Teaching is my Job, Teaching is my Job, Teaching is my Job...

I can not save children. Sadly, I have to remind myself of that fairly often.

Recently there was an intern teaching in my classroom. As a result, I had more free time than usual. One of the things I've did with that time was meet with my little mentee more often. As a classroom teacher it is hard to find free time in my day that also fits in her day to meet. So for a few weeks I was seeing her a couple of times a week. She was in my class last year and it was an exceptionally rough year for her personally.

Working with her and talking with her teacher has me struggling with questions that have always nagged at the back of my mind. When is it reasonable to hold children accountable? How do we draw the line between all that is weighing on them and the expectations we have for them at school?

This little girl is not meeting benchmarks in school. Given the situation in her life I don't find that even remotely surprising. Her behavior does not meet our expectations. Again, I'm not surprised by this. Any adult would struggle with their daily life under such circumstances.

At some point this little girl has to become responsible for herself and her actions, regardless of the trauma she has endured. When does she cross that line? Age 12? 16? 18? 21? How on earth do we set a date by which she has to pull herself up and do what society expects of everyone?

And how do we, as a society, sleep at night knowing that we are, in many ways, failing our most vulnerable?

Life Goes On (I Hope)

This morning I walked out of my classroom before the kids arrived. A friend who was walking down the hall remarked, "You look mad."

That's not good.

Today is our principal's last day. We've known she was leaving for only two weeks. Plus, the past two weeks have been a bit stressful for personal reasons so I haven't really processed her leaving.

She's only the 2nd principal I've had here in 12 years. The first was a once-in-a-lifetime principal. That principal hired this one as our AP 11 years ago. The transition from one principal to the next was as seamless as one could hope for.

This school has grown, improved, molded to the (changing) needs of our community quite a bit in those 12 years. The majority of the credit for that goes to these two women. A principal can make or break a school. They have made this one.

We are an exceptionally strong staff. I feel lucky everyday to work with these people. I know we will continue to do our best for kids and their families.

I just hope we get another principal who gives us the freedom to do so.

Making Time for Play

I had a conversation one Friday afternoon with another first grade teacher. I said that I reserved the last 20-30 minutes of our day for 'free choice', basically play time. She said that was what she had planned to do, but was rethinking it because the students had been behaving poorly.

I think often of the fine lines we walk as teachers. They are everywhere. This is one I have been struggling with a lot lately (as a parent as well). When children are having trouble listening, sitting still, following directions, yadda, yadda, yadda, what is the best response for us to have? Should we take away privileges in order to get them to get it together? Or should we make that time for play because it is important?

Sometimes a play break might help students refocus. They might be exhausted (quite likely by Friday afternoon) and truly unable to control themselves the way we want.

I have stopped taking recess away from students for any reason. I stopped it years ago.

How do we know what is best for kids?

Top 100 Books

I can't help myself. I had to jump on this bandwagon for my own knowledge. Here are Fuse #8's top 100 books, based on nominations and voting. The ones I've read are in bold. It seems I've read just over half. I did err on the side of caution so if I can't be sure I've read it I didn't mark it. There are quite a few here I've been meaning to read. I'll have to start my summer list.

100. The Egypt Game — Snyder (1967)
     
99. The Indian in the Cupboard — Banks (1980)
    
98. Children of Green Knowe — Boston (1954)
    
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane — DiCamillo (2006)
    
96. The Witches — Dahl (1983)
    
95. Pippi Longstocking — Lindgren (1950)
    
94. Swallows and Amazons — Ransome (1930)
    
93. Caddie Woodlawn — Brink (1935)
    
92. Ella Enchanted — Levine (1997)
    
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School — Sachar (1978)
    
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall — MacLachlan (1985)
    
89. Ramona and Her Father — Cleary (1977)
    
88. The High King — Alexander (1968)
    
87. The View from Saturday — Konigsburg (1996)
    
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — Rowling (1999)
    
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek — Wilder (1937)
    
