Say, "I Can"

In yoga I frequently hear my teachers ask us to "imagine if we spent as much time saying 'I can' as we say 'I can't,' and then imagine replacing all of those 'I can'ts' with 'I cans." So of course, as I've done with many of these little mantras, I have fully adopted this one into my life, and I've been saying, "I can." I know this probably sounds ridiculous, considering what's going on in my life right now, but I find that even in really small situations, finding the strength to say, "I can" brings me some joy. Yesterday, this video was shown to me for the second time, and I could not help but think this was fate.

I am just loving the idea of "I can" right now, so please join me and adopt it as your mantra. Whether it applies to cooking a 20 lb turkey, changing lives in India, applying for your dream job, finishing your law school applications, getting through your first year teaching, running a marathon (or a half, that's cool too), breaking up with your significant other, finding a significant other, finishing your first semester of undergrad, or anything else, I challenge you to say, "I can!"

Today began the visual of our "No Excuses Campaign" in my classroom. Below there is a photo of our no excuses wall. Attached to the clothes pins are notecards with all of the excuses my students have ever made (in English, Spanish, and maybe even some French!). We are hanging our excuses out to dry and fly away. We CAN make a difference in our lives by saying goodbye to excuses, goodbye to "I can't," and hello to I CAN.

No Excuses

Today I had a revelation. I finally figured out how to make my life story, and my grief relevant to my students. After a toilsome day of childish arguments, a folder fight, and a child pretending to choke himself I pretty much thought that I'd had enough today. 3/4s through my last block I got to what must've really been my limit: after I'd already sat on the floor under a table with a student (amusing picture to you all I am sure), dealt with tears because a student accused another student of a homosexual kissing session (6th graders have wild imaginations), argued with two angry girl students about how they need to do their work in class even if they're mad...well I just about exploded!

That is actually just what I did. I stood in my "angry spot" in the classroom, bugged my eyes out a little, and with my angry vein throbbing I tried to stare each student in the eye as I said this (said or screamed, it's however you imagine it):

"I am sick and tired of you all making excuses for not doing your work. Where do you think excuses are going to get you in life?" (student response is a mumble that sounds to me like a combination of nowhere and jail...yikes!)

"Do you think that I got to be a teacher by making excuses my whole life?" (blank stares, wide eyes, I had their attention!)

"Now I am going to tell you a little bit about myself, I don't mean to be emotional, but I think that this is very important so listen up! I did not have an easy childhood growing up. I had to take on a lot of responsibility for my younger siblings, and I had to take care of my mother. Do you think that I went to school and made excuses about this? Do you think that I got into one of the best colleges in the country by making excuses?" (The students sat up, looked at me, I had struck a nerve)

"Now that I've shared this I want you to think about me as a person, because although I am a teacher I am also a person and I expect to be treated that way. Do you remember learning that someone in my family passed away a few weeks ago? (nods) Well, do I come into school everyday and tell you I can't teach because of this? No, I do not. So stop coming in here and thinking of every excuse you can in order to get out of doing work, because I am over it, and I am not accepting any excuses anymore, because it's not doing you any good."

Although, I would usually never share one of these lectures to my students on my blog, I felt that this one was very important. Through this little outburst I learned how to inspire my students through my grief and positively influence them despite this.

Tomorrow we are going to begin our NO EXCUSES campaign. In every block I am going to give a similar lecture as today and then I am going to have students write down all of the excuses they have ever made on slips of paper. We are going to display these excuses, and say goodbye to them forever. I am going to share short bios of leaders who did not let excuses stand in their way, and then I am going to let the students share their own stories and how they are not going to let excuses stand in their way. This will be an ongoing campaign for the rest of the year. Please feel free to send any ideas or resources that you have my way!

