The Reformist Notebook

In search of...

2011-04-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

A school for my children. Is it so much to ask for a school that...

1) Asks students to solve problems?
2) Values the knowledge students have?
3) Expects my children to outperform themselves?
4) Provides them with an opportunity to express themselves via the arts?
5) Provides instruction in Spanish
6) Has ongoing professional development for teachers?
7) Values positive school culture?

The Status Quo

2011-04-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

I love the teachers I work with. I have seen so many amazing student projects, including a recent opportunity to observe a student-created documentary of veterans in their hometown. The students even generated the money via fundraisers to pay for their video equipment and donated over $1K.

So what makes this work so amazing? The status quo.

The status quo is the following:

Teacher: Spend 10 minutes explaining the assignment. Many do some kind of modeling.

Students: Sit and listen. Possibly begin work on some kind of paper piece, a graphic organizer, an essay, or reading assignment.

Teacher: Walk around and further explain, model, make connections for students.

Alternatively:

Teacher: Lecture

Students: Listen. Or not.

The status quo is that teachers are encouraged to deliver content to their students who they should think of in terms of deficit instead of creating opportunities for their students to create.

When teachers are free to encourage students, to tap their potential, and ask them to actually do meaningful work, it seems amazing.

My dream is that this approach becomes the status quo. Because I am kind of tired of business as usual

Tiger Teaching

2011-01-24T09:34:00.000-08:00

After contemplating a bit on Tiger Parenting I realized that this same paradigm can be applied to teaching.

One of my children recently shared the following story:

*True story, names changed

Teacher: *Maria, I wouldn't copy off of *John, he didn't get a good grade on the test.

While both John and Maria and the parents of the children were upset for a myriad of reasons, the teacher obviously thought it was an effective disciplinary method. I am sympathetic to teachers who often resort to saying mean things because they are stressed by their circumstances and periodically slip up--I for one do not wish to hear back all of the things I said in sarcasm to students.

But this next story is much more illustrative of Tiger Teaching:

Teacher: If you kids don't work harder, people are going to think that you are just a bunch of dumb Mexicans (almost all children in the class, including the teacher, are of Hispanic decent)

There are teachers out there who believe that this kind of teaching, just like those who believe in Tiger Parenting, is the most effective motivator.

If it is indeed motivating, theoretically, children in these classes would be producing a much higher quality of work. I would be very interested in studies that track teaching disciplinary style with student results. I am sure it would be a fascinating study.

The Principal

2010-12-01T13:22:00.000-08:00

For years I have known the power of a great principal... as well as the detriment of one who cannot lead.

I have recently discovered, however, that there are those out there who think that the principal is just a figurehead. When I was sharing a story with my father-in-law about a principal he said to me "Really? I never really thought the principal mattered all that much."

?

My father-in-law has had administrative duties, is an educated man and works in a respectable law school. If he thinks that might be the case, are there other people out there who think the principal is just a character of some type, some person who is there in the event the fire alarm sounds?

In doing a quick websearch I found this blog post asking this same question. BUT if you read his comments, the majority of the commenters agree with me.

The one who makes the biggest difference:

History of (my) Education

2010-11-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

This morning during one of our education sofa chats in which my husband and I solve all the problems in education, we had a long conversation about teacher preparation. I taught before I had a credential to teach in California and we talked about that particular type of preparation (as compared with what they have done in Massachusetts gracias for the article Tara.) My own journey has been perhaps atypical and we pondered how that impacted my teaching approaches.

Journey begins: A slough of amazing teachers who change my life:

My 4th and 5th grade teacher, when my parents were in the middle of a divorce she transported me to and from school daily. We left the house around 6:30 and we returned around 5-6 each night while my mom lived in a different city so I could continue to stay at the school. I wasn't a stellar student and I think she saw some kind of hope for my future. She and her team teacher, Diana Page, believed in me and my future. I had both of those teachers again in 7th and then 8th grade and it was a golden era for me and I am sure for the school.
Summers in elementary a wonderful music teacher who ran the county music camp (make all the band camp jokes you like here, none apply) and encouraged me to make a choice to attend the larger high school in the county to pursue his music program. He was a huge motivator for my personal success in high school.
High school--nearly every teacher with whom I came into contact but particularly Spanish
High school Leadership advisor with whom I credit nearly all my event planning and people skills

Stepping stone one: Language teacher at the Missionary Language Training Center for Senior Couples. I taught Spanish for 6 months and then was a shift supervisor for another year. We had weekly "best practices" teaching strategy meetings, I observed and gave feedback to every teacher who was expected to speak the target language nearly 100% to recreate immersion, and whose assistant director was one of the most brilliant men I have ever met.

Stepping stone two: Long-term subbing in LA Unified where I learned which battles to pick (after losing all the wrong ones) and that the injustice of the school system hits disadvantaged students the hardest.

Stepping stone three: Teaching at Delhi High School in Merced County with an incredible Instructional Leader. In our memories we always paint people better than they actually were but in this case after working with nearly 60 principals across the country, I feel confident that he really was in the top decile. If he didn't like you he wasn't the kindiest, but he took me to some good professional development that I still remember, he empowered me as a new teacher to be a part of school leadership, and he modeled good teaching practices at staff meetings and in my own classroom. He gave me resources to start an AP program for 10th grade kids, second language learners nearly all and supported me as I tried to figure out how to do that the right way. I got to pick the book and got $$ for field trips, etc.

Stepping stone four: Teaching at an adult ed program in Utah primarily comprised of teenage moms. I had the opportunity to teach nearly every subject and had to do a lot of differentiation to help adult learners and teenagers who had been disenfranchised by the system.

Home plate: Three years as a founding teacher of a small high school in Sacramento. I started and finished my journey in high schools in the same place where I learned new methods in teaching, technology approaches, a genuine love of learning and developing with a team of other professional teachers, and learning how to build culture from two fantastic principals.

Willingham would refer to this as my curse of knowledge, but I can never, ever think that the traditional education system is doing enough when I have been lucky enough to have been in these schools.

It is nothing but pure luck that I ended up in each of these places at each of these times but I am not going to waste it. To the teachers of my children and their future teachers, I hope that I am not a thorn in your side as I battle to create a system that is better for you like it was for me.

Revised review of Superman

2010-10-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel like I am getting a Ph.D in school reform--once you get so specific about what you want to do, hardly anything really feels like it is sending the exact right message.

But after this last week of travel to the Midwest and observing 5 schools in 5 days, observing over 50 teachers and arguably some of the strongest principals of my career, I have really thought about the message of Waiting for Superman and I have started to think again about the message of this movie.

New rating system: 5 stars. Yep, out of 5.

I saw it again last night and truly, it is a film that everyone should see.

My initial review stated that unions were not all to blame--this is somewhat due to an experience I had in Sacramento in which the union leadership was reasonable, and when we had a conflict with the union about the schedule variance we requested, while it was a bit of a hassle it worked out fine. I attended the union meetings and really, their main focus was on maintaining benefits--who doesn't want someone out there fighting for their benefits?

But after working in schools whose sustainability is threatened by a policy of retaining tenured teachers at all costs, I am wondering if the union focus is perhaps counterproductive. The policy of the union is that they protect ANY teacher who has worked longer over ANY teacher who has worked a shorter period of time. This means that quality of teaching does not matter to the union--and who can argue that a bad teacher is exactly comparable to a bad teacher? I would like to meet a teacher who believes that.

You see, it takes a teacher approximately 4 months to find their feet when they try a new approach. Teachers, like anyone else, need time to practice and refine a teaching strategy--and in some cases it takes teachers up to 8 months to get a strong project. To lose a teacher at the end of a year due to a protection of teacher policy by the union is tragic, particularly when replaced by another teacher, and then another, and then another--with the end result that each year, students get a new teacher who is trying something new, and teachers being forced to change their own practice and approach year after year.

The secondary piece that I did not praise enough in my last review is the idea that tracking is detrimental to high school kids. If your child goes to a high school that tracks kids, get thee to the counseling office and demand a full college prep experience.

You see, the end goal of the movie had a specific agenda that the first time I saw, bothered me. But the second time I watched it, the movie actually felt like a message that is crucial to all Americans. If you have not seen the movie, you really, really ought to see it and ask yourself and ask what you are doing to impact education in America.

Waiting for Superman Review

2010-10-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Saw Waiting for Superman last night. Let me first say that really, there was nothing new in this film for me. I didn't agree with the agenda of the film though it had some good points.

However, I saw it with a friend and she pointed out that it was probably because of my career in education that I wasn't surprised by anything and she said it actually was pretty eye-opening. So, see it! Then call me so I can tell you what was wrong with it...

Overall? Two thumbs up, Four thumbs down.

Thumbs up:

--Highlighting the weaknesses in the process for evaluating teachers and getting rid of low performing teachers--specifically the statistic that doctors and lawyers lose their licenses at almost 10 times the rate of teachers. Are teachers somehow more perfect people that there are no bad ones among them? Teacher quality IS a core issue but the majority of teachers have it in them to be decent, they just need support.

--The reminder of Savage Inequalities (every decade someone points out the difference between the schools where children of poverty attend and the schools with suburban children) and people should be shocked that children in poor areas have poor choices and those schools need a lot of help.

--School boards poorly run can make the problem worse...and so can poorly run unions

--I admire anyone doing anything to improve schools and though I have issues with KIPP, I don't want to suggest that they are not doing what they think is right. Highlighting KIPP would normally be a thumbs down but I will make an exception because I know that behind their approach is really good intention.

