teacher mrw

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

Archive for the tag “K through 12”

21 Jan 2012
2 Comments

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::

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , , , , ,
10 Dec 2011

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.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
04 Dec 2011

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.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, Independent School, The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
13 Nov 2011
1 Comment

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.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door, Independent School and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
09 Nov 2011

The Power of Light

To those who are regular readers of my blog, I’ve been M.I.A. So, first, I would like to thank those who have continued to visit and to read, in spite of my absence.

As some of you may know, Connecticut was devastated by an early winter snow storm on 10/29.  Tens of thousands were left without power, myself included, for several days, due to downed power lined caused by broken trees and tree limbs.  Despite the fact that my apartment complex has its power lines underground, it is part of a power sub-station where the power lines are above-ground.  Therefore, my apartment complex remained without power for eight days, and several hundred remain without power as I write this blog post.  Though I remained with hot water and a working gas stove, the heat and lights went out on 10/29, and the apartment became unbearably cold.

After two days of braving the cold, I relocated to my parents’ home, where they are blessed to have a standby generator.  Back in 1998, when many were enjoying fancy vacations and new cars, my parents made a significant investment to provide for future comfort in the event the power went out for an extended period of time.  Despite their having made this provision, they had a very difficult time purchasing propane gas for the generator.  However, they had a a very difficult time last week getting a delivery from the propane company with whom they’ve been customers since 1998.  I’ll spare you the details, but, I will say this: I witnessed a very ugly side of humanity last week, perpetrated on behalf of that propane company.  I have personally experienced the ugly side of humanity on many occasions during my short 46 years, and my mother guarantees that I will certainly see more.  However, it was very disheartening for me to witness my parents’ frustration, aggravation and disappointment last week, especially given the fact that they made ample provision for situations just like we experienced for eight days.  Fortunately, they were able to contract with another company, and get the propane they needed for the generator.  I will, however, be helping my parents to write a stern letter to the propane company in question, as well as filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

I enjoyed spending time with my Dear Parents, and my Dear Brother.  I was able to help my Dear Mother with housecleaning and laundry via a trip to the local neighborhood laundromat.  Additionally, I learned more about the mechanics of a standby generator than I had ever hoped to learn as I ventured out with my Dear Dad to ensure that everything was operating properly.  In as much as I enjoyed being with my family, I was glad to return to my cozy apartment.  My maternal grandmother used to say that one’s feet don’t fit as well under another person’s  table as they do under one’s own table.  That is so true.  However, my feet fit pretty well under my parents’ table; it’s still very much home.

I think like many, I arrived at a new appreciation for electricity, warmth and comfort.  Not one to walk around my apartment, bundled up in sweaters, seeing the thermostat drop to almost 60 degrees gave me a fresh perspective on what so many live without on a daily basis, and, I felt very blessed.

During my week with my family, which was also a week out of school, due to the power outage, I was able to gain new insights into my teaching, and my students’ learning, via research and reflection.  I attended  my state’s annual foreign language conference on 10/31, where I also presented.  I will speak to that in a separate blog post.  However, I will say that, given how I was feeling after two days of being in a cold apartment, I had almost lost my resolve to attend the conference. But, I did attend, the presentation went well, and I gained much valuable information from the sessions I attended.  As a result, I am exploring blended learning, CRISS, and ways to support struggling learners with learning disabilities. Over the course of the past several weeks, including yesterday, I have tried out several new techniques, to which my students have responded very favorably.  Again, I will devote a separate blog post to them in the days ahead.

In any event, it was good to return to school, and to teaching.  Given the ugly side of humanity I have experienced on many occasions in my workplace environments, this is a monumental statement. My Dear Mother asked me if the power outage has rendered some of my colleagues nicer people.  I told her: Time will tell.

Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, This, That and a Third and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
03 Sep 2011
6 Comments

The First Day – Again

On Friday, which was yesterday, I officially embarked on my 18th year as an educator.  It was a good day.  Aside from the usual knuckle-headed behavior from a few 9th grade boys, the students seem interested in and willing to learn, albeit anxious, which may explain to some extent the knuckle-headed behavior from a few 9th grade boys.

Speaking of anxiety, it never ceases to amaze me that, despite all my years being associated with school  - as a teacher and as a former student – the first-day jitters always seem to plague me, and in some years, days and even weeks prior to the first day.  The one difference this year and last was that the usual first-day jitters was compounded by my dad’s health issues, thus ramping up the anxiety factor.

