AYP

Nelson Hernandez's Wednesday article on Montgomery and Prince George's counties failing to meet annual yearly progress (AYP) does an excellent job of highlighting the ridiculous nature of that particular beast. How is it that only 26% of Baltimore special education high school students are able to pass the state's reading test, while Montgomery's and Prince George's high school special education students are passing at 61% and 41% (respectively), but Baltimore did (according to the state's standardized test) make AYP and Montgomery and Prince George's didn't?

I understand that the goal for each year for school districts to improve upon the previous year's scores and that the big goal is to have every student passing these tests, to provide a measure of how well a district is doing it job. But, now the focus becomes district safety rather than providing each student with the individual education that he or she needs. It places the focus away from the individual and becomes a push-push-push for results.

The Impact of IMPACT

Some of me thinks that the new teacher evaluation system, IMPACT, is good. And some of me wants to scream when I think about it. I'm still a pretty new teacher and it worries me that because I'm struggling to figure out how to hit all the learning styles will be counted against me. The videos that they had us watch to "norm" the evaluations...Those didn't show us what they (the District) thought good teaching was. The videos showed passable, not great, and downright awful teaching was. In my first Master Educator observation, I found myself stumbling over my words, getting lost in my lecture, recalling later that I only employed two learning styles in the 30 minutes that she was there....I don't know what she is going to say when she meets with me on Thursday. And frankly, it scares me. IMPACT scares me.

For more information, read Bill Turque's almost glowing review of IMPACT and then go look at the actual framework. Make sure you read the .pdf file at the bottom to get the full story.

Layoffs

Whether or not it was Michelle Rhee's intention to fire veteran teachers in the layoffs that took place this afternoon between 1:58 and 3:15 pm, it certainly wasn't handled in the best of manners. If I were to be fired, I'd want to hear it from my principal or my assistant principal, not another teacher. I don't know if this happened at my school, but I know that it happened in at least one school in the district. I'm shocked at the unprofessional, heartless manner in which teachers were escorted from their classrooms by police officers, or sent down to the main offices like a truant. Teachers should have been given the dignity of hearing this news in a private meeting with a superior during their planning period, not in the middle of a class, in front of students.

I don't care if Ms. Rhee intended to fire these teachers months ago or not. I care about what is best for the school community and it definitely isn't good for the school as a whole to be under the impression that they (teachers, staff) could be chopped at any time and in such a brutal manner. Let alone the message that it sends to the students. DCPS...I didn't think you could disappoint me any more, but I guess I was wrong.

As for Bill Turque's coverage of these events, it seems too cut-and-dried. "The day proceeded quietly for the most part." Really, Bill Turque? Did you bother to talk to any of the schools in SE? I know there was craziness in Ward 7 and I'm sure there was craziness at Ballou and Anacostia.

Back to my original point: during 4th period?! REALLY!?

Senegal, in a whirl

I landed in Dakar at 5 am on July 7. JC picked me up at the airport and we spent the day in the Dakar market and walking around. The next day, we headed out of Dakar on the 4 hour sept-place (seven-seater station wagon that is the main form of transportation around the country) drive to the Peace Corps Regional House in Kaolack. The next day, we make the last leg of the journey to Wilanene, JC's village, about 7 km outside of the town of Kaffrine.

Our days in the village were pretty lazy: we woke up around 7 am and usually walked to another village (anywhere between a 15 and 45 minute walk) to check up on the farmers that JC works with. We'd get home around 11 and cool off with a quick shower and a book. Naps were the normal before and after lunch. We'd do some planting or watering or clean the hut. More reading or napping or both. Sometimes we go sit outside the compound and visit with the women who'd walk passed. Dinner was served late, after JC's host mom closed the robinet.

We went to two baptisms while in the village. One was for a woman who JC didn't know very well and the other was for her friend, Fatou. The women got very dressed up and there was drumming and dancing in the evening.

After spending about 5 days in the village, we headed out to the island of Ginak and slept on the beach there. JC thought that she got stung by a jellyfish, but we're not sure if it happened. We only spent one night on Ginak and then headed back to Kaolack to stop over on our way to the Langue de Barbarie, a bird park in the northwest of the country. There, we canoed and took a boat to visit the Island of the Birds and did some more napping and reading.

After the bird park, we met up with two other Peace Corps volunteers, friends of JC's, and went to the Deserts of Lompoul, where we camped in tents on sand dunes and went for a camel ride. While there, I got a wicked fever and spent most of the time tossing and turning, but the camels made it worth it!

Since our trip was coming to an end, we went back to Dakar. My last day we spent again the Dakar market, buying fabric, and went to Ile de Goree, an island off the coast where there had been a slave outpost. The island is now a tourist destination and has a couple of great museums and lots of artists.

So, that was my trip, in a whirl! Check out the photos on Picasa for more details.

