Sunday Salon: What I Read Online January 5-January 24 2016

With the recent snowstorm that hit Kentucky and much of the East Coast, there's been plenty of time to curl up with our favorite books and devices for online reading. I definitely read more books during the snowstorm than online articles, but here are a few of my favorite online reads over the past few weeks.

This Washington Post article from a mom who just wants her children to love learning and enjoy school appealed to me because I want the same for my own sons and for all other children as well. If you've read my blog previously, you might remember previous posts I've written about the insane idea that kids should have to sit still for hours on end, spend hours at a time being quiet or day after day practicing for standardized tests. These are certainly not ways to help children love learning or enjoy their school experiences, nor are they ways to ensure students have what they need to be successful in life. We need schools that emphasize a love of learning, encourage problem-solving and curiosity, and that teach students the importance of healthy living.

While we're at it, let's also remember to listen to students from everything as big as education policy decisions to as important as classroom learning experiences. Nationwide, but especially in Kentucky, students are joining Student Voice Teams to share their thoughts on our education system. Super impressive is this Kentucky group who is also encouraging students to write op-eds about education issues in Kentucky. This article by a high school senior emphasizes the importance of adequately funding education in Kentucky to ensure ALL students have access to funding for college.

Whether students head off to college or immediately enter the workforce, we have work to do if we are going to make sure students are ready for the future. Ted Dintersmith's documentary Most Likely to Succeed continues to impress community members and educators all around the country. In Kentucky, we had the privilege of being Dintersmith's first state in his 50-state tour. Since his visit here in August, I've been following his tour via blog posts and other articles. This Atlanta Journal-Constitution article asks if we are educating teens for disappearing jobs. If you dig deeper into the AJC blog, you'll find the answer might be--no because if kids don't come out of high school today being innovative, they will come out being unemployed.

Speaking of being innovative, I enjoyed this Inc. article by the founder of an innovative Lexington based company--Big Ass Fans. Carey Smith writes about stock options and stock appreciation rights. It's an article worth your time.

Not only do we need to think about being innovative, we might also think about how we become mentally strong. After reading Amy Morin's book 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do last year, I started following her writing via blogs and articles shared on Twitter. Earlier this month, I read a Psychology Today article where Morin says "mentally strong people don't give away their power--they do these 9 things instead."

Ultimately, we want to, among other things, know our values and be willing to stand out from the crowd. Though it doesn't seem as popular here in Kentucky as it is in Colorado or the mountains of North Carolina where I used to live, I still value hiking and nature. This article about 21 awesome places to see in Colorado captured my attention this week because I still long to hike and explore and I love Colorado. So, if anyone reading this blog is from Kentucky and knows of some terrific places to hike, please share with me! Thanks.

Most Likely to Succeed Film and Book

More than a half-dozen times now I have watched Brian's eyes light up with an I did it--I created something that works expression, and I have watched Samantha's confidence shine as the all female play she directs garners applause from an audience of family and community members. I have also watched Scout's father, film director Greg Whiteley, acknowledge his daughter's feelings that "this whole thing called school is B.S."

The compelling storyline in the film Most Likely to Succeed speaks to me as a parent, educator, and community member. I've sat in parent/teacher conferences not unlike the one Whiteley's daughter and wife endured and even once was told by an administrator that I should have my son read boring books at home so he would be better prepared to read the boring texts on the state standardized tests. More positively though, I have also observed the I created something and it works look in my son's eyes when he built a computer.

As pointed out in the beginning of Most Likely to Succeed, our education system was designed in 1893 by a Committee of Ten men who wanted more efficient, compliant, and educated factory workers for the industrial age. A standardized education system with a teacher who dispensed knowledge provided what the economy needed at the time and guaranteed workers "a perfectly average job, with a perfectly average family, a perfectly average home, and a perfectly average life, and a perfectly average funeral."

We no longer need as many factory workers because more and more jobs have become automated. We have knowledge at our finger tips as we consider access to the Internet a basic right in our developed country. We need students who can think critically, communicate effectively, solve problems creatively, and collaborate productively to make our world a better place. Most Likely to Succeed does not offer a panacea for the issues in public education, but it does open eyes and convey a sense of urgency needed if we are going to make sure kids receive the education they need in our ever changing world.

In addition to seeing the film multiple times, I have now also read Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith. I am encouraged, empowered, and more ready than ever to continue my personal and professional mission of
 re-imagining public education.

