Ramping Up For the Re-Entry

My colleagues and I were taking a break from dusting, washing, organizing and throwing yesterday to commiserate on what every educator knows is true: if you don't get some stress-related malady just as school is starting, you must not be paying attention.  Hello insomnia.I used to feel like I had some character flaw because this happens to me every year. But my first year in public education, when my new principal - who had 25 years of administration experience AND classroom experience on top of that - openly admitted at Staff Orientation that she never sleeps the "night before", it was somehow comforting. Maybe this behavior is normal after all.Holding on to a more relaxed summer lifestyle is not easy to let go of. No matter how much I promise myself - and my spouse - the craziness starts up the minute I start working on my classroom. Some people buy new shoes, new clothes, new school supplies. I buy melatonin in the hope that I'll sleep through the night. Never works.Law and Order at 3 anyone?  

Purpose

What is my purpose in life?I was asked that question recently and my white glare honest answer is, I'm still working to uncover that answer. My purpose has been defined differently at every stage of my life.At different times, my purpose has been defined by different roles: daughter, sister, wife, mother.  Each role carries a separate purpose.  Supporter, caregiver, even pain in the ass. For my family, my purpose is often to be historian; my deep obsession with family history leads me to honor and respect those who came before. It connects me with the history of our country and our world. It causes me to pause, to wonder at the hardships endured so that I could be here in this place at this time.Professionally, my purpose also has evolved over time and again has been dependent upon my role. I've taught every grade level from Pre-K through 12th grade.Currently, my purpose is intertwined with my role as a third grade teacher in an urban school. For me, my purpose in the classroom carries the responsibility of opening minds to possibilities, to embrace discovery of something new, to discovering that as a learner, you are far more capable than anyone had imagined. To love learning and creating and finding your way - not without false starts and missteps, and not without learning from those missteps.Not without having some fun either. To take pride in what has been accomplished; to ignore those who say "you can't" . To know that smart is what you are when you work hard... not what you were born with.My purpose in life, my mission, is to guide learners to these ends. Surely there is no test for this, no measure. The pursuit of such overtakes my life, not just 10 months of the year, but all twelve. It is critical. It is important.It is my passion.

Aug 9: A Rembrance

August 9, is the anniversary of my Dad's death. If he were still with us today, he would have been 93.My Dad fought a long, hard and brave fight against COPD and emphysema. He had been a smoker - first cigarettes, then cigars and pipes. I once heard him express regret over smoking, but the 1930s and 40s were a different time.  It never came up, but I would bet money that he would have been sorely upset if any of us had taken up smoking.He didn't talk much about his childhood. His own mother died when he was nine so he didn't talk much about his own childhood. But once in a while - especially when my aunt, his older sister visited, family stories would creep out. He (and she) signed their own report cards. His family went on a camping trip in the early 1920s to Gettysburg, where his grandfather had fought, and to Washington, DC. He sat in one of the chairs in the White House.He loved chocolate - and I think may have genetically passed that on to all four of us. He could fix just about anything; that's something he did not pass on. He couldn't spell, but he could burp "oh baby".  An excellent driver, I don't believe he ever had an accident; all the dings in his cars in the late 1960s - those were from me.When my Dad died in 2004, one of my friends told me that there won't be a day that passes when you won't miss him.  She was right. Especially today.

Words of Encouragement & SOS Rally

Underneath all of the coverage of the debt crisis was another important event that really needs some attention: the Save Our Schools rally in Washington DC over the weekend. Stakeholders in public education got to listen to and rally around some educational heavy-hitters - Diane Ravitch, Jonathan Kozol and others whose writings and voices I admire. They have the fortitude to call public education - or what passes for it - on the carpet and not worry about jumping in to the fray.One speechmaker that surprised me - not because I didn't think he was thoughtful enough for it - was Matt Damon. That's right. Matt Damon the actor, writer and pride of Boston (Cambridge really, but we won't worry about ZIP codes here).How proud his mom, Lesley College educator, Nancy Carlson-Paige must have felt to hear Matt talk so poignantly about the impact teachers made on his life. Teachers who did not have to worry about whether or not the single-shot, high stakes test scores that we live with now would measure whether or not they were effective educators of children. They provided students with opportunities to express themselves creatively, to learn about the world, and to learn to love learning. Can we say the same happens now?Maybe it was the turning of the calendar to August when thoughts turn to preparing for the upcoming school year, but I personally really needed to hear these words:

So the next time you’re feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called “overpaid;” the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that’s been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything. ... Please know that there are millions of us behind you. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you, and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you and we will always have your back.

