“Kudzu is a climbing, deciduous vine capable of reaching lengths of over 100 ft. Preferred habitat includes open, disturbed areas such as roadsides, right-of-ways, forest edges and old fields. Kudzu often grows over, smothers and kills all other vegetation, including trees. Kudzu is native to Asia and was first introduced into the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. It was widely planted throughout the eastern United States in an attempt to control erosion.” (Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, University of Georgia)
A few weeks ago in an English Department meeting we were examining the results of the first Periodic Assessment. This is an exam the district requires every quarter to track student progress through the district curriculum. We had detailed results broken down by question and by student. We explored the district website that offered a wealth of activities to teach or re-teach each of the concepts and skills on the test. We were encouraged to analyze our students’ results in great detail and to return to those things they didn’t learn, since they would all be on the California Standards Test in the spring.
All of this was very impressive, and before long I found myself thinking that there was such a wealth of available material that I could spend all of my class time preparing for the next test, reviewing the previous test, etc. I could dig into the questions that many students missed and call up some of the remediation activities. I could administer practice tests and review the answers with them and....
WHAT!!?? Am I out of my mind!? Spend all of my time reviewing past tests and previewing future tests!? Devote every class to test preparation!? No! No! A thousand times no!! What about writing? and literature? and class discussions? There are a lot of trees in the forest of education, and I can’t let the kudzu vine of standardized testing destroy them!
In Part Two: How did we get into this predicament? The political and social context for the rise of standardized testing.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Sixth Street bustling
When I finally finished preparing for tomorrow at school I decided to talk a walk west on 6th St. I have been connected with the Wilshire District my whole life. My parents both grew up in this neighborhood in the 1920s and 30s, and my grandparents lived here throughout my childhood in the 50s. We visited them often, and I have many fond memories of family gatherings in their old houses (one gone and one still standing). My mother even brought us in from Van Nuys to see doctors and dentists in the area. I remember going to Ollie Hammond's Steak House at Wilshire and Hobart with my grandfather Ralph Williams, who was active in real estate in mid-city LA. My mother worked at Bullocks Wilshire during the war. My parents were married and I was christened in Wilshire Methodist Church. (That didn't really stick though since I've been an atheist most of my adult life.)
As an adult I have lived in Hollywood and Echo Park and passed through the Wilshire corridor regularly especially when I worked at Crenshaw HS. Then on the school board I represented this area. I fought hard for the Ambassador property (Victory!) and developed close relations with the Korean community. Now I teach in the heart of Wilshire, of Korea town. So I have a lot of affection for the Wilshire District, and I enjoy rediscovering the neighborhood.
Let me tell you that 6th Street is jumping! I was dazzled by the array of small businesses along this street. There are places to eat and socialize--coffee houses, Korean barbecues, sushi bars, Karaoke clubs, seafood grills, bakeries, and many more. There are all kinds of other shops--hair salons, spas, jewelers, dress shops. The venerable and elegant Chapman Market (1928 by Morgan, Walls & Clements) was an instant landmark and signaled the westward march of the city. Today it is filled with chic boutiques and cafes.
There is also a fabulous three level mall called City Center on the block behind the towering Equitable Building (1969 by Welton Beckett). This lavish collection of shops and markets is a bold post-modern deconstructed architectural statement that reminds me of Seoul.
And there were plenty of customers for all these places--almost all of them Korean. This was truly a little slice of Seoul (a vast metropolis that would tower above most of Los Angeles, by the way). I assume many of these folks live in the lovely old residential neighborhoods in the mid-city, while others work in the area and socialize before heading out to the Valley or Fullerton. Others may make the drive just to enjoy authentic Korean food and socializing. I remember that Seoul was an intensely social place and that Koreans there and here love to go out to restaurants and cafes. That was evident along 6th Street.
I was a lovely walk, and I recommend it to all of you whether or not you have a history in this part of town. It's even worth a drive into the city. Annyonghi kaysayo.
As an adult I have lived in Hollywood and Echo Park and passed through the Wilshire corridor regularly especially when I worked at Crenshaw HS. Then on the school board I represented this area. I fought hard for the Ambassador property (Victory!) and developed close relations with the Korean community. Now I teach in the heart of Wilshire, of Korea town. So I have a lot of affection for the Wilshire District, and I enjoy rediscovering the neighborhood.
Let me tell you that 6th Street is jumping! I was dazzled by the array of small businesses along this street. There are places to eat and socialize--coffee houses, Korean barbecues, sushi bars, Karaoke clubs, seafood grills, bakeries, and many more. There are all kinds of other shops--hair salons, spas, jewelers, dress shops. The venerable and elegant Chapman Market (1928 by Morgan, Walls & Clements) was an instant landmark and signaled the westward march of the city. Today it is filled with chic boutiques and cafes.
There is also a fabulous three level mall called City Center on the block behind the towering Equitable Building (1969 by Welton Beckett). This lavish collection of shops and markets is a bold post-modern deconstructed architectural statement that reminds me of Seoul.
And there were plenty of customers for all these places--almost all of them Korean. This was truly a little slice of Seoul (a vast metropolis that would tower above most of Los Angeles, by the way). I assume many of these folks live in the lovely old residential neighborhoods in the mid-city, while others work in the area and socialize before heading out to the Valley or Fullerton. Others may make the drive just to enjoy authentic Korean food and socializing. I remember that Seoul was an intensely social place and that Koreans there and here love to go out to restaurants and cafes. That was evident along 6th Street.
I was a lovely walk, and I recommend it to all of you whether or not you have a history in this part of town. It's even worth a drive into the city. Annyonghi kaysayo.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Vittoria!
Friday, Dec. 3: I have just completed my two best days yet at YOKA. All four of my seventh grade English classes had a narrative writing assignment. We had just finished the story “Amigo Brothers” by Piri Thomas. This short story tells about best friends Felix and Antonio who are paired up in a boxing championship. The story is more about their friendship than about the sport of boxing, and at the end, after a brutal fight, they embrace and leave the ring together. The story does not reveal the winner.
The assignment to my classes was to write “The Next Chapter” for these two friends. First they had to make a storyboard telling what happened in the year after the winner was announced. They did this in pairs, and when they finished their storyboard each pair got a laptop so they could go to the online writing program (MyAccess.com) and write a narrative based on their storyboard.
This was a substantial assignment with two major parts. They had to work with a classmate to get it done. It involved thinking up a story, rendering it into little drawings, logging onto an online program, and writing a narrative of 300 words. I was a little nervous about getting them through all of this, and so I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.
First of all, the chance to work on the laptops was a great motivation for getting the storyboard done. The attraction of the computers is awesome. Second, they worked well in pairs. Some pairs were lopsided with one student doing most of the work, but even in those pairs both students were engaged in thinking up the story. Third, when they finished the story board and got into the writing program, they were actually enthusiastic about writing down what they had come up with.
I remain very impressed by the effect that computers have on these boys. The computers focus and engage them in a way that teachers and paper books do not. It isn’t just the games, although they love to sneak over to the games, but also the writing itself that they are more engaged in. They are also getting used to all of the corrections that the computer program indicates.
And so this lesson went very well in all of the classes, even my very difficult sixth period. I called the principal up in the middle of sixth period to invite him to come see how it was working. He has invested a lot of school funds in getting this online writing program for all teachers, and I wanted him to see how it could work.
I’ve done a lot of yelling at all these classes, so I took the time at the end of each period on Thursday and Friday to compliment them on how well they worked on this assignment. I was still exhausted, to be sure, but for the first time when Friday, 3:24 pm came around I felt very satisfied at how the week had gone.
The assignment to my classes was to write “The Next Chapter” for these two friends. First they had to make a storyboard telling what happened in the year after the winner was announced. They did this in pairs, and when they finished their storyboard each pair got a laptop so they could go to the online writing program (MyAccess.com) and write a narrative based on their storyboard.
This was a substantial assignment with two major parts. They had to work with a classmate to get it done. It involved thinking up a story, rendering it into little drawings, logging onto an online program, and writing a narrative of 300 words. I was a little nervous about getting them through all of this, and so I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.
First of all, the chance to work on the laptops was a great motivation for getting the storyboard done. The attraction of the computers is awesome. Second, they worked well in pairs. Some pairs were lopsided with one student doing most of the work, but even in those pairs both students were engaged in thinking up the story. Third, when they finished the story board and got into the writing program, they were actually enthusiastic about writing down what they had come up with.
I remain very impressed by the effect that computers have on these boys. The computers focus and engage them in a way that teachers and paper books do not. It isn’t just the games, although they love to sneak over to the games, but also the writing itself that they are more engaged in. They are also getting used to all of the corrections that the computer program indicates.
And so this lesson went very well in all of the classes, even my very difficult sixth period. I called the principal up in the middle of sixth period to invite him to come see how it was working. He has invested a lot of school funds in getting this online writing program for all teachers, and I wanted him to see how it could work.
I’ve done a lot of yelling at all these classes, so I took the time at the end of each period on Thursday and Friday to compliment them on how well they worked on this assignment. I was still exhausted, to be sure, but for the first time when Friday, 3:24 pm came around I felt very satisfied at how the week had gone.
Friday, November 26, 2010
A perfect storm, followed by a calm sea and a metaphor for capitalism
I haven't commented in a while. I've been enjoying an unexpected week off. Because of unpaid furlough days, LAUSD like many districts just closed the schools for this whole week of Thanksgiving. It's been a salvation for me. Last week I experienced the "Perfect Storm" of obligations that left me staggering towards Friday.
I had a big housewarming party on Sunday Nov 14, so I was getting ready for that the whole week before. The party was a big success, but I should have been getting my grades ready since they were due Weds Nov 17. That realization hit me on Monday, along with the need to finish grading the written part of the periodic assessment and teach a class at National University Monday and Wednesday night. Whew! This is what made the week of Nov 15 the perfect storm of obligation, so I didn't sleep much and stumbled across the grading finish line a day late, on Thursday--just in time to collapse into this vacation week.
I know this sounds like more whining, so I want to counteract that with another burst of enthusiasm for the MyAccess online writing program. I had the laptop carts in my room for a couple of weeks, and the boys have been working on their essays every day. The more I use this program the more I like it. It leads the boys to correct errors in their writing and then gives them instant feedback in the form of a numerical score. As they make corrections or add more content, they see their score go up.
A high level of competitiveness is cited as one of the characteristics of the male brain (at least most of them), and one day last week some of the boys were actually competing out loud to see who could get the highest rating on their compositions. They even called out their scores in excitement as they made changes to improve their essays. That really sold me. I realized that this program had generated the elusive "intrinsic motivation," since the students wanted to improve their writing for its own sake.
Even if I graded in detail everything they wrote every night (something I have never been able to manage and few teachers do) I couldn't match the instant feedback they get from this program. They may groan when they see all of the spelling and other errors highlighted in their writing, but they can get to work and correct them one by one. That is what good writing requires--patient re-examination of what you've written in the form of correction, expansion, revision.
There's still plenty of work for the teacher in this program. The more generic recommendations about description, structure, and style will always require the teacher to illuminate and elaborate. This program doesn't replace the teacher as much as amplify what the teacher can accomplish. It is the best example I have encountered of how technology can make the teacher much more effective. I look forward to using it throughout the rest of the year.
Time for another little detour. I recently saw the movie "Unstoppable" with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. It's about a runaway train in Pennsylvania that is carrying a load of toxic chemicals and threatens mass destruction in a highly populated area. It's thrilling from beginning to end. The human characters, especially Washington as a veteran train engineer, are well done, but the train itself is the star--menacing, implacable, inexorable.
Afterward it occurred to me that this runaway train was a profound metaphor (I am an English teacher after all!) for the state of American capitalism--out of control, threatening to destroy millions of people, highly toxic, and driven by greed and arrogance. Without giving away the ending, suffice it to say that the golf-playing CEO who is more concerned about the stock price than the potential human suffering DOES NOT save the day. Anyway, I highly recommend it.
