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.   



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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. 

Re: Before Reading or Watching Videos, Students Should Experiment First by David Plotnikoff

Thoughts about this article:

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/07/before-reading-or-watching-videos-students-should-first-experiment/ 

General conclusion:  it is more effective for students to experiment BEFORE learning about something through text or video than doing the same lessons in the opposite sequence (text or video first, then experimentation).

My thoughts:
I think this is true for a lot of science. When I was a kid (100+ years ago), kids had lots of active experience with science - collecting rocks, growing vegetables, building dams in the creek, using a teeter-totter. When they came to school, the science lesson used practical experience to build the theory on. Nowadays, kids have lots of virtual and digital experience, but much less hands-on experience - many have never hammered nails or fixed a bicycle or made cakes from scratch. So the theoretical lessons often aren't rooted in personal knowledge. 

In school, many teachers have found that manipulatives are difficult to manage with large classes, so those lessons have disappeared - at least it appears so to me. I am a sub and I often find unopened manipulatives and shrink-wrapped science kits in teachers' classrooms at the end of the school year. 

Many years ago, I was tasked to teach gifted classes, with no specific curriculum and few materials.  I did have a hot plate and some beakers, though, so I decided to teach a Kitchen Physics-like set of lessons - with sugar cubes, food dye, water, and the beakers and hot plate (and a thermometer).  The kids were skeptical at first.  They wanted me to tell them what to do.  So, I started with a simple experiment on how long it would take the sugar cube to dissolve in the water.  And I asked them what else they needed to know.  I helped them frame a group experiment in a scientific way.  Hypothesis, test, explain, discuss what is still unclear.  The first few times through the cycle, they didn't even know how to ask questions, but soon they caught on and were completely surprised at how interesting the simple system could be. 

Kids enjoy the hands-on lessons, but I fully agree with teachers that they are harder to manage with ever increasing class sizes and substantially less time that can be devoted to science. 

A Thought Experiment - the Able Teaching the Less Able

Imagine for a moment, you are required by your boss to attend a workshop for training purposes.  Unfortunately, the workshop topic is something you already know a lot about, maybe even more than the person teaching the workshop.  The instructor breaks the whole group into smaller groups to work on part of the topic.  No one in your group understands the topic very well, so you spend a lot of time showing them how to do it.  Some of them get it, but it takes so long to explain it to a few of them that you get a bit frustrated.  You could be spending your time actually doing your work, rather than wasting it this way.  In fact, you are a bit resentful that the instructor is getting paid a lot to teach this workshop and you have to pretend to be patient with it for the whole DAY.  What a waste!

Now, imagine that you had to do this EVERY DAY, probably for the next dozen years.  And add to that that you are a person who thrives on challenge, a person who craves complexity, depth, exploration. 

And now imagine how a gifted child feels when s/he is asked to help the slower kids in the class.  Occasionally, it can be fun.  Sometimes, it helps you understand the topic better.  But as a daily routine it is excruciatingly painful.  

The Demise of the Teeter-Totter - and Its Implications for Algebra

Years ago, I was teaching in an elementary school computer lab. There was a software program I was using, where the students were supposed to balance bags of gold. On one side of the balance was a bag, for example, weighing 7 pounds, and they had to balance it with a combination of two or three other bags, e.g., 2 and 5, 3 and 4, or 1, 2, and 4. I was AMAZED and discouraged that so many of the students found this difficult. You see, years before that, teeter totters had been removed from many public playgrounds, because of insurance mandates. Many kids just didn't and don't know how balances work. This has big implications for mathematics and equation solving.

A few years later, I was substitute teaching in a 5th grade and the lesson was on balancing equations.  Again, I observed that the students simply didn't understand how balances worked.  They could not predict what would happen if something heavy was added to one side of an equation that was balanced.  No wonder so many of them are lost in beginning algebra.  

I am not sure we can bring back teeter-totters, but we can certainly bring back playing with balances in the younger grades.  Get the equipment out and let kids play with it.  

