The Daily Grind

Teaching Writing

2009-07-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

Writing instruction continues to be a weakness in my skill set. I have great confidence that I can take a student who writes well, and guide them towards truly effective writing--or what I call refinement.
Taking a student whose skills are still in the development stage and moving them towards a higher level of communication, that's where I struggle.
I can point out a student's weakness, but I don't know where to begin the instruction. Here's an example from student work as it appeared:

I am an Insider... very popular and known throughout the school. But, I feel differen because they always are talking about others and I don't want to be the blame. The feeling of picking on others makes me feel different. When, you want to be that nerd's freind or that girl/boy who's very quiet and stay's to himself but you are afraid about what the Insiders would say about youthen and you'll no longer be Them.

Her thoughts turn out to be excellent as she describes her desire to move out of the "insider" group in order to be kinder and more compassionate. But the thought gets lost in the writing mistakes. I started to mark up the essay by eliminating the elipse and deleting what followed in order for the first two sentences to read as follows:

I am an Insider. People know me.

But then I thought, I can't mark up every error and provide an alternative, can I? That's where I struggle. What type of feedback on an essay is appropriate and more importantly, helpful.
Another student's essay had already developed sentence structure and grammar proficiency, so my comments were more stylistic in nature. Here's her work as it appeared:

In the car, I began to feel nauseous. I didn't know what to expect, going to a new school with new people and new teachers. However, I knew for sure that the car ride was going by way too fast and I began to feel butterflies in my stomach. I opened my backpack to check and see if I had everything...pencils that were already sharpened, 3 new notebooks, a few folders, and extra paper. I began to squirm in my seat as we got closer and closer to the school. I didn't want step foot through the door of the massive building that I would now call my school.

Not bad at all. So my advice was to make a few stylistic changes by reducing sentence three's word total and turning sentence four into shorter, quicker sentence fragments to add to the tone and speed of the car ride itself:

However, I knew for sure that the car ride was going by too fast. I felt my stomach flutter. I opened my backpack. Sharpened pencils. Three new noteboooks. A few folders. I began to squirm in my seat as we neared the school.

By the way, I feel like I am baring my soul to my readers by telling you all how I would provide feeback on essays--there is something personal to it. However, I truly feel as if I am on a Feedback Island. I have never had a conversation with a colleague about how to give formative feedback on student writing.

Making Progress

2009-07-07T06:14:00.001-07:00

There are two great aspects to my summer school experience with Steppingstones Academy.

1. The students and their desire to achieve--The students here concern themselves with learning. We don't give "grades," instead giving written feedback. Yet, each one of my students accepts that feedback and grows from it. Sure, they are still emerging ninth graders (in the fall) and have the universal characteristics. But I have not been cussed at; I have not heard a cuss word; I have not been disrespected. I have seen them frustrated to not get it; I have seen them ask questions in order to get it.

2. I am learning a great deal about how to run a "system." A great weakness of mine has been my ability to keep a day completely organized. I'm using a "Do Now" activity every class period, something I have never been able to maintain for very long. I've also made it my professional goal this summer to incorporate more formative assessments for each lesson. In the past, I simply taught a sequence of lessons with the summative assessment in mind. For the most part, my students have learned the material. But now, I will be able to address any errors in thought or process much sooner. Again, this is a work in progress, but I like it.

The Presence of Greatness

2009-07-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have read my blog frequently, or infrequently for that matter, know I have a confidence problem--meaning I have more confidence than any one man should be allowed to have. Today I will admit to a chink in my armor of confidence.
I took a rather odd path to the teaching profession. As a result of not initially pursuing a teaching career, I don't hold a Bachelor's or a Master's in either education or English. Yet, because of two great professors during my collegiate career, I have great confidence in both my literary knowledge and ability to identify excellent writing. And as a result of at least one terrific Education professor, I possess even greater confidence in my ability to communicate my knowledge with a student. However, in great honesty I ought to admit that I am also self-conscious especially about my lack of an English degree (a mere 36 credits is all I have).
This afternoon I met a teacher from one of the prestigious private high schools one of our summer scholars will be attending. Though we spoke only briefly, I could feel my own inferiority. He didn't demean me, or even treat me as less, but I knew. I've often wondered what the average boarding school teacher sounds like. If he was the average, I couldn't even come close to being allowed on their campus.
So, there it is, the chink in Mr. McNamar's confidence. Tomorrow, I will write about my totally awesome lesson plan and that one kid that told me I am great teacher--all just to feel better about myself.

