Virginia Journal of Education: December 2023 by veanea

VIRGINIA JOURNAL of

EDUCATI N The magazine of the Virginia Education Association December 2023

5 Questions Educators Should be Asking About Artificial Intelligence

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 Connie Coates Kathleen Jacoby Jesse Senechal Mary Strawderman Jonathan Becker

COVER STORY

CONTENTS

Artificial intelligence in school.

UPFRONT

Vol. 116, No.3

4-7 This month: Taking a screen break, facing our history, and Touching Base With Connie Coates of VEA-Retired.

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.

A Fairfax band director encourages her students to take ownership of their learning.

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

16 Your Emotions Matter! Recognizing your emotions in the classroom and reacting to them in a healthy way.

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.

19 Get Behind the ‘Freedom to Learn Pledge’ NEA joins national partners in issuing a document calling for freedom to teach and adequate funding and resources.

Member: State Education Association Communicators VEA Vision: A great public school for every child in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

DEPARTMENTS 20 Membership Matters Educators, organizations to be honored with VEA Awards. 24 Insight on Instruction How you ask your students questions and how you respond matter. 30 First Person Why I’m still in the classroom. Cover and above photo by iStock.

Chris Parthemos Samaher Aljudaibi Oscar Keyes Elena Savina Bruce Ingram

Scott “The principal wants to see you. I sure hope you’re not in trouble.”

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.

UP FRONT

“This is a little ditty I wrote. I call it the ‘Didn’t Do My Report Blues’.”

Many thanks to our often-unsung heroes, our custodians, who keep our schools clean and safe!

“What do you mean, you lost two kids, Mr. Killen? It was a virtual field trip!”

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

“Learning about our country’s history can be painful, but history is also our best teacher. Our past is filled with too much violence, too much hatred, too much prejudice—but can we really say that we are not confronting those same evils now? We have to own even the darkest parts of our past, understand them, and vow never to repeat them…Knowledge emboldens people, and it frees them. The work of our time is maintaining that hard won freedom, and to do that we’re going to need the truth, the whole truth about our past.”l — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, speaking at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, where four Black girls were killed by a white supremacist bombing 60 years ago.

The Safety Issue That Troubles Educators Most The school safety issue that concerns educators most? It’s the same across the board—in elementary, middle, and high schools, according to a 2022 survey by RAND Corporation. And it’s not school shootings, drugs, or being attacked by students. It’s bullying. In elementary schools, 49 percent of educators listed it as their top concern; 58 percent in middle schools; and 31 percent in high schools. The next most important safety concern in elementary schools was teacher attacks (10 percent); fights in middle schools (17 percent); and drugs in high school (25 percent).l

Get ‘Em Off the Shelves! During the first eight months of 2023, 356 different books were challenged in Virginia, nearly twice the 182 books targeted in all of 2022. The way books are being challenged is also changing: Prior to 2021, the majority of book challenges were made by a parent over one title. In 2022 and 2023, however, some 90 percent of challenges have been to multiple titles. The American Library Association, which gathered all the statistics mentioned here, says there is evidence of a “growing, well-organized conservative” push to distribute lists of titles so supporters can challenge those books en masse.l

TOUCHING BASE WITH… CONNIE COATES

LOUISA COUNTY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Instructional Assistant VEA-Retired What do you like about your job? I spent the last 20 years of my 30-year career as an in-school suspension monitor, and when I was asked to start that position at our elementary school, I was concerned about being known as “the mean ISS teacher.” I’d always had a very good relationship with students and enjoyed helping them, so we developed a plan that gave me control of the classroom while helping students succeed in school and, hopefully, make better choices. I loved getting to know them and helping them be better citizens in their classrooms. How has being in the Union helped you? Belonging to VEA has helped me become a better person. I grew stronger as a leader by being a building rep, convention delegate, local president, and VEA Board member. The skills I learned and the support I received from VEA helped me in both my union and personal life. I’m grateful for all my VEA experiences and for learning how rewarding it is to work with others for a common purpose. The lifetime friendships and relationships I found here are precious. l

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Photo and illustrations by iStock

We Must Not Turn Away

UP FRONT

— Teacher and author Susan Ohanian

Five Reasons to Take a Break from Our Screens For students, educators, and humans in general: 1. Present-moment awareness. Our moment-to-moment experience is being fragmented on an unprecedented scale. 2. Improved sleep. Electronic media is not your friend when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep, especially if it’s used in the hours close to bedtime. 3. Deepened connections. Social media promises social connection, but the full richness of human relationships is best found face-to-face. 4. Productivity and learning. Any work that requires a focused mind will benefit from a media break. 5. Breaking the habit. The routine of checking our texts, emails, and social media accounts can easily become a self-reinforcing pattern.l Source: Mary E. Gomes, greatergood.berkeley.edu

36,000

Number of American public schools that need to update or replace their HVAC systems.

Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office

The Grown-Ups Kids Need “Our students benefit the most when the adults in their lives—parents, teachers, coaches, etc.—take a step back and step down to really hear and notice what the student is communicating, what they are feeling and what they are needing. We don’t need more packaged intervention programs, more reward charts, or more punishments. We need adults who can be consistent, we need adults who can expose their own vulnerabilities, we need adults who take the time to authentically connect.” l — Michigan school social worker Kari Wheeler

Spotted on X (formerly Twitter)

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The Ringing in Your Ears If you work inside a classroom, the “dings” you keep hearing are probably not tinnitus symptoms. They’re coming from student phones. According to Common Sense Media, teenagers get a median of 273 notifications a day on their cell phones—almost a quarter of them during school hours. In addition, 20 percent of them receive over 500 “dings” a day. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that smart phones are about to be banned in schools in England, including during break times. New guidelines will allow students to have their phones on the way to and from school, but not to use them during the school day, a decision based on distraction and bullying factors.l

“I’ve narrowed it down to between 3 and a gazillion.”

“Define ‘good’.”

