Shakespeare Ponderings

Ever since I began teaching at this school, English II (10th grade) has studied Julius Caesar. When I was first assigned English II, I hated the play. I'm not a "words for the sake of words" person (Mercutio's Queen Mab speech feels like a tiresome detour) so a lot of the pontificating seems overlong to me. Plus it's another bunch of dudes; Portia and Calpurnia get some words that end up not making any difference to the story. And I could go on for pages and pages about how insulting Portia's characterization is - the way she attests to how much better she is than other women, and part of her justification for that is based on who the men in her life are. And then a few scenes later she's so nervous and upset that she can't think straight.

This year we got parallel-text copies of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Part of me wants to teach that instead of Julius Caesar (given that it is expected that we WILL study a Shakespearean play in English II - I would not be allowed to use Antigone or a novel instead). The main reason is that we don't teach ANY of Shakespeare's comedies. The closest we get is the first half of Romeo and Juliet in English I. So students finish our program and graduate having been /told/ that Shakespeare also wrote comedies, but not really having been exposed to them. And I feel like they end up thinking that Shakespeare is all intrigue and murder and angst and forgetting that there's more.


However.

Julius Caesar looks at the ideas of leadership and power and the responsibility of citizens when government starts going wrong. (Or when you think it does.) And I tend to think that those concepts are of greater significance than romantic love and mistaken identities and whimsical magic. Nor are you going to get me to believe that romance is more relevant to teens than "what do you do when the people in charge are becoming bad leaders?"

Additionally, the play makes a fantastic follow-up to Animal Farm (which we also study), where the 'lower' animals let the pigs assert more and more control until they end up getting fed less and having to work harder than they did when they were owned by humans.

I guess I'm wondering about the relative value of the thematic messages in Midsummer and Caesar. I feel like the latter is much stronger, but that may only be because I haven't taught the former! So, to those of you who've taught A Midsummer Night's Dream, what do you see as its enduring messages, and why are they so important?

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Pledge Procedures

Last year there were a couple of posts talking about the Pledge that I meant to respond to, and didn't.

I teach in a high school (9-12). This year I have all sophomores, but I've taught students of varying ages in previous years. Every morning, over the loudspeaker, someone recites the Pledge before we have the announcements for that day. However, I do not tell my students that they are required to recite it along with the student on the loudspeaker.

Most days, I stand. Sometimes I put my hand over my heart; sometimes I don't. Usually I don't say it myself more than once or twice a semester.

The idea that all students should recite the pledge at the beginning of every day has always seemed a bit dodgy to me. For one thing, even if it's not intended as indoctrination, it sure feels that way. Additionally, by the time they reach me, it seems to have gone from "tradition" to "rote." So I feel that allowing students to choose whether or not they say the Pledge makes it more meaningful.

Most, if not all, of these students have been through years and years of public school already and know the Pledge "by heart."  I do like that everyone knows the Pledge - and the national anthem. There's definitely value in these shared experiences.

It's interesting to watch the students each morning to see what they choose to do.

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Challenge Olympics

I have been meaning to respond to this post for some time, but every time I read it, I get angry. In it, Janet Givens states:

American teachers, the ones teaching at American universities, colleges, and even some high schools, are spoiled. - See more at: http://janetgivens.com/american-vs-kazakhstani-teachers-a-frustrated-pcvs-point-of-view/#sthash.IAiMcZy1.dpuf

American teachers, the ones teaching at American colleges, universities, and even some high schools, are spoiled.

What makes this even more ignorant is that at the beginning of her post, she says "One of the oft ignored challenges of culture shock, is that we begin to see the world in black and white: good and bad, right and wrong." However, that's exactly how she divides Kazakhstani teachers and American teachers.

I can't help wondering what about her teaching experiences made Givens think that American teachers are "spoiled," or even why she extrapolated from her own experiences to American teachers as a whole. Nothing whatsoever about her post gives any support to the implication that teachers' expectations are unreasonable. Because that's what being "spoiled" means - expecting more than you have any right to.

Givens continues to make claims that are both ridiculous and insulting: "American teachers can't possibly work as hard as my teachers here in Kazakhstan. American teachers have students who are, generally, prepared... American teachers don't know what frustration and impotence really are."

And yet every one of the student types she lists is equally true of my classes:

• students who are never present - actually I find this to be less of a problem than students who are rarely present; students who aren't ever present aren't my responsibility.
• students who want to be somewhere other than class - "at least three," she says. Sweet Christmas, how I wish I had that few in this group!
• students who are well below grade level - "who in America would still be in grammar school, repeating eighth grade." This is another obvious illustration of her ignorance. Does she really think that schools can just continue to let a child flunk indefinitely?
• students who don't participate - I mean, really. She really believes American classrooms don't have these students?
• students who are active and engaged - Yup, I've got those as well.

