Secretary Arne Duncan announced a new initiative Wednesday--and a new acronym: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (Kinda makes you want to sing, doesn't it?)
RESPECT stands for Recognizing Education Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching.
He wants to "spark a dialogue that results in strong policy and a sustainable transformation to the teaching profession."
If we can get some, (respect, that is) I'm all for it. It has been a brutal two years to be a classroom teacher. And "joy comes well in such a needy time."
Duncan and Obama have entered a $5 billion grant program in the current budget proposal to "support states and districts that commit to bold reforms at every stage of the teaching profession." In his remarks, Duncan commented on the need to include teacher voices in policymaking, the need to compensate, train, and support teachers as professionals, the need to fix a dysfunctional system.
As a member of the Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching, I was invited to be in the room when the announcement was made. Duncan said all the right things about the need to elevate teaching as a profession, as far as I was concerned, because--as he himself stated--"we did just copy your report" Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility with Student Learning.
So why has it taken me four days to compose a blog?
Duncan made his remarks Wednesday. On Thursday he appeared on The Daily Show and slipped back into the same rhetoric of his Race to the Top program and barely a peep was made about transforming teaching into the profession it needs to be in order to reform every classroom in America. His RttT program has worked amazingly well. Schools and districts all over the nation are currently revamping programs to evaluate teaching in order to qualify for the grants under this program. But the emphasis has been on measuring tools tied to testing.
In terms of getting people to make sweeping changes RttT has worked. But is it good for kids?
Not if teacher evaluation rests on a program where students are repeatedly tested in order to determine how well a teacher is doing. This is precisely the wrong direction. And it is a direction he did not back off of in his remarks to Jon Stewart.
It was a big low after the high of Wednesday's meeting.
And what about the $5 billion in potential grants?
In the past, when grant dollars are offered they can inspire much change (just look at RttT). But as soon as the next guy rolls into office, programs fall apart and teachers are left holding the shreds of the "change dujour," a familiar landscape for veteran teachers--one unsustainable initiative follows another.
This is why the entire system needs to be revamped. Change needs to be sustainable and ongoing and at the classroom level. And it will be, when continual learning and peer evaluation is embedded in the job of the classroom teacher.
Still, I find much to celebrate in this announcement.
Ten years ago no one was advocating for a teaching profession. A state union representative once told me that "there's a lot of problems" with that model.
That isn't happening now. All concerned education groups are arriving at the same conclusion: teaching needs to be elevated. And now we have a national leader taking up the language. What form that action takes remains to be seen.
So, what to do?
I have chosen to embrace, and then follow closely, this new language. As has been seen with RttT, the grant money does put a fire under some. If it enjoins teacher leaders in reshaping the profession, then the vision will have been moved to another level.
But it is easy to give lip-service to a new, bold idea--especially on the cusp of an important election.
It is quite another to follow lip-service with policy. But loud groups can make this happen (Yes, We Can.)
Teachers--you have a job to do. If ever there were a need for the Sleeping Giant to awaken it is now.
We need to simultaneously work toward a teacher-led, teacher-controlled profession while we continue to point out the narrow constraints of defining our work through more and more student assessments.
The window is opening just a crack. Climb through and bring your friends. Sit on committees where teacher evaluation is being discussed and help create documents that engage teachers in the work of improvement--and away from student testing. Talk with your representatives. Explain your position to parents. Share the realities of your job and the impact of policy on student learning with the public. Engage your peers.
And when the call comes for the National Conversation, pick up the phone and speak your mind.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Why teachers need to own their profession
Friday was a fun day in the classroom for me. I was doing the one thing that continues to keep me energized after all these years: trying out a new idea.
It worked pretty well. I think the students agreed. We will be working together to fine tune this new lesson model, and I will rely on the students' feedback and behaviors to make additional changes.
To make short work of a long story, here is the history of what led me to the new discussion model we tried this week:
All good, right? Not quite. I still have lingering issues. I am unable to engage the shyest of the students. After a discussion their follow-up writing reveals these students often have powerful ideas which are never brought to the group. A shame. We need their ideas too. I tinker with a few things. Still no movement on the shy students.
It also bothers me that even though the students are bringing up valid and well-supported points ( a goal for seminar), too frequently the points go unchallenged. Topics are introduced and then dropped as students try to 'score points' by leaping to their own views without absorbing or considering new views. Now that's not really a discussion, is it? It's more like a series of short lectures.
What to do?
As part of an Advanced Placement List serve I had read numerous posts where teachers mention training in the Harkness Discussion model. I keep wondering how that differs from what I am currently doing. Finally, with enough dissatisfaction built up I expend many hours over the holiday to follow and absorb a link to Jodi Rice's superb google site (Thank you Jodi) and begin to explore how this model differs from the socratic seminar model.
