Change in Education

Transparent Teaching

2009-08-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am rebooting my blogging starting this fall. I have decided to narrow the focus of my blog to concentrate on sharing my curriculum and pedagogy. This blog will be no longer be updated. Please be sure to check out my new blog at Transparent Teaching. The goal of my new blog is to archive all of my course materials and resources and to create a very clear picture of what I teach, how I assess, and what my results are. I hope that if you have enjoyed this blog, you will find my new blog much more informational and more frequently updated.

Blogs in the Classroom Done Right

2009-06-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I bought Will Richardson's book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms." I've finally gotten around to reading it and as I read the section on blogs, it occurs to me that one vital aspect missing from these tools is the aspect of assessment. I haven't seen yet how these tools make it easier for me to grade. There are some problems that blogs present for grading and helping students improve their writing, that I would like to see fixed before I wholeheartedly adopt them as a pedagogical approach.

One issue that I think could be fixed with some innovative computer programming is the problem presented by blogs for proofreading student writing. When a student posts work to a blog to be reviewed by a teacher (or peers) it's easy enough to offer general comments and criticisms, but to specifically highlight and edit the writing (which I can do with a double spaced hard copy), is not possible as far as I know.

I would like to see a blog add-on or platform that allows commenters to overlay editing marks and/or revisions a la Microsoft Word's draft changes feature.

A feature like that, might help a number of blog writers on the internet. Myself included.

Maybe its just that part of me that needs to pull out the red pen and bleed all over their papers, but I don't see adopting blogs as a means of improving student writing until I can better proofread their writing.

Until then, I will have to settle for proofreading drafts by hand. I'll use blogs more as a medium for publishing final drafts than as a means for me to go paperless with my grading and assessment.

School Culture vs. Institutional Trends

2009-04-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

Schools that want to create lasting improvements that affect school culture should consider institutionalizing systemic curriculum based collaboration rather than hope for organic collaboration to occur. Changing school culture simply means creating procedures/routines/habits that are desired by all participants (teachers, students, parents, administrators). I have often heard the phrase “improving school culture” in the context of faculty morale, professional development, student behavior/attendance, and even school events. This kind of school culture is vital to any thriving school but so too are academic rites of passage: the research paper, the science fair, the presentation, the final exam.

Want to increase collaboration among teachers? Don’t send them to another seminar, professional development, or faculty meeting. Give them a shared objective, hold them accountable, and guide them in creating the parameters. Give them time to work together, observe the progress, and show it off afterwards. Increased collaboration can easily be achieved by creating institutional curriculum requirements.

It is satisfying to meet other likeminded educators who are willing and able to collaborate and who will take time outside of the workday to make real collaboration possible. Who will brainstorm shared projects. Who will create shared timelines for introducing units. Who will help tutor a student for a skill you need them to have. And dare I say it? Who will help you grade.

But such pairings are rare, formed organically, sometimes short lived, and difficult, from an institutional perspective, difficult to create and sustain.

Schools, that want real collaboration to happen, need to create system wide curriculum components that require interdepartmental, inter grade-level, or school wide collaboration. While individuals may at times take it upon themselves to create such shared academic experiences, schools that make it a part of their business model will find that such collaboration outlives the employees participating (or even keeps them coming back for another year).

Thinking back to fifth grade, I might not remember everything I learned that year, but I do vividly remember writing a state report, doing an experiment for the science fair, writing a book report, and going to outdoor science camp. I wasn’t the first student to experience those academic rites of passage but, thanks to NCLB’s nationalization of standards based drill and kill test prep for high stakes testing, perhaps I may be one of the last.

Stop asking students to remember a fact long enough to choose the right bubble on a yearly multiple-choice exam that has no effect on their class grade. Stop asking schools to turn into test prep academies devoid of any purpose other than meeting a national benchmark for funding. Start asking schools to create meaningful, student-centered, inquiry based academic rites of passage. The skills they take away from those activities will be remembered long after the graduation ceremony and long after any answer they rote memorized for a test disappears from their short-term memory.

Famed behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner defined education as “what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” If we want to change education, we would do well to think about what knowledge we want to survive after we are done schooling our children: the ability to remember something or the ability to do something?

Speed Socratic Circles

2009-02-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

I would characterize my teaching as Socratic in method and my classroom as student centered. Even when I lecture, I prefer audience interaction.

I like the concept of Socratic circles in theory, but in practice I have had mixed results so far. I won a book on them by Matt Copeland in a PD at a previous district a few years back. It didn't introduce me to the method¹, but it did convince me the method was pedagogically sound. I still use the feedback form Copeland provides in the book as a means to debrief students afterward.

When students come prepared and participate in the class discussion, the inner/outer circle style of Socratic circles functions quite well². However students, who come unprepared or who are shy, often do not speak up. Even students who are not shy and are prepared may need longer to think of a response to questions or need them rephrased before answering. Another out-spoken student may respond first causing their thoughts to go unheard.While I practice wait time when questioning my students, it is obviously a procedure I need to teach students to use in discussion.

I recently attempted a variation of the inner/outer circle style which was facilitated by a recent rearrangement of my classroom into groups³.

Method
This time around, I had students separated into 5-6 groups of 3-4 students. Each group has three roles: note taker, record keeper, and ambassador. The note taker makes a list of all the questions or topics that are discussed by the group. The record keeper lists each participants' name and keeps a record of how many times each person speaks using tally marks. The ambassador rotates to different groups after the signal to switch.

Approximately every 5-7 minutes, I yell switch and the ambassador from each group moves to a new group. This is repeated until they have been to all groups. There is a specified flow pattern for changing groups.

The activity has a very musical chairs quality to it. My students remarked that it was kind of like speed dating.

During the short period, each member of the group asked each other prepared questions (both comprehension and analysis) about an article. The article we used for this activity was one on the Pearl Harbor conspiracy debate. I also previously had them take notes on a PowerPoint lecture I gave on the same topic. After I called switch, the ambassador moved to the next group and the process began again.

Observations
As students talked, I walked around observing each group (rarely getting involved; only observing, occasionally tossing in a word of advice, clarification, or posing a question-to-ponder if the discussion died down). I told the students ahead of time that I would give them participation points every time I walked by and saw them speaking. By the end of the period every student in class (including my ELLs) had earned the daily maximum participation points. At the end we debriefed, discussing both what I saw and what the students learned from each other.

I was very impressed by the depth of knowledge displayed by my students. Some students even revealed that they had finally learned very basic foundational knowledge about World War II that they had previously not understood/known (Ex: That Germany and Japan were allies or that the U.S. and Britain were allies). These facts were apparently things they had failed to pick up or at least remember from both last year's coverage of WWII in World History and this year's lessons. I was a little stunned.

Thirty minutes of focused discussion with their peers had beaten a year and a half of my lesson planning.

Assessment
I collected the article that they annotated and the questions they prepared. I also collected the notes and tally mark records from each group. The question now is how to use this data to assess individual student performance.

Rather than crafting a rubric after the fact⁴, I am considering simply assigning performance levels (outstanding, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory) to arbitrary point totals (curved tally marks + my recorded participation observations) and grading each set of notes on the same levels but giving the grade to each group as a whole.

I am conflicted about whether or not this is fair, but failing an alternative falling into my lap I am likely going to grade it this way, for now. I will probably experiment some more with rubrics for future attempts, but this should do for now.

Afterthoughts
I think these Speed Socratic Circles worked well in terms of engagement and worked well as a means of student centered learning. Despite not having a perfect way to assess them, I do feel that this allows students to think critically outside of the spot light. Even previously shy students and students who never speak up in class were engaged and participated at levels I have not seen all year.

