In the upcoming weeks, the budget proposal for next year will be decided upon. Dr. Alonso has proposed a specific budget cut, which will close several schools, but expand others, and some will move to new locations. My school, Dr. Samuel L. Banks High School, is one of the ones that is going to be disappearing. This school is a neighborhood school. A lot of students come here, because it is closest for them. For seniors who are graduating, this won't pose much of a problem. However, for other students, this means they must apply to attend another high school. But the nearest high school for some of these students is quite far. What is upsetting is that Dr. Alonso keeps talking about bringing the kids back in to the schools and the fact that he is closing my school and the school we are housed with, Thurgood Marshall, is going to discourage a lot of students. Students are showing that they do not care due to the fact that they hear their school will no longer be in existence.
The one glimmer of hope I see is in some of my art students. Regardless of what is happening next year, I am still letting the art club and some select students leave their mark in the building—drawing designs on the cabinets and walls. The designs some of these students have come up are very interesting. But for some of these students, that little thing is bringing them to school—the chance to leave their mark.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Stimulus Money
In a recent Baltimore Sun article on Education, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to use the stimulus aid to improve schools and improve education. This article along with Barrack Obama’s ideas about education is bringing teacher effectiveness and student achievement to the forefront. Arne Duncan wants to link stimulus money to student achievement, which may require governors to show data proving teachers are effective. He also suggests extending the school day, the school week, and the school year, so that the students can compete with students from other countries.
Teacher effectiveness and student achievement are now intricately related. In theory, this practice makes perfect sense to me. In education, everyone remains on the same pay scale, based on experience and education, regardless of what is going on in your classroom. Some schools offer stipends for teachers who come on Saturdays and who take on additional responsibility. Still, very few motivated, hardworking teachers feel they are making the money they deserve. Many studies show that an effective teacher is the most important part of improving student achievement. I would love to see a fair and equitable merit based pay system implemented, rewarding teachers who are the most effective. However, when dealing with education, we are dealing with human beings. The product or profits we are measuring are whether students have learned the content and can demonstrate it on a standardized state test. There is so much more involved in student achievement than simply the teacher.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-education/2009/04/09/will-stimulus-money-lead-to-actual-education-reform.html
Teacher effectiveness and student achievement are now intricately related. In theory, this practice makes perfect sense to me. In education, everyone remains on the same pay scale, based on experience and education, regardless of what is going on in your classroom. Some schools offer stipends for teachers who come on Saturdays and who take on additional responsibility. Still, very few motivated, hardworking teachers feel they are making the money they deserve. Many studies show that an effective teacher is the most important part of improving student achievement. I would love to see a fair and equitable merit based pay system implemented, rewarding teachers who are the most effective. However, when dealing with education, we are dealing with human beings. The product or profits we are measuring are whether students have learned the content and can demonstrate it on a standardized state test. There is so much more involved in student achievement than simply the teacher.
The question becomes finding an equitable way to measure “student gains” and “effectiveness”. My fear is that we will begin to see the achievement gap widen, as teachers strive to work with the best classes, so they can make the most money. What happens to those students who are the furthest behind? Are 7th grade teachers effective if they move students from 2nd grade to 5th grade? Does it matter if the students who fail are taking their test without a calculator in a room that is 105°F?
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-education/2009/04/09/will-stimulus-money-lead-to-actual-education-reform.html
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wild Card Post: Professional Development
This is written in response to the post: Classroom Management Be Damned!
I will be honest, I recently attended a professional development day that was run by STUDENTS! And here’s what I learned—WHAT THE STUDENTS SEE WHEN WE TEACH! It was a major eye-opener, and the minute I saw the students recreate scenarios, I was like, “Holy **** this is me sometimes.” I think there need to be more days, FULL days, where we see other points of view and hear about what the STUDENTS might want, because not just the goody-two-shoes were telling us teachers about what they liked. There were at least 2 off-the-wall kids, and one kid who was the invisible kid. I also think that the roles should be reversed—the kids see OUR point of view. Now, I know this sounds very idealistic, but it may help. But I will be honest, if I had seen this at the beginning of the year, I can tell you right now, I probably would’ve felt better when I began the school year, and maybe my classroom management might have been better.
There are times when, yes, Professional Development days seem a bit idiotic. Then again, I am an art teacher, and our PD days are actually quite fun. Each PD day I have gone to, I have gotten free stuff, or there are sales of stuff created by art teachers in their free time—a PD day I went to before November, had a sort of jewelry sale that was hand-made by current and retired art teachers. Also, the topics presented are from teachers who are veterans—more than 5 years—and there’s no talk of BCRs, or when to send students to the office, or anything. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s just that I am an art teachers, and we just have fun.
-Moira S.
