Dear So-called Average Teacher
By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA
Now that summer is here and you have time to breathe and reflect on the school year that just ended, maybe you’re feeling that your year was just, well, average.
If each year of your career is a song on an album, there are a number of reasons why this past school year isn’t going to make it to your greatest hits compilation.
Maybe you had a challenging schedule, a new prep or a new grade level. Perhaps you had a group of kids who didn’t work well together, or who were less academically capable than previous groups.
Maybe you had to learn how to work with a new colleague very closely, which even in the best of circumstances is a stressor. Maybe you lost your best teaching buddy to another school or district, the one whose room you could walk into, shut the door, and say, “You won’t believe the day I had” and vent your frustrations with no worry of judgement.
Maybe there was an administration change in your building that didn’t go smoothly.
Maybe your students confided in you more than usual and you know who has probation officers, pregnant girlfriends, and neglectful or abusive home situations. You know who is having sex and who is drinking on the weekends and who is bouncing from one friend’s couch to the next since there is nowhere else to live. Frankly, what you know about your kids’ personal lives is a heavy burden that weighs on you at school and does not dissipate just because you walk through your own front door at the end of the day. In fact, it gets heavier when you look around at your healthy family and your safe, comfortable home and your belongings that would be luxuries to so many of your students.
“Stress is stress and it doesn’t always stop and start as we move between home and school.”
Perhaps you had a particularly stressful personal year. You went through a breakup, or your child started driving or dating, or everything that could break in your house, broke. Maybe a loved one passed away unexpectedly, or maybe you watched someone you love die a slow death, and even though you had time to say goodbye, it still hurts deeply. Either way, grief can wash over you like a tidal wave, soaking every part of your life, even when you’re at school. Personal stress affects who we are in and out of the classroom, and professional stress impacts our personal lives as well. Stress is stress and it doesn’t always stop and start as we move between home and school.
Maybe you feel like you didn’t do enough to support your profession this year.
You didn’t rally at the statehouse, you didn’t email or call one single legislator, and you didn’t go to union meetings.
Social media alone bombards you with reasons to do all of those things, especially in Ohio, and it can be completely overwhelming to try to keep up with all the reasons we have to be activists, let alone make time to take action.
And then maybe you looked around and saw teachers who can do it all.
Nothing average about them, not this year or any year.
They advocate fiercely and ceaselessly for public education, create new ways to teach old material that inspires students and garners positive attention from administrators, and they balance work and school stress with aplomb. They have boundless energy, unlimited ideas for positively impacting kids and schools, and good days far more often than bad. They reap the rewards of their efforts with outstanding test scores and any number of teacher awards or honors. They are resilient and resourceful and recognized, and THEY ARE CHANGING THE WORLD while you are just trying to get through the day and the faculty meeting at the end of it.
Listen. Those teachers don’t exist. Some people fake it better than others, but we all have work stress that weighs on us, problems that can’t be solved with a new lesson plan. We all have personal lives that involve some broken hearts and broken appliances. We all recognize the value of the work of the OEA to help teachers advocate for our students and our working conditions, but we can’t be Norma Rae standing on a table holding high a sign that says UNION every day. After all, it’s hard to teach while holding a sign and standing on a table.
True, it’s important to strive toward professional success and to have compassion for our students, even if their stories weigh on us. It’s important to have rich personal lives, even if they are, at times, painful. It’s important to fight for public education, even though the battles can be exhausting.
But it’s equally important to recognize that no one can excel at every part of life for any extended period of time. For various reasons, we have years that are simply average, probably more often than not. You know why there are movies about Erin Gruwell (Freedom Writers) and LouAnne Johnson (Dangerous Minds). Because teachers like that, as wonderful as they are, are anomalies. Most of us never reach those heights and no one expects us to.
Dave Stuart Jr., in his excellent book These Six Things, articulates this concept so well: “We are never finished becoming the teachers we hoped we’d be when we first set out.”[1]
The key is in the phrase “never finished”. Maybe you had an average year, for whatever reason. But think back to your first years of teaching. Are you better now than you were then? Most likely you are. There is no guarantee that we will one day be adorned with accolades and gold medals for teaching greatness. However, if we continue to strive to have a positive impact on the kids who walk into our classrooms every year, I think we are doing the job right.
