tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9984854304639897832024-03-05T00:12:22.749-08:00Is It June Yet?The Musings of the Bemused: A Veteran Teacher's PerspectiveMs. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-48746957864395118682012-06-26T16:32:00.000-07:002014-12-26T21:39:00.795-08:00Plays Well With Others<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJABxc7bGC0DQBEcz-xnpwpOCBmNv-pXUoo-UZir4nu0EA2OIwwuvDFxIL0dQpP5EeWrDdIc1PX2LEazdSnfpb91MC6q8hIAscDnKSjSWliFYXk6BZ8VKFQVKJkW__o8s05AR8e67HcnZP/s1600/plays-well-with-others.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJABxc7bGC0DQBEcz-xnpwpOCBmNv-pXUoo-UZir4nu0EA2OIwwuvDFxIL0dQpP5EeWrDdIc1PX2LEazdSnfpb91MC6q8hIAscDnKSjSWliFYXk6BZ8VKFQVKJkW__o8s05AR8e67HcnZP/s320/plays-well-with-others.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What does it take for a person to be someone who “plays well with others”? Does it have to be someone who’s a leader? A follower? A diplomat? Someone who cares too much? Someone who cares too little? Someone who takes the extra steps? Or an efficiency expert who sits back and lets everyone else do the work? Someone who volunteers? Or someone who just cooperates? I myself have been at both ends of the “plays well with others” spectrum, sometimes simultaneously. I’ve been both selected and eschewed for my leadership skills, selected and eschewed for my vision, selected and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">eschewed</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> for my punctiliousness, selected and eschewed for just about everything you need in order to play well with others. In my last teaching incarnation I was often considered someone who does NOT play well with others. Now two years later, another </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">school year has ended, and I have actually been on teams that have wanted me as a player, so I think it’s time to explore the game a little more closely.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">My inability to play well with others with any great consistency could stem from the fact that I’ve always preferred activities where I compete only with myself--dancing, swimming, horseback riding, weight-training--to team sports. When I did engage in sport, I was always the one left facing a disappointed team captain after the one with the broken arm and the crutches was chosen by the other side. Obviously, the worst player can only benefit by playing well with others. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But what about the best players? They can sometimes defeat the team effort when their ambition and skills blind them to those with whom they are playing. Can the parts ever be greater than the whole in team sports? Does playing well with others mean that one not shine TOO much? Or does it mean that one should shine only if s/he adds his or her luster to everyone’s efforts, even the dimmest stars’? Sharing is caring. . . but I’ll save that for another post.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I used to get the “you don’t play well” jab at conferences or meetings. My heart used to sink when, during meetings that always entailed group activities, I was asked to “Share [my] thoughts about [fill in some obvious aspect of student learning] and write those thoughts down on ginormous POST-ITs to display for a ‘Gallery Walk’?” The facilitators would always try to shame everyone into “buy in” by insisting the resistant be “team players,” as if that were the litmus test for how well someone functioned as a classroom teacher, locked in a room with 20-40 NON-team players. Administrators would insist, “We need to ‘play well with others’ if we want to be successful!” We do? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">While I’m not a team fan, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t tried to build a team. When I was department chair in my former institution, I did away with paper memos and sent email to my colleagues about anything that pertained to our department. I was aiming for transparency but was greeted with "I get more email from you than people I like" or "I never get your emails because you probably don't have my proper email address, and it's YOUR job to figure that out!" </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It also doesn't mean that I didn't take one for the team, such as it was. I gave up an AP class because other teachers, some with poor reputations amongst both faculty and students but with golden district seniority, were pressuring the administration to rotate the class (not sure where the students’ best interest was here, but so be it). Once I let that class go, I quickly saw that even with the great success my students had enjoyed each year, I was probably not going to get it back. Then, I realized that in giving up the AP class, I had made way for the electives I had created, Creative Writing and Shakespeare, to be canceled--classes I had worked hard to prepare for and build to substantial numbers each year (36 and 26 respectively which would be strong by some standards, but weak by my public school’s standards). </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7PnhGcyz49Ds2cqN0vBH1rJKT81QJipjehaU4Hpp8aE1-hmJKI3uCLarMIXCERP7a-nV2IeOIKbWoi3rewW1oRgpGYiTo69HlTQkJKTe9MuktCXLD2GZ6QW01Si0v3GLEXjuiGXsRToh/s1600/team-players.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7PnhGcyz49Ds2cqN0vBH1rJKT81QJipjehaU4Hpp8aE1-hmJKI3uCLarMIXCERP7a-nV2IeOIKbWoi3rewW1oRgpGYiTo69HlTQkJKTe9MuktCXLD2GZ6QW01Si0v3GLEXjuiGXsRToh/s320/team-players.jpg" height="311" width="320" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So I had taken not only one, but two and three for the team, and it soon became apparent that I had to ask myself, for which team? By offering these electives to the kids who wanted a wider range of rigorous English courses designed to prepare them well for college, I would not be available to teach the general English classes. Since their number was smaller, the students who wanted to take my courses were sacrificed for the sake of the team--but again which team? The team of administrators trying to find the most gutless and efficient way to place what they saw only as student bodies into classrooms with interchangeable teachers? The team of teachers vying for the best students under the guise of “doing what’s best for the students”? Or the team of students attending school in order to get a good education? Not only did I wonder which team I was on, but more important, I wondered why all these factions weren't part of the same team. It was clear that I was on the team that would accuse anyone who would ask such questions of being someone who "does not play well with others" or is not a "team player." Then again, what kind of team would cut down its players like that? I know. . . teams that aren't really teams in the first place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">According to HR websites, playing well with others means bringing solutions to meetings, communicating effectively and positively with coworkers, sharing success and credit for that success, keeping commitments, generating trust by not blaming or blindsiding coworkers. But none of this can happen if we don’t answer the one essential question: How can anyone play well with others whose vision and values they do not share? The answer to that question became increasingly obvious to me, so I finally packed up my toys and took them to a different sandbox. Truth be told. . . .I can be a team player. . . but only when a team is really a team. </span></span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-85488881717837908232011-06-28T09:36:00.000-07:002014-12-27T00:01:38.955-08:00YUP, IT'S JUNE!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The school year has finally ended, and I can safely say I made the right decision to leave public school. This year I sat on the sidelines as I watched my former colleagues receive seniority-based RIF (Reduction in Force) notices, better known as “pink slips,” furlough days, and other veiled threats to their well-being in the wake of deep public-school budget cuts. As usual, much of what was threatened was restored by some last minute “windfall”: pink slips were rescinded, the number of furlough days reduced, health care untouched (even though the providers themselves continue to diminish the benefit of “benefits”). </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">All this sturm and drang has taught teachers that there must be large and powerful conspiracies at work, so they should simply continue to keep their heads down and toil in isolation in a system that doesn’t really count them as much. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The sad fact is the yearly budget cuts are the only aspect of the system that puts teachers first--they are the first to face untenable class sizes, reduced supplies, or the ever-popular job-on-the-chopping-block. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Teachers no longer unite to gain ground, instead they silently lose ground. Workable class sizes, a genuine voice in school policies, sabbaticals, a guaranteed, comfortable retirement have become or are fast becoming things of the past. Teachers now must be grateful simply to have a job. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This reduction of expectations is the best way to keep a work force cowed and manageable, and that’s the district’s real success.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Now it can force its idiot ideas about testing down teachers’ throats without rebellion or even complaint; it can continue to hold teachers accountable for forces beyond any teachers’ control (a students’ family life and value system, for example); and it can continue to expect teachers to take the abuse of students, parents, and administrators without any real protection. As far as teachers are concerned, expect everything, give nothing is the district’s motto.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then there are the school-wide effects: what had been a highly functioning and unparalleled performing arts magnet in my district has seen its performance budget severely cut; shows, conferences, and trips canceled; its best music teachers cut and not adequately replaced; its general ed. classes doled out to teachers with more seniority but less skill in the larger school; its unique class offerings decimated. The program has effectively been destroyed little by little over the last few years so that what had been a performing arts mecca is struggling not to become a footnote in the annals of what public school could have been. <b>The age-old “if it’s not broken, break it” mentality of the district rules the day. </b>And once again, teachers can either sit by and avert their eyes as the crushing wheels continue to turn or leave of their own free will. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As I have mentioned in these entries, that’s why I left. After a second 10-year stint in the district, I “graduated” with my kids last year and moved to a private religious school. The year had its challenges to be sure, in that every new teacher must be tested, even if her reputation precedes her, and tested I was. Students who were asked to work harder than they had ever worked before and parents whose shame or guilt overrode their good judgment tried hard to erode the standards I had set in my classes, standards I have always set, standards which have always helped students. But I fought back by being as determined, consistent, and fair as possible. Naturally, once the students saw that they had learned something, that they were (and I really hate this word) “empowered” by what we did in class, their fear eroded, their hearts and minds opened, and the year ended well. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Now when I go to a faculty meeting, instead of being in a room full of teachers who keep their heads down so as not to engage, who snipe just to have a voice, and who are in many cases embarrassingly unqualified to do the job they were hired to do--all the results of the district's erosion of the profession--I get to work with an astounding, award-winning faculty who really understand the idea of collegiality. I am asked to be at school only to teach, and no one really wastes my time otherwise. I work with an administration who share and support my goals. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Despite my having landed somewhere safe for now, I still have to ask the question I have always asked: Why are these such impractical goals? </span></span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-50116074934803053832011-03-09T07:59:00.000-08:002014-12-26T21:25:43.980-08:00WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?<div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Recently I was nominated by a former student for a distinguished teaching award offered by a prestigious American university. This is the second award for which I was nominated by a student in as many years, and for both awards, I have placed in the top 10. For last year’s award, though this was not stated outright, I did not make the final cut because, while my former students still loved me and said they learned more than they had learned in any other class in their high-school careers (an exaggeration all good teachers hear, I know), the students did not really represent the disenfranchised urban population, and I did not seem to be performing the kind of miracles one can perform with such a population. The committee did award us runners-up a decent sum of money for the first time in their history because they felt we were such strong teachers nonetheless. And that was lovely. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This year I have not yet heard whether or not I have placed as one of the the top four winners, but I did, once again, get to speak my mind about this profession, this time to a large panel of people who presumably care about education. Because several on this panel were graduating seniors, I would be speaking my mind to future policy makers, and I felt that voicing the issues was more important to me than being politic and aiming for the win.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As I have said, just the nomination was an immense honor and placing as a finalist is still very moving to me, but what had to be said had to be said. One of the questions posed was a question that lies at the heart of why teachers are often mistreated and always underpaid.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The last interviewer, a wide-eyed senior, asked me this question: “<b>We all know you are a good teacher, but what do you do for your school community?” </b>Yes, she meant besides teach.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQW37V62gvVrAHrRG_IQllBbSIPl_1X4ofH_wI9EDn4DvHQZM6iE41SOV_vuWajK_dDdu-Y9d00owv-RkWUvbEwpl977o6vQzV4c7UWAt5sYia0KDs9ez-9Fht92zCxOFaKY0qfsfDC45/s1600/DownloadedFile.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQW37V62gvVrAHrRG_IQllBbSIPl_1X4ofH_wI9EDn4DvHQZM6iE41SOV_vuWajK_dDdu-Y9d00owv-RkWUvbEwpl977o6vQzV4c7UWAt5sYia0KDs9ez-9Fht92zCxOFaKY0qfsfDC45/s1600/DownloadedFile.jpeg" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As anyone in this profession knows, the implication of such a question is dangerous. First, let's not forget what this profession really entails: prepping, which means closely reading literature and criticism and attending classes and conferences; teaching, which means harnessing the attention of students who often lack impulse control and have no idea what it really means to LEARN until you have unlocked the gates of understanding for them; grading, which means closely reading and writing detailed responses on reams and reams of paper; attending faculty, committee, and professional development meetings. This student's question implies that these essential duties of teaching are somehow not enough, that teachers who want to be seen as serious professionals need to be doing more than "just" their "jobs." </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ironically, the implication of the question is that only by extending oneself beyond the profession can one be considered a true professional. Yet, would someone ask a true professional like a doctor or lawyer what they do for no pay, as if volunteering time outside their professional duties was a significant part of their professional responsibilities? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This notion of <b>"professional volunteerism"</b> is lethal because it is the core reason teachers earn salaries that are in no way commensurate with other "professional" salaries. Stipends for extra work, if offered, are rarely worth the effort and never serve as a true motivation. I have never received a stipend for advising the interdisciplinary journal (which I advised for 15 years at three different schools and for which we won prestigious awards each year), nor do I receive one for the newspaper that I am currently advising, and the tiny stipend I received as a department chair at my former school did not even remotely cover the amount of time and effort I put into the work. <b>It's just expected that teachers will want to do more than what we are actually paid to do, so that's what we do. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We all know that teachers do all the extra work because we are “passionate” about what we do, but more important <b>we know what needs to be done beyond what our schools and districts are willing to support. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Unfortunately, the interviewer's question plays into the wide-spread cultural expectation that teachers be martyrs for the cause instead of respectable and well-paid professionals doing what all the lip-service says is “the MOST important and NOBLE work there is!”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The real question here is why teachers face this unspoken expectation. I remember several years ago when I taught the incorrigible son of a formerly famous actor, I phoned him with my concern about his son's lack of progress in my class. The actor responded, in no uncertain terms and in a very husky and profound voice, <b>“He needs to fall in love with you. If he falls in love with you, only then will he learn from you.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The truth of this answer never left me: Of course, on one level, the actor notes that there is a fine line between pederasty and pedagogy (hence why so many of my colleagues have, over the years, ended up in “rubber rooms” or "on ice" or "paid vacation" until the level of the inappropriate behavior was somehow officially determined). But what he said is true on a deeper level because, let's face it, teachers are idealized parents. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Everyone remembers the teachers they loved when they were in school, and current students always say, “I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Ms. ______!” or “Mr. _________ROCKS. He’s the BEST!” or “The only class I get out of bed for is Ms.______’s!” It’s clear that beloved teachers, like ideal parents, awaken their students’ better selves. Or as the actor maintained, teachers awaken, just as lovers awaken in all of us, our better selves. