Celebrating Students

118 students. 5 preps.

This has been the smoothest, happiest start to a school year I can remember. I think I've said that before. But I come home every day loving my students more than I did the day before.

It helps I've had most of them in class before. We all know what to expect. They know I expect them to work hard, to think hard, to take charge. I know that they are kids and that won't always happen.

We adjust.

And when you love them, they love you back. And how can your day not be better when you receive all that love?

It's not that there aren't negative things going on. There are. Some personal. Some professional. Some both.

I'm choosing to ignore the negative. Choosing to focus on my kids and the community we are creating.  It's a safe, comfortable place. A place where kids can come and honestly say, "I don't get it." And no one will ridicule them. Or tell them to read it again. Or ignore them.

We are reading Fahrenheit 451 in College Prep Lit. I chose it because I wanted them to think, to question, to have opinions. I wanted them to have a say in their education. My big question for this class, one I have written on our writing graffiti wall is, "Why do we need the things in books?" Yesterday's class discussion was one of the best I've ever had in a classroom with students because they did all of that. And they were honest about things they want and need from a teacher. We talked about making mistakes, about why kids don't want to participate in some classes and why they all have something to say in others. They explained why they hate most lectures, but love the ones from a certain teacher (he connects everything to the world they know).

That conversation affected everyone of my student interactions the rest of the day.

I hope it affects evert interaction the rest of the year.

18/31 Change

Because I'm old (as my young school family loves to remind me), I've been through a lot of change, particularly in education. Living in Iowa, I've written standards and benchmarks THREE times, only to have the Iowa Core come into existence.

I've had four superintendents
Five principals
Worked in two buildings
Taught thousands of kids
Worked through more curriculum changes than I care to count

Here's what I've learned

CHANGE IS HARD WORK

Change is dirty,

chaotic,

frustrating,

aggravating,

annoying,

inconvenient,

Change is "throw my hands in the air and I quit" kind of work.

Change is hard.

Hard.

But necessary.

And the least of your problems is the internet doesn't work.

Sometimes, people's ideas are ridiculous.
Sometimes, they think mine are.

Sometimes we disagree.
Sometimes there are too many voices trying to be heard.

Sometimes people think they know more than I do
and they try to get everyone to agree with them.

And sometimes in the midst of the chaos and the dirty work
and the frustration
are glimmers of what you want
and where you will be.

Sometimes an open mind,
a picture of what you believe helps you
get to the promised land.

Sometimes you have to listen to find the
heart of the change.

And then, who cares if the internet doesn't work.

Rethinking

I taught junior high for 15 years. I was young, a new teacher, and full of enthusiasm. If there was a committee, I joined it. If it needed to be done, I did it.

When I transferred to the high school, I quit doing anything. I was burnt out. Tired of being the go to girl. A big part of not wanting to be involved was feeling like I was involved in a dog and pony show. No one really took what I thought seriously. I was just a teacher, after all.

Three years with my current principal has convinced me to throw my hat back in the ring. This year I volunteered to be on the 7-12 Academic Building Leadership Team (BLT). Tonight, my principal just made me smile and wish I had many more years to teach.

We've been talking about the classes we offer, whether they have to be leveled by grade or if we could open many of them up and let kids take them when they want. It was brought up that some areas need to be leveled. There are just some classes you need to take before others. We all agreed. Someone mentioned English might be one of those areas.

My principal knows me too well.

I must have been making a face.

"Speak up Mrs. Day." He knows that I hate speaking out in meetings, especially when I think my voice doesn't matter. I also don't really want to ruffle any feathers. But, I know that my voice matters to him. He really wants to know what I think. He really will make things happen if it's in the realm of possibility. He really listens.

Here's my thought. I don't think we need "English 9" and  "English 10". I think we need to make sure they pass the standards at those grade levels. Students should be able to read and think and write. They should be able to comprehend complex text and offer their opinions. They should ask questions and know how and where to find answers. They should solve their own problems. We should offer classes that help them meet those ideals and then let them move on.

