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.

Busted.... and giving it up

There is nothing like returning from a sick day to the chaos that has gone on in a classroom. Oh I know there are wonderful substitutes out there - and I've actually had the pleasure of experiencing one or two of them - but lately, whenever I've had to be out, it hasn't been a pretty re-entry.I know children aren't exactly on their best behavior when the regular teacher is not present, but what went on in my classroom yesterday was incredible, IF the children can be believed.  Despite rewriting my plans to be more "user friendly", i.e., more on the worksheet and packets, less of the inquiry-constructive, despite my colleague laying out all the materials needed, what went on in my classroom yesterday was a puzzlement. The substitute reportedly came 15 minutes into the school day (okay, maybe there was a late call), and sat at the desk while the children did whatever. Seriously? Oh, and none of those carefully constructed learning activities, the ones I dragged myself out of bed at 5 am to rewrite while my throat throbbed uncontrollably? Not a single thing was touched - nope, not even the homework was distributed.What did the kids do all day? Again, if the kids are truthful - they are very skilled in truthiness - they played games with each other, talked, and otherwise wasted a day. Which brings me to the next topic of this rant.Noticing that nearly all of my paper in our Writing Center had disappeared (about a ream and a half), and noticing that fans, paper airplanes, and other crafts continued to pop up in the room, I used my powers of deduction - that's why I am the teacher - to figure out that the kids had been taking this valuable supply.  They know the rules so, sub or no sub, they know they shouldn't have been wasting school resources on airplanes. So, I stopped what we were doing and confronted them.The story became so squirrelly with he-said-she-saids liberally distributed into the conversation that everything had to come to a halt.  I sadly have a group of students who find it challenging to admit to mistakes; they find it much easier to throw their peers under the bus, even when the peer's participation in the "crime" seems out-of-character. After giving the kids a blast about wasting our valuable school supplies, along with a does of guilt ("I am so disappointed with the choices you've made..."), I asked each student to write about anything they witnessed that would help me discover the truth -- and if they had anything further to say, they could include that as well.I got the gamut of course: boys accusing just the girls, girls accusing just the boys, children who "don't even know how to make a (sic) airplane".  My favorite letter is this one:

Dear Mrs. BissonI am not going to lie to you. I did not use alote (sic) of your paper I used a little and now I see I am wrong. I am so sorry to dissapoint (sic) you. I hope you can forgive me.Oh and almost everyone was using paper

Sometimes it's hard to keep a straight face.

Teaching Report Writing

Too often, I find the curriculum focus in writing is disconnected and segmented from the rest of the curriculum. Perhaps that is a hazard of attempting to cram in so many genres of writing - all urgently needed - into one school year. Is it any wonder that, from time to time, a genre of writing such as functional letter writing is quickly forgotten after it seemed to be "mastered". Yes, I do get the ridiculousness of that last statement.This year, my grade level team has taken a second or could that be a third, look at our Writing Calendars - what we call a curriculum map. With the Common Core looming in our very near future, it seemed wise to do so. We've filled some gaps in our writing curriculum and revised when we teach particular writing genres. We've also moved away from more strictly adhered to requirements: our previous report writing focused on writing biographies of famous citizens of the Commonwealth.This year, when the report project came up, I decided that I would tie it to the previously taught letter writing format and also use the reports as a jigsaw study of Massachusetts and Lowell, both of which are part of our Social Studies curriculum in Grade 3. Each student has been assigned a topic, will be expected to research and provide information about the topic, and will share that information in a classroom/student published book.  As an example, students will discover and explain what each of the three branches of Massachusetts government do, or will find out about some of the cultural and natural resources available to us in Lowell. To my thinking, this is a greater bang-for-the-buck than the biography reports. It has taken some effort for me to convince students that they live in the CITY of Lowell in the STATE of Massachusetts (no, not the state of Lawrence or Boston).The first step toward researching each topic was for students to write a business format letter to the agency that may be able to provide information about their topic. I have possibly spent about 4 hours gathering mailing addresses for each of the 25 topics that were generated.Writing those letters, I have to admit was painful. Despite writing friendly letters weekly in Readers' Response notebooks, when I conferenced with the students after they drafted their business letters, the basic letter format was hardly recognizable.  Added to the friendly letter format was the inside address, the generalized greeting used in a business letter, and the more formal language of requesting information. Some of the students' letters were very sincere and at times amusing, particularly the promises to do a good job of reporting if only the student could please be sent some information.I hope the recipients of these requests find them amusing enough to send a brochure back. Next week, we'll begin using text and Internet resources for research.

