Math Literacy

An article in the Washington Post this morning got me thinking about how we teach reading and how we teach math. It seems to me that we've made gigantic strides in our teaching of language arts (reading, writing, word study) in recent years. There are phenomenal professional books out there, many of them written by classroom teachers, or individuals who only recently left the classroom. There are some good professional books about math, but they are fewer and often written by large groups of professors or others removed from elementary classrooms.

We've got a lot to learn about teaching math.

Virginia Commonwealth University math professor William E. Haver, who is involved in the partnership, said elementary teachers need to know far more than the standard curriculum. With a depth of knowledge, teachers can help children understand relationships between numbers and solve problems in different ways. Without it, teachers often rely on memorization and aren't well-equipped to help struggling students.

"Elementary math isn't elementary," Haver said. "There are a lot of deep ideas there. Usually, if a child doesn't get the right answer, there's a fair amount of good thinking along the way, but it got astray at some point. If you can pinpoint that problem, you're better off."

I think this is a bigger problem than just our schools. Our society has math phobia issues. It's acceptable to be bad at math and to hate math. Saying the same thing about reading is taboo. It seems unlikely that we'll manage major change in education without similar change in society.

To Grade or Not To Grade

It's the end of the second quarter for us. That makes it my least favorite time each quarter. Most elementary school teachers in my district will tell you that report card time stinks because it requires bubbling grades in eight content areas (an academic grade and an effort grade) and ten word study areas. Then comments also have to be bubbled in. It is very time consuming and mind numbing.

I, however, hate it with an even greater passion. I can't figure out why I'm doing it (aside from the fact that I'm required to as a part of my job). What is the purpose of these grades? My husband, a college professor, firmly believes that grades are what motivates his students to do the work. He's probably right. But, I think it's true because we've trained kids with that motivation. I want my fifth graders to work because they want to learn, not because I'm going to judge them.

Another argument is that we use report cards to communicate with parents. Again, probably true. But, does a report card really communicate effectively? Telling a parent that their child earned a B in math with a G (good) for effort doesn't really say much. It doesn't let them know that the student excelled in geometry that quarter, but is still struggling to understand how to multiply and divide with decimals. It does a much better job of ranking students and making it easy to compare them to one another.

I would much rather spend two or three times as long on a more effective mode of communication for parents than to use a report card. I'd rather have to work even harder to make my lessons engaging and relevant to my students than to expect them to do the work in the hope of earning an A. One of my goals as a teacher is that my students love to learn. I think grades are in conflict with that goal.

(I think I'm in the minority in this area and I'd love to hear others' thoughts.)

Do as We Say and as We Do

I've been thinking a lot lately about one of the main reasons I love my school: the collaboration. Teachers here are always talking to one another and working together to improve their teaching practices and find new ways to help students. It occurs to me that we are modeling what we expect from our students. We often have our students work together to solve problems and to deepen their understanding and we work with them to make those collaborations effective. It's wonderful to be able to do the same.

My reflections on this are more elaborate at my most recent post on In Practice.

During a meeting yesterday I warned a friend of mine that blogging about a meeting during it is like calling someone when you're drunk. I'm no longer in the meeting I feel a need to blog about, but it may still be too soon. However, blogging is cathartic for me so I'm moving forward with this even if I may say things I'll regret later.

I spent two hours today in a local screening meeting. We were discussing a student who has been at our school since head start. He's been on our radar as a student we are concerned about since at least first grade. He's very, very bright. I think that is actually part of the problem. Academically he is fine, as a result we feel like we're doing our job as a school. However, he has significant issues with social interactions. He frequently says things that are offensive, hurtful, even cruel. He does not understand that people are hurt by him. Many of us have been concerned that if he does not get help he will have serious problems in the future. We've been trying to get his mom to get counseling for him and/or the family. I firmly believe that he needs counseling and we will keep doing all we can to push for this.

This child is not easy to label. If he were we'd have dealt with this years ago. We discussed a wide range of possible ways to serve this child with an appropriate label: autism, emotional disabilities, or other health impairment. None seemed to fit. I'm fine with that. I don't feel a need to slap labels on students all willy-nilly. What matters the most to me is that we help students. I don't feel that I can give this child all he needs on my own. We kept returning to the idea of counseling. Again, I think that is critically important for this student.

But...I finally got so frustrated with the whole situation (he's in 5th grade, we can't keep waffling!), I gave a little speech.

