Here Come the Test Scores--My Hopes and Fears

In my state people are awaiting the public release of standardized test scores this week; students in Kentucky were the first to be tested over the Common Core State Standards last spring. Officials across the state have been warning the public of the potential results because the tests were new, not comparable to previous tests, and based on much more rigorous college and career ready standards.

If you’ve been reading my blog since its creation ten months ago, you likely remember my previous posts on the topic of standardized testing. If you haven’t been reading, you can read those posts here, here, and here.

I have a fear, a fear that the shock of the test results will move people to even more drastic measures and more harmful test preparation as the primary means of teaching students during the school day. We have much to lose if educators resort to more test prep and skill/drill approaches to instruction. We risk higher drop out rates because we are likely to find students disengaged, uninterested, and fed-up with school. We risk the loss of effective arts programs, healthy habits of mind, and understandings of success. In short, we risk the opportunity to prepare students for the life which awaits them beyond K-12 schooling. Sure that’s the intention of the CCR skills—to prepare students for life beyond high school—but the CCR skills leave out creativity and innovation, for the most part.

Being a generally optimistic individual, I also have hope—hope that we will remember the importance of creativity, collaboration, and innovation this week when the standardized test scores for students in Kentucky are released. I hope we facilitate learning opportunities and provide personalized learning based on students’ interests and passions. I hope we continue to promote the arts embedded into problem solving and project based learning. I hope that we will encourage creativity, not squash it.

 

 

Ironically, I presented at an assessment conference this week and upon my return home, my 9 year old reminded me that book character dress up day at his elementary school was the next day.   We had discussed this event previously, so I knew he was interested in dressing up like Hiccup in How to Train a Dragon.  However, at 7:00 pm the night before the event, we needed a burst of creativity to make his plan a reality.  The whole family contributed to this creative endeavor.   My older son offered his advice for making the horns from aluminum foil, while my husband searched for an old black tee shirt we could cut up for a tunic.  When it was all said and done, the whole family felt a sense of togetherness and a sense of accomplishment—collaboration and creativity!  Keep it coming.

#WhatIWrite

Today I am writing, thinking, talking, collaborating, networking and spending National Day on Writing at the Kentucky Reading Association Annual Conference with literacy educators from across the state and country.

Last night Laura Robb opened the conference by having us write about the texts we read. Tomorrow afternoon as the conference concludes, Doug Buehl will lead us in a session on academic discipline literacy, and right now I am taking a few minutes to reflect on what...

…I write

My blog

Personal journals

Reading journals

Annotations in the texts I read

Notes at every convening

Comments in my sons’ planners

Articles for professional journals

Professional learning resource materials

Conversations in online discussion groups

Conference proposals

Grant proposals

Feedback in the margins of my husband’s dissertation

Status updates on Facebook for family and friends who live far and near

Comments on blogs I read

Lists of anything I fear forgetting

Letters of recommendation

Notes at conferences and in meetings

Tweets related to teaching and learning, the humanities, education reform,

Emails to colleagues, other educators, organizations, researchers, friends and family

Text messages to my 11 year old

Notes to my 9 year old (in his lunch box and for the mailbox affixed to wall outside his bedroom)

 

I.write.every.day.of.my.life. because it’s important to me.

Introducing Principals to the Literacy Design Collaborative

This week I had my first opportunity to meet all the middle and high school principals in our district.  As the primary point of contact for a major literacy grant, it was important for these administrators to know who I am, and more importantly, to know about the ongoing professional learning experiences we are facilitating for their teachers.  Since we believe in modeling best practice, my colleagues and I decided to stage an argument about the content the principals would learn (In this situation, the content happened to be writing instruction and impact of writing programs in schools).  The argument was designed to set the context and engage the learners/readers in two articles with opposing view-points.  

I’m really happy to be back in the district working closely with teachers and schools, and for the most part it’s going well.  However, I do have one little issue.  My colleague and I don’t agree on the appropriate approach for writing instruction, so we need your help.  We are going to give you two different articles and ask you to help us decide an answer to this question—is it necessary to omit personal connection to produce good writing?  I don’t think it’s necessary to do so, but my colleague does.  Will you help us settle this argument by gleaning evidence from two texts?

