Teachers are the Key

Here is a pretty shocking statistic.

More than 40% of teachers today are disheartened and disappointed in their jobs according to a study just released by Learning Points Associates.   It is hard to be an inspirational caring teacher if you don’t want to be there.

The study showed that seven in 10 teachers cited testing as major drawback and 61 percent also  cited lack of support from administrators and nearly 75% cited “discipline and behavior issues” in the classroom.

This is a very challenging situation for policy makers because the solution to the education crisis in our country is the teacher.  Last week Michelle Obama wrote an article in US News and World Report that was titled “Teachers are Key to a Successful Economy.” I couldn’t agree more.

The Gates Foundation also came to the same conclusion after spending years focusing on small schools.   They are now focusing on teacher effectiveness.

As a long time teacher at Palo Alto High and someone who has seen multiple education fads come and go, I think thought leaders have finally come to the right focus —  the teacher is the key.  No matter what books are provided, no matter what curriculum is required …  the key is how the teacher feels about what she is teaching and how she treats her students.

I am sure everyone can remember a teacher they liked, but they can also remember a teacher they disliked because the teacher seemed to dislike students. Students know when a teacher doesn’t want to be there; they know it just by being in the classroom.  It’s not fun. At one point these teachers probably liked students and teaching, but they now somehow feel trapped in a job that no longer provides the same pleasures it once did. These teachers actually don’t dislike students; they dislike what they are required to do– teach to a test, like NCLB tests, year after year and work with ineffective administrators.

Over the past eight years teachers nationwide have been teaching to the NCLB test which is why many of them are disheartened and burned out.

No matter what the administration dictates, when a teacher closes the door and is the classroom alone with the students, he/she is in charge.   If the teacher is well-trained, then the students will learn more.  If the teacher is happy to be there, then the students will be more content in the classroom.   The teacher sets the tone; the teacher provides the activities; the teacher plans the day. Happy students work harder.  Happy teachers teach better.

It sounds like an old adage, but what we need to do as a nation is to support teachers in the classroom and modify the NCLB Act which is now up for Congressional renewal.  Supporting teachers is key to our success as a nation. Support means supporting increases in teachers salaries, respecting  the role of teachers in society, donating money to school foundations, volunteering to work in the classroom, and modifying the NCLB Act to so tha teachers are not motivated to teach to the test.

Thanksgiving & Year-round Schooling

When I was in the classroom, just a few years ago, I always looked forward to Thanksgiving. Sure, it represents the first significant (and well-deserved) holiday break from school, but that wasn’t the only reason. For me, Thanksgiving represented the psychological half-way point of the school year.  Once Thanksgiving passes, it seemed to me, the year starts to really fly by and before I knew it, Spring was upon me.  I realize, of course, that Thanksgiving is a fair bit shy of the actual, chronological midpoint, but it always seemed like half the year was over upon its colorful and self-indulgent arrival.

But it occurs to me that this feeling could change in the event that the resurgent talk of year-round schooling becomes a reality.  What gets me about all this talk is that the proponents of year-round schooling – most often people not in education – act as though extending the school year will, by itself, increase student learning and improve sagging student achievement.

I’ve read the recent NAEP report and I know we’re not doing so well, overall, as a nation in an increasingly flat world.  But more of a bad thing is not a good thing.  It’s just…well….more of a bad thing.  That’s like going to a really bad restaurant which serves really bad food and somehow feeling good about the experience because the portions were really large.

I would like to know from my readers what you think about year-round schooling.  And while you’re responding, tell me:  Does Thanksgiving feel like the psychological half-way point to you?  dven.

More on Interruptions and Instruction: Notes from Claudia

My friend Claudia Bigler from Box Elder High School in Utah (remember I mentioned her last week? about research on interruptions and instruction?) has kindly contributed a blog with comments about her ongoing research project. Here it is, and thank you, Claudia!

“Research-Based”:  Which Research Do We Listen To?

