P.S. Governor Walker

I sat down a few weeks ago to knock out my monthly blogpost the night before deadline. Little did I know that my Open Letter to Governor Walker would go viral, traversing the Internet, radiowaves, and newsprint, even landing (still surreal to me) in the New York Times. It seems to have struck a chord with many. And it seems, whenever that happens, a slew of corrections is not far behind. So here are mine, a “P.S. Governor Walker” addendum to my original letter.

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Dear Governor Walker:

Please note the following corrections to my earlier letter:

Though you didn't respond directly to me (I didn't suspect you would) I’d like to start by correcting the indirect response you gave reporters when asked about my letter. You called it a distraction and you insisted that the story you had told was true. I take issue with both points. First, calling educational policy, the state of Wisconsin schools, and the concerns of those teaching our children a distraction wholly disregards and disrespects the children of Wisconsin and those who care about their future. Another gaffe, or was that your intent?

I’m also offended by your evolving characterization of teachers: In 2011, you called us “thugs”; in reference to my letter, we were a distraction; and most recently, you actually likened us to “terrorists” (equating your ability to handle the 2011 Wisconsin protestors with your ability to handle the Islamic extremist group, Isis).

To be honest, we are far too busy trying to educate Wisconsin youth and far too exhausted trying to do more with less these days than to partake in terrorist activities unless questioning policies which harm Wisconsin children truly is, in your mind, tantamount to terrorism.

As for your truth telling, I’ll leave that to Politifact Wisconsin which generously declared the anti-union story you wove at the Iowa Freedom Summit “half true.”

The next correction concerns my own words. In my letter, I  mentioned that you were waging war on public education in Wisconsin through your draconian budget cuts and questionable reforms. Therein lies my error. In reality, you are not only waging war on public education in Wisconsin, you are waging war on the entire middle class.

While running for re-election, you repeatedly voiced your intent not to move forward with Right to Work legislation. After re-election, however, you swiftly and proudly announced that you’d sign Right to Work into law. It’s pretty clear now that was your intent all along. Interesting that the timing of your announcement so tightly coincided with your presidential fundraising tour. Most clear, despite your claims to the contrary, is the ruinous legacy this legislation will leave Wisconsin families: plummeting wages, reduced benefits, and increased poverty.

So where did all of this come from?

It turns out that Deep Throat's famous "Follow the money" mantra coupled with Elizabeth Warren's recent tweet (“If Scott Walker sees 100,000 teachers & firefighters as his enemies, maybe it’s time we take a closer look at his friends”) makes for a fruitful examination.

A closer look at your friends, Governor Walker, reveals the impetus for your educational “reforms” and your Right to Work legislation. A closer look divulges your BFF status with ALEC [American Legislative Exchange Council] a private organization of lobbyists, politicians and multinational corporations which have included Coca-Cola, ExxonMobile, GE, Walmart and others whose aim is to push pro-corporate legislation nation-wide, state by state, at the expense of the American public.

Your ALEC loyalty is now well documented and astonishingly reveals that Wisconsin’s Right to Work legislation was lifted verbatim from ALEC model legislation. I hope Wisconsin citizens learn about your special friendships and the lasting impact they will have on Wisconsin families. While you can certainly be accused of fleecing Wisconsin, no one can ever accuse you of not being a good friend to your corporate BFFs.

My final correction concerns my signature: I signed my letter in the singular, and at the time, I thought that was appropriate. But after realizing 300,000+ people read my blogpost and after receiving a barrage of grateful calls and emails from teachers, parents, and other citizens, many of whom I’ve never met, it’s clear to me that my letter voiced not just my concerns, but the concerns of many.

Once more, my letter was not an isolated incident. In recent weeks, an abundance of letters to the editor, penned by school boards, administrators and teachers from localities across the state, have been published in newspapers and distributed to local taxpayers, Wisconsin legislators and the Governor’s office. I hope that you have not ignored these many letters, Governor Walker.

