Real Professional Conversations

I'll admit I was not too keen to get up on a Saturday morning in April at my usual "work hour," but I did hoist myself out of bed to meet with five other colleagues of the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project at 9 a.m.  Our meeting place was about a 50 minute drive from home.

Why would anyone do that?

Ah.  The morning was such a respite from the usual meetings and grind that it truly has "restoreth my soul."

Rappahannock Cellars in Hume, Virginia generously provided a quiet back room for writing and sharing.  Though we were only there for two hours, my notebook spilleth over with ideas, books to read, and inspiration for much, much more. The morning quelled a raging spirit, and the feeling of peace lasted throughout the following work week. We are in challenging times as spring quickens student restlessness and teachers struggle to maintain attention as we head full force into the 'testing season.'

The morning was everything my usual 'professional learning communities' at work generally are not.

First, the setting of the winery is gorgeous.  Just on the east side of the Blue Ridge, the winery is built with long windows facing the mountainside to the west, now sporting the tender green color of new life, weak blossoms, and that hazy, yellow-green tinge of new buds.  It is a true retreat from the usual institutional setting.

We met in a large, light filled room.  This beautiful space communicates warmth and the sense that the occupants matter. It holds areas for small groupings, tables and chairs spaced widely, large windows, a fireplace, and outdoor seating on a deck.  Lovely.

The conversations ran the gamut, first catching up with each other--both work lives and personal--ranging from the frustrating to the uplifting.

Our only agenda: get a prompt for writing if you need one, write in silence for 40 minutes, rejoin the group and share.  After both gripping and celebrating, we went to our corners and wrote, generating the kind of electric hum possible only when all minds in a room are ruminating at once.  We returned to a cluster of sofas by the fireplace to share.

I learned more in these two hours than I had the entire semester.  Our writing led to our classrooms, our classrooms led to ideas and strategies, our ideas led to books we had read, our conversations led to further growth and plans for the future.  Though it is easy to find like minded professionals in twitter chats and online blogs, face-to-face dynamic interactions take on a life of their own that cannot be re-created in the digiverse.

The outlines of professional conversations are simple, really.  Just provide a minor stimulation along with the time and space for reflection.

Grown ups do know how to control their own work.  Some will even escape their workplace to expand and refine what they do.  I continue to be grateful to other teachers who help me find both joy and peace in the midst of the storm we generally abide in.

Please stop appreciating me

This sounds crass and rude, but nothing would please me more than an end to the need for a week long festival of teacher appreciation.

Let's face it.  As a 58-year-old adult with twenty-five years of classroom experience, beginning in 1978, I do not need another piece of cake or pen that says "We love our teachers" to indicate that the work is important. In some ways the recognition is infantilizing.  The small acknowledgements are like tips given to a favorite babysitter.  We are not babysitters.

Meaningful compensation would go much further in underscoring that teacher work is a valued adult profession that benefits everyone.

We know our work is important, even if much of the country does not.  The work is so important that countless hours and dollars have been invested in the improvement of  practice, including a Master's Degree, National Board Certification, and endless work with colleagues in both face-to-face networks like the Northern Virginia Writing Project and virtual networks like the CTQ Collaboratory, Advanced Placement and English Teacher's Companion nings, as well as a host of twitter chats. Additionally, professional reading through magazines and books is a part of a daily reading diet. All of these activities are completed outside of expected work hours.

After having done other private sector work I have a basis of comparison.  Teaching is engaging, demanding, and often physically exhausting, much different from the other roles I've played in advertising, freelance writing, and radio--there I was afforded more time to do less demanding work, more freedom to set a schedule, and far less oversight.

Teaching is also vastly underpaid, particularly here in Virginia where we rank 30th in the nation for teacher compensation. (But a mere  $10,000 away from the lowest ranking state).   Returning to teaching after a part-time hiatus in advertising while raising three children, I was stunned by the amount of intellectual work teachers give away every day.  In advertising, we charged $70 an hour for much of the same work performed with students and parents multiple times in a day: proofreading, writing, creating powerpoint presentations and agendas, writing scripts, letters to clients...

In spite of having worked with literally thousands of students, expertise in delivering content to sometimes distracted, resistant, or struggling students is not recognized as a valuable skill.

It is.  Not everyone can teach.

Nancy Flanagan, of the Education Week blog Teacher in a Strange Land, and I met ten years ago when we worked together to create the graduate course "Teacher as Change Agent" for Virginia Commonwealth University.

Recently, we teamed up again to review the past decade and the changes in education revolving around Teacher Leadership.  The short answer is "not much."  Teacher Leadership has become a buzz word but is far from a reality.

What would a teacher-led profession look like?  A whole lot different from today.

First, recognized master teachers would be leading professional development, all teachers would work in true learning communities to examine student work, share instructional strategies, and allocate resources.  Teachers would both set standards and work together to evaluate student work against those standards.  Teachers would also specialize in differing roles of leadership like instructional leadership, education management, and administrative roles.

Teachers would be advisors to policy makers, create content, examine the work of other teachers, review the work of pre-service programs, all while keeping a foot firmly in the classroom.  This would mean a division of teacher time with more time away from students (like the best performing nations), and a re-imagining of the educational structure.

The real plus would be in what is gained when teachers are involved in creating and evaluating the work that they do.  Just as students gain the most when they are brought in on choice and evaluation, self-examination and collegial problem-solving lifts all boats.  This is what is already happening in the highest performing nations.