 My high school instituted a new program this year; a counseling-type class called “Bee One,” (our school mascot is the Bee.)  Some of the proposed goals are to promote unity, and to give all members of the student body contact with an adult in a non-academic environment.  In order for this to happen, the schedule is altered one day a week, shortening classes to create an additional period.  It may be a good idea, but it gives us another day of altered schedule.  Our school district currently has two professional development days per month, when students come to school two hours later.  This now brings us to 6-7 days of altered schedule per month, without adding alterations for assemblies or other special events. 

 In this teacher’s opinion, good as the ideas may be, the disruption costs us far too much instructional time.  Students have a tendency to see altered schedule days as “throwaway” days, and getting them to focus is much more difficult.  Altered schedule days now represent approximately one/third or more of class days! 

As a teacher of a “non-tested” subject, I find the professional development days onerous, and often non-applicable.  When I raised this concern with an administrator, I was told that “the research shows that teachers do much better when they get together and talk about things.”   There is, however, a very impressive body of research that show that instructional time is a key to school success. 

 From a quantitative perspective, one of the most rigorous reviews of the research on school-level factors was conducted by Jaap Scheerens and Roel Bosker (Scheerens & Bosker, 1997; Scheerens, 1992; Bosker, 1992; Bosker & Witziers, 1995, 1996). They identified eight school-level factors. Perhaps their major contribution to the previous work was that they were able to rank order these factors in terms of their impact on student achievement.    (Quoting from Marzano)

 The school level factor rated in first place was time.

Veteran educators have seen many educational buzz words come and go, and the current one is “research-based.”   Could it be that the label of ‘research’ is being used to justify questionable educational decisions?  It seems as if decision makers “pick and choose” which research to address, and like theologians, can quote chapter and verse to make it legitimate.   Does anyone really know which research is most important—which should supercede which?

 I don’t have a research study to prove that professional development is ineffective, or that Bee One teachers need different training.  I do have the experience and instincts of a veteran teacher, which tell me that there are already too many days when students don’t want to work.  Please don’t create any more.

Tough Kids = Low Standards?

For the three years I was an academic coach at two of our district’s lowest-performing high schools I had the opportunity to visit lots of classes. Lots. I estimate having observed close to 700 – 800 math classes.  In this time, I saw some exemplary teaching and I have shared many of the best strategies and activities that I observed with other districts when I consult throughout the southeast. But I also saw some very ineffective teaching; in fact, the reason I was assigned to these schools was because they were low-performing and because classroom instruction was most often lacking.

What I noticed with the ineffective teachers was they seem to have one thing in common:  they didn’t expect much of their students. It was as if somewhere in their careers they decided that kids in these high-needs schools weren’t capable of producing quality work or high-level thinking. With this self-fulfilling prophecy as the backdrop, they lowered their expectations of their students and of themselves to pathetically low levels. It was as if they sold out, growing complacent with shoddy work and being satisfied with any work their students produced. That the same quality of work (or lack thereof) would never be accepted in the more affluent, “whiter” schools did not seem to phase them or even enter their minds.

Was it that they – the teachers themselves – had little idea what quality work was, or that they simply stopped battling kids to do good work? I don’t know. What I do know is that every time a teacher accepts shoddy work and tells kids it’s good, or good enough, we are increasing the achievement gap. And when we do, we contribute to the educational inequity that plagues our public schools. We become part of the problem, perpetuators of the problem, and not part of the solution.

Love to hear what you think…. dven.

<To invite Mr. Venables to your school or district, contact him directly at danielvenables@mac.com>

Homework Blues

(This blog entry topic was suggested by several readers on the TC facebook page in response to A Metablog Entry).

Homework has been around since public schools began – longer really, since it was all home work before then. And issues surrounding homework persist to this day. Some educational theorists have suggested that HW may even become obsolete in the coming decade(s); others posit that it will soon be a 100% online experience for students.

The issues surrounding HW vary widely, depending on the context in which it is assigned. In prestigious privates schools (like the one in which I taught at one time in my career), the issue might be that teachers are assigning too much HW and that their hard-working Ivy League-bound students are spending untold hours after school trying desperately to complete it all each night. In tough high-needs schools (like the one in which I also taught), the issue might be that kids simply don’t do HW and to assign it is to find, day after day, that only 10 or 15% of the kids bothered to do it. And there is the middle group who might be interested in ways to get more kids to do HW regularly or in policy advice about how much to count HW, whether it should be collected or just checked and what criteria should be used to grade it.

