I caught some of the Discovery Channel’s excellent documentary Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero this past week. I would highly recommend watching some or all of it if you have the chance. The program certainly stirs up lots of emotions and memories of that terrible day, now nearly 10 years ago. It gracefully touches on the sorrow and loss our country experienced in those awful hours, but also appeals to our “better angels” and asks us to raise our eyes and look ahead.
About a month after the tragedy, several musicians performed at Madison Square Garden for an event called “The Concert for New York.” One performance that still sticks with me was Five for Fighting’s “Superman”, which had an exceptionally poignant message about heroes and our definition of them. The term “hero” certainly took on a different definition for me at the thought of the firefighters and police officers who charged up those stairs with the singular and noble purpose of helping others, with little regard for themselves or their own safety.
That day changed my view of heroism. Now, I know that real heroes are people who put others ahead of themselves and are willing to sacrifice for the betterment of others. As an educator, I get to work with these kinds of people every day. What an incredible blessing…
If we stopped to notice, real “supermen” (and women) are everywhere. Unsung, infrequently noticed, taken for granted … but still there. That’s unfortunate but of no real import as true heroes aren’t concerned with the recognition or the acclaim anyway. What matters to them is the often quiet and patient work of helping others. Saving lives (more often than not) happens with persistence, genuine love for others, and just being there – not in “leaps and bounds.”
I think the challenge for all of us isn’t to try and recognize and thank more heroes, although that’s important. The real challenge is to try and live our lives with a spirit of service that puts the needs of others ahead of our own.
We all have the choice…
Jason Glass
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September 21, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Megann Tresemer
I am in a unique position having experience in Iowa and Colorado. I grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa. My husband and I lived in Eagle, Colorado for five years, and I taught 6th grade Reading and Language Arts at Gypsum Creek Middle School from 2001-2006. After our first child was born, we felt the tug to return to the Midwest, and I came full circle returning to my hometown where I now teach 8th grade English in the same district I received my K-12 education.
I have served three years on the district’s Iowa Core Leadership committee. I am on the district’s Professional Learning Community Leadership committee, and now I am the English department chair which means I now have a place on the Building Leadership Team. Being on each of these committees, our focus has been on making the necessary changes to take our schools from good to great.
Cedar Falls has made a second order change this school year by giving teachers time to collaborate. It’s the job-embedded professional development time you have mentioned. Forming collaborative groups came from the Iowa Core itself. We weren’t sure how to go about doing this, so we learned together by attending a summit in Phoenix put on by the best of the best with regards to PLCS: Richard DuFour. This change is HUGE, and we are on such a good path. We have turned the Titanic before the iceberg.
In our collaborative teams, we are focusing on four questions:
1) What is it we want our students to learn? (Iowa Core/Common Core)
2) How will we know if they’ve learned it? (teacher made formative assessments)
3) What do we do if they haven’t learned it? ( a system of intervention to get help to students that need it within the school day)
4) What do we do if they already know it? (enrichment, extension opportunities)
This is my thirteenth year of teaching, and I feel as though FINALLY we are getting at the right work. My fear is that the four-tier plan you have been talking about is going to take us off track. I loved teaching in Eagle County, but I did not love the TAP program. I know it changed after I left in 2006 and the district worked out a lot of the bugs. The master teacher and mentor teacher positions look good on paper, but what happens when your best teachers do not want those positions because it takes away time from their own classrooms? As a mentor or master teacher you are evaluating your peers. It’s one thing for an administrator to evaluate teachers, but in this culture of collaboration we have started, it would be another thing for a teacher to be evaluating another teacher.
Another concern I have is how you have said that teachers want leadership opportunities. Yes we do! However, evaluating my peers is not the type of leadership I want. If I wanted that, I would go back to school for an administration degree. The punch to teacher morale that came as a result of this peer-evaluation is something I never want to experience again. Shared leadership within the professional learning community allows us to learn together, to focus on those four questions I previously listed to improve our teaching so that ever student learns.
After reading your blogs and responses to comments, I know you are not going to ram something down our throats. You have said that you are committed to including teachers in the discussion and decision-making process, and I thank you for that.
I just don’t want to get taken off this good path we are on. We are on the cusp of big change here in Cedar Falls.
Thank you!
Megann Tresemer
8th Grade English Teacher/Department Chair
Holmes Junior High
Cedar Falls, Iowa
September 22, 2011 at 2:56 am
Jason Glass
Thanks Megann – you certainly have a great perspective on this!
Since you left Eagle County, some amazing things happened. We did change the program substantially based on suggestions and feedback from teachers. I believe if you talked with educators there now, they would verify that we really listened and worked to improve.
What you would be most proud of is the way that school system has skyrocketed in terms of student results. In particular, Gypsum Elementary has just been a star, especially for students who are learning English. The last year I was there, it was actually the highest performing school and the Principal won a “Principal of the Year” award.
Thanks much for your perspective. I know these changes make people uncomfortable and they are difficult. But they are also necessary. We do need to challenge the education profession to grow, regardless of how difficult the growing pains may be.
Thanks again!
JG