Teacher World

Well, here it is, the last day of July! To most people that probably doesn’t seem very significant, but to teachers everywhere, it marks the last glorious days of summer and the beginning of a new school year to plan for.

Summer is a time to unwind, regroup, and revitalize.  It’s a time to put aside the fast pace and stress that goes along with every school year long enough to enjoy those people who matter most to you and those activities you are unable to find time for during the hectic school year. It’s a time for long walks, sunny beaches, and packing the kids in the car and going on an adventure. Summers, for teachers, is a magical time when anything seems possible, and the world, as we know it, slows down long enough to enjoy the simple pleasures that seem to escape us during the school year.

 I hope you have had a wonderful summer filled with family, friends, new places, and new activities to discover. And I hope you are able to cram in as many more moments as possible before that inevitable first day of school.

We all are distinctly aware that as July days turn to August days there is a shift in our thoughts which ultimately leads to a shift in our activities.  We begin to reflect upon the previous year’s successes and failures in a whole new way. This self-scrutiny and examination will help us make decisions about what we need to improve upon, what we need to do more of, and what we need to drop completely. And we begin to reluctantly head back into the classroom to make it as vibrant, attractive, educationally stimulating, and welcoming as possible. It is a time for creative planning, mapping out the next year, and looking for new and exciting ways to teach the same curriculum.

In its own way, August is an exciting month as you anticipate another year, a new crop of students, and a plethora of opportunities. And each August, I think we all feel that adrenalin rush that comes with new beginnings. As much as I hope you enjoy the remainder of your summer vacation, I wish for you a great August and an exciting and wildly successful beginning to a fantastic new school year.

Teacher-World's Blog new school year, summer vacation, teachers

Okay, true confession: I hate Back-to-School ads and sales! Yes, you heard it right; I hate seeing them and hearing them, as crazy as that may sound! Let me explain myself further, and I am sure that once I do, many of you out there reading will admit to the same feelings.

Teachers love their summer vacations (those of us who get one, that is). It is such a looked-forward-to time. It’s a time of putting aside the previous school year, and reenergizing for the next. Reminders that we are heading back to school before that reenergizing process is complete are not looked upon favorably by most of us. And that is what those sales are; a way-too-early reminder that we are counting down the days till another year starts. Additionally, Back-to-School sales, like Christmas and Easter sales, are starting earlier and earlier. In our area, these sales started in early July. Really? Who is thinking of what they need to purchase for their youngsters that early? It’s pretty ridiculous! And all it does is force our minds to switch too early to another season of school. Can’t we slow down a little and just enjoy our vacation time? Do we really need to tarnish it with ridiculously-early reminders that another academic year is looming?

Don’t get me wrong. I take advantage of Back-to-School sales like everyone else. It is my time to replenish materials that have been used up or destroyed the year before. (I always need a new electric pencil sharpener!) And I love getting those items on sale, just like every parent out there. In fact, I plan an excursion today to my local Office Max store to do just that. But can’t we show a little restraint and hold off on any mention of Back-to-School sales until late July? Is that too much to ask, retailers? Or, if you must start your sales early for those eager parents and students who just can’t wait, do it quietly and discreetly. Come on! Show a little restraint for teachers (and probably most children) everywhere! Trust me; we will love you for it!

Teacher-World's Blog back to school, parents, retailers, students, teachers

While listening to the radio yesterday, I heard an advertisement that really got me fired up! It was an ad for an online school called K-12, and it began with a very derogatory representation of a public education teacher. A very Charlie Brown type teacher’s voice (you know the voice I’m talking about from our favorite cartoons, only this one is female) is heard drilling her students on the state capitals. The voice is aggravating and clearly depicted as one that would put her students to sleep. The children answer her like little robots, and the gist of the ad is that this is the kind of teacher students will find in public schools but not at K-12.

I know that alternative schools are in competition with public schools and must, therefore, advertise to increase their enrollment, but this advertisement is a total misrepresentation of the quality of education children receive in public schools. I can’t think of any time I have heard a teacher in my building respond to their students as this teacher does, and it angers me to hear us depicted in such a negative light. Any school which has to stoop to such a level to attract students should be subject to the highest scrutiny. Ads for alternative schools should focus on what their schools can offer students to make them successful learners. Period! And actually, when I visited the home page for K-12, I found it to be a viable alternative, especially for those students who do not function well in a more traditional environment or those who learn best through technology. Which begs the question then: why not just lead with that? Why not tell what K-12 is and what it can do for the right kind of students?

Interestingly, when I was checking out the home page for K-12, I was struck by a contradiction between its statements on the radio advertisement and this claim: “One of K¹²’s core missions is to strengthen the promise of public education with tools and techniques of the 21st Century that brings learning alive.” And it goes on to provide a link to further explain how their “flexible approach leads to strong, effective partnerships with both public and private schools.” Hmm…I wonder how that works in light of the derogatory ads they have on the radio about the very schools they hope to partner with!