84. The Little White Horse — Goudge (1946)
    
83. The Thief — Turner (1997)
    
82. The Book of Three — Alexander (1964)
    
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon — Lin (2009)
    
80. The Graveyard Book — Gaiman (2008)
    
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family — Taylor (1951)
    
78. Johnny Tremain — Forbes (1943)
    
77. The City of Ember — DuPrau (2003)
    
76. Out of the Dust — Hesse (1997)
    
75. Love That Dog — Creech (2001)
    
74. The Borrowers — Norton (1953)
    
73. My Side of the Mountain — George (1959)
    
72. My Father’s Dragon — Gannett (1948)
    
71. The Bad Beginning — Snicket (1999)
    
70. Betsy-Tacy — Lovelae (1940)
    
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society — Stewart ( 2007)
    
68. Walk Two Moons — Creech (1994)
    
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher — Coville (1991)
    
66. Henry Huggins — Cleary (1950)
    
65. Ballet Shoes — Stratfeild (1936)
    
64. A Long Way from Chicago — Peck (1998)
    
63. Gone-Away Lake — Enright (1957)
    
62. The Secret of the Old Clock — Keene (1959)
    
61. Stargirl — Spinelli (2000)
    
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle — Avi (1990)
    
59. Inkheart — Funke (2003)
    
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase — Aiken (1962)
    
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 — Cleary (1981)
    
56. Number the Stars — Lowry (1989)
    
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins — Paterson (1978)
    
54. The BFG — Dahl (1982)
    
53. Wind in the Willows — Grahame (1908)
    
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret — Selznick (2007)
    
51. The Saturdays — Enright (1941)
    
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins — O’Dell (1960)
    
49. Frindle — Clements (1996)
    
48. The Penderwicks — Birdsall (2005)
    
47. Bud, Not Buddy — Curtis (1999)
    
46. Where the Red Fern Grows — Rawls (1961)
    
45. The Golden Compass — Pullman (1995)
    
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing — Blume (1972)
    
43. Ramona the Pest — Cleary (1968)
    
42. Little House on the Prairie — Wilder (1935)
    
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond — Speare (1958)
    
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — Baum (1900)
    
39. When You Reach Me — Stead (2009)
    
38. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — Rowling (2003)
    
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry — Taylor (1976)
    
36. Are You there, God? It’s Me, Margaret — Blume (1970)
    
35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — Rowling (2000)
    
34. The Watsons Go to Birmingham — Curtis (1995)
    
33. James and the Giant Peach — Dahl (1961)
    
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH — O’Brian (1971)
    
31. Half Magic — Eager (1954)
    
30. Winnie-the-Pooh — Milne (1926)
    
29. The Dark Is Rising — Cooper (1973)
    
28. A Little Princess — Burnett (1905)
    
27. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass — Carroll (1865/72)
    
26. Hatchet — Paulsen (1989)
    
25. Little Women — Alcott (1868/9)
    
24. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Rowling (2007)
    
23. Little House in the Big Woods — Wilder (1932)
    
22. The Tale of Despereaux — DiCamillo (2003)
    
21. The Lightening Thief — Riordan (2005)
    
20. Tuck Everlasting — Babbitt (1975)
    
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — Dahl (1964)
    
18. Matilda — Dahl (1988)
    
17. Maniac Magee — Spinelli (1990)
    
16. Harriet the Spy — Fitzhugh (1964)
    
15. Because of Winn-Dixie — DiCamillo (2000)
    
14. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — Rowling (1999)
    
13. Bridge to Terabithia — Paterson (1977)
    
12. The Hobbit — Tolkien (1938)
    
11. The Westing Game — Raskin (1978)
    
10. The Phantom Tollbooth — Juster (1961)
    
9. Anne of Green Gables — Montgomery (1908)
   
8. The Secret Garden — Burnett (1911)
   
7. The Giver — Lowry (1993)
   
6. Holes — Sachar (1998)
   
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler — Koningsburg (1967)
   
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — Lewis (1950)
   
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philsopher’s Stone — Rowling (1997)
   
2. A Wrinkle in Time — L’Engle (1962)
   
1. Charlotte’s Web — White (1952)

Thanks teacherninja and MotherReader for getting this rolling.