The Little Things

When you wake up in the morning you never quite know what is going to be the thing that makes or breaks your day. I know that so much of the time my students are the ones to cause me pure joy, or copious amounts of stress. As I am grieving, I find myself waiting for the little things that will really cheer me up. The other night my dad and I talked about all of the cards that we've received, and how just a small note can make all of the difference to us. I look forward to these cards, to phone calls, texts, and emails from my incredibly supportive friends, to the wonderful and remarkably joyous moments with my students, to losing myself in my kitchen, to the Saturday farmers market, and to yoga.

I must share one of the best cards that I've gotten with all of you (The pictures are a little funny because I am trying to hide the student's name):

The front says: "As long as you are out I will read every book on.... EARTH"

The first inside cover says:

"Dear Ms. Samuel I know your sadder than ever. Since your my favorite teacher, and the nicest person I know. I made this card. I love you like my own family. I know how you feel my great grandma died in 09. You are indeed important and a special person in my life. Hope you like my poem!!!!"

The poem goes like this:

Title: I am used to tears

"1 My mom wets up my shirt. I am used to tears. I turn tears into smiles when cries are near. It's impossible to keep the cries out my ears.

2 Sniff and shiver. I will share all the pain. Sharing is more beautiful than a horse's mane. Lot's of others do not feel the same

3 Ms. Samuel...I am used to tears !!!"

I wish I could say that I taught him to write like that, but he did that all on his own!

Breathe Through The Pain

Last week I found myself continuously singing, "This Little Light of Mine." (If you are unfamiliar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Little_Light_of_Mine). This was my way of breathing through the unmeasurable emotional pain that I was feeling. Coincidentally on Friday I was in a yoga class and the teacher told us that the first mantra many of us learned was "This Little Light of Mine," then as we closed class instead of doing the usual Om chant we sang "This Little Light of Mine."

At some point during one of my many yoga classes this summer we were lying in frog pose, which if you don't know yoga it is a pose that really stretches your hips in a way that is sometimes painful. The teacher told us to breathe through the pain. This is a common thought in yoga, as you are taught to keep a steady breath throughout your practice, no matter the strain or pain that you feel.

I have been working with this philosophy all year, and its made me a different teacher. When things bother me in my classroom I breathe in and out, silently chanting "let " as I breathe in "go" as I breathe out. Its given me a whole new presence among my students and opened me up for a lot more room to care about the things that really matter.

One of the reasons I sang "This Little Light of Mine" this week was because I wanted to really ignite my inner light. As a Quaker I believe that there is that of God in everyone, so this belief is embodied in my inner light. I think that the yogi breath can contribute to ignite this light as well, which is why it works to breathe through the pain. If you are not spiritual, or do not believe in this inner light, you ultimately believe that every person possesses some kind of inner strength so I would suggest breathe through the pain to find that strength.

I must ignite all of these in this time of great tragedy. I am going to be taking very deep breaths, singing to myself, and focus in on my inner light in order to find strength.

Namaste

Today in yoga the teacher said that Namaste means "the light in me to the light in you." This may not be the exact meaning but the idea is that you are bowing to the people around you and their inner light, or souls. A few days ago, my friend Hannah reminded me of a pre meal grace that I made up in elementary school, "There is a light in you, there is a light in me, there is a light in everybody." Hannah is using this quote to drive her personal essays to law school, to say the least I am flattered, but Hannah and I both know that this grace is about more than the words themselves. Just as in yoga, when we say "namaste" at the end of class we know that it is more then just celebrating our souls together. In both of these sayings, the essential element is that there is a community of people who celebrate each other, these sayings are just a way to remind us to say it verbally.

As a teacher, I think about community a lot. I remember back to my experience at institute, where my friend Lexy and I created the "Master Learners Kitchen" in order to create a community of learners for our students in the Mississippi Delta. I now work daily to build a sense of community for my students. I went to observe in my old 6th grade classrooms last week, and thought about the community there, the constant celebration of students as individuals. In college I had multiple communities that helped me develop as an individual, and I have a community of friends who do the same for me today.

