All Of Me, 4 All of You: Summer Vacation canceled

Summer Vacation is Canceled.
I will not be fishing, kayaking, hiking those beautiful New Hampshire mountains this summer. My moment of honesty on this May 13, 2020 pandemic day of reasoning. No one goes back to physical classrooms in the Fall.

Why?
 It will not be because opening our public schools cannot be done safely. We could open them in a that "Can Do" America" of the past. He is about making America Great for some, not all.  It all costs money and would mean asking America's wealthy to help pay for it. This President gave trillions of dollars in tax breaks to billionaires and millionaires. He lacks the courage to take them back.
He lacks the heart and the will to make returning to school work safely. He is Wall Street's President, not the peoples.

He won't do it.
We will need hundreds of thousands of new teachers and teacher aides to reduce class sizes, to staggering schooling, and over 50 million gloves and masks a day. We need double or triple the custodial staff, nursing centers in our schools ready, and able to test staff and students. Now some countries are already working on these things, but not Wall Street President. He lacks the courage, the conviction, the will, and the heart to make it work.

Where is his heart?Follow his tax breaks, and gifts to the 1%.  
Making it work begins with taking back that trillion and half dollar tax cuts this White House gave to Billionaires.

Their solution.
Senator Rand Paul said: "Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end-all," Paul said, adding, "We can listen to your advice, but there are people on the other side saying there's not going to be a surge." My translation of Senator Paul, "There Will be Blood." GOP Leadership thinking our children attend elite private schools with large classrooms and small class sizes, social distancing is no problem for our children. As for the rest of America, trust us, there will be surge. Remember, we are the White House and the GOP who said the virus would go away like the Flu. It was a hoax.
In other words, there will be blood, but not our blood.

What am I going to do?
I can't fix Washington DC.
But, neither am I helpless,
I am a teacher,
Who modes future generations.

I am stepping up.
I am going to step up this remote learning game, spend a thousand hours, ensuring that our Literacy Center is an exceptional online experience. It won't be the same, but it won't be rushed, I will pull this brain apart finding ways to bring as much love, humanity, empathy, and community building into our Literacy Center. My heart will break some, but it will not break.

We shall return one day. One day when we return, and we will return.
It will be a smooth welcoming home.
There will be one massive reopening, and hearts will begin healing.
As America's Greatest Generation did their part,
This generation shall do their part, and
We shall come to know the new Greatest Generation.

Come this Fall.If you ask Dr. Turner what he did this summer?
I will reply spent my summer vacation working to make the best possible learning community for our teachers and children.
Trust me it may not be perfect,
It will not be the same,
But, it will not be some tin can cheesy.

This summer begins the work.
It has already begun,
It will be the best I can give,
It will be all of me.

I shall do this work with empathy, hope, and all the love my Teaching Heart has to give.
I shall not disappoint my CCSU Literacy Center teachers and children,
All of me loves all of our Public School teachers and our children.

All of me, for all of you,
 Dr. Jesse P. Turner CCSU Literacy Director,

Moral Monday CT Education Ambassador

If you are wondering what did this Walking Man listen to on his walk this morning? Its john Legend's "All of Me" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_DOquGBD4 

Teachers The Sun Will Come out Tomorrow

I imagine every teacher who had to move from teaching in their classrooms to online in less than a week in the nation is stressed out. I am one of them.


THE SUN WILL COME OUT TOMORROW:
Yesterday, I was stressed with the amount of work it takes to make my online teaching work. I was worried that I might be expecting too much from the teachers in my Literacy Center.

TEACHERS TO The RESCUE:
What a difference a day makes, my rescue became my online meeting with my teachers last night in class. I love hearing everyone is safe and well.
I was impressed hearing my teachers describe the difference ways they are responding to my request that they make sincere efforts to reach out to our Literacy Center students. I insisted that any online tutoring require an adult family member in the room as well. I am always supervising our teachers as they work with children. This pandemic does not allow this. I am working on some ways that I might still supervise our sessions if this continues into the fall. They also need my feedback as well, luckily during the first 8 weeks, I have since completed all our informal and formal observations. I have since completed our post conferences as well. This is an essential component of the work we do in our Literacy Center. Teaching and learning are supervised by an expert in the field at CCSU. That's my role as our Literacy Center Director.

