Everything is connected

I have yet to talk to someone who doesn't think that education is the key to success. We have heard this mantra and seen it first hand over and over again. We know the statistics about the link between education and poverty. My students are very aware of this: They are in the program to escape poverty.

Yet I am drawn to education policy not because I think it's a panacea for poverty alleviation (although it will certainly help). I am drawn to education policy because I think it's connected to so much more: for instance, the economy, international relations, and social justice. Hear me out: First, say you do believe the premise that with a good education, anyone can be successful. And think about what the definition is of success for many people: having enough money to live comfortably. People who live comfortably contribute to the economy. Therefore a well-educated population leads to a stronger economy. It is in our best economic interests to invest in education (which, by the way, may not be as expensive as we think).

Next, think about how many of us gauge "success" in this country. We are capitalists; therefore, many of us value competition. And when you compare the U.S.'s stats to many of those from other countries, we fall woefully behind. (There are several studies about this, the most recent one being here.) Improving education in this country will make this country look more desirable in how we approach education.

My last point was about social justice, which is incredibly broad. It of course ties into poverty alleviation, and that is one of the goals of education. But it also ties into making sure that every single child has access to an education system that fits his or her needs. This is not yet the case in much of this country.

This is why I teach. These are the reasons why education policy is so important: It affects everything.

I'm back!

I really have no excuse for being gone this long. In August, I took a job teaching GED classes to adults and it's incredibly rewarding and far better (for me, at least) than teaching high school students. I guess maybe I was using that change in my life to justify not writing about K-12 education, but that's a stupid reason, especially since if K12 ed were better, there would be no need for GED classes.

And then after a couple more months, I figured "well, I've stopped for this long. Might as well stop entirely," but that's an even dumber reason because that's essentially quitting for no good reason. So I have wised up, and here I am again.

I'm sure you're not asking what the catalyst for my return is, but I'll tell you anyway. I read this feel-good article in WaPo today about a student from Anacostia High (probably the worst school in the District) getting a full ride to Georgetown and my initial reaction was, "Awesome! Good for her!" But then I stumbled upon this article and thought, "Oh yeah, good point. High schools (especially those in urban areas) really need to ramp it up."

Finally, I read this article from The New York Times, and the TL;DR version of it is is that students from lower-income families have a lower chance of graduating from college which often has more to do with the culture shock and motivation required in college, not finances. A professor at UT-Austin is trying to figure out ways to help them graduate.

It's no secret that schools in "poor" areas are not as good as schools from wealthy areas, but I thought all three of these articles did a great job of pointing out the psychological endeavors students must go through when they transition to college, which lower-income students struggle more with. These are things you cannot measure. But these are things that are critically important to be aware of, and then attempt to fix.

As Rashema points out in the first article, "[E]ducation is the only way out [of poverty]." If an 18 year old understands this, why don't the people who make the decisions?

Different perspectives

Last time, I posted a link to an article that discussed an initiative at Dunbar High School in the District, called ninth grade academies, that dramatically helped their students achieve. The article asked why this initiative took so long, and when will the rest of the District follow suit.

Well, that has now happened. Because Dunbar's program was so successful, DCPS is now making ninth grade academies mandatory in every DC high school. 

As a result, this DC teacher, while working on the same initiative herself at her own school of her own volition, has brought up an interesting point about district-mandated policy changes. She claims the ninth grade academies as working well at Dunbar (and now her own school) because they were teacher-created, not administration-created. They work at Dunbar because those teachers know their students and could therefore craft policy around students whom they already serve.

However, Ms. Fuchs points out, ninth grade academies will only work if teachers are invested. Therefore the mandated policy from up on high is not a "magic pill." Not all schools are the same. Not all policies will work the same way at every school, even two in the same neighborhood.

In that vein, politicians may be beginning to understand that cookie-cutter policies do not work. This article clearly delineates the new federal education bill passed Friday. Besides the last two points, things definitely seem to be moving in the right direction. Finally.

Reforming schools in DC

This article discusses why a good idea should be instituted earlier. I agree.

Hooray! Something good!

Even though it may seem counter to this point, I really try not to be a Debbie Downer. But reading education news is often so depressing.

Not this time! There should be more of this goin' on.

Clearly, the arts matter. Stop cutting them!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

The good, the bad, and the CRAZY

Classes at the school at which I teach are on a block schedule, so I see students every other day. I have a crazy disruptive & rude 7th period, and a ridiculously docile and almost boring 6th period. Mind you, these classes meet at the exact same time every day, and the difference between them could not be more pronounced. A lot of it is the dynamic of the students in terms of how they interact with each other; almost half the students in my 7th period have ADHD or have animosity toward each other or are just generally giant jackasses. I am so exhausted after they leave, whereas after 6th period I am just frustrated because I can't tell if the information is getting to them.

There is so much to keep track of in teaching. It's usually not until after the fact that I realize there are other factors at work when a student sits in my class: are they wondering if they can eat tonight? If their mother will wander home drunk? If their father will hit them?.... The list goes on and on. VS says it well (as usual) in this article about poverty. She also has another one about standardization that is rather amusing yet also sad.

Yaaaaaaaaaay weekend.