Reflections of a Techie

Teaching--Art or Science? Letting us good at something

This is my 5th year pretty much teaching the same thing...2 sections of math, 2 sections of science and 2 section of intervention math.  It's the first time in decades of teaching that I've been allowed to stay in the same classroom and stick with the same subjects.

You know what....I'm getting good at it!!!!!

I was talking with the teacher in the next classroom, who has been allowed to teach the same thing for the last 3 years and is a 4th year teacher....and you know what, she's getting good at it.  Too!!!!  As we talked about some of the things that frustrate us, we came up with some pretty good ideas for tackling these unsolvable problems.  You know the questions?  How do we get kids to take what they learned langauge arts class and apply it in expository writing and reading?  and so on.

As we talked about those ideas, it came to me that this conversation would have never been possible before this year.  Simply because we weren't good enough at what we do to have tested out the typical suggested solutions, to know that they don't work and to be nuanced enough to come up with this subtle layer of teacher understanding.

You know that's why we are actually getting good at what we do.  We've had time to think and to reflect and to dream.    Those dreams and aspirations for our students are taking shape into something that could really work.  Practically speaking, I'm taking what I have been doing in class for a couple of years with regard to text features and text structures AND she is going to teach these concepts using my textbooks instead of the Reader's Workbook she has been provided.  OK...so that doesn't sound like it is really going to cure our headaches, but I think it has great possibilities when coupled with other simple ideas.  Things we can tweak without throwing out everything and restarting.

What if lots of teachers got to stay with a grade level or a class until they got good????  What if we didn't make everyone pack up all their stuff and move rooms all the time...that way you could actually find materials when it was time to use them????  And so on.  Maybe I should send this idea into the Department of Education and Arne Duncan...maybe it would be the affordable reform idea they've been looking for.

Teachers Take the Power in their own Hands

I'm beginning to see it happen in places I roam.  Never before have I seen teachers organizing and doing things to help each other learn the stuff we really need to know.  Sure we've exchanged lesson plans before...but this is different.  I'm seeing the web help teachers find each and then synergize themselves.

Take WeAreTeachers and their latest post    Let’s Get Digital: Fueling a Digital Revolution in Your Classroom.  Here they've asked for teachers to post their idea for integrating technology into the classroom.  The community will vote on the projects they believe should be awarded the microgrant which Dell put up..and then presto...that person's project will be funded. 

Here's what I like about this.  This is a supercool teacher run site, that Twitters itself to generate traffic.  It has great ideas that people from all over post to all the time.  They've organized enough to go and find sponsors for these kinds of activities.  They put on learning that people want...and on and on.

It's what I like about Classroom 2.0.  Another great place to hang out with like minded teachers who are thinking about how to use the web with their kids in authentic, problem solving kinds of ways.  They host radio shows, webinars and everything is so spot on in terms of helping you think bigger and feel empowered to go out and try.  Ning is one of my new favorite ways to think about connecting and sharing with other teachers and Classrom 2.0 is a fabulous example.

Note-taking and skimming

It seems that my school is about to take on another new program.  It's that time of year so we need to do something more than we did last year...right?

So the focus is on literacy and notetaking.  I have no problem with this whole idea EXCEPT that the people in charge of deciding haven't talked to teachers.  Big surprise!!!!  For example....Cornell Notetaking.  Who is against something like that?  Not me, in fact I think it's a wonderfully efficient way to get at the heart of the content and what the teacher wants you to know.  You can skim through your notes and effectively study for tests.

The problem lies in that my students don't take notes yet.  As 6th graders, they are prepared to do lots beyond copying down what I write on my SmartBoard.  Even teaching them that if I write it on the board they should write it in their spiral journals is a task unto itself.

If anyone had asked me, I think the place if this is what we want to do...would be to teach students how to take notes from their textbooks.  They need to know how to use the text features of the book to organize their notes and then to summarize what they've read there.  Right now if I asked my students to do this...they'd pretty much copy down everything in the book or at  ever bolded word/sentence they see.  They aren't cognitively at the place where they read it well enough to take notes.

I sugggested we read and work through Rick Wormeli's book on Summarizing as our first step.  Once we had those strategies down for summarizing (and not paraphrasing Rick!!!), then we could branch out into notetaking strategies.  Maybe this is what the 6th grade could focus on and master....then the 7th grade could layer on notetaking from the textbook using the summarization strategies we mastered in 6th grade and followed by the 8th graders really pulling it all together with Cornell Notetaking.

