The Lasting Impact of Teachers

As teachers, we can never be fully aware of the lasting impact our words or actions may have on our students. I often lament, for instance, that I dread open house or parent conferences because I can only imagine what stories my students bring home to their families. Will they tell mom and dad about the incredible lesson I taught, or that I did so without realizing that one of my pants pockets was hanging out all period like a floppy dog ear? My instinct is to assume the latter.

Last weekend, I shared one of my favorite stories with a small group of college students enrolled in my English Methods course at Medaille College. I think about that story often and it serves as a constant reminder that everything I say or do while in school has the potential to make a monumental impact on my students. Afterward, it got me thinking about some of my own experiences as a kid, and there’s one above all the others that stands out.

In 7th grade, one English assignment required us to write an original poem to demonstrate our understanding of mood and imagery. I don’t remember much from the assignment other than procrastinating until the night before to actually put something down on paper. The result was actually quite good. I remember being proud enough to show my parents before submitting it the next day.

I didn’t realize it then, but that assignment would ultimately shape my life and help shape my career as an English teacher. Below is a scan of the original poem. Read closely the red-inked comment from my teacher.

I was devastated by my teacher’s remarks. By suggesting that the poem was too good to be my own, I felt that he was implying that I was stupid. Whether this was his intention or not, it has stayed with me and I think of it every time I write critiques or constructive criticism on my own students’ works.

Your job as a teacher is to influence. The scary part is that you don’t know how or when that influence will happen.

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Middle School Stinks

During a conversation last night with Shawn Kibel, a teacher at Honey Grove Independent School District in Honey Grove, Texas, I causually mentioned how hot my school was. I teach just outside Buffalo, NY, and we have been experiencing a string of humid days in the mid 80s. I found it humorous that the idea of a school without central air conditioning was mind boggling to Shawn, but since I live in an area where it would only really be needed during two schools month each year, it makes sense that no schools allow the expense.

Still, the conversation got me thinking about some of the pitfalls of teaching during the last quarter of the year as spring stumbles its way into summer.

The Heat
If it’s 80 degrees outside, I can guarantee that my classroom will be approximately 20 degrees hotter. I’m on the second floor of the building, and the mass of writhing student bodies doesn’t help much either. Sometimes it gets so hot the stairs actually get wet. I’d like to think the building is weeping for my discomfort, but it’s actually because the difference in temperature is so extreme between the two floors that condensation forms. On hot days, we basically have weather patterns in our halls.

The Stink
Middle school kids smell a little funky by definition. Either they haven’t discovered the plesantries of personal care products yet, or they swim in Axe body spray before coming to school. Either way, it gets kind of stinky. Warm weather only amplifies this.

The Fights
I was talking to a teacher this morning who shared a story with me about a family member who owns a house on the shores of Lake Chautauqua. Every year, her yard floods and she literally finds fish spawning on the front lawn. Spring is the time of year when mother nature reminds us all that the future of our species needs our help. In middle schoolers, this means lots of hand-holding in the halls, and plenty of fights. It’s hard enough keeping kids’ attention even without Wrestle Mania taking place between periods. But hey, at least they aren’t spawning on the front lawn.

The Exams
Two weekends ago, I participated in a 5K walk for Hospice. Immediately following, I returned home to throw a birthday party for my sister-in-law. After the guests had left, I pulled out the push mower and cut the grass. That day was a marathon, and it didn’t end with the Hospice Walk. That’s how my students are feeling right now. New York State has just concluded its long battery of state assessments, and we still have two weeks of classes before they can run free.

So I guess I can’t blame my students if their attention is less than perfect. They’re sweaty, stinky, distracted, and exhausted. They are ready for summer. And so am I.

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I'm Just a Teacher.

This morning, I returned a phone call from a mother of one of my students. The child’s father answered and was less than pleasant with me. After introducing myself, he tersely asked, “Are you someone important, or just another teacher?” I remained professional and politely deflected the aggressive statement, but below is what I would have liked to have said.

