Music To The Rescue

In a past life I was a musician and a music teacher.  While I lacked the talent and drive to become a professional musician, music has always been something I've enjoyed.In our classroom, when students need to complete a transition from one activity to the other - for example, universal breakfast clean up to Morning Meeting - we play music. We began the year with Pachelbel and are working on Bach at the moment.My students love to talk - usually to me and all at once -  they talk a LOT. And while I understand and encourage this as part of their processing and language acquisition, it can get pretty loud. When we're in Writing Workshop, there are definitely times I want them talking out loud, but there are times when I'd like them "talking" with their pencils and pens.One day this week, as I was preparing to release my students to their writing tasks, I started explaining to them that I would like to begin experimenting with background music during Writing Workshop.  As I write - even now - we have classical music playing in the background so why not?  This was, as many things about teaching are, unplanned.It was not an instant success -- it took a couple of starts before I could convince my students that they didn't need to try to talk over the music. But over the course of the last three days, the background conversations - the ones that were not about writing - have been replaced so that Writing Workshop is most definitely a more focused work period.Yesterday, one of my friends approached me in amazement saying "we wrote quietly the whole time!" And so they did.  Music to the rescue.

What do you want?

A friend of ours posted this article from the Washington Post yesterday. The Post article largely relies on a piece by Arthur H. Camins, and in my opinion rightly so.  Mr. Camins explores two essential questions that should be driving the dialogue about education and teaching: when do you persist to do your best and what kind of experience do you want for children in school?It's that second question that has been on my mind. And the experiences that my students - "my" children - have today is nothing even close to what I'd want them to experience.  In the last 10 days, 17 of the 23 have endured 2 days of standardized English Language Learner (ELL) ACCESS testing in reading, listening, and writing PLUS an additional one-to-one test session to assess their speaking skills. When we finished up last Thursday, even the native speaking kids applauded!We've also had to test all of our students using Scholastic Math Inventory, District Benchmark, Unit post-testing, next unit pre-testing, and Scholastic Reading Inventory.Lately it seems that if we're not actually taking a test, we're getting ready for one.  This is definitely NOT what I'd like my students to experience. Can we put the No. 2 pencils down now?What would I like?More time to play at recess. Social skills and executive function notwithstanding, such little time at recess means kids don't have a chance to blow off some of that pent-up energy.Opportunities to teach inquiry based science and social studies.  With all due respect to a former superintendent of schools, no, children do not learn science by reading a textbook.  They need to discover it.A chance for a do-over when it is needed. Not every one "gets" a concept the first or even second time around. Lock-step learning is dumb on so many levels. When the children have a natural curiosity about exploring a topic we are in the midst of, we should be able to continue down that path without fear of falling behind.Accountability is here to stay. I get that. But between the constant assessing, distrust of teachers as professionals who know how to do their job and the climate of privatization of education, have we allowed the bean counters to take all the joy out of learning?I want my students to learn love learning and to question. That is what I want for "my" students.

It May Just Be a Good Time to Cry "Uncle"

I've heard all manner of reasons for why this year is exceptionally difficult.  I'm a believer in the Daily Five. It makes sense, it's based on research - brain research AND literacy research. I saw my students grow.But I feel that it is time to give it up.The message I've been getting is that in order to follow the curriculum guides, particular lessons need to be implemented.  I tried to creatively roll these mandatory lessons into the CAFE, but sadly, there just isn't time to do the CAFE justice.  Trying to do both the Daily Five/CAFE and the required curriculum is driving me insane.So even though I believe the Daily Five/CAFE is a powerful tool toward helping my students become independent and become better readers than I ever thought possible, I am giving it up. Reading groups, here we go.Sometimes it is better to admit defeat. But better for whom? Of that I'm not sure. 

