Talking and Attention

This is a somewhat rambling post, where I am thinking about kids' talking and issues regarding attention. 

The class I subbed for yesterday had book buddies, so I had a chance to talk to another teacher while the older kids ( my class) read to and with the younger ones (her class).  Somewhere in our conversation, the topic turned to the differences over the years in the kids in classes.  Both of us observed that kids now seem to have tremendous difficulty really LISTENING.  She said that they seem to feel the need for constant noise around them - music, activity, talking to themselves.  I hadn't noticed it in this way, but I do notice that kids seem to talk nearly continuously.  And, although I have posted on this topic before, I am still wondering WHY.  Why do kids feel the need to talk so much at school?  Is it something we are doing - or not doing - as teachers?  Is it the nature of school?  Is it natural and only now becoming so much in evidence, because there are so many students in the classroom or because the consequences of constant chatter aren't enough to deter it?

First of all, let me say that even the students seem to be aware that they cannot do some of their work well when people around them are talking all of the time.  This seems to be more apparent in subjects where the nature of the work is completely independent effort, e.g., writing.  But even knowing this, kids who feel the desire to talk don't or can't inhibit their talking if they themselves feel the desire to do so.  They know that if someone else talks, they get distracted, but if they talk, they seem to feel it is needed or justifiable. 

Further interesting examples of this are often seen in the computer labs.  Kids are working independently on projects or simply different choices of math games.  They are chattering constantly.  In spite of the fact that each student is most interested in their own activity, they are talking to other students all of the time.  And the other students sometimes are listening.  I know there have been many studies that show that people can't actually multi-task - that they are actually just switching focus back and forth, but students seem to be faster at it than the studies would seem to point out.  Are kids better/faster at switching focus?  Does it depend on the level of focus necessary? 

I know I can think of other things when I am swimming.  I know that I can do fractions in different number bases while I swim.  But, one thing I can't do when I swim is focus on a word-intensive task at the same time that I am swimming.  I can think about topics using words, but I can't create word-related things while swimming, i.e., I can't work on the lyrics to a song that I am writing.  So the depth of focus does matter - at least to me. 

The other part of the problem is hearing what is said.  I have noticed that many students require multiple repetition of simple directions, e.g., "Open your books to page 81."  Some, like me, are very visually oriented and will not need further assistance if the page number is also posted on the board.  Others seem to ignore both verbal and visual presentations and need multiple references to them both before they can complete the task.  It is as though they have to go through several layers of attention.  First they have to be aware that they are being asked to stop whatever they are currently doing.  That takes several attempts.  Then they have to be aware that they are being asked to do something else.  Then they need to shift their attention to thinking about what they are being asked to do.  But then the attention seems to shift back to their previous task and they have to think about what they were doing and what they need to do to end that.  They have now completely forgotten about p. 81 in the book and need several more reminders in order to get back to that.  This sequence seems to be repeated for some students every time there is a new directive given.  And, all of the while, some of them are still talking. 

Quite a while ago, I read an article telling college professors not to lecture so much and to break up lectures into smaller chunks.  I can't actually imaging lecturing to students the way I was lectured to when I was in college.   Most of the classes I had were around 50 or 60 minutes and the teacher would lecture for a large part of the time.  In recent years, lectures have gotten much shorter and have been augmented with discussions, demonstrations, working of problems, etc.  Even the MOOCs (online courses) that I have taken have been broken up into videos that last between 6 and 18 minutes (at most).  Most are around 10 to 12 minutes long. 

What has happened to our attention spans?  What has happened to the depth of our attention? 

Many things to think about.

No Class Lists, Again

And AGAIN.  I know teachers do attendance on their computers, but subs can't do that.  It is very difficult to take attendance, if you don't have a list of the students' names.  This time - no homeroom list.  A list for literacy class (from the emergency folder), but no list for math class.  Two of the lists in the emergency folder were from last year. I wonder if the list of medical alerts was current.

Subs do not have time for chasing class lists and have very limited means for checking their accuracy.  PLEASE include them with your sub plans. 

Sigh.

Bullying of Teachers

I don't plan to return to the high school, where the kids were so difficult last week.  It is a very long drive for me and I only took the job, because they desperately needed a sub who could speak German.  But I am still thinking about some of the behaviors of the students in two of the classes there.  At what point does bad behavior turn into bullying of the sub?  When kids talk loudly and interrupt the sub constantly, does that constitute bullying?  (probably)  Does passive refusal to do anything constitute bullying?  (probably not, but it still makes life difficult for the sub)  What recourse do subs have? 

If students are bullied, we tell them to tell an adult.  If subs are bullied, what can they do?  I called the administration to come remove a student from one of the classes I taught.  No one came.  So the students all learned that subs have no power and no way to stop them from doing whatever they want, short of violence.  I didn't feel physically threatened in this case, although it would have been possible - there were a lot more of them, and the odds would have been bad.  But, I was hired to teach them, not babysit them, and their behaviors certainly did interfere with my job. 

What else could I have done?

Higher Grouped Classes Larger

I was subbing for a 4th grade with around 25 students.  The kids switch classes for math and I had a group of 30 students.  I was not explicitly told that they were the higher group, but this is the common way of dividing kids when they switch classes.  Usually the top group gets more students, the middle group has an average number, and the low group gets fewer students. 

And now I am pondering what the effects of this are for gifted and highly gifted students.  On the one hand, the level of the whole class can be somewhat higher.  Generally, these groups use exactly the same textbooks, but sometimes their homework or side activities are a bit different.  And, if there are exceptionally able students in the class, the teacher could possibly cluster group them (though I have never seen any indication that teachers have done so).  On the other hand, the classes are larger, which means more grading, more classroom management challenges (even finding enough places for the extra students to sit), and more communication duties (parents, homeroom teachers). 

So, is it helpful?  Probably.  Is it sufficient?  Probably not, in some cases. 

Building Keys

Keys are a huge problem for subs.  The rules for acquiring keys vary tremendously from school to school and from district to district.  The procedure lately in most of the schools I have been in is to NOT issue the sub a key, but rather to get someone to unlock and re-lock the door, then put a magnet over the the door jam, so that the door remains openable, but the magnet can be quickly removed in case of a lock-down. 

These procedures leave subs in difficult positions.  At the high school I was at last week, I was a floater and had to keep my things in one of the two departmental offices.  Since I couldn't lock this door when I left, I had to wear my purse with me all day, as I went from classroom to classroom.  In addition, many times when I left the office, someone (yes, I suspect a student or two) would steal the magnet from the door jam, leaving the room locked.  I would then have to either call the office or get a teacher with a key to open the door for me.  It was VERY annoying and rather demeaning.

Some schools also lock the teachers' bathrooms.  I don't mind using the students' bathrooms, but the kids are sometime uncomfortable seeing a teacher there.  They feel as though I am spying on them.

