Tuesday was a pretty good day. Ok, it was AWESOME! Our school got to play host to Rami Even-Esh aka Kosha Dillz. Rami gave 9 - 30 minute workshops with most of the 7th grade. He looked really tired by the end of it...but then gave a 30 minute concert to the kids. He has tons of energy!
The kids seemed to like it and the school has gotten a lot of positive feedback and questions. I'm hoping we can do more stuff like this.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Michelle Rhee
In my humble opinion...most education reformers today are "band-aiders"...the ones that think they can fix the problems of education by putting a band-aid on it, thus "fixing" the problem. These people look at education and say, "well, that's easy, here's what you do....". And viola! It's done!
Michelle Rhee wrote an article in the paper this week. The more I hear about her, the more I'm starting to think that perhaps I should run far away screaming from her brand of reform.
In her article this week she, first makes education seem like a means to an end...just a way to get people educated so they can just get a job. Personally, I believe we do more than that. Teachers don't just know their curriculum. We are the listeners. Kids actually come to us with issues and problems. We help them talk through their thoughts and issues...we sometimes try to make them better people. We understand that these guys are just pegs we're trying to put into holes...they are complicated and have issues just like any other human being.
My second issue with the article and the biggest issue, is with her belief that teachers should be paid based on students' performance on tests. I don't know how I can get people to understand how ridiculous I think this idea is. I still have not yet found a universal analogy that helps everyone understand this idea...so I just stick with one from the past. "Why hello, Doctor So-and-so! It's so nice to see you. We called you in today to let you know that as of next year, we will be basing your pay on how many of your patients have above average teeth (or blood sugars, or cholesterol or blood pressure). Have a wonderful day!" I'm sure the that medical profession will be happy to just turn over their pay raises to their patients.
My final issue with Ms. Rhee is her belief that charter schools are the end all be all. Studies are beginning to come out about how well charters are doing. For the most part, their outcomes are no different from the public schools. I'm sure that there are some exceptions to this...but most of the testing scores aren't any different and it seems that these are supposed to be the "savior" of the educational system. To me...they're just more expensive.
I'm still waiting to hear something coming from reformers that makes me sit up and take notice...not just shake my head and think, "here comes another one"!
Michelle Rhee wrote an article in the paper this week. The more I hear about her, the more I'm starting to think that perhaps I should run far away screaming from her brand of reform.
In her article this week she, first makes education seem like a means to an end...just a way to get people educated so they can just get a job. Personally, I believe we do more than that. Teachers don't just know their curriculum. We are the listeners. Kids actually come to us with issues and problems. We help them talk through their thoughts and issues...we sometimes try to make them better people. We understand that these guys are just pegs we're trying to put into holes...they are complicated and have issues just like any other human being.
My second issue with the article and the biggest issue, is with her belief that teachers should be paid based on students' performance on tests. I don't know how I can get people to understand how ridiculous I think this idea is. I still have not yet found a universal analogy that helps everyone understand this idea...so I just stick with one from the past. "Why hello, Doctor So-and-so! It's so nice to see you. We called you in today to let you know that as of next year, we will be basing your pay on how many of your patients have above average teeth (or blood sugars, or cholesterol or blood pressure). Have a wonderful day!" I'm sure the that medical profession will be happy to just turn over their pay raises to their patients.
My final issue with Ms. Rhee is her belief that charter schools are the end all be all. Studies are beginning to come out about how well charters are doing. For the most part, their outcomes are no different from the public schools. I'm sure that there are some exceptions to this...but most of the testing scores aren't any different and it seems that these are supposed to be the "savior" of the educational system. To me...they're just more expensive.
I'm still waiting to hear something coming from reformers that makes me sit up and take notice...not just shake my head and think, "here comes another one"!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
YAY!
So - our new unit is in full swing. We've got kids rotating through all four of us and we're working with ALL the kids. I've been really happy to meet the entire 7th grade and find out new things about all of these kids. We still have some things to work out and hopefully next year, it'll be even better when we do this.
