Hedgetoad Teaching

Met a former student today. He told me he’s planning on becoming an English teacher. Cue dismay. I told him to go for remedial math too. He told me another adult told him he needed a back up plan in case he couldn’t get a teaching job. Like his music. Yes, rock star is now the back up plan for kids who want to be teachers.

Not for summer. Our state legislature has no clear budget plan. Apparently, they are confused by Bill Gates recent epiphany that taxes might have to be raised and that unions aren’t the big stumbling block to financial solvency.  (not shockingly he mentions disappointment in school not embracing technology more… personally, I’m glad our school keeps toilet paper in the stalls, but perhaps Bill has ascended the more banal bodily functions.) Will they cut levy equalization funds? The Arts? Will there be any sports left? Textbooks? So we’re all waiting for April to end and find out if we have a job or not. Hundreds of thousands around the country are doing the same.Will I be able to sell my house if I have to move? How many long term teachers will be walking away from their mortgages as they have search farther afield for work? How many will leave the profession and find something new?

School   Last week I registered Lala for Pre-K. It was exciting, while at the same time bittersweet. I'm excited that she is growing up and exploring new things… but she's also moving out of my control. Sure, she attends daycare, but it's a daycare that I choose with a low child/teacher ratio. A facility where they have time to care for her special needs and her educational needs.   I don't believe that my local public school does not have that environment. I know the teachers, working in the same district. They are wonderful, caring teachers. They work hard to give the best education to all of their students. But, dear reader, there are only 24 hours in a day and these teachers are human beings. The kind with bladders and families of their own; they deserve to be able to have access to both.   The fact is that local public school is slowly dying the death of a thousand cuts. Class sizes are so large that there is not enough room for all the desks needed. ...

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) tests are a test of how fast a student reads. Literally, how many words per minute can the student competently read out loud… for 8th grade and beyond, a student should be able to read 145 words per minute. There is some data out there about how fast a high school student should read. The 145 is something we’ve decided to go with – your district may have something different. I get a lot of parents who ask me why this is even something we test. Who cares how fast someone reads out loud? They probably read faster when they are silent… which is probably true. The ORF doesn’t really test how fast someone can speak or even read out loud. It tells the proctor if the student is an automatic reader. Automaticity in reading basically means that the student is no longer reading word for word, but is, instead, chunking ideas together. An automatic reader may not even read every word on the page, but still fully understand the concepts the author is putting forth. A ...

Why is that we NEED to pay tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses to executives in the financial industry because otherwise "we won't get good people"? But a government employee should be paid next nothing because they work for the government? Creating infrastructure, saving lives, educating people... that's a waste of money. Gigantic yachts, trips to Aruba... those create jobs. (for those in Aruba) Boy! Was PT Barum right. If I didn't like having a soul, I'd run out and get a banking job.

Once you have the screening data, you can start the process of sorting. Below is my process for reading  – you may find that something else works for you. I print out all of the RIT scores for all students and then high light every student who did not hit the grade level cut score. Then I create a spreadsheet listing all the names and actual scores. I use a spreadsheet because it’s easy to make and print out a bar graph. Bar graphs are the gold standard in RTI. Then I send out an email to all English teachers asking them to send me a list of students of students they believe are having problems reading. The English teacher have access to the screener scores for all of their students, so they know who scored what. They also know who is a real stinker, who doesn’t care about their scores, who broke up with boyfriend 10 minutes prior to taking the test and who was really too sick to be at school that day. Nine times out of ten, their lists pretty much match mine. If I’m sent a stu...

Once you’ve learned all about the RTI pyramid (which is already being phased out in favor of a new circular model) now you just have to figure out where all the students fit in that pyramid. RTI is data driven. Scared? Don’t be – you get to choose what data you use (or rather the powers that be get to choose, so get out your persuasion skills). First you need some sort of screener. Unless you are teaching is a rural necessary school , there are just too many students to constantly be evaluating.  Our school used MAP testing as a screener. At one time we did do oral reading fluency tests on ALL freshmen and sophomores. It was a major undertaking and required A LOT of staff members to get it done. I don’t recommend it for that reason and the fact that it mis-identifies students at the high school level. The screener should be given three time a year. The first one, early in the school year, is the baseline for that student, that year. The screener given in the winter should ...

At the beginning of the school year, I and another ‘coach’ were tasked with explaining to the rest of the district staff as what RTI is… at least it got me out of the refresher course in PBIS. (and if you understood that last part, you probably don’t need to read this anyways, unless you want to correct my typos) RTI or Response to Intervention is, originally, an idea that seems very logical and student centered. Basically, any student, whether they qualify for Special Education services or not should receive instructional supports at their level. If Johnny isn’t reading, then teachers need to know why. If Johnny is being a butt-head, the teacher needs to find a way to counter that. However, if Johnny is having difficulty reading because of a skill deficit, then Johnny should get some sort of support to help him fill that deficit. If the classroom teacher can work with that, all the better. If not, then Johnny needs that support from somewhere else. Even if he is put into a Special E...

As of today, my classroom will become paper-free. We have run out of money for paper at the school and there won’t be any more. At least I still have my job right? If anyone else has gone paperless, please send ideas on giving tests (please note, limited computer access for students). I need help with this one!

Since finally installing the Mimio , I’ve been carting my laptop computer to and from school every day. As my student would OMG! My right shoulder hurts! Stupidly I looked at performance and price when choosing a laptop computer, not weight. I can empathize with my students who regularly carry backpacks weighing over 20 pounds.

