Beautiful Work

Today I returned to school to help out with new staff orientation. We have 10 new teachers joining our school this year. We read an article called, "Beautiful Work" by Ron Berger, which discusses the importance of using teaching as a way to support students in creating beautiful work across disciplines. 

In my group's discussion of the article I was reminded of an incident that occurred in mid-March during my second year of teaching. It was the day of parent-teacher conferences and I had volunteered to put up a bulletin board showcasing my advisory's work.

The idea behind advisory is to provide a small group of students, usually no more than 15-20, with character and group building activities as well as academic support. Some schools only have advisory classes meet once a week-- I had it every day for 45 minutes. If you're lucky there might even be an advisory curriculum for the whole school to follow. I was not so lucky. My advisory consisted of seniors most of whom received special education services. Those who were not classified as "special ed" were the "lowest performing" seniors. It's called tracking. Place the kids who struggle the most all in the same group. So, as a result, I had 36 students who were all failing at least one academic class and had more behavior issues to deal with than any other advisor in the twelfth grade. It was the kind of situation where you mention a few students' names and the response you get is always, "You've been set up." But it was that response that only motivated me more. I accepted the challenge with eager arms. I decided the best way to engage them and build group cohesion was through collaboration. I would have students create a shadow puppet show together. The previous year my co-teacher and I created a shadow puppetry show inspired by Dante's Inferno in our Senior English class and my principal loved it. More importantly, the students loved making it and were proud of the finished product. 

Tortured Souls. Scene from "Ayana's Hell" inspired by Dante's Inferno

So I gave my advisory some options and let them brainstorm some ideas. They chose to base their puppetry show on James and the Giant Peach. The first step was creating storyboards that would be revised and later become a puppetry show. Students drew amazing storyboards. Some chose to follow the story exactly, some highlighted their favorite parts, and others added twists and alternative endings. Finally, I saw some creativity shine through. I knew I had to put their work on display. When my advisees came into class that day they asked about their work. I told them I had hung it up on the bulletin board across the hall. "Can we go see it?" They asked eagerly. And before I finished saying yes, they ran out the door with giant smiles on their faces. They weren't used to having their work on display.

My senior advisory on a "low-attendance" day

One hour later, I was called into the assistant principal's office. I was told I needed to take the work down. When I asked why I was told because it was “not the best work they can do.” She said because some were in color, some in black and white, and on different sized paper it was a “bad” bulletin board. I wanted to scream, "Hello! It's called differentiation!!"

She told me it didn’t look like they had put effort into their work. She brought up one storyboard that used the word “gotta” and said that there shouldn’t be slang in work that is being displayed. She asked me what I would think if I were a parent and saw that. I didn’t know how to respond. I wanted to say that most parents in this school probably won't even look at the bulletin board and could care less if a student used slang or didn’t color it in. I felt like they were embarrassed to have parents see what students in this school are actually capable of. The irony of a school that lacked rigor and encouraged teachers to hold extremely low standards telling me that my students, who were constantly passed through the system, hadn't produced "good enough" work slapped me in the face. She told me that I could put it up inside a classroom if I really wanted parents to see it or show it to them during parent-teacher conferences. 

She then asked me if I “truly believe this is the best work they can do”. I stared back at her and said that for some students it was their best work and the fact that I had more storyboards than I could fit on the bulletin board said something when I battle with kids everyday to get them to complete the smallest task. I said that I don’t think bulletin boards should only display the “best work.” Every student’s work should be displayed and maybe that’s a motivator to do better next time. They will see their work and know that in the future it will get displayed no matter what. 

I don’t want to be a teacher who only criticizes my students’ work. For many students it was a difficult assignment. I know because I talked to them about it. I pushed kids to complete as much as they did. I encouraged students to add color, but if a student said they liked it better in black and white than that was their choice as the artist. I explained that when I told my students I had put up their storyboards their faces lit up and they couldn't wait to see their work on display. Even students who had begged me not to display their work couldn't stop smiling when they saw I had ignored their request. These are students who are used to only seeing the "best" work displayed and the reality is when compared to their peers, their work is rarely, by our standards, the "best". My assistant principal then told me that I should tell students that I think they can do better and give them time to improve their storyboards. I wanted to respond with sarcasm, "Nothing like non-specific feedback and harsh criticism to motivate a student." But instead I said nothing.

She suggested I should have had them create multiple drafts of the storyboards and that I could show a progression of how they improved. Then I started crying. No matter how much I tried to explain, she didn't understand this was the first step in a larger group project, but it didn't matter. This was not so much about the bulletin board as finding another way for the administration to attack me. I was the victim of the "gotcha" mentality. I voiced my opinion in a meeting. I said the "wrong thing" and now I was under attack.

Through my tears, I told her that I am really frustrated with the way that the school year was going. That I got a "Unsatisfactory" rating in advisory after being observed for less than 10 minutes in the middle of the period and now I’m being told that I can’t even do a bulletin board right. “I feel like everything I do is wrong.” 

Then the phone rang and she promptly turned to answer it. When she got off the phone she said with a hint of satisfaction, “What was I saying?” She then went back to telling me all the things I could do to make it better next time. She ended by saying, “I have given you a directive. If you do not take it down, I will.” I left her office still in tears.

After some reflection, I realized that what made me so upset was that I felt that I had created a project in which many of my students whom do not usually attempt work, completed this assignment. I felt that by telling me my students' work was not their personal best was saying that I was not encouraging them to do their best. It also infuriated me to have someone who has never taught the students I teach, who would have what she considered her "bad" advisees transferred into my advisory, who showed Lifetime movies in class, who sits at her desk eating bologna by the slice, think that she could do better. 

Although I do agree that I could have allowed more opportunities to continue working on and revising the storyboards, my main focus was on developing a puppet show. I felt like she had vocalized some useful but unfeasible ideas. It was hard taking criticism from someone whom I do not believe is an effective teacher. 

I realized in this moment of harsh criticism and no support that the values and philosophies of this school did not match my own. And unfortunately after this incident, I lost my ambition, my drive to be creative and abandoned the puppetry project and turned advisory class into homework help and academic support. The toxicity of the school had finally seeped into my skin, poisoning my soul and the only antidote was finding a new school-- a school that valued beautiful work.

After reading Ron Berger's article, I did a google search and found a ridiculously adorable and inspiring video where Ron teaches elementary school students how to provide meaningful feedback to their peers in order to help them improve their work and truly make it beautiful.

As I begin my sixth year of teaching, I am once again excited about providing an environment for students to critique and support one another's work. I am inspired. Thank you, Ron Berger.

Click here to watch Ron Berger and Austin's butterfly on vimeo