we connect the disconnect.

Wow, I spent yesterday rearranging our school library. With the generous help of my paraprofessional and her family, some faculty, and the custodial staff, we moved five ten foot long book shelves, over 3,000 individual volumes, one hundred boxed sets, and three or four hundred videotapes.

The videos are the story.

We finally took the leap as a library/school to remove videotapes from our collection. The reasons for doing so are many.

• The technology is old and failing, both the tapes and the players. We're certainly not going to buy a replacement vcr in these tight budget times.
• Most videos are available to be streamed, or a newer, perhaps better alternative video is online.
• Realistically, most of the time, the videotapes were poorly disguised time-killers and baby sitters while teachers did other things. Not the best use of instructional time...

Which leads me to why I felt compelled to write these notes. We made the removed videos available to teachers to come pick out what they couldn't live without and then keep in their own rooms. While I was moving books, one teacher (sadly a veteran) was picking through the tapes. She's telling me how she likes to have some of these to play when the kids earn lunch time with her in the classroom.

What? Wait! The kids have earned some personal time with the teacher, which they must really want because they worked for it, and you are playing a video? (Cue the sarcastic old grump voice I'm trying to suppress) I've got an idea, why not spend time talking with your kids. Model good conversation, show them appropriate social behavior, give them some attention after all that's what they want. How many times do we complain about the social behavior of our students? Well, let's show them how to act.

I don't think this teacher is a bad person, bad teacher, or thoughtless. It's really more of a case of just not thinking about what we're doing, not being deliberate. It reminds me of a meeting I was in years ago, planning Dr. Seuss day activities, when a  reading specialist suggested we have Seuss videos running all day so classrooms could watch. So... on a day dedicated to celebrating reading, we're telling the kids to watch TV! Aarrgh!

A valued colleague of mine told me once that good teaching is hard. It is. One can make it a little more manageable by being deliberate, planning carefully and thoughtfully about how time is spent with children. Someone's class may appear to be doing something really outlandish, but if the teacher has a plan, a good play, then give them some space to work.

Our district is pushing teachers hard to be deliberate, writing unit plans, developing an awareness of the enduring understandings and essential knowledge of what we teach. Typically folks complain about the extra work, but I'm finding it useful, and refreshing. Giving your instruction a clear direction, a well thought out direction, is good.

So what does this have to do with my videotape/lunch rant? We must remember that the entire day is instruction. Kids are always learning something, it's just a question of what they're learning. They may not pay a bit of attention to your directions, you might set the whiteboard on fire and half of them not notice, but speak harshly to another person, use your phone while they're doing desk work, watch a video while you grade papers and they will soak up every move you make.

It's a standing joke with me and my friends, but you have to go Gandhi on them. Be the change you want to see.

That's enough for today.