This picture is my classroom on the day before school started.  It seems like a lifetime ago.

Today I had my students write letters to me, as I’m sure many of you do.  The children who wrote letters to me are children I’ve come to know well, but I can still remember that first day of school, and the strangers they were then.

One young man wrote something so funny I wanted to share it with you.  Also, I’d love to hear the funny little successes you’ve all had that have nothing to do with test scores, but have everything to do with helping young people reach their potential as human beings.

He wrote, among other things, “When I skipped class and you chased me all over the school, and finally pulled me out of the boys’ bathroom where I was hiding and dragged me back to class, that moment I felt like you cared about me more than any other teacher has EVER.”

So there you go.  Who knew such a ridiculous moment would have such a positive echo?

What are your little gems as you wrap the year up and say farewell to your students?

By Kristin

I've been conducting interviews with both successful and struggling students, asking the same set of questions over and over to look for attributes each group has in common.  My research isn't scientific; I'm simply using what I know of their academic skills and performance.  "Successful" equals passing classes and meeting the state assessments.  "Struggling" equals failing classes and not passing state assessments. 

When I began the interviews I thought home life was the most important factor in a child's success – that or teaching strategy.  But I questioned whether it all boiled down to teaching strategy because I have some kids who are failing my class and the classes of other highly-capable teachers.  And I questioned whether it boiled down to home because I have some kids who are very successful despite chaotic and violent lives outside of school, and vice versa. 

Now that I've interviewed a number of kids I'm realizing parents aren't the most important thing, neither is breakfast or my high leverage teaching moves.  So far it seems the two most important things are a teacher's tone and a student's habit of "getting the work done."  In this post, I'm going to cover the former.

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By Kristin

I understand the urge to compare the best charter school to an average public school and then argue that if one can work miracles, the other should be able to.  And I understand that if a bright-eyed Princeton graduate can go down into the depths of Mississippi and get her second graders to read Antigone – and love it – then I should be able to get my habitually-truant tenth grade gang-banger to pass the state assessment.  So, to be clear with where I stand on things, I support the push to evaluate schools and make sure they're effective at what they do.

But let's be honest.  Most public schools don't have the luxury of focusing solely on academics.  I hear a lot about how we're the wealthiest nation and yet we have high school juniors who can't write well, but I don't hear enough about the fact we have children who, because of catastrophic brain damage or learning deficits, spend their days in a safe, engaging, therapeutic environment paid for with tax dollars.  These are tax dollars set aside for public education, but really they're spent on the kind of education that doesn't match up to Race to the Top values.  I think Arne Duncan, Jon Schnur and Wendy Kopp should remember that the role of public education doesn't begin and end with academics.

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By Kristin

I just made copies of the necessary permission slips for an upcoming trip to see Henry V.  I felt a little guilty, because the permission slips have been flying fast and furiously lately.  Students leave school for various competitions, marine biology boat trips, giving talks at the middle schools or simply spending a few periods in the auditorium watching the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz play some music.

Given the push to meet academic standards, to the detriment of a lot of other things like P.E., art, music, and voc. ed. classes, are field trips a good thing or bad?  Do they help make up for the fact opportunities have been cut, or do they create problems by taking kids out of the classroom?  I wonder if the increased field trips in my building are an indication that the staff feels these non-academic experiences are an important part of a child's education.  Cut the music program and we'll bring in a jazz performance, we seem to be saying.  Or, maybe it's a backlash to the pressure to meet standards in only a few college-prep subjects at the expense of other learning opportunities.

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By Kristin

You know the saying "If these walls could talk"?  Well, they do.  Our faces talk too, and our bodies, and sometimes our voices say something other than our words.  As Mark has pointed out on other posts, how we treat students matters to them.

This sign was on the door of a good teacher during one of our building's big tardy sweeps where kids have to check in with the office if they're late.  This sign is a good example of how we disrespect kids without knowing it.  For many students, being disrespected by a teacher is reason enough to quit.

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By Kristin

Well, as we might have guessed, things have started to fall apart at Central Falls High School.  

While I'm not one to shy away from taking a side, today I'm not going to write about whether the teachers should be fired or not.  Instead, I'm going to write about the fact that when Superintendent Frances Gallo searched Central Falls High School one night in response to a rumor that there was an effigy of Obama hanging somewhere, she found it, hanging upside down on a white board and holding a sign that read, "Fire Central Falls Teachers."

It made me think of how we sometimes overstep that line between protecting our students and trying to rally them.  The students sitting in our rooms are not our colleagues or friends.  They are not our troops.  There's a line that teachers shouldn't cross, even though it can be tempting.

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  By Kristin

Taking a bold stance in favor of equality, The Texas Board of Education has voted to include different cultures and political viewpoints in their history textbooks.  Just kidding!  Actually, they voted to revise the texts in order to erase the separation between church and state, emphasize the Christian origins of the United States, and put the "free enterprise system" in a more positive light.  A final vote will happen in May, and then textbook companies will work furiously to fulfill the revised-history textbook orders of this important customer.

In a strongly worded condemnation of this moment in Texas history, the editors of The New York Times point out that curriculum should be "chosen for its educational value, not politics or ideology."  But who can trust The New York Times?

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By Kristin

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By Kristin

There is a great piece in the New York Times Magazine titled Building a Better Teacher.  It's a long but good read.

In it, Elizabeth Green highlights Doug Lemov's efforts to identify effective teacher maneuvers.  Lemov discovered that it's important for teachers to have some sort of techniques with which to improve their teaching because many of them graduate from teacher education programs ill-prepared to teach effectively.

I couldn't agree more, and wondered what all of you would like to see change in teacher education programs.

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