I studied the sociology of education in school, and thought a lot about the communities that are developed in public schools. In every paper I wrote, or research project that I did my thesis always seemed to come back to the importance of a school's culture in transforming a school. I work in a school that is in the process of transformation. We focus heavily on assessment, management, professional development, etc., but we rarely talk about community. We rarely stop and metaphorically say "namaste" to each other. Teachers, children, administrators, counselors, secretaries, etc. are rarely celebrated for the light inside of each of them. When I began Teach For America I was set on making a difference and I think through yoga and my Quaker values I've found the way that I personally can transform my school. I am going to say "namaste" to my children hourly, to other teachers daily, and to my administrators at least once a week. I hope through modeling this behavior I can influence others to do the same.

So I will start with all of you, my friends, family, and coworkers who read my blog, "Namaste!"

Coleman Report in the Modern Era

The following post is inspired by this article (it is admittedly long, but worth the read):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?pagewanted=6&_r=1&hp

Before I begin I am going to warn you that this is one of those posts that is more about sociology than my students, but I threw in a picture at the end to amuse you, and there will be a back to school post soon.

I've been looking for inspiration since my last post and finally here it is! This article questions the effectiveness of technology in the classroom, mostly as a result of one school district that has spent a significant amount of money to have increased technology in all of the classrooms there. As test results came in this summer it was time for districts to really consider what is going on in their classrooms that is effective and what is not. Unfortunately the tech heavy school district did not raise test scores since the implementation of laptops/smartboards/projectors/etc. As I read I could not help but think back to all of my sociology of education classes to one of the most cited reports in the history of American education: The Coleman Report. In brief, The Coleman Report found that increased spending in America's schools did not actually result in increased high academic achievement. So to sum it up school funding ≠ increased student achievement. Now the report was hundreds of pages long so it said a lot more than that, but at the time this was really BIG news to people because the thought was always more spending = high achievement. After reading this article I couldn't help but think, "well we've proven Coleman's hypothesis right again."

Technology is a hot topic in education, just as it is in the rest of the world. The thing I find the most amusing about this though is that while most top executives carry their Ipads to work, or college students take notes on their laptops in class while they simultaneously wirelessly search the internet, the technology in classrooms is actually pretty archaic. I think that I've noted this in posts before. Let me give you a few examples: the oh-so-coveted smartboard (an enormous piece of equipment that many teachers cannot even use properly that only allows a few students at a time to interact with it manually), my class computers (although I am very grateful for them, are PCs that run on an old server, an older version of word, and are all plugged into the wall), laptop carts (I haven't actually seen one of these at my school, but I've heard they exist and I imagine the technology is far from up to date), and the age-old overhead projector (which is actually being phased out at my school for document cameras, but we have what looks like an overhead projector graveyard in the library right now).

If Coleman found that in 1966 an increased spending on schools was not directly increasing student achievement than what are we doing spending all of this money on technology? Now this is not to say that I do not see the value in educational spending, because believe me I DO, nor is to say that I don't want those Nooks in my classroom this year because I DO, but I just hope that we are figuring out where the right places to spend are. Sociologists frequently harp on the fact that Coleman's report found that it was not so much school spending on resources that effected student outcomes but instead it was about student background and socioeconomic status. If technology is not helping close gaps, then we need to find out what truly is the difference between the experience of a successful high SES student and an unsuccessful low SES student and spend money on filling those gaps. Now we are getting into examining the whole child and what gaps exist between students from different SES levels, and I could go on about this for a long time. I believe that what it comes down to are gaps in cultural capital. Initially, we may have thought that technology fits into the category of cultural capital, but maybe this study says it doesn't. It may just be another resource that is not closing the gaps as Coleman said.

In my next post I will talk about the gaps we are creating/sustaining with cultural capital, how I suggest to avoid creating/sustaining those gaps, and how I plan to address it this year with MY STUDENTS!

A picture to leave you with...an explosion of resources that were not being used by a veteran teacher at my school. Coleman would not support. To my dismay, and eventual amusement this is how I found my classroom about 7 days before school began.

Luckily the cabinets were miraculously emptied before I went to dispose of everything in them.

