Author: Mr. Chase

NGT Time

One of the initiatives started by Superintendent Norris three years ago was the NeXt Generation Teaching program.

The idea is to identify those competencies, tools and tactics essential for effective teaching of and in the next generation.

The program was piloted with a small group of high school teachers just a bit over two years ago. Among other things those of us in the pilot attended three weeks of additional summer training and logged up to 90 hours of additional training and implimentation time throughout each of the last two school years.

The idea, sort of, was that this initial group would be “NeXt Generation Certified” by the end of the training. The difficulty was that the certification process had not really been dealt with. It was a bit of a “we’ll get to that when it comes up.”

Well, it’s come up, and 40 teachers want to know the next steps.

While the program has had it’s stumbles, no part of NGT training has failed to be thought-provoking and enriching. I’m a better teacher for taking part in the program and could walk away happy at this moment. That would, of course, go against the goal of having every teacher in the county working toward NGT certification – a certification that, heretofore, does not exist.

As is the way in education and old-school corporate America, a committee has been formed. Luckily, it’s a committee of people who can work well together and can challenge resepectfully.

After our first meeting we’d actually made progress. It’s sometimes a shocking thing to see beaurocracy moving forward.

The process isn’t complete, but it’s given me cause to create my first wiki. The committee members are all aware of the document and will hopefully tweak and tune it so that we can iron out details at our next meeting. Thus far, I’m the only one to have made any changes, but I’m hoping the others will hop online in the next few days.

More later.

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It’s about ideas

Boy, have I been reading lately. There’s so much going on out there that I can’t seem to focus any kind of critical thinking for too long. I suppose this is an attempt to get some focused thought out on what’s been bumping around my brain for the past few weeks.

First, Miguel Guhlin posted an interesting thought on the job of education and the type of product we tend to manufacture. I use those words because it seems as though that is the way the thinking is turning. Many posts I’ve read as of late are concerned with the outputs of education – as we all should be.
Before getting to Guhlin, David Warlick commented briefly on NCLB, and had this to say:

…I believe that No Child Left Behind has done far more harm to education in the U.S. than good. It is an industrial age solution to an information age problem. But NCLB is correct in that schools, teachers, and students must be accountable to their communities.

Warlick’s is a thought I’m running into more and more frequently. It fits nicely with Guhlin’s post:

To teach real life problem-solving in schools would result in children becoming aware that their work in school lacks authenticity, only brainwashes them to trust authority without question, make them dependent on consolidated, controlled media sources that filter the news, even censor it if you believe some alternative sources to protect the ruling elite, and serve as the lower caste of people who must do the menial jobs. The creative class of people–those who populate our private and charter schools–also are indoctrinated in specific dogmas and ideologies, allowed freedom on a rope only after, like baby elephants whipped since childhood, restricted by a heavy chain, achieve freedom of movement, but not of mind.

Decidedly, Phoenix is part of the former system. This is not say I haven’t any experience in the latter. Being able to recognize both models and identify their products leads to a better understanding of the problem. It is a problem.
The roots of many of my students’ problems with education can be found not in inability to do work but in unwillingness to play the game.
I was luck when growing up to have teachers in a small rural school who could press against the rules in order to find ways to educate that met students’ wants, needs and (I hesitate to suggest a link between education and this last one) passions. My English teachers knew what they were talking about and made their classes maleable for those of us who had an interest in words and their role in shaping society.
Equally available to me, but something I chose not to avail myself of was a top-notch agri-science program. I could be certain that the students in my English class who did not find the same artful beauty in the words we read would be enriched by…whatever it was that happened in the ag classes. Because each of us had a place where we could do the learning that interested us most, we were more willing to do the learning that interested us least.
Without any outlet, I would be extremely weary of letting anything in. My students have, by and large, lacked an outlet.
While my class may not be the outlet of choice, I’m working to do all I can to help them align themselves with whatever they need to unstop their creative impulses.
This isn’t an argument of tools; it is an argument of ideas. I don’t think a blog, wiki, podcast or laptop is required for a student to find the best opportunity for developing passion. It is about ideas. I remember when those were things we were encouraged to have and investigate.
More later.

Hungry for morsels

After what I imagine to be one of the longest brainstorming session ever (he created the thing last Fall) Principal Cantees has made his first blog post. I even got a shout out. I’ve been on him for the last few weeks to post again and comment on the blogs of others. His worry is that he doesn’t have anything to say, that he wants what he writes to be important.
Ironically, it’s one of the problems I’ve seen over and over again with my beginning writers. They’re so worried that their first drafts won’t be Pulitzer-worthy that they never get anything on the page or screen.
Luckily, I think Principal Cantees is starting to come around to the idea that it’s about the conversation that comes after the posting – the one that refines your thinking and makes you do more of it – that counts more than the original post.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if post #2 is still months in the making.
More later.

Something to Mull Over

Classroom Distinctions – New York Times

A friend and fellow teacher sent me the above link to a Times op-ed piece on the relationship between movie teachers and real world teachers. Seems they are two different animals.

