A Teacher at Large

Making Lemonade

2008-04-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

So goes the saying. There have been many lemon rinds going out to the compost bin this week and the rats are getting fat. But not I.
This week I began the lemonade diet. That so called diet that has lasted over five decades and still continues to roll on. The effects have been phonominal as I have lost 12 pounds and that was on the morning of day 5. Who knows what other benefits are in store?

Fear and Loathing in Education

2008-01-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

My Administration class is now called Las Vegas because everything that goes on in that class, stays in that class. So I try to keep my name free of this Blog to save my face. This is Vegas.
My made a post a couple weeks ago talking about math standards in my state being on the transformation. Somebody took that as a hit agains the materials we use at our school and kept going, including a YouTube video called something along the lines Math instruction, an inconvenient truth, or something to that effect. I then posted a link to the University of Chicago with evidence that the series does indeed work for children. That research validates success if kids are instructed well.
A school board member then cut and pasted the postings and sent this to my principal. This cut and paste included the YouTube video.

My principal then responded to me saying

I just read your posting to ___(left out for my sake). That's an interesting perspective, one
which I hope doesn't undermine your ardor in teaching your students to
multiply fluently. The new standards are not yet adopted, and texts are not
yet reviewed by the state. In the mean time, we'll have to teach our hearts
out to help students both understand and apply mathematical principles.

I read this email when I returned from paternity leave and I nearly ran to her office to see what she meant. To which she replied
"That posting was very negative and the YouTube link shines a very negative light on what we do in our school.

All I could do was deny the allagations and ask her to check the posting. Her reply was I checked once and I checked twice.

Now we are talking about a first year principal who is trying to build trust in her building. I have no idea why she would not check her facts before making judgments about what was said. Something I have learned in regards to being a principal one of them being, checking facts. Trust is a terrible thing to lose with even one teacher. I feel as though I have not been respected in this event and I feel that our principal does not know me. If she did know me she would know that I am a very staunch supporter of Everyday Math and that I do not wear my feelings on my shirt, so it takes a great deal for me to question an email that has been sent to me.

Building a Fence

2007-12-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

What in the world am I talking about? I have no idea but I will say that we in the education field have done so in a great way. The staff at my school is entirely too fenced in to move forward with any kind of modern agenda. Or postmodern if you will. On the other hand we do have teachers with Masters degrees. So that makes them great, right? Sure, if you are an ignorant fool. There are quite a few here at my school with those credentials. We all think we are quite good at educating the children of our semi-rural area. But are we. Hardly.
My thought is that a good staff desires to learn more about their field and uses data to increase the efficiency of the output. How do we do that? First, we gather data. Of all sorts. Gather as much as is possible. No, homework packets do not count. What counts is that data that can be collected and used. Who is missing a great deal of homework or even which days does a kid not turn in homework most often? Which days are kids absent would work too. Data is what a business collects to figure out what is going on in order to see what can be done to improve the business and production. If each person in business decided to do as they please, I wonder the likelihood that the company would maximise profits. The same goes for schools. Are we maximizing the education children leave with if we do not teach common areas at common times and collect and use data to improve profits, if you will.
I am feeling as if each teacher at our school feels as though he or she is above pleasing the shareholders (students, parents) and wants only to try to profit in a way that makes the worker happy. Too bad the shareholders are those who will ultimately lose.

Raining Cats and Dogs

2007-12-04T21:11:00.000-08:00

This morning I was greeted by my team teaching partner saying, "I was really hoping we would be two hours late, today."
She was speaking of her hope that our school would float away in the incredible amounts of rain that fell on Sunday night. Consequently, because all the rain fell on Sunday, there was little chance of school being late on Tuesday. Perhaps she entered a time warp and actually thought today was Monday. Who knows?
That is how things are around my school. On Monday another teacher said, "I am hoping for some major rain so we can get a day off." Wow.
Not much later I heard, "A couple of your kids ran into me." SHe was speaking of my kids, or kid as there was only one boy who made such a mistake to look backwards while walking and run into a self-proclaimed bit#@.
Is this the way things get when a school makes a gigantic transition from a principal who does very little to a principal who puts all of her guts into making a school run effectively. Perhaps there is a culture issue with us all and we really are not in the mood to work. Not well anyhow. Or maybe we are tired. With Christmas (not the holidays) on the horizon who can blame teachers for not feeling rested?
Not this cat. I want to take it all the way. Give me that ball. I am tired of hearing all of the whining and complaining. We do not do what other schools with the same amount of time. Now is the time to be unlazy.