Yes, I am just a teacher. I just teach:

social skills
collaboration
self esteem
responsibility
civil duty
ethics
pride
humility
sensitivity
critical thinking
problem solving
drive
peer relationships
community building
leadership
trust
conviction
overcoming adversity
support
analysis
organization
public speaking
professional discourse
manners
honesty
character
focus
independence
perseverance

Oh, and I also teach your child how to read and write.

You're welcome.

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How I Justify Teaching to the Test

Today was the New York State English Language Arts assessment. I know that it's a mere snapshot of my students' abilities, and that it shouldn't be transformed into the driving force of instruction, but that's essentially what happens for the month or so leading to the day of the exam. This is because, regardless of how hard my students work in class, no matter how much progress they make during the year, and regardless of how passionate they are to learn, it all gets boiled down to a four-point rating scale on this single exam. It sucks, but that's just the way high stakes testing works.

Try this little experiment. Ask the next teacher you see if he/she thinks it's okay to teach to the test. They will probably look at you uncomfortably and murmur something about how it's not necessary if the teaching in the classroom is of high quality. This is the perfect college methods course answer, but the reality is that this answer is completely wrong. (In fact, I conducted this survey last year via Twitter that proves that teachers, when anonymous, admit to the need to teach to the test.)

I liken it to learning how to drive.

To do so, you must learn the essential skills - starting the vehicle, accelerating and braking, turning, etc. But once these skills are mastered, are you ready to cruise around in anything with a motor and wheels? No way. It takes a specific skill set to show mastery of these basic skills while driving a motorcycle, for example, compared to driving a dump truck or a school bus. The vehicle is different and this factors in to how successful you can be with your ability to drive.

It's the same thing with state testing.

I don't spend the entire year examining item analysis information, and I certainly don't model every assessment in class after the big exam. But I think it's important for students to know the format and the expectations of the exam. They need to know if it's a dump truck or a school bus that they will be asked to drive.

This is not the first time I've written about my personal struggle with high stakes testing. Read more here.


Standardized Testing, Simpsons Style

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Facing Layoffs, Teachers Need to Advocate for Themselves

Like many states, New York is struggling with how to manage a bloated budget. Unfortunately, rather than trimming fat and implementing ways to spend wiser, education has become the target of severe cuts in state spending (my school in particular is currently forced to operate next year with a massive 17% cut in funding). Last year, states laid off 58,000 teachers nationwide, and projections for the 2011-2012 school year don't look any better.

Sadly, I have a personal connection to this. My sister-in-law, Amanda Wagner, is one of those teachers whose job will not be in the district budget for next year. Rather than be angry, she took the chance to share her insight via an editorial in The Buffalo News. Her overall message is a call to action; a plea for parents, students, teachers, and community members to take an interest in their schools. Too many see education as an almost invisible part of their community, and this can be dangerous as conditions slowly and quietly decline.

A few days after Amanda's editorial printed, someone posted a negative comment. Maybe this guy was just trolling, but I took the bait and we have been sparring back and forth. My goal isn't to make this person look foolish; I have a much deeper motivation.

I'm proud to be a teacher, and I truly believe that what we do on a daily basis makes a tremendous difference in the lives of our students. I have used the comment section of my sister-in-law's editorial to hopefully dispel some of the popular misconceptions of teachers. My hope is that immediately after reading my blog post, you will read her article and the comments. Think about what makes you valuable as an educator, and add your own comment. As professionals, we need to advocate for ourselves.

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A Typical Teacher Workday

I'm writing this on my iPod touch while waiting to get my oil changed. I'm sitting in a claustrophobic room with eight other people who are also waiting for work to be done on their vehicles.

**********

I figured it was going to be a bit of a wait (it always is) so I brought one of my school books to keep me company. I was pretty absorbed in my reading when a woman came in and sat down in the seat next to mine. I hardly noticed when she flipped open her laptop and started padding away. But when I looked up, I saw she had also pulled out a book - and it bore the unmistakable resemblance of a teacher's edition textbook. Sitting next to me was another teacher, and much like myself, she was trying to make good use of her time by writing lesson plans while at the automotive repair shop.

Ten minutes later another woman joined us. She carried a green canvas tote filled with wrinkled, dogged-eared papers that I immediately recognized as a formidable stack of homework. Without glancing in my direction, she took a seat in the opposite corner of the room and pulled out her red pen.

