#4 role modeling

In my mind, I'm about 26 in spite of the fact that that hasn't been true for a long time. But I'm living in a gap in my assumptions about my future, which includes not having any idea about what this stage of life would be like. When I was a kid, I felt I had a complete grasp on my immediate future up until age 20, and I had confidence that my old age would be resplendent in the silvery light of a life lived deliberately. The cognitive dissonance is weird: it makes me feel like a grown up. I'm still not used to being called "Mr. Brewer."

I guess becoming a grown up carries with it a burden of other people's expectations. I feel invisible, or at least not at the center of things, and so am always surprised when I find that others are watching. Teachers, who are sometimes grown ups, are constantly being watched. When students address me formally, the point is bluntly emphasized.

“Mr. Brewer,” they say, as I look over my shoulder to see if my Dad is standing there, “why do we hafta recycle?”
“Well, I’m trying to make a clean hand off,” I say, adopting my most grown up, philosophically epic tone of voice.
“And I want you to do the same when your time comes. In fact I want you to take it to the next level.”

Art is materially intensive, and often a bit wasteful, given the requirement of experimentation and exploration are basic features of its practice. Additionally, the traditional materials are expensive, and not often available in the public schools. In fact, we hear more about budget cuts (in some departments anyway) all the time. But artists shouldn’t be too disturbed. One indication of creativity is the artist’s ability to “do what one can with what one has.” For me, modeling resourcefulness is a natural carry over from my punk rock do-it-yourself ethic. If we can’t sustain a budget for paint, we can make art out of the recycle bins, and maybe even what’s in them! I can find a way to be creative with anything. Mind you, this is not new. In 1917, Marcel Duchamp taught us to see beauty in unexpected places, even in common manufactured goods.
“Today, we will be making _______ out of this old _______. This is one way your generation can improve on mine.” They’re probably going to get tired of hearing it, but it grounds our creative practice in real world necessity. And that plugs it into what they already know, meaning they’ll remember it at least until the middle of June.








For my purposes, reusing or repurposing is always better than recycling, because it requires imagination. Kind of like creative art.

#5 active in my community

For about ten years, I’ve been a part of a small, non-denominational church. The predominant values expressed by this particular group are inclusiveness and action. We are quite an informal group, and fairly diverse racially. Never one to sit around long, I responded to the request for help in the Sunday school about eight years ago. During this time, I’ve worked as a teacher with learners up to the age of twelve or so.
The current group ranges from 3rd through 6th grade, and can number up to sixteen or so. It’s split right down the middle in terms of gender and race. This experience has provided irreplaceably valuable experience working with kids both before and now during my pedagogical education.
I bring this up in order to acknowledge the fact that I have acquired some very useful practical skills as an education student; specifically, in terms of classroom management. For instance, this class contains two boys who have been diagnosed ADHD. One is African American, the other Caucasian. Both of them present classic symptoms with one crucial difference: one is very hyperactive, and the other is closer to lethargic. As I have come to know them over the years, they have both demonstrated definite intelligence, and an aptitude for the subject at hand. Before studying education, I had no idea how to reach these two. In fact, there weren’t very many kids in the class I could reach with the methods I was using. I often (read, every Sunday) ended up kicking one kid upstairs to sit with his parents, and spent an inordinate amount of time begging the other one to focus on what I was saying. If the quiet, shy girls sitting in the corner trying not to be noticed got anything out of these sessions, it was by the grace of God.
To use the jargon of educational psychology, I have employed two techniques over that last year with pretty consistent success: proximity, and differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors. DRI, as its known, occupies the hyperactive boy with an activity (in this case writing or drawing on the board, keeping a record of what’s said in class) that prevents him from interrupting, hitting and shouting so much. My proximity keeps the interest of the inattentive learner when I keep myself animated, and encroaching on his space in a friendly way. Though there is no formal assessment going on In my Sunday school class, I have managed to get them both consistently engaged, which didn’t even look possible before I started experimenting with the concepts learned in my classes.
I have also embraced the Ideas of Jerome Brunner and Howard Gardener concerning multiple intelligence and diversity. I have increased their activity level, strategized in order to facilitate discovery learning, and invited student input and thus empowerment. I’ve read the about and discussed educational theory in my college classes, and actively practiced it in the real world of Sunday school.

As an example, you can see a block tower which I built in the doorway of their classroom. I asked them all to go in and “be careful not to knock it down, or risk my wrath. “ By the time the last one got in, it was a pile of rubble on the floor, and they turned and looked at me, unsure of what would happen next.
“Sorry! We didn’t mean to!”
“Well, fix it! Put it back just the way it was, or I won’t forgive you!” I said, in a dramatic tone.
When they couldn’t do it, I pointed out the difference between the way I handled it, and the way Jesus handles forgiveness, by forgiving them outright, and in addition, helping them to rebuild. The light bulb went on. Learning by discovery and doing!
Becoming active in my church is only the beginning of my becoming more active in the wider community. I have loads of ideas I think will useful both in and out of the classroom. By my example and activation of my students we begin to make our community a place we want to be.

#7 Battery Recharge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU
This really nails it, after all. I heard it out of the blue on NPR a couple of months ago, and it so
inspired me. Just listening to passionate, smart, articulate people talk about what they do is enough to recharge my batteries now and again. It's good to remember your original impetus.

Teaching is in the top quartile of most complex and difficult jobs, and deserves respect. We've all had our share of bad teachers, but the typical across the board dismissal is unwarrented.

I CHOSE this profession!