Mitt's Classroom

2007-11-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what to write. I am a little bit testy today as I had to sit and listen to NPR in my truck and deal with my political ally, Mitt Romney, pick on other candidates for the GOP nomination. "Mitt, what are you doing?" I asked him. "We should never sling mud at those of our own party, man."
There is absolutely nothing wrong with slinging mud at those who wrestle in filth like those of the Democratic party. But that battle has far from begun. We still need to deal with certain people like Rudy. Nevermind McCain or Thompson. These two are political dopes. One is as old as dirt, the other a flop from Tennessee who does not have a chance in Rome of beating a semi-black or a woman. Not with the power they have.
Yeah, this is education we are talking about here. But I think that Romney knows what is best for schools, a very misunderstood idea with conservatives. Mitt understands that the power of the school lies with the principals and that we need savvy principals who can build within schools a reform of a small scale to bring teachers and district offices together.
This is not to mention the breaking down of the monopoly that teachers unions have on the teacher labor market. I have yet to see what unions do beside give teachers excuses for why their students are unsuccessful. "Oh, my kids are so low!" But nevermind that.
Mitt understands that charter schools are the way to go. Allow schools to exist that are union free and teachers have the responsibility to teach as opposed to get away with the bear minimum that a contractual obligation supports. This kind of nonsense does not create successful schools. Hard work creates successful schools and we need to challenge teachers to work to that level. To compete with schools that might do better with best practice.

Roofies

2007-11-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

No, not the upper although I did get high. On the roof. The monday after Thanksgiving was the perfect time to climb on a roof and fix a hole that leaks about a gallon per day. Especially fitting was that the wind was fierce enough to nearly blow me down like a pirate. The rain was cutting holes in me and there was a giant trying to get me for stealing his harp and golden-egg laying goose. Okay so the rain was not cutting me.

In all honesty, I am not a handy man. But I do seem to be becoming one by the day. I am not perfect by any means and I would much rather concern myself with improving my school and teacher accountability than stand in the rain with a hammer in my hand wondering where the nails are. Stupid nails.

My school is seeming bass ackwards. For some reason we are worried about the comfort levels of our teachers and helping everybody work at their own grade level when dealing with scoring writing assessments. Some just want to work with thier friends. Others are worried that having three people in the same room might make their ears hurt and lose concentration. We are talking 900 square feet. There is not going to be an overabundance of noice in that space or even six people in 1800 square feet.

At any rate, do we need to be in grade level? THis is about the future of our school. I know where my kids are and I trust others to score their papers. I want to know where others are and to have rich conversations with others in my school, at other grade levels. THis is just the first of many writing assessments but I really see this as being wrong. If we set the stage for making poor choices now and lack those rich conversations about writing, when will we make the change? I wonder.

I do not know everything. Nor do I want to. But we need to move forward with this. Not get bogged down with details. Suck it up and score some papers. Get to work and stop worrying about if you can hear.

I find difficulty in being the only heterosexual male teacher in my school at times and really find it difficult to relate to women who are needy and have problems with everything.

Mobilizing the Insanity

2007-11-14T22:39:00.000-08:00

Have you ever stopped to think about what it all would would like without mobilization. This is a quick check to see if you are really thinking. Of course you have not. Even if you believe in evolution you know that things, no matter what they are, have always moved. Always.
But I am not here to talk about the way things used to be. We are in the here and now, probably not talking about anything any of you care about. I am here to ramble. Kind of like Led Zepplin but without all of the pills and alcohol and certainly without the outer reaches of Tolkien novels. How many of their songs have to do with Hobbits and Elves?
Enough about people who work at Wal-Mart. We are only here to support the big ones baby. Those special little people who sit in the back of the classroom and answer all of the questions. Those malicious white people. Sure, I am one of them but nobody wants to talk about that. Nobody wants to talk about how white some white people are. Just that they exist, all people exist. We are all just as happy as can be because we do not see color, we see the inner beauty of every person here on earth.
Hogwash. You, just about every one of you who reads this knows about Jena. And you are thinking about how everything is just fine and dandy down there because the law will take care of it. If only the whole issue of race were that easy. We are talking 400 years of built up angst between races. No, this goes back 5,000 years or more. But we will just stick with the former number simply because that works well with America. Yeah we had Martin and Malcolm and Rosa say some stuff and ride busses and go on some marches. But that does not take care of 400 years of slavery. That kind of thing does not just go away. There are still plenty of people alive that remember having to drink from a filthy water fountain because there was a water only bad enough for blacks. That stays in a person's blood and carries on to another generation and this goes on and on until people forget. But you see, people only forget experiences if they are mediocre. If the experience was horrible or fantastic they do not forget. When was the last time a black person had a fantastic time with whites? Sure, I bet they occured but if you are not black you tell me when you had a fantastic time with a black.
Do you have that kind of relationship with a member of a different color group? If not I think you may want to look at how you view race. Your own Race.

