Author Archives: Tom White

Shared Fishing, Shared Accountability

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Assessment

By Tom

I caught a rainbow trout yesterday. A beautiful animal; sixteen inches of fin, muscle and poor judgment. It was a blast, but when I reflect on this accomplishment (Which I have been doing a lot) I realize that by myself, there would have been no trout. A lot of other people were involved. Obviously, the trout itself played an active, yet unwilling role, but there was also Dave, who was steering the canoe and telling me where to cast. There was my lovely wife, who was watching the kids back at the campground. There was the guy at the fly shop, who told me which gear to use. And the list goes on, all the way to the Fish and Wildlife Department, which manages the river.

So why the fish story?

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Riding the ELL Fence

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Education Policy

It was the first day of school for my third graders, and they were all coloring. I roamed the room, trying to get a sense of what I was up against. I happened upon Jinhyuk. (Pronounce it Gin-Yuck, as in "What is this, gin? Yuck!") He was coloring everything turquoise. Himself, his family, their house, their trees, the dog, everything. Now, far be it from me to stifle anyone's artistic expression, especially on the first day of third grade, but curiosity ruled the day. "Everything seems to be the same color, Jinhyuk," I observed mildly, "Tell me about that." His neighbor, Cathy, the bossiest kid I've ever worked with, told me about it for him. "It's the only color he's got," she announced, "He only came with one crayon."

That told me something about Jinhyuk. (It told me something about Cathy, too, but that's another story.) It told me he was resourceful; a kid who uses what he's been given to make the best of whatever situation he's in.

This impression was confirmed two months later when he became the center of a minor scandal. One of the fifth grade teachers was holding an "unauthorized" candy sale to raise money for a field trip. Only fifth graders were supposed to know about it. Somehow Jinhyuk, with his limited English skills, caught wind of the sale and managed to sneak across campus during lunch, without a pass, to buy twenty dollars worth of candy from this classroom. Twenty dollars is a lot of cash for a third grader to carry around, but by the time we caught on to him, he had enlarged his fortune to thirty bucks by retailing the candy at a considerable mark-up. People were furious. It was suggested that he donate his earnings to the fifth graders from whom he bought the candy. I argued against it, saying he might not have even known he wasn't supposed to be buying and then selling candy to other kids, and that he'd only been in the country since August. I was told: "That kid knows a lot more than you think he does, Tom."

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Meme:Five Important Things Policymakers Ought to Know About My Class–Tom’s Take

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Life in the Classroom

1. My students are working harder than they’ll ever work for the rest of their lives. Think about it. A middle-aged man, easily twice your size, gives you something difficult to do first thing in the morning. You struggle with it, finally figure out how to do it, and then he takes it away from you and gives you something else that’s difficult to do. This goes on all day. And he promises to keep making the work harder every day until mid-June. How many of us would tolerate a job like that?

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Thank God for those Onerous Teacher Certification Laws

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Life in the Classroom

By Tom

What do you need to know in order to teach kindergarten? Probably the alphabet and some basic phonics, right?  And some numbers, at least up to about twenty. You’d also have to know some science, I guess. Like where rain comes from and why dogs can’t talk. And then there’s social studies. Someone might ask you about police and fire officers, so you should probably understand those jobs, at least in principle.

So on the whole, most people over the age of about seven have probably mastered the content knowledge required to teach kindergarten. But does that mean they could teach kindergarten?

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Merit Pay, Anyone?

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Education, Education Policy, National Board Certification

By Tom

This month we’ve heard both presidential candidates address education. Nothing too surprising was said: Obama’s in favor of parents getting more involved in their children’s schools but against vouchers. McCain’s in favor of vouchers but against teacher unions. However, there was one issue that both candidates seemed to agree on, at least in principle: merit pay.

The idea of merit pay has been batted around ever since I can remember. It sounds like a great idea. A win-win. Good teachers get more money while the students get a better education. Competition leads to better products and lower prices in the retail industry, right? Athletes thrive when they compete, don’t they? It sounds like a simple solution to a very complicated problem.

Which is exactly why it won’t work, at least the way most people envision it.

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Tom

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Uncategorized

I teach fourth grade in Lynnwood, Washington. It’s a suburb of Seattle, about 15 miles to the north. I’ve been there for the past twenty four years. I can’t imagine being anything other than a teacher.

I grew up in the Northwest, along with my two brothers, none of whom are teachers; and my two sisters, both of whom are. My parents were never teachers, although I learned almost everything I know from them.

My wife works in a school; in fact it’s the same one our two sons attended. Our oldest is a high school junior and our youngest is a ninth grader. When I’m not teaching or writing for this blog I like to endure Seattle Mariners games, sail and ski with my family and go on long bike rides by myself.

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Sam I Am Meets the Teacher

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Elementary, Life in the Classroom, Literacy

by Tom

I’ve always believed that preparation is the best way to compensate for an inability to improvise. Improvising in the classroom scares me. Which is exactly why I tend to be somewhat extreme in regards to lesson preparation. I still engineer every lesson to the minute, even after twenty-four years on the job.

That includes our 30-minute silent reading time. I carefully teach my students how to select books from different genres at their independent reading level. I make sure they have time to share and tell about their books, I make sure to give them lessons on decoding and comprehension strategies. I do everything I’ve heard I’m supposed to do to make the most of this 30 minute time. And it works pretty well.

Well, almost…

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