Thanksgivings Ramblings

It is a complicated year for many reasons. It’s not only the arduous task of classroom management in a notoriously difficult school, not only because we are in the midst of a teacher inquisition, but most importantly because of the obstinacy to education, not just in my students but in policy makers as well.

I’m not fond of teaching religion but I have to. Today, in the middle of a jeopardy game I stopped for that teachable moment to explain that Jesus was a Jew. Obviously I did this for a reason. But I was stunned with the determination of my students to refute this.

After accessing their previous knowledge and referencing the text, we concluded the debate in short order. I guess I should be proud of what I accomplished. But it won’t show up on any standardized test, which to be honest makes my job harder. The students openly talk about what is and what is not on our state standardized tests. They finally concluded correctly that Social Studies is not. So to them Social Studies and American history are not important. The values of a nation have been lost as the mission of educations transfers from producing citizens to producing employees.

I cannot be proud of what my generation has committed itself to.

My father and father-in-law won a world war, ended separate but equal, saw that women gained equal rights, and questioned national authority when their sons were sent off to fight another war, one they did not believe in.

My students asked me what I am most thankful for. I never answered. But I’m going up to bed now and give her a hug. Tomorrow I’ll dine with my father in law and best friend, and I am thankful for that. But when his generation is gone, I do not believe mine is fit to carry on.

Who’s the boss?

It was test time and I knew my students were unprepared. Too many student absences, not enough homework returned. It happens frequently in what is one of the most difficult learning/teaching environments in Philadelphia.

So I stopped the test and talked with my class. What can they change to improve and what can I do to help them?

The feedback I received was: go slower, ask more questions: Valuable feedback indeed.

And I struggle with it. Being able to ask questions that stimulate thinking was always something I prided myself in. But I am on a schedule. I have a core curriculum to follow and must be on certain pages on designated days. I guess some schools, perhaps those with higher socio–economic backgrounds can maintain this pace and effectively teach. It would seem that in my situation my effectiveness has been hampered.

My wife who teaches third grade at a different school was surprised when she saw the work I was correcting. It looked so similar in penmanship and depth to the work her third graders produce.

But I must teach and move forward pretending my students are all at grade level. If I am not teaching where that core curriculum says I should be, I could receive an unfavorable observation and ultimately lose my job. I know who butters my bread, and it’s not my students.

Our students are our customers and we should be serving them. Under No Child Left Behind, we pretend to meet the needs of the students, all the while working to serve those above us, principals, superintendents, and politicians. They have egos and career goals. They have wants and desires that must be met, even if only on paper, just like they did in Russia for years, leading up to its failing and falling.

The American educational system is moving 100% in the wrong direction.  We have chosen to meet the wants of bureaucrats instead of the needs of children. I want to listen to my children. Their voices should point the direction and speed with which I move. But they are not the boss.

 

 

Mandatory Furlough–after the fact

Like many institutions, our school district has asked employees to take a furlough (unpaid days). Well, that’s OK. Anything for the cause and all that.

Here’s how it worked in my district though. We were told we would be paid Quality Teacher Days for parent-teacher conferences, building prep and so on. That’s how we do it every year.

Then a few months down the road, we were told that these days would count for our furlough days–unpaid. But not particularly voluntary.

Well! It feels a little different to volunteer the time  instead of being  promised payment and then have the rules change. Maybe we would have cancelled parent-teacher conferences and figured out furlough days another way. At least we’d have talked it over and chosen together.

Dancing in the Art Room

Most mornings, several kids gather in my art room. I am fortunate to have my room in a detached building from our very old junior high. This used to be the woodshop classroom but alas, with budget cuts, there is no shop teacher. The many gorgeous tools and supplies are in the adjacent shop though .

Who comes into my room? Not the sports jocks, not the cheerleaders, not the student government kids. Nope, the kids who come in you might characterize as the outcasts. What do they want?

