So…I’m Back, I Guess

After a semi-prolific summer of blogging, I just stopped in September.   My list of excusy-sounding reasons is enormous, spanning the gamut of excusedom, but really I was sort of in a blog-funk.  I was ignoring my feed, and simply didn’t feel like the bloggerly life was calling to me anymore. 

Then a couple of weeks ago, I realized I had gotten back into the blog-reading habit, and for about a week now, I’ve been feeling like I should renew my practice.  So here I am.

And I think I’ll start with a perenial struggle.  My district has two initiatives they are trying to get off the ground.  The first is creating an Individual Potential Plan, or IPP, for each student.  This involves taking a student’s individual assessment data, then setting specific goals for that student in reading and math (other subject areas to come later).  These goals are inputted into a program designed by the district to track student progress.  This initiative sprang from our Board of Ed, which loves to micro-manage, and apparently is convinced that additional paperwork (digital paper, but paper nonetheless) will promote differentiated instruction.  Clearly, the underlying assumption is that differentiated instruction isn’t happening.  But I digress.  To sum up:  IPPs emphasize differentiating to the individual needs of students.  Beautiful idea.

The second initiative involves using a web-based grading program, with the goal over the next few years of having standards-based evaluation/report cards.  This springs from our intermediate school district and the higher-up administrators, as far as I can tell.  Ultimately, it pushes teachers toward being more accountable for teaching the Grade Level Content Expectations they are responsible for teaching.  Maybe the underlying assumption is that standards-driven instruction isn’t happening.  Again, I digress.  To sum up:  Standards-based instruction and assessment to guarentee students the education they are supposed to receive at a given grade level.  Lovely concept.

I suppose there are fruitloops out there spouting about how the creative tension between differentiation and standards-based instruction is positively inspirational.  I wouldn’t be surprised to here the magical thinkers of the world start spouting jargon like “subject integration” and “spiralling instruction” in answer to the question, “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TEACH 30 10-YEAR-OLDS ALL THE FIFTH GRADE CONTENT AND INDIVIDUALIZE INSTRUCTION TO THEIR SPECIFIC NEEDS AT THE SAME TIME?!?”

Because this is my issue–as a conscientious, talented, driven professional, I am limited by time (and other resources) and must make incredibly tough choices, all of which involve opportunity costs.  Peter is robbed this week so that Paul might get paid.  I know that I can do a some differentiation within standards-driven teaching/learning.  But not always, nor as often as would be necessary to meet the oft-competing goals that my district (which is surely not alone) has for me, and for my students.

Is there a real way to be a good teacher and a good employee in this scenario?

Loosening Up about the MEAP

We are into our second week of school, and the hysteria over the local high-stakes testing–the MEAP–is cranking up at its usual pace.  This year, in a quick-and-dirty effort to improve writing scores, our higher ups have produced (drum roll please) some paperwork for us to fill out!  At the end of each week, each teacher fills out a sheet describing how he/she is prepping students for the writing portion of the test. 

After the usual wrending of garments and wailing at the ridiculousness and cruelty of the gods, we will all just fill out the paper.  I figure a reasonably conscientious effort will take up another 30 minutes of my week, but do not worry–this will be a take home project, since the actual work of my profession is what I engage in while at school.  What if the higher-ups decide I’m not doing the test-prep thing “right”?  Don’t know and can’t wait to find out.

I’ve held off on a full-blown launch of Writer’s Workshop this month because of all the test prep.  I’ve also not done a single Social Studies lesson (which is killing me) in the interest of carving out time to both test-prep AND building a healthy learning community.  For writing, we’ve been doing a lot of freewrites in an effort to both gather ideas to use in later writing work and build some writing stamina, which about 2/3 of my new fifth graders really need.  What I have not done is plan a series of “practice” prompts for my students–hello, they need to loosen up their writing muscles, stretch a little! 

After they’ve had a chance to build a little stamina, practiced getting their brains back in the writing game, and had a little fun with writing, we’ll rock the prompt practice…and they’ll be more ready to write to prompts, practice or “real”, as a result of that preparation, I am betting.  The one thing I am sure of is that they will not start the year on a writing death march.  I need them to want to write beyond that one day in October when they’re MEAP-ing.  The higher-ups are playing a short-game that ends in mid-October, but I’m playing a somewhat longer game of trying to grow lifelong writers.  I like my game better.

In homage to the MEAP and all other misplaced assessment, I leave you with a lovely video of Tom Chapin.