In the past, when I've come to local screening, my goal has been to get a label for a child. This has nothing to do with our school. We will get kids what they need no matter what label they have, it's what we do. When I want a label for a child it's because I want to know that if they move or when they head off to middle school they will still get the services and accommodations they need in order to learn. I feel just the opposite with this kid. I don't care what label he does or doesn't have, I care that we figure out how to help him. I'm afraid that what we'll do is say that he doesn't fit any category, he needs counseling which his family needs to deal with, and therefore we wash our hands of this.

I don't normally do this sort of thing. In ten years I've been through a lot of local screening meetings. I've never felt a need to preach to the committee. I was close to tears today. In the end, I think we're going to create a 504 plan for this child (similar to an Individualized Education Plan but probably more appropriate for him). That's fine. But I'm still unclear on how we're going to help him. Maybe next week's meeting will answer that question for me.

By the way, it probably goes without saying, but this is a great kid. For all of the difficulties and challenges we face (he and his teachers) he has many wonderful qualities.

Technology

My four-year-old has just figured out how to truly use a computer independently. She uses the trackpad on my laptop fairly well. She can now choose videos to watch and play games on the preschool websites we open for her.

Neither my husband nor I did any direct instruction on using a computer. A while back her grandparents had a child-sized mouse and keyboard for her and probably taught her some things. But it's been a while since she was using them. However, she's sees us on the computer frequently (most likely too frequently) and has played games with us controlling things for a while now.

She's not even four and a half and I'm wondering when she'll get her first email address. How long before she joins social networking sites? When will we she begin shopping online? Will she have a blog soon? I'm excited and terrified by the possibilities.

Her grandparents are getting her an XO laptop for Christmas. I can't wait to see what she figures out how to do on it. Learning new technology is a challenge for me, just as learning a new language would be. However, at four it comes easily.

This has re-energized me about using technology with my students. Her ability to pick it up so quickly has reminded me that my students are capable of learning and utilizing technology as well. We'll be in the lap next week.

Famous Folks

We just completed a biography unit in writing. I was astounded by some of the subjects my students choose. Some wrote about typical subjects for 5th graders: Shakira, JK Rowling, Emma Watson, and such. But others were much more creative. They wrote about William Shakespeare, Pythagoras, Martha Graham, Emily Dickinson, Edward Lear, Pocahontas, Al Capone, and Edgar Allen Poe.

I gave them no guidelines on who to choose. It was completely up to them. I am fascinated by their choices. As an added bonus, I'm enjoying reading these much more than I would if they had all chosen pop culture icons. Possibly I should thank them.

My big question now is how much influence I (or the student teacher or their previous teachers) had on these subjects. Were their choices influenced by us, in which case I'd like to know how so that I can replicate it, or would they have made these choices regardless of outside influences?

Buddies

My 5th graders met for the first time with their head start (3 & 4 year old) buddies this morning. Some of the little ones were shy and uncomfortable and some of the older kids didn't really know how to interact with their buddies. However, on the whole, it was quite a success. I feel compelled to write about it because of what I noticed with one student.

One girl in my class, very bright, friendly, and well-adjusted, never seems to be enjoying anything we do. She's happy with her friends and jokes and plays around, but during lessons she has a flat affect and is very serious. Serious doesn't really explain it though; she seems almost unhappy, but not quite. I'm not really worried about her, but I'd like to see her smiling more.

As soon as she sat down with the little girl in head start, she softened. It was a visible thing. I felt as though I could see hard corners and stiff lines melt away. She leaned in to her buddy to read and talk about the book. She smiled at her, made eye contact, and encouraged her. Her body language was completely different from what I am accustomed to seeing. She seemed maternal almost.

I could have sat and watched the two of them the entire time we were there. Other partnerships went well. I saw other fifth graders being strong mentors; asking questions of their buddy, getting their buddy to talk about his/her thinking about the book, etc. But nothing compared to watching this girl.

We will meet with our buddies every week now. I haven't done this for a few years because I haven't been able to find the time. Today's experience left me kicking myself about that. This may not help my students earn better grades or score higher on tests, but they are learning and giving something so much more important. For at least one student this half hour may be the most important thing we do all week.

And I haven't even started truly reflecting on how this benefits the little ones!

Edublog Awards

The Edublog Awards' finalists have been announced. (I have to admit that I'm still new enough to the whole blogging thing that this wasn't on my radar. I'm still learning.) In Practice is one of the finalists in the Best Group Edublog category. It's been such a pleasure to write for and read this blog. These educators are dedicated professionals who give their all for their students and, in addition, share their thinking and expertise in the blogosphere.

Check out the various finalists in the different categories. There are so many fantastic blogs out there.