As Dintersmith and Wagner acknowledge in their book, we could have completely redesigned our education system, the position advocated by Ted Sizer founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools, as we headed into the twenty-first century. Instead, our country chose to "push for incremental improvements and rely on policies calling for curriculum homogeneity, more pervasive standardized testing, and teacher accountability tied to student test score performance (26)."

Unfortunately, we are paying a price for this choice as "student and teacher engagement levels have plummeted in the face of a steady diet of test prep (27)." We've turned public education into a series of hoops to jump and games to play (just ask my 9th grader). The book is not all depressing though; the authors offer examples of how we can re-imagine school. Think about their suggestion of what we might consider as the purpose of education.

"The purpose of education is to engage students with their passions and growing sense of purpose, teach them critical skills needed for career and citizenship, and inspire them to do their very best to make their world better (44)."

If we decide this is our purpose, then we must respond as such and we must offer students--
choice, opportunities to learn from failure, lessons that require critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving. We must also teach students to communicate effectively both in writing and in speaking. I've written on this topic previously.

Dintersmith and Wagner don't stop their conversations with K-12. In fact, one entire section of the book is devoted to ideas about college degrees. They say they "don't subscribe to the view that a college needs to revolve around practical courses (169.)" Rather, they give college faculty, administration, students, and parents plenty to think about. As a liberal arts graduate, I was pleased with this perspective--

"Today, employers look for graduates who exhibit critical skills, ask great questions, and demonstrate perseverance and grit. These critical skills can be taught in traditional liberal arts pursuits as well or better than in business courses (170)."

Re-imagining public education has been on my mind for nearly as long as I've been out of college. It started in graduate school when I read works by Ted Sizer, John Dewey, Deborah Meier, John Goodlad, and Maxine Greene. I began teaching in a high needs school in North Carolina and committed myself to teaching with intentionality, even writing "purpose in instruction" at various places around the classroom as a reminder to myself to keep our studies, projects, and lessons meaningful.

Read about how I helped arrange Ted Dintersmith's visit to KY

I'm not alone either because I know dozens of committed teachers throughout the United States who work diligently inside our flawed system to provide students the deeper learning experiences they need. I also know parents who advocate for change and who work together on re-imagining the system. I'm optimistic about what we can do when we work together.

In the past nearly four years, I've used this blog as a place to share my voice about how we need to re-imagine curriculum, instruction, assessment, and the overall system. Blogging has connected me to others and taught me more about what we can do if we speak up and work together. We need to remember that all of our voices can have impact. We can, together, make a difference to bring the change we need in public education. We no longer live in 1893. We need a bottom-up approach led by teachers, students, and parents demanding change to the system.

I urge you to see the film and read the book Most Likely to Succeed because once you do I guarantee you'll be ready to join me.

My Journey into a Career in Education

I didn't set out to be a teacher.

As a high school junior, new to yet another school (my tenth in 13 years), a high school counselor told me I would never make it to college. Maybe he said this because my parents did not graduate from college. Maybe he said this because my family worked hard but received assistance. Maybe it was because I had moved so many times and barely had the right credits to graduate in a new state. Most likely he said this because I took the most basic courses, not college preparatory courses. 

Determined, driven, and intent on being the first college graduate in our family, I set out for college and majored in political science/international relations because of a long time interest in worldwide Human Rights. I didn't stay at the first college I attended. No. I continued the familiar pattern of moving. It was only when I finally landed at Piedmont that I began to settle and make peace with my former transient life style. At Piedmont I selected psychology as my major with hopes of working with disadvantaged youth. During an internship where I taught relationship courses at a learning center for teens, I discovered my true interest in not just working with teens but in teaching. After graduation, I got married and began a two year Masters program which also led to a Georgia teaching certificate.


Foxfire & Rabun County High School, Rabun County, GA.
My experiences in the classroom began during my year-long internship at the rural Rabun County High School in Tiger, Georgia. Two full semesters of teaching and observations under Foxfire facilitator, Angela Cheek, provided me a solid foundation for establishing my own classroom in 1998.  If you don’t know much about the Foxfire approach to teaching and learning, you should check it out. The heart of Foxfire’s success is student choice.  The approach to teaching and learning is experiential based and student-centered. 

