Well, dear Protege, I’ve certainly been remiss lately–but then again, so have you 🙂 Life has a habit of getting in the way of our best intentions, but as promised, here is a new blog entry. The title is apt because this will be a reflection upon the last semester; something that I still do even after almost 20 years of teaching. I’ve divided it into “Things I’m Happy About” and “Things I Could Be Happier About”.

“Things I’m Happy About”
1) I’m really happy about the fact that I finalized my assesment and evaluation philosophy and put it into action. You know what I’m talking about, of course–what I like to call “Formative until Level 4”. Allowing my students to use feedback to revise and improve their assignments, no matter how big or small, until they reached level 4, has been one of the best ideas of my career. No more work being tossed into the recycling bin as soon as it’s handed back, no more ignoring the comments, no more complaints about ‘what can I do to improve my mark?’ without even reading what I’d written. Every student had the chance, with every assignment, to revise and revise until he or she was satisfied with the mark, and I was satisfied that the student REALLY understood the task. There was no ‘end of the road’, no ‘sorry, try doing X next time’; they all knew that they could use my feedback to improve their practice. And man, did they ever. I only had one student out of 102 tell me that he was fine with a 68 on an assignment. Whenever I gave anything back, I announced “As always, if your mark is below level 4, then please use the feedback to improve and resubmit if you’d like to.”  Talk about happy kids. Did they realize that they were the ones doing all the work? As Damian Cooper says, excellence in education isn’t about lowering standards, it’s about making kids work harder to meet the high expectations we should have of them. Am I a genius? Of course not. Is anyone else doing things like this? Probably. Do I care that some people might think I’m crazy for doing this, and make broad statements about kids needing deadlines, and is it fair to the other kids who got level 4 the first time, and who has the time and etc. etc. Nah. My response is simple: We have differentiated instruction. We should have differentiated assessment.

2) I’m really happy that I took on the role of Site Supervisor of International Languages at Forest Heights. Yes, I work 6 days a week now, and I’m pretty exhausted by Saturday night, but the staff and kids are so wonderful, and it’s always kind of crazy and chaotic and funny. I’m learning a lot about how to be a great administrator, and if I EVER get placed as a VP, I’ll have mad skills.

3) I’m really happy that I made excellent use of my prep time this semester. I stayed in my room many days getting caught up on marking. With a lot of effort to avoid distractions, I managed to hardly ever bring marking home, and was able to spend more time a) with family and b) sleeping.

3) I’m really happy that everyone in my family is relatively healthy. I’ve seen a lot of colleagues suffering through family crises of one kind of another this fall and winter, and dealing with a lot of stress in their personal lives in addition to the work stress we all carry. I’m feeling very blessed that none of my loved ones are dealing with more than they should have to handle.

“What I Could Be Happier About”
1) First and foremost, I wish I’d been a better mentor. I feel like, in the last little while, I’ve neglected this part of our relationship. I’m glad that, over exams, we’ve been able to spend some time together, but I hate the thought that I’ve given you short shrift.

2) I need to make a serious effort to appreciate what I have right now, instead of constantly focusing on (and getting stressed out about) what I want tomorrow. I have no control over my own future it seems, and I just have to live with that knowledge rather than constantly feeling like Morissey: “When you say it’s gonna happen now, well when exactly do you mean?” And to follow up with Hamlet, ” If it be now,’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all”. When it comes, I’ll be ready, but for now, I have a wonderful family, supportive friends, great colleagues, and lovely and lively classes. What more could a department head ask for?

As always, you’ve asked a relevant question, dear protege.  What do we do when students make choices we don’t agree with? In this case, your student is making a choice that will have a negaqtive impact on her success in your course. Can you just let her do that? I think you already know the answer, since you’ve tried so hard to convince her otherwise. So what are your options when a student flat out refuses to do something that’s an important part of a course? First and foremost, if the student is under eighteen, I think you’re obligated to contact the home and let the parent know that his or her child is making a bad choice. Most, if not all, parents will appreciate your concern, and will probably even help try to get the student to change her mind. No one wants to see their son or daughter miss an opportunity that could make the difference between a good and bad mark.

