Sometimes in my writing classes we'll do an imitation writing. We learn best by copying the masters, right? One poem I like to introduce my students to is "Learning to love America" by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim. I also like to teach my students by writing with them. Last year at this time, I wrote this imitation. I'm trying to decide now, a year later, if I still feel the same way. I've experienced some inspiring hope in the weeks since the election, but I've also read horrifying news stories, and not the fake kind. America Love (in the style of Shirley Geok-Lin Lim) because its bravado knows no shame because the flat farmland of Iowa makes infinity feel like a possibility and because of mountains and swamps and rivers and oceans because I can use my voice because my sons are now citizens and call this desperate land their own because we all need a place to belong and I want them to know Home because I believe in change because I witness a powerful uprising and because I have to have hope or I would wither up and die because it is time -K. Witt
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At some point in your school career you were probably made to read Steinbeck's classic tale Of Mice and Men. Each year it is a favorite unit of my students. I read several parts aloud, and my students grow to love Lennie. We laugh at his simple mind and dream along with him. While many students know of the ending before we get there (thank you, The Middle and Family Guy!), many others are shocked by the abrupt and discouraging outcome. We like happy endings best, don't we? As we wrapped up with discussion today, I introduced my students to Robert Burns's poem, "To a Mouse." In the second-to-last stanza we find the allusion for the novella's title: "But little Mouse, you are not alone, / In proving foresight may be vain: / The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go often askew." I quoted a translated version, but you can read both here. In a nutshell, a farmer is plowing in his field when he runs over a nest of mice, causing him to reflect on the gossamer fabric of our lives. My coworker Angela was called away on a family emergency today. I went next door to watch over her class for a few minutes, and I couldn't stop thinking about just how damn transient our lives are. Angela had been planning a relaxing break and time with family, and suddenly she was whisked into the bleak unknown. It's true for all of us, isn't it? We plan, we scheme, we hope, we dream, but ultimately, one turn of the wheel or one call from the doctor, and it all goes up in smoke. Depressing, isn't it? That's the heavy mood that hung over my classroom today as we discussed the dream of Lennie and his rabbits. "Does that mean we stop dreaming?" I asked my students. Their reaction was split. "Does it even really matter?" some wondered. I won't stop dreaming. I know that. But I also know that I'm going to hug my boys a bit closer when they get off the bus this afternoon. I'm going to tell my husband just how much I love him, and I'm going to walk away from this building for the next five days reflective and wondering. And in the meantime, living. Well, I guess you could say Miss Honey is back. It's the last day before break, and it's raining instead of snowing. Over the weekend I had a glass of wine, some Ethiopian food, and even a few bites of ice cream. I can no longer blame the weather or my lack of sugar and alcohol for my problems, so I guess it's time to put on my cheerful face. My job as a teacher is complex because my curriculum and content are always shifting. Yes, we read Of Mice and Men in English 2 every year, but I'm also constantly thinking about how to engage my students with the world around them, how to create lessons and experiences that will benefit them beyond the walls of my classroom. I wrote last week about the proliferation of fake news in our world today, and today I'm bringing awareness of that problem to my students. I've been using Kelly Gallagher's Article of the Week in my English 2 class this year. The students are generally grumpy about this because in this one weekly assignment they are required to read analytically, think critically, and write responsively. It's hard work, but it's necessary work that will hopefully engage them with relevant and timely topics as well as improve their reading, writing, and thinking skills. So far this year we've read about Colin Kaepernick, the billionaire space race, and the new war on cancer, to name a few. Today's assigned article is about Facebook's response to fake news. We'll discuss this in depth next week, and hopefully my students will be encouraged to look at the world around them a bit more critically. (Hopefully they will not be inspired to move to Macadonia and start their own fake news empire.) Additionally, we'll conquer the topic in my communications class. Each week these students participate in a "Freaky Friday" discussion (Okay, so it's not Friday, but we'll be flexible because it's the day before a break.) I give them a task or a topic, and I set them in small groups to practice their communication skills. Sometimes they are discussing a current event. Sometimes they are working together to improve outlines for a public presentation. Sometimes they are collaborating on a summary of a TED Talk. At the end of each discussion they must reflect on their role as a communicator. (Did I listen well? Did I ask relevant questions? Did I participate without dominating?) Today we're digging into fake news. We're going to watch a news clip from CNN, read some articles, and then discuss