One anecdote stands out to me the most. When I stopped by to check in on one of my ELL students, I kept noticing the group speaking in Spanish. I prompted them to speak to her in English first and to only translate what she doesn't understand. I came by a few times and had to remind them as new ambassadors alternated into the group. Later, I watched quietly as this ELL student prompted another student, about to speak to her in Spanish, to "tell me in English first".

I want to try these Speed Socratic Circles again as a method of prewriting for an upcoming DBQ essay on Japanese Internment. If my students can really solidify their opinions on the question and documents before writing, I am hoping they will write better thesis statements and perhaps better identify what to cite as evidence.

1: That, I learned at an AP by the Sea at University of San Diego my first year teaching AP World History.

2: I am still reflecting on how to better assess whether students are meeting their objectives (Namely: comprehension, analysis, and retention). I feel like a rubric is in order, but in depth analysis of student skills is difficult due to the quick pace of dialogue and the number of speakers. Having 30 rubrics on hand for each student is difficult. While a checklist style of rubric could work for this, I have difficulty making assessment decisions on the spot. So far, filming presentations and discussions and grading afterward has come to mind (and has been attempted), but I find myself putting the work aside in favor of written work to be graded.

3: For the first semester of school, my classroom was arranged into an inner/outer circle arrangement, shaped like a U, facing the whiteboard.

4:Which kind of misses the point. If you are trying to assess the degree to which students met objectives it's pretty essential to make the objective clear up front.

Rubric to Percentage Conversion Table

2008-11-20T21:23:00.000-08:00

For some time, I have been puzzling over using rubrics to score skills assessments such as essays, projects, presentations, etc. Simply entering rubric scores into a grading program produces unwanted results that do not accurately reflect a letter grade conversion of rubric scores. I could go into the mathematical details, but if you are interested check this article or this one. I am not satisfied by the specific conversions offered by either of the previous sources but the descriptions of the rubric to percentage problem are adequate enough to justify the need for a conversion tool. Below is a chart I created that converts a 5pt rubric (0-4) into grade percents. Click on the image for better quality.
There are some inherent compromises in these scores, but I feel they adequately represent the various levels of proficiency I expect when grading. I have just begun implementing this tool in my grading and so far I am liking the results.

If you decide to use this please post feedback on how it works for you.

Teaching Note Taking Skills: A Solution?

2008-08-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about note taking a lot lately. While I was at Stanford last week, I had a good conversation with a community college economics professor who was struggling with getting his entry level college students to take effective notes. I proposed an idea I have been tooling around with and hope to post the results after the first week of school.

The basic idea is this:

Create a lecture
Record it
Play it back to students using my digital projector
Simultaneously use the overhead projector and some transparencies to model note taking including:

Shorthand
Cornell Format
Identifying Main Ideas
Picking out Key Words
Creating deeper than surface level questions
Summarizing

Let students copy my initial notes
Expect students to mimic this process by themselves in future attempts

If I can lay down the foundation for better note taking now, the results of their shared notes should (hopefully) be even better.

Lesson Plan Idea: Photo Essay

2008-08-13T16:13:00.000-07:00

One comprehension strategy I have used in class before is to have students create a short storyboard of events from history. Be it in the time line format or even more thematic, this tactic has helped my students grasp concepts better. I started using this idea after I was introduced to it by a colleague, Allison McCarty. My students enjoy it and because I don't grade on artistic ability, students have been able to understand the events of World War II using stick figures. I think of this activity as more of a note taking method than anything else. It is low level thinking and would likely fall into the comprehension tier of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Recently I was turned onto an image search engine called PicLens by Will Richardson over at Weblogg-ed. I downloaded the program and have been playing around with it lately. The ease of use and sheer magnitude of content that it can display allows for instant identification. I was also reading another post by Will called "Why Johnny's Professor Can't Read" and I thought the idea of an annotated photo essay would be a great way to take this image oriented learning to the next level of Bloom's Taxonomy: analysis.

School hasn't even begun, but I envision a potential lesson plan could look something like:

Students research a topic (Ex: Great Depression) and then do an image search with PicLens.
Students choose 10-15 images (maybe less, or more depending) and annotate them.
Annotation should include a caption:

What/Who it is
When it is
Author/Creator (if available)

Annotation should also include a short analysis of the significance of the image and an explanation of why the student chose that specific image (as opposed to any others they could have used).
Students could also potentially then post the photos and comments on our class ning or through a flickr account
Students could also potentially present the essay to their classmates

I'll post a follow up to this once I have used the idea in class.

Stanford Economics Institute

2008-08-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

This week I am attending Stanford's 21st annual Summer Economics Institute for Teachers. This institute was originally created after California announced that Economics would be a required course in high school. However, the goal of the institute is not to offer remedial economics education for teachers or even to present lesson plans for teachers. Instead, the institute aims to offer enrichment for educators. The topics are meant to spur discussion and thought and thereby help teachers consider what topics can be covered in a traditional macro/micro economics survey course at the high school level.The topic this year is Economic Policies in the Presidential Election. The topic takes into account the presidential election in the context of this upcoming school year. A break down of the lectures and a schedule of what is being covered is listed below.

Monday-
Seema Jayachandran, "Poverty in Developing Countries and What the Next President Can Do About It."
Tim Taylor, "Economic Challenges for the Next President."

Tuesday-
Gavin Wright, "When and Whether Presidents Make a Difference"
David W. Brady, "The 2008 Presidential Election: A Political Science Perspective"
Claude Steele, "What the Presidential Election Says About Race Relations in America"

Wednesday-
Tim Taylor, "Tax Policy for the Next Administration"
John B. Taylor, "Global Financial Warriors" and "McCain Economic Policies"
Evening: David Kennedy, "Presidents, Politics, and Policies" (This is available to view online).

(David Kennedy at the High School Institute Dinner)

Thursday-
John Williams, "Macroeconomic and Monetary Policy-Sub-Prime Mortgages, Federal Reserve Policy and the Credit Crunch"
Peter Henry, "A Bird's Eye View of the External Advising Process"

Friday-
John B. Shoven, "Putting Our House in Order: Social Security and Health Care Reform"

While I had hoped to broadcast video footage of the actual lecturers, I was turned down by the organizers to film as they felt this might limit what lecturers and participants felt comfortable discussing. Instead, I will simply offer my notes and comments about the topics discussed. I will also be organizing a Google group for participants where I hope to post some lecture notes and those PowerPoints I was allowed to have copies of.

Teaching Note Taking Skills

2008-07-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

My students hate taking notes. I don't blame them. They're not very good at it. I spend way too much time during lecture repeating the same thing over and over again so they can laboriously copy word for word my statements into their notes, all the while puzzling out how to spell things right. As a student that would bore me, as a teacher it drives me nuts. Were I to simply continue my lecture and not wait for everyone to catch up, a handful would simply become frustrated and put their pencil down and proclaim their own incompetence: "I can't do this!" At that point they look for ways to derail the lecture and focus attention on them.

I tried something the other day that I want to experiment with a little more, but it's a simple idea really. I had them listen to me lecture. No questions, no pauses, nothing. They were instructed to take notes on as many things as they could catch, but not to worry about getting everything. I instructed them in the use of shorthand and abbreviation to reduce the time writing out words or ideas that can be conveyed through the use of symbols.

Why write out the word money or economy when you can convey the idea with a simple $ instead? "The Great Depression was a time of economic downturn" becomes: G.D.=no $. Does it fully encapsulate the idea? No, but we can hash that out later.

