Teacher World

I have discovered a new form of torture guaranteed to break the strongest of you out there. “What is it?” you wonder. Well, let me give you a little hint. Have you been watching the weather reports lately for the Ohio area? Step into our world.

Imagine, if you dare, a classroom which has only three windows that open out at an angle from the bottom-yes, you heard me right, from the bottom! I have begun recently spending extended time looking at these windows and wondering just what kind of maniacal, twisted mind designed them. Was this a tormented student now grown up who had had such a terrible experience in school that their sole desire was to make all teachers and students who set foot in these rooms suffer forever for the unhappiness he endured?

Then picture that room filled with hot, sweaty students whose desks you need to hover over in order to aid them in their work and whose radiating heat almost sears your skin. Imagine these same bodies after recess and PE. There are no words to describe…

Imagine a school so outrageously hot that the school nurse, from her air-conditioned office, sent an email to address how to keep our students from dehydrating and how we deal with the headaches, dizziness, and weakness many students are complaining about. (Not to mention the ailments we teachers are suffering from.)

Finally, picture yourself barely able to move let alone think, trying to force a room full of semi-comatose students who are literally sprawled over their desks, weakly clutching their sweating water bottles, to focus on your words, which are growing fainter with each passing minute. To answer your questions, which are making less and less sense. To follow in a book, when their eyes are so glazed over that the words in the book no longer stay neatly in the lines as they should. To care, even remotely, about the lesson you are desperately teaching.

Yes, this is the life of the dedicated public education teachers in my building. We bravely forge on trying our best to teach these children who trust us to take care of them in the inferno we call school. At the end of the day, we limp weakly in our sweat-soaked clothes to our blazing cars, and as we drive away with the air conditioning cranked up as high as it will go, we pray for the energy to face another day in Hell. And we curse the weathermen who tell us that we can expect more of the same.

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A recent article in our local paper addressed what has become a commonplace occurrence in most schools in Ohio, and probably nationwide; teachers are spending more of their own money to both prepare their classrooms and supply their students with what they need.

I’m sure some of you who are reading this blog are thinking, “Boo-hoo! Teachers get paid to work 9 months a year, so they have no reason to complain if they have to spend a little money on their classrooms and students.” So let me give those of you who are thinking, or worse yet saying this, an idea of everything I had to buy to get my classroom up and running this year. Here goes:

* 6 black line master books on specific reading standards
* 5 black line master intervention books on specific reading standards
* Math review game aligned to Ohio standards with hanging chart and game cards.
* An extra set of math cards for above game
* A mailbox system for student papers
* 4 bulletin boards for science
* 5 bulletin boards for math
* 10 new sets of bulletin board borders
* Staple gun for hanging bulletin boards on wall
* Bullying bulletin board set and No Bullying sign
* Star of the Week bulletin board set
* 5 new sets of die cuts for attendance board and welcome boards
* Wireless keyboard and mouse
* Multiple rolls of paper towels
* Multiple bottles of pump soap for my classroom sink
* 4 Sam’s Club bags of candy for rewards (And this is just to get me started)
* 3 boxes of treat bags to auction off (This will just be the beginning.)
* Gift bags for each student which contained glitter pencils, crayon pencils, erasers, a Rice Krispie treat, and several pieces of wrapped candy
* Popsicles for the students for the first day of school
* Multiplication Bingo game and Division Bingo Game
* Multiple packages of math flash cards
* Pens, highlighters, markers, pencils, and poster board paper
* 3 magnetic hanging file holders
* 3 clear plastic bins with lids for science materials

Again, I will reiterate that most of these products will only get me started. I will have to purchase or replace more of these items throughout the year. As far as supplies are concerned, periodically we will need to supplement those things that our students run out of and parents do not replenish. We already have a few students who do not have their supplies, probably because their parents cannot afford them. This is not unusual, and we will end up helping these students out.

The article reported that teachers in our area spend anywhere from $100-$2,000 a year on their students and their classrooms. Based on my experience, elementary education teachers generally spend more money than high school teachers in preparing their classrooms for school and providing student rewards and supplies. I am sure I have spent upwards of $700 this year already, as I have had to purchase so many new materials due to teaching all subjects. And I will spend much more before the school year is over. I think we all feel that we are spending more than we used to as our schools’ budgets keep shrinking. Even paper for worksheets is being carefully rationed in our district this year. So, as most parents and schools tighten their belts, teachers will continue to have to loosen theirs if they want to provide the same amenities they have in the past.

