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!