Following my student teaching experience in Georgia and the completion of my Master’s degree, my husband and I moved to Sylva, North Carolina so he could work on a Master’s degree. I certainly was not prepared for the shift to a small community of public schools interested only in hiring local folks. I spent that first semester in the fall of 1998 teaching English and science at a small private school and teaching adjunct English courses at a local community college.

Cherokee Indian Reservation, Cherokee, NC.
An outsider like me was welcome though at Cherokee High School on the Indian Reservation of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. When they offered me a position teaching high school English in January of 1999 I jumped at the chance and launched head first into an amazing experience for my first five years of teaching. Grounded in the idea that students should have choice in learning, I ran my classroom as a facilitator of learning and became a master at differentiation. 99% of my students were Cherokee, and they all had different learning needs. Again, I equate any success experienced at Cherokee to student choice in learning. They appreciated it, and I fine-tuned how to provide student choice and meet the state required objectives and curriculum through Project-Based Learning experiences.

The highlight of our project-based learning experiences together was no doubt the Renaissance Festival the students selected to create as a way to learn the required British literature curriculum.  Student centered and community involved, we even had the Asheville television station run a segment on our event as part of their Never Stop Learning series in October of 2002. Leaving Cherokee after five years of teaching was tough for me because I felt successful as a teacher and had even earned an award for 2002-2003 Cherokee High School Teacher of the Year.

Fayette County Public Schools,   Lexington, KY.

Alas, we had to move again because it was time for my husband to pursue a PhD at the University of Kentucky. So, two weeks after giving birth to my second child, we moved to Kentucky where I obtained a teaching position at the county’s most inner city school. 

This brought new challenges in part because I thought I had figured out how to teach and was comfortable in the profession. Maybe a shake up was exactly what I needed to become an even stronger teacher. In Lexington, the school where I taught had a very diverse student population. The experience of dealing with diversity brought new challenges and caused me to question what I thought I knew about being a teacher. But I was determined to meet my students' needs. New state. New school. New colleagues. New parents. New community. New students. New standards which were skill based. New content area, too, because in addition to teaching English, I taught arts and humanities. It was at this new school when I decided to pursue National Board certification. Earning my NBCT status was a highlight in my career because the process brought professional learning. Analyzing student work, writing and reflecting on my teaching practices, and producing evidence of my practice and my students' work were fantastic ways to help me improve as a teacher which ultimately led to me being recognized in the district teacher spotlight segment in 2008-2009.

The NBCT process also taught me more about being a leader because it required me to show evidence of how I was a teacher leader, not something I had given much thought previously. When you take the time to think intentionally about what you are doing, it improves your outcome. The year after earning NBCT status, I became department chair for our 13 member English department of young teachers. My leadership experience and demonstration of effective teaching were important and relevant factors for my position, which still required me to teach a full 6 courses. I taught everything from arts and humanities to AP Language, AP Literature to elective courses such as Shakespeare and Women's Studies to general 10th grade English. There was no release time for building capacity of other teachers. We really caught our groove though and created a cross disciplinary literacy team and started on a literacy plan based on meeting the needs of students in our school. Two years after achieving NBCT status, I decided I needed a change of pace.  Leaving the classroom was not an easy decision as you might have noticed if you've been following my blog. If you haven't been following, you can read more about that decision here, here, and here. 

State Department of Education In the winter of 2009, I accepted a position as literacy consultant at our state's education agency. Three months into this new position, a key piece of legislation (commonly known as Senate Bill 1) was passed into law. This sent our entire state into an era of new reform. I went to this position very naive about politics in education. I paid close attention and spent time learning, reading, researching, and listening.  Needless to say, it was a very interesting experience. 

It's About Kids Support Services (District Office). After weeks of soul searching and even conversations about returning to the classroom full time, I accepted a position in late August 2012 in my home district in Lexington, Kentucky. Returning to Fayette County Public Schools was a rewarding learning experience. I served as Secondary English Language Arts Specialist for the district and spent my time working with teachers. I visited classrooms, facilitated professional development sessions, provided Literacy Design Collaborative Training to English, Social Studies, and Science teachers in collaboration with teachers in those disciplines, planned for Response to Intervention work in the district, planned for literacy teams and writing program reviews, started a new blog, and contributed to the district Innovation Team. 