Some Safety Suggestions from the Peanut Gallery

Lots of schools districts - including the one in which I work - have been revisiting safety procedures since Newtown's tragedy.  That's a good thing. But as with many suggestions for educators, there are some incredibly myopic ideas out there.Recently I heard the suggestions that educators plan room arrangements so that bookcases can be installed close to the classroom door. The thinking behind this is that, in cases of emergency, a teacher could push the bookcase in front of the door thereby providing a barrier to an armed intruder.Well, I consider myself fairly strong after over year of strength and conditioning, but I can tell you it would take a lot more than my muscles to move a bookcase in front of an entry way in an emergency situation.  Not to mention classroom entry door open out into the hallway thereby allowing an intruder to simply open the door to gain entry.If you truly want to know what may or may not work in safety situation, invite the people who might actually be in the situation in to the discussion. Any teacher or building administrator could have reminded a consultant of these two factors.What might work? Well, that would probably cost more money than a school district is prepared to spend to retro-fit classrooms.  Currently, in order to lock the classroom door, I need to open the door and lock from the outside of the door.  Keeping the door locked and shut during the day means every time one of my students needs to use the bathroom during the day, a student would need to knock to regain entry to the classroom, thereby interrupting teaching and learning.Two thoughts. One, change the door material from wood to steel. Two, install a dead bolt throw high up on the door (so that small inquisitive fingers don't accidentally throw the bolt) that could lock the door within seconds while students are moving to safe spots in the classroom.It's a different environment we're teaching in. Answers to school safety concerns will not be easy. What are your ideas?

With Gratitude

Teachers have taken it on the chin for quite a number of years. If the media are to be believed, we are a collective bunch of incompetents who need to be whipped into shape. And then Newtowne happened. A curtain lifted on the noblest of colleagues, who placed their own safety and protection secondary to their students.What really made me start thinking about all the teachers who have helped me was this Story Corp segment. Wow, would that every teacher could hear from just one student who remembered what their teachers did that inspired them even into adulthood!So here's my thank you: Miss Buell, Mrs. Keefe, Ms. Brown, Mrs. Nichol, Mrs. Harrell, Mrs. Garten, Mrs. Hoffman..... thank you for inspiring me to love learning so that today I can try to teach my own students to love learning too!

Deciphering technology

Just before the holiday break, our new technology - Mobi 360 - arrived. Hopefully the wireless projector that is part of this system will have been installed before Wednesday when we return to school.  Hopefully I will be able to make it all work the way it was intended.We tried out the system the Thursday before going home.  The Pulse units operate like clickers and each student is assigned one to use for class.  I put our weekly vocabulary test into a Powerpoint slideshow and the kids took the test using their new technology.  Outside of two children who had pressed some combination of buttons and disassociated from the Mobi receiver, it was fun and quick AND yielded immediate data without hand correcting.I love it when technology provides an improvement in delivering instruction or in  gathering assessment data. I love when technology provides some motivation for students.Never a fan of single-minded programs, I've always thought of technology applications in education as part of a tool-kit.  After all, I use technology with a purpose, not just because it's there.Mobi is, of course, going to take some adjustment and preparation on my part. But so far, it looks like a powerful addition to this teacher's toolkit.

Joyeux Noel!

I am not certain exactly when the idea occurred to us, but this past week, Adrien and I celebrated our anniversary with a quick trip to Paris. Nevermind that I now have a deeper understanding of my immigrant grandfather's voyage to the new world after spending 12 hours on planes without being able to wiggle! Airline to remain anonymous.We planned this trip to coincide with Christmas and so, we did as many tourists and some Parisians do - we went to Mass at Notre Dame cathedral. 2012 marks the 850th anniversary of the cathedral; I couldn't help but wonder at that thought - that 850 years earlier people stood in this same spot to celebrate Christmas.The giant pipe organ, bellowed the strains of Adeste Fideles while we waitedfor the procession. Soon the start of Mass was signaled by the sweet smell of incense, a smell of unmistakable intensity. A young boy carefully carried the Christ child in procession, and with a cue from the priest, gently laid Him in the empty creche, a tradition that is repeated in many Christian churches across the world. And so, the first Mass at Christmas began.And after Mass, we made our way through the mixed crowd leaving Notre Dame and those awaiting the beginning of the next Mass to the far edges, roped off in some hope of making order of the chaos.Joyeux Noel!

