Virginia Journal of Education: April 2023

EDUCATI N

RICHMOND TAKES IT TO THE LIMIT!

REA members first to successfully negotiate and ratify Virginia public school employee contracts in nearly a half-century.

Editor Tom Allen

VEA President

Dr. James J. Fedderman

VEA Executive Director Dr. Brenda Pike

Communications Director

Kevin J. Rogers

Graphic Designer

Lisa Sale

Editorial Assistant/Advertising Representative Kate O’Grady

Contributors

Michele Wickman David T. Marshall

Rhonda Lancaster Bruce Ingram

ChèRee Wiley

James Graves

Tim Pressley

Vol. 116, No.5

Copyright © 2023 by the Virginia Education Association

The Virginia Journal of Education (ISSN 0270-837X) is published six times a year (October, November, December, February, April and June) by the Virginia Education Association, 116 South Third Street, Richmond, VA 23219.

Non-member annual subscription rate: $10 ($15 outside the U.S. and Canada). Rights to reproduce any article or portion thereof may be granted upon request to the editor. Periodicals postage paid in Richmond, VA.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Virginia Journal of Education, 116 South Third Street, Richmond, VA 23219.

Article proposals, comments or questions may be sent to the editor at tallen@veanea.org or Tom Allen,116 South Third Street, Richmond, VA 23219, 800-552-9554.

Member: State Education Association Communicators

VEA Vision:

A great public school for

child in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

VEA Mission:

The mission of the Virginia Education Association is to unite our members and local communities across the Commonwealth in fulfilling the promise of a high quality public education that successfully prepares every single student to realize his or her full potential. We believe this can be accomplished by advocating for students, education professionals, and support professionals.

“So it’s unanimous, then. We’ll change the school’s name to Help Wanted High.”

every

Want to Share Your Thoughts?

Our members are great writers! We’re always happy to review your submissions for the Virginia Journal of Education, whether they be about something going on in your classroom or school, something humorous (we all could use more good laughs), an opinion piece, or something inspirational. If you’re interested in sharing your ideas and experiences, send your ideas and manuscripts to TAllen@veanea.org l

Arts Education Deserves a Hand

Art classes are often candidates for the chopping block when money gets tight, which has caused researchers to look into art’s educational benefits in an attempt to change the way such classes are viewed.

Two such researchers, Brian Kisida of the University of Missouri and Daniel H. Bowen of Texas A&M University, did a controlled trial with 42 elementary and middle schools in Houston, Texas, and here’s how they described, in part, what they found: “Randomly assigning arts educational opportunities reduces disciplinary infractions, improves writing achievement, and increases students’ emotional empathy. Students in elementary schools, which were the primary focus of the program, also experience increases in school engagement, college aspirations, and cognitive empathy.” They called their results “strong evidence that the arts can produce meaningful impacts on students’ academic outcomes and social-emotional development.”

Hmmm. Something for policy and budget creators to bear in mind. The study was published last fall in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management l

They Should Drop by Sometime

There is clearly a tragic disconnect between the needs of America’s public schools and the resources legislators across the states are providing…I wish the people who make the laws which allocate and distribute state funding for public schools were required to spend one day every year visiting a public school to watch what teachers do. In fact, I wish every state legislator were required to undertake the challenge of teaching in a public elementary, middle, or high school for at least half of one school day every year.l

— Jan Resseger, former chair of the National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education

Stand with Us!

Our teachers need champions inside and outside of the schoolhouse. They need citizens who are willing to stand up for them and for children, and who will stand against the baseless criticism leveled by those who seek to undermine trust and confidence in public education.l

— From an editorial in the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot

Lunch Money

More than 50 million public school students had their school lunches covered by emergency government aid during the pandemic, but now that many of those programs have shut down, student lunch debt is back, to the tune of $19 million so far this school year at press time, according to the School Nutrition Association.

Some families who are eligible for continuing help aren’t getting it because they don’t understand the government’s application process; others who got the help before no longer qualify because they make more than the about $36,000 limit for a family of four to receive free school lunches.

Community organizations and national nonprofits are among groups trying to reduce lunch debt, and some states have chosen to continue to fund free lunch programs. Virginia is not among those states; in the 2023 General Assembly session, a bill that would have made lunches free in all public schools failed.l

As Seen On Twitter

TOUCHING BASE WITH…

What do you like about your job?

Being a librarian is one of the best gigs in education. Everything teach—research skills, source evaluation, avoiding plagiarism—has real-life applications that will remain relevant throughout students’ adult lives. My focus is on helping them to go out into the world and be functioning humans, which is pretty cool. I also get the side benefit of connecting kids with books they love. One of my favorite things is when a student tells me “I don’t like to read,” because, internally, I’m thinking “challenge accepted.” It’s just a matter of finding them the right book.

How has being in the union helped you?

Being a SVEA/VEA member has helped me find my voice. I’m incredibly passionate about advocacy, and find working with my union to be very fulfilling. I know the union has my back. We’re a community, and there’s no substitute for that solidarity. SEA has secured mental health days, pay raises, and better working conditions through union advocacy, and I’m so proud to have a part in that. l

“My dad says I already know too much for my own good.”

“Oh…the IRS called. Something about an audit. I told them we weren’t interested.”

Percent of people consider it at least somewhat important that public schools “have a mix of students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds.” (Just under half found it “extremely” or “very” important.)l

Source: The Century Foundation

An Eye-Opening (and Life-Changing) Experience

My first Black male teacher was Mr. Larry Thomas, my eighth grade math teacher at Langston Middle School in Oberlin. And the one thing that I always tell my audience is that I can’t necessarily recall the information Mr. Thomas taught me. I can’t recall if it was algebra or geometry. But the one thing that I truly remember is how he treated me, and treated other students in his classroom. And his persona, his disposition, the way he carried himself was truly like a professional, someone who I had never seen before in that particular role. When I saw Mr. Thomas in front of the classroom, having the attention of students, Black students, White students, boys and girls, I said to myself, ‘Wow, this must be a very cool profession…’ and from there, I just fell in love with being a teacher.l

— 2022 National Teacher of the Year Kurt Russell

School Counselors: We’re Making Headway

Kids need school counselors, for a variety of reasons. For one, research shows a link between such counselors and better student outcomes. And educators and families know that school counselors are trained, certified professionals who play a vital role in helping students succeed both in school and beyond.

The American School Counselor Association has long recommended a ratio of 250 students per counselor and, while we’re still a long way from meeting that recommendation as a nation, we are definitely making some progress: After the 2021-22 school year, the national ratio was 408 to 1, the lowest it’s been since ASCA began keeping track in 1986. The previous year, the ratio was 415 to 1, and that figure has been decreasing every year since 2013-14.