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Either way it’s all about the love, and that’s why it’s NOT all about the money. That’s why it’s all about the unspoken (and sometimes unabashedly spoken) expectation that we serious teachers WANT to give of ourselves all the time because of all the unspoken rewards we receive. . . like all this love. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">That’s the rock and the hard place where we passionate teachers find ourselves. Shouldn't we merit more pay for this ability to inspire, for this ability to get students to write smart, coherent papers and read with analytical depth and emotional sensitivity? Isn't teaching well enough? </span>Does our creating environments that promote intellectual growth and our motivating students so deeply that they are happy to pour out to us their artless love, invalidate our need to be paid well? </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You know. . . I really, really love my doctor. . . maybe I should ask him if I could just pop in for a no-fee check-up?</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-77680672609150208272011-02-25T00:25:00.000-08:002014-12-26T21:26:06.903-08:00There's No Biz Like Ed Biz!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfNwI_6ushrl6M-V9yqQgQg0LoDQ8mS_w5-hNoZ5wzvGj0QVr6cX8BDGWe7AR_Z_4BK9WRzfo0QTy9XnJVAirfb8usX1fVBxF_ITL493iVbfZY9aqLPhjxLj6eRhGDCBc6TXXkEeTsl4O/s1600/26-PS40-4_Knowledge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfNwI_6ushrl6M-V9yqQgQg0LoDQ8mS_w5-hNoZ5wzvGj0QVr6cX8BDGWe7AR_Z_4BK9WRzfo0QTy9XnJVAirfb8usX1fVBxF_ITL493iVbfZY9aqLPhjxLj6eRhGDCBc6TXXkEeTsl4O/s200/26-PS40-4_Knowledge.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The President recently urged the youth of America to become teachers--a noble request, we can agree. But frankly, why should they? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We have all talked about the degradation and demoralization that students and teachers suffer. In these entries, I have discussed the causes of this demoralization, in particular the malaise caused by a system that can neither praise nor punish. I have discussed the need for excellent teachers and effective evaluation procedures, and I have discussed myriad reasons the system seems to be failing and myriad ways to make the public schools actually conducive to education. But a topic I have not yet really covered here is teacher preparation, which is one of the reasons, if not the key reason, that school districts like mine 1) decided they have to make standardized testing the barometer for success and 2) decided they have to spend time and money to create stringent rules and scripts for teachers, many of whom they never should have hired in the first place.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Several years ago I was asked to guide a student teacher. While most student- teachers enter the room with shiny, motivational posters, big-giant post-its, ambitious “fun” games, and other “dazzling” (at least they think so) appurtenances, this teacher was of a different breed altogether. He offered none of the glitz; in fact, he offered nothing at all. He wanted to teach drama and resented the fact that he had to put up with English-teacher training to get the job. He had no interest in reading, in thinking, in answering questions, in grading papers, in instructing or in motivating kids, and he made no bones about saying so. All he wanted was to stage-manage school productions and his motivation was, his words: "to get paid a full salary and have the kids do all the work." All that mundane classroom stuff? Not for him. </span></div>
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I spent that term sitting quietly in a corner of my classroom, cutting out paper dolls from the manilla folders he asked for but NEVER USED as he stood in front of the room unable to get the attention of the 30 kids in his care. As he would fumble in the front of the room, clear his throat, and stare myopically into the crowd of kids, who were checking phones, talking amongst themselves, or heckling him, I cut away person after person in an 11 inch chain, so I would not cause him physical harm as he wasted my students’, and, of course, my time. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Now, you might ask, why did I not eject him instantly? Well, truth be told, I am a believer. He has not confessed his cynicism immediately and I thought no one would want to become a teacher without the requisite passion. I also thought that if I could teach, anyone could, so all I had to do was confer with him after each class, and he would start to see the light and improve. Soon, however, the proverbial handwriting was on the wall, or maybe I should say the angry graffiti: </span><span style="font-family: 'Marker Felt'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal;">HE JUST DOESN”T GIVE A $%&*! </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This fellow knew that once he slipped past this silly student-teacher requirement, he would be given a key, a classroom, a bunch of students who would never complain about learning NOTHING, and best of all, NO ONE would have the time or inclination to observe him. Stay quiet, keep your head down, and health insurance, summers off, and job-security would be his. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">After several weeks of thoroughly reviewing his performance with him and realizing that I would never slice through his apathy, I forwarded my evaluation to the student-teacher’s supervisors and mine. I am sure no one will be surprised to learn that no one counseled him out of the profession or failed him in his student-teaching course before more harm could be done. Instead, my students languished until I hammered enough at the process for the administrators to remove him, at least, from my classroom. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But, you ask yourselves, was he eventually removed from his “teacher-education” program? Is money green? He was given another lead teacher and actually "passed" the student-teaching requirement of his education program, though his methods, as he was proud to tell me when he saw me again some time later, remained the same. I guess he showed me!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvMlRBt1C21xIdw17FJ2bT6Hs3_YVXTL2RC8CjpLiY1PxD8dGn6R7NlqgXv8VoaxmRlTd_6zGxWFaE-iyi6Rwnmk1UEBcl-LxCfdqrGiBhngDTXtqUynZu8kAbZZ4o_EBMaH84d8-0WCwb/s1600/images-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvMlRBt1C21xIdw17FJ2bT6Hs3_YVXTL2RC8CjpLiY1PxD8dGn6R7NlqgXv8VoaxmRlTd_6zGxWFaE-iyi6Rwnmk1UEBcl-LxCfdqrGiBhngDTXtqUynZu8kAbZZ4o_EBMaH84d8-0WCwb/s200/images-4.jpeg" height="141" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I was reminded of another equally disheartening incident. Several years ago, a few students from the education school that was part of the university where I was earning my masters degree in English were enrolled in a couple of the graduate English classes I was taking. What these students all had in common was the fact that they never did the reading and never had anything to say in class. Well into the semester, tired of failing, I suppose, many of them simply dropped the courses. Lo and behold, a year later at my graduation, there they were, standing proudly under the GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION banner. I guess they showed me!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">What these education students showed everyone is what all parents, teachers, retired lawyers, failed doctors, and empty-nest housewives or husbands all know: ANYONE CAN TEACH. But should they? </span></div>
Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-56262419743236621792011-01-13T22:51:00.000-08:002014-12-26T20:59:21.779-08:00I Could Have Danced All Night<div style="font: 12.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaLWSYBDaHaFh3Mu-LskdyQ33a6zi75xxrocKxNS_ffvyuYVO7ol0ay1ywHM2kmbsxzj2aHjjp-8N98dSQDK4ZqKjRvDHRkvvZK8cKud6eTh-HUin9YHPovJNj_Vb7Fx0dtQBsTe-OsDY/s1600/DownloadedFile-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGaLWSYBDaHaFh3Mu-LskdyQ33a6zi75xxrocKxNS_ffvyuYVO7ol0ay1ywHM2kmbsxzj2aHjjp-8N98dSQDK4ZqKjRvDHRkvvZK8cKud6eTh-HUin9YHPovJNj_Vb7Fx0dtQBsTe-OsDY/s1600/DownloadedFile-1.jpeg" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span>Often teachers who uphold high standards face students who have no standards. In too many instances students receive inflated grades because standards of excellence vary from year to year, class to class. Add to this disparity, along with the ensuing confusion, the fact that we are smack in the middle of the age of entitlement and its bedfellow, zero accountability, and the classroom can become a treacherous place. When I face students who don’t understand why all their “hard work” doesn’t instantly add up to A’s, I first despair; then I offer this:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIkjMUPS_NJ9QrGIpunyw9TJ23nm_u5cJhJT6ekFl8JM77blbkauibZYeXN1BrzwFmzDuMYKB5qQvHkY5QH4vObMaz_1AdDZvHsupz6NBKORAov69zONtlJW3c7f6sGTJXYRmkVTLHmKyB/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIkjMUPS_NJ9QrGIpunyw9TJ23nm_u5cJhJT6ekFl8JM77blbkauibZYeXN1BrzwFmzDuMYKB5qQvHkY5QH4vObMaz_1AdDZvHsupz6NBKORAov69zONtlJW3c7f6sGTJXYRmkVTLHmKyB/s200/images.jpeg" height="149" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I spent several of my formative years in a ballet class designed to groom professional dancers, but even at the tender age of nine, I could tell that with all the hard work in the world, I was not going to be one of those professionals. Yes, I had the grace, the musical sensibilities, but I did not have an instep that started under my knee and an extension that tipped the clouds. Our teacher, Mme. T., was a beautiful, if severe, Russian woman whose days of dance glory had long since passed, but her keen eye and exacting standards dominated the room. She would start us at the barre and would glare at us with her stern, icy blue eyes as she marched around the class in ballet slippers with small wooden heels that clicked ominously with her every step. I remember the terror I would feel as she approached. We were to pull up, to stretch, to point fiercely, to turn out as far as we could. She would sometimes bend down to adjust a curled foot, but she always carried a polished wooden stick that she would use to tap us in whichever areas needed to be reminded to tuck in, straighten up, point hard, and turn out. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">After the barre exercises, grueling for their stillness, we would line up to jeté, pirouette, chaîné, pas de bourré across the floor. The class pianist would rev-up, and we each would glide across the floor with as much fleet-footed grace and speed as we could muster. Then would come selection time for the center-of-the-floor exercises. Mme. T. would use her stick to point to us and indicate the spots where we were each to stand for this portion of the class. Invariably, I would make the back row, left corner. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Now, you might ask, did my mother call to complain about the humiliation I must have suffered at being placed in the back of the room for every class? Or did I cry and feel dispirited because I was not making the kind of progress that would put me into the same league as the pre-professionals? Or did I ever say to myself, “This is just too hard, so I am not even going to try!”? Or when I finally realized that I should not continue the classes because they would require too much after-school time for a student not on the professional track, did I say, “Well, since I can’t do it, I hate dance! NEVER AGAIN!”? And most important, did I EVER blame Mme T. for upholding standards that I clearly could not meet no matter how hard I tried?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The answer? A resounding NO!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Being in a room with excellence, where nearly unreachable standards were the norm, was a gift. I always knew where I stood, yes, in the back of the room. And I always knew that even if I could not achieve greatness, greatness existed. For me, that was the truest comfort. To this day, I have taught all my classes with this thought in mind: genuine, hard work not empty praise and pandering (whether to students or parents) yields success and self-esteem. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">These days the only alumni contributions I make are to that ballet school’s scholarship fund; the only cultural contributions I make are to support dance performances in my city; and, most important, one of the only exercises I still love? Dance classes, of course!</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-49672926065300827332010-12-17T23:39:00.000-08:002014-12-26T20:53:25.580-08:00"The thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. . ."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over the years I have had my share of classroom catastrophes--a boy once threw a stapler at me because he did not like his grade; another tossed a chair because I would not tolerate some behavior that I now cannot remember. Yet another boy came to my summer-school classroom door, one hand on his hip the other arm high, his hand gripping the door frame, body atilt. He greeted me with sleepy eyes and a sly grin and proceeded to slide down the door frame to the floor, passed out in a druggy heap. Another boy suffered from such intense hypo? hyper? or some other sort of glycemia that his head would suddenly drop down onto the desk and. . . . lights out. The first time this happened, I myself nearly passed out, but the kids knew exactly what to do and mobilized instantly--one to the cafeteria for orange juice, the other to the restroom for a cool paper towel. </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But there are other kinds of classroom catastrophes that usually require the application of some sort of mysterious, institutional red sawdust. Though the girls usually know to run from the room should illness suddenly hit them, the boys seem to be less adept at that kind of multitasking. They tend to be paralyzed by their distress, unable to move. One boy, after a breakfast of orange juice and pineapple slices (hmm, was the battery acid canister empty that morning?) suddenly flew to the front of the room, paused, feet planted, and threw up a stew of orange doused pineapple chunks right next to my desk. The rest of the kids, disgusted and on the verge of losing it themselves, squeezed into a corner of the room as if the mess were going to coagulate into some sort of man-eating blob. Once another boy, who had eaten only chocolate the entire day, also decided to root himself to my desk, bend slightly forward, and dribble saliva while tepidly claiming he was going to be sick. I got that trash can under his face not a moment too soon to receive the chocolate stream that emanated from his nose and mouth. And I used to like chocolate! (Ah, who am I kidding, I still like it! Takes more than that to frighten me away).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Several years ago, I had a student who suffered from many learning challenges but was mainstreamed anyway (no pun intended, or maybe there is, you decide). I was teaching a 10th-grade honors English class, where the kids had been mostly uninterested in anything I had to say, but during this particular class, they were riveted. I was going on and on about Macbeth and the Wyrd sisters as I was pushing them to contemplate the statement, “Nothing is but what is not.” They burned their eyes into me, they sealed their mouths shut, and honed their attention. I went on and on because I knew I had them now. Yup, they were getting it at last. After the bell, they filed out silently, and I was awestruck. I was good, but I had no idea that I was THAT good. What a day!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">After the class I was about to grab a bite of lunch. . .</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. . .when a student, who had come into the room after the class to work through lunch (as kids often did), asked me whether someone had peed. Peed? I whipped around and saw what looked like apple juice puddled in a chair and on the floor beneath that chair and thought, NO, NO WAY, NO ONE PEED, THAT'S JUST . . Wait a minute. . . Then I remembered who had been sitting there. Though I did not perform a taste test, I knew it had to be my learning-challenged student since that had been her seat. But I had no idea how or why or when that could have happened. Then some of the other students from that class came back into the room with their lunch in tow, and I tried my best to be delicate when I asked whether they had “noticed anything during class.” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“NOTICED ANYTHING?” one girl replied. “ARE YOU KIDDING, ME? NOTICED ANYTHING?” She went on. . .(So and so) started peeing in her chair about 15 minutes into the class, and we were all staring at you in order to get you to see what was happening and to do something about it. But NOOOOOOO, you just went on and on and on, Macbeth this, Macbeth that, Nothing is nothing is nothing, blah blah blah.”</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-81588981317073407882010-11-12T08:21:00.000-08:002014-12-26T20:48:33.786-08:00inAdequate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Many of the English teachers I have worked with (well, tried to work with) have the capability of high-powered administrative assistants--they are organized, they know how to read, often they know their grammar, and they can manage the bureaucratic requirements effectively. This is not to cast aspersions on administrative assistants, and God knows, they often make much more money than teachers, but it is to say that that this skill set is the only part of what a high school teacher, particularly an English teacher, needs to have. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Many teachers know they need to teach analytical thinking, but they, themselves, have limited analytical powers. That one has read and perhaps in the best of instances has recognized the subtleties of a text does not an English teacher make, I am sorry to say. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Teachers are often required to limit themselves to the directives and the habits of mind ingrained in them by often callous and cynical bureaucracies. The public schools hire people they do not trust to do the jobs they do, so they construct all kinds of “support” designed to get ALL teachers to march in sync in the hope that someone will teach someone something. Most teachers tow the lines thrown at them in part because they believe that benefits and retirement are the ultimate reward. Teaching is an easy job if you can just do what you are told without question, and if you knew deep down that you probably could not get work elsewhere, you would probably put up with anything.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yes, it’s true that the very worst teachers give all teachers a bad reputation, but it is the preponderance of merely adequate teachers that is the most dangerous to the profession. They are the reason people say they trust teachers but in truth don’t really respect them. So, the danger lies not in the worst teachers bringing down the reputation of the rest of the teachers; it lies in the best teachers being brought down by the merely adequate. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There is no room for adequate in the teaching profession, just as there is no room for simply adequate surgeons. Excellence is the only option. And that is the problem with teacher evaluations: excellence, as I have said many times, lies in the art of teaching, which is too complicated to contemplate and impossible to objectively quantify. Let me enumerate what I see as some of the elements of the art of teaching:</span></div>