Of course there’s always the chance that the parent either isn’t interested, or feels helpless in this kind of situation. There’s not much you can do to convince a student to do something they absolutely have no intention of doing–you can only encourage and support them if they decide to take a chance and make that dreaded presentation. Or, if audience interaction isn’t necessary, and anxiety is the issue, the student can always video him or herself in the comfort of home and show it to the class, or arrange to present to you privately.

I guess, at the end of it all, you’re frustrated by someone who’s so unwilling to do something that seems like no big deal to you. But not everyone has your can-do attitude 🙂 Some kids have had no rolemodeling for taking risks or having a positive approach to a difficult task. We can try to help them develop those skills, but we’re fighting against years of negativity and low self-esteem.  And that really is frustrating.

And now it’s time for a little validation. As I learned in NTIP today, this is an important thing for me to do explicitly, so if I haven’t told you lately how wonderful you are, I’m telling you now. Be validated and valued, dear protege. You deserve it!

Hey mentor,

Here’s a question for you: what do you do with a student who doesn’t want to present?

I just handed out the culminating assignment for my 3UI course.  Part of that culminating, of course, is the oral component.  A student comes up and says that she’s willing to take a zero on that portion so long as she doesn’t have to present.

My initial reaction to her was that this was a HUGE chunk of her mark and oral components are necessary, not only in the course, but in life too. I told her that we can discuss this at a later date-she should take some time to really look the project over and she might build her confidence once she’s finished reading her novel and done research, etc.

So, what to do? I mean, if we’re looking at differentiated instruction here then I should be providing her with options.  But, I don’t think we’re building life skills if we just let all students present at lunch or not present at all because they’re nervous.

Look at how often any adult in their career job has to collaborate, communicate with co-workers and present information, findings, projects, etc.

If a student had a documented medical condition where they experienced anxiety during presentations, then that’s a different story.

What to do with a student who just outright doesn’t want to present because she is nervous?

What do you say to calm these students down? Keep in mind that she has already presented in a group. In her case, she said she’s NEVER had to present anything alone. It’s all been in groups.

I’m not willing to give her a zero on that portion, but I don’t think I’m willing to let her not complete that component.  Realistically, EVERYONE is nervous ( I told her this).

What do you do mentor?

Long Term Goals-it’s funny that you ask that.  Yesterday I was cleaning out a drawer and came across a yellow piece of paper that was all folded up. When I unfoled the paper I was staring at a list of “long term goals” I had made for myself when in high school. Our teacher told us to write some goals down, fold the paper up and stick it in our wallets.  The point was that apparentlywe would achieve them easier because they would always be at the back of our mind. 

Do you know what my goals were?

1. Graduate high school and go to university-double major in English and Spanish

2. Go to teacher’s college

3. Become an English and Spanish teacher

4. Be nicer to other people

5. Don’t worry about the small things and be the bigger person in situations of conflict

You know what, that exercise actually worked! I achieved my first 3 goals and of course the last two are ones that I’m constantly working on.

Now, what about my goals for my career? I haven’t really sat down to think about it. Isn’t that funny? We spend all of our childhood planning for the next step, what do you want to be when you’re older. Now that I’m older, why should I stop planning?

So mentor, here are my goals for my career that I’m going to write down, print off and keep in my wallet 🙂   (in no particular order)

1. Get my full honour specialist title (take the Spanish course required)

2. Go to more PD workshops that focus on strategies in the classroom

3. Take more AQ courses-I would really like to take guidance and perhaps get into that later on

4. Continue to develop lessons that interst students and are interactive

5. Not to stress the small stuff-try not to take things so personally

 

What do you think? Ultimately, when I wanted to get into teaching, I knew that I wanted to be a life learner.  As long as I am always learning new things and using those new things to help me be a better-more well-rounded individual is my overall goal….sound cheesy?

Dear Protege:

I felt so badly for your student–can you imagine if no one treated YOU any differently on your birthday? I know I would be pretty miserable–why do we expect more from our students? You did the exact right thing, of course; you made her feel special because you took the time to care. Teenagers aren’t born with bad attitudes–it takes years of breaking their little hearts down before they become the seemingly uncaring, surly creatures we are sometimes faced with. Whenever I have to deal with a particularly negative student, I always picture him or her as a happy, toddling two year-old, full of life’s promise, and remind myself that some kids have bigger burdens than others.