--Charter schools are actually a great solution--eliminate a lot of the bureaucracy and let the parents choose what they want. The movie points out that 1 in 5 fail, but how many public schools are in that category?

Thumbs down:

--The movie is based on the premise that test scores are an accurate measure of student skills. It might be an accurate assessment that student knowledge base is better, but their ability to think? Who is assessing that? Makes me nervous that people will watch the film and think öh my gosh, those test scores are really bad! We need to do something.

--I question the demonization of teachers' unions as the sole culprit of 'the system.' I actually think that there are many unions across the country who are interested in reform and are willing to listen to the ideas of reform with an eye to teachers needs. There are some obvious problems with unions including the teacher quality issues that, as someone mentioned in the film, are actually harmful to the cause of unions because they will defend anyone, even known bad teachers. That makes it tricky--but they are not the sole cause. I know, because I have been in a reasonable union group and there were still issues.

--Conspicuously absent from the film: administrators. Has anyone done any research behind the correlation of good teachers and good administrators? My first administrator taught me how to be a better teacher, not my teacher prep program. With regular feedback and focus on growth, I believe that I became a better teacher because of his mentorship. Maybe I had good raw material but I doubt it. The system doesn't train you to be a good teacher and no amount of teaching in isolation is going to get you anywhere so a good administrator by default, HAS to be an instructional leader and teach his teachers.

--No offense, but you are actually not Superman--if this were the case, the boards could get stuff changed and mostly, they cannot. The only way to reform the system is to bring in someone who has successfully done it and ask for help. LOTS of help. Failing schools cannot change on their own and only half the time can they change with help. But a 50% chance is better than nothing.

Time for a Change

2010-09-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Why is it that people think change is just doing what you have always done, only better?

My current dilemma: deciding whether as a parent I should spend the year watching a new teacher do the same thing that every other teacher does in schools with at-risk children or if I should figure out how to stop the cycle of this kind of teaching. And if I do, will that make me a nightmare parent?

This led me to my annual obsession with Pedagogy of Poverty. I know everyone has read it but honestly, how can this be INCREASING in frequency if Haberman first identified it in 1958. Doubt the increase? Then visit almost any traditional school and count how many of those habits of the pedagogy of poverty you witness in almost every classroom.

Post-conference Learnings

2010-08-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

This is a no-brainer. But for some reason still a major moment.

After co-chairing a conference of over 500 people last week, I think I figured out what I should have been doing to prepare people to facilitate these sessions''afterwards of course. Many conferences ask you to do something interactive yet the way we are always set up is for a "sit and get" even the most cutting edge organizations follow this same pattern.

And though we proclaim to be changing education, many of us only get as far as the kids---put a teacher in a room full of fifty kids and they turn into magicians, moving the furniture, winging it, asking students the tough questions and checking for understanding.

Put us in a room with adults and then we go all lecture on you--and if you are lucky, I could be really dynamic and you could be blinded by my exuberance. More than likely, however, I am just an average speaker--and my content could be tailored right to you and you might not know it, especially at 4 pm with an hour to go.

So here is my list of what I am going to commit to do from now on at every conference I attend:

1) Force you to talk to each other. And not just share what you already do, pose a problem for you to solve together.

2) Make sure there are at least three of you to chat when I do force you to talk so it isn't just you and your bff or you and your enemy number 1.

3) Make you write down what you talked about--there is something very real and tangible about writing it down and when I walk in a room and see a bunch of people talking and writing, I feel the energy myself.

4) Use the term or idea "rotate" at least twice--you talked to Joe Schmoe for a while, talk to Mary Contrary for awhile--if I increase the likelihood of you meeting someone who can connect with you, I increase my chances of your sense of satisfaction. The best case scenario is to find someone who is just like you--who teaches what you teach, or teaches kids like your kids, or who believes in the same kind of leadership as you.

5) Show you at least THREE concrete examples of what I am talking about. If I make vague references, you will never master my content. If I can show you what the heck I am talking about in a video, even better. But I want examples, especially if I have to go back and show someone what I learned. Give me something real.

If you can't involve people in solving a problem with others and show concrete examples, then you might want to reconsider your topic.

What did I forget?

Teacher Quality

2010-06-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

The latest wonderings I have around reform are similar to others--teacher quality.

I cannot help but wonder why our society embraces accountability so eagerly but not the responsibility required prior to accountability.

There are hundreds of cases of schools in which teachers have been let go with no apparent reason. The administration always pleads the fifth and claims 'sorry, can't share with you, personnel matters."

I know the law--but I also know that every teacher deserves the opportunity to see the writing on the wall. No one should be surprised when they lose a job. Whether or not the teachers' union facilitates these situations or not I cannot say, but I do believe as many union groups do that you should receive an unsatisfactory review at least one time prior to finding yourself terminated. How are teachers different from students? Age. The law, at least in California, requires you to notify a student and their family of their failing grade at least one time prior to actually giving the student an F. Why should it be any different with a teacher?

This is a preface to what will undoubtedly lack shock--some administrators do not see evaluation tools as a way to provide feedback. The tool that is used to evaluate a teacher should not be whipped out last minute like the stun gun that it currently is, it should be brought out at regular intervals at staff meetings for PD, while observing a teacher informally, in formal debriefs, in casual conversation, and upon hiring. How do I know this isn't happening? I posed the question a few weeks ago and a very wise superintendent raised her hand and said "so are you saying that the evaluation tool should be used ongoing, not just at the end of the year? That is a great idea--and the union should know that this is how you are going to use it to prevent any miscommunication." Amen, sister.

If all teachers and principals worked together to calibrate the definition--the rubric of success--then the union wouldn't have to intervene in 90% of all cases because the drama is removed from the firing when it is predictable. It is the only right thing to do.

expectations+accountability= success

Reflections of the Bored

2010-03-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

After two years of President of the Board of Directors of the charter school where my children attend school I have learned a significant amount about charter schools.

1. Charter schools really are run by the principal. In a regular public school, a principal has a direct report, a superintendent or in many cases an assistant superintendent who makes demands, specifically related to test scores. In a charter, the members on the board seem to vary more frequently and as the highest authority in the school organization, they have tremendous power to affect change but do not invoke those powers due to the limited amount of time or lack of knowledge. Therefore, paid leadership is everything.

2. Charter schools really do have an opportunity to be creative and do something different. The principal can create something amazing, think outside the box, and have true autonomy from the powers of public education in many cases.

3. District control of a charter comes once every five years so get your ducks in a row and renew a year early.

4. If you send your kids to a charter school, don't complain, get involved, and make a difference. If you suspect something isn't going right, then check it out because guess what? You can. It is at the very core of a charter school. It is also a lot of freaking work so gear up.

5. Teachers at charter schools are very passionate and hopefully empowered. There tends to be more job security, more freedom and flexibility and less union involvement (which can in the worst of times also lead to a sense of powerlessness dreaming of all the things the union would do for them if they had one.)

In the end charters may not be "outperforming" other schools in the areas of test results (half outperform, half underperform) but these schools are providing something that the two political parties always claim schools should offer: choice, accountability directly to parents, and innovative opportunities to really do something different.

Pedagogy of Poverty

2010-01-22T08:33:00.000-08:00

I try to pass on Haberman to everyone I meet since it seems to me that what is broken in this country is highlighted in his four page earth-shattering piece The Pedagogy of Poverty. Sadly, I experienced recently the results of this pedagogy recently and wish it were laughable so I wouldn't have to cry about it.

The poorest children in this country are the victims of a great nothing. Teachers spend so much time talking that they never actually ask children questions. I witnessed a teacher give a talk--I cannot honestly call it a lecture because it had no content. During this talk, the teacher gave a few directions of what the children were supposed to be learning and then called a child up to do a sample problem. The student, eager to participate, jumped up on the board and wrote one letter, 8 times in various formats. There were no questions, no follow-through comments, no summary of learning, just a simple "thank you" and the student returned to her seat.

Children might have low scores in these schools, but the bottom line is that no one seems to bother to ask them questions because the teachers themselves have no idea what they are doing--but it is standards aligned of course. What do you do when the school is focused on nothing?

Elementary Schools on Integration

2010-01-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

High Schools have a stand-alone English class, usually to teach writing and literature. We know that learning in context works well for English learners, therefore integrated classes at the high school level make mores sense: Bio-Lit or World Studies (History/ELA).

So lets look at the elementary school level and ask ourselves why students need English as a stand alone segment. Combining English with Social Studies, or English with Science makes sense to me--why are we teaching a language as its own subject area? Unless we count "assessment literacy" as a genre in which case for my kids, I will pass.

What?

2010-01-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

This is idiotic. On Race to the Top criteria from edweek:

In a nod to teachers’ union concerns, the final regulations make clear that student test scores should be just one component of a teacher- or principal-evaluation system. The regulations now require that such systems include multiple measures, including growth in student test scores.

Uh, can someone explain to me again how "student test scores" is a different measure than "growth in student test scores."

Very annoyed. R2T is new NCLB. When are these policy-makers going to read "Catching Up or Leading the Way" or pay attention to the fact that test scores are not getting us innovative, employable graduates.

Probably never.