A Nonprofit Organization.  In the spring of 2013 I was recruited for a new position with a brand new organization designed to promote change and innovation in Kentucky's schools.  After more soul searching and a realization that I should walk the talk about taking leaps, I accepted a position leading an initiative for a curriculum project and research study with schools in Kentucky and Colorado collaborating to create units of study to meet the needs of their students and the demands of the Common Core State Standards.  Because we are a brand new organization with only a few employees, I also contribute the blog and initially helped run some of the social media accounts.  (I love this!)  I remain steadfastly committed to raising the voice of teachers and students in public education in my new position.  We need changes in our system, and my new position is offering me additional opportunities to promote changes and to encourage teachers along the way.
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NOTE: This post used to appear on my About page, but when I decided to update that page today, I wanted to preserve my longer bio, so I updated this a bit and added information about my decision to get into education in the first place.

~~~Please tell me about your journey in the comments area below~~~

Sunday Salon: What I Read Onlline August 25-August 31

 Posts from Kentucky that Matter Beyond Kentucky

Because she knows I'm interested in improving as a writer and blogger, my boss shared this woman's website with me. Suzanne Gray lives in Frankfort, Kentucky and writes about creativity and art and has this beautiful website not to be missed.


You may have heard by now, but Kentucky is seeking feedback to make changes to the Common Core State Standards in KY.


This week we celebrated the anniversary of a woman's right to vote. Read this blog  by Heather Watson to learn how women from Kentucky played an important role in passing the 19th amendment.

Jason Linden, a public school teacher in Louisville, writes about homeschooling his daughter because the school system places too much emphasis on test prep. I can relate completely, even though my children still attend public school. If you read my blog, you know how much this issue matters to me!

Lexington teacher, Liz Prather, writes about why it's important to pronounce students' names correctly.

Speaking of Lexington, my city made the list of top cities to live for a quality life.

Health & Well Being

Since I was having my cast removed this week, I was eager to read this article about when I might be able to use my right leg again and drive. When I visited the doctor, he confirmed what I read in this article--12 weeks after the break. Well, I'm 6 weeks down with 6 to go...

Helen Bamber, a therapist to torture victims, died this week. Read about her life here.

Learning About the Battle of Perryville

 "I would like to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." 
                                                              ~Abraham Lincoln


As a lover of nonfiction texts from my early childhood days until now, I recall many a biography I read about women.  Around third grade, I read a biography of Clara Barton and that experience established my interest in the American Civil War.  Barton's involvement as a civil rights activist and her work with the women's suffrage movement were significant issues for me as a young girl.  Drawn to ideas of Barton's humanitarian efforts, I learned about the Union and Confederate sides, and I was impacted by the hatefulness of slavery in ways I couldn't fully grasp, other than to know it could not be okay to treat human beings as property.  Over the years, my understanding of the issues expanded, but honestly I don't think I fully grasped the significance of border states until helping my ten-year-old son with a recent research project for History Day.

Isaac loves history especially the American Civil War.  Since he was seven or eight years old, he's been interested in the people and the strategies behind the battles.  For his third grade biography project a couple of years ago, he researched Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln has continued to be one of his favorite people from history.  For his fifth grade history day project, he decided to research the Battle of Perryville since it was the largest Civil War battle fought in Kentucky and it was a turning point in the War.

Since I have never previously studied Kentucky history and wasn't initially excited about moving here nearly eleven years ago, Isaac and I learned together about an era in Kentucky's history.  We learned why Kentucky was such an important state during the American Civil War and why Abraham Lincoln said he must have Kentucky on his side.  Since it was a border state politically and geographically both the North and the South wanted Kentucky on their side, and Kentucky citizens were apparently divided with some of the residents sympathizing with the South on economic labor issues (they wanted free labor from slaves) and others sympathizing with more progressive thinkers from the North who opposed slavery.

Highlights from what we learned

• We learned that the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves from all confederate states, but not the border states, including Kentucky.  
•  We learned states rights were important to the South because they wanted to preserve their way of living and if slavery was abolished, their way of living would change.
• We learned about a drought in the region that drew both the Union and Confederate armies to Perryville, Kentucky where they had access to many creeks and rivers for troops and their horses.
