MadTeach

hey, teacher, leave those kids alone...

2008-11-29T11:52:00.002-06:00

"The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet."
---Bill Cosby

How often is this true of teachers? How often is this true of me?

Too often, as the days go by, I find.

I want so much to be a good teacher - I will settle for good at this point, though I aspire to greatness. But I fear I'm mediocre or worse, as I shout and cajole, seeking, indeed, too often, that quiet that symbolizes control and submission.

I seem to feel that that submission to the teacher's goal is the prerequisite to learning. Why do I think, in moments when I have time to reflect, that it seems more likely that the two somehow go hand-in-hand... that actual learning takes place when students are engaged in the teacher's goal, not subservient to it.

So easy to say high-minded things like that. So hard to overcome despair, lethargy, exhaustion, and even anger and resentment, to even try to achieve them.

I recall all my earlier pronouncements about what's wrong with teachers, and I cringe. It's so much harder than I thought.

electoral vote map

2008-10-21T21:10:00.002-05:00

Found a great website showing electoral maps and all kinds of stats.

I used it with my honors 7th graders today and they really got into seeing how different states had voted in the past compared to how they were leaning this election.

how a bill becomes a law

2008-10-05T01:34:00.002-05:00

OK, the source is not exactly something that a teacher should be linking to, but I got there because a friend sent me a funny link about Sarah Palin... but that's for another blog.

For your entertainment here on MadTeach, however, let me share this:

If not for the references to "titties," I could hand this out in school. I'm debating somehow editing that out and handing it out in school anyway.

returning to life...

2008-08-14T07:07:00.003-05:00

i lost it there for a little while, and by "it" i mean "all of it" - desire to teach, empathy for my students, reason to get up in the morning.

now i have a new job, with a charter school (i eventually got fired from the old one; don't think i posted that). glory hallelujah. still serving low-income urban students, still 98% African-American, but ohhhhhh what a difference. the principal is strict but kind. we have resources. there is structure and organization. and it sounds like the students don't fight all the time. (students haven't returned yet).

in the videos and photos we've seen, the kids look cautiously optimistic, almost open; they don't look like they are so hunkered-down, angry, and afraid as they were at my old school (yes, i start to see how my former students felt, now that i am slowly, slowly, uncurling from my mental fetal position).

there are some returning teachers who whine about their job. i finally had this conversation yesterday:
me: "have you ever taught in [big urban district i just fled]?"
whiner: "no."
me: "you don't know how lucky you are."
whiner: "well you've never taught here." (flounces off in a huff)
me: "goddamn stupid spoiled brat." (no, i didn't say this out loud)

once again i begin to get excited about teaching. so you'll see some posts sharing/recording ideas and resources. i know, weird, right??

it helps that i'll be teaching 7th/8th social studies - my favorite age group, and what i was trained to do! yay! i'm so excited.

i know it won't be perfect, but i don't think a day will pass when i am not thankful not to be in my classroom from last year. but if it does - if i start to get like that whiner - just slap me around a lil, ok?

2008-05-12T23:34:00.002-05:00

Why do people assume that teaching is so easy? So many people, trying (I know) to be encouraging, say things like, 'you're such a nice (or other positive adjective) person, I just know you're a great teacher.'

Nobody would say, ' you're such a nice person, I know you must be a great doctor.'

I'm too tired to write the rest of the rant but I hope I've made my point...

poverty and richness II

2008-02-12T14:35:00.000-06:00

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about—the more you have left when anything happens.
--Ethel Barrymore

The other day, in the middle of trying to teach over the uproar, I had the weirdest little fugue - I suddenly had a vision of no particular place, but a mix of places I have been - Iran, Turkey, Morocco - mostly Iran because it's recent - dust and heat and sun and wide wide sky...

...with somewhere a whiff of roses and mint, the sound of water - all those pleasures that are all the more delightful for being found in the middle of the desert...

All this washed over me with incredible vividness. In my memory of the classroom scene, I clearly recall myself sitting on the back table, with a couple of students trying to do something at the board and chaos all around, with my mouth open trying desperately to get them to understand something - and just as clearly it seems that the dusty, scented wind lifted my hair for a moment, as i struggled there indoors in the snowbound city...

It was so clear and overpowering that I was disoriented and lost my train of thought... I told them I had lost my train of thought, and started to open my mouth to tell them where I had been, but closed it again.

The all-powerful, live-or-die-by-it No-Child-Left-Behind-mandated standardized test is in 13 days: there is no time for wind that smells of roses and the preciousness of the sound of water in the desert.

why is there a glue stick in my bathrobe pocket?

2008-02-09T11:41:00.000-06:00

thursday i found a melted mini-snickers in another pocket at 10pm... vestige of an aborted math-time bribe... "i'll give chocolate to whoever can - guys - sit down - guys! hey! break it up!" *sigh*

classroom management improved after christmas - at first i thought it was my wonderful new techniques - but soon realized it was just the 10-day suspension of one of my worst. interesting to see how his absence calmed the whole class. then i had to be out for a week because my father died, and everything i'd worked on went to hell. now i'm too tired to deal - again. i scream at them hopelessly, try to do damage control, and wearily pick up the pieces when they're gone.

friday was really a banner day. the entire special ed department went to a wedding in aruba, but no subs were hired. i was angry about this, so then i was accused of not wanting to deal with my special ed students - even of being afraid of one of them.

what a joke. i've already been hit three times because i'm *not* afraid to wade into a fight or restrain a child when necessary. it doesn't bother me. these are 10-year-olds - this student i was accused of fearing punched me in the face last tuesday and didn't even leave a sore spot, never mind a bruise - what is there to fear? yes, i know they could break my nose if they hit me just right, but i've had a broken nose before. it heals.

no, i'm not afraid of him, i just want him to get his services - i want him to get what he needs. the special ed department is ridiculously under-staffed and under-emphasized - because those students' test scores are not expected to get to grade level no matter what, so who cares?

meanwhile, i've been working my ass off all week to remedy some problems they told me about two weeks ago, and gave me two weeks to fix (they told me all this the same day i got some terrible family news, so that was fun). i've been working 14-hour days, then coming home and working some more, getting four hours of sleep.... but there is definite improvement. i'm proud of myself.

foolishly, i thought maybe some of these improvements might be acknowledged. instead i got chewed out on thursday AND friday by different people for different reasons.

did i mention that yesterday they told me not to call parents? ever?? and the parent who called the principal and got me this ass-chewing called me twice to apologize ("the principal made it sound like i was saying you don't know what you're doing, that's not what i was saying at all") and try to talk to me. i'm supposed to ignore her calls? what about the other four parents who called me in the last two days? for everything from homework help to "my son didn't come home yet, do you know where he is?"

a tenured teachers said, 'ignore [the administration], just keep your mouth shut and do what you know is right.' my partner says, 'do whatever they tell you, document everything, then it's on them.' whom to heed? by default, it may have to be the former, because i suck at documenting.

bitter and angry. but angry is good. i've been crying for months. it's time for some angry.

while i was walking the dogs this morning i thought.... this is like a rough sport. it's like being a professional rugby player. no, it's like being in the marines. the teachers who last - they're the ones who are tough enough. it's not about empathy, compassion, blah blah blah, it is about endurance. and everyone knows, endurance is a state of mind. well, i can do that. i am not weak. time to prove it.

Spelling Strategies That Work

2007-10-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

Reprinted without permission... original article found here.

SPELLING STRATEGIES THAT WORK.
From: Instructor (1990) | Date: 5/1/2001 | Author: SNOWBALL, DIANE
Instructor (1990)

Easy lessons to help kids spell well in school and beyond

"I can't figure out what to teach when!" "How will I ever find the time to teach it all?" These are comments I hear all the time about spelling. But teaching it doesn't have to be complicated or time consuming. By focusing on two key aspects that I know help students--how to learn useful words and how to learn strategies related to sounds, spelling patterns, and meaning--I save myself a lot of time and worry. In essence, I concentrate on the habits of competent spellers, which makes the teaching of spelling more manageable, because I'm clear about what I want for my students.

Developing a Sense of Purpose

I strongly believe that students must have authentic reasons for learning how to spell. Here's a quick way to find out if yours do: Ask them, "Why should we want to become better spellers?" If they answer, "So others can read our writing," super. They have an authentic reason. But, if they answer, "To pass the test," it's a good time to think about the bigger issues underlying your program. The following ideas have helped my students develop a sense of purpose.

* Encourage Peer Review--My students do lots of writing in various genres, and they frequently share their work with peers who might ask questions about the whole text or an individual word. For example, when Luca says to Eric, "I'm not sure what you mean here. What's this word meant to be?" it gives Eric a genuine purpose for learning about spelling.

* Offer Clear Feedback--When I review the students' writing with them, I comment on what I notice about their spelling. I also ask them what they think they are doing well and what they should work on to improve their spelling.

* Look for Common Struggles--I examine each student's writing, during and after a writing exercise, to pinpoint their areas of spelling difficulty. For example, when I noticed that many fourth graders in one class didn't know how to use an apostrophe correctly in possessives, I planned a focused study to build their understanding.

* Teach Proofreading--I teach students to proofread their writing by making overheads of their work and then demonstrating how to look carefully at each word for correct spelling: I tell students not to leave proofreading until the end, when it could become an overwhelming chore.

STRATEGY ONE:

Learning Useful Words

Once a sense of purpose is developed, we move on to learning some useful words. I begin with a few words that the entire class is using frequently, but which they are spelling incorrectly.

1) Select Words -- I involve students in the selection of words so that they have a stake in learning how to spell them correctly. In grade three, for example, they may choose common words such as because, specially, and might, and some from social studies, math, and science, such as prairies, multiplication, and photosynthesis.

2) List and Study Words -- I write the words on a chart or overhead and ask the students to:

* Notice if anything is surprising about the spelling of the word, such as, "I can hear a /sh/ sound in specially but the letter is a c."

* Focus on the most useful strategy to remember a word, such as listening for sounds, looking for spelling patterns, using a memory aid, or building from a base word to form the whole word.

* Use the "look, say, spell, cover, write, check" technique many times until the students spell the word correctly and automatically. Many students need to be taught to "look" closely at words, to picture them in their minds and to notice their features.

3) List More Words -- Together, the students and I come up with additional words that extend their knowledge, and I write them on the chart. For example, we may focus on words with the same rime (might: fright, light, sight, plus bite, write, white), with the same spelling pattern (because: cause, fraud, gauze), with the same suffix (multiplication: addition, subtraction, fiction), or with prefixes and/or suffixes added to a base word (especially: specialize, specialization, specializing).

The focus depends on the students' stage of spelling development and to what extent I've demonstrated these ideas. When students are comfortable working with words this way, I ask them to try it independently.

4) Post Wards -- We place the words on a word wall labeled "Words We Use." Students can use these words in future spelling studies, such as the one described below.

STRATEGY TWO: Learning Sounds, Spelling Patterns, and Meaning--A Spelling Study

By observing students' writing and pinpointing their needs, I can custom design spelling studies. Here's one on learning about sounds that I do with first graders, but the same process can be used for studying spelling patterns and meaning as well, with students in all grades.

To ensure that my students understand the principle, and that they can apply it in their writing, I always spend sufficient time on a study. This study, for example, usually takes me about 10 minutes each day for three days. However, a study for learning all of the rules associated with using the ed suffix may last a few weeks.

1) Select the Focus--I select the focus based on what I notice my students doing, for example, learning about the /f/ sound and how it can be represented. I open the study with something like, "I've noticed in your writing that you are trying to make use of the /f/ sound you hear, so let's investigate that sound and see how that helps you."

2) Find Examples--We find examples of words from sources students can read, including the word wall, and we list them on a chart. For example, words with the /f/ sound might include off elephant, for, laugh, from, Sophie, Raffael, family, and rough.

3) Find More Examples--All of the students find more examples on their own, from books, poems, charts, and signs, and add them to the chart. One way to do this is to have students write each word on a blank card for the class to refer to. Usually the hardest part of this study is getting students to stop finding words because they are so interested!

4) Group Words--Using a pocket chart to arrange and group words and letter cards, we work as a class to group the words with the same letter or letters, for example, laugh and rough; elephant and Sophie; off and Raffael; for and family. Students add words, written on cards, to the groups over the next few days.

5) Make Observations--Once we've gathered a sufficient number of words, we begin to form hypotheses such as, "Most words seem to have one f" and "gh is only at the end of words." Then we talk about how this knowledge can help with writing and reading.

6) Apply the Knowledge--I try to demonstrate to students how to use this knowledge during shared writing and shared reading. I also prompt students to do the same during independent writing. For example, if a student writes "foto," I might say, "That's a good try at spelling the word photo. Does it look right? Remember our study about the /f/ sound. What's another way you might try photo?"

Putting It All Together

Using an inquiry process to learn about words will boost your students' spelling by allowing you to focus on their needs, either as a class or individually. And since you won't be trying to cover everything, you'll have more time to devote to what's really important: writing and reading.

Diane Snowball works in schools in North America to help teachers and administrators learn more about teaching children to read and write successfully She is the coauthor, with Faye Bolton, of Spelling K-8: Planning and Teaching (Stenhouse, 1999).

COPYRIGHT 2001 Scholastic, Inc.
This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.
For permission to reuse this article, contact Copyright Clearance Center.

Some links re ancient Mexico...

2007-10-14T20:11:00.000-05:00

The Mesoamerican Ballgame - A very cool site, well-done, scholarly and full of primary sources, with many interesting details. Younger students would need guidance; in order to explore this site a student would need good reading ability, self-direction, and the skill to organize the information s/he reads. Includes a brief video of players re-enacting the game on an ancient court.

Ballgame - Not nearly as good, and containing style/grammar errors - but includes more details about the rules and scoring than are included in the site above.

That link is part of this site:
Mayan Kids
The site is extensive, although style/grammar errors and possible factual deficiencies limit its usefulness. It has sections for people, places, beliefs, glossary, and games. The people section alone has the following subsections: Foods | Bug tacos | Food bites | Chewing gum | Ball game | Arts | Music | Dance | Beauty | Hairless Dogs | Textiles | Stone Tree | Calendars | Math | Writing | Marriage | Jade | Aztecs | Sailing | Ceramics | Books.

Ancient Mexico... limited and inconsistent. Students should be directed to use specific pages; probably the documents section is most useful, including this:

Letter from Cortés to King Charles V of Spain, 1520 - fascinating. He describes Tenochtitlán in vivid terms; when he compares things in the Aztec city to things in Spain, the Spanish side is usually smaller or lesser. One surprise:

...[T]he principal [idols], in which the people have greatest faith and confidence, I precipitated from their pedestals, and cast them down the steps of the temple, purifying the chapels in which they had stood, as they were all polluted with human blood.... In the place of these I put images of Our Lady and the Saints, which excited not a little feeling in Moctezuma and the inhabitants, who at first remonstrated....

I said everything to them I could to divert them from their idolatries, and draw them to a knowledge of God our Lord. Moctezuma replied, the others assenting to what he said, that they had already informed me they were not the aborigines of the country, but that their ancestors had emigrated to it many years ago; and they fully believed that after so long an absence from their native land, they might have fallen into some errors; that I having more recently arrived must know better than themselves what they ought to believe; and that if I would instruct them in these matters, and make them understand the true faith, they would follow my directions, as being for the best.

This is not helping me get my lesson plans written... more another time.

Sunday night is so damn depressing

2007-10-14T18:37:00.000-05:00

It is difficult to continue to work hard every day and feel that I am not succeeding. I still feel that I cannot get on top of things... can't quite get my head above water.

Discipline has continued to be a problem. This last week was the worst. Thursday I ended in tears, in front of the children. Friday I started off stern and firm and it was quiet for an hour or so... made me see what is possible, but also despair because of how much it took for me to achieve it.

Thursday, the assistant principal must have heard the students talking about me crying as they left the building, because she was in my classroom within five minutes. She was very supportive and then sent in the reading coach, who works full time as a liaison between teachers and administration (making sure we understand and fulfill their directives, and that we have the resources we need). The reading coach was also extremely supportive and we came up with several ideas for making things go better.

But when I think of implementing them I just feel exhaustion and despair. Sunday is always like this.

I am awash in my own failures. I work hard all week but never seem to get on top of things. I hand out assignments later than I should (when students have already started doing the work for them) and don't have the modified versions ready for the students with disabilities. I let things go that I should stop (students talking back to me, insulting each other, etc.). I feel helpless amid things that I feel I could and should take control of. But it all seems so huge. Probably there are things in there I can't control. But I'm not sure where that line is.

My failures makes me want to slack off, not care, give up. It is hard to work hard and continue to fail.

But I know the students need me... and I want to be a great teacher - I want to be able to succeed with them, and I know the only way to get there is to persevere through many days, weeks, months (hopefully not years!) of being a mediocre teacher.

Still... it's the hardest thing I have ever done.

I write this in hopes that at the end of the year I will be writing chipper "How I Went From Failure to Success" posts and that someday all these posts will encourage another new teacher. Not sure how I will get over the mountain between me and that future, though.

getting my bearings

2007-09-30T01:48:00.000-05:00

When I was 21 I went around the world... I really had no idea what I was getting into.

I landed in Bangkok, found a hotel, and woke up in the morning in a state of total shock. My brain couldn't even process the images around me. I took my map and started walking, walked for miles before I started to feel like the world made sense again. And that was a big modern city. I was in Kathmandu a few days later and it was even more dramatic - literally like being blind - because nothing I saw made any sense to me - there was literally no familiar object in my field of vision, no familiar sounds, no words. Gradually the mist lifted and familiarity grew, and six weeks later I felt quite at home and cheerful there.

I'm sure you know where this is going. My workplace is a gigantic culture shock... but my vision is gradually clearing... I am starting to see which way is up and the world is starting to make sense to me.

I am starting to see how much I have been operating on autopilot... all my skills deserted me and I was just clinging on to survival. I have not been kind to the children. I have not connected with them. I have not thought about their success. I have just been in survival mode.

As I type that, I suddenly recall how Wong & Wong's "The First Days of School" talks about survival mode, and how it is a stage you pass through as a new teacher - but some teachers get stuck there. The goal is to avoid that fate. Heh - that was just what I had figured out this week. I have been acting like all the teachers I have hated most - capricious, unempathetic, angry, controlling, petty....seeing this is sad and difficult, but at this moment I don't find it too hard to forgive myself. It has been a hard situation. It has been a giant culture shock...

So now I begin to think. My brain slowly starts to function again... the gears start to turn. I remember how to help students who struggle. I remember how to write good lesson plans. I remember how to simply look into a student's face in a way that conveys that I see them. That always has an immediate and dramatic effect - children are so accustomed to not being seen.

The students have been reminding me of these things in their own little ways... their desperation for my attention and approval, the strange maladaptive coping mechanisms they adopt to avoid my disapproval... when I see these little defenses I remember how I used to get so angry that teachers didn't see their own power. I woudl rage that some teachers have a sort of delusion about this - they see students as huge and powerful, because students have the ultimate control over how a teacher's work is judged; these teachers and spend a lot of time stomping students down, but that's totally backward, it's the teacher who has the power and the stomping is annihiliating... I am one of those teachers now... I can't stay like this!

The other thing I begin to see clearly is that my lessons are too hard. This class of students is known as 'lazy' throughout the school - other teachers tell me, 'you don't have a good class - they're lazy - have been since first grade.' I was tempted to accept this and shirk responsibility... not in the sense that it is my fault... but in the sense that it is my job to address the problem.

They are not lazy - they are, for whatever reason, woefully below grade level. Only four are reading at grade level, and of those four, three have test-passing reading skills rather than genuine reading skills (they do not understand what they read, but can skim and match words in the text to words in a test question). Several cannot read hardly at all, and many more cannot write a coherent sentence.

Fifth grade. A lot of catching up to do. Time to start.

This morning walking the dogs, though, I saw that the morning glories are still blooming. I have time.

Step by step the longest march, can be won, can be won
Many stones to form an arch, singly none, singly none...

changes

2007-09-20T06:16:00.000-05:00

what a week! .... three of my girls attacked one of my boys with a
belt (swinging the buckle) before school a couple days ago... the admin
transferred them out of my class.... (I heard thru the grapevine that
the security guard, who knows all the kids well, went to the principal
on the second day of school and told her she had put all the toughest
kids in the new teacher's class and they better move some of them
outta there! lol).

but now the admin are coming down on me... i'm so tired i can hardly
stand up... my boss threatened my job yest which just pissed me off, i
wanted to say, 'look, i may be a newer teacher than you but i've been
a boss before and u don't threaten ppl's job the first time you talk
to them about a problem - it fucks up morale and makes them
disengage." i decided all they know how to do is threaten, and it
doesn't mean anythiing, but it does kinda suck some energy out of
me....

still lovin the kids, they are awesome. one of the girls that was
moved out, keeps coming up to me and giving me hugs. she was my fave
too... i miss their energy and spirit to be honest. i'm not as big a
fan of the mealy-mouthed teacher's pet girls... i try to be nice to
them though...

not teaching as well as i know how, and trying not to get bummed out about it. barely ready for math by math time, and sometimes i just open the book and tell them to do some problems almost at random. another teacher told me it's like htat for the first year. i feel bad for them - they deserve better - but all i can do is my best.

ten positive things

2007-09-18T06:21:00.000-05:00

One day last week when my students were completely nuts the assistant principal came in to yell at them. I am starting to get slightly annoyed with all the other adults coming in to yell at my kids... but anyway.

She told them for homework to write ten positive things they can do in their classroom. Most of them wrote a set of rules (do's and do not's). Some highlights...

"Don't hit the teacher."

"No throwing food in the class. No throwing chairs. No throwing school supplies. No stealing from the teacher. No writing on other people's paper."

"Never disrespect the teacher or all adults if you don't like it go somewhere else."

"We are suppose to act like we have sense."

"Do not play with other people's hair." (This one showed up on three lists - not sitting next to each other either! More aspects of that bad teen movie I'm in... the girl who dreams of being a hair stylist but is oppressed by the mean teacher... )

One girl added a small note on the back of her paper...

"Dear Mrs. _______
I am sorry what we did and I want you to forgive us and we care just give us some time. Love, _______."

poverty and richness

2007-09-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

the kids are still insane... i was sick during the early part of the week and had a hard time doing anything more than showing up... some days were better some worse...

i started to blame myself more..... buuuuut then late in the week, things started happening that are causing me to blame myself less. for one thing, the other teachers are starting to have trouble too. the other classes are getting to be more of a mess in the hallways. fights are breaking out - i haven't had one yet - though i did have to grab two kids to stop a fight from starting. and i finally got some of my students' old records - the 'bad' ones ('bad' - it's a short-hand you end up adopting - there is no time to think in subtle terms!) have been 'bad' all along. suspensions for fighting, hitting, defiance, etc.

and now for some context...

yesterday two of them forgot books at school - one on purpose, the other by accident. they both live within a couple blocks of the school so i called their homes and took the books to them.

i parked out front and surveyed the beat-up houses. nondescript boxes to begin with - cheaply made, bad windows covered with bars, old aluminum siding. everything dirty, in disrepair. bits hanging down the siding, scraping in the wind like nails on a chalkboard. bleak.

One girl was out in front of her house with some cousins and friends. She was happy to see me and asked if I wanted to meet her mother... Mom came out to greet me, 6 mos pregnant but without real maternity clothes, so, falling out of her garments all over. She tugged at her shirt to try to make it cover her belly, and moved her arms to try to cover her breasts, looking embarrassed.

I met her gaze frankly... It used to be that when I met people who seemed worried that I would look down on them, it would make me worry that I would appear to do so, and the whole thing would become unbearably uncomfortable for everyone. I don't worry anymore... I have learned that, whatever it is they fear to see in my eyes, they don't see it - when they look at my face they are reassured.

We talked briefly about her daughter, some concerns the Mom had expressed on the phone, how to meet the daughter's needs, and then I said goodbye.

On to the next house. I couldn't find the door that had the right apartment number. A child looked out at me from behind the window bars on the wrong apartment; I smiled and s/he smiled back. I looked down the tiny gangway between this house and the next, assessed the safety situation (not quite dark yet; people about fifty yards away up and down the street - close enough to provide some protection, not close enough to give trouble), and went down the gangway to try to find #3. I knocked on some doors but wasn't heard. Inside one door I heard a cacophony of loud voices - at least two adults and several younger voices - it didn't sound like a fight or a crisis, just a lot of people living together and a lot going on, in different rooms at the same time. Sounded like perpetual tension.

I went back to the sidewalk and tried phoning a couple of times. Finally got through and my student came out to meet me--came out of the door where I had heard all the loud voices. Two big young men were strolling down the sidewalk toward me as my student emerged; I assessed them and decided they were not out for trouble, but was still glad that my student's emergence validated my incongruous presence there. The student was wearing his mother's fuzzy bedroom slippers... he hardly spoke but took the book, smiling sheepishly, and returned to his house as the men passed behind me.

This is M, mentioned previously - who doesn't seem mean but seems to strike out at other students continuously. It's like he wants to be impinging on someone else, all the time. He's always poking, throwing, hitting, bugging... every child I sit him next to, asks to be moved away from him; his records show that he often hit other students on the playground - usually not a fight, just a random attack. But why doesn't he seem mean, then?

At the same time, he is often the only student to raise his hand to answer a question I ask the class. Sometimes he has no idea what the answer is - he will say anything - but he is so eager to be called upon.

He wants something. A lot. All the time. Not sure what.

I know if I had fewer students I could start to find out what emotions send his hands out in all directions. But even at home, on the weekend, I feel too tired to think hard about it, to even form a hypothesis that I could test.

Instead I run on instinct. Several times I have taken just a few moments to speak quietly to him, just whatever comes out of my mouth. Once I saw he had written 'pimp' on his notebook in big letters. I know that means something other than the meaning I am most familiar with... not sure exactly what... but I know it's not something positive. What comes out of my mouth is something like this... "Oh, now, M, why do you write something like that? You're disrespecting yourself. You don't want to just be a pimp. You can do much better than that. You are smart, you are capable, you can do great things - I'm sure all your teachers have told you that - haven't they?" (no response, but he was holding very still, for once, looking intently into the air, not looking at me but clearly listening intently - but no facial expression or other response). "Well if they haven't, they're crazy. You can become a wise, solid, strong man, like Mr. ____. Wouldn't you rather be like Mr. _____ than just be some kinda pimp?" Another time I said "I know you are not a bad kid and you can become a good man. Don't mess it up." With emphasis on 'good man.' or something like that.

