fun vs altruism

If you ask most people which would they like to do have fun or help someone, I think the initial reaction would be to have fun.  Which one however, would make you happier in the long run?  My thoughts are that it would be to help someone.  Here is an inspirational piece of someone trying to make the world a better place.  Please view it and then tell me which do you think bring about more happiness, helping people or just having some fun with friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7rhVub0rU

Why you need GRIT in college

Early this year I received an e-mail from Patricia Bai, who was one of the strongest AP Economics students of the previous year.  She was struggling with Economics at Dartmouth and had went to the professor for help during office hours.  Instead of getting help, she was told that as a freshman, she was not smart enough to take the course.  The professor trying to be nice, told her to drop the course so that it does not ruin her GPA.

So instead of getting help she was discouraged.  The professor did not even think she was worthy of his help.  Here is where the GRIT kicks in.  Patricia decides of course not to drop the course.  She has never walked away from a challenge before in her life and figured she could master the material.  She worked endless hours, refusing to give up and finally received an A- on the final exam and a B+ for the course.

B+ probably not the grade Patricia wanted in any class.  However, the more important lesson she learned was how gritty she really is.  There is no doubt in my mind that Patricia is a bright young lady but more importantly she has the GRIT to make her successful.  Now when faced with adversity in school she knows not thinks she can overcome it.

Positive psychology

As I continue my journey in learning about character and its importance for success in school, business and life, I think that it is both important and interesting to understand what our own character strengths are.  Here is the website so if you have time go to the website and take the VIA survey.

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.aspx

One of the ways Seligman differs from other people is that he tells you to focus on using your strengths and not on your weaknesses.  So take the survey, if you feel comfortable comment on the blog, more importantly try to use your strengths in a new fashion this coming week.

Purpose of school leaders (teachers, administrators

Should our leaders spend there time thinking about how to get students to obey policies or should we be thinking about what students need to be successful ?  It seems to me based on which question you answer you have two different schools.  I think that most of us are worried about the first question which leads to working on compliance instead of wondering what students need to be successful.

Thoughts?

Not so angry

One of the things that I realize now is that I am not getting angry over some crazy situations that are happening in our school.  While I still believe in fighting for what is right, I do not allow these poor decisions get into the way of my teaching.

I think that doing three good things each day, writing gratitude letters and trying to keep on the treadmill has helped me be a more relaxed and happier me.

Perfection

The other day I was notified that one of my students last year scored a perfect score on the AP Macro exam.  She was one of twelve students in the world to score a perfect score which is quite an accomplishment for this very talented young lady.

What it made me realize is how many different people help make that accomplishment happen in the school house.  While as her teacher of record people like to give me the credit, I realized that the teacher who most influenced her was her ninth grade bio teacher.  By the time she finally became a senior she had many amazing teachers at our school, who help develop and flourish her skills.

How great would our school system be if we could work as a team to provide students with the best education possible.  That we look inside ourselves to see what strategies work best for what students.

Testing your GRIT

In the past two weeks I have heard more great educators tell me that they are thinking of leaving the profession.  As people are getting tired of hearing about SLO's, core curriculum, new evaluations and an increase workload.

I have to be honest and say that I was at that spot at the start of the year.  It was my thought that I could have a better life or easier life teaching in the private school system, which does not jump at every new fad in education.

I have since decided all these changes are testing my GRIT.  If you think that there is a better place than where you are at than it is easy for you to quit.  So instead of that mindset, I have begun thinking that I can live in New York where they are firing great teachers based on a horrible evaluation system.  So working in Baltimore County is great compared to that system.

What would have happened to our country if George Washington decided in the middle of the war to stop leading our troops?  How about if people like Thomas Paine left for a different country instead of sparking the conversation.  Think of the GRIT our founding fathers displayed in forming this nation.

So we in education are in the midst of a revolution.  We need to demonstrate our GRIT and stay on the treadmill.  That does not mean we roll over and take every punch they throw.  We fight just as hard for what is right than ever before.  What it does mean is like General Washington, we make strategic retreats and well thought out attacks..  But under no circumstance do we surrender.

Let us all keep on the treadmill, and make education the best we can.

Who is driving the bus

In my previous job the operations people drove what the company would do.  So if we thought a store needed to be designed a certain way to insure the best service for the customer, store construction would figure out how to design the store in that matter.  Never would store construction think about telling us how they wanted to design the store.

In education it seems that the schedule is now driving the education process.  We are not really arguing what is better for students 46 minutes or 90 minute period but rather what gets is the least costly.  Even when we are thinking about which type of block schedule we are going to implement, the main focus seems to be on how can we schedule that in our school.

Again, this is a crazy thought but I would try to figure out what meets the students needs and then tell the scheduler to make it happen.  That is going on in one school in the county where the principal believes that instruction should be the driving force.

Bank on it

Amanda Bank is a student who is strong academically.  There is no doubt in my mind that she will do well all year in my AP Economics class.  However, what I am finding out is that being strong academically does not mean you will be successful.

Amanda however, showed me her college essay the other day.  While she is a strong academic person she is quite the opposite on the athletic field.  While she might not be a strong athlete she likes to play.  She decided to try out for the cross country team basically because the coach did not cut anyone.

During her first year you could look at the back of the pack and find Amanda.  She wheezed her way through the season.  At the end of the year she was determined to be better.  She woke up in the summer everyday at 6:00 AM to run.  Again, this is a young lady with no aspirations of being great, just someone who wanted to do a better job the next year.

As the start of the season approached she was very excited.  She was in much better shape and thought that she would set a personal best.  Wow, would people be surprised.  Just as she was getting ready to show off her new fitness, she came down with pneumonia.  At first the doctor told her to rest for one week, but that soon turned into four.  As a person who had pneumonia I know that even when you get back it takes you a long time to return to full strength.

Upon return, Amanda realized she lost all of what she worked so hard for during the summer.  She struggled to run and every mile was killing her.  It would have been easy to quit, everyone would have understood.  That word is not in this young ladies mind.  She reset her goals and became determined just not to be the slowest runner on the team.