Year-end Review

2009-12-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

I started this blog to track my professional experiences in school reform but in October due to the threat of closure on the kids' school I changed all focus in my life to rally around the charter school and dual-immersion model. Because of my political position I haven't been able to blog about the bulk of what has happened but I have come up with a top ten lessons learned list for myself:

1. Politics is ugly business. Even at a microlevel, managing public information laws such as the Brown Act that force you to make all decisions, even the smallest ones, in a public arena. Any email or discussion with a majority of your board members is illegal in California. Though the spirit of the law is good, it is challenging to make decisions with a ton of people around and public commenters throughout. Good decision-making takes focus. Privacy laws prevent you from providing reasoning in key matters that lead communities to make guesses, usually inaccurately, as to why a board made a particular decision. These two factors--public information plus privacy matters--make politics truly challenging.

2. The decision-making processes are so challenging that it is likely that most school boards hire a superintendent and pretty much go with the decisions the super has made. This places an extraordinary amount of power and responsibility in the hands of a mere mortal. It is a thankless, tough job and in the end it is very difficult to be seen as the hero that you may or may not be.

3. Channeling efforts of the many is tough. Individuals want to help and they should be encouraged. But if the individuals do not have capacity or the stamina, how do you encourage them without losing traction in your goals? I have respect for the "community organizer" in our president and how many cats he must have herded for years and years to see results. I still don't know what to do to keep energy harnessed and have a lot of growth in this area. It might be the number one skill in public administration and I am guessing a lot of people fall short.

4. Titles have power. If you are an "assistant to the manager" you have less power than the manager, even if the manager is clueless and has no knowledge. We should carefully bestow these titles and cautiously evaluate those in the position to make decisions to avoid this power struggle between the competent and incompetent.

5. Finding truth. For the first time in my life I wonder who is telling the truth--looking between two parties who seem equally trustworthy, it is always challenging to determine which version of the truth is the one that deserves your support. It can't be that everyone is lying, it must just be that truth in many public policy cases is simply relative and you have to decide which one has fewer repercussions for those whom you are serving.

6. Anything you say to the press can and will be held against you. Even if you were quoted accurately.

7. Plan ahead--if something is due next year, do it now. If something is due next week, do it now. If something is due tomorrow, you probably blew it.

8. Avoid the appearance of unilateral decisions and you have a lot more leeway to make unilateral decisions. If people think you are making decisions without consensus, even if you are not, you have to be extremely careful to always send the message that you are doing everything with majority support. If you are cautious to begin with, people are less likely to question the periodic decisions you have to make without their support.

9. Even if you hate politics, you better learn who your supporters are and make them happy. Offending your support base is an egregious mistake.

10. Know your limitations-- and surround yourself with people who have the strengths you do not--I am not cut out for politics. I admire those who have the skill to do all of the things listed above as I am pretty sure I learned these lessons because I didn't do any of these things correctly. But if I can find people who are strong in these areas, even I could pull it off.

School Board Meetings

2009-11-12T09:22:00.000-08:00

I find school board meetings to be riveting. Perhaps it is my geekiness in education but I just think the topics that come up are fascinating.

Superintendents, and by extension school boards, are accountable for nearly every ail in society it seems. At the recent meeting of our school board the administration was blamed for all of the following:

--Low Student Achievement
--High Drop-out rates
--Suicide
--Drug use and alcoholism
--Stealing from Senior Citizens
--Neglecting the rights of special needs populations
--Lying, cheating and stealing

I thought that the Gilmore Girls should have recorded school board meetings because THAT is where the good entertainment is.

Who knows where the truth lies in all of these scenarios but it is clear that society will always blame the education system while the education system is blaming society. I would love to attend a school board meeting in which the community stands up and says "hey we have a problem and you have a problem--lets get together and kumbaya."

Understanding a TWI approach in 20 minutes

2009-11-04T00:15:00.001-08:00

If you want to learn about a Two-Way Immersion model, please click on this link. It is specific to César Chavez Charter School but contains a data analysis of other Two-Way Immersion schools (K-5 or K-6 only) in the state of California.

On School Closure Threats

2009-10-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

The superintendent of the school board came to our Governance Council (my kids school, Cesar Chavez) meeting this past week to let us know he recommended school closure to the board instead of renewing our charter (expiry date Oct 12). I recognize that the district is hoping for an increase in *revenue by eliminating the charter as it is perceived as skimming funds from the district budget first.

Putting aside the charter piece for just a minute, the argument that the Super has made to us is that our school has the lowest test scores in the district and therefore is low performing.

He is correct, the school has the lowest test scores in the district. Overall. BUT bilingual education research shows that students at the lower grades will NEVER get high scores. Why? Because half of the school is getting instruction in Spanish. These schools are designed to increase literacy in the child's first language and THEN they can transfer the skills slowly over time and begin to see pretty good numbers, say, around 6th grade. Because our school has a very small population of 6th graders, the very low scores at 2nd grade (again consistent with research) will never pull up the scores of the upper grades, capiche?

So... why am I blogging about this now? The school district is considering closing a school that is meeting the requirements as laid out in the charter and appear to be ignoring their agreement with the school (MOU) to look at data other than the state tests.

The MOU states that the district can look at other data (including STAR tests) to determine that we are academically consistent with other schools in the community. We can prove that by looking at our 6th grade scores alone (and comparing our 4-6 grades in general) but the district seems to be less concerned with the long-term positive effect and more concerned with how they look in terms of data. In other words, who cares what the long-term benefit is to my child on a continuum through 6th grade, we only care about the 2nd grade score of your child and make decisions based on discreet scores instead of looking at the big picture.

Scary.

I wonder what kind of world we have become that we care more about the short-term effects of data and ignore the long-term effect of employable skills, multi-language and literate populations, and critical thinking skills that are inherently pieces of the curriculum when students are learning to immediately apply a skill to the world around them.

*Many people don't realize that the only difference between a charter and a non-charter school is the way money is spent. The charters receive their funding directly from the property tax base. Let me illustrate:
For example, say the state has a formula of $5000 per pupil. In a charter school, the school gets the majority of this money to operate. If they have several young teachers, the overall salary might be less so they can spend that extra money on text books. Or perhaps school materials.
In a non-charter school, the district might say "okay so you have 100 students, you get 5 teachers." In other words, the district operates a budget by setting formulas. This works in a collective sort of way so that they can average a teachers salary so that a person who has been teaching for a long time won't be denied a job simply because their salary and benefits might cost the specific school more money, make sense?

Failure=Success!

2009-10-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

So we took it to heart, the whole "I got nothing out of it" bit and I have to admit that I am thankful for the person who felt this way.

We changed the whole process to help PBL teachers see a more clear thread from beginning to end of the project including supportive scaffolding in the design process and the clarity was reminiscent of a bell ringing.

Our big mistake the day before? Like many teachers, we failed to come up with concrete examples and questions to help our students understand what we were talking about. Once we got rid of the jargon and put in REAL questions and samples it was all fixed.

The result? Excellence in design process. Are you ready?

Step 1: Define the problem
Step 2: Set the solution criteria
Step 3: Determine various solutions
Step 4: Select the best solution
Step 5: Run it!
Step 6: Reflect on the solution

The biggest personal epiphany was step 3. How many times do we have students solve a problem without thinking of other options? Well, at least me. So PBL 2.0 for me includes a proposal with three separate ideas. THAT requires true collaboration.

Ah, success out of failure.

Design Process

2009-10-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today I heard an educator say "I got absolutely nothing out of this session." It broke my heart but I had to self-analyze. What was so terrible that after 6 hours of working with other teachers and two professional facilitators someone would say this?

The topic of the day was design process and modeling intentionality. What processes do we use and how can we be intentional about those processes and begin to transfer them to our students? We found that teachers could articulate their own process very well but when we asked them to apply it to students it got nebulous. Sure I will take blame as a facilitator that our language was inconsistent perhaps, or we did not provide concrete examples (we fixed it for tomorrow's group) but was the topic so far out of this teacher's need that it had zero value.

All of this has led me to ask a few questions:

1) What process are teachers asked to use to develop curriculum? Are teachers actually expected to use a process?

2) How do teachers make decisions about their activities/projects/assignments? Do they look at data and test their results or do they just pick random things that seem cool?

3) Why do teachers feel like the process for designing your projects is so burdensome?

I feel sad that anyone would find zero value in the discussion but on the one hand I suppose I am thankful to this teacher who helped me reflect on it and improve it for tomorrow. I will check back in to see if the changes make a difference.

Design Process

2009-10-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

Many ELA teachers think of their subject as playing a supporting role instead of seeing it as valuable for its own merit.

Today in a discussion with 30 ELA teachers we discussed the four most important elements of any ELA course:

1. Communication
2. Developing sense of self
3. Information Literacy
4. Making meaningful connections

Not surprisingly, the area in which the group seemed to come up with the fewest number of concrete strategies (at least initially) was in making meaningful connections. By the end of the day we came up with a number of strategies that would be very effective, but since it is related to critical thinking I can see why it would hurt the brain to come up with a lengthy list, as least initially.

My definition of critical thinking= thinking about things in a different way. Which leads me to an incredible process I saw today:

Using the design process to developing higher order thinking in ELA, what a brilliant idea. A great lesson on this can be found here. What a concept! This got me to thinking about essay writing as well--why do all ELA teachers teach a particular method of writing when there are many other ways to skin that cat? Wouldn't it be better to have students use ONE writing process for an project/product and then for the next use a different process and have the students analyze their own results--which worked best for them? Why?

Really we accuse math teachers of this crime but in the humanities we see it too--it is really more about the process itself, not a particular way to get there.