I have no idea whether this is the 'right' thing to say or not. I don't have a degree in disordered child psychology. I don't have time to think about the right thing to say. But if I stay calm and centered I do find I take these moments to say something, just hoping that it will be the right thing for someone.

The students are required to wear uniforms that include a white shirt. Friday I noticed one sweet little girl's shirt was completely filmed over with grime - every thing that stuck out, every wrinkle and crease was dark gray. Then I looked up at my class and saw a whole array of dirty shirts. One little girl was not wearing her uniform shirt and I had given her a hard time. But at least she was clean. Which would I choose if I were the mother? I think I'd be with T's mom... I would not send my child to school in a dirty shirt...

Anyway.

I walked my dogs this morning and was struck by the richness of my life. Not just in material possessions but that I have a beautiful park to walk in, and that I know how to look at the leaves, the grass, enjoy the sunlight, see the little cherries reddening and falling to the ground, see the slant of light... that I know to see and love the falling water in the fountain...

And that I have in my head whole worlds, universes, wide and rich... worlds created by literature, and countries I have visited... so much richness inside. I know my students' lives are full and many of their families are loving and supportive. But they often are not allowed to leave the house because their blocks are not safe. I don't want to make a stereotype - I spent many years avoiding saying or thinking anything negative about the lives of economically deprived children - but there is a poverty of mind: a poverty of life experience, of imagination, of flavors, of colors....

Most of them are very, very observant about people. They don't miss a thing. They see every emotion that crosses my face and respond to it immediately - when i feel strong they obey me; when i feel tired, the 'bad' ones press their advantage and the 'good' ones draw me pictures and write me notes telling me they love me. (At first I thought these were cynical attempts to curry favor, but I begin to see their weird little genuineness...)

But they aren't observant about the world. The sky. The lake. The rain. That's what feels poor...

I could make some kind of p.c. comment about 'maybe there are parts of my life that would seem poor to them.' Maybe there are. But I am sad because I want to give them some of the richness that fills my interior life, and don't know quite how... I guess reading is one way... but all the materials i have to read to them, are geared to their own frames of reference... and anything i could read them about something beyond their frame of reference, they don't seem to have the ability to grasp.

I have so much to learn.

BUt that's why I chose this job.

apologies that cannot be apologized

2007-09-12T23:16:00.000-05:00

Today we had a fire drill. Well, it was an accidental fire drill, apparently because somebody smelled something. I was really angry, actually, because the students' disorganized dash downstairs was much more dangerous than this putative smell.

After trying to get my kids to stand silently in two lines outside in the sun for ten minutes, I decided it was both futile and pointless to continue to try (combatting, among other things, their absolute conviction that dragonflies not only bite but will drain blood from you until you pass out) and allowed them to start dancing (I spend most of my time trying to stop them from dancing... I feel like a bad teen movie plot). (The big dance right now is "Soldier Boy." Google the lyrics. It's f##king depressing.)

Anyway. So after we got outside, I realized that in my attempt to stop students from trampling each other to death on the stairs, I had totally forgotten about my student who uses a wheelchair. I exclaimed, "oh my god, where's ______?!?!?!" The class told me that one of the assistant principals had taken care of her. I felt both relieved and mortified.

When I got back upstairs, this student was waiting for us in the classroom. I just looked at her. She just looked at me. There was absolutely nothing to say. "Sorry I abandoned you to a fiery death" is just an apology that cannot be made.

Weird eh.

OTOH

2007-09-12T00:17:00.000-05:00

Just finished my lesson plans. And I gotta tell you... today when I was calling M's mother in the hallway, the students were at first acting up and I stepped back into the room to scream at them... then back out to finish the call.

When I came back in, a bunch of them had gotten out the brooms and were sweeping the room... very intently and carefully... I can still see their intense little faces.

Is that not the sweetest thing you ever heard? Even if they were just trying to get out of doing math, or hoping I would cancel out one of their 'silent lunches,' that is so sweet.

At the time I was so flustered from the M incident that I just said, "I appreciate the sentiment but this is math time, not cleanup time! Put the brooms away and get out your math!" But tomorrow I will thank them.

just so you know...

2007-09-11T20:53:00.000-05:00

... I am not just exaggerating because I'm morose and sick.

For the last two days, we have not been able to do social studies or science, because we could not get through math, because I could not get the volume down.

I have abandoned science altogether. I have given them all their social studies activities as homework. Needless to say they have no idea how to do them. This increases the anxiety which increases the volume.

I feel like I'm just throwing things at them too.

deer in the headlights

2007-09-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

Forget the 'triage mentality.' I don't feel anywhere near as efficient and driven as I did when I wrote that post. I suppose this is good in that it keeps me from tossing children ruthlessly aside... but it's bad in that I feel sort of inert.

I've been sick the last two days and completely lacking not only in drive and determination, as well as devoid of any sense of humor, flexibility or patience. (It's like a little preview of mid-October - I know that I run out of those qualities about six weeks after school starts...don't know what I'll do then...)

There has been a lot of yelling. Today I drove a student home after detention, and commented, "I hate being sick... it makes me really grumpy." "Tell me about it," she said; my response: "Oh, you noticed, did you?" We both laughed.

I was so miserable I went to bed early last night and failed to submit my lesson plans for the week. I had a mild reprimand in my inbox this morning. Also this morning, the administration began classroom visits. They are very particular about what you have to have up in your classroom and what you have to be doing when they visit, and my two colleagues both got reprimanded. I'm sure my turn is coming because I had the same issues they did and worse. So the whining and resentment begin... and the feeling of being a deer in the headlights...

They are doing their job and it's good that they are, because otherwise I notice a distinct tendency on the part of both me and my students to spend longer and longer wandering the halls. But still... it's one more thing... and it does feel difficult to keep up with everything.

I feel quite discouraged tonight but all I can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other.

In other news, there is one teacher in another grade who has been very supportive of me—even put a nice card in my mailbox on one of the first days when I was crying after school (I don't know which day because it took me nearly a week to find my mailbox!). She has urged me to work on my 'mean face.' (I told the janitor (one of my biggest supporters!) what she said and he said, 'Don't do that. You're not mean, you're nice. Figure out how to discipline them your own way!' Heh.) Anyway, today I watched her lead her very well behaved class down the hall... I said to my students, "why can those [---] graders behave so much better than you all?" and they all started telling me that that teacher pinches her students and hits them with a ruler!

A lot of her comments about "you just do what you have to do, close your door and keep your mouth shut" flashed into my brain. So did some rumors about a pinching teacher, and the janitor's words... "Being around this school a long time, you learn things about the different teachers..." and his face when he said that, right before he told me not to try to be meaner than I am.

To someone far removed from my situation it might seem like a no-brainer that I should "do something" about this information. To me it is a no-brianer that I should leave it alone, although it makes me sad.

It is also discouraging. Is that what it takes to get students to line up quietly and behave? I think of Ron Clark again... damn him... he shows that it can be done... on a good day it's an inspiration... on a bad day a condemnation.

I also begin to wonder what happens when I send students to the discipline man. (I am not giving his title because it's a bit unusual and could identify the school). I get the impression he just yells at them, makes them cry, and sends them back. What about making a behavior plan? What about a contract with the student and parent? What about all the tried-and-true methodologies that I don't have time for? *sigh*

I can see all their little individual faces, personalities, what they need and want... I have years and years of experience working with this demographic! I know what to do for them on an individual level! But I feel I can't connect with them because I don't have time...

For example, there's C, who is adopted but before his adoption he was badly abused; he needs gentle reminders and connection with an adult... I don't have time for that... all I have time for is to shout across the classroom, "C---! Quit making weird noises and leave J alone! Do your math! NOW!"

There is M, who is smart, tries to participate, and yet when I turn around he is grabbing things from other students, hitting them... I am beginning to learn that if something is missing or broken, check M's desk. Today I was at my wits' end and sent M to discipline man, then called his mother. M collapsed on the floor sobbing. I was so taken aback I didn't make any sense on the phone to his mother and she started to go after me! I tried to keep in mind the other students who had been taking me aside quietly to say that M was tormenting them, but M just seemed so little, crying there, little skinny arms, hands too big for his little frame, just a little little boy—I was completely thrown off my stride.

Meanwhile the noise level in the afternoon remains high; I seem to have trained them to tune out my talking and even my shouting.

It all seems like an impossible mire into which I and my students are sinking. We feel ourselves going down and none of us seems to know how to stop it... it reminds me of the first couple days when I couldn't get them to line up quietly to go home... 90% of the noise would be all of them screaming at each other to shut up.

I am going to stop this depressing rumination and write my fucking lesson plans.

seating chart

2007-09-09T13:42:00.000-05:00

one of the things that made me shift to a 'triage mentality' (as discussed in the previous post) was trying to make a seating chart. you are supposed to put children in front if they are troubled (i.e., if they make trouble), or if they are easily distracted, or if they have a lot of potential but need a lot of encouragement. well, every single child in my &@#%*ing class fits at least two out of those three descriptors—plenty of them fit all three.

it doesn't help that my room is too small for anyone to ever be more than 18 inches from four or five other people. so i can't get the distractible kids away from the troublemakers... or anyone away from the troublemakers.

but this was where the one girl T stood out... i realized there was NO place i could put her where she wouldn't be a problem—put her near a "good" kid and she will torment them; put her near a "bad" kid and the two of them will be four times as bad. of course, she will be 18 inches from a whole bunch of "good" and "bad" kids. that's when i started to think that she has to go...

i remember how it is when you work... sunday is depressing. i always used to cry on sundays. well... hello sunday.

first week

2007-09-09T09:40:00.000-05:00

Wow... it's been a really intense week.

I am teaching fifth grade in a very low-income neighborhood, a tough neighborhood with a bad reputation, in one of the largest cities in the U.S. (moved away from Madison! yay!).

My students are great in many ways: they are bright (both in the sense of being quick and clever, and in the sense of being bright-eyed, spunky, sparkly, energetic, enjoyable) and many of them still want to try to succeed somehow. They are also a handful, to put it mildly. Always talking, out of their seats, and if unsupervised for more than three minutes, they are running around the room and bothering each other (taking things, shoving and pushing, sticking notes on each other's backs, putting glue on each other's chairs...).

Of course, I feel that we have come a long way in these first days—on Tuesday and Wednesday, craziness broke out every time I turned my back—never mind turning my back, I couldn't even turn sideways to write on the board, or lower my eyes from the horizon!

I've been telling them that we will get it together. That we will become known as the best-behaved class in the school instead of the worst-behaved. Their faces look hopeful and earnest. They have not yet given up on themselves.

But as I prep for Monday and try to accommodate all the things that are required of me (get them ready for standardized testing in March, stay on the pacing plans in math and science, test them all and place them in groups for reading...) I realize we don't have any more time to get it together. We have got to start working and we can't wait for behavior to settle down.

They are used to that process beginning like a train leaving the station with only a few of them on board... the rest sort of straggling down the tracks after it in a desultory manner. They don't know that I do not consider that acceptable. They must all be on the train even if some of them are in the caboose.

But I am not sure how to accomplish that. And I know if I don't it will not be many weeks before they disengage and do give up on themselves.

I must not be so dramatic... it doesn't help. Ramping up the panic is not an effective strategy.

But now when I pass a junkie on the street, I think to myself, that is the future for at least some of my students if they do not connect to school—not because of school itself, I don't kid myself that school is of such intrinsic value—but because it's a chance to develop some kind of discipline, focus, concentration, goal-setting. Somewhere in these years they must choose to grow up, to take responsibility, to engage in life. And I'm not at all sure how to help them build that bridge.

There are some things in my favor. I have a great bunch of parents (guardians etc), from what I can tell. I have talked to most of them in the last week and they really want their children to succeed. They are completely behind me. It's great.

And the kids don't hate me. I don't say that because I want to be their friend (and why is it that every time I say to an adult in the school, "I want to convey to them that I support them," or something like that, they say "You are not here to be their friend!" Is it a different philosophy or am I missing something?) Anyway, they haven't turned on me. I know mischievous from mean and they could certainly be mean if they wanted to - they don't take my things, break stuff on purpose, tear things from the walls, etc. Many of them, especially the girls, really want my approval. They look up at me with big eyes and say, "Was I better today?" Heh. Those are the moments I feel optimistic.

There's only one girl, T, who doesn't care at all. I am thinking that she has to go. The principal and assistant principal are constantly threatening the kids with expulsion and I know they have already kicked out six or seven kids—in the first week! I was shocked at first but that is changing.

This is a huge shift in my thinking. A few days ago I was saying "I am going to fight to keep every one of these kids in my class! These are my kids and I'm going to fight for all of them!" When one of my girls was expelled I actually shed a couple tears in front of the students (coulda heard a pin drop then!) and told them I was going to fight for all of them.

But when I started to think about everything I have to do (as described above)... and started to talk to parents who are so eager for their child to succeed... and started to think about the students who raise their hands, ask for help on #3, and I never answer their question because across the room someone is squeezing glue on her neighbor....

When I thought about all this, in spite of myself I shifted into triage mode... something I resisted in the days before school started... but now I'm getting there. I am starting to think, T takes up so much of my time...time that I could give to K, or N, or A, whose bright eyes watch me move around the room putting out fires... wanting my attention and assistance, wanting to succeed.

I don't know... if I were a better teacher, or more experienced, could I help them all? Does Ron Clark really reach all his students? Actually my main question is, does he really get them all to sit down and shut up all day long? Will I ever be able to?

I was in the teacher store and found some form-letter parent notes with checkboxes... your child needs to work on motivation, attitude, homework... I laughed and said to the clerk, "How about, not throwing things? Sitting down? Shutting the hell up?" I couldn't stop laughing.

Well.... stay tooned.

my first day teaching in an 'inner-city' school

2007-09-04T19:37:00.000-05:00

wow, today was baaaaad lol. by the end of the day the kids were getting into shoving matches and throwing crayons n balled-up paper around the room, totally ignoring anything i said! fortunately it seems to be bringing out the fighter in me rather than upsetting or depressing me in any way. i'll learn... I know I will learn how to do this...and one day when their little heads are bent over their work I will look back at how far we've come and feel triumphant. actually I can see that they're a great bunch, in spite of it all....just a lot of mischief...

[two hours later]

what am i going to dooooooooooo???? lol...

another study hall... starting to get the hang of this

2006-11-28T12:59:00.000-06:00

Not much to note about this day except that I did notice some improvements in the way I related to students.

Instead of that weirdly anxious, codependent urgency to be perceived as understanding and nice, I was able to be kind but firm, which is really what I'm aiming for.

For example, a student came in just before the bell rang and said, "My friend's having a crisis in the hall, can I just go talk to her for a moment?"

I shrugged and replied, "You'll be marked tardy. It's up to you." (This is the "Love & Logic" [http://www.loveandlogic.com/] technique I learned--tell the student what you're going to do and allow them to decide what they're going to do, instead of trying to force them to do what you want, a struggle that is often lost and always exhausting).

She paused and considered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay," and went back out the door.

About two minutes after the bell rang she returned, and sat down immediately to get to work. I'd asked all the other students what they were working on and offered help if they needed it, so I went over to her, but first said, "I hope your friend is okay?"

"Yeah," she said, sighing a dramatic teenager sigh. "See, she has lots of problems at home, so I support her, and I have lots of problems at school, so she supports me."

I know that during my student teaching at the alternative high school, I would have tried to be all sympathetic and helpful and perhaps gotten into a long conversation with the student.

But instead, I simply said, "It's good to have someone you can talk to when you need to.... Now, what are you going to be working on today?" She nodded at the first statement and responded to the question, and we exchanged a few more words about her assignment, and then she got to work on it.

I felt good about the interaction because it was kind, but maintained the boundaries--both the interpersonal boundary between myself and the student, and the boundary between work in the classroom and life outside it.

I felt that I provided what she most needed from me, personally--support in getting her schoolwork done. She may have needed many other things in her life, but not necessarily from me.

I also felt that I applied that kindness/firmness thing well with another student who tried to be disruptive and combative. She ended up taking the pass and wandering out of the room, which really is just palming the problem off on someone else (the hall monitor, her social worker) but in my position as a sub, that's all I think I can really do.

In other words, I did succeed in maintaining a safe, quiet environment in the room.... combative, disruptive behavior makes most other students uncomfortable, and the teacher's ability to handle it makes them feel safe.

Right? Uh.... right, I think so anyway........

I hope I never stop asking those questions.... I'm afraid I will though... get tired and stop questioning.

second day of subbing: alternative education

2006-11-17T12:46:00.000-06:00

My first (and two months into it, still only) full day of subbing, for an English teacher at an alternative high school.

I did a lot of homework for this job, which turned out to be unnecessary... the teacher had prepped all the students to just work quietly on various assignments while I essentially baby-sat.

But, as it was only my second day, I didn't realize that this is what I should expect, so I looked up the teacher's schedule and then looked up the courses in the course catalog to see what was being taught.

Although I didn't need the info I gleaned from this research, I did learn something, or at least, I did develop the impression (rudimentary and still uninformed of course) that the alternative high school where I subbed that day was much better organized to meet students' needs than the alternative high school where I did my student teaching.

For one thing, all students take specific courses to develop their social skills and life management skills.

The teacher I subbed for taught one of these courses, which was based entirely on a Stephen Covey book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens." Some of us make fun of this kind of pop-culture motivational-speaker franchise book, but honestly, the seven habits (things like "be proactive" and "don't procrastinate" and "take responsibility for your actions") are not a bad way to organize your life. And certainly this would be the first time some of the students had heared anything like this.

Another thing that impressed me was that the teacher actually used methods that are good for multi-age multi-ability classes. In the English classes the students were reading "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and the teacher had divided the story into short segments, which pairs of students were "translating" into language that sounded "natural" to them. This is a classic, standard, well-known (but time-consuming and work-intensive) way to help students thoroughly understand difficult, non-modern English writing.

I don't think I ever encountered this at the other alternative high school.... there, it seemed that teachers were more likely to either assign difficult material and not support students in reading it (beyond making audio tapes available, which is useful if dyslexia is the primary problem, but not if vocabulary & language are the obstalces), OR, to not assign any reading material at all and have students complete meaningless "response" pieces (drawing pictures etc.). I was happy to see the students really sinking their teeth into the old but lovely language of the story.

Down side: they hadn't seen the whole story assembled yet, so when we played hangman using characters and things from the story, none of them could guess the word I used: "pumpkin."

Just my impressions....

first day of subbing

2006-11-15T11:55:00.000-06:00

I decided to record some of the stories and experiences I've had while subbing... For various reasons I've decided to post them on the days when they occurred, even tho it's been 2 months since my first day.

So let's see. My first day was strange and revealing.

I had a couple periods of "resource room," a sort of study hall for students with special-ed labels, where supposedly they do their homework. I found (on this and successive days) that they mostly don't have any homework and that the unstated agreement is that I will leave them alone and they will leave me alone and as long as we're all quiet we're all happy.

This is education?

Last, I had a period of social studies for, again, students with various special ed labels. I hate this type of class--in the name of making it "easier," they give students really boring, stupid busywork that is not much easier for them than the regular work.

For example, the topic was the Roman Empire and the beginning of Christianity, and in their busywork they had a matching exercise for their vocabulary words. Among the fifteen or twenty words were "messiah," "prophet," and "Jesus," and they were somehow expected to differentiate between the definitions of the three.

Well, "messiah" vs. "prophet" is actually quite a fine theological distinction, and all the definitions could reasonably have been supposed to refer to Jesus. So even though they understood the passage and understood the words, they had a terrible time with the exercise. So the whole thing just makes them feel stupider, even though it's really the exercise that's stupid.

Again, this is education?

These are the students who would most benefit from the type of challenging, engaging lessons that I received in my "gifted" enrichment programs.... instead they get this crap. So anyway, much misery all around, much disruption from a couple of the kids, and the rest just sat there looking like they wished they could just vanish through the floor. The highlight of the day for them was when my underwear showed above my (for the last time beltless) corduroy slacks.

Maybe I should change the title of this blog to "this is education?"

Afterward I reflected on my role: basically I just kept the disruption from getting totally out of control, and saw to it that all the students made at least a desultory attempt at their silly worksheets. And I had done my job--done all that was asked of me. Could it really be so little was expected?

Feeling the near-total lack of attention or interest from outside the room to anything that happened inside it, I saw how easy it would be to just go along with the system, and felt the seductive pull to relinquish my ideas about how things could be different. It could be so easy to just bide my time.

Scary.

Very scary.

syntax

2006-02-06T14:48:00.000-06:00

(with thanks to Rachel, who first posted this poem on her blog)

I've written before about some of the issues involved with teaching language, writing, etc.

There's much more to say; I think about this all the time. I would like to post summaries and reflections on some of the ideas I've found most useful, such as James Gee's discussion of how grammar and spelling are used to exclude those who are not born into privilege—and how grammar & spelling are perfect tools for exclusion because both are so arbitrary, so incredibly nuanced and persnickety, that it's almost impossible for a non-native speaker to master them completely.

This came back to me forcefully when I was talking with one of my students, who had just received her scores for the ACT. She had earned a 12 in English (out of 36; some googling shows that this is the ninth percentile, as in, only 9% of students did worse than that).

She was understandably dejected and talked about how she had found the English multiple choice questions impossible since "all of the answers sounded right."

It really hit me that there was no real reason why one syntax should be "correct" and another "wrong"—why one must say "she went" instead of "she gone." There's no rational reason—so if you don't know, you can't figure it out, no matter how smart you are.

You just have to know.

So basically, it's like a big giant secret code. A secret code whose sole purpose is to keep kids like my student (a smart girl, but with two disadvantages: she was a native speaker of AAVE, Black English, Ebonics or whatever other term you want to use, and her family was extremely poor in material resources) from having access to the educational and ultimately career resources that are available to her classmates.

It's no wonder I've been mired in despair. This job is impossible. Have I mentioned that this job is impossible?

Anyway, as I said above, Rachel posted a wonderful poem to her blog, which I enjoyed and wanted to share here.

Syntax

by Wang Ping

She walks to a table
She walk to table

She is walking to a table
She walk to table now

What difference does it make
What difference it make

In Nature, no completeness
No sentence really complete thought

Language, like beast,
Look best when free, undressed

Rachel reports that "Wang Ping, the poet, lives and teaches in St. Paul and has published poems, short stories, a novel and a more academic book about footbinding in China."

gangs: don't believe everything you hear

2005-09-21T19:16:00.000-05:00

Tonight there's a forum on gangs somewhere in town. I found out about it too late to attend. But here's what I have to say on this topic.

Take everything a teacher or a cop tells you about gangs with a very large grain of salt...

...(in other words have a healthy skepticism).

The police receive funding from the federal government—and cool new weapons and technology—if they say their city has 'a gang problem.' The bigger the 'problem,' the more money and technology. Keep in mind too that where real gangs have organized criminal operations, they usually have cops on the payroll. So most of the information you'll get is going to be distorted, when it's not totally fabricated.

I've had so many Madison teachers tell me breathless stories about gangs in their schools, when it was obviously just kids hanging out in groups and occasionally getting in fights—that's only called a "gang" if they're kids of color. I think the teachers enjoy these stories for the same reason a lion tamer wants people to think lions are very dangerous.

Kids will also tell their teachers breathless stories—and give their cliques scary-sounding names, etc.—because scaring adults, especially white adults in positions of power, makes kids feel powerful.

I'm not saying gangs don't exist—they do, and where they exist they're a problem.

I'm just saying—well, I already said it: take anything a teacher or a cop tells you about gangs with a healthy skepticism.

If you want to learn more, the best authority I've found is David Brotherton of CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who has done a lot of work in schools and with actual gang members, primarily in New York City.

Here's an interview, and here's info on his book. Check them out!

I'll post a follow-up if I hear anything further about tonight's forum.

great new resource for cultural competency & world history

2005-07-09T19:18:00.000-05:00

Today in the mail I received a very exciting delivery: the National Council for the Social Studies' 103rd Bulletin, Social Studies and the World: Teaching Global Perspectives. I almost cried when I started skimming through it. How often have I felt totally isolated and even been belittled for promoting ideas like these—but whaddya know, they're the official position of the most prominent professional organization.

This is an incredible publication & I can't wait to read it in more depth. I hope to transcribe here some of the 49 "teaching ideas" scattered throughout. Some examples:

Teaching Idea 20: Stereotypes and exotica
Teaching Idea 18: Experiences of Refugees and Immigrants
Teaching Idea 27: Inventing America Through Maps
Teaching Idea 28: Imperial Frameworks

...on and on!!!

This just fuels my increasing eagerness to seek out lesson plans other people have written—which goes hand in hand with my growing suspicion that what I want to do has already been done, or half-done, and is out there somewhere if only I could find it.

I begin to feel that it's not so strange that it takes me so long to write lesson plans. I had started to think of myself as quite slow & stupid, but really, to write a really, really good lesson plan (the only kind I ever want to write) can take a really, really long time.

Also, increasingly, when I hear about a teacher here or there who is "developing a set of materials," I feel great frustration and anxiety. How many teachers are working endlessly at these "materials," when they already exist? Or how many teachers could benefit from these materials, who have no access to them? I want a nationally standardized curriculum! The only reason we don't have one, is because the quality of the standardized textbooks is so abysmal that everyone fears being reduced to that level. But think what could be accomplished if we combined the best research with the most up-to-date information...

Anyway, back to this particular exemplary book. Here's a great little excerpt, a personal anecdote from one of the authors, that sums up a lot:

The comments of a guest speaker from Nigeria woke me up to the inadequacies of [my] approach [to teaching world cultures]. He told me how disappointed he was that my students not onlyknew nothing significant about Nigerian people but did not want to listen to what he thought or cared about. "They just want to learn a game or eat some food—what does that teach them that is important?" were the words I shall never forget.

