Finally, a little accountability

There is a train in our district and the superintendant has invited us on. He used terms like "Education is fun but it is also serious business." True indeed. He has seen the WASL scores and wants to something done about it. So do I for that matter and it is time to run over those who have not interest in buying a train ticket. In the business world that means that if you do not buy in to the philosophy, things are going to get uncomfortable. And they should be. "A world class school district" is not a motto to be taken lightly. And if you think you are just going to sit back and keep doing the things you have been doing for 20 or 30, or even three years, you have something coming for you. This is the new motto for our district and, though naming it will probably be what gets me nailed for writing this Blog, I believe in it and know that this is what we should expect from our teachers.
And I can tell he has had a talk with our principal because there is a new attitude from him as well. Every evaluation is going to be long-form this year. Not every evaluation time is going to be convenient for persons evaluated. And the administration is willing to bring somebody in to assist in teacher's being a little more in-tune with more modern ways of teacher. No, it is not about teaching. Education is about learning and it takes a heck of a teacher to insure this at all times.
There is no getting through the day doing art and then doing art again. This means that some real teaching is going to have to be done. This is something I want to be a part of. Not some laxidasical nonsense based on the hope that kids will learn. We are looking at "learning targets" that are explained to the learners and used to help kids know what they should take away from any particular lesson. Then we have them show evidence that they can do it in their own style. If the kids are able to communicate what they have learned and how the learning can affect their daily lives, it is then that the teacher can call him or her self successful. Every child would rather learn based on how something affects them as opposed to an isolated idea. Now our district is getting it.
With any luck we can get most of our staff to get on the train. Those who are not litterally bring the others down and live off the knowledge and skills of others. I will accuse another teacher in our grade of doing this. Her thoughts are very vague and broad in regards to most subjects. She stays away from anything not art related and, as far as I am concerned, has failed her kids by way of not teaching along the lines of the GLEs. Sure some of it is but, recently, she has had parents complaining about a lack of rigor as well as how work in that class does not match up with that of other classes of the same grade. This, coupled with the fact that she often leaves her kids waiting in the hall before school, would be grounds for some action. Yet accountability has been an issue in our school in the past. Perhaps now there is an accountability chain of command and just because you don't get on the train, you are not safe from being run over.

Dangerous Minds

Recently, I was looking at my high school annual and noticed that the favorite movie of my class was "Dangerous Minds". This was interesting to me because I have not yet seen it. If I remember right, Coolio sings the main theme for that song, played all the time that year, Gangsta's Paradise. This song was the favorite song for that class. Now, one might assume that, because I am a teacher, that would be on my list of "surely seen movies". Nope. In the 90's it was popular to be a gang member and I think any movie that portrayed such as either fantastic or showed a white girl succeed as an urban school teacher was likely to do well. Where was Bill Cosby at that point? Those Cosby kids went to college and became something, all of them.
The Cosby Show was good and giving us an example of what ALL kids are capable of if they are surrounded by a good family. Black, white, hispanic, any sort of diversity. The parents were both extremely successful African-Americans who reared a large family while teaching them how to be successful people who do good for society. But still, this is television.
It seems as though I have to create a new point because I have gotten lost a bit. What I am trying to get at is the fact that so often teachers think that because a parent is a dead beat or the family is "crazy" or "wild" that they are free of responsibility. Sometimes I hear, "Well she comes from a bad family." As if this is an excuse for the child not to be successful or for the teacher to give up. We have kids of all types and we need to do our very best with them. That is our job. That is our moral responsibility. Anybody who claims that child circumstances prevent us from teaching as well as we can is full of it. Whether a kid is too energetic, sleepy, dirty or dresses too nice, there is never an excuse. The parent and teachers need to work together in order to make things work for the child. And if the parent does not want to be involved, do more to help the kid learn or go work for the union.
Do I have more? Maybe I do.
Another peve of mine is that teachers complain about not having the resources to cover a given unit, especially in science and social studies. You make what you can with what you have. It is disgusting to me to hear people say, "If the district is not going to supply me with the materials to teach it, I won't teach it." It is important for a district to give teachers as much as they can so that all children are taught to the state standards (I say state because they are more rigorous and have more depth than national standards), however as teachers we should have learned how to create or build our own lessons in order to accomodate the kids. A worksheet is not going to teach. We need to present children with ideas and concepts and help them to understand these. We should not be reliant on what we are "given" or "supplied". We should be reliant upon ourselves and reliable to our pupils.
That should be it for the night. The school year approaches.

