power of introverts

This video is absolutely contradictory to everything that I hear from teachers and trends. I am always reading about how to get children to work in groups, about how to include more opportunities for collaboration in my classroom. I have even felt guilty for implementing a quiet writing period three days a week.

"There is zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas."

A TED talk on the power of solitude by Susan Cain.

common core

States face key spending decisions as they implement the Common Core State Standards, and a new study finds that they could save about $927 million—or spend as much as $8.3 billion—depending on the approaches they choose in three vital areas: curriculum materials, tests, and professional development. 

-EdWeek

this is why my kids rock

I went down to get my kids feeling pretty grim. Then, a fortunate series of events occurred.

Am ran up to me with a paper: farit titro Ms. Hay. Translation: Favorite Teacher Ms. Haley.

Sunshine gave me my first hug EVER from him.

And Li said, "You forgot to give me my morning hug!" while handing me a stack of stapled books.

unsettled

I'm not feeling it this morning. It's roughly 12 degrees outside. I couldn't find a solid red shirt. Also, some other stuff. Awkward. Uncomfortable. Tense.

Can I just go back to bed?

just realized

Twelve. More. Days.

still in the hole

Since four o'clock I have:

• written a long-term plan for reading comprehension
• revised my writing long-term plan
• created two unit maps

and I'm still behind. All in the name of 2012-13.

Sleepy teacher needs sleep.

cost of merit pay

Another of my friends teaches fifth grade on the South side. Today, she will spend most of her evening calculating the percentage of time students spent in her room (as a result of special ed pullout, transfers, room switches, etc.) so that CPS can calculate the weight of each child's test scores in relation to her.

surprise! you're fired.

A friend of mine teaches second grade on the West side. Things have been up in the air at her school for the past couple of weeks as rumors circulated about whether the principal would be fired in response to their status of failing. She just found out last night that they will be converted to a turnaround. That means that everyone in the building is fired with no guarantee for rehire.Complete restaffing.

When you think of that from the top down, you might envision a fresh team with new leadership coming in and creating a culture of achievement. When you look at it from the perspective of people who matter (students and families), you see that the only people getting a fresh start are the adults. The kids don't get to leave when things go poorly.

Since when did we decide that adults get to just quit and start over every time it's hard?

charters: public or private?

The issue is complicated. But I find it hard to refer to charter schools—as they have evolved—as public schools. If they are for-profit, they should not be called public schools. There is simply no precedent in American history for a profit-making public school with stockholders. All public money allotted to a public school should be spent by the school and in the school on teaching and learning, on bringing the students to school, and on maintenance of the facility. 

-- Ravitch

lights out

The electrical company is performing some repair work today, so I was home before 4pm. Beautiful.

one more

In a methodological, data-backed post Gary Rubinstein refutes what he sees as the four major points of Class Warfare, and by extension, corporate reform.

Fifty years from now it will be interesting to reread this book with the hindsight of what happened.  I believe that soon the ed reform ‘bubble’ will burst.  All the invented gains will be exposed and those who participated in the cover up will be banished to obscurity.  We all will finally realize that early childhood education is a much worthier investment of money than test prep and accountability.  We will give up on ‘value-added’ measures when we realize that they will be too costly to ever be accurate enough to tell us anything better than principal observations already do.  We will look back at the remedies proposed by the reformers the way we now look back at the use of leeches to cure diseases.

 I wish that I could say that I saw the bubble about to burst, too. Instead, I think I might be stuck inside it.

on class warfare

Since I picked up the book, I have been uncomfortable with the title and today I realized why. Class tells me that this book takes into account the differences in SES of students from poverty areas. Warfare implies that there is a fight to be won or lost. However, the book then argues that teachers and schools make the difference.We know that teachers are a significant factor, but:

Unfortunately, Brill is completely ignorant of a vast body of research literature about teaching. Economists agree that teachers are the most important influence on student test scores inside the school, but the influence of schools and teachers is dwarfed by nonschool factors, most especially by family income. The reformers like to say that poverty doesn’t make a difference, but they are wrong. Poverty matters. The achievement gap between children of affluence and children of poverty starts long before the first day of school. It reflects the nutrition and medical care available to pregnant women and their children, as well as the educational level of the children’s parents, the vocabulary they hear, and the experiences to which they are exposed.

 -- Ravitch

"failing"

It is a well-known fact that American education is in crisis. Black and Hispanic children have lower test scores than white and Asian children. The performance of American students on international tests is mediocre.

