Common Core Standards. Authentic assessment. Site-based decision making. Standardized tests. Community partnerships. Student suicide. Equity. Access. Transformational Education. Accountability. Technology. Funding formulas. Hybrid roles. Teacher Evaluation. National Board Certification. Knowledge of students. Data. Finland. Singapore. Lockdown drills. Bond elections. Reductions in force. Failing schools. Teacher leadership.

Today, at the AZK12 Teacher Leadership Institute in Tucson, current forces swirled through my mind when Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves used the metaphor of a tornado to explain what it feels like to be a teacher in schools in the United States today, what they define as the “third way” of education (based on their writing in the book The Global Fourth Way.) In the “third way,” teachers work at the center of a vortex amid the pressures of limited government support, national accountability and reform efforts, pressure to create and nurture public engagement in education, and the need to work with colleagues to perfect practice. I had two immediate responses to the tornado image: a) Yes. Based on my limited understanding of tornadoes, the metaphor seems apt, and b) this is not a sustainable model for teacher leaders. Tornadoes are frightening, destructive, sudden and unpredictable. They may be fascinating, but even experienced tornado chasers can be killed by a miscalculation or misfortune.

I have just been hired for a new position in a new city, which will require me to get a new endorsement in reading. As I was packing our house and unlayering the papers, art supplies and dog treats from our back room desk, I came across an article that was given to me by a colleague last fall: “Learning to Love Volatility” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, published in the Wall Street Journal. In it, he talks about his concept of “black swans,” unpredictable events of large magnitude that have huge consequences (such as 9/11 or Hurricane Sandy.) He argues that to deal with black swans, we need systems that are “antifragile,” that actually benefit from disorder. This concept appeals to me on a personal level, I suppose because I have so much disorder, and not just on my back room desk.

Taleb outlines four rules for creating an “antifragile” system:

1. Accept natural fluctuations in systems. Accept complex systems as organic rather than able to be “fixed.” Systems which are micromanaged will not develop self-healing properties. He gives the example of Greenspan trying to micromanage the economy, which made it more fragile. Better to ride the natural troughs.

2. Favor systems that benefit from their own mistakes. The example he gives is the airline industry. When a plane (tragically) crashes, the industry takes steps to make travel safer.

3. Smaller units of authority are actually more efficient. Taleb claims that large projects and institutions are not more efficient, despite popular wisdom, because they become less nimble and able to respond to problems.

4. Trial and error beats academic or theoretical knowledge. The potential cost of error should be small; the potential benefit of success should be large, like the tinkerers who have become some of our greatest innovators.

5. “Decision makers must have skin in the game.” Those making policy or funding decisions must not be distanced from the results of the policy. Taleb points out that the Romans used to require bridge builders to sleep under the bridges they built.

I agree with most of these points (though I might argue for the value of academic knowledge... but that’s another blog). Now, imagine if schools followed these rules? For teachers and students alike?

Although some educational systems follow these precepts, it is highly dependent on visionary leadership by administrators and teachers. I would argue that heading in the direction of many national school “reformy” agendas creates a micromanaged, falsely scientific environment for teaching and learning, governed by those who have little skin in the game. You want data? Teachers will give you data, if that’s what you want.

Taleb’s theory of creating “antifragile” systems that can handle the unavoidable black swans of life has much in common with Andy Hargreaves’ and Dennis Shirley’s Global Fourth Way of education. Although admittedly I have only read half of the first chapter, their six principles for achieving the Fourth Way have synergy with other writing about creativity, innovation, the future of the teaching profession and with what I have been observing in schools after 17 years:

1. Shared moral purpose and collectively-created (not politically imposed) goals. Those of you in Arizona schools know what hoops we jump through to get Prop 301 Performance Pay. Most school plans are designed by a small group of administrators and teachers in order to be successful so that teachers can get the pay. They are not designed with an eye to improving teaching and learning, but with an eye to data. If the work becomes meaningful, it is because of the individuals doing it, not because the policy created collective inspiration to do better.

