Bronwyn Harris, Author

Here's a story about one of the principals from another teacher. I can't decide if my favorite part was that she had to call and tell the district that they had openings because they didn't notice or if it was that the principal didn't feel like showing her where her classroom was. I was hired two days before school started, (After calling all the elementary schools in the city to find out where the openings were and then informing the district that they in fact did have jobs to fill). I went to the office to introduce myself to the principal and see if I could see my classroom so that I could get it ready for kids. When I walked in to the office it was utter chaos. I saw the principal in her office. I knocked and said, "Hi, my name is ---, and I was just hired to teach second grade here." Her response was "OK." I said, "I was wondering if I could go and see the classroom I am going to be in so I can set it up for the students tomorrow. Her r...

Playground equipment is something that many of us who went to school in more affluent areas (or during more affluent times) take for granted.  We assume that big red four-square balls and jump ropes are found at every elementary school in America, since that was part of our childhood.  Some of us were really lucky and had “earth” balls and parachutes to play with; those are actually some of my best PE memories.    The reality, nowadays, is that playground equipment is much less available.  Some years I got a playground ball at the beginning of the year in my classroom supplies, and some years I didn’t.  It was never blown up though, and I was never given a ball pump so I usually bought or borrowed one.  Sometimes there was one teacher in the school with a ball pump and everyone knew it so kids were constantly bringing in balls to be pumped up.  Of course, they’d try to do it themselves and would end up bending or losing the needles so I was not...

Friday, June 12, 2009 Guns and Lockdowns (I thought about including an image of a gun on this page, for visual interest, and I couldn't do it. Just couldn't.) The kids I've been talking about in my last few posts are a little more stable, at least in terms of their living situation. Again, thanks to everyone who helped financially - you may very well have helped save these boys' lives - no exaggeration. Again, these are the kids who witnessed the murder and had to be relocated because the police (who I just love SO MUCH - is the sarcasm reaching you through the computer?) showed them off to the suspects so there are plenty of threats of retaliation to go around. Then they treated them like they were the criminals. But I digress. They are in an apartment now which is bigger than ones they've lived in before and - while not in an affluent area at all - are not in danger. I think they're talked into counseling - and thank goodness, their ...

An essay about so many of the school break-ins that have happened this year (and last year and the year before...) Two years ago: This is What I've Been Saying Five years ago: The Exploratorium                         Recycled Sculpture

Wow, am I glad I don't have to deal with this anymore. Thursday, May 25, 2006 Time Travel and Foolproof Logic The District has reached a new low in logic. For the last few years, we’ve had these things called “Buy-Back Days.” They are professional development days but because of the contract or because the district is cheap or something, they’ve been optional, and only the people who go to them get paid. Then the people who want more money can go, some of us can sleep in, and the district doesn’t have to pay for everyone. Then, to make things a little more confusing, our school is in the “intensive Support Network" and we have three more optional professional development days. For most of these days less than half of our staff showed up, not because we don’t want the extra money, but because we’re generally exhausted. I went to two of them, but I don’t know if they were district-wide or particular to our school. Now things get interesting. We just got a new ...

In my second to  last year of teaching, I had a student who missed over 70 days of school.  I forget exactly how many, but it was more than 70.  There are only 180 days in a school year, so that was about 40% of the school year that she missed.  Absolutely nothing was done because the child wasn't failing.  She was pretty close, but she wasn't failing and she wasn't a behavior problem so no one wanted to do anything about it.  I begged administrators to take notice but no one would.  Apparently she's not the only one . One year ago: Overly Protective Four years ago: Countdown

OK, for the second of my comprehensive two-part program to improve the district I used to work in, I propose that we all try to Make Sense.  If you think that is an obvious point, you clearly have not worked in this district. 1. The person in charge of subbing shouldn't sign people up for jobs and then not tell them about it, making it impossible for them to show up. 2. More than one person in the district should know how to reset the clocks . 3. The district should not require time travel in order to get all professional development days completed. 4. If you want kids to do projects using the Internet, you have to provide computers and Internet access . 5. It rains sometimes .  We need a plan. 6. Assessing children on math concepts that haven't been taught yet makes no sense .  And is incredibly frustrating. 7. If you build a playground and then don't let the kids play on it , they get sad.  And parents get angry. 8. Why would you spend a ton of money to ...

