The Boy Scouts had it right

How do you incentivize a bunch of young boys to pursue learning about their "civic duties" or "CPR"? Provide them with visible, tangible representations of their individuals merits - a Merit Badge. Stay tuned for further developments.

For decades badges have represented achievement in children’s and youth associations and in some professions. Religious pilgrims receive badges for their journeys.

Becket-pilgrim-badge open licensed by Wikipedia

Recently computer games have awarded badges for skill and success. Judd Antin and Elizabeth Churchill examine the psychology of the use of badges to encourage interaction in social media in this well-researched and well-written paper: Badges in Social Media: A Social Psychological Perspective.

Badges reward the knowledge and skill required to demonstrate achievement.

The Mozilla Foundation badge program seeks to open education by replacing the current system of limited admissions, high costs, and sometimes artificial demonstrations of learning with recognition of evidence-based learning open to all learners. The issuing of badges will also be open to organizations of many types. Rigorous criteria and solid evidence will be encouraged. Ultimately employers and established educational institutions will recognize those badges and badge-holders that demonstrate value. The Mozilla Foundation will provide the infrastructure to automate issuing and earning badges. The initial pilot of Mozilla Badges is now in operation with the Peer-to-Peer University (P2PU) School of Webcraft. Additional pilots will occur this Fall and the system will go live in 2012.

via collegeopentextbooks.org

 

The Changing Rules of Education

Matthew Carpenter, age 10, has completed 642 inverse trigonometry problems at KhanAcademy.org.
Photo: Joe Pugliese

 

“This,” says Matthew Carpenter, “is my favorite exercise.” I peer over his shoulder at his laptop screen to see the math problem the fifth grader is pondering. It’s an inverse trigonometric function: cos-1(1) = ?

Carpenter, a serious-faced 10-year-old wearing a gray T-shirt and an impressive black digital watch, pauses for a second, fidgets, then clicks on “0 degrees.” Presto: The computer tells him that he’s correct. The software then generates another problem, followed by another, and yet another, until he’s nailed 10 in a row in just a few minutes. All told, he’s done an insane 642 inverse trig problems. “It took a while for me to get it,” he admits sheepishly.

Carpenter, who attends Santa Rita Elementary, a public school in Los Altos, California, shouldn’t be doing work anywhere near this advanced. In fact, when I visited his class this spring—in a sun-drenched room festooned with a papercraft X-wing fighter and student paintings of trees—the kids were supposed to be learning basic fractions, decimals, and percentages. As his teacher, Kami Thordarson, explains, students don’t normally tackle inverse trig until high school, and sometimes not even then.

Read the rest at wired.com

Gamification: The future of Education

Gaming was once seen as evil, but it's quickly becoming apparent how powerful games can be for companies, ideas, and products. Some brilliant people will quickly see the opportunity and benefit of applying it in education, and many of the benefits are outlined here.

I'm not dead yet

It is very possible that this will be my last post on this blog for some time, it might not be. I really can’t tell what the future of this blog will hold – nobody can, not even science (Rob and Rich, that’s for you). But, I do feel that this would be an appropriate time to sum up my experience with Teach for America, and particularly with my school, students, administration, and district. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m going to break this entry up into two distinct parts – the first part will be a summary of the events of the last month and a half (which have been unbelievably eventful) when I wrote my last entry, and then the second part will be about what I am taking away from this entire experience. So, here goes part one.

The last time I wrote an entry, I titled it “Little Warriors”, and it was dedicated to my students (the other entries in the intervening time are ported over from another blog I curate with my friend, David Blake, called “hackingedu.com”). About one or two days after I wrote that entry, my laptop was stolen.

If you were to search back exactly one year, you would find another entry that talked about the same thing. That’s not what I’m referring to – I’m saying that my laptop was stolen again. However this time, I know exactly who stole it, how they got in my room, and what happened to it. Unfortunately, it’s also been a hard lesson in criminology because even with knowledge, if you don’t have proof, you’re sunk. That was the principle reason that I was MIA on my blog.

From that time, the following events have occurred:

1. The PE teacher quit
2. The English teacher quit
3. The Science teacher was fired
4. A security guard quit
5. Our parent liaison was fired
6. We miraculously finished state testing
7. Our principal was absent for 11 of the last 20 academic school days
8. Students who received a referral at any point during the last three weeks of school were given automatic 5 day suspensions. I haven’t seen approximately ½ of my students from that time
9. I’ve sold approximately 50/100 yearbooks that we ordered (it’s been a one man show)
10. My tech lab class completely planned out an end of the year party, complete with materials and a budget which was ultimately ruled unsafe by the administration and therefore terminated
11. I was quoted in the New York Times
12. I have received multiple written reprimands for “insubordination”
13. A current mayoral candidate for San Francisco came to visit my classroom to see the way the public schools are failing our students
14. The Associated Press interviewed a number of my favorite students about the conditions of our school, since we’re one of the 10 schools in the country closing for SIG funding (School Improvement Grant)
15. After my laptop was stolen, the students continued to plague my room with thefts, stealing anything of value from my room (digital cameras, food, etc.). They acted with impunity, and no punishments were ever dolled out
16. My personal yearbook was stolen at the release party. I made a number of key phone calls, and the book was returned to me anonymously the following morning!
17. One of my favorite students was expelled for unknowingly carrying drugs for another student who should have been expelled months and months ago

Plus about a thousand other, common daily occurrences which are probably newsworthy everywhere else, but around this place they’re just the status quo.

It is unbelievable to me the way that things run around here. I could probably have written an extensive entry on every one of those numbers that I listed previously, but I won’t bore you with all the details here and now. The point is, I really don’t work at a school – it is a glorified day care. I wish that my entries were about me trying to figure out how to differentiate, or how to reach that one unreachable student, or how to raise attendance. Instead I feel like they have been about me trying to figure out how to surf the political turmoil that rages here, and keep my head above water.

I can think of no other reason as to why I would push through this entire experience other than I know with all my heart that my students deserve so much more than what they are offered or receive here, and if I can do any of my part to help them receive that, I’ll do it. Now that I’m feeling all nice and nostalgic, I think I’m going to get started on writing part 2. Feel free to inquire about anything you might care to hear more about. I have a feeling this second entry might take me a few days to put together, but stay tuned.

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries

 

WHEN we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, theJoint Chiefs of Staff. No one contemplates blaming the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition.

And yet in education we do just that. When we don’t like the way our students score on international standardized tests, we blame the teachers. When we don’t like the way particular schools perform, we blame the teachers and restrict their resources.