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Photos and illustrations by iStock

“As every teacher knows, it is easier to move a graveyard than to change a district’s existing curriculum.”l

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SCHOOL: FIVE QUESTIONS EDUCATORS SHOULD BE ASKING. By Jesse Senechal, Mary Strawderman, Jonathan Becker, Chris Parthemos, Samaher Aljudaibi, and Oscar Keyes

hatGPT’s public release a year ago unleashed a flood of media coverage speculating on the impact that Large Language Models (LLM) and other forms of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) could have on our educational system. Today, some observers are AI optimists, claiming that these technologies will lead to enhanced forms of personalized learning that can supercharge student performance, effectively

addressing both learning loss and the ongoing educational disparities that have plagued our system. Others are more pessimistic, warning of increased plagiarism, the potential of AI replacing educators, and threats to student privacy, among other concerns. Technology-focused educational reforms have often led us to take a wait-and-see attitude in the past, but there are reasons that, as educators, we may want to learn more about

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AI. We’re going to be hearing a lot more about this topic in the coming year and one of the factors we should consider is its timing. LLMs and other AI technologies are being introduced to a public school system that is under tremendous stress from pandemic-related mental health challenges and learning loss, historic teacher shortages, and policy agendas that support private sector approaches to public education. All these factors offer fertile

ground for the quick integration and expansion of AI in education. In this article, we’ll present a set of questions to ask as we experience the rollout of AI in our public schools. Our goal here isn’t to fully answer these questions, but rather to encourage you to begin asking them. We believe it is critical for those that work in classrooms and schools to develop a professional perspective on the use of LLMs and other forms of AI, so that when opportunities arise, they can speak with professional authority about the benefits and risks. A recent report from the US Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations,” presents foundational principles for developing an approach to AI in education. Interestingly and, we think, accurately, the very first such principle is to Center People (Parents, Educators, and Students). Our hope is that the five questions that follow will help teachers and other educators develop their perspectives on the use of AI LLMs, in ways that center their voices, and the needs of students and parents, in the upcoming debate. Question 1: What are Large Language Models, and how do they work? Here are some key points, and we encourage all educators to learn more about how this technology works. LLMs are a form of generative AI that use algorithms trained on large data sets of text, typically scraped from the Internet. In the case of ChatGPT, the LLM is used to perform natural language processing (NLP) tasks, which enables the program to interpret, process, and

generate human-sounding content in response to a user’s prompt. The output from an LLM is a prediction, with the program essentially asking itself, ‘What would be the best (most predictable) next word?’ again and again. This process continues until a whole block of text (a book report, a poem, a recipe, etc.) is generated. One way of thinking about it is as a very fancy auto-complete that doesn’t stop until the assigned writing task is finished. This process is why, for example, when you read output by ChatGPT, the writing can be so flat and generic. It is, by design, a generic response to a prompt. The response is also limited to predictions from the dataset the model is trained on. For this reason, using ChatGPT requires precise prompt composition in order to provide specific answers about specific issues; the more accurate and specific these prompts, the better the result. It is also important to know that LLMs have certain human-designed guardrails in place to prevent inappropriate content from being generated. You can imagine why this would be needed when considering that the internet (i.e., the training data for LLMs) is full of ideas that challenge social norms. These guardrails vary by model and have been shown to break down in certain cases. There is also no shortage of debate about what guardrails should and should not be in place. While this basic discussion of LLMs may be a good starting point, we encourage all educators to learn more about how these models work. We suggest doing some research—there are many great discussions of AI LLMs geared toward non-computer scientists—and it’s also important to actually use the tools. If you have not already done so, we strongly recommend setting up an account and experimenting to see what it can and cannot do.

Question 2: How can these LLMs support the work of educators? Ask how LLMs might support your work by automating tasks such as lesson planning, assignment design, grading, and parent communication. Many LLM advocates talk about them as efficient personal assistants because they can generate plans, suggest effective teaching strategies, and tailor instructional materials to learning objectives. They can also create educational content, personalize it to fit individual learning styles, and adapt lessons for students with disabilities or non-native English speakers, promoting inclusivity. In instruction delivery and assessment, LLMs can provide personalized tutoring, assist in grading, and identify assessment biases. In parent and community engagement, LLMs can craft outreach materials and facilitate communication with non-English speaking families by translating content into multiple languages. Moreover, LLMs can automate administrative duties like generating reports, relieving manual workload, and assisting in the development of educational policies and programs, fostering a more efficient learning environment. It should be noted how these tools could be used to support students and to learn how students are already using them. While many educators are primarily focused on plagiarism, some students have noticed that AI LLMs can support their self-advocacy, helping them draft emails or practice making important requests of their teachers. Others have used LLMs to provide direct

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Photo by iStock

COVER STORY

Some resources to expand your AI knowledge:

COVER STORY support for learning: In language, for example, they can serve as a conversation partner, allowing practice of new vocabulary or syntax. In the liberal arts, LLMs can allow students to ‘speak’ in hypothetical discussions with historical figures, artists, or literary characters. LLMs can support writing as a partner rather than replacing student effort. This support can include helping to generate outlines, identifying sources or common themes in well-researched areas, and providing detailed feedback on spelling, grammar, syntax, and logic in early drafts. As AI and LLM technology evolve in education, their applications are likely to expand, further transforming the practice of teaching and learning. In a time when teachers are overloaded with work, it is important that teachers advocate for AI and LLM approaches that support student learning as well as create efficiency in administrative and planning tasks, and ultimately make teaching a more sustainable profession. Question 3: What are the primary risks of these technologies in schools? While there are potential benefits, we encourage you to bring a healthy degree of skepticism to the conversation about the school uses of LLMs, like ChatGPT. There are several key areas of concern. First is privacy, for both students and teachers. When users enter prompts that may include personally composed text or identifiable information, privacy is not guaranteed. The data that users enter are processed along with other media or types of communication to train

the models. The use of LLMs should comply with relevant regulations, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), to ensure that sensitive information about students is not exposed. This may require screening any documents or text to remove proprietary or sensitive information, such as student names and academic performance, prior to inputting them into the model. There are also concerns about the intellectual property of teachers. For example, a teacher may load a lesson plan into an LLM, and prompt it to adapt it for a particular student. That lesson plan is now part of the training data, and the ideas may be shared without teacher consent, credit, or compensation. A second concern is the potential of LLMs to undermine the pedagogical value of the writing process. Writing serves as the backbone of our educational system, integral to the curriculum from the early grades through secondary and postsecondary education. Not only does it constitute a primary method for organizing learning experiences, but written composition also frequently becomes a central tool for assessing students’ grasp of a subject. Beyond this, writing develops voice and perspectives, serving as a mirror reflecting our identities. There is certainly cause for concern because a student, with little effort, can prompt the model to write an essay on the causes of the Civil War, craft a poem mirroring Langston Hughes’ style, or pen a persuasive letter advocating stricter gun control policies to a local newspaper. This not only raises fears about the potential misuse of LLMs for cheating, but also leads to an even larger worry about how the technology might alter both the process and product of writing,