The End

I've been quite cranky lately (just ask my husband). I blamed it on a bad night's sleep Saturday night, I blamed it on feeling overloaded with some last minute things, I blamed it on crazy children, and who knows what else.

Today, I finally figured out the real cause. Today is the last day of our last intersession.

Due to serious budget cuts everywhere, our school is losing our modified calendar status. Next year we'll go back to being like everyone else. This saddens me (and obviously makes me cranky) for numerous reasons.

1. Many of our kids will lose a lot over a long summer. Especially our beginning readers in kindergarten and first grade. Many will not speak English for the entire summer, much less have opportunities to practice their reading.
2. Intersessions offer our students myriad opportunities to learn about different things. This is a perfect chance for us to help expand their background knowledge. They learn about different sports, foods, hobbies, etc. all through skills they need. Losing that is going to hurt them in reading, writing, and being able to make bigger connections in their learning.
3. These times build significant community in our school. We have over 800 students and there is no way to get to know them all. However, we get to know other kids during intersession and that is good for everyone. We can share our thoughts with other teachers, offering a fresh eye on their students. We can greet those students throughout the year and continue to build relationships.
4. As our old principal used to say, "We are running sprints instead of running a marathon." If a teacher needs a break s/he doesn't have to teach intersession. If families want (and are able) to keep kids home or to travel during that time they can. It gives us fresh starts throughout the year rather than running ourselves ragged by March (or December some years).
5. Personally it gives me a chance to clean some things up. Intersession is less intense than the rest of the year and kids can work on projects or activities while I spend a bit of time cleaning out some of my teacher closet or a filing cabinet drawer or just sorting through the piles that grow on my desk in no time.

It doesn't seem that our test scores have reflected any positive impact from our modified calendar. I find that both hard to believe and not surprising. It's hard to believe because the benefits to kids seem so clear to me. It's not surprising because we have a 40% mobility rate and we've nearly doubled our population since we began on this calendar. It's hard to get meaningful test scores when the kids are different all the time.

As I write this our intersession coordinator is beginning the final dismissal process. The students are wrapping up their last big art project created out of repeating, growing, and number patterns. And I'm ready to cry.

(Some of us did make an effort back in the fall to gather DRA, Developmental Reading Assessment, scores for first and second graders. In previous years we have not done this assessment in the fall, we have simply used the spring assessment from just a few weeks before. We gathered the data this year in order to compare it to next fall when the students will have had a much longer summer. It will be interesting to see if this gives us a smidgen of hard data to show our district.)

Proactive Policies

I stopped last night for a quick trim of my bangs. The salon I use has a policy that they will trim their customers' bangs for free. Their reasoning is that they would rather spend two minutes trimming bangs than fifteen minutes fixing them after someone tries to trim them on their own.

My husband and I have been thrilled with our family's health insurance. All through both pregnancies all my appointments were free. With our oldest daughter this was a lot of appointments as they were concerned about the pregnancy and it even included an amniocentesis. All of it cost us nothing. Our daughters' regular appointments have also always been free. Again, the reasoning is that they don't want people to miss appointments because they can't afford them. The 'well baby' appointments are too important.

This all got me thinking about education (of course). We are not proactive in our public school system. I'm not sure this should all fall to the schools. I believe our society should be more proactive when it comes to children.

I look at my own daughters (who by no means have perfect parents) and think how lucky they are to have all they do. The exposure to books and language from day one, the time to visit museums, nature centers, science centers, and such, child care providers who are loving and knowledgeable about stimulating their minds and exercising their bodies, grandparents, aunts and uncles who lavish love and attention on them, etc., etc., etc. I feel the same way about my own childhood.