I don't use textbooks to teach grammar. And my students don't all have their own texts. I have a single class set that has to be shared among all of my classes. Granted, I teach high school, but I remember that in college, I often didn't get my own copy of the "required" textbook for the courses I took.

Maybe as a blogger, Givens felt it necessary to have a "catchy" title for her piece, something that would generate lots of hits. But I really don't appreciate being clickbait. Her dismissive tone toward American teachers is discouraging, and what's worse, it seems to be a good representation of the general attitude toward teachers overall.

Pat Hensley responded in a much more positive way. You'd think that having been online for decades, now, I'd be able to let malarkey like this pass by without comment. But apparently not.

Image from xkcd.com.

merican teachers, the ones teaching at American universities, colleges, and even some high schools, are spoiled - See more at: http://janetgivens.com/american-vs-kazakhstani-teachers-a-frustrated-pcvs-point-of-view/#sthash.IAiMcZy1.dpuf

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Zero Sum

In his post "How the American education system doesn't fail," David Brin responds to a Washington Post article by Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria's article warns of problems that may arise from focusing too heavily - or even exclusively - on excellence in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines.

Brin says that Zakaria takes too pessimistic an outlook. He suggests that the breadth requirements of a four-year bachelor's degree are fairly well embedded into American culture, and aren't likely to be done away with any time soon. But the repeated pushback against "zero sum thinking" got me thinking.

In one sense, Brin is right. Spending more time studying math and science doesn't necessarily mean completely abandoning art and literature. However, the time that we spend on any one thing (such as studying math or science) is time that we are, by deduction, not spending on something else (such as studying art or literature). So in that sense, constrained as we are by the laws of thermodynamics, it IS a zero-sum game!

These are choices I have to make in my classroom as well. Choosing to teach these stories, essays, poems, etc. means that I will not have the opportunity to teach others. The time I spend to have students practice speaking in front of the class is time we are not spending on having them practice finding information in the text that supports their analysis. These decisions would be easier if I was choosing between "good instruction" and "poor instruction," but that's rarely the case. When I have to choose between two good opportunities, knowing I can't do both... that's hard. It's really, really hard.

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How to Weather the Storm

I'm tired.

I'm tired of students ignoring directions. I'm tired of having to repeat myself because students weren't paying attention. I'm tired of students acting like they should be allowed to do whatever they like (play on their cell phones, chitchat about weekend plans instead of working, sleep in class), and throwing a fit when I attempt to redirect them.

I'm tired of re-re-re-re-RE-organizing my unit plans because they're supposed to be kept up to date and we keep losing days because of bad weather. I'm tired of worrying how I'm going to prove that I'm a good teacher, because the current assumption is that you're mediocre or even negligent unless you can document otherwise. I'm tired of spending my time documenting my good teaching instead of actually practicing it.

I'm tired of feeling like I'm always in a lose/lose situation. If I don't stay abreast of popular culture (or if I keep my mouth shut), I'm ignorant and out of touch and can't relate to today's world. If I do, I'm unprofessional and possibly a creeper. If I point out the ways that teachers are often exploited, I'm a greedy whiner. If I keep my head down and just try to do my job, I'm a sellout.

I'm tired of being tired.

The truth is, in some ways, teachers have it much better now than they ever have. I don't have to come in at dawn to get the furnace started, nor did I have to worry that getting married would torpedo my career. But there is a level of self-sacrifice assumed of teachers that isn't true in other professions; in many cases, the work day extends long into the evening and often covers the weekends.

So what can we do to weather the storm?

1. Develop a support system.   I have wonderful people to help me - my husband is always patient and encouraging when I come home tired and frustrated (again). We both have parents in the area, and we actually enjoy spending time with them. Our friends are creative and interesting people, and we have lots of opportunities to be active in our community.

2. Learn to say "no." There are so many demands made on our time and abilities. It feels like each person thinks that the task they're requesting is the only one we have! If we say yes to everything that's asked of us, it becomes impossible to follow through. For me, going back on my word makes me feel incredibly guilty, even if I didn't mean to. So it's really important that I only agree to do things that I'm absolutely sure I'll be able to do in the time frame given.

3.  Get plenty of rest. This is especially important right now after "Spring Forward." Your body may still be used to going to bed at what it thinks is 10 PM, so you might have to start your bedtime rituals a little earlier. That way you don't look at the clock, thinking it's almost bedtime, and realize that you've accidentally stayed up until 10:50! Being well-rested helps me be more alert and focused during the day. It's easier for me to be patient with students who complain and to come up with an alternate plan if the copier jams, or the fire alarm goes off, or the books have completely fallen apart at the spine.

4. Exercise. I'll admit, I don't do as much exercising as I should. It's really hard when you're frustrated and worn out! Now that our school day is 20 minutes longer (because we missed so many days this winter) it's going to be even more difficult.

