I Made It

I made it. Through the first four months of the school year. Through three performances of the holiday show. Through having to convince Eeyore to stop crying about back to back shows and sing in the second show. Through one of Mastermind's friends pinching Digo's face for no reason. Through a holiday party aka barely contained chaos. Now for 11 days of catching up on grading, planning and most important sleeping.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

As a teacher you always have to be prepared for an answer you weren't expecting. This may be due to the unpredictability of a kid's brain, but sometimes it's the result of other circumstances. "You're a really bright kid. Why haven't you been doing your homework?" I asked Motormouth the other day, my voice thick with exasperation.

"I'm having a hard time concentrating."

"Why is that?"

"My mom and dad are arguing a lot."

"Why are you so tired?" I asked a girl in my after school program after she admitted to being too tired to concentrate.

"I had to stay up late cleaning the floor because my dog pees a lot. She's diabetic."

"How late were you up?"

"12."

"Why was it your job to clean the floor?"

"It's part of my chores."

"What are your chores?" The girl proceeded to list all sorts of household work, some typical and some not for an eight year old kid. "How long were you doing chores for?"

"From 8 - 12."

It makes the frustrating task of teaching a kid to be "responsible" by doing their homework seem somewhat unrealistic and unfair. While the answers to these questions (Why isn't your homework done? Why are you so tired? What time did you go to bed? Why weren't you in school yesterday?) start to fill in themselves once you've spent enough time teaching in a high need school, the unique stories never cease to amaze or dishearten. I try not to think of all the questions left unasked and unanswered from my first year of teaching, and remind myself that it takes time to learn the right questions to ask.

The Danger of Cute Revisited

I mentioned earlier in the year that my group of third graders in all their chubby, misshapen glory are - for lack of a less emasculating word - cute. It presents some problems with management as even eight year-olds can be a handful at times, and downright sneaky at others. In case you need proof, a friend of mine who teaches second grade caught one of her kids trying to frame a classmate by "finding" a note with all sorts of nasty language that she herself had written. So, don't doubt that third graders are capable of all sorts of chaos.

I realized not long ago that the cuteness of the students sometimes presents another challenge, one I'm working hard to overcome. I recognized the problem the other day when I was reminiscing about one of my fourth graders. I heard her voice in my head, asking me a question in her innocent, singsong voice and improper English. That kid was adorable, I thought to myself. Then a realization hit me. In five or 10 years time she won't sound adorable, she'll just sound uneducated.

I don't encounter Ebonics as much this year (and correcting Ebonics does invite a bit of controversy I won't address here), but many of my students speak with thick accents and sometimes broken English. And sometimes, I can't help it, it sounds pretty damn cute. I think it makes them sound younger than they are, and if I spent more time speaking to third graders who are reading and writing at grade level I might have different feelings toward the way my kids talk.

In any case, I've realized now that helping my kids with their oral language is just as important as their reading, writing and math skills. In fact you can argue it's more important, because it's their verbal skills that will make the first impression everywhere they go.

It's not as if I haven't corrected students when they talk about something that is "mines" or use a double negative, but at times I do think I've let their size and age distract me from what is actually an urgent issue. Since the revelation I had about my student from last year, I've made a more concerted effort to see through the veil of cuteness and enforce certain rules of diction whenever possible. It may make for fewer "cute" moments now, but it's my hope it will create more articulate and intelligent moments in the future.

$4.50

There's an array of differences between a high need school like the one I teach in, and a better-off school in the suburbs or the Upper West Side. But it's often the simple, minor details that bring the juxtaposition into focus. For example, the field trip the third grade has planned to the Bronx Botanical Gardens. The school's subsidizing the cost for the kids, so each only has to pay $4.50. Still, I cringed giving them only a week's notice to turn it in, knowing it may be impossible for some of them. We're all feeling acutely aware of the economy these days, but it's still hard to grasp the reality of a situation where $4.50 isn't readily available. It's a humbling reminder of the world my students inhabit outside of the community I've tried to create in my classroom.

Introducing...

With 10 school days left until Winter Break (the unofficial/non-mathematic halfway point of the school year) I thought it's time to introduce some of the characters in my classroom. There's a lot this year:

Motormouth - This kid has an amazing vocabulary and loves to show it off. He also loves to share anecdotes that are usually very tangential at best to whatever we're discussing as a class. I usually can't fault him though because he's always so enthusiastic about whatever he's saying. Famous quote: I'll have that paragraph written faster than a beaver crossing California in winter!

Digo - This poor little girl's struggles with the English language are epic. She's born and raised in the U.S. but for some reason lacks a working vocabulary. When she shares her thoughts, every other word is punctuated with a "Digo (I mean)." Often I'll ask her to take a deep breath to gather her thoughts when she's practically gasping to get her ideas articulated. Famous quote: "Comtex clue are, they're like, words? Digo, comtex clues..."

Mastermind - I want to believe this girl is a genuine sweetheart, but she's got a smile like the cat who ate the canary, and in the middle of practically every lunchtime issue. She has two little followers (one of whom is Digo) who get involved in all sort of mischief with her, but don't seem to understand what they're doing. Famous quote: [In response to what are you going to do better tomorrow?] "Behave?"

