21st Century School Teacher

"Those who have most at stake in the old culture, or are most rigid in their beliefs, try to summon people back to the old ideas."

Teacher’sUnion Leader Pessimistic on Contract by Bill Turque  Washington Post Staff Writer reveals that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s latest proposal would require tenured teachers to spend a year on probation in exchange for huge salary increases and bonuses.  Yes!  An opportunity to change an antiquated pay scale —an opportunity for tenured teachers to see their compensation more in line with their expertise…  Will this proposal become a reality?  Likely not… 

Union Leader George Parker said “Rhee's measure would unfairly deprive teachers of due process rights and expose them to arbitrary firing by principals.”  Come on…

What do teachers really have to fear? Sure there are a few teachers that just aren’t getting the job done…  Those that have the most at stake—hmmm….. like the teachers’ union and poor performing teachers—they will likely be the ones to put the kibosh on this very interesting proposal. 

I say what’s more important?  That we preserve the old system, a system that rewards time served, or that we start to reward quality educators and weed out the teachers that aren’t performing?  As a parent and tax payer, I’m thinking I’d vote in favor of such a proposal…  I’m thinking that if I were a teacher in Washington D.C. I would be in favor of this measure, as well.  I’m proud to say that I am a dang good educator, and I would gladly put myself on probation for a year to increase my salary: teachers with five years of experience could go from $46,500 to as much as $101,000 by 2010. Pay for a teacher with 10 years of service could jump from $56,200 to as much as $122,500.  It’s about time that teachers are paid what they’re worth, and if some teachers fear that they are not worth the pay, well…  what can I say about that… 

Recent publication College Board to debut an 8th-grade PSAT exam by Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer says a new middle school exam is expected to be released as early as 2010.  Apparently it seeks to identify talented students, so that students can be moved in college-prep classes early.  Is that really necessary?  Aren’t students tested enough already?

The College Board says that the exam would be voluntary; however, we all know that the pressure would be on for college bound students to add this exam to their growing test repertoire.

What do I think?  I am certainly against more testing for our students, but I also think that it’s wise to consider the objective of taking this kind of test versus the state mandated annual exams required by No Child Left Behind.  

IMHO it’s crazy to test students year-in-year-out…  Really, what’s the point?  We should be identifying students early that need intervention or remediation, and there should be a series of check points along the way, but to administer standardized tests in 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade—don’t forget 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, and a few more testing in 9th grade, 10th grade and 11th—well my question is why aren’t the tax payers up in arms over the cost of administering and scoring these repetitive exams.  How much of the state budget is going to these testing agencies instead of our schools?  Are they even improving student learning in a significant way?  Many argue that when teachers teach to the state mandated tests, which they do, there is an artificial increase in test scores—explaining the upward trend in academic progress.  The state tests are purely summative; teachers aren’t given copies of the exam to personalize learning… The tests are simply a snap-shot report card for our schools?  

It is also pertinent to ask if this is just a revenue building tactic. "It's a brilliant marketing ploy, but it's pure Pablum," Paul Kanarek, head of the Princeton Review test prep service in Southern California, said of the College Board's pitch for the eighth-grade exam. "They're locked in a death match with ACT over who takes the ACT or the SAT. Once you buy into a certain product line, you're likely to stick with it." I might agree with this argument…

And if the exam’s results would not be used for college admittance, what’s the point anyways? 

Okay, the reason why I am in favor of this exam is because I have worked with 7th and 8th graders for nearly a decade.  I have worked with the gifted and talented, and I can tell you, many students that should be identified “college-track” are slipping through the cracks.  We spend a large portion of our budgets on identification and remediation of kids that fall on the low end of the curve—but what about our top performing students?  What about the kids that should be identified, but because they lack good seat-work skills, or they’re bored to tears in class and have given up, what about identifying these kids as college-worthy?  I say that even though kids are tested far too much, this new exam has merit.  I want to see that the gifted students that could be shaping our future world, that they are given opportunities, too.

It’s time to give students that otherwise might miss out on the college-track classes because of income barriers, language barriers, or teacher ignorance… it’s time to see that they have a way to demonstrate their ability and be given the opportunity for a seat in the honors and college-prep classes.

