Christine Heinicke

Cringe Worthy Memorable Moments

I have a confession to make. I am a flawed human being trying to do good in the world.

If I make a mistake I apologize and make amends. Sometimes I call myself out, sometimes I wait for students to notice and call me out. If it is a spelling or syntax error on a worksheet or slide deck that the students catch they earn extra credit.

When I mispronounce a name I ask for immediate correction and reminders if I slip up again. Names are a very good way to practice social justice as well as language arts. First I model sounding out the name the same way we taught our students to sound out new words. Then I apply any vocabulary knowledge I might have about words with similar roots or stems. Finally, I cross reference the foreign languages that I speak.

When I speak a student’s name for the first time I look for their face and make an effort to learn the face with the name, accept correction if called for and repeat the name speaking aloud to make sure I have pronounced it correctly. It will certainly take longer to get through the roster in this manner, but the benefit outweighs the cost because the students witness me modeling academic skills and respect for my students.

Students know that the adults in their lives are not perfect, but how often do those adults come clean, own their mistakes, apologize, and model how they learned from those mistakes?

Lately I have found the courage to share some of my more memorable and truly cringe worthy moments with my students.

I remember my first full time job out of college. My boss walked me to my desk and left me there to get some paperwork. The desk was very nice with a pretty calendar and matching accessories. I had no idea that this was not normal because this was my first job with a desk of my own. While I waited I filled in the calendar with family birthdates.

When my boss arrived she handed me a packet of papers and explained that her previous assistant buyer was on vacation and would pack up her desk upon her return. Until then I could put in an order for supplies, or I could shop for something more personal. OOPS!

And then it got even worse. Two weeks later I arrived in the company parking lot late and could not find a good parking space. I tried to squeeze into a spot and scraped the neighboring car. I hunted for a scrap of paper in the glove compartment and left a note with my phone number on the windshield before finding a big enough parking space.

After lunch my predecessor arrived fuming that her car had been scraped and called the number on the paper. I wanted to crawl into a deep dark hole when my phone rang for all to hear. I offered to pay for the body work, but her opinion of me would never improve.

Jobs change, people move, and wet behind the ears, fresh faced college graduates grow up. I still make mistakes, and there are a few more cringe worthy stories to share, but I’ll save them for another teachable moment!

Questions on Job Applications for Teachers

I’m an Alternate Route teacher. That means that I did not go to college to become a teacher. I went to college, worked in industry, and then decided to enter the education field.

While studying in the Alternate Route teacher program, I confess that I struggled with some ideas. Certain turns of phrase eluded my understanding. There is an abundance of jargon as educators try to educate future educators in the process of education. Yeh, I just said that.

Three years into teaching, I have had the privilege to work with three very different student bodies in districts with widely diverse socio-economic demographics. Although I would like to be in a tenured position by next year, I confess that the changing needs of each district has enabled me to earn more experience in a shorter time than if I had stayed in one district throughout.

I don’t dare claim to be an expert educator, but I do think that I can offer an exceptionally insightful observation about what makes an exceptional educator. As a direct result of my earlier career and education in marketing, I think the thing that separates good teachers from exceptional teachers is LISTENING.

Studying marketing and learning the importance of understanding one’s market has made me question how to apply what I learned during the alternate route teacher preparation program to my classroom instruction.

I know my content thoroughly. What I need to learn is my audience. Each class and each student need something different. If I listen, I can address them and their needs effectively. Effectively addressing students’ needs enable a good educator to become an exceptional educator.

That is my answer to the question: “Describe the skills or attributes you believe are necessary to be an outstanding teacher.”

The chicken or the egg?

Which came first? The chicken or the egg? As a business education teacher I am confronted by this conundrum each time I sit down to write a lesson plan. The standard that I am delivering and the scaffold of the concepts that I expect my students to already understand are printed neatly and separated by an index tab in the binder that also holds the curriculum document which itemizes the standards that go with each unit.

It is my job to find an interesting observation or question to draw the students in, remind them of what they already know and ask them what they think should be the natural outcome of “X” while carefully leaving a trail of bread crumbs to guide them toward the explicitly stated objective of the curriculum.