The advice I would offer to each of these groups would be different; clearly, it is not feasible to address all issues surrounding HW here. What I can offer here are some guiding principles I use regarding HW:

1. I ask myself: Why is HW important in this course? What is the purpose of HW as it relates to this subject? Is it essential for students to master the lesson? Why? How? Is it instead busywork, being assigned because we’re supposed to give HW and they’re supposed to work outside of class?

2. I never assign HW if I’m not 100% positive they can be successful at it. Is their in-class mastery level sufficient so that I am confident that 90% of the kids can go home and do it successfully on their own?

3. I don’t grade HW for accuracy. Even though I send them home to do work at which I am confident they can be successful, there will always be mistakes. HW is a time to practice and practice presupposes messing up here and there. Grading HW for accuracy encourages copying and cheating. I reward effort, completeness and organization but allow for them to be “wrong” in their practice without penalty.

4. I try to include some writing component in at least half of all HW I assign. This is possible in all subjects (remember, I taught math) even if only to have them answer the prompt What was the point of today’s lesson? Be specific. I love using this prompt and have found that it often reveals more about their understanding than the “problems” they may have done. Additionally, this kind of HW component weeds out those who would copy pretty easily.

These principles work well in aiding me in assigning meaningful and essential homework. They work particularly well with low-and middle-ability kids but can be used for all students.   dven.

A Metablog Entry

Sometimes when I sit down to write this blog, I think to myself ‘Man, what else can I write about?‘ I’ve written about so many different issues related to education, told a few stories, rambled on, bantered about, and even got on my own soapbox now and again. (To see any of my previous 33 entries, click here.) And while I love writing these entries (or as Billy Joel once said of songwriting, “I like having written better than I like writing.”), I sometimes wonder if people actually take the time from their busy schedules to read my entries. And if so, I wonder how many people read them, particularly people who read my entries (or the entries of my colleagues) with any regularity.

I suspect many more people read the entries than comment on them, though it would be of interest to me to hear more responses and get a better sense of what people are thinking about my rants.

That said, I appreciate all my readers – comments or not – and would love to hear what topics you’d like me to write about in September. Go ahead. Suggest a topic. Ask a question. I’ll take all the help I can get. And I’ll credit you for your idea or question in my entry. dven.

Socialist Schools?

In all the talk these days about Health Care reform and the vehement opinions on both sides about whether or not we want/need a socialist Heath Care System, I keep thinking how we Americans already have at least two significant socialist systems.

Social Security is a socialist system; people working now pay money to people who once worked, those who are now retired. The government provides for the retired with money acquired by those presently working with the intention of providing money for those currently working later on when they retire, from the income earned by future generations. It’s not like the money we pay now gets put into a high-yield account somewhere and we get our own contributions back later on.

The second socialist system we’ve had in place for the past 100 years is public education. We all pay taxes on our income that goes to paying for our public schools, public schools that are (otherwise) free to all children.

Admittedly, the fact that our system of education is essentially socialist can be an argument for either side of the Health Care debate, depending on how one views the effectiveness of our public school system.

No matter, the system is nonetheless socialist. And it is a two-payer system (if I understand this term correctly) in that parents can opt to pay themselves for the private education of their children. Private schools exist, though fewer in number than public schools, and good old-fashioned capitalism prevails and flourishes in this domain.

I have had the good fortune of having taught in both public and private schools and I see benefits to both. The point is that parents have the choice – though they must still pay into the public system if they opt for private schooling – no one is saying you have to send your kids to public schools.

I can understand the debate over the particulars of the Health Care proposal. What I don’t understand is the fuss over the word socialism, given that the practice is not exactly new or foreign to what we already do in other important areas of our American way of  life.  dven.

Rogue Professional Development

I’ve gone rogue.  Not all by myself, and not out of any sort of malicious intent, but out of necessity.  For the past couple of months, I have been meeting with some of my colleagues once a week to collaborate around writer’s workshop.