Temperature in Celsius

I have long thought that the United States should go metric, because it is a much more sensible system of measurement.  The metric system for lengths seems simple and easily understood.   A meter is quite tangible and centimeters also look familiar and comfortable.  I can even get used to grams and kilograms.  Grams are a bit too light to make complete sense, and the prefix kilo- makes it seem much heavier than it really is, but I can get used to that, too.  Liquid volumes have become more familiar, now that beverages often come in liter bottles.  I have had a harder time, though, with temperature.  So, I decided to make up a rhyme for myself to help me remember the approximate meanings of the different temperatures.  I wanted something relatively simple - possibly something I could use with kids.  Here is a poster with my first attempt.

Book-Related Posts Moved to Book Blog

I think I have all of my book-related posts moved to the other blog.  They are probably somewhat out of chronological order, but I am not going to worry about that.  I will get them deleted out of this blog soon.  Three blogs:  book blog; education, social issues, serious stuff; less serious and more personal stuff.  There is some less serious stuff in this blog, especially older stuff, but I am not going to move it, since no one cares, except me, anyway. 

First in Line

I might as well say it:  I hate getting kids lined up to go somewhere like art or PE or lunch.  It takes way too much time and it seems demeaning to me.  Do adults line up to go somewhere?  Do we insist that they walk single file without talking?  Do the adults in the hall avoid talking when they pass rooms with their doors open?  No, no, and definitely not.  Yes, I understand that we want to avoid clogging up the halls, when many classes are moving around, and lines do help.  But I really don't like them.

And furthermore, I especially don't like the fact that kids actually fight over who gets to be first in line and who gets to be in front of whom.  "She cut in line", "You can't save places in line!", "No frontsies", etc.  Why is it that kids, almost universally want to be first in line? or ahead in line?  I can understand why adults want to be first to get on the airplane - so that they get prime luggage storage space and so that they don't have to force their way past cramped seating crowded with people.  But what is it that kids are fighting for?  Being first in line conveys no extra privilege.  It doesn't raise them in the esteem of their teachers or their peers.

To be fair, not all of the kids want to be ahead in a line.  There are those who prefer the end of the line, especially if the teacher walks at the front.  They can get away with more at the end of the line.  And there are a few, usually the more passive kids with fewer friends, who don't seem to care (but, even so I wonder if that is just a front).

So the question remains, what is it about those stupid lines that is of such social/psychological significance?  Over and over again. 

Mansplaining to a Sub

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mansplaining

The tendency of some men to mistakenly believe that they automatically know more about any given topic than does a woman and who, consequently, proceed to explain to her- correctly or not- things that she already knows.

Woman A: When he started mansplaining to me what it really meant to be a woman in the 21st century, I got up and left.

In a recent discussion on Facebook, there were a lot of comments about mansplaining - where men would explain something technical to a woman who was an expert in the area, even in spite of knowing that she was an expert.  I mentioned that this seems to me to be a more specific example of what I might call "downsplaining" - explaining to someone who may or may not be an expert in the area something that the explainer feels he or she should also be an expert in, just to demonstrate his or her expertise.  This post is a musing on that idea and is still a "thought in progress". 

Some examples:  when I am subbing, I often get called for jobs for either a half day or for days where the teacher is in the building, but is working on something else, usually joint planning with other staff members.  In this case, the teacher is often there to go over the day with me and to make sure I understand the plans.  In these cases, I am often subjected to "downsplaining", explaining in great detail even minor points about the lesson plans.  One time, a teacher took 5 minutes to tell me how to give a spelling test.  Another time, a teacher took 10 minutes to tell me how to teach an Everyday Math lesson.  I told her that I had been trained specifically in Everyday Math, but she continued to explain the entire lesson anyway.

The fact is, this happens over and over again and it puzzled me why they should feel the need to do this.  I am older, I am a certified teacher (as are all subs in this district), and I feel as though I do not present myself as lacking confidence or needing assurance.  So I looked for other explanations and it seems that mansplaining, if generalized, fills the bill.

