Still here!

Obviously, it has been forever since I have written, and one reason is because this year has been absolutely crazy. I'm not really sure why I'm so much busier this year. I even have one fewer class.

But the reason I decided to write tonight is because of a discrepancy I just witnessed.

As background, I am constantly called away from my class to attend IEP (Individual Education Plan) meetings. Most of the time, they are a waste of time -- a litany of teachers saying the same things over and over again about a student to decide whether or not s/he needs services. Clearly, I am not a fan (at least not when I should be teaching instead), nor are most other teachers. But we are legally required to go if summoned.

I had one of said meetings today, only it was slightly different because it was what's called a "Manifestation Meeting." What happened was one of my more difficult students, who has an IEP for an emotional disorder, had been suspended for smoking pot on school property and then entered into an alternative program. I was wondering why she wasn't expelled instead, but evidently (which I found out just today), due to her "disability," she was given a lesser punishment, and this meeting was to determine whether or not she knew the difference between right or wrong. Did we really need to have a meeting about that? She isn't five. Also, apparently this was her second strike. I know this girl; she knew exactly what she was doing. There should not have been any special treatment. But the school district was so paranoid about playing by the rules because of the (sometimes ridiculous) legal requirements of special education.

I believe school administrators need to stop kowtowing to special education. How about treating all kids special, instead?

When technology takes over

Sometimes I feel like I should show my students 2001 A Space Odyssey. For the life of me, I cannot understand their complete obsession and absorption in technology. I had an incident with a student today in which she argued with me over the use of her phone in class. It's extremely clear what the rule is in my classroom, and probably every other one she's in: no phones in class. Period. If I see a phone, I give a student one verbal warning. After that, I take it. And it's not as if that's even that bad. I will give it back to them at the end of class. So here I was, arguing with a 15 year old about the fact that she could live without her phone for 30 minutes. And she absolutely refused. She hasn't been the only one, either. I really wish I understood what the obsession was. Any free second a student has, I see them with their phones out. I use mine for maybe an hour a day. Also, a student can be living below the poverty line -- and a lot of mine are -- and still have a smartphone. I don't understand it. What is the big deal...

Ok, now I'm starting to rant, but it drives me crazy that I cannot understand why a smartphone is essentially like breathing for these kids. And I cannot understand why they are so disrespectful with regard to these gadgets, which they feel they are entitled to. This article, in fact, articulates well the effect cell phone usage has on these kids with regards to creativity and problem solving. Judging from the work I get from these kids, I would say that's accurate.

One down, 35 more to go!

I would say the first week of school went well. It seems like I have a pretty great group of kids. And I can already weed out the trouble-makers. I feel prepared, for the most part, and excited, and energetic (we'll see how long that lasts...). I'm looking forward to this year.

But apparently some teachers aren't...

Send 'em in!

The students, that is. School starts tomorrow for realz and I'm so excited. I'm like a 5 year old on Christmas morning. Sure, I don't feel 100% ready -- there are a couple more things I wanted to put up in my room but didn't have time; I'm still working out the kinks in a few lesson plans -- but overall I'm looking really forward to the school year. I have all sophomores this year, which is a great age group, and I don't have to deal with any senioritis or the bureaucracy of senior discipline. I'm also teaching one advance class, which I'm really looking forward to.

And about those goals I had earlier... The first two didn't really happen and I'm pretty close to the last one (lesson planning months in advance), but I quickly realized that so much of lesson planning depends on the specific personalities and pacing of each class. So I kind of stopped when I got to Thanksgiving, which gives me a good background and a strong cache to build upon. Hopefully all my planning endeavors won't go completely out the window. Here's hoping!

The learning never stops!

I'm trying really hard not to slack off this summer, so I'm taking a teacher-ed class that the county is offering this summer. It's a four day session (which is now half-way finished) about Media Literacy, and it has been really fascinating. The course is based around how we can implement media like TV, movies, internet, advertisements, etc. into lesson plans, and it has actually gone above and beyond my expectations.

