As usual, it's been a while. I suppose blogging is just not really for me. But every once in a while my kids do a writing assignment or something that I really feel like merits sharing, usually for both humor and sincerity (a balance my students seem to find naturally), and holidays tend to bring this out in them. As last week was Thanksgiving, we talked about what it meant to be thankful and did the very stereotypical Thanksgiving assignment of writing about what they are thankful for. Their responses ranged from amusing to touching, sometimes in the same writing. I thought you might enjoy them. I have left all spelling, grammar, and mechanics as is, spare perhaps some editor's notes, found in brackets.
R: "im am thankful for thankging. im am thankful for God. i am thankful for shoes."
K: "I am thankful for my family and friends and My Teacher and puppy and Daddy and Mammy and Grandma and God creating us and the Earth. And jeues too. Myself and school in every state in America. And houses we can live in. And Brothers. And country And my 1 grade teacher too."
S: "I am thankful for my family and me techer because she techs me. I am thankful for my class mats. Because they are my friends. I am thankful for God. Jesus and I am Thankful to have food, water, clothes. I am mostley thankful for everybody and everything."
J: "I am thankful for my mommy, my teacher, my family. I'm thankful for my dead Grandma, and my dead Grandpa because I miss the both. I'm thankful for my clothes and my shoes and I'm thankful my food that I put in my mouth to eat I thankful for my school that I learn at."
D (one of my most behaviorally challenged students): "I am thankful for my mom. I am thankful for my daddy. I am thankful for my class. I am thankful for the school. I am thankful for grandma. I am thankful for clothes. I am thankful for food. I am thankful for family. I am thankful for teacher. I am thankful for Ms. Holoman. I am thankful for storys. I am thankful for shoes. I am thankful for desk." [I love lamp.]
J: "I am thankful for god he made me a wonderful life. My mom she made me a free born because I have a wonderful life [what does that even mean?] My teacher is cool she make me learn."
A: "I am thankful for my mom my dad and my family. I am thankful for teachers. Doctor. I am happy we got clean water. [I had shared with the kids that I was always thankful for the fact that we have clean drinking water, since so many people die from not having the luxury - a value passed down from my dad.] I am thankful for everything. I am thankful for God and Jesus. I am thankful for living and breathing. I am thankful for America and my country and my 1 grade 2 grade 3 grade 4-grads. I am thankful for my scoohl."
A: "I'm thankful for are toys, for fenids, for clothing, for aparments and houses, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, causeins, anuts, uncles, techers, beds, anamails, electronics, tools, pencils, pen, led pencils ["lead pencils" is what my kids call mechanical pencils], glassases, chairs, and paper."
J: "I am thankful for my family and the kids who have diseases [again, a spin from talking about clean water] and my mom and my two Dads [bio and step, not a same-sex couple] and my two sisters and my classmates like K, S, D, and the rast and my grandma grandpa and my anuts and uncles and God and Jeses and the whole world and the Earth and the clothes to." [I love how she got so broad there at the end and then brought it back home with clothes to close out.]
T (another one of my biggest behavior struggles): "I'm thankful for everything. I'm thankful for God. I'm thankful for a teacher. I'm thankful for a school."
D: "I am thankful for my brother and my life and god and xoBox 360 and my grepa and cosen and my dog and Ms. Holoman"
A [whose sister I had in my 3rd grade class my first year of teaching]: "I am thankful for my family and friend and one of my friends are homeless and on thursday I will take her to church. And I am thankful for god and Jeuses my country and my real country El Salvador. I am thankful for water, food, and a house. I am thankful for this class and you Ms. Holoman. and I am thankful for every body in the whole wide world."
K: "I am thankful for my mommy and my daddy. I am thankful for evreyone in my famliy. Allso"
L: "I am thankful for God. I am thankful for famell. I am thankful for me. I am thankful for dog. I am thankful for house. I am thankful for fres [friends]. I am thankful for my techer. I am thankful for my daD. I am thankful for the erth."
N: "I am thankful for the clean earth, clean water, my teacher, my friends, my family, other kindness, my kindness, my BFFs, my smartness, other's smartness, fresh foods and drinks, my talent, and everyone!"
L: "I am thankful for god and my famliy and my friends and Ms. Holowman and me and my little sister who I love so much that I will never ever leave her sight. I am thankful for Jesus and the world and my mom and my toys and my dad and my dad's new van and his new gun to protect us [he's been talking about this gun nonstop] and evry single thing that is godly. including god and my godly famly and my school and my new house that my grandma is going to live in. the end."
D: "I am thankful for Ms. Holoman and my hole family and my classmates and god and Jeses and the food that I eat I thank for rain and the seson and ever thing and grandma and grandpa and the things that my mom gave me and my mom and my dad and my sisters named L and L my dog and my fish. "
D: "I am thankful for my Teacher and my sister and i am thankful for my classroom and i kray a band [translation: "I pray about"] Jesus and my family."
So there you have it. And as for me, I am thankful for the opportunity to spend every day with these kiddos, no matter how much they challenge me, because they are the lights of my life. That said, I am also thankful that it's almost Christmas break. Who's with me?
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
On being a second-year teacher...
So, now that my last post happened almost a full year ago...maybe embarking on a blog as a first-year teacher (and someone with a long history of being bad at consistent journaling/blogging) wasn't the wisest choice. Hindsight is always 20/20, I suppose.
You may have noticed a change - 2nd grade! I moved down a grade level, which, as most things in the public schools, wasn't my choice, but it was actually something that I welcomed with open arms. Granted, I didn't really know what kinds of changes I had in store, but they have turned out to be quite refreshing. Let me preface this post with a short statement about the rest of last year.