Turns out the major difference is in the assessment of the discussions. Harkness places emphasis on the group's behavior by issuing a group grade, one that even the students' themselves can assess by looking at a diagram of their work. Cool.
There's more to Harkness of course, and I have to think and plan well in advance so we can all clearly understand the multiple goals of our class discussions ( which are many: I hope they will learn annotation, inquiry, speaking, listening, supporting comments with evidence, critical thinking, and understanding the literature and author's craft) but the simple change from an individual grade to a group grade has already made a huge difference in the quality of discussion. (Please note, everyone, just how much assessment affects behavior--especially as you devise your Teacher Evaluation plans and standardized testing.)
So now we have a new method, and the students and I will continue to determine how well this meets all of our needs (see parenthetical list above).
So, how could professionalizing teaching help?
Look at what it takes to improve--i.e. reform practice--in substantive ways:
Observation (of self and others)
Reflection (revisiting the work and evaluating it)
Diagnosis of problems (clinical research)
Search for solutions (research)
Collaboration with peers (sometimes in person, sometimes in electronic forums)
Prescription (application of new methodology)
Adjustment based on evidence (which changes year to year, class to class)
Lather, rinse, repeat.
These are the skills, knowledge and practices it takes to continue to improve. The up side to such a self-study is that the answers are owned by the teacher--just as the discoveries in an invigorating discussion are owned by the students. These moves mirror those by other professions and should be job embedded. During the 11-year journey outlined above, none of the moves made were supported or encouraged in the work day through the current model of managing teacher work.
They could be.
It worked pretty well. I think the students agreed. We will be working together to fine tune this new lesson model, and I will rely on the students' feedback and behaviors to make additional changes.
To make short work of a long story, here is the history of what led me to the new discussion model we tried this week:
- During the work on my National Board Portfolio (in 2000), I film myself leading a whole class discussion. Whole group discussion is a requirement. The portfolio requires reflection on the lesson noting what works, what doesn't. I decide I'm doing a pretty poor job of leading a discussion. I'm insecure in my questioning. The student answers are perfunctory. Only a few students are involved. It looks like all the whole-group discussions I had when I was a student.
- I ask for help. A colleague agrees to help me begin using Socratic Seminars. I'd had a workshop on this but felt too unsure of the methods to try it on my own. (The kids do all the work?! No way.) With her coaching I start using this method, first in one class before expanding it to others.
- Several of my goals are met: the students are taking responsibility for the reading and thinking. They are learning to devise their own questions. The seminars engage most of the students. All students are coming to class prepared. Sometimes there is actually excitement in the room, and I often hear the comment "I love seminar day..." I'm sold and begin using this as a regular feature.
All good, right? Not quite. I still have lingering issues. I am unable to engage the shyest of the students. After a discussion their follow-up writing reveals these students often have powerful ideas which are never brought to the group. A shame. We need their ideas too. I tinker with a few things. Still no movement on the shy students.
It also bothers me that even though the students are bringing up valid and well-supported points ( a goal for seminar), too frequently the points go unchallenged. Topics are introduced and then dropped as students try to 'score points' by leaping to their own views without absorbing or considering new views. Now that's not really a discussion, is it? It's more like a series of short lectures.
What to do?
As part of an Advanced Placement List serve I had read numerous posts where teachers mention training in the Harkness Discussion model. I keep wondering how that differs from what I am currently doing. Finally, with enough dissatisfaction built up I expend many hours over the holiday to follow and absorb a link to Jodi Rice's superb google site (Thank you Jodi) and begin to explore how this model differs from the socratic seminar model.
Turns out the major difference is in the assessment of the discussions. Harkness places emphasis on the group's behavior by issuing a group grade, one that even the students' themselves can assess by looking at a diagram of their work. Cool.
There's more to Harkness of course, and I have to think and plan well in advance so we can all clearly understand the multiple goals of our class discussions ( which are many: I hope they will learn annotation, inquiry, speaking, listening, supporting comments with evidence, critical thinking, and understanding the literature and author's craft) but the simple change from an individual grade to a group grade has already made a huge difference in the quality of discussion. (Please note, everyone, just how much assessment affects behavior--especially as you devise your Teacher Evaluation plans and standardized testing.)
So now we have a new method, and the students and I will continue to determine how well this meets all of our needs (see parenthetical list above).
So, how could professionalizing teaching help?
Look at what it takes to improve--i.e. reform practice--in substantive ways:
Observation (of self and others)
Reflection (revisiting the work and evaluating it)
Diagnosis of problems (clinical research)
Search for solutions (research)
Collaboration with peers (sometimes in person, sometimes in electronic forums)
Prescription (application of new methodology)
Adjustment based on evidence (which changes year to year, class to class)
Lather, rinse, repeat.
