Rafe Esquith: Teacher and Best-Selling Author Discusses the Future of Public Education

RAFE ESQUITH

Rafe Esquith teaches 5^th Grade at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles, California

 

• Awarded the President’s National Medal of Arts
• The American Teachers Award
• Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award
• Honorary Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II
• Parents Magazine’s As You Grow Award
• The Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama
• 1992 Disney National Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award
• New York Times Best Selling Author of “Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire”

Often times I am frustrated by politicians who want to change public education in ways I just don’t understand. The reason I get frustrated is that it seems that teachers are never included in the conversation. Part of my premise for this book is that we need to be asking the best teachers where public education needs to go. What are your thoughts?

RAFE: In the latest film Waiting for Superman public education is destroyed. I’m a public school teacher. I know how bad things can be. I know about the horror stories in public schools. What frustrates me is there are great things going on in our public schools that you never hear about. There are fantastic teachers in public schools that you never hear about. I know because I teach with them. I get my name in the paper, but there are people I work with that are just as good as I am that you have never heard of.

     The reason some of our public schools are broken is because our society is broken. We have a drug problem in public schools because we have a drug problem in society. Violence is in our public schools because there is violence in society. Why should we think public schools should be any different? I think we have to start talking honestly about the real factors in education. A film like Waiting for Superman financed by billionaires basically showing a couple of test factories that they say are doing a great job when in fact they are not doing better. They are not doing any better than anyone else. I think if public education is going to get better, we need to be changing the conversation and changing what we believe as a society.   

     There is an old joke that it will be a great day when the army has to have a bake sale to build tanks because the schools have enough money. People who say money is not an issue, of course it’s an issue. My classroom has been leaking for 28 years. Every time it rains I have to bail the room. It damages equipment. Of course money would make my classroom better. Class size is an issue. I have 34 kids this year. I’m not saying it’s the only issue, but if I had 24 I could more effectively reach those kids. But we have had to lay-off a bunch of teachers because we don’t have the money. I think what I would like to tell the politicians are to “Put up or shut up.” They talk, they talk, and they talk, but as long as we are spending billions and billions and billions of dollars bombing other countries, I don’t think we are ever going to have a good public school system. Children are the most important issue. They are the future. But as a country we don’t really believe that it’s everything, NOT really. When we have a country that actually puts public education first, I think it will be fantastic. I know we have great teachers, and I know we have great kids, but the resources are really skimpy right now. What we value as a society is hurting public schools. When more people talk about American Idol more than they do about why Johnny can’t read, of course Johnny can’t read because that’s our value system.

    What I try to do in Room 56 is to create a different value system. What we value in my classroom is different from what our society values. That’s why it works so well. It’s the Huck Finn of going down the river and seeing the hypocrisy, the racism, and the violence and saying I’m leaving and I don’t want to be a part of that society. The higher hero for me since we are talking about literature is Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird) who when he is asked by his children, “Are we going to win the case?” and he says “No.” But he still takes the case. He doesn’t run away. He goes into the courtroom and he fights the fight that he can, which is what I think public school teachers do. I hope that one day our society realizes our awful values. When we change those values, I think public school teachers will win more fights and not have to fight so often.

I think you and other great teachers need to be on CNN in order to have an honest conversation about public education.

RAFE: I would love that but here’s the problem, an honest conversation. I will tell people that public schools have to do a better job. I will tell people that there are people teaching who shouldn’t be teaching. There are some bad teachers in the public schools. That’s a fact. But that’s not the only problem. It’s not a bigger problem than poverty. It’s not a bigger problem than kids coming to school hungry. I’m a lunatic. You can’t expect really good teachers to give up their whole life and to become parent, doctor, and psychologist for every child. That’s unreasonable. That’s what’s being asked of us now. We are going to need the whole society to start pulling together to make teachers more effective. We are in this together. When I look into my classroom the cure for cancer is in front of me. One of those kids is going to find a cure that is going to save all our lives. We should be highly invested in public schools.

DARA FELDMAN

DARA FELDMAN

Dara is currently, the Director of Education for The Virtues Project.

• 2000 Computer World Smithsonian Award in Education and Academia
• 2005 Disney Elementary School Teacher of the Year
• Apple Distinguished Educator
• National Association of Self-Esteem Teacher of the Year
• Master Teacher for the National Teacher Training Institute
• Nationally Board Certified in Early Childhood Education

As an Instructional Coach you work with a lot of teachers. What is the #1 thing you work on with a struggling teacher?