A fantastic resource that you should definitely read can be found HERE and I am going to buy it tonight. TONIGHT. I highly recommend everyone buy if you are looking for a hundred different ways to engage your students in new and meaningful ways.

Training Events

2009-09-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

After our recent Leadership Summit I have wondered how you can really tell if a training is effective for an educator.

It seems that the main way we measure value is through satisfaction. If attendees are satisfied you must have provided good training. I know that teachers and principals are intelligent enough to identify their own gaps and decide if the training attended will fill that gap, but can we actually measure the success of a training in another way?

Perhaps prior to attending a conference one ought to record an area of growth (that is reportedly developed by the conference or training event) and collect data related to that area and then two months later measure that same area.

Who has the time to collect data? Then again, who has the time to waste on a training that does not contribute to your craft?

Giving and Receiving

2009-09-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

My Personal Learning Network is perhaps the most accurately named organization to which I belong. It is so personal, in fact, that if anything happened to me, the power of that network would be utterly lost.

I have always considered myself a contributor: I comment on blogs when I see something of interest or to give kudos to the author. I follow links shared by others and share them as I see their value for those who follow me.

I have come to the conclusion, however, that I give very little to the network that teaches me so graciously. People I do not know in other regions of the country and world share resources so openly that I cannot keep up with all the valuable learning potential. I know that others who pay attention to what I share are not learning from me, nay but from those whom I follow.

I wonder if others feel that way, if there are a few that are the hunters and gatherers while the rest of us wait by the fire and try to catch a bone or two. The alternative to that is that we are all feeling as if we are receiving while we are actually giving. This is a possibility that has me pondering whether or not sharing is as valuable as contributing in the first place.

What is my obligation, then, if this second scenario applies? To follow as many amazing individuals possible to maximize the number of resources I can share with others. I sometimes wonder if there is truly a vast ocean of people with like minds in education or if there is a small pond and we are all swimming in it together hoping that it will rain a little to gather some more water in the drought of traditional educators who are trying to stick with business as usual.

I have decided that if this my duty then I must have a criteria for myself in seeking those educators.

1. The person should have spent time in a classroom and/or the field of technology and managing large groups of people.

2. Resources shared should be focused on change and reform.

3. The individual believes that the current education system itself is defunct; they must not believe that teachers and administrators are inherently bad but are part of a system that stifles the spirit of good teaching.

4. Any anger expressed by the educator is controlled, well-articulated and directed at systemic pieces, not at individuals trying to play their role.

5. Share and share alike must be their key purpose for wanting followers and/or to follow you. Anyone trying to build an empire, unless it is for the purpose of ultimate knowledge, is out.

I hope that I can meet this criteria myself and always be of value to others instead of wasting time ranting and raving about individuals who have little or no control over specific situations.

If my first thought was accurate, that there are very few contributors and the rest of us are sponges or parasites, then I hope to one day achieve enough knowledge to share it to that degree as well.

On Principals

2009-09-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

If you have done any work in education, you realize how key principals are to the success of the school. There are rare cases in which a totally dysfunctional principal can be hands off and a great staff can make it happen. But mostly even a great staff can be stifled by a principal who doesn't want them to innovate. So what makes a great principal? Here are my thoughts based on working with 30 or so principals over the last ten years from 7 different states:

1) Listens. When a teacher has a concern, they dig deep to figure out what it is.

2) Accountable Talk. They say things like "tell me more about that." Or "what was the reasoning behind that?" to help resolve your concern.

3) They help you make your own choices. You ask for a day off and they say "what arrangements do you have for that time in your class? What will the effect be on the timing of that?" Etc.

4) They walk away. They get angry or frustrated and they quietly walk away. Then come back and tell you.

5) They believe that teachers can be saved, just like students. They save everyone until it poisons the water hole, then they follow the right procedures and provide supports all along the way.

6) They are efficient with time. Staff meetings are valuable and last the appropriate amount of time.

7) They want to do what is best for the kids and parents, and totally maverick the system.

8) They have a clear definition of success for students and they leverage their definition, not anyone else's version of it.

9) They believe in instructional leadership.

10) They do whatever they can to make the difference in the life of a teacher and child.

On School Facilities

2009-09-08T21:24:00.001-07:00

I have seen over in 12 new schools start up over the last 5 years and I have seen a huge discrepancy in facilities. Before you get all bent out of shape about wasting money in new buildings, let me say that some of the schools I have seen are simply old facilities that have been retrofitted for a 1/1 (computer/student) ratio. It is amazing to realize how much differently it feels to be in a brand NEW facility than an old building that is falling apart. Take the exact same kids in these new buildings (I have seen that too in a delayed building finish in which students started in the old and put them in the new) and suddenly the kids look just a little cleaner, a little more well-behaved. Maybe even a little smarter. This is frustrating to me yet... I am swept up in it too.

I mention this because of two specific incidents:

1) A group of educators from out of the state came to one of the great schools I work with in North Carolina and said that they "were not impressed with the facility." They wanted to see a place where the community "placed a bigger priority in education." This school had done a great job taking an existing school and really fixed it up. Sure it looked like the run down version of the 1960s architectural genius that it was complete with salt and pepper linoleum flooring, but the kids. The kids! They were doing amazing work and the teachers were leading down a path never before walked with higher order thinking, community connections, and acquiring skills in digital media courses that rivals 99% of adults I know. And what did they see? Old lockers.

2) I recently went to an incredible school with great teachers and all I could see was the facility. I walked away thinking "ooh shiny pretty building" and it wasn't until 2 days later that I felt the superficial nature of my gut reaction. This community had embraced the idea of designing facility to get what you want out of students. The teachers don't even refer to themselves with that title--they refer to themselves as "facilitators" of learning. They have a "cockpit" in which the entire staff collaborates day after day on new ways to innovate and educate for a changing global society. Yet what did I see? A fancy couch in the entry way. Cubbies instead of lockers. Instead of regular asylum paint in the staff room they have whiteboard paint, for wall-to-wall notes on student achievement and success. I was ashamed but I knew that if I felt that way, someone trained on what to look for, that others surely would fall into the same trap.

I am not talking the Kozol proportions of Savage Inequalities, I am simply talking about the facility becoming the focus of a school tour rather than the high (or low) quality of teaching and learning occurring.

When educators walk into a building, they are looking to activate their own schema--they want something that looks just like... a vision, an existing school, a blueprint of a future school, etc. They want the kids to be the same flavor and color as their own classrooms, or none of it applies.

I would be wonderful to just eliminate that variable so that people can just walk into the school and see it for what is actually happening in the classroom. I will visit another beautiful campus tomorrow in N. Illinois and I am excited to spend time mano a mano with these teachers and students so that I can walk away with a legitimate since of their approach on campus. I only wish all educators had the opportunity to visit other campuses long enough to take off the blinders and see a school for what it is: a place of learning.

Perspective

2009-09-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

I just read this great article from edutopia about how project based schools and those involved with those schools almost speak a different language. It is true that over time I have been involved in such a radically different approach to pedagogy that perhaps even my closest colleagues might be surprised in the differences.

I know everyone thinks that what they do is different, so I am sure I can never convince through my blog in this arena, but if you stop by any one of the schools in our network you will begin to understand what I mean. It has become part of my daily speech for the last 6 years so sometimes I forget what it was like to be in a traditional environment--but when I train teachers and principals and immerse them in the teaching environment, time and time again they tell me that it is so far from what they have practiced that they feel like a first year teacher. I have worked with veterans with 30 years of teaching under their belts who express this, even those who have been "doing projects" for years. A schoolwide approach with a common set of graded learning outcomes, a clearly defined set of expectations for a positive school culture, and

At the BMG conference a few years ago in which their largest organizations were in attendance (including our former CEO) they spoke of an evolutionary approach to school reform:

The way evolution works is not that a species will evolve over time and each phase will adapt with a new characteristic rather one of the characteristics will be so radically different that that branch of the species will evolve and the previous species will die out.

So it is with public education. Perhaps the current mold is so broken that we cannot hope to fix it, rather evolve in order to save our species.

Having said that, I feel that I am part of one of a few reform movements (claro, we are not the only ones addressing it!) that has caused the species to make a radical change. The current system will die out.

Just because I believe this, however, does not make me correct. It just makes me passionate about changing teaching and learning. What are the core elements of this new system?

Students are never "taught" information until it becomes a need for them.
Teachers become facilitators rather than delivers of information and they have the responsibility of creating a need to know for things that they KNOW students are held accountable for, ie., creating scenarios that demand a need to know for the basic skills.
Basic skills and literacy become scaffolding and differentiated approaches that are only taught to those who actually need it, not the entire class since all students have radically different needs.
Students are taught information literacy rather than information. As in, how do I know that this information is any good rather than "the teacher provided me with the correct information" assumption underlying in so many classrooms.
Students are connected with members of the community in every project. This provides them with opportunities to connect with potential internships and jobs in the future, exposing them to all varieties of skilled occupations available in the future.
Provide technology as a tool so that students do not focus on the technology but use it to do whatever they need to do. Students learn to manage technology tools so that when they encounter new technologies they will learn to naturally look for applications in their own fields.

All of this with the learning outcome that students and teachers are involved in meaningful and engaging teaching and learning together.

Because I have the opportunity to do this work, to experience what it means to be involved with truly innovative schools, I sometimes have a hard time talking to the greater education world.

I feel a natural frustration when parents make complaints about teachers, homework, etc. that fills me with a sense of anger for a system that has taken power away from administrators who take power away from teachers.

