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The Inconsistency of School Administrations

heather — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:12:04 +0000

There are just so many elements that contribute to education’s struggles, much of which many civilians never even think about. I write a lot about these elements to try to give insight from a teacher’s point of view, and to give an idea of how the consequences of these shortcomings each trickle down to chip away at student achievement.

Today’s post is about the nomadic ebb and flow of school administrators. The media talks a lot about the importance of good teachers, and I make no qualms about that necessity. But I don’t think civilians know that we are, at times, like our student populations, in parental flux with no real, consistent guidance. And that can’t be ignored.

With each new superintendent comes a new district agenda. What was important might no longer be.

With each new principal comes a new curriculum vision for the site, a different personnel preference, and varying levels of abilities to deal with teachers, parents, and students.

With each new vice-principal comes varying degrees of ability to enforce discipline or enforce academic policies.

As simplistic as this seems, the fact is that each member of a school administration has a lot to do with the learning environment and the academic habitat of a school.

I love my current district, and I love my current school, but man, it could use some consistency. My current school has had two superintendents since my hire. I had a VP who left a year after I arrived. Then the principal who hired me left in the middle of the school year two years later. An interim principal was put in place, a new principal hired. Another VP was hired, then made interim principal at an elementary school. A new one was brought in. He left. The original one came back. But now she’s just been told she’s leaving again for elementary. Now there’s a new VP coming from the district office.

Granted, sometimes an administrator wants to keep moving on and up, leaving the school and it’s children behind. But many times these school leaders are shuffled around by their own districts. And without their own tenure to help stand behind, they can’t stand up to the powers that be.

The fact is that it’s not just the students who need consistency in their life; it’s the teachers too. We need stability to get our craft together without feeling that we have to re-campaign every two to three years for support from a new administration.

We need to know the rules, and we need the rules to stay put for awhile so we can actually all make a difference together.

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: administration, Curriculum, k12, middle school, principal, superintendent, teaching

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Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

heather — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:25:30 +0000

You know the old commercial: “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter! Well, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate!” And just like a Peanut Butter cup, it seems that Jane Austin and Zombies go great together.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies combines two very different genres from the farthest poles of the bookshelf. It smooshes together Empire waists with half-eaten brains. And, gosh darn it. It works.(...)
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Post tags: book review, Curriculum, ELA, genre, k12, middle school, teaching, tween, Writers Project, writing project

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The New Definition of Veteran Teacher

heather — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:14:56 +0000

I have been teaching for 10 years. I have mentored teachers, become Department Head, sat on committees, presented at conferences, and taught upwards of 2500 students ranging from 3rd grade to 12th grade.

But all of that does not make me a veteran teacher.

What makes me an official veteran teacher is the fact that I have hit my memory wall. The computer that is my brain is beginning to empty the trash, student by student at a time.

This is the first year I’ve been approached by past students I cannot name. This is also the first year I still don’t have some students’ names memorized. Yes, it’s true; it’s May, and I still get those two girls mixed up in Period 2 and those same 3 girls confuddled in 4th period. Don’t look shocked. I mean, don’t I get any credit for having the rest of my 237 students down pat? No? Damn.(...)
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Post tags: btsa, education, middle school, novice teacher, teaching, veteran teacher

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The Myth of Summers Off

heather — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:09:14 +0000

“So you’re a teacher, huh?” says the umpteenth Joe know-it-all. I know the tone, and I know what’s coming. “Must be nice having summer’s off,” he sneers.

I don’t know what mythical job this guy thinks I have, but I have never had a summer off.

I don’t know who these teachers are who are supposedly laying around all summer sippin’ sangrias without a thought of prepping for the year before them. But I’m not one of them.

In fact, is there really a “them?”(...)
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Post tags: Curriculum, summer, summer school, teaching, vacation

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Students, Sexting, and the threat to Ed Tech

heather — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:12:07 +0000

Thanks to Scott McLeod for Twittering the following article from The Washington Post. It describes a terrible ordeal that an administrator went through battling charges of ”failure to report suspected child abuse” and potential child pornography after students were caught sexting on their cell phones.

Long story short, due to the premature lynching of the sheriff’s department and the over-eager condemnation of the media, an earnest educator lost time, money, and a dose of educational enthusiasm before being released and dropped of all charges.

But there are a few points this article brings up that are also of concern, perhaps not to the administrator who is breathing a sigh of relief, but possibly to those of us who must reflect on these incidences and learn from them.