When I compare this to my students I feel sad. Not that they don't have parents who love them and do many things for them. They do. However, their parents often don't have the financial resources to offer their children some of this. They may work two or three jobs and not have the time to do these things. They may not have a car and therefore have limited options for getting around. Due to circumstances beyond their control these children don't have the opportunities for learning that my daughters do.

Why aren't we more proactive? Why do we wait until children are in elementary school before we begin supporting their learning and intellectual development? In the long run wouldn't it be cheaper (and better) if we started sooner?

Afraid of Change?

A recent post from Dean Dad has me mulling over some of my past. I noticed signs today at a central office in my district about interviews for instructional coach positions. Some years ago I applied for one of these positions and went through the second round of interviews. At that point I decided that I wasn't ready to leave the classroom and the environment wasn't quite right for me. A few years later a position opened up in the social studies central office. Again, I went through the process up to (almost) the bitter end before pulling myself out. I was pregnant with our first child and didn't think I could handle two major life changes at the same time.

Now I'm left wondering if I'm afraid to move on to something new. I have taught three different grade levels, worked with classes full of English Speakers of Other Languages students, special education students, and gifted students, and done a variety of extra activities for my school and county.I've earned a master's degree, achieved National Board Certification, added an endorsement in gifted education and nearly finished an endorsement in supervision and administration. I would have said I push myself and take risks professionally. Now I'm not so sure.

I don't know if this matters. It is something I feel I need to be thinking about. My parents have long told me that I will regret more those things I don't do over those things I do. I don't want to miss opportunities out of fear, especially if I don't recognize it as such.

Update: Apparently I shouldn't write blog posts as I'm doing other things. This clearly came across as me wondering if I should attempt a new path right now and I didn't intend that at all. I was simply ruminating over options from my past. Right now I am perfectly content where I am. I just want to be sure that I don't let fear rule my decisions in the future.

Penny Drive for Haiti

Just after the earthquake in Haiti our school decided to do a penny drive. This is a school with about 65% of our students receiving free/reduced lunch. The money poured in for the week and a half we ran the drive.

Lucky for us, this happened just as we were studying coins. So we brought in donations from other classes and figured out how much money was there. We started by sorting the coins (great practice for those students who were still struggling with identifying the different coins). Then we counted each type. We used hundreds charts to figure out how many of each coin was there. Students then had to figure out how to count (by 1s, 5s, 10s). It was an interesting challenge for some.

The few quarters were saved for groups up for the challenge!

This was an amazing learning experience for my class. Eventually they did count groups of pennies, nickels, and dimes. I was quite impressed with them.

Also, the school brought in about $2,200 for the relief efforts in Haiti!

(The penny drive was suggested by a third grade class and my first grade daughter. Honestly, I couldn't be prouder.)

Reason #829 Why I Love My School

I've got a student who is pushing me and I'm failing in my responses to her. She's made such progress since pre-school, but that isn't helping me as much as one might hope.

I've started the paperwork for child study/local screening to get some help because I'm at a loss. But that's a long process. It will be a month before we meet.

So, I pulled together my own 'child study' committee. I sent emails to some fabulous primary teachers and asked if they would be willing to meet with me to talk about this little one. One morning, in the brief half hour we have before kids arrive, three teachers sat down with me to brainstorm about this child. It was fabulous.

These are teachers with their own classrooms, their own students, their own responsibilities. However, they were generous with their time and energy. They had brilliant ideas and we've been trying some new things. I feel so lucky to work with such amazing folks.

New Golden Rule

There are students who drive me crazy. That's not something that teachers are supposed to admit, but it's true. However, I've been mulling this over quite a bit.

I respond differently to those students who annoy me. If they are tapping a pencil I assume they are doing it on purpose. If they are humming I assume they are trying to disrupt those around them.

But, when I stop to think, I don't believe these things are intentional. I teach first graders. They tap fingers, hum, whistle, wiggle, squirm, etc. It's not intentional, at least not the great majority of the time. They are simply being first graders.