Right now we have some good things coming through the building and school. From January 17th to the 30th, we are hosting a Holocaust exhibit addressing the group of Jehovah's Witnesses and their persecution in Nazi Germany. It's a cool panel exhibit and we may even have the capability to skype with one of the people the exhibit talks about. I've been able to get some publicity for this and have been really happy with the response from the media. I even had my 15 seconds of fame by being interviewed on tv.
We've had a student panel come in and talk to the students so these guys could practice interviewing skills. All of the panel were former students that had gone to Meredith and Hoover. The kids liked this because they could relate somewhat.
We just recently - this week - had two people (Adam and Mary) come in from our city paper, the Des Moines Register. The two journalists spoke about how to write a good feature story - leads, hooks, etc. The kids got to hear how these guys come up with stories and why they chose the career they did.
Next Tuesday - the 24th - we have another person coming in. Rami Even-Esh is a Jewish rapper and hip hop artist. He's going to work with the kids in 30 minute workshops and then do an assembly. We were even asked by another school if they could send some students and teachers to see what is going on.
I'm so excited about all the stuff we're doing together as a Literacy team. I've been really appreciative that I work with such a group of creative people. Yea, I'm pretty lucky.
Right now we have some good things coming through the building and school. From January 17th to the 30th, we are hosting a Holocaust exhibit addressing the group of Jehovah's Witnesses and their persecution in Nazi Germany. It's a cool panel exhibit and we may even have the capability to skype with one of the people the exhibit talks about. I've been able to get some publicity for this and have been really happy with the response from the media. I even had my 15 seconds of fame by being interviewed on tv.
We've had a student panel come in and talk to the students so these guys could practice interviewing skills. All of the panel were former students that had gone to Meredith and Hoover. The kids liked this because they could relate somewhat.
We just recently - this week - had two people (Adam and Mary) come in from our city paper, the Des Moines Register. The two journalists spoke about how to write a good feature story - leads, hooks, etc. The kids got to hear how these guys come up with stories and why they chose the career they did.
Next Tuesday - the 24th - we have another person coming in. Rami Even-Esh is a Jewish rapper and hip hop artist. He's going to work with the kids in 30 minute workshops and then do an assembly. We were even asked by another school if they could send some students and teachers to see what is going on.
I'm so excited about all the stuff we're doing together as a Literacy team. I've been really appreciative that I work with such a group of creative people. Yea, I'm pretty lucky.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
oh boy....
So, I'm still wondering if our governor is actually listening to us or just doing a really good job pretending....I believe it's the second option. He's really not doing a great job of that though...kind of reminiscent of his prior term as governor. On Friday he dropped his plan of how he is going to help the state of Iowa become better in education. There's a lot to this plan...so, I won't cover it all, but just a few things that popped out to me.
First, the teacher training program. I actually find this to be the best part of what he's talking about. It's a way to really train those that want to be teachers to the best of our ability. My one question is how to fund a year of student teaching. If we could set it up like an internship - students could possibly afford the full year it would take to do the student teaching. Otherwise having the state possibly fund half of it could also be a possibility. Now for the weird part. After talking about how there needs to be a rigorous teacher training program, he mentions an alternative certification program. This seems to be the exact opposite of what he's proposing. Why make it easier to obtain the certification if we're wanting strong teacher candidates....?
The second part that I thought was interesting was the Educator Evaluation. I think it would be interesting to see how the "scaled" evaluation could be used instead of the "meets/doesn't meet" evaluation that the administrators administer now. But it's going to come down to the administrator. As it stands right now, I'm still not sure if all administrators are correctly using the evaluation process. When I was being trained on this for my Administrator Masters, I thought it was pretty clear. But we have those administrators that either "go after" the staff or don't seem to have clue one on how to correctly use the process to help their teachers.