• We learned about the aftermath of the battle and about a teacher from the School for the Deaf in Danville who was alarmed by the large number of soldiers who were killed and lying dead on the battlefield without a proper burial.  This man went back to the school and brought his students back with him to dig graves and bury the dead soldiers.

Clearly the bulleted points above do not encompass everything we learned, but these were the facts that stayed with both of us, and they are the details making me want to learn more about Kentucky's history.

Incidentally, Isaac and I had the opportunity to learn more about history in Kentucky when he represented his elementary school at the Lexington History Museum's History Fair in downtown at the historic Lyric Theatre in downtown Lexington.

----Sources Consulted----

1.      Wertz, Jay. The Civil War: 1861-1865.  London:

Sevenoaks, 2011.

2.      Sanders, Stuart W. Perryville Under Fire: The

Aftermath of Kentucky’s Largest Civil War Battle. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2012.

3.      Noe, Kenneth W. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of

Battle. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

4.      www.civilwar.org

5.      www.battleofperryville.com

6.      Library of Congress. www.loc.gov/item99447187

Lexington Teen Inspired by Girl Rising

Sixteen year-old Mahika left the Kentucky Theatre on a rainy evening several months ago determined to take action after seeing the film Girl Rising.  Upon leaving the theatre, Mahika's father told her--"talking is great, but taking action is even better."  The film and her father's statement spun Mahika into action, so for the past few months she and her friends worked to organize an event to take place around International Women's Day.

When Mahika emailed me a few weeks ago to tell me her plan, you can imagine my excitement knowing Girl Rising inspired her.  Indeed, the film did inspire young Mahikha and her friends to create, perform, and organize an event and performance.  Seventy five people from our Lexington community came together this afternoon at the Bharatiya Temple and Cultural Center to watch twenty young people (girls and boys) put on a production as part of a book drive designed to support the education of women and girls in underprivileged areas of our world.

 The event was superbly planned and the performances were fantastic.  Mahika and her friends carefully narrated the entire ninety-minute performance which included beautifully delivered monologues, world music with startling statistics presented on posters, slide shows of pictures of girls and women from around the world, a film clip from a school in India, and biographical sketches of young girls separated at birth with one girl telling her story of growing up in the United States and another girl telling the story of a sister who grew up in India.  The girls were careful to note the differences in living status, education, equality, and freedom because of one's home.

 A young 4th grader wrote and read an original poem inspired by the film.  A line from the poem that stayed with me--

 "we go to school to be educated and to live a free life..."

Lexington girls delivered speeches from memory by women from around the world including--

Malala Yousafzai
Sunitha Krishnan
Mother Theresea
Michelle Obama
Sonia Sotomayor
Harriet Van Meter

The transitions from sequence to sequence in the program were thoughtfully planned.  For example, the program transitioned from the monologues ending with the one by a Lexington girl delivering the words of Hariret Van Meter to a presentation by Dr. Vijayaraghavan speaking about International We Serve Foundation.  Mahika and her friends met with Dr. Vijayaraghavan to share their dream, and he realized Mahika and her friends shared his vision of promoting global prosperity to empower citizens.  When he rose to give his presentation, he was clearly moved by the inspiring program and performances of the young people at BTCC, as were we all.

5 Things I've Learned In Two Years of Blogging

On a similar winter day two years ago, I started this blog as a way to reflect and voice my thoughts on

Our backyard in Lexington, KY

education, teaching, and learning.  I selected the title--Learning to Muse--with great thought and consideration about my mission.  My mission is not only to reflect but also to encourage conversation about education re-design, to share thoughts about learning and teaching, and to encourage parents and community members to be involved in public education.

1.  Optimism is essential.   The blogs I most enjoy reading are those that look at life through a positive lens, so I aim to stay as optimistic as possible when I blog too.  An ongoing post I try to write (but haven't been able to complete yet) is about being an idealist who's also an optimist.  Nevertheless, I have written multiple times this past year about dealing with negative people, about looking past complacent people in the workplace, and about staying positive about the work teachers are doing to educate children. 

2.  Writing takes commitment.  I guess I didn't learn this only through blogging, but the persistence required to maintain a blog has been more readily revealed to me.  I've read many other bloggers who write about the importance of a blogging schedule (I'm still working on that one).  The first year I always made sure to post at least one new blog entry per week.  This year I let a few weeks slip by without posting something new, and I always felt a twinge of guilt because I really wanted to write and had plenty of topics, but neglected to follow through every week.