So here you have it. Three teachers, all waiting for their cars to be worked on, all doing schoolwork.

Did I mention it was 5:00pm?

There has been a lot of criticism regarding teacher salaries and one of the most enraging comments is that we practically work a part time job for full time pay.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, and other than the 20 minutes spent driving got the car dealer, I haven't stopped yet.

Does that sound like a part time job to you?

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The Problem isn't Facebook, It's the Users who Misuse

About three hours ago, I wrote a blog post about a class project I was working on where students had to create pretend Facebook pages for characters in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. After posting, I hopped on Twitter to send the link out to my followers. Surprisingly, one of the recent tweets from someone who I follow also had to do with the topic of Facebook. It was a link to the ABC News story of 6 middle school girls arressted after creating a Facebook event titled “Attack a Teacher Day.” Needless to say, it was an interesting juxtaposition to my post proclaiming the value in harnassing the social network’s popularity among students.

This is a perfect opportunity for a teachable moment.

We must remember that the problem is not the technology, but those who use it maliciously. Back in the days of note-passing, you wouldn’t blame the pencil for a bit of slander scrawled on a piece of paper, would you?

It must be our job as educators and parents to be positive role models when dealing with social media. The solution to problems such as the girls in Nevada isn’t blocking Facebook – it’s educating students abut the difference between wrong and right on the web.

One silver lining to this – the article says the girls invited 100 people to the “Attack a Teacher Day” event. Only 18 responded. This means 82% either ignored it or deleted the invitation. Hopefully this is a sign of fledgling digital citizenship.

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The Fine Line Between Charity and Abuse of the System

My mother owns an agency that provides home-based therapy services for children under the age of three. Every year around the holidays I am reminded of a story she shared with me several years ago.

After the new year, my mom went to a family's house to work with their child. Upon entering the house, she was surprised to see wrapped gifts still stacked against the wall. The parent joked that they had so many presents that year that they simply hadn't had the time to open them yet. The family was on public assistance, so this confused my mother. The parent further explained that she made sure to get her children on as many charity lists as possible that year – churches, community groups, schools, etc. The pile of gifts was only a small portion of the donations and didn't include food and household items or gift cards. The parent openly shared all of this with my mother.

It's because of this incident that I am weary to donate money for holiday gift cards at my school. I completely understand that the story my mom shared may not be the norm, but it proves that it is quite difficult to find the line between much-needed charity and abuse of the system. This year, my school raised enough money to give 40 families each a $50 Walmart gift card. As a school, we should be proud that we are able to help so many people, however, I can't get past the fact that some of those families called the school and were asked to be added to the charity list.

How many of those 40 families asked to be added to other lists as well? Is their Walmart gift card destined to end up in an overflow gift pile similar to the one my mother witnessed? And how are we to know that the card didn't go toward cigarettes or alcohol?

In the past, the team of teachers I work with have chosen a student that we know could use a little holiday cheer. We buy him/her a few outfits and maybe a pair of sneakers and then mail the package to the house. I feel good doing this. First, the gift is going to the child. Second, we have the freedom to choose who we think most needs a donation based on our daily observations. It's a lot of extra footwork to prepare the package, but it's worth it knowing that the donation is needed and truly appreciated.

This post is by no means a slam at anyone who donates money around the holidays. I give credit to anyone who is willing to share the wealth, especially to those in need. It's just a shame that some people are willing to exploit the kindness of others. Charities and not-for-profit organizations have been on my list of interests lately, so this will probably not be the last post on this topic. In the meantime, I would appreciate any feedback on good groups/organizations/programs that you feel comfortable donating to. I want to make a difference and would love to know the most effective way to do so...

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How do we Teach Future Teachers?

I remember the words of wisdom my supervising professor bestowed upon me shortly before I began student teaching as an undergraduate. He said, “you will learn more on the first day of teaching than you have during four years of college.” And you know what? He was absolutely correct.

The article, How Should we Teach our Future Teachers, released in July by the Associated Press addresses the sentiment my professor was trying to convey. New teachers are entering schools unprepared to face the job that lay before them.