ASCA puts Virginia’s current standing at an even better 307 to 1.l

Not a Fair Fight

Talk about an uneven match. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy describes it like this: “a child against the world’s greatest product designers.”

“Where is autocorrect when you really need it?”

That’s what it’s like to be 13, an early adolescent, and be deemed able to monitor your own use of social media, he says. And many social media apps— including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram—allow people as young as 13 to sign up. Murthy is concerned about, among other factors, children who are just figuring out their identity and sense of self being unable to withstand the marketing abilities of professionals whose goal is for users to spend as much time as possible on their particular form of social media. “Our kids need help,” he says.l

“I wasn’t daydreaming. I was buffering.”

RICHMOND EDUCATORS

RICHMOND EDUCATORS

FIRST ONES IN! FIRST ONES IN!

REA members negotiate and ratify the frst public school employee contracts in Virginia in nearly a half-century.

By Olivia Geho

While much of Virginia may not know it, some serious history went down in our state capital in December: the Richmond Education Association finished negotiating and then ratified the first four collective bargaining agreements for public school employees in the Commonwealth in almost half a century.

REA’s achievement is monumental—not only for what its members were able to negotiate, but because it’s the start of

changing the way public education works in Virginia. REA President Katina Harris says, “Doing what is right and equitable for staff will always benefit our scholars.” It’s true; we’ve said it over and over again that our working conditions are students learning conditions.

Here’s some of what REA members came away from the table with, after negotiating contracts for Licensed Staff, School Nutrition Services, Instructional Assistants, and Care and Safety Associates: raises ranging from 5 percent to 40 percent over three years, depending on position and current salary step; 1.7 percent step increases

guaranteed in perpetuity; limits on meetings (Licensed Staff); and compensation for performing additional duties as assigned (Licensed Staff). For a more complete rundown, see page 12.

It didn’t always feel that way, but the whole process happened fairly quickly. REA began organizing in August 2021, lobbied the school board to pass a resolution by that December, and won a representation election the next April. According to research by Bloomberg Law, it takes most education unions an average of

466 days from winning an election to successfully negotiating and ratifying a contract. REA did it in almost half that—240 days.

Even more significant is that those first Richmond contracts contain some very impressive results, like the 40 percent raises that will go to some instructional assistants, and benefits like these for some employee groups: healthcare for first year employees, optional retirement benefits, a decompressed salary schedule, and guaranteed step raises.

until everyone kept congratulating us,” says Shan Lightly, one of the School Nutrition Services bargaining team members. “This is what collective bargaining is: speaking up, letting people know what you’re worth.”

Not ‘Us Against Them’

REA members who were on the bargaining teams were pleasantly surprised by the open, civil, and collaborative nature of the process. REA Vice President Darrell Turner, a preschool teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Preschool, described the relationship with management’s team as “professional

and respectful,” adding that “at times we could feel a little tension, but there was no shouting or screaming. We have a partner in this. It doesn’t mean we’re best buddies, but we found out working alongside them rather than in an adversarial relationship is key to getting things done.”

Kacy Mosby, an instructional assistant at Maymont Preschool and IA bargaining team member says she was pleased to learn how much RPS administration actually values its IAs: “I think that was evident in their willingness

“I didn’t know how huge it was †††

Photo by Olivia Geho

to work with us on the matters we were bargaining for.”

Because the whole process is new for many Virginia public school employees and administrators, some approach bargaining with apprehension. Turner says that such feelings subside once you begin. “A lot of the fears really come from not being familiar with the process,” he says. “People think it’s going to be a slugfest full of verbal barbs, but it’s really a learning process. The school district was learning that we weren’t there to attack them or bring them down. We were there to get this agreement. Over the course of bargaining, our mutual respect grew.”

Turner has been part of REA’s efforts since the beginning and was present for all the bargaining sessions, not just the ones for Licensed Staff. “It taught me some vital information about how our district is run,” he says. “Now, being armed with that knowledge, I can enforce our contracts and advocate for members better. For example, I didn’t know that all the funding for our school nutrition services comes through grants rather than directly

making and showing which responsibilities they had.”

These statistics helped the CSA team explain why they deserved salary increases. Turner explained that after every negotiation meeting, the teams would reconvene at the REA office or online and come up with research assignments for each team member to help them craft arguments for the next round of negotiations.

WORDS OF WISDOM WORDS OF WISDOM

from the school system. Even though things like that are public knowledge, we don’t always look at them closely. Now we know who we need to go to get the resources we need.”

No Need to Be Intimidated

Rosalind Moss, a Care and Safety Associate for A.V. Norrell, wants public school employees beyond Richmond to know that bargaining a contract is a lot more feasible than it may initially sound. “You can do it! It can be done!” she advises colleagues around the state. “It’s really about laying out what your concerns are and trying to come up with what the fix would be. The lawyers give you the ground rules, but you’re telling your story, and that’s what moves negotiations forward.”

Moss is quick to add, though, that bargaining isn’t all about appealing to the administration’s sense of empathy. Her team went into every negotiation session with research on similar job positions elsewhere in Virginia. “Once we went to the first meeting and talked about our concerns with salary,” she says, “we did research to show Richmond administrators the type of salary other security officers were

Salary topped the list for each REA bargaining group, which can make negotiations challenging in a state where school boards don’t have the authority to raise taxes. City councils and boards of supervisors allocate funds in Virginia. Despite this, REA was able to win improvements for every bargaining unit. Additionally, since negotiations were limited to two topics (salaries, and one other topic chosen by each bargaining unit), REA members couldn’t negotiate for everything they wanted. In the future, Moss says that CSAs hope to negotiate for additional training, for proper uniforms, and more. For Licensed Staff, Turner says key bargaining topics in the future will be revisiting “additional duties as assigned” and adding progressive discipline processes to the contract.

A Plus

for Students, Too

Lightly has worked for Richmond Public Schools for more than 35 years and is no stranger to standing up for herself, her colleagues—and her students—and learned how being a union member could help everyone early on.

She recalls noticing a student who never ate anything for lunch when she first started as a food service worker. When she asked the principal about it, he told her that the student wouldn’t talk and so she couldn’t order lunch. This didn’t sit right with Lightly, and

“Familiarize yourself with your current salaries and contracts. Be persistent, diligent, and patient. Sometimes it takes a while for the administration to understand what you’re going through. You need to organize and put all your issues on the table. Listen to veterans. Take advantage of your local union.”