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<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbmKl_VeZJdi67XBJbL-GPeT7whyphenhyphentsIENxtNZHRzLbS3BZFN6Ade1i7rQEIOhRzMqBIMspBB4SJ1q-LCdUH9gsTQCax_AguqGeRqB2Le4B9IzVYT3yME79j0ToHBkU6SqGjEESxXEblwG/s1600/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbmKl_VeZJdi67XBJbL-GPeT7whyphenhyphentsIENxtNZHRzLbS3BZFN6Ade1i7rQEIOhRzMqBIMspBB4SJ1q-LCdUH9gsTQCax_AguqGeRqB2Le4B9IzVYT3yME79j0ToHBkU6SqGjEESxXEblwG/s200/images-1.jpeg" height="200" width="133" /></a>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of knowing and responding to what his/her individual students need</span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of knowing more than the student at all times and not being afraid to ask questions if he/she does not</span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of being a lifetime learner </span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of being able both to improvise and stay on track</span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of balancing humor with “gravitas” or rigor</span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of the teacher’s sticking to a mission that both includes the curriculum and maintains a clear and solid moral imperative (by this I mean always keeping in mind why we teach, presuming it’s not just to lord it over kids or salve our egos as we hear ourselves speak) </span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of a teacher’s ability to listen creatively so that the students can hear themselves in a better light than the light they originally tried to shed on a subject </span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of a teacher’s being able to meet students where they are when they walk into the classroom and in turn get them well past where they started </span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of a teacher’s making all students feel safe and potentially successful even when they are struggling</span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of a teacher’s being able to motivate students from the core rather than just from their reflexes--getting them to want to learn rather than simply fear the test</span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">the art of getting students to analyze, synthesize, and extrapolate rather than rinse and repeat. </span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Many administrators have been rewarded with promotions and kudos either to get them OUT of the classroom and out of harms way (we call this demoting up) or for maintaining the status quo. Yet these formerly adequate teachers must evaluate the very qualities that might have eluded them in their own teaching practice. Those in charge believe they can quantify the effectiveness of the entire endeavor which is why test scores are starting to serve as the basis for all teaching goals. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The sad truth is that a “good” evaluation usually translates to a teacher’s passing with a C, but for today’s problems, sorry to say, a C is just not good enough. An Austrian friend of mine once said that the philosophy when he went to school was this: A is God; B is teacher; C is student. If “C is teacher,” as it seems to be much of the time, then D is student, and we have enough D’s and F’s already on both sides of the desk.</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-71718857154469363002010-10-20T23:14:00.000-07:002014-12-26T20:36:53.282-08:00Job InSecurity<div style="color: #2b39c5; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 14px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>1 Self Actualization Needs</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br />
(full potential)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> 2 Esteem Needs</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br />
(self respect, personal worth, autonomy)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> 3 Love and Belongingness Needs</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br />
(love, friendship, comradeship)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>4 Safety Needs</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br />
(security; protection from harm)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>5 Physiological Needs</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><br />
(food, sleep, stimulation, activity)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I am now at a school where I taught many years ago, a religious school, where the hours are way more flexible, the pay commensurate, my colleagues brilliant and supportive, the students eager. I will not be asked to use class time to practice inane tactics for inane tests; I will not be asked to use class time to proctor inane tests; I will not be asked to attend meetings to discuss the bogus data generated by inane tests. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">My public school colleagues warned me that I was on the verge of giving up medical benefits for life and that I would stall my retirement contributions so that any eventual retirement income will be pitifully low. They gasped incredulously at the notion that I would give up my security. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So, you ask, why did I even consider such a move? How could I give up such well-earned security? Maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe instead you should be asking why my public school colleagues stay. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In his “Hierarchy of Needs” Abraham Maslow describes what we all need in order to survive. Here is his list from the most basic and physical to the most cerebral and emotional of needs. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">5. Physiological Motivation: Provide ample breaks for lunch and recuperation and pay salaries that allow workers to buy life's essentials.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ample breaks? At my public school we had 20 minutes free at about 9:30 am (much of that time was spent in a bathroom line) and a half an hour for lunch at around 1pm. Ample pay? Teachers in my district have started to face serious pay and health benefit cuts, but even with a full salary, it was only with a second job that I could afford to buy a house. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At my new school, I teach in what amount to 2 or 3-hour blocks and have large gaps of time for myself in my day. I take dance classes and go to doctors and deal with phone trees and run errands, and I still have plenty of time to grade and prepare and confer with my colleagues. My salary is also commensurate with what I was earning in public school. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">4. Safety Needs: Provide a working environment which is safe, relative job security, and freedom from threats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Classrooms filled to more than capacity by threatened and, therefore, threatening children; colleagues who embrace and support, even with their silence, the limited vision of a malfunctioning bureaucracy; a system that fosters teacher isolation instead of teacher collaboration; a system where students will not be ousted for being unreasonably hostile and defiant--these characteristics suggest that safety needs are not entirely met in public school. Even though I had arguably the best kids at my school, I still had to face the occasional “SHUT THE HELL UP, BITCH!” from anonymous students around the campus who did not take well to a teacher’s asking them why they were making so much noise right outside my classroom and not in class themselves. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At my current school, all the adults regularly meet in a central office and work together to support the shared cause: educating the kids to the best of our ability. That philosophy leaves little room for the miscommunication and lack of accountability that can lead to an unsafe environment.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">3. Social Needs: Generate a feeling of acceptance, belonging, and community by reinforcing team dynamics.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Scott Miller, a psychologist from Illinois, says this about his profession: “The enemy of excellence is proficiency” and in public school, where proficiency is the standard, and where excellence makes proficiency look like inadequacy (which in turn inspires backbiting, resistance, and hostility), any hope for acceptance, belonging, and community evaporates. B</span>ecause they are given no reason to trust the knee-jerk educational fads and trends championed by those in authority, many public school teachers strive for control of their little fiefdoms and do not respond well when their practices are questioned or challenged.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At my current school the teachers do not have classrooms in which to roost and must travel to every class. My colleagues and I gather together in an office, where we all joke, work, share ideas and strategies, and feel like a cohesive group. This means interaction and community instead of isolation and alienation.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">2. Esteem Motivators: Recognize achievements, assign important projects, and provide status to make employees feel valued and appreciated.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In public school teachers can neither be praised nor punished and can sometimes get lost in a system that perpetuates the status quo by overly valuing test scores and other ostensibly objective accountability criteria. The system’s inability to understand, perpetuate, and generate the art of teaching does not build esteem in its teaching force, but instead chips away at it. For employees to feel valued, they must do valuable work. Teachers do their most valuable work in the classroom, where success usually goes unrecognized and unappreciated because determining what constitutes success is too complicated. How does one really measure the ineffable and immeasurable ART of teaching anyway?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At my current school, thank you notes from administrators, classroom observations, and parent interactions help make teachers feel valued. That future employment is not guaranteed, that there is no real job security, keeps the evaluation process and teacher practices fresh. That I was handed a new computer on my first day didn’t hurt my feelings of self worth either.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #8500af; font-family: Capitals;">1. Self-Actualization: Offer challenging and meaningful work assignments which enable innovation, creativity, and progress according to long-term goals.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Preparing for standardized tests, which is currently at the center of the academic enterprise, is not challenging and meaningful work. How can one fulfill one’s potential in a realm that does not understand or support innovation and imagination, creativity and progress?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At my current school, teachers get time to sit and talk about literature, politics, culture, life; teachers share rubrics, paper topics, strategies and insights; teachers are encouraged to be flexible, to take chances, and not take anything TOO seriously; teachers are observed by people who share the same vision of good teaching. These are the practices that enable the kind of self-actualization that turns the skill of teaching into the art of teaching. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Because I had terrific students and several friends, I had not really felt the toll public school was taking on me until I had what some would call the audacity to leave it. I can only hope that the newspapers and current documentaries that have been covering the immense issues facing public schools will inspire the kind of reform that would bridge at least some of the gap between what the public and private schools offer and accomplish. </span>In the meantime, I aim to fulfill this hierarchy of needs because if my needs are met, my students’ needs will be met. Too bad the public school system remains unheedful of this simple equation.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">If you still want to ask how I can turn away from the comfort of job security, I would like to ask how the comfort of job security can possibly be worth the risk of no risk at all.</span></div>
Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-91633066520627056362010-06-19T11:18:00.000-07:002014-12-26T23:51:51.759-08:00Recycling, 101<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"></span></span><br /></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">I should be grading my last set of finals, but after emptying file cabinets and book shelves all day, I am coated in sweat and the equivalent of what my dad used to call “purse dust” (you know, the hair strands, lint, tissue, paper, receipt and wrapper scraps that cling to the mints that fall to the bottom of a woman’s purse). I suppose it’s apt for me to reflect on leaving behind my public school career, at least for a year. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">As usual, my classroom has not been swept in a week, the floor has not been mopped in months, and the only way my desk is cleaned is if I personally take my napkins and my Formula 409 to it. If I ever see the large, square man they call the Plant Manager, he is usually strolling across the quad at a man of leisure’s pace, bluetooth in his ear, phone clipped to his belt. I never see him with a broom or dustpan, screwdriver, hammer, or any other tool of his supposed trade for that matter. Frankly, I almost never see him. So even though there may be a cause other than budget cuts for all the filth that has piled up in my room, after a full day of wading through the detritus of a career well spent, and after sneezing all day from the dust agitation, I am just pooped. Worst of all, I am not even close to finished packing up and getting out of there. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Fortunately, a few of my extraordinary kids stuck around this afternoon to help me reduce what had originally been eight boxes of files to three by tossing all but two hard copies of every handout I have created and amassed over the years. Of course, since I teach in a music academy, we listened to musical numbers and did our share of dancing around the room-- “It’s Too Darned Hot” was a fitting fave-- but we still finished the task and by the time we finished, we were shin deep in paper. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">One of my kids, a conscientious planet lover who puts me to shame because of her pure-hearted devotion, piled her car trunk with the ton of paper we tossed. She’s going to take it to a recycling center near her home since the school (let’s just say if it could make money out of the wasted paper, we’d all be millionaires) keeps its recycling bins locked up and generally inaccessible. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">I can now rest comfortably knowing that paper bags will soon be made of essay topics on Thoreau and Shakespeare and Poe and Homer, I could go on; paper cups will soon be made of critical essays about Whitman, Anderson, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Spenser, Petrach, Shelley, Keats, again I could go on; and more paper will be made out of quizzes and finals and review sheets and short stories and poetry and plays. And one can only hope that all the benchmark tests and district directives and other bilge from on high will be turned into its most useful form: toilet paper. I must say, there’s something heartening about this recycling notion.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">My kids will also be part of this great recycling in that they will take what I have tried to impart and turn it into part of their ever evolving perspectives. All week they have been openly reflecting as they try to hang on to the life and literature lessons they felt were invaluable, all in an effort to turn their grief about the end of things into something useful. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">The week has been tremendously sad with kids giving me photo tributes, flowers, cookies, lemons from which to make lemonade, Reese’s cups (they know my pedestrian tastes), unabashed love and tears, even a mock parking ticket on my car, citing me for “excessive grammar corrections.” They have come into the room to hang out and to sift through the remnants of my classroom decor. They took whatever was meaningful to them--postcards, statuettes, posters, paper trays, books-- and I was happy as hell to give it all to them. They think my absence will leave a hole in their hearts and should only know the hole they will leave in mine. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">It’s not to say that my next job won’t be good, but I am leaving my current school at the top of my game, so to speak. That I have now been asked to work in a school where I will be treated with a modicum of dignity, along with better hours and stellar, supportive colleagues, is no small thing, especially after the debacle that was this year in public school--everything from the consistent public drubbing by colleagues to hurtful pay cuts. All of it petty, and all of it dispiriting. Right now, however, I am feeling valued all the way around and that is a good way both to leave one job and to start another. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Unfortunately, as I have mentioned repeatedly in one way or another, the district fosters in our ranks a cannibalistic survival instinct that can instantly turn the sublime into the ridiculous. . . .</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">As my 10th graders were furiously scratching out their last essay for me, in walks a teacher with whom I have a passing hello relationship. She said, with great surprise in her voice, “I hear you’re leaving” to which I nodded and looked appropriately sad as I waited for some sort of commiseration. I mean, why else would she have walked all the way out to my classroom? Right? </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Without missing a beat, she said, “Can I have your file cabinets?” </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Then during the next final, another teacher, this one I have seen only once or twice on the campus, came out to ask me whether what he had heard about my leaving was true. When I told him it was, he then asked, “Can I have your file cabinets?” </span></span></span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-81229785968546952482010-06-15T21:36:00.000-07:002014-12-26T20:19:57.457-08:00“'Did you ever get fed up?' I said. 'I mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless you did something?'” or SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In my last entry, I posted my version of the 95 theses that have me fed up and ready to start a new movement, or, in my case, move to a new job, away from the deeply embedded institutional complacency.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But, one of my peccadilloes, which is as much my strength as my weakness, is my need to offer solutions to any problems I see. I admit I suffer the limitations of an English teacher’s perspective, and I have a touch of pie-in-the-sky syndrome, but somewhere in this list is a way to fix things--again, at least, as I see it:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that allows middling teachers to present mind-numbing, misguided in-services designed to pander to the promoters of standardized tests and the bogus data these tests generate</b></span></div>