I will be honest, I recently attended a professional development day that was run by STUDENTS! And here’s what I learned—WHAT THE STUDENTS SEE WHEN WE TEACH! It was a major eye-opener, and the minute I saw the students recreate scenarios, I was like, “Holy **** this is me sometimes.” I think there need to be more days, FULL days, where we see other points of view and hear about what the STUDENTS might want, because not just the goody-two-shoes were telling us teachers about what they liked. There were at least 2 off-the-wall kids, and one kid who was the invisible kid. I also think that the roles should be reversed—the kids see OUR point of view. Now, I know this sounds very idealistic, but it may help. But I will be honest, if I had seen this at the beginning of the year, I can tell you right now, I probably would’ve felt better when I began the school year, and maybe my classroom management might have been better.
There are times when, yes, Professional Development days seem a bit idiotic. Then again, I am an art teacher, and our PD days are actually quite fun. Each PD day I have gone to, I have gotten free stuff, or there are sales of stuff created by art teachers in their free time—a PD day I went to before November, had a sort of jewelry sale that was hand-made by current and retired art teachers. Also, the topics presented are from teachers who are veterans—more than 5 years—and there’s no talk of BCRs, or when to send students to the office, or anything. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s just that I am an art teachers, and we just have fun.
-Moira S.
Classroom Management Be Damned!
Every year, thanks to our union, we are assured ten "professional development" days. In my opinion these alloted days symbolize everything wrong with Baltimore City. When you attend these "workshops" there is often a lack of parking, space and necessary motivational food. They attendance tracking is sketchy, at best, allowing the worst teachers (and the only ones who might benefit from being there) to escape. The "classes" are taught by second and third year teachers. The focus of all learning is on content, BCRs, and academic achievement.
I propose we have lots of parking, air conditioned room, armed guards at check in and all courses being taught by jujit-su champs/sumo wrestlers/angry chain-weilding moms. The topic will be, "How to manage a classroom of students." In these classes they will prepare students for the unthinkable and answer the unanswerable. They will tell you to what extent you are allowed to put your hands on students and when. They will tell you when you should refer a student to the office and what you can expect as a punishment (thus troubleshooting when you send a kid out threatening big trouble, only to have them back in your class in 20 minutes, looking at you like you are a dumbass). They will provide you with hints... hints that no one else will admit to using, but do. They will also show you how to deal with irate parents effectively. They will educate you on how and when to pick your battles. There will be an open bar at this professional development, attendance will REALLY be mandatory and it will be useful.
And, Alonso, we deserve more than rail liquor. Thanks.
I propose we have lots of parking, air conditioned room, armed guards at check in and all courses being taught by jujit-su champs/sumo wrestlers/angry chain-weilding moms. The topic will be, "How to manage a classroom of students." In these classes they will prepare students for the unthinkable and answer the unanswerable. They will tell you to what extent you are allowed to put your hands on students and when. They will tell you when you should refer a student to the office and what you can expect as a punishment (thus troubleshooting when you send a kid out threatening big trouble, only to have them back in your class in 20 minutes, looking at you like you are a dumbass). They will provide you with hints... hints that no one else will admit to using, but do. They will also show you how to deal with irate parents effectively. They will educate you on how and when to pick your battles. There will be an open bar at this professional development, attendance will REALLY be mandatory and it will be useful.
And, Alonso, we deserve more than rail liquor. Thanks.
Calling for higher collective responsibility among teachers
I have been doing quite a bit of reading on school climate measures and papers that study the correlation between school climate and student achievement lately. One of the more interesting and widely cited pieces is a 1996 paper in the American Journal of Education by Valerie E. Lee and Julia Smith “Collective Responsibility for Learning and Its Effects on Gains in Achievement for Early Secondary School Students.” You can access the paper here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1085702?origin=JSTOR-pdf.
The authors focus on three constructs measuring the organization of teachers’ work: collective responsibility for student learning, staff cooperation, and teachers’ control over classrooms and school working conditions. Data for the study came from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS: 88,) which contains a nationally representative sample of middle-high school students. What the authors find is that achievement gains are significantly higher in schools where teachers take collective responsibility for students’ academic success or failure rather than blaming students for their own failure. Achievement gains were also higher in school with more cooperation among staff. A lot of interesting theorizing and statistical analysis takes place in the paper to make it convincing. But I am really more interested in placing the results in the context of the real world (using good basic research to improve school practices, what a concept!).
I don’t think it would take a lot to convince district officials and principals that teachers who take responsibilities for their students’ success and cooperate more amongst themselves are going to be happier teachers (and are more likely to be able to educate students better.) Assuming that we can all agree with Lee and Smith’s findings, wouldn’t it be good if we can somehow encourage more cooperation among teachers in Baltimore’s public schools and really encourage teachers to take more responsibility for their students’ outcomes? The idea may seem straightforward, but I understand that many obstacles stand in the way preventing these changes from happening. My question for the teachers here is: have you/your principals created opportunities to encourage higher collective responsibility and cooperation amongst the teaching staff? Have these efforts been successful? Why or why not? Why might it be such a challenge to care in Charm City?