There were a few beats in the article, for instance, that seemed to follow the theme of “educator who was behind the tech times.” Like this excerpt:(...)
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Post tags: Ed Tech, middle school, teaching, technology, TLN, Washington Post, Writers Project

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CUE Conference: Podcasting with 70 Middle Schoolers – RU Crazy?

heather — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:36:26 +0000

So here’s my Keynote presentation for all of you who wanted to flip through it for some reminders. To open up my handouts, click here.

Hope you all enjoyed the session, and feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.

-Heather

aka Tweenteacher

CUE Presentation10

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Post tags: CUE, Curriculum, curriculum design, Ed Tech, education, middle school, podcasting, teaching, technology, Title I, Writers Project, writing

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The Importance of The Classroom Library

heather — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:00:25 +0000

I believe a classroom library is the heartbeat of a teacher’s environment. It is the window into their own personality, and it reflects the importance of literacy in the classroom. I believe every teacher, no matter the subject taught, should have one.

Access to books should be thought about with the same differentiated approach as any other lesson, assessment, or activity. It seems to me that there are four kinds of library-learners:

1. THE BRASH BIBLIOPHILE: These are students who are well versed in the language of book choice and seek out what they want, avidly asking questions or using learned or inherent strategies to find the book that will make them sigh into their bed with a flashlight in hand. They will find their way to their local bookstore by any means necessary, and look through the stacks until their parents pull them away.

(...)
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Post tags: assessments, blog, book review, classroom library, classroom management, education, ELA, Golden Lines, How To, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, middle school, new teachers, school funding, teaching, textbooks, Title I, TLN, tween, UCI, Writers Project, writing

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Top 10: How to Take Control of Your Teaching

heather — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Occasionally, I repost this article so that new readers can find it more easily. Based on some very enthusiastic feedback, it has since morphed into a book proposal called The Top Secret New Teachers Handbook. I’ll share more as it evolves…

I’ve been developing this Top 10 list of ways to take control of your teaching even in the face of, well, teaching. It’s an advice list on how to encourage respect, and, if necessary, how to demand it as a means to make sure you aren’t being taken for granted.

Let’s face it, if you are feeling appreciated, you will be happier in this difficult job. Consequently, your students will be happier, and quite frankly, if they are happier, they will be more successful. After all, an unhappy teacher’s room has the smog of misery in it, and for a student, it hovers like a stench that affects their own victories. And while it benefits a school to keep its teachers happy, it is a teacher’s responsibility to demand those things that make this challenging job better than tolerable.

I think that finding those tricks or strategies to keep in your pocket is important in any career; but in education you need them even more so. Otherwise, the day-to-day duties of the job will eventually grind your enthusiasm to a halt and it won’t just be you who is affected, your students will be affected as well.

I will be expanding on each of these over time, but in a nutshell, here’s my TOP 10:

(...)
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Am I So Past My Prime?

heather — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:02:28 +0000

Somehow, and maybe I’m reading into it here, I feel a little written off already. Education Week is reporting that some districts are pondering the possibility of “front-loading” new teacher salaries, increasing their compensation earlier in their career to aid in recruiting “higher-calibur talent.” But, um, what about me?

I’m a little frustrated at the message this sends to those of use who have invested in this career. I mean, I know that we need to recruit new teachers, but a talented person with great ability in their field does not necessarily a good teacher make. Remember, teaching is about two skills that must be mastered: that of content and that of communication.(...)
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Post tags: alternative credetials, credential, Ed Tech, ELA, employment, free, fundraising, Language Arts, learning, life long learners, merit pay, middle school, performance pay, teaching, TLN, Writers Project, writing

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“I Statements” in Expository Writing

heather — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:18:22 +0000

This weekend I’m presenting at the CATE conference in Santa Clara, CA. It’s a session on developing high level, critical-thinking commentary in expository writing. My feeling is that great commentary is the Voice in Expository, it is the Show, Not Tell in what could otherwise be a passionless genre for many students.

A couple of colleagues brought some concerns to my attention and I thought I’d put it out here for some input. (...)
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Post tags: curriculum design, curriculum development, Ed Tech, essay, k-12, k12, Language Arts, metacognition, middle school, new teachers, peer teaching, teaching, technology, Title I, TLN, Writers Project, writing

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Test Prep-Bubbling Power

heather — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:23:06 +0000

So I looked at my 8th grade students’ scores after they took the MMA and sighed. Their scores sucked. (...)
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Post tags: 100% accountability, 2008, achievement gap, assessments, education, k-12, k12, middle school, teaching, test prep, Think Aloud, Title I, TLN, tween, UCI, Writers Project, writing

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Is EdTech changing how students think or is it addressing the changes in student thinking?

heather — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:13:02 +0000

Science Daily is reporting that there has been a shift in how students are thinking as a result of their use of technology. They believe it possibly lowers critical thinking skills and analysis. Additionally, they wonder just how much schools should be catering to this change.

