Boston Conference?

I've wondered, often, why being a "sixth grade teacher" isn't enough. I absolutely love my job. Even in its most stressed out moments, I still love it because I feel like I am really, actually, doing something for other people. It could be a combination of not only this sheer joy of having people pay attention to me (and what better than 11 year olds who still love learning), to the joy of doing something that for some unknown reason I am both good at, and the fulfillment of reading writing, even if it is sometimes about space aliens and monsters. Many of my fondest childhood moments, when not about a dollhouse, my father or the Redwall books, involve school. I can tell you the name of every teacher I had, and I can tell you what each of them gave me, especially Mr. S, Mrs. S, and Mrs. H. Perhaps I want to give that back.

However, watching the preview for Glee yesterday, I was struck when someone claimed that teaching was trying to recapture the glory days. Perhaps that it why, when I was at once dead set on teaching at my old high school, I am now dead-set against it. It could be that I have lost touch with many of my high school friends except for ANR and EPS, or that my male relationships from there failed so miserably (and thank goodness that they did.) But, I wonder if I struggle with teaching sometimes because it simply seems too easy--it seems like the glory days. I get paid to lay on the floor and read books, to build board games about the Middle Ages, and go to Art Museums.

Granted, I also get paid to write report cards, send heart-breaking emails to parents, monitor bullying, check the lunch room for cruel tween girls, be an advisor, be a role model, grade endless papers ABOUT monsters and aliens, be a spell checker (when I am, indeed, a rather terrible speller) and get my heart broken every June when they leave. Perhaps it is this latter list that is the reason I get frustrated when I try to explain the difference between a teacher and an educator. I don't go home at 3:45 and I'm not looking at this job as a convenient way to have children and still work. This is my life, even more so than a lawyer or a business analyst. I feel invested, differently.

So if it's so great, and so if I've been having anxious dreams about my "babies" moving on and a. forgetting me and b. not being prepared and c. worst of all, me not being anything I thought I might have been cracked up to be as an educator, why then, am I still anxious about telling people at cocktail parties that I teach sixth grade? Why do I seek out opportunities to travel and present at conferences, go to Israel, or write proposals of articles? Is it because I am still not confident enough in myself? Possibly.

Nonetheless, I have just submitted this proposal:

Title: Explorations: Discovering The Self Through Art

Topic: Using a variety of art forms within the guise of a middle school classroom as a mode of self-discovery, exploration, and community building, especially for gifted students.

Brief Description:
Using a protocol created by National School Reform Faculty called “Save The Last Word,” I will present Explorations—a class designed for sixth graders and taught in ability-leveled groups at Bernard Zell Day School in Chicago. “Save the Last Word” allows participants to highlight what was most meaningful to them in a text or packet and dialogue about questions this raised for them and for the larger world. The aforementioned class uses various art forms—from story-telling, to collage, to book-binding, to portraiture and art appreciation—as a means of developing self-identity within sixth graders. I will present the various units of the class—creation myths, a legendary figure unit, journaling, and portraiture (both self portraiture and teaching of how to look at art) through hands on displays of student work and words. Groups will then subdivide, each given a packet of the work that was presented. The groups will then discuss how and if the various art forms allowed students to have a solid understanding of both their identities and their classmates as well as whether or not creating and sharing art together helped to strengthen their community of learners.

Summarize Outcomes for Target Audience:
In a changing, technologically advanced world, it is difficult to know the self during the crucial teen/tween years. It is vital to encourage students, especially gifted ones worried about comparative performance and standardized test-taking, in creative ventures. These opportunities create learning through doing, community, and connection. The class was invaluable developing students’ self-knowledge. Through discussion, participants will use the students’ own artistic work as fodder to create essential questions on providing avenues for self-discovery and definition through a variety of art forms in their own communities.

I hope I get to go! We'll hear back at a much later date...