School for the wierd

2007-11-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am a bit of a Hunter Thompson fan and have been for a while. My mind wrapps very nicely around the boxed up humor that he delivers as only a true Gonzo writer can. Do I try to be like him. I really do not. However I do feel that such writing has had a tremendous impact on my way of writing. This fits very nicely in to my sarcastic if not Socratic view of education. I am a teacher, remember. Yet I find there are flaws in the system that I often need to get out but have no way. I often promise myself regular seminars of get it all out now writing but often fall short of my good intentions. Unintentionally.
On Friday my at my school we began the InAction professional development, otherwise known as the green notebook or green binder. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, we look at the learning process as opposed to what is being taught. It goes beyond just student centered pedagogy. No, this is essentially the Holy Grail of teaching and really helps the teacher prepare the kids for what is being taught, how they are going to show they learned the target, what they can do to get to the next level and what resources the kids can use to be successful.
There is much simplicity involved. Yes this is good for the kids. A little more work for the teachers but well worth the work.
Where I became a little hung up is in the area of what is going on in the minds of other teachers. During a two-minute discussion one teacher told me that she does not believe that all kids can be successful, that there are many kids who just do not have the will or capacity. I told her that there are school with 90 percent..." and she interupted me. "No, no let me finish, there are schools that have 90% minority, 90% free/reduced lunch and 90% of kids meeting the state standard. Regardless of which state one is in, such a statistic is tremendous and blows the socks off of many highly white schools. Many of the results occurred with only time adaptions.
How do we change such like-minded people? My guess is that I do not think we can until the results occur in our own classes. Those of us who believe in the kids within the walls of our own classes need to build upon our belief and find best practices out there in schools and universities. Then we need to study them and put them to work in our own classrooms. Going to see "The Two Sisters" or other big names in the world of education professional development are not going to get our business any place. We need to use best practice. We need to have our kids writing about what they read not setting them up on a computer taking AR tests. We need to understand the educational and personal needs of our students and teach to those needs. Basil and anthology reading sets are not a curriculum, these are one piece to a series of tools that can be used to teach children. Certainly not the only way. Not even close.
Monkeys are learning sigh language of their own. To they know how it will be useful to them. Quite possibly. After all, they learning quite quickly that they are getting food for fast learning or learning in general. Perhaps they do not have the metacognition to understand that but they continually learn for more bananas.
Kids do not learn for food unless they see that doing math and learning to read efficiently are going to help them later in the future to, perhaps, avoid prison, go to college and keep from being failures. However ever a teacher wants to think, we need to help kids see their reason for learning. Then help them see what success feels and looks like. The momentum grows and keeps doing so until the kids begin to understand that they really are successful people.