Reflections on Blogging

Doug, at Borderland, has written a post about educational blogging. It came at a time when I was already doing some serious reflecting on why I blog. I began blogging solely to force me to reflect because I don't do so as naturally as I would like. It has worked quite well for me. Blog posts float around in my brain constantly. The jury is still out on whether or not this makes me a better teacher. On the positive side, I do reflect more which I firmly believe improves my teaching. On the negative side, sometimes I have to stop in the middle of the day and have my students read silently so that I can write or I feel as though I'll burst.

My big thought from all this, and I promise there is one, is that this is why I've had my students start blogging. (There's nothing like the zeal of the converted.) I know what blogging has done for me as a writer and a teacher and I want that for my students. For me, blogging has been transformative.

I don’t see “transformation” as a particularly strong selling point for the blogging practice since transformative experiences are generally unsettling to people.

Doug makes a really good point here. Expecting this result for my students is ambitious and probably just a bit unrealistic. Knowing this won't stop me for having them blog, but hopefully it will mean that I'm not crushed when blogging doesn't change their lives as learners.

And, if by chance, one of them really latches onto this, it will have been worth it. And if not, it certainly gives me more to reflect on.

High School History Class

I'm in New Mexico so that my daughters could visit (and meet, in the baby's case) their great-grandparents. A highlight for me was getting to spend the day with my aunt while she taught her high school history classes.

She begins each class period with a 'news journal'. Every morning she audio records 3-5 minutes of NPR. She writes on the board a sentence about several of the main stories from the segment with blanks. The students fill in the blanks as they listen. They spend a few minutes talking about the news. They are able to make connections to previous days and even weeks or months in the news. The Iraq war has come up on many occasions. They also make connections to history. Yesterday, when I was there, one story was about a virus that is resistant to drugs. Students were able to connect it to the plague they had recently studied. I was so impressed with how much more they will understand about the world around them and the history they study through this ten minute beginning to class. After the discussion they write a three sentence commentary to reflect.

I think this is such a fantastic practice because of their learning and their practice writing. However, having watched a day in a high school I think it is helpful for the teacher as well. The teachers are in the hallway during the transition between classes so they come in after the students are seated and have no time to get anything together. Playing the recording of NPR gives my aunt a few minutes to get organized and get her brain in gear for the next class. Smart on so many levels!

Testing Hell

Right now I'm administering a practice SOL (Standards of Learning) test to one third grader alone. He's being given the test alone because he is autistic and very easily affected and distracted by others. I'm glad that we are able to offer him this accommodation to the testing. However, I don't believe that we are really going to learn anything about his achievement through this process.

A multiple choice test is very difficult for him because he is so literal. He has trouble analyzing the various answers. He completed the sample question and choose an incorrect answer. When I asked him about it, he was able to explain his thinking (which made sense in a convoluted way). I believe that if he were to answer questions about these short texts without multiple choices, he would do quite well.

He also is unable to work for an extended period of time. Just looking at the first passage, which is about a page long, stressed him out. He spent the morning yesterday taking the math practice test and is now spending the afternoon taking the reading test. He kept asking me why he has to take these tests. I had no good answer for him. According to his classroom teacher, he is able to read longer texts, but broken up over time. They are working on his stamina while reading or working, but he isn't there yet. Taking this test is torture for him.

He is an unusual example because he is autistic. For him, time spent taking this test is not helping him learn and for us, it is not giving us useful information about his learning. But, he will still spend four days this year taking practice SOL tests and five days taking the actual SOL tests. That is five percent of the school days in the year.

While he is an unusual example, I believe that there are many students for whom testing is hell and about whom we learn little from the results. We give the test on one day of the year and expect that it will tell us all about the student's abilities and achievement. Many students, even in third grade, have test anxiety, which also impacts the results.

I'm not against accountability. I'm happy to open my classroom to anyone who wants to come in and see what is happening. I'm happy to show the various ways my students can and have demonstrated their learning. I have nothing to hide. But I'm tired of spending my precious time with students taking multiple choice tests.

Education through the Eyes of Mothers

DC Metro Moms spent yesterday blogging about education. I love reading this blog and was excited by the idea of them all focused on a topic so near and dear to my heart.

I think I posted comments on every single blog post from yesterday. And not for the reasons I had hoped. Again and again the posts were about parents struggling with the choice between public and private schools. I can understand that.
My issues with these various posts fell into two categories:

1. sadness for families because of their local schools
   
2. frustration with how public schools (and private) are judged

There are bad public schools; bad private ones too I'm sure. I sympathize with anyone whose neighborhood schools are not up to snuff.

However, many of these parents voiced frustration with the boring work students do in these schools, worksheet after worksheet. Then they also voiced disappointment with the test scores. My thinking is that those two things are closely linked. Schools begin to panic about test scores and resort to drilling students rather than teaching engaging, interesting lessons. Our focus, as a society, on test scores is resulting in mediocre teaching, at best.