Into Africa

I'm heading out to visit JC in Senegal tomorrow. I'll try to update a couple times while I'm there (I get back around noon on July 22), so that you all can hear some stories. I've also made (FINALLY) a Picasa site to upload pictures. Go there for pictures of the trip and adventure! The link is also in the sidebar on the right (Adventures in Color). If you need to reach me, email is probably the best, but I have no way of knowing how often I'll be able to get to an internet cafe. Love to everyone!

Almost done...

I'm about 80% done with my portfolio for my masters. I really can't wait for it to be over! They talk about how assignments should be meaningful and useful for students and then assign us this huge portfolio bull-crap. It's infuriating! I hope to goodness' sake that I never assign such a meaningless activity and manage to make school activities and work useful and have some relevance.

After it is over, I should be able to relax. I'm going to Senegal for two weeks on July 6 to visit JC, but I think it will be an adventurous, relaxing and eye-opening vacation. At least I'll be experiencing something completely different with someone who knows the region very well and will be able to steer me in the right direction about things to do or not to do. I think the plan is to go to her village for a bit, and maybe to the sand-dunes and to the beach. But honestly, she could completely change her mind before I get there and I wouldn't have any idea. If anyone knows of something that I should do, let me know via emails.

Generosity

I asked family members and friends to contribute to my effort to start the AP World History program next year by pleading for copies of Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel." Happily, enough people contribute that everyone enrolled in the class will get a book. Now I just need to get book plates! Thank you to everyone who was so generous to me and my crazy, wonderful students. We'll be reading the book over the summer and, I hope, having a few great conversations about it. I hope I'll be able to follow the thank-yous up with some more interesting, like a video of a class discussion or something.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: 11 down!

11 to go! I really love my family! I can't tell you how much I appreciate this! Everyone rocks!

High Expectations

From a Washington Post article about how 'Gingrich and Sharpton both agree that education can be improved!!' WOW!

"What's a high expectation?" Hassan Floyd, 7, asked his mother, Fathma Floyd-Brent, a teacher who works in a Baltimore high school with no air conditioning or computers and has one of the lowest graduation rates in the city.

"It's when I tell you I don't expect no 70s, 80s or 90s," she said. "But 100s."

The boy, who is already talking about going to college and one day being president, nodded knowingly."


What is a high expectation? 100s. No standard for how to judge that 100. It could be that he merely turned in the work, despite getting every single question wrong. Or maybe that he wrote 1 paragraph instead of 2.

The other day, I was listening to this NPR segment about whether or not business schools can be held accountable for the recession. A portion of the piece talked about how business schools have yet to streamline the body of knowledge taught, unlike law schools and medical schools. The same could be said for almost every grade level of schooling, except for law schools and medical schools.

So, if we have different standards, how can we arrive at any other definition of a 'high expectation' other than '100s'? Are high expectations really like pornography, you know it when you see it?

Frontline: Growing Up Online

About a year ago, Frontline produced a piece called "Growing Up Online". To view the video, follow the link in the upper right corner of the page.

It's an interesting idea, to say the least, that the generation of students that are currently in school have very separate-and yet, closely linked-identities from reality. Yes, they do and even, to a large extent, do the current 20-somethings. I and others have straddled the divide. At the beginning of high school, I got my first email address. But I had no idea what to do online, except check my email...and I rarely got any of that! Now 7 year old are given "primers" on "online behavior." Can't we just go play Cops and Robbers?

Below are my reactions to a few of the more ridiculous quotations from the Frontline episode.

1) "To walk into a classroom that doesn't have any of that media, must be like walking into a desert." -Steve Maher, social studies teacher of 11 years.
No wonder we aren't as successful with our students as the wealthy suburban districts! We are teaching in a desert!

2) "I feel like I've cheated it. I kinda feel like I owe it to myself to read some of these books, but I just know I don't have time. If there were 27 hours in day I'd read Hamlet. I know I would." -High school senior
Why don't you have time? What are you doing? You honestly think that if you had 3 extra hours each day, you would spend it reading? No, you wouldn't. You'd spend the newly found 3 hours playing a game or chatting with friends or maybe playing field hockey.

3) "I'm not saying cheating is ok. I'm saying cheating is something that you have to look at closer to see what is cheating and what is not cheating." -same social studies teacher
WHAT KIND OF TEACHER ARE YOU? You honestly think that copying and pasting off of SparkNotes is acceptable?

MapTools

Finally got around to looking at MapTools with g! It's pretty sweet and will make the game go much faster!

It's been about 85-90 degrees here for about 4 days...that is, until today when it went back to being mid-60s and rainy. I swear, DC's weather is much worse than Chicago's because of it's awful mediocrity. I would prefer 10 degrees and snowy infinitely more than 30 degrees and rainy. Or 95 with a breeze off the lake to 89 and swamp-like humidity. It's awful.