Compare this with our approach to our military: when results on the ground are not what we hoped, we think of ways to better support soldiers. We try to give them better tools, better weapons, better protection, better training. And when recruiting is down, we offer incentives.

We have a rare chance now, with many teachers near retirement, to prove we’re serious about education. The first step is to make the teaching profession more attractive to college graduates. This will take some doing.

At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender.Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible.

So how do teachers cope? Sixty-two percent work outside the classroom to make ends meet. For Erik Benner, an award-winning history teacher in Keller, Tex., money has been a constant struggle. He has two children, and for 15 years has been unable to support them on his salary. Every weekday, he goes directly from Trinity Springs Middle School to drive a forklift at Floor and Décor. He works until 11 every night, then gets up and starts all over again. Does this look like “A Plan,” either on the state or federal level?

 

Read the rest via TheHuffingtonPost

 

Sal Khan on LinkedIn

Reinvent the future of education.

Pretty Fast

Right after I arrive at school, a student (Q) comes running up to me ...

Q: "Mr. Woahn! Mr. Woahn!  You need to come to our track meet today!"

Me:  I smile.  "Where is it?"

Q: "Kezar Stadium."

Me: Look of concern... "Oh..."  

Q: "It's too far, huh?"

Me: "No, it's not that - it's just that I'm not sure I could make it up to the stadium before your meet was over. How come you want me there?"

Q: "You need to see me run!  I am preeettty fast..."

I'd better get going pretty fast.

Little Warriors

I had two students show up today to class, unable to stop talking about something that had apparently happened on the way to school.  However, the nonchalant attitude they had toward the subject matter made me think it was them just goofing around, and so I tried to squelch their chatter as quickly as possible.

They came in to class, and from the moment they set foot through the door, all they could talk about was a shooting they observed on their way to school.  But then they were laughing about it, joking, and goofing off as if nothing of a serious nature had truly happened.  So what am I to believe?  I mean, I take about 5% of what my kids say as truth - I hate to say it, but it's just not one of their strong points.  I felt that on the remote chance that what they were saying was true, they probably shouldn't be in my classroom at that point.  However, they were being so disruptive with their story as the entire class wanted to hear it, I couldn't get anyone to focus on what I was trying to do, so I wasn't sure where to go next.

I was somewhat relieved when I noticed neither one of them had on their uniforms.  If students don't have on uniforms when they show up to class, they're supposed to go straight to In School Suspension (ISS).  So I sent them to ISS, and figured that someone who wasn't trying to teach a class could determine whether there was truth to their story or not.

Turns out, there was.  There was a lot of talk today, from both the adult and the students, about a shooting that took place no further than 2 blocks from our school.  And in spite of the fact that two people were hospitalized, and possibly dead (they didn't release much details), none of my students seemed particularly fazed by it. 

This caused me to wonder, and worry on a number of accounts.  For one, has this type of event become such a common occurrence in their short lives that it's really not anything out of the ordinary?  People dying, getting shot at, hospitals and critical condition? Is this what normal life is like for them?  For another, those could have been my kids down there, being hauled down to the emergency room with a bullet in their chest. 

Yesterday I attended the funeral of one of my favorite student's mom. She was one of the few parents who was actively involved in her child's education.  It was really hard for me to be there, and I got choked up a few times.  Not that I was super close to the woman, but I looked to my student, sitting alone, looking little there on the front row, knowing that this little guy is now going to have to go the rest of his life without this monumental force for good in his life, the woman who drove him to and from school every day, who called me on a semi-daily basis to discuss her son's habits and progress in my class, with whom I collaborated as I brought her son along on special assignments.  And now she's gone.  What will happen to him now?  This for the parent ... I can only imagine had it been the student.

Another one of my students had her mother show up to school yesterday to pick up her and her little sister up.  However, the mom was so strung out on drugs that she was unable to drive her daughters home, and so she enlisted the support of a minor (13 years old) who "knew" how to drive, and she took them all home, and took the bus back to school.  My student wasn't in school today, but I hear that CPS were called.  I honestly can't even begin to fathom what she is going through right now, but my heart cries out in anguish.

My students are little warriors.  The battle that they wage on a daily basis is more than I feel I've had to take on in my entire life.  But they somehow find the strength to not only press forward, but thrive. At times I take in the gravity of the entire scope of situations that I've encountered during my time here at school, and I start to feel that trying to teach them power number properties seems somewhat trivial.

And I take a step back, and look at the bigger picture of what I'm trying to accomplish.  Sure, in the short run, power number properties won't amount to a lot. But it's the attitude of a scholar - not only am I trying to help them accumulate knowledge, but I'm pushing them to take command of their education. By so doing, I can only pray that it will afford them the tools to elevate their futures to a higher plane that isn't so needlessly afflicted with the pain, grieving and heartache as the world that they currently live in. Education for these guys amounts to so much more than what I have them write down on paper, but it's about teaching them that there's more to life than the street label.  It's how to be civil, to be proper, to be good citizens, to be courteous, to engender empathy for others, to show respect for people, property, and themselves.  It's letting them know that there are people out there who care for them regardless of anything else that's happening in their lives, in whom they can hopefully trust and depend on to see the best in them and push them to new heights.  

I don't know, maybe I'm just blowing smoke to make myself feel like I'm making a difference for these kids... but I do know one thing.  I love my students. 

An Effort In Futility

I should be packing and preparing for a trip right now, but I feel I need to get this off my chest.  Last night I made my first appearance on the SFUSD Board of Education meeting.  Turns out, to my delight, that they taped it!  So, please take a visit to see the two minutes (my and Katey's part) in front of the board, two minutes out of a 4 hour and 30 minute meeting, where we had the opportunity to plead for the state of our school and our student's future.  I start talking around 2 hours and 45 minutes, but if you go before that, you'll see a bunch of other teachers, parents, and students from the Bay View who are also pleading the same case that Katey and I were there to make.

http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=47&clip_id=11838

The agenda covered a lot of GREAT things that are happening in SFUSD, truly.  But what greatly disappointed me was the enormously disproportioned ratio of time that was spent hearing about the wonderful things that were happening, and how very, very little we were allotted to plead the case of the injustices that are taking place in the exact same district.  I mean, who wouldn't want to hear the great things over the bad?  It's a lot easier, because we can all pat ourselves on our backs and feel that we're making a difference.  But the bad - that's going to take work to address and figure out how to overcome.  Ugh, not something we like to hear.