They differ in their local details, but they collectively express the deep concerns of those of us who have experienced your “reforms” first hand and those of us who have carefully examined your most recent proposals and projected their impact on the children in our local schools. It seems that all of these letters converge on one perpetually unanswered question:

Governor Walker, what exactly is your real vision for Wisconsin Schools?

Sincerely,

Claudia Felske
(and many others)

An Open Letter to Governor Walker

Dear Governor Walker:

I was both surprised and bewildered last week when I saw a news clip of you stumping in Iowa about Megan Sampson, whom you called “The [2010] Outstanding Teacher of the Year in my State.” This was baffling to me since in 2010, I was named Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year (Maureen Look-Ainsworth, Middle School Teacher of the Year; Peggy Wuenstel, Special Services Teacher of the Year; and Michael Brinnen, Elementary Teacher of the Year). In a most humbling ceremony, we were each surprised at our respective schools by State Superintendent Tony Evers and later honored at the State Capital as the Wisconsin Teachers of the Year.

And so, as one of the bonafide 2010-2011 Wisconsin Teachers of the Year, I feel the need to engage in one of the most valuable skills we teach our students, critical analysis.

Verified by multiple news sources, it turns out that Megan Sampson did win an award in 2010, but it was the Nancy Hoefs Memorial Award given by a relatively small organization of Wisconsin English teachers (WCTE) for “an outstanding first year teacher of language arts.” She was one of fewer than a dozen teachers across the state who self-nominated for this award.

You failed to mention these details as you used Sampson’s lay-off from her first year teaching position as an opportunity to bash Wisconsin schools on the national stage. You blamed the seniority system for Sampson’s lay-off when, in good conscience, you should have done some serious soul searching and placed the blame squarely on your systematic defunding of public education to the tune of $2.6 billion that you cut from school districts, state aid to localities, the UW-System and technical colleges.*

This Wisconsin Teacher of the Year would like to clarify precisely what you’ve done for education.

2010-2011 was a surreal school year to be named Teacher of the Year as that was the year your passage of Act 10 marked the exodus of thousands of outstanding veteran teachers from the profession they love and marked the beginning of an extreme strain on our ability to continue providing the excellent public education Wisconsin has always been known for.

And what have you done lately?  In just the past month, it seems you have once again actively declared war on education in your own state:

1. You’ve directed the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to devise content exams that would certify anyone with a degree to become a certified teacher. The ramifications of this move are nothing short of catastrophic and would grossly diminish what data has repeatedly shown to be the single most important factor in student learning: the quality of the classroom teacher. Allowing someone to teach without any training in HOW to teach, in effective pedagogy, in student behavior, brain research, motivation, and classroom management is akin to allowing someone who says  “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on t.v.” to give you a heart transplant.
2. Continuing your bellicose streak (war is war, right?) you cut to the jugular by proposing a 13% across-the-board budget cut from the Wisconsin University System, our cornerstone of higher education, the source of much of our skilled and educated workforce, the center for research and development for our state. Aside from clearly being anti-education, this move is clearly anti-growth.
3. Psychological warfare has been your most recent tactic when you attempted to (and later tried to blame it on a clerical error) revise “The Wisconsin Idea” the sacred credo of the UW system articulated over a century ago. You sought to omit mention of public service and improving the human condition (you do realize that as Governor, you are considered a public servant?) You also tried to delete the phrase: “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth.”  Truth. Hmm...I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about that one.

Your tenure as Governor has demonstrated nothing less than a systematic attempt to dismantle public education, the cornerstone of democracy and the ladder of social mobility for any society.

How our paths have diverged from that August afternoon in 1986. True story: it was freshman orientation just outside Memorial Union. We were two of a couple thousand new Marquette University freshman wistful about what our futures held. Four years later, I graduated from Marquette and later became Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year. You never graduated, and you became the Governor of the State of Wisconsin bent on dismantling public education. Ironic, isn’t it? Situational irony at its best. I'd laugh if its ramifications weren't so utterly destructive for the state of Wisconsin.

