<-- Back to Good Stuff from TCEA 2003
2-6-2003
Dr Loraine Monroe, TCEA Keynote speaker
We confirm to conferences like this to confirm that we are not crazy
Made sure when she was a principal (even tho she put post it notes on her computer)
that she did drill and skill practice
A good school is a good school anywhere, whether it uses technology or not
- see the same things
Key ideas
- every kid who comes here is taught to use computers (ALL of them)
-- in some schools some kids are not deemed "worthy" to touch the
computer
- say we cannot predict who "will get it" and who will not, so we
give it to everyone
- didn't seem to be any gender differences, girls and boys
- there was structure
-- "I don't know where we lost structure in this country"
--- the idea that the grownups are in charge, there is predictability and stability
in this building
--- there is logic to what we do, we can explain what we do
Once kids learn something, they need internships to point kids to new careers
- don't you know people in our profession who don't like children and shouldn't
be in our profession
- she learned great lessons teaching Middle School students, about wearing
them down, they are not going to win, predictability is key
"
What is good for the best is good for the rest."
You can tell when you are in a great school
- has an organizational "hum"
- there is good noise in here
- she can tell a good school in a minute and a half
Other key lessons
- children give you permission to control them
- children see something when they saw me: preparation, deep concern
- I have become what I am today because of teachers who would not give up,
I sat in their seats
- Education is the key to freedom and success for so many children
-- the structure of caring: STROKE AND POKE
Other key lessons:
- community service
-- there is no child who is so poor that he/she cannot give back
-- peer tutoring in the school on the computer, tutoring in the community
Courses offered in technology are not Mickey Mouse
- are real world
- make kids employable after school
- some carry college credits
I am interested in a dual aspect of technology, not only the wizardry and magic,
but also its sense/capacity to do SO much
The success of children rests not only on your ability to work these technology
tools, but also on your love for children, your passion for them and for learning,
your ability to
Teacher is egotistical enough to think that "but for me kids, you would
die!"
Close the door first day, tell kids I don't want other kids in this building
to know how crazy we are going to be
- you are the luckiest kids in this building because you have ME!
Many of our colleges believe they already know who is going to get it and who
is not
- don't believe this idea: what is good for the best is good for the rest!
When you hold high expectations for children, they reach them and achieve them
If 90% of the students failed, that means you failed!
- maybe you are in the wrong business, go somewhere where they don't talk back
to you
When desks not nailed down in middle school, kids will not respect rows
- will prove to you that they will not sit still for 45 min and listen to you
- this is when you
Everyone can remember here a teacher that LOVED you
- that teacher was so crazy, he/she saw something in me
Now she will share the lessons she learned from her own teachers
- take 15 seconds to remember the teacher who made an impact on you, you can
remember what they wore, what they said, what they taught you
-- (gave audience time to share with their neighbor)
Then had people yell alternatively if the teacher was elementary, then middle,
then high school, then college
- very few people yelled that their teacher was in college
No one in college taught her how to teach
- watching is not the same as doing
Philosophically she is going to share what she remembers from her own education
-
1st Grade Mrs Katz
- taught her how to love to read
- her parents were reading all the time because
- she read "Dick and Jane" pretty quickly
- some teachers would say "Who told you to read ahead?!" (be smart)
-- so she told her to go pick something else from the class library
LESSON: you always have something for the fast / smart kids
- in a great teacher's classroom: KIDS ARE NEVER FINISHED!!!!!!!!
STORY 2: someone stole her lunch one time, she cried because she had been smelling
that lunch all day
- Mrs Katz gave her permission to lead the class down to the cafeteria, and
she bought her the teacher
LESSON: A child's hurt is never to be trivialized
- I have spent hundreds of dollars on children's pain
3rd Grade Mrs White
- research tells us that 3rd and 4th grade is the turning point in kids lives,
if they can't read by then they are headed to prison in many cases, black boys,
brown boys, immigrant boys, our prisons are filled with people who can't read
I didn't know why I needed that teacher, why she needed her
- it's not just 3rd and 4th graders, sometimes it is Seniors
ME: Loraine motivates me to want to be back in my 4th grade classroom
Children comes to love the teacher who doesn't ask "why are you here,
why are you hanging around"
- kids love teachers who are there for them
Another teacher: Mr Cooper, had no conception of where we might go and what
me might do
- taught African American history so we would know we stand on the shoulders
of many who suffered, so we would not have to, and to give something back
Mrs Graves, 8th grade middle school
- taught how to make hats
- homeroom teacher, advisement
- learned "benevolent terrorism" from
- students must be afraid / have some respect for you
- all kids want to see where you live, are amazed that you have a life outside
of school
- she knew how to make a whip-whip sound, so all the kids thought she had a
whip she could take out (she eventually learned it was her panty hose)
- kept bringing kids to tea after 8th grade, 9th - 12th
-- she made the assumption that we would graduate from ocllege
- all of that group graduated from college, have graduate degrees
You need time over time with children, that legacy of working with kids over
time
- make the assumption with kids that they will succeed
ME: This makes me want to touch base with my 4th graders
Had an English teacher that mostly taught social studies (Mrs. Davis)
- used to read the front page of the NYT before class and cry
- she said one day, the Middle East will be extremely important in American
politics
- when you are 16, everything is funny,
- actually she was a teacher she distained
- she wrote in her book: "Make your life rich in service to others"
-- wasn't she a prophet, she saw in Loraine at 16 what Loraine could not see
herself!
