After An Educator's Journey

Out of the classroom & into the universe

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Once upon a time, I taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Now I’m retired and working on new ventures.
I taught second, third and fourth graders. Teaching was my passion and joy for 30 years. And it didn’t hurt that they called me “mom” sometimes.

  • Step Therapy Reality Check

    WBZ’s I-Team recently broadcast a story of a 22-year-old college student’s experience with medical insurance that should be a cautionary tale for all. Reading Eitan Kling-Levine’s story and the subsequent price he paid with his personal health should shock you.

    And in case you think this would never happen to you, let me share a personal experience with “step therapy”, albeit one with lesser consequences and a happier ending.

    Several years ago, I was diagnosed with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea. Not only a relational inconvenience as the snoring kept my partner awake, it was a source of concern as I was continually exhausted from interrupted sleep. The standard protocol for this would be a CPAP, something I had familiarity with as my Dad had COPD and had attempted to use one.

    Now I, the patient, know myself fairly well and, as an extremely light sleeper on a “good” day, I knew the noise of the CPAP would keep me awake as much as the sleep apnea did. And then there are the usual side-effects. So I did quite a bit of research and discovered that in my case a dental device called a mandibular advancement device (MAD), fashioned by a dentist with sleep apnea expertise, would be a more effective solution. And, to my great amazement, a renowned expert in this therapy had a practice in Worcester, MA – 40 minutes away. So I set about getting approvals and referrals.

    My primary care doctor and the neurologist in that network, all submitted their paperwork. Everything was proceeding smoothly until a pinhead at the insurance company intervened and rejected the referrals. As I had not “failed” with a CPAP  (a $2,000-$3,000 expense), I was not approved for the MAD device ($1,400). In other words, I was not allowed the use of a less costly, more appropriate therapy unless I stepped through the CPAP therapy and failed.  Does that make any sense?

    In the end, through the advocacy of a very skilled and persistent referral department in my health care provider’s practice, the MAD device was eventually approved. It took over 6 months; that was 6 months of loss of sleep, anxiety over a load of paperwork and frustration that a solution to a health problem was put on hold by an insurance company.  It could have been worse as you learn from reading Eitan Kling-Levine’s story.

    Step Therapy is bad for the health of people, good for the health of someone’s bottom line. From what I can read, the Massachusetts bill correcting this insanity has been referred to committee.

    Hopefully that isn’t “step therapy” for killing the measure.

     

  • Get Ready Massachusetts

    IMG_0200Make no mistake about it. The new and improved testing that is coming at Massachusetts schools starting next spring is a debacle in the making.

    Thanks to Tracy Novick for making some of the details more apparent to those interested in trying to stay informed about the new requirements. Read her latest post (link in previous sentence) and be prepared. Especially if you teach Grades 4 or 8.

    To say that I am stunned that DESE might want to ramp up the move to computer-driven assessments would be an understatement.  First of all, DESE just awarded the test contract to Measured Progress, the company responsible for MCAS 1.0.  As pointed out in Ms. Novick’s post, this would be rather unremarkable except for the fact that Measured Progress’ subcontractor is none other than Pearson. And Pearson is responsible for…. if you’re answering PARCC Testing, you go to the head of the class.  And for bonus points, exactly which Commissioner of Education sits on the PARCC Consortium Board? That’s right, Mitchell Chester. The Massachusetts Commissioner of Education can’t possibly have any influence in selecting a test contractor with a subcontractor connection to the (rejected) PARCC test. That would be preposterous.

    For all tested grades, especially 3-8 (Grade 10 is still tied to MCAS as a graduation requirement), a newly developed test for the upcoming spring will be quite an interesting process. I know it was a long time ago, but when I took Educational Measurement classes, it was quite clear that test writing is not for dummies. Assessment items need to be tried out, revised, and normed. That takes time. MCAS 2.0 is scheduled for roll-out next Spring. To create test items, try them out, norm the test, print the test, and deliver the test to school districts in time for a Test Window of April 3 – May 26 (which, by the way, includes a school vacation week in the middle) seems like a mighty big mountain to climb. Unless of course, a portion of the test might have already been developed. As PARCC has.

