I LOVE it when creative tangents, or teachable moments occur. Chances are they're related to the theme that's being explored, but even if they aren't, more times than not, there's a good reason the discussion went in that direction, and I like to see how it plays out.
Unbelievably, principals have written me up for this very thing. "It was too far removed from the essential question." What a load. I think teachable moments are the best, and so much good can come from them. I'm a firm believer that not everything learned in a school must be measured by a standardized assessment.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Teachable Moments
Friday, November 27, 2009
People Who Write Textbooks
People who write textbooks tend to be academics that are far removed from the day-to-day happenings of the classroom. Many, who were classroom teachers, did so prior to NCLB. NCLB changed the rules and nothing is the same any longer. In my opinion, if someone is writing about how things should or should not be in the classroom, and they haven't been an active k-12 teacher since NCLB, they’re fossils and should be analyzed by carbon-14 dating.
Professional Learning Communities; PLC's
Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s)
There are so many reasons why teachers resist PLC's. Personally, I have been on some wonderful PLC's and some... not so good.
Here's the problem from my individual standpoint as a rank and file educator. In other words, I’m being totally biased.
I have witnessed many benefits from working in a PLC, probably more benefits than not, but I also understand why people are reluctant. Speaking for myself (and including some of the attitudes and opinion of my former colleagues) I have come up with some alternative reasons why people resist PLC’s.
Administrators say that PLC’s are needed to increase student learning, but in reality, many teachers believe the main purpose is to increase student test scores. Test scores and learning are not the same.
People do not always trust their colleagues
People don’t always trust their administration
Repeat… people don’t always trust their administration
People hate being forced to do anything… especially if the reason seems like a waste of time or smells nefarious.
PLC’s do indeed take away from vital school duties
There are so many reasons why teachers resist PLC's. Personally, I have been on some wonderful PLC's and some... not so good.
Here's the problem from my individual standpoint as a rank and file educator. In other words, I’m being totally biased.
I have witnessed many benefits from working in a PLC, probably more benefits than not, but I also understand why people are reluctant. Speaking for myself (and including some of the attitudes and opinion of my former colleagues) I have come up with some alternative reasons why people resist PLC’s.
Administrators say that PLC’s are needed to increase student learning, but in reality, many teachers believe the main purpose is to increase student test scores. Test scores and learning are not the same.
People do not always trust their colleagues
People don’t always trust their administration
Repeat… people don’t always trust their administration
People hate being forced to do anything… especially if the reason seems like a waste of time or smells nefarious.
PLC’s do indeed take away from vital school duties
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Authentic Assessment
Only multiple measures of achievement
can provide an accurate picture of student
learning and school success (Guilfoyle, 2006)
Looking back over my own educational career, I cannot recall a single score I earned on an achievement test. My ACT and teacher certification scores are long since forgotten. However, I do recall making a letter opener in 7th grade. It had a walnut handle with a stainless steel blade. It was horrible. I couldn’t get the rivets in the handle to tighten the blade securely to the wood. This flimsy letter opener only lasted a couple of weeks before breaking in two. I officially knew that I wouldn’t make much of a carpenter.
When I was 16, I took two tests to get my driver’s license. The first one was a written test to prove I knew the rules of the road. The second part was a driving portion where I was responsible for demonstrating my driving skills. I couldn’t parallel park, so I didn’t pass the exam. I don’t recall the questions on the written test, but I’ve never forgotten failing the driving portion.
I wanted that license in a big way so I practiced parallel parking like crazy in front of my parent’s house and passed the driving demonstration with flying colors. This is a good example of authentic assessment.
Authentic assessment measures what one can do well, and what one does… not so well. And, that’s OK.
What is Authentic Assessment?
Authentic assessment is “A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills,” (Mueller, 2008).
Having been an educator since 1992, I have worked with students with incredible artistic ability. One student in particular could draw with amazing accuracy and detail. His graphic art talent on the computer was enviable too. Although this student was recognizably a gifted artist, his reading ability was limited to relatively easy texts. In general, his academic skills were many grades behind his same age peers. Using standardized measurement assessments, his annual yearly progress would be nil.
By giving credence only standardized assessment, a great disservice would be done to this student and many other talented folks who excel differently from the established norm. Within the context of authentic assessment and portfolios, such students are encouraged to reach their highest reasonable and obtainable potential.
OK, what can we use instead of high-stakes end of the year assessments. Well, how about student portfolios?