Students were also told ahead of time that the notes did not need to be in any particular structure or format (Cornell, SQ3R, etc) and that they should format them however they like best. At the end of the lecture we would all share what we noted and create a group set of notes. I did this very low tech. I drew a Cornell format on the whiteboard and wrote in what they told me using my own shorthand and demonstrated how to organize this information using the Cornell format. I did not ask for volunteers for this activity (thereby allowing students to be held unaccountable for taking the initial notes), instead I called on them all one by one and continued "around the world" so to speak.

It was a bit much for one period. Their hands were pretty sore, but we had a good set of notes that they could all copy at their own pace. Thereby, also eliminating the usual copying of each others' notes (I do not condemn this normally, I actually encourage it). At the end of the class a few students who needed more time to copy the notes thought it might be prudent to take out their cellphone and use the built in camera to photograph the whiteboard to copy later.

I rolled with it and allowed cellphone use, which I am doing more and more these days. I just can't argue with the logic of a student using a blackberry type phone to look up definitions online faster than paging through the dictionary they barely recognize as anything resembling a reference source and which they regard as little more than shelf decoration.

I could see this activity being a good follow up activity the next day in class or even online via a wiki page, notesake, or Google doc that students could collectively create. The best part of this structure is that it allows me to correct misconceptions, further question them, and include additional information into their notes on the spot. Were it online, I could easily add additional notes.

After trying the idea I did some research on collective note taking and found this article from 1883 that seems to undermine the concept of this being a new and original idea, but at least it shows how long people have been questioning traditional solo note taking. I also came across this more up to date look at NoteBlogging and the way it could advance learning, as well. I guess I am not alone. While the latter article offers a wealth of ideas it is also about students using tablet PCs which are a bit out of our school's budget.

I'll be following up this post with updates on how I use this idea this year and perhaps some links to notes my students have made collectively.

Re: How to Tech-Up in a Tech-less school

2008-07-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

Back in June I ranted about my frustrations with using web tools for the classroom at a school that lacks the technological foundation necessary to do so. While I haven't solved this issue, I have recently posted a grant proposal at DonorsChoose in the hopes of funding the purchase of a few laptops for classroom use. It's an ambitious grant proposal and cost me most of the points I have amassed from past successful grants. I am praying that the grant will be funded. It would be a real first step to implementing these new technologies in the classroom.

If you're reading this and you can spare a dollar or two please donate. Oakland students are in desperate need of 21st century skills. They have already been left behind through conventional schooling, access to new technologies may be one way they can gain any edge in learning. If I can demonstrate the power of these tools, I will have a good chance of convincing the powers that be to fund other teachers. We have a network of schools, but we haven't figured out how to harness the network. I want to show them how.

Closing the gap requires tools. It's paying for the tools that is holding us back.

Things do not change; we change.

2008-07-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

Change is sort of a dirty word. It can be divisive depending on whether you are an agent of change, simply a bystander as the winds of change blow once again, or a staunch preserver of the status quo. However, it's difficult to know where you stand until you know which direction the wind is blowing. After reading comments about Chris Lehmann's call for change and a very succinct paraphrase of his argument from Tuttle SVC, I am still focused on a simple question posted in reponse to Chris from mpullen:

"I agree that the process of change is happening much too slowly in schools nowadays. What a shame.

Wait a minute....

What were we trying to become, again? [emphasis added]

(THAT is the real issue. Lack of vision.)"

What DO we want in terms of change? Is the change we are talking about simply encouraging students to learn to access information, create content, and to connect/collaborate with other students through use of web 2.0 tools? I say simply in jest, as such a goal is anything but. Its worthwhile, and the initial step of teaching educators to learn in the same self-directed manner is something I will be posting about more in the coming weeks. But when it comes down to it, the reason for the title of this blog has little to do with using web 2.0 in the classroom and more to do with a basic fundamental problem I see in education: A lack of transparency.

Too many teachers are isolated from peer observation. Whether in terms of protecting their "good" ideas, fear of being railroaded into collaborative projects they do not want to be a part of, or simply being so absorbed with their classroom that they forget the halls are lined with others like them. It can be a real chore finding time and energy to observe colleagues' classes, and that, I think, is the first step towards change in education.

I have a deep need to know what my peers are doing. As teachers we are often so far removed from each other. We are divided by grade levels, subjects, generational gaps, and in many cases professional factions. With such obstructions, how can teachers learn from each other?

Change will come when we know what we are doing to begin with. With transparency also comes accountability. That's the stick that makes the carrot of collaboration less appetizing for most. But, I'll be honest, I want to be held accountable. I want to see what my peers are doing (what works, what works for them, what doesn't work, everything) and I want them to see what I am doing too. I want criticism and review of my own work. I want role models. Its hard, though, with so many closed doors.

We expect transparency from our politicians and there is a movement now to hold our leaders more accountable and to ask for honesty. Shouldn't we be asking the same of ourselves?

I'm not simply suggesting visibility for visibilities sake. This isn't about fame or recognition for educators (although that may well be a by-product), it's about a vision of education that is open, shared, and collective. It will be turbulent. Teachers will come under fire for what they engage in privately in the day to day battles for appropriate behavior in the classroom. Teachers sweat when they think of being on show all the time, but honestly if you're not comfortable with what you're doing in the classroom, then its time to evaluate what you're doing. That's called learning. Teachers must be first and foremost learners. The moment you think you know everything, you become incapable of accepting honest criticism. If we want to affect positive change in the classroom then we need only look to Thoreau for advice: "Things do not change; we change."

We must change by opening the classroom doors and inviting everyone inside. We need to roam the global halls of education looking for everything, anything that works. We must stop pretending to be the fonts of knowledge for these children and start being model learners. Foster curiosity and you foster education at a real, meaningful level. We can't do that by closing down and repeating our mantra: "I've been doing this for years and it works for me." Unless, of course, it actually does. In which case, let us know. Share or else!

Education is not a commodity to be bought and sold, preserved for those that can afford it. Real public education will be free and equal only when it is freely accessible for all. The day when lesson plans don't come with packaging and a price tag, is the day education will attract professionals who are not afraid of failing. The supports will be there. We can't afford to hoard.

That's the change I want. Can we do this with Web 2.0 tools? We sure can.

Re: Why Educational Change is Hard

2008-07-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Chris Lehmann posted a challenge to the edublogosphere to "leverage their tools do something positive." He posed a number of vital questions that arose from his reading of Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody" . I'll definitely be adding that to my reading list this summer (Which is now posted in the sidebar for those interested).

I wanted to just comment on his blog in response to them, but the more I wrote the more I thought I was just being long winded and didn't want to monopolize space on his comment thread. I instead posted a shorter response there. His post really struck a nerve with me as I have recently been struggling to get my school to adopt these tools. Below are my responses.

"Why is it that schools are so hard to transform using these tools when commerce (for instance) has been so easy to change?"

Schools are slower to adopt to expensive changes because success will only mean that the industry is doing its job. Success in commerce means tangible profits for the shareholders. Who are the shareholders in schools? Citizen parents? Taxpayers? What tangible profit do schools return from success? A more educated citizenry does not really resemble the cash-in-hand profits seen in commerce. Failure in commerce means a loss of investment on the part of shareholder investors who know the risks of investment beforehand. However, failure in education means not only a waste of tax revenue but also a less enfranchised, less empowered citizenry. As a failing system progresses into such a downward spiral the problems mount and become exponential.

"what has to happen within the community of folks -- loose as it may be -- who care about the notion of 21st Century schools."

