Breakfast Candy = Poor Parent Decisions + Poor Student Decisions

This student in particular is an eighth grader whose only source of income is her parents. Parental support is in fact the only way students can regularly procure breakfasts and lunches like this, at least at my school. To me, this is upsetting.

Perhaps my disgust is blinding me to some argument within the "parenting is difficult" umbrella or parents not having time to prepare something else for their kids or something along those lines, but for the life of me I cannot think of an argument that trumps this one: If you give your kid money and they walk by a corner store on the way to school, they will inevitably use that money to buy things that are not good for them and that will also lead to their inattentiveness in class. Therefore, you should not give your child money and allow them to spend it unsupervised if your overall goal is the health and success of your child.

My own upbringing also leads me to think that this problem in some ways is unique to urban environments. When students are bused to school they generally do not have the chance to purchase candy and other things that will lead to poor dental and mental health. While that idea breaks down once students can drive in the suburbs, parents can then require their kids to have jobs in order to pay for gas and the junk they buy in the morning, thus teaching them other valuable lessons. By giving students money that ends up as candy and soda at 7:45 A.M., no positive lessons are taught and all repercussions seem to be negative.

Now, could I ban these things in my classroom? Yes. Do I? Yes. In fact, I do not allow eating or drinking of any kind in my classroom. Does that solve the problem? No. Should teachers be expected to solve a problem like this that, arguments about an overall unhealthy society aside, clearly originates in the home? Probably not, but we will continue to try. What parents should realize though, is that every minute a teacher uses to tackle the candy breakfast problem, he or she is not working to support development of skills in reading, writing, math science, and good citizenry. In my homeroom, when I have to stop talking to students about their short and long term goals or interrupt silent reading or team-building activities to give a student the stink eye about their red-flavored soda, that stink eye is taking away from the positive work we're doing, potentially leading to detention for the candy breakfast student, and only results in the negative.

Teachered

Today in class I was sitting at my desk as my student teacher circulated to help students with essay planning. Whilst making a random two second scan of the room, I saw one student throw something into the trash can from about three yards away. After I thrashed her with a stern look, she got back to work, but another student picked up a glue stick cap and prepared to throw it from five yards out. He halted this effort mid-throw, as he was startled by my eyeball being pegged at him from across the room. 

I walked slowly and purposefully over to this student to tell him that it was absurd for him to think that I wouldn't see his actions, as I see absolutely everything that happens in my classroom. I assured him this would still be the case if I were sleeping beneath my desk or playing violin in the closet or running wire through the ceiling tiles.

Challenged, the student then put his hand behind his back and asked, "How many fingers do I have up then?" 

I said, "Exactly three." 

That was exactly correct. 

He went back to work.

BOOM. Teachered.

Teach Like a Champion at About.com

When I saw this link to About.com's Special Education section, I stopped to think about how far About.com has really come. In the past two years I've moved from telling my students to never use websites "like these" to telling them to use them as a potential starting point in their research. The reason: that's how I do things.

Now, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I think I do fairly well with writing, in spite of some of the crazy rants one might read on this site. Certainly I can write better than my middle schoolers. That said, I think the following bit about Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion could be very helpful to new teachers as well as those simply looking for new ideas on management, instruction, etc., in spite of it's About.com location.

While I heard a roomful of teachers scoff at this book recently, I took it as a sign that it had been disseminated at will be the powers that be in their school over even many school in the NYC DOE. Even if that is the case, I'd like to hear which ideas they think are laughable or unreasonable.

49 Techniques from Teach Like a Champion

Enjoy.

Finding A House with Minimum Wage?

The link with the graphic below was sent to me by a colleague. Being an avid peruser of any map sent my way, I poured over it for a while and made my wife guess the numbers, trying my best to astound her with answers she could likely predict after I told her what it took in one state to afford a two bedroom apartment.

I assume this person means rent when she says "afford." My wife and I are thinking about buying a 2-bedroom condo and this map puts our own salaries into perspective. While we think we can barely afford as DINKs to buy such a space (perhaps even leaving NYC limits), I'm glad I'm not trying to afford a 2-bedroom alone by working 136 hours per week. If I were doing that, I'd have to work like 15 more hours or something. That's just unmanageable.


Upworthy: How Many Minimum Wage Hours to Afford a 2-Bedroom?

Work Ethic: Should only the young teach?

In the past 29 years I've learned quite a lot from my father. If there is one character trait that stands out, however, it's the ability to work during all daylight and many nighttime hours. I believe very strongly in the ability to work hard, which is reflected in several of the top posts of this blog. That said, each year I spend away from a consuming college course load with 2-3 jobs on top of it, I realize how important spending time with family is and how, if I intend to be a leader or teacher of anyone at all, I should practice what I preach in this area. In addition to this, I've seen this year some of the hardest working teachers and administrators make massive moves under the pressure of an unforgiving education system that requires more than what should be societally acceptable of its educators.

