What Side are You on?

Today is one of those days that makes me sad as a teacher, a parent, and a curriculum writer.

I have recently noticed that there are two "teams" of teachers developing.  One team that seems to be fun, enthusiastic, and supportive of one another, and one team that is full of negativity; constantly accusing other teachers of not being good enough.  Let me explain what I mean:

Team 1 (aka the fun group):
These teachers seem to be super energized all of the time.  They have pinterest classrooms and either create or sell items on TPT (or other sites).  They are all about creating an experience for students that supports their learning.  They also seem to be the group that wants everyone to succeed - even other teachers.

Team 2 (the all business group):
These teachers seem to be so focused on the serious aspects of teaching - the problems of the world, AYP, the achievement gap - that they forget that learning can be enjoyable.  They also seem to be the teachers who are constantly criticizing the teachers from Team 1.

Now, these are just my simple observations in the community where I live and I teach.  As a parent, I prefer my daughter be in the classroom of Team 1.  This is how I remember school when I grew up in the 70s & 80s.  Rooms weren't super cute back then, but they were cute for the time period.  School was fun because the teachers were energetic, which got me excited about school.  I want my child to be excited about school.  Team 1 knows how to do that.

Here's where my sadness comes into today's post.  I received an email from someone about a blog post that was written by a Kindergarten teacher who is very against TPT sellers and teachers who use TPT.  He basically accused these teachers of not being supportive of one another because they are selling their products.  He also said that the content on TPT was not up to par.  (He also has never purchased anything from TPT).  His post had too many comments to count; many of them agreeing with him.  His "open discussion" was nothing more than a venue to gripe about teachers who decorate their rooms cute and who sell out on TPT by offering crappy content.  😓

Yep.  I have had items on TPT for awhile now.  I can attest that everything I create and sell I first create for my students to meet the standards.  Questions I routinely ask myself include:

How will this push my students to new understandings?
Am I meeting the needs of all of my students?
Will my students be able to demonstrate their new understandings?
Is this lesson meaningful and relevant?

I have purchased products off of TPT for years.  I have purchased a few items that did not meet my needs.  Does that mean that it is crappy, like the blogger and commenters claimed?  Of course not!  Does that mean that they did not put effort and energy into creating something that helped their students meet the standards?  No, again.  The Team 2 teachers seem to be so down on the Team 1 teachers.  It is as if they think that they know everything, and that they are the only teachers doing a good job.

As I have posted in the past; I don't do cute.  I just don't.  Do I mind it? Of course not.  The only thing that bothers me is when decorating seems to take front and center stage, rather than content, but I have only seen that once.  But, as I remember from my childhood, plain old worksheets that had purple printing from the school ditto copy machine did nothing for my engagement.  In fact, they didn't engage me whatsoever.  I have worked in both settings: the super cute and the all business all the time districts.  Here is what I have noticed:

The kids with the TPT/Pinterest teachers were far more engaged than the kids in the All Business schools.  I recently left a large urban district.  The kids were disengaged in every classroom.  In my classrooms, as soon as I started sprucing them up, the kids noticed and interacted with me more.  They participated.  One 10th grade student I had last year actually commented about my room to me at the end of the year.  She told me that she didn't trust my blond hair and energy at the beginning of the year (because this is the ALL Business district), but that by the end of the year, she realized that the energy I put into my room and activities showed that I was "pretty cool."  She said she realize that I cared about them and that she learned more that year than any other year.  Huh.

The sad thing is, I left the district.  I personally could not handle the negativity anymore.  The tearing down of teachers who wanted to make learning meaningful and special for their kids.  The mentality of "I am the only teacher doing it right" drove me crazy.  Even the principals were in on it.  How is that helpful?

Here is my plug for TPT:

I work in a system that is continually cutting teachers, paying them poorly, and expecting teachers to contribute a very high amount of their own salary to the classroom.  My second year of school I spent nearly $250 on Kleenex alone.  I couldn't make my car or student loan payment, but my students could blow their nose.  Why is it bad if I make something to sell to other teachers to help pay for things that my students need to be successful?  When the district won't pay for it?

I have also turned to TPT many times when I did not have the time to create something.  I knew what I wanted to use to jack the lesson up a bit, and I was able to find it online.  The texts and curriculum that districts provide are usually bare bones, with very little provided to help with differentiation.  I use TPT as a means to find methods of differentiation that I maybe wouldn't have thought of.  When you consider how much districts spend on curriculum, you would think that they could be more than just a set of books, workbooks, and a teacher's manual.  The way I see it, me spending my own dollar on a product on TPT makes their curriculum better.

I have yet to see a teacher put "crap" on TPT.  Maybe I've just been lucky.  At any rate, this blanket mentality of TPT sellers being only in it for the money and not for actual teaching is too common among the All Business set.

What makes me sad is that both groups accuse each other of not being supportive.  The All Business set says that teachers who sell their items are being selfish.  The Super Cute team thinks that the All Business set is not supportive of them trying to provide pencils and whatnot for their students by selling on TPT.  Meanwhile, nothing gets accomplished.

When it comes to which side I am on, I find that I am right in the middle.  I believe that cute and fun can coexist with challenging, meaningful instruction.  I want to engage kids, and if that means once in a while shopping on TPT or sprucing up my room, I will do it.

Am I saying that education isn't serious business right now?  Absolutely not.  But I'm also saying that teachers need to do what works for them, and not expect everyone else to find the same methods as fantastic as they do.  Different doesn't mean bad.  Isn't that what we teach kids?