Aug 17 2012
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Education Policy

What should we do with excellent teachers?

This is my buddy and former colleague Jenny Corroy (the woman in the hip shades, not the fabulously feathered chicken). Jenny began teaching in 2004 and now, eight years later, is one of the finest educators/people I know. Point in case: this past spring 80% of her predominately Hispanic and low-income students at her open-enrollment public school passed the International Baccalaureate Language A (English literature) exam – she basically closed the achievement gap for her content. Every time I talk to Jenny or visit her classroom or look at her materials I become a better teacher (and person!). At the school where she works, her ideas and ways of teaching influence her colleagues and administrators.

Despite her extraordinary achievements Jenny makes the same as everyone else (even teachers who potentially received negative performance reviews) and her salary increases at a lock-step with an occasional small bonus (which, again, almost everyone automatically receives). Additionally, beyond being a content or grade team leader Jenny has no opportunity to move forward professionally without leaving what she loves most – teaching.

So what should we do with Jenny? Study after study has shown us that exceptional teachers are the silver bullet when it comes to the achievement gap (check out a fascinating report by TNTP on the “irreplaceables” – teachers like Jenny). How could we expand Jenny’s influence to reach more students? In my perfect world, Jenny would continue to teach but have more conference time during which she would coach other teachers and lead a school as a lead or master teacher. She would also make six figures. There is a great article over at Education Week called Expanding the Impact of Excellent Teachers which has more ideas for how great teachers could potentially make an even bigger impact. I’m not sure how I feel about one of their ideas – putting kids infront of computers to save money on teachers (actually, I am sure how I feel about that) – but I think there could be other more meaningful ways to use student’s time like internships at local business or law firms or volunteer options at hospitals and nursing homes.

Aug 16 2012
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Classroom Visits, Student Motivation

Looking for a Do-It-All Seating Chart?

I want to start by acknowledging this post firmly labels me as a hopeless teaching nerd and establishes the fact this blog, while practical, is just not cool. This Seating Chart Template is one of those teacher files I stole years ago (from Brent Maddon if you know him!) and have adapted. The grid to the left is roughly set up like the rows or groups in my classroom but it allows me to take attendance by looking at empty desks. I just draw a little line through the student names who are absent, if they show up I add another line (like an X but with out the top-left line) to show they were tardy.

I have a special little clipboard upon which I have one of these templates per period cliped. In addition to attendance, I will also use the template to track other items such as behavior (positive/negative), participation during class discussions, etc. I use the right-hand side to keep an alphabetical list of last, first names (which I’ve deleted) so I can also see grades for the week at a glance.  I really love this template because I can see attendance, behavior, and grades for the whole week at a glance. At the end of the week, I punch holes in them and pop them into a binder because it is super-smart to cover your bases with a physical paper trail (anyone else been traumatized by an electronic grade book that ate your grades?).

When students walk into my classroom I hand them a card with a number on it that corresponds to a desk. This way I can break up obvious friend pairs (in order for everyone to get to know each other better) as well as strategically position students who look like they might need a little more physical proximity to me. Then I pass a list around and they write their name next to the number they picked up so I can build a seating chart for the first couple of weeks from the list. I typically rotate seats every 3 weeks to keep it fresh as well as make strategic seating assignments given academic performance and/or behavior.

Additionally, a seating chart like this can be really helpful for when a colleague or coach is observing you. Have them watch an entire lesson and put a ? on the student’s name when they ask a question, a + when they provide an answer or contribute positively and a – when they are audibly disruptive or off-task. Put a check mark every time you (the teacher) specifically address a student. It is incredibly enlightening to see a record of your classroom in this manner.

Any one else have a seating chart they love?

Aug 15 2012
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Writing

Current Events

This is a Presidential election year and regardless of what you teach the press will be filled with articles, cartoons and analysis waiting for your students to read and think about critically. One great way to do this is to have you students do a current event every week. You certainly do not have to teach Social Studies to encourage your students to read the news – what about articles on science? Engineering? Climate change?

Many local newspapers have free or near-free subscription offers for schools. I often get a class set of 30 subscriptions and have students cut out (or print out) articles and attach them to the back of this form (Current Event Report form) in order to show that they annotated the article. Having a stack of newspapers is also a great enrichment tool for students who finish early.

Aug 14 2012
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Reading, Writing

Feeding Two Birds With One Hand: DBQ on Me

 

One of the tricky objectives to cover at the beginning of the year is to teach your students how to write content specific essays (ex. Document Based Questions (DBQs), Source Based Questions, Lab Reports, Personal Narratives, etc.) using texts from your content (primary sources, evidence gathered from a lab, fictional texts, etc.). My favorite way of introducing the format I want students to use is through a non-content related topic. For example, in my World History class students had to write essays (DBQs) using primary sources and so the first essay we tried was a DBQ on me that used primary sources not from history but from my own life. This serves the dual purpose of 1) teaching my students how to write using the correct format and 2) introducing more of myself to the class via an important academic skill – feeding two birds with one hand. I can uses the text to teach my students annotation and careful reading as well as the format I want them to use to write their essays. When we are finished, I show them an exemplar response I wrote and have them compare their essays to both the exemplar and to the official rubric we will use throughout the year.