Wanting It

2009-06-29T16:17:00.001-07:00

When I taught north of Seattle, I often complained about my Senior's who wanted to go to college but lacked the skill sets to be successful. Since I began teaching at my current location, I've often complained about the general lack of desire to put forth the effort to attend college. Today, on the first day of the Steppingstones Academy summer program, I was lucky to finally see students who have both the ability and the desire to make it to college.
Yet, I couldn't help but wonder at what point these soon to be ninth graders will come face to face with the reality of their circumstances. They are inner-city students who face daily affronts to their goals. I also wondered what is different in these students than the other inner-city students who so easily fall into the existing traps.
These students amazed me with their capacity to focus, their capacity to discern. Marzano's Effective Teaching Strategies include "similarities and differences," and so I'm curious. My district's students come from similar backgrounds, but their motivation and success levels are very different. Why?

Whaddya Wanna Bet?

2009-06-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

I once dared to attach odd to a previous "Whaddya Wanna Bet?" only to have someone take me up on the bet. I haven't paid out yet because no data wall has been presented to support her claim. Once the data exists, she can then be paid in full! Congratulations to all the teachers who survived yet another school year with someone else's well adjusted kids. And now, the summer kick-off edition.
Whaddya wanna bet...

That after a year of reading a script for Corrective Reading classes, I have forgotten how to actually write my own lesson plans?
That any great education reform effort, from career academies to grade-level teams, will only find success if the right people are board?
That the media and political powers are quick to recognize inequality between the suburbs and the city, but often miss the inequality between the rural schools and everyone else?
That speaking of inequality, the greatest inequality we face in public education is not money but expectations?
That I am going to miss Dennis at From the Trenches?
That with a second child on the way, I wonder if it isn't time for the Daily Grind to come to a halt?
That Coach Brown's recommendations from students are both laughable and insightful; and we shouldn't be afraid to ask the question?
That I still tell the story of my first year of teaching when a group of girls said I played favorites with boys because they liked baseball and that particular group of boys said I played favorites with the girls because I let them talk about whatever they wanted?
That I am very proud of those students from my first year of teaching who have just graduated from college?
That I am just as proud of those students from that year who will graduate from college soon?
That I'd rather hang on like Brett Favre instead of retire from blogging?
That I feel old?
That for some districts it isn't just a bad apple, it's a bad crop?
That I need a good book to read this summer?

Intimidated

2009-06-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended the matriculation ceremony for the incoming class at Steppingstones Academy in Hartford. I am excited for the chance to be a part of this phenomenal organization. As these young men and women took their oath with their families, current participants, and previous graduates looking on, I felt a sense of intimidation.
I've taught 12th graders the skills to succeed at the collegiate level, but now I must teach those same skills to middle school students seeking placement in the more prestigious private high schools. I am one of the links between where they are now and where they want to go. For many, this is the opportunity they've waited their short lifetime to grasp.
It is both exciting and inimitidating.