We don’t always see, in immediate hindsight, the seeds that we have planted and the impact that we have had. During your “average” year, you may have unknowingly made one comment that turned around a student’s perspective on your subject area or even on his life.
I am admittedly biased, but I think a teacher who does an “average” job is still doing superhuman work that most people outside of education could not handle for a week, and even our average work can have a significant positive outcome on someone’s life.
When I became an educator, my high school government teacher told me that one of the blessings of teaching is that there are so many starts and stops. In no other profession are there so many built-in chances to begin again, whether it’s after a long weekend or at the dawn of a new school year.
So enjoy this momentary stop. Take a well-deserved rest. Appreciate the time to reset and rejuvenate. Reflect on the year that ended but look forward with hope to the year that is coming and the opportunity to continue working to be the teacher you set out to be when you first started. And then, in a few months, begin again.
[1] “These 6 Things – Dave Stuart Jr..” https://davestuartjr.com/these-6-things-how-to-focus-your-teaching-on-what-matters-most/. Accessed 13 Jun. 2019.
— Julie Holderbaum is an English Instructor and an Academic Challenge Advisor at Minerva High School, Minerva, Ohio.
June 2019 Ohio Schools Magazine
- COVER STORY: Award-winning students highlight what makes Ohio’s schools great in 21st Annual Create A Cover Contest p.15
- FEATURE: Springfield educators (Clark county) lead work to promote equity and social change p.11
- MAKING THE GRADE p.3
- 2019 Award Recipients
- Fiscal Fitness Awards
- OEA Educational Foundation’s Heartland Jamboree
Moved recently? Contact the OEA Member Hotline to update the address on file at 1-844-OEA-Info (1-844-632-4636) or email, membership@ohea.org. Representatives are available Monday-Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. | OhioSchools — Past Issues
Oh Yes, We’re Social — Join the Conversation!
2019 Spring OEA Rep. Assembly Highlights
“My Story, My Struggle”
“My Story, My Struggle” by Sophia Jeng, Kings High School, Warren OH. Sponsored by the SouthWestern Ohio Education Association
“Suffocating on AIR” — The Fort Hayes Flow Fam Slam Team
“Suffocating on AIR” by the The Fort Hayes Flow Fam Slam, an award-winning poetry slam team from the Columbus Ft. Hayes Metropolitan High School. Pictured from left-right: Odessa Robinson, Kallee Bernish-Good, Dulci Ramirez-Abercrombie, and Playon Patrick. They’re accompanied by their coach, Ft. Hayes HS English teacher (and alum) Nancy de Leon; and, Media Specialist, and team advocate Courtney Johnson. Sponsored by the Columbus Education Association.
Retirement Recognition of Pres. Becky Higgins
The retirement recognition of current OEA Pres. Becky Higgins, who is also concluding her second term. With special announcements from:
- United States Senator Sherrod Brown
- Nicole Stratton — Copley Teachers Association/OEA
- Former U.S. Representative Betty Sutton
- OEA Secretary-Treasurer Mark Hill/OEA
- OEA Executive Director Sheryl Mathis/OEA
Oh Yes, We’re Social — Join the Conversation!
K-5 License Plate Design Contest
K-5 “Stop Bullying” License Plate Design Contest
Dear Educators,
Ohio Education Association and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost are partnering to host a “Stop Bullying” License Plate Design Contest for students in grades K-5.
The winning design and slogan will be put on real license plates that Ohio drivers can buy for their vehicles.
To enter, students must create a logo or drawing and can include a short slogan if desired, related to the theme of “Stop Bullying.” Their artwork must be submitted on an official entry form, which is available at the link below.
Entries must be postmarked by May 31, 2019, and sent via U.S. mail to: Ohio Attorney General, Attn: License Plate Contest, 30 E. Broad St., 14th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215.
We’re asking for your help. If you are interested in having your students participate, please visit www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/StopBullyingLicensePlateContest to print off copies of the official entry form and to view additional information about contest rules.
We hope you will incorporate contest entries as part of a lesson plan about anti-bullying or use it as a fun end-of -year activity.
However you choose to participate, we are grateful for your help and hope that you and your students find this activity meaningful and enjoyable.
Thank You,
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost & The Ohio Education Association
Columbus Teachers March Against Tax Breaks For Wealthy Corporations
April 24, 2019 • COLUMBUS, Ohio — More than 1,000 members of the Columbus Education Association (CEA), labor allies, and community members marched through downtown Columbus today to send a message: fund the schools Columbus students deserve, not tax breaks for wealthy corporations that don’t need them.