What are Student Portfolios?
Portfolios are collections of selected student work representing an array of performance (Education Research Consumer Guide, 1993)
My letter opener could have been an artifact for a portfolio. Sometimes it’s appropriate to have evidence of what one can’t do so well. Other portfolios artifacts might be writings, reports, drawings, maps, songs, video of accomplishments, photographs, documented digital projects, and and many other materials that prove what the student was able to learn and generalize into other academic contexts.
Measuring and reporting student progress via authentic assessment and portfolios encourages the student to become a self-directed learner. In doing so, it allows students to learn from experience, approach problems with flexibility, view situations in multiple ways, change as needed, and to recognize and appreciate the ebb and flow of personal growth.
References
Education Research Consumer Guide,(1993.Student portfolios: Administrative uses. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/admuses.html
Guilfoyle, C. (2006). NCLB: Is there life beyond testing? Educational leadership. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov06/vol64/num03/NCLB@_Is_There_Life_Beyond_Testing%C2%A2.aspx
Muller, J. (2008). What is authentic assessment? Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm#definitions
can provide an accurate picture of student
learning and school success (Guilfoyle, 2006)
Looking back over my own educational career, I cannot recall a single score I earned on an achievement test. My ACT and teacher certification scores are long since forgotten. However, I do recall making a letter opener in 7th grade. It had a walnut handle with a stainless steel blade. It was horrible. I couldn’t get the rivets in the handle to tighten the blade securely to the wood. This flimsy letter opener only lasted a couple of weeks before breaking in two. I officially knew that I wouldn’t make much of a carpenter.
When I was 16, I took two tests to get my driver’s license. The first one was a written test to prove I knew the rules of the road. The second part was a driving portion where I was responsible for demonstrating my driving skills. I couldn’t parallel park, so I didn’t pass the exam. I don’t recall the questions on the written test, but I’ve never forgotten failing the driving portion.
I wanted that license in a big way so I practiced parallel parking like crazy in front of my parent’s house and passed the driving demonstration with flying colors. This is a good example of authentic assessment.
Authentic assessment measures what one can do well, and what one does… not so well. And, that’s OK.
What is Authentic Assessment?
Authentic assessment is “A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills,” (Mueller, 2008).
Having been an educator since 1992, I have worked with students with incredible artistic ability. One student in particular could draw with amazing accuracy and detail. His graphic art talent on the computer was enviable too. Although this student was recognizably a gifted artist, his reading ability was limited to relatively easy texts. In general, his academic skills were many grades behind his same age peers. Using standardized measurement assessments, his annual yearly progress would be nil.
By giving credence only standardized assessment, a great disservice would be done to this student and many other talented folks who excel differently from the established norm. Within the context of authentic assessment and portfolios, such students are encouraged to reach their highest reasonable and obtainable potential.
OK, what can we use instead of high-stakes end of the year assessments. Well, how about student portfolios?
What are Student Portfolios?
Portfolios are collections of selected student work representing an array of performance (Education Research Consumer Guide, 1993)
My letter opener could have been an artifact for a portfolio. Sometimes it’s appropriate to have evidence of what one can’t do so well. Other portfolios artifacts might be writings, reports, drawings, maps, songs, video of accomplishments, photographs, documented digital projects, and and many other materials that prove what the student was able to learn and generalize into other academic contexts.
Measuring and reporting student progress via authentic assessment and portfolios encourages the student to become a self-directed learner. In doing so, it allows students to learn from experience, approach problems with flexibility, view situations in multiple ways, change as needed, and to recognize and appreciate the ebb and flow of personal growth.
References
Education Research Consumer Guide,(1993.Student portfolios: Administrative uses. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/admuses.html
Guilfoyle, C. (2006). NCLB: Is there life beyond testing? Educational leadership. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov06/vol64/num03/NCLB@_Is_There_Life_Beyond_Testing%C2%A2.aspx
Muller, J. (2008). What is authentic assessment? Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Retrieved July 22, 2009 from http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm#definitions
It’s almost as if new teachers must go through some rite of passage before he or she can be fully included in the “League of Surviving Educators”. This concept is rather counterproductive and counterintuitive when one thinks about it. I had a most unpleasant student teaching situation. My cooperating teacher was a jerk, and completely unhelpful. I barely made it through this experience, and the only thing that kept me going was the fact that I didn’t want to chuck four years of schooling out the window. I desperately needed a mentor; someone to help me through the inevitable rough patches a student teacher faces. It didn’t happen, and I worried that it would be this bad when I got my first teaching job.
