The Sacred Profession

There is a moment in my teaching career I have been mulling over recently. It was  Spring and I’d just passed back feedback for the big research papers my students were writing. Before students turned in their papers I passed out a “No Excuses” checklist (see below) and told them that if any of the items on the list were missing I would immediately stop reading their paper and return it to them to correct. They would then receive a consequence for having submitted a late paper.

Because I went over the items on the list many, many times most of the students who neglected items on the list were a little embarrassed when I returned it to them without my feedback and quickly made revisions. However, I remember one student who was completely outraged that I had refused to read her paper. She came to me, sobbing with furry, and accused me of hating her and wanting her to fail. “How am I supposed to get better if you don’t tell me what to do?” she yelled. I pointed out I did tell her what to do, in fact I typed it out on a list and gave her time in class to look for those changes. “Good teachers don’t let their students turn in bad papers,” she shot back, “If you really cared you wouldn’t let me fail.”

The student later apologized and even thanked me for holding her to high expectations; however, her words stuck with me. Do good teachers let their students fail? It is a question that has become central to my professional development this year and one I finally feel like I can answer. Not only do good teachers let their students fail it is actually a hallmark of excellence. Great teachers provide a safe environment – safe from a ruined GPA, safe from social ostrasism, safe from a negative self-image - where students can fail over and over again.

Even though I certainly did not execute it perfectly in the example of the irate student above, it is best practice to set students up to make classic mistakes that directly lead to a deeper understanding of the content. I could tell my students the difference between “their, there, and they’re” but I know they really learn it when they use the incorrect form, catch their own mistake and make the correct substitution. Want to see this principle in action? John Mahoney is a 40+ year classroom veteran math teacher who teaches in Washington D.C. – I am fortunate to call him my friend and colleague with the America Achieves Fellowship.

John has posted an excellent video online of a lesson he taught where students learn a concept by looking at problems and determining if they were solved correctly or not. They discuss the problem in small groups and then debrief as a class. The vulnerability students show in explaining their thinking as well as their total calm when John says “You are wrong” is a testament to the power of letting students learn from mistakes. The video is posted online here and is well worth the watch (you might have to go through a simple registration process but it is worth it! This Common Core website is a hugely beneficial tool).

Every concert violinist starts out a beginner and every pro basketball player picks up a ball for the first time at some point. Paul Tough has written about the importance of failure in building character in children both in The New York Times as well as in his book How Children Succeed (my review of that action is here), he describes how:

we have an acute, almost biological impulse to provide for our children, to give them everything they want and need, to protect them from dangers and discomforts both large and small. And yet we all know — on some level, at least — that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome, even if just to prove to themselves that they can. As a parent, you struggle with these thorny questions every day, and if you make the right call even half the time, you’re lucky.

Next year I might make my class theme “We fail to prevail” which I know is cheesy but I think could really be a helpful way to invest kids in really struggling and engaging rigorous academic tasks. Here are some other ways you could set your classroom up for failure (in a good way):

• Reject perfection and speed: Carol Dweck in her book Mindset describes how our society idolizes doing something faultlessly and effortlessly, as if it is an inherently bad thing to actually struggle, or God forbid, break a sweat. Dweck suggests that when teachers see students who are quickly able to complete a task to perfection we should give them a more difficult task and apologize for “wasting their time.”
• Model mature mistake making: It is easy to feel like, as the teacher, we have to be perfect ourselves or we will lose credibility. Do not be afraid to apologize and own your mistakes. Students respect honesty and transparency and lord knows they scorn a faker.
• “No, this is not for a grade:” Some times the pressure of earning a grade needs to come off in order for students to relax and let themselves fail OR in order to actually try because they know the assignment isn’t simply another F to add to the stack.
• “Yes, this is for a grade:” At the same time, students need to be allowed to experience authentic failure. One bad grade will not kill them – particularly if there is a way to earn redemption by demonstrating actual mastery and improvement.

What thoughts do you have about creating a classroom safe enough to fail?

At the hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated; it is now the Civil Rights Museum and a life-changing place to visit

This past weekend I was in Memphis with the America Achieves Fellowship and was unprepared for the power of visiting the Lorraine Hotel – the site of Dr. King’s assassination.  When I walked on the grounds and saw the hotel, all of the images I have seen in history books and in documentaries sprang up. I was overwhelmed with the senselessness of killing and the seeming power of hate.

I had to awkwardly shuffle over to the side of the group and collect myself before moving on. Upon entering the museum, I had a really hard time looking at the in-depth displays about the killer and various conspiracy theories. I passed quickly through that area down to a room honoring others the museum has recognized for achievement in civil rights. One of the honorees is holocaust survivor and the author of Night Eli Wiesel and at the museum there was an exhibit showing a clip from one of his more famous speeches. “The opposite of love is not hate,” said Wiesel, “it is indifference.” This quote made me think about the educational struggle playing out in Memphis today.

