Pink Shoes and Art Teachers

My daughter, Reagan, inherited my love of shoes. She has her own style, and lately, she has been obsessed with platform Converse hightops. She saw a pink pair online and has been searching for them for months. Converse doesn't sell them anymore in the US and the online auctions have them going for $300 or more. She managed to find them through Australia's Converse website for just $100. Throw in a promo code and the exchange rate, and that's just $64 US. But the problem is they don't ship outside of Australia. Undaunted, Reagan reached out to her grandfather, who had told her about a cousin of his that lived there. She pleaded with him to contact his cousin to see if she could ship the shoes to her and then have her ship them to the US. After figuring out payment, several phone calls and emails and some help from half the world away, the pink shoes arrived this week. I don't think she's taken them off other than to sleep and shower since.

My daughter's ability to access resources through her connections to others is known as social capital. Our social capital is the web of people that we know and those that know them. A large social capital gives us access to knowledge and resources much grater than what we own ourselves. It's the reason for the old addage, "It's not always what you know, but who you know." But not everyone has a grandfather with a cousin in Australia, and we all don't carry around the same social capital. This was the theory behind my doctoral dissertation. There are marginalized students all around us every day, and we can play a role as their social capital. When we have relationships with students, we give them access to our knowledge, experiences and resources. They also gain access to the people that we know beyond our school. And when students don't always have the social capital at home, they lean heavily on us to fill those gaps.

During Spring Break, I received a text from our art teacher about attending a first-generation celebration  for a former student that we had been keeping up with. Julene was about to graduate college with a degree in Art Education. Julene's story isn't like most students that become educators. When she was at Greene Central, she was no stranger to discipline issues early on. Her incident history shows infractions for inappropriate language, disruption, skipping class, insubordination and fighting. The mural on our math hall was done in an after school detention as a punishment for skipping class. Towards the end of her time with us, she had gained some social capital with a few teachers, and was inspired by her art teacher, Ashley Shiosaky. She stopped getting into trouble and leveraged her new resources to follow that path to college. She needed help along the way as a first-generation student on filling out paperwork and financial aid. She needed support when she had a baby and when she needed a way out of a difficult relationship with the father. But she had the social capital to navigate all of that through the same people that she had come to depend on in high school. 

In just a few days, Julene will finish her teaching internship, graduate ECU, and become an art teacher. She has already accepted a job at a nearby high school. She's still leveraging her social capital here to figure out how to sign up for benefits like insurance, something she's never had. In a time when we need young people that are willing to become teachers more than ever before, we can see just how important it is to invest in our young people as their social capital. If we expect them to navigate into the unknown without an example, then we have to be the example and fill in the gaps for all of the questions and fears along the way. When you become a piece of social capital, the relationshiop doesn't end with a bell or a semester for that student. You are forever part of their web of resources. But the great thing about social capital theory, is that Julene now gets to become social capital for someone else. Her new knowledge and experiences let her impact a classroom full of students. I sincerely hope that she gets to find a student just like she was, so that she can answer their questions. This is how you change the world.

Trying Not to Fail

Last week, my blog was about defining success. The summary is that student success should be measured much differently than college acceptance, a full scholarship, or a six-figure salary as an adult. Successful students become contributors to their community. While the definition of success was fresh in my mind, I traveled to Raleigh this week for professional development. As a part of this workshop, I got to hear Dr. Dudley Flood speak about equity in education. Trust me, if you don't know him, look him up. He's a WEALTH of knowledge. He's much older now and has a foundation that others run in his namesake. He's one of those older people that you just want to listen to. I was pinned on his every word and one particular sentence caught my attention. "Trying not to fail is not the same as success." Please take a second and think about that sentence. Seriously, stop reading and think. 

It's no secret that this has been a tough year for educators. The instant readjustment to school has been painful at times as we deal with behavior issues, attendance issues, apathy, and students that are simply unprepared for the courses that we teach. Some have done fine, but others are failing. At times we have done so much to try to engage them and at this point, many of us have grown tired and feel that we are failing as educators. No one likes to fail, so at different points, we have a spark. Students turn in assignments late or we have just one more conversation with a few students to convince them to do their best. I have days that I am right there with you, wishing I had done a little more. We are all trying not to fail. 

In a few days, we will all get a much-deserved break. Enjoy it. You earned every second. But when you come back for the final five weeks of school, I am going to ask for your very best. It will take excitement, motivation, communication, and every teacher trick that you have in your arsenal. It will undoubtedly take patience and understanding. It will certainly take love. So please enjoy your break and time to recharge. We have important work to do when you get back, and when you do, I am going to ask for success over trying not to fail. 

Success

This week I had a chance to participate in the first of three "Portrait of a Graduate" meetings. These meetings are held between all types of community and school stakeholders and are designed to guide some conversation on what successful graduates from our schools can do. The first thing that jumps out at you in these meetings, is that we are assessing the absolute wrong skills of students today. Parents, businesses, and almost every other stakeholder said that they wanted students that were better communicators, better problem-solvers, and to be more civically minded. Unfortunately, we don't measure those things in a test at all. It's not something that you can bubble a sheet to figure out, and that doesn't work well for the people that measure schools. We spent some time starting to talk about what success for graduates today looks like and that conversation will be carried out in future meetings. It was a long first meeting, but I enjoyed it. 

During the meeting, I had to ignore a phone call from an unknown number. When I listened to the message, it was a business owner asking if I could be a reference for a former student that had listed me. Generally, I am happy for students that ask to use me as a reference, but I don't get many calls about it. It was late, so I returned the call the next day. The student in question was a girl that graduated in 2014. She had a baby her Senior year and didn't initially come back to school afterward. It took a lot of coordinated help throughout the district to get her to try to finish, but she agreed to come work in an empty room that was a part of the Pre-K center. Mrs. Davis and I took turns watching the baby, while the student finished the work necessary to pass the classes of her last semester. When she finished, I made her promise that she would work hard to be a great example for her little girl. It wasn't going to be easy for her, but something told me that she could do it. Since that time, I have kept up with this former student through social media. She shared her daughter's first day of school with me, and I always have enjoyed watching that little girl grow up in pictures. 

When I spoke to the employer, she told me that I was the only reference that she had listed. She asked about how she had been as a student. For some strange reason, I remembered it well. She was an average student academically, but she was spunky and didn't mind working for things. That's what got her to graduate. It's also what made her a good mom and now it was making her step out and try something new. When I explained this to the employer on the phone, her response stopped me. She said, "Well isn't that what success really is?" She's right. Somehow we have got to start teaching children that success isn't a six-figure job or a full scholarship to a prestigious university. Success is being a productive member of society in whatever you choose and supporting yourself and your family in doing it. Years later, my former student had figured out a way to show me that she was being successful, and I absolutely loved it.