    So why should Grade 4 and Grade 8 teachers be concerned here? As if the above might not be concern enough, Grades 4 and 8 are required to administer this yet-to-be developed test on computers. This spring, many sources reported on documented evidence that students score lower on computerized tests than they do on traditional paper-pencil versions of the same test (see WAPO link here).

    So to sum it up, our 4th and 8th grade students will take a yet-to-be developed high-stakes test using computers. The logistical demands for this are an unknown, the technology skill set is unknown, and the test items unwritten. What could possibly go wrong?

    To me, the whole business seems like a case study for wag the dog. In my darker moments, the target test groups, Grades 4 and 8, have been selected to tip schools into under-performing categories. Urban students who have less exposure to rich technology experiences are going to struggle with an online test and those test results will not reflect the students’ knowledge of curriculum. The lower results will most likely tip Level 3 and Level 4 schools into lower performance categories which means…..

    If you muttered more state take-overs (and privatization), you just went to the head of the class.

  • Throw It Against The Wall

    We have a working theory in our house: sometimes those outrageous, non-sensical things you hear about are actually not really meant to succeed.  Here is a case in point: a recent article in the New Republic (What Big Food Doesn’t Want You To Know) and cross tweeted by Mark Bittman was published using the premise that large food producers are misusing public funds to pressure Congress to their advantage. What stunned me was that food board receiving funding for their very existence, had convinced Congress to exempt these same groups from the FOIA by including such language in the Agriculture Appropriations Bill. In other words, these groups, using government funds, would be able to operate in secrecy. Outrageous? I thought so.

    The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is not only a good thing, it is a necessary thing when there is a corporate culture of hiding information that might affect a person’s well-being. As in Listeria outbreaks. Or E-coli. Or corporate mergers that make competition something that occurs in name only.

    So when the food industry groups want to make such groups exempt from the FOIA, my first reaction is “that can’t be legal” followed by “that is outrageous”. In other words, throw the idea against the wall and see if it sticks.  I hope this one does not.

    Now I have a personal story to tell here too. Once I had a student who had a severe illness which prevented her from physically attending school. As part of the student’s IEP, I would allow my mathematics lessons to be videotaped; I would not have a problem doing so once the privacy of my other students was ensured. As part of the process, I was required to sign a permission document which the school department lawyer diligently drafted, however, when I read that document my jaw dropped. Why? Because buried in the language of giving permission to tape lessons – which I had sort of assumed meant I wasn’t going to pursue copyright – was language stating that I would give up all of my collective bargaining rights.

    Wait. What? Do away with all of those collective bargaining rights while giving permission to record a lesson? I don’t think so – I liked the protections my union negotiated contract afforded me. Things like not being fired at will. Or a working environment that was reasonable. In the end, after I refused to sign a document that required such a thing, and the school department’s lawyer revised the document.

    There’s something dishonorable about both of these two instances, isn’t there? And without paying close attention, most of the time, such occurrences escape public notice.  Throw it against the wall and see if a) anyone is paying attention and b) what one can get away with.

     

  • School Committee Meeting, 15 June 2016

    School Committee Meeting, 15 June 2016

    DSC_0044_edited-15 present, Mr. Gendron absent

    This meeting agenda was packed as the School Committee goes on summer meeting schedules (once each month, 3rd Wednesday) for July and August.  After 3 1/2 hours, the Committee also went in to Executive Session for purposes of administrative salary/contract updates (principals, assistant superintendent, superintendent) and salary increases for unaffiliated employees (otherwise not part of a negotiating group). 

    Special Order of Business

    Presentation and public hearing regarding the transformation of LHS Career Academy into an Innovation School. Passes (6 yea, 1 absent) with supportive statements for staff and from UTL.

    The designation “innovation school”, like a “Horace Mann” school is for schools that are chartered, but still under local control in funding and governance. This is a huge distinction from Commonwealth Charter Schools such as LCCPS and Lowell Collegiate. Both of these schools receive public funding on a per pupil basis but are not governed or answerable to municipal school boards. The innovation school fills a need to continue to reach out to some of our most needy and disenfranchised students with a unique and creative program that will remain under governance of the Lowell Public Schools.

