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#68: End-of-year reflections

mches — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:34:02 +0100

Summer is officially here as evidenced by an adorable sleeping baby strapped to my chest and the Spurs rolling in the NBA Finals(1). My first year as a general ed teacher is done. My first year of teaching with the STAAR Geometry test is done. My third year is in the books with the fourth feeling like it starts tomorrow. Now, a time for reflection. Things I did terribly this year

Time management. I used to be a 7 to 5:30 kinda guy, and that extra time before and after school would give me opportunities to fine-tune lessons or complete paperwork in a timely manner or take care of myself in the most base ways possible(2). But babies change things in an unequivocally great way. I had less time to do all of those things, so they either got delayed, ignored, or done in a haphazard way. I had to prioritize things in two mental categories: (a) If I don't do this, the world will end, and (b) If I don't do this, someone might possibly be upset with me but I will just mutter something about their mother under my breath and move on with my life. If it was 5:00 in the afternoon and something wasn't done, oh well(3). Tomorrow is another day, and there's no way I'm going to get there at 7 in the morning, either.
Contacted parents! I've talked about that already this year, but I was pretty lousy at this and it's related to my time management issues.
My last class of the day. This class was non-existent until the second semester and was cobbled together from students who were behavior issues in other Geometry classes. Creating classroom culture midway through the year was a total trainwreck! This class reminded me that I am not a teaching wiz and I still have a lot of growing to do.
Debate team. I just wasn't as available as I used to be for very legit reasons, but we got trounced as a result of that. Starting fresh next year.

Things I did a'ight this year

Made my 6th period class a joy. Part of this was just accepting the fact that they were a chatty bunch and just vibing off of that. It never got pin-drop quiet, but we learned a lot and I made a lot of strong connections in that group. I think in previous years, I would have been so preoccupied with control. I would have made that class a disciplinary sinkhole which would have soured a lot of relationships, put a lot of kids in In-School Suspension, and lost a lot of learning opportunities. Instead, one of those students told me that I inspired her to become a teacher which made my Grinch heart grow three times bigger. But, they were still really chatty! We could have done better, but it was, as I said, a'ight.
Saying no to things. For instance, I'm not going to be UIL coordinator next year, not going to teach Sunday school at church, not going to volunteer for jack. You got an event coming up? I'm busy. I used to feel guilty about turning down those things but that guilt is being outweighed by my 20-pound-plus(4) son who needs his Papa.

Things I did well this year

Built relationships with my students. For the most part, my kids liked being in my class, liked me, attempted every assignment even if they were lost. They came to me for help. Kids who I never had before were asking if I could be their teacher next year. Kids in my classes were asking if I could teach them Algebra II next year. They actually clapped and cheered when I rapped songs about triangle congruence postulates and polyhedrons to the tunes of "Bands a Maker Her Dance" and "Bugatti", respectively. I loved my classes! I can't wait to see these kids in August. I want to teach them again! Maybe I can teach Government and Economics when they are seniors. I hope this is not coming off as me being a braggart, because I'm still pretty mediocre at this teaching thing. But I fought hard to be mediocre and to realize that mediocrity is a tough bar to clear in this business. You don't realize how bad you are your first year until you've done it a little while longer and you can say, oh, that thing I did my first year was really dumb and harmful and I have learned and grown from that experience. I'm sure I will have the same feeling in year 5 or 8 or whatever about my year this year.

Things to work on for next year

I'll be teaching Geometry again and I really want to have a better grounding in Euclid's Elements (as in the actual text, not merely its contents filtered through prescribed curriculum). I also want to go deeper into non-Euclidean systems, particularly hyperbolic geometry. Something beyond "the sum of the angles of a triangle are less than 180°."
I really stressed two-column proofs hard in the first semester and kind of abandoned them by second semester when the focus shifted from triangle congruence to right triangle properties and area/volume of two and three dimensional objects. I want to do proofs all the time next year.
Ditto the above for constructions, too. Our school lacked class sets of compasses until November, and by then, I and the other Geometry teachers basically conceded that it was too late to get them going and it wasn't going to be on the test(5) anyway so let's just carry on without them.
Since the state no longer requires this test for graduation, I want to go rogue with this curriculum. I want to assign Euclid as a text. I want to do a bunch of constructions with just a straight edge and a compass. I want to throw all my graphing calculators in a river.
More creative projects. I assigned one at the end of the year and a lot of them were really well-made! Maybe each unit can allow for a showcase of students creative interpretations of those objectives.
Use my conference time for student conferences. I missed a lot of opportunities to get to better know some of my students who are quiet and unassuming by nature. Maybe 5-10 minute chats every so often when there are not so many darn people around.

I'm officially a TFA "alum." Now I'm a regular teacher again. I love what I do, and I hope that you incoming TFA teachers come to love it as I do, too, and stick with it(6) because these kids are worth your time.

NOTES (1) I resist the urge to post nothing but Spurs recaps because this is an education blog. But, Danny Green and Gary Neal were unconscious yesterday from three. Drive for five, my dudes. (2) Do you remember going to the bathroom? Gosh, that must be swell. (3) My wife will no doubt read this and say, "Pfft. More like 5:15, hotshot." (4) Our little guy is five months old as of yesterday! "He is getting so big," says the author as he winces and rubs his aching back. (5) This was the first year I was personally under a lot of pressure to get my students to pass the state exam. It's a terrible feeling! It doesn't make you a better teach. (6) For, like, a lot of years. Let's say 10, give or take.

