While I haven't had much time to chat with Alan, today was the day I realized he's "the real deal." Every time I attend a JEA, MIPA or NCTE conference, I leave feeling inspired by and inferior to teachers like Alan. It's a big of a paradox.
There are teachers from all over the country who seem to go where no teacher has gone before. They win awards for publications that astound me, their page designs and graphics are incredible, and their staffs are motivated and brilliant. I love my kids, but I might get one or two who really want to produce. They won't design something until I make it worth a grade, and then it's usually average at best. I've worked hard to have good photography in our book and to make my staff better caption and story writers, but I still have so far to go. I love the look of InDesign pages, but stick with my template designs because it's not my strength. I feel like I'm doing my kids a disservice.
Alan shared with me that he was really involved in journalism in high school and had good teachers. I didn't have anything to do with journalism until 2000, when I had just finished my second year of teaching. The adviser approached me because of my enthusiasm. She left me her "Bible" and told me I'd be fine. While I've done a lot to stay on top of things, I still have far to go.
And now I have a newspaper too. Thank goodness I'm here.
Kathryn Burkholder
Pinckney High School
Pinckney, MI
I'm proud of the work I do with my kids, but Alan's presentation today was a revelation. I have so. much. further. I want to take them.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind admitting I idolize a few of my colleagues--people like Jim Jordan at Del Campo or Mary Kay Downes at Chantilly, each with 30 books to their name. I look at their work when I receive a trade book, and I'm disappointed when I see all the ways I think we could improve to "catch up" to the Decamhian or Odyssey. But my wife always brings me back down to earth by asking, "How long have they been doing this?"
"30 plus years."
"And you?"
"......12."
I've got a ton left to learn, and it's my fondest hope that I'm still doing this work 20 years from now. Life happens, sure, but for the moment, that's my goal. The peek into Alan's lab and publications today lit me up, and made me want to get back to 607 and get going.
I'll take it one book at a time.
-Mike