Mega Bites and Messages

One of the challenges of working for a urban school system is the lack of funds for conferences and sraff developmenr.  Very ironic when you realize that these are the kids that have little or no access to technology at home and the only place where they are exposed to 21st century Skills is at School.  Since we have worked 2 years without a contract and 3 years without a raise it has gotten to be increasingly more difficult to stretch the dollars on the home front-so even tthough technology integration is my passion-NECC attendnace is not a possibility without a miracle.

In an attempt to give the miracle a helping hand I applied at the Microsoft site. Microsoft is giving away 5 scholarshops to NECC. So maybe…? I have never been to the nations capital so being able to go to NECC would be a real thrill.  But I am a realist as well, so I will be looking into the opportunities to attend in Second Life and through Eluiminate.   

In any case, change is education has become critical.. Our economy  is changing from manufacturing base to a glonal community where information is becoming the new currency. This is going to require schools to step up and use technology tools to teach children. engage them, and prepare them for jobs in the new economy. We are3 going to have to use the resources we have smarter, ask our teachers to do more if we are to reach our children and prepare them for the future. Education is critical factor here.

Innovate – Changing from static learners to collaboration

We have been sitting students in rows, talking at them,  making them memorize.  We talkàthey memorizeèwe test àrepeat.  Areas the students memorized well in became their career, If they were not good at memorizing-off to the manufacturing jobs they were sent. Research and studies for years showed this was not the best way-yet we continue to do more of the same. Teachers were told to do more hands on learning, more projects, more higher level thinking skills, but at the same time prepare the kids for paper and pencil exams, with school funding and their jobs on the line. Incorporate technology into instruction-but make it difficult to teachers to use the technology by locking down the machines, and blocking, blocking, blocking content . While the potential is there for technology to reach students that have been underserved-those resources need to be user friendly for the instructors. We still need those trained teachers in the computer labs to teach and engage both the students and the educators, in technology use. But then there are the yearly budget cuts.  Those who legislate require more and most tests- children’s scores used to measure teachers effectiveness.  We have longer school days, more school days and somehow think more of the same will lead to a different result. We have a new Secretary of Education that thinks more the same is the recipe for success.  Putting all these pieces together it is easy to understand why  teachers become discouraged. They are being asked the equivalent of running and standing still at the same time.

 How many great minds have been wasted because they were perceived as not smart=simply because they learned in a different way? How many students have we lost to boredom? How many great teachers have we lost because they could tolerate the low pay and long hours, but the not the lack of respect for the profession? What happened to  students who got all A’s?  Many struggled to get and keep a job because they lacked the ability to work well with others, and felt entitled to the same special treatment they got in school as the “A” student.  Once in the work world there was no longer a parent to run interference for them, and responsibility fell on their shoulders like a ton of bricks. Since jobs don’t test every week-the expectation was for these graduates to be to apply the skills they learned. Again a huge discontent between what school were teaching and the skills that are needed for success. Everyone can agree that change is needed. Some want to peel off the good students and create a separate system of “Charter” schools-the separate but equal philosophy.

Project based learning challenges students=but also parents who  need a new understanding of assessment.  Universal Design for Learning does stretch every learner but makes it difficult for parents to understand how a student working on what they think of, as an easier project can get an A, while their child got a B+.   I still stand by the notion of giving students choices. I also think that there is way too much emphasis and pressure on grades. The challenge to change really lies in convincing the parents and Politian’s,  who really run the schools that there is a better way. Then getting them to trust the process —HUGE GOALS

Gripes and Brags
Reflecting back as the school comes to a close, it was a mixed bag of wonderful innovation and challenges. In my second year at a new building I have worked hard, challenged myself and my student’s and have been pleased with the results. We have  used C.A.D. (Computer Assisted Design) programs, written digital stories, create slide shows, made movies, created wiki pages, blogged our thoughts  in response to literature, programmed in Scratch, Alice, Squeak, and HTML. Students have review using MS Office, made stop action animations, worked with stop action animation, and explored digital photography.  Over all. a positive experience engaging student learners. While not everyone loved everything, I feel that each student picked up some necessary and essential skills.

 Yet ,as any educator knows classroom management remains an important  part of teaching. What remains as a frustration is the lack of parent understanding in redirected student behavior.  I try to have the students reflect on their behavior, write a note to me explaining why they did what they did. Then having students go home and report that –they did nothing wrong and the teacher doesn’t like them.  It amazes me that parent’s can announce so boldly that “I believe my child and not you” Why would I possibly: pick on a group of children”. It’s not like any of us want to disciple, it is just part of the job. Children have not changed so much= but parents have. The same parent who doesn’t come to conferences- appears weeks later to complain about a B+ on a report card.   We take the advice of doctors, lawyers and even the cable repairman=but not educators. I really do have the best interests of my children in mind-allowing them to get away with bad behavior really does them no good in the end.  Unfortunately most of us only hear from the few parents who complain and not the many that are happy!

