If you wonder why people become teachers and remain in the classroom, watch this video created by the teachers at Sunburst Elememtary School in Glendale, Arizona. They are having fun! They have a culture of happiness. Not every public school is happy. But those with a strong culture are like families. Watch this family of teachers cavorting for the joy of it.
By the way, I googled the school and saw that they had made many videos. I also saw that it was a diverse school, with small class size, all teachers certified, and no teacher with less than three years experience. Also, it closed the achievement gap between white and Hispanic children. Maybe the secret is joy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This school represents what school should be about: helping others, learning and joy. It reminds me of my old school with lots of smart, creative people that love teaching, care about students and know how to laugh. The students are a mix of middle class and Latinos many of whom may also be in the middle class. They would not be able to erase “the gap” unless the typical Latino student had been here at least five years. We need more schools like these. My only comment is I wish they had more books on the shelves in the library as recreational reading is an important step in literacy. It is good to know that some teachers have not been polluted by all the negativity in these draconian times.
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The secret is in fact joy. Keep it a secret, though. Otherwise, someone will come in to monetize, replicate, and scale up the product of teachers cavorting for the joy of it. Cavorting will become a job duty, and the videos will be data driven.
In some places, it’s difficult but possible to keep a sense of humor and lightheartedness, somewhat ignoring the effects of an historically and increasingly impoverished population, declining living standards, micromanagement, profession bashing editorials, standardization, and curricular monetization. But, it really is the secret, I think. Play. Cheers for the post.
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“The secret is in fact joy. Keep it a secret, though. Otherwise, someone will come in to monetize, replicate, and scale up the product of teachers cavorting for the joy of it. Cavorting will become a job duty, and the videos will be data driven.”
Oh, LeftCoastTeacher, you may have meant to be somewhat ironic, but this is so true.
Look what they did to the idea of “grit,” for instance. They decided they wanted to test for that, too. I mean, “grit” is fine for those who have it, assuming you know what the he!! it even involves, but that’s the kind of thing that doesn’t belong in any testing regimen (well, a lot of other stuff doesn’t belong there, either, given the fact that there is way too much mostly meaningless and testing).
OTOH, I don’t see Eva Moskowitz, among others, adding joy and cavorting to the job requirements in her charter schools. She is way more Dickensian than that.
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Zorba,
Every day, when I drive to work, there is a certain corner a few blocks from school where I consciously relax the muscles in my face and shoulders, and lighten and brighten up as much as I can for my students. I don’t think I would be able to do that if I were driving to work at a charter.
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LCT, I can certainly understand that.
And I am also grateful that I am old, and I retired before the charter stuff and the whole Common Core and extensive required testing came into being.
When I first began teaching in special education, it was right before the Education For All Handicapped Children Act was passed. Then (thank goodness) PL 94-142 was passed, and those severely disabled children who had never been able to attend a public school before, suddenly were able to.
And those of us in the field way back then had to develop our own programs and ways of teaching these kids. If I must say so myself, most of us did a damned good job of teaching these kids. There were no canned programs for them. Yes, there were IEP’s, but very frankly, those of us who had already been teaching these kids were the ones who knew what they needed, and developed their IEP’s.
From what I understand from my younger friends still in the special education field, even for the students who are severely to profoundly handicapped, they are still expected to participate in some kind of standardized testing. Really? Really???
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Soon, there will be a standardized test for joy.
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Diane, I certainly hope not.
But the way things are going, who knows?
We need to keep fighting back against this sh!t that is against the best interests of the children.
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First question on that standardized test:
How do you spell joy?
a) Joey
b) Jay
c) Joi
d) Jeoy
e) all of the above
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When I first started teaching ESL, few people even knew what it was. There were no materials. I invented them. While it was time consuming, it was a pleasure to have autonomy and see students responding so well. Most of my original students did well in the real world so I guess my expectations were not too low, and nobody complained they were in a “failure factory.” Of course, in those days nobody thought about raiding the public trust, the main motive for assaulting public schools.