Something that many successful charter schools have in common is their ability to grind up new teachers like hamburger and spit them out after 2-3 years, while at the same time improving test scores, etc. While being new to any profession brings along with it long hours, working 80-90 hour weeks should not be a long-term expectation of any job. It's also not sustainable, nor is creating a system that requires it. If the only way to be very successful in this field is to work that much, it's very likely that we'll create a system in which all students are taught by people who are younger than 25. Don't get me wrong, I've met a lot of very good, young teachers, but generally even the smartest and most talented 24-year-olds are not the best teachers. The most successful schools also have a very strong sense of community, which is extremely difficult to maintain if all teachers are just learning to teach, and turnover each year is a quarter of the staff.

Of the teachers and administrators I've respected the most in the past five years, a number have come to the conclusion that even if we do put in 80 hours a week of very smart work, at times it's nearly impossible to be successful when up against the outside forces moving the hands of the education system. A few that come to mind are: the whims of billionaire philanthropists; a changing adolescent life outlook caused by shifting economics, video games, and increased social angst exacerbated by increased social networking opportunities outside of school;  a hyperactive and extremely negative media; and state and federal government officials who are tapping into the American education system more and more to support their political endeavors. To what degree these things play in the lives and education of our students are certainly debatable, but they do affect our students, as does the time and energy teachers must spend away from the their classrooms to grapple with them and their effects. Many teachers seem to be sick of this shift and are oftentimes simply pegged as curmudgeons who don't work hard enough. Others think that by leaving the classroom or the field altogether they can have a larger impact on society, including by raising their kids well as they grapple with the things listed above. 

That has been particularly striking to me- good people leaving the classroom because they want to be able to raise their kids well. Family is extremely important. It's been the bedrock of healthy societies for as long as societies have existed. The most difficult task facing the teachers and administrators I respect the most has more times than not boiled down to choosing between having a healthy, happy family or having a successful career in the field of education. If one chooses the latter, it's also extremely difficult to prove real success beyond one's own perspective, given recent evaluative tug-of-war the educational powers that be are having. I imagine that if I were a parent, I'd be much happier looking back on life knowing that I raised my children to be productive members of society than if I looked back on a teaching career hoping my work had made a difference. 

This year I've put the various teams I'm on to work in ways they've not necessarily worked before. My grade-level team in particular has undertaken a number of initiatives, including mastery-based grading and planning, that are extremely time consuming. Our math teacher, a mother of four children who range from toddler to teen, has felt the price of these initiatives in particular, sleeping very, very little in order to stay on top of work and her family. While we are somewhat unique in our undertaking of new work, it is not at all strange for teachers to take on extra tasks, including coaching, being active in a church or organization outside of school, etc. I'm very proud to be working with this teacher, but wonder how far my own expectations should go and how they reflect what's being demanded of teachers across the country right now.

Furthermore, expectations of very long working hours seems to be in conflict with the fact that teachers are oftentimes held to a higher moral standard than other community members. Whether we like it or not we're seen as role models not only for students, but for the community in general. This means that in addition to teaching the community's children in an academic sense, we also need to show what it means to be part of a healthy family, which includes making time for our spouses and children. As soon as we expect that teachers must give up healthy families, our society has gone too far in its expectation of the school systems, creating an egregious double-standard that is entirely unacceptable. 

As I move forward in my career, I fully intend to work as much as I ask anyone else to work. I plan to work very, very hard to help my students and my teammates achieve success. It's rocked me a bit this year to see many of my colleagues and former colleagues- those who are fantastic teachers and leaders- realize that they do not necessarily have the answers for how to fix schools for the underserved population to whom we've dedicated ourselves. That said, seeing them regroup and continue working in this field, while also making sure that they seek out personal happiness via family and friends, has been spiriting and has made me appreciate my wife and family that much more.

Changing Roles: Many Hats, Cautious Perspectives

This year has posed some very unique challenges. I've assumed a new leadership role in my school-  effectively a department head, but one that is more hands-on. In addition to leading team meetings and working to make a coherent scope and sequence for social studies in our school, I visit the history teachers' classrooms and have conversations with them afterwards about their  classrooms, the work we're doing school-wide, and general opinions about what's happening in the field and with them. The leadership team, composed of all lead teachers and administrators, meets regularly to discuss what's going on throughout the school and what work needs to be done moving forward. Overall, the work has seemed very fast-paced and fairly fruitful, if a bit haphazard and unclear. That said, I've very much enjoyed it.

I've found the role to be challenging, but nearly precisely what I'd like to do at our school. Unlike an administrative role, I'm not required or legally able to deal with much of the nonsense principals and their assistants must deal with on a daily basis. From my perspective that consists of a ton of adolescent drama (sometimes between kids, other times between adults), as well as grappling far more directly with the disgusting bureaucracies that are the Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers. Instead my focus is on my students and fellow teachers and the overall health of the school. I get to have real conversations with the staff about their thoughts on how to improve their own instruction and our school community, while administrators oftentimes do not have the time to do so. I also still teach classes of middle and high school students, including four subjects, unlike the vast majority of administrators in NYC and the U.S. in general, who do not teach students at all. This last piece is what keeps me sane, although most humans don't understand how dozens and dozens of thirteen-year-olds every day could possibly perserve anyone's sanity. Many days, at the end of my fifth period class, any observer would likely call me a liar for making this claim, but it's the truth.