I think this could easily be adapted for a science lab, poetry unit (write a biographical poem), or math paper. I know other teachers do similar lessons at the beginning of the year and I would love for people to share them out here . . . borrow and steal.

Aug 13 2012
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Student Motivation

Classroom “Branding”

It might seem like a waste of time to “sell” yourself, your content and your class to your students but in the brand and advertisement saturated world our students live in it just doesn’t hurt to throw in your own set of messages.

1. Pick a motto and put it on everything: I have used the Cesar Chavez quote “There is no substitute for hard work” for many years now. I have it in huge letters in the back of my classroom and I include it on top of all my handouts, exams, quizzes, etc. At the beginning of the year I introduce it by doing a mini-lesson on Chavez and talking about how earning a passing score on the International Baccalaureate history exam is just hard work and there is no easy way around it.

2. Use the same font for all printed materials: Consistancy with font allows students to find a piece of paper in their locker or at the bottom of their backpack and know that it is for your class. I think it’s probably best to go with something easy to read (I love Century Gothic) as opposed to something cutesy like Comic Sans.

3. Establish procedures for everything: Routine really does make students feel safe. When a child can predict what will happen next he or she will be more relaxed and ready to access higher levels of thinking. Many teachers more qualified than I have complied lists of all of the times in class where there should be a procedure but I wanted to highlight a few procedures I leverage for classroom investment as well:

  • Homework is only due once a week (I like Wednesday or Thursday). This forces me to be thoughtful about what I assign, it respects my students time after school and it lets gives me time to enforce consequences if nothing gets turned in. I always break up the work into a suggested pacing guide so it isn’t done all on one night which teaches the skill of breaking up a big project over time.
  • Have rhythm for the week. Always give quizzes/tests on Fridays (or whenever), read a current event article on Tuesdays, always show a cute dog picture on Monday, whatever.
  • “Memorize me while you pee” was the brain child of my colleague Jackie Kroll. The idea is you have a clipboard with a sheet protector on it with a couple of facts or formulas or whatever you want students to memorize on it as a restroom pass. Students take it with them and in the hallway or bathroom they memorize it. They recite it back to you upon returning to the classroom and failure to do so means they lose restroom privileges for X amount of time.

4. Have a class song. Although I usually try to pick something close to the mainstream, I always pick something inspiration with central messages about overcoming or pushing forward or beating the odds. I make a big deal about introducing the song: I print the lyrics, have students reflect on them (either in writing or in groups or both) and then have some sort of visual connection to the song like a line from the song on the wall or an illustration of imagery from the song. In the past I’ve used Hannah Montana’s The Climb, the Flobots’ Rise, Matisyahu’s One Day, and Michael Franti’s Hey, Hey, Hey. This year I’m digging Nicki Minaj’s Fly.

5. Know your students and help them get to know each other. Use seating charts, student surveys and one-on-one conferences to get to know your students personally. Build in time to your day to help your students learn each others names, to affirm each other in a structured way and to laugh and have fun with each other. Use group projects, in-class presentations and jigsaw structures to help marry academic learning with interpersonal learning as well.

How do you create a sense of place and build culture in your classroom?

Aug 10 2012
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Education Policy

Moving Beyond Advanced Placement

I taught Advanced Placement History and Geography for four years during which time I participated in the annual Reading (where the essay portions of the exams are graded) twice and attended a number of official week-long AP trainings. I was in love with the AP World History course – but the relationship soon became rocky. Despite our collective best efforts, the students at my open-enrollment high-poverty school struggled to be successful on the exam. We tried Saturday school, tutorial, vertical alignment, longer school days, meticulous tracking of knowledge and skills and still we struggled to see passing scores beyond 15% of all students. The percentage passing was even less in subjects like AP Literature and AP Biology.

What is worse is that my students went on to college unprepared to write expository essays simply because there was no time in the AP curriculum to accommodate teaching students to write a research paper. It was so hard to hear how my students struggled in basic classes because they were unsure how to use MLA citations or find reliable sources. At my school, we began to wonder just how college preparatory courses a mile wide but an inch deep really were . . . how many history courses did you take in college that 1) covered 10,000 years of history in one exam and 2) involved 70+ multiple choice questions?

For IDEA College Prep the solution was moving to the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum which all but eliminates multiple choice, narrows content matter to specific objectives, and includes out-of-class research papers and labs. Because IB places emphasis on analysis and skills over content knowledge, students who might struggle to read a college-level text or engage in route memorization are actually more successful. This past year, IDEA’s second year of producing IB graduates, 45% of students passed their history exam. Today I was fascinated to read about how some of the most elite schools in the country are getting rid of AP altogether. Check out this short but pithy article over at Mindshift for the more background about schools making this shift.

Aug 10 2012
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Student Motivation

What should teachers wear?