My science colleague distributed The Writing Revolution, and I distributed In Defense of Freedom Writers but only after I talked about the power Manuel Scott’s presentation had on me a couple of weeks ago.   Then we gave each administrator a few text dependent questions to accompany both articles, set a timer for 20 minutes and then paced, re-read and watched as a room full of principals and associate principals read the two articles with their pens in hand.  Following the reading of the two articles, our social studies colleague continued the staged argument by telling the principals she didn’t agree with either of us—she was in the middle.  She then facilitated a fish bowl discussion to engage the principals in conversation around the two points of view conveyed in the two articles.  She charted ideas and the principals on the outside of the fishbowl recorded additional thoughts on sticky notes when it wasn’t their turn to talk.  A few struggled to keep quiet when they were on the outside of the fish bowl because they felt so strongly about what they had read.

These are the same conditions teachers are creating as they introduce a Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) task to students in science, social studies and English Language Arts.   Before we went into the rest of our presentation on LDC, we told the principals the argument had been staged, and they got it.  They understood we had set the context for learning more about the content.  Teachers in our district, across many districts in Kentucky, and in several other states in the United States are utilizing the LDC tools to implement the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical subjects.

We are using LDC because we see the importance of engaging students in meaningful and authentic reading and writing opportunities in every discipline.  Think about the response above--A few struggled to keep quiet when they were on the outside of the fish bowl because they felt so strongly about what they had read.   Exactly.  Imagine this happening in classrooms full of excited and engaged adolescents!

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you will know this is exactly why I left the state department to be closer to schools, closer to the teaching and learning that will make a difference in the lives of students.

Close Reading, Text Dependent Questions, & Academic Writiing = Nothing New

...or Considering a Balanced Approach to Literacy Instruction

As a teacher who was educated at a liberal arts college, close reading, text dependent questions and academic writing have been part of my educator tool box since I began teaching in 1998.  Now, however, these practices are seeing a resurgence of emphasis because of the Common Core State Standards. 




This was one of the ways I introduced my students to what it means to be a good reader. 
We would discuss which four were accurate according to Nabokov.

Some of my most vivid college memories include my English professors asking us to defend our readings of various poems, stories and novels with evidence from the text.  We read the works of Keats, Kipling, Yeats, Shakespeare, Woolf, Faulkner, Nabokov, O’Connor and more.   Most of my professors didn’t lecture; they taught us to read closely and defend our responses.  We discussed great literary texts and were encouraged to leave our personal responses behind.  In fact, I often say I never really learned to read critically until my first poetry class with Dr. Whited in 1994.

In my junior year of college a new, dynamic, and cutting-edge thinker joined the English faculty, and she believed we should be taught multiple ways of reading and interpreting text.  She challenged our formalist readings and asked us to consider the ideas of Foucault and Barthes.  While I considered the idea of authorship coming from outside the text, read the theories, and practiced them in this professor’s course, I had a difficult time thinking an approach to reading a text other than the New Critic approach would lead to an accurate reading of a text.  I successfully argued my point in my final Master’s Capstone Presentation and went on to teach high school English for the next seven years, utilizing primarily a formal close reading of text to teach my students to read and comprehend. My formalist teaching style worked effectively on the Cherokee Indian Reservation where my students’ performance in writing and reading improved each year I was at the school.

Flash forward seven years from my master’s capstone presentation.  I was in a new state with a new curriculum and a new, more diverse population of students and was working toward my National Board Certification.  A major part of working on National Boards is the intense analysis and reflection required.  I was also mentoring student teachers from the University of Kentucky.  One student teacher, in particular, challenged my thinking with her dynamic approach and different ways of considering text.  She reminded me of my college professor.  She understood the ideas of Foucault and Barthes to be relevant to our classroom and she considered poetry beyond the traditional cannon I so loved and faithfully taught, even as I paired literature with non-fiction texts.  Accordingly, I acquiesced to the importance of a balanced approach in my high school English classroom and sent an email to my college professor telling her I should have listened sooner.

So when The Atlantic published Peg Tyre’s article and Applebee’s response, I decided to reply with my own thoughts on the importance of academic writing in our classrooms today.  Two days after I blogged about Tyre’s article, I had the opportunity to hear Manuel Scott speak to my district about his personal experiences in public education.  He shared the story we all saw in the movie Freedom Writers and shared that his story most resembled that of Manny, a character created by combining multiple individuals from the original group of Freedom Writers.