Sincerely,

Claudia Klein Felske
2010-2011 Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year
Marquette University Class of 1990

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*Regarding the chronology of Sampson's layoff notice and Governor Walker's term in office, I stand corrected [2/17/15].

A Day in the Life of a Teacher

a short story.

A prominent psychologist studied the teaching profession. She tallied the following raw data after observing a teacher for one day:  

1 teacher. 178 students. 11 phone calls. 63 emails. 218 questions. 9 excuses. 2 disciplinary referrals. 68 smiles. 4 arguments. 27 late papers. 1 bathroom break. 3 meetings. 6 cups of coffee. 1 near fight. 2 belly laughs. 637 decisions. 1 hour of preparation time. 3 trips to the counseling office. 14 interruptions. 5 thank yous.. 167 assignments collected. 0 breaks.

The psychologist then presented her conclusions at the National Educators Conference:

“I have observed extreme highs and lows of teaching; I have witnessed within a teacher’s day periods of high energy, jubilation and happiness alternating with periods of severe anxiety, despair and hopelessness. It is my studied opinion that profession of teaching itself is clearly...Bipolar. “

Unphased, a teacher in the audience stood up and said, “That’s not bipolar disorder, that’s just a day in the life of a teacher.”

Schooled By Covey

I’m not sure what my principal thought when I walked into his office a few years back with a poster board under my arm, declaring that I must “stay in the second quadrant.”  I had shaped perpendicular lines into four quadrants on the board and told him that I would take on the role of English Department Chair if and only if I could spend most of my time in the second quadrant. No, the second quadrant wasn’t some higher plane of being; it wasn’t hippy jargon or 

some metaphorical proclamation. It was a part of a time-management strategy I’d learned from best-selling management guru, Stephen Covey, whose Seven Habits of Highly Successful People has become perhaps the quintessential self help book.

Covey has been on my mind again lately as I notice how the demands on a teacher’s  time are increasing exponentially with no end in sight. Applying Covey’s time matrix to a teacher’s day clarifies what’s happening in the current educational climate and suggests what this means for the future of teachers, students and the state of education.

Covey's Time Management Matrix

First, the matrix. Covey’s quadrants use “urgency” and “importance” as filters to examine how we spend our time: Do we spend our time wisely? Do we focus on long term goals?  Or are we constantly in emergency mode, neglecting what’s most important?

Here’s my take on a teacher’s  schedule in four-quadrant form:

Quadrant 1: Urgent & Important

• This is where teachers spend 80% of their time.
• Often preparing for 5 or 6 sections of 4 or 5 different courses,  with a single hour of preparation time provided per day, teachers are generally operating in emergency mode, struggling to stay on top of  “What am I doing in class today?” much less tomorrow, next week, or next month.
• In the moments they are not sprinting to keep up with the teaching part of their day, they are trying to manage the needs (make up work, test corrections, extra 1-on-1 help, parent calls etc) of 125+ students while trying to also keep on top of grading and returning those 125+ students’ assignments and assessments with timely and meaningful feedback.

Quadrant 2: Important & Not Urgent

(insert crickets chirping)

• Few teachers have the luxury of spending any time in quadrant 2.
• This  is a tragedy with enormous repercussions because this is where innovation happens, where vision comes into play, where planning allows significant change, where reflection makes room for improvement, where new ideas germinate.  Without quadrant 2, we can all but forget about meaningful reform, about improving classroom practices, about increasing student learning.

Quadrant 3:  Urgent & Not Important

• This is where where teachers spend 20% of their time.
• This is where we process paperwork not tied to what happens in the classroom.
• This is where we attend meetings not related to what happens in the classroom.
• This is where we jump through state and federally mandated hoops not directly related to what happens in the classroom.
• This is the single most frustrating part of education today.

Quadrant 4:  Not Urgent & Not Important

• This simply doesn’t happen in schools today; there is no extra time, so there is no wasted time. There is no down time, period.
• Teachers are lucky if they have a chance to take a bathroom break much less eat lunch.
• The days of faculty lounge camaraderie---crowded tables of teacher chat during lunch---are over. Most teachers now eat their lunches in their classrooms while swimming in quadrant 1.

