can, try to carve out some time in your busy schedule to visit legislative offices in person. Taking a colleague with you is helpful, since it is reassuring to team with another person, and you can keep each other focused. When you call or visit, you generally will talk to a staff member rather than the legislator. This is fine. Remember, staff members are required to log in all calls and visits and report your concerns to the legislator. Whether you call or visit, focus on one point, and keep reinforcing it.  Include personal stories in your commentary during calls and visits. Stories are easily remembered.  We are English teachers and know narrative is powerful.

I have learned in my own advocacy training sessions that legislators pay most attention to personal visits and phone calls. Actual letters come next, followed by email. I have heard that they disregard all those “sign your name” e-petitions. You are a busy person, so do what makes sense for you, even if it is just an email or tweet. Even brief contacts serve a useful purpose. They are recorded. Remember that most legislators are hungry for data about their constituents and their views. My recent experience with a telephone town hall organized by the legislator who represents my district in the House of Representatives unintentionally demonstrated the power of phone calls. At one point in the telephone town hall, since he refuses to host in-person town halls, he got rather testy and irritable saying, “So you people can stop calling my office. My aides have better work to do.” Really? And who gave you your job, sir? Needless to say, the calling continued. We had justifiably hit a nerve!

Finally, take care of yourself! Attending to your own needs is vital to your physical and mental health. I have been a teacher for more than 40 years, and I recognize from experience that teachers’ work is intellectually and emotionally demanding enough without adding on the time it takes to engage in political activism. Huddle for comfort, reassurance, safety, and increased power. Cultivate your friends and colleagues who share your concerns. Take time to enjoy a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, and meal together. Engage in rituals that bring you joy. Find time for yourself, your family, and your friends. Carve out time to do things you enjoy.

I retired a year ago, and I have been spending an extraordinary amount of time volunteering as a political activist. It is not exactly what I expected to do in retirement, though I always aimed to continue to advocate for teachers. My “job” has morphed.  I no longer find myself restricted by an academic schedule. I have no sets of papers to grade or classes and courses to prepare. Now I belong to citizens’ organizations. I rejoined NEA and NJEA after thirty years of working in higher education and have become active in retired educators groups.  I remain committed to my favorite professional organizations, NCTE and NJCTE. While I no longer have the responsibilities of a working educator, I still have to take care of myself.  An early morning class at the gym works for me, as do yoga and long walks in beautiful places and writing I enjoy. Find what delights you. The people and activities you love keep you refreshed and positive.

It is too easy to become trapped in despair and hopelessness in our current political climate, which leads to the loss of our locus of control. We owe it to ourselves and others to take time to awaken to a new dawn within ourselves, become prepared, make our voices heard, and care for ourselves so we can continue our mission as educators and citizens in service to others. Action is healing.

 Reference

Nelson, J.L. & Stanley, W.B. Protecting the right to teach and learn (2001). In Daly, J.K., Schall, P.L., and Skeele, R. (Eds.) Protecting the Right to Teach and Learn: Power Politics, and Public Schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

 

Written by Pat Schall, NJCTE Board Member

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English