Hasta la vista, CST!

Well, we're through with the CST for this year.  Four days of testing for almost two hours each day, followed by movies in my class ("Holes" and then Simpsons episodes) and crafts in others.  The boys were very serious about the test.  I think they really tried, and with a little shushing they stayed quiet until everyone finished.  The logistics were well handled by some of the support staff.  In general we all feel good about it.

Now we have to go back to work.  We're not really teaching when we're administering the test, so it's easy duty for the teachers.  Next week we may experience some degree of the "holding the lid down on a boiling pot" syndrome as we try to launch instruction for the final six weeks of school.  

I have a pretty ambitious plan for these final 6 weeks.  I regret that I haven't done a single small group project all year. This is an instructional model that I really believe in, but my difficulty managing student behaviors left me reluctant to try small group activities.  I think this was a mistake, and I'm determined to conclude the year with a project.  

The teacher for 7th grade girls and I have developed a project based on identifying a local neighborhood problem and developing solutions to that problem.  The end product will be some material advocating for the solution to the problem--a poster, essay, power-point, i-movie, or brochure--plus a written description of the problem and solution.  This project fits with our final writing domain, persuasion, and with the neighborhood theme I have used all year (neighborhood narratives, neighborhood news stories, etc.).  

I hope it's simple enough to accomplish even though I haven't really gotten them used to working in groups.  The local dimension should keep them interested, and they will also use the internet for some research.  Of course I want them to put everything on their pages on the YOKA server.

Anyway, I'm determined to end with a project.  I have been making a lot of plans for next year, although recently I have learned that I may not be returning due to my low seniority.  I want to return and teach 7th grade English again, but I guess I'm flexible, or maybe stoic, enough to accept whatever comes.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  

Meanwhile, hasta la vista CST!

Teaching in the ether

Last Saturday I went to a meeting of adjunct (part-time) professors in National University's School of Education (of which I am one).  Enrollment in National's education classes is sharply down, as it is in all schools of education both public and private, and there hasn't been much work for us part-timers.  More dramatic, however, is the shift to online courses.  Over two thirds of National's enrollment is now online.  This shouldn't be surprising since so many teacher credential candidates are already working and very limited in the time they have for classes.  Many of them also live scattered throughout the state and nation and thus unable to attend classes "on the ground."

Most of us at the meeting were experienced teachers and administrators from the LAUSD and other districts.  We are struggling to be successful in online teaching.  We have found that there tends to be a lot more writing and assignments in online classes.  At the same time the university is encouraging us to use various interactive, real-time options to mix up the otherwise somewhat abstract and, frankly, dreary relationship between students and professors in an online course.  We discussed at length how to make use of the new capacity for real-time discussions with students.

The university is aware, as all of us at the meeting were, that there is something counter-intuitive about preparing teachers to interact with groups of students without actually requiring them to interact directly with anyone!  National is even planning to require that the advanced class on instruction and classroom management be taken "on the ground" rather than online.  This is clearly a recognition that learning to teach means learning to interact with real live people.

I was struck by the way that this trend to online teacher preparation parallels the trend to standardized curriculum and testing for the students themselves.  Both are ways of spending less money to educate people.  Online courses for teacher candidates cost less than ground classes, even if they are less effective. (That's not a provable claim, but it seems clear that online courses develop interpersonal skills less effectively.)  Standardized curriculum and testing allows schools to run bigger class sizes, a necessity in this era of dismantling public institutions and services.

But online courses are also THE FUTURE.  Everything is moving online in one form or another, and who are we to exempt education and teacher preparation from this trend?  Am I just a cranky old guy showing my discomfort with the ether age, clinging desperately to my old-style classroom that students and teachers traipse into and out of, spending hours on the freeway to sit face to face when everything could be handled on the internet in the comfort of our own homes?  Maybe.  Oh, and I still love paper books too! and live music! and theater! and walks in the park and dinner with friends.

Anyway....notwithstanding this little rant, online courses are here to stay.  We'd better make them as good as we can, taking advantage of features like instant communication, access to widespread resources, and geographical diversity while preserving the development of traditional teacher abilities to relate directly to students.  Some things about people really don't change even when many other things change dramatically.

(Literary postscript:  On the subject of electronic communication replacing face-to-face contact, I am reminded of a wonderful novel by Isaac Asimov that I remember vividly from many years ago--The Naked Sun.  It's one of his robot series and is set in a breakaway Earth colony called Solaria.  You can read a little summary of the novel here.  You'll see what I mean.)

CST: The saga continues

(Written Thursday, May 5, 2011) 

We’re in the final days of preparation for the California Standards Test next week.  The four of us who teach the 7^th grade boys developed a plan for addressing the academic and affective aspects of testing.  We’ve all been practicing the type of questions they will get on the tests and also giving out tips for the test such as “Get a good night’s sleep” and “Read the questions first and then the selection.” 

It’s clear that the boys’ attitude is at least as important as these practical tips.  Confidence in your own intellectual capacity and the desire to do well are crucial factors in any testing situation.  Recognizing this I have devoted more time this week to addressing the confidence and desire of the students.

The students have all written an essay on how they will improve their performance on the test.  Then they put this essay into a word document on the laptops.  I have printed them out and will share them with the other teachers on the 7^th grade boys team. 

Each of us will also have students write letters of advice and encouragement to one of their classmates.  These letters will be delivered right before the test.  We will also write brief notes of encouragement to each student in our advisory class.

So what am I thinking about the whole CST thing?  The process of building up to an important challenge for the students has value, of course.  Creating a feeling of teamwork and shared effort is good for emotional and intellectual development. 

On the other hand, the test itself is such a pale shadow of what’s really going on in their emotional and intellectual development that it almost seems anticlimactic after all the buildup. 

Anyway, we’ll see next week how it all goes.  More later.