When I recognize that students are doing these annoying things subconsciously without an attempt to annoy or disrupt I respond to them in a very different way. I respond with patience and care. Not surprisingly they then react with respect.

My reminder to myself is to respond to students as I would want my daughters' teachers to respond to them. (I think that's my new golden rule of teaching.)

Put a Fork in Us

Spring break is next week. We all need it.

I teach first grade and I am the mother of a first grader. I see the lives of six year olds all day. I know they are tired. Of course they are tired. We work them. We make every second of every day count.

But here's the thing. I'm tired, too. Making every second of every day count is a bit exhausting.

When I'm on top of my game I can help students who are tired to find strategies to cope. I can modify and accommodate to keep them learning and get them through the day.

I'm not on top of my game when I'm tired.

When we're all wiped out, how do we keep first grade going?

Failure

Maybe it's that I'm still tired from losing that hour of sleep this weekend. Maybe I'm cranky because it's Monday and I have a 3 hour class tomorrow night that amounts to jumping through a hoop. I don't know.

Regardless of all that, I'm sick of hearing about how our public schools are failing.

I do believe our schools can do better. I do not believe they are failing.

There are areas in which we desperately need to improve. We must do more for children living in poverty. We must help students learn to problem solve and be creative rather than follow directions and conform. We must be willing to question the status quo. I believe schools could work better with significant changes.

However, I'm a product of public schools. Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Richard Feynman, and Katie Couric are all products of public schools. Most of the people crying that our public schools are failing are products of those same public schools. Most people are happy with their local public school. It's 'public schools' they don't like.

We educate everyone (not always perfectly but we take them all). We attempt to offer options to meet the needs of gifted students, students with disabilities (physical, emotional, learning, etc.), and those who just don't fit in.

We're not perfect, but to say we're failing (and to say it from the highest offices in the land and on the covers of magazines and newspapers and on the daily news and on and on) is a slap in the face. So far we're turning the other cheek, but at some point we're likely to give up, give in, and walk away. Then our public schools will fail.

We're Not Diagramming Sentences, Part II

Our fascinating discussion of sentences continued on Friday. After talking about what sentences are and what they are not and then the parts of sentences and what sentences can be a part of, we moved on to how sentences are related to other things.

As I mentioned I was a bit nervous about this piece. It's hard for me to make clear connections about relationships in abstract ideas so I'm never sure what the kids will do.

However, I'm always willing to throw it out there and see if we sink or swim. And, almost always, we swim, thanks to the kids. This was no exception.

They started with some basic relationships - sentences are related to books because books have sentences. Sentences are related to words because words are in sentences.

Then they began to stretch a bit. They mentioned that sentences are related to names because both have letters in them. Then, sentences are related to what we say because they both have ideas. They were genuinely thinking about sentences in the world around them to consider the relationships.

Every time they would mention something they believed sentences to be related to, I would hold my breath. Usually the idea sounded absurd to me, until they explained their thinking. Then, as usual, it sounded brilliant. I try so hard not to underestimate my students and I think I fall short everyday.

TEDxNYED Reflections

There have been so many thoughts flying around the blogosphere about TEDxNYED I'm not sure where my own thoughts begin. I'm not going to get involved in the critiques of the format; I can accept that different conferences have different set-ups and leave it at that.

When the videos get posted on the TEDx channel on YouTube I'll watch most, if not all, of them again. Trying to process 14 live talks and 2 videos in an eight hour day is beyond my capabilities. Add to that the excitement and joy of talking with and meeting folks I've only known virtually or not known at all and the day was exhausting. In the best possible way.

Michael Wesch's presentation was fabulous. I have to admit that having seen the videos his classes have created I was a bit hesitant about him. I had some fears of his being cheesy or condescending or something (I'm not really sure what). My fears were completely unfounded. He began with a hilarious story that will make watching his video completely worthwhile for it alone. My big take-away from him is the idea that we need to honor students' interests and passions. It was intriguing to feel such a connection regarding goals for our students when he is a college professor and I teach first grade. It suggests that the differences between the various levels are not as significant as we may think.