The Rain

2006-11-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

Conferences are long over and went quite well. Everything seems pretty positive from my standpoint and I tried to really focus on the plusses of all of the kids. One negative came in the form of a girl not turning in her homework very often but really things look great.
Currently our grade levels are working on putting together the writing Grade Level Expectations in a way that makes some kind of sense. Supposedly. We had to put them in order of when they should be done. Who really cares when they should be done? But I guess it make sense in the process if only because each teacher actually knows when they will be taught so each teacher at grade level will be on the same page at the same point in time. Then we were to assign names to the three levels at which we see the kids will be during the progression of the GLE. We chose "Beginning," "Developing," and "Secure" just as the Everday Math Curriculum puts a label on where kids are in the scheme of things. I do not fully recall what each of these stands for but I will say that I participated in the definition process. I am not trying to brag. Only to note that I did participate which is fairly new for me as I am typically very quiet in meetings of any sort. After I had given ideas for Beginning and Developing, one teacher actually said, quite loudly, "Let's hear what Davicker has to say." I felt sort of proud about that simply because somebody noticed that I had something to say and that my idea might actually mean something. Not only that but I felt as though my other ideas meant somethign as well. At any rate, the important thing is that I am speaking more but I think that my ideas are actually improving student learning through helping other teachers and the school get ideas.
Some of the grade level meetings have been hell. We have a teacher who hates being in our school, another who thinks she is a teaching god because she has been teaching for a long time and two other teachers who sort of pull the rest of us through. So really just the two teachers annoy me, truly just the squeeky one who thinks she is a teaching god. The problem is partially that she has probably not done any real professional development outside of art for 15 years. That is her cup of tea. She is also good at going off the topic to discuss how great she is and the past ideas she has used. That last sentence was horrible but I think you get the point.
Another downer. I was sort of chosen/volunteered to be on the district science curriculum adoption committee. So I went to the first meeting and the head of the committee asked us to go to our schools and find out what teachers need and how what they are doing coincides with the GLEs for our state. As it turns out, I had written a paper on this topic for a Masters course of mine in which I interviewed each teacher and we also discussed confidence levels, material needs and scientific history in regards to each teacher. I reminded our principal of this (he is also on the committee) and told him it would be perfect. He replied, "Yeah, we could. But I want to sit down and have some deep conversations with teachers regarding this subject and see what they are doing and not doing." 1) How is this different than what I did a year ago? 2) Three days before the next meeting he sees me and says, "Regarding that meeting on Tuesday, I think I am just going to send an email to all of the teachers and have them answer a couple of questions" which he said in the meeting later that day "should only take a minute or two." This is a far cry from the average of 30 minutes I spent with each teacher. I did talk to a staff member who said that she and her three teammates in teaching will ask him to refer to my paper and my teammate says the same thing. It was then that I decided to send the paper to the chair of the committee. The meeting was supposed to be last Tuesday but was postponed due to weather and school cancelations. It was not until the Thursday after the meeting was supposed to be held that the email was sent to all of the teachers. Had the meeting been when it was scheduled, he would have been completely illprepared.
Do I feel an injustice? No, but I do not see why he would refuse the use of my paper when it would have only saved time. I also do not understand why he would be so late in sending an email or why he would do this via email at all when he stressed wanting to have a personal meeting with each teacher.
Now I am celebrating Veteran's Day. Please remember those you know who have served in the military. And show respect for all who have done so.

The lunatic on the school yard

2006-10-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

What is a couple of weeks to be gone. Well, if you are student and you are gone for a couple of weeks, you are going to miss quite a lot, no doubt. But if you are a teacher you can miss just as much a kid moving, a classroom of children acting like a bunch of wild animals because their teacher is in Mexico downing Marguritas like a fish, sitting on the beaching thinking of nothing but the marlin he will catch the next morning. But that is certainly not me. I was only away from my web log for a couple of weeks, preparing for student-parent-teacher conferences. A shame, but I do not drink anyway. How can one drink when there is so much work to be done.
Anybody in education can tell you that conference week and the week before are more stressful and busy than any week leading up to handing out report cards. It is crazy. And when you have kids in your class who disrespect authority or anything that looks like it, the week is going to be even more of an adventure. Or shall I say insane?
One boy in my class has been moved to the front corner of the room because of his behavior. I told him, "I am being generous moving you (just two feet from your neighbor). So I expect today to be a much better day. Do you understand?"
He did interject to ask why he was moved which had the reply "What kind of day did you have yesterday?" "Pretty good," he answered. So I had to ask, " Would you call bugging people several time during math, not getting any math done, playing under the table, pushing a kid and breaking several pencils, and going to the office after being asked by two kids to stop disrupting them a good day?" He said nothing.
He was not surprised when I moved his desk just two hours later that day. Once again he was talking and disrupting other kids around him.
The night before moving to the corner, this boy had gotten in the face of another boy in my class. Chest to chest the boy who was moved told the other, "I wish somebody would stab you in the heart with a penci." The receiver of these words was scared to come to school the next day from what his father said. His father also said that this is not something that can continue because he did not know what his son might do. We still do not know what might happen. There is no telling what might occur on the way home from school. Kids do various things. These "things" might upset another kid and can lead to injuries. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of fists to the face to get a bully to stop. Hopefully it never gets to that point but too often it does.
I know when I was in high school I got in a fight with a kid who often bullied others. I stood up for myself by putting him in a vicious headlock which caused Brian to stop breathing for a little bit. Then I did all I could to put his head in the ground. It failed and he ended up kicking me in the face a few times, bruising my eye making my lips bleed. I was a little messed up from that. But I gained his respect and he never did anything else like pinch my breast, or make fun of my crooked teeth. We learn lessons from our mistakes. Hopefully he learned as much as I did. I was suspended for a few days and I hated being out of school.
But those days are long gone. Now my job is to make kids feel safe at school and help them become functioning citizens of the world. Perhaps one of these kids will do fantastic things like find a cure for a disease or lead our country, perhaps not. The important idea is that all of them can work with others and make choices that are good for everybody, not just themselves at a certain point in their lives. To take responsibility for their actions and think about how others will be affected by these choices.
Unfortunately this cannot be measured. I must trust that I have done my job and hope that kids will tell me, when they are older, what they have accomplished.