These are the skills, knowledge and practices it takes to continue to improve. The up side to such a self-study is that the answers are owned by the teacher--just as the discoveries in an invigorating discussion are owned by the students. These moves mirror those by other professions and should be job embedded. During the 11-year journey outlined above, none of the moves made were supported or encouraged in the work day through the current model of managing teacher work.
They could be.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
State of the [teacher's] Union
Obama addressed the nation on Tuesday night in his annual State of the Union remarks to both houses of Congress.
Of course, when education is referenced in these speeches, (as it always is-without fail) I perk up and listen. In general the remarks are hollow rah-rahs for the need for stronger schools. Often, the pablum is packaged in red, white, and blue and little of substance is offered.
So far, I have yet to hear a politician say anything but supportive statements about the need for a strong education system. The devil is in the details.
For those who may have missed it, here is the portion of the State of the Union address where Obama referenced our floundering goals in education:
His remarks are shorthand for those who follow education issues and reflect most of what has gone on in the past year. Here's the translation.
First of all, layoffs are looming. Most localities will run out of stimulus money this year and will have to increase classroom sizes as they lay off teachers.
Then he references the recent report published in the New York Times on how effective teachers improve a child's earning power. This report has dubious goals and questionable conclusions about using Value Added Measures which rely on test scores to rate a teacher's effectiveness, so the remark about what "we know" is not exactly all that quantifiable. It is clear though that effective teachers who are well supported can make a difference. A large part of a teacher's ability to be effective hinges on the system he/she labors within. Clearly the current system under NCLB has done much to stagnate student achievement in the past decade. And equal access to a strong educational foundation has widened rather than narrowed. Teachers argue that their ability to remain effective has been stripped from them.
Obama's line about saving poor children through education is seen by some as a cop-out for the rest of the nation. Laying the cure for poverty at the feet of the teaching force absolves the rest of us from making changes to a tax code that dooms whole swaths of our electorate to a lifelong struggle for economic stability. Student achievement will benefit when households are not under continual strain.
The "bashing" line comes from the media onslaught starting with Waiting for Superman last fall and continuing in the NBC Education Nation where teachers and their unions have been routinely vilified and sidelined so that billionaires and corporatists can gain credibility in their argument that the cure for public education is a weakened teacher's union and tighter, more frequent measures of teacher effectiveness--i.e. testing, testing, testing, to produce data, data, data.
The last bit--"let's offer schools a deal" refers to Obama's language in his actual "blueprint" (why is everything a blueprint these days?). The blueprint was released after the speech and contains the following language in reference to a plan for education:
So this list looks like the devil's details. Those who have read the report Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility with Student Learning will recognize some of the bullet points. The teachers who wrote the report argue that teachers will assume accountability when we have more control over the training, the workplace, and the criteria for advancement. In other words, ownership of a supportive system in tandem with accountability.
The door is not fully open for professionalizing teaching, but this looks like a window to crawl through.
Nothing happens until discussion ensues. Start talking. Our representatives need to know which bullet points need to be pushed forward in this agenda to lift teachers to the role of professional. Our children and the future will benefit.
Of course, when education is referenced in these speeches, (as it always is-without fail) I perk up and listen. In general the remarks are hollow rah-rahs for the need for stronger schools. Often, the pablum is packaged in red, white, and blue and little of substance is offered.
So far, I have yet to hear a politician say anything but supportive statements about the need for a strong education system. The devil is in the details.
For those who may have missed it, here is the portion of the State of the Union address where Obama referenced our floundering goals in education:
At a time when other countries are doubling down on education, tight budgets have forced States to lay off thousands of teachers. We know a good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000. A great teacher can offer an escape from poverty to the child who dreams beyond his circumstance. Every person in this chamber can point to a teacher who changed the trajectory of their lives. Most teachers work tirelessly, with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own pocket for school supplies – just to make a difference. Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.
His remarks are shorthand for those who follow education issues and reflect most of what has gone on in the past year. Here's the translation.
First of all, layoffs are looming. Most localities will run out of stimulus money this year and will have to increase classroom sizes as they lay off teachers.
Then he references the recent report published in the New York Times on how effective teachers improve a child's earning power. This report has dubious goals and questionable conclusions about using Value Added Measures which rely on test scores to rate a teacher's effectiveness, so the remark about what "we know" is not exactly all that quantifiable. It is clear though that effective teachers who are well supported can make a difference. A large part of a teacher's ability to be effective hinges on the system he/she labors within. Clearly the current system under NCLB has done much to stagnate student achievement in the past decade. And equal access to a strong educational foundation has widened rather than narrowed. Teachers argue that their ability to remain effective has been stripped from them.