Writer’s workshop is an expectation for teachers at our K-8 school, however, there hasn’t been much professional development around the topic.  Writing has been a passion of mine personally and professionally for quite a while, and it’s fair to say I’m really good at the practice in my classroom.  Our former PD coach and I had planned on doing these sessions together, but when she made the decision to leave the job, she also decided it wasn’t fair to the teachers to continue doing these sessions with them in a, “Okay, just one more thing,” fashion. 

And, she quipped, “You’re the expert on this anyway.”

I really am, but it wasn’t until my friend and former colleague removed herself from that position of support and booted me into the spotlight that I was ready or willing to own my expertise and take on this role.

As you can probably see by the title and my use of the term “rogue,” I feel a little secretive and uncomfortable about what I am doing.  The sessions have been wonderful–teachers volunteering their time during the summer to write and discuss writing–but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m doing something wrong.  Something I might get in trouble for.  After all, my principal never gave me “permission” to do this….

Mind you, my principal is thrilled and acknowledges my expertise.  I am even leading a session for the whole staff when we return.  This is all in my own head and experiences as a teacher.  After all, in most schools, we are supposed to learn what our principals and districts want us to learn under the conditions they want us to learn it.  I have no doubt that, at my last school, I would have been reprimanded because they wouldn’t have control over what I said or did.

Actually, it sounds like the experiences of many of our students.

We cannot sit and wait for others to fulfill our needs and the areas we want to grow in.  I wonder what PD would look like if more teachers went rogue…and I wonder what classrooms and schools would look like as a result.

Sometimes A Shining Moment… (Part 1)

Sometimes the most poignant teaching memories happen at the least expected times. When I first moved to Charlotte, before I accepted my present position as PD Coordinator, I has hired as an academic coach to assist teachers in two of our lowest-performing high schools. There, though it was hardly in my job description to cover classes, I on occasion taught one school’s calculus class since the teacher assigned to teach the class was absent almost as many days as he was present and I found myself feeling bad for his students.

The kids in the class may have looked like the rest of the student population, but they were, like high school calculus students everywhere, considerably more self-motivated. In many ways they were completely anomalous to the rest of the student body. And they were concerned that they were dreadfully behind in the syllabus due to their teacher’s frequent absences and that they would be unprepared for the national AP Calculus Exam administered in May.

The calculus class was housed in an auxiliary classroom in the back of the Media Center, not far from my office which was located in a storage room in the Media Center. This was significant because one day when their teacher was out, a school-wide power outage occurred just as the period in which they had the class was about to start. Their classroom was completely dark and, as a result, their substitute teacher was ordered to move the students to the floor of the neighboring Media Center which was lighted – if only dimly – by emergency generator lighting.

Since my office was also pitch black with the power outage, I too roamed out to the floor of the Media Center. Just as I spotted them, huddled together with textbooks opened at tables in the back corner of the Media Center , someone in the class called over to me.

“Hey, Mr. V! Come teach us again.”

I strolled over. “What are y’all working on?” It had been two weeks since I taught the class.

“I don’t know”, he replied. Someone else chimed in, “I think we’re starting Chapter 2.”

“Chapter 2? The Derivative?” I asked. I thumbed through one girl’s textbook, thinking to myself ‘Shit, this is where they were two weeks ago….’

The class spokesman smiled a charming smile and continued, “C’mon, dog, teach us. We’re behind. You teach good…”

TO BE CONTINUED…………..<look for the rest of the story on August 28.> dven.

DonorsChoose!

I hope, if you are a teacher, that you utilize DonorsChoose. Because of this website, my chronically underfunded rural (poor) art classes have been rich and ample.

Because I teach in in two different schools (a junior high and an alternative high), I need two sets of art materials.

You just gotta have stuff to do a good art program–not just paper/scissors/crayons. It’s pretty expensive stuff.

It’s not just art from DonorsChoose, though. You can get musical instruments, AV stuff, basic classroom materials–basically, what you need.

The donors are kind and consistent. Many of them are focused on your particular state. Everything I’ve ever requested has been funded, including, incredibly, a wonderful set of drums and percussion toys for detention.

And I just got these wonderful art materials: I am so grateful.

Teachers: just go there: Donors Choose

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