The article begins by following the experiences of first year math teacher, Hemant Mehta. He explains that despite courses in pedagogy and education history, he struggled with basics like classroom management and was forced to find help on his own by means of web message boards, colleagues, and social networking sites like Twitter.

Mehta's story is not uncommon. This is because college programs focus largely on formal education and less on the “nuts and bolts” of the classroom. The article explains that this problem is difficult to solve because there is no national standard – every state is free to determine what is required of a teaching certification candidate. Fortunately, the government is beginning to get involved, and this may better align the states.

President Obama's budget includes a proposed expansion of the government's role in teacher training programs, which could infuse more than $400 million into preparing teachers for the classroom. This could be the push that could cahnge the focus from teaching education theory to teaching education craft.

This article addresses issues with teachers entering the workforce without adaquate training. This is only one part of the problem. From a district perspective, the real concern is what to do with new or newly hired teachers who have the gaps. Like my former professor explained, the best way to learn is by doing, but districts cannot afford to wait out the 2-3 year learning curve that most teachers experience. Districts need to consider this lack of skills and strategies with developing new teacher orientations and professional development.

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Is it Acceptable to Teach to the Test?

Today, my students finished the dreaded New York State 8th Grade English Language Arts exam.

We don’t score their work until late next week, but I took note of their behaviors as they took the test, and I'm hopeful as to their scores. I saw kids highlighting as they read, and the constant rustling of papers suggested that they all remembered to pre-read the multiple choice questions before reading the passages. On the extended response sections, kids were able to take the essay prompt and echo it in their introduction paragraphs. I even saw kids using my tip of going back and crossing out words to replace them with higher-level vocab. All of this leads me to one overwhelming conclusion:

I have done a very good job of teaching students how to take a state exam. I’m not sure how to feel about that, so I thought I’d weigh out my opposing views on the topic of preparing for generalized tests.

Argument Against Teaching to the Test
I remember one of my college professors standing stoically in front of the lecture hall announcing that good teachers, those who teach content and skills, will never need to resort to teaching to a test. I doubt many teachers will willingly step forward to dispute the need to focus on teaching content and skills, so this seems like a strong argument. Most district mission statements carry the underlying intent of preparing students to become productive contributors to society, and this can only be achieved with a strong foundation of knowledge and understanding.

Argument in Favor of Teaching to the Test
Much like communism, my former professor’s words of wisdom make sense in theory, but don’t apply smoothly in practice. For example, just because I have the skills to drive an automobile doesn’t exactly assure that I’m prepared to drive a tractor trailer. Skills change depending how they are applied. It’s the teacher’s job to not only teach the skills, but to prepare students for situations where those skills will be needed. The “test-taking tips” I witnessed my students using are all things that should be put into good practice when reading/writing anything – so what if they were taught in the context of a standardized test?

My Own Conclusion
A few hours before posting this I created this poll asking my 1200 Twitter followers to weigh in on the subject. So far, only 1 person has voted. Either this means I have fewer friends than I realize, or perhaps teaching to the test is something that teachers are a bit uncomfortable discussing. Do we all do it? As educators, is test prep or dirty little secret?

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The Fine Line Between Acceptable and Inappropriate Behavior With Students

In my school, teachers are allowed to celebrate the weekend early by dressing down on Fridays. I choose to do so by wearing jeans instead of my usual dress pants, and to compliment the casual look, I also lace up my favorite pair of Converse All-Stars. This has come to be known among my students as “Cool Shoes Friday.”

I don’t feel like this is inappropriate – my role in the classroom doesn’t get disrupted, I don’t look ridiculous, and my students don’t see me as any less of an authority figure because of it. If anything, my coveted pair of low tops actually helps me. My Friday attire humanizes me in the eyes of my students; those shoes serve as a gentle reminder that I’m not a robot that gets plugged in next to the laptop cart after the dismissal bell rings. Plus, my choice in footwear comes across as pretty hip. They don’t call it Cool Shoes Friday for nothing.

But there is a fine line to be walked between casual and unprofessional.