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Science and Math in Urban Schools
Students in urban schools often perform poorly in mathematic and science courses. They often complain that the courses are boring and are not relevant to their everyday lives. In Baltimore City, students often struggle with the Algebra and Biology HSA's. 68.5% of the juniors in Baltimore City have passed the Algebra HSA and less than 60% have passed the Biology HSA. In order to combat student apathy and get them excited about studying math and science, several programs are being implemented that encourage students to become interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) fields. Students engage in hands-on, real world projects that make math and science relevant to their life. Two programs taht are on the forefront of this movement are Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA).
Project Lead the Way according to its website is, "all about teaching and learning." PLTW has a curriculum for middle school, Gateway to Technology, and for high school, Pathway to Engineering, that makes science and math relevant to students. As part of the high school curriculum, students take advance courses such as Digital Electronics, Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Principles of Engineering. In those classes, students complete projects where they are able to apply the concepts that they are learning in class to problems that they encounter in their everyday lives. Besides their engineering curriculum, PLTW has a curriculum that focuses on biomedical sciences.
MESA is an academic preparation program for students in k-12, community college and universities. MESA is being implemented in schools where students are at an educational disadvantage and it is believed that this support will allow those students to excel in math and science and continune their education towards a degree in a STEM discipline. MESA offers students individual academic plans, college entrance exam preparation, training in study skills, MESA Day Academies, and career and college exploration. At MESA Day Academies, students compete to solve problems using math and science. Competitions include such problems as devising a way to hold a maximum number of marbles on a 25 cm x 25 cm piece of aluminum foil as it floats on water and creating an object that can launch a ping pong ball using only a paper towel tube, paper clips and a rubber band.
At Patterson High School, students participate in PLTW and compete at MESA Day Academies. I have seen the enthusiasm that these programs foster in students and their desire to excel at STEM disciplines. On Baltimore City Public School's website, you can see Patterson students engaged in PLTW classes and completeing projects in engineering and robotics.
http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/news/Patterson.asp
Project Lead the Way according to its website is, "all about teaching and learning." PLTW has a curriculum for middle school, Gateway to Technology, and for high school, Pathway to Engineering, that makes science and math relevant to students. As part of the high school curriculum, students take advance courses such as Digital Electronics, Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Principles of Engineering. In those classes, students complete projects where they are able to apply the concepts that they are learning in class to problems that they encounter in their everyday lives. Besides their engineering curriculum, PLTW has a curriculum that focuses on biomedical sciences.
MESA is an academic preparation program for students in k-12, community college and universities. MESA is being implemented in schools where students are at an educational disadvantage and it is believed that this support will allow those students to excel in math and science and continune their education towards a degree in a STEM discipline. MESA offers students individual academic plans, college entrance exam preparation, training in study skills, MESA Day Academies, and career and college exploration. At MESA Day Academies, students compete to solve problems using math and science. Competitions include such problems as devising a way to hold a maximum number of marbles on a 25 cm x 25 cm piece of aluminum foil as it floats on water and creating an object that can launch a ping pong ball using only a paper towel tube, paper clips and a rubber band.
At Patterson High School, students participate in PLTW and compete at MESA Day Academies. I have seen the enthusiasm that these programs foster in students and their desire to excel at STEM disciplines. On Baltimore City Public School's website, you can see Patterson students engaged in PLTW classes and completeing projects in engineering and robotics.
http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/news/Patterson.asp
Seeing the Good
Another side of Northwestern High
I talked to Jason Hartling, principal of
In any event: As some of the teachers mentioned in comments, there is reason to celebrate over the school's success with Bridge projects. When Liz wrote about Northwestern in October, 165 seniors had not met graduation requirements either by passing the HSAs or earning a minimum combined score. Since then, Northwestern seniors have submitted 561 projects -- more than any other school in the city and more than all the schools combined in some other districts.
With about a 90 percent pass rate on the projects, more than 200 of Northwestern's 278 seniors now meet the requirements for graduation, and Hartling said another 50 are close -- with another project or two to finish up. He estimates that only a handful of seniors won't graduate because of the HSA requirements, and they're the ones who have not done what they're supposed to do. Seniors are giving testimonials to underclassmen about the importance of taking the HSAs seriously so they won't have to do the projects next year.
Getting to this point has been a ton of work, by staff and students. "We’re here on Saturday; we’re here after school," Hartling said. "I would put my staff up against any staff in the state. They just work incredibly hard."