It's the Vocabulary, Part 2

I marvel at the quickness with which second language learners pick up on the structure of English. Most of my kids give new constructs a try without too much fear of seeming like they don't know what they're doing.  As an aside -- and as an Italian/French language" studier", I wish I could be more like them. Maybe then I would actually start to learn another language.Putting the constructs aside, however, the great big deterrent for kids is vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. Even in children's literature. Case in point, this month's Response to Literature was based on the story "City Green" by Dyanne DiSalvo-Ryan. One of the major characters, Old Man Hammer,  transforms throughout the course of the story and we ask the students to respond to how that character changed.Problem number 1: the character's name. Most of my kids were familiar with the term "Hammer" but had absolutely no idea that Hammer could be someone's last name. And why would they? Once we finally got past the fact that a hammer could be a tool and someone's name, we had to deal with the expression "hard as nails". Wait a minute! Nails are things you glue on to your fingers, right? Or something you hammer to hang up a picture? What does being as hard as a nail have to do with some old guy?Here's just one place where students with another language background struggle. Now layer on a high-stakes reading test which uses grade level texts similar to "City Green". And take away the vocabulary and language support provided by the teacher. Seems to me that the playing field is already seriously unlevelled. My students will have to jump over the hurdle of vocabulary before they can even show that they can respond to a text with the same level of finesse that their native English-speaking counterparts do.I'm thinking of this as I prepared another grade level mentor text that I want to use to revisit inferencing this coming week.  The book's title alone, "Tight Times" will probably cause some confusion. The vocabulary support, the explanations of idiomatics will be there so that we can focus on inferencing a plot with which most of these students will have copious familiarity: losing jobs and living frugally.The students will be able to access the comprehension skill, they will be able to apply it to another similar text ("Gettin' Through Thursday"). And we will troubleshoot the vocabulary and idiomatic expressions to assist them. Test scores don't tell the whole story, particularly when so much vocabulary presents such a significant impediment.

Letting Go

One of my New Year's Resolutions - the list is really long! - is to try not to be such a control freak about what we do in the classroom. I'm letting go of the idea that I need to be at school before 6:30 am (our school begins at 8:30) and that I can't possibly leave before 5 pm to get things done. Yesterday I left the house at 7 am and discovered that there is a world of sunlight out there!Well, the reform movement can also be applied to my students. Yes, in general, they are a handful, but just maybe they will step up to the plate if I shift some responsibility on to them.Up to this point, I had very complicated management for what part of the Daily 5 Cafe each student was responsible to complete on a daily basis.  I felt the need to do this because of the requirements for small-group instruction within our school - Safety Net students must meet with teacher and literacy partner (also a teacher) twice each day. Out of a 40 minute block, that does not leave much time for self reading, does it? And when do these very needy kids get to experience (and possibly get jazzed up by) other aspects of literacy? It was a puzzlement.So, I've shifted things around so that the whole group lesson is scheduled for a half-hour instead of 15 minutes. Will I spend 15 minutes in lecture mode? Heck no! I just am keeping that time so that kids can go off and start other things before they are in full small group rotation mode.  I think it will work - at least it did yesterday.Additionally, the rest of the students who are not in a small instructional group, now have the flexibility (I think my exact words to them were: "I think you are grown up enough to handle this....") of completing the D5 activities in whatever order pleases them. They have to make 3 commitments: 1) to read for at least 20 minutes every day without interruptions, 2) turn in their response journal on the assigned day and 3) not to spend all of the D5 block standing in front of the classroom library chatting it up.As I was testing students yesterday (our mid-year Fountas Pinnell tests start now), I looked around the room in amazement. It was quiet, the conversations that were taking place seemed to be about literacy, and outside of 2 students who were testing whether or not I'd notice, no one was in the classroom library socializing.It is hard for me to let go. Most of the time I feel responsible for making sure everything goes perfectly -- and there's the problem. It is not just my responsibility - it is a shared one. And as far as perfect? Well, these are kids, so I need to remind myself to park perfection at the door.So far, so good.