#67: Portrait of a cynic as a young man

mches — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:45:17 +0100

I came across a TFA corps member's old letter of intent, and in addition to showcasing some grade A positivity pablum, it featured this utterly disgraceful passage:

I’ve been following Teach for America for several years. Alum (sic) like Michelle Rhee(1) at DC Public Schools or KIPP founders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin have used their experience at TFA to transform the educational landscape. While what they do is certainly not short on controversy, I do not question their motive: they see an imbalance, an inequality of opportunity that, if ignored or ineptly addressed, will handicap the futures of a generation. They are doing something to change that. ... Teach for America is more than just getting teachers into the classroom, but recruiting quality teachers and getting them where they are needed most. The hiring of effective teachers is the single most important step principals can take to improve the academic outcomes of their students.

Ugh, what a cretin. I hope this person blah blah okay, you got me, this was me over three years ago. Ta-da, I used to drink Kool-Aid(1) but I'm all better now! I'm posting this for the 2013 corps members who are just starting things this summer and can only muster cautious optimism. You are going to have so much positivity blasted at you and you will be impervious to its charms. I don't care how critical a thinker you believe yourself to be, you will be cheering at pep rallies and buying t-shirts for a school you will never set foot in again. And it's okay! You will start your teaching career and be hit by a two-by-four of realness. You'll start asking questions like "Why did I learn so little at Institute?" and "Why is everyone who works at TFA barely old enough to rent a car?" You will find your cynical mojo again, I promise. NOTES (1) I am humbling myself to admit publicly that I once admired Michelle Rhee. I was in college, I was just experimenting! (2) Now I stick to tepid tap water, the drink of choice for true TFA haters.

Worst End of School Year Teacher Ever

bschwam — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:53:23 +0100

For about a month now I have been on a slow decline into that blessed, peaceful, state of "Summer." After my final IEP meeting of the year, squaring away all of my boys' summer school plans, one last round of progress monitoring, reading assessments, and data reporting, my brain has concluded that it is just done. When passing another first year teacher in the hallway, we simply shake our heads and smile... We are both done. Even the 15 year veteran teacher enters the room at the end of the day with the same expression... Everyone is done. First, let me point out that the inspiration for this post comes from another kind of teacher, who has also been slipping into Summer Mode as well; this mom: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-hatmaker/worst-end-of-school-year-mom-ever_b_3378480.html After reading this wonderful, and hilarious, mother's thoughts on the post-standardized-testing part of the school year, I could not help but want to respond: Moms, Dads, Grandmoms, Aunts, Guardians, whoever is the at-home teacher of our students... We are with you! While you are arguing over completing reading logs, trying to convince them that talking counts because you can't bear to listen to them painfully decode the 5 word sentence, we are actually listening to that reading (in assessment form), and then arguing over giving them new homework folders with only 6 days left... We could not be more on the same page than we are right now, at the end of the school year. We are all simply over it. The excitement, the freshly sharpened pencils, the new book smell, it's all gone, as well as all of our patience. Our creative juices are dried out and we are no longer putting 110% of our hearts into each lesson. To be honest, I would say each day, I only have about 50% left to give, and that is used up by lunch. In fact, with the on-again-off-again state of the copiers, I have been lucky if I have gotten homework into those folders these past few weeks. And you know what I am thinking as I send home boys with no homework? "Meh," complete with a shoulder shrug. Yep. That's it. That pretty much sums up these final 2 weeks of the school year. My feelings towards school in general right now, my thoughts towards lesson planning, creating anything other than a good summer recipe, organizing anything more than my summer reading and travel calendar, and my efforts towards running the usually tight ship with a classroom full of antsy boys... Meh. Patience is officially gone. Brain is officially shutting down. It is time to go. We are done. I think everything in this school is pointing to that same conclusion. The copiers have been so fickle this past month, jamming, shutting down, giving up... all the student computers in our classroom lost internet for over a week and a half, which ended our ability to complete our online assignments, and also maintain Ms. S's sanity while she tries to still teach half of the rowdy group! You would think I would move quickly to fix this issue, but you would be wrong. I took a few days to get around to sending out the help email, and then they took a few days to start working on it... Oh well... I have taken to reading (starting books for our Cross-Country Summer Book Club with my best friends!) or searching Pinterest recipes during my lunch, instead of, dare I say, working through my lunch! (The horror!) The weekly Friday raffle, started by our Principal during April testing, that was so motivating to our students, has simply stopped happening, and thus, the motivation for those tickets is out the window... And just last week, my classroom projector cart lost a screw and now sits broken and tilted... (I think I may have lost a screw or two as well.) I even woke up this morning (after several punches of the Snooze button) and looked at the date and thought, "Is it really only Tuesday? Oh gosh..." All signs are saying, "We are Done." With everything seeming to say, "Go Home, You're Done," I have slowly started to follow directions. Like my boys, I had to be told several times, through several different modes and versions, before I finally listened. This week, the classroom started to be put in storage; cabinets were emptied of things we don't use everyday, bulletin boards are coming down, and inventory is being taken. Yet, we still somehow have to make it through 6 more school days?! Meh.

The blankness of this wall is how my mind needs to be... Summer Bliss.

I think it's safe to say that the mom who inspired this post would support me in announcing that I may be the "Worst End of School Year Teacher Ever". Yet, I am hoping she is smiling, cheering even, as she, and moms everywhere, realize that we teachers have also been maxed out, our brains have checked out, and we have signed off. You are not alone moms. We too are done, so let's just call it a good year and go home. You can have your kids back. :) Thanks for entrusting them to us for the past 10 months, but they are all yours now.