However, despite all the good that's coming out of this course, it reminds me about the things that are wrong with education. And here they are:

1) The first element that made me rather sad was the fact that teacher materials are rather hard to get. The county purchases textbooks from a certain textbook company, like many others, and this company provides additional materials to help us teach better. Ok, makes sense. But the instructor of the Media Literacy course said that the county was going to give each teacher a supplemental DVD from this company that had things like film clips with guiding questions to make our jobs easier. Except then they didn't because these DVDs cost $300... each. Probably because of copyright and stuff, but still. That is ridiculous. I realize this textbook company is a for-profit corporation (which is sickening to me), but that is outrageous. However, what I found even more offensive was the fact that these guiding questions (the instructor gave us a preview) were pretty simplistic for the most part. The textbook company seemed quite patronizing in that regard, saying that teachers are basically interchangeable and not even all that necessary -- all we do is press play, apparently.

2) Next, I've gotten to know teachers at other schools through this course, and the way they talk about how the SOLs make their jobs more difficult is rather baffling. For instance, one woman was saying she teaches a Read 180 class, which is a highly scripted course that helps struggling readers. She is supposed to stick to the script, but today she said she had to deviate from it in order to teach simile, metaphor and personification, which are not in the script for this course, but are on the SOL. Which these students, even though they are behind their peers, still have to pass. Umm, what? How does that make any sense whatsoever? That just goes to show that standardized tests do more harm than good, and that there is something wrong with prescribed programs, especially when they are so evidently contradictory.

3) The instructor today was talking about a project she had her students do in which they had to create and discuss a metaphor they created based on a specific text. She said this was a fabulous project, because the depth of conversation and analysis the students got into was much greater than it would have been if she had provided them with a more simple question-and-answer, or even a seminar. I thought that was really awesome, but then of course my mind went to the idea of standardized tests again, and how these tests aren't really testing what students know. It was clear to this teacher how well her students understood a text, but more importantly, how honed their critical thinking skills are, yet if they were to have a standardized test on the same text, it would be difficult to judge how deeply their thoughts could go.

4) Finally (and this is not from the course), this article is so well-written, so poignant, and so in-tune about what is wrong with national education standards when it comes to children in poverty. Why is there so much wrong with this profession?

C'mon Virginia!

Let's beat Georgia!

Oooh...

This is all. Some great ideas.

Learning from Failures (and Successes)

Now that the school year is over, I have gotten monumentally lazy, as evinced from my lack of postings.

But now seems like as good a time as any to list my three overall goals for this summer:
1. Learn how to drive manual transmission
2. Read at least three books in the "Song of Fire & Ice" series. I'm reading "A Game of Thrones" right now.
3. Plan out first quarter entirely and have an outline for second quarter ready to go.

This third goal, obviously, is the most time-consuming and painstaking. I was taught in grad school that you should begin with the assessment and work backwards. I have tried to do this in my planning last year, but it's mind-boggingly difficult. I've always started at the beginning, and I always will. Of course, I do have an end goal in mind, because otherwise what's the point?

However, I have learned from last year, and this year I'm lucky because I have more time (an entire summer, in fact) to plan, and it will be much more specific (and much less sporadic) than my beginning of the year plans from last year. Here we go...

Whoops...

With the craziness at the end of the year, I guess I forgot to post. Here are some tidbits.

First, student quotes/maneuvers that stay with me:
S: Ms. Brown, can you please not call my mom about my grade?
Me: Well, that's kind of my job.
S: I know, but can you give *me* the assignments I'm missing instead? She's bat-shit insane.
Me: *speechless*
S: She almost threw my computer away.
Me (regaining composure, though not entirely): I'm sorry to hear that. But I did give you the assignments. Get them in as soon as you can.

And my favorite of the year, which I will probably (hopefully) remember for years: My entire fifth period class helped one student put on a very elaborate ruse to ask me to go the prom with him. It was hilarious, however, I'm still not sure if he was joking...

As well as prom being in the air, so are standardized tests, screwing up the schedule even more so that it already is at the end of the year. I see my fifth period three more times before the final. Which basically means they will be screwed.

Speaking of standardized tests, here's awesomeness* out of Florida.

*sarcasm

Wow, I can't believe the year is almost over...

Community & collaboration

Two things. First: because it is the last quarter and senioritis has set in, the attendance problem in my fifth period class (seniors) has gotten worse. I've had 4 students from that class I haven't seen since the quarter started. So I sent an email to their administrator and the Attendance Specialist (I'm not exactly sure what his job is, but he seems to be effective) about it. The next day, each of these students were in class. That was kind of amazing, though I wonder how long it will last.