We don't need the labels (Someone smarter than me called this Standards Based Grading). When I write a lesson plan, create a unit (or a class), I think about what I want my students to be able to do when they leave my room.But I don't believe that the 10th grade class depends on what is learned in the 9th grade class. I believe we give students two years to meet standards.

What made me smile was the rather rebellious remark by my principal (and I'm paraphrasing here).

"I'd like to throw it all out. All the grade levels, classes, all of it. We need to say here's what you need to know. How about it we said,' You need some help in English? Show up with Mrs. Day in the morning. You need to know how to do something in Math. Meet at 1:00."

I love that my principal wants to rethink school as we know it because I believe that needs to happen.

What will that look like?

I don't know. He doesn't know either.

I'm not sure it will happen in my teaching life.

But I sure would like to see it.

#Write2Connect

Here I sit, wrapped in my cuddly blanket, coffee in hand, Chloe beside me, thinking about writing, thinking about all the ways it appears in my life. It's the National Day on Writing (school edition) and it seems only natural that I write.

I write about my writing periodically.

I've written about what I write and why I write  and again, what I write.

I've written when I don't have anything to write about.

I've written about tough stuff.

At times I've written about the ugly times in a writing class, but usually I write about the fun stuff.

I reflect on what writer's need and more specifically, what boy writer's need.

And sometimes, I let Chloe write.

But as I said in a previous post, "And, now, I'm back. Writing for me. Writing because I can't imagine not writing. Writing about life so the world (well, mostly the grandkids) knows I was here. Writing so others know I cared."  

What has kept me writing this blog is the connections I have made. Wonderful readers who take the time to comment, who take the time to share with me. It's amazing the friends I have throughout the world just because of this little blog. And some, even drive hours to come and visit me (and my classroom). What could have been weird and awkward, wasn't. It felt like meeting with a long lost friend because we knew each other through our blogs.

I don't only connect through the blog. My Facebook feed is slowly turning into more than a game space. Connections I have made through my blog have become friends. Many groups and teachers have pages now where ideas are shared freely. Twitter and several Twitter chats also connect me to other teachers and their amazing ideas. 

In fact, it was through Twitter connections that a new writing project for my students came to be. We are now sharing our blogs with some high school students from two other high schools in other parts of the state. So far, we've read and commented on each others, but I think all the teachers involved have more in mind as we head through the school year. My freshmen also commented on the blogs of some third graders in our district one Monday, just for fun. 

Today, I will plead with my Creative Writing students to tweet out links to their digital storytelling projects. As I watched their videos last night, I laughed and cried and gasped aloud at the amazing things they shared. Some were so personal, I hurt for them. But I also cheered at their amazing spirits and their courage to continue on another day. Some shared stories of family members who impact their daily lives. Love came through those stories. They need to know their stories matter and those stories need to be shared. 

So we will talk about connecting with the world.

Because that's what writing can do. 

Successes

I've done three things a bit differently this semester. In January, I began giving my freshmen 10 minutes

every day

to read the book of their choice.  I wasn't sure how it would go. 

They hate to read.

And then, at the beginning of fourth quarter, I added a blogging challenge. I post on Sunday. Their post is due the next Sunday.

                                                                 They hate to write.

And then, I began instituting Genius Time every Friday (except for this Friday. I have to be gone. We've had a week. I was gone two days last week. We just needed to do the mainstream on Friday).

They hate to think.

You want to know something? 

I was wrong. 

They proved me wrong.

They read every day.

and they don't hate it.

(Well, not most of them)

In fact, they have read more than I thought possible. Someone asks me every day for a new book recommendation. I'm running out of ideas for some of them. And I once thought they'd never find books on their own. But you know what?  Not only are some finding them on their own, but they recommend to others. And although they don't like every book I recommend or they pick out, they give them a fair chance and have a good reason to abandon the book. I'm OK with this. Life's too short to read bad books. My students are becoming discriminating. I count this as a success.

They write every week (most of them)

and they are getting pretty good.

