It's all about attitude

Maintaining enthusiasm is
mark of success

By Lynn Jerde
Written for News & Views and OnWEAC

In the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes,” 1st-grade teacher Miss Wormwood would survey the most recent Calvin-created catastrophe, then clench her teeth and mutter, “Five years to retirement, five years to retirement . . .”

Every teacher has experienced such moments of frustration and burnout from time to time — even Evansville High School art teacher Rich Krake, who really does have “five years to retirement” if he sticks to his current plan.

Most days, Krake derives joy from his job.

“Attitude makes all the difference,” contends Krake, who has taught in Wisconsin public schools for 36 years, including 32 years at Evansville.
Evansville art teacher Rich Krake maintains a high energy in his classroom by moving around, helping students with their projects. Above, Krake helps student Michelle Cummins transform a hanger into an animal sculpture.
A teacher, he said, should be very intentional about cultivating a positive outlook. For example, if Krake sees graffiti on a school wall, he doesn’t only think of it as vandalism. He sees the wall scrawls as signs of some student, somewhere in the school, who might channel his urge for self-expression through an art class.

John Nepper, band director at Kenosha’s Bullen Middle School — and a 16-year teacher in the same school system where he got his education — has a similar outlook.

“If my kids get something out of my teaching, then I get something out of it,” he said. “Most of us who are in education are here because we want to make things better for the kids who come into our schools.”

Nepper and Krake will attest that there are times when the paperwork, the meetings, the time demands, the lack of up-to-date equipment and facilities — and yes, the kids — can make it challenging for teachers to maintain an upbeat attitude about their profession.

And yes, Nepper acknowledged, there are teachers who, like the fictional Miss Wormwood, are marking time until retirement.

Often, teachers find it difficult to give up the job security that accompanies many years of teaching, Nepper said. Even starting over in a different school district often means a cut in pay and benefits. So, teachers may remain in the classroom, even though their hearts are no longer in their work.


Kenosha music teacher John Nepper often steps down from the conductor’s platform and joins the band.
“Sometimes,” Nepper said, “teachers get locked in because they think, ‘This is the curriculum, this is the way I have to do things.’ They don’t try to look for a new way.”

For teachers who want out of this rut, Krake said, there’s help. At times, he’s found that help within the walls of his own school.

Several years ago, Krake and some other Evansville teachers formed a Power of Positive Students (POPS) program for teachers in grades 5 to 12. The philosophy of POPS, he said, is that a teacher’s attitude makes all the difference, not only for his or her own morale, but also for the students.

“It was a chance to empower teachers to take a chance, to try something new,” he said. “Even if something had been tried before and didn’t work, we tried it again.”

POPS is dormant at Evansville these days, but some of the ideas that came from POPS are still in use.

One of them involves “giving kids a hand.”

If an Evansville student does anything positive — not necessarily an academic achievement, just something good — that student’s name and his or her accomplishment are printed on a paper hand. Occasionally, there’s a random drawing of the paper hands, with prizes such as movie passes. But the main reward, Krake said, is recognition and encouragement.

“You know, every student is like a kindergartner, only taller,” Krake observed. “They always need pats on the back, whether they’re 5 or 18.”

So do teachers.

At one time, Evansville teachers could also receive a paper hand from the administration, for any accomplishment, large or small. Krake said he regrets that this practice has fallen by the wayside.

“Recognition for teachers is very, very rare,” he said. “A lot of times, coaches get recognized if they have winning teams. But other than at their retirement, do teachers get recognized? I don’t think so. I think they need to get recognized every day.”

Last year, Nepper received recognition as a winner of a Kohl Teacher Fellowship.

Opportunities

Here are some opportunities for teachers to learn, reflect, celebrate and renew their excitement about their profession:

• The Wisconsin Great Teachers Seminar, July 25-28 at Sinsinawa Mound Center in Grant County. Cost is $195, including three overnights, nine meals, materials and seminar fees; there is an additional cost for credit through the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Contact Debra Berndt, WEA Professional Development Academy Inc., 800-362-8034, ext. 294, or go to: www.weac.org/ Resource/ 1998-99/ march99/ great.htm.

• The Wisconsin Teachers Forum, June 17-18 at Monona Terrace Convention and Community Center. Contact Connie Salveson at the Department of Public Instruction, 608-266-8300.

• Teacher World, June 22-26 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Contact Annette Hanson at DPI, 608-267-2003.

• The Accelerated Schools Project from Stanford University. Go to: www.stanford.edu/ group/ asp.