Snowflakes

Every child can relate to the anxiety one feels when you enter a school building for the first time. So can any teacher.We feel helpless to comfort our colleagues and their students. Their grief and sense of loss is unimaginable. And they will naturally feel anxious when they return to a different school building in January.So when this project, Snowflakes for Sandy Hook, started circulating through email and twitter, it seemed like a way we could offer support.The simple act of creating a paper snowflake, a most child-like gift, resonated with my students. They had all heard of the shooting, they had noticed that a patrol car now monitors our arrivals and departures, they had questions about their own safety. And they wanted to make the students from Sandy Hook feel more comfortable in their new school building.If you are a teacher, maybe you and your students would like to add your snowflakes too. 

In the dark of winter...

There is a pall hanging over us. We want answers to the unanswerable. We need to put our anger and sadness  somewhere, but there is no place.Tomorrow is a Monday that will be unlike any other. Tomorrow I need to try to reassure my 8-year-olds. Many of them will have watched too many reports on television, or overheard snippets of adult conversation.  While some of my students live with traumas, nothing like this has ever happened before. I pray that nothing close to it ever happens again.I have no idea what I can say, except to reassure them that, while sometimes the adults in their lives have been unreliable, I am here to keep them safe.  As a teacher, I imagine that is exactly what passed through the minds of the teachers and administrators of Sandy Hook as they made split second decisions to shelter their own students. Six times that instinct to protect children from harm resulted in the ultimate sacrifice.We will need to be together.

Chipping Away

This is the longer version of Adrien's short documentary about an extraordinary group of young people and the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) here in Lowell. Take a moment to see what overcoming adversity to hope and to dream about a future really look like. And then,if you are so inspired, support UTEC's programs and efforts by going to their website.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJDkEJ8XgNE]

The Joyless Pursuit of Excellence

Last Friday as I watched one of my favorite weekly shows (Greater Boston's Beat the Press segment), I heard panelist Margery Eagan describe the atmosphere at the Boston Globe as the "joyless pursuit of excellence". In our local newspaper world, there is no doubt that the Globe is a superb paper and even when I don't agree with their editorial positions, the articles are well-written and in-depth.What I didn't know until Eagan's comment, was this phrase is commonly associated as the motto of (former) editor Marty Baron.The more I considered this phrase, the more powerfully I was struck by its connection to the educational environment today. So often educators - and administrators - talk about the stress of preparing students for assessments, or adhering to standards of achievement. I  don't know anyone really who isn't committed to their students and to helping those children learn, yet we are all always feeling as if what we do does not measure up.Even the joy of seeing a student who is (finally) "getting it" becomes overshadowed by the fear that it wasn't on the time schedule thought up by some faceless bureaucrat in a faraway place well-insulated from actual children.Certainly we all want to be excellent educators, and more to the point, we want our students to be excellent too. But as to joy? Those moments seem elusive.I don't have a solution except to become more cognizant that, along with the stress, we all need a lot more joy. I need to make my journey a more joy-filled pursuit of excellence.

Where dreams intersect

Several years ago, my husband Adrien was working in the corporate world as a software engineer.  For a long time, he had worked for large and small software companies and enjoyed both the work and the camaraderie.... and the pay wasn't bad either.But some time about five years ago, he had a moment when staying with his engineering job was overshadowed by the desire to do something more creative, to return to his early interest in photography. And so he did. It has been an exciting journey of hard work and worry and determination.This past summer, he connected with the staff at UTEC with a proposal and a hope that he could explore creating portraits and a film documenting the UTEC program's young people.Capturing the hope and resilient spirit of youth who have had some tough breaks, but who are determined to break out of cycles of trauma generated from varied socio-economic factors, has been a journey of enlightenment. While we both were aware of UTEC's existence, I don't believe either of us knew the depth of this program's impact.These young people also have dreams and goals. How eloquent they are in the expression of where they have been and where they are going! I want my own elementary-age students - the ones who could easily take a misstep - to listen, to learn from you.Serendipity has put these young people, so determined to overcome challenges, and Adrien, determined to tap into something more,  in each other's pathways.It is the place where dreams intersect.To see the images and the film, click on the following links:UTEC PortraitsVideo "Chipping Away"  