The Death of English (LOL) by Lily Huang—Newsweek--reports on a British experiment demonstrating that the more adept children were at text messaging, the better they did in spelling and writing.  Interesting information!

Who hasn’t wondered if new communication trends weren’t influencing our language--the correctedness that we so heavily value here in America?  The number of text messages produced annually is staggering—as are the creative spellings combining letters and numbers rearranged to benefit brevity and ease of rapid communication.  Yes, many educators are horrified what may happen to our beloved language and its grammar…  Huang asks, “Will text messaging produce generations of illiterates? Could this—OMG—be the death of the English language?”  I have to LOL!  That threat has always seemed a bit preposterous to me...

She continues, “Those raising the alarm aren't linguists. They're teachers who have had to red-pen some ridiculous practices in high-school papers and concerned citizens who believe it their moral duty to write grammar books.”

I’ll admit to raising an eyebrow over some interesting letter combinations that have come across my desk –but I,  unlike many of the die hard grammarians/English teachers Huang alludes to, try not to panic or get too hung up on what seems to be a somewhat harmless trend in informal writing…

Huang reports about the voice of reason--Britain's most prolific linguist  who tells it as he sees it…

“David Crystal's "Txtng: the Gr8 Db8" (Oxford) makes two general points: that the language of texting is hardly as deviant as people think, and that texting actually makes young people better communicators, not worse.“ Put more simply—our language evolves over time, and the newest trend in communication will likely benefit that evolution… “Where the naysayers see destruction, Crystal sees growth.”

Huang points to one British experiment last year, “children who texted—and who wielded plenty of abbreviations—scored higher on reading and vocabulary tests. In fact, the more adept they were at abbreviating, the better they did in spelling and writing.”  With that said, maybe we  English teachers shouldn’t wield the red pen so vehemently.  I must agree, “The more exposure children get to language, by whatever means, the more verbally skilled they become. " 

We live in exciting times—I’m just starting to get my feet wet with texting, and I must say, the English teacher in me is evident in every complete, punctuated sentence that I text... I wonder how long that will last...

DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer, highlights Paris Hilton’s spoof of McCain ad--proposing a solution to nation's energy crisis… (lol) in “Paris Hilton issues tart rebuttal to McCain ad…

What better publicity than a controversial campaign ad? 

    “Last week, McCain launched an ad comparing Democratic rival Barack Obama  to Hilton and Britney Spears, suggesting Obama was no more than a celebrity     candidate unready to lead the nation."
You can see Hilton’s spoof on the comedy Web site Funny or Die where she prods, “’Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity, too. Only I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot… But then that wrinkly, white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement white-haired dude.’”

Which ever candidate you favor, you have to admit, this one makes for a good laugh…  “The power of the press…”  vs  “The power of the WWW...”   Our world is changing, rapidly, and this response is just another reminder of how American politics are a changin’ too…  (chuckle…)

Paris Hilton's Spoof
Associated Press Report Clip

Every year about this time I start sweating a little--thinking about how I will put together my bulletin boards for a new year.  I've spent time searching other websites looking for ideas, sifting through pictures, etc...

It’s just hard sometimes to find the right inspiration...

Some of my bulletin boards form the past include a Pink Floyd's "The Wall" inspired board—created by cutting enough bricks to cover my bulletin boards and then free hand cutting words to look like graffiti,  I love Survivor, so a Survivor themed bulletin board was fun to create with personalized logo and enough vines to swing from.  I’ve done a semi-Pirate theme—built around a stranded in Mrs. W’s class.   Grizzly bear foot prints (on bulletin board, walls, floor)  with lunch bags crumpled and sorted through—names of students on their lunch bags… Anime student characters, life sized, —the kids loved this!  

Here are some of my best tips for creating really cool bulletin boards:

Choose a theme that you like rather than a theme based in content, and then build the first days’ lessons around your theme instead of vice versa… 

Think big—oversize everything…

3D is a must—don’t just use the bulletin board—spread out onto the wall.  Attach objects to the board that stick out a little…

Choose a theme that is popular to students’ lives—for example, if a movie or TV show is relatively popular, you can do a spin off of that. 

