Remote Post

I am on vacation in the BVI's - on Peter Island.
Feels like the middle of nowhere and I am so happy. And relaxed. And sunburned. 10 peaceful days on the beach is a much needed break from everything.

Teaching Portfolio

So, here it is, my portfolio of teaching on the Carnegie Website.
If you decide to take a look, feel free to ignore the copious amounts of text (it's basically a 60 page paper copied and pasted onto a website) and check out the adorable videos of my fourth graders in the middle column of each page.
(Don't worry - parents signed every permission slip in the book so that I could film and post these lessons).
www.cfkeep.org/users/gaelangallagher/teachingportfolio

In other news... I am off to John's office Christmas party wearing a shirt that is at least two sizes too small but that I managed to squeeze myself into because it is the only half decent festive-but-not-innappropriately-dressy-or-casual thing I have to wear tonight. I will feel uncomfortable all night and if my arms start to lose circulation, please take me home.

Then I'll be back to write an 8 page child development final, a childrens book, annotations for my math notebook, and make "Happy Holidays" bookmarks for my fourth graders.

As dad reminded me the other night... "There's light at the end of the tunnel. And its not a train."

Apologies

I have been so bad about posting. Mostly because I have 1.2 million things to do between now and December 18th when I get to go home to California. These weeks are the most intense part of the Penn program (or so I understand) so I am buried up to my neck in child development papers, seminar reflections, lesson-analysis, and picture book creating. The picture book is the only fun part.
I feel like I would really enjoy the other parts as well, the child development stuff is interesting, and my formal lessons went well and were a lot of fun, but there is so much to do in so little time that I feel like I'm not able to enjoy any of it!

Science Self Evaluations

I was grading papers this weekend and had the pleasure of reading the kids' self evaluations for science. We are almost half way done with our Land and Water unit using stream tables (STC Land and Water) and at this point their workbooks have them fill out two pages about how they are doing - how they are working with their group members, how they are performing on their own, what they are doing well and what they can improve on. They had some great things to say, and I feel really proud of them.

Here are some particularly cute excerpts in response to the question, "How well do you think you and your partners are working together?"

"Good and bad because one time I worked with girls and it turned out nice but when i work with ____ it is terrible! When I was working today I was overjoyed." - Dem

"Well I think we work great together a lot of team work is involved." - Nol

"I think we are working good together because I am understanding what is happening." - Tia

"When I was in my group I learned a lot more!" - Eth (YAYYYY!!!! I was so excited to read this... Eth did work really well in his group during this and I'm glad he is able to recognize it as well.)

"Horrible!!!!" - Har (Yes, that's 4 exclamation points - I wrote him a note to come talk to me about this and I hope he does.)

"I think that my partners and I work together well because we share everyones ideas and we write them down and everyone gets to talk." - Moh (Double Yay for taking notes on each other's ideas!!)

Everyone answered some variation of "I did really well on my observations and my record sheets" - for the most part, they are right, I think they have been doing really well, and their observations are definitely improving.

It seems that they write more, say more, think more, and are more excited during science than during any other time of day. They love the "hands-on" (or, as NLB would say, "materials-based") aspect of what we are doing, but I am not always sure that they are really getting all the points we are trying to make about how stream tables represent real life watersheds in our world. I know they are having fun and enjoying the activities and working well together - they make beautiful drawings of the stream tables and are able to label and describe what they see.

I guess I'm just concerned that they're not fully aware of the big picture. This is the first time that Mrs. C is teaching Land and Water using stream tables like this - and we're both kind of figuring it out as we go. I would really like to teach it again next year, I hope that I will get to do it with my class. now that I am familiar with the unit I think I would be much better prepared and would be able to make it more fluid and cohesive.

Harvest Festival

So, right after our Awbury field trip, we got back to school just in time for Harvest Festival. I had heard a lot about Harvest Festival - it is an M School tradition - but I really had no idea what all it entailed. Wow. There were huge tables set up along each hallway with more food than you can imagine - turkey, mashed potatoes, salads, mac and cheese, lasagna, the list goes on and on. Tons of food, mostly homemade by parents and teachers at our school (several teachers spent all evening on Tuesday roasting turkeys!) and it was all really wonderful. The kids got big platefuls and went from room to room hanging out with friends, seeing old teachers and just generally socializing. Everyone was so well behaved and there were so many parents who came for the feast.

As part of Harvest Festival, Mrs. C had the class turn in their Native American journals - WOW - they were incredibly beautiful and I was so impressed! They obviously spent a really long time working on them. THey all wrote 10 or more entries from the perspective of a Native American child around the time of the first Thanksgiving - they've been working on these at home for weeks. They apparnetly did a lot of research into games and foods and activities common for Native Americans and incorporated so much historical information into their journals. Most of them tried to use natural materials - some dipped paper in tea or coffee or put it in the oven to make it look old, some wrapped their journal in leather or bound it with twigs and glued leaves all over the cover. Here are all the journals lined up on our back table. I was completely blown away by the extent of their efforts.



When the big feast was winding down, they all took turns wearing the headdress that Mrs. C created and sitting in the big chair in the front of the room to read a journal entry from their work.



Their hard work was really apparent - however, some were a little more accurate than others. Here's an excerpt:

"I am a Native American girl, and I am 9 years old. My name is Flying Bird and my brother's name is Jumping Deer. I live in the woods with my family. My father does a lot of hunting and my mother makes blankets and baskets. Today I was walking through the woods and I found a beautiful tree with colorful leaves. I love it here, but I am also sad because it is hard being in a new place - we arrived on the Mayflower three weeks ago."

Hmmmm... we may have to revisit our lesson on the Mayflower. (I have to keep reminding myself that just because we taught it doesn't mean they learned it!)

Field Trip Success!

(Playing Lenape lacrosse!)

So, Wednesday's field trip to the Awbury Arboretum was MUCH more successful than my first field trip experience (ie: losing poor Eth in the Franklin Institute). It was so fun to have the kids outside in the woods looking at leaves and trees and learning about the Lenape tribes that lived in our area. They got to make cool little clay pots and play Native American games (like lacrosse! who knew?) and learn about the ways that the Lenape used different materials from their natural enviroment to hunt and build and take care of each other.


(Listening quietly to our guide, S)

They were all so well behaved, they asked questions, they took notes, they helped each other and shared and followed directions. They didn't wander off or get lost or anything. It was great. :) I feel much better about field trips now - thank goodness, since we're going on another one on December 2nd (to the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology) and then another one on December 8th (to the Philadelphia Zoo!). Crazy, but awesome. The kids do learn a lot from them - if our class wasn't so well behaved and small we wouldn't be able to do so much field tripping.



(Making clay pots!)

Discourse is just how you get there

In an earlier post I talked a lot about TALK in the classroom, but after reading "Choice Words" by Peter Johnson for my literacy class (it really applies to all subjects, not just literacy), I've realized that what I really want is for my kids to gain a "sense of agency" and talk is (in my opinion) the best vehicle for getting them there.

I want my students to become people who figure out things and solve problems and ask questions - and, maybe more importantly, to see themselves as such. I want them to see themselves as readers, as writers, as mathematicians and scientists. As Johnson says, "When you figure something out for yourself, there is a certain thrill in the figuring. After a few successful experiences, you mihgt start to think that figuring things out is something you can actually do. Maybe you are even a figuring-out kind of person, encouraging an agentive dimension to identity."