Those of us who are great, have great heart for people
- we need to keep close memories of those who new us well, maybe even better
than our parents
In the work I do in NY and elsewhere turning schools around, I never do this
work without prayer
- those of us who are good know that when you're good, and you are good, and
you have a great plan, something happens in the room that IS NOT YOU
- and you are flying in there
- and the bell rings and the kids don't want to leave
- she prays every time before she talks, that she will connect with someone
- she is always reinventing herself
"
A Guide to Prayer" from the Upper Room in Tennesse
- my whole life I thought it was ultimately about service
- she is going to read a passage about service leadership after a story
Don't be ashamed to do what you are called to do
- some of us could not do this work
- some of us in this auditorium could not do any other work
- you can get frustrated with politics, standards, etc, but then look at the
kids and stay
You can have a great program going, and then they cut the funds
Her presentation was fantastic because she made us laugh and she made us cry
Sometimes you do get it up to here, because people who are not there every
day with the kids don't understand how your life with the kids can take over
your life
- you are thinking about it all the time
- it is about service
- it is about leadership
Story:
- Monk was running an exemplary Monastery
- some asked for permission to go visit that
- the person who was them and did all the drudge jobs
Begins with the natural feeling that YOU WANT TO SERVE FIRST
- it is about children, serving them
At first the leader and the servant are very differnt
- servant helps to make sure the other's most important needs are tended to
first
TESTS:
Do those we serve grow as persons?
Do they grow healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous because of our service?
- more likely of their time with us, what we make them believe of themselves,
the time we spend together
- what is the effect of our service on the least priveledged in society?
-- will they benefit, or at least be less deprived?
more likely to become servants themselves, because of how they see us
Verb: emanent
leadership is about action
send out the intentionality that I AM HERE FOR YOU
In the teacher's lounge, all the NBC people sit together (Naggers, Bitchers,
and Complainers)
- they carpool together
The real training we are talking about has to do with SELF EMPTYING
- "not these children"
- get rid of the stuff that is in the way
- the main problem with service like that is to BE THE WAY without GETTING
IN THE WAY
The children in the class, in the building, know what you think
- which kids you touch, which you never touch
Tools and Techniques to be learn
- agriculture metaphor
- we need to self empty
- plow the field, do the planting, get the craziness all set up
- then cut the branches, and pull out the weeds that are in the way of children's
growth and development
It takes people who are special for this last one
- a child can keep his sanity if there is at least one person in the building
who is waiting for the child
- not necessarily the parent
- if there is no one waiting, the child has almost no chance of survival
When people say horrible things about children, Loraine says "You must
get out of the profession"
Great schools have LOTS of people whow say I AM THE ONE!!!!!
- all of us in this room know how to "be the one"
- she made us all say it aloud: "I am the one"ME: I think I need
to
- teach college students
- teach 4th graders again
- be a principal
As a counselor, you should shut up after you ask a question and not try to
give an answer
- story of fighting child at school, who said his mom has stopped feeding him
and his brothers/sisters
My life is always a series of turns
- that boy is now in college, working to help children to rescue lost youthME:
What was also great about her presentation: it was full of stories
Monroe Doctrine says the purpose of school (kick ass school)
- everybody getting into the school
- there is no school if you don't stay focused on the "main thing" (the
CORE)
do all the imag
- every kid has to learn how to read, write, communicate, appreicate the arts,
make the dream of his life come true because of what you do, the 12 non-negotiable,
every school should have uniforms
- every school should have every kid connected to a team or club
- tutorials
- frequent assemblies, that is the glue that keeps the school together
Every school should be visiting a college campus
- can be Kindergarten or whatever (made K classrom p
Parental Involvement - Parental Development
Lots of corporate support to send kids
- we never took a class called "low socioeconomc
teach with your head, your heart, your soul, this is holy work, you have been
commissioned to be the interruption in their lives
dare to soar, BE THE ONE!
Page last updated: Friday, December 6, 2002 1:25 PM