Choose background colors that will transfer to the fall--then you can take off first days creation and start adding kids' work or other seasonal themed ideas...


If I were in the classroom this year, I would definitely use Indiana Jones as my theme—tea staining paper, hiding artifacts, creating scavenger hunts, etc.  

Whatever you choose to do—have fun… That’s what bulletin boards should say to the kids… They should entertain, motivate, inspire!

It happened to me for the first time last year... I found myself daydreaming about being a P.E. teacher--the coveted class--the comfortable shoes--fewer papers to grade...  Wish as I may, I'm not highly qualified in Phys-Ed, dampening my delusion--so fear not young children... 

It might not be PC to say, but as an English  teacher, I work longer hours, investing many hours after school and on the weekend to assess student writing...   That has always been just fine with me.  I love the content, I love preparing for my lessons, and I love the reward of getting to know the students through their work.  And I know that in any profession, there will always be those that invest more of their personal time--given that, is the way that we pay teachers a symptom of something greater?  If we compensated teachers based on their performance, would student learning improve appreciably?  One school is going to find out soon...  I ran across and interesting article in Teacher Magazine about a New York charter school that is going to pay teachers a starting salary of $125,000, Charter School Offers Revolutionary Salary--I'm not from NY, and I'm not a math teacher either--but that equates to about double what 10 year teaching veteran with a MA and National Board certification makes in my state.  Schools need reform--and maybe if we began to reward teachers for the quantifiable strides that they are making in their classrooms, some of the measurable apathy that so often lurks behind closed doors would wane and we would see assessable academic improvement. I'm going to be keeping my eye on The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School.

Every fall I try to bring in the new school year with a different theme--I build my bulletin boards around the theme and create back to school presentations as needed.  This year I thought it would be fun to use Indiana Jones as a starting point--although I'm not going to be in the classroom (tear) I know there are people out there that appreciate creative ideas just the same.  So, here it is...

Well, not really... But I am spending a lot more time on the computer than ever before.  I just finished working on a fun animoto video that I might use to introduce a presentation on web 2.0--or not... It was fun to make it though--

What’s in a name?  As educators, we could probably put together a rather long list of unusual names of some of the children that have graced our classrooms.  Off-the-wall or just weird—for instance, would you name your children Indiana Jones and Dow Jones?   An article on CNN.com discusses the pros and cons of unusual names and cites these two children as examples…  I’m all for unique names, but Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii is definitely extreme.  Over the years I’ve noticed that names have become more unique: parents are also spelling their children’s names in weird ways.  Recently I had 3 girls named Ashley in my classes—spelled Ashleigh, Ashlee, Ashley…  Problematic?  Probably for some… others likely appreciate the heir of uniqueness that an unusual name affords.  I’m not sure that the topic warrants a blog entry—but as an educator, I know I look forward each fall to a new roster of names to master… 

Detroit Free Press--In “Education should lift all children” Susan B. Neuman discusses the reality that six years after the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind law, there is little evidence that it will close the achievement gap between low-income, minority children and their middle-class peers. Are you surprised? I'm not…
“Schools educate middle-class children well but struggle to function as remedial, clinical institutions. Once a child starts falling behind in school, catching up is mostly a pipe dream.” And it took 6 years of No Child Left Behind to figure that out?
“The impetus for change built into NCLB was to effectively ‘shame’ schools into improvement. We now see that the shame game is flawed.” Yep...
“Schools fail not because they lack resources, or quality teachers. School influences are overwhelmed because so many children are molded by highly vulnerable and dysfunctional environments. The rhetoric of leaving no child behind has trumped reality.” So agree!
"Shaming schools has become the cure to everything but the common cold, distracting attention from the devastating effects of poverty. We need to move beyond touting school reform as the magical elixir. It is important, but we need to mobilize other institutions to help solve this problem. Hallelujah!
The answer? “a group of national experts, from diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise and political beliefs, calling for a "broader, bolder approach" to education. www.boldapproach.org
And finally? “All this suggests that perhaps schools don't have exclusive rights to education.”