When counties came around she beat one runner on her team.  If this was Hollywood she would have won the counties.  In real life however, she showed us why we play high school sports.  To learn transferable skills, that carry on with us for life.  While be strong academically will surely help her throughout her life, her GRIT will make her a winner.

As we continue to try to figure out how to teach GRIT, we need to look at people who demonstrate it.  Any other stories of GRIT you would like to share.

Valued partner

It occurred to me a while ago that the thing that I miss is being a valued partner in the education process.  If asked I think that my bosses would state that I do a good job, get good AP results, and have a good work ethic.  So in no way do I think that they are down on the job I do.  What I do not think is that they value me as a partner, which bothers me.  When I was at Eastern Tech we had great results turning that school into an academic powerhouse because all the stake holders felt like valued partners.  My opinion was sought out, valued and often implemented.

It now occurs to me that  having this type of relationship is important to the educational process.  So since I am in charge of my classroom I need to figure out a way to make my students feel like valued partners.  I realize that I am failing at that now and need feedback on how to make that happen.

So I hope that you chime in and give me suggestions on how to develop a partnership between student and teacher to make the educational experience the best it can be.  I really want only things that I can control so that I can model it in my classroom.

Let the ideas flow.

Why golf helps me as a teacher

This summer I came off maybe my worst summer hitting the golf ball.  My distance disappeared in front of my very eyes and most people told me it was due to age.  However, there had to be more to it.  I fooled around with twenty different swings and finally I decided to see the Pro.  He has totally changed my swing which is very difficult at my age but it is reminding me how difficult it is for some students to learn.

I practiced for two hours and still was doing some of the things that he told me to change.  It proves to me how hard it is to change bad habits and how hard it is to stay on the treadmill.  I am going to work all winter on fixing this swing.

Sunday, my last five shots were great.  It is like crushing a quiz it keeps you going.  The trouble with golf is that by next week I can have lost it again.

Three great young ladies

I have the amazing opportunity to teach so many great young men and women.  I just thought I would write about three of them today.

Isabel Griffith is probably the most talented runner in the state of Maryland.  In a school that has a great history for women cross country runners she just smashed the course record by 29 seconds.  What is great about Isabel is that she brings that same work ethic into the classroom.  If for some reason she does not understand a concept she will ask a neighbor, if they can not explain it she will raise her hand and ask me.  Finally, if it still is not straight in her mind she will come up to me at the end of class, to make sure she has the concept correct.  It is this tenacity to refuse to leave the classroom without total understanding that makes her a great student.  The GRIT I see in the classroom is the same GRIT her coach sees in practice everyday.

Isabel-Garcia-Garcia is another great young lady.  Unfortunately for her she has me two times a day.  Once for economics and once for psychology.  Earlier this year I showed a clip about Will Smith saying that "He will die before he gets off the treadmill"  That he refuses to allow anyone to outwork him.  Isabel has that same GRIT.  While economics does not come easy to her she refuses to give in, call it hard or do anything but give it her total effort.  She also will ask her partner for help, if that does not work she will schedule a lunch appointment with me to grasp the concepts.  As educators we often get tied up in grades, concepts but we forget that one of the most important ingredients for success is GRIT.  There is no doubt in my mind this young lady will be successful, because there is no quit in her.

Jenny Ingliss is the third young lady I would like to talk about in this blog.  I had her in psych where things came pretty easy for her.  However, almost everyone has some questions or some concepts that they are not sure about in economics.  Jen is another person who will slow me down, ask a question and then re-ask it to make sure that she understands the concept.  This often happens even when she gets the question right on the test!!!!!!!!!!!!!  While the grade is important to her she still wants to make sure that she understands the concept for the next time.  After her class, I often have hall duty, and a couple of times this year she has followed me out to the steps to ask me questions.  Again, the refusal to leave the class without totally understanding is what makes her great.

This has been a good week for me.  I thank all my students for energizing me.

Attention is all there is

I found the article that I am now going to post fascinating in that it is old school.  The focus on education back in the day was to read.  To do that you needed to have a strong focus.  I often wonder and may try an experiment, how many students read at home with no interruptions?  If you did not use any of your electronics but instead took plan breaks would that help both your retention and shorten your total workload.

Anyhow here is the link to the article.  Read and please post a comment back on my blog.  Interested in your viewpoint on this educational piece.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/09/paying_attention_is_a_skill_schools_need_to_teach_it.2.html

When I think I can not be surprised I am

This past Friday I arrived home at 4:30 after attending an after school meeting.  I had three e-mails in my box from our Assistant Principal.  As I read each one it seemed to get me in a worse mood.  One of them was about not turning in paperwork which I did.  He acknoledged that it his return e-mail.

However, what really bothered me was that we were mandated to have a committee meeting on Monday when in the past the times have been left up to the chairs.  I was purposely not having a meeting since I wanted to give our people a chance to grade with interims due on Weds.  When I asked can we hold them whenever we want like the past, I did not get a nice reply.  After that response I told him that I would have the meeting on Monday and sent out a letter to the team members.

I was then asked to meet with him at 6:30AM on Monday.  During this conference he told me that only three people complained about the e-mails, one of them was me.  He then told me when he asked two of the younger people to do things they just jumped with enthusiasm at his requests.  He also mentioned that I was contractually obligated to attend these meetings every week.

During the day, I was amazed at how many people were really upset about the e-mails.  There were literally teachers cussing in the halls, resenting the meetings and appalled by his e-mails.  What was once only me now turn into a nice portion of the staff.  So instead of using our responses as a gauge of the staff, reflecting upon his own poor judgement, he decided that I was the problem.

In a prior life, I dealt with customer relations.  When you received one customer concern you realized that 11 people had the same concern but for whatever reason they did not bother to call.  We were trained to trip over ourselves to make sure that this customer was appreciated, and won over.  In education, I guess we do the opposite, we shoot the messenger.

So we spent the weekend, totally killing morale in the building.

