In the past two weeks, I have read more about schools, teachers, and accountability than I have ever seen in my nearly 20 years in education. Sadly, I can’t say that what I’ve been reading is encouraging. The one word I see over and over again is “accountability.”

Accountability IS a good thing. As a teacher, I strive to instill its meaning into the mind of every single child I’ve taught. Accountability is a life skill that will make you or break you as an adult. But please understand me when I say that I’m afraid “accountability has become nothing more than a political buzzword, and I’m more afraid for American education than I have ever been in my life… and it’s not because I’m afraid of how that term, accountability, relates to me.

An American education has always been about opportunity. EVERY child in the United States has the right to attend a public school. We don’t turn children away because they cannot afford to attend public school. We even ensure they have meals during the day, whether they can pay or not. I fear this right may disappear.

You, Mr. President, are asking for more from our schools, but when was the last time you spent some serious time observing a typical school day/week/month in any public school? When was the last time you saw a teacher work with a child before school, during a lunch break, during teacher plan time, after school… all to ensure that student learns? When was the last time you asked what type of programs are being offered at schools to help struggling learners become more successful? When was the last time you attended a public school nighttime program that focused on bringing a community into a school for a multi-age learning opportunity?

I don’t deny that some schools could do much more to help their students become successful. What I do see, however, is the blame placed squarely on the shoulders of the teachers. We both know blame doesn’t lead to improvement. Besides, are the teachers the only adults responsible for those students academic success? How many of our children have parents who are supporting their education? What are schools doing to bring in community members and parents to be accountable for their children?

Are there bad teachers in our country? Sure, but I can assume that the percentage of bad teachers to good teachers is actually much less than you think. What I really see happening: teachers in the United States are becoming scapegoats. One of the most important things I learned in my history classes is that, when a nation is in crisis, scapegoats are created to assume the blame and suffer undeserved and, many times, brutal consequences. Please explain how blaming and firing teachers will EVER lead to successful schools?

Full disclosure: I am a teacher. I have always been a teacher, even when I was a student in elementary school. My teachers noticed at a very early age (2nd grade!) that I was a natural at helping students understand the concepts we were learning. Peer tutoring was something I loved. From the age of 8, I wanted to be a teacher. One of the most amazing things to witness is that point when you truly see understanding in a child’s eyes.

I worked really diligently to become a teacher. The first few years of teaching, I wasn’t very good. Sure, my choirs sang well, my students could recite facts about music back through the Renaissance period, but I was hung up on classroom management. I didn’t have enough strategies to be as effective as I should have been. Those strategies came with time, as well as advice from a master teacher mentor.

Eventually, my classroom strategies improved, and then I remembered the most important thing about teaching: LEARNING. Those kids didn’t care what I had to say. They wanted to be involved in their own learning. My goal was to help them learn to think, but more importantly, learn to learn. Those were skills they would need their entire lives!

Eventually, I left teaching for higher paying jobs. I felt I wasn’t really making an impact on children, and I was burnt out. Outside of education, I was successful… but  unhappy. So, I took a very hefty pay cut and returned to my first love, teaching. Teaching music, to be exact.  I love working with my students, and I take ownership of their learning and well-being. They are my children.

Almost every day, a student might ask me, “Why is writing (or science or math…) so important to you? It is just a music class!” My answer is the same now as it has always been: you are LEARNING. You are teaching your brain something more important than any fact you will ever remember.

Which brings me to the last point of Part I: your version of accountability is all about standardized tests. Standardized tests do not, and never will, measure LEARNING. They only measure “remembering” and occasionally “applying.” Those are the two lowest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Standardized tests do not measure analyzing, evaluating, creating, inventing… what do we want more for and from our children? Yes, I want children who can read and write, but I also want children who can think for themselves and can move beyond what we already know to what we do not yet know.

I will gladly admit there are some facts that must be memorized before we can move on to higher order thinking skills. Those facts currently on standardized tests, however, do not fully measure what a child knows and is able to do. Yet, we are basing our entire definition of success in schools on standardized tests. Money is tied to standardized testing. Threats to teachers and administrators are tied to standardized testing. Children are being threatened with standardized testing!

Have you ever seen a 2nd grader stressed out because he knows a standardized test is approaching? I have, and it sickens me. 2nd graders should not be worried about a TEST. The result of all the pressure and emphasis on standardized testing: teachers have begun teaching to the test. We can’t have teachable moments in the classrooms anymore, because “it’s not on the test.” “If it’s not on the test, we don’t teach it.” Students do not love learning. They don’t love or even like school. How are the children of this country going to be successful if they don’t want to learn? Their definition of learning has become “preparing for a test.”  And I don’t blame them.

