are you nervous?

In middle school, my friends and I played this game where we’d slowly move a hand up someone’s leg and ask “Are you nervous?” Every time I read a newspaper, I feel like I’m playing that game. This weekend, I read this article, and yes, I’m nervous.

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/10/middle-schools-start-a-new-chapter-on-reading/?ref=todayspaper

The hand started around my knee and at each of the following lines, it moved up:

“New York City is changing tactics and concentrating on improving reading and writing skills.”

Sorry, what? Were we not already concentrating on reading and writing skills?

“Because of the way we license middle-school teachers,” [Josh Thomases, deputy chief academic officer for the Education Department]  said, “none of the teachers colleges actually train secondary teachers in how to teach kids how to read.”

This one surprised me. I’ve always attributed my reading and writing abilities to my middle school teachers. We had extensive libraries in our English classrooms and got at least a period each week to explore it. Even if we weren’t particularly strong readers, our teachers at least encouraged us to enjoy reading. They taught us strict essay formats and once we’d mastered them, we were encouraged to make them more personal. We had occasional grammar lessons and got extensive feedback on our writing. Are teachers not doing this elsewhere? Are they lacking training? Resources? Both?

“Of the original 51 schools, [in a 2008 initiative to to bolster student performance at 51 of the lowest-performing middle schools] only 4 remain in the initiative, and 8 of them have been closed or are being phased out because of poor performance. Although a few appear to be improving, many of the middle schools that participated are still foundering.”

So these efforts have been made and haven’t worked. Looks like it’s time for a new tactic. Maybe the funding and restructuring of schools are not where we must focus. Maybe reading and comprehension needn’t fall solely on schools. Maybe we should be looking at the reading going on (or not going on) at home. A 2010 study that looked at students in 27 countries concluded that “Children growing up in homes with many books get 3 years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation, and class” (Evans, et al.) Reading should be the least of our worries. Once a person learns how to do it, he or she can do it anywhere, anytime, with anyone, with a book, with a comic, with an iPad. But they’ve got to learn first.

Finally, Christine Quinn says that, “…[middle schools] are the part of our system that’s still the weakest…”

I think that one speaks for itself.

the sweet spot (School|Life 13)

when we talk about education, we generally imagine categories or types of students and schools. we rarely remember that every class, every teacher, and every student is very different.   we often come from very different experiences and perspectives, and every situation has a different context and different meaning for every person.  principals, teachers, parents, and students all have individual personalities, interests, and ideas.  how we work together and talk together makes a major difference in how initiatives, programs, and reforms are designed, revised, and implemented.

for example, one thing you may not know about teachers is that our first lesson every day is likely our worst lesson of the day.  it can matter more than you imagine when a a class is scheduled in the day.  not because a teacher or student wants it too, but because every lesson and every class is a little bit like a venn diagram.  everybody in school is a mix of different abilities, interests, and skills.  in one circle, there is the lesson the teacher offers, and in another circle, there is student readiness.  instruction is not just theory: it has to match real students in a real classroom. that’s the major difference between “content coverage” and “deep understanding”.  how do we help students really learn?

the first two circles already offer real challenge, but there’s a the third circle, too.  what skills and techniques can a teacher use to affect student readiness?  how can a teacher engage, scaffold, and support students to promote real learning?  it’s not easy.  learning, then, is essentially the overlap of the teacher’s lesson, the teacher’s abilities, and student readiness.  and honestly, there are a lot of things that can affect how different circles overlap in different ways on different days.

classes too early in the morning or too late in the day limit can student readiness, and teachers are often far more frustrated and impatient at the end of a full day.  there’s a sweet spot in the day for lessons, but it’s not pure science.  after a student has adjusted to the day, and after a teacher has taught a lesson once, students are more likely to really learn.

you know what the crazy part is: there’s also a sweet spot for learning among the students in the classroom.  i’ll get to that in a new post . . . i think it’s probably one of the most important (and controversial) things i’ll have to say.

there is no superman: films about education (School|Life 12)

our most inspiring films on education profile maverick, tough-as-nails teachers that inspire and motivate the most disaffected students.  lean on me, dangerous minds, stand and deliver, conrack, and dead poets society all highlight irascible educators from teach outside the mainstream.  they challenge authority to think about education in a completely different way. . . and it works.

there are good things to take away from these movies: remember – all children can learn!  think differently!  teach with your passion!  students are the center!

still, movies bear little resemblance to real classrooms and real students.  the stories are condensed, edited, and revised to match larger storylines.  they’re inspiring. . . but they also give the false impression (and false hope) that dramatic change in education is really that simple. yes, a truly inspiring teacher matters!  absolutely and completely. i care deeply about being a really good teacher.

however, it’s really also about so much more than that. teaching and learning is always in the context of the life and our world around us.

my friend taught for 6 years at an incredibly difficult school in east brooklyn. his last year, the school was put on probationary status. he had 25 students, but most days, students were in and out of the classroom. at parent teacher conferences, nobody showed up.

last year, he moved with his wife down south, and he began teaching in an incredibly affluent private school. every student came to school every day. they completed all of their work and wrote pages and pages of stories. the principal featured him in a school newsletter, and he received heartfelt thank you notes from parents at the end of the year.

one day, we were arguing about education and teachers and how to do better. he said, ‘do you really think that i’m that much better of a teacher, now?

there are so many reforms out there.  improve teacher quality. decrease class size. improve school funding. increase school hours and lengthen the school year. improve instruction.  and they all matter! they all matter!

i hope our documentary can help show more about what classrooms and schools look like on a daily basis.  how teachers and students change and develop over a full school year.  how different influences from across life and across schools affect teacher instruction and student learning.  how everything, everything matters.

it isn’t simple, but it is incredibly important.