5. Eat well. Being hungry puts me in a rotten mood. If I don't have breakfast, I'm grouchy until lunch. There's also plenty of research that shows that eating breakfast also kicks your metabolism into a higher gear so that you're more ready for the day.

Also, it's often tempting to grab fast food after school. As a treat that's fine, but on a regular basis, it's bad for both your health and your bank account. When you make dinner, prepare enough to allow for leftovers to take to school for lunch. If I don't have leftovers, I try to pack sandwiches the night before. The morning is rushed as it is; anything I can do ahead of time to prepare makes it a bit easier.

 6. Count your blessings. Last but not least, take some time every now and then to remind yourself of the good things in your life. Look around you for opportunities to connect with others. Don't try to do everything yourself; remember that by graciously accepting help from others, you can make them feel valued and important.

What suggestions do you have for staying active for the long haul?

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End of Term Exhaustion

One of the buzzwords this year has been "grit." In the reading I've done, I've heard it explained that students who take responsibility for their achievements are more likely to be successful than students who attribute their success or failure to external factors. This makes sense on the surface, but when I was reading my students' reflective essays, I noticed something interesting.

I had asked them to write about a standard they had mastered and a standard they still needed to work on. And for quite a few of the students, they claimed that the standard they mastered was because of their own skill and hard work... then went on to give all sorts of excuses I mean reasons that they'd been less successful. There were very few students who took responsibility for both their successes AND their failures. Needless to say, this was enlightening for me, but also somewhat discouraging. According to my students, any learning that happens is apparently in spite of me, not because of me.

Grit is variously defined as a mixture of determination, resilience, motivation, and courage. Here are some recent articles and blog posts that discuss it:

• Got Grit
• Grit Plus Talent Equals Student Success
• The Best Measure of Success
• The Grit Test
• Does Teaching Kids to Get Gritty Help Them

But while these all exalt the value of getting back up after failing (and in fairness, students who don't do that won't succeed) the truth is that simply trying again, or even trying harder, may not be enough to ensure success. Because if you did something that didn't get you the desired result, if you just do the same thing again, you're likely to get the same less-than-desirable result you did the first time. Perseverance alone isn't enough.

One of the skills that I don't see mentioned in the articles that talk about grit is reflection. After experiencing failure, but before charging back into the fray, it's important to take a good look at what led up to that failure. What were the factors that caused it? Which can I influence directly? What can I do to compensate for the factors that I cannot change? But while we practice this on a regular basis, I'm not entirely sure how I can break it down into smaller steps or try it at an easier level or provide support to help students who are struggling with it. (A lot of my students seem to equate "helping them" with "giving them the answer.")

How do you teach effective reflection? Do you teach it? If not, how do you encourage students to look for ways to improve?

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Social Networking

I am, by nature, a solitary person. Most people would not suspect this, because I make an effort to be not just polite, but friendly. But when I get home from school, I am perfectly content to spend the evening (or an entire weekend) surfing the web, watching TV, listening to music, reading books, and doing household chores.

However, I know that having a good relationship with one's colleagues is important. So I try to stop by and talk to the other teachers in my department at least once during the week - usually during planning. But the thing is, it's really hard for me, even more so than usual. I've always got this nagging feeling that I ought to be grading, or contacting parents, or looking for resources, or responding to emails, or printing articles or rubrics or graphic organizers, or updating student progress on the network... the list seems endless. Talking to my colleagues is something that feels frivolous -- it's so enjoyable that it must be a waste of time.

On the other hand, there are teachers who are always in someone else's room talking whenever I pass by. I don't understand that at all. Are they really able to get things done with that much time to spare? Am I that inefficient?

This year I haven't done nearly as well with keeping up with this blog, or with staying involved with the English Companion Ning. It doesn't help that the Ning is blocked while I'm at school, which is generally where I am when I'm suddenly hit by something like "hey, I wonder what ideas other teachers have for short stories to pair with Julius Caesar."

I haven't decided if it's because I have more extracurricular activities going on, or because I just don't have as much to say. I hope I'm not burning out.

Image: Norman Rockwell's "Chain of Gossip," 1948

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Friday, October 17 - Homecoming

Brief note - it seems like blogger has changed things and my 'Continue' links aren't working the way I wanted them to. That's frustrating. Part of me feels like I ought to take just a little bit of time this weekend to check and see what I can do to make them work again, but then there's another part of me that says "you haven't been keeping up with your blogging anyway, so it's not like it matters."

