teacher mrw

educator. writer. social activist. blogging and linking knowledge.

Archive for the category “At the Schoolhouse Door”

Having Our Hands on the Right Things

The following is a reply I posted on the now-defunct MFL blog.  Due to a lot of flap, the blog has since been taken down.  Thus, I am glad I preserved my comments.

I don’t think that Mr. Picardo espouses a die-hard tech-only point-of-view.  We tweet from time to time. I am also an occasional reader and poster to his blog. We don’t agree on everything, and nor should we. But, I respect him and his work, and, I think he feels similarly about me.

Additionally, I think your argument does have some merit. Like most things, there are some tech tools which can promote modern foreign language learning, and some that are, in my opinion, pure garbage. I’m also not a project girl, or what a former colleague dubbed, “a showboat teacher.” If that’s one’s inspiration, then live and let live.

Seven years ago, I inherited a group of students from a so-called, “showboat teacher.”  Those students had had a good time, and liked their teacher, but, in my first minutes of teaching the students in question, I observed that  their spoken Spanish was terrible, their vocabulary knowledge, recall and application was poor, and their grammatical base was weak. This, however, happened via paper, pencils and books. So, depending on how one uses the tools available to him or to her, tech or no tech, ineffectual teaching and learning can and do take place.

I think that most teachers strive for mastery of content and proficiency of skills. At least, I do. Students need to be able to demonstrate what they know and what they are able to do. Tech tools, when carefully considered, taught, and implemented with the end-goal in mind, can provide a rewarding learning and teaching experience.  That said, I have met very few students who by the time they’ve graduated from high school can order a meal or ask for directions in a modern foreign language, and I am talking about students who have aspired to Advanced Placement Spanish Language (I reside in the United States; I know not what the equivalent of AP is in the UK, if there is an equivalent).

Moreover, I think the capacity to speak, aurally comprehend, read and write another language is largely dependent on the student’s desire and motivation, not to mention their cognitive capacity. Good teaching, however, does play an important role. But, at the end of the proverbial day, learning disabilities aside, students decide to learn or not to learn.  If there are quality tech tools, however, which can promote and assess mastery and proficiency, then I say that teachers should use them. But, tech should not be a substitute for teaching, no more than the television should be a substitute for parenting. No amount of tech tool usage is going to make a mediocre teacher, or student, for that matter, a better one.

Weekly Wrap Up #2

Before the clock strikes midnight, and before I fall asleep on the living room sofa, I figured I had better write my post.

This time last week, I was in the early stages of what was diagnosed two days later by my primary care physician as a muscle spasm. Its greatest impact was to the neck, preventing from moving my head in any direction. I also had referred pain in the right shoulder. What followed was four days’ sick leave from school, and two visits to outpatient physical therapy. Yes; the pain was that bad.

While I have a distance to travel on the road to recovery, I am feeling significantly better. I have learned more about muscle spasms than I had ever hoped to learn. Additionally, I am blessed to have a wonderful family and wonderful friends – both virtual and in-person – who checked in on me on a daily basis. I am also blessed to have a talented and personable physical therapist who has made my first phyisical therapy experience a pleasant one thus far.

Consequently, I have not much to report from the trenches of the classroom. That said, I had gotten my students far enough along in their respective new chapters for them to take the first in a series of short mini-vocabulary quizzes, complete writing exercises where they used the vocabulary in context, and, enjoy a lesson on the history of chocolate. I returned to school on Friday, which was, to my utter surprise, remarkably stress-free, and far better than I had anticipated. I am always reluctant to face the piles of paperwork that an absence generates, which was easier to organize than I had feared. I was even able to mark two sets of vocabulary quizzes, and note which student had (not) completed which assignment (s).

I also learned several things during my time away, which bear noting in list form:

1. Students and colleagues manage fine without you. Also known as, “Out of sight, out of mind.” As much as we would like to think that our presence or, in this case, lack thereof, has a significant impact, think again. A rather sobering realization, but, one that made me even more grateful for having taken those four days off to rest and recuperate, and even more blessed for my family and friends.