I had a big housewarming party on Sunday Nov 14, so I was getting ready for that the whole week before. The party was a big success, but I should have been getting my grades ready since they were due Weds Nov 17. That realization hit me on Monday, along with the need to finish grading the written part of the periodic assessment and teach a class at National University Monday and Wednesday night. Whew! This is what made the week of Nov 15 the perfect storm of obligation, so I didn't sleep much and stumbled across the grading finish line a day late, on Thursday--just in time to collapse into this vacation week.
I know this sounds like more whining, so I want to counteract that with another burst of enthusiasm for the MyAccess online writing program. I had the laptop carts in my room for a couple of weeks, and the boys have been working on their essays every day. The more I use this program the more I like it. It leads the boys to correct errors in their writing and then gives them instant feedback in the form of a numerical score. As they make corrections or add more content, they see their score go up.
A high level of competitiveness is cited as one of the characteristics of the male brain (at least most of them), and one day last week some of the boys were actually competing out loud to see who could get the highest rating on their compositions. They even called out their scores in excitement as they made changes to improve their essays. That really sold me. I realized that this program had generated the elusive "intrinsic motivation," since the students wanted to improve their writing for its own sake.
Even if I graded in detail everything they wrote every night (something I have never been able to manage and few teachers do) I couldn't match the instant feedback they get from this program. They may groan when they see all of the spelling and other errors highlighted in their writing, but they can get to work and correct them one by one. That is what good writing requires--patient re-examination of what you've written in the form of correction, expansion, revision.
There's still plenty of work for the teacher in this program. The more generic recommendations about description, structure, and style will always require the teacher to illuminate and elaborate. This program doesn't replace the teacher as much as amplify what the teacher can accomplish. It is the best example I have encountered of how technology can make the teacher much more effective. I look forward to using it throughout the rest of the year.
Time for another little detour. I recently saw the movie "Unstoppable" with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. It's about a runaway train in Pennsylvania that is carrying a load of toxic chemicals and threatens mass destruction in a highly populated area. It's thrilling from beginning to end. The human characters, especially Washington as a veteran train engineer, are well done, but the train itself is the star--menacing, implacable, inexorable.
Afterward it occurred to me that this runaway train was a profound metaphor (I am an English teacher after all!) for the state of American capitalism--out of control, threatening to destroy millions of people, highly toxic, and driven by greed and arrogance. Without giving away the ending, suffice it to say that the golf-playing CEO who is more concerned about the stock price than the potential human suffering DOES NOT save the day. Anyway, I highly recommend it.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Seventh grade lives 1
I've spent so much time complaining about the behavior of these boys that I don't think I have adequately conveyed how charming and likable they are. I'd like to share a couple of brief glimpses into their lives. Today a small group of students ended up in my room at lunch. They were all good students, and small boys. They just wanted to use the computers. I asked them why they didn't want to go outside for lunch. One of them, an especially small and very soft spoken boy, said something like, "There's too much going on out there at lunch. There are mean kids and bullies and we'd rather be in here." Hard to argue with that.
Later in the day another boy was talking to his friends in an intense way. Other boys really like this boy because he's funny and clever and outspoken, although that can make him a little disruptive in class. He said that he had a big problem--a claim supported by his friends--and would like to tell me about it. While we were walking out to play basketball during advisory period, he said that his father had been picked up the night before and was going to be deported. One of his friends walking with us said that had happened to him once too. I said that must be really terrible and that I was sorry to hear it.
We didn't talk much more since he wanted to play basketball, but I was left with a sad feeling. I have a hard time imagining just how terrible it must be at age 12 to have your father snatched away from you all of a sudden. It seems that any decent version of "family values" would allow for fathers to stay with their sons. This incident definitely puts a human face on the increasingly shrill calls to deport increasing numbers of people, many of them fathers who are needed by their sons.
As I get to know these boys, I expect to hear more stories about their lives. I'm glad I'm not so obsessed with controlling their behavior that I don't stop to listen to their individual voices. Vignettes like these surely lie at the heart of the teaching experience. They are probably the reason we put up with the impossible work load and time requirements of the job.
Later in the day another boy was talking to his friends in an intense way. Other boys really like this boy because he's funny and clever and outspoken, although that can make him a little disruptive in class. He said that he had a big problem--a claim supported by his friends--and would like to tell me about it. While we were walking out to play basketball during advisory period, he said that his father had been picked up the night before and was going to be deported. One of his friends walking with us said that had happened to him once too. I said that must be really terrible and that I was sorry to hear it.
We didn't talk much more since he wanted to play basketball, but I was left with a sad feeling. I have a hard time imagining just how terrible it must be at age 12 to have your father snatched away from you all of a sudden. It seems that any decent version of "family values" would allow for fathers to stay with their sons. This incident definitely puts a human face on the increasingly shrill calls to deport increasing numbers of people, many of them fathers who are needed by their sons.
As I get to know these boys, I expect to hear more stories about their lives. I'm glad I'm not so obsessed with controlling their behavior that I don't stop to listen to their individual voices. Vignettes like these surely lie at the heart of the teaching experience. They are probably the reason we put up with the impossible work load and time requirements of the job.
Internet to the rescue!
I have finally brought the boys to the internet for both reading and writing. Over the past few days they have taken a reading test to prepare them for the Accelerated Reader program in which they will read books at an appropriate level and take tests about the books on line. One advantage to this is that students can select books they are interested in, and the program will test them on their reading. I can assign them to complete a certain number of books on their own outside of class. This encourages independent reading, a good thing, although it sacrifices the group interaction about a shared reading experience.
They have also started on MyAccess. This is an online program which assists them in rewriting their assignments and keeps their work in an online portfolio. Rewriting is of course the downfall of most people who have to write something, both adults and children. My students are willing to write every day, but they never think about editing and rewriting. For me to get them to rewrite would mean correcting mountains of work every day, and that is not feasible. So this online program has a variety of devices to help them rewrite and improve their compositions. It gives them a score so they can measure their improvement as they follow the various suggestions from the program. I can monitor everything they write and add my own comments and suggestions. It's a fairly sophisticated program, but it still will take a lot of teaching to get them to use it effectively.
I feel good about getting them started on these programs, and the boys were relatively cooperative in the effort. There wasn't as much of a management challenge as I expected. There's a lot of logistical stuff to get through in issuing laptops to everyone, getting them (boys and computers) all booted up, logged in, and ready to go, but there's also something about using the computer that focuses them. I think this is the nature of the device, although they can also be distracting since there are always games to play. Plus, this is how we all write now. Many of my readers may remember the old system of handwritten drafts, with all their marginalia and cross-outs and arrows to move text around. But who writes like that any more? I wouldn't want to. Why should these boys use an antiquated technique for writing? So the last few days have gone pretty well, and I'm feeling just tired not exhausted.
They have also started on MyAccess. This is an online program which assists them in rewriting their assignments and keeps their work in an online portfolio. Rewriting is of course the downfall of most people who have to write something, both adults and children. My students are willing to write every day, but they never think about editing and rewriting. For me to get them to rewrite would mean correcting mountains of work every day, and that is not feasible. So this online program has a variety of devices to help them rewrite and improve their compositions. It gives them a score so they can measure their improvement as they follow the various suggestions from the program. I can monitor everything they write and add my own comments and suggestions. It's a fairly sophisticated program, but it still will take a lot of teaching to get them to use it effectively.
I feel good about getting them started on these programs, and the boys were relatively cooperative in the effort. There wasn't as much of a management challenge as I expected. There's a lot of logistical stuff to get through in issuing laptops to everyone, getting them (boys and computers) all booted up, logged in, and ready to go, but there's also something about using the computer that focuses them. I think this is the nature of the device, although they can also be distracting since there are always games to play. Plus, this is how we all write now. Many of my readers may remember the old system of handwritten drafts, with all their marginalia and cross-outs and arrows to move text around. But who writes like that any more? I wouldn't want to. Why should these boys use an antiquated technique for writing? So the last few days have gone pretty well, and I'm feeling just tired not exhausted.
Friday, November 5, 2010
SOS! Ship going down! SOS!
Well Gentle Reader, today was...how can I put it...a catastrophe! I think that's the mot juste, but I might also say disaster, debacle, massacre, etc. Every period was a crisis, except advisory when we went out to play basketball. (These boys have no physical education on Wed and Fri. There's lots of research on the beneficial impact of physical exercise on learning, and this flaw in the block schedule is unfortunate. To compensate, we often take them out for informal playing on those days.)
Second period had too much going on in the aftermath of the periodic assessment (some had finished, some hadn't, some were doing an alternate test, some making up work, etc.). The result was disjointed and disorderly. Fourth period resisted working until the very end when they managed to listen to a few speeches. Sixth period was just noisy for 90 minutes. Then I had a bunch come back for detention, adding 10 minutes to my day.
When the last student left, I sat at my desk, literally vibrating from the adrenalin that coursed through my veins....
Now the vibrating has stopped. I'm just sitting quietly listening to All Things Considered, beginning to contemplate the preparations I need to make for Monday....
Which are considerable....
Since I'm finally bringing in the computer carts....
To get the students into the Accelerated Reader system....
And into the online editing program called MyAccess....
Which I have high hopes for.
Deep breaths.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh.
More later.
Second period had too much going on in the aftermath of the periodic assessment (some had finished, some hadn't, some were doing an alternate test, some making up work, etc.). The result was disjointed and disorderly. Fourth period resisted working until the very end when they managed to listen to a few speeches. Sixth period was just noisy for 90 minutes. Then I had a bunch come back for detention, adding 10 minutes to my day.
When the last student left, I sat at my desk, literally vibrating from the adrenalin that coursed through my veins....
Now the vibrating has stopped. I'm just sitting quietly listening to All Things Considered, beginning to contemplate the preparations I need to make for Monday....
Which are considerable....
Since I'm finally bringing in the computer carts....
To get the students into the Accelerated Reader system....
And into the online editing program called MyAccess....
Which I have high hopes for.
Deep breaths.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh.
More later.
Save us from the "Independent Voters"!
My life at YOKA continues to be an action-packed thrill-ride! I have a lot to tell you about the education of 7th grade boys, but I want to make a brief post about the political scene, particularly about hese "Independent Voters" that we keep hearing about. After all, they just delivered the House of Representatives into the rapacious hands of the American corporate elite. So who are these "Independent Voters"?
First of all, the word "independent" makes them sound noble somehow--free thinking, unfettered, untamed, blah, blah, blah. But what are they really? Consider...two years ago the "Independent Voters," these paradigms of rugged democracy, flocked to vote for Obama, a moderately liberal Democrat, and rejected the party of George Bush that had dragged the country into the worst recession since 1929. Two years later, just last Tuesday, they hurled themselves into voting for all the Republicans who were saying the same things they had said for the eight years before that.
The truth is that these are not "Independent Voters"--rather they are ill-informed, unprincipled, and confused voters. Conservatives and Republicans have clear views and stick with them. Liberals and Democrats the same. But increasingly this country is being controlled by the growing segment of the electorate that is so uninformed and confused that they can switch political beliefs in under a year. These so-called "independents" are really just clueless! Vaguely cranky about their situation, which is very insecure, they don't really understand much about the state of the economy and the nation, so they are prone to swing erratically back and forth based on slogans, rumors, misunderstandings, and lies. To win their fickle votes, committed Democrats and Republicans resort to deceptive and meretricious stratagems in 30 second television commercials. Both parties (even mine) eschew meaningful discourse and seek desperately for yet one more empty slogan based on misrepresentation and oversimplification with which to mesmerize the fabled "Independent Voters."
