What's in a Grade?

As the first term of the school year comes to a close, questions arise about grades, how one earns a grade and what that grade really means.

Grade Inflation is a term that is thrown around a lot in both secondary and postsecondary education, but what is it?  Any time we hear the word inflation we immediately think that something is now worth less than it was before.  (The only time we like the word inflation is when it refers to balloons, or a raft that you can lay on all summer in the pool).

In schools across America an average student used to be expected to receive a "C" in their classes; nice and simple located directly in the middle of the 5 point scale A, B, C, D, F. (don't even get me started on leaving out the letter E... system already makes no sense)  But in today's reality, the average student is expected to receive grades of A's and B's.  C's are for underperforming students, and if you receive a "D" or and "F" then you must be a delinquent causing problems in class, and there's clearly no hope for you.

With our expectations skewed to the upper end of the scale, how do we sift through the sea of 'A's and determine the truly high achieving students from the new average student.  Students from the "every kid gets a trophy" Millennial Generation expect A's, want A's, but only in some circumstances (definitely less than the 50% who receive them) deserve A's.

In reality the question is whether or not it matters at all, as long as students are learning.  Do grades, typically based on teacher-made assessments, reflect real student learning or simply the ability of students to regurgitate the information provided to them by the teacher.  What is a genuine assessment of student preparedness for college? Career? Life in general?

So as you fellow educators finalize your grades, send out your comments (equally questionable in their purpose or purposefulness), take a moment to consider what they mean; are you too harsh, too lenient, or just stuck working within the confines of defining student progress with a meaningless number.

-MB

For additional reading on grade inflation from people who actually did research click here:

ASCD article "Research Says / Grade Inflation: Killing with Kindness?"

5 Things I Never Thought About Being a First Year Teacher

Welcome to Columbus Day weekend, the first respite for teachers a little over one month into the school year.  As a first year teacher in a substantially separate special education program I have already learned so much, discovered how little I was prepared for, and have set my sights on achieving so much by the time my students leave for the Thanksgiving break in 2 months.  Reaching this first milestone seemed like a good time to re-ignite the reflective nature of this blog and post about what I've learned that they DIDN'T tell me about in college.

1. Young does not equal inexperienced: As a new teacher you have to ask questions, get advice from more experienced teachers, but also be confident that what you know is useful, you didn't spend 4+ years in college studying this stuff for nothing.  Take the skills and run with them!

2. Ask lots of questions, but not too many: Don't be afraid to ask questions of administrators, veteran teachers, other new teachers, secretaries (keepers of all knowledge), etc.  Try, however, to find answers on your own first, and when asking questions, don't always go to the same person for an answer, there are plenty of people to build relationships with, ask them all.

3. Contact parents early and often: This is more applicable in the special education setting, however, it can be done in various ways in a general education setting.  Sending home weekly emails about student progress, both positive and negative shows parents that you care, that you have their child's best interest in mind, which goes a long way when issues arise.  Parents can be your best advocate or your biggest critic, make sure they bat on your team.

4. Eat lunch with your colleagues: The social environment in a school provides great opportunities for teachers to let go, relax, and re-energize.  Nothing is better than lunch.  Perfect mid-day vent sessions, counseling sessions, advice giving sessions.  Eat lunch with a group of like-minded teachers to keep you going throughout the day / week / year

5. Laugh with your students: Building a rapport with your students is a must!  Sure there's more to teach than there's time for, and some students are so behind you're not sure they'll every catch up.  And there's the students with behavior issues.  But if you spend a little time each day getting to know them, making them laugh, it goes a long way to creating a positive learning environment. (not to mention eliminating the majority of behavior problems!)

-MB

Co-teaching: Is It Working for You?

Generally when people think of co-teaching the first thing that comes to mind is really called "Team-Teaching" where two educators work together in similar roles to provide comprehensive and differentiated instruction to a class of students.  This is the ideal in an inclusion classroom where varying approaches can help meet the needs of students on IEPs.  However, there are also other forms of co-teaching that can be effective in certain situations.

In some cases, especially in a classroom where the ability range is not drastic but there are a couple students with additional needs, a complimentary approach might be best.  This is where one teacher takes the lead role and the other provides supplementary aides for the students who need it such as additional notes or re-wording instructions/questions.  And there are a variety of other co-teaching strategies in between.

However, there are a number of things that are simply not co-teaching.  For example, just having two bodies in the room does not constitute co-teaching unless both are actively engaged in the course material and are consistently and continuously providing support for students.  Also, having someone in the room is only effective if they know the course material enough to provide the supports needed for students.  Co-teaching is most effective when both teachers can work off each other and know the make-up of the classroom to provide a safe and structured learning environment.

Image - teachingdreaminglearning.blogspot.com

If your school has co-taught classrooms ask yourself these questions and determine if your the structure needs tweaking in order to be most effective for the student population you serve:

1. Are the needs of all students in the classroom being met?
2. Do both teachers feel they are being effective aids to students in the class?
3. Do the teachers communicate effectively with one another to lay out a plan for the day's lesson?
4. Could each teacher effectively implement the lesson alone?
5. Do both teachers know the needs of all students on IEPs?