Dara: After relationships, I would say Balanced Literacy. Because I believe that reading is critical. I work in the D.C. Public School System and I have noticed that one of the reasons kids act out is because they can’t read and they would rather get in trouble for acting out than face the humiliation of not being able to read.

 Part of my purpose for writing this book is the presence of so many disconnected ideas in education. Everyone is searching for their own way. Young teachers are often times trying to piece all the strategies together. It’s frustrating that we don’t have a single paradigm in education that we all agree upon.

Let’s talk about the future of public education. What do you think we need to be doing differently in public education?

Dara: We are spending so much time on assessment and loosing valuable instructional time because of the amount of time and focus we are putting on assessment. So actually our kids are learning less than if they would just let us teach them. I’m all for accountability, but things that can be measured are not necessarily meaningful, and the things that are meaningful cannot necessarily be measured. I left a school system that was so focused on academic rigor and assessment that the joy, meaning, purpose, and authentic learning were squashed. When I’m not allowed to take my Kindergarteners outside for 10 minutes because there is too much “learning” to do, I’m done. So I hope D.C is not going to move in that direction. I will stand-up for what I believe in.

You have to be true to your own self.

Dara: Well and true to the profession. Here is one more issue or problem in education. We have all this research but we don’t look at the full picture with the research. We take the pieces that we like and leave the rest. When we look at developmentally appropriate practices and play-based learning and what young children are supposed to do and how they learn we have all the evidence that we need. There is a way to balance play-based learning and balanced literacy in a really meaningful authentic way. Take for example the project approach. We know all about project-based learning. But for some reason when you put the lens of accountability on top of it, it automatically swallows up what is best in education and goes right down to those meaningless data point assessments.

The frustrating thing to me is that you can’t measure the things that you are talking about; the authenticity of relationships, capitalizing on teachable moments, and collaboration. Students have those “Ah-ha” moments that are richer than what can be tested or measured.

Dara: Absolutely, it’s not so much that you can’t measure them but it is much more difficult. It would be measured more through interviews and surveys which are more time consuming. When we look at the future of education, how can we balance the accountability piece, have high expectations for students and teachers, but keep those experiences rich in a meaningful way that allows for the whole continuum of learning which include their interests, strengths, and learning styles.

In your opinion what should a principal be looking for in a prospective teacher?

Dara: First, I would say a willingness to develop nurturing relationships; just genuine caring for kids and colleagues. Second, a commitment and desire for life-long learning is important. Just because a teacher has a teaching degree, doesn’t mean they are finished learning. On the contrary you are just beginning to learn about this profession. Next, the willingness to be a team player and share ideas is an attribute. You can work alone and be a rock star; but share the rock and the stardom. Don’t be a Lone Ranger in your classroom. That’s not good for the students, school, or you. Enthusiasm is an important attribute. Enthusiasm for kids, for the content, and for learning so that your students see learning is fun and engaging if they are willing to work. Reliability is also very important. Reliability must be there. Ultimately an attitude that is striving for excellence is what a principal should be looking for. I think that’s something that comes with time and support. If there is the willingness to be diligent and to refine your craft, and have that life-long learning then ultimately that will come.

Just that constant desire to get better…

Dara: Yes, just striving to get better everyday and the willingness to sacrifice some time. This is not a 9 to 3 job. I don’t care what anybody says.

I agree. It’s more like a way of life.

Dara: It’s life period. It really is. I guess going back to one of the first questions you asked me. When there is something going on with a child, don’t assume you know. Listen and find out. Reach out to their families. You may need to take them for a walk. You may need to go watch them play at their next basketball game so they know that they’re cared about. Do it. Equal is not equitable.

Jennifer Wilson

JENNIFER WILSON, 2006 Disney Elementary School Teacher of the Year

Jennifer Wilson teaches 3^rd Grade at Grant Ranch School in Littleton, Colorado

• The Denver Public Schools Skillful Teacher Award
• 2004 The Denver Public Schools Gold Star Teacher Award
• 2004 nominated for Colorado Teacher of the Year
• 2006 Disney Elementary School Teacher of the Year
• 2008 Kappa Delta Pi Teacher of Honor

Every teacher has gotten frustrated at some point and said, “I just want to start my own school.” What would your school be like?