A challenge I have found myself navigating is how to best express in and outside of our school what I think should be done, while at the same time knowing what I say will affect more people than those residing in my classroom. Perhaps this is still another reason that I've not written too much here this year. In general, whenever I find myself in a new group or role I tend to find it beneficial to take a while to look around, see where I stand and where to step, and listen to the folks with whom I'm working before I take a hard line on anything. As the role I've assumed this year is new for the school, I've tended to be a bit more cautious when airing opinions about what should happen regarding certain policies or decisions that seem less important. My ever vigilant teammates have half-jokingly called me out on it a number of times, asking when my first run for office will be, as my somewhat bland answers at times keep me safe and are rather obviously noncommittal.  

What I'm finding is that my work has become a more fluid. In my first couple of years, the work was very static. I had classes, I planned what I was going to do in those rooms, I was in those classrooms at the designated times, I taught the children, I collected their work, I went home and graded that work, and then repeated. Now I find myself in a position where I design history curriculum collaboratively for our grade, but don't teach all of the history classes for my grade. In the past two years I've had student teachers, who take much of instructional workload in terms of my eighth grade students, but are themselves students and deserve planning and instruction. I also find myself wearing more hats than before- being part of every committee and also teaching a larger variety of classes. 

As I move forward and define the role I've taken on, my hope is to clarify, for myself and for my teams, the work in which we're engaging. More than just the rigid cyclical role of a classroom teacher, I hope others will see the connection between our classrooms, grade levels, and content teams and will use our collaborative time and energies to capitalize on the potential those connections have for increasing the learning outcomes of our students. It seems to me that the move has begun and that this spring will give an opportunity to clarify the means by which the staff will tackle our challenging load. I'm looking forward to it.

Changing Views on Social Promotion

Looking back through the popular posts here, it seems that my opinion on most policy matters pertaining to education have not changed too much in the past couple of years. One notable shift, however, has been my view on social promotion. After spending a few weeks in England this summer and speaking with British teachers about their system, I've moved into a grayer area on the subject. My experience with social promotion had been somewhat conflicted as was, given my position as an eighth grade teacher with the ability to fail a student and keep them (to some extent) from going to high school. The hopes that something will change if they're shocked back to reality once sent the strong message that they are a well-rounded failure is somewhat in conflict with the results I've seen as an eighth grade teacher.   

My fast friends from England were surprised by the debate around social promotion, as it's apparently a non-issue for them. From what they said, students navigate the system as best they can from year to year preparing for the massive exams they take in high school, which in turn determine their life path after high school. They have their set number of years to prepare and if they work hard and do their jobs, they will do well based on that preparation and their unique talents. They also choose which specific subject area exams they want to take, which dictates their course schedules in the years leading up to those tests. Long story short, if they don't work hard, they won't do well and then they will have far fewer opportunities after school. Given that model, the teachers and schools differentiate for students with special needs and students with special talents, working hard to give every student a solid education.

I've grown to admire this model to some extent, as it shifts the onus of education back to students' performance, if even only hypothetically. If students know they only have so many years to learn about various topics (more pertaining to their interests in advanced grades), they must make the active decision to engage in the material and learn it via the instruction provided or through some other means. The American system has become one that criticizes the passive role forced upon students, but one that also engenders it by blasting to the public that if students fail, it is neither their fault nor their parents' fault. The fault lies squarely with the teachers and society outside of the private home. Given that mentality, students do become passive, as they see the teachers and/or some external force as responsible for their education and so their role is to sit back and receive a treatment. In any classroom the most successful students are those who take up the task of educating themselves given opportunities to do so. It seems that an essential part to a successful school system is one in which students feel responsibility for their own achievement and then see their classes as a way of getting there, rather than a required treatment to endure for thirteen years.

Clearly there are pitfalls to basing students' achievement almost solely on the successful completion of exams at the end of their childhood academic careers. That said, our school systems are by no means moving away from exit-exams, but instead are embracing them. We're trying to design better ones, in fact, with the PARCC exams and the SBAC exams. If we are going to head down that road, the conversation should shift from asking teachers alone what they're going to do to educate our children to asking the students themselves what they are going to do to prepare for these exams, which presumably be some of the strongest measures of academic achievement (along with the ACT and SAT). Students may then see school as an opportunity rather than a system they have to game for only so many years before they drop out and find themselves at best in a post-adolescent, pre-adult doldrums for years and years.

Real learning occurs when students are given opportunities to take on a challenge, fail, fail again (repeat as necessary), and then finally get something right. Getting something right on the first go is well and fine, but it's rarely how any adult learns a new skill, and certainly very few that are of value. The role of a teacher is to set out a variety of learning experiences for his or her students, expecting full and well that some of them will not perform at the highest level, but instead plans for when students have a rough time and shows them how to improve based on their performance. The role of a student is to seize the opportunities laid out by a teacher and learn everything possible. Without both of these very active roles, our students will not ever be the master competitors we hope they will be when we compare them to Finland and Japan and sort of scoff at both our teachers and their teachers (albeit for different reasons).