If the answer to one or more of these questions is NO then it might be beneficial to sit down and determine what needs to be added or changed to the co-teaching plan to make it an effective system for your classroom.  Co-teaching works (multiple studies have shown significant improvements in learning) however as with all teaching, there is a continuum and more effective co-teaching has better results.

-MB

For more information about effective co-teaching search for articles by Marylin Friend and Lynne Cook

Thought Provoking Video...

The following video was created by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (see their site HERE).  Whether you agree or disagree with the content of the video, it definitely gets you thinking about the many issues in education in the United States. - Enjoy

-MB

Teacher Evaluations: How Do We Quantify Success?

As we well know, there is a new teacher evaluation system being rolled out in states across the country.  This  was a highlight to the Chicago Teacher's Union strike a few weeks ago.  In an interview, Ed Payne from CNN asked members of the CTU about their objections to a new teacher evaluation tool:

Image - www.nytexaminer.com

Q. Why are teachers objecting to evaluations tied to performance?

A. The union says student performance is directly linked to conditions in the home or neighborhood, making it unfair for teachers to be punished if students don't do well in the the classroom for those reasons.

(click HERE for the full interview)

And herein lies the quintessential question that surrounds all teacher evaluations - how much can student performance be measured and appropriately linked to teacher performance?

Despite popular opinion, I do not think most teachers are opposed to being evaluated, nor are they opposed to having their performance determine whether or not they keep their position.  Teachers, especially younger teachers, understand that there are many more people applying for jobs than there are positions to be had.  If you're a low man on the totem pole, you're going to WANT your evaluation to help you keep your job, and you probably wouldn't mind if someone at the top had to work just as hard to keep theirs.

Where teachers are concerned is, just as the CTU members stated, the relationship of student performance to their own ability to teach.  There will always be that one student or couple of students who are almost impossible to reach.  Even a master teacher, who's been teaching for 25+ years can have a student that they're not sure how to help.  Does this failure equate to them being inadequate as a teacher?  Of course not, and the new evaluation system wouldn't hold a small percentage of the student population against them.  However, what happens in a school district where the majority of the student population is underperforming?  Is the entire teacher population at risk of losing their jobs because their district isn't making the grade?  

This is where the CTU has some ground to stand on in making their case.  In a district with a large number of at-risk students, it would be concerning to base your teacher evaluations on the performance of these students.  At the same time, there are teachers who have great success with at-risk students across the country, so would it be terrible if these school districts only looked for the best?  (are there enough of these teachers who don't burn out after 5 years...)

I don't think there's a clear answer in this debate, but what is clear is that teacher new teacher evaluations are here to stay and the best way to deal with it is to make sure that you're doing the best you can in your classroom.  Any teacher who honestly puts their all into their work (which most teachers do) has nothing to worry about.  On the other hand, if you're a teacher who has been riding the wave letting students come and go without putting in too much effort to update your curriculum, or develop new strategies for working with students who struggle, maybe you should take a closer look at your career and find a way to fix things before the evaluation becomes an issue for you.

-MB

Next week: Merit Pay

The Art of the Special Ed Paraprofessional

Note: As I sat down to write this blog post I realized that I had to clarify the misnomer that is my blog title.  Currently, I am not working as a history teacher but as a special education paraprofessional in a high school while completing my Masters program.

Most people in the education world know (or think they know) what a paraprofessional is doing as they travel from class to class either exclusively with one student, or with a cohort of students who need additional assistance at school.  However, in one month of work I have learned a few things I didn't know that could make all the difference in being successful.

The first is that if you're working exclusively with one student as a 1:1 aide, your relationship with that student is essential for the success of that student.  They need to know that you care, that you're confident in their ability to achieve great things, and that they can trust you to help them when they need it.  I would go as far as to say trust is the most important part of being a 1:1.  The moment that the student believes you will do everything in your power to help them be successful, you're on your way to a smooth year.

But there's another piece that is equally important and also follows the principle of trust.  The relationships between the para and the classroom teachers are critical.  The teachers need to know and understand that you are there to help the child succeed within the parameters of the class.  You can provide additional assistance on classwork, help the student with strategies to study for an exam, and most important, keep the student on task and paying attention.  Para's should engage in regular conversation with teachers before or after class or the school day to make sure they're on the same page with the plan for success.  Get a rundown of the game-plan for a lesson so you will know when and where your student might need your help and you can prepare for it in advance.  Teacher's appreciate knowing that you care and that you're assisting the student, not simply doing the work for them.  Also, don't be a distraction in class.  While you're clearly not invisible, and most students aren't given extra help silently, it is best to be discreet and at the same time if you're able to help other students around you, it can't hurt to use the extra adult presence in the classroom to help maintain order and keep all students on task.