When we first started blogging, the posts weren't all that good. They did the minimum and that was about it. Their thinking was shallow. I thought about quitting. But I didn't. And I'm glad. I've had some say, "This post was pretty fun." There are posts that are so thoughtful I have to read them again. Some are writing twice as much as they did when I started.  I count this as a success. 

They have passions.

They are figuring out how to make movies, learning about what a grandfather endured during WWII and  concentration camps and POW's, figuring out how to write songs and what their dreams mean. Today when I told them I would be gone tomorrow and gave them the itinerary for the day, I heard this, "It's Friday. Why aren't we doing Genius Time?" I explained. They understood. But I better not take it away next week. I count this as a success.

But here's the thing. 

Would the state, would the testing count these as successes? I don't know. I have't seen test scores for my students yet. I'm not sure I want to see them. But maybe I do. An email from our principal said, "Preliminary analysis of the results are favorable for the high school. Some of the data is shockingly positive." I don't know if that means my kids, but I know the results in my classroom are positive. 

And I count that as a success.

It Doesn't Mean You Can Teach

It's 1975 and I am a freshman in college. Like education majors everywhere, I have to take an Intro to Psych class. I'm excited about it really. Here's a class that  will actually relate to what I want to do with my life. I show up at 8:00am the first day of class.

In shuffles my professor.  A wizened man of indeterminate age.  Tufts of hair stand out at all angles (I see it gray in my memory, but the yearbook shows me differently) and he speaks to us in a thick Austrian accent ( I didn't know what accent at first, I just knew he was hard to understand). This is my psychology professor, Professor W.

Professor W tells us we will not be using the introductory psych book, instead, we will be using his textbook and learning a new language he has developed. Learning to speak "Aui" will allow us to communicate with extra-terrestrials when they arrive on Earth.  Mind you, this is a few years before E.T  or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

He gives us a pretest.

I score  the highest score in my class, missing only one.

Really.

I go to class every day for a few weeks.  He shares his life at times. He grew up in the Austrian court before "the war" because his father was the tutor to the royal children.  He went to prestigious schools and traveled the world.

The man was a genius. He quoted Shakespeare, recited chemistry equations, spoke several languages fluently, and expected the same of us.  He was quite disgusted one day to find that we didn't know all that he did.

But he couldn't teach.

He also couldn't find his way out of a paper bag.  In the winter, some would take his well worn path in the snow around a tree, which he would follow for a very long time before he figured out he wasn't going anywhere. He forgot his family in a large city about an hour away. He was the classic absent-minded professor. According to our governor's education plan, he would be a great candidate for the teacher education programs in the state of Iowa.

I, however, wouldn't.

Having a 3.0 doesn't mean you will automatically be a good teacher. It mostly means you play the school game well.

• It means you can regurgitate volumes of information. 
• It means you can recite vocabulary words.
• It means you can fill in the mad minutes sheet.
• It means you can diagram a sentence.
• It means you can take a test and fill in the bubbles.

It doesn't mean you can teach.

Honest Conversations

My second hour speech class talked a lot. They moved around a lot.  They needed music going all the time.  They demanded my attention--good or bad.  They wanted me to notice them, to talk to them, to like them.  Many of them didn't get those things from other people teachers.

One of our last days of class together, as they put finishing touches on their "Commencement Addresses", some of us got involved in a conversation about teachers and school.  A very honest conversation.

Most of them hate school and can't wait to "get out of here".  They hate homework, boring classes, and lectures. When I asked them when was the last time they liked school, they told me elementary school (except for Mr. Cocky Wrestler, who told me he never liked school).  Their teachers were nice and the work was easy.  According to them, that changes in about fifth grade. In our district, that's the year they begin switching classes and teachers--and evidently, the work gets harder too.

It's the year we begin losing them.

By high school, their school "personalities" are fully formed...

So what did they hate about the high school?  Lectures, the same thing happening day after day after day, paper and pencil work all the time, teachers who write on the board all the time with their back to the class, and teachers who don't care.