So…this year… It was a mixed bag. I take consolation in the two grants I won, the designation as a MI Champion, and the amount of positive feedback I get from my peers on Classroom 2.0, MACUL Space and Twitter. I remind myself that 2 parent complaints out of 408 students isn’t the end of the world.  Social networking has created a community of educators and for the first time we are out there supporting each other and learning we have much in common no where we live or teach. So our hope for change rest on the possibility that together we can do more!

First I have to confess I did vote for Obama, so my dissappointment in the statements of the New Education Secretary is leaving a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

“Secretary Duncan also noted that the budget overview includes a $500 million grant program for a new federal-state-local partnership to improve retention and graduation rates, particularly for low-income college students. Funds would support research into what works to help increase college completion.” Wow, didn’t that sound good?

Unfortunately, the stimulus money is earmarked for professional development and equipment. This is happening at the same time that districts are forced to increase class size, pull computer/media specialist out of the Literacy Hub of the school, and place just one more hoop out there for classroom teachers to jump through.

My school district recieved a bond issue and grant to improve the schools and many of our buildings have wonderful state of the art computer labs. The only problem is-no one uses them. When teachers try to use them they are so locked down that they are not even able to run updates for Flash, Adobe, or Real Player. So the teacher prepares a lesson at home checks the links, and then after logging all the students on with the individual passwords the districts mandates, finds out the the sites won’t run at school because install updates requires “administrative rights” that the teacher doesn’t have. Add to this the fact that she had checked the site at school the week before and you can see how easy it is to discourage teachers from incorporating technology.

Unfortunately most of the teacher on the elementary level (in my district) are using technology skills to grade their report cards- (with a lag time that is frustrating and no rights to go back in and correct typing errors) ,and use programs such as Exam Review and other programs to do data analysis. If all you ever are taught to do with the computer are record keeping and data warehousing activities, you can see how technology is simply not getting to the kids.

I was at a meeting yesterday with a group of college professors who are concerned that the amount of students seeking a Computer Science degree has dropped 45 % in the last five years. According to this group,the students that the colleges are getting are ill prepared for advanced computer skills, and often cannot test out of very basic office functions. So much teacher time is now spend on testing, assessment, and data research to meet AYP and MEAP that we somehow managed to suck the creativity right out of the teaching process. All of this paper work and additional testing has done nothing to raise scores-it has stressed out teachers and students, with discipline and hands on learning have suffering as a result.

“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tuesday that $100 billion in federal stimulus money for schools will save thousands of teaching jobs and promote education reforms. ” Except that with curent budget cuts my district is telling us it will simply reduce the number of cuts necessary and to expect a class size increases. After working 3 years without a contract and no cost of living increases, the district now wants to take away our PPO health care. I am not sure how this plays into Secretary Duncans vision of recruiting more and better teachers.

Recently Duncan told the students: “I fundamentally think that our school day is too short, our school week is too short and our school year is too short. You’re competing for jobs with kids from India and China. I think schools should be open six, seven days a week; eleven, twelve months a year.”Duncan reportedly expected the students to react to his comments in a negative manner, but AP writes that the teens simply gave him “bored stares.”

You have to love the honesty of teenagers. Does he actually think that more of the same thing is going to change education? And here’s my big question….Why doesn’t anyone ever ASK the teachers what they think needs to be done to improve education? You would think that these share holders might have something to add to the conversation! I have to agree with David Warlick on this one: “The two statements, attributed to the education leader, not only make my blood boil — but they are simply “Dead Wrong!”

According to David,”Arnie Duncan was nominated to the Secretary of Education post by President Barack Obama in mid-December last year, and smarter men than me immediately called foul (See Gary Stager’s “What Do Arne Duncan & Paul Bremer Have in Common?). I wanted to give Duncan the benefit of the doubt, but all doubt’s gone now. We’ve gotten no where and we’re going nowwhere, especially if we are going to extend the sentencing of our children.” You can read his entire blog here.

Just in case he is actually interested here are the issues as I see them. I know ..I know -who am I ?? Just a 20 year veteran educator who believes in education and wants to see REAL change occur.!

1. Discipline-allowing students to get away with almost anything in order to stem dropout rates is a receipe for disaster. A respectful attitude is required in the work place and should be demanded at school as well. Classrooms cannot solve the issues of poverty and crime. We should provide programs that address the needs of students without making an entire classroom a place where teachers can’t teach because they have to spend there entire time on discipline.