We must fix education now. Before it is too late. The sooner we unite a citizenry with empowering education the sooner we will fear our competitors (China and India)less. It is a hard sell to market these intangible profits as worth investment when the price of failure is so high. Hard sell or not, we have to lobby for it. But we need tangible goals, objectives, and measuring tools to assess it with. Multiple choice assessments don't have to remain the sole viable measure of success, but standardized assessment is here to stay. NCLB has done one thing right, it has cast higher attention (and criticism) on to what goes on in our nation's schools. It has, however, also failed to offer support to remedy these problems; it has, instead, created the means to punish those that fail to meet their standards.Activism is the most available tool for our community and if that's the road we choose to go then you can depend on my support. I'm in. Are you leading?

"The big problem is that we never, ever have a low cost of failure. When schools fail, kids lose."

That is exactly why we must succeed.

"what is going to happen as charter schools fail?"

As a charter teacher I can say I have seen some of what happens. While our school has just been awarded a five year renewal on its charter, some of our brethren in the bay have not been so lucky. Charters have an even tougher road ahead of them and the costs of failure are much the same as they are with most non-profit organizations and private sector industries: they are shut down.In business this means employees must find new jobs and investors (or foundations) do not see a return on their investments. In education this means much the same; teachers and administrators will move to new schools in need of staff, but as Chris asks"What [are] the educational / emotional costs for the kids who go to schools that get closed down after five years?"

What I have seen so far is it means even lower chances of success. Students are shifted from school to school, transcripts can and are lost, and and if they did graduate before the charter was revoked what is the value of their diploma? The risks of such investment are hefted on the consumer(students) not just the investor (taxpayers). It's lose-lose. That simplistic appraisal is, I must assume, at the heart of resistance to change. The costs are, well, too costly.

Chris writes,

"One of the things that Shirkey writes about is how the new social tools and the powerline graph of user use / success / downloads / etc... has meant that there is no longer a high cost of failure. He uses SourceForge and MeetUp as two examples where if a software project or a meeting fails, there's no real loss, because there is no institutional infrastructure that is lost along with it."

I think the resistance (inability) to adopt these tools in my particular setting stems from a different reason all together. Were the risk only in software investment the risk would be effectively zero. As we all know, the tools we are using are freely distributed and offer such great hope for exactly that reason.The cost of investment, for us, is not in the software but rather in the hardware.

Our school has limited space for a computer lab let alone desktops computers in the classroom. The district is required to lease us a facility, but not necessarily one of adequate size for our student body and in our case we must share a campus. A campus of a school, I might add, that resents our presence. Our funds are limited for investment in costly laptops or a 1:1 program. With resources having a history of theft in our schools such portable valuables also pose a problem for adoption.

Let's not also forget the facility issue. Did I mention how old it is? The school is hardwired for a network and I've heard rumor of a spotty wireless connection as well. So laptops have that hurdle to jump over as well.

Finally, much of our staff have enough technical difficulties dealing with attendance and grading software let alone teaching students,who do not have a computer or internet access at home, to use social networking tools. I am doing all I can to show them how easy it is and lead by example, but slow adoption is even more pronounced in the summer off-season. I'm teaching summer school and I see the need for these tools daily, but most of those making the decisions for next year and those that would be affected by them won't see each other again until mid August.

Meanwhile, I cross my fingers and toes hoping I can at least get a few classroom computers for my kids and resign myself to extending my work day to include lengthy office hours so my students will have at least the opportunity to engage in learning outside of the classroom.

The social networking model IS inquiry based learning in its most accessible form. We have to acknowledge that as a field and recognize that as the future of education. The sooner we do that, the sooner we will have enough leverage to make someone support our needs financially and legislatively.

Classroom Management: The ever evolving procedural repertoire

2008-07-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

I am not a veteran teacher. There I said it. Being a teacher has made me feel obligated to be good (if not perfect) as a professional from day one. There is considerable responsibility involved in being an educator. The community has entrusted you to not only look after their children but to also instill in them foundational knowledge that will impact the rest of their lives. I don't just deliver content and grade coursework. I am, in many ways, a pseudo-parent. With all this responsibility comes great stress and a desire to live up to such high expectations. I am constantly reflecting on my practices and doubting myself.

All teachers have proven (in some way), before entering the class, proficiency in their subject. Most new teachers' experience with interpersonal conflict resolution and group dynamics is limited to what they've seen their own teachers do in the past and perhaps a credentialing class on behavioral theory.

Below are a smattering of the techniques I use for managing behavior in the classroom. I believe behavior is, at its core, managed by predetermined procedures for dealing with problems that arise. When individuals are presented with problems they already know the solution for, they are able to confidently confront them and come quickly to a resolution. When they are at a loss for what to do when presented with a novel situation they tend be more stressed and can make hasty decisions they later regret. I am always looking for ways to augment my repertoire whether it means replacing an old procedure with a new one, creating new ones as problems consistently arise, or simply learning about available techniques and critiquing them.

Things I do, that work for me (notice the emphasis):

In no particular order-

1. Have as many procedures for activities as you can. Teach them to the students until they are automatic.

2. Never let them control your emotions. Be stoic in the face of adversity, be excited when trying to engage. Don't let them make you yell. If you need to get loud do it for attention's sake and then quickly return to a normal speaking level.

3. Encourage students to respect noise pollution. Help students learn how to moderate their tone, volume, and language as appropriate for the situation.

4. Chide lack of materials, encourage responsibility, but always be prepared for those students who come without anything to work with. Have pencils and paper on hand at all times. Expect to run out. Often.

5. Minimize transition times. I like to map out my default desk arrangement on the floor with tape. This allows me to keep the class neat, but also to shift desk arrangements for different activities (testing, group work, lecture, discussion) but also able to quickly return the classroom to it original order. I also use this as part of my exit procedure.

6. Give immediate feedback. Whenever they do not meet your expectations tell them why they haven't; when they meet your expectations tell them so.

7. Be honest. I can't stress this enough. The more genuine and real you are as a person to these kids the more they will respect you. It is hard to trust what someone tells you about events in history that happened 50 or 60 years in the past when they can't even answer you straight about what's happening now.

8. The bell is irrelevant. They are not dismissed until you excuse them. [I believe the factory model school house where bells signal transition from class to class to be very demeaning. I would much prefer to watch the clock myself or appoint student timekeepers instead.] Create a list of expectations for what must be completed before they are allowed to leave. I require desks to be arranged correctly, trash to be cleaned from under their desks, everyone to be seated and quiet. I will then say anything I need to say to them and then release them.

9. Kill them with kindness: show mercy and forgiveness. When students fail to live up to my expectations I do not hold it against them. All things are in the past and everyone has the ability to affect positive change in their own life in every single moment of the day. You can start anywhere. Grudges never help anyone.

10. Be fair. No-brainer right? I catch myself treating students differently all the time. Whether it is which side of the class I lecture to more often or who I choose to speak or even how I respond to requests. I am always correcting myself. It's tough to be neutral with such diverse personalities.

11. Keep the sarcasm and one-liners to a minimum. Even if you're angry don't immediately respond. Breathe, calm your mind, and then act.

12. Be a learner. Modeling behavior is one of the most basic forms of teaching. If we want to teach students to learn then we must model being learners. Never forget that just because you're the teacher doesn't mean you aren't still a student.

13. Teach all the time. We cannot expect students to effectively manage time if we don't also. If you have extra time in the class you are doing something wrong. Make sure that down time is minimized and when it happens (it will) take advantage of it.

14. Exploit teachable moments. Don't meander off topic into tangent after tangent, but do take advantage of student failure as well as student inquiry to teach. If a student fails to live up to your expectations, do not immediately seek a punishment. Instead, reteach them. Reteach everyone.