So if you live with, know, appreciate or support a public educator or someone working in public education, speak up. We need to know that once in a while, we get it right.To read Matt Damon's speech in its entirety, here's a link.

Daily Five and Neuro Brain Function

Today, I had the privilege of attending The Sisters Daily Five presentation here in Massachusetts - and if you get the chance, it is well worth your time.... and money. Some of the most intriguing parts of the presentation involved the research on brain function.When I try to apply a something new and exciting to my own teaching, the temptation is to just rip of the bandage and dig in. Maybe that's not the best way to do it though.  Having lived in older home for most of my adult life, I know that when I first move in, I want to spend all my capital on the things that are seen, the obvious things like a new coat of paint or new furnishings. Fixing structural pieces (the chimney, the roof) aren't going to be as obvious.No one walks into your (new) home and says "Wow, that's quite a nice chimney job. Love the new cap!" But these kinds of fixes are the structure and although there's more of a wow factor in repainting or re-papering, the structure must be dealt with first. So how does this thinking  relate to the Daily Five?According to the Sisters, Kenneth Wesson's work on neuro brain function, informs the structure they advocate for Literacy: a small focused hit of instruction with the whole group followed by a period of 10-15 (primary grade) or 20 (intermediates) of independent work. Wesson further states that the amount of time allotted to the whole group lesson is directly proportional to the average age of the students in the class. Joan - one of the sisters - taped her class to prove this was wrong when she first heard it and ended up becoming a believer. She shares this video clip during the Daily Five presentation.Think on that for a moment. At the beginning of the school year my students are 7 or 8 and by the end they are 8 or 9.  My third graders only sustain focus on what is being taught for an average of 8 minutes! And if I have a "young" class -- teachers know what I mean by this -- the time is even less.The impact on teaching is that time spent on the actual lesson must be focused and succinct. Thank goodness I am not forced to use a basal; if I had to do all the ramping up to the actual point of the lesson, my kids would either learn little or we would both be frustrated by constant re-teaching.But what I do need to attend to next year is boring right down to the essential learning more quickly. It may mean timing my mini lessons until I get the feel for just how long 8 minutes is.It is a model we've used both in Reader's Workshop and in Mathematics (Launch-Explore-Summary), but the model stopped short of explaining why it is so important to have a short burst of focused whole group instruction. As I start to plan for the coming school year, the one structural piece I am determined to attend to is this one. Those mini-lesson times, whether in literacy or mathematics, need to correlate to the amount of time my students can function.And maybe then we'll be able to move on to dressing things up.

Three Things My Students' Test Scores Won't Tell You

Every day there appears a new idea for making teachers accountable for student achievement. Yesterday I noticed a pip of an idea in a twitter post: Phys. Ed. teachers should be evaluated based on their students' fitness level.  This preposterous idea, that the fitness level of a student who has maybe 40 minutes contact time with the physical education teacher, should be the basis for that teacher's effectiveness is exactly what discourages me. Isn't there an "outside" influence on such success? Of course there is -- the home, the importance a parent places on physical activity  follow-through, not to mention nutrition choices!And then I began thinking about how our own state testing is going to impact how I am perceived. Here are three things that you won't see from picking apart my students' MCAS scores:Being in class matters: The students who did not regularly attend school had the worst SRI growth -- I'm waiting to see what the MCAS data officially looks like, but I won't be surprised if these same students' results are not very good.  Their growth from beginning to end of year using the Fountas & Pinnell benchmark (although that's somewhat subjective) also reflected limited growth. It would appear that something must be taking place in class that would cause students who do come to school to learn. Hmmm, wonder what that could be?Supportive families matter: Even when students come from some pretty unbelievable socio-economic circumstances (homelessness, poverty, violence), the end-of-year results of students where the parent was a collaborator were positive. What does that say? Could it be that learning in a vacuum without home involvement is rare?Timing is everything: One of my biggest -- notice I said "one of" -- is the timing of the state English Language Arts exams.  It happens in March which is, let me count, 7 months into the school year. Please explain how 7 months of learning makes a complete year (10 months). It follows on the heels of ELL testing, the MEPA in Massachusetts. the poor 8- and 9-year old kiddos who have to do all of this get exhausted.If I'm accountable for learning for an entire third grade year, shouldn't I get the whole year? This year was a special challenge; students coming from one of the classrooms had a long-term substitute for much of second grade. The regular classroom teacher is a strong, conscientious teacher but the substitute was definitely not up to the task. For these students I spent a LOT of time trying to bridge gaps from second grade. I really could have used more than 7 months for this work.Isn't this what bothers educators about state testing tied to evaluations? It is the unknown, random, living-breathing fabric of teaching. We work with humans. Stuff happens. Outside influences impact the final "product".  There is more to growth (an lack thereof) than testing. 