To close Part I of this note to you, I want to re-emphasize my two main points: we cannot have true accountability with tests that are so inadequately measuring our students’ true capabilities and potential; nor can we expect scapegoats to rise up and suddenly become accountable when they are shoved down, stepped on, and blamed for everything that is wrong with American schools. There has to be a better solution. I will address those ideas in Part II.

(Edu friends: I really want to send this post (and Part II) to our nation’s leaders. I would be grateful for any suggestions you have! Thank you!)

After today’s #edchat on Twitter, my brain just couldn’t stop rolling. The topic was “What is 21st century learning & how Is it different than 20th learning?” Lots of good discussion!

What I believe about education in the 21st century is that we absolutely must prepare our kids to be independent learners. The greatest gift I can give my students is how to find information on their own and then KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

For so many years, school has been “Do as I say. Learn what I tell you to learn.” If it’s not in the curriculum, we’re not supposed to teach it. Worse yet, students aren’t necessarily supposed to learn it, either.

Ask any employer today what their number one issue is with employees, and I’m sure you’ll get a lot of answers about responsibility, ethics, accountability. Those are all very important!  But I know also that many employers would say that they cannot find employees who can think for themselves or complete tasks without being told exactly what to do. Why is that? Think about what we do to kids in school, and there’s your answer.

How many times do you hear a child ask, “Is this going to be on the test?” They have learned to play the game of school. If it’s not on the test, why should they learn about it? That’s the mentality of the 20th century. It can’t be the same now.

Teach your students to discover new ideas on their own. Provide them with guidelines that are developmentally appropriate, but then also give them enough to room to succeed on their own… and fail on their own. Failing at something is extremely important to the learning process. We need to build in risk-free opportunities to fail. Besides, how many times in life is there only one right answer? Rarely. And when there is only one “right answer,” that answer tends to change. (Pluto, anyone?)

Teaching and learning in the 21st century doesn’t have to be scary. It should be fun… an adventure! There are many, many days when my students teach me new things from their own discovery. Those days remind me why I wanted to become a teacher in the first place.

I hope I can walk this talk in my classroom every single day. What about you?

Umm… hello? Now kids are “the enemy???” Sylvia calls foul, and so do I.

The longer I’m in education, the more I start to worry about what we’re doing to our kids…. and what we’re doing to our teachers. We’re living in an era of assuming the worst from everyone. In my experience, people give you what you expect them to give you. Kids are no different.

If you haven’t read Engage Me or Enrage Me by Marc Prensky, you should. The article discusses an atmosphere of mutual disrespect between adults and kids. We don’t value what they value and vice versa. That’s how it’s been forever, right? Generation gaps and all that… but I think we’re missing something bigger here.

What if we trusted our students to do the right thing? What if we gave them the rules without any threats, and then empowered them to make choices?

What if we trusted our teachers to be professionals? To make good decisions about what would help a student learn better? To come to work on time and leave when they need to leave. To grow professionally in a manner that is best suited to their own individual learning styles, content areas, and needs.

Will some people disappoint us? Yes. Of course. We’re realistic. I contend, however, that most won’t.

As a learner, I feel empowered in a culture where I am trusted. There is no one standing over my shoulder to ensure I do the work I’m expected to do, because they know I’ll do the work. In fact, it’s insulting to me that anyone would assume I would do less than my best. I’m motivated most when I have choices, guidance, clear expectations, and am trusted to do what I’m asked.

On the other side of that type of culture- put me in a cage, give me a set of restrictive rules,  tell me not to do the wrong thing and then stand there to ensure I don’t– I’m probably going to screw up. It’s insulting, degrading, and not a great learning environment.

Which of those two cultures most resembles school?

I choose to trust my students. Today, we started a blogging exercise. The kids are 5th graders who have not blogged before, so we began with small steps. On my class blog, I wrote a post. They were asked to read the post, and then answer some questions in their comments. The comments should include their opinions. I’m finding 5th graders are not often asked for their opinions, so this is sometimes tough for them!

My  directions before they began were:

1. Read the blog post.
2. Think about the questions.
3. Answer the questions in your comments.
4. When you are finished, read the other comments. If you want to respond to someone else’s comment, please do so.
5. Be responsible and respectful in your comments.

That was it. At first, they looked at me and asked, “Then what?” I said that was all, and that they could start working. If they needed my help, they could flip up the Help card on their computers- otherwise, they were on their own.

One student asked me if he was going to get into trouble if he checked his email during this exercise. I said no, because I knew he was going to work hard on his answers and leave a great response in the comment.

You know what? I received some really great responses from that exercise. The kids were honest, and every single one of them finished the activity without me standing over them to ensure it was done.

That’s a TINY example of trusting kids to do the right thing. I intend to walk into the classroom every day and assume the best will happen.