But, when you consider the fact that two of the agenda items that were discussed prior to getting my chance to talk were 1) discussing the results of investigations that have been taking place in the district regarding students who are attending GREAT schools in the district who have falsified their addresses in order to go there and 2) discussing the renewal of a fantastic continuation school in the county jail... it causes me to question.  These are two items that were the district to focus more efforts heeding the cases of the terrible things that are happening in the district, wouldn't it make the need to discuss items 1 and 2 noted above effectively...moot?

I really do need to start packing, but I think now, more than ever, I feel that regardless of how much I want to improve the situation for my students, it feels like an effort in futility - since I'm working against a system that evidently cares more about covering their own hides and ensuring their own futures rather than looking out for the futures over those whom they preside.  I'm being rushed off the stage, given a one minute timer to plead the case for my failing school and the desperately needy students it attempts to provide for, while the students from highly desired SOTA are given 15 minutes to share their successful mural project and the amazing accompanied video that documents their brilliant success.  Maybe next time I just need to document everything...

Amazing Leadership = Amazing Results

Ten years ago, the graduation rate at Cincinnati's Taft Information Technology High School was 18 percent. It was considered one of the worst schools in Ohio; parents didn't want to send their children there.

Since then, thanks to dedicated principal Anthony Smith, the same staff of hard-working teachers and a unique partnership with the local phone company, the school has undergone a complete 180, ABC News reports.

Today, the school has taken its "failure is not an option" motto to heart. Ninety-five percent of the students graduate. And not a single one of the free phones and laptops given to students who kept a 3.3 grade point average (by Cincinnati Bell, the city's local phone company) has been taken back because the student fell behind.

Via The Huffington Post

Imagine...

Imagine a school with no structure, discipline, responsibility, chain of command, or leadership. Imagine a school where the students ruthlessly rule and act with impunity because they know nor fear no consequence.

Imagine a school where you a student screams "F@*# you!" while playing a game because they feel it was their turn again, even though they had already played 3x's as much as any other student in the class. Imagine a school where you call the parent of said student, and the parent gives you the same response. Imagine where they learned it from. Imagine that you call every parent of the children you teach for parent teacher conferences, and not a single one of them shows up. Imagine that all of them said they were going to.

Imagine a school where you say "Good morning!" to a student as they enter the classroom, and they explode in your face and complain about how you're always talking to them about something. Imagine a school where you ask the same question every day "Where is your pencil?" and the student responds "Gaaaawd, why you always wanting me to show you my pencil? You be doin' too much!" Imagine a school where any type of advertisement, motivational poster, or student work hung up on the wall at the beginning of the period becomes hallway trash by the start of the next.

Imagine a school where you gently nudge a student to start copying down the notes and they scream at you "Get your a*@ out of my face!" Imagine a school where students thunder continuously down the hallways at all times of the day, especially during class time. Imagine a school where students play around in the school yard for 15 minutes after lunch gets over, because there are no motivating factors to get them out of there. Imagine a school where students run at uncontrolled top speed down crowded hallways, with teachers yelling at them to "walk", and the students continue on as if the adults weren't even there. Imagine a school where a student can assault teachers, sell marijuana laced cookies in school to students, get caught, and remain in class. Imagine a school where these same kids can run into a teacher, knock them down flat on the back, banging their head against the ground, and there are no consequences for the wreckless student.

Imagine that this school has such a hard time retaining ANY teachers that the new teachers are not instructed to actually teach a curriculum, but do whatever it takes to keep these kids in the classroom. Imagine a school where the students who have been identified as disruptive are automatically being referred to in-school-suspension on a daily basis to "do their work" without even having the opportunity to attend a classroom with a certificated instructor.

Imagine that the district this school is in is completely aware of everything that is happening at this school. And imagine that they turn a blind eye to it all.

Welcome to my school.

Khan on TED

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

The evolving field of education

Online education is rapidly making advances.  In support of the quote below from Bill Gates, I present "100+ Online Resources That Are Transforming Education."

PTC Week = Early Out Week

When you work at a school with virtually no parent involvement like mine, having a week of parent teacher conferences is like getting out of school early every day.  It's both a blessing and a curse.

Merit based student achievement

Today, the Idaho House passed a bill to approve merit based pay for teachers.  While I whole-heartedly believe that the education system should become professionalized in this manner, I shudder to think of what a nightmare it is going to be to implement merit pay into the current system.
The article I read says that the legislation will "... award bonuses to teachers who raise student achievement..."  Student achievement means ... mastery of material?  Increased state test scores?  Working the system?  "Student achievement" is a term that gets thrown around in education like an "end hunger" campaign.  Sure, we know there are a lot of people hungry in the world, but it's a pretty ambiguous term as to what the specific call to action is, and it's easy to justify our own inaction by assuming that someone else is dedicated to the cause and making a difference, and just needs our moral support.
So, here's a specific call to action - define student achievement.
Via the HuffingtonPost

Earning 4 Learning status report

I'm sure you've all been anxiously awaiting to hear how Earning 4 Learning (trademark pending) has been going. Well, we just wrapped up day two of the program, and it's been pretty much going as I thought it would:

1.  There have already been 2 reported incidents of theft from teachers.  Teachers who had stacks of bills that were stolen by students.  And we know who the perpetrators are, because they're telling all the other students how they've already "earned" $600 scholar dollars.  Yeah right Carl, dream on.

2.  I would place student buy-in currently somewhere between 60-75%.  Which is pretty good to start with - I think a lot of the students don't see the current value.  So, that's a place for us to focus on and figure out how to get their buy-in.  I have some ideas, and I'm excited to hear from the rest of the staff.

3.  A number of teachers are already giving up on the program because the results aren't showing.  Did I mention that it's day 2?  Since when did the world change in two days?  There's a reason why we told everyone from the start that we're going to stick with the plan NO MATTER WHAT for two weeks.

4.  Students have had their money stolen, and are wanting to be reimbursed for money they lost.  It's a tough lesson to learn, but in the real world - that's how life works.  I get my laptop stolen in real life, nobody is going to buy me a new one.  As Katey said - you wouldn't flaunt your fat wad of cash down on Third Street, why in the world would you even begin to think it's safe to do so at our school?

5.  A number of students have become walking money banks/drains.  This means that the students who don't care about their money pass it along to the students who care a LOT.  So, these students who care a lot have been getting tons of cash, and a number of students who don't care have nothing.  They probably don't mind yet, but they will soon.

There have been a number of unanticipated things I've taken note of:

1.  The number of students bringing pencils has gone way, way up.  However, there seems to have been a inverse trend with uniforms.  The number of students in free dress and hats today was appalling.