    Unfinished Business

    2016/246 transfers of money – sounded as if it mainly was to expend Circuit Breaker funds so that this funding source was trimmed to the allowable limit.  Through 3 transfers, the district will be enabled to purchase additional laptop carts (1 cart per grade level per school) and to fund furnishing for the additional Grade 5 classrooms needed to accommodate the bubble at the Middle School.

    2016/247 Cost of Education for Children Out of District.  The amount presented $129,610 is estimated for 2015-16 (final year-end numbers available after financials close in July).

    Dr. Khelfaoui states that while this number is not for 2016-17, he anticipates the expense for educating 36 OOD students will be “flat” – marginally changed up or down as the number of students will remain the same, just the grade level changing.  When questioned as to meeting legalities according to state law regarding students who may also be out-of-state, Dr. Khelfaoui notes that the district can choose to accept such students but that there is no reimbursement from Commonwealth and that the OOD students who also live out-of-state cannot be included in student headcount for purposes of budgeting/funding.

    Public Participation

    Jonathan Richmond, of TAKEOFF Space, an entity formed to encourage talented low-income students to apply to prestigious colleges reads statement relative to the rejection of his proposal for Lowell High students.

    Laura Ortiz, parent, advocating for more precise and inclusive language in Student Handbook which would include anaphalaxis prevention and procedures/safeguards for all students, not just those specifically hypersensitive to food allergies.

    Laura Ortiz, parent, advocating that when addressing rezoning, or return to neighborhood schools, that the Committee carefully consider the impact of any attempts to lift the desegragation order. Mr. Gignac clarified his position as looking at rezoning within the context of the desgregation order yet exploring whether some adjustments might be made to address transportation issues/costs and middle school population explosion.

    Motions

    2016/251 (Mr, Gignac) report on class sizes for 2016-17. (Note, during discussion of Online Waitlist, Mr. John Descoteaux reports that 56 students are committed to STEM Grade 5 for next year and 11 will be on a waitlist. This effectively ensures that the large Grade 5 class sizes warned about during budget hearings will no longer be a concern).

    2016/252 (Mr. Gignac) Request superintendent investigate the feasibility of rezoning (see note under Public Participation).

    2016/254 (Mr. Gignac) report on facility repairs and improvement projects scheduled for this summer.

    2016/262 (Mr. Hoey) creation of an Early Candidate pool (amended to referral to Personnel Subcommittee).

    Reports of the Superintendent

    There were 14 reports from the Superintendent ranging from status update on the Massachusetts Teacher Evaluation System to a thorough vetting of updates to School Handbooks.

    2016/236 Massachusetts Teacher Evaluation update. Follows DESE protocols for evaluations; most are completed including the evaluations of school-wide and district staff.  Report to follow (aggregated) in July.

    2016/260 Washington School. Principal Cheryl Cunningham and her team present what makes this school unique, special and successful.  Great presentation on the importance of character education to students.

    2016/264 Cultural Competency. Along with Head of School Brian Martin, very impressive presentation by Lowell High students explaining the efforts of this group to examine LHS culture in the aftermath of last fall’s racial incident.

    2016/265 Parent Handbooks LHS changes explained by Dr. Howe; similar changes presented by Ms. Durkin.  In light of Parent Laura Ortiz’s suggestions, Ms. Durkin to meet with Health Department.

    2016/241 Online Waitlist.  Parents will be able to look up waitlist status as long as they know their child’s LASID number. Most students know this from memory already as it is used for lunch check-in. Lookups by LASIDs should be quite easy to do and the waitlist will be more transparent to all. More important, the District has a well thought-out plan to check periodically with families to see if they wish to remain on the wait list for a school.  Sometimes a child may be placed in a school that was not among the family’s listed choices, yet it became a good fit — and in that case, the wait list entry is moot.  

    2016/268 Lowell Career Academy Innovation Plan

    2016/263 Task force planned to address student growth. To convene in early Fall 2016.

    2016/243 Legal consult (re OOD children). Attorney Hall is working with prior documentation of how/when OOD students were placed in Lowell Schools in preparation for offering legal opinion.