Tom Moore, the writer of the piece, is a teacher in the Bronx. He writes:

Films like “Freedom Writers” portray teachers more as missionaries than professionals, eager to give up their lives and comfort for the benefit of others, without need of compensation. Ms. Gruwell sacrifices money, time and even her marriage for her job.

Her behavior is not represented as obsessive or self-destructive, but driven — necessary, even. She is forced into making these sacrifices by the aggressive neglect of the school’s administrators, who won’t even let her take books from the bookroom. The film applauds Ms. Gruwell’s dedication, but also implies that she has no other choice. In order to be a good teacher, she has to be a hero.

It’s difficult for me to read this piece objectively. I know Erin and the Freedom Writers. I have seen the effects of their work and the effects Gruwell’s methods can have when implements in the classroom.

I smirked when reading, “Many of the students I’ve known won’t sit down unless they’re repeatedly asked to (maybe not even then), and they don’t listen just because the teacher is speaking; even ‘good teachers’ are occasionally drowned out by the din of 30 students simultaneously using language that would easily earn a movie an NC-17 rating.”

These things are true in my own school, in every school I’ve ever scene since joining the profession.

Admitting Moore’s understanding and knowledge of the subject, I disagree with his premise. Yes, educators need more support, trust and pay. We need hope too. While I do not expect my teaching to have the same effects or results as Gruwell’s, I need movies like Freedom Writers, Blackboard Jungle, Stand and Deliver, etc. to remind me of what education has the possibility of becoming.

I’ve sat through enough parent-teacher conferences to know that is the true business to which we’ve dedicated our lives – realizing potential.

To succeed in a system where much of the old guard wishes to maintain the status quo and the new recruits are focused on keeping their heads above water, sacrifice is often the best way to accomplish what is most important – getting through.

Perhaps movies like Dangerous Minds are dangerous to the profession, planting false expectations in new teachers and a critical public. I acknowledge they could lead to an attitude of “see, a real teacher will forsake love and personal happiness to save the students she teaches.”

When we reach the precipice of this mindset, though, the same key is necessary as I use when calming a hot-blooded student – perspective.

These Kids Will Break Your Heart

Since my kids began journaling earlier this year, I would inevitably have a few kids throughout each day ask me to read what they wrote. I would gladly agree to the chance to gain a glimpse into their lives. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, I would have a full head and empty hands. The journals would go forgotten until the next day.

“Mr. Chase, did you read my journal?”

Sheepish look. “No, I forgot.”

One thing I hate is the feeling of letting one of my kids down. I do everything I can to keep it from happening, but the journals were my downfall.

After viewing Freedom Writers, I decided to change things around and implement a new system. If a student wants me to read what he or she wrote that day, they put the journal in the top drawer of my filing cabinet. If not, they put the journal back on the shelf. I’ve had no problems with people looking at other people’s journals. They get that it’s a personal space. It’s one of the few places where The Golden Rule truly works.

At the end of the day, I now empty the drawer, sit at my desk and read. If a student wants a comment or reply, they’ve been told to write, “respond,” on the entry.

So, I sit at the end of the each day and wait for my heart to break and be repaired.

Yesterday’s highlight was a student who wrote about plans to go home, bake a cake, make coffee and watch a movie. She wrote that I could have a piece if I wanted one – all I had to do was e-mail her. I did. One smiling student delivered one piece of cake to my room bright and early this morning. I saved it for the end of the day while I was reading. Something to brighten the spirits.

Unfortunately, the offer of baked goods is the rarity. My students are struggling with things I’m yet to encounter. Suicide, drug addiction, neglect. I think I’m still amazed at how much they are willing to share. Much like Erin in the movie, I head to the drawer at the end of each day and expect a lighter load, but it’s always full.

Interesting, I’ve got some repeat customers, but the daily selection is usually on rotation. Today these kids want to share, but tomorrow it will be an almost entirely different group. I love these kids. You have to. You absolutely have to.

More later.

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Flipchart Fun

So, I had this whole post written about my plans for bucking the FCAT review scheduled for tomorrow. Then, the browser crashed. As such, here’s a link to the ActivBoard Flipchart I made.

Bah.

More later.

Click

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So Much Has Happened

Let me say some things about my final exam. Given the two days before school let out, exams are rarely an exciting thing for me. At Phoenix, all students, 8 and 9, take exams so as not to disrupt the schedule and to help prepare our advancing 8th graders should they decide to go to a traditional school next year.

My final was simple. I gave the students 10 different writing prompts and told them to pick the one they thought they could write the most interesting essay about. From there, they had to brainstorm, plan, write a rough draft, revise and write a final draft.

Now, at this point last year, I gave the same final and realized I had a lot of work to do. This year, the results were amazing. One student turned in planning, a rough draft and a final draft. This is amazing because the student has a serious learning disability. At the beginning of the year, he gave me four lines in response to a prompt. This was after he wrote his name on his planning sheet – that was all, his name, nothing else.