Less well known are contrary facts. The black–white achievement gap, as a recent report put it, “is as old as the nation itself.” It was cut in half in the 1970s and 1980s, probably by desegregation, increased economic opportunities for black families, federal investment in early childhood education, and reductions in class size.¹

Another little-known fact is that American students have never performed well on international tests. When the first such tests were given in the mid-1960s, our students usually scored at or below the median, and sometimes at the bottom of the pack. This mediocre performance is nothing to boast about, but it is not an indicator of future economic decline.

-- Ravitch, School Reform

shedd aquarium

We got to see the Beluga whale show, which I was pretty excited about until I realized that it was mostly just a narrator and some small tricks. The whale finally did a jump at the end, but most of my kids were asleep.

The best part was the Wild Reef exhibit. Since they limit the number of people, we actually got to spend time looking at different species of fish. And, they did a great job of setting up the exhibit so that I could ask meaningful questions. The first tank made a huge splash. We stood and talked about why the little fish don't go flying when a wave crashes through. We also got to stand on top of a glass-top tank with stingrays.

Can't wait to take my 2012-13 class!

community schools v. charters

TFA is implementing something called "Inspire Zones" in Chicago, which sound a lot to me like the Harlem Children's Zone. The HCZ is an area in NYC in which every child is given access to all kinds of wraparound services free of charge: parenting classes, healthcare (physical, dental, mental), daycare, pre-K, afterschool programs, etc. Every child in the Zone is considered by HCZ to be their responsibility. If you want to read more about the founder, Jeffrey Canada, and the organization check out the book Whatever it Takes.

My question for TFA was, why are we not implementing more of these "wraparound" services in the Inspire Zones? Josh Anderson's response was that a study found that students in the HCZ charter who also got services did the same as students who attend the charter but "live outside the zone" and therefore do not receive wraparound services. I was disheartened when I heard of this data and withdrew my argument.

Thank goodness not all of my colleagues are as faint of heart. Mr. S, presumably just as disheartened as me, found that study and the HCZ response to it. The study by Brookings Institute had a major flaw: it assumed that students who attend the HCZ charter, but live outside the zone, are not eligible for wraparound services. In fact, every student who attends the charter is immediately considered part of the Zone. In other words, every student at the highly successful charter receives wraparound services.

The main problem that I see is sustainability: the HCZ is privately funded and highly costly. Arguably every low-income neighborhood in the country needs their own version of the HCZ.

on privatization

The fact is Philadelphia is already the most privatised system in the US. In 2001, the state of Pennsylvania took over the city's school system and turned many of its schools over to private operators, even offering up 25 schools to for-profit companies. A study [PDF] by Vaughan Byrnes of Johns Hopkins University showed that, five years into this sweeping overhaul, the schools under private management were academically underperforming the public schools.

Liza Featherstone

summer work

One of my biggest concerns for the summer is the summer reading drop. Reading Rockets says it best:

Family income plays an important role in predicting the magnitude of summer loss in reading. Low-income students experience significant summer learning losses in reading comprehension and word recognition. On average, middle-income students actually experience slight gains in reading performance over the summer months.
Low-income students experience an average summer learning loss in reading achievement of over two months. On average, children from low-income families lose nearly three months of grade-level equivalency during the summer months each year, compared to an average of one month lost by middle-income children when reading and math performance are combined.

Therefore, I set the goal of giving every child every single leveled book from RAZ on their level for the summer. By my calculations, that meant that I had over 800 books to assemble. I wasn't sure if it was actually possible for me to pull that off, so I asked parents for help. The response has been overwhelming. Parents are volunteering to come in and help, or to take books home to assemble on their own. By the end of this week, we will be more than halfway done with the project.

currently reading

I would argue that this book is the foil to Diane Ravitch's book, Death and Life of the Great American School System. This book is completely against teacher unions, and argues for corporate reform. This is the perspective of people who believe that reform must be entirely data-driven, that education should be privatized.

From a teacher interviewed for the book:

"It's like your up in front of the class spinning plates, and then you just keep adding plates, and you wonder every day if you are going to keep being able to do it." p. 211

This quote is from a third year teacher - and the from the author's perspective, this is how it should be. I cannot honestly believe that overworking yourself, planning everyday for the next day, is good for kids.

some pig

reading progress (update)

I am almost done testing everyone. So far, everyone I have tested has moved at least one reading level. It looks from the data that we are going to come in, for the year, at about 1.35 years worth of growth.

For whatever reason, I feel like I have a so much better idea of what 1.6 years of growth looks like now and that makes me really excited to try again next year.

lesson model follow-up

My Matilda was awesome! I love watching good teachers teach. You think you're doing a decent job and then all of the sudden your head explodes, like the first time you hear that there are other solar systems in the universe.