2. I witnessed my first "Cash-for-scholar-dollars" transaction today.  A student gave $5 to another student for 50 scholar dollars.  That made me happy - our money has real value!

3.  We had a student cohort hijack the faculty lounge during class yesterday and attempt to make their own copies on the copy machine of money.  The ring leader should be suspended, but at the same time, I admire their ingenuity.  Just the wrong application of it.

4.  There are teachers hiring students to clean the school.  Seems like a good idea, until you start to overhear students talking about how they're just going to continue to trash the school yard so they can keep getting paid.

5.  The inventory of the school store is not being depleted nearly as quickly as I had anticipated.

6.  The money that I'm handing out isn't going nearly as quickly as I had anticipated.  We figured that if each student earns on average $7 per period, it comes out to be about $50 per student per week.  At that rate, I thought I'd need about $4000 to get through a single week.  As of today, we've gone through two full days of the program, and I think I've only given out about $400.  And I've been handing it out at every possible opportunity I have. I personally think this is a good thing, if we can still invest the students, not hand out as much money as we'd considered, and still have pretty solid results.

Overall, I'm happy with the program so far.  There are a lot of tweaks that need to be made, and more organization from the staff so Katey and I don't feel like we're doing everything (I know we aren't, but I need this system to be in a place where if I don't do something, it will still survive).  I feel the next big challenge is going to be to continue to persuade the staff to stick to the plan, and not give up hope.  A difference can be made, we just need to find the right pressure points with our students.

Coming Soon

There's change in the wind - can you feel it?  I can.

Over the last few weeks, some fairly radical changes have taken place in the upper echelon's of our zone in the district.  I won't go in to details at this time, but I'll do my best to summarize without minimizing the roles of those involved.

If you've been following my blog for some time, you're likely already familiar with the ridiculosity of the events that take place at my school.  Last year, the majority of those documented events took place in my classroom, since that's where I focused the majority of my efforts.  This year has been a huge eye opener for me as I've reigned in the craziness of my classroom, and become aware of the atrocities that are taking place at my school on a larger scale. To some degree this saddens me, because I love reading about the hilarious events that took place in my classroom, because let's face it - 7th graders are pretty ridiculous.  However, this year, I can honestly say that the number of hilarious events that take place in my classroom really don't extend much beyond the occasional funny comment or absurd action.  So, the number of anecdotal stories have receded and  been replaced with (hopefully) more meaningful, larger scale issues that I've encountered.

If all goes well in the next few weeks, hopefully even the ridiculosity of events school wide will start to subside.  And it all started with a letter.

A letter that was sent to the San Francisco board of education that clearly delineated the injustices that have been allowed to propagate at my school for the last few months, and in reality, the last few years.  This letter started a ripple effect that originally had me worried about the unknown, but has since led to the movement of personnel and resources that I have no doubt will ultimately be for the better.

I'm not going to elaborate on the movement of personnel as of right now, because everything I've heard thus far is heresy, and fundamentally unsubstantiated.  However, if what I hear is true, it will be amazing.

However, I would love to elaborate on the movement of resources, because it has led to a transformation in the staff at my school.

A few weeks back our staff had a meeting with some district admins who came to our school to discuss this letter that had been sent to their superiors.  The outcome of this meeting basically was that there are a ton of problems at our school, and they need to be fixed.  It was pointed out that our staff is well aware of the issues, but we never have time to collaborate, address, or discuss potential solutions to the issues.  So we were given the promise of time and resources to collaborate and come up with solutions for the issues.  The next day, I met with Katey and another staff member at the school, and we outlined some of the issues that needed to be discussed as a staff, and came up with an agenda for our scheduled meeting the following day.

The next day, our staff met and we discussed the various issues our school is plagued with, and potential solutions.  We broke the staff up into smaller groups, with each group brainstorming possible solutions to the issues, and then reconvened to have everyone share out the solutions that they had come up with.  After getting a great list of possible solutions, Katey and I spent a few hours outlining a comprehensive solution that incorporated as many of the ideas as possible from our staff as we could.

The solution that we devised essentially consisted of creating a school economy that utilized what we termed "Scholar Dollars" which could be used to purchase items from the school store that we will be opening. We pitched the plan to the staff, and given that our plan incorporated so many ideas from the entire staff, they could all sense the elements of their contribution to the program and it was heartily approved.

I have spent many, many hours thinking through this plan, and one of the things that I did along the way was the break it up into individual responsibilities.  Being the dork that I am, I even created an organization chart, discussed the responsibilities with the staff, and had people volunteer for specific tasks and committees.   After each person was assigned to a committee, we all broke up and everyone went their ways to work on accomplishing their task.

Since that time, our school has been a flurry of activity.  It has been amazing to see how much these teachers have been getting on board with our plan, which I probably should mention that we are calling it "Earning 4 Learning", or E4L for short.  Each teacher has their specific responsibility, and they really have been owning up to it.  And everyone has been pitching in to work out the details, and make sure that E4L is going to be a success.  In the 18 months that I've been at my school, this is the first time I have seen teacher a) enthusiastically working together b) excited about a program at our school c) believing that change is possible and d) that together, we can really make a difference.  Literally, here are some of the comments I've heard in the last few days:

• "I think this is the first time that I'm not dreading coming to school on Monday."
• "There's no way this isn't going to work - there's just so much potential!"
• "This is what being a teacher is supposed to be like."
• "This must be what it's like teaching at a normal school."
• "It's been so much fun to be able to express some creative problem solving in a meaningful way."
• "I didn't think there'd be anyway that we were going to actually get (specific teachers) involved, but look what they've done!"
• "I finally feel like what I'm doing is going to make a difference to the students."
• "This is a perfect application of algebra!  And it's so much fun!  If only we could bring this kind of real world experience to our students..."

It's been an incredible experience getting to see our staff really gel together and make this program go forward.  As of right now, it's 100% untested, unproven, and any tangible results are yet-to-be-seen.  There have been many challenges along the way, including a last minute announcement that none of the previously-promised funding would actually be available for us to use.  That was a big scare, but I'm hopeful that we've worked through that one.  However, with the enthusiasm of our staff, the confidence in the plan, and how much buy in we have at almost every level, it's really difficult for me to see any points of failure.  Sure, sure, I know - they will quickly become blatantly obvious to me, but as of right now, I believe that there are big changes coming soon.

Consistency is Key

Before the year began, I carefully mapped out what I wanted every week to look like.  I wanted to create consistent, systematic structures that would not only simplify my life, but create a classroom structure that my students could come to know and rely upon.