P.S. Yet another clue that it's time to just stay home: No injuries, but some serious smashed Bug action... Fixable, but not worth fixing.. Not to mention terrifying! Time to start the search for a new, grown-up, car...

But after a negative phone call home, at least one mom is still holding her son accountable: The "Homework" she made him turn in.

#66: What does standardized testing measure anyway?

mches — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:22:48 +0100

If you will forgive the drought between posts, I did actually begin this one last month and it's been sitting in the drafts folder ever since. But I think today is as good a time as any to revive it due to the latest legislative news. Among other things, House Bill 5 eliminates the requirement to pass many of the state's end-of-course exams (STAAR) for high schoolers. Previously students were required to pass three years of testing in reading and writing (English 1, 2, and 3), math (Algebra 1 and 2, Geometry), social studies (US History, World History, World Geography), and science (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics). The requirements have been reduced to combined writing and reading for English1 and 2, Algebra 1, Biology, and US History. As a practical matter, this frontloads most of the required tests in students' freshman years, giving them more opportunities to pass it should they not do so the first time around. It is, however, still high-stakes (pass these or you do not graduate). To my knowledge, this bill does not change how campuses are graded which has typically been how a high school campus' 10th graders fare. ----- If you have not done so already, please read this piece in Texas Monthly by Nate Blakeslee. This goes double for teachers in Texas. It does an excellent job charting the rise and fall of standardized assessments in Texas and how our state has influenced national policy. Texas is the birthplace of test-based accountability. It worked so well for then-Governor George W. Bush that he imported the approach to Washington as president with the No Child Left Behind Act. Since then, educators have been engaged in a quixotic battle against reformers and test publishers. One of the biggest bones of contention is the culture that high-stakes test-based accountability encourages. Academically, this means a narrowing of the curriculum by dint of the core content area getting stripped down to what will be on the test(1) and/or emphasizing only what subjects are tested(2). Defenders of test-based accountability argue that the practice of teaching to the test is a bad practice anyway, that if schools wanted to improve test performance, they would simply teach the full scope and rigor of the curriculum. You see this in the words of Bush adviser turned Pearson lobbyist Sandy Kress:

Later, on an education blog, Kress elaborated on his response, rejecting the notion that high-stakes testing was turning Stanford’s third grader into a professional test taker. “I can hear the cry already: ‘they’ set such high stakes for the test, ‘they’ have ‘made us’ do these stupid things,” he wrote. “No! Nonsense! The tests should have consequences. But drill and kill is no solution. Good teaching to the standards is the only solution that works, and I refuse to be identified with the crap that is done instead.”

Or, more close to home, Gary Rubinstein sparring partner Matt Barnum had this to say in the comments of his back-and-forth:

Though the truth is, I am not too concerned about ‘teaching to the test’ – I think to a large extent teaching to the test is a good thing, if the test is adequately designed.

Or, take scholar Eric Hanushek. In his correspondence with Deborah Meier, he similarly sees no issue with teaching to the test, as long as the test covers everything:

I think nonetheless we agree that these test scores are narrow and rudimentary, generally failing to measure the higher-order skills that are increasingly seen as important. Moreover, considerable attention has been given to the problems of teaching to the test, to the occurrence of cheating episodes in different cities, to possible distortions in teaching that come from the testing regimes, and to the application mainly at the bottom end... And now the point—I don't think that we have to be stuck with the current problems with our testing...It starts with developing a large item bank of test questions of varying difficulty. Imagine 2,000 questions for 4th grade math that cover the entire scope of appropriate material from basic to advanced topics. Next, make all of the test items—not just sample items—publicly available and encourage teachers to teach to the test, because the items cover the full range of the desired curriculum.

Imagine, 150 4th graders in a computer lab(3) being drilled on those 2,000 questions all year. It's an edutechnocrat's dream. What I take away from this is that test-defenders can never be convinced of the problems inherent in high-stakes testing. Testing can never fail, it can only be failed. If testing is bad, either the test is too easy or it is implemented in the wrong way or designed poorly but somewhere out there is a test that does exactly what it says it does and has no confounding factors whatsoever. They believe that schools that practice "teaching to the test" do so at their peril and not to their advantage. After all, schools that do not teach to the test tend to perform better on tests anyway. Let's unpack all of this. Why do schools that don't drill-and-kill perform better on tests? I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say it's because schools with low-poverty demographics have historically not had to worry about high failure rates to begin with. The way Texas' accountability system is set up is to compare a few disaggregated demographic groups on select state tests. High-income schools have higher-performing students overall due to lifelong socioeconomic advantages, so all their subpopulations do well as the campus does. The level of rigor of tests like the TAKS(4) were such that high-income schools had relatively easy times getting nearly all their kids to pass their exams. Low-income schools, though, feel the perennial threat of being labelled "academically unacceptable". Too many of our students are at risk of failing these exams and thus bringing adverse consequences to the school. Because of how important the results of these exams become and because of how far behind their wealthier peers our students often are, schools like ours often resort to "drill-and-kill" techniques designed to get kids ready for the tests. Furthermore, chasing this idea that a single test can neatly summarize the year-long learning of every child is a fool's errand. Hanushek's lament is the most revealing(5). While I am grateful that my students now have a less unreasonable path to graduation, I hope parents and educators and students do not consider House Bill 5 the end of our attempts to have richer educational experiences for our students. NOTES (1) i.e. Why would you teach your kids constructions in Geometry when you know that they will not be given a compass and be graded on constructing a segment bisector? (2) i.e. Why would you offer a panoply of elective coursework when so many kids failed the Algebra I and Writing exams? They very obviously need more remediation and won't have time for art. (3) Please read this, it is incredible. (4) Our old state assessment. I was in high school when NCLB was first implemented, and my graduating class was the last one to take the TAAS test before they transitioned to the TAKS. None of my peers gave a rip about these tests and none of our teachers talked about them at all. We had our testing day, we took the tests, and we moved on. TAKS was a big deal for a good decade until someone got a fool notion that the tests were too easy and they dreamed up the STAAR exams. (5) Not at all surprised that Hanushek is an utter educational charlatan. I'm a little surprised he would make it so obvious by proposing year-end tests be publicly available and believing this would reduce drill-and-kill.