The last piece was the "Value added Measures"...isn't that just a fancy way of saying Assessment Based Teacher Pay? I still wish people would understand exactly what this is. It's like saying to a dentist, "your pay next year will depend on the cavities of your patients". I wonder if dentists would go for that.... Sometimes I wish people would realize that I don't sit in my room just drinking coffee and hoping that the kids will just get their education out of thin air. Also, and maybe this is just me, but I don't really think that Terry's daughter, who teaches as well, said, "you know what dad, that's a great idea! Make my salary based on how well my students do on a test!" If she did, we need to forcibly transfer her to Des Moines Public Schools and she if she still believes the same way after a few years here.
This year I am again getting frustrated when giving a pretest to see what skills the students have before we start a unit - I have a student write on his test..."this is just a pretest....I don't care". It tells me that we're testing these kids a lot. They're frustrated and not really wanting another test to tell them that they can't do something.
During this unit my literacy team is trying something different....I talked about it in the post before this one. I can say our first week was kind of rough...but I think it's going to work out. The students like being able to move around, seeing how other teachers teach and having time to get up a couple of times in a 90 minute block of sitting. I think when we're done and have the projects done - it'll be very cool. I'm still very optimistic about how this unit will turn out and our interactions with the kids and each other. I'm trying to also be optimistic about the educational system in general - but the more we try to fix it...the more tired I get.
Anyway, I need to go back to my cushy job...the one where I've been grading papers for the last hour, only to take a break to blog. I still have about 2 more hours left....
First, the teacher training program. I actually find this to be the best part of what he's talking about. It's a way to really train those that want to be teachers to the best of our ability. My one question is how to fund a year of student teaching. If we could set it up like an internship - students could possibly afford the full year it would take to do the student teaching. Otherwise having the state possibly fund half of it could also be a possibility. Now for the weird part. After talking about how there needs to be a rigorous teacher training program, he mentions an alternative certification program. This seems to be the exact opposite of what he's proposing. Why make it easier to obtain the certification if we're wanting strong teacher candidates....?
The second part that I thought was interesting was the Educator Evaluation. I think it would be interesting to see how the "scaled" evaluation could be used instead of the "meets/doesn't meet" evaluation that the administrators administer now. But it's going to come down to the administrator. As it stands right now, I'm still not sure if all administrators are correctly using the evaluation process. When I was being trained on this for my Administrator Masters, I thought it was pretty clear. But we have those administrators that either "go after" the staff or don't seem to have clue one on how to correctly use the process to help their teachers.
The last piece was the "Value added Measures"...isn't that just a fancy way of saying Assessment Based Teacher Pay? I still wish people would understand exactly what this is. It's like saying to a dentist, "your pay next year will depend on the cavities of your patients". I wonder if dentists would go for that.... Sometimes I wish people would realize that I don't sit in my room just drinking coffee and hoping that the kids will just get their education out of thin air. Also, and maybe this is just me, but I don't really think that Terry's daughter, who teaches as well, said, "you know what dad, that's a great idea! Make my salary based on how well my students do on a test!" If she did, we need to forcibly transfer her to Des Moines Public Schools and she if she still believes the same way after a few years here.
This year I am again getting frustrated when giving a pretest to see what skills the students have before we start a unit - I have a student write on his test..."this is just a pretest....I don't care". It tells me that we're testing these kids a lot. They're frustrated and not really wanting another test to tell them that they can't do something.
During this unit my literacy team is trying something different....I talked about it in the post before this one. I can say our first week was kind of rough...but I think it's going to work out. The students like being able to move around, seeing how other teachers teach and having time to get up a couple of times in a 90 minute block of sitting. I think when we're done and have the projects done - it'll be very cool. I'm still very optimistic about how this unit will turn out and our interactions with the kids and each other. I'm trying to also be optimistic about the educational system in general - but the more we try to fix it...the more tired I get.
Anyway, I need to go back to my cushy job...the one where I've been grading papers for the last hour, only to take a break to blog. I still have about 2 more hours left....