One of these things included me looking at the week schedule, determining which day would be our assessment day, review day, short day, when to do instruction, etc.  Of my objectives for my students this year, one of the things that I wanted to accomplish was to get them to become nearly 100% proficient with basic integer operations, and hopefully with fractions as well.  My strategy for doing this was not only teaching them the rules (yet once again) at the beginning of the school year, but I determined that I would assess them on their integer operations daily via the Do Now - the first five minutes of class - where the students come in, immediately receive a hand out, sit down with their pencil in hand, and get to work.

So I structured my schedule from day one, and I've stuck with it every since then:  Monday - addition, Tuesday - subtraction, Wednesday - multiplication, Thursday - division, Friday - mixed operations.  I honestly didn't know if my students would pick up on this, nor did I think I would care, so I didn't really advertise it, but it makes it easy for me to be accountable and ensure that each operation receive adequate attention.

When I made my copies for the week on Monday, I accidently switched Thursday division with Tuesday subtraction.  I was slightly bothered by it, but I figured it really didn't matter and no one would notice.

Sixth period comes around, and my students are working on the Do Now (division, mind you) and DJ calls me over and says "Why are we doing division today?  It isn't Thursday."

I about died.  I was so incredibly proud with 1. DJ for even noticing and 2. myself for having inflicted this expectation on them for my classroom.  So minor, I know, but things like this really let me know that at some level - I am reaching these kids.  I love it.  More than anything, it's things like this that really reinforces the idea that consistency truly is key.  Also, regarding the image at the top - what do you think?  Is it better to be consistent or have rare moments of greatness and truly shine?

4-5 Essential Skills for Educators

About a week ago, there was a comment on one of my blog posts inquiring about the 4-5 essential teaching skills that we learned during institute.  Aaron, this one's for you.

The five essential skills I referred to in that other entry involve the following: creating a unified management plan, investment plan, tracking system, backwards planning, and creating an efficient, transparent grading system.

I'll explain the unified part at the end, but first, the management plan.  You need to know the exact type of behavior that you want your students to exhibit at all times, make your expectations abundantly clear, and have a plan for every possible situation.  I think this is one of the reasons why your first year of teaching is so difficult - because you're just finding answers to each of the different situations that arise.  Not only do you need to know how you want your students to behave, but you also need to know what the consequences are going to be for each situation - and beyond anything at all, you have to be completely consistent.  As soon as the students know that they can get away with a certain behavior without consequence, they will exploit it.  They've very smart.

As far as specific management resources go, seriously, my biggest word of advice is to be completely consistent in everything that you do, as well as invest a lot in the front end on building relationships with your students.  My first year was really difficult, because I felt no matter how I tried to build my relationships with my students, I still felt a lot of anger towards their behavior.  This year has been completely different, in the sense that even though they often behave in a manner that drives me crazy, even when I'm reprimanding them for some behavioral infraction, I can still feel my love for them, and I know they can feel it as well.  It somehow takes the edge off of things.

In my credentialing program last year, we used a book called "Tools for Teachers" by Fred Jones.  I read the entire book last year, attempted everything that he talks about, and it completely failed for me.  Last year.  However, this year, I tried everything again, and it totally has worked for me.  That's not to say that my classroom management is perfect - far, far from it.  However, so many things in that book have been incredibly effective - especially Preferred Activity Time.  If you're wanting something to read, I'd suggest that.  And when you want to hear some specific lessons that I learned from it or how I made it work with my students, I'd be glad to offer specific advice.  And again, lest you find the information in the book to be ridiculous and ineffective, know that I have heard from teachers who've been in downtown Oakland, Compton, Watts, and other notoriously rough school districts, and heard them say that these other schools don't even compare to what takes place at our school.  So, if it works here, I strongly believe it will work anywhere.

The second key skill is implementing an effective investment plan.  By investment, I mean that your students actually care about participating in class, learning, and demonstrating mastery.  This takes some time - for me, about 3/4 of my first year of teaching - to figure out what it is that motivates students to want to learn and participate in your class.  There is no silver bullet here, but the key to this one is to never give up, and to continually evolve your incentive structures because student's interests are going to keep changing.

The third key skill (the one that boggled the district people) is creating a detailed tracking system.  In California, there are key educational standards.  Here's an example:

Algebra and Functions 4.1 (AF4.1): Solve two-step linear equations and inequalities in one variable over the rational numbers, interpret the solution or solutions in the context from which they arose, and verify the reasonableness of the results.

Now, mind you, this is a single standard.  However, how many skills could you extract from this single standard?  Here's a couple just to get started:

1. Solve linear equations (one step) with addition/subtraction
2. Solve linear equations (one step) with multiplication/division
3. Solve linear equations (two steps) with multiplication, addition/subtraction
4. Solve linear equations (two steps) with division, addition/subtraction
5. Do all of the above, but with inequalities (and know the specific rules that apply)
6. Define a rational number
7. Identify whether a number is rational or not

I mean, the list could go on and on.... I literally have to assume with my students that they know the VERY basic of mathematics, and even at that, I'm often way off.  We still struggle, consistently, with the basic arithmetic operations.

Anyhow, that's a lot of material to cover, and a lot of potential points of failure.  On the district benchmark assessments that they give us, they will include maybe 2-3 questions on this standard.  However, with students who are at the level that you'll be working with, odds are that they'll miss all the questions on this standard, and when they do - how does knowing that 100% of your students got 0% on standard AF4.1 help you determine where they have misunderstandings? Was it with the one step equations?  Rational numbers?  Inequalities?  There isn't a lot of resolution.

So you take all the standards, and break them up into very, very basic, easily digestible pieces of knowledge that can be taught in simple steps.  Then when you write your assessments, write them in such a way that you can determine if a student has mastered a particular skill.  So, using the list I created above, assume that you have a test addressing the 7 skills I listed above, and you have two questions for each skill.  Suppose that a student gets 2/2 on skill 1, 2/2 on skill 2, but then 0/2 on skill 3, and then again 2/2 on skill 4.  Immediately, I know that there is some basic misunderstanding that this student has dealing with multiplication in two step equations.  And I can work with that - it gives me useful information.  This is information that knowing my student got 0/3 on standard AF4.1 would never tell me.  You'll learn all about this at institute, but that was a brief priview.

