Imagining Sherri Davis: Reflections on the GMA Interview

"Well, say you're having a problem with a student.  How would you deal with it?"
"I would document the child's behavior and try interventions such as using successive approximations towards our goal or home involvement, depending on the individual situation," I explained.  After a silence, I added, "I wouldn't call the office every five minutes."
He closed the little notebook on his lap and announced, "You're hired."
- Educating Esmé

When we are preparing for the role of classroom teacher, I think it's safe to say that we don't imagine ourselves in the role of Sherri Davis, the two time "Teacher of the Year" from Texas who lost control and gave her student the beating of a lifetime that was caught on tape.  In education, there is a lot of buzz about "accountability."  I have no doubt, unless she pleads temporary insanity, Davis will be found guilty and held accountable  for beating a child; she would have to be, for the sake of precedent, and on a level, she would probably want to be if she is truly sorry. While clearly Ms. Davis is committing an assault,  Ms. Davis' willingness to explain with some candor the circumstances from her point of view offers warrants our reflection, and offers some insights that may be used by the more savvy among us to create some future improvements in our school systems and in our own preparation.  Please do share your own reflections in the context of your own experiences.  What do you recognize? With which role do you most identify?

Watching the tape, I can't help being reminded of dramas played out at my schools in my own career as an urban educator:  A pregnant teacher having a desk hurled at her belly by an angry middle grade student.  Pulling out a gun from a backpack and being told by an administrator that the child brought it "just for show," and not to worry.  Breaking up physical fights while other adults stood by. I have had friends threatened, their tires slashed. I have heard little boys call their female classmates "whores," I have been called a whore and worse, and dealt with their surprise and ensuing arguments when they were corrected.  I think of my own notoriously unyielding Dragon-Lady moments of tough love; not physical, but unrelenting, unmoved even by young tears.  And for everything we do right every day, naturally, even for small offenses a teacher questions:  what could I have done better?  Could I have been kinder?  Calmer?  Taken a different tack? Teaching is a job with many fluctuations between reward and regret.  Knowing this about ourselves as professionals, even for all our sympathies for the child, it is hard to cast the first stone.

I think of my own teacher training at Northeastern Illinois University in the 1990's, where I was miraculously afforded an amazing preparation program with the worst case scenarios in mind:  in classroom management, we learned how to put children in body holds to prevent them from doing harm to themselves or others, we discussed protocol for evacuating children from  a crowded classroom where violence was occurring.  We discussed how to handle situations involving weapons, though we could all feel inside the vagaries of circumstances that would direct our actions on such an unfortunate day.  Once I was teaching, we were inserviced on recognizing gang affiliations.  But we were not inserviced on what to do when there was shooting outside the building, or when we needed someone to walk us to a car after working late into the night in a school in a rough neighborhood, or when a child threatens or is profane toward another child, or a grown-up, and there's no one in the office who is willing to attend to it while you have thirty-some other children staring and waiting for you to move on. 

I also remember my own experiences of watching borderline criminal behavior from a child's point of view.  I remember going to a terrible Chicago Public School for sixth grade, walking through the metal detectors, watching the bullying, the fights, the cornering, coercions and threats, pulled hair and screaming, boys inappropriately touching and threatening to sexually assault the girls, the derisive laughter and name-calling, the frustrations of poverty, all in the course of a school day...did the teachers see it?  Did they see me trying to be invisible, to disappear from the radar of the children who loomed like terrorists in our own classroom?  I almost wrote, "their own classroom," how telling; this school did not belong to me.  Did the teachers know what it was like to listen to their hours of berating and correcting these children, as a child who did nothing to warrant such condemnations?  And yet, even as a little girl enduring this noise, I remember thinking, "good, try, please, do what you need to do to stop them."  Thinking of this, I imagine the scene in Ms. Davis' classroom from the eyes of the girl who was allegedly being teased. To that girl, her teacher likely was a lioness.  Was her teacher also a villain?  Was she both?  In the end, with hindsight being 20/20, Davis regrets that she didn't take the bullied girl and walk away.  Realistically, how could she walk away?  And go where?  And leave the rest of the children alone?  Where were the other adults, the emergency buzz on the intercom? 