2. Teaching and learning encompasses a broad range of learning for all kinds of learners. Although many teachers achieve this with their students, our system does not encourage it, especially at the secondary level.

3. Data informs inquiry and decision-making rather than “driving” instruction. Data does not contain self-evident lessons. It must be interpreted within a specific teaching context to be useful. This year when I looked at our district reading benchmark scores for my English students, they corroborated much of what I was seeing in terms of ability among my classes, but they also raised questions for further inquiry: Are 4th period really low readers? Or did they blow off the assessment because of their social tendencies? How can I engage them further in the academic material while building on their social interactions?

4. Testing is used to sample the system without distorting the way it operates. See my reflections on numbers 1 and 3.

5. Teachers develop curriculum; we are not a “delivery system” of other people’s curriculum. Amen. I spent a year working for Kaplan, and although their testing strategies are incredibly helpful, I didn’t feel that I was teaching in earnest. I was delivering the Kaplan program. But at least Kaplan was up front about that fact, and I appreciated that.

6. Leadership emphasizes and creates collective responsibility and not vertical accountability.

A major force in the vortex which sweeps away teachers and administrators is number 6. I see administrators who seem (from the outside) to want to get to the conversations about collective responsibility, but get stuck in the demands of vertical accountability (see my rant on data in this entry). The national conversation about education is certainly volatile, and it is certainly in disorder. If you want to dipstick the complexity and varying approaches to the diversity of issues facing educators, choose five people at random and ask them to define “school reform.” And here’s the rub, as always: Our students are Dorothy and Toto, trapped inside a spinning house.

Andy and Dennis today encouraged us to be dynamos in education, not just passive levers of change. According to Taleb, their ideas have the potential to create a complex and antifragile education system in this country, one that is steered by a shared moral imperative and clear national goals for education, but imagineered by communities of teachers and local leaders, those with skin in the game, those most able to respond to problems (i.e. take responsibility). A school full of students is, to steal a phrase from Taleb, more like a cat than a washing machine. They are organic and ever changing. It is impossible to fix them with an instruction manual.

Hopefully, when the tornado passes, as they always do, we have all been swept away to a land where administrators, teachers and students discover that we have hearts, brains and courage, and the means to return home to our center, unscathed.

 

“With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how.”  Doris Lessing

When Margaret Thatcher passed away a few weeks back, just about every retrospective of her contributions included her strengthening of the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain. That got me thinking about the special relationships in a school system, those relationships that, while quantifiably hard to define, create a web of connections that build a true learning community. I hope that your school includes many of these.

Today, I honor the special relationship between our librarians and our English department.

To be fair, our librarians create special relationships throughout our school.  Throughout National Poetry Month, one of our librarians, Amy Rusk, sends out an e-mail each day that includes a timely poem.  Spontaneously, teachers and staff members from all disciplines and positions in the school send her poems in return, or appreciative responses to her choices.  Christie Friske-Daniels, our other librarian, teaches the library practice students important skills in managing the collection, regulating entry to the library, providing customer service, and problem-solving as well as a host of other skills, most of which transfer to the academic work they will do across the curriculum (not to mention boosting their resumes for after-school jobs). She gets to know these students and nurtures them.  

We are lucky to have two full-time librarians, even though our school is over 3000 students, and they have built our very special library into a vital organ of the school, and have rendered themselves indispensable.

However, I like to think that the English department has a very special relationship with our library. Here is an example: Last year, when Kore Press brought The Big Read to Tucson, Amy helped weave together collaborations with Kore representatives, Stories that Soar, and other local groups to create a showcase of student work and performances inspired by Emily Dickinson.  Most of the student work from Tucson High was completed in English classrooms during lessons that we developed and co-taught with Amy and submitted for the showcase.  Amy also worked with the student gallery specialist at our school to create a display honoring Emily Dickinson and even more student work inspired by her.  She partners with English teacher Kurt Garbe to head up the Poetry Out Loud effort at our school, resulting in two state champions out of the last six years. If it hadn’t been for our librarian, those community connections never would have synthesized within our school. Those showcases and displays inspired my students to read and write more poetry.  

