Gladly Would I Teach

I strongly believe that good teachers are highly organized and well prepared for class, and maybe that’s why it is stressful to me when school leaders are disorganized. This week we have an adjusted schedule for Monday through Thursday so our juniors can complete their graduation tests, the tests over math, English, science, and social studies that they must pass in order to receive diplomas next year. Even though I detest the change in schedule (two hours in first period, followed by 40 minutes in second period), I understand why we need to adjust the schedule.

We have known about the test and the schedule change for several weeks, and we were prepared.

Late Friday afternoon, however, we received an email that our sophomores would also be taking a practice test on Tuesday and Thursday during the long test period.

We found out on Friday afternoon after the students had gone home!

Friday afternoon!

Did administrators decide on Friday to make sophomores take the test? Surely not!  I have no idea why we were not told previously.

In homeroom today, I apologized to the kids for telling them so late and assured them that their performance on the test on Tuesday and Thursday would let us see if they would benefit from tutoring or extra help in preparation for next year’s graduation tests. The kids were initially upset that they had not been told  about the test, but they are good kids and took the information well.

Everything went well and I reviewed with then where they need to sit tomorrow and Thursday when they take their tests.  They were happy when they left homeroom this morning.

Two hours later I received a revised plan for sophomore testing. Tomorrow I have to tell the kids that the tests will be given on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Thursday!

Disorganization drives me crazy, but I suspect it bothers students even more.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

I met with a teacher this afternoon who expressed her unhappiness about her job. She doesn’t like her school, her administration, or her students. She wants a new job and is frustrated because so few teaching jobs are open. Since Georgia has suffered from a teacher shortage for close to two decades, it’s hard to reconcile the fact that there are no openings for teachers.

As I drove home this afternoon, I kept thinking about how frustrating it must be to awaken every morning and prepare for a job I hate. What must it be like to walk inside a school I detest or to face children I do not like?

I’m blessed to teach in an outstanding school where I teach remarkable students. Whereas a few of them frustrate me periodically, I suspect I also frustrate a few of them as well. For the most part, however, we stick together. I take care of them and they take care of me. My job isn’t perfect, but I don’t know anyone who has a perfect job. With the exception of one year over a decade ago, I have always loved my job, regardless of where I taught. I have taught “challenging” students who were some of the most interesting kids I have ever met. I have taught in old schools with little money and poor facilities, but somehow we always obtained whatever we needed to help kids. I’ve worked with exasperating administrators, but we always found a way to laugh about their petty requirements.

Particularly in such dire economic times when few jobs are available, I awaken every morning and thank the good Lord that I have a job when so many people do not. I have always found that my attitude improves when I learn to be grateful for what I have, and I sincerely hope that’s one of those life lessons that I pass on to my students. Sometimes when I start to feel depressed or frustrated, I stop and count my blessings and realize just how fortunate I am.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Based on standardized test scores, this year my school has focused on improving our students’ reading comprehension. Every now and then we have been shown scores and have been encouraged to increase the amount of reading that we require, particularly the reading of nonfiction texts. We’ve had staff development on how to increase reading comprehension and have been asked to document reading activities. Recently, we were told that scores from our upcoming spring tests will measure how successful we have been this year.

We weren’t asked why our students reading comprehension scores have declined. If we had been asked, however, I could have immediately explained part of the problem. Until this year, my school embraced “Quadrant D” learning, or learning that is performance based (at least that’s how it was described to us). We brought in “experts,” who are no longer in the classroom, and they taught us what we needed to do to engage our students in more meaningful learning.

Kids don’t need to sit around and read and discuss Shakespeare, we were told. They need to be up moving around and performing Shakespeare or working on group activities, or working on computers. Traditional reading and writing activities were strategies of the past that no longer worked with today’s students.

So most teachers, particularly the young teachers with little experience that would have helped them filter the  suggestions from the “experts,” jumped on the bandwagon and constructed lessons that allowed students to spend more time performing, more time drawing, more time acting. Reading and writing declined.