Discipline

2009-06-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

In my year end evaluation, my evaluator noted my high number of student referrals and high number of student removals. His observation is accurate, but I had to qualify those numbers. In contrast to my previous five years of teaching, this year's numbers were an outlier. Until this year, I could always count the combination of student referrals and student removals on just over one hand. But this year's implementation of Corrective Reading brought my numbers up. I had students refusing to cooperate and trying to derail the class nearly every period of every day for the first month.
Very few of my referrals or removals ended up with students receiving much discipline--a morning detention and the occasional in-school-suspension. However, I find the Washington Post's recent account of Jeffery Parker's handling of discipline in Prince George's (D.C.) Gholson Middle School fascinating.
For those on the outside who don't walk the hallways of many troubled schools, student discipline can be addressed through conversations and phone calls home. But for those on the inside, the problems are much more complex.
Being cussed out is a regular happening in our halls, especially by students wandering the halls who will then refuse to give their name. Our only recourse is to sit at one of the few archaic computers which house the student photos--except those photos often have the wrong names under the student faces. I just don't have that type of time.
In-school-suspension isn't much of a deterrent anyway. There the students listen to their iPods, play their PSP's, and even there, continue to escape to wander the hallways.
Some would say that it's the teacher's fault. That if our content were relevant and our analogies culturally responsive then these discipline problems fade away. I can't believe that. What is needed is a system wide overhaul. But I don't know how to do that.
Let's assume we overhauled the system, that our teachers were relevant and responsive but the students still didn't care? What do we do with a student who refuses to comply? What do we do with a student who continues to disrespect?
Ultimately, I want to see a school like the one I'm at successfuly educate students so that discipline really isn't a major issue--because we all know discipline will always be an issue; I just want it to be a lesser one.

Black Like Me

2009-06-11T04:05:00.001-07:00

This summer, as part of the summer school curriculum, I will teach the non-fiction work, Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin. The book will be used in conjunction with the history of the Civil Rights Movement and paired with the fictional work of Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country.
I have taught Cry, but never Black Like Me. I've had some difficutly finding quality resources online, and wonder if any of The Daily Grind's readers have suggestions.

Are they Correct?

2009-06-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

It's the end of the semester and my Corrective Reading students are as ready as I am to quit the "What word? Next word" mantra. In preparation for next year, I've bee readministering the placement test. By the end of the first few lessons in the B2 and C level courses, it became clear that some of my students should not have been placed in the class. We're trying to correct some mistakes.
So far I've only given the placement test to my B2 students. They are five lessons shy of completing the 65 lessons in that level, and only have one more Mastery test. Most of the students have passed all of the previous five Mastery tests, or perhaps have failed one of them. I figured that my students, especially with the encouragement from the Mastery test success and a pre-test reminder of the test's signifacance to their placement for the fall, would clearly show their improvement.
Not so fast. Here are their results:
1--Tested out of Corrective Reading.
4--Tested into the next level (C).
7--Tested back into level B2 as if they'd never even passed the Mastery Tests.

So I'm confused. How can a student pass the Mastery Tests, and most quite easily, and not then test into the next level? It has been difficult enough to keep these students interested in this monotonous class, but I can't imagine their level of frustration at these results.
I feel like I've implented the program to the best I'd been taught--the PD that goes with the program is two days; I received two hours by the sales person.

Time for Action

2009-06-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

I find it interesting that I detest terms like "culturally responsive" but want desperately to find ways to bring the Latino population (which is the majority) into positions of influence and leadership. We need to create an inviting atmosphere in which our Latino students feel a part of our school culture.
Yet I can't help but wonder what that really looks like. In an English classroom, I can incorporate Latino authors and Latino protagonists, but I am not well-versed in the texts which are considered great. I am dedicated to a college prep curriculum, which inevitably means a Euro-centric focus at some point. How do we balance skill development and content knowledge?
How do I help get my Latino students past the belief that student council is not a "white" activity? And specifically, how do I empower the women to step out and take such roles when so many defer to the men?
I'm ready for action, but I'm tired of the cliches. I'm tired of being told to be "culturally responsive" and that our school is "not a friendly" environment for our Latino students. I know there are plenty of us ready to move beyond our current status as a failing school, but we need our students to partner with us. We've been told that it would help if more of our faculty looked like them, but while I tan well, I don't tan that well.
I'm ready. It's time.