At the conference we spent a large chunk of our time learning about and reflecting on the forthcoming merger of two school districts in the Memphis area. Essentially  the economically and prevalently black Memphis City Schools is now set to merge with the more well-off, predominately white suburban school district Shelby County Schools. As you might imagine, this modern-day desegregation effort is complex and fraught with tension. Even where people seem to truly be trying to do what is “best for kids” they are also eleminating jobs, schools and benefits in some of the most economically fragile areas of the city.

I was struck by how easy it is to have good intentions and yet wreck havoc on a historically marginalized community. But, if we are believe Wiesel, is it actually better to try to act in the face of injustice and fail miserably than to stand by and do nothing? Unfortunately, the ramifications of failure at the district or state level – even when well intentioned – can be staggering, and are often most hurtful to those who were completely de-vested of power. At the same time, those who made the harmful decisions are unaffected; their children go to great schools and they receive awards for their leadership.

So what to do? Much of the danger of inadvertent harm is removed when we act along side of others as opposed to over them or outside of them. One of the most engaged and caring actions people can do is to teach. Transferring knowledge from one person to another is such an empathetic, personal action that, using a reverse of Wiesels definition, teaching is truly an act of love. Add active love into the protective empathy of living with in a community and really knowing your students, their families, and their interests and you are less likely to inflict unintended harm. How much more likely are you to truly “do the right thing” if the student you are making decisions for is your own child? or your niece? or your best friend’s daughter?

Memphis was a good reminder that life is short, we must love (not simply live) to the best of our ability each day. Each Sunday, my minister always ends each sermon with a benediction that includes the reminder that “the world is too dangerous for anything but love.”

OK now that the touchy-feely post of the week is done, watch for more practical posts and ideas in the remainder of the week. And a classroom tour! Seriously! It is coming . . .

I purchased this print at a neat store/music venue called the Center for Souther Folklore. Her name is Laura Dukes and she was a well-known Beale street blues artists in the 1950s. Such a compelling image . . .

There is a great article today in the New York Times called “Why can some kids handle pressure while others fall apart?” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman (authors of the great book NutureShock). The article describes new research that shows people carry genetic markers that tip their stress reactions towards one of two possibilities: Warrior or Worrier. Essentially, thanks to both helpful chemical reactions in the brain, the warrior reaction focuses and performs under stress whereas the worrier reaction, again due to chemical makeup, inhibits and even paralyzes.  About half of all people have a balanced combination of the two reactions but the other half favor either warrior or worrier reactions. The authors point out that human survival over the ages has depended on both types of overreactions – those who would fight under dismal odds and those who would put the breaks on when everyone starts jumping off the cliff.

Enter modern education and standardized, high-stakes testing. Researchers found warriors get an edge when they sit down to test and worriers underperform at an average of one whole grade level (from an A to a B, B to a C, and so on) than what they are capable of under non-stressful circumstances. I found this a hard pill to swallow. What the research is saying is that some of our students are born less able to test – it is in their very genes! The good news is, all is not lost for our worrier students. Bronson and Merryman write:

So while the single-shot stakes of a standardized exam is particularly ill suited for Worrier genotypes, this doesn’t mean that they should be shielded from all challenge. In fact, shielding them could be the worst response, depriving them of the chance to acclimate to recurring stressors. Johnson explains this as a form of stress inoculation: You tax them without overwhelming them. “And then allow for sufficient recovery,” he continued. Training, preparation and repetition defuse the Worrier’s curse.

With planning and intervention, all students can be coached to overcome what turns out to be a genetic disposition to stressing out under pressure. What was most interesting about the article however was the authors take on standardized testing as a form of competition. Being a worrier is actually an evolved trait preserved in our genetic code over time because it is useful; risk aversion can keep you alive. However, unlike in other forms of competition, in standardized testing there is no upshot for underperforming:

Taking a standardized test is a competition in which the only thing anyone cares about is the final score. No one says, “I didn’t do that well, but it was still worth doing, because I learned so much math from all the months of studying.” Nobody has ever come out of an SAT test saying, “Well, I won’t get into the college I wanted, but that’s O.K. because I made a lot of new friends at the Kaplan center.” Standardized tests lack the side benefits of competing that normally buffer children’s anxiety. When you sign your child up for the swim team, he may really want to finish first, but there are many other reasons to be in the pool, even if he finishes last.