There are a lot of ways to judge a school. I think that test scores is one of the least useful. The problem is, it is the easiest way.

Classroom Environment Illustrates Priorities

I've been out of my classroom for a couple of weeks now because an intern is independent teaching there. It's always fun for me to have an opportunity to do other things around my school. This time, I've been observing in some primary grades because I'd like to teach younger kids next year.

I spent most of today in two different classrooms. Somehow, observing in these two rooms opened my eyes to changes in classroom set-up. Neither of these rooms has much "teacher space." Each teacher has a small table for themselves - a place for their computer and some papers to deal with, but nothing big. Each has a bookshelf for their things and a filing cabinet. But, it would take some looking around the room to recognize the teacher's place. The fact that these teachers rarely spend time at their tables also adds to this. The focus in these rooms is on the students, their work, and their learning.

Both of these classrooms also have tables rather than desks for the students. This suggests that the focus is on collaboration, discussion, and team learning. Added bonuses to tables is that they take up less space per student than desks and are easy to move around as needed.

As I continue observing for the next week or two, I'll be looking more closely at classroom arrangements. The set up of a classroom is an immediate, clear clue about the atmosphere and priorities of that class.

In Practice

I've been lucky enough to join a talented group of teachers and bloggers writing at In Practice. All of us work (or have worked) in Title 1 schools. I originally discovered the blog through Doug Noon who writes at Borderland. I've been impressed with and enjoyed his writing and was thrilled to discover another place to read him. Then, through In Practice, I discovered Michaele at Tending the Kinder-Garden. Alice Mercer is the driving force behind the site. These two women have become favorites of mine.


Reading the blog was wonderful, writing for it is an honor.

I've been doing a better job lately of keeping up with reading blogs than I have done with posting to mine. That's not a bad thing at all.

I've noticed, however, that the majority, by quite a bit, of the education blogs I read are written by men. I read blogs from all levels of education, including colleges and universities. I read blogs written by classroom teachers, resource specialists, and consultants.

I've been weeding out blogs and trying to cut it down to a more reasonable number. It's this process that made me note the gender difference. In other areas, I have more gender balance. I read blogs about parenting, children's literature, and some that are simply for fun. The parenting blogs I read tend slightly more towards women writers, but not by a lot. Those that I read for fun are just about equal. The children's literature blogs are almost all written by women, interestingly enough.

I'm left wondering why this is. Have I just not found the large number of well-written blogs by female educators yet or do they not exist? Is this a gender gap in technology? (The blogs in other categories would suggest this is not true.) Are there lots of female teachers blogging but because they do so in addition to all of their teaching and family duties they aren't promoting their blogs for us to find them easily?

I'm not looking to add a lot more to my blog reading, but I'd love to know about some fantastic women bloggers in the education realm. If you have any thoughts, let me know.

Great Education Podcast Meme

Michaele, over at Tending the Kinder-Garden, tagged me for a meme some time ago. I'm embarrassed to admit how long ago, so we'll let that go for now. She's looking for links to educational podcasts that I've listened to and enjoyed.

Sadly, I've not listened to any. I don't have an iPod and never seem to find a time to listen on my computer. However, her meme inspired me and I'm hoping to get an iPod in the near future to get started with this. I know that I've been missing some great stuff and I can't wait to start listening.

Baby Steps with Technology

I just overheard two teachers discussing a lesson one of them taught today. Her students are researching endangered animals and she is having them do their research independently (they are fifth graders). Ahead of time she set up a list of bookmarks for them on the server so that they had approved websites, including search engines, to get started.

This morning she got one cart of laptops from nearby and another cart from the second floor of our other building, not an easy job, so that each student would have a computer. Then, during the lesson, she showed them how to log onto the server to access the bookmarks. Only about five of the students were able to get logged in. For some reason, the other fifteen or so were locked out. She got them started on another website, but found the experience very frustrating, especially after so carefully setting up bookmarks. (As an aside, I've shown her del.icio.us for future use.)

I know that many educators, parents, and others are frustrated by how little many teachers use technology in their classrooms. I know that I don't use nearly as much as I should. I also know that my school district has done a pretty good job of supporting teachers with this. Each elementary school has a technology specialist full time who is there to support the use of technology in the classrooms. Each school also has another tech person a couple of days a week to do the troubleshooting and to fix problems. However, our full time person often gets stuck fixing things around the building because he's here more often. He's done a ton to offer workshops before and after school to help teachers and he's willing to work with anyone who asks. But most teachers don't. They have a lot on their plates already. I'm not sure how we move forward here. I'm about as open to using technology as possible and I read plenty to keep me up to date with the options for web 2.0 tools, but I still can't pull off what I think I should be doing. How do we manage to support teachers in a way that really helps them integrate this? What's the first step?

