West Houston Area Council of Teachers of English

Regroup, Recharge, and Reflect. 

The coming year brings radical change to the school house as we know it.  Budgetary and legislative issues promise to “reform” our collective teaching practice with little input from the frontline classroom teacher. 

Just this week, I had dinner with a neighbor, John, who suggested that to solve the problem of school funding and budget shortfalls, we go back to the educational practices of days gone by.  He readily admitted that he had not been in a classroom since the 1970’s, but was quick to question the need for small class sizes, technology, and professional development.  As I explained the changes in education and implications of the leaps in knowledge, he soon came to understand the importance of education in Texas and the need to support it financially.  My conversation with John, illustrates the need for and power of our role as educators of the voting public – our neighbors. 

I’ve spent the last two days with my writing mentor, Margaret Hale whose dissertation will focus on the need for language arts teachers to be readers themselves.   Many of us chose the field of English education because of our love of writing and literature, yet I wonder how often we turn to this passion as a means of recharging our teacher souls.  As an English language arts teacher, I love nothing more than spending a weekend spellbound within the pages of a book.  This issue of The Elaborator offers suggestions for summer reading intended to revitalize our teaching practice and refresh our teacher spirits.  My recent reads include:  Juliet by Anne Fortier – a retelling of Romeo and Juliet which contrasts the original Italian version of the story with a modern tale of mystery and intrigue; Main Street by Sinclair Lewis; and Dr. Joyce Armstrong Carroll’s new book, Ratiocination: Weaving the Threads of Grammar, Revision, and Editing.

            Keeping a journal had always been an area where my intentions were good, but my realities were often disappointing.  My friend, Gretchen Bernabei, freed me from the conventions of the “Dear Diary” by encouraging me to bring material to my journal rather than use my journal strictly as a place to write. The result – more than a decade’s worth of my thoughts and reflections connected to artifacts that range in form from a note scribbled with a highlighter on a Sonic bag to annotated journal articles downloaded from the internet.  As a teacher, the greatest changes I’ve made to my practice come through deliberate, focused reflection.           

            My charge to you this summer is threefold:  Regroup – we are teachers and the prevailing data indicates that we have a need to educate our neighbors; Recharge – we owe ourselves and our students a rekindled love of reading and writing that only comes through reading and writing; and, Reflect – we value critical thinking and must garner the support of the like minded.