Jennifer: I would do my best to keep my school small and intimate. In large schools there is often a lack of communication, a lack of understanding and even a lack of accountability. In large schools things can get mis-communicated very easily.  You hear, “the district says we have to do …..” So we start doing what we think the district said we needed to do, but the reality is that no one is supporting us or following up on the initiative because no one has time to. The initiative gets implemented half-heartedly and then falls by the wayside and teachers end up doing their own thing. I would keep my school very small and focus the curriculum on critical thinking and problem solving. I would also incorporate more looping scenarios in my school where relationships are formed for longer periods of time. My school would be small, team-based with rich relationships between teachers and students.

If you were in a college class looking at future teachers, what would be your advice to them?

Jennifer: Never stop learning! If you think you have all the answers it’s time to get out of the profession. In order to know how to keep learning you have to be a good observer, listener, and reflector. You have to take time to stop and think about what’s going on in your classroom as well as your own teaching. There is so much coming at a teacher that it’s easy not to take time to stop and think.

Is there anything else you want to say to future teachers or new teachers?

Jennifer: If you are not sure about being a teacher, it’s probably not for you. I think we have moved passed the idea if you can’t do anything else you should teach. If you start observing in those classrooms and you are not feeling, “This is awesome” or “This is my passion,” “This excites me,” “This energizes me.” If you are not feeling those emotions pretty strongly then you do not need to be in the teaching profession. It’s so intense and so exhausting that you will not survive if you don’t have that passion.

Cynthia Pochomis 2005 Disney Teacher of the Year for Oustanding Educational Support

Cynthia Pochomis

Cynthia teaches students with severe social and emotional disabilities at The Richardson Park Learning Center in Wilmington, Delaware.

Often legislators are trying to micromanage education and produce a one-size fits all solution. What are your thoughts on the future of education? I personally believe that one size does not fit all.

Cynthia: It definitely does not. To expect the education of children with special needs to be a product in and a product out is naïve. We have some districts near me in which teachers have to teach all of their students on the same page at the same time using the theory that all the children will learn equally.

     There is a growing culture in education that success means passing the test. That opposes everything that I believe in! We cannot treat education as a business no matter how much money the rich of the world contribute in order for us to teach according to their business models. Children are not a business and that model certainly does not work for special education students. Part of the reason children are in my school is because the regular curriculum and methods of instruction just do not work for them. We have to look at children as individuals, meet them where they are, and push them as far as they can go. Give them confidence and the ability to get along in society.

     If I were running the world of education, I would not make the requirements the same for everyone. I would not make all my students take the type of high school required courses that include foreign languages and theoretical math classes. I would have a curriculum that is equally rigorous but geared toward the world of work. I hope that we will realize that we just cannot put everyone into the same college prep curriculum and expect them to be successful. Some students need a program of study that is equally as valuable but geared toward work, relationships, money management, and living skills.

The world needs all kinds of people.

Cynthia: It definitely does. There is respect in all work. We need a valued and honorable path for students with disabilities, a path that is not controlled by the passing of a test.  The law may say in 2014 that every child is going to pass a grade level test but I can tell you it is not going to happen. We have to plan for our special needs children and not let them drop out or fall through the cracks. We must do better for the children who lack the capacity to pass a standardized test. Their education should allow them to have a good life by what we teach and prepare them to do.

You are teaching coping strategies and emotional stability. If we are truly honest, if they don’t learn those things some will do something bad that will land them in prison. Those things are more important to your students and should come first.

Cynthia: Many are going to drop out because they are constantly being told that they do not have the ability to pass a test. Once a student establishes a pattern of failure, dropping out will be the end result. We must establish a curriculum that teaches our students to live independently and to be self-supporting. Graduates must be able to work. Unfortunately, many of my students come from homes with parents who have not been educated to find work making a life of public assistance seem acceptable. It is NOT. Learning that you must work to support yourself is something that I constantly stress with my students.

What needs to change in the classroom in our country?

Cynthia: When I was in college, our professors told us that teacher judgment was the best indicator of where a child was in reading. Now I feel my judgment has become the last indicator. Every lesson and decision has to be based on a test score. I think the lack of faith in individual teachers on how to reach children needs to be turned around. Having educators read this book may help build that trust. I feel strongly that teacher judgment needs to be back near the top of academic indicators. We have got to have the power again to say, “I’m the professional, and I believe this is the right thing.”