15. Use peer pressure. The students are your allies. When you can, exploit peer pressure in your favor. If everyone is annoyed because one student cannot behave and they must continually suffer for it they will eventually let that person know. Encourage this. The classroom expectations should be what you expect from them, it should be what everyone expects from each other.

16. Be a benevolent dictator. I said it. My class is not democratic. There will be no mutinies. My word is final. However, I am open to suggestions and will fairly assess all your ideas and determine to what extent I will incorporate them. I will change my mind. I can accept when I am wrong. But that is my decision not my students' decision.

17. Be humble. Accept when you are wrong or when you do not know something. It is okay for teachers not to know everything. Even about their subject. However, do not let questions go unanswered. Encourage students to seek out the answers on their own. Be motivated to find answers to their questions and come back to them later. They are often good questions!

18. Make students teach. Teaching is one of the best ways to learn something. Is that a paradox? I have certainly become much more knowledgeable about history since I started teaching it. I have also become more knowledgeable about teaching. Doing is knowing. Explaining something helps you understand it better too.

19. Seek feedback from students. It is good to have a measure of what your students think about your performance. It is often critical. This is a good tool for reflection. Do not, however, think that it will be all negative. There will be real jewels of encouragement too.

20. Use what works, lose what doesn't In then end, all that matters is what produces results. It doesn't matter how you do it. Just what you get out of doing it.

Thoughts? Pearls to add? Feel free.

Blogging for discussion?

2008-07-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

I blog to participate in an on-going discussion about the future of education. I blog because I want feedback, criticism, and just plain interaction. Apparently some do not. Several times now I have tried to comment on posts at Schools Matter only to find that my comments have been denied by the moderator. I am not posting anything inflammatory or derogatory. My views simply do not conform to the seemingly desired echo affect of the "Amen!" crowd. Which is to say that my comments are critical of what is being argued in the post. Below is a transcript of the comment I left for the linked posting above.

The author of Schools Matter seems to have a chip on his shoulder about charter schools in general and makes sweeping statements about their illegitimate role in education. You can read the original post yourself and decide if my comments were not fit to be published on the blog.

You need to do more research about public charters before you broadly
condemn them across the board. While some are "workhouses" with
"mindless parrot learning" others are created to allow teachers MORE
creativity and innovation. Not all of them are forged from the KIPP
model. I know because I work for one.

I'll be the first to admit its lack of library facilities is
disturbing, but how long until a physical library is extinct or
unimportant when the school has a computer lab and access to vast
online resources?

Yes, the lack of collective bargaining and tenure can mean higher
teacher turn over and less regimented pay scales, however, it also
means that bad teachers can't avoid scrutiny and remain shielded by
tenure.

And finally, you say that charters mean cutting teacher pay but my
base pay scale (minus merit pay) is still higher than my colleagues
working in the public school district of which we are a part.

Who is being hurt when 100% of our graduates are accepted to college?
Our school is a public charter (we accept anyone) that is tuition
free. It is a school of choice, meaning students and parents choose to
attend and have other viable options from within the district. Charter
does not have to equal the end of public education, in fact, it can
easily coexist along side it. If innovation breeds change for the
better, why fight it?

Too harsh? Too critical? Why have a discussion if you want to stifle dissent?

Summer School

2008-07-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

Part of being a teacher means not having to work during the summer. Or at least that is the myth that is perpetuated to ensure that educators remain underpaid. Most teachers I know work during the summer. Whether it is a summer job to augment the weak salary they receive, teaching summer school, or engaging in numerous professional development tasks (workshops, seminars, lecture series, etc) most teachers I know don't just check out come June. Let's not forget all the preemptive lesson planning for next year's classes. That being said, I am working this summer.

I am currently teaching summer school in addition to all the PD stuff and lesson planning for 4 new preps next year. Its a busy summer, but I still find time to rant about changes needed in education.

One of the problems I have witnessed with public education is this nice little loophole known as credit recovery. Why is that a student can sleep their way through a year long class and then trade in that well-deserved F for an A after a few weeks of packet work? I have always felt this undermined the motivation to do well in class to begin with. It's like the student can simply say forget this teacher/class/subject; I'll just take it in summer school.

I don't fault the students. If I were a student today I am sure I would be just as much of a slacker as I was when I was in high school. I was always on the look out for the most bang for my buck. In terms of schooling that meant as little work as possible for the highest grade. Had I known how to work the system and shirk any school work during the year for a quick jaunt through cyberhigh or a brief 6 week cram course, I might have taken them up on the offer.

That's actually one of the reasons I gave up my summer freedom this year to reteach world history in summer school. I'm not teaching a batch of kids looking to get around their teacher, I'm simply reteaching the same students I failed during the year. Offering them another chance to engage with the material but of course crammed into a six week period. I'll be the first to admit that what I am doing is not comparable to what we did during the year and it irks me that this should be valued the same as a year's worth of work. Right now I am simply piling on the work and hoping that in some way it amounts to a comparable level of work.

The way our school works it, is that students have to attend 60 hours of classes (minus the excused absences they allow) as well as complete 45 hours of additional work at home. To meet that expectation I am having students complete in addition to homework, an extended research paper. I don't know that it will amount to 45 hours of instruction but I will do my best to see that it does.

I really wonder about the rationale of not having students repeat classes or at the very least complete a comparable amount of work to a year long class. It seems to me that today much of education is concerned with students meeting standards rather than work. With that thinking in mind, the model has changed from what work did you do to what stuff did you memorize. If all schools want from students is to memorize facts and regurgitate it onto a standardized test, why not offer students an alternative to summer school: testing out of it?

Just seems like we are wasting our time if its not about teaching students to have a work ethic, to value what they produce, and ultimately to hold them accountable. If its only about meeting standards, why do we need to spend an entire year of school devoted to what amounts to simply test-prep. A few weeks of condensed instruction, a few tests and bam they're on to the next subject. Is that the future of education? I certainly hope not.

Syllabi on the Brain

2008-06-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

I never know which plural form of syllabus to use. Apparently both syllabi and syllabuses are correct even though most spell check dictionaries tend to approve of the latter rather than the former. Obviously, I have syllabi (syllabuses?) on the brain. I recently posted on my Google groups page a discussion thread about what constitutes a well written syllabus. I always seem to write them at the last moment and then feel like they are not thorough enough. If you want to check out a sample I posted feel free, I'd love some feedback.

I am composing a self-directed professional development syllabus for myself this summer. Kind of like a well organized to-do list for summer studying. I'm taking on teaching three new preps and passing on teaching World History to our new hire. As a result I have a lot of prep work to do this summer to be ready to be up and running for day one of fall semester. I also needed a way to organize and track myself in terms of setting personal deadlines for reading assignments. In addition to needing to do some lesson plan research for U.S. History and Civic/Economics, I am also participating in an Economics Workshop at Stanford in August, as well as participating in the CASTLE Online Book Club. Then, of course, there is the Digital Storytelling Workshop KQED is putting together in San Francisco in August as well. Did I mention I'm teaching summer school too?

A to-do list seemed a little inadequate to deal with the workload. So, I am putting together a syllabus for myself and it has me reflecting on what is needed in a syllabus. I find myself wanting due dates and assignments in my own syllabus, but not finding myself prepared enough to map out my entire school year for my students that well yet.

Perhaps after years of teaching the same subject this gets easier.