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My first week back to school is done. All things considered, it was a good week, and I would like to share with you some truly valuable observations I have made at the start of this new school year.

* First, I have learned that it doesn’t matter what the weather forecast is. Hot or cold, it will be blistering hot in my classroom by 10:30, and we are all going to be a sweaty mess by the end of the day.
* I could stand on my head, scream and yell, jump around like a crazy person, and many of my students will not even notice.
* I am resigned to the fact that we will have to repeat the same information numerous times before half of our class will register what we have said, if at all.
* The time I used to spend grading has not been cut in half with my new assignment as I had hoped, but the time we spend planning and orchestrating a co-teaching classroom has quadrupled.
* One of the best feelings in the world was when our parents applauded after we explained our procedures at Open House, since we half expected that they might freak out over the fact that their child is in a self-contained classroom.
* Our students love to be read to, and that’s perfect since I love to read out loud.
* My students blew me away because they didn’t complain when I made most students complete their fact timed test in five minutes and gave the rest of the class eight minutes. They clearly understood the message that we wouldn’t say it was unfair when we gave students the “leg up” to succeed academically.
* Insisting that every student wear a cap or hat when we “recap” before going home by asking questions about some important concepts covered throughout that day isn’t really worth it when an autistic student has a melt-down because she doesn’t like to wear hats. The smile on her face when I suggested that she could pretend to put on a hat instead and could just wear an invisible hat for recap was so worth the compromise.
* There is nothing so rewarding as your students’ laughter when you crack a joke or act silly to get a response from them.
* I take that back. There is nothing so rewarding as that moment you see the light go on when your student has that ah-ha moment. (But their laughter is a close second.)
* And at the end of today, any difficult moments were quickly forgotten when our students walked out the door wishing us a great weekend, some even hugging us and thanking us for the week.

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As I have explained in previous blogs, this year my co-teacher and I are experimenting with a self-contained, co-teaching classroom. Since we are trying something so different, I plan to spend time blogging on a regular basis about what is happening in our classroom and how our efforts are paying off. So, here goes:

Day one down, only 180-some to go!!!!! Yes, today was our first day of school, and I am so glad it is over, although all in all, it went quite well. Our focus today was to set forth the important premise that there is no “unfair” in our classroom. To get this point across, we used two exercises to underscore the fact that we all come into the classroom with different abilities, and our job is to provide the tools to ensure that everyone will have the same opportunity to succeed. In this blog, I will describe one of those activities.

In our first exercise, we hung two large candy bars from the ceiling at a height we knew our tallest student could reach. We then asked him to come and take the candy bar of his choice. He did so easily, and then we picked a significantly smaller student and invited her to do the same thing. Of course, she could not reach the last candy bar, and she began to complain that it wasn’t fair because it was too high for her to reach. I asked what we could do to make it fair. She first said that I could reach it for her, and I said that I was willing to help her, but I wasn’t willing to do it for her. She thought for a minute and asked if she could use a stepstool I had in the room. I said sure, and helped her to use it to retrieve the candy bar.

We all celebrated her victory, and then I asked the class what was unfair about the candy bar exercise. Interestingly, no one said that it wasn’t fair that they didn’t get a candy bar, but everyone agreed that it wasn’t fair that we had placed the candy bars where only the tallest student in the class could reach them. I asked if they thought it was fair that I let the shorter student use a stepstool. They all agreed that using the stepstool made it fair for the student who could not physically reach the candy bar. At this point, we asked how learning was similar to this activity. After much discussion, we arrived at the conclusion that everyone comes into the classroom with different abilities and everyone also has areas which are a challenge for them. We asked them if they thought it would be fair for us to ask a student to do something they couldn’t do, or if it would be fairer to give them a leg-up and give them the tools (just like a stepstool) to achieve their goals. Everyone agreed that giving struggling students the necessary tools would be the fair thing to do. I asked them why they thought I wouldn’t just give the shorter student the candy bar when she asked. We all agreed it doesn’t help them if we simply give them the answers.

So, what did we conclude? They agreed they will not say, “That’s not fair!” when we provide students with the help they need, or their peers have a reduced assignment to complete, or a different activity to reinforce the same skill is used, etc. We agreed that our goal to make sure everyone in the classroom is successful is the fair thing to do. How awesome to have students reach this conclusion on their own!

