Greetings, Loyal Readers!
Summer has begun! So, the schedule will be a bit irregular. My Summer schedule consists of a trip to ACL in Memphis, a vacation to Maine, two weeks at Rusticatio and Pedagogy Rusticatio in West Virginia, and then a trip to San Antonio for Worldcon with Sassafrass at the end of the Summer.
I will have a lot to write about, but not all that much time to write it....So, I will post when I can. Sorry for not having a more defined schedule! However, if I don't post for a bit, I am not dead. :)
Hope you all are having a great start to Summer!
~Emily
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Change
Over Reunion Weekend, I spent much time exploring the campus of my old school and catching up with my classmates. Since we've left, many changes have taken place at the school.
The Leadership changed. When that happens, you know changes are in order, for good or for ill. A new headmaster, who is an alum, came in and made sweeping changes to the Deans, the academics, the college process, and the school design in general.
The "new" headmaster has now been there for seven years. In those years, he has turned the design of the school we knew on its head. Good thing, too. The school we knew was a strange place. The priorities were strange. A disproportionate amount of energy and resources were spent on Athletics, while music and theater struggled. Education, too, was strangely funded and cared for.
For the students, we have had a hard time getting "over" the experiences we had with the Dean of Students that came in our Sophomore year. That had been an extremely unwelcome change...and dealing with her was like dealing with a Dementor--she just sucked the life right out of you and the school in general.
But now? The students are happy! They say hi to you and hold doors--something, I am ashamed to say, we never would have even considered doing. The faculty, too, seem happy. The interior of the school received a much needed update two years ago, and yet, still retains the classic feeling that the Main Building once had.
Good Change at a place like that requires careful, thoughtful people who are invested in the school or the company they work for. You have to change an entire culture, create a community where there was none, and turn a place of low expectations on everyone's part into a place of high expectations.
So how does one do that? The answers are both simple and complex. You don't come in waving your agenda around as the cure-all. You meet the people--the students, the faculty, the staff. You listen to their concerns. You take walks around the campus and become a presence in the life of the school. You reach out to the alumni. Above all, you remember that this is a process and takes a huge amount of work and time and energy. You look at the faculty and the leadership and you may need to make a bunch of difficult decisions about who stays, who goes, and what you want the leadership to look like.
But it all takes me back to a few simple questions: How do you make Good Change happen at a company, school, or in general? What are the steps that make it different from "bad" change? Obviously, these are a bit subjective, so here's an example: One could argue that the INTENTIONS behind No Child Left Behind were good ones. The implementation, however, was poor. What could have made it a good change rather than a bad one? Is there anything?
That's a lot of questions, I know, but I would love your thoughts on it all!
The Leadership changed. When that happens, you know changes are in order, for good or for ill. A new headmaster, who is an alum, came in and made sweeping changes to the Deans, the academics, the college process, and the school design in general.
The "new" headmaster has now been there for seven years. In those years, he has turned the design of the school we knew on its head. Good thing, too. The school we knew was a strange place. The priorities were strange. A disproportionate amount of energy and resources were spent on Athletics, while music and theater struggled. Education, too, was strangely funded and cared for.
For the students, we have had a hard time getting "over" the experiences we had with the Dean of Students that came in our Sophomore year. That had been an extremely unwelcome change...and dealing with her was like dealing with a Dementor--she just sucked the life right out of you and the school in general.
But now? The students are happy! They say hi to you and hold doors--something, I am ashamed to say, we never would have even considered doing. The faculty, too, seem happy. The interior of the school received a much needed update two years ago, and yet, still retains the classic feeling that the Main Building once had.
Good Change at a place like that requires careful, thoughtful people who are invested in the school or the company they work for. You have to change an entire culture, create a community where there was none, and turn a place of low expectations on everyone's part into a place of high expectations.
So how does one do that? The answers are both simple and complex. You don't come in waving your agenda around as the cure-all. You meet the people--the students, the faculty, the staff. You listen to their concerns. You take walks around the campus and become a presence in the life of the school. You reach out to the alumni. Above all, you remember that this is a process and takes a huge amount of work and time and energy. You look at the faculty and the leadership and you may need to make a bunch of difficult decisions about who stays, who goes, and what you want the leadership to look like.
But it all takes me back to a few simple questions: How do you make Good Change happen at a company, school, or in general? What are the steps that make it different from "bad" change? Obviously, these are a bit subjective, so here's an example: One could argue that the INTENTIONS behind No Child Left Behind were good ones. The implementation, however, was poor. What could have made it a good change rather than a bad one? Is there anything?
That's a lot of questions, I know, but I would love your thoughts on it all!
Monday, June 17, 2013
Reunion
This past weekend was my high school reunion. I had a really good time seeing old friends, meeting spouses and babies, and networking with members of my class and older classes. I sang for the retirement party of my old Choir director, who was truly amazing and will be sorely missed.
There were lots of moments that made me think--especially in light of my posts about dress codes and school. Many members of my class hold clothing in high esteem. I realize that clothing is a status symbol and all, and that at reunion you want to look good. I, personally, had spent quite a while picking outfits and making sure I had a dress for each night and that they were the appropriate level of formal. I tried to make sure they were tasteful, while still being fun.
Believe me, I was pretty damn surprised to see one of the women, who has a 4 month old baby, show up wearing a silk dress. Now, to be fair, she looked fantastic in it. I hope I, too, will look that good when my hypothetical baby is 4 months old! However, this woman quickly proved that she was still as spoiled as she always had been, because she was a) surprised and b) ran off crying when her 4 month old baby spit up on her dress.
There are many things I could say about this. I do not have children, but many of my friends do and I babysit for them a lot, so that my friends get breaks. However, I guess what it made me realize, even though I knew this theoretically, is that I think practically, learned to laugh at myself, and don't run away from my problems. This is clearly something that this particular woman never learned to do. She had always struggled with it in high school, and I guess I had always assumed she would grow out of it. I felt badly for her husband, who had not gone to school with us and was a stranger to us and to the culture, left alone with a crying baby, while his wife fled her problems and wept inside.
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at such childish, petty behavior from an adult...I mean, I see it every day. But I try to hope that people will grow up. But this one little incident left me thinking the whole weekend about learning to function as an adult human being in the Real World. We don't do a great job teaching students how to do so.
Instead, we teach them that you can hide from your problems, that it's OK to do something as long as no one sees/finds out, that everything is high stress and high stakes. Instead, the real life skills are that you have to think practically, and that you have to learn to take life with a sense of humor.
I guess, the best place I can take this is to two simple words that adorn the front wall of my classroom: DON'T PANIC. Approach things rationally. So, how do we teach our students and our children and ourselves to do this? What are the steps and lessons that we should teach?
There were lots of moments that made me think--especially in light of my posts about dress codes and school. Many members of my class hold clothing in high esteem. I realize that clothing is a status symbol and all, and that at reunion you want to look good. I, personally, had spent quite a while picking outfits and making sure I had a dress for each night and that they were the appropriate level of formal. I tried to make sure they were tasteful, while still being fun.
Believe me, I was pretty damn surprised to see one of the women, who has a 4 month old baby, show up wearing a silk dress. Now, to be fair, she looked fantastic in it. I hope I, too, will look that good when my hypothetical baby is 4 months old! However, this woman quickly proved that she was still as spoiled as she always had been, because she was a) surprised and b) ran off crying when her 4 month old baby spit up on her dress.
There are many things I could say about this. I do not have children, but many of my friends do and I babysit for them a lot, so that my friends get breaks. However, I guess what it made me realize, even though I knew this theoretically, is that I think practically, learned to laugh at myself, and don't run away from my problems. This is clearly something that this particular woman never learned to do. She had always struggled with it in high school, and I guess I had always assumed she would grow out of it. I felt badly for her husband, who had not gone to school with us and was a stranger to us and to the culture, left alone with a crying baby, while his wife fled her problems and wept inside.
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at such childish, petty behavior from an adult...I mean, I see it every day. But I try to hope that people will grow up. But this one little incident left me thinking the whole weekend about learning to function as an adult human being in the Real World. We don't do a great job teaching students how to do so.
Instead, we teach them that you can hide from your problems, that it's OK to do something as long as no one sees/finds out, that everything is high stress and high stakes. Instead, the real life skills are that you have to think practically, and that you have to learn to take life with a sense of humor.
I guess, the best place I can take this is to two simple words that adorn the front wall of my classroom: DON'T PANIC. Approach things rationally. So, how do we teach our students and our children and ourselves to do this? What are the steps and lessons that we should teach?
Friday, June 14, 2013
Distractions, "HIdden" Messages, and Culture, Part II
Following up on yesterday's post, I want to discuss the many issues these articles and the ensuing discussions raised.
There are SO many issues at play here--there is our Culture, race, gender, class, religion. I want to start with Culture.
As we are probably all aware, the culture for girls and women these days is intensely sexual. Clothing, especially for young women, is becoming increasingly skimpy. We know this. Everything--from makeup to clothing to how young women are taught to act--is incredibly sexual and objectifying.
But we know this already. We have to make a choice of what to DO with it.
Let me start by saying that I went to a school with a strict uniform. I liked it, honestly. It made my life easy. I didn't have to worry about buying "the cool clothes" for school. To be honest, I wasn't even comfortable in those "cool" clothes. I will say that I am, in general, a semi-conservative dresser. I was raised to think about the messages I send with my outward appearance--both by my parents and my 3-8th grade school.
I'll bring the issue of class in here for a minute. The schools I attended through High School were private institutions. My 3rd-8th grade school's imposing a strict uniform leveled the playing field in terms of what one would see of someone's socio-economic status. No one had to know that the girl who sat next to me was on financial aid. No one had to know that the girl who sat on the other side of me was the heiress to a huge fortune. Instead, that outward visible "class" was a non-issue in school. One of my friends commented that this made us ALL more comfortable. No one had to worry about showing off and trying to show others up.
On the other hand, my High School was a different story. We had a dress code, but it was that...not a uniform. It became quickly apparent to me that the nice, quality clothes I had, with moderate length skirts and reasonable v-neck shirts just was not going to do. I did not have "the cool clothes" and I looked "like a grandmother," as one girl notably put it to me. Now, I don't know about you, but My grandmother wouldn't dress like this. This is too young for her.
It also became quite apparent to me that if you were a friend of the Dean or were an extremely attractive girl, the dress code meant nothing. No one asked THOSE girls to cover up. No one asked the athletic boys--the jocks with the muscular arms--to put a shirt on over their "wife beater." No one.
I asked a friend of mine who went to the same school about this issue. She WAS one of Those Pretty Girls. Most of the time, she was reasonably dressed, but I do remember one time that she wore a strapless dress "just to see what would happen." She never got asked to cover up, never got sent to the office, but remembers that "all the male TEACHERS stared at me as I walked down the hall. Not the male students. The Teachers."
So, perhaps we really need to look again at our culture. What are we telling the students? What is with our lack of self control? Why do we expect our students to have it when we don't have it ourselves? And how are we helping our students by "removing temptation," when that temptation won't be removed in the "real world" and in college?
There are SO many issues at play here--there is our Culture, race, gender, class, religion. I want to start with Culture.
As we are probably all aware, the culture for girls and women these days is intensely sexual. Clothing, especially for young women, is becoming increasingly skimpy. We know this. Everything--from makeup to clothing to how young women are taught to act--is incredibly sexual and objectifying.
But we know this already. We have to make a choice of what to DO with it.
Let me start by saying that I went to a school with a strict uniform. I liked it, honestly. It made my life easy. I didn't have to worry about buying "the cool clothes" for school. To be honest, I wasn't even comfortable in those "cool" clothes. I will say that I am, in general, a semi-conservative dresser. I was raised to think about the messages I send with my outward appearance--both by my parents and my 3-8th grade school.
I'll bring the issue of class in here for a minute. The schools I attended through High School were private institutions. My 3rd-8th grade school's imposing a strict uniform leveled the playing field in terms of what one would see of someone's socio-economic status. No one had to know that the girl who sat next to me was on financial aid. No one had to know that the girl who sat on the other side of me was the heiress to a huge fortune. Instead, that outward visible "class" was a non-issue in school. One of my friends commented that this made us ALL more comfortable. No one had to worry about showing off and trying to show others up.
On the other hand, my High School was a different story. We had a dress code, but it was that...not a uniform. It became quickly apparent to me that the nice, quality clothes I had, with moderate length skirts and reasonable v-neck shirts just was not going to do. I did not have "the cool clothes" and I looked "like a grandmother," as one girl notably put it to me. Now, I don't know about you, but My grandmother wouldn't dress like this. This is too young for her.
It also became quite apparent to me that if you were a friend of the Dean or were an extremely attractive girl, the dress code meant nothing. No one asked THOSE girls to cover up. No one asked the athletic boys--the jocks with the muscular arms--to put a shirt on over their "wife beater." No one.
I asked a friend of mine who went to the same school about this issue. She WAS one of Those Pretty Girls. Most of the time, she was reasonably dressed, but I do remember one time that she wore a strapless dress "just to see what would happen." She never got asked to cover up, never got sent to the office, but remembers that "all the male TEACHERS stared at me as I walked down the hall. Not the male students. The Teachers."
So, perhaps we really need to look again at our culture. What are we telling the students? What is with our lack of self control? Why do we expect our students to have it when we don't have it ourselves? And how are we helping our students by "removing temptation," when that temptation won't be removed in the "real world" and in college?
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Distractions, "Hidden" Messages, and Culture
Inspired by a fascinating discussion my friends and I had about These Articles.
I was quite intrigued by the messages of these two articles. As a teacher, we spend a lot of time "enforcing dress codes." It is just something we get asked to do. But what are the messages we are sending when we do so?
I see so many sides of this issue. I have seen girls' clothing, specifically listed in student and parent handbooks as "distractions to other students" and even "distractions to boys." I find it frustrating that these are the reasons given for not wearing certain clothing.
See, I am not in favor of wearing inappropriate clothing to school for EITHER gender. However, I find the reasons often given for not wearing such clothing to be inappropriate. As one of my friends pointed out yesterday, "Everyone needs to learn that clothing is about self presentation. What messages do people send when they wear certain clothes?"
This is the way to pitch dress codes. Not the "distraction" mentality. By adopting the distraction mentality, we are doing everyone a disservice. We are saying that no one has impulse control. We are not even bothering to teach impulse control. We are perpetuating the "she was asking for it by what she was wearing." And that takes me back to thinking about infantilization and false control.