Obama's line about saving poor children through education is seen by some as a cop-out for the rest of the nation. Laying the cure for poverty at the feet of the teaching force absolves the rest of us from making changes to a tax code that dooms whole swaths of our electorate to a lifelong struggle for economic stability. Student achievement will benefit when households are not under continual strain.
The "bashing" line comes from the media onslaught starting with Waiting for Superman last fall and continuing in the NBC Education Nation where teachers and their unions have been routinely vilified and sidelined so that billionaires and corporatists can gain credibility in their argument that the cure for public education is a weakened teacher's union and tighter, more frequent measures of teacher effectiveness--i.e. testing, testing, testing, to produce data, data, data.
The last bit--"let's offer schools a deal" refers to Obama's language in his actual "blueprint" (why is everything a blueprint these days?). The blueprint was released after the speech and contains the following language in reference to a plan for education:
Attract, prepare, support, and reward great teachers to help students learn:
Teaching is a profession and should be treated like one. The latest research says a great teacher could increase the lifetime income of an entire classroom by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The President is fighting to protect our schools from being hurt by the recession by providing states and communities with funds to prevent teacher layoffs, and avoid increases to class sizes or decreases in the number of school days.
The President is also asking for a new competitive program that will challenge states and districts to work with their teachers and unions to comprehensively reform the teaching profession by:
o Reforming colleges of education and making these schools more selective;o Creating new career ladders for teachers to become more effective, and ensuring that
earnings are tied more closely to performance;o Establishing more leadership roles and responsibilities for teachers in running
schools; improving professional development and time for collaboration among teachers; and providing greater individual and collective autonomy in the classroom in exchange for greater accountability;
o Creating evaluation systems based on multiple measures, rather than just test scores; o Re-shaping tenure to raise the bar, protect good teachers, and promote accountability.
So this list looks like the devil's details. Those who have read the report Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility with Student Learning will recognize some of the bullet points. The teachers who wrote the report argue that teachers will assume accountability when we have more control over the training, the workplace, and the criteria for advancement. In other words, ownership of a supportive system in tandem with accountability.
The door is not fully open for professionalizing teaching, but this looks like a window to crawl through.
Nothing happens until discussion ensues. Start talking. Our representatives need to know which bullet points need to be pushed forward in this agenda to lift teachers to the role of professional. Our children and the future will benefit.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Existentialism
Teaching is the absolute best way to learn something really, really well. Especially if you teach a topic repeatedly to audiences of different sorts of learners. This is why collaboration, think-pair-share, and any of those other gee-whiz strategies work so well. They move students into the role of teacher. You can't explain something very well, and in varying ways, if you don't understand it. Probably the chief challenge in teaching is to remember that your audience does not understand something as well as you do. Teaching is the ultimate mind-matching exercise.
I managed to avoid teaching existentialism for years just by teaching in the lower grades. But when the works of senior year pushed us into the realm of philosophy, I had to get a handle on this one--a philosophy that runs through most modern works and that initially appeared to me to be depressing: life has no meaning, do what you want. Turns out there was so much more--and paradoxically--less.
My journey started with my colleagues: "Explain this philosophy to me in a way that helps me explain this to my students." They complied. We had a discussion over lunch.
As with any inquiry, once the question is asked the answers begin to appear everywhere (so says I - and Socrates) and I was on a collecting spree, always looking for works to flesh out my simplistic view of a modern dilemma: What is the meaning and purpose of life?
My favorite was Jean Paul Sartre's defense. Sartre's view is hopeful. If life is purposeless then humans are free to determine their own purpose. But in defining ourselves as human, we must first define our purpose and then taking action becomes obvious since it will result from that stated purpose. Those who face down their 'existential crisis' and come out on the other side become the opposite of Eliot's hollow men.
Next, on a snow day, I read Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It's a little book that can be read in a sitting. Frankl, a concentration camp survivor, reformed his psychiatric practice after the war to help depressives find their way out of their mental prison camps by defining their own purpose - and then taking action which conforms to the belief.
Simple, really. Pick a reason. Act accordingly.
Now on to the kids.
Existential movies abound in the popular culture and this provides access for youngsters who are yet to face the crisis most humans endure at one time or another.
Through the plot of a popular movie, most students can grasp the notion of feeling lost or rudderless and then finding something to live for. (In most movies, the characters choose to live for each other. Christians call that charity-or the greatest of these: love). In a list of movies (Up in the Air, Little Miss Sunshine, Garden State) the class can usually find one most have seen and then explore how the philosophy is expressed. After "getting it" they can transfer their new understanding to more difficult works. (Hamlet, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead)
And then there's this little gem from The Onion that lightens the mood after we've delved into some heavy material.
After spending all this time in my own search for a clearer understanding, I see the philosophy everywhere.
Apparently, that's the reason behind all these Mission Statement workshops. Too bad most of the time these are a hollow exercise rather the opportunity to wrestle with a collective view of the purpose of a public schooling system--or our particular school--or the ideal school.