Take, for example, the recent incident involving North Carolina Social Studies teacher Rex Roland. His name hit mass media outlets Yahoo, AOL, and the Telegraph (to name just a few) this past weekend after repeatedly calling students “losers” both verbally and in written comments on homework assignments. His argument was that his informal banter was just part of his laidback teaching style, but this certainly seems like a thin excuse for such unprofessional behavior.

I sort of understand what he’s trying to get at though – relate to students by using their language. Perhaps he watched Dangerous Minds or The Principal a few too many times. Regardless of motives, you just don’t call your student a loser no matter how “real” you’re trying to be.

Much of what I wrote is assumptive – I don’t know what goes on in Mr. Roland’s classroom on a daily basis, and I certainly don’t know what was going on in Mr. Roland’s head when he wrote “minus 20% for being a loser” on a student’s homework. I actually emailed him requesting an informal interview for my blog so that he would have an outlet to explain some of his actions, but it was not been returned. My guess is that his silence is the result of a gag order imposed by the school district. Perhaps they should have suggested he keep his mouth shut before this incident took place.

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My Online Footprint

My first efforts at consistent blogging were not here, but at a blog that preceded it called 100 Days with the Eee PC. I received an Asus Eee PC for my birthday in November of 2008, just before the term netbook became a household word. Since they were still a fledgling technology, I decided to try a little experiment – to only use the Eee PC as my primary computer. I figured it would be a pretty clear case study to show the potential of the tiny machine.

My experiment was a success, but it came with a residual effect – I realized the excitement (and importance) to blogging. The blog you’re reading right now is a direct result of my netbook experiment.

The 100 Days blog has sat dormant for almost a year now, and I haven’t had too much need to go back to it – until yesterday. I was looking some source code I used about this time last year to create a online quiz for my students. I couldn’t remember where I had downloaded it from, but I did remember that I had blogged about it. I Googled my old blog to see if I could find the link.

What I found instead was sobering.

On the first page of results was a message board posting that someone had started about my blog. In it, they explained who I was, the purpose of my writing, and what subject area and grade level I taught. He then went on to question the legality of something I had written about. All of this information was easily obtainable through my blog or in my Blogger profile, but it was vexing to see it written by a stranger.

I once wrote that blogging is an open journal, but this Google search made me realize how true that is. There's a valuable message to share about your online footprint - If it's online, someone will find it. If it's something even remotely questionable, someone will question it. And unlike a footprint in the sand, what is said online is never washed away by the inevitable rising tide.

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Internet Filtering - Restriction or Protection?

I still believe we should be teaching Internet responsibility and digital citizenship to our students instead of trying to hide all the bad things behind a big iron curtain. But the fact remains that the Internet is a complex and sometimes seedy beast. It’s easy to forget that fact when search results for well-intentioned lesson plans get blocked, or when you watch students spend a period trying to sneak their way onto a gaming website. This is when the frustrated teacher throws his/her hands in the air and declares the filter to be the work of the devil. But for every game blocked, that filtering software is also blocking potential predators, unsavory images, and God knows what else.

I was thinking about this more over the weekend while flipping through the Black Friday edition of The Buffalo News. There were two stories on the front page of the City and Region section that highlighted someone using the Internet. One was about a Michigan man using a Genealogy website to find his long-lost birthmother. The other was about a local filmmaker getting arrested for having downloaded more than 1300 child-porn images. These articles create an interesting juxtaposition.

So what’s the answer? Is it to open the floodgates and hope no one gets swept away in the current? Is it to turn off the lights and sit in darkness? Perhaps it’s a bit of both, but where to draw the line is as big (if not bigger) or a question that whether filtering is needed in the first place.

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The Cycle of Failure for Administrative Decision Making

Having a good relationship between administration and faculty is paramount for a positive work environment. When that bond crumbles, everything else is soon to follow. No one likes being told what to do and it's even worse when the person handing down the commands is out of favor. Here's the series of events that leads to total collapse:

1. The administrator sends down a directive. Either because of poor rapport with the faculty or nearsighted decision-making, he/she does not ask for input before doing so.

2. Naturally, the faculty is furious. They vow to either ignore the directive completely and rely on safety in numbers to avoid consequence or they pursue the directive in such a lax manner that there is no way its goal will ever be achieved.