Many years ago, I taught at a private school. There was a piece of the dress code that forbade frayed skirts. There was one day that one of my advises had worn a frayed skirt and she needed to see the Dean about a club she was running. She comes running up to my room during my free period and starts folding up her skirt and pinning it with thumbtacks. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Ohhhh, Ms. L, I need to go see Dean C and I have a frayed skirt." I sighed. "No, J," I told her. "Paper clips. Not thumbtacks. It is less painful and looks like a fashion statement." And lo and behold, it worked.
Why, one might ask, did I knowingly help a student "skirt" (hahaha) the dress code? Because her skirt was the proper length, it wasn't "inappropriate," and seriously, who cares. It was a tasteful skirt with some fringe on it. This takes me down the false control road, but I have already been there, and may go there again tomorrow.
There was a bit in the discussion where a friend of mine said that her school had a dress code "to protect the teachers." While I do kind of see this point, what I see in this is the infantilization of teachers! "Well, they have no self control and students don't have to either!"
So this is a rough sketch of where I might focus some attention for the next few posts. False control, self control, objectification, and the multitude of separate issues contained in this issue (race, class, gender, and more!)
So, friends, what are your thoughts on the articles? Keep the discussion going!
I was quite intrigued by the messages of these two articles. As a teacher, we spend a lot of time "enforcing dress codes." It is just something we get asked to do. But what are the messages we are sending when we do so?
I see so many sides of this issue. I have seen girls' clothing, specifically listed in student and parent handbooks as "distractions to other students" and even "distractions to boys." I find it frustrating that these are the reasons given for not wearing certain clothing.
See, I am not in favor of wearing inappropriate clothing to school for EITHER gender. However, I find the reasons often given for not wearing such clothing to be inappropriate. As one of my friends pointed out yesterday, "Everyone needs to learn that clothing is about self presentation. What messages do people send when they wear certain clothes?"
This is the way to pitch dress codes. Not the "distraction" mentality. By adopting the distraction mentality, we are doing everyone a disservice. We are saying that no one has impulse control. We are not even bothering to teach impulse control. We are perpetuating the "she was asking for it by what she was wearing." And that takes me back to thinking about infantilization and false control.
Many years ago, I taught at a private school. There was a piece of the dress code that forbade frayed skirts. There was one day that one of my advises had worn a frayed skirt and she needed to see the Dean about a club she was running. She comes running up to my room during my free period and starts folding up her skirt and pinning it with thumbtacks. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Ohhhh, Ms. L, I need to go see Dean C and I have a frayed skirt." I sighed. "No, J," I told her. "Paper clips. Not thumbtacks. It is less painful and looks like a fashion statement." And lo and behold, it worked.
Why, one might ask, did I knowingly help a student "skirt" (hahaha) the dress code? Because her skirt was the proper length, it wasn't "inappropriate," and seriously, who cares. It was a tasteful skirt with some fringe on it. This takes me down the false control road, but I have already been there, and may go there again tomorrow.
There was a bit in the discussion where a friend of mine said that her school had a dress code "to protect the teachers." While I do kind of see this point, what I see in this is the infantilization of teachers! "Well, they have no self control and students don't have to either!"
So this is a rough sketch of where I might focus some attention for the next few posts. False control, self control, objectification, and the multitude of separate issues contained in this issue (race, class, gender, and more!)
So, friends, what are your thoughts on the articles? Keep the discussion going!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Appreciation, part 2
Remember that post I wrote about Appreciation?
As the school year wraps up, I come back to that again. See, we have this week, and then finals, and then we're done. Yay summer!
I've been receiving gifts from students and reading the cards. One common line that I see in all of them is something along the lines of, "Thank you so much for being a beacon of sanity in the madness that is this school," or "Thank you for making this year bearable." Yes, these are actual lines from student cards.
I found these cards exciting but also sad. Exciting because I did my job well (yay!!!). Sad because one teacher and one class should not make your school day "bearable." There should be no need to make school "bearable."
Tuesday was also the day that I saw a colleague that I don't normally see. She, a Spanish Teacher, told me that she and another Spanish teacher had a meeting with the Superintendent about Latin. The Superintendent evidently expressed the opinion that SHE thought Foreign languages were important--it was the Assistant Superintendent who didn't like them. My colleague was beside herself. No one in Central Office had appreciated that one of her students had been the highest scorer in Massachusetts on the National Spanish Exam. No one.
My colleague told me that the Central Office Folks are so insincere and unappreciative. Even if you teach Science and Math (the "important" subjects), they don't appreciate you. But Foreign Language, my colleague said, is the ugly stepchild. And yet, we are expected to come into school every day with a sincere smile.
So, I got to thinking: We make the school "bearable" for the students. Who makes it "bearable" for us? Is that our poor Admin's job? How can we make school "bearable" for the students if we aren't appreciated?
As the school year wraps up, I come back to that again. See, we have this week, and then finals, and then we're done. Yay summer!
I've been receiving gifts from students and reading the cards. One common line that I see in all of them is something along the lines of, "Thank you so much for being a beacon of sanity in the madness that is this school," or "Thank you for making this year bearable." Yes, these are actual lines from student cards.
I found these cards exciting but also sad. Exciting because I did my job well (yay!!!). Sad because one teacher and one class should not make your school day "bearable." There should be no need to make school "bearable."
Tuesday was also the day that I saw a colleague that I don't normally see. She, a Spanish Teacher, told me that she and another Spanish teacher had a meeting with the Superintendent about Latin. The Superintendent evidently expressed the opinion that SHE thought Foreign languages were important--it was the Assistant Superintendent who didn't like them. My colleague was beside herself. No one in Central Office had appreciated that one of her students had been the highest scorer in Massachusetts on the National Spanish Exam. No one.
My colleague told me that the Central Office Folks are so insincere and unappreciative. Even if you teach Science and Math (the "important" subjects), they don't appreciate you. But Foreign Language, my colleague said, is the ugly stepchild. And yet, we are expected to come into school every day with a sincere smile.
So, I got to thinking: We make the school "bearable" for the students. Who makes it "bearable" for us? Is that our poor Admin's job? How can we make school "bearable" for the students if we aren't appreciated?
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Winning and Losing
I had a conversation with a friend this weekend about winning and losing. He commented to me that he had spent most of his life trying not to lose rather than trying to win. There is, obviously, a fundamental difference between these two. So I started thinking about the various games that we play each day--the game of work, the game of school, the game of life.
These days, we all spend time trying not to lose. This seems to show one of two sides of people. It can breed in some a competitive side that people often call "playing to win," but it isn't. It's trying to screw others over so that YOU don't lose. The other side of trying not to lose is giving up so much, because "you're going to lose anyway."
Trying to win is an interesting concept. People define it in many ways. Many think that eliminating all competition is winning. They will do it by whatever means necessary! If it means tattling, they will tattle. If it means screwing others over, they will. If it means putting on a nice face and feigning politeness, they'll do that too. Anything. Literally.
But the way I look at it, winning may mean eliminating the competition. But I see it as eliminating the competition by altruism and collaboration rather than by screwing others over, or just trying to be "the best." See, true winning is done by honest means, not by witholding the notes your classmate asked for, because they were sick that day, just so that you can score higher on the upcoming test. True winning is done by learning from your mistakes, so that you don't make the same mistake twice. True winning is collaborating with your competitors, so that together, you all bring a piece to the puzzle and build the best thing possible.
Schools these days don't breed that. SURE, we talk about collaboration, but do we do it? No. Teachers don't collaborate (Latin and History could do something together...Latin and Science....etc...), and we don't encourage it among our students either. As long as they are getting The Grades, we don't care.
The paradigm IS shifting though, especially among newer teachers. We are beginning to encourage true winning now--building community and sharing and collaboration. What have you done to encourage this? What steps can we take to keep encouraging true winning, rather than fear of losing? How can we shift the paradigm to playing to win rather than trying not to lose?
These days, we all spend time trying not to lose. This seems to show one of two sides of people. It can breed in some a competitive side that people often call "playing to win," but it isn't. It's trying to screw others over so that YOU don't lose. The other side of trying not to lose is giving up so much, because "you're going to lose anyway."
Trying to win is an interesting concept. People define it in many ways. Many think that eliminating all competition is winning. They will do it by whatever means necessary! If it means tattling, they will tattle. If it means screwing others over, they will. If it means putting on a nice face and feigning politeness, they'll do that too. Anything. Literally.
But the way I look at it, winning may mean eliminating the competition. But I see it as eliminating the competition by altruism and collaboration rather than by screwing others over, or just trying to be "the best." See, true winning is done by honest means, not by witholding the notes your classmate asked for, because they were sick that day, just so that you can score higher on the upcoming test. True winning is done by learning from your mistakes, so that you don't make the same mistake twice. True winning is collaborating with your competitors, so that together, you all bring a piece to the puzzle and build the best thing possible.
Schools these days don't breed that. SURE, we talk about collaboration, but do we do it? No. Teachers don't collaborate (Latin and History could do something together...Latin and Science....etc...), and we don't encourage it among our students either. As long as they are getting The Grades, we don't care.
The paradigm IS shifting though, especially among newer teachers. We are beginning to encourage true winning now--building community and sharing and collaboration. What have you done to encourage this? What steps can we take to keep encouraging true winning, rather than fear of losing? How can we shift the paradigm to playing to win rather than trying not to lose?
Monday, June 10, 2013
To Be Rather Than To Seem
On Thursday Morning, I was chatting with C, my assistant principal. She mentioned that she had to go do some walkthrough observations. I nodded knowingly. "Don't worry," she said. "I won't bother you. Your students are always on task, even when they aren't."
I found that statement interesting. "How so?" I asked. C didn't hesitate. "They are always having discussions related to what they are doing, and they are always listening to each other and learning from each other. They help each other, they talk each other through issues, and they make sure that their groups understand. In another class, that might be shut down as 'needless chatter' but, as I said in your evaluation, you encourage related conversations."
This, to me, was interesting, but not surprising. Too many of my students come to me from classes where they are chastised for asking a question, for helping a friend, for turning a lecture into a discussion. Let's be fair here, even I would put an end to my students chatting, say, about their weekend plans, and sometimes they do need that direction. But that is why listening to the conversations happening in your classroom is so important--so that you know when to let the conversations continue and when to end them.
But so many teachers have not learned to listen. Their job is to dispense knowledge and the students' job is to passively absorb their words of wisdom. The students can "look" On Task, with their noses stuck in packets and reading textbooks, but are they really? What are they actually learning--not memorizing so that they can regurgitate it on a test--but learning so that they can use it in the real world?
The great Roman statesman Cicero famously wrote about Cato the Younger the words "esse quam videri," commenting that Cato preferred "to be, rather than to seem." How can we make sure that On Task means that the students are actually working with the material? What can we do to facilitate that transition from looking On Task to being On Task?
I found that statement interesting. "How so?" I asked. C didn't hesitate. "They are always having discussions related to what they are doing, and they are always listening to each other and learning from each other. They help each other, they talk each other through issues, and they make sure that their groups understand. In another class, that might be shut down as 'needless chatter' but, as I said in your evaluation, you encourage related conversations."
This, to me, was interesting, but not surprising. Too many of my students come to me from classes where they are chastised for asking a question, for helping a friend, for turning a lecture into a discussion. Let's be fair here, even I would put an end to my students chatting, say, about their weekend plans, and sometimes they do need that direction. But that is why listening to the conversations happening in your classroom is so important--so that you know when to let the conversations continue and when to end them.
But so many teachers have not learned to listen. Their job is to dispense knowledge and the students' job is to passively absorb their words of wisdom. The students can "look" On Task, with their noses stuck in packets and reading textbooks, but are they really? What are they actually learning--not memorizing so that they can regurgitate it on a test--but learning so that they can use it in the real world?
The great Roman statesman Cicero famously wrote about Cato the Younger the words "esse quam videri," commenting that Cato preferred "to be, rather than to seem." How can we make sure that On Task means that the students are actually working with the material? What can we do to facilitate that transition from looking On Task to being On Task?
Friday, June 7, 2013
One Mistake is OK
Before one of my classes yesterday, I was sitting in on the Mandarin class at my school. "Ms. Y," one of the students asked, "Can I pleeeeease retake the test now?"
Ms. Y looked confused. "K," she replied, "You only made one mistake on the test. You don't need to retake it! One mistake is OK!"
"No it's not," M protested. "I can't believe I messed that up!" He continued to beat himself up for the one tiny mistake he made, resulting in him getting a 98 rather than a 100. Ms. Y refused to argue with him. One mistake was OK, and she was sticking to that. She told me later that she has been working with this student all year on being able to make mistakes.
And this brought me back to Perfection. I have spent a great deal of the year teaching my students that I am not looking for *perfection.* Instead, I am looking for proficiency, and a willingness to learn from their mistakes. I am not looking for the student who can memorize everything and spit it back at me, but the student who knows what questions to ask. That's what I care about.
I want to see their BEST work. Their best work is not Perfect work. Your best can always be better--otherwise 'improvement' would not exist as a word. If you don't get a perfect score, read the comments, ask me the right questions, and learn why. Maybe you'll do better next time. Don't ask me the "Why didn't you give me a 100?" question. Ask me "Why is this incorrect? Did I need to use the subjunctive here?" I'll happily walk you through it!
The advice I gave to my Seniors as they prepared to head to college, was the following: "Take risks. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. When you do make mistakes, learn from them. I know everyone tells you this, but I think, and I hope you do too, that we lived it in this class, and I hope you all can apply it to the college world." My students agreed.
How do we learn that mistakes are OK? What can we do to encourage risk-taking and learning from our mistakes?
Ms. Y looked confused. "K," she replied, "You only made one mistake on the test. You don't need to retake it! One mistake is OK!"
"No it's not," M protested. "I can't believe I messed that up!" He continued to beat himself up for the one tiny mistake he made, resulting in him getting a 98 rather than a 100. Ms. Y refused to argue with him. One mistake was OK, and she was sticking to that. She told me later that she has been working with this student all year on being able to make mistakes.
And this brought me back to Perfection. I have spent a great deal of the year teaching my students that I am not looking for *perfection.* Instead, I am looking for proficiency, and a willingness to learn from their mistakes. I am not looking for the student who can memorize everything and spit it back at me, but the student who knows what questions to ask. That's what I care about.
I want to see their BEST work. Their best work is not Perfect work. Your best can always be better--otherwise 'improvement' would not exist as a word. If you don't get a perfect score, read the comments, ask me the right questions, and learn why. Maybe you'll do better next time. Don't ask me the "Why didn't you give me a 100?" question. Ask me "Why is this incorrect? Did I need to use the subjunctive here?" I'll happily walk you through it!