Many teachers feel, rightly, that their classrooms are their area of expertise.  When a sub comes in to take over, there are several things that they are thinking of.  One of them is whether the sub can handle the class.  When the teacher thinks of handling the class, though, they are thinking of things that cause them the biggest challenges.  Sometimes these things are new curricula, sometimes planning lessons for areas that are not their strengths, sometimes they are dealing with challenging kids.  They feel that they need to explain over and over again the things that are their own challenges with the class(es).  Even when I assure them that I have a good background in science, they feel the need to explain the science lesson (that is mostly just reading), because THEY are a bit unsure about science. 

But dealing with lesson plans is seldom the biggest worry for me as a sub.  I have subbed and taught for many years.  Giving a spelling test, trust me, is not a difficult proposition, even if the teacher happens to use a different format than standard. 

Oftentimes they are correct about dealing with challenging kids, and I appreciate the hints they give me there.  But, interestingly the things they emphasize are often the things I least need help on.  What I would like to know is who can I call if I need help.  How do I get that person to come to the classroom if I need him/her? 

And, since the teacher him/herself does not worry about special classes (the kids just go when they are supposed to), s/he doesn't list all of the special classes, their times and their durations, and the students who go to them.  If "Joey" just walks out of the room at 10:25, it is no big deal to her, but it is a worry for the sub.

So, I think, actually, mansplaining is a subset of downsplaining, where the person doing the 'splaining assumes that he or she knows more about the subject at hand and needs to explain it in excruciating detail, both to show that he or she is an expert, but also to assert dominance.  The interesting thing to me is that they things they choose to 'splain are often precisely the things that they are a bit shaky on.  Things about which they are confident frequently don't get explained.

And, as an aside, I tried to start a discussion about this topic on the Substitute Teacher Network on LinkedIn, but the owner of the group said that it was "too political" and refused to post it.  I feel censored and may have to quit the group.  He has censored a post of mine before and I agreed to withdraw that one, but now I am feeling that maybe that group isn't right for me.  Too bad, it was giving me some good information. 

Book Reviews Moving to Other Blog

I am in the process of moving my book reviews to one of my other blogs.  That means they will be out of chronological order, but I guess that isn't that important.  This blog will continue to be mostly about education, especially gifted education, and other social issues that interest me.  Book reviews will be in the second blog and personal and unrelated stuff will be in the third (Wordpress) blog.

I am also gradually adding labels (tags) to the posts.  I am not sure how they help, but maybe I will find that they do.

I changed the title of this post to include "Moving" instead of "Moved", as it is taking me longer than I foresaw.

There is reading and then there is READING.

This is a reflection on the following post:

www.creativitypost.com/education/save_the_readers

There is something I observed recently while subbing. Frequently, teachers will have time in their lesson plans for kids to do silent reading, often called Read to Self, SSR, or some similar acronym. There seem to be two types of readers: the kind who are deeply immersed in books that have mostly text and few illustrations and the kind who are reading either non-fiction, graphic novels, or books with a lot of pictures and very little text. Looking more closely, especially with the non-fiction books, the students who choose to read those are actually doing very little reading. They will look at the pictures and glance at the captions, but they rarely actually read the text. There has been a big push lately to include more non-fiction reading, especially in an attempt to lure boys to do more reading. But from what I can see, this may be backfiring, as readers of non-fiction aren't actually reading much. They ARE getting a lot of information from pictures, but that is a different skill.

End of School Year for Me

To finish off my part in the school year yesterday, I had a combination 5/6 classroom.  It was the second day I was there.  Most of the day was entirely typical: he stole my pencil, she kicked my chair, I don't have a book to read, my computer doesn't get X, etc.  But, for math, which I enjoy, I knew many of the students were finished with the assignments they had been given for the two days.  So, I posed three additional challenges:  1) the 9 dots in a square problem (connect the dots with exactly 4 straight continuous lines, 2) show me a piece of paper with only one side, and 3) calculate the numbers 1 through 20, using exactly 4 4's and any operations you know (these kids knew +-*/^!and √). 

