Teachers know where the gold is!

 

It is important to follow the data. However, there is the data that matters, and there is the data that really matters. The data that policymakers, administrators, and the media consider important is important. However, the data that really matters comes from teachers who spend 5 days a week in the presence of the children they teach. There are only so many hours in a school day. So much is demanded of teachers that does not fit within the school day. This is one of the reasons we are losing young teachers. Too much to do with not enough time to do it. 

Policymakers and education reformers have our teachers using expensive and time-consuming online data collecting tools. Our teachers are chasing data, they already know. When people ask me who knows a child best. I always say the people closest to them, their parents, and teachers. 

Rather than have our teachers following their authentic real time observational data and intuitive understandings of the children they teach. We force them to engage in time consuming repetitious data, that has them second guessing what they already know. 

From my work with classroom teachers, this online data consumes 10 to 15 hours a week. 10 to 15 hours that use to be spent on finding ways to motivate learners. and with the demands of teaching today. We are losing experienced and new teachers because they are not given the time to act on the data that really matters. 

Teachers not only see the numbers, but they also see the child, they have essential knowledge about what motivates the children they teach. What teachers know often takes a back seat to the data policymakers value. I say the data that matters most is the real time observational data teachers have. The data the system often causing them to doubt. Or, feeling as if their voice does not matter. This feeling of doubt and being voiceless is in my opinion the number one reason we are losing experienced teachers today.

Those 10-15 hours of online data chasing prevents teachers from acting in real time on that rich Kid Watching Data that Dr. Yetta Goodman told me 30 years is a learning goldmine.

Teachers know where the gold is,                                                                                                               Dr. Jesse P. Turner                                                                                                                                      CCSU Literacy Center Director

If you like to see what inspired my blog today...its Barry Lane's What's Happening in our schools > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPZLqsZzzzo < 

In case you want more Chuck Barry's "School Days" reminds me of > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHG5-GxI_Es <

Feel Spanish Language in your heart and feet

I teach future and current teachers in Connecticut. During our first Disciplinary Literacy Class last week; I asked students to share their best and worst teachers. I shared Mr. Bass, when I was broken and homeless, he fed me lunch, and made sure I had a winter coat and gloves. He brought me back to the world of the living via his humanity. Teachers do these things every day.

This course is taken just before our Pre-Service teachers do the Student-Teaching. This semester I have Spanish, History, Teach Education, and English teachers. The sharing is about sharing the character traits of good teaching. For some strange reason, many students came down on their former Spanish teachers this day. On Wednesday, my plan is to share two teachers, one is Father Fitzgerald, (Parish Priest) and Mrs. Sanchez my favorite Spanish Teacher. Father Fitzgerald story is about some of our best teachers don’t teach in a classroom, but outside the schoolhouse. Mrs. Sanchez is about a language teacher who knew before you learn a language you have to feel it in your heart. 

Mrs. Sanchez, open her class with Las niñas y los niños sienten español en sus corazones: [girls and boys, we feel Spanish in our heart not our head]. My oral Spanish speaking skills were lacking. I did well on homework assignments, quizzes, and tests, but my Spanish speaking skills were as broken as it gets. Mrs. Sanchez, said don’t worry about how you say it Jesse, your work shows me you can read and write Spanish. She had a way of helping us accept our limitations, and helping us see our strengths. I aced her classes, and learn to dance and feel Spanish in my heart. Mrs. Sanchez would end class with “Todos levántense, sientan español en el corazón y en los pies, es hora de bailar” [Everybody up, and feel Spanish in your heart and feet. It is time to dance]. She, place a record her record player, either some Falmenco, Mambo, Conga, or Salsa, and we flet Spanish in our feet and heart. 

Mrs. Sánchez, put Spanish in my heart and feet. She taught with her love of Spanish, and her students. Like, Mr. Bass, Father Fitz, and Mrs. Sánchez they did more to prepare me to be a teacher; then many of the research studies at the university. Time to remind these soon to be teachers, it is less about what we teach, and more about how we teach. Can't wait to see my Spanish teachers smile tomorrow. Humanity is every teacher's super power. Great teachers lead with humanity every day. 

This one is for you Mrs. Sánchez, and all you wonderful feel it in your heart Spanish Teachers.

Gracias,                                                   Dr. Jesse P. Turner                   

Literacy Profesora, 

If you like to dance to the tune that inspire my blog today...its Fania All Stars ft Oscar D'Leon, Milly Quezada, El Canario and others yo Soy La Salsa  > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuqGyeJgT6E < 

Teacher Shortage Crisis: You can't fill a pail with holes in the bottom with water

A 3 minute clip about this teacher shortage crisis. 

I am at our CCSU Literacy Center, researching and preparing for tomorrow's 103.5 FM Tom Ficklin New Haven radio show, 98/17/23). This is a continued conversation on the Teacher Shortage Crisis. This will be a conversation with great teachers with decades of experience who are passionately concerned about the future of their profession and public schools. Education is a field where policymakers, Education Reformers, and legislators seldom turn to teachers, parents, and children for answers. In my opinion this is the major weakness that has driven 40 plus years of failed education reforms in America. 

What exactly is a Teacher Shortage Crisis? In simple economic term is it an issue of Supply and Demand. Supply is the amount of a specific goods or services available in the market. Demand is the amount of the goods or services available. Teaching is not goods; teaching is a service. Teacher salary fact: "The average weekly wages of public-school teachers, adjusted for inflation, increased just $29 from 1996 to 2021 — from $1,319 up to $1,348. Teachers have consistently earned less than their non-teacher, college-educated counterparts, and that wage penalty was found in all 50 states and Washington, D.C." Teachers today make less than teachers in 1996" (https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/08/17/us-teacher-pay-wage-gap-education-public-schools-decades). However money alone is not the sole issue. 

While teachers are leaving the profession at higher rates than at any other time in history, Policymakers, Ed Reformers, and Legislators are mainly focus on growing new teachers. The problem we are having with these efforts, is they have not engaged in serious conversations with potential future teachers. The problem with this approach is in the 1970's nearly 1 in 5 college students wanted to become teachers, today that number is down to 4%. 

Now consider this during COVID 300000 teachers left teaching. Filling that gap with 4% would take decades to fill. We simply can’t grow enough quickly enough to end this shortage. We must find ways to keep the current teachers in our classrooms as well. 

There are many reasons young people are choosing not to become teachers, declining pay is just one of them. I The veteran teachers on my show tomorrow believe the answer must involve stemming the exit from teaching. They believe finding ways to entice teachers to stay will help grow new teachers. Our future teachers are front row eye witnesses to teachers who are not only underpaid, but disrespected on numerous levels. They come to our universities with 13 years of witnessing how their teachers were treated. Trust me, they come fully knowing the struggles teachers face. 

Returning to Supply and Demand you can’t build supply while you are suffering massive pillages. My analogy is the current teacher shortage solutions are focused on one end of the supply chain. Think about trying to fill a pail with water with holes in the bottom. Addressing this teacher shortage crisis requires fixing the holes first.

Hope you join us 8/18.23 at 11:AM EST on 103.5 FM New Haven,  > http://wnhh.org/tfs <

Dr. Jesse P. Turner                                                                                                                                  Central Connecticut State University Literacy Center Director 

If you like to listen to the tune that inspire this post, its the Beatles Fixing A Hole > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGRoSJaz-nw <

just in case you want to watch the radio show with teachers talking about how to keep the teachers we already have. Link https://www.facebook.com/NewHavenIndependent/videos/201391319590261