My awakening came in the Intensive Summer Institute of the National Writing Project where we were invited to make our own work the subject of inquiry.  This is where I learned, through the modeling of the institute, how to invite students into their own learning process.  It is also where the sharing of practice helped other teachers learn and grow, just as I learned from them.  It was electrifying and has kept me energized and involved in my work ever since.

The National Writing Project has found that 98% of the teachers who have gone through the Institute have stayed in education throughout their careers.  Stability in the workforce is another (cost-reducing) plus when teachers are valued for their hard won expertise in marrying theory with effective practices among students in real classrooms. This savings would be passed on in the form of increased compensation--low pay being another reason good teachers flee the classroom.

We cannot ask every teacher to relinquish time with family and rejuvenating rest and recreation to achieve the knowledge and skills needed to be highly effective.  Currently, the outliers in effective practice have gained their knowledge by building their own professional networks--going solo and working hard outside of compensated time.

We already know the conditions which create effective practice and these conditions should be job-embedded.  That means re-allocating resources so teachers have what they need most: time and access to good practices.

And that means a fight, because those who are already getting the resources will not willingly hand them over.

Personally, I would start by  repurposing the three-year, $110 million contract with Pearson by the state of Virginia.

I would gladly hand over all my free tote bags and coffee mugs for a chance at that challenge.

Shift the culture for lasting change

Those who follow this blog already know of my great respect for the model that is the National Writing Project. The work done through this network of educators has been frequently referred to as professional development that works in that it affects a lasting change in teacher practice over time.

This summer, in a short presentation on working with professionals across a generational divide (four generations, the largest cross-generational grouping, now work side by side) I was exposed to the simple graphic below as an explanation for why certain generational groups approach their work differently.

It immediately resonated as a model for the failure of most of the professional development in schools to affect a lasting change.

It also offers a strong argument for why the Intensive Summer Institute, and the ensuing network of teaching professionals, has proven to impact student learning.

The chart maintains that experiences affect our beliefs.  Those beliefs influence our actions which ultimately determines results.

Most professional development only acts on the top two tiers.  "Do intervention a, b, or c and you will get prescribed results."  The intervention does not 'take' because nothing has been experienced which will change beliefs. Without ongoing support for new strategies, the teacher does not have enough experience to change beliefs and falls back on old assumptions.  When the first initiative fails, a new approach is introduced.

The experience of most teachers has built the belief that "this too shall pass." We need only wait out the current reform as another one will surely replace it.

Conversely, the teachers of the Invitational Summer Institute are immersed in experiences which affect their beliefs about practice. They apply theory to practice, experience heightened engagement from learning from each other, examine student work across time and curriculum, and, most importantly in understanding how writing happens, write with an eye toward publication for a valued audience.  Over the period of a month or more, teacher create a collaborative, respectful learning environment of sharing practice, theory, and the writing life.

It is these combined experiences that teachers most often describe as 'transformational.'  The combined experience of the Institute leads teachers to the belief that their work is worthy of study, reflection, and revision--and that they can take charge of these habits of mind.

If we are to believe the model pictured in the graphic, the culture of the teaching profession must change.   Changing the experience of teachers from one of subservience to empowerment will result in classroom teachers who can enact substantive and lasting reform on a classroom by classroom basis.

Homeschooling

For the first summer in years the Northern Virginia Writing Project's Summer Institute in the Valley is not meeting.  Sad face.

Though it is a long commitment for teachers, the month-long experience is usually described as invigorating.  It has been for me.  Each year teachers lead each other through successful classroom lessons and ultimately learn to lead each other.  We share, read, discuss, write, and share again.  The synergy is amazing.

I'm going to miss it this summer.  Though I direct the work of the teachers, each year the influx of ideas restores my energy and engagement in the classroom work throughout the school year.  The relationships formed between committed teachers is uplifting.  This experience, often cited as the among the best offered in professional development, has proven repeatedly that facilitating discussions among professional teachers is where the real reform in education resides.

But I don't have to miss out on the conversations and insights of my colleagues.  Part of my plan for the summer is to continue learning, from home.

If you haven't taken advantage of the multiplicity of resources that have exploded for teachers who want to learn from and with each other, then you are missing out on opportunities to "steal" from the best.

Here's a list of resources that I'll be accessing on long summer afternoons to refresh my teaching next year and stay connected with teaching professionals.  Some have a minimal cost.  Others are free for the taking.  All are Language Arts related.  If you have great resources you access regularly in your subject area, please share in the comments below.

Low tech:  A pile of books have accumulated.  Two I hope to tackle are Doing Literary Criticism by Tim Gillespie (been eyeing that one since December) and The Digital Writing Workshop by Troy Hicks (still working on getting more kids digitally literate.)  Already read, with new Virginia SOLs and Common Core Standards in mind: Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6-12 by George Hillocks.

If you are into learning from books, both Heineman and Stenhouse (links above) are consistent producers of teacher written and tested professional books. Most are written with busy educators in mind (clean, approachable text), frequently include student stories, and almost always have extremely useful appendices.

For the digital natives Stenhouse is reviving its summer Blogstitute.  Starting on June 25 teachers can log in and start learning from some of their well known authors.  All free.

One of my low tech go-to sources is the Advanced Placement list serve.  Though this dinosaur in the current connectivity world of blogs, twitters, and social networking is about to be upgraded (one course at a time) the daily deluge of emails from AP teachers all across the nation is invaluable.  Of course you'll need a method of organizing this flood.  I learned my organization method from monitoring two other early list serves, both of which connect teachers from all over the nation: The Journalism Education Association and the Teacher Leaders Network.