3.  Collaboration beats isolation.  From teaching ideas to parenting tips, any time I can collaborate my life improves.  Sure, collaboration is messy and sometimes difficult, but the benefits far outweigh working or living in isolation.  This past year I had numerous opportunities to collaborate with colleagues on a number of projects, and I even started a new job focused on collaboration between Kentucky and Colorado educators.  This year also marked a turning point in my social media use and the building of my online professional learning community (PLN).  In 2013 I also had more time with my little family of four, and this made the collaborative parenting approach my husband and I enjoy all the better.

4.  Teaching and leading can happen together.  My post about leaving teaching continues to be one of the most popular posts on this blog.  This year, in particular, I spent a lot of time thinking about teaching and leading and how they can happen together.  I also made my foray back into the classroom, only this time at the university level teaching future teachers (part-time--love it!). 

5.  Lexington is a cool place to live.  This year marked our ten year anniversary of living in Kentucky, USA.  As you will read in this popular post, I was never really excited about moving here.   Becoming involved in my community is what changed my view, and this year a highlight of my involvement was when I served as Movie Captain for Girl Rising and gathered nearly 200 people from Lexington and the surrounding areas together at the historic Kentucky Theatre for a viewing of this important film about girls' education.  Now, I can't imagine leaving Lexington, and I find myself hoping my husband might miraculously find full-time work here.

Part III : An American Educator's Thoughts on Girl Rising

As the credits started to roll, applause from the audience started to ripple through The Kentucky Theatre.  Attendees at our Lexington screening of Girl Rising were moved by the creative storytelling and the startling statistics presented in the film.  A few people asked me "what's next?"  Others tweeted praise for the opportunity to learn about the issues and the need to bring change.

If you've been reading my blog posts, you already know that I have been moved by this film, and you also know how I've been working to make sure my community had an opportunity to see the film because I have hope that my community will also be moved and will take action to change lives and policies that impact education both in our country and around the world.

One school district over an hour away from Lexington loaded up 49 girls and brought them to the screening.  These girls were curious as they entered the beautiful and historic theater and were attentive and emotional as they watched the film.  I sat behind a row of girls who were shaking their heads when they saw the story of Yasmin from Egypt as written by Mona Eltahaway. Eltahaway uses her journalism experience and expertise to share Yasmin's story, with a hope that "education will be the ultimate reinvention for her."  My hope for the girls from Kentucky who watched the film is that they, too, will recognize the importance of education and that they will use their education to make a difference in the world.

Teenage girls were not the only attendees at the film screening, there were also educators and community members from Lexington and the surrounding areas.  Some said they attended because they are huge fans of the magazine Cake & Whiskey and heard about the viewing through the C&W Facebook page.  Others heard about the event via twitter or newspaper.  I knew many of the attendees through my circle of friends and colleagues, but there were also just as many people who I didn't know but must believe they care about the issues of equity in education and that's what drove them to be part of our rainy evening downtown at the Kentucky Theatre.

____________________

Thanks for reading the third in my series of posts about Girl Rising.  If you missed the first two posts you can read about how I shared the film with my pre-service teachers here or you can read text that was omitted from what I wrote for the magazine article here.

If you are planning to host your own screening, there are many resources available to assist you on the Girl Rising website, and I'll also share my opening remarks from Wednesday night.

What can you do?


• Sign up to be a community organizer to bring the Girl Rising film to your area

• Volunteer your time at an organization aimed at impacting girls’ education

• Take part in a book study reading about lives of girls in developing countries

• Donate money to the Girl Rising Campaign

• Share stories and get the message out to make sure people are exposed to what’s happening globally

• Blog about social change and taking action

• Visit girlrising.com to learn more about arranging a screening for your community, business, non-profit, church, or school

Part I: An American Educator's Thoughts on Girl Rising

This post is the first of three in which I share my thoughts and reflections related to the film, Girl Rising, and the ongoing campaign to educate girls and change the world.

My quest to explore girls' education in developing countries began several months ago when the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Cake & Whiskey sent me the trailer for the film Girl Rising and asked if I would consider writing an article for the do-gooding column of her magazine's fall issue.  Well, one look at the trailer, and who could resist?