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potentially undermining its central educational value. Finally, we should consider the ways that LLMs and other forms of AI might affect student-teacher relationships. We know from prior experience with new educational technologies (e.g., mobile devices) that the benefits of these tools are often overtaken by their ability to detract from classroom community. LLMs add another layer to this problem; they’re designed to be conversational and engaging. Thus, they have the potential to pull students further into their screens and away from person-to-person interactions. Question 4: What equity issues arise as LLMs are used in teaching and learning? All education reform efforts should be considered through an equity lens. With AI and LLMs, there’s a wide range of questions to be considered. As we’ve seen, new technologies can be unevenly distributed across educational contexts, perpetuating existing inequities. Given our current digital divide, it is not hard to imagine scenarios where certain, well-resourced schools have well-developed AI instructional approaches, while others, due to a lack of technological infrastructure, are left behind. Therefore, guaranteeing equal access and appropriate use among diverse student cohorts becomes crucial. This involves promoting fair and inclusive access across different schools and classrooms. An additional equity-focused concern has to do with the content generated by these tools, which may exhibit biases reflecting the worldview of the data they are trained on, or contain inappropriate content. This

To Learn More Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations. Based on extensive interviews with experts in education and education technology, this report by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology describes AI and its potential school uses while encouraging educators to think critically about both opportunities and risks.

AI Is Going to Upend Public Education. Or Maybe Not. The education podcast Have You Heard presents an interview with Larry Cuban, a public education historian who has written extensively about technology-based school reform efforts. Cuban suggests that the current hype surrounding AI will fade as we realize that AI integration will only happen incrementally, and with unpredictable outcomes.

How AI Could Save (not Destroy) Education. A TED Talk by Sal Khan, the founder and CEO of Khan Academy. He argues that artificial intelligence has the potential, through individual tutoring, to transform teaching and learning in ways that lead to dramatic gains in student achievement.

Balancing the Benefits and Risks of AI Large Language Models in K12 Public Schools. Published by the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, this brief considers the potential impacts of AI Large Language Models on public schools including implications for teaching and learning, and considerations for school district policy.l

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FEATURE STORY

COVER STORY

Question 5: What are local and state policymakers doing in response to the introduction of LLMs? What, if anything, needs to be codified in policy by schools and/or districts? Growing awareness of AI and LLMs means policy responses, and we encourage teachers to engage in this

conversation. One starting point should be a review of existing policies to ensure, among other things, that any new policy does not conflict with a current one. Redundancy may be acceptable in some cases but, often, it is better to update existing policies rather than craft new ones. As one example, if there’s concern around generative AI and plagiarism, it may be that the issue is already addressed in a student code of conduct. If so, there may be brief language that can be added to make it clear how, if at all, the use of AI to assist in written work without proper attribution could be considered plagiarism. In new policies and updated existing ones, language should be clear and precise. For example, a policy on the use of generative AI by students should not be limited to, say, ChatGPT. That is one example of generative AI, but there are others, and more will emerge. Therefore, broad and inclusive language about generative AI may be more appropriate. Additionally, students and families need to be notified of the new or updated policies. Any disciplinary actions around the use of AI should follow

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Jesse Senechal is the director of the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, a research partnership between Richmond-area school divisions and Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education. Mary Strawderman is a research development administrator in the Office of the Vice President of Research and Innovation at VCU. Jonathan Becker is an associate professor of educational leadership at VCU. Chris Parthemos is the assistant director of Student Accessibility and Educational Opportunity in VCU’s Disability Resource Office. Samaher Aljudaibi is an educator and PhD candidate in the Information Systems Department at VCU’s School of Business. Oscar Keyes is the Multimedia Teaching & Learning Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.

It’s Theirs for the Taking! A Fairfax band director encourages her students to take ownership of their learning. By Kathleen Jacoby

favorite video clip I show my students depicts people stuck on an escalator. As the mechanism comes to a sudden, jarring halt, the people riding the escalator begin shouting for rescue and lamenting, “There’s nothing to be done until help arrives!” This metaphor comically applies to our mission of empowering young people to take ownership of their learning. That ownership can only be achieved if students can think critically beyond “the correct answer.” Every teacher is aware of student learning gaps since the pandemic. While many point to test scores as evidence, we know that children are so much more than multiple-choice assessments. But do they know that? My high school band classroom

is designed to build trust and help students look beyond the need to find a singular, correct answer. I’m teaching them how to not get stuck on an escalator waiting for help. Educators recognize that we have a generation of learners who view the world through a test-taking lens, having been taught to look for the best multiple-choice answer. While our profession has made great strides to fight this mindset, the pandemic dramatically set back student confidence. Many of my students would have rather melted into an anonymous puddle than share an “incorrect” observation in an online class chat. The assessment students face in my band class is within a group,

performing live for judges they’ve never met. They also must perform numerous times in front of family and community, at football games, weekend competitions, and community concerts and parades. Issues of self-confidence and self-reflection are as important as the mechanics of playing their instruments, because without them, the product of the ensemble—its performance—suffers. Our students didn’t reach this mental state in a vacuum. When everything one says can be shared and stored digitally, with no expiration date, and living in a world of curated images, young people are under constant pressure for social perfection, both inside and

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Photo pge 12 by iStock

means that LLM outputs can include racial, gender, age, socioeconomic, and political biases, among others, which could negatively impact students. In traditional classroom situations, teachers have some control over classroom content. As we start to use LLMs in educational settings, we may be ceding some of that control. Monitoring and assessing LLM responses for bias and engaging students in open conversations about such bias allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the technology’s limitations. In light of both concerns, educators need to consider whether these technologies are transforming our schools in ways that address both the achievement and opportunity gaps in public education. Educators can be at the forefront of addressing these issues by asking critical questions about classroom use of LLMs and their impact on equity in the teaching and learning process.

proper procedures, and due process always involves proper notification. As our education system moves forward with the development of policies and strategies that will impact the work of teachers and their work with students, we encourage teachers to learn more about these policy discussions, who is involved, and what is on the agenda. As we have argued above, there are a wide range of issues that need to be considered, and it is important that these discussions incorporate teacher- and student-centered principles. This involves defining teacher roles and responsibilities when using LLMs in teaching and learning, educating teachers with knowledge to integrate LLMs ethically into teaching practices, establishing processes to manage, monitor, and communicate LLM use and potential risks to students, and leveraging tools that enhance LLMs’ effectiveness and reliability.l

