---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: SPIRE IA (Institute and Academy) <admissions@spireinstitute.org>
From: SPIRE IA (Institute and Academy) <admissions@spireinstitute.org>
|
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Fwd: Please help the future of women in sports
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Letter to PPS from a teacher, posted on social media and sent to the board
Kristen Johnson posted
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I am posting the letter I am sending to the board for tomorrow. I do not know if it will all be read because of time, but enough is enough! I ask each and everyone of you to write as well.
Pittsburgh Board of Education:
Good evening, my name is Kristen Johnson and I am a teacher at Brashear High School. I am writing to implore a sense of urgency in addressing our current situation within the district. This is a call to action for each of you and everyone who works at Central Office.
Five years ago I started working at Brashear high school as an English teacher. I have moved to the CTE department and now teach Personal Finance and Computer Fundamental elective courses. Working for PPS is a dream come true and Brashear is my “home” where I can show school pride, community pride, city pride, and PPS pride.
Nothing that has transpired over the past week, and frankly this school year, has elicited a sense of pride. We are all experiencing a myriad of emotions. I will keep this letter local and immediate to my experience, but I know many others share similar frustrations and anger.
When family and friends asked how I was doing at the end of last week I paused and said “I am disgusted”. I am disgusted that our district has experienced heinous acts of violence including the death of a 15 year old student. I am disgusted that many conversations end without closure or a plan for actual and effective change. I am astounded that my colleagues at Oliver do not feel secure in their building because of the number of exits without alarms. I am outraged that we continue “with business as usual” after the death of a student, staff injuries in breaking up a fight, and another young adult in the hospital as a result of a fight.
What is going on?
We, teachers, are fighting a battle much bigger than us individually. We are fighting a system that is not effective at educating or preparing students for a future. We are trying to instill a sense of self in students, develop self-confidence, empower students to achieve self-actualization and see themselves as an asset to our communities. We do this by building relationships with students and families so they can become the captains of their own destiny. We are doing this every day in every building, and we are emotionally exhausted because we are doing it alone.
Where are you?
I have not seen one of you, board members or otherwise, in our buildings unless is was a planned tour of a particular program. I ask again, where are you? You have to get in the trenches to understand our day-to-day struggle with high need students and their individual circumstances. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, he wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He began by addressing his fellow clergymen who called his visit “untimely and unwise”. Now is your time to see and be seen. We, teachers, feel we are doing this alone. We feel the support given by administration has been stifled because they are not willing, or able, to provide the necessary discipline to address minor student behaviors that perpetuate a climate and culture of disrespect for people and learning. Now is your time to come be substitute in our buildings, all buildings, but especially high school buildings and see for yourselves the profanity and disregard for redirection from staff.
Where are you?
Please come see for yourself what is happening. Not just once, take a week or two and sub in our buildings.
One year ago Amanda Gorman recited original poetry at the Presidential Inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. She was the youngest person to every do so. Her poem “The Hill We Climb” speaks to the challenges we have overcome in recent history, difficult challenges that tested our persistence and willingness to listen to each other. At the end she says “When day comes, we step out of the shade, Aflame and afraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light, If only we’re brave enough to see it, If only we’re brave enough to be it.” I am “Aflame and afraid.” I beseech you to be brave enough to be the light so that we, teachers, may see it and share it. We must be the light and see the light to heal this district and our most precious asset, our students.
Norwin teacher who leads a middle school play is in hot water
Interested to see where this goes.
Report says that the case is before the judge and half-way completed.
Fwd: Seth's Blog : The control/responsibility matrix
----- Forwarded message ---
From: Seth Godin
The control/responsibility matrix
Alert readers of my last two posts have probably guessed what this one is about.
The control/responsibility matrix (click to enlarge)People make choices about their preferences for control and for taking responsibility. When we combine those choices, we end up with a simple matrix.
In the top right is an ideal combination. Someone with control and authority who also takes responsibility when things go wrong. This creates a useful feedback loop, because they can actually do something about the problems they caused.
In the bottom right is a disaster waiting to happen. This is brittle megalomaniac, Robert Moses, the builder, who spent nearly a century paving New York while neglecting housing and other social justice issues, but never took responsibility for any of the effects of his work. People who grab control and avoid responsibility are often easily identified because they spend a lot of time whining.
In the top left corner is someone who truly cares. They bring huge empathy to the situation, and they help people feel seen. Alas, because they don't have power (either because it's been denied to them or because they avoid it), their willingness to take responsibility is sort of hollow. This is one reason that frontline workers that are required to exert emotional labor and empathy on the job so often burn out.
And finally, in most situations, most people are in the bottom left. The system pushes us to be cogs, to accept what's given in exchange for being let off the hook and not being held responsible for what happens next.
In many situations, we have the freedom to choose. We can choose a quadrant or we can choose not to participate. And if we're lucky or care enough, we can choose who to vote for, who to work for and where we're headed.
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