If you really want to get cutting edge, set up a twitter account and start reading and following the feeds on your mobile phone.  Here's a guide to getting going: Twitter Handbook for Teachers.  And if that's not enough to blow your mind, go back to paper and read Sheryl Nussbaum Beach's new book The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in the Digital Age.  The text takes you one step at a time further into the world of online learning, teaching, and sharing.

Finally, here is the future of PD:  Web 2.0 Discussion Boards.  The best example of a connected community of learners is Jim Burke's English Companion.   If there are other subject-area discussion boards out there, chime in.  This is clearly the way professional discussions are headed.  In the interactive forum, teachers ask questions, find answers, share blogs, learn in book discussion groups-often with authors as part of the group, and even post handouts and other materials.

For those who want to follow policy or education related issues (or anything else of that matter) I highly recommend Zite.  This app acts as an aggregator of the web and - on an iPad - has a clean magazine feel.  You simply select your own sections and the app delivers the latest to your phone or iPad--a quick and easy way to keep track of your favorites.  By indicating whether or not you liked the source, the aggregator adjusts to reflect your interests.  Blogs, news articles, online magazines are all included.  A good way to find out what is happening in cyberspace.

Still, in spite of all the free online forums there is nothing I've found to replace the immediacy and intellectual stimulation of teachers working together around classroom issues in a face-to-face setting.  But in the meantime I'll continue to learn from the best without letting geography get in the way.

Now, if I could only get recertification points for all this new knowledge....

Fake Writing

This week Jay Matthews of the Washington Post drew attention to the problem of teaching writing in our public schools.

It's awful.  That's the consensus.

His argument was sparked by a commentary earlier in the week by Paula Stacy in Education Week where she bemoans the lifeless writing products which pass for good thinking when students arrive in colleges and universities.

She's right, you know.  In the main, writing instruction, when it is addressed at all, is horrible.

If you ever had to evaluate a raft of these so-called papers, you too would bemoan the state of writing in the United States.  The papers are wooden, lifeless, replete with errors, and simplistic in their thinking.

In short, they follow the process steps outlined in various formulas (like the dreaded five-paragraph essay).  Teaching formulaic writing is similar to teaching dance by pasting the silhouette of footprints on a dance floor and asking the dancer to follow the prescribed steps in some semblance of a rhythm.

And we all know what that looks like: rhythmically-challenged white guy trying to boogie.

Having read my fair share of five-paragraph essays, it's clear an instructor barely has to read in order to make an assessment since the path the student is taking is telegraphed in the thesis statement.  No surprises.  No turns of thought.  Just scan down the page and see if paragraph one matches their first point, with some evidence; paragraph two should follow suit, and so forth, until arriving at a conclusion that restates the thesis (again, dear idiot reader, in case the point isn't clear yet through mindless repetition).

Poor Montaigne.  How he must roll over in his grave.  His "essai"--meaning attempt at understanding, often without a neat conclusion, sometimes even with more questions than answers--has come to this: all problems solved in three easy steps.

Writing has long been a neglected art in all of formal education.  Why?  There are a number of reasons, but first and foremost is the lack of attention and time spent understanding the craft of writing or using writing the way it is intended--as a tool for further learning.

The inattention to writing has been perpetuated for generations.

Poor writing instructors teach the next generation what they were taught and those hapless students grow up to teach the next class and so forth.  And now districts can buy all the easy answers in a box, hand them out to teachers, ask them to spend an hour or two on writing twice a semester and feel smug in having resolved the writing problem.  (Starting to see the danger in the "three solutions to every problem" thinking we've structured for ourselves?)

Teachers, like most of the adult population, are insecure in their own writing (having either hated it, been chastised for poor spelling, commas, what have you, or convinced that writers spring fully formed from the mind of Zeus and cannot be shaped by instruction.)

There is one group that has championed good instruction in writing for more than 30 years: The National Writing Project. This, one of the true academic communities in existence today--modeling learning through inquiry even beyond the level of most academic communities in our universities--brings teachers together to share best practice in both teaching and using writing.

In its often-heralded capstone professional learning program -- the Intensive Summer Institute-- the National Writing Project insists that teachers write, for themselves but also for their students.  When the teachers return to their schools after the institute, they are often the oddball down the hall who is doing something weird with their kids--and getting results.

Teacher Consultants trained through the Writing Project write with and in front of their students modeling the messy, recursive process of composing a thought into the clearest expression possible.  From invention to publishable quality piece, writing project teachers show their students where an idea comes from, how it is developed, how an audience shapes a message, how writing helps clarify thinking, and that anyone can be a writer--one who makes meaning from experience.  Most TCs look for real-world writing opportunities for students, journal regularly, give students latitude in choosing topics, and infuse writing into every subject area.

The problem with writing in our schools is that it is treated as a separate discipline, when it should be a part of every subject.  The irony in today's current instruction is that we assume that a child can sit down and produce a piece of writing that reflects their thinking without having been provided ample opportunity to first think independently.

Writing should inform every subject with students writing to themselves first. Even a kindergartner can ask "What do I already know about the changing seasons?"  Students can collect their own data: What did I see on the way to school today that helps me understand how the earth rotates around the sun?  What questions do I have about how the world works?  What are my strengths?  How do I know when I'm competent?  What have I done that I am proud of?  How did I do that?