The important thing to remember is that when we talk about differentiation, we have to include all forms of teaching, from traditional pencil and paper to the use of technology. But if we were to ignore the evolution that is occurring, that of the transition our brains our making as a result of society’s onslaught of daily technology, we would not be doing our job.

(...)
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Recalling your own Metacognition

heather — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:27:06 +0000

I’ve been working on metacognitive lessons with my middle schoolers in an attempt to teach reflection and the act of thinking about thinking. Anyway, one of the most important elements in teaching about thinking is in your own remembering of certain “Eureka!” moments.(...)
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NewsHour with Jim Leher: Michelle Rhee

heather — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:31:56 +0000

I recently watched John Merrow’s interview with Michelle Rhee on the NewsHour. Michelle seems like a real mixed blessing for education. On one hand, she’s willing to clean house, and education does seriously need it. On the other hand, however, and much like the sweeping policies of NCLB, she’s a bit of an all-or-nothing authority. (She’s also known as a Chancellor, which gives me a mental picture of a Lilliputian bearing a sash and gold medal, so sometimes it’s hard to shake the image even while listening to her policies.) (...)
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Sesame Street: Word on the Street

heather — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:37:52 +0000

OK, so as I write this I’m watching Sesame Street with my 2 year old. This big-feathered muppet just announced that the Word on the Street is, get this…Struggle. I kid you not. I guess times are tough even on Sesame Street. (...)
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Post tags: 100% accountability, 2008, blog, character, Character Education, Childrens Television, education, education policy, ELA, k-12, k12, madoff, middle school, school accountability, school funding, sesame street, teaching, TLN, tween, UCI, Writers Project

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Judging Websites for History Day

heather — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:08:02 +0000

Yesterday I was proud to judge a number of our group website entries for our History Day competition. Three of our history teachers use History Day as a project-based learning opportunity for all of their students. These students have their projects judged in their different categories by going through the process of oral presentation in front of a panel of teachers and administrators. From this group is selected those who will represent our school at the next level of the competition.

It was fascinating seeing my own students through a different lens. Groups of students came in front of my panel, some in suits, and some in the tuxes they perform in for orchestra, to present their websites. The theme this year was “Actions and Legacies: Individuals in History.” We saw websites about everything from Rockefeller to Ho Chi Minh.

The students for the most part used either Google or Synthesite to develop their free websites, which in regards to a competition is a little bit of a concern in that many competitors use more elaborate, paid-for sites that look far sexier. But our kids did what they could with what they could and the sites, for the most part, look good. And considering that they probably taught themselves how to create the site, the students should be commended.

We evaluated everyone’s site based on the visuals and the content. In general, there were notes that we gave that were universal. For one thing, the use of visuals to highlight specific points was an important concept the students needed to understand. Without multi-media, for instance, a website might just as well be an essay. It’s the visuals, the links, and the multimedia aspect of them that make them websites. Timelines, for instance, that combine both primary sources and links, are a great opportunity for visual impact.

In regards to content, there seemed to be an overarching lack of commentary. For middle schoolers, writing personal response can be hard. But what we’re trying to emphasize is that just delivering the facts is not an analysis. And if we’re looking to teach high-level thinking, there must be present that next step of information delivery – the evaluation.

Many of the students delivered the facts, but added no judgment. They were missing the higher levels of Bloom’s. They neglected the commentary.

When teaching history, it is vital that a teacher not just teach the facts, but give guidance in pulling back the lens and evaluating the bigger pictures. How did this figure fit into history and amongst their contemporaries? What is the impact that they made on those who followed them? What is your opinion of their contributions given your expertise in their accomplishments?

Commentary comes in many different ways, but including it is the difference between information regurgitation and true, deep comprehension.

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Post tags: blog, Character Education, commentary, competition, CUE, digital natives, history day, internet literacy, k-12, k12, Language Arts, online, teaching, Title I, tween, UCI, Writers Project

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What’s my role in this debate?

heather — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:57:28 +0000

Dear Fellow Edubloggers,

Many of you have been blogging far longer than I have. I have many of you on my Google Reader and I admire your wit, your writing, and would now love your advice.