And, today, I was in a mobile classroom.  I am not sure why nearly all of these VERY NEW schools weren't built large enough to hold all the students at the school, but every single one of them has a few mobile classrooms.  At any rate, I WAS given a key, because, in order to get into the school for specials, the bathroom, and the office, you have to use a clicker key.  Confident that this was sufficient, I used the key (to the mobile classroom) and the clicker card all day just fine.  Then, as I was leaving, I tried to get back into the school to check out - only the clicker card no longer worked.  I tried several times, until one of the secretaries took pity on me and came to open the door.  Evidently the clicker card stops working at 2:30 - the very minute school gets out.  I am not sure what a sub is to do to get back into the school after that time, unless the secretary happens to notice.  (And I wasn't told of this fact beforehand, so I could anticipate the problem.)  I am never ready to leave the moment the students leave, so this would always be a problem for me.

The schools and school districts may trust us with the children, but they don't trust us with working keys.  Yes, I understand that some subs may forget to turn in keys and it is incredibly expensive to re-key a building and issue new keys, but there are solutions to that.  One school had me trade my car keys for a room key.  I am not entirely comfortable with that, but I think schools that have me sign out keys to be returned at the end of the day don't have as much of a problem.  Annoying.

TEACHERS - LEAVE EXTRA CLASS LISTS FOR YOUR SUB!!!

Yes, I am shouting - because teachers neglect to do this so often and I am tired of it.  If the office is supposed to give the sub the attendance lists, the sub STILL needs a copy to keep when they are sent to the office.  If you want me to tell you how your students did while you are gone, I need a list to make notes on, so I can write that up in my note to you at the end of the day.  I can see dozens, if not hundreds, of students in a week.  I can't remember them all, but I can make notes on a class list so you can congratulate the great ones and deal with the not so great ones.

And, don't forget, if you switch classes for a subject, say social studies or math, give me a class list for the other class, too.  This isn't just for the above reasons, but also in case of an emergency.  The emergency folder by the door won't help, if the class I currently am taking is a different one.  And, if kids mysteriously disappear to a special class, I need to know that.  Who goes where and when?  When do they get back? 

Yes, I do know that I can ask the office to print extra copies of some of the above mentioned lists, but that takes precious time away from trying to figure out how to do my best with your lesson plans.  In order for me to prepare well, I need time to read through the lesson plans, locate all of the appropriate materials, check the classroom rules and disciplinary procedures, figure out the school layout and where various rooms are - library, nurse, restrooms, lunch room, where I pick the kids up from lunch, etc. Typically, subs have 30 minutes or less to get ready for the day.  If I am walking back and forth to the office to get class lists, this can take a good deal of this time, especially if I have to wait for the secretaries to help others and then print my lists.  [And subs are frequently NOT allowed to use copiers, even if they could find them.]

I need to know what the plan is for special education students in your class.  What do I do if Student X can't hold it together and needs to have someone come help her?  How do I use your telephone?  [No, they aren't all alike and all of the front offices in the various buildings I go to aren't called in the same manner.]  How about printing up and laminating directions and common phone numbers and leaving it in the sub folder? or PROMINENTLY near the phone?

Finally, please keep these lists updated.  Usually the kids can tell me if a certain student has moved away, but this ISN'T always true.  Don't leave this information for the kids to supply.

Sigh.

Subbing - German - Day 3

I was anticipating that the third day of subbing with no lesson plans and two (of three) extremely disrespectful classes would be even worse than the second day.  Only, it wasn't. 

The upper level French teacher had asked me to sub for her for the first three classes.  She assured me that they were just taking quizzes, so they would be fine with a sub who, for all practical purposes, knew no usable French.  [One semester of college French more than 40 years ago doesn't go very far.]  And I knew she was actually an excellent teacher.  Her room was across the hall from the office where my non-existent teacher's desk was and I could hear her leading her classes - excellent accent, no nonsense teaching style, but very supportive, too.  So I took her first three hours.  They were, in fact, fine.  The only slight glitch was that the office had given me her sub folder, which was supposed to contain attendance rosters, didn't.  So I just had the kids sign their names on a sheet of paper.  I didn't have time to go down and back up at least 3 sets of stairs to get to the office, so they had to deal with the attendance problem. 

Then came my first (and second worst - according to the previous day) class.  Dread.  I had decided that today, as a follow up to the lesson yesterday, I would have them do a lesson from the textbook.  Yesterday, according to a suggestion from the other German teacher, I had had them make a poster of a family.  So, I chose a lesson from the book which discussed a family tree and how to describe various people in the family.  At least there would be some continuity of lessons.  I did not hand back the posters from the previous day - I left them for the new teacher.  This class had 2 extremely talkative students, who felt it was their jobs to regale the rest of the students with jokes and comments whenever they felt like it - which was pretty much constantly.  There were also several hanger-on kids, who joined in the fun whenever they felt like it would provide an additional amusing annoyance for the sub.  Again, there were also a large number of absences - nearly 1/3 of 30-some kids.  My tactic this time was different.  I separated the two continuous talkers - and got disrespectful protests from the student I asked to move.  I told all of the students that they were not obligated to listen, but that they were also not allowed to disrupt the learning of those who wanted to get the lesson.  I had to do this several times and repeat it at various times during the 50 minute lesson, but eventually, the two talkers subsided a little and I got to the lesson.  I just followed the textbook, picking the sections that required little student interaction (which I could not risk) and having the students who were actually making an effort write their answers down.  I required every student to hand in a paper at the end of the class on their way out, with at least their name on it.  At the end of the class, I was shaking with nerves and suppressed anxiety, but at least I felt that I had accomplished something and the students who had participated had had a productive lesson.   

Then came lunch and a chance to calm down a bit.  The second German class was the class that actually tried, so I wasn't particularly worried about it.  The second German class was, indeed, much better.  It was almost fun.  In addition to the same lesson I had given for the first class, I read a little bit of Babar, in German.  I didn't have to spend all my energy trying to control the class.  I am glad this class will have the new woman as their teacher.  She will do well by them.

Then came my "planning" period.  I graded the papers of the first two German classes and updated my notes for the new teacher.  But the biggest challenge was still coming up and I was not looking forward to it.  Fortunately, it was in the great French teacher's room (who was back from her morning meeting).  I explained to her the disrespect I had had to deal with the previous day in relation to her special chairs, so she casually sat at her desk working for a few minutes as the class started,  It was a great help.  There were around a dozen kids absent from this class of 38, so that helped.  The same lesson.  But, for some reason, this class was not disruptive.  There were around a dozen students who absolutely refused to do any of the work, but they didn't interrupt and there were 4 or 5 students who were actually participating and learning.  I count that as success. 

And that was the end of the day.  I cleaned up and then went home. 

It occurred to me on the way home that bullying can actually happen in a way that isn't normally addressed.  Students can bully teachers, too.  These two classes were actually bullying the sub - verbally and emotionally. 