(If they knew what was happening they would know that Obama cut their taxes, reduced the deficit, and created millions of jobs in an economy that had lost tens of millions under the Reps. But instead of actually knowing anything, they give vent to their insecurities and vapors by careening from liberal to conservative and back again with all the political understanding of pond scum.)
Anyway, they are calling the shots. Thanks to the "independent Voters" we will now have at least two years of political inaction and neglect of the needs of the middle class.
So I propose banning the term "Independent Voters" and calling this particular demographic "Clueless Voters" or "Confused Voters" or even "Ignorant, Self-Indulgent, Shallow Voters." Instead of swooning in awe of their unpredictable and capricious voting natures, we should urge them to go on long trips to far-away places in November.
I've had enough of these "Indepenent Voters." Get a life guys!
First of all, the word "independent" makes them sound noble somehow--free thinking, unfettered, untamed, blah, blah, blah. But what are they really? Consider...two years ago the "Independent Voters," these paradigms of rugged democracy, flocked to vote for Obama, a moderately liberal Democrat, and rejected the party of George Bush that had dragged the country into the worst recession since 1929. Two years later, just last Tuesday, they hurled themselves into voting for all the Republicans who were saying the same things they had said for the eight years before that.
The truth is that these are not "Independent Voters"--rather they are ill-informed, unprincipled, and confused voters. Conservatives and Republicans have clear views and stick with them. Liberals and Democrats the same. But increasingly this country is being controlled by the growing segment of the electorate that is so uninformed and confused that they can switch political beliefs in under a year. These so-called "independents" are really just clueless! Vaguely cranky about their situation, which is very insecure, they don't really understand much about the state of the economy and the nation, so they are prone to swing erratically back and forth based on slogans, rumors, misunderstandings, and lies. To win their fickle votes, committed Democrats and Republicans resort to deceptive and meretricious stratagems in 30 second television commercials. Both parties (even mine) eschew meaningful discourse and seek desperately for yet one more empty slogan based on misrepresentation and oversimplification with which to mesmerize the fabled "Independent Voters."
(If they knew what was happening they would know that Obama cut their taxes, reduced the deficit, and created millions of jobs in an economy that had lost tens of millions under the Reps. But instead of actually knowing anything, they give vent to their insecurities and vapors by careening from liberal to conservative and back again with all the political understanding of pond scum.)
Anyway, they are calling the shots. Thanks to the "independent Voters" we will now have at least two years of political inaction and neglect of the needs of the middle class.
So I propose banning the term "Independent Voters" and calling this particular demographic "Clueless Voters" or "Confused Voters" or even "Ignorant, Self-Indulgent, Shallow Voters." Instead of swooning in awe of their unpredictable and capricious voting natures, we should urge them to go on long trips to far-away places in November.
I've had enough of these "Indepenent Voters." Get a life guys!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Two out of three ain't bad, plus an adventure with Boris Godunov
My last post was so long I had to rest before doing another one. That previous post described an arduous, mostly calamitous week. Last week was better, but still a strain. Right now I'm seeing three aspects to this job. First is the right temperament and the understanding of how learning happens. This is my strength. I have the right temperament--the right combination of authority and empathy to teach people, big or little. I also have a good understanding of how learning happens and how learning can be structured. This comes not only from my previous teaching experience but from the intervening 20 years of working on educational reform with teachers and others.
Second is a clear curriculum--a plan for the day-to-day lessons that will promote learning on the part of the students. I had no clue about this for a few weeks, but now I feel I understand the LAUSD plan for seventh grade English. I am steadily working my way through the narrative unit which will culminate in the students' own neighborhood narrative. (Unfortunately, the district's periodic assessment is next week, and I'm not finished with the unit, so....well, we'll see what happens.)
The third part is my weak link--actually being able to guide the students to do what you know will teach them. On this point I'm hanging on by my fingernails. I can barely manage to steer them through the lesson. They talk too much, I yell too much. I've recently gotten a couple of good suggestions for quieting them down, so I'm hopeful.
Today was rough, even though it was a short day. I have so much to do in my room and in managing the classes that I was discouraged when class ended. We had an English department meeting after lunch, and it turned my mood around dramatically. For one thing, both the other boys' teachers said they also had a hard time quieting them down enough for discussions, reading, etc. And one of the girls' teachers (Ms. Turner of the beautiful room) said she had these boys last year in 6th grade and found them a real handful. (She also said she felt like a real professional teaching the girls who are much more cooperative and organized.)
I also learned that everyone is behind in the curriculum. Most of the other English teachers are experienced middle school teachers, so they are more on top of the situation. I am learning a lot from them, but they also struggle with the same conditions. It was reassuring to realize that.
So this department meeting was a perfect example of the power of professional collaboration. This school encourages a lot of that. Isolation is a professional hazard for teachers, so strong leadership at a school is needed to bring teachers together to strengthen their strategies or just console each other. So...dare to struggle, dare to win!
I want to take a little detour to tell you about the opera "Boris Godunov" by Modest Mussorgsky. I saw it Saturday as part of the Met Opera Live in HD series. This is a fabulous way to see opera, and "Boris Godunov" blew me away. I had never seen it, although I had heard much of the music. I was not prepared for the raw power of the music and the drama.
Mussorgsky's opera from the late nineteenth century is based on the verse drama of the same name by the great Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin. Both recount the rise and fall of Boris, a great reforming tsar at the beginning the 17th century. Boris is a powerful leader, but conflicted and tormented by paranoia. Russian history and above all the Russian people thunder across the stage in this monumental work. The Met's new production has a mostly Russian cast led by the Valery Gergiev. It was powerfully sung and dramatically staged. I would now rank it up there with other great historical operatic masterpieces such as Verdi's Don Carlo, Rossini's William Tell, and Berlioz's Les Troyens. (Boris will be encored at selected theatres on Wednesday, Nov. 10. Go to Met Live in HD for details.)
So as musical distractions go, Boris was a knockout. These 7th grade boys are nothing compared to the enraged Russian peasantry who turned against their Tsar. Vincero!
Second is a clear curriculum--a plan for the day-to-day lessons that will promote learning on the part of the students. I had no clue about this for a few weeks, but now I feel I understand the LAUSD plan for seventh grade English. I am steadily working my way through the narrative unit which will culminate in the students' own neighborhood narrative. (Unfortunately, the district's periodic assessment is next week, and I'm not finished with the unit, so....well, we'll see what happens.)
The third part is my weak link--actually being able to guide the students to do what you know will teach them. On this point I'm hanging on by my fingernails. I can barely manage to steer them through the lesson. They talk too much, I yell too much. I've recently gotten a couple of good suggestions for quieting them down, so I'm hopeful.
Today was rough, even though it was a short day. I have so much to do in my room and in managing the classes that I was discouraged when class ended. We had an English department meeting after lunch, and it turned my mood around dramatically. For one thing, both the other boys' teachers said they also had a hard time quieting them down enough for discussions, reading, etc. And one of the girls' teachers (Ms. Turner of the beautiful room) said she had these boys last year in 6th grade and found them a real handful. (She also said she felt like a real professional teaching the girls who are much more cooperative and organized.)
I also learned that everyone is behind in the curriculum. Most of the other English teachers are experienced middle school teachers, so they are more on top of the situation. I am learning a lot from them, but they also struggle with the same conditions. It was reassuring to realize that.
So this department meeting was a perfect example of the power of professional collaboration. This school encourages a lot of that. Isolation is a professional hazard for teachers, so strong leadership at a school is needed to bring teachers together to strengthen their strategies or just console each other. So...dare to struggle, dare to win!
I want to take a little detour to tell you about the opera "Boris Godunov" by Modest Mussorgsky. I saw it Saturday as part of the Met Opera Live in HD series. This is a fabulous way to see opera, and "Boris Godunov" blew me away. I had never seen it, although I had heard much of the music. I was not prepared for the raw power of the music and the drama.
Mussorgsky's opera from the late nineteenth century is based on the verse drama of the same name by the great Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin. Both recount the rise and fall of Boris, a great reforming tsar at the beginning the 17th century. Boris is a powerful leader, but conflicted and tormented by paranoia. Russian history and above all the Russian people thunder across the stage in this monumental work. The Met's new production has a mostly Russian cast led by the Valery Gergiev. It was powerfully sung and dramatically staged. I would now rank it up there with other great historical operatic masterpieces such as Verdi's Don Carlo, Rossini's William Tell, and Berlioz's Les Troyens. (Boris will be encored at selected theatres on Wednesday, Nov. 10. Go to Met Live in HD for details.)
So as musical distractions go, Boris was a knockout. These 7th grade boys are nothing compared to the enraged Russian peasantry who turned against their Tsar. Vincero!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Was this the week that was, or what was it anyway?
Friday about 4 pm: Whew! Where to start? This was another hyper-intense week for me at the Young Oak Kim Academy. I am searching for an adequate metaphor. Here are some of the possibilities:
Last weekend of course was the NASSPE conference in Las Vegas. I came home intellectually stimulated—somewhat oppositionally to the nostalgie de la boue (I can’t get this vivid phrase out of my mind!) of the keynote speech by the founder and director of the organization—but also positively energized by the great teachers who led the workshops.
So I am feeling pretty positive on Monday, if a bit fatigued from all of the driving. (Remember that Monday and Thursday are my easy days with a conference period.) Well, Monday is a long, excruciating train wreck. That is the phrase that comes to mind at the end of the day. I feel like I have collided with the speeding freight train of male adolescence. SMASH! CRASH! BOOM! There go my discussion points, reading selections, key terms, flying off into the air. I am devastated and crawl home to lick my wounds.
Tuesday is a bit better. The periods are shorter and end at lunch. I get through my reduced plan and meet with the other English teachers for the afternoon. During this meeting I learn that:
On to Wednesday!
Not too bad. Solid teaching 830-330 with 30 min lunch. Today I feel like Hercules wrestling Antaeus…If I can just lift him off the ground I can subdue him. Through constant effort, prowling around the room, cajoling and admonishing and threatening, I make it through the lessons. Hurray!
Unfortunately I stay until 6 pm entering grades, but still don’t finish and discover that I can take until 6 pm on Thursday to finish them.
Thursday…a day with a conference period…I work feverishly on grades…classes go OK, although first period is a wild group. Most of them had a full hour of detention the day before with our math teacher Ms. Huang, so they were a little chastened, but not much. Again I stay until 6 pm entering grades, caroming between vengeance and encouragement, feeling alternately punitive and indulgent. (I remember this grading ambivalence vividly from my Crenshaw days.)
I am increasingly struck by the significant number of students who are reasonable, willing to work, and eager to discuss the issues of the lesson. I am searching for ways to respond to these students and let them drive the agenda rather than the others—the noisy ones.
I am beginning to wonder if all the talk about how boys behave in class might be defined by this minority of vocal, active, sometimes disruptive boys, while an even larger group of boys have much more moderate personalities that don’t require special techniques. The vocal boys are often very bright and interesting, but they can make it difficult in class because of their lack of self-control. I’ll have to think more about this.
And now Friday (the perfect storm, remember?). Second period is pretty good—we just about get through the selection from Bone Black by bell hooks. Then fourth period (speech elective) is convulsed by a series of irruptive incidents that hurl everyone off into hyper-excitement. They barely finish their speeches about elementary school teachers. The principal even comes in because of one of the incidents—the students are silent in his presence of course.
In advisory we discuss prejudice in all its forms. Not a bad discussion really, but lots of shushing in between comments. Then 6th brings another maelstrom of random activity. (Remember Brownian motion from chemistry class? That’s how I visualize these classes sometimes.) Sixth period is small, only about 25 students, but many have very low literacy skills and very short attention spans, even by the modest standards of 12 year old boys.