Shan Lightly, School Nutrition Services

“Building a relationship with administration and school board is crucial. The stronger the relationship, the smoother the process.”

Darrell Turner, Preschool Teacher, REA Vice President

“Some people – employees and managers – might be afraid to bargain, but that’s actually just the fear of the unknown. It’s in your own head what you’re afraid of. Once you allow the other side to put their concerns on the table, you find out it’s not that bad. I think some people might feel like bargaining is going to open up a can of worms and in a way, it kind of is, but it’s better to address the issues rather than lose staff.”

Rosalind Moss, Care and Safety Associate

“First, make sure you’re a member of your union, and encourage co-workers to be part of it, too, because there’s strength in numbers. Second, don’t approach bargaining with a combative frame of mind, but be prepared. You have to do your research. We called around to get salaries for IAs in other cities. Make sure you know what’s out there [in terms of salaries and other contracts] and sit down with your team to come up with a strategic plan.”

Kacy Mosby, Instructional Assistant

she began giving the student lunch whether she ordered and paid or not.

“Every day I set that tray down in front of her,” she says. “How else was she going to get through the day and learn if she didn’t eat?”

When the principal found out, he told Lightly to stop it unless the student went through the line, ordered, and paid. Lightly disagreed, explained the situation to co-workers, learned of REA’s existence, and joined the union that week. The issue with the student became a grievance, and REA helped her resolve it so the student wouldn’t go hungry.

Since then, Lightly uses that experience to drive her to stick up for what she knows is right. It’s one of the reasons she decided to join the bargaining team. Her teammates had both been working in food service for several years, but they were relatively new to Richmond Public Schools.

“I’m one of the veterans,” she said. “That’s why I had to be a part of this. have four grandkids and my parents are both living, so I’m in the crunch, but I had to do this. I had to tell [the administration] the history [of what it’s been like working in school nutrition services for RPS].”

For example, Lightly said, it

was important to let administration know that many food service workers have never had contracts. Some have over 30 years’ experience but without contracts, they didn’t have benefits. “A lot of employees have second jobs because the pay isn’t high enough,” she says. “We haven’t had habitual raises in a while. And yet, these workers continue to work for RPS because of the devotion they have to this job and the students they feed.”

Many, if not most, RPS workers have been willing to work for the schools despite lower-than-average pay because of how much they care about their students.

It’s a sentiment that came across again and again at school board meetings last year and has carried through in bargaining.

Contracts Life-Changing for Some

Thankfully, for some RPS employees, things are about to get better. Kacy Mosby is an instructional assistant at Maymont Preschool; she’s also a crossing guard and an after-care coordinator. An IA for some 11 years, she’s been at RPS for more than 21 years. “If you don’t use your voice, you get lost in the chorus,” she says, quoting her mom, who was a social worker and is still very politically active. Mosby’s husband is shop steward for his union at UPS. “It’s in our DNA to advocate for ourselves,” she says, adding, “I don’t think my husband has been as proud of me as he was when I told him we won what we did in the bargaining process.”

Here’s what she has to say about the new contract: “This will be life-changing for a lot of instructional assistants. don’t want to sound grandiose, but it will make it possible for some IAs to be able to provide for their families in a way that they never could before. For myself, it’s going to make a huge difference. I have a child in college, and I work two other positions to help put my child through school. I had to forgo going through college. This change in pay means that now my daughter and I can both go to school. I don’t have to work three positions. The raises in these contracts will give people options and choices and opportunity and

that is monumental. It gives people the ability to go back to school, buy a reliable car, to be home with their kids in the evening. A lot of IAs are primary breadwinners in their families, so this is amazing.”

Mosby says that although administrators were aware of the low wages that IAs were being paid, the impacts of those salaries were still invisible to them because they did not have personal relationships with any IAs. All that changed when they sat down at the bargaining table. Mosby says that when she shared some of her co-workers’ stories, the administration began to understand what kind of impact financial hardship was having on their employees.

Most IAs work a second or even third job, and many can’t afford a car and don’t have the means to save up for a car payment, so some rely on Lyft and Uber to get to work, adding to their financial strain. “I knew of co-workers who were making really hard decisions with regards to food because they have kids and couldn’t afford to feed both themselves and their kids,” Mosby says. “I know people who were making difficult decisions around long term medications like insulin.” In fact, Mosby explains, some IAs are technically classified as homeless by RPS because they share living spaces with others. She hopes “other localities will look at what’s happening in Richmond and make sure that everyone is compensated for what they do.”

The Road Ahead

The new contracts don’t mean that union work is now over in Richmond. There is always more to do:

Other employee groups (such as bus drivers and custodians) not covered by these contracts are hoping to unionize within the next year. Turner says that the next steps include making sure City Council fully funds RPS so that the financial items of the contract can be implemented. REA also needs to train employees to enforce their contracts. That means ensuring employees have copies of the contract, that they know their rights, and that they have the knowledge and confidence to advocate for themselves.

“In order for this collective bargaining agreement to stay strong we need to make sure everyone abides by it,” he says, “or else it won’t have any teeth.”

There has been a history in RPS of employees feeling afraid to stick up for themselves, but if the last 18 months have proven anything, it’s that when employees work together and advocate for themselves and their co-workers, amazing things can happen. And in the case of REA, school division administration turned out to be more on their side than they’d ever realized. Breaking down the barriers to communication by implementing collective bargaining in Richmond has given educators a voice, brought employees and the administration together to solve issues in the schools, and created life-changing progress for many employees.

“There is power in numbers, and we are stronger than we think we are,” says Lightly. “If you keep quiet, it’s not going to happen.”l

Olivia Geho is a communication specialist in VEA’s Department of Communications and Public Affairs.

Turning Young Writers Loose

Teacher leaders create Project Write to respond to student needs.

By Rhonda Lancaster

Student-athletes of all ages have access to local youth leagues and recreation programs to hone their skills and pursue their dreams. What about students who are writers? That question led a small collective of teachers to found Project Write, Inc. in 2014, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping young writers in the Shenandoah Valley. The effort was led by founding president Patrick McCarthy, a high school English and creative writing teacher, and Erin Hubbard, who now works in education consulting, to create “new pathways for young individuals interested in the world of writing,” in McCarthy’s words. They had helped with student workshops through the Northern Virginia Writing Project, where they saw successful weekend workshops and a summer writers’ camp.

“We were confident that we could provide a similar experience with one sizable benefit: a partnership with Shenandoah University’s Children’s Literature Conference (CLC),” says McCarthy. So, when Project Write launched, some CLC author-presenters also led workshops for young writers, a practice that has continued.