Fasten Your Seatbelts.....

It's going to be a bumpy night." I love this quote from "All About Eve"; and coming straight from Bette Davis' mouth - well you can imagine the delivery.The more thinking is done about the implementation of the new mathematics curriculum frameworks - the Common Core - the more it becomes apparent that this is going to be a major, that is MAJOR, implementation.Looking at it from a third grade teacher perspective - students will come to third grade with near mastery, if not mastery, of place value AND mastery (that is spelled out) of addition and subtraction facts --- all of them.  Historically, that has not been the case; students coming to third grade often have a shaky grasp of place value and most definitely we spend lots of the beginning of the year on addition & subtraction facts. Honestly, there are some children who do not leave THIRD grade having memorized/mastered these facts.  That's a post for another day though.What this means to me is that, for the next year - or possibly two - we will straddle two grade levels of work. It is clear what the expectations of students leaving third grade and going to fourth are. (Click here to download the PDF or Word version); but there will also be some catching up to do for second graders coming in to third this September.  I'm sure other teachers at grade levels above and below my own grade level will feel the same.And to add to the pressure, by 2014 the Spring testing will have completely transitioned to the new Common Core standards. Here's a link to DESE's plan to transition test items.  In other words, transition quickly and get working on mastery of the new standards.Will we be ready - I sure hope so. Because not only will there be new standards to be responsible for, the test results will be linked to my own evaluation as a teacher.I have a feeling that fastening my seatbelt isn't going to be much help here.

Using Test Results to Evaluate Teaching

The writing is on the wall... the DESE is in the process of recommending that the teacher evaluation system overhaul include data about teacher effectiveness using the state's MCAS test.I really am annoyed that no one is listening to teachers who are saying "Wait a minute...". Not because we don't want to be evaluated; a constructive evaluation and critique of how to do things better is always welcomed by me. But I do have some footnotes that need to be added to my students' results.Like students whose parent(s) don't care enough about their child to get the child to school. I'm not talking about students who are absent for medical reasons here. If my teaching technique is so all-fired important, why is a student with 25, 30 or (all time winner) 44 absences allowed to count toward my effectiveness.This spring I plotted student absenteeism/tardiness and percentile growth using the standardized reading assessment we administer (SRI) and -- big surprise -- the student with 44 absences not only didn't make any gains, the student had negative growth. Well, duh. If the child isn't in school and instead is watching daytime television, or playing video games, is this a shock?No one wants to talk about the elephant sitting on that chair in the corner. But we need to.... learning success depends upon a student being in attendance. Without the student participating in learning activities, how can teacher effectiveness be measured.