But then...no one asked me.

Mathematically Talented Students...what to do about acceleration

Advocating for talented students is never easy and I've run into roadblocks this week over and over.  The math coaches have constructed an acceleration test that allows students to test out of a grade level.  I have been fortunate to watch these tests undergo revisions and observe many interesting behaviors.

Some teachers believe that on grade level instruction is the only way to go and they want to construct a test that is soooooooooo hard that almost no one could pass it.  The justification is that "if they are truly gifted, they'll show it".

Some teachers believe that if a student shows promise you should advance them just in case they can make it.  Their test would be short, test over only the tested curriculum and very procedurally focused.

Some teachers sit in the middle.  Their aim is to make sure tested curriculum is covered, students are procedurally pretty sound and that they can be successful in future grades if accelerated.

As I participated in this test revision, I longed for each "camp" to analyze the items on each of the tests they proposed.  Wouldn't this be the best way?  It would take the emotion out of construction and make it a much cleaner and focused discussion.  I also sat in these meetings wondering what stance I should take.  How do I stand as an advocate for mathematically talented students in this process...which camp should I be planted in?

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a hedger.  My bias is to give kids the chance when in doubt but make super sure they'll be successful or you could really mess up a kids' future.  I'm definitely not the create a killer test person, although I do believe that philosophy would probably yield sure success stories because everyone else would fail and stay in grade level.

If our schools were all populated with fantastic, talented math teachers this wouldn't be a problem.  Those kinds of teachers would see the need and create opportunities/problems that challenge on many levels.  Unfortunately, I don't see that kind of skilled instructional talents in every classroom.  I will still be tippie toeing down some fine line that separate the camps....trying to help my talented kids find challenge within their school day in math class.

Tech integration...how's it going in your place?

As you can imagine, I like reading other blogs.  Today I happened across this post from Darren Draper. He referenced a study from 2000 that spoke about the importance of administrator's involvement in tech integration and how the scene including administrators in technology integration where I work?

Well, I'd say mixed.  Administrators definitely see the need to have teachers integrate technology but I think they have little time to figure it out.  They are rushed from one meeting to another...hardly having time to do the things that are critical to running a school.  It takes time and opportunity for anyone, especially an administrator to have the luxury of time to learn how to use technology.

You might ask why is important for them to learn?

Well administrators make decisions that change the priority attached to all the things that are important to supporting teachers in integrating technology.  They decide how much PD time can and should be allocated to every kind of thing.  They decide how much of the budget will be spent on updating and maintaining technology.  Believe me....buying the software or hardware is a drop in the bucket of getting technology really integrated.

It takes lots of training...sustained interest in doing a few things well.  And resisting the temptation to jump from one application to another.  It takes sustained interest to find applications that are effective and transferrable once the innovations jump things ahead.  You have to have time to think, experiment, compare and improve.  Innovations exist only in environments where it is OK to take risks, even fail.  That is not the temperature of most school environments right now.  Most schools feel more like pressure cookers...the whole NCLB mess  How can innovations take place in an environment that is so narrowly focused?

Most administrators I know don't have adequate time to visit classrooms or even to get to know the students that attend their schools.....they want to, but they are pulled in so many directions that it is impossible.

I consider myself an innovator and a technology integrator.  I have worked to move other teachers along in their skills acquisition...but it is a slow process, spotty when left to happen as it might.

Reg Weaver's Lettter---By Any Other Name May Still have Thorns

Warning...I thought I had found an encouraging note, but was more of the same old, same old.  One of those eye catching side bars in the President's Viewpoint letter in the March, 2008 issue of NEA Today..."Too many teachers...have been denied professional pay for too long."

Hurray I thought.  He's finally going to take the jump and acknowledge the possibilities of pay for performance systems.

Wrong....after a flowery intro the article says..."Yet much of the conventional wisdom and public discussion about teacher pay is misleading"  (OK, I thought I agree with that) and then "The result is misguided policies that divert attention from addressing the root cause of teacher turnover and stagnant student achievement".  I know I'm a hopeless optimist because I know better than to read this letter because it usually just makes me mad.