The advice I gave to my Seniors as they prepared to head to college, was the following: "Take risks. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. When you do make mistakes, learn from them. I know everyone tells you this, but I think, and I hope you do too, that we lived it in this class, and I hope you all can apply it to the college world." My students agreed.
How do we learn that mistakes are OK? What can we do to encourage risk-taking and learning from our mistakes?
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Giving a Damn
Yesterday, I had my "End of year performance evaluation" with my assistant principal. As part of my evaluation, she had read the student evaluations I had had my students complete, both about my class and also about themselves and their participation in my class. She got first crack at them--I hadn't seen them yet. These were evaluations that I had written for them--there are not school wide evaluations.
Anyway, she looked at me with a smile and said, "I am SO glad to know that you give a fuck about your students." Surprised, as anyone would, I think, be at that statement, I simply blinked at her. With a laugh, she produced an evaluation from the top of the pile. Written in the space under the question 'What could Ms. L do to help you out more?' was the following answer: "Nothing. Ms. L is an incredible teacher. She is strict, but she is strict because she gives a fuck about us. Like, she actually cares--none of this "yeah I really care about you all" crap."
In case you are curious, the evaluation was great! I was pretty excited about that.
But that's not the point of this post. I couldn't get the words written by my student out of my head. My assistant principal and I talked a lot about forming bonds with students. But I guess what really got me on this is that this was not the only student who realized that my strict boundaries and rules applied to ALL of us in the class, me included, and it was me showing that I cared about them and wanted them to take safe risks and make good choices. Not only that, but it was not lost on the students how much some other teachers' lying words of caring were untrue. NEVER would I say that I am the only teacher who cares for her students at this school. NEVER. Don't read it that way.
What I am saying is that the way to show students we "give a fuck" about them is to set rules and boundaries and to make sure that they apply to YOU as well as to them. Don't set up the oft-seen "us vs. them" mentality. If you listen to the students, they are more likely to listen to you in return.
How do you show students you care? Did you have a teacher who was really good at showing they cared? How did they show it?
Anyway, she looked at me with a smile and said, "I am SO glad to know that you give a fuck about your students." Surprised, as anyone would, I think, be at that statement, I simply blinked at her. With a laugh, she produced an evaluation from the top of the pile. Written in the space under the question 'What could Ms. L do to help you out more?' was the following answer: "Nothing. Ms. L is an incredible teacher. She is strict, but she is strict because she gives a fuck about us. Like, she actually cares--none of this "yeah I really care about you all" crap."
In case you are curious, the evaluation was great! I was pretty excited about that.
But that's not the point of this post. I couldn't get the words written by my student out of my head. My assistant principal and I talked a lot about forming bonds with students. But I guess what really got me on this is that this was not the only student who realized that my strict boundaries and rules applied to ALL of us in the class, me included, and it was me showing that I cared about them and wanted them to take safe risks and make good choices. Not only that, but it was not lost on the students how much some other teachers' lying words of caring were untrue. NEVER would I say that I am the only teacher who cares for her students at this school. NEVER. Don't read it that way.
What I am saying is that the way to show students we "give a fuck" about them is to set rules and boundaries and to make sure that they apply to YOU as well as to them. Don't set up the oft-seen "us vs. them" mentality. If you listen to the students, they are more likely to listen to you in return.
How do you show students you care? Did you have a teacher who was really good at showing they cared? How did they show it?
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Conversations
Yesterday morning, my students and I had a conversation about gaming. Yes, that really happened. We talked about game design, rules of games, games we played, how we liked them, and why. In case you haven't guessed, I LOVE game design and gaming. But the cool part for me is that I didn't even initiate the discussion. M was just wondering about how to get past something in Bioshock....and she asked J...and off went the conversation.
The students needed to get work done on a project, but they were able to get done what they needed to get done and have an interesting and much needed conversation. They were tired--it is, after all, the end of the year--but somehow, we still managed to both get our work done and have some fun.
Making connections with students is important. Through those "random, disruptive conversations," you learn, if you listen to them and take time to think about them, what makes students tick. Especially now, at a time when EVERYTHING is either a "review packet" or "just one more thing before the final," these conversations are SO important. For one thing, they relieve some tension. For another, they show that I the teacher respect them the students. For another, they show that they the students respect me the teacher enough to HAVE that conversation, while getting their work done at the same time. And they even asked my opinion. For the first few minutes, I had just been listening.
So, I take these conversations and listen to them. I mull them around in my head and get ideas from them--ideas for games for use both in and out of class, for class activities, for ways to engage those students who need it, and even get the whole class engaged in an activity. So, why is it that we squash them?
Because we have "so much to cover," or "if The Powers That Be walk in and we aren't 'learning'." But I find that we all learn more from the conversations.
How do we demonstrate to both the Powers That Be and to our fellow teachers that these conversations are both useful and necessary for real learning?
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Dropping the Ball
This week is a screwy schedule at school. No day is a "normal" whatever-number-day-it-is schedule. We're doing the last round of MCAS testing, and there there are a bunch of assemblies. So times are changing, periods moving, and classes being relocated.
On Monday, P, one of my students who is partially home-schooled and only comes in for two periods of the day, came running in to class 20 minutes late. "I'm so sorry, Magistra," she panted, "They neglected to tell me about the schedule change!"
She was, understandably, peeved. As a new teacher at this school, I understand her frustration. Too often, changes are not communicated well, because "everyone just knows" what they are and will be. So, I find myself having to ask about them. All the time. But I can figure these things out because I have a vague idea of when testing sessions, etc... are. A partially home-schooled student has no idea.
As it turned out, NONE of the students knew of the schedule change. No one had bothered to tell them. Only the teachers knew. And of course, they didn't tell the students. They didn't even bother to POST IT in the hallways!! So, my period 4 students showed up to my class, when they were supposed to be at period 6. And I was left being the person to tell them all of this.
In the case of "serving all students" or "making sure all faculty have the correct information," the School has dropped the ball. Both of these quotes are taken directly out of the information that the school distributes. This is not the first time this has happened. In fact, it has been happening all year to poor P and to me and to other new teachers.
What is the message that we, the new teachers, and students like P have been receiving? This might be a self-evident answer, but as P put it, "Yeah, they don't really care about me. They don't communicate with me or my family at all."
My full-time students were frustrated. "No one tells us anything!" complained M. "Well," J said, "This might be the first time the teachers have known something about actual school operations that we did not know!" (Usually, we teachers don't know about schedule stuff, but if you ask the students, they do!)
So, today, I think about messages once more, specifically in connection with administration and "the powers that be" Dropping the Ball.
How can we create clear communication channels? Who has had an experience similar to this? How did you handle it?
On Monday, P, one of my students who is partially home-schooled and only comes in for two periods of the day, came running in to class 20 minutes late. "I'm so sorry, Magistra," she panted, "They neglected to tell me about the schedule change!"
She was, understandably, peeved. As a new teacher at this school, I understand her frustration. Too often, changes are not communicated well, because "everyone just knows" what they are and will be. So, I find myself having to ask about them. All the time. But I can figure these things out because I have a vague idea of when testing sessions, etc... are. A partially home-schooled student has no idea.
As it turned out, NONE of the students knew of the schedule change. No one had bothered to tell them. Only the teachers knew. And of course, they didn't tell the students. They didn't even bother to POST IT in the hallways!! So, my period 4 students showed up to my class, when they were supposed to be at period 6. And I was left being the person to tell them all of this.
In the case of "serving all students" or "making sure all faculty have the correct information," the School has dropped the ball. Both of these quotes are taken directly out of the information that the school distributes. This is not the first time this has happened. In fact, it has been happening all year to poor P and to me and to other new teachers.
What is the message that we, the new teachers, and students like P have been receiving? This might be a self-evident answer, but as P put it, "Yeah, they don't really care about me. They don't communicate with me or my family at all."
My full-time students were frustrated. "No one tells us anything!" complained M. "Well," J said, "This might be the first time the teachers have known something about actual school operations that we did not know!" (Usually, we teachers don't know about schedule stuff, but if you ask the students, they do!)
So, today, I think about messages once more, specifically in connection with administration and "the powers that be" Dropping the Ball.
How can we create clear communication channels? Who has had an experience similar to this? How did you handle it?
Monday, June 3, 2013
Feeling OLD
On Thursday, I got together for lunch with some former students of mine, now in college. All three of them will be Juniors next year and are Classics majors at three different colleges.
All three of them had the same thing to say: "I didn't learn to think like I needed to for college in High School."
We talked about working with students and learning to think like one would need to for college, for the real world. Two of them are thinking about teaching as a career and the other one is probably headed to Law School. K complained bitterly about how no matter WHERE they went or WHAT they did, they would need to know how to think. They were just expected to know how to think in College, but it was a skill they had never learned.
"Where would we have learned it?" asked G, the only guy in the Lunch Bunch.
L shook her head. "Certainly not at our high school. No one knew how to think there. Be glad you got the hell out of there, Ms. L!"
I took the opportunity to direct the conversation. "What would have helped?" I asked them. "How would you help your students learn to think?"
"Having real discussions," G offered. "Like we're expected to do in college. Not being TOLD what the book means, but actually talking about it."
"Not doing 4 bazillion packets," said L. "Those are the most useless things ever."
"Teachers and Admin being Honest with students. Admin being honest with teachers. Well, Honesty in general," K shared. "Honesty is what puts the trust to share, to think in the right place. I'm always honest with my study group students."
I put this to you, loyal readers, because this makes me feel so old! These are my own former students talking about helping future students and learning from what happened to them as students.
What would you add to their list? How can we teach up and coming generations of students to think?
All three of them had the same thing to say: "I didn't learn to think like I needed to for college in High School."
We talked about working with students and learning to think like one would need to for college, for the real world. Two of them are thinking about teaching as a career and the other one is probably headed to Law School. K complained bitterly about how no matter WHERE they went or WHAT they did, they would need to know how to think. They were just expected to know how to think in College, but it was a skill they had never learned.
"Where would we have learned it?" asked G, the only guy in the Lunch Bunch.
L shook her head. "Certainly not at our high school. No one knew how to think there. Be glad you got the hell out of there, Ms. L!"
I took the opportunity to direct the conversation. "What would have helped?" I asked them. "How would you help your students learn to think?"
"Having real discussions," G offered. "Like we're expected to do in college. Not being TOLD what the book means, but actually talking about it."
"Not doing 4 bazillion packets," said L. "Those are the most useless things ever."
"Teachers and Admin being Honest with students. Admin being honest with teachers. Well, Honesty in general," K shared. "Honesty is what puts the trust to share, to think in the right place. I'm always honest with my study group students."
I put this to you, loyal readers, because this makes me feel so old! These are my own former students talking about helping future students and learning from what happened to them as students.
What would you add to their list? How can we teach up and coming generations of students to think?
Friday, May 31, 2013
Reasons
There are many excellent lines in Sassafrass' song My Brother My Enemy--a song that talks about Loki and Odin's reasons for turning on each other. At the end of the day, it is a song about reasons.
Reasons are OH so important for helping students to understand what they are supposed to do and why they are supposed to do it. They're essential for faculty too. Honestly, if you want someone to do something, the best way to get them to do it is to give them a *real* reason for it.
Today, my remaining students and I were discussing Finals. (Our seniors have already left! Thus, I have a month with my non-seniors!) "Magistra?" asked M, "This is a really bad question, I know, but do we have a final exam?"
I explained that not as such. Their project was their final exam. Their Mythology project shows off their research skills, English writing skills, Latin composition skills, all of their grammar and vocabulary they have learned this year, and their Roman Culture knowledge.
"Yeah, you bet it does. I've had to think more on this project than I ever have," commented J.
So, I explained, the project would be their final assessment. It was important to me, I told them, that their final be meaningful and synthesize the information they learned, not that they vomit information back onto a page.
My students were relieved. K commented, "This has honestly been the most meaningful thing I've done all year." "I'm really glad we did this," A noted. O, tiredly, complained that although he should technically, gradewise, be exempt from his History final, he wasn't. When he had inquired why, his teacher had given him the 'reason' "Because that's the way I've always done it." O said that he would have understood if he had received the reason, "Because I have this meaningful assessment that will really show me what you have learned this year and I could use it to improve how I structure my class." But that was so not the reason. I mean, come on. Couldn't the teacher have said something better than "It's the way I've always done it,"?!?!
Reasons are excellent and useful things. Sadly, we, as a culture, are quite poor at using good, real reasons. Instead, we settle for excuses and 'reasons' that promote fear and lack of true knowledge.
How will we promote the use of true reasons in our classrooms and our daily lives?
Reasons are OH so important for helping students to understand what they are supposed to do and why they are supposed to do it. They're essential for faculty too. Honestly, if you want someone to do something, the best way to get them to do it is to give them a *real* reason for it.
Today, my remaining students and I were discussing Finals. (Our seniors have already left! Thus, I have a month with my non-seniors!) "Magistra?" asked M, "This is a really bad question, I know, but do we have a final exam?"
I explained that not as such. Their project was their final exam. Their Mythology project shows off their research skills, English writing skills, Latin composition skills, all of their grammar and vocabulary they have learned this year, and their Roman Culture knowledge.
"Yeah, you bet it does. I've had to think more on this project than I ever have," commented J.
So, I explained, the project would be their final assessment. It was important to me, I told them, that their final be meaningful and synthesize the information they learned, not that they vomit information back onto a page.
My students were relieved. K commented, "This has honestly been the most meaningful thing I've done all year." "I'm really glad we did this," A noted. O, tiredly, complained that although he should technically, gradewise, be exempt from his History final, he wasn't. When he had inquired why, his teacher had given him the 'reason' "Because that's the way I've always done it." O said that he would have understood if he had received the reason, "Because I have this meaningful assessment that will really show me what you have learned this year and I could use it to improve how I structure my class." But that was so not the reason. I mean, come on. Couldn't the teacher have said something better than "It's the way I've always done it,"?!?!
Reasons are excellent and useful things. Sadly, we, as a culture, are quite poor at using good, real reasons. Instead, we settle for excuses and 'reasons' that promote fear and lack of true knowledge.
How will we promote the use of true reasons in our classrooms and our daily lives?
Thursday, May 30, 2013
An Ass Out Of U and Me
In his post yesterday, Justin addressed just a few of the problems with making assumptions. This is something I run into a lot--from students, colleagues, administrators, members of Sassafrass, and really just people in general.
So, if I haven't mentioned this already, I am the one of the logistics people for Sassafrass. My job is to communicate things very clearly to those outside of Sassafrass what we want and what we need. I need to communicate to those within Sassafrass what those outside of Sassafrass need and want from us. And I get to make things like travel arrangements and hotel reservations for the group as well. It's a bit crazy, right? However, when you do a job like that, you can't make assumptions about anything. No matter how sure you are that people know something, you make sure to say it anyway and be super clear about it.