Feeling Fully Serviced

Well, I’m still functioning (thank you lizard brain!) after four six-hour PD days.  I could whine more about this, but my last post was more than sufficient.  So I think I’ll try to tease a few of the pieces that I think may be useful out of my memory.

The 1/2 day math session consisted of a consultant coming in the share a few nifty hands-on tricks with us and bemoan teachers’ poor skills at math instruction while simultaneously celebrating the profession’s importance (okay, maybe a little whining, but don’t you get tired of that old saw?).  She introduced the idea of using area-model multiplication flash cards with students to help them visualize and understand those math facts, which I thought was outstanding.  We spent a fair amount of time doing place value work using the centimeter cubes, sticks, and flats.  It was fun, but the time was clearly based on the premise that we were not doing anything authentic or hands-on with our students.

Dr. Marty Burns delivered a nearly 3 hour lecture on “Struggling Readers and the Brain” which had an interesting section on how to help activate chemicals like dopamine and norepinephrine that promote longer-lasting neural connections/learning by doing things like giving positive reinforcement and moving near students or making physical contact like a hand on the shoulder.  And of course she spent some time in subtle promotion of the Fast ForWord program that my district has shelled out the big bucks for with great hopefulness.  How’s it working?  Depends on who you ask.

We spent a 1/2 day being introduced to the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model.  This was useful in that it gave us time as a professional community to reflect on how behavior management looks at a systemic level.  My building has a very successful system in place that mirrors aspects of the PBS model already, so it was also a time for us to celebrate our past success.  Never enough of that in the teaching biz, at least not the genuine kind that doesn’t involve sucking up to the Powers that Be.

And lots of building agenda items, from changes in scheduling to the annual “we have no money” speech to scheduling bake sales.  The best of it was just coming together again, catching up on news and commiserating over past and future challenges, and just being among people who really get it–the good, the great, the painful, and the mundane that mix together in our teaching days.

I’ve got a few more hours to spend before my classroom is just right.  And I look forward to sleeping late and playing at the beach over the weekend.  But mostly, I just want to get to that fantastic day next week when I can stand in the hallway and watch the kids wash in, a wave of first-day jitters and shy smiles and possibilities that seem endless.

Out Of Service Inservice

Warning:  Likely Pointless Raging Against the Machine Ahead

 

Summer wouldn’t be summer if it didn’t come to an end–and today is that day for me, at least officially.  I’ve been in the classroom for many hours this month, of course, getting things organized for a new year.  I’ve been using Google Calendars to try and organize some of my instruction for the first month or so, preparing to juggle the needs of community building, launch of academic study, and preparation for my state’s high-stakes “assessment”, the MEAP. 

And tomorrow I’ll trip into the local Methodist church for breakfast with my 200+ colleagues around the district, followed by four days of district-coordinated professional development.  Highlights for fifth grade teachers like myself:

•  A half day entitled “Math”–yep, that’s it.  How am I supposed to plan as a professional for this?  Clearly that is not required, so I’m guessing we’ll just sit somewhere and listen to someone for a few hours.  I suppose this someone will talk about math instructional practices, or math materials for instruction, or math standards, or math pacing guides, or math curriculum maps…maybe.
• A half day entitled “Words Their Way“–this is the word study “program” my district has adopted.  Should I bring materials?  Are there professional readings recommended for preparation?  Is their a specific goal in mind?  I don’t know–that information didn’t come with the brochure.
• A half day entitled “Brain-Friendly Teaching and Learning” by Dr. Marty Burns from Scientific Learning–At least this is clearly a presentation I am just supposed to sit through.  I’ve been reading Brain Rules and watching video by Dan Willingham on You Tube, so I am interested to hear from Dr. Burns.  Actually, I downloaded another presentation by her and will listen to that in preparation for the “live” show.
• A half day entitled “Positive Behavior Support“, which I here will be a district-implemented behavior management program–I don’t know this for sure.  I am sure it is a lovely program, and I will surely comply with any directives, but I do wonder at my district’s dogged pursuit of sameness and what it says about their view of me and my colleagues as professionals.  Do we need to have this because we aren’t doing the job of behavior management “right”?  Will every class using this model prepare students for the world beyond classroom walls?  I’m curious about this one.

 

I’ve left out some tidbits here and there, but these are the highlights.  We do have some significant time to work on “building agendas”, which is likely a laundry list of business that the state or district needs us to address, with a dash of teacher-generated issues mixed in.  These things have to be dealt with, so I don’t begrudge the “building agenda”.