Boo

2009-05-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

My blogging colleague, Dennis Fermoyle at From the Trenches, is retiring from blogging. Here's hoping he comes out of retirement like Brett Favre.

The Status Quo

2009-05-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

This year I will finish my sixth year of teaching which puts me into a state of uncertainty. On the one hand, I am no longer a new teacher, yet many believe that after year six a teacher doesn't make much more progress. It becomes more about refinement as opposed to learning. This begs the question, if after year six I am not going to refine more than I am going to learn, do I need to be evaluated once a year.
The status quo teachers in a failing district do not. They believe that, having earned tenure, they are free to refine "on their own" as I have been told. The tenured teacher should not have to endure the hassle of a yearly observation, instead focusing on some professional growth plan in which she checks in twice a year with the administration.
I refuse to be a status quo teacher, and I hope my colleagues will vocally refuse the status quo as well. We are bombarded on many sides by new initiatives, many of which are repackaged and renamed, we are regularly reminded of our failure to teach, and we are often subjected to pointless and poorly designed professional development.
Yet, while we sit back and complain about the "other side," as a group we continue to support failed union policies which do not support and promote the absolute best in the classroom. Instead, tenured teachers want less oversight on them but more oversight on the non-tenured. Tenured teachers believe they are "accomplished" as some teacher evaluation plans call them. If a teacher union wants credibility at the table of education reform and policy, it must refuse to continue the status quo approach.

Sweltering

2009-05-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

1 90 degree day followed by an 80+ degree day added to a tiny, one window facing the sun, on the windless courtyard, of the second floor of an old brick building equals Mr. McNamar being more ready for a three day weekend than I ever have been.
Seriously, if I had heard "Mister, it's hot; why do we have to do work today?" begin to come out of a student's mouth just one more time, the students would have seen a real live teacher breakdown. I would have been seen running through the halls, bouncing off of lockers, while pulling relentlessy at my hair. Unfortunately, our students pull that off everyday--minus the hair-pulling: unless there's a fight.

Habla Espanol?

2009-05-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

I wish I made more money. Then I 'd be able to afford a top-notch, highly intensive course in Spanish. In a district in which over 50% of our students speak Spanish, we teachers should be given professional development that teaches us academic and conversational Spanish.
My Spanish speaking skills used to be much better, thanks to Senora Mosely and the dozens of Spanish speaking line-cooks from my restaurant days. Today, I can carry a very basic conversation, maybe kindergarten level or less. Proficiency would have made a difference today in a parent-teacher conference.
I've made it my mission from now on to not be afraid to attempt communicating with our Spanish speaking student. If our many bilingual students who feel insecure about their English proficiency (often hiding behind the language barrier), observe me trying, and often failing, to communicate with them, perhaps they will begin to feel more confident that we don't judge them because of their inability to speak English perfectly.
A group of ELL students have recently decided I'm acceptable to talk with. This group, who are in my study hall, would often ignore me or yell at me in Spanish if I tried to get them to sit down or quiet down. But once I started communicating in Spanish, they've begun to ask me questions and even say hello in the hallway.

"Epic" Food Fight

2009-05-16T04:31:00.001-07:00

One student described the Jackson High School food fight as "epic," which brings to mind such literary masterpieces as The Illiad and The Odyssey. The near consequence was losing the prom, which would have been an epic overreaction. Luckily for the students, prom will go on.

I agree with the Principal, Terry Chesire, that Jackson students ought to spend some quality time away from the pristine campus in order to feed the many that go hungry within the boundaries of Everett Public Schools.

No Whining

2009-05-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

I told a student today that I couldn't hear her. I saw her mouth moving, but my ears weren't picking up what she was saying. She looked confused until I told her that my ears only hear adult voices and can't hear whining.
Later, I was reminded that we teachers are often guilty of whining. "They make us go to four meetings a month. We only got a 2% raise. I don't have enough time to plan, to grade, to teach. They only care about the test scores."
We're a pretty whiny bunch sometimes.