2. Have sub plans at the ready. This wasn’t always the case for me. But, it isn’t fun having to think of what the students are going to do when one is in the throws of an illness. We teachers are out for planned and unplanned events. The unplanned events call for sub plans that one can attach to an email to a supervisor, if one isn’t too incapacitated. Better, yet, have hard copies of sub plan activities in a folder in a desk drawer that can be photocopied. I was feeling blessed to be able to go to my laptop, quickly locate an activity, and send it on its way.

3. Use the illness or injury to make significant lifestyle changes. My bout with a neck spasm was the result of an injury, and/or stress. Not sure which. But, given the stressors that teaching inflicts, as well as the way most of us run around all day, I could have sustained an injury that I had forgotten about. I am also a rough sleeper, which could have had an impact. So, I have purchased a laptop backpack on wheels, will invest in a Tempurpedic pillow, and, I am going to make a more significant investment in daily self-care.

I felt well enough today to do some lesson planning for the upcoming week. Tuesday is St. Valentine‘s Day. So, fun activities are indicated for Monday and Tuesday.

Be well, and, remember: Take Care of You. :)

I’m Done

Are you able to recall an incident which greatly disappointed you, but, logically, it really should not have greatly disappointed you?

My eighth grade Onesies greatly disappointed me recently, and, the situation is one that I really should not have taken so personally.

The Situation:  Approximately 50% of the class (there are 13 enrolled in said class) did not fully complete the assignment due, or completed none of it at all. The culprits: Two major assignments for two other courses due on the same day.  But, the larger issue, at least to me, is ineffectual time management, organization, planning, initiative and follow-through.  This particular group of students as a collective seems to be weak all of the aforementioned areas.

The Problem, #1:  I allowed The Situation to impact me to such an extent, I took it personally.  I really should not have, because, at the end of the proverbial day, it its the academic progress and results of the students in question that is going to suffer.  Until they get tired of low scores, perhaps at that time they’ll raise an eyebrow and make the necessary changes.

The Problem, #2: Where are parents in all of this? Learning support specialists cannot do it all, no more than the subject area teachers can.  Mel Levine once said, and I paraphrase here, getting the schoolwork completed is the job of the parent, and not the job of the teacher.  Naturally, I am in whole-hearted agreement with this statement, but frankly, too many parents are not doing their jobs.

I discussed the situation with my Dear Brother, who said that the reason I took the situation so personally is because I care.  But, at the same time, he agreed that the students in question need to get their ish together.

Anyway, short of after-school homework detention club (which doesn’t currently exist at my place of employ, but ought to), and communicating with parents when the work is completed (I send so many homework-related emails that it isn’t funny), the situation is really beyond my control.

So, short of what is within my power to control. I AM DONE. And, it is only January.  ::SIGH::

I’m Partial To Gray

The other day, one of the sixth graders during after school study hall – I proctor the sixth and seventh grade study hall on Thursday afternoons, from 3-4:30pm – was admiring my Kate Spade iPhone case. It is designed with multicolored vertical stripes on a bright blue background.  I really like it, and have received many compliments about it.  The sixth grader in question found the vibrant Kate Spade iPhone case to be in stark contrast to the gray LOFT sweater I was wearing.  In fact, so much so, that she remarked, “I am surprised that you have this case.  You wear such drab colors.” Kids are so honest, aren’t they?  I looked at the student, smiled, and said, “I’m partial to gray.”

I rather like “drab” colors”: gray, black, and, brown.  Although brown is a warm color.  My color palette stands in stark contrast to that of my Dear Mother’s, who favors spring pastels.  But, it’s not all drab for me.  I do add vibrant reds, blues, greens, dark pinks and pure whites from time to time – just to keep those, like the sixth grader aforementioned, on their proverbial toes.

I guess, in a way, my color selection helps me to go through my work life incognitio, or, as I am fond of saying, incognegro.  I like to be seen, and then, I don’t.  I like to fade into the background – in as much as a Black person in a predominately-White work environment is able – and be the proverbial fly on the wall.  And, it works – most of the time.