Some great ideas I got today:

• When teaching about something kids aren't familiar with (e.g., picnic), spend some time building their schema for the words they will see. For example, we put different food from the restaurant into the food basket and talked about what people do on a picnic. A.k.a., activate prior knowledge.
• Write the repeated words on sticky notes for students. Make up some sentences using the sticky notes before actually cracking open the book. Maybe even have students make up their own page in the story before reading so they are already analyzing the text before seeing it. 
• Similarly, have students find the words from the sticky notes in the book, establish that they don't need to sound them out, and then highlight them. 
• Use the pages in the back of RAZ books! At the end, my kids loved creating their own page in the story.

With all of this prep, when my kids actually went to read they were successful and I could tell that they felt their success. For kids like Sunshine, success is almost more important than anything else. 

painting a picture

A colleague sent me this article from a few months back, specifically noting that I might want to share it here. In the article, the author addresses the recent suicide of a CPS teacher. An excerpt:

Imagine you've had one of the worst weeks of your life. You haven't slept in months, you have money troubles building, your relationships are failing, you feel unheard and unappreciated at home and at work, you worry daily about your future and whether or not you will have a job next year or even next week, and the idea of getting up to go to work the next day is practically unbearable. You need a moment to catch your breath, a moment to clear the clutter of worry, failure and fear from your clouded mind. But you don't get it. There is too much to get done. And all the while, you think, if I don't get it done, I am failing these kids. I have no choice but to keep pushing.

If you do have a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it. However, you must also be aware that there are two camps in education reform (as I see it) and this article quite definitely comes from one of them. I agree with the article that corporate reform is taking over the teaching profession, because there are a lot of wealthy people who buy into the corporate mindset. On the other hand, I believe that there must be a middle ground. A place where it doesn't take accountability and fear to get teachers invested in their students' success and there are no excuses.

Sidenote: I got an email about my curriculum maps for next year. Something to the effect of, "You worked really hard on these. They're awesome. However, you forgot standards numbers x, y, and z. Please redo it." I find it absolutely laughable that we are more concerned with standards numbers than anything else. As if that will solve the achievement gap.

on extrinsic motivation

Yesterday my grade-level partner was out and the lovely Ms. B subbed. It was a rough morning for all of Kindergarten with the heat. Some boys in particular were especially ...active.

At the end of the day, Ms. B thanked one student for getting his act together in the afternoon. His retort?

"I didn't do it for me. I did it for the sticker."

lesson model

Today someone who I will affectionately refer to as my Matilda is coming in to model a small group guided reading lesson with my lowest kids.

Usually, after my lessons with them I am ready to keel over and die because all my energy is sapped. I am so excited to see how she handles it and steal some of her technique.

day 173

With the highs in the high 80s predicted for today, I am preparing myself for the worst. I came in, opened all my windows and closed the blinds. I am sitting in the dark at 7am and I'm sweating.

It might be time to resurrect the "I'm so hot" song.

reading progress

As of today we have officially made 1.25 years worth of growth in reading. I admit that my original goal was 1.75, but I'm still proud. The student that I got in January has made year of progress in 5 months. I feel good about that.

day 171

During word study, in which we practice rhymes, blending, and sounds in general A turned and looked at me, "Ms. Haley! You just spit on me!"

my first day off, ever. in my life.

Went to the beach.

Walked around the city.

Observed the NATO barricades.

I'm burnt, but I know that I've only got 18 day to do lots of things.  I'm in the process of writing a last-ditch reading plan. I hope it works. I really needed a three-day weekend.

on being mad

Today during bathroom break a little boy from the other class was talking. This is a boy, we'll call him T, who is absolutely, innocently a six year old. He's never doing what he's supposed to be doing, but he loves trains and he's got the cutest little face.

Anyway, I gave him a strike for talking and went back to my business. Next thing I know, he comes out of the bathroom with his entire shirt unbuttoned down to his belt - little chest bared. After a moment of shock, I collected myself enough to ask, "T why did you do that to your shirt?".

He replied through pursed lips, "I was mad."

two butterflies dropped dead today

Not part of the plan.

zoo oo oo

Before we went to the zoo today, I taught my kids the /oo/ sound. When we got to the zoo, all 23 of them erupted in "Zooooo! Zoooooo!"

We made it just in time to feed the cows their breakfast. Here is J feeding one cow. I loved watching as they got more and more brave. At first I had to practically do it for them, but by the end they were all getting cow licks and loving it.





My favorite moment was when they walked up the the pig and immediately started yelling, "Wilbur! Wilbur!"

I told them that it sounded like I had geese instead of children. (Crickets.)

prom

Friday was our "Parent and Me Prom," and it effectively signals the end of an era.