I am working on learning from the educational community (from my previous post, for example) but it is tough when at many turns I read things like "homework provides little benefit to students" and then I hear a parent say that they had to attend a parent conference because their student did not do numbers #1-60, odd, because he could already do them.

Or hear that $$ really does not motivate people on complex tasks and see that many districts provide a financial incentive to teachers for getting higher test scores out of students (so... is that not complex?)

Or see a teacher tell a student to sit in a chair because they are "acting out" clearly because the lesson is droning on and on....

So I am trying, really I am. But when you have seen what I have seen, and participated in schoolwide reform not only as a teacher but as a coach for over 10 new schools in four different states (plus the other 20 something I have helped train and support) it is hard for me to believe that the existing system is worth saving.

Retraction

2009-08-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last post I mentioned a tool called LessonWriter and my concern about placing it in the hands of brand new teachers.

I received a thought-provoking email from one of the developers and founders after he made a comment on the blog posting. I still stand with my original complaint about the school system placing teachers in such frustrating circumstances in poorly managed environments, but I will separate my mention of the tool from that context.

I commented to the developer that I was concerned about the selected text being pulled out of context, that there was no mention of the need for a teacher to really think that piece through and his wise response was that a teacher could do that with any textbook or article but at least with his tool they would be getting the skills using proven strategies for literacy skill building. The email exchange has led me to believe that the people who have worked on Lessonwriter (maybe they should call it literacy skill builder and I wouldn't have complained) appear to have experience and certainly passion around what they have created and I certainly don't want my blog post to prevent anyone from using the tool.

If you are a PBL teacher, this would be a great tool specifically for scaffolding some concepts, particularly for your ELL students. I still like the idea of having students use it to pull out their own NTK (need to knows) and if you are a new teacher, make sure and actually watch the videos all the way through and use the tool as it was intended to be used, being sure to select texts that are of interest to your students and engaging to them, not just you, and using it as scaffolding and differentiation in addition to creating problem-solving opportunities and creative inquiry for them.

Regardless of whether you decide to use the tool or not, you should definitely check it out because the technology is pretty advanced. You can just put stuff in there and BAM! it saves you a lot of time. It actually allows teachers a wider variety of texts to use so you don't have to search online for hours searching for pre-created activities.

Thanks, Stephen, for taking the time to be so cordial and professional in sharing your views.

Teachers as Robots

2009-08-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

Someone recently shared this amazing little tool called Lesson Writer via twitter and I actually watched all of their videos.

To a trained teacher, this could be a powerful tool to place in the hands of students, or perhaps to help you identify as a teacher particular terminology you want to draw out of the texts.

But I was mortified at the thought of placing this in the hands of a new teacher. Consider this scenario:

Mr. Jones, brand new teacher, has been placed in a low-performing school. He had some very innovative ideas that he was able to implement in his student teaching class, where his master teacher was encouraging, helped him manage his classroom, and provided a safe environment for him to develop lesson plans for the one period he was teaching each day.

Now, however, Mr. Jones finds himself two days before school starts and he is handed a schedule of what he is teaching. While he was hired with the hope of providing him with 11th grade English courses and maybe one AP Lit course, he was instead assigned to teach 5 periods of Freshman English and a Journalism elective for the school (yearbook, because the previous advisor has quit last minute due to low student participation and a small budget.) Of his 5 periods of English, one is honors and one is predominately English Language Learners.

Mr. Jones is excited since it is the beginning of the year, and at first he has a very interesting, inquiry and constructivist approach for his lesson plans. After the first month, however, he meets with his mentor teacher who tells him that he needs to do more guided direct instruction. The curriculum specialist at the district also wants to know why his scores on the first benchmark are so low. Finally, the rep from the yearbook company informs him that there is a new software program for students that will make putting the yearbook together SO much easier.

What is Mr. Jones to do? His principal has mandated that teachers turn in all lesson plans in advance and he is getting behind! His yearbook students are complaining about the short battery life in the school cameras, one laptop is missing a powercord so editors no longer have access to use the software provided by the rep, and his mentor teacher tells him to just focus on the honors English course because those are the parents who will care the most.

A colleague sends around this Lesson Writer program and voilá Mr. Jones is rejuvenated! Now he can get to those basic skills to get my kids' scores better! AND all he has to do is find texts that are of interest to the students. He can even differentiate instruction like they talked about in his credentialing program. So thus begins the journey for Mr. Jones and his students. And while he means to use these activities as a part of a higher order thinking focused curriculum, he has now placed all 9th grade English students into a reading comprehension course.

He never does get to that higher order stuff because he is in survival mode.

My complaint in this case is not the software but the factors in the system that drive teachers towards mediocre instruction using such tools. My therefore to this post is that we need to make technology available to teachers that drives change in their approaches. Something like google docs or other online collaborative spaces is more likely to push change in pedagogy as opposed to support the current system.

Freedom of Information Inaction

2009-08-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation with two different network administrators in two different school districts in two different states in the same week that was exactly the same:

Me: "Can you put in the password to log me into your network?"

IT person: "Um no."

Me: "Oh, you don't have the password?"

IT person: "wellllll I do, but technically I can't log you into our network."

Me: "why is that?"

IT person: "Well you have to sign a AUP to get onto the network as it represents a risk to our security."

I understand that schools need network security, I do. But it seems odd to believe that a piece of paper is going to protect the system.

Additionally this is a reflection of an attitude that I think is detrimental to education everywhere: blocking sites, limited usage, and overall trying to control the information. If schools spent more time training students and holding them accountable for inappropriate actions rather than saying "all websites with _____ words are blocked" and training students on using social media to increase knowledge rather than limiting access to all web 2.0, we might actually be raising up a culture of information literacy.

These districts that limit access feel that they have a moral obligation to protect kids. And they do. By training them how to use it in the classroom as a real tool. I believe in setting expectations and holding students accountable and obviously some restrictions to protect the network are essential--but they need to protect from within the network, not just outsiders.

Prestige of Teaching

2009-08-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

A woman posted here that the public school system needs her but she can't stick around. An interesting response over here reflects on her thoughts and the system in general.

I wonder if corporate America treats other jobs in a similar fashion:

Lawyers are unhappy with their jobs. Or

Social Workers leave the state after an average of *2.5 years

I believe it all comes down to one element: Working conditions.

If a teacher is treated as a professional by her boss, she feels like a professional. My first teaching job, in Los Angeles, I had a very professional principal who made me feel like I was a star. She would regularly give me feedback about how important I was to the students. She even called me in and asked me what I wanted to teach the following year even though I was highly UNqualified. I felt like a professional.

The next year I was working for a principal who felt that teachers were going to save the world. He talked about how teachers needed to sharpen up skills because it was our contribution that was going to keep the kids out of prison. Every staff meeting we were drilled on new strategies and the importance of using those strategies in class. He came to our classroom and actually gave us feedback on those strategies and pushed us to take the next steps. The school had an ample professional development budget and encouraged teachers to use that money to become better as it was a moral imperative. He treated us like professionals. When I would spend time with friends and family, though no one I know would sink so low as to treat teaching as less than a real job, I didn't need to worry about feeling like my job wasn't important because I could simply throw back at them quotes from my own boss as to how important the teacher is to society.

I could go on but you get the point. If the leaders on a school campus feel that teachers are important and the job is essential, the teachers cannot help but be swept up in the momentum.

The burden then, of teaching not being a "real" job, or young impressionable teachers who don't see the power in their hands leaving the profession lies in the hands of who? The government it appears. So how can the US agencies address this issue?

I have a solution: Administrate for America. Hold principals accountable exclusively for the activities that they complete that lead directly to teacher improvement.

--Educate themselves on best practices for student achievement (not test prep in case of confusion)
--Provide structured time for teachers to discuss their academic practices with each other and tighten up schoolwide practices.
--Help teachers see a clear vision for themselves as individuals and as a school by helping unite on their common goals and build confidence in their own importance as catalysts for positive change.
--Spend time in the classroom and provide regular feedback to teachers on how well they are meeting their own goals.
--Create a dialogue and vocabulary on campus that empowers teachers. All teachers should have a set of phrases or words that they can use to talk to their friends and family about how important their jobs are.

In short: become an academic leader and support teachers in that fragile, initial stage all the way through the veteran who needs to continue to learn and share her best practices. If the principals are held accountable for this instead of their current load:

--bringing up low test scores
--disciplining students
--explaining rules to parents
--fundraising
--meeting at the district office constantly and sitting in meetings on how to comply with state guidelines and regulations
--evaluating teachers on some district or state criteria

There is more to the working conditions piece, but I was particularly struck by this articles comment that peopel around her didn't appreciate the profession. That just seems unbelievable to me given those who built for me an early confidence that has never gone away.

*made up for dramatic purposes but after I took a quick look I found headlines like "Social Workers Leave Profession Due to Negative Image of Profession" and "Social Workers leave Britain in Droves."

Back to School Season

2009-08-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

In honor of the season, I am reposting this on:

TIPS FROM A REFORMER

Or is it reformist? I have used several different explanations for what I do for a living and most of it includes the word "reform." My newest description includes the word "redesign" but then people think I mean the actual school building (which is sort of part of my job description since you have to plan for using the space correctly but doesn't get to the heart of what I do.)

