Teacher Voices Through the Years: Kaleidoscope’s Top Reads (Part 1)

For the last ten years, Knowles has been publishing a journal of teacher writing, called Kaleidoscope: Educator Voices and Perspectives. To the best of our knowledge, there isn’t another journal written by teachers for teachers that has had this kind of sustained and consistent publication record. It’s something that we’re incredibly proud of; the writing featured is powerful, truthful, challenging, hopeful, and speaks to teachers. Nothing draws teachers to our website more than these wonderful stories by teachers. We know teachers are hungry to hear from other teachers.

The editors of Kaleidoscope are hard at work preparing the 10th anniversary edition of the journal, and we’re hoping to whet your appetite for this upcoming issue by sharing some of the highlights of the last ten years. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to share the 10 most read articles from the past ten years. Our editors (Erin, Bev, and Becky) have written summaries of these articles that capture what the articles have meant to them, and we think these summaries will leave you wanting to read more, and may inspire you to write yourself.

#10: Burnout by the Numbers: What I Learned by Tracking Every Hour I Worked for a Year by Cassie Barker

Originally published in Fall 2023
Summary by Rebecca Van Tassell

We have many conversations in our community about sustainability, something many of us struggle with, as we are driven to serve our students to the best of our ability. Cassie juxtaposes the work she was doing through a year of pandemic teaching with the dominant anti-teacher rhetoric of the time, rhetoric that is all too familiar to us, and incredibly demoralizing.

I was fortunate enough to sit with Cassie and her colleagues when Cassie was collecting and analyzing her data from this project. The mood was somber as Cassie described her data to us: how she divided her required versus voluntary activities and the “rules” she imposed to decide what went in what category. Her spreadsheets are a thing of beauty, even if they capture patterns that were troubling for Cassie. In the piece she compares her hours to a hypothetical full-time American worker. Her reflections on the comparisons, and her walkthrough of her calculations, which you won’t be surprised to hear included an additional 2.3 months of work during the year beyond her contract requirements, is hard to read. Cassie, if you have the pleasure of knowing her, is a creative and committed educator, but someone who has struggled in creating boundaries for herself. She describes working 7-day weeks and putting in full work days on the weekends for months at a time. She is honest and blunt in her descriptions of how this impacted her health and her feelings of being burnt out and the guilt she felt as she began setting boundaries for herself. As Cassie relates: “seeing my feelings play out in the data pushed me to continue working on establishing boundaries between my work and personal life.”

Collecting this data allowed Cassie to be strategic with her time: taking her work email off her phone, creating “focus days” for particular tasks like lesson prep or grading, and being clear with students and colleagues about boundaries she was setting for her time. Cassie invites her reader to track their own hours to gain clarity on questions of whether you are spending your time on the right tasks, or wondering if the expectations of your job are in line with reality. Cassie’s piece is a reminder that we are working in a system that asks too much of us, that is by design unsustainable for teachers. She sees this exercise as a way for teachers to call attention to a systemic problem that is a driver of burnout for many teachers, and I’m grateful she shared it with us.

#9: The Illusion of Communication by Adam Ramirez

Originally published in Spring 2023
Summary by Erin Oakley

Adam’s essay focuses on the communication that we think we are having, but how differing perceptions, assumptions, and lived experiences muddle our connection. He gives examples from his own experience—an off-task student who quickly returns to the behavior after a heart-to-heart talk, even though it ended with a fist bump(!), the student who doesn’t show up to after school tutoring despite Adam’s special arrangements to be there, and emails left unanswered by a supervisor.

These experiences sent Adam’s brain spiraling, leaving him feeling worried, confused, and frustrated; however, he later learned that each person had deeper motivations for their actions, unrelated to Adam or the topic of conversation.

Through his reflection process, what Adam comes to understand is:
I cannot control that aspect of how my brain works. I have come to accept that. My brain will travel in whatever direction makes it feel better. However, what I can control is the finality I give to my thoughts. And this, truly, has helped me fight the illusion of communication. I no longer view interactions as singular events. Instead, I view them as narratives. More importantly, I convince myself that I enter these narratives not at the beginning or end, but at some point in the middle.

Adam’s story reminded me that while I view myself as the main character, I only play a supporting role or even an unnamed extra to other people. Remembering this fact helps me situate my conversations with others into the broader context of their own stories, check my assumptions before I jump to fear and anger, and allow me to be a better communicator, even if it’s only an illusion.

#8: How it Went: Tackling Gender Bias and Barriers in STEM with Students by Jason Garver

Originally published in Fall 2022
Summary by Erin Oakley

In this article, Jason reflects on his second year as a teacher and how he shifted the focus of his physics course. Rather than solely focus on physics content, he would fully integrate the topic of gender inequity in STEM. In Jason’s own words, “I did not know what I was doing.”

It started with students learning about forces through the context of rocket science and, alongside that, looking at women within NASA—a three lesson sequence. However, this blossomed into a half year discussion covering topics such as Margaret Hamilton’s life-saving code for the Apollo space mission, NASA’s struggle to calculate the number of tampons Sally Ride needed, and how the limited number of female space suits delayed the first-ever all-female space walk.

Not only does Jason discuss his course topics, he also delves into his reflection process.

I didn’t feel qualified to talk to my students about barriers women, people of color, and members of the LBGTQIA community face in STEM. A mentor of mine said, ‘If you don’t do it, how will they learn?’ which is especially impactful considering I am the last science teacher many of my students will ever have. I had to do exactly what I was teaching my students to do; identify that I was feeling impostor syndrome, and use strategies to separate my feelings of inadequacy from the reality that what I was doing was better than nothing.

Jason’s reflections take the reader through the ups and downs of the process, from the frustration about the time it takes to plan even the shortest lesson to the energy that comes from engaging students. Jason’s leap into the unknown inspires us all to try something new because, to paraphrase his sage mentor, if you don’t do it, how will you learn?

These pieces all highlight the personal journeys educators take as they navigate the complex challenges of teaching. Cassie Barker sheds light on the harsh reality of burnout, showing how tracking her hours helped her recognize the need for boundaries in a system that demands too much. Adam Ramirez reflects on the tricky nature of communication, reminding us that our assumptions often cloud our interactions, and how shifting perspective can bring more empathy. Jason Garver dives into the tough work of addressing gender bias in STEM, pushing through his own doubts to open up meaningful conversations with his students. Together, these stories remind us that teaching is as much about self-growth as it is about shaping the next generation. It’s about finding balance, tackling systemic barriers, and learning along the way. Stay tuned for our next blog, where we’ll share the next four articles in our top ten most-read list!