:P

So today is Homecoming. I must confess, I'm not a particularly rah-rah sort of person. I mean, I do like my school and my students (even if their attitudes and behavior aggravate me on a regular basis). But I'm not particularly interested in extracurriculars. I'm here at school all day, focused on my work, and when the day is over I want to go home and focus on other things. It doesn't help that I have a 40-minute commute; I wish the school was closer to the house we could afford, but it's not. And I could get a job at a school that's closer - there's at least one that's within walking distance - but like I said, I do like the school I'm at and I particularly enjoy working with the colleagues I have here.

So in addition to a lot of school colors everywhere this week, we've had dress-up days and the student government had a competition to raise money for their floats and there was a parade last night. Tonight is the big game so there's a pep rally today. During school. All of our classes are shortened so that for the last 45 minutes we can put all the students in the gym and have them scream a lot.

And we have to be there.

I guess you can tell that I'm not a big fan of pep rallies. For one thing, I just generally don't like large ceremonies. They feel impersonal and bland, and the larger they are, the longer they tend to go on. Additionally, I'm not fond of the fact that we take time away from academics for the purpose of supporting extracurriculars. And it's so loud.

I feel like this makes me a big gloomy cloud of not-fun, but I'm looking forward to next week, when hopefully things will go back to normal!

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Why Do We Study Works We Can't Read?

The first semester is winding down and somehow I've managed to get (mostly) caught up on grading and end-of-term paperwork. So I've got some time to look over my unit plans and think about what I teach and how I teach and why I do things that way.

The thing is, I'm rather conflicted about my reasons for teaching Beowulf. Like... if it's important to study, say, the original text of Romeo and Juliet, and it's not enough just to watch the Baz Luhrman flick from the 1990s, why do we not apply the same reasoning to Beowulf? What makes an adaptation okay in one case - even something of a tradition - and not okay in another?

Is studying Beowulf really the best use of that time? I mean, sure, it's a ripping yarn, but personally I like The Song of Roland better. I mean, the epic friendship - "A Roland for an Oliver!" and the way it develops through the story and the REVEAL... it's awesome. And then there's Durandal and the arms of Achilles and it's just buckets of fun.

Right now I feel like I'm supposed to teach it because it's the oldest long work we have (why does that matter so much?) that's a progenitor of Modern English. (Given the Norman invasion, why NOT start with Roland, especially as a counterpart to the Canterbury Tales?) And because TRADITION.

Help me out! Why does this particular work matter so much more than everything else I don't get to teach?

Cross-posted from the EC Ning.

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I was reviewing the Wikipedia entry for caesura in order to feel more confident about explaining it to my students. (I'm still not entirely clear about its purpose in Anglo-Saxon poetry.) And it included examples from the Iliad and the Aeneid. In those examples, they first quoted the line in the original language (including the double-pipe to mark the caesura) and then below it they gave the translation.

While I could read the Latin, because we still use the Latin alphabet, the Greek was - well - Greek to me! It looked like a bunch of squiggles and zigzags. But what I found was that when I looked at it more carefully, I could figure out the phonetic pronunciation based on my curiosity about New Testament Greek some years ago. And then based on my knowledge of roots and cognates, and with the help of the translation being right there, I was able to understand some of the words!

It was fascinating! It went from looking like Mnviv aeide oea nnvniadew Axivnoc to menin aeide thea Peleiadeo Achileos which is probably a miserable transcription but makes some modicum of sense to me.

Friday is my grading-day. But I generally do a pretty good job of keeping up with it. I'm wondering if maybe I couldn't dedicate some of my planning time on Fridays to reviving my study of Greek. It seems like a bit much, though… maybe I'll look into it once I've finished grading the research papers that were handed in today!

Anyway, I've just been thinking about how amazing it is that I can just look at words and KNOW what they mean. You know? Heck, when you really think about it, writing and reading is like… I mean… wizardry. Seriously, think it over: when you read classic literature, you are absorbing the thoughts of people who are dead.

WIZARDRY.

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Feathers Again

I went back through my 'hope' tag and found my end-of-year self-assessment series. I hadn't realized it was so long since I'd revisted it!

There's a lot that's still relevant. Portia is still a nauseatingly sexist portrayal of womanhood. Composition books are way better than binders or spiral-bound notebooks. I still haven't kept in touch with parents as often as I feel I ought to (although I've improved and I probably call at least as much as I need to). We still do silent reading each day, although I switched it to the start of class instead of the end. I punted the journal-style writing assignments to homework, because the plain truth of the matter is it's far more challenging to fake those!

But a lot of things have changed, as well. As I look over the list, it's very reassuring (even encouraging!) to see that the changes have been positive. I don't really notice anything where I'm like "oo, I used to be awesome at XYZ, and now I suck at it! bugger that!" Like, last year I didn't do small-group literature circles as much, and for a little bit I felt bad about that... but then I realized I did more with individual choice reading. So there was something of a tradeoff there. However, one of the things I'm going to attempt for THIS year is kind of blending the two. (Keep your fingers crossed for me.)

