Stories from School: Practice meets Policy

Teach the Curriculum or Teach the Child?

 By Tracey

Do you every get emails like this from your principal?

I would like to find time to visit with you and Mr. P (the other 5th grade teacher) about your desire not to send students to the specialist for math interventions. I would like to understand your rationale and to hear your plans for addressing the needs of your students. It is my expectation that when teachers aren’t happy with how things are going, then a team approach to addressing specific concerns makes more sense, especially when it comes to math. By team, I mean the math specialist, math coach, assistant principal and myself.

I got one of these just last week.  In fact, I got this exact email.  I'll admit I was a bit jittery when it first arrived in my inbox.  As I read it again now, I see the professionalism and concerned tone of my principal. I like my principal, and I think we have good rapport.  But the fear of being called down to the principal's office has never quite gone away.  

What does a D mean?

by Brian
 

I just finished grading final tests and recording semester grades for my math students.  I've been teaching for 25 years now, and I have a confession to make:  not every kid who got a D from me could really pass the final in Algebra or Geometry.  But what they lacked in ability they made up in effort.  They did every assignment; they corrected every test.  They came in before and after school for extra help. They may not have understood the subject very well, but I guarantee it went through their brain.  My rationale is this:  they're not going to take that D and get into the University of Washington, but they're going to take the credit that goes with it and continue to try to graduate from high school.  I never meant that D to be a guarantee that my students had mastered the curriculum. It meant that their performance was below average, but that they had made a bona fide effort.

But I guess the State Board of Education caught on to me.  

It's not (just) about the bonus

 By Mark

Let me begin by clarifying the title of this post: I am beyond appreciative that Washington is one of the states in the union which recognizes the achievement of National Board Certification by awarding an annual bonus to NBCTs. I am eternally grateful for that bonus...and I feel, no I know, that I earned it. I know I am an infinitely better teacher than I was because the process helped me reflect, analyze the effectiveness of my instructional decisions, and examine with a more critical eye whether my students are learning what they need to learn.

But let me trace the ripples caused by the Washington legislature's decision to reward my efforts (and the efforts of hundreds of other NBCTs). While some may see that as just a change in my paycheck, it is much, much more than that.

The first ripple? Earning the bonus meant I could quit my job. My night job, that is. Oh, and my weekend job, too.

A Dim View of Homeschooling

By Tom

Several years ago my principal and I spent a lunch hour on a home visit to see one of my students. He had been absent for a week, after telling us that he was going to be homeschooled.

This boy had come to me after a previous bout of homeschooling, essentially two years behind his peers, but was just beginning to make steady progress.

We were not happy to hear that he would be homeschooled, and feared for the worse. He lived with a single mom who lacked basic parenting skills and we were legitimately concerned that with her as his teacher he could essentially become a third grade drop-out. So we set out to change her mind.

Trust Issues.

 By Mark

When I have that student who keeps coming to me for advice, asking questions I know he knows the answers to, I always tell him "trust yourself."

When I stand in front of my classroom and tell them the book they are about to read may just be the best experience they've ever had in school, I implore them to keep an open mind, play along, and "trust me."

In my classroom, one of the words that comes up constantly is trust. I want them to trust the guidance I offer and trust that I always have their best interest as students in mind. I want them to trust themselves as thinkers and readers and writers so that they can grow and soar constantly. I tell them I know that asking them to trust is a tall order. It involves deep personal risk and the turning over of not just confidence, but in some cases, a relinquishing of power. 

In education, I think that almost any mess we find ourselves in can be traced back to a fundamental failure of trust.

When students don't trust their teachers, the kid won't go seek help or advocate for his own understanding. The kid flounders, is perhaps left behind.

Children Are Like Popcorn?

 Rena
 

This statement was delivered at a recent Washington State School Directors Association conference in Seattle.  Dr. Yong Zhao is a distinguished professor at Michigan State University and recent author of the book Catching Up or Leading the Way:  American Education in the Age of Globalization. Yes, he is comparing students to food.  He went on to say that some pop early, and some pop late.  I was not enamored by this remark and prepared myself to write this piece about this individual and all the things I did not like.    

I'm rare.