#1 Experiencing Different Types of Learners

Last year, I had the good fortune of being able to observe and work in a self contained special education classroom in a local middle school for about three months. At the end of my time there, I sat down and interviewed the teacher, with the goal of writing a paper comparing her philosophy with her actual practice. I was suprised to see how unified and pragmatic she was. What I expected was either a burnt out containment approach, or wide eyed optimism. I saw neither. Her practice was proven effective in my mind when a former student, now mainstreamed into the public high school, dropped by for an unannounced visit. He was there to express his thanks to the teacher, and to encourage the younger kids with stories of his success.

The field of special education is firmly misunderstood by the public. When my uncle who has worked in the field for 30 years tells people what he does for a living, they usually respond with something like "Wow, you must be so patient!"
When he tells this story, which I've heard before, he radiates indignance. "No, I'm a highly trained professional, working like a scientist to get results!"
I've heard that account for years, and in light of what I saw in the classroom here, he's right. If the success of the students depended on the emotional state of the teacher on any given day, the kids would likely be in bad shape. Consistency and professionality win the day by setting a calm, determined tone for the classroom.

This kind of work is hard, to put it mildly. The teacher stressed repeatedly to me the importance of finding ways to take care of myself, not neglecting any dimensions. It's suprisingly easy to get to cross the line of needing to recharge yourself so badly that you can't offer a spark to anyone else.

Action #3 / Taking Education Seriously

I love to read. At any one time, I've got several books going. I read manuals, philosophy, poetry, comic books, novels, history, online journals, textbooks, food packaging. I read literary tomes, and punk- rock xerox. I love to read.

What I love about reading is that it inspires me to figure things out by building associations with what what others already know. I'm linking up seemingly unconnected sources, and mixing in my own experiences. This way, I'm not re-inventing the wheel.

More than once, I've stumbled on to critical problem solving details in obscure packages. Bookstacks just beg me for exploration: I often feel like a pirate getting away with treasure. Those "eureka!" moments happen more often if you seek them out. Serendipitously. Go to Goodwill on 50% off day.

I haunt used book stores, resale shops, and every garage sale where I see a stack of books. I dig through them like an addict. It isn't that uncommon to find something by Thomas Merton for a dollar, or a deck building guide for twenty five cents. I can put both of them to good use.

About two years ago, I discovered a book by teacher I used to know. Though I never had a class of hers, she visited and lectured more than once in other classes I had, and she left a good impression on me. This affords me a great opportunity to reflect on her ideas from a different perspective, and compare the two experiences.

I'll probably get to this one over the summer. Meanwhile, I can finish what I've already started. Here's the current list:

Einstein- His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.

The Divine Conspiracy- Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard

Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell

Free Play- Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch

Miracles by C.S. Lewis

Here I am, thinking about what I want when I haven't finished what I have. That's the behavior of an addict.

Action #8 Practicing Democratic Principles

I've been enmeshed in wierd situations at church before, but this one takes the cake.

We are a small, non denominational loose association of under a hundred people, mostly white. Our worship space consisted of an old converted movie theater. We have shared it at various times with a small Dominican church and, at the time this story takes place, an African American church. I've always wondered why the three groups, totaling around three hundred or so, didn;t find a way to combine ourselves into one body, but that's another story.

A group of guys from a local "boot camp" were coming to visit for a service, and to share life stories. These were all guys who had made a long list of bad choices involving drugs and gangs, and who were now deeply committed to changing their lives around. The group was made up of about ten guys of color. Our pastor was able to convince the members of the African American church to join us for this particular service.

We usually open the services with a half hour or so of song, led by the band I'm a part of. Piano, guitars, drums, singers, you get the picture. I play the bass. I've tried very hard over the years to introduce other sounds to the band but the style remains very contemporary, and very white.

The leader brought in a song which was supposed to bring everybody together around the idea that God transcends color. The piece was concieved as a sort of gospel rave up, of the kind stereotypically heard at charismatic African American churches. We went over the song several times that morning, warming up and getting organized for the service. It dawned on me that we were setting up to parrot a style in an inauthentic manner, without respect for the form, to an audience who wasn't going to find it funny at all. The singer's insincere and much repeated James Brown gut bucket shout really just made me cringe. I don't think black people enjoy seeing cheap immitations of black cultural icons played back to them for chuckles.

I spoke up.

"Maybe we should drop the James Brown thi-"

I was shouted down before I could even finish the thought. White privilege is a steam roller.

Sure it's a free country, where we enjoy freedom of speech. But to paraphrase Paul, "Everything is acceptable, but not everything is good." There was much more at stake than just style of performance, or entertainment. The whole point of a service like this is to create an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome, where everyone can transcend themselves and the daily grind. I was faced with a choice: quit the band on the spot, or continue to participate try to influence the group from the inside. I tried the latter.

I'm pretty sure no one intended to come across as condescending, but it was a farce in the end. Our higher purpose was completely undermined. My objections came to nothing.

This experience did confirm some suspicions I had. Action is more powerful than words, sure. However, words have more power than I previously would have given them credit for. They also have the power to divide people gathered around a common cause, and to alienate them from that cause. Having tried words for the purpose of inspiring and watched them fail, I should have taken action.

I have a habit of raising tough questions when I think it's justified. I always try to do it in a way that brings light, not just heat. It's a habit I'll continue to practice. It is my responsibility to speak up for what I believe. It does not always yeild the results I seek, and it is often uncomfortable. As Americans, we don't have the right to be comfortable all the time.

Even though it stings sometimes, it always feels righteous. Sometimes, it even makes a difference.

Action #10 / Effective Teachers

If monkey see, monkey do holds true, then I'll benefit from observing good teachers. This semester, I've been able to do just that in three different settings, and I've just stumbled on another way of doing this:

TEACHER TUBE!

Obviously, this is youtube for teachers. It's a young site, where viewers benefit from participants ideas. Teachers are posting themselves giving lessons or just resource video.

The fact that this site exists is inspiring to me. I can spy on good teachers from afar!