As for your TPA, yes, they can be scary in theory, but don’t stress too much about it. The administrator who visits your classroom will be looking for very specific things. First and foremost, the rapport you have with your class will count for a great deal. Within 30 seconds, the atmosphere will be noted, and the VP will be looking for a sense that the kids feel comfortable with you, and that there are expectations for behaviour that are being met. Also important is the “second teacher” in the room–the four walls. What’s on the walls? Student work, anchor charts, interesting things to look at? In other words, do the walls show that you care about the state of the classroom? Nothing screams apathy more than bare bulletin boards. Finally, the adminstrator who visits will be interested in the content of the lesson. Remember, it doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering, but it should incorporate a variety of strategies, demonstrate organization, and be student-centred. You’ll get to pick the day and choose what the lesson will be–as we get closer to the day, I’ll help you with all that.

Levels. Why do we use them? Personally, I use them for diagnostic and formative assessment only, and for peer and self-assessment. Anything summative should be measured in percentages.  Until the day that universities, colleges, and apprentice programs want us to report in levels, I’ll be giving my students percentage marks. That’s reality–there are standards that we have to uphold, because we don’t exist in a vacuum. This is what differentiates us from camp counsellors. Sure, I’d love to play rah rah dodgeball or make friendship bracelets all day, and just tell kids orally that “they’re doing great!!”, but that wouldn’t make me much of a educator, would it? And neither would refusing to give marks, or levels, or use evaluation tools like rubrics and success criteria. Personally, I’m very happy that the last surgeon who operated on me needed a particular mark to get into medical school and was held to a very high standard, instead of just being told he was “doing great”. 🙂

Here’s a question for you. Have you been giving any thought to long-term career plans/goals? What are they? Where do you see yourself in ten years? And on that note, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mentor:

It’s funny that you wrote that post. On Friday I actually had to speak with my 3UI class about their behaviour while I was gone to NTIP on Thursday. Believe it or not, it was my 3U course, not my 3C course, that had attitude problems.

When I started speaking to the students whose names were on the page I realized that there was more to the story than a “poor attitude”.

When I confronted one student about what was written (it said she refused to do work and was rude) she admitted that she was rude. Instead of attacking, I asked if she was okay and if she could explain what happened. Do you know what it was? It was her birthday that day and no one had made her feel special. She also hadn’t taken her pills that day and didn’t feel comfortable asking if she could work in a different room. 

So, to the supply teacher, she was rude and non-compliant. In actuality, she just needed someone to show her that they cared. 

We were able to rationally talk things through. I first started off with a “happy birthday” and “tell me what you did for your birthday”. Gradually, I got to her conversation with the supply teacher. She admitted that she was short and rude. She was also able to understand that the situation would have been handled much differently had she mentioned to the teacher that she was having a bad day and didn’t take her meds. 

On another note: How about my TPA? Scary. What kinds of things will I have to do? In my letter it stated that I will be having a meeting shortly to discuss finer details.  As much as I thought I wouldn’t be nervous about it, Im kind of freaking out! Isn’t it funny that I will be reviewed and Im in my 5th year? I think this would have been beneficial had I been in my first year teaching and in need of guidance. 

Oh, another thing I wanted to ask…sorry, I’m all over the map on this one! On a rubric I provide a mark as well as level.  Why do we have levels when markbook is still all in marks? (I know we can input it as levels too but don’t). Why do we still do marks on report cards rather than levels? Does everything even out in the end? I heard it does and that because marking is subjective (for the most part) each person would end up with a mark somewhere in the same range. However, what about trying to get into university or college? An 82% is very different than an 85 or even 86%. Why are we all still in levels but not post secondary? This whole system just doesn’t seem to be consistent…especially teachers that refuse to use levels, rubrics, etc.

Just something that I always think about 😉

Thanks mentor!