Hidden Behind the Financial Crisis

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/education/08educ.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=arne%20duncan&st=cse

As I was sitting down to my usual breakfast and paper reading, trying to find something somewhat upbeat to read I came across this article. Hidden on page 10 of the NYtimes I found out about this new piece of legislation that is sure to change accountability standards nationwide.

I know we are in a crisis, but I don't want this to go unnoticed.

Faces of My Students

I officially miss all of my students. After a pretty challenging year I was not sure that this was going to happen, but it hit me over a week ago and I can't quite shake the excitement to see them again and to meet my new students. Over the course of the summer I have gotten texts from a few students, 1 prank phone call, tutored a student, and even ran into one of my students in person. Today I found a note in a pair of pants (that apparently need to be dry cleaned) that said, "Ms. S my favorite teacher "

I knew that teaching was an important step in my career as I fight relentlessly to close the achievement gap, but it was not until this summer that I realized the meaning that it would have for me. As I observe people who work at the district level it seems that each one of them has a story about their past students that informs their daily decision making. I got to experience this first hand as I sat at a luncheon for the Freedom Schools two weeks ago. The summer school students were all at this lunch with tons of big donors and other influential people in the district and halfway through the event the students broke out into this great song

http://youtu.be/cyVzjoj96vs

Aside from the song being moving, especially when sung by disadvantaged students of all ages, I could not help but see my students' faces in the faces of the students before me. My eyes welled up with tears as I watched one student who looked so much like a student of mine from the MS Delta, and then looked over to another student who was a younger version of one of my most challenging students this year. I tried really hard not to embarrass myself in front of all of the influential people (or the students), holding back tears with all of my might. Since this happened it's happened in almost every meeting, interview, or conversation that I get to be a part of. I can't help but put a face to everything that I am doing this summer and it all becomes so much more relevant.

Student advocacy has been a big topic in the news lately, or it is "trending" right now. In this article in the NYtimes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is referenced multiple times as supporting grass-roots advocacy groups and even providing grants to encourage advocacy. I keep finding myself talking about advocacy after reading this article and thinking about how much it would help our school system if we just picked a few students (in my case many more than a few) to advocate for. I feel that if we focus on advocacy and the power that people have, a powerful movement will begin. So get the ball rolling, think of your children/favorite student/cousin/neighbor and start to advocate for him/her/them for a better education, and if they don't need an advocate then I have many students that do, so call me up and I will share a story.

Summer Off?

So you may all be thinking to yourselves, "what do teachers do during the summer?" Well, hopefully I will do a whole lot more blogging! Many teachers take the entire summer off in order to refresh themselves for the new school year, many of my teacher friends will spend the summer traveling, sitting by the pool, and trying out new recipes. I, however, will be spending my summer a little bit differently. I was given an amazing opportunity to work for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools this summer shadowing a district superintendent. The superintendent who I am working for oversees 49 of the Title 1 elementary schools in the district. I will spend the summer going to meetings with him, and also working on a project that will hopefully have some impact on the district in the future (more on this next post). I started this week after a very nice week off visiting friends and family in Philly and NYC. We work 10 hour work days during the summer so that we have Fridays off! I spent most of my time this week getting to know the staff in the office, and observing how things run.

In addition to work life I also signed up for my yoga studio's summer challenge. If I do 50 classes in the 70 day time period I get 3 months free. I am going to think of it as replacing my crazy equestrian life with yoga. I am really looking forward to this summer challenge, and I am already 4 classes in. I also will be doing a lot of cooking this summer, and exploring my inner vegan. I've been a vegetarian since I was six so I am going to attempt veganism. This is partially motivated by my beautiful sister who will not be able to stay true to her veganism this summer, I am going to try to stick to it for her.

Please stay tuned and keep me motivated to blog throughout the summer. I will not be able to share all details of my internship, but can't wait to start blogging about lessons that I learn! Happy Summer Everyone!

Judgement Day!