What also comes to mind is a passage from Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, describing a situation in a frontier classroom:

"These big boys came...to thrash the teacher and break up the school.  They boasted that no teacher could finish the winter term at that school, and no teacher ever had. This year the teacher was a slim, pale young man.  His name was Mr. Corse.  He was gentle and patient, and never whipped little boys because they forgot how to spell a word. Almanzo felt sick inside when he thought how the big boys would beat Mr. Corse.  Mr. Corse wasn't big enough to fight them."

The story continues, describing insolence and disruptive behavior in the one-room schoolhouse by the band of boys, led by the teenager "Big Bill," and it is revealed that these boys have caused death to teachers in the past. The other children cannot concentrate on their work, or complete their lessons, in anticipation of the inevitable confrontations. Little Almanzo confides in his father, "I wish I was big enough to fight 'em!"

"'Son, Mr. Corse was hired out to teach the school,'  Father answered.  "The school trustees were fair and above board with him; they told him what he was undertaking.  He undertook it.  It's his job, not yours.'
'But maybe they'll kill him!'  Almanzo said.
'That's his business,' said Father.  'When a man undertakes a job, he has to stick to it till he finishes it.  If Corse is the man I think he is, he'll thank nobody for interfering.' 

....Big Bill tore off his coat, yelling, 'Come on boys!' He rushed up the aisle.  Almanzo felt sick inside; he didn't want to watch it, but he couldn't help it.
Mr. Corse stepped away from his desk.  His hand came from behind the desk lid, and a long, thin, black streak hissed through the air. 
It was a blacksnake ox-whip fifteen feet long.  Mr. Corse held the short handle, loaded with iron, that could kill an ox.  The thin, long lash coiled around Bill's legs, and Mr. Corse jerked.  Bill lurched and almost fell.  Quick as black lightning the lash circled and stuck and coiled again, and again Mr. Corse jerked."

illustration by Garth Williams

In this frontier memoir, Mr. Corse wins the battle and the war, and regains classroom control in a society where the parental attitude was "if the teacher has to thrash you again, I'll give you a thrashing you remember."  The problem of insanely brutal threats to classroom management are not new in the American classroom, nor are the extreme responses of educators.  What I hear in Ms. Davis' interview is,  if you'll excuse my paraphrasing, If nobody was planning on interfering on my behalf, I needed an ox whip to deal with this level of a discipline problem.  And if you're not going to give me a way to deal with a threat, then you had better make sure somebody is there when I lose my temper and my mind.

Davis describes the necessity for more back-up from home, more training, more peer support and Samaritan spirit. (If wishes were horses!) But in the absence of these needs being met, are we permitted to resort to the tactics of the Wild West?  We cannot have corporal punishment in schools; I know even if it were allowed, I would not want to apply it. I observed in my own diary, "Why are the children who are beaten the ones I end up fearing the most?" The great pedagogue Janusz Korczak who ran orphanages in Poland in the early part of the last century suggested that a child who can learn by being hit was one who had the capacity to learn another way.  That's why the stupidest part of the interview, in my opinion, are the remarks made by the lawyer:  "she was not trying to hurt the child, she was trying to get his attention...to say 'hey, we need to act correct, appropriate, and get a hold of ourselves."  This rings insincere and hypocritical, a ridiculous suggestion of modeling by brutality, and goes against Davis' own, more honest admissions that suggest she was angry, fed up, unsupported, and lost control, and while there are reasons, there is no excuse. As far as I can tell, Davis is saying, as someone who enjoyed some success in the field, there are conditions with which as a teacher and a human being she simply could not contend. The very vision of a role she had prepared for was hijacked and rendered unrecognizable even to her by the behavior of a little boy who never learned to receive the best in another person or offer the best of himself.  She hit because she was in a rage of disappointment, not because it was in the interest of the child.  Any other teacher watching this interview can tell that Davis herself recognizes that much.   

As a mother, who can't imagine the fury! How dare Ms. Davis! We do not send our children to school for this! Truly, there is no excuse! And last but certainly not least, we must look at the story from the beaten boy's point of view.  Cowed and victimized, is what Ms. Davis says about him true? We might imagine that, whether the punishment fit the crime, he might have indeed put that straw on the camel's back.  What comes to mind is a quote from L. Tobin's marvelous and inspiring book, What Do You Do With a Child Like This?:  Inside the Lives of Troubled Children, "The hurt that troubled children create is never greater than the hurt they feel."   It is horrible and nightmarish to be bullied.  It is also horrible and nightmarish to wake up every morning and be a bully.  It is horrible to be a child without boundaries, whose moral compass is spinning, to feel your own monster or to have your judgment meander through a void where a conscience should be, or to have a mother who makes excuses for you and expresses love through her reactions instead of preemptive actions.  To go to a school, perhaps, where children are working on the floor, without desks and supplies, surrounded by weary adults who start each day in anticipation of the wrongdoing which you supply.  L. Tobin also explains,

"I have learned that the child who evokes my anger is a gift to me.  He embodies the unresolved issues I carry at the time:  rebellion, anger, selfishness, self-doubt--the hurt within me.  As I work with this child I am invited to confront the passion of our shared struggle.  I can respond or attempt to avoid it.  But this child will force the issue---that is the gift."

