Keep Calm and Carry Off (the Millions)

I have been reading here and there that the our NY Governor has plans to wham teachers in the next legislative assembly.  He's got to break that God-awful public-school monopoly if it's the last thing he does--to distract New Yorkers from the real sources of so many of their problems.  So, in the spirit of the crisis at hand (as identified by Cuomo and his merry band of campaign-contributing "reformers"), I have constructed some posters similar to those promulgated by the British during World War II to help liven up their spirits. 

And, in order to pave the way for carrying off more millions in charter-school salaries and/or profits:

Is It Truly Evil to Assign Students Projects Over Their Vacations?

Is it truly evil to assign students projects over vacation?  You've probably had two completely different takes on that very question depending upon the stage in your life at which the question arose.  Could you have said much else but "yes" as a student?  If you are a teacher, can you afford to say anything but "no"? 

I try not to forget how I felt as a student.  I didn't like work over the holidays.  Who would?  I wouldn't want a ton of grading over vacation, would you?  Once, in my bygone student days, I unavoidably had to write up an earthworm-dissection lab during Thanksgiving recess.   Bon appetit!  In elementary school, I was sometimes assigned the dreaded "long-range" projects over break, but since I didn't understand the term in its totality, it didn't seem that bad.  I naturally assumed "long range" had more to do with that masked man with a silver bullet, a Silver horse and a faithful, if not sometimes politically incorrect, sidekick.  I obviously wasn't college and career ready.

I bet today more students than ever get more work than ever assigned over their vacations.  I feel for them.  After all, given our increasingly test-based academic culture, students must be made to study.  They must stick to the schedule of common-core alignment, lest they fall off the college-and-career bandwagon in grade school.  Just suppose their horse rode off into the sunset without them...and they could never find another.  There might not be time to recoup in middle school or high school.

This year, I have been asked to assign a DBQ project to my freshman.  It must be collected in parts and strung out over weeks.  So, I find myself pressed to collect part of the assignment after break.  Given that City kids go to school both Monday and Tuesday next week, I will provide the necessary materials for their first draft today.   If they wish, they will be able to complete their work before the break.   I will collect their work shortly after they return and ride off to grade it, "Hi-yo, Silver, and Away!"

Despite the fact that students will have the opportunity to complete their work prior to break, they will still be stressed.  To begin with, I have learned that the very word "essay" is an anathema in their lexicon.  Perhaps I can avoid the term.  Perhaps I can refer to the assignment instead as a coherent set of paragraphs in defense of their thesis.  What if I try calling it a "Lone Ranger" assignment?  Although there is little I can do to make them love the work, perhaps I can leave them gasping, "Who was that masked project?" 

On Keeping Calm and Counting Down

Every year since we found a home to fit the family,  I have put up a Christmas countdown calendar.   It is no ordinary one.  I am especially proud of the idea since, as far as I know,  it is my own.   You see, come November I browse hundreds of pics captured in the previous year.  It is quite a task.   I pull out about fifty, focusing on different members of the family,  now including our latest canine editions, a highly peppy Sheprador pup and a beloved canine cousin, an enormous Retriever in retirement, visiting with us for two years.  I also include pics of old friends and friends in the making.

Then, each day after Thanksgiving,  I ask a different family member to choose a new pic and we number it for our countdown.  (Note:  I haven't asked the dogs yet. )  Their choices,  as well as my own, tell the tale of high points,  happy moments,  things too funny to believe and everyday memories.   Where my advent calendar differs markedly from others is here:  Even after we have exhausted all  our days,  I leave the calendar up on the wall.   It only comes down to make way for the next year's string of photos.  It not only furnishes happy memories.   It serves as a constant reminder that there are more to make.

I love this time of year because more than ever, it is a time for reflection,  evaluation and an affirmation of those things which count most in life.  I'm sadly aware of the fact that I cannot start taking pics of my students. I would probably need a set of waivers or signed release forms to do so.   So, the best memories created in my classroom must sit in my memory banks.  Yet, they are comfortable there.  Sometimes, it pays to focus on the positive--because,  thankfully,  there is still plenty of it.   Wishing you happy holidays and happy days,  no matter what you celebrate or how you count the days.

Mr. Mulgrew, Just How Effective Is Our Evaluation System?

Mr. Mulgrew, UFT president, e-mailed teachers last night.  The letter was generally complimentary and written in good spirit.  I don't mean to be contentious, but when asked if I am man or mouse, I will reply neither.  