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SOLUTION 1:<br />
Observe teachers, know their strengths and weaknesses or establish a team of teachers to do this, and “differentiate” "professional development" (usually a misnomer!) around more general departmental “directives.” </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">If the directive is to examine data--departments and administrators should take a HARD look at what teachers are asking of their students to see whether expectations are clear, whether the assignments are appropriately stimulating, rigorous, and relevant to the course of study, whether the students skills meet the requirements of the assignment, and whether the teaching aligns with these requirements.</span></div>
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<b>a culture that uses “data” as if that data were sacrosanct, objective, and instructive, when it is most often skewed and misleading</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 2: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The data needs to aims higher, so the teachers will aim higher. </span></div>
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<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">All teachers should have to turn in a legitimate syllabus that shows what they are expecting to teach in their classes week to week and what students are expected to do.</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The department must take a look at the "scope and sequence" of the literature that should be taught from grade to grade and the kinds of assignments we are giving at various levels in each grade. </span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Go back to Solution 1 to determine if the teaching matches what's assigned and expected. </span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that blithely hires sows ears and spends all its resources trying to turn them into silk purses (at great expense to those who were silk purses to begin with)</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 3: </span></div>
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<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">No more in-services that patronize teachers by teaching them how to do what they were supposedly hired to do. If you have to give a teacher a script, if you have to teach a teacher to break down a reading or an assignment, if you have to teach a teacher how to read or analyze a text, if you have to teach a teacher when to jettison poorly written, picture-filled text books in favor or more quality readings, then you need to be observing those teachers, writing them up, and getting them OUT!</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Learn where your strengths reside. This is where the rubber meets the road, as the expression goes: with the excellent teachers and use those teachers effectively.</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">NURTURE GOOD TEACHERS by allowing for and working with their strengths. But you will have to KNOW them first (See Solution 1--again observe them and see what they are teaching, expecting and receiving from their students). </span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture where enormous class size kills the ability to offer class variety </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 4: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Be brave! Offer tried and true rigorous courses to tried and true rigorous teachers, even if the classes are small. Show that you are pandering not to the lowest but aiming to teach everyone to aspire to becoming the best! </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It it's only about money, CUT STANDARDIZED TESTS, </span>WHICH GENERATE AN ENDLESS STREAM OF NONSENSICAL IN-SERVICES AND MEETING AGENDAS, ESPECIALLY SINCE THE CREATION OF THESE TESTS IS OUTSOURCED FOR A SMALL FORTUNE AND THE GRADING OF THESE TESTS DURING FACULTY MEETINGS IS MORE OFTEN THAN NOT A DEMORALIZING WASTE OF TIME.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that doesn’t understand that enormous classes will mean that either the lowest or the highest performing kids will be left behind </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 5: See Solutions 1- 4.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture where so many kids who have no interest in education get to oppress, practically with impunity, anyone who dares take the enterprise seriously</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 6: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">THIS SHOULD BE CAMPUS WIDE AT THE START OF THE SCHOOL YEAR: ZERO TOLERANCE FOR DEFIANCE. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">1. Early in the term defiant students should be sent to the office immediately, not with lengthy notes that take a teacher’s time, but with a bright colored pass (like a library or nurse pass), and they must REGISTER as an offender with the counselor or dean and be put on a list. This way a paper trail can begin. If the student has been asked to “register” by several teachers, we will see the pattern immediately and know where to put our attention, just as we do for IEPs.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">2. Determine how many students are really the problem. Is it a few in each class who move from class to class? Once true numbers are determined, solutions can be tailored. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture where rude kids don’t know what rude means</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 7: See Solution 6</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that tolerates back-sniping teachers whose professional jealousies and unchecked inadequacies ruin any hope for collegiality and change</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 8: An administrator must never allow a “witch-hunt,” where teachers can air out their personal feelings about any specific teacher to an entire department (or to any student for that matter). </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here’s how to prevent this:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">GO BACK TO THE TEXT, as I tell my students. The teachers with the problem and the teachers being attacked should be asked to take out their work; then all should look at what they are doing in their classes, asking of their students, and getting from their students. Try to find the common ground based on what the teachers are producing or trying to produce in the classroom.</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Insist that teachers cut down tension and stay focused on the issues and NOT the personalities.</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">If the problem turns out only to be personal, just as a meeting with parents must stay focused on teaching methods and reasons for students’ success and/or failure--and NOT on a teacher’s personality--personal condemnations should be prohibited.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><b>a culture where standardized testing eats into so much class time it’s really testing the testing instead of teaching and learning</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 9: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">JUST SAY NO TO STANDARDIZED TESTING. There are already outside contractors like the COLLEGE BOARD, who offer good enough standardized tests for all students. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">To further help our students, we must create our OWN benchmarks, but this goes back to Solutions 1-4: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Presumably we provide these benchmarks in AP classes, and this same mentality should govern every class: we need good teachers, clear and consistent scope and sequence, and consistent and equivalent practices and rubrics for those practices, so that teachers can effectively grade one another’s papers and exams in each grade at each level by using the same standards.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that is willfully blind to its tendency to defend and promote only the status quo</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 10: See all above</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture of mediocrity and enforced enervation</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 11: See all above</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture where isolation rather than collegiality is the route to survival</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 12: See all above</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture bent on moving towards teacher accountability, a meaningless pursuit since teacher standards vary so widely </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 13: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Departments should create consistent department-wide rubrics based on clear goals that all teachers understand, that all teachers understand how to teach, and that all students understand.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that believes self-esteem is generated by empty praise instead of hard work and genuine accomplishment</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 14: </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Consistent and equivalent syllabi, rubrics, classroom standards. The A grade must be as justifiable as the Fail!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that can neither praise nor punish</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 15: </span></div>
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<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Recognize the only goal of any teaching institution is to NURTURE GOOD TEACHERS SO THEY AND THEIR STUDENTS CAN THRIVE, and notice and handle everything and everyone that obstructs that goal! (See all above!)</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">"Differentiate” teacher professional development, which means presumably to treat all equally by attending to their different needs with the same goals in mind. </span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Let the students have a voice and INSIST on student evaluations that ask the hard questions about teaching practices (as in the 7 C' --a teacher's caring, controlling, clarifying, challenging, captivating, conferring, consolidating) to discover whether a teacher’s work is in line with the simple goals of teaching kids to read and write independently, analytically, and intelligently!</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>a culture that, to borrow from the late coach John Wooden, mistakes activity for achievement</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">SOLUTION 16: </span></div>
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<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Meet only when necessary; have a tangible and relevant goal that relates to students writing and reading independently, analytically, and intelligently; craft a clear plan for how to reach that goal; and make the focus of each meeting a clear step towards that goal.</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Teachers and students should never be asked to do busy work!</span></li>
<li style="color: #003dcc; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">See All Solutions Above </span></li>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-892459615779054502010-06-12T00:33:00.000-07:002014-12-26T19:57:05.750-08:00"And you all know, security is mortals' chiefest enemy."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When I look at the pictures of the suffering sea birds in the Gulf, I see an apt metaphor. Being a good teacher in this school district forces one to feel like one of those sea birds covered in so much muck it’s impossible to fly. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">That pretty much sums up the reason for my impending departure from the district at the end of this term.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Naturally, I look around at the kids who were counting on me next year, and at the circle of chairs in my room, and I sob. I think about what I will leave behind--</span>a solid reputation, a pretty good schedule, a strong purpose in life that allows me to sleep at night--and I sob. I think about the ease of slipping back into my routine, bumps and all, next year instead of trying something new, and I sob. I think about the few colleagues who understand me and see me as a valuable peer and good friend, and I sob. I think about losing the key to the gate near my classroom, which I finally got after years of begging, and I sob. I think about cleaning out my room and closing the door for the last time, and I sob. . . .</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Then I think about what I might be missing next year:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that allows middling teachers to present mind-numbing, misguided in-services designed to pander to the promoters of standardized tests and the bogus data these tests generate</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that uses “data” as if that data were sacrosanct, objective, and instructive, when it is most often skewed and misleading</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that blithely hires sows ears and spends all its resources trying to turn them into silk purses (at great expense to those who were silk purses to begin with)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture where enormous class size kills the ability to offer class variety </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that doesn’t understand that enormous classes will mean that either the lowest or the highest performing kids will be left behind </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture where so many kids who have no interest in education get to oppress, practically with impunity, anyone who dares take the enterprise seriously</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture where rude kids don’t know what rude means</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that tolerates back-sniping teachers whose professional jealousies and unchecked inadequacies ruin any hope for change</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture where standardized testing eats into so much class time it’s really testing the testing instead of teaching and learning</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that is willfully blind to its tendency to defend and promote only the status quo</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture of mediocrity and enforced enervation</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture where isolation rather than collegiality is the route to survival</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture bent on moving towards teacher accountability, an ultimately meaningless pursuit since administrator and teacher standards vary so widely </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that believes self-esteem is generated by empty praise instead of hard work and genuine accomplishment</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZmcXHk6nQTvjn90cR1TJB5qc6ApOiNNikyv5vgsA0onthrc7BTfC5x9522bkF2wmJdUI9I_xrl7Lgrf4Zf4_YC1LjAKFp6NMCNpd7jHPzdch2VVKskO30ZpKTzPuM9OhyZoIJ4RsTBha/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZmcXHk6nQTvjn90cR1TJB5qc6ApOiNNikyv5vgsA0onthrc7BTfC5x9522bkF2wmJdUI9I_xrl7Lgrf4Zf4_YC1LjAKFp6NMCNpd7jHPzdch2VVKskO30ZpKTzPuM9OhyZoIJ4RsTBha/s320/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that can neither praise nor punish</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a culture that, to borrow from the late coach John Wooden, mistakes activity for achievement</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Hmm, so why am I still sobbing?</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-29864081170880170052010-05-21T16:05:00.000-07:002014-12-26T19:52:58.286-08:00Rigor. . . . Mortis?<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">It’s prom night. Most of my seniors are absent, except my first-period Shakespeare students who had to turn in an annotated bibliography for the research paper due next week. I am expecting papers that compare Iago to Milton’s Satan, Iago to the Imaginary i (a math student’s impressive, if daunting, take), Othello to the nameless protagonist of Ralph Ellison’s<i> Invisible Man</i>, the play <i>Othello </i>to the libretto for <i>Otello. </i>I am expecting papers on Othello and the medieval <i>Dance of Death</i>; Othello and “blackness”; race as depicted and explored in <i>Othello, Dutchman, </i>and<i> Invisible Man</i>. I am expecting papers that compare and contrast the significance of women’s roles in tragedy and comedy as evinced in <i>Othello, Hamlet, and 12th Night</i>; papers that trace the development of the staging of Shakespeare’s plays; and papers that explore the roots and purposes of the music in Shakespeare’s plays. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Though my last entry revealed the level of burnout we all face at this late date in the school year, particularly when we are still facing stacks of paper, I am actually looking forward to reading these. They will reveal what my students have accomplished after three or four years of having had the same teacher. For these students, the actual tools of scholarship are deeply ingrained--research skills, proper manuscript format, how to formulate analytical theses, how to select and analyze textual support, how to convey and respond to arguments--and now they get to have the scholar’s fun. They get to learn through research and hone their voices and their thoughts. Not only can they watch as the professional writers in the academic journals and other critical sources argue about nuances, but they are actually ready to participate in the arguments with their own points of view. This is the best any teacher can hope for.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">So why, you ask, after building a Shakespeare class and a Creative Writing class (which I described at the start of my last entry), to reputable numbers--26 in the former, 36 in the latter, do I have to struggle yet again in order to keep the classes alive? Last year, we had an administrator who tried to close the Shakespeare class because the enrollment number of 26 was not high enough to meet the class “norms” (a bizarre word for class-size) that went up dramatically from the maximum 34 to anywhere from 36-43. I had to fight to keep the class open, and for my efforts, I can now look forward to reading those papers I mentioned. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">The Creative Writing class, a class that is often a class for slackers who usually don’t want to do anything but write the equivalent of "I’m alone, I’m alone, My cat, My cat," has become a serious academic class, where students generate myriad polished small pieces, two fully workshopped short stories (one 1500, one 3000 words), several poems in different poetic forms, and two author studies, where they read 1000 pages by an author of their choice and an entire collection of poetry by the poet of their choice and write <i>New Yorker</i> style reviews for each. All the work is designed to illuminate, support, and inspire the process of writing. Any student can go online to my class page to see exactly what is assigned all term, if clarity is what they need. But the question remains, Why’s no one signing up? What’s the problem here?<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">After I told my students that the classes that they seem to love might not be offered next year because numbers are so low (and frankly, I don’t see the wisdom in combining kids who selected Creative Writing with kids who selected Shakespeare as a possible solution for the low numbers; that feels like a lose-lose to me), they told me that they tagged everyone on Facebook and told them to sign up for what they described as important classes. They said several former students, now in college and some graduating, chimed in to say that these classes shaped them as thinkers, writers and as students in general. While that is nice and all, and it really does validate me enough to enable me to continue grading so much and feeling tired all the time, I still have to ask whether what should be sustaining these classes is ultimately what will kill them. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Those who have never set foot into my class (or if they have it’s been for 10 minutes or so), say I am an “intimidating” teacher; this means some could say, I am the cause of my own problems. Am I the problem or are rigor and high standards actually the problem. When students say, “I’m not sure I want to work that hard next year” when I ask them whether they have signed up for one of these classes, that indicates something more than just my perceived personality.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">So here’s my next question: If rigor and high standards are the reason no one is signing up, why, then, does an administration, who proclaims the importance of rigor and the need for true college preparation, not wholeheartedly support keeping these classes alive at any cost? And by support, I am not talking lip-service. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">An even better question is why by their senior year in high school do students fear Shakespeare (and often poetry in general) and want to avoid such a course? The district demands all students be allowed "access" to rigorous courses. Doesn’t "access" to AP, to college, to a richer life in general begin in 9th grade? And doesn’t "access" really mean exposure to the rigors and high standards most students in more competitive schools (read schools where those in charge are not buried under mandates, mediocrity, malaise) might be facing in most of their classes year after year? Does "access" mean reducing what we do in an English class to writing summaries and creating dioramas? </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I guess these are the real questions: Does the kind of education that will lead to a diverse and complex life matter? Is it it important that education afford one the ability to see the poetry in everything? If so, shouldn’t all students be given "access" to this kind of education, this kind of vision, starting in 9th grade? And if they are given this "access," will they still shy away from the rigors of a college prep. Creative Writing course?</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"> Maybe I have just answered all my other questions. </span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-10742890226784960942010-05-07T19:51:00.000-07:002014-12-26T18:34:06.631-08:00Grating Grading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtOxaCMkNRTuqXXjKNoeiub_joTetKcQoTc6LH7oCHRFvmfgS139W2hZKWEed7TfhXZuCO09wJNRjkKjIF5fUfORietyyvGfj2uPstuoN5BJZUeRZcMbrHatRlmOInkW22UEEvyqeYJJNz/s1600/IMG_0617.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtOxaCMkNRTuqXXjKNoeiub_joTetKcQoTc6LH7oCHRFvmfgS139W2hZKWEed7TfhXZuCO09wJNRjkKjIF5fUfORietyyvGfj2uPstuoN5BJZUeRZcMbrHatRlmOInkW22UEEvyqeYJJNz/s320/IMG_0617.JPG" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOP0A0Jpd92S26H9_2Y2zZCNQ4YTFO-VDHHGkMYmRGfvzibTTPRvK5Eg8TqJJrkm8TEaUBLB9v3NPL_B5c2JQTrPr9b3RJvL2oPBGzeZiym4qoQqQ29ZcpKMbcwAjMPyzoiSb2Naolldvd/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOP0A0Jpd92S26H9_2Y2zZCNQ4YTFO-VDHHGkMYmRGfvzibTTPRvK5Eg8TqJJrkm8TEaUBLB9v3NPL_B5c2JQTrPr9b3RJvL2oPBGzeZiym4qoQqQ29ZcpKMbcwAjMPyzoiSb2Naolldvd/s320/images.jpeg" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I’m now in my typical weekend perch: a comfortable chair with my lap desk, a stack of papers and an array of colorful fountain pens. I read a story of obsessive love and murder, then another story of obsessive love and murder, then a story about zombies, and another story about zombies. Amid the many predictable plots that tell me more about the repressed feelings of the students than the actual feelings of their characters, I get to read a story about a girl doing something unthinkable in a school library, two Russians who go to a circus but cannot connect with each other because of the brutality that defines everyone in the story. I read about a dad's suffering vaguely inappropriate feelings for his daughter and aimless teens reaching out but not connecting. I read about a dissolving marriage and a parthenogenetically born child, a boy in awe of his religious grandfather, a trip to the beach that forever changes two friends, and two children’s stories with neat and tidy morals at the end. Stories about a gay boy singing and a straight boy dreaming. The stories are for the most part well-written, earnest, often moving. Extraneous description, flat characterization, and general aimlessness no longer fill the pages, so I can see the kids have learned something from their workshops. Though I like to complain to them about having to spend my weekends reading their work, this work is actually lovely to read. Yet somehow I still can’t push through all of it; I cannot keep my eyes open. It’s May, and I know I am tired, but there may be more to this grading wall.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I have yet to grade stacks of reader responses, where the students were asked respond to the comments I had written on a previous essay and to use their understanding of those comments to redo one of the messier sections of the original essay. I also have to grade reader responses, where the students were asked to select what they think is key text from a reading, analyze it (by identifying and explaining the workings of the figurative language), and discuss the text’s relevance to the entire reading. Then for variety’s sake, I have to grade first paragraphs and working theses for upcoming essays. In theory I should be eager to read this work, to see what these kids have learned this year. But my eyelids start to feel heavy. Just as I begin to scan a paper, a beam of sun cracks through the blinds. But I cannot keep my eyes open.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Finger yoga, ear squeezing, toe crunching fail, so I get up to sprinkle water on my face, look in the fridge for something to chew, and quickly settle back into the chair. I pick up another page and start to read. The prose soars across the page, the commas are in place, and I feel an A coming on. I read the next few papers with the same fluency, and I can proudly say I am rolling along. Check marks everywhere, high marks all around. Then I get to pages where the student loses himself in the struggle between immense ideas and insufficient skills, and my eyes get heavy, my forehead throbs, I cannot keep my eyes open. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I push myself through a couple more pages and write the usual “Why?” or "Vague!" or “How is the text working?” or "Can you rephrase this?" or “Clarify,” “Refine,” “Distill,” and soon I am not sure whether I am talking about a paper or butter or booze. Truth be told, I am not as bored with their writing as I am with the comments I write. I am tired of seeing the mistakes I have already gone over; and I am too tired to correct those mistakes yet again, though I know I will. I am lost in that murky feeling of failure. Then, all at once, as I realize the work isn’t the problem, that I am the problem, whad’ya know, I cannot keep my eyes open. </span></div>
Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-27142825297447327342010-05-06T00:30:00.000-07:002014-12-26T18:27:34.308-08:00NY LOVES ME, ME, ME, ME. . . . .<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Today, when I heard the grating “ME AND HIM. . .,” I did not place a hand on the student's shoulder and gently offer the corrective, “He and I.” Instead, I had what I think was an epiphany about WHY this particular grammatical problem is so pervasive in our culture. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The problem lies in the difference between subject and object. Here is what I tell my students (and remember, by high-school, it’s really last-chance grammar, hence the informality): </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> “ 'I' is always a subject; ‘I’ always DOES the verb, even if the verb is just a state of being: I am, I run, I eat chocolate, I love you! ‘I’asserts a self and acts! ‘Me,’ on the other hand, is NEVER a subject. ‘Me’ is ALWAYS an object. ‘Me’ never does anything. Can you ever say (and I say this in my best Bronx meets cavewoman accent),‘Me go to movies, me like you, me happy?’” </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The kids laugh and laugh, and I think I have made the point. Yet, even without walking through the quad at break time, even in my own classroom after what I think has been my brilliant grammar lesson (as if), I still hear the "me" as subject gaffe peppering the teen-age conversations around me. So what’s up?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Me-Generation may be behind us but the detritus of all those love-thyself-above-all-others movements still haunts us, and, I posit, has irreparably changed our way of thinking about ourselves and our relationship to the world around us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">These days it’s all about what’s good FOR ME! But look closely at this construction. “Me” is the object of the preposition “for.” In fact, “me” is often the object of prepositions: He looks LIKE ME; the story is ABOUT ME; I want you to be WITH ME. Object city! The “me” gaffe reveals how teens, hell, many in our culture, tend to see themselves: as inactive, complacent objects at the center of the action-- not as subjects who act on things and assert a self by doing or being.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“I” rarely starts the simple declarative sentence anymore and is instead usually used incorrectly at the end of a sentence, as if to strengthen the notion of one's deserving: “That gift is for her and I” or “That is a portrait of him and I” or “Let’s keep this a secret between you and I!” Here, "me" just is not strong enough. One needs an "I," a more active recipient.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It turns out the Me-Generation has not empowered people as much as it has rendered them passive objects. My pal in New York capped this notion for me just today. She writes: “Remember the old “I love (heart symbol) NY” t-shirts? Well, the latest t-shirt sported around town says, “NY loves ( heart symbol) ME.” Methinks that sayeth it all.</span></span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-64730178242169464892010-04-11T23:33:00.000-07:002014-12-27T19:03:20.681-08:00Land of Nod<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Today was one of those days. I thought it would be a quiet day, two classes writing an essay, one class reviewing an essay and thinking about how to rewrite it. But the moon must be full, the stars aligned, hormones in sync. . . </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The first class bell rings, I distribute the essay prompts, the kids start writing, and then I hear it. Heavy sighing, loud, dramatic girl suffering. I finally call the student aside; then tears, fear, more tears. Bell rings, one down. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then the next class bell rings, and the student in the deepest hole is absent (that word we use only in school, never in life). Okay, now it’s a lengthy e-mail to her concerned parent and twenty minutes later, there she is, standing at my door, still wiping sleep out of her eyes. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The period ends and another girl makes her way to my desk to apologize for her essay and the waterworks start. I find myself saying that she should volunteer somewhere in order to lift her spirits, to help her rise above her feelings. I tell her to put her body where she wants to be and her mind will follow. She repeats the words like a mantra and says she already has ideas about where to start. Crisis averted, maybe. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Meltdown central today and a lots of time spent counseling and trying not to cry myself.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I should have known the day was off, when I got to work and found that the Dictionary.com word of the day was Land of Nod, the mythical land of sleep. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As a public school teacher, I have spent years taking education classes and attending meetings where I have been taught how to get my kids to participate in vocabulary relay races; where I have been taught how to put up huge, wall-size Post-Its to create “gallery” spaces for my students to stroll along the walls of the room to view one another’s thoughts; where I have been taught “strategies” like “scaffolding” and “backwards planning” and “vertical teaming.” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You would think I would have a callous on my heart that would prevent these excruciating time-wasters in the Land of Nod from getting to me anymore. After all, I have taught for over twenty years and have NEVER had occasion to use what I have been subjected to in any of these in-services, even though the swag--Post-Its, pens, markers, glue-sticks--have come in handy. It’s really hard to build resistance to nonsense, especially when it seems as if many of those around you swallow it all without question or protest. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I always leave these sessions in a tizzy, thinking I am not doing my job well, thinking that if I do not employ these strategies the same way these “professionals” (often people who have opted out of the classroom) employ them, I am doing something wrong. I second guess myself and then struggle to get back on track in my own classes. It’s all I can do to remember that I teach a complicated, multifaceted subject to often resistant students. Unlike these in-service presenters, I don't normally face a </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">docile audience with a high BS tolerance.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A refresher on how to teach “Informational Texts” was the gist of today’s mandatory meeting and today’s presenters "shared" a list of “strategies” designed to teach students how to read “informational texts.” If you can get past the phrase “informational text,” you are doing better than I am, but here’s what I saw as the premise for these sessions: students will not want to or know how to read the deadening “texts” that the California standardized tests demand the students read, so give them the same kind of deadening “texts” in class to show the students “how” to read them. Let’s break down the reading into sentences and paragraphs; let’s make them talk in groups about translating and rephrasing these sentences and paragraphs; let’s make them learn vocabulary that is unrelated to anything but these sentences and paragraphs. In sum, and based on my experience in this in-service, the gist was to make reading MORE of a chore than it already is for students reluctant to read. </span><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Don’t get me wrong. I do see the value of teaching kids how to read any text closely. It’s just that I am wary about the line between making reading accessible--even enjoyable--and reducing it to nothing more than a chore. </span></div>