And how about this? If the purpose of a nation is to make money ("The business of America is business.") then what kind of actions would naturally stem from that as a purpose?
Discuss this amongst yourselves.
I managed to avoid teaching existentialism for years just by teaching in the lower grades. But when the works of senior year pushed us into the realm of philosophy, I had to get a handle on this one--a philosophy that runs through most modern works and that initially appeared to me to be depressing: life has no meaning, do what you want. Turns out there was so much more--and paradoxically--less.
My journey started with my colleagues: "Explain this philosophy to me in a way that helps me explain this to my students." They complied. We had a discussion over lunch.
As with any inquiry, once the question is asked the answers begin to appear everywhere (so says I - and Socrates) and I was on a collecting spree, always looking for works to flesh out my simplistic view of a modern dilemma: What is the meaning and purpose of life?
My favorite was Jean Paul Sartre's defense. Sartre's view is hopeful. If life is purposeless then humans are free to determine their own purpose. But in defining ourselves as human, we must first define our purpose and then taking action becomes obvious since it will result from that stated purpose. Those who face down their 'existential crisis' and come out on the other side become the opposite of Eliot's hollow men.
Next, on a snow day, I read Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It's a little book that can be read in a sitting. Frankl, a concentration camp survivor, reformed his psychiatric practice after the war to help depressives find their way out of their mental prison camps by defining their own purpose - and then taking action which conforms to the belief.
Simple, really. Pick a reason. Act accordingly.
Now on to the kids.
Existential movies abound in the popular culture and this provides access for youngsters who are yet to face the crisis most humans endure at one time or another.
Through the plot of a popular movie, most students can grasp the notion of feeling lost or rudderless and then finding something to live for. (In most movies, the characters choose to live for each other. Christians call that charity-or the greatest of these: love). In a list of movies (Up in the Air, Little Miss Sunshine, Garden State) the class can usually find one most have seen and then explore how the philosophy is expressed. After "getting it" they can transfer their new understanding to more difficult works. (Hamlet, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead)
And then there's this little gem from The Onion that lightens the mood after we've delved into some heavy material.
After spending all this time in my own search for a clearer understanding, I see the philosophy everywhere.
Apparently, that's the reason behind all these Mission Statement workshops. Too bad most of the time these are a hollow exercise rather the opportunity to wrestle with a collective view of the purpose of a public schooling system--or our particular school--or the ideal school.
And how about this? If the purpose of a nation is to make money ("The business of America is business.") then what kind of actions would naturally stem from that as a purpose?
Discuss this amongst yourselves.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Dear Colleagues,
Today is an unexpected snow day-- a hole in my professional life I will fill in speaking frankly about teaching.
But first, a story:
My daughter is a Veterinarian. I am extremely proud of her accomplishments in this field because I know of the dedication and hard work she put in to achieve her dream of working with animals. I know where the dream began: pony club. She started riding horses after working on a girl scout badge at age 10. She loved the horses so much that, even as a teen - those sloths who love to sleep in, especially on a weekend or snow day -- woke up early every Saturday-on her own- just for the privilege of mucking a stall.
Her passion for learning about horses and animals remained unabated through the storms of adolescence and young adulthood. To my surprise, she worked methodically toward her DVM with little input from her parents other than the support of time and resources. And now she works to maintain the health of the pets in her community.
What does this have to do with teaching? Everything.
My daughter works with pets. I work with children. Other people's children. Our preparation couldn't have been more different.
First, she had to have an undergraduate degree before entering formal training for her profession.
To get into Veterinary School she had to document 400 hours of volunteer work with animals. A hundred of those hours had to be under the supervision of a licensed vet. This, I assume, would weed out the applicants who want to work with animals because they think they are cute and lovable. Some of her experiences involved unpleasant activities. There was a trip to a rendering plant. Collecting semen. Sticking pigs. Putting down a favorite pet.
Working with animals is decidedly unromantic. Best to get that notion out of the way.
Her final year in Vet school was entirely clinical. She worked in various parts of the state through rotations that took her onto farms and into animal hospitals, putting down large, expensive animals, rehabbing, treating, caring for large, expensive animals. All under the watchful care of a top practitioner.
Oh, and there was a test. Several, in fact. A national test first and then one each for Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. All required for a practicing license. And then the real learning began: a daily practice where hundreds of informed decisions are made on the spot every day. All augmented by continuing professional development for a field that is always learning.
Contrast that to teaching - where we work with actual human beings and shape their destiny. On the Great Chain of Being, even children rise above the level of animals in their closeness to God. But you would never know it in America. Somehow we find it acceptable to relegate our children's development to chance.