So, as I write this, even though I am exhausted, I am optimistic about this group and its potential, and I think it is going to be an awesome year! I’ll keep you posted.

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This is the last in my series on Diane Ravitch. I have been blogging about her recent article from the August/September issue of neatoday magazine. In her article, “Stop the Madness”, she explains why she no longer supports NCLB, and she ends her article discussing how we can improve our schools.

According to Ms. Ravitch, “We must first of all have a vision of what good education is.” We should be asking what constitutes a well-educated person, what we want students to learn before they graduate, what we want them to accomplish, and why we educate students. In other words, we need to agree on what education is, what it looks like, and why we want to be a part of it as teachers.

Second, she says we need to look beyond reading and mathematics and decide what other qualities are synonymous with a well-educated, well-rounded student. We want to turn out students who are able to think for themselves, have good character, are able to make good decisions, have courage and humor, and who treat others with compassion and fairness. And we need to teach students to be responsible citizens who make educated decisions by rationally studying different points of view.

Finally, she states that we need to send out academically well-rounded students who are able to use both math and science to understand and solve real problems in their communities and in their world and who can also appreciate and participate in their artistic and cultural heritage. In other words, we need students who participate in  significant ways, who enjoy the world around them, and who are willing and able to work to improve it. We need to teach them about the world in which they live and help them to find their niche within it.

What kind of test could ever adequately measure these truly important things? There is no such test because the true test of these qualities is life and the purposeful living of it. As Diane Ravitch states, “If these are our goals, the current narrow, utilitarian focus of our national testing regime is not sufficient to reach any of them. Indeed, to the extent that we make the testing regime our master, we may see our true goals recede farther and farther into the distance.” She concludes by stating that, if we continue on this current path, we are likely to produce a generation who equate learning with the drudgery of “worksheets, test preparation, and test-taking”.

In her final plea to turn the current tide by doing away with NCLB in the hopes of saving our public schools, Ms. Ravitch wraps up with this eloquent, heart-felt statement: “As we seek to reform our schools, we must take care to do no harm. In fact, we must take care to make our public schools once again the pride of our nation. To the extent that we strengthen them, we strengthen our democracy.”

(Diane Ravitch’s article was based on her book entitled The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education,)

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I have been blogging about Diane Ravitch’s article in the August/September issue of neatoday magazine, entitled “Stop the Madness”. If you have read my previous blogs, you know that Ms. Ravitch has held a number of prestigious positions in the education field and was a staunch supporter of Bush’s NCLB until she began to study the results of these policies and what it has done to public education. Because she is so knowledgeable and makes such valid points, I have been spending intensive time discussing some of her most critical points. So here goes my third blog on what this remarkable woman has to say about NCLB.

One of Ms. Ravitch’s strongest arguments against NCLB states, “NCLB assumed that shaming schools that were unable to lift test scores every year-and the people who work in them-would lead to higher scores. It assumed that low scores are caused by lazy teachers and lazy principals. Perhaps, most naively, it assumed that higher test scores on standardized tests of basic skills are synonymous with good education. Its assumptions were wrong.”

I love this statement because it resonates with truth. Public educators and principals are being shamed to improve test scores. Our results are publically displayed every year and compared to other districts’ scores. Even within school systems, individual schools are compared to each other, and those schools that did not produce excellent scores are made to feel inferior in comparison with those who did. In reality, those differences probably had more to do with the difference in the neighborhoods surrounding these schools, which make up each school’s population, than differences in the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the schools’ staffs. I have seen it in my own district. For three years in a row now, my elementary school has gotten higher test scores than our sister elementary school. The competition and fear that this has created between our two principals has been extremely unhealthy for both staffs. This is only one sad example of the result of “shaming” schools into achieving higher test scores. Anyone who believes that creating this level of competition and frustration is an educationally sound practice needs to spend some time in schools that are panicked over raising test scores.

