Books, Reading & Teaching

Yesterday I wrote about a book I recently finished.  The book was given/loaned by a fellow teacher.  I mentioned that it was a pleasure with my new teaching assignment that I had time to read.  Today an interesting event took place in our weekly department meeting, the Art department.

Each Wednesday the school starts an hour later than normal--Late Start Wednesdays.  The idea is that teachers can meet before school to discuss lessons that work and get help for teaching that doesn't.  This is a formal way of putting teachers together to talk teaching.  Not a bad idea, but in my experience the best example of teachers talking is built over time as bonds form. I was fortunate to be a part of a group within the English department at one time and have had the same experience in coaching a few times.  In the coarse of a day you will stop and talk about something that worked, or ask how someone else would deal with a certain author or a student issue.

The problem that has happened with Late Start Wednesdays is the format is forced a bit.  The agenda is set sometimes by administrators and not the teachers.  Or the subject is predetermined, such as "Discuss the latest test results," or "Rewrite the test, again."  Not much time for intellectual discussion when test version 3 needs to be finished.

Teaching Crafts this year I am grouped in the Art Department and not in English for the first time in a few decades.  The English Department, because of it's size and the fact everyone has to take English, gets to pilot all the new systems, tests and effluent that rolls down the chain of command.  Very little time for literary discussion, nor even how to help students.  The English teachers get to try out what will happen to the rest of the campus in the next year or two.  Except the Art Department.

Art encompasses Art classes, Crafts and Photo/Video.  No state test for those subjects.  Hooyah!  So today an amazing thing happened.  The four members of the Art Department talked about three different books we have recently read.  We talked about how to incorporate Jung, Kohlberg, Maslow, Freud, Erickson and others into the analysis of Harry Potter, and how the students will write about the subject.  We talked about how British archaeologists are unearthing the the "Tom, Dick and Harry" tunnels under a German prison that inspired the movie, The Great Escape with Steve McQueen.  They also discovered a "George" tunnel.  We discussed making masks from around the world, touching on Dia de los Muertos, Haida masks, Mardi Gras, Carnival masks from Rio de Janiero and Venice. We also discussed the 3rd Person Effect on people's choices and how to teach it.  We set up chances to go and see each other teach.

I walked out of the meeting inspired, and then realized what I had just experienced hadn't happened in years within the English Department. And not because they weren't trying.  The restrictions and demands put upon them wouldn't allow it.  I am blessed and thankful to be teaching Crafts and today reminded me of why.