Redirection

It came to me as a sleep-filled message.One of my current charges is a real behavioral headache. This child has witnessed more trauma than anyone should, let alone anyone who is just 9 years old. And, as you might expect, the child has many behavioral tics that get in the way of his -- and everyone else's learning.Even when he has taken medication, prescribed for ADHD and PTSD after behavior modification just didn't seem to be the answer, he has difficulty knowing boundaries and behaving within our classroom norms and ground rules. If one student gets some attention from me he immediately seeks the same. He is an intelligent student, one for whom mastering third grade standards is not a problem.  Yet this need for validation  is exhausting for both of us -- for him, to constantly feel the need to find validation from his teacher.With just two days left until the school year begins again, I have started churning what I can do for my students to redirect them, to make our classroom engaging. For this student, I already felt the dread and pressure of continual interruptions for me to drop everything and give attention - something that needs to be resisted. And the answer came to me: with firmness and consistency, teach the student to self-reflect, to look at his own work and decide for himself if it is his best.If I can do this, and I must succeed to really be this child's teacher, he will take with him wherever he goes. We all need to learn self-reflection; we need to look at what we've accomplished and decide for ourselves if it is or is not our best effort. And isn't that a lesson far more important than anything else I can give him? 

A Thanksgiving Tale

It's really easy for me to get wrapped around the axel over lack of parental support in a school where poverty is pervasive. I've had 3 teacher assistant team meetings for one child so far this year. The parent never attends and never responds to the meeting invitations. This parent continually writes nasty notes about me, the school, and the classroom. My frustration over no-shows for meetings to remedy this, to conference about the student's progress, or anything else that might involve a little parental effort is only exceeded by the daily interruptions to our afternoon to change a dismissal routine (and I know routine as applied to this student is an oxymoron). This is only 1 story in this classroom.  The other 21 can be just as interesting.Or not. Yesterday offered a glimmer of hope that by inviting parents in, we can forge a working relationship to benefit students.My class has just finished writing our small moment narratives and we put each students' writing into a book which we "published". Yesterday, the half-day before Thanksgiving break, students invited a parent or loved one in to read our inaugural book, to be complimented on their contribution. Knowing some parents may not be able to leave work, I had prepared students whose parent might not be able to come that I, too, had been a working mom -- and offered to be their parent for the celebration.  Being third graders, this of course led to some hilarious moments as classmates considered themselves "brothers" or "sisters" -- if only for an hour.But, back to the topic - getting frustrated with the status quo can lead to lowered expectations. Yesterday, however, helped me to realize that maybe I am focusing on the wrong things.  I met so many parents - sometimes both parents AND a grandparent - who were able to come, to hear their child read their thoughts and writing. One parent offered to help me pass out the apple juice we were offering, another stood in to read with a friend of her own child. And our school administration - Principal, Assistant Principal, and Literacy Specialist - all graciously read with each and every child in the room.The energy, the enthusiasm was right there. It could not be missed. Something special transpired yesterday and not just for the students. On this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful for the administrators who support me.And I am most thankful for the parents of my students who are willing to share themselves and their child with me.

When All Else Fails....