Links and Favorites

2006-10-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have no links to other blogs. I have no idea how do make it happen and so I am linkless. However I am not sorry for the actions going on in my classroom, though I am sadened by them. Yesterday we had an instance of a child stealing from another, then putting the stolen item in to the desk of another child. We have a child who will try to lie about his hair color if he thought it might help him feel good. And there are children who are laughing at others because they randomly partner up with somebody who does not fit the bill. Now that I have the negatives overwith, I can get to the positives.
Our classroom is building writers. Kids are doing amazing stories with pencil and paper. Using detail and keeping great focus on an event that lasts just a few minutes. We call it a Small Moment and I am not going to try to take credit for something that Lucy Caulkins has named. The fact of the matter is that these kids are becoming better writers based on her ideas that my teaching partner and I are putting in to effect. These stories are awesome and just keep getting better as we are on revision now.
If we go back to classroom behavior, I am seeing that there is a need for something to be done in our classroom. Something that is going get kids on board so we can get some more learning done. My thought is that I must offer them ice cream sandwiches and the opportuity to eat lunch in the classroom if they reach a certain goal. Because there are a few kids who are out of control and it may take something like that to get at least a couple more on board with the rest of us.

Volcanic Eruption

2006-10-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a low for me as a teacher. I had lost control of myself and my kids. My negativity was throbbing in my fingers and enjoyment of my profession had ratings near George Bush. Things were bad. I got on myself for yelling which made Wednesday not so great as well. This, coupled with personal situations, had me getting ideas of negative self worth. But then I had a nice talk with a couple of colleagues which prompted me to think about what it was that I was doing wrong and what I could do better to get out of this funk. The results were astounding.
Be positive. My goal going in to yesterday was to be overwhelmingly positive. This is a great group of kids but they are just a little chatty and loud. They deserve positive feedback as much as possible, no matter what the situation. Two kids in particular have been driving me batty, but they need that positive engagement more than anybody, even if one walks in with a coffee on Thursday morning. So I doled it out. I went positive crazy. Just that mindset can do wonders. First thing in the morning every kid remembered to move their lunch sticks and put their book bins on their desks. They were working quietly. So I complimented them on this and told them that if they remembered "one more thing" before going to Music, I would reward them. So when they were excused one kid reminded them, "Push in your chairs." They all got their rewards. Tears filled my eyes as they left the room.
Later that morning. A girl brought her writing to me to read. I could not help but be astounded at her attention to detail since our last meeting. She had gone from:
"One day my dad bought be a fish. I named him blue. There was also a big, glass aquarium with rocks. I named him blue."

to: One sunny day I was playing in my room when my dad walked up the stairs. I peeked around the corner of my door and saw him carrying a clear plastic bag full of water with something in it. I ran down the stairs to see what he had. He said, this is your first pet. I screemed with excitment.