It's all but impossible to sum up one's first year of teaching with any semblance of brevity. That said, last year was full of glorious moments of teaching and learning as well as dark days of stress and feelings of inadequacy. My job and my students tried me in ways that I never thought possible, and in return, I pushed back, trying with all my might to enable my students to meet their goals. Many of them did not, and that was due largely to my failures or shortcomings. The day I said that out loud for the first time was one of the most humbling in my life. However, many of my students made great strides toward becoming lifetime learners. And one of my favorite parts of my day this new year is seeing my students from last year on the playground every afternoon. They have grown so big and so mature; I am proud to continue to call them my own.
Now, living in the present, I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, and 2nd graders, too. (The coconuts part just sort of snuck out as I was typing that sentence). 18, to be precise. Although one is moving at the beginning of October, as he has informed me multiple times. As a general rule, my students this year are more compliant, better mannered, and more excited about school than my students last year. On the flip side, because they are a year younger (and consequently in a drastically different developmental stage...7 to 8 is a big gap), there are many things that I took for granted that my third graders could do that my second graders cannot (yet). For example:
1) A remarkable number of my students still write their numbers and letters backwards. It's not a dyslexia issue, it's simply developmental pattern. Some of my students, though, still reverse letters in their own name! Definitely unexpected. It will be fun, though, to see them stop doing so as the year progresses.
2) 2nd graders are not nearly as well-trained for doing independent work as third graders. They just can't hold as many directions in their mind at once. An easy fix, though. Just a bit of training and they'll be good to go.
3) 7 year old attention spans are approximately half as long as 8 year old attention spans. Which weren't that long to begin with, so...you do the math. Enough said.
I'm also doing a lot of kinds of teaching this year that I didn't do last year - like teaching phonics, for instance. In 3rd grade, the focus is so heavily set on reading comprehension that if a student enters third grade unable to decode words, they are all but left behind because there is no focus on actually how to read, only how to understand what you read. This year, though, we are spending 15-20 minutes every day learning about sound/spelling patterns and word parts. This week we're focusing on the long a sound, spelled a and a_e. Which lends itself to fun teacher talk like "In the 'a-consonant-e' pattern, the e at the end is a magic e! It makes the a say it's name!" I feel much more like I'm on a children's TV show and less like the teacher in Peanuts. (Womp womp womp womp womp womp womp.)
In any case, a new year brings new joys and new challenges. I'm going to try to do a better job keeping this updated this year, because I feel much more like I have a life outside of teaching, which might lend itself to blogging. Or exploring Charlotte. One or the other.
I leave you with a quote (attributed to many people, most famously MLK, Jr.) I heard at a community event I attended last night, which has no direct tie to education, but it has been bopping around in my mind all day: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
You may have noticed a change - 2nd grade! I moved down a grade level, which, as most things in the public schools, wasn't my choice, but it was actually something that I welcomed with open arms. Granted, I didn't really know what kinds of changes I had in store, but they have turned out to be quite refreshing. Let me preface this post with a short statement about the rest of last year.
It's all but impossible to sum up one's first year of teaching with any semblance of brevity. That said, last year was full of glorious moments of teaching and learning as well as dark days of stress and feelings of inadequacy. My job and my students tried me in ways that I never thought possible, and in return, I pushed back, trying with all my might to enable my students to meet their goals. Many of them did not, and that was due largely to my failures or shortcomings. The day I said that out loud for the first time was one of the most humbling in my life. However, many of my students made great strides toward becoming lifetime learners. And one of my favorite parts of my day this new year is seeing my students from last year on the playground every afternoon. They have grown so big and so mature; I am proud to continue to call them my own.
Now, living in the present, I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, and 2nd graders, too. (The coconuts part just sort of snuck out as I was typing that sentence). 18, to be precise. Although one is moving at the beginning of October, as he has informed me multiple times. As a general rule, my students this year are more compliant, better mannered, and more excited about school than my students last year. On the flip side, because they are a year younger (and consequently in a drastically different developmental stage...7 to 8 is a big gap), there are many things that I took for granted that my third graders could do that my second graders cannot (yet). For example:
1) A remarkable number of my students still write their numbers and letters backwards. It's not a dyslexia issue, it's simply developmental pattern. Some of my students, though, still reverse letters in their own name! Definitely unexpected. It will be fun, though, to see them stop doing so as the year progresses.
2) 2nd graders are not nearly as well-trained for doing independent work as third graders. They just can't hold as many directions in their mind at once. An easy fix, though. Just a bit of training and they'll be good to go.
3) 7 year old attention spans are approximately half as long as 8 year old attention spans. Which weren't that long to begin with, so...you do the math. Enough said.
I'm also doing a lot of kinds of teaching this year that I didn't do last year - like teaching phonics, for instance. In 3rd grade, the focus is so heavily set on reading comprehension that if a student enters third grade unable to decode words, they are all but left behind because there is no focus on actually how to read, only how to understand what you read. This year, though, we are spending 15-20 minutes every day learning about sound/spelling patterns and word parts. This week we're focusing on the long a sound, spelled a and a_e. Which lends itself to fun teacher talk like "In the 'a-consonant-e' pattern, the e at the end is a magic e! It makes the a say it's name!" I feel much more like I'm on a children's TV show and less like the teacher in Peanuts. (Womp womp womp womp womp womp womp.)
In any case, a new year brings new joys and new challenges. I'm going to try to do a better job keeping this updated this year, because I feel much more like I have a life outside of teaching, which might lend itself to blogging. Or exploring Charlotte. One or the other.
