Refreshing post from Franklin teacher

I saw this post on milforddailynews.com this morning and thought it was worth repeating here. It is said to be from a Franklin teacher. To me, it exemplifies the typical Franklin teacher: hard-working, dedicated, and caring. It also captures empathy for the residents in Franklin, other teachers, the School Committee, and administration. Of the over 400 teachers we have in the system, I believe this to be the prevailing view. I just wish more like this writer had shown up at the union meeting yesterday:

I too often work 10-12 hour days. My car is in the parking lot at the school I teach at often well into the evening. I then bring additional work home with me, that often has me working until close to midnight, not to mention the work that I take home on the weekends. I am in my 10th year of teaching, and it has been like this since day 1, because I am committed to do the best job I can each and every day and to continually evaluate my own teaching and search for ways to better do my job for the children of Franklin. Meanwhile, I am also a single parent to 2 young children that DESERVE and require my attention each morning and evening, and on the weekends. No one goes into teaching deceived into thinking they will have a 6 hour work day and all this vacation time to run off into the sunset!

In addition, I chaperone ski trips and other afterschool events, have given up my vacation to chaperone students on a trip to Washington DC, and make a point to attend events my students and former students are involved in, whether they be athletic, musical or theatric. I spend my summers taking courses in order to maintain my teaching license and better my teaching. I also spend many days in my classroom to be sure it is ready for students in the fall and to begin to implement new ideas.

My guess is that many of you who continually perpetuate and feed the enormous disrespect towards teachers that the community of Franklin has, have never stepped foot in a classroom beyond your own education and have not once bothered to have a real conversation with a teacher. And shame on all of you, because I am sure many of you can think back and remember a teacher that really made an impact on your life or was there for you during a difficult time in your life. I would also bet that those of you with such a dislike for teachers have children who are or were in the Franklin Public Schools and I find it hard to believe that each of those teachers was as you describe us.

I am certainly not trying to pit the private sector against the public sector. I am fully aware of how hard people in the private sector work and how big of a hit they have taken (lay offs and pension reductions to name a few). My own parents continue to work well past when they should have retired, because the economy does not enable them to do so. The work we do each and every day may be different, but one cannot be viewed as less important than the other.

In terms of the wage freeze and conditions, as a member of the FEA and a resident/parent in Franklin, I can tell you that there are 2 very different versions of the events that have transpired out there, and I doubt the truth will ever see the light of day. The other unions in town agreed to a wage freeze with no conditions in return. I (and many of my colleagues) feel that we should do the same. For many of us, of utmost importance is saving the jobs of our colleagues and therefore protecting the high level of education this community has come to expect. I do not believe conditions should be attached to a person’s career/livelihood. Our contract is up for renegotiation next year and now the school committee is aware of the things the union would like to see addressed. The time to address those issues is not now (and I may be shooting myself in the foot for saying these things publicly).

We should agree to the wage freeze so that the teachers can continue doing the excellent work that they do and the school committee and administration can move forward in planning for the 2009-2010 school year.

I continue to have the utmost respect for those who have answered the calling of the teaching profession. The School Committee will continue to strive to make certain that we maintain Franklin as a high performing district. To move student achievement, you need reasonable class sizes, professional development opportunities, and highly qualified staff. It is committed teachers like the poster above that make this possible in our community.

Columbine lessons still resonate

My vacation week read this year was Dave Cullen’s excellent work entitled Columbine. It’s an indelible portrait of the killers, the victims, and the community that suffered one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. This book was released nearly 10 years after the event, and is a riveting page turner which will help the reader understand better what happened at a suburban high school on April 20, 1999.

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, entered their high school in Littleton, Colo., and shot and killed 12 students and one teacher. That event sparked a number of changes in how students experience school.

Cullen is considered a leading authority on the Columbine killers. In his book, he tries hard to get us inside the heads of Eric and Dylan, writing in an empathetic style that allows us to inhabit their twisted points of view. It’s a compelling study of not only their minds, but the reaction of the community, the country, the victims, and their families. You don’t come away understanding exactly why the event happened, but you do have a better sense of how. Throughout the book, you can feel the pain, and better understand the efforts at making schools safer that have occurred in the past 10 years.