Some further helpful strategies, from WeAreTeachers.com: Give students classwork choices. Students love having choices. It gives them a sense of control and allows them to work on things they know they’re good at doing. Creating choices (or menus) can come in all shapes and sizes. One of our favorite ways to offer this is using a tic-tac-toe grid of nine activities, from which students can choose any three activities in a row to complete. Have students self-assess. Students who don’t seem to care about their work may become more involved when they grade themselves. Just completed a unit on figurative language? Great! Have students put together a portfolio (digital or paper) that gives examples of each kind of figurative language being used according to a scale. Another idea is to have your students contribute test questions. One more strategy is to have students write down answers to a study guide on an index card, and then let them use it for the test. They will think they are getting a special advantage, and it will help them retain the information. What about a longer written piece or an oral presentation? Students can grade themselves with the same rubric you would use to grade them. The caveat is that the student has to underline the sentences in the piece or speech that match the rubric. Make learning interactive. Students will get involved if the learning matters to them. And what matters quite a bit to students these days is their digital world—they treasure interactive content. Some examples of interactive content that teachers can use in the classroom include Digital Playlists, Hyperdocs, Google Docs, and Sketchnotes. Try cooperative learning. We’ve heard about cooperative learning for years. The trouble is, many of us have had to try and figure out how to ensure the learning part is actually taking place. We can check for understanding with individual exit tickets, quizzes, or other formative assessments, and even give all the students in the group a group grade, but there is one strategy that puts the onus for cooperative learning where it belongs—on the student. We call the idea “fair grading.” Let’s say there are three students in a group and their work earned an 80 based on the rubric. Give the group 240 points to divvy up. If they all agree that everyone completed equal work, then they will each earn 80. Otherwise, they can have healthy debate and grades will be negotiated amongst the group members. This makes students whose performance was less than optimal take responsibility for their lack of work, which is at the heart of students taking ownership. See more at weareteachers.com/increase-student-ownership/.l

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A Classroom-Changing Process Regardless of a lesson’s goal or what piece we are playing – warm-ups, tuning exercises, literature – the same process applies. Prepping what to evaluate. A critical facet to group discussion is teaching students how to make critiques that aren’t personal to the player but specific to the product as a separate, inanimate entity. (My personal analogy: homeless vs. unhoused.) I begin with one or two parameters to consider before listening critically. We brainstorm descriptors we might use. Instead of value-laden words like “good” or “bad,” we make a word bank with items such as “clean,” “accurate,” “fuzzy,” “bright,” and “consistent.” Creating the product. I teach my students that it’s easier to hear the accuracy of someone else’s playing than to hear it in their own. This is partially true—only listening is easier than listening while also trying to think about tone production, technique, and playing an instrument. But the real reason I say this is to remove the stigma from making mistakes. An attitude of, “Of course you won’t be able to hear what needs correcting—you’re the demo person!” encourages students to play without fear and accept corrections from their peers. Now it’s not personal; it’s just a fact of how things work. Without fail, within a few weeks students are playing without self-consciousness and have also found the capacity to self-evaluate in front of the class.

When the entire group is performing, I record the audio so we can listen immediately. The same principles apply as for individual performance – no one needs to feel embarrassed because of course it’s easier to hear what needs fixing on the recording than when you were performing in real time. The ensemble members will soon become strong self-evaluators and begin to fix themselves in real time… but I don’t tell them that part yet! The evaluation. Dr. Tim Robblee of Shenandoah University codifies the evaluation process beautifully. The first words out of his mouth after the music stops are, “What did you hear?” Students use descriptors from the vocabulary list. The next question is, “Do we need to change it?” If the answer is no, the teacher moves onto the next part of the lesson. If the answer is yes, he asks them what needs to change, and subsequently, how we might make that change. Rinse and repeat. My personal teaching goal is to go as long as possible without offering my own answers or suggestions, although I’ve been known to raise a questioning eyebrow. The product. Ultimately, training students to both diagnose and problem-solve means they absorb and apply content much faster than when they were delayed waiting for teacher direction (and frankly, often not very engaged with the material). Active listening demands far more of their brain than passive listening. Cross-curricular applications. These same principles apply to any classroom regardless of content area. Math and computer programming require constant error analysis and trying multiple approaches to solve the problem. Most scientific study occurs as part of a collective and requires regular revision of methodology after

review. The peer-edit writing process succeeds when empathy and critical thinking skills are engaged. The more students are active participants in the learning process, the more interested they are in delving past a singular solution. Life-Changing Skills Several summers ago, I was on staff with an American student honor band that toured Europe. One of our day trips was to an Austrian glacier. There were three chair lifts to get to the top; the first went to the ski lodge, the second to an industrial-like layover stop, and the last to six feet of snow and an unimpeded view of the Alpine chain. When we met up with students after several hours, a few teenagers told me how nonplussed they were with the whole experience. I was stunned. After some questioning, I realized that none of these very musically accomplished students made it past the second stop. Not once did they look up to see the signs directing them to the final lift, nor did they wander around the corner and see the other passengers continuing on.

“But you didn’t tell us what to do!” they complained. Teacher extraordinaire Don Magee recited what would become one of my favorite mantras: “Pay attention – it will change your life.” Even when we got to Paris a few days later, I had to coach those same students to look up at the city around them instead of waiting to blindly follow another group of tourists around. But, by the end of the trip, they gleefully told me of a small chocolate store they found on an Italian backstreet and how they found a way to communicate with the owner. As educators, we’re in a position to help students pay attention, to build community, and to be trusting as well as fearless. Life is not multiple choice. Life is more than our curated social media personas. We must help our students discover and accept their authentic, imperfect selves. And that, for me, is perfection.l Kathleen Jacoby, a member of the Fairfax Education Association, is the band director at Herndon High School. She was named a finalist for the 2023 Washington Post Teacher of the Year Award.

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Photos page 13 and 15 by WilliamCraig Dubishar

Promoting Student Ownership

outside the digital environment. Building a culture of trust has always takes time, but without trust, students will not explore freely or speak without the constant worry of being “wrong.” Building that community of trust, of self-reflection and self-assessment, makes for a learning environment in which there are no multiple-choice answers.

Your Emotions Matter!