A Break in the Link

Twenty-four hours after the end of the 2010-11 school year finds me still trying to analyze why this year was so difficult. Why was it that so many students in the past group were such a challenge? Did my teaching change? Is my tolerance level low? Have I lost "it"?The more I think about it, there were things that I had no control over that impacted the dynamic of this classroom more than I imagined. Teaching in an urban district comes with challenges of trauma - social, familial, economic. Sometimes these are easy to surmount, but often they are not.When school works best, there is a partnership between student, teacher and parent. When one of those links is broken or dysfunctional, the possibility of success is lessened -- this is what I believe. The value of an education is undermined when there is lack of support from home.Within the group that has just moved on, there were quite a few broken links in this triumvirate: children who did not have the medication that would enable them to focus (enough times that it started to seem as if the parent was purposefully withholding). Children who did not arrive at school on time, not by a few minutes, but by hours and missed valuable lessons. Children who did not arrive, period. Absenteeism of 25, 30, 40 days of school. That's a considerable amount of time away from school when no reason was offered.School works best when there is a partnership. We did the best we could together, broken link or not. But I am so hoping that next year things are more cohesive, that I can convince parents - engaged or disaffected - that without their involvement, interest, and input their student cannot achieve all that they are capable.

Hakuna Matata

which translates to "no worries".... how often is that a part of an adult's thought process?This week marks the last week of the academic year for us. It's part of the fabric of the school year cycle - that time when I reflect on what worked and what didn't. When I start to see those kids, even the ones who wore my patience down to nothing, through the rose-colored lens of the past. When some of those tics that drove me crazy throughout the year become endearing.We clean out our desks -- even me this year -- and, according to my new rules, throw or recycle anything that hasn't been used in 2 years. That's my cutoff point this academic year. I am rethinking classroom design and have ordered a set of six balance ball seats. For once, I've put all the stuff I like to use when setting up my class before the children arrive in one place. Now that was a growth moment -- there's a chance I'll remember it if it's in one place.The state testing is done, the report cards are done, the District assessments are complete and recorded.  I've completed reports for the children who will be referred for special education testing. There are just a few final things to do: I always celebrate summer birthdays with my students who have them on the last day (mostly because my own son has one) and an extra game of kickball, weather permitting.So for the next two days "no worries". Until I meet my incoming group on the last day and the cycle begins again. But for now - Hakuna matata.

Memorial Day 2011

For many, or maybe for most people, Memorial Day means picnics and the start of the summer season.Yesterday, with the first summer-like weekend since, well since last summer, we went in to Boston to walk around and soak up some sun. As we usually do when we don't have a specific agenda, we drove in to the City and parked in the underground Common garage.Looking to to right as we emerged, I couldn't help notice a crowd gathering at the foot of the rise that starts mid-Common. And then we saw why.

If you have ever been to Boston Common on a weekend - a good weather weekend - it is teeming with people. Families on the carousel, splashing in the frog pond, softball and baseball leagues playing. It is not a quiet place. But on this day, in this place, hundreds of people walked to the perimeter of this memorial Flag Garden without speaking a word.

The 20,000 flags placed on this hill are in memory of those who served and died in every war since World War I. The Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund began this project in 2010. Hopefully will continue it each year.

Endurance

This must be the word of the week as it has come up so frequently.I think of my earnest third graders enduring the grueling high stakes mathematics testing that we concluded this week. Their reactions ran the gamut from just filling in any random test bubble to get the thing over with to painstakingly writing and justifying each and every answer with back up calculations.One of my behaviorally challenged students endures those days when the medication he relies upon is unavailable.  This student endures a health care system that doesn't allow for alternative medication or treatment. Take a pill. You can endure the day.Another student endures the daily stress and uncertainty of a gravely ill parent. The student endures the day's lesson until, arriving home, the child breaks down into inconsolable tears. This child no longer wants to be in school; it is too frightening to think that her parent may not be there when she arrives home.We endure those things mandated by folks who do not know who we are or what we are capable of achieving if we are just given a chance to linger until we can know. We endure an educational system that does not allow for students who learn differently unless the numbers add up. We endure a social structure that blames us when our families come from other places, or speak other languages.Sad to say, I feel I am enduring this year too. The challenge of teaching in a highly volatile impoverished environment is wearing and this year more than ever. My own self-worth can not driven by what others think of me,that I understand. But the constant harping on "poor results" by those with ulterior motive - be it winning elective office or selling a consultation service - on the backs of hard-working educators worms its way into my very being and causes me to doubt.With 19 days left to this academic year, we are all enduring.

Educating Workers or Leaders?