Mulgrew said, "We now have a strong foundation for an evaluation system which--if we properly implement it and if we use the new voice we gained in our contract--can help teachers improve throughout their careers."  I'm glad Mr. Mulgrew feels this way.  I don't.  I more than suspect Mr. Mulgrew has not worked under this current system.  Perhaps he thinks by delivering the truth, as he sees it, to us in letter form, it makes it so.  It doesn't.  From my vantage point, I have seen more teachers suffer stress, take ill, quit and/or retire early.  We even saw a suicide this year, but who's to know the sum totality of reasons why an intelligent, young teacher with seemingly everything going for him would take his own life?  

Mulgrew identifies the system as "fair."  From where he stands, behind a wall of faithful, loyalty-oath swearing Unity folk, I am sure it all looks charming.  But I am insulted by the junk science implicit in the formula.  I have taken no oath and I will say so.  

Mulgrew further states that the system "gives opportunities for those who are at the top of their game to share their expertise with their colleagues."  Well, I have a word to say on that...

There was one observation method this year, Option 3, available only to teachers designated as "highly effective."  This special option allowed them to expose their less than fully enlightened colleagues to the expertise clearly visible in their classrooms.  How many "highly effective" teachers chose this option?  Pray tell.  My guess is the numbers (whether measured raw or in percents) would be negligible.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

What  makes me think so?  Well, to begin with, I have not heard of any "highly-effective" teachers opening their doors to the more stodgy mass of teachers.  To the best of my knowledge the "highly-effective" teachers keep a very low profile.  My second reason cuts to the heart of the fine line that may separate a "highly-effective" teacher from his inferior colleagues.  The distinction probably has little to do with teacher effectiveness in the classroom.  

So, why are some teachers rated more "highly effective" than their colleagues?  First, many teachers witnessed their degree of effectiveness dwindle based upon student scores on high-stakes tests.  Many teachers were "highly effective" in the classroom, but unless near perfect in Danielson's categories, they were pulled down by student test scores.  Yet, tests seem to tell us more about individual students than teachers.  

Secondly, the teachers who survived their students' test scores may have had APs with more beneficent interpretations of Danielson.  I don't care how carefully any rubric is spelled out.  It is still subjective.  And, of course, if you've got the AP from hell, you're royally screwed.  Thankfully, I have never found myself in that position.

Finally, some "highly-effective" teachers probably amassed more points last year due to unpaid labor, not because of their effectiveness in the classroom.  They fulfilled aspects of Danielson's Fourth Domain, particularly D, "contributing to school initiatives and projects."  Happily, 4d is no longer with us this year.  It tends to work against people who spend time with families as well as people who believe they should be compensated for their labors.

I believe if most "highly-effective" teachers threw open their doors on a daily basis to their colleagues, we would see they do a very good job, but it is really no better or worse than many of their "less-effective" brethren.  I believe "highly-effective" teachers are smart enough to realize this very thing.  And, thus, they choose to keep their "expertise" to themselves.  They opt out of Option 3.  They opt out of "enlightening" their colleagues.  So, goes the way of things when you worship at the shrine of Junk Science. 

All of this aside, let me return Mr. Mulgrew's greeting.  I might ask him first how he would like to be evaluated though.  And, I would remind him that when you surround yourself with "yes" men, you sometimes get the wrong answers.  If my Union was truly doing enough to win the battle, I would not have to blog.  When Unity expands retiree votes to figure more into its victory than the opinions of those on the ground, something is seriously wrong.  Notwithstanding, I love my school, my City, and, yes, my UFT.  So, Happy Holidays, Mr. Mulgrew!

Robot Teacher Exchanges Dialogue With His Own Internal Circuitry

10.  Student #34 is asleep again.  I will put my pincher on his back and ask if he is OK.  Better not.  I will be written up for child abuse again.

9.  Student #47 is attempting to reprogram or short circuit me again for failing in my computer-science class.  I did not teach how to disable circuitry.  How can this be happening to me?

8.  I am burned out again!

7.  If this class fails another high-stakes test, I will be demoted to ATR.  Oh, the inhumanity of it all!

6.  They blame me for failing grades, but I was following orders/programming.

5.  When I ask students how they are, why do they always respond, "human"?

4.  Why don't students understand the quadratic formula?  I have explained it over and over again in twelve different languages.  I am fun.  My lessons are interesting and enlightening.  I am programmed that way...at least I am programmed to think so.

