Day Two of the New England Association of Teachers of English at Eastern Connecticut State University. One More Presentation Left

So I cried. I allowed emotions to come to my eyes as I watched Johanna Mackenzie present her research and work with the charge of teaching literacy skills with young people with special needs and behavioral issues. She has students who read at a 1st - 9th grade leveland is working with them to move up as much as she can each day. Her principal wanted her to show a documentary on the two Connecticuts and she paired this instruction with Ursula LeGuin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. She taught English for five years before getting a dual certification in special education, which led her to take the most challenging students in the school. 

Her project models the ways she's helped young people engage with difficult text, and to reach for the highest of their abilities. She modeled this work with the growth/work of a student at the bottom and one at the top of what she works with. She engages with ChatGPT because it helps her to take what she wants to do and turn it into visually appealing opportunities for kids to work in groups, show their own understanding, and work as teams to push all forward. 

Yes, the daily grind can be trying at times, but the result she demonstrated speak volumes. Perhaps Wigginton's Sometimes a Shining Moment book title is appropriate for all of us who teach. 

And I got emotional because I've witnessed Joanna's undying grind since she first entered my office and said, "In two years, I'm getting a divorce. I'm finding a home. I'm running a half marathon. And I am becoming an English teacher." It happened exactly as she said it would. She'd choose to teach in an urban school classroom, but then shifted when she wanted to reach the very kids who she felt the mainstream English classes weren't reaching. She knew everything about me she could find online, saw we had a Kentucky connection, and realized the Great Whatever gave her the path to this life-plan 180 she wanted for her life. 

A few years later, she'd remarry. I flew to Kentucky to see it happen. And now I hear her family stories as if they are my own. I guess the Kentucky connection was there for me, too.

Joanne went over the presentation with before the conference and I wondered if her thorough documentation and shared material would be too much for teachers at once. Nope. Joanne Mackenzie took command of the room, moved from Padlet to binders, to humor to reality-checks, to honesty and truth, all in the name for doing best by her students.

The natural poise, leadership, and delivery was as professional as we would want. So the water came to my eyes. On the drive back last night, I told her how a man named Dr. Chris Goering always says to me, "Game recognizes game." I told her I saw this in her, because I know what she is doing and it is useful and phenomenal. There simply needs to find that way to get this expertise into bigger hands, given the demands of classroom teachers accomplishing amazing things everyday. It's too east for the nation (and even academics) for faulty teachers. They're there. 

We just don't listen to them enough.