But it also occurred to me that the suggestions of the other German teacher were probably wrong.  He didn't provide me with any lesson plans, but said that I could do review of letters, numbers, colors, body parts, etc.; and I could do an art project with them.  Last on his list of suggestions was to do a lesson from the book, but there was no indication where in the book the students might be.  Given the chaotic nature of the first quarter for these students, I think I should probably have started out with the book - no matter where.  They needed the structure and assurance that they were actually supposed to learn something and that they were capable of doing so.  Art projects and relatively unstructured review made them view the classes as just place holders, until the real stuff came along. 

Oh, well.  Live and learn.

But one thing that gives me a little satisfaction:  after hearing the other German teacher speaking German, I have the smug knowledge that, even if my grammar is a bit lacking, I have a MUCH better German accent than he does.  I still sound like an American when I speak German, but not as much as he did. 

Subbing - German - Day 2

Well, yesterday may not have been horrid, but today certainly was.  

I was hired to sub for the German classes. One of the 3 classes was great. The other two were horrid. 

The teacher will be a "floater" - no room of her own, so I had to go around to different rooms.  I followed a suggestion by the other German teacher and planned to have the students make posters of a family.  They could choose their own family or the Simpsons or even just make up a family.  They had to have at least 5 members in the family.  They had to label each of the members of the family and they had to draw arrows with the relationships between the family members.  (He is her father. She is his aunt. And so on)  All of the words they needed to use were either on the board (for rooms with no overhead projector) or projected from my plan.  The first class did the bare minimum of sloppy work.  Only a few really rude kids in this class - just passively non-compliant.  

The second German class was the saving grace of the whole day.  For some reason, the kids in this class actually seemed to want to learn and do a good job.  What a refreshing surprise!

Then, the next hour, which I was supposed to have free, they assigned me at the last minute to sub for a social studies teacher. They said that the lesson plan would be on the desk.  Nothing was there.  There were a couple of worksheets on a table, but there weren't enough of the one on top for the number of students in the class.  So I handed out the other one and told them to read it and highlight the important parts (as per what one student said they usually do).  I did try to discuss it after a sufficient amount of time, but no one in the class was paying attention. 

AND that "hour" was immediately followed by 30 minutes of "extensions", with the same class, for which there were also no instructions. I gave up and just let them talk, draw on the boards, and play with their ubiquitous electronics.   

The third German class was the worst.  37 registered students, about 7 of whom were absent (I guess I should be grateful).  The teacher in whose room I was for the last hour class asked the students specifically NOT to sit in her special chairs. They moved. But as soon as she left the room, one boy went back to the chair and refused to move when I asked him. I called the administration to come and remove him - and no one came. GRRRRRR!!!  And most of the students in the room refused to do ANYTHING.  No one answered questions; very few listened to what I said.  Some just wrote their names on other people's work.  Some just talked the entire time with their neighbors or on their phones. 

And this rant is the SHORT version of my complaints about the day.

Rude kids, unresponsive administration, unprepared teachers.

I don't care how badly they need a German sub. I am done with that school!  -- after tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I have to go back one more day.  UGH!

Subbing - High School German

A week or so ago, a plea came from the sub office of one of the school districts that I work for.  They desperately needed a sub who could speak German.  I looked at the job posting:  high school; much further south than I usually go.  I turned down the job.  Then, a few days ago, the plea came out again.  They needed a sub who could speak German.  I talked to the sub office.  The job was for the rest of the week and could possibly turn into a long term position.  I am not really looking for a long term position in high school, but I do like to use my German, so I took the job.  

Today (Wednesday) was the first of three days.  I couldn't go yesterday, because I already had a job for that day.  

And now I remember why I stopped taking high school subbing jobs. It isn't so much the attitude (though that isn't good for a sub), but it is the difficulty of getting to know any kids in such short time slots. You end up feeling like (and being treated like) just a place holder.

It wasn't horrid, but the possibility of a longer term position is out, as they have hired a permanent teacher who starts on Monday. Many of the students were pretty surly, but I actually don't blame them. I was the 5th teacher or sub they have had this year.

There were no lesson plans, so I just ended up having them write answers to simple questions - What is your name? How old are you? How do you get to school? What do you do in your free time? Do you drink coffee or tea or something else? They were supposed to write in complete sentences (in German). You would be surprised (or maybe not) at how many high school students can't write a complete sentence correctly, even when given most of the words. Sigh.

I met the new teacher. She is nice. She will get them up to speed when she starts. Thank goodness.

And now a word about the attitude.  This is an IB school (International Baccalaureate).  One of the requirements of an IB school is that the students have at least three years of a world language.  About half of the students in the classes had Spanish sounding surnames.  A few of them even spoke Spanish to their friends.  When the principal of the school came in to talk to the classes about the progress they had made toward getting a permanent teacher, several of them mentioned that they would rather be taking Spanish.  Evidently not every student got their first choice of world language.  Since their classes are taught in English, they are already fluent in two languages.  It makes German a third language for them.  Given that, and the fact that I was, as I said, the 5th sub or teacher they had had since the beginning of the school year, I could understand the attitude.  Nevertheless, it is a bit discouraging as a sub to be the brunt of their confusion, disappointment, and resentment.  

As I said, it wasn't horrid.  But I am glad it is only 3 days.

High Standards

I hear it a lot - teachers need to hold students to high standards, but I often wonder what they really mean by that.  One interpretation could be that we need to have goals that are substantial and make sure that kids are encouraged to meet those goals.  The problem is, sometimes the goals are so specific that we can check them off of a checklist, but students still aren't doing as well as they need to be.  They may have accomplished that specific goal for that specific time period, but the learning isn't being incorporated into their overall education. 

A while back, I subbed for a class where the students were supposed to do some writing.  On September 7th, I wrote a post about handwriting.  5th grade students were supposed to write a conclusion for a science activity they had done.  Only they couldn't print correctly; they couldn't write sentences correctly; and most of their conclusions were superficial and even inaccurate.  So, what do teachers typically do?  They give the students a grade for the conclusion and move on.

I see lots of kids' writing.  Most of the time, it is far below what I think students at that grade level should be able to produce.  I was in a fourth grade the other day and was looking at students' writing.  They were doing a final draft, before typing up their pieces on the computer (which is backwards in my mind, but that is for another post).  This was a very good school and the problems weren't huge, but still, how much should the kids be held to producing quality work?  Should everything on the page be spelled correctly?  Should the grammar be correct?  Should paragraphing be correct?

One boy wrote with very poetic language.  He was writing a fable and the ideas and organization of the story were fabulous.  His spelling was atrocious.  How much should we hold him to correct spelling?  Does it hurt his development as a writer to make him spell correctly on his final copy?  My personal bias is to frankly tell him that his writing, and especially his word choice, is fabulous, but his spelling is atrocious.  In order for people to really appreciate his wonderful writing, he needs to spell correctly, so that people can understand and appreciate what he is saying, without being distracted by misspelled words.  I corrected his spelling, but honestly told him what a great fable he had written.