Shame on you K-12! Shame on you for your slanderous depiction of public school teachers! And shame on you for seeking to attract parents to your school in this negative manner. Your radio advertisement paints you in a less than complimentary light which simply does not jive with your online home page. I suggest that you lead with the positive, and get the negative ads off the radio.

Changes in Teaching, Teacher-World's Blog K-12, online schools, public schools, students, technology

I read a great quote that I thought would be perfect to post in my classroom this year. It stated: A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to its job.

I love this simple reminder to stick to the job until it is done. We’ve all seen it! Kids who give up before reaching the finish line! How do we motivate them to keep going until they reach success? We lead by example first of all. Our students look to us to show them how to accomplish a task. So our constant goal should be to model the process of problem solving; teaching them how to deviate from the course they are on when they realize they have taken a wrong turn so that they can get back on track. We need to emphasize that making mistakes is part of the process, but that learning from them determines success or failure. And we need to gently lead them to be successful until they learn how to attain success on their own.

Along the way, good positive statements posted throughout our room or repeated as a class mantra could help students get excited about the work they do. Read books about successful people who beat the odds, reward successes both large and small in the classroom immediately when spotted, post good work, talk about good work habits, and have them recognize and congratulate their peers when they have successfully completed difficult tasks. Reinforce! Reinforce! Reinforce!

Let’s do all we can this year to produce diamonds! And then sit back and celebrate how brilliantly they shine!

Teacher-World's Blog students, teachers

My last blog revealed new strategies I intend to introduce this year to better teach history. This blog will discuss new strategies that my co-teacher and I plan to utilize to better teach reading concepts.

At the end of last year, I was required to move from the classroom I have inhabitated for thirteen years to a classroom down the hall due to a change I am making in my job assignment. Now, as all of you probably have experienced, when you clean out a room that hasn’t had a major clean-out in years, you discover a plethora of memorabilia and junk you forgot you ever had and you probably never needed. But one of my better finds was a set of picture books whose origin was unknown, and one hot day at the end of the year, I decided to share them with my students. Since my purpose for reading these books was simply to fill some time and give my students a chance to rest for awhile, and I expected them to find them babyish (they are fifth graders after all) imagine my surprise when I looked out to see every eye glued on the pictures and fully engaged in the stories I read. Incredibly, when I completed the books, they begged me to read more!

No what does this teach me? Duh! I need to use picture books in regular reading instruction. What better way to reinforce reading concepts like inferring, comparing/contrasting, predicting, literary elements, etc. than by using books that light up your audience? And apparently this is one of the new strategies which many teachers are playing with. Picture books aren’t just for younger students. Spend some time reading them yourself, and you will discover the simple joy spilling from the pages. Imagine the benefit of using them with visual learners who understand the words so much better when accompanied by fun, colorful pictures.

So, I encourage you to do what we plan to do. Dive into picture books. And watch the light go on in your students’ eyes and maybe in yours as well!

Changes in Teaching, Teacher-World's Blog, teaching strategies picture books, reading concepts, students, teachers, teaching reading

I had an epiphany this summer which will change how I teach history! Let me explain what happened and how it will affect my teaching in the fall.

A dear friend of mine told me about a genealogy book of his which was important to him as it delineated all of his ancestors and even included his own immediate family. I told him I would love to look at, and he graciously lent it to me. My initial exposure to the book left me cold, as it seemed to simply go through each family line and contained, to me, boring facts about marriages, children, time of death, etc. But, when we agreed to meet for lunch, and he asked me to bring the book along, I decided I’d better make a gallant attempt to read as much of it as I could so that I could tell him I had read it.

And that is when it happened! Upon further scrutiny, I happened upon a story at the bottom of the blah-blah-blah facts about an event in the lives of the children being described. Apparently, they were waiting for their school bus when one of the girls realized she had left something at home and ran back to get it. When she came back, the bus was already there filling up with children. In her hurry to get on the bus, she dropped something she was carrying on the ground by the front wheel and bent down to get it. Tragically, the bus driver had not seen her at all and accidently ran her over and killed her. From that moment I was captured because it was a real story about a real event that was so sad, and it had me searching for more personal narratives about these people described in this book. There were plenty. I began reading from the beginning and found a rich account of the patriarch of this family and why he came from Europe to this new land. I read about another early member who was a frontiersman like Daniel Boone and some of his adventures. I read from cover to cover, not the boring facts, but the personal stories, adventures, and tragedies of these people I knew nothing about, but found so intriguing.