We've been learning how to round numbers.... rounding in the tens and hundreds, and - dare I say it - even in the thousands. This morning, I revisited rounding with my third graders and from the reaction, a few of them even seemed to "get" it.However one of my students was really struggling to round the numbers on a worksheet that I put up on our projection device. When I eventually handed off a row for students to complete independently I could practically see the gears turning as he struggled with the process of rounding a number to the nearest 10: underline the digit in the tens place, look at the digit in the ones place. 4 or less, don't change the tens, 5 or more add another ten. We even have a cute little rhyme to help:

Find the number, go right next doorFour or less, just ignoreFive or more, add one more

After the kids went to their special this morning, I discovered my struggling student's practice page tucked in amongst some papers on a counter. And when I looked at what he had done, I couldn't help but laugh hysterically:

God, I LOVE this job!

Visualize This

Our strategy focus at this time in the year is making a visualization. Have you ever stopped to think about how useful this strategy really is? For my money, it seeps into just about every area of the third grade curriculum. In Word Study, we ask the kids to Look-Say-Cover-Write-Check.  In other words, look at the word you are trying to spell, close your eyes and imagine its shape and letters, write it, and check it. In mathematics, I ask the kids to imagine a story problem being played out as a movie:  If 2 children and playing tag and 4 more join them, what does that look like? How can imagining the math "situation" help students to decide which operation to use?And then there's the mother of all visualizations: reading.  In an earlier post I wrote about how the vocabulary in a short Autumn poem caused my students to struggle. Well, not only the vocabulary proved to be a hurdle, but also the very process of visualizing a text and recording thoughts was difficult.  A good number of my students simply copied the words of the poem (trembling just doesn't roll off the tip of my third graders' tongues) by way of explaining what they "saw" as they read the poem's text.  Another group of students started off strong (I see pumpkins lying in an empty cornfield), but then the writing took a wild turn into imaginative fantasy (black cats, ghost, and scary carved pumpkins all made an appearance).Today my colleagues in administration graciously came to work with my students -- can you imagine a classroom so lucky to have the Principal, Assistant Principal and Literacy Specialist come in to co-teach for an hour? With our smaller groups, we broke down the text to two-line segments, stopped to talk through what pictures came to mind, and revise the students' descriptions to be more driven from the text itself. What I was able to observe was a lesson in the power of collaborative teaching:  even while directing my own little group I could hear and see one colleague drawing out students' understanding of vocabulary, another using realia, and another gently prodding students to close eyes and experience the scene created from the poets words. The styles of teaching were all different, yet focused on the same goal: moving a diverse group of students forward in their thinking.From the brief scan that I've done so far, the students' writings are more on-target. They have stayed within the structure of the text and written visualizations that can be traced back to the text. When one of my three colleagues returned to the classroom on another matter, I heard several call out thank you for working with us.Not only the teacher, but the students recognize what a wonderful opportunity it was.  And we are moving a step closer to mastering this very valuable strategy. 

It's the vocabulary, stupid

Well, not just the vocabulary, but for my urban kids, that surely is a major factor.  This week, our writing focus - visualizing a text - was driven by a poem written by Carmen Lagos Signes:

Pumpkins in the cornfields,

Gold among the brown,

Leaves of rust and scarlet,

Trembling slowly down;

Birds that travel southward,

Lovely time to play;

Nothing is as pleasant

As an Autumn Day!

Such a seemingly bucolic text loaded with typical fall scenery. So what vocabulary did my third graders find to be a challenge? Scarlet, rust (multiple meanings get them every single time!), pleasant, Autumn and.... cornfield.  Without explicit instruction - defining, finding synonyms, antonyms, using the words in sentences - visualizing this text would have turned into a meaningless regurgitation of the author's words.

A simple text, one with which my students would have some familiarity and experience, and the task of writing what the mind saw during the reading, so impacted by challenging vocabulary, challenging especially for second language learners. I am humbled.