The fourth skill is called backwards planning.  I'm not sure if you're familiar with this, but I had the good fortune of taking two years of college courses where literally, this is all we talked about.  Anyhow, the basic idea of backwards planning is just taking a look at where you want your students to be (for the sake of this article, let's assume the you want your students to ace the state competency exam), and then to literally create a path that will make it possible for your students to achieve your goal for them.  So, in my instance, I looked at the state 7th grade math test, and looked at the skills that I felt would give the most "bang for the buck" (most questions on the test) that I ALSO felt were the most relevant life skills for them to learn in mathematics.  Then, knowing what I wanted them to get out of my course by the end of the year, as well as the type of test questions that I want them to be able to answer, I mapped my entire year out so that starting with day 1, I knew exactly what lessons I was going to be teaching for every day of the entire year, how long my units were going to be, and where I could afford some flexibility for those unpredictable days that will certainly come along.

Truly, backwards planning is all about knowing where you want to end up, and then creating a feasible plan to make it happen.  This has proven immensely challenging with education, because there are sooooooooo many factors that are completely out of my control.  But then at the same time, it's been incredibly beneficial, because I have a clear vision of how I want my classroom to run, and it turns out that it creates strong structure and expectations, which students actually crave.  Again, you'll be all over this at institute, but if you're really curious and want to get a jump start to be prepared, do some Google searches and look for more - this is definitely a key skill.

And finally.  Figure out how you want to do your grading early on, and then stick with it.  And be extremely transparent with your students, and make sure they know at all times how their actions affect their grades, and make it clear exactly what those grades are.  It is easy to quickly become inundated with papers and student work.  Come up with a plan of how you want to handle it.  I came up with a system that has been super effective in my classroom, and a number of the teachers at my school have since picked it up because it's worked so well.  It provides an opportunity for my students to be cognizant of their grade and see how everything (participation, homework, behavior) relate back to their grade in my class.  I know school isn't only about grades, but it gives you another point of leverage to work with students if you can get them invested in their education.  And truly, ultimately, that's what it all comes down to - helping them to become successful, and take charge of their education.  Also, this part can really salvage your sanity, so it's definitely worth putting some thought into.

Now, back to the unified part.  The reason I say unified is because truly, when it comes down to it, everything that you do in the classroom is going to be linked together.  It really starts with creating a strong backwards plan, breaking down the standards to allow you to know what you're going to teach, figuring out how you're going to teach it, how you're going to track it, how you're going to get your kids to care about learning it, how you're going to reward them for doing so, how they're going to behave as they're learning, and how you're going to give them consequences for disrupting their education and that of their peers.  It all needs to be tied tightly together, because they're very, very interrelated.

I hope this gives you a starting point.  There are about a million more things that I could say, but this is already sufficiently long.  Best wishes!  Feel free to reach out to me with any other questions you may have.

The Student Becomes the Master, and the Master ... Gets Promoted?

I get slightly nervous when veteran educators start coming to me for advice about their jobs.  And we're not talking about people who have been teaching for 3 or 4 years, we're talking about people who have been in education for over 25 years.  And this isn't information that I know because these people's actions demonstrate the type of mastery that you'd come to expect after dedicating so much time to a pursuit, but because they constantly mention it on a semi-daily basis.  They just find places to slip it in, you know, like "When I was a classroom teacher 20 years ago..." or "24 years ago after my first year of teaching..." or "Back before the internet, when I started teaching..." or my favorite "Man, you almost weren't even alive when I started teaching!"

Also, we're not just talking about teachers, but we're talking about the people who are leading this organization.  Coming to me - a non-traditionally trained instructor with a total time in the classroom an order of magnitude less than the total number of months these people have been in education - for advice on how to do their jobs.  Don't get me wrong, I'm flattered and all, but come on people...  If this is what we're coming to, maybe we should switch jobs.  I'd say I'm about due for a promotion, but I've observed that thanks to the union, those only seem to come when you do an exceptionally poor job at your current position.

Speaking of which, did I mention that I'm supposed to be one of the Union Representatives at my school?!  No joke!  Those of you who have been following my blog probably have a pretty good understanding of my feelings towards the unions (if you don't read here, here, and here), so hearing this may be a shock to you.

I was elected jointly with Katey, the other TFA teacher at my school.  She had a great analogy to describe how it happened, which I'll utilize.  It's like we were the slow kids in school, and were the last ones to say "Not it!"  (I literally told the staff "I can't stand the Union, I loathe the fact that I am obliged to join it to teach here, and don't support them at all", and they still wanted me to do it.) Anyhow, it happened, and so supposedly we're representing the union at our school, although neither of us really has any clue what to do.  Although perhaps I should modify that to say I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, and thankfully Katey has been extremely dutiful on following up with her Union responsibilities. It's been suggested to me that perhaps the most damage I can do to the Union is abstain from doing anything at all in my current position, which I've considered.  However, due to the respect that I have for my fellow educators, I feel that I would be doing the most damage to them by not doing anything, so I figure I should probably step up my game.  Something feels amiss.

PS - While you're here, please click on this link and vote for my idea in this Social Media in Education competition that I entered in to - I'd greatly appreciate it!

Please Vote!

Our idea for the Rightbrainsare.us competition has been posted, and here's the link:

http://rightbrainsare.us/ideas/%E2%80%9Ca-thing-worth-having-is-a-thing-worth-cheating-for-%E2%80%9D-w-c-field/

Please help us win by clicking on this link and clicking on the pink heart (like) in the top left!  Tell your friends and help us make our idea become a reality.

Also, if you should care to, please read our idea and feel free to post some feedback.

Expanding my Realm

A couple weeks ago I posted a link to a video, and made a blog entry about my shifting interests toward educational reform and such.  Since then, things have gone a bit further.  For starters, my buddy David Blake and I entered this competition called "No Right Brain Left Behind".  It was a fun little competition, we'll hear how we did in March.  I personally think the quality of the idea that we came up with when compared to the amount of time that we put in to brainstorming it is downright brilliant.  At some point maybe I'll pitch it here and see what you all think.

Until then, please follow us on a blog that David has been maintaining for the last few years, called hackingedu.com.  He's invited me to start posting my finds on that site, which I am glad to do see that he already has an established readership.  The intent of the blog  is to post our daily finds regarding trends and the direction that the evolution of education is taking/going to take.  See you there!

How Teach for America Works

I keep talking with friends and family who have some seemingly very basic questions about Teach For America, and I realized that most people have no idea how Teach For America really works.  So I decided it's probably time (after over two years of involvement) that I bring down the shroud of occlusion.  Plus with the 20th Anniversary TFA Summit going on right now, I figure there's no better time than to talk a bit about the program.

College students (and pretty much anyone else who wants to get involved) apply for TFA around graduation.  They go through a rigorous interviewing process, which lasted over four hours in my experience, and then within a few weeks receive word as to if they've been accepted to the program or not.