I realize that this is idealistic, but I really think that the best classrooms are the ones where the teacher talks the least. Where the teacher gives kids space and tools to figure things out for themselves, to discuss what they read, to respond to each other, to teach each other. There is nothing quite as good as feeling a sense of accomplishment. "I want children to see themselves not only as inquiring individuals, but as inquiring individuals who are part of a diverse community that inquires, whose members, through their active participation and diversity of perspective, contribute to each other's intellectual growth."

One of my favorite lines (can you tell I'm in love with this book?): "If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals."

Election

So, I should have written about this yesterday, but I kind of needed a day to decompress.

As I mentioned, we were supposed to do science for the last part of the day on Wednesday - I had an awesome hands-on (rather, materials-based) lesson planned, and I'm sad that it got scrapped. Instead, Mrs. C let me talk to the kids about the election for the last 20 minutes of the day.

Whoa.

They were so into it. They were all involved, they were all listening, they all had so much that they wanted to say about what they saw on TV, about their parents reactions, about what they were hoping for and excited about and how they felt. They may not grasp the full magnitude of what happened on Tuesday, but they are definitely listening and watching and aware that this is a big deal.

Els made a great comment - "I listened to both John McCain and Barack Obama talk last night, and I think they both did a really good job. McCain has a lot of experience, and he is a really good leader even though he did not win. I hope that Obama asks him to help him run the country now that he is president. It would be really good if they could work together, they both have good ideas and are good people, even though their campaigns said mean things before the election." She has been thinking very seriously about the election and I think she is very interested in politics and current events in general. She and I have had a couple conversations about the election, and I love what she has to say.

Els is right - and I really tried to emphasize this to the kids. No matter who you supported, no matter who your parents supported, now we need to work together to fix the things about our country that are broken. Both sides have good ideas and good leaders and Democrats and Republicans need to work together - fighting just hurts everyone.

Kal said, "I think this is really important because we've never had a black person as President before."

I tried to help them understand that what Kal had said was incredibly important. They get so little social studies, and they really have no concept of the fight for civil rights. I told them that only 40, 50 years ago, when my parents were kids, black people weren't even allowed to vote. And black children and white children couldn't go to school together. They couldn't use the same bathrooms, or the same drinking fountains, or the same entrances to hospitals, or sit in the same area on the bus.

Cam asked, "Wasn't slavery a really long time ago though?" ... Yes. Yes it was. And between when slavery ended, and when black people got the right to vote, there were 100 years where black people had very few rights and were considered second class citizens - and a lot of people, including Dr. Martin Luther King (who they've mostly heard about) fought long and hard for black people to have the rights that they deserve.

I tried to explain this to them, and they were shocked. Reb said, "Really? Black kids couldn't use the same DRINKING FOUNTAIN???" Yes. Yes. Horrible, and now, so hard to believe. In 50 years, we've come so far - we have a black president. Talk about CHANGE.

My eyes welled up with tears talking to them about this. Dem said, "Ms. Gallagher, are you CRYING?" Yes Dem. Yes I am. This is a huge deal, I am so proud to be an American, I am so proud of our country and of the change that is possible here. You can be anything. You can DO anything with your life. And I hope you change the world.

Time

I can't believe how fast this year is going. It's already November, and we turn in our Masters porfolios on May 1st. 6 more months. Crazy.

Also on the subject of time, there is not enough time in the school day. Also, I feel like a lot of our time is poorly organized due to various assemblies, music lessons for some kids, MG (mentally gifted) for an hour and a half on wednesday mornings, Fleisher Art Memorial on Thursdays and Fridays for an hour and a half in the morning, in addition to an hour in the library, two prep periods of Art, one each of computer, PE, and music throughout the week.

The kids are always leaving class for one reason or another - when do we have time to teach them? We get half the review for the math test in and then a handful of them have to leave. I really appreciate all of the extracurricular and non-academic stuff that M School offers, it is a wonderful school in that way, but its frustrating when you're trying to do group work or teach something new and you keep losing your kids! I end up taking a group out in the hall to re-teach the stuff they've missed.

I had a great science lesson planned for yesterday afternoon about streams and water speed and erosion. I had the stream tables all set up and had rummaged through the FOSS land and water kit to get everything I needed. The kids had been building up to this with other investigations on the properties of soil components (gravel, sand, clay, potting soil), how those components react when they're in water, etc.

But, by the time we got back from the unannounced 2:00pm assembly, it was 2:45, and they start packing up at 2:05 to go home. 20 minutes is not enough time to do that big investigation, so they didn't even get science yesterday.

"You can vote however you like"

Here's to the kids of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta for WRITING and PERFORMING an awesome parody to TI's "You can have whatever you like"... (Thanks for sending this Anne!!)

Here's the CNN interview, and below is the full performance. How cute are they?
(Note: They'll also perform on Good Morning America on Monday, Nov. 3rd! Check it out from 7-8am)






The Ron Clark Academy is doing some great work in Atlanta - providing every kid in the school with a laptop, super high tech classrooms, music and arts infused curriculum, awesome field trips - all for mostly low-income kids. And their test scores are good too. :) Check them out at www.ronclarkacademy.com

"All Students Are Smart"

In reading a section of "Teaching to Change the World" by Jeannie Oakes and Martin Lipton today for seminar, I was particularly inspired by this quote:

"All students are smart, as opposed to capable of being smart. They may not be smart about the same things, or in the same language. They may be smart about many things that others, especially adults, disapprove of or do not understand. But to respect the mental powers of students, teachers do not need to look at students' potential or their theoretical ability to reach school's idea of what it means to be smart. Students are smart. They are smart now.

My kids are smart. In so many ways. I am always so proud of them for the things they come up with, the observations they make, the things they say to each other that they don't think I hear. I don't ever want to lose that view of my kids - they are smart.

I feel like I need to come up with more ways for the "low-performing" kids to demonstrate their "smart-ness" in our classroom, while still encouraging them and supporting them to gain the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in school.

Classroom Discourse

*This picture is from our field trip from hell. But they're so cute. We have another field trip next week... I am already having nightmares.

**Author note: Kids are not stupid. Ever. But I didn't want to misquote my source, who uses the word as any teenage girl would, and it should be taken in that context. Carry on.

I've been thinking a lot about "Classroom Discourse" - helping chatty kids channel their chatting into productive talk and helping quiet kids speak up so their reasoning is heard and appreciated. My fourth graders desperately need to talk, they have so much to say to each other, and I WANT them to be able to talk, I just want it to be productive. Doing worksheets alone in silence is boring. And I don't want it to be all me talking - that's boring too. (Just ask Ra)

In the words of my very smart little 9th grade sister, Meg... "At school we always talk to each other about things we don't understand because sometimes my classmates have better answers and reasons than the teacher"

So true.

I want to create a classroom where there's a lot of talk. I think that this is becoming my focusing question for the year. I want my classroom to be a place where kids are respectful of each other's thinking, where they explain their own reasoning and listen to the reasoning of their classmates, where they question each other and themselves, where they teach each other.

Here are some of my issues with this. I don't want to always pair the high-performing kids with the low-performing kids. And I don't want to always put the low-performing kids together and the high-performing kids together. I also don't want one kid to always be giving other kids the answers. Meg says, "if you divide them into groups with similar academic capabilities then stupid kids wouldn't mooch of the smarty pants. I hated when kids mooched off my answers!"

Sigh. How do I keep the "smarty pants" from being mooched off of? Or even worse, giving their answers to the slower kids without explaining why or how they got them. But then we get back to the problem with making homogeneous leveled learning groups that scar the poor "stupid" kids for life. They're NOT stupid, but they will think they're stupid if they're continually put in the "stupid" group.

