Literarily My Vision: Engaging Learners & Connecting the Community

The Book and My Rationale for Choosing It

Why Through the Cracks by Carolyn Sollman, illustrated by Barbara Emmons and designed by Judith Paolini? Well, because it is a book that best illustrates my vision. The book, unlike most books about improvement, is presented as a children’s story. This book inspired my decision to begin a blog. It encompasses every audience possible: teachers, students, parents, community members, politicians, and community leaders. The story itself draws you in, but the illustrations help you visualize my vision. It connects you to experiences (good and bad) and it inspires you to make a difference.

The Book

In Through the Cracks the authors uses Stella, a young girl, as the narrator of the story. Stella not only introduces herself to us, but also shares her encounter with Christopher. It is via Stella and Christopher that we gain a birds-eye-view of Christopher’s, her classmates’ and her own experiences of becoming disengaged and disconnected from not only school, but more importantly from learning. Through Stella’s “guided tour” Christopher and we, as readers, quickly learn some of the reasons that students become bored. It shares how they can turn into “in-school” dropouts, uninspired and reluctant learners, daydreamers, as well as how their behavior can easily turn into discipline problems/referrals. As Stella and Christopher journey, what they share is reflective of some of the schools that many of us experienced as children, parents, teachers and even administrators. When it comes to the second half of the book, we are transported from the “traditional” school to a visionary school; the transformation is epic. The aesthetic and instructional changes lead toward positive attitudes, inspired stakeholders, morale and behavior improvement, and students who are motivated to learn, engaged in the lessons and connected to the community and world.

My idea is to give hope, because where there is no hope, there is no vision, and where there is no vision, people will perish.

Oprah Winfrey (I used this quote because it talked about giving hope and is an extension of George Washington Carver’s “Where there is no hope, there is no vision” and Proverbs 29:18’s “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

My Backstory Connection

About two months into my freshman year, I was chosen among fifty students to be accepted into the METCO program, a volunteer busing programs that continues today to place inner-city Boston residents of color in predominantly white suburban schools—breaking down barriers to educational opportunities and creating rich, racially diverse learning environments for students of all backgrounds. I was honored to attend, leaving Jeremiah E. Burke High School for Girls in Boston to travel to Sudbury, Massachusetts. Over 5,000 students applied, but only fifty of us earned spots. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School was about 45 miles from my house, but took over an hour to get there. Every morning, I took at least one bus, but sometimes two or one plus a light rail public transit system to get to my school bus. This began my morning journey from Roxbury to Sudbury.

To attend Lincoln-Sudbury Regional from 1970s to 1974 was an honor; it was during those years (beginning in 1968) that Lincoln-Sudbury became a non-traditional school that offered flexible scheduling, experiential learning, and more opportunities than I could ever imagine. Our daily schedule consisted of a modular schedule of twenty 20-minute periods…some classes two periods long, others more. During this era in the school’s history, the number of electives was increased providing more opportunities for students and teachers. Additionally, students were allowed significant periods of unassigned time. Programs based on student and teacher interests and requests were introduced, allowing students the opportunity to spend significant amounts of time in out-of-class experiences. Although I took advantage of my unassigned scheduled times, I usually took advantage of programs that were introduced allowing students to spend significant amounts of time in out-of-class experiences, like Nimbus. I even created a teaching internship program, petitioned the Principal to let cheerleading be counted as a P.E. class and participated in out-of-class experiences like seminars and workshops. I sat in other classes and worked with a teacher my freshman year to improve my math schedules. I attended and participated in arts festivals and drama productions; went on school excursions; went into the woods and wrote or sketched or simply meditated. I even met Al Pacino in a seminar after a field trip to see the movie “The Godfather” premiered.

My Influences and Inspirations

I’ve been honored to have many teachers in my life who have made a difference in my life. Some have inspired me to love writing, others reading, and others history. I’ve had many inspirations that aspired me to become a teacher; I credit one elementary School teacher who with the gift of a library card resulted in my addiction to books and five high school teachers for modeling aspects of the style of teaching I wanted to exemplify. This post will focus on the five Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School teachers: Karen Tischelman, one of my Spanish teachers; Betty Jean Busiek, my Biology Teacher; Pim Omrod, one of my art teachers; Joe Kleiser, my Nimbus (Outward Bound) and 10th grade P.E. teacher, and Deborah (a history teacher).

