Back then, at my first teaching gig, there was something remarkable happening with education in Dade County, Florida. The School Board and clearly the legislators of the state were endeavoring to “professionalize teaching.” The powers that be felt somehow that teachers had been left out of the loop when it came to school organization, administration, curriculum, and everything of significance, basically. Why not tap into the massive resources and ideas that teachers must have! At that time, Florida had a Republican governor and a full Democratic majority in both houses.The balance of power actually seemed to work (for me).
So began a program called “School-Based Management,” wherein teachers were included and involved with all decisions impacting their schools. Granted, there were now more meetings for teachers to attend, but to be sure, this was an excellent direction for the county. We were considered to be “on the cutting edge” of educational progress all over the country. I know this because several years later, when I moved to Northern California, all of my teaching colleagues were so impressed that I was from DADE COUNTY! More on California later..
Not only was School-Based Management revolutionary and wonderful, but there were other delights in Dade County afoot. Each English teacher could apply to take part in the almost brand new Zelda Glazer Dade County/University of Miami Writing Institute. Glazer was a legendary English teacher from Miami Beach, originally a New Yorker, and she founded (1984) and developed the institute. Guests and specialists from all over would come to present their diverse methods of teaching writing in their classrooms.
I can’t tell you how influential this experience was in my teaching path. I still, all these years later, remember almost every presenter, and I employed so many of the techniques for the rest of my career. The idea was to empower students with writing, and to instill pride and concern with what they write daily and always. No more cramming grammar and vocabulary and spelling down the throats…now we were going to inspire them with mandalas, contemporary poetry modelling, Show, Not Tell exercises, a “Universe of Language” laid out in front of them. One interesting side note, Dave Barry, humorist/journalist extraordinaire came and gave a talk to all of us at the Institute, which was hilarious and inspirational. He did it because of the gratitude he felt towards his English teachers. I still love him and am listening to his newest audiobook memoir currently. Many of the strategies I learned at the institute I adapted and taylored for my personal use in the classroom, and some of these can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers store, which I am still developing: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/literary-ladder-lessons
Once I shifted my methods after returning from the institute, my grammar stickler department head was ambivalent, to say the least. You’ll maybe remember that she insisted grammar be taught in isolation for the first 3/4 of the school year, and only then may we have students read, for example, a story from the literature book.
Back to the Writing Institute, after this summer extravaganza lasting two weeks, the participants had all bonded like we were in summer camp. We ate together, laughed, shared our own writings with each other, discussed teaching, and became friends. One of the most amazing English teachers in the county, nay country, Jenny Krugman from Coral Gables Senior High, and one of the leaders at the institute, requested that I along with another teacher, do a short performance at the finale luncheon. It was known that I was a musician, and the other teacher was a lead singer in her church choir. We performed “You’ve Got a Friend” with me on guitar and singing and her singing with much more power and verve than I. At the end, there was not a dry eye in the conference. Jenny Krugman even approached me to say that she “has no words…” Gosh! And that was a song I had been playing practically since I was two.
When I came back to school the next year, everything was different, I was invigorated and on a mission to reform English education. And I always have been on that mission ever since. However, times have changed, testing is king, school-based management was shut down, and Dade County abandoned the use of actual books in English classrooms. Yet I will never forget the days and times when the State wanted to funnel power towards teachers. It was a miracle.
Here is an article about School-Based MAnagement:
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