Upon acceptance, new corp members attend a summer institute training program near the region of their acceptance, or at least relatively close.  I was accepted to work in the Bay Area, but my training was in Los Angeles.  Close enough, right?  Anyhow, over the summer program, we learn all the basics of what TFA has determined are the skills and qualities that make for effective teachers. Not only do we learn about them, but we get to put them in practice as we teach summer school for the local school districts.

(A complete side note here - if you are reading to find out more about how TFA works, skip this paragraph. It blows my mind that in the 6 weeks of my summer institute training, there were about 4-5 essential skills that I learned which have become a key part of my teaching experience.  These key skills are things that seem like second nature to me, but when I share them veteran teachers, it blows their minds.  A few weeks ago we had a district professional development where we talked about analyzing data from district assessments.  The assessments they give are horrible, and my students do awful on them, and they tell me absolutely nothing.  So I keep track of my own systems that have a much higher resolution for interpretation, and thus are much more informative.  I brought my system with me to the professional development, and ended up having to more or less tell the district supervisors why their system was ineffective and that I wasn't buying in to it and show to them why mine was so much more effective. The district people didn't seem to take it very well, but everyone at my school who was sitting at the table were pretty blown away by what I had been doing.  And I had to laugh afterwards when Katey said on the way back to the school "These are things we all learned within the first two weeks of teaching... It isn't rocket science.")

Following our institute training, we return back to our areas of assignment and start teaching.  Now, how we get the jobs at the schools that we are teaching at varies wildly.  Some of the people at institute already had their teaching assignments when they arrived there.  They had been some of the lucky few who had been able to interview with various schools prior to going to institute.  I, however, was not.  So in between the time of institute and the first day of school, I had about 7 different interviews with various schools and principals in San Francisco. We were instructed to take the first job offer given, regardless of which position we preferred, and the first offer I received came about 15 minutes after I left my interview at the school where I'm currently working.

We complete all the paperwork with the district that we are slated to work in, and from that point we become employees of the school district.

Henceforward, our interaction with TFA becomes limited to communicating with our Program Directors, Professional Developments, and any corp members with whom we established relationships during institute.  We aren't employed or paid by TFA - more than anything TFA becomes a support resource to help us function in the classroom.

As corp members, we commit two years to operate as TFA corp members in our respective schools.  But since we're employees of the school district and not TFA, after the two years are up, we're no longer considered corp members.  But we can still remain in the school, district or state we're teaching in, because again - we're still district employees.

If I could summarize the role that TFA plays in education, they basically just affirm to the districts that the people they are recommending for hire have passed their own requirements, and if the district has confidence in Teach for America, then they can have confidence in their candidates.  Now, what these candidates do once they become employees of the school district while using the resources of Teach for America - that's where TFA really earns its track record.  I suppose that's what you get when you hire a bunch of motivated, type A personalities who don't have a good understanding of what it means to fail.

I'm not going to dive in here to debate as to whether or not I agree with the mission or effectiveness of Teach for America.  However, I look at the sad state my school is in, I see the carousel of teachers that have rotated through there in the short year and a half that I've been there, and see that I'm practically an island of pure stability for these kids - there's no possible way that my being there has been any WORSE for my students.

If you have any questions about how this whole process works, I'd be glad to discuss them - please just throw them out in the comments section.

I wish

I wouldn't mind this.  At least these parents are involved.

Oragami is the new science

I overheard this conversation between my students today.

"Come on bro, it's time for origami class."

"They have that here?!"

"No, the new science teacher. That's all we been doin'. "

The WB Difference

Last week I had a meetingwith a bunch of teachers at one of the other schools in the district.  We were meeting in one of the teacher's classrooms, which started right after the students were let out and so there were still a number of them roaming the hallways.  I was sitting in such a position that I could easily see out of the classroom's open door into the hall, and noticed whenever a student came walking by.  There came a point, about thirty minutes into the meeting, when I noticed this young woman come running down the hall on a trajectory for the classroom our meeting was in.  As soon as she got to a position that she could see there were 20 adults engaged in a meeting in the classroom, she slammed on the brakes, quietly turned around and left.

Who knows what she wanted.  Maybe she had a question she needed resolved, maybe she needed another copy of the homework for the evening, maybe she just wanted to talk with her teacher.  The point is, she recognized that there was a meeting in progress, and had the propriety to realize that her needs could be postponed or delayed until there was a more opportune moment to talk with her teacher.

This caused me to chuckle as I reflected on the staff meeting at our school earlier in the week, where a very similar experience took place.  We were about 30 minutes into the meeting down in one of the teacher's classrooms on the lower floor of our school.  One of her students came thundering down the stairs and burst into the classroom where all of the teachers and administration in the school were engaged in a meeting.  Instead of realizing that there was something going on, he called out his teacher from the doorway, announcing that he'd lost his homework and needed another one.  So she got up and helped him out.

That's the WB difference - we do what it takes to get the job done, even if our students are completely out of line.

Success!

I started algebraic equations today with my students.  I started off with a balance scale, and used it to demonstrate how if I added weight to one side of the balance, in order to keep it balanced I needed to add weight to the other side as well. 

After 5 months of practicing integer operations, simple things like addition and subtraction, in the form of one-step algebraic equations, my students finally demonstrated that they knew what to do.  When I have Tamiya and Amari, two of my most challenged students, sitting in the front row, shouting out answers and correcting other students, that was the epitome of elation. 

On the other side, I have two cameras that we use for the newspaper and yearbook.  I had all the students sign release forms saying they'd be responsible for any damage while the camera was under their possession, but then today the inevitable happened.  One of my students was pushed to the ground while she was taking a picture, and it damaged the camera.  I'm going to take it home tonight and put my ME skills to use, but if I can't repair it, what should I do?  Do I charge her for a new camera?  I'm a little stuck with this right now...

What else?

I have about half of my students for the first two periods of the day.  Then they go to Science, where they have a different substitute every day, and then English and ELA support, where their teacher is out on indefinite medical leave and there is another substitute/administrator covering the class every day.  Following that, they go to their Social Studies class, which is being taught by a veteran teacher who just happens to be teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Social Studies by himself.  He has three different curriculum preps, in a school with very little support and very little structure, while there are other teachers at our school who have 3 personal prep periods.  Go figure.  He voiced his concern for being overwhelmed today, and I can hardly blame him.  I can't even imagine trying to teach math to all three grades - there's no way I would have made it this far.