Secondly: With the same class today, we finished up reading Macbeth and I wanted to do an interactive activity with it so I explained that the classroom was now a courtroom and divided the class into two groups. One group was playing the Prosecution, proving Lady Macbeth's guilt and sanity, and the other group was the Defense, proving that she was just an accomplice, and that she was insane. I told them to make their cases they had to find textual evidence from the play. I was anticipating groans when I said this, but there was nary a peep.

With this class in particular, I am weary of trying anything the least bit nontraditional, even something where students get to argue (and they LOVE to argue). Plus, this activity did not go as well as I had hoped with my previous senior class, the one I use with which to gauge the effectiveness of activities, since they seem to be generally less apathetic. So I was a little concerned when I introduced the activity, but they were totally into it. Even the students who weren't saying anything were interested in the arguments. It was a fantastic class. I hope the attendance and the interest will not completely dissipate before the end of the year.

Broken System Is Broken

Another disappointing discovery in the local policy department. I got an email from a student's counselor yesterday asking what grades this girl would need for the final quarter and the final exam to pass. She has failed all three quarters so far.

So this morning I sat down to start doing the math. Her three quarter grades averaged to a 45%. I was a little confused how to figure out how this would affect the rest of the year for her, but I was doubtful she could pass if she earns less than 100% from here on out. So I went next door to another (English) teacher to ask how he figures those things out.

However, he told me I couldn't use a number. I had to use a letter grade. Umm, but teacher, letters can't have averages. Apparently, though, each letter is assigned a number much like the GPA scale: A is 4, B is 3, C is 2, D is 1, and E is 0. Ok, I guess that makes sense.

But here's the broken part: A student needs a total of 5 points to graduate. Which means my failing student -- a girl who rarely comes to class, never completes her homework, bombs most tests, and barely completes classwork -- can theoretically get an A, then a D, and then it doesn't matter if she fails the last semester or the final. Think about that: we have built a system that actually encourages students to slack off after just nine weeks of school.

If you have failed three quarters, I don't think you should be able to pass the course. Otherwise, we are teaching children that it's okay to be lazy for most of your life as long as you do *some* work the last month or so of school. Teaching life lessons? We're doing it wrong.

Speaking of positive things from students...

Here is an example of work one of my seniors did this week. As part of my goal to get (force?) the students to appreciate the language of Shakespeare, I have been inundating them with activities that get them to think about how his language relates to them. So last week I gave them an assignment in which they had to "translate" 10 lines from Macbeth into text message speak. They actually had a really good time doing this, and of course, some products were better than others, but this is one of my favorites. It's from the beginning of Scene 3 in Act 2, when we are introduced to the drunk Porter:

Macduff: u asleep?
Porter: no lol. We r durnk
Macduff: How drunk?
Porter: I'm horny :) & I hav 2 p. I mite pass out lol. I wanna get with this chick but I'm not gunna do sex good :( I'm 2 drunk
Porter: I'm gunna pass outttttttt
Porter: I feel sick :(
Macduff: Didn't u black out last nite 2?
Porter: lol yea. But I like booze lol. I puked last nite 2 lololololol
Macduff: Did u wake up Macbeth
Porter: Oh s*** yeah. Imma bail.

This kid is clearly up on "text speak," and he was able to seamlessly apply that to these characters. That's pretty awesome. I like to think that at least something is getting through to them.

Year of the Rat

Yeah, long time since an update. Whoops.

Spring break is over, which means the fourth and final quarter has started, which means this is the most difficult time of the year to keep students engaged, especially seniors. I spent this afternoon at the final training for second-language learners, and this was probably the most valuable session, as I got several (mostly movement-based) interactive activities which would work well with (woo alliteration!) all students. I was talking to a colleague after the session about our difficulties with getting students -- particularly the younger ones -- to turn things in, and even do work in class. I was telling her that at my school everyone agreed that this year's sophomores has been the worst group of students people have ever seen. The juniors are fine. The freshmen are fine. There is something seriously wrong with the class of 2014. She said it was exactly the same thing at her school, and as she put it, "there must have been misalignment in the stars or something." It's really quite baffling.