Our librarians attend our English department PLC meetings and participate in our PLC.  Christie, an ex English teacher herself, has spent time creating proposals for vertical curriculum maps for research skills, helping our department to envision how the library could help us provide students instruction on the inquiry process and the evaluation and ethical use of sources.  She has worked with my classes (and others) multiple times teaching lessons that we developed together to meet students where they are and move them forward in their use of library resources to expand their understanding of research topics.  She even volunteers to score the worksheets they complete sometimes as they learn basic search strategies and library skills.  Christie also helps me create book lists based on units and research projects my students are working on, and prepare carts thoroughly loaded with the exact right resources for what I am teaching.

Our two librarians help to create a culture of voracious readers at our school. They generously stock the fiction, manga and comics sections and create policies that allow those resources to be widely utilized.  For manga, students can only take five at a time and can only have them for five days.  The students who read manga visit the library often, and use it well.  In addition, Amy heads up our school’s poetry club, who also creates the literary magazine.  Our librarians' curation of our collection, enthusiasm for good reads and welcoming smiles in the library make it a nurturing place for readers, and as an English teacher I greatly appreciate that.  

I could go on and on.  Each year, the library hosts the museum-style display developed by the Women and Writing senior class.  They make computers available to students as often as possible.  Amy teaches the Intellectual Freedom classes for parents and teachers. These classes qualify them to participate on committees to evaluate complaints against books which are on the shelves in libraries across the district.  In other words, she ensures that every book will get a fair consideration, and that the days of a few angry voices getting a book removed from the shelves will not happen.  This underscores most of our values as English teachers that students have as wide a range of reading made available to them as possible.

Who am I kidding?  The English department has no special claim to these remarkable human resources.  They host the science fair, provide support for research in the social studies courses as well as English, bring in community speakers such as Holocaust survivors and authors, arrange screenings of films such as a recent one we watched about the history and relevance of Wonder Woman as a superheroine, provide space and set-up for a plethora of meetings and trainings.... There is too much to list.   

The librarians at our school remind me what it means to have a vital library, one that becomes a beating heart of the school, a heart in counterpoint to the stadium, the cafeteria, the attendance office, the little theater.  Good librarians are irreplaceable, and yet so often they are replaced during budget cuts.  When they are replaced (or taken and not replaced), books disappear off the shelves, computers and furniture are not maintained, the collection and its use go into decline, a place of warmth and light on campus becomes a place of emptiness and sterility, poems go unwritten, and voices go unheard. Let’s do all we can to preserve funding for our school libraries, and to place them in the loving hands of highly qualified and passionate librarians.

 

Blogger Julie Torres coordinates support for National Board candidates in our district.  In that capacity she observes many teachers at their practice.  In her recent post, 10 Degrees of Teaching, Julie takes the temperature of the current teaching environment and lists ten observations.  After reading her post I wondered how students, our most expert observers, read the temperature in the teaching environment.

So I gave a prompt, modeled directly on Julie's post, to my 8th grade Algebra for High School Credit class.  I said their responses shouldn't be about me, but about how they read teachers as a whole, given Julie's 10 stems.   The first response to each stem, in italics,  came from the same student.   Thoughtful responses from other students are separated by semicolons. 

