Review: Between Gears by Natalie Nourigat

I hadn't heard of Between Gears before last week, I wasn't anticipating its release, but something about it drew me in when I saw it sitting on the shelf of my comic book shop with the "New This Week" label below it. I grabbed the book, took a seat and flipped through. Between Gears is an autobiographical comic by Natalie Nourigat covering her last year of college in the University of Oregon. The black and white art inside appealed to me as I took note of some panels reminiscent of Anime or Manga style bringing a level of the fun and fantastic that offered an intriguing twist to this real-life comic. I noted that she was a fan of Hayao Miyazaki (this is a HUGE plus in my book).

I bought the book and brought it home.

For the next 24 hours I spent every free moment with my head in this book. Starting with September 17th of her senior year of college and ending on June 14th, Nourigat dedicated one page to the events of each day (except for June 14th where she stretched the rules to give us two pages) to take her readers on the journey as she shifted between gears of childhood into adulthood. It was a fascinating ride.

You may wonder what would be so fascinating about some girl's senior year of college. Well, first of all there is the simplicity in the fact that college is an exciting time for anyone who lives through it, and Ms. Nourigat had the foresight to capture it all - the big things all college students remember of the experience and even the small things that can be easily forgotten once adulthood sets in. In addition to the mundane magnificence of the college experience we can all share, Natalie Nourigat's senior year is filled with the excitement of a young girl who is majoring in Japanese, taking courses about super heroes and working on breaking into the world of comics and sequential art. I found myself on the edge of my seat, worried about the Natalie's thesis, hoping she would get to all of the conventions in her area and sweating over her deadlines. I felt like yelling into the book every time Tally (as she was known to her friends) would worry about completing Between Gears pages, "You did it! It's OK! I'm reading it and it's awesome!" but I think she knows that now. I just wanted to make sure you did too.

This is Natalie Nourigat's first book published by Image Comics. It is available now in your comic book shop or can be ordered online via Amazon. In the trade paperback readers are treated to bonus material including a description of the process behind the creation of the book.

This review was also shared on Word of the Nerd.

What Teachers Do

I feel like there is a misconception about what teachers actually do.

It is understandable, of course, as nearly everyone (save those who were home schooled) have seen a teacher in action, in their job, working. Why not assume, then, that after years and years of careful observation of numerous different subjects doing their job in front of the classroom you know what is entailed in the job of a teacher?

What A Teacher's Job Looks Like

Here's what we can determine from our years of observations in classroom after classroom. A teacher:

• lectures,
• questions,
• presents,
• inspires,
• strikes fear,
• instills a love for a subject,
• instills a hate for a subject,
• punishes,
• rewards,
• assesses, 
• likes to give lots of notes,
• communicates,
• demands attention,
• makes up tests,
• grades tests,
• likes to give homework,
• likes calling parents and guardians during free time,
• hangs things up in the classroom,
• will tutor during "free" periods,
• maybe drinks coffee in a teacher's lounge, 
• probably never goes to the bathroom, and
• might sleep in their classroom.

Most of these are right on. Perhaps you observed even more from your teachers over the years, however, what happens IN the classroom, is oftentimes the smallest inkling of the job. (I often thought, "Now comes the easy part," whenever the bell would ring to start my class!)

The piece that is missing from what most people see from teachers is THE REAL WORK. There is no lesson plan fairy. There is no "Teacher's Bible" that scripts out your every waking moment with a captive audience of youths (although I can recommend a ton of awesome teaching books!). There is no "one right way" to do teaching. You see, teaching is an art.

What Teachers Also Do

Whether your teachers inspired you or bored you to tears, they still had to do tons of work before seeing you to bring that lesson to you. Whether they surprised you every single day with a new creative technique, or you could recite their routines to this day, that presentation was not by accident, not off the cuff or on a whim.

Teachers create. That is their job. They create connections between you and the content you must master while with them. (This is easier with some lessons than others!)

Why It's Important To Know What Teachers REALLY Do

You may wonder why I am writing about this. Well, the thing is, I keep reading about, learning about and hearing about how districts keep on "dictating" how teachers should be teaching and I find this ridiculous.

I understand changes need to be made.

I understand some teachers are resistant to change.

I understand that it is the 21st century and technology needs a larger role in our classrooms.

However, rather than dictate how a teacher should implement this technology (which will only limit your results to what you have come up with), instead teach them (think you're up to it?) what the technology can do and you WILL BE AMAZED by what THEY CREATE. 

Would you give Picasso a paint-by-numbers? No. You'd give him paint and a canvas.

Would you dictate to Shakespeare how sonnets should be written? I doubt it. You'd give the man paper, ink and a quill.

Would you sit Beethoven down in front of a piano and have him play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" over and over again? I think you'd sit him down and let him play with the keys.

This is all I ask for our modern day creators. Do not limit teachers by dictating they use what is currently deemed to be cutting-edge techniques, technology and/or tools! Introduce them to the tools, techniques and tech and allow them to find the appropriate places for them in their classroom with their students.