Tomorrow my students take their North Carolina reading EOG (end of grade) assessment. We have technically been preparing for this all year. I say "technically", because for a very long time I was very against this frequently debated idea of "teaching to the test." I also have tried very hard this year to create a curriculum that is based on the study of literature and not so much the study of the End of Grade reading EOG. A lot of this was motivated by college discussions when we studied how teaching to the test leads to low student achievement, and boring curriculums, and how limiting it is in a classroom setting. I've learned throughout this year that in reality test preparation needs to happen so that students are given the chance to be successful on the test.

My PD and learning team leader for Teach For America both worked with me to develop a strong plan for test preparation and my students and I have stuck to that plan from spring break until now. I gave students a diagnostic EOG before spring break and then had them grade them when we got back and create mastery plans for themselves based on which objectives they missed. I then created 6 tutoring sessions that were based on different skills that students needed to work on and personally invited students to these (luring them there with snacks of course!). Students followed a rigorous schedule, taking two practice tests a week, a concept quiz, and a number of skills-based warm ups everyday. I never thought that I would spend three weeks on test prep with my students, but it seemed absolutely essential for them to get that review and practice with multiple choice (we've been taking short answer assessments all year long).

I call this post "judgement day" because that is what tomorrow truly is for me. The reading EOG is really the biggest measure of success for me for the year. The goal is for all of my students to ultimately show strong growth on the test from the scores from previous years. We have predicted growth that the students should make based on their past scores, and students who have scored similarly to them in the state. Unfortunately, this test is what tells me if I have helped those students grow. I have already had my year-end teaching evaluation and all of that went fine, but at the end of the day I joined Teach For America to make a difference in students' lives and this test tells me whether or not I made that difference.

I understand that there are plenty of qualitative factors that exemplify the difference that I've made, but quantitatively this test is what matters. I have some pretty bad testing anxiety already, and I am not even taking the test tomorrow! In order to calm my nerves (and my students) we are going to meditate before the test tomorrow. I am bringing a delicious and healthy breakfast for my homeroom (these are the students who I am with for testing). I also purchased bottled water which I am labeling with each student's name and a motivational message to help them get through.

So as you conclude your weekend please hold me and my students in the light tomorrow and wish us luck! In the meantime I will be labeling water bottles and baking.

Feeling Appreciated

A few months ago I decided to call the local art museum in Charlotte (http://www.mintmuseum.org/mint-museum-uptown.html) and see if they would donate tickets so that I could take some of my best students to the museum as a reward for good behavior and hard work. I requested 5-10 tickets and they gave me 20 student tickets and 5 adult tickets for free! The power of just asking was astounding to me in this situation. I could not be more grateful for their generosity.

Yesterday was the big day. I brought two other teachers and my TFA program director to help me out, and the students were all dropped off on a Saturday morning at the museum. The day went flawlessly. The students were so engrossed in the tour, answering really high-level thinking questions, and asking questions. Their appreciation seeped through the whole museum. For many of the students this was their first trip to an art museum, and for some of them their first trip to a museum in general!

Sometimes teaching is a thankless job, student progress towards objectives and mastery does not happen as fast as I would hope, and many days the comedy show that is my job ensues. Yesterday the students thanked me in so many ways, by being engaged, behaving appropriately, and being appreciative.

I believe that there are many reasons for the achievement gap, but one reason that I frequently come back to is the gap in cultural capital. Yesterday as I watched my students engage in such deep thinking simply motivated by a piece of artwork my conclusions about this factor in the achievement gap came to fruition. My other belief is that the culture of a student's surroundings teaches them how to act. KIPP schools (http://www.kipp.org/) pride themselves on having a culture of achievement and discipline, and the result of this is that students behave and achieve at high levels. At the art museum people were quietly milling around the art work, appreciating its beauty, and respecting the individuals around them, my students did the same.

America's schools have a lot of growth to make, especially our lowest income and lowest performing schools. I think yesterday I found a place to start, simply exposing students to what high income students are exposed to: a culture of discipline and achievement, and different types of cultural capital (art, music, dance, etc.). The students appreciate it.