And that’s when it hit me! We love anecdotes. We live for the stories that make a recounting of chronological facts take on a life of their own. And so do kids. That’s when I knew what would be different about my teaching of history this year. Most students do not like history. They find it boring and totally insignificant to their own lives, just as I found the ancestral book boring at first, too. But if I can spice up my lessons with actual stories about things that happened to real people during the historical time periods we are studying, isn’t it possible that I might capture them, just as I was captured by the personal anecdotes I devoured? And with the internet, it should be relatively easy to find a multitude of stories that will capture the imagination of my students and draw them in to history. Who knows, they may even learn to love history as I do.

My job is to lead my students to water, but my new plan is to make them so thirsty along that journey that they will long to drink, and drink deeply. I can’t wait to spin the stories that might capture their hearts and minds.

Teacher-World's Blog, teaching strategies antidotes, history, stories, students, teacher

This week I spent a pleasant afternoon with my friend, who is also my co-teacher and intervention specialist. We went to a restaurant where we could sprawl out as we talked and planned for this next school year. When we arrived, I asked our waitress if she would mind if we hung out for awhile because it was a working lunch. She was as sweet as she could be as she reassured us this would be no problem. When my friend and I went up to help ourselves to the salad buffet, I commented to her that our waitress was certainly perky and as cute as could be. She agreed.

Later, in one of the many trips she made to freshen our beverages, she asked if we were teachers. We confessed that we were, and it was at this point that she shared that she was in the process of completing an education degree herself. The three of us talked quite awhile, and the conversation left me with such an optimistic outlook for education. And I told her so. This young lady was exactly what we need in education. She was so motivated, focused on what area of concentration she preferred, and full of good questions. Her work ethic was obvious even in her capacity as a waitress. You can just tell what kind of teacher some people will be, and this girl is destined for great things.

We left the conversation with well-wishes that the economy and job market will be better when she graduates so that she can walk right into a teaching job. And I walked away feeling so fortunate to have met her, so reenergized, and so lucky to be a teacher. Thank you little-waitress-soon-to-be-teacher! Live your life exactly as you plan! What a gift you are!

Teacher-World's Blog co-teacher, teachers

This is a follow-up blog from the article in Forbes, June 7th edition, as promised. While I recommend that you read the article, “What Educators Are Learning from Money Managers”, for yourself, in case you don’t get the chance I would like to explain a little bit more about these charter schools in New York and Connecticut, how they operate, and how this might translate to public education. (See previous blog, “What Forbes Magazine Can Teach Public Schools”)

First, clearly the charter schools mentioned in the article have resources that most public schools do not, especially in terms of technology and the ability to offer teachers a higher income than traditional public schools can. So, how do they accomplish this? Well, Achievement First, the nonprofit discussed in my last blog,”has a $60 million budget and 17 schools with 4,500 students, making it the equivalent of a good-size school district. The company spends less than 10% of its budget on central administrative costs, compared with 15% to 25% at most urban school districts…The savings get spent at the school level. Teachers receive higher salaries-and help.” A typical ratio of “helpers” is about 23 teachers to 5 administrators, which includes deans and coaches. So, in other words, they pay teachers well, but the expectation is that they will be continually coached and trained to ensure that they are successful at closing the gaps in education and proving statistically that their students are making constant progress.

One would assume that teachers would be drawn to these schools due to the promise of a higher salary, but it sounds like a rigorous program. Achievement First tries to draw in young and creative teachers who have been in programs like Teach for America. While they get paid more, they work 10-hour days and the school year is longer. “Roughly 10% to 15% of its teachers quit each year; another 5% or so are fired for poor performance, compared with 9% attrition and 4.4% dismissal rates for public schools.” I can’t help but wonder if there is a higher burn-out rate due to the longer day and longer school year. Frankly, I find the concept of a 10-hour day outrageous. Not only would it be mentally and physically exhausting for both students and teachers, but it would make it extremely difficult for students to be involved in any outside activities such as sports, scouts, or any other outside lessons and would take away from family time as well. Likewise it would be restrictive for teachers. It would take a fair amount of sacrifice on everyone’s part, and therefore, this is one aspect of these programs which I would not advocate.

The article ends on a sad note for public educators like myself when it states, “It’s lamentable how many defective products the U.S. education industry sends out of its $660 billion factory. But it’s encouraging to see that there are ways to boost the output.” Then let’s really boost the output! Apply what is applicable to public schools nationally. Share the wealth, and let all students reap the benefits. If our goal as a nation is to send out young people who are adroit and capable of competing in our global economy, and we have evidence that the techniques to do so may be available, then it behooves us to make these techniques available to all. Hook up all schools to software that will do for public education what it is apparently doing in these charter schools; giving teachers the data and the resources to best meet students’ academic needs.