Why NCLB is inherently Nonconservative

2008-06-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

Despite the numerous reasons I could cite for my antipathy towards the No Child Left Behind legislation, there is perhaps one thing most of all that drives me nuts about it. It's become the pinnacle legislation of the Bush domestic policy and yet it is inherently nonconservative in nature. It is sold to the American people as though it were a solution to a bloated educational bureaucracy and some sort of inroad to consumer choice (and therefore free-market) in education. However, that is what makes it so hypocritical. NCLB does exactly the opposite. By standardizing education we are actually removing choice as a factor.

We are essentially socializing education into a federal mandated curriculum and destroying any schools that do not comply. This sounds more like a federal monopoly than a free market of ideas. What does this have to do with NCLB being nonconservative? The Republican party has long been the bastion of small government and free market rhetoric. The hypocrisy of NCLB is that it is quite antithetical to these purposes. NCLB has actually created a larger bureaucracy to deal with the problem of education and is now selling out standardized testing to the highest bidder. How is creating a government backed testing monopoly in any way free market? It's very similar to the invention of Homeland Security; which is yet another example of how small government rhetoric falls apart when the reality of Republican policy is revealed to actually support larger government bureaucracies and extension of government oversight and power.

What do we need to replace NCLB? I think that much is simple. We need to create a race for the next best mouse trap. Do we need accountability? Yes. Do we need choice? Yes. Do we need less government hand holding and direction pointing? Yes. So how do we do that? Simple. Create a government investment into educational research and design for schools. Let education leaders show the way forward. Think science fair or world's fair for schools. Let the best schools come together and share what they are doing that works. Then other schools can be rewarded with federal money for choosing a model to emulate. If schools choose not to emulate one of the leaders, they forgo federal money unless they are being sponsored for divergent research.

Essentially, if you want to find a solution for a problem then look for positive deviance. Find schools that should share problems that neighboring districts or schools have and then investigate what sets them apart. Schools then only need to follow their lead, or be paid to research a way of their own. Simple, accountable, and fair.

And, more importantly, it creates a free market of ideas where the consumers (parents and students) truly do benefit from competition.

How to Tech-Up in a Tech-less school

2008-06-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

I find myself at a crossroads. I am very quickly absorbing all sorts of teachnology ideas from various sources in the edublogosphere, and find my mind running wild with the possibilities of setting up a class Google group for students to post assignments, get peer review, continue conversations from the classroom, etc. Yet, the same nagging thought keeps resurfacing: How can I possibly get something like that to work when most of my students have no access to the internet aside from what amounts to a computer lab at our school? I remember quite well my attempt to establish a wikipage for my advisory class at the beginning of the year and the seemingly insurmountable problem of not only teaching the kids basic word processing skills but also creating time for the students to work in the lab at school. As the school year progressed I had to compete with more and more teachers for lab time, until eventually I was forced to give up on the idea altogether. My doubts were only reinforced when I spoke to other teachers about their difficulties getting their students to even type an essay in Microsoft Word.

How do teachers at low-tech schools teaching low-tech communities bridge the gap and bring their students into the high-tech world? If I can't answer that question (and soon), I don't know how much of Web 2.0 is going to benefit my students, other than my use of it to create low-tech lesson plans and projects my connecting with other low-tech teachers through the burgeoning social network I am trying to establish.

I see so many possibilities and opportunities to use these tools, but too many of my students exist in this technological limbo where the only electronic device of importance in the home is the television and a cellphone (and not the kind with internet access).

Week Without Walls

2008-06-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

One of the selling points for me when deciding to work for LPS College Park last year was that the school has this community learning week known as Week Without Walls. The premise is that you take students out of the classroom for a week of educational field trips in late May. Sounds great, right? Yes, except that there are little guidelines or support for design given to teachers. They're expected to come up with everything by themselves on a budget that is revealed (weeks before the deadline) to be approximately $400 for about 15-20 kids per teacher.

As the deadline approached I became more and more anxious and stressed. Eventually, I hooked up with a fellow stressed out teacher and we decided to pool resources. After many hectic planning sessions we eventually hacked out a discernible week-long plan. We entitled our project From Walls to Museum Halls: An Exploration of Bay Area Art.

The catalog blurb for the students was as follows:

"Experience what the bay area has to offer young and aspiring artists or just lovers of art. Our week will include a guided tour exploring the urban art of San Francisco’s Mission District Murals, a glimpse into the world of fine art at the Oakland Museum of Art, and a strenuous nature hike where students will explore landscape painting and discover their hidden talents. The week will culminate with a gallery walk and reception where students will display their masterpieces to be judged for prizes. If this sounds like a blast, join us for a week of fun and exercise!"

We had 29 students assigned to us. Of those 8 showed up on day one. Although, it was upsetting that so many of our students chose to opt out of the week and stay home, this was really a blessing in disguise. With so few participating students our budget was able to stretch much further.

We spent our first day actually teaching some preliminary art history and basic drawing techniques. We gave each student a sketch pad, gum eraser, and set of charcoals.

Day two we hopped on the BART and headed out to Balmy Alley in San Francisco's Mission District. We toured the many murals and public art works of the Mission and the students practiced sketching by choosing an element from their favorite mural to recreate.

Day Three we hiked around Joaquin Miller park and drew nature sketched and landscapes from a great look out point from which you can see San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

The fourth day, we hopped back on BART and toured the Oakland Museum of California's new exhibitions, "The Birth of Cool" and "Cool Remixed" featuring local student artists of the East Bay. Our students really liked this one.

Our final day, we dragged out the barbecue and cooked up some carne asada while the kids had a water balloon fight and then showed off their work. We awarded prizes for the best art and gave out a lot of art supplies which we couldn't have done without the windfall of cash from such low attendance.

Overall, it was a great experience and next year I will have a better idea of what can be done. I still think improvements are needed for the activity at a network level, but I will do my best to help any new teachers next year.

NECC The Walls Came Down Panel Discussion

2008-06-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

On July 2nd, at 1:30pm grassroots edtech leaders will demonstrate the power of the social network for professional collaboration by simultaneously broadcasting via Ustream as well as presenting live in San Antonio at the NECC annual conference. The panel discussion will discuss how the use of google docs and backchanneling can bring educators together to create and collaborate in ways that are rapidly changing how teachers view professional development. This article is linked to the wiki page for the Walls Came Down Panel. If you would like more information about how to participate or observe this event, simply follow the link. I'll certainly be checking it out.

Teachers Unions

2008-06-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Synchronicity. Sometimes it's weird how you will hear about something and then see it pop up somewhere unexpected. Today, a colleague came to me with the idea of creating some sort of teacher's board of advocates in lieu of a teacher's union, which our charter school lacks. Tonight, I came home and saw an article in Phi Delta Kappan from Richard D. Kahlenberg about the Future of Teacher's Unions.

He wrote Tough Liberal, a biography on school reformer, Al Shanker. In the article he mentions how Shanker backed "peer review" to fire bad teachers and the National Board to reward excellent ones.

I served in a limited capacity as a staff advocate this year which in the end was not enough to stop a fellow new teacher from having to leave our school. I think our school needs stronger support for new teachers but I also think Shanker might be on to something about bringing peer review into the process of letting bad teachers go. These are our colleagues and ultimately they are the ones we have to work with; shouldn't we have more of a say in whether they remain in our peerage?

I would love to see something along the lines of what my aforementioned colleague described: a board of master teachers (and even administrators) who evaluate and advocate for their peers. While not a strict replacement for a teacher's union, it could serve to help support more authentic assessment of teachers and ultimately create balanced decisions for whether to retain members of a team or not.