Finally somebody had truly received the message their teacher was trying to convey. It felt so good for me because I was started to think I was doing something wrong with my instruction due to such lack of improvement. My senses were telling me that the kids were not getting so much enjoyment as well. Talk about feeling down.
But then this little writing miracle happens and I go crazy with excitment which causes about ten kids to turn in their writer binders to be read and other kids to want to work on their personal narratives on a constant basis. This was a huge success for my classroom and one that their teacher needed for the sake of his sanity.
At the moment I finished the above paragraph came the realization that I was not at fault for an arguement with two colleagues last Friday. We were talking about the timing for teaching various writing expectations and they said handwriting must be first and foremost. Well, being me, I disagreed saying that we need to get the kids to write first and then worry about handwriting. But they had pulled me in to an arguement of what is most important. All I was saying is that we need to get the kids to write first so that they feel as though they can get the words out with less problem. A minilesson regarding the importance handwriting plays for the reader on an individual basis could be fine but handwriting is not necessarily the starting point. High expectations can assist in getting kids to write neatly for the reader but there do not have to be lessons on this each and every day as these two colleagues also believe. Every writing time is its own lesson and we can work that out during class. Anyway my heart was racing and I did all I could to talk calmly when one of them said third graders are not developmentally ready to write paragraphs. And when I asked for research she made sure to tell me "I have been teaching for many years so I know the level these kids can reach."
My hope is that her pupils do not know she is holding them to a low expectation, holding them back from ultimate achievement on their part. This fact is sad to me and makes me not want to work with her. Perhaps reading to her the piece mentioned above, with its beautiful handwriting, will change her mind. Probably not. What a pity.

Science Blues

2006-10-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

In my three years teaching third grade I have purchased materials with which to engage in science activities. With the exception of studying sound, I have never used those materials in large crates, which hold very little scietific value for kids. However it has been broght to my attention that, because I am the science curriculum adoption committee representitive for our school, I "can sort through these materials to find what is missing" so that the principal reorder that which is missing.
Now, I was not aware that any teacher in our grade still uses these materials because, since my arrival at the school, there have only been complaints regarding a lack of materials. When a certain teacher starts looking around, she noticed that there are some materials missing. Obviously she knows what should be in there and has used these materials before so she would be the best person to figure out what is missing, especially since she is so interested in using them immmediately. Anyway it comes down to her being a very negative person and the fact that she complains about nearly everything there is to complain about. I do not want to help her even simply because she once said, "If the district is not going to supply it, I am not going to teach it." There might be many of you out there who feel the same and that is your God-given right. But I do not want to help you either. As teachers we owe it to our pupils not to complain about them and to do our best to teach using whatever measures we can. Teachers can certainly find pleasure in their district purchasing materials on a regular basis but we cannot expect these purchases to happen just because we want them to.
Today my teaching partner and I are finishing up a study of rocks. To be honest we have only spent about two hours total with the kids on rocks but we have covered the grade three requirements on the subject. Our pupils have been very interested and have enjoyed this unit. Perhaps the kids will be sad that the unit is complete but the requirements are few and there is no need to go much deeper than we have. They have looked at many books, had a lesson, sorted, and written about how they did their sorting or what they based the sorting on.
Next we will move on to maps. Kids love working with maps, as do I. Too bad I have not been able to order a bunch of atlases for my class. There are some that I would prefer to order but Scholastic has not made them available through the use of points.
My class has improved greatly since the beginning of school. Yes, they have all come a long way. Such improvement will continue if I am disciplined enough to ignore the calling out and demand the raising of hands, the pushing in of chairs and completion of work. Otherwise life is going to be very difficult for these kids. There are some not doing their writing or reading each night and this needs to be put to a stop somehow.

Wednesday

2006-09-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

The goal right now is to reform this group of kids. The goal right now is to remain faithful to my calling and help this group of kids get through the year and learn as much as possible. The goal is to do absolutely everything I can in order to help these kids learn to be more responsible for themselves.
At times it seems as though these kids need things handed to them. Many feel they need to shout my name to get my attention. They feel they can interupt when another kid is talking to me. I have not been paying enough attention to the positive things going on in class. I really enjoy the personalities we have combined but together-as a group- there are many who seem to have just gone bonkers and it is not in my nature to take everything away from them in order to get what I want. What I want is for them to become self-reliant. I want kids to bring their homework instead of an excuse.
It is not as if this group is terrible or full of awful energy. I do have one whose energy I question and has dared others to grab a girl's bum and tell her it is "big". That I could do without but it is more the little stuff that occurs that adds up to so much that I just want to yell at times. I need to meet with my teammate so I can get some ideas.