These are real questions of inquiry that students can wrestle with in their own language and are a necessary step in learning any subject. Writing is a separate form of thinking wherein the writer comes to know his or her own mind.  It is a necessary step in understanding and retaining experience.  It is a record of where the mind has been.  Oddly, after composing a true inquiry, the writer, rather than the reader, is the one who knows the subject best.

And, when used in this context, writing ISN'T about correctness.  It is about thinking.

Our kids write poorly because they are asked to write what they do not know.  And adults who have survived this method of formulaic composition do the same--and then act accordingly--finding repetitive, simplistic answers to weighty and complex problems.  We cannot afford to perpetuate three-answer-group-think in a world with increasingly complex, global problems.

By the way--The National Writing Project-- probably the most under leveraged tool for improving instruction in our nation's school, repeatedly held up as the gold standard for professional development, and among the cheapest (the budget for the entire nation was only 22 million) was cut from the Department of Education budget last year.

Oh, well.  That leaves 22 million more for multiple-choice testing.

At least those tests give you four choices instead of three.

Just a note...

The fellows of the Northern Virginia Writing Project have begun their intensive work in the Summer Institute.  As a leader of the Shenandoah Valley Satellite site I am steeped in the work of practicing teachers.  It is intensive, rejuvenating, enlightening and exhausting work as we teach each other, share theory, and write for ourselves.
The four or five weeks spent by the teachers transforms their practice and stance in the classroom, not just for the following year but for much of their teaching career.  (98% of Teacher Consultants in the National Writing Project stay in the field of education their entire working lives.  That is an amazing statistic.)
Needless to say, this is consuming work and means.....fewer opportunities to blog.
:-)

School is out...

This year marks the 37th end-of-school ritual that I have personally participated in.  That includes 17 ends to my own years of formal education.  (It does not include the twelve years where I experienced the end of school as a stay-at-home mom.)
There is nothing like this ending in the "real" world.  Most adults' work never ends.  It only has occasional hiccups where there is some respite from the continual grind.
But not in school.  Eventually, long after the weather has gotten to the point where we'd rather be outside than in, all the grown-ups get together and call it quits.  "We're done.  Take a break. Go home and loaf all day if that's what you want to do because we've taught you all we can bear to tolerate."
The frustrating part for one with a considerable amount of schooling under their belt is that all the teachers are summarily dismissed as well.
Most of us will return to buildings in the fall where others have made decisions that we must then carry out--whether the new plans seem to be a good idea or not.
As for the summer months, some of us will loaf along with our students.  Others will take part-time jobs to supplement our salaries (if you can find one these days).  Some will continue to learn and prepare for the coming year.  All these choices are optional.
Each summer since 2005 I have worked with classroom teachers in the NWP Summer Institute.  It is a rich sharing of practice, theory, writing, discussion, and planning for the coming year that extends through the entire month of July.  For me, it has always been the model for the kind of enriching cross-curricular, cross-grade-level work that should be a part of every teacher's teaching life.
It is, however, optional.
It is also a huge commitment of time that many adults cannot afford to indulge in since they cannot give up paying positions in summer school, coaching, or construction. Nor can they afford to pay for the additional research and study by securing child care for their own children through the long summer months.  After all, teachers have to plan to put their own children through college or lay up savings for retirement too.
Still, the SI is the kind of work that all teachers should be able to do as a part of their professional practice because it provides the time for the deep reflection that results in identifying which practices go the furthest in realizing student growth.  Believe me, during the rush-to-testing schedule of the school year, there is little time for reflection and nearly zero time for collaboration.  But there are long weeks in a calendar year that could be used to enrich teaching and learning for all of us.
When we stop dismissing teachers from school, as if they are the oldest kids in the building, and compensate them accordingly, then we will go a long way to honoring the complexity of the work classroom teachers need to master in order to help more students experience success in our classrooms.  Teachers need to be part of the decision-making process that shapes school culture.  Their time and compensation should reflect the knowledge gained after years of delivering content to children.
After all, 37 dismissals ought to count for something.

The Need for Retreat

The Annual meetings of the NCTE and NWP (National Council of Teachers of English and National Writing Project) were held last weekend at Disney World in Orlando.
Every year I wonder at the numbers who flock to these meetings and, as I pack my bags, why we must gather face to face in this age of web 2.0 forums and other platforms for connectivity.
And then I go and am reminded.
Like any profession, these meetings are important for the intense exchange of ideas and the re-cementing of personal relationships.  It is easy to forget that there are many like-minded people who remember what the work is and why it needs to be done when we a mired in the day-to-day of public schooling.
The digital world cannot adequately replace the energy of over a thousand people writing their thoughts in a ballroom of the Contemporary Resort, as we do annually at the general meeting of NWP. It's the same cognitive hum from the classroom, amplified.
No ning can replicate intensity of a discussion on microagression in perhaps the most culturally diverse room I've ever been in. We explored race in the classroom and the need to engage our students in a discussion of their experiences and how they shape their perceptions and sense of self.  It was an energizing and difficult discussion for the adults.
Donalyn Miller was the keynote speaker at NWP and the perfect spokesperson for a room of writing teachers.  A classroom teacher with a sucessful book, The Book Whisperer - one I've shared with many colleagues - she touched us all with her surprising confession of how much she "hates to write." She hit all the right notes for classroom teachers and, best of all, showed us the faces and personalities of the sixth graders she teaches.  She credits the NWP, which she only found in 2007, for making her into the writer/teacher she is today.
But more than the programs, the human connection proves to be the most valuable.  As the kids say, it's great to know that somebody "has your back" when it comes to explaining the importance of pedagogical decisions that are proven remedies to motivation, memory, and depth of understanding.  And the ones who make the trek, each represent at least another hundred who could not.
Though the meetings are often hard to get to (finding funding, sacrificing time away from students, family holidays looming) they are an important links in the growth of educators who are first and foremost in the learning profession.
I always feel like my brain has been put through a "re-boot."