Here is the prompt:  "As students you constantly assess the learning environment of a classroom, in essence taking the temperature of any given situation.  I wonder how you view teachers and the teaching climate.  I bet some things you see are pretty obvious, but I am curious about what you think is happening under the surface of teaching.  Please quickly respond with short phrases to the prompts.  The most important thing is that you go beneath the surface and avoid obvious answers.  I'll use your responses for a post at the Stories from School blog. (www.storiesfromschool.org)"

1. Teachers currently:  Are still learning to be a better teacher;  Teach interesting stuff; Don't look at the viewpoint of students; Talk too much

2.  Teachers wish for:  More help; Students who pay more attention (about the only other answer kids wrote)

3.  Teachers are wondering:  Why the kids are not ready to focus; What will improve grades and test scores; What students think of them; Why it's hard to focus

4.  Teachers are feeling:  They might be failing as a teacher to teach the kids what they need to learn; AIMS pressure; Courage; Accomplished; That kids don't care

5.  Teachers are thankful for:  All the hard work they put in; Students who try

6.  Teachers are planning for:  The future, to be a better teacher; New students, a new year, and how to teach better; AIMS; Student success

7.  Teachers need:  To have a little more learning impact; New methods; To ask students opinions more; Patience; Avoid talking too much; Confusing students and "misunderstanding" them

8.  Teachers are avoiding:  The super needed questions for kids. For example, how fast each student can think and give them more time; Kids who don't care; Kids that don't put in effort, concentrating on the kids who want to accomplish something

9.  Teachers are craving:   More time to teach what they want in a year; School grades to go up; Summertime!; Retirement;  An "A" school not a "D" school; Attention from kids

10.  Teachers are missing: Some of the tools they need to succeed; Fundamentals; That sometimes they might have to go over things clearer; Patience; Listening to students opinions

I get three messages from these students' responses: 1) They wish for their voice to be heard by teachers, who talk too much.  That makes them a lot like teachers who long to be heard but are lead by policy makers who don't listen.  2) They acknowledge that some classmates don't care, don't listen, and don't focus.  What would it take for more teachers to admit that about some of  their colleagues? and 3)  They recognize that teaching is a skill that must be developed and that most teachers long to perfect their craft, but lack opportunities to do so. 

Teacher leaders talk a lot about the crucial conversations that need to happen to reform education.  We could do worse than to begin those conversations with the people right in front of us.

(Note: I gave the prompt at the end of class, told them it was optional and must be completed on their own time, after al l their homework, and that they would get no class credit.   I edited some responses for length, grammar, and spelling.)

I went treasure hunting.  I sought the definitive metaphor to contrast the power of all that is wrong in education with the power of all that is right.  Yin Yang?  Nah.  A transformative professional development doesn't need to be balanced by a mind-numbing policy directive.  Manichean Paranoia?  It's fun to say and captures the dark versus light battles we fight. But too often, "Mani-what?" is the response.  The search lasted months and took me through a 900 page novel, a painful drive to Phoenix, and an extraordinary evening walk.

In Steven King's novel, 11/22/63, Jake Epping travels in time to stop the assassination of President Kennedy.  A time portal delivers Jake to New Lisbon, Maine, on September 8, 1958 - at 11:58 a.m.  As Jake waits and prepares such strange things happen, including several brushes with death, that he concludes that the Past has a will of its own and is "obdurate" against any challenge.

That concept came to mind early one Saturday last April.  I was driving to Phoenix to help colleagues helping National Board candidates prepare for their assessment.  Rain hammered down in the freezing grey dawn.  I stopped at a convenience store and picked up a steaming black coffee.  Diving into the car to get out of the rain, I caught my eyelid on the corner of the door, ripping a gash that required four stiches.

On my way to the emergency room, thinking I should call Phoenix to tell them I wasn't coming, I had a thought.  What if the Future has a will of its own, too?  What if empowered teachers threaten a Future dedicated to a stagnant and strangling status quo?  An obdurate Future in which teachers - the membrane through which policy becomes practice - have but a whisper of a voice?

What if that Future slammed my head into the door because of my commitment to teacher leadership?

OK, a crack on the head might make you delirious too, but I decided right then, "Bring it, Future, you're not stopping us."

Over the past 18 years I have been a teacher, an instructional coach, a mentor and a student. This year I had a unique opportunity to look at teaching through a different lens. I began to examine education through the eyes of a principal. I completed my internship in the fall and coursework and state examination in the spring. All the while, I felt like the frog in the story Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni.