Mindset

One of the things that we need to change the most in education is our Mindset.  Many teachers and students believe that intelligence is something that in genetic and either you have it or you do not.  You can witness this by seeing how students pretty much track through school on the same path as they started.

In psychology you learn that positive reinforcement is a powerful tool.  However, you need to make sure you are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTXrV0_3UjYreinforcing the correct behaviors.  In this clip Carol Dweck discusses the difference between Growth and Fixed mindsets.

I am interested in your thoughts about the clip?  Do schools need to focus on mindset more?  Will a growth mindset lead students to have more GRIT?  Does it give hope to those who have given up on school?  Are we as teachers the problem in developing the wrong mindset among our students?

Looking forward to your response.

Treat me like paper

As we started back to school the number one topic that was mentioned in our first week was how to conserve paper.  One of our administrators told me that it was one of his goals to go paperless which is admirable.  So I have heard a couple of ways that we can conserve paper but no ways in which we can conserve teacher time.

In the past three years many teachers have seen the total number of students rise by 30.  This is practically another class to grade, call parents, enter grades etc.  With this increase in student load we were hit this year with the fact that we need to keep a porfollio of what we do.  These would be artifacts of our lessons, student relationships, and our professional development.  It is basically a documentation of what we do which in no way will help student achievement nor develop me as a teacher.  In my opinion it is something that my bosses should be doing for me  We also have to understand a new evaluation and get our arms around a new curriculum (core)

Many of these increases on our time is out of our administrators control, they do not decide staffing, or when to roll out new evaluations.  However, I really do not see our administrators thinking about reducing our workload as hard as they are thinking about conserving paper.  A matter of fact they have increased our workload by making it mandatory for all of us to join a school committee.  Just for full disclosure this does not impact me since I have been on several committees.  However, that was my choice and not mandated to me

So what would be my suggestions to the administration.  Make every meeting voluntary, if the meeting are good people will come.  They have to plan one meeting a month you would think that it would be awesome, and that would bring the teachers.  They should try to inspire and motivate us to want to join these committees not mandate us.  I struggle to remember a meeting or committee that I attended last year that motivated me for school the next day.  Two, think of ways that we can get teachers out of duties and replaced by other members of the staff.  Finally, if the top two can not be done how about an honest and personal thank you.

Am I asking too much for my leaders to care about me as much as they do the paper?

Character

As a teacher I now realize that my main goal is to prepare my students for their next step in life.  For most of them it will be going to college.  I am amazed that I teach at a top 500 high school and only 48% of the students who graduate our high school complete college in six or less years.

In order to help students achieve this goal I am trying to focus on a couple of traits that will help them at the next level.  The traits are GRIT and self control.  This week I have had a couple of students show me that they have both these traits.

Amicia and Allie are two students that I had in AP psychology last year.  They were strong students who scored an A for the course and a five on the AP exam.  This year I have the pleasure of having them in AP economics.  Both of them showed some GRIT this past week.

Allie struggled on one quiz, at the end of class, she set up an appointment to meet with me so that she could make sure that she understood the concepts from the quiz.  We did meet and she left with a better understanding of the material.  On quiz 3 she did well, but I had mentioned to the class that my other class had a much more difficult quiz.  At the end of class Allie asked did I have a copy of the difficult quiz.

What is great about this story is that she was not settling for doing well on the quiz but pushing herself to make sure she could handle the most difficult of concepts.  It is this type of practice that really benefits students.  When they might push themselves out of their comfort zone they are not only mastering the material but also building intelligence.  I do not know will she ask me to write a letter for college but this is the type of attitude that makes me positive she will succeed any at college she attends

Amicia, had a similar story in that she is not as confident in Economics as she was in psychology.  At the end of the day she asked did I have a copy of the hard test.  That night when I went home she e-mailed her answers, so that she could get feedback (the most important part of practicing).  We exchanged e-mails so that she was clear on the problem she got wrong.  Again, she pushed herself beyond what was needed which demonstrated both self control and GRIT. This is the type of effort that is going to make her a great economics student

Finally, the weekend became even better when one young lady asked could she meet me at 6:45AM to review economics.  We were meeting as a group at 7:10 but she wanted to make sure things were clear before the group meeting even began.  WOW.  This young lady might struggle now but I know she will be successful because she is going to outwork her problems.

Three great stories about kids pushing themselves to be great.  Who else wants to join the group.  This is what makes teaching great.

who is charlotte danielson

This is the question flying around the internet as many school districts implemented her evaluation system.  While school systems around the country should be trying to inspire teachers it seems that instead they are trying to beat them down.  I sat on the teacher focus group for this evaluation and I remember thinking when this model is implemented it will be time to retire.  Unfortunately for me retirement is not an option right now, so it makes me think, do I want to stay in public education?

First off, teachers now have to keep a portfollio to demonstrate the good work that they do during the course of the year.  So we will have some teachers who will spend a ton of time putting this together so that they get a good observation.  None of this work will benefit students, but who cares, it is just extra work for the teachers.  I wonder who will sit down to read these portfollio's but that is a different story.

The next thing is that it dictates how you are going to teach.  No longer is the teacher suppose to be responsible for learning but the students now need to be in charge.  In fairness there are a couple of activities in which I put students totally in charge of and I think they work well.  However, by no means do I think that anybody should dictate the way we teach.  Each teacher is different, we have different classes and teach different subjects.  None of this matters with the Danielson model, one size fits all.  So be ready for a lot of group work.

Thirdly, there are four levels according to this evaluation system.  Highly effective, Effective, developing effective and ineffective.  We were told that you can not live in highly effective just visit.  So there is no motivation to try to be the best because you can not be there for more than a lesson or maybe a few minutes.  Who knows, surely not teachers.  Who still really do not know how all the points add up to gain your level.

So instead of inspiring teachers to be great, we have developed a checklist of things that you need to do according to some person.  Nobody has tried to sell us on the model, they have just tried to shove it down our throats.

What keeps me going each day.  I have amazing kids who inspire me each day to think of ways to make learning better and more fun.

Data

In education data is becoming the new wave.  What really surprises me is how bad we are at using the data.  As an AP teacher for many years I can not remember the last time I had a conversation about my results.  Yes, I get the "good job" when I perform but we never look into the numbers.