Sunday, January 1, 2012
new year...
Tomorrow we're starting a new year. We're also starting a new unit in Literacy. In this unit we're all finally working together as a Literacy team. This has been a want/need of mine for most of the year. The actually feeling of all being on the same page, working together and even grading together.
Each of us gets to play to a strength of ours. One of us is doing the writing part of the unit. Alicia is a whiz at using writing frames. She differentiates so well when she's teaching writing. I love what she can do. She's able to push me in different ways when we're teaching writing. She and Justean will be such a great team together.
Terry will be working with fluency and vocabulary. He has a such a big vocabulary himself that I believe he'll do a great job working with the kids here. Because he's such a wealth of knowledge, I've really wanted him to really work with us in doing rotations and collaboration.
I will be working with the comprehension of the stories...in some way. I have already gotten our novel unit done...questions and all. I'm still working on projects that these guys can do that we can display and show what they know and how they're doing.
I'm really excited about this year. The first two months should be really good. I'm hoping that at the end of the week or the month, I can report back and say some truly positive things.
Each of us gets to play to a strength of ours. One of us is doing the writing part of the unit. Alicia is a whiz at using writing frames. She differentiates so well when she's teaching writing. I love what she can do. She's able to push me in different ways when we're teaching writing. She and Justean will be such a great team together.
Terry will be working with fluency and vocabulary. He has a such a big vocabulary himself that I believe he'll do a great job working with the kids here. Because he's such a wealth of knowledge, I've really wanted him to really work with us in doing rotations and collaboration.
I will be working with the comprehension of the stories...in some way. I have already gotten our novel unit done...questions and all. I'm still working on projects that these guys can do that we can display and show what they know and how they're doing.
I'm really excited about this year. The first two months should be really good. I'm hoping that at the end of the week or the month, I can report back and say some truly positive things.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
political gobbleygook...
In light of all the things that are going on in Iowa today with the GOP and the press descending into my neighborhood coffee shop and the fact that I spent an hour listening to the governor this morning, I decided I needed to blog...something more thought provoking than the past two blogs which was pretty much a complaining session.
So this morning I went down to listen to the governor and Deputy governor at a townhall meeting to discuss the governor's new Blueprint to "fix" education in the state of Iowa. The first 15 minutes was spent listening to introductions, some words from both the governor and our deputy and then came the "feel good" video. Branstad spoke about the Educational Summit this summer, his job in his first term, his job as president of DMU, and how his daughter was a teacher and how he knew exactly where teachers were coming from...then questions were asked from the public.
All the while I listened to this, I wanted to hear something that would make me feel alright...something that would make me think, "maybe this isn't so bad". I found one....the blueprint will do one thing that is a really great idea. It will give education majors more hands-on time in classrooms. It will give them time with a master teacher to really see what it's like to teach and the type of students they will be teaching. I love this idea. I'm totally on board. I think this will truly weed out those people that maybe just shouldn't go into the profession. I'm hoping that it won't discourage those that are...but I believe it will make these people better teachers.
The rest of the it....ugh. Other countries were spoken about and how they are doing much better than we are...I wonder if people understand that students in many of these countries are tracked. Students take a test as they get older to figure out if they should even go into university or not. We don't do that here...I mean formally. We don't walk up and crush the idea of college to anyone - but educators do understand that everyone isn't headed to higher education.
When questioned about what the blueprint will do for URBAN families...his response was that there were programs...United Way, in fact, that were in place. Yeah, United Way is there...in fact I give part of my check to continue these services...but it's there for people that actually use them. Many families don't....again, what do we do about these families? Most of what he's proposing sounds really good....but not for urban families.
I was not surprised to hear that he had planned several of these townhall meetings....but NOT in Des Moines. He had to be almost petitioned to have one in our state capitol with those teachers who understand that this blueprint doesn't fully help the neediest of our state's students. In fact today when families were brought up...his response was that they were meeting with parents....IN WAUKEE. What does that for our low income families...? They're NOT in Waukee!!!