The more I do this work the more I know that it is essential to the development of our country and I want to encourage everyone to more grassroots movement of reform in their own city. Below are a list of questions that every parent should ask the principal of the school--perhaps even superintendent or school board. You might ask the teacher but frequently they are limited by school administration because they control the teacher's ability to be free in the classroom to do proper instruction.

Question #1: What are the learning outcomes for the school?

Every high school has to have a set of learning outcomes in order to get accreditation for college--elementary schools SHOULD go through the accreditation process but many skip it. If the person cannot tell you what the learning outcomes are for the school, Houston, we have a problem. If they do have a list you should look for something about critical thinking or problem solving, something about citizenship or being a part of the community, some schools use the term work ethic for those things but that is really a different issue. Other key learning outcomes typically cover communication (oral or written or both) and some type of numeracy. Numeracy is a made up word but it refers to math literacy. Finally look for something that measures collaboration or group work. Many schools are now realizing that technology literacy is important for kids, but I would argue that our children already have tech literacy and we should be measuring their ability to use it appropriately in a classroom setting (ie, using it as a tool besides just using it to replace traditional assignments like online tests and some worksheets).

Question #2: How are the learning outcomes being measured?

People can say "oh we have 8 learning outcomes and they are about blah blah" but if it is a true learning outcome, it should be measured. If the teacher gradebooks all have categories of tests, quizzes, and homework, the only skills they are measuring are testing skills and work ethic. Think about it--do you want your child to be measured solely based on their ability to take a test? Or do you want them to also develop thinking skills, collaborative abilities, communication skills, etc.

Question #3: How is the school developing critical thinking and problem solving/how is creativity and innovation rewarded?

Anyone who is anyone knows that the US suffered in the 80s from low math and science scores internationally. What most people don't think about it is how America has managed to stay on top in innovation and creativity in spite of these test scores. We MUST have content literacy, don't get me wrong--but students have to be encouraged to create new products, come up with new ideas, etc. The time has passed in which people can graduate from high school and get a job as a robot in a factory. If kids are only regurgitating information, they are not encouraged to really bloom and be creative.

Question #4: How does the school use data to inform practices?

They will like this because everyone asks about the data--but they just ask what it IS. How many teachers are told to "raise test scores" without analyzing the current group of kids. Most teachers look at the year prior and try to address the low areas with NEW kids. This sounds psycho people, but it is exactly what happens in schools. So if I am a parent and my kids test scores are low, I do NOT care how the teacher addressed it last year or the group of kids that went through last year. I want to know how is my specific child increasing achievement and if they only measure the school has is test scores (proved by a lack of learning outcomes in other areas) then I need to know how they are using that to specialize an education for my chillins.

Question #5: How does the school support struggling teachers?

If I am willing to perform an "experiment" in letting a first year teacher, or even worse, a student teacher, use my children to become a good teacher, I need to believe that a principal or other support coach is working with them on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I want to see discussions around curriculum. If someone says "oh we have BTSA or some other new teacher support", I want to know what % of the time with that mentor is actually spent with curriculum. Most of the time is just dealing with classroom management strategies, or paper pushing. Classroom management (ie discipline) is important obviously, but if a new teacher can really get a handle on engaging and powerful teaching, at least a child who is trying can get access to the curriculum.

Question #6: What are some examples of "real world" scenarios in which my children are engaged?

The key word here is applied curriculum. Who cares if they can add and subtract negative numbers if that math has no purpose? All I am asking is that the teacher say something like "when you only have ten dollars, how can you possible subtract 16 dollars?" and then have them come up with stuff like "well your mom could loan you 6 dollars and then you would have -6, right? Then if you borrowed 10 the next time it would be -10 plus -6. If you get 20 from grandma, then you have 4. Etc." If the kids are learning math for the sake of math, the only thing they learn is how to take a test. Same goes for all subject areas. If they are learning about the history of the state but don't apply any lessons to current events, es no bueno. Ideally the teacher creates a problem or scenario and the kids are asked to solve it in a project or problem based environment, but I know schools are light years behind that.

Question #7: How is my child being taught to work with other students?

This is especially important if your child is one of the top students in the class. Collaboration is consistently the number one skill employers demand of their employees yet state that very few people are prepared to come to the table and work well with others. Kids who are super smart learn that they do better on their own (due to the perceived stupidity of others) and begin to develop a sense that isolated geniuses are better on their own. If the school encourages (forces) kids to consistently work with other kids, the children see much earlier on their role as a person who can either push others to succeed (ie become their future bosses) or work alone and not recognize that everyone has contributions in this world (picture your sweet little kid 10 years from now working with some idiota and deciding immediately that the person has nothing to offer. When that idiota gets promoted due to nepotism or some other unique circumstance (like it turns out the person is actually a whiz with programming, etc.) what is your kiddo's future? Now flip-flop the situation and pretend like your child helped push the person to be better and always provided support no matter how tough it was? The idiota gets promoted (or better yet, your child gets promoted because the boss noticed how well he helped created harmony in the company) and then who is better off now? So many parents worry that group work will "drag my kid down" and we continue to see people entering the work force ill-prepared to collaborate.

Question #8: What can I do to help support the school as we move forward to make these changes?

It takes a village, duh. And if you want your child to get this kind of education, you have to fight for it, against the winds of your community often times. If you doubt what I am saying, read The World is Flat. Read Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Read any studies by the US Dept of Labor for the last 20 years. Check out the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and tell me that this stuff is not important. Don't worry about risks, your smarty smart pants kids will get educated since the number one correlating factor to literacy is parent education level (and according to Freakanomics the sheer number of books in your home). Nothing that the school does is going to mess up your kid if you are actively working at home to read and think with them so don't be afraid to push them. In case you didn't know, only 25% of Americans have a BA or higher, so if you are one of them, your kids are likely in the top 25% of the nation in achievement (probably reflected in their test scores). What will we do if America does not prepare our kids? No doomsday, just further sinking of our european travel opportunities, that is it.

Thanks, Anon!

2009-08-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

To anon 1 and 2:

Thanks for the dialogue on my last post while I was with the best of the best at a network conference last week--the dialogue represents one of the reasons why reform is so challenging: no one quite knows how to best change the system.

I believe that there are three parts of a good school:

1) Positive school culture

2) Tools to support education (technology as a disruptive force)

3) Rigorous teaching and learning.

Positive school culture and tools to support education are community decisions, but rigor is something that any educator can address in their own classroom.

Anyone who has read Wagner's Rigor on Trial knows that rigor is about thinking, not quantity. A good place to start in systemic change would be to find a way to evaluate thinking. While many advocate that the state tests get to thinking, they still require a large portion of specific content knowledge and memorization.

Teachers are overwhelmingly convinced that standardized test must measure knowledge or they would not take it so personally when their scores are low. They would not take such pride when scores are high if they did not believe that the tests are somehow legitimately measuring knowledge.

The paradigm shift, therefore, must be around encouraging teachers to zoom in on rigor within the standards, or standards-based critical thinking.

I am sure someone is going to think (or comment) that teachers ARE concerned about thinking, and I would agree to a large extent. But the system has not trained teachers to think this way. Think about the last time you saw a new teacher walk into a school. What tools are they handed? Bloom's hierarchy? Tips on how to extract higher order thinking from student products? Or is it a text and a pacing guide? Do a good job, but make SURE you are on page 25 by next week or really, you are behind.

I participated in the California beginning teacher support structure (BTSA) when I was a new teacher and the questions asked were about the format of my lessons, ways to control learning, and ways to organize my lessons. I could be mistaken because it was so heavily dependent on the facilitator, but that in and of itself is an indicator of the lack of value on innovative and critical thinking.

I am very interested in beginning teacher programs that address this issue, or is it simply a matter of new teachers first mastering content and then never getting beyond the facts?

What I do..

2009-07-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

I was a teacher for 7 years in the public education system. I taught a Special Day Class in Los Angeles where I was the 27th teacher the students had for the year. I finished the year out, my big accomplishment. I was underqualified and inexperienced I just had sticktoitiveness, the only real quality required for LAUSD.

I taught in a small farming community in the CV of California that preached innovation but really only broached the real change required for systemic improvement. Many structures were in place and indeed we probably improved the situation of many students in that school while making our attempts. The administrator behind that movement left and that was the day the music died.

I worked in an alternative ed program in the state of Utah, formerly known as the "unwed mothers" program with a day-care imbedded in the basement for the children of students. Incidentally my own daughter came with me to work and it was a top-notch day care facility. I also taught summer school at an alternative school that provided catch up courses for students deficient over 50% of their credits-->dropout recovery. In three weeks students could get the same credit as a whole school year.

When I came to work at my final resting place as a teacher, I was not expecting a miraculous experience since I had seen the broken and failed reform already.

I underestimated the power of a vision.

A vision of a school model that would powerfully change not only my life, but the way I think, the way I parent, all of my relationships, and my teaching methology.

I work for a national reform organization whose primary focus is to arm a local community with a forward-focused reform. We are in 50 schools in 11 states and we are rapidly expanding. I have met with superintendents, I train administrators and teachers, counselors and IT support. I intersect with members of a chamber of commerce, a business alliance, higher education partners, and a number of other interested community members. My training, however, is not prescriptive. We facilitate conversations for people who are ready to change but don't know how to do it.

I have been doing this work for the last 3 years, 6 total if you include the three years of contract work I did for the org before I was hired full-time and I learn something new every year from an innovate group of teachers in my network.