My job also gives me the opportunity to work in a classroom as an aide for a large contingent of students who have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).  Communication between the teacher and para is even more critical in this environment because you're not tied to one student, but really to all of the students in the classroom.  In a high school classroom, you don't often see all of the students with IEPs hanging out in one corner screaming "we're over here and yes we need your assistance."  Instead, one of the great successes of inclusive education is that they're dispersed among their peers.  In this environment, the best tactics that I've observed/used are using almost a co-teaching method.  While your ultimate purpose is to be an additional support to those key students, you're also helping out with anyone who might have a question.  The teacher is up front, leads the lesson, gives instruction and begins to walk around while the students engage in the activity, the para then kicks into action and can help any and all students complete and achieve the daily goals.  Don't single out the students with special needs, they feel enough pressure as it is.

Again, creating a bond with each student so they feel your job is to help them succeed is the best way to achieve success as a paraprofessional.

-MB

P.S. If you're a general education teacher, don't hesitate to ask the para their opinion about differentiating the lesson, or adapting a project to meet the needs on the IEP.  Hopefully they have enough experience either with that specific student or in special ed in general to help create a successful plan.  Engage them to help create a positive atmosphere in the classroom, they'll appreciate it.

Don't Be Afraid to Learn From Your Students

We live in a digital world where things change rapidly and no one has the time to keep up. (especially not teachers)  Students today have grown up surrounded by technology and it is well known by now that they will always be one step ahead of the generation that came before.  This is old news, and by the standards of the digital age where news is old after 27 seconds (according to common AT&T ads), this is ancient news.

www.cartoonstock.com

So why even bother talking about it?  

As a tech savvy 90s child who grew up with a lot of technology, I find myself falling further and further behind in the race to comprehend the uses and abilities of today's technology.  I'm taking classes on the use of technology in schools and the curriculum for the class is outdated even before it's printed.  How are we, the educators, supposed to keep up with the latest trends and understand the technology that our students are using on a daily basis?  The answer is simple: let them teach us.

The effort is being made by older teachers to modify their lessons and incorporate technology into the classroom.  But many of these well-meaning teachers have spent the last 5 years or so developing amazing lessons and getting accustomed to technology that is now obsolete and needs to be updated again.  SMART Boards seem to have already been replaced in some ways by iPad and Apple TV technology.  Teachers can't possibly adapt and change their lessons to keep up with the demand for new and improved.

The better solution is to develop lessons that work using a variety of technologies and then let the students decide how they are going to best complete the assignment.  If the student has an iPhone or iPad and wants to make a movie using some app - let them.  If the student is not quite so up and coming and wants to use the seemingly outdated PowerPoint - go for it.  Or if the student wants to find a technology that came out somewhere in the middle like a Prezi presentation - why not.  The important part of the lesson is the content, not the method.  Giving students the freedom to be creative and use technology that you might not even know exists is a leap of faith, but it is one that will be rewarded time and again because you will learn new things from your students.

I like to think of myself as current, up to date on Facebook, Twitter, I've used an iPad, I have a smartphone, but it's also important to remember I can learn a thing or two from the students myself, they're the ones with the free time to learn it all.

-MB

The Importance of Letting Students Know You Care

image - www.frameworkinstitute.org 

When a student is struggling in class, every teacher hopes and expects that that student will come forward and ask for help, and many times they will.  However, if the student doesn't believe the teacher cares about their success, or even worse, would help them when they ask, then there is little chance that the student will say anything at all.

As teachers, we all care about the well-being and success of our students.  We would all like for each and every one of them to succeed and move on to bigger and better things.  Yet, we understand that some students will not succeed through no fault of their own unless we give them that extra boost to help them on their way.  A good teacher is available and willing to help any student who asks for it, a great teacher knows which student needs help and goes to them without being asked.

Life happens, it often gets in the way and it rarely proves to be an easy road to walk down.  Balanced adults can handle the curve-balls and still hit home-runs, but the average teenager is going to strike out a few times before they get on base.  Help them with their swing - show them the techniques that will enable them to succeed in your class.  If you were going to be a student in your own class how would YOU take notes?  How would YOU prepare for the test?  It's not cheating to provide the tools that they need to succeed.  Remember, just because they've already been in school for several years doesn't mean they've figured out which strategies work best for them.

School is about learning more than just the material in the curriculum.  School is about learning interpersonal relationships.  Its about learning respect and decency that is required of all human beings in society.  Its about  discovering that caring for someone else can be even more gratifying that simply caring about yourself.  Show your students you care, share in their successes and hold them up through their failures.  If they know you care, maybe (not always) they'll care a little more too and their drive to succeed will inspire the students around them to do the same.

-MB

NEXT WEEK: Don't Be Afraid to Learn from Your Students

Remembering that Our Parents' Childhoods are Today's History

With the passing of one of the greatest members of the greatest generation, it is easy to forget that the average high school student hasn't learned much about what happened in the years after World War II.  Neil Armstrong was a pioneer of the last frontier and was also a great example of humility and devotion to one's country and to personal ideals.  He is an icon that students should look up to, but one that many students have either never heard of, or only in passing.

If you're a teacher, and have been teaching since you graduated college in the 1980s then there are about 40 years that you would consider "present day" that the average student knows barely anything about.  If you've been teaching since the 90s you forget that students now have no idea what the First-Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) was, only that George W. Bush "finished what his father started." If you've been teaching since 2000, you're about to find out that students have always lived in a post-9/11 world and believe that every act of violence can be linked to terrorism. So why is this important?