Reason #1: I touch the future... I teach

Some years ago -- probably more than 10 now that I think of it -- I was eating my lunch at a MassCUE conference when Grace Corrigan sat down with her tray. That name may or may not mean anything to some, but it was an exceptional thrill for me to sit and chat, however briefly with the mother one of my education heroes, Christa McAuliffe.Sharon Christa McAuliffe may have faded from some memories, but not from mine. When the Challenger explosion happened, I was in the midst of my career rebirth -- the M.Ed. program at University of Lowell -- and my own child was a first grader. I still think of the day Challenger burst into flames to the horror of everyone watching and I'm willing to bet that any child who happened to be watching the event on the television that day, certainly can recall it vividly.While I did not know Christa McAuliffe personally, her choice to train to be the first teacher in space, was a huge impact on me. For me, teaching is not about following what is expected. It is about learning to take chances, to try new things, to have a curiosity about life and parlaying those opportunities into moments of educational euphoria.  It is not about the safety of doing what we've gotten used to; it is being on the edge of disaster or success and not necessarily knowing how things turn out until much later. And for me, that is what Christa McAuliffe inspired in me on day she boarded a space shuttle for what should have been the adventure of a lifetime.So many years later, I try to remember this when experts tell me to be successful I need to do this, that or the other thing. Education, even in the era of unprecedented scrutiny where taking chances on what might work seems tougher and tougher to do, needs to be about trying new things even while being mindful of standards and accountability.Christa McAuliffe's mission ended in a tragedy that those of us on the sidelines can barely appreciate. The loss to her family, her friends, her colleagues, her students had to be immeasurable. But her courage, her insatiable curiosity inspires me to keep on taking chances no matter what the odds.

Standing on the shoulders of...

Emily Rooney's Greater Boston panel discussed the connection between a teacher's despondency and suicide and a recent LA Times article which ranked teachers by name. One can argue the stupidity of people who don't understand educational issues and all of the things that impact students. One can argue about the current need to equate education with business practice, i.e. "value added". But what I really don't get is how anyone can think testing in one grade level isn't impacted by what has happened before.Case in point: my current group of students includes 11 students reading at the first grade level. I teach third grade. I am not one of the two special education inclusion classes this year. This group of children is "regular" education, or as I prefer to say, my sped students haven't yet been identified.Where I will start teaching this year is not based on some immovable starting line. Where these students finish may not be at "grade" level.Will they get better? Will they improve as readers and writers? You had better believe that they will. But I am not the second coming and it is statistically doubtful that we can close a gap of 2 years within the 10 months (or 6 until MCAS Reading) we are working together. In other words, my students' learning and my ability to help them move along is based on what they have been able to do before they got to third grade.The class dynamic is quite a challenge even for a teacher with 23+ years experience. Traumas, poverty (2 of my students are living in welfare hotels), custody battles, ELL challenges, indifferent parenting....  this particular group of students, and their classmates in other homerooms are impacted by it all.  I often hear people talking about "last year's second grade"; they don't look wistful in their reminiscence.There's a history here; there's a dynamic with this group that has been present since they first arrived in the building. It spills over into the academics over and over throughout the day, impacting not only that one child's learning, but the other children's as well.What I am trying to say is that no one teacher is responsible for a students' progress. No teacher should be singled out by name in a newspaper article as ineffective. Education is a collaboration. It starts the minute a student steps in to a school. We are standing on the shoulders of what has happened before and we are reaching for the sky.