I want them ALL to understand it, and I need to create a culture where they teach each other. Meg recommends that "the smart and stupid kids combined groups could be good for completing and collaborating on classwork and homework or reviewing for a test" Good call Meg, if I keep changing up the groups maybe I can keep everyone involved and learning.

Also, I feel like we don't have a very strong sense of community in my classroom right now - no morning meeting, or even weekly meeting, and even though we have a small group (only 21 kids), I wish that they had a little more space to express themselves and appreciate each other. I think that a strong sense of respect for each other is necessary to make this whole "classroom discourse" thing work.

Mathy math math

I got to teach math to the "advanced" math group on Tuesday and they did great - they were so into it and we got to do much more advanced stuff than we'd have been able to do with the whole class. It seemed like they were excited about being "out in the hall with Ms. Gallagher" for once - I usually take the low-performing kids out with me to work one on one and this was the first time I'd taken out these guys. We worked on complex word problems involving time zones and travel times to various countries, stopping through other countries, and cost of travel for a group of travellers flying first class vs economy etc. There was a lot of "find the unknown" and they really had to reason it out together. In my Penn math class we've been talking so much about how important TALK is in math for kids, that they need to explain their own reasoning and listen to eachother's reasoning and I really believe that. They disagreed or agreed with eachother and talked it out and explained why and then listened to each other and adjusted their own reasoning. It was great to see the stuff we've been learning in action, and I feel like everyone got a lot out of the collaboration.

Today, however, I did math with our low-performing kids, and it was really a challenge. Eth in particular had a very tough day. I had a hard time keeping him on task in math, and an even harder time in our guided reading group later in the day. Today's lesson was about true and false number sentences, and we played a game where they were in teams and had to decide whether the number sentence was true or false and hold up a T or an F or a ? (if it wasn't possible to say one or the other). I gave a point to the first team with the correct answer. They did well with this - with team involvement - everyone participated. But I'm not sure that it really fits with the way that I think math should be taught. I don't want it to be a competition like that. I want them to explain WHY - not just give the right answer. I want to talk it out and to make sure that everyone understands. They did pretty well on the problems that they did on their own after we worked the concepts out together, so maybe they did understand it, but I didn't really walk away from the lesson feeling good on it.

I also tried to teach them that if you do something (like add 8) to each side of a true equation, its still true, and that this is a good way to figure out complicated problems if you see that there's something the same about them on both sides. This was WAY over their heads. They kind of got it, but when I tried giving them problems with the same thing on both sides, they all worked the problem all the way out rather than cancelling out the "same" things on both sides like we'd talked about. Maybe they just didn't recognize they are there? This is part of the Everyday Math curriculum, and it will help them a LOT in algebra if they start thinking about equations and number sentences like this now. We will have to work on it again next time.

I would like to do some more of this "if you do the same thing to both sides of a true number sentence, then those two things cancel each other out and the sentence is still true" with my advanced math friends. I think that I could do somewhat of a constructivist lesson with them, so they can figure out why it always works and why it's important and can make things easier for them when they're working on true and false number sentences.

I'm going to teach another lesson next week to a small group about the use of parenthesis and order of operations. I'm trying to think of ways to make it interesting, exciting, and meaningful, but it seems that my teaching tactics need to be determined by my audience, and I'm not sure who will be in my group.

Phillies Insanity

Thank goodness the Phillies won tonight. There is so much screaming and honking and beating of pots and pans outside my window (and gunshots?)... all we heard about in class all day was "Phillies, Phillies, Phillies" from the little guys, and I know they are SO excited right now! (Even though it's definitely past their bedtime.)

In other sports news, Car invited me to his football game next Wendnesday evening. So cute of him. "Ms. Gallagher, I am playing football this year, and I have a game next Wednesday, and you should come and cheer for me. Mik is going and you should come too."

So cute. If its not too cold and I don't have too much work I totally will go, even if its just for a little while. :)

Guided Reading

I haven't posted in 10 days. :(

I am sorry. I really need to get with it. I usually post after my two days at M School (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and any other times I am inspired by articles I come across, class discussions here at Penn, etc.

I was in New Hampshire for the weekend with John, it was beautiful. :) Here is a picture of the beautiful leaves at St. Anselm College (where John went to undergrad). It was so nice up there - it made me realize how much I miss the country. I love the city, but its so nice to get out into the sticks again.

Anyways - re: teaching. I did my first guided reading group on Wednesday, and it went really well. I have our lowest level boys - Dem, Eth, Kal, Kaa, and Mik. Some of my very favorite students. I really love them - they don't always have the "right" answer, but they are so creative and interesting. This was the very first time guided reading was done in my classroom at all - I've never seen it done, and I felt like I was just kind of making it up as I went along. I have a few organizers and we've done readings on how it should be done in class, but the way Mrs. C asked me to do it isn't the way we've been instructed.

The piece she asked me to use was a "readers theater" style piece and I assigned parts and we read it out loud together. Because it was a theatrical piece, we talked about reading with expression and the clues in the text that help us know what to do with our voices when we're reading out loud. We talked about the title, we walked through the pictures, and tried to decode any difficult vocabulary together as we went. They seemed really enthusiastic and it seemed like they enjoyed reading together. I'm going to do guided reading with them again next week, but it'll be more traditional - they'll read silently and we'll discuss.

I wonder if Mrs. C would let me do a literature circle with them for guided reading instead of the Trophies texbook readings we're doing now. I want to think of some good chapter books that I could get six copies of for us to read together each week. I think that theres a lot to be said for reading a "story" from week to week and retaining comprehension, learning and practicing reading strategies, etc. I think that it would be especially good if I could find something the boys would be into and excited about.

I read the guided reading text I'm supposed to use for this week and it just seems kind of babyish and boring. Its about a boy, and his dog, "Loyal" and the dog runs away and protects some chickens and gets bitten by a fox and goes home. I have a feeling its just not going to be a good read for 10 year old boys. Maybe I can convince Mrs. C to let me do a chapter book with them. I will look in the library to see if I can find something at a similar reading level but with more interesting content. All ideas welcome!

Preschool?

Obama said a lot about early childhood education in the debate the other night, and this morning I woke up to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Universal Preschool Hasn't Delivered Results

"A comprehensive study last month - commissioned by the government itself - concluded that, barring at-risk kids, there was "no statistically significant difference" between the educational performance of second-graders who attended preschool and those who did not... [even though] the Tennessee program is regarded as the gold standard of preschool - meeting 9 of the 10 criteria for a high-quality program set by the National Institute for Early Education Research."

Interesting. (Granted, authors Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell work for the Reason Foundation and, I would imagine, are pretty staunchly in the McCain camp. I suspect they will be getting some furious feedback from SF Chron readers.)

In thinking about it, I don't think it really matters to me whether or not early childhood education raises test scores. I think that kids need to be prepared for kindergarten - social and academically, and one of the ways to do that is through an early childhood program like Head Start or any of the many other great programs around the nation. If the programs in Tennessee were considered the "gold standard" of preschool, then I am confident that those kindergarteners came in the door with a leg up on kids who didn't attend preschool.

I feel like this is particularly important in poor and urban neighborhoods where parents may not have the resources or the time to understand and facilitate child development, to read to their kids every night, to encourage language and phonics acquisition, etc. Geoffrey Canada's Baby College and GEMS - they are doing this work full-throttle, giving kids a "head start" from even before birth. Here's the link to the Harlem Children's Zone Page www.hcz.org and to an awesome article about Baby College specifically. The Baby College

I could write another post entirely on Harlem Childrens Zone and Geoff Canada... he, along with Michelle Rhee, is another of my "Educrushes." Paul Tough's new book on his work is really excellent, and I've been enjoying reading it in bits and pieces when I have a free moment.