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Because I had first mistaken the date of this meeting and I had scheduled parent conferences and a medical appointment, I made the second mistake of asking those in charge the following questions: What if I already do a lot of close-reading work in my classes with texts relevant to the literature I teach, like critical essays, reviews, even grammatical instructions? Do I still have to attend this meeting? Naturally, I was met with a resounding, YES!<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Aye, there’s the rub. Just as we teachers are asked to “differentiate,” teach our students based not only on our curriculum but based also on their different learning levels and needs, those in charge never differentiate. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But that’s the problem with the entire in-service, professional development philosophy in my district. The district hires teachers who cannot do the job for which they have been hired, and then spends lots of money and time figuring out ways to make whipped cream out of horse manure. The problem is that those who are teaching well are swept up into that effort at great cost to their time and their morale. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">During meetings like this I think too much about the time spent vs the information gained ratio. I then get to thinking about all the time I sacrifice when I work in the evenings and on weekends. I am reminded that there is simply no good reason for anyone to do more than show up in a district where contracts are disregarded, where pay is diminished at will, where no one really has a voice, but most important, where all teachers are treated as if incompetent and all students treated as if they are stupid. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And then I think to myself, no wonder there are so many bad teachers--what a cake job for someone who sees it only as a day shift. Why these in-services probably don’t even phase them as much as they give them a chance to appear busy.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yup, it was meltdown central today, lots of crying and time spent counseling and trying not to cry myself. </span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-57915765568468796472010-03-06T12:44:00.000-08:002014-12-26T18:02:16.494-08:00Test-Score Tyranny<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When I last wrote, I set off quite the stir, and by quoting some in my department, I may have created an irreparable rift. To recap, I had suggested the department read one another’s Shakespeare essays and after assessing them together, give an award for the best of the essays. According to lists I generated at the end of last year, I could see that most of my colleagues teach at least one of the plays or sonnets and most of them require that their students write essays about their reading, so I honestly thought that reading what we ourselves generate in our classes would be compelling and instructive for us all. Unfortunately, this suggestion ended up revealing the emotional temperature of a beleaguered faculty, where any suggestion can sound like extra work, though I maintain no extra work and no harm was intended. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I bring this up because right after I emailed the essay contest suggestion to the department, we received not only those benchmark tests that I have complained about in previous entries, but we received an additional test to give to our students: a diagnostic for the California Exit Exam (CAHSEE). Now we have to take at least six hours (roughly a full week) out of our class time to accommodate these tests and suspend whatever we are teaching. In addition, we will have to carve out some class time to give standards tests preparation exercises, and we will have to deal with altered and diminished schedules in order to accommodate the roughly three weeks of CAHSEE testing that awaits the students this term. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Now we will have at least two department meetings spent on assessing the benchmark and diagnostic essays. But before we read any of the essays, we will first have to determine appropriate grading criteria since none of the rubrics or after-the fact “Decision Rules,” designed "to guide us as we assess the quality of the work," are ever adequate for assessing ACTUAL student writing. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yes, this assessing our students’ writing is the exact task I had suggested in my Shakespeare contest email, but in this case the faculty dread has been fulfilled: we now face extra and irrelevant work--both proctoring these tests and grading the results--and have to deal with one more district obstruction of any progress we hope to make in our classes. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The problem with the CAHSEE diagnostic essay is that in addition to presuming that students know something about global warming, green thinking, energy conservation, the essay prompt itself is confusing in that it seems to at first ask the students to talk about how to conserve energy; then it asks them to use examples and anecdotes to persuade other students to conserve energy. The prompt is so overwritten that its intention is unclear, and it seems to have garnered two kinds of response from the students: “Listen to me! Here’s why” essays and “Here’s how to conserve energy” essays; one persuasive, the other expository. So how are we to assess these essays? Do we just look for good, clear, thorough writing, or do we hold students accountable for reading carefully a prompt that was, to my way of thinking, not written carefully?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">What is perhaps most vexing about the “assessment” tests, the other tests to which we treated our students to this week, is not only the low benchmark they set, at least in English, but how often these tests are wrong-headed and just plain wrong. This problem is in keeping with why NCLB is not working: when states and districts set their own standards and essentially lower standards to punch up scores, the tyranny of these scores, which are spun as a district’s attempt at progress, only hinders progress.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjal1_2EQipfcHndRx5jKlvHhubPshclMvA6nofO-yAvdC67An4h61Rdb8IjKsOyELE1G-5m4VHRoxStiTWaTQuGievCHdKf6R0MVm8QwXxnUbApJF3XwK4E64RCVO5hmG32GtmVsXk4bOl/s1600-h/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjal1_2EQipfcHndRx5jKlvHhubPshclMvA6nofO-yAvdC67An4h61Rdb8IjKsOyELE1G-5m4VHRoxStiTWaTQuGievCHdKf6R0MVm8QwXxnUbApJF3XwK4E64RCVO5hmG32GtmVsXk4bOl/s320/images-1.jpeg" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here is a quick “benchmark” minute brought to you by one of my astute 10th graders (and I am not even going to mention how stupidly the question itself is written!). The students are first given a quotation from a previous reading (and I am not going to mention the problems with that reading either!): </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Now here is the actual question:</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">"Even ladies were wading in the water, thinking it was fun." </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">To delete "thinking it was fun" from the quotation above, what would be the correct way to punctuate the sentence?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">a) "Even the ladies were wading in the water [ ]."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">b) "Even ladies were wading in the water:"</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">c) "Even ladies were wading in the water--"</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">d) "Even the ladies were wading in the water. . ."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Before you give your answer, read this explanation of the ellipsis, which I pulled from a GOOGLE search:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The MLA Handbook recommends using square brackets on either side of the ellipsis points to distinguish between an ellipsis that you've added and the ellipses that might have been in the original text. Such a bracketed ellipsis in a quotation would look like this:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">"Bohr […] used the analogy of parallel stairways […]" (Smith 55).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Now read this direct quotation from the <i>MLA Handbook</i> (6th Edition):</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Some instructors prefer that square brackets be placed around ellipsis points inserted into quotations, so that all alterations within quotations are indicated by brackets (cf. 3.7.6).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Given these rules, what's the correct answer for students who were taught to err on the side of caution and add the brackets around all ellipses they add to any quotation? There doesn’t seem to be any correct answer among the choices they were given, though the choices seem to allude to the MLA rule by offering an answer with empty brackets and an answer with only an ellipsis. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here is my question: If I taught the MLA rule in the interest of college prep. and told my students to err on the side of caution and use brackets when in doubt, am I a bad teacher? Are the students then incorrect for adding brackets when they insert their own ellipses? Of course, the students figured out the issue and opted for answer D, but they were definitely confused.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Then there was this question:<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The students were asked to pick the “correct way to rewrite this sentence”: </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“The event remains one of the deadliest natural disasters has occurred in United States history.” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here are two of the choices they were given:</span></div>
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<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The event remains one of the deadliest natural disasters, which has occurred in United States history.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The event remains one of the deadliest natural disasters that has occurred in United States history.</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I have no quarrel with B as the best answer, but in explaining why B is the best answer, the </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Administration and Scoring Manual</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, which teachers are to use in order to teach to the standard that this question is presumably testing, offers the following explanation (NOTE THAT I USED A NON-RESTRICTIVE CLAUSE, OR DID I?):</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A--The clause “has occurred in United States history” is nonrestrictive so it cannot be introduced by <i>which</i>, which introduces restrictive clauses.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">B--<i>That</i> is used to introduce nonrestrictive main clauses.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">UH, WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?! </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Keep in mind that there were only 19 questions on this benchmark test, so possibly missing two of the 19 can hurt a student’s score. In addition, wrong answers can cast aspersions on a teacher’s ability to teach a certain standard since both questions relate to the same Language Conventions strand, as they call it. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So, I say yes, let’s spend valuable collegial time looking closely at our students’ earnest work generated by these bogus instruments, then let’s publish the scores and feel like failures because of tests that PRETEND to test kids on what they have learned, but instead confuse everyone and ignore the real grist of any English class--literary analysis, critical thinking, correct mechanics, in-depth reading comprehension. In such a budget crisis time, a district’s giving boat loads of money to the company that creates these tests, specifically the bogus benchmarks, and demanding that their teachers pander to such imprecision and confusion is not good for anyone! Yet all this testing will be effective in one thing, that's for sure: the erosion of everyone’s good will, the teachers’ and the students'.</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-37079382074222249672010-02-06T10:25:00.000-08:002014-12-26T17:52:24.217-08:00Shakespeare, Anyone?<div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This past week was finals week--yes, it’s February! In addition to giving five finals, I started a new semester at my other job, where I teach two classes (all boys, 9th and 12th grade), caught a mean and nasty cold, nailed down some details for a trip my students and I are taking to NY in spring, and along with several of my dedicated colleagues, I hosted a Shakespeare recitation contest. Because this contest has an essay component, I also had asked several of my Shakespeare students to polish recent <i>Hamlet </i>essays for submission. Then after spending what amounted to fruitless time searching the internet for the essay entry form, I discovered that the sponsors of the contest have canceled the essay portion of the program. Hmmm, what to do. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Not wanting to disappoint the kids who retooled their work in hopes of some recognition other than mine for their efforts, I got to thinking. What if my school hosted a contest of its own? We could meet all departmental directives by looking at and assessing student work together AND we could reward a kid in the process. Since most of the English faculty teach at least one of the plays or the sonnets and all of us are supposed to be teaching how to write essays and all of us are oppressed by the mind-numbing standardized assessments and want to assess what we ARE teaching, I suggested we look at the Shakespeare essays we ourselves have assigned at the first full meeting of the year, but I added that we could wait until a meeting where more of us have some essays to contribute and examine. We don’t need a class set for this meeting work, but we can at least look at a few of the pieces the kids are proud of--after all we want to instill the notion of pride in their work, right? I mean, I really thought this would be a good idea, so this is what I sent out to my colleagues:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">"Hello Everyone, <br />
I normally submit student essays about Shakespeare to [I am leaving out the name], and after gathering a few edited pieces for submission, I discovered, much to my dismay, that they are NOT having their contest anymore.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then it occurred to me, why not have a contest here? Since many of us teach Shakespeare in some form or another, let's nurture the best essays of our students, take the names off the essays and insure that they follow MLA manuscript format for objectivity, and in our next full faculty meeting (or one of our faculty meetings if we have no essays yet), let's read them, assess them, and pick the top three; and the best part is we can give the kids stuff for winning!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">My thought is that we will look for intelligent and thinking responses, even though the power of the actual writing may vary widely, and with enough of us just reading and discussing the essays, we will be doing work in keeping with the goal of coming up with our own deparment-wide assessments and honing our collective vision of what we expect from our students.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We can either have one winner and two runners up and ALL of us read the essays and ALL of us discuss our thoughts; or we can give two awards--an upperclassman winner (12th only, since 11th is American Lit) and an underclassman winner (9th and 10th)--and read the essays in grade-level groups. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This could be fun, and it may refresh our ongoing discussion of good student writing.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I will find some money to buy a [leaving out the prize I will give] for whoever wins. Let me know what you think. . . ."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now while I realize that we are being impacted by dramatically increased class size, potentially devastating pay cuts, and other hideous fallout from a collapsing district, I was not really asking anyone to do any extra work. I thought we would just have the kids polish the work they would normally do for our classes, then we’d have a look and a little chat (thank you, Heidi Klum). A few of my colleagues saw it another way:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One admired my enthusiasm. . . .then explained that he was feeling too overburdened by teaching responsibilities and concurrent pay cuts. Another accused me of using this potential contest as a departmental directive and was clearly angry that I had not discussed it with the faculty first, even though I plainly stated that I was interested in hearing the department's thoughts about this contest. And yet another argued that not everyone teaches Shakespeare and added that I am the only one who teaches Shakespeare to the degree needed for a contest, so it would be inherently unfair. My suggestion that we look at student responses to Shakespeare was either patently ignored or treated like a malignant request for teachers to do extra work--in a time of pay-cuts, no less. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">LESSON I AM SUPPOSED TO LEARN: How</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal;"> could I suggest something so preposterous? After all, we already examine student work on those benchmark tests that ask students to write about "informational texts" that discuss the value of video games. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">LESSON LEARNED: I am going to have my own Shakespeare contest and will submit the students’ essays to the professors with whom I have worked at university for their candid assessment (and, I am hopeful, their approval). This kind of evaluation could lead to a great lesson for my students and for me. Should have just done that in the first place! What was I thinking?</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-38558793018242561202010-01-10T23:13:00.000-08:002014-12-26T17:29:45.386-08:00Rewards Points<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The mercifully long winter vacation gave me the chance not only to grade 200 pages, to read several of the novels I thought I might have to save until summer, and to catch up on hours of sleep, but also to see one of the two movies I usually see per year. And given my ridiculous work schedule, I am usually relegated to choosing a film based more on convenience than anything else. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Generally, I must say, I am repelled by American movies. For a while there it seemed as if every American film contained the requisite “aren’t we all suckers for beautiful young people in love” scene. In these "heartwarming" films, a restaurant full of all kinds of people, all in unison and all clearly impelled by the same overwhemling emotion, would giddily erupt into some song like “Stop in the Name of Love,” and everyone would clap and sing, happy just to be breathing the same air as the beautiful young lovers. UGH! I say. When a friend recently asked me what movies I DO like, I had to say foreign movies, which are usually atmospheric and subtle and don’t feel the need to clobber the audience with sing-alongs or sentimental strings or overblown moral or emotional messages (Ennio Morricone and some Italian cinema excepted).</span></div>
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Give me a movie like Patrice Leconte’s 2002 film “Man on a Train,” where Johnny Halladay and Jean Rochefort meet by chance and enter each other’s very different lives. Halladay’s character is a thief; Rochefort’s, a poet and teacher. The scene that exemplifies the kind of subtlety I am talking about occurs when the two have lunch in a local cafe and a young man comes up to Rochefort’s character to say that he remembers the teacher and can still recite one of the poems he had been taught. When Rochefort’s character, obviously flustered, embarrassed, and proud, asks the young man what he currently does for a living, the man says he works down the street in a lamp shop. No big, dramatic, “You changed my life, and I am now part of the Dead Poet’s Society forever.” No eavesdroppers joining in, clapping and singing, “What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love” or something equally banal. Here the quotidian was colored and warmed for a moment by nostalgia, both the teacher’s and the student’s, and the connection felt true and, therefore, profound.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, as with all things, one must never say, "Never!" or make sweeping comments based on overblown opinions because one never knows when such broad statements and gestures might come back to, as they say, bite you in the rear, especially when life seems to imitate "art." This past weekend I went to Santa Barbara to visit my family. We exchanged gifts for birthdays and other assorted recent holidays and then trundled off to our favorite clothing store to redeem our gift cards. As we moved through the racks, one of the sales women, who offered to set up a changing room for me, could not help grinning at me, her head tilted, a question on her face. After teaching for as long as I have, everyone looks familiar, so I sometimes ignore the impulse to ask people whether I know them, particularly when I’m about 100 miles away from all my teaching experience. But clearly this young woman and I knew each other, and just as she was about to ask, “Are you. . . ,” I asked her whether she had attended the high school where I began my tenure in the LAUSD. She was ecstatic when she determined that I was in fact her former English teacher and offered her graduation year and her name. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She then said that my class was life-changing for her, and because of me she had learned two other languages, traveled and studied abroad, and was not just working in this clothing shop, but she was also in school, earning her PhD. She said she would always remember that I told my students never to settle for mediocrity, and that she herself has always lived by this credo. I could not help but hug her at this point, and we both welled up with heartfelt tears. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It was at that moment that I noticed the clicking of hangers and the whooshing of garments had stopped, and all the well-appointed Santa Barbara shoppers stood as if frozen, listening to our conversation. As my former student wiped away her tears, so, too, did the women in the store, and one whispered to my mother that she had never seen such gratitude or heard such a, dare I say it, heartwarming story before. The whole store had stopped to listen to the story of this humbled teacher and her grateful student, but I am happy to report that within moments we were all rifling through the racks again, and no one erupted into song.</span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-7153884916134487352009-11-20T17:24:00.000-08:002014-12-26T17:23:25.212-08:00Cost of Living Raise or Pay Cut: The High Cost of Teaching!<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><br />