Mr. Scott shared the story of his teacher, Erin Gruwell, and her persistence, patience, and passion for helping her students learn.  She started the year with “dead white guys in tights” and ultimately combined the beauty of Shakespeare with lyrics by people like Tupac to make learning more relevant and meaningful to her students.  As Mr. Scott shared, his teacher didn’t stop teaching Shakespeare and the power of words to tell a personal story—she just hooked the kids with Tupac.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Erin Gruwell’s interview with The Atlantic and her defense of teaching students memoir writing.  In our rush to improve public education, I hope we all remember to keep a balanced approach to literacy instruction because it doesn’t have to be an either/or scenario.  We can teach academic writing and memoir writing, and we can teach the Cannon paired with other non-traditional texts, both fiction and non-fiction. 

My favorite resources for close reading and text dependent questions in order of  personal preference.

Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them  by Francine Prose

The Great Books Foundation:  Shared Inquiry http://www.greatbooks.org/programs-for-all-ages/pd/what-is-shared-inquiry/

 Douglas Fisher: Close Reading and the CCSS, Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w9v6-zUg3Y

Douglas Fisher: Close Reading and the CCSS, Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhGI5zdjpvc

Text Dependent Questions & the Common Core http://www.achievethecore.org/steal-these-tools/text-dependent-questions

 

Wearing My Parent (not my educator) Hat for the PTA

From a parent and educator’s point of view…

Since very early drafts of the Common Core State Standards, I have been involved with reviewing, presenting, and helping educate others on the Common Core.    Most of my work was done as a consultant at the Kentucky Department of Education, where we provided feedback to early drafts, brought teachers together to provide feedback, presented to various audiences at local, state and national conferences, deconstructed the standards, created learning plans and units for the standards, and created assessments for the standards.  Basically, I spent the past three years of my life immersed in work related to these standards. 

Consequently, when I was asked by a teacher and parent liaison at my son’s elementary school to provide an overview for parents at the next PTA/curriculum night, I jumped at the opportunity and quickly spouted out three or four ideas I could use based on all my previous presentations.  This very kind and calm teacher and parent liaison gently reminded me that my audience would be different because it would not consist entirely of educators but of normal parents who just wanted to know what their children would be learning in the next few years. 

 

This changed everything.  Although I had been involved with the PTA off and on over the years and had spent many hours volunteering at the elementary school, I realized the need to think carefully about my audience for this presentation.  In the weeks leading to PTA night, I spent hours retooling powerpoint slides I had created for previous regional, state and national presentations.  My three younger adult sisters kept popping into my head, and they became my goal post for considering my audience.  After learning we would have a translator present on PTA night, my audience goal post expanded, and I grew more excited with the challenge of helping fellow parents understand what our children would learn in the coming months and years.

My foray into helping parents understand the Common Core was not only exciting but also enlightening because I reconsidered the responsibility I have as an educator to make sure my colleagues in education understand the standards alone will not make a difference.  Effective teaching and learning practices will make the difference in knowing our children are ready for the world which awaits them beyond their K-12 schooling experience and we don’t have to wait to show our children this world. 

 

Fired up about the Idea of a Writing Revolution

Peg Tyre’s article captured my interest when I saw The Atlantic link in my twitter feed.  I read it quickly, feeling fired up and knowing it would lead to a blog post later when I had some time.  Coincidentally, within a few days, seven different friends, acquaintances, and colleagues from various walks of my life sent the link to me and asked for my thoughts. 

If you’ve read Tyre’s article, you will know that she argues for a return to writing instruction circa 1950.  My first reaction was one of alarm because all I could think of was moving backward at the same time we are trying to propel literacy instruction forward for the next generation of students.  But as I continued to read and continued to receive the link in my inbox, on my Facebook page, and again in my twitter feed, I began to consider more carefully exactly what Tyre suggests—teaching the fundamentals. 

And then, Arthur Applebee published a response that read like some of the thoughts which had been floating in my mind.  On most accounts, I agree with Applebee, so here I will provide the link to both pieces and share some thoughts about how, pragmatically speaking, a writing revolution could happen in classrooms and schools if we remember a few important points.

Although the fundamentals may need to be reintroduced or reemphasized, they also need to be updated to meet the demands of communications in the 21^st century and beyond.  So instead of bringing back the 1950s with its “rigid unswerving formula” we should think about what we can learn from the 50s—good analytic writing, drawing evidence from text, being able to think critically and express that thinking in lucid thought.  It’s not about a secret recipe, but it is about effective tools to provide the explicit instruction and layered skills instruction our students need.