I liken the wearing of dark colors with the occasional splash of vibrancy to my ever-fluctuating musings about the Dr. King holiday, which is followed in short order by one of my all-time favorite month-long celebrations – Black History Month, and the reasons to continue to educate my White colleagues.  On the one hand, I enjoy surfing the ‘Net, digging up information, and sharing with others what I’ve found; after all, I am an information junkie. My goal is to help my colleagues, and especially my White colleagues, to learn more about the Black Experience in the United States, about which many of them know little. On the other hand, I have sometimes resigned myself to the thought that if my White colleagues are interested in learning more about the Black Experience in the United States, they can locate the information as well as I can.  I guess I clearly have a more personal imperative, being a Black person living the Black Experience in the United States.  The latter point-of-view has been my mindset of late as we embark on the Kind National Holiday tomorrow, and, Black History Month 2012 next month.

So, I guess I’m struggling as to what do do, and have been since before Thanksgiving, given that February is approximately two weeks away.  Do I become the Kate Spade case once again, or the gray sweater?  Perhaps someone out there in BlogLand can give me a compelling reason for being the former for a third consecutive year for a group of colleagues who may not appreciate my efforts to help them gain knowledge that they neither solicited nor even want. I’m contemplating the creating of a wiki or a Google Site, to which I will provide a link, and invite those colleagues who are so inclined to contribute their own information.  So, perhaps the compromise is to build it, and then see which of my White colleagues will come.  Now, that is a fresh perspective.

Renewal

Anyone employed in a helping profession – and, I consider teaching as much a helping profession as nursing or social work or medicine – I am learning to appreciate the value and importance of renewal.  Especially during vacations.  Christmas vacation began for me the minute I rolled The Toaster, a.k.a. my 2008 Honda Element, off the campus grounds.  That was at approximately 12:30 pm, 20 Tuesday.

It’s been a tough several weeks.  In addition to worrying about my Dear Dad’s latest test results,  and my Dear Mom’s painful toe – the former is fine, the latter is much improved, save a swollen foot upon rising where the toe pain occurred (I think the toe pain was an attack of gout; I hope she will get the foot examined next week), I have been dealing with painful arthritis in my right knee, and a stressful teaching situation at school with a student.  That said, I am doing my best to approach the situation in question with optimism and an open mind. But, I don’t know what is in this student’s head, and, ultimately, his feelings towards me are about him. But, I will stop there.  I am really striving to get some emotional distance from the situation at this point.

All told, the arrival of Christmas vacation arrived just in time.  Save the aforementioned student, I am progressing well with my other charges, and we’re having a good time. I’m striving to make middle school Spanish more engaging for them, and have located this truly wonderful website to help me.  The students have responded very positively thus far to the activities I have used.  I also received nice Christmas gifts from many students, which left me feeling very appreciated and grateful.

Renewal began for me by taking a long nap when I arrived home on Tuesday afternoon.  The next day, Wednesday, I did some grocery shopping, and, worked out on the treadmill, which wasn’t nearly as painful as I had feared.  The doc wants me to lay off high inclines – which is where I get my calorie burn – but, just getting on the treadmill and activating the endorphins makes me and my knee feel better.  Yesterday (Thursday) the renewal continued with cleaning my stove.  I said to my Dear Mom that I don’t understand how an oven that at best gets used once a week could have gotten so dirty.  In any event, a clean oven makes me feel good.  I then progressed to dusting, vacuuming, and mopping.  So, my apartment is now ready for Christmas.  It was a struggle; I felt tired, due to interrupted sleep on account of the arthritic knee, but, it was a good feeling to have gotten it all accomplished.

With respect to the knee, the only place where I seem to get good rest is the living room sofa.  I am able to position my legs straight and out in front of me.  In the bed, lying in such a manner isn’t comfortable for me, but lying on my side – either side – is rather uncomfortable as well.  I am contemplating the purchase of a wedge pillow.  I am taking an over-the-counter pain reliever, which alleviates the swelling, inflammation and soreness, and doing strength and flexibility exercises, which are helping.