together the impact of this fake news on the world around us. My goal nearly always is awareness. I'm amazed every week at the things I mistakenly assume my students already know. Many don't know how to properly greet a teacher in an email, 99% didn't know the definition of "omniscient," and while many do know they need to capitalize proper nouns, that doesn't mean they always follow the rule. So I certainly can't expect them to know that fake news stories are lurking around every corner. I want to do my part to raise the next generation of informed voters, so today this is the work I do. Supermoon, no sugar or alcohol, a few short days until break, and now.... SNOW! But not enough snow to get out early or have a snow day. (See photographic evidence.) No, just enough snow to make my high school students behave even more like second graders. Have you ever herded cats? Me neither, but I imagine the experience is akin to my teaching job today. I have a lovely wall of windows in the back of my classroom, the perfect place to view the softly falling snow. And after today, that lovely window is covered with approximately 56 nose prints where fifteen and sixteen-year-olds gazed at the flakes as if they were seeing them with virgin eyes. "Mrs. Witt, do you think we'll get out early?" "No, get your book out." "Mrs. Witt, I heard they already had the buses lined up." "No, get your book out." "Mrs. Witt, look at the radar." "No, get your book out." Repeat. Ad nauseam. At one point I exclaimed, "If you recently moved here from Hawaii, I will allow you a moment to be excited over the seventeen flakes in the air. But the rest of you live in Iowa, and it's November. This isn't new. Now settle in and get to work." You can imagine how effective that was. So, Miss Honey's vacation has been extended until Monday at least. Maybe it's because we're all in desperate need of a break. Maybe it's because I haven't had any added sugar or alcohol for more than 30 days. Maybe it's the supermoon. I've just been out of sorts a bit this week, and today I finally got a fed up with caring more than my students do. Remember the book Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard and James Marshall? I have an alter ego, too. She showed up today, but not in the form of a substitute. During my first years of teaching in Missouri, a student gave me the nickname Miss Honey because I was so sweet. I'm not making this up. And the fact is, I rarely lose my cool in the classroom. This isn't a humble brag like you might say in a job interview, though. I openly tell my students that I rarely get angry, and they will hardly ever hear me raise my voice. I just don't think it's worth the spike in blood pressure. This can be a weakness, though. I'm too nice. I get too lenient with deadlines. I'm reflective to a fault. If students aren't doing their work, I overanalyze until somehow I've decided it's my fault (sometimes, yes, it is, but not all the time) and then readjust lesson plans and schedules. Today, however, Miss Honey lost her cool. It started 2nd hour. Every day for the entire year we've done the same thing when the bell rings in English 2. We settle into our seats with independent reading books and read for ten minutes. This is routine, but for nearly every single day this year, I've had to provide the same boy with a gentle reminder. That's usually all it takes, but this week he, too, has been out of sorts because of some drama in his first hour class. Today when he was whining and avoiding his book at the beginning of class, I sternly said, "I've had enough of your whining this week. Either pick up your book and read or head to the office. I'm done." He chose the book with a side of heavy sighing. Then fifth hour rolled along. Four students were scheduled to give informative presentations on a dream destination. We've worked on the project for nearly two weeks, and they've known since Monday that their day was today. Three of the four informed me at the beginning of class that they weren't prepared. I sighed heavily and reminded them that their grade would be reduced as we discussed at the beginning of the year. Then I walked down the hall to quickly commiserate with another teacher. "Make them give it," she said. So I did. I walked back down to my room, told the prepared student to get ready to present, and told the other three to march across the hall to the media center and do some last-minute preparations. They would present after lunch. And they did after much heavy sighing of their own. I'm guessing a few of my students in other classes had choice words to describe me today, too. Several of my English 2 and American Novel students have not been doing their assigned readings in Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird. I've seen them waste provided class time, and I've read their responses that sound shockingly like Sparknotes. So today I gave a quick reading "quiz." I printed out the Sparknotes summaries for the chapters they had several days to read, and then asked them to point out at least three inaccuracies or missing details in the chapter. I saw lots of nervous glances and read several hilarious answers. After the "quiz" we talked about what they miss when they rely only on online summaries. It probably wasn't a lasting lesson, but for today, I felt some satisfaction. I'm sure the teaching gurus who write the books with the perfect strategies and ideal classes would not be pleased with my methods today. I apologize to Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher and the other mentor teachers that I try to emulate. Today was not my best day. Miss Honey