Closure Follow-Up

I watched some of the Seattle School Board meeting last night. It was unruly, contentious, and heated. I wouldn't expect anything less to be honest. I see both sides, albeit from afar. In my eyes... Families and school communities don't like to see that they will close. Who would really? They think they are being singled out, and that the district is closing schools instead of collaborating to improve existing schools. The school board and superintendent see closing schools as a better option than slashing teaching positions, and the goal is to fill buildings.

The last thing heard on the broadcast last night was, "You are pathetic." People are angry, but is the board pathetic? What alternative do they have? Do they close north end schools and send kids south? Not quite sure how that would go over, but I would guess not so well (and probably lots of white flight). Does this look bad racially? Absolutely. But I don't think the moves are racially motivated. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. What I do know is that this process pitted schools against each other, and got ugly very quickly. Is that what we want for kids? Do we want schools, families, and teachers to say that they shouldn't be closed but that someone else is more worthy of closing? Ugh. No one wants to be on the bottom.

Early Retirement?

I love my Google Reader, if for no other reason than it keeps me reading interesting things. This morning I found a post at The Doc is In very interesting. The post was about Michigan's teacher untion attempting to coax retirement age teachers to opt for retirement, something they might not have chosen due to the awful economy.

For a young teacher, I would be excited about that development. I am excited and eager to get into the classroom. While it does mean a loss of veteran experience, I think it creates an opportunity for young teachers that might otherwise have been denied that chance. My comment referred to whether those veteran teachers, with one eye on the door, would be the quality teachers that our students need? If they are staying because they feel like they don't have any other option, then do we really want them?

Of course you lose some good teachers. But I also think this opens the door for some teachers to exit stage left when they should have years ago. It makes me think of this blog posting that hit my Google reader recently from NYC Educator (yesterday maybe?). Really? Do we want people who don't care enough to show up staying in the profession? Granted there are probably quite a few in the middle ground (good pedagogy, experienced), but we'd lose the eyes on the door folks.

School Closures

Today is a big day for the Seattle School District. The front page of the Seattle Times has a an article about the looming school board decision on closures. It won't be an easy decision, nor should it be. A great resource on this is the Save Seattle Schools blog. But there are some interesting nuggets from the Times article like...

Closing buildings does reduce many costs. One building with 500 students, for example, requires less heat and electricity, and office, janitorial and other staff than two schools of 250. By closing older school buildings, the district also avoids some major maintenance work such as new roofs or major heating and plumbing repairs. That's perhaps where the biggest savings lie.

Closing schools can't be easy for anyone, particularly the families at the schools in question. But the reality is that the district faces a massive budget shortfall. Where else can they save money without compromising the quality of instruction? I would probably be swayed, at least for a short time, that the smaller buildings are better for students because of the closeness students can feel to the teachers and staff. A 500 person elementary school seems massive. I went to a school of around 250, and it was K-6! But if not schools, then the question is where do the cuts come from? Teachers? Supplies? Food service?

A sidenote is that my wife is having her school closed in a different district. Does she like it? Not particularly. But we've had conversations about how ultimately the district can't keep open buildings with low or declining enrollment, particularly when there are nearby buildings that could absorb these students. She should have a position in the fall, at one of the schools where her kids are going to be moved to. But it doesn't make it hurt any less.

But hey, Seattle Schools is creating 100 teaching jobs for next year, and is committed to that (see the above Seattle Times article, towards the end). At least i've got that going for me...

How to ask good questions?

I find it understandable that I am not yet adept at asking grade-level appropriate questions. "How did the board balance with the fulcrum off-center?" would fall into the above category. "What did we learn about balance?" would fall into the category of vague and obtuse. I'm not sure I find anything more frustrating than failing to really phrase a question that can be grasped by students at a myriad of levels.

The next question is how do I develop a lesson with questions that will hammer away at the essence of what I am teaching? I think I need to be more attentive to the concept, and actually talk through some of the questions in some of these initial lessons. For balance, that might have been asking questions that lead to the big idea of finding a balance point.

• What did you notice about the beam when the fulcrum was in the middle, and the 10 cubes were all at the end? Did it balance?


• Why do you think it didn't balance?


• How did you move the fulcrum to make it balance?


• What do we know about the weights on each side if the beam is level?