How many times should we go over students' writing?  One girl had the beginning of a good story.  I was there the day she was working on her final draft.  I could see it was getting much better than her original draft (both were available).  How many times should a teacher have her go back and revise her work?  What is the meaning of a high standard in this respect?  She seemed capable of going at it again - should we have her do so? 

I don't usually get to see the whole process, since I am just subbing, but I often wonder what high standards mean in this respect.  And, are we holding the kids to them? 

Job Switch

I really don't like it when schools switch jobs on me.  I understand why it is sometimes necessary - and I probably would do the same if I were in their position, but I don't have to like it, do I?

I got to the 5th grade job I took at a bilingual school today, expecting that 5th graders would be able to speak English well enough for the sub, since the job didn't say that Spanish was required. The first thing the secretary said is that I was switched to 1st grade. I don't do first grade, because the little kids wear me out. And, in this case, a lot of them don't speak English very well. I didn't dare refuse, though, because they really did need me, but there are times when I wish I could. 

And yes, they did wear me out.

The curious thing about it is that they said that there have been a number of days lately where they have not been able to get enough subs.  What is curious about that is that I frequently check the sub caller system for this district and I RARELY see any sub jobs advertised.  Now, it may be that I already have had a job for the particular days that they have lacked subs, but it still seems unusual that I so rarely see subs jobs available in this district.  I wonder if they don't show me the jobs for some categories, such as the primary grades or jobs that require Spanish fluency.  I guess it is worth checking.   

I checked and I am listed for 3rd through 5th grade jobs, but I have often taken jobs at the high school level, so I know that I am called for more than just 3rd through 5th grade jobs.  And I do occasionally see other jobs, so I know I am not seeing only 3rd through 5th grade job postings.  Still very weird.

And yet another "job switch".  In this case it was only minor.  The job was listed as 5th grade.  But it was really 4th grade.  This happens sometimes when a teacher, who used to teach X grade is switched to Y grade, often because of numbers.  I wish they would have the secretaries update the system with these changes.  The teachers never seem to remember to do it - or they don't know how.  

Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented - CAGT 2013 - Day Two

Since I do not have a regular position and I just sub, I chose the sessions I attended at this conference mainly on the basis of simple personal interest.  I don't need to focus on specific areas of education.  I could just go where I pleased.

So, for the second day, I started with a presentation by Lindsey Reinert and Penelope Heinigk titled "Going Deeper with Technology".  They specifically addressed one of the major concerns I have had about the way technology is typically used by classroom teachers in the elementary schools.  The topic is assigned and kids are told to use a given technology, usually PowerPoint or Prezi to make a presentation on their topic.  Sometimes, to help the kids along, the teachers give out requirements for the presentation.  Example:  at some time or another in their schooling, kids will be assigned the "do a slide show about your favorite animal" topic.  The teacher specifies that it must be at least X pages long (X being equal to approximately 6 slides), with a title slide, one slide about habitat, one slide about food, one slide about reproduction, one slide about geographic distribution, and one slide with a bibliography.  So the kids go to Google, and find the answers.  They then cut and paste whole sections of their reference work, usually without even reading them, except to make sure they contain the required information.  It doesn't matter if they have no clue what the article says, that they don't understand many of the words they have just copied.

That said, I am VERY glad that these women emphasized that there is a GREAT deal of preparation work, "front-loading" that needs to be done BEFORE the students even begin their presentations.  Personally, I would have liked to see them step us through the entire process.  Choose a middle grade level and outline the steps from beginning to end product.

The presentations they showed were good examples of the final products, but I would like also to have heard a bit more about why a particular tool might be best for a particular type of presentation.  Personally, I think Prezi's are more flash than substance, but straight PowerPoints can get repetitive and boring.  What are some other products and why might one choose one over another.  They gave us two web sites that list a number of tools, but no guidance in why one might choose a particular tool.

This was one (of several) presentations that simply needed more time.

The second presentation I attended was the keynote panel of gifted students, moderated by Jim Delisle.  I have seen Dr. Delisle on numerous occasions now and I never get tired of hearing his insights (though I must admit that I didn't really listen as intently to the leaf poem the third time he used it).  The problem I have with his presentations is that I usually end up wiping tears from my eyes far too often.  Even the panel of students had that effect.  What the students had to say wasn't particularly new to me, but it is worthwhile to hear them say it.

And, to prove that I still hadn't gotten enough of Dr. Delisle, I also attended his next session, entitled "Can't You Just Chill Out?:  Appreciating the Intensities of Gifted Individuals"  This was basically a talk about Dabrowski's OverExcitabilities.  I am not terribly fond of that term.  I actually prefer "Intensities".  This was familiar ground for me, but I ALWAYS appreciate the stories about the kids that highlight what he is talking about.  Since this conference was basically just for me, I felt free to apply all of these insights to myself.  In particular, the Emotional Intensity seems to be dominating my thoughts lately and causing me a deal of pain.  But it is hard for the patient to treat herself.

The next session was Susan Jackson again.  I find her presentations interesting and with some great insights, but I am left afterwards feeling a bit confused as to what I can take away from her talk.  As with Jim's stories, I LOVE the talk about real kids and real approaches to them and their difficulties.  But sometimes, I had a hard time telling how she got to that particular point with that particular kid and what the next steps might be.  I don't think I could tell you what more than a very few of her 27 points were.  She is undeniably brilliant, but some of us lesser mortals have a hard time making the connections that seem so obvious to her. 

The final breakout session I attended was Ed Zaccaro's.  He has written a number of books to use for teaching kids mathematics.  I have long loved his books and I wasn't disappointed in his lecture.  I don't agree with him exactly on his views on acceleration - he thinks there are problems for underage kids, especially in when they get to high school.  I agree that keeping kids with other approximately their own age and ability would be better, but this is just not happening in schools nowadays.  Yes, I would prefer to have all the highly mathematically gifted fourth graders working together in fourth grade.  But I just don't see it happening.  At least with acceleration, you are sure SOMETHING is happening.  I even agree that it isn't always the right things that are happening - greater depth or complexity.  I am just frustrated that most teachers and schools don't do those things.  At any rate, I enjoyed his talk.  It is another one I wish had had much more time.

It was a worthwhile two days for me.  I still feel alone and frustrated by my own failures, but at least I understand them better.  Ha. 

Further Thoughts about Yesterday's Post

I said yesterday that, "I would describe our job as educators to be to take the raw giftedness and gradually turn it into talent.  And there are a huge number of areas in which talent can be developed.  My goal would not be eminence, but rather self-actualization." Although I still mean that, I agree with Delisle, Silverman, and Betts that understanding the social, emotional, and intellectual being of the gifted individual is the most important orientation for teachers.  The goal is, again, self-actualization.  Not fame, not fortune - those are limited to the few, the connected, and the lucky.  But a self, developed and developing in areas of growth and mastery. 

Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented - CAGT 2013

I am attending the CAGT conference at the Denver Tech Center's Marriott Hotel.  It is a two-day conference, with the first day (now over for me) today and the second day tomorrow.