I'm also trying to be as specific as possible with my goals. I hear that's important. So here they are:

1. Go to the library each Monday. Return all of the books from the previous Monday. Read at least the first ten pages of each book and log it in Goodreads.
2. 20 parent calls per day first 4 days. 10 parent calls each Monday beginning 9/9.
3. Review coding lessons on Tuesday.
4. Unit plan reviewed and revised if needed each Wednesday. Plans for upcoming unit emailed to department head the Wednesday before it begins.
5. Write a chapter of fanfic on Thursday.
6. Homework grades input daily; quizzes, projects, tests, essays graded by Friday.
7. Check that focus question, standards, and quickwrite for the next day are posted before leaving.
8. Progress reports handed out every Tuesday. (I have planning at the end of the day, so I’ll print them Monday and hand them out Tuesday.)
9. More student work posted to the class website. This is going to be iffy – we’ve lost access to one of our two labs as it’s been set aside for online classes. This is important to me but I can’t count on students having their own internet access, so if it works, it works, if not… I’ll just hope for next year.
10. Try using individual choice books in literature circles. Not sure how that's going to work when there's a mix of novels and nonfiction, but I guess I'll find out!

The coding thing is because I'm still mad about blogger screwing up my click-throughs. I'm working with Codecademy and so far I've reviewed HTML (I really need to get rid of some of my bad/old habits, but it's harrrrd!) and moved into CSS. I think the problem is in the definition of the "fullpost" descriptor. But I haven't yet learned how to define descriptors. I suppose that's more advanced.

The writing thing is harder. I mean, I started trying to write more because Penny Kittle said so, but she (and Mardie! *hearts*) also say that it's important to write WITH them. And I just don't know if I can do that. See, the thing is, I'm not by nature a Professional Person. I'm pretty casual and quirky. And I have to squish that part of me at school. I can't wear jeans except on Friday and then only with a professional-casual shirt, because the T-shirt featuring Chernabog that we got at Disney was deemed inappropriate. If I dye my hair, it has to be normal-looking colors. So when I've tried to model writing for my students, I have to have "writing something that won't get me in trouble" as a priority ahead of "writing truthfully."

Hm. I hadn't actually realized that before. Interesting. Clearly I'll have to give it some more thought.

So I have ten new goals for this year. That sounds reasonable. And I think I'll submit five of them to my evaluator. We aren't required to do so, but I don't find rubberstamp evaluations particularly helpful. I would rather take charge "pursuing professional excellence," as I put it in my tag, on my own, rather than waiting around for a bunch of legislators to tell me how they've come up with some kind of computerized algorithm that's going to rate me based on how well my students do on tests. No thank you!

Now I'm going to take my own advice and go back and update the HTML in this post.

Image thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/nane-zwerg

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YEEP.

So it's been an exciting few days, schoolwise. I'll write more about some of the rest of it tomorrow (I hope) but last night I posted over on the EC Ning asking if anybody else was interested in a book discussion of Notice & Note, by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. And by the time I went to bed there were five people who'd already replied and said yes!

This will be the first time I've facilitated such a discussion. I'm kind of nervous (see photo!) because I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I don't know what problems might come up. Well, except for one - I'm kind of afraid that I'll start things off... and get crickets!

I just (like 45 seconds ago!) put a notice up on twitter, which I haven't been on, like, all summer. I'll probably retweet it a few times over the next couple of days, see if it gets any traction. I really hope to get a nice-sized crowd and some good conversation and idea-sharing back and forth. The lasting connections that you can form with people who share your purpose and your passion... that, to me, is the best part of the internet.

Then again, I feel like I've kind of neglected those connections this summer - at least professionally. I've been away a lot, for one thing, and for another I've really tried to focus on my writing and along that line been much more active on tumblr as a new platform.

So once again I find myself reaffirming my commitment to Epic Adventures here. I feel like I'm at some kind of professional turning point; I've developed confidence in what I'm doing as a teacher but at the same time -- or perhaps as a result? -- I feel like it's time for me to develop My Thing, to craft some sort of niche for myself that can be my area of expertise. It's a very nebulous, uncertain sort of feeling, though, and I'm not at all sure that I'm up to the task.

But oh well! I suppose the fact that it's "uncomfortable" just means it fits in completely with my "professional theme" as it were, haha... because it's definitely going to be an adventure!

 Stock image

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Moneyball and Education

A claim that I hear a lot -- and one that invariably raises my hackles -- is that "everyone 'knows' who the good teachers and the bad teachers are." I was reading a post over at The Learning Nation, and Cale neatly summed up my thoughts:

When we visit a classroom, we might observe the teacher and their students for a few minutes and walk out saying "That was good teaching!".  Someone could walk into a school and chat with an Administrator for a half hour and say "She really has it going on, what a great Principal."  But how do we REALLY know?