Recognizing your emotions in the classroom and reacting to them in a healthy way. By Elena Savina

eaching is an emotional job. You may feel happy when your students are doing well and parents express appreciation for your work, or filled with joy when a student who struggled makes progress. No one has to tell you, though, that there can be plenty of negative emotions, too. You may experience anxiety when students are taking statewide tests – indeed, your work can be judged by some on how well your students do on those tests. You may feel sad when saying goodbye to your students or learning that one of your students lives in poverty. You may be angry when you cannot achieve your instructional goals, experience injustice, or when you are required to do a lot of paperwork, which distracts you from teaching. Keep in mind that all emotions are important, even negative ones. Those emotions have a powerful effect on instruction, relationships in the classroom, students’ learning and behavior, and teachers’ well-be-

ing. Research shows us that when teachers experience positive emotions, they’re more effective and make learning more enjoyable for students. On the other hand, negative emotions limit teachers’ choices of instructional strategies and make teaching less effective. Furthermore, teachers can transmit their negative emotions to students; when teachers are stressed out, so are their students. Teaching is a relational job and relationships are always emotional. You show that you care for your students through your emotions. Emotions signal that something is important for us. For example, if you are anxious about an upcoming observation by an instructional coach or principal, your anxiety may inform you that demonstrating competence is very important for you. Your anxiety may also signal that you do not have strong skills in a particular area, and you need to spend extra time on preparation. If you feel angry when parents are not involved in their chil-

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dren’s school life, it means that you care about your students and want to enlist all resources to make them successful. Furthermore, your anger may energize you to take an active part in school initiatives that strengthen parental involvement. These examples demonstrate that negative emotions are not useless or bad, they are functional. Therefore, ignoring or suppressing them is not helpful. Besides, suppression of emotions is not healthy as it can lead to hypertension, problems with memory, and diminished social support. Teachers’ Emotional Labor Education researcher and author Andy Hargreaves wrote, “Creating and sustaining a dynamic, engaging lesson… requires hard emotional work, investment, or labor. So too does remaining calm and unruffled when confronted by threatening student behavior.” How often do you put a smile on your face despite feeling tired or upset? Probably quite often. Teachers have beliefs

called “feeling rules” about what emotions are appropriate and which are not to show to their students. They are more willing to show positive than negative emotions. Anger is especially problematic in this regard. When you express an “appropriate” emotion despite feeling a different emotion (for instance, you feel angry but show that you are content), you are doing emotional labor. Emotional labor consumes a lot of mental resources, eventually leaving you emotionally drained. That is why for the sake of your emotional health, it is important to be authentic in your emotional expression. Authentic emotional expression also facilitates learning and relationships in the classroom: students trust teachers more when teachers are open in their emotional expression. Just keep in mind that the intensity of emotional expression should be modulated so it does not provoke anxiety in your students. What Evokes Teacher Emotions What brings out teachers’ emotions? One major factor is student performance. This should surprise no one, as teachers are invested in their students. In addition, the quality of your students’ work reflects, in part, your teaching. It is a joy to know when your teaching efforts come to fruition! On the other hand, you may experience anger and shame when students are not doing well. (Keep in my mind that students’ performance is affected by many other factors besides your teaching, many of which are beyond your control.) Teachers may experience strong emotions when they are required to use educational practices that go against their professional philosophy. Have you ever asked yourself the following: “What is my role? Is it to promote students’ learning or is it to

prepare them to take tests?” Highstakes testing is stressful not only for students, but for teachers as well. Additionally, focusing on standardized performance may contradict your idea of teaching as a caring profession. Student behavior is another common evoker of teacher emotion. Think

“Develop a habit of noticing positive events every day. They don’t need to be big. Perhaps students were engaged in today’s lesson, or they worked well together. Maybe you enjoyed your drive to school looking at the nice scenery or maybe your colleague made a compliment about something you were wearing.” about a student who often violates discipline in your classroom. How do you feel about his or her behavior? Maybe angry or anxious? You may have mixed emotions: you feel angry

and sad at the same time because you know that this student has an unfortunate family situation. When students are noncompliant, you have to spend time trying to address problem behavior that ultimately reduces your instructional time. No wonder that students’ problem behavior can evoke negative emotions – it derails you from teaching. Relationships with students, parents, and colleagues are often loaded with emotions, both positive and negative. When students and parents show gratitude, when you have friendly and supporting colleagues, you will likely feel positive emotions. However, when relationships are strained and you feel underappreciated and unsupported, it may lead to feelings of disappointment and sadness. Changes and reforms in education are another significant source of teacher emotions. We all need a predictable and stable environment to feel secure and in control. If we lose that sense of stability and face a lot of uncertainty, it can fuel anxiety. That is why educational leaders must be mindful when planning and implementing reforms and changes – they need to take into account teachers’ emotions. Sufficient preparation and soliciting teachers’ input can head off negative feelings in teachers. It is important to know that it is not the situation itself that evokes our emotions, but how we react to it. For instance, you have a student who refuses to do an assignment. Different teachers may have different approaches or explanations in this situation. One teacher might think that the student does not like them. The resulting feelings, in this case, would be sadness and defeat. Another teacher might think that the student is noncompliant because they want to challenge the

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

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FEATURE STORY

How to Stay Emotionally Healthy Teaching is a demanding profession. You are simultaneously managing numerous responsibilities: delivering instruction, observing and managing behavior in the classroom, responding to students’ needs, anticipating situations that will need your attention, and dealing with your own emotions. It is not surprising that emotional burnout is common among teachers. This happens when teachers frequently experience stress and have difficulty managing it. Signs of emotional burnout include increased emotional exhaustion, being irritable and quick to anger, avoiding social gatherings, problems with sleep, and anxiety. Emotional burnout reduces teachers’ ability to teach and decreases job satisfaction. Furthermore, it is one of the leading reasons why teachers leave the profession. To prevent emotional burnout and stay emotionally healthy, consider the several strategies described below.

Focus on positive emotional experiences. We have a tendency to notice negative emotions because they bother us, while positive emotions can quite often go unnoticed. Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson developed an interesting theory regarding positive emotions, called “broaden-and-built theory.” According to this theory, positive emotions broaden our repertoire of behavior, make us more creative, and more open for learning. They also build our resources that we can use when we are emotionally depleted or distressed. Furthermore, when we experience positive emotions right after stressful events, positive emotions help us to return to a normal state faster. This is why it can be critically important to attend

to positive emotions. Develop a habit of noticing positive events every day. They don’t need to be big. Perhaps students were engaged in today’s lesson, or they worked well together. Maybe you enjoyed your drive to school looking at the nice scenery or maybe your colleague made a compliment about something you were wearing.