Today is now Firday and yesterday was my best day with the class so far. It seems like they had control of themselves for the most part during class and they did well at pusing in chairs, the moring routine and not calling my name out to gain my attention. This has been a serious issue this year and still is. I have not had this kind of calling out before. I do have to say that the reporting of other people's small problems (tattling) has been nearly non existent so far this year. Of couse I have been better at dealing with it than ever before. Asking if the problem is big or small is certainly a help.

I have also tried hard to keep things from becoming big issues. Like name calling on the bus- I said I do not want to hear a single thing about it today because the event is over. As soon as the two kids were talking again, I put a stop to it by asking one girl if she had finished her morning work.
There was an incident midweek involving a boy "daring" another boy to grab a girl's rear end and tell her "you have a big butt." This incedent closed with me yelling at the two involved boys and calling the mother of the one who voiced the dare. The dare was not carried out but I let them know that this is not third grade behavior and should not occur EVER. The mom seems to think this comes from the boy watching too much pro wrestling with his father. This may be but controlling a child comes down to more than just setting them in fron the of the television and having them watch in place of a sitter. But it must be hard for a kid who spends half the week in two different places.
Lucy Caulkins, if you are out there. I am working with another teacher to use your lessons and sessions for wrting. We are trying hard. Your ideas are wonderful and make tremendous sense. These materials along with my reading "Writing Essentials" have been a great blessing.

Nothing Predictable

2006-09-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

So I have gone outside of myself and become a drill sergeant, telling my class of third graders, "I am going to break you down and build you back up again." Of course I won't and it is so ridiculous to say that it should not even have come to mind but I am dealing with a class that has a very wild temperment and seems to need their little hands held to do just about anything.
On Friday a kid went to the busses when he was supposed to get picked up. His mother sent me and the seceratary a note telling that she would pick him up but I take this as a "just to let you know." as opposed to "you need to tell him and make sure he gets to the office." I do not know if she even told him. It seems as though she would expect me to take care of the manner. In three years I have not needed to do more than say to a kid, "you do this today instead of this" and that is usually a message sent down by the office in the middle of the day.
Of course I screwed that one up this week too. A kid was supposed to take bus 45 instead of walk home because his mom was going to be driving that particular bus. I ended up running half way to his house, only to not find him and causing a complete panic by telling his mother that he got into a car with somebody, information given by a kid who knows next to nothing more than how to ride dirt bikes. So I took that pretty hard. The kid did walk home and his dad was there to let him in. All was well.
The environment in our school seems pretty good right now. A colleague of mine and I have actually said positive words to one another for the first time months, and she actually seems to want to know something about teaching besides art. Who knows though? My guess is that she feels threatened by others in the building and is trying to understand how our instructional materials work. We have bought two sets in the last two years and trying to understand them is not an easy task. One could spend an entire year using them and still not get the hang of it. My guess is that my teaching partner and I will get things down with the reading series by Christmas. The need is getting to know our kids and getting a groove with the reading while using ideas from Regie Routman, Lucy Caulkins and Stephanie Harvey to boost the reading and writing past what could be expected by the curriculum writers from HM. There are good ideas in this set of reading materials but there is minimal depth in writing and they expect a child to go from prewriting to published copy Monday to Friday. This is each week. Insane.
Besides the Daily Five my biggest management concern is getting the classroom routines in order. It is going to take time for this group to get done with their morning tasks before PE and Music in the morning. I am going to keep working on this with them and really try not to get frusterated by their ways. I need to be patient and understanding while getting to know their individual needs.

Week Two

2006-09-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today I started the Daily Five with my kids. We talked about how to read a book, the first two ways anywhow, and I read The Rain Came Down without using words. Then we talked about what independent reading looks like. The kids had a lot of ideas for that and we focused on reading the whole time and how that is such a vital part of independent reading. I then had one child model what that should look like. I had another, one who has been a bit wiley, model how to and how not to read independently based on our ideas for what it should look like. The class did well on the whole, at building stamina, but there are still a couple kids who need more work that the others. Tomorrow I certainly plan to have another wiley one doing the demonstrations for what to do and what not to do. Perhaps more modeling is needed. I know these kids can do it and I know there are a few who really want to get moving with reading and writing but I am trying to get the entire class community on board as well. One thing I WILL do is keep at it. I think that stamina in patience for the teacher is just as essential as reading for the kids.
One boy decided that he would sort of raise his hand, then scratch his head, when I asked "How many of you don't want to be successful in reading. You can bet he looked around to see if anybody else saw him. You know the type. Perhaps it had been building up in me but he needed a little bit of medicine. During the day he ended up losing ten minutes of recess (step 2 in my class) but that will not end up being served until tomorrow. The problem with losing recess at the end of the day is that the kids do not remember what they did the next day. There must be a way for them to still get a consequence when they earn it at the end of the day and still learn from it. Perhaps he can do extra work during read aloud at the end of the day.
We are still working on the Loo issue. That is getting the kids to use the loo during recess. Kids are coming in right after recess saying, "I have to go really bad." I had to break it to them but I am being a Nazi about it. You use the loo during recess or no less than 15 minutes after. This can be more, depending on if I am talking. I know, they are kids and they need to be able to use the bathroom. I agree with this and my professors in college would probably refuse to aknowledge that I went through their program if they found this out. However, this is how I am doing it. These kids have too much to lose by using the loo every 20 minutes. They have three recesses and can use it just about any other time. On the other hand I do not mind if somebody else has another idea. Let me know what you think.