Manifesto on Union Busting

Two opinion pieces in today’s Washington Post Outlook offer solutions to the current “teacher problem” in the United States.  (Still more supplied by those who aren’t teachers, but who continue to extend and control the current discussion prompted by the media blitz set in motion by Waiting for Superman.)

One goes too far and the other, not far enough.

Too Far: A “Manifesto” signed by Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Paul Vallas of the “New Orleans miracle” (ick), and others of that ilk. 

Their statement is nothing new.  They want latitude to hire and fire bad teachers based on (in)effective performance. 

As if they didn’t already have the latitude they need. 

This summer Michelle Rhee dismissed 241 teachers and put another legion (735) on notice.  All of this was achieved even with tenure and a strong union in place. 

Joel Klein has pretty much had his way in New York for years under Bloomburg.  And yet, he didn’t fire himself when the city’s own measures of achievement were proven to be overblown public relations hype.  (Pretty ineffective performance, if you ask me.)

The “manifesto” (I’m thinking Unabomber here) is merely an effort to paint the teachers’ unions as the big, bad enemy. 

Big Business has done a good job of eliminating the worker’s voice in all other areas of the workplace beginning with Ronald Reagan’s bold salvo that set the anti-union movement in motion after he removed the Air Traffic Controllers in 1980. 

The teachers’ unions as a political force are about the last hold out.
Time to push them under the bus too.

The basis for the hiring and firing of teachers, according to the signers, all boils down to student performance on the standardized tests now commonplace in every school system.

These are the same tests that teachers have railed against for years as a vehicle which dumbs-down curriculum, and results in drill-and-kill rote instruction, test-taking-strategy-driven instruction, scripted lesson plans, elimination of  the arts and recess, and promises to standardize our children into non-thinking drones.  (Coincidentally, just the kind of complacent worker you want if you’re only interested in turning big profits over to the select few.)

Not far enough:  As a companion piece, Paul Kilhn and Matt Miller of McKinsey & Company (eh? Never heard of them.) advocate for truly professionalizing the teaching force by selectively targeting top students who show the disposition to teach and offering them affordable (or even government subsidized) tuition, with a guaranteed job at the end of that scenario.  Increased salaries and clean, safe working conditions will sweeten the pot to the point where teaching will become a valued, respected profession that will attract top performers.

The authors say this will cost taxpayers far less than doing nothing, which will surely result in the stagnation of our historic role as world leaders of innovation.

I agree, but the writers stop short of expanding teaching into what the top performing nations cited in the article (Finland, South Korea, and Singapore) have done to achieve a meteoric rise in student achievement.

Here’s what they left out: Reduce the amount of time in front of students so that teachers can continually collaborate during their working days—which means a higher per capita of teachers.  Fund embedded professional development so practicing teachers continue to learn—which means dollars spent on continuing education, like other top professions.

Now that might be costly.

The money for providing this expansion is easy to find:  Raid the coffers of the standardized testing industry (The College Board, Pearson…etc.) by eliminating the raft of tests our students face annually and which are purchased by taxpayer dollars.  Right out the door immediately behind the pile of bubble sheets will be those who must chart the data collected from the tests, monitor the teachers, institute the next test-driven curriculum framework…..in short, all those non-teachers who currently pull in large “professional” salaries.

How will we know how well our students are doing?

Simple.

Let the highly professional teachers evaluate their student strengths and weaknesses in a variety of ways, both informally (through observation and daily interaction) and formally (through portfolios, conferences, student products).

You know, the way we used to trust our teachers.

Best summer read

Sheridan Blau's The Literature Workshop has been sitting on my shelf for several years.  Two weeks ago I toted it along on a driving vacation.
This was definitely not a beach book.

Anyone who considers teaching as a profession for lightweights will be disabused of that after a read through Blau's carefully crafted and supported pedagogy for lifting students' reading, writing, and thinking skills to the next level.  (I became intimate with three new terms: hermeneutic, fallibilism, and desiderate: all of which I now understand thanks to Blau's careful elaboration.)
The book is built around a series of workshops Blau regularly conducts with students, teachers, and pre-service teachers.  I recognized one I participated in at a recent NCTE convention.
Though teachers can follow the instructions and recreate the workshops in their own classes, as I hope to do, the real benefit is in the argument supporting the methods.
Central to Blau's thesis is the idea that traditional literature classes consisting of lectures on important works merely offer students an opportunity to take notes on another person's read of a text.  This sends the double message that some texts are impenetrable to average readers and that the student must rely on more accomplished readers for interpretation.  Blau's goal is to engage learners in the work of struggling with and interpreting text independently, hence his workshops that lay bare many of the skills that accomplished readers must access in order to make sense of difficult text and form fresh and cogent readings of their own.  Though texts are important to the workshops, the real subject is the reader himself.
The National Council of Teachers of English awarded Blau the Richard A. Meade Award for Outsanding Research in English Education for this 2003 publication.  And with good reason.
Each activity is well-researched and presented with such logical clarity that it would be difficult to escape the idea that time spent on close reads of intellectual thought (rather than texts) is a worthwhile use of classroom time.  However, there is no area of English practice where he will not threaten the traditionalists.  His research paper, for example, employs other students in the class and their papers and discussions as the cited sources in lieu of established critics of literature.  In my opinion, a brilliant solution to the wooden papers where students attempt to incorporate the voices of academicians and that also supports his philosophy that students are not incapable of developing their own interpretations.
Most refreshing are Blau's admissions of personal weak readings or classroom blunders.  And in a nod to the inspired work of effective teachers, Blau argues for sticking with a practice that seems to work -- as he did with his own habit of encouraging the 'pointing' to text that resonates -- until the underlying reason for its success in student achievement is revealed, rather than awaiting a theory to then develop into practice.
I'm sorry I waited so long to read this (though I could only take in one chapter at a sitting, so rich was the  train of thought).
I plan to experiment with several workshops as I continue my quest for a classroom that's an engaging place of authentic inquiry.