*Sigh.* Don't you just want to buy a copy of this book for every social studies teacher you've ever encountered????

how to teach for genuine cultural competency

2005-07-09T13:29:00.000-05:00

A while ago while taking a walk I was pondering how to help students develop the ability to empathize with multiple perspectives, and, hopefully, the habit of doing so.

I thought about daily "perspective exercises" where the students would look at a picture of people from another culture doing something that might seem strange, then hear the explanation, and then try to imagine how the people in the picture would see "us." Simple example: people in Japan taking their shoes off to enter home or school. How might they see us, here in the classroom with our "outside shoes" on?

But this is too easy, perhaps even boring and predictable after a while. It also smacks too much of the type of simple-minded stuff my former cooperating teacher used to do.

So, maybe we could combine "perspective" with "current events," and have students respond to a particular news article by writing a few lines imagining the thoughts, goals, interests, etc. of different persons or groups involved in (or implied in) the story.

I have so many ideas for daily exercises, I could teach entire semesters composed only of daily exercises......hey.... there might actually be a decent idea in there somewhere...with students' short attention spans, interspersing little exercises could be a good way to break up the week and the class period... these kinds of things do seem to lower the stress level a bit...

finally, a good rebuttal to Ogbu

2005-06-13T12:28:00.000-05:00

Finally we have an effective response to John Ogbu, whose "blame-the-victim" theory has been used since 1986 to justify the complacency of our education system in the face of widespread failure of African-American children.

The UW's teacher education program teaches John Ogbu's theory that African-American students "don't live up to their academic potential because of the fear of being accused of 'acting white,'" and that "black students' own cultural attitudes hinder academic achievement." (quotes from Ogbu's obituary).

It's true that the charge of "acting white" is used by insecure youth of color against each other, and we're all familiar with the nasty terms that are used (oreo, twinkie, etc.) in this kind of taunting.

But to blame teasing for the wholesale failure of generations of children in our school system... well, it's just a bit too comfortable for predominantly (nay, overwhelmingly) white school authorities. "Hey, it's their fault, what am I s'posed to do about it?"

Whenever anyone attempts to suggest that perhaps youth of color reject school AFTER school has rejected (and thoroughly humiliated) them, the response is just Ogbu, Ogbu, Ogbu.

Now we finally have something to quote back.

From issue #72 of Radical Teacher, "a socialist, feminist and anti-racist journal on the theory and practice of teaching":

The theory that studious African American students are [punished for] 'acting white' is debunked in a New York Times article of December 12, 2004. In an 18-month ethnographic study at 11 schools in North Carolina, a sociologist/economist research team found that 'black students basically have the same attitudes about achievement as their white counterparts do: they want to succeed, understanding that doing well in school has important consequences in later life, and feel better about themselves the better they do.'

The researchers give two explanations of the source of the 'acting white' theory. First, 'when white burnouts give wedgies to white A students...it is seen as inevitable, but when the same dynamic is observed among black students, it is pathologized as a racial neurosis.' Second, and more to the point, 'the idea that failing black kids pull down successful black kids can be used as an excuse by administrators to conceal or justify discrimination in the public-education system.'

This is the first study I've seen that pulls all this together, with the most extensive data. There are many other sources that support these conclusions, but most focus on one piece of the puzzle.

There are earlier studies that show that white and Black parents on average have the same ideas and values about education, and the same educational goals for their children; and other studies that show that on average, Black teens are just as aware as white teens of the economic and social advantages of school success, and that they are also just as desirous of succeeding in school (Kao, Tienda, and Schneinder (1996)).

There will always be individual stories about "well I know this guy, and he's Black and he says school is for sissies (or whatever)." The response to that is that the concept "on average" means that there may be Black students who reject education, but that these students exist in no greater or lesser numbers than white students who reject education. So differences in attitude, desire, motivation, etc. *cannot* account for a difference in the achievement of Black and white children as a whole.

Here is an excellent essay by Dr. Edward Rhymes, a veteran teacher in high school and college, also rebutting the "acting white" thesis:

Excerpt: "In all my years as an educator and youth program specialist, I have never heard any student equating scholastic achievement with whiteness."

And: "...we have failed many of our children of color. We have appropriately expended a great amount of time and effort trying to instill in them a respect for education, but we have failed at the equally important task of making sure that the powers-that-be in education value and respect them."

Indeed.

Unlearning common sense

2005-06-10T09:54:00.000-05:00

On another blog, a commenter noted:

In second or third or fourth grade, or whenever it is that they teach children the devastating math concept called "greater than and lesser than," I was utterly stumped by the entire concept.

Basically I'd immediately grasped and then discarded as too easy the whole concept of pointing a caret in the direction of the smaller of two numbers. I mean, who would seriously waste class time on something that stupid?

--Mushlette

I rest my case. I'll rest it more thoroughly another time.

the importance of structure & expectation in comprehension

2005-05-15T12:51:00.000-05:00

Why do we organize writing in conventional ways? Partly so readers know how to interpret it, how to anticipate what comes next and how it fits with what they've read already.

This concept is essential both for readers and writers.

One possible way to convey that: blues songs.

Blues songs often repeat a line about an ordinary event or occurrence, and only at the end of the stanza (wc?) do they hit you with the significance of the event.

Like this one from Robert Johnson:

I'm gointa get up in the mornin
I believe I'll dust my broom
I'm gointa get up in the mornin
I believe I'll dust my broom
Girlfriend the black man you've been lovin
girlfriend can get my room

People who are familiar with the structure know that the first few lines are a setup, and they wait for the knockout punch in the last line.

If you didn't know anything about blues, you might get bored after the first few bars, thinking, "this song is just about cleaning."

Somehow, I can use this to teach about writing structure....... this is the part that always stumps me. I get a good analogy, but then how do I show students how to transfer it over to their own writing and reading?

I think usually I'm too impatient. I need to spend more time with the analogy first.

You only need one good idea per lesson. But you need to stick with that good idea til it really sinks in.

May Day history

2005-05-01T19:12:00.000-05:00

May Day, which has an ancient history as a spring holiday, is today celebrated in much of the world as a holiday honoring workers and workers' collective action.

Ironically, this newer meaning for May Day began here in the U.S., but few in this country celebrate it or even know about it.

On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide went on strike for an eight-hour workday (twelve- and fourteen-hour workdays were common at the time). In Chicago, 80,000 people marched down Michigan Avenue. It was a peaceful event, and most of the strikers won their demand. Many others had won the eight-hour day in the weeks prior, as their employers capitulated for fear of a strike.

You can read more about it here, here, and here.

Drama as teaching tool re Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2005-04-26T07:39:00.000-05:00

This play looks fascinating:
Precious Stones: Interview with playwright Jamil Khoury

Apparently it's the story of a wealthy Palestinian woman and a working-class Jewish woman, who try to start a dialogue group in Chicago in 1989 and end up falling in love.

I recommend checking out the article linked above—the description of the play (& especially of the author) is intriguing. (Don't be dissuaded by the opening paragraph, which is really, really bad writing at its finest. The writing in the rest of the article is quite bearable).

Khoury, whose father is Syrian & who was in the West Bank during the time the play takes place, identifies primarily as a "queer feminist," and at least from this article, it sounds like he really is a feminist. He says there's no "message" in the play—he says that "taking sides" would insult the intelligence of the audience.

Khoury talks about wanting to write believable, sympathetic characters from all perspectives, and all the work he had to do to be able to write characters whose views he wasn't used to sympathizing with (like the right-wing anti-Palestinian boss of the Jewish woman). Intriguingly, he has two women play all six characters, so that the same woman who portrays the anti-Palestinian boss also portrays the Palestinian lover.

It sounds like he does have a message, but it's that women relate to the conflict very differently from how men do, and also that there is a lot of diversity and internal dialogue within each "side" of the conflict.

This (especially the latter half) is an idea I have been struggling to convey to your average American for years. As I mentioned below, I just wrote a whole lesson plan that attempts to present eight views of the conflict for high school students, and I must say it wasn't very successful. It sounds like this play could be a great way to do that, without making students read a lot of political rhetoric from eight different people (yawn! plus—vocabulary!!!).

Although....heh, it would be interesting to see whether I'd get more flak from parents over making students read a lesbian love story or an interview with the leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

There was a production of "Precious Stones" in Milwaukee on March 5—I really wish I'd known about it. It sounds incredible.

language family tree

2005-04-17T13:24:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a semester curriculum to introduce sixth-graders to 'the beginning of history.' I'm very excited about it. One thing I've been wanting to do is have the students put the puzzle pieces together and make some conjectures about early human migrations. This is part of my overall idea that students should be learning to "think like historians," i.e. they should be doing real tasks of scholarship, not just filling in blanks.

As far as I can tell, there are two main sources of conjecture about early human migration among scientists: artifacts (tracing the spread of technology & decorative styles) and language (relationships between different languages, when one language split off from another, etc). I was very excited about the possibility of having students use linguistic data for this unit.

But I can't seem to find any information about language divergence as evidence re early human migration--at least, I can't find any information that isn't over my head. I can find the theories, which only whets my appetite further, because I never knew for example that Celtic and Breton are related all the way back to some root in southern Russia--and nothing's more fun than a theory you would never have guessed on your own.

But, I find no information that I can use to reconstruct a lesson to let students make this discovery for themselves. I can pretty much read anything in any field and get something out of it, but apparently linguistics (along with physics) is an exception to that. All I want is something simple--a key word whose translation in different languages is a clue to their relationships, for example. I just want students to look at it and say, "oh, wow, the word is similar in these languages so the languages might be related," and color stuff in on a map and so on. Is that so much to ask? My own knowledge is no help--common words I can think of offer no clues whatsoever ("chien" and "perro" offer no clue of connection; same with "frau" and "woman," or "femme" and "mujer").

I had given up completely, but last week a dear friend from college resurfaced, and it just so happens that this friend majored in... drum roll please... linguistics! Now I'm hoping that he will help me put this lesson together. He's done a lot of favors for me in my life (like singing at my wedding) so maybe he doesn't owe me any more... but wait, there was the fish named Maurice, so actually, yes, he does owe me. Language and migration lesson, here we come!

comparative math & science links

2005-04-13T14:03:00.000-05:00

I love this stuff. It helps counteract an assumption that all useful and intelligent things came from Europe to the rest of the world. (Case in point: we were discussing multicultural contributions to science & learning and one person couldn't think of anything from China besides Chinese restaurants! This was a future social studies teacher mind you!!!!)

It's also an intriguing way to think about how multiple solutions relate to the same problem.

Anyway, only one link so far (the inspiration for this post of course):

Calendaropaedia, all about calendars around the world. Here is the description from its home page:

Since the dawn of civilisation man has kept track of time by use of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Man noticed that time could be broken up into units of the day (the time taken for the earth to rotate once on its axis), the month (the time taken for the moon to orbit the earth) and the year (the time taken for the earth to orbit the sun).

This information was needed so as to know when to plant crops and when to hold religious ceremonies. The problems were that a month is not made up of an integral number of days, a year is not made of an integral number of months and neither is a year made up of an integral number of days. This caused man to use his ingenuity to overcome these problems and produce a calendar which enabled him to keep track of time.

The ways in which these problems were tackled down the centuries and across the world is the subject of this Web site. It is recommended that you start by looking at the Comparison of Calendars.

Do--it's fascinating! From the Aztec Empire to the French Revolution, everyone had their own solution.

opposing perspectives lesson plans

2005-04-10T19:11:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a "structured academic controversy" (SAC) lesson plan--an assignment--for which I chose the Israeli-Palestinian struggle as a topic. As a result, I've been thinking a lot about how to teach controversial issues.

IMO the dominant public-school message to students about ALL controversial issues is: "There are always two extremes. A rational, 'moderate' person takes a position in the middle."

As an example of this viewpoint, a teacher ed student (from a different teacher ed program) who was visiting the school where I was student teaching, communicated this assumption directly when "helping" high school students with their study of the Montgomery Bus Boycott: he suggested to high school students that Dr. King et alia represented one “extreme,” while the KKK, George Wallace, et alia represented the other “extreme.” He went on to say that, "you know, usually in cases like this, you've got the two extremes and the 'truth' is somewhere in the middle." What would the "truth" be, I wonder, according to his worldview? Moderate segregation? (I was furious at this guy and got him in trouble--that was fun).

The major fallacies in this idea of course is: (1) there are always more than two positions and (2) in the classroom setting, the "middle" is as arbitrarily constructed as the "extremes." (And in a situation like the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, you can also present two opposing positions that are so extreme and so incompatible, that they will just produce despair--or you can present opposing positions that are so close that students will have trouble understanding what the problem is).

So although the SAC design we were assigned calls for two positions, I ended up designing my lesson with nine. This makes for a lot more work. But if I can pull it off, I think it would be more stimulating and more realistic. ("If"—I said "if.")

may it be so

2005-04-06T10:05:00.000-05:00

To help me prepare for job interviews etc., I decided to try to envision myself beginning the school year in the fall. What will be my priorities? What will my class be like? How will I be ready? This is what I wrote. Then I thought I might as well post it here.

-----------------

On the first day of school, fall 2005, I walk into my classroom prepared to welcome MY VERY OWN CLASS. Everything is ready. My curriculum is outlined for the year; it's ready in detail through the end of October. My curriculum is not complicated, but it is challenging.

1) I start from square one in terms of skills. A student without much English, a student without much academic preparation, a student without much experience of the physical world, a student with disabilities--all students find it accessible because it begins by assuming they are learners and have learned a lot, without assuming anything about what they have learned up to now.

2) Each lesson builds on the next one, gradually developing students' academic *and* group-work skills, and gradually deepening their understanding of the material, as well as their understanding of how to study history and society.

3) The lessons are all cooperative, with an individual final product. They all follow a model of scaffolding: more support, gradually decreasing support, to finally, individual accomplishment.

4) The lessons involve students doing the work. I will not be rushing around doing the work, and students will not be waiting for me to help them. They will be able to help themselves and each other. The lesson's goal will be clear at the outset and will require a minimum of explanation to get started. The end point is clear but the process is something they have to work out together. First with more support, later with less.

In this vision in my mind, I know what I'm doing because I have planned carefully. I have everything I need. I have rehearsed my first day alone and with an audience. I know what I will say. Everything that I will say and do for this first day is so thoroughly prepared that I can focus my main attention on the students--I can observe them, interact with them, relax with them. Being unprepared in any way will mean less observation, less interaction, less relaxation.

When they come in, I welcome them at the door with enthusiasm. They know they are in the right room, they have an assigned seat and an assignment to begin working on right away. Everything is ready.

The atmosphere is serious but not pressured. It is an atmosphere of hard work, but also of calm.

They will learn skills and content. They will learn to work together. They will learn to trust themselves and believe in their own point of view. They will learn first that they will never be humiliated in my class; later they will learn not to fear humiliation or anything that can happen to them in school. They will become resilient, self-reliant, confident, calm. They will learn to cope with difficult emotions in a mature manner.

Because I am prepared, that first day and afterward, I will be calm. Not everything will go as I've planned, and that's to be expected. I will be flexible and relaxed. I will have my priorities in the right order: (1) safety: the children will feel safe in my class, safe from any disrespect or cruelty coming from me, or from each other. (2) learning: the children will learn a lot in my class. They will learn because they will do the work.

I will not over-react to things that are not a priority. Students who do things I didn't plan for them to do, will not upset or alarm me, because I know what the priorities are. And, I will be confident in my understanding of what is happening--I will listen to my instincts. If they are safe and learning, then I will not react to what they are doing. If they need to be redirected to safety and learning, I can do that too. That's all that is required of me, since I have done all the really hard work in advance. The learning is all planned out, and the learning is all the students' work. All I need to do is help them stay focused and clarify any questions. It's really not that hard at all.

I will be very patient and calm, although I will also secretly be elated, that first day. This is my class. At last. After so many years and so much work. This is my class.

May it be so, let it be so, I want it so much. Just have to get there.

military euphemisms

2005-04-05T13:43:00.000-05:00

You know you've been working too much on your "Israeli-Palestinian struggle" lesson plan when you say to your wife, "We never use these plates; we should put them in the basement... in fact we should redeploy everything on this shelf..." Did I just say "redeploy"? About plates?

Redeploy is not my least favorite euphemism (that would be "pacify"), but it always makes me smile in a twisted sort of way. Redeploy is what you do when you don't want to retreat. It makes the point that you are operating from a position of strength, that you are simply moving your army, not withdrawing it, and nobody's making you do it, either. But it makes me smile because usually someone is making you do it, and so it always seems like a bit of a failure in terms of macho bluster.

It used to confuse me, because I thought it meant the army was "going back to" Lebanon or Gaza or wherever. No, it means the army is withdrawing from Lebanon or Gaza or wherever. We should have a list of military euphemisms for students... and for those rearranging their kitchen cabinets.

cooperative learning: overview (johnson, johnson & holubec)

2005-03-30T22:23:00.000-06:00

If you wish, check out my intro to this book, Cooperative Learning in the Classroom, by Johnson, Johnson & Holubec.

This post will lay out a basic overview of the book's instructions for teachers. I have filled in a few details for the part I've already read; I'll fill in the rest as I finish reading the book. I also hope to have separate posts providing more detail for some of the sections, which will be linked from this page when I've finished them.

Pre-instructional decisions
- select the instructional materials and objectives--be sure the goal is clear (see my Wong & Wong post on objectives!)
- structure the task according to the five key aspects of cooperative learning:
  1. positive interdependence: a shared goal that makes every group member's individual contribution absolutely indispensible to his/her teammates
  2. individual accountability: everyone is responsible for the material; no one can just "goof off"
  3. face-to-face mutually supportive interaction
  4. interpersonal & small-group skills development
  5. group processing: groups openly discuss their working process and how they can become more effective
- determine what kind of groups you will have, and assign students to groups
- arrange the classroom to facilitate cooperation and minimize disruption
- structure the group interaction, creating and assigning roles to maximize participation and results
Explain the task
- provide a CLEAR, MEASURABLE goal and make sure the students understand it
- explain the concepts, principles and strategies that students will need to use to reach the goal
- relate the new information to the students' prior experience and knowledge as much as possible
- provide examples or model the work the students will need to do to reach the goal
Explain how the cooperation/teamwork should proceed
- define what it means to "work together"
- define and teach teamwork skills: in order of increasing difficulty (taught incrementally as students become more adept at cooperative work), this includes skills related to:
  1. forming a group
  2. functioning as a group
  3. learning as a group
  4. pushing each other to a higher level of achievement
Monitor students working together
Evaluate students' individual and collective work throughout the process, and evaluate/assess the end product
Encourage/require students to evaluate how well their groups are functioning and make plans for improved functioning in the next assignment

cooperative learning: intro (johnson, johnson & holubec)

2005-03-30T22:03:00.000-06:00

I was recently out of town (hence the big gap in posts) and on the plane ride, I zipped through much of a very useful book:
Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (c 1994, by Johnson, Johnson & Holubec)

It's a slim little volume by what appear to be (at least, judging from the bibliography) several people who have devoted the last decade or more to researching (and reviewing others' research) into effective procedures for cooperative learning.

I recommend this book highly--as I said it is brief (110 pages incl. bibliography), and it goes quickly because it covers a tremendous amount of ground, with clarity but in a very succinct space. I'm going to try to post the key ideas here, chapter by chapter, for those of you who don't have time to go read it this instant, i.e. all of you (if there are any of you in the first place) *grin* Also, for myself for future reference.

Anyway, in the introduction, the book asserts that cooperative learning accomplishes three separate goals:

raises the achievement of all students, including those who are ahead of their classmates and those who have disabilities or other "issues"
builds positive relationships among students, which is essential to a positive classroom environment
provides the opportunity for students to have a variety of experiences that promote their development on three levels: social, psychological, and cognitive.

Instead of a model where the teacher is the one working hard, trying to pump knowledge into students as passive vessels, this model requires the teacher to structure and facilitate tasks where the students do the hard work of learning.

[My observation is that although this seems like a lot of work to set up, once it's up and running smoothly, it's actually easier on the teacher than the traditional model, because you don't need to propel students through material--they move under their own steam. This ties in with stuff in the Wong & Wong book, too--if the teacher does all the work, then the teacher does all the learning...].

Important: I didn't know this, but the authors state that in order to be successful,

cooperative learning should be used 60% to 80% of the time!

This makes sense if you think about it--cooperative learning requires a particular set of social skills, a particular orientation toward work and toward classmates, that really would become a part of the classroom culture and climate. If you were constantly switching back and forth between cooperative learning and other systems, then you would dilute the strength of that culture and climate, and reduce the students' ability to function successfully in a cooperative context.

The introduction also lays out the teacher's basic jobs, which are described in more detail in later chapters...this is essentially the table of contents. I'll make this a separate post.

fwd: school news

2005-03-18T14:38:00.000-06:00

The following news links were posted on the MAFAAC list. I haven't checked them out. I'm just passing them on; a few comments are footnoted.

Don't be a Statistic: Fight the Achievement Gap - Lafollette Student Jazmin Jackson writes a must read.*
Schools Could Use a Makeover, by Rob Zaleski (with links & related articles)
Malcolm Gladwell on Education - New Yorker writer and author (Blink, Tipping Point) spoke at the Memorial Union last week. Interesting stuff, including some words on education and inadvertent (or not) gender bias.
March 7, 2005 Madison School Board Meeting Budget Comments, including the administrations's proposed strings program elimination.**
Carol Carstensen & Ruth Robarts exchange views on the District's current budget process
Mary Battaglia offers up Virginia's recent school funding change
Blogshine Sunday, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and PAC money in the
local school board races
Madison School Board Candidate election site

Up to date local school information, links, events and ideas: http://www.schoolinfosystem.org

Send your ideas and information: http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/ideas/

Best wishes!
Jim Zellmer

* I'm not reading this now because I'm trying to get back on track with my work, but I hafta say, the last time I saw a student article about the achievement gap, it was a Black student telling other Black students it was (essentially) all their fault. I couldn't help seeing this article because someone cut it out and taped it to the wall about every three feet all over Sherman Middle School. I don't blame the kid--this is the message she gets--but the publisher who didn't include any other points of view, and the teacher(s) who loved this "get out of the doghouse free" card, earn my ire (not that this would concern them at all).
**My first reaction: good. As it is, "strings" is used to segregate--the rich kids who have had private tutors or something like that go into "strings," and everyone else goes into "band." god, there are so many little trap doors like this--and the parents' ways of communicating about it are so subtle and awful, so that they probably convince themselves they aren't doing it! Now, before I seem like the grinch that stole music classes, there's nothing wrong with strings per se, and I generally oppose cutting music and art just on principle--but there are other things going on here.

how to write good objectives (Wong & Wong)

2005-03-16T15:01:00.000-06:00

From pp. 209 - 222 in Wong & Wong, The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (one of my current fave teaching books)...

Assignments must be clear and precise....A poor assignment tells the student what to do at the BEGINNING of the assignment. A good assignment states what a student is to have accomplished or achieved when the assignment is FINISHED. You tell students what you want accomplished. Then you give procedures to help them do so.

In other words, a good assignment is based on a good objective.

Objective criteria do two things: assign and assess.
Assign: Objectives...tell a student what is to be...mastered in an assignment.
Assess: Objectives tell the teacher if additional study is needed to reach the objectives."

Seems obvious, and yet, it's amazing how easy it is to miss the obvious. The Wongs' sterling advice continues:

Objectives are to be given to the students when the lesson begins so that the students know what they are responsible for. It is easy to write objectives.
Step 1: Pick a verb [from the table below]...and use the verb you select as the first word in a sentence.
Step 2: Complete the sentence...Make sure that the sentence is precise and easily understood by you, the students, and their parents.

- 6 - Evaluation	appraise, choose, compare, conclude, decide, defend, evaluate, give your opinion, judge, justify, prioritize, rank, rate, select, support, value
- 5 - Synthesis	change, combine, compose, construct, create, design, find an unsual (or original) way, formulate, generate, invent, originate, plan, predict, pretend, produce, rearrange, reconstruct, reorganize, revise, suggest, suppose, visualize, write
- 4 - Analysis	analyze, categorize, classify, compare, contrast, debate, deduce, determine the factors, diagnose, diagram, differentiate, dissect, distinguish, examine, infer, specify
- 3 - Application	apply, compute, conclude, construct, demonstrate, determine, draw, find out, give an example, illustrate, make, operate, show, solve, state a rule or principle, use
- 2 - Comprehension	convert, describe, explain, interpret, paraphrase, put in order, restate, retell in your own words, rewrite, summarize, trace, translate
- 1 - Knowledge	Define, fill in the blank, identify, label, list, locate, match, memorize, name, recall, spell, state, tell, underline

And in big bold letters after this, they have,

Do not use these verbs when you write objectives:
appreciate
be happy
beautify
celebrate
enjoy
like
love
understand

[They explain that these] "are not good action verbs because it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine from them what the student is to do."

I love Wong & Wong. Everything you were supposed to learn in Teacher Ed school, but most definitely did not.

As a result of reviewing these instructions, I was forced to rewrite the objectives for the lesson plan I'm working on right now. See if you can spot the Wong & Wong touch!

Before:
"Students will develop a richer frame of reference for imagining the beginning of farming, and for understanding its impact on human life and society."

After:
"Students will interpret data sources--including maps, timelines, and descriptions of archeological evidence--and draw conclusions about the reasons why people began farming."

It's the same lesson plan--I was already gonna have them "interpreting data sources" even while the objective was lousy--but now that I've clarified the objective, it makes a lot of things easier, including (1) giving directions, (2) identifying the phase in the process that gives one or more students difficulty, (3) figuring out how long it will take, based on EXACTLY what skills are needed to succeed in the lesson, and my knowledge of which students have & lack these skills, and (4) determining whether they've done what I wanted them to do.

(Note the nefarious sleight-of-hand in the "before" objective--I knew you weren't supposed to say "understand," but obviously, "develop a frame of reference" is just a fancy way of saying "understand." *grin*)

The main thing I realized here is that it really is worthwhile to force yourself to use these verbs, because each of them describes an action that is **MEASURABLE**.

"Understand" is not measurable.

"Interpret" is measurable--can the student tell me what the map or timeline says?

"Draw conclusion" is measurable--can the student tell me his/her conclusion?