Labor Day Stress-Memorial Day Bliss

bschwam — Wed, 29 May 2013 16:23:04 +0100

As I prepared to return to school on Monday night following a weekend of cook-outs, lawn games, sales, and an extra day of sleeping in, I thought back to our first 3-day weekend this school year, Labor Day. What has changed since September? Why is it better? How do I know its better? How have I grown? Thinking back to that Tuesday we returned from Labor Day Weekend, I recall saying, "If they are this crazy after an extra day off, I vote for no more 3-day weekends." Now... Why on earth would I ever say that?! I change my vote; every weekend should be 3 days, no matter how crazy they are on the day we come back to school. This change in attitude towards the 3-day weekend comes not only from the exhaustion of nearing the end of the school year, but also the growth that I have made as a teacher. The things I was so consumed by at the beginning of the year, when that Labor Day break came, are no longer that worrisome. When we returned from Labor Day, I was still obsessing over getting every student on-task, doing the right thing, at the right time, all the time. I was systematically setting up our classroom procedures, still staying late after school, creating and recreating, trying to organize and reorganize, color-coding, and simply put, working way too hard on things that were not that effective or efficient. All the things I was stressing over eventually had to be changed or readjusted anyways, yet, I was that teacher. The annoying one, too concerned about the loss of one more day to make progress and get things done. Following Memorial Day, I am much less concerned with this aspect of classroom life. If I don't have 100% of their attention 100% of the time... Oh well. If I could tell my post-Labor Day self one thing, I would have to grab my shoulders, give myself a good shake, and say, "Slow down. Breathe. It will all get done. You are doing fine, and you will do better." And it's true. I am still doing fine. I have gotten better. And as of yesterday, all of my IEPs for the year have been written, and tomorrow will be my final IEP meeting. All 8 of my original boys, plus the 2 I was graciously given during the year, will have their new IEPs finalized. The rest of this year's work will get done too, in time. I have stopped obsessing, and because of it, I have become a much healthier and efficient teacher. The sense of peace I have towards our work and our classroom just makes each day easier. At the end of the day, I truly leave work at work, and I can go home to enjoy life outside of Room 306, without the worrying. In just a few short weeks, summer will be here, and I will be enjoying life outside of Mann for an extra extended weekend, with that peaceful feeling to carry with me, all summer long...

Looking forward to more days that end like this:

Check out Samson's Feature on the PSPCA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.547709318606296.1073741852.103821279661771&type=1

"School Mom" Mode

bschwam — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:44:50 +0100

This year's April showers not only brought the budding of May flowers, but also many other awesome joys!

First let's admire the natural beauty of Spring... Pause and "smell" the... flowers:

And now onto the highlights of an Awesome April: From successfully proctoring the PSSA to a group of 22 nervous 3rd graders, as well as leading them in Yoga before each of the 6 sections, to celebrating being blessed with another year of life and adventures (24!), and best of all, welcoming a new friend into our lives, Samson (More on him below!), April came and went before I could turn around. With no days off in sight, I thought April was going to drag on and leave me exhausted and ready for a second spring break. While I would definitely not oppose a second spring break, or even just a long weekend, April ended just as quickly as it began. Throughout the week of PSSAs (Pennsylvania State Standardized Assessment) all of our 3rd-6th grade Mann students were focused and motivated, making it much easier to get through about 18 painful hours of standardized testing. With all of that behind us though, May has brought some antsy boys back into my room. They are louder, too comfortable, and pushing the edges of the rules a bit too far. This month marks our 8th month together; roughly 180 days together in Room 306, with the same group of 10 boys, for five and a half hours a day. Needless to say, we have become an odd sort of family, or maybe it's more like a gang, and like all families, we have our dysfunctions. This month, those family quirks seem to be more prevalent than ever. Not only are the boys fighting with each other like brothers, but they are fighting with me like I am their mom. I am well aware that "Mom" is one of my roles in the classroom, and I have no problem filling those shoes while the boys are in my hands, but we have reached new levels of "School Mom" mode. Let's just say the "Mom-isms" are coming out of my mouth faster than I can think where I got them from. This only seems fitting though, with Mother's Day this weekend. (And my own Mom and Dad coming up to visit!) I may not get gifts on Mother's Day, but coincidentally, Teacher Appreciation Week is currently in full swing, and Mann Administrators (as well as Chipotle!) are making sure we all feel extra appreciated this week. With Phillies tickets, breakfasts, free burrito bols, and gifts, I'd say they are doing a great job, and I am getting my fair share of the "School Mom," aka Teacher, love. As I am feeling more like a mom at school these days, the new addition to our lives has me feeling more like a mom at home too. Let me introduce, Samson Schwamburger-Storms: We adopted our little man on April 22, from the PSPCA. He is a 3 year old Terrier/Shepherd/Grey Hound/Pit Bull/Something Awesome mutt, weighing in at 29 pounds, and he is the source of much laughter and great company. We are still learning about him, as he is learning the ins and outs of his new home and life, but I'd say Samson will become a great friend and companion for many years to come.