In the story, a tadpole and minnow were inseparable friends. They swam among the weeds in a pond. Time passes and the tadpole discovers he has legs and his tail disappears. The minnow thought that was complete nonsense, as the day before they were both fish. They argued and argued and finally the tadpole said, “Frogs are frogs and fish are fish.”

Time passed and one day the frog climbed out of the water onto the grassy bank. Days and weeks went by. Then one day, the frog jumped back into the pond to tell the fish of his adventures. “I have seen extraordinary things,” exclaimed the frog. He goes on to tell the fish about birds, and cows, and people! The picture in the fish’s mind was full of lights and colors and marvelous things. If only he could jump about like his friend and see that wonderful world.

This year during my internship and coursework, I had the opportunity to jump out of my role as an instructional coach and view the world as a principal. As I traveled around the district visiting different schools I began to see extraordinary things. I observed how principals interacted with their staff, with students, parents and the community. I observed different leadership styles and talked with principals about how they inspire and advocate for teachers. I inquired about challenges and obstacles of being an instructional leader. This year has been a roller coaster of sorts, but my mind is full of lights and colors and marvelous things.

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly

disguised as impossible situations.” - Charles Swindell


Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Wow, that sounds extremely corny, so I'll explain. Four years ago, in the spring of 2008 I was accepted into Arizona State University’s doctoral program in leadership and innovation. I graduated last spring, however I was not finished. During my doctorate coursework, I began taking classes to fulfill the requirements for a principal certification. Well today, Tuesday, April 24, 2012 – I submit my last paper, take my last quiz, and upload my last signature assignment into TK20. Done!

Now what to do with all that extra time?? Read...

As I look around my house I notice piles of books. Some of the piles are from coursework, some are from professional development and others are simply books I had to have and have had no time to read.

Here is my Book Bucket List:

Your Brain at Work – David Rock

Five Minds for the Future  – Howard Gardner

The Adaptive School – Bob Garmston & Bruce Wellman

Creating the Opportunity to Learn – A. Wade Boykin & Pedro Noguera

Drive & A Whole New Mind – Daniel Pink

The Global Achievement Gap – Tony Wagner

Switch – Chip & Dan Heath

Whatever it Takes – Paul Tough

So Much Reform So Little Change – Charles Payne

Catching up or Leading the Way – Yong Zhao

Emotional Intelligence & Social Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

What books are on your list?

I love reading.  This year, I have witnessed many of my first and second graders discover this love. 

I felt their energy when we walked to the library for the first time.  I watched their eyes darting around the room while they struggled to hear the expectations for the new space.  They could barely sit still when so many new and untouched books surrounded them. 

I overhear them recommending their favorite stories and informational reads to friends. 

I see their faces light up when they realize a book they didn’t used to be able to read is suddenly just right. 

 I notice the quiet that falls over the room during Morning D.E.A.R.  Dropping everything and reading has become a pleasure that it was not in the beginning of the year. 

February is love of reading month.  The month we celebrate how much we all love to read.  But why do we love to read?  Why do we honor reading with a whole month of events and activities?  What is so special about reading?  I know my own answers to these questions.  But I wanted to hear what my students would say. 

In the spirit of Jen’s recent blog, I will give you some of their answers.  Sans spelling errors.

 

I love reading because it helps me to do math. 

I love reading because I can pretend my life is exciting when it’s not. 

I love reading because it helps me to learn. 

I love reading because you need it to be a grown-up. 

I love reading because when I am reading a book I can be anyone I want to be. 

I love reading because when you can read you can help other people.  

Reading is special because it lets us see how other people think and feel.  

Reading is important because you need to read to follow directions and understand information. 

I love reading because it is relaxing.  It gives me a break from the day. 

Reading is special because it tells us about real life in other places. 

I love reading because it makes me free like a butterfly floating in the sky.