Hayward gets life back, teachers get unemployment line

Is it just me or does today's news just look like more of the same wide divisions between the haves and the have-nots? It was announced today that BP executive Tony Hayward will be asked to step down for the gaffs in handling the oil spill in the Gulf. I will be waiting to see what his severance package looks like.

My guess is it will just provide Hayward with more free time and plenty of resources to enjoy the yacht races for which he has already revealed a fondness. Top screw-ups often leave with all the stock dividends and hefty cash buyouts in place.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Michelle Rhee fires 241 teachers while putting an additional 735 on notice to improve their practice. The fired teachers do not have a golden parachute, of that I am sure.

OK, what's the problem? Poor performers should be fired whether they are Tony Hayward or classroom teachers, right?

Right.

But for the past 30 years, teachers have been at the bottom of a top-heavy system that has often scripted what should be taught and when, has either provided professional development or not, given teachers latitude to select class loads (Oh? Not.), provided support for strugglers in the form of mentors and time to collaborate (oh, wait a minute, not.), asked teachers how to resolve problems in the classroom - wait, not. Teachers have been able to demand textbooks, classroom supplies, heated buildings.

Wait.

Not. Not. Not.

Are teachers professionals with control over their workplace or their own development as professionals? Not. Most survive on what business-types would consider entry-level salaries that cap, after thirty years, at the bottom rung of what executives would expect in the early stages of a high powered career.

But maybe Tony Hayward and the teachers have something in common.

He said he was never a part of the decision making process either.

For sure, though, he will not be standing in an unemployment line facing financial ruin.

Not. Not. Not.

30 years in the desert

Over the summer I joined the "World's Largest English Department," a social-networking Ning begun by Jim Burke, author, practicing teacher, and titular head of said English Department. I've only used the Ning sparingly, but I'm glad to have it there because I know I will turn to it often.

I have a long history (if 7 years can be considered long - and I suppose in the electronic world that's practically a century) of relying on my digital friends for support, education, feedback, humor, support, resources, technology training, support and - oh, did I say, support?

More than anything, I value the voices of my peers to shore me up during the storms of educational reform. I value the voices that keep directing our efforts to what matters most: making sure students are continuing to achieve and find pleasure, growth, and relevance in our classrooms.

I have waited most of my career to have the System of Education endorse--through the allocation of resources--the most valuable development of my skills and knowledge as a teacher: working with other teachers.

I came to this resource accidentally, in my third year of teaching in 1981, but it was like water in the desert.

At that point in my career I had gotten over the "what will I do tomorrow?" phase of learning how to teach and was beginning to look at what I was accomplishing with my students.

Not much, is what I thought. I felt like a failure.

My students weren't responding and the veteran teachers around me seemed much more capable and self-confident. I taught lesson after lesson that only seemed to get through to a few. I'll admit that I began looking for clues to what my colleagues were doing by "stealing" their mimeographed tests and quizzes from the workroom. In those days no one shared anything. On top of that, the curriculum did not always match my students abilities. (Should I be teaching persuasive essays when my students didn't seem to know - or even care - what a sentence is? Augh!)

In 1981 I took a course through the Northern Virginia Writing Project called Writing Across the Curriculum. In that course our coordinator, Marian Mohr, broke us into writing groups. She had us writing for each other and for our own purpose. She brought in classroom teachers who shared a best practice and - for a novice teacher, the truly helpful part - those teachers shared student work. And that student work looked familiar: Veteran teachers had students who needed lots of help "getting it" just like mine did.

The doors of other classrooms were flung open, and I found that my struggles were shared by all the teachers in the room. I wasn't alone! We were ALL trying to get students to care about sentences or literature or the lesson-du-jour. We talked about what worked, what didn't, our frustrations. We were encouraged to try something different, something that didn't look like the room down the hall. Then we came back together and shared what worked, what didn't, all over again.

That year I went from potential teacher drop out to a comrade-in-arms. It was a marvelous bonding experience that fueled me for a long time. It modeled a professional relationship that our department sought to recreate in our shared work space.

Ever since, I have hungered for the voices of teachers, but that goal often is hit or miss, depending on the leadership. Or I had to find it independently on my own time. Creating the atmosphere of sharing has been a personal goal wherever I've worked. I need the community of my peers. Without it, the work of a classroom teacher can be a joyless stab in the dark.

And, sadly, its been nearly thirty years since I discovered the wealth and power of talking with fellow practitioners, and this is still not a job-embedded expectation for every teacher in every school. Teachers must find their own communities as an "add-on" when they are finished all the other demands of the job.

The electronic world has made PLC's more accessible. Jim Burke's Ning is the latest incarnation of electronic voices that have evolved from listserves to the web 2.0 world. (My first electronic community was the JEA, Journalism Education Association, listserve and a lifeline for teachers who are the "only one" in a building. I am forever grateful to my colleagues across the nation who held my hand through some scary professional arguments over student first amendment rights.)