Today, assuming the role of teacher can mean simply changing your mind on the way to someplace else. We let recent undergrads become short-term teachers after only five weeks of training in Teach for America. The answer to the teacher problem has been to ask for less from the workforce, not more.
The plan du jour is to throw adults -- and now computer software -- at the wall and see what sticks. Meanwhile, the wall is a group of young people in their developmental years. We won't get those years back down the road. In addition, any yahoo walking in off the street with an opinion is allowed to make sweeping changes.
Because we have all been taught at one time or another, we all assume we can teach. Even teachers sometimes see their work as requiring little skill.
I could not disagree more. Those who succeed have come to grips with the nature of teaching, and its often very unromantic realities. (See veterinary corollaries above. Real kids are not always cute and lovable.)
In creating the document Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility with Student Learning, the commissioners outlined the skills and knowledge teachers need to be effective. Every teacher candidate should be able to demonstrate (from p. 11-12):
Turns out it IS rocket science.
Ok. I know. I already hear you complaining, "That's costly."
But the top tier education countries underwrite the tuition and subsequently attract top candidates who succeed in a rewarding, high-status, lifelong careers. These teacher-led professions are continually examining and improving themselves. That vision is far less costly in the long run than our current practice of churning teachers. And are you telling me the 'richest nation in the world' cannot afford to do what's right for kids?
Read and rally around the report. We cannot wait for someone else to hand us what is clearly necessary.
It must be demanded.
But first, a story:
My daughter is a Veterinarian. I am extremely proud of her accomplishments in this field because I know of the dedication and hard work she put in to achieve her dream of working with animals. I know where the dream began: pony club. She started riding horses after working on a girl scout badge at age 10. She loved the horses so much that, even as a teen - those sloths who love to sleep in, especially on a weekend or snow day -- woke up early every Saturday-on her own- just for the privilege of mucking a stall.
Her passion for learning about horses and animals remained unabated through the storms of adolescence and young adulthood. To my surprise, she worked methodically toward her DVM with little input from her parents other than the support of time and resources. And now she works to maintain the health of the pets in her community.
What does this have to do with teaching? Everything.
My daughter works with pets. I work with children. Other people's children. Our preparation couldn't have been more different.
First, she had to have an undergraduate degree before entering formal training for her profession.
To get into Veterinary School she had to document 400 hours of volunteer work with animals. A hundred of those hours had to be under the supervision of a licensed vet. This, I assume, would weed out the applicants who want to work with animals because they think they are cute and lovable. Some of her experiences involved unpleasant activities. There was a trip to a rendering plant. Collecting semen. Sticking pigs. Putting down a favorite pet.
Working with animals is decidedly unromantic. Best to get that notion out of the way.
Her final year in Vet school was entirely clinical. She worked in various parts of the state through rotations that took her onto farms and into animal hospitals, putting down large, expensive animals, rehabbing, treating, caring for large, expensive animals. All under the watchful care of a top practitioner.
Oh, and there was a test. Several, in fact. A national test first and then one each for Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. All required for a practicing license. And then the real learning began: a daily practice where hundreds of informed decisions are made on the spot every day. All augmented by continuing professional development for a field that is always learning.
Contrast that to teaching - where we work with actual human beings and shape their destiny. On the Great Chain of Being, even children rise above the level of animals in their closeness to God. But you would never know it in America. Somehow we find it acceptable to relegate our children's development to chance.
Today, assuming the role of teacher can mean simply changing your mind on the way to someplace else. We let recent undergrads become short-term teachers after only five weeks of training in Teach for America. The answer to the teacher problem has been to ask for less from the workforce, not more.
The plan du jour is to throw adults -- and now computer software -- at the wall and see what sticks. Meanwhile, the wall is a group of young people in their developmental years. We won't get those years back down the road. In addition, any yahoo walking in off the street with an opinion is allowed to make sweeping changes.
Because we have all been taught at one time or another, we all assume we can teach. Even teachers sometimes see their work as requiring little skill.
I could not disagree more. Those who succeed have come to grips with the nature of teaching, and its often very unromantic realities. (See veterinary corollaries above. Real kids are not always cute and lovable.)