History classes have to add more and more information each year as the history of the world gets longer and longer.  It is impossible, even in a high school where four years of history are required to cover this wide range of information.  In many high schools U.S. History is covered in a two-year curriculum.  The history of the United States, which typically starts with some type of understanding of the groups that lived here already, and the first European settlers in the 17th Century.  That means history teachers are being asked to cover over 400 years of information in 360 days.  (I'm not a math person, but even I can see that you have to cover more than a years worth of information per day)

Recent history is the first to get cut out, simply because by the time you get there, you've run out of time to teach it.  What we're left with is a group of students who, despite having so much information at their fingertips in this technological age, don't know some of the great figures of history that are still living among us.  Neil Armstrong is NOT the guy who rides bikes and had cancer.  (Yes, I have actually heard people make that mistake!)

While it is becoming increasingly difficult to fit the copious amounts of information into such a limited time-frame, using tools such as "This Day in History" to start your class, or finding the birthdays of major figures of the past 50 years and having a 5 minute discussion on why they are important is critical to not letting the recent past be forgotten. It is our responsibility to take the legacy of our parents' generation and turn it into the lasting history that our grandchildren will continue to study.

-MB

In Honor of a Great American

image - lunarscience.nasa.gov

Back to School: Keeping Politics in the Classroom, But Leaving the "Politics" Behind

For most schools in Massachusetts this is the last weekend of summer.  Teachers will enter their buildings on Monday to begin preparing for student arrivals.  Students will be flooding the stores to buy that new pair of shoes, clothes, the coolest backpacks and if they have time maybe some of those not so cool school supplies.

On this last weekend of summer another group is flooding (hopefully not literally... Issac) into Tampa Bay to begin a week-long political ritual known as the Republican National Convention.  It will be followed the week after by the Democrats' version in North Carolina.  This provides for countless hours of political drama, "he said"/"she said," doomsday statements about Medicare, the civil war that will break out if one side gets elected, etc.  But this is also a perfect teaching moment to truly engage students because they can relate their knowledge to the world they're seeing around them.

Andrew Jackson is attributed with holding the first truly "national" conventions to nominate a candidate for president in 1832.  Prior to this, party elites would select the candidate they felt would best represent their interests in the White House.  So despite the fact that these conventions seem distant and that the average person really doesn't have a say in what happens there - they represent a huge leap forward in the democratic process of party politics.

Not being too far removed from my classroom experience leading up to the 2008 elections, and having some distant memories of the 2004 elections I have a list of suggestions that might help teachers in disseminating the information, but leaving as many of their biases at home as possible.

1. If you're going to talk about one candidates stance on an issue, give an equal amount of time to the other candidate

     

     Students pick up on any and all perceived biases that teachers have.  If a teacher keeps telling students about one candidates plan and how it will save the country the students clearly know where that teacher's favor lies and might be unfairly swayed based on one side of the story.  Students are impressionable and teachers have a lot more power than they might realize in shaping student ideas.

2. Try to avoid political satire

     Its out there, and its funny, but it usually zeros in on a small one-sided part of an argument and often misses the big picture.  While a well-educated adult who has had years to formulate their world-view can laugh at a show like "The Daily Show" but not take it too seriously, students haven't developed beyond believing everything they hear from a "reputable" person.  They might not believe what John Stewart says, but if a teacher presents it as a good argument, that's another story.  Tread carefully.

3. Play devil's advocate and keep your views a secret

   Students WANT to know what you think about an issue.  They will become increasingly inquisitive and read into every comment you say if you keep your opinions to your self.  When having a discussion about politics (or any topic for that matter) always come prepared with both sides of the argument so you can debate against any idea your students present.  Its good practice for people to see both sides of an issue before formulating an opinion.  One of my favorite history teacher's in high school said he would tell us his political views after we graduated... I had him freshman year and despite countless attempts he never wavered. Upon graduating I could have asked (some friends did), but at that point I had realized his opinions were his own, and it was up to me to develop MY own based on what I'd learned, not based on what his were.  A great lesson I hope to teach my students.

4. Teach your students about biases 

     They're everywhere.  Every television news organization, every magazine, every newspaper has a bias of some sort.  There's no such thing as a truly unbiased source of information in this country.  However, if you teach students to take everything they hear with a grain of salt, find out what the other side is saying, and develop their own opinions, then you enable them to rise above the biases.  Also, teach them the difference between the news and talking heads.  National nightly news is very different and more likely to be factual than a show like "The O'Reilly Factor" or "Morning Joe."  One is trying to present you with information (yes, it's still biased) while the other is also providing entertainment and trying to get ratings.

5. Don't cut productive conversations short

     If your students are engaged, asking genuine questions and providing thoughtful and appropriate responses in a class discussion, your PowerPoint on Christopher Columbus can wait. (they probably won't pay attention to it anyway...)  Allow students to spread their wings and become active members of the political process.  The only way to ensure a democracy will work is to make sure the participants are educated.  It's too late when they're 18 to start teaching them about the voting process and the issues, any opportunity to have a productive conversation or debate should be leaped upon.  There will be plenty of time to cover the other topics the rest of the year.