Suddenly I realize why I have had so much trouble in the past (well, one reason)... my objectives have basically been fifty-bajillion ways of saying, "think like me, see things the way I do." Then, when they don't, I'm often at a loss as to how to help them learn to.

Whereas, with the precise & clear objective method, I am identifying in small precise steps what I want them to do, so it's hard to stray too far from "the point" or get confused about whether it's more important for them to do x or y at this time, as a building-block for the next lesson.

It occurs to me I could probably create a year-long plan based on historical thinking & writing skills, and apply that to whatever course I teach--in other words, figure out what skills need to be learned in what order, and create a step-by-step approach that builds each skill onto the next. Just fill in the content--that's the easier part.

Hmmmmmm...

LA Teachers' Union upset election

2005-03-16T00:51:00.000-06:00

Apologies for posting such lengthy excerpts, but the LA Times requires you to be registered to view the whole article.

Members of L.A. Teachers Union Elect New Leaders
By Cara Mia DiMassa, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
March 2, 2005

Los Angeles teachers threw out most of their current union leadership Tuesday, electing as president a special education teacher and a slate of newcomers who campaigned on a social justice-centered agenda.

By more than 2,000 votes, teachers selected A.J. Duffy, a 35-year district veteran and longtime union activist, over incumbent President John Perez. About 11,300 teachers, or 27%, of the union's 41,000 members cast ballots.

It was the first time in United Teachers Los Angeles' 35-year history that an incumbent president and his slate had been ousted.

"This is a really completely new look to UTLA," said Duffy, a special education teacher at Palms Middle School. "From the top down. We're all activists. We're all organizers. We go to work with the community."

Duffy was supported by the new United Action slate, which pushed for what one incoming UTLA leader called "militant rank-and-file unionism."
...
"Our slate won every single race, top to bottom," said Joshua Pechthalt, the union's incoming vice president. "This is wholesale change in the union."

So this sounds exciting, right? A social justice slate? I'm here thinking that this means social justice for the students....

...teachers who supported Duffy said they blamed the current union leadership for an 18-month delay in negotiations over a new contract.

[The district] recently offered teachers a 1.5% raise; Perez countered that teachers should get at least 2%. Duffy, in campaign materials, told teachers that, because of cost-of-living increases, "any pay raise less than 7% means a pay cut."
...
Teachers, Pechthalt said, look to contracts first. "If you can deliver a good contract, you can keep the support of the membership. Perez has not been able to do that," he said.

So now I'm confused. Is the union really pushing social justice, or what I would call social justice, i.e. justice for teachers AND students? If so is it just the spin (from whatever quarter) that is trying to say it's all about the contract, money-grubbing teachers, blah-de-blah?

Or is the union's definition of "social justice" different from mine (i.e. protect the teachers's salaries = main priority; students, not so much)?

Obviously teachers are workers, and there's a lot to be discussed with regard to the impossible working conditions (and the gendered aspect of that--teachers like nurses are expected to be "naturally" good at their jobs and not need training or support or real money)--I'm not trying to undermine the necessity of a union to protect teachers--but I had understood that the big change in LA was about a new alliance among teachers, parents and students for the good of all, and this doesn't sound like that, exactly... so what's the story, I wonder?

If Duffy spends all this time as a union activist... how good of a special education teacher is he? What KIND of a special education teacher is he? Hmmmmmmm....

other supremacists

2005-03-15T21:58:00.000-06:00

As'ad AbuKhalil's poetic commentary on the strife in his native Lebanon:

Find Me a Homeland
I want a homeland with no flags and no national anthems. I want a homeland that has open borders, and requires no entry visas. I want a homeland that does not have maids, and has no "dirty jobs." I want a homeland that does not hate others to feel better about itself. I want a homeland where people do not think that they are better than their neighbors. I want a homeland where people do not mock regional accents. I want a homeland where clerics (of all religions) are assigned more useful jobs. I want a homeland where people demand higher taxes to help others in need. I want a homeland that spends more on arts and public libraries, and nothing on defense. I want a homeland where the most admired are poor and nameless. I want a homeland where men do not call women bad names to stroke their silly "manhoods". I want a homeland with no presidents. I want a homeland that cares more about social justice than about whether this rich person or that rich person made it to that public office. I want a homeland where Larry King is not allowed near a TV station. I want a homeland where charity is more important than wealth, and courage is not defined by traditional standards. I want a homeland where cedars are considered just...trees. Mere trees. I want a homeland where opposition to war is appreciated more than wars. I want a homeland that does not preach, and does not submit to Empire out of fear. Oh, and I would like Milka chocolate (they are hard to find in the US).

I don't agree with every word, but I like the jist of it... I wonder if I were to write something like that, what would I say. Might be an interesting assignment in school.

teaching tolerance (combating white supremacist attempts to recruit our youth)

2005-03-15T19:11:00.000-06:00

I've been hearing that white supremacist groups are on the rise again around the country. I've tried to brush it off, but lately I'm hearing it from too many sources, and the recent passage of the anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona (among other places)--which originated from, and is backed by, white supremacist groups--has been very disturbing.

Many teachers are probably already familiar with it, but in case you are not, the "Teaching Tolerance" project of the Southern Poverty Law Center is a fantastic resource for combatting these viewpoints & preventing them from taking hold in our schools and youth.

Check out Tolerance.org, a general news and info outlet of the SPLC. You can find links such as "Ten Ways to Fight Hate," which sounds like it would be obvious but actually has a lot of really helpful ideas based in concrete past experience. On the "speak up" page, for example, you can find links telling you

And that's just one page out of the "ten ways!"

For teachers specifically, there is Teaching Tolerance, a website where you can subscribe to the magazine, get information, and also order a stunning array of free materials including free videos, kits, lesson plans, and more. I have the Rosa Parks video, which is just excellent, and I see they have a new one I want to check out: "Mighty Times: The Children's March."

There is also a lot in the parents' section that can be useful to teachers, such as this article on helping children develop a positive self-image without denigrating others who are different. The article begins by talking about the author's attempts to help her son (both mother and child are African-American) to develop a positive self-image in contrast to the negative images of Black men he sees elsewhere in the culture; this is something i've thought about a great deal as a teacher.

This stuff specifically came to mind today because a friend sent me this article:

White women kick Neo-Nazi organizer out of [San Francisco] Coffeeshop (Monday, March 14, 2005)

I found it very inspiring, and thought-provoking too--I don't know if I would have been able to do what the two women in the article did. I try to be someone who "puts my money where my mouth is," but perhaps there's a limit to my courage.

Although, when a local store had "ask about our Arab shoplifting policy" posted in the store, I was working on organizing people to go confront the manager when the sign was removed. So maybe I'm selling myself short. When these occasions arise, and I know I have to do something, I usually just move forward without thinking too much about it. So maybe I would have done what the two women did. I don't know. Anyway their action is an inspiration.

know the enemy (white supremacist "history")

2005-03-14T21:44:00.000-06:00

I came across this while searching for something else (isn't the internet a wonderful place?)... it's a glimpse into the mind of "the enemy," though the Buddhist stuff I've been studying would encourage me not to designate anyone this way.

At first I hesitated even to open the link, as though it would contaminate me somehow, but once I started reading it, I started thinking that I really should be more familiar with the rhetoric and ideas, so that I can spot them when they (inevitably, I have to say with regret) crop up among my students.

It also makes me think more carefully about the link I posted previously--to the list of fallacies. Reading stuff like this "white power" BS can help me refine exactly how those fallacies can be used so perniciously. For example, one of the items in the list of fallacies is that an author may use words with multiple meanings to "prove" a point when actually the arguments are not using the same meaning of the word... the examples given on that page are silly, but the "white history" pages give perfect examples--for example, the idea of "race" or "civilization." I need to think about this more carefully in order to be able to counteract it.

I still feel a bit paranoid so I'm not going to include an actual link; if you want to venture into this territory (and I recommend that you do, under the heading of, as I said, "know thine enemy"), just highlight the web addresses and copy-paste them into your browser.

Here it is, white supremacist take on history...
"March of the Titans - A history of the White Race" - link: http://www.white-history.com
The main thesis is summarzied as follows:

"Most importantly of all, revealed in this work is the one true cause of the rise and fall of the world's greatest empires - that all civilizations rise and fall according to their racial homogeneity and nothing else - a nation can survive wars, defeats, natural catastrophes, but not racial dissolution."

The work includes such chapters as, "Chapter 9: Alpha and Omega - The Rise and Fall of Civilizations" (link: http://www.white-history.com/hwr9.htm), whose main thesis is that "history is a function of race."
An excerpt:

If, however, the society within any particular given area changes its racial makeup - through invasion, immigration or any decline in numbers - then the civilization which that society has produced will disappear with them, to be replaced by a new civilization reflecting the new inhabitants of that territory.

OK, not entirely unreasonable, although a bit simplistic (civilizations don't generally just "disappear"...this is the kind of thinking that results from the ridiculous textbooks used in schools today!)... it's only after this that it starts to get a bit ludicrous...

DISAPPEARANCE OF WHITES LED TO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THEIR CIVILIZATIONS

Originally created by Proto-Nordics, Alpines and Mediterraneans, and then influenced by waves of Indo-European invaders, the White civilizations in the ancient world, the Near and Middle East all flourished, producing the wonders of the ancient world.

These regions were either invaded or otherwise occupied (through the use of laborers or by immigration, or in rare cases, by conquest) by non-White peoples - Semitic speaking peoples, and in many cases Black peoples.

What happened was that the original White peoples who made up those civilizations vanished, were killed, or were absorbed into other races, and with their disappearance, so their civilizations "fell" in exactly the same way that the Amerind civilization in North America "fell."

Uh, yeah. Not.

For the moment, and since I'm not actually talking to my students (or, current signs indicate, to anybody other than my spouse) I'm just going to file that under "too silly to even address."

It starts to get ugly in other spots, such as Chapter 8, which argues that Egypt's achievements were produced by a white group, which was destroyed by the Arabs and Black inhabitants of Kush--the phrase that reveals the ugliness underneath all this smooth prose and "I'm not a racist, the Chinese are fine as long as they stay in China" bs is:

The existence of these two non-White groupings within Egypt was later to have a major impact on the history of that civilization, and also do much to destroy the "environmental" theory of the origin of civilizations, as all three groups shared the same environment, yet produced very different levels of achievement.

*sigh* Know the enemy, indeed. These ideas are very easy to refute, but at the stage that this writer has reached, it would be impossible. Equipping children to see through and refute such fallacy-based scholarship is an important task for social studies teachers....

And the Buddhism comes into it after all, as I can't help thinking that it's also our task to help them see themselves in harmony with others, not locked in mortal combat.

current events w/BBC daily news?

2005-03-14T20:49:00.000-06:00

I often tape & watch the half-hour early-morning BBC news (well, it's BBC-America). I've been thinking about how to integrate current events into the curriculum, and often I wish the students could see the BBC presentation.*

One idea I had for current events was to have students keep a daily notebook (well, many of my ideas about teaching involve a daily notebook). I thought I would tape the BBC every day, show the first ten minutes (the top headlines and a major story), and have students write questions in their notebooks. Then on Thursday I'd look at the questions, and on Friday I'd pull together a presentation and discussion culled from the week's events, answering the most persistent and repeated questions...

Overall though this seems pretty unworkable. Not enough time and not enough student skills--we'd just run into the perennial problem of i-don't-get-this-shutdown.

On the other hand, I get sick of the classroom being this little bubble with no connection to the outside world at all... what is the solution... there must be some good ideas out there somewhere; I should go look.

*I used to think the BBC was just superior to CNN for some reason, but when I put this proposition to a British friend, she was disgusted; when I was actually in England, I saw why--it turns out that the BBC in situ is just as full of sensationalized crime and celebrity pseudo-drama as CNN; it's actually BBC America specifically that does a good job... I wonder if this is due to its compressed form--a half hour instead of twenty-four--or to some attempt to find a niche audience apart from CNN's audience... any ideas?

list of logical fallacies

2005-03-14T19:09:00.000-06:00

I learned about these in sixth grade. We did a great unit on advertising. We had I think six of these fallacies as the main ones used in ads; we had to find examples of them, then write our own ad using as many of the fallacies as possible. I think it *really* helped prepare me for logic and critical thinking work down the road.

Logical fallacies

deductive vs inductive reasoning

2005-03-13T19:07:00.000-06:00

I was never clear on this. In case you're in the same spot:

Deductive

theory >> hypothesis >> test >> observation >> confirmation

Inductive

observation >> pattern >> tentative hypothesis >> exploration/testing >> theory

Some links:

Social Science Research Methods
Deductive/Inductive tutorial - a little more confusing but also more examples. Includes the comments that a deductive argument is proven with "reasons, examples, facts, and statistics," while an inductive argument is supported with "opinions, observations, experimentation, and explanations;" apparently "science is heavily based on inductive evidence."

History: Iroquois Constitution; Iroquois viewpoint

2005-03-13T18:06:00.000-06:00

Here is a useful version of the Constitution of the Five Nations (aka Iroquois Confederacy or League of the Haudenosaunee), with an introduction and some annotation inserted into the text in brackets.

While looking for it, I found this--check it out!--a comprehensive, annotated paper that makes a compelling case for dating in 1142 instead of 1536: A Sign in the Sky: Dating the League of the Haudenosaunee. Along the way, it provides an excellent summary of a Native viewpoint on European incursions along with other aspects of the history of the nations of the Great Lakes and Northeastern regions. Fascinating material--and it's going to come in handy as a summary, I expect.

I bet the main site on which this is posted would also be a great resource--it's called "The Wampum* Chronicles: Mohawk Territory on the Internet," self-described as "dedicated to the study of history, culture, and contemporary issues of the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) Nation...."

...but I am restraining myself from exploring further, since, of course, I have plenty else to do!

*I admit I had to look up "wampum." FYI wampum = a type of beadwork that functioned as "a method of recording solemn agreemnts, history, or religious matters." The person in the picture at right is Wolf Clan Mohawk Tiyeeneenhogarow; he is holding a wampum belt whose significance is unknown, but the portrait was painted when he was in London agreeing to fight for the British in the so-called "French and Indian War." Click here for more info on wampum.

Okay okay, back to work. See under "restratining myself from exploring further..."

documenting public school needs

2005-03-12T14:18:00.000-06:00

My mom forwarded me information about Critical Exposure, a project that provides public school students with cameras and other materials, together with training in photojournalism, so students can document the challenges their schools are facing as well as the positive growth and potential they see in their schools.

I don't know any more about it, but it's an interesting concept, potentially empowering depending on how it's handled. I checked out the Critical Exposure website, and from the photo on the home page (the only photo I could find on the site), became somewhat concerned with how race will be used in this photography.

Have you ever noticed how Blackness (and other overt manifestations that are associated with race) are used to represent other things, like poverty or need or loneliness or sadness? What a mind-trip for kids of color...Of course there may be vast differences between how the racial aspects of the subject are seen by the photographer, vs how they are perceived by hundreds of different viewers, vs how they are used by the various entities that are trying to create change using the photographs...

But, why was this photograph (file titled "child4.jpg,"with no name for the child, and--more undermining for a supposedly empowering project--no photo credits) chosen to represent the project? Are we supposed to think this child is poor and lost? pathetic and needy? adorable and "at risk"? innocent and worthy? What is the look on his face supposed to convey? My first instinct when I saw it was to read the look as lost and lonely--"feed me, love me"...

But it could just as easily be, "Huh, what, who said my name?" Look closely and you'll see that he is holding the hand of the adult in front of him--not so "little lost boy," now, is he. Could it be that someone called his name, he turned around to see who it was, and *snap* he became the poster child for "the poor needy children of Baltimore."

Has he seen the website? What does he think it means to have his picture up there? If the events unfolded as I am imagining, I'd be willing to bet that if he asked some white teacher-type why his face is up there, she said, "Cuz you're the handsomest, sweetie," and gave him a hug or a smile or a pat on the head, which left him knowing that she was lying, wondering why she would lie, wondering more than ever why his face is up there, and feeling perhaps that he is being used in some way that he doesn't quite grasp.

I'm probably over-analyzing. On the simplest level, if they are able to create positive change, great. Check out the site and let me know what you think. Contributions to the project can be made on the site.

Nepal crisis

2005-03-10T23:43:00.000-06:00

Interesting that there is so much focus on Lebanon and nothing in the papers/tv about Nepal, even though the crisis there is worsening daily with rumors of skirmishes and attacks on civilian areas by both the royal forces and the Maoists. I had completely forgotten about the Nepal situation, to be honest, until I came across a link to a very interesting Nepal blog. Check out this great photo:

"Kabir Rana of Deshantar Weekly, Gopal Budhathoki of Sanghu weekly and Rajendra Kumar Baidh of Bimarsha weekly display the issues of their newspaper immediately after the Feb 1 Royal Takeover when they published blank opinion pages in protest of media censorship."

Apparently, the editors were summoned to the palace on Feb 23 to "clarify" the blank pages. That would be funny if it weren't so serious. Read the full story here.

Also of interest are daily news updates and this appeal from a Nepali student leader, which condemns both the King and the Maoists:

"We the youth of Nepal have to fight our war on two different fronts at this critical moment of history: Monarch and the Maoists. Monarch on the one hand has shown its ambition of maintaining state power at all cost. Maoists on the other have not shown commitment towards the practice of democracy. Both the Monarch and the Maoists have established themselves as extremists with whom the democratic forces cannot afford to comply with until the Maoists change their stance theoretically as well as practically. We the youth, believe that we have a capacity to eradicate the injustices that have prevailed since its unification and to face those that are yet to arise."

I have been trying to find out exactly what kind of Maoists these are, and this comment provides some clues. My guess is the Maoists must have some support among the population--it's hard for guerilla armies to exist without support--but how much and whether it's divided along ethnic lines, I still don't know.

Here are some links to BBC stories:

Nepal's former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been freed more than month after he was sacked by the king and placed under house arrest. (March 11)
Nepal frees political detainees (March 10)
Nepal arrests 200 demonstrators (March 8)
King tightens censorship of Nepalese media (March 2)
One month after seizing power, King shows no sign of relinquishing it (March 1)
King says he is fighting "terrorism" and asks for help (rest of world to King: "Nepal has no oil; go screw yourself")

And some more background:

Q&A: Nepal crisis
Nepalese history chronology
Who are Nepal's Maoist rebels?quick summary -
- main complaints = political squabbling, rural poverty, caste system
- key rebel leaders inspired by Peru's Shining Path
- human rights groups accuse rebels of torture & summary executions
- only consistent demand is abolition of monarchy
- started small in 1996 & were ignored, but today very powerful & well-armed

Well, that's enough for now. I'm glad I loooked around; I know more than I did before.

useful US history links

2005-03-09T15:15:00.000-06:00

Useful sites for US history documents...

Chronology of US Historical Documents - University of Oklahoma College of Law - about 140 items - includes links to other websites such as "The Papers of George Washington" at the University of Virginia
"From Revolution to Reconstruction" - around 300(?) documents - the classics (Declaration, Constitution), plus, way past reconstruction, with a focus on presidents (state of the union addresses, letters, etc. through Clinton) but also including such gems as the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations, c. 1500).
"Primary Source Documents for US History" - East Tennessee State University Dept of History - Wow! more than 400 documents, with a focus on lesser-known stuff--it looks like all 13 colonial charters are there (including 3 versions of Virginia's!), but the Declaration of Independence is not (see above for that). More recent documents focus on Supreme Court decisions and key laws.*

* and then, among the items listed under "the sixties" are ten Bob Dylan songs and five Phil Ochs songs...and the Communist Manifesto. As if anyone living in the sixties could have written a sentence like "Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes." These history profs are insane. But I digress.

outcomes research that supports inclusion

2005-03-07T16:12:00.000-06:00

Came across this bibliography of research that supports the value of inclusion. Also came across a lot of frustrating stuff. The opponents do not address, but instead just caricature and then ridicule, the idea of inclusion... usually what is being opposed is something that would not be acceptable to inclusion advocates either.

And of course there's the usual plenteous helping of breathless concern for the baby geniuses who are forced to endure the torture and travail of being in a class with everyone else.

History of Lebanon (& surrounding area)

2005-03-07T15:06:00.000-06:00

For anyone who is confused about contemporary events in Lebanon, here are some useful Lebanese history links.

Here is a quick summary on Wikipedia.

And here is another overview by historian Kamal Salibi, much longer, but easy to read and absolutely fascinating. It covers not only Lebanon but all of the former Ottoman lands taken by Britain and France after WWI.

See also the ever-enlightening commentary on the contemporary situation by Lebanese As'ad Abu-Khalil on his blog, "Angry Arab News Service" (e.g.,March 7 - March 5 - March 4 - March 3 - there's a lot on March 3).

I still don't know what's going on, but I feel much more prepared to interpret whatever happens next. ;-)

The scariest thing you'll ever read...

2005-03-06T16:23:00.000-06:00

I've been continuing the process of uploading old notes and response papers, in hopes of creating a general archive of my work and the process of learning about teaching (if you're interested check out the archive links--right column, click on a month, such as February 2003).

In the process I was reminded of one of the most important things I read at the beginning of the teacher ed program: Chapter 7 of John Taylor Gatto's book, The Underground History of American Education.

I posted what I wrote at the time back in January 2003, but I wanted to write a bit more about it from my perspective now (not sure it's changed much, but still). I definitely recommend going to read the article yourself--it's all online, and completely fascinating--a real page-turner despite the florid style.

Briefly, the article explains that the first state to institute compulsory schooling (in the early 1800's) was Prussia, a heavily militarized state (in what is now Northern Germany) that can justifiably be described as the cradle of 20th century German fascism. Gatto provides convincing evidence that the Prussian model of schooling, with its primary emphasis on creating an obedient, gullible populace, was intentionally adopted by US politicians (in the late 1800's) with the same goals in mind.

It all started to fit together when I later figured out that the adoption of compulsory schooling in the US occurred at a time of massive unrest--in the West, the active bloody genocide of remaining Native American nations; in the urban centers, an influx of activist socialists and anarchists driven out of European countries, daily labor riots and regular disturbances on a broader scale (such as the fourteen-city railroad strike in 1877); in the South, the end of reconstruction & the rise of the Klan--in short, a time when it is hardly surprising that those in power would be seeking a way to bring order from chaos and get a stronger grip on their control over the country.

Here is one of the more chilling excerpts from the article (again, I urge you to check it out in full):

"The Prussian mind...held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver:

Obedient soldiers to the army
Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms
Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function
Well-subordinated clerks for industry
Citizens who thought alike on most issues
National uniformity in thought, word, and deed.

"The area of individual volition for commoners was severely foreclosed by Prussian psychological training procedures drawn from the experience of animal husbandry and equestrian training, and also taken from past military experience.

"Prussian schools delivered everything they promised. Every important matter could now be confidently worked out in advance by leading families and institutional heads because well-schooled masses would concur with a minimum of opposition."

--John Taylor Gatto
"The Underground History of American Education"
Chapter Seven

When I first read this, it finally answered a question that had been bugging me for a long time... The question was, since most teachers really are kind, compassionate, caring, and genuinely want to teach well--at least we start out that way--why is it that schools are such degrading, demoralizing, depressing, and dehumanizing places? This article explained that schools are that way because they were structured that way intentionally (based on horse training, no less!).

Ohhhhhhh.... so it's NOT that schools are mysteriously ineffective at their oft-stated purpose of fostering the personal growth of students into creative, critically-thinking, intellectually capable, confident, and let's not forget, well-informed adults! No, instead, schools are VERY effective at producing exactly what they were designed to produce, as described in the six points listed above!

It's a really intense portrayal of how powerful institutions really are, in overpowering the individual intentions of those who operate within them.

It is a constant struggle to try to be effective as a teacher and yet not be effective in the goals for which the institution of schooling was so effectively designed. But at least, knowing what those goals are can help us operate more effectively in advancing our own goals, which we know are the goals of most parents and most of the community.

History: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

2005-03-06T15:06:00.000-06:00

While I'm at it, the Great Railroad Strike really is an amazing piece of history--just like the draft riots mentioned in a previous post--very dramatic and completely missing from history books--or if it was mentioned, it certainly made no impression on me at the time. I certainly would never have imagined that anything like what happened, had ever occurred in US history--that the initial flare-up in Pittsburgh touched off a 14-city general strike, and that the rail yards in Pittsburgh were completely destroyed.

The University of Pittsburgh has some great photos of the immediate aftermath on their site. Here's a little teaser...

There's an archival document introducing the photos which reads:
"THE RAILROAD WAR at Pittsburgh, July 21-22, 1877
The following list of Stereographs...gives a complet [sic] historical view of the district burnt over..."


"Opposite 16th St., looking up the track"	"Interior of Upper Round House"
	(left) "Opposite 32nd and 31st streets"

Heh--and they thought the "Battle of Seattle" in 1999 was bad! People have short memories.

Amazing that something termed a "war" by contemporaries could just vanish from people's consciousness...

The same website has other great primary source documents, listed on this page: Document Sets. Doncha just love primary sources?

Oops, have to go for now--maybe I'll add to this later--it's quite a story.

gangs of new york/1863 draft riots

2005-03-05T12:29:00.000-06:00

If "Gangs of New York" is on TV again (I think it's on STARZ a lot this week for those who get that channel), anyone with an interest in history who hasn't seen it should try to see the first ten minutes and the last thirty. The intervening 4+ hours are painfully crappy (and don't worry about the plot elements you won't understand in the last thirty minutes--actually you will understand all there is to understand). The setup and climax, however, are an amazing depiction of a New York I never knew existed, prior to the first time I saw the film. The 1863 civil war draft riots alone are a fascinating (if grisly) chapter in the city's history that never gets talked about. Click on the image below to read more...

The targeting of African-Americans did not make a big impression on me the first time I saw Gangs of New York, but this time, knowing the background, I noticed it more prominently. I think the first time I didn't have enough contextual information to process much of the imagery--I was still busy being blown away that something so dramatic had happened and I'd never heard of it. Or, perhaps, I was noticing only the class element (part of the immediate cause of the resentment that helped spark the riots was that rich men who were drafted could pay for another man to fight in their stead) and feeling somewhat sympathetic to the rioters, so I didn't want to see the unsympathetic elements.