3.  Why not just give students a brain chip like my own?  It would be so much easier.

2.  When is the next vacation?  My circuits are down.  I am feeling a little fried today.

1.  Deflector shields up!  What a shame it had to be during an observation.  Here comes another spitball!

An Observation System Made For Scapegoats

At the end of the year conference last year, my A.P. commented that there have been a lot of good pedagogical discussions this year generated by the new evaluation system.  I didn't view the conversations as any more productive than in year's past.  I just saw the stress mount around me.

APs across the City probably observed a whole bunch of new stuff given the frequency with which they were required to visit classrooms.  They must have observed a variety of teaching styles and approaches to learning.  In some cases, teachers invited APs to observe special lessons or new "tricks."  Teachers, then, pulled out their best.  If APs didn't suffer burnout first, I don't see how they couldn't have benefited in some way.

If there's anything I think we can all agree upon, I'm pretty sure it's this:  We could all benefit by observing our colleagues at their best.  If anyone really cared to improve pedagogy, they would encourage more teacher "inter-visitations."  They would do more than facilitate the process.  It would be mandated by the State as part of the evaluation system.  It would help teachers and simultaneously reduce the burdens placed upon their APs.  

Not only could teachers see a variety of approaches in action, they could also benefit from the suggestions of other people who, like themselves, have made it their life's work to teach children.  But I highly doubt it will ever come to this.  After all, teachers cannot be trusted--as least as long as they make such convenient scapegoats for society's ills.

My Living, Breathing Lesson

How great will it look on flat paper and will it flop in reality?

I will need to rewrite a lesson plan soon.  The lesson was super, if I don't say so myself.  The problem is given the first domain of Danielson, I need to formerly present some piece of paper to substantiate the claim by meticulously documenting objectives, procedures, standards, pivotal questions and signs of differentiation.  Did anyone ever stop to consider a lesson plan might look great on paper, but flop on stage?  Equally conceivable, it might receive the equivalent of a standing ovation from the class and look skeletal on paper.  I favor the latter.

In a recent lesson, the students lead the class.  We put the Roman Empire on trial.  We had prosecuting and defense attorneys, eight witnesses and a class full of jurors.  I, of course, was the judge...as well as teacher.  

My lesson plan was skeletal.  I didn't have pivotal questions, only that of the Aim, although there was some procedure and form of assessment outlined.  Since my students were running the show, I knew that I would need to be on my toes to react at times that could not be predicted.  I jumped in at points when it either seemed appropriate or necessary.  When our emperor stated he was Trojan, for example, I suggested he might mean Trajan.  At another point, I brought up latifundia.  I prompted our Roman legal expert with additional questions--which, unfortunately, he seemed unable to answer despite the fact we had looked at the Twelve Tables the previous day.  At yet another point, I had to advise our prosecuting attorney to quit lecturing to the witness, but given we weren't a law class, I let some leading questions go.

The kids really did a great job.  The lawyers were contentious.  Our emperor was haughty.  Our Christian was incensed.  Our "Barbarian" professed, "I'm not like that!"  The emperor wore his laurel-wreath crown.  The Gaul donned a mustache and a straw hat.  It was great fun.

The lesson went well.  The jurors made charts to weigh the evidence.  They wrote verdicts at home and supported them with evidence.  It was collected and assessed the following day.  Rome was overwhelmingly found guilty.  Our prosecuting attorney said Rome was ambitious.  And our Prosecuting Attorney is an honourable man!

It is too bad that given the rubrics of Danielson, my lesson can't speak for itself.  It must closely follow some template and be analyzed as an entity unto itself.  It should include some of the buzz words of the day.  The best lessons, however, mold themselves not around a piece of paper.  They mold themselves around student reactions and points of heightened student interest.  Sometimes, it is some event of the past twenty-four hours which brings historical issues better into focus.  My best questions are formed for individuals and in reaction to what individuals say.  They cannot be predicted on a piece of paper.  This is why a lesson plan, particularly one assembled with a time-consuming attention to detail, is a very poor indicator of the success of a living, breathing lesson!

What NYC Teachers Do Every Day...

A teacher sometimes receives holiday cards this time of year.  When I was a new teacher, and quite young, I would pack them in, stack them up and then string them like garland across my home.  If memory serves me right, I used to get thirty plus cards.  Now, I score fewer.  I am probably stricter, but I still remember something I once heard.  If you get just one letter, it probably represents the sentiments of many more.  

