Reflections of a Techie

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?