Small personal victory:  I took the bus to the Tech Center, instead of driving, and it was fine.  Easy and on time.

Reflections:
The first session I went to was Jim Delisle's presentation on Underachievement.  He breaks down underachievers into two categories - the true underachievers and the "selective consumers".  The typical example of the selective consumer is the boy who gets into trouble and is disruptive, unless he is in a class he really likes or has a teacher who "gets" him.  The typical example of the underachiever is the quiet girl, who does everything fairly well, but is devastated by any negative feedback - she credits her successes to luck and her failures to inability (stupidity).  Most people focus on the disruptive kid, because, as a teacher, you have to - or the whole class spirals out of control.  The quiet kid is the one who concerned me more - probably because that was me.  I just kind of slid by in all of my classes up until college.  I was such a good kid and so smart that no one worried about me.  I did what I was told and did it well, so no one ever knew that I felt like a failure.  I think Jim was a bit surprised at what I recommended for helping the quiet underachiever - the chance to really fail.  But I still think it would help.  I needed to fail at work that required real effort.  I needed to know that I could survive failure on something really difficult and I needed to learn 1) that is isn't the end of the world, 2) that I could try again, and 3) learning is sometimes really hard. 

The second presentation I heard was Susan Jackson's first keynote.  Because of the federal government's shutdown, Deb Delisle, who was scheduled to speak, wasn't allowed to come.  So Susan Jackson filled in.  It was an interesting presentation.  The major focus of it was on the necessity of play in our lives and most especially in the lives of children.  Sadly, I see this all of the time in schools.  Time is so structured that children never have time to just play with stuff or with each other.  Even when they can play games, the games are almost always limited to games with a hidden objective - math games, spelling games, etc.  Free play and the beautiful manipulatives languish on the shelves (see blog from two days ago).  Even recess times are cut woefully short.  Recess AND lunch for the kids are 30 minutes.  If they are lucky, the kids will get another 15 minute recess.  Most are not lucky. 

The next presentation I attended was Linda Silverman's talk on Giftedness though the Lifetime.  I have heard much of this talk from her before, but this time a good deal of the emphasis was on the plea for us to understand that giftedness is something you are - the way you see the world.  This is in direct contrast to the recent emphasis in NAGC on talent development.  While I agree with Dr. Silverman that giftedness is something you are - intrinsic to your whole being, I think too much is made of the supposed abandonment of that view to the talent development model.  I have long thought that the best model of giftedness and talent is the Gagné model, where giftedness is the left-hand side (of the usual visual representation).  This is the giftedness that Linda Silverman talks about.  In Gagné's model, the other side of the visual is the talent side.  I would describe our job as educators to be to take the raw giftedness and gradually turn it into talent.  And there are a huge number of areas in which talent can be developed.  My goal would not be eminence, but rather self-actualization.  The people who achieve eminence need not just giftedness, but culturally-related education and luck.  E.g., in a culture that does not value the arts, even the most gifted artist may never turn into a talented artist.  And, in a culture that does not allow for education of women, even the most gifted female mathematician will never develop her talent.  In a culture dependent on inherited connections to wealth and power, the gifted poor child can never become eminent. 

Jim Delisle also gave a keynote presentation titled Learning to Exhale.  I agree with him wholeheartedly on this.  When I first attended full time gifted classes as a 6th grader a million years ago, it seemed to me that my whole mind was waking up from a long dull stupor.  I get along well with a huge variety of people and, as a sub, I connect with a huge range of children and adults.  But I come fully alive and cherish the time I spend with other gifted people.  It is truly my lifeline.  It is sad to me that more gifted kids don't have this opportunity.  I am a swimmer.  Being with other gifted people is like coming up for air.  I need that breath of air to keep me going through the rest of the stroke.  Gifted kids don't just WANT peers, the NEED them, with their whole beings.

The final presentation I went to was Mary Ellen Sweeney and Brooke Walker's discussion of Ethnographic Research.  I have long been interested in other cultures and chose this presentation to see how others approach the topic.  I found some useful ideas here - especially the graphic organizer about the various aspects of culture.  I wish they had started their presentation with a preface, though.  I would like to have known that they had written a book about this process and that the book was aimed for middle-school and high-school teachers.  I gradually found that out as the presentation progressed, but it was unnecessarily confusing at first.  And, rather than the process of doing the unit, I would like to have heard some specific case examples, e.g., one student who was taking notes on his soccer team came up with these artifacts ..., these customs ..., and these rituals ...  I did like that we got to talk to other attendees for a short time.  I had a good person to talk to.

All in all, a worthwhile day. 

Big Class - Fewer Hands On Activities

I was subbing in a fourth grade class the other day.  The teacher's homeroom class was 30 students, but all of the fourth grade teachers teach math at the same time and they switch around, based on ability, I assume.  The math class I had was 34 students.  The assignment was to cut out math "code" cards.  There were pieces for hundreds (100 through 900), tens, ones, tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.  I am not sure if there were also pieces for thousands.  But, even so, not only is that a lot of cutting, it is a huge task to keep track of all those pieces.  I eventually found enough baggies for each student to put his/her pieces in, but the cutting and bagging took WAY more time than was allotted for the lesson.  We didn't even begin using the pieces, because most of the students were still cutting - and losing pieces on the floor.  A few students forgot or didn't have the appropriate workbooks, quite a few students didn't have scissors. 

The lesson is actually an interesting one.  The cards overlap, so that to form the number 264.25, you would use the 200 piece, the 60 piece, the 4 piece, the 0.2 piece, and the 0.05 piece.  Then, to change to expanded form, you just expand the cards and you see right away:  200 + 60 + 4 + 0.2 + 0.05.  But doing this with 34 students is a challenge.

One of the other (regular) teachers asked me how the lesson went and I was explaining to her that I had a hard time getting through even the cutting out part, because of all of the logistical difficulties.  She teaches one of the lower ability classes and has a slightly smaller group, but she says that she doesn't do those activities, because they are way too much hassle for their worth. 

I have subbed in a LOT of elementary classes and I am finding this to be almost universally true.  The beautiful, well-thought out manipulatives collect dust (or languish in unopened shrink wrap) and the hands-on lessons are simply skipped. It is a shame.  Kids often really like the manipulatives and, even though they are a lot of work, I think some kids really need them.  But using or making manipulatives with 34 nine and ten year olds is daunting. 

I wonder if there are Montessori materials that do the same lesson.  It would be nice to have more solid pieces than the flimsy paper ones.  But, of course, that would be horrendously expensive for such a class, even if two kids shared. 