In the latest issue of Social Education, published by the National Council for the Social Studies, there's also a great article on the draft riots with some suggestions for classroom activities. The article suggests that the riots are an interesting place to explore various intersecting, opposing, and/or overlapping ethnic, racial and class identities in that era.

More links: the film - the book on which it was based

illuminating reflections on racism & discipline

2005-02-06T18:07:00.000-06:00

This past semester of student teaching (as you know if you've been reading)--well, it was not my proudest hour, let's just say that. Yes, the teacher made my life difficult, and I think I did okay all things considered, but "all things considered" covers a lot of ground.

One of the issues was that my classroom management style (or the style to which I aspire) is very different from hers. (More another time). The climate and rules etc. that she created were very different from what would have benefitted me and made it easy for me to teach. So I often found myself just grasping at straws, in terms of discipline, trying to get through the day/week until I would be done with student teaching. Not good practice for my own classroom, but I admit that, right or wrong, I gave up on "good practice" back in November, and just tried to (a) adapt and (b) survive.

So I found myself writing referrals (student gets sent to detention room, call home, they lose points that they try to accumulate for rewards, goes on their permanent record, etc) as a way out of routine-level problems that I should have been able to handle. I wrote quite a few referrals toward the end, and I admit with shame that it was due to exhaustion as much as anything else.

Thus, I find myself on the other side of the divide from when I wrote with such rage and conviction, my first semester, about teachers who "can't be bothered to help a kid so they just want him out of their room." Yup, that's me now.

I reflected on this as my time there was coming to an end. It was illuminating for me, so I'll describe my reflections here, even though it's not pretty.

For whom did I write referrals? Basically, three out of five Black kids.

Which students did I threaten with referrals, but never write any? Two out of five Black kids in the other class.

Did I ever write a referral for a white kid? I think only once, for actual fighting. Did I threaten to? I think never.

Was it because the white kids were better? No, on the contrary--the two kids I considered most likely to grow up to be mean, nasty, and abusive were both white.

Was it because the white kids were less disruptive in their misbehavior? Not really. I interrupted myself to chide white kids all the time. I would not say there was a big difference in terms of the number of times I asked white vs Black kids to be quiet, get on the right page, quit tapping (singing, whistling, whatever), stop disrespecting their classmates, etc. (This little list makes clear to any seasoned teacher how ineffective I was!)

There are probably other reasons and issues at hand, and I may be distorting the record in favor of my point (white guilt is not useful). But here's the interesting part.

When I thought about it, when I asked myself, "Why doesn't your hand go to that little pad of referral slips when a white kid is misbehaving?" the answer that came to me was intriguing.

It was as if there was a force field around the white kids--an intuition within me that said, "don't touch them, could be trouble."

It seemed very clear to me that somehow, *that* would be a Big Deal. People would notice. They would judge whether I had been fair or whether it was okay to give this kid a referral. The kid's parents might come in and yell at me. The principal might come and talk with me to see if I could justify myself. That's the last thing I want to have to deal with.

Is this all in my head?

Maybe this is what would really happen, maybe it's all in my head. But even if it's all in my head, the question is, how did it get there?

Where did I get the idea that it's okay to punish Black kids, that it almost doesn't even matter, but white kids--you have to be really careful about punishing them.

If it's not all in my head, why does it seem that the white kids would be better protected? Is it racism in the administration? Is it that their parents feel more empowered, less intimidated in the face of white authority figures? Is it that when their parents holler, people listen?

Jury's out on all these questions, but what I am sure about, is this unspoken, unnoticed assumption on my part that writing referrals for Black kids was no big deal, and for white kids, it would be a big deal.

The most charitable possible interpretation (charitable towards myself) is that since the students who got referrals generally got them repeatedly, it probably did not seem like such a big deal to write them another one. What does that mean... that after a while I may have felt that "they obviously don't care if they get one or not."....?? Wait a minute, that's not a charitable interpretation at all! Wow, that's almost the worst one!

Aren't I always telling people that kids want to succeed, that if they see the path they'll walk it? That if they act out it's because they feel themselves to be out of options? Holy cow, I'm a hypocrite! Man, the inside of one's head is an interesting place!

The reason I do this is not to make myself feel guilty--and I don't really, I mostly just feel very sad.

The only time I feel guilty is when I didn't act on something I knew how to do better--then it's a failure of will, of empathy, etc. So I do feel bad about getting so tired this semester and basically just hanging in there at all costs, when the costs were the kids'.

But generally when it comes to racism I do believe that we all grow up infused with it because it infuses the air in this society. The only way to see how it works, and then weed it out, is self-education and introspection. Guilt just gets in the way of that. Reflection is research, and what you learn is fascinating.

So mostly I just feel sad when I see what I've done. Sad for all of us, that this is so hard to see and to fix. But the more I learn the more I also find myself able to catch and repair my mistakes, and that part is hopeful. The process itself is hopeful. It can be done.

Kid tasered at Memorial HS???

2005-02-06T16:19:00.000-06:00

This is bullshit! I can't believe I didn't hear about this.

The "school safety officer" shot a Black 15-year-old kid whom he was trying to arrest.

Oh, but, oops! The arrest warrant turned out to be a clerical error! Still, the new police chief refuses to apologize!

Here's an article: "Mom Of Teen Shot With Police Taser Disappointed In MPD." (I'll bet she is! Holy cow! Probably just a tad more than "disappointed in"!!!!)

School board member Ruth Robarts wrote a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal in which she (1) suggested that school police be deployed in pairs, or at least that a backup officer be summoned for arrests, since that would reduce the need for employing force at all, and (2) questioned what policies are, or should be, in place to guide police and school officials regarding arresting students:

"I have doubts that we have appropriate policies and procedures in place on the police or the school side. I wonder what justified immediate arrest of this young suspect. Why did the police not arrest him at home? At another location away from school? Contact his mother to ask her to bring him to court? I also wonder what role school officials played or should have played in making a less confrontational arrest possible."

She also asked whether the student's mother had been called, which immediately struck a chord for me--I would be willing to bet that she was not called, and that was SUCH a strong contrast to how this would be handled with a white student.

*sigh*

Since I ultimately want to make this blog public, to solicit comments, I begin arguing in my head about racism here. My imaginary commenter claims that I don't know she wasn't called, yadda yadda. I will say more about this in my next post.

march 2003? what th'....?

2005-02-06T16:15:00.000-06:00

One of the things I want to use this blog for, is to collect some of my old notes and ideas from the last two (or more) years. I will be posting them with their original dates, which means they'll appear in the archives. That's why there is suddenly a "March 2003" link in the archives. (Not that you probably noticed (or care), but anyway, that's what I'ma gonna do.) I'm hoping that this, together with the book/article responses, will ultimately help me organize and remember all this vast amount of information and ideas more easily (and maybe, just maybe, get others' feedback on some of it).

idea: toolbox portfolio

2005-02-05T08:56:00.000-06:00

Determine six (?) skills I want them to master. Create a portfolio for each one, showing student's progress; design lesson plans to produce work around each one. Call the skills "tools" and keep the six portfolios in a "toolbox" for each student.

Possible "tools:"

analyze primary souirces
determine perspective
support an argument with evidence
understand an author's point
etc.

Could divide tools into 3 & 3 - 3 reading skills, 3 writing skills; or, 3 input, 3 output, so I could include different kinds of analysis and production skills.

Rationale: to help students understand why they're doing what they're doing, that they're practicing skills of genuine practical utility.

teaching & buddhism - maitri

2005-02-05T08:32:00.000-06:00

I've been studying Tibetan Buddhism lately, not because I am joining the religion, but because it is recognized even by MDs in the US as a useful tool for disciplining and calming the mind--and heaven knows, I need help with that!

Anyway, one concept is "maitri," translated about fifty million different ways, but basically something about friendliness & caring for oneself and others ("love your neighbor as yourself" would be the Christian counterpart, as long it incorporates the viewpoint of a sermon I heard as a kid, in which the pastor asserted that this was a statement of fact--one can only love one's neighbor to the extent that one loves oneself--as well as a proscription).

Anyway anyway, I often think in terms of little slogans to give the kids, because kids find them memorable & helpful--heck we all do--the whole 12-step universe and the army are based around slogans, and those are two very effective training programs. So the slogans I'd thought of in connection with maitri are...

be a friend to yourself and others
take care of yourself & others
be kind to yourself and others
smooth the path for your feet and others' (meaning, just do the homework when it's due; don't drag it out and make us all suffer!) - one I should take to heart.

I dunno. Maybe this wouldn't be useful, maybe it would. The general idea anyway is to make life easier for yourself and others, which is the same thing--calm, consideration, discipline, etc.

can I tell the grain from the chaff?

2005-02-03T13:35:00.000-06:00

What is the difference between "respectful but firm" and "a thin veneer of sweetness over punitive nastiness"? I know there is one, I'm just panicking a bit!

ok, back to winnowing

2005-02-03T12:27:00.000-06:00

So I was reading Teaching with Love & Logic this morning, which I always find helpful.

(I'm trying to model my approach to classroom management on three books -- that one, The Essential 55, and Teaching Children to Care: Classroom Management for Ethical and Academic Growth--and yes, I've read Alfie Kohn's Beyond Discipline, which criticizes these approaches, but I have concluded that I don't feel his approach suits a diverse classroom. Sometime I'll post more about this issue per se).

I have always enjoyed these three books because of the fundamental respect for the children and their choices that is conveyed in them (as well as the strong priority of preparing children to succeed in "the real world," which is absolutely essential to a multicultural approach to education).

Anyway, what struck me forcefully this morning was that I did not seem to have that respect anymore, myself! I am really shocked and concerned at this change.

For example, the book told of a teacher working with a female high schooler who, when he put a hand on her shoulder, leaped out of her chair, threw the chair across the room, and screamed at him to "get the fuck off me!" The authors' recommended response was a step back, an apology, and a promise to discuss the event when both parties felt calmer, so that the problem could be avoided in the future. Extremely reasonable, yes? As it turned out (this was a true story) the girl had survived many years of physical and sexual abuse from three male relatives; she had just been transferred to a safer home. Naturally it was understandable that she would have a negative reaction to being touched.

But I find that I have now succumbed to a semester of being trained to react with "that's too bad, I don't care what happened to her in the past, she needs to learn to behave, blah blah blah."

Another example: about two months into my student teaching, I was flipping idly through Fires in the Bathroom, a book compiled from high schoolers' discussions of their perceptions of & needs from teachers. The students were talking about how they "sometimes just have a bad day and need some space," and so on, and I found my reaction was unsympathetic-- "Well that's just too bad, they have to learn to cope," whereas just a few months previously, when I'd first bought the book, I had felt that it was excellent, a great way to work toward a good give-and-take relationship with students.

This is just really scary to me, because this is what I had a problem with when I first entered my student teaching classroom--the teacher seemed overly rigid and not very sympathetic. Really, in a word, punitive.

I'm trying not to over-react to this, but it is upsetting. I think I need to ponder it some more.

No winnowing, just Tibet

2005-02-03T12:05:00.000-06:00

Photo credit: Carmala N. Garzione
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester

Tibet was the most beautiful place I've ever been. I know I'm veering wildly off topic, but once I got going on that I wanted to post a photo...

winnow, winnow, a lovely word

2005-02-03T11:55:00.000-06:00

whenever i talk about winnowing i have a clear image in my head of the only time i've ever seen it done the old-fashioned way, where you toss the grain around in a basket and toss it up in the air and the wind blows away the chaff (hey, i wonder if the word "winnow" has to do with "wind"?). It was in Tibet, and we were driving past a village and I just got a glimpse of a woman tossing the grain in the air, the fine golden dust flying on the wind.

Wow... I went googling for an image and came across this page of amazing photos. They were taken in northern Nepal (apparently by a geologist or something--the captions say things like "Quaternary terrace, with Thakkhola deposits and the western basin-bounding fault in the background," whereas most people would something more along the lines of "In the high-altitude clarity of the air, the stunning mountain vistas undulate in deep, intense blues and purples.")

Anyway, taken in Nepal, but the people and buildings shown are Tibetan, and the landscapes are very similar to what I saw in Tibet, so if you go to this page, you can see not only some women winnowing, looking very similar to what I saw, but you can also see all the other fantastic scenery etc. that I was seeing at the time. So go already. It's fucking gorgeous.

winnowing 2: not necessarily deciding

2005-02-02T16:43:00.000-06:00

So another way my student teaching experience is proving useful has to do with my attempt to become more open and less judgmental. Many teachers, myself certainly included, get an ego boost from feeling that we "understand" kids, are "empathetic" and "in tune." Well, whenever I would talk with my cooperating teacher about particular students, we would have completely different perceptions of what was going on with them. I spent some energy being angry that my cooperating teacher was so wrong. Then I spent some energy feeling stupid that I was so wrong. Finally what I'm coming to is that maybe that was just a particularly vivid manifestation of the fact that we never really know, do we, what is going on in their little heads--we have no idea--and everythign else is just ego. So I can release a desperate (and so obvioulsy futile) sense of needing to correctly diagnose and treat (i.e. control) all students' problems for them--wow, what a relief. There are a lot of things I can do for students, but reading their minds is not one of them. Instead of judging what is going on with them, I can just stay open, in the present, and listen. Maybe that will be more helpful anyway!

winnowing 1: rescuing

2005-02-02T16:02:00.000-06:00

Student teaching was rough both times in different ways--I think it's a bit rough for everyone.

This time around, my cooperating teacher and I were just completely different. We saw everything differently, had different instincts and values and ideas, etc. This was not always easy, but I did learn a lot from it. Some aspects of her practice I would really like to emulate, but other things, I disliked as much as she seemed to dislike my work. In the time since I finished up there, I have been reflecting on my experiences and trying to sort out which is which (emulate vs. trash).

One thing I got better at was the whole "rescuer" routine. Many teachers are compulsive rescuers. Rescuing, which I'd define as swooping down on a student the moment they start to struggle (so that they should never experience an instant of pain or confusion) is egocentric (savior complex, anyone?) and often counter-productive (it can be useful to struggle with a new idea, and it can be harmful to develop the habit of expecting that someone will remove all obstacles from your path the moment you wrinkle your cute little brow). Rescuing is an action that makes ME more comfortable (I feel guilty/panicky when my lesson is "making" a student struggle), instead of making it a priority to identify what the student is doing and what the student needs in that moment.

My cooperating teacher helped me to break this habit, which was a great step for me. However, she had a tendency to take it to the opposite extreme--"sink or swim!" A number of kids were shocked and demoralized by their struggles in the first few weeks of school, and never bounced back, just kept falling farther behind and getting more depressed. That was the "sink" part, and there were no swimming lessons; she seemed to think that either it didn't matter, or couldn't be helped.

So now it's a matter of trying to figure out what might be the "happy medium" between these two extremes. When is it helpful to swoop in, and when should I let the student struggle and acheive his/her own victories?

The really new concept (to me) is the idea that struggle and anxiety can be productive and useful. I really had a strong assumption that struggle and anxiety are just bad, bad, bad, and kids must be protected from them at all costs. But apparently that's not the case.

They did tell us in our teacher classes that all learning requires risk. I like what I understand of the theorist Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development" (definition here; a more extensive summary of Vygotsky's theory can be found here). The general idea is that between the comfort zone, where you can perform a task easily without help, and the zone of stuff that's way out of reach, there's a zone of tasks and activities that are within reach, but only with guidance and help.

It's essential to identify where each student's "zone of proximal development" is, because if you aim too high you depress and discourage them, while aiming too low can bore them or lull them into a false confidence. Stepping out of your comfort zone into what you can accomplish only with assistance is a risk-taking endeavor, and as such, will provoke anxiety.

The question is, how much is a reasonable level, and when do you say, "whoa, too much anxiety, let's take this back a step (or down a notch or whatever)"? And what do you do with students who learn to manipulate that response, so that they always generate help (rescuing) even when they might be capable of overcoming the challegne they face?

Needless to say, the idea that growth is necessarily accompanied by anxiety is very useful to me personally. Oh, you mean I'm supposed to be anxious? This is supposed to be hard? Well, in that case, I guess I can survive after all. ;-)

survival skills, the epilogue

2005-02-01T22:56:00.000-06:00

well, i was back at school yesterday and i saw J, she of the survival skills. "today's my last day," she told me with a big smile. I asked where she was going (another middle school in town); wished her good luck, asked if I could give her a hug, and told her "you're such a sweetie, I'm gonna miss you!" at which she looked a bit confused and disappeared.

Only now does it occur to me that perhaps it would have been ok to ask, "did you find a place to live?" (since she was homeless before). I dunno, I gotta figure out this shelter-living etiquette. (I learned years ago that you don't talk abt someone being in jail; they are just "away," but is it ok to talk abt someone being in a shelter?).

Anyway, goodbye to sweet little J... may your skills indeed enable you to survive...may your sunny smile that last day be a good omen of better months and years ahead.

it's a warm morning but suddenly i'm cold

2005-01-31T18:05:00.000-06:00

(white) teacher to (Black) student: "Pull up your pants!"
Student: (unintelligible protest)
Teacher: "We've had this discussion before!... I'm gonna give you a ROPE!"
.
.
.
Student, visibly shocked, says, "What'chu talking about!!!!"
Teacher: "You know what I'm talking about!"
.
.
.
Yes, we do, O Teacher; do you?

idea...

2005-01-31T18:04:00.000-06:00

another idea from observing today... to help kids understand (1) the point and (2) the context of homework, instead of saying, "for homework tonight, I need you to..." you can say...

"to finish today's lesson, I need you to..."
"to prepare for tomorrow's activity, I need you to..."
"to connect today's lesson and tomorrow's activity, I need you to..."

Just a thought.

rules & procedures

2005-01-31T17:40:00.000-06:00

While observing in another classroom today, I made the following list of things for which a teacher needs a rule and/or logistical procedure--preferably, a set procedure that becomes familiar & predictable & therefore safe. (I could whine about how they don't teach us this in ed. school, but instead, I will just comment that as a very disorganized person, this is a list of things I need to figure out and have firmly in place.)

My main goal: to identify which of these tasks could be (1) performed and even (2) organized & overseen BY STUDENTS so I can focus on other things. I will star* those things that I think students could take on themselves, either one student as a job for the class, or each student on his/her own behalf.

Homework:
- assign & explain
- provide needed materials & adequate time
- display* the assignment in the room & remind* students about it
- collect,* assess (possibly transport to assess elsewhere), record grades in gradebook, and return* homework to students with helpful feedback
- get students to supply missing names and correct minor errors on otherwise complete work
- keep track* of who is missing work, possibly notify/chase after them
- collect, grade, return* late work

Absentees:
- catch up* on in-class activities/explanations
- assign/explain* missing work
- provide materials* for missing work
- give any tests, quizzes, etc.

Leaving the room* - nurse, bathroom, get materials from locker...

Materials* - bring appropriate materials for that class; use them; organize materials received in class; take home what's needed for homeowrk; bring it back.

Introduce new stuff: vocabulary, concepts, ideas, assignments, topics, goals.

Transitions: from work to listening; from listening to work or group formation; from group formation to group work... also beginnings & endings of the year, of the week, of the day, of each class period, of each unit or lesson...

Straightening* the room - pick garbage up, straighten desks, put supplies away.

Choosing: choosing individual students to perform tasks; assigning partners and groups; assigning roles among partners or group members.

Sound & movement: when is it ok to stand? to move around on an errand (kleenex, pencil sharpener)? to move around for no reason? to go to where your friends are sitting? to make noise - tap, drum, etc.? to talk softly? to talk at any volume? to talk about the work you're doing? to talk about anything? to speak to the teacher or class without raising your hand?

Whew! You'd think that would make me feel bad, but actually, it makes me feel better. With such an enormous list, it's no surprise that I'm a bit overwhelmed!

FYI: "How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind"

2005-01-31T17:18:00.000-06:00

How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind, by Gerald Graff, Yale UP, 2003. Reviewed by Molly Swiger in Radical Teacher issue #71 (2005).

Swiger says the book "is a thought-provoking work examining the alienation students (and the public in general) feel about intellectualism and academia." She goes on to summarize how the book recommends we make "the life of the mind" more accessible to students. Below is a mixture of Swiger's, Graff's, and my ideas (mostly the first two).

1) create "bridges" to facilitate students' access to academic material by "interweaving" it with "natural language."
2) actively teach students how to use and understand "academic discourse" (or "arguespeak" in the words of the author)--aspects of which are summarized as listening to different views, summarizing them, comparing and contrasting viewpoints, spotting contradictions & non sequiturs, and reaching conclusions about them.
3) tap into students' existing rhetorical abilities. students are familiar with persuasion and persuasive language (I brought in a couple of commercials last year to show my students what I meant by using evidence to support your assertions).
4) do this by having students write both sides of an argument. this helps students see that their ideas (and the presentation of their ideas) comprise "voices" in an ongoing conversation.
5) don't be afraid to be reductive at times, in presenting complex material to students. it's not the same as "dumbing down;" it's called "introducing." -- students can move on to more complex formulations later.
6) explore why coursework is worth doing. students don't see the purpose of analysis.
7) simply exposing students to diverse viewpoints doesn't necessarily stimulate critical thinking.
8) teach students to seek, perceive & understand the "foundational premise" of a teacher's presentation. Students should understand why the "rules" seem to change between courses, and also, "develop a stronger grasp of the meaning and consequences of those rules."

I've thought about this too--in terms of talking about the "stories people think history tells." Some of the stories that people think history tells include "the story of progress through the ages," "the story of how my group is superior to others," "the story of humanity's need for divine intervention," "the story of exploitation and oppression through the ages," etc. Knowint that these stories exist and that most writing and talking about history rests on one of these bases, will (I hope) prepare students to understand & adapt to any teacher they encounter in the future.

Swiger concludes by saying that Graff provides concrete, proactive strategies for implementing his ideas.

book & article responses

2005-01-31T16:57:00.000-06:00

One of the things I wanted to do on this blog was post ideas I get from reading stuff. It takes discipline to produce good summaries & reviews, so that's not really my goal; just "responses," where I read something and then babble a bit (oh joy!, you're thinking...) To that end, here are a few. When I get a good number, I'm going to make index pages etc. so that you can look at specific topics. Ambitious, eh? Well, anyway, here goes...

thoughts on teaching English language learners

2005-01-27T21:26:00.000-06:00

My dear friend from high school, CP aka XE (long story) posted on her blog about teaching English language learners for the first time (typically enough, they just tossed a section of them into her schedule without any additional training, it appears, which is just infuriating, but as I said, typical). CP teaches writing and here is the incredibly long comment that I posted on her blog... only marginally less appropriate as a comment on someone else's blog, than as an inordinately long post on my own.

there are some great books about teaching English language learners--I really recommend reading some. There's a lot that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. All the books I know are about teaching younger kids, but I'm sure there are some for teaching adults.

Here's one I like a lot:

Working with Second Language Learners: Answers to Teachers' Top Ten Questions
by Stephen Cary

I'm not sure how this translates into a writing classroom, but the big things I try to remember are (1) everything you really really need students to know, should be conveyed in multiple ways--if you just say it, many will miss it. For adults, that probably means you should write it down & hand it out so they can read it later with the dictionary.
(2) *Experiences* sink in deeper, and cross cultures better, than words & explanations. Everything that you can bring into the classroom as an experience will create a richer learning environment that is more accessible to students from every culture. Again I'm not sure how this translates to a writing class, but for social studies, I do things like having them create a giant 3-D map in the classroom of a region we're studying (pile up chairs to make mountains, use snaking rolled-up blue sheets to make rivers and seas).

I think one thing you'll face that I faced in middle school is that I can say "be more descriptive" until I'm blue in the face, but a lot of the kids just don't know that many words. When I ask them to describe how something tastes, they say, "I dunno, good!" "Well, how good? Sweet, sour, tangy, salty?" They look a little panicked and say, "just GOOD, I dunno!!!" So I brought in some stuff to help them expand their vocabulary: I brought in colored pencils with cool color names (a box of 96 crayola crayons would have been better, but I was short on time), and I raided my wife's spice rack (she was not very pleased with that) so I could give them oregano, thyme, sage, basil and say, "these are herbs, these are herby smells," and cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and pepper and say, "these are spicy smells."

Probably one of the biggest things to be aware of--and you'll have to decide how you handle it--is that in many non-European cultures, "how you tell a story" is totally different from what we think it is. "beginning, middle, end" and concepts like climax and denouement (sp?) are very European, and in the US, white. There was a fascinating study done, where African- and European-American first-graders were asked to tell a story, it was transcribed, then read back onto a tape with a standard English grammar and accent, removing all clues to ethnicity etc. Then the tapes were played to European- and African-American first-grade teachers who were asked to comment on the stories. The Black teachers all said the Black children's stories were "interesting, engaging, varied, creative" etc., but the white teachers said the same stories were "rambling, confused, inconsistent, lacking in structure," and one teacher suggested that the child in question "might have cognitive disabilities and should be tested for special ed." Analysis of the stories showed that white kids' stories tended to have a beginning, middle, and end, whereas the African-American kids tended to tell "episodic" stories, about a series of events related to a theme or person.

This is related to the fact that "how you make a point" is also very different in different cultures. In many places, you make a point by analogies: you DON"T "tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, then tell 'em what you told 'em," which is how I was taught to write an essay.

Instead, you tell a series of (sometimes apparently unconnected) stories, then right at the end you explain what can be concluded from them. It's very cool to listen to this kind of narrative, because for someone trained in the European point-making tradition, you may be thinking, "what the heck is this guy talking about, he's just rambling on and on about one thing and another..." but then all of a sudden, he pulls out the connective strand from each of the five stories and ties it into a bow and you're like, "whoa, how'd he do that???"

My introduction to this came when a political group I work with was hosting a South African speaker (first language = !Xhosa, but fluent in English) and I was the moderator for his three presentations. I sat there at first, wondering if I should cut him off because he was "just rambling," or "not addressing the question he was asked, not even talking about the same subject," but I didn't, out of respect for everything he'd been through. Once I got the hang of how his "point-making" worked, I was just in awe of it and loved trying to see how it was structured.