However, on a positive note, students from all over the country are capable of doing amazing things. I have to constantly tell myself this. This video is proof.

Gross.

I will let this article speak for itself.

But on a positive note, one of my more difficult boy students said to me today, "Ms. Brown, I want to be just like you when I grow up. Except a man." I could not hide my laughter.

Teach to learn, learn to teach

I'm introducing The Taming of the Shrew to my sophomores, and am prepping them by focusing on the themes in the play first. Last week, one of their questions to answer was to explain how they view gender roles in a relationship, and whether or not love is necessary for marriage. During the course of reading their answers, I learned two important things.
1) Teenagers are extremely jaded about marriage. That was not terribly surprising, as at least half of them have divorced parents or have only known one parent, but it was interesting to see how they expressed these opinions.
2) I have one student who has said three words to me all year and is rarely in attendance, who is actually quite bright when he shows up, who, for this assignment, wrote something incredibly poignant. Unfortunately, I do not have his paper in front of me so I cannot cite it verbatim, but he compared a relationship to a house of cards: All pieces have to work together in a very specific way or everything will fall apart. I was floored. Most of my students don't even know what an analogy is; much less can they make one that is so appropriate and complex.

It's things like that that make me wish I could just randomly pull kids into a quiet corner and say "You're awesome." It's moments like that that make me forget about all the bad in the world.

Stranger than Fiction

I'm out sick today. Even though I didn't sleep at all last week I wanted to go in today, because it's actually *more* work prepping to be out, especially when it's last minute.

Anyway... I love/hate this time of year every four years, with that little thing called the Presidential Election. This year seems like a circus. Not surprisingly, many candidates are focusing on education. I don't think anyone has nailed it down completely yet, but no one is getting it more wrong than this guy. Petri says it much better than I ever could, but college (i.e. higher education) is for snobs? Really? I think he has finally gone off the deep end... which is actually unfortunate, as the entertainment he has provided will soon be no more.

Jon Stewart, you're my hero

I rarely watch TV, but when I do... usually my first choice is The Daily Show. Stewart's wit and interview skills are really freakin' amazing. It's too bad guys like that did not go into politics... but I digress.

Recently, Education Secretary Arne Duncan was on the show. If you missed it, here is the link. He did have some good things to say (I really loved his idea about the "wraparound" school, where it becomes a crucial community center, not just an 8-4 building), but for the most part, Stewart was ripping him a new one. It was one of the better interviews I have seen, if for no other reason than it got a professional policy maker to admit just how broken the current system is.

In other (better) news, I have a student in my first period who always brings his guitar with him to class. He almost always arrives early and starts to play a song while others are shuffling in. It's a great start to the day, and today he played "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie. We had a really nice conversation about it before the bell rang. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay creativity!

Had to share...

As much as I'm trying to talk more about my own teaching experiences now and less about others, I couldn't not share this, because it is a great example of how broken the system is. Why are teachers continuing to be so undervalued? Why is there all this obsession with standardized testing, when we keep hearing, time and again, that we should be teaching children how to think critically and creatively, something that will never be accomplished with test upon test upon test? Aaaaaaargh.

Alternative Schooling

If you were to ask me how I felt about home-schooling, I would not be sure how to answer you. On the one hand, I think there are a lot of students who benefit from an environment that traditional schooling does not provide (and, in fact, one of my students is being homeschooled for the remainder of the year due to health issues she has been having, and is excelling in that environment), but on the other hand, I think that people can abuse it (mainly religious nuts), and some use it as a cop-out.

In the same ilk, I am slightly unsure about what I think about this, but I am leaning more toward the "I don't like it" vein, since I think it would mostly benefit people who homeschool their children because they don't like the "liberal agenda" or whatever they think traditional schools promote (it is named after another religious nut, after all).

I do agree that since parents who homeschool their children still pay taxes, so they should be able to have some input about public schooling-- but then again, they have made the choice to homeschool their children, and are aware of what they are giving up to do so. Also, I think waaaay too much emphasis is placed upon sports and other extra-curriculars where the academic curriculum is being ignored. But that's an entirely different issue...

Diversity at its best

I feel like I've been really negative lately. No surprise, really; I am a purebred cynic.