While this week I encourage you to show some love, and give a thanks to the teachers who inspired, supported, pushed, and cared for you, this weekend, make sure you show extra love to the first Teacher you ever had, and the only Teacher you will have forever, MOM.

A Thank You, To My Mom:

Everything Mom

How did you find the energy, Mom To do all the things you did, To be teacher, nurse and counselor To me, when I was a kid.How did you do it all, Mom, Be a chauffeur, cook and friend, Yet find time to be a playmate, I just can’t comprehend.I see now it was love, Mom That made you come whenever I'd call, Your inexhaustible love, Mom And I thank you for it all.

Love you, Momma!

Closing one chapter, but not the book...

draco — Thu, 02 May 2013 06:18:30 +0100

Dear Teach For America / Teach For Us blog friends, Due to a combination of circumstances out of my control, I had to leave the 2012 corps a few months ago. However, I am still in the Teach For America program, and the joys of teaching have been so incredible that I look forward to returning to the classroom in the future. In the meantime, I'm still as passionate as ever about education & would love for you to stay connected! Please follow me on my new videoblog Kindness Marathon at http://KindnessMarathon.com Rather than on the website itself, the videoblog is housed on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; the links to all of them are on the website. Everything is still quite new so barely any content is up...but stay tuned! Kindness Marathon features everything I'm passionate about, be it education or social justice or fitness or anything else! Still believing in the vision of "One Day"... Draco

From March Madness to an Au-some April

bschwam — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:43:42 +0100

While the NCAA's March Madness may just be reaching it's grand finale round of games, I am declaring that the "Madness" that had inhabited Room 306 during the past month is over. We survived. I am not exaggerating when I say we really had reached a state of madness by the time our blessed Spring Break rolled around. During the month of March, my boys, and myself, had become increasingly restless. With the arrival of the spring-like weather, however infrequent it was, we had all reached our breaking point of cabin fever. While my patience had officially depleted, my boys' tolerance for me and one another had also been exhausted. We had seen too much of each other, been together too many hours a day, and our classroom family just needed a vacation from one another. While the boys may have been tired of me pushing them, they have no idea just how tired I was of pushing. Needless to say, Spring Break was welcomed with open arms, and a visit from one of my best friends made it all worth it. With the chance to relax, celebrate, and enjoy Philly, I forgot all about anything and everything school related. And finishing my break off with the celebration of Good Friday and Easter could not have been a more perfect way to refresh and rejuvenate my heart. If there is one thing I can always count on to refill my soul, it is the reminder that my battles have already been won, by a Savior who died just because He loves me. Celebrating Christ's sacrifice and victory on the cross is the only reminder I needed to call me back to my purpose.

My Fantastic Spring Break Visitor

Easter Flowers-Spring is here!

Thus, the new month begins, and just as I declared the madness to be over, I am declaring April to be awesome. The boys seem well rested too, making for much more pleasant days, more willing students, and a general calmness that seems to have settled over the room. With the weather warming up, I am predicting that my boys will keep coming to school well-rested and calm, as they will have more time to go outside, run like crazy, and burn off that extra energy. Yes, this month will be Awesome. April brings baseball, birthdays (my own included) and a general reawakening of the city. Not only is this month special to me, but April is also Autism Awareness Month. As a teacher of students with Autism, April is the perfect time to do my part to raise awareness, and pass on some knowledge of the Autism spectrum.

Light it Up Blue!