Recently I had some of these conversations with my colleagues.  Did any of your students exceed expectations?  Who improved the most throughout the course of the year?  Did any of the students surprise you by failing the exam?  If you had the same students who failed the exam, what would you do differently to make sure that they passed?  How will you change your instruction based off the instructional report that your received from college board?  Did your grades match up with the results of your students?

All of these questions lead to good honest discussion which actually might make teachers better.  Instead their is either silence or good job.  My question is why?

What do I want from an Administrator

At our school we have a week without students to get our class rooms organized, our lessons planned and to get some professional development.  During this time I reflected upon what I would want from our leadership team.

The first thing I want is an administrator who spends 80% of their time thinking about ways to motivate and inspire teachers and students.  I want them checking the school to make sure everything is done so that teachers can do their job properly.  At my school we were out of staples for the copying machine the first day back.  How could that possibly happen.

I want an administrator who supports teachers so that the teacher can spend their time making kids better each and everyday.  An administrator who is constantly thinking how can I make the teacher's job easier even if it makes my job harder

I want a person who will fight for teachers especially during adverse times.  It is easy to stick behind people when things are going well but I want a leader who will stand bye me when I am going through tough times.  Who cares enough about me to make sure that things are going well in my world.  Who would fight for teachers even if it meant losing some points with their boss in the process.

I want an administrator who values the teachers perspective, who sets a vision but allows the teachers to get to the vision.  Who might suggest a method of doing something but realizes it is just one method not the only method.  A person who apologizes for their mistakes and is forgiving of yours.

I want an administrator who calls teachers into their office to ask them for solutions to problems.  Who realizes that the people in the trenches have better answers than the people in the air conditioned offices.I want an administrator who rather be talking with teachers than talking with bosses.

I want an administrator who does not allow people to stroll in late consistently, or leave early.  A person who will work their hardest to make me a better teacher.  Who sets high standards, models them and motivates us to exceed them

Am I asking a lot?  Probably so, but our kids deserve it

Attitude

The next year we are going to work on character traits with our students.  The three traits are self-control, GRIT and integrity.  Modeling self control should force me to not be negative about the administration.  To quote Buck Showalter, "I choose not to live in that world, even though it is easy to get there"  Buck refuses to be negative, make excuses, or feel sorry for himself.  He usually responds with "I like our guys"

When I think about it, both quotes make sense.  I love my students and feel lucky to have had the opportunity to teach them.  Also the only person that can control my attitude is me.  So I am going to join Buck and not live in that world.  I understand it will be hard for me but I think it will help my students, and certainly help myself.

Instead of seeing mistakes by the administration as a negative, I am going to see them as a challenge that my students and I can overcome.

Character, Paul Tough, Angela Duckworth and others

As we start to look at the data we find some interesting statistics.  In our school 80% of our students go to college.  63% go to a four year school and 17% go to a two year school.  From that total 60% graduate with a degree from a four year college withing 6 years.  What amazes me is that only 48% of our graduating seniors will end up with a four year degree.

Now that might not sound bad until you realize that our average SAT scores are above 1650 and 86% of our students pass the AP exams.  So it is obvious that we are giving them the cognitive skills to be successful.  However what is missing from this picture.

Duckworth and Tough would state it is grit and self control.  The ability to be persistent, not lose focus and continue until the task is done.  With that in mind a group of us are going to start trying to teach these characteristics next year in our class rooms.

I will keep you posted.

New evaluations, they must be kidding me

I just went to the new evaluation training which was extremely scary to me.  The only way you can be rated a highly effective teacher is by doing group work.  As a teacher I often ask my students for feedback and in the last ten years I have less than 1% of my students express that they would want more group work from me.

What truly bothers me about this model is that they are saying that only one method of teaching works.  That is the method designed by a person who did all of her research with middle and elementary school students.  A system that does not allow for flexibility in the way the material is presented seems quite unfair to me.

When I questioned the presenter she told me "that there is no way to be highly effective if your lesson does not have group work.  She then went on to say do not worry if you are not highly effective it does not matter".  So we have an evaluation system that does not motivate me to be the best?  Does that make sense.

Another ironic thing was that the person delivering the training did a straight lecture with very little interaction and powerpoints that would put most people to sleep.  Now that is the model for me?  Man to we need some smart people to get into this field and fix many of the problems.

So please be honest with me, do you have to do group work to be effective?  Are there teachers you have seen or have that are effective without this method?  While I might not be a highly effective teacher it is not my style but other things that prevent me from accomplishing this.  I would accept that what is hard for me to accept that the socratic lecture discussion style can not be highly effective.

Your thoughts.  Honest is always welcome and cherished on this blog.  So if I am wrong challenge me and let us have a great debate.  Tell me if

Bliss video

Phil Bressler

• Fri, May 17, 2013 9:50 PM
• Actions ▼

I was shown that video by a student and it is making its way around the country.  I have to be honest I do not like the way it is being used to attack teachers.  I am extremely sensitive to how teachers are being blamed for everything that is wrong with education.  I know there are days that I am bad, that I say things I would like back and I surely do not want that circulating through the world as more evidence of why teachers are ruining education.

On the reverse side I have recently spoken to a teacher who received tremendous amount of positive feedback from her students but agonized over a couple of student's negative feedback.  The fact that this teacher searched her soul, searched out guidance from peers, showed me the side of teachers that we do not publicized.  The part of the profession that cares so deeply about kids that they go to great lengths to make sure that kids the very best education they can deliver.

That being said, do we have to as teachers get angry when people are not doing a good job?  My thoughts are yes.  The anger should only be for one reason and that bad teaching hurts kids.  As a profession we should not become like other professions who protect their own even when they are wrong.

Recently, this also happened to me when a teacher's course load was changed and other people seem disturbed by this action.  My comment was that we need to do what is best for kids not what is best for the teacher.  Now of course I would expect our administrators, department chairs and colleagues to do what ever they could to help this teacher become better so that they can help kids.