There is a gift in the anger that we feel when we see Ms. Davis at her worst; a chance to examine what we can do in all of our roles...as parents, teachers, coworkers, administrators, students...to prevent these kind of incidents, and to recognize our shared struggle in becoming better than who we are.  There was no one in this sad situation that could not have done better. I am frankly surprised such outbursts are as infrequent as they are, especially with so much being asked of teachers and children, and less and less room in the day to form the relationships that  can prevent this animosity. This interview might discourage people from entering the field where we are most needed as educators, but it also might stand to help better prepare us so these incidents will not be repeated:

• Realistically, expect little support from outside: go into classrooms with your own supplies and resources.  Inservice yourself creatively online and through professional reading.  Get your rugs, your books, your plans as if you were entering a naked space; apparently, Davis did, and you may, too.
• Find mentors in the building who have your back and who may advise you.  Find them in cyberspace if you can't find them in your real place.
• Make time in your week for conflict resolution meetings between the children (I have a prototype in my book; there are also many models available on-line).
• Even in this economy, do not go to work in spaces where your safety and the safety of children is not at a premium. Ask at the interview what measures are taken to ensure the security of all, ask about the protocol for discipline.  And if it fails you, you have to leave or make a change before it causes you to fail in a way that can end your career.
• Take the time to prepare for classroom teaching; for all the feeling of emergency to do good, do not take shortcuts in training, avoid the trial by fire, and do not expect to be trained on the job.  You can't learn everything in teacher preparation, it's true, but in a profession in which children's lack of prerequisite skills, poor parenting, ineffectual mandates by people with agendas outside of the development of children and neighborhood violence are all out of your control, how qualified you are to meet the needs of children is one of the few things that still remains in your control. 
• Bystanders are contributors to problems.  Be an upstander if you see a coworker start to spiral. Little things:  holding friends by the shoulders and counting, modeling deep breaths, herbal teas or chocolates in the mailbox,  saying "STOP" firmly, task forces to constructively address problems arranged by teachers themselves all are ways to help remind your cohorts "this too shall pass" when you see signs of burnout...or meltdown.
• Don't wait until the needle hits the red zone.  Express disappointment and deliver consequences before you are really angry. Advocate for your needs and the needs of your charges before you are really angry.  Once you are truly furious, you will no longer be able to make good choices. Act angry and organize around about the things you know will ultimately infuriate you before you hit your emotional flash point, and you can emerge as a leader rather than an example.

A New Look at Anne Frank

Hey, guys, sorry I've been a bit of a flop keeping up with this blog, but I have been updating pretty regularly with children's book reviews at The PlanetEsme Plan, so I hope you've been checking that out!

I did want to let you know that there is a new PBS production of The Diary of Anne Frank set to air on April 11th, and teachers are invited to request free DVD's for classroom pre-screenings of the first hour of the program, as well take advantage of the opportunity to download or register to win more free resources through the Great Books Foundation website. This production is supposed to be "the most accurate adaptation ever," so I imagine it will be very powerful. Hankies at the ready!

Anne Frank is such an important figure in world history, literary history, women's history, and certainly children's history. Some other great resources as you put her life in a both a historical and currently relevant context for the modern classroom:

A link to the Anne Frank House and Museum in Amsterdam;

A link to the American Anne Frank Center;

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (Chicago Public School teachers, have you taken a field trip?);

The Teaching Tolerance website, full of great articles, lesson plans and resources for fostering compassion and anti-bias in your classroom community;

Great books like Jennifer Roy's amazing YELLOW STAR, told from the point of view of one of the twelve surviving children in the Lodz ghetto, as told by her real-life niece, every bit as important and readable by intermediate schoolchildren as Lois Lowry's celebrated Newbery winner about children involved in the Danish resistance, NUMBER THE STARS;