I’m going to build a culture of trust with my students. What about you?

A little buried. 

I’m trying to create lesson plans that are engaging and exciting, complete assessments (yes, report card windows loom in my future), keep up with staff meetings and professional development, meet district obligations… 

I’ve hit that mark where new teachers start to wonder how they’ll make it through, except I’m not a new teacher. I’ve been here before. Yes, it’s been a while, but it is all somewhat familiar. That doesn’t mean I don’t struggle, though. 

Perhaps it’s time to look to my PLN for inspiration… but what I’ve found is that I built a PLN of people who were more like my previous job. I haven’t actively searched out another group of people who are like my new job. That’s probably one of the next steps. I’m sure there are other strategies, but my mind isn’t finding them all that well these days. 

When you are struggling with your teaching or maybe just feeling a little overwhelmed, what strategies do you employ to recharge?

An example from my own classroom:

Currently, my 4th and 5th grade students are setting poems about autumn to music they compose in small groups. We are learning about different types of scales (note patterns) in music and how the words of poems naturally have their own rhythm.

In a typical, non-tech lesson, I would distribute staff paper to my students (assigned to small groups), ask them to record the rhythms they discovered in their poems, and then creatively decide what the melody should sound like. They do have rules- they have to stay within the scales we’re learning about in class, and certain notes are more “important” within the scale than other notes. Other than that, they don’t really have any boundaries. After they finished, we would all sing the poems together, but I would probably have to play them on the piano first.

It’s a good lesson– they learn that there are many options for their melodies, and there isn’t one “right” answer. Additionally, they have problems to solve. Within their scales, the melodies have to flow together, and the end of the song has to sound like it’s “finished.”

To transform this lesson, I ask the small groups to continue this process using Apple’s GarageBand software. Students can input their melodies through multiple modes, and then play them back to listen and revise. There is immediate feedback about their choices for notes. Also through this method, they can choose nearly any instrument they want to hear play their melodies (not just me playing them on the piano). These are more problems to solve- what instrument would be the best to “tell the story” of their poems? After this option is set, they can then go into the instrument bank and add additional instruments to accompany their melodies.

Finally, we can save their final compositions and burn them to CD, send them to iTunes, or use them as background for a podcast. These students have taken a simple paper and pencil exercise that could be played and sung in a classroom setting and transformed it into something they can use again and again.

Do you have to be a music teacher to use a lesson like this? Absolutely not. What if your social studies class wants to record a podcast about this week’s topic of study? Some of your students might be writing the script, some might be the podcast recorders or producers, and some might compose the background music that is appropriate for this podcast.

What I love about teaching and learning with technology is that our lessons can become so much more than they were before, allowing students to make decisions, be creative, and find answers no one else knew existed.

What are you doing today to TRANSFORM your students’ learning?

However, how many of us design lessons that allow students to really be PRODUCERS, and not just CONSUMERS?

What percentage of your lessons asks your students to sit and listen to you for information? What percentage asks them to find the information themselves and then demonstrate their understanding to you?

When I was in school, we were inundated with reports: book reports, science reports, persuasive essays… you name it. While I wholeheartedly believe in the power of writing for kids, I don’t think the standard report is always the way to go.

What if I asked my students to read a book, and then design their own projects to tell me what they learned and understood? If I provided them a set of objectives/parameters, as well as the rubric I would use to grade the projects, would that be engaging? Would they have ownership of their learning?

How about a persuasive essay? Maybe I could ask my students to work in groups and create a PSA (public service announcement) instead. I could require a script, a recorded version on iMovie or MovieMaker, or maybe a live performance, as well as  anything else that would allow the students to make some decisions, solve some problems, and be creative.

What kind of lessons would you design to:

a) engage your students more,
b) incorporate 21st century skills (I follow http://www.21stcenturyskills.org for a definition of those skills),
and
c) move your students from CONSUMERS to PRODUCERS?

Please contribute an idea or two in the comments section… I’ll follow up with another post with some of the highlighted ideas, or even a wiki where we could continue to add lesson ideas.

Thanks in advance!

I’m back in the classroom now, and I’m hoping to start another blog soon to ‘chronicle the journey back’ after eight years at the district level: my expectations, surprises, joys, etc. In another week or so, I think I’ll have my groove going and will be able to start that.

One thing I do notice is how quickly the day flies. I see 10 music classes of students a day– grades 3-5 for 30 minutes, and grades K-2 for 25 minutes. I’m grateful to have that much time with them, as I know other specialists don’t get that much. When it comes to preparing and teaching, though, that time flies by so quickly.