While I am no expert on Autism, I do have some experiences and knowledge to share. Due to the vastness of the Autism spectrum, and the uniqueness of its presentation in each child, I am not sure there will ever be a so-called "expert" anyways, no matter how much research we may do. With that, let me share what I do know, and the understandings I have developed through my graduate courses and experiences in the classrooms with these remarkable children. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning it can range from mild to severe. Children who have mild Autism are usually considered "high-functioning." This means they communicate on a fairly normal level, may have some cognitive delays or need to be taught in a particular or nonstandard method, and they generally have some difficulties with social interactions. Children on the opposite end of the spectrum, those considered "severe" are oftentimes non-verbal, with incredible learning difficulties and strained interactions, if any. Nearly all children with Autism present some sort of hypersensitivity to light, sound, touch, or smells. Our normal environment is simply over-stimulating in many ways. Now, imagine the range and variations in the presentation of Autism between those ends, and add to it the complexity of each child, their family, and the environment and culture surrounding them. This is why we have Autism Awareness month. There is so much we do not know, but are seeking to understand about Autism and its spectrum. It is intensely mysterious, and often incredibly pervasive, as it effects not only the child, but their family in ways that could turn a household upside-down. That is my version of the textbook explanations, so now let's get to the more interesting and emotional side of my understandings. Here is what I have learned from my students with Autism: What often appears "odd" to others, may just be that child's way of making themselves calm and happy, and returning to homeostasis when feeling overstimulated, or even threatened by our surroundings. For example, one of my boys enjoys arranging objects into perfectly straight lines. If I gave him all the blocks, cubes, and counting objects in our room, he would be content and satisfied arranging them all day long in nice neat lines. When he is laying on the carpet lining up the blocks, it is as if he has entered a calm and quiet world all to himself. He is happy there. Sometimes, after a rough morning or a grumpy class period, I let him stay there in his bliss for a little longer than others. Children with Autism often think or process information in unconventional ways, and sometimes the way they think outside the box blows me away. What some see as incorrect, I see as a different, and sometimes intuitive, way of thinking and viewing the world. I can best describe this remarkable skill through an example from one of my boys. While taking an assessment with the school psychologist, he was presented a picture of a rectangle, a triangle, and a circle. The psychologist's question that followed was, "How do these objects go together?" My student looks at the shapes and responds, "Well, the rectangle is like the middle part of a car where the seats are. Then the triangle can be like the hood, and the circle is the wheels." According to the assessment, the psychologist, and our conventional way of thinking, the "correct" answer for how all the objects belong together was because, "They are all shapes." Yet, the brilliant and creative answer my student gave is considered "incorrect." His way of looking at the shapes, creating something out of them, and his interpretation of the question, in my opinion, was amazing, and a skill that should be encouraged and developed. Another common feature of my students with Autism is a difficulty with social interaction and communication. This difficulty can include not making eye contact when speaking to others, which can cause problems when perceived by adults and teachers as disrespect. Or, in some cases, my boys may retreat and simply stop talking altogether. They also have trouble reading social cues from others, like facial expressions, sarcasm, idioms, and body language. Often, I hear one of my students making attempts to interact and copy the behaviors of his peers, but he is rather unsuccessful, and he is usually okay with that, because he does not recognize that his interactions are not producing the results and interactions they should. And finally, the most important things I have learned about supporting students with Autism: I have learned that routine, predictability, structure, and consistency helps my students thrive. They were not willing participants in our classroom until they saw that I could be trusted and my reactions could be predicted. All of my boys, but especially those with Autism, needed to see that I was there for them, I was always on their side, and our classroom was a safe place for them to be themselves. When our systematic daily routines had been established, and they knew what to expect from me, and what their day would typically include, they were able to open up, be pushed academically, and establish their place within our classroom family. The only other key ingredients they needed were love and encouragement, as constant as the sun rise. My boys require constant positivity, big, excited reactions to each small step of progress, and love that cannot be contained. So this April, I encourage you to dig deeper into understanding Autism, support the furthering of our research, and help provide children and their families with the acceptance, love, and support they need to achieve happiness.

Here is a really great resource to check out: Autism Speaks

April Events: The return of Baseball and Autism Awareness: MLB Supports Autism Awareness at April Home Games Attend your team's Autism Awareness game!

Find an Autism Speaks Walk near you: Autism Speaks Walks

#65: What standardized tests do not measure

mches — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 17:43:41 +0100

The Texas House of Representatives just voted to reduce the number of end-of-credit exams required for graduation from a record 15 (five each year from freshman to junior year) to just five. The push to scale back our testing regime came from all corners of the state and enjoyed near-unanimous support from both parties. The bill, if it passes the Senate, would also create different pathways to graduation, including tracks for the humanities, STEM, and a vocationally-oriented path. It's interesting that Texas, whose test-based accountability model would serve as the blueprint for No Child Left Behind, would experience such a vocal backlash to its testing blitzkrieg, not to mention that it would cave to public pressure so quickly. The problems with this volume of testing are legion, but chief among them is the absolute hatchet job it would do to elective coursework. With so many kids struggling to pass five tests every year, the amount of remediation needed on annual basis would necessarily squeeze out the classes that frankly make going to school worth it for many students. Critics of corporate reform will typically bemoan the limited utility of standardized tests, only to hear as response "But how will you know that kids are learning anything?" How, indeed? ----- It might come as a total shock to you, but I was editor of my school newspaper when I was a senior(1) in high school. The year prior to that, I was editor of the opinion section(2). Prior to that, I was a scrub staff writer. And as a wee freshman, I was sitting in a Journalism 1 classroom learning the basics. If you're keeping track, that's four years learning to report, interview, do page layouts, edit the writing of others, meet deadlines, sell advertisements, and occasionally meet with school administration regarding the content of your paper. On top of that, I spent two years in creative writing, the last of which I was also the prose editor of the student literary magazine. The list of competencies needed for the newspaper went double for the lit mag as well on top of needing to evaluate the creativity of others' writing (as well as one's own). There is no multiple choice test that adequately assesses the skills necessary to put together a newspaper or literary magazine. The publication itself is the assessment. It's an unquantifiable metric of success which data-driven fanatics hate. On top of that, a lot of the work for these things is extracurricular which is something only privileged kids do because they do not have an achievement gap which must be addressed at all times! I don't know how to put it in a chart for you. I don't know how to say "If you invest x number of dollars into this student newspaper, you will close y number of years in the achievement gap." I don't know to what degree it really "works" in that sense. What I do know is how critical it is to have multiple avenues for student-led academic pursuits in order to make students care about school and care about getting better at a craft. ----- My early high school memories were not positive ones. I was depressed and had a difficult time making meaningful friendships. I felt like an outcast at my school. I felt unattractive in large part because I was over 60 pounds heavier than I am today. I had enormous social anxieties. I was suicidal at times. I remember coming home and crying a lot. I was a smart kid, but I don't remember feeling "successful." In fact, sophomore year was the first time I ever got an F on my report card(3). Therapy helped. Meds did, too. So did losing a bunch of weight over the summer. But I think finding writing as a creative and expressive outlet was equally important to keeping my depressive tendencies at arm's length. And it was the years of practice and collaboration in these extracurricular/elective courses that fueled me to write all the time for fun and develop a voice(4). It was the crucible of many enduring friendships and lasting memories(5). My creative writing teacher eventually became my senior English teacher. I have kept in touch with him with varying degrees of regularity for the nearly nine years since I graduated high school. This weekend, I discovered an e-mail he sent me the summer after I graduated and it was like discovering a long-lost family heirloom. In it, he told me this:

"If I have never told you before, I have never been more proud of a student than I was of you. To have known you at the beginning of your junior year and to see where you were able to go... I've never had a student who I liked so much be as successful and mature as I wanted him to be.