Today, youth workshops run on weekends and in the summer, and both teacher-leaders and young writers find them energizing experiences. PWI has begun to see its first participants graduate from college, some with publishing contracts, and return as presenters. Andrew Joseph White, a graduate of Winchester’s Handley High School and a PWI participant from elementary through high school, published his first novel, Hell Followed with Us, in June 2022, and it landed on The New York Times YA bestseller list.

“The benefit of Project Write is that we take the pressure of school away,” says PWI Vice President and Loudoun Valley High Writing Center Director Christopher Humenik, a Loudoun Education Association member. “There’s no grade coming, there’s no deadline due. It’s ‘get where you can and be comfortable with it.’”

longer term projects. Students and teachers from around the state (and beyond) are welcome at both. Writing is a solitary activity, but often a writer needs an audience to spark motivation.

Why Write

Here are some reasons your students will benefit from writing and from getting better at it, suggested by a variety of educators and education organizations:

• Writing is a form of lasting communication.

• Writing is a form of expression and selfevaluation.

• Writing develops critical thinking skills.

While PWI teacher consultants bring a wealth of classroom experience to the workshops, they, too, often benefit in ways that strengthen their teaching arsenal. After the pandemic shut down schools in 2020, PWI moved its summer workshop online. Students were so hungry for interaction that it wasn’t a struggle to get them to turn on cameras and microphones for the authors, instructors, or their peers. And, while many of their teaching colleagues struggled to adjust to online or hybrid learning that fall, the PWI instructors understood how to engage students online.

Having an instructor to facilitate their growth and a group of peers to provide feedback regularly pushes the writers to keep going.

Alicia D. Williams

Again and the picture book biography, Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston, leads young writers through her “Lists to Write From” exercise.

Marisol Contreras (left), then a rising senior, reads one of her pieces during the group share at the end of the day during last year’s summer workshop. Several online students on screen behind her await their turn.

Bringing together teachers and students from across the state enhances both the individuals and the organization.

“Project Write seeks to build communities of writers,” McCarthy says. “More than ever, students need a place to feel connected. For those who want to write, Project Write can help you find your way.”

• Writing encourages creativity and imagination.

• Writing helps you organize your thoughts.

• Writing improves communication, vocabulary and reading skills.

• Writing helps you remember things you’ve learned, expanding your knowledge base.

• Writing is a mindful activity.

• Good writing is crucial for academic and career success.

Project Write has continued to grow and adapt. The summer workshop is now offered using a hybrid model with most writers attending in person, but those who live farther away or whose parents can’t drive them daily can attend online. An Advanced Young Writers’ Workshop is offered virtually throughout the year for writers devoted to developing

More information, for teachers and students, is available at projectwrite.org or youngwriters@ projectwrite.org or by following @ ProjectWrite on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.l

Rhonda Lancaster, a Frederick County Education Association member, teaches English and creative writing at James Wood High School. She is the president of the advisory board for Project Write, Inc., and is a teacher consultant with Shenandoah Valley Writing Project

• Writing builds selfconfidence.

• Writing can help you land the job you want.

• Writing helps you connect with an audience.

• Writing helps save your memories and provides a record that can affect the future.

• Writing is a life skill that can affect the world in positive ways l

(above), author of Genesis Begins

A PANDEMIC CHECK-UP

Two researchers ask teachers, nationally and in Virginia, how they’re doing and what they need.

By Tim Pressley and David T. Marshall

There have always been a lot of demands placed on teachers and, as a pandemic swept through our state and schools in the last three years, those demands have only grown. Classroom teachers found themselves working under conditions for which many were unprepared, and their students faced having to learn in unfamiliar ways.

As this school year began, teachers took on more responsibility and tasks, including minimizing learning loss and providing social-emotional support for students while simultaneously covering grade-level standards, prepping lessons, completing child-study paperwork, and keeping in contact with parents, to list just

a few of the challenges that COVID gave them.

Last May, we surveyed teachers nationwide and found that almost three-fourths of them considered leaving during the 2021-2022 school year. Some were looking for teaching jobs in other schools and districts; however, more than half of the teachers we surveyed shared that they had looked at non-teaching job postings, and almost one in five applied for a job outside of education. Last spring, the Virginia Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators reported more than 1,000 unfilled teacher positions across the Commonwealth.

Unfortunately, our research suggests that these trends may only get

worse, for several reasons. First, teacher morale is very low and has only declined over the past few years. We conducted a similar survey in May 2021 and 29.5 percent of teachers reported experiencing low morale. When asked the same question in May 2022, that figure jumped to 53.6 percent.

Second, teacher mental health is also a growing factor in burnout levels. The good news is that Virginia teachers reported higher levels of mental health than teachers from other states did in our study. However, there is also this: Almost one-third of Virginia teachers sought counseling to support their mental health issues during the pandemic, compared to 19.2 percent of all adults, according to the most recent data from

the Centers for Disease Control.

What Teachers are Up Against

When asked about what was most challenging during the 2021-2022 school year, Virginia teachers talked about trying to support students academically, socially, and behaviorally. For instance, in our survey 30 percent of our state’s teachers shared frustrations with student behaviors as they returned to school. As one said, “Students need a lot more guidance and help this year with their classroom behaviors…[they] do not have a lot of independent work skills and behavior has been a challenge.” Other teachers described student behavior as “more immature” because young people had been forced by the pandemic to be online and out of school for close to two years. General descriptions of student behavior and student disruptions referred to such issues as “major challenges within the classroom.” Some of the most concerning responses teachers shared included increased extreme, violent student behavior and weapons at school when compared to previous years.

We held follow-up focus groups with survey respondents last fall and found these concerns to be the case regardless of grade level. Teachers described students as “having almost forgotten how to do school.” Especially in the early months of the pandemic, a lot of grace was given in grading: student work was often accepted when submitted late, and graded for completion rather than accuracy, if it was graded at all. The teachers we spoke with shared that many of their students had difficulty pivoting back to pre-pandemic norms around grading and submitting assignments, which was part of what led to dips in academic achievement.

Another significant concern Virginia teachers brought up was the lack of support from administrators and parents, with 25 percent noting that issue in their short survey responses. For example, one teacher said, “I’ve had students with behavior problems and unresponsive parents. Parents also have unrealistic expectations for their students returning from the pandemic.” Another teacher shared that, “parents are blaming me for their child’s bad choices.”