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Build a social support system. Social support is essential for your emotional well-being. Find colleagues at your school who have similar values or teaching philosophy. Have a place where you can feel comfortable to talk with one another and build a sense of community. Create a self-care routine. Selfcare is very important for you to maintain your emotional well-being. As Andy Hargreaves wrote, teachers have “the obligation to receive care as well as to give it.” Find different ways to replenish yourself. This can be a hobby, going on evening walks, reading a book, or enjoying meals with friends. Stick to your self-care routine and remember when you say, “I don’t have time” is when you need it the most. Separate your personal and professional lives. Leave school at school! As much as you care about your students and your work, take as little work as possible home and do not dwell on school-related issues in the evening. This can prevent a spillover of negative emotions to the next day. If you have difficulty separating yourself from negative events that happened during the day, you will likely wake up the next morning feeling exhausted and emotionally depleted. A good night’s sleep is also important as it helps us to regulate our emotions better. Finally, be kind to yourself. Do not be overly self-critical –remember that we all have shortcomings. Do your best and celebrate your accomplishments!l Elena Savina, PhD, teaches in the graduate psychology program and the Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services at James Madison University.

Get Behind the ‘Freedom to Learn Pledge’ NEA joins national partners in issuing a document calling for freedom to teach and adequate funding and resources.

Many hostile state legislatures across the country are enacting laws that undermine public schools, community colleges, and universities through curriculum bans; eradication of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; attacks on science and public health; funding cuts; and voucher and privatization schemes. We must recognize these attacks for what they are: Public education is a fundamental pillar of American democracy, and attempts to control and reshape education are part of a larger effort to weaken the very institutions that prepare students to engage in a robust, vibrant, multicultural, pluralistic democracy. Simply put, the assault on public education is an assault on our freedom. We are educators from preK-12 and higher education; teachers and administrators; labor and management; parents, grandparents, and caregivers. We are united in our commitment to our students and to education as a public good—a pathway to individual opportunity, civic and democratic health, and economic growth. We pledge to defend the freedom to learn by:

our national union has stepped up to join the growing effort to call out laws and rhetoric aimed at attacking educators, banning books and curriculums, shaming sexual-minority students, and pushing voucher and privatization schemes to undermine and gut public education. The National Education Association, along with the American Association of University Professors, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Network for Public Education, has issued the Freedom to Learn Pledge, a statement representing more than 4 million educators and 1,000 higher education institutions. Here’s the text of the Pledge: Public education at all levels is under assault. Political operators, partisan media, and ideologically driven think tanks continue to churn out racialized and anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric, sow distrust in the role of education as a public good, and feed attacks on individual educators.

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Promoting freedom to learn and access to education through working with coalition partners to support bills to increase federal and state funding for all levels of public education and protect the freedom to teach and the freedom to research.

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Fighting back against legislative bans on the teaching of U.S. history, science and psychology, and other educational gag orders, and by defending individual educators who face harassment, discipline, or termination as a result of these laws.

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Supporting efforts to provide more resources to our public schools, colleges, and universities and the students who depend on them every day, and resisting efforts to defund our preK-12 and higher education systems.

VEA urges you to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your educator colleagues across the nation in this campaign for our schools and our students. You’re also invited to support NEA’s stand by adding your name here: https://vea.link/freedomtolearn.l VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

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teacher’s authority. How would you feel in this situation, especially, if you believe that students have to respect authority figures? Perhaps angry? However, both appraisals could be wrong. The student is noncompliant because they had a sleepless night after their parents had a fight. Having this information, how would you feel about this student?

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

VEA Learning Salute To Excellence: Portal Lineup Educators, Organizations to be Honored with VEA Awards Continues to Grow

UPDATE

The meaningful and excellent work being done by Association members and others who give time and talent to the cause of public education should not go unnoticed. To be sure it doesn’t, VEA’s annual awards program honors efforts made on behalf of our young people and our schools, and so nominations are now open for the following VEA awards: •

Friend of Education Award: VEA’s highest honor recognizes an individual or organization whose leadership, acts or support has significantly benefited education, education employees or students in Virginia. Nomination deadline: January 5, 2024.

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Fitz Turner Award: Honors outstanding contributions in intergroup relations and the enhancement of respect for human and civil rights. Nomination deadline: January 19, 2024.

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After suspending talks with the county’s school board, members of the Albemarle Education Association are back at the table after a period of consistent advocacy. At the school board meeting following the suspension of negotiations, AEA turned out a crowd of educators, parents, students, and community members, resulting in a lineup of speeches in support of the union. At press time, two bargaining sessions have been held and AEA reports progress. • Arlington and Montgomery counties, along with the remaining bargaining units for Richmond are currently involved in negotiations with their school divisions. • The Falls Church City Education Association’s bargaining has stalled due to the School Board’s team insistence that FCCEA can’t bargain anything that is current school board policy. FCCEA members are now working to get board members to change their positions. • The Charlottesville Education Association won the representation election for city school employee by a landslide. The first unit up for election was licensed personnel, where CEA got 350 out of 354 votes—that’s 98.97% in favor of CEA representation.l

Mary Hatwood Futrell Award: Honors leadership in fostering equality in educational opportunity and promoting equity and excellence in public education. Nomination deadline: January 19, 2024. Barbara Johns Youth Award: Honors a student or student organization whose activities promote the dignity and esteem of others. Nomination deadline: January 19, 2024. Award for Teaching Excellence: The highest honor VEA gives for creativity and excellence in the classroom. Nomination deadline December 31, 2023.

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VEA Fund Award for Political Activism. Honors VEA locals for outstanding achievement in political organizing and activism. Nomination deadline: January 12, 2024.

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Robley S. Jones Political Activist Award: Honors individuals for their contributions to education legislation or policy, or to the election of public education-friendly candidates. Nomination deadline: January 12, 2024.

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Education Support Professional of the Year: Honors the contributions of an ESP to his or her school, community and profession. Nomination deadline: January 8, 2024.

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Martha Wood Distinguished Service Award: Honors a retired educator who has made significant contributions to the growth of the active and retired Association, the promotion of public education, and the welfare of public educators. Nomination deadline: January 8, 2024.

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A+ Award for Membership Growth: Honors local Associations for growth, given in three size categories.