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Anyone reading the paper these days will know that the teachers in my district are being threatened with a 12% pay cut PLUS four furlough days to be taken during what is already our contracted spring break. Demoralizing? Yes. But even moreso when one contemplates how many district employees are moved around from bogus position to bogus position as empty reminders of empty district goals. What's worse is contemplating how much district money is spent on external contractors and other programs designed to make bad teachers better when that same money could be spent on rewarding smartly evaluated good teachers.</div>
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Just a week ago, prior to the Superintendant’s supremely callous Friday, 5pm, YOUR-PAY-WILL-BE-CUT letter, we gave the first scheduled SPA (Secondary Periodic Assessment) of the year. This means that as a department chair, I have to follow administrative directives and rally the teachers to swap our classes’ 9th grade SPA essays so we can grade our students' work more objectively. Theoretically, this means that we have all set the same goals, have taught to those goals, and have seen whether and to what degree we have met those goals. But this test asks that students read mind-numbing essays, charts, stats and graphs about big bad video games; then they are asked to write a “persuasive” essay where they are to take and defend a position on the “issue.” And let us not forget their “position” had better be against those dangerous, evil video games, or else!</div>
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Here is the real rub, especially in the face of these horrendous pay-cut threats. The district contracts this “benchmark” test to Princeton Review, but only AFTER the students take the test--having read the information, the prompt, and the rubric--does the district's Secondary Literacy Department create what they call “DECISION RULES.” They describe these rules as follows:</div>
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“. . . established during the process of selecting the SCORE POINT REPRESENTATIVE PAPERS that help determine “proficiency.” These rules, which were developed through consensus among those selecting the training set papers, address questions and issues that might arise when teachers score their student work. Knowing these rules up front assists scorers and helps 'standardize' the scoring process.”</div>
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Irony? Let me count the ways:<br />
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1. Time and money have been spent not only on the Princeton Review’s silly and irrelevant test, but also on salaries earned by LAUSD "literacy experts" tasked with modifying the contractor’s sham test.</div>
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2. The LAUSD rightfully demands that teachers’ expectations be clear enough for students to understand what they need to do in order to achieve goals and grades, yet our Secondary Literacy Department (a name that can be read two ways, I know) creates grading rules AFTER THE FACT.</div>
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3. "Standardizing” what could be clever, original, intelligent writing (which these tests not only do NOT promote but work hard to prevent), the kind of writing that sometimes happens despite the idiocy of the test, is a ridiculous goal.</div>
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4. This benchmark proves nothing about students who are working hard in their classes to think and write intelligently and inventively about literature. But if they can read VCR instructions, they are on their way to the kind of proficiency that warrants a high-school degree.</div>
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5. The district has cut teacher pay, has ignored teacher contracts, and as these tests seem to indicate, maintains priorities that do anything but serve the community it's supposed to serve.</div>
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Cut away, Superintendent! I probably do not deserve the pay I receive if I see these ironies clearly but the effectiveness of these benchmarks, not at all!</div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-73952556334928578802009-11-11T10:46:00.000-08:002014-12-26T17:01:30.424-08:00Finger-lickin' OBNOXIOUS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgduSXal3VnFPuXrQZdO8WmzVcW1zkLYb8OrL2Q_98on5TfB6IapMlRrCc2MjuQ1BsvzMPpgLm6dE5SwCTTe4vV9v1oylkeI3NdAFLRnJ-Rl3cMFdyyE0vfk91q_crzECPwxhh_fCn5f-mr/s1600-h/friedchicken.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgduSXal3VnFPuXrQZdO8WmzVcW1zkLYb8OrL2Q_98on5TfB6IapMlRrCc2MjuQ1BsvzMPpgLm6dE5SwCTTe4vV9v1oylkeI3NdAFLRnJ-Rl3cMFdyyE0vfk91q_crzECPwxhh_fCn5f-mr/s320/friedchicken.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The administration decided to host an assembly for seniors in an effort to inform them of important policies and requirements for graduation and other "fun" senior events, ranging from BBQs to prom to the graduation ceremony itself. Teachers were asked to escort their classes to our “state of the art” auditorium to ensure order, well, theoretically at least. I scanned the room and saw about six hundred students, five teachers, and two or three administrators. Oh yeah, I knew this would be bad. Knowing my inability to cope with the boorish behavior of masses of students empowered by their anonymity, I dug into my seat, kept my nose in the papers I brought to grade, and the corner of my eye on my well-behaved class. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">No matter who stood up to speak to the assembly, the din never stopped. The man from Jostens, or whichever cap, gown, and ring company he represented, tried to impart information the kids would need should they make it to the finish line, but only a few listened to him. The poor man had to say, “Listen up, people” as punctuation for almost every phrase he uttered. Remarkably, he never lost his patience. Then the phelgmatic student-body president mumbled a request for the students to purchase senior sweatshirts that they loudly considered too pricey, and an Assistant Principal spoke about what many considered the unreasonable senior attendance policy (7 absences max? Really, that’s unreasonable?). Soon the din became an uproar. I continued to mark comma splices and agreement problems and read and reread the sentences before me in an effort to tune out the noise. The last thing I wanted to do was confront misbehaving students whom I do not know by name. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Finally, after questions no one heard and after an administrator was brushed off and left the stage for lack of stamina; after hoots, hollers, and whistles every time some well-meaning adult called them the Class of 2010; after rude call-outs and continuous inattention to the front of the room, the nightmare ended. Inches from a clean getaway, I rose to lead my students out of the auditorium. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Then I saw them. Two girls in the seats right behind my class were sucking on fried chicken wings, fingers covered in grease. I was nothing short of aghast. Now, I have been known to hunker down over a little KFC myself, much to the dismay of my politically and dietarily savvy friends, but here in this sacrosanct auditorium designed for the top notch performers who attend this school, food is an absolute no-no. So I thought about it for a few seconds: do I say something and face inevitable resistance and hostility or do I just ignore this egregious defiance in front of all the students who know I have seen this display and count on me, as one of the adults in this barely controlled chaos, to maintain some form of order? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“Are you REALLY eating in here? You have to put that away!” I registered my protest and insisted they modify their behavior. Very teacherly, but I knew I was in for it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Blank stares. Lips wrapped around wings.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“Put the chicken away!” I remained firm.</span></div>
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“Where?” Finger licks, bone gnawing.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“Wherever your got it from!”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“Hunh?”<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“Take out whatever the chicken came in and put it away. NOW!”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“Put it in what? What are you talking about?”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The conversation was so unprofitable, so impossible that I was getting angry at myself for starting it, for wasting my time, for feeling bad that I didn’t have a piece of chicken myself. But I am the adult here, or so they tell me. So why do I feel that sick feeling I always get when I know what the right behavior is and am made to feel the fool when I try to enforce it. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I turned away from the offenders, cursed heartily under my breath, and stated that I was tired of the pigs at this school. One of the girls, who knew me, though I did not know her, says, “DID YOU JUST CALL ME A PIG?!” Righteous indignation, of all the deflecting nerve!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Before I could say, Original Recipe, all the anger I had worked so hard to quell for that hour and a half of patent, room-wide disrespect rose up in me, and I just let it fly: “I said members of this student body act like a bunch of goddammed, disgusting pigs, and if you think you fit that description, then YES, I guess I called YOU a pig! Your behavior is a disgrace, an intolerable disgrace, and I am just sick to death of it!” I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room, muttering to myself like the crazy person I suddenly felt like.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The question all this raises in me is why anyone would expect any adult to be at the mercy of disrespectful teenagers, who rarely face real consequences for their actions, and NOT get angry. One of my colleagues was recently called a bitch by one of her students, a curse to which she responded in equally colloquial and insulting language, and she was not only called out for her behavior by the administration, but she was told that a student’s calling a teacher a bitch is not an offense worthy of suspension. Really? Now if the same kid had called one of the administrators “Asshole” or dare I say something worse, would that have been an offense worthy of suspension? I also wonder whether it is just a coincidence that when I cannot get the team of boys who play a wild football game in front of my bungalow classroom (where they are forbidden to play) that this teacher, the one called BITCH, is the ONLY one who can get the kids to stop. Fire with fire, I say, unless of course, we suddenly turn this terrible tide and make civil student behavior priority one. Not likely, I fear.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Well, all this contemplation is making me hungry. I think I'll go out and get a little of the finger-licking good stuff and be done with it.</span></div>
Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-6092697999329189502009-10-17T20:42:00.000-07:002014-12-26T16:55:02.740-08:00Time. . . Is On My Side. . .<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCEJrlQNb4nsOUr5bo958v_penuBdHU0C29Q7BWd7u9I2I7wRWskGxjHN3I2SK1toXuvP9IsYSoWZ4lSfVoUdJ45xSroVISzcQGt6oqSZ9FuYSJ3XMjmIh7hWZRMEv4J8L4P8ed8g5mt6E/s1600-h/images-3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCEJrlQNb4nsOUr5bo958v_penuBdHU0C29Q7BWd7u9I2I7wRWskGxjHN3I2SK1toXuvP9IsYSoWZ4lSfVoUdJ45xSroVISzcQGt6oqSZ9FuYSJ3XMjmIh7hWZRMEv4J8L4P8ed8g5mt6E/s320/images-3.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I had a particularly good week. The dread I felt at the start of the term has evaporated, replaced by, dare I say it, happiness? My students are for the most part adorable and eager to learn. I am nice to them and they are nice back. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Of course, I could still be reeling from the great lunch I had off campus a couple of weeks ago; or maybe it was the fact that I saw another couple of dear friends mid-week and got to hear terrific music in a beautiful hall, even though it was pissing rain outside and an otherwise grim day; or maybe it’s the fact that I am still working out at least three or four times a week, including mile walks in the woods on weekends; or maybe it’s the fact that a sudden Indian Summer allowed my husband and me one more excellent day in the boat on the lake. I am not sure, but my insistence on creating balance in my life this year seems to be paying off.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPcDp6kwjsRfB48wFdbQTXuKyXVf9c1r5LkOLlyMRWmsgXHpmaKKXwGg-I9eh_ZMwH-QJ1nSR-_fjOCa82xsOXyFUIKv3-O3DRs6DDjhNQBHmShIMwLESPzauwk9KedaBOOeYZ2hsuPld/s1600-h/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPcDp6kwjsRfB48wFdbQTXuKyXVf9c1r5LkOLlyMRWmsgXHpmaKKXwGg-I9eh_ZMwH-QJ1nSR-_fjOCa82xsOXyFUIKv3-O3DRs6DDjhNQBHmShIMwLESPzauwk9KedaBOOeYZ2hsuPld/s320/images-1.jpeg" /></a></div>
“Paying off” is a funny choice of words for one in this profession, since my pay has not moved in the nine years I have been back in public school. In fact, I lost about 10, 000 bones, as a pal would say, because I lost the extra class I have taught every year prior to this one. My finances are, well, what’s the use of talking. We all know teachers are supposed to live on love and respect and asking for money makes us seem crass and unprofessional. Yet do we consider our doctors and lawyers and chiropractors, trainers, masseurs, hairdressers, electricians crass and unprofessional when they ask for their fees, fees to which our meagre per-hour rate cannot compare?</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">What’s funny is most people take teaching jobs because of the time it supposedly affords. But like many teachers I know, I had somehow managed to swamp myself and lose any semblance of free time. I took on the extra class at school and I took on an extra class or two at another school a couple of days a week and I took on a few private students and I give enough work to my students to keep me grading papers for hours on end each week. Yup, I took it all on. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I still have most of this work, but that free period I get two out of the three-day class rotation has made all the difference. Breathing room, moments of silence, clearing the air--all these elements of civility are now part of my routine. So despite the embarrassing pay, the oppressive conditions, I come back to the importance of TIME, and I must say I feel a little richer for it indeed.</span><br />