Sixth also has the admirable student who is in a wheel chair and doesn’t speak or write, but understands everything and composes assignments using a cumbersome mechanism that allows him to choose letters and words with movements of his head. He has a full time aide. I often marvel at how hard he works to accomplish the simplest assignments.
Sixth period doesn’t go well at all, and I realize I have to reassess my approach to this group.
And…at last…3:24 pm! Chairs up on the tables, most paper picked up, ciao ragazzi!
Whew!
But really nothing is finished. I get a weekend to rest and recuperate, but I still have to push faster with the narrative unit, get them onto the computers, straighten up and decorate my room (which like every other space in my life--car, house, yard, garage, cubicle, office, etc.--is cluttering up) and think about what I can do that’s even more engaging and motivational. I’m even more exhausted just thinking about it.
So, am I making progress? This week didn’t feel like progress. I didn’t feel at all successful this week. The challenge of managing their behavior sufficiently to conduct interesting, productive lessons is still daunting. I can think of lots of authentic educational activities, but I am often brought up short at the prospect of managing the students during these activities. I console myself by thinking that after all I am at 62 more like a new teacher, and of course I don’t know it all and have to learn on the job. So I will of course push forward on Monday with renewed energy, enhanced by enjoying “Le Nozze di Figaro” on Sunday at the L.A. Opera.
Tonight when I leave school I think I will walk up Vermont to eat at one of the Bangladeshi restaurants in the neighborhood. There is a growing Bangladeshi community in the area, and I have a dozen or so Bangladeshi students who suggested some places to eat good Bangladeshi food. Then I will tell my classes about it. We have a little problem with some anti-Moslem name-calling (terrorist, etc.) so I need to bring it up in advisory. I hope you enjoyed reading about my week.
- Roller coaster ride
- Train wreck
- Hercules’ fight with Antaeus
- Walking fast through chest-high water
Last weekend of course was the NASSPE conference in Las Vegas. I came home intellectually stimulated—somewhat oppositionally to the nostalgie de la boue (I can’t get this vivid phrase out of my mind!) of the keynote speech by the founder and director of the organization—but also positively energized by the great teachers who led the workshops.
So I am feeling pretty positive on Monday, if a bit fatigued from all of the driving. (Remember that Monday and Thursday are my easy days with a conference period.) Well, Monday is a long, excruciating train wreck. That is the phrase that comes to mind at the end of the day. I feel like I have collided with the speeding freight train of male adolescence. SMASH! CRASH! BOOM! There go my discussion points, reading selections, key terms, flying off into the air. I am devastated and crawl home to lick my wounds.
Tuesday is a bit better. The periods are shorter and end at lunch. I get through my reduced plan and meet with the other English teachers for the afternoon. During this meeting I learn that:
- Everyone has a hard time getting through the curriculum;
- Ms Turner (8th grade girls English) has a beautiful room filled with books and posters and objets d’art!
- I’d better get ready for the district “periodic assessment” by checking out the sample questions at the district website;
- I have 4 weeks to finish the unit on narrative because expository has to start in November;
- Grades have to be entered online by 6 pm Wednesday;
- I really like Ms Turner’s room!
- The MEN’S room on the 3rd floor (Girls Academy) has a floral print on the wall and a little table with a vase of flowers and a newspaper, in stark contrast to the men’s room on the Boys Academy floor.
- Girls are not actually perfect in class, but they are probably easier to manage than boys (maybe only because they’re more mature).
On to Wednesday!
Not too bad. Solid teaching 830-330 with 30 min lunch. Today I feel like Hercules wrestling Antaeus…If I can just lift him off the ground I can subdue him. Through constant effort, prowling around the room, cajoling and admonishing and threatening, I make it through the lessons. Hurray!
Unfortunately I stay until 6 pm entering grades, but still don’t finish and discover that I can take until 6 pm on Thursday to finish them.
Thursday…a day with a conference period…I work feverishly on grades…classes go OK, although first period is a wild group. Most of them had a full hour of detention the day before with our math teacher Ms. Huang, so they were a little chastened, but not much. Again I stay until 6 pm entering grades, caroming between vengeance and encouragement, feeling alternately punitive and indulgent. (I remember this grading ambivalence vividly from my Crenshaw days.)
I am increasingly struck by the significant number of students who are reasonable, willing to work, and eager to discuss the issues of the lesson. I am searching for ways to respond to these students and let them drive the agenda rather than the others—the noisy ones.
I am beginning to wonder if all the talk about how boys behave in class might be defined by this minority of vocal, active, sometimes disruptive boys, while an even larger group of boys have much more moderate personalities that don’t require special techniques. The vocal boys are often very bright and interesting, but they can make it difficult in class because of their lack of self-control. I’ll have to think more about this.
And now Friday (the perfect storm, remember?). Second period is pretty good—we just about get through the selection from Bone Black by bell hooks. Then fourth period (speech elective) is convulsed by a series of irruptive incidents that hurl everyone off into hyper-excitement. They barely finish their speeches about elementary school teachers. The principal even comes in because of one of the incidents—the students are silent in his presence of course.
In advisory we discuss prejudice in all its forms. Not a bad discussion really, but lots of shushing in between comments. Then 6th brings another maelstrom of random activity. (Remember Brownian motion from chemistry class? That’s how I visualize these classes sometimes.) Sixth period is small, only about 25 students, but many have very low literacy skills and very short attention spans, even by the modest standards of 12 year old boys.
Sixth also has the admirable student who is in a wheel chair and doesn’t speak or write, but understands everything and composes assignments using a cumbersome mechanism that allows him to choose letters and words with movements of his head. He has a full time aide. I often marvel at how hard he works to accomplish the simplest assignments.
Sixth period doesn’t go well at all, and I realize I have to reassess my approach to this group.
And…at last…3:24 pm! Chairs up on the tables, most paper picked up, ciao ragazzi!
Whew!
But really nothing is finished. I get a weekend to rest and recuperate, but I still have to push faster with the narrative unit, get them onto the computers, straighten up and decorate my room (which like every other space in my life--car, house, yard, garage, cubicle, office, etc.--is cluttering up) and think about what I can do that’s even more engaging and motivational. I’m even more exhausted just thinking about it.
So, am I making progress? This week didn’t feel like progress. I didn’t feel at all successful this week. The challenge of managing their behavior sufficiently to conduct interesting, productive lessons is still daunting. I can think of lots of authentic educational activities, but I am often brought up short at the prospect of managing the students during these activities. I console myself by thinking that after all I am at 62 more like a new teacher, and of course I don’t know it all and have to learn on the job. So I will of course push forward on Monday with renewed energy, enhanced by enjoying “Le Nozze di Figaro” on Sunday at the L.A. Opera.
Tonight when I leave school I think I will walk up Vermont to eat at one of the Bangladeshi restaurants in the neighborhood. There is a growing Bangladeshi community in the area, and I have a dozen or so Bangladeshi students who suggested some places to eat good Bangladeshi food. Then I will tell my classes about it. We have a little problem with some anti-Moslem name-calling (terrorist, etc.) so I need to bring it up in advisory. I hope you enjoyed reading about my week.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Improved technique or nostalgie de la boue?
(Thoughts at the end of the conference) I’ve come to Las Vegas for the 6th annual conference of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE). Several hundred teachers, administrators, and teacher educators have gathered to discuss single gender education. My informal impression is that most of them are from schools that are trying out some single sex classrooms. Some teachers I spoke to taught a couple of boy classes and a couple of girl classes. There were a couple of private boys schools represented. There weren’t many schools that were entirely single gender like YOKA.
The opening speaker was Leonard Sax, the director of the organization and one of the intellectual forces behind the single gender movement. I had expected to hear about the latest brain research that studied the differences between male and female brains and learning, but instead Dr. Sax made an eloquent plea for a return to the “Community of Men” and “Community of Women” that socialized boys and girls into their roles in society. He mentioned sewing circles and working on cars as examples of what adult women and men taught to girls and boys. (Can you guess who learned which skill?)
This made me a little uneasy since in addition to sewing and fixing engines this socialization also included the admonition to obey the husband and make him a beautiful home (girls) and the authorization to bring home the bacon and beat the wife if she got out of line (boys). (Not to mention the transmitted views of homosexuality.)
Then I got really uncomfortable when he cited two cultures that had lasted because they had clear definitions of the roles of men and women: Orthodox Judaism and Navajo culture. I don’t know much about Navajo culture, nor about Orthodox Judaism, but I do know that the latter is virulently sexist and homophobic.
These less savory historical features didn’t dim the rosy glow, the nostalgie de la boue, presented in his speech. For me he crossed over from the goal of finding the best way to teach the same standards and content to both genders to a mission to resurrect a past that exalted men and oppressed women. That’s not what I signed on for, and I don’t think it’s the prevailing attitude at my school (Young Oak Kim Academy).
The other workshops at the conference were much more practical and focused on strategies and techniques for reaching boys and girls. The best aspect of these presentations was the chance to hear from very effective teachers who had extensive experience in single gender education. It’s always inspiring and informative to listen to great teachers.
I learned a lot about brain differences and behavioral differences that suggested divergent techniques for teaching. There seemed to be agreement that it was harder to get boys to use teamwork, that boys didn’t hear as well, and that boys‘ brains were stronger in spatial manipulation than reading and writing skills. I went to one workshop that emphasized the importance of movement for both boys and girls. Another stressed the efficacy of small group learning environments.
All in all it was a useful conference. It was clear that there are no sure fire techniques that never fail, but I still learned a lot about different ways to improve my teaching. I came away with a bunch of suggestions and a greater overall understanding of the potential benefits and pitfalls of single gender education. Here are some caveats to this trend:
The opening speaker was Leonard Sax, the director of the organization and one of the intellectual forces behind the single gender movement. I had expected to hear about the latest brain research that studied the differences between male and female brains and learning, but instead Dr. Sax made an eloquent plea for a return to the “Community of Men” and “Community of Women” that socialized boys and girls into their roles in society. He mentioned sewing circles and working on cars as examples of what adult women and men taught to girls and boys. (Can you guess who learned which skill?)
This made me a little uneasy since in addition to sewing and fixing engines this socialization also included the admonition to obey the husband and make him a beautiful home (girls) and the authorization to bring home the bacon and beat the wife if she got out of line (boys). (Not to mention the transmitted views of homosexuality.)
Then I got really uncomfortable when he cited two cultures that had lasted because they had clear definitions of the roles of men and women: Orthodox Judaism and Navajo culture. I don’t know much about Navajo culture, nor about Orthodox Judaism, but I do know that the latter is virulently sexist and homophobic.
These less savory historical features didn’t dim the rosy glow, the nostalgie de la boue, presented in his speech. For me he crossed over from the goal of finding the best way to teach the same standards and content to both genders to a mission to resurrect a past that exalted men and oppressed women. That’s not what I signed on for, and I don’t think it’s the prevailing attitude at my school (Young Oak Kim Academy).
The other workshops at the conference were much more practical and focused on strategies and techniques for reaching boys and girls. The best aspect of these presentations was the chance to hear from very effective teachers who had extensive experience in single gender education. It’s always inspiring and informative to listen to great teachers.
I learned a lot about brain differences and behavioral differences that suggested divergent techniques for teaching. There seemed to be agreement that it was harder to get boys to use teamwork, that boys didn’t hear as well, and that boys‘ brains were stronger in spatial manipulation than reading and writing skills. I went to one workshop that emphasized the importance of movement for both boys and girls. Another stressed the efficacy of small group learning environments.
All in all it was a useful conference. It was clear that there are no sure fire techniques that never fail, but I still learned a lot about different ways to improve my teaching. I came away with a bunch of suggestions and a greater overall understanding of the potential benefits and pitfalls of single gender education. Here are some caveats to this trend:
- Attempts to define how boys and girls learn differently can lead to better teaching practices tailored to the strengths of each group.