Hit the dollar store about three months before a particular holiday and you’ll find a great selection of decorative things for your classroom. In Janauary, I stocked up on heart pencils and erasers, a St. Patrick’s day lei and shamrocks and picked up some quality plastic Easter eggs, Easter crayons and play-do. OK, the Easter eggs were for my own kids. But the crayons and play-d0 would work well for a simple projects in the classroom or pre-school. Also, they had fourth of July Ribbon 50% off – great for President’s Day! If you wait until the month of the holiday, you will find the selection very limited if not already taken off the shelves.

First we had the competition for funding. Now we have the competition for students. The number of school age children is going down in many, many areas. Even districts that couldn’t build schools fast enough a decade ago, are seeing the drop in numbers. Throw in a religious/cultural gap that no one seems want to bridge any more, a discipline or parenting entropy, a decline in anything not labeled “math” or “literacy” (Physical Education class are now using the computer labs more than the English teachers) and it’s becoming a free for all in what education means to people.  Some days it seems like the role of administrators, legislatures, “reformers”, etc. is throw something new at the wall and see what they can make stick. Even though WA state does not allow charter schools (unlike the federal government, WA citizens can vote down laws they don’t like – in this case twice!) it hasn’t stopped districts from trying to attract students with specialized schools. Online schools were t...

Do you teach your kids idioms? Do you use them at home? I am continually surprised at how confused my students become at what seems to me to be common phrasing in America. Once, I had to explain the meaning of “it’s raining cats and dogs” and I live in an rainforest favored by vampires for it’s lack of sunny days. Piece of cake to explain? Not so much. The other day, while explaining yet another reason why English class is important, I said that those who couldn’t be bother to learn spelling, grammar, or reading critically were “pennywise, but pound foolish.” Granted, they didn’t know what a pound note was – is the UK still using them or did they decide to jump on the Euro bandwagon finally? – but no one had ever heard of the idiom either. Given the number of “pennywise, pound foolish” decisions being made these days by everyone, including students, it seems wise to bring back these old bromides. If no other reason than injecting some common sense into our society.

Have you been following the coverage in Wisconsin? Really, I have no chance to watch news any more - it's really hard to hear over the wailing for Hand*y  M*ann*y... so I'm reduced to face*B^k and T*witt*r. So the best tweets I've seen: "Let's just all give the nation's wealth to 1 old Republican white guy named Steve & stop pretending" "CONFIRMED: Further violence in WI Capitol. A woman just entered hallway, unsolicited, and gave us all homemade cookies" "HS Student responded: 'you're wrong. I am learning a lot here. I am learning about democracy'" "Teachers of Wisconsin: Please being your red pens tomorrow to correct the Tea Partiers' signs" ***updated****8pmPST "They underestimate a protest by people who are used to standing on their feet all day" (and I would also add... no bathroom breaks!) "We're getting called a lot of names. Good thing educators taught us to ignore...

The other day, I received an email saying something along the lines of “our meeting will be at school X. There is a lot of old curriculum and supplies at this school, if you want to look around to find things you can use, please arrive 15 minutes early to take a look around.” Any guesses as to how early most people were? Remember it was a work day… if you said one hour, you are the winner.  By the time I arrived, (not being a principal capable of leaping out of my desk to rocket over to school X), HUGE piles of crap had been assembled. Art supplies, books, microscopes from 1953 (still good!), even a garbage can full of yard sticks. Kleenex boxes! One enterprising person raided for copy paper – something we are currently fighting for. It like a dress sale at Klien*felds. It’s not just the bad economic times, teachers have always had sticky fingers whenever anything is up for grabs. Otherwise it would be coming out of our own pockets. I grabbed a bookshelf, some very, very ol...

What are your favorite poems to use in class? The ones that you can either sell really well or always connect with kids? Here are some of mine - Freeway 280 by Lorna Dee Cervantes – this poem has some great images, but also quite a bit spanish. It gives the hispanic students in the class a chance to explain the meaning of the words and the images created with much more authority. September 12, 2001 by X.J. Kennedy – I don’t know if the images are so stark or if I’m able to sell it really well having been there, but kids really get into the theme of the poem. It’s also a great example of enjambment and how it affects the tone and theme of the poem. Slam, Dunk, & Hook by Yuself Komunyakaa – my students always ask me why we can’t read more poems like this…  I guess it does seem a little more approachable than say, Dickinson. Saturday at the Canal by Gary Soto – given that I teach in an area where every single students is dying to graduate and get out, this one hits hom...

2011 is going to be interesting in education. In his State of the Union address, the President asked people to become teachers… apparently unaware that thousands will be laid off in the next six months. Good, bad, young, old – probably even yours truly – there just won’t places for them at their previous schools. Those daring have a life (home, family, children, spouse, etc.) will probably be hit the hardest, as they also will not be able to move to areas where jobs are available. Houses cannot be sold (we lost a principal last year because he/she could not sell the house in a timely manner without incurring a huge loss), Rental markets are all time highs (all those previous home owners gotta live somewhere) and who has the money to pay for moving anyway? Class sizes next year will rival the average African shanty school. And the amount of supplies available to teachers will be about the same… I’m predicting fewer consumables, like workbooks or handouts for students. Much asking pare...

The official drawing the comment number And the winner is….   Number 13! Debbie said “I love CSN. Thanks for the chance to win.” Congrats! And thanks to all who entered!

Over at Schools Matter – great response to the same shite-same answers speech given by Obama. Contest winners announced later today. Swim lessons in 20 minutes!