3. The directive is a spectacular failure.

4. Frustrated and looking to make things right, the administrator sends out another directive. Again, the faculty throws up its arms in resentment. This time, however, they cite the failure of the previous directive as the reason to not do as they're told. "His/her previous plan didn't work, so why should we believe this one will?"

The administrator's efforts will always fail because of the faculty's ill contempt. It's a vicious circle that is nearly impossible to recover from without some major personnel changes.

When this cycle of administrative failure happens, what's to blame - the poor attitude of the faculty or the myopic approach taken by the administrator? Probably a bit of both. I understand that me offering advice to administrators is like the flight attendant telling the pilot what to do in the cockpit, but sometimes a different perspective helps. Before handing down orders, do yourself and every else involved the courtesy of gathering as much input as you can before making a decision that affects everyone in your building.

While most posts on my blog are reactive/reflective of something happening in my professional life, this one is not. At least not recently. Several teachers on my team at school currently have student teachers, and I thought about this today while discussing with them what they should hope for as they begin the interview process for a permanent teaching position. In my opinion, working in a positive environment far outweighs all other aspects of a district. It's the job of both the administration and the faculty to make this happen.

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10 Things New Teachers Need to Know

1. You will get sick during the first month of school. Starting a teaching career is like sucking on a roll of nickels. Eventually your body becomes immune, but until then it is going to make you very, very sick.

2. When your administrator says he/she has something "cool" for you try, you are about to be suckered into volunteering for something no other teacher was willing to commit to (but you'll do it because you're nontenured).

3. Secretaries and custodians run the school. Be very nice to them.

4. Inspirational posters don't inspire you or the kids. Don't waste your money. Other than the iconic-because-it's-so-stupid Never Give Up poster, do you remember any of the posters hanging around you during your k-12 experience? Exactly.

5. If your students ask if it is your first year teaching, lie. Admitting that you have no experience standing in front of a group of kids will incite a feeding frenzy worthy of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

6. No matter how great your lesson is, if it involves something on page 69 of the textbook, your students are going spend the period giggling and whispering. To make it worse, if you teach a grade lower than high school, they probably won't know why they're laughing. It's just something American culture seems to breed into them. Kind of like standing for the pledge.

7. You will spend hours each night carefully marking homework and student work with comments, feedback, and well-intentioned notes of encouragement. After handing them back, your students will throw them away immediately without reading a single word of your carefully crafted response.

8. Your coworkers have been working together for a long time, without you there. Be prepared for awkward moments when they reflect on the "good old days" which, incidentally, were from a time before you worked there. Don't take it personally. Similarly, if you filled a position vacated by a retiree, be ready for people to spend the first 10 weeks or so telling you how much they miss seeing your predecessor.

9. If you wake to find some fresh acne on your face, don't worry that kids might notice. Rest assured that they will absolutely notice - and they'll call you out on it in the middle of class.

10. You will learn to hold it. Teachers tend to drink lots of coffee, and bathroom breaks are never as often as they need to be.

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Is it Possible for Teachers to Have an Anonymous Online Life?

A colleague came to me this morning asking if some of our students had tried friending me on Facebook; she had three requests last night.

Earlier this year, a few giggling kids approached me to ask about something I had posted on my Twitter account. They had found it while Googling the names of their teachers.

Even this blog has been discovered by inquisitive students who spotted its title in my list of favorites.

Is the concept of online anonymity gone? Is it a myth – something people claim to have, but can’t confirm (like spotting a Sasquatch, Chupacabra, or the Loch Ness monster)? Are we experiencing the 21st century equivalent of looking up a teacher’s phone number in the white pages and pranking the daylights out of him/her?

The optimist would say that this issue can be resolved by becoming completely transparent. Share everything; show you have nothing to hide. This does have some merits, like sharing your blog with students so they can see firsthand the rewards of writing for pleasure. But all it takes is one comment, taken out of context, and there’s a problem.

But shutting everything down and denying the existence of a web footprint is just as incriminating for a teacher. If you don’t want kids to know something, it’s probably bad, right? Maybe, maybe not – but that’s how the adolescent mind works.

So how do teachers deal with a loss of online anonymity?

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