2. If you are going to compare-be fair- Inner City students that have attended 3 schools in one year are simply not going to do as well as any other student that has been able to spend an entire year in one building. Teachers have no control over housing and evictions, parents remarrying, and poverty that force children and families from their homes. Yet everyone loves to compare the test scores of these children who are just happy to have a home, with the priveldged kids in the burbs. Secretary Duncan also compares us to China where frankly they track kids. Here in America we strive to educate everyone-that is a good thing. However comparing our system which leaves no child behind, to a system that tracks children and only reports scores of the “Choosen” students is just plain unfair and misleading.

3.Testing Time deceases teaching time all those paper and pencil bubble in tests take time away from Project Based differentiated learning which all the experts and data support as the road map to long turn learning and retention of essential skills. Can you think of any job where you are tested 5-6 times each week? Neither can I . I do know that most peiople work in teams, on projects to get things done.

4. Seperate is Not Equal Creating another system of Charter schools seeks to do what busing sought to undo-segregation. Charter Schools that are often run by for profit companies, can expel students they do not wish to have and they are sent back to regular public school. Charter schools also do not have to provide special education services nor busing. How is this EQUAL?

I know my comments are likely to get lots of feedback- but here they are

Our country was founded on equal opportunity. We embarked on a mission where education was free and available for all. We wrestle with issues of church and state, funding, parents wishes, students rights, teacher training and defining what it is we can/should teach. Somewhere in the struggle lies possibilities.

While this is a discussion is ongoing, what has been an unknowable trend has been the large amount of non-educators that seem to be defining what education is and should be. The coming focus and shift to Charter Schools may in the short term show some positive results. But-and here is the rub-who are we leaving behind in the “regular” schools?  Should we peel off the students who have interested, vested parents and create schools just for them?  Without realizing it would we be setting up unequal school systems?

An an educator in a large city district I can assure you there are real problems. Unfortunately, many of the issues urban educators face are issues over which they have very little control. If we really want education to become the great equalizer then we should at the very least look at the real issues teachers in the inner city face.

Student mobility is a HUGE problem. It is not uncommom for students to attend 3-4 different schools during one school year.  This also adds to huge gaps when the child is not in school at all, as they move between homes, parents,and even cities.  A child actually has to be there in order for a teacher to teach them. The loss of a caring teacher to an At Risk student is seen as another rejection. Many of our kids face way to many rejections.

Discipline. My girlfriend teaches Kindergarten and spends at least 50 % of her time explaining school appropriate words and behavior. Most of these 5 year old come to school with vocabularys that would make most of us blush and striking out and hitting someone is natural way to resolve differences.  By the time some of these children reach middle school it is not uncommon for them to have expereinced more fear, loss, and betrayal that most adults experience in a lifetime. 

Materials and Supplies. While Walmart and other run ads  for back to school supplies, most  children in city schools arrive with very little. It is the classroom teachers who out of her own paycheck buys crayons, markers, glue, and even copy paper. While a box of crayon runs around $2.00 just times that by 30 children. Add in socks, backpacks, and stickers and you get the picture that teacher in the inner city is investing a much larger portion of her paycheck in her classroom. A high school friend of mine has taken to buying golf pencils for his classroom because students never have pencils and the ones he buys tend to walk away the last student who borrowed it. Teaching over 100 students a day-he has tried everything to keep enough pencils in the  room so students have something to actually write their assigments with. Golf pencils just don’t seem to walk away as quickly. As city educator make far less than their counterparts in the more affluent subburbs, it becomes harder and harder for teachers to use their salaries to make up the difference.

Paper work- until my own children attended a suburban school I never realized that paper work, reports, data sheets, were not used everywhere. My childrens teachers apparently just keep grade books and grade report cards. They do not have data review sheets, they do not have to track trends. ect. I understand that perhaps more assessment is needed to reteach-but I am hear to tell you-all that paper work- it really good at killing creativity. 

Respect. I have always considered teaching to be a higher calling. Yet as the years have gone by it is very common for  parents to yell at me for giving theur child a B+. There is an entitlement that if I don’t give an A I must justify-justify-justify. The pressure on the poor kid-to have to get A’s in everything. Not to mention the very demeaner of students and parents who challenge. It is okay to vent, yell at and educator-we just stand there and take it.

Note to the new education secretary-education has some very real issues, running away from them and ceate seperate but equal schools is no answer. Blaming the teachers-just not going to work. It is going to take a real discussion with teachers who work with kids to come up with some solutions. There’s a unique idea-how about including us in the discussion.