The point, obviously, is that always relying on your gut means you're not always going to get the best result. That's not to discount professional instinct, but it should be weighted in with other useful information -- including data like student test scores.

But thinking about that in terms of Moneyball and using stats to build a better baseball team got me thinking about the way that baseball teams and schools are very, very different…

• With baseball, it's entirely competitive. It only matters how good your team is because you need to be better than the other teams.
• Schools involve competition for two reasons: fun, which can also be used to increase student engagement, thereby also hopefully increasing student achievement as well; and limited resources. We can't offer university scholarships to everyone (or, more accurately, we choose to allocate our resources in different ways), so we give them to the students who have excelled the most in academics, athletics, or other endeavors.


• Baseball is competitive between players in training, but a player may be called upon to make a personal sacrifice for the good of the team in a game. (Bunting?) The player's stats suffer, but the team succeeds. At least, I've heard of this; to be honest, I don't really watch that much baseball.
• Schools don't typically ask students to make sacrifices like that. Can you imagine seniors being asked to tank some of their classes to avoid having the graduation rate rise so high this year that we can't maintain the rate of improvement next year?


• In baseball, how each player does matters because it affects the success of the team as a whole.
• In school, how each student does matters because that IS the success of the school as a whole.

A totally different way of thinking about teacher achievement

I've also been influenced by reading Young Classroom Conquests, a blog by a brand-new teacher. In one of his first posts, he writes about beginning to "understand that I’m not going to be the perfect teacher when I first get into the classroom."

Well, T, let me reveal one of the worst-kept secrets in education to you: you're not going to be the perfect teacher EVER. Doesn't matter how many years of experience you get, how many conferences you attend, how many additional degrees or certifications or awards you attain. It's not gonna happen, because there ain't no such thing.

Each student is an individual, and has his or her own unique areas of strength, struggle, and style. And as a result, even someone who is a truly great teacher in a general sense will not - CAN not - be a great teacher for every student.

The goal of a school should not be to hire the best teachers. A good school should hire a diverse group of excellent teachers (which isn't easy!), and then match each student with the teachers whose styles of instruction and management best suit that student's individual needs (which, of course, is even LESS easy).

It's time to stop pretending that education is about the "big picture." We can't risk losing sight of all the little pictures - because they are what truly matters.

Image thanks to http://www.boston.com/community/

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Is a "Fair Tax" Really Fair?

So I've been catching up on old episodes of The Daily Show, and while usually I just play it in the background, I actually listened to Stewart's interview with Bill O'Reilly. It was pretty interesting, because while O'Reilly got in a few good zingers, Stewart was surprisingly gentle. (At least much more so than I would've expected.) Anyway, I went ahead and found the link to the rest of the interview on the main site, and they start talking taxes.

Now, I haven't finished watching the interview, but O'Reilly started mentioning a federal consumption tax - I don't know if he means instead of raising the top marginal tax rate(s), or if he means instead of federal income taxes at ALL, but whatevs. Not my point. (Yet, anyway.)

Quick note - I wasn't real clear on what a consumption tax is, so I googled it, and Wikipedia says that it's a category of different types of taxes based on spending rather than earning. Sales tax is probably the type that we're most familiar with, but the wiki article lists other types as well. Quite helpful. But also not my point.

MY POINT is that I am a teacher. A teacher who works with teenagers. And as such, I may not know a whole heckuva lot about high finance, but I know an awful lot about WEASELING.

According to the wiki article, investments are not taxed. Nor are the proceeds, until they are spent for consumption. "That house in the Hamptons? No, that's not a luxury... it's an investment property. The yacht? It's part of the company's client development budget."

I mean, I get it. It's not THAT different from the way things are now; there's an awful lot of stuff that us regular schlubs have to fork over to get that if you're rich, people will give to you for free to get on your good side so that maybe later you'll do them favors. Rich people are good at that - how do you think they GOT rich in the first place?

On the other hand, it might make college at least a little more affordable - after all, that's money you wouldn't have to pay taxes on, because isn't that an investment?

Image thanks to http://www.uproxx.com/

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Finally

I've finally gotten to the point where I'm actually proud of my classroom library. I was going to take pictures today, but there were parents to call and photos to print and posters to hang and bulletin boards to decorate and journals to review and receipts to write and file and... and... and...

UGH. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures on Monday. It was so hectic at the end of the day that when we left I forgot both my laptop charge cord and a stack of journals that I planned to finish grading over the weekend.

Anyway.

For the longest time, I had some serious book-envy. It seemed like everyone else online had read the latest YA stuff. And in #titletalk discussions, people would make lists of books they were going to buy! I don't know how they manage it, because let me tell you, looking at the price on a new book about gives me palpitations from the sticker shock. $30 for a new book?! That's, like, three days of food!