The essay he turned in took the whole page. Not only that, it contained three similes. THREE.

While none of them is ready to be published, each essay showed tremendous progress. They’re writing. More often than not, they’re writing things that are interesting and important to them. They’re good kids.

I need to get to the next level. Our state writing assessment, the test I was hired for, is Feb. 7. I need to get them excited. I need to get them focused.

I don’t know how many times this year, I’ve told the kids, “You will get a boring prompt, that does not give you permission to write a boring essay.”

Other important phrases include, “Write the good sandwich,” “Write your truth,” and “So far as I know, no one has ever died of a writing related accident.”

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A Glimmer of Hope

Finals began yesterday.

I like finals. I like the idea that my students have an opportunity to put all they’ve learned to work for them. I’m not so fond of the results, sometimes, but them’s the breaks.

Thursday’s finals were something altogether different.

My final is simple, students receive 10 possible writing prompts and must choose one. They brainstorm, plan an essay, write a rough draft, revise that draft and write a final copy. It sounds more tedious than it is. I try to select prompts that are interesting and the fact that there are ten choices is helpful.

Yesterday’s results were astounding. I was walking on air. A student who has, thus far, sat through timed writings and ended up with a barely legible third of his page filled up gave me a full page including 3 similes. I don’t know if I was more excited about that or about the fact he FILLED an entire sheet with his brainstorming. It was tremendous.

Many other students who have heretofore done little or nothing when it comes to planning and brainstorming filled pages with webs and outlines. There was drive, effort and ability.

“Look at mine,” was not an infrequent thing to overhear. I am proud.

I announced Wednesday when we were finishing our review for the test that the top essays from each class would be posted here on the blog. It’s going to be a tight race.

More later.

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What I Learned

Yesterday was the first day of my experiement with having my students teach their peers. While it was not a shining success serving as a beacon to the way education should be, it did offere a glimmer of hope of things to come.

I will use my last period class as an example. Two students were in the group that taught yesterday afternoon. They were a good pair who are also friends. Now, this can mean two things. Friends in group work can lead to no work or it can lead to good work. In this case,  it led to the latter.

Of the two students, one is a frequent challenge. By the time this student ends the day in my classroom, I frequently wish my walls were padded in rubber. Monday, though, something else happened. These two students who had communicated over the weekend, who had sacrificed their lunch and wheel classes to work on their presentation brought their A Game.

From the top of the class, they had something for the students to do. They modeled, practiced and then assigned – taking questions as they went. What’s more, they showed patience and understanding of those students who were off-task. Their re-direction was not loud or threatening, but quiet prodding of the “So, what are you writing down? Can I help?” ilk.

I was impressed. The cap was when theses student teachers had one of their class share a paragraph he had written. About the most difficult decision he’d ever had to face, the sharing students paragraph outlined his decision of whether or not to go skydiving. Without missing a beat, not a beat, the usually bouyant student said, “I can relate to that. When my mom went skydiving, I went up in the plane with her, and just being up there was scary.”

He offered clear, relative feedback. He connected with his students.

I’ll be doing this again when we return for second semester. It’s a trial and error thing. Now that I know they can do it, I’m excited to see them do it better.

More later.

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Students Teaching

We’re heading in to finals week next week. Because Phoenix is an 8th and 9th grade school, our 8th graders will also be taking finals. This is a first for many of them. It was a first for me last year. Earlier this week, I was pondering how I would prepare my students for their final. What review would work best? I feel I’ve dowsed them in the steps of the writing process for the past 18 weeks; one more time and they might drown.

Luckily, the idea came to me in the shower, as many good ideas do.

I’m not teaching anything. It’s a tough on to grasp and looks like loafing at first glance.

It’s not loafing, it’s learning. If William Glasser is correct and we learn 90% of what we teach, then why not turn the teaching over to my students.

And so, for three days now, my students have been creating lesson plans, using computers, and working in groups to teach the steps of the writing process.

Let there be no confusion, it was painful at first. Many of my students claimed they had no idea how to plan for an essay, though my memory recalls planning being the chief concern of at least a dozen lessons. They looked like they were listening, even answered questions.

So, the learning’s on them. The teaching’s on them.

My job is to buzz from group to group and say things like, “If you’re working on conclusion paragraphs and the group before you is working on introduction and body paragraphs, why not ask what the topic of their essay is and feed off of them?”

Last night, in an attempt to settle some concerns that continue to come up in each class, I built this. Hopefully, it will serve as a guide to the misguided. Either way, they’re taking ownership…if somewhat reluctantly.

The Superintendent is doing a whirlwind tour of schools this week and next with a reporter from the Herald-Tribune. Mine is the class at Phoenix they’ll be visiting. Sixth and seventh periods (two in which there is the most controlled chaos) have been told we’ll have visitors. I’m excited because I think they will be proud of themselves after the visit. They are ready to answer questions (I hope) and they are owning the project so they should be fairly articulate. Of course, that’s with me. Who knows what will happen when they are approached by total strangers who want to know “What are you doing?”

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