Stephen Covey contends that most people erroneously spend the majority of their time in quadrants 1 and 4 (in emergency and trivia modes) when they should be spending most of their time in quadrant 2, where the big picture stuff happens.  He says to live a life consistent with your mission, your values, your goals, you need to spend the majority of your time in quadrant 2.

That was why I walked into my principal’s office with that poster board under arm. If I was to take on an added responsibility, I needed it to reside in quadrant 2. I wanted to create a larger vision for the English Department. I wanted to do more than just complete forms, order supplies, and manage department drama.

Though Covey convincingly touts its importance, time spent in the second quadrant seems like a pipe dream for educators today.  I can remember clear as day a couple years ago when a colleague of mine returned from a conference completely excited about a technique she believed would revolutionize the way she taught her content. “I have got to do this!” she exclaimed. Her enthusiasm was contagious and I found myself affirming her, “Yes, you absolutely do!”

Flash forward to today. This colleague of mine, who regularly has 5 different courses to prep in multiple buildings, some of them split classes, has not incorporated that method into her classroom practice. She is an excellent teacher, among the best in the district, but like the majority of teachers today, she is stuck in quadrant 1.  If she were afforded time in quadrant 2, she and all of her students would now be reaping the benefits of that idea she was so convinced would revolutionize her teaching. 

Simply put, teachers today are stuck in the first quadrant and the increasing demands being placed on their time will only continue to thicken the wall between quadrants 1 and 2.

Stephen Covey: If you’re reading this, give Arne Duncan and the Dept. of Education a call, perhaps a free consult. Tell them that until they create an environment which allows teachers to step out of emergency mode, until they find a way to allow teachers to catch their breath, reflect, envision, and create, any attempts at meaningful school reform are futile.

Can Technology Bring Us Closer Together?

Imagine being separated from your spouse for seven years. It’s not what any of us sign up for, especially after 30 plus years of marriage.

My friend Barb faced this exact situation as the state of the economy forced her husband Al to take a contracting job in New Orleans while she remained back in Wisconsin. Through holidays, periodic visits, Skype, and gritty determination on both of their parts, the state of their marriage remained strong.  

And happily, this summer after seven years of living separately from his wife, Al was able retire. He moved back to Wisconsin, and now Barb and Al live like married people are meant to live---together.

Sounds like a happy ending, right?   

Imagine my surprise when Barb, wine glass in hand, lamented the other night that she felt closer to Al when there were four states separating them.

I inquired and she explained.

When he was in New Orleans, they spent an entire hour each night face-to-face Skyping. No multitasking, no running to this commitment and that event, no half-conversations while watching t.v. or surfing the net: one full hour of face-to-face, eye-to-eye conversation about how their day went, about the family, about their plans, about the state of the world, one full hour every single day. How many of us have an hour like that?  

Now that they’re living together, she explained, that hour simply doesn’t happen. Life gets in the way. Emails, meetings, obligations, television, hobbies, the internet---all of these happen, and so remarkably (though not so remarkable when you think about it) she feels less close to him than she did during their 7-year separation. She pines for that hour.

And HOW (you may be asking) is this related to education?

One of the biggest fears people have about technology in schools is that it will depersonalize learning, that students will hide behind screens and teachers will hide behind their desktops.

Not  unlike Barb and Al’s Skype sessions, the reality is that the effective use of technology can bring us closer together, in our relationships, in our schools.

Sage teachers use backchanneling technology to engage ALL students to participate in class discussions rather than just one raising his/her hand at a time.

Tech savvy teachers use polling and surveys to check for understanding throughout the class period, making each student  aware of his/her learning at any given moment.

Innovative teachers use technology to flatten their classroom walls, connecting with other classrooms in the district, state, country and world.  