But then I learned that being poor sometimes comes in handy. Like when you're writing grant requests. And over the last few years, I've built up my classroom library slowly and steadily, thanks mostly to the local used bookstores and DonorsChoose. And then this past summer, I got to go to the ALA conference, which was within driving distance.

I took the truck.

Anyway, long story short, I have lots and lots of books now. And I'm ready to do more with them. At the end of the summer, for example, I nabbed a couple of beat-up armchairs at a yard sale, and now they grace that corner of my classroom. I'd love to add a standing lamp but I was told NO. Same thing for rugs. NO. I might be able to get away with a stack of floor cushions, but I don't really have anywhere to put them.

Everything is so damn expensive. $20 a cushion? And don't get me started on how much shelving costs... yikes!

There seems to be a lot more out there for elementary-school classroom libraries. Is it sooo unusual to have one in high school? I want to decorate my walls, but I don't just want a silly "Read! :D" poster. With a worm wearing glasses. You know, a bookworm? HA! *sigh*

What does an ideal high school classroom library look like, anyway?

Image thanks to http://blog.syracuse.com/

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Is There Anything Wuss?

Okay, so I just posted a not-really review of Beauty Queens. It arrived at the school today (thanks AKJ Books! thanks DonorsChoose!) and I hopped gleefully around the room when I pulled it out of the box. But...

I'm almost AFRAID to read it.

My online buddies (hello forever ya!) have been gushing about this for MONTHS and I have waited and waited and WANTED to read this for, like, EVER. And now it's here. I have it. I have a copy. And... but... see, what if it doesn't live up to these impossible hopes I've set up?

I think I'll start off with Italo Calvino's Why Read the Classics, which I picked up at the library tonight. It sounds like it will be clever but possibly dull. Maybe that'll lower the bar a bit.

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Why Charter Schools Should Not Be the Enemy

Bear with me; the ideas connected to this post are all jumbly and I think I'm going to go ahead and publish before I'm truly satisfied with it, just so that something is OUT THERE. And I'll revise and tweak it bit by bit.

There seems to be a general consensus that charter schools and traditional public schools are pitted against each other in some kind of siege war; that charters are The Alternative to regular public education. And whether it's a good alternative or a bad alternative, well, that depends on what side of the war you're on, you know?

But the more I reflect on this, the more I am confounded by the wtfery of it all.

From what I understand, charter schools are not under the same guidelines as public schools because they are supposed to be research facilities. Now... as I understand it, in research, you typically have a control group and an experimental group. But people keep insisting on comparing charter schools to public schools. Shouldn't the comparison be WITHIN the charter school? between the students being taught with standard methods (control) and those being taught with methods under study (experimental)?

And when I learned about the scientific method, I was taught that you start out with a hypothesis and you do your research to test it. But when I'm looking at charter schools I haven't been able to find out what hypotheses they're testing.

Reframing charters in this way would be an enormous help to education in general. Public schools could learn from the charters without being threatened by them. Charters wouldn't have to worry about producing results that are better than what public schools can accomplish; finding out that a new technique isn't as good as what's already being used is helpful information!

I'm going to point my accusation at the media: they don't want to lose the "FIGHT TO THE DEATH!" story. Apparently ratings are more important than actual progress.

And I'm gonna stop for now. I think I have more explainin' to do, but it's past medtime, and my brain is tired.

Image thanks to http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/

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SOS thoughts

So this is how much I dislike writing. It's my second day of ... well, neither bedrest nor house-arrest, but something in between. I haven't spent all the time in bed, but I haven't left the bedroom much at all, either.

And I'm FINALLY bored enough to write. ;) Although I'm very seriously considering using this time to label the books I got at the ALA convention.

Tenure

No, teachers who have earned tenure are not guaranteed a job for life. However, tenure DOES make it more work to fire an employee under its protection. The media keeps rambling about how hard it is to fire bad teachers, but I'd say that's because administration isn't doing its job. Good teachers don't become bad teachers overnight, and administration is SUPPOSED to evaluate all teachers on a regular basis. If this was done competently, then steps could be taken BEFORE things got really bad, whether it was support or warnings.

Instead, we hear about teachers cussing at students or sleeping in class. How did it get to that point?! Either someone made a REALLY BAD hiring decision, or the behaviors developed gradually - and could have been addressed years earlier.

It's a false dichotomy - either we get rid of tenure, or we're stuck with bad teachers. And that's just not correct.

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Keep On Keepin On

Well let me tell ya. It has been one CRAZY year, what with cancer and my first NCTE and blizzards and tornadoes and OH YEAH I STILL GOT THE YEARBOOK DISTRIBUTED ON TIME WOT WOT!!