THEN after social studies, they go to PE, where you would think PE is PE, except their teacher has been out on medical leave since October.  So they haven't gotten a physical education at all, and that time has turned in to recreational-time-to-do-whatever-we-want.  Plus, since we have a different teacher there on a daily basis, there isn't a set ritual, and the gym has turned in to the official class-skipping ground.  Any time a student doesn't want to go to class, they can just run to the gym and hang out there, since the sub has absolutely no idea who is actually in the class and who isn't.  In a day with 7 periods, my students spend less than half of them with full time teachers.  Sound like the basis for a solid education?  I'm just getting started.

Following Christmas break, there was an adjustment class schedule at our school.  I personally kind of enjoy the change, which made it so there were four classes before lunch instead of three, but the side effect of this was the bells.  The district had to come out to make a change to the bell schedule, and they encountered some problems.  Since then, the bells haven't worked at all, and the district has basically told us that since the school is getting torn down in a few months they aren't going to fix it.

If you combine this with the fact that there isn't a single functioning clock in the entire school (besides the ones that individual teachers have brought) and the fact that over half the staff on any given day is transient and unfamiliar with our students, the schedule, or the entire broken system, students are rarely where they are supposed to be, when they're supposed to be there. 

But what's to encourage them to get there?  Our counselors?  The ones who are completely swamped with a stack of referrals nearly a foot thick, and constant phone calls from the poor substitutes pathetically attempting to maintain some semblance of order in their classroom, or dealing with the police as they come to profile the student who brought a 10 inch switch blade to school?  The security gaurds?  The ones who are running (sometimes literally) from classroom to classroom, gathering attendance, escorting students to in-school suspension, chasing down students who are randomly running amok in the hallway, and putting out fights?  The administration?  The one administrator we have who spends the day doing heaven knows what?  Or the alleged assistant administrator who was assigned to us by the district and is supposedly working at our school, who I know only by name but couldn't identify out of a line-up of one?  

So the students run through the hallways.  For the 30 minutes after the tardy bell should have rung, as I sit in my room working on my lesson plans, I hear kids screaming bloody murder as they chase each other up and down the ramp.  Who even knows what class they're supposed to be in - odds are they probably don't even know.  The bells haven't run, so there's no way for them to keep track of things or constant factors to gauge their wanderings.

10 minutes into class on a daily basis, I have kids stopping by my room wanting to come in and get some water from my cooler.  Mind you, I'm already teaching new material, so all they're doing is interrupting some of the little learning that I'm hoping is actually taking place at school.  Of course, if our school had non-toxic water fountains, this wouldn't be an issue.  But I suppose for as far as things go in my school, this is minor.

In elementary school, assemblies meant something awesome - a school play, rainy day movie, a presentation - something exciting.  Since winter break, we've had two assemblies.  Both have been to ream the students about their awful behavior, their terrible actions, negative attitudes, lack of uniforms, and disrespect towards the adults in the school.  I figure since the first assembly was so effective, last Friday was an appropriate time to have another one.  Maybe if we have enough of these assemblies, the message will finally sink in that it's their (the student's) fault.

Oh, and did I mention that our school was broken in to over the weekend?  They got in through the cafeteria, and then proceeded to break the windows in the doors to the principal's office and the main office, and gain access to those rooms.  It's still not quite clear what they were after, because even though they went through a bunch of the cupboards, cabinets, and drawers, all the things of value (so far as we can tell) were left alone.  It shouldn't be a problem though, we have security cameras all over the school so I'm sure the police can go through the footage and find the perpetrators. 

Eeeeeeeeexcept for one minor detail.  There are about 10 functional security cameras around the school, but they don't actually record anything.  So as awesome and perfect as security footage would have been to figure out who defaced the interior of our school, I'm highly skeptical of ascertaining the identity of the perpetrators.

Sometimes I have to wonder what else could possibly go wrong at my school - but then something always happens.  Maybe I should stop wondering...

Now that I think about it...

I hadn't really considered the details of this year, but my co-worker, Ms. Bayse has.  She threw up some numbers about our school on her blog, which after reading, made me want to throw up.  No wonder our school is in the state it is in.

Education and Entrepreneurship

Something happened to me a few months back.  I haven't spent the time reflecting on the exact source of the change, but I have become absolutely fascinated with the issues of public education and the future of where it is headed.  I'm looking at my browser window right now, and across the top there are 19 tabs that contain web pages of content regarding education that I have earmarked as content that I want to read about and investigate further once I finish my many applications.  And given that I finished my last application today, I guess the time to start working through them is now.  I'm posting a link to the most recent video that captured my attention - it's nearly 90 minutes long, so I honestly don't expect too many people to watch it, but if you do, I found it absolutely fascinating.

The video is a panel of some very influential people in education (Ted Mitchell, President of the California Board of Education and the New Schools Venture Fund, Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone, Richard Barth, CEO of KIPP schools, and Craig Nevill-Manning of Google.org) discussing a number of issues in public education, the challenges and future ventures necessary to transform the US public education system to competitive levels with the rest of the world.  Essentially, they're discussing public education 2.0.

Updates

I realize that I've been MIA for about a month.   It's been a very eventful month, with so many different things that I'd like to talk about, I have no idea where to even start.  So instead of trying to figure it out, I'm going to give an explanation of why I've been MIA, and then share one of the best things that happened in the last month.

My life has been consumed by graduate school applications for about the last 8 weeks of my life - pretty much since the week before Thanksgiving - but particularly during the last 2 weeks.  I did some quick mental estimations yesterday about how much time I had spent working on applications and essays, and just during the last 2 weeks alone, my total was around 150 hours.  If you include the previous 6 weeks, I bet it comes in closer to 300 hours.  300 hours of drafting, revising, editing, brainstorming, researching, reading, and studying graduate school applications.  It's been unreal, and with only one more school left, I feel like I've had an enormous burden taken off my shoulders.  I'll keep you updated on the results when I get any.

The week before Christmas, I had something happen I never would have expected.  I had a couple students who gave me Christmas gifts/cards, and I was really touched by their thoughtfulness.  I mean, it's one thing when you get a gift that was really well wrapped up, and obviously a product of their parent being thoughtful.  But, to get a card that was hand drawn, decorated, and written like what I have posted below - I about cried.  I might feel like strangling the majority of my students on a daily basis, and question the value of my teaching them and if I'm actually getting through to them, but then when something like this happens - it's validation.

Stay tuned for amazing posts to update you on the beautiful happenings of my school.  To give you a preview, it's like a slowly sinking ship where everyone who possibly can abandon the ship is doing so, and those of us who are constrained to stick to our posts are commanded to direct and keep order of the passengers as they're panicking and reeling out of control.  And it's such a unique experience that the observers can't manage to look away.  Just wait.