I got some new pictures of the kids today. They are growing up so fast! I can't believe Megumi is 5! What the heck, man!? I'm going to need to do some special aunt thing with her next time I go in to visit. Maybe Auntie Momo would go with us. :)

In other news, I only have 1 more class for AU after this semester ends next week. Thank goodness! That program has been a waste!

Novice Teachers

We're getting a bad rap, and who could blame our critics? We aren't supported and the programs that educate us as teachers are mostly useless. The most valuable lessons that I learn are from my fellow teachers and from practicing teaching. That's the way to improve. Of course novice teachers are going to be the ones in the crappy districts. The good districts have long teacher retention and slots are competitive. The good districts seek out the valuable teachers and support them, while the crappy districts don't do either AND don't support new teachers. Sometimes, I feel like its hopeless and I understand why the novice teachers leave after two years. Who wants to be miserable every day?

Honest Media

Too often I hear or read stories about schools, school systems, and/or education policy that is inaccurate, biased, fake, or just plain bad. So it was refreshing to find Chicago Public Radio's education pieces about Robeson High School on the South Side, not too far from where I went to college. They're a very good slice of what goes on in our schools and actually tackle some of the very real challenges that I face day to day. The second link is especially excellent and the last link has a complete list of all the stories that are in the Fifty-Fifty series.

Keeping Mykelle in Class
Giving Kids an "F" a Real Dilemma
A Student's Journey to City Science Fair
Fifty-Fifty: The Odds of Graduating

Cash for Hard Work

I understand the idea behind this program, but I'm still rather inclined to think that it diminishes the lesson that our students can succeed on their own. I guess we'll see what really works!

Another cheer for AUseless!

While American University's basketball team seems to be doing very well in whatever tournament they are in, their students aren't doing so well. Over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about how much their education program sucks. We spend time "reflecting" on readings about multiculturalism and diversity and educational psychology, rather than spending time on "how to design a good test" and "here's how you plan a really good unit." Reflecting and reading current educational thought is important, really. But we've taken 6 classes covering the exact same material and I would really like to talk about things that I use EVERY DAY in the classroom, like where to find a good reading on colonial India or how to break down a lesson on colonial India to a student who reads at the first grade level. Really, can we stop having the same discussions over and over and start WORKING?

$2,112

While I'm very happy to hear that the District of Columbia will be receiving $2,112 per student in federal money within "a few weeks," I'm curious as to why other districts in other states that have series budgetary shortfall, have been contemplating cutting teaching positions, and have problems getting the materials needed to run a school, will be given so little. Using old formulas to distribute money seems like a bad idea to me, but hey, what do I know?

Saving time isn't always the best option, Mr. Duncan, Democrats in Congress, and Mr. President. How about we save our students' education?

The Snow-bama Factor

Yes, that is the title of today's article by Marc Fisher in the Washington Post.

Here is my response.

As a DC public school teacher and a native of Chicago, I would like to say that the decision to keep DCPS open today was stupid. And not because the "teachers have a hard time commuting"--boo hoo! Because the STUDENTS can't and DON'T get to school! There were about 25 students in the entire building today and even fewer faculty.

Most DCPS students walk or bus to school and walking up the hill to my school was a nightmare. Those who do drive: well, let's put it this way. I carpool with another teacher and on our way to school at 9:45 am, 495 wasn't clear. We got stuck behind a plow that didn't know how to drive in this weather. DC just doesn't have the capacity for (what I as a native Chicagoan would call) a mild snowstorm. If the interstates aren't clear and even the people clearing the roads don't know how to drive, how can we expect kids to walk, drive, or catch public transportation?

As for the argument that the schools are remaining open for the kids on free and reduced lunches: the kids aren't there. They don't come on a day like today because they can't get through the snow, they have to watch their siblings, or they just don't want to come...even if they are hungry. At least 1 elementary teacher who I talked to today said that no kids showed up at school. My school had about 25. Another teacher I know saw 6 students during the entire day...another, 2. So really, are we feeding the children?

By my school

The Washington Post published this story about a middle school not too far from my school. It definitely does not paint any pretty pictures about DCPS or the general area that my school is in. I have a friend who teaches at that school and, with all my frustrations, she has it worse. Hats off to her. The follow-up story is here.

On This Historic Eve

Watching CNN is hilarious. We are obsessed with numbers and graphs. We are a graphic-organizer happy nation.

Also, why am I home alone tonight? Because I'M LAME.

Oh, movies from 1937

An Exchange:

Delivery Boy: "Not my fault [I'm delivering the flowers late]. His Excellency only ordered them a half hour ago."

Butler: "Which Excellency?"

Delivery Boy: "I'm not sure. I think its from one of those new countries that are always turning up in Europe."

Butler: "Hmm. The smaller the country, the larger the flowers."

--First Lady, 1937, starring Kay Francis