As the holidays are upon us again, I went in search of some of my old cards, guaranteed to boost the spirits.  Some are holiday cards.  Some are June cards.  I appreciate them more than ever now.  They speak to why I became a teacher.  I collected these cards before I ever knew I would be placed under the microscope of messed-up metrics to judge my worth.  Although these cards count for nothing in teacher evaluations today, they count for everything in my heart.  And when I'm gone, maybe you can guess which measurements I'll be taking with me and which I'll be leaving to the dust heap.  These cards speak to the truly productive work that NYC teachers, and, indeed, teachers the world over, do every day.  

2004, A thank you card on the eve of the birth of my first child

2002-2003

June 24, 2003

1999

A card from two students from parts of the former Soviet Union, lost the date, but the card's turning yellow now... 

1994, When I was a newer teacher and had the joy of seeing a Pakistani and Hindu child realize how much they have in common in my class...

Many kids, notably some recent immigrants, may not yet be able to express themselves well in English.  Many may be hesitant to write or speak to a teacher.  Some kids may not be able to afford cards or find the time to make them.  Others will prefer to express their sentiments orally.  Still, I'd be willing to bet NY City teachers get more than a million cards each year.  I'm betting none will thank teachers for fervent test prep.  I'm betting some may make the reader teary eyed.  These cards speak volumes more than any APPR number.  They speak to why we became teachers, why we stay teachers--despite being used as scapegoats in a demoralizing national debate--and how far education reform fails our students. 

Since I had my own kids, I've been less careful about saving papers, other than a cherished few from my own kids.  If I saved them all, I would be buried in papers.  I regret now that I've parted with some of my more recent cards, but I vow to hold onto more of any future ones.  I hope you will hold onto your cards as well.  They are the best measures of how we help kids.

The (Commissioner) King and I

They say the King is gone.  John King has resigned in the name of signing onto Duncan's ship as a senior adviser in D.C.  In N.Y., King was a lightning rod for the anti-testing movement.  He implemented the Core, casting students overboard in the process.  He pushed an evaluation law into effect to ensure teachers will similarly walk the plank based in large part upon test scores.  He plowed on towards icebergs despite repeated warnings.  Is it any surprise that mutiny broke out?

Since announcing his resignation, King has attempted to justify his policies, drawing parallels between social inequalities, protests over recent police actions and school reform.  From what I can tell, however, his test-based policies have done nothing to lessen social inequalities.  If anything, the divide has only worsened.  According to one source, "although black and Hispanic students achieved better scores on this year's test as compared with 2013, the achievement gap still got wider--since white and Asian students saw bigger increases in their scores."

At other times, King has attempted to justify his policies by invoking the image of his beloved teacher, Mr. Osterweil.  Here's one refrain: "As a teacher, principal and policymaker, my goal is and has always been to give every student what Mr. Osterweil gave me--a classroom where they feel supported and inspired and challenged."  I am sure Mr. Osterweil was a patient, loving and highly intelligent man.

Yet, I am equally sure that Mr. Osterweil must be dead.  How do I know?  A feeling based upon logic.  If Mr. Osterweil was extant, and if he was half the teacher Mr. King makes him out to be, he would have stepped up and signaled to the Captain by now.   He would have told Mr. King to change direction.  If nothing else, he would have spoken to how excessive test prep eats at the soul of his profession.  He would have told Mr. King that he can no longer afford the time to read so much Shakespeare or stage plays with his class.  He might have told Mr. King about nervous, crying and over-stressed children during the six days of State testing each year.  He might have told Mr. King about students losing interest in school.  

Mr. Osterweil was a career teacher.  And, I feel I know him far better than Mr. King.  You see, despite King's professed love for his former teacher, I truly wonder if he would have listened any better to Mr. Osterweil than the parents and teachers of NY State.  Just as he did with the democratic voices of the people, he might have conveniently compartmentalized Mr. Osterweil's complaints into the category of "special interests."  I truly do not know.  But at any rate, here's to the King and all the data miners his policies seemed to encourage before InBloom bit the dust--

From an Earlier Post entitled The (Commisioner) King and I:

[Anna] It's a very modern saying, 

But a true and honest thought,
That if you're a data miner,
Kids' privacy can be bought.