And while we're on the subject of Northwestern: I've mentioned here before how impressed I am with its student newspaper, The Compass. And now, The Compass is online. In the current issue, students take their administration to task in an editorial for not having more Black History Month activities. Stories include a first-person account of attending President Obama's inauguration and a piece questioning whether it's right to lock student bathrooms during the day.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sleeping Students: Secretly Homeless?
"One of the devastating realities and the collateral damage of the foreclosure crisis that hasn't gotten enough attention is that it affects our nation's children – they get lost in the bigger picture.”Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).
M. was one of my more frustrating students – he would show up to school looking like a mess – always late, sometimes high. He came into class and immediately collapsed into sleep on his desk, drooling and snoring and unresponsive to calls for him to wake up. I spoke to him about this several times over the course of a month and he always gave a different reason for it – “I’m anemic,” or “I was up too late on MySpace.” I suspected that his drug use might have a lot to do with his classroom naps, but when he was confronted by our VP about using drugs, he responded that it was a contact high from friends who drove him to school. All of these things led me to believe that M. was simply not interested in staying awake – so he slept and I gave him zeroes.
My teaching team called his guardian several times, to no avail. We were simply unable to get in touch with her. Finally, we intercepted her on her way to the office to get M. off of suspension - we insisted on a conference. It turns out that M. and his guardian (an aunt) had been homeless for six weeks and living in a local shelter. I felt so embarrassed by my inability to sense that there was something so serious going on with M. After his aunt left, we all wondered aloud – what can we possibly do for them? It seemed like such an impossible situation.
A few months ago, The Washington Post featured an article about the effects of the recession on the children in our nation’s schools (Feb 08, 09, “Schools Face Sharp Rise in Homeless Students). In DC, there are twice as many homeless students this year as there were last year – and in Fairfax County, VA, one of this area’s most wealthy districts, student homelessness is up 20%. The article doesn’t show Baltimore’s numbers, but I can only assume that they have gone up drastically as well.
The article states that there’s much that schools can do to support homeless students (free breakfast and lunch, clean clothes, a sense of continuity in a time of turmoil), yet so many students are reticent to tell anyone about their troubles – male adolescents are especially guarded about this kind of information. Identifying students in need is a responsibility of the school staff, especially teachers – it can be difficult to tell which students are in need of services and assistance (as my story about M. has evidenced) but, as the article states, schools are "often the first safety net for struggling families.”
With all of the daily stressors that go along with being an adolescent, not to mention the other, more tragic difficulties that our students in Baltimore may face, it is important for us to be on the lookout for signs that a student may be homeless, hungry and in need of assistance.
The article referenced can be found at the following address:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702015.html
M. was one of my more frustrating students – he would show up to school looking like a mess – always late, sometimes high. He came into class and immediately collapsed into sleep on his desk, drooling and snoring and unresponsive to calls for him to wake up. I spoke to him about this several times over the course of a month and he always gave a different reason for it – “I’m anemic,” or “I was up too late on MySpace.” I suspected that his drug use might have a lot to do with his classroom naps, but when he was confronted by our VP about using drugs, he responded that it was a contact high from friends who drove him to school. All of these things led me to believe that M. was simply not interested in staying awake – so he slept and I gave him zeroes.
My teaching team called his guardian several times, to no avail. We were simply unable to get in touch with her. Finally, we intercepted her on her way to the office to get M. off of suspension - we insisted on a conference. It turns out that M. and his guardian (an aunt) had been homeless for six weeks and living in a local shelter. I felt so embarrassed by my inability to sense that there was something so serious going on with M. After his aunt left, we all wondered aloud – what can we possibly do for them? It seemed like such an impossible situation.
A few months ago, The Washington Post featured an article about the effects of the recession on the children in our nation’s schools (Feb 08, 09, “Schools Face Sharp Rise in Homeless Students). In DC, there are twice as many homeless students this year as there were last year – and in Fairfax County, VA, one of this area’s most wealthy districts, student homelessness is up 20%. The article doesn’t show Baltimore’s numbers, but I can only assume that they have gone up drastically as well.
The article states that there’s much that schools can do to support homeless students (free breakfast and lunch, clean clothes, a sense of continuity in a time of turmoil), yet so many students are reticent to tell anyone about their troubles – male adolescents are especially guarded about this kind of information. Identifying students in need is a responsibility of the school staff, especially teachers – it can be difficult to tell which students are in need of services and assistance (as my story about M. has evidenced) but, as the article states, schools are "often the first safety net for struggling families.”
With all of the daily stressors that go along with being an adolescent, not to mention the other, more tragic difficulties that our students in Baltimore may face, it is important for us to be on the lookout for signs that a student may be homeless, hungry and in need of assistance.
The article referenced can be found at the following address:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702015.html
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