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!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
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.)
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 7th 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 7th 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.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Teaching to the test--Hooray!!
At school we are in full out CST (California Standards Test) mode—all CST, all the time. The test is two weeks away and now all we do every day is prepare for the test. No more writing, no more computers, no more projects—just practice questions, test taking tips, and motivational speeches.
I don’t know how it will go. I have such a hard time getting them to focus on a brief set of questions that I have difficulty imagining them sitting and focusing for the four 2-hour sessions coming up. On the other hand, they claim that when it’s the real test and not a practice test, they will act differently.
Anyway, I guess there’s some value in focusing on a specific event like a test. The CST measures valuable skills, but it still accounts for only a small fraction of what students should be learning and practicing as they grow up. These other important milestones of maturing academically and emotionally are less measurable however and thus less valued. That’s not good.
I haven’t posted for a while. There’s a lot of new stuff happening, and the job remains fascinating and engaging. I have more things to write about from the couple of months I have not blogged, but I’ll get caught up later.
I confess to being a little discouraged by the lack of any feedback. There are so few comments that I start feeling like no one is reading my brilliant and insightful posts. Maybe no one is reading them, or maybe they’re not so brilliant or insightful. Anyway, if you’re reading, could you leave a brief comment? Thanks.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Seventh grade lives 3
Forget pedagogy, curriculum, lesson plans, learning theory, brain research and all that for a moment. This teaching business is often just an emotional hurricane from the first bell in the morning to the last in the afternoon. Take today for example:
Second period: today was the last day at school for the boy who lost his mother over the weekend. We spoke briefly of it in the class, and the boys were visibly affected by his misfortune. I could see them trying to imagine how it would feel if it happened to them. I continued to feel troubled by what this fragile boy was facing.
Advisory: Today was the final game of our basketball tournament. My class was playing Mr. Beach’s. Emotions ran high at the game. The other classes were cheering from the stands. My students constantly wanted only the best players to play while I insisted on playing anyone who wanted to. Everyone was very excited--it was wonderful! We lost but the whole event was very positive for the 7th grade boys and for the five of us who have their advisory periods. (Next up: spelling bee!)
Sixth period: The excitement of the game carried over into this period, always my most difficult. Somehow one boy who is always pretty hyped up and volatile was pushed off the edge by something someone said. Next thing I knew he was in a violent rage, trying to throw tables and chairs, screaming and sobbing. I hustled him outside asked him to just stand still for a moment, get hold of himself, and calm down. He was shaking and sobbing, but he did slowly calm down. Later he came back into the room and soon, in typical boy fashion, he was his usual rambunctious self. But the display of raw emotion was awesome and hard to forget.
Meanwhile the provocateur in this case continued to be the most willful, determined, and successful disruptors in all of my classes. This boy doesn’t even try to control his acting out, but rather issues a steady stream of mockery, goofiness, and impudence. Yelling doesn’t have more than a transitory effect, so I began ignoring him. Unfortunately the rest of the class continued to find him hilarious.
I ended up addressing myself to them rather than him. “He just wants an audience,” I said, “and if you are his audience ask yourselves, what will he teach you? Is it more than I can teach you? It’s up to you to deny him his audience so we can get on with the job of learning and teaching.” Maybe they heard that, maybe not. I intend to repeat this argument at every opportunity. We’ll see.
The emotion I feel is anger at this boy for making my job so difficult, even while I keep in mind that he’s only 13 and must be deeply troubled to manifest this behavior. This is a common dichotomy--they piss me off while they evoke my concern for their futures. This is a basic teacher issue--we care deeply for them even when they infuriate us. It's sort of like parents, but with scores of kids and only for school hours. It's what makes teaching so energizing and so exhausting at the same time.
And so another day in the hurricane of emotions that makes up seventh grade lives.
Second period: today was the last day at school for the boy who lost his mother over the weekend. We spoke briefly of it in the class, and the boys were visibly affected by his misfortune. I could see them trying to imagine how it would feel if it happened to them. I continued to feel troubled by what this fragile boy was facing.
Advisory: Today was the final game of our basketball tournament. My class was playing Mr. Beach’s. Emotions ran high at the game. The other classes were cheering from the stands. My students constantly wanted only the best players to play while I insisted on playing anyone who wanted to. Everyone was very excited--it was wonderful! We lost but the whole event was very positive for the 7th grade boys and for the five of us who have their advisory periods. (Next up: spelling bee!)
Sixth period: The excitement of the game carried over into this period, always my most difficult. Somehow one boy who is always pretty hyped up and volatile was pushed off the edge by something someone said. Next thing I knew he was in a violent rage, trying to throw tables and chairs, screaming and sobbing. I hustled him outside asked him to just stand still for a moment, get hold of himself, and calm down. He was shaking and sobbing, but he did slowly calm down. Later he came back into the room and soon, in typical boy fashion, he was his usual rambunctious self. But the display of raw emotion was awesome and hard to forget.
Meanwhile the provocateur in this case continued to be the most willful, determined, and successful disruptors in all of my classes. This boy doesn’t even try to control his acting out, but rather issues a steady stream of mockery, goofiness, and impudence. Yelling doesn’t have more than a transitory effect, so I began ignoring him. Unfortunately the rest of the class continued to find him hilarious.
I ended up addressing myself to them rather than him. “He just wants an audience,” I said, “and if you are his audience ask yourselves, what will he teach you? Is it more than I can teach you? It’s up to you to deny him his audience so we can get on with the job of learning and teaching.” Maybe they heard that, maybe not. I intend to repeat this argument at every opportunity. We’ll see.