Now our students’ reading comprehension scores have declined, something that any veteran teacher could have predicted (and did predict) years ago when we drifted away and decreased how much reading and writing we required from students. Our kids were so engaged, just not engaged in reading and writing.

I am reading Diane Ravitch’s new book The Death and Life of The Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. In the introduction, Ravitch chastises educators for jumping on the latest fad without any proof that the fads work.

We will continue to chase rainbows unless we recognize that they are rainbows and there is no pot of gold at the end of them.

Our kids declined in reading because we chased a rainbow that seemed so happy and colorful and enticing. Well-meaning people chased rainbows, and our kids suffered. I would like to hope that we have learned from this and that we won’t jump on the bandwagon of the next greatest fad, but I know we will.

Why do we always think that the “experts” who have little contact with children know best how to teach them?

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Like many teachers, for the past week I have been thinking about the Rhode Island high school that fired all of its teachers because the school repeatedly failed to reach NCLB standards. I don’t know much about the school, but I suspect I can guess what kind of school it is. I suspect it’s in a lower socio-economic level neighborhood and probably has a high transient rate for students and probably teachers and administrators also. I guess that few of the parents attended college, and I would imagine that some of the students who graduate from the school will be the first in their family to do so. Isn’t this the scenario of most schools that fail to meet NCLB?

Regardless of the students’ background, however, most Americans expect students in  schools like this to score as high on standardized tests as students in suburban, upper middle-class areas. How absurd!  Yes, students in impoverished areas can indeed meet the same standards as suburban kids, but it would require an extraordinary faculty and student body.

As I read about the firing of the Rhode Island teachers, I thought of my own high school in suburban Atlanta. We have a beautiful campus, and the facilities are only ten years old. Students have access to about 30 AP courses and scores and scores of extra-curricular activities and sports. The faculty is well trained and usually enthusiastic. Students perform well about the national average on standardized tests, and among the 2500 students, the only students we have to worry about are several hundred students who are not as economically advantaged as most of our students, the very type of student who probably makes up the majority of studens in the Rhode Island high school.

People who visit our school always compliment us on our facilities, the energy, compassion, and academic performance of our students, and the diligence, enthusiasm, and devotion of our teachers.

We are a wonderful school!

I wonder, however, what would happen if the couple of hundred of students who struggle academically were the majority of the student body instead of the minority?

What would people then say about our school?

Would someone step in to fire all of our teachers?

Would Arne Duncan, the United States Education Secretary, step in to applaud the firing of the entire faculty?

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

For as long as I can remember, I have had trouble sleeping on Sunday nights. As I lay in bed, I keep mulling over what I have to do as soon as I get to school. Although I always make sure on Friday afternoon that I have everything I need on my desk for Monday morning, that preparation doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. I lay in bed and think about what I will do each day of the week.

Then I start thinking about problems that may change my plans (possible snow fall on Tuesday in Georgia once again!).

Then I start thinking about what will happen if the copy machines don’t work or if we run out of paper.

Then I start worrying about whether or not I have graded everything I was supposed to grade, or returning all of the emails I was supposed to return, or writing all of the recommendations I was supposed to write.

About that time, I’ll roll over in bed, look at the clock, and realize that if I don’t fall asleep quickly that I will not obtain sufficient sleep overnight.

Then, insomnia will seize me!

I only have these fears or concerns that prevent me from sleeping on Sunday nights, and as soon as vacation time rolls around, I sleep soundly on Sunday nights.

I just wish I could turn off the “school brain” on Sunday nights. Does anyone else have this problem?

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

I just read a poignant blog post about a stolen purse (Veteran Kindergarten Story), and it reminded me of an experience I endured almost two decades ago when I served a 5-year stint as an assistant principal, the longest five years of  my life.

I was working in a “challenging” high school, a school where we had great kids but also our share of kids who sold drugs and kids who disrupted classes. One year we had a small group of kids who stole items so swiftly, so slyly, and so shamelessly that they appeared to have popped right off the pages of a Charles Dickens’ novel.

Purses were their specialty!

