The day before...

Source: Southern Writers Magazine

I'm in my classroom prepping for the Ford's Theater National Oratory Fellowship competition here at TIS. I have 15 students competing for two spots to accompany me to Washington DC where they will work with Ford's Theater Teaching Artists and staff and ultimately present their speeches on the stage at Ford's Theater. I am insanely proud of the work they are doing and proud as punch to show them off to their family, friends, TIS and the community.

The last post on what makes great teaching has offered interesting insights for me. The traffic from my blog post was alright (but I am a greedy pup and would take more discussion) but, educator and trainer Glenn Wiebe from ESSDAK and educator and writer Brett Clark both had responses from their blog post and tweet, respectively, and so I adding those comments in the mix as well. As soon as I come out from the competition, I will compile and report. Thanks to Brett for asking the question and Glenn for continuing the discussion.

I talked to my classes yesterday about preparing for an event like the competition and one of the questions was about nerves. It's funny, kids assume that the adult default is "calm, cool and in control." As adults, we often perpetuate that misnomer. I told them I have presented to thousands of adults and students during my time as a trainer, advocate and teacher, but I still get nervous. The classroom is a safe place for me (and I hope for them), however I have struggled with 'stage fright' for much of my adult life. It wasn't always the case and I talked about in a blog post right after last year's Ford's Theater retreat.

As student asked if I would repost the post. I'm happy to oblige.

What makes teaching 'great'?

Ok, I have an thought experiment I want to get your help with. I'm going to ask you to comment on a question which was posed by someone I follow on Twitter. Jim Knight, an Instructional Coach connected with the Kansas Coaching Project and webmaster of the website Radical Learners, asked:

 

Before I gave my response...which will have to come at a later date (unless you follow me on twitter) ...I asked:

 

I've been thinking about that question for the better part of the afternoon so I thought I would throw it out to the world wide interwebby thing.

 

In the comments below, would you please offer a response to the question: What principles make for a GREAT teacher? Please identify if you are a parent, student, teacher or administrator.

 

If you would, would you send the link to your circle of peeps and ask them to respond? I am really curious to seeing what the responses look like.

 

I decided that, with my blog, I wouldn't write until I had something to say. I don't know that I can improve upon the silence but, a good question is a good question.

 

dm



Class size and cliched movie metaphors....

Just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath. Says a lot about education. One of his points is that class size isn't important in determining success. His argument is that there is a benefit when the classes are too large but after a point, not only is the benefit lost, but too small is just as problematic for the class as too large. Here is a sample of his graph.

This idea seems counterintuitive and is certainly not how schools are marketed--the small the size, the better the instruction--more personalized. That is the norm, right?

Here is the deal, though. I think Gladwell (and score of other researchers) are right. 

My best year-long experience in a class has been in a class of about 15. My worst was in a class of six. My larger classes tend to be a more mixed bag: male:female, strong:middling:weak students, learning styles and differences. We do a lot of collaboration and discussion in my class and we need a diverse group for the best work to be done. 

The small class I mentioned was all male, all high achieving and not particularly racially diverse. I was so excited for the small class but left many days feeling exhausted by it. The discussions were mediocre and the group work felt 'lowest common denominator.' They all earned good grades but I didn't feel as if I challenged them to be better students or citizens. This experience was early in my career and I know I would do things differently now.  But...

Part of the problem was size. Sometimes students need a place to just be. They want to be seen and heard but not front and center all the time. This is true of both introverted and extroverted students. Sometimes you just want to be let be; to let someone else do the heavy lifting for a minute. Sometimes you need time to process what you are hearing and thinking. Sometimes you need white space to think through a challenging statement; a safe place to wrestle with a new idea. I honestly believe adding even a few more students would have been helpful. 

Are teachers getting in the way of learning?

As I finished this post, I realized that I have talked about the Independent Project before... here is that previous post. The video is new though.

 

I have a feeling I'm going to upset someone with this post. And I am making peace with that.

This video is put together by a student at an a school affiliated with The Independent Project. The program started in Massachusetts as an alternative school. This Huffington Post article does a good job of explaining it (watch the video with it as well). The gist is that students decide on a Monday what they want to learn and then spend the week wrestling with it. On Fridays, students present their findings.

I know, it sounds like kids would just dink around all week but, the administrators of the program found that students held themselves and each other accountable, and the end of week outputs exceeded the state standards. There are requirements for the weekly exploration and there are teachers who help facilitate the learning, but students research what students are curious about.

