"Stop Equating Teachers with Martyrs"

 I have been relatively quiet over the talk of a teacher walk-out. I have rallied, marched (including in 1990 for HB 1017). I have visited the Capitol and talked to legislators. I've attended committee meetings and floor debates. I've made my position clear: I'm an education voter. Despite our visits and calls, teachers (and support personnel and all state workers) continue to be ignored as ideologues stick to their 'trickle down' theories. Our state MUST have new, recurring revenue. Our state must take care of our people, and especially our children.

I read Beth Wallis's post last night on Face Book, and felt she expressed the collective frustration of our teachers...not only for themselves, but for their students. Our students deserve better than this status quo. I support Beth and her colleagues. I support my Grands' teachers and schools.

More school districts are coming forward, ready to support some kind of action. 

We will need parents and students and communities to join us. Teachers want to teach, not strike But teachers want to pay their bills too. And they want their students to thrive.

I give you the passion and eloquence of Beth Wallis:

With the imminent threat of a statewide teacher walk-out on the way in Oklahoma, let me take the time to let everyone know what today was like for me, the average Oklahoma teacher.

I woke up this morning to a bank account in the red because a gas bill had accidentally deducted twice-over this month. My gas bill isn't extravagant, but 2x means that my once-a-month public school paycheck can't budget for any sort of emergency. I can always wait more tables, right? Maybe sell some plasma? At least I don't have massive student loan payments like most teachers who are working their whole lives literally to pay off the training it took to get them the job in the first place. I file this all away, compartmentalize it, and tell myself that somehow I'll work it out.

Over the weekend, I was informed that one of my kindergartners died and her twin sister is in critical condition. I teach their classes every week. This is the third student of mine in four years that has passed and it never gets easier. We love these children, we care for them,  we will protect them with our bodies from bullets and tornados. We watch every school shooting go by, wondering if our district will be next; wondering if we'd be able to save them all before inevitably getting shot ourselves. We wipe their noses and dry their tears. We hold their hands and do everything we can to make sure they grow up to be strong, successful adults. We stay after school for hours listening to middle and high-schoolers crying over their parents' divorces or identity struggles, taking on the roles as therapist and advocate. We truly, genuinely, and deeply care for their happiness and wellbeing. I file this all away; compartmentalize it; and tell myself that somehow it'll all work out.

I'm a band director and our biggest contest of the season to date is tomorrow. The kids are stressed; the directors are stressed. If we don't make the scores we need, we won't be advancing to State contest. The energy in the band room is high, the tension is even higher. Our seniors want so badly to go to State contest; I can't imagine letting them down. I'm dealing with having to reassign parts last minute because of eligibility, hoping things will finally come together tomorrow... but I don't know if it will. I file this all away, compartmentalize it, and tell myself that somehow it'll all work out.

After school, our district held a meeting on potential action. Emotions ran high. Teachers are torn between doing what needs to be done for the schools and kids, and in turn putting a major burden on the community in the process. How will those kids eat? What about parents who work all day? Our first instinct as teachers is to do anything to protect the kids. But it's gotten to the point now, we can no longer keep filing it all away, compartmentalizing it, and hoping it'll all work out in the end. Because every year we do, and every year our State Legislature absolutely and totally fails all of us. And every year, we file it all away, compartmentalize it, and we're told that somehow it'll all work out.

Full stop.

Let me tell y'all right now, *we have waited, and waited, and waited*, and this is never going to work itself out.

Oklahoma has set a NATIONAL record for the highest cuts to education ever seen, period. We're nearly last in per-pupil spending, and we're DEAD LAST in teacher salary. If you think this is about greedy Oklahoma teachers who drive Mercedes-Benzes and just put a down payment on a summer home, you're dead wrong. Our students don't have BOOKS, guys. Our classrooms are sitting 30 deep and my district has it MADE compared to any of the major public schools in the state (40-50 students per class).

We had over 1,800 emergency certifications this last year in the state. You think your kids are being taught by the most qualified, experienced teachers? They're gone. The few of us who've stayed behind do it ONLY for the kids. Oklahoma kids DESERVE quality, compassionate education and I will provide that as long as I am able... but that's not going to be forever. What if I were ever to want kids of my own? I can't even afford an extra gas bill, much less provide for a child. I'm nearly 30 with a Masters degree and still live in a rent house with a roommate in a state with one of the lowest cost-of-livings in the country and I will never be able to afford an actual mortgage if I stay here.

STOP EQUATING TEACHERS WITH MARTYRS.