Action Research Results

2008-06-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

The year is drawing to a close and I am reflecting on what I have accomplished this year in terms of curriculum design. I spent much of creative energy this year crafting a unit based portfolio assessment system that correlates to the tenth grade world history state standards for California. There are many advantages of portfolio assessment as I see it:

Students learn to view organization and presentation of work as integral to their grade.
Student reflection and self-assessment is central.
Students can easily store their work for review.
I can grade their work in a much more summative sort of way and offer meaningful feedback.
I can focus more on the content and quality of work rather than awarding points for each "right" answer.
And, I always have samples of student work on hand to showcase.

I am still refining my system but have created what is essentially a foundation that I am continually customizing and improving. The basic elements of the portfolio, the instructional delivery model, and the data results are listed below.

Basic Elements:

Daily launch assignments recorded in a work log that is completed daily which includes daily objectives, standards being studied, and a daily reflection.
Unit checklists which enable students to track progress.
Grading rubrics that are explained to students ahead of time.
Grading rubrics that take into account students' ability to complete coursework, to analyze information and think critically, to participate in class discussion, and to reflect on their academic progress.
Various types of student work samples that are collected throughout the unit.
Formative and summative assessments. (See UAQ's).
Student translation of state standards.

Instructional Delivery Model: Common daily schedule

Launch assignment (5-10 mins.)
Whole Group Instruction (10-20mins. max)
Individual or group practice (20-35 mins.)
Exit Tickets (last 5 mins.)

Data Results:

I am posting this in hopes that others can use it, improve it, offer feedback, comments, and/or critiques about it. What I have discovered about portfolio assessment is that it conforms to the educational ideals of backwards planning and objective measuring, in that, it must have a clear criteria for assessment from the start. Creating and refining a rubric for this method has been my central focus this year in terms of lesson planning and improving my method of grading.

I have just started a Google Groups page to serve as a forum for teachers I know to connect and share work. I posted some examples of the rubrics I have used and how they have evolved. The earliest form was more points based, and the later ones (10.9 and 10.10) showcase examples of the proficiency levels rubric format I am leaning towards, as well as an example of how I grade group work. If you'd like to review the rubrics simply follow the link above and post some comments here. I would love to get some feedback.

If you would like to join our Google Group, feel free to use the subscribe function in the toolbar to the right.

False Start or "Sorry, I've been busy."

2008-06-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

It seems like ages since I've updated. Being a teacher often means sacrifice our out of work pursuits in order to spend our time on other priorities. As such, I sacrificed updating my blog on a regular basis (or at all) for a few months until the end of the school year. Our last day of school is fast approaching and I finally find myself out from under a stack of grading and speaking to colleagues about their plans for next year.

Which brings me to my point: being a part of a charter school means saying goodbye to friends and faculty alike (often one in the same) as they fall victim to the turn over rates so characteristic of our profession. It is a sad time for me to see good teachers driven away by frustration with students and administration alike. Due to this, I am firmly committed to creating a viral network for professional development amongst my peers including those that will be leaving our staff and moving on. It is for that reason, that I am resurrecting this blog from the dead and creating a place for educators I have met along the way to connect and share ideas.

I have recently stumbled onto a couple of good education blogs (Change Agency and Practical Theory) that have helped me to engage in what I think is a more useful form of professional development. I am stumbling onto this stuff blindly with no one to lead the way in the real world and so have turned to the virtual world for answers.

I want to share the work I have been doing in my classroom and also create a place to share what others are doing and hope that my colleagues will come along on this venture. I will be posting some of my recent portfolio documents via Google Documents, which I have discovered to be a great tool for sharing assessment rubrics, handouts, and lesson plans with other educators.

In other words, consider my earlier blog posts to be something of a false start. As of today, I will be posting daily for a while and then as frequently as I can manage after that. If you want to contribute to this blog feel free to contact me and I will be happy to link to your work or even upload it directly to this blog. I am looking for like minded educators who I can collaborate with in more than a Wednesday morning office meeting sort of way.

Growth Based Perfomance Measurement

2007-12-10T19:50:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press reported today that the Federal government will grant states the ability to chart student progress as an indicator of Adequate Yearly Progress. Rather than evaluate schools' performance by comparing the previous year's students' scores against the following year, schools will now be able to show improvement by tracking individual student progress.

While this is a drastic improvement it is also still burdened by the 2014 deadline for 100% proficiency in all schools. This is like putting a small band-aid over a large wound. We have to acknowledge that this goal is unrealistic and look for ways to improve student proficiency without this ticking clock.

NCLB is the wrong solution to the problem. We do not need to create legislation to line the pockets of standardized test producers. We need local autonomy, funding, and a means of authentic assessment that charts yearly student growth.

Perhaps this recent change reflects an acknowledgment of the need to focus on growth not deadlines, but we will likely have to wait anxiously for the presidential election to see whose agenda will determine the future of education. I feel like a stockbroker looking at an unsure market waiting for the cue to sell or buy. Education is a scary job sometimes.

Inspiration Rant

2007-12-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

Rage Against the Machine was playing on the radio today and it reminded me of some of the reasons I became a history teacher. I've spent recent class time teaching California State Standard 10.7 The Rise of Totalitarianism in Europe after World War I. A large portion of that history entails discussion of the power of propaganda and brainwashing. Along with that our company mandated benchmark assessments are coming up this Wednesday and I have been preaching to the students about the power of positive thinking to cure procrastination and test anxiety. Listening to Rage Against the Machine today was exactly the kind of positive message I needed to hear to reinvigorate me about why I am a teacher. I thought it would be good to share those lyrics and encourage teachers everywhere (particularly those in charge of disseminating our cultural heritage and history) to listen to the words of RATM and ponder what we are doing in the classroom.

"I know my enemies
Theyre the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are american dreams" -Know Your Enemy, RATM

It was teachers like this who inspired me to replace them. Further:

"The present curriculum
I put my fist in 'em
Eurocentric every last one of 'em
See right through the red, white and blue disguise
With lecture I puncture the structure of lies
Installed in our minds and attempting
To hold us back
We've got to take it back
Holes in our spirit causin' tears and fears
One-sided stories for years and years and years
I'm inferior? Who's inferior?
Yeah, we need to check the interior
Of the system that cares about only one culture
And that is why
We gotta take the power back" -Take the Power Back, RATM

There is great power in education particularly in social studies. I believe George Orwell said it first, and the quote hangs on my walls in the classroom, but RATM also echo it in their song Testify:

"Who controls the past controls the future;
who controls the present controls the past
who controls the present now?"

This quote more than anything is the reason I teach, and why I teach history. As one of the few sources of historical information in these young adults lives I am duty bound to give them the education they deserve. Every student deserves to know the truth. We have to constantly question the information we are socialized to accept. The Nazis may have burned books to create the myopic view of the world they espoused, but in yet again the words of RATM "You don't gotta burn the books, just remove 'em."

What we exclude from what we teach is as important as what we teach.

Kudos

2007-11-19T17:52:00.000-08:00

It's always nice to be acknowledged for your hard work. I had a rather intense observation last Wednesday where my principal came in to observe and filmed an entire class period. It went well and was a precursor for a faculty wide professional development on Friday where I presented my portfolio assessment method.

I was surprised how well the presentation went. My colleagues seemed very jazzed about the idea and one veteran teacher even mentioned that he thought my presentation was the most useful professional development that he had been to in twenty years. Today, as well, my principal presented me with a commendation letter for my work which he had forwarded to our CEO. Given that kind of feedback, I 'm still glowing.