 

I do get frustrated with much of the other district PD.  I know a large consideration is budgetary.  We can’t afford to spend lots of money to bring in consultants/experts differentiated to each educator’s specific needs.  And a little sitandlistenquietly is to be expected.  But if the point is actually to grow teachers as professionals, should a district be “teaching the teachers” using methods that are so very far from the practices that are accepted as the most promising for learning?  I doubt the brain-friendly teaching and positive behavior support lectures are going to tell us to sit our students down and lecture to them for 2-3 hours at a time.

 

We know that the example a teacher sets through her/his behavior choices is often far more powerful than much of what that same teacher says.  Just because we are adult learners doesn’t really change this paradigm.  We need to play with new knowledge, have choice and opportunity to contribute within the learning community and socially construct knowledge…we need similar opportunities to the kind we provide for our students.  PD needs careful pedagogical consideration, and the best PD I’ve experienced has clearly had it.

 

I feel embarrassed for the administrators of the world who demand excellence from their employees but do not model best practice when they find themselves in the position of teaching their teachers.  I feel grateful that I am a self-directed learner that goes out to find the books, webspaces, and networks that push me to expand my thinking and my practice.  I wonder what starting the school year with rich, authentic, and engaging professional development is like? The momentum that must provide teachers to bring their best into those first days of school! 

 

I’m sure I will get some useful information from my PD days this week.  But I will have to shake off the medicre process so that I embrace what I (and most of my fellow teachers) know to be the set of promising practices that invite learners to explore, question, make connections, and build knowledge.  I’m afraid we will have to be compelling and fun and worthy and effective in spite of this PD rather than because of it.

 

Paying Attention to both the How and the Why

So I stumbled upon this video on TeacherTube, and watched it with interest. It is in the vein of so many persuasive pieces that are done to convince others of the importance of technology (specifically the web) and its impact on children’s lives and development. Surely someone is doing a Ph.D. thesis on these “did you know” pieces and whether they make any difference.

“Paying Attention” prevails upon educators to recognize–and tap into–the digital lives of students. On the heels of the RCWP Tech Matters experience of last week, I’m wishing I’d found this video sooner. I think it illustrates where so many in education are at; we recognize the need to capitalize on new tech in order to maximize student learning. We get that.

And I think more and more teachers are adopting new tech, whether it is open sourceware, web apps like wikis or blogs, or even tools for digital storytelling. No doubt there are some roadblocks, from finecky firewalls to limited computer lab time to a lack of support for learning new tech. But these challenges would be overcome if teachers had a vision of the power new tech has to engage and prepare their students for this digital world.

How is easy, which I think is why how has been such a fun space to occupy–wikis, blogs, podcasts, voicethread, moodle, cell phones and on and on. Why is the difficult real estate to live in–envisioning, planning, and implementing strategic use of new tech in ways that are authentic, that do more than substitute digital paper for paper paper.

Do I walk the “why” as well as I’d like? No–I’m still standing at the boundary where how bumps up uncomfortably against the Sea of Why, dipping an occasional toe into those rough waters. I’m going to list the ways, off the top of my curly hair, that I can think of how new tech is being used in my classroom, in the hopes that it will prompt me to wade into the water more.
I use/have used new tech to…

• share video and audio content, including videos from unitedstreaming.com and audio from iTunes, that goes beyond our other classroom materials and engages students to listen and view (critically, if I’m earning my pay that day)
• allow students to “publish” their writing using our class blog or podcast page (while still allowing for the choices of author’s chair or classroom posting as valuable ways of sharing)
• have students work in collaborative groups to research issues of pressing interest to the world and their own lives (this past year we work a lot with researching endangered species)
• use Kidspiration software with students to organize research and ideas from social studies
• collaborate with students to create a wiki of our social studies curriculum
• allow students to access computers for supervised emailing and Accelerated Reader quizzes
• provide links to academically relevant and interesting websites using my delicious account to organize links into easily accessible categories/tags
• capture student conversations and conferences so that both my students and I can reflect on how we are using conversation to drive learning

That’s enough for now–I hope to come back to this list, add to it, and more importantly look at the tech choices I’m making in the context of how they are driving student learning beyond being a fun “hook” for engagement (important, but not the whole game, right?)

Transparency Can Be Good For You–Or Me

Caution:  Brain Dump Ahead

Today at RCWP’s Tech Matters I presented myself as a case study on the theme of collaboration. Aside from sharing a few tools I use to stay connected/networked, like Classroom 2.0 and my Google Reader, I told two stories about my collaborative efforts. One is a story of success with student collaboration, and the second story is an example of how really NOT to attempt collaborative projects with colleagues.