- Many boys and girls don’t fit the mold of divergent learning styles based on gender, and these differences are a gradation between extremes with a large overlap.
- Generalizations about how boys and girls learn differently must not become rules or expectations to impose on them.
- The vast areas of commonality between boys and girls based on developmental and social factors must always drive the major part of curriculum and instruction.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Too much to do, too little time, too long the drive before I sleep.
Another Friday, sans conference period, and I’m near collapse at 3:24 when the bell rings. These Fridays are a perfect storm: I and my team have no conference period (because of the otherwise sound block scheduling), the 7th grade boys don’t have PE today (so we took them out to the basketball courts for part of advisory), and it’s Friday!
So I barely manage to stumble across the finish line with dignity intact and voice audible. I know everyone feels like this at this point. I have vivid memories of 1975 when I was hired to teach English at Crenshaw HS in south Los Angeles by the principal Sid Thompson. (Years later I would hire Sid as Superintendent while I was on the Board. LAUSD is just a village after all.)
Anyway, I remember that in 1975 I was bone tired, exhausted, drained of energy after a day or a week teaching. Then of course I really didn’t know what I was doing. Now I have an inkling, but much remains to be put back in place.
That process of rebuilding my expertise got a big boost this week when I went to a training on the narrative unit in English 7. I think the District curriculum is very good. It’s student centered and constructivist, but it still covers the main standards intensively. It aims to give the students an authentic experience of reading and writing narratives, and it culminates in a project that asks them to write about their own communities. Now that I grasp the big picture and the specific lessons of this curriculum I feel more confident in the day-to-day work we will be doing.
This still leaves me with the job of managing the behavior of the students, so I can take them through the various steps of the curriculum that will leave them with a deeper understanding of what narrative is. That management will be aided by my new clarity on the lessons, but will also still require more and more little behavioral tricks. And that means more record keeping, an activity which I am constitutionally inept at. And it’ll still be grueling on Fridays!
This also I remember: so much happens so fast in teaching. Now I have grades due next week, and a pre-assessment getting ready for the periodic assessments in a month or so. And I feel pressed to get them working on computers more (who writes on paper these days?).
Tuesday the faculty heard a presentation by Stephen Jimenez of Project 10. I remember the early days of Project 10 when Virginia Uribe started it at Fairfax. As a program aimed at LGBT students it always had controversy swirling around it. Mr. Jimenez’s presentation was engaging and provocative; he focused on the legal liabilities if the district didn’t protect the rights of all students to a safe and secure educational environment no matter what their sexual orientation or gender identity. I was definitely in my comfort zone with that kind of broad policy discussion, but now I have a different, more urgent set of tasks than developing policy—namely, to be ready to teach on the next day.
As soon as I leave school today I’m driving to Las Vegas for the conference of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. I’m expecting to learn a lot about how to teach these boys in subtly different ways so as to maximize the benefits of separating them from the girls. So far I am comfortable with the division, as are most of the boys. They seem very natural in their high-energy, testosterone driven behaviors. Still I know there is more I can learn in order to reach them more directly with the skills and concepts I want to teach them.
And so it goes. I’m looking forward to a long drive. I hope the traffic isn’t too bad. Maybe I’ll listen to some Mahler, or Ella Fitzgerald, or recent Bob Dylan. I’ll drink coffee steadily and try to get to bed early.
Finally, I want to thank Mr. Cortines for his kind words.
A bientot.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Pastoral interlude
Saturday morning my birding mentor Judith from down the street asked me to join her as she lead a group of students from Leo Politi Elementary School on a bird walk around MacArthur Park. The principal at Politi is also a birder. At about 9 am about 20 students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade and some parents arrived at the park with the principal. Judith had prepared lists of birds found in the park, and she appointed students to search at ground level and up in the trees.
We began our walk. Right away we saw a bushtit in a tree. Then we studied the birds in the lake--ducks, geese, gulls, a few cormorants--and then...a juvenile black-crowned night heron! Later a bunch of crows, a black phoebe, a wounded gull, some feral parakeets. The principal seized every opportunity to expand their language usage in Spanish and English and to draw information and opinion from the students. After circling the park we gathered for pictures and reviewed what we had seen. The kids had a great time, as did we all. And dear old Leo Politi, whose ageless children's books celebrated the rich diversity of a child's Los Angeles, would have been thrilled.
MacArthur Park is a heavily used urban park, but it is still home to a wide assortment of birds, some permanent and some just passing through. The boat house is closed due to budget cuts, but the fall migration south is still beginning. Right there in the heart of Los Angeles these students got a taste of life in the air, life that might go from Canada to Argentina in a month’s time. What did they learn? They learned to look closely around them and up in the treetops, to search for the details in the world, and to wonder about everything.
Most formal schooling takes place in classrooms, but it’s very important to remember how much learning can happen out in the world. Good schools and good teachers can help that process along. This bird walk was a reminder that we should support learning wherever it happens.
We began our walk. Right away we saw a bushtit in a tree. Then we studied the birds in the lake--ducks, geese, gulls, a few cormorants--and then...a juvenile black-crowned night heron! Later a bunch of crows, a black phoebe, a wounded gull, some feral parakeets. The principal seized every opportunity to expand their language usage in Spanish and English and to draw information and opinion from the students. After circling the park we gathered for pictures and reviewed what we had seen. The kids had a great time, as did we all. And dear old Leo Politi, whose ageless children's books celebrated the rich diversity of a child's Los Angeles, would have been thrilled.
MacArthur Park is a heavily used urban park, but it is still home to a wide assortment of birds, some permanent and some just passing through. The boat house is closed due to budget cuts, but the fall migration south is still beginning. Right there in the heart of Los Angeles these students got a taste of life in the air, life that might go from Canada to Argentina in a month’s time. What did they learn? They learned to look closely around them and up in the treetops, to search for the details in the world, and to wonder about everything.
Most formal schooling takes place in classrooms, but it’s very important to remember how much learning can happen out in the world. Good schools and good teachers can help that process along. This bird walk was a reminder that we should support learning wherever it happens.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Taking a hike up the mountain of knowledge
Today was one of my "easy" days--with a conference period. (Wednesday and Friday our team goes straight through, 8:30-3:30 with only 30 minutes for lunch.) I had two of my English classes, and I felt that I made some headway with them. The classes of about 35 are finally organized into groups of 3 and 4. I am beginning to see the students in the groups interact with each other. That means that I can deal with each group semi-independently, thus improving my odds from 1-35 to 1-4.
Here's what I accomplished in these English classes: They each wrote a paragraph about a time when they did something for the first time that was kind of hard or scary. Many of them wrote about riding a bicycle or a roller coaster, starting school, swimming, getting a shot, or something like that. This was pretty straightforward, but then I asked them to read their stories to the other members of their groups, decide which was the most interesting, and choose another member of the group to read that story. This process got a little noisy, but I think most of them read their stories to each other, and all the groups picked one story and another student to read it.
Now came the hard part. The "reader" from each group had to stand up and read the other student's story, and THE REST OF THE CLASS HAD TO BE QUIET AND LISTEN. This is very hard for them. They can barely get quiet for a few minutes to listen to me, and they rarely listen to each other in a formal class setting. (I think that in their view all of that kind of stuff--reading your assignment, answering questions, etc.--is just for the teacher, not for each other. This is a problem because the developmental priorities of adolescents are to build peer relations and assert their own authority.)
Anyway, with much shushing and admonishing, we did get through each of the groups reading one of their stories. I think they sort of liked this process of writing and reading for each other, and if that's true they will be increasingly willing to restrain their behavior for the sake of listening and speaking to their classmates. This is the dynamic that I want to create. Time will tell if I have succeeded. I have my other two English classes tomorrow. We'll see if things work out the same, but I felt that I made some progress today.
The path forward will certainly be steep and rocky, with sudden drop-offs on each side, rock slides, detours, switchbacks, dead-ends, mirages, menacing wildlife, mysterious caves, stinging insects. But there will also be spectacular panoramas on all sides, snow-capped peaks, clean fresh air, beautiful trees, wildflowers, songbirds, chipmunks and lots of good fellowship during the climb. And at the end of the path, a bubbling spring of knowledge to slake our thirst. Isn't nature swell!
Here's what I accomplished in these English classes: They each wrote a paragraph about a time when they did something for the first time that was kind of hard or scary. Many of them wrote about riding a bicycle or a roller coaster, starting school, swimming, getting a shot, or something like that. This was pretty straightforward, but then I asked them to read their stories to the other members of their groups, decide which was the most interesting, and choose another member of the group to read that story. This process got a little noisy, but I think most of them read their stories to each other, and all the groups picked one story and another student to read it.
Now came the hard part. The "reader" from each group had to stand up and read the other student's story, and THE REST OF THE CLASS HAD TO BE QUIET AND LISTEN. This is very hard for them. They can barely get quiet for a few minutes to listen to me, and they rarely listen to each other in a formal class setting. (I think that in their view all of that kind of stuff--reading your assignment, answering questions, etc.--is just for the teacher, not for each other. This is a problem because the developmental priorities of adolescents are to build peer relations and assert their own authority.)
Anyway, with much shushing and admonishing, we did get through each of the groups reading one of their stories. I think they sort of liked this process of writing and reading for each other, and if that's true they will be increasingly willing to restrain their behavior for the sake of listening and speaking to their classmates. This is the dynamic that I want to create. Time will tell if I have succeeded. I have my other two English classes tomorrow. We'll see if things work out the same, but I felt that I made some progress today.
The path forward will certainly be steep and rocky, with sudden drop-offs on each side, rock slides, detours, switchbacks, dead-ends, mirages, menacing wildlife, mysterious caves, stinging insects. But there will also be spectacular panoramas on all sides, snow-capped peaks, clean fresh air, beautiful trees, wildflowers, songbirds, chipmunks and lots of good fellowship during the climb. And at the end of the path, a bubbling spring of knowledge to slake our thirst. Isn't nature swell!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
This job is kicking my butt!!
Monday evening: OK, this post will be very spontaneous and off the cuff, or off the floor maybe. Basically I just want to make the considered and astute observation that this new job of mine, this job teaching a passel of 7th grade boys, this noble and glorious return to the classroom that I blog and talk about endlessly now--THIS JOB IS KICKING MY BUTT!!
Some of these boys are calm and reasonably able to focus on the work. So far so good. But many of them are....not that way. These others seem to talk and move uncontrollably as if in the grip of some irresistible compulsion. Each period is a series of short 60 second bursts of purposeful activity followed by several minutes of quieting them down again. This process is repeated throughout the period, giving every activity a slow-motion quality that cuts my agendas in half. And leaves me exhausted.
To be honest, I have seen signs of progress, some indications that if I stay the course, insisting on their attention and their focus, I will gradually win them over. So of course I’m renewing my efforts daily and learning all I can from all sources (including, I hope, you, dear reader--please note the comment box below...).
Here’s my dilemma:
Is my difficulty the result of inadequate planning or technique or management on my part?
...or...
Is it the natural, rocky start to the process of gradually building a relationship with a group of students?
In other words, should the teacher come into the class with a complete plan to govern the students? or is a class more like a relationship that you enter into with general goals and principles and then see how it develops? I guess it’s somewhere in between. No matter how comprehensive the plan, the nature of the students will require flexibility, but it’s also true that more planning prepares the teacher for whatever comes.
ping-pong, yin-yang, give-take, yada yada yada
Anyway, I feel better now.
* * * * * *
I didn’t post the above right away, and now it’s Tuesday night. I went to a training today and there was a substitute for my classes. The training was about an online program the school has purchased that allows students to write and get some preliminary editing from the program. I think it will be good because it will encourage students to write on the computer (after all that’s how we all write now) and give them instant feedback that the teacher can’t really manage for a whole class. It encourages rewriting, since students can improve their rating from the program if they make improvements. Working on a computer is also very motivational in itself. Since we have a cart with 20 computers I think I will be able to make good use of this program. I feel confident that this program will help me engage these students in the writing process. I’m feeling better already, and my voice got to rest.