Oddly, they want to help. They want to load or unload the kiln, sweep the floor, or this week, they want to help me wind yarn, since we need to divide the skeins for the knitting beanie hat project we are doing.

When I play music, they sometimes dance.

Today I had a modest roomful of kids who would never risk ridicule in the main school, winding yarn, eating peanuts (I brought peanuts–better than sugar, don’t you think), and showing their moves. I took the chance and showed them a few moves too.

Test scores? AYP? NCLB? Grades? Nah.

But real education? Memories? Service? Joy?

Yes, I think so.

The S-Word

Having been in education now for depressingly close to three decades, I’ve noticed that educators are very careful when the opportunity presents itself to describe a student as “smart”.   When I changed teaching jobs and moved from a Connecticut high school to a South Carolina high school in the mid-eighties, I was struck by how teachers used the S-word freely but almost always in a whisper, as in He’s really smart or Oh, she’s smart. I had never heard any teachers in Connecticut ever label a student as smart.  But in South Carolina I heard it fairly often, as if a news flash or notice of some special case.  I won’t attempt to theorize why – it’s just something I noticed.

Then there are those teachers who call everybody smart.  In addition to cheapening the attribute, it’s just not true.  This isn’t Lake Wobegon, after all, where “all the children are above average.”  No one in education seems to want to admit the obvious:  All kids are not smart.  It may be politically correct to say they are, but it’s a lie.  I guess I’d rather be honest than politically correct.

I should point out that I use the term “smart” not in a Howard Gardner sense, but more in a Martin Gardner sense.

I should also point out that my premise that not all kids are smart does not in anyway lead to the conclusion that they cannot learn or that they should not be taught.  Quite the opposite:  All kids can learn, and it is our job to find a way and a pace that accommodates them wherever they may be on this continuum of smartness.  If they’re on the low end (i.e., not smart (there, I said it)) we must work even harder to reach them so that they do learn and are successful.

Why do we have such a problem saying some kids are smart and some are, well, not smart.  We immediately acknowledge without pause that some kids are athletic and some are not athletic.  Or that some are creative and others are not creative.  Why is smart any different?  Is it that, as a society, we place more value in being smart than, say, being athletic?  Not really.  Look at the mean salary of professional athletes compared to the mean salary of rocket scientists.

So what’s the deal?   dven.

Tuition Tax Proposal in Philly

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has proposed a 1% tax on tuition paid by college students.

His rationale? College students don’t contribute to the tax base.

Oh, really? You mean they don’t drive (drivers’ license fees, license plate tax fees, gasoline tax, etc. etc.)? They don’t eat (food tax)? They don’t go to movies, plays, concerts?

Please! If you want to take your pinch of flesh from somebody, why go for those who are almost universally working for minimum wage to support a four-year-long educational endeavor, one that will serve the students of course, but one that will also build the nation?

Commentators point out that such a tax would be way illegal, and certainly held up/stopped in court.

But just proposing it reveals a great deal.

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Political historians will tell us the election of 1800 was indeed the most foul in our nation’s history. Politics it seems is capable of destroying the bonds of brotherhood seared together by serving our nation. Jefferson and Adams, best friends, were able to overcome this most difficult period, and each with their last breath saluted the other man.

Do you think anyone is capable of this today?

Yes! George H Bush, Bob Dole, Walter Mondale, and Jimmy Carter are. But they are old school.  They never did vilify each other the way Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity vilify other “great Americans.”  On this Veterans Day can we find a way to honor all Americans, and not just those on our political side of the spectrum?

I fear for the future of our country on this day when we honor our bravest and best. Our mission in education has changed from producing citizens who share traditional American values, to a mission of producing employees. (Missing of course is who will be the employers. They come from thinking outside the box, which in today’s lingo means private school). I teach Social Studies, but I can’t teach about Veteran’s Day. It’s not in the core curriculum. Gone is the teachable moment replaced by preparation for a standardized test. Gone is reflection and building values, replaced by knowledge someone else thinks is important.