In honor of International Day of the Girl, I used a chapter from the film, Girl Rising, with my students who are pre-service teachers.  In this university class we are always discussing standards and how to teach them.  Not only do we discuss how to teach the standards, we practice teaching the standards.  I model lessons, and the students also create their own lessons which they teach to their classmates.  While I think it's important  these pre-service teachers leave the class with a thorough understanding of standards based instruction and curriculum design, I also think it's important for them to leave inspired and motivated to engage learners in the world.

Suma inspires us.  Wearing a bright orange and yellow sari and a serious look on her face, Suma rides her bicycle along tree lined roads as she takes us on a journey to the various homes where she lived and worked as a bonded servant or Kamlari for much of her young life.  At six years of age, her parents sold her into bonded servitude to ensure she would always have shelter and food.  She lived with different masters and was treated unfairly and even beaten, until a school teacher entered her life at age 11.

Before watching the film chapter, Suma from Nepal, we analyze the vendor-created lesson plans and film viewing guide available on the Girl Rising website. Of course, the vendor says the materials are Common Core aligned, but what we learn is that the materials are loosely correlated to the standards, but they are not aligned to the standards.  In fact all the questions focus on how students feel about what they watch.

For example, consider this question:  How do you feel about Suma’s situation when she was a young girl? Would you define serving as a kamlari to be slavery? do you feel her parents had a choice about whether to sell her as a kamlari? Why or why not?

Now, I certainly believe film and literature can and, perhaps, even should have an impact on how we feel, respond, and take action in our lives, I also believe as educators we are charged with ensuring students have mastered the requisite skills needed to be successful in life (i.e., how to read and cite evidence from text and how to craft logical arguments).  In fact, in the film Girl Rising the girls' stories articulate the importance of learning to read and write to better their lives.

We set the purpose for viewing the film chapter, just as one would in a classroom full of adolescents.  Our purpose is to watch for the impact education had on Suma's life.  Following our viewing of the film chapter, we write for two minutes about our feelings after seeing the intense twelve minute clip.  After expressing our feelings through writing, we respond to our purpose setting question--What impact did education have on Suma's life?  Cite evidence from the text to support your point.

As a class we discuss how to modify the vendor-created viewing guide to make sure it really would be aligned to the standards, but we proceed with caution.  We want to maintain the humanity of the situation and the important issues and at the same time ensure comprehension of the text.

A sample of our class revisions:

Instead of--How do you feel about the social worker's determination?  

Let's use this--How did the social worker's determination impact Suma's life and the life of the girls around Suma?

I was really proud of the students for the modifications they made to the viewing guide. They left the class with smiles on their faces and determination in their steps because they know they will have an impact on adolescents in their classrooms both in America and abroad.  Many of them also recorded the date for our Lexington, KY Girl Rising Screening in their phones because they intend to attend and look for ways they will take action as well.

If you live in the area, please consider joining us on November 6th for the viewing at The Kentucky Theatre.


Part 2 of my thoughts & reflections on Girl Rising will post on October 16th, Blog Action Day.  Part 3 will post after our viewing on November 6th.

I Was Never Really Excited about Moving to Kentucky

If I am perfectly honest, I'll have to admit that I was not at all excited about moving to Kentucky.  In fact, when my husband first told me he would like to apply to the Ph.D. program at the University of Kentucky, I just couldn't understand.  Why Kentucky?  He wanted to study at the university where Wendell Berry and Guy Davanport once taught, and he thought UK had an excellent English Program.

So, 9 1/2 years ago we uprooted our little family and moved to Kentucky for my husband to pursue doctoral work at the University of Kentucky.  We had a 2 week old baby boy and another son who was 2 1/2 years old.  Four weeks from the date of our move I started teaching at a high school in Lexington, and a week later my husband started his course work.

July 2003

You know what? I like it okay here in Kentucky, and now it’s difficult to imagine leaving. I’ve made a place for myself here, met amazing friends and colleagues, established myself in a career in education, earned National Board Certification for Teaching, volunteered for various projects in my sons’ schools and in the literary community, traveled all around the state and throughout the country, and have been raising our boys in one of the friendliest places I know. (Having lived in 9 different states in my life, I know plenty of places)

As of today—January 23rd, 2013—Our sole purpose for moving to Kentucky has been fulfilled. Chris successfully defended his dissertation this afternoon. Right now, I’m not really sure what comes next for our family, but it’s a gratifying feeling to know we finished (My husband finished) what we moved to Kentucky to complete.

Lexington, KY fall 2012

Lexington, KY fall 2012

Update August 2014: So far, we're still staying in Lexington. Read here to learn more.

Update August 2015: We're still here & our oldest son who was 2 1/2 when we moved here started high school.