Most of the kids did not take part in the challenges - either because they still had work to do on their assignment or because they could pretend that they were working on their assignment and just socialize.  As long as they were pretending well, I didn't bother them.  But there were 3 boys who were fascinated by the challenges and 3 more who were very drawn to them, but a little wary about actually trying them.  I had a great time with the three and enjoyed the others.  At first, they were very frustrated that I refused to give them hints on how to solve the challenges.  One solved the 9 dot problem fairly quickly.  I couldn't tell if he had seen it before or just solved it easily.  The other two really struggled, but eventually got it.  There were several creative and pun-like answers to the paper with one side problem, but eventually two of them got it.  Those two also went on to try the 1 through 20 calculations and made significant progress. 

My fun was seeing them so motivated and eager.  One of the peripheral boys also wanted to see the solution to the paper problem, which I showed him at the end of class. 

Great fun and the reason why I sometimes really like this age student.  And it makes up for the horrid day I had on Tuesday with unruly and disrespectful 3rd graders. 

New (Old) Direction for Education

My grandmother was a teacher; my mother, who is now 98 years old was a teacher; I am a teacher.  In all these years of teaching, what have we seen?  Wave after wave of "educational reform".  The old was thrown out and the new brought in.  But is it better ... or just different?

The best wave I have seen was the federal push to develop outstanding curricula - BSCS Blue, Green, Yellow; Man a Course of Study; The Voyage of the Mimi, etc. I was in one of the classes that got to take BSCS Blue, when it was pretty new.  I also was a student when the New Math was the rage.  There is some marvelous curriculum out there.  As a sub, I have seen bits and pieces of some wonderful lessons - simulations of Columbus' voyages to the Americas, re-enactments of the American Revolutionary debates, with both sides represented.  But, far too often, these marvelous lessons are relegated to the back burners, because of the amount of curriculum that the teachers MUST cover.  What counts is the students' scores on the standardized tests.  Where are the wonderful lesson plans for diverse abilities?

Some people have mentioned that they have just about given up on schools, because it is so hard to agree on what SHOULD be done and not just what should NOT be done.  Fewer standardized tests, yes.  But, what instead? 

I have been thinking about what I saw working at a Montessori school. I sub mainly for 3rd grades through 6th grades and the Montessori school set up was such that the kids worked in 3 week time blocks with assignments in each subject area (some of which incorporated multiple areas). The students planned their days and worked on lessons with teacher-prepared materials. Occasionally, there was some whole group discussion, but most of the time, the kids worked individually, in pairs, or occasionally in groups of 3 or 4 on their own goals. The one exception was math, which was taught in groups of 7 or 8 students, with outliers taught individually by tutors. The teacher met with individual students, taught mini-lessons to small groups of students, or led discussions.

The biggest criticism I had of the arrangement (and I subbed there quite a bit) was that some of the materials could have been differentiated much more. The middle level of materials was great, but the materials for higher and lower ability students weren't as good. With the possibilities of computers allowing for wider ranges of materials to be available, I can actually see this model working. There were two rooms with a wide doorway between them, so kids could actually go back and forth between the rooms, especially for math. It was peaceful and work oriented. The kids really seemed to take responsibility for themselves and the one boy who didn't was guided into trying to make better choices.

There are quite a few lessons where working with someone makes the lesson much better.  Students in this Montessori classroom were frequently given introductory lessons about some topic, then given assignments that explored the topic in greater depth, with the unit culminating in presentations of products or large group discussions/debates.  Student groupings were varied and flexible.  

Interestingly, for me at least, was that there weren't any "specials" teachers.  There was an adult (teacher?) supervising the gym at set times, but students showed up in the gym any time during the time blocks, when they needed a break.  Each student was required to do some physical exercise several times a week, but it could take a wide variety of forms.  Art projects were supervised by the classroom teachers as part of the regular work.  I am not sure about music.