A Comedy of Errors

I traded in my lovely Sicilian surname when I married.  Tired of being referred to as Amy Pugloski, Pugsley or some other variant for the unable-to-read, I agreed to be a Bisson. Seriously, how could that get screwed up?Over the years I've heard my name pronounced Bi-son (yeah, just like the mammal from the Plains), Bitchell, and several other fun and creative ways. For God's sake people, it's only 6 letters. Use the rules of phonics, you know, a vowel surrounded by consonants makes the short sound of the vowel. We're not even trying to insist on the French pronunciation.Last year, I needed a new faculty identification badge. So, despite loving how I look in those deer-in-the-headlight beautifully lit school-picture day shots, I filled out the form, sat on the stool and voila. Two seconds later, I was moving on to the next thing.My picture ID came back with my last name spelled.... Bison. I can assure you I do know you to spell my last name. Accurately.Of course, school picture day companies are gone by dismissal times so there was no one to complain to. Mrs. Bison remained locked in my desk drawer for the duration. No one here by that name.This year, I gave it yet another shot. Again, paying close attention this time to my handwriting, I spelled my last name ever so carefully. B...i....s....s....o...n. Again, deer-in-the-headlight lighting, sit on the stool, badda bing, badda boom, "portrait"  taken.How excited was I that I would have my very own, picture identification card hanging from its rightful place around my neck! That is, until I noticed my name. This time, with a nod to informality, my first name appeared on the ID. My last name - no, my last name didn't make it.  This time I was Besson.Good grief. And you thought I was going to write about politics :-) 

Power of Positive Thinking

Many (many) years ago, I read nearly all of Norman Vincent Peale's Positive Thinking books. I read them during a dark time: I was struggling with the career for which I had trained (which turned out not to be a match); a spiritual life that was unfulfilling. In need of an epiphany, I ended up watching Phil Donohue where I learned about positive thinking and its impact.Positive Thought has sustained me many times over the years. It helped me over a career bump. Eventually I found something fulfilling that I felt passionate about. It helped me through a scary illness. It helps me to stay away from the dark side, the part of me that would like to throw in the towel most days.As a teacher, I've found Positive Thinking is a profound impact on my students and their parents, whether or not they know it is applied.  When I start a conference or when I am writing report card comments, I try to begin with something positive that the student can do. Doesn't every parent want to hear something good - I know I always did.  Simply providing a laundry list of what a student can't or won't do is never met with any sense of partnership between parent and school and the resulting disconnect is hard to repair.Our students, our families, and our selves - we all respond to positive thinking, positive talk. In our current educational climate, that is becoming more of a rarity, isn't it?But positive thinking is also a necessity. It is the essence of moving forward. 

With An Apology to My Students.....