KING MATT THE FIRST, by Janusz Korczak, the story of a boy who runs a country of children by a Polish pediatrician and educator who ran children's homes/orphanages during WWII and who wrote this cliffhanging read-aloud for his charges. He was ultimately lost at Treblinka, along with the children he refused to abandon;

Doris Orgel's classic THE DEVIL IN VIENNA, a realistic, relatable piece of intermediate fiction about two best friends who find division and danger grow between them as the war gains momentum;

Susan Campbell Bartoletti's brave and important children's nonfiction offering, HITLER YOUTH, describing how Hitler was able to pull children into his terrible plan, and the brave children who dared to defy his will (another astounding work on this topic, geared more toward adults, is Marcus Zusak's novel THE BOOK THIEF);

HANA'S SUITCASE by Becky Levine, the story of the past and present colliding a Japanese woman's seeks to discover the identity of a child killed at Auschwitz, and bring her back to "life" for the children who visit the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center. The true story reads like a puzzle, solved through diligence and love;

I NEVER SAW ANOTHER BUTTERFLY, poems and drawings collected from children at the Terezin concentration camp, which may be too heartbreaking for young readers but is important background, witness and testimony to the importance for peace for educators;

The movie PAPER CLIPS, an empowering and beautiful true story of children in a rural Tennessee school who create a moving Holocaust Memorial, suitable for classroom viewing;

Educators should also know about DEAR MISS BREED, the story of a librarian who strove to continue to be supportive of her youngest patrons via post during the time of Japanese internment;

And for my young readers, I did write a novel on the subject, VIVE LA PARIS, about an African American girl who first learns about the Holocaust from her piano teacher, and has to use the lessons to be her brother's keeper in modern times.

Even though it's not about WWII, I want to remind you of Ruby Bridges' unforgettable photobiography for children, THROUGH MY EYES, candidly told from the point of view of one of the girls who desegregated American schools, who dealt with terrifying prejudice in her own time. Ruby and Anne...two great young women who fought for a better world! A memorable lesson plan might be to compare and contrast their times and their trials, and to celebrate both of their contributions.

Hope these links are good for starters. The events of the historical period of WWII and any context of injustice are emotionally tough to teach, but as the adage goes, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, and that's the last thing we want for our children or any children. In the media, children are increasingly likely to hear degrading remarks in the adult interest of creating "the other." Help fortify children against the disease and dangers of hatred and bigotry with knowledge, and the ability to recognize it where it's born. In honor of Anne!!!

Britain's Smallest Library

The definition of potato pedagogy (from How to Get Your Child To Love Reading): using what you have to make literacy and learning happen. Which begs the question: how many children's books would fit in a phone booth? Read all about it.

Picture from Associated Newspapers, Ltd.

The Write Stuff

November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as "NaNoWriMo" to a number of scribes, with the challenge to put your money where your storytelling mouth is and pen 50,000 words in thirty days (and yes, they are supposed to be more or less in the right order, I asked). I participated in a January spin-off of this self-imposed literary boot camp through my regional SCBWI chapter and managed 31,141 words (but who's counting?). On the bright (and teacherly) side, this exciting, motivational program has a well-planned and comprehensive component for young writers, including the free downloads of Young Novelist Workbooks ("100% awesome, non-lame," they aren't kidding, I would have loved these in the sixth grade and I am itching to do them even now). Children are encouraged to set their own word-count goals,and I am proud to be one of this year's pep talkers, in auspicious company! This is a wonderful opportunity for kids to focus and be supported in their most prolific and spontaneous impulses to create! Just like Black History Month and Women's History Month and Poetry Month and Cupcake Eating Month (oh, no cupcake eating month? My mistake...burp!), you don't need a calendar date to celebrate or to begin.

Speaking of putting words in the right order, that's an awfully hard and subjective thing to teach, as you know. My goodness, it seems to take no time at all before children are completely smushed and squooshed up and all they care about is what other people think of what they have to say, writing to impress instead of express. So! I was ecstatic to come across this masterpiece, WHAT IT IS by Lynda J. Barry (Drawn and Quarterly). Some may call it a memoir or an art book but to us it will be no secret that this is a teaching book all the way, and a mighty inspired one, like "choir of angels singing when you crack the binding" inspired:

There are certain children who are told they are too sensitive, and there are certain adults who believe sensitivity is a problem that can be fixed in the way crooked teeth can be fixed and made straight. And when these two come together you get a fairy tale, a kind of story with hopelessness in it. I believe there is something in these old stories that does what singing does to words. They have transformational capablities, in the way melody can transform mood. they can't transform your actual situation, but they can transform your experience of it. We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay. I believe we have always done this, used images to stand and understand what otherwise would be intolerable. It seems that human beings everywhere understand that a child who is never allowed to play will eventually go mad. But how do we know this? And why do we know this? And what happens when we forget? -- Lynda J. Barry

(Thanks to Parka for the images!)