In other good news... as of this morning, I am done with my 37 page midterm paper on Mik! I can't tell you how excited I am to hand that in in Seminar today. Woohoo!

Education Rheeform

Loved the shout outs to Michelle Rhee and DC Public Schools in last nights debate - from both sides of the aisle.

Some of my favorite quotes about urban education through the lens of DC:

McCain: We need to reform these programs. We need to have transparency. We need to have rewards. It's a system that cries out for accountability and transparency and the adequate funding...

Now, throwing money at the problem is not the answer. You will find that some of the worst school systems in America get the most money per student. So I believe that we need to reward these good teachers.

Obama: I think it's going to be critically important for us to recruit a generation of new teachers, an army of new teachers... give them higher pay, give them more professional development and support in exchange for higher standards and accountability...

The D.C. school system is in terrible shape, and it has been for a very long time. And we've got a wonderful new superintendent there who's working very hard with the young mayor there to try...

I love it.

What I'm signing up for next year...

"Only 43 percent of students entering the ninth grade in a D.C. public school graduate within five years, and only 9 percent get a college degree within five years of leaving high school."

-The Atlantic, 10/08

Whoa.

Symmetry Quilt

Yesterday and today went REALLY well. I feel so much better about everything after two successful days. Mrs. C was out and Miss K (the sub) and I ran things. She let me teach the whole day both days and I feel like I learned SO much from being in charge for two days. I definitely made mistakes, but I now know what it means to learn to teach by teaching.

In math, the past two days have been focused on symmetry. Yesterday we found the lines of symmetry of various polygons and talked about connections between shapes and their lines of symmetry. Today we talked about translations (slides), reflections (flips), and rotations (turns). I am kind of anti-worksheet, so for their final project they each had to make a symmetrical quilt square, and they came up with some AMAZING designs -- (see above picture). They drew the lines of symmetry that they wanted to use and then flipped their designs over those lines. I was so proud! They got really into it and some of their designs were incredibly detailed.

N came in really upset this morning and it turns out that he was diagnosed with diabetes yesterday afternoon. :( He told me that his grandpa died of diabetes and that he was really scared. He and I talked a little and then I walked away to another table so he could collect himself and I hear Mik and Eth who were sitting at the table with N say:

Mik (completely serious): "Its ok N. If you die, I will come to your funeral."
Eth: "Yeah, I will come too. We will make sure its real nice. I had a real nice funeral for my hermit crab when he died."

Of course, I turned around...
Miss G: "Hold up here, no one is dying. Diabetes is not a fatal disease - doctors do great things with medicine, N will be just fine..." etc. etc...

Good grief. :)

Tomorrow

Tomorrow and Wednesday Mrs. C will be out of class. Sadly, her dad passed away. :(

This means that it'll be me and a sub running things for the next two days, and if this sub is anything like the last one we had, it will be my show. I am both excited and anxious about this. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

(I swear to god I will show Ra that I am NOT boring!)

More Field Trip...

Losing Eth was really horrible… but then, to top it off, when we got back to class, Ra and Mik were sitting next to each other and Ra asked Mik to use his hand sanitizer and he said no, just a minute after I’d used some. The following conversation ensued…

Ra: Why won’t you let me use your hand sanitizer? You let Ms. G use it!
Mik: She’s the teacher.
Ra: She’s a BAD teacher.
Ms. G (me): Really? Ra you think I’m a bad teacher?
Ra: No, I guess you’re not a bad teacher, you’re just really boring when you talk.

I didn’t know what to say to that. I said, “I’m sorry you feel that way” but after such a challenging time on the field trip, it was really not what I needed to hear. Boring?!?! The last thing I want to be is boring!!! I don’t care if kids think I’m mean or tough or strict, but BORING!?! That’s the worst. There is nothing worse than a boring teacher. I really hope I am not one, but we talk a lot in class about listening to children – and perhaps I do need to spice it up a bit. I really don’t think I’m boring, I feel like I put on a total dog and pony show every time I am in front of them for anything - I try to put so much effort and excitement into my lessons! But if she really thinks that I'm boring, that’s a problem. Then again, knowing Ra, she does sometimes just say things to push people’s buttons.

There were some good parts of the day too, it wasn’t all bad. Els and Bra got in a fight, or rather, a misunderstanding, and I brought both of them over to the side together and asked for both sides of the story and they talked it out and apologized and shook hands. (Els had been frustrated that no one was listening to her when she was trying to talk, so she stamped on Bra's foot and walked away. We talked about better ways she could have dealt with her frustration and she apologized.) I felt like I did a good job mediating their little conflict. I also got to talk to Mik, who I’m doing my Child Study on, and I felt like I got to know him better after spending time with him outside of the classroom.

I am trying to find the good with the bad!

M School's Fourth Grade Class

Just wanted to share this great picture from our not so great field trip yesterday. :)

Field Trips Are Not Fun.

I remember thinking field trips were awesome when I was in elementary school. Guess what? They are not. They are horrible, traumatic, nerve-wracking experiences where you take 21 little kids out into the world and expect them to all stay together and be nice to each other and learn new things and have a good time.

I cannot even write about how awful today was. I mentioned last night that I had Dem and Eth in my group - Eth got lost. Of course. He is in la-la-land in class most of the time anyways... always in his own little world and very easily distracted. He turned a corner and wandered out of the exhibit - ("Do not leave the Pirate exhibit!!!" we told them at least 12 times) and ended up several exhibits further down the hall, where he was found 45 minutes later. After we'd alerted all museum security and done a full building lockdown. (And after I'd nearly had a heart attack)

When you are in charge of someone elses child who disappears in front of your eyes, a half hour is eternity. It was my fault, I should have been watching him more closely, but I seriously turned around for a minute to help Bra and Ken and when I looked back he was gone.

There were some good parts, and I'll write about those later, but right now I just can't even begin to talk about it.

Good Day

Today I got to lead part of a science lesson on erosion - it went really well! Everyone got into small groups, and Mrs. C and I handed out big color photos like this one to each group. The group had to compile a list of hypotheses of how the land features in the picture came to be - what caused them. The pictures were all really cool, and the kids had fun discussing them and sharing their ideas.

After each group had a chance with the pictures, we came back together as a big group and I led everyone in a discussion about the pictures. There were some great ideas - and some silly ones too - but overall I felt like it was really good. The kids were so surprised to see what ice and water and wind can do to the land. I was happy that they were so engaged and interested in what we were talking about - and I did my best to relate it back to things that are familiar to them. They may not have ever been to Glacier National Park and see the rock formations there, but they have seen that water freezing causes cracks in cement - we talked about how sidewalks and steps get worn away by freezing and how people drain pools and fountains in the winter to keep them from cracking.

Tomorrow is our field trip to The Franklin. :) We'll see how that goes. My group is Dem, Eth, Bra, and Ken... two boys, two girls. Dem and Eth are our two most off-task boys in the class, but they're also two of my favorites. And Bra and Ken are good friends and usually quiet and well behaved. Dem's dad is my co-leader, and I'm glad he's coming. Dem is just crazy about his dad, he talks about him all the time, and I know he'll be really happy having him along.

We're going especially to see the pirate exhibit... yarrrrrrr.

What's at Play in Recess Today

(Catchy title, I know. Thanks.)