This is a tumultuous time to be a teacher - many, many new mandates are arriving this year making for a lot of teacher discomfort as we try to make sense of things.My own personality is that I am an early adopter - not always a good thing I'm sure, but I do tend to try new methods and materials out fairly readily. We have been struggling with Interactive Read Alouds (IRA) and Writing About Reading (with the unfortunate code name WAR in this district - just saying).  The changeover to a more strategically envisioned IRA lesson seemed like a natural extension of the Making Meaning  program we've used in our district for about 10 years.Writing About Reading (sorry, can't say WAR - I grew up in the 60s) also feels like what our students need. But the message we're getting, whether intended or not, is that we need to have our students up and proficient for their grade level expectations nearly immediately.In the rush to get our students performing at higher levels, it is far too easy to forget that the students may not be prepared to be successful. So sometimes they are not. Even with pressure on educators, whether perceived or real, can make for a tricky mix - we want our students to do well, we want them prepared for the new and increased demands on them, and we feel like it should happen NOW.Last week, I needed to submit an independently produced written response so my grade level could practice applying the district rubric with consistency. So I did and the writing was AWFUL. I had been explicit with students about how to plan for the writing and then set them loose. Bad!What I didn't do was about as devastating as what I did do. I didn't gradually release the responsibility for writing to my students who had not had this writing experience before.So I did what most teachers do - I backed up, apologized that I hadn't shown them or given them what they needed and started over.  We took a short text from Gouvdis and Harvey about animal adaptations, posed the essential question ("How do different animals adapt to hear in their environments?"), and went to work with a shared modeling. We talked - this is a 75% ELL classroom so we talk first - we made notes together on our planners, we shared our ideas for a topic sentence and a closing sentence, we found the (required) 3 pieces of evidence supporting the topic and then we turned our notes into sentences and paragraphs.The take-away from this is that asking kids to do something for which they are unprepared is wrong. I now realize that I had been asking my students to do something they didn't yet know how to do; something we needed to work on so that gradually the responsibility could be released to them.Sorry kids. I promise to do a better job of teaching you from now on!

Are we the Borg?

I have to touch the third rail: is education today more assimilation into a one-size-fits-all or is it about reaching a baseline of standards for learning? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZEJ4OJTgg8]I ask this because lately it seems that there is an underlying expectation that we plan or are given one lesson and asked to apply it to every student in a grade level or a district or state. Sometimes even the teacher's dialogue with the students is scripted.But my teacher self - the skeptic that I sometimes am - says this makes no sense. How can a lesson applicable to one set of students work flawlessly with another? The students who make up my classroom change from year-to-year. so shouldn't the instructional delivery also change? The ability to assess where students enter a lesson and how I deliver the instructional supports those students need - shouldn't that be as student-driven and tailored as possible? Wouldn't the teacher in front of those students be the best at reading the room and knowing what to do -- isn't that what you pay me to do?Levels or distrust, disrespect, demonization. Those trends in our popular culture seem to drive the rush to a scripted, and lock-step curriculum. Silly me, I thought a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction and a 25-year career might provide me with the tools to at least figure out how to move students from point A to point B.Students deserve more than a scripted curriculum, one that is often developed by profiteers lurking on the edges of education ready to swoop in and make a profit by manufacturing a crisis in education that often is not real.Resistance may be futile - for now. But as long as I'm allowed to teach, I will covertly or overtly continue to resist those one-size, scripted curricula.

We're in the weeds now kiddo!

A colleague of mine once referred to No Child Left Behind as No Teacher Left Standing.  We laughed - later we cried - and now, speaking just for myself here, we are just plain depressed.It matters not how diligent an educator is about keeping up with research and data, the stream of new initiatives is never ending.  My professional interest in developing curriculum notwithstanding, absorbing the Common Core standards in BOTH English Language Arts and Mathematics, locating resources for teaching - resources that are high quality and (with a nod to my own personal finances, free) are very seldom available, all takes time.Instructional planning takes thought and consideration. This often means inventing something from the ground up, something tailored to help meet the needs of very diverse learners. I don't mind that part as much as I mind getting the curriculum guides a weekend before I actually need to teach the unit.I work with some terrifically talented grade level colleagues who willingly share - thank goodness!  We often meet on our own time and collaborate. If one of us finds something, we share with the others.  How lucky I am to work in such an environment.Because what is happening in education now is putting such stress on teachers, that frustrations and emotions are nearly always at the surface.  And that feeling that we are all "in the weeds" just will not go away. 