For more information, visit www.veanea.org/grants.l

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

VEA’s Learning Portal is a great way to direct your own professional growth, with more than 60 self-directed courses you can take when and where you wish. We’ve recently added four new classes to your options. Check these out: • Special Education o Scheduling IEP Meetings • Human & Civil Rights o Continuing to Take a Stand: Creating Safe Schools for LGBTQ+ Students o Microaggressions 101 o Intersectionality: An Introduction Learning Portal classes are free and each one offers a certificate and professional development points toward licensure recertification. You can get started at veaportal. learnupon.com.l

An Unhealthy Development. Members of the Arlington Education Association protested at a recent school board meeting after the county’s school system replaced its health insurance provider, forcing employees to find new doctors and other medical care. “This is more about losing healthcare, AEA president June Prakash told board members. “It’s about losing trusted relationships… Trust is broken. What are you going to do to restore it?”(Photo credit: James Jarvis/ARLnow.com)

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

Albemarle photo by Olivia Geho

Albemarle Members Back at the Table

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

New Year’s Resolution: Organize Your Personal Records As you head toward the new year, consider a resolution that’s important for everyone, regardless of age: getting your personal records in order. Here are some ideas from the Virginia Retirement System. Get Organized Begin with VRS’ Get Organized guide, available at varetire.org/publications. This guide will help you inventory your personal assets and vital documents, ensuring your financial and legal information is accessible. Think of it as a safety net. If something unexpected happens, like an illness or accident, having your records organized can significantly assist you or those responsible for managing your affairs. On the final page of the Get Organized guide, you’ll find a form that can help expedite locating your crucial documents and valuable assets. Identify your storage locations and indicate where you store items like your will, tax documents, personal property records, address books, artwork, jewelry, and more. Share copies only with trusted individuals, such as your lawyer or someone you’ve designated to handle your affairs if necessary. Plan Effectively Organizing your records is simpler than you might imagine. Consider these tips: • Centralize information. Keep documents and information in one place for easy access. • Include essential documents. Retain important receipts and legal papers. • Maintain privacy. Safeguard sensitive information and share it only with trusted individuals. Track your retirement benefits via the secure myVRS website. Log in at myVRS.varetire.org to view account balances, retirement estimates and other benefits, including group life insurance, long-term care insurance and the health insurance credit. Help Your Loved Ones Regularly update your records and discuss key details with your loved ones. Life changes, but the importance of keeping your records current does not. VRS offers Losing a Loved One: Guide for Families, an easy-to-reference brochure for survivors and beneficiaries of VRS members, available at varetire.org/publications. This brochure offers guidance for survivors and beneficiaries claiming VRS benefits after a loss. Keep a copy with your will and other essential documents, reviewing it with your loved ones to ensure they understand how to claim VRS benefits if needed. Name Beneficiaries Remember to designate your beneficiaries. Review and verify this information periodically, especially as you reach milestones like marriage, divorce or having children. • For defined benefit contributions and life insurance: Log in to myVRS at myvrs.varetire.org. • For defined contribution plans (Hybrid Retirement Plan and Commonwealth of Virginia 457 Deferred Compensation Plan): Visit varetire.org/dcp, select your plan to log in to Account Access, and designate your beneficiary.

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

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Access Additional Resources To learn more, log in to myVRS Financial Wellness at varetire.org/financial-wellness. Explore the Estate Planning topic for videos and articles on best practices and mistakes to avoid when creating an estate plan.l

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

INSIGHT ON INSTRUCTION

The phrasing and delivery of the questions you ask play a huge role in the responses students give. A few simple ideas can go a long way toward better interaction and better understanding. Here are a few tips from VEA Teaching & Learning: •

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Pause after asking a question. The pause clearly indicates the question is meant for everyone, not just one or two quick thinkers. A pause of three to five seconds will enable the slower thinker to participate and give all students time to think carefully and answer with confidence. Avoid answering your own questions. Doing so can make a discussion feel more like a lecture.

Teachers Put in More Hours Than Other Working Adults: Report Some of the findings and recommendations from “All Work and No Pay: Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Pay and Hours Worked,” a report from the RAND Corporation based on the results of the 2023 State of the American Teacher Survey:

KEY FINDINGS Most teachers feel overworked: During the 2022–2023 school year, teachers worked more hours per week, on average, than working adults — 53 hours compared with 46. •

On average, teachers reported working 15 hours per week longer than required by contract. One out of every four hours that teachers worked per week, on average, was uncompensated.

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Perhaps as a result, only 24 percent of teachers were satisfied with the total number of hours they work per week, compared with 55 percent of the general working adult population.

Most teachers feel underpaid: Only 34 percent of teachers said that their base salary was adequate, compared with 61 percent of working adults.

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Follow up student responses with the question, “Why?” This will help students who could not/did not respond to the question understand how the answer was reached.

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Avoid frequent questions that require a “Yes” or “No” answer.

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Avoid directing a question to a student for disciplinary reasons. Firing a quick question at an inattentive student usually results in a response such as, “What?” It only alienates that student.

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Black teachers reported working more hours per week and were less satisfied than White teachers with their base salary.

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Avoid repeating a student’s answer. Repeating the answer can encourage students to listen only to the teacher.

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Black teachers were more likely than White teachers to consider leaving their jobs.

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Insist on attentiveness during questioning periods.

Teacher dissatisfaction with hours, salary, and working conditions appears to drive poor well-being and lead teachers to consider leaving their jobs.

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Avoid calling on a particular student before asking the question. Calling on a student first can cause other students not to listen. You want all students to be engaged.

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Avoid “giveaway” facial expressions to student responses. Try not to show disappointment when a student gives an incorrect answer. If a student has volunteered, at least he or she has tried. Don’t let your reactions discourage students from contributing to class discussion.

Recommendations

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Avoid these types of questions: - How many of you understand that? - Does everybody see that? - Do you want me to go over that again? - Did I go too fast for you?

Only a few students will have enough confidence to ask questions when they are confused. Few students, especially those with a lack of confidence or those not doing well, are going to confess in front of an entire class that they don’t understand.l

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

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Teachers who said that their base salary was inadequate desired, on average, a $17,000 increase in base pay.

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Teachers in high cost-of-living areas desired higher base salaries, on average, than their counterparts.

Recent gains in racial and ethnic diversity in the teacher workforce could be in jeopardy.

Pay increases alone – without improvements in teachers’ working hours or conditions—are unlikely to induce large shifts in teachers’ well-being or intentions to leave.

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Policymakers and district leaders should increase teacher pay and improve working conditions. State policymakers could set minimum pay for starting salaries, and local leaders can increase starting salaries and salaries throughout the pay scale. District leaders should expand opportunities for extra pay for additional school-related activities and ensure that the amount of compensation and the opportunities are equitably distributed.

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Increases to base pay could be smaller when accompanied by improvements to working conditions but may need to be larger absent efforts to improve working conditions to meaningfully shift teachers’ satisfaction with their pay.