Problems arise when people don't read what is sent out fully and carefully. I know it is not just my students who have issues reading directions. When I was a student, one of my English teachers would write directions like this on tests: "Please answer the following questions in 2-3 complete sentences. Stand up, turn around 3 times, and sit back down." Then, she would sit at the front of the classroom and watch us. If we did not stand up, turn around 3 times, and sit back down, she took points off.
It drives me CRAZY when teachers get in students faces, make assumptions about why they didn't do work, yell at them for not doing the work or for forgetting to turn something in, and yet, these teachers are the ones who don't turn their grades in, or read the memos fully and carefully, resulting in "forgetting" to cover a testing room, or to remind their students of some important information, that the Office asks teachers to disseminate to students.
Our culture teaches us to make assumptions. It does not teach us to ask questions, to think critically, to think logistically. And yet, when students "dare" to assume something, teachers get in their face for not thinking critically or asking for help.
Why is this? Perhaps we know the answer to this. Perhaps we only know part of the answer. But how will we start to reverse the unspoken rule that it is alright to make assumptions rather than clarifications?
So, if I haven't mentioned this already, I am the one of the logistics people for Sassafrass. My job is to communicate things very clearly to those outside of Sassafrass what we want and what we need. I need to communicate to those within Sassafrass what those outside of Sassafrass need and want from us. And I get to make things like travel arrangements and hotel reservations for the group as well. It's a bit crazy, right? However, when you do a job like that, you can't make assumptions about anything. No matter how sure you are that people know something, you make sure to say it anyway and be super clear about it.
Problems arise when people don't read what is sent out fully and carefully. I know it is not just my students who have issues reading directions. When I was a student, one of my English teachers would write directions like this on tests: "Please answer the following questions in 2-3 complete sentences. Stand up, turn around 3 times, and sit back down." Then, she would sit at the front of the classroom and watch us. If we did not stand up, turn around 3 times, and sit back down, she took points off.
It drives me CRAZY when teachers get in students faces, make assumptions about why they didn't do work, yell at them for not doing the work or for forgetting to turn something in, and yet, these teachers are the ones who don't turn their grades in, or read the memos fully and carefully, resulting in "forgetting" to cover a testing room, or to remind their students of some important information, that the Office asks teachers to disseminate to students.
Our culture teaches us to make assumptions. It does not teach us to ask questions, to think critically, to think logistically. And yet, when students "dare" to assume something, teachers get in their face for not thinking critically or asking for help.
Why is this? Perhaps we know the answer to this. Perhaps we only know part of the answer. But how will we start to reverse the unspoken rule that it is alright to make assumptions rather than clarifications?
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Success!
I have returned from Baltimore! All of the craziness and rehearsals before the trip and the rehearsals and craziness once we got to Balticon PAID OFF. The whole weekend was fantastic, and the performance was, dare I say, epic. The entire team of Sassafrass came together in the most incredible way! This includes our friends and Sassafamily, ran around and got us food, played Pack-Mule, did our makeup, and kept us relatively sane for 4 crazy days at Balticon, and WELL before, as we prepped for everything.
Sundown the Musical was EXTREMELY well received, and I wish I could provide a review for you. However, having been in the musical, I am probably not the best person to ask for a review! Gary, our Incredible Convention Liaison, had promised us that, if we had time for an encore, he would hold up a piece of paper saying so at the end of the Musical. I will never forget the image of the audience giving us a standing ovation, with Gary at the front, applauding wildly, while holding in his mouth a piece of paper with the NASA symbol on it.
I can say that I had people I didn't even know, as well as people that I did, coming up to me and saying how amazing Sundown was and that they wanted to see it again. We got invitations to perform it at other conventions, and the panel we gave about the creation of the musical was PACKED. Standing room only. Success.
The feeling of success after such a long, often difficult and stressful preparation is one of the best feelings ever. Success is not always, or, in this world, often a feeling we get to feel. When we get that feeling, we need to cherish it and remember how we got there--with hard work, persistence, sometimes tears, but never, ever, giving up.
Sundown the Musical was EXTREMELY well received, and I wish I could provide a review for you. However, having been in the musical, I am probably not the best person to ask for a review! Gary, our Incredible Convention Liaison, had promised us that, if we had time for an encore, he would hold up a piece of paper saying so at the end of the Musical. I will never forget the image of the audience giving us a standing ovation, with Gary at the front, applauding wildly, while holding in his mouth a piece of paper with the NASA symbol on it.
I can say that I had people I didn't even know, as well as people that I did, coming up to me and saying how amazing Sundown was and that they wanted to see it again. We got invitations to perform it at other conventions, and the panel we gave about the creation of the musical was PACKED. Standing room only. Success.
The feeling of success after such a long, often difficult and stressful preparation is one of the best feelings ever. Success is not always, or, in this world, often a feeling we get to feel. When we get that feeling, we need to cherish it and remember how we got there--with hard work, persistence, sometimes tears, but never, ever, giving up.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Offline for a few days!
Greetings, Loyal Readers!
I will be offline for a few days (Thursday, May 23 - Tuesday, May 28), as I am traveling to Balticon in Baltimore, MD. My A Cappella Group, Sassafrass, will be performing our epic musical story Sundown, about the death of the Norse God Baldur and the resulting Ragnarok!
It promises to be amazing, and I will tell you all about it when I get back!
Cheers,
~Emily
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The Goat Rodeo
Have you ever had one of those days/weeks/months/years where it is just one thing after another and you just feel like it a) never ends and b) couldn't be controlled if you tried?
If so, Congrats, you know the definition of a Goat Rodeo.
Alright, now, who feels like that sounds like school these days? What about just life in general?
One of my Teacher Friends recently told me that his year "just feels like constant administrative mandates and paperwork. Just give a little more...a little more....a little more...."
And all of a sudden, you feel like the school owns your soul and are you are spending FAR more time doing school work for no extra pay (or an insultingly small amount of extra pay), than you ever imagined.
And we wonder why so many teachers burn out so quickly.
The same is true for our students. Their lives are constant Goat Rodeos, between schoolwork and all the extracurricular activities that they do, sometimes because they enjoy them, sometimes because they "need it to get into college," and sometimes because of both.
How many of us have been there, as students, teachers, or both? (Last year, one of my Teacher Friends kept track of her hours that she spent working on school related tasks. I don't find the results surprising, but I do find them...interesting, especially for those who think that teachers get this amazing, Mythical Summer Break.)
It's time for us to defend ourselves. And yet, the way that The System is organized makes it nigh impossible to do so. So what do we do? Well, the word NO is a powerful one. "No, I'm sorry, I can't serve on that committee." It's even better when you back it up with reasons, but don't feel like you have to. I guess the biggest thing I wish I had known as a First Year Teacher is that it is OK to say no. Admin will often go for new teachers first, since they know that said teachers want to make a good first impression. But it is OK to say "No, I'm really still trying to get my work and my year organized. I really would like to do a good job on my teaching and associated responsibilities this year, and feel that now is not a good time for me to take on yet another commitment. Thank you for understanding."
As you can probably tell, I suck at saying no. I admit that fully. But I am getting better! In order to get everything done, I've had to enlist my skills of making checklists, managing my time, and remembering that I MUST take time for myself.
What skills do you think are necessary to manage the Goat Rodeo? How do we go about TEACHING them to our students and to ourselves, since they do not learn skills like these anymore?
If so, Congrats, you know the definition of a Goat Rodeo.
Alright, now, who feels like that sounds like school these days? What about just life in general?
One of my Teacher Friends recently told me that his year "just feels like constant administrative mandates and paperwork. Just give a little more...a little more....a little more...."
And all of a sudden, you feel like the school owns your soul and are you are spending FAR more time doing school work for no extra pay (or an insultingly small amount of extra pay), than you ever imagined.
And we wonder why so many teachers burn out so quickly.
The same is true for our students. Their lives are constant Goat Rodeos, between schoolwork and all the extracurricular activities that they do, sometimes because they enjoy them, sometimes because they "need it to get into college," and sometimes because of both.
How many of us have been there, as students, teachers, or both? (Last year, one of my Teacher Friends kept track of her hours that she spent working on school related tasks. I don't find the results surprising, but I do find them...interesting, especially for those who think that teachers get this amazing, Mythical Summer Break.)
It's time for us to defend ourselves. And yet, the way that The System is organized makes it nigh impossible to do so. So what do we do? Well, the word NO is a powerful one. "No, I'm sorry, I can't serve on that committee." It's even better when you back it up with reasons, but don't feel like you have to. I guess the biggest thing I wish I had known as a First Year Teacher is that it is OK to say no. Admin will often go for new teachers first, since they know that said teachers want to make a good first impression. But it is OK to say "No, I'm really still trying to get my work and my year organized. I really would like to do a good job on my teaching and associated responsibilities this year, and feel that now is not a good time for me to take on yet another commitment. Thank you for understanding."
As you can probably tell, I suck at saying no. I admit that fully. But I am getting better! In order to get everything done, I've had to enlist my skills of making checklists, managing my time, and remembering that I MUST take time for myself.
What skills do you think are necessary to manage the Goat Rodeo? How do we go about TEACHING them to our students and to ourselves, since they do not learn skills like these anymore?
Monday, May 20, 2013
Keeping It Together
If you're like any other person, you have occasionally had to hold it together when you just wanted to fall apart. You might have been tired, sick, hurting, dealing with family crises, friend drama, whatever.
Whatever it was, you had to keep yourself together and give the appearance of being OK when, inside you are so...well...not.
Like everything else you might learn, this is a skill, for better or worse. Sometimes, it's a coping mechanism for children with rough home lives, and sometimes it's just something that some people are better at than others. Especially these days, when people have so much going on, Keeping It Together is a necessary skill.
There are many pieces that play into it. One is LEARNING strategies to cope. We spend so much time "covering material" in class that we spend no time at all teaching students how to manage their time and their lives. In all honesty and seriousness, we often believe they will get that at home. But most often, they aren't. Quite often, their parents don't even know how to manage their own lives, let alone how to help their children.
The other piece that I, at least, see so little of is PROCESSING with students, and even with other adults. I hear a lot of, "Well, you must make this class a priority." And then another teacher says "NO! MY class is the priority!" Conflicting messages, right?
But no one, not even parents, sadly, discuss the too much work and crazy life stuff that happens in high school, middle school, whenever, with their children. At school, this is actively discouraged, or is stigmatized as "going to the school counselor."
I once had a conversation with a parent, and I mentioned that it would be helpful if she processed some of her son's poor grades with him. I worked to help the student process the grades, but some help from the parents would be appreciated. "Oh," she said, "but we just have so much going on. I just forget to talk with him."
As sad as it sounds, I see and hear this a lot. Parents model the "too self-absorbed and busy to help" attitude all the time. And here we are wondering why Kids These Days are SO self-absorbed and busy!
This is a Cultural Thing. It goes far beyond schools. But what can we do to help students and ourselves learn how to Keep It Together?
Like everything else you might learn, this is a skill, for better or worse. Sometimes, it's a coping mechanism for children with rough home lives, and sometimes it's just something that some people are better at than others. Especially these days, when people have so much going on, Keeping It Together is a necessary skill.
There are many pieces that play into it. One is LEARNING strategies to cope. We spend so much time "covering material" in class that we spend no time at all teaching students how to manage their time and their lives. In all honesty and seriousness, we often believe they will get that at home. But most often, they aren't. Quite often, their parents don't even know how to manage their own lives, let alone how to help their children.
The other piece that I, at least, see so little of is PROCESSING with students, and even with other adults. I hear a lot of, "Well, you must make this class a priority." And then another teacher says "NO! MY class is the priority!" Conflicting messages, right?
But no one, not even parents, sadly, discuss the too much work and crazy life stuff that happens in high school, middle school, whenever, with their children. At school, this is actively discouraged, or is stigmatized as "going to the school counselor."
I once had a conversation with a parent, and I mentioned that it would be helpful if she processed some of her son's poor grades with him. I worked to help the student process the grades, but some help from the parents would be appreciated. "Oh," she said, "but we just have so much going on. I just forget to talk with him."
As sad as it sounds, I see and hear this a lot. Parents model the "too self-absorbed and busy to help" attitude all the time. And here we are wondering why Kids These Days are SO self-absorbed and busy!
This is a Cultural Thing. It goes far beyond schools. But what can we do to help students and ourselves learn how to Keep It Together?
Friday, May 17, 2013
Making it Happen
A few days ago, I was talking with the Official Liaison for Sassafrass at Balticon, and I thanked him for being so good at getting ALL of the logistics together for a 16 person ACapella group, whose members are scattered all over the United States. He said it was a bit crazier than he had had to work with in the past, but he was, if he did say so himself, getting stuff done and making things happen.
Making things happen can be rough. It requires a specific skill set and a lot of persistence. I realized, as I was thinking of all the work he had done for us, that so many of us lack that persistence. We are so conditioned for instant gratification that we aren't willing to work for a long time to make something we want happen. It gets passed off as "just too much work," for students and teachers alike.
On top of this, the arts of writing and discussion, as well as thinking outside the box, are very rarely taught. Thus, between the lack of persistence, the lost arts of writing, discussion, and creative thinking, as well as the taught "sit down, shut up, and listen to the person in control," mentality, making stuff happen is a rare skill.
In order for for us to make things happen, we need to break the cycle. When I was a child, my parents presented everything in our house a choice. We discussed the choices before I made them, and after I made them. Before any of us in the house made a choice, we discussed the Pros and Cons of said choices. My parents taught me how to make a coherent argument for the choice I wanted, and how to argue against the other choices. Sometimes, we needed to make a hybrid between the choices, and that's where the creative and independent thinking came in. Needless to say, I did NOT learn these in school.
Now, as a teacher, I despair for my students, who possess none of these skills. How can we teach these skills? How can we help students learn persistence--that hard work pays off? How can we break the "sit down, shut up, listen to the person in control" mentality? How can we help students learn to make things happen?
Making things happen can be rough. It requires a specific skill set and a lot of persistence. I realized, as I was thinking of all the work he had done for us, that so many of us lack that persistence. We are so conditioned for instant gratification that we aren't willing to work for a long time to make something we want happen. It gets passed off as "just too much work," for students and teachers alike.
On top of this, the arts of writing and discussion, as well as thinking outside the box, are very rarely taught. Thus, between the lack of persistence, the lost arts of writing, discussion, and creative thinking, as well as the taught "sit down, shut up, and listen to the person in control," mentality, making stuff happen is a rare skill.