The emotion I feel is anger at this boy for making my job so difficult, even while I keep in mind that he’s only 13 and must be deeply troubled to manifest this behavior. This is a common dichotomy--they piss me off while they evoke my concern for their futures. This is a basic teacher issue--we care deeply for them even when they infuriate us. It's sort of like parents, but with scores of kids and only for school hours. It's what makes teaching so energizing and so exhausting at the same time.
And so another day in the hurricane of emotions that makes up seventh grade lives.
Seventh grade lives 2
Yesterday I learned that the mother of one of my students died suddenly over the weekend of a brain aneurism. She died on his birthday. As a result he and his two older sisters must go live with their father about an hour away. He will go to a new school.
I can only imagine how traumatic this is for him. He’s a shy, awkward, overweight boy, with a sweet personality and a gentle manner. He has a sadness about him that suggests a difficult life. He’s also a whiz at Yu-Gi-Oh, a fantasy card game with endless detail. I asked the class to observe a moment of silence for his mother which they did very respectfully. He told us a little more about her death (more than he has spoken to the class all year), and some boys asked a few questions.
Of course this is a painful subject for the boys to think about, and their reaction is not surprisingly to change the subject and the mood abruptly. My heart is heavy thinking of what this boy will face in the months and years to come. I wish him the best.
I can only imagine how traumatic this is for him. He’s a shy, awkward, overweight boy, with a sweet personality and a gentle manner. He has a sadness about him that suggests a difficult life. He’s also a whiz at Yu-Gi-Oh, a fantasy card game with endless detail. I asked the class to observe a moment of silence for his mother which they did very respectfully. He told us a little more about her death (more than he has spoken to the class all year), and some boys asked a few questions.
Of course this is a painful subject for the boys to think about, and their reaction is not surprisingly to change the subject and the mood abruptly. My heart is heavy thinking of what this boy will face in the months and years to come. I wish him the best.
Do I hear harps?
The spring semester began a couple of weeks ago and I was gifted with...girls!! Yes, my fourth period elective is comprised of 25 sixth grade girls. I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but it has been a real game changer.
Now don’t get me wrong. I like my boys with all their ebullience and insouciance (hey--I am an English teacher after all!). Their energy and fearlessness is invigorating and inspiring. But it’s also exhausting. The girls are different. They’re still just 12 of course, and they’re lively enough, but they are easier to guide and work with. They take less energy to direct, and so I can put more energy into the actual instruction.
Fourth period comes in the middle of my two days without a conference period, and the more relaxed atmosphere with the girls has given these days a new character. I feel more confident in the boys’ English 7 classes on either side and less drained at the end of the day.
The elective with the girls includes practice for the CST (California Standards Test) in May and also a project for Women’s History Month. Our smooth movement into the project has made me think that I should be able to do this with the boys as well, notwithstanding the qualities mentioned above. Of course I have been told by the teachers on the third floor that other kinds of problems arise with girls that are equally challenging, but so far it’s a welcome change of pace. I would almost recommend that everyone get to teach one class in the other academy.
I’m still puzzled as to exactly how teaching girls is different. Certainly the majority of boys are equally cooperative and agreeable. At most a third or so of the boys fuel most of the resistance to order and progress. I can also see that there are a few girls who are very lively and might need more managing. I also see that, as with the boys, many of the girls have a lot of other things on their minds with a higher priority than standardized tests or even women in history.
I can see right away the reality of one oft-cited distinction between most girls and most boys, namely that the girls move easily and eagerly into a collaborative mode. In this class they immediately began to work together on their Women in History projects. The boys have had a harder time working together. Many groups don’t gel and never get focused.
At the same time the boys really are more competitive. I’m trying to enlist that quality in their attitude towards their measured reading grade levels. The intersection of collaboration and competitiveness is, of course, the team, and I’m trying to create that environment in class.
Anyway, it’s too soon to draw sweeping conclusions, and I don't want to over-generalize. I’m sure I’ll comment more in the months to come.
Until then, is that harps I hear fourth period?
Now don’t get me wrong. I like my boys with all their ebullience and insouciance (hey--I am an English teacher after all!). Their energy and fearlessness is invigorating and inspiring. But it’s also exhausting. The girls are different. They’re still just 12 of course, and they’re lively enough, but they are easier to guide and work with. They take less energy to direct, and so I can put more energy into the actual instruction.
Fourth period comes in the middle of my two days without a conference period, and the more relaxed atmosphere with the girls has given these days a new character. I feel more confident in the boys’ English 7 classes on either side and less drained at the end of the day.
The elective with the girls includes practice for the CST (California Standards Test) in May and also a project for Women’s History Month. Our smooth movement into the project has made me think that I should be able to do this with the boys as well, notwithstanding the qualities mentioned above. Of course I have been told by the teachers on the third floor that other kinds of problems arise with girls that are equally challenging, but so far it’s a welcome change of pace. I would almost recommend that everyone get to teach one class in the other academy.
I’m still puzzled as to exactly how teaching girls is different. Certainly the majority of boys are equally cooperative and agreeable. At most a third or so of the boys fuel most of the resistance to order and progress. I can also see that there are a few girls who are very lively and might need more managing. I also see that, as with the boys, many of the girls have a lot of other things on their minds with a higher priority than standardized tests or even women in history.
I can see right away the reality of one oft-cited distinction between most girls and most boys, namely that the girls move easily and eagerly into a collaborative mode. In this class they immediately began to work together on their Women in History projects. The boys have had a harder time working together. Many groups don’t gel and never get focused.
At the same time the boys really are more competitive. I’m trying to enlist that quality in their attitude towards their measured reading grade levels. The intersection of collaboration and competitiveness is, of course, the team, and I’m trying to create that environment in class.
Anyway, it’s too soon to draw sweeping conclusions, and I don't want to over-generalize. I’m sure I’ll comment more in the months to come.
Until then, is that harps I hear fourth period?
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