• The Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellowships. This program recognizes outstanding teachers annually with awards of $1,000 for the teacher, plus $1,000 for the teacher’s school. To be eligible, a teacher must be nominated by a parent, other teacher, community member or school administrator. Applica-tions are due in December. Contact Janet Haas at DPI, 608-267-9269.

• The All-USA Teacher Team, sponsored by USA Today newspaper. Twenty top teachers will be featured in USA Today this fall, and each will receive a $2,500 cash award. Anyone can nominate a teacher. Go to: www.usatoday.com/ life/ teaform.htm, or call 1-800-872-2216.
The process of applying for the honor, he said, was almost as morale-boosting as winning it. It required him to seek recommendations from other teachers, and to reflect, in writing, about what he had accomplished in his classroom.

One of Nepper’s proudest accomplishments, he said, has been the development of leadership qualities in his students.

One way he does this is by relinquishing his baton to students who volunteer to lead the musical warm-up exercises that begin each band practice. The student leaders, he said, are not necessarily the most talented musicians — just young people who are willing to stand up in front of their peers and lead.

“And, if the other kids get out of hand,” Nepper laughed, “the student leader corrects them, usually using the same words and gestures that I would use. It gives me a good mirror of what I look like to my students.

“A lot of teachers are reluctant to give up that kind of control, but it’s rewarding to see which kids will step up, and watch what happens when they do.”

Nepper and Krake agree that one key to keeping a positive attitude is to keep seeking new ways to teach.

This is where continuing education is vital.

In a conference, seminar, workshop or in-service training program, Krake looks for two things — great speakers, and fellow teachers willing to share their ideas.

Nepper said workshops that involve a lot of academic work (lectures and worksheets) usually don’t do much for him.

“I look for something that can grab me personally,” he said. “It has to fill me with ideas — things for the kids to do, things that get me fired up, things that I can actively get involved in. I don’t want to be bored any more than my kids do.”

Planners of this summer’s Great Teachers Seminar — July 25-28 at the Sinsinawa Mound Center in Grant County — are aiming for that kind of invigoration for teachers from pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade levels.

The seminar will be led by national Great Teachers Movement founder David B. Gottschall and Wisconsin coordinator Rita Lease.

The seminar’s rationale is that teachers learn best from each other, and from teachers who have a variety of backgrounds, specialties and years of experience.

Its purposes include:
  • Encouraging teachers to look beyond their own specialties, and focus on the universal concepts of good teaching.
  • Promoting an atmosphere of “introspection and self-appraisal,” to help participants contemplate their work as teachers — how they do it, and how they can do it better.
The Great Teachers Seminar is scheduled for the summer, as are many opportunities for teachers’ continuing education and reinvigoration.

Even if year-round school should become the norm, Nepper said, teachers will still need large blocks of time away from the classroom to reflect and learn.

Krake said he makes time for this on vacations.

His wife, Nancy Krake, teaches special education at Brodhead Middle School.

When they travel together, they often choose destinations that include teachers’ workshops.

Or, they scout out potential field trip destinations for their pupils, such as the Art Institute in Chicago — which Krake revisits frequently because its offerings change constantly.

“Whenever Nancy and I are driving back from our vacations,” he said, “we usually spend the whole trip back talking about what ideas we got, and which ones we’re going to try in our schools.”

Krake recognizes, however, that the all-consuming nature of the teaching profession also can be one of the factors that can lower some teachers’ morale.

“No, teaching is not an easy life,” he said. “It’s tough on the teacher’s family, especially if the kids go to the same school where their parents teach, and everybody expects the teacher’s kids to be perfect. And, then there are all the nights when I don’t get everything done in school and have to take my work home with me.”

Who would understand that better than other teachers?

Both Krake and Nepper say supportive colleagues — who, as a group, are committed to keeping education excellent and inspiring — can make all the difference.

Nepper said that’s especially important at his school now, because Bullen just became a middle school this year, and its faculty are still trying to define the school’s ethos. That they’re committed to doing so as a group is a great start, Nepper said. Later, they’ll establish specific goals and programs together.

Krake said public school faculties often overlook a rich source of strength and morale — older, established teachers such as himself.

“Schools always need a rudder or an anchor,” he said. “That’s us old guys. We remember things from the past that maybe have been tried before and didn’t work — and maybe we’re willing to try them again with a different group of kids.”

And, his years of teaching — and seeing changes in families, students, society and educational philosophy — give him a perspective that keeps him optimistic.

Posted June 9, 1999

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