Depression

2009-05-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

With just over a month remaining in the school year, a growing sense of depression and frustration is developing behind the closed doors of our classrooms. In my after-school socializing, more of my colleagues are expressing frustrations in various degrees and on various topics.
I don't care where you teach, sometimes it gets rough.

Attendance and Evaluations

2009-05-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

When I worked for Doubletree Hotels to pay for college, my annual performance review assessed my performance on many criteria, including attendance. The recent National Council on Teacher Quality examination of Hartford Public schools explores numerous facets of the system. One in particular stood out to me. As my colleagues and I work to rewrite our Teacher Evaluation Plan, a difference of opinion has developed regarding attendance. The current contract allots 15 days for illness and 5 days for personal reasons.
One group is asking for our new evaluation plan to include attendance in the criteria used to evaluate teachers. The NCTQ had this to say about Hartford:

"Make teacher attendance a mandatory component of teacher evaluations. Teacher attendance and tardiness are allowed to factor into teacher evaluations, but Hartford should make this an official part of the evaluation instrument" (7).

Our union represantation believes no need exists for such a provision. In an effort to hear from teachers, I pose the question to my great collection of colleagues and readers. Should attendance be a part of evaluating teachers? (Notice I said "a part.")

Confront the Brutal Facts

2009-05-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

In chapter four of Good to Great, Collins explores companies which "...confronted the brutal facts of reality head-on and completely changed its entire system in response..."(67). In confronting these realities, the "entire management team would lay itself open to searing questions and challenges from salespeople who dealt directly with customers"(72). Back in November of this school year I wrote a "Whaddya Wanna Bet?" post giving 3-1 odds that "when Central Offices ask for your input and the input of the community, they don't really care to hear it?"
Um, well I guess I might have to pay up. However, I am awaiting the data wall to prove that they listen. Truthfully though, I must give credit to my current Central Office for at least wanting to hear from the community and staff. I believe we are headed in the direction of confronting the brutal facts. The question is, will we be able to change the entire system if needed?
Collins provides four basic practices when confronting the truth:
1. Lead with questions, not answers: too often, Central Offices in general lead with answers. This program will solve this problem. Do these fads and results will happen. Unfortunately, teachers have become jaded and are unable to trust Central Offices, even when their intentions are noble.
2. Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion: I think that when confronting major challenges, schools ought to have far more informal discussions. Allow the staff to work through the realities by engaging them in discussions on an informal but regular basis. Show that it is okay to debate, even argue. I think of a major disagreement I recently had with a colleague. She's still wrong in my mind, but I hang out with her almost every day. Disagreement on issues does not mean we have to be antagonists.
3. Conduct autopsies without blame: teachers often bear the brunt of the blame when schools fail. Them or the kids. Ultimately, we are all responsible for the failure, and we must figure out how to solve those mistakes.
4. Build a "red flag" mechanism: Data Driven Decision Making is one way schools are attempting alert possible problems. But truthfully, there has to be much more. Kids need a way to alert teachers of existing or developing issues. Teachers need a way to alert administrators of potential pitfalls or shifts in success.

In the end, we need to lay bare our failing schools. We need to examine them and make changes when necessary. We need to allow teachers to speak honestly and openly--and teach our students to do the same.