    2016/259 Report of what civics curriculum materials and programs used in schools.

    2016/261 STEM efforts at the High School

    2016/262 All principals have been contacted about school materials ordered for 2016-17

    2016/267 Nondiscrimination on basis of gender identity

    2016/238 and 2016/239 List of eligible teachers and personnel report

    New Business

    Items accepted and voted favorably include purchases of new food service equipment, financial statements, and 2 donations from the District Attorney’s Office and the Lowell Police Department ($1,000 each).

    2016/244 Charter School Resolution was formally voted upon. Lowell will join other school districts and the Lowell City Council in support of keeping the current cap on Charter School seats. Mayor Kennedy reports the City Council unanimously voted on a similar motion during last Tuesday’s meeting.

    In my opinion, there are many reasons for insisting on this. The state legislature habitually underfunds the charter school reimbursement account for municipalities.  In Lowell, there is a shortfall of over $1.5 million dollars caused by this underfunding – which means that some municipal program is cut or short-funded so that the money assessed the City for charter school students is paid in full.  There are many other issues of governance and accountability that divide public schools from Commonwealth Charter Schools. I would urge every voter and taxpayer in Lowell to become familiar with those issues as there will be a ballot initiative question in November.

    Prior to going to Executive Session, Claire Abrams, Assistant Superintendent, was recognized for her 41 years of service to the Lowell Schools. Claire has been a driving force, particularly in Mathematics, which is where I first met her. With a soft-spoken, calm manner, she has lead many curriculum efforts in Lowell., not the least being toward a mathematics curriculum that is cutting edge. Claire, it was a rare privilege to work with and for you. Your thoughtful leadership will be missed. But you are going to LOVE retirement!

    Meeting adjourned from Executive Session. Meeting Packet can be found here.

  • The Discomfort of New Places

    IMG_1444In theory, I enjoy the idea of travel. In reality, I miss my “stuff”. And knowing precisely where everything is.

    There is nothing like 24 hours in airports and planes and a 6-hour time zone change to turn even the most Pollyanna-ish of us into raging maniacs of intolerance for humanity. And that is especially true if you have to connect to anyplace through LAX.

    IMG_1470But the physical – and mental – discomfort of getting to and from a new place is not where the value of travel can be found. The value of travel, for me, is found in a new sense of understanding.

    Speaking for myself, as much as I want to try to fit in – to have that truly locally inspired experience – it will be quite easy to spot me as a visitor.  While it can be exhilarating to break away from the familiar, it is disconcerting. Learning to negotiate my environment when it is unfamiliar has a rather steep learning curve fraught with opportunities to look idiotic. Try asking for postage in French. Or coffee in London (“you takin’?”) .

    IMG_1485Whether it is learning that my northeastern compulsion to life’s pace, or aggressive driving, or whatever it is in my daily life that drives me, building more understanding of someone or something different for me comes from travel. This time around I learned that frozen concoctions are indeed delicious breakfast foods. And pineapple juice and champagne do indeed go together.

    So along with those magnificent views, beautiful sunsets and sunrises, I hope I’ve learned, absorbed, and maybe take a bit of understanding what once was unfamiliar back with me.

    IMG_1516

  • What If Miss Parker Hadn’t

    I was in the seventh grade when Miss Parker told me, “Donovan, we could put all your excess energy to good use.” And she introduced me to the sound of my own voice.

    In five minutes, Donovan Livingston the Student speaker at Harvard Graduate School of Education 2016 Convocation and Ed.M. candidate uses his voice to remind all of us of why education is powerful. His voice reminds us that equity in access to education and educational possibilities cannot and should not be restricted.

    The reason to be an educator is embedded in his poetry.  A number on a test does not define a person’s worth. Invest in five minutes that can reaffirm your resolve to be an educator.

    Use this link from Harvard GSE to link to the text.

  • Sir Ken Robinson on Teaching

    Subtitle: EdReformers Have Got It All Wrong

    IMG_0200Perhaps you have never heard of Sir Ken Robinson before today, but I guarantee that if you are willing to spend 20 minutes to play the TED-Ed video found here, he will become someone who you can’t forget. Sir Ken, educator, speaker, author and champion of creativity, nudges us to examine what must be done in order to save education in this TedED Talk.