It’s about balance, not rigid formulas memorized for the sake of formula.  For example, my son was taught the basic five paragraph essay in the fourth grade, perhaps appropriate given his general lack of interest in writing.  In fifth grade he again wrote a basic five paragraph essay over a trite topic.  However, now (in 6^th grade) that he’s mastered this formula, he should be taught to move beyond the basic five paragraphs and encouraged to explore his real interests in understanding how the world works, the scientific process and ancient history.  A discovery approach like this makes more sense than requiring him write yet another five paragraph essay convincing us we should buy him a dog or arguing that dogs in the city should be kept on leashes.   Consider Applebee’s fourth point in his essay about what effective writing programs do/provide—“there was a recognition that writing is tied closely to thinking about new material, and requires tools and strategies that can and should be taught…"

While the Common Core does require more expository and argumentative texts be written, we should balance our explicit instruction of writing skills within the context of the ideas being explored.  To do this requires a delicate balance by thoughtful and reflective teachers who are themselves consistently honing their own skills.   My eleven years in the classroom affirms my understanding of the importance of the right tools balanced carefully with the right approach to writing instruction. 

 

We need to remember

•  to convey purpose in instruction
• to utilize essential questions that make students think
• to teach students to ask questions
• to encourage students to discuss and explore topics which interest them
• to teach writing skills, not just assign writing via a prompt

• to study language with our students
• to utilize writing as a way to improve reading comprehension
• to make writing an important  focus of instruction throughout our schools

 

Befittingly, I’ll end with my favorite quote from Applebee—“ the most effective writing programs are able to embed what is required by high stakes tests and then move beyond to a much richer vision of curriculum and instruction.”

Thinking about Academic Knowledge and Discipline Literacy

I am currently participating in a preview to the Kentucky Reading Association Annual Conference through an online book discussion group using the Thinkfinity platform.  Our discussion facilitator posts thoughts and questions for each chapter of Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines by Doug Buehl, and each of the book discussion group participants responds to the chapter.  Since our discussion facilitator also happens to be the state literacy coordinator, she presented us each with a challenge, of sorts, as we read this week's chapter stating “the examples Buehl gives in the rest of the chapter, organized by content areas…we just need to get the information into the right hands. I hope each of you will be the vehicle for that!”

 I take this challenge seriously because it speaks to my interests and goals in my new position. After spending six of my first eleven days on the new job with teachers, I must say I am very pleased with my decision to accept this district level position.   I’m now serving at the Secondary English/Language Arts Specialist for the second largest district in Kentucky.  The title is slightly erroneous, given that I am doing more work of literacy specialist than just English/language arts, but I don’t care about the title as much as I care about the work I’m doing and the challenge ahead for helping discipline area literacy be a focus for improving student achievement in Lexington’s schools.

 While I’ll do my part, I can’t do this work alone, so I’m thankful for a team of colleagues who are also committed to discipline area literacy.  Yesterday, several of these colleagues witnessed my passion for literacy & education for the first time.  I was heated up as I talked with them about Buehl’s book and my online discussion group.  We are planning ways to bring the contents of this book into regular conversations with educators around the district whenever we are able.  Meetings with principals?  Discuss discipline literacy.  Meetings with teachers?  Discuss discipline literacy.  Meetings with instructional coaches?  Discuss discipline literacy.  What will we share?  We will always share the impact discipline literacy has on student achievement and the importance of bridging the academic gap, but other specifics will vary depending upon our audience.  Thankfully, Buehl offers many specifics in his book, providing us research, theories, and practical examples which often speak to educators.

 Two of my favorite quotes so far come from chapter three about bridging academic knowledge gaps.  This very rich chapter has thus far brought the most in-depth conversation in our online discussion, too.   Buehl writes about disciplinary learning and students’ lives and worlds, stating— “students will be at risk for feeling marginalized, becoming disconnected from academic tasks and texts, and be resistant to developing identities that area compatible with reading, writing, and thinking through different disciplinary lenses… the persistence of achievement gaps is one result (p.91).”

My second favorite quote so far became my favorite as another discussion ensued among my new colleagues.  Our boss sent us a link to a story by USA today and commented that the approach hi to teaching history  highlighted in the story might be more relevant for students.  He then asked us what we thought.  Well, since I was already fired up from my online discussion with the KRA preview group and had already shared my excitement with others in the content specialists’ office, I decided to send my favorite quotes from Buehl’s book to our department and our boss to encourage everyone to join me in reading the book. 

 “A major issue of teaching social science is generational knowledge, in which our students are immersed and which is highly motivational, can be hooked into the specific disciplinary goals for the social studies curriculum  (p.93).”    Buehl goes on to discuss the need to narrow history curriculum to get at the most important parts of history by using events of today to connect to the past and to make it relevant for students who are likely asking—“so what?”  