To go back to the question of "description," and the spices and so on, I haven't heard others' opinions on this, but it also struck me (on the basis of a very small and unrepresentative sample) that the African-American kids really wanted to "describe" not with adjectives but with analogies. In one case, "what does it taste like?" was answered with, "like x, like y, a little like z." When I tried to force the child to come up with adjectives, she just boggled & panicked. But the classroom I was in demanded adjectives, so we were at a stalemate, where anything this little girl wanted to say about flavor was going to be "wrong."

It was from experiences like this that I concluded that the traditional, Euro-cultured classroom actively dis-ables students from other cultures. When teachers repeatedly and consistently ask students to do things differently from what feels natural to them, without explanation (because it's obvious to the teacher) but only repeated correction, it must completely destroy the students' confidence in their own ability to assess and improve on their language skills. I often noticed that students from non-dominant cultures became much more oriented toward "what does teacher want me to say" and lost track of actually wanting to say anything themselves.

Well, I'm wandering off track here :-), but my point is, when teaching English-language writing, there are multiple possible goals. One might be, to have the student develop the ability to write something that will sound "smart" and "right" to the average Euro-trained person; to do this, it's important to understand ***and place in context*** what those requirements are--they aren't "correct," they're just one way of doing things, but because Euro-Americans are used to being the dominant culture, they're not aware that there ARE other ways. It's definitely extremely valuable to be able to "sound smart" to a dumb American who may be in charge of giving you a job, diploma, etc.

Another goal might simply be to help the student develop his/her confidence and imagination in writing, and just help with the skills that will make that writing decode-able to the average English speaker.

I don't think these need to be two separate things. In fact, this whole experience could be an incredible learning opportunity for the students in your non-ELL section. ("ELL" is the preferred term these days, because many English Language Learners are learning their third, fifth, or fourteenth--not Second--language). You could talk about all this--different structures for stories in different cultures--and ask each student to analyze the structure of a story they heard as a child that they believe is a "folk" story or a common story for children in their culture. It's often a whole new experience for a white, middle- or upper-class person to analyze something they take for granted as "normal." How *does* "Cinderella" work, in terms of narrative shape and format? Then the class could share those analyses (maybe in groups of three?) and try to see how each other's stories "work."

That's a perfect experience-based jumping-off point for ANYTHING you want to do later.*

I got that idea from reading about a teacher who had students analyze their home versions of English. Instead of saying "my English is right and yours is wrong," the teacher had them make tapes of their family members speaking English, and then analyze the tapes to see interesting patterns of grammar, pronunciation, etc. When they started to approach this as a difference, instead of an issue of being "ignorant" or "educated," they became excited and fascinated. Then, after that, they were not resistant to learning dominant-culture grammar, because (a) they had the experience of understanding how their own family's grammar worked, so they had direct access to an understanding of grammar itself--it's not just "rules to torture you," it's a description of what living language DOES. and (b) it wasn't presented as "correcting" ignorance (not only on the part of the student, but of every person the student loved best in the world), but instead, as "this is the way to be understood by the largest possible audience."

OK, well, I've rambled on long enough, but hopefully some of that will be useful. I can give you more stuff to read, that talks about having students do these kinds of experiments, or talks about how the denigration of alternate forms of English makes it much harder for students to learn "standard" English, etc. There's so much out there to read! But I bet you have one or two other things to do with your time, so I'm also happy to summarize more. Sorry if you already knew some of this--it's been a great thing for me to collect these musings and write them down, and has actually helped me recover some of my enthusiasm about teaching that had been a little bit beaten out of me this past semester.

Good luck! Wish I could sit in on your class--I bet it's awesome to see you at work! And boy, am I envious of all those different folks you get to know. I am getting really sick of Madison being so white, white, white.

At 12:11 PM, birdfarm said...

as if I haven't rambled enough, I was just re-reading what I wrote and came back to the suggestion about having them analyze a story for structure. What I meant there, in case it wasn't obvious, was that they could generate their own ideas for what the parts of a story are, and how they work, and then when you taught them the "official" terms (like climax and denouement), they already have the *concept* for it in place. And for those whose stories have a different structure, they can come up with their own names for the parts of their stories, and then once that is clear, it will be so much easier for them to see how the "standard" U.S./European story structure is different from what they consider "normal," and how to use this structure instead or in combination with what they are familiar with.

this also comes out of watching my supervising teacher do a particularly horrendous job of explaining "climax" and "first person," and watching the kids try to struggle to use these terms that were not even remotely clear to them. It's better if they have the concept first and then learn the term to put on it.

i moved MadTeach

2005-01-26T15:06:00.000-06:00

You won't be able to tell, mostly, but I the one thing I couldn't replicate was comments from others... the comment, singular, to be specific. Sorry, Ang. And it was such an awesome comment too. Anyway, in case you were wondering, that's what happened to it.

finally!!! (and some thoughts on grading)

2005-01-26T03:20:00.000-06:00

well, that's it, i'm finally outta there. (except I forgot a CD in the classroom CD player and somehow I still have a couple of kids' papers and the elevator key! it's like a long strand of silly putty that gets thinner and thinner but just won't break...)

i've learned some important things in the last 24 hours... some humbling things.
1) It's impossible to be fair. The first few times I graded papers, I went back over the whole group two or three times to be sure I was being SCRUPULOUSLY fair. If I took off a point on M's paper for misspelling Euphrates, I better be sure take off a point on J's paper for the same mistake. If I said they had to have twelve facts, I better be giving the same less-than-perfect score for every paper with ten facts, every paper with eight facts, etc.

Well, screw that! When I start to get rushed, it starts to be, "that felt like an eight point answer, we'll give her eight points on that one..." Even though I know that I'm skimming, that I'm completely influenced by my mood and worst of all my preconceived notion of the student... I just don't have time to define and redefine EXACTLY what an eight-point answer is and make sure that that definition is rigorously, universally applied.

As I got down to the wire the thought crossed my mind, "ah, just guess--give 'em what you figure they'll get anyway." I resisted it, but I'm sure it's been done! I did figure out a much more legit version of the same process - when I'd graded the tests but not the projects, I put all the grades in excel and then printed two versions: one where everyone who'd turned in the project got the highest possible score, and one where they got the lowest score possible for a complete project. Then I only graded the five projects that would actually make a difference in anyone's grade.

(Yes, I went back and graded everyone properly later, but I was pleased with myself for figuring out a way to meet the deadline efficiently and ethically)

Anyway, it was all a humbling experience. Any further criticism I have about racism and bias and sexism etc in the classroom, and especially in the grading process--well, don't worry, I will still rant but with a lot more sympathy for the teachers who are in this impossibly structured and deadline-heavy position...

this really is an impossible job!

although when I was there this afternoon tidying up, with all my responsibilities gone, I started to really relax and enjoy the kids' company again, which was nice. It was good to remember why I do what I do and why I enjoy it...

"making it too easy," also known as "effective teaching"

2005-01-23T17:05:00.000-06:00

It mystifies me why some teachers seem to feel that if you make it possible to understand and pass your classes, you're "structuring too much" or "making it too easy for them."

For example: one month ago, none of my students could fill in the blank in this sentence:
"Clay tablets covered with ____________ writing tell us much about life in ancient Mesopotamia."

If they can now fill in the blank, isn't that a good thing? Isn't that an example of me TEACHING them something?

Yet I can just hear a certain voice in my head, saying that I should use the straight definition of "cuneiform": "A form of writing that uses groups of wedges and lines," because otherwise I'm "making it too easy." Hello? How is that "too easy," just because I'd be surprised if any of them couldn't do it?

It's all part of the "school as hazing" mentality that I have come to loathe so much...

To me, the whole goal of teaching is that the final test should be easy for those who have paid attention and done their homework--easy, easy, easy.

It should be something they could not have done before the unit, that they can now do after the unit.

Isn't that teaching and learning, in a nutshell? I don't believe in trick questions, I don't believe in pulling questions out of a footnote or sidebar or caption if we haven't talked about that item in class and on homework. What is the point, if not to feel smug and superior, and make the students feel like they'll never be good enough? Shouldn't they feel rewarded and victorious after a test?

And yes, I'm currently writing a final exam on the Fertile Crescent, my last activity in student teaching. Woo-hoo! God, I hate this.

survival skills

2005-01-23T10:05:00.000-06:00

i will be so glad to get out of this setting. the last week or so, knowing i will be done soon, has been like waking up from a long period of sleepwalking.

back in november, or maybe earlier, it became clear to me that i was not going to stay sane unless i just suspended everything i know, and tried to "go with the flow" in the classroom where I found myself.

i'm good at that--forgetting, adapting, getting along...it's a valuable survival skill, sometimes.

being able to recover yourself afterward is the real challenge, but one which i think i've gained with age & confidence. it helped a lot that i took copious notes before i "went to sleep;" reading them helps me remember my shock & horror in the early days in this classroom, and reconnect with my knowledge about what its problems are.

as i write this I consider, not for the first time, that what i am describing is the same thing that so many students have to do every day. especially for students whose outside-school life is a serious mismatch with school, the skill with which they can slip between two worlds is key to their survival.

i am thinking in particular of J, an amazingly resilient little girl whom I view with something akin to awe. I want to ask her, "how did you learn to do that so well?" she seems to have an amazing self-possession, in every sense of the word. her family has all sorts of difficulties which, since they are poor, we know ALL about (god, i hate that!) and she doesn't get to school every day, but when she does, she works hard, and often spends lunch catching up with what she's missed. at the same time, she never seems worried or anxious about it, just works methodically, then brings the work back and asks, "ok, what else am I missing?" she just does what she's told in the time that she has. then she leaves.

the more amazing part, though, is that she seems to do all this without really buying into it. she seems to know that it's sort of a game. she has to do it, but it's not Important in a real sense. the kids who accept that school is a real test of their intelligence (and in some sense, of their value as human beings) get very anxious about succeeding, and this anxiety ties them up in knots (different kinds of knots depending on whether they find school do-able or not). it's like they accept that the teacher is the center of the universe, and they either love or hate that fact--they either scrabble for the teacher's approval in a sort of pathetic desperation, or kick back furiously against the teacher in a hopeless rebellion, but either way, it's still all about teacher, and the kids seem to lose themselves completely.

J, meanwhile, just coasts on through as though she's untouched by all this. She knows how to relate to teachers so they think she's a "good girl." at the same time, she makes it clear to her peers that she is not by any means "on the teacher's side." her primary peer affiliation appears to be with the Black students (I believe her Mom is white and her Dad is Black), but she gets along well with all the kids who are friendly and easygoing--not with the kids who are obsessed with school, whom she ignores. the role she plays with some of her more rebellious Black peers is interesting. she makes it clear she's "on their side" (shares with them the wry faces when the teacher says something ignorant, and makes under-the-breath comments--but hers are meant only for her peers, not to aggravate the teacher), and yet at the same time, she consciously models a sort of quiet resistance that does not show up on the teacher's radar ("shhh, cut that out--just stand here like you're in line and you won't have to go back to your seat"). it's like everyone else in the class is bouncing off the teacher, positively or negatively, and J just passes through, surviving, and surviving well in comparison to those who still put the teacher in the center of their universe. born & bred in the briar patch. how did she get so good at this?

my own response to J was very educational to me, as well. at first I felt like she was some kind of nut I had to crack, I had to get in there, get under her skin. it bothered me that she didn't care about me or my approval like the others did. but the longer I was in that room, the more I saw J as the survivor in the war zone. I forgot that I once thought she should let me in--I'm just remembering that now (ridiculously egotistical!!--and kinda sick too-- but such a classic "helper" attitude). I started wanting to tell other kids, "psst, watch J, she knows what she's doing," but there was no way to say that. I wonder if there will be, in the future.

I wonder if J really is as cool as she seems. I wonder if she has just learned to be inscrutable, but is really having all screwed up somehow. I wonder if she "got that way" from some kind of terrible experience that I shouldn't wish on anyone (like, someone who picked on her when she showed emotion, or no one to depend on at all). Somehow I doubt the last--people who are picked on and have no one to depend on tend to be more reactive, not less so--right? Hmmm.

Maybe the only thing I can say for certain here comes back to me, because I'm the only person whose head I'm inside (if that makes any sense). I think my changing reaction to J means I'm developing better boundaries; that I'm more able to see the kids as themselves, and less seeing them in terms of how they validate me (a big pitfall for me and most teachers!). That was one of my goals for the semester, so in that sense, I guess I have succeeded.

There's something to be said for the war zone, after all.

four and a half days to go

2005-01-14T19:15:00.000-06:00

next week the semester ends, and with it, my student teaching obligations. i feel pretty relaxed, all things considered, and am really enjoying my students in these last few days.

what have i learned, my supervisor wants to know. i don't know if i'll tell him all of this, but...

i've learned that it works really well to be myself, remain calm, and trust my instincts.

i'd like to say i actually learned how to do all these this, but at this point, all i've learned is that it is a good idea.

what i mean is, every time i show someone a plan and they tell me i've got it all wrong, and i change it to suit their recommendations, i find that (a) it would have gone better if i had done it the way i had planned and (b) i actually didn't understand their recommendations until after i screwed them up, so, no matter how brilliant their idea was... well, see (a).

i've also learned not to panic continuously. i think i really do have that one licked, which is pretty amazing given that i've been in a fairly continuous state of panic for many, many years.

Wellllllll let's see how this looks.

classroom management: questions

2004-09-05T17:04:00.000-05:00

[Prior to the last semester of our 2-year course, the professor for our class in teaching methods wrote to all of us and asked us what we most wanted to learn this semester. I responded that I wanted to learn more about classroom management. The professor asked for clarification; her message is below, followed by my clarification.]

> Thanks for your response. I am curious about what you mean by classroom
> management issues. A number of people had this response. I know that
> Alan made a distinction between classroom management and discipline in
> the first methods course. Which are you talking about? If you can give
> me more specific info it will be really helpful. What questions do you
> have? Exactly what do you want to learn how to do that you currently
> lack relative to classroom management?

All of the above really. Some illustrative scenarios that pop quickly to mind...

I'm standing at the front of the class, saying, "I need your attention... Susie, Juan, I need your attention please... Latanya, Helen.... I need your attention...." I sound tentative and nervous. Sooner or later the roar becomes a murmur and I just start talking. Could that have been done more efficiently?

The students are taking a math placement test. Danielle starts muttering and soon she's talking out loud, then louder. "I can't do any of these." ..... "What is proba--probab--probablibity?".... "This is so aggravating!!" ...."I can't DO math!!!!" I walk over and make various attempts to (a) calm/encourage her and (b) shut her up for the sake of other students, but I am completely ineffective on both counts. She continues to speak loudly. I eventually just walk away and she winds down, but I feel that I've failed in both my objectives.

During the same placement test, two students are obviously cheating. I walk over to them and they look scared. I choose not to directly challenge them so as to avoid a scene in the middle of the test, so I ask them not to talk so as not to distract others. They look derisive--I'm obviously too stupid to realize that they're cheating right in front of my face. They both get very high scores but their mistakes are different. What should I have done then? And what do I do now?

I give instructions that students are to work in pairs. They are to read each paragraph aloud to each other, then work together to identify and underline the main idea of each paragraph. Some students diligently begin working per instructions. Others are confused, but start work as soon as the instructions are repeated to them individually. Some refuse to read aloud, but they *do* read silently and discuss/underline the main idea (I was trying to use the read-aloud strategy to compensate for weaker reading skills among some students, so this is distressing, but I don't seem to be able to enforce my instructions). One pair refuse to even look at the piece of paper, instead gossiping or looking out the window, and when I ask them to do the work, they whine that it's boring (these last two are very capable readers). (Also on this theme, sometimes it seems that the most capable students are the most determined to circumvent the instructions. "Why do I have to do it that way when I could do it this way?" Often, I'm concerned that their modification will not produce the desired results, but either I don't want to take time to argue, or I find it difficult to convey to them what the desired results are, or I don't want to say, "trust me, you won't be able to do it that way," especially as I may be wrong--but then again I may be right).

I am giving a brief introduction to an activity and students continuously shout out questions. I try insisting that they raise their hands. I try asking them to wait until I'm done speaking. I try whining. I try threatening. All tactics are met with derision and attitude ("This sounds stupid")("How are we supposed to do THAT?"). The activity doesn't get started until twenty minutes after I'd planned, and many students are firmly convinced that they will hate it.

One student, who is very capable but lacks confidence, never does any work until I come over and crouch down next to his desk and coax him through each question. This is obviously impractical, but if I don't do it, he just doesn't complete the assignments. At all. Ever.

Another student needs to be the center of attention and disrupts the class anytime I am not focused on her. She seems to have no impulse control, but is tremendously offended whenever she is asked to wait her turn, be quiet, change seats, etc.

On this theme, some students react to any reprimand as a terrible injustice, taking no responsibility for their own actions (e.g., they get marked down for their book report because they obviously didn't finish the book; they are asked to leave the classroom after repeatedly disrupting the class). Phrasing everything in terms of choices ("Since you are not choosing to work quietly, you are choosing to leave the class and be marked absent") has not the slightest effect on this attitude of indignant, self-righteous outrage ("why are you always picking on me? why do all you teachers hate me so much?" or "I'm supposed to have modifications, I'm not supposed to have to read the whole book!"--where the shorter, easier book *is* the modification).

Some students seem to see school as a sort of survival challenge, in which the goal is not to learn or even perform adequately, but simply to convince the teacher that they have performed adequately.

They circumvent and slip past everything, and seem genuinely unaware of any possible benefit from school (i.e. learning new things or having skills that could actually be useful). This makes them seem sly, dishonest, and manipulative; meanwhile they learn much less than their classmates. How can I awaken the understanding that learning itself can be pleasurable? Making everything "practical" quickly turns into vocational education, and I believe every student should have access to the intellectual pleasure of reading, thinking, learning, understanding. But how is that connection made? How do I stop the evasive, manipulative behavior and get these students on track--especially when are already behind their classmates, and thus tend to be further hampered by a powerful combo of embarrassment, lack of confidence, and lack of desire to put in all the extra work to catch up?

I probably wrote a lot more than you were requesting, but I thought it would be the clearest way of conveying the range of issues and variables that are (in my mind) encompassed under "classroom management"--the array of strategies that keep things rolling along smoothly, so that students learn and nobody goes home crying (including me).

I should add, please don't misunderstand me--I'm not at all discouraged (certainly not on the verge of giving up or any such nonsense). I'm having a blast, really loving sixth grade, and feeling much more confident about my skills with developing lessons and units, etc. I think I've come a long way on a lot of fronts and I'm sure I'll figure this stuff out too. But with so much progress in other areas, it's frustrating to feel that I haven't gotten very far with this particular skill set.

Thanks again & looking forward to Tuesday,
[birdfarm]

power, control, discipline, struggle (student teaching learning log)

2003-11-14T16:44:00.000-06:00

It's kinda cool to look back on these "learning logs" now--I have learned so much since then!

One of my new classes ("Rebels with a cause"--U.S. history) got off to a rocky start. It's a very large class (for [this high school])--19 students--and a little unruly. I was disorganized in the opening days of the class and there is a general state of confusion and frustration. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

These difficulties were initially very disheartening, because I felt that I was doing everything I possibly could and it still wasn't enough. It was very difficult for me to finish two classes on Tuesday 11/4 and start two more classes on Thursday 11/6. Even working hard all weekend (11/8-9), I struggled to be fully prepared. I wanted to do a fun activity on Thursday (11/6), introduce the class (rubrics, evaluation, etc) on Friday (11/7), and start off with our first lesson on Monday.

Instead, I rushed to be ready on Thursday but then at the last minute I just didn't quite make it, so on the first day of class I had to "wing it" and make something up. The students smelled fear and were insolent and rebellious. Friday I was ready and the activity went smoothly. Monday was 10th grade testing and half the students were out, so I just talked. Then Tuesday I had hoped to be ready, but, again, I wasn't ready and things were rough. Wednesday I finished the activity just in time, but not in time to write a solid script of how I would introduce it and make it clear to everyone, so there was a lot of confusion and more rebellion. Two students tried to drop the class. Finally things are settling down a little, but there is still a good bit of dissatisfaction.

I have decided not to change what I'm doing (not fundamentally--I will of course change the mistakes I've been making, primarily by being completely prepared, providing very clear instructions, and encouraging students more). After all, this is a rare opportunity to practice and try out different things. It is an experiment: if I stick to the format, repeating the sequence (group work – discuss – write), and continually re-teaching and refining the skills needed to succeed in each of these areas, will students improve over time? Will they settle in and become comfortable instead of angry, confused, resentful and rebellious? Will they develop a sense of mastery over something that initially was confusing or difficult, and thus gain satisfaction out of the process? Or will I alienate them more and more as the quarter progresses, and end up with a complete mess of some kind? Your input would be much appreciated.

In my second class ("Gender Benders"), it is a completely different story. There are only eight students, all female, and the atmosphere is comfortable and safe. They have been able to talk and share sometimes difficult things with respect and appreciation. I am taking a different tack in that class, trying to teach research skills. With such a small class, many quite motivated, it is infinitely easier to go to the library together etc. We will be producing a book about Transgender issues, for use in the libraries of the other Wisconsin high schools. Seeing if we can get the book into the libraries will be an informative part of the class in itself.

This week I have particularly been struggling with the question of control.

I am finally learning how to control (?) students, in other words, to get them to do what I tell them to do even when they don't want to, to win power struggles, etc.

However, I feel deeply personally conflicted about this because I believe that the school system in general is so destructive of students' initiative and individuality--am I collaborating in this destruction when I "win" these silly power struggles? Why should they do what I tell them instead of what they want to? Is what I'm teaching really going to be so important to them?

At the same time, I get so frustrated with the fact that nobody has taught them so many basic skills. I wonder if their habit of assuming they can do whatever they want, and their lack of mastery of basic skills, are related... Still I'm just not very comfortable...

Hmm, now I'm thinking back to Lisa Delpit's "Other People's Children." She says that white teachers tend to be very uncomfortable with the power they wield in the classroom, and that they tend to try to pretend they don't have it, tend to minimize it to increase their own personal comfort--but this just confuses students and catches them by surprise when the teacher's power ultimately wins.

I guess I can see myself in this--last quarter I had one student who seemed genuinely surprised that he failed my class after he completely failed to do his main project. Obviously I had not given him a clear enough message: I had been more concerned with his feeling comfortable in my class, than I had been with making sure he understood that he would not pass if he did not complete his project. Delpit reminds me that by doing that I am really prioritizing my comfort over his success. "Black Teachers on Teaching" [also] reminds us to push students, to insist on their success, despite the fact that they will fight back every step of the way.

It just feels so... well, I guess maybe this is just white guilt. My African-American cooperating teacher has no problem making it clear to students that they must obey her. She manages to be extremely kind and loving while she does it, but the bottom line is, nobody messes with her. I watch her do these things and they do not actually feel at all disrespectful to the student, and I wonder why this is. When I was at Memorial and teachers would use their power, I often felt very angry and felt that the student had been oppressed somehow. Why don't I feel that here? Is there something different that the teacher is doing?

If I think of students' reactions, it seems that there must be a difference. Students love TJ, but they hated the teacher I'm thinking of at Memorial. Well, that teacher would just send students to the principal. She never talked to them personally--she just got rid of them. She even seemed afraid of them. They could really shake her up. Her exercise of power was more like hitting back in self-defense. TJ is so clearly operating out of a desire to benefit the students. They feel it too.

It was so striking this week in an incident with "Janie." When Janie acted up during class, TJ gave her a stern look and said "see me after class." After class, the student started to leave the room, muttering to her friends & clearly not forgetting that she was expected to stay. TJ said sternly (and quietly, but somehow everyone heard her), "Janie! Go through that door and you'll be marked absent."

It would have been a brave soul who could have continued on through that door, and Janie stopped, looking so miserable and hopeless. TJ went over to her and, speaking very softly, the first thing she said was, "Janie, I am not angry with you." The student looked confused and relieved. TJ repeated, "I am not angry with you. But this is a very big class, and I need everyone's cooperation to make this a successful class." She said a few more words along those lines and Janie went on her way. There is something about that reprieve when you expect anger that has an amazing effect. TJ did it to me once when I was late. It was such a relief that I almost cried.

Lots more food for thought here....

Reflections on Q1 of student teaching

2003-10-31T18:53:00.000-06:00

[This was a "learning log" from my first student teaching; "TJ" = my cooperating teacher.]

As my classes draw to a close, I feel that I've learned a lot, mostly about how much I have to learn. I'm not entirely pleased with how everything went, but I have some ideas for next quarter that I hope will help make things go better.

1) Plan ahead! - and stick to the plan

Of course, many problems can be avoided by having a more complete plan for how the class will go.

For example, thinking through every question ahead of time can help me come up with better questions, ones that don't have "right/wrong" answers, and that don't invite students into territory that they might not be equipped to navigate.

Having good plans also will free me to be more "present" in the class, listening to students with empathy and awareness instead of having half a mind consumed with what I'm going to do next and how to do it. This is a really huge important point--I think everyone will get more out of the class if I can be less worried and more "present" while interacting with students.

Looking back, I feel that both classes would have gone better if I had stuck to the plan I laid out before they started. Instead, I second-guessed myself the moment anything didn't go exactly as planned, and tossed out what I had planned--over and over. So I was always "winging it." Even when I'd write out a plan for the next three days, I'd end up changing it after the first day.

This leaves me looking back with a lot of loose ends--a lot of topics where I told students, "We'll come back to that later," or where I thought to myself, "It's ok if they don't get that completely, we'll touch on it again when we do x," but we never did... so there are a lot of things they have half-formed ideas about.

Meanwhile, my original plan was good!

Looking back, there were actually very good reasons for doing what I had planned to do. Some of the things that went wrong (especially in the Power class) might have been ameliorated if I had stuck to the plan... (of course, many things would still have gone wrong because this is my first time, but....)

So instead of panicking, next time, I will try to stick to the plan and just see what happens--not mindlessly so, but within reason. It's not going to go perfectly anyway. I will look at it as a series of experiments. When things start to go wrong, instead of getting lost in fear of making a mistake and an attempt to save myself from the mistake, I will just follow the lesson plan and observe what happens. At the very least, I'll wind up with a more coherent series of mistakes!