With administrators, most of these teachers felt unsupported with student behavior problems and with having unrealistic workload and student success expectations put on them. One said, “I’ve had severe student behaviors that went beyond the classroom. Administrators put a lot of pressure to improve test scores but did not provide behavior support when (teachers) asked.”

Our analyses in the national survey found, again unsurprisingly, that teachers who felt supported by parents and their school leadership had higher job satisfaction and were less likely to pursue employment outside of education. These findings stayed the same regardless of a teacher’s race or gender, or whether they taught in a rural, urban, suburban, or Title school. Our findings suggest that teachers with supportive administrators and the space and flexibility to do their professional work were less likely to consider leaving the classroom. This support might come in multiple forms, such as mental health days for teachers or for school leaders to limit the extra work they ask from teachers.

We saw similar results from Virginia teachers. Forty-two percent say they feel supported in their school environments; however, of those teachers, 54 percent said that their

support came from grade level teams rather than school administrators. The teachers who mentioned support from others beyond their teaching colleagues said their school administrators and parents understood what the teachers were going through. For example, one teacher said, “I have been told by administrators that I’m doing a great job and received an extra day of leave when I was struggling with the workload.” Another noted, “Administration and parents were very supportive during the year. They all understand what we (teachers) were going through during COVID-19 and their understanding provided relief during the stressful times.”

In the end, administrators must be realistic about their expectations for teachers and the demands being made on them. At both the school and district level, they need to find appropriate resources to support teachers. Parents should focus on working with teachers and need to remember that teachers are often just the messengers passing along requirements created by school leaders. As such, parent complaints about policies or testing should be taken up with school leaders instead of teachers.

Moving Ahead

When we asked teachers what they needed, one of the overwhelming responses was more time. This often stemmed from teachers having to cover the classrooms of colleagues who were out sick or had to complete extra paperwork because of larger class sizes tied to the teaching shortage. As one teacher described it, “Teacher turnover and the inability to hire high-quality teachers to replace those leaving the profession is a real challenge. My special education caseload is above the state limit because we do not

have enough hands to support the needs of our students.” Though school districts have tried to patch these holes with long-term substitutes and by moving instructional coaches back to classrooms, it has still led to teachers taking on the brunt of the work. Teachers in the survey said they didn’t have enough time to plan, prep, grade, and contact parents because they were often asked to cover other classes and thus they had “too much work and not enough time to get it done.” Our survey findings suggest that teachers’ workloads should be reduced and return to pre-pandemic levels; however, no one wants to see that lead to lower standards for students, especially given pandemic-related learning loss.

School leaders and policymakers must recognize what an increased teacher shortage may mean for Virginia. It could lead to larger class sizes and/or less qualified classroom teachers across the state. Virginia has begun to take small steps in supporting teachers and we are encouraged by the pay raises for educators passed by the state in the last two years and grants for mental health services in

An International Teacher Top (?) Ten…

The top 10 most frequently mentioned sources of stress for teachers, compiled in the Teaching and Learning International Survey, which reached out to teachers in 48 countries and was conducted by OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development):

1. Having Too Much Administrative Work (49%)

Let’s Clear This Up: Equity and Equality are Not the Same Thing

By ChèRee Wiley

seven Virginia school divisions. We would encourage school leaders and policymakers to continue to put teachers first by providing annual raises, more money for resources, and making mental health resources available. Other ways to support teachers are finding ways to provide uninterrupted planning time or paying them for the time they spend covering other classes.

As this school year continues, it is important for school leaders and parents to understand what teachers have gone through in the past several years. Every student deserves an excellent education and outstanding teacher. Unfortunately, our research suggests an emerging public education crisis. Virginia school leaders and policymakers must continue to respond appropriately and effectively.l

Tim Pressley is an assistant professor of educational psychology at Christopher Newport University. David T. Marshall is an assistant professor of educational research at Auburn University and a Virginia native.

2. Being Held Responsible for Students’ Achievement (44%)

3. Having Too Much Grading/ Marking (41%)

4. Keeping Up with Changing Requirements from Authorities (41%)

5. Maintaining Classroom Discipline (38%)

6. Addressing Parent or Guardian Concerns (34%)

7. Having Too Much Lesson Preparation (33%)

8. Modifying Lessons for Students with Special Needs (31%)

9. Having Too Many Lessons to Teach (28%)

10. Having Extra Duties Due to Absent Teachers (25%)l

There is a gross misunderstanding about equity and equality—many people think they mean the same thing. They don’t: Equity is about meeting individual needs.

As Baruti Kafele, author of The Equity and Social Justice 50: Critical Questions for Improving Opportunities and Outcomes for Black Students, puts it, equity is “meeting young people where they are, as they are.”

What this means is that equity is tailored to the unique needs of the populations we serve. In education, that requires getting to know staff and students in order to understand what their unique needs are.

Cookie-cutter education has never been adequate, and I believe that educational institutions can become transformative spaces that staff and students want to come to each day—but it will require work. The toxicity, in business, in education, and in life, that comes from asking people to conform, rather than embracing their contributions and perspectives, needs to end. Equity inherently makes room for differences, embracing diversity, and creating inclusive spaces.

Meeting unique needs as an educator is about sharing your culture but not expecting students who are English language learners to fully assimilate to achieve academic success. Individualized learning is about acknowledging that a student who never learned to read adequately needs a different reading plan than some of your

more accomplished readers—and more of your attention. It also means that the student who is tired every day due to factors they don’t control needs you to provide a different plan as well. Equity is about not making comments about what parents should be doing and then making the student pay because of your judgments. It is about acknowledging that not all parents are home due to various situations, some of them have their own educational struggles, and you are there to help young people in any way that you can.

I understand all too well the challenges educators face year after year. I have spent the last 11 years creating equitable classroom environments in the midst of scheduling changes, overpopulated classrooms, and limited support. I will be the first to say that creating spaces that meet the needs of all students can be a daunting task—but it is worth it. The reward comes from the joy that students have when they come into educational spaces they can take ownership of: When they want to learn because they can relate. These are the rewards that make it all worthwhile, and every student and staff member deserves to experience environments like these.

As leaders, managers, and educators, we have the power to create such spaces, but it is about a mindset, a passion, and a commitment to equity, to diversity, to inclusion, to people finally finding spaces where they are welcome and their differences are celebrated. We are given the unique opportunity to create such spaces. We have the keys to help generate the kind of change that will positively impact generations. The question is, are we up to the task?

Together, let’s create a world where equity leads the way: a better world for us all.l

ChèRee Wiley, a member of the Hopewell Education Association and of the VEA’s Fitz Turner Commission for Human Relations and Civil Rights, is the Supervisor of Equity, Culture, & History for Hopewell City Public Schools.