Then tonight was back to school night, and my mood has swung further in the positive direction. We have an interesting mix of students--mostly Hispanic but with groups of African-Americans, Bangladeshi, Koreans, and Filipinos. There was a good cross-section who came to the school tonight. One parent brought me a can of orange juice as a thank you for teaching her child. Another parent told me where I could get some Bangladeshi food. Many of the parents spoke little or limited English (sadly I am monolingual), and some of their sons interpreted.
I remember the feeling of meeting these parents like this. (For some reason they seem to be mainly parents of the better behaved students. I wonder if that's a coincidence.) The parents are so earnest and concerned and respectful it makes me feel like I need to work even harder. It makes me regret that I have allowed some unruly students to detract from everyone’s learning. I vow to work harder to justify these parents’ trust in me. How can I do any less?
And so it goes--up and down, back and forth, within and without. This job is still kicking my butt, but I guess I’m up to it after all.
Some of these boys are calm and reasonably able to focus on the work. So far so good. But many of them are....not that way. These others seem to talk and move uncontrollably as if in the grip of some irresistible compulsion. Each period is a series of short 60 second bursts of purposeful activity followed by several minutes of quieting them down again. This process is repeated throughout the period, giving every activity a slow-motion quality that cuts my agendas in half. And leaves me exhausted.
To be honest, I have seen signs of progress, some indications that if I stay the course, insisting on their attention and their focus, I will gradually win them over. So of course I’m renewing my efforts daily and learning all I can from all sources (including, I hope, you, dear reader--please note the comment box below...).
Here’s my dilemma:
Is my difficulty the result of inadequate planning or technique or management on my part?
...or...
Is it the natural, rocky start to the process of gradually building a relationship with a group of students?
In other words, should the teacher come into the class with a complete plan to govern the students? or is a class more like a relationship that you enter into with general goals and principles and then see how it develops? I guess it’s somewhere in between. No matter how comprehensive the plan, the nature of the students will require flexibility, but it’s also true that more planning prepares the teacher for whatever comes.
ping-pong, yin-yang, give-take, yada yada yada
Anyway, I feel better now.
* * * * * *
I didn’t post the above right away, and now it’s Tuesday night. I went to a training today and there was a substitute for my classes. The training was about an online program the school has purchased that allows students to write and get some preliminary editing from the program. I think it will be good because it will encourage students to write on the computer (after all that’s how we all write now) and give them instant feedback that the teacher can’t really manage for a whole class. It encourages rewriting, since students can improve their rating from the program if they make improvements. Working on a computer is also very motivational in itself. Since we have a cart with 20 computers I think I will be able to make good use of this program. I feel confident that this program will help me engage these students in the writing process. I’m feeling better already, and my voice got to rest.
Then tonight was back to school night, and my mood has swung further in the positive direction. We have an interesting mix of students--mostly Hispanic but with groups of African-Americans, Bangladeshi, Koreans, and Filipinos. There was a good cross-section who came to the school tonight. One parent brought me a can of orange juice as a thank you for teaching her child. Another parent told me where I could get some Bangladeshi food. Many of the parents spoke little or limited English (sadly I am monolingual), and some of their sons interpreted.
I remember the feeling of meeting these parents like this. (For some reason they seem to be mainly parents of the better behaved students. I wonder if that's a coincidence.) The parents are so earnest and concerned and respectful it makes me feel like I need to work even harder. It makes me regret that I have allowed some unruly students to detract from everyone’s learning. I vow to work harder to justify these parents’ trust in me. How can I do any less?
And so it goes--up and down, back and forth, within and without. This job is still kicking my butt, but I guess I’m up to it after all.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Diane Ravitch--Prodigal daughter returns with a bang!
Friday night I walked a few blocks west on Wilshire to the awesome Gothic revival Immanuel Presbyterian Church to hear a speech by Diane Ravitch. She was sponsored by my union, United Teachers Los Angeles; the union headquarters is right across the street.
(Before going into the church I took the opportunity to walk by the new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools at the site of the old Ambassador Hotel. It’s a magnificent building, a real asset to the community. Along Wilshire is a wonderful pocket park with references to RFK and other popular leaders. I don’t know why there has been so much whining and complaining about this new school. The architecture is immeasurably superior to most of the pompous faux Renaissance and gaudy post-modernist eyesores that are springing up all over downtown. The site offers a wide swath of green lawn in front of a sweeping arc of glass and steel fronted by an elegant little art-deco homage. And thousands of children can go to school in their own neighborhood!)
Diane Ravitch is a brilliant historian of education. She is also a prodigal daughter who has come in from the cold of Reaganism and privatization to the warmth of the classroom teachers who struggle every day to meet the needs of our country’s children. She used to be a shill for the conservatives’ efforts to dismantle the public schools, but then saw the truth that teachers are achieving daily miracles on shoestring budgets rendered inadequate by the diversion of public resources to enrich the corporate oligarchs.
In her speech she laid out just how devastating is the attack on public education, started in the Reagan administration and continuing unabated until now when even Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are promoting the fraudulent nostrums of charter schools, privatization, testing and merit pay. As she pointed out, the current wave of “reform” pairs deep budget cuts with an abandonment of the original intent of federal education programs to provide equal education for all.
Her analysis is thorough and frankly very depressing. After all if even Obama is singing the discredited tunes of charter schools and merit pay, what hope do we have? The audience was mostly teachers and school administrators, with a couple of board members (LaMotte and Zimmer), and they cheered loudly as Ms Ravitch ticked off these elements of the “dominant narrative” and showed how each is unsubstantiated and even contrary to the evidence. For example, study after study has showed that on the average charter schools perform worse that public schools, and yet even a smart guy like Obama continues to invoke the mantra of charter schools as a solution to our problems. (Check out Laura Clawson's comments on research about charter schools.)
I had a great time catching up with old friends from my activist days in UTLA. Most of the old friends were surprised to hear that I was back in the classroom since people rarely return to that situation. I was also glad to kill the fattened calf to welcome this prodigal daughter back into the fold. Unfortunately I didn’t really get any help with my main challenge these days: teaching writing and reading to a passel of lively 7th grade boys.
As Ms Ravitch described the systematic vilification of public schools and teachers, I realized that we were just the last target standing of the “safety net” for the middle class in American society. So just as the industrial labor unions were blamed for driving industry out of the US, now the teacher unions are being blamed for ruining public education.
The “dominant narrative,” Ms Ravitch’s term, is the same: all of the great institutions that created the most dynamic and prosperous middle class in history (USA, 1950-1980) have been systematically targeted for destruction in order to transfer vast wealth to an oligarchic elite of banksters and ponzi schemers who sell out their country every chance they get. Affordable housing, secure employment and retirement, health care and now public education both K-12 and college--these institutions allowed the middle class to thrive, and all have been decimated by Reaganism.
Ms Ravitch is a historian and not a political strategist. She doesn’t know how to defeat this attack, nor does anyone else. The sheer power wielded by the likes of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, and now Oprah Winfrey has co-opted our putative allies in the Democratic Party, so we’re on our own together with the parents and children we serve.
Our best hope may lie in a younger generation that believes in finding common solutions to common problems, that looks for success in collaboration rather than competition, that pays attention to the weakest link in the chain in order to preserve the whole chain.
And guess what? That generation is in my classroom every day!
(Before going into the church I took the opportunity to walk by the new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools at the site of the old Ambassador Hotel. It’s a magnificent building, a real asset to the community. Along Wilshire is a wonderful pocket park with references to RFK and other popular leaders. I don’t know why there has been so much whining and complaining about this new school. The architecture is immeasurably superior to most of the pompous faux Renaissance and gaudy post-modernist eyesores that are springing up all over downtown. The site offers a wide swath of green lawn in front of a sweeping arc of glass and steel fronted by an elegant little art-deco homage. And thousands of children can go to school in their own neighborhood!)
Diane Ravitch is a brilliant historian of education. She is also a prodigal daughter who has come in from the cold of Reaganism and privatization to the warmth of the classroom teachers who struggle every day to meet the needs of our country’s children. She used to be a shill for the conservatives’ efforts to dismantle the public schools, but then saw the truth that teachers are achieving daily miracles on shoestring budgets rendered inadequate by the diversion of public resources to enrich the corporate oligarchs.
In her speech she laid out just how devastating is the attack on public education, started in the Reagan administration and continuing unabated until now when even Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are promoting the fraudulent nostrums of charter schools, privatization, testing and merit pay. As she pointed out, the current wave of “reform” pairs deep budget cuts with an abandonment of the original intent of federal education programs to provide equal education for all.
Her analysis is thorough and frankly very depressing. After all if even Obama is singing the discredited tunes of charter schools and merit pay, what hope do we have? The audience was mostly teachers and school administrators, with a couple of board members (LaMotte and Zimmer), and they cheered loudly as Ms Ravitch ticked off these elements of the “dominant narrative” and showed how each is unsubstantiated and even contrary to the evidence. For example, study after study has showed that on the average charter schools perform worse that public schools, and yet even a smart guy like Obama continues to invoke the mantra of charter schools as a solution to our problems. (Check out Laura Clawson's comments on research about charter schools.)
I had a great time catching up with old friends from my activist days in UTLA. Most of the old friends were surprised to hear that I was back in the classroom since people rarely return to that situation. I was also glad to kill the fattened calf to welcome this prodigal daughter back into the fold. Unfortunately I didn’t really get any help with my main challenge these days: teaching writing and reading to a passel of lively 7th grade boys.
As Ms Ravitch described the systematic vilification of public schools and teachers, I realized that we were just the last target standing of the “safety net” for the middle class in American society. So just as the industrial labor unions were blamed for driving industry out of the US, now the teacher unions are being blamed for ruining public education.
The “dominant narrative,” Ms Ravitch’s term, is the same: all of the great institutions that created the most dynamic and prosperous middle class in history (USA, 1950-1980) have been systematically targeted for destruction in order to transfer vast wealth to an oligarchic elite of banksters and ponzi schemers who sell out their country every chance they get. Affordable housing, secure employment and retirement, health care and now public education both K-12 and college--these institutions allowed the middle class to thrive, and all have been decimated by Reaganism.
Ms Ravitch is a historian and not a political strategist. She doesn’t know how to defeat this attack, nor does anyone else. The sheer power wielded by the likes of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, and now Oprah Winfrey has co-opted our putative allies in the Democratic Party, so we’re on our own together with the parents and children we serve.
Our best hope may lie in a younger generation that believes in finding common solutions to common problems, that looks for success in collaboration rather than competition, that pays attention to the weakest link in the chain in order to preserve the whole chain.
And guess what? That generation is in my classroom every day!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Some important discoveries: Coincidental? I think not!
In the past couple of days I have made a few important discoveries regarding my students. In no particular order:
Magic of the library: Yesterday I took my classes to an orientation to the YOKA library. This well-equipped and comfortable room is presided over by the estimable Ms. Duff who explained the various features and procedures of the library. Now these boys have been a lively, even tumultuous group at times, but they calmed down noticeably in the library. They listened politely to her power point presentation and then spent a quarter hour or so browsing the books and sitting at the computers. Some checked out books; all looked through the shelves. They talked, so it wasn’t silent, but there was an air of comfort and calm for the whole time. This is good to know about them, and I will strive to re-create this atmosphere in my much more utilitarian classroom.