In order for for us to make things happen, we need to break the cycle. When I was a child, my parents presented everything in our house a choice. We discussed the choices before I made them, and after I made them. Before any of us in the house made a choice, we discussed the Pros and Cons of said choices. My parents taught me how to make a coherent argument for the choice I wanted, and how to argue against the other choices. Sometimes, we needed to make a hybrid between the choices, and that's where the creative and independent thinking came in. Needless to say, I did NOT learn these in school.
Now, as a teacher, I despair for my students, who possess none of these skills. How can we teach these skills? How can we help students learn persistence--that hard work pays off? How can we break the "sit down, shut up, listen to the person in control" mentality? How can we help students learn to make things happen?
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Fear and Terror and Failure
These days, does it seem like everyone is scared of everything? There's always something to be terrified of. I mean, sure, everyone has their little fears, like public speaking, or spiders....you know.
But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking being really, truly terrified of something. Although they would never admit it, people are terrified of flying, or being blown up or shot...really anywhere now.
And Schools are terrified that students might think for themselves. No, they won't admit it. They might not even consciously know it. But it's true. It's just the system we have been raised in.
We all have little fears and big terrors. But what happens when we confront them? Better question, what happens when we DON'T?
I have found that my students do not even consciously recognize their fears. I mean, yes, they are teenagers, filled with all the bravado that that entails. But they don't even know how to think about their fears and how they might go about confronting them. Among these huge terrors is that of failure.
Ok, so failures. Justin has been thinking about Rites Of Passage all this week. To me, one of the big Rites Of Passage is how you handle your first major failure without someone to handle it for you. Often, up through high school, Mommy, Daddy, and Your Teachers deal with a student's failure for them. No one teaches them to learn from it. No one discusses with them how they might go about not having this happen again. Our culture is full of messages that mistakes are bad and horrible and no competent, good person ever, EVER makes them. So our students are scared of them and won't take risks in their learning, for fear that they MAY make a mistake.
The great Roman orator Cicero is famously quoted as saying: "Anyone can make a mistake. Only a fool keeps making the same one." How do we teach students that making mistakes is alright, as long as they learn from them? How do we model learning from our own mistakes and failures? What can we do to encourage learning from mistakes and failures?
But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking being really, truly terrified of something. Although they would never admit it, people are terrified of flying, or being blown up or shot...really anywhere now.
And Schools are terrified that students might think for themselves. No, they won't admit it. They might not even consciously know it. But it's true. It's just the system we have been raised in.
We all have little fears and big terrors. But what happens when we confront them? Better question, what happens when we DON'T?
I have found that my students do not even consciously recognize their fears. I mean, yes, they are teenagers, filled with all the bravado that that entails. But they don't even know how to think about their fears and how they might go about confronting them. Among these huge terrors is that of failure.
Ok, so failures. Justin has been thinking about Rites Of Passage all this week. To me, one of the big Rites Of Passage is how you handle your first major failure without someone to handle it for you. Often, up through high school, Mommy, Daddy, and Your Teachers deal with a student's failure for them. No one teaches them to learn from it. No one discusses with them how they might go about not having this happen again. Our culture is full of messages that mistakes are bad and horrible and no competent, good person ever, EVER makes them. So our students are scared of them and won't take risks in their learning, for fear that they MAY make a mistake.
The great Roman orator Cicero is famously quoted as saying: "Anyone can make a mistake. Only a fool keeps making the same one." How do we teach students that making mistakes is alright, as long as they learn from them? How do we model learning from our own mistakes and failures? What can we do to encourage learning from mistakes and failures?
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
"Preparing For College"
On Monday, I was scheduled to proctor an AP exam in a specific room. Like any proctor, I dutifully carried my basket of AP exams up to the room....only to find a class in there. Taking a test. Evidently, no one had bothered to inform the poor teacher that there would be an AP exam in his room. I felt so badly, but eventually, my wonderful Assistant Principal figured out a way to get the AP exam moved to my room, which was free at that time. *sigh* For all that she was busy, my Assistant Principal had to drop everything to work on this problem, because someone else couldn't have been bothered to inform a teacher about a room change. This had, evidently, been happening all week.
This got me thinking about what I like to call The Goat Rodeo. If you are not familiar with the term, a goat rodeo is a situation that cannot be controlled at any time, no matter how hard you try. Just think, honestly, about trying to lasso a bunch of goats and get them to GO somewhere or DO something specific.
Our lives are busy. Our students' lives are busy. In order to get ANYTHING done, even in a mediocre manner, with so much going on, one MUST have good organization and prioritization skills. And yet, that is the one thing we "don't have time" to teach students. I've often heard teachers say, "Well, they'll learn them as they get more work." No, they won't. Like any skill, this needs to be taught and learned.
I had a conversation recently with my students about planning and logistics. We talked about how, in college, you absolutely must manage your time. There was no one telling you when to do things. YOU are in control of your own learning and your own schedule. "So," asked J, "When do we learn that?" I looked at him, with faux-curiosity. "We hear all of this talk about preparing us for college," J explained. "Yeah, but no one ever teaches us how to actually survive in college!" A added. M, the student-of-the-color-coded-binders, commented that her mom taught her how to color code, which had been a life-saver for her. Finally, one of my seniors had a profound insight. "Look," said C, matter-of-factly, "the hard truth of it is that teachers do everything for us. They treat us like...like perpetual fifth graders! That's how it works at other schools too. We can't bring them with us to college! Why do they do this? It hurts more than it helps." Everyone else agreed vehemently with her.
I do not talk about infantilization with my students. Never have. I do discuss organization. Nevertheless, my students, especially C, hit the nail on the head when they talked with each other about this issue.
When the students can see the problem, identify it, and talk coherently about it, we must address the problem. It is OUR responsibility to teach the children and "prepare them for college." So, maybe we need to go back to our roots and remember what life was like in college, especially our first year! How do we really teach those skills within the confines of the system? And how do we model those skills ourselves?
This got me thinking about what I like to call The Goat Rodeo. If you are not familiar with the term, a goat rodeo is a situation that cannot be controlled at any time, no matter how hard you try. Just think, honestly, about trying to lasso a bunch of goats and get them to GO somewhere or DO something specific.
Our lives are busy. Our students' lives are busy. In order to get ANYTHING done, even in a mediocre manner, with so much going on, one MUST have good organization and prioritization skills. And yet, that is the one thing we "don't have time" to teach students. I've often heard teachers say, "Well, they'll learn them as they get more work." No, they won't. Like any skill, this needs to be taught and learned.
I had a conversation recently with my students about planning and logistics. We talked about how, in college, you absolutely must manage your time. There was no one telling you when to do things. YOU are in control of your own learning and your own schedule. "So," asked J, "When do we learn that?" I looked at him, with faux-curiosity. "We hear all of this talk about preparing us for college," J explained. "Yeah, but no one ever teaches us how to actually survive in college!" A added. M, the student-of-the-color-coded-binders, commented that her mom taught her how to color code, which had been a life-saver for her. Finally, one of my seniors had a profound insight. "Look," said C, matter-of-factly, "the hard truth of it is that teachers do everything for us. They treat us like...like perpetual fifth graders! That's how it works at other schools too. We can't bring them with us to college! Why do they do this? It hurts more than it helps." Everyone else agreed vehemently with her.
I do not talk about infantilization with my students. Never have. I do discuss organization. Nevertheless, my students, especially C, hit the nail on the head when they talked with each other about this issue.
When the students can see the problem, identify it, and talk coherently about it, we must address the problem. It is OUR responsibility to teach the children and "prepare them for college." So, maybe we need to go back to our roots and remember what life was like in college, especially our first year! How do we really teach those skills within the confines of the system? And how do we model those skills ourselves?
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Sending and Receiving Messages
This week is another round of MCAS (the Massachusetts Standardized test), as well as AP exams. Welcome to the Week Of Standardized Testing Squared. I get to proctor MCAS in the morning and APs in the afternoon, with one class of EXTREMELY full, tired, and de-motivated students in between.
I was thinking about the messages that these tests send to students and teachers alike. Once the students finish their exams, they are allowed to do nothing except for stare at the wall. They can't read, eat, draw, or even go to the bathroom. (Well, they can, but it isn't the deep-breath break that I would allow them. They have to be escorted to the bathroom by an attendant, so that "break," too, is a rushed one.)
As proctors, teachers are not allowed to do much either. We used to be able to answer an email or two while we watched our students take MCAS, but now we can't. We have all of this work to do, much of it being busywork and paperwork and grading, especially since we have to get our assessments back to students "in a timely fashion." And we aren't allowed to do any of that. We must stare at the students and stare at the walls. We can't eat either--not even a granola bar.
Ok, so I could go on about other things we can't do, and the students can't do. But what messages are these directives sending? This takes me back to my thoughts about Control, and False Control. The messages that the state and the College Board are sending to students are: "We are big, you are small. We control you. We do NOT trust you. You are infantile." In the case of the College Board, add: "You are a source of revenue and that is all." In the case of teachers, the messages are: "We are big, you are small. We control you. We do NOT trust you. You are infantile." In the case of the College Board, add: "You aren't even a source of revenue, except to our workshops. You just have to keep teaching this course because we have control."
No wonder Students behave in infantile manners! No wonder Teachers do as well! The message they receive is that they ARE untrustworthy babies, so why would they aspire to anything other?
This has been a super cynical post. I know. But it is true, and it is time we faced up to it. As long as we have the factory model, we are stuck with this infantilization of both students and teachers. I think about how, in ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, young men, the ages of my Seniors, would be giving their first political speeches. The students CAN think, and work, and be trustworthy and adult-like, if they are only given the opportunity and the guidance to help them form into young adults and not old toddlers.
So, how do we break this? How do we send the RIGHT messages, like the ancient cultures did? Especially in this culture where WE, the teachers, are treated like babies as well, how do we break out of that pattern and find the trustworthy adult in all of us and our own students?
I was thinking about the messages that these tests send to students and teachers alike. Once the students finish their exams, they are allowed to do nothing except for stare at the wall. They can't read, eat, draw, or even go to the bathroom. (Well, they can, but it isn't the deep-breath break that I would allow them. They have to be escorted to the bathroom by an attendant, so that "break," too, is a rushed one.)
As proctors, teachers are not allowed to do much either. We used to be able to answer an email or two while we watched our students take MCAS, but now we can't. We have all of this work to do, much of it being busywork and paperwork and grading, especially since we have to get our assessments back to students "in a timely fashion." And we aren't allowed to do any of that. We must stare at the students and stare at the walls. We can't eat either--not even a granola bar.
Ok, so I could go on about other things we can't do, and the students can't do. But what messages are these directives sending? This takes me back to my thoughts about Control, and False Control. The messages that the state and the College Board are sending to students are: "We are big, you are small. We control you. We do NOT trust you. You are infantile." In the case of the College Board, add: "You are a source of revenue and that is all." In the case of teachers, the messages are: "We are big, you are small. We control you. We do NOT trust you. You are infantile." In the case of the College Board, add: "You aren't even a source of revenue, except to our workshops. You just have to keep teaching this course because we have control."
No wonder Students behave in infantile manners! No wonder Teachers do as well! The message they receive is that they ARE untrustworthy babies, so why would they aspire to anything other?
This has been a super cynical post. I know. But it is true, and it is time we faced up to it. As long as we have the factory model, we are stuck with this infantilization of both students and teachers. I think about how, in ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, young men, the ages of my Seniors, would be giving their first political speeches. The students CAN think, and work, and be trustworthy and adult-like, if they are only given the opportunity and the guidance to help them form into young adults and not old toddlers.
So, how do we break this? How do we send the RIGHT messages, like the ancient cultures did? Especially in this culture where WE, the teachers, are treated like babies as well, how do we break out of that pattern and find the trustworthy adult in all of us and our own students?
Monday, May 13, 2013
Busy!
You know those weeks when you are pretty sure you won't have a moment to breathe? I have a few of those coming up. Between teaching, life, and Sassafrass at Balticon, for which I still need to get some blocking and lyrics memorized, I am pretty darn busy!!
My students and I are still trying the experiment on staying organized and budgeting time, which really seems to be working for all of us! We check in about it periodically. I encourage my students to share both their successes and their failures, so that we can ALL learn from both.
On Wednesday, a friend of mine asked, "What's your secret to staying chirpy when you have so much going on?" I had no idea what to tell her. Checklists, chocolate, channeling your energy, even when you feel like you have none left.
The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized how important it is to take time for myself, no matter how much I have going on. It is so hard, especially when you feel like you need to get everything done NOW. I used to sing a lot when I needed to relax. Now, since I have to prepare a lot of music, singing has become an item on my work list, though I still enjoy it. Can you still unwind using an item on your work list? I think you can, especially if you space out the tasks. Write, then sing, then write, etc....The tasks use different parts of your brain and make it easier to get through everything. To be honest, I have no idea where I learned these coping strategies.
And I think about this in terms of my students. They are so full, so busy, and have SO much that needs to be done NOW that they have no idea of how to handle it. Ironically, we are so busy "covering material" in class that we have NO time to teach them how to study it and handle all they need to do. As a result, we get less than satisfactory work. Both they know it and we know it, but it may well be the best they can do under the tight time circumstances. How do we make it possible for the students to do their best work? How do we teach them how to cope?
My students and I are still trying the experiment on staying organized and budgeting time, which really seems to be working for all of us! We check in about it periodically. I encourage my students to share both their successes and their failures, so that we can ALL learn from both.
On Wednesday, a friend of mine asked, "What's your secret to staying chirpy when you have so much going on?" I had no idea what to tell her. Checklists, chocolate, channeling your energy, even when you feel like you have none left.
The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized how important it is to take time for myself, no matter how much I have going on. It is so hard, especially when you feel like you need to get everything done NOW. I used to sing a lot when I needed to relax. Now, since I have to prepare a lot of music, singing has become an item on my work list, though I still enjoy it. Can you still unwind using an item on your work list? I think you can, especially if you space out the tasks. Write, then sing, then write, etc....The tasks use different parts of your brain and make it easier to get through everything. To be honest, I have no idea where I learned these coping strategies.
And I think about this in terms of my students. They are so full, so busy, and have SO much that needs to be done NOW that they have no idea of how to handle it. Ironically, we are so busy "covering material" in class that we have NO time to teach them how to study it and handle all they need to do. As a result, we get less than satisfactory work. Both they know it and we know it, but it may well be the best they can do under the tight time circumstances. How do we make it possible for the students to do their best work? How do we teach them how to cope?
