"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...)