"I can't be your child's teacher and their wellness coach/personal assistant/property manager/solicitor/dietitian/spiritual guru/psychologist/doctor/personal police officer/disputes-resolution representative/personal interest advocate/friendship coordinator."
"I want parents to work in partnership with me and the school to educate and develop the whole child. I want you to feel welcome to come in and discuss problems and issues and concerns. I just want to share the load with you because I can't carry it all myself." (page 27)
I started to read Dear Parents on the bus home on Friday but quickly realised I was probably going to be laughing out loud, quite loudly and that might not be so good on a crowded bus. So when I came home I began to read. Dear Parents has 350 pages. I read the whole book in two sittings. Huge sections of this book made me cheer. Other parts made me nod in recognition while other parts made me sad. Sad because Gabbie is a good teacher and, as I have seen myself and with my colleagues, - good teachers really want to teach, they want to prepare meaningful learning experiences for their class and they want time to quietly nurture each precious child BUT so many 'other things' are getting in the way of this.
"I spend less time now preparing my lessons than ever before. It's lucky I'm an experienced teacher and can glance at a program, see the words, add mixed numerals with same denominator, and make something up from there. I do a lot of chalk and talk out the front explaining things, but I'm never as prepared as I'd like to be with resources and materials and open ended questions. Soon my time for lesson planning will be non-existent. ... Lesson preparation should be the core work of teachers. If they're not teaching they should be preparing to teach by devising lessons, preparing aids to help the learners... " (page 260)
Instead Gabbie (and all teachers) spend their time gathering data, providing evidence, filling out forms about everything, sharing their class with parents via programs like SeeSaw. (Gabbie calls this Swing-Set). I had a talk with a colleague about the issue of electronic sharing just last week. My friend, a very experienced teacher, sees other staff using SeeSaw and she wondered if/why she should add this to her already overloaded week. I said no - don't do it. Here is what Gabbie says:
"You know what Swing-Set is? It's education's social media; it's an edited version of classroom life, cropped and filtered to show our best side. Why do we do it? Because the technology exists. Because parents will probably like it. Because the school down the road does it. None of these reasons are good enough for me. Just because we can, doesn't mean we should." (page 261)
Why not? Because programs like SeeSaw take away your time. Time a teacher should be giving to their class and to individual children. Time so that the day contains magic moments.
The magic of learning. The magic moment. "It's organic, it takes time, and it's different for every Teacher and for every Learner. Many things impact upon this phenomenal exchange, but fundamental to it all is the relationship between the Learner and the Teacher. There needs to be trust, support, encouragement and space to fail. There needs to be room for feedback and practice. There needs to be praise and direction. Most importantly there needs to be time." (page 78)
TIME TIME TIME
Time is the motivation behind my blog. Giving kids (and yourself) time to read. Gabbie talks about putting away those devices and simply sitting with your child or children and reading a book together. It's not rocket science. It should be easy. It should be fun. It should seem like a natural thing to do EVERY DAY.
Gabbie includes a list of things (page 99) that influence learning. Here are a few:
- The number of books in a student's home
- Being read to as a child
- If their father reads
- Number of words spoken in the home
Here is another quote to reinforce this important message:
"Reading with your kids, having books in your home (lots and lots of books) and having your children see you as a reader (a reader of books ... ) have a massive impact on your child's literacy skills and development. ... please consider increasing the rime spent reading in your home. (and) ... make that reading fun. Get cosy on the lounge and make it something you look forward to."
On the issue of time Gabbie also talks about all the extra things we do. There is a list on page 234-5.
"Our school calendar is literally bursting with events, presentations and fundraisers. Every week there's 'something extra': mad hair day, sock day, nude food, the recycle challenge, mufti day, book reading challenge, public speaking, foot clinic, water safety ... Each lesson feels like I'm saying to my students, 'Here's the tip of an iceberg, but we don't have time for you to know anything of its true weight or size." (page 235)
When I read Teacher by Gabbie Stroud I thought all parents should read it and now reading Dear Parents I want all teachers to read this second volume.
The only part of this book that made me personally very sad, very upset, very concerned was the description of the school Teacher-Librarian. It seems such a shame that Gabbie made the person in this role her 'bad guy'. I did, however, resoundingly agree with Gabbie that Book Week parades have NOTHING to do with reading and a love of literature. This is an issue which I have very strong feelings about. She also, briefly explores the important issue that teachers (and teacher-librarians) are human and that big things outside of school may be going on in our lives. (page 334). Of course Teacher Librarians are not the main focus of this book. The main issues are parental responsibilities, the extra work expected of teachers and NAPLAN but I do wish the Teacher Librarian (Mrs Jethro) had not been given such a bad role.
Dear Parents uses a whole year of 'pretend' emails from Gabbie to the parents in her class. It is a book that is easy to read but also filled with wisdom and very important ideas that deserve your deep thought. As I said a large part of the book involves a discussion about NAPLAN. I agree with EVERYTHING Gabbie says on this topic so I won't go into any details here. I have been against this test in all its forms from the very beginning. (Read my post about Teacher).
Gabbie also talks about the issue of school principals. If you don't work in education make sure you read page 232 so you can, at least in part, understand the system.
"To become a principal, you need to work through levels of accreditation and standardisation (which translates to layers and layers of paperwork) in order to demonstrate your ability and competence. The trouble is being good at paperwork doesn't necessarily make you a good principal. ... the best school leaders are the ones who are great classroom teachers, who are passionate about learning and who know how to manage student behaviour. ... The best leaders I've worked for never lost sight of the fact that they were also teachers."
Other topics - things to think about:
Sticker charts (page 197)
School reports (page 195)
Mobile Phones on excursions (page 166)
Assemblies (page 118-131)
"I'm not against assemblies. I see their value. I just dream of a time where they become something more organic, a genuine learning experience, a true showcase of something great. my class want to share because they want to share it ... not because it's Week 6 and our name is next on the list."
Listen to this recent podcast where Gabbie talks about her new book - Dear Parents. I highly recommend this book for parents but also and perhaps more importantly, for teachers too.
On a light note one part of this narrative that I identified with and that made me laugh is all about a thread of carpet and kids continually pulling and pulling at it. I had exactly the same thing with my library furniture - kids making holes in the corners of the vinyl seats and over time watching those holes just get bigger and bigger. Of course there was no money for recovering chairs!
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