I leave you with a quote (attributed to many people, most famously MLK, Jr.) I heard at a community event I attended last night, which has no direct tie to education, but it has been bopping around in my mind all day: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Selections from "notes from my students"
So earlier this week, my students' poor behavior led to them losing their recess time. Normally, this would mean that they would walk laps around the playground. On this particular day, it happened to be raining, so we stayed inside and I told my students to take out a sheet of paper and write to me, for 20 minutes, about anything they wanted to write about. The results were quite diverse, and very entertaining. Here are some of the highlights (transcribed exactly as written, hence the errors):
M: "Hi Ms. H. I know today is my birthday I'm really excited and I'm geting a fish today I don't now what I should call I If you got a good name tell me please your the best teacher I met If I give you a inveation will you come to my birthday pary you are really really really really nice and pretty I like school so much I don't wnat to leave."
C (an ESL student): "I fie sad becam we didit got time to tike at lunch and recess and I sorrow we wase our time." (followed by "Be Mine." and a picture of Spongebob that he traced from one of the many Spongebob valentines he has sitting in his desk that he will periodically distribute in quantities of anywhere from 1-4 to a random student at a random time.)
K: "Dear Ms. H. I'm feeling happy I want Kids Bop 18 a puppy roller skates a bairbe and a doll house. A coller for puppy. I want to go smiwing."
C (in the form of a thank you card): "Thak you for being my teaher and thak you for helping me love C"
T: "I want some new shes and some new games and some new close and some books and some new sinny j...and I want a machn and some bes so I can wap kids and I want to be a football plaer. The end."
D: "Dear Ms. H I will lik some jolley rache and som hot chetoc."
One paper without a name simply said "fighting", and honestly I was impressed that it was spelled right.
B: "Dear Mrs. H. You are a very nice teacher some people say you arn't. When I grow up I want to be a vet because it is so not cute to see animals out on the street or diging in the trash can trying to fine somthing to eat."
A (an ESL student): "Ms. H ho is jore frabrate siger?"
D (an ESL student): "I like my dog Soloman because he is playful. When I run he run aftar me every thime I go inside he goes inside. When I fall he goes and like me and jump on me and that tikiles. When I sleep get on my bed then he start liking me. When I wake up he star barking and that mean he is hungry. Then I got and walk him all the niborhood. When I go to use the bathroom he use it to. That is why I like Soloman. The end."
Z managed to write his name on his paper and nothing else over the course of 20 minutes.
R: "I want a milky way a 3 musscaters a bike a skate 3 game for x box 360 a candy bar 7 pairs of shoes a hot tub a jucuzy a big big pool with a diveing board a te-rex motercicle a skating rink."
B (an ESL student): "Well when I grow up I whant to be a doctor of anomirt."
A: "NASCAR us my fariote I love NAscar."
K, whose entire paper was embellished with flowers: "Dear, Ms. H. If we my famliy Invite to our house or vactoin would come"
E (an ESL student) and one of my favorite writings from the day: "guitar stampers horses cariwinds favorite restrunt barbie ice cream dog ice cream maker trofy calne movie for punit disien kit neckless braclit candy chuky cheses cotten candy gum balls notebook markers glitter pen led pencils cocont ice cream. new dress boucey house. bike scoter money miny bake oven. humingbrid."
S: "I want a bop it. and a fish. I like chinken. I like furits. I want a puppy. I want to go to daycare. I want to be a grown up. I want candy. I want some bloons and a moter bike and a moter scoter and a room flild whth furit and an manchin and to be rich. And have preety cloths and shoes. to have my toes done and hair done and to be mixed. and to have greenesh redesh bluesh eyes. I want to go to bild a bare workshop. D-3." (I was intrigued by the inclusion of "and to be mixed" in the middle of that...it's pretty deep for a third grader.)
And last but certainly not least, T: "Dear Ms. H. I love skatebording. It is fun you should try it. you might fall. But not hard I did a cople times. But not hard it's fun."
So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. If you've found yourself wondering recently what's on the mind of your average third grader...well, I'm not sure I would call my third graders average, so I'm not sure this would help you. In fact, our classroom mission statement says that we're anything but average:
"We are exceptional. We are not ordinary. We will work hard to achieve our goals. We will support and respect each other. We are exceptional. We are not ordinary."
Exceptional thoughts from exceptional students. These are why I teach for equality.
M: "Hi Ms. H. I know today is my birthday I'm really excited and I'm geting a fish today I don't now what I should call I If you got a good name tell me please your the best teacher I met If I give you a inveation will you come to my birthday pary you are really really really really nice and pretty I like school so much I don't wnat to leave."
C (an ESL student): "I fie sad becam we didit got time to tike at lunch and recess and I sorrow we wase our time." (followed by "Be Mine." and a picture of Spongebob that he traced from one of the many Spongebob valentines he has sitting in his desk that he will periodically distribute in quantities of anywhere from 1-4 to a random student at a random time.)
K: "Dear Ms. H. I'm feeling happy I want Kids Bop 18 a puppy roller skates a bairbe and a doll house. A coller for puppy. I want to go smiwing."
C (in the form of a thank you card): "Thak you for being my teaher and thak you for helping me love C"
T: "I want some new shes and some new games and some new close and some books and some new sinny j...and I want a machn and some bes so I can wap kids and I want to be a football plaer. The end."
D: "Dear Ms. H I will lik some jolley rache and som hot chetoc."
One paper without a name simply said "fighting", and honestly I was impressed that it was spelled right.