What would they like to see their school like?  More hands on classes where the work makes sense, less lecturing, less "homework", teachers who care.

They want connections with teachers.  They want to know their teachers realize that students have lives outside of school. They want teachers who ask about those lives. And, they even want to know about the teacher's life outside of school.

Connections.

I'm not naive enough to believe that simply asking a student about their day is going to make them love school. Going to their game is not going make them A students or raise our test scores. Attending a concert is not going to make them do their homework. None of that is going to change anything--especially if it only happens one time.

When you ask an elementary teacher what they teach,  most say, "I teach ______ graders". When you ask middle school teachers you get a mixed response, but when you ask a high school teacher, 95% of them will say, "I teach ____________ (fill in subject).  When did we forget the most important part of our job?  In defense of high school teachers everywhere, there is always pressure to cover all the curriculum. To prepare our students for the next class in the spectrum.  To make sure they "get it".

My classes make it easier to connect, I know that. In speech, the first three or four speeches are about the students.  Actually, since they choose their own topics, all the speeches are really about them.  I find out many things about students in listening to those speeches.  Creative Writing also gives me opportunities to find out about my students.  Their writer's notebooks, their personal narratives, their poetry and stories, all give me a glimpse into who they are.

But I think all teachers at every level can find ways to connect with the kids in their classes.  It takes some time. It takes some effort. It takes teaching young adults and not curriculum. It takes knowing that in the end, it will be worth it.

It's Not the What, It's the Who!

It's 5:00am and I woke early.  Not sure why, but I am.  I was going to post about being evaluated today, but I read blogs and checked Twitter instead.

I reread Christy's Slice of Life from Tuesday again because I love the way she wrote her post about the young man in her classroom. The intro, especially, grabbed my attention and I wanted to use it today as a mentor text with my freshman. But most importantly, she is connecting and making difference in that young man's life.

I read a new blog for me, but one I enjoy, JennM at I Hablo Espanglish. She made an analogy to the starfish story and two students at school.  One she kept from being bullied at lunch, one she helped get her locker fixed. She made a difference in those two lives.

And then Michelle tweeted a post. I generally read anything she tweets about because it's usually good stuff! And it was again this morning. A new blog to follow Justin Stortz at Pursuing Context. Justin comes right out and says the important theme running through these blogs--It's not what we teach, but who!

So, as I go back to looking over my lesson for today, as I make sure my room is in order and the SmartBoard works, as I teach a mini lesson on writing great leads for their personal narratives, I need to remember that the what I am teaching is not the most important thing in the classroom--although it might be the easiest thing to observe and evaluate.

These are

 

Save Our Schools

I found the link for this speech as I was reading through my Twitter feed last night. Matt Damon spoke at the Save Our Schools march in Washington.  It is uplifting and will make you feel good about being a teacher.  Just thought I would share the text of it here. We all need to feel good about our profession at the time of year!

Just Read

"One third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
Forty two percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
Eighty percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year."  Jenkins Group

Our classroom library

Yesterday I posted that quote and a link to a blog post entitled "Time to Get Angry About Reading" on my Facebook page. It sparked a lot of response--mostly surprise by adult friends that people aren't reading ( I seem to surround myself with people who do read). But a former student posted that he probably won't read after his Freshman HONORS program because there are too many other things for him to do. Whatever reading he will do will be interesting things he finds on the internet.  YIKES!

But I know what I think is the cause of the problem. We teach reading to death. We kill whatever spark there is in a student by analyzing and comparing and talking and writing and lit circling and assigning... we take the joy out of reading.  I HATED that as a student. Teachers had terrible taste in what books students should read.  Teachers were slow to embrace Young Adult literature.Teachers thought if it was old, it must be good.  I rebelled. I read the Cliff Notes and whatever I could find on the public library's shelves.

I LOVED the public library. Especially after we moved to the other side of town and the BIG library was within walking distance of our house--important when you had a mom who didn't drive.  I loved the smell of dust and old stories as I walked through the front door. I loved climbing the stairs to the fiction section and losing myself in the stacks.  I loved that no one told me what to read. I could spend hours there.