In addition to buying office supplies, August is always the time of year when I “update my wardrobe” for the year. As a teacher, I am faced with two key realities that inform my wardrobe purchasing: 1) I have to stand up in front of 120+ people who will stare at me for hours everyday and so I should not be painful to look at and 2) I have a pretty limited budget.

Inspiration from Glee – skinny tie and cardigan

Teachers need to dress both professionally but yet comfortably enough to engage in the physical work of teaching (bending over, standing all day, monitoring recess/halls, etc.). So what to wear?

Non-example: Cameron Diaz in the movie “Bad Teacher”

And above we see another consideration as well as the reason why I have always worn my hair pulled back, my neckline high and my skirts below the knees. It is tempting to go the way of the iconic “apple jumper” but that feels like surrender. As does wearing school-branded polos or, even worse, the “spirit t-shirt” on Fridays – lord save us!  These sentiments are what led my friend and fellow teacher Heather Thompson and her colleague to start the blog Regular People Wear Their Clothes.

Heather setting the bar for teacher style

If you are needing wardrobe inspiration I highly recommend checking out Heather’s blog which is updated daily with new outfits and also includes source information. As for me I pretty much get everything from either Target, Too Good to be Threw (a nice re-sale shop in San Antonio) or, occasionally, Ann Taylor’s Loft.

So what should a teacher wear? Any tips for combining both style and functionality?

Aug 10 2012
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Classroom Visits

Coming Soon: Classroom Visits

I always learn so much from observing other teachers or even just going inside a colleague’s empty classroom. So here’s the gist: every Thursday I will post pictures of an awesome teacher’s classroom as well as an interview with that teacher full of tips and advice. Once classrooms are setup and students are back look for the classroom visit posts to start rolling out!

Aug 09 2012
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Student Motivation

“Don’t Smile Until Christmas”

“Mean Teacher” by Jennifer Cruté

When I started teaching, I was definitely given this advice by many well-intentioned teachers. This seems like good advice but the problem is this: students are actually really stinkin’ funny. Seriously, even on my WORST days some kid will say/do something hilarious and I will laugh – maybe not audibly but certainly in my head.

Do you want kids to really listen to you and respect you? In my experience the quick way to get there is to be all smiles, super funny, self-deprecating and generally enthusiastic all of the time – except when you need to “mean business” (in the words of Fred Jones who’s book Tools for Teaching is a goldmine if you are struggling with behavior issues in your classroom). In those moments I become straight-faced, still and silent; then, when I have everyone’s attention, I essentially whisper what I want to have happen. My credibility as the leader of the classroom goes up when all I have to do is be still and speak softly to command attention and give directions. Add to this some behavior narration and a solid consequences/rewards system and you’re in business.

My rewards system is based around Opportunities (click on the link for a ready-to-print document). I give these out for any type of behavior I want to encourage in my classroom: participation, excellent academic performance, improved academic performance, strong peer collaboration, etc. Students write their names on the Opportunities and then put them in a basket. At the end of every week, and sometimes randomly in the middle of a lesson when I want to reward the whole class, I do an Opportunity drawing. The student whose name gets randomly drawn wins either a prize (pen, highlighter, mini-notebook, glitter pen, post-it pad, whatever the dollar store has that’s cool) or a privilege (I pick this before I draw a winner and its usually the privilege of selecting his/her own seat, extra bathroom pass, 5 points extra credit on something, etc.)

I have found this system to work from 8th to 12th grade. Even though it’s effective I still feel a little angst because I read Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards (read it or save yourself 3 – 5 hours and laugh as you watch this NBC’s Office-themed video). What are y’alls thoughts on smiling and teaching? What about rewards?

Aug 08 2012
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Student Motivation

Your Classroom Online: Edmodo

 

Until last year, I regarded the idea of virtual communication with students as something to be avoided and also vaguely (or actually, in some states) illegal. Then my colleague and friend Crischelle Navalta turned me on to Edomodo, a free and safe social networking cite designed specifically for teachers. Here are some reasons why Edomodo is worth a shot in your classroom this year:

  • there is a HUGE amount of online storage space which I used to post all of our class handouts. This eliminated a lot of “can I get another copy of X?” because students could just go online (at home or at school) and print off another copy.
  • Edomodo helped me do some “front-loading” or “flipped classroom” instruction where students learned for homework (watched a history video online, explored a website, did their own research) and then came to class ready to discuss/write/practice in some way the material they learned for homework.
  • there is a mobile app for Edmodo that made responding to student posts really easy to do with my smart phone. Likewise students with smart phones had quick access to online class-related content.
  • Edmodo was helpful when I had to be absent from class in terms of communication with students and posting assignments. When I took my maternity leave this was particularly helpful.
  • the school where I worked has a 80%+ free or reduced-lunch student population and despite limited access to technology at home, given enough time, students found ways to access content either at school, on smart phones or at the local library.

Although I graduated from college well before the advent of Facebook and do not consider myself a techy-teacher at all I found Edmodo to be pretty intuitive and user friendly. Has anyone else used Edomodo? Are there other helpful teacher/student social (educational?) networking websites?

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