Teachers of Color Summit Fires Up Attendees

It got hot up in there at that conference center in Norfolk. Dr. Bettina L. Love, professor at Teachers College of Columbia University, and the bestselling author of We Want to Do More Than Survive brought the heat in a stirring keynote address that was both a call for justice and a call for action.

“We’ve been fighting for 70 years, since the Brown decision, to tell this country that our babies are worth it,” she said. “If we don’t educate our Black students about who they are, they won’t know!”

She decried the burdens placed on Black children in our schools. “Think of what our children must sacrifice when the curriculum and the teachers don’t look like them,” she said. “They’re sacrificing themselves! And it’s not just our loss—it’s your loss and it’s democracy’s loss.”

Dr. Love went on to give some marching orders. “We must make our approach with love,” she said adding that Black educators must push for more than being included: “We must become integral,” she said, “and show them that they can’t run this ship without us!”

Conference organizers made sure that student voices were also part of the program, and high school senior Rodney Pierson, who noted that he’s only had four Black teachers in his 13 years of schooling, told attendees, “A lack of Black teachers can…put Black youth in a rough situation by limiting positive role models, limiting career insight, and

Show Us the Money! VEA Members Speak Up about Their Paychecks

VEA leaders and members have been speaking up around the state, letting local school boards, city councils, and media outlets know that increasing teacher pay is not only an essential component to overcoming teacher shortages, but also a long overdue sign of respect for an amazingly important profession. Here’s a sampling of the messages they’ve shared.

How can we expect our educators to be at their best for our students if they are preoccupied with making their mortgage payment? If they are having to choose between continuing to teach and the rising cost of childcare? If they come in everyday exhausted from working their second, or even third job the night before? If they are under constant threat from outside groups crying, “Indoctrination!”, constant threat of verbal and physical harassment from students, and constant threat of rampant gun violence plaguing our schools? How can we expect our educators to be at their best when they don’t get paid enough for this?

Katie Seidemann, Montgomery County Education Association

People don’t leave our district angry. They leave hurt. They want to stay, they want to do the job, they love the people they work with, they love their students, but they cannot pay their bills.

Helen Pryor, Education Association of Norfolk

discouraging Black youth from truly learning about their history and experiences. “

In addition to Dr. Love and Pierson, conference attendees also heard presentations from Peggy Brookins, president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; VEA member Anthony Swann, Virginia’s 2021 Teacher of the Year; Dr. Ronald White of the Spartans Teach Program at Norfolk State University; and La-Neka S. Brown, director of the Teacher in Residence Program at Old Dominion University; and heard a panel of VEA members who are National Board Certified Teachers discuss what that process is like for teachers of color.

Participants also had breakout sessions on a wide range of topics, including equity audits, working toward visible inclusion, increasing retention rates among Black boys, the power of a teacher, hip-hop pedagogy and literacy instruction, and White educators and cultural humility.l

While we’re definitely grateful for a 5 percent raise, any raise that’s below the rate of inflation will make our staff feel like we are making less money next year.

Mary McIntyre, Albemarle Education Association

There are employees who are leaving our school district to work for other school districts for two main reasons, low salary, and no room to advance in their careers.

Margaret Migas, Waynesboro Education Association

For the last 31 years, I have been a teaching assistant and I didn’t even make $31,000 until this past year. I went to our school board and told them, ‘You don’t even pay me $31,000 a year and I also drive a school bus, am a part-time custodian, and I’m in school to get my degree to be a teacher in your school system.’

Arthur Anderson, Chesapeake Education Association

They say that love is priceless. But it’s kind of nifty that on this day—Valentine’s Day, the day we celebrate love, I’m able to calculate the value of my love for Stafford County Public Schools. It’s $27,517…I know that I’d make $27,517 more if I taught at a Prince William school next year than I will make at my current job…I stay because I really do love Stafford County Public Schools. I love my students, my school, my co-workers, my curriculum…but I can’t say it doesn’t sting.

Sarah Taylor, Stafford Education Association

Keynote speaker Dr. Bettina Love (upper right) had the conference crowd on their feet. In other photos, members interact with presenters and one another.

VEA Adds Organizing Staff

Wesley Gibson, is VEA’s new Organizing Specialist in Alexandria, and comes to us from New Hampshire, where he was working as a regional organizing director for the NH Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign. He has experience as a chief steward and in leading card-signing drives, contract negotiations, and member representation.

Justin Johnson is now the Organizing Specialist in Hampton/ Tidewater, joining VEA from the NEA Organizing Fellowship Academy, where he is a Fellow. Prior to that, he was a business teacher in Georgia, as well as the treasurer for the Georgia Association of Educators, where he helped create the Georgia Association of Millennial Educators.

Adjua Lafleur is now a UniServ Director serving the Prince William Education Association. She brings seven years of classroom experience, has served her New Jersey local three times as a delegate to the NEA convention, and is a graduate of the NEA Pre-UniServ Academy.l

Retiring, Setting Up Benefits

Online with myVRS

If you’re ready to retire, doing so online in myVRS can save you time and trouble. You’ll find pre-retirement counseling, including informative videos and step-bystep guidance through major decision points, and you can also bypass paper forms. Follow these simple steps to apply for retirement:

1. Log in to your myVRS account.

2. In the Manage My Benefits drop-down menu, select Apply for Retirement.

3. Click the Apply Now button.

Questions? There are videos on topics like life insurance, Social Security and the health insurance credit, and there’s information to help decide on a benefit payout option beneficiary decisions.

You can submit a request to retire online, which takes about 30 minutes, up to 120 days before your retirement date. VRS encourages early submissions to allow for processing time. Should you need support, you can stop at any point, save your work and contact a VRS member counselor for assistance.

Are you eligible?

While many members are eligible to retire online, there are some exceptions:

• Long-term disability in your record or retiring on disability.

• Approved Domestic Relations Orders (ADRO) on file.

• Ongoing purchase of prior service agreements.

• Other (hazardous duty or judicial service).

If any of those apply to you, check out the Retirement Planning section of myVRS or the Application for Service Retirement (VRS-5) on the VRS website. Those retiring on disability should use the Application for Disability Retirement (VRS-6) and associated forms.

Start planning now!

To plan for your retirement, log in to myVRS and use the Benefit Estimator and Retirement Planner to learn about retirement eligibility and available payout options. You can also project your income and expenses in retirement.

Here are some other helpful features available on myVRS:

• Benefciary Management: Update beneficiaries online for your VRS defined benefit member account and group life insurance benefits.