This arrangement might actually be an ideal one for me.  I like the ability to work with the kids all day, without the interruptions of switching classes.  I like knowing what individual students are doing in all of the areas of study.  I like the ability to integrate all of the arts into the curriculum.  I like many of the Montessori materials.  And I like the effects of the structure on the students.  They seemed responsible for their own behavior and learning.  They were considerate, even to subs.

But that is the only Montessori school I have worked in, so I don't know if it was unique, or if many of them are like that.  It would be interesting to find out - one of the advantages of substitute teaching.  If a job like that comes up, I will take it.

Reciting the Pledge Every Day

This is a duplicate from one of my other blogs, but I think it is relevant here, too, so I am reposting.  

As a substitute teacher, I get to visit many different classrooms in many different schools.  In many of these schools the students are given the “opportunity” to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day, usually at a designated time announced over the intercom.  This gives me the chance to observe what children of many ages do when reciting the Pledge.  Most stand; most put their hand over their heart – until you get to middle school and then the hand starts to sink lower and lower, until, in high school, it is much closer to the top of their chair.  Most say the Pledge.  Some just mumble in the correct rhythm.

I think reciting the pledge every day actually leads to complete disregard of its meaning. I am pretty sure that most of the younger students have NO IDEA what they are saying or why. And the older ones, who should have a clue, just mumble so that they appear to be patriotic, but they are really not thinking about it at all.

Yes, they do learn the words.  But I much prefer mindfulness in this regard.  If you are going to say the Pledge, you need to say it in circumstances where you are actually thinking about what you are saying.  It is much like the idea of praying for me.  If it isn’t done mindfully, it isn’t worth the time spent.

I stand, but I don’t say the Pledge.  I don’t say it, in order to respect those people whose beliefs don’t allow them to say it.  I don’t say it, because my mind is actually elsewhere, making sure the students are being respectful.  I don’t say it, because I don’t accept the inclusion of the “Under God” clause.

On the other hand, I love singing the national anthem.  Part of that is because I like to sing, but part of it is because I do so rarely enough that I can really think about what it means.

Why Do Some Capture Us?

As a substitute teacher, I see WAY too many kids in a week to remember them all.  In fact, if I am in a particular class for only a day or a half day, I often have trouble REALLY noticing quite a few of the students.  This is especially true of the quiet ones, the ones who seem to become part of their chairs.

One of my ongoing questions of myself is why do I notice some students and remember them and why do others completely fade from my mind?  If I come back to that same classroom weeks or months later, which kids will I remember and which ones will I have no idea about who they are or what they are like?

As one might suspect, the naughty ones are memorable.  And the class clowns.  The kids with special needs that make themselves known to the sub.  Those are easy reasons to remember particular students and they are all reasons why I remember some students.  But that isn't the entire cast of the ones I remember.  I am thinking back over the class I had just yesterday and trying to think of which kids I still can bring up faces or names for.  Interestingly, many of the kids do not fit any of those categories. 

Kids who speak to me personally are more memorable - even if it was just to ask to go to the nurse.  Kids who help me with some piece of equipment or some unique classroom procedure are also memorable.  Kids who display some part of their character are also memorable.  Sometimes even the especially quiet students are memorable. 

But, there is one category of kid that I remember especially well.  It is the kids who ask memorable questions.  And, yes, for me, the obviously gifted kids.  Weeks ago, I wrote about one young man I interacted with and felt especially drawn to.  During the literacy block, when the rest of the class was busy, this young man had told me all about a book he was working on - about American heroes.  For some reason, he and I really connected.  I was sorry when the day ended that I probably would not teach him again.  He is in a grade that I normally do not sub for, but I like his school, so I had taken the job for that class.

I was wrong that I would not teach him again.  I was in the grade one higher than his at that school a couple of days ago and he came into the math class that I was teaching.  This confirmed my assessment of his probable giftedness - kids are rarely accelerated into a math class higher than their own grade, unless they REALLY need it.  And, wonder of wonders, he was also delighted to see me - in a very quiet way.  He is not a loud, assertive kid.  But he did come up during a transition time and ask me if I remembered him.  I did.  Again, that mysterious and wonderful connection.  But too short. 

