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!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
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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