Well, Dear Protege, I see that you’ve ventured into the wonderful world of formative assessment, and how it functions in reality rather than in the theoretical realm. First, to answer your questions:

Markbook is a wily beast, to be sure. Yes, there are all kinds of categories for assessment–diagnostic, formative, and so on–but it’s just a simple bookkeeping tool. You can accomplish the same thing by writing information in your personal markbookm, which is what I prefer. The only hard data that goes towards a student’s actual percentage mark is summative evaluation. Peer assessments, formative feedback, group work, homework, and so on, can’t be used to generate a summative grade. In terms of the number of summative assessments, you’ll remember that department policy is 12 – 15 assessments, not including the culminating activity. Personally, I think that’s just right. With 15 Overall Expectations in our curriculum, it seems only natural that we’d be evaluating each one at least once, with the understanding that many assignments may deal with more than one. Anything more than 20 means that you’re most likely hammering the kids with a lot of superfluous assignments, and hammering yourself with a lot of marking. Anything under 10 tells me that the summative assessments are worth too much, and a lot of kids are going to give up after one or two poor marks in single assignments worth a substantial percentage of the term mark.

As far as your scenario, that’s where professional judgement comes in. For example, your student has written three  formative paragraphs and has achieved a level three by the third one because you’ve provided feedback which has helped the student improve every time. Then, when it’s time to write it for a summative assessment, the student blows the paragraph–limited supporting detail, weak topic sentence, what have you. You know the kid can write a good paragraph–maybe this is a case of test anxiety, or maybe he had a fight with his parents before school–whatever the case may be. So what do you do? The answer is “most recent, most consistent”. Using your professional judgement, you can do the following:
Have the student try it again–view the blown summative as another formative attempt. OR
Count the formative paragraph that the student achieved level three on as the summative.

Does that make sense?
Now as for the notion that you can’t assign a mark for formative assessment, well, technically, that’s right. But you CAN say to a student, “This is the mark you would have received, and here’s what you need to do to improve.” But you can certainly assign marks to things like bell work, if you’ve done a formative assessment at least once, and given feedback. Just put it into your “Classwork” category in Markbook.

In terms of formative assessment being responsible for 90% of a student’s success, I’d like to make this point. If you DON’T have a strong rapport with your students, if they’re NOT engaged in the material, if you LACK a strong teaching style, then you can do all the formative assessment you like, and it won’t help, because you’ve alienated that kid and he or she won’t be interested in listening to any of your feedback. Students are driven by many things which are extrinsic–marks are just one of those things, but if you get them used to a routine where they get formative and instructive feedback before they do it for marks, then they will ultimately see the benefit in it. We just have to be explicit about why we’re using formative assessment.
And for some kid, stickers are just as good as marks. You gotta love the stickers:-)

Well Dear Protege, we’ve made it to the end of the first full week of school. You amaze me–I’m exhausted at the end of the day on Friday, but you’re still able to make me laugh my a** off as you tell me about the crazy antics of the kids you teach, and make me proud by relating all your successes so far. You love your classes, it’s obvious. I love mine too; although I don’t know if it’s always that obvious, I have to say that in almost twenty years, there are very few classes that I haven’t loved, or at least felt a little affection for. But really, I just want to say thanks–our conversation at the end of today regarding the remote for the data projector made me laugh harder than I think I have all week 🙂

But back to you–I thought I would address some of your comments in your last post.

I was equally surprised and impressed at Ian’s activity–like an old, torn, and worn $10 bill, no matter how crumpled or stepped on our students are, they still have intrinsic value. What a wonderfully subtle reminder of the role we play in reinforcing that with our kids. I’ve tried to base my career around the absolute truth that I might be the ONLY person who gives a student a smile or a kind word over the course of any given day, and that sometimes school is a safer place than home and I’m a more caring adult than anyone else in that kid’s life. The thing that underpins everything I do in the classroom is this: “It’s easier to build a child than fix an adult”. Your 3C class really hit the nail on the head with their very mature observations about the qualities of a great teacher. I agree with them one hundred percent, especially the part about having boundaries, routines, and rules. Students thrive best when there are expectations that they have to meet.  Face it, the vast majority of kids are looking to please–they want positive feedback, and they want our approval. That puts the onus on us to give them the kind of environment where that can be facilitated, where students can be built up, not torn down. Not unlike the twin towers (what a random segue–sorry).

I vividly remember 9/11 and the day you described. I remember standing in horror and awe with my students as the events unfolded live on the TV screen before us. I remember asking my OAC class to journal about it, in the immediacy of the moment, so that they would be able to look back on how they felt as the towers fell. Did I ask your class to write about it too? I wonder what the momentous event will be in your career, the one that your students will remember 10 years later, the one you tell them to write about so they never forget. And when it does happen, I know that there will be bagels, and kindness, for them too.