Picture This: A Room Full of 3rd Grade Artists

Anyone looking for one more tax write-off this year? I've just posted a new project to DonorsChoose.org and I only need $98 to fund it.

My Students: This year my students are learning that artists are storytellers. Visits to the Met, MoMA, Whitney, and many more museums are transforming the way they understand storytelling. My students aren't just learning about art, they're also learning how to be artists themselves.

I teach in a high poverty school where most of my students qualify for free lunch. More than half of my students don't speak English at home. Most of my students are below grade level in reading and math; several are reading more than two grades below level, but all of them are passionate about learning.

My Project: Our exploration of art this year has provided an exciting new way to look at storytelling for my students. We can discuss higher-level concepts like theme and tone, no matter what our reading levels may be. In the process of our study of art, my students are developing vocabulary skills, a broader base of knowledge, and a confidence in their own thoughts and ideas.

The portfolios I am requesting will help the students to collect and protect their artwork from throughout our study. The camera will allow my students to explore a medium of art that goes beyond pencil and paper. Through these resources, my students will be able to connect their own artwork to the art we are studying.

My students get so excited when we talk about a new piece of art. I am genuinely amazed sometimes by the connections and inferences they are able to make. Now, I want them to feel an equally great sense of pride and ownership of their own artwork. Your donations will help my students see themselves as artists and storytellers in their own right.

The NY Times on Value-Added Scores

When the debate over releasing teacher data scores first began, I hoped that whatever the result, a thoughtful, thorough discussion of value-added scores would take place. The New York Times has done a pretty good job of doing just that. In a lengthy piece published December 26, Sharon Otterman dissects the pitfalls of the value-added system, as well as the merits.

One of the first issues with value-added scores is that they don't address every teacher. They don't even address most teachers. They affect teachers in grades 4-8 who teach math and/or ELA. This is a problem, but for the sake of this post, I'm going to focus on what value-added data means for the teachers who have teacher data reports.

Among the problems that Otterman highlights is the inconsistency with the score. Studies have shown that a teacher's ranking according to the data report is really just a best guess within a range of up to 35%. So a teacher who falls somewhere in the middle (like me) has a tough time knowing if they're in the top, middle or bottom third of teachers.

The value-added data reports are most consistent in highlighting the teachers in the top 10% and the bottom 10%. This may be frustrating for those of us residing in the murky middle of the rankings, and for principals and other stakeholders looking for clarity. For me at least, knowing that I'm not in the top 10% is enough information to push me to reform my practice. More importantly, identifying the most and least effective teachers presents a profound opportunity to change the teaching profession.

Currently, 97% of New York City teachers have Satisfactory evaluations. If you look at the system, or as a teacher you just look around your own school, you know this doesn't represent reality. Identifying only 3% of teachers as Unsatisfactory, and lumping the rest of the city's teachers together as Satisfactory is demeaning to the teachers out there who know they are working harder, and achieving better results.

Finding the top 10% and the bottom 10% with the help of value-added data is the first step in remedying this. Whether you believe those bottom 10% should be fired, or whether they should be designated for remediation (i.e. intensive professional development + mentoring), something needs to be done to recognize the fact that there are teachers in the system who are ineffective. Meanwhile, whether the top 10% should receive a bonus, or some sort of honorific like "master teacher", it is past time these teachers receive credit.

When Students Give the Grades

Would you trust your students to grade your teaching fairly? If you asked me, I probably wouldn't. But information from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's two year study of effective teaching and methods of evaluation is turning that conception on its head.

An article in The New York Times detailed the findings, which show that student surveys are surprisingly effective in judging teacher quality as measured by value-added data. Teachers in the study were ranked based on value-added scores, then these scores were compared to student responses:

Classrooms where a majority of students said they agreed with the statement, “Our class stays busy and doesn’t waste time,” tended to be led by teachers with high value-added scores, the report said.

The same was true for teachers whose students agreed with the statements, “In this class, we learn to correct our mistakes,” and, “My teacher has several good ways to explain each topic that we cover in this class.”