What is really affirming about the work that I do is that I am able to also see the traditional school in the community to help me see what the same demographic of students is handling next door to our schools. The test scores are slightly higher, sure, but the real power is seeing the final product: students who can speak with confidence and authority, kids who are prepared to critically think and deconstruct a problem logically. Children who have grown from regurgitators to innovators.

I wonder every day what I did to be so lucky to have landed on this path. I often wonder what song I would be singing without the steps along the way that led me to believe so passionately in fixing a broken system. Not just for my kids but for everyone's children.

I am an optimist. I believe change is in the air. I believe that some of what A. Duncan is interested in doing can change our country and the economic disaster that is our public education system. I appreciate those who are on the ground and fight endlessly and fruitlessly--you are laying the foundation for real change.

It can be done, but it requires a need--a sense of urgency from the local community. One man alone needs support.

2009-07-25T22:02:00.001-07:00

School Turnaround

2009-07-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

An interesting article on the turnaround expectations from the Obama/Duncan regime has me thinking about the concept of turnaround.

I have been part of whole school reform and have the same understanding--you can't take a broken system and put a few expensive toothpicks and glue in to get great results. Even if your toothpicks are made of solid gold, the weight of the old structures will weigh down and crash anyway.

So how do you reform? Restart. Plan from the beginning. Break down your school and push ctrl-alt-del.

A great teacher can definitely make a difference in the classroom-but so often the innovation is stifled by the status quo, the students push back on something else because "none of the other teachers make us _______."

I am not suggesting that teachers avoid reform because they won't get support, I am simply saying that if it isn't system-wide, it will not really lead to permanent change.

So how do we get it system-wide?

1. Start with community--get those on board who are like-minded
2. Once you have the like-minded, get those who are in positions of power (board members, district administration, etc.)
3. Create a vision for what you want to see in your community
4. Create a plan

Simple, right?

Though I obviously have a specific plan for what works, I am a big believer that if the community can unite on a particular vision, no matter what it is, they are probably going to get a better school than a disjointed, disengaged community.

On Summer

2009-07-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

My cousin used to always tell me that teachers make just as much money as everyone else, they just work 1/4 less so their salary reflects having off three months a year.

Interesting thought.

So a lot of people blame poor teacher quality on low pay. Are we saying that people who are motivated by money are more likely to be better teachers? Or is it merely about competition?

I would like someone to do an experiment and raise the salary at 50% of the schools in a large district. I would like to then compare innovative practices, student achievement, and student retention rate. If the data ended up that those 50% with the higher salaries were overwhelmingly higher than those with lower I would finally once and for all be convinced that salary=increase in quality.

I think teachers should be compensated fairly, but my cousin's point does strike me periodically--teachers make the same as policemen, but they work three months less.

The older I get the more I realize that there is a simple difference between making money and not making money and that is time. The more time I am willing to spend, traveling, overtime, weekends, etc., the higher my salary. Administrator make more money because it requires more time. If you teach and then work in the summer time, you make a competitive salary. If you don't, you make less. So in the end of the day it really comes down to the cliché that time=monay.

Home School Thoughts

2009-07-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have been asked a couple of times throughout the course of my career what I think about home school in general and I just got that question again (thanks Sarah!) so I thought I would post it up here. Comments welcome of course.

When I was younger I totally thought that homeschoolers were crazy people who were afraid of the real world.

However, now that I have children of my own I have a different perspective on that whole side of life. The short answer: Homeschooling can be really amazing if done for the right reasons. The long answer:

It really depends on why people home school. Reasons that I find acceptable and yea, admirable:

1) My child does not learn well in public school. We gave it a whirl and it just didn't work out.

2) I love learning. I love my children. I love watching my children learn and together we feel the spirit of learning.

3) The school in our community has metal detectors and a teacher was hung in effigy on the tree on the north side of campus by knife-wielding students

Reasons that I take issue with:

1) I don't want public school teachers to teach my kids with their liberal agendas

2) I want my child to learn more than just the standard course of study

Why do I find these concerning? I feel very passionately about providing different perspectives to children while learning. In the home it would be challenging to make sure that kids get enough variety just in their family. Even if the family provides an enriched environment and takes field trips to cool places, the lens is from one family perspective. I had so many amazing, creative students who knew so much that it seems sad to deprive kids of the perspective the different walks of life can provide in a public school setting.

Additionally, children need a safe environment to learn how to work with other people. Public school is the first institution that challenges our personal boundaries, our assumptions about the world around us, and forces us to work with people we would never choose. While I think most schools don't take full advantage of these opportunities to help students grapple in a safe environment, if children don't learn how to cope with the frustration of the common man, at what point do we expect them to do so? What job in their future will require them to only work with their family members? If you have a trust fund or a sustainable family business this might be an okay option but I still think one of the most important skills today is the ability to work collaboratively with alllll kinds of people.

I do not look down upon people who choose home schooling for their children and I have known many students who have had home school for a time period who were great achievers. If I only cared about student achievement I would applaud all efforts of home schooling because with that kind of student to teacher ratio, you really can't go wrong.

I am not going to make the typical arguments that parents can't home school if they are not trained because I know a lot of really smart people who home school and could take down the entire teaching corp single handedly in content testing.

I want to reform the system, yes. Because I believe that children need a core set of skills to work with others that they just can't get from an awesome family.

Any questions?

:EDIT:
I do not blame parents for disliking the school system and teachers in general, I just think they should try to fix it rather than exit it. That might seem overwhelming which is why I started this blog. I think I am going to focus on some concrete strategies for change. Thanks for the comments.

Reform is for Everyone. Not just the Special People.

2009-07-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

If I were to start a school, of course I would want to spend a lot of money and time to get the best teachers out there. But that isn't reform.

If I had all the money in the world I would get rid of every low effort, low capacity teacher and replace them with a triple figure salary earner. But that isn't changing a system, just the players.

I have come to be very passionate about my job because we change a system. We create a better job for teachers and train our teachers, even the lower capacity teachers, to do something amazing.

You have who you have--is it really a solution to bring in a ringer for a few years to expose them to the system as is and then have them exit it anyway because it is not designed for retention but for burnout?

Teacher quality is the second most important factor in a school, true...so you have to take who you have and make them quality, not get rid of who you have and hope you can bring in quality.

If you can't help all those teachers who are struggling how do you have hope of helping the kids who are struggling? Well you don't.

So take who you have, believe in them, inspire them, and push them to really change their practices, then you can call it reform. If you have some specialty school with super teachers that came across the country to teach at your hoity toity little Cadillac of a school I am happy for your success but don't try to call people to come to you unless you are doing something different in that school that will work anywhere.

Teacher Incentives

2009-07-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

I am wondering about this TIF (Teacher Incentive Fund) business that our government is contemplating funding to the tune of $446 million dollars.

I have a few questions for the government officials considering spending this money:

1) Are we just going to print up money to pay for this?

2) Do you believe that teachers are currently not working to increase student achievement?

3) Are you okay with placing additional pressure on teachers to create lesson plans around test-taking strategies?

4) Do you believe this plan will encourage innovation and creativity to help prepare students for a global economy?

5) What research is there demonstrating a correlation between high test scores and college completion?

After working in a particular state that already has an incentive fund for teachers to increase test scores I have seen the direct results of this idea and I am convinced that it is not meeting whatever intended goals there are. The intended/unintended consequences that our country must face if our legislators continue to push money in this area:

Instructors who teach courses that do not have a test are relegated to second-class citizens. Foreign Language, engineering, music, art, physical education are all seen as expendable. If a child doesn't test well in math we send in the troops and overspend in the math department. If a child doesn't test well in P.E, who cares? Or Foreign Language? Or even senior courses that are the last classes children take prior to college enrollment that are frequently not tested. ALL resources in a school are placed around these "core" classes. Why are we offering the other course if we consider them less important or a waste of time?
Teachers do not look for best practices in developing well-rounded students who can critically think, they look for best practices in raising test scores. These are NOT the same thing, no matter the quality of the test. Review of discreet facts, process of elimination, statistical likelihood of the answer being B, etc. becomes king in these "incentivized" districts and states.
Fear of innovation. Anything new that is not "proven" to raise test scores by a certain percentage is going to discourage teachers AND administrators from trying new things.
Encourages dishonesty. If you know that your co-workers will not get an incentive (the incentive is by school as well as by teachers so if a school doesn't have a high enough percentage increase in test scores than the whole staff loses what they consider an annual "bonus") then you might be pressured to cheat or help students a little more.
Loses sight of the REAL purpose of testing--to help teachers meet the needs of students. If this were really and truly the case, wouldn't we test students at the beginning and end of the year to measure improvement? Why are we testing them at the end of the year when we have no PRE assessment to determine their knowledge coming in to the class?
Demoralizes teachers, particularly new teachers who have not had the experience of seeing the tests in the classroom year after year. In a profession in which we are already losing such a large percentage of our young and innovative teachers, why are we suggesting that we place a value on the test increases?

This post is NOT a complaint of the tests we have out there, they really aren't so terrible and they might have some merit in terms of evaluating progress and helping to set goals. The complaint is about using the scores to punish, reward, fire, protect, or admonish teachers and students.

I would not mind rewarding teachers for something like attendance rates, additional time spend during or after school, or participation in professional development. But it always comes down to test results and I cannot possibly advocate for such an idea. I care too much about student achievement for that.

A Parent on Class Size Funding

2009-07-09T14:11:00.001-07:00

This is a post from my friend Maren Lopez who made some interesting comments on Class Sizes:

I know you didn't ask...