Last week, I posted a review of the Stephanie Meyer Twilight series. If you’ve read the review, you’ll see I was (to say the least) not a fan. The point of my post was to encourage parents and teachers to read what the kids are reading so that they can be a part of their dialogue. And, while I clearly didn’t like the book, I really like talking to people about all the new tween and teen literature out there and their opinions of them. (Hence, the crowds of kids in my room at lunch, each there to check out new books in my awesome classroom library, or just simply there to hang out and talk lit.)

Anyway, my posted review clearly hit a cord. Generally I try to respond to everyone who comments on my website (pretty easy when you could count your daily hits on one hand), but the response to this review has been a little intimidating and, frankly, freaky. (...)
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Post tags: blog, book review, carnival of education, Character Education, classroom library, description, dialogue, Ed Tech, education policy, ELA, k-12, k12, life long learners, teaching, Title I

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Should a free education be unconditional?

heather — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:25:19 +0000

So you know when you get your group of kids on the first day, there are those who immediately set off your alarms? Well, that definitely happened to me on my first day.

I have a student who clearly needs help. His peers are weary of him already and his confrontational style seems not as intentional as inherent. The startling comments and “seething anger”, as his last year’s teacher put it only three weeks into the school year, seem uncontrollable. This same teacher recorded that he asked if her windows were bullet proof. I wasn’t, of course, given this information up front. I had to seek it out.

His first quickwrite of this year centered on cussing out his last teachers and cranking them nightly on the phone. His pride in his violent video games is apparent.

Like children with Asperger’s (of which he has not been tested to date), he seems unaware of cues or the goings on around him: calling out with inappropriate comments, walking in front of me while I talk to the class, handing me items while I’m in the middle of instruction. Annoying, yes, but harmless.

He also will not make eye contact (could be cultural, but this seems different than others of his ethnicity and nationality) and walks robotically, stiffly, without movement in his shoulders. Strangely enough, and I’m clearly not a diagnostician (though I play one on TV), the few students in my career who have had symptoms like this seem to also come with apparent sinus problems. His eyes are puffy with nasal issues, he is sniffy, and I can’t help but wonder if there is a connection.

So I approached the counselors who know me as a real student advocate and as a teacher with a somewhat effective antenna. I don’t send kids to the office. I handle my own discipline issues, which are few. So when I come in, they listen. The afternoon after the first day of school I walked in and said, “So, what’s up with X?” They pretty much flopped the file onto the desk, a file the size of our Language of Literature book.(...)
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Post tags: 100% accountability, 2008, achievement gap, aspergers, blog, collaboration, Curriculum, differentiation, Ed Tech, education, education policy, ELA, employment, free, fundraising, Joanne Jacobs, k-12, k12, learning, metacognition, performance pay, special ed, teaching, technology, test, Title I

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Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a’comin…

heather — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:12:38 +0000

So, in a move reminiscent of a 12-year old girl caught up in the riot mentality of rumors, I believed the whisper I heard about not getting my Whiteboard for 2 months. But I tell you now: it was false, dear readers! Yes, not only have I heard that the boards have shipped, but the company even came after hours this week and brought me a borrowed board to use in the meantime. Props for service and courtesy.

So I write to you today as a contrite tweenteacher. Lesson learned. Don’t listen to the gossip in the teacher’s lounge.

So, in an attempt to bring this post around to some actual advice for all you educators out there, I want to reiterate that point: do not waste one minute of your time this year in a toxic teacher environment. This is different than a Toxic Teaching Environment which can be defined as anything that gets in the way of you doing your job: under-funding, lack of school wide discipline, fractured classrooms, etc…

No, I’m talking about a specific breed of pollution that is meant to choke the enthusiasm out of you: the Toxic Teacher Environment. (...)
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Hurry up & Wait – My New Interactive Whiteboard: Part II

heather — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:30:20 +0000

So, I had my online training. I met the Whiteboard sales guy in my classroom to discuss where the board is to be mounted. I talked with my principal to develop an interactive whiteboard presentation during our first staff development in an attempt to drum up excitement amongst the somewhat less-than-tech-enthused staff. I spent time over my summer developing my own curriculum for the first quarter: pulling out my books, pacing my units, and choosing those individual static lessons that I will expand into Interactive board lessons.

It wasn’t long, however, that I began to suspect I had wasted my time. The odor of bullshit was in the air…

(...)
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