Teaching Children to Care

More and more I find myself talking to students about what is and is not socially acceptable. Oh I know that since the Stone Age kids have been playing cootie games. The level of nastiness, though, has been taken up quite a few notches; words and actions, put-down, all are becoming so hurtful that the behaviors need correction before any academics kick in.Yesterday after my students returned from recess, it was clear something had boiled up to the top. So we sat on the rug to have a class meeting. The kids could hardly contain themselves given an opportunity to air their grievances. Interesting, too, was the solution to the problems -- "tell the teacher".  Kids clearly don't know how to advocate or stand up for themselves first!Today we will begin using Conflict Resolution, some teachers know this activity as "pretzel" or "M&M", but with the food allergies I have always had in my classroom, we call it "Skittle".  Here's how it works - and I freely admit to co-opting this from other sources, particularly my good friend and former teaching colleague Paula Gendron:Students gather in a circle and are given a stick of 10 snap cubes. We introduce the first part of Skittle by talking briefly about how we all enjoy having a kindness shown to us and then one after the other, each student takes a turn "recognizing" a classmate for something kind that happened. For me, I need the emphasis to turn to giving positive attention to polite and caring behaviors, so I do not allow students to have a "pass" - everyone needs to notice a kindness.  After talking about the positive, the "recognizer" gives the "recognized" one snap cube.The next part of Conflict Resolution is to give students who are bothered by someone's behavior - words or actions - to "mention" it. Students are told they need to listen without comment or argument because the "mentioner" feels what he/she feels. After listening, the person who was mentioned gives a snap cube to the mentioner as an apology of action.At the end of the Conflict Resolution meeting, each student gets the same number of Skittles as he/she has cubes.Does this help? In the past it sure does. I've seen students with 4 or 5 cubes at the end, recognize that their behavior is bothersome and increase their cube take to 8 or 9 in a couple of weeks. And, students quickly learn that an option for taking care of minor infractions is to "save it for Conflict Resolution".This is just the beginning of our work toward a more peaceful classroom. Because, without peace, my students really will not be ready to learn the academics.

Writing within the Daily 5

I was never much of a writer as a student, so working over the last 4 years within the structure of the Writing Workshop has sometimes posed a challenge. As a professional learning community, we've explored Lucy Calkins, Regie Routman, and other nationally known experts  in writing literacy. We've incorporated these ideas in to our Writers' Workshops and the level of writing for our students has definitely improved.But my dilemma in rolling past writing practices into the Daily 5 has been that I don't want to mess what has been successful with something else that I've become interested in. And I don't feel very confident in my teacher-of-writing abilities.Yesterday, I took another look at Lucy Calkins and Ted Kesler's First Hand book for writing in Grades 3-5.  Our grade level team will begin writing personal narratives with students in the coming week, a two-month writing focus that will take us in to November.This time, as I read Lucy's and Ted's words, I had the structure of the Daily 5 in the back of my mind. In place of trying to blow through teaching students how to select a topic for a small moment narrative, I'm thinking of taking 4 to 5 20-minute mini lessons based in mentor or touchstone texts to practice gathering the seeds or ideas for possible narratives. We won't be incorporating everything from this book; as it is intended for teaching writing to 3rd through 5th graders, I don't believe that is necessary.We'll use Patricia Polacco's Thundercakes as a mentor text for a memorable event in one's life, Jane Yolan's Owl Moon to explore the first/last time the author did something important or meaningful, and finally Mo Willem's Knufflebunny to highlight picking an emotion (frustration) to write about. If things turn out the way I hope, students will have many ideas for personal narratives; ideas that can be used for independent writing throughout the year during the Daily 5 writing periods.Throughout the rest of our focus on personal narratives, I plan to use successful mini lessons based on modeling and shared writing before gradually releasing the responsibility for the task to my students. Will they be able to perform these writers' tasks independently. After the unit ends I hope so. And they'll have plenty of their own ideas ready for writing and practicing some more.As I fleshed out what I want to teach throughout this unit, I realized that the  Daily 5 will most likely be a great way to structure the elements of narrative writing for my third graders. We will target an idea in the mini lesson and then use the balance of the 45 minute block to practice it while, at last, I will be able to pull students who need extra help with a skill into a smaller support group. For me, that's the most exciting part.