So, I've been pondering the issue of recess. There was this article in the Post a few weeks ago: The Recess Regimen - District Schools Seek to Bring Order to Play Periods with Help of NonProfit
Really, do we need to "bring order" to play periods? Can't kids have ANY free time in their day anymore? My initial reaction to this is to feel a little disgusted - but maybe teaching kids to play in healthy active ways is an important component that elementary schools are missing. Kids really do spend too much time in front of the TV, the computer, etc. Maybe this will help them want to get outside more. And if the kids are enjoying this instructed play, then thats awesome - I'd like to see it in action.

And then I saw this in the Penn GSE weekly update: "HELP PROMOTE RECESS FITNESS AT A WEST PHILLY SCHOOL!
Join students, volunteers, and work study students in promoting interactive play and fitness during recess (11:00-1:00p.m.)" So I guess it's not just DC.

Is it really to the point that kids need to be instructed how to "play" at recess? Have the nation's children forgotten what to do with basketball hoops and rubber balls and tetherball courts? Do we really need to teach them four square and hopscotch and double dutch? Apparently we do. Thank you, Xbox.

On a totally different note (but still recess-related) I think that recess is crucial for kids. When I was in elementary school, we got 15 minutes of recess in the morning, around 10am, and then we got another 30 minutes of recess after our 20 minute lunch every afternoon. Plenty of time to run around, get our "wiggles" out, and so forth.

At M School, recess is all of 20 minutes each day, immediately before or after lunch, depending on your class schedule. They also get 1 hour of gym class each week. In my opinion, this is not enough playtime.

Often, Mrs. C keeps kids in for recess for misbehavior, or to finish their classwork or to do homework that they "forgot" to do the night before. As you can imagine, there are several kids who stay in over and over and over again. And, as you can also imagine, the kids that are kept in are the kids who MOST need to go and get some fresh air and exercise so that they can focus for the rest of the afternoon. I have noticed a marked differences in De's behavior if he is able to get out and RUN during recess - he comes back in after lunch much calmer and settles down to his afternoon work. When he is kept in, he is usually in a bad mood and extremely wiggly all afternoon - but honestly, who wouldnt be?

I don't think I agree with kids losing recess as a form of punishment, but when you only have so many hours in a day, and when kids dont do their homework, as a teacher, what else are you supposed to do? When else can you give detention? After school? I doubt many parents would be ok with that.

DC Teachers Left Behind

This is incredibly frustrating, but who can say they didn't see it coming? Contract negotiations between Michelle Rhee and the DC Teachers Union have been going on for 11 months now, and I'm proud of her for not backing down from doing what she thinks is right.

She's still going to get rid of the inept and incompetant teachers - but its really too bad for all the amazing, dedicated teachers in the District. They're not going to see those bonuses and pay raises that they so deserve. I'm angry for them, and I don't even work here yet! Here's this morning's article by Bill Turque of the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/10/02/ST2008100201704.html

I was a little encouraged by the optimism in this op-ed in the Post, and wanted to include it as well. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/02/AR2008100203463.html

Secretary Spellings Speaks at Harvard

Full text can be read here... http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2008/10/10012008.html


I thought this part was particularly important. Whether you like or dislike Spellings, the lack of public-school-educated, college-ready, low-income high school students is evidence of one of our countries most significant inequalities.

"Let me quote my friend, Harvard grad Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Washington, D.C. Schools. She says that, "To respond… with anything but radical change … is an insult to the dignity, potential and creativity of our children."

Instead of blaming our kids, we need to start serving their needs—even if that makes a few grown-ups uncomfortable. Reform is never easy. And it's never finished.

That's why we need the support of the higher education community. You have major skin in this game. You pick up where K-12 schools leave off, paying the price with remedial coursework and lost opportunities.

Over the past three decades, our federal investment in higher education tripled. Yet college enrollment and attainment is virtually flat. In 1975, America was number one in college completion rates. In 2005, we were number 10.

Let me give you a more personal example. Last year, I sent back to the U.S. Treasury more than 500 million dollars in unused academic grants for low-income college students. Why? Because not enough had been offered or taken rigorous coursework in high school—coursework essential for college admission and success."

KIPP (sigh)

I went to an open house at KIPP Philadelphia tonight. Sigh. I love it.

KIPP is SO in line with my personal education philosophy and my goals for my own teaching. I want to teach like that, I want to inspire like that, I want to get results like that. They are doing AMAZING things with kids at ALL achievement levels, and there is such a family attitude among the teachers. They all care so much about making sure that none of their kids are failing.

KIPP is amazing. There's no doubt in my mind that it would be an incredible place to work, and I feel like I am cut out to be a KIPP teacher. I totally buy into their whole system.

I do, however, have a few concerns. Mainly...

1.) What about the kids who don't have parents that are proactive enough to put them in a program like KIPP? Or kids who don't win the KIPP lottery? There's a waitlist as long as my arm to get in there. What about the kids who are just getting by on their own in public school - there are a LOT of them. What about those kids?

2.) Most KIPP schools are currently running on a 5-8 model. They encourage every kid to see college in his or her future. I LOVE that. But, what happens when they leave KIPP? What about grades 9-12? And then, even if they do make it to college, I know from my work with Georgetown's Institute for College Preparation that getting in is just the beginning of the challenge. There need to be support structures all the way through for this to work, and I don't know that KIPP is all the way there.

3.) Is teaching for KIPP selling out? I am passionate about the importance of public school - its supposed to be the "great equalizer" and at this point, its not. I want to fight and work to make it better. I don't think abandoning ship is a good solution.

I suppose these are all things I'll continue to think about as I plan. I want to go back and visit KIPP again - I want to learn all that I can from what they are doing there (even if I am just going to go and apply it to my public school classroom next year...)

NCLB

I'm getting kind of tired of everyone always being so negative about No Child Left Behind.

I know there are many flaws in the program, especially in the cases of children who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and children with special needs. And there is no doubt that those flaws need to be fixed. But every time NCLB comes up in class, and it ALWAYS seems to come up in our Special Topics class, people just laugh about it and seem to write it off. The truth of it is, NCLB is the reality of our current educational system, and therefore we need to work WITH it. Complaining about how much it sucks really gets us nowhere, and I feel like people criticize and criticize without offering solutions. In my opinion, there are a lot of mistakes that teachers are making in handling NCLB, its not just the fault of the policy people in the Department of Ed.

I think that children should be given national standardized tests annually to determine how they are progressing. I like the accountability and the reliability of the data that (ideally) these tests provide. Scores should be evaluated for cohorts of children, and analyzed from one year to the next. If you look at the same group of children (a class of third graders for example) in 2007, then you should look at their scores again in 2008 and 2009 to see if they have improved. Granted, there are MANY ways to evaluate how a child is performing in school and whether or not he is learning - but on a national scale, a standardized test of basic skills is, in my opinion, the only realistic option.

It breaks my heart to see urban students in DC testing at such abyssmal rates, and then to see students in Northern Virginia, just a bridge away, testing so much higher. Children in DC are not dumber or lazier than children in Virginia. I feel angry and upset that DC children are not getting the same education. Public education in the United States is supposed to be the great equalizer, its supposed to give every child, regardless of race, location, and socioeconomic status, the foundation they need to succeed in life. It is clear that we are not providing that foundation.

I love it that M School, unlike so many others, uses standardized test scores very productively - the kids take the PSSAs and then at the beginning of the year, the teachers get lists of their incoming classes and breakdowns of how the kids scored. If I can see that Mi scored 89% in his reading comprehension questions, but only 20% on his open ended responses, then I can see that he's going to need some help with writing this year. Data is your friend. If you know the user name and password, its all there online for each school. Why don't more teachers use it? Obviously, children are infinitely more than their standardized test scores, but this data allows me to get a head start in knowing my kids strengths and weaknesses. If Mi doesn't increase his writing score the following year - then I would know that I didn't help him in the ways he needed. I would feel pretty sure that I'd failed him as a teacher.