2) Talk less

No more than three sentences in a row!

This is simpler than goal #1--but "talking less" requires goal #1 to be implemented!

Final projects in both classes have shown me that everything I just "told" students seems to have gone in one ear and out the other. I might as well have been speaking German.

There are several reasons for this--one, many people have trouble taking in information when it's only heard; two, when I am not "present" and "aware," and when I have not planned adequately what I will say, I tend to ramble and babble; three, I literally "speak a different language" from the language common among the students--i.e. I think and speak in academic terms, with big words and abstract concepts all over the place.

Communication is a serious issue for me--issuing directions is a huge challenge. I had to abandon a final project in one of the classes because I was literally unable to convey to the students what I wanted them to do!

And, lecturing is a skill that takes time to develop, and I don't have it yet. Lecturing off-the-cuff is practically impossible and there's no reason to try to do it when I can (a) plan ahead and (b) plan lessons that don't involve lecturing.

So that's the goal. Plan lessons that revolve around students' taking in information in other ways, and performing other activities besides just listening or responding to material that is given to them. This will make for more interesting classes, and will challenge me to be creative and really think through what I'm doing.

3) Let go

Don't try to make everything perfect all the time--don't try to make everything turn out the way I expect or want.

This is manipulative and a mis-direction of energy--it results in lots of fear and panic, "oh no!!! it's not happening just the way I want it to! What now??? Must fix!!!" This kind of insanity is what results in the problems discussed in #1. It also makes me talk too much, as in #2.

I was reading a book that talked about babies learning to walk. Each time they try they fall down, and it looks like a complete failure. But they just try again and somehow, through a process that they certainly aren't thinking about in any analytical terms, they just get better at it and learn how to do it.

If I can look at it like that, hopefully it will be calmer and a better learning environment for me and for the students too. Just try things, and observe the results. It's never going to be perfect--it might not even be good, since this is my first time. The best I can do is try things and observe with full attention and awareness. If I'm not panicking, I have more energy to listen to the students attentively and thoughtfully; if I'm not trying to control them all the time, I have a better chance of communicating and teaching. The best I can do is give students that kind of respect and acceptance, and myself too.

4) Spend time considering specifically how to develop students' thinking skills.

This was the biggest shock and disappointment to me in the "Power" class, where they just didn't seem to have the intellectual tools to compare one theory to another, or to analyze a problem and reach a conclusion in an orderly fashion. When we came to the final projects, it seemed like they just didn't understand a single thing that I had taught them all semester.

I can think of a lot of reasons for this, including the mistakes in #1, but one is that I didn't do anything to help them develop habits of rigorous inquiry and thought. I picked up a great book last week called "Teaching Thinking;" I'm loving it and hope I can apply some of its ideas this quarter. I remember the class that taught me these kinds of skills as one of the most important in my life. Maybe I can start to learn how to make that kind of difference to students.

discussing racism with students (student teaching learning log)

2003-10-17T18:47:00.000-05:00

[This was a "learning log" from my first student teaching; "TJ" = my cooperating teacher.]

10/17
Ongoing mutiny in my "Power" class. The students complain that I don't let them finish their ideas, that I seem too eager to force my opinions on them, that I squash discussion. I know I've been doing this ever since we first started to discuss racism.

I thought I had laid a careful groundwork of understanding about intelligence--that it is complex and not a known quantity, that tests of intelligence are fraught with bias and assumptions, that much injustice has been done in the name of intelligence.

But, as soon as I got to Eugenics, the skepticism of intelligence and intelligence tests that I thought I had created, did not hold up. Students were arguing that "Asians are smarter than white people," even though they did not dare say the corollary assumptions about races that are "dumber" than white people. I panicked and ever since then I have felt more like I'm indoctrinating than encouraging discussion.

But, we are talking about racism and I'm not sure how to discuss racism without trying to push my viewpoint. Especially in view of what happened with Danielle--that occurred on a day when I was trying to listen to "all points of view" without judgment.

Students seem uncomfortable with the topic of racism (they fidget, change the subject, get sullen, get distracted) and their labeling of viewpoints as "racist" seems random at times. For example, while reading Lisa Delpit on language and literacy, one (white) student told me she was offended that Delpit commented about how "some Black students speak;" the student pointed out that some white students speak that way too. On being pressed, she couldn't explain how this was relevant or changed Delpit's thesis, but she insisted that she was offended.

A more significant example occurred when two-thirds of the students attacked me for even writing Madison's disparity in graduation statistics on the board--they said it "didn't matter" and that we "shouldn't talk about that." I took a whole day to ask them, "what do you mean, it 'doesn't matter'?" We talked about "what is racism," "should it be talked about," "does it matter." It seemed like they arrived at some kind of collective conclusion, but then they don't seem to remember that conclusion or apply it to other discussions. References to it just bring blank stares.

I feel somewhat trapped by my subject: I insist on continuing to discuss racism, rather than cut & run because it's difficult and uncomfortable, and yet, as we discuss it, I cannot feel that I should just let "all viewpoints be heard."

The result is that I am stressed and focused on trying to get them to see things my way--it feels all wrong. They are less and less engaged in the lessons, and more and more sullen. They seem more likely to seek to give the "right" answer, rather than their opinion. And, I seem to be asking more questions with "right" answers rather than facilitating a stimulating and open-ended discussion.

For next quarter, I will not try to teach classes that have a particular agenda. Both classes this quarter could have been 30-page papers with a thesis statement and supporting paragraphs--in other words, I had something to prove to the students and I set out to do it. This put me in the difficult position described above. Instead, I will look at questions that I'm more comfortable having be open-ended. I won't avoid racism, but I may avoid questions that have possible racist answers (like, "Why is there an achievement gap between white children and children of color?"). At least, that seems like a reasonable strategy.

My partner R also suggested that I try to do topics where I don't have to decide "what should I teach next week?" -- where I can focus on developing teaching skills, rather than on digging up and presenting content.

She's right--I feel that I've spent too much time working hard to create the intellectual progression that will supposedly create new understandings, and not enough time practicing the basic craft and skills of teaching--different lesson plans, different activities, different approaches.

In considering possible courses I am trying for things that either have their own clear progression built in (events over time) or that are more open-ended (chew on a single question from multiple perspectives in no particular order). This would also allow me to focus on helping students develop their skills.

working out conflict with students (student teaching learning log)

2003-10-03T18:42:00.001-05:00

[This was a "learning log" from my first student teaching; "TJ" = my cooperating teacher. I was supposed to send them in regularly, but this one--due Oct 3--was turned in later, reconstructed from notes, which is why it says "around this time," meaning, "back around Oct. 3, here's what was going on.]

Around this time I was extremely stressed out for about a week. I felt that I was doing everything wrong, that I was a horrible teacher and a horrible person--in large part because it was suddenly clear that there were very few weeks left in the quarter, and I did not feel that I had accomplished my goals in either of my classes.

Several incidents with students occurred around this time, which were probably both a result and a cause of my stress level. An African-American student in one of my classes (call her Danielle) told me she felt I was mocking slavery and making stereotypes about African-Americans. I knew that this had been a misunderstanding, but the sheer randomness of it made me feel that there's nothing I can do--I'm a bad communicator and students will never understand anything I say to them. Separately, another (white) student, Elisa, felt that I had put her down, and ran out of the room sobbing; in this case, I had indeed been frustrated with her. Still another student (Kayla) became very angry and lashed out at me, and I lost my temper in response--I handled it by leaving the room (it was during the "study skills" class where students are mostly self-directed) and asking TJ to intervene.

TJ taught me a lot in how she handled all these situations with students. In each case, we sat down with the student in question and first listened to her. TJ asked questions to draw the students out and tried to get a sense of how the student was feeling about life in general. Then, she asked the student to talk about the incident that had upset her, "using 'I' messages." Finally, only after these processes were complete (taking five to fifteen minutes per student) did she ask me to respond. By this time, in cases where I had been angry, defensive, upset or otherwise emotionally off-balance, the student's heartfelt words, uninterrupted for several minutes, had helped remind me that this person was fragile and unhappy and that I was responsible for trying to provide her with a stable, supportive, consistent environment. Any personal, egocentric responses I had had melted away and it was easy to be calm, professional, and compassionate, and to reach a satisfactory resolution.

For example, we found that a relative of Danielle's was hospitalized in a coma from a stroke; that outside of school, Danielle was the full-time caregiver for the patient's infant daughter (and designated adoptive parent should the patient fail to recover); AND that Danielle was going in for tests because it was suspected that she suffered from the same medical condition that had caused her godmother's stroke! By the time Danielle had finished explaining all this, and had then talked about how upsetting some of the class discussions about racism had been to her, her anger toward me seemed to have already dissipated: she had started out refusing to look at me, but before we even moved on to discuss the specific "incidents" in question, she had pulled a picture of the baby out of her purse to show me. The specific "who said what, and what did it mean" seemed almost an afterthought. I could see how, if we had jumped straight to that, it would have been very difficult for Danielle to hear me at all, what with everything else that filled her mind and heart that day. Instead, we ended up strategizing how to talk about racism in class without having any students make comments that were painful for other students to hear. Making Danielle a part of planning the class seemed to help her know what was the intended *point* of discussions about racism, whereas previously she had felt unsure of what my beliefs were and where I was trying to go with the discussion. She still didn't enjoy or participate in the discussions, but her comfort level seemed to go up somewhat. I think I can improve on this further and will be keeping it an open question in my mind.

working out conflict with students (student teaching learning log)

2003-10-03T18:42:00.000-05:00

[this was a "learning log" from my first student teaching. I was supposed to send them in regularly, but this one--due Oct 3--was turned in later, reconstructed from notes, which is why it says "around this time," meaning, "back around Oct. 3, here's what was going on]

Around this time I was extremely stressed out for about a week. I felt that I was doing everything wrong, that I was a horrible teacher and a horrible person--in large part because it was suddenly clear that there were very few weeks left in the quarter, and I did not feel that I had accomplished my goals in either of my classes.

Several incidents with students occurred around this time, which were probably both a result and a cause of my stress level. An African-American student in one of my classes (call her Danielle) told me she felt I was mocking slavery and making stereotypes about African-Americans. I knew that this had been a misunderstanding, but the sheer randomness of it made me feel that there's nothing I can do--I'm a bad communicator and students will never understand anything I say to them. Separately, another (white) student, Elisa, felt that I had put her down, and ran out of the room sobbing; in this case, I had indeed been frustrated with her. Still another student (Kayla) became very angry and lashed out at me, and I lost my temper in response--I handled it by leaving the room (it was during the "study skills" class where students are mostly self-directed) and asking TJ to intervene.

TJ taught me a lot in how she handled all these situations with students. In each case, we sat down with the student in question and first listened to her. TJ asked questions to draw the students out and tried to get a sense of how the student was feeling about life in general. Then, she asked the student to talk about the incident that had upset her, "using 'I' messages." Finally, only after these processes were complete (taking five to fifteen minutes per student) did she ask me to respond. By this time, in cases where I had been angry, defensive, upset or otherwise emotionally off-balance, the student's heartfelt words, uninterrupted for several minutes, had helped remind me that this person was fragile and unhappy and that I was responsible for trying to provide her with a stable, supportive, consistent environment. Any personal, egocentric responses I had had melted away and it was easy to be calm, professional, and compassionate, and to reach a satisfactory resolution.

For example, we found that a relative of Danielle's was hospitalized in a coma from a stroke; that outside of school, Danielle was the full-time caregiver for the patient's infant daughter (and designated adoptive parent should the patient fail to recover); AND that Danielle was going in for tests because it was suspected that she suffered from the same medical condition that had caused her godmother's stroke! By the time Danielle had finished explaining all this, and had then talked about how upsetting some of the class discussions about racism had been to her, her anger toward me seemed to have already dissipated: she had started out refusing to look at me, but before we even moved on to discuss the specific "incidents" in question, she had pulled a picture of the baby out of her purse to show me. The specific "who said what, and what did it mean" seemed almost an afterthought. I could see how, if we had jumped straight to that, it would have been very difficult for Danielle to hear me at all, what with everything else that filled her mind and heart that day. Instead, we ended up strategizing how to talk about racism in class without having any students make comments that were painful for other students to hear. Making Danielle a part of planning the class seemed to help her know what was the intended *point* of discussions about racism, whereas previously she had felt unsure of what my beliefs were and where I was trying to go with the discussion. She still didn't enjoy or participate in the discussions, but her comfort level seemed to go up somewhat. I think I can improve on this further and will be keeping it an open question in my mind.

inclusion vs. mainstreaming: a helpful table

2003-03-28T14:54:00.000-06:00

I don't know who created this or where it came from, but we used it to study for our exams in our class on inclusion. Thought it might be interesting.

	Mainstreaming	Inclusive Education
Goals	Return students with disabilities to the gen. Ed. Mainstream as much as possible.	Create school and classroom communities in which all students are accepted, belong, and can achieve their potential.
Process	Assign students to spec. ed. programs, but have them attend gen. ed. Programs to the extent that they are believed to be capable of benefiting from them.	Age appropriate gen. ed. classrooms within their neighborhoods, blend gen. ed., “at risk,” and spec. ed. programs to meet the needs of all students. Adjust and expand the curr.
Special Services	Spec. ed. instruction and related services are provided in spec. ed. environments, but few follow the student into the mainstream class.	Support is provided to all students within gen. ed. and community environments to the greatest extent possible.
Focus	Traditionally considered an option for students with mild disabilities; rarely affected students with severe disabilities.	First about those with severe disabilities, and then all learning disabilities. Believe that concomitant changes in curr., assessment, instruction, and staffing patterns that accompany effective inclusion benefit all students.
Prerequisites (in the classroom)	Near grade level in social and academic performance.	None
Homebase (in the school)	Special Ed.	General Ed.
Services (In the school and in the classroom)	Minor adaptations Consultation Collaboration	Range of support services Consultation Collaboration Co-teaching Team teaching Individualized support Use of natural supports in the classroom
Standards	Same as General Ed.	Varies with every student.

early reactions to a big high school

2003-03-07T16:08:00.000-06:00

[This was written as a preface to a major paper for my adolescent psychology class; that's why I finish it up by saying how very useful my adolescent psychology class has been. Take that with a smallish grain of salt].

Exactly ten years ago, I was going through culture shock at my parents’ home after a meandering eight-month trip around the world. I was all set to begin my chosen career as a teacher, and soon found a job as a teacher’s aide as a way of “getting my feet wet” in the field. Many aspects of that initial experience combined to deflect me off into other pursuits, but one of the most powerful was the shock of discovering that schools were not always the locus of care and support that I had (perhaps naïvely) hoped they would be.

Instead, I found ignorance, racism, controlling and passive-aggressive behavior, and lost children wandering rejected amid the gossip, backbiting, and political jockeying of the teacher’s lounge. I fled in horror, and it took me another six years to return to the field of education, after realizing that I simply would not be happy doing anything else. I braced myself for the distressing aspects of the job, but still find it very difficult to spend time in the dehumanizingly enormous, factory-like, industrial-style high school where I find myself three days a week.

This collection of musings from the past six weeks reflects my growing dismay as I began to perceive many different ways in which schools—particularly enormous secondary schools—are profoundly rejecting of all students’ individuality and identity, and especially so toward students of color. I have formulated the hypothesis that education is in such a state of confusion because schools are located in a sort of battleground. I refer not to a “liberal-conservative” battleground, but more profoundly, a place where humanity battles the dehumanizing forces of post-industrialized capitalist society.
Hence, on the one hand, people want schools to embody and inculcate our most human qualities and values—our love for our children, our compassion for others, and our desire for connection, cooperation and community. On the other hand, people want schools to prepare students to compete in a larger society that is often completely at odds with these values—a society that pushes consumption, competition, hierarchy and individualism to extremes. It is simply not possible for schools to do both. But the simultaneous demands that they should cannot but result in a kind of disjointed, confused jumble of school ideologies and policies.

Against this backdrop, of course, is the exciting and rejuvenating spectacle of adolescents insisting on living their lives and discovering themselves no matter what the obstacles they face. Thus the following pages also trace a growing delight in rediscovering connection and communication with young people, which I had greatly missed in the intervening years and which makes every other distress worthwhile. A part of the excitement of this experience is the process of learning, in a more formalized manner, new information about adolescent development, which has helped me gain new insights and understanding that will surely stand me in good stead for many years to come.

Why are African-American students disproportionately placed in "special education?" - take 1

2003-02-26T13:56:00.000-06:00

[This paper represents my first formal attempt to synthesize my personal research on this question. I will post later modifications as well. The bibliography is at the end of the post. You may wish to skip to the thesis statement]

Across the United States, African-American students are disproportionately assigned to special education programs (Grenot-Scheyer, et al, 2001; Lipsky 1996). In some districts, as many as 70% of African-American students are placed in special education (Perry and Delpit, 1998, p. xi). Since special education in its current (largely segregated) form often fails to educate at all (Lipsky 1996), these placements contribute to other horrifying statistics like the drop-out rate of African-American high school students (MIPR 2002). These terrible realities should be, but rarely are, treated as an emergency and a crisis whose origins must be identified and whose solution must be found and implemented without delay.

In attempting to identify the reasons for the over-representation of African-American children in special education, I begin with the assumption that these students are over-represented not because they are inherently less intelligent or less capable than their counterparts, but because the school system is failing to meet their educational needs.(1) A brief review of some relevant literature reveals multiple ways in which school systems fail African-American children; in this context, special education placement may almost be seen as an attempt by the school to avoid responsibility by labeling the children as inherently deficient. This is not to say that there are no African-American children who have genuine disabilities, but rather to say that many children are mis-diagnosed as having disabilities, when in fact it is the school that has thwarted their ability and quashed their desire to learn.

[click any assertion in the following paragraph to go directly to the supporting paragraph; you may also wish to skip to my solutions/recommendations]

First, schools fail to help children who speak “Black English” acquire proficiency in “Standard English,” which negatively affects these children’s ability to learn to read. Second, schools fail to make learning accessible to children from non-dominant-cultural backgrounds. Third, school systems fail to combat racism in schools, particularly among teachers, where racism manifests as low expectations, negative assumptions or blindness, and denigrating demeanor. Fourth, when these school failures have hindered students’ learning, the tests meant to establish their need for special education often are biased. Last, teachers who have always been over-achievers may fail to understand and respond empathetically to children’s reactions to their own low achievement.

We begin with language, and a success story. In the 1990’s in the Oakland, California public schools, African-American students were failing in large numbers. There was only one exception: African-American students were succeeding at the one elementary school that had implemented a program that affirmed the validity and distinct nature of “Black English,” and taught “Standard English” as a second language (Perry and Delpit, 1998, p. xi). In discussing this school’s success, Lisa Delpit notes two important reasons why its “Standard English Proficiency” policies are so helpful. First, she explains that “the linguistic form a student brings to school is intimately connected with loved ones, community, and personal identity,” and thus it is profoundly confusing and alienating to students when their “native language” is denigrated and suppressed. Under these circumstances, accepting the acquisition of “Standard English” may feel like a betrayal of their loved ones and community (Delpit 1998, p. 19).

The second aspect of acknowledging “Standard English” as a second language is more concrete: research evidence suggests that students have a very difficult time learning to read when their teachers fail to recognize the difference between reading comprehension and language acquisition (Delpit, 1998, p. 25). Many teachers, with the best of intentions, continually interrupt beginning readers to correct their “Black English” pronunciation; in so doing, they fail to notice the fact that if a student has “translated” a word into her own language, she has already read it and comprehended it (Delpit, 1998, p. 23). The continual interruptions have three negative effects: denying the child the useful experience of continuous fluent reading, directing her focus toward pronunciation and away from meaning, and discouraging her from future attempts at reading (Delpit, 1998, p. 24).(2)

If the school system’s first major failure is linguistic, its second is cultural. Most school systems are constructed in ways that facilitate learning with a particular cultural and cognitive style, one that is most associated with European-American children from middle- and upper-class families. John Taylor Gatto has revealed that the U.S. school system was designed after a Prussian model, whose main goal was to produce obedient soldiers and workers, and a populace whose opinions were molded as the state saw fit (Gatto 2001, chapter 7 passim). The result of this model of obedience and compliance is a school system that requires young children to be able to sit still and be silent for long periods of time—a behavior may or may not be taught in their cultural context. For example, Janice Hale-Benson notes the difference between many African-American church services, which emphasize participation and movement, and many European-American church services, which emphasize precisely the kind of silent attentiveness that is required in school (Hale-Benson 1986, p. 80). Young children who arrive in kindergarten or first grade without much experience of prolonged silent sitting may start out at a disadvantage, being perceived as “disruptive” or “out of control.” This can result in a mis-diagnosis of ADD or any number of personality disorders.

There are also cultural differences in communication, which can damage student-teacher relationships and lead the teacher to mis-label the student. For example, Hale-Benson and others have pointed out that African-American children are often taught to show respect by lowering or averting their eyes, but that this may be interpreted by their European-American teachers as disrespect or inattentiveness (Hale-Benson 1986, p.16). She also reviews research indicating that playful banter between children and adults is more acceptable in some African-American communities—the kind of banter that a European-American teacher might interpret as “backtalk” or “impudence” (Hale-Benson 1986, p. 80). Misunderstandings along these lines may ultimately may result in a child being labeled as having “oppositional behavior disorder” or other behavior issues. It is worth noting that, with any behavior “problem,” removing the student from the classroom (via suspension or simply a trip to the principal’s office) will cause the student even farther behind his/her peers.

On another cultural communication note, L. Janelle Dance looks at “tough fronts,” or “postures forged by social marginalization.” She writes of how teachers may persistently fail to understand that students sometimes adopt a “tough” appearance as a measure of self-defense. Teachers tend to take these appearances for reality and to treat these students as delinquent and violent, when in fact they are not at all inclined toward criminal activities (Dance 2002, passim). Similarly, Angela Valenzuela writes that teachers “tend to overinterpret urban youths’ attire and off-putting behavior as evidence …that these students ‘don’t care’ about school.” She notes that teachers may respond to these assumptions by withdrawing from any effort to connect with such students or help them (Valenzuela 1999, p. 22). There are no doubt many other cultural miscues that cause teachers to withdraw support from students who still need and want their assistance and attention.

We have reviewed the first two major categories of school failure: failure to address the needs of students who are acquiring “Standard English” as a second language, and failure to create a learning environment appropriate for students from all cultural backgrounds. The third major school failure that results in African-American students being unfairly placed in special education is the failure to combat institutional racism in schools. Some of the issues discussed under the cultural heading also fall under this category as well: teachers who are unaware of cultural differences are likely to misinterpret student behavior. Teachers may also engage in more overtly racist behavior, often without being aware of it. Julie Kailin has studied the degree to which racism permeates even the most would-be “liberal” schools, manifesting in lower expectations for African-American students, or stereotypes about African-American students and their families (Kailin 2002, p. 13). Kailin notes that children of color “may experience...differential treatment repeatedly throughout their school years.” Low expectations result in lower student achievement, while subtle discrimination may result in lower self-esteem, truancy, and other issues that lead to special education placements. Furthermore, many teachers may be unaware of times when their own behavior is discriminatory or disrespectful; in such instances, a student’s justifiably angry reaction may lead the teacher to label him/her as a “behavior problem” (Kailin 2002, p. 104-6).

The fourth major category of school failure lies in the area of testing. Eventually, when one or more of the above-mentioned problems affects a student’s performance, the student may be referred for special education testing and evaluation. Hoover et al have catalogued the ways in which tests may be biased against students from non-dominant ethnic, racial, or even geographic backgrounds—largely because, in various ways, they test something other than what they claim to test (Hoover et al, 1991, p.55). Scales gives the example of reading comprehension tests that ask questions about a passage, but often include questions that cannot be answered solely from the information in the passage; in effect they are testing general knowledge (Scales 1991, pp. 69-70). Tests that are ostensibly measuring intelligence may actually be testing Standard English grammatical knowledge, or simply testing how closely the student’s worldview matches that of the test designer (for example, by asking about golf or ballet, or what “policemen do”) (Hoover et al, pp. 59-60). Biased testing is another reason that African-American children may end up disproportionately in special education.

To these researched and documented examples I would add a personal observation. Exacerbating these problems, teachers may be unfamiliar with the range of reactions engendered by failure and low self-esteem. Teachers who have always been high achievers themselves may be particularly likely to miss the connection between failure and “acting out.” Students who react dramatically to their own overwhelming emotions around their failures (by disrupting class, destroying school materials, refusing to work, etc.) are likely to be labeled and pushed even farther away from possible resources that could help them.

Thus we have established an array of ways in which schools fail African-American students and increase the likelihood that they will end up in special education programs. What remedies might be imagined that could address these problems? It seems to me that the needed remedy is twofold: antiracist and intercultural education for teachers, and inclusion for students.

Julie Kailin’s book Antiracist Education describes her implementation of anti-racist staff development training sessions at schools in Madison and Milwaukee, in which she provided teachers with information about the experience of students of color, and challenged them to examine their own perceptions. These sessions appear to have been fairly successful at awakening teachers to some of the obstacles faced by students of color, as well as helping teachers to discover and attack their own biases, assumptions, and low expectations. In addition to courses like this, teachers need to learn simple information about cultural difference, such as the differing meanings ascribed to lowering the eyes before an authority figure.

In addition to implementing antiracist education for teachers, schools need to undergo massive reforms and become truly inclusive. African-American students who have fallen behind must not continue to be segregated in special education classes except under very unusual and particular circumstances (as, indeed, is mandated by law). Back in the general education classroom, under-achieving students would be helped by such inclusive strategies as peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and whole-class engagement in projects and activities (Walther-Thomas et al 2000, p. 7). It is by no means unimportant that all these learning strategies create a classroom that is more culturally accessible to some African-American students (as discussed above) than is the class of silent, motionless rows. Furthermore, as part of the creation of a welcoming and inclusive environment for all, all districts should also implement a version of the Oakland, California school district’s “Standard English Proficiency” program, discussed above, to help African-American children learn to read and gain proficiency in two languages.