The same conclusions largely extend to academic grades. How can we create a classroom environment where our students can learn to deal with stress and compete in healthy ways that allow them to grow and become more resilient? Here are my ideas:

• Play group games: Working collaboratively in teams to compete against classmates can be tremendously motivating. In my classroom I use one very simple game (check it out here) that frequently brings my classes to a screaming, chaotic – but invested! – all out brawl. Because the game is played in teams the pressure is off specific individuals. At the same time it is kind of stressful but in a fun, low-stakes way.
• Teach test-anxiety coping methods: Use visualization, breathing exersies, and true-to-life practice. See here for details
• Show students their progress: Use tracking systems to show students how they have learned over time. Although this is easiest to do with multiple choice style exams it is also extremely effective with an unchanging rubric; this way, students can compare their performance on the same rubric in February to their performance in May. Tracking student growth also allows you to give targeted feedback on specific ways for students to improve. It is also empowering for students because they see a clear path forward. A trackable grade isn’t an unchanging stamp but instead it is feedback on their performance at a specific point in time.
• Show students this research: Empower students to self-identify as “warrior” or “worrier” and then make a plan for how to compensate for their areas of weakness as well as maximize their strengths.

What ideas do you have?

“Truth without hope is failure; but hope without truth is fantasy.”

- Mike Johnston, Colorado State Senator, Education Reformer, & Great Person

Recently, I have been thinking about the tension that comes from teaching in what is clearly a broken system. It is so easy to focus on those problems that seem to cripple our progress because they are real, in-our-faces obstacles. There came a point in my career when I had to chose to continue to love teaching. It wasn’t a natural feeling or a made-for-a-cheese-ball-TV-drama-about-teaching moment. I remember thinking: “OK, a lot about my situation sucks and is hard. But regardless of what the future holds for me, today I am a teacher and the children who have been put in my care deserve to spend an hour with someone who is grateful to be there.” It is amazing how effective “faking it till you make it” can be.

I met Colorado State Senator Mike Johnston three years ago at NBC’s Education Nation and heard him say the quote above this past fall. This quote works well to describe the relationship between our faith in our students’ abilities and the data we collect on their academic performance (ex. “I know my students have what it takes pass this AP test but right now only 8% would score higher than 5/9 points on the DBQ.”). As teachers, the importance of constantly maintaining hope but then doggedly fleshing out the detailed truth or reality for our students – and sharing it with them – is often difficult and exhausting. It means giving and grading meaningful assessments regularly (daily?) as well as communicating current reality and a plan for progress in the same breath.

So if you had a crappy January, here is a virtual hug. It will be hard but February will be better and March will be even better. This week on The Sacred Profession look for a new classroom tour (yeah!), a book review, tips for celebrating Black History Month, and a first-hand report on what is happening in the Memphis education world – woot!

Looking for something worthwhile and fun to do this summer? I know about the organization LearnZillion from my work with AmericaAchieves’ Common Core resources (so worth checking out here!). LearnZillion is looking to hire 200 excellent math and literacy teachers grades across all grade levels to design lesson plans that align to the Common Core. Aside from an all expenses paid May conference in San Francisco the work is flexible and not location specific. Instructions for applying to be a LearnZillion Dream Team teacher are here – good luck!

At the beginning of the second semester I like to take a time to remind my students of the purpose of school. Each student gets a blank version of the flowchart shown above and I put a copy up on the document camera. I talk them through each box and ask them not just to simply copy down what I have but to personalize it.

We begin by reviewing the six aspects of effective effort and students briefly jot them into the first box. Students then set a goal for their 3rd quarter grade for my class in the “Better Grades” (which I sometimes call “Academic Success”). In the High School Diploma box I ask students to write a description of how they will feel walking accross the stage on graduation day. I lead them through a visualization of this moment (ex. “You look out and see your family, they are smiling. You see your teachers, they are so proud. You feel the excitement of your classmates around you – you’re finally graduating!”) and then have them write. Next I ask them to write down one or two ideas they have for what they would like to study in college, where they would like to go, what activities they would like to be involved in, etc. Then I have them describe their dream jobs in the Career box. In the “Power of Choice” box I encourage them to think about all of the areas of their life they will have control over when they are financially independent: they can choose where to live, they can choose what kind of home to live in, they can support a family, they can provide for their children and their aging parents, they can help out a sibling who is in need, they can afford quality medical care, and so on. I have them write down at least 5 goals (such as “visit Paris” or “own a Mercedes” or “ensure my grandma is taken care of”) they have for their adult lives in the “A Better Life.” Next I push them to think about how their good choices will impact our community. How will they give back? How do they intend to address the problems they currently see around them? Finally, we reflect on how the world they leave their children (or others’ children) will be better because they have lived and made good choices.

