These last two days (monday/tuesday), I've been thinking about the phrase "fruit of your labor." I've been able to see a seedling these last two days. figuratively of course. I'm terrible at real gardening. I have the opposite of a green thumb. a red thumb? I digress.
I am and have been stressed. Trying to create a collaborative classroom, where kids care about each other and want to help each other learn... it's not an easy thing to set up. I'm still in the process but my classes have been for one reason or another running smoothly these last two days. (Who knows what the next two days will look like). I'm seeing kids... helping each other. Group leaders actually leading, checking work of their peers. More students asking each other before asking me. I have to enjoy these moments when I can, because everyday brings its own challenges.
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Dear first year teachers,
This is about the time, at least from what I remember, that things get... rough. Well, it's always been rough. There's the curriculum, planning, grading, and building student relationships. But this is around the time when things feel like they're falling apart. When choosing between the ever-growing pile of grading, planning your life away, and figuring out how to deal with five very discouraging students... it may even escape our mouths, "Why did I choose this path?" I remember as a first year teacher, i had these great ideals and I tried to implement all of them. every. single. one. all at once. I know it sounds ridiculous because everyone had told me how challenging teaching would be, but I was sure I would get it right by my first year. Surely, they haven't met me. I'll work twice, no three times as hard, to get my classroom to look like my ideal. Instead, around this time, I was faced with all the things going wrong in my classroom. Those beautiful ideals transforming into an ugly truth. I write this not to dishearten you, but to let you know that EVERYONE goes through this. I remember having a first year teacher as a roommate as she explained some of the difficulties of first year teaching. 90% of the time, I didn't even have a solution. The only thing I could say was, "Yep, sounds about normal." And I think just hearing those words is helpful. Teaching can feel so isolating, and often people are sharing about BEST practices making their classrooms sound like unicorns and star dust. Hardly anyone's classroom is unicorns and star dust. and if it is, it took a lot of years of struggle to get there. Honestly, some of the most soothing words I've heard as a teacher has been, "Oh that kid? Yeah, he's like that in my class too." As in, I'm not the ONLY ONE struggling. So, first year teacher, you're NOT the only one struggling, and what you're going through is normal. Secondly, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Just like a flower has to wait for night to pass and morning to come before it sees the sun, as teachers you'll have to endure your own kind of "night" but TRUST that the morning does come. The struggle is worthwhile and you will learn from it (easy to say but hard to believe). Taking risks in the classroom (like changing up homework or doing standards based grading alone or trying to make group work work) has its rewards NO MATTER WHAT. Even when you feel like an activity or idea failed horribly, the reward is that you will know how to make it better. And if you try it the next year, it will be so much better. I failed a lot as a first year teacher. I mean A LOT. I was emotionally a mess. and the next year, I was so thankful for those failures because I was that more more prepared. Let me tell you though, failing was no fun at all. But you may see yourself next year grateful for those failures. Lastly, great teaching takes great time, great energy, and great community. I know that many teachers have a "solo thing" going. Something along the lines of a) I can do this on my own ... or b) I don't wan't to bother anyone else .... or c) I don't want anyone to see my weaknesses or ... d) I feel judged by other teachers or e) some other reason to be on your own. To this, I'll respond sharply but in the most loving way possible. How can one, in the same breath, say "I want the best for my students" and "I'm going to do it on my own"? Our students deserve the best. And we need to rely on each other to provide the best for them. Trust me 2 heads are better than one. I've never left a Noyce conversation without it having a different and better impact on my students. Don't fly solo. So if you didn't read anything here. That's okay. I'll sum it up here: You are in every way exactly where you are supposed to be with exactly the right people at exactly the right time. Don't give up. I was talking to a colleague today about standards based grading for quizzes, and she came to me with a brilliant idea. Instead of breaking up a quiz by standards, just use a regular quiz. Students take the quiz and then are given an answer key with a list of the standards they were quizzed on. They take a hi-lighter and hi-light which portions of the quiz match up to which learning goal. Then they give themselves a self-assessment per learning goal based on each hi-lighted section (Mastery, Approaching mastery, Tutoring needed, or HELP!). She's going to try it tomorrow and let me know the results. Will post when I hear back.
This could be a way to respond to criticisms about standards based grading where the writing the standard "gives away" how to do a problem. One of my colleagues showed me a worksheet with a very simple idea and profound effects: "lifelines"... basically agreeing to provide up to two hints when they are struggling most. For me, these lifelines are represented as smiley faces. See below. I'm going to give students a group challenge (a math task that students will struggle with but are within their capabilities). I usually provide hints (thanks to Complex Instruction Consortium's ideas) but this time, I decided to go with lifelines. My colleague told me that students are suddenly very protective of their lifelines. I believe it. I'm hoping this works. Will update once the activity is complete. UPDATE: I tried this in my most challenging class. WOW what a change! First the group challenge was more appropriate to their level but they really did NOT want hints to be taken away. Students were suddenly talking to each other, helping each other, checking answers. They hated the idea of me marking up one of their smileys. Small change, genius results.
Another quote from the PD session I went to: “The more assessments they have, the more we’ll get a balanced picture.”