The truth is that the students have their own ideas about where the trail should lead and often they will gallop ahead of any lesson plan if they are empowered to exercise their curiosity and branch out on their own learning opportunity.

Here is the conundrum, how often can we set aside the prescribed objective in favor of the student-lead learning opportunity?

If you have a sales background, you probably recognize this anecdote about the young sales person invited to a sales meeting with a senior executive. The young sales person works for several days assembling data and building a slide deck that is perfect in every way: Clear graphics, simple statements, minimal language crafted expressly for this client. The meeting goes very well, the conversation is relaxed and the customer’s questions are all fully answered ending in a handshake and an order. On their way to the elevator, the young sales person laments that they were not able to make their presentation. The senior executive responds to the young sales person “Your work in developing that presentation paid off because you were fully prepared to answer every question that the customer asked. That preparation translated into an easy conversation and an order. Your effort in assembling that presentation was not wasted.”

Similarly, lesson planning is not wasted when students are engaged in learning. Identifying what we want students to take away from a lesson, knowing our content fully, and preparing for the needs of the learners is like the young sales persons perfect presentation slide deck. Recognizing a teachable moment and taking advantage of student lead learning is the goal of every good teacher.

The class went in a different direction. The lesson plan was not followed and students were rewarded for their interest and curiosity while the teacher took on the role of facilitator ceding to them their responsibility to learn; isn’t that the point?

GoodReads reviewer Trevor wrote in his review of the 1969 book Teaching as a Subversive Activity “We train people according to how we organise the institutions they are required to fit within – and if even part of the reason for having schools is to provide our society with citizens capable of acting in an active democracy, someone really does need to explain how this will be achieved from over a decade in such an autocratic environment.”

Yet here we are, nearly 50 years later still trying to change the status quo. “The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.”

But maybe, if we look past the rows of desks and standardized tests, there are glimmers of change peeking through. Maybe the genius hour, project based learning, and other models of student lead learning are gaining momentum. Maybe we need to get better at recognizing teachable moments. Maybe we need to let go of the plan and take advantage of the learning opportunities!

Professional Development on Youth Suicide: Awareness and Prevention.

Truth be told, I love professional development. Often I find myself immersed in subjects related to my content or personal interests so when the district administration assigns PD topics outside of my area of interest they help me stretch and grow.

So you might be surprised to read that there is one topic that I really don’t like: Youth Suicide: Awareness and Prevention.

The truth is that I have the unhappy distinction of being a part of RHS class of 1980 which made the Time Magazine cover story Behavior: Trouble in an Affluent Suburb back on Monday, Dec. 25, 1978. Not only am I painfully aware of youth suicide, I ruined a friendship by preventing a suicide. Debbie would never again trust me, but I am grateful that she was able to resent me for divulging her secret.

So I hope you will forgive me when I say that this is one PD that I don’t need.

What do you think about?

What do you think about? Have we come to the conclusion that we can’t have it all? Have we learned that life is a series of choices? Have we finally discovered that living our life with passion enables us to lead lives that we love?

Today I am in superwoman mode: I put a load into the dryer, another into the washer, run up to the kitchen, set the microwave timer and then sit at my desk to grade a few more papers. This is actually a relaxed Sunday for me since I have decided not to do grocery shopping and hubby plans to cook sloppy Joes for dinner.

If I can time slice everything just right I can knock out the eight or so loads of laundry that a family of four generates on a weekly basis, grade the multiple assignments that make up a unit grade and still enjoy a family meal and see a family movie on Sunday night.

Grading is easier than usual because they were told to answer every Do Now, Exit Ticket and Reflection in their Entrepreneurship & Leadership journal. I type in their name and all of their work comes up once for me to read, comment upon and grade against the rubric. No jumping from one screen to another!

Some students get glowing comments in the side bar, others get observations that they only answered part of a question or skipped entire sections. I am still pointing out typos, homonyms, missing punctuation as well as missing capitalization. Most students make thoughtful entries and earn good marks.