Naysayers will likely take issue with the use of value-added data as a major component in this study. Teaching to the test, they'll argue, will once again be valued over substantive instruction. However, by using student surveys, the study actually debunks that criticism of value-added data. In fact, "Teachers whose students agreed with the statement, 'We spend a lot of time in this class practicing for the state test,' tended to make smaller gains on those exams than other teachers."

This article was a pleasant surprise for me. I wonder if student surveys could play a significant role in teacher evaluations in the future. If the students were simply grading their teachers on a scale of 1-4 or something similar, I imagine my initial doubts would be justified. But it seems the economists and social scientists behind the study did a pretty decent job putting together a survey that gives students a chance to make meaningful assessments of their classroom environments. As more information from the Gates study comes out, I'm interested to see what other surprises were uncovered.

Repetition and Variation

Sometimes I feel less like a teacher, and more like a pull-string doll. "What are you supposed to be doing right now? Are you doing your best? Let me see who's listening?"

These are the phrases I've come to rely on in my classroom. I like them, because they frame things positively, but I have to admit it gets a little repetitive.

This week I added a new catch phrase to my repertoire. "We're a team." It's become a simple, catchall statement to let someone know they're doing something wrong. Not showing me they're ready for lunch? We're a team. Talking during a read aloud? We're a team.

Does it get repetitive? Hell yes. Like all the sayings I use, sometimes it's hard to muster enthusiasm and it loses a pit of its poetry. But while it's a struggle to stick to the script, it ultimately keeps me from lecturing and it keeps a positive tone. It might be boring or cheesy, but I'll stick with my key phrases as long as they work.

Bullies and Bystanders

My school is one of many undertaking an aggressive anti-bullying campaign. Last week we kicked off this effort with a Respect for All Rally. Today, we had visitors from a group called Making Books Sing. I really admired the energy and creative approach they brought to the bullying discussion. Unfortunately, what I saw from my kids was less uplifting.

The volunteers acted out an exchange between a bully and her victim. The bully wrote a nasty note and a nasty message on the board, bringing her victim to tears. My kids hooted and howled at the note. They thought it was hilarious.

Later, the visitors solicited suggestions for how the victim could stop the bully. Ignore her, tell a teacher, and tell her how she feels were popular suggestions. I was happy to hear those lessons of mine had stuck. But also popular, and much more enthusiastically shared, were hit her and write something mean about her.

The takeaway from the visit was that everyone in a community is responsible for stopping bullying. The kids learned the words bullying, empathy and bystander. However, after watching my kids reactions to the skit, I was wondered how much one lesson could do to change their behavior. Clearly, there's a lot of work left to do.

The Howl

While eating my lunch today, I noticed the unmistakable sound of a wolf howling. Or rather, it was the unmistakable sound of a 3rd grader howling like a wolf. It wasn't especially loud, but it definitely broke the code of silence of the hallway. To say the least, I was intrigued.

Why was this boy walking down the halls howling, oblivious to the world around him? Three possible, but hardly mutually exclusive, explanations.

1. The kid's got issues: Maybe he's one of those "problem kids". I've known a few kids who seem almost powerless to control the noises coming out of their mouth. Beeps, horns, farts, you name it. His howling could be an actual learning disability, an ongoing behavior issue, a cry for attention, or a combination of the three.

2. The kid's just being a kid: Kids make noises (see explanation 1). Sometimes they aren't as reverent to the sanctity of the hallway as they should. Sometimes they just want to howl like wolf.

3. The kid is using his imagination for once: How often do our students get to just make believe? By the time they reach the third grade, I'm afraid it's not very often. And tragically, they're getting fewer and fewer opportunities in pre-k and kindergarten, the time when imaginative thinking should constitute the majority of their day. Meanwhile, in the upper grades, reading strategies and soon enough, test-taking strategies, dominate learning.