    Teaching is, afterall, “a creative profession, not a delivery system. Great teachers mentor, stimulate, provoke, engage.”

    Those ideas certainly resonated with me, a teacher for over 30 years. In place of lessons crafted for the students in front of the teacher, educators now are forced to follow pacing “guides” and scripted teaching manuals. You read that correctly. Teachers are provided with a script of the words to use during a lesson. Apparently, anyone can teach as long as there is a script involve.

    No need for gauging whether or not students are actually learning; stick to the script. Further evidence that it’s not about the processing of learning or creating a learning experience can be found in the pacing guides driving the sequence and delivery of lessons. These pacing guides assume that the scripts are a guaranteed success for every student in the room. In lock-step, every classroom must deliver the same knowledge act the exact same time. Does that make even an ounce of sense to anyone?

    If students in a classroom don’t understand a lesson or need more time to learn, too bad. The frenetic pace that is currently upheld in the classroom is, in truth, only useful for preparing students for testing. Until someone, somewhere, somehow understands that the humans in a classroom are quite unlike widgets on an assembly line, I fear education is destined to remain in assembly line mode, or as Sir Ken calls it, the Death Valley of creativity.

    Ed reformers with backgrounds in making profits need to get out of education. Education is not a profit center, it is an opportunity center. It is where young minds learn to love learning, to follow curiousity, to craft solutions to problems. It should not be the one-size-fits-all, narrowly mandated program it has become. No Child Left Behind, Race To The Top and the newest iteration of government driven education reform, the Every Student Succeeds Act, has not and will not work because each and every student is an individual with a range of needs and talents. Students will always be individuals with diverse and complicated needs. Shouldn’t education reflect that?

    There should be an outcry from parents, teachers, students, and the general public. From my vantage point, there are several ways to do this:

    • Give equal time to non-STEM disciplines such as physical education, humanities, arts,
    • End mindless paperwork tasks,
    • Reduce the inordinate attention on high-stakes standardized test preparation and testing.

    What would happen if, instead of training a generation of conformers, our students were encouraged to be creative and use that creativity to solve problems? What if we trusted educators to meet the needs of our students with absolutely no interference or second-guesses from corporate America’s hotshots willing to put up cash in exchange for dubious influence.

    We are approaching education in the worst possible way. We are killing creativity. Education reformers are getting it all wrong. All of it.

  • School Committee Meeting, 18 May 2016

    School Committee Meeting, 18 May 2016

    All present

    12022015ClockBetween Tuesday’s City Council Meeting and Wednesday’s School Committee Meeting, Mayor Kennedy has done a yeoman’s job of navigating through some very highly charged Public Comment sessions.

    The agenda included a Public Hearing on Inter-District School Choice which quickly morphed into comment on Item 10, the Policy Subcommittee’s Report of Monday, May 16, 2016.

    Special Order of Business

    Mayor Kennedy mentions there are 10 speakers registered to speak about Item 2016/134, Inter-District School Choice; however, after the first speaker, it was pointed out to him by Robert Gignac that many of the speakers were here to advocate for/against the policy of allowing out-of-district children of Lowell Public School staff to be educated by the Lowell Schools. I would urge anyone interested in both sides of this issue to find the LTC meeting replay (tape) and listen to the first hour of the meeting for yourself.

    In the end, the School Committee adopted a substitute motion. They have decided to keep the current number of students (grandfathered) for one year and allow them to attend the schools they have been attending. There will be no increase to the out-of-district student pool (freezing the incoming) and the basic policy stands until Fall 2017 when the School Committee intends to have a new/revised policy in place, possibly attaching allowance of out-of-district children of staff based on a still to be developed contractual policy.