The march stopped for brief rallies at the headquarters of CoverMyMeds™ and at City Hall.
“We cannot work together to build the schools Columbus students deserve if we offer handouts to wealthy corporations that don’t need them” — John Coneglio, CEA President
CoverMyMeds is a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant McKesson, the 6th most profitable corporation in the United States. In July 2018, CoverMyMeds received a 100%, 15-year tax abatement worth up to $83 million for the construction of a new headquarters in the Franklinton neighborhood that one newspaper described as immense and glittering.
As a result of this single abatement, Columbus City Schools will lose an estimated $55.6 million in property taxes.
“Today we sent a message, loud and clear, that we’re serious about winning the schools Columbus Students Deserve”
“We cannot work together to build the schools Columbus students deserve if we offer handouts to wealthy corporations that don’t need them” said John Coneglio, high school social studies teacher and Columbus Education Association President. “We cannot continue to return time and time again to individual taxpayers to shoulder the burden of funding our schools while the richest among us don’t help push the cart.”
With negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement underway, members of the Columbus Education Association have released a bargaining platform detailing their demands for the schools #ColumbusStudentsDeserve.
“As front-line educators, we see firsthand how our students struggle without the learning conditions, staffing, resources, and supports they need to succeed.” — Regina Fuentes, teacher at Eastmoor Academy High School.
The platform includes reduced class sizes and caseloads, adequate staffing to improve student access to support professionals, funding schools and saving taxpayers money by ending handouts to wealthy corporations, designated space in school buildings for art, music, and P.E., ending the school-to-prison pipeline by expanding alternative programs for discipline, and reducing teacher turnover by compensating educators as professionals.
“Today we sent a message, loud and clear, that we’re serious about winning the schools Columbus Students Deserve” said Regina Fuentes, teacher at Eastmoor Academy High School. “As front-line educators, we see firsthand how our students struggle without the learning conditions, staffing, resources, and supports they need to succeed.”
The Columbus Education Association will return to negotiations with Columbus City Schools at the end of April.
The Columbus Education Association is the union representing more than 4,000 teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors, psychologists, and other education professionals in Columbus City Schools. The Columbus Education Association is a proud affiliate of the Ohio Education Association and the National Education Association.
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When Anxiety Over Takes a Test
Guest Blog by a member of the OEA/Eastern Local CTA | The actual name has been withheld to protect the identity of the student.
I recently read the article in the February edition of “Ohio Schools” and it brought to mind not one of my students but that of my own son’s testing anxiety when he was in the 6th grade.
“…what his teacher who was proctoring the test told me left me heartbroken for him.”
It was the first year the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) was given.
My son is an excellent student who is high achiever, so I can’t put all the blame on the test or even his teachers. I do know that he verbally and physically showed signs of severe stress in the weeks up to taking the tests that spring, which is a good sign that he valued the importance of it, but what his teacher who was proctoring the test told me left me heartbroken for him. She said that at the end of one test session he was so overcome with anxiety that he started stabbing himself in the forearm with his own pencil.
Upon hearing this, I had a long talk with him about the importance of standardized testing for students at his grade level. I told him that the only one’s held accountable for the scores were his teachers and his district.
He’s now a freshman in high school who has already taken the ACT, has straight A’s, and will be dual-enrolled in classes at a local university next year through College Credit Plus. He still has anxiety about testing, but at least knows that he will be held accountable for his performance to not only graduate but eventually earn a degree. | #OverTestedOH #RedForEd
The author is an English Language Arts educator and a member of Eastern Local CTA
Click here for more #OverTestedOH & #RedForEd Voices and How to Make a Stand
Computerized Testing — A Revolution That Wasn’t
By Kim Snyder of the OEA/Wadsworth Education Association
I am writing after reading the recent article in the February 2019 issue of “Ohio Schools”. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I despise the state-mandated tests we must administer.
We have lived through the Ohio Achievement Test (OAT), the Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA), the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) — and now, the worst of them all — the American Institute of Research (AIR)1 tests.
