Where will the next Edison, Einstein, or E.E. Cummings come from?

Recently I read an article about the decline of creativity. The article, "The Creativity Crisis", was published in The Daily Beast and can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3wgxrzd. The authors of the article cite findings showing the decline of creativity over the past 20 years. The current emphasis on “standard-obsessed” schools is proposed as one possible cause of the decline. One of the suggestions in the article was for teachers to forego the practice of encouraging students to find the one right answer and move toward lessons that promote questioning and problem solving including problems that may have many solutions or explanations.

I have been thinking about this in light of my own current teaching experiences. I am provided a reading curriculum that includes numerous ‘non-negotiable’ practices. These include teaching isolated phonics, comprehension, and grammar skills. These are tested each week, (again – ‘non-negotiable’) through multiple choice tests. Also, I am required every 5 weeks to give a multiple choice theme test which is many pages long. Two or three times a year we are also required to administer a standardized test provided by our district. Math is approached in much the same way. All these testing experiences are designed to ensure that when our students reach 3^rd grade, they will be prepared for the required standardized tests. This type of educational environment does not lend itself to questioning and problem solving because if I want my students to successfully complete the required tests, they must provide the ‘correct’ answers.

Having said that, my colleagues and I work very hard to balance our need to follow district guidelines and provide truly enriching learning experiences for our students. But my fear is that we are wasting precious learning time teaching and testing isolated skills.

Edison, Einstein, and EE Cummings - These are individuals who contributed greatly to our society by thinking outside conventions.  I am truly afraid that I have a student in my class right now that could be the next great inventor or artist. Am I really taking the time to look for creative thinking and expression? Am I really creating an educational environment that nurtures creativity? Or have I become so caught up in the culture of testing that I do not make the time?

Where are our future inventors, innovators, and artists going to come from?

Why I Can’t Quit (Even though sometimes I want to)

Recently I had the opportunity to be “professionally developed” by a regional reading coach.  She spent the better part of our time together holding a Reading Program teachers’ manual toward me and my colleagues, speaking to us as if we were the second graders rather than the teachers, explaining to us how to use a program that we have already been using for several years. But that’s not the worst of it. To put in a nutshell her instruction to us that day… skip over the parts that require time, talking, and thinking from the students, and spend more time on the parts that are tested skills. These are the sections that require rote learning, or memorization such as spelling words. And if that weren’t bad enough…she instructed us to break up the main selection into parts to save time!

My first reaction was the desire to stab myself in the leg! My second was…maybe it’s time for me to quit!

But, when I returned to my class of 7-year olds that afternoon, I immediately knew why I can’t quit…why none of us who care about our students or the future of our society can quit. My students deserve a teacher who cares about encouraging their ability to think on their own, to be creative, and to become independent learners. All students deserve that.

It’s time to free the students!

Differentiating Teaching and Learning: What SHOULD it Look Like?

Differentiate according to Dictionary.com means “to form or mark differently from other such things” or “to perceive the difference in or between”.

Therefore, Differentiated Teaching and Learning must mean to “form” instruction differently based upon the “difference[s]” perceived in learners. At least that is what I assume it means. Sounds great! Sounds like good teaching practice to me. Sounds like something we should all be doing for all students. And if you peruse educational websites or publications you might get the idea that this differentiation is a widespread practice. But is it?

I know lots of teachers in lots of different schools in lots of different districts. From all of them I hear the same story….pacing guides, reading and math programs that must be taught “to fidelity”, lesson plans and assignments that are required to be uniform throughout a grade level, mandated materials for use with strugglers. Hmmm…this does not sound like differentiation to me. Sometimes it seems we have locked our students into a scripted curricular prison!

What if we really differentiated our instruction? What would that look like? My thoughts:

Student Choice about reading material

Student Choice about writing topics

Mini lessons based on teacher observation of need

Cross curricular projects based on student interest

What could be more differentiated than learning activities based on student choice and interest?

How can I accomplish this and comply with my districts mandates? Don’t know. I’m still working on that.

What Makes A Great Teacher?

I've been thinking about this for some time now. We are in an era of standardization and evaluation. Teacher effectiveness is in the news every day. Do good test scores make a great teacher? Do classrooms that are showpieces make a great teacher? Do credentials from well respected universities make a great teacher? Do awards make a great teacher? No. No. No. No.

