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Report from the Field – Laura Cenci
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8 thoughts on “Report from the Field – Laura Cenci”
This is an awesome story. It should be part of the textbook for how to start this work. Thanks!
Hey, thank you so much for the encouragement! As I know you all know, doing this on your own requires a lot of gumption to get back in the saddle every day (or a big glass of wine each night, in my case). Support like this from my virtual TPRS gurus is invaluable. Really, this means the world. Thanks a million.
Right-on, Laura. I’m currently trying to garner the gumption to win my school dean over on my CI teaching method. I have a few students that are disruptive, get sent to the dean, and, devastatingly, the dean explores with them ways Mr. Lawler can teach to best reach them. I’ll use a strong word to describe how I feel: vilified. All said, she’s not against me. She just doesn’t know better. I’m confident she will come around. But it takes work.
“back in the saddle each day”
You got that right. Except some days I excuse myself from the saddle, if you know what I mean, and we do some culture or a movie or whatever.
We’d be crazy to not take care of our mental health first in exchange for constant input. Yes, we must take breaks from the long dusty trails of day-to-day teaching and I so agree, James.
Sometimes I would just talk to my kids about my younger days hitchhiking around Europe. Paul used to bring medical supplies from Holland to Africa. What kids don’t want to hear those stories?
Doing this builds community and gives us a good rest. The web of human connection in a classroom is more important than the best teaching in the world, which falls on deaf ears unless the trust and respect and interest in the human being is there. That’s why I put personalization first in this work and always have.
Our job is to interest the kids in learning more language one day and maybe help the kids to dream about being in another place one day using the language, so those classes out of the saddle talking about culture, etc. are really important. And so we shouldn’t feel as if we are not doing our job properly when we take an entire class off to have fun and hang out.
Once at Lincoln High School I spent a class period listening to an amazing stand up comic kid from Mexico who I think maybe was planning a professional career in comedy.
Fernando told jokes the entire period, getting more energy as he went along. Who knew that he spent much of his time working on comedy? Just me and one other kid in the room didn’t understand the (blazing fast!) Spanish but it was worth it listening and wondering when the class was going to fall out next on the floor laughing.
Kids need to laugh and feel that our classrooms are places they want to be in and we can’t accomplish that by speaking in the TL to them all the time. And we get paid to hang out with such wonderful human beings? God is good and kind.
Yeah, James, out of the saddle is good sometimes. Mental health first!
Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80NoPLp-Zl0
Let’s be clear, Sean. The assumption/suggestion that you find other ways to reach those disruptive kids is an embarrassment to the person who suggested it. I am offended that this administrator would decide to come after you and not the kids who plainly need to be brought around to a different way of interacting with you in class.
Get over this bump in the road right away. I’m sorry it’s just your first year there as well. We have enough going on in trying to educate our students; now we have to educate those who judge our work.
I agree that she just doesn’t know but this kind of walloping stupidity just never fricking seems to end. Little does she know that she is dealing with, in my view, a true gentleman and great teacher, a pillar of all that is right in education. What to do? I guess you have to calmly educate this person.
If it’s any consolation, I have been in your shoes more than once. We try so hard to reach such kids, the admin doesn’t know that, then when we “fail” it’s our fault. That is why I now recommend doing all we can to rid ourselves of such students in the first three or four weeks of the year while we can.
I’m glad I’m over my “I can reach any kid with this stuff!” phase.
“The web of human connection in a classroom is more important than the best teaching in the world, which falls on deaf ears unless the trust and respect and interest in the human being is there. ”
Yes!
This. What it’s all about. And so hard to keep this present without overzealous preaching and externalizing. and trying to convince others. Not possible to convince anyone. We can only invite and encourage! Eek. This is my battle.
And…
“I’m glad I’m over my “I can reach any kid with this stuff!” phase.”
I am not over this phase. Starting to get there though. It’s very difficult. AND we do have to put our mental health first, if for no other reason than to model self-advocacy. Because to not do this models the lack of boundaries that makes us vulnerable to abuse. It ain’t easy any way you slice it.
I agree, jen. Lacking the personal boundaries to keep the toxic system in our buildings at bay results in blows to our mental health. People who have authority in name only but who do not really get what we do can get to us if we allow that. We can’t allow it. We can’t let ourselves lose our mental health over the misdirected people around us, even if it is a direct superior AP in our building. If we don’t set boundaries, then we pay the price. Of course, this is most especially true for students. But we have a system in place that keeps our boundaries very clear with them – the triple whammy of the Classroom Rules, jGR and as many as two or even three quick quizzes in one class period, not to mention the Ten Minute Deal.
This profession has one very beautiful shade of silver lining that is always there in our oftentimes cloudy day to day life with judgmental admins, colleagues and students. It absolutely requires that we learn to set boundaries with them. If nothing else, this one thing will happen in our careers or we will end up quitting in despair.
When I started teaching in 1977 I wanted everyone to like me so much that it amounted to a mild form of insanity. Now, I see it all as one big ass lesson that took almost four decades to learn about setting boundaries, about knowing where my boundaries are with everyone and not just professionally. It was a hard lesson to learn but worth it. Now that I know from all those years where my boundaries are and how to enforce them, I can love myself and accept myself more if I’m not the perfect teacher. That’s a good feeling!