I jokingly advised Barb that maybe she and Al should consider going into different rooms each night and Skyping each other to rekindle their bonding hour.  

And maybe those in education who fear that technology will depersonalize the classroom should consider the opportunities it offers to connect us to each other and to the larger world.

A (Quasi) Rant on the State of Education

Is it still considered a rant if you are ASKED your opinion on an issue about which you have PLENTY to say?

For the past two years, I’ve served on a state educational advisory board. In that capacity, I was recently asked:

If we dismantled public education as we know it today, what would your rebuild look like?

Some general areas to consider:  the teaching profession, the school day, the use of technology, professional development, 21st century learning.

And here was my rant (or rather, my reply):

On Teaching Profession:

• Until we raise teacher wages and cut the red tape involved in becoming and remaining a teacher, we will fail to recruit top candidates into the profession. (How can a new college graduate entering public education ever expect to pay off his/her student loans, live independently, buy a home and raise a family?) I fear the quality of people going into education is plummeting and will continue to plummet until these conditions change.

• Respect and reverence for the institution of education has plummeted as well. This, along with questionable mandates and lower pay, prevents me in good conscience from recommending this profession to those who ask. 

• We need a true mentor / apprentice program with master educators (who must be practicing classroom teachers) guiding new teachers. Our current system of student teaching simply doesn't work. Few cooperating teachers are master teachers, or even average teachers. I fear that many cooperating teachers are interested in lightning their loads rather than helping develop the next generation of teachers.

• We need the time and resources for a true apprenticeship system. Ideally, this would be a multi-year process beginning with a full year of methods and observation (small group under the guidance of a master lead teacher), followed by a year of teaching a single class while meeting with a cadre of student teachers for group planning, observing, and evaluating. Year three would entail a half day of teaching using the same process and transitioning to a full schedule as a bonifide fulltime classroom teacher in year four. Currently, we “throw them into the fire” upon receiving their diplomas, and then are somehow surprised that most novice teachers don’t last 5 years in the profession.

• We can’t let data points and crossing t’s and dotting i’s on federal, state and local initiatives diminish the personal nature and artistry of teaching. This is a grave concern of mine. In many districts, creative collaborative time is being turned into data analysis time at the expense of classroom creativity and effectiveness. Many of the best, most creative teachers leaving the profession because they are not being given the time or support to do their best in the classroom. As a result, paperwork and data points are trumping quality instruction.

• Students are dynamic individuals, not widgets that can be weighed, packaged, and labeled for consumption (data analysis often feels like this).

On Teacher Pay:

• Simply put, teachers should be paid more than administrators. Administrators, in essence, are support staff while teachers are on the front line. Research unequivocally shows that the single most important factor in student achievement is the quality of the classroom teacher. The most accomplished teachers (master teachers working with novice teachers in the apprentice system described above) should be at the top of the scale while superintendents should be treated as public relations specialists and district-community liaisons rather than instructional leaders and top bread winners.

On The School Day:

• Matters like length of day, number of days, semesters/trimesters, summer school, etc. are small fare items that should remain local decisions. There are much bigger fish to fry in the state of education today.

On Technology in Education:

• The key to effective use of technology is meaningful professional development. This means real time to explore best practices for each teacher’s own classes and practices before students have devices in-hand. Too many districts are going 1:1 without adequate professional development or support. This overwhelms teachers and causes classroom disruptions. Technology can be a powerful equalizer and means to personalizing learning. But the “getting there” is a process that requires much time and support.  We must acknowledge and respect this.

On Professional Development:

• We are told to differentiate instruction for our students but rarely are our professional development opportunities differentiated for us. Much PD time and money are spent on initiatives that are extremely top-down, lacking relevance to individual teachers and their students.  This is a colossal waste of time which could otherwise be spent in rich, collaborative ways. Two requests: 1) Make all professional development directly applicable to immediate classroom practice 2) If a specific initiative must be covered, make the training DIFFERENTIATED. For example, tech novices work on basic skills while tech savvy teachers are given time to incorporate new tools in ways that make sense to their specific classes.  EdCamp conferences (often called “unconferences “ would be a great model for authentic professional development.