What were some of the things you thought teachers did after your years of observation?

Know a teacher whose creativity impressed you? What did they do?

Are you a teacher? What are some parts of your job that I missed? 

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

The following post is taken directly from my hand-printed Reader's Journal. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

After all of the books I have been reading this summer, I was quite surprised to find a 58 page book on Joe's [English teacher] reading list! A nice short story about a family inviting a "plain" woman into their homes to be a new wife and mother. The woman, Sarah, must get used to living away from the sea she so adores in order to take on this role. I remember, when I was younger, watching a TV special based on this book - it was OK, as was this book.

Dated:08/19/02

I recall, my students at the time I read this book, were more inclined to pick this book off of the summer reading list rather than one of the others, merely because it was so short! When you were in school and picking books to read off the summer required reading list how did you make your selection?
How would you make your selections if put in that position now?

Paid for School: My Experience as a Learner

Money as a Reward for Attendance
 
The first experience I had attaching money to any school performance was self-inflicted. I was in college. I had met this guy at my part-time job in the Mall and I had started skipping classes like crazy! I went to a really small college and had a cool, small group of friends that I used to hang out with in some abandoned lounge in the science building. We were all getting too comfortable now that we were reaching the end of our college careers (I believe it was my third year) - we were all skipping classes (sometimes just hanging in the lounge doing puzzles, exploring pi, or nerd-ing it up in some other way)! We came up with a plan: Let's make a skipping jar! Basically, we decided we had to pay $1 to the jar for each class we skipped and whoever skipped the least amount of times at the end of the semester would win the pot.

I didn't win. I didn't even come close. I believe I was the largest contributor, actually. Happy ending? I married the guy. (Good investment!)

Money As An Added Bonus for Learning
 
The next time I came across money for school was after I became a teacher. I was new to the job, teaching grades I had no previous plans to teach and was desperate for help wherever I could get it. I signed up for and went to professional development classes almost every single Friday of my first year of teaching. I loved it, it was exactly what I needed. I usually picked up at least one good tip from each session, sometimes from the instructor, but, even more often, from the others in the class with me. It was valuable in its content, but then these people were paying me to go there too! I simply could not understand why all of the teachers in my department weren't signing up for this!

It didn't stop there. I was a math teacher in a NYC public high school. In the late 90s/early 2000s there was money everywhere for people like me. I have had the pleasure of learning at a number of higher learning institutions, from and with some of the leading professionals in the fields of education, math and math education. I would have paid for these programs if I could have (I probably would have had to choose only one, instead of having so many opportunities), but, instead I GOT PAID TO LEARN. It still baffles me. Here's a a quick run-down of some memorable programs:

• New York University: I took two courses (no one else was interested when year 2 came around!!) on teaching English-Language Learners in the content areas.
• Brooklyn College: I took two courses and then was invited back for a third semester for a "leaders" group on H.O.T. Math (H.O.T. stood for "Higher Order Thinking")
• City College/City University: I was given three immersion courses in one summer - one on problem solving, one on graphing calculator skills and one on Geometer's Sketchpad
• College of Staten Island: I shadowed a group of high school students learning Statistics in two courses - one that was pure methodology and the other that used the graphing calculator technology. I had a full notebook of tons of learning from that which was extremely valuable when I was unexpectedly asked if I would like to teach Advanced Placement Statistics almost ten years later!
• Rutgers College/Rutgers University: DIMACS was life-changing for me. Changed my theories of learning, taught me about a division of Mathematics I had never heard of (Graph Theory) and allowed me to be a coauthor on an article in a Mathematics journal (nerd points!!). This was a month-long program for two summers in a row.

Did I mention that I got PAID for all of this fantastic learning??? Still completely unbelievable to me.

This Student's Conclusion About Getting Paid to Go to School

I am a life-long learner. Even when I skipped my classes, it wasn't for a lack of love for learning, it was simply because this silly girl fell in love with a guy. Money has never been a motivator for me to go to school, it has, instead, been a greatly appreciated bonus for all of the hard work put in. However, what has continued to baffle me as a student is how the money is not a motivator for more people! In almost all of the programs listed above (except Rutgers) there were definitely people who followed the money, but not many. In fact, I started to run into the same group of people from program to program, as if we were the only people in NYC that wanted to be paid to learn! It was very odd.

I would often present the programs to fellow teachers, ask them to join in on the fun. The responses were usually the same:

• it's too time consuming
• I'm done with school
• I could just tutor for money
• I don't want to travel all the way there
• is there homework?
• if I go to that class, then I'm going have to teach that course

So money, it seems, is not everything and maybe not as motivating as we may think.

Is money for learning something that appeals to you?

Would you like to get paid to learn something?

If you had your choice, what would you learn?

This post is written as part of the What IF? Project hosted here on the Rivera Runs Through It Blog. Each week a new "What if?" question is presented and I do my best to respond to the query.  You are invited to as well. This week's "What if?" was

What if students were paid to go to school?

[I also answered this question from the perspective of a former teacher, to read this response see Paid for School: My Thoughts As A Teacher]