A wide variety of people have asked me recently what needs to change in the district I used to work in.  Although it is one of the most improved school districts in the state, it is notorious for being difficult to work in and having a ridiculously high turnover.  Each time, I think my answer boiled down to two things: 1. Be nicer. 2. Make sense. These may seem too simplistic, and I think people were expecting more of a sweeping pedagogical approach, but I really think these two things are key.  I'm going to work on some examples for the next couple of posts. Three years ago: Art Gallery Five years ago: My Beast Friend                         Teacher Appreciation Week                          Magic Pencils

One of the many, many principals that we had (mostly bad), Principal Five was one of the special ones.  She wasn't outright racist like Principle Four, but she was completely usless.  This is what I wrote about Principal Five a few years ago: Principal Five: After the disastrous P4, we thought that maybe the district would get a clue. They picked someone who was not bad in any of the same ways as P4, but was still bad. Example: My classroom wasn't cleaned and it was the last day that we had before school started, as P5 lived almost two hours away and wasn't coming in on the weekend. I told her that my classroom was still messy and dirty and there was no way it would be ready for kids on the first day of school. She looked at a space right past my head so that she wasn't looking me in the eye and said, "I really don't know what you're going to do," and walked off. She also had a limp-fish kind of handshake and a tendency to walk away when ...

Saturday, April 22, 2006 Lockdowns and Fractions We've had a lockdown at least once a year since I've been at this school, for various reasons. A lockdown is when something dangerous is going on outside the school or in the school, so all the teachers lock the doors, pull down the blinds, get the kids away from the door, and wait for instructions. Depending on the principal, some of them have tried different codes so the kids won't be scared: the most popular is "Mr. Keys is in the building." Aside from the kids who thought that must be Alicia Keys' father, they wouldn't have caught on, except that there are always so many new teachers that this has to be followed with, "So please lock your doors, don't let children out, move them away from the doors and windows..." Most of them don't last that long. I think my first lockdown was because some bank robbers from San Francisco led police on a high speed chase which ended in ...

This is a teachers' workroom/conference room- how it looked BEFORE a group of us volunteered (through my church) to fix it up.  It took about 7 hours, a lot of IKEA furniture and trips to the dumpster, and some careful planning of how things could fit, but this is what we ended up with: I hope they liked it.  Teachers really should have nice spaces to work in and children should have nice places to learn in.  It makes a big difference. Five years ago: Strike Aftermath and Fallout                         Off Topic: My Art

I love seeing improvement in students, so h ere's one of my favorites: Sunday, April 16, 2006 Writing Improvement! I thought I'd share a success story - this is about a kid who got held back in first grade and convinced himself he was stupid (his word) and fairly worthless. He's actually very smart (one of those who is too smart for his own good) and understands higher-level concepts than most third graders, but I think he may have some sort of processing problem that makes it harder for him to read and write. Anyway, he finally started believing that he could do the work and working at it and after much hard work and patience, he got the most improved writer award for the last trimester! Here are samples of his writing from October, January, and March. Look at the picture, even the handwriting is like it's from a different child. Each writing sample was supposed to be a paragraph. October : to mack a friend isto be nice and to shar and to play ...

I wanted to re-post this in honor of the great teachers at Urban Promise Middle School.  I haven't been back since this post, but it was just so wonderful... Tuesday, April 14, 2009 The Difference a School Makes Wow. I've talked before about the two kids that a friend and I hang out with, or I guess you could say "mentor" in a way. I'm forgetting the pseudonyms I have them so I'll call them Jorge (the older one) and Luis (the younger). I had Jorge in my class in third grade and he has had it rough. He's the oldest of six children and was born when his mother was 14. His mom is frequently in rehab or jail, although she seems to have been out for the last couple of years. If she's clean or not is anyone's guess. Jorge helped raise Luis, at their grandmother's house (the rest of the kids live with other relatives). He's always been super over-responsible, stressed out, and had way too many adult responsibilities. About a y...