Today's Boston Globe carried a thought-provoking article by Renee Loth, titled "A Needed Lesson in Citizenship".  The current emphasis on stripped down, regurgitation of facts that is necessitated by preparing students (and now teachers) to deal with high-stakes testing has quite the trickle down effect: science, critical thinking, social studies.... all of these highly needed learning experiences have been given the short shift for years.Loth quotes Charles Quigley, executive director of the Center for Civics in Education saying

 country is “focused more and more upon developing the worker at the expense of developing the citizen.’’ The result, he said, is a group of “vulnerable, less-empowered’’ Americans at the mercy of political spin.

By vulnerable and less-empowered,  Loth goes on to point out

Informed citizenship should not become a luxury reserved only for those with elite educations. But with so much emphasis on teaching marketable skills, subjects like civics get shortchanged in most public schools. The danger is a bifurcated society with a “labor class’’ and a “leader class’’ that is inimical to the very idea of democracy.

Marketable skill. Labor class/Leader class. Education for the benefit of corporate America. Disengagement of citizens when their participation in our democracy is so essential.Frightening?  Click the Globe link above and read and decide for yourself.

Field trips are not just a day off

The writing demands, and by that I mean the required monthly student work, in Grade 3 is driving me. We are asked to produce a student response to reading sample monthly - something that is sorely needed by my students. MCAS, soon-to-be replaced by whatever literacy testing the Core Curriculum invents, asks our students to read and respond to a text. On the surface that doesn't sound too awful, but it usually end up being very challenging.Starting at "ground zero" as we often do in urban districts, our students seem to not have much experiential background, and therefore schema, for connecting texts to the outside world. With funding cuts, the schools are no longer able  provide the field trips needed to expand this knowledge base and that's really hurting students, especially second language learners and high-poverty students whose families don't have means to expose them to "things".Most, if not all, of my students have never been to Boston - a 17 mile trip from Lowell. When we talk about the State House, when we talk about Lexington or Concord... these are all just theoretical places to them. How I wish we could take our students to walk the Battle Road, to see where the laws that impact them are made, to connect to the world around them. Even though we live about an hour's drive from the ocean, many of my students have never walked along the beach front or heard its thundering roar.If I was in charge of education funding, I would be sure to include these experiences for learners. They provide invaluable schema with which to make connections and that is something the unending rounds of testing can never achieve.

Defining "Good" and "Bad" Teaching

Since when does a nationally recognized newspaper purport expertise on what makes an effective teacher?Since this morning, April 19, 2011 when the Boston Globe published an uncredited editorial entitled: Ed Commissioner's Plan for Teacher Evaluation Gets It Right. Apparently all that is necessary for teacher evaluations is some evidence of the following:

Effective teachers routinely impart a year-and-a-half-gain in student achievement over the course of a single academic year. Three or four consecutive years of exposure to that level of instruction can eradicate the achievement gap between low-income and high-income students. Bad teachers routinely secure just a half-year of student progress over the same period.

That's right, unless your students routinely make a year-and-a-half gain in the course of one academic year, you must be a "bad" teacher. Really? Where did you get that particular piece of data, Mr./Ms. Globe Editorial Writer?  Because if true, those teachers at high performing schools may not be "good" teachers -- their students may not be growing academically by a year and a half either.We all know that there is a real need for real evaluations of educators - and I include administrators too. I've taught under good ones and I taught under pathetic ones. I've also received children from teachers who clearly hadn't a clue and that makes me crazy too. No child should have to put up with it either.Clearly some kind of evaluation that is constructive is needed - as opposed to the punitive "everyone in education is crap" platitudes coming from business types who really haven't a clue what it is to deal with a human and therefore ever-changing "product" or from newspaper editors who simply and insidiously use their highly inflammatory language to sell more newspapers.So, Uncredited (do you really exists - show your face coward!) Globe Editorial Writer, if you have some data showing that "good" means a year and a half of growth please enlighten us. If you are pulling this data to support your thesis out of your rear-end or basing your editorial contribution on your own baggage and prejudices, you should be fired.