However, I'm going to really, really try to use this as less of a forum for bitching and instead use it as a forum for ideas and successes. Like, for instance, this one. It is quite a step for Gay Rights Advocates. While sexuality really has nothing to do with education, tolerance does. What is school for, if not to teach tolerance? So I feel like this article is extremely relevant to education.

Just kidding...

regarding the last post. It's called TWITter for a reason... call me a cynic, but that is just too ridiculous; I can't stand it. So, yeah, deleted my account. I don't care how much of a luddite it makes me.

Anyway... time for posting articles. Quite a few good ones this week: this one for the hopeful, this one for regurgitation of testing "results," and this one, which is my favorite, and calls out former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. Yaaaaaaaaaay.

Le siiiigh...

I have caved. Again. To the Twits.

I tried Twitter once before, very briefly, but deleted my account because it seemed pointless. It still does, mostly, but I joined this time for one reason, and one reason alone: this. Maybe it will be useful. We shall see.

In other technology news, I had to submit my "technology portfolio" to the school ITC to make sure that I know what I'm doing. Except it was rather ridiculous (which he admitted). Out of date, precursory knowledge. But at least it wasn't an inordinate amount of work.

Grades do not equal achievement.

When will students, parents, administrators, and politicians realize this?

At the staff meeting this week, the principal informed us that there was a small percentage of students with D's and E's compared to students who had earned C's and above. His comment in response was, "This tells me that you all are doing incredible work" when it comes to helping our students achieve. Ummmm, ok... really? Just because a kid gets a C doesn't mean that he understands the material. Even a kid who gets an A hasn't necessarily mastered the material. I have students who have D's who are putting in more of an effort than kids with B's and C's; they may just not be as naturally bright. Personally, I would rather have a class of dummies who work hard than a class of smart asses who do no work. Apathy really, really bothers me.

Also, kudos to the principal for giving us accolades, I suppose, but how about giving some of that credit to the kids? After all, teachers always talk about how we don't "give" grades, but rather, how students "earn" them themselves.

Anyway, the end of the quarter was yesterday, which means we're halfway done!

Yes!

Midterms are in the works right now. Assessment after assessment, with a dash of curiosity and creativity thrown in (hopefully), is constantly happening. But how much is getting through? How much can the students take? Heck, how much can I take?

On a related note, I really enjoyed this article. The subject was briefly touched upon in grad school, and is never, ever discussed among the staff. Withhold praise? What!? But I think it makes a lot of sense. Especially since students need to get used to never being praised in the working world. Let's face it: even the most successful students will miss the praise they were awarded (sometimes undeserved) a hundred times over in high school. But real life ain't that.

Man... sometimes I think I'm way too cynical (realistic?) to be a teacher.

Of course he does...

(Regarding the headline that discusses our illustrious Virginia governor and his "education" policies.) Read more here.

Although to be fair, some of his ideas are good. Like repealing the rather meaningless King's Dominion Law, which states that schools cannot begin for the fall until Labor Day. I also agree with him on decreasing the amount of choices of high school diplomas offered, though I would bet good money we have different reasons for wanting to do so. Three other initiatives he is proposing (Literacy, Tuition Tax Credits, and Youth Development) sound great in theory, but I wonder how he plans to initiate them. These are ambitious (and costly) plans. Call me a cynic (please!), but I have my doubts about these programs...

However, what I detest most is his contemptuous idea about eliminating teacher tenure. To quote the latter article, by Emma Brown, McDonnell "shrugged off the suggestion that tenure is necessary to protect academic freedom, saying that it ends up protecting bad teachers." We have heard this argument time and time again from multiple people on both sides of the aisle. This argument will never go away.

But I think Strauss puts it well when she states that there are evaluation systems in place that are effective, in which "bad teachers are removed even though teachers have tenure....teacher tenure... cannot protect an awful teacher, unless administrators fail to take the steps necessary to remove said teacher from the classroom."

While this problem will not be resolved any time soon, I think it is important to pay attention to this last point, which people too often ignore: That one should blame administrators who are not adequately evaluating their employees, rather than blaming the system itself. It is people who are accountable, then, and not organizations (*ahem* corporations *ahem*).

Back to the Grindstone...

I go back to school tomorrow after a nice long break. I guess writers and policy makers have taken some time off, too, because there is not a whole lot to report on that front. Except for this. Le siiiiiiiiiiigh.