Curiosity, Moths, and Moving Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay

Tonight I should be working on final preparations for a workshop with English teachers tomorrow, but instead, I’m researching moths.   I can’t say I’ve ever had much interest in moths before, but I also have never before seen one like the one I saw today.  Today’s experience was even more sweet, given that I was with 35 middle and high school science teachers who regularly utilize literacy strategies to teach their content.

In between the sharing of strategies like word sort and concept ladders, someone from the facility came in the room to ask if there were any moth experts available.  Half a dozen science teachers rushed outside to see a moth.   My curiosity caught the best of me.  We called for a break and went outside to inspect this moth. 

Our best thoughts right now are that we saw a Pandora Sphinx Moth.  I tweeted a picture of the moth and received a reply from a friend and former colleague who reminded me “form matches function at every level.”  She, as she usually does, provided me more to consider in my musings, but I’ll have to get back to musing on moths later because right now I need to gather my wits for talks tomorrow about why we need to teach students to move beyond the five paragraph essay in English class.

Form does match function at every level.  

Why I'd Rather be a Leader than a Boss

Having the last name Boss brings a fair share of name jokes about who’s the boss.  I take it all in stride because it just comes with the name, but when it comes to thinking about what a boss does and what a leader does, I’d rather be considered a leader than a boss.

Today was my last day with the state department of education, and when I blogged about my final thoughts of working at the DOE, I neglected to reference my most recent work as the academic core branch manager.   It was not a complete oversight nor did I plan not to mention it; I just wasn’t ready to put my thoughts about that experience in writing.  The people in this incredible branch are well-rounded, intelligent, and hardworking individuals, and I am thankful for the opportunity to work with them and to learn from them over the past year.  My knowledge of standards, instruction, and assessment for mathematics, social studies, science, world language, and arts & humanities increased enormously because of conversations, shared readings, and shared experiences. 

Our vision for the academic core was that we become a cohesive unit, working across disciplines on projects and models that would help educators in the field see the same possibilities.  We made progress on this work, but still had room to grow, and I hope my colleagues will carry on with this vision so examples of best practice for integrated learning can be shared with teachers in the field and students can experience learning in more authentic and engaging ways.

Tonight as I reflect on the day and the gifts bestowed upon me by the members of our branch, I am thinking about what a privilege it was to serve as the leader.  I specifically mention leader here, not boss, because I think I’m better at being a leader than I am at being a boss.  I’m capable of and have done both (in this job and in jobs while I was in college), but I am most happy when I’m the visionary, encourager, learner, and colleague, not when I’m the task master approving leave, signing paperwork, and conducting performance evaluations.   It’s not that I mind doing those things and they came with my job, but it’s just not what I prefer.  When you work in middle management for state government, you’re more a task master just because of the bureaucratic nature of the system.

Lest this post become a negative diatribe about bureaucracies, let me share some of the reasons I see myself as a leader and not a boss.   

·          Leaders see colleagues as professionals

·         Leaders establish a team approach with everyone working alongside one another

·         Leaders admit mistakes and admit to not knowing everything

·         Leaders listen first and talk last

·         Leaders give advice rather than offer criticism

·         Leaders earn respect by giving respect

·         Leaders are teachers not assignment givers

I worked with other leaders who were also former teachers.  Any one of my colleagues could have served as our branch manager because they are all leaders and they all have my utmost respect.

Rewards and Challenges of Working for the State Department of Education

When I left the classroom for a position as a state literacy consultant with the department of education, a mentor advised me to pay attention, to listen, to learn, and to reflect.  And, that’s exactly what I've been doing for the last 3 ½ years.  Monday is my last day at the state department of education, so I thought it appropriate to share my musings here at Learning to Muse, the blog I started to encourage myself to continue reflecting on teaching, learning, literacy, life, and public education. 

Rewards

Working for the state certainly does not bring monetary rewards of any sort, so it’s a good thing I entered the position with a teacher mentality of being willing to learn and give of myself.   The professional learning opportunities were my biggest reward; they were job embedded, ongoing and collaborative.