Friday, May 10, 2013
Mirror, Mirror
One of the many things I have worked very hard to teach my students is how to think, act, and speak like a Roman would. I hear many things about how Latin is a dead language, and all of that, but my students and I have tried to make it come to life, since, as we have begun to realize, Roman Culture (and Language!) has carried over into the modern world.
Amid all of the teaching of ancient language and culture, we talk about modern language and culture. And we talk a lot about self-presentation, both for Romans and for us today. And I thought about Justin's post from yesterday.
My students and I often talk about how they are presenting themselves--what they mean to do, and what they actually do. Actions vs. Words, right? But, as the students point out to me, neither their words nor their actions matter in other classes. They are, as one of my students put it, "pre-labeled for your convenience."
We were talking, recently, about Cicero, and his self-presentation in two different letters, one to his wife, and another to a colleague. "He sounds like a big dick," commented K. I asked why she felt that way. "I mean, he's like 'yo, I am all important and stuff,' all the time." she replied. Her friend B agreed: "Yeah, he just writes like he owns the senate...and all of Rome."
After some discussion, S, a usually sweet, quiet "hard working" girl, brought up, "Does he 'own Rome' like we 'own the school'?" Confused, K asked her to elaborate. "Well," said S, "Ms P. is always like, 'Why aren't you listening? Do you think you own the school or something?'"
I thought about this, and clearly the rest of her class did too. "It sounds like the Roman Senate was just...glorified high school," observed J. We discussed the importance of being confident in Ancient Rome, and selling yourself. But where does that go over the line from being Confident to being a 'big dick," as K so eloquently put it?
What CAN we learn from those ancient authors and their self-presentation? What happens when we see ourselves in them?
Amid all of the teaching of ancient language and culture, we talk about modern language and culture. And we talk a lot about self-presentation, both for Romans and for us today. And I thought about Justin's post from yesterday.
My students and I often talk about how they are presenting themselves--what they mean to do, and what they actually do. Actions vs. Words, right? But, as the students point out to me, neither their words nor their actions matter in other classes. They are, as one of my students put it, "pre-labeled for your convenience."
We were talking, recently, about Cicero, and his self-presentation in two different letters, one to his wife, and another to a colleague. "He sounds like a big dick," commented K. I asked why she felt that way. "I mean, he's like 'yo, I am all important and stuff,' all the time." she replied. Her friend B agreed: "Yeah, he just writes like he owns the senate...and all of Rome."
After some discussion, S, a usually sweet, quiet "hard working" girl, brought up, "Does he 'own Rome' like we 'own the school'?" Confused, K asked her to elaborate. "Well," said S, "Ms P. is always like, 'Why aren't you listening? Do you think you own the school or something?'"
I thought about this, and clearly the rest of her class did too. "It sounds like the Roman Senate was just...glorified high school," observed J. We discussed the importance of being confident in Ancient Rome, and selling yourself. But where does that go over the line from being Confident to being a 'big dick," as K so eloquently put it?
What CAN we learn from those ancient authors and their self-presentation? What happens when we see ourselves in them?
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Comments
Ahh, 4th quarter warnings.
If you are like me, and many other teachers, grading is your least favourite part of your job. Comments are even worse, right?
How many of you have an electronic grading system where you can only enter canned comments? Most often, these are comments that show up on a sheet with numbers next to them. For example, you type 08 to enter the comment "is a hard worker" or 16 to enter "works hard but struggles."
To me, this exemplifies the factory system. There is NO opportunity to personalize anything in terms of feedback for the students. We were talking about personalization and building community two days ago. Here's the absolute antithesis. Students are getting exactly the same comments. There is NO opportunity for teachers to add comments to help students grow. None at all.
The worst part is that students KNOW that these comments are meaningless. They know that they are entered from a comment sheet. And so, they pay no attention.
These "comments" assign labels, such as "hard worker" or "frequently unprepared." As much as I used to hate spending time writing out paragraphs about my students, I miss being able to give them this feedback. So now, we meet individually and I give them that feedback.
I can't even imagine getting these comments on a report card. Parents have no idea what is going on with their children, and have to "bother" the actual teacher to find out. While these canned comments are supposed to be "timesaving," in reality they end up making much more work on both sides.
So I think about feedback, about factories, about labels, about the untruths Justin talks about. How can we, even constrained by factory "comments," give constructive, meaningful feedback to students? How can we teach them that what they do really matters?
If you are like me, and many other teachers, grading is your least favourite part of your job. Comments are even worse, right?
How many of you have an electronic grading system where you can only enter canned comments? Most often, these are comments that show up on a sheet with numbers next to them. For example, you type 08 to enter the comment "is a hard worker" or 16 to enter "works hard but struggles."
To me, this exemplifies the factory system. There is NO opportunity to personalize anything in terms of feedback for the students. We were talking about personalization and building community two days ago. Here's the absolute antithesis. Students are getting exactly the same comments. There is NO opportunity for teachers to add comments to help students grow. None at all.
The worst part is that students KNOW that these comments are meaningless. They know that they are entered from a comment sheet. And so, they pay no attention.
These "comments" assign labels, such as "hard worker" or "frequently unprepared." As much as I used to hate spending time writing out paragraphs about my students, I miss being able to give them this feedback. So now, we meet individually and I give them that feedback.
I can't even imagine getting these comments on a report card. Parents have no idea what is going on with their children, and have to "bother" the actual teacher to find out. While these canned comments are supposed to be "timesaving," in reality they end up making much more work on both sides.
So I think about feedback, about factories, about labels, about the untruths Justin talks about. How can we, even constrained by factory "comments," give constructive, meaningful feedback to students? How can we teach them that what they do really matters?
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Acta, Verba, and Stercus Tauri
On Tuesday Morning, one of my Spanish teacher colleagues asked "Alright, what is happening with the Latin program?!"
I had to tell her that I had NO idea. After all, no one tells me anything and when I ask, no one seems to have answers. "Right," she replied. "Why would anyone tell you anything. You're just the teacher. And, of course, it's Teacher Appreciation Week."
*sigh*
If you are looking at the title of my post curiously, Acta = actions, Verba = words, and Stercus Tauri = bullshit.
If you looked at the actions vs. the words of my upper level administration, you would come out with Stercus Tauri. Their words say that they appreciate their teachers. Their actions say otherwise.
And this is what my students and colleagues see every day! No WONDER my colleagues are bitter and my students don't understand the difference between Acta and Verba. No wonder my students feel betrayed.
For Teacher Appreciation Week, my Latin 3 / 4 class actually got me a card. They all signed it. On the inside, one of them wrote, "Magistra, we, at least, appreciate you." While I was SO excited to get a card from my students, I was super sad to see that they KNOW that I am not appreciated otherwise. I always make a point of showing them that I appreciate them, too.
And yet, for our last few weeks together, we must keep up the Joyful Community we have built. Now, I think, the need for it is stronger than ever, and the students know it as well as I do. Can we make the Community stronger? Can we all appreciate each other? How do we show it and strengthen it in the last few weeks together?
I had to tell her that I had NO idea. After all, no one tells me anything and when I ask, no one seems to have answers. "Right," she replied. "Why would anyone tell you anything. You're just the teacher. And, of course, it's Teacher Appreciation Week."
*sigh*
If you are looking at the title of my post curiously, Acta = actions, Verba = words, and Stercus Tauri = bullshit.
If you looked at the actions vs. the words of my upper level administration, you would come out with Stercus Tauri. Their words say that they appreciate their teachers. Their actions say otherwise.
And this is what my students and colleagues see every day! No WONDER my colleagues are bitter and my students don't understand the difference between Acta and Verba. No wonder my students feel betrayed.
For Teacher Appreciation Week, my Latin 3 / 4 class actually got me a card. They all signed it. On the inside, one of them wrote, "Magistra, we, at least, appreciate you." While I was SO excited to get a card from my students, I was super sad to see that they KNOW that I am not appreciated otherwise. I always make a point of showing them that I appreciate them, too.
And yet, for our last few weeks together, we must keep up the Joyful Community we have built. Now, I think, the need for it is stronger than ever, and the students know it as well as I do. Can we make the Community stronger? Can we all appreciate each other? How do we show it and strengthen it in the last few weeks together?
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Quickly and Easily
Yesterday, Debbie responded to my post with the following comment:
I love the "by asking them the right questions we are teaching them how to ask the right questions themselves".These days, we are all taught that everything should resolve quickly and easily. Students believe firmly that everything they do should be quick and easy, since that's what they are taught in their other classes. And yet, they are willing to work for HOURS to beat that one video game on the SUPER HARD setting. Why is this?
If you have to repeat something a dozen times then what you are saying or how you are saying it isn't being received in the manner intended. Time to say something different.
So often I hear parents and educators complaining about some problem with kids and they don't look at how they are creating or adding to the problem. Child "A" seeks attention -- ok, so what are you going to do about it? The child needs attention! Child B refuses to do such-and-such. And why is this a problem? What is the underlying issues that need to be resolved before such-and-such will happen?
We are mentors and teachers and yet we forget that, when we come to a problem that doesn't resolve quickly and easily.
Well, Video Games aren't supposed to be EASY! (well, games in general aren't supposed to be easy!) But School, that's so boring and easy. They can just COAST through it.
When my students hit something that doesn't get resolved quickly and easily, I remind them of the video game metaphor. Remember, I tell them, Learning is a quest. Provided with that metaphor, one of my students asked me, earlier this year, "Well, where are the cheat codes?" I reminded him that it was more honorable to complete the quest without the cheat codes. Then, one of my other students interjected, "Well, there are cheat codes, aren't there? We know how to look interested. We know how to write the kind of strange essay that our English Teacher wants..."
Why is it that we spend so long teaching the students that learning, that work, that thinking is easy? It's not that they don't have the attention span, nor is it that they are lazy. It's that the students are receiving the wrong message.
How do we send the RIGHT message? The message that learning, that Thinking does not happen Quickly and Easily. How do we make that happen?
Monday, May 6, 2013
Telling Stories, Sharing Stories
In his post on Friday, Justin asked:
As one of my students often says, "Well, Magistra would say, 'Where would you look to find that answer?' So let's follow that advice." If we ask the right questions and give the right tools to begin the inquiry process, students will begin looking things up on their own--first because they have to, but then because they can. They will start finding new resources, things I have never even heard of but are so utterly cool that they become part of our cannon of resources.
Too often, I see teachers either get frustrated because their students "just aren't getting it quickly enough." Clearly, this means that they are just lazy. No, it means that they need to be taught HOW to do something and WHY to do it. Only then will they "get it."
Teachers get annoyed because their students dare to ask questions when they don't understand something. "They don't know how to research anything!" a colleague recently complained to me. But they are never taught HOW or WHY. Sometimes they may be given resources to start them off, but most of the time, at least in my experience, the students are simply told "research this."
So this takes me back to my How and Why themes. It takes me back to scaffolding, like I have mentioned. How do we guide the formation of a Joyful Community?
"What new stories will we share today? And can you really change a factory into a community garden by sharing stories?"And Debbie, responding to my post on Friday, wrote:
"It's so easy to ask the yes/no, question/answer questions that access one neuron in the brain (you know what I mean) rather than the open-ended, thought-provoking, guiding questions that make connections, getting many, many neural pathways firing and working together." In my personal opinion, yes. Yes, you can change a factory into a community by sharing stories. Sharing stories requires asking the right questions. Getting all the neural pathways firing and working together. The right questions guide the stories until the students are able to ask themselves the right questions. In other words, the right questions begin the shift from Factory to Joyful Community. If we start by asking the right questions to our students, and model our thought process, they will pick up what we ask.
As one of my students often says, "Well, Magistra would say, 'Where would you look to find that answer?' So let's follow that advice." If we ask the right questions and give the right tools to begin the inquiry process, students will begin looking things up on their own--first because they have to, but then because they can. They will start finding new resources, things I have never even heard of but are so utterly cool that they become part of our cannon of resources.
Too often, I see teachers either get frustrated because their students "just aren't getting it quickly enough." Clearly, this means that they are just lazy. No, it means that they need to be taught HOW to do something and WHY to do it. Only then will they "get it."
Teachers get annoyed because their students dare to ask questions when they don't understand something. "They don't know how to research anything!" a colleague recently complained to me. But they are never taught HOW or WHY. Sometimes they may be given resources to start them off, but most of the time, at least in my experience, the students are simply told "research this."
So this takes me back to my How and Why themes. It takes me back to scaffolding, like I have mentioned. How do we guide the formation of a Joyful Community?
Friday, May 3, 2013
Zero to Hero...
Yesterday, I handed National Latin Exam scores and awards back to my students. They, having no idea of what they had received on it, were AMAZED to receive their certificates! I was SO PROUD. Even those who didn't receive certificates were AT the National average. And, as we all realized, they had started with 2 years of catch-up to do. And THIS is what happened. One of my students compared us to Hercules. (Hence the Disney Song Title...)
"Alright," my assistant principal asked me, with a big smile on her face, "how did you do it?"
The answer was easy. I built a community, encouraged students to help each other, laid down the expectations early on, and used Latin composition and scaffolded storytelling, oral and written, to encourage the students to use the new grammar, and mix it in with the history and mythology.
In reality, is this easy? Hell no. It's a ton of work, especially when you are presented with a bunch of students who have had a rough experience with a prior teacher and who are taught in other classes that they can simply coast. They have so much work to catch up on, and they have no confidence. So the first thing I had to do was ask the right questions to get them thinking. We started working with stories, and posing questions to each other about them, first in English, then in Latin. And confidence slowly emerged.
How do you ask the right questions? It was as much of a learning experience for me as it was for them. Lots of experimentation, lots thought, lots of wondering how far we could push ourselves on one story. And at the same time, we had so much grammar to learn...which we managed to embed, mostly, in the stories. And it goes, often, against our own education to think about and ask the right questions.
I was worried about the National Latin Exam, I admit, but the students were super ready, and super confident. And this is what happened.
So how do we ask the right questions? What do we think about to make sure that this happens? Even more importantly, perhaps, how do we make it our own nature to ask these questions, both of our students and of ourselves?
"Alright," my assistant principal asked me, with a big smile on her face, "how did you do it?"
The answer was easy. I built a community, encouraged students to help each other, laid down the expectations early on, and used Latin composition and scaffolded storytelling, oral and written, to encourage the students to use the new grammar, and mix it in with the history and mythology.
In reality, is this easy? Hell no. It's a ton of work, especially when you are presented with a bunch of students who have had a rough experience with a prior teacher and who are taught in other classes that they can simply coast. They have so much work to catch up on, and they have no confidence. So the first thing I had to do was ask the right questions to get them thinking. We started working with stories, and posing questions to each other about them, first in English, then in Latin. And confidence slowly emerged.