In summary, special education in its current format tends to be a dead-end road, and African-American students tend to be set upon that road in disproportionate numbers. This must not be allowed to continue. The learning process in the general education classroom can and should be redesigned to include all levels of learner and all styles of cognition, so that each student can work with peers on projects, “from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her needs.” Peer support, relational learning, and active engagement will help African-American students as much as, or perhaps even more than, others. In the final analysis, only inclusive education, combined with a determined attack on racism and a realistic and respectful approach to African-American students’ language, can hope to brighten the future of the thousands of children now doomed to failure in the current system.

-----
Notes:

1. Although many people assert that some African-American students fall behind because they arrive at school without enough academic preparation, there is no reason why inadequate academic preparation for school cannot be overcome. The question is why this initial disadvantage (when and if it exists) is allowed to persist. (return to text)

2. Evidence supporting Delpit’s arguments can also be found in Hoover, et al, 1991. (return to text)

-----
Works Cited

Dance, L. Janelle. (2002) Tough Fronts: The Impact of Street Culture on Schooling. Routledge: New York City

Delpit, Lisa. 1998, “What Should Teachers Do? Ebonics and Culturally Responsive Instruction.” In Theresa Perry and Lisa Delpit, eds. (1998) The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Children. Beacon Press: Boston, MA

Gatto, John Taylor. (2000/2001) The Underground History of American Education. The Oxford Village Press.

Grenot-Scheyer, M., Fischer, M., and Staub, D. (2001) A framework for understanding inclusive education. In M. Grenot-Scheyer,, M. Fischer, and D. Staub. Lessons Learned in Inclusive Education: At the End of the Day. Brookes Publishing: Baltimore, MD.

Hale-Benson, Janice. (1986) Black Children: Their Roots, Culture, and Learning Styles. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, MD

Hoover, Mary R., Robert L., Politzer, and Orlando Taylor. (1991) “Bias in Reading Tests for Black Language Speakers: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. In Asa G. Hilliard, III., ed, Special Issue of the Negro Educational Review: Testing African-American Students. Third World Press: Chicago, IL.

Kailin, Julie. (2002) Antiracist Education: From Theory to Practice. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Maryland.

Lipsky, D. (1996). An Inclusion Talkback: Critics’ Concerns and Advocates’ Responses. National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion Bulletin, 3(1). The Graduate School & University Center of the City of New York.

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (2002). Report: High School Graduation Rates in the United States http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_baeo.htm

Perry, Theresa, and Lisa Delpit, eds. (1998) The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Children. Beacon Press: Boston, MA

Scales, Alice M. (1991) “Alternatives to Standardized Tests in Reading Education: Cognitive Styles and Informal Measures.” In Asa G. Hilliard, III., ed, Special Issue of the Negro Educational Review: Testing African-American Students. Third World Press: Chicago, IL.

Valenzuela, Angela. 1999. Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring. SUNY Press: Albany, NY

Walther-Thomas, C., Korinek, L., McLaughlin, V., and Toler Williams, B. (2000). “Inclusive Education: Building the Case.” In C. Walther-Thomas, L. Korinek, V. McLaughlin, and B. Toler Williams, Collaboration for Inclusive Education: Developing Successful Programs. Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights, MA.

WI has worst Af-Am grad rate (2002)

2003-02-19T14:33:00.000-06:00

Here's the full study, with links to lots of different ways of viewing the data:

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research

But here's the grisly truth: Wisconsin is the very, very, very worst. There are a few states with insufficient data, but the ones you'd hope could bail us out--Mississippi, Arkansas--are in the table, and doing much better than Wisconsin.

Wake up people. What does frickin' Mississippi know that the self-important, swaggering white liberals of Madison do not?

Sometimes I get excited about all the work to be done here... other times I just can't wait to leave. I'd almost rather be in Mississippi... conditions suck but there is a movement there, struggling though it may be. But that's another post.

State	Ranking	Graduation Rate
Wisconsin	39	40%
Minnesota	38	43
Georgia	37	44
Tennessee	36	44
Nevada	35	49
Ohio	34	49
Oregon	33	49
New York	32	51
Florida	31	51
Alabama	30	52
Hawaii	29	53
Michigan	28	53
Nebraska	27	53
Kansas	26	54
Arizona	25	54
Dist Columbia	24	55
Indiana	23	55
Colorado	22	55
N. Carolina	21	55
Illinois	20	57
Iowa	19	57
Mississippi	18	58
New Mexico	17	58
Alaska	16	58
Missouri	15	58
California	14	59
Texas	13	59
Rhode Island	12	61
Louisiana	11	62
Pennsylvania	10	63
Oklahoma	9	64
Connecticut	8	64
Virginia	7	64
Delaware	6	64
Maryland	5	66
New Jersey	4	66
Arkansas	3	67
Massachusetts	2	70
West Virginia	1	71

Insufficient data: Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming.

inclusion: history

2003-02-16T13:53:00.000-06:00

[This paper was written in response to a lecture on the history of the education of people with disabilities]

It is quite striking that as far back as 1908, a superintendent made a statement in which he appeared to consider the options of inclusion or segregation. But this appearance is fleeting—the second part of his statement makes clear that he only posed the option of inclusion (all students in desegregated settings, fewer students per teacher, more classrooms, etc.) as a rhetorical device, meant to clarify that segregation was somehow the “natural” choice.

Why, I wonder, was it so easy for him to assume with such certainty that his audience would concur with his automatic rejection of the idea of inclusion? What was so “obviously” wrong with this idea? In 1908, if memory serves, industrial efficiency was just beginning to become an obsession; perhaps the inclusion option seemed too inefficient, in that it required more than the minimum number of workers to produce the desired “product.” 1908 also followed many years of Enlightenment-era obsession with scientific sorting, cataloguing, and labeling; perhaps inclusion seemed sloppy, mixing different “types” of children “indiscriminately.”

Whatever the context, it is saddening to contemplate the loss of the world that might have developed if this superintendent’s assumptions—and his society’s—had run in the opposite direction!

inclusion: history of educ for people w disabilities - notes

2003-02-15T15:04:00.000-06:00

[these notes were typed up to be passed on to others; they are a bit flippant and probably unclear; I will revise them if I ever have time. pwd="people with disabilities" throughout]

History of education for people with disabilities

General split between pre- and post-“enlightenment” eras:

PRE-enlightenment:
1200 – 1700 - Dominant belief = disabilities are supernatural

Mental illness = possession by evil spirits
Disease and ill fortune = sign that god(s) were turning against you
“abnormal” babies killed, ppl mistreated

POST-enlightenment:
1800s - Science begins to replace religion as explanatory concept
Problems explained as genetic instead of spiritual
Results

care is medical and supportive instead of punitive
institutions have benevolent goal of “protecting” and “training”
- protect: pwd are seen as “eternal children” in need of protection
- train: goal that behavior or intellect can be improved & can return to society (transitional schooling)
basic idea is still paternalistic
some are seen as “unteachable” and they are permanently institutionalized

POST-ENLIGHTENMENT TIMELINE

1800s through early 1900s - Urbanization / industrialization
- Rural social order could absorb “misfits” but new economic order is more demanding of conformity and ability
- “Alms houses” created where those who cannot support selves (widows, orphans, pwd) are “warehoused.”
- Less charitable era—pwd chained like animals & kept in abusive conditions
- Beginning of compulsory schooling
  - Schools get larger, more factory-like
  - students begin to be segregated by age and ability
  - again, more “misfits” created
Mid- to late 1800s: emergence of special education
- idea of educating students w disab: blind and deaf first, then others
- schools were “clearing house” for all different kinds of pwd, and had wide age ranges
- “separate but equal” endorsed for perceived racial and ability differences —definitely excluded from mainstream schools
I am trying to make sense of the lecture notes from the history lecture—I think the attitude gradually got more compassionate during the 1800s, but I didn’t want to put that down without stating that I am not 100% sure about it.
1920s Attitude shift: from protecting pwd to protecting society from the “deviant”
- growing sense that fed’l gov’t is responsible for caring for all people
- pseudo-scientific categorizing and labelling
  - Such labels as “idiot, moron, imbecile”
  - tests for determining which category people fit into
  - include alcoholics and “morally degenerate” like prostitutes
- Development of the idea of “hereditarianism”
  - Pwd pass on “undesirable” characteristics
  - Institutionalize them to prevent them from “breeding”
  - Psuedo-scientific justifications for racism
- All kinds of bad stuff
  - Eugenics movement (US mvt inspires Nazis)
  - Restrict immigration / test immigrants
  - Forced sterilization of “defective women” (60K people sterilized!) and immigrants
Depression and New Deal
- FDR has a disability but it is carefully hidden from public
- First federal money for pwd – money to states to support “blind, dependent or crippled”
1940s – 1950s
- Death camps make Eugenics movement look bad
- Postwar laws help wounded veterans with acquired disabilities
- Eventually these laws expanded to help everyone else incl those w genetic disab and mentally ill
- Brown v Board 1954 overturns separate but equal
- Beginnings of advocacy by parents of pwd for their inclusion in these rights

racism: response to McIntosh & Ferguson

2003-02-11T21:03:00.000-06:00

[another response paper]

I have seen Peggy McIntosh’s clear and concise list of privileges in other contexts and always found them very thought-provoking. However, this is the first time I have read McIntosh’s article in its entirety and I actually found one aspect of it quite annoying. In the beginning, she writes as though she is entering uncharted territory; and, at the end of the article, she writes as though she will have to figure out for herself, unaided, what “we” can do to dismantle our privilege. As if thousands of books and articles have not been written by people of color (e.g. bell hooks) illuminating the existence and function of white privilege with tremendous brilliance and clarity, and providing us with many ideas and plans for change! In fact, it is sadly revelatory that McIntosh’s article is so often chosen to represent this information. People designing anti-racist curricula assume that many white students will not listen to a person of color giving them this same information; unfortunately, they are probably right.

In the Spring selection, I agree with his insistence on distinguishing racism from prejudice and his implied distinction between institutional/systemic racism and individual attitudes. The idea that racism is only about individual attitudes is precisely what causes the current generation of college students to deny that racism exists. If racism is merely attitude, then they are right—attitudes have changed. The Tom Metzgers of the world are extremist and outcast in 2003, and most people are happy to “celebrate diversity.” However, the pernicious evil of institutional racism continues to play out through our unconscious reproduction of the status quo. To help students feel less defensive about unpacking their participation in this system, I think it is important to emphasize that everyone in this society absorbs racist ideas, so there is no shame in having such thoughts and perceptions. The only shame lies in refusing to educate oneself to consciously combat institutional racism.

The Ferguson* article helped me in precisely that way—it showed me one persisting blind spot of my own. Although my approach is empathetic rather than punitive, I can definitely observe in myself that tendency to “adultify,” to see young black men’s behavior as more significant than that of young white boys. This also correlates with my own observations, in the past as well as in the first few days of practicum experience. One of the special ed teachers I observe is particularly appalling about this. When the sole white student is loud and disruptive, the teacher ignores him; when one of the African-American boys is disruptive (even when one called out, “Can I read next? Please miss, can I?”), he is reprimanded unkindly and even sent to the principal. Altogether, it is clear that while we all know how to “talk the talk,” we need a lot more work and education before we or our society will “walk the walk” of true multiculturalism.

FYI: Description of Ann Ferguson's book from the Gustavus Myers website, which gave the book an award in 2001.

Ferguson, Ann Arnett,
Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity
University of Michigan Press, 2000

Explores what getting into trouble means for African American boys. Ferguson follows a group of 11-12 year old boys labeled "at-risk" throughout a school year observing their interactions with teachers, administrators, and parents. She theorizes that Black boys' behavior is "adultified" - their alleged transgressions are interpreted by others as sinister. Ferguson discerns as well the children's views of this phenomenon of getting into trouble. A cutting-edge book that will appeal to parents, teachers, educational reformers and others. Ferguson examines the institutional racism present in deciding who gets punished or not. Ferguson teaches at Smith College in western Massachusetts.

inclusion: devil's advocate

2003-02-09T13:49:00.000-06:00

Assignment: Develop a position that is critical of inclusive education

In reality I do favor inclusive education. The strongest criticism that I think could be made against it is that it does seem to depend on having highly capable, strongly committed teachers, as well as (preferably) sufficient funding for multiple special ed teachers and paraprofessional support staff. One could argue that both the old and new models work when (1) teachers are flexible and committed, and (2) teachers have a low student-teacher ration so that they can provide significant individual attention. If these are the key ingredients to both models, then perhaps one could argue that the desired change will not come about through changing the model, but rather through reducing class sizes and recruiting better teachers. If this is the case, then changing the model is a waste of time, money and students’ lives.

One could further argue that organizing the curriculum around critical thinking skills and problem-solving is ineffective. One could argue that these exercises require so much additional time—especially when students with disabilities are included and time must be spent explaining the exercises to them—that they minimize the content learned to an unacceptable degree. One could argue that there is no money for the amount of training that is needed for teachers to be comfortable and capable in these new teaching styles AND to be comfortable and capable with diverse learners. This would mean that we are not only moving students with disabilities into classes where the teacher is not ready for them—we are also asking all the other students in the class to accommodate to new “critical thinking” approaches which fall flat when implemented by a teacher who lacks creativity or insight. All students are seeing the level of their education go down, and implementing inclusion at this time, when so much else is wrong, could be seen as further muddling a complex and difficult situation.

inclusion: struggling to understand finer points

2003-02-03T13:51:00.000-06:00

Assignment: Based on discussion and readings, describe any misconceptions you had about inclusive education that have now been clarified for you.

I had (mis)understood from some of the earlier readings that all students would in fact be included in regular education classrooms 100% of the time. Mandy’s question during the class discussion—“Does inclusion mean that the student is in the regular education classroom full-time?”—and Prof. Udvari-Sollner’s response clarified my misconception on this point.

The slides shown in class of the young man learning to negotiate life skills (e.g. cooking and employment) helped me to understand why he would not always be in the same setting as his peers. The slides clarified the difference between an “appropriate” setting and a “segregated” setting. The young man was not always with his peers, but he was always in “real world” settings interacting with a variety of other people, instead of being hidden away in an over-protective artificial environment.

One reason for my misconception may be that the Davern et al and Grenot-Scheyer et al articles, which I read last week, were not as clear as the Lipsky and Arnold/Dodge articles about the amount of time a student might spend in the general education classroom. The latter two articles specifically spell out that 100% inclusion 100% of the time is not the goal. One of the interesting things about the Fuchs & Fuchs and Shanker pieces was the way they emphasized almost exactly the same points as the inclusion advocates, in terms of what they felt children with disabilities needed to succeed in school and life. The Maloney commentary inset into the Fuchs & Fuchs article sounded almost exactly like the inclusion advocacy articles. These observations made me wonder whether inclusion opponents were deliberately caricaturing inclusion advocates, or whether some more extreme form of inclusion advocacy really does exist, or whether these opponents had just misunderstood some of the literature as I had.

reading response: schooling as factory

2003-01-30T15:31:00.000-06:00

[response paper - the Gatto reading is online and extremely interesting, even essential in my opinion: The Underground History of American Education, Chapter 7--I'll post more about it]

This week’s readings are quite grim in their discussion of the ineffectiveness and inhumanity of many current school practices; yet they are also extremely illuminating, in that they help explain why the reality of U.S. public schooling bears so little resemblance to the “Goals2000” rhetoric, which is largely consistent with ideals of democracy and human values.

Very little observation is needed to conclude that U.S. schools do much more to rationalize inequality than to eradicate it. I am one of those who believe that meritocracy is a myth—an effectively hegemonic myth in that it justifies gross inequality while shaming and subduing the majority who supposedly “failed” to take advantage of their theoretically “equal” opportunity. However, until now I was not aware of the actual historical process by which these school systems had been initially imagined and constructed, nor of the overtly anti-democratic principles on which they were founded. The Gatto and Darling-Hammond readings, in particular, clarify chillingly how the current school system came to be based on inhuman principles of obedience, efficiency, compliance, conformity and “mass production.”

To me, the “human capital” conceptualization discussed in the Spring reading is the modern articulation of this same inhumanity. Thinking of schools as a production process in which money is invested with the hope of financial return is absolutely antithetical both to democracy and to human values. Worse still is the idea that businesses should shape curricula or indeed should come anywhere near schools. Corporate executives must prioritize the goal of making as much money as possible for the company—if they do not, they should be removed from their position by the board of directors, who are entrusted by stockholders with finding the executives who will make as much money as possible for the company. People whose primary goal is private profit have interests that are at best irrelevant, and at worst highly detrimental, to the interests of children in school.

what precisely is the problem with adolescence? - response to Steinberg & Eccles

2003-01-28T19:29:00.000-06:00

[The comments of the instructor are inserted as footnotes; an email exchange follows]

"Young people are the solution, not the problem," reads a t-shirt that we stock at the local bookstore co-operative. As Steinberg notes, this idea does not seem to be very prevalent in U.S. society (Steinberg 2002, p. 16). Nonetheless, the t-shirt sells well: people of all ages pounce on it excitedly, commenting how pleased they are to find a rare positive slogan about youth.

Steinberg describes in some detail the variety of negative stereotypes that constantly re-appear in media depictions of adolescents: delinquents, hormone-driven idiots, or tortured misfits (ibid, p. 16). He comments that perhaps young people are portrayed this way because adults want to see them as different, for a variety of economic and/or social reasons (ibid, p. 17-18). Although he does not elaborate on a detailed refutation of these ideas, he implies that we will not finish the book with these stereotypes intact. Indeed, these stereotypes bear little resemblance to my own experience.

As Steinberg notes, adolescents can be very mature in one area while seeming childish in another (ibid, p. 3). When I think about my experience with middle school students (as a tutor and summer-camp counselor while I was in college) and high school students (volunteering at Shabazz for the past year), it seems to me that they exhibit this variability more than any other defining characteristic. One individual can seem very mature in one way, or at one time, and very immature in another way or at another time.

Especially with middle-schoolers, I felt that one of the things they needed from me was a sense of consistency, a solid and predictable sounding board against which they could play out their changing identities and emotions. It seemed to me that they needed to feel safe and loved, so that they could push limits and explore new territory. They still needed structure, in the sense of order and routine and rules, even if only to question and challenge and evaluate that structure. Although they seem to be demanding liberation from the structure, in middle school they are not quite ready for that, and indeed many would be lost if their demands for complete independence were suddenly fully realized. [note 1]

In the context of the Eccles reading, I wonder—what is the impact of the above-mentioned negative stereotypes on adults’ ability to be solid and safe for children, to maintain the balance between structure and growing autonomy? The Eccles article implies two answers to this question. First, Eccles et al report that seventh-grade teachers tend to have less confidence in their efficacy as teachers and concurrently seem to spend a lot of time trying to “maintain order” in the classroom (Eccles et al.1993, p. 95). Could it be that this lack of confidence is related to a perception that they are facing down a pack of wild, uncontrollable delinquents or some other such negative concept? [note 2]This is particularly unfortunate when we see what a large impact this lack of confidence has on the students’ confidence and motivation levels (ibid, p. 95).

Second, Eccles et al report that as adolescents develop a sense of autonomy, it benefits them psychologically to have more opportunities to be involved in decision-making both in school and at home. At the same time, Eccles reports that decision-making opportunities for children actually seem to decrease right at this crucial time (Eccles 1993, pp. 96-8). Could this also be, in part, due to the negative stereotypes outlined by Steinberg? Certainly, from my own observation, parents and teachers seem inclined to behave as though adolescents are extremely dangerous, and/or that they are extremely vulnerable to other dangerous adolescents in their environment. Are negative media stereotypes causing parents and teachers to clamp down in fear, precisely when they should be providing the kind of steady, supportive, open framework that students need in order to safely experiment with their developing identities? [note 3]

In closing I recall listening to a fragment of a speech on the radio some years ago, when I lived in Brooklyn, New York. The speaker seemed to be an older African-American pastor or educator talking about African-American youth in New York City. One of his strongest and most pleading messages was that African-American adults should not believe the media stereotypes about the next generation, but instead should reach out and try to form meaningful connections with younger people. He told how he had, several years previously, mustered the courage to just walk up and introduce himself to a group of young men hanging out in his neighborhood. He had been surprised, even shocked, by their eagerness for a mentor and guide, and had formed a strong and positive relationship with the young men. This was the first time it had occurred to me that people could be afraid, not only of other people’s children, but of their own. What a tragedy if media stereotypes can succeed in driving us away from our children right when they need us most.

Instructor's Notes

Note 1:
Nice summary of the reading and connection with your own experience. [back to text]

Note 2:
Excellent question--how much of this change in structure is due to teachers’ personal perceptions/stereotypes/lack of informationa about adolescent development versus administrative structures and school district mandates and expectations for teachers? Eccles et al. don’t address WHY there exists a shift in teachers’ confidence in their teaching abilities.[back to text]

Note 3:
Another good question. I also wonder if parents and teachers inherently desire more structure and less autonomy for adolescents or if they are reacting to the adolescents themselves--given the rapidity of the pubertal, social, and cognitive changes during this age, might a normal reaction from adults be “fear” and the desire to maintain the child-like qualities parents and teachers are used to or expect? Or perhaps adults and authority figures realize that adolescents will be exploring their growing selves and in attempts to curb negative outcomes, overcompensate by highly structuring adolescent lives? We need to be careful in making cause and effect statements in development for individuals and the environment often have reciprocating effects on each other. [back to text]

[email back to instructor]

Date: 2/2/03 9:16 pm

Thanks for your comments. I just wanted to respond briefly to one...

"We need to be careful in making cause and effect statements in development for individuals and the environment often have reciprocating effects on each other."

I agree completely, and I did feel that Eccles et al often made these types of connections with insufficient data. There is a lot of discussion of the differences between seventh- and sixth-grade teachers (less caring, less confidence, less challenge to students' higher-order thinking skills), but Eccles doesn't mention what I think is the most obvious possible reason for this--the fact that subject-area teachers are more likely to have "fallen into" their career because they like their subject area and aren't sure what to do with this interest, whereas the general-education teachers in elementary school are less likely to have gone into teaching because they like a specific subject and more likely to have done so because they like students.

Also, when they talk about the mismatch between "should you have input into decisions" and "do you," and then go on to say that students who perceive the greatest mismatch also have the greatest problems, this also seems to me like a chicken-and-egg problem (as in, "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"). One could imagine a student who is, for personal reasons (personal trauma, substance use, mental illness, anything), inclined to rebel, act out, resent authority etc.--such a student will naturally identify any restriction on their behavior as too much, will say they should be able to do whatever they want and that they are unfairly restricted, etc. In other words, the problems might cause the desire for more freedom from restrictions, rather than the restriction of freedom causing the problems. And, on the contrary, if a student is mellow, well-adjusted, and trustworthy to begin with, that student might receive more freedom (or have a more accurate view of his/her own need for structure) and consequently feel that the amount of input s/he has into decisions is appropriate. Of course, one can reasonably imagine scenarios illustrating either direction of causal relationship. Eccles et al do not advance solid evidence that the causality is more in one direction than the other, at least as far as I can see (I realize I have infinitely less training and information than you or Eccles & co so I am happy to be corrected if I'm overlooking anything).

book excerpt: Gatto on Prussian origins of US system

2003-01-28T15:44:00.000-06:00

This blew my mind the first time I read it. The best part is, it's all online, so you can go read the rest of the chapter or the rest of the book.

Chapter 7: The Land of Frankenstein

The particular utopia American believers chose to bring to the schoolhouse was Prussian.
...
[A]n immortal speech, the "Address to the German Nation" by the philosopher Fichte [was] one of the influential documents of modern history leading directly to the first workable compulsion schools in the West.
...
In no uncertain terms Fichte told Prussia the party was over. Children would have to be disciplined through a new form of universal conditioning. They could no longer be trusted to their parents....Through forced schooling, everyone would learn that "work makes free," and working for the State, even laying down one’s life to its commands, was the greatest freedom of all. Here in the genius of semantic redefinition lay the power to cloud men’s minds...
...
The Prussian mind...held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver: 1) Obedient soldiers to the army; 2) Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms; 3) Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function; 4) Well-subordinated clerks for industry; 5) Citizens who thought alike on most issues; 6) National uniformity in thought, word, and deed.

The area of individual volition for commoners was severely foreclosed by Prussian psychological training procedures drawn from the experience of animal husbandry and equestrian training, and also taken from past military experience. Much later, in our own time, the techniques of these assorted crafts and sullen arts became "discoveries" in the pedagogical pseudoscience of psychological behaviorism.

Prussian schools delivered everything they promised. Every important matter could now be confidently worked out in advance by leading families and institutional heads because well-schooled masses would concur with a minimum of opposition.

To see the footnotes and to learn how this idea was adopted and developed in the US, go to Gatto's website and read the rest... scary eh!

inclusion: my introduction

2003-01-27T13:40:00.000-06:00

[reflection paper written in response to a video about a student, Joselyn, with multiple disabilities, making friends and spending time with them. The reflection prompt question is...]

What [about the video] makes you aware of your own prejudices?

The video and the discussion that followed created a dramatic change in my thinking. I am embarrassed to admit that while watching the video, I could not stop thinking that Joselyn’s friends must be helping her due to their own mental “issues” of some kind. “She’s a dress-up doll for them,” I concluded harshly; “they just want to look or feel benevolent.” It was only during the small-group discussion afterward that my assumptions were really challenged and I saw that my judgments were absolutely, completely unsupported by the material in the video.

After this realization, I was stunned to retrace the way my mind had worked while watching the video. Every piece of information had been re-interpreted to fit with my pre-conceived notions about helping and being helped. For example, when Joselyn’s friends described how they redecorated her room, I thought that they must have "control issues"—why else would they just take over her room like that? The other students in my small-group discussion, however, pointed out that Joselyn seemed capable of somehow indicating what she liked and what she didn’t. They conjectured that her friends probably showed her different items so that she could choose which ones she wanted for her room. “We’re just not used to seeing relationships like this,” one of the women in my group pointed out.

This experience suddenly illuminated the intellectual understanding I had begun to form after reading the first few articles in the course reader. While reading, I had already become intrigued by the possibilities of inclusion as a way of individualizing the whole process of education—a way to create a genuine community instead of a hierarchy of “successes” and “failures.” But only after seeing my own bias did I begin to understand how true inclusion could transform society. A whole generation of children seeing themselves as equals? Is it possible?