Ms. Busiek was the “cool,” “hip” teacher; you could tell from the moment you met her that her class was going to be fun. She had an asymmetrical hair cut and often wore only one earring; her classroom was always welcoming and her lessons were multi-disciplinary in nature and allowed us to connect to other subjects. She had an insight into people and found the strengths in everyone. I remember her purposefully putting me, an extrovert, with the school’s “brain.” I now know she wanted us to rub off on each other. She wanted someone who was not a worry-wart to help him be less serious and wanted some of his seriousness to rub off on me. His intelligence and work ethic most definitely helped me pass Biology, especially when I felt sick dissecting that pig. Ms. Busiek was also great on bringing scientists to our class to share their jobs and to give us an idea of the importance of science in our lives.

Joe Kleiser was the next person who made me understand the importance of connections in life, especially with nature. He was my 10th grade P.E. teacher and the director of Nimbus (an Outward Bound program). Lincoln-Sudbury is located approximately five miles from Thoreau’s Walden Pond and coincidentally or not, Lincoln-Sudbury made sure that learning about nature also had an impact on us. At Lincoln- Sudbury High School, all tenth grade students were enrolled in a nine-week course entitled Outdoor Pursuits. For a little girl living in the ghettos of Boston, this was a big challenge. In the city, I was active with kick ball, sledding, street hockey, punch-ball, double-dutch jump roping, tag, Dodgeball, Red Rover…Red Rover, Hopscotch, 1-2-3 Red Light…Green Light and other inner city games, but not much related to the wilderness and survival living. The school had built a survival course that included ropes course, canoeing, woods rescue, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and discussions. Its purpose was to foster enjoyment and understanding of the outdoors as well as to instill positive attitudes about the outdoors and physical exercise related to life long skills, rather than only the performance of traditional calisthenics or the teaching of team sport skills.

In addition to the required Outdoor Pursuits course that I took as a sophomore, one winter I also participated in a one-week out of school hiking excursion, complete with a 2-Day survival solo experience. Much of our trip was made on snowshoes from Massachusetts to the White Mountains of New Hampshire and most of the way back. Lincoln Sudbury’s Outdoor Pursuits course and the Nimbus (Outward Bound) program were designed to help students and interested teachers make connections between ourselves, our past, our environment, our values, and our future. Among the instruction I received on this expeditions were wilderness skills, snowshoeing, tent pitching, rock climbing, rappelling, among other skills. I helped build an igloo in which I spent the night, slept in a cave, pitched a tent in the middle of a snow storm, walked on a lake in snow shoes, climbed a mountain, rappelled down the same mountain, cooked over an open fire, hiked across a narrow ridge when sent on a late night mission with my compass, a canteen, and a few other items. It was on that trip, that I learned that I should have packed light. My bag not only had my tent, snowshoes, sleeping bag, canteen, space blanket and food, flashlight, compass and other things, but also all the clothes I could pack for a “vacation.” At less than 100 pounds in weight, I kept falling backwards whenever we walked up hills. It happened so regularly that the other 15 people on the trip each took out items in my backpack and carried them for me.

Pim Omrod was one of the teachers who also helped me to connect a subject to my own life. He was one of my art teachers. His classes on jewelry inspired me. I learned how to make necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. I also learned about transforming different metals into works of art and setting stones into pieces of jewelry. That was the engagement. I begin to connect when people wanted my pieces; when I gave them as gifts, displayed them in galleries, or sold them at festivals or other kiosks. I learned how to network with artists, market my ware, and to appreciate and/or critique my work and those of others.

Deborah was one of my history teachers. She is most memorable because 1) she was my first and only African American teacher and 2) she was the one to bring history alive for me. Before Deborah (I don’t recall her last name; we were allowed to call our teachers by their first names and that is the name I know. Prior to and even afterwards, history was always presented as dates, names and facts to remember. On Bloom’s Taxonomy chart it was the lowest of the higher-order thinking skills; there was no other connection. It was about memorizing, listing, defining, recalling, finding, naming,etc. In my recollection, there was not any focus on understanding, applying, creating, evaluating or analyzing of information.

Deborah brought those skills into her presentations. She was a great storyteller, it was her way to engage us. It was her techniques, that I took to my classes, but equally of importance it is what hooked me on history. Because of Deborah I love learning about history, especially when it is through museums, children’s books, workshops, creative projects, etc. Her inspirations continue to inspire me. I have several queued posts that share her influences. Additionally, elements of her influences appear in blogs that are already posted at https://literarilymyway.com/