A small moment

It is a reward unlike any monetary bonus or plaque. I can't speak for other educators, but I live for the moment when there is that small, fleeting glimmer that there has been a connection between students and teacher.At this time in the school year, I am still sorting out student learning styles and personalities. Still trying to figure out how to engage some students or get out of the way of others.I noticed one of my more quiet second language learners, one who hardly engages in eye contact, trying to avoid any engagement with me for several days. As part of interactive read-aloud, we had been working on verbal stems for acceptable (and polite! Politician take note!) discourse - "I agree with ____ because.....", "I disagree with ____ because....", "In addition to what ____ said, I think...."). This activity may sound stilted to you, but for my students who don't really speak in sentences - second language or not - it is a critical building block for oral language, socially acceptable expression of opinions, and written language.So yesterday, as we "discussed" the plot of Kevin Henkes Julius, Baby of the World, I put my new friend on the spot. At first she did what many second language learners do - she shook her head no, she averted her eyes, and she locked her lips down. Those of you who know me, will know that wasn't going to fly.So gently, I fed her the stem.... and after 2 or 3 cajoling nudges, out came the most wonderful contribution to our discussion! And with that, a small glimmer of a smile previously hidden from me. The moment was so brief that I wasn't sure I had caught it. But for this one student, it seemed to convey, a new confidence and a connection to not only me, but to the safety of our classroom group.And that is exactly why I love teaching!

Standing up for what is important

It was at the end of our school day yesterday when one of my students matter-of-factly asked if I had heard about "the shooting". Knowing about the violent incident this past weekend on a street near my elementary school, I waited for her to continue. Which she did. As if it weren't something out of the ordinary, this 8-year-old described how her mother brought my students and her sibling to an upstairs bedroom where they would be safe from further gunfire. And this revelation led another student to share that he lived on the next street and also  heard gunshots.Can I just be on the record that no 8-year-old should have to deal with this?A few years ago, one of my students was nearly hit when a stray bullet went through the front window of her family's apartment on the same street. When I asked what she did next, she told me she just got on the floor. Simple as that as if a bullet going through the front window was not that unusual.So yesterday, when I heard about a walk, a community response event sponsored by several city neighborhood groups and UTEC (United Teen Equality Center), I felt the need to walk in support of my students, many of whom are exposed to violence and trauma in ways that are normally quite easy to shut out.As the walkers traveled from City Hall in silence, I realized how easy it is to detach from the violence my own students deal with. This simple act, made it real - as one speaker said, tonight we would not be driving by, we would stop and reflect on the recent city violence.I don't have many answers for my students; they live in an environment that I, a product of white, middle-class upbringing, can hardly begin to imagine.Eight-year-old or eighty-eight years old, violence is never an answer. Walking with those whose lives are highly impacted by such events made turning away impossible.

Am I Better Off?

If you listen to the pundits, the coming presidential election is boiled down to a single question: Am I better off today than I was 4 years ago?I think it's more complicated than a "yes" or "no".Certainly my family's monetary worth is not better, however, I do not blame presidential policy for this. The damages were done long before the 2008 election.Speaking of my own income, compensation has not increased much over the last several years. After 4 years of Mitt Romney gutting Massachusetts education funding (through state aid, etc.), there were and are draconian cuts to local school budgets. At one point in the last contract negotiations, a school committee negotiating member proposed a NEGATIVE raise. Several years lapsed with either a 0% raise or without a new contract, effectively a 0% raise as teachers worked at salary levels negotiated 1, 2 or more years earlier.But that's only the obvious. As school budgets were cut and personnel essential to supporting students disappeared, every line item was slashed. That includes supplies - supplies that teachers need to implement the very curriculum that we are held accountable for. Does this sound like Catch 22? The materials had to be procured somehow; guess where the funding came from? If you said out of my personal money, you would be on target.In the last year, I've seen some improvement to school funding. There is a price to be paid for that - some of that policy I disagree with - but some positions have been restored. And for this change, I can say I am better off. Not restored to what things should be as there is much work to be done - but the fiscal improvements toward funding education are a step in the right direction.My opinion is that the state of our country's fiscal health was well-hidden by the previous administration.  The recovery process is only in its beginnings; the US economy - tied as it is to world economy and coming from a state of near collapse 4 years ago - is going to need a long recovery.A simple yes or no answer to "Am I better off" really isn't that helpful.