Now that the first day is behind me, I feel that I can begin the work with my students in earnest.  One of my primary goals for the school year is developing my knowledge of  and expertise in proficiency based grading.  I made an attempt about three years ago, but, was only moderately successful. I had not set up my grade book correctly, and, needed to have had more hands-on information about how and what to assess. Now that I have obtained those pieces of information that were missing for me, I have dedicated myself to undertaking once again proficiency-based grading.

My second primary goal is teaching for communication.  The focus of my classes is getting students to speak more regularly and more often. As much as I enjoy grammar, I realize that no amount of grammatical training is going to teach students how to speak, and to develop their skill and comfort level in doing the same.  The presenter of a workshop I attended several years ago said, ” Grammar and verbs are the glue which hold the language together.” Those words have remained with me since that time. But, like most things, I went with that which was, at least for me, easier and less messy to assess.  But, I realize that if I am going to help students to become more proficient in their functional language skills, I need to create learning opportunities which may be messier for me, but which will get them doing more of the work, and get them doing more of the work which helps them to show what they know and are able to do.

My third primary goal, which is related to the second, is using more alternative assessment, in the form of project-based learning, and rubrics, to assess reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  I admit: I have a love-hate relationship with projects.  I have long-viewed them as examples of less-rigorous learning, compared to an oral presentation, or, memorizing and reciting a poem. However, projects, when well-designed, clearly presented and carefully assessed, can help students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do with the language. So, I am going to strive to add a project-based assessment as the culminating assessment for most of the units I teach.

To gain a better understanding of my students, I created, using Google Docs, two online surveys: One for parents/guardians, and one for the students themselves.  I am looking forward to reading the responses. Love action research, and collecting data. :)

I am excited about the new year.  It’s holding lots of possibilities.  Besides, I have my Twosies back, and, that’s a very nice thing. :)

Posted in The Five Cs: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning and tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
23 Aug 2011
2 Comments

Syllabus, By Design

Fall 2009 Course Syllabus

Image via Wikipedia

Honestly, I never really gave much thought to writing syllabi.  At least, not in an architectural/design sort of way.  But, this particular syllabus really got me thinking:  Is there really a better way to present information to students? More importantly, does it really matter, anyway?

Yes, on both counts. Furthermore, it seems that post-secondary education is way ahead of the proverbial curve than those of us in K-12 education when it comes to syllabus design. From templates to articles to Power Point presentations to workshops to college and university policy and guidelines for faculty, approaching syllabus design in order to be more inclusive of all learners, to present information in a more reader-friendly and user-friendly manner, and to promote learning and teaching, are the take-aways.

If you are a teacher of middle/high school students: What are your beliefs about syllabus design?

If you are a parent of a middle/high school student: What are your thoughts about the syllabi given to your children by their teachers? What are your child’s or children’s thoughts?

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , , , ,
15 Aug 2011

Race Talk When Diversity Equals One | Teaching Tolerance

Race Talk When Diversity Equals One | Teaching Tolerance.

The aforementioned breaks it down better than I ever could.  Mad props to Teaching Tolerance.

Posted in Eracism and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
03 Aug 2011
9 Comments

Matt Damon is My Hero…

nothing more to be said.  Check out the video.

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , , , ,
18 Jun 2011
4 Comments

Web-Based Portfolios

The first time I read this post, which was about a year ago, I said to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding.”  Since that time, however, I have revisited the blog post in question; in fact, most recently, last evening.  Not only did I re-read the initial post, but I also read the three subsequent posts, which comprise a four-part series.  Intriguing.

This morning, a quick ‘Net search led me to this wonderfully informative, interactive, and hands-on website. Fascinating.

But…why do I want to do this? More importantly, why do I want my students to do this?

I don’t know that I can answer either question at this point in time with any degree of precision or clarity.  That said, I think it would be “cool” to do so, it would start something positive at school, and, for my students, it would offer something tangible to discuss during the late-January Student/Parent/Advisee Conferences.  These are 30-minute conferences at which we expect students to “lead” the conversation.  The main drawback to this format is that we don’t offer the students anything substantive with which to lead. So, perhaps a portfolio, for at least one course, which in this case is Spanish, would ground the conversation in something real and meaningful.

Anyway, the next step? Talking with one of the ed tech specialists at my place of employ about the tech specs of it all.

Questions:

1.  Are there any teachers amongst my readership using web-based portfolios?

2.  If so, what do you see as the opportunities and the challenges of such an undertaking?  

3.  What advice would you impart to someone who is contemplating web-based portfolios?

Posted in At the Schoolhouse Door and tagged , , , , , , ,

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