We are professionals. We are trained, educated, hardworking professionals who deserve to be paid for the work we do. We're expected to work before and after our contracted hours every single day to get our grades in and plan for quality instruction, but most of us pray that our car can run off fumes just one more day?

We're expected to take bullets for students but most of us can barely make rent?

Yes, we work with children. Yes, we care deeply about those children and will without hesitation put our lives and our own time on the line so that they stay safe and cared-for. I just don't understand why we're expected to do this all for pennies. No, none of us got into this profession "for the money".  But we still have to feed our families, and a government-salaried, full-time job that requires college education and certification should at bare minimum provide for a middle-class life, and *it just doesn't*.  And if you can't see how that has created a massive vacuum of teachers in this state, and how your children are being majorly affected by the enormous exodus of educators to the surrounding states (starting around $15k more for nearly or exactly the same cost of living), you've got to be walking around with your fingers in your ears.

It's not just educators who are suffering. It's YOUR children, Oklahoma. YOUR children's art programs are being cut. YOUR children don't have music anymore. YOUR children are splitting a math book between three other students. YOUR children's track coach left for Texas and your district can't afford to replace him, so your program no longer exists. YOUR children are playing on equipment that is twenty-years old and riding on buses that are older than you are. YOUR children are being taught by emergency-certified teachers hired by districts that STILL have job openings (Oklahoma, in MARCH, still has over 500 certified teaching positions that have not been filled), who are desperate to fill those spots with any applicant. YOUR children are drowning in classrooms 30, 40, or 50 students deep while teachers exhaustively try to teach every student at every level.

Enough is enough.

We are taking action because Oklahoma will die without it. 

We are taking action because the students of Oklahoma deserve it. 

We are taking action because our legislature has proven to us that it's never just going to "work itself out", because they've had damn well over a decade to figure this out.

Oklahoma: your educators, your children, and your communities are desperate for your immediate attention. And if you don't give it to us...

We'll demand it.

Beth is a full-time Assistant Band Director at Morris Public Schools. This is her fourth year teaching after graduating with her Bachelors of Music Education, and Masters of Music in Conducting Performance from Oklahoma State University. She makes music by day and hangs out with her dog, or runs the nearby trail in her free time.

"A Glooming Peace..."

"A glooming peace this morning with it brings;

The sun for sorry, will not show his head:"

I passed an #oklaed school this morning.

Every teacher parking spot was filled. Teachers walked into their schools today, knowing the OK Legislature couldn't compromise to find a budget that included a raise for teachers.

Teachers walked into their schools today, knowing another school had suffered devastating losses...lives, dreams, innocence.

As teachers we know and can empathize with how other educators feel. I'm not in the classroom, but here's what I know happened today in classrooms all over Oklahoma, and all over our countries.

Teachers walked into their classrooms and sat down, praying for some composure before they saw their students.

Teachers looked around their rooms, trying to decide where the safest spots would be to shelter students in an attack.

Teachers tried to plan lessons that would engage their students and distract them all from the impact of yesterday's shootings.

Teachers greeted every student a little more warmly today. They looked into the eyes and the souls of their students and understood how vulnerable they all are in what should be the safest place in our society.

Teachers hugged students a little more closely today. They watched the swarm of students with more gratitude today, and with deep mourning for #Parkland, for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Students were lost: Alyssa Alhadeff, Martin Duque Anguiano, Nicholas Dworet, Jamie Guttenberg, Luke Hoyer, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alex Schachter, Carmen Schentrup, Peter Wang.


Teachers fought back tears...some were not successful.

Teachers worked hard to erase the images from yesterday of classrooms just like theirs, and the carnage. Aidan could have been my student...this classroom could have been mine. In truth, Aidan IS mine. He is every teacher's student. He is every adult's son.


Teachers reflected on the teacher who gave his life:Aaron Feis. A teacher like them. A teacher at school doing his job. A teacher, who, like his students, did not come home last night. And then we learned two other educators died in this massacre: Chris Hixon and Scott Beigel. Teachers like them. Teachers who tried.


The Romeo and Juliet quote always comes to my mind when sad things happen to schools, since the play is so closely connected to high schools. These are among the last lines in the play. But there are more:

"Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things:

Some shall be pardon'd and some punished..."

The time for talking must come...and it must come soon. But that's not what this piece is about. It's about the teachers and students and parents who face today with fear, loss, resolve. And with love.


Teachers took a deep breath...

Teachers reached out and began their lessons.