I like my orthopedic surgeon.  He gives it to me straight, but, he’s also dedicated to relieving my pain as much as possible . He’s made several recommendations, including outer heel wedges, and losing weight.  He didn’t know me a year ago; I weighed much more.  Nevertheless, Doc wants me to lose even more. ::SIGH::

Writing this blog post has been a form of renewal.  Especially since I haven’t written a post for nearly two weeks.  Additionally, my knee is getting a well-deserved rest from having to walk from pillar to post on my campus, and up and down stairs all day long.

I am looking forward to cooking and baking, reading and blogging, spending time with my family, and, watching “The Wire” on DVD.  I might even get a full-body massage.

Get ‘Er Done

As part of my campaign to raise the level of expectation in my seventh graders – both academically and behaviorally, I’ve instituted the following. Strategies are courtesy of Teach Like A Champion.

1.  Procedures for Entering the Classroom*

a.  Go directly to seats.

b.  Set everything out that is needed for class.

c.  Place homework on the teacher’s desk.  Name, date and assignment must be on the paper, with pages stapled together, if necessary.

d.  Sharpen pencils or **take a sharpened pencil from the teacher’s desk.

e.  Use the bathroom and/or water fountain during the first 10-15 minutes of the block, or the last 10-15 minutes of the block.

*There was too much trickery and foolery taking place at the beginning of class.  The new procedures seem to be working well.

**I’ve given up on the pencil hunt.  If a student needs a pencil, he/she takes a pencil.  If he/she needs it for the next class, then he/she keeps it.

2. Procedures While Teaching and Learning

a.  I no longer ask for the students’ “permission” to teach, e.g.  “We’re waiting for So-and-So.”  When students are taking too much time to get themselves together, I simply let them know that class time is valuable, and that they are either contributing or detracting from that time.

b.  With respect to students talking when I or other students are talking, I simply say, “What I have to say is valuable, and I expect to be heard”, or, “What So-and-So has to say is valuable, and she/he expects to be heard.” That puts the onus on the student causing the problem, and eliminates the rest of us for having to ask “permission” of the student causing the problem.

3.  Homework Rubric

I collect every assignment at the beginning of the class, and correct it according to a homework rubric I created.  I borrowed from various homework rubrics available on the Web to create one that accomplishes what I need for such a rubric to accomplish, which are: Presentation, e.g. name, date, assignment, condition of the paper, and quality and quantity of the work completed.  The Homework Rubric is not only holding me more accountable for what the students know and are able to do, because I am assessing each assignment, but, it also presents students with a standard by which their assignments are being assessed.  So, it’s 360 degree accountability – for teacher and for students.  During the last 20 minutes or so of the class, we discuss the assignment from the previous class, and I make note of common errors and common successes.

4.  Do Now

The “Do Now” has been the single most effective change to the classroom routine.  Why is the “Do Now” effective? For several reasons:

a. It requires students to put pencil to paper, which raises the level of expectation and accountability for the work.

b.  It is brief: Five minutes.

c.  It relies completely on the student’s capacity and initiative, thus promoting independent learning.  The student needs neither me nor a classmate to complete the task.

d.  It encourages the student to review previously-taught material, thus encouraging accountability for content and lesson concepts, and promoting skill-building and practice.

e.  It gets the students into the proper mindset for the learning that will take place.

f.  It allows me to take attendance.

I  will be rolling out more strategies in the coming weeks.  One of the strategies I am road-testing is “Exit Slips”, or, the activity that the students perform before or as they leave the classroom.  Additionally, my efforts to raise the level of expectation with my seventh graders has had positive residual effects with my Twosies and eighth grade Onesies.  While I have not rolled out the program to full-effect with the two latter groups, I am using the Homework Rubric, collecting every assignment at the beginning of class, and starting each class with a “Do Now” exercise.

Where One Hopes for The Best, and Often Gets the Worst

Well, perhaps the second part of my post’s title is saturated in a bit of hyperbole. But, I’m going somewhere with this. So, please bear with me.