What?   Later he says.."The question isn't how to differentiate pay between teachers.  The question is how to pay teachers a salary that encourages the creation of a great public school for every child".  And then he launches into a laundry list that sounds as apple pie as it can be but is really nothing more than dragging feet and throwing cold water on the idea of pay for performance.  At least in my opinion.

To me it IS about differentiating teacher pay.  It's about saying that we do not all do the same thing and that we cannot all be thrown together into one lump pile and paid as if we are interchangeable widgets. 

To me the question IS about differentiating pay so that every teacher can be compensated according to how well they do their job.  Because to assume that we are all the same just seems dumb to me.  We are not the same because our communities and students are not the same.  We sound foolish when we try to simplify this incredibly complex task down to getting more training and experience.  It's well beyond that.

That is the status quo.  It is where we pay teachers for staying in their position another year regardless of what they did with their students during that year.  It is the status quo where you get a pay raise because you completed graduate hours regardless of how useful or useless those hours are to your job. 

Wake up.  The status quo is not enough.  It's terrible.  It's why people are not coming into our profession, it's why they aren't staying and it's why I want to find other systems that will pay teachers according to how well they did their jobs.  Yes this system was a huge step forward for teachers but that was years and years ago.  It needs revamping and revitalizing.

Let's take a cue from the current political revolution that is going on right now. Regardless of which candidate you support, it's clear that democracy is alive and well if you can go around the entrenched machines and communicate with the grassroots.  I  think it's the dawn of a new era of politics and I hope teachers are at the front of the line ready to explain their position and explain their ideas.  Instead of having to talk through old world machines, it may be our opportunity to take the place at the policy making table and advocate for ourselves.

Failed public policy---where's the teacher expertise that is need to save our schools?

To tell you the truth, my head's been spinning with ideas.  I've spent two days with some of the best teachers in my state...Kansas.  Award winners, new teachers and preservice teachers...we had them all.  The first day of the conference was pretty much...ho-hum.

The second day I called Fabulous Friday.  We had roundtable discussions of what public education should look like, what reforms we saw as critical, how we thought we might link today's schools to tomorrow and so on. 

Yes there was the sentimental videos with wide-eyed children and the typical encouragement to do more for the good of the kids.  But on the whole, there was much more focus to what it is that we need to do to improve learning....where it is the future of our profession lies...and what role teachers need to step into in order for things to change.

What was clear is that these expert teachers don't believe that policymakers have been successful with their vision of improvement ala NCLB.  It is more of a failed policy than success.  If nothing else NCLB helped teachers wake up to the fact (and probably begin to accept the fact) that accountability is here to stay, it can be a good thing and that if you let people who don't understand the complexities of the education business dictate how you will conduct your classroom....well, chaos will ensue. 

There's big problems in Kansas.  Teacher salaries are in the basement.  They need and want more.  It doesn't take an Einstein to see what impact low salaries are having....  A recent survey of Kansas school needs breaks down like this....we are going to need 375 math and 307 science teachers next year.  With the decrease in enrollment in the state colleges and universities, we will only have 115 math and 63 science teacher graduates to fill those vacancies.  There is an 86% decline in teaching licenses issued to biology teachers, a 50% decline in chemistry licenses and a 67% decline in physic licenses.  Students in these fields are going elsewhere and money is the big factor.

Coinciding with these new graduate numbers is the aging of our statewide faculty.  36% will be eligible to retire with in the next 5 years and about 42% leave the profession within 7 years of starting.  The ed schools have experienced a 25% decrease in enrollment.  Money and lack of support in the job is cited as the major reasons.

Teachers have lots of great ideas for ways to recruit more and retain more.  We've tried it the way the Kansas legislators think works and see the results.  No money.  No teachers.  That seems like another example of failed public policy.  Legislators can whine all they want to that teachers are overpaid and continue to cut off reasonable pay increases.  If they haven't figured it out yet, they will soon enough when there are severe shortages in schools and there aren't teachers for their children.  Does it have to hit them personally with a daughter, a son, a niece or neighbor before they "get it"?  I have always hoped that legislators have bigger vision than that...but it sure doesn't seem like.  Come on....suck it up and find a way to pay teachers for their work in a way that encourages people to go into the profession instead of running the other way. 

These conversations reinforced my belief that we need teacher leaders to step up and learn how to enter to policy arena.  They need to figure out to show that accountability doesn't scare us and that we can prove what we do makes a difference.