And then I came across this entry:

A3. What do I think about?

I think about my future, whether it is my job or my family, I am constantly thinking of what is to come next.

It is 2018 and a young women is still wondering whether she will have to compromise her career for her family? This stopped me in my tracks.

So I have taken a pause from grading. I have made a choice.

I felt compelled to respond:

Men don’t think about career or family and neither should you. Do what you love and you will attract people who love you for who you are. And together you will make a life for yourselves that you love.

What do I think about?

“The more I know, the less I need.”Australian Aboriginal saying.

“Choices are abundant, it is the right decision which is the rare one!” Mehmet Murat Ildan

“If you have a strong purpose in life, you don’t have to be pushed. Your passion will drive you there.” Roy T. Bennett

Education Then and Now

Written for my Entrepreneurship & Leadership students PTHS 2018. Welcome to Robert Fulgham’s DEEP KINDERGARTEN. Will you passively receive knowledge or will you actively seek to answer your questions?

“What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.”

George Bernard Shaw

There was a time when parents and educators considered children’s minds to be blank slates ready to be filled with knowledge. We were drilled with facts and tested on memorization. Education meant preparing us to work in an industrial economy in which we would be given a task and then be expected to complete the same task in a prescribed routine.

We understand that children’s brains are not a blank slate. We also realize that the workforce you will be joining will require you to come up with new solutions to as yet unknown questions.

We are not filling your brains with everything you need to know, but that is OK because you have a miniature computer and can access every fact that has ever been studied.

So what should this new education look like? Questions. We are teaching you how to come up with the right question. You need to think.

Valid, meaningful, and productive educations aren’t adequately measured by multiple-choice questions. That is not to say that certain basic concepts shouldn’t be learned or become second nature. We should all have laid down the groundwork of reading, writing and arithmetic. We all need to have an understanding of history, social studies and civics. We also need to understand science and engineering, nutrition and health, housekeeping and economics. And don’t forget the social graces, emotional intelligence, and psychology.

All of those subjects work together to inform our questions: “If, then?” “How?” and “Why?”

Mame’s famous line was changed for the film version to “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!”

Imagine that you have been given a small piece of bread. You can eat the bread, or you can use the breadcrumbs to find your way to the dinner table. Will you be satisfied with a small roll, or will you choose dinner?

Bursting with Pride

So happy our press release has been published!

“Glen Ridge teacher delivers garments to charitable organizations

Glen Ridge resident Christine Heinicke recently delivered garments made by her students to charitable organizations.

James Caldwell High School students who took Heinicke’s clothing classes knitted, crocheted and sewed items for donation to two organizations. First, a dozen hand-knitted and crocheted hats for children were shipped to a pediatric cancer clinic in Merida, Mexico. Later, Newark’s New Community Corporation received five pajama bottoms, three pencil skirts, one sleeveless shift dress and a rag doll.

Heinicke wanted to thank all of the students who participated in this project during the 20162017 academic year: Sydney Ash, Emily Blankenship, Ashleigh Bryan, Georgia Burrows, Brooke Butler, Gia Catrambone, Kelly Chang, Lauren Conahan, Callahan Faherty, Julia Fernandez, Sarrah Garrison, Francesca Gerard, Tara Hyland, Riyad Khan, Alexandra Mastricova, Samuel Merritt, Sandra Micheals, Kelly Norton, Michelle Palone, Diana Pikalova, Travis Ronnie, Samantha Roughgarden, Maryam Seddiki, Madeleine Sloan, Alison Vinick, Mina Yi and Joy Yoon.

Labor Day Reflection

Recently, I was asked to describe my level of familiarity/proficiency with technology. The answer is an apt Labor Day Reflection:

I thought that I started my relationship with technology the year I sold ISOETEC telephones against AT&T’s Merlin.

The truth is that when I applied to Fashion Institute of Technology I learned that Fashion is a reflection of how we live, and that it is much more than clothes. The data we collected at the points of order entry, receiving, and sales were part of my education at FIT and my daily responsibilities as an assistant buyer. I discovered that my strength lay in analysis of data and identifying and developing best practices.