Also, another reason I am amazing? I got my checklist turned in at 9 AM this morning - BOOYAH. I packed up my room VERY carefully, separately re-filing materials for language arts and journalism so that the new hire (hopefully! fingers crossed!!) will have those all together and I can just take my stuff and get started right at the start of the year without having to do the sorting THEN.

Fortunately I had one of the janitors unlock my room so that I could put away some shelves, because I had a couple of parents come by to pick up a copy of the yearbook. *facepalm*

I've also been updating my unit plans over at the UbD Educators Wiki. I'm feeling kind of uncertain and nervous about it, because technically I don't know that I'll be teaching sophomore English next year. I'll be kind of frustrated if I've put all that work into that particular course and I wind up with freshmen.

Not that I have anything against freshmen, or against freshman English; I think I even favor their required content a bit. The whole not-having-to-teach-Caesar is pretty awesome.

And the process of thinking through these units is just as helpful as the end result. Heck, maybe I should ask for a copy of the scope and sequence for the other grades once I've finished my unit planning for English II and work on unit plans for the others!

I think mostly I just don't enjoy feeling adrift. I very purposefully did NOT include Journalism on my list of courses-I-am-willing-to-teach. It would be nice to KNOW what courses I will be teaching next year. Especially because if they DO stick me with Journalism again, I'll be a little off my game because I didn't set up yearbook camp over the summer... though I'm in contact with most of the students on Facebook so I bet I could get things in order pretty quickly.

The Hunk has reserved rooms in New Orleans for the ALA convention. I'm pretty stoked. ^.^ In the meantime, we've got a few weeks to relax, do some housework, and ... well, relax some more!

Image thanks to http://img4.realsimple.com/

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More on gaming

Over on a discussion at the EC Ning, Andres Esquivel Jr shared this TED talk:



And while I replied within the context of that particular discussion, I think I still have quite a bit more to say on the issue. And for once I actually feel pretty confident about what I'm saying. (In fact, I just took a quick break to add "play theorist" to my profile!)

A bit of background - first of all, I don't see myself as an avid gamer. I do play World of Warcraft, but while many players have multiple characters of different types at maximum level, I've got one. I almost always play by myself rather than in groups. I don't know that I've ever played another multiplayer game. Wait - no - I think I've played two or three songs in Rock Band. (I wasn't bad, but then, I was just the singer.) And perhaps more significantly, I began playing as an adult.

Maybe it's because of the resulting distance from play, or maybe it's just because I'm WEIRD. I don't know. But I find myself as engaged by the systems and the reasoning behind them as I do by the experience of playing.

I've finished up my yearbook work for the weekend but I still have a class set of notebooks to check & respond to. As a result, I think I'm just going to copy-paste in the quick notes I took on the seven things-we-should-do points Chatfield made in his TED talk:

1. XP bar measures progress - I have liked this idea for some time but it's hard to do; see my remark below.


2. multiple long & short-term aims; lots of small tasks (quests) that both produce small rewards (XP & loot) that lead to bigger rewards (levels). THIS, I think, we can at least begin to do.


3. Reward effort - not sure about this one. If a monster kills you, you don't get the XP for it. In fact, you face an in-game penalty because you have to pay in-game money to get your in-game equipment repaired. "Teeny reinforcements" I agree with.


4. Rapid, frequent, clear feedback. Tougher to do in person though. And we already know this is incredibly helpful in education. In WoW, it tells you how much damage you take from each time something hits you, and it tells you how much damage you DO from each hit you make, and how much something heals you, or if a power is available, or if you've activated something special, and this is tailored to your character to reduce the amount of noise on screen BUT you also have the flashy show of using your powers, so that others can see that you're helping out.


5. He says "uncertain rewards," I say varying levels of reward at different levels of likelihood. This also applies to story endings - we want something that makes complete sense (that fits our expectations of what is likely to happen) but that isn't predictable.


6. Windows of enhanced attention - huh? he didn't explain this as much as others.


7. Collaboration - this one needs to be expanded as well. There are more threads than he explored (all he mentioned were DKPs)

"We can break things down into highly-calculated small tasks." Can we? I mean, it's not hard to calculate how many quests I will need to complete at 100 points per quest to get to the next level if I'm 1000 points from the next level! BUT. It is MUCH harder to calculate how many metaphors I need to explain in literal terms to get to the next level of understanding... whatever that is!

Re point 3 - I think he means reward BEHAVIOR. Studies have shown that when you offer rewards for simple, achieveable behaviors you get more of them; when you offer rewards for complex tasks, there's no resultant gain.

Okay. I'm off to add to my article bank and close out some tabs. I've had a lot going on in my head lately about Wisconsin and all of that as well. Don't know if that'll come to a post any time soon... WE MUST FINISH THE BOOK! :D

Wish me luck! :)

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