• Optional Group Life Insurance Maintenance: Maintain your Optional Group Life Insurance benefit in myVRS or adjust optional coverage.

• Payment Destination Maintenance: Set up direct deposit in retirement or notify VRS of a change in your banking information.

• Health Insurance Credit Maintenance: Claim the health insurance credit when you retire, report insurance premium changes or make other changes without mailing a paper form.

While logged into your myVRS account, you can also check out myVRS Financial Wellness, which offers a growing library of articles, videos and courses about saving for goals, creating a budget, behavioral finance, and much more.l

Prince William Union WINS Representation Election

In another step forward in the expansion of collective bargaining rights for Virginia’s public school employees, the Prince William Education Association won an overwhelming representation election victory in February. PWEA earned the right to represent the county’s more than 7,000 licensed employees, who include teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, and others, and more than 4,000 classified education support professionals, including bus drivers, food service workers, and others. PWEA members will now work with the county’s school system later this year as the development process of the fiscal year 2025 budget proceeds. In other developments around the state:

• The school board in Charlottesville voted to accept the bargaining resolution drafted jointly with the Charlottesville Education Association. CEA is now gearing up for an election to become the exclusive representative for Charlottesville City Schools employees. Across town, the Albemarle Education Association and the county’s school board are working together to move forward with the resolution process.

• The Loudoun Education Association submitted an affidavit to the county to show that LEA members had collected a majority of signatures on bargaining authorization cards for certified school employees. Next step is the verification procedure.

• Both the Montgomery County Education Association and the Falls Church City Education Association, at press time, were scheduled to have their resolutions voted on by their local school boards.l

‘A Wake-Up Call that Should be Heard’

In the aftermath of the shooting at Richneck Elementary School that critically injured first grade teacher Abby Zwerner, Newport News Education Association President Dr. James Graves has been publicly advocating for changes in the ways guns are handled and are available in our communities. Here’s some of what he’s had to say:

The Newport News community has endured three shootings on our public school grounds in the last 16 months. All of these were perpetrated by minors who accessed deadly weapons. It should not be so easy for children and teens in Virginia to get their hands on firearms. We have kids who are getting guns as young as 6 years old, and we need to do something about it. It’s time for state leaders to come together to help address the disturbing increase in gun violence incidents in Virginia’s schools. We have kids in our Commonwealth that need leaders to just get ahead of this thing. It’s not just a Republican thing or Democratic thing; it’s a national thing. We’re counting on our elected officials to work together to protect our children and grandchildren through common-sense gun legislation.

The Virginia Senate passed six such bills, including one that would require households where children are present to have firearms and ammunition locked in separate containers. The Richneck shooter brought his mother’s loaded gun to school. A law requiring that gun and ammunition be locked separately away could have thwarted his efforts.

It’s just basic knowledge, information to save lives. Since [the Richneck shooting], there has been so much tension among educators, administrators, school boards, and everyone to find solutions. The situation with Miss Abby is a wake-up call. It’s a wake-up call that should be heard.

Metal detectors are fine, clear backpacks are fine, but we have to fix the behavior of our students and enforce consequences and accountability for both students and parents.l

Gone!

What would you make disappear from your job description?

As educators geared up for the current school year, NEA asked what they’d choose if they could magically make one thing disappear from their plates. Here are some of the ways your colleagues responded:

• Weekly faculty meetings that present information we could receive in a memo or email. Time is a commodity teachers value, and that meeting time could be used for grading, planning, or meeting with students.

• 10 students from each class. Lower class sizes would be amazing!!

• Mock testing and state testing.

• Get rid of new initiatives every year. Give us a few years to perfect the last initiative. We don’t want “the latest and greatest.” We want time to work on what works and best practices for our students.

• “Other duties as assigned” catch-all.

• The politicization of education.

• Student loans.

• Unnecessary meetings and repetitive paperwork. Also assigned periods just for the sake of filling a schedule (e.g. study hall, lunch duty, etc.).

• Filling out forms. All of them. Sub slips, extra duty time sheets, purchase orders, mileage reimbursements, questionnaires, career advancement credit approval forms, huge long SST forms, referral forms, grant writing, etc.

• All the extra work that comes from underfunded schools— having to buy so many things out of pocket, subbing on my

planning period, doing the work of specialists we don’t have, taking work home.

• Submitting weekly lesson plans to administrators.

• Political groups pushing “indoctrination” narratives. To be clear, I am always happy to talk to a parent about anything they might be concerned about. But having outside groups pushing parents to be outraged about books and history topics is just exhausting and stressful.

• Income insecurity.

• The expectation we must do work before or after contract time. Unnecessary PD, meetings, and any kind of work that cannot be realistically completed during the contract hours. We don’t get paid enough if we have to work a second job to live.

• Fear of book challenges.

• Mandatory second and third jobs just to be able to live and still be a teacher.

• Phones.

• Subbing during my planning period.

• Working half the weekend.

• Constant staffing issues.

• The need for educators to have to rely on Amazon Wish Lists or other crowdsourcing to get basic supplies. Teachers should never have to dip into their own savings to provide basic classroom necessities!

• AR-15s.

• Arrival and dismissal duties!

• The expectation that because we love our job and children, we are considered villains when we advocate for higher pay, better working conditions, and to basically be treated as the highly educated, competent professionals that we are.

• A rigid pacing guide.

• Guilt that I can never do enough or be enough for everyone.

• Formal teacher evaluations: regular visits and informal observations would be more helpful and authentic.

• Worrying about kids eating lunch and breakfast.l

Help Your Students be Good Citizens Online

Here are some resources that may help you as you guide students toward becoming responsible citizens in the digital world:

Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org), which offers professional development and classroom tools to help students navigate technology safely and responsibly.

The Digital Citizenship Institute (digcitinstitute.com), where you’ll find workshops and more that will help you and your students change how you engage online.

Be Internet Awesome by Google (beinternetawesome.withgoogle. com/en_us), which has curriculum with resources.

Facebook’s Digital Literacy Library (facebook.com/safety/ educators) is a partnership with Youth and Media at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and has free lessons on security, community engagement, and positive behavior.l

$820

Average amount of their own money that educators will spend on classroom supplies this school year.l

Source: myelearningworld.com

This Debate is not New…

“One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. We must not remember that Daniel Webster got drunk but only remember that he was a splendid constitutional lawyer. We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner, or that Thomas Jefferson had mulatto children, or that Alexander Hamilton had Negro blood, and simply remember the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth."l

— Historian W.E.B. Du Bois, writing in 1935

Avoid ‘Sidekick

Syndrome’ in Children’s Literature

Seeking Professional Development that Works for YOU ?