Another thought, is in reference to what I wanted to do...which was to invite our governor and deputy and anyone else to come into my room...especially Legislators....it was offered by someone in the crowd. The response...we've been in classrooms... For me...I mean go into an urban classroom and not one in the suburbs. Go to schools that are struggling...with behavior, test scores, and have populations that we're talking about. Go to talk with urban families and find out what low economics means for them...because I'll bet you it means something COMPLETELY different to them than a rural or suburban community.
Finally - it was requested that teachers need to start being respected. Real respect. If we're talking about other countries, if you say that you're a teacher, you garner respect. The teacher asked for it...in this blueprint, in public, by the governor, by the Legislators....just in general. I agree. I'm not sure when educators became the dumping ground for the problems of education, but I'm done with that. Education should be everyone's responsibility, not just those that are associated with the field.
As 2012 rolls around and we are inundated with the political junk, I'll be interested how they refer to those in education field and education in general. I hope, in the end, I'll have someone to put my vote towards because I'm not very hopeful right now....
So this morning I went down to listen to the governor and Deputy governor at a townhall meeting to discuss the governor's new Blueprint to "fix" education in the state of Iowa. The first 15 minutes was spent listening to introductions, some words from both the governor and our deputy and then came the "feel good" video. Branstad spoke about the Educational Summit this summer, his job in his first term, his job as president of DMU, and how his daughter was a teacher and how he knew exactly where teachers were coming from...then questions were asked from the public.
All the while I listened to this, I wanted to hear something that would make me feel alright...something that would make me think, "maybe this isn't so bad". I found one....the blueprint will do one thing that is a really great idea. It will give education majors more hands-on time in classrooms. It will give them time with a master teacher to really see what it's like to teach and the type of students they will be teaching. I love this idea. I'm totally on board. I think this will truly weed out those people that maybe just shouldn't go into the profession. I'm hoping that it won't discourage those that are...but I believe it will make these people better teachers.
The rest of the it....ugh. Other countries were spoken about and how they are doing much better than we are...I wonder if people understand that students in many of these countries are tracked. Students take a test as they get older to figure out if they should even go into university or not. We don't do that here...I mean formally. We don't walk up and crush the idea of college to anyone - but educators do understand that everyone isn't headed to higher education.
When questioned about what the blueprint will do for URBAN families...his response was that there were programs...United Way, in fact, that were in place. Yeah, United Way is there...in fact I give part of my check to continue these services...but it's there for people that actually use them. Many families don't....again, what do we do about these families? Most of what he's proposing sounds really good....but not for urban families.
I was not surprised to hear that he had planned several of these townhall meetings....but NOT in Des Moines. He had to be almost petitioned to have one in our state capitol with those teachers who understand that this blueprint doesn't fully help the neediest of our state's students. In fact today when families were brought up...his response was that they were meeting with parents....IN WAUKEE. What does that for our low income families...? They're NOT in Waukee!!!
Another thought, is in reference to what I wanted to do...which was to invite our governor and deputy and anyone else to come into my room...especially Legislators....it was offered by someone in the crowd. The response...we've been in classrooms... For me...I mean go into an urban classroom and not one in the suburbs. Go to schools that are struggling...with behavior, test scores, and have populations that we're talking about. Go to talk with urban families and find out what low economics means for them...because I'll bet you it means something COMPLETELY different to them than a rural or suburban community.
Finally - it was requested that teachers need to start being respected. Real respect. If we're talking about other countries, if you say that you're a teacher, you garner respect. The teacher asked for it...in this blueprint, in public, by the governor, by the Legislators....just in general. I agree. I'm not sure when educators became the dumping ground for the problems of education, but I'm done with that. Education should be everyone's responsibility, not just those that are associated with the field.