This isn't to say that we teachers don't try to infuse creativity and imagination into as many lessons as possible. We do. We know it's the only way to develop critical thinking. Still, I think a lot of people would be saddened by the dulling of elementary education. So, maybe this boy, free of the classroom, was using it as a chance to free his mind for a bit. For a second he wasn't a 3rd grader, with all the pressures that entails, he was just a wolf, howling down the hall.

Is It Too Late for a Fresh Start?

You don't get a second chance at a first impression. That's a painful reality I'm coming to terms with as I wonder how to get my restless, talkative, sometimes hyperactive, and sometimes downright disrespectful students under control. I want to reinvent myself, and reinvent our classroom, but if today was any indication, that's easier said than done.

The first thing I told my students when I picked them up was that it was time for them to start acting like a team. Everyone's actions affect each other. No one would be allowed to act like they could do whatever they want.

It seemed to work. We walked up three flights of stairs in orderly silence. Everyone, even Baby Face, had a peace sign in the air and a finger on their lips. Do I like this sort of Draconian measure? No, but I wanted to just make a point about working together, and following directions. But our initial success as a team, didn't last all day.

As usual, the main issues that arose today were during lunch and prep. But, I think this problem still speaks to a systemic flaw in my classroom community. On top of that, I still felt myself repeating directions constantly, redirecting constantly, and just losing my temper by the end of the day.

So, where do we go from here. For one, I'm going to try to be much more consistent and constant with whole-class praise/incentives. Secondly, I'm going to try to use the field trips I've planned for us as some sort of leverage. Thirdly, I'm going to try to communicate all my redirects through whispers/post-its. This is easier said than done when you need a student to stop talking during independent reading while you're doing guided reading from across the room, but it's a worthwhile goal nonetheless.

It may be too late to start over. But, it's not too late to try something new. A change needs to happen, and it can't happen with the same old approaches that have failed.

An Old Problem is New Again

Today was the day of my formal observation. While I can't say it was a home run, I know that I executed a well-planned, focused lesson that included all the elements of balanced literacy. I fully expect to have earned an "S" (Oh, the joys of a binary rating system).

As so often happens with observed lessons, at least for me, my mind wasn't complete engaged on the immediate task at hand. While I taught, I tried to simultaneously see my classroom and my teaching through the eyes of my observer. It can be a bit disorienting, and I imagine it probably detracts from the instruction. But, I can't help it, and if nothing else, it prepares me for the impending constructive criticism.

So what did my observer and I see? For one I expect to get pointers on modeling more effectively and giving students a clear sense of the task. This has been an area I'm continually working on. However, I'm also expecting to hear about a problem that is new, sort of, and that's classroom management.

Now as anyone who's read my blog since its inception knows, classroom management was my greatest weakness as a first year teacher. My classroom represented every cliche represented in the early scenes of Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers. The kids ran the classroom, and not in the empowering, democratic way I envisioned before I started.

But my second year was a vast improvement, and last year behavior was practically a non-issue. So, to struggle with it once again is frustrating to say the least. I thought I'd put those demons to rest. Now I'm wondering if the absurdly small class size I had last year (my Bronx standards at least) gave me a false sense of competency. With a class almost 50% bigger, my self-anointed classroom management skills are really being put to the test. And they're coming up short.

I've have a full system of consequences and rewards. These are earned by individuals, small groups and the whole class. They are also enforced consistently, and throughout lessons, the day, week and month. I emphasize positive reinforcement, and use consequences only when a student doesn't fix a problem. I believe in the system. I gotta...

So, what's going wrong? Unfortunately, I have to look back at my planning. Classroom management may have started for me as an issue of rules, routines and procedures. In this incarnation, it seems to be more about differentiation. I see most of the students who are most consistently off-task and/or bothering others are among the brightest in the class. So...obvious conclusion? They're bored. I'm not sure how to make a task like "read independently" more challenging for them, but I will endeavor to make every other assignment tiered for their level.

That's the thing about teaching. It's difficult to really solve a problem for good, as each year you're presented with a new set of personalities that combine in different and unexpected ways. Years of experience add up to a set of problem-solving skills, but they don't free you from challenges.