Teacher Complaints

Everybody knows teachers complain about pay, class sizes, planning time and job conditions. However there is much more that they complain about when the public is not around. Some of the issues are quite meaningful, like class sizes. While others revolve around other issues that are very petty and a simple waste of time.
An upcoming issue at our school is new instructional materials purchased, for the sum of 80,000 USD, from Houghton Mifflin. Wonderful materials (although I am not a fan of boxed "curricula"). Yet we are being stiffed on professional development regarding these materials, getting just 2 hours of learning time on the Friday of the first week of school. This was one of the most important pieces of obtaining new materials for our school. Educators need time to learn about what they are expected to use or they will use them wrongly or have excuses to not use them at all. Districts pay all of that money for materials and can support a staff with at least a day or two of professional development simply based on contractual obligations. You want your teachers to be able to most effectively use materials to educate a population of young people.
That is certainly the most pressing issue for all going in to the new school year. There are other issues that will come to the surface for some. One of those is the fact that specialist (PE and Music) and planning time have been changed for the first time in a few years. This is disturbing to some who find reasons to complain because the entire staff was not consulted first. There is also a theory that one group of team teachers gets "whatever they want." This is to say that the entire staff schedule was changed for them. SO WHAT! Nobody is getting hurt. Besides, when all you can do is find reasons to complain in the first place, nothing is going to make you happy.
Math WASL scores for our fourth graders have decreased by 15%. This sounds horrible. On the other hand we are just about to start our second year using Everday Math. There are those who do not like that math program and this gives them some fuel to add. However we were told by the Everyday Math consultant that it will take three years before we start to see results. You see, this program is reliant on prior years for experience in the curriculum and, ultimately, growth. This is how a spiraling curriculum works. Eighteen exposures over a period of time and a kid should obtain a given concept. Not only is this how we live but the concepts and how they are presented are also very true to life. Mastery can have its place but for children to fully understand and restate a given concept and its value is the most worthy merit of all. And research, lots of research, shows that this is an effective math curriculum. If we have a problem with it, the problem would be that not everybody at our school uses it as they should, skipping lessons and units, going so slow they finish just over half of the lessons, our special education teachers did not use it last year and, most importantly, we are not held accountable to use it as it should be used.
So, here is a sample of what you are going to be hearing over the next year. Personally anybody who complains about something but refuses to talk to the people who can do something about it is an enigma. Schools do not need these because it detracts from the children; the reason we are there. I intend to take it upon myself to defend Everyday Mathematics. I believe in it and have seen it work; it also matches my philosphy quite well but I will take on whatever program I am given. Some attribute this to being "youthful" and they probably think my enthusiasm will one day cease to exist. If this happens, I will exit from the profession.

Home ~ Schoolers Rule

Home ~ Schoolers Rule

WASL and Standardized Tests

This week, in Washington began a new round of WASL (assessment of student learning), at test that all public school students must pass in order to graduation high school. This, of course, is a big issue as academic rigor varies from classroom to classroom and school to school despite identical standards issued by the state of Washington. Many feel as though it is unfair to judge students' academic achivement based on a test containing a wide variety of questions. It is true such tests do not acurately portray what a kid does and does not know. It is also true that there are other ways to assess student knowledge. However these are not, in my mind, the parts of the state mandated test that worry me the most.
Problem one is that so many teacher fret about this test and think they need to "get kids ready for" it. They lose sight of why they are teaching and think that test preparation is the only thing that needs to be done throughout the year. They begin to neglect individual student needs both socially and academically. Teachers also neglect the real-life applications of various subject areas by isolating skills. This both aids in a child's loss of interest in a subject and does not touch on why one would use such a skill.
My second issue with such tests is the money spent on assessing. The cost of paper, shipping, test creation and scoring as well as cost to schools for hiring additional test proctors. This is not to say that the money needs to be spent on my school, but surely this could contribute to teacher raises or, more importantly, teacher development; which is the best way to ensure that children will learn.
Such tests are not all that bad for children, especially as the kids reach and go in to their teenage years. Exams are used for kids in England and determine the path a student can take for the remainder of their school days. Assessments are used by nations around the world, nations that are competing with our citizens for college entrance and jobs in a world economy.
Something that has lead to the issue of a state mandated standardized test is accountability. It is often difficult to find teachers and administrative staff that are held accountable for their teaching and learning. It is important for districts to hire the best teachers and fire those who are not performing to local standards. This means having school and district goals for improvement. Teachers should be able to document how students are improving while achieving their own learning goals for professional development. This takes good leaders as well. Leaders that are willing to trust their teachers while commanding that educators give nothing but their best.
If our teachers were as good as they thought they were, they would embrace the WASL instead of complaining about it and hoping it goes away. And as they complain the rest of the world is striving to give students the best education, make 100% literacy rates and beat the economic powerhouse that is the USA in an area that should leave all other nations in the dust.
We are teachers. Society depends on us to give nothing but our best. We should demand that we give the most of ourselves rather than expect everybody else to give to us. Teacher need to understand that is an honor and a responsibility to teach not a right.