Braindropping

We all have them, those puzzling dreams that we can remember in the morning. Well, I just woke up to a nasty alarm after spending pillow time with a rather puzzling one. My mind can be a scary place.I'm not sure what I was doing, but it seemed to be some kind of math lesson - naturally. I love teaching math! I have the vague impression that people weew watching it for some strange reason..... whatever.And in that lesson a teacher's greatest fear started to come to life. The group got so out of control that teaching was next to impossible. I'm not sure what was going on anymore - I hate when the details of a dream get lost to awake time! - but I do recall having to take the activity away from one cooperative group. A group that included Charo (what????) and Queen Elizabeth II (double what????). For the record the Queen was very gracious and totally understood why the teacher was stopping her participation. Charo, however, pouted.Just as I was about to resume the activity, the alarm broke in. So many unanswered questions; did the rest of the lesson go okay? Most of all I hope I never experience one of those deja vu moments starring this dream. Analyze this one if you want Dr. Freud, but I'm guessing I made need a vacation.

Homeless children and faces of poverty

In case you missed it, here is a link to Scott Pelley's outstanding and heartbreaking story about the effects of homelessness on our children. As a teacher in a high poverty urban public school, I know what he is reporting is true. At least two of my students began the year in hotels; in previous years one of my students lived in the U Haul carrying all their worldly possessions after they were evicted. Some children have infrequently shared that they did not have electricity as the service had been shut off. Still others come to school and scuffle for food, for breakfast items that were not consumed by their peers. Clearly they do not have enough to eat.The most jaw-dropping piece of information Mr. Pelley shared was that the United States - the land of plenty - considers a family to be living below the poverty level if they are a family of four with $22,000 per year. Who can do that; who can do that with 4 people?For me, this fact points to the fallacy of statistical information as applied by our government. If the poverty level is defined as 4 people living on $22,000 each year; there are many more families in actual poverty than our government track with this skewed classification. $22,000 is not a living income for a single person - at least here in the Northeast - that amount applied to 4 is beyond the pale.Recently I read an article stating that the income gap between rich and poor is the widest it has been in 80 years. The "recovery" has not trickled down to those living on the margins. Social services are facing cuts in budgets and services that will only make this worse.I do not hold out much hope for our government to provide a safety net for children of poverty. These children sadly seem to know better than I, that the situation is not hopeful. That, in this land of plenty, they are faceless and nameless, and sadly, powerless.

The Vilification of a Once Respected Profession

Is there anyone else who is sick of being told they are a money-sucking, taxpayer-draining leech?  The amount of misinformation that pops up in comments on newspaper websites, in the press in general, in conversation is head-shaking to me.After reading Joanna Weiss's op-ed column in today's Globe, I decided it would be worth sending to a friend of mine via email. What caught my eye before the transaction could be completed was that - even at 8:17 in the morning - 66 people had already commented on her column. That 66 people were so moved to comment before I've had my second cup of Sunday morning coffee fascinated me. And so, I began reading what the general public reaction might be.About halfway down the list there it was: a disgruntled parent (or so the poster claims) questioning why taxpayers should pay the high salaries of public employees when -- and this is paraphrased so be sure to check it out for your own reaction -- he/she KNOWS her son's middle school Spanish teacher who works just 25 hours a week for $68,000 a year before benefits.People, the 25-hour work week for teachers is just so much BS. I may work 25 hours ON TOP of what I am committed to in the classroom. I get paid what I get paid to work 180 days out of the year. This past week I've been on school break - those 5 days DO NOT count toward 180 - go check your school's academic calendar, it will show you the facts. I work what I work because that's what my students deserve and that is what it takes to write plans, to evaluate assessments, to remediate. I am not stupid, dumb, or lazy. I also pay taxes and I belong to a union.I am not seeking more money - although I could make use of more. I am not seeking to pay less than my share of pension, which BTW is 11 percent of my weekly check. And before another myth gets tossed about, that 11 percent is INVESTED by the Commonwealth. The taxpayers DO NOT fund the other 89 percent of my pension. I contribute to my health insurance to the tune of nearly $400 each month. I haven't had a COLA or other raise in over 3 years.... just like many people in the private sector.When I began teaching, I worked in a Parochial school. My class size was 30 students. For primary grades, 30 students is a lot - particularly in this era when socio-economic needs are far above and beyond what those of us who went to school in the 60s can imagine.  In general, my school obligations required me to give up at least one or more weekend days starting in March and ending with the last day of school. Not voluntarily -- these were events at which teachers were commanded to be present. And for this I made less than $20,000 a year (MEd. plus 10 years experience aside). The greatest benefit of a Union for me was the improvement of working conditions.Why this perception of public employees and teachers in particular? Well, for one thing, everyone has been in school and thinks they can teach. For those of you who think it's so easy, please come and spend the day - or the week if you want. My opinion though is that a second, more sinister move is afoot. People such as the Koch brothers and their agenda manipulate the public. I fear that their mission won't be completed until it's too late for ordinary citizens to push back. Is this country's destiny truly to be a haven for the "haves" ?I came into education as a career changer. I changed because I felt strongly that education is the great equalizer. It is the means by which those who were not born into money and success can work hard and achieve their dream. Teachers - and other public sector employees - provide those opportunities; they keep our communities safe and clean. They provide service for everyone, not just for those who could otherwise afford such services. And we deserve more than continual vilification.