Luckily, for me, I was surrounded by a bunch of other teachers who helped me survive, and even flourish in my first year as an educator. John Donne, an English poet wrote in his meditation, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) that “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” Forgiving the obvious sexist language that was apropos for the time, Donne, was correct, no person can survive the teaching profession alone. We are all part of the collective whole.
Luckily, for me, I was surrounded by a bunch of other teachers who helped me survive, and even flourish in my first year as an educator. John Donne, an English poet wrote in his meditation, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) that “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” Forgiving the obvious sexist language that was apropos for the time, Donne, was correct, no person can survive the teaching profession alone. We are all part of the collective whole.
Monday, November 23, 2009
El Chupacabra and Standardized Assessments
Having read every word of Georgia’s CRTC (high-Stakes end of the year assessment) to third and fourth grade SLD students, I consider myself somewhat of an authority on the subject of manure. It was the most irrelevant piece of tripe imaginable, even more pointless than Florida’s FCAT (same type of high-stakes end of the year assessment). If not for needed and appropriate IEP modifications such as extra time, small groups, and tests read aloud, these scores would have tanked even further.
What did I learn? I learned that students are great at “Christmas treeing” in answers. I learned new and improved ways to increase adolescent daydreaming, and most importantly, I learned that state officials are clueless. However, as long as they smell roses instead of reality, nothing is going to change.
Take these same students and listen to them tell stories of visits to grandparents in Mexico and you will see what they really know. They can provide detailed instructions on how to build a piñata. How to make tortillas on an outdoor grill, and tell you about how scary El Chupacabra, the goat blood-sucking creature from hell is. Their detailed stories are packed with wisdom, knowledge and superstition learned from their grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders. Now I don’t believe for a second that knowledge about El Chupacabra is going to get you too far in twenty-first century America. I do believe that these kids are not going to thrive in twenty-first century America if the sum of their knowledge and wisdom is determined by abstract CRCT questions normed on some kid in Beulah, Montana. We are setting these kids up for failure.
What did I learn? I learned that students are great at “Christmas treeing” in answers. I learned new and improved ways to increase adolescent daydreaming, and most importantly, I learned that state officials are clueless. However, as long as they smell roses instead of reality, nothing is going to change.
Take these same students and listen to them tell stories of visits to grandparents in Mexico and you will see what they really know. They can provide detailed instructions on how to build a piñata. How to make tortillas on an outdoor grill, and tell you about how scary El Chupacabra, the goat blood-sucking creature from hell is. Their detailed stories are packed with wisdom, knowledge and superstition learned from their grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders. Now I don’t believe for a second that knowledge about El Chupacabra is going to get you too far in twenty-first century America. I do believe that these kids are not going to thrive in twenty-first century America if the sum of their knowledge and wisdom is determined by abstract CRCT questions normed on some kid in Beulah, Montana. We are setting these kids up for failure.
Greek Philosophers and Learning
The ancient Greek Philosophers had a great deal of time on their hands. It’s is not as if they had to blister their hands building the Parthenon, or digging the great Athos canal. They seemed to have the luxury of sitting around contemplating everything. One day Socrates was having a chat with his good friend Meno about human virtue and whether or not it could be taught. Soon the topic of learning came up.
Meno: “Socrates, what do you mean by saying that we do not learn, and that what we call learning is only a process of recollection?”
Socrates: (Miffed) “I am saying there is no teaching, but only recollection.”
Socrates went on to try to prove his point by guiding one of Meno’s slave boys thorough a complex geometrical equation. (Plato, 380 B.C.E).
I find Socrates’ view of learning too simplistic. It’s like saying Michelangelo’s masterpiece sculpture of David just happened to be hiding in that massive slab of marble, and came out when the artist chipped away enough of the surrounding material. Like a prize in Cracker Jacks, it was there all the time.
This discounts the talent and extensive training Michelangelo endured to reach the level of genius that allowed him to create such art. Knowing how to chisel at the precise angle, realizing how hard to strike with the hammer and bringing realistic perspective to stone is not an innate quality. It is something that is taught and learned over a period of time. There might be a natural talent toward excelling at something, but without guidance and practice, potential will not be fully realized.
POWER IN NUMBERS
Power can be found in numbers. I read somewhere that there are around 2.6 million public school teachers in the United States. Those figures may be off, but the point is.... there are million of us out there.