By Tom

There came a point in my life when it became clear that I wasn't going to play centerfield for the Baltimore Orioles. It was time to choose a different, perhaps more realistic, career. I considered many: ophthalmologist, milkman, veterinarian, funeral director, even psychologist. But as a college student I took a part-time job as a lifeguard. As such, I was also required to teach swimming lessons. Although I quickly lost interest in guarding lives (too boring) I fell in love with teaching. I enjoyed the kids, the mental challenge of planning and executing lessons and I loved watching my hard work produce tangible and immediate results.

The fact that most of the hot girls on campus seemed to be majoring in elementary education sealed the deal. I was going to be a grade school teacher.

I've been teaching third grade for nearly 26 years now, and I still love doing what I do. But the fact of the matter is, I'm rare. Less than twenty percent of Washington's elementary teachers are male. It's actually not something I dwell on very often; as teachers we spend the vast majority of our time as the sole adult in a room of children. You stand out whether you're male or female. But at a recent workshop on reading instruction I looked around and counted two other guys in a room filled with over a hundred women.

So instead of learning how to better teach reading, I sat there wondering: Why are there so few men teaching little kids? Should there be more? How can we get more? When's lunch?

Drumroll, please...

by CSTP staff

Great news! Stories from School: Practice meets Policy was named one of the BEST EDUCATION BLOGS for 2010 by Washington Post bloggers Jay Matthews (Class Struggle) and Valerie Strauss (The Answer Sheet).

Congratulations SFS bloggers Brian, Kristin, Luann, Mark, Rena, Tom, Tracey and Travis. We knew you rocked before, but it is nice to know that others agree!

And one other shout out to SFS friend and education blogger extraordinaire Nancy Flanagan. Nancy brought her wisdom here and helped SFS bloggers find their virtual voices back when SFS was just an idea. Nancy's blog, Teacher in A Strange Land, debuts at Teacher Magazine on Monday. Be sure to check in with her there.

Here's to 2010!

Work Study or Child Labor?

 By Tracey

I have a high school student who comes to my classroom and spends the day helping me out.  She comes twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday.  She's in my room all day, from the start of school at 8:40 to 2:00, sometimes 3:00.  She's very kind and pleasant.  Last week she changed the bulletin board paper out in the hall.  She's in a program that matches students with mentors in careers they want to pursue.  She came to me in September, asking if she could interview me about being a teacher.  And before I knew it, she was showing up twice a week asking if she could stay and help.  I'll admit, it's nice to have the help.  I have her help me with logging in homework, filing papers, and organizing the classroom library.  But, what is she really getting in return?  Three fifths of a 9th grade education and some paper cuts? That's my worry.

Unintended Consequences

by Brian
 

The Seattle Times editorial board and a guest editorial team of Dean Allen of Partnership for Learning and Brad Smith of Washington Roundtable recently continued their campaign against State Superintendent Randy Dorn's proposal to delay and rethink the math and science graduation requirements.  The Times says it's a "gaffe". Allen and Smith say: "First, legislators must reject any retreat on graduation requirements in math and science. Once in place, these requirements will help ensure that more students graduate prepared for college and work."

I've been thinking a lot about what's wrong with that argument.  I think I finally figured it out: nothing. They're right.  The students who do graduate will be better prepared for college and work.  But I see the Law of Unintended Consequences at work.  If these requirements are left in place, the ones who graduate will be better prepared, because fewer students will graduate.  Faced with the hurdles of Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2 many will just give up.  Is that what we really want?

What we ask of our taxpayers

 By Mark

I've been lucky to teach in a community which over the years has supported bonds and levies to support their schools and infrastructure. In the last ten years or longer, our population has exploded and demanded the building of what seems like countless new schools just to house all the students. However, over the last few elections, the margin of support has gradually eroded with the sliding economy.

We're running a replacement levy this month. Unfortunate timing. Passage of the levy will have zero impact on our patron's taxes--it is a replacement levy, merely continuing the level of funding already being provided so the proportion per $1000 of assessed property value will be the same as last year.

Failure of the levy will mean the instantaneous loss of approximately twenty percent of our district's total budget. I'm new to the budget cut game, but that number is huge and scary.