On Wednesday, our principal officially announced the departure of our assistant principal due to "budget cuts." I think her exact words were "her position has been eliminated." The truth is, our administrative team was deeply divided over some philosophically important values and our principal has never been a fan of our AP, who prioritizes culture and relationships over test scores and silence.

I have know this was coming for a while, but it didn't make Wednesday any easier. My AP is the one who fought to get me hired. She has coached me throughout the year and supported me. She is the person who looks me in the eye and tells me that I have a gift. Frankly, I don't know how I would have made it through this year without her. She is responsive, passionate, and full of positive energy.

Since our meeting on Friday I have carried a heavy heart. I don't know how to get over it, or how to make it any easier.

Professor Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.

This is an amazing speech, from the perspective of a professor and man of color who believes that TFA is a movement and can have an impact.

fire drill

We had a fire drill for the first time in a while, and it was completely a surprise to teachers.

Reflecting back, it went a lot better than our first fire drill. For example, adults did not shout "Run!," and no students ran into the street. N didn't wander off and get lost. However, some things are still the same. The child who was ironically our "emergency rescue person" at the beginning of the year still melted into tears and pushed other children just to get out. And there was definitely a moment of chaos before I stopped everyone and shouted that they need to get back in a line.

How do I get them to hurry without panicking?

sunshine

I have one student, some know him as Pudding, who is consistently sad at school. He is by far my lowest reader - right down there with the girl who spent most of her year in daycare - and he is easily discouraged.

Lately, I have started to really think about how we can help him get where he needs to be. He has "break cards" that he can use to go get water, go on the computer, or sit out of an activity for five minutes and that has made a huge difference. If he starts to loose his confidence, he takes a break. I also decided that no matter how sad he was in the morning, I would give him the biggest greeting I could muster. Without really thinking, I started calling him Sunshine.

Two days ago we were doing phonemic (sound) awareness, which Sunshine hates. It's in the morning, so he's grumpy, and it's a little above him. We were breaking words down into sounds (we call it chopping them up) and he was completely checked out.

"Next word is sunshine."

We made eye contact right away - he looked up so fast - and it was just the best.

He has come to school smiling the past two days.

and then there were three

Of course we were not in the room when the second and third butterflies hatched. Now we are down to just one chrysalis.

I have thought about assigning someone as the butterfly-watcher, but I don't know how that would go.

appreciating

During our all-school morning meeting our AP has been calling up students to share why they are thankful for their teacher.

So far kids have said things like, "she's nice" or "she gives us candy."

Today, A went up. At first she got really shy and soft-spoken, but then at the end she got it together to say:

"I appreciate Ms. Haley because she's always funny and she treats us with respect."

Everyone turned and looked. Ms. Haley is funny?! Well-kept secret.

I left for five minutes to pick them up from recess

And our first butterfly hatched! Three more chances for them to see...

chrysalids

We have four beautiful chrysalids hanging inside our butterfly net. The kids finally got a good look at them today and we noticed that one is darker than the others - the wings are starting to change inside.

I hope that at least one hatches while the kids are in the room.

the results are in

And, as usual, I am having a really hard time digesting them. In math, my kids grew over a year from September to May. I know that some of their growth has to do with the fact that I taught from January to now based on what they would be tested on. I want to celebrate their success, but I don't feed good about it: I feel like their scores are invalid because I taught to the test AND I want them to grow more AND I hate myself for caring about a test. Simultaneously.

Reading is even harder. My kids are reading like crazy, but they didn't do well on the reading test. They really, really didn't. I feel frustrated that all of my hard work in reading isn't showing on this test.

At the end of the day, I know the scores don't matter as much as other measures of my students growth, but the message (that I have failed my kids) is hard to ignore.

teacher appreciation week

So the admin feeds me cookies for breakfast.

MORNINGJOE

Another match code from Donors Choose, available until May 8th. Go enter MORNINGJOE.

thank you, mr. conductor

This morning I woke up pretty late... maybe five minutes past when I usually leave? I checked the trains. I could either make the next one in 10 minutes or wait a half an hour and be late to work.

As I walked outside, the train was sitting on the tracks. In desperation, I made a run for it anyway. As I reached the platform at the top of three flights of stairs, the doors closed and the train started to pull away. I stomped my foot and yelled. And then, the most magical thing happened.

The train stopped. The conductor opened the doors and let me on. That sweet man made my day.

the trials of teaching

For the past week or so we have had no staff bathroom, no printer, and no copier.

That means I can only use the (student) restroom when the kids are out of the building, we have had no homework and no new leveled reading, and we cannot do any paper-based work.