    Discussing the placement out-of-district (OOD) students of employees in Lowell’s public schools is one that has long been overdue. The issue has been percolating since it first came to wider attention last Fall.  According to the meeting discussion, in 2010 when Dr. Chris Scott was Superintendent, a written policy was floated and referred to Subcommittee. What happened after that seems to be a mystery. I have reviewed the list of open motions submitted by Dr. Khelfaoui in October 2015 and there is no specific mention of an open motion of this nature (although there were at least 2 motions calling for reports investigating changes to School Zones and possibly vacating the School Desegregation Plan).

    The current policy seems to be more “past practice” than formal policy.  According to several speakers at this meeting, the practice goes back more than 20 years. If that is true, it was not well known, at least by this Blowellian. So why would it become a more prominent issue at this time? Here’s why I think this issue has bubbled up: funding, space, and a intra-district school choice plan that needs an overhaul.

    Money: With the Commonwealth’s habitual underfunding of Foundation Budget calculations, the monies available from Chapter 70 (the Commonwealth) to educate students are well below reasonable. Significant shortfalls put undue strain on local school budgets in cities like Lowell where the difference is unlikely to be made up through increased property taxes (nor should it when the Commonwealth purposefully calculates expenses like Health Benefits of teaching staff at 140% under actual cost). Just an FYI, that each area of the Commonwealth’s Chapter 70 calculations are similarly off. 

    So right away, Lowell starts out without adequate financial assistance from the Commonwealth and the penny-pinching begins. In the words of Cindy Lauper, “Money changes everything”. If the Lowell Public Schools had plenty of money to work with would educating 36 out-of-district students be so contentious? Probably not.

    Space The space crisis at the Middle School is highlighting the need to accommodate increasing student population – there’s not enough room for everyone and the District is in crisis mode trying to figure this out.  Class sizes at the Middle School level are going to be very challenging for the next 4-5 years.

    There also exists competition to ensure students are placed in a “good” school – the waitlist for the Daley School is reported to be about 70 students per grade. The lack of enough space for everyone which will likely lead to ridiculous class sizes is compounded by wait lists at plum school placements.

    School Choice/Wait Lists And finally, the Intra-District School Choice policy is overdue for a major review.  There have been several comments over the process of adopting budgets and reducing costs regarding the creation of new neighborhood school zones.  I believe there is a pending motion to explore the legalities and options to do so.  In addition to looking at zones and placements, though, the School Department needs to get a firm handle on where students reside and the use of false addresses (using a grandparent or daycare/afterschool care home address as student residence when the student resides in another town for example). This is a link is documents about the School Desegregation Plan are found on the LPS website.

    One aspect of School choice that should be looked at immediately is the Wait List. The list process is confusing and so that confusion and lack of transparency can make the process seem rigged.  Mr. Hoey himself has admitted he has advocated for someone’s placement himself. I am sure he was not alone in this.

    One additional thought. It makes me wonder why ALL Lowell Middle Schools, or elementary schools, aren’t as sought after as the one or two perceived to be “the best”.  What is it about the Daley Middle School (culture? leadership? student demographics? parent support?) that creates the demand? Can the Daley’s Success be replicated and how? 

    I sincerely feel for the children caught up in this whether they are children from a neighborhood unable to attend their Zone School or are students of staff from out of district who are now acclimated to their current school placement. As Mr. Gignac pointed out, they haven’t done anything that was not allowed.

    The second Special Order of Business was recognition of Onotse Omoyeni as the 2016 Princeton Prize recipient for the Boston Area. Given her role as a leader for Lowell High School during this year when racial tensions have been at the forefront, this award is well deserved.

    Motions

    2016/196 (Mayor Kennedy) was to appoint Steve Gendron to be a member of the Lowell High School Designer Selection team.

    2016/199 (Ms. Doherty) was to request a report from the Superintendent on short-term and long term student population trends possibly providing insight into population trends, class sizes, building capacity and transportation needs.

    Reports of the Superintendent

    2016/190 Interdistrict School Choice. For 2016-17, Lowell High (only) will participate. The program will involve no more than 30 seats at Grades 9-12.

    You may be wondering why Lowell does not just apply School Choice to all grade levels and “solve” the issue of non-reimbursement of employee OOD students.  A legal ruling clarified this: if School Choice is invoked, there is no “special category” of students (i.e., students of employees) that can take precedence over any other out of district applicant.  If more families apply for School Choice in Lowell than are allowed seats, there must be a lottery. This does not ensure the employee’s student would have a seat at any Lowell School.  