Because I understood the retail end user’s business and could liaise with Tokyo Electric Corporation’s sales and engineering personnel, I went to work for TEC America, Inc. There I worked in pre- and post-sales support conducting training, developing best practices, reporting bugs and writing white papers.

I continued working with technology at Linens ‘N Things as I managed the deployment of AS-400 with IBM Point of Sale, upgrading inventory management, and launching third party Gift Registry and Time Keeping applications. We spent a year specifying functionality and testing updates before rolling out to the chain and continued testing each new iteration before deployment in stores.

At SASI (now owned by SAP) I resumed the duties of pre- and post-sales support but added to my responsibilities testing and rolling out Y2K hardware and software updates to hundreds of legacy locations. All stores needed to be brought up to date with electronic credit authorization and electronic food stamps (EBT) before Y2K updates could be applied. There were locations that had been running for more than 15 years without ever being updated, so they required hardware upgrades before we could begin software updates. My territory was NYC. The density of locations in NYC combined with our proximity to corporate offices in Bristol, PA meant that mine were the first locations to be upgraded and field tested. Then my peers from around the country came to work with me to be trained in the process.

After Y2K I went to work for my biggest account as an IT Director responsible for integrating front of the house Point-of-Sale systems and back of the house inventory with corporate pricing and vendor item files.

I stepped away to raise a family and then returned to gainful employment focusing on the skills I had developed in customer facing and training roles. It took five years of dogged persistence to successfully complete New Jersey Department of Education’s Alternate Pathways to Teaching but I now hold three standard teaching licenses.

I’ve worked in districts that used PCs, Laptops and Chromebooks, Remind, SchoolMessenger, Aesop, Engrade, Powerschool and Teachscape. I use an Apple computer at home. I use Word and Excel because that is easier to share with non-Apple system users, although I like Numbers and Pages. I use Google Docs and Google Sheets when sharing is important. I’ve used PowerPoint, Keynote and Slides interchangeably, but lament the lack of tools built into Slides.

Using Chromebooks in the classroom, I have had students use Google Drive, classroom, forms, sheets, slides and draw so far…

Having answered their question, I would like to pose an observation: Technology is a tool. Each job requires the successful completion of certain tasks. Good tools are the ones that facilitate the successful completion of the tasks required by the job. The best tools should be invisible when the job is done.

KA$H – quick read from Linked-In

Sharp summary tying graduate education to the knowledge based economy:

“So, the bottomline is — an MBA is like a Passport, if it’s from a reputed institution, you’re chances of getting an entry (Visa) is better, that’s all. Beyond that, it’s your Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habit (KA$H) that will determine how much Cash you can command by way of career growth.”

Will an MBA Help me Grow in my Career?
Anup Soans | Aug 5, 2017
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mba-help-me-grow-my-career-anup-soans

About the Loss of Jobs to Technology

I felt compelled to reply to a LinkedIn article published by Bernard Marr on June 29, 2016 “If these Predictions are Right, We Will Lose Millions of Jobs (But not to Brexit)”

I had been doing research for a professional development presentation explaining 21st Century Education and had found myself drawn to multiple off-topic but very interesting articles so I was pleased with the opportunity to cite several of them. And then to my horror, I discovered that spell check had changed the name of one of those authors. Not some random stranger but someone who might actually read my article because he is a work colleague of a family member. Technology had replaced the old saw, “The dog ate my homework”.

Here, in its entirety, is my response: “Big-Picture Thing for Real-World Success” with plenty of links to interesting resources!

If data is an element to be manipulated and computers that learn will reduce the need for programmers among the anticipated 5 million humans that computers will outpace, then maybe the big deal isn’t big data, the internet, or even the potential for lost jobs. It is time to develop a new mindset “that can take account of the meaning of the Knowledge Age and the new contexts and purposes for learning. ‘21st Century Learning’ is a shorthand term that draws together some of the ingredients of this new mindset.” Continue reading “About the Loss of Jobs to Technology”