Inviting Parents In

There is no magic bullet for creating partnerships between home and family. How I wish there was! However, once in a while I hear another teacher's idea and borrow it to suit my own purpose.  Isn't that something we all do?In this case I borrowed my colleague Kim Bonfilio's idea of seeking parent input on what they hope for their child in Third Grade. It's a great one, built upon the Responsive Classroom activity of students' Hopes and Dreams.In my case, I sent a 6-item questionnaire to parents -- remarkably I got about 75% of the questionnaires back the very next day. Many of them had thoughtful, introspective answers. The sheer number of returns was a pleasant surprise: conventional wisdom tells us that urban, high poverty parents are disengaged from their child's school life.  In this case, conventional wisdom would be largely incorrect.

Hopes and Dreams for My Student

1. What is your child’s strength in school? What is something he or she does well?
2. Is there an academic area (math, reading, writing, etc.) in which you feel your child needs help?  Be as specific as you can be.
3. What do you hope that your child will be able to do in Third Grade?
4. What overall goal or dream do you have for your child?
5. How do you see us – teacher, parent, and student – working together to reach this goal?
6. Is there something else you feel it is important that I know?

In addition to the questionnaire, I am trying to contact parents of students who seem to be well-below grade level in reading - reading is my focus at this time because that is what we are benchmark testing at this moment. Many students seem to be about one and a half to two years below grade level and this is a place where a home-school connection is not only necessary, it is essential. We will need to work extremely hard - and smart - to start to close the gap.How I wish I had the courage of Jonathan Kozol to make home visits. I need to get parents working with me pronto.This survey is a step toward that partnership.

Transitioning

For whatever reason, this group of students is having a heck of a time dialing things back after any unstructured time. I noticed it almost immediately which, given all the other chaos accompanying the first days of school was quite an accomplishment. Some of the problems that are interfering with getting back to work: excessive socializing and inability to stay focused on the afternoon's lessons and activities. We use a behavior chart as part of our positive discipline climate: for more than two days in a row I've discovered one or more students who have moved a classmate's behavior card instead of their own.It appears that the students have developed some less-than-acceptable work habits, doesn't it. And before we can begin purposeful work on the academic gaps, there clearly  needs to be a correction - stat.Many of the students in my room -- possibly 50% of the group -- are reading at the first grade level and their math skills are pretty low as well.  Are the behaviors at the root of distracting student? I don't think it takes a PhD to say yes. So, like most teachers I know, I've spent the weekend obsessing over the situation and how we can get on track.Tomorrow I plan to begin a more purposeful outreach to parents of my students. Although we are not scheduled to conference with parents until the first report card in December, I hope to reach out to each family.  If we are going to make up some of the ground lost, there needs to be lots of hard work at home and at school.I am hoping the parents will agree.

Not everything is academic

School started a week ago.  I can already see the work ahead of us - and that is NOT a reference to academics. This group of students has lots of trouble transitioning, especially outside of the classroom. And there are a lot of them this year - my class size is at what used to pass for the maximum in this district. Any wagers on when it surpasses the maximum? I'm thinking maybe tomorrow is the day.In the mix this year - 2 students who are living at shelters for a variety of reasons. I guess given the economic conditions, this should not be a surprise.  One parent that I have been able to conference with told a heart-wrenching story of being forced to move from another state, being forced out of an apartment, losing furnishings.... matter-of-factly, the parent revealed that the family was on the way to pick up furniture from our local WISH foundation (a group providing furniture to transitional families). In another place and time, would picking out your new sofa from cast-offs have been so nonchalantly revealed?Domestic violence and the trauma resulting from students who witnessed this violence also impacts a couple of my students. Sign of the times? Another parent reveals the story behind her son's acting out - the grief in this woman's voice is palpable.And of course there are the "usual suspects". Students for whom academics are challenging, for whom language acquisition is in the beginning stages, students whose self-worth has been wounded nearly beyond repair.This is the group that has been thrown together. We are working at attempting to become a community - a caring, sharing community of learners.So far figuring out the puzzle has been more than a bit challenging for me; the pieces that need to be in place are not there yet. We are working on it, but it will take time. Before we can begin our work on the curriculum, we need to build our community. There is simply no other way.

Where to begin.....