SILENT PROTESTS
I am in my 15th year of teaching and during this time, just like every other teacher, I have seen children panic, cry, vomit, etc. I’ve had students refuse to write/type the required essays in defiance of the tests. Moreover, as if in silent protests of frustration, I’ve had students finish these state-required tests in record time because they no longer cared to try. I can’t say or do anything or risk losing my teaching license. I spend the entire school year building my students’ confidence and gaining their trust; I can see by the look in their eyes that both have been eroded when they take those tests.
“I just think of all of the other things I could do if I didn’t have the ever-changing state mandated tests constantly hanging over my head.”
I have students who fear they won’t be promoted to the next grade if they don’t pass their current AIR tests. I know it’s a residual fear from the Third-Grade Reading Guarantee. I reassure them that the AIR tests do not determine their advancement. What I don’t tell them is that the only one held accountable here is me [and the school, and overall, the district]. Last year, I earned a 100% grade-level passage rate last year, so I am not writing with sour grapes in mind.
Because the standardized tests are online, there is so much pressure to get everyone logged in properly and not have a technology crash. Research shows that children are better assessed from paper and pencil, but here we are. As Julie Holderbaum said, the icing on the cake is that the computer is going to grade the essays. How is it even possible for a computer alone to determine true student learning?
[ Related Blog: Power and Potential of Our Stories By Julie Holderbaum, Minerva EA/OEA ]
Since we aren’t allowed to see the test in advance or during its administration, we educators are aiming at a moving target. If I didn’t have to teach to a test, I could teach poetry. My fifth-grade English Language Arts classes have not had a poetry unit in three years. Why? Because there isn’t time. As a passionate ELA teacher, it breaks my heart not to share the beauty that poetry holds, but cuts need to be made somewhere.
Instead, I have to spend far too much time teaching my students to answer bizarre “Part A/Part B” questions and how to write a five-paragraph essay. I know adults who can’t write a five-paragraph essay; but, my ten- and eleven-year-old students need to know how to do this.
I don’t think Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) would say this is appropriate for my students’ stage of cognitive development. Additionally, I’m expected to differentiate in the classroom; however, all of the children take the same test. How is that fair?
TRUST US: WE’RE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS
The state has a Third-Grade Reading Guarantee; it should support it. That would help to ensure that the students in my fifth-grade class would be at the appropriate reading level. State educator leaders (and legislators) should trust that the 600+ school districts of Ohio, have hired honest, responsible teachers who take pride in their craft and in their desire to teach the next generations.
Trust us to do our jobs and we will prepare our children in the best way possible. Imagine what we could do with at least a month added back to our teaching plans.
- The PARCC and AIR assessments replaced the Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA) and will replace the OGT (Ohio Graduation Test) starting with the class of 2019. The Ohio Department of Education worked with volunteer educators and the American Institute of Research (AIR) to develop the Third-Grade English Language Arts test. This test uses the same testing platform as state-mandated standardized tests.
Kim Snyder is a 5th-grade regular-education as well as a Gifted English Language Arts educator with
Wadsworth City Schools and member of the OEA/Wadsworth E.A.
April 2019 Ohio Schools Magazine
- U.S. Senate Approves Bill Recognizing ESP and Classified School Employees
- Targeting Takeovers
- OEA Encouraged by Recent Efforts to Address School Funding in Ohio
Moved recently? Contact the OEA Member Hotline to update the address on file at 1-844-OEA-Info (1-844-632-4636) or email, membership@ohea.org. Representatives are available Monday-Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. | OhioSchools — Past Issues
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Why I Ran for Office
OEA Guest Blog | By Molly Wassmuth (Westerville EA), Central FCPE PAC and Grandview Heights School Board member
I can remember back to the 2016 presidential election.
That election did not turn out the way I had hoped or worked for, despite the fact that I donated, canvassed and phone-banked. I can remember thinking that I need to do more.
During this time, I was in the Central OEA/NEA Emerging Leaders Program, and talking with fellow member Billie Sarich about the school district where we live. I asked her, “Hey, when are the elections for school board?” She told me three seats were up for election and she immediately asked, “Are you thinking about it?” Maybe….
Over the next month, I wondered if I could run? I realized my feelings of self-doubt about not being a typical candidate were the exact reasons I should run.
What school board and community doesn’t need a slightly overzealous parent with a strong union background and an educator’s knowledge, experience, and support? I can thank OEA for that support — for helping me plan, connecting me with Franklin County Democrats, suggesting campaign training and helping me to connect to state representatives Kristin Boggs and Adam Miller.