As 2012 rolls around and we are inundated with the political junk, I'll be interested how they refer to those in education field and education in general. I hope, in the end, I'll have someone to put my vote towards because I'm not very hopeful right now....
Friday, December 9, 2011
more complaining...
Ok...I can't help it. This has been a really crappy week. It's like the planets were just at the right alignment for things to be bad.
Most of this year I have been arguing with kids about everything. Directions, the rules, homework, their behavior....etc. I have never felt so worn out when it comes to the end of the day or sometimes week. Today was just another day of arguing with middle school kids that they come back into the building once they leave. I haven't been sworn at more than this year or been so disrespected. I've been called names and had the f-bomb used in reference to me. I have been working with my adminstrator to fix the behavior, but we can only do so much. You can only write so many referrals, talk to them individually, talk to them with other adults, etc. before you are mentally and physically done.
Again, I don't say anything on here that I haven't spoken to my adminstrator about. We've had conversations....many! We've agreed to disagree, but it's not getting better. It's still the same thing. This is again, the opportunity where I want to invite our legislatures and our governor into our middle school buildings....I want them to answer questions like, "how do we maintain high test scores when we have to deal with behavior instead of teaching"?
This weekend we have a "townhall meeting" on Saturday. Our governor will be there....I may issue a challenge to him. I want him to turn it down because he's too busy. I want him to dare to do that.
This brings me to my second complaining thing.....TESTING! Today we completed a post assessment to see if the students got anything we did the last 7 weeks. I'm so frustrated. Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if I should be in this profession. Whatever I did the last 7 weeks....our scores don't reflect any of it. Our team worked on certain skills...did mid-testing to check skills...did rotations with all 4 of us teaching a different skill....did exit slips....did spot checking............and I still feel like they didn't get it! What are we doing wrong?! I'm starting to despair that we will never get our students to understand what we're asking them...that they will never understand what we trying to put into their brains....
I'm just so tired this year. I don't know what more I can do. I felt like we were so on...the kids seemed to like how we were delivering the material...we were all on the same page and positively working with each other and the kids.......and now I feel so defeated. What more can I do?
WHAT MORE CAN I DO?
Most of this year I have been arguing with kids about everything. Directions, the rules, homework, their behavior....etc. I have never felt so worn out when it comes to the end of the day or sometimes week. Today was just another day of arguing with middle school kids that they come back into the building once they leave. I haven't been sworn at more than this year or been so disrespected. I've been called names and had the f-bomb used in reference to me. I have been working with my adminstrator to fix the behavior, but we can only do so much. You can only write so many referrals, talk to them individually, talk to them with other adults, etc. before you are mentally and physically done.
Again, I don't say anything on here that I haven't spoken to my adminstrator about. We've had conversations....many! We've agreed to disagree, but it's not getting better. It's still the same thing. This is again, the opportunity where I want to invite our legislatures and our governor into our middle school buildings....I want them to answer questions like, "how do we maintain high test scores when we have to deal with behavior instead of teaching"?
This weekend we have a "townhall meeting" on Saturday. Our governor will be there....I may issue a challenge to him. I want him to turn it down because he's too busy. I want him to dare to do that.
This brings me to my second complaining thing.....TESTING! Today we completed a post assessment to see if the students got anything we did the last 7 weeks. I'm so frustrated. Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if I should be in this profession. Whatever I did the last 7 weeks....our scores don't reflect any of it. Our team worked on certain skills...did mid-testing to check skills...did rotations with all 4 of us teaching a different skill....did exit slips....did spot checking............and I still feel like they didn't get it! What are we doing wrong?! I'm starting to despair that we will never get our students to understand what we're asking them...that they will never understand what we trying to put into their brains....
I'm just so tired this year. I don't know what more I can do. I felt like we were so on...the kids seemed to like how we were delivering the material...we were all on the same page and positively working with each other and the kids.......and now I feel so defeated. What more can I do?
WHAT MORE CAN I DO?
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