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District leaders should help teachers work fewer hours. For example, district leaders could dedicate more time for teachers to perform the tasks they usually do outside of their contracted hours, or they could reduce the amount of time teachers spend providing social, emotional, and behavioral supports to students by increasing the numbers of school counselors, nurses, or psychologists.l

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

IIlustrations by iStock

The Art of Questioning How you ask your students questions and how you respond matter.

INSIGHT ON INSTRUCTION

Let’s Take This Outside!

Open Doors for Students with #GoOpenVA #GoOpenVA is a Virginia Department of Education initiative designed to help organize Open Educational Resources (OER) tied to Virginia’s Standards of Learning. It allows educators to explore, create, and use high-quality OER largely created by their Virginia colleagues. OER are teaching and learning materials—which can include full courses, classing videos, tests, software, and more—that educators may use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. To get started, visit the site at goopen-

Heroism in Halifax. Candace Dishmond, a Halifax Education Association member and fifth grade teacher at Sydnor Jennings Elementary School, was recently recognized for her heroism after saving the life of a student by administering the Heimlich maneuver. Dishmond (center) received a Hero Award from Halifax Superintendent Dr. Amy Huskin (right) and SJES Principal Christina Crawford in honor of her quick thinking during the lunchtime incident at the school.

“As we all know, a healthy democracy

va.org, where you’ll find the Users Hub to

demands sustained

help you learn how to navigate #GoOpenVA,

participation from

use its searchable (by subject, grade level,

The World in Which We Live

each new generation.

“It is really awful that this has come to this. It’s horrible that we have to spend that kind of money on something like that when we could be using it for the kids, but we have to be safe.” — Henry County (VA) Public Schools board member Terri Flanagan, after the school system invested $75,000 in metal detectors, which will first be used at winter sports events

system—the only institution in the United

and Standards) features, and access hundreds of lessons and teaching ideas to use in your classroom.l

30 Percent of the United States’ largest school districts headed by women, despite a small increase in the number of women hired as superintendents in recent years.l

To help encourage that participation, we have our public education States that engages 90 percent of the next generation of adults, is governed by public authority, and has the explicit mission to prepare people for the rights and responsibilities of democratic citizenship…Public education is a vitally important solution to preserving an independent judiciary

In 2020, guns surpassed motor vehicle accidents for the first time to become the leading cause of death among Americans ages 1-19. Source: American Academy of Pediatricsl

and maintaining a robust constitutional democracy. The better educated our young people are, the better equipped they will be…And for each student who is educated in intellectually engaging ways, we will gain the greatest strength a democratic society must have: an informed and engaged citizen able to think freely and independently and contribute to society as a whole.”l

Source: ILO Group, an education strategy

— Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

and policy firm

Public Schools: The Bedrock of Our Democracy

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

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room resources, modules, textbooks, stream-

Some of the best classroom learning doesn’t happen in classrooms at all, says OutTeach, a nonprofit that helps educators use the outdoors to boost hands-on learning and bring science and other subjects to life in new ways for students. OutTeach resources for teachers include more than 200 searchable lesson plans targeted not just to science learning, but also to math, language arts, and student activities. There’s also a blog written by teachers and OutTeach staff members, along with the opportunity to become part of a professional learning community. Find out more at www.out-teach.org.l

FIRST PERSON: NARRATIVES FROM THE CLASSROOM

Meaningful Days: Why I’m Still in the Classroom

Photo by iStock

— Bruce Ingram

I’m 71 years old and still teaching, so I’m often asked why I continue to work. It’s a fair question, and after the inquiry (and before I respond) I usually ask the individual what they most enjoy about being retired. Some of the answers make perfect sense and are very admirable. For example, several individuals told me they spend more quality time with their spouse; others have expounded on the joys of having more time to be with their grandchildren than their children because the rigors of our profession never allowed them that luxury before. Some speak about the educational experiences of traveling and being able to read all those novels that they never had time to peruse before. The simplest answer I ever heard was from a woman who enjoyed the sublime pleasure of drinking her morning cup of coffee in a leisurely manner…and to extend that pleasure with a second cup if she so desire. Of course, some of the answers don’t make me feel that I’m missing much at all. For instance, one individual rhapsodized about his favorite activity of going to a golf course and looking for lost balls. He now has three trashcans full of the orbs, and his wife is constantly telling him to sell them, which he refuses to

VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF EDUCATION | DECEMBER 2023

do. They are, after all, he says proudly, his balls. The “Why I haven’t retired” response I would give this week involves the glorious four days I spent with my two English 10 Honors classes at Lord Botetourt High School. I say four because the Monday classes didn’t go well at all—and it was all because of poor teaching on my part. We are currently reading and discussing Lord of the Flies, a dystopian novel where World War III is occurring and a group of boys ages 5-12 are stranded on a deserted Pacific Island. And the longer the boys remain there, the worse their behavior becomes and the more it mirrors the actions of the adults who have left the world in ruins. On Monday, I’d tried to help them look deeper into the book’s characters but, frankly, my questions and strategies failed to generate quality responses or make the novel come alive for the young people. So, Tuesday I started the classes by apologizing to my students for having done a poor job of teaching the day before and promised I’d try to do a better job the rest of the week. Then I asked them to make several predictions based on what we had read so far. The theme of William Golding’s classic is good versus evil, and I asked them to ponder whether good or evil is stronger, whether people are basically good or evil, and which will ultimately triumph in the book. Later in the week, we debated such topics as how the book would end, who would survive and who would perish, and how their class might do if they were stranded on the same island that the boys were. But the best question came Thursday when I explained that though I’d read and taught this book for nearly 40 years, each year students taught me something new about the symbolism, characterization, and foreshadowing in the novel. I also added that every year, students taught me something about the book that I’d missed. What was something they thought that I might have missed with them? That question set off a frenzy of hand-raising, questioning, and debating. Finally, a young lady said she believed I’d never considered that when the character Jack, who represents evil, says he feels that he is being furtively followed in the jungle, that the person who is doing so could be the character Roger, who is a dark, secretive individual. Her comments caused a series of oohs, ahs, and wows to ripple throughout the room and, frankly, the analysis mesmerized me as well. Another round of questions, analysis, and commentary ensued. In short, real learning was taking place and the atmosphere became electric. I know I’ll have to retire sometime. As the saying goes, “Father Time is undefeated.” But as long as I can have weeks like that one, I’m in no hurry to do so.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. He’s also the author of more than 2,700 magazine articles and 11 books.

$867

MILLION to Virginia K-12 public education in FY23. Thank you to all Virginia educators for the important work you do! valottery.com/givingback

A publication of the Virginia Education Association 116 South Third Street, Richmond VA 23219 veanea.org

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