Washington, D.C December 2010

Working in a collaborative setting was a highlight for me.  We had a rocking literacy branch led by a literacy leader known for her work nationally.  We contributed to the writing of grants for literacy work, developed models for adolescent literacy intervention, presented at state and national conferences, delivered webinars, met with nationally known literacy researchers, developed a state literacy plan,  updated a literacy effectiveness review system, collaborated with the Kentucky Writing Project network, interacted with the Bread Loaf Teacher Network, supported speaking and listening programs through forensics, encouraged multi-modal literacies to be taught in Kentucky schools, facilitated content leadership networks, collaborated with faculty in higher education, facilitated cross-disciplinary workgroups to develop units of study aligned to the CCSS for Literacy in content areas, provided input on the review of items for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), provided content consultation for Kentucky’s new assessment system which assesses the Common Core State Standards, provided feedback and representation at national assessment convenings (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers PARCC), contributed to the best practices applications for work with the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, collaborated with other states at the SCASS groups and probably more that I’m not even remembering.

Whew!  We accomplished much in 3 ½ years, and I am grateful for the opportunities to learn, to lead, and to contribute to public education.

Challenges

Even with all the accomplishments of our office, there were also challenges in working for the state department of education.  Challenges I faced included: representing the agency not myself or my own professional expertise, adhering to the strict rules and procedures in state government, accepting decisions which were not always congruent with my professional judgment , not getting to interact regularly with schools, teachers & students, and listening to people complain about the state department being out of touch and unrealistic. 

It’s not a perfect system by any means, but what I’d like others to know about the state department of education is that there are competent, intelligent, and committed people toiling to improve public education for students in our state.  

College or Career Ready Reaches Back to the Days of Opie Taylor

Our family loves The Andy Griffith Show and with the recent passing of Andy Griffith, all the episodes are available through Netflix right now.  Each evening for the past several weeks, the four of us have enjoyed re-watching an episode or two.  Last night we watched Opie Flunks Arithmetic.  I was struck by the conversation about Opie going either to college or to vocational school, depending upon how well he performed in arithmetic. 

As he typically does, Barney meddles in the affairs of Andy, Opie and Aunt Bee and even alarms Aunt Bee by suggesting Opie might drop out of school if he doesn’t improve his arithmetic, and because he can’t let the issue go, Barney drops by the Taylor house to share an “…article about the next generation…some pretty frightening statistics…Kids who drops out. That’s how fast things are changing in this country.”

Does this discussion sound familiar to you?  I feel like this is similar to conversations we are having in the United States to this day.  Think about it.  This episode of Andy Griffith first aired the same year (1965) the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), was enacted, providing legal authority for the U.S. government’s financial support of K-12 education.

Though the initial goal of ESEA was to provide federal resources to states and districts for services that would improve the achievement of low income students, this legislation also changed the way educators and policymakers viewed and talked about public education.  Since 1965 there have been periodic re-authorizations of ESEA which have provided occasion to rethink, enhance, and alter the federal investment in public schools.  In fact, in the course of my travels and work with the state department of education, I have engaged in conversations and work surrounding ESEA.  Since new ESEA legislation has not been passed in the United States, many states, including mine, have applied for and have been granted waivers.  You can read my thoughts about Kentucky’s waiver here.

I’d like to hope we’ve learned something about college and/or career readiness since 1965.  Have we?  How will we encourage students to be prepared for the world which awaits them?  Will we encourage them to be well rounded young people? Consider Helen Crump’s comments to Andy when they are discussing Ms. Crump’s decision to tell Opie he could play football after school “if you push a child too hard it can do a lot more harm than a poor grade.  Anyway, I don’t think your way has been too successful.”  In typical Andy fashion, he thinks about the situation and decides to believe in Opie and, in this case, his abilities to improve his arithmetic performance and maybe even go to college.

As the conversations around college and career readiness continue, let’s remember to believe in our students as Andy believed in Opie.  With carefulness and thoughtfulness in our endeavors and decisions, students can succeed and can be well-rounded, well-prepared citizens who enjoy life-long learning for many generations to come.

 This placard was a gift from my parents to my husband because they know he started the Andy Griffith craze at our house.  Though the image here doesn't depict the episode referenced in this blog, it does represent a fun item in the Boss household.

What if: Thoughts on Middle School

A few nights ago my oldest child and I were discussing his venture into middle school—I asked if he was nervous.  He replied by asking questions which he answered before launching into a long story about how his favorite thing to do at school is to ask questions, especially what if questions.

Here’s how he replied to my question if he was nervous about going to middle school:

What would I have to be nervous about?  Going to the building?  I’m not nervous about that—I’ve been going there for the past two weeks for cross country practice.  Meeting my teachers?  I already met my teachers at Camp Beaumont.  Using a locker?  I already have that down.