I applaud Diane Ravitch for admitting that the policy she initially supported whole-heartedly is flawed and is not “synonymous with good education”. When I look back over my years of teaching, and this will be my 31st, I feel such sadness for young people just starting out in the teaching profession who think that what we are being asked to do is excellent teaching. Somewhere along the way, teachers have metamorphosed from well-rounded, creative lovers-of-passing-on-the-excitement-for-knowledge to test-taking trainers. And while I still love working with kids, and I love being involved in co-teaching and the strategies of co-teaching, I have lost some of the wonder of teaching. As we fast approach 2014, and the ridiculous expectation to achieve 100% passage of state achievement tests, I dread the panic that is going to become synonymous with “good education”.

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Let’s discuss what Diane Ravitch calls “the danger of the culture of testing” that has been created as a result of NCLB, as reported in the August/September 2010 issue of neatoday magazine. Feel free to say a few “amens” and “you’ve-got-that-right-sister” as you read her critical points.

Ms. Ravitch states that “one of the unintended consequences of NCLB” has been the “shrinkage of time available to teach anything other than reading and math”. Since these are the only test scores used to calculate a school’s adequate yearly progress, she claims that teachers feel forced to put much more time into the teaching of these subjects, leaving less time for science, social studies, and the arts. She goes on to say that many schools have even done away with recess in order to better prepare students for math and reading tests.

In our district this year, we are required to attend grade level team meetings which will meet twice a week. Guess what we are discussing and brainstorming in these meetings? We will be looking at formative assessments for (you guessed it) reading and math to identify areas of weakness and collaborate as a grade level to improve upon these skills in order to bring up test scores. What are conspicuously lacking from this list are science, social studies, and the arts. My guess is that most teachers out there would agree that they are spending more time and effort teaching reading and math than in teaching other subjects. And we all know why we are.

Diane voices legitimate concerns too that our focus as teachers has also shifted, due to the emphasis on test scores, from thorough knowledge of the subject matter to test-taking skills and strategies. She cites the use of previous tests, which are available on the Department of Education website, to prepare students and claims that “in urban schools, where there are many low-performing students, drill and practice became a significant part of the daily routine” as a result of NCLB.

Ms. Ravitch, thank you for bravely stating what every teacher out there knows. We teach differently, but we don’t teach better. We teach differently because instead of trying to educate our children, we are trying to get them to pass tests that make our schools look good. And, as a result, we are doing our children a disservice; a disservice we are forced to continue to do because our jobs are on the line. Don’t you just wish we could get back to being real teachers preparing our students for real life and real careers, to be responsible citizens and real community leaders, and to love learning simply for the sake of learning, not to pass a bubble test? Do I hear an “Amen, sister”?

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Wow! Have you read anything written by Diane Ravitch? The latest neatoday magazine had a lengthy article written by her which answers a lot of questions about NCLB and Obama’s policies to “reform” NCLB. Over the next few blogs, I will be going over some of the interesting facts she presents regarding what has become, for most teachers and principals, a very heated issue.

Diane Ravitch is an educational historian who was appointed to public office under both Presidents Bush and Clinton and is a former United States Assistant Secretary of Education. As such, she was a strong proponent of NCLB when it was originally proposed, but her opinion about Bush’s educational reform has dramatically reversed itself in recent years. This is important for us to keep in mind: she was not against it from the start but has become disillusioned with it over time. This gives her comments, in my opinion, far more credibility.

In this article, Ms. Ravitch discusses how recent educational reform was born. She points a finger at “The Billionaire Boys’ Club”; foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation that have taken a keen interest in failing schools and low test scores leveraging their way into a position of influence in American education. As she says, “There is something fundamentally antidemocratic about relinquishing control of the public education policy agenda to private foundations run by society’s wealthiest people. These foundations, no matter how worthy and high-minded, are not subject to public oversight or review, as a public agency would be. They have taken it upon themselves to reform public education, perhaps in ways that would never survive the scrutiny of voters in any district or state.”

She continues to point out that, while public schools and teachers are being held to an incredible degree of scrutiny and accountability, these foundations have no accountability whatsoever. This means that there is no consequence to them if a policy they have advocated should fail, but the schools that had to administer that failed policy may face consequences.

The goal of these foundations seems to be to privatize public education as much as possible. They point to the few charter schools that were successful in 2009, as the role models for educational reform. (Interestingly, out of the 4,600 charter schools operating in 2009, only about 300 were visibly successful.) Now, Diane makes a good point. If more charter schools are introduced into urban areas where poverty abounds, these schools “will enroll the motivated children of the poor, while the regular public schools will become schools of last resort for those who never applied or were rejected. The regular public schools will enroll a disproportionate share of students with learning disabilities and students who are classified as English-language learners; they will enroll the kids from the most troubled home circumstances, the ones with the worst attendance records and the lowest grades and test scores.”