TEACHERS ARE AMAZINGLY CREATIVE:
My teachers collaborated with each other, and parents to find the best ways to help their children with online learning. Some have made Zoom works some FaceTime, some indicated physical packets parents wanted packets, my teachers even delivered them rather than rely on the mail. Of course, they kept their distance, used gloves, sanitized their at home leaning packets, and told parents to do the same. Two parents are hospital workers and indicated they have too much on their plate at the moment going on, and one parent of a child on the spectrum said they would opt-out, (very understandable). So, 90% of our children are continuing to work in some learning format with our teachers. This is far better than I ever dreamed.

I AM GUIDED BY MY PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS: We shared where we are in our assignments, how Dr. Turner can help. We are currently meeting twice a week online. They voted to attend once as a whole group and save the other day for individual consultations. Consultations are important to me, this is a supervised practicum, and meeting individually to consult allows me to maintain a critical International Literacy Association professional standard for Supervised Reading Professional Practicums.

My BOTTOM LINE
Teaching online is not the same; it takes a great deal of effort to make it work, but with dedicated, committed, and talented graduate teachers, it can be done.
I preferably rather be in our literacy Center teaching. I can't wait to return, but my teachers have rescued their captain. We are in this together, and together we shall sail our teaching and learning ship to port safely and well.

"You just call on me brother, when you need a hand

We all need somebody to lean on

I just might have a problem that you'll understand

We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me, when you're not strong

And I'll be your friend

I'll help you carry on

For it won't be long

'Til I'm gonna need

Somebody to lean on" ~ Bill Withers 

Respectfully,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner

CCSU Literacy Center Director If you want to listen to the tune I listened to on my walk this morning? Its Bill Withers "Lean On ME" cover by Play For Change >  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiouJsnYytI  <

Some day we will be together again. 

My Pedagogy of Love informs me this is not online teaching, this is teaching in a crisis

Dear Education Reformers, Data Crunchers, Policy Makers, Profiteers, and Standardized Dreams,

Yes, the learning is second to whatever small humanity we may bring to the lives of our students. This isn't teaching online, this is crisis teaching, and as in any crisis, our understanding matters more than the lessons we teach. This is not the new normal, this is temporary, reminding us that our classrooms are sacred places. What is taught doesn't always get learned, and what is learned doesn't is not necessarily taught. Decades from now, what remains will not be the facts and figures I taught, but some distant memories of the empathy and humanity I shared in this pandemic. Content always comes second to our understanding.

This is not some new normal. This is teachers doing our best to bring some humanity to teaching in this pandemic. The likes of which have not been seen in a hundred years.

I teach teachers.
I shall not dwell on the research.
I shall not cite endless facts and figures.
I shall not demand from them perfect papers and correct responses.
I shall lead with love, joy, and hope.

They shall know my biggest fear was not meeting the standard, but of losing them.
They shall know that the best any teacher can bring to his/her classroom is humanity.
They shall know that there is one pedagogy that rises above all others.
They know that a Pedagogy of Love is second to none, and
They shall say he loves us, enough to always lead with his humanity.

When this has passed, when our pain and grieving begins. I hope whatever small humanity I was able to bring my online teaching and learning heal hearts. That my teachers might remember my heartfelt empathy was my Strategic Learning Objective. In reality, it has always been humanity in the classroom matters more than the facts and figures we teach. I am not racing for some perfect test scores. I am reaching for hearts that matter.

When this pandemic comes to an end, and we piece up the pieces of this trauma teaching and learning time. I shall lead pick up the pieces, do my best to heal my students, family, friends, and myself. I will turn off my Smartphone, my tablet, and my laptop, and I shall put up the welcome home sign, embrace that most sacred space my classroom, and say I have missed you, come in, share, and let love shine brightly hear. If I become one of the ones that do not make it. May they remember that Dr. Turner loved them, cared for them, believed in them, and dreamed bigger things for them than perfect little boxes of ticky tacky?

Peace, love, joy, and endless hope,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
Professor of Literacy, Elementary, and Early Childhood

"Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same."

If you like to listen to the song that I listened to this morning on my walk alone. Its Malvina Reynolds "Little boxes" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2lGkEU4Xs <