will TRY to return tomorrow, but if she can't, she will surely be back after Thanksgiving. Today I learned that Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as their international word of the year. Post-truth: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In other words, the truth is no longer relevant. I could’ve told you that. I blogged a few weeks ago about my attempt to push students to choose unbiased sources. The very next week a student from that class handed in a paper. At the bottom, right after his list of biased sources, he wrote, “There really isn’t such a thing as an unbiased source anymore. I can find truth on these websites, too.” Apparently, truth is subjective. I always knew that beauty was in the eye of the beholder, but now truth is, too? Just today I read that many Trump supporters planned to boycott Pepsi over fictional remarks made by the company’s CEO. Where did they get this misinformation? From a biased source, created just to trick people. Many of these sites are run by teenagers in Macedonia. You might think that part is made up, but really, it’s not. These savvy teens make fake websites with catchy political-sounding names, and then they make up crazy-yet-believable stories that get clicks from users on Facebook. That’s our world. Teenagers in Macedonia make up fake news stories that influence voters. And also my students. So what is my role as an educator in this world? I need to help my students re-engage with objective facts through relevant reading and lessons on bias. I also obviously need to teach them empathy. We also need to get started in preparations for the Smarter Balanced assessment next year. And by the way, the only student in my English 2 classroom yesterday who knew what the word “omniscient” means was Albert, the foreign exchange student from Spain. If you’re my Facebook friend you might know that my husband and I recently just finished the #Whole30Challenge. That means we went 30 days without any added sugars, dairy, grains, and legumes. Oh, and no alcohol. (Yes, we survived the election without alcohol.) However, our 30 days are up, so I might just have to raise a glass soon to “post-truth” and this crazy world we now live in. Or at least I'll raise a glass to John Keats and his "Grecian Urn." That's a Truth I can stand behind. When I first learned to read, I consumed books voraciously. I was on a first-name basis with the town librarian, Grace, and I would check out stacks of books as tall as I was. I can still picture the stool in our old library where I would stand to watch Grace stamp the due date onto my checkout card. My books were never overdue because I was always ready for a next stack just a few days later. In these books I discovered the wonder of Terebithia and fell in love with Teddy in Emily of New Moon. Through Number the Stars I learned about the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust, and after A Wrinkle in Time I found magic in everything around me. I'm currently reading Kelly Gallagher's In the Best Interest of Students. I like this book for several reasons. It gives easy-to-implement strategies, and it also philosophically addresses the strengths and weakness of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Language Arts. Right now I'm reading about the writing standards, and it got me to thinking. I think our world needs more stories. One of the limitations of the CCSS is the lack of emphasis on narrative. According to David Coleman, one of the authors of the CCSS, people in the world don't value what we think or feel. Coleman writes, "What they instead care about is can you make an argument with evidence, is there something verifiable behind what you're saying or what you think or feel that you can demonstrate to me." Hence, the complete lack of attention on narrative reading and writing in the Common Core. I'm afraid that's a grave mistake. I posted earlier this fall about my attempts to teach my students to argue rather than rant. I agree that it's an invaluable skill in our world. We need to be able to back up our claims with evidence. I will not discredit the importance of argumentative writing and powerful nonfiction reading. However, doesn't it seem like our world is a little too caught up in being "right" rather than listening empathetically? Story changes the world. When I first read The Kite Runner, the only encounter I had with real-life Muslims was random interactions with a couple of students in college. Then I met Hassan and Ali. I wept during the difficult moments of that painful story, and I realized that friendships in every religion require great sacrifice and redemptive forgiveness. Before I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, I didn't fully understand what life would be like for a teenage victim of rape. Then I experienced life through Melinda's eyes, and it changed the way I view the reticent, hidden girls in my classroom. Holden Caulfield taught me about nonconformity, and Ed from Markus Zusak's I Am the Messenger made me want to dramatically impact the lives of those around me. I learned about bravery from Auggie in Wonder, and I will never be the same after walking in the shoes of Scout Finch and Owen Meany. Story changes us. Gallagher touches on this in his book, focusing on children's development of "theory of mind," or ToM, "a person's ability to understand the emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and intentions of others." Experiments by David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano (2013) proved that ToM is directly related the building of empathy and is fostered through