OK Legislature Has Filed New Bills

Ok, boys and girls. I've spend nearly a week searching the OK Legislative website for new bills...new education bills. I feel like I went down Alice's rabbit hole...My shoulders (and other body parts) are tired. My eyes hurt. I'm sure I've missed something important.

I DID NOT read any of the bills...I scanned some to try to understand, but I know I missed things, and I hope you, Constant Reader, will correct, add, define...help me out.

DISCLAIMER: My organization into negative and positive is my own. Please feel free to question or disagree. And, as always, I expect you to do your own reading and researching.

Here are the education bills I'll be watching.

House –

163 Education-related bills

96 Shell bills with titles, but no language yet

One ALEC bill: Forming Open and Robust University Minds Act

Funding, reform, retirement, clarification of codes, charters, LNH scholarships, salary,OHLAP

Negative bills to watch:

                3689 – Off the Top Revenues Act 2018 – Calvey (shell)

                3586 – Higher Ed. Forming Open and Robust University Minds Act – McCall (shell)

                3543 – Prohibiting school to start until after 1^st Mon in Sept -- Caldwell

                3539 – Removes minimum salary schedule – Caldwell

                3486 – Allows placement agencies to refuse placement on faith issues – Jordan

                3311 – Requires Ss to take US Citizenship test to graduate – Baker

                3291 – District Supts can’t earn more than OSDE Superintendent – Eans

                2725 – Higher Ed. Prohibits co-ed dorms -- Russ

                2723 – Barriers to teachers’ organizations representation -- Russ

                2612 – Prohibits OSDE from creating unfunded mandates – Tadlock

Non-education bills of concern

                2680 – Bathroom Guideline Act (shell) – Strohm

                2623 – Legislative approval of immunization list – West, K

                2624 – Immunization and Parental Rights Act --Strohm

                2684 – Prohibiting infant immunization without consent -- Strohm

                2685 -- Vaccination Informed Consent – Strohm

Hopeful bills to watch

                2571 – Charters not sponsored by OSDE after local board rejected – Casey

                2572 – RSA Modifies assessment levels for promotion, retention (Unsat) – Casey

2732 – Private schools taking vouchers must file Sped report – Rosecrants

2733 – Restores NBCT stipends – Rosecrants

3130 – Prohibits OSDE sponsoring charters after local board rejected – Murdock

3446 – Charters OSDE cannot override local board denial – Gann

Non-education bill that could be positive

               2927-- Medicaid Reform Act – Nichols (shell)

Personal favorite:

                3149 – House of Rep Sexual Harassment Training – Dunnington

Senate –

88 Education Bills

No shells that I can find

2-year colleges, virtual school regulations, private vocational schools, OHLAP, consolidation

Negative bills to watch

                887 – Schools can use ad valorem funds for teacher salaries – Brecheen

                1055 – Adds two US History exams to graduate – Bergstrom

                1115 – Fines schools for exceeding class size – Sharp

                1159 – Certain licenses to carry firearms on school property – Scott

    1223 – OK Privacy Accommodation Bathroom – Brecheen

Non-education bills of concern

                957 – Guns in churches “expectation of safety” – Bergstrom

                1215 – 2^nd Amendment Preservation Act -- Dahm

                                10thAmendment Center

                1250 – Freedom of Conscience – Brecheen

                                Family Policy Alliance

                1345 – Oklahoma State Terrorist Registry Act – Brecheen

Bills I need more information about

                958 – Students can participate in certain extracurricular activities – Rader

                1056 – Removes tax-sheltered annuities – Pugh

                1190 – RSA criteria, terms – Stanislawski

                1197 – Modifies state performance levels – Stanislawski (OSDE ask?)

                1200 – Higher Education Freedom of Speech – Stanislawski

Hopeful Bills to watch

                879 – Charters—OSDE cannot sponsor school if local board rejects -- Sharp

                936 – Teacher pay – credit for Peace Corps, overseas teaching – Bice

                980 – Criteria for teacher licenses with levels of expertise – Griffin

                985 – Studying virtual charters’ graduation rates – Sharp

                1104 – Meal Application – protects kids with debt in cafeteria – Griffin

                1387 – One-time stipend for retirees – Pederson

                1408 – Restores NBCT stipends – Dossett

                1409 – School counselors must document direct services to students – Dossett

                1413 – Organizes classes, tests…encourages ‘complete works in ELA, requires US Govt – Dossett

                1436 – Virtual Charters – removes certain appeals

Oklahoma Watch has a good list of bills to watch also. If you're not already subscribing to their emails, you should be!!