We have PLC's in our building now. I embrace the idea.

But the implementation is leaving much to be desired.

The goals are being set from above rather than generated by the teachers themselves - which is where the real power of a community is built.

If you doubt that teachers can and will set their own agendas, just visit the English Companion Ning and read the voices of those who are pursuing their own questions without any interference from supervisors. Teachers desperately want to be effective with their students.

My second complaint about the adaptation of PLC's is that the goal seems to be to generate lots of paper in order to verify that teachers are actually working. Our group works quickly through the mandated goals of the division so we can pursue tools and strategies to help our students achieve. We've already worked together on reading workshop, a grade level vocabulary unit, handouts for teaching reading competencies, and sources to make use of our smartboards, computer carts, and adolescent literature libraries.

And finally, our mandated PLCs are now add-ons to already overburdened teachers -- not embedded practices that could include common planning time, opportunities for classroom visits, or lesson studies. Meetings occur after school. The required reports fall on someone's shoulders to complete after the daily work of shepherding students through lessons, grading, posting grades to electronic boards, posting work to school web sources, etc. etc. Rather than feeling exhilarated, teacher morale is low. In a time of budget cuts, larger class sizes, and the ratcheting up of NCLB AYP benchmarks, adding more work to the day is crushing us.

If you want your faculty to reject a very good idea follow these easy steps:

• Require more work.
• Provide no additional time to complete the work.
• Apply no additional compensation.
• Reject teacher voices as a beginning point for problem solving.

Unfortunately, I fear that add-ons will only add to the number of teachers leaving the profession rather than build the kind of community that is ready to take risks to ensure student achievement. I WANT a PLC but I really want to do it right.

Ya Gotta Love the Numbers!

Bernie Madoff was once a respected businessman.

In fact, he was once the chair of Nasdaq.  

It was his earlier reputation which shielded him from the kind of scrutiny that would have quickly exposed his scandalous Ponzi scheme where he duped his investors into believing that money was being made when, in fact, nothing had been invested at all.

In his defense, Madoff claims that the pressure to show quarterly gains led him to fake the billions he assured his clients they were earning.

A lame excuse, but at least it acknowledges how human behavior can be manipulated by the rules.

I see parallels in our current emphasis on proving student growth by distilling learning to sets of numbers.  Though we like to think that numbers don't lie, when personal fortune rises and falls with the numbers, it is a sure bet that some of those numbers will lead the public into a false sense of security that "Our children is learning."

Here's an example:

The math scores in one building were not showing gains.  The solution: at the halfway mark of the year, take all the students who are not showing learning gains (i.e. they are failing) out of the course.  Create a new course that repeats the first semester.  By renaming the course, these students do not have to sit for the spring state tests until much later.

Result: Big jump in scores that year because only students who are adequately prepared take the test.

Well, you say, what is wrong with that?  The students who aren't ready are given the opportunity to relearn the material, aren't they?  The scores jump. The school is no longer 'failing.' Our children IS learning!

Here's where I take issue with scores as a representation of true progress and gains in student learning.

Like Inigo Montoya says to the Sicilian genius Vizzini in Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. ['Inconceivable' for Vizzini. 'Learning' for the rest of us.] I do not think it means what you think it means."

Scores did jump, but it was a deception played on the public.  Nothing was essentially changed except slowing the pace of instruction for some students.  As a result, many who struggle with math are doomed to repeat the same material presented in the same manner, or are subjected to mind-numbing drills designed to prepare them to pass the test.

True reform would exhibit itself in helping teachers locate new ways to engage students who struggle.  And there ARE new strategies out there.  But it would take time for teachers to re-think, re-learn, re-tool an entire course.  No time and resources were part of the scenario described above.

It would mean spending money on professional development for teachers, helping them help students find a way into and through the math puzzle.  No money for that.

But enormous pressure, along with piles of money spent on the bubble tests, must show immediate progress or heads are going to roll.  Desperate people do desperate things.

YOU do the math.

So, what happens to students who must sit through math again?

I envision my recurring nightmare: I have missed a course in high school and they drag me out of my current life, back to my old school to take the WHOLE YEAR OVER AGAIN.  In the dream I am panicked and disheartened.  My whole life is disrupted and, on top of all that, it's boring me to death because I know I can do the work in a week!  But they won't let me!  I would drop out, but I know it would be the death of all my hopes.  The whole dream is bathed in an overwhelming feeling of asphyxiation.  I can barely breathe and wake up in a sweat.

Well...  Some of our kids do drop out, anxious to get on with some kind of life outside of school. Who can blame them?

Our current love of data extends beyond those we consider left behind.  Students in upper-level courses are distracted by numbers represented in SAT scores and fall into a single-minded obsession with high grades in order to compete for colleges.  It perverts their thinking.  And -guess what?- sometimes they cheat.

Just like Bernie Madoff.

Should we hold teachers (well, the whole system, really) accountable?  You betcha.

How can we do it in a way that honors both teaching and learning?  

Some teachers have made suggestions.  Check out this plan formulated by the teachers in the workforce and a part of the Teacher Leaders Network.

Let's get honest about what we are hoping to do and be sure that everything is being measured - including our support for true learning.