In creating the document Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility with Student Learning, the commissioners outlined the skills and knowledge teachers need to be effective. Every teacher candidate should be able to demonstrate (from p. 11-12):
KNOWLEDGE: We believe that for future success, all pre-service teachers need to learn at least the following:uContent matter appropriate for teaching the subject area(s)
u Child, adolescent, and abnormal psychology
uEnglish language development and second language acquisition strategiesu Instructional methods, strategies, and practicesu Curriculum models and practicesuInstructional technology practices and information technology useu Standards-based curriculum designu Content-based reading and writing strategiesuInstructional adaptations to address students’ individual learning styles, readiness to learn, and level of independenceuInstructional accommodations for students’ special learning needs uImpact of socioeconomic background, ethnicity, race, gender, language skills, disability, andother factors on teaching and learningu Classroom management strategiesSKILLS: We believe all pre-service teachers must learn to do the following:u Plan instructionuGuide students through a variety of learning experiencesu Assess student progressu Analyze student learning outcomesuDiagnose special needs, prescribe learning strategies, develop remedial plans, and adjust instruction to suit special needsu Reflect on practiceu Collaborate with colleaguesuIncorporate 21st century skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving, into teacher practicealongside effective teachers. A series of classroom experiences such as the following will allow candidates to apply the content and pedagogical knowledge and skills they acquire:
SCHOOL-BASED EXPERIENCES: We believe that to be successful in today’s complex learn- ing environment, all pre-service teachers need to spend significant time in schools working
u Observing a variety of effective teachers uAssisting with small and large group instruction uPlanning and conducting small group and whole class instruction uTeaching a diverse range of students for an extended period of time u Conferencing with individual students uConferring with parents and other responsible adults u Collaborating with teams of teachers
Turns out it IS rocket science.
Ok. I know. I already hear you complaining, "That's costly."
But the top tier education countries underwrite the tuition and subsequently attract top candidates who succeed in a rewarding, high-status, lifelong careers. These teacher-led professions are continually examining and improving themselves. That vision is far less costly in the long run than our current practice of churning teachers. And are you telling me the 'richest nation in the world' cannot afford to do what's right for kids?
Read and rally around the report. We cannot wait for someone else to hand us what is clearly necessary.
It must be demanded.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Dear NEA,
I have a New Year's Resolution for you: Man-up.
That's what my students would say. That's much of what your membership seems to be saying. And that's what I implore you to do.
I have been a teacher since 1978 and an NEA member for almost as long. But the fact of the matter is that, as I improved in my abilities to teach through an association with other professional organizations (the National Writing Project, The National Council of Teachers of English), the NEA became less and less important in my professional life. I came to think of my membership as an insurance policy: a fall back in case I ever found myself battling against the district that employed me which, it was clear, would treat me like a freelancer and leave me twisting in the legal winds should anything go awry in my teaching life. (And there are so many things.....)
The NEA has done nothing to change that view over the years. I hear from my organization almost weekly, but only to excite my interest in an NEA MasterCard, an NEA low-interest loan, an NEA home-owner's insurance policy. The monthly newsletter NEA Today goes largely unread. Most of the teaching tips or online resources have come to me months before in online communities where my professional development continues.
Ten years ago I shouted at the NEA as I read the Sunday editorials. It was clear that the "Texas Miracle," discredited as a fraud even as the Rod Paige plan was being marketed wholesale to the nation, was going to visit a classroom very dear to me: my classroom. And so it was. But where was my 3.5 million teacher-strong union on this plan that flew in the face of all the research we know about motivating, engaging and helping students toward a better life?
Silent.
So here I am. Ten years out speaking in a little-ole' backwater blog. Wish I had the backing of a large education group.
Here's what I know about the union from the ground:
Here is what I mean by Manning UP:
Assume the responsibility for improving education and take on the role of Educator-in-Chief. We know what conditions are needed for good teaching. It's time to put our effort, our money, and our mouths where our hearts are: demand what has already been proven best for the children of the next generation by demanding the training, induction, and working conditions that allows good teaching to flourish. Do it on OUR terms, from the position of Effective Teaching, not a corporate manual. The plan has already been outlined in the Commission report Transforming Teaching.*
Embrace the report.
It has already been heralded as a ray of hope in an education wasteland.
We need to lead. After all, America invented public education. It's time we re-invent public education for the 21st Century. It will mean hard work, embracing change, speaking out about what really works, and even arguing amongst ourselves and conducting ongoing research, but I volunteer to marry my effective teaching chops with your organizational chops to create a robust profession.
Do it. Or it will continue to be done unto us.
Three and half million people moving in the same direction has to effect some sort of change.
*Disclaimer: I served on the Commission.
That's what my students would say. That's much of what your membership seems to be saying. And that's what I implore you to do.
I have been a teacher since 1978 and an NEA member for almost as long. But the fact of the matter is that, as I improved in my abilities to teach through an association with other professional organizations (the National Writing Project, The National Council of Teachers of English), the NEA became less and less important in my professional life. I came to think of my membership as an insurance policy: a fall back in case I ever found myself battling against the district that employed me which, it was clear, would treat me like a freelancer and leave me twisting in the legal winds should anything go awry in my teaching life. (And there are so many things.....)
The NEA has done nothing to change that view over the years. I hear from my organization almost weekly, but only to excite my interest in an NEA MasterCard, an NEA low-interest loan, an NEA home-owner's insurance policy. The monthly newsletter NEA Today goes largely unread. Most of the teaching tips or online resources have come to me months before in online communities where my professional development continues.