His responses with questions caused me to probe deeper into his thinking about what middle school would be like, and they also caused me to start asking my own what if questions.  Since I like to think and to blog about education and the possibilities for making learning experiences positive for students, I decided to utilize Ethan’s what if approach to rethink some thoughts about how traditional middle school operates in the United States.  When I told Ethan what I was doing, he came up with a better suggestion:  posting the what ifs on the blog and asking readers to respond.  So, reader, check out the what if scenarios here and respond to those which interest you. 

• What if I woke up and middle school was over?
• What if teachers turned into monkeys so we could do whatever we want?
• What if summer reading meant you could read any book you wanted at your level?
• What if desks quit the job?
• What if instead of recess there were only tests?
• What if when you did your homework--the papers walked away?
• What if whenever you wrote with a pencil it bit your finger?
• What if books flew away into the sunset?
• What if schools had no electric power?
• We didn’t have roofs on schools?
• What if we had more adventurous hands-on activities?

 In a future post, Ethan and I will revisit your suggestions and offer our own responses.  You will notice that some of these what if questions are more serious and some more silly.  That’s what makes the mind of a curious eleven year old boy so much fun.  He’s certainly unafraid to think outside the typical box.

Back to School Organization for Learning

As we gear up for back to school, we have multiple changes coming in our household…more on that in a later post.  For now, however, my youngest son has been waiting all summer to be a guest blogger at Learning to Muse because he is keen on organization and order and wants to share his tips with everyone.   In fact, he likes to remind the rest of the family--“when something is messy—clean it up so you can find the things you need more easily.

Title above & post & picture below by guest blogger, Isaac, fourth grader

When you are organized it can help you learn because if you know order you will find items more easily and you will be able to be prepared.

• purchase items from the back to school supply list and check them off

• put the biggest items on the bottom, and put the smaller items on top (see picture)
• use folders for storing all homework and important papers
• use composition notebooks for writing how-to pieces, stories and spelling words
• use spiral notebooks because of the lined paper which helps you keep papers together so you won’t lose them, and you can even write letters to your teacher about what you are reading
• use Ticonderoga pencils so when you write a lot in your composition notebook, your hands will not hurt
• use a ruler to help measure in math
• read books all summer so you can be a better reader

 So--get organized and have a great school year.

Why I Struggled to Write About My Visit to the Bread Loaf School ofEnglish

Relaxing in an Adirondack chair outside the distinctive yellow buildings at the Bread Loaf School of English, I soaked in the atmosphere of my surroundings while contemplating the excellent blog posts I would write following my visit to Vermont.   I returned home over a week ago and--Nope, nada, nothing.   My weekly blog post didn’t happen.  A number of excuses could be to blame, but ultimately, I just wasn’t satisfied with my attempts to write about my amazing experience.  Since I didn’t want to let the occasion slide without noting it as part of my own learning (to muse) experience, I decided to share pictures and a few anecdotes.

When my invitation to spend three days at the Bread Loaf School of English arrived in my inbox, I immediately grew excited knowing the opportunity would allow me a chance to renew, refresh, and relax.  This is one of those times when I felt proud to represent my state in conversations about teachers and professional learning.  The Bread Loaf Teacher Network arranged for me to stay in Maple during my three day visit.

Since I thrive on conversations, my appointment with the directors was a highlight for me.  Strategizing about how we can create more opportunities for Kentucky teachers to be involved with Bread Loaf was thrilling because I know this means more teachers will have the opportunity to learn from distinguished professors, to hone their own close reading skills, to create digital literacy projects, and to participate in collaborative exchanges with fellow educators from around the nation and around the world.

Knowing my interest in English academics and digital literacies, Kentucky’s coordinator of the Bread Loaf Teacher Network (BLTN) worked with the director of the Bread Loaf School of English and the Director of the Bread Loaf Teacher Network to design an energizing itinerary for me.  We practiced our own close reading skills in a modern British and American poetry class where we discussed poems by Robert Lowell and Geoffrey Hill.  I heard presentations by BLTN teachers during a network meeting--these presentations focused on how youth in English classrooms link literature to current events and public service using the digital literacies they bring to school.

At Bread Loaf there is a literal breaking of bread and connecting with others around meals served by Bread Loaf students in the Bread Loaf dining hall.  My hosts arranged for me to dine the first night with BL faculty and to enjoy other meals with groups of students who are English teachers during the school year.  The conversations were an excellent way for me to learn more about the potential for leveraging the voice of Bread Loaf teachers (who see themselves as agents of change) in our state.