Things in my corner of the world are going pretty well.  As I tweeted yesterday morning to a FL colleague who teaches at an independent school in Charleston, SC, I am finding more and more students have less and less stamina for learning in general, and for foreign language in particular.  What’s more, it can be attributed to the all of the things that a lovely, smart, bright , talented and intelligent colleague of mine, Ellen Shrager, discusses in her wonderful and powerful little book, Teacher Dialogues: A Survival Guide to Successful Dialogues with Low-Performing Students, Indulged Students, and Enabling Parents.  All three elements predominate in my corner of the world, albeit a private school.
I am currently reading, Teach Like A Champion.  Although the message of the book is directed primarily at public school teachers teaching students of color in low-performing inner-city schools, I think said message can be universally applied, even to independent schools such as the one where I teach.  It outlines 49 simple yet highly-effective strategies for: planning and implementing a lesson; engaging all students; creating a positive classroom culture; establishing effective discipline in students – not punitive strategies, but daily habits of mind; and warm yet strict classroom management practices.

Teach Like A Champion has been a great read thus far, and I am really enjoying it.  However, it would be interesting if my school would be open and receptive to the message of the book.  I think that it would be an effective summer professional development read for the faculty and staff.  Yet, many who teach at progressive schools seem to think that everything with respect to teaching and learning begins and ends with them, when, in actuality, there has been little in the name of innovation that is truly new under the sun that has emerged from so-called progressive schools in quite some time.  Additionally, I happen to feel that privilege breeds laziness and complacency and sloppiness, which in turn diminishes high expectations for teachers and students alike, and, ultimately, measurable progress and strong results.

At a school where the vast majority of my students this year have one or more learning disability, it seems that the things that Teach Like A Champion promote would work just as well in my classroom as it would in a low-performing inner-city classroom.  It seems to me that order, structure, strong habits of mind, and high expectations are what my students need, and yet, they are demanded on an irregular and inconsistent basis.

Thus, in schools such as mine, one often hopes for the best.  Instead, we need to plan for the best, and demand the best.

The Bane of My Existence

Fair & Balanced graphic used in 2005

Image via Wikipedia

As a teacher, two things I detest the most are marking student work, and, computing end-of-trimester grades.  Along with lost keys and mislaid eyeglasses, they are the bane of my existence.

As much as I strive to be fair and balanced in my approach to assessment and evaluation, I feel that I always somehow fall short.  I tried Proficiency-Based Grading for a time, but, it hasn’t proven to be a successful approach for me.  While I embrace its philosophy, I haven’ been able to come up with the requisite number of assessments for the various skill and content areas.  BTW: Scott Benedict, is a sweetie, and has provided me with ideas and support with respect to grading and alternative assessment. I then happened upon this website, and this document guidelines_instructors(2), which offers another approach to assessment and evaluation.  Again, the philosophy supporting it intrigues, but, I would perhaps need a summer’s worth of time to plan the appropriate assessments.

The evaluation dilemma always seems most prominent when it is time to compute end-of-trimester grades.  Perhaps I stress too much about such things. But, a conversation about the same with my Dear Mom prompted me to reflect, investigate and then reflect again. My goal is to move away from the traditional grading categories, e.g. tests, quizzes, homework, etc. and move towards performance-based grading categories.  Additionally, I want to integrate greater use of authentic assessment.  Both of these shifts would enable me to assess more accurately what students know and are able to do.

My dilemma, and the musings that it prompted, led me to re-visit Ken O’Connor’s writings on the subject of grading.  I say, re-visit, because I purchased one of his books several summers ago. So, I did have good intentions and great expectations.  Having done this re-visitation has allowed me to begin to devise a system of assessment and evaluation that I can live with, and that will be of greater benefit to my students.

Although I have a long proverbial row to hoe, I’ve at least begun to dig.  I think so many of us in the teaching profession aren’t really taught how to grade, how to assess, and therefore, how to devise systems that promote effective teaching and learning.  Moreover, those of us who were taught were indoctrinated into traditional approaches.  Neither of the aforementioned, by the way, work very well.

It seems that with every dilemma, there comes with it more thinking, and, subsequently, more work.  That’s the way life is. That’s the way teaching is.  I am hoping that my current dilemma with assessment and evaluation will eventually become more gratifying, and less the bane of my existence.