We need that trust back. It seems teachers had it at one point. I don’t see where there is going to be a single accountability model that everyone is going to be happy with. I do believe the trust must be put back in the hands of each individual teacher and school. The current model with test-score metrics is not what is best for students. The kids are missing out on enriching activities.

Cynthia: We are training children to take a test instead of teaching children to enjoy learning, reading and to be curious about the world around them. There is so much out there that we are not opening up to these children. We have to show them that life-long learning is more than what is on a test.



Amy Dunaway-Haney

AMY DUNAWAY-HANEY

Amy Dunaway-Haney teaches Spanish at Kettering-Fairmont High School in Kettering Ohio.

• 2010 Top Five Finalist for the Great American Teacher Award
• 2010 Technology Award for www.sparkenthusiasm.com website from the Ohio Foreign Language Association
• 2010 National Board Certification in World Languages (W.L.O.E.)
• 2006 Disney Teacher of the Year Honoree
• 2005 Ohio Foreign Language Outstanding Teacher
• 2005 Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year
• 2002 Freida J. Riley National Teaching Award
• 2002 MDA National Personal Achievement Award
• Co-Author of several books and publications designed to help teach Spanish

As you are mentoring student teachers, what would you say is the #1 thing a teacher could do to improve their performance? What is the key ingredient needed to be a very effective teacher?

Amy: I think there are so many things that a teacher needs to be an effective teacher. Number one is a very strong knowledge of their content area. That is huge! Second, I think Jamie Escalante said it best: you have to have the “ganas”. The “ganas” is the desire, the want! You have to want it. I don’t know if that can be taught. For me, I don’t know how NOT to be that way. I feel like I was born with the desire to be a teacher. I feel that next to parenting, teaching is the second most important job. A teacher has to have the desire to educate and inspire students. I would hope that a new teacher who is struggling would take a good hard look and say, “Is this really what I want to do?” I say that because they are going to have to do a lot of work to become a master teacher. That is the best place to start in finding out if this is truly the profession for you. If it is, I think everything else will come in time if you have the will, the desire, and the passion for your students’ learning.

     If a teacher is struggling, he/she needs to find someone he/she admires and figure out what those teachers are doing to be successful. Those master teachers are going to be more than willing to share materials, ideas, and become the new teacher’s biggest cheerleader.

     Perseverance is another key ingredient. Effective teachers never stop trying and they never give up. What they are doing is too important! Teachers cannot just say, “Well, I told them to do their homework but they just didn’t do it.” Effective teachers always try again and never give up on themselves or their students.

That’s the purpose of this book. We are learning from the great teachers who have been recognized as some of the best in our profession so that we can all improve our teaching and ultimately reach more students. One thing you have in common is the passion and desire to reach your students.

Amy: It really is critical to have that attitude. If you are not a strong person, it is easy to get discouraged. Teachers deal with difficult parents, administrators, and sometimes students. This profession can be daunting. If a teacher is struggling, I could see why he/she may want to give up.

HEATHER RENZ

Heather Renz

Heather Renz teaches 4^th grade at Tom McCall Elementary School in Redmond Oregon. She has been teaching for 31 years.

• 2010 Chosen to participate in the Mt. Vernon Teachers Institute
• 2006 Disney Teacher of the Year Honoree
• 2005 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum Award Recipient
• 2004 Jason Project XV Teacher Argonaut sponsored by Dr. Bob Ballard
• Her website www.mrsrenz.net has received over 50 awards
• Heather’s work has been featured in various publications including Education World, Teachers Gazette, Instructor, and NEA Today.
• In 2003 a personal letter was received from First Lady Laura Bush recognizing her work as an educator.



Do you have some advice for the struggling teacher that is not very effective? What is the #1 thing you would tell this teacher to improve his or her performance?

Heather: For me it goes back to the mindset of, “What if that is your child sitting there?” Most of the young teachers don’t have children. I think if they did they would understand that concept on a deeper level. But I would say what if that is your little brother, sister, or niece sitting in the audience of your classroom. Do you feel like they are getting the best teacher in the world? If not then what can I do to help you improve? These kids deserve the best. They only get one shot at being a 4^th grader. We can’t afford to waste one day of their life. We have to give them our best so how can I help you?