Maybe you don't feel particularly successful, but you are."

I mean, is it any wonder I went into college wanting to major in English and be an English teacher? Is it any wonder that I eventually became a teacher and that this is the career I have chosen as my life's work? If I can be for my students what Mr. Goodyear was for me and countless other classmates, then I know I will have been of service to them. ----- As an exercise, ask yourself these questions about your state's standardized exams: Do you think the STAAR test will ever inspire a child to teach? To think creatively? To produce little chapbooks of their own writing, or to write inflammatory editorials, or to produce anything of their own and be able to judge its worthiness for public consumption? Will the STAAR reveal Mark Twain's genius to a child for the first time? Will the STAAR teach you to be a part of a large-scale project over the course of a year, and encourage you to negotiate social relationships to ensure its successful completion? If a child is taught just enough to pass the STAAR test, are they more or less likely to read for pleasure as an adult? Are they more or less likely to read to their children in the future? When there is such emphasis on the outcomes of these tests, I'm less interested in what they purport to measure and more so in what they don't. What standardized tests measure is a debasement of what schools are capable of producing, in fact what they ought to produce and we ought to fight for. Had I gone to a school in constant fear of state intervention due to low-test scores, I would not have the same opportunities to really grow up, to develop an adult brain. It is the students in low-income schools that are most vulnerable to losing these opportunities because of the shortsightedness of our policymakers who believe these kinds of programs(6) to be inessential to learning the three R's or becoming the workforce of the 21st century or whatever(7). It is why we as teachers ought to continue to push back against the utterly destructive and regressive test-based accountability regime of the last two decades. NOTES (1) Technically co-editor in chief. Allie would be mad if I didn't mention that. (2) Well, I never! Me, with opinions about stuff? (3) In AP Computer Science. It was because I never did anything in that class but play Flash games which in 2002 could not have been that fun. (4) Of course my English teachers made me a better writer, helped me appreciate and understand literature, helped me better understand myself and the perspective of others. I'm sure their input helped me pass the TAAS test, not that they ever stressed about it because this was pre-NCLB. That was before teachers were held accountable for student performance so, you know, they were probably doing a pretty awful job since there was no test to measure what they were doing. (5) My most cherished high school memories probably came from the student publications trip to Washington DC, so the yearbook, newspaper, and lit mag staffs were all there. We did touristy stuff, we went to some student publications conference, we got to meet then-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- our school's namesake -- who was totally phoning in her appearance because some of the things she was telling us was verbatim from a video clip of her and the other justices somewhere else playing the background. I remember one outing walking back to the hotel by myself when I got separated from our group and I didn't have a cell phone at the time to tell them I was leaving and that I got there okay. When they came back, they were upset. Some friends got in some hijiinx that, as a teacher now, would cause me eternal worry or rage. We shared a lot of inside jokes due to the lack of direct adult supervision and hotel cohabitation. I don't think I appreciated how much fun it was until years later. And I have not appreciated how much trouble that must have been for the teachers until now. (6) You can include in this list UIL, Academic Decathlon, student publications, forensics, or any other academic pursuit that doesn't take place with 30 kids and a teacher in a room with desks and a projector. (7) Or at least does not consider them worth the expense because we should value efficiency above all else, after all.

#64: "Feeling Unprepared To Teach?" Maybe it's because you only spent a few hours in ...

mches — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:20:14 +0100

I got an e-mail from TFA linking to a blog post on Teacherpop(1) entitled "Feel Unprepared To Teach? You're Not Alone." Based on the headline, I thought that this pertained to my interests. The author, citing the Gates and Walton-funded National Council on Teacher Quality's State Teacher Policy Yearbook report for 2012, begins by showing the summary of the report's findings on a national level. The NCTQ measured five categories as means of grading states and the nation as a whole:

Delivering well-prepared teachers to the classroom - D
Identifying effective teachers - D+
Retaining effective teachers - C-
Exiting ineffective teachers (author's emphasis added) - D+
Expanding the pool of teachers - C-

If you bother reading beyond the report card summary, you will find in the national and state reports in-depth only on the first category: "Delivering well-prepared teachers to the classroom." In citing the mediocre grades of this report, the author is hoping to prove that it does not matter what preparation route you go through, that both traditional and alternate routes have their warts so there is no use fretting over the merits or faults of one pathway or the other. However, a deeper investigation of the NCTQ report raises more questions for me than it settles. First, let's examine what this report says. The NCTQ has a checklist of priorities it looks for as it makes its grades in this category:

Raise admission standards - The NCTQ wants states to require teaching candidates to pass a basic math, writing, and reading test as a means for admission into teacher preparation programs and they want that test to be standardized and "normed to the general college-bound population."
Align teacher preparation with Common Core State Standards - Their three criterion in this category deal with elementary teachers. Namely, they seek for all elementary teacher coursework and subject-testing to be aligned with Common Core, all teachers should pass a rigorous assessment on reading instruction, and that elementary teachers be provided content on math instruction specifically for elementary.
Improve clinical preparation - Cooperating teachers must demonstrate effectiveness as measured by "student learning."(2) The NCTQ also would like all teachers to complete at least 10 weeks of full-time student teaching. Interesting idea, that.
Raise licensing standards - This subcategory seeks the elimination of the K-8 Generalist credential and the requirement for subject-matter testing for all middle and high school subject areas.
Don't lower the bar for special education teachers - In other words, you need subject-specific testing on top of a special education credential.
Hold teacher preparation programs accountable - In short, collect data on student standardized test scores, tie them to the preparation programs, set a minimum standard, and grade the programs accordingly.