[Singing] As a data miner I've been learning --
You'll forgive me if I boast --
And I've now become an expert,
On the subject I like most.

Getting to know you.

Getting to know you,
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to decrypt you,
Getting to hope you encrypt me.

Getting to know you,
Putting it my way,
But nicely,
You are precisely,
My sal-a-ry!

[ANNA AND THE MOTHERS]

Getting to know you,
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to decrypt you,
Getting to hope you encrypt me.

Getting to know you,
Putting it my way,
But nicely,
You are precisely,

[ANNA]:  My sal-a-ry.

[ALL]  :
Getting to know you, Getting to mine free and easy
When I am with you,
Getting to know what to sell

Haven't you noticed
Suddenly I'm rich and sleazy?
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I'm learning about you
Day by day.

Getting to know you,
Getting to mine free and easy
When I am with you,
Getting to know what to sell

Haven't you noticed
Suddenly I'm rich and sleazy?
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I'm learning about you
Day .. by ... day.

He Doth Doodle

Recently, I spied a student doodling in the back.  I couldn't see it quite clearly.  Given my distance vision, it looked even more blurry than the picture in this post.  

The doodling occurred amid a lesson on competing nationalism and conflicts over land in the Middle East.  The doodling did not occur in a private notebook.  It occurred on a handout I would need to collect back to use with a class later in the day.  When I asked the students to pass papers forward, I took particular interest in this artwork.  I set it aside for future examination.

This doodling was not random or unrelated to our subject matter.  Happily, it was not violent or disturbed.  It seemed very thoughtful.   The student had obviously been paying attention.  He had obviously taken the information steps further than required.  In fact, of all things, it incorporated the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish people.  It was intensely creative.  I was pretty amazed.  What's more, the doodling seemed profound.  He labeled an umbrella "Balfour Declaration."  He may have implied that if this umbrella had truly been opened in the wake of WWI, it might have sheltered some of the Jewish people from future aggression.  It is open to interpretation.  I appreciate ambiguity, or the allowance for multiple interpretations.  Life is riddled by it.  

This student of history/supreme doodler could do a lot better in my class.  Indeed, he is close to failing.  He sometimes comes late.  It is his first class of the day.  He doesn't always have the homework.  Occasionally, he volunteers insightful comments, but at other times he appears exhausted.  I spoke with him the other day to mark the start of a new marking period.  He clearly wasn't working to his potential.  I let him know that I had identified his artwork.  It illustrated, at least in my mind, an extraordinary type of "smarts."  I had saved it.  I hope this student will pick up his academic pace.  And, I will encourage it.  It is funny that something as simple as a doodle can show a classroom teacher so much more than any standardized test score.  This doodle, in my mind, captured, in snapshot form, the brilliance of a creative mind at work.  

I will use his artwork in class today as a motivation for my lesson on looking at imperialism in China through the eyes of cartoonists.  I will allow time at the end of class for students to create their own cartoons based on some knowledge of our coursework.  I will require them all to doodle!

Who'll Come a-Waltzing Matilda With Me?

The other day a student popped a question out of the blue:  How come we never learn about Australia?  

Although the question at the time seemed completely unrelated to the task at hand, I stopped to consider it.  It was a great question.  I initially replied that Australia is not part of the curriculum.  It's not part of our Regents test.  These answers, of course, beg another question:  Why do the Regents slight Australia...more than they slight many other places?  

About eight years ago, strolling along through the centuries, just doing some good, old genealogical research, I happened upon a distant (dare I say, very distant) cousin in Australia doing the same research.  We traced our connection back to the early 1800s in the Channel Islands.  There were two sisters, Judith and Elizabeth.  Whereas my Judith married and moved to the States, Elizabeth's family moved to Australia.  Elizabeth died young.  

My cousin and I struck up a friendship.  We have been e-mailing each other on a weekly basis since.  So, I keep up on Australian news from the best perspective.  We swap stories about her grand kids, whom she helps raise in very significant ways, and my own little ones.  We talk about lots, from family to international events.  When her son came to NY with his soon-to-be-wife, we met and enjoyed a few hours.  All the miles and years don't seem to mean much.  Family just feels like family.  