It really goes back to a teacher’s attitude or mindset toward teaching.

Heather: There are a lot of teachers who are natural teachers and then there are teachers who become teachers. I’ve had both. The teachers who are not natural teachers don’t have a passion for it. I honestly think it’s the wrong profession for them. We can’t do that to children. There are many professions where you can do something halfway and be okay. But when you are working with children and shaping their minds and futures, nothing less than 100% effort is going to do.

     I’m not saying we all need to be carbon copies of each other. If you don’t have a desire and your students’ best interest at heart you should look for a different profession. The kids deserve better.

How do you get kids excited and motivated to learn?

Heather: The best way to motivate students to learn is to connect it with their life. I think a lot of times teachers are given a book and told to teach it. That is certainly not my approach nor do I think it’s the best approach. Teachers need to look at their state standards and ask themselves the question, “What’s the best way to deliver this content to kids that is going to be motivating, exciting, and most important relevant?” If we deliver information out of context that is not relevant then we are doing students a huge disservice. The students are taught a rule in isolation, they forget the rule and then they have nothing to show for it. It is very important that we connect whatever we teach to life in some way. Teachers have to find a way to make it relevant for them to care and for it to make sense.

So you try to bring relevance to every lesson in some way or another?

Heather: Absolutely, that for me is my biggest passion and my biggest challenge, to connect what I am doing so they can make sense of it. I have kids that can exceed on a state test, yet when it comes to real-life understanding of concepts they just don’t have it. It’s not there. That tells me that somewhere in their past they have been taught a rule, forgotten the rule, and now there is nothing to show for it. THAT breaks my heart. That is absolutely wrong.

     I want my students to understand and know that what I’m teaching them is not just so you can learn it for the test. This is life learning! I compare true learning to riding a bike. Once you have learned how to ride a bike you always know how to ride a bike. If it is relevant and important the students won’t be able to forget.

The above was an excerpt from the book One-On-One With America's Most Inspiring Teachers.





Remembering Harriett Ball 1946-2011

HARRIETT BALL

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7943163

Harriett’s teaching has been showcased on Oprah, BET, The Early Show, the Apollo Theater, the Republican National Convention, 60 Minutes, CNN and C-SPAN. She has been nominated for the Brock Award twice and was recently inducted into the National Charter Schools Hall of Fame.

Years after starting her teaching career, Harriett Ball discovered what she calls a God-given talent to use rhyme and music to teach just about anything. While teaching in Houston she mentored David Levin who, along with Mike Feinberg, have gone on to start over one hundred of the most celebrated charter schools in America. The KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools get their name from Harriett’s song, Read Baby Read.

What do you want your legacy to be?

Harriett: I want to be remembered that I made a difference in the lives of students and teachers. I hope they see me as someone who unveiled the genius that was within them. I want to bring the joy back to teaching for the new teachers and the old ones that have lost their joy. I want to inspire those teachers who have been stifled by the cookie-cutter initiatives of school districts. I want to be remembered as someone that helped create schools that kids enjoyed attending. I want kids to say that school is a good place to be. I want kids to have the attitude of I can’t wait to show what I know. That was our morning chant. I would ask the kids “What class is this?” They would say:

This is the class

That has the kids

That want to learn

To read more books

To build a better tomorrow!

Hey! Ho!

Because the more I read

The more I know

The more I know

The more I grow

And the more I talk

The less I know

Because knowledge is power

And power is freedom

And I want it!

What do you want?

I want knowledge!

Another chant I used went like this:

I can’t wait to get to school

To see what I can see

I want to learn all I can learn

So I can be all I can be

If I have the right attitude

And stop being so rude

Bring my tools and follow the rules

I can set myself free

Yea, free to be anything I want to be

We’ve got hard working teachers here

Who do more than their share

What is it that makes me to act like hmm,

I don’t care

I’ve got to do my part

And I’m talking to you straight from the heart

We will be working with charts and graphs

And converting wholes to halves

We will be reading and writing

Boy this is exciting.

I’ll be all I can be

Yea school is the place for me!

Wow! You are showing the world how we can bring that positive spirit back to teaching and getting kids pumped about learning.