Ms. Ravitch makes the point that privatizing public schools is as ludicrous as privatizing police and fire departments. And she predicts the demise of public education if we do not stand up to politicians and these wealthy “reformers”. She closes this section of her article with a valid argument for public schools when she states, “As we lose neighborhood public schools, we lose the one local institution where people congregate and mobilize to solve local problems, where individuals learn to speak up and debate and engage in democratic give-and-take with their neighbors.”

A sobering thought in sobering economic times. Just think back to your public school education and all of the community events that were inspired by your school: band, choir, school plays, athletic events, science fairs, art shows, etc. These are the kinds of things that tests can’t measure, but they most assuredly build character and dedication, and for some, lead to eventual careers. And these are the kinds of things that build community.

I, for one, will continue to be vocal about my love for and dedication to public education, as Diane Ravitch is doing. What about you?

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Day five of classroom setup. So what progress have I made, and how do I feel about my new digs now?

Well, after a lot of hard work, sweat, and heavy manual labor, I feel like my room is making more sense, and I have been able to find a place for almost everything. Creative thinking has allowed me to find some unusual places to hide things I will need, but don’t use regularly. My fear is that I will forget where I put those things by the time they are needed, as some of them are very well-hidden.

Overall, the classroom looks colorful and welcoming. The bulletin boards and decorations are eye-catching without being distracting. My room looks great, but it is definitely cramped. Movement will be a challenge, and it will not be easy setting up stations, but I feel that we will somehow make it all work out. My co-teacher and I actually had some time to work together today for the first time, and we were able to make some additional changes that improved the set-up of the room even more. We even received a visit from our paraprofessional, and she made some suggestions as well. Since we are a team, we need to work together as team from the very start giving everyone an opportunity to have some feedback and some decision-making power.

So, after day five, I feel that the initial phase of preparations is complete leaving us time now to focus on the lesson plans we have created and which strategies and techniques would be best implemented to achieve optimum educational results. It feels good to get to this point, and now, I can’t wait to dive in!

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Teachers, how many of you have a smartboard? If you do, I think that you would find a recent article in neatoday, “Do Smartboards Make Smart Students?” very interesting.

I feel very fortunate to have a smartboard in my classroom, and I use it almost daily for one activity or another. I have found that even the most reluctant students can’t wait to go to the smartboard to write or complete an activity. And the internet has a plethora of awesome websites with fun, interesting, and interactive ways to reinforce any curriculum. As a result, my students are always highly engaged when we use the smartboard, and I can hook them even more if I use it in conjunction with our Senteo Clickers. So, why is Rosita Force, the author of this article, questioning the use of smartboards and their impact on classroom learning?

You’ve seen it in your building, I’m sure. There are always those teachers who don’t utilize smartboards as they should, and use them instead as glorified overheads, chalkboards, and movie projector screens. Now, the article is quick to point out, and I’m sure we would all agree, that occasional use of smartboards in this way is okay. But the problem occurs when this is the main way they are being utilized. The beauty and magic of this type of technology is its connectivity to the internet and to interactive software. If a teacher cannot or will not use them in this way, it is a waste of money and a waste of students’ time.

Additionally Ms. Force states that sometimes we may be overusing technology when our real focus should be on creating “an environment that makes students want to work together to solve problems in a creative and innovative manner.” Her point is that teachers need to be learning facilitators rather than just the deliverer of knowledge. She suggests in closing that we need to sometimes “power down the technology to let students power up their problem-solving skills”.  And this is a valid point. As teachers, we must avoid the mundane routines, and be ready to experiment in our classroom with new techniques and new methods. We need to teach our children to use educational technology but also teach them to be problem solvers in a real world. And that is something that cannot be taught through a smartboard.

So, use those smartboards and other purchased technology to teach your children about the world around them and to get them to interact with the skills you teach, but don’t overuse them. At the same time, provide ample opportunity for them to manipulate ideas and concepts in practical problem-solving activities. Remember, our goal as teachers is to produce well-rounded learners who can apply the concepts and skills they have acquired to real-life situations, real-life jobs, and real-life problems.

It’s all about the proper balance in our teaching strategies.

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