How do you ask the right questions? It was as much of a learning experience for me as it was for them. Lots of experimentation, lots thought, lots of wondering how far we could push ourselves on one story. And at the same time, we had so much grammar to learn...which we managed to embed, mostly, in the stories. And it goes, often, against our own education to think about and ask the right questions.
I was worried about the National Latin Exam, I admit, but the students were super ready, and super confident. And this is what happened.
So how do we ask the right questions? What do we think about to make sure that this happens? Even more importantly, perhaps, how do we make it our own nature to ask these questions, both of our students and of ourselves?
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Right Next Steps, Part II
Have you seen Astronaut Chris Hadfield's video about what happens when you wring out a washcloth in space? How about his amazing song in collaboration with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies?
Chris Hadfield is ALWAYS willing to answer questions about space and space travel. All it takes is for you to tweet it at him! (@Cmdr_Hadfield) Sometimes, he'll even make a video for you.
So why do I bring this up? Well, I took the video about the washcloth and showed it to my students. They were amazed. "I never would have thought of that!" one of them said. "Ohhhhh so that's how surface tension works!" another exclaimed. And here I am--their Latin teacher.
THIS is what happens when you encourage curiosity and inquiry. And it's so exciting that there are people out there like Chris Hadfield reaching out to teachers and students and the general public to encourage that inquiry.
What's a scientist? one of my colleagues asks her class on the first day of school. She listens to the responses and then poses her own definition-- "A scientist is a person who never grew out of asking 'Why?'" Like a child. (This is a skill the humanities could seriously benefit from too!!) They were encouraged to figure things out. Or sometimes NOT, and they were just determined to figure it out for themselves. It's a matter of determination and giving students the TOOLS--the Courage-- to confront the situation. It's a matter of confidence.
So, this takes me back to yesterday's post and the one before that. How do we build that confidence? Maybe it starts with the message of the Song that I linked to at the top. It doesn't just start at school--it starts at home. We have no control over our students' home lives, but we can help them at school. So how do we do that anyway, especially when they are getting different messages at home and at school? What can we do to give our students the Confidence and the Courage to inquire? To never stop asking "why?"
Chris Hadfield is ALWAYS willing to answer questions about space and space travel. All it takes is for you to tweet it at him! (@Cmdr_Hadfield) Sometimes, he'll even make a video for you.
So why do I bring this up? Well, I took the video about the washcloth and showed it to my students. They were amazed. "I never would have thought of that!" one of them said. "Ohhhhh so that's how surface tension works!" another exclaimed. And here I am--their Latin teacher.
THIS is what happens when you encourage curiosity and inquiry. And it's so exciting that there are people out there like Chris Hadfield reaching out to teachers and students and the general public to encourage that inquiry.
What's a scientist? one of my colleagues asks her class on the first day of school. She listens to the responses and then poses her own definition-- "A scientist is a person who never grew out of asking 'Why?'" Like a child. (This is a skill the humanities could seriously benefit from too!!) They were encouraged to figure things out. Or sometimes NOT, and they were just determined to figure it out for themselves. It's a matter of determination and giving students the TOOLS--the Courage-- to confront the situation. It's a matter of confidence.
So, this takes me back to yesterday's post and the one before that. How do we build that confidence? Maybe it starts with the message of the Song that I linked to at the top. It doesn't just start at school--it starts at home. We have no control over our students' home lives, but we can help them at school. So how do we do that anyway, especially when they are getting different messages at home and at school? What can we do to give our students the Confidence and the Courage to inquire? To never stop asking "why?"
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
The Right Next Step
Yesterday, in his post, Justin asked:
And Laura, responding to my post yesterday, said:
What if the next step for community builders is to change the mindset, at least in their own classrooms, to the positive focus? To finding that one good piece? This is HARD to do in a factory setting, where your classroom may be the only place where students see this mindset. However, it can be managed, even when you sit on committees. (I often find myself pushing for positives on the committees I sit on!) It is the positive focus that burst the factory walls within my own classroom this year, especially with my Latin II students, so disparate and disconnected, both from the school and from each other.
With that said, how do we change our own outlook to focus on the positives? To find and praise that one good thing, while offering constructive feedback? Is that the Right Next Step for the community builders?
"Is it possible to build learning communities strong and vibrant enough to overwhelm the factory mindset? To burst the confining factory walls in a blaze of the Fire of Truth? If so, sign me up now … but if not, what’s the next right step for community builders?"
And Laura, responding to my post yesterday, said:
" I wonder if teachers don't realize how much impact their criticism has on students - not to mention how grades are just about the worst possible form of feedback ever invented! Again and again in my classes, every semester, year after year, I hear from students who thank me for my classes because it helped me to get over some bad writing experience like the ones you two have described - either in college, or high school, or some experience even farther back in elementary school that derailed them as writers. How do we go so wrong with that as teachers? For me, it's easy - there's always SOMETHING good in a piece of writing that a student does, and even if it is just one aspect of the writing, I focus in on that to praise, while also giving lots of feedback about how to improve things that are not working so well. If teachers are giving their students writing assignments in which they cannot find something to praise in the work that their students do, they should CHANGE THE ASSIGNMENTS. That's what I did when I switched from traditional essay writing to storytelling. Although it is long ago for me now, I can indeed remember reading essays that were completely boring, impersonal, writing with which I could connect as a reader in any meaningful way... and I suspect that is the case for lots of teachers - but they MUST do something about that and change the assignments. What a terrible waste of time it is for both student and teacher alike if they are all just bored and frustrated...!"So, I thought about this. What if the next right step IS to change the assignments? To praise the good things, even if there is only one tiny good thing about something a student does. We are so trained and conditioned to focus on the negative. However, amazing results come to those who focus on the positive!
What if the next step for community builders is to change the mindset, at least in their own classrooms, to the positive focus? To finding that one good piece? This is HARD to do in a factory setting, where your classroom may be the only place where students see this mindset. However, it can be managed, even when you sit on committees. (I often find myself pushing for positives on the committees I sit on!) It is the positive focus that burst the factory walls within my own classroom this year, especially with my Latin II students, so disparate and disconnected, both from the school and from each other.
With that said, how do we change our own outlook to focus on the positives? To find and praise that one good thing, while offering constructive feedback? Is that the Right Next Step for the community builders?
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Feedback and Confidence
When I was a student, I asked one of my English teachers how I got a C+ on an essay, while my friend had gotten an A, even though we had made the same argument and backed it up with quotes from the book, like she had asked us to do. Both of us had followed the assignment exactly. My English teacher shook her head. "But Emily," she told me, "You can't write like Sonali. She's a much better writer than you are. Hence the difference in grades."
Yes, that is a direct quote. No, I never will forget it. Yes, that was the ONLY feedback she would give me on that essay.
That was tenth grade. Many other English teachers, influenced by my tenth grade one (she was the department chair...and a toxic voice in the department), gave me similar feedback. And thus, I have never had any confidence in my own writing. I wasn't too confident before that, but believe me, that quote tore down any last remaining shreds of it!
As such, my love of writing fiction went unused, and anything I did write was a secret between me and my hard drive.
Recently, though, I had an idea for a fiction project, which I bounced off a friend of mine. This time, the feedback I received was: "What a great idea!" We planned it together, and then I took off writing.
And I started thinking: Why would a teacher tear down a student like my English teacher had done? Isn't there a better way to give feedback? And I realized that, the more *constructive* feedback I give my own students, the more confidence they have, even if I'm giving them feedback on something they got wrong.
That's where the idea of constructive feedback comes in. Posing the right questions for the students to answer, guiding them, perhaps giving them an idea of where to look for an answer, rather than giving them the answer.
This seems obvious to me, I guess, and probably to you as well, but giving students the kind of minimal feedback, like my English teacher gave me, breeds lack of confidence, and lack of confidence breeds dependence. I thought about this more as I read Justin's post yesterday. The dependence leads to a complacency--one where students learn that they will *never* be able to do something, so why even try?
I am willing to bet that we have all had an experience with learned helplessness. We've probably learned it at some point as well! How do we break that cycle? What are we going to do with our students, and perhaps ourselves, who have learned this helplessness so well?
Yes, that is a direct quote. No, I never will forget it. Yes, that was the ONLY feedback she would give me on that essay.
That was tenth grade. Many other English teachers, influenced by my tenth grade one (she was the department chair...and a toxic voice in the department), gave me similar feedback. And thus, I have never had any confidence in my own writing. I wasn't too confident before that, but believe me, that quote tore down any last remaining shreds of it!
As such, my love of writing fiction went unused, and anything I did write was a secret between me and my hard drive.
Recently, though, I had an idea for a fiction project, which I bounced off a friend of mine. This time, the feedback I received was: "What a great idea!" We planned it together, and then I took off writing.
And I started thinking: Why would a teacher tear down a student like my English teacher had done? Isn't there a better way to give feedback? And I realized that, the more *constructive* feedback I give my own students, the more confidence they have, even if I'm giving them feedback on something they got wrong.
That's where the idea of constructive feedback comes in. Posing the right questions for the students to answer, guiding them, perhaps giving them an idea of where to look for an answer, rather than giving them the answer.
This seems obvious to me, I guess, and probably to you as well, but giving students the kind of minimal feedback, like my English teacher gave me, breeds lack of confidence, and lack of confidence breeds dependence. I thought about this more as I read Justin's post yesterday. The dependence leads to a complacency--one where students learn that they will *never* be able to do something, so why even try?
I am willing to bet that we have all had an experience with learned helplessness. We've probably learned it at some point as well! How do we break that cycle? What are we going to do with our students, and perhaps ourselves, who have learned this helplessness so well?
Monday, April 29, 2013
Making It Work
On Thursday, I decided to take a trip to the local Trader Joe's. After shopping and loading my groceries into the car, I realized that I could not get out because there were two women fighting over the parking space behind me, blocking my ability to back up. One was in her car, the other, standing in the parking space, telling the other driver that she would have to run over her to get the parking space. After letting them scream (to the point that it was audible to me, in my car, with closed doors and windows), I got out. I informed the ladies that I would be pulling out, if they would move and let me, and that one of them could have the space across from me, and one of them could have the space I was vacating. They stared blankly at me, and then started arguing with each other about which one would be moving. I was dumbfounded. Hadn't I just come up with a solution?! Eventually, I informed them that they were welcome to keep arguing, but could they PLEASE MOVE so I could go home? They finally, grudgingly, obliged me.
Finding solutions isn't always easy. It isn't always a "win-win" situation, and even if it is, it isn't always a "win" to the point that one might want it to be. On Friday, I discussed this situation with one of my classes, who found it to be ridiculous. "A parking space isn't worth your life!" said one of my students.
Fast forward to after class, when my Assistant principal dropped by my room. "What else can you do?" she asked. "I want to see if we can find a way to keep you and at least finish out the Latin program....Can you teach History? What about French?"
I can, indeed, do both of these things. Man, was I glad to see that my school leadership is working on a solution. It's Hard, but they are going to great lengths to save the Latin program. I was amazed to see this happening, rather than them just saying "Oh well...." as many other Admins would have.
In class, I endeavor to teach my students that finding solutions isn't always simple. It requires work, thinking, and moving pieces around to make the correct things happen.
How do we teach both the students and ourselves to FIND the solutions?
Friday, April 26, 2013
Control
A few days ago, one of my friends posted the following quote: "True freedom starts with self-reliance."
And, Justin's post yesterday, especially Debbie's comment, addressed the issue of Control and Community.
Debbie wrote:
"When I first started reading your post I envisioned a work environment with adults...they chat, they joke, they take breaks, they refocus, and in the end they get the job done. Isn't this how most of us work? There are some who want to jump in, do the task and then socialize. There are some who want to socialize and then get to task. We are all different and somehow we make it work. That "somehow" is just another skill that we can teach our students.
And then I read about the giving up and then community falls into place. Perhaps it is the "trying"to control it that prevents it from happening. Perhaps it is when we provide the "somehow" skills and then empower the community members to explore it and prefect it in their own way that things finally fall into place. It is another example of the Fire of Truth, except in this case it isn't about sharing different perspectives but about BEING different perspectives."
Getting "control" over a disparate group of people with different learning styles and different levels of self-reliance is impossible. Even if you think you have it, you are deluding yourself.
I once had an administrator ask me how I dealt with such a "noisy" classroom. I explained that my students were collaborating. Like actually working together. This, I explained, requires talking. All the groups work in their own style, but each group has the work done by the time it is due!
Imposing what you believe is "control" over a group of students, or any other group, is destructive to community. I am not talking about something that is a matter of public safety, like what happened in Boston last week. I'm talking about a learning community. If you try to "control" them, you lose and they lose.
At the beginning of this year, I spent a lot of time teaching my classes routines and self-reliance. Need a pencil? Well, they're in the bin labeled "pencils." Help yourself. What does that word mean, anyway? Try a dictionary, or one of the awesome e-resources I posted for you on Edmodo. Or, you could even look it up on that fantastic App I asked you to download. Yes, you can use your phone for education!
And what happened? Freedom. Once the students learned that they had all the tools to learn the material, and that I wasn't the only person who held them, they worked with a vengeance. Community bloomed, since the students learned that they could help each other. They began finding new resources--things I had never seen before and sharing them. It was amazing.
So, how do we teach that self-reliance? How do we build a that Freedom?
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Betrayal
As we were working on the Epic Mythology Project on Tuesday, one of my students opened her email to send a link to a friend. There, she found an email from Guidance, informing her that Latin had been cancelled and asking her to sign up for a different language next year.
"Magistra!" she announced to the entire library, "Is it true that Latin has been cancelled?!"
Panicked, her fellow Latin 3s and 4s, as well as some of my Latin 2s, who were in the library with another class, rushed to take a look at her screen and to check their own email. All of my non-seniors were greeted by similar emails. Freaked out, they looked to me.
Now, I found out right before Spring Break, literally on the last day before, that Central Office had decided to kill the Latin program. I was relieved, at least, to know that my Department Head, my Principal, my Assistant Principal, and I were all on the same page that this showed lack of foresight, and was a terrible idea. All three of the leadership had fought with Central Office on Latin's and my behalf, but to no avail. Because, Central Office said, our district can't support 4 languages. BUT they still want to compete with all of those awesome and epic districts, like Newton, Wellesley, and Wayland, who DO support 4 languages at LEAST. As my Assistant Principal said, "This shows incredible lack of foresight and willingness to invest in the students."