So today my brain keeps coming back to how vulnerable it can be to make my teaching practice transparent to even a small chunk of the world beyond my classroom.  I have a reasonable amount of practice at this sort of presenting/sharing, whether it is in front of a supportive audience like RCWP or my district Board of Ed, which not quite so demonstrably affirming. Still, I get scared to lay out my practice, the thinking and choices that expose me to…other people’s judgements! AAAHHH! Run away!

I have never regretted being transparent about my teaching practice, because I always learn from these experiences. It forces me to reflect in new ways on my work and choices, which isn’t my natural desire on a daily basis. But every time it is frightening, albeit with the knowledge that I’ll be better off at the end of a presentation or blog entry or conversation in the teachers lounge.

Teachers in my district don’t much do the sharing or transparency thing.  The vast majority, anyway, are not sharing beyond their teaching pals.  Why?  Probably, I’m theorizing, because they are afraid of being judged and found wanting.  I can relate to that.  And yet, if we want to be afforded respect as professionals, I don’t think we can do that without transparent practices that show the world that we are…respectable professionals.  The paper certificates and degrees just aren’t enough.

What would happen if we opened our practice to the world, or even each other?  Could my colleagues see more than brown-nosing or egoism/self-promotion?  What could we accomplish together, open to one another and open to possibilities for collaboration?

The 999th Reason I Love RCWP

I’m spending this week at Red Cedar Writing Project’s Tech Matters, and I love these people. I am crammed in a tiny room with 20 people, 20 laptops, and a smartboard all day for four days, which sounds like a terrible way to spend a week in August before school starts. Not so. My RCWP colleagues come to new learning with such intention to learn and have fun doing so that I always feel inspired to take that next step to be better myself. There is laughter, conversation, frustration, collaboration, and always people stepping a bit out of their comfort zone, open to people and possibilities.

When I’m sitting in my own district’s PD (all too soon), I suspect I will observe very little of this kind of commitment to a learning life. Is it the teachers? Is it the quality and framework of the professional development opportunities that my district implements? My gut tells me that issues of choice, empowerment, suspicion/doubt, vision…

Summer Goals Round-Up

This summer I let my introverted side have free reign, and even my professional development was done mostly in isolation.  While I wouldn’t embrace this approach long-term, it was a good choice for me coming off a year in which I really struggled with issues of collaboration at work.  Time and distance have helped me to see that I was too pushy (the evil side of my enthusiasm). 

What follows is mostly for me to hold myself accountable for what I set out to do professionally over the summer.  As I look ahead, I am committed to spending more time listening and inviting contribution from my colleagues.  Hand-in-hand with this approach is my new philosophy for the year–potluck, not buffet (thanks Jeff for the head check). 

Goal 1: Rededicate to the blog–done, with 16 posts since school got out for summer. Now I just have to keep up the momentum and continue by writing reflections on how the other work I’ve done over summer has changed my teaching.

Goals 2 and 3: I completed three PD-ish books, Choice Words by Peter Johnston, Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner, and Cracking Open Author’s Craft by Lester Laminack. Additionally, I read The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Joan Moser and Gail Boushey as well as the Don and Jenny Killgallon text on sentence composing. Literacy, literacy, literacy…when does this learning curve level off a little for me? Not yet.

Goal 4: Getting some new kidlit read turned out to be my most enjoyable goal, and I exceeded my minimum of 10 titles handily. The last year or two, I’d kind of gotten away from staying kidlit sharp, and I was feeling it this year as I occasionally struggled with helping match students to the books that would move them along as readers. Now I feel like I’m back in the game and ready!

Goal 5: Completing a Reading/Writing Matrix is something I made progress on, but really have come to view as a dead end unless I can lure colleagues in my district into contributing. Still, it was a useful lesson in what not to do to catalyze collaboration. I’ll write more on this later.

Goal 6: The social studies wiki is bumping along nicely, but I now see it as a project over this entire year, not just the summer. I’m still playing with the purposes of different parts of the wiki and hope to get some input from colleagues in my district later this month.

Vacation, for all intents and purposes, is over.  I’m unwrapping my classroom, moving into a round of PD opportunities through the Red Cedar Writing Project and my school district, and hoping for the best as my district works to replace my 5th grade teaching partner (congrats to Tricia on the engagement and the move to Indiana).