Of these six subcategories, four are at least someway related to the tests that teachers take to gain certification. The other two have criterion tied to student performance on standardized tests. The one thing I liked from this is the demand that there be a minimum of 10 weeks of full-time student teaching. Other than that, the NCTQ is preoccupied with the myths that traditionally-certified teachers are often a bunch of dummies that need to be weeded out and that we can only measure a teacher's effectiveness by student standardized test scores. So, we have a report fraught with problematic assumptions about what a teacher preparation ought to prioritize (testing and more testing) being used to defend TFA's woefully inadequate teacher preparation requirements: "All across the country, TFA corps members experience a backlash from policy makers and other educators who insist that Teach for America’s alternative path to the classroom is the main pipeline pushing horribly unprepared teachers into schools. But it actually turns out that underpreparing teachers is a national problem, including most traditional undergraduate and graduate education programs." This false equivocation provides fleeting comfort for the underprepared and overwhelmed corps member. But this misses the overarching complaint with TFA. Not only are teachers coming through TFA underprepared, but they are recruited and cultivated with the explicit purpose of doing something else in a few years thus ensuring a cycle of undertrained novices in perpetuity and thus denying low-income students the opportunity to have experienced educators dedicated to teaching as a career and not as a stepping stone to some other preferred career path. In a pique of self-pity, the author continues:

But corps members are still experiencing harsh words from colleagues, administration, and the media insisting that TFA teachers aren’t as qualified to work in schools…aren’t trained to work in high-needs communities…the list goes on. It’s an issue that many of us have grappled with at some point. I had more than my share of tense encounters that kept me awake at night and tied my stomach up in knots. I knew I was putting in the late-night hours, jumping through the same administrative and state-mandated hoops that my colleagues were, and sacrificing my weekend freedom to construct innovative lessons for my students. But instead of feeling supported and encouraged in my work, I was flooded with continuous self-doubt. And in the eyes of my critics, I would forever be a second-rate teacher because of the way I’d gotten my teaching certificate, regardless of the quality of my work.

Note to new corps members: if you are not prepared to face an avalanche of criticism for being -- for all intents and purposes -- scab labor, then you need to find something else to do. The reason you will be considered a second-rate teacher is not just the path your chose for certification, but because you will probably not be a very good teacher until you've done this job for a few years. And fair or not, when you join Teach for America, the assumption is you will not stick around long enough to gain the experience needed to be a good teacher. You're guilty until proven innocent in many people's eyes. If you're secure enough to deal with that and are committed to becoming that experienced teacher anyway, you should be okay! Mostly. To be clear, I think traditional preparation programs ought to do more to prepare teaching candidates for the practical realities of the classroom, particularly in low-income schools. Nor is this an attempt to categorically declare one brand of first-year teachers superior to the other. There is no substitute for being a lead teacher in terms of experience. However, traditional certification programs have the most rigorous pre-service clinical experience requirements compared to alternate route programs, particularly in Texas where pre-service experience is virtually not required at all for alternatively-certified candidates. And since the explicit purpose of traditional certification programs is to produce career teachers, traditionally-certified teachers are more likely to have the confidence and desire to get through those difficult first few years and develop the acumen of an effective teacher over the course of a years-long career. The author concludes with this: "And maybe eventually, as a nation, we can stop arguing over which certification path put a dedicated teacher into a classroom, and instead build supportive networks, mentorship programs, and teaching communities to better train and support them once they get there." I disagree. We should be arguing about this a lot more given the clear evidence of higher attrition rates for alternatively-certified teachers and their increasing share of new teacher hires. We should argue about this because low-income schools bear the largest brunt of this revolving door of teachers, particularly alternatively-certified ones. If we are serious about improving low-income schools, we ought to be having discussions about how we can get the best-trained, most-experienced teachers to staff them and less about how we can make our temporary band-aids better. Or, are we to accept the future of teaching as an entry-level, temporary profession as unalterable and try to manage this dire reality as best we can? NOTES (1) In the interest of disclosure, I was approached about writing for Teacherpop a while back. I was kind of skeptical because a lot of the content seemed pretty fluffy. Plus, I think I was only asked because I had indicated in my application to TFA that I had been involved with student publications before. I told the editor that I blogged already and sent him some links to this page to see what he thought. I never heard back from them after that. (2) Read: "student standardized test performance" because that is what they actually mean. (3) I guess this depends on where you are placed. In an at-will state like Texas with a robust private-sector alternative certification market, many if not most of the teachers at low-income schools are alternatively-certified. In fact, many of them have even less training than TFA teachers do. This used to be reason enough for me to support TFA, as a lesser of two evils. Now I have learned that two wrongs don't make a right. Only took me 27 years.