Principal's Meeting Speech - Based on my first year....

Left Brain Part 1 - Improvised and Impassioned

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Setting the Tone – Active Anticipatory Set

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Creating awareness of hemispheric processes .

“Teacher talk” can be “student talk”

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1974 –Teacher’s Pay = Lawyer’s Pay

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ACT/SAT Scores Lowest on record

People are changing…Education is not

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Bleak News

Are being effective, how we make a difference

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Planning for the Future

How many disenfranchised, and disillusioned people in the States could have been saved by a better education?

Left Brain Part 2 - Organized and Prepared

Confronting the on-going challenges of teaching requires a large amount of honesty, so I will start by being frank. I am a new teacher. Last year, I was sitting here becoming oriented with teaching in the Diocese. We talked in abstract terms of classroom management, professionalism, social networking, and, of course,  curriculum. I was confident and enthusiastic. But I had no idea what I was getting into teaching middle school at a new school.  Students had bitterness about having to start a new school.  They had different skills and resources too. The problems that occurred, the stories that I heard and the past experiences of the students were vastly different than my last more affluent school where I felt successful reaching the students in my classes on a day to day basis. To my dismay, there was a barrier put up on the first day and over the course of the year I was mostly unsuccessful in crossing it. We covered the curriculum, but there was something missing. I could not reach the students on a emotional level.  Looking back, I now know that without that I was merely performing the superficial duties of a teacher. Helping them develop as Catholic Christians was, of course, a goal, but their development was lacking. Feeling distraught, I seriously reconsidered my potential for a career in teaching. Drawing upon my own emotional, social and psychological resources,  I used the strength of those around me and prepared myself for a new year with a different set of expectations and an outlook that was colored by my experiences as a first year teacher. Then came OMA... Or the Opening Minds Through the Arts Foundation…

This summer I attended their arts institute in the blazing desert of Tuscon, Arizona. Walking into our first sessions, I took advantage of people watching. I saw aged professionals and young men and women, clustered together into groups mostly from the surrounding areas. They seemed friendly and comfortable. If I had know what was coming I wouldn’t have taken things so lightly. Our speaker’s introduction was less of a speech and more of a dance off. She had us twisting, writhing, bouncing and moving around.  It began a creative adventure that tested my natural inhibitions and reminded me that I hadn’t had any experiences like this since I was a child in drama and performance camps. Over the course of the next few days, I saw these same teachers dancing, singing, playing instruments, reading poetry, and drawing all while learning about inquiry, visual culture, language acquisition, stages of graphic representation, and hemispheric processes of the brain. I also saw the same people be serious, laugh, collaborate, and even cry. At the end, not only was my vision for education transformed into something bright and exciting, I felt renewed and empowered with all that I had gathered from the sessions while ravenously took notes and gleaned inspiration. 

 My colleagues and I have since formed a team at our school. We have become infinitely closer as people and we plan to have it stay that way. The SUCCEED Academy already has a school wide adoption of Arts Integration and we are working towards creating a standard portfolio of strategies and tools, with which, students and teachers alike can become familiar. Peppered with showcases of our student’s talent held periodically throughout the year and opportunities for students to experience the arts together. Our destination is a culture of arts integration, based on a curriculum that one can see, hear and feel when they walk on campus. It is our goal that students carry this with them when they leave our school and become professionals of their own making. One powerful aspect of AI is that is does not require us to be arts professionals. Our expertise lies in providing our students with opportunities for discovery and allowing our students to experience content through meaningful arts practice. I believe it is our hope that the experiences our school imparts on our children will awaken their God-given talents and gifts. The development, of which, will result in any number of virtuous behaviors resulting in students that will be healthy, contributing members of society.

 

One potential criticism of the AI classroom is that might lead to disorder or chaos. Facilitators at the OMA Arts Institute addressed this concern by stressing the need for creating the third space. This is described as the passion that builds bridges between you and your students.  It is a risk-taking area, and a safe environment.  This community must be created before addressing content. It was what I was lacking in classroom last year. According Ruby Payne, author of Understanding Poverty, students acquisition of language occurs only when there is a significant relationship. This significant relationship cannot hurt the development of other skills, as well, and it deepens the investment of teachers and students into their own learning. 

As I mentioned, last year was a not a banner year. But with some development and risk-taking on my own part, this year is going to be different. By exposing children to a variety of AI strategies within the first few weeks, I have seen students become more comfortable with their learning environment.   As a consequence students want to come to class. I also have anecdotal evidence of this from interactions with parents, and from students classroom behavior.  Students who have had attendance issues in the past now have none. Most importantly, I feel more effective and more driven than ever. I have their trust and they value their time in the classroom. This is the year that hopefully will keep me in education for a long time and encourage me to develop, and grow along with my students as members of a larger and, one hopes, a growing Catholic learning community.

Notes:

Creates a school, in which, students thrive and is pleasing to eye.  Art integration changes the look of education, and feeling which it imparts on children.  The emotional level on which so many A.I. activities

operate create memorable and meaningful experiences that tap into deeper cognitive response.

Considering that SAT and ACT scores are continuing to decline.  The time is now to adopted research based instructional methods that reach ELL students and students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.