I don't remember who said this but it's a good response "The hog doesn't grow any faster, the more you weigh it." COME ON! THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE! How much of our energy gets sucked into grading tests and analyzing data? How much of MONEY goes into it? (Thanks Pearson for providing such a great service). especially when the data paints an unsurprising picture... Socioeconomic Status has a lot to do with how a child performs. Race has a lot to do with how a child performs. I don't need 5 different tests telling me the same thing. Let's talk specifics. Here are the tests that students are expected to complete this year since PARCC has come into the picture. All of these are in the window from Mar 3 to Jun 6 (3 months). PARCC PBA (performance based assessment) PARCC EOY (curriculum based) ACT/ EXPLORE/PLAN This is aside from A.P. Exams (also during this testing window.) .... There you have it. Welcome Spring. I was at a PD recently, and I counted the word "accountability" used 27 times... and I got to the PD half way through. So... I can only imagine it was more.
One quote "This is a great activity- it will definitely help with your evaluations." Is that why we should do things? So that we get an "A" in our evaluations?? That's not why I got into teaching. Here's a quote by the head of Finnish Public Schools, "As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. "There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted." (from an article here.) I wish education was more obsessed with words like "joy, interest, thoughtfulness, health, and fun." I find that going to professional conferences like Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago (MMC) to be really useful. I always always always learn something that I use in my classroom the next day. I also get to meet other professionals and share best practice. I think it's really important and I've met some really wonderful people so far.
The problem is that any day I get to go to a great professional development day, my students miss out because I'm not in the classroom. AND it's a ton of extra work creating sub plans the day before. Last year, I started to prepare a few students to "take over" if I knew I was going to be gone beforehand. I would take two of my strongest students to lecture, give quizzes, or anything else I would have done if I were absent. This year, I'm at a new school and we have block schedule. At the last ICTM conference, I knew that one of my classes would be very behind if I wasn't there. I decided to prepare two of my students outside of class for what I would have covered. They were used to the norms of teaching each other and respecting each other's voices in the classroom. They're still working on this but they've done this enough that it wasn't such a huge transition. I told my two students to give them a short quiz at the end of the period. Not surprisingly, many of the students did well even though some of the material covered was based on the lecture my two students provided. I think I'll do this more often I was just at a meeting sharing best practices. One teacher said she tried having students taking notes on what other students were saying. She'd say "Jon just made a really good point. Let's take that down in our notes." Then Jon would have to repeat slowly what he said so others could write it down. She collected the notes at the end of class. This was to value what other students in the class were saying and positioning them as experts (instead of just the teacher).
I'm really interested in doing this in my own classroom. I'm not exactly sure the structure of how this would look but quoting other students as part of the notes seems like a really great way for students to start leaning on each other. An oldie but a goodie: (circa Dec 2013)
I asked students to write on a notecard of someone who they are thankful for in the class. I read them aloud so that people could realize how they have a positive impact on others. Attached are a few responses. I know others have done variations of this activity. It actually didn't take very long and I think a lot of students felt very appreciated. These are the rules and procedures I give to students at the beginning of the year. An alternative approach to the typical syllabus.
Classroom Structures and Procedures (but not Grades) All structures and procedures are created with the following in mind: Is it helpful to learning? If yes, then do it. If not, then don’t do it. Part I: Redefining Success We’ve been trained to think that success in school means something to do with getting the right grade. Often times, people leave a school thinking they’ve been successful but haven’t learned anything! Even more confusing, this conversation is something I hear all the time: “Hey bro, I got an A in that class and I didn’t learn anything!” “Man, I’m jealous! I got a C” This is how brainwashed we’ve become about how grades are more important than learning. We need to re-evaluate our notions of success. We are human beings- we were meant to learn. If you are copying other people’s homework to get some points, this seems like a waste of time if your goal is to learn. Exams and quizzes are used as tools to check your learning. Have you learned what you intended to learn? If not, we need to fix that by learning the material. Cheating will serve you no purpose here (or in life), so why do it? Part II: Directing Your Learning You will have several opportunities in class to rate your own understanding on your assignments and quizzes so that you can recognize what you know and don’t know. Being able to assess your own understanding is really important for this course and for college. You will also have opportunities to choose different assignments depending on your need. Directing your own learning is what the steering committee is all about. The steering committee is comprised of two or three people per class and will meet once every two weeks in the first semester. They will provide input on the class pace, problems in the classroom, and any other important issues that arise. This will help both direct the class but also give the class another voice to direct learning in a way that is helpful. Part III: Being Responsible Adults For all of us to be gaining and learning, we need to be present both physically and mentally. We rely on the class and the class relies on us. Part of being responsible is being present in class and on time. Part of being an adult means that I believe you won’t abuse my trust. If you are late, grab a post-it note, explain why you are late. This is to communicate as adults and that you are taking responsibility that you are late. This year, we will have a bathroom pass. I don’t need to hear about how badly you need to go. If it is available, feel free to use the bathroom UNLESS it is during a lecture (this is so you don’t miss the notes). If you need to go to the bathroom frequently, then we will need to talk... This is not a talk EITHER of us want to have. Now let’s talk about cell phones. Being responsible means that you’re not on your cell phone during class, because you are actively participating and focusing. Being an adult means that I don’t check over your shoulder all the time. Maybe you need your cell phone as a calculator, or maybe you need to quickly respond with a text “k.” If you abuse this trust, we will need to talk about consequences. Part IV: Creating a Community Much of the learning of mathematics will happen through conversations with each other in groups of 3-5 so that we can build knowledge together. You will be working with random groups for the first semester so that you can decide who you work best with. You may think today that this will be your best friend, but you may find in a quarter that someone you had never met before is a better learning partner for you. You will be teaching, learning, and struggling with your group. You should be responsible to your group and have homework or other necessary items prepared. As part of a community, everyone will also be tasked with a “class role” so that everyone is helping make the classroom a better place. |
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