fiction, particularly literary fiction. If I want my students to change their views of the world, we must be engaging with rich, meaningful stories. This happened in a minor way on the day after the election. To be completely honest, I toyed seriously with calling in sick on Wednesday. I was heartbroken and raw, and I didn't know how I could function in my classroom. But I did, and during English 2, we talked indirectly about empathy. We discussed the slut-shaming of Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men, a character we know little about. My more astute students picked up on the fact that she is never even given a name, instead referenced only as her husband's possession. Before my students left my room that day, some expressed a bit of sympathy for her isolation on the ranch, and others agreed we should never judge a woman's character based on what she wears. I could have given them a nonfiction article on the same topic, but story did the work more effectively. So that's where we go. In American Novel we are diving into To Kill a Mockingbird where I will once again try to help pull back the lens of gender bias and racism to reveal more understanding. In English 2 we march forward with Of Mice and Men where we will talk openly about our treatment of the marginalized and those who are "othered." And in their independent reading I will push students to read texts that make them think, that create the opportunity for empathy. Today this is how I try to change my world. My students recently wrote letters of the next president. I thought I would do the same. Dear Future President: This morning I was reminded of a song I love, and it is the message that I want to implore you to remember. The message will sound simplistic because it is. The song is titled “Everyone’s Beautiful,” and that’s where I want to start. Our country feels more deeply divided than it ever has in my memory. I have my theories as to why this is, but I know you’re busy, so I won’t share them here. I do want to share what I think can fix that. It can be summed up in a word: empathy. Empathy will help us remember that everyone is, indeed, beautiful. I’m teaching my high school students the beauty of To Kill a Mockingbird right now. I hope you know the story. The main character, Scout, develops empathy for others throughout the story because of lessons her father teaches her, lessons about walking around in someone else’s skin, learning from others’ experiences. You don’t need to know my whole life story, but I will tell you this: I had an idyllic childhood with loving parents and extended family and a strong educational foundation. My world lacked one essential element, though: diversity. My friends were like me: white, Midwestern, Christian, and heterosexual (or so I believed at the time.) It may have not been explicitly stated to me as a child, but I grew up knowing to vote Republican. Because my world looked just like me, I thought that WAS the world. That changed. Now here I am, decades later, the white mom of black children with gay friends and Buddhist friends. I’ve traveled outside of my Midwestern bubble more times than I can count on all my fingers and toes. Every one of those people, every single experience expanded my world. It’s no longer white, Midwestern, Christian, heterosexual, and Republican. And it’s better because of that. My worldview changed because I now love people who are different than I am. (Now here's a lengthy side note on faith. It’s worth noting that I’m still a Christian. My relationships with Buddhists and agnostics didn’t sway my beliefs. However, I want to live in a country where my friends feel they have freedom of their religion as well. I hope you realize that you can’t legislate salvation, as much as some well-meaning Christians might wish you could. The rest of the lyrics from “Everyone’s Beautiful” mentions that redemption is found “down deep in your [God’s] eyes.” Redemption isn’t found on a ballot or scrawled on a piece of legislature. I’m not sure where that faulty idea came from, but it’s a permeating, poisonous one.) Maybe what I’m suggesting is a book club where the Syrian refugee and the Midwestern farmer join together with some other folks to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I guess that’s probably not feasible, so what I’m asking you to do is this: help our country remember that we’re not all the same, and that’s a good thing. I recently saw a poll that suggested the majority of Republican voters thought life was better in the 1950s. But Mr. or Madam President, my transracial family would not exist if it were the 1950s. One of my favorite former students would probably still be living in the closet, and my role as a working mom would be the exception, not the norm. Personally, that’s not a way of life I would like to return to. My encounters with the exceptional diversity in this country tell me that America is still pretty great. This all means that you’re assigned a task that I’m sure feels nearly impossible; you must make decisions that are in the best interest of a wide range of people groups. For a long time the direction of our country was driven by white men, but that is no longer the case. You need to do your job accordingly. That means you’re representing the white man, the black man, the Jewish woman, and the Muslim refugee. That’s a tough task, and I sincerely hope you’re up for the challenge. After all, we are all beautiful. Thank you for your time. Sincerely and respectfully, Kimberly Witt |
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September 2020
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