 

So I Bought a Video Game

This event was met with mild interest by my nine-year-old niece until she realized it didn’t come with a corresponding Wii.  I’ve read about the value of computery games, and I know that the masses of DS-toting fifth graders who learn in my classroom make gaming a part of their daily lives.  So after a tremendous amount of foot-dragging, I purchased Zoo Tycoon 2 last week. 

Yes, I know, not very “sexy” as games go–but I have to start somewhere, right?  And I’m just not into virtually killing things or chasing after gold coins spinning in the air or whatever.  Those sorts of games will have to remain spectator sports for me.  As it was, I was fairly sure that even if I could figure out how to play this zoo thing, I wouldn’t actually like it.

Seven days later, I’ve probably logged in 15-20 hours creating my kick-butt zoo that is actually making quite a tidy profit, thankyouverymuch!  The day I loaded the software onto my computer I spent almost four straight hours glued to my computer, and when I finally snapped out of the fog of learning to organize virtual zoo exhibits and place adequate restrooms for my little electronic patrons, I had muscle cramps in my hand and backside from stiffly clicking away like a nut.

I sort of get it, now.  No doubt I felt invested in my work, proud of my accomplishments, determined to fix my failures…and boy was I learning.  Mostly learning the game, but still learning.  But I wondered whether the average 10-year-old would be as interested in building a zoo (or roller coaster or any of the other tycoon-ish games) as I was. 

This is fundamentally different from ninja-kicking or car-stealing…or is it?  I sat through a session at BLC 2007 in which Marc Prensky browbeat the audience a bit for our digital immigrancy and I read one of his books, so I feel like I should “get” this more.  Is the point problem-solving, whether it is combat-based quests or crafting the most attractive penguin pool?  Maybe.  Either way, do video-gaming kids (or adults) adopt skills that translate into non-virtual environments (aka reality)?  If a kid spends time daily for years learning to try again after a failure in her/his video-gaming, will that same perseverance extend to math assignments or riding a horse or finding a job?

So I bought a video game (sort of) and I think I understand what makes this activity generally attractive (sort of) and I can see some potential for useful learning…sort of.  Oops!  The zebras have knocked down their fence and are loose in the family picnic area–gotta go.

Of Daily 5 and Not Whining

I spent last year hearing from my colleagues about my incoming students, which is the curse of teaching the oldest in the school.  The teachers bemoaned the behavior issues, the learning disabilities, the community chemistry, sometimes with a look of pity flung my way, sometimes with a sly “boy-are-you-screwed” grin.  For a while I took this to heart and cursed my fate, but after a time I got a little sick of this business.  So I spent this summer preparing rather than pining for last year’s superstars.

Knowing that I am inheriting a class of whom 8/30 receive services for learning disabilities, and about 30-40% are reading below grade level, I knew I’d have to be very deliberate about differentiating instruction.  I knew reading stamina would be an issue.  In my quest for a new way to frame reader’s workshop, I ran across The Daily 5 and The Daily Cafe, by “the sisters” Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  I joined the website and carefully read the book. 

So if I have this right, you’ve got a literacy block in which you weave reading, writing, and word study, in a cycle of focus lessons followed by independent practice time and wrapped up with a sharing time.  That doesn’t really do justice, description-wise, because the sisters really have created something that looks very promising to me.  I’ve been tweaking the format to work for me, taking out the writer’s workshop element (I just need this to be separate and given more time) and putting in writing in response to reading.  So my daily 5-ish will look something like this:  independent reading, listening to/reading to someone, word work, and writing in response to reading.  Yeah, in my case there are four parts, not five.  But the idea of doing 3 focus lessons a day followed by compact, rich work time sounds like it will give me the chance to do a little more strategic repetition of concepts and processes and still leave plenty of time for guided reading and  conferring.  And the sisters lay out a way of crafting reader’s workshop that places lots of power and responsiblity in the hands and minds of my students, not just for personal discipline during independent work but for setting and monitoring goals for themselves as readers.  And the Daily 5 framework still leaves me able to do the things my district requires (like using Debbie Miller’s lovely Making Meaning kit) and hanging on to the best work I do already during workshop.

Cut to me busy organizing and reorganizing and planning.  Instead of whining about how next year is going to be hard.  I imagine I’ll hit a wall (or two or ten) and do my share of whining about the challenges I face in the upcoming year.  But with some promising practices and the perverse determination to turn those sly grins and piteous gazes back at my (beloved) colleagues, I won’t feel helpless or hopeless.