                

My Top Ten Books...and Ten More

Recently I asked my friends on FaceBook to share their favorite read from 2017 – together we created a wonderful list. Judging by the number of the books I haven’t read, it’s obvious I already have a great reading list ready for 2018.

I participate in Goodreads reading challenge, and had set a goal of 150 books for 2017. The first year I retired, I was surprised and disappointed by the fact I actually read LESS in retirement than I did when I was able to teach Reading for Pleasure and read with my students. 150 seemed like a goal I could reach. I did, just barely…finishing the year with 158 books.

My 2017 books by 'shelf' 

I listen to books as I walk, and as I drive back and forth to the Capitol and my new teaching gig in Stillwater (1-1/2 hours one way), so I continue to read with my ears and my eyes.

Each year I struggle with my Top Ten…because I have trouble with following directions, even my own self-imposed directions: choose your top ten reads. And because I view my books like I do my own children and my students…they’re all my favorites.

I have compromised with myself this year by having a Top Ten, a second Five, and a third Five. Yes. That’s 20 books. In my Top Ten.

Top Ten, in alphabetical order:

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood – you’ll see her again. Yes, I knew nothing about this until the publicity about the television miniseries. Told mostly in Grace’s voice, this is Atwood’s take on the  lengthy imprisonment of a young woman who may or may not have committed a double murder. The narrative’s theme is quilts and piecing them together…and Atwood has Grace piece her story together, one patch at a time, until we see the whole. But what is it we really see?

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. What if you were literally a crime? Noah was. His mother was Black and his father was White. And he was a crime. He had to be hidden if the authorities came. When he was with his mother, people assumed she was his nanny. This is the background of the clever host of The Daily Show. His mother, in an attempt to protect her son, taught him the lasting value of words and language as weapons.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Alexander Rostov, the epitome of cultured elegance was put under house arrest as a young man, and told if he ever left the hotel he lived in, he would be shot dead on the spot by the ruling Bolshevicks…and he didn’t step foot out of the hotel for nearly half his life…living, dining, visiting with friends…all done in the luxury hotel that was his prison. I listened to this one, and was a bit intimidated by its length. But I fell in love with Rostov and followed him through every corner of his home. This is a study in making the best of terrible situations.

Handmaid’s Tale also by Margaret Atwood. This was a reread—another book I listened to, only because Claire Danes was narrating. After the election of 2016, I felt the need to revisit Offred, to compare this world with the one we were entering. How did Atwood so closely predict so many wrong turns in our world? This continues to be a horrifying cautionary tale.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The Hate U Give: THUG. This is the story of another code-switching young person…living in two worlds, and not safe in either. Starr witnesses her friend’s murder at the hands of a police officer who loses control of a bad situation. She tries to navigate between her father’s deep gang involved life and the walls of her exclusive private school…attempting to keep herself safe.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. I’ve lived in Oklahoma since 1979, and had never heard of the Osage Reign of Terror until I read this book. The truth of what some Whites were willing to do, to acquire wealth that they had not earned curdled my stomach at times. I was horrified by the truths Grann pursued, and the truth of the cover-ups of these crimes. All for oil. After reading this book, I also read Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit, a novel (see below); The Deaths of Sybil Bolton, by Dennis McAuliffe, a strange combination of  memoir and nonfiction narrative; and Dreamland Burning, by Jennifer Latham, a YAL contemporary/historical fiction. I spent the summer living and reliving this shameful story of greed and murder.

So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan. This book is Exhibit 1 to the truth of my being a nerdy English teacher. Maureen Corrigan has the pleasure of teaching The Great Gatsby every year to college students. Every year. That would be almost as good as all the years I got to teach To Kill a Mockingbird. I soaked up all her enthusiasms for Fitzgerald and Gatsby and wanted so much to return to the classroom. This was classic English teacher sharing her passion for a book.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. This was my ‘classic I should have read years ago’ summer read with my walking buddy. It nearly destroyed my reading challenge of 150 books – when I finished I allowed as how it should have counted for five books! I’m a character reader, and that is how I attacked this book…the characters. And Tolstoy did not disappoint me. I watched my characters grow, and lose, and love, and learn…The book at times bored me, but mostly, because I could hold onto Natasha and Pierre and Andrei, I powered through the boredom. I discovered the Broadway show, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, and was amazing that anyone could take one tiny slice of this story and transform it.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. I read books that have been nominated for our state’s children’s book award, the Sequoyah. This book is in the list this year. It’s a fantastic historical fiction about a young girl living in WWII London, who along with her brother, is sent to live in the English countryside. To keep them safe. But while they are ‘safe’ in Kent, they learn there’s no place safe from this war…I’m hoping young readers loved it as much as I did…I cared so much for Ada and her brother, and the people who tried to keep them safe.