Harriett: It can be done. It can be done without a book if you know your stuff. You don’t need a book. Use the book for homework after you have taught. Don’t give homework on anything you have not personally taught yourself. All kids don’t get taught and all kids don’t learn the same way. I want my legacy to be that I made a difference. I really want to be like Martin Luther King in that everybody knows that Harriett Ball made a difference in that schools are using my techniques so that all students and teachers can enjoy school and have better products, meaning the kids. I want the kids to come out inspired, doing well, and college bound. There will be no doors closed to them. Now that’s a legacy.

One-on-One with Randy Wormald; 2005 Disney High School Teacher of the Year

RANDY WORMALD

Randy teaches Mathematics at Belmont High School in

Belmont, New Hampshire.

• 2005 Disney High School Teacher of the Year
• 2005 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year
• 2010 Top 5 Finalist for the Great American Teacher Award

Pictured below is Randy Wormald riding an electric motorcycle built in his classroom by his students!

What are some ways that you get kids excited about math? If a teacher is not careful, math can turn into working problems the whole period. From what I know of you, it seems you have a gift of relating it to the real world.

Randy: For me it’s about building relationships within the classroom so that you can mix it up and get a little crazy with making your instruction relevant to the real world. Not every single lesson in math has to be relevant, though. For example, you wouldn’t say, “This is how completing the square is used in the real world.” Those lessons are more for showing kids the thought process or a logical approach to things.

     We do a lot of projects and sometimes I tell them I don’t have all the answers. We built an electric motorcycle that is street legal and can be driven on the roads. During the project when I said, “I don’t have any idea,” they were like, “Come on, just tell us.” We undertake real world projects dealing with math that we sometimes have to figure out together. I let them know that you don’t have to know all the answers to tackle a problem or project.

How specifically to math did you tie the motorcycle project?

Randy:  We pulled in a number of different things. Anything from design aspects to measuring and calculating were used. We had to calculate the needed surface area to put certain types of batteries and space to switch them out. That in it self took in many geometry aspects. We started with just a dirt bike frame and extended it out an additional 30 inches. Students had to calculate the used voltage on the batteries after a certain amount of driving time. They talked about gear ratios to determine what sprockets we should use in the front and the back of the motorcycle. This led to discussions like, “Do we want the motorcycle to go really fast and maybe not so far or did we want to extend it so that we can drive it further without so much low-end power when taking off from a stop?” The electric motorcycle project pulled in quite a few different aspects of math, from basic measurement to geometry to gear ratios and things of that nature.

One-on-One with Glenn Lid (2004 Disney High School Teacher of the Year)

 

GLENN LID

Glenn Lid teaches Chemistry at Proviso East High School located in suburban Chicago, Illinois.

• 2004 Disney High School Teacher of the Year
• 1993 Finalist for the Presidential Award for Math and Science
• 2007 Illinois Chemistry Teacher of the Year (Davidson Award)

·         2007 Golden Apple Teacher of Distinction

• 2005 Elmhurst College Alumni Merit Award
• 2009 State Finalist: Presidential Award for Teaching Math and Science
• Two-time nominee: Assistant Coach of the Year in Wrestling by I.W.O.C.A

Glenn Lid was determined to use his life to help others. When becoming a doctor didn’t work out, he went on to inspire others to do more with their lives than they thought possible. He is a living example that adversity breeds opportunity. After 31 years he is still going strong at Proviso East High School in Chicago Illinois.

 

I understand that you have done something very unusual this year with your Nuclear Chemistry unit. Will you please describe your strategy?

Glenn: For many years when I teach about Nuclear Chemistry I ask my students, “How many of you have ever heard of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945?” It is always shocking to me to see only 1 or 2 hands go up in my entire classroom. This year I made a short questionnaire and gave it to all science students in the school. The questionnaire had questions like, “Do you know what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945?” “Do you know what the letters WMD stand for?” “Do you know what happened in Chernobyl, Russia in 1986?” “Do you know what happened at 3 Mile Island in 1979?” The results were just stunning. 90% of the students knew nothing about any of those events.