Virginia, D-Day, and Your Students Changing Policy… About Policy

The historic, tide-turning D-Day invasion happened June 6, 1944 and it took a staggering toll not just on American forces in general, but on the town of Bedford, Virginia in particular, and its population of only 3,000. That day, 19 young Bedford men died; three more were killed later in the campaign.

Today, the National D-Day Memorial stands in the town and offers much, both in historical and human terms, for our students to learn. Field trips, either on-site and virtual, traveling trunks, lesson plans, and activities are among the educational materials available to supplement your WWII curriculum.

To learn more about how you and your students can benefit, visit dday.org or contact education@dday.org l

Nothing about the condition of my work as a classroom teacher allowed me the time or space to engage with education policy. This needs to change. Nothing in my teacher-preparation program was geared toward engaging with policy. This, too, needs to change. Teachers should not have to leave the classroom to feel like they can interact with policy. It should be part and parcel of the work of teaching.

Not getting professional development that’s especially helpful to what you have to accomplish every day? Here are some ways you can direct your own PD and get more relevant guidance:

When you’re attempting to create a more diverse reading collection for your classroom, children’s book author Christina Soontornvat says, be careful to avoid “sidekick syndrome,” where minority characters are presented only as sidekicks, stereotypes, or both. She says she was an adult before she saw someone who resembled her as the main character in a book: “I remember just being like ‘Oh my gosh, that’s an Asian girl on the cover of a book all by herself?’” she says. “It was one of those things where you don’t even know what you wanted or were lacking until you see it.”l

Reflective journaling: Whether you do it on paper or digitally, set aside as few as five minutes a day (or even once a week) to regularly reflect on your instruction. Over time, go back and review what you’ve written—you may notice trends and see some of the progress you’re making.

Reading and researching: Read educational research in books, articles, professional journals, or online through tools such as Google Scholar. One good free resource is the federal government’s What Works Clearinghouse (ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC).

Having regular professional conversations with colleagues: This might look like a weekly lunch and learn, developing a professional learning community, or online networking.

Looking beyond your own classroom: Can you partner with a trusted colleague to watch each other teach, reflect together, and learn together?

Asking for what you want: Ask to go to a workshop, or ask your local president to utilize VEA resources (which you can check out yourself at veanea.org/events).

Investigating graduate courses. Check offerings at Virginia colleges and universities, and there’s an enormous number of online options, too.l

Policymakers need to recognize that policy does not operate in a vacuum… Teacher educator programs need to better prepare teachers for the onslaught of policy they will face from all levels of governance…Researchers need to recognize the need for more pragmatic research.

In short, teachers don’t need a seat at the table. Teachers need everyone, themselves included, to realize that they own the table.l

— Amanda Slaten Frasier, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, East Tennessee State University, NBCT, and former high school social studies teacher

Movie Time!

The best professional development activity I’ve ever attended, by far, was in 2004. Trevor Ruble, then an educator for Botetourt County Public Schools and now with Roanoke County, presented the workshop and said these profound words: “We teachers often teach kids in the way we learn best, but not necessarily the way many or even most kids learn best.”

Trevor went on to explain that research has shown that the best approach is to present lessons in a wide variety of ways for young people who learn best visually, orally, kinesthetically, linguistically, logical-mathematically, and other ways. Stunned, I realized that was not doing all I could to reach my high school English students at Lord Botetourt High School.

After talking individually with Trevor, one of the changes I immediately made was to show more films. Teachers who present movies often receive scorn from administrators, parents, and even other teachers—and deservedly so if these cinematic productions have no connection with the curriculum. But have found that flicks are excellent ways to reach young people, especially those who learn visually, orally, and interpersonally.

For example, one of my English 10 A.S. students’ favorite units is the one on the 1950s. We read and discuss the Cold War classic Lord of the Flies do PowerPoints on the 1950s (music, cars, fashion, sports, the Korean War, other historical events, and, of course the Cold War), and view and discuss Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window from 1954. Indeed, Hitchcock’s masterpiece is one of the ways prepare my students for their Analytical Paper SOL.

For this SOL, tenth graders have to compose a five-para-

graph paper where they put forth their thesis statement and supporting sentences in the first paragraph, prove their thesis statement in the next two paragraphs, present the counter argument and prove it wrong in paragraph four, and, finally, in paragraph five restate their thesis statement and the main information from the supporting paragraphs.

Before we begin Rear Window I announce that viewing/ discussing this film will help prepare students for the SOL and that the question they will be writing about for their paper is the following: “Does Hitchcock’s Rear Window deserve its place as one of the top 100 movies of all time, according to the American Film Institute?”

I also explain that students will have to research what movie critics have written about the motion picture and incorporate that information into their three supporting paragraphs and, of course, have an MLA-style Works Cited Page. I further add that Hitchcock’s flicks often feature these characteristics: cold, icy blondes have pivotal roles, bad things happen on trains, going up or down stairs is dangerous, there’s never a wasted scene, important clues are often understated, and average people, through no fault of their own, can have bad things happen to them. And that this movie contains all these motifs to one degree or another.

After this introduction, the students are charged with excitement and ready to proverbially pick the classic apart. At LBHS, we are on the 90-minute block schedule and when I show movies, we view them for the last half hour of the class. Theoretically, then, we should finish a motion picture like this one in four days, but students are so enthusiastic about this flick that sometimes we only watch it for 10 minutes and spend the rest of the allotted time debating the meanings of the following: Jimmy Stewart’s and Grace Kelly’s relationship, the statement that opposites attract, the symbolism of foghorns and sirens heard in the background, the importance of the little dog, and what really happened to Mrs. Thorwald.

After we finish viewing, discussing, debating, and as the culminating activity, writing analytically about Rear Window, it is gratifying to me that overwhelmingly, my Generation Z young people believe that Rear Window is deserving of its place in the motion picture pantheon. It is also very satisfying that through this movie and the 1950s unit as a whole, I hope I’ve reached every student and their individual learning style. But the whole experience is even more satisfying when peruse their scores from the Analytical SOL they take the following week.

Watching a movie doesn’t have to be the centerpiece of a “free day” or the activity done on the last day of school before Christmas or other holidays. Done correctly, Movie Time in our classrooms can be a valuable learning experience.l

Bruce Ingram (bruceingramoutdoors@gmail.com), a member of the Botetourt Education Association and a veteran educator, teaches English and Creative Writing at Lord Botetourt High School.

— Bruce Ingram