You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie. When pushed to name ONE book that is my favorite, this is it. Alexie’s courageous memoir about his volatile relationship with his mother broke my heart. Another book I listened to, hearing Alexie’s voice break in tears as I felt my own tears drop from my face, brought the book so close. This book is an act of supreme personal bravery…Alexie does not, as many memorists do, paint himself as more perfect than he is. He spares himself…and his mother nothing to tell the story of their love and their struggles. I am overwhelmed still by this one.

My Second Five, in alphabetical order:

Ananzi Boys by Neil Gaiman. You had me at ‘Neil Gaiman.’

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr. I truly think I might read Karr if all she wrote were restaurant menus. Lucky for me she writes books.

Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan. A fictionalized version of the Osage Reign of Terror. Hogan took some fierce criticism by some Native academics for the license she took with the truth.

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne DuMaurier. Another re-read, with the added benefit of an online book club discussion that was inspiring and insightful.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Coczy. No, I’d never read this before (another ‘classic I should have…’), but I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful romp through the French Revolution…romp-revolution. Probably an unfortunate combination of words

My Third Five

Finnished Leadership by Pasi Sahlberg. I keep returning to Sahlberg like you keep returning to a barely-healed wound…just to make myself suffer again. What if the US had used its own research in re-forming our schools? What if we listened to these lessons of leadership?

Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton. Another children’s book. Another historical fiction. But this time the date is 1969, and I was there. So many issues. A great book for girls who want MORE.

In the Best Interest of Students by Kelly Gallagher. Another re-read. Once an English teacher….

Successful Strategies for Pursuing National Board Certification by Bobbi Faulkner. (2 books. One for C 1 and 2; another for C3 and 4). I may have fan-girled when I found these two books. Faulkner has taken the new process and analyzed each Component for candidates and facilitators. Just what I needed.

Waltzing with the Ghost of Tom Joad by Robert Lee Maril. A study of poverty in Oklahoma…years after the Dust Bowl. Tom still haunts our state.

Are you on Goodreads? Are you my friend? Why not? Have you made YOUR 2018 Reading Challenge? Do you have a book to recommend? Let me know!

Resolve to Read!

I'm a reader...no shock there. But I have surrounded myself with friends who are also readers. When I taught, my goal was to contribute to expanding my students' reading life. An English teacher/Reading Specialist/School Librarian married to an Academic Librarian...our home is packed with books.

I asked my friends to share with my their favorite book from 2017 -- not the best book...their favorite. My friends came through! We had a lively conversation about books. Several of my former students visited and shared their favorites

A Pew survey from late 2016 shows a quarter of American adults did not read ONE BOOK in the previous year. As one who was raised by readers, who married a reader, who spent 40 years with students and books, that makes me sad.

So I resolve to read! I resolve to share books and to work to inspire others to read. Please join me!

What follows is two lists. One is the list of books my FB friends have identified as their favorite in 2017. I've asterick-ed the books I've read. And a double asterick means that book is on my top ten list for the year, too. You see I have a lot to work on.

The second list is the countdown list from my friend Amanda Kordeliski, School Media Specialist extraordinaire. She does a countdown of the top 25 Young Adult books she's read...and she's read a bunch!!

SO, check out these lists, read a couple, and let me know what you think!