B: "Dear Mrs. H. You are a very nice teacher some people say you arn't. When I grow up I want to be a vet because it is so not cute to see animals out on the street or diging in the trash can trying to fine somthing to eat."
A (an ESL student): "Ms. H ho is jore frabrate siger?"
D (an ESL student): "I like my dog Soloman because he is playful. When I run he run aftar me every thime I go inside he goes inside. When I fall he goes and like me and jump on me and that tikiles. When I sleep get on my bed then he start liking me. When I wake up he star barking and that mean he is hungry. Then I got and walk him all the niborhood. When I go to use the bathroom he use it to. That is why I like Soloman. The end."
Z managed to write his name on his paper and nothing else over the course of 20 minutes.
R: "I want a milky way a 3 musscaters a bike a skate 3 game for x box 360 a candy bar 7 pairs of shoes a hot tub a jucuzy a big big pool with a diveing board a te-rex motercicle a skating rink."
B (an ESL student): "Well when I grow up I whant to be a doctor of anomirt."
A: "NASCAR us my fariote I love NAscar."
K, whose entire paper was embellished with flowers: "Dear, Ms. H. If we my famliy Invite to our house or vactoin would come"
E (an ESL student) and one of my favorite writings from the day: "guitar stampers horses cariwinds favorite restrunt barbie ice cream dog ice cream maker trofy calne movie for punit disien kit neckless braclit candy chuky cheses cotten candy gum balls notebook markers glitter pen led pencils cocont ice cream. new dress boucey house. bike scoter money miny bake oven. humingbrid."
S: "I want a bop it. and a fish. I like chinken. I like furits. I want a puppy. I want to go to daycare. I want to be a grown up. I want candy. I want some bloons and a moter bike and a moter scoter and a room flild whth furit and an manchin and to be rich. And have preety cloths and shoes. to have my toes done and hair done and to be mixed. and to have greenesh redesh bluesh eyes. I want to go to bild a bare workshop. D-3." (I was intrigued by the inclusion of "and to be mixed" in the middle of that...it's pretty deep for a third grader.)
And last but certainly not least, T: "Dear Ms. H. I love skatebording. It is fun you should try it. you might fall. But not hard I did a cople times. But not hard it's fun."
So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. If you've found yourself wondering recently what's on the mind of your average third grader...well, I'm not sure I would call my third graders average, so I'm not sure this would help you. In fact, our classroom mission statement says that we're anything but average:
"We are exceptional. We are not ordinary. We will work hard to achieve our goals. We will support and respect each other. We are exceptional. We are not ordinary."
Exceptional thoughts from exceptional students. These are why I teach for equality.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Data Driven Instruction
So week 4 is coming to a close, and by the end of the day tomorrow I'll have at least 7 points of data on each of the students in my class (with the exception of the one new student who started at the end of last week - I'll have 3 for her) and they're all going into this very fancy excel spreadsheet that TFA has drawn up (that my entire school now uses) that color codes each student's standing in relationship to the class goal that you set. It's all part of "data driven instruction", which is the hot new thing in education. I have no idea how the tracker does what it does (I'm not very good with excel) but I love it.
I know a lot of people aren't crazy about the idea of looking solely at scores on assessments to determine what we're doing in our classrooms, you know, the holistic child approach. And while I fully believe that you can't put your blinders on and look just at the numbers, I'm also wholeheartedly invested in the theory and practice of data driven instruction. By breaking down each student's performance into a series of scores, you can see not only which students are doing well and which are struggling, but also specific areas of strength and weakness. I can see that because my student doesn't have a strong grip on place value and number sense, they don't do well in comparing and ordering numbers because those are skills that require an understanding of place value. This way, I don't go back to comparing and ordering before touching on place value and number sense; I could beat them over the head with how to compare numbers but if they don't know that 100 is worth more than 10, they're never going to know how to tell that 438 is worth more than 399.
Anyway, I'm writing this while sitting in grad class at UNC-Charlotte (shhhh...don't tell the professor) so my thoughts are not very put together or well articulated. But I'll close out with a story about the best part of my day:
Let me first say that my students do NOT get along well with one another. It's a rare half hour that goes past without someone calling someone else a name, or the passing of a shouting match, or someone kicking someone else. That said, I'm bound and determined to teach them how to work together, because it's centrally important to their development as students and people. So today I split my students into groups of 3 with one reading textbook per group (since I only have 7 textbooks for my class of 21), told them that they should take turns reading out loud, that they should read through the entire story, that they should complete a T-chart contrasting life in the United States and life in Korea (the book was about a girl who moves from Korea to the US), and that they had 30 minutes to do so. I let their group choose where in the room they would sit, with the understanding that they should not be close enough to any other group to talk to them. I set the timer and sent them on their merry way, and I walked around the room, expecting the typical behavior management nightmare that occurs every time we do group work. Instead, I saw my students working on task the entire time, with completed products that genuinely impressed me.
Those surprised moments of sheer joy are why I teach for equality.
I know a lot of people aren't crazy about the idea of looking solely at scores on assessments to determine what we're doing in our classrooms, you know, the holistic child approach. And while I fully believe that you can't put your blinders on and look just at the numbers, I'm also wholeheartedly invested in the theory and practice of data driven instruction. By breaking down each student's performance into a series of scores, you can see not only which students are doing well and which are struggling, but also specific areas of strength and weakness. I can see that because my student doesn't have a strong grip on place value and number sense, they don't do well in comparing and ordering numbers because those are skills that require an understanding of place value. This way, I don't go back to comparing and ordering before touching on place value and number sense; I could beat them over the head with how to compare numbers but if they don't know that 100 is worth more than 10, they're never going to know how to tell that 438 is worth more than 399.