-MB

Obama Talks Education in his Weekly Address

Weekly Address: Congress Should Back Plan to Hire Teachers

President Obama's weekly address today talks about a plan to hire back teachers.  He states that the United States has lost over 300,000 education jobs in the past few years.  Looking at the current job market for teachers, I've noticed that the average job posting for a classroom teacher in Massachusetts receives over 100 applicants.  At the same time, the average class size continues to rise and currently there are schools with between 30-35 students per class.  With all of these licensed teachers searching desperately for jobs, the problem in our schools isn't one of resources or availability, it's a money issue.

It would be great it there was a way to get funding for education from somewhere other than state and local government.  While these institutions do the best they can in most places, they do not have enough money to run themselves AND provide for education.  Having the federal government give a little more to support education would not only create jobs (remember that 300,000 figure...) but also provide our children with a better education.

I do not know all the details to the plan the president mentioned in his video, but SOME plan is better than no plan. Romney-Ryan do not believe the federal government should be responsible for education in this country, believing it is a state/local issue.  I believe that Education should be one of the greatest priorities of the Federal government as it is an issue that affects our national standing in the world.

Let's get the education issue on the table this election season - its just as important to the economy as medicare and taxes.

-MB

State of the Race: Where Romney-Ryan and Obama-Biden stand on Education

This morning after learning of Romney's decision to have Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate, I decided it was finally time to do a little perusing through the issues.  Of course the first issue on all websites is the economy and the tit-for-tat between the candidates and political pundits on this issue has been rather nauseating the past few months.  I decided to pick a lesser discussed topic and do some light reading on the candidates' websites: Education.

Let's start with Barack Obama (see Education Policy) as he has already had 3 years to implement some type of Education policy.

1. Making college more affordable: He's doubled Pell Grants, helped students deal with student loans and has "plans" to reform community colleges to provide a better pathway to jobs.
   
   - for the most part, as a recent college grad I like to hear these things, college is becoming more and more expensive and any relief or assistance is appreciated, however where is this money coming from when the government can't afford the programs they already have in place?
   
2. Reforming No Child Left Behind: President Obama allowed for states to create their own, more efficient and productive plans and apply for waivers from NCLB.
   
   -might be a good thing, might not, all depends on the state.  For instance, Massachusetts has always had good education, before NCLB, despite NCLB and it will continue to have a good education system after NCLB.  But the law wasn't passed for states like Massachusetts, it was passed to help students in states like Mississippi and Alabama whose scores in Science and Math are in need of much improvement.  Generating an alternative as opposed to just negating NCLB might have been a better course of action, but the jury is still out on this one
   
3. Supporting Teachers an Students: President Obama wants states to "Keep good teachers on the job and keep students in school until the graduate or turn 18"
   
   -sounds good to me, how are you going to do it?  I don't think there's a single politician out there who would say anything different from this as part of their education policy (except maybe Ron Paul who thinks the government shouldn't have an education policy).
   

Biden's similarities and differences: at this point, he no longer has his own website and it would probably be a copy&paste from the President's website effectively removing his opinions from record

Now for Governor Romney's proposals (see Education Policy) most of which are based on the successes of Massachusetts education during his term as governor.

1. Expand access to charter schools: Governor Romney believes that charter schools allow parents to choose so they're not forced to send their children to failing schools.
   
   -when I read this it sounds like turning education into a Free Market system.  If your public school is failing, then shut it down by creating charter schools and sending all of your students there.  Is this really fixing the problem in public schools or just brushing it under the rug?  What about the students who cannot get in to the charter school for whatever reason?  Are they left to attend the now half-empty and definitely not well supported public school?
   
2. Making college more affordable: Governor Romney proposed a scholarship that would give free tutition to the top 25% of students if they attended a state institution.
   
   -this policy (though I don't remember it being Romney's idea) has been quite a success in Massachusetts.  As a recipient of this scholarship, the $4,000 it saved me over four years was just one less thing I needed to worry about. (note: just found an article while writing this and it WAS a Romney proposal see Article)  I'm not sure how this could work on a national level, but finding ways to help students attend college is always a good thing, so long as the budget can afford it.
   
3. Empower Governors to reform their education systems: Governor Romney believes that each state should set its own regulations and education reform should not be a national priority.
   
   -That's great, if the governor has the resources and wherewithal to do so.  I believe part of his reasoning for wording the policy this way is because he can say "I was governor of Massachusetts and our education system worked great."  The problem I have with this was that Massachusetts had a great education system long before Romney became governor, and nothing he did during his term really impacted the system as a whole.
   

Ryan's similarities and differences: Congressman Ryan doesn't say too much that is at all different from Governor Romney's policies.  He is also in favor of charter schools and believes that education policy should come from state and local government, not the federal government.

Those are the basics of what is coming in with whomever is elected president. Please add your own opinions and information to help fill out this article.