On 21st Century Learning:

• “Standardized tests are useless until we have standardized children”  -  Mike Felske (my husband)

• The primary evaluation of a child should come from the primary educator of that child, not from a standardized test.

• Curriculum ideally (by leveraging technology) should meet students individual needs and interests. This takes a great deal of time and requires a different kind of student and structure. Students are not currently equipped, ready, or capable of independently designing their education. We need a new structure from  Kindergarten up. How can this be done?  The Montessori model seems to be one from which we could learn.

On Individualizing Education:

• While not tracking students, we need to design a diagnostic system which both can identify students where they are and create a path for growth (while not treating them as numbers/data points). This is tricky business, but achievable, I believe, with a smaller teacher-student ratio and the prudent use of a highbred model of education (infusing successful traditional classroom practices with the prudent use of technology).

On Politics and Education:

• Politics have no productive place in public education. Currently, we are at the mercy of politicians--- national, state, local politicians and increasingly powerful school boards---all of whom have varying motives and levels of educational expertise, but collectively have a grossly disproportionate impact on education. Classroom teachers are the experts on student learning, not politicians, not local elected officials. Though I’m an optimist by nature, it’s difficult not to read today’s political agendas by some as anything less than the desire to dismantle public education.

On Funding:

• Funding simply cannot be tied to property tax. This results in an UNEQUAL free and public education and a majority of citizens who are resentful of teachers and unsupportive of their local schools.

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A free quality public education is the key to social mobility for all citizens and essential for a healthy democracy. There’s nothing more important. It’s why I’m still here, and it’s why I’m taking the risk of ranting publicly.

Besides, it’s not a rant...I was asked.

How Many Zentners Are Out There?

This past June, Eric Zentner, an 18-year veteran English teacher with a reputation of classroom excellence, sent an open resignation letter to the West Allis / West Milwaukee (WAWM) School District explaining why he was leaving the profession he loved and detailing disreputable practices and untenable conditions in the WAWM school district:

Zentner Letter (reprinted with permission)

He was the one. He was the one who finally said it all, and said it all out loud.  But he was far from alone.

The speed at which his letter spread teacher-to-teacher, across social media and into mainstream media; the slew of corroborating letters from other WAWM staff that followed, the untimely “retirement” of the superintendent of WAWM schools; the emergency listening sessions hosted by the WAWM school board—all evidence that he was far from alone.

Warning: the following comparison is a stretch, a big one, but one I want to make. I do not intend on deifying Zentner here, but a parallel can be drawn with Martin Luther’s 95 theses. With a nail and a list of violations, Luther voiced the corruptions of an institution he loved, a voice which echoed far and wide.

He said it all, and he said it out loud.

His ideas quickly traveled through intellectual circles and across Europe, igniting the Protestant Reformation and    changing the course of Christianity. It’s clear by the speed at which his ideas spread that many in church ranks shared his  sentiments, but dared not voice them prior to his declaration. Papal history bears witness to what happens to  dissenters after all. Retribution, ex-communication,  burning at the stake.

Luther’s courageous letter allowed them to speak out without speaking out.

I imagine multitudes of teachers in Eric Zentner’s district and beyond reading his letter, nodding our heads all the while and then forwarding his sentiments as echoes of our own.

Zentner’s letter allowed us all to speak out without speaking out.

So How many Zentners are out there? Copies of his letters converged in three places in my life. An email forward from a West Allis teacher, a Tweeted online editorial, anarticle in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It travelled far and quick because it speaks the silent truth so many educators face but rarely voice for fear of retribution: a building reassignment, a schedule change, a non-renewal.

One can hope that Zentner’s letter, like Luther’s theses, will have some lasting impact. That it will crack open a larger and more authentic debate about education. That it will it inspire a serious conversation about what is truly good for kids, and how to stop  the exodus of talented teachers from the field they love.

One can hope.