Kids Will Be Kids

The life of a first year teacher is constantly exciting. At this point, I feel like I have enough humorous stories to host my own comedy show. My life as a teacher recently has been pretty crazy, but after some of the silly things that happened in my classroom this week I could not help but share.

1. Early this week as I was lecturing my students on creating introductory paragraphs I noticed that there was a very crumpled note being passed around my classroom. I quickly grabbed the note, much to the students' dismay. A bunch of my students' eyes were really wide as I was going to open it, but I didn't really think twice about it because this has happened before. As my students got started on their group work, I opened the note. Only to find that one of my students had drawn a pretty detailed naked picture. I almost guiltily looked up at my students, now my eyes were as wide as theirs.

2. Yesterday close to the end of the day my students were again working in groups, and I was walking around the classroom to check in on their progress. I noticed that one of my students had something very odd in his pencil case: powdered vagisil. Hesitant to interrupt their work I did not investigate further. About ten minutes later I pulled up a chair to work with a different group, accidentally turning my back to some of the students in the classroom. Chaos erupted behind me. Next thing I knew students had powder all over them and my classroom was a dust bowl of vagisil. Students with asthma had to leave the room. It was disgusting, chaotic, and absolutely hilarious. I could not do anything but laugh. None of them have any idea what vagisil is and I think that this was the best part!

Over winter break my sisters suggested that I write a partner blog to this blog called "Happy Hour with the Teacher," after this week I am seriously considering it.

Stay tuned!

Thank You John Legend!

Maybe this blog post should be titled "The Power of Celebrity Endorsements," but I think it will be even more powerful to publicly post my thank you letter to John Legend for joining Teach For America's Board of Directors and performing last night at the TFA 20th Anniversary summit with KIPP NYC's orchestra in front of 11,000 people. So here it goes...

Dear John Legend,

Your performance last night brought tears to many peoples eyes, and it was not solely because you are an amazing artist, or because the music you were singing was so powerful. Instead I believe that it was because you truly took time to understand the movement that is TFA and the impact that the organization has the potential to have. For this, I thank you. In order to make long term change in America's public schools every single person in America must feel the same understanding that you showed last night. You powerfully addressed the notion that we are doing an injustice to our children by offering so few opportunities to children in poverty. I think that Waiting For Superman was a small foot in the door in introducing this national issue to the public, but with endorsements and understandings like yours from yourself and other celebrities we could really begin to make transformational change. Wendy Kopp, the founder of TFA, speaks about the importance of Transformational Leadership. People who are transformational leaders, not only lead people in a direction towards positive change, they mobilize people, they are innovative and they start the ripple of change simply by being an empowered leader. The story you have to tell about your own education, and journey towards stardom is a powerful one, and I believe that with your support great changes can be made. The conference yesterday consisted of 11,000 people who are all working towards a common goal, or who at least believe in that goal. Some of them, however, have been working towards this goal for 20 years! With your help, and the help of national figures in spreading the importance of the movement, we CAN make a difference with a greater sense of urgency. So thank you John Legend, from the bottom of my heart, for helping a cause that I think is one of the most important of our time.

THANK YOU!

Thank you so much to my friends and former teachers for your support! I am almost halfway towards my goal. In less than 48 hours we raised $490. You all inspire me.

$526 to go!

Books for my classroom on Donors Choose!

Hello All!

I found out in the beginning of the year that one of the books I am required to read with my students is Lord of the Flies. This is a super challenging book for 6th graders, but I think if I break the content down for them, and strip away some of the challenging vocabulary it can be done! It cannot be done, however, in the amount of time allotted if my students do not spend some of the time reading the book at home.I am given a class set to work with (roughly 30 copies) and that is all. So in an effort to level the playing field, and give my students a similar experience to their high-income peers I recently submitted a donors choose request for 87 copies of the book. This will cost roughly $1016. Since last night at about 10 p.m. thanks to a few wonderful friends I was able to raise over $250. Now we only have $732 to go! Ideally I will raise all of the money by the end of next week so that the order can go in and the books will come in time. This means I am asking for money with a strong sense of urgency! Your support in the past few months has been wonderful, you all inspire me on a daily basis. Please donate today even if it is only enough to cover the cost of one book ($8.71 with no taxes, shipping costs, etc.)! Thank you again and again.