-MB

Countdown To Student Teaching

16 days remain until my first day of student teaching.  After successfully completing 3 1/2 years of my undergraduate degree, all means nothing without a successful completion to this semester of work.  Needless to say, the next two weeks will be spent in mental preparation for what I hope will be the #1 most important learning experience of my college career.

Each week over the next 4 months or so there will be a post in a new blog entitled "Student Teaching - Beginning a Career in Learning" which will detail the highs and lows of the semester.

image - coloradoea.org

Here's to the beginning of something exciting and new!

-MB

Apathy Doesn't Help Students

Back from my three-week hiatus, end of the semester craziness has finally come to a close!


When you walk into a classroom you can immediately tell whether this is a place of learning for students or a holding cell for the down-trodden, waiting to age-out or drop-out.  Anyone with experience in education has seen their fair share of both of these types of classrooms.  However, it is important to realize the fundamental difference between the two and its probably not what you'd expect.

image - www.savagechickens.com

Recently, while doing observation hours in an urban school district, I came across a teacher who said he could only accomplish so much because the students did not have support from home, had unstable and terrible home-lives, and were unmotivated to learn.  He made the honest and humble claim that he was not a miracle worker.  Surely, this teacher cannot be faulted if he does not have the drive and motivation to go the extra mile to engage these disenfranchised students, they're already counted as lost causes by society.  Which one of the two classrooms I mentioned earlier do you think this teacher had? Why?

Flip to another observation experience (it took four years but I've realized 20 hours a semester has begun to pay off), this time in a suburban school district, and the teacher is not only a teacher, but a coach for one of the school's athletic teams.  Motivator? Oh you know it, he could motivate someone to think that derivatives in calculus was entertaining!  However, this classroom of mostly middle-class students is sitting idly unfocused and unmotivated to learn while the teacher shows a video on the topic that day.  What's this teacher's reason for having disengaged students?

One more anecdote from an observation experience: this time in another urban school district.  It is a co-taught mathematics class and the general ed teacher and special ed teacher are working hand in hand to get this class of 30 students to understand how to graph a line using slope-intercept form (talk about BORING).  About 25 % of the students are on IEPs and there is a student who has a auditory deficiency and has an interpreter.  Every student in this classroom is engaged.  Every student is participating. and at the end of the lesson every student leaves with the satisfaction of having learned a new skill.  Oh, I forgot to mention that many of these students come from the troubled home-lives mentioned in the first scenario.  Why is this classroom any different?

Educators must understand that all students have an innate desire to learn, to better themselves, to improve their situations.  If the educator gives up on the student, who is left to look out for them?  Teacher apathy is what stands in the way of educational success and is what marks the major difference between a person who is teaching, and a person who is a teacher.  Teaching is a life-long vocation, not a 40hours a week job. No student deserves being given up on, and every student can be motivated to learn.  It's just a matter of finding their trigger and taking the time to form a relationship.

As I look forward to my student teaching experience, I hope to keep the energy and drive alive because students feed off of the energy of their teacher.  If the fire burns out, find a new profession because students need teachers who are motivated, driven and have a passion for learning.

-MB

Where Does Bullying Come From?

When people start talking about bullying, everyone always starts with the schoolyard bully who is there taking your lunch money.  Now, with the attention being given to suicide victims in high schools and colleges especially, the bully is the student or group of students who are bigots and base their hatred on sexual orientation.  Then, of course, there is the focus on cyber-bullying, because as things go in the 21st Century, technology is a part of all aspects of life, even the negative ones.  But all of these conversations are related to bullying occurring with children, teens, and young adults, what about the bullying that happens in the professional world?

Here, bullying doesn't exist, or so people would have you think.  Adults no longer get accused of bullying unless they fall into one of these categories: sexual harassment, discrimination (racism, sexual orientation, gender) or slander.  Sure, these are really bad forms of bullying, possibly some of the worst in the adult world and are punishable by law, however, what about all of the other bullying that happens that ISN'T quite this bad and doesn't get prosecuted.  I'm just going to mention a few instances of professional bullying that I've witnessed in the past year... I know there's more so feel free to add your own experiences in the comments.


Teachers: According to many conservatives, teachers are overpaid, under-worked and ungrateful people who don't deserve any of the credit they are given.  People are allowed to say "people who can, do; people who can't, teach" on national television without any flak whatsoever.  This is bullying, however subtle.

Muslims: Remember the mosque and community center that was supposed to be built "within the shadow" of ground zero?  Remember how it was ok to say that they had no right to build a mosque so close to ground zero  because the 9/11 attacks were carried about by Muslim terrorists.  How can people be allowed to have such utter disregard for our First Amendment right of freedom of religion?  Why is guilt by association ok simply because a terrorist was from a specific religion?  Are all Christians terrorists when one person kills 85 people in Norway and has a religious reason for it?

image - politicalhumor.about.com

Politics: The presidential campaign is the #1 source of bullying examples in the United States every four years.  The candidates hire hundreds of people to "dig up the dirt" on their opponents and then go on million dollar smear campaigns to make the other person look as terrible as possible for whatever reason they can find.  If you are putting someone else down in order to make you feel better about yourself you are the classic bully.  So why do we accept it as a normal part of our electoral process?  What lesson does this teach kids? (if you're the best bully, you can be president)

According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children can learn behaviors simply by observing it.  Students are encouraged to watch and participate actively in society especially in the political process.  Put these two statements together and you are encouraging students to observe bullying therefore exacerbating the situation.  Let's put an end to bullying in the adult world because we can't ask our students to accomplish something we can't ourselves.