While all the kudos are great, I'm very interested to see how well this assessment method will translate into actual standardized test results. Our next benchmark exam is scheduled for December 5th and I am awaiting it anxiously. Of course the number aren't everything (I've already seen a major improvement in my students) but they certainly don't hurt. Not to mention that the whole rationale for testing this instructional approach was to improve my test scores to begin with.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Action Research pt.2

2007-11-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

The results from my student's first benchmark exams are in. Below is a chart of overall student success rates.Prior to the beginning of the school year, I set the goal that 25% of my students would score proficient or advanced on the STAR test. Benchmark tests are given quarterly and are supposed to reflect potential scoring on the STAR test. I met that goal, but honestly that was a low goal. In order to increase the amount of proficient or advanced students I have set out to develop and test strategies for content acquisition. The first strategy I am testing is a portfolio assessment technique.

Students are beginning a unit on California State Standard 10.7:

10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I.

1. Understand the causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution, including Lenin’s use of totalitarian means to seize and maintain control (e.g., the Gulag).

2. Trace Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection between economic policies, political policies, the absence of a free press, and systematic violations of human rights (e.g., the Terror Famine in Ukraine).

3. Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes (Fascist and Communist) in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, noting especially their common and dissimilar traits.

In order to get student buy-in, I am allowing my students to design their own method of proving mastery of the standards by creating a portfolio of their work. There are basic requirements like a daily work log, reflections, and a culminating interview style presentation. Each standard must be presented with a visual, written, and oral component. Today's lesson required students to reword the standards into language they understand, giving them ownership of their expected objectives.

Today was day one of the method. From an observational standpoint a class engaged in self-directed study can seem like chaos but what it offers is great opportunities for student-student collaboration, freedom of choice, and instant differentiation for diverse learners. Grading is a snap; it is easily differentiated and feedback can be given frequently and on the spot.

I have high hopes for this method. I am presenting it as a work in progress on Nov. 16th at a faculty professional development meeting. I hope to have correlative data from the next benchmark as well as example portfolios for demonstration by early December.

All of this will be used for the action research project that I have in the works. I am hoping that if the work is successful and translates into standardized test results to submit the paper to Phi Delta Kappan for possible publication early next year.

Honestly, its a little frightening how excited I get about lesson planning and making tests.

Merit Pay

2007-10-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

So there was an article in the New York Times today about the unveiling of a merit pay system between Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City teachers union. The plan basically offers high performing schools in "high needs" areas additional bonuses totaling $3,000 per teacher. The plan does not award the money to individual teachers but rather to the school sites themselves where teacher-lead committees divvy up the cash.

While I certainly think some form of reward for teacher performance is an essential change needed in education reform, I do see some potential problems with this system of reward. It could entail faculty conflicts over fund distribution and its connection directly to standardized test scores penalizes schools with low performing students who lack the resources to succeed on below grade level assessments, let alone actual grade level standardized tests. This one size fits all approach to student assessment will be the doom of education.

The primary issue still stands: High needs schools need to attract top talent teachers with increased pay to begin with. You want good schools? You need good teachers. Simple enough. The laws of economics demand a change. The supply of teachers is rather limited but the demand is increasing. That means the price must rise.

As a recent college graduate that chose education as a career, I can attest to the other lucrative options presented college graduates. Why would a college graduate with a bachelor's degree in physics want to teach high school science when he can work in business, scientific research, engineering or any number of lucrative fields that attract talent with good starting salaries?

The answer is simple: They wouldn't. You want better teachers? Pay them more.

I know the common responses to why teachers get paid what they do, but that is a discussion for another post.

In other words, to be continued.

Thoughts about Grading

2007-10-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

I hate grading. There, I said it. I know I'm a teacher and I'm supposed to relish the chance to track my students' growth and progress in a class. In theory, that all sounds dandy. Unfortunately, the reality is stacks of papers needing little more than a cursory glance to see if students did the work or not. Actual feedback and close inspection is reserved for essays and tests, which means the majority of student work is nothing more than a way to waste what little free time I have. That being said, I assign way too much work.

I'm sure my students would agree, even though they certainly get much less homework than I got from my teachers when I was their age. So what am I doing wrong? It occured to me that one way I could lessen my load was to use informal assessments on the spot. Sounds great but other than my own memory how do I track the data? I am considering using a system similar to what I started using this year for participation. A fellow teacher, Pablo Franco, introduced me to style of seating chart that includes room to track daily attendance and participation. I think I could easily include a space to track classwork and/or warm ups. That ought to cut down on some of the stacks of grading and free up some time for lesson planning.

So much for free time.

Action Research

2007-10-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

Rumors among faculty of erroneous benchmark test answer keys lead me to investigate my own benchmark assessment today. Before my students were even finished testing today to prove they had mastered California State Standard 10.5, I knew my results would be skewed. What drives an educational institution to judge successful student performance upon an erroneous standardized test baffles me, but what drives said institution to recycle last year's test without fixing this mistake(or changing the questions) is beyond me.

Having inputed the correct data by hand and analyzing it, I see that my students performed noticeably better when I adjusted for correct responses to erroneous questions. However, my students are still in need of improvement in terms of basic retention of knowledge.

When I was in grad school we had to write a mock action research project to simulate what it would be like to study what was going on in the class and measure results of interventions at the curriculum level. Essentially, it meant doing actual research as opposed to just reading what other people have to say about it. It always irked me that its was only "mock" research. Knowing that I need to intervene with my students by changing the only factor in the classroom I control (yours truly), I have decided to also initiate a tracking of what I do and to see how it turns out.

I will post some of the research here as I put it together, but ultimately I want to use it to write and perhaps publish my findings as a paper on what works for my demographics.

What occurs to me right now is that I might need permission from the school site, our board, and possibly parents to do so. What also occurs to me is that it is almost midnight and instead of getting some sleep before an eight hour session of professional development meetings, I am awake fretting over standardized test results and thinking of writing the first academic paper I wasn't forced to write to pass a class.

My name is Dan and I'm a workaholic. I hear that admitting it is the first step to recovery.

The Epiphany

2007-10-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

I came home from a long stressful day of work questioning what I could do to improve my situation in life and it struck me that I needed a way to catalog what I was doing. The need for that was obvious.

I suppose before I get into what this blog is about I should first make introductions. This blog will function as a sounding board for a relatively new teacher working in the heart of East Oakland at a public charter high school that serves at-risk and high needs students. My name is Dan Hess and I am a transplant to the bay area. I moved here to support my wife in her pursuit of higher education. She was recently admitted to graduate school to study museum studies with an emphasis on administration. I am a third year teacher who started in English and moved to Social Studies after I received my M.A. in Secondary Education and completed my credential. I taught primarily in a middle income suburban school district with a large diverse student body. The transition to this new environment has challenged me to adapt my teaching methods and presented many new challenges professionally.

I am finding my third year of teaching especially challenging and I am constantly having to reflect on best practices as an educator. I created this blog as a venue to air my thoughts, ruminations, rants, great ideas, reflections, analysis, and of course: my failures.

That being said, I have made a few other resolutions recently in terms of my career. I have embarked on a personal fund raising mission to help improve the status of my underfunded school by a program of grant writing. I am helping a group of students whom I advise academically to establish a recycling program at our school. I have started a wikipage (see links) as a class website where my students can have control and input of what content appears there. I am also going to begin an action research project to document what learning strategies work for my specific student population using data I collect and analyze.

Let's not forget the burgeoning chess club that I am still trying to convince my inner city students of the coolness of. It's a tough sell.

I invite comments and collaboration because ultimately I am creating this site with the intention of improvement and nothing helps you improve like critical commentary and support. I hope other educators will feel free to use the comments system available on this site to air their frustrations, attempts, triumphs, and failures as well.