Anyway, my Principal and I had agreed before Spring Break that he would come up and talk with my classes so that I wouldn't have to. After all, it fell on his shoulders. He gave Guidance a Direct Order to not discuss this with the students until he said it was OK. And they completely disobeyed it.
When I informed him of this, he was furious, and promised me he would reprimand Guidance. But he was stuck in a meeting all of today, and thus, I faced my angry, confused students alone.
"I feel so betrayed!" one of my students told me. "We were already asked to select courses!"
Believe me, I feel betrayed too. After all, I worked so hard and the students worked so hard to make up for lost time in learning.
And why did this happen? Because no one was held accountable. No one has ever held Guidance accountable, nor has Central Office ever been held accountable.
And what happens now? It affects students' ability to get into college, and takes away from everyone's credibility, honestly. They promised the students, parents, and me that Latin would be offered next year. And they lied.
So, even with this betrayal, I am trying to keep up the communities I've built, and the students are trying as well.
And we don't even have answers for WHY, which is the main question that students are asking at this point.
So now what? How, in the face of betrayal, do we keep the joy alive in the community?
"Magistra!" she announced to the entire library, "Is it true that Latin has been cancelled?!"
Panicked, her fellow Latin 3s and 4s, as well as some of my Latin 2s, who were in the library with another class, rushed to take a look at her screen and to check their own email. All of my non-seniors were greeted by similar emails. Freaked out, they looked to me.
Now, I found out right before Spring Break, literally on the last day before, that Central Office had decided to kill the Latin program. I was relieved, at least, to know that my Department Head, my Principal, my Assistant Principal, and I were all on the same page that this showed lack of foresight, and was a terrible idea. All three of the leadership had fought with Central Office on Latin's and my behalf, but to no avail. Because, Central Office said, our district can't support 4 languages. BUT they still want to compete with all of those awesome and epic districts, like Newton, Wellesley, and Wayland, who DO support 4 languages at LEAST. As my Assistant Principal said, "This shows incredible lack of foresight and willingness to invest in the students."
Anyway, my Principal and I had agreed before Spring Break that he would come up and talk with my classes so that I wouldn't have to. After all, it fell on his shoulders. He gave Guidance a Direct Order to not discuss this with the students until he said it was OK. And they completely disobeyed it.
When I informed him of this, he was furious, and promised me he would reprimand Guidance. But he was stuck in a meeting all of today, and thus, I faced my angry, confused students alone.
"I feel so betrayed!" one of my students told me. "We were already asked to select courses!"
Believe me, I feel betrayed too. After all, I worked so hard and the students worked so hard to make up for lost time in learning.
And why did this happen? Because no one was held accountable. No one has ever held Guidance accountable, nor has Central Office ever been held accountable.
And what happens now? It affects students' ability to get into college, and takes away from everyone's credibility, honestly. They promised the students, parents, and me that Latin would be offered next year. And they lied.
So, even with this betrayal, I am trying to keep up the communities I've built, and the students are trying as well.
And we don't even have answers for WHY, which is the main question that students are asking at this point.
So now what? How, in the face of betrayal, do we keep the joy alive in the community?
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Crunch Time
With the School Year closing out, it is Crunch Time at school.
With Balticon approaching, where my ACapella group is featured, it is Crunch Time with prep for that.
There is just so much to do. And everyone seems to think it must be done NOW! Emails pile upon emails.
It's Crunch Time for my students too. And they are PANICKED. "I have all of these tests to study for and so many projects to do!" complained one of my students. So we started talking about Priorities.
What is easy and quick to do now? What needs more time and attention? How much is it worth? When is it due? These questions flew around my classroom. So we started writing them down.
Somehow, my students were never taught the concept of a checklist, even less a prioritized one.
Organization is important. But students don't understand WHY. They just know that their teacher will "perform a random binder check" and if their papers aren't in "the correct section," they will get a 0. But WHY do we organize our papers? So many reasons come to mind: So we can find them again; For easy studying; For easy reference; etc.... And not every system works for everyone. I often give my students options, and let them pick one that works for them.
"Magistra, you're the most organized teacher we have!" one of my students told me once. I was surprised. I am an organized person, most of the time, but the MOST organized?! Surely that couldn't be true. As I've been on the Technology committee this year, I've been realizing how much I actually make a POINT of organization and MODEL it for my students. And they begin to get it.
Once again, I come back to two questions: How? and Why? How do we keep our students and ourselves from going insane at Crunch Time? How do we model organization for them? And How do we teach them not only WHAT to do, but WHY we do it?
With Balticon approaching, where my ACapella group is featured, it is Crunch Time with prep for that.
There is just so much to do. And everyone seems to think it must be done NOW! Emails pile upon emails.
It's Crunch Time for my students too. And they are PANICKED. "I have all of these tests to study for and so many projects to do!" complained one of my students. So we started talking about Priorities.
What is easy and quick to do now? What needs more time and attention? How much is it worth? When is it due? These questions flew around my classroom. So we started writing them down.
Somehow, my students were never taught the concept of a checklist, even less a prioritized one.
Organization is important. But students don't understand WHY. They just know that their teacher will "perform a random binder check" and if their papers aren't in "the correct section," they will get a 0. But WHY do we organize our papers? So many reasons come to mind: So we can find them again; For easy studying; For easy reference; etc.... And not every system works for everyone. I often give my students options, and let them pick one that works for them.
"Magistra, you're the most organized teacher we have!" one of my students told me once. I was surprised. I am an organized person, most of the time, but the MOST organized?! Surely that couldn't be true. As I've been on the Technology committee this year, I've been realizing how much I actually make a POINT of organization and MODEL it for my students. And they begin to get it.
Once again, I come back to two questions: How? and Why? How do we keep our students and ourselves from going insane at Crunch Time? How do we model organization for them? And How do we teach them not only WHAT to do, but WHY we do it?
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Success!
"Ms. L?" a student asked me on Monday, "Can you believe we have 8 weeks left?"
I couldn't believe it if I tried. This has been an incredible year, and one of the fastest on record for me. For one, I have amazing little communities--not classes. These are the students that, although disparate at the beginning of the year, have come together to make sure that everyone in the class, not just their friends, gets cake for their birthday or that one student, injured and out for weeks, got all the work he needed, complete with excellent explanations of the work we were doing, including complex grammar points.
So how were we going to close out the year?
I had promised my students that we would work on Mythology, after all of that hardcore work on grammar for the first 3 quarters. However, I wanted to make it meaningful to them. I have often seen Mythology taught by having students read stories and answer questions.
So I made them the teachers.
Once the students grasped the incredible scope of the project, they split into their groups and immediately got to work. This project will take them through to the end of May, and perhaps beyond.
I really wasn't sure what kind of feedback I would get, but I heard lots of "This is awesome!" and "This is the most epic project ever!"
This is not an easy project. It requires them to really work, think, make handouts, tell stories, and engage their peers. And they are loving it. The students even commented that they couldn't wait to see what other groups were doing!
And I look back and realize that these disparate students, who were scared, underconfident, and unsure of how to think or why it needed to be done at the beginning of the year, and I am amazed that we got where we are!
When my principal asked how my students got so far, I explained that they had become a community, not just disparate students who sometimes had other classes together, maybe. Community building is key to student success, or, honestly, anyone's success in school and beyond.
How do we build that community? And how, in the face of the Factory, to we maintain it?
I couldn't believe it if I tried. This has been an incredible year, and one of the fastest on record for me. For one, I have amazing little communities--not classes. These are the students that, although disparate at the beginning of the year, have come together to make sure that everyone in the class, not just their friends, gets cake for their birthday or that one student, injured and out for weeks, got all the work he needed, complete with excellent explanations of the work we were doing, including complex grammar points.
So how were we going to close out the year?
I had promised my students that we would work on Mythology, after all of that hardcore work on grammar for the first 3 quarters. However, I wanted to make it meaningful to them. I have often seen Mythology taught by having students read stories and answer questions.
So I made them the teachers.
Once the students grasped the incredible scope of the project, they split into their groups and immediately got to work. This project will take them through to the end of May, and perhaps beyond.
I really wasn't sure what kind of feedback I would get, but I heard lots of "This is awesome!" and "This is the most epic project ever!"
This is not an easy project. It requires them to really work, think, make handouts, tell stories, and engage their peers. And they are loving it. The students even commented that they couldn't wait to see what other groups were doing!
And I look back and realize that these disparate students, who were scared, underconfident, and unsure of how to think or why it needed to be done at the beginning of the year, and I am amazed that we got where we are!
When my principal asked how my students got so far, I explained that they had become a community, not just disparate students who sometimes had other classes together, maybe. Community building is key to student success, or, honestly, anyone's success in school and beyond.
How do we build that community? And how, in the face of the Factory, to we maintain it?
Monday, April 22, 2013
A Wild and Crazy Week
Hi! I'm back! If you're wondering why you haven't heard from me, well, first it was Spring Break week, and I was away for my friend's wedding Saturday and Sunday...which means I had nothing for Monday.
And the rest of this week? Well, for those of you who don't know, I live right outside of Boston. If you have followed the news at all this week, you know why I didn't update.
With so many horrible, terrifying events happening within 20 miles of me, I nevertheless found myself looking for the good things--the helpers, the friends, the community. People came together all over the place--from opening their homes to stranded runners, to celebrating the capture of the loose suspect and thanking all of our law enforcement and leadership.
We all came together to help each other and comfort each other and work together, even if that just meant staying of the road, to catch these guys.
And yet, in the moments of fear, we still managed to launch Corgito Ergo Sum, a new webcomic by myself and my friends Justin and Lucy.
Even amidst tragedy, life doesn't stop. Early in the week I was talking with a friend of mine, who was TERRIFIED. "How do you stay so calm?!" she asked. I thought about it. Then, I said something to the effect of: "Well, the world doesn't stop. You have to put on your "f**k you" hat, band together, and keep going. It's the biggest way to tell these people that you aren't scared of them and tell them to pi** off." And it's true!
Alright, so, we're back. So good to see you all again! The healing process has started. How do we ensure that the community sticks? That the hole in the factory system, that allowed this community to come out doesn't get patched up?
And the rest of this week? Well, for those of you who don't know, I live right outside of Boston. If you have followed the news at all this week, you know why I didn't update.
With so many horrible, terrifying events happening within 20 miles of me, I nevertheless found myself looking for the good things--the helpers, the friends, the community. People came together all over the place--from opening their homes to stranded runners, to celebrating the capture of the loose suspect and thanking all of our law enforcement and leadership.
We all came together to help each other and comfort each other and work together, even if that just meant staying of the road, to catch these guys.
And yet, in the moments of fear, we still managed to launch Corgito Ergo Sum, a new webcomic by myself and my friends Justin and Lucy.
Even amidst tragedy, life doesn't stop. Early in the week I was talking with a friend of mine, who was TERRIFIED. "How do you stay so calm?!" she asked. I thought about it. Then, I said something to the effect of: "Well, the world doesn't stop. You have to put on your "f**k you" hat, band together, and keep going. It's the biggest way to tell these people that you aren't scared of them and tell them to pi** off." And it's true!
Alright, so, we're back. So good to see you all again! The healing process has started. How do we ensure that the community sticks? That the hole in the factory system, that allowed this community to come out doesn't get patched up?
Friday, April 12, 2013
Prophecies and Lies
One of the great quotes to come out of Portal is "The Cake Is A Lie." When you start the game, you are promised cake for participating in the scientific experiment. Well, let's just say you never get it.
As I thought about today, and realized just how much I like the Portal metaphor, I was confronted with lies within my own school district. And it hit me: The Cake Is A Lie.
We tell the students that their experience will be "engaging," that they "will have to think," that they will "discover," and that they will "learn." We tell them that they will be "prepared for college." There's the cake. But they never do get that cake, do they?
The Cake teachers are promised is being able to "engage" students, discussing real material with them, teaching life lessons, making their generation great. But it's become a web of tests, blame, and shame. And teachers pass on the lies to their students.
What we need is to redefine cake in this context. It shouldn't be "being prepared for college." Instead, it should be "learning for learning's sake." Teachers' cakes shouldn't be "high test scores" but "what their students become." It's hard to measure, sure, in this world of analytics and data, but it is true prep for life. It means true problem solving, true community, and true learning for the sake of learning. It means innovation, as well as developing self control and intrinsic motivation. It means actually learning something can be "cool" again.
Mark's comment here talks about how we might go about measuring something like this. It sounds amazing, doesn't it?
Ok, so all of this sounds so idealistic. But what if the Cake were real? How would we go about baking it? Can we make the Cake at least a bit real for our students?
As I thought about today, and realized just how much I like the Portal metaphor, I was confronted with lies within my own school district. And it hit me: The Cake Is A Lie.
We tell the students that their experience will be "engaging," that they "will have to think," that they will "discover," and that they will "learn." We tell them that they will be "prepared for college." There's the cake. But they never do get that cake, do they?
The Cake teachers are promised is being able to "engage" students, discussing real material with them, teaching life lessons, making their generation great. But it's become a web of tests, blame, and shame. And teachers pass on the lies to their students.
What we need is to redefine cake in this context. It shouldn't be "being prepared for college." Instead, it should be "learning for learning's sake." Teachers' cakes shouldn't be "high test scores" but "what their students become." It's hard to measure, sure, in this world of analytics and data, but it is true prep for life. It means true problem solving, true community, and true learning for the sake of learning. It means innovation, as well as developing self control and intrinsic motivation. It means actually learning something can be "cool" again.
Mark's comment here talks about how we might go about measuring something like this. It sounds amazing, doesn't it?
"Happiness as the standardized testing method would mean the subject being tested for is personal to each person taking the test. It would likely be a subject each person was passionate about. These tests would always be graded by observation.
One observation would be how many showed up not just on time for the test, but early for the test.
Another observation would be if a student was clamoring for more tests. In wood shop as soon as I finished the first step stool I made, I stayed after school working on the paper plans for my next project. I worked until the teacher ran me out as he was heading home. I was all too ready for the next test.
Also measurable on the happiness scale is how many other students circle around the person being tested to hear what they have to say about their test. In other words they are all too happy to share what they have learned with others.
At trade shows you always see the largest crowd circle a booth when the person speaking has full knowledge for what they are speaking about and at the same time they love the topic like their own kid. It works the same way in a classroom when a kid starts sharing and teaching others.
Don’t forget about the parent given and graded portion of the happiness scale. My 13 year old son goes wild telling me about what he learned the day before in French. Anytime a box is being opened and there is French text on the box I have to either hide the box or be prepared for a French lesson from my son. Great problem to have."
Ok, so all of this sounds so idealistic. But what if the Cake were real? How would we go about baking it? Can we make the Cake at least a bit real for our students?
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