    Meeting adjourned. Meeting notes can be found here.

  • Still Ignoring the Evidence

    2013fielddayaPlay – real, unstructured brain break time – is as important to a child’s learning as academic time.

    So why are school leaders and decision-makers so reluctant to let go and allow more recess? I cringe whenever I hear a school leader lecture that there isn’t enough time in a school day to increase play or unstructured time. Two reasons come to mind:

    • Quantity not quality – somehow the misguided idea that number of minutes and time-on-task are larger concerns than actual learning,
    • Test preparation is driving the construction of a school day.

    Quantity not quality assumes that a student can maintain peak brain function and learn every second of a lesson. Ken Wesson tells us that students can attend to a lesson launch for approximately the same number of minutes as that child’s age.  Here is a link to an article I posted some time ago outlining this thought as it applies to a classroom.  If we are serious about optimizing student learning and making sure academic time is effective, we should know how the brain functions. What is the point of just yammering for 60 minutes when a 10 year old brain turned off 40 minutes ago?

    I often hear – and truth be told, sometimes would say – that school days are packed. At one point when I taught 4th Grade, there were more minutes of instruction required within the day than there were minutes in the entire school day. And in this day and age, there is test preparation, which has to come from somewhere. Just exactly how much time gets expended to prepare students for those high-stakes tests like PARCC or Smarter Balance?

    Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Professor of Education at Lesley University advocates for younger students to have more time for play and unstructured learning time as does K-12 writer Caralee Adams in the article “Recess Makes Kids Smarter“. Students are routinely asked not only to sit, but sit still for inordinate amounts of time when they developmentally are not ready to do so. Could misguided school policies requiring students to be on-task for long periods of time be driving the bulk of students perceived to have ADD or ADHD? Brain research makes me wonder.

    For more about the importance of recess, free play, and unstructured time, the New York Times Parent Blog posted an article titled “Students Who Lose Recess Are The Ones Who Need It Most”. This article takes the importance of unstructured time a step further by advocating that taking away recess as a means of punishment for out of compliant behavior or for missing homework is counter-productive.  Losing recess may be a major factor in loss of self-control or executive function.

    Our kids need to move, they need less chair time for their physical health and for their brains for function. Why do we continue to ignore brain researchers? To quote Ken Wesson, “If your job is to develop the mind, shouldn’t you know how the brain works?”

  • Resilience

    IMG_1369Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, was the Commencement Speaker at U Cal Berkeley this past week.  Ms. Sandberg also wrote the book Lean In which generated lots of controversy among women. (Full disclosure, I have not read it). Sheryl Sandberg has endured what is understandably the worst year of her life after her husband Dave Goldberg had a cardiac arrhythmia while working out on a treadmill about one year ago. The story of what came next is astoundingly honest, brutally frank, and incredibly inspirational. I’m providing a link to the transcript here as well as a later link to the video.

    Since reading this commencement address, I’ve thought a lot about what Ms. Sandberg says about resilience and those life-changing times that we encounter in living.

    I have an undergraduate degree in Music Education with a performance major in piano. I had my ego stroked quite often as reading music came quite easily to me and I could play fairly well. So I when I graduated, I figured teaching would be a cakewalk. Was I ever wrong!

    My first teaching job was as a K-12 choral/general music teacher in a struggling northwest New Hampshire school district. I was ill-prepared for the actual job of teaching and so, after a year, I left. That failure, as difficult as it was to accept, forced me to reflect on what it was I really wanted to do. If the past 20 years is any indication, I think I did find it.

    The easy days ahead of you will be easy. It is the hard days — the times that challenge you to your very core — that will determine who you are. You will be defined not just by what you achieve, but by how you survive.

    Finding a Plan B is not as easy as waking up the next morning and knowing what to do. Sometimes, as it did for me, it takes years to figure things out. And sometimes Plan B can turn into Plan C, Plan D and Plan E.

    And if you’ve read Ms. Sandberg’s speech, well you’ll know what to do with Plan B when you get there.