Anyway, I'm writing this while sitting in grad class at UNC-Charlotte (shhhh...don't tell the professor) so my thoughts are not very put together or well articulated. But I'll close out with a story about the best part of my day:
Let me first say that my students do NOT get along well with one another. It's a rare half hour that goes past without someone calling someone else a name, or the passing of a shouting match, or someone kicking someone else. That said, I'm bound and determined to teach them how to work together, because it's centrally important to their development as students and people. So today I split my students into groups of 3 with one reading textbook per group (since I only have 7 textbooks for my class of 21), told them that they should take turns reading out loud, that they should read through the entire story, that they should complete a T-chart contrasting life in the United States and life in Korea (the book was about a girl who moves from Korea to the US), and that they had 30 minutes to do so. I let their group choose where in the room they would sit, with the understanding that they should not be close enough to any other group to talk to them. I set the timer and sent them on their merry way, and I walked around the room, expecting the typical behavior management nightmare that occurs every time we do group work. Instead, I saw my students working on task the entire time, with completed products that genuinely impressed me.
Those surprised moments of sheer joy are why I teach for equality.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wait...what just happened?
So my first 5 days of teaching have come and gone. It’s exactly what I expected in some ways and so very far from it in others. I have a rambunctious class of 20 third graders, most of whom are 8 years old. I have 2 students who are receiving special education services, 6 students receiving ESL, and 3 students who are repeating the third grade, having failed their end-of-grade tests (EOGs) last year.
My first two days of teaching were trying, to say the least. I broke down sobbing both days as soon as my students left the room, feeling completely out of control of my situation and my classroom. I’ve worked with a lot of students with behavior problems before but never in a situation where it’s 20 on 1 and the behavioral system in place is ineffective and incomplete. I quickly learned which students were going to cause me problems and which weren’t, and quickly decided that I needed to do something to make the next days different.
That having been said, I haven’t figured it out yet. I have a student who has been sent out of my classroom each and every day since the second day of school. I have students talking about other students’ mamas every single day. I have students tattling every single day, telling me things of which I can’t either confirm or deny the truth. It doesn’t phase me anymore, which is both good (because I stay much more composed) and bad (because I can’t settle for anything less than 100% of my students behaving 100% of the time). I’ve added about 7 levels to my classroom management system, including whole-class and individual student rewards and consequences. My students, though, don’t seem to care. Until they have to walk in a silent, single file line around the playground at recess instead of playing, of course. That having been said, they don’t really do that either. Even when they know they can play as soon as they walk a lap right. I guess that’s too delayed, since the laps are long.
[Author’s note – I’ve picked up this entry after day 9 of teaching] Today I was the recipient of my very first death threat – one of my students was mad at me for making them walk laps at recess, and wrote a note to one of my other students that said “I going to jail I’m going to kill Ms. H.” The other student wrote back “Why?” The first student responded “She made us walk laps at recess.” Needless to say, a bit of an overreaction, I believe. I’m not at all scared for my safety, but it was definitely unexpected.
[Author’s note – I’ve picked up this entry again after day 10 of teaching – that’s just sort of how it goes…little bits of everything slowly] I found out who wrote the threat, dealt with it, tried to call his parents, but couldn’t get a hold of them. Hopefully I hear back from them sometime this weekend, because I think it’s very important that they know. If I wanted to, I could have this child suspended. I’m not going to do that because I don’t think he deserves it, but his parents need to know. He apologized and will be writing me a letter this weekend explaining what happened, why it happened, why he knows that it’s a very serious situation, and apologizing for his actions. If he does it, I’ll be pleased.
I gave my students their first 3 post-instruction assessments (“real tests”) yesterday and was surprised to see some of the results. Some of the students performed exactly how I expected them to. A significant number of them performed disappointingly poorly. Most of them, though, impressed me with how much they actually learned. This was particularly evident in math, because I had two sets of pre-test and diagnostic scores with which to compare these first objective scores, so the growth was concrete and measurable. Just shy of half of my class scored 80% or above on the first math test, which was evaluating place value and number sense. These two things are a consistent struggle for elementary students, especially those coming from low-income backgrounds. So to have almost half of my class master the material at 80% or higher is something to celebrate. There’s still a lot of work to do to get the rest of the students where they need to be, but we’re getting there. I was especially struck by my students’ performance because my lessons over the course of the first 10 days of school felt so off-handed and poorly executed that I was certain my students weren’t absorbing any of it. To see that they had, though, was completely reinvigorating.
Those lightbulb moments – those are why I teach for equality.
My first two days of teaching were trying, to say the least. I broke down sobbing both days as soon as my students left the room, feeling completely out of control of my situation and my classroom. I’ve worked with a lot of students with behavior problems before but never in a situation where it’s 20 on 1 and the behavioral system in place is ineffective and incomplete. I quickly learned which students were going to cause me problems and which weren’t, and quickly decided that I needed to do something to make the next days different.
That having been said, I haven’t figured it out yet. I have a student who has been sent out of my classroom each and every day since the second day of school. I have students talking about other students’ mamas every single day. I have students tattling every single day, telling me things of which I can’t either confirm or deny the truth. It doesn’t phase me anymore, which is both good (because I stay much more composed) and bad (because I can’t settle for anything less than 100% of my students behaving 100% of the time). I’ve added about 7 levels to my classroom management system, including whole-class and individual student rewards and consequences. My students, though, don’t seem to care. Until they have to walk in a silent, single file line around the playground at recess instead of playing, of course. That having been said, they don’t really do that either. Even when they know they can play as soon as they walk a lap right. I guess that’s too delayed, since the laps are long.