TIME in school IS MONEY well spent

With all of the talk of shortening school days, moving from the traditional 5 day school week to a 4 day school week, even shortening school years to save money, one thing strikes me as odd: How can ANYONE in their right mind think that this is going to benefit students?

Consider this -

image - donmillereducation.com

• The average school day is about 6.5 hours long and  divided into anywhere from 4 to 7 blocks/periods.

• In some schools these blocks/periods rotate so that students who perform badly at a certain time of day have an equal opportunity to succeed in all of their classes, however, this means not every class meets every day

• Each class is either 60mins or 90mins in length (with some variation)

• Students generally take about 5 mins to get settled in each class and attention is typically lost for the final 5 mins of a class bringing the teachable total down to 50 or 80 mins

• This means in a school with 5 blocks per day, a student loses about 50mins of class time getting settled, that's 250mins (or just over 4 hours) per week.

If you shorten the school week to 4 days do you increase the productivity of students for the brief time they're there?  Most likely not.  While teachers might benefit from a long weekend every week giving them ample time to charge their batteries, get papers corrected and plan for their next lesson, students will be more likely to forget information and need to be retaught each Monday in order to prevent regression.  All teachers no that Monday mornings require them to be on their "A-game" as students will be lethargic from having two days off.  Now give those same students 3 days off and see what happens...

Understandably with budgets becoming increasingly difficult to balance, school districts are being asked to make hard decisions in order to preserve the quality of education for their students.  But making a decision that reduces the amount of time a student is in school consecutively sounds like a terrible plan.  If anything the school day should be longer (perhaps with a longer lunch period) so that students can have even more "teachable" time.  Low-income students would benefit from increased school time as their families wouldn't have to worry about spending as much on child-care and they would have less unstructured time which could get them into troubled environments.

The old adage "Time is Money" could never be more appropriate than speaking about educating the youth of America.  The problem we seem to be having is forgetting that time in schools, LEARNING, is money well spent on our future.

-MB

Teachers Are Overpaid: Really?!

This post is a response to an article posted by U.S. News and World Report Education read the article and feel free to post YOUR response to the study in the comments.

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Wow. What value is a child's education? Can you place a dollar sign next to a child and say, "That is how much their education is worth to our nation." It is a common fact among college students aspiring to become teachers that we say to one another, "teaching will be my first job, not sure what my second job will be yet, but I'm bound to have one."

Sure, the hours sound great, all of the major holidays, and not to mention you'll never have to work on weekends... That is, unless you're so passionate and dedicated, like most teachers are, that you spend countless hours preparing for the next days lesson, correcting tests and papers, and spending hundreds of your own dollars to make those students' experience in school as excellent as possible.

The next study they should do would be how many hours the average teacher spends outside of the normal school day doing work-related activity and add it on to the amount of hours they work in a year. Then take their salary and subtract all of the money they invest back into their classroom (usually on essentials like paper and pencils, not extra, unnecessary materials). Now divide that salary over the number of hours and see how much the average teacher is REALLY making per hour. Compare that to the "market average" and then, look a hardworking, exhausted teacher (who works another job all summer) in the face and tell them, "You're overpaid." 

Beg, Borrow and Steal: Info Sharing Among Educators

Throughout the past 4 years of education classes, a common phrase that professors will use is "Beg, Borrow, and Steal" when referring to future educators obtaining resources to create lesson plans and the like.  When I had to complete countless hours of observation and pre-practicum hours the teachers in the schools all said the same thing and many offered their own materials as samples.  This idea of sharing information among educators makes perfect sense.  If a teacher has materials and resources that are extremely helpful to educating students, why wouldn't they want those resources used by other teachers to ensure student success across the board.

Image - businesscriticallearning.com

However, when it comes to actually finding resources to create lesson plans the one place that seems to fail everyone is the internet.  Long held as the place where you can find ANYTHING, the internet is surprisingly lacking as an teacher resource bank.  Sure, there are plenty of scholastic sites choc full of resources if you have the money to subscribe.  These are the same sites that create countless assessments used by schools, and even the creators of high school exit exams, college entrance exams, etc.




So it would appear that the last of the three rules of obtaining resources becomes a reality.  Copyright laws seem to go out the window, photocopies are made and materials are passed around from teacher to teacher, teacher to future teacher, and so on.  In a world where schools don't have enough money to pay their teachers and buy supplies for their classrooms, teachers are working two jobs because their passion for teaching outweighs their need for monetary compensation, these large educational corporations are making millions by developing the textbooks, creating the assessments, and most importantly, stocking up on all the resources so there's no where else to turn to get them.