I love reading because some books make me laugh and feel silly. 

Reading is special because it is something we can do alone, with our parents, with our teacher, with our friends, and with strangers. 

Reading is special because it takes us to new places. 

I love reading books about animals and looking at the illustrations. 

I love reading because when my mom makes lists I know what they say. 

I love reading because I know how to do it now. 

I love reading because we need it to research insects.

I love reading because it can show you a brand new world. 

 

Why do you love reading? 

 

Typically around this time of the year I pull out my old, tattered and torn, Charles Schultz books:

Happiness is a Warm Puppy

Love is Walking Hand in Hand

When I was in the classroom it was fun to read the stories and invite children to write their own pages for the book. Last week I was teaching third grade and had the students create their own book using the sentence stem: Learning is…

Their sentences soon began to tell a story about teaching and learning.

Learning is going for your goal.

Learning is really important for you.

Learning is a fun way to become educated.

Learning happens before and after lunch.

Learning is getting an A+ and working your butt off.

Learning is creative, fun, tricky, awesome, cool and out of this world.

Learning is asking questions and saying statements.

Learning is trying out new things.

Learning is making your brain work.

Learning is trying to be better than okay.

Learning is reading, writing, spelling, math, science and social studies.

Learning is fun and it can be really boring.

Learning is what kids do best at school.

Learning is easy to do for some kids.

Learning helps you do your stuff.

Learning is fun because it is to me.

Learning is helpful to other people.

Learning is how you learn so you’ll be smarter.

Learning is the best part if the day.

Learning is my favorite thing in the world.

Learning is listening, friendship, reading, working hard and cool.

Learning is making your brain really smart.

Learning is fun to do for some kids.

Learning is easy to do for some kids.

Learning helps you go to college.

Learning is one thing to one person and another thing to another person.

What would your students add to this story?

    

To dramatically improve teaching and learning nationwide, structural changes and out-of-the-box thinking are needed. The most quality solutions will involve new layers of teacher support and leadership. I think the chart below speaks for itself. I mean, if horses have a movie dedicated to this concept, the least we can do is support teachers, right?