Another complaint I feel like we keep talking about is how difficult it is for teachers to teach anything other than reading, writing, and math. I think that this arguement is complete crap. I know there are only so many hours in the day, and I know the math and literacy curriculum is intense, but each day there are SO many teachable moments to weave in history, geography, civics, biology, chemistry, physics, etc. It seems like a lot of teachers don't have the energy or expertise to do that - I don't want to be one of those teachers. Science is happening ALL THE TIME and it is a GREAT vehicle for learning writing and math and critical thinking. History is so crucial to understanding why things are going on in the books we read and in our world today. Plus, when curriculum is integrated, when themes loop back on each other and weave throughout all of the material, kids are able to retain SO much more of the information. It is contextualized, meaningful, and the kids see the value in what they're learning. It just takes more time, creativity, and flexibility to create a curriculum like this.

Maybe I'm naive. I'm not denying that I have a lot to learn about teaching and education. But I feel confident that if I teach my very best all year, if I work incredibly hard, if I don't give up on them, and I constantly encourage and push them to reach higher and achieve more, then I won't HAVE to "teach to the test" - they will walk in the door on test day feeling confident. They will know the material they needed to learn in fourth grade. I want my students to walk into the test without fear or anxiety - I want them to walk in and be like, " I am ON this! I am going to ACE this test!" And I think that attitude is mainly a result of good teaching, and of the atmosphere I create in my school and in my classroom. It is a basic skills test! If rich white kids in McLean, VA can pass it easily, then my kids in Anacostia sure as hell can too. And it is my responsibility and my job to make sure that they do.

I wish we did less complaining about NCLB and spent more time talking about ways to fix it and ways to use the data it provides in our favor. We are the next generation of leaders in education - and I really think that we can make things better for our nation's children. But we're not going to achieve that by whining every week about how much NCLB sucks.

Back to School Night

I just got back from Back to School Night - and it went REALLY well. Out of our class of 21 fourth graders, 15 of them had parents there. Wow!

I should preface this post with telling you that Wednesday was MUCH better than Tuesday. Mrs. C and I were much more on the same page, and I got to mark papers! They had a writing assignment for homework where they had to write six lines of dialogue using exciting speech verbs, proper quotation marks, etc. Some of them did a great job, and I'm not sure that some of them even read the assignment. I got to collect the papers, mark them (with LOTS of positive feedback in addition to my corrections, and in PURPLE instead of red) and gave them back. Then I got to go over them with everyone! Mrs. C let me lead the class in the Daily Edit (correcting two lines of dialogue written on the board) and I got to teach a mini lesson about the strengths and weaknesses I saw in their writing homework. I felt like they were really engaged and listening! I passed back their papers so they could see my comments and I asked them to come see me if they had any questions. Yay!

Everyone was better behaved, and Mrs. C was in a better mood, and Wednesday was an all around better day. Additionally, they did a Unit 1 math review (which I also graded) and even our kids who had big problems w the test did MUCH better... so that made me feel great. It is a wonderful feeling to see kids prove that they understand the material you've taught! I love giving good grades, I feel so proud of them (and particularly proud of our discouraged learners) when they really do well.

Anyways, Back to School night was great. There were so many parents there, and I got a chance to talk to almost everyone. De's dad was really sweet and assured us that he's been working on his handwriting and helping him to take the time to s-l-o-w down and do his work "carefully and completely." I think that De could improve a lot this year, he's really been working hard. Et's mom was there, and I have never seen a woman look so SAD. I don't know what is going on, but I think that maybe I understand a little better why Et has so many emotional problems after meeting her tonight.

I had a great talk with Cam's mom and dad - great people. Apparently they can't ever get him to stop reading. He reads ALL THE TIME, in the morning, at every meal, way past his bedtime, etc. No wonder Cam has such an amazing vocabulary! We're going to have him tested for the Mentally Gifted (MG) program at M School. Kal's mom and dad were there too (the ones who wrote the note about the "Proud to be an American" assignment) and I had a good talk with them - Kal is an amazing artist, and it was great for them to be able to see his work. They were so proud. They said they're working with him on talking less and focusing more. I hope that they do! He's a smart kid and he does great work on the rare occasion that he's on task.

Ra's mom wasn't there.

Frustration

Today was frustrating. I try to be positive about mostly everything, but a lot of things happened at school today that I didn't feel good about.

I feel like my relationship with Mrs. C was really off today - it was almost as if we were viewing two different classes of children. I saw some of our regularly mischevious boys on-task and working hard - she saw them being disruptive and kept them in at recess. I saw Cam poke De in the ribs several times, and when De finally told him to stop, De got yelled at and Mrs. C made him "flip his card" on our behavior chart. Unfair. Just because De acts up a little bit from time to time doesn't mean he is ALWAYS the one in the wrong. I know that Mrs. C can't have eyes everywhere - and everyone makes mistakes - but I hated to see De having such a good day and doing such a good job and then take the rap for someone else's misbehavior. He came in this morning SO happy and focused and ready to learn - and he left this afternoon sad and angry.

Mrs. C graded their math tests from last week - the ENTIRE class (all except for a few exceptional kids) did poorly on one section that, in my opinion, wasn't well explained. They got B's and C's and D's on the test as a result of their inability to tackle this section of the test. If I was a teacher and I gave a test where ONE question or one set of questions presented significant difficulty to the vast majority of my students - I would immediately blame myself and take responsibility for not doing a good job of teaching that section. I'd have just factored out that section and retaught it and put it on the next test. Some of our very bright students were stunned and upset that they got B-'s on their first test. And some of our lower-performing students were even further discouraged by the big red D's and F's they got on their tests. I am so surprised that in FOURTH grade Mrs. C would fail kids on the first test of the year. And she grades in RED! My mother (who taught second grade for YEARS) would be appalled. I thought you are never supposed to grade in red? Purple, green, orange, whatever. Not red.

I guess what I'm really frustrated about today was that Mrs. C and I just weren't on the same wavelength. I feel like I look for (and usually see) the very best in our kids - and she rarely complements them or finds them doing a good job. Her time is spent so much on trying to spot and reprimand bad behavior, that the whole classroom seems to just be so negative. This was evident today more than ever before. I know that she's an experienced and usually awesome teacher, but there were SO many discouraged little faces today, it just broke my heart.

Writing was another area that was suddenly in the spotlight today. Mrs. C made edits on everyone's rough drafts of their Lucy-Caulkins-style "detailed moment" papers. Some of the papers were great, and she edited for grammar and spelling. When I was walking around reading their work and looking at her edits, I noticed several spelling and grammar mistakes in HER work. What do you even say to that? All that aside, this was the moment when I was most upset today (other than seeing De miss recess for Cam's bad behavior)
Ru brings her paper over to me and says: "Miss G, can you help me?"
I read it... Ru had written, "The rollercoaster raced around like a tiger chasing its prey" - and Mrs. C had crossed out "rollercoaster" and written in "The blood in my head." Now Ru's paper (which was an entirely gorgeous work of 9-year-old literary genious) read, "The blood in my head raced around like a tiger chasing its prey"
Ru says: "Miss G, that wasn't what I meant."

WHY would you CHANGE a childs writing like that? I can see helping them with grammar or syntax or sentence structure or spelling or ANYTHING along those lines, but when you CHANGE their BRILLIANT WORDS, I just feel like that's hugely insulting to them as developing writers.