The first weeks of school, as every teacher will tell you, are spent setting up and refining routines.  I find our school's decision to use the principles of the Responsive Classroom provides lots of guidance and reminders on building a classroom community.This morning, I watched a refresher on one of the most basic of routines: moving through the hallway. This video of Caltha Crowe talking, modeling, and practicing transitioning in a hallway reminds me of the essential teaching that takes place those first days: watch here.Teaching students acceptable routines for behavior in school (and out!) is an immense undertaking. Explaining the reason for the rule, engaging students in the rule's creation, modeling and practice-practice-practice -- all is exhausting during those first weeks when we, too, are getting used to a more structured routine.Is it worth the time and effort? I believe it is. Whenever a class routine disconnect happens, I can usually trace the problem back to the source - me! I wasn't explicit, I didn't provide adequate modeling or practice.And the process will begin next Tuesday at 8:30.

Finding my compass - again

I've put it off for nearly as long as I dare. It is time to start getting ready for a new school year. Completing my list for summer has suddenly kicked in to overdrive: there's still much (re)painting to complete, sorting and throwing to do, cleaning and gardening/landscaping. But suddenly, there is a pressing need to squeeze it all in quickly -- the students return in about a week.I used to get pretty worked up about starting room preparations as soon as we turned the calendar to August. This year for the first time in my career, I've managed to make it all the way to the last 10 days before school begins. I suppose that's growth. Hopefully it's not burnout.I love what I have chosen for my life's work. But sometimes, more often now than in the beginning of my career, there are far too many experts telling me how to do my job. And demanding proof that I am doing it. This week,  I am in the processing of completing my self-assigned professional reading: The Cafe Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser - better known as "The Sisters". Reading this book is helping me to find the balance between all the frenetic demands made on teachers today and a calm and purposeful learning experience for my students. Here is a quote from Debbie Miller that the Sisters included in their book (page 60) which caused me to sit up and take notice:

...when getting done takes precedence over the doing, when finishing becomes more important than the figuring out, we've lost sight of why we became teachers in the first place. (Miller, D. Teaching with intention: Defining beliefs, aligning practice, taking action, Grades K-5. (2008). Portland, ME: Stenhouse. p 106

As I read and reread Debbie Miller's words, I realized that this is what has been causing me unease with what I do. In the rush to turn in this, that, or the other evidence, I have lost my bearing: why I am a teacher. I chose to teach because I believe that it is important to give every child the opportunity to soar to heights neither of us imagined possible. I do this on a selfish level because, when that moment of connection happens, when child and teacher both realize that something wonderful has happened, it is the most exquisite of emotions that makes all the hard, hard work worth everything.This year, my personal goal as teacher, will be to refocus on why I teach, to not let outside forces undermine why my students and I are here, working together. And if I let some of those demands for evidence slip, if I'm late with something someone somewhere wants in order to show that I have been working, that is what will be.You can find me here in Room 207 helping my students figure out how to take the next step in their learning path.

Bumping Up

It's a rite of passage, I guess. Yesterday my third graders bumped up to meet their fourth grade teachers.  My students were pretty evenly distributed across the four  fourth grade classrooms so while they will see some familiar faces next Fall, they will have an opportunity to meet new friends.While my current kids were down the hallway, my "new" class came to the room to be introduced. There are 24 students currently on my list and, while I'm sure that number will change - hopefully not too much higher - the proof that the students change and grow throughout third grade was very apparent.  These kids looked (and acted) so much younger! Several children were so much shorter than my current students that the desks seemed gigantic; several chins just made it to the desktop.The incoming students have lots of questions - learning to multiply is definitely something they are anticipating with excitement. And writing in cursive, too. When they return to me on August 31, we will spend much of our first few weeks together learning signals and routines that make the management of a class more, well, manageable.  We will learn to become the community of learners that my current third graders have become.So while I was energized to meet some fresh faces - and perhaps a few new challenges - I was glad to spend another few hours with my grown up third graders. And to savor the changes that 180 days bring.