Horse Whisperer	Teacher Whisperer
Horses that have suffered abuse from people or been traumatized through an accident may develop changed behavior that their owners find difficult to deal with, or may even result in the horse being labeled dangerous.	Teachers that have been traumatized by things like excessive testing, narrow teacher evaluation, misuse of national curriculum, data driven instruction, stifling teacher accountability, elimination of tenure, competition for funding, punitive school labels, "education reform," and misguided philanthropists may develop changed behavior that some may find difficult to deal with, or may even result in the teacher being labeled dangerous.
Horse whisperers spend years studying the horse and its behavior in natural surroundings. They learn to read the silent but incredibly powerful communication we call body language. From the most subtle changes in facial expressions, drooping lower lips, ear movements, the flick of a tail, stamp of a foot, to rolling eyes and rearing, the horse’s entire language of communication is expressed in clear terms, for those who learn to interpret it.	Teacher whisperers, given appropriate release time, can study the behavior of teachers in their classrooms. There, they can study body language like the elevation of voice, eye-rolling, head flopping on the desk, and sporadic tears to understand a teacher’s entire language of communication to best gauge their needs.
Young horses that had received little handling but were destined to be riding horses, for example, were once trained to work using quiet brutal methods of coercion. This system was called ‘breaking’. ‘Making’ a horse is preferable to breaking one.	Probationary teachers that received little mentoring but were destined to be classroom teachers, for example, might have been ones hustled through sub-par certification programs. This system is called ‘fast tracking’. ‘Making’ a quality teacher is preferable to rushing one.
In some public demonstrations, a horse whisperer will stand in an enclosure, of a reasonable size, which a young untrained horse is released into. The horse’s natural instinct is to fight or flight. The whisperer becomes the herd, the safe place to be, by his use of body language. First, he sends the horse away; he has not yet invited it to join his herd! He drives the horse forward and keeps him away	In some school districts, only one teacher whisperer stands per campus, of unreasonable sizes, in which un-mentored teachers are released into. The teacher’s natural instinct is to sink or swim. Though the teacher whisperer becomes the safe place to be, he or she is often busy corralling other un-mentored teachers and the un-mentored teacher-in-immediate-need is often driven away.
During this assessment/initial training period, the horses outline, or body shape, changes and its body language clearly visible to people watching. This introduction can take seconds or minutes. It is always approached though as if the horse whisperer really has all day to stand there. The result is a clear understanding that can be successfully built on. No shouting, no fear, no pain. A calm and positive mutual understanding that provides a sound basis for true partnership between man and horse.	Given ample exposure to teacher whispering methods, teachers can change their body language and perform better on teacher evaluations. This process can take several weeks or years. It is always approached as if the teacher whisperer really has all the time in the world to stand there. No shouting, no fear, no pain. A calm and positive mutual understanding that provides a sound basis for true partnership between teacher and whisperer.
For horses who have had unpleasant experiences and displayed behavioral problems, the horse whisperer will assess the elements of difficulty and work with the horse to build its confidence and trust, using the same 'I represent safety' techniques. If the object of fear is clippers, for example, they will be used in the body language training session. The horse will accept that it is a wise move to stand still, near the 'safe person', than attempt to run away from the previously dreaded object and confidence will improve.	For teachers who have had unpleasant experiences and displayed performance problems, the teacher whisperer will assess the elements of difficulty and work with the teacher to build their confidence and trust, using the same 'I represent safety’ techniques. This may involve the gradual introduction of things that have previously traumatized the teacher and/or may involve them being abolished entirely.
Summary The horse whisperer does not perform tricks. He, or she, uses the oldest language in the world in order to read the horse and communicate with the horse, combined with equine psychology, to achieve partnership.	Summary The teacher whisperer does not perform tricks. He, or she, uses the oldest language in the world in order to read the teacher and communicate with the teacher, combined with human psychology and compassion, to achieve partnership.

Each year, I host teaching interns or student teachers (or both) as they move through teacher-preparation programs through local universities. During this process I am able to "pay things forward" by coaching other inspired people to be the best teachers they can be - and I get rejuvenated in the process. (It's really a win-win situation).

Each year as the Instructional Leader for my department, however, I see not-so-winning situations as teachers leave their teacher-prep programs to enter their own classrooms and discover that there is no real "mentoring" program available to help them during their first few years due to budget cuts and/or the constraints of a bigger, public education machine.

In other words, they are left to sink or swim.

When I think back to the support available when I entered the profession about 8 years ago, I have to admit that I was subjected to the same mode of survival; I was hired at an education fair the week before students arrived, was given a teacher textbook, was shown a room that would be mine for a few periods a day (I had to travel to a few different rooms to teach) and was given a set of keys. For everything else, I was on my own. I remember attending some "newbie" classes from 4-6pm a few times per month, but remember wishing that I was in my classroom getting more done and/or wishing I could use the time planning with another teacher so that I knew whether or not I was on the right track.

Things I remember the most?

• Feeling overwhelmed because I was only one day ahead of the students.

• Never leaving my classroom during lunch because I had too much to do.

• Crying a few times per semester after my last class left the room for the day.

Every teacher-leader-bone in my body knows that this kind of treatment for the newest members of our profession is wrong. I know that I was treated wrong. And I know that we are still treating our newbies wrong no matter how many after school classes we schedule for them to attend or how many times our one Instructional Coach can pop into their classrooms to hang out for a few minutes.

The more involved I get in education transformation efforts (I hate the word "reform" these days), the more I see power in the voices and stories of teachers. . .

So I turn to you members of society: what was your first teaching experience like? If you aren't a teacher, maybe you know one? What was their experience like? Sink? Swim? How can we craft support structures to train and retain quality teachers?