NEA Politics

My objective is not to get in to national politics here in the USA. However I feel it necessary to discuss the NEA's involvement in such. It is my understanding that NEA stands for National Educator's Association which is the largest teacher union in the United States (is it not the largest union also?).
In every union in America there is much money changing hands in order to protect and extend worker rights. This does not mean propelling any agenda, conservative or liberal. Using union dues and collections in order to gain support for political issues such as gay marriage and immigration laws is not what should be done with our money.
What should be done? Well what about spending a little more on education lobbying to get higher pay for teachers? Or perhaps we can have teacher accountablity left up to district administrators and officials. Just about anything dealing with education. If the union is going to do anything dealing with immigration perhaps we can do some research to better understand how other nations are able to have 99% and 100% literacy. This should not be left only to the US government and university research. Teacher unions could even pay for professional development do be done school wide. This would help educators rise through the pay scale through credit completion and it would save teachers money that they would otherwise use on classes.

Teacher thoughts

One of the most putrid things that can stink up a school staff are the negativities found there in. There are many who like to complain about how much teachers get paid or how poorly a district pays or handles operations; most of them American teachers. The same goes for every other profession on the planet but there are so many American teachers that it is inevitable that they be heard. Granted for the role we play in society's well-being we are not paid what we could be, however it is we who choose to be in the profession for whatever reason. That reason might be to put food on the table, because you like kids, because you want to make a difference, or due to the fact that you are good at nothing else. No matter the reason, there is no excuse to put anything less than your best in to a job that has so much impact on our nation's young people.
This is an area about which I get fired up. There are a great many teachers in out country who just show up and complain about their "professional" circumstances. They are unhappy with their school, district, job, even family and find a way to drag others down with them when the real issue should be how can I help these kids learn what they need to be successful?

A Background

Summer break is nearing its end and with three weeks to go before the first day of school (plus a weekend) I decided to go ahead with a little teacher blog. However it is important to begin with a background of both me and my school so that you all have an idea of what you are reading and can put it in to context. Please excuse the fact that I do not use actual names and will not tell exactly where I am located. This is to protect both me and those with whom I work. I am not out to hurt feelings or cause more strife than I already have in my two years as a full time teacher. My goal is to get my thoughts and feelings recorded in some way. Entertainment is a beautiful thing but I will keep to the facts and philosphies as I see them.
Located in the Northwestern United States, we are in a town of about 5,000 which has doubled in the course of the last ten years. House after house is being finished in thier cookie-cutter fashion is this town and there looks to be no end in sight for such building. New people are pooring in each week as their homes are finished while the four schools seem to be bulging at the sides.
Our district is made up of four schools at this point. High school, middle school, a 3-5 and a kindergarten-2 school. I teach third grade and, while I know very little about the others, I will say that every now and again I hear about the others through the grape vine. As it should be, I hear most about the school of primary grades (K-2) simply because of the grade I teach.
The school board is mostly made of "old timers" who care about the kids but seem to be very wound up about money. They were actually granted ten Waiver Days (by the state) in order to curb bus use and, ultimately, save money. You could say that they were going to save money by having the kids in school fewer days that required.
I am one of two male teachers at our school of 17 teachers. Our physical education teacher is male, as is our principal and a janitor. If you can name another position, such is filled by a female. I certainly have no problem with this and this should be no surprise considering the level at which I teach, it is simply my goal to inform all of the current conditions of this school and district.
Most will not consider me a social person. However I do get out of my classroom to visit others more often than most at our school. This is mostly because I cannot stand the division that lies between the grade levels and we have some pretty nice people at our school. On the other hand there are some who I feel are not the greatest people and who appear to have a personal issues that get in the way of thier teaching. These issues are mostly insecurities regarding a wide range of topics but we do not have time to get in to that. Sure, I will admit that such persons have made calls against me to the principal but all were education related and based purely on fact, interview and what is best for the child. One actually said that I "have a hurting soul." But that is for another time. Two others have basically told me that I am youthful and energetic and that my exuberance will one day begin to fade. I say no. At a later date I will go in to more depth on that hour and a half of worthless giberish but I will say now that it ended in my refusing to appologize for them feeling sad about what I wrote based on interview. It came down to the fact that I used quotes that they wished they had not used.
So there is tension here. There are complainers, happy people, quiet people, sad people, people teaching for the money (sic) and those who are trying hard to get the kids to think for themselves while doing all they can to improve themselves as teachers as well. You will see it through my eyes and perhaps you can comment on my enthusiasm, biases, thoughts, ideas and cockiness. My goal is to be the best teacher in the world and I can only get there if I get some bad with the good. After all, my principal will not give any constructive criticism and I do not think this is only because he spent a total of 35 minutes in my classroom all year.