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.

Different Ability Levels

Every Thursday both English teachers are in the computer lab, and generally the students spend this time working on an essay. This week, the students' assignment was slightly different. Instead of a formal essay, they had to create a How To poster of anything they wanted (How to Dribble a Basketball, How to Eat a Sandwich, How to Survive a Zombie Invasion, etc.). Normally, when it is time to write a formal essay, the students who are labeled as lower-ability struggle and almost never finish before the end of the class period. But this assignment they dove right into. Even if they did not pay attention to all the instructions of the assignment, they were, for the most part, much ahead of the rest of the class by the end of the period. The "high-achievers," on the other hand, first had difficulty coming up with a topic and then were concerning themselves with formatting, etc., and most were not close to finished by the end of class. It was really remarkable to see this flip. That, my friends, was a very interesting (and effective) use of differentiation and a clear reason why appealing to different learning styles is important.

To finish or not to finish

Different teaching styles exist because different learning styles exist. Everyone works at different paces. However, a persistent problem I have noticed in pretty much every class is there are no alternative options for students who finish their work before others. Often in these cases, boredom can be misconstrued for being unfocused, when it's actually just the opposite. These kids should be rewarded, not just made to sit there doing nothing. Also, I think some students are slow just to give themselves something to do, because even doing a stupid old worksheet is better than sitting there twiddling your thumbs. But more often than not, especially in remedial classes, teachers do not provide alternative activities for students who have finished. In grad school, these were called "anchoring activities," literally for anchoring students in their chairs until the bell. They are also supposed to provide enrichment on the same skill set, thus anchoring the students' knowledge. But in many classes I have seen here, different pacing does not seem to be an issue when it comes to lesson plans, even though it is a specific tenet of proper differentiation, which, in every interview I've ever been to, is the most important technique in teaching. I wish I could get more practice with experiencing it in action.

Standardization? Not so much.

We all know about the gigantic move toward standardization of education, culminating with the state tests given at every grade level in every subject. But standardization of education is impossible because standardization of an occupation as amorphous and necessarily pliant as teaching is impossible.

Before the explanation, some background is required... next week an aide is going on maternity leave and the principal asked me to shadow her this week in preparation for covering her absence for the next two months. She mostly goes to integrated (which now means multiple levels of skills, not multiple skin tones) English classes. Both eighth grade English teachers do exactly the same thing (subject-wise) in their classrooms, but their styles are wildly different. Mr. S. is much more intense, more lenient, and slightly more engaging than Ms. L., for instance. He also gives much clearer instructions and has better time-management skills, but is less organized.

It's clear to see whose teaching style I prefer. But that doesn't mean this style works for everyone. If teaching styles are (and I would argue, must be) definitively different across the board, doesn't it stand to reason that the ways kids' knowledge is tested must be different to? I (as was every other teacher) was taught in grad school that differentiation is a MUST in the teaching profession. Which makes perfect sense. Why doesn't this differentiation extend to the state & federal level, from which all decisions arise?

A lot of work is left to be done.