Here is the link:

http://www.donorschoose.org/zsamuel

Shaanti

At the beginning and end of a yoga class that I took a few weeks ago we chanted: Shaanti, Shaanti, Shaanti, or in translation Peace, Peace, Peace. As a Quaker the word "peace" resonates so strongly with me that I feel like a certain part of me embodies every ideal of peace. Starting a yoga class this way did not quite lead to enlightenment, but it made for a pretty wonderful practice.

Tonight I had the opportunity to go see an amazing speaker, who is also a peace activist. Charlotte Friends School brought Colman McCarthy to speak about Peace and education. If you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colman_McCarthy

During his speech he asked the audience, "how many of you had a peace studies class in school?" No one raised their hands (well, to be exact I half raised my hand thinking back to Quakerism in middle school). He then asked, "Why do we focus so much time talking about war in school instead of peace? Why not teach classes on peace in school?" So then I questioned my self, "why don't you teach students about peace?"

Mr. McCarthy also quoted Mother Theresa in saying, "We will not all be called on to do great things, but we can still do little things in a great way." (I may have butchered this a little, and I apologize for this.) Here lies my challenge, I will challenge myself to take small steps towards educating my students about peace. In a culture of violence, violent behavior, and constant misbehavior I will challenge myself to infect my students with peace, and non-violent conflict resolution. The reason I will do this is because it is a very important part of myself that I should share with my students. Everyday they share their bright minds with me, and this is part of returning the favor! McCarthy told us, "It's better to build a peaceful child than re-build a violent adult." So it is my civic duty to begin building peaceful children.

Shaanti, Shaanti, Shaanti

Trial and Error

The first year teacher's vision of his/her classroom so vividly captured on the front page of the NYtimes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/education/11class.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

On my second snow day this week (Southerners are baffled by the snow) I picked up my NYtimes only to find this article on the front page. Although the students are younger, and the layout of the classroom is quite a bit different than mine, I could not help but feel that the life of a first year teacher was clearly painted out in this article. Just last week I found myself attempting to give directions to a chatty bunch of 6th graders only to start the music (my cue for them to work) and find that they were all still staring at me wondering what it was they should be doing.

This feeling of empathy, however, is not what inspired me to blog today, it was actually the idea of trial and error that the students featured in the article are subjected to on a daily basis. I think that there is a large part of teaching that is about trial and error, because you are constantly trying to figure out what really works for your students. Nevertheless there is also an element of consistency that is crucial to your students' learning. I think that it is really admirable that the people who started this school went out on a limb to give something new a try, but I also feel that it is not fair that the subject of the educational experiments that so often happen today always have to be the students.

In my own classroom there is an element of guilt that comes with my experiments. I worry that while I am still trying to figure out what really works student learning is not actually happening. Luckily, my most recent experiment has been somewhat of a success. My school sent me to a Peak training before break so that I could learn some new methods and bring them back to my classroom. One that seemed the easiest and most effective to implement immediately was the use of music in the classroom. I use music as a "launch pad," so I constantly say "When the music starts" while I am giving directions. The result is actually pretty great, I find that I am happier because there is music instead of screaming children filling the transitions and my students move more quickly from one task to the next.

In my trial and error I adapted something for my classroom that had proven success in classrooms of the same racial and ses make up as my students. In the article, however, their adaptation was from students of a completely different age group, and ses group. I worry that when we proceed with trial and error experiments like the example in the article we are actually harming our students' academic gains, because even if it works out in the end (5 or 6 years later) you still have students who have been part of the experiment and who have not been learning. There needs to be a way for educational reform never to produce any types of disadvantages for the students, even if some students may benefit at the end.