I know you were not looking for this type of reply so I am sorry.  As you know since I put them all in your mailbox I believe deeply in student feedback.  The truth is that 90% of the good things I do in the class room came from students, the other ten percent came from colleagues.

I am interested to hear others reactions to this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bYv2AKPZOk&feature=youtu.be

Where have I been

I have really been focused on trying to help my students prepare for their AP exams.  I was amazed by the effort many of the students put in.  So now that this is behind us I am hoping that I can get back to my blogging self

grades

As I am preparing for third quarter grades, I am amazed at how many students have made such great progress so far this year.  As we prepare to get ready for the AP exam, many students who came into the year with no AP experience or skills now seem ready to conquer this college final.  Of course there are students who have not made the progress I would have liked so far but they have a chance to push themselves the next couple of weeks.  It is a chance to see can they master the work that they did not get the first time around.

When I see students improving, it allows me to forget all the other craziness in the world of education.  It about the students stupid.

a glimpse into the future and appreciation of the present

As I am visiting my Dad who is sick, I get a glimpse into how I am going to be when I am older.  It is sad to watch how he has trouble taking care of himself.  What this however has forced me to reflect upon is how lucky I have been in my personal life to have a great family who has always been supportive of me.

As you can tell if you have read this blog I am not a very positive person, who rarely says positive things to anyone.  However, I realize how lucky I have been this year to work with a group of really great students.  In the past I have been lucky to work with intelligent young men and women.  While this years students are extremely bright what impresses me is the type of people they are.  Frequently in class I see people helping each other either understand the concepts, or ways to remember the concepts.  They are completely unselfish in their actions to each other.  If you look at our library it is amazing to see how many people tutor each other and how often they are their to comfort each other in a time of need.

In the future I am sure that many of these students will be doctors, lawyers, teachers (sorry I had to throw that in), and other great professionals.  What is more important is that I have never had a group in where so many of the students are the type that will change the world for the better .  It makes me happy to know that these bright and caring young people will be able to fix the problems that my generation has left them.

What I also realize is how much I learn from my students each year.  When I think of any good changes I have made in my teaching it has been something that has been suggested to me by a student to help make the class better.  Recently, at a forum meeting, i was able to hear from students first hand what they wanted from teachers.  There comments were open and honest which made me realize that I have a long way to go to on this journey of teaching.  While I often see the glass as half empty many of these students thought of the class as totally full which made me think hard about changing my attitude in both my professional and personal life.

When we comeback from vacation for many of the seniors we have less than 30 school days left together.  I am going to use these days to enjoy my students and appreciate the moment.  As we will have to work hard to prepare for our AP exams, my job is to put you in the best position to be successful on these tests.

As the weather gets nicer, the end gets closer, and the distractions increase we will all need to show our character.  We will need the GRIT to continue to fight the good fight to the finish line, we will need the self-control to study when the weather gets nicer and we will need the support of each other when we stray off track.

I am extremely confident that this group we get the job done in the next couple of weeks.  That the relationships you have with each other will help push yourselves to excellence.

Why?

In full disclosure, I was blessed at my last school with having a great Principal, Assistant Principal and department chair who developed a team which had no ego just thought about what is best for kids.  This group worked as a team as nobody really made decisions without consulting each other and at least getting feedback from the team.  While, the teachers on the team, realized that we were not final decision makers we always felt valued and an important part of the decision making process.

That being said, I was terribly spoiled by this great leadership who cared passionately about student success in the classroom.  That leads me to this present situation in which our administration scheduled a 5K race to raise money for cancer and our schools fitness race, the day before our AP exams.  I realize that you need a spring or fall day to do this race but it leaves a lot of Sundays available.  So why would they schedule it that day?  Why would they not ask the AP teachers what they felt about scheduling the race on that day?  Why would they at least when it was pointed out to them say "sorry we will not do that next year"  Why were they so defensive about the entire situation?

While most students will be fine if they run the race, help out during the race etc, is it worth it if it causes one student to possibly fail the exam.  For some students this is an exam that they have worked hard for all year and now they are faced with helping the school or studying for themselves?  Is this fair of our school to do this to the students?  Should we putting more pressure on them or taking the stress off of them?

The Perfect Storm

The other day I went to do a psych review at Western High School.  I was very excited since there are a couple of people at the school who I have worked with and have great respect for.  Still I had the touch of nervousness, as I always have on the first day of school.

Once the review started however, it seemed that I had been teaching these kids for years.  They had great knowledge of the subject which is a tribute to their regular teacher.  It was great to see how focused they were on the subject, how they participated in class, and how they took down notes on important points.  When you see a class work like that you know that the teacher has done a great job instilling good habits in them.

One of the things that we are trying to do with Western is Skype our reviews and review on chat boards.  This allows two schools to collaborate to make each other better which is very exciting. This is when technology can really be useful as students from two different schools combine to make each other better.

Now, what to do with my classes when I was at Western.  We have an activity called graphing weds. in economics which we practice the key graphs of the year.  It is neat in that we compete against each other as teams to make sure that we have mastered the graphs.

Once a month, our department chair comes in to observe our classes.  I suggested to him that my observation this month should be on graphing weds when I am not in the class.  I think the fact that I actually suggested this shows how much faith I have in both my department chair and in my students.  My department chair is not the type of person looking to catch bad things, a matter of fact quite the opposite.

When I came back from my visit to Western I ran into one of my economics students.  The first words out of  her mouth was wow, the student in charge was amazing, she knew everything.  So a new idea came into my head to allow a different student each week to be in charge of graphing weds.  It would force them to master the material and give them a great experience in front of the class.

A great day of education.  I learned a better way to teach, saw a teacher whose class had mastered many skills, and connected with old friends.

Why we need our best and brightest

Lately, I have been asking many of our brightest students to consider teaching as a career.  It has become evident to me that people like myself are not the ones that are going to change education.  The truth is that anyone who has been in the profession for a while is part of the problem.  It is hard for any of us, most with the best intentions, to admit that we need to re-examine the way we are doing things.