The first part of the book focuses very on Barry's own childhood and how she and what she learned as a child, and then she speaks to what she learned and unlearned as an adult, especially with the help of an arts educator named Marilyn Frasca who cleverly knew how to teach as much as by what went unspoken as what was said aloud. The grand finale is a generous and wild activity book that will help anyone who reads it squish and smush down anything that's been doing the squishing and smushing. Dedicated primly to a Miss Doris Mitchell (the photo on the last page will make you cry a little, you watch!), this is clearly a tribute to Barry's teachers, but in the process, Barry is revealed as a transformative teacher herself. Would somebody give this woman a MacArthur Grant already?! Seriously, what does it take! In the meantime, I recommend dusting off the ol' opaque projector and sharing some of these pages with kids (you will have favorites) or start saving for a classroom set. Children deserve to see what they are capable of creating. Teacher, read this and see what you, too, are a capable of creating...on paper, in the classroom, and in another person.

(And Lynda Barry, please come over for matzoh ball soup, the best way I know how to say "thanks.")

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! There just aren't enough days in October to read all of the wonderful spooky stories available. Check out a few of them here! By my third year of teaching, I started reading them on October first.

I wanted to tell you about my favorite tradition I started in the school libraries where I worked: the Haunted House Contest! I ask students to make their own haunted houses out of cardboard boxes and bring them to the library during the weeks preceding Halloween. The only rules are: no blood, and no real food attached. The kids can work with friends if they want. Children come up with some pretty creepy creations, definitely "outside the box" over the years; one was a haunted apartment building (complete with working elevator), another was a haunted baseball stadium, and one was a haunted treehouse! Each day leading up to Halloween, the library grows spookier and spookier, looking more like a museum in Transylvania. Finally, all the children who participate are winners and get invited to a spooky storytelling party, where I fill a jack-o-lantern with a bowl of dry ice and water so it smokes like witches' brew and share some stories (here, I am holding up some Pale Green Pants With Nobody Inside "em while reciting Dr. Seuss's What Was I Scared Of?). Most recently I held this before school started so not to disrupt classroom schedules, so we had "Booooooks for Breakfast," with a full brunch, and they could decorate orange-colored cream cheese and bagels with jack-o-lantern faces using fruits and vegetables. Children also received candy-themed bookmarks and treats as they departed. The first year, I had 16 entries, but the most recent year I did it, I had 75 haunted houses in the library! Thanks again to all the parents who supported the program and helped to make it a success! It's late to try it now (you've been rather busy anyway, haven't you?) but something to keep in mind. Please do share your festivities! I think it is such a special day on the children's calendar. I know the media unfortunately plays up the horror aspects of it, but I look at it as a day when we celebrate children's imaginations, and their ability to conquer fears.

Sometimes people say, "Esme, it's a shame you left the classroom and went to the library." Frankly, that always seems to me like a sad and silly thing to say. Librarians can be teachers, too, and I always felt like in the library, I could be more of the teacher I wanted to be. I just used to the position to extend the language arts and fine arts curriculum. I wish someone had told me that this was possible in teacher training. So I'm telling you now.

Curious about the kind of things that school librarians do? Here's an assignment I just finished for library school that gives a hint. (Pardon the roughness; we are learning HTML coding and haven't hit cascading style sheets yet.)

Happy Halloween! Happy fall!

WRITE YOUR OWN TEACHING JOURNAL!

"Take a photo of your inner self, for you will not always be the teacher you are now."