David Wiley was someone with whom I was completely unfamiliar. Of all the new-to-me faces at TEDxNYED he may have been my personal favorite. He spoke on the idea of 'openness' in education. This section of the conference was the most challenging to my thinking. In theory I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of openness. In reality I'm not sure where we should draw the line or how we make this work while still honoring everyone's efforts. It's something I will be thinking more about. Wiley also said, "Technology always plays opposite its nemesis, policy." I thought last weekend that I needed more time to think about that sentence and I still do. I think it's the 'always' that makes me uncertain.

George Siemens was another I did not know before TEDxNYED. He spoke about connections and transparency in education. This is another talk I need to watch again (and maybe again). I was really struck by this, "We want to disrupt what it means to be a teacher and to be a learner." I don't think we will be able to enact any sort of meaningful change without disrupting that. Siemens also earned immense respect for me when he said, "We drop so much on the educational system it's amazing it functions as well as it does."

The final batch of presenters was one I had been really looking forward to. It began with Dan Cohen of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (just down the road for me). I had never met Dan but was familiar with him through my husband, a college professor who has worked with Dan in a variety of ways. Dan's talk was fun, interesting, and exceptionally well done. I highly recommend watching it when these are posted soon.

Dan Meyer was another in this final group. I have read his blog for some time now and appreciate the ways he pushes himself and others. His talk was not new to me (for which I was actually pretty grateful by this point in the day). That said, it's the first talk I'll be pushing people to watch. He's a high school math teacher with the mantra, "Be less helpful". I've been talking about his presentation all week with others at my school. He's an engaging presenter with an important message. At one point in the talk he said, "I'm going to retire into a world my students run." That's something teachers need to remember everyday (as does everyone, really).

Finally, the day ended with Chris Lehmann. I've been familiar with Chris since attending Educon last year and I am convinced he is one of the brightest, most charismatic, important voices in education today. Again, this was a talk that was not new to me. Chris had mentioned concerns that many folks in the audience had heard him say these things. I firmly believe they are worth hearing often. Everyone at TEDxNYED spoke with passion, but no one is quite like Chris. He can barely contain himself when he begins talking about education and it is inspiring. Watch this one.

There are many great reflections on TEDxNYED out there. Shelley Krause has wisely and generously set up a wiki collecting them. There are a few I highly recommend:
Chris Lehmann
Will Richardson (Reading this one will give you a real sense of what the day was like.)
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Jose Vilson

My reflections just cover the talks, and only a few of those. I met and talked with so many amazing educators that day from breakfast through to dinner. I hope to spend some time thinking deeply about that aspect as well, because it was equally important to me.

We're Not Diagramming Sentences

In thinking about our focus for writing my co-teachers and I decided to look at sentences. This is a surprisingly difficult concept for first graders.

We decided to tackle the idea through the patterns of thinking. Yesterday we talked about identity/other, what is a sentence and what is not a sentence. It was a pretty basic discussion. The most interesting piece of it, in my mind, came when one student said that one word is not a sentence. We put in a thinkblock, charted it, and moved on. A minute or two later another student took us back to that, saying, "I think one word can be a sentence. Sometimes we just say hi." So we added a thinkblock to what is a sentence and added the idea that one word could be a sentence to our chart.

Today we discussed the parts of a sentence. (In the picture I was trying to draw a thinkblock to include the parts we were putting in our actual thinkblock. I'm not an artist.)

The students came up with the things we would have expected: periods, words, letters, question marks, etc. They also mentioned spaces, an idea that is still challenging to some first graders and one that had not occurred to me. The idea that pictures can be a part of sentences was mentioned in reference to books for young children that often use pictures for some of the more difficult words (think Highlights magazine).