Sorry that this is dragging on - but one more frustrating moment. Ra started crying today, she went back to the corner chair and big tears just started rolling down her face. She wouldn't look at me, she wouldn't talk to me, she wouldn't come out in the hall with me. The kid does great work when she puts her mind to it - she was SO focused this morning, and just had a meltdown this afternoon. She's really smart, and I think that a lot of the time in class she's actually just bored, and thats why she doesnt do her work or makes smart-aleck comments and is a little bratty. Mrs. C goes, "Whatever, she'll be fine" and LAUGHS and goes, "Oh Ra, cheer up, you're fine." I really think this kid has emotional problems... the school counselor has seen her, but its pretty evident in class that she needs more help. I feel like something is really wrong, and I want to help her, but I don't have the knowledge (or the Ph.D.) that is probably necessary. Mrs. C says she doesn't have the time or energy to deal with Ra's mood swings.

Mrs. C does care, but today I just didn't feel like she was seeing the kids the way I was seeing them. Maybe I am missing something, but I left school today just feeling really discouraged.

In better news, I'm doing Mi (though I'm calling him "Matt" for class/research purposes) for my Child Study and he is AWESOME. I watched him a lot today and he just cracks me up. I really like the little guy. He has a funny and sweet sense of humor. And he is a really good reader. He is SO enthusiastic in class - as he reads along with the text in literacy his little eyebrows go up and down and he opens his mouth in surprise when interesting things happen. In math, he raises his hand ALL THE TIME (even though he doesn't always know the answer when Mrs. C calls on him). He told me that he and his older brother share a room and read to each other each night before they go to bed. They take turns reading chapters from Harry Potter. Awesome.

Germy Kids and Professional Development

Well, I've only been in the classroom three weeks and I already have a cold. Germy little fourth graders and their dirty hands and desks and sniffling and sneezing. I'm currently drinking peppermint tea and throwing back Airborne. I think early bedtime is definitely in order tonight.

Today we had our first "Professional Development Day" at M School. The kids got out early (12:00) and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Library discussing various issues and doing a writing analysis activity. There was also line dancing in the hallway. I kid you not.

Mrs. F, the principal, gave a 30 minute presentation on the importance of learning objectives. There were a lot of grumbles from the teachers... "When am I ever going to find time to write learning objectives? I don't understand why this is necessary. I already teach just fine, I don't need to write objectives." etc. etc. I, however, thought that Mrs. F made some great points in favor of learning objectives, and considering how accomodating and amenable she's been to the faculty, I hope they'll go along with this one. Here were her points: In order to be an effective teacher, learning needs to be "results-oriented." By writing learning objectives, you clearly state where you are going. By having a goal, you can then administer the means to get there, and evaluate when you have arrived.

Earlier this summer we learned the "Teaching for Understanding" framework in our Social Studies Methods class and I really like the way that it is structured. This is along the same lines. Teachers are supposed to write lesson objectives that are specific, observable, measurable, and performance-based in the format of, "You will be able to...." or "Students will be able to...." They avoid verbs that are too vague, unmeasurable, or ambiguous (like appreciate, believe, comprehend, grasp, enjoy, familiarize, learn, like, realize, understand). They are concrete and MEASURABLE. An example: "Students will be able to convert Celsius temperatures to Farenheit." or "Students will be able to identify instances of personification in poetry."

(I know this is pretty typical stuff, but NO ONE at M School is using this format in lesson plans. Mrs. F also wants them to write "higher order questions" but she is leaving that for next PD day. Will be interesting to see how that goes.)

We looked at writing samples in our grade groups (I was with 2, 3, and 4) and talked about strengths and weaknesses and ways to help the kids better develop their writing. This time the focus was specifically on a "movie in your mind" where you take a "watermelon idea" and break it down into a "seed moment" with lots of description, action, thoughts, feelings, etc. The idea is that you take a moment and really streeettcchhh it out. I think that there are a lot of kids in our class who still aren't getting this idea, but Mrs. C brought some good examples with her for PD. One in particular was Ru's... truly amazing work. She did a descriptive and creative story about a rollercoaster ride that was WAY better than anything I could have ever come up with... despite my English major.

In other news, Ra was a real grouch again today. Nothing sweet or nice ever seems to come out of that girl's mouth - all I ever hear are complaints, back-talk, attitude, or just silence. There is really something going on with her - the kid needs counseling, or medication, or something, and its SO hard to give her the attention she obviously needs when there are 20 other kids who also need help. And that's with both Mrs. C and me in the room at the same time! I can see how kids "slip through the cracks" - we do what we can to help her, but it never seems like its enough.

Proud to be an American

Mrs. C assigned a paper with the title, "I'm Proud to Be An American" and asked the students to write a 1 page essay and draw pictures that represent their pride in their country. They were asked to describe all the things they love about America - places, people, foods, freedoms, etc. - in preparation for Sept. 11th and our upcoming social studies unit on foundations of democracy. As I mentioned, we brainstormed ideas in class yesterday, and the papers are due tomorrow. I saw some really great, creative rough drafts today lauding everything from McDonalds and ToysRUs to backyard bbqs with family and Philadelphia's monuments and museums. Some included wiser-than-their-years sentences about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to vote, the right to public education, etc. I was impressed. We also received this letter:

Dear Mrs. C:
How are you? Fine, I hope!
This letter is in response to a project your class is working on about being proud to be an American. I think my son is not old enough to understand what this statement means. My wife and I have always talked to our children about the good and bad of living in America, especially for African Americans. We believe when they are of an appropriate age to really understand this country in which they were born in, then with the right information and knowledge, a question like that can be probably addressed.
I don't agree with this part of his homework assignment. Thank you for your time.
Mr. and Mrs. _______

I wish I could tell this couple that their fourth grade son has better grammar than they do, but that is beside the point. We are assigning the kid an alternate assignment ("I am proud of my family because...", rather than "I am proud to be an American because..."). Mrs. C says that some things (and most parents) just aren't worth fighting. She's probably right - but I still feel frustrated.

In our Social Studies Methods course this summer we discussed the importance of teaching students to participate in democracy - to understand our nation, its system of government, and its history. To appreciate the good, and to work to change the bad. Even in fourth grade kids are capable of thinking critically about current events, government, human rights, and politics - and it seems like Mrs. C expects them to. This is the first of many conversations we will be having about America this year. If we don't embark on that learning journey together, then how are we ever going to fully prepare our youngest Americans for the future?

Mini-conferences

So, this morning Mrs. C decides to let me know that she'll be "gone for a few hours in the afternoon" and hopes that I would be interested in "taking over" for her while she's out. Technically there was also a sub (district policy since I'm not yet licensed), but she sat at Mrs. C's desk and read a romance novel the majority of the time. I think she said a total of 5 words to the kids. I was on my own.

Its only my second day of student teaching -- and, to be honest, I wasn't sure I'd be up to a full afternoon of being in charge of 21 fourth graders. But honestly, at that point, its not like you can say "no." So I went with it. And it turned out great. Everyone was SO well behaved, they were quiet and focused and kind to each other. I was very impressed. We did the second half of our "Whole Language" lesson (Reading responses to a short story), corrected the "Daily Edit," wrote in our journals (in honor of the upcoming September 11th, they were assigned to brainstorm reasons why they are proud to be an American). Then, lunch, recess, and a whole school assembly (good timing). They came back at the end of the day and worked on their "Me-Tees" (designing t-shirts that represent them) while listening to the Star Wars soundtrack.