[Author’s note – I’ve picked up this entry after day 9 of teaching] Today I was the recipient of my very first death threat – one of my students was mad at me for making them walk laps at recess, and wrote a note to one of my other students that said “I going to jail I’m going to kill Ms. H.” The other student wrote back “Why?” The first student responded “She made us walk laps at recess.” Needless to say, a bit of an overreaction, I believe. I’m not at all scared for my safety, but it was definitely unexpected.
[Author’s note – I’ve picked up this entry again after day 10 of teaching – that’s just sort of how it goes…little bits of everything slowly] I found out who wrote the threat, dealt with it, tried to call his parents, but couldn’t get a hold of them. Hopefully I hear back from them sometime this weekend, because I think it’s very important that they know. If I wanted to, I could have this child suspended. I’m not going to do that because I don’t think he deserves it, but his parents need to know. He apologized and will be writing me a letter this weekend explaining what happened, why it happened, why he knows that it’s a very serious situation, and apologizing for his actions. If he does it, I’ll be pleased.
I gave my students their first 3 post-instruction assessments (“real tests”) yesterday and was surprised to see some of the results. Some of the students performed exactly how I expected them to. A significant number of them performed disappointingly poorly. Most of them, though, impressed me with how much they actually learned. This was particularly evident in math, because I had two sets of pre-test and diagnostic scores with which to compare these first objective scores, so the growth was concrete and measurable. Just shy of half of my class scored 80% or above on the first math test, which was evaluating place value and number sense. These two things are a consistent struggle for elementary students, especially those coming from low-income backgrounds. So to have almost half of my class master the material at 80% or higher is something to celebrate. There’s still a lot of work to do to get the rest of the students where they need to be, but we’re getting there. I was especially struck by my students’ performance because my lessons over the course of the first 10 days of school felt so off-handed and poorly executed that I was certain my students weren’t absorbing any of it. To see that they had, though, was completely reinvigorating.
Those lightbulb moments – those are why I teach for equality.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Brief musings on testing
So I mentioned the EOGs in my last post. They're the high-stakes tests administered by the state of North Carolina that are taken in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Our principal informed us yesterday that our school's composite scores from last year were at 57.6%. This may seem strikingly low, but that's up from the year before, when they were at 49.9%. It's a huge gain in one year, and everyone at the school deserves to be commended for the exceptionally hard work it took to get us to where we are. But still, a composite of less than 60% is a staggering number.
EOG results impact the school, but more importantly impact the child, as well. A child with low EOG scores is much more likely to be retained, and data shows that students who have been retained even once are much more likely to drop out before receiving their high school diploma (about 3400 students dropped out of the Charlotte Mecklenberg Schools last year). Students who drop out are multiple times more likely to join gangs, commit crimes, and live in poverty. 68% of North Carolina's prison system are inmates without high school diplomas.
The same child with low EOG scores is unable to be accepted to any of CMS' many magnet middle and high schools, where they would have the chance to receive both the individualized attention and expectations of academic excellence that they so desperately need. They become stuck in a cycle of academic underperformance, no longer expecting out of themselves that which they have the capability to achieve.
While everyone knows that teaching to the test is not best practice in education, we have to prepare these students to take the state tests. We have to give them rigorous assessments that build their critical thinking skills, their test-taking endurance and perseverance, and their arsenal of problem-solving strategies to tackle questions that may initially stump them. We have to invest students in the importance of the tests, and teach them why they should care about the EOGs. We have to differentiate our instruction to meet each student where they are and get them to where they need to be.
The top 3 highest performing schools in Charlotte averaged a composite EOG performance of 87%. That's a 30 point-gap between my school and the best schools in Charlotte. To close that gap 24% (one of my class' big goals), our scores need to improve 7.2% this year.
Looks like we've got our work cut out for us.
"For these are all our children, for we will all profit by or pay for what they become." -James Baldwin
EOG results impact the school, but more importantly impact the child, as well. A child with low EOG scores is much more likely to be retained, and data shows that students who have been retained even once are much more likely to drop out before receiving their high school diploma (about 3400 students dropped out of the Charlotte Mecklenberg Schools last year). Students who drop out are multiple times more likely to join gangs, commit crimes, and live in poverty. 68% of North Carolina's prison system are inmates without high school diplomas.
The same child with low EOG scores is unable to be accepted to any of CMS' many magnet middle and high schools, where they would have the chance to receive both the individualized attention and expectations of academic excellence that they so desperately need. They become stuck in a cycle of academic underperformance, no longer expecting out of themselves that which they have the capability to achieve.
While everyone knows that teaching to the test is not best practice in education, we have to prepare these students to take the state tests. We have to give them rigorous assessments that build their critical thinking skills, their test-taking endurance and perseverance, and their arsenal of problem-solving strategies to tackle questions that may initially stump them. We have to invest students in the importance of the tests, and teach them why they should care about the EOGs. We have to differentiate our instruction to meet each student where they are and get them to where they need to be.
The top 3 highest performing schools in Charlotte averaged a composite EOG performance of 87%. That's a 30 point-gap between my school and the best schools in Charlotte. To close that gap 24% (one of my class' big goals), our scores need to improve 7.2% this year.
Looks like we've got our work cut out for us.
"For these are all our children, for we will all profit by or pay for what they become." -James Baldwin
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The start of a new year
So I got sucked into the TFA trend of blogging. I'm going to try to keep up with it, although I suspect that when school starts a week from today, time is going to be such a precious and limited resource that my consistency here will be lacking, at best. That said, I figured I'd give it a try, to keep friends and family in the loop, as well as using it as an outlet for reflection, since we all know the best teachers are those who self-reflect often.