When I look across the room at many of my students I am convinced that if they were educators that they would make our system better.  They have the creativity, energy, and leadership ability to bring major change  to this profession. They are the type of people who have the proper combination of big heart and big ideas.

If you get by money, one of the biggest obstacles they face is that they do not think that they have the patience to deal with kids.  The lack of patience might be a good thing.  Maybe this would produce more teachers who would demand excellence from their students.  Maybe it would create teachers with less patience from their bosses?  Maybe it would develop teachers with less patience for mediocrity.

The lure of money sometimes is what keeps people from becoming a teacher.  However, when you get that letter, e-mail or eventually tweet that tells you that you have made a difference in their life, you are hooked forever. You can not put a price tag on that feeling or what you have done for an individual.

So, even when I am extremely frustrated, i always realize that teaching is the only job that I want. There is no  other job I would want at this stage of my life.

So these past couple of years I have been blessed to teach students who I know will make a difference in the world.  They are the type of kids that will make the world a better place.  My hopes however is that they decide to make the world a better place by fixing our education system..  That might be our biggest strategic advantage a great education system

Is technology the answer

I have not blogged for a while since I have been so frustrated with the educational system.  My school has made me feel like a really old man who is totally out of touch with students needs and wants.  I hope that we will have some students reply honestly to this blog so that I can get a better understanding of how they feel about technology.

One of the things that our administration does not seem to understand is that for every second you spend doing something that does not impact the class room it is a second you are not helping students in the classroom.  This seemed to come to mind the other day when I found at we had a Twitter for our school.  It seemed to me like a waste of time to tweet things about our school on Twitter.

So as a totally old fashioned person I use e-mail to communicate with my students.  I was told that if I used Twitter it would make the communication with the students much better and more students would read my announcements.  So trying not to be an angry old man I asked a couple of my classes how many students did not have a twitter account.  To my total surprise about half my students did not have twitter.  So this great communication tool that some of us were raving about does not connect to half the class.  Am I missing something here?

As an older person I remember how TV (yes TV) was going to save education, then VCR's, computers etc. I have had students evaluate me for the last ten years and while they have offered very valuable information on how to get me better nobody has ever told me to use more technology.  I think of our math teacher who is by one of the best teacher in the school and she does not use any thrills or technology.  She just works harder than most to make sure that her students understand the information.  There is not a student who has her who every walks away thinking anything but she is the most caring individual.

So I ask, what do students want from teachers?  Do they want teachers who use the coolest technology?  Or do they want teachers who worked their hardest to deliver the material in a way that students can learn.  Do they want teachers who are open to suggestions or teachers who hide behind technology?  Do they want teachers who care about them and support them?

I am listening and hoping I get honest feedback.  What do students want?

Student forums

My colleague Beth Benzinger, has organized two student forums.  These forums tackle difficult issues that are important to students but do not happen to come up inside the classroom.  The format reminds me of Oprah, in that you have four student panelist who each talk about five minutes on the topic.  When they are done talking they then open up the microphone for questions from the audience.  After about fifteen minutes of questions and answers we then breakout into classrooms for more discussions.

What is great about these forums besides Beth's upfront organization, (which is tremendous), the forum is really run by the students.  They are the expert panelist, they ask the questions and then finally we have students leading the discussions in the classroom breakout sessions.

What has impressed me so far is the maturity of the questions and the discussion on these controversial topics.  In our breakout groups we literally have to ask students to leave at 4:00.  They are putting in 90 minutes of extra time for no grade, to discuss issues that are important to them.

It demonstrates that they have a spark within them we as teachers need to know how to start it and keep the flame on fire.  In a school of 1800 students we had 330 attend our forum on race and 135 attend our forum on gender.

Can we bring Buck into the classroom

Here is a post from Roch Kubatko;s blog.  What continues to amaze me is how Buck has set an environment that self regulates.  The veterans sit to the front of the meeting.  While in school teacher's usually assign seats would our best students pick the ones up front?  Secondly, again he talks about self-regulating. Do our best students regulate the behavior of other students?  Would they say we do not write on the bathroom walls? We do not cheat?  Is this possible to get us all working together to make the school house the best it can be?  Do teachers try to cultivate this climate in their classrooms?  or should they?  Finally, do we as teachers want to be challenged?  Do students feel free to question our motives and what we assign?  Let's have an honest discussion



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RASOTA, Fla. - You probably figured out a long time ago that manager Buck Showalter is on top of everything. Nothing gets past him, including the little things that mean more in the big picture.
A few days ago, Showalter noticed how the first row of seats for a team meeting was occupied by guys like Matt Wieters, Jason Hammel, Darren O'Day, Jim Johnson and Pedro Strop. That's leadership.
Here's another example:
Kevin Gausman, taking part in his first major league camp after being the fourth-overall pick in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft, stepped off the mound during a drill last week on one of the back fields at the Ed Smith Stadium complex. Apparently, that's the way Gausman did it at LSU. Apparently, that's not how the Orioles do it, and Johnson immediately pointed out the mistake to him.
"J.J. said, 'No, get back up there. We don't do that. You've got to do it this way.' Matter of factly, nothing mean," Showalter recalled.
"Believe me, Gausman doesn't need much adjustment. But it's good-natured. It's not hazing. It's 'Hey, you're wearing our uniform. Let's go.'
"This isn't the kind of team that sits in the back row much. When you say, 'Does anybody have any ideas or any questions,' they're going to put a hand up, and I appreciate that environment, that they feel comfortable talking. I invite 'Why?'
"I'd like to have a good reason why I do things a certain way, and if you've got a better way, we tweak it. Most of it comes from players' suggestions, because they're the ones who have to play the game."
Adam Jones has emerged as the most vocal leader in the clubhouse, and if you read his tweets, you pretty much find daily examples. But there are quite a few guys who are taking on that responsibility, much to the delight of their skipper.
Asked whether there's a different vibe in camp this spring, Showalter replied, "It would be easy to say, 'Yeah,' but I told some of our people before that I had a good feeling with our guys last year at this time. I don't see anything to make me feel any different.
"I don't think anybody is that good to sit here in February to say this is happening, so that's going to happen for seven months. They're human beings, it's human nature. You just assume the position, see where it takes you.
"I trust them. It's a group that's very easy to trust

One Stat

In education we are now filled with data.  At the high school level we keep track of our state mandated testing, AP Scores, SAT scores, GPA etc.  To me what we really need to do is focus on what percentage of our students are graduating college within six years.  Who cares if you have SAT scores that a great if you did not graduate college.

Whenever, I have posed this to a colleague their first remarks are that they most students probably drop our due to financial reasons.  While I am sure that this happens to some students we really have not statistics on what causes our students to not graduate college.  Also should it not be part of our responsibility to help guide the student and their parent to an institution that they can afford.

In reading Paul Tough's book, "How Children Succeed" (a must for all educators) he talks about important non-cognitive factors such as GRIT.  Students with a high GRIT score manage to work around the problems of lack of finance by finding scholarships, jobs or loans to keep their college dream alive.  Our school which is probably one of the leaders in Baltimore County has about 48% of our graduating seniors finish college within years.

The challenge is how to we increase this number.

Respect for the game

In watching Ray Lewis throughout his career I have never heard him talk negatively about another team or other players.  It appears that Ray has learned how hard it is to play the game of football at the professional level and he has respect for all of those who do it.

As educators we have to bring that same respect for the game to our job each and everyday.  We need to realize how hard it is to be a student, and show real respect for them each day they enter our classrooms.  In order to keep me on track I have developed a transformational statement.

I am a transformational teacher who has a position of responsibility that lends
 me a platform where I can be an example for students to reach their full
 potential both academically and as a person, through mutual respect,
 openness, perseverance, and commitment.

Three core values

belief in students
perseverance
commitment

In shaping this statement, I had some of my students look through the statement and help me focus it.  They changed the order of the statement, one wanted me to add the fact that my job was to make them a better person, and finally I replaced the word power with responsibility.  As a student pointed out to me that teens hear the word power and they want to revolt.

I have sent this statement out to the faculty and told them to hold me accountable for the statement.  If they hear that I am not holding up my end of the bargain to call me out on it.  I am also going to post it in my room so my students can see it and also hold me accountable.

Teaching is a journey, which I love.  The great part for me is that there is tremendous room for improvement.

Thinly disguised contempt for students

In my last blog I talked about how upper management often shows thinly disguised contempt for teachers.  While it really pains me to write negative comments about teachers I thought it would only be fair to ask students to give me examples of how teachers show contempt for them.  So here is a list of things that my students pointed out to me.

1.  Assigning a paper and then just giving it a check mark with no comments
2.  Giving them a textbook and telling them to take notes in class.  Students felt that they should be doing this at home not in class
3.  Giving them a ten minute activity but allowing them 30 minutes to do it.
4.  Not being available for extra work.
5.  Showing no empathy to how much work students might have during the course of a week
6.  teachers rolling their eyes, making you feel uncomfortable when asking questions,
7.  Not knowing your name with a month left of school
8.  Telling students that they hate their job

One of the things that I asked my students is "how does it feel to be taught by me"  It is a scary but important question for all of us to ask.  One of the saddest comments I received was "you are one of the only teachers who seems that they are not teaching to pay the rent but that you actually care about us"  While I think most of our teachers care about students they are not doing a good job showing it.  The responses to the question, the feedback of thinly disguised contempt makes me think harder, about how much better I need to be with my students.

Thinly disguised contempt

When I worked in private industry we often talked about thinly disguised contempt for the customer.  It was little things that a company would do to show that it really did not care about its customers.  Not keeping the bathroom clean, and putting customers on hold were examples we often used.

Now in the wonderful world of teaching I realize that there is thinly disguised contempt for teachers.  When you look at the reform movements they are not led by teachers (sorry Michelle Rhee is not a teacher)  They are led by business men and politicians who for some reason feel they know more about teaching than the teachers.  Nowhere do I find a teacher leading the reform movement in education.

On the more local level it seems apparent to me that administrators have thinly disguised contempt for the teachers.  Why else would our copy machines not have staples in them for week.  How else can you explain pulling kids out of my class for band rehearsal, pulling kids out to give other kids tours, and  just calling into my room looking for someone.  What all this says to every teacher in the building is that everything is more important than your class.

If people really cared about what goes on in the classroom they would not interrupt looking for a child (unless it was an emergency).  They would get parents or someone to give these tours.  They would take a video of the marching band so that they would not have to miss school when people came to visit.  They would take things off my plate instead of piling it on.

I will finish with Buck one more time.  He does everything in his power to make sure that his players can focus just on the game of baseball.  He knows that it is a long grind and masters all the details so that when his players come to the park all they do is think about baseball.  He has the ultimate respect for the profession, now when is that going to happen to teachers.

Our best and our brightest

For a couple of years I taught next to the best educator I have ever met.  There is nobody I know that motivates students better and pushes people to excel.  I often wondered what a school would be like if we had 100 people like him teaching.  Then I asked how do you we get great people to enter this profession?  Here is where me and him differ in opinion which always scares me.  He is rarely wrong.

I think it is time for education to become serious about the investment that they make in teachers.  When I look at our best and brightest very few want to enter this field where they are doomed to be lower middle class.  My friend's argument is that we can not have people entering this field just for the money.  I totally agree with him but I believe we need to pay teachers a large enough salary so that money is not an issue.  My thoughts were about 100,000 a year in Maryland for the average teacher.

If that was the salary I think we could start attracting our smartest and brightest students.  These are students   who have a passion for making a difference but are just realistic in the sense that they want to send their kids to college without worrying about how they are going to pay the bills.  I have asked my seniors the last couple of years how many are thinking about teaching?  Usually, one or two hands go up in an AP Economics class.  When I raise the wage to 100,000 we get half the class.  These are the type of kids that we need to change education.

Today I asked students to picture there best teacher.  Would they want more teachers like them or computers?  More teachers like them or elmos?  More teachers like them or wifi?  The answer is more great teachers.  We are so willing to invest in technology but not in our teachers.  Elmos do not care about kids people do ( I use all of the equipment above).

My final thought however, is there is an internal part about teaching that is priceless.  A couple of years ago a struggling student came for help.  We worked hard to overcome some obstacles and she went into the AP test more confident than any other test she had taken.  At the end of the semester she sent me a note which read.  'You taught me how to believe in people.  You believe in people that nobody else does, and one of them was me"  You can not put a price on that comment.  So maybe my buddy was right all along.  Your thoughts?

educational cliff-

For all the yammering about the fiscal cliff, another cliff might present a more perilous danger — what the folks at Gallup call the “school cliff.”

Never heard of that one?

Take a look at chart below — and you’ll grok it immediately.

As this Gallup blog post explains: “[Our] research strongly suggests that the longer students stay in school, the less engaged they become.” Primary school kids begin their educations deeply engaged — but by the time they get to high school, more than half are checked out. And the problem is even worse for our most entrepreneurial students.

Brandon Busteed, Executive Director of Gallup Education, points to several factors for the decline. An “overzealous focus on standardized testing.” Not enough project-based or experiential learning. Too few pathways for students who won’t, or don’t want to, attend college.

But whatever the reasons, he says, “The drop in student engagement for each year students are in school is our monumental, collective national failure.”

This excerpt was posted in Dan Pink's blog the other day.  For years I have talked about the excitement that students have in kindergarten.  When the teacher asks a question hands go up with such zeal as each student wants the teacher to call on them.  By the time they come to high school however, they seem all worn out.  Seniors are barely keeping their eyes open and you can tell that most rather be anywhere except your classroom.

What happens during the course of time.  Many of my students claim that school gets harder but they probably have forgotten how hard it is to learn how to read.  They also state that they no longer like to learn but I know this is not true, just give them a computer game and watch them attack it.  I am not even buying the standardized testing reason for this was happening in high schools way before high risk testing.

If we engage our students test scores will take care of themselves.  So how do we stop from falling off the edge of this cliff

Cheating

I am not a seventeen year old facing enormous pressure to get grades so that I can get into college.  Nor do I face the pressure of facing my angry parents because I received a "B", nor am I trying to stay eligible so that I can play sports.  All of these pressures are placed on my students each and everyday they attend school.

Now I have hoped that I provided an environment where cheating would not exist.  Trying to treat all of my students like adults and trying in return to have some conversations about this topic.  However, where I will take blame is that sometimes in my haste to cover content, I forget the more important part of my job which is to teach character.  Here I have failed but I have also learned a lesson.  Never again will i tell myself that I do not have time to talk about a character issue, the truth is that is the most important issue we face.

Now with all that is said above, there is no excuse for students to cheat.  As I continue to read research from Angela Duckworth, Martin Seligman and Paul Tough the word character keeps coming up in what makes children successful.  As educators we need to continue to help build this characters by encouraging GRIT, self control and self discipline in our students.  The truth is that the cheating is not what is important it is how the student will react once they have been caught.  Will they grow from it, learn from the mistake, develop better discipline in the future?  That is what it is about.

As educators we can not buy into how students rationalize cheating.  It is only homework?  I just asked about some of the topics that were on the test?  They did not give me any answers.  We need to take a strong stance to demonstrate to all the students that cheating is not acceptable.  The truth is that we are usually extremely soft on cheating with little to no punishments.  On a personal level I hope to see the day when students stop each other from cheating.  When they just tell another students we do not cheat in this school.  When they have that much pride in both the school and the class that they are in.

The argument is often made to me from students that why should I care if others cheat?  They are hurting themselves not me?  That is why we need to build a team of students and educators trying to produce the best product we can. We really need to build a community in our classrooms that cares about each other.

There will be a cry from people to take some of the pressure off these teens.  I would argue against that line of reasoning.  We need them to deal with the pressure, to learn how to handle stress, to deal with setbacks and to demonstrate GRIT in the face of adversity.  It is better for students to have these setbacks in school where they still have strong support systems.

Most of my students do have great character.  While I was initially disappointed in that a student was caught cheating I am now inspired by the fact.  It motivates me to work harder to inspire other students, faculty members and educators to make sure that we do not lose our morale compass.  I will invite my students to read this blog and hopefully comment on it.  I hope that we can have a good conversation about this very important topic.

Buck

I have spent a lot of time reading about what allowed the Orioles to turn around this year.  One of the things that i found interesting is that the players started to regulate themselves.  If a player did not hustle down to first base, Adam Jones, would explain that is not how we play baseball in Baltimore.  They created an environment in which they did not want to let each other down.

My question is, can we do this in education?  Can we self regulate.  As a teacher can I tell other teachers that we do not show movies that are not in the curriculum the day before Christmas?  Should I tell teachers that we teach bell to bell and that is what makes us great here at Dulaney?  Should the teachers all be doing this with each other creating an environment where we do not want to let each other down?  Sharing best practices and helping each other provide students with the best product possible.

I never heard a teacher complain that they are getting too much positive reinforcement.  Should teachers be in charge of the morale in the building.  Making sure that every teacher feels that they bring something to the party and that they are an important part of making that school successful.  Is self-regulation the formula that will make schools change from good to great.

Now can we even take this to the next level.  Can students self regulate?  Can a student tell another student stop cheating because we do not cheat in Mr. Bressler's class.  Can students motivate and push each other to be the best that they can be in the classroom?  What do we have to do to make this happen in our schools?

Education by an Angry Old man

I wanted to start a blog about my thoughts on education.  I realize that I am an angry old man but still I think there is something in this blogging thing that might work out.  As a teacher I am often struck by how powerful good teaching can be.  I see on a day to day basis how my colleague's influence students and in some cases turn their lives around.  It is also a very tough business to be in.  Your clients (students) rarely want to be there and the reason for their boredom is you.  How do we turn kids who are excited about learning (go to any kindergarten class) into students who hate school.  This is what I hope to explore in this blog.  Hopefully I will be hitting topics as they come to me during the course of the day.