Here's the part that I was really proud of: While the kids were at lunch, I read through all of their reading responses. I sorted them into two piles - kids who seemed to understand the assignment and fully answered the questions, and those who didn't. While they were working independantly on their "Me-Tees," I had mini-conferences with each kid who had a problem with their reading responses. One by one I called them back to my desk and we went over their responses together. I gave them compliments on the parts I liked, and had them explain to me their thinking on the parts that presented problems for me. We talked about ways to make the responses stronger, and then they revised their responses at the back table and turned them back into me.

I felt like this was really constructive -- the rest of the class was working on an individual project, and I was able to spend some one-on-one time with the kids who had difficulty with earlier work. The majority of their revised responses were great. Much improved. However, even after we talked, neither Ke or Br seemed to really "get" it. I need to find better ways of explaining things to them... it seemed like they got it when we were talking, and then I got their work back, and it was entirely different than I was expecting. They still didn't answer the questions the way they were supposed to, and I'm 100% sure that Ke has no idea what "describe the setting" of the story means. Even so, at the end of the day I felt like the kids who were having trouble were now more comfortable with what we are looking for in their response writing. And that made me feel really good.

First Day

First day of school today... I am too tired to write much, (see above picture) but it was really great. The kids are wonderful, and I was so happy to be able to put faces to the names I've written over and over on workbooks, nametags, stickers, etc.

A few of today's moments:

1.) My class is SO diverse. My kids are black, white, asian, middle-eastern, hispanic, and whatever else. In fairly equal proportions. I've never seen anything like it. Two of the boys, Ze and Mo, are fasting for Ramadan. After explaining to Mrs. C and I why they didn't want to participate in snacktime (yes, even in fourth grade), they volunteered to tell the class about what the holiday means to their families and their faith. Talk about a teachable moment. The rest of the class seems to be mostly Jewish and Christian - and they were SUPER interested in learning about another faith tradition.

2.) El loves Led Zepplin. Seriously. She can name songs, band members, and concert dates. She is also a math whiz and a reading superstar... and when she finishes her work, she moves right along to helping any other members of her group who are struggling. Awesome.

3.) Ru said today: "I think that new crayons are my favorite thing in the whole world." I told her that they are my favorite thing too!! I think we're going to get along just great. I have never seen anyone as excited about new school supplies. (Other than myself, obviously)

4.) Ra started crying today around noon today because she was so hungry (our lunch period is very late -- they don't eat till 1:10pm). She said she didn't get breakfast because her mom left the house at 5:30am and she had to take a taxicab to school this morning. And will have to every morning. She is a little melodramatic, but seems seriously concerned about her mom and the idea of taking a cab every day. Mom told Ra that she's at risk of being fired at work - so Ra has to come to school hungry and worried in a taxi. One of the counselors reminded me that cab fare is cheaper than day care.

5.) De LOVES to write. When Mrs. C asked the class to get out their journals, he let out an audible yelp of happiness and said, "Writing is my favorite subject!" The topic of the day was as follows: "Today is your first day of fourth grade. How are you feeling? What are you thinking?"
Many of the kids wrote a paragraph or two -- De wrote a whole page and a half, with great detail and thought. Here's the issue... just about all of it was spelled wrong and grammatically incorrect. Then I have to consider - is it better to write a perfectly correct paragraph, or a totally incorrect but enthusiastic page and a half? I don't know. I will be interested to see how Mrs. C works with De on his writing this year. I don't want him to lose his enthusiasm.

I am going to bed now. I am exhausted. :)

Teacher Prep Days

Today was my second day of teacher prep - and tomorrow is the first day of school! I am so excited to meet the kids in my class. Mrs. C, my "classroom mentor" (PennSpeak for "teacher") has been so kind and welcoming! She has really made me feel that I am part of the team. My name is up next to hers on the wall outside our room, I have my own desk with cute desk supplies, post-its, etc., and she had me draft a note introducing myself to our kids' families to go home in the packet with everything else tomorrow. I know its going to be a great year.

I have already begun to hear snippits of information about our incoming class from the 3rd grade teachers - both good and bad news. The one little boy with whom we were expecting to have the most difficulty has transferred to Catholic school, and I got to meet one girl, S, today with her dad. She just moved to the neighborhood and seemed very nice (and also nervous and quiet, but who wouldnt be!). I'm really excited to meet everyone tomorrow. I've printed their names so many times on folders, workbooks, bookmarks, handouts, nametags, etc. that I feel like I know them already!

Mrs. C seems like a GREAT teacher. She uses the Lucy Calkins writing method and the Everyday Math curriculum, both of which we are studying in class at Penn this semester. She is also REALLY into science - the class raises silkworms, crawfish, beetles, and other animals throughout the year. This is really exciting. We looked at her lesson plans for the next few weeks, and talked about her methods for evaluating the students at the beginning of the year. I am happy to know that I am learning from someone with so much experience and enthusiasm for the profession.

I'm watching Project Runway with M tonight... yay! I didn't watch last week's episode, so I have TWO to catch up on. And it will give us plenty of time to compare notes and get ready for THE BIG DAY tomorrow!

Great stuff

"Caring is a prerequisite to achievement.
Promoting achievement is the ultimate form of caring."

Quoted from TMAO remarking on Dan Meyer's education blog -- two lines that really sum up how I feel about urban education at this point. There is nothing more important in the classroom than giving students the tools to succeed academically and personally in life. Yes, urban kids face unbelievable obstacles, but none of these obstacles are insurmountable. And because the kids in Anacostia have half the advantages of the kids living in Georgetown, our schools should be helping them twice as much. Caring about these kids means making high expectations and high achievement the number one priority.

Michelle Rhee

I have been meaning to write about my love for Michelle Rhee for a while now, and after coming across this video interview with Charlie Rose, I couldn't help but take this opportunity to gush. (Dan Meyer recently refered to his own warm fuzzy feelings for Chancellor Rhee as an Educrush, which I think is adorable.) I have lots of "Educrushes" these days, the more education books and blogs I read, the more I find myself falling in love with other people's ideas and philosophies on teaching. It has definitely been inspiring me to think about the kind of educator I want to be.

Here's the video: http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/07/14/2/a-conversation-with-michelle-rhee-chancellor-of-the-district-of-columbia-public-schools

I love her passion for accountablity, I love her no-nonsense, no-excuses approach to education. She seems to truly believe that every teacher should be a great teacher, and she is committed to making it lucrative and possible for extraordinary people to become teachers and succeed as teachers. The woman is not willing to settle for mediocrity, and she's shaking things up in DC education. And I love it. The city needs it.

There are so many factors that affect children's ability to learn, particularly in under-served, inner-city neighborhoods, but blaming all of those factors for a child's inability to read and write is unacceptable. They may not come to school as well prepared as children in other parts of the city, but if we use that as an excuse for why so few are testing at proficiency, then it lets us, as educators, off the hook. We may not be able to fix all of the social and economic problems in the city's worst neighborhoods -- but those problems are not an insurmountable obstacle in the education of the children who live there. Michelle Rhee, in her interview, notes that "education is supposed to be the great equalizer" and at this point it obviously isn't, but it SHOULD be.

Rhee's "red track" and "green track" concept for the teachers union contract is, in my opinion, brilliant. I would without a doubt choose, and be excited by, the opportunity to be evaluated each year (through standardized test scores, interviews, or whatever means necessary) and paid based on my performance as a teacher. I can understand the senority and tenure concerns of older, more experienced teachers, and I am glad that Rhee is giving them the option of staying on that path through the "red track." However, if my students did not learn in my class, then I know I did not do a good job as their teacher, and I take responsibility for their failures. I'm not afraid of being accountable for my work.