For those of you who haven't been caught up with how I got to where I am, I'll give you a brief(ish) summary. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in psychology from Oberlin College on May 31st. I felt pretty good about that, because I had already taken a job with Teach For America, a nation-wide nonprofit that places (primarily) recent college graduates in low-income schools in rural and urban America. It's a two-year commitment, and many placement sites offer the option of getting a Master's degree while you're at it. I had requested a special education placement and offered to go literally anywhere in the country to do so, but ended up with a general education elementary placement in Charlotte, North Carolina. At first, I was a little bit disappointed, because working with children with developmental disabilities is what gets me up in the mornings. The more I thought about it, though, I realized that spending at least a couple of years in a general ed classroom is going to be invaluable to my development as a special ed teacher, because the general ed model is really what you want all students to be striving for. (Well, a GOOD general ed model...but that's another story for another day, or blog post, I suppose). In any case, after I graduated I went home for a little less than a week before packing up and coming to Charlotte.
I arrived in Charlotte on June 5th, stayed overnight with a 2009 corps member (the 2009 corps just finished their first year of teaching) and began induction the next morning. Our induction week was sort of an overview of TFA, an introduction to Charlotte, and a very surface preparation for institute, which was looming ever so near in the future. Induction was also an opportunity to meet our fellow teachers, of whom there were about 155 (we're down to about 143 now, for a plethora of reasons). That was both overwhelming, given how horrendous I am with remembering names, and very exciting, because everyone had so many interesting things to say and stories to tell. It was fascinating to hear how everyone came from such diverse backgrounds to join the same mission and work towards the same goal.
After a week of induction, we drove down to Cleveland, Mississippi (including a VERY sketchy stop overnight in Tuscaloosa, Alabama), where we spent 5 weeks of institute, teaching summer school and doing various teacher training activities. I could write a novel about institute, but I don't have the time or patience for it at the moment, so I'll sum it up for you. I taught students who would be entering 5th grade in the fall, I was lucky to get 5 hours of sleep each night, I woke up at 4:30 every morning, and for the first time in my life, mistook a mosquito for a turkey vulture. All joking aside, it was, without question, the most challenging experience I have ever endured. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I saw more young, vibrant, successful 20-somethings completely break down during institute than ever before (and I was in an all-women's a capella group in college, so dealing with 20-something breakdowns is something of a specialty of mine). I also saw a banding together of drastically different human beings that I had never seen. People you had never spoken to before became your best friends; complete strangers were your shoulders to cry on and your enthusiastic pick-me-ups. It was a really powerful experience. And what made it powerful were the kids. The students in the Delta live in poverty unparalleled with that of my wildest dreams. The impact of poverty in the Delta really smacks you across the face. You can't ignore it. You can't pretend it's not there. It's very present and very invasive. But those kids...they are vivacious, colorful, brilliant young minds that are aching for a good education and caring teachers. I could go on and on, but I feel very privileged to have taught there for a brief summer, despite all of the challenges that came with it.
After surviving institute (which I really wasn't sure I would do for a while there), I went back home for another 4 and a half days, and actually packed. My mom and I drove down to Charlotte in a rented cargo van (affectionately known as Rudy) and I moved into my new apartment. I bought a car (affectionately known as Rufus, Rudy's long lost cousin, though they bear no resemblance) and spent many hours at multiple DMVs getting my North Carolina driver's license. If you're thinking about attempting this feat, please let me know so I can give you my driver's handbook. If you don't study, you will be very sad. I assure you. We started work on the 28th of July with Teach For America, and worked for about 2 weeks on various goal-setting, planning, and preparation exercises. It was all helpful, but is all changing now that I'm actually working in my school.
DISCLAIMER: I won't specifically give out the name of my school here, nor will I ever use my own full name or the real names of any of my students or colleagues. This is for privacy and liability purposes, and for those of you who know some or any of this information and may happen to be commenting here, I ask that you please not disclose it.
In any case, I'll be teaching 3rd grade this year, and at this time next week, I will be winding down from my first official day as a full-time teacher. My classroom is beginning to come together, although there's certainly still a long way to go. We have an open house on Monday night where I'll get to meet some of my parents and maybe even some of my students! I'm excited to get to work with my students, because I've set ambitious goals for us for this year. They include, but are not limited to:
-each student will grow 2 years in reading as measured by the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment)
-each student will master 90% of our daily objectives in math
-each student will create a capstone project, which will be an interdisciplinary exploration of a reading level-appropriate text of their choosing, and will integrate aspects of reading, math, science, social studies, and writing
-as a class, we will close the gap between my school's 3rd grade EOG performance and that of the 3rd grade EOG performance from the top 3 highest-performing schools in Charlotte by 24% (the EOG, or End-Of-Grade test, is a high-stakes state standardized assessment, given in reading and math in 3rd-5th grade, including a science assessment in 5th grade only)
I hope to get my students to a point where each student will score a 4 (out of a possible 4) on both EOGs, but don't want to set that goal before seeing where my students are coming in. If any of them are exceptional children (NC's terminology for special ed) or ESL students, this can affect feasibility for performance goals. I also may have students coming in multiple years behind grade level in reading and math, so to expect those students to grow 3 or more years in one year, to the point where they can achieve the highest possible score on a summative assessment of 3rd grade level knowledge, isn't a useful goal.