Sent Home with No Job

I took a job at a school a LONG drive from where I live. I got there and they told me that there was already someone in the room to sub. The teacher had called her and she had accepted the job - only instead of accepting the job officially, she just listed herself as "unavailable", which meant that the sub caller COULDN'T call her - and I took the job instead. So when I got there, they sent me home. They do have some rules and I could have insisted on the job, since I had the job number. But when the teacher had asked for that specific sub and she was already there, I didn't feel like insisting.  They did offer to find me another job, but I am too picky to take any old job that they can't find anyone else to do. That part is my own fault. I have been stuck sorting mail, filling in for study halls and detention rooms, shelving books, and photocopying and I just don't care to do those things.  And, since I chose to leave, I did 45+ miles of driving for nothing - not even mileage. They have lots of other jobs available for today, but they aren't ones that I would normally take, so I am back home. Too bad for them. 

Subbing is the pits. Sometimes. Several people have suggested to me that I find a different job.  I have actually looked into doing so, but my computer skills are not current enough to get a decent job in IT.  I am overqualified for jobs I could be hired for and underqualified for jobs I would be interested in.  I actually enjoy subbing on good days.  I just wish there were more good days.

Teachers' Own Spelling and Grammar

Yes, it is a pet peeve of mine.  Teachers make a HUGE number of spelling, grammar, and usage errors, when they write (or word process) their notes to me, their sub.  But I have to admit that the funniest error was a teacher who spelled his own name wrong in large letters at the top of the note.  I know it was wrong, because he spelled in correctly several other places in his room and on his materials.  Names are usually spelled the same in all locations. 

I know I make a large number of typos.  And I usually don't see them until I hit send or publish.  And, I know teachers are often in a hurry when they write the sub notes.  So, I usually cringe and just go on, but it worries me a bit, when I can see that teachers really don't know the difference between "whose" and "who's", or "their" and "there", etc.

Re: Things We Should Stop Doing to High-Ability Students

Original article by Tamar Wyschogrod
http://smokingtowardnewjersey.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/five-things-we-should-stop-doing-to.html?spref=tw 

I have a couple of minor complaints about this article and some major comments. 

First of all, a minor complaint:  in the second paragraph, I think high-ability is equated with high-achieving. They are IMNSHO different things.  I don't object to the use of high-ability to equate to "gifted", but high-ability does not necessarily translate to high-achieving.  And high-achieving does not necessarily translate to high-ability.  That last statement needs to be explained a bit more.  While it does take a certain amount of ability in order to achieve highly, in most of the things required for school, a modest amount of ability combined with hard work and support from parents, teachers, or peers is sufficient to result in high-achievement, or at least noticeably above average achievement.

Secondly, crappy differentiation is crappy, because it is difficult, takes time, and is politically a hard sell with kids.  I have written quite a few times about the problems with touting differentiation as the solution for high-ability students.  Check the tag if you are interested, but basically, it simply isn't enough for HG+ students, teachers can't do it (conceptually difficult), and teachers don't do it (not enough time).  

I haven't ever addressed specifically the last point of the above paragraph's opening statement:  differentiation is politically a hard sell with kids.  There are a few kids, for whom getting something different is such a relief that they don't care how their classmates view it.  There are also a few kids who take getting something different to mean that they are somehow better than their classmates.  But, IME, a lot of the students react to getting something different with either embarrassment or reluctance.  They might be embarrassed because they are afraid that their classmates will take the view that they are "stuck up" or they might be embarrassed that they are singled out - "out"ed, as a smart kid, when they were just trying to "pass".  And, there are a lot of high-ability kids who look at differentiation as just more work for them to do (as the author points out).  Given a list of options for projects, they choose the easy ones, even though they aren't very challenging, because they are less work.  Not all high-ability kids WANT higher challenge work.  

Now for the rest of the article.

Group Projects.  Yes, in general, these are the bane of the high-ability students.  This comes largely from the teacher-training recommendations for group constitutions - one high-ability student, two average students, one low ability student.  High-ability student can sometimes cajole one average student into helping, but oftentimes ends up doing most of the work.  What does the low ability student learn?  That s/he is too dumb to help and it is best to just clown around so that the others don't notice.  One teacher inservice that I attended said that group projects aren't themselves the problem.  It is the make-up of the groups.  She recommended never including high-ability students with low-ability students.  Her recommendation: groups of four should have similar abilities, e.g., one or two high ability students and 2 or 3 moderate ability students.  That way, the lower ability groups can't get away with doing little or nothing, and the teacher might be able to adjust the project so that they, too, learn something (differentiation).  

Crappy Differentiation.  Already discussed.

Contests instead of Curriculum.  I like contests.  They can be interesting and motivating for gifted kids.  But I agree that they are no substitute for curriculum.  But just regular classroom differentiated curriculum isn't good enough.  It isn't challenging enough, it isn't (usually) at the correct level, and it isn't consistent enough.  High-ability kids need real and regular work.  It isn't fair to make the average kids work hard at learning and let the high-ability kids coast.  They don't learn good work habits.  They don't learn how to react to difficulties.  They don't learn how to learn.  That is why I am actually opposed to gifted advocates insisting on touting differentiation.  It isn't working.  High-ability kids need classes designed for their abilities.  The easiest way to do this is by structural changes - subject acceleration, whole grade acceleration, grouping across multiple classes, and possibly cluster-grouping.  I am still uncertain about cluster-grouping, because, as a sub,  I have yet to see it in action.  

Ignoring Their Achievements

This isn't a biggie with me.  I think schools are doing better at touting achievements of high-ability kids.  Yes, in some cases, it still feels like tokenism, but this is one area where I think schools have been reasonably responsive.  

Low Standards

It seems like, in many classrooms, there is a race to the bottom.  We don't want the low-ability kids to feel bad, so we teach lessons where all kids can achieve.  We don't require good spelling in science class, because there are kids who simply can't spell well (true, even for high-ability kids).  We don't check social studies tests for correct grammar, because it is a chore to even get them to write in complete sentences, let alone write a paragraph that is longer than two sentences.  We make tests so that everyone who learns the material can get an A.  (relevant discussion on LinkedIn Math Education).  And most importantly, we don't give teachers enough time to hold kids to higher standards.  You can't teach kids to write well, if, every time you ask them to write, you have to spend hours and hours of your own personal time - not planning time - grading those papers.  30 students X 3 minutes per paper ==> 1 1/2 hours of grading for one paper in one subject.  That is the ENTIRE planning time for 3 days.  

Thanks for some interesting food for thought to Tamar Wyschogrod.

Biggest Mistake

This is going to be a very personal post, so if you are only interested in general observations, this one isn't for you.

Many years ago, when I was 15, I spent the summer at the Foreign Language League program in Mayrhofen, Austria.  I loved learning a foreign language and I was good at it.  So, the following year, with the support of my parents, I applied for and was accepted as a foreign student with Youth for Understanding.  I spent my year, which was actually closer to 14 months, in Germany with a family of three girls and had a wonderful year.

My American parents were conservative Republicans.  They were supporters of the war in Vietnam.  They voted Republican in virtually every election.  My maternal grandparents were also religious and staunchly Republican.  I even got to see some of the Republican presidential candidates when they came to Iowa.  Politics isn't really my thing, but what I heard growing up was mainly Republican rhetoric and Methodist religion.