The Culture of Expectation

I was talking with a friend recently – my asthetistician, to be exact, but I also consider her a friend – while getting my monthly professional facial treatment.  We talked about the recent days-long power outage, our parents – hers about the same age as mine- and life in general.  We then somehow got on the topic of high school, class reunions, and school life back in the day.  She and I are also about the same age.  I mentioned to her the struggles that I have with providing students with extra help.  There seems to be no culture of extra help at my place of employ.  I am constantly telling my students that there is rarely a time when I am not available to them for extra help.  However, students typically don’t seek me out on their own initiative.  Instead, they come by way of teacher or parent fiat.  Additionally, there isn’t time built into the school day for extra help, or after school for that matter.  Conversely, when my asthetistician and I were in high school, life after school was bustling with clubs, extra help, sports and band practices, and students doing research in the library or hanging out with their favorite teachers.  The “late bus” – the bus that served those who stayed after school – was even a culture all to its own.

Perhaps extra help just doesn’t happen in so-called, self-identified, progressive schools.  My previous place of employ was a progressive school, and there was no culture of extra help, or after-school activities, for that matter, save play rehearsal and sports, the two things which seem to dominate after-school life at my present school.  Mind you, my asthetistician and I attended garden variety, albeit good, public high schools, and extra help was a constant and regular part of the school day – before, during and after.  So, one would think that at an expensive, private, college-preparatory school, the same would be true.

Extra help, given the competing forces, seems to be offered on the proverbial catch-as-catch-can basis.  Do individual teachers offer extra help? Of course they do.  However, when there is no culture of extra help, how does this impact the culture of expectation for students and teachers?

Jaime Escalante, the great Bolivian-American educator who brought AP Calculus to an East Los Angeles high school populated largely with economically-disadvantaged Latino students, reportedly said that students will rise to the level of expectation that teachers set for them.  Mr. Escalante clearly had extremely high expectations for the students, despite the immense barriers the students faced on the basis of their race, ethnicity, linguistic heritage, and socio-economic status.

So…what are the barriers for well-to-do, predominately White, upper-middle class students who attend a very expensive, college-preparatory school? The dominant culture, i.e. White male culture, is a bankrupt culture in many respects.  Despite the immense privilege such a culture offers, it is fraught with a compromised value system, misplaced priorities, and ineffectual parenting which values neither education nor personal responsibility and accountability.  Therefore, extra help isn’t seen as  a way of doing better because it is the right thing, but more as a safety net for when things become so bad that extra help is the eleventh-hour solution.  Schools reflect the culture of the society in which they reside.  Private schools, despite the bubble shield they evoke, are not as immune as we may have been led to believe.  All of society’s ills exist with us as well.

I realize that my school isn’t going to resolve society’s many problems.  However, I would like for my school to find a way to make extra help part of a positive culture of expectation.  I would like to see more personal responsibility and accountability on the part of the students, and, to that end, we may have to teach these things to the students.  Additionally, I would like to see a school day that supports and values extra help so that teachers and students alike feel that it is not only an important part of the school day, but that it is also a necessary component to teaching and learning.

Without a culture of expectation, nothing else truly matters.

They Know That You Know That You Know…

My Dear Mom often says the above to me, in relation to my work and my workplace. I guess I am the quintessential educator: I strive to teach student and adult alike, in some manner or form, in an attempt to make them better, i.e. smarter. However, my Dear Mom knows, and I know, that my efforts are not always welcomed or appreciated on the part of my colleagues, and, being one of only a handful of Black and Brown folks, I take a huge risk when attempting to impart knowledge to my White colleagues. Especially on matters of race.

My Dear Brother feels similarly. He says, “They’re adults, just like you. You’re not the representative for the Black race. If they want to know, let them find out. If you want to share a link now and then, by all means, do so. But, you’ve got your own work to do.”

Dear Brother is correct. I am not the official, sanctioned voice of diversity at my place of employ, despite the fact that I am perhaps the most interested, and the best-trained, given my own efforts to develop my personal knowledge, and my professional expertise. So, where does this leave me? To be a resource. That is all that I can be.

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