I have been teaching many years. I have had the good fortune to teach in several different schools and in two different states. So although my thoughts here are not based upon any empirical research they are based upon some experience. So...what does make a great teacher?

When I started teaching, there was a great lady who taught next door to me, Mrs. H. She did not have lots of exciting displays up in her room. I feel sure she never taught her students any non-verbal signals. She did not have one high tech piece of equipment in her room and I'm fairly certain her desks were always in rows. But somehow she managed to take 25 students every year and take them to great academic heights. How? She had high expectations for both herself and her students and she expressed these expectations to her students. She was a person of integrity. She was the same person with students that she was with her peers. She had one motivation for all she did....student learning. My only regret is that I was too young and inexperienced at the time to realize what a fantastic role model she was! She was a great teacher.

Do I think teachers should be appropriately concerned about test scores? Yes. Should teachers learn about and utilize the lastest technology? Yes. Should teachers make sure their rooms are attractive and conducive to learning? Yes, of course. Should teachers be continual learners? Definitely. But the motivation behind it all must be the students.

Being a great teacher is not about technology, test scores, or the latest educational fad. Being a great teacher is as much about who we are as it is about what we do. The truly great teachers have but one motivation...student success.

Random Thoughts on the First Two Weeks of School

Thought # 1 What do “engaged students” look like? Are they students who are moving around the room to different stations every time they hear a timer? Are they students who know signals or cues for everything that occurs in a classroom? Are they students who are “having fun” completing lots of “hands on activities”?  ....or are they students involved in authentic reading, writing and problem solving?

Thought #2 What is professional collaboration? Can real collaboration be mandated? Can authentic collaborative groups be assigned by someone outside the group? Which should come first – a collaborative group or a problem or project that needs to be addressed? … or maybe real professional collaboration occurs when professionals see a problem or project that needs to be addressed and come together to meet the challenge.

Thought #3 Mountains of testing…. DIBELS …. Theme Tests …. Progress Monitoring…STAR …SAT… Is it beneficial to the student? Is it helpful to the teacher? Is it used to inform teaching? Is it developmentally appropriate? Is it worth the time and resources? … Or maybe we should think about …. Individual conferencing, keeping student portfolios (not portfolios of bubble-in-the-one-right-answer tests, but portfolios of student writing, or other more authentic products), keeping anecdotal records of student learning behavior.

Just thinking…

Why I Don't Want to Be Common

Most states in our great nation have recently adopted the “Common Core Standards”. I have recently done quite a lot of reading about these standards in preparation to be a co-presenter on the implementation of the standards at my school. I have no doubt that the intent of those who developed these standards was good. We all want all students across our country to develop reading, language, and math skills that will allow them to reach their college or career goals. We all want teachers and parents to have clear and focused goals for their children. Although these standards are not perfect they are laudable and manageable academic goals I suppose.

But…. I don’t want to be “common” and I don’t want my students to be either. Common means “pertaining or belonging equally to an entire community" (dictionary.com) I have been teaching a long time and have had hundreds of students. There is no “common” student nor is there a “common” teacher! Each one brings a unique personality and a unique set of abilities. Teaching and learning is about bringing each student up as far as possible in the time I have with them. Teaching and learning is about creating an environment where individualism, inventiveness, creativity, freedom of thought and ideas are valued. Teaching and learning is about authentic interaction between teachers and students that cannot be legislated or mandated or assessed by a national set of standards.

It's Time

I have been talking about a blog for a long time. I have never been sure I have enough to say to be a very good blogger, but a recent conversation I had gave me the impetus to begin.

Last week I had the privilege to present a workshop on writing for teachers in my area. There were a small number in attendance (my workshop was not a "make and take", but that may be a topic for another post). The group was small in number but very enthusiastic and willing to express their thoughts, opinions and experiences.

One such participant was a teacher of 30 years experience. She related to us what occurred at her school when our latest Reading Program was adopted by the state. Her administrators went room to room removing all other resources for teaching Language Arts to make sure the teachers were teaching the new program "to fidelity"!?!?!?!?

Now I don't know this teacher's history, having just met her. But I do know that in order to be teaching she has been to college, most likely has a master's degree and over the course of 30 years has amassed not only a wealth of experience, but resources and materials garnered through personal study or professional development. What an insult to her and all the teachers in that district and what a travesty for the students. Educational malpractice we might even call it!

HELP! It's time to "free our students" from this insanity.