Anyway, I've spent far too long writing this when I really should be planning my first week of school, but as things begin to crystallize over the next week, I'll try to continue updating.
-Ms. H
For those of you who haven't been caught up with how I got to where I am, I'll give you a brief(ish) summary. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in psychology from Oberlin College on May 31st. I felt pretty good about that, because I had already taken a job with Teach For America, a nation-wide nonprofit that places (primarily) recent college graduates in low-income schools in rural and urban America. It's a two-year commitment, and many placement sites offer the option of getting a Master's degree while you're at it. I had requested a special education placement and offered to go literally anywhere in the country to do so, but ended up with a general education elementary placement in Charlotte, North Carolina. At first, I was a little bit disappointed, because working with children with developmental disabilities is what gets me up in the mornings. The more I thought about it, though, I realized that spending at least a couple of years in a general ed classroom is going to be invaluable to my development as a special ed teacher, because the general ed model is really what you want all students to be striving for. (Well, a GOOD general ed model...but that's another story for another day, or blog post, I suppose). In any case, after I graduated I went home for a little less than a week before packing up and coming to Charlotte.
I arrived in Charlotte on June 5th, stayed overnight with a 2009 corps member (the 2009 corps just finished their first year of teaching) and began induction the next morning. Our induction week was sort of an overview of TFA, an introduction to Charlotte, and a very surface preparation for institute, which was looming ever so near in the future. Induction was also an opportunity to meet our fellow teachers, of whom there were about 155 (we're down to about 143 now, for a plethora of reasons). That was both overwhelming, given how horrendous I am with remembering names, and very exciting, because everyone had so many interesting things to say and stories to tell. It was fascinating to hear how everyone came from such diverse backgrounds to join the same mission and work towards the same goal.
After a week of induction, we drove down to Cleveland, Mississippi (including a VERY sketchy stop overnight in Tuscaloosa, Alabama), where we spent 5 weeks of institute, teaching summer school and doing various teacher training activities. I could write a novel about institute, but I don't have the time or patience for it at the moment, so I'll sum it up for you. I taught students who would be entering 5th grade in the fall, I was lucky to get 5 hours of sleep each night, I woke up at 4:30 every morning, and for the first time in my life, mistook a mosquito for a turkey vulture. All joking aside, it was, without question, the most challenging experience I have ever endured. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I saw more young, vibrant, successful 20-somethings completely break down during institute than ever before (and I was in an all-women's a capella group in college, so dealing with 20-something breakdowns is something of a specialty of mine). I also saw a banding together of drastically different human beings that I had never seen. People you had never spoken to before became your best friends; complete strangers were your shoulders to cry on and your enthusiastic pick-me-ups. It was a really powerful experience. And what made it powerful were the kids. The students in the Delta live in poverty unparalleled with that of my wildest dreams. The impact of poverty in the Delta really smacks you across the face. You can't ignore it. You can't pretend it's not there. It's very present and very invasive. But those kids...they are vivacious, colorful, brilliant young minds that are aching for a good education and caring teachers. I could go on and on, but I feel very privileged to have taught there for a brief summer, despite all of the challenges that came with it.
After surviving institute (which I really wasn't sure I would do for a while there), I went back home for another 4 and a half days, and actually packed. My mom and I drove down to Charlotte in a rented cargo van (affectionately known as Rudy) and I moved into my new apartment. I bought a car (affectionately known as Rufus, Rudy's long lost cousin, though they bear no resemblance) and spent many hours at multiple DMVs getting my North Carolina driver's license. If you're thinking about attempting this feat, please let me know so I can give you my driver's handbook. If you don't study, you will be very sad. I assure you. We started work on the 28th of July with Teach For America, and worked for about 2 weeks on various goal-setting, planning, and preparation exercises. It was all helpful, but is all changing now that I'm actually working in my school.
DISCLAIMER: I won't specifically give out the name of my school here, nor will I ever use my own full name or the real names of any of my students or colleagues. This is for privacy and liability purposes, and for those of you who know some or any of this information and may happen to be commenting here, I ask that you please not disclose it.
In any case, I'll be teaching 3rd grade this year, and at this time next week, I will be winding down from my first official day as a full-time teacher. My classroom is beginning to come together, although there's certainly still a long way to go. We have an open house on Monday night where I'll get to meet some of my parents and maybe even some of my students! I'm excited to get to work with my students, because I've set ambitious goals for us for this year. They include, but are not limited to:
-each student will grow 2 years in reading as measured by the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment)
-each student will master 90% of our daily objectives in math
-each student will create a capstone project, which will be an interdisciplinary exploration of a reading level-appropriate text of their choosing, and will integrate aspects of reading, math, science, social studies, and writing
-as a class, we will close the gap between my school's 3rd grade EOG performance and that of the 3rd grade EOG performance from the top 3 highest-performing schools in Charlotte by 24% (the EOG, or End-Of-Grade test, is a high-stakes state standardized assessment, given in reading and math in 3rd-5th grade, including a science assessment in 5th grade only)
I hope to get my students to a point where each student will score a 4 (out of a possible 4) on both EOGs, but don't want to set that goal before seeing where my students are coming in. If any of them are exceptional children (NC's terminology for special ed) or ESL students, this can affect feasibility for performance goals. I also may have students coming in multiple years behind grade level in reading and math, so to expect those students to grow 3 or more years in one year, to the point where they can achieve the highest possible score on a summative assessment of 3rd grade level knowledge, isn't a useful goal.
Anyway, I've spent far too long writing this when I really should be planning my first week of school, but as things begin to crystallize over the next week, I'll try to continue updating.
-Ms. H
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