      I tried to think of ways that would show the kids the power of nuclear energy. I also wanted them to understand its potential impact on an emotional level. I remembered the movie The Freedom Writers and how powerful the end of the movie was when the kids got to meet with the Holocaust survivor who helped Anne Frank. I started thinking of a way to have my students meet a survivor of Hiroshima? When I began searching the web I found The Peace Memorial Museum in Japan. It’s similar to a Holocaust museum but it’s dedicated to eliminating nuclear weapons. It’s also dedicated to the memory of those that were subject to nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On the museum’s webpage was a link to request an interview with a survivor. I emailed the museum and got a reply back almost the very next day.

     The museum and I established a day and a time to video conference with a Hiroshima survivor. We set up the school’s auditorium in order to Skype with Mr. Nakanishi. We had about 100 students, faculty, and former students in attendance. He was 15 years old the day the bomb was dropped. His presentation described the events of that day. He showed paintings of the events while he gave an explanation. Following his presentation the students ask him questions. One student asked, “What did you do for food after the bomb?” He explained that because of the war they were already starving. There was no food available because the war was going so poorly for Japan. After the bomb things got worse. He said he was eating worms, frogs, whatever he could find. It was horrible.

     Another student asked a question I will never forget, “If you knew the nuclear bomb was going to drop and you had a chance to say goodbye to someone who would it have been?” People in the crowd began crying after she asked that question. Mr. Nakanishi was caught by surprise by the question and got choked up a little. He mentioned a little cousin of his that he liked so much, a little girl. They never found any traces of her after the bomb.

      Mr. Nakanishi was 15 years old when the bomb dropped. At 15 he was very militaristic and was really into the whole war idea. He made it clear to my students that he hates war. He thinks war is crazy and nuclear weapons are even crazier. One of the students asked him how he felt about nuclear energy. He explained that he was against anything with radioactivity. His abhors the idea of nuclear fission because of what it can do.

What were the students’ reactions regarding his presentation?

Glenn: They were impressed with his passion for wanting to end war and nuclear energy. Some were in shock in response to some of the stories he shared. Most everything that is depicted of that day is done through art. One image really impacted the kids. Mr. Nakanishi talked about dead people floating down the river with their eyeballs protruding from their heads due to the sudden change in pressure. It actually pushed their eyeballs from the sockets of their heads. The burns that people sustained also shocked the students. Even more hideous was the radioactive sickness.

     You just can’t understand what truly happened there until you talk with someone like him. He closed with a statement saying that the purpose of this whole interview is for this to never happen again.

One-on-One With Kim Bearden

Kim is co-founder and middle grades language arts teacher at The Ron Clark Academy. She brings an inspiring combination of innovation, creativity, and enthusiasm to the classroom for her students and visiting teachers.

• 2000 Disney Middle School Teacher of the Year
• Winner of the Milken National Educator Award
• Leadership Atlanta Class of 2008
• Finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year

As a middle school teacher what inspires you each day to continue teaching?

Kim: It is very important for a teacher to realize that the energy you give off is the energy you get back from your students. I am very intentional from the second that I enter my classroom of giving my students 110%. If I don’t necessarily feel like giving 110% that morning I still bring it. Maybe I’m tired or sick or having a bad day, but the second I enter the door they don’t know the difference. I bring that energy and immediately I get it back from my students. THAT’S what feeds me every day. It not only feeds the energy of the class, it feeds my soul as well.

      When you have a classroom full of students who enter giving me hugs and who can’t wait to be there, that’s what keeps me going back day after day. Some teachers have told me, “I don’t get those kinds of students. I don’t get students who are excited about learning.”

     So what I ask them is, “What are you giving the students initially? Are you waiting for them to give you that energy, excitement, and enthusiasm or are you starting with that yourself?”

     Sometimes teachers walk into to the classroom with their shoulders slumped and speaking in a monotone voice, and wonder why students look lethargic and bored. It reminds me of the scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where the teacher is at the blackboard and everyone is falling asleep. That’s what he was projecting and that’s the response he got.

     I have been fortunate enough to watch many master teachers teach. When you see enthusiastic students there is an enthusiastic teacher in the classroom first. The teacher has to be the one that brings the spirit, energy, and enthusiasm to the classroom. That’s what I love most about teaching: the energy, the joy, and that sparkle in the kids’ eyes when they are truly passionate about what’s happening. I know that some of my students are struggling with other things in their lives. To look at a child who I know is hurting on the inside for other reasons and see their eyes sparkling because of what is happening in the classroom, that’s the greatest reward in the world.