Carino

2009-05-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Between examing the role that Good to Great can have in our schools, I continue to explore what I need to learn about teaching Latino students. In three previous posts, here, and here, I responded to a professional development session in which our staff's effort with Latino students was summarily reproached for its subtly racist undertones. The presentation, though interweaved with some truths, was more for provocation than actual usefulness. I'm tempted to dwell on its need for provocation and not move to the intereweaved truths--I'll refrain for now.
Last year, in my first year at this particular school, I discovered a book, Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools, edited by Sonia Nieto. The Daily Grind should fund the purchase of this text, but for now, google books will have to suffice. The truth is that our Latino students do face challenges in finding success within our US schools--we who teach these students should be more educated on those challenges. Yet I can't help but admit that many students of various racial makeup have challenges. Which is why I agree completely with one of Nieto's conclusions about the need for caring teachers--of all the foundational skills needed to succeed with all students, carino, might be the most important.
Nieto concludes, "Care is demonstrated most powerfully through high expectations and rigorous standards, and in teachers' beliefs that students are worthy and capable" (31). The current charter school movement is tapping into the power of carino as a means to improving student learning. We have much to discover about high expectations and rigorous standards.
Sometimes I think teachers of our Latino students, in an effort to care about them, allow themselves to lower their standards and focus too heavily on how the "feel" and less on whether or not they are learning.
She adds that other effective examples of carino include, "...developing strong interpersonal relationships with students and their families, learning about and from them, respecting and affirming their language and culture, and building on these to support learning" (31). At this point, I begin to feel uncertain about what she is proposing. Or, at least start asking far more questions, which would be the better way to describe my uneasiness.
Shouldn't we expect "strong interpersonal relationships" between our teachers and every student? What does "affirming their language and culture" mean?
For instance, in Sweating the Small Stuff, author David Whitman writes that the new paternalistic schools "Street slang, the use of the ‘n-word,’ and cursing are typically not only barred in the classroom but in the hallways and lunch room as well” (38). I know that by "language" Nieto more than likely means Spanish, but what if their "language" is both Spanish and street-slang English? Culture is the learned patterns of behavior, and street-slang falls into that definition.
However, in the end, I agree with Nieto regarding what she more than likely really means. Schools which serve Latino students should be working to create great students. Whitman, in his book, describes Cristo Rey Jesuit High School goal “... to have graduates be bilingual and bi-literate” (139). Not only does this respect their culture, it serves the greater purpose of educating our students to high standards. Now that's real carino.

Good to Great: School Edition II

2009-05-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

In the first post discussing the connections between Jim Collins' book Good to Great and schools, we examined the principle of getting the right people on board before casting and pursuing a path towards excellence.
Certainly quality leadership serves to promote an environment ripe for success. I chose to cover leadership, as discussed by Collins, second because even when leadership in a school lacks ability, if the right people are in the classroom, the school can still succeed. It is much like teaching a group of honors students. A low quality teacher does not have a detrimental effect on those who already possess great skills. However, in order for schools to be great, they do need the "Level 5 Executive."
Collins describes one Level 5 Executive, Darwin Smith--who rebuilt the old paper company Kimberly-Clark, as "an individual who blends extreme personal humility with intense professional will" (21). He quotes Smith as saying, "I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job" (20).
While I have great outsider respect for what leaders like Chancellor Rhee are attempting in long-failing systems like Washington D.C., I have to wonder whether these leaders are more concerned with personal ambition or developing a long-lasting success plan.
Leadership and the right people are the foundation of lasting success in schools. With a Level 5 Executive at the helm (in both the Central Office and at the building level), the right people feel a sense of security and purpose. Without the right people, the Level 5 Executive will feel the need to "manage" people instead of guiding them (56). At the building level, the need to manage people serves to lessen the culture of success needed for all purposeful reform. And if the right people must endure leaders who jump from one initiative to another or are clearly out to make a name for themselves, the culture of success is again undermined.
Unfortunately in public education, the ability to find Level 5 Executives can prove troublesome. First, many within the establishment believe that the best principals or superintendents must come from within the field of education. Second, those in the field of education who have the potential for Level 5 leadership are often discouraged by a pervasive "us vs. them" mentality. Not wanting to be "one of them" means those potential leaders remain in the classroom--which isn't always bad. This also plays out in the manner in which other teachers view other teachers who take on leadership opportunities within the building. If a colleague is perceived to be a mouthpiece for the administration (even if that leader is effective), other peers quickly begin having lunchroom conversations about their friend.
However, if we are going to turn around failing schools, we absolutely must have independent and creative thinking Level 5 Executives.