Karen Tischelman was probably my favorite teacher of all my high school teachers; she inspired me to become a teacher who engaged learners and who made learning connections. Although I intended to begin my career as an elementary school teacher, I ended up becoming a high school Spanish teacher. This was intimidating to me. Although I was functional in Spanish, I was pretty much self-taught. I grew up in a Puerto Rican barrio and learned Spanish to communicate in order to be a part of the community in which I lived, not to be isolated. I had not truly been in a grammar or low level Spanish class for more than 2 months. Upon learning my skills, I usually advanced to higher level classes on culture, communication, history or literature. It was through a literature class and later a culture and cuisine class that I met Ms. Tischelman. It is when my life changed. In her class we were always engaged in learning. We didn’t study the subject, we lived Spanish. For my first year as a Spanish teacher I was not happy; I was book and worksheet focused. Why? Well, I partially was intimidated and lacked self confidence. I knew how to communicate in Spanish, but wasn’t sure of the rules and grammar. I spent the first year trying to stay ahead of the kids and figuring out how to balance the red-tape and bureaucratic tasks that were expected of me. By the end of the year, I knew there had to be a change and now more confident with the rules and grammar, I transformed by class. The journey of my students and I began. We were on our way to becoming engaged, active, connected and for learning to be relevant. It is because of her inspiration that I wrote https://literarilymyway.com/frida-kahlo-experiences-and-books-that-inspire-my-fridamania/.

Perceptions and Perspectives

In the times of “No Child Left Behind,” “Common Core Curriculum,” “Standard-based Lessons,” and excessive testing, Through the Cracks gives give us insight into the frustration, disengagement, and disconnect that our students, and yes our teachers experience. I was fortunate to change schools during my high school years. The experiences I gained met all of my needs. I was actively engaged in learning. I was an active learner. I applied knowledge and skills. I connected to the world. Learning was relevant. In my opinion active learning, student engagement and real-world base learning have a great impact on a teaching and learning. In Through the Cracks the author poignantly and literally portray children as “shrinking away” from the classroom as if they were in the film “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” The illustrator and designer use the powerful illustrated images to initially show children falling through the cracks and getting left behind and then brilliantly portray what engagement, active learning and real world-based learning look like.

Results of My Journey

My personal aforementioned experiences are what catapulted me into becoming the teacher I became. For much of my life, I had been exposed to the traditional way of learning and teaching, sitting at desks with textbooks open and performing at the lowest level of thinking skills. Granted, for me, that wasn’t a huge issue. I have been blessed to always look at how I can become engage or how to connect what I was learning to life. Many of my classmates weren’t that way. I have no problem saying that during most of school years, I was the Teacher’s Pet. It wasn’t intentional; it was my clear love for and passion about teaching and learning, as well as my desire to showcase and celebrate learning. I think that is why my life as a METCO student at Lincoln-Sudbury impacted my teaching style in the way it did. At Lincoln-Sudbury in the early 70’s, I truly felt that I mattered as a student and a person. Grades were important, but learning and growth was more important. One of my favorite quotes about humanistic education is by George Brown (1975). Brown noted,

“Man has a mind. Man has feelings. To separate the two is to deny all that man is. To integrate the two is to help man realize what he might be.”

Brown, George. 1975. Human is as confluent does. In George Brown, Thomas Yeomans, and Liles Grizzard, eds. The Live Classroom: Innovations through Confluent Education and Gestalt, p. 108. New York: Viking Press.

Another quote that exemplifies my feelings is,

My Vision

Whether you read Through the Cracks or simply look at the illustration, you will understand the vision I have for Literarily My Way and my anecdotes hopefully share the experiences that led to that vision. There are many ways to engage people and groups in your vision, but most of the time it has to be shown and not simply stated. This book allows you to share what the vision looks like with lots of examples of the learning environments, the actions of the learners and the involvement of the community. The picture of the school at the beginning of the book and the school at the end paints the best picture.

Learning should be engaging. Testing should not be the be all and end all. All students should have a broad curriculum that includes the arts and enrichment. Students should have opportunities to work in teams and engage in project-based learning. And student and family well-being should be front and center.

Randi Weingarten

Engagement

• Share your vision for the classroom/school
• Compare and contrast the school’s community in Through the Crack, the “before and after” pictures near the front of the book and the one near the end of the book. I believe in visual examples of comparing and contrasting, jot it down on chart paper, post its, dry-erase board, etc.
• Use a physical Venn Diagram using hula hoops and post-its or cards.

Connections

• Brainstorm ideas. When, I, as a Spanish and ESOL Teacher, started each quarter/semester/year I began by asking: 1) What is one thing you want to be able to say/know when you leave this class; 2) Where in the world do you experience reading, writing, listening, speaking; and culture? This laid the ground work for getting out of “the book,” “traditional classroom,” grammar vs. communication.” This worked for every grade PK-12, Adult Education, as well as working with colleagues and staff.
• Involve the stakeholders, including the community as a whole. Ask students who can enhance certain areas of the curriculum. Poll community members and parents! Inventory them! Actively involve them! Engage them! Use them! Connect students and the world!