I was excited when one of the 1st graders pointed out that the side that was shorter (with all the cubes) was the same weight as the long side (see the image above from my science notebook). I am not so sure I really helped him along to make it happen though. Is 1 of 24 a good percentage? Right. As I said to one of the kids, science is confusing and that is ok. Today was more than enough evidence that I need to improve my questioning, and build that into my planning.

Go and visit!

Do you have websites that you like to read, but don't read enough? Perhaps they are good resources, but they are dense. Perhaps they simply overwhelm you with good stuff, but you've got 1,000 other things you are reading/doing/trying. Yeah, that is me!

Two links that I love love love, but don't visit as often as I should are:

• Open Source Reading- this is a great place to connect with other teachers who are teaching students to read, and love reading (both them, and the students!). It has grown in the 2 months or so since I stumbled upon it. But the basic premise is to connect and help others in and around reading (with a focus on grades 3-8). If you are unfamiliar with the open source movement, do learn about it.
• Two Writing Teachers- I admit that I get their posts in my Google Reader, but am not a participant (yet) on their blog. Write with them, use the info on the page (great ideas abound), and connect with others.

Engaging Lessons

I am only teaching sporadic lessons during this quarter, and tomorrow I get a chance to tackle science and math. In truth, I tackle science every Tuesday with our kiddos, but this is my first foray into math. The lessons couldn't be more different.

The Seattle School District uses the Everyday Math curriculum set. It is a highly recursive curriculum, and tomorrow I am introducing Turn-Around Facts for the first time (5.10 of the 1st Grade guide). I looks like the lesson is 3/4 whole group, which will have it's plusses as far as bringing forth discoveries about patterns in the facts, etc. To some degree there is a level of comfort in the sheet with the facts that the student needs to fill in. But is that really engaging? Isn't there a better way?

Fast forward about 2 hours and I'll be in science. We are working with the concept of balance, and more specifically how weight and position affect balance, not to mention the position of the fulcrum. It is a 45 minute block (too short, I know!) that seems to run out too quick. The kids are engaged, and the only real struggle comes in teaching kids how to be partners with others (particularly those not their best friends). There I struggle more with having effective whole class discussion in a limited time than having an effective lesson. If only I could intermingle the best parts of each of the lessons.... there is still time!

(note: credit to penywise at morguefile for the above photo)

Homework and Assumptions

Two great blog posts I encountered today...

• If you get a chance, take a look at this post over on NYC Educator. A teaser: student artwork can have many, many meanings!
• Also take a look at Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It. Teaser: Can you pay attention when you've something distracting is happening in your life?

My experience, thus far, has pushed me to be open-minded about the different kids in the classroom. You never really know where they have come from, or what they mean, unless you truly get to know them. In the instance shown in the first linked post, the notion of knowing your kids is really underscored. It would be easy to judge the kids based on the artwork. But that, and the assumption you are making about the family, would likely be wrong. In the second link, I found it to be another example of how difficult it is for kids to be focused on learning. We push kids to be present in the classroom, but if you were in their shoes would you be able to focus? I'm not sure I would be able to. The next step is what do we do to help the learner?

Reading Instruction

I am a firm believer in reading and writing instruction that involves authentic experiences. In particular, the instruction needs to be centered around ideas that are relevant to the kids we are teaching. With reading instruction I feel like this can often be lost. If we get hung up on the particular level of the student, students may miss the opportunity to be exposed to really rich content. How do you lose content at lower levels? Well, one of the big issues is the vocabulary being used, which can often bump up easier texts above what a student "is capable" of reading. Should a lower level reader be stuck in texts like "The cat sat on the mat. Go cat."? There needs to be more than those low level readers.

A great example of that is idea is found in the video below:

Back to basics!

I am convinced of one thing: blogging can be an integral part of teacher development. Why is that? Well, for starters blogging (at least for teachers about education) forces teachers into the public sphere. Remaining behind closed doors, operating in the vacuum of our respective buildings, doesn't promote input into your practice or pedagogy. If we keep our doors closed, and our ideas locked inside, then we aren't able to benefit from feedback that could help us evolve. Why do we need to evolve our practice and pedagogy? Well, the world is constantly changing and we need to enable our learners to be a part of it in the ways that they will eventually see fit.

For me, as a teaching candidate, blogging is a way to reflect. It keeps me thinking about education, and provides an opportunity for my ideas to be scrutinized. You can't be afraid of the criticism; just take a deep breathe and let it in. I didn't realize how much I missed blogging until I wasn't doing it. Old blog posts on a collaborative blog can be found here.

Be well.