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-6337707673495290882009-10-10T23:39:00.000-07:002014-12-26T23:27:39.792-08:00Mud Time<div style="font: 19.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For some reason, the title "Two Tramps in Mud Time" popped into my mind recently and stuck. I suppose the phenomenon is not unlike when a song suddenly pops into your head. I find that when that happens, as if often does, if I pay close attention to the lyrics of the song, I cannot help but notice that the lyrics are usually completely appropriate to the situation at hand. The song has popped into my consciousness for a reason, just as a crossword answer pops up after hours of spending attention elsewhere, just as the solution to a math problem reveals itself once the problem is ignored. Introspection is an important endeavor, but it seems to me that the mind introspects involuntarily and can emit insights even when you are not looking for them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The bouncy lyric, "I get knocked down, but I get up again" has popped into my head while teaching a difficult class, and I don't own or even particularly like the song. Apt, though, yes. "Who let the dogs out?" pops up when one too many people interrupt a class to summon a student. A favorite? No. Apt? Yes. Many more toe-tapping or hum-along tunes haunt me, but this Frost poem, its suddenly unavoidable presence in my mind is really quite a step up for my subconscious.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">After reading the poem again, I was stunned by the last eight lines:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium; letter-spacing: 0px;">But yield who will to their separation,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My object in living is to unite</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My avocation and my vocation</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As my two eyes make one in sight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Only where love and need are one,</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And the work is play for mortal stakes,</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Is the deed ever really done</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For Heaven and the future's sakes.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Despite the obstructionist district in which I work, the work itself--inspiring</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">students to open their minds and their hearts, while reveling in truth and beauty all day--is for me where "love and need are one / And the work is play for mortal stakes." The alliterative frankness of the title "Two Tramps in Mudtime" beckoned me to have another close look at this poem, only to find that these last eight lines completely encapsulate what I feel about my chosen career. And to think, this poem, like those silly songs, just popped into my head for no apparent reason.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-36729634237083360752009-10-03T00:21:00.000-07:002014-12-26T23:26:46.986-08:00La Dolce Vita<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As I have mentioned, I am a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and this year the budget cuts cost me dearly. I lost the auxiliary class I have taught for the last nine years, and though this class added the stress of an extra preparation and the attendant papers, it also padded my wallet, which made it a little easier for me to inure myself to teaching four one-and-a-half-hour classes each day with only two brief breaks (20 and 30 minutes respectively). Gates and locks define the boundaries of the campus and these gates and locks are not to be opened until the school day ends, so this means that for the last nine years, I have been almost literally chained to my desk. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Not once in nine years have I ever “met a friend for lunch” or gone off campus to “grab a bite.” Since there is really no time to do anything but teach my classes, answer student questions, and make small talk in the bathroom line, I practically live in my little isolated realm. I have packed my little island with the essential modern conveniences like a fridge stocked with berries, Greek yogurt, organic peanut butter, whole grain bread, cheese, water, juice; a kettle to boil water for my coffee and oatmeal; and my iPhone so I can enjoy the promise of at least some contact with the outside world during those two luxurious breaks I get. A colleague of mine once asked whether I was hiding a Murphy bed in my book closet. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This week, on my way back to class during the morning break, I got a call from a dear friend, who asked what I was doing for lunch. The question, alive with the thrill of leisure and adulthood, could have crushed my spirits, but I paused for a second and remembered that this year, because I lost my auxiliary class, I am actually free for a significant chunk of two out of three afternoons a week and this was going to be one of those afternoons. So at 1:15 PM, during the lunch period, I did the previously unimaginable . . . I walked out of school “to meet a friend for lunch,” to “grab a bite.” Fortunately for me, Dolce Isola had opened its doors just up the street. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The bright red building with its red and white striped awning and little ice-cream tables and chairs out front stands out like an oasis on an otherwise gray section of south Robertson Boulevard. Their pastry case does not contain wilted tuna sandwiches on soggy wheat bread or Brillo pad coffee cake. Nope, this case is full of delectable treats like Mitzi’s Earthquake chocolate cookies, red velvet cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing, lemon squares, chocolate croissants, tea scones, chocolate truffle torts, and I hear the tart tartin is the best anywhere. Just looking at the display gave me a sense of well being. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For lunch my friend and I first shared the homemade guacamole filled with large chunks of avocado and fresh homemade tortillas--hot and satisfying. My friend opted for the Dolce Club Sandwich, and I picked the Ivy Buffet: Normandy chicken salad, fresh tuna salad, pasta a la checca, and lo scogglio potato salad. Every bite delicious, particularly the potato salad, which, to my great joy, was true Mediterranean comfort food, doused in olive oil. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What is perhaps most exciting about Dolce Isola is the fact that it is the bakery for The Ivy restaurant. That means not only had I been sprung from my work confinement for the first time in nine years, and not only had I the chance to spend time with my dear friend, but I also had been enjoying a meal that was being similarly enjoyed in the far tonier reaches of the same boulevard. I had briefly traded my work island for the Dolce Isola and enjoyed every second of it--except I forgot to get dessert! Well, next time.</span></span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-63171127865167501372009-09-28T15:41:00.000-07:002014-12-26T23:25:36.745-08:00Summon(S)ed by a Higher Power?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This year, I have to say that my classes are excellent. Of course, some of my colleagues might say it's not because of what I do, but because the test scores walk in. Nonetheless, even in the classes where the kids aren’t as overtly clever or prepared, they all seem to want to learn. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I know I will need to remind myself of this post at some point later in the term because I know I will soon be battling the underachieving highly gifted types. I will have to all but ignore their “potential” and instead focus on their "product," which means they will start to resist the work and beg to continue their laurel resting. I might have to get rough, and it will all be tiring. But for now it’s all good. The kids in my classes seem to want to be there and that is always a good thing. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are starting the fourth week of school and students are STILL changing their classes and adjusting their schedules because there are five weeks built into the start of every term for them and their counselors to get it right (Um, what does that say about what’s being taught in the first quarter of the term and how far behind will the system allow these children to fall? Not my bailiwick, so I’m not saying <i>any</i>thing). </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This continual shifting means I have not YET had a correct roll sheet or grade entry sheet. It means kids can run from me when they see the work load or hear the course expectations. It means I will hear snide comments from administrators who don’t like “tiny” classes of 26-30-- though I have a few with at least 35--when the directives demand 40-45 per room. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I say if there were no "color in pictures of Hamlet and get an A" classes for the kids to run to, the inequities would stop. Instead an administrator intimated that I must be a terrible teacher if I cannot hold onto kids.This is the same bureaucrat who calls teachers "good teachers" without having observed even a second of these "good teachers" at work. She judges them based on whether they help her meet her 40-45 in a room directives. She certainly has never set foot into my classroom during any class of mine. Institutional logic at work again. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In addition to the moving and switching from class to class, there have been many classroom interruptions, where student "teacher assistants" bring around these little papers called SUMMONSES where kids are sent to various offices around the campus. The kids are not SUMMONED to these offices; nope, they are SUMMONSED, a non-word that seems to connote something more important than just being called to the office for reasons far more important than learning in a classroom.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps that is why my Shakespeare class erupted into laughter when a seventh knock at the door was a TA bearing a SUMMONS for one of my charges that demanded he go to the office in order to receive his locker number. We were reviewing the first scene of HAMLET, discussing the meaning and function of the first words “Who’s there?”; and exploring the various uses and meanings of ghosts; and learning about Renaissance Humanists--but wait, John had to get his locker number, far more pressing business! </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Out he went, far across the campus to the office, and then back he came. The fifteen minutes or more out of class were the least of it. When he returned, I asked whether he had solved his locker problem and he had this to tell us: </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium; letter-spacing: 0px;">“Uh, no. . .this was a summons for them to tell me that they were going to summons me later for my locker number because they did not have one available now.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fortunately it's early enough in the semester for me to summon up my sense of humor.</span></span></span></span></div>
Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-998485430463989783.post-60466623552270717462009-09-20T09:58:00.000-07:002014-12-26T23:24:16.521-08:00Evaluating the Evaluators<div style="font: 12.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Once again, there is much buzz about evaluating teachers based on test scores. The people who advocate this approach believe that teaching is a skill that can be judged objectively with the right objective tool. However, anyone who is actually in a classroom knows this is institutional speak and not the best approach. Tests can be one measure, but certainly not the only measure. Perhaps even more important, this test-accountability issue underscores the small-minded approach to evaluation that prevails in public schools.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first day of the semester I gave the members of my department a teacher self-evaluation form. I tend to think that when one examines one’s practice closely, instead of perfunctorily, our students will be in better or at least more conscious hands (that said, I am willing to bet that the self-evaluation forms I distributed ended up in the trash). Using the approach outlined in the excellent </span><i><span style="font-size: medium;">20 Principles for Teaching Excellence</span></i><span style="font-size: medium;"> by M. Walker Buckalew, here is a version of the evaluation I distributed:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">EVALUATION:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Please rate each of the 12 teaching characteristics listed below on a scale of 1-9 (9 being the highest level of importance). Then rate your current approach to each characteristic and your three-year goal with respect to each characteristic. In addition, you are to rate your colleagues: assess how they would rate themselves in these areas and assess their range of approaches to each characteristic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">1. Knowledge and expertise which is readily perceived by students </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> _____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">2. A drive to stay “current” in relevant fields </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">3. Repeatedly articulated (to students) high standards and expectations for performance and conduct </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">4. A “results” orientation (overt teaching in planned progression throughout the school year, emphasis on active not passive learning and rigor) ______</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">5. A “vision” of the process and the end product (and the ability and willingness to describe that vision to students often and well) </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_______</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">6. A facility for infusing routine activities with meaning _______</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">7. A passion for preparation _______</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">8.Flexibility, especially in design and evaluation _________</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">9. Humaneness, as perceived by students (“individual equity” as distinct from “justice and fairness”) _________</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">10. A knack for confronting-without-demeaning (emphasis on “community building”) _______</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">11. The ability to teach (not merely assign) “responsibility” _______</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">12. Constant attention to reinforcement principles (feedback) ______</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your current approach</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your three-year goal</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “average ratings” </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Your estimate of our faculty’s “range of approaches”</span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">_____</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What I am hoping stands out in this evaluation is the picture of excellent teaching provided by these characteristics, but just in case forms are not your forte, here is another way to see what is being asked of teachers here:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Is a teacher knowledgeable and can the students see evidence of the teacher’s expertise in his or her field? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Is the teacher still taking courses relevant in some way to his or her subject--is the teacher a learner too? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Does the teacher teach a rigorous course that demands critical thinking (and in many instances critical reading and writing too)? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Does the teacher take the students through logical relevant steps to achieve class objectives?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Does the teacher provide and see the results of rigorous teaching in the student’s culminating work? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Does the teacher provide meaningful work and assessments rather than busy work? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Is the teacher able to adjust his or her methods and plans to meet the students’ needs and to more helpfully provide feedback? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Can the teacher see his or her students as individuals with individual needs in order to teach everyone in the class? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Does the teacher give meaningful, helpful, constructive feedback often and in a timely manner? • Is the classroom a safe place for students to succeed and to fail? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">• Does the teacher inspire student accountability?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As I see it, this evaluation seems to base all other characteristics on the teacher’s knowledge of his or her subject because without that knowledge the rest of these characteristics are impossible. One cannot adjust methods; respond to and provide for differing levels of ability; establish rigorous goals and clear, meaningful steps to reach those goals; or give meaningful feedback if one does not really have a comprehensive grasp of the subject.</span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhT20g2JefAl6YUAcBGo9AyGIRHAnwe9ksJ1MfGuZ1UnT8hyiUN1F6ep0iCaSP660zulTWK9cjJBSu-l0SipTHfE2iaPbs-wejoIZDkF5WXSqQgrHWCAmKhrwLOxDU7XX2IICXooGISSf2/s1600-h/meritstandard.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhT20g2JefAl6YUAcBGo9AyGIRHAnwe9ksJ1MfGuZ1UnT8hyiUN1F6ep0iCaSP660zulTWK9cjJBSu-l0SipTHfE2iaPbs-wejoIZDkF5WXSqQgrHWCAmKhrwLOxDU7XX2IICXooGISSf2/s400/meritstandard.gif" style="cursor: move;" /></a></span> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yet most public school evaluations usually ask perfunctory questions like these: </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">1. Are the students “on task” ?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">2. Are the students aware of the specific standards they are being taught? Has the teacher posted that standard on the board or indicated it in another way? (It it is presumed by those in charge that if a student knows the standard, then the student will learn that standard. This notion clearly ignores the fact that several standards are often interwoven into class activities and assignments, and knowing the standard does not mean students’ gain mastery as much as it adds to their experiencing tedium!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">3. Does the teacher perform bureaucratic duties (grading, attending meetings, taking video tests on child abuse and blood pathogens, to name a few) in a timely fashion?</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">4. Does the teacher sign in (which seems to be the only method for determining whether we show up to school on time)?</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">5. Is the teacher collegial? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">6. Does the teacher show evidence of teaching strategies like “scaffolding” and “backwards planning” and “vertical teaming” ? (How’s that for institutional thinking?)</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the Sunday, September 20th, 2009, LATIMES, a journalist quotes a local high-school principal (and let us not forget administrators are people who opted out of the classroom), who says his school has “made gains” despite what most of us still in the classroom would call untenable class sizes (40 or more students to one teacher), a problem he ignores: </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">“ [Mr. __] said [his school] has made gains by focusing on what he described as </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">fundamentals, including training teachers more about the ‘how’ of teaching than the </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">‘what’ of course content. He said he has also introduced ideas about how the brain works </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">and how students learn.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This principal (think about that word, which means PRINCIPAL teacher) seems to believe the “how” and the “what” are separate and distinct elements of teaching, and to add insult to injury, he believes the "HOW" is MORE important. He must have earned all A’s in his education classes! </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Naturally, the writer of the article did not ask a single teacher at that school what he or she thought about this principal's "philosophy."</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No wonder the powers that be include teacher meeting participation and attendance as a key part of the teacher evaluation. Any competent teacher, struggling to impart information to students while engaging them in the rigors of a lively, thinking classroom, would immediately see Mr.___’s confident boast of making gains by focusing on training teachers more in the HOW of teaching as shortsighted nonsense, to say nothing of how low it sets the bar! </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Let’s not forget the people who have risen to the top of the institution, in most cases because they have successfully internalized this kind of institutional thinking (I know that there are always some exceptions to this rule), are the people who evaluate teachers. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Does anyone else see a problem here?</span></span></div>
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Ms. F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13155226252768210376noreply@blogger.com0