So, given all this, that student's question did not just bounce off me.  It hit home.  I will suggest we designate an Australia Day in class.  Given that April 25th is a little long to wait for ANZAC Day, we will attempt it before Christmas, that great summertime holiday Down Under!  I will invite the students to do some extra research and bring in anything they would like to share.  I will turn, in part, to my cousin.  I told her that American students, especially on the eve of a holiday, might not be able to store much more than five facts about Australia.  So, I asked her to give me her top list of what she thinks people should know about Australia.  Not an easy task at all, for any country, I am sure.  Knowing how she has met my questions in the past about Australian schools, favorite recipes, cricket, etc., I have the greatest faith in her.   

I will introduce some Australian slang to my students.  Here, too, my cousin has helped me.  She once sent on a book of Aussie slang.  It is wonderful.  And, after all, if my students ever find themselves or a swagman singing at the billabong, I want to be sure that by the time the troopers arrive it is not the first time they have considered whether to shove that jumbuck in their tuckerbag!  Thanks to Judith Durham and the Seekers, many years ago I found myself puzzling over this very same question!

In an Era of Ed. Deform, You Can Never Be Sure Whither Your Search Engine Will Lead You...

There was a post at Diane Ravitch the other day entitled "Google Me and Get an Ad for TFA."  I think the search page has since been changed, but I found the whole notion so hilarious that I decided to have a little fun and use my imagination to construct what might be nightmare pages in this era of Educational Deform.

Searching for Michelle Rhee, former empress of Ed. "Reform":

Searching for information about the Opt-Out Movement:

And, what might you find if you Google NYC Educator's Blog, or info. about any NYC educator these days?:

Pow! Wham! Bam! And Now VAM!

On First Encountering Value-Added Measures of Teacher Evaluation...

Days of Future Passed or Failed?

While the U.S. Department of Education increasingly sets its sites on the mastering of test-based knowledge as a measure of individual student success, teacher quality and international competitiveness, testing-obsessed countries like China have begun to see some value in trying to promote creativity, once a hallmark of an American education.

I think a fair amount about the role of invention in history.  I think about how new ideas and new technology have powered us forward.  I think about how distant cultures must have developed similar solutions to similar problems, independent of one another.  I think about how other solutions passed along trade networks or traveled with migrant populations.  How great it must have been to bring a totally new and helpful idea to a new part of the world, second best only to being the actual inventor of the idea!  You'd be a veritable Johnny Appleseed of progress.  You might even become a rock star of the Stone Age!  Almost everything we have and everything we take for granted today grows out of someone's solution to a problem in history.  Of course, some solutions lead to more problems, and the need for yet more solutions.  Let me not mention the common-core and its testing here...

I do believe there are just as many new solutions that need to be found, if we would only concentrate our energies in their direction.  Instead, we are distracted.  We waste time, effort, and money on frivolous things that may do little more than solve the problem of boredom or keeping up with the Jones.  You don't see many advertisements on TV for finding solutions to the problems that plague the world, do you?  There was a time in the early Seventies when things seemed different.  You could walk into any record store and purchase advertisements for seeking solutions.



If we really set our sites on using education to solve these problems, how different our educational landscape might look!  The high-stakes tests and rigorous prep that they engender would have to go.  Instead of painting 70% of kids as failures, we could paint them as solution seekers.  If kids are only interested in their labors, they will work to succeed.  They will not do the same in the name of a test that has been designed to take them down.  There is little interesting, at least in my opinion, about prepping for dear life with a metaphoric gun to the head.  I don't care what anyone says, focusing on test prep does not promote creativity.  It is a sorry distraction.

If we want to promote creativity, I would think we would need more classes in which students complete projects of choice that address real-world concerns.  I would think knowledge of current events (even those which are too recent to be put on a test) would be imperative.  I would think the great majority of multiple-choice questions would be banished from the realm.  Kids would be asked open-ended questions.  Opinions (which cannot be easily graded) would need to figure in heavily.  I would think the arts, painting, drawing and music would need to be stressed.  A creative classroom would demand a creative teacher. 

The classroom which thrives in the realm of creativity would look nothing like my classroom any given day in May or June when I am asked to Regents prep kids for dear life, for my life, for that of my administrators, for the school and, coincidentally, for the students, too.  It's sad because this is just the time of year when learning should culminate in something potentially meaningful to society.  If the creativity of students and teachers was fully unleashed, there could be some truly great projects.  Teaching kids to connect the Gupta with the number zero and Bismarck with Blood and Iron on the Regents somehow falls far short of that.   

On Losing Your Lyrics or a Lesson Plan...