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Yes, retired teacher, I understand exactly what you are talking about.
As I said, we had to do much the same thing when I first started teaching the severely disabled. There were no materials for us, either.
But on the other hand, we were allowed to do what we knew was best for our kids.
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Diane,
I am pressured to take a standardized test for joy annually, called a School Experience Survey. (I decline.) My students took a standardized, multiple choice test for joy the last time I was evaluated, another survey, as part of my evaluation. John Deasy pushed them both through the school board in L.A.
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Both multiple choice surveys are as difficult to read and confusing to understand as Common Core pineapples and hares. That’s psychometric data collection fer ya!
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David Coleman probably does’t give a #@&T about this…
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Double like!
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Except you misspelled shit. It’s $#!T.
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Nobody gives a sh-t what David Coleman feels or what he thinks.
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Or if you need a past tense $#@t.
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Watch this: I will now connect the funny teachers in the video and this particular subject of language often shouted by Coleman (and tech CEOs).
Presto!
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Ooo-Lala! Love it, Diane.
I loved being a public school teacher and wouldn’t change a thing.
Public school teachers are so terrific. I never met a public school teacher who didn’t care about the students and their parents/guardians.
We ROCK. Tell this to the deformers.
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Definitely, Sunburst Elem. is full of Joy! It reminded me of my daughter’s elem. school back in the 90’s: Kiptopeke Elem. School in Cape Charles, VA. on the Eastern Shore of Va. Gwyn Coghill and Rick Bowmaster did a lot of crazy stunts and they made learning fun. My current school, GH Reid, could be the same. But we are spending the entire last month of school just on testing! Losing good teaching/learning time if you ask me!
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Same thing in the 90s before testing for my children’s elementary, and even middle school-Keysor Elementary and North Middle in Kirkwood, MO.
I’d bet there are a lot of folks here that can say the same thing about the joy factor in schools in the 90s before standardized suffering and non-standardized amercement.
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Thank you Diane for recognizing the great work our teachers and staff is doing. Thank you to all the teachers out there for the work you do each and every day for students!!
Larry Herrera-
wesdschools.org/domain/26
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I was so enthralled with their lip sync that I watched all the way through the 2016 production as well. What fun! Tell me you didn’t find yourself moving to the beat as well.
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Reblogged this on Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning".
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Given what’s happened to education in Arizona (vouchers and no education degree required for teachers) it’s wonderful that they can still feel joy in what they are doing. Keep spreading this!!
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To Zorba, June 4 @ 3:49: So true about special ed. Started teaching right after 94-142 became law, & still a bit of struggle over doing what was right/legal for kids. HOWEVER–the very first summer after my first year, I took a course in special ed. law, whereby our teacher (a school psychologist who’d been fired from quite a few school districts for his defense of kids before the law) gave each of us a copy of 94-142.
The next year, when attempts were made to NOT service kids (as done, mostly, by the sp.ed. administrator–which the majority of them would do in coming years, even w/the law {the principals were fine–in fact, just wonderful advocates for their students}), I would simply pull out my copy, flag the page/paragraph, section, & tell the sp.ed. administrator that he could not, in fact, w/hold P.T. or Speech Therapy or whatever. It worked–every time.
Now, however, in the DeVosian world, federal law/oversight will go down the drain, &, once again, local school district administrators (&, where I am, in Ill-Annoy– ESPECIALLY sp.ed. administrators) will monetize the kids out of their IEPs & the continuum of services
(which is–& has always been–the least restrictive environment)-EVERYONE will be dumped into “inclusive” classrooms. And we all know using fellow students as teachers–oops, I mean, “learning partners”– ALWAYS works SO well.
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That was not the full library, it is a huge circular room in the middle of a hub… But you can always have more books…
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Thank for sharing what is happening at Sunburst. I do believe children can and should have joy at school. This school is not far from where I live in the Phoenix area.
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