Lee Burningham (Box Elder High School) on thu 17 apr 03
Howdy,
Time to open a can! My FAVORITE topic, qualified teachers!
I am a school teacher wondering just what you(Dean) and the rest of
Clayart think makes a person qualified to educate your dear, darling,
little nippers. I also think that a lot of the National Board Certified
teachers I have had personal contact and professional experiences with,
couldn't teach their way out of a wet paper sack if it was torn open for
them. Does the nat'l board certification make them a better teacher or
just better at making themselves look better? Might just make them great
at writing NEA grants. ;-))
Am I national board certified? Not only no, but Hell NO! Utah offers
absolutely no incentive for me to pursue board certification. The
expense is more than I will ever see returned in any way, shape, or
form, before or after retirement.
Are you ready to judge my program? Better not until you stick your nose
in the door and take a good look around. Walk out back and check out the
glaze kiln, the salt kiln, the raku kiln, the wood kiln, and the
pit-fire mess that pisses off the principal on a regular basis. Talk to
the students I bring to NCECA every year. Look at the stuff my students
put in the National K-12 Ceramics Exhibition.
Where does this automatic "attitude of entitlement" come from that you
so glibly throw out? Public schools? Private schools? Home-schoolers?
My students work very hard for their skills, their grades, help build
and maintain the kilns, mix the clay and the glazes, load, fire, and
unload the kilns on a regular basis. Where does anybody just give them
anything that they would develop an attitude of entitlement and expect
more?
I admit to being a teaching junkie. I get my jollies in life by getting
the kids fired up on making stuff out of magic dirt. The immediate
payoff the student gets of doing it right, making it awesome, and doing
it themselves makes it all worth coming to school every day. I have the
best job in the whole wide world. Does enthusiasm make me qualified to
teach your little nippers?
Lee Burningham
Pottery Teacher
Box Elder High School
May 9th, if any of you are close enough, welcome to the annual Spring
Fling/Raku Bash/Clay Olympics. Starts whenever you want to arrive and
ends when we run out of pots to fire and the food is gone. Either that
or when the local constabulary attempt to run us out of the building
around midnight.
claybair on fri 18 apr 03
Les,
I spent thousands of hours over 15 years volunteering in my kids schools.
I was in scores of teacher's classrooms, ran & worked with them on science,
art, gym projects and eventually became a school board director (talk about
a thankless job).
I can say unconditionally I would rather have a district full of teachers
like you than
the burnouts with certification.
Now teachers like you with certification do exist. However they have to
contend with their own can of worms. Good teachers whether or not certified
take a lot of heat because they make the slacker teachers look bad. I saw
this all too frequently.
Keep up the great work... you are much appreciated!
Gayle Bair
Bainbridge Island, WA
http://claybair.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On Behalf Of Lee
Burningham (Box Elder High School)
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 8:18 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: thank you/broken art/now a qualified teaching rant!
Howdy,
Time to open a can! My FAVORITE topic, qualified teachers!
I am a school teacher wondering just what you(Dean) and the rest of
Clayart think makes a person qualified to educate your dear, darling,
little nippers. I also think that a lot of the National Board Certified
teachers I have had personal contact and professional experiences with,
couldn't teach their way out of a wet paper sack if it was torn open for
them. Does the nat'l board certification make them a better teacher or
just better at making themselves look better? Might just make them great
at writing NEA grants. ;-))
Am I national board certified? Not only no, but Hell NO! Utah offers
absolutely no incentive for me to pursue board certification. The
expense is more than I will ever see returned in any way, shape, or
form, before or after retirement.
Are you ready to judge my program? Better not until you stick your nose
in the door and take a good look around. Walk out back and check out the
glaze kiln, the salt kiln, the raku kiln, the wood kiln, and the
pit-fire mess that pisses off the principal on a regular basis. Talk to
the students I bring to NCECA every year. Look at the stuff my students
put in the National K-12 Ceramics Exhibition.
Where does this automatic "attitude of entitlement" come from that you
so glibly throw out? Public schools? Private schools? Home-schoolers?
My students work very hard for their skills, their grades, help build
and maintain the kilns, mix the clay and the glazes, load, fire, and
unload the kilns on a regular basis. Where does anybody just give them
anything that they would develop an attitude of entitlement and expect
more?
I admit to being a teaching junkie. I get my jollies in life by getting
the kids fired up on making stuff out of magic dirt. The immediate
payoff the student gets of doing it right, making it awesome, and doing
it themselves makes it all worth coming to school every day. I have the
best job in the whole wide world. Does enthusiasm make me qualified to
teach your little nippers?
Lee Burningham
Pottery Teacher
Box Elder High School
May 9th, if any of you are close enough, welcome to the annual Spring
Fling/Raku Bash/Clay Olympics. Starts whenever you want to arrive and
ends when we run out of pots to fire and the food is gone. Either that
or when the local constabulary attempt to run us out of the building
around midnight.
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AKitchens on sun 20 apr 03
Open that can, Lee! I'll second the motion! I was the product of two teachers like that. They gave it their all, Dad for thirty years teaching wood shop and taking every student state competition for handmade stereo cabinets, cold-molded cedar strip canoes, 7 ft grandfather clocks, and waterbeds. Mom taught for twenty years. She was one of those traveling art teachers that did a pottery unit in every grade K-6 she taught. There was only one school with a kiln so she traveled with green pots, bisque pots, and glazed pots, fired and unfired to eight, count them eight, elementary schools. (get this, the custodian monitored the kiln for her after hours)
I only wish that my son had the advantage of having just ONE teacher like that. Well he did once, when he was three, a Montessori teacher that was a gem.
You are one of a rare and wonderful breed of teachers. I hope every day at least one of your kids thanks you for what you do. I just wish we could clone you.
My parents get it back in spades every time one of their former students walks up to them, tells them what year they graduated and says thanks for making a difference in their lives.
It takes them few years though.
So thanks Lee, I haven't visited your school but I can see from what your students are doing in the NCECA show that you care deeply, and that's 90% of being a good teacher.
Fire on,
Nan Kitchens
Tennessee
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