Yes, the format raises some obvious questions and red flags, but before babies go out with bath water...

Think about facilitating students as they teach themselves.

Think about engaging with students who are curious and fearless and interested in more than regurgitating data on a test.

Think about seeing students as more than data points to be manipulated.

Hmmmmmm....

People who dismiss Middle School kids don't spend much time with Middle School kids!

I love my job!

We are in the middle of the section on the Constitution and I am in hog heaven. We have spent the week looking at the Bill of Rights and the last couple of days on a Supreme Court decision from the 80s. The discussions yesterday and today are why I teach. They are engaged--they have been arguing the case in other classes as well! They are well versed on the Fourth Amendment and are asking great questions...

• Student's Rights versus 'School Environment'
• What happens when you search for one thing and find something worse?
• When should parents be notified when  a student is suspected of violating a school policy? A crime?
• Should students expect to have any privacy while at school?
• Are teachers agents of the parents or agents of the states?

One of the beauties of these discussions is at this age is they still live in a state of idealism. What is right is what is fair and they don't tend to see a lot of 'gray'. I get to play devil's advocate and they get really frustrated with me when I change sides on a dime.

To invoke Thanksgiving--they are gobbling up the debate. They see how complicated it is to protect our rights and are up for the challenge! The want to understand and are more than capable of coming up with their own opinions.

Dismiss them at your own peril.

When people wax on about the state of education and young people, I smile. They don't see what I see. Wax on...just know that we are fine. There are issues to be sure, but there are always issues to deal with. How we deal with them is the better discussion. We look back nostalgically on our youth and forget something:

They aren't like us but, hell, we weren't like us either.

Ok, watch this video at your own risk. I can't get it out of my brain.

I am not speaking ill of the work "Mr. Beats" does. Teaching is hard enough without teachers baggin' on each other. He uses the tools he has and goes above and beyond what most teachers do and so he is a rock star in my book.

If you go to Mr. Beat's channel, you will find a low tech Crash Course sort of presentation. The information is fine but its not as flashy as what John Green puts out. I was showing a documentary on Nicodemus to my 7th Grade History students and came across Mr. Beats channel. I gotta give it to him that he puts himself out there for his students and there is a sense of humor in the videos. We had a few minutes and so I pulled up the above video for Taft.

The video was a hit.

The original song is a hoot. The kids were singing, "Taft, Taft, Taft, ... Taft, Taft, Taft..." on their way out and learned he was the only president to be on the Supreme Court as well as a frienemy of Teddy Roosevelt. (Also that he got stuck in a bathtub but we won't speak of that. Us, husky guys gotta stick together!)

It was icing on a great day of teaching. We studied New Jersey versus TLO in American History and had some of the best discussions I have this year in all three classes.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

The Gettysburg Address will just have to wait!!!!

This Day in History is killing me!

We are spending this week talking about the Bill of Rights in class. Anyone who knows me knows that is one of my favorite weeks as a teacher. We have wrestled with the Constitution and the ratifying conventions, which is fun. But...THE BILL OF RIGHTS!!!

The dilemma this year is that today is the sesquicentennial of the Gettysburg Address. 150 years. A century and a half. I had a lesson plan worked out and was going to take a daytrip to the address from the Bill of Rights. And then the kids started asking question about search and seizure and speedy trial and why Kansas doesn't have Grand Juries and I realized that Lincoln was going to wait. I always spend a few days with the Address so it will get its day in the sun.

The videos above are similar to ones I'm using in class this week. They are put together by the Annenberg folks and the data is good and the people they are interviewing are top drawer. The part I am digging, however, are the graphics and videos they are using in the background. They have found every bad educational video we were forced to sit through and used them in a way that works. They are so unintentionally bad that they are perfect for the videos.

I like the one I'm using better than these but it didn't have a YouTube video. The one I'm using is The Story of the Bill of Rights. It has to be created by the same people who made Let Freedom Swing, which offers the thesis that Jazz and democracy share improvisation as a key attribute. I will use it in the spring as we go deeper in what it means to be a citizen.

BTW-Ken Burns has a new documentary on the Gettysburg Address and how it is used in a school in Vermont. One of the offshoots of the movie is Learn the Address. I love this idea! On the anniversary of the Address, I will leave you with one this 'mashup' from that website.