I made friends with Scarlett and Francie Nolan. Jane Eyre and Scout.  Jo March and Rebecca.  And hundreds more.  My parents were readers and they didn't tell me I wasn't old enough for a book, they just let me read what I wanted.  And today, I am a reader--but I still hate to be told what to read (which is why I sometimes struggle with our book club books).

So, when given the freedom, I teach that way.  I rebell against the teaching of class novels and lit circles.  I encourage students to pick out their own books. I tell non-readers that I will find them at least one book that they will look back on and say, "Yea, that book didn't suck."  And then I do...

You see, I am a teacher who reads. I read adult books. I read young adult books. I read reviews of books. I talk about the books I am reading. I listen to kids talk about books they like.  I pass them on.

Roomie and I have close to 1000 books in our classroom library. Some the school bought for our second chance reading class, but MANY are ours. And we share... Teachers and students alike come to our room to check out books. Many are kept over the summer because they didn't get finished. We hear "Find me a book I will like" many times throughout the school year. And, we do.

We talk to them and ask them things like, "What do you like to do outside of school?" and "What was the last good book you read?"  I have sent them to sites to find new books. We give them LOTS of choices to look through. We make our book shelves user friendly.

So how do you get people to read? You let them read what they want. I know, you HAVE to teach the novel. But are you teaching the literary parts of the novel or are you teaching that particular novel? All novels have the same parts--let the kids choose what novel. Give students time to read without having to do anything with the book.

In these days of high stakes testing, it is easy to make the excuse that we have to get all our curriculum in. But I believe if we let students read what they want, they will read. And, they will surprise us.

New Roles for Teachers and Students

My Web 2.0 class has been discussing how technology has been changing the way we teach. It is fostering great discussions.  I have felt for a long time that the teacher’s role in the classroom should be to get out of the way. Although that is easier said than done. The first time students went to another student for help with poetry, I thought to myself, "What am I? Chopped Liver?"  And I am a teacher who loves independent learners. I believe teachers should be a guide in students’ learning path, not the driving force. Teachers should be someone to help them navigate their way through problems. Most importantly, teachers should allow students to fail at times.  The greatest inventions came from failure.  Many of our students only look at how many they get right, not how they arrived at the solution. I know in my own learning, those things I learned on my own (making web sites, for example) I felt a great deal of pride and satisfaction in, even if everything wasn’t perfect.

Obviously, a teacher has to manage their classroom and keep control of situations. It doesn’t mean that the teacher does all the work and the students sit back and listen. Students need to be active learners and that means that the teacher needs to step back and let learning happen. Having student mentors or experts in the classroom can be a valuable resource. I have found that pointing out those students who can teach the others something enhances what the students learn. If I teach it, they continually ask questions and want me to solve their problems. If students are teaching and a problem arises, the students take ownership of the solution. Soon, there will be several students all working to figure out the answer. And then, they don’t just tell each other what to do, they show the others. And that, is real learning!

On a side note, I "taught" my class about blogging today. Really, I showed them the Edublogs teacher challenge that got me started. I really stressed working through each challenge and practicing throughout the summer. This way, they will be more comfortable  teaching their students about blogging come fall. What advice would you give these new bloggers?

Web 2.0 Day 1

I'm taking a Web 2.0 class this week. Eight hours a day for four days. After one day, it's kicking my butt. My mind is spinning like a top, and I love it.  Really, when I signed up to take the class, I thought it might be a "throw-away" class. You know, the ones you take that are incredibly easy, don't require much brain power, but get you those credits to renew your license.  I should have known better, though, considering who is teaching the class!

The class is a nice mix of grade levels, abilities, ages, experience teaching and reasons for taking the class ("I need the credit so I can renew my license for the last time" received applause!). It is full of ideas and resources needed to teach students in the 21st century. And full of questions. And full of problems. Some questions and problems we won't be able to solve, but they make for great discussions.