When girls walked into bathroom stalls and locked the doors, one student would reach under the stall wall and swipe the purse. Or, a student would reach over the stall door and grab the pocketbook off the hook on the back of the door – long before the girl could leave the stall and identify the culprit.

When teachers showed movies or videos with the classroom lights turned off, one of the thieves would quietly grab a pocketbook off the floor, hide it, and then ask for a pass to the bathroom where he removed the money and credit cards from the purse before throwing it in the garbage.

The thefts finally reached teachers when a student stole two purses from two different filing cabinets late one Friday afternoon.

The thefts had become so brazen that we had to pull the faculty together on a Friday afternoon to inform them how serious the thievery had become and to suggest that teachers lock their purses in their car trunks instead of bringing them inside the building. That Friday we had a new Associate Principal, Sue,  in the building since the principal was ill. At the meeting, Sue apologized to the faculty for the thefts and asked for teachers’ help as we tried to identify and punish the students who had wreaked such mayhem. While finding the thefts disturbing, teachers were at least  thankful that we had shared our concerns with them.

After the faculty meeting, administrators returned to Sue’s front hall office to talk. We were exhausted. It had been a really long  and tiring day, and we still had to wait around for another couple of hours before we would leave to supervise Friday night’s football game. As we sat in Sue’s office, we decided to order supper.

Sue opened her drawer to get money.

That’s when she realized that her pocketbook was missing.

While Sue had beenconducting the faculty meeting and advising teachers to keep their purses locked in their car trunks, a student had stolen Sue’s purse from her desk drawer.

At least we had the weekend to recuperate.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Like most states, in this bad economy, Georgia is struggling to pay for schools and teachers. Teachers were furloughed for three days in the fall, and we will probably have 3 more furlough days this semester. Next year looks just as bad, and some politicians advocate shortening the school year by as many as ten days.

Yesterday as I watched the local television news, a state legislator disclosed his idea for funding the schools. With obvious rancor, he suggested that teachers who are making $100,000 should be forced to retire so systems could replace them with $40,000 teachers.

Such thinking is indicative of what often hinders schools: shortsighted thinking.

Yes, forcing “expensive” teachers into retirement will save school systems money, but what about learning? Will it help students to force our most experienced teachers into retirement and replace them with brand new teachers? While it is indeed true that some outstanding first-year teachers are exemplary and more effective than many teachers with years and years of experience, those situations are rare. While the research is unclear as to when teaching experience levels off, the research is absolutely clear that teachers are more effective each additional year they teach for at least the first five years for elementary teachers, and high school teachers on average continue to improve for several more years. Schools need experienced teachers.

Now, perhaps the economy has reached such dire straits that we need to take bold moves as the senator suggested, but couldn’t he display a little more respect and ASK teachers who have met retirement criteria to retire instead of sneering about expensive teachers?

Yes, I am, indeed, one of the old expensive teachers. With 32 years of teaching and a doctorate, I am at the top of Georgia teachers’ salary schedule.

Where are these $100,000 Georgia teachers?

I don’t know a $100,000 Georgia teacher!

Trading in old $100,000 teachers for $40,000 teachers isn’t going to work if there are no $100,000 Georgia teachers!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Yesterday I was reading another blog that listed ideas of ways to get students to stay in their desks. Please Sit Down As I read some of the suggestions, I remembered an extremely clever and effective strategy that another teacher employed many years ago.

Todd was an energetic eighth grader who simply could not stay in his desk. When he misbehaved, he jumped up out of his seat. When he participated in discussions, he jumped out of his seat. If something across the room even remotely looked exciting, Todd jumped out of his seat.

Todd jumped out of his seat in the morning and in the afternoon.

In first period and seventh period

In English class and in math

At lunch and homeroom.

His team teachers were exasperated and talked to Todd privately, called parents, assigned extra homework, punished and rewarded, but nothing seemed to work.

Finally, Leslie held him for detention, something none of us had tried. Why hold him for detention when we knew he would pop up all over the place and drive us crazy? But Leslie had a plan.