If your sick of No Child Left Behind. Sick of all this mindless high-stakes standardized assessment, sick of being treated like crap, sick of goober politicians, then it's time to be heard.
If all 2.6 million, or even half that number took some type of proactive measure to make people aware of the "real" state of education, then attention would be paid. There are lots of collective (legal and ethical) things educators can do? There is very little we can do alone. Collectively, we can move mountains. Too many people are content to allow uninformed politicians and gasbag talk radio personalities do our thinking for us.
Most Americans have no idea what is happening in schools. Granted not all is bad, but enough bad is going unnoticed that it's bound to get worse.
If your sick of No Child Left Behind. Sick of all this mindless high-stakes standardized assessment, sick of being treated like crap, sick of goober politicians, then it's time to be heard.
If all 2.6 million, or even half that number took some type of proactive measure to make people aware of the "real" state of education, then attention would be paid. There are lots of collective (legal and ethical) things educators can do? There is very little we can do alone. Collectively, we can move mountains. Too many people are content to allow uninformed politicians and gasbag talk radio personalities do our thinking for us.
Most Americans have no idea what is happening in schools. Granted not all is bad, but enough bad is going unnoticed that it's bound to get worse.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
There comes a time when teachers have to say in a collective voice, "Enough is enough. I have no more time, tears, sweat, or blood to give".
I have heard teachers say that they are in the business of children and they only do it for the kids. It irritates me when I hear this because it exposes a weakness in the profession. It’s almost as if they are rolling over and letting the jackals have easy access to their throat. Well, pediatricians, pediatric dentists, psychologists, and so on, are also in the business of children, but they don't seem to be inflicted with the same type of disrespect teachers suffer.
I have worked for some amazing administrations and acted as a member of some wonderful Professional Learning Communities. However, each year, especially since the mandate of NCLB, more and more is expected of teachers with less and less monetary return and respect. The teaching profession seems to be held hostage by crackpot politicians, well-paid superintendents, increasingly hostile and mean-spirited administrators, unreasonable parents, and unruly children. When does it stop? When will the effort they expect us to give equal the respect and dignity we deserve?
I have heard teachers say that they are in the business of children and they only do it for the kids. It irritates me when I hear this because it exposes a weakness in the profession. It’s almost as if they are rolling over and letting the jackals have easy access to their throat. Well, pediatricians, pediatric dentists, psychologists, and so on, are also in the business of children, but they don't seem to be inflicted with the same type of disrespect teachers suffer.
I have worked for some amazing administrations and acted as a member of some wonderful Professional Learning Communities. However, each year, especially since the mandate of NCLB, more and more is expected of teachers with less and less monetary return and respect. The teaching profession seems to be held hostage by crackpot politicians, well-paid superintendents, increasingly hostile and mean-spirited administrators, unreasonable parents, and unruly children. When does it stop? When will the effort they expect us to give equal the respect and dignity we deserve?
We have work to do.
Teachers, look at your situation. Are you oppressed? Do you work for a tyrant principle who treats you like dirt? Is No Child Left Behind leaving your students so far back in the pack that they're choking on the dust. Don't give up..... get mad as hell. Open your car window on the way home (when at a full stop) and shout. I'm Mad As Hell And I'm Not Going To Take It Any More!
That's a good step. Now it's time to get to work.
About fascist principals:
I have little doubt that principals are under intense pressure. I wouldn't want to be in administration for anything. They get treated like trash and it trickles down to the teachers.
However, this trickle down process is an excuse. It doesn't have to be that way. My mother always said, "You can catch more flies with a teaspoon of honey than you can with a barrel of vinegar". She was right. Instead of top-down browbeating and fear, why don't entire school districts try to operate within a realm of dignity and respect. I don't get it. It's the golden rule 101. Treat people like you yourself want to be treated. When this happens, the students will be all the better for it.
That's a good step. Now it's time to get to work.
About fascist principals:
I have little doubt that principals are under intense pressure. I wouldn't want to be in administration for anything. They get treated like trash and it trickles down to the teachers.
However, this trickle down process is an excuse. It doesn't have to be that way. My mother always said, "You can catch more flies with a teaspoon of honey than you can with a barrel of vinegar". She was right. Instead of top-down browbeating and fear, why don't entire school districts try to operate within a realm of dignity and respect. I don't get it. It's the golden rule 101. Treat people like you yourself want to be treated. When this happens, the students will be all the better for it.
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