I realized my feelings of self-doubt about not being a typical candidate were the exact reasons I should run.
I have learned so much during the process of running and being elected. I learned how to campaign, how to turn a no vote into a yes vote and how important help and support are. I have learned to not give up on an idea or let someone talk over me. Being newly elected, I got a fair amount of “this is how it is” and the question of “why?” may have been overlooked. It took me about four months to get over waiting for my voice to be heard or respected. I had to find my good ole teacher voice and make myself heard.
Now, from my new perspective, I wish everyone knew from my perspective, I wish more people attended meetings and speak up. Be daring and invite a board member to your classroom to see how an initiative is playing out. Go to a board meeting and let members know how a policy is or is not working. Show them how things are going. I would bet you my hard-earned salary that they would show up and try to help!
Board members and other elected officials do not know what they do not know. They can depend on their constituents to give them perspective on issues. So, I encourage all of you to educate, raise awareness, and be heard.
[ RELATED: Ohio School Boards – Why They Matter ]Ohio House Bill 70 Hijacked Democracy
OEA Guest Blog | By Jeanne Melvin, OEA-Retired
Academic Distress Commission. School turnaround. The Youngstown Plan. When the state takes over a school district, it may sound promising, but it’s not. Simply put, a state takeover is part of the effort to privatize public education.
School takeovers are undemocratic, unaccountable, and unacceptable.
Ohio House Bill 70 was originally designed to encourage wraparound community learning centers in lower-performing, high-poverty schools to bring in health clinics, after-school programs, and parent support programs.
The bill easily passed the House and Senate, but an unanticipated 66-page amendment was introduced to establish a state takeover of the Youngstown schools and future takeovers of other school districts with lower test scores. Without a public hearing, the hijacked HB 70 passed the Senate and the House and was sent to the governor and signed into law.
In her book, Reign of Error, Diane Ravitch reveals that corporate reformers want to put education decisions in the hands of powerful executives who are immune to public opinion. School takeovers do just that. Takeover legislation comes from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a pro-privatization organization that writes bills to benefit for-profit education companies. HB 70 was copied from a destructive ALEC bill.
School Takeovers Are Undemocratic
HB 70 mandates the appointment of school district CEOs with the power to override the decisions of locally elected school boards. The public-school system’s role is to maintain and strengthen our democracy. In public schools, students learn how to become productive and engaged citizens, and society benefits from the public good of having an educated citizenry. Voters elect local school representatives who will advance their community’s unique perspectives, so it is a vital opportunity to engage in the democratic process.
School Takeovers Are Unaccountable
Youngstown Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan described HB 70 as “giving an autocratic, unaccountable, appointed CEO total control over every facet of the system. Tear up collective-bargaining agreements. Ignore teachers. Ignore students. Ignore parents. Nearly four years in, here’s what the Youngstown Plan (HB 70) has produced: Ethical lapses. No-bid contracts. Huge salaries for the team of administrators the CEO hired. Concern and anxiety among students, parents and teachers. And the resignation of most of the members of the Distress Commission who were charged with overseeing the CEO.”
School takeovers Are Unacceptable
They infringe on school districts with some of the highest concentrations of low-income minority students in the country. Since 1989, there have been more than 100 takeovers of local school districts in the United States, according to Domingo Morel, author of the book Takeover: Race, Education and American Democracy. In nearly 85 percent of these cases, the districts have been majority African American and Latino. Black communities disproportionately experience the most punitive forms of takeovers, in which elected school boards are disbanded or turned into “advisory” boards. Morel also found that cities with a greater share of black city council members are more likely to face takeovers and concluded that school takeovers are tainted with racism.
Currently, Youngstown, Lorain, and East Cleveland school districts are under state control in Ohio. Dayton schools could be next at the end of this school year. Columbus, Ashtabula, Canton, Euclid, Lima, Mansfield, North College, Painesville, and Toledo public schools face state takeovers after the next school year. If those schools don’t improve under state takeover, they will be turned over to charter school companies.
There IS a better way than school takeovers.
Tell your elected leaders that House Bill 70 must either be repealed or revised to return to its original purpose of providing resources to implement wraparound services.
The time to act is NOW.
Jeanne Melvin’s blog originally appeared in the Spring 2019 Communique, a publication of the Central OEA/NEA