20 Questions Meme

I'm a terrible worker.  Can't write until the house is clean (how often does that happen?)  Can't blog until my TLN pages are caught up.  (Those thoughtful teachers have been throwing big ideas back and forth at a rapid pace lately and I can't keep up!)  Can't move on to a new subject until I've dispensed with the last.  Can't write emails until I empty my inbox.  No wonder I'm behind in posting.

And that's my problem.  Good friend and blogger Nancy Flanagan threw out a 20 question meme based on the FaceBook challenge to reveal 25 things about yourself and the questions have been sitting there until I can summon the time (see above problems) and answer them.

I give up.

The questions are too thought provoking.  I think too slowly to get to them all.  So here's the ones I can manage as a block.

Been teaching English since 1978, (first year was a long term sub gig teaching five classes of math. Guess who learned the most?) with a twelve year break raising my own kids.  I have taught exclusively at the high school and have hit every grade, every skill level from self-contained special ed to Advanced Placement 11 and 12.

My professional development book is hard to pin down.  I remember being transformed by Ken Macrorie's I-Search book.  Mostly because it turned the whole teacher/student paradigm upside down.  But more than that, it was the English 695 course from GMU that did the trick. Led by Marian Mohr and the Teacher Consultants of the Northern Virginia Writing Project it was the ONLY professional development course notebook I searched for when I went back to teaching in 1994.  Took that class in 1981.  Don't know why every teacher isn't teaching that way yet.  We should have been on to those best practices long ago.

My best teacher buddy continues to be the one I consider my mentor: Theresa Manchey. Intelligent, thoughtful, kind and nurturing, I want to be like her when I grow up.

Best administrator: hands down Don Shirley.  He was the first principal I had and I didn't know any better to appreciate his gifts.  He fiercely protected teacher time, never calling unnecessary meetings or asking for paperwork that would sit in a cabinet somewhere.  He trusted us.  It was clear he loved the kids and the teachers who worked with them.  The school was a fun place - most of the time.  He has (retired now) an impish sense of humor, and I still remember many of the inside jokes the whole faculty shared.

Most disappointing experience:  Ugh.  Too disappointing to share here.  In general, when those in power lack the courage to defend good instruction.  Happens too often.

Favorite class to teach: Any journalism class.  I knew those kids extremely well.  We generally became friends.  The work was real to the kids.  Their writing grew exponentially.  Whole groups of them went to college and worked on their papers there.  Several have become writers as adults. Much satisfaction all around.  Not teaching journalism now because of the disappointments referred to above. 

Most thrilling moment: The day two former students sent me the article they collaborated on during the Kerry campaign.  They'd traveled to Boston for election night coverage while students at UVA.  One student had the byline for the photography, the other had the byline for the story.  Proud momma moment for sure.  That they would think to share that with me was the biggest thrill.  But we move on, hoping for more moments like that.

Unions aren't allowed in Virginia, but I wouldn't enter a classroom without the protection of our association's liability insurance, lawyers, and the ongoing lobbyist at state.  Seen too many teachers abandoned by their district to take on the risk of a lawsuit by myself.  Been too busy in the classroom to follow legislation.  I'm glad someone is paid full time to protect our interests.

How would I spend $5 billion?  Can't hardly imagine the sum to begin with, but I would make teacher professional development a part of the job.  Free up time to get teachers together to work on lesson studies, improve instruction.  I think it would make the whole school program more humane and would affect student learning exponentially.  It would mean "buying" more teachers so the face time with kids could be reduced.  Of course, first we'd have to convince all of America that working REALLY HARD all the time (represented by long hours on weekends and all night and etc. etc.) isn't such a good thing - for us, for our kids, for our families. 

Finally, the last question I want to answer is about a personal education hero.  I have known many and have continued to work with many on a daily basis.  But, for me, the one who has expanded my understanding of policy and teacher work continues to be Nancy Flanagan.  She always has her ear to the ground, knows all the players and their interests, and is willing to share that knowledge.  She's been a relentless champion for truly professionalizing our work, a goal I hope to live to see.  Thanks, Nancy, for the free information and keeping the lights burning.

Stimulus

The big, bad stimulus package has been approved and should be showing up at a school near you.  In the meantime our localities have already begun to hunker down for the economic storm.  In my area this means buying out veteran teachers who are near retirement.  In some areas that means teachers with as little as TEN years experience.  Other economic factors have been drawing experienced teachers away from the area for years.  Most notably, nearby districts that pay sometimes one-third more in salaries which makes driving daily out of the hometown an attractive prospect.  

OR, even more horrible than than losing teachers - headlines have been made because localities want to cut SPORTS - (gasp!)

But back to stimulus.  I'm particularly interested in tracking the plans for the 4.3 billion earmarked for Professional Development.  From the White House website, it looks like most of it is planned for mentoring new teachers.  I'd like to see a comprehensive PD program that imbeds continual learning in the job, close to students and teachers, and geared to improving the work of both - with time provided.  Time does cost money so the money will be needed to make big changes.

For those unfamiliar, right now PD is a grapeshot affair.  Teachers elect to chose their own PD because they often have to pay for some or all of it.  Not a happy prospect for those who can barely make ends meet as it is.  Additionally, teachers are rarely identified and subsequently encouraged to be potential leaders. Resultantly, buildings and systems can sometimes be led by those who hope to (either, both, or sometimes) just get out of the classroom, just take home higher pay, or actually make a difference.  Not a formula for getting the best and the brightest.

Worse yet, however, would be a trail of cronyism.  Board certification, by outside evaluators who are unaware of who is being evaluated, has been the best work-around to local politics.  It, too, has some drawbacks but I've yet to see a better plan.