If I could teach kids like him every day, I would do it for free.  They are that intriguing to me. 

Half Day Subbing Jobs

It seems to me that half day subbing jobs getting to be more and more common.  My guess is that school districts are specifically scheduling their training sessions so that the regular teachers need to only take a half day to get their training.  That cuts down significantly on sub costs.  But it also means that subs are getting even less overall pay than the miniscule amount they were already earning.

Sub pay where I work is around $95 per day.  $95/day X 180 days = $17,100.  Subs don't generally work 180 days, so that amount is really a maximum.  If half of the jobs are changed to half day jobs, that cuts the potential pay for subs to $12,825.  Theoretically, one-half day plus one-half day would equal a full day, but in practice this is very difficult.  School schedules differ and there is time needed to drive from one location to another.  It is rare to find two jobs for one day, unless it is for a teacher who normally works for two different schools anyway. 

I don't blame schools for doing this, but it does make it harder to feel good about subbing.  And it is already a difficult choice. 

Formatting

I am not sure why, but Blogger seems to have little formatting glitches that I can't seem to get rid of without more effort than I am willing to spent on such trivia.  There are odd spaces here and there, indenting, when I didn't indent in the original.  It is almost annoying enough to switch my major blog to WordPress.  Any ideas why?

Ideal Class Size - Opinions

On Linked In, in the Elementary Education group, there has been an ongoing discussion of what the ideal class size would be.  This question hasn't addressed, for the most part, funding or teacher quality, but simply the straightforward question, about IDEAL class size.  Interestingly, the answer seems to hover around 12 students.  As most people know, this number is between one-third and one-half of the currently common classroom sizes, which range from 20 to 36 students. 

My own comment was, "The best classes I have taught have had from 4 to 12 students.  What fun they are!  You can actually talk with the kids and enjoy the teachable moments.  You can treat each child as an individual and not just as members of a huge group."

The key for me is the teachable moment.  In a class of 24 or more, there is little opportunity to take advantage of the teachable moment.  Teachable moments are directly applicable to individual children.  Sometimes these teachable moments extend to quite a few individual children at a time, but the real focus is on getting individual children excited about their learning.  Children are quite different in what really excites them.  Novelty, of course, will excite many of them at a time, but true interest in something usually is much more specific.  With classes of 20 or more, this becomes a time and classroom management issue, especially when there are specific curricular goals to cover - and there almost always are specific learning goals mandated for the day.  

Intuitively, I think most classroom teachers know that small group instruction is better than large group.  That is why most classrooms I have subbed in have small reading groups for reading instruction.  Very rarely, is reading taught as whole group instruction.  A bit less frequently, but still often, math is also grouped.  And sometimes spelling lists are individualized or grouped.  But rarely does grouping extend to any other subject areas.  This is especially noticeable for science and social studies.  The most content-oriented (as opposed to skill-oriented) subjects are the least likely to be taught in small groups.  

What is so great about 12 students?  12 is enough to provide a lot of variety.  4 probably isn't - variety in terms of viewpoint, gender, personality, background, etc.  12 is a good number to provide interaction.  It is also a good number for dividing into even smaller groups, pairs, triads, quartets, and hexads.  12 means that talking is manageable.  12 children talking all at once isn't an aural assault.  A class of 24 or 36 is.  A class of 12 means that the teacher can talk to each child in a reasonable time, close to when they need it.  In a class of 12, you are dealing with individuals as often as you are dealing with a group.  There is time for the teacher to ask questions that will excite specific students, but not, perhaps, the whole group.  The teacher can ask a student about a project and go in depth, where this isn't possible with large groups.  The whole quality of the classroom changes.  

I think groups up to 20 can operate like this, but with groups larger than this, the instruction seems to change.  What do you think?