Numbers

2006-09-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

Typically, at our school, numbers are all the rage the first week of school. Heck, even the first two weeks of school. They're something to complain about. "What do your numbers look like?" they ask. Well, she has this. He has that. If we each lost this many, we would have enough. Get a grip man.
The numbers being asked about are the kids. I have 27 third graders in my class. And if each third grade teacher had 27 few kids, some teachers would be in the negatives. Just ask Mrs. Davidson, the self-proclaimed professional on classroom numbers. Every day she asks you how many kids you have in your class and, on some days, I have no clue. Because I don't give a crap because I do not control the hiring or the numbers. I am so worried about what I am going to teach and the giant mess in my room that how many kids I teach is just a number.
Of course it is the first week of school and once kids get comfy this can all change. I can tell , though that my kids are getting used to me. They all came in quietly, looked at the board and commenced to working. They all were ready to go over homework at 9:05, just as I had specified. And only two kids did not do it. Okay, three. One did it right before we corrected it. I called the other two parents and had it taken care of first thing in the morning. I felt like a Nazi for it but these things I want taken care of NOW. And I value parent/teacher communication. i do need to throw in some positive information though. Because I want the kids to know that I care about the good things they are doing as well. This is proven to be beneficial to kids' education. So that is something I will work harder to do. It is a simple thing but it takes time and at this point that is something I do not feel I have enough of.

First Day

2006-09-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

The rush was on until the first bell rang. I felt like I was going to be playing in a football game. The energy was flowing and I was pumped. I was jumping up and down at times and just felt like pushing somebody around, with the expectation of someone pushing back. I was excited.
Be that as it may, there was still a job to do. Having PE and Music near the beginning of the day, it was my job to get kids semi-settled and out the door to Music. But when the doors open upon the first bell ringing, it is literal pandamonium and difficult to settle everybody. Parents, new kids and loads or papers hinder a teacher from really getting in to the process of getting everybody geared up for transition. I had a kid not on my class list who another teacher said, "He is in your room." I sent him to find his seat without knowing he was not on my list, and did not have a name tag. As he circled the room I thought about the predicament in between the many questions from children and adults. Once the kids were off to Music, I went to the office to find out what was going on. After some sorting out, we learned he was supposed to be in Mrs. Tender's class. This was fine because I could tell the kid was going to be a handful. But I fell sad because I could also tell he needed a teacher like me and, that teacher is quite nearly the opposite of me in style.
So the day went on. That's it. It went on, seemingly without stop. We cooked through reading and predicting. Then came lunch, then Math. And while we were entrenched in the end of the day and getting to know one another, we ran over in to our read aloud time and settled for missing it.
My feeling on the day is that it went well for the most part. I am not at all used to such a scholastic first day of school but more of the technical stuff with a little academics. Routine and knowing names is how I started last year. We are getting to that but I do feel as though things are falling in to place as we are going. I wonder perhaps if I am on a continuance of last year when I had the best kids in the world. This is not at all a similar group besides the fact that I do have great kids who are very likeable. But there are some very interesting personalities that do not all mesh.
My team teacher and I are working on starting The Daily Five next week and I need to make sure I have a pretty good grip on these kids before I can get started on that. Admittedly, I am a little nervous about this but know that I can get these kids under wraps. No problem.

Finally, a little accountability

2006-08-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

Home ~ Schoolers Rule

WASL and Standardized Tests

2006-08-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

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.