Finally, we talked about what sentences can be a part of. This is always a bit of a challenge at first. But, pretty quickly, students began spouting ideas: books, stories, poems, paper, speech bubbles, etc. The surprise for me was a student saying boxes. When I asked him to tell me more, he pointed at a box with instructions on the side. I was thrilled. If my students begin noticing sentences everywhere then we are making good progress! They also mentioned the idea that sentences are a part of talking. Success!

Tomorrow we will discuss how sentences are related to other things. I'm always a bit hesitant to tackle this pattern because it's not as easy for me to see. This could be fabulous or it could crash and burn, we'll see.

I have thoughts about TEDxNYED but not enough time to put them into any meaningful order. Maybe this weekend I'll manage it.

TEDxNYED

At this moment I'm sitting in the auditorium of The Collegiate School in Manhattan awaiting the first speaker of TEDxNYED. The past couple of weeks have been so busy I haven't even had time to get excited about this. I am now.

You can watch the live stream at the site. There are many great folks presenting today. Enjoy!

Parent Support is Critical

One of my more challenging students has really been giving us a run for our money recently. A couple of us went to her home to meet with her folks a few weeks ago. It was a good talk and, while I didn't think it would cause an overnight change, it felt hopeful.

Since then I've been writing a note in her homework agenda about her day each afternoon. Yesterday was a rough day and she was really rude so I wrote about that. She takes the note home and returns it to me the next day with a parent signature.

This morning it came back with a note. It says, "She promised me that she is going to be rude again."

I hope this is an issue with English not being the native language. If not, we're in trouble.

How Long is Too Long?

During a class this evening I chatted with a teacher from another school in my district. I asked about her principal because I was uncertain if he was still there. He is. He has been for 20+ years. She had mostly good things to say about him, although she did admit he is not much of an instructional leader.

My principal has been in place for about seven years and was an assistant principal at our school for four years before that. I'm in no hurry to see her leave.

Why does a principal being in one position for twenty years strike me as a problem? Should we expect principals to change more often than that?

Do I like having my principal remain because change is hard? Or is it because she is helping us do great things? Both?

I'm surprised at how much this brief conversation got me thinking about the role of the principal and how it does/should change over time. I've come to no conclusions at this point and I'd love to hear others' thoughts on principals and their tenure at a school.

Really? Seriously?

This picture was taken on the way to school about a month ago. We pass this strip club everyday. In the afternoon (even as early as 4:30) the parking lot is full and the bouncers are out. In the morning it's just another spot in a quiet strip mall.

However, on several mornings over the past few months this bus has been there. It's from an elite private school. One morning there was a BMW there as well and it appeared that a child was moving from the car to the bus.

Wouldn't one expect a family that drives a BMW and sends their offspring to elite private schools to have a better plan than meeting the bus in a strip club parking lot? There's a bank just two doors down.

Educon 2.2 Reflections

As always I've gotten completely caught up in life and not taken time to reflect on the wonder that was Educon (it's really pathetic because we're on our fourth snow day in a row, so I have no good excuse).

For me the overwhelming take-away from Educon was passion. The importance and value of that word and idea started for me at the panel on Friday night at The Franklin Institute. The panelists, a fabulous, diverse group, were asked to answer the question, "What is smart?"

Initially the answer that struck me least was the one from Loren Brichter. He spoke about helping students get motivated to find their passion. The more I thought about the different responses the more this struck me as critically important. However, I think students find their passion just fine. We need to figure out how, as educators, to get out of their way.

The idea of passion continued to resonate with me throughout the sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Even if the word was never mentioned, the idea was there. These presenters were there, leading discussion, because of their passion around education and a specific question or issue (the value of play, technology and teacher education, leadership, etc.).

I think that is the power of Educon. Everyone is there because of their shared passion for improving education. There has been much talk since the conference about action. Many folks are concerned that we are doing a lot of talking but not making any change. Those concerns are valid. But I'm grateful for the conversations and for the opportunity to see so many passionate educators gathered together. It gives me hope.

If you are interested in others' thoughts post-Educon, Shelley has collected many here.