Lake Jyvasjarvi I have never lived anywhere for 5 months other than Jyvaskyla, Finland. As my Fulbright journey concludes, there is so much to still digest. It will take months, if not years, to truly assimilate all the learning. Before I left Southern California, I wrote about the what I would miss the most from home and what I looked forward to experiencing in Finland. It is safe to say I met my goals. Top 7 Goals 1. Discussing Education Helsinki Workshop Through professional development programs, Fulbright Finland connected teachers with scholars and researchers, for the purpose of putting inquisitive minds together. The Making Democracies Resilient to Modern Threats seminar provided participants with fascinating research and presentations. 2. Nordic Model Bus station in Espoo What does an efficient and earnest country look like? It looks like Finland. Yes, people pay higher taxes, but get so much in return. I for one appreciated the well-main...
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A Week of Turmoil and Tension
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This past week at L.A. Academy has been marked by the dread of imposed layoffs, uncertainty as to how many would actually go through, and the potential loss of our award-winning librarian.
Coincidentally (or not), students decided at this time to behave in a manner unseen in years, to the faculty who has been around since the opening of the school in 1998. There were “rolling fights” on campus, where students run in hordes from place to place, to witness fights or other disturbances. This situation has the potential for lots of physical injury because if you are in the way of an approaching horde, you will get knocked down, run over, and trampled. Two students were injured, and many others were pushed, shoved, and stepped on.
Is there a connection between these two situations? Teachers believe so. Our school is a distinctly different place since 23 of our established faculty were laid-off in the 2009 Reduction in Force. More than half of those teachers left the school, and the other half are working as substitutes, a tenuous status for anyone who has ever worked in education. Coupled with our class size reduction, we have over 15 new teachers on staff, most with no middle school teaching experience. And our students know this; they feel it. A small group of students has exploited this situation to its advantage all year long. C Track, especially, has seen this element increase and wreak havoc in the classrooms of some of our new teachers. Sinks have been set to overflow in science rooms, tagging and vandalism is on the rise both in and out of the classrooms, and disrespect against adults on campus is at an unfathomable level. Example: a student threw his trash on the ground and was told to pick it up by a teacher. The student instead, threw the trash towards the teacher, using profanity against her. A crowd of students around him laughed at the whole incident and refused to disburse until the dean was called.
Teachers, not about to hand over control of the school to this group of students, showed up en masse to conduct voluntary supervision during lunch and nutrition on Friday. Whistles were handed out, students felt their presence, and we were able to end the week without any further major disruptions.
It is painful, however, to be dealing with the issue of “control of the school.” This was an issue dealt with and resolved almost 5 years ago, when our current principal arrived to strengthen student discipline. It feels like we have traveled back in time.
Nonetheless, Saturday morning arrived with the news that we seem to have dodged a bullet, when UTLA and LAUSD reached an agreement to save most positions via “shared sacrifice”: teachers agreed to 12 furlough days to help balance the budget and preserve class sizes to their present numbers. Furlough days are a pay cut of about 5% for teachers.
While this is a good moment, it is not a long-term solution to the chronic under-funding of California schools, that has led us to be 47th in per-pupil funding out of the entire 50 states. I guess you get what you pay for.
image from http://rtmulcahy.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/oil_turmoil.jpg
Lake Jyvasjarvi I have never lived anywhere for 5 months other than Jyvaskyla, Finland. As my Fulbright journey concludes, there is so much to still digest. It will take months, if not years, to truly assimilate all the learning. Before I left Southern California, I wrote about the what I would miss the most from home and what I looked forward to experiencing in Finland. It is safe to say I met my goals. Top 7 Goals 1. Discussing Education Helsinki Workshop Through professional development programs, Fulbright Finland connected teachers with scholars and researchers, for the purpose of putting inquisitive minds together. The Making Democracies Resilient to Modern Threats seminar provided participants with fascinating research and presentations. 2. Nordic Model Bus station in Espoo What does an efficient and earnest country look like? It looks like Finland. Yes, people pay higher taxes, but get so much in return. I for one appreciated the well-main...
Jyvaskyla Fulbright Teachers (missing Kerry and Linda) As I conclude my Fulbright project, it goes without saying that I could not have done this alone. The help I’ve received along the way has been heartwarming and supportive. I am so proud to have been able to represent teachers and my community in Finland. Jose Govea This unceasing advocate for teachers is my area union rep. When he heard I was awarded my Fulbright grant, he went into action to make sure I received some type of compensation from the hard to navigate district I work in. We realized the deadline had passed for the correct leave of absence to make this happen, but he said, “I’m willing to do battle for a Fulbrighter.” Thanks to Jose, I was able to receive financial support from my district while away on leave. The IIE Angelica Serna The International Institute for Education manages the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching program which sent me to Finland. This first-class organization supp...
Lunch room With only a few weeks left on my Finnish Fulbright learning experience, I was eager to set a date to visit the other 2018 Finnish Fulbrighter's school near Tampere, FI. Sanna Leinonen is a well-known educational leader with over 20 years of experience teaching at Ylojarven Lukio, and a Fulbright teacher. Every minute of every school visit is a learning experience. Location Motorbikes rule Tractors get you there Ylojarven is a town west of Tampere, and as such, it is the only local high school (Lukio) in the area. Students commute from rather long distances to get to the school. I was always tickled to see tractors in the parking lot belonging to those from a more rural background, but more often than not, I saw motor bikes and bicycles in the parking lot. Staggered Arrivals and Flexible Schedules for Teachers An American teacher's dream come true Because each student's schedule is so customized, some students did not arrive to school...
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