In one of my favorite scenes from Modern Times, Chaplin performs a song, the Charabia.  Rather than memorize lyrics, he writes them on his cuffs.  As the music begins, he throws out his arms, flinging his lyric-laden cuffs far away.  He is forced to improvise and compose on the spot.  He, then, creates a hilarious mix of words, accompanied by Chaplinesque gestures and a dance, to make the crowd go wild.  One suspects that by singing off the cuff, he was at his best.  

I wonder, perhaps, if some of my best lessons don't grow out of similar mishaps.  Once upon a train, I noticed my lesson plan missing in action.  I reassembled a new version, with great pivotal questions, in less than five minutes.  Sometimes after twenty years, all you need is a napkin and a pen.  Happily, the necessary historical details are part of my internal luggage.  I even related the topic to current events. 

Yesterday, I was working off a few hours sleep.  I confused the time at which the period ended with the time for another period.  I planned for my class to end fifty minutes after the hour, as opposed to fourteen minutes later.  I took the remaining time and invented two terrific questions on the spot, one as a lesson summary and the other as an application to current issues.  I may be slightly biased, but I'm pleased with the emergency remedy.  And, the students, I am sure, never supected a thing! 

When I stop to think that places like Success Academy weigh teachers down with standardized lessons distributed to its workforce, I cannot believe how much is lost.  It's a short step from that "solution" to a robot, albeit one which students will quickly learn how to disable.  When I stop to think that people weigh kids down with high-stakes standardized tests, I am similarly dismayed.  Yet, I still believe, in a manner of speaking, that this educational nonsense will meet its maker one day.  I still see that happy ending--with so many possibilities--looming ahead upon the horizon.  The End.

On Cops, Clashes and Classrooms

Realizing full well that I am far less qualified to comment on the details of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner case than many, I will still say something.  
Regardless of one's stance in these cases, the events point to a huge and problematic divide in society.  When the same events and, indeed, even views on justice, itself, are viewed by different groups of people in completely different ways, it is a serious cause for concern, especially given the importance of the issues involved.  "Race" and class seem to figure prominently in this polarization, but not entirely. 

And, I'm sure, the way these issues are discussed in different classrooms across America will speak to a great divide.  In our classroom discussion the other day, I chose to pose questions around this divide and the reasons for its existence, rather than the specifics of the two cases.  When I first started teaching in NYC, I worked in Flushing.  The Rodney King decision was soon handed down.  Although Los Angeles lies about as distant from New York as any other point geographically imaginable within the continental U.S., the students felt it sharply.  It struck close to home.  There were very strong opinions that needed to be voiced.  It would not have been possible to disregard them.

In other classrooms, the emotions run less strong.  Sometimes they may be present, but it is not as imperative that they are voiced.   And, then, there will be some students in classrooms who fail to follow the events for one reason or another or lack interest.  We had a good discussion in my current classrooms, but it was far less heated, I am sure, than in other rooms across the City.  If anything, these recent events not only speak to how multiple and conflicting truths can coexist for different people in one society and possibly eat at it, but also to how diverse and divergent are the needs of different communities. 

Common Planning Time, Parental Outreach and the Rambles of Winter...

If you're a New York City public-school teacher, given the new contract, you are probably working with specific time slots set aside for common planning and parental outreach this year.  I am sure these time slots have come to mean very different things from school to school, as well as from department to department.  

In my case, common planning time has come to mean a march towards more uniformity.  We need to realign the curriculum to the new state social-studies framework.  At the same time, we maintain a rigorous schedule of uniform assessments.  We must be on the same page, or close to it.  We need to hit target destination points for a barrage of uniform quizzes.  We need to deliver the same projects to our students.  For anyone who thrives on creative impulses, this could put a damper on some days!

In my case, parental outreach means more data entry.  We are told to input our outreach into the school's database.  I call parents and send e-mails when it proves convenient; then, during the allotted P.O. time, I backtrack.  I input the data, using purposefully vague terms, so as not to overly insult anyone's right to privacy.  Oddly enough, the earliest time I can note for contact is 7 a.m.  Yet, most of my e-mails go out prior to 6 a.m.  

All our data must be in good working order for those people who look down upon us from their Race to the Top.  Looking on the bright side, however, if we have to march on together, I couldn't think of nicer comrades than my colleagues with whom to march and then labor to meet the data quota, gulag-sytle.  