As noted by USA Today, some of the most important post-Columbine reforms include:

• Better partnerships between law enforcement and schools. After Columbine, the federal government funded the placement of 7,000 police officers in schools, many in a more consultative and mentoring role, not just to deal with trouble. Today, schools across the country have “resource officers.” Many are part of teams that include teachers and mental health professionals.
• Encouraging students to report suspicions. A study by the U.S. Education Department and the Secret Service of 41 shooters, including the Columbine killers, found that most planned their rampages in advance, told other kids and were egged on by others. Now, many schools encourage students to report suspicions, including on anonymous tip lines. Tips have foiled several plots.
• Watching for red flags. A 2002 report found that most of the attackers it studied were depressed and had difficulty coping with “significant losses or personal failures.” Almost three-quarters felt “persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others.” These problems often went undetected. Most did fine academically, and only 37% had ever been suspended or expelled. This has led to more vigilance and adult interaction with students at many schools. USA TODAY profiled one — Lucy Addison Middle School in Roanoke, Va. — in which a typical teacher focuses on the “little things” such as body language, insults, a look in the eyes. More mental health professionals are in schools, and 38 states have anti-bullying laws.
• Better reaction plans. Columbine-style attackers generally want to kill as many as possible and themselves. There is a new recognition of a need to move in fast. It’s now the basis of emergency drills and practice — a change from Columbine, where police lacked basic information about school layout, took four hours to get into the school, and where more than 900 officers from 34 agencies were working on different radio frequencies.

As a parent and School Committee member, this book was compelling. It has lessons in it for parents, educators, law enforcement, and even citizens not directly connected with schools.

BMI indexing in schools is yet another unfunded mandate

Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Public Health Council, a creature of the state which lacks any “administrative or executive functions” announced a new set of unfunded mandates for local school districts. Beginning with the next school year, school districts will be “required” to calculate student heights and weights into a Body Mass Index measuring their overall proportions. The results must be sent home to parents for students in first, fourth, seventh and 10th grades in a package explaining what they mean and how parents can best combat obesity. The new regulations will be phased into schools over the next 18 months. The full text of these regulations can be viewed by clicking here.

The newly-enacted regulations are part of the Mass In Motion anti-obesity initiative announced earlier this year by the Patrick Administration, but no funding to support the program is offered to aid local districts in implementing these measures.

Schools are already required to have students examined under G.L. c. 71, § 57 to determine “defects in sight or hearing, postural and other physical defects tending to prevent his receiving the full benefit of his school work, or requiring a modification of the same in order to prevent injury to the child or to secure the best education results, and to ascertain defects of the feet which might unfavorably influence the child’s health or physical efficiency, or both, during childhood, adolescence and adult years.” But, according to the Council, the purpose of the new regulations is to provide parents with important information on the health status of their child, and to help parents work with health care providers on ways to promote healthier eating and exercise habits for children.

While the goals of the mandate are laudable, there are a number of issues surrounding the implementation of these measures:

• The Council lacks authority over local school committees. By statute (G.L. c. 111, § 3), the Council “shall make and promulgate rules and regulations, take evidence in appeals, consider plans and appointments required by law, hold hearings, and discharge other duties required by law; but it shall have no administrative or executive functions.” This lack of administrative or executive functions calls into question the Council’s ability to tell local school committees what to do. Moreover, the proposed mandates appear to conflict with G.L. c. 71. § 37, which provides that School Committees shall have the power “to establish educational goals and policies for the schools in the district, consistent with the requirements of law and state-wide goals and standards established by the Board of Education.” (emphasis supplied). The Council rules and regulations are not established by the Board of Education and appear to go beyond what is set forth in G.L. c. 71, § 57.
• The proposed regulations will violate students’ rights to privacy, will be embarrassing to children, and represent just one more parental responsibility being laid in the lap of public education.
• The proposed regulations lack funding to implement the program and address the underlying problem of obesity. To make the regulations work districts will need to establish a system (computer software or otherwise) to calculate BMI, and to write and store letters to parents. Then each district will need to pay for printing the letters, the interpretive material, and the postage. For a district like Franklin with over 6,200 students, those are sizable expenses which will take away from other educational needs at a time when budgets are already strained. And once the problem is identified schools lack the resources to do anything about it.
• The regulations duplicate the efforts of pediatric visits. Indeed, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement strongly encouraging pediatricians “to incorporate assessment and anticipatory guidance about diet, weight, and physical activity into routine clinical practice…” And this would include BMI screening in a non-judgmental manner. And since Massachusetts already requires everyone to have health insurance, students can be screened by their own doctors in the privacy of the clinical setting.
• The regulations do not provide means for addressing the problem of obesity. In communities throughout Massachusetts, budget cuts have led to the reduction and/or elimination of health and physical education programs. Thus, it is no surprise that we have an obesity problem. For something truly productive, the Council should provide funds so that the schools can offer more health and PE classes.