When Todd reported to her room for detention after school, she told him to sit in his desk. Then she explained the rules. “Since you love to jump out of your seat, we’ll play a little game,” she told Todd. She then pulled out a stopwatch. “I’m going to set the watch for 30 seconds. When time expires, I’ll say, ‘Time’s up,’ and you’ll move to the next desk in the row.” Todd smiled, and Leslie clicked the stop watch.

“Time’s up!  Move please.” Todd enthusiastically jumped up and moved to the next seat.

Todd had so much fun . . . the first 10 minutes.

Twenty minutes into detention, he was bored and quietly moved to the next desk.

Forty minutes into detention, he was so tired of moving that he asked the teacher if he could stop. “Just 20 more minutes, Todd, and you’ll be through.”

“I’m tired,” he whined, but she reminded him of how tired all of his teachers were of constantly telling him to sit down.

When detention ended, Leslie explained to him that she loved his enthusiasm but he couldn’t keep jumping up from his desk and wandering around the room because it was disruptive. “Tomorrow when you are in class,” she reminded him, “you have to stay in your desk. If you jump up again, we’re going to be right back here in detention with the stopwatch.”

The punishment was revolutionary. While Todd continued to get excited in class and sit on the edge of his seat, we no longer had to warn, prod, punish, chastise, and chase Todd back to his seat.

Jumping up out of a desk apparently is lots of fun . . . unless you have to do it every 30 seconds for a solid hour!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Technology is wonderful when it works. When it malfunctions, however, it can cause more trouble than we ever thought.

Each week my students have the option to participate in an online discussion that takes place on our class Facebook page. I introduce the topic on Sunday afternoons. Students then must respond to my post by  midnight on Friday and respond to one other student by noon on Sunday.

Last Wednesday a student sent me a message that he was unable to respond on Facebook because he kept getting a message to try again. For the next two days, many students sent me the same message, sometimes attaching the response that they were unable to post.

Instead of sitting back and simply monitoring the discussion, I had to post replies and field student complaints and concerns.  A couple of hours ago I closed the week’s discussion and posted the new discussion topic.

I sure hope this week’s discussion goes smoothly. We are discussing our favorite and our least favorite Super Bowl commercials.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Regardless of how long I teach, I will never understand when students plagiarize papers. While grading a wonderful set of This I Believe papers (see yesterday’s post), I started reading a paper that puzzled me. Since I require students to submit papers to Turnitin.com, a plagiarism detection site, I took a closer look at the student’s paper.

According to Turnitin.com, the paper contained over 20% of matching text from information that appears elsewhere on the Internet. I then checked a book about the student’s topic and found even more sentences that he apparently copied.

In most cases, this would anger me, but today I am just sad. The student is a nice young man and not a student I would normally think would cheat on a paper. I want to believe he would not cheat or copy part of a paper. I just don’t want to believe it.

Did he not realize that he couldn’t copy sentences from another source? I would like to think it’s a mistake, but no student could make it all the way to AP English without knowing about plagiarism.

Did he simply forget to enclose copied material in quotation marks? Again, that would be hard to believe for a seventeen-year-old student in an honors English class.

I gave the student a zero on the assignment, explained the problem, and asked him to see me individually. I’ll return the paper tomorrow.

Just when I was so sad over the idea that a student would plagiarize part of a paper, I picked up another student’s paper about her belief.

America needs to return to the days where people followed through on their promises and tried their hardest, no matter what the circumstances. Once upon a time, cheating was a serious offense, mistakes were acknowledged and rectified, and handshakes were the equivalent of a legal contract. Once upon a time, there were not unlimited opportunities to try again. Once upon a time, people had to work hard to succeed because there were no handouts. These are the values that America needs to return to. This personal responsibility is an important part of society that has been recently lost. This must be found again as America recovers from its recession. This I believe.

At the beginning of the semester, I always tell students how much cheating disappoints me. I emphasize that I can still have respect for students who make a horrible grade but who do not resort to cheating. I then emphasize that I can have little respect for students who take the easy way out and cheat.

I so hope the student can give me an explanation for what happened – some explanation that does not include copying.

If not, I hope he will admit his mistake and apologize. We all make mistakes.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott