planning

(the title references one of my favorite activities in the world. for example, we just planned our menu for the week and then i sent jesse off to the grocery store with a list of veggies. i also made a list for trader joe's. but i digress.)

i was in the shower at the ymca this morning when i got a brilliant inspiration. just goes to show that it's helpful to slow down and reflect on things sometimes. i don't sit around and think enough. i was reflecting on how my BTSA coach asked me if i had the kids reflect after they wrote each essay, and i said no. so, next year one goal is that i want my kids to be reflect. then i began thinking about other things i want for my kids and before i knew it i had this awesome mantra for next year, to guide everything we do in the classroom. it's kind of like a daily, weekly, monthly cycle:
prepare (bring supplies to class, take care of business before class, socialize before you come in, prepare mentally to learn)
expect (expect to learn. expect a lot of yourself and others. expect to be successful.)
persevere (good vocab word, eh? be perseverant in your work, even when you get frustrated)
reflect (reflect on how you did in class, reflect on how you did on an assignment, reflect on how you want to improve)

so this mantra with these four words would be the basis for my classroom rules. KIPP has a mantra--why not me? if i'm not going to KIPP, then i'm going to make my classroom the best place for learning that it can be. and i think that means taking teaching and learning more seriously. this is *my* mantra, also!! i'm so excited!!

the best part is, i'm going to get to try it out in summer school. summer school, you ask? yes, you read that right, i am teaching summer school. why, you ask? to earn some extra money. getting to know more students who i might have in the coming years and also getting to try out some new ideas and new systems for just four weeks and make improvements before the school year begins. the seller just approved our house bid so we need money for that....keep your fingers crossed for us!!!

things are good. i'll keep you apprised of the house status.

Where I'm From

thought you might enjoy this poem from a student.

You will find gum wrappers and non-factors
Neighbors who are loud and chatter
Baby mama drama and soft laughter
Hard head great mind but just actors
Big dreams ahead that will never shatter
Kids climbing the wrong ladder
Criminals and bad thoughts which don't matter
Brain extending only getting fatter
Friends lost and things much sadder
People progressing no more thinking dumb
East Side Oakland is where I'm from

I like the couplet at the end...very sophisticated. Seems like he kind of goes back and forth between negativity and positivity. what do you think?

returning

as you might know, I was out of my classroom for over two weeks. one week of that time was spring break, but the rest was because I was home recovering from my foot surgery. I was very nervous about coming back to school, because I thought I didn’t have enough energy to teach how I want to teach. what I discovered instead is that I feel so rested and recovered and just really calm and warm. I don’t feel frustrated with my students, and I think my heart is just really open to them right now. I’ve had time to do their grades, give them make up work, read and grade papers, and just generally be giving. I also had a lot of time to get organized when I was away and that was helpful, too. My heart feels open to my students, and it's really cool. I hope it lasts awhile...

survey about my teaching

i just had a pretty painful experience that caused me to question everything about my job. then i had to calm myself down a little bit. i took this odd, obtuse survey. an example of a question on the survey is something like this:
Which of the following causes of student failure most impacts teachers?
a. poverty
b. lack of parental involvement
c. curriculum that is not relevant

what the F, right? so i decided to be honest when i could and just choose whatever i thought was the best answer. the question above was asked about four times, with three different answer choices each time. The survey probably had a total of about 40 questions, and at least half of them seemed pretty vague like that one. it felt like a kind of deceptive situation--i wasn't given any information about how the survey would be used or what type of results it would produce. so here are my results:
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Specific Areas Assessed

(Explanation of categories follows below)

Persistence: Average
Organization and Planning: Low
Values student learning: High
Theory to Practice: Average
At-Risk Students: Low
Approach to Students: High
Survive in Bureaucracy: Low
Explains Teacher Success: Low
Explains Student Success: Average
Fallibility: Low

Explanation of areas assessed by the Haberman Star Teacher Pre-Screener:

1. Persistence predicts the propensity to work with children who present learning and behavioral problems on a daily basis without giving up on them for the full 180 day work year.
2. Organization and Planning refers to how and why star teachers plan as well as their ability to manage complex classroom organizations.
3. Values student learning predicts the degree to which the responses reflect a willingness to make student learning the teacher's highest priority.
4. Theory to Practice predicts the respondent's ability to see the practical implications of generalizations as well as the concepts reflected by specific practices.
5. At-Risk Students predicts the likelihood that the respondent will be able to connect with and teach students of all backgrounds and levels.
6. Approach to Students predicts the way the respondent will attempt to relate to students and the likelihood this approach will be effective.
7. Survive in Bureaucracy predicts the likelihood that the respondent will be able to function as a teacher in large, depersonalized organization.
8. Explains Teacher Success deals with the criteria the respondent uses to determine teaching success and whether these are relevant to teachers in poverty schools.
9. Explains Student Success deals with the criteria the respondent uses to determine students' success and whether these are relevant to students in poverty schools.
10. Fallibility refers to how the teacher plans to deal with mistakes in the classroom.
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Persistence: I think that I'm pretty darn persistent in dealing with my kids. I don't always make sure that they all learn every day which may be what this is referring to, because I don't have high enough expectations for them. I'm too realistic for this survey.
Organization and Planning: It said low, and I would refute that and say average. This is one of the hardest parts of my job and I get little support in this area.
Values student learning: Yeah, okay, I do value student learning. But I don't always think my students learn very much.
Theory to Practice: I am average at theory to practice which is probably pretty good because I don't actually know what that means.
At-Risk Students: I'm not sure how the At-Risk students category can be low while the approach to students category is high, but I fundamentally disagree with this "Low" score. As do all of the people who have ever seen me teach--most people tell me that this is one of my strengths. Or maybe I just don't understand the difference.
Approach to Students: High. Cool. I got high at something that I value. Okay.
Survive in Bureaucracy: I am pretty tolerant of bureaucracy. I complain about it way less than everybody else at my school and in general I am good at following directions and listening to my bosses. Yes, I also close the door to my classroom and don't always do what I am supposed to but I believe that I'm making the best decisions for my students.
Explains Teacher Success: I think getting low in this category bothered me the most because it sounds like such a definitive statement. Actually, it pretty much feeds on the negative messages I feed myself, that I don't really advance my students' learning because I sometimes prioritize other things.
Explains Student Success: Yeah, I'm probably about average on this.
Fallibility: I think that a low score here is unfair. I am super patient, I do a lot of problem-solving on the spot, I think of new ways to explain things, I have learned to think quickly on my feet when the situation calls for it. Sure, I get discouraged like everyone else, but "low"? I disagree.

so i called the folks who gave the survey and left a message to say that i wanted to learn more about how this information would be used before i made my info available to potential future principals. i don't think that these are results that i want floating around out there, unless everybody's results basically look like this. i always hate when other teachers get defensive about their teaching, because i'm really into refleciton and improvement. so when i got defensive, i got angry and worked up and then i recognized my defensiveness as a red flag and had to catch myself and say to myself "practice what you preach." it's true--i want to be a different kind of teacher than i am and maybe this will jumpstart me into that. but i feel like it would be a lot easier to make certain improvements to my teaching if i didn't feel like i was working in an isolated bubble, trying to swim upstream at my school. but...excuses, excuses? if i was a truly good teacher i could work my magic anytime, anywhere, on any group of kids?

i guess the thing that most bothers me about this is the blow to my self esteem, which i don't think i need. i think i'm reflective anyways and i've been really thinking about making some major changes to my teaching and classroom for next year. i've also been building up some good units this year which i'm excited about. at the same time, standardized testing always makes me feel like a total failure. not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. let's just say it's been the subject of more than one therapy session.

okay. enough ranting. what do you think about all of this?