The Silent Treatment - This girl is a mystery and my greatest challenge. She has been between New York and Mexico her whole life and since moving back in the middle of last year hasn't picked up any English. We've been working on letters and sounds all year and aren't making any progress. I do my best by repeating questions in Spanish, but even when the questions are totally open, i.e. How big do you think the classroom is? Who did something nice this week? all I get is a vacant stare. Famous quote: "..."

Eeyore - This kid would be infuriating if he wasn't so impossible to not love. He's small and lately he's started giving me a big hug at the end of the day. He wears velcro shoes because he doesn't know how to tie his laces, and apparently doesn't know his ABC's. He's a classic space case who loses his pencil and hat regularly. Yesterday he didn't remember what jacket he had worn to school - there was only one left to identify - and he has kind of a low voice which makes for a combination of adorable/hilarious. At the same time he's very low academically and gives up easily. I constantly have to push him to even try and get him to realize what he can do when he does. Famous quote: "I need a pencil."

Are Charter Schools the New Black?

I want to believe that charter schools are a part of the solution to America's public school problem. Lord knows everyone who's a part of the reform establishment thinks they are. And while I think charter schools are showing some undeniable progress, I still have sincere misgivings about the race to pronounce the achievement gap conquered by KIPP, Harlem Children's Zone, et al.

An article in the fashion and style (!?) section of Friday's New York Times inadvertently outlined the major issues I have with the stampede to build more charter schools. The article, which opens with a scene from a charity poker tournament at the posh W Hotel, highlights the growing number of hedge fund managers and other top finance gurus who are involved in funding New York's burgeoning charter school networks.

It's a fascinating article and details the many ways in which charter schools have generated enough buzz to elicit support from top policymakers as well as niches of society better known for expending capital on yachts and penthouses rather than educational enterprises. Implicitly, however, it shows how charter schools are draining resources and support - financial and otherwise - from the public school system. Technically charter schools are public, and yet they are largely free from unions and certain curriculum constraints. This makes them very attractive for financiers looking to support reform.

But while charter schools may have more freedom to develop alternative curricula and pay teachers as much as they want, the article (and outside observers in general) overstate distinctions between charter and public schools. The majority of public schools in NYC, charter or otherwise, have school uniforms, extended day programs that go to 5 p.m. and Saturday school programs. And yet charter schools have all the hype and the financial support that goes with it.

My main complaint about charters however is with their scope. Charter schools cater to some of the highest need communities in New York City, however most admit students by lottery (a fact the article somewhat glosses over). The article does point out that only, "[a]pproximately 30,000, or 2.5 percent of the city’s public school students, attend charters, although in Harlem and parts of Brooklyn the figure is closer to 20 percent."

Even if Obama and Bloomberg get their wish of expanding charter schools in New York City, they won't service a significant enough number of high need students to fix the achievement gap. On top of that, the high need students they service don't represent many of the most at-risk students - English Language Learners, special ed students and students with behavioral problems. That makes this comment from John Petry, partner of Gotham Capital and a major backer of the Success Charter Network, all the more ironic: “helping the world one person at a time just isn’t for me.”

In bringing attention to the big money behind charter schools, the article highlights several of the flaws I see with the charter school movement. But it's the article's physical placement in the Times made the biggest statement of all. Appearing alongside Burberry ads and articles about online sample sales, charter schools have emerged as the hottest new trend.

I'm not only lamenting the fact that many hard working, progressive public schools are lacking the high society financial support and op-ed columns. I worry what will happen when the buzz dies down. If the gains of these charter schools slow down, or if their major backers simply get bored and moved on to a new hip cause, what then? We need a widespread, sustainable solution to America's education crisis. If charter schools are going to be a part of it, their success needs to be translated into the broader system, rather than nurtured as a passing infatuation.

How'd We Get Here?

I've had a lot on my mind lately, and I hope I get a chance to sift through it on here over the next few days. In the mean time, there's one incident stuck on my mind.

It happened the other day when one of my students got caught with his finger up his nose by the math cluster teacher. She sent him to wash his hands and I escorted him to the sink in our classroom to help him out. He's a third grader who can't tie his shoes and can't really use scissors, so I figured he might need some help using the faucet and the soap.

As he was soaping up I thought it was a good opportunity for a quick hygiene tip, "Do you know a good way to know if you've washed for long enough? You can sing your ABC's while you soap."

"I don't know my ABC's."

These are the kinds statements that slap you in the face and leave you stunned. I pointed him out the the alphabet hanging above the wall and helped him sing through the ABC's. But I could barely think of anything to say.

This particular kid isn't even the worst reader in my class. He knows his letters and sounds. So maybe knowing his ABC's isn't essential (?!), but it still kind of catches you off guard to hear that in a third grade classroom, and it leaves you wondering, how did a student get here with so much missing. It's true of basic math facts (8+2, 12-5), basic spelling and a wide range of fundamental knowledge that's just not there. It leaves you feeling frustrated and sometimes angry, but more often than not it's just plain heartbreaking.