13 Reasons Why*

13 Soldiers

1984*

A Dog’s Purpose

A Girl of the Limberlost

A Man Called Ove*

A Monster Calls*

Accidental Saints
Alice and the Zombie Queens

All the Light We Cannot See*

America’s Women

American Town

As Always, Julia
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Beartown

Beautiful Miscellaneous

Behold the Dreamers

Being Mortal

Beneath the Scarlet Sky

Bite Me

Born a Crime**

Boys in the Boat

Britt-Marie Was Here*

Brothers Karamazov*
Cannibalism

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
Commonwealth

Creatures of a Day

Dark Lover

Does Santa Exist

Dreamland Burning*

East of Eden*

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Fantasyland

From Sand and Ash

Full Cicada Moon*
Game of Thrones*

Girls and Dangerous Pie

Glass Houses

Gone
Guns, Germs, and Steel

Hamilton

Handle with Care*

Handmaid’s Tale**

Haunting the Deep

Hawthorn & Child

Hidden Figures*

Hissing Cousins

Homegoing

House of Spies*
In the Country We Love

Invisible Man*

Jude the Obscure*

Killers of the Flower Moon**

Kitchen Table Talk

Lies my Teacher Told Me*

Lilac Girls

Little Fires Everywhere

Magic Tree House

Make your Bed

Manhattan Beach

Mirror Mirror

Mitch Rapp

Moonglow

Most American

Mr. Mercedes

My Absolute Darling

My Family Divided

News of the World

Nightingale

Northern Borders

Not-quite States of America

Orbiting Jupiter

Origin of the Female

Pachinko

Patrick Moore on Mars

Pond

Post Graduate

Princess X

Purple Hibiscus

Real Thoughts for Real Teachers

Refugee

Restart

Sabriel*
Salt

Sheep

Silence

Sing Unburied Sing

Small Great Things*
Snow Crash

Still Life with Tornado

Summers at Castle Auburn

Team of Rivals

Tell the Wolves I’m Home*

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian*
The Alice Network

The Bronze Horseman

The Circle

The Dry

The Expendables

The Gentleman from Moscow**

The Girl with Seven Names

The Glass Castle*

The Hate U Give**

The Husband’s Secret

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
The Leavers

The Long and Far Away
The Marriage Lie
The Mountain Between Us

The Name of the Wind

The Nazi Officer’s Wife

The Power
The Professor and the Madman*

The Shack

The Six of Crows

The Smell of Other People’s Houses
The Sympathizer

The Trial

The War that Saved my Live**

There But for The

Total Cat Mojo
Troublemakers

Truly Madly Guilty

Turtles All the Way Down*

Undisputed Truth

We are Completely Beside Ourselves

We Need to Talk About Kevin*

We Were the Lucky Ones

Wheel of Time

Where the Night Falls

Wonder*

Words in Deep Blue

Wrinkle in Time*

Y is for Yesterday

You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me**

Zookeeper’s Wife

Amanda's top 25 -- she has supplied authors. I was too lazy to do that with my list.

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
The Pain Eater by Beth Goobie
(2.5) A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
(3.5) Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham*
Bang by Barry Lyga
You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson
Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee
Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
Juan Pablo and the Butterflies by JJ Flowers
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas**
How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Far From the Tree by Robin Benway
The Last Thing You Said by Sara Biren
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah*
North of Happy by Adi Alsaid
The Leaf Reader by Emily Arsenault
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Devils Within by S.F. Henson
Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance*

Here in Oklahoma, it's really cold...time to curl up with a good book. 

Don't see YOUR favorite book of 2017? Add it in the comments!

The "Dirtiest" Word in #oklaed School Libraries

Cherity Pennington is continuing her series of guest blogs here with a discussion of the dastardly secret of why school libraries are facing such troubles in Oklahoma. Surprise! It’s funding.

There used to be school requirements about staffing school libraries, and supplying books for the libraries. But, after 2008, when the legislature began cutting funding to schools, they gave schools a ‘Sophie’s Choice’: you can use that money for library aides, and for books...or you can spend it in other ways. Like to make up for the cuts from the legislature. Some school districts felt they had to do that, even though they knew it wasn’t right.

A couple of years ago I ‘testified’ at a school funding House Interim Study. The big boys talked about the big picture. I tried to make funding cuts in the schools real. I talked about the cuts to funding school libraries and how short-sighted such cuts are. This deregulation of requirements is not a new problem, but as cuts continue, more and more schools are faced with the realization they are running out of options for keeping their schools afloat.

Please read Cherity’s piece here, her first one, and the ones to follow.

School libraries are under attack. Schools are under attack.

Oklahoma’s teacher shortage has been making headlines for years now. This year, we have seen a record number of emergency certified teachers filling open teaching positions. These emergency certified teachers come to the profession with a variety of skill and experience levels, but what they all have in common is a bachelor’s degree. Yes, all emergency certified teachers must have at least a bachelor’s degree in order to fill a teaching position in our schools.

We would be outraged if our schools were allowing people without a college degree to fill a certified teaching position, wouldn’t we?

Prepare to be outraged.

The use of uncertified personnel to fill certified positions is precisely what is happening to many of Oklahoma’s school librarians. Many school districts are replacing school librarians -  certified teaching positions that require master’s degrees -  with paraprofessionals who are not required to have a bachelor’s degree. As I pointed out to a friend recently, communities would be livid if a school filled a science teaching position with a person without a bachelor’s degree. Why do we not have the same outrage when we are replacing school librarian positions with people without the required education?