A question/problem posed by an elementary teacher today was how do we justify using these tools when we are in danger of being a school in need of assistance? Shouldn't we focus on teaching reading skills, writing skills, and test taking skills? Admittedly, this teacher does not use a lot of technology in her classroom. By her own admission, she is old school, and it is hard for her to visualize how to use these tools in her room other than "games" for those who finish early.

This is where the varied levels of experience comes in handy--another teacher showed her projects created by third graders in her district. All those "testing" skills, yet students applied them to what they were learning instead of learning them in isolation. And isn't that the point of teaching 21st century skills?

I, however, see too many possibilities and that's why my mind is on overload. My main goal is to create a paperless Creative Writing class. Can I do it?  I have the tools (check out dropbox.com), but can I give up the paper and pen that has traditionally gone with being a writing teacher--or will this be another step on my way to becoming a teacher of writers?

I Am a School Teacher

I read a blog post this morning on The Principal of Change about the importance of school teachers as opposed to classroom teachers. In the post, the author states he believes that classroom teachers are those more concerned with their position and subject matter. I always think of those as the "shut the door and teach" people. They don't worry about the things that happen outside their door. 


School teachers, on the other hand, are "focused on the success of the school as a whole". "School teachers are the ones that see kids outside of their classroom and deal with them in good times and bad.  They never see a student doing something wrong and simply march them down to the principal’s office.  They see, even in mistakes, that an opportunity to talk with a child is an opportunity to build a relationship." (I love the last line)


I am a school teacher.  Sometimes I want to be a classroom teacher. I would love to be able to just shut the door and teach, drag a kid to the office when need be, and not worry about their feelings or if they are having a bad day.  I want to be able to sit in the lounge and gripe about how ineffective those around me are and feel superior in every way.


But, I am a school teacher. I can't watch a student do something wrong and not say anything to them, but I don't hold it against them for the rest of their lives. I don't believe that my class is the most important thing in their lives, because I take the time to get to know them and find out what is the most important thing in their life.  I help students with their homework, even if it isn't for me, because I know they need someone in their life who cares.


I am a school teacher.

Quotes and Jumbled Thoughts

photo © 2011 Humor Blog | more info (via: Wylio)
My mind is a jumble and it's jumbled with thoughts about education. My post yesterday focused on my Second Chance Reading class and my boredom with it.  My roomie and I discussed it this morning--we're just not sure it is the most effective way to help struggling readers. BUT, we agree something needs to be done.

 I'm trying to remember a quote I had posted in my room at one time--to paraphrase, "I can't think of anything I do 180 days a year that I don't do well at..."  Think about that.  If adults aren't good at something, they quit. No one forces them to keep at it. If it's something they have to do, they are mentored--One on one.

Roomie wrote a post about this very thing.  Many students don't function well in large group situations. She does a lot of one on one tutoring since she began teaching Spanish.  Does it always work--nope. Depends on how much the student puts into it. But doesn't the idea of teaching one on one sound grand?

My FaceBook status today:
"Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.  What you gain at one end you lose at the other.  It's like feeding a dog on his own tail.  It won't fatten the dog."  ~Mark Twain


Or it could have been this:
"Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education.  Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization.  We must make our choice; we cannot have both."  ~Abraham Flexner


Budget cuts--is there any school not facing this? It gripes me that anyone with a high school diploma and an axe to grind thinks they know how to "fix" our schools. Come and sit awhile. See the wonderful things that can be done. Want to raise test scores?  Quit cutting budgets--how can I teach kids to read without books? Or teach them to write without paper? Or play "Stars and Stripes Forever"? Or sing the Hallejulah Chorus without directors/teachers? Where will the next Picasso or Katherine Hepburn come from if students never get to experience these things in school?


OK, I'm rambling on much too long. There is no easy solution. I understand that there can't be an unlimited supply of money for education, but wouldn't it be nice?


Last quote:
It'll be a great day when education gets all the money it wants and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy bombers.  ~Author unknown, quoted in You Said a Mouthful, Ronald D. Fuchs, ed.