Ten years ago I shouted at the NEA as I read the Sunday editorials. It was clear that the "Texas Miracle," discredited as a fraud even as the Rod Paige plan was being marketed wholesale to the nation, was going to visit a classroom very dear to me: my classroom. And so it was. But where was my 3.5 million teacher-strong union on this plan that flew in the face of all the research we know about motivating, engaging and helping students toward a better life?
Silent.
So here I am. Ten years out speaking in a little-ole' backwater blog. Wish I had the backing of a large education group.
Here's what I know about the union from the ground:
- We are under attack, and sometimes deservedly so. We need to lead the reform issue from a moral high ground. By leap-frogging over our detractors we can create a profession where our clients - the children we teach - are at the center of everything we do. I want what Mark Simon suggests: "Teacher Unions have a responsibility to advocate not just in the narrow self-interest of their dues paying members, but in the public interest, from a teacher's perspective." (Thanks Steve Owens.)
- I can't convince young teachers to join. They don't get it. We are losing them and a whole generation who will not seek teaching as a viable career. In this way, if the union is not destroyed outright by the current "reformers" it will die a slow death of attrition. And so will teaching. What will be left in its wake? A predatory, privatized patchwork of questionable ethics.
- On the largest issues we are defensive. Not a good position. We need to lead. The more involved in policy I've become the more amazed I am by the alphabet-soup of disparate education associations all speaking similarly on the same issues but undercutting each other's message by being too many, too small. Pull it together. We need a single, very large, credible megaphone if we are to combat the billionaire's boys club. That means leading from effective practice first. It will raise our collective voice above the fray of profit-making plans.
- I did two years as a union rep in my building. Much of what went on in the local was about next year's raise. We didn't even address the "slave clause" in my contract which describes my work as "anything necessary for the smooth running of the school." Pretty vague description of teaching and learning. I wanted to argue for a better definition of my role and practice.
Here is what I mean by Manning UP:
Assume the responsibility for improving education and take on the role of Educator-in-Chief. We know what conditions are needed for good teaching. It's time to put our effort, our money, and our mouths where our hearts are: demand what has already been proven best for the children of the next generation by demanding the training, induction, and working conditions that allows good teaching to flourish. Do it on OUR terms, from the position of Effective Teaching, not a corporate manual. The plan has already been outlined in the Commission report Transforming Teaching.*
Embrace the report.
It has already been heralded as a ray of hope in an education wasteland.
We need to lead. After all, America invented public education. It's time we re-invent public education for the 21st Century. It will mean hard work, embracing change, speaking out about what really works, and even arguing amongst ourselves and conducting ongoing research, but I volunteer to marry my effective teaching chops with your organizational chops to create a robust profession.
Do it. Or it will continue to be done unto us.
Three and half million people moving in the same direction has to effect some sort of change.
*Disclaimer: I served on the Commission.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Boxing Day
Today is the traditional British holiday reserved after Christmas to celebrate the servants--those stalwart workers who keep the manor house running, make the holiday go smoothly, and generally make life much more enjoyable for the upper classes.
The "box" in Boxing Day refers to the the vehicle for enclosing the gift for the servants (and not for the fisticuffs I imagined when I first heard the term.)
I say we co-opt this day and turn it into an American celebration of public servants, those handmaidens to government and the collective good who make our lives run much more smoothly.
So, cheers, to the guy who came by two days before Christmas and collected the remaining leaves on our street. Their duties were delayed by the extensive cleanup needed after the surprise Halloween snowstorm that brought down limbs and trees all over town. They cleaned that up too.
To the firefighters who show up night and day to correct our wrongs. To the police who patrol our streets in the dead of night. The snowplow operators who go out in the worst of the weather. To the mail carriers, the emergency technicians, the road and bridge builders. To all the invisible workers who keep everything humming.
And, of course, to teachers, who make every other occupation possible.
Happy Holidays.
The "box" in Boxing Day refers to the the vehicle for enclosing the gift for the servants (and not for the fisticuffs I imagined when I first heard the term.)
I say we co-opt this day and turn it into an American celebration of public servants, those handmaidens to government and the collective good who make our lives run much more smoothly.
So, cheers, to the guy who came by two days before Christmas and collected the remaining leaves on our street. Their duties were delayed by the extensive cleanup needed after the surprise Halloween snowstorm that brought down limbs and trees all over town. They cleaned that up too.
To the firefighters who show up night and day to correct our wrongs. To the police who patrol our streets in the dead of night. The snowplow operators who go out in the worst of the weather. To the mail carriers, the emergency technicians, the road and bridge builders. To all the invisible workers who keep everything humming.
And, of course, to teachers, who make every other occupation possible.
Happy Holidays.
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