Thrill of creativity: Today I gave them a brief scenario to serve as a starting point for a story they were to invent based on the scenario. After many repetitions and admonitions most of them got into the task of writing a story about a neighborhood of kids who had to play on a busy street. Then I asked them to read their stories, and after a couple of them read eagerly, all of a sudden many boys wanted to read their stories. “I’m next!” “Can I read now?” “It’s my turn!” It was a noisy class, but what else could it be when students are excited about what they are doing? I was highly encouraged to see how they responded so enthusiastically to a writing assignment. It bodes well for the future.
Heisenberg and the interpretation of standardized tests: Today we had professional development devoted to reviewing and analyzing the standardized test scores for our school. The goal was to begin to instruct in a way that met the standards-based needs of our students. I had three realizations during this session:
1. Some of my rowdiest students, whose names are already etched in my memory by virtue of asking them repeatedly to quiet down, had relatively high test scores--proficient or even advanced. The lesson: don’t be misled by childish behavior. It may well come with an agile brain and good skills.
2. I noticed that the seventh graders scored considerably higher (about 20 points) in “written conventions” (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.) than in “writing strategies” (actual writing of paragraphs, essays, etc.). The lesson: they have been taught the mechanics of language more than how to write. I would equalize this, or maybe even reverse it.
3. Finally, on a somewhat negative note, I felt again what I always feel when spending a long time poring over test result data: the closer you look at the data, the more significance you try to wring from the rows and columns of numbers marching across the page, the more you try to draw important conclusions from these scores--the more they become slippery or blurry (to mix metaphors). Like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (that favorite scientific principle of my late sixties countercultural college chums), you can pull back and see from afar in broad outlines the implications of test results, but when you try to get closer to see in greater detail you will begin to impact the observation with your own interpretation and thus won’t get an objective view. So although I got the two important realizations described above from the data we received, I ended up a little frustrated with the lack of clarity in our conclusions.
But it’s only the second week. I like these guys in my classes, and I look forward to getting to know them better and helping them realize their full potential as scholars and humans. That will sustain me through the year, even when the going gets rough.
Magic of the library: Yesterday I took my classes to an orientation to the YOKA library. This well-equipped and comfortable room is presided over by the estimable Ms. Duff who explained the various features and procedures of the library. Now these boys have been a lively, even tumultuous group at times, but they calmed down noticeably in the library. They listened politely to her power point presentation and then spent a quarter hour or so browsing the books and sitting at the computers. Some checked out books; all looked through the shelves. They talked, so it wasn’t silent, but there was an air of comfort and calm for the whole time. This is good to know about them, and I will strive to re-create this atmosphere in my much more utilitarian classroom.
Thrill of creativity: Today I gave them a brief scenario to serve as a starting point for a story they were to invent based on the scenario. After many repetitions and admonitions most of them got into the task of writing a story about a neighborhood of kids who had to play on a busy street. Then I asked them to read their stories, and after a couple of them read eagerly, all of a sudden many boys wanted to read their stories. “I’m next!” “Can I read now?” “It’s my turn!” It was a noisy class, but what else could it be when students are excited about what they are doing? I was highly encouraged to see how they responded so enthusiastically to a writing assignment. It bodes well for the future.
Heisenberg and the interpretation of standardized tests: Today we had professional development devoted to reviewing and analyzing the standardized test scores for our school. The goal was to begin to instruct in a way that met the standards-based needs of our students. I had three realizations during this session:
1. Some of my rowdiest students, whose names are already etched in my memory by virtue of asking them repeatedly to quiet down, had relatively high test scores--proficient or even advanced. The lesson: don’t be misled by childish behavior. It may well come with an agile brain and good skills.
2. I noticed that the seventh graders scored considerably higher (about 20 points) in “written conventions” (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.) than in “writing strategies” (actual writing of paragraphs, essays, etc.). The lesson: they have been taught the mechanics of language more than how to write. I would equalize this, or maybe even reverse it.
3. Finally, on a somewhat negative note, I felt again what I always feel when spending a long time poring over test result data: the closer you look at the data, the more significance you try to wring from the rows and columns of numbers marching across the page, the more you try to draw important conclusions from these scores--the more they become slippery or blurry (to mix metaphors). Like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (that favorite scientific principle of my late sixties countercultural college chums), you can pull back and see from afar in broad outlines the implications of test results, but when you try to get closer to see in greater detail you will begin to impact the observation with your own interpretation and thus won’t get an objective view. So although I got the two important realizations described above from the data we received, I ended up a little frustrated with the lack of clarity in our conclusions.
But it’s only the second week. I like these guys in my classes, and I look forward to getting to know them better and helping them realize their full potential as scholars and humans. That will sustain me through the year, even when the going gets rough.
Monday, September 20, 2010
On teacher fatigue and contradictions resolved, I hope
The first week has passed at Young Oak Kim Academy. At the end of the day Friday I was exhausted. I remember that feeling of exhaustion from 20 years ago at Crenshaw HS. It isn’t just physical fatigue like you’d feel from a full day of hard labor like loading trucks, harvesting crops, or building a house. In fact teaching is little more exercise than walking around. The fatigue comes from interacting with so many people in a dynamic and purposeful way.
Everyone knows that it’s tiring dealing with children. In large part that’s because you’re expected to guide, teach, manage, nurture, control, govern them, and ALL people young or old resist to some extent being controlled. So teachers have up to a hundred young people a day coming into and out of our lives, all of whom we are expected to guide, teach, etc. And notwithstanding all of our knowledge of human behavior, brain function, learning styles, etc., each of these young people is still unique and requires at least some small measure of special treatment. So that is what’s exhausting about teaching, and I remember that feeling even from 20 years ago.
Monday I’m going to begin organizing them into small groups, and I expect that all the rest of the year they will function in groups. Theory and my experience tell me that learning is a social activity (thank you Vygotsky) and that small groups are a better social environment than one big group of 30.
I also know that it will be important to structure the work so that the group really has to collaborate to get it done, rather than just sitting next to each other while they do individual work. This means devoting some time to developing the processes for working in a group such as the different roles for group members, a means for the group to assess the work and to assess themselves, etc.
I think that the use of small groups will bridge the gap between strict teacher-centered management and open-ended student-centered exploration. And I think the next step for me is to understand and process the vast amount of district-provided curriculum material. More on that later.
Everyone knows that it’s tiring dealing with children. In large part that’s because you’re expected to guide, teach, manage, nurture, control, govern them, and ALL people young or old resist to some extent being controlled. So teachers have up to a hundred young people a day coming into and out of our lives, all of whom we are expected to guide, teach, etc. And notwithstanding all of our knowledge of human behavior, brain function, learning styles, etc., each of these young people is still unique and requires at least some small measure of special treatment. So that is what’s exhausting about teaching, and I remember that feeling even from 20 years ago.
Monday I’m going to begin organizing them into small groups, and I expect that all the rest of the year they will function in groups. Theory and my experience tell me that learning is a social activity (thank you Vygotsky) and that small groups are a better social environment than one big group of 30.
I also know that it will be important to structure the work so that the group really has to collaborate to get it done, rather than just sitting next to each other while they do individual work. This means devoting some time to developing the processes for working in a group such as the different roles for group members, a means for the group to assess the work and to assess themselves, etc.
I think that the use of small groups will bridge the gap between strict teacher-centered management and open-ended student-centered exploration. And I think the next step for me is to understand and process the vast amount of district-provided curriculum material. More on that later.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Long day....side trip on Show Boat
Short post today: With the block schedule we do three periods each day. Wed and Fri are the days that I don't have a conference period, so it's non-stop boys from 830-330 with a half-hour lunch. Very tiring (much too tiring for complete sentences). Plus I have a 6th period which I think will be very challenging. Many low-skilled, high-energy students with after-lunch energy....got milk?
I'm getting closer to squaring the circle--tighter organization to "guide" behavior but still student-centered instruction to deepen the learning. I think the answer lies in cooperative learning groups. I'm consulting my sources.
I want to insert a brief musical digression. Somehow I have gotten hooked on "Show Boat," the ground-breaking 1927 musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II based on Edna Ferber's bestseller. The score includes such classics as Ol' Man River, Can't Help Lovin That Man, You Are Love, Bill, Make Believe, After the Ball, and others. It revolutionized the American musical theatre, bringing an intense drama that followed a show business family for 40 years and included topics such as segregation, miscegenation, alcoholism, and wife abandonment.
Before Show Boat, American musicals had been pale imitations of Viennese and French operettas. I have listened to 4 or 5 different versions from different revivals and films. It's a great score with songs that support many interpretations and speak to the heart. Ol' Man River usually steals the show, of course, and has had immortal interpretations by Paul Robeson, William Warfield, Frank Sinatra, and others, but the other songs are also great.
Show Boat is strong evidence that the 1920's were a creative high point in the U.S. Remember that the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. Show Boat includes Black performers working right along with the white performers, unheard of at the time. The score also reflects the emergence of jazz--"Black" music--into American popular culture. I highly recommend that you check it out.
That's all for now. Day 4 tomorrow.
I'm getting closer to squaring the circle--tighter organization to "guide" behavior but still student-centered instruction to deepen the learning. I think the answer lies in cooperative learning groups. I'm consulting my sources.
I want to insert a brief musical digression. Somehow I have gotten hooked on "Show Boat," the ground-breaking 1927 musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II based on Edna Ferber's bestseller. The score includes such classics as Ol' Man River, Can't Help Lovin That Man, You Are Love, Bill, Make Believe, After the Ball, and others. It revolutionized the American musical theatre, bringing an intense drama that followed a show business family for 40 years and included topics such as segregation, miscegenation, alcoholism, and wife abandonment.
Before Show Boat, American musicals had been pale imitations of Viennese and French operettas. I have listened to 4 or 5 different versions from different revivals and films. It's a great score with songs that support many interpretations and speak to the heart. Ol' Man River usually steals the show, of course, and has had immortal interpretations by Paul Robeson, William Warfield, Frank Sinatra, and others, but the other songs are also great.
Show Boat is strong evidence that the 1920's were a creative high point in the U.S. Remember that the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. Show Boat includes Black performers working right along with the white performers, unheard of at the time. The score also reflects the emergence of jazz--"Black" music--into American popular culture. I highly recommend that you check it out.
That's all for now. Day 4 tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Teaching with the Jetsons
What a difference a day makes! 24 little hours. Today was a short day so we could have professional development, but the morning was packed with action and adventure. Three classes full of 7th grade boys, each more “lively” than the last. I may have moved a couple of notches towards the good Doctor Angelicus on the Socrates to Aquinas continuum.
I remain committed to finding a student centered style of teaching, but that doesn’t preclude having a fully structured plan for the students. As I get to know them this week, I am developing a blend of small group projects and testing support measures. I’ll share those as they emerge. I’m looking into all of the cooperative learning strategies I can find, thanks to a couple of teachers from my son’s school which had a project based curriculum.
Meanwhile, let me marvel at the technological wonders of teaching in 2010 versus teaching in the 1980’s.
First, there’s taking attendance and recording grades on the District’s ISIS system. It seems so efficient and simple compared to the ubiquitous pale green grids that so many of us lived by. Just click absent or present on the screen and submit the roster. It also tells you of student absences in previous periods that day, and of course you can review any student’s previous attendance. It looks like the grade book is similarly efficient.
Second, there’s a ceiling projector in each room. You can project anything from your computer through this projector.
Third, they have a little camera device on a desk platform that photographs documents and displays them on the wall screen through the ceiling projector. This is SO much better than the old opaque projectors with transparencies and all.
Fourth, every room has a wireless speaker system. The teacher wears a microphone, and then there’s a hand mic for students to use. I’ve heard the arguments for this system. It’s good for teachers’ throats, for English learners, and generally to make sure everyone hears everything.
Fifth, there’s a cart of 20 laptops for each team of four teachers. And even a set of iPod Touches you can use. And five big Mac computers in each class.
I know how to use computers, and I can figure out how everything else works....But I’ll have to scramble to learn how to incorporate all of this great stuff into my instruction. I know it can be a real asset, but I don’t quite know how to take advantage of it--yet!