Shifting Theory into Practice--Web 2.0 Interactivity

By George I really think I've not only got it but I'm really getting it.

Twitter and Voicethread may be the mediums of my understanding, but I think I'm finally moving into the next phase of growth.  OK I've always gotten that Web 2.0 is interactive but I never fully understood how that might happen for me....and the students that I serve.

Just been working with Twitter.  At first it seemed like I  wasn't really interested in the same things that "my" network was writing about.  So I deleted some people and added some others.  Eureka....then I got it.  "My network" started to have more things about which I care.  I am being transformed from the passive member into a dynamic learning environment for me.  Tom Barrett has written about this idea and has some terrific graphics that cemented my own thinking.  And that's the crux of what a personal learning network does...it helps you flesh out what you think, helps you formulate the ideas you want to persue and gives you feedback in doing that.

Voicethread is where I think I'm putting those same notions into action with my students.  We are developing a simple, first time project on classifying triangles.  It's something that stumps many 6th graders...so why not let them take photos from their worlds, post them and have a conversation about which method of classification best describes these triangles.

Will it help them on the state assessment?  You know that's the question that everyone wants you to answer before you do anything.  Honestly I don't know.  But I don't think it could hurt and maybe it will be 1) more engaging for them and 2) help us incorporate more authoring tools for them.  Now I know this project is very teacher directed and doesn't have its origin from students.  You have to start somewhere and this is my where.

I can tell you that one of my early adopter kids has taken the seeds sown by the Triangle project (in its still infancy stage) and create his own account.  He is doing a social studies project about ancient China and got my teaching partner to let him use VT to present his research.  So it begins!!!!!

Teachers and IT...do they ever listen to each other?

Being a pioneer has its challenges.  People don't understand your motivations.  People are frustrated by your desire to change the status quo or ask those pesky "why" questions.  Undoubtably many of those same people will benefit from your efforts and not have to suffer through learning things the hard way....by the school of hard knocks.  Many of us write about this...it is not unique to one teacher or classroom, one school or even one district.

What is it that I am talking about?

Trying to move into a different model of teaching instruction that incorporates new tools....in particular technology tools.  Gosh is it any wonder that it's tough country out there.  I'm watching this new mini series Commanche Moon about the early days of Texas.  It looks like hard country.  I have to say that foraging new paths of instructional methods can be the same way.

Is there a common language for IT and teachers?  Probably the truth is that we both think we know some big truth (with a little "t") that the other one is clueless about.  Our professional organizations seem to be pretty much segregated...in that professional organizations for teachers don't have much technology integrated and the IT organizations are slim on teacher membership/participation.  Some IT professional organizations really believe they have students' best interests at heart...but then are dominated by upper level IT management.  Conversely our teacher organizations don't spend much time on the considerations of networks, bandwidth, dark fiber, and security protocols.

How can we understand each other when most teachers' input is only heard when someone comes out to fix __________________?  Are these repair people/troubleshooters really the best conduit for collecting new ideas?  Doesn't it seem more like these encounters are reactive at best?  Where's the proactive kinds of conversations that keep a teacher/district/IT department working together as a team for the benefit of students?

Is there any group out there that walks on both sides of the line?

Do any districts have effective means of incorporating both points of view into real decision making procedures?  I used to work in a district office that had 2 teachers embedded in the IT department.  It was our jobs to speak up at those techie meetings with the practicalities of the classroom, students desires/wants/dreams and to make sure that perspective was represented.  On the flip side, we then were responsible for trying to impart the wisdom of the IT folks....deciphering all the techie talk into things that make sense within a classroom.  Wish I still had that job.  Unfortunately the realities of state budget cuts forced my district to eliminate both positions. 

Now I don't really know how the teacher voice is heard....except in the moments of frustration or anxiety. If you read many blogs you'll hear all the screaming and hair pulling.  The flip side of that is the IT voice is only heard in the form of policy statements, filtering screens that announcing that this site is not accessible (reasons unspecified).

Surely there is some way that these two sides can come to respect the other's area of expertise, can find common ground where security concerns don't have to trump innovations/new ways of expression...where new frontiers and pioneers on both sides of the issues come together to find new country.  You know the web is bigger than Texas...I'm excited to see what's out there.  Anyone else coming?