When we go into teaching, we all know that we're not going to be working in shiny state-of-the art facilities.  We know that we're working with children and that things will get broken and dirty.  I was, however, under the impression that the custodians cleaned up and that basic supplies were provided.  Silly of me, I know. The kids' bathrooms didn't have hot or even warm water.  They usually didn't have soap or paper towels.  Every year or so someone medical would come and do a big presentation for the kids about how to stay healthy by washing your hands in hot water with soap and drying them with paper towels.  The kids wouldn't listen, and it was hard to blame them - they had none of those supplies.  It's a little crazy-making to be told what to do and not be able to do it.  These same people had mandatory trainings for the adults, to tell us how to avoid bloodborne pathogens.  Of course, it involved some of the same tips, but here was...

This is a guest blog graciously written by Nealey, who is a secondary school teacher.  She brings up some excellent points.  None of us want the standardized tests to matter, but the fact is that they do in many ways. I hope she'll write more posts in the future! Parents: Don’t tell your children that the standardized tests don’t matter. Standardized tests do matter, but unfortunately the system is flawed.   One of the problems with the tests is that s tudents are not held accountable for their test scores.   In an ideal world, all students would do their best because of the intrinsic value in doing one’s best.  If every student actually did their best then the tests might be a valuable way to judge teachers, schools, and educational programs.  However, we don't live in an ideal world. During testing, some student try their best, other students half-heartedly try, and some students don't try at all.  I have seen students bubble in patterns,...

I've had a fairly frustrating situation with one of my tutoring clients recently.  However, I came across this old post and had to be glad that I'm not dealing with THIS anymore: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 Suspension Form I suspended a kid today - let's call her "Alexis" - and these are the reasons I gave on her suspension form: Erasing the lesson on the board Ripping up the list of who hadn't done their homework Giving another kid a wet willy Taking pencils away from kids and taunting them as the kids tried to get them back Taking things off my desk Putting Purell on kids' heads Taking stickers off my desk, sticking them on her crotch, and dancing around thrusting her pelvis out Screaming Refusing to go to the office Threatening to "slap the f--- out of" another kid A lot of other threats that ended with "with your ugly old self" I think there might have been more.  She wouldn't leave when the assistant principa...

Although the name of this school always makes me want to call the school next to it "Commodities," it has come very very very far since it started.  All but one teacher got a layoff notice. There's a video here .  Two years ago: More Education News Four years ago: From Mystery to Medicine

... on e of the schools was broken into and vandalized .  This is not a school where the PTA can jump in and help out, and they need help, badly.  If you feel like helping, there are currently two ways: Donors Choose Directly to the school Four years ago: Over-Praising the Children                          Stephanie's Opportunity!

I've had several people ask me the same basic question about the previous post.   Some variation of this (which I just copied and pasted from the latest email from a friend): I thought it was typically part of the agreements that school districts have with the teachers' unions that required the "last hired, first fired" approach to layoffs.  Is that true?  If so, is it not expected that the layoffs would hit a brand new school like Futures?  Why should I think something different should happen?  Is this not what the teachers have negotiated with the schools? Excellent question.  I answered, but then I ran  my answer by an anonymous teacher friend who helped me edit.  Here is our answer: this part mostly from me, augmented by anonymous friend: You're correct that typically unions have policies of last hired, first fired. The union in this district is no different. In practice, because this is a highly segregated district, teachers wit...

An email from a teacher at the school I used to work at: I apologize for the mass e-mail, but I wanted to get in touch with you about something that is currently very close to my heart.  I have spoken with many of you about the situation that is unfolding at my school, but I'll just summarize for those of you who haven't had the full story.  Our school is in danger of being dismantled and all the gains we have made in the last four years are in danger of being lost as ALL but one of our classroom teachers will receive lay off notices on March 15th.  This is unfairly affecting communities like ours in traditionally 'hard to staff' schools serving low income communities of color.  We are making a video to document this struggle and advocate for our cause and we need YOUR help!  Please visit our site at  http://www.indiegogo.com/Save-Futures-Elementary-School make a donation and support us in raising awareness and telling our story. Here is a s...