So score one for NEW, zero for OLD in this inning. But it’s still early in the game.
I remain committed to finding a student centered style of teaching, but that doesn’t preclude having a fully structured plan for the students. As I get to know them this week, I am developing a blend of small group projects and testing support measures. I’ll share those as they emerge. I’m looking into all of the cooperative learning strategies I can find, thanks to a couple of teachers from my son’s school which had a project based curriculum.
Meanwhile, let me marvel at the technological wonders of teaching in 2010 versus teaching in the 1980’s.
First, there’s taking attendance and recording grades on the District’s ISIS system. It seems so efficient and simple compared to the ubiquitous pale green grids that so many of us lived by. Just click absent or present on the screen and submit the roster. It also tells you of student absences in previous periods that day, and of course you can review any student’s previous attendance. It looks like the grade book is similarly efficient.
Second, there’s a ceiling projector in each room. You can project anything from your computer through this projector.
Third, they have a little camera device on a desk platform that photographs documents and displays them on the wall screen through the ceiling projector. This is SO much better than the old opaque projectors with transparencies and all.
Fourth, every room has a wireless speaker system. The teacher wears a microphone, and then there’s a hand mic for students to use. I’ve heard the arguments for this system. It’s good for teachers’ throats, for English learners, and generally to make sure everyone hears everything.
Fifth, there’s a cart of 20 laptops for each team of four teachers. And even a set of iPod Touches you can use. And five big Mac computers in each class.
I know how to use computers, and I can figure out how everything else works....But I’ll have to scramble to learn how to incorporate all of this great stuff into my instruction. I know it can be a real asset, but I don’t quite know how to take advantage of it--yet!
So score one for NEW, zero for OLD in this inning. But it’s still early in the game.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Lord of the Flies or Brave New World?
Whew! One day down, 8 million to go. I must have forgotten how much raw energy is unleashed in a roomful of boys. I could almost see sparks flying. I feel younger already, but also so, so old! (Maybe that’s what Dylan meant.) Anyway, I really like the students, as I expected to. I can see that they’re interesting, lively, eager to learn, lively, friendly, respectful, lively, and...did I say lively?
Seventh grade English starts with 8-10 weeks on narrative writing. That’s a great beginning since it’s just telling stories. So we’ll read stories and tell stories and then analyze them and discuss their parts and their meanings. It’ll be easy to connect stories to their lives in what we read but most of all in what they write. Their own stories, their family stories, their friends’ and neighbors’ stories--all will be a fit subject for these English classes. I’m envisioning small group work to develop stories, collections of stories bound and illustrated, stories read or acted aloud, oral histories, community histories (I’ll call you Susan!).
But I’m also facing the age old dilemma of defining the teacher’s role on a continuum from Lord of the Flies to Brave New World, or maybe from Socrates to Aquinas. Many colleagues and friends have admonished me to “Get control right away!” or the class will devolve into raging chaos for the whole year.
I know that these seventh graders are immature and lack self-control--after all they’re not even teenagers yet! I also know that there is a natural resistance to focusing and working, a desire to play and goof around. I’ve even known adults who feel that way!
But I also know that loving stories--reading them, writing them, acting them out, talking about them--requires a wild, free-spirited atmosphere of adventure and excitement. I also know that their own peer interactions are as likely to bear fruit in advancing their understanding and engagement as anything I might say or do.
So this is THE teacher dilemma. How much control do I seek to guide the students to learn and expand their understanding? How much control do I cede to the students for the sake of their freely choosing to engage with writing and reading?
I hope you didn’t expect an answer to that. I’m working on it. Suggestions are welcome, desperately! More next time.
Seventh grade English starts with 8-10 weeks on narrative writing. That’s a great beginning since it’s just telling stories. So we’ll read stories and tell stories and then analyze them and discuss their parts and their meanings. It’ll be easy to connect stories to their lives in what we read but most of all in what they write. Their own stories, their family stories, their friends’ and neighbors’ stories--all will be a fit subject for these English classes. I’m envisioning small group work to develop stories, collections of stories bound and illustrated, stories read or acted aloud, oral histories, community histories (I’ll call you Susan!).
But I’m also facing the age old dilemma of defining the teacher’s role on a continuum from Lord of the Flies to Brave New World, or maybe from Socrates to Aquinas. Many colleagues and friends have admonished me to “Get control right away!” or the class will devolve into raging chaos for the whole year.
I know that these seventh graders are immature and lack self-control--after all they’re not even teenagers yet! I also know that there is a natural resistance to focusing and working, a desire to play and goof around. I’ve even known adults who feel that way!
But I also know that loving stories--reading them, writing them, acting them out, talking about them--requires a wild, free-spirited atmosphere of adventure and excitement. I also know that their own peer interactions are as likely to bear fruit in advancing their understanding and engagement as anything I might say or do.
So this is THE teacher dilemma. How much control do I seek to guide the students to learn and expand their understanding? How much control do I cede to the students for the sake of their freely choosing to engage with writing and reading?
I hope you didn’t expect an answer to that. I’m working on it. Suggestions are welcome, desperately! More next time.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Grand Opening
Tomorrow, Monday, September 13, 2010, after a 20 year absence from the classroom, I will begin a year long relationship with about 100 seventh grade boys in my English classes. This will happen at the Young Oak Kim Academy at 6th and Shatto in the Wilshire or Koreatown District of central Los Angeles. YOKA is a new (one year old) middle school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It's pretty small as middle schools go, with only about 850 students. It is named for a Korean-American war hero from WW2 and the Korean War who went on to become a distinguished community activist in Los Angeles.
YOKA is just a regular neighborhood school--not a charter school or a magnet school or anything special--but from the moment it opened last year YOKA has been committed to a full menu of reforms that will make it a very exciting place for me to return to teaching after a couple decades of doing other (mostly easier) jobs in the school system. (For those who don't know me, there will be more about those other jobs later.)
Let me summarize the commitment to reform at my new school since that's why I decided to teach there. YOKA is the only school in the whole LA district organized around single gender instruction in academic classes. The boys are on the second floor, and the girls are on the third floor. Single gender classes are having something of a revival based largely on new brain research about the differences between male and female brains. I don't know much about it yet, but I'm looking forward to exploring the research and practices associated with single gender classrooms.
In addition YOKA is committed to project based learning, a form of instruction I have long championed in policy discussions and in the credential classes I teach at National University. YOKA is also a STEM school, which means that there will be a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math. This is especially important for the school's population of mostly low-income immigrants and racial minorities and for girls of course, all of whom are severely underrepresented in these fields.
YOKA has instituted a robust "advisory" period for all students of about an hour a day. I'll have about 25 seventh grade boys during this time, and it is a great opportunity to support them academically and in other ways. Given the decimation of counseling services in schools, the advisory model is a great way to fill that gap.
Finally, YOKA is organized around grade level teams, so I will be one of four teachers--math, science, history, English--for the seventh grade boys. We will all have a common planning period. This is another model that I have long championed since the Honig-era middle school reform movement launched by the document "Caught in the Middle." I've never taught on a team like this, but I've always thought it was a great way to organize teaching.
All of these reforms make YOKA a very attractive place for me to teach, but of course reforms are only as good as the people who implement them. The principal of YOKA is Ed Colacion. I know him because he was principal at the school my younger son just graduated from, LA School of Global Studies in the Miguel Contreras Learning Center at 3rd and Lucas in downtown LA. LASGS had a project based curriculum, and I know that Ed is committed to these reforms. In addition, he has a very collaborative style of leadership--an essential quality in a principal. Those of you who are teachers know that a good principal is crucial to a school's success, and that's a big reason I accepted this position.
My first impression of the three other teachers I'll be working with is also very positive, as is my overall feeling about the whole staff based on two days of meetings last week. There seems to be a strong sense of building a new school culture based on the most student-centered practices. The spirit of Paulo Freire is present at YOKA.
So there you have it. I may have been pushed into making this choice by the ending of my previous job on a GEAR UP grant, but I am embracing it as a fitting coda to a long career in public education. After 15 years of teaching at Crenshaw HS, and after over twenty years of working to improve education at the policy level on the LA school board and in CSBA, in teacher recruitment and teacher training, and in other ways from outside of the classroom, now I get a chance to apply everything I've learned to my own teaching.
And since I've been wanting to write more and maybe start a blog, this seemed like a perfect time to begin--new teaching job, new practices, new colleagues. I intend to provide a running commentary on my experiences at YOKA along with intermittent opining on the great issues in education today (and maybe an occasional reflection on my current musical interests or the progress of my two sons through late adolescence into adulthood). I hope you'll keep reading and sending me your comments. Wish me good luck tomorrow!
YOKA is just a regular neighborhood school--not a charter school or a magnet school or anything special--but from the moment it opened last year YOKA has been committed to a full menu of reforms that will make it a very exciting place for me to return to teaching after a couple decades of doing other (mostly easier) jobs in the school system. (For those who don't know me, there will be more about those other jobs later.)
Let me summarize the commitment to reform at my new school since that's why I decided to teach there. YOKA is the only school in the whole LA district organized around single gender instruction in academic classes. The boys are on the second floor, and the girls are on the third floor. Single gender classes are having something of a revival based largely on new brain research about the differences between male and female brains. I don't know much about it yet, but I'm looking forward to exploring the research and practices associated with single gender classrooms.
In addition YOKA is committed to project based learning, a form of instruction I have long championed in policy discussions and in the credential classes I teach at National University. YOKA is also a STEM school, which means that there will be a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math. This is especially important for the school's population of mostly low-income immigrants and racial minorities and for girls of course, all of whom are severely underrepresented in these fields.
YOKA has instituted a robust "advisory" period for all students of about an hour a day. I'll have about 25 seventh grade boys during this time, and it is a great opportunity to support them academically and in other ways. Given the decimation of counseling services in schools, the advisory model is a great way to fill that gap.
Finally, YOKA is organized around grade level teams, so I will be one of four teachers--math, science, history, English--for the seventh grade boys. We will all have a common planning period. This is another model that I have long championed since the Honig-era middle school reform movement launched by the document "Caught in the Middle." I've never taught on a team like this, but I've always thought it was a great way to organize teaching.
All of these reforms make YOKA a very attractive place for me to teach, but of course reforms are only as good as the people who implement them. The principal of YOKA is Ed Colacion. I know him because he was principal at the school my younger son just graduated from, LA School of Global Studies in the Miguel Contreras Learning Center at 3rd and Lucas in downtown LA. LASGS had a project based curriculum, and I know that Ed is committed to these reforms. In addition, he has a very collaborative style of leadership--an essential quality in a principal. Those of you who are teachers know that a good principal is crucial to a school's success, and that's a big reason I accepted this position.
My first impression of the three other teachers I'll be working with is also very positive, as is my overall feeling about the whole staff based on two days of meetings last week. There seems to be a strong sense of building a new school culture based on the most student-centered practices. The spirit of Paulo Freire is present at YOKA.
So there you have it. I may have been pushed into making this choice by the ending of my previous job on a GEAR UP grant, but I am embracing it as a fitting coda to a long career in public education. After 15 years of teaching at Crenshaw HS, and after over twenty years of working to improve education at the policy level on the LA school board and in CSBA, in teacher recruitment and teacher training, and in other ways from outside of the classroom, now I get a chance to apply everything I've learned to my own teaching.
And since I've been wanting to write more and maybe start a blog, this seemed like a perfect time to begin--new teaching job, new practices, new colleagues. I intend to provide a running commentary on my experiences at YOKA along with intermittent opining on the great issues in education today (and maybe an occasional reflection on my current musical interests or the progress of my two sons through late adolescence into adulthood). I hope you'll keep reading and sending me your comments. Wish me good luck tomorrow!
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