Hello, Noah

I realize that this reference to a classic Bill Cosby routine makes me one big, giant fossil, but I can't resist making a connection after this week.First of all, is should we all be building arks here in New England? Around my house we have 7 foot snowbanks created after the nonstop deluge of snow "events" which began in mid-January.  There seems to be no end in sight. Today, forecasters are calling for rain and possibly a finish of snow.  Once this stuff begins to melt, we'll be floating.I thought of this routine again yesterday when we were having our Morning Meeting.  One of my students, who has pretty much perfect attendance, did not come to school Thursday -- we had snow cancellations on Tuesday and Wednesday. As he is a bus student, when he didn't come to school Thursday, I didn't think it was too remarkable.  The school buses that day were late - some by hours - city streets are clogged with snow and no place to put it.However, this student expressed surprise that we had school on Thursday. He claimed to have gotten the robo call from the school-wide information system canceling school. This led to quite a discussion from my students; some get the calls and others do not, usually because they have no working phone number or because the phone number that was shared earlier has been changed (and changed, and changed).But what really made me laugh was the insistence of one of my students that God called her house to cancel school. In actuality, our Assistant Superintendent for Business initiates the call.And while he does have a deep voice, I'm sure he's located in Lowell not in some more heavenly environ.Right.

Snow Days # 6 and #7

I may have been born in Buffalo, but I hate snow. Hate it and despise it. Since January 3 when we resumed school after the holiday break, we have had 7 snow days. On January 3, our end of school date was June 10. As of this morning, it is June 21.I don't fault the Superintendent one bit for calling this many snow days. The City of Lowell has been pushed to the edge this winter. Streets are narrowed by the banks of snow, sidewalks are only a suggestion; it is extremely hazardous for kids who walk to school. And in this City where some children cross the neighborhoods to attend school (10 plus year old court ordered desegregation), I would never want to be a bus driver responsible for safely depositing students at school and home.Many of my students are ill-prepared for winter weather despite coats distributed through the generosity of local businesses. My mother makes mittens -- kids vie for a pair of "Grandma Sarah's" hand-knit mittens in my class -- I give away scarves. We do what we can to keep these children dressed appropriately for New England winter. It is a never-ending battle. Most of my students don't seem to have boots. A few years ago, I had to convince one student that wearing flip-flops and socks was not a good idea in January and February.Some of the suburban schools around Lowell call school delays or early dismissals. Lowell has tried the school delays but it resulted in lots of kiddos left standing at bus stops, having gone out at their usual pick up time. There was some speculation that parents didn't understand the mechanics of a delay (or dismissal), but my theory is that it has more to do with the economics of blue collar, hourly workers. People have to be at work at a certain time whether school is delayed or not. They could be fired. And so the kids have to fend for themselves. I wonder what happens on a snow day? My guess is that many are left home alone.So far, this has been a very difficult winter. The learning time has been chopped up by the never-ending onslaught of storms. Area town and city budgets are pushed to the edge of disaster.Please make it stop.