Of course, teachers could (and should in some cases) develop and create their own resources to use with their lesson plans, however, in some situations it seems inefficient for each new teacher to re-create the wheel when they could be using that motivation and energy to improve upon what we already have and pave a new path forward.  Instead, new teachers will spend their first few years catching up to the rest of the education world, and by the time they're ready to discover something new, over half of them will be burnt out from getting where they are.

Let's change the old adage from "Beg, Borrow and Steal" and make it "Accept, Reuse, Improve"

-MB

Can a Presidential Election Help Education?

As I was reading some articles on the Republican debates that took place earlier this week, I thought to myself,  where is all the much needed attention on education reform?  Turns out, it falls well short of other seemingly more important topics, fixing the economy, job creation, and whether or not taxes should be raised, changed, cut or otherwise.  It was time for a quick and easy investigation.  I went to the websites of the top six candidates from the Republican Party to see what they might have to say for themselves that the media doesn't have time to focus on.

The results:

• Mitt Romney - Education is not listed as an issue

• Michele Bachmann - Education is not listed as an issue

• Rick Perry - Education is not listed as an issue

• Newt Gingrich - Education not listed as an issue

• Ron Paul - Shut down the Dept of Education and encourage homeschooling/private schooling

• Herman Cain - Localize education, remove federal government interference, let teachers and administrators fix things

My reaction: wow.

At a time when President Obama admits that NCLB didn't work the way it was planned, states are clamoring for funding and education reform is on the minds of many, how can it not be an issue large enough to garner a single sentence on a political candidates website?

As for the issues they deem more important than education, perhaps they would benefit from reading some timely articles about the jobs Americans aren't qualified to fill.  This ABC News article details companies that would love to invest in the United States, but have to train all of the employees themselves because they do not graduate with the skills required.  Or perhaps this article from the Times of India which shows jobs that already exist in the U.S. but take months to fill due to lack of qualified workers.

President Obama's American Jobs Act includes pieces that will provide money to hire workers to rebuild and upgrade American schools as well as money to keep teachers from being laid off.  Is this going to just increase our debt? According to the White House it's all paid for by our other major issue: Taxes (another post simply on this debate would be long enough as it is so I'll hold my tongue).  Whether or not you agree with the President's proposal, he, at least, is attempting to fix our broken schools as a method of keeping people employed.

So, to answer the question posed in the title of this article: No.  At least, not currently.  The only people running with a plan have a plan that says: Somethings wrong, let's ditch the whole thing and let states/towns fix it themselves.  We'll see how that works out...

-MB

Reforming Teacher Education

There has been a lot of press recently about holding teacher education programs accountable for the results of their students, i.e. the teachers in the schools.  As a soon-to-be graduate of a teacher education program that is considered fairly good and productive, I can say that the problem is not one program vs. another, the problem is simply the development of teacher education programs in general.  As I mentioned briefly in my last post, doctors, lawyers and a number of other professions do not simply allow graduates to be a full member of their field without at least a year of additional training and mentoring.  Teachers should be no different.

Engaging. Approachable. Helpful. Knowledgeable.  These are all qualities that a good teacher hopes to possess, however, it is not easy to gain these skills and qualities during a 16 week student teaching semester.  In fact, there is so much stress simply about having lesson plans done and "perfect" on paper that it is hard to have the time to develop the interpersonal skills that good teachers seem to exude.  Where are the programs that give teachers real hands-on experience in the classroom enough so that when they are thrown into their own classroom they don't panic, burn out or quit.

I want to be a great teacher, one of those teachers that the students want to have, the parents enjoying meeting with and staff come to to ask advice because things just seem to click for me.  From discussions with other students in the program I am aware that I'm not one of a kind, the majority of students who really want to teach want to have the tools necessary to really help students progress, not to just be the teacher who stands in front of the room and bores the students to tears.

Residency programs are the answer.  They provide students with a year or two years of mentored teaching, where the new teacher is not asked to bear the entire burden of teaching students in their first year of work.  Instead the workload is shared with an experienced teacher who knows the ropes and will make sure that the students do not lose out simply because you're trying to get your feet on the ground.  That is the key isn't it?  That the students receive a quality education and the tools they need to succeed.  So many students have missed years because their teacher was brand new, and not for lack of trying, simply did not have the experience to give them the help they might otherwise have received.  After this first year of mentored teaching, the new teacher has an entire year, start to finish, of working with students and seeing what works and what doesn't, learning classroom management and curriculum planning, all while having the support system necessary to get the job done.

Currently a major network of teacher residency programs that I was introduced to by a friend called Urban Teacher Residency United offers programs in many large urban areas in the United States.  But these programs shouldn't be limited to large urban school districts, instead teaching colleges and universities around the country should develop programs based on these models in their own areas whether urban, suburban, or rural.  Through a program like this, you are not guaranteed that every teacher will be great, but you certainly will avoid missing out on years of learning while a new teacher, who might be a great teacher soon, gets his/her feet under them.  And school districts will develop a sense of ownership of their new teachers. Teachers will be connected to their mentors and to other residents in the program and schools will have a better network of sharing teaching strategies and experience that benefit ALL teachers and most importantly, the students.

-MB