List of Loves

There are so many reasons I love teaching. After being out of the classroom for a week and a half, being back today was wonderful. So, here are a few of my favorite things:

• when students ask a question I don't know the answer to (happened first thing this morning, what a way to start the day!)
• learning for the sake of learning, not for grades or approval, but simply because they are fascinated by a topic - somehow we manage to stifle that as students grow older (great teachers rekindle it, but it is less natural as students age)
• students getting so engaged in a discussion or project that we're late for lunch (or music or PE or art or library...)
• unexpected words, phrases, or ideas that come from students - you never know what you'll hear in an elementary school
• family atmosphere - we spend so much time together we become a family, with all the positive and negative aspects
  
• being a rock star - elementary age students get shockingly excited to see teachers, their own or ones they recognize from around the school and they greet you as if you are famous
• the growth we get to see - students change so much, so quickly in elementary school - it is encouraging to see how much they have learned and developed over time

I'm so lucky to have a job that adds to my quality of life (as a friend said).

Teachers Have it Easy II

During our foray out to California, we had the opportunity to visit my sister's work. She is currently a project manager for Adobe. We had lunch in the cafe there (cheap because it is subsidized by Adobe and it was delicious) and checked out her work area. The building was open and inviting. She worked from home one of the days we were there and modified her hours to spend time with us on the other days. It was great.

It got me thinking, again, about life in education. This blog post considering treating students the way Google treats engineers just added fuel to the flame. I think the idea of 20% time for students is brilliant. But it also got me thinking about 20% time for teachers and a whole host of other wonderful perks.

I would love a subsidized, yummy lunch. I would love time to work on things I value as an educator. I would love more flexible hours. But, again, I'd be happy if people better understood the realities of teaching.

I took my laptop to California with me. My mother gave me a hard time about taking it, saying that she was sure I could survive a week without it and I certainly didn't need one more thing to carry (traveling with a four year old and an eight month old). She was especially shocked I was taking it when she realized that after the vacation I would be out of my classroom because a student teacher is taking over for four weeks. If I didn't have lessons to plan, what on earth would I need my laptop for? She is frequently surprised that I need to do so much planning now that I am in my tenth year. Why can't I just use what I did in previous years?

I don't want to suggest that my mother doesn't respect what I do. She does. Immensely. She does a lot to help me have enough time to do what I feel I need to do to be a good teacher. And she has listened to me for ten years talk about work. If she still doesn't really get it, I have little hope that anyone else will.

This sounds like complaining and I don't mean that to be true. I love my job. I love my school. I even love my school district. (The state I have less love for, but it's not too bad either.) But, I know how hard teachers work, how much of themselves they put into their jobs, and how important it all is. I'd like for families, politicians, and others to realize as well.

Exploring Science at the Exploratorium

I just got back from a trip to California for a family wedding and some time with my sister. We crammed a lot into a week, but one of the highlights was taking the girls to the Exploratorium. It may be the best designed museum I've ever visited (and I've visited a lot). As soon as I looked at the map of the museum I wanted desperately to take my class there. They had exhibits that address every unit we study in science. Of course, exhibits is probably not the correct term because that suggests something that you passively enjoy. Nothing at the Exploratorium is passive.

Our school district has worked hard to create science kits for each of the units we teach. As a result, lessons are very hands on and allow for a lot of constructivist learning and exploration. However, they all pale in comparison with the experiences at the Exploratorium. I kept trying to figure out how to recreate some of these items. Fortunately, the Exploratorium has done a fantastic job of creating online activities similar to what you can do at the museum. I'll be incorporating some of these activities in my classroom.

As wonderful as the online site is, I'm still wishing my students had the opportunity to visit such a museum. The Washington, D.C. area has many, many wonderful museums. But, it has no significant children's museum. The National Children's Museum, which I remember visiting as a child when it was the Capital Children's Museum, is scheduled to open in 2012. The previous museum closed in 2004. That's a long time to wait. The closest, hands-on, exploratory museum for kids is Port Discovery in Baltimore. It's a fun museum, but it pales in comparison with the Exploratorium.

I've visited the Exploratorium before, but somehow it was this visit that made me realize what museums can be. It also got me thinking about how to offer my students experiences like what they could get at the Exploratorium. I hope that one positive result of this visit will be that I stretch as a teacher of science. It's certainly an area that I can grow in!