I find this activity to be incredibly inspiring both personally and to my students. Try it out! Download the blank template here Success Map.

“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up for work.” – Chuck Close

I came across this quote from the renowned painter in an article about increasing focus on art in schools. Call me a slightly-bitter/neglected social studies teacher but I always roll my eyes when I hear about a new STEM initiative. Students love the humanities and to divorce children from the arts, literature and their history is to raise little monsters that have nothing to talk about at parties, nothing to think about in lonely moments, and ultimately nothing to nourish their immortal souls. It is definitively dehumanizing.

Tirade aside, this quote got me thinking about what great teaching often looks like. It isn’t about having a really amazing lesson once a week or even a mind-blowingly-awesome lesson once in a while but good teaching is steady growth for each student over the course of a school year. It is a marathon not a sprint, as they say. Good teachers often feel uninspired and really strong lessons can look fairly pedestrian but it is not about the show. Professional teachers, like professional artists, “just show up for work.”

One of my teaching mantras is this: each child has unlimited potential. I am not the judge of my students’ potential, I am the enabler. I like to come back after the holiday break and tell students that no one, including themselves, knows what they are capable of doing. I usually teach a mini lesson on someone like Helen Keller or Nelson Mandela who defied the odds and accomplished seemingly super-human feats.

We form a self-image at an early age and typically by upper elementary labels either from peers or teachers – like “smart” or “shy” or “lazy” – have become a part of our identity. As a white woman from a middle class suburban upbringing, I have to actively monitor the way I perceive students of color from low income backgrounds. It is easy to let stereotypes from the media or my own experience lead me to make unconscious judgements about students’ abilities simply because of how they are dressed or how they speak. This is even more complicated when students, because of failing school systems, are years behind in basic academics. In my class I post a sign that reads “You Have More” – it is intended to be a reminder for everyone. I finished Mindset by Carol Dweck over the holiday break (review coming!) and realized the approach I teach in my classroom is what she calls a “growth” mindset and is one of the keys to success in any endeavor.

So this brings me to Isaac Vargas. I taught Isaac two years ago as a senior (and a Sophomore and Junior actually) and know him fairly well. He is a steady student, always polite and soft spoken. When I saw this news story it totally, completely blew my mind. A carjacker held Isaac up at gun point and the mild, shy, kind-of-skinny Isaac noticed the gun was unloaded and proceeded to fight off the attacker and then hold him down until the cops arrived. If you have 2 minutes, go to the website and watch the new’s report (here) because seeing Isaac tell the story is so great. We do not know what is inside of us . . .

I watched this clip thinking “Wow, I had NO idea this was in Isaac!” My husband, who was his soccer coach, called him Isaac Bourne. No kidding. Isaac’s story is a good reminder to be open to possibility and potential in our students’ academics. None of us know the limits of our own or our students’ potential.

How do you maintain belief in your students’ potential? How do you keep from judging your students? I would love to hear tips or ideas!

Me and my former students from last year who returned from college to receive their IB Diplomas today at IDEA – so proud!

Happy 2013! I have been enjoying a lengthy holiday break here at the Sacred Profession but am excited to get back into the swing of things with daily (or at least, attempted daily) postings. Today was a wonderful and inspirational day as I spent almost the entire day catching up with former students. One of the advantages of teaching secondary students is getting to see a quicker return on your investment. I have struggled over the past few weeks to be optimistic about the future of our country (or heck even humanity in general) but visiting with these remarkable young men and women today was like medicine for my soul. Despite the challenges our community faces here in the Rio Grande Valley, these kids tackled one of the most rigorous college preparatory curriculums in the world (the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program) and were successful. Now in college, they are working hard, volunteering, earning passing grades in challenging classes, holding down thankless jobs for much needed textbook money, and generally kicking butt. I am so proud.

I was particularly proud to see so many of these college students come early to help tutor current high school seniors in Jenny Corroy’s IB English class. Many of them showed up as early as 7:45am this morning in order to help out with Ms. Corroy’s first period! Alumni are such a powerful – and often untapped – resource in our schools. It was amazing to watch the intensity and energy level in these student-to-student sessions.

At the end of each class, Ms. Corroy thanked the alumni and pointed out how they were beginning to give back to a community that invested so much in them. She also charged her current students to plan on coming back this time next year to tutor next years students. It reminded me of the quote:

“If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time…But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine then let us work together.” – Lila Watson

The more we can empower our students with a “give”, rather than a “take” or “receive,” mentality the more we work to build healthy, sustainable communities. This is often a difficult task but after visiting with my former students today I was inspired to move into 2013 looking for ways to work along side my students rather than always at the front of the room.

Happy New Year!