In my previous guest blog, I explained why it is important for Oklahoma students to have access to a certified school librarian. School librarians not only teach their students necessary technology and information literacy skills, they also help their students achieve more in all other subject areas. The State of Oklahoma has known for a long time this positive impact of school librarians. In fact, Oklahoma even requires its schools to have a certified school librarian on staff.

When I tell people that schools are required to have a school librarian, I am often met with confused looks. It is true, though. Our schools are required to have school librarians. According to Standard VII of the Standards for Accreditation of Oklahoma Schools, each public school in our state should have library staffing appropriate for the size of the school. A small school with fewer than 300 students, for example, must have either a half-time school librarian or a fifth-time school librarian with a full-time library assistant. I teach in a much larger school, so my school is required to have a full-time school librarian and at least a half-time assistant.

So why do so many Oklahoma schools no longer have a school librarian? One word: deregulation.

It has been widely reported that since the recession began in 2008, Oklahoma has made deep cuts to education funding. Many schools, facing this severe lack of funding, are reducing or eliminating school library services. In order to change library services, districts must ask permission from the Oklahoma State School Board to deregulate their school library services. What that deregulation looks like is different for each school. Sometimes, districts deregulate to eliminate the library assistant requirement but still keep the certified school librarian. Other times, a certified librarian will oversee the library programs of multiple schools with assistance from paraprofessionals. Too often, districts eliminate the school librarian position completely and replace with library assistants.

I cannot say with accuracy how many schools in Oklahoma no longer have a certified school librarian, but I know it is many. Almost 50 districts requested school library program deregulation for this school year in the month of November alone. Not all of those districts eliminated their school librarian position completely, but many did. Deregulation of school library programs is a part of almost every Oklahoma State School Board meeting and has been for at least the last two years. One can only imagine how many schools still have certified school librarians.

Please let this fact sink in. Many of these deregulations mean that teaching positions are being filled not through an emergency certification process but through no certification process at all. These accreditation standards are supposed to ensure that Oklahoma’s students all have access to a quality education. The schools that deregulate their school library programs may have official permission to do so, but they are not meeting these accreditation standards, and our students are not receiving the level of education that they deserve.

What can we do to ensure our Oklahoma students are receiving the teaching services of a certified school librarian?

First, I encourage school administrators to examine all other cost-saving measures prior to considering library deregulation. A certified school librarian’s expertise in technology, professional development, and teaching can be a low-cost investment for schools.

Then, I urge our state education leaders to work with school districts to protect the position of school librarians. Help our schools find ways to fund this important teaching position. I also encourage our state-level leaders to require schools that deregulate to have a plan to return to full library staffing in a short amount of time.

Finally, I urge the school librarians in Oklahoma who still have their jobs to tell everyone about the important work they are doing. Our communities will not understand why school librarians are important unless our school librarians teach them. OKSL invites schools and school librarians who have been affected by library deregulation to share your stories with us.

School Librarians-Teachers First and Always. A guest post by Cherity Pennington

I will be devoting my blog to Oklahoma School Librarians, a division of Oklahoma Library Association, and especially friends, Cherity Pennington and Amanda Kordeliski, school librarians extraordinaire. You'll learn about what school librarians know and do. You'll learn about the deep neglect (MY word) our policy makers have showered on our school libraries and librarians. 

I've been a school librarian and know my training helped inform my work in the classroom.

So, let me introduce my friend, Cherity. She has an assignment at the end. Please do your homework.

Anyone who has been in education for even a short amount of time knows that teachers often teach a new concept more than once before their students completely learn it. Reteaching is not a sign of failure; true learning usually takes some repetition.

I had to remind myself today that I am not a failure, but I do have to do some reteaching.

You see, one of my goals when I became the chair of Oklahoma School Librarians this year was to make sure the stakeholders in Oklahoma education understood the role, the purpose, and the necessity of school librarians in every school. Because if our stakeholders - the administrators, teachers, students, parents, legislators, community members, etc. - completely understand what school librarians do, then these same stakeholders will become just as concerned as I am about what is happening to school librarians in our state.

Bear with me, then, as I do some reteaching.

First, school librarians are teachers.

Yes, school librarians are certified teachers. In fact, if I may be so bold, school librarians could be viewed as super teachers. In Oklahoma, school librarians must possess a master’s degree before they can become a school librarian. Most other teachers may be certified with a bachelor’s degree.

What causes many people pause when I declare that school librarians are teachers, though, is that many people are blinded by the stereotype of the school librarian. The stereotype is that school librarians sit behind a desk, check books out to students, and shush students who are too loud in the library. Occasionally, the stereotype might emerge from the circulation desk to put some returned books back on a shelf. The stereotype, though, is nothing like the truth.