First observation- very few classrooms in general (not just mine) are arranged to allow adequate instructional time with technology. I need to really think how I can best RE-arrange my room to facilitate using a computer as a learning tool (I have one desktop in my classroom). Knowing that many schools were built at least 15-30 years ago (or even longer ago than that!), I know there wasn’t even a glimmer in anyone’s eye to consider classroom design for instructional technology. My internet drop is in the farthest corner of the class. Can I make it work? Sure.

I’m not whining… not at all. Now is the time to be creative and innovative.

Will I use technology to teach EVERYTHING? No. More importantly… should I? I don’t think so. If the instructional technology does not elevate or enhance how and what the students need to learn, I’m not going to use it for the sake of using technology. Example: students will accompany themselves while they sing– if we’re learning to play the xylophone and sing, it’s best to use actually play the xylophone. And I DO have enough of those for every student! However, I can share some online links for enrichment and further study for my students to view later.

So, I’m putting on my thinking cap about what I can do with my kids in 25-30 minutes that is relevant, meaningful, part of the district curriculum– and uses technology to enhance and elevate the lessons I teach.

Suggestions?

¹ Marc Smith. “Time flies in Leiden.” Marc Smith’s photostream. 10 September 2007. 26 August 2009. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/1356589634/

EdubloggerCon 2009- Saturday, June27

• learning through conversations is one of my favorite ways to learn, and EBC is all about this. Small groups, one or two people agree to moderate, and the discussion carries us all.  People share their opinions, agree/disagree, and we’re engaged.

Volunteering for ISTE- Sunday, June 28

• this was my 2nd year volunteering for ISTE, and I really love the opportunity to a) give back to ISTE, b) meet new people, and c) learn more about the conference during my shift. Met two new dinner friends, too… thanks for the conversation, Pam and Fern!

Malcolm Gladwell, Keynote- Sunday, June 28

• I think I may need to reserve the right to a follow-up post on this one, and there are also several others posting their thoughts. Will have to link them as well.
• Points he made I liked: 1) when we think of success stories, we need to remember that many of those successes came after years of hard work and little to no success–effort counts; 2) some people who become successful do so in spite of obstacles- they compensate in other ways; and 3) to be successful, one needs the opportunity to fail.

The best thing, in my opinion, about conferences like NECC is meeting new people and carrying on conversations outside the conference sessions. Dinners and tours can be just as meaningful- sometimes more- than the ‘working’ sessions. Thanks for the dinner discussion tonight, Ryan, Deven, and Donnelle!

The only bad thing for me about conferences like NECC – when should I sleep?

I’d really like to blog about the experience… going back into a classroom after working for eight years at the district level is going to be an adventure! I don’t think, however, that this blog is the place for that. SO, I’m toying with the idea of starting yet another blog (that’s 3, if you’re counting!). I really think there’s much to learn about going back, and blogging is a great learning and reflection tool. I hope to reflect, report, question, and resolve through my classroom blog. Hopefully, I’ll have that set up soon and will be able to link it here.

In the meantime, I really don’t want to give up this blog! I’ve grown a lot as an educator through writing posts here, reading comments, and reading other similar blogs. The bigger question will be – do I have time to do that all… especially considering how much there is to do as a newly recycled classroom teacher? I guess we’ll wait and see.

I’ve been doing a lot of research with colleagues in the last few months in the realm of public school district policies, especially pertaining to internet, web 2.0, social media, filtering, etc.

What we’ve found is many schools who have vague language in their policies, and who rely on either a person or a committee to make decisions on a case by case basis. I can’t imagine that this protocol would be immediately responsive, as I’m sure the individuals or committees have other job responsibilities.

We’ve also found quite a few districts that insist upon the strictest control possible. In many cases, the justification is “we need to protect the students and/or staff from themselves.”

Internet safety education is federally mandated in all schools, but even those guidelines and requirements are somewhat vague.

I think it’s fairly obvious where I stand (if you’ve read any of my previous posts on the subject). I’m very much in favor of educating the masses about productive use of web tools, as well as discussing the inherent risks and learning about productive and responsible online behaviors. Personally, I think “control” is an illusion- and locking students and staff away from everything at school teaches them nothing when they leave those school boundaries.

However…

• where can schools draw the lines without making those lines too fuzzy?
• how does one decide if a “tool” is truly too risky for students to use within the school setting?
• if something “bad” happens as a result of using a specific web tool, what are the legal ramifications?

What are your thoughts?

1. How do your schools manage these issues?
2. Who makes those decisions?
3. When was the last time your policies were re-written to reflect the changing nature of what kids do and learn online?
4. Do you have an AUP that works well for staff and students? Why or why not?

I’m hoping for a lot of responses here, as I think it would be helpful to us all!

Also, if you haven’t seen this wiki started by educators in Missouri, take a look!
http://socialmediaguidelines.pbworks.com/