I’m grateful for my three day retreat to the Bread Loaf School of English nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont.  I feel rejuvenated, relaxed, and reconnected.

Hiking Exclamation Point at Chimney Rock

While on vacation visiting extended family in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, we hiked a few trails, including three trails at Chimney Rock.

  We started with The Outcroppings moderate to strenuous trail that involved taking a network of stairs and boardwalks (approximately 615 steps).  We looked out over Lake Lure and enjoyed the stunning scenery; we were not at “the rock” (elevation 2280) long before my eleven year old son started asking about the next trail to Exclamation Point.  My younger son and husband decided they did not wish to continue hiking up; they were saving their energy for the Hickory Nut Falls Trail to see the waterfall. Thinking it couldn’t require much energy to hike another couple hundred feet up, I quickly told the eleven year old that I would make the hike with him while the other two family members rested at the Sky Lounge.

Ascending stairways we were surprised by the switchbacks but observed interesting geological formations and noticed we encountered fewer people (good thing since the path was narrow now) than we had on our previous climb with the family.  Up, up, up we climbed with my eleven year old in the lead turning and stopping often to offer words of encouragement that we were “almost there.”  That’s the tricky thing about this switchback climb—we thought we were almost there the whole time. I began to ponder the name Exclamation Point and the fact that I should have known the hike would be steep, with such a name.

    

Reflecting On My First Six Months Blogging

 Reflection has always been an integral part of my practice as an educator, and it was certainly one of the most important skills I taught my students because it was a skill they could use throughout their lives.  At the end of every class day, my students reflected on their learning for the day.   I called this a reflection slip for most of my career, and then the language of “exit slip” started appearing, and straightaway, every teacher was required to have an exit slip.  The problem with the implementation of the exit slip school-wide was that many teachers were just complying with a mandate from the administrators and were not thinking about the purpose of an exit slip (to know if students mastered the learning objective for the day).  Some teachers were even known to throw the exit slips in the trash as the students exited the room.

Not only did we reflect at the end of each day, we also wrote reflections at the end of each unit and at the end of each year.  The students wrote reflections on what they learned, and I wrote reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of each unit as well as the skills I saw students mastering and those that would need re-teaching, depending upon the individual class and/or student(s). 

To get my students started for an end of the year reflection, I utilized the following quote often attributed to Albert Camus:  Life is a journey not a destination—as long as you continue on that journey you will always be a success.  Students then wrote about each of the units we studied, applying the quote to each unit as well as applying the quote to their growth in class.  We thought about where we were going with our learning, where we were at the moment and how we would meet our goals.

However this post isn’t intended to be about exit or reflection slips.  This post is my six month reflection on blogging at Learning to Muse.  I started this blog on 2 January 2012 as a way to encapsulate my musings, readings, and conversations about teaching and learning. 

What I’ve learned

·          As an over analyzer, it’s important for me not to overanalyze everything I blog because otherwise I would never post.  Just as I mentioned in that first post—learning is a journey.

·         As an educator, it’s essential for me to follow other educators to be connected and to continue learning. 

·         As a reader, it’s vital for me to keep reading anything I’m in the mood for—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, videos, images, anything that catches my interest each week.

·         As a mom and wife, it’s fun to reflect on family life and how it helps me maintain balance in my life but also how it connects to my education musings.

·         As a writer, it’s necessary for me to journal, to blog, to create, to read, to explore, and to listen.  Listening and exploring inform many of my musings here.

·         As a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), it’s crucial for me to reflect, to learn, to analyze results and outcomes—this informs decisions I make.

·         As a blogger, I need to link to other people, blogs, websites, resources, organizations, anything that connects to the content and livens up the text.

My favorite parts of blogging so far

·          Noticing that people from all around the world have read my blog (See image above)

·         Sharing my musings with as many or as few people who read

·         Establishing my digital footprint

·         Reading comments from readers (There haven’t been many so far, but the ones I’ve read have been meaningful to me)

·         Sharing two posts with guest blogger, Gwyn Ridenhour, who is fabulous and passionate about education

·         Watching one of my former students who is now a friend, Amanda Riley, soar as a blogger

·         Keeping my personal commitment to blog weekly

·         Seeing a link to my blog in an Edweek blog

My blogging goals for July-December

·          Continue posting at least once per week

·         Redesign the background template to something more interesting

·         Learn how to add video clips

·         Invite guest bloggers

·         Explore ways to connect more with other bloggers 

·         Peruse websites and blogs of others to learn from them about design & content in the online world

~~Thanks for reading~~

Renee