Idaho Teachers: Setting the Record Straight

Recently I was seated between two friendly women, each of us Southwest bound to Oakland, California. I was traveling to see my two year old granddaughter. My seat mates: Peggy, 55, a longtime employee of Kellogg, and Marieda, 75, who for years worked in the olive industry, mostly as a sorter. Within the first ten minutes of our flight I had already inquired about what the other two ladies did as an occupation. One would think this would lead into the segue of "so what do you do?" but it didn't so I left it at that.

Most of the trip was consumed with giggles and preoccupation with the male flight attendant. We all agreed he was a plant for the show Punked, however Ashton Kutcher never showed. Sitting in the front row of the plane does have its perks. All was going well until dear Marieda brought up the subject of Idaho teachers.

"Did you know that Idaho is 49th as the worst schools? Idaho teachers are awful, they aren't teaching our children anything." You would think this was the perfect opportunity to defend my 30 year experience as an Idaho teacher. There was just a handful of minutes left in my flight so I decided to just listen.  After several minutes of what seemed to be a clip from the Charlie Brown comic, Marieda's voice morphed into "wah, wah, wah. . . " If this had been a longer flight, I swear I would have revealed my occupational identity and set the record straight.

I would have told Marieda how we "teachers" stay after contract hours to prepare riveting bell ringers and presentations, how we rack our brains to come up with innovative incentives to reward our students for their efforts, and shed tears of frustration for those students who interrupt this amazingly choreographed dance we spent hours to prepare. The staggering amount of money we spend out of our own pockets to make our bulletin boards pleasing, supplies for special projects, and to supplement those students who don't bring pencils to class.

Does Marieda think we are sitting behind our desks eating bon-bons while our classes' run amuck? Seriously. Fortunately the conversation diverted with Marieda's complaint about how the government is trying to run everybody's lives. "Can you believe it? The government is telling us we can't eat French fries cooked in trans fats!" Oh Marieda. Dear, dear Marieda.

Education is a partnership. A partnership between parents, students, teachers, the administration and the government. If any entity of this partnership isn't giving its all, it will not be successful. So my question is: What are you doing to contribute to the success of Idaho education?

Pablo Picasso: An Innovative way to Create a Report

As I sit at my school computer on this crisp Friday afternoon, I breath in a huge sigh. I did it. I successfully made it through another trimester here at MMS.

I recently have asked myself what drives me to continue teaching. I have done it for over 30 years. With all the budget cuts, and new changes in the district, new discipline procedures, and curriculum protocols sometimes it can feel quite overwhelming. Sometimes I have to give myself pep-talks throughout the day. I have to remind myself of the "why."

Teaching art is more than just a paycheck. It's seeing  the pride of my students after they realize I wasn't kidding when I told them they would learn to draw. They struggled, and sometimes they didn't like me that much. I pulled and pushed them along until they started to believe it. As a teacher there is no greater feeling than to know that your students' are actually learning. I am not just teaching, my students are learning.

This trimester my 8th grade students explored a different way of writing reports by creating a Pablo Picasso "report" using Bitstrips for Schools. Bitstrips is a really cool program that provides the user with tools to create avatars that can be used in a comic strip. The program provides backgrounds of different scenes, and ways you can move your avatar around, creating various facial expressions, hand movements and postures. If you haven't heard of Bitstrips check it out.

I thought I would showcase one of my students' Picasso projects. This student incorporated her comic strip into a movie with narration, music, and sound effects. What can I say, she is a delightful overachiever!
So, sit back, grab yourself a bowl of popcorn and take a tour of Pablo Picasso.

.