I have also enjoyed singing for most of my life.  I played violin in my high school orchestra and in the Des Moines All-City orchestra.  Like most teenagers, I also listened to popular music.  One of the popular songs at the time was The Ballad of the Green Beret - a very pro-soldier, pro-war song.  Imagine my surprise, when I found out that the song had been translated into German, but in German was a very anti-war song.

The family that I lived with wasn't wealthy.  The father was a baker and the mother worked in the bakery.  But, interestingly, they were much better informed about politics than I was.  They actually discussed politics and important news events among themselves.  Reading the newspaper and discussing its contents were regular parts of the day.  They weren't religious, although some of them were members of the church (you had to sign a formal document withdrawing from church, otherwise you were deemed a member of the church).

So, I discovered that interested and informed people could have completely different opinions about the world situation.  I discovered that good and moral people didn't have to attend church to maintain their righteousness. 

After I returned to the United States and went to college, I tried briefly to be religious again, but my politics had changed.  I was no longer a Republican and I protested the Vietnamese War.  And over the many intervening years, I have remained much, much more liberal than most of my family and I am now non-religious - close to being a secular humanist.

It was a big shock to me a couple of years ago that my mother told me that sending me to Germany was the biggest mistake she had made in raising me.  I was too young, too vulnerable, too easily swayed to the "other side".  I understand that she disagrees with my liberal positions and especially my support for the Democratic party, but I have long since been an adult and to think still that I have been brainwashed by my experience in Germany makes me feel as though I am being seen as a child - incapable of making my own decisions in a reasonable manner.

I feel that my year in Germany was one of the best years of my life.  It was a turning point in helping me understand other cultures and other people.  It was a turning point in understanding myself - or at least an important beginning.

I am very sorry she regrets that I had this wonderful experience.  It feels very much like rejection to me.  And it is too late to salve it over.  My mother is now 98 years old and suffering from dementia - but she wasn't when she made those hurtful statements. 

Firearms for Teachers - No

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/nyregion/firing-at-man-in-times-square-police-wound-two-bystanders.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

JS posted the above link on Facebook.  These were my comments:  

I just can't see teachers being able to spend enough time in order to be competent at the use of firearms. They are under time stress already - too much to do and not enough time to do it in. It is already a major factor in burn-out. 
And, if we are training teachers, shouldn't we be training them to teach, not shoot?
________
And, once again, I am going to compare teachers to doctors.  Would you expect your doctor to have to carry a firearm in the hospital?  Would you want her to spend many hours of her work week keeping her shooting skills sharp?  Yes, there may be doctors who enjoy shooting practice and who already keep up their shooting skills, but, for the most part, we acknowledge that doctors are probably too busy for this to be a requirement of their work life.  

This is the SAME for teachers.  They are way too busy already.  It takes regular practice to retain skills at shooting.  Without the regular practice and training, skills deteriorate - ask any police officer.  And, as in the above article, even trained police officers don't have a high hit rate.  Doctors don't have the time to train like police officers; teachers don't either. 

Handwriting

OK, I get it that teachers are no longer teaching cursive.  That curriculum has been pushed out with the emphasis on the language arts block and the math block, leaving little time for cursive writing.  It is even a struggle to include social studies and science.  But this rant is aimed at teaching PRINTING.  I have subbed for 3rd through 6th graders recently.  In each of these classes, the MAJORITY of the students didn't even print correctly on their papers.  There was a mixture of capital and small letters, with B's and P's being the biggest culprits, but many other letters capitalized at random.  One student even wrote half of her B's correctly, but the other half incorrectly.  When I asked her why she didn't write them correctly, she said she didn't think it was important.

Another boy, who did the same thing said that he usually types things on the computer.  Ah, ha!  A clue.  Has auto-correct gotten to be so good that students don't even notice when they are typing the wrong thing?  Of course, on the computer, it is easier not to type capital letters at all.  MS Word will even correct sentences to automatically capitalize the first word.  Some students don't even seem to know that the word "I" is always capitalized.  And, they seem unconcerned by all of their errors.

The assignment for the 5th graders was to write up a science experiment.  Specifically, they were to write a conclusion, with three requirements:  1) they had to restate their hypothesis, 2) they had to include their data, and 3) they had to use complete sentences.  They could also state whether their hypothesis was supported or not and whether their experiment seemed to be reliable.  Only about 5 of the students managed to write a conclusion what was acceptable their first time around.  Many of the write-ups were almost illegible.  To be fair, it would have helped if the worksheet had included lines on which to write the conclusion, and it is the beginning of the school year.  Still, I felt justified, even as a sub, in sending them back to improve their written conclusions.

There are still times when students will need to use printing, as far as I can tell.  I think teachers should hold students to printing the letters with correct capitalization - and spacing, which was another problem I haven't even touched on.  One word would run right into another word and it was hard to decipher which word was which, because, frequently, both were misspelled.  Even the word "hypothesis" was usually misspelled - and it was there for them to simply copy.

Common Core Pre-Test

I have thought of a different way of viewing Common Core tests this year.  This is our educational system's pre-test.  We are seeing where we are now and where we need to go.  If we view it this way, it could be valuable to not have been able to teach what is on the test.  We can see where we are already doing fine and where we need to go.

There are, of course, a number of caveats with this.  We have to learn as we go.  We have to be willing to change the standards, change the test, change the implementations of the standards, and change the uses to which the tests are put.  There is unlikely to be enough money and time to do this well.  (See my previous post.)

Book Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was interesting and brought up a number of observations about introverts that made sense to me.  It has colored my reading of several educational psychology studies that I have read concurrently.  There were times when I wished the author had edited it down a bit, but I must admit that those extra anecdotes did keep me reading, whereas straight exposition might not have. 

I have known for a long time that I am an introvert, but it always puzzled me how an introvert like me could also be a teacher, since teachers have to interact with SO MANY people in the day.  Moreover, I am a substitute teacher and I have to interact with many NEW people every day I work.  The explanation helps me understand why I am SO TIRED when I get finished with a day of subbing and also why, though I know I SHOULD "network" with other teachers at lunch time, instead, I retreat to the classroom and eat alone and in peace.   



View all my reviews

The Common Core and the Common Good and Where the Smart Kids Are: Comments on Recent Blog Posts by Famous People

 This post is in regard to the following two articles: 

The Common Core and the Common Good

Where the Smart Kids Are

From what I see, Mr. Blow (The Common Core and the Common Good) is correct.  There is nothing wrong per se about the common core standards.  What is wrong is how they are being implemented and general conditions of teaching these days.  Teachers work directly with students too many hours of the day and don't have nearly enough time to prepare lessons, to look for top quality lessons, to grade student products, to work with other teachers, to work with parents, etc. It is as though you were being given a test on your knowledge of differential equations, before you had a chance to study them, and were then given a test on the subject, to be completed in 10 minutes.