I've been thinking about education lately, as I often do, but specifically about class size reduction. San Jose Unified School District, where my kids attend school, has cut funding that for the past ten or so years has ensured that K-2 classrooms are reduced to 20 students per teacher. (Except for a few underperforming schools, they get to keep 20:1. Too bad my kids' school performs well, right?) This is of course very unfortunate, as the lower student to teacher ratio has been proven to increase student achievement. Common sense can tell you it is easier for the teacher to maintain discipline and meet individual student needs with less students in the classroom. Many parents who I have talked to are very concerned about this, some even predict imminent failure of our school. So I'm wondering: is there something wrong with me that I'm not really worried about this? Here are some of my reasons why:

1. I don't really depend solely on school to educate my child in the first place. Schools fill a very important role in society, but parents fill an even more important role. I appreciate all that the school does for my kids, but I've never considered it the only source of education for my kids. School, as well as church, sports/music classes, family activities, community resources, and every single thing that we do are also part of my kids' educational experience. Of course I seek out high quality everything for my kids, so I want their school to be high quality, but ten extra kids in their classroom doesn't seem like a huge change to their overall experience. Sure I'll keep my eye on things to make sure it is going well, but I do that anyway. That is what parents are supposed to do.

2. Budget cuts are inevitable. We might as well weather it with dignity. We're in a recession folks. When there is no money, there is no money. Of course I would prefer that the budget cuts didn't affect me or my family or our little bubble that we live in. But this is a huge widespread problem affecting everyone, so why are we so surprised that there are changes? Schools were already scrounging for money even when the economy was doing great. When you already scrape together 10 cent boxtops to run your programs, you can't expect even something so precious as education to remain untouched in a recession. We have to make do. And we will. And it will be fine.

3. I don't think class-size reduction is the only answer to education problems. I don't know as much about education policy and reform as I'd like to, but it seems to me that although there are studies that prove the benefits of class size reduction, it is not the only thing that can be done to improve education. Since we don't have money for that beneficial program right now, fine, let's focus on other things. My opinion: teacher quality is the most important thing. I'd rather have my child in a good teacher's classroom at an underperforming school than a mediocre teacher's classroom at a high performing school. The teachers at my kids' school are all very experienced, all very committed to the school's program, and have created an amazing integrated community. Statistically, the lower performing schools in our district include a large percentage of English language learners. Our school has used our ELLs to our advantage and so are an asset to our program. We weren't depending on class size reduction for success, our school has a different creative solution to that particular problem.

So I guess it isn't quite accurate to say I'm not worried about it, but I'm no more worried than before. Public education has a lot of problems, but there are a lot of options both in and out of public education for getting what you need for your child. Everyone can find an answer that is right for their own situation.

But given what I have heard many other people say about the changes in our district makes me wonder if I'm missing something. Because if I need to start worrying, someone better let me know.

Teach Your Children

2009-07-09T04:56:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week my Sister-in-law was discussing her housing crisis of wanting to live in a nicer neighborhood than she can afford in Los Angeles (in spite of a tanking economy.) Part of this discussion included her struggle to find a home in the neighborhood where the good schools are located.

In my idealistic world my children attend the school of residence, or if we are lucky enough to be in an open enrollment district, the school that is most closely aligned to my personal philosophy of education as we are now.

In my real world, I have to very seriously think about how I feel about my children keeping company with peers who are at risk for drug and alcohol abuse as well as early debut of sexual intercourse. Am I comfortable with surrounding my children with high risk peers if I feel that the school offers a better approach?

Is a better approach less effective if the population of students is high risk?

Is a high SES population really worth seeking after?

Parents like my sister-in-law read greatschools.net or other such sites that "analyze" a school (reporting on test scores of course as an indicator of a great school) and decide to buy a home in a community with these high test scores.

I feel torn between sending my children to a school with mediocre teaching practices and high performing population v. a school with phenomenal teachers and innovative pedagogy but a low performing population.

I need a definitive study about the influence of peers on socialization and achievement but my preliminary reading is that peers are quite influential and in some cases, more influential than parenting.

Assuming that the parenting in this case is going to actually be effective.

Engagement

2009-07-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

As I travel the country looking for engagement, I have been often frustrated with the lack of clear definition out there. It is not my role or purpose to define engagement but merely to identify it and share my thoughts with the teachers I work with. I am sharing these thoughts here and am hoping by the end of this summary I will have created a definition that I feel comfortable repeating.

I heard someone say that engagement can be observed in a classroom in which the students are doing all the work. While I like the initial thought behind this, I have to add that in order for true engagement to occur the teacher must be seen as a valuable resource. The classes I have witnessed with sincerely engaged students, the kids are rushing like mad to solve a problem or create a product and want an outside eye to provide feedback. (Though when the teacher is not available, the groups are not hung up on waiting around and continue working until the teacher is ready.)

Engagement can further be witnessed when students are confused and want to clarify. Students are confused in schools every day throughout the country but most teachers take silence as an indicator of lack of confusion--or in many cases are not trained to ask the right questions to check for understanding. When I see obvious confusion on the face of a student and a hand immediately go up, or a student turns to a neighbor and says "what does ____ mean???" it is an indicator that the student really cares and is therefore engaged.

While engagement can occur in a direct instruction environment in rare cases (all students have a need to know and the instructor is connecting meaning for the listeners) 90% of the time the students must be creating or solving for them to be engaged in their learning. Anyone who believes that they can stand up in front of a class and deliver engaging material for an extended period of time is probably more obsessed with their own interests than the needs of students to develop their own thinking skills. Either that or the teacher has no idea how to engage learners in any way besides an entertaining story or lecture.

After rereading my thoughts here I am going to redefine engagement: Teachers ask the hard questions and students want to answer them.

The role of the teacher is to ask the right questions and help students see enough meaning to desire to answer them.

Thinking Skills

2009-07-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Reprinted from May 21, 2009 post over here

I am trying to summarize what is broken about the current ed system to help my fellow Americans since I have such a hard time articulating it.

I am going to try reeeeallly hard to avoid jargon so here goes...

Students are not trained to think creatively or solve problems. They are trained to follow instructions and are evaluated on their ability to retain information. Why is than an issue? Well... the factory jobs are gonzo so kids actually need to have thinking skills, not just follow direction skills.

We live in an information age. Certain knowledge does not need to be retained because it is available at your fingertips.

Last night no one knew what year Lionel Ritchie sang All Night Long, what Karamu was, or if it was about Spanish holidays. Maybe 15 or 20 years ago memorizing such facts would have been essential for viewing pleasure, but now 3/4s of the group could simply pick up a phone. If you look at a test in a classroom which question do you think is most likely to be asked of students:

Q1: What is karamu?

a) a word with a combination of pleasing sounds for the ear, commonly used on the Delilah Show
b) Lionel Ritchie's poodle
c) An African holiday
d) A word that the recording studio was trying to make happen

Q2: What does the line "fiesta, forever?" refer to?

a) Come on and sing my song
b) Karamu
c) The Spanish equivalent of "All Night Long"
d) The Santa Barbara fiesta court

Q3: What are the implications of Lionel Ritchie's line "Karamu. Fiesta, forever"?

a) No one has heard of Karamu, confusing the listener and taking away from the musicality of the song
b) Mixing a Spanish word with an African holiday reflects cultural insensitivity therefore rendering the song inappropriate for Africans and Spanish-speakers alike
c) Lionel gets a higher "ethnic" quotient even though he grew up detached from African culture in Illinois where he majored in Econ and played on the tennis team.
d) Because the song was so long ago, people watching American Idol will largely tune out the song and assume "Karamu" is an old word for cool and therefore there are no major implications of the line for Lionel or AI

Let me clarify that most good teachers ask a combination of these items--the bigger point is the kind of thinking the teachers are regularly developing in the classroom. Are they mainly asking kids what Karamu is? Are they quizzing kids on it? Or are they delving deeper and asking them to solve problems? Would your child's teacher even KNOW the implications of using Karamu on the AI stage?

Everytime your child comes home from school you should ask them a follow up question: What does that MEAN?

Somewhat Fictional Example:

Kid: Mom! Today this lady brought in a walking stick and she had to have a permit to carry it because they are considered a threat to an ecosystem!

Mom: Aws. What does that MEAN? Why did she come in?

Kid: To talk about how certain species can affect a local economy.

Riiight. The real answer might be "Oh she was just showing us different cool animals and insects."

You can try to say to me "but she is only in second grade!!!"

This girl understands economy. She understands that if she walks in the house and tracks mud in, I have to spend more money on the carpet cleaner and she gets cheaper shoes.

Luckily my kids have teachers who develop this kind of thinking. But for many, they just want kids to check out cool animals and talk about creatures and their magical qualities.

Rethink the system people, ask your kids why. If they don't know, then ask the teacher. If the teacher doesn't know, ask the principal why they are wasting your tax dollars telling your kids something they could learn on youtube in ten seconds.

Separation Anxiety

2009-07-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

I am separating out my education mumbo-jumbo from my personal life so that I can:

A) Stop boring my faithful readers who just come to hear about my amazing parenting fracas

B) Provide a place for my colleagues to disagree with my professional ideology without embarrassing offspring

I will be re-posting some of my previous thoughts to contain it all in one place. Then I can publish a book at the end of the year and keep track of the metamorphoses of the educational trends that I follow overtime.

Comments, critiques, and questions are welcome. Silence is your tacit approval of my ramblings.