The truth is that school librarians are teaching vital skills to the students in their schools. School librarians are teaching students how to find information from a variety of information sources, how to evaluate that information for trustworthiness, how to be safe online, how to use advanced technology tools, how to adapt to changing technology, how to read information sources critically, how to read and evaluate fiction books, and how to collaborate with others. School librarians also work collaboratively with the rest of the teaching staff in a school, so, in reality, school librarians support and teach all academic standards in all core subjects.

In the next few days in my school library, I have plans to help eighth grade students create a commercial with an iPad and a green screen so they can practice their persuasive writing skills along with their speaking skills. I am helping a drama class complete a research project and teaching students how to cite information sources. I am working on lesson plans with a fellow teacher for another research project for a group of sixth graders who are learning to summarize and evaluate editorials with opposing views. I will continue teaching more than 20 students who are choosing to create a project for National History Day and are in the midst of intense historical research. Along with these teaching opportunities, I will also find time to help install a classroom projector, work on three grant proposals for my school, and, yes, check out books to students.

Second, students and teacher succeed with a certified school librarian

Multiple research studies show that students who have access to a school library staffed by a certified school librarian have higher test scores and have a better chance of being college and career ready upon graduation.

Other teachers benefit from having a certified school librarian on staff. Certified school librarians are usually professional development leaders in their schools. Fellow teachers may benefit from the technology and information expertise of the school librarian who leads school wide professional development training. Research also indicates that students succeed more when classroom teachers and school librarians collaborate and teach together.

Third, school librarians are not administrators nor support staff.

Yes, I have already established (I hope) that school librarians are teachers. Why, then, does the distinction among these three titles matter? First, allow me to point out the difference among the three titles, and then, I will explain why the distinction matters.

Because school librarians are certified teachers, they are paid on the same scale as other certified teachers who possess master’s degrees. The only exception to this pay scale is for those school librarians who work additional hours or days in their contract due to the high demands of the school library. School administrators are typically paid much more and have supervisory status over multiple employees or programs within a school or school district.

In the world of education, the support staff title is associated with the personnel in a school who are essential but who are not required to possess a college degree, such as a paraprofessional, school secretary, custodian, nutrition services worker, etc.

Now, this is why the distinction among the three titles matters. Recently, Gov. Mary Fallin issued an executive order that calls for consolidation of administrative services of public school districts that spend less than 60% of their budget on instruction. However, as Sen. Ron Sharp explains in this blog post, some specialized education positions, such as school librarians, are classified as non-instructional or administrative despite the instructional impact they have. Therefore, if we do not make the distinction between school librarians as teachers and not as administrators, then school librarians could lose their jobs.

Also, because school librarians are certified teachers, their positions should not be filled by a person qualified for a support staff position. Again, support staff positions are vital in our schools, but these positions typically do not require certification or advanced degrees. Unfortunately, many school districts are replacing certified teacher librarians with support staff members who are not qualified to be teachers. Examine the agendas and handouts of recent Oklahoma State School Board meetings, and you will find numerous instances of school districts asking permission to do just this. For example, the Nov. 16, 2017, board meeting handout shows multiple districts requesting to replace their certified library media specialist positions with full-time paraprofessionals.

I originally began this writing by stating that I had to remind myself that reteaching does not mean I am a failure. I, and many other Oklahoma school librarians, have been working hard to get the word out about what it is that school librarians do and why these teaching positions are important for our students’ success. Today, I read a school district’s Tweet about its teacher of the year who happened to be a school librarian. Congratulations to that school librarian and to her school because that school understands the amazing teaching that school librarians do every day. Unfortunately, that announcement was almost immediately followed by someone else complaining that school librarians are not real teachers. We obviously have more work to do. We must reteach.

So, here is your assignment.

If you are a teacher or administrator, get to know your school librarians. Work with them and reap the benefits. If you work at a school without a school librarian, tell your decision makers why it is so important to have one. If you are a legislator, spend some time with a school librarian so you can witness what these teachers do each day. Prepare to be impressed. If you are a school librarian yourself, keep being your awesome self and keep teaching your school community why your students and fellow educators need you.

Cherity Pennington is the current chair of Oklahoma School Librarians, a division of the Oklahoma Library Association. She is halfway through her 19th year of teaching in Oklahoma public schools and her 7th year as a school librarian. She was the 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year for her school district. Contact her at oksl@oklibs.org or on Twitter @cherity7 and @OKSLlife.