I am wondering if it is even possible that Common Core will be implemented well.  Schools are on such stringent budgets right now; class sizes are rising higher and higher; curriculum specialist positions have been cut drastically.  My sister is the assistant superintendent for a school district and they have repeatedly cut her budget.  Many years ago, she had curriculum coordinators in each of the broad subject areas, but over the years they have cut and cut and much of the burden has fallen solely on her.  People just can't get it into their heads that teachers and school administrators have to have enough time and support to do their jobs well.  Yes, you need well trained, intelligent teachers, but you can't get by with hiring just one of those well-trained, intelligent people and expecting them to do the jobs of several people at once.

And as for Annie Murphy Paul's article about students in high schools in other countries, I believe that the problem starts at a much younger age than high school.  I was subbing in a school recently in a mixed-age classroom of 3rd and 4th graders.  I asked the students I taught (as per teacher instructions) what the best part of their day was. The answer was overwhelmingly “recess”, followed by “going home”. When pressed to mention something they had done DURING instructional time, most of the students could not think of a single thing. The students seem to think that education is something that is done TO them and not what they do for themselves. There is no buy-in to the process. They aren’t interested in the gimmicks that we try to use to get them involved; they aren’t interested in finding out answers to any questions. In fact, they don’t even HAVE any questions more complex than where to get paper and pencils, how much time they have until recess or lunch. They have no concern for the abysmal quality of their work, because, in fact, it doesn't seem to them that it is THEIR work, it is work they have to do for the teacher.

The students were supposed to write a "sticker story".  Using stickers to make a picture or using stickers to represent individual words, they were to write a story with details and a beginning, middle, and end.  They were to use grammar and spelling as well as they possibly could.  This writing was to become part of their portfolios.  It is a good thing this is the "before" sample, as I found the writing to be terrible.  Some of the stories were clever and humorous (considering that they were 3rd and 4th graders), but the mechanics of the stories were awful.  Most of the students could not even print correctly (mixtures of capital and small letters at random).  Most did not capitalize or punctuate correctly.  Spelling was abysmal.  And very few of the stories actually followed the directions, with a beginning, middle, and end.  I helped a number of kids get a story outline, but even that didn't help.  Many of the students told me that they weren't good at X, one (or more) of the requirements of the writing, so they simply gave up.  We just can't allow students to say this.  We have to STOP giving students a pass on this.  We need to insist that they keep trying until they CAN do it.  We have to help them learn to CARE about the quality of THEIR work. 

Another assignment that they had was to compute the "value" of their names, given that A = 1 cent, B = 2 cents, and so forth.  Even though they insisted that they had done this "last year" and it was "2nd grade work" (which they were, actually, correct about), there was at least 1/3 of the class that couldn't do it.  They couldn't figure out how to write their names and assign each letter a "value", and ultimately, they couldn't add a sequence of 7 or 8 (or however many) numbers.  And, yes, this WAS modeled for them. 

Now, I know that I am "just a sub", but I know, also, that it takes time to make sure that each of the students gets help in doing the assignment.  Fortunately, two students were absent from an already not-so-big class (21 students; 19 there today), so I was able to help individually the students who could not do the assignment - and to make sure that the ones who tried to hide that they couldn't do it were still held to its completion. But many teachers are not fortunate to have such small classes. 

We have to stop allowing students to say that they aren't good at something.  That is the whole reason for them being in school - to learn to be better at things.  Teachers seem to have the mantra now that students should be valued for their differences and that students don't need to be good at everything.  That is certainly still true, but they can and should be held to being much better at the fundamentals - and I include arithmetic and basic writing as part of those fundamentals.  We can't keep allowing kids to beg off doing better than this. 

I was disappointed and discouraged by the level of skills I saw.

There are times when I would like to turn the whole school model upside down.  I subbed once in a school for teenage students who, either because of jobs or child care responsibilities or disciplinary reasons could not attend a regular high school.  Instead, they came in whenever they could to a large, open space room.  In the center of this room were tables and computers for student access.  Around the periphery of the room were cubicles for the teachers.  Students could make appointments with the teachers for instructional time, either individually or in groups, or could just ask teachers questions during the course of their work.  Yes, there were requirements, but, like the Korean schools, the requirements were in the form of exit exams for various courses or various types of diplomas.  It was the STUDENT's goal to finish the coursework.  The teachers were there to help.

I would like to see this type of buy-in at the younger grades, too.  Kids come to school so eager to learn and then it gradually disappears, until by 3rd or 4th grade, they are already jaded.  I wish I could be a long term observer in some other countries around the world to see what it is about their schools and their cultures that keeps students committed to THEIR educations. 

Wordle from My Post on Differentiation for HG+ Students

Getting Ready for a New School Year as a Sub

The "Back to School" sales have started and I have started thinking about the upcoming school year.  I have already done a few of the practical things.  I bought a large pack of pencils, some eraser tops, a package of loose leaf paper, some dry erase markers, a ruler, and, yes, a bit reluctantly, stickers.  Even with a teacher discount that came to almost $40 - nearly half of a day's pay.  And it certainly won't be all I spend out of my own money.  Printer paper, needed for printing up emergency lessons, printer ink, notebooks to organize lesson ideas, books for extra read-a-loud times.  Sometimes I wonder if I would save money by just retiring from subbing.  Gas is getting to be so expensive; school-appropriate clothes are, too. 

Then there are the legal things.  I have already told the three school districts that I subbed for last year that I would be returning, but I may take one of those districts off of my list.  The main road that I need to use to get there is always congested, but will be a whole lot worse this year, due to construction.  The alternate road that I could use, I won't use in the winter, because it is scary to me then - strong cross winds on slippery and steep highways make me nervous.  I have also applied to sub in an additional neighboring district.  I need several districts, in case they decide to limit subs to fewer than 30 hours, in order to avoid having to offer us health insurance.  I would actually like to sub in fewer districts, not more, so I could get to know some of the schools, teachers, secretaries, and most of all kids better, but I am cutting down on the grade levels and subjects that I will sub for, so I might need at least three school districts, in order to stay reasonably busy. 

And, I am steeling myself to keep my self-esteem in tact, in spite of not being able to earn anywhere near a reasonable salary.  Even if I sub EVERY school day, 180 X around $95 ==> around $17,100, which doesn't even come close to something one could live on here.  And, this year, I will have to buy my own health insurance, since my husband is retiring and moving to Medicare and I am not quite old enough for that. 

And there are lots of other things I need to think of too:  how to organize my emergency lesson plans, where can I find new things to interest kids in the odd times here and there that come up unexpectedly - an assembly is cancelled; the materials for a planned lesson aren't available; the lesson that a teacher had planned isn't enough to fill the time slot.  I look for things all year long, actually, but now I need to be able to have them available right at hand. 

And, most importantly, I need to think about the kids I will meet and teach.  What can I offer them in a single day that will help make their lives better?  How can I be more than just a place holder for a day?  And will I get to see any of the kids I taught last year again this year?  There are a few I would love to see again.