Changes in Teaching, Educational Reform, High Caliber Schools, Teacher-World's Blog Achievement First, charter schools, education reform, Forbes, public education

The June 7, 2010 edition of Forbes featured an article entitled “What Schools Can Learn from Money Managers”. If you can pick it up and read it, I would strongly recommend that you do so, as it is well worth reading. In the next few blogs, I will be discussing some of the important concepts addressed in this article.

The article zeroes in on Achievement First, a nonprofit out of New Haven, Connecticut, which operates 17 charter schools in Connecticut and New York and is described as “more like an information-driven company than an old-fashioned school district”. The emphasis in these schools is on closing educational gaps, particularly among African American students and students from low income households, showing yearly progress as well as successful passage of state achievement tests, and increasing graduation and college-bound percentages.

In a nutshell, here is a basic outline of how these charter schools are attaining success. First, children in kindergarten through second grade are given one-on-one reading comprehension tests which are graded on a scale of 1 to 12. If the results indicate that the entire class struggled on the tested concept, teachers would reteach that concept. “But if individual students fall behind, the school pulls them out into separate groups for intensive instruction on their individual weak points. The extra lessons can be delivered on a computer or during a lunchtime tutoring session; the important thing is that teachers and administrators are constantly watching and adjusting their methods as test results come in.”

Additionally, some companies, like Wireless Generator, who have traditionally worked behind the scenes in the medical industry, are now in the business of providing software that teachers can use to regularly assess students in reading proficiency and math skills. “The software can differentiate causes of failure, distinguishing between students who are too slow and those who make errors; it can also flag kids (who don’t understand the concept).Then it prompts the teacher to group children at similar developmental stages together and provides proven instructional techniques for their particular problems.” How awesome! Software that is set up to evaluate individual weaknesses, compile lists of students with similar weaknesses, and recommend the appropriate remediation to resolve those weaknesses! And the article is quick to point out that this information is in no way used to discipline or call out a teacher, but rather to teach them how to be most effective in providing students with the skills they need to master problematic concepts.

It boggles my mind, and hopefully yours too, when I wonder whether such an approach to education is possible on the national level, which is the gist of this article! We have a head start already: nationally aligned standards. What if… now just imagine this…what if each school district was linked into a national data base like Wireless Generator with the same national assessments to be administered periodically throughout the year, and providing the same kind of feedback which is available to these charter schools? Imagine if teachers whose students scored well on an assessment were utilized to tutor those students at that grade level who were red flagged for that skill. Or, they could be used, along with the instructional techniques offered through the software, to help coach teachers at that grade level to work with students who were struggling. Imagine if we looked at our individual classes as the launching pad from which students would be moved throughout the tutoring time to different teachers in order to achieve the best results for all students. And imagine if all of this was orchestrated through a national program that all schools had access to rather than each school system doing their own thing and reinventing the wheel to develop formative assessments, evaluate test results, and decide what to do from there.

When I read about the success of these charter schools, I can’t help but be a little envious of the resources they have that most public schools do not. But, at the same time, it motivates me to use this information to get something going on a smaller scale in our school next year. Next year in our district, teachers will be meeting as a grade level once a week for both reading and math to look over results we are generating from formative assessments and use those results to plan effective teaching strategies to meet the needs of those students who are not achieving. After reading this article, I am hopeful that we might implement some of these same techniques. And in the meantime, I can always dream that at some point we will experience the kind of reform mentioned in Forbes on a national level.

Changes in Teaching, Educational Reform, High Caliber Schools, Teacher-World's Blog, teaching strategies Achievement First, assessments, charter schools, Forbes, public schools, Wireless Generator

On June 30th, and again on July 7th, press releases from the Department of Education itemized states which would be receiving funds through grants, the 2009 budget, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I confess to being awestruck at the amount of money being earmarked to states to protect teachers’ jobs, to turnaround low-performing schools, and to comply with the guidelines of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The further I got into the two press releases, the more questions I had. My hope is that someone from the Department of Education might read this blog and be able to answer these questions which I am respectfully putting out there:

* When our economy is so crippled and money is so tight, where is all of this money coming from, or are we all just going to be paying it back in taxes for years to come?
* Is this money earmarked for specific purposes, and are those purposes public knowledge?
* How can citizens attain this information as it pertains to their state?
* In what ways are states being made accountable for how the money they receive is being utilized?
* Is money being allocated equally to all school districts within each state or are funds mainly being funneled to low-achieving schools?
* Many of the states listed already received money from ARRA. Why are they receiving more money, and how can interested citizens be informed as to what was achieved from the first round of funds their states received?

Again, I am asking these questions as a concerned citizen as well as an involved educator. When we are talking about this much money, I think we would all agree that a high level of accountability and transparency are critical to ensure a successful result.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Educational Reform, Funding Education, Teacher-World's Blog American Recovery and Reinvestmenat Act, Department of Education, teachers' jobs, turnaround schools