So I sadly honor our bravest and best, while our conversations are dominated on the airwaves by our nation’s worst ambassadors. I wish I could say forgive them Lord because they know not what they do. But these are intelligent men, and they do know the damage they are causing. They revel in it and receive financial reward for it. They condemn those who would burn the flag, while they unravel the strands of diversity woven into the Red White and Blue.

 

Their Best Learning

I just spent three days consulting in a district in a neighboring state.  At the end of the second day I met with an administrator , as I typically do, to debrief the first two days of my visit.  During this meeting, I was struck by a comment she made.  She said, “It’s not about our best teaching, it’s about how our kids best learn.”  It wasn’t just a clever, pithy remark; to me, it signifies a colossal shift in thinking about teaching and learning.  It’s not about our best teaching and this age-old focus is beginning to change in districts everywhere.  It’s about what they are (or are not) learning.

Embedded in her comment is the notion that our kids don’t all ‘learn best’ in the same way.  That’s one of the shortcomings of the ‘best teaching’ mentality:  unless we design lessons that accomodate diverse learners and put into practice the oft-spoken language of differentiated instruction, our ‘best teaching’ – good as it may be for some kids – may sorely miss the mark for many other kids.

When we all as a community of educators shift our emphasis from good teaching to good learning, we begin to design different kinds of lessons, lessons that reflect “how our kids best learn.”  dven.

What does Arne Duncan know about that?

I am tired of reading about Arne Duncan rant and rave that schools aren’t effective, that teachers need merit pay, that charter schools are the way to go, that teacher training needs a revolution. What does Arne Duncan know?

What does Arne Duncan know about kids whose parent keeps them home, truant, hoping the kid gets tagged as special ed so the parents can make some more money from disability income?

What does Arne Duncan know about teaching students whose fathers were killed in the house by armed gunman?

What does Arne Duncan know about the kids in Watts, one in five who has witnessed violent crime?

What does Arne Duncan know about teaching kids in Philadelphia, where its estimated one in ten children suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

What does Arne Duncan even know about Charter Schools? Here in Philadelphia 60 public schools missed AYP in one target area, a target area most of the charter schools don’t have to meet because they don’t accept students with I.E.P.s.

It is easy to rant and rave about what’s wrong. The biggest thing that’s wrong is teachers no longer have time to demonstrate how much they care about their students. They don’t have time to display how much the student’s success means to the teacher. The research is conclusive that school climate impacts academic achievement. It’s an easy thing to create, but Arne Duncan doesn’t know about that.

 

Long Redundant Meetings: are we that dumb?

For some reason, I am having more meetings this fall than ever in my life. Faculty meetings, trainings, updates, inputs, outdates, professional developments up the wazoo.

Almost all these meetings are done LOOOOONG form: reading every word on the agenda or PowerPoint, explanations, explanations.

These are meetings for teachers, smart people who have to constantly shift and change throughout the day, accomodating all sorts of personalities, interruptions, learning styles, and so many permutations that we could be considered to be shapeshifters or consummate actors.

Also we know how to read: as in agendas and PowerPoints. We don’t need to be read to.

How smart are we? I did a presentation at our biggest elementary school in the district as part of my (volunteer) job as district arts coordinator. Our state arts office has come up with a charming and brilliant idea called Ten Minute Transitions, little arts lessons to add to the day without adding stress. The lessons are incremental, each day building on the former one, each week in the eight-week sequence building on the former one. The first segment is dance. Now one might think that twenty-five elementary teachers would feel a little self-conscious about learning and trying on a new dance curriculum, but these guys were relaxed and wonderful.

They were also smart. I handed them copies of the curriculum long-form (with content linked to standards) and short-form (cues, basically). I explained–a little. We tried out some of the lessons, just a few. They thumbed through the little lessons and understood.

I was done in twenty minutes. They are teachers, after all: smart, quick, responsive, adaptable.

Wish all our meetings could assume the same.