For those reasons, I will not support the implementation of this unfunded mandate in Franklin, and I will urge my colleagues across the state to do the same in their districts. We should allow our schools to focus on their education mission and leave this delicate health matter to physicians and families.

For the Boston Globe story on BMI indexing, click here. For the NECN report and video, click here. For more information and a comprehensive list of other unfunded mandates imposed on local school committees, click here.

Shining eyes amplified the performances

Over the last month, we have had the opportunity to see Franklin students perform on stage in various ensembles. We have seen bands, orchestras, choral groups, and for the past two weekends, we have had theatrical performances put on by the Footlighters (all three middle schools) and Franklin High School. Here’s a snapshot of what we has taken place in the last five weeks alone:

The Franklin High Jazz Band performed in four different Jazz Festivals all listed below:

• University of Massachusetts Jazz Festival At this festival three high school students were awarded scholarships to attend the UMass Summer Jazz Program
• Massachusetts Central District Jazz Festival The band was awarded a gold medal and was invited to perform at the state festival
• University of New Hampshire Jazz Festival All Jazz Band students also attended an improvisation clinic at this festival
• Massachusetts State Jazz Festival The band was awarded a silver medal at the state Jazz finals

The band also performed at the FEF Trivia Bee

Three of our high school students were accepted into the Massachusetts Music Educators All State Festival. These students performed in the Massachusetts All State concert at Symphony Hall.

On March 27^th & 28^th, the middle school students ppresented “Guys and Dolls” and on April 3^rd & 4^th, the FHS performed “South Pacific.”

On Saturday, April 4^th, the Middle School String Orchestra and the Middle School Select Chorus competed at the MICCA festival.  At the festival, the Combined Middle School Orchestra received a silver medal and the Middle School combined Select Chorus received a bronze medal.

These events give both participants and the audience a feel for what performance is all about. Students get to see how you translate technical musical skills into a performance. There is far more to music than simply knowing the piece and playing it. You have to make your performance appeal to the audience and you have to move them.

Along those lines, I ask you to indulge me for 20 minutes. Please view the 20 minute video below that explains the idea of “performance” very well. It’s a TED talk by Benjamin Zander. Since 1979, Zander has been the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. He is known around the world as both a guest conductor and a speaker on leadership — and he’s been known to do both in a single performance. He uses music to help people open their minds and create joyful harmonies that bring out the best in themselves and their colleagues. Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. In this video, you’ll see him translate this passion into words, and hopefully make you appreciate what you see in the performances each night.

You can view the video by clicking here or on the image below.

And here is a clip from the Presentation blog that provides more perspective:

It is not enough to know a piece of music intellectually or to play it without any mistakes, you have to convey the true language of the music emotionally, says Zander. When musicians truly get into the music and play it with such heart and emotion that audiences are moved beyond words, Zander noticed that the music was flowing through the musicians, taking control of their bodies as they swayed from side to side. Zander, then, urges musicians to become “one-buttock players,” that is to let the music flow through their bodies, causing them to lean and to move from one buttock to the other. If you’re a musician, or making a performance of virtually any kind, and you are totally in the moment and connecting with the language of the music and the audience, there is no way you can be a “two-buttock player.” You’ve got to move, you’ve got to connect, and you must not hold back your passion but instead let the audience have a taste of the commitment, energy, and passion you have for the music (or the topic, the ideas, etc.). This quote below from Martha Graham captures the essence of the idea of giving way to passion (from page 116 of The Art of Possibility). I think you can apply these words to the art of performance or presentation, and frankly to life in general including leadership, entrepreneurship, etc.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.” — Martha Graham

You decide. You can hold back, aim not to make an error and play it perfectly “on two-buttocks,” or you can say “Screw it!—I’ll take a risk” and dare to lean into the music with intensity, color, humanity, and passion and quite possibly, in your own small way (and on only one buttock), change the world. Play it with total sincerity and with your entire body — heart and soul — and you will make a connection and change things. As Ben Zander said while encouraging one of his talented students to play it in the “one-buttock” style:

“If you play that way, they won’t be able to resist you. You will be a compelling force behind which everyone will be inspired to play their best.” — Ben Zander

Thank you to the Franklin middle and high school students who did such a great job over the past two weekends. You truly did have shining eyes.

Emerging young artists featured in exhibit

If you are looking for an event that will give you a glimpse into the creativity of some of our Franklin students, you are urged to attend to the gallery opening next week. Entitled, “Emerging Young Artists of Franklin,” the show features the work of 7 Franklin High School students who intend to pursue their art beyond high school.

The opening is April 7th from 5-7pm at the Woodshed Gallery, 1243 Pond Street. Artwork will be on display until April 28th.