Good to Great: School Edition

2009-04-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

It has taken a while, but I have finally finished Good to Great by Jim Collins. The world of education shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the business world's findings concerning the development of a great organization.
One of the frameworks Collins explores is "First Who...Then What." Collins writes, "We found...that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats--and then figured out where to drive it" (13). He notes that with the right people on board, motivational problems disappear (42).
The first important gem for struggling schools lies in the mining of the right people. No quick fix exists for schools long entrenched with the status quo, yet as the old guard moves into retirement, struggling schools must make greater strides in attracting and retaining energetic, relationship focused men and women who understand that without the ability to connect on a human level, the content will never pass through the pipeline. The right teachers believe in the mission and are determined not to fail where others have failed before.
Secondly, struggling schools need the ability to move the wrong people out of the schools. Who are the wrong people? The wrong people have tunnel vision and lack creativity. They fail to buy into the mission (though they may be talented) and are willing to coast or rest on their laurels.
As important as having the right people in the organization, the leaders must put those teachers into the correct positions of leadership and the right classrooms. Some teachers have great success at moving the lowest performers quickly towards proficiency. Some teachers have great success at refining the highest performers carefully towards excellence. Some teachers are quite happy going about their business. Some teachers are never satisfied with their current business.

Until schools get these principles, they will never reach greatness.

More on Race

2009-04-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I wrote about a professional development day which chastised our staff for not being culturally responsive to our Latino/a students. When asked, "Why do Latino/a students struggle to graduate from high school in four years," seventy-seven responses came back as "negatively coded"--meaning the statement put the blame on the students or the students' families.
Today, after finishing our Corrective Reading lesson for the day, one of my classes discussed this very question. All of the students are Latino/a. Here are their responses to the same question asked of the staff:

Puerto Rican kids don't care
Parents don't punish us
Parents didn't graduate
Too many teenage moms raising them
Latinos are not smart
Latinos don't care about education
In Puerto Rico we just skip school all day
We have trouble with the language
The Puerto Rican teachers here can't teach good
Teachers don't help Latino students and the White kids don't need help

Sounds much like the responses the culturally insensitive teachers gave. Now, I assume the immediate response by the "researcher" would be that these beliefs have been projected onto the students by the teachers.

Observations

2009-04-25T04:28:00.000-07:00

Teachers tend to view formal observations as nothing more than a dog-and-pony show. Adminstrators set up a time to come watch a teacher put into practice a number of skill sets and behaviors. If the teacher is not tenured, she will be formally observed three to four times during the year. If the teacher is tenured, she might not be formally observed at all depending on the cycle.
The current observation process in most schools lacks any real value. The administrators come, check of the list, and give the teacher a summary to sign. Very little professional dialogue happens, and very little professional growth happens.
Though the observation process ought to evolve, perhaps moving away from the format which has come to dominate our schools' culture, all teachers should be treated the same. There are some within our profession who believe that once a teacher achieves tenure, she should not have to go through a yearly formal observation. The argument goes that based on tenure, a teacher has determined efficacy and should be given professional courtesy.
Yet our non-tenured teachers, many of whom could outperform their peers, are not given any "professional courtesy." And, they shouldn't be. But neither should a teacher who has been in the classroom for fifteen years.
Annual performance reviews are necessary to maintain the integrity of our profession. In part, our profession loses credibility when those among us demand to rest on our laurels. More importantly, teachers who have attained tenure should be leading the new teachers towards a more professional path. The best way to accomplish this is to welcome a yearly formal observation process. When a second year teacher who has just had his third observation of the year looks across the hall and sees poor teaching from a tenured teacher who will not be formally observed at all, he feels discouraged.
In the end, the observation process needs to change. The dog-and-pony shows need to end, and meaningful dialogue needs to happen. If administrators were able to complete far more walk-throughs than the current system allows, they would have a much better sense of the teaching taking place in their buildings.