And, it is nice to know that along the way, I can still occasionally turn my rudder to fit my own needs or those of my students.  The other day, for instance, I pulled a lesson on Ireland out of my gunny sack as part of my imperialism unit, thrusting "The Minstrel Boy" center stage.  And although winter may be a-comin,' just to show my step is still slightly out of sync, and whither I am called, I carry some happiness in my heart as I go, here's one of my favorite Irish tunes "Rambles of Spring":



There's a piercing wintry breeze
Blowing through the budding trees
And I button up my coat to keep me warm
But the days are on the mend
And I'm on the road again
With my fiddle snuggled close beneath my arm

[Chorus]
I've a fine, felt hat
And a strong pair of brogues
I have rosin in my pocket for my bow
O my fiddle strings are new
And I've learned a tune or two
So, I'm well prepared to ramble and must go

I'm as happy as a king
When I catch a breath of spring
And the grass is turning green as winter ends
And the geese are on the wing
And the thrushes start to sing
And I'm headed down the road to see my friends

[Chorus]

I have friends in every town
As I wander up and down
Making music at the markets and the fairs
Through the donkeys and the creels
And the farmers making deals
And the yellow headed tinkers selling wares

[Chorus]

Here's a health to one and all
To the big and to the small
To the rich and poor alike and foe and friends
And when I return again
May our foes have turned to friends
And may peace and joy be with you until then

[Chorus]

Why Blog?

Why Blog?  Answers must vary greatly from individual to individual.  I have many hobbies and so many things I love to do, but I would never dream of blogging about anything but education, and only in this day and age.  I'm a quiet person--except when I'm not.  And, I really have no time to blog, except I do.  

Blogging for me is a form of self-defense in a world in which teachers have been thrust into the role of scapegoat.  Teachers are painted as incompetent, lazy individuals who do not deserve the due-process rights of tenure.  Teachers are blamed for poverty and the inability of Walmart workers to manage simple tasks for subsistence pay.  If I have learned much of anything from studying history, I have learned that there is a time for action.  There is a time to kiss your reticence goodbye.

I speak only as one NYC teacher, but I speak for many:  The current path of educational reform mirrors insanity.  When I witness some of the people who have called the shots, Michelle Rhee (teacher for three years who boasts of taping kids' mouths shut to the point of bleeding), and the Walmart family, I cannot believe this is real.  Are teachers the new Gregor Samsa?  

I offer my voice as one of experience.  There are fewer and fewer of us left in the City.  I first set foot into a classroom with clipboard in hand (the same one I tote with pride today), twenty-four years ago.  I have seen the rapid decline of my profession.  I do not take it lightly.  I may be dangerous because I remember all too well how teachers were once respected.

I speak to counter the negative stereotyping of teachers.  I am not lazy.  I used to run ten miles, four times a week, prior to work, only to enter the classroom fully charged and ready to go.  Every teacher I know is full of life, although exhausted at times from all the grading and demoralizing changes.  Without boundless energy, one would not survive long in this occupation.  

And, as to the point teachers are incompetent, test scores are a poor judge of teachers.  My life has been built around learning.  I graduated college with the highest honors, but I am most proud of the work I did outside the classroom, at home, in a living room, with a book in hand and later a computer by my side.  Teaching was not a last resort for me.  It was a calling.  I am a NYC public school teacher by choice.  If you think you can out-teach a NYC teacher, step into a classroom.  Observe.  Then, have a go at it.  Not so easy, hey?  How long will it be before you give up or suffer burnout?  There must be incompetent teachers, but, from where I stand, I wouldn't be able to point to any.  

And, I blog, of course, because I have little 'uns of my own.  From the vantage point of a parent, I recognize the inanity of forcing teachers to prep for dear life.  I recognize the inanity of sucking the love of learning out of school.  I recognize the inanity of robbing childhood and painting a generation of public-school children as failures.   The standards which some would call rigor will more likely than not lead to rigor mortis of the academic kind.

Although much of my blogging might paint a drab picture, I still love my profession.  My colleagues are part of my extended family.  I love the kids.  And, I will say it.  And, I am not a pedophile.  I love the kids.  When I close my doors to teach, I forget the insanity of this ed. deform.  I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to work with kids for a living.  I will blog to preserve a profession which is not primarily for those who wish to make money or live the easy life.  I will blog to preserve a profession for people who value ideas as well as their fellow human beings.  I blog, therefore I am!