- from "Hit the Ground Running: Advice for Elementary Teachers," in the new edition of Educating Esmé

People are always coming up or e-mailing after reading Educating Esmé and saying to me, "boy, sister-girl, I could have written that book." Well, there's plenty of room on the shelf, people! The reason I sought to publish the diary was to begin a conversation about what works and doesn't work in education, so we can stop teaching with our doors closed. Keeping a diary opens a door, as does all of your writing, whether for publication, exercise or mental health. My experiences are different than yours, but together, we can share what's true. With that in mind, here are some starters for your own teaching journal:

• Begin: I was somebody's hero today. Or: I was somebody's villain today. Or: I was somebody's friend today. Or: I was somebody's teacher today.
• What you learned from your worst teacher.
• Reflect: What do I have to share in the classroom that is unique? What will they remember about me?
• Make a timeline of your reading--or math--or science--or teaching life story.
• Who would you like to thank for where you are on your path?
• Poem springboards:

- "Daydreams at a Teacher's Meeting"
- "Before the Day Begins"
- "Rules are Meant to be Broken"

• Fantasize how a student's life could be different. What wish would you grant for that child if you could?
• Come up with fake awards for the kids (cleanest desk, most nose-picking, most trips to the pencil sharpener?). Don't forget to come up with one for yourself!
• Jot down lists:

- What you had for lunch;
- What you read aloud;
- Wish lists, shopping lists, sh*t lists
- What makes you laugh, and what makes you cry;

• Two line observations of students.
• Write a conversation with a parent or administrator as if it were a page from a play.
• Write a "Dear Abby" letter of advice to your future self.
• Reflect: "My runner up career." How can you bring that interest or other aspects of that work into the classroom now?
• Fantasize: "My day off."
• What you learned today!

A few words of advice about keeping a diary: keep a notebook in the bathroom. I know that sounds nasty, but appreciate that especially during the first year of teaching, that may be the only time you have to yourself. The other thing is, it's typical to start diaries and not to finish them, and people often feel bad about that. Don't beat yourself up if you don't have an entry every single day; even if you write something once every few months, over time, you'll be surprised by all that you can know about yourself, and how much change you can recognize. Finally, don't think about an audience. In a time of your life when you are doing so much to serve others, journal-keeping is for you, write for you. When I wrote what became Educating Esmé, I was not writing for publication, and I did not compose entries thinking anyone would read them (except for my great-grandchildren). If I had, the writing might have been very different. I would have been more mannered about expressing my exchanges with administration and and self-conscious about sharing my most personal (and sometimes ephemeral) thoughts. I would have written more about the accomplishments of my colleagues (there were many, definitely enough to fill a book) instead of focusing on my own isolation. I certainly would have chosen to make myself look more...uh...demure. Perhaps my profanity would not be written in caps.

From the real diary that became Educating Esmé

Instead, it is what it is. I can look at it and see an honest reflection of a year, with emotions that blow up to the size of weather balloons. I also appreciated that in writing the diary I managed to capture a fleeting picture of some children that I really came to love. Nowadays, everything is about "getting it out there," everything that's said has to be said to the whole world, immediately. But I'm glad and grateful for the little bit of time I spent using my most honest voice just for me. I hope that's something you'll do for yourself, too, wherever it leads, and whatever portions you decide to ultimately share in the interest of the profession.

This post is dedicated to the late and very great Dr. Ron Saiet, a professor I had at Northeastern Illinois University, who encouraged me so fervently to keep journals during my student teaching observations. Please feel free to share a diary entry of your own (anonymous posts welcome) or a link to a favorite teacher blog in the comments section below! Remember, if you need more inspiration you can listen to an abridged version of my diary for free by clicking here. Don't forget that your students can write alongside you, too; check out the great new children's books about reading and writing, including Esther Hershenhorn's S is for Story and John Perry's The Book That Eats People by clicking here, and springboards for childhood memoir writing for young and old based on my book Sing a Song of Tuna Fish by clicking here.

Give it a try! Nobody has to read it if you don't want them to, and it sure beats lesson planning. Happy writing, all!

Thanks to Vermeer, Cassatt, an unnamed Medieval artist, an unnamed photographer, Joseph Wright of Derby and David Teniers the Younger for the artwork.

FOOTAGE OF HELEN KELLER AND ANNE SULLIVAN

A little inspiration for today: footage from 1930.

I know, I know...Annie Sullivan had only one student, and you probably have over twenty, maybe over thirty! Every teacher is called upon to be a special education teacher some of the time, and is afforded the chance of making a radical difference in someone's life. Prepare yourself to meet that challenge by checking out the excellent SERI gateway to on-line special education resources, to help you patiently and effectively individualize instruction to meet the unique needs of your students even in a crowded classroom.