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In the last two week of school, a decision from higher up was made to test all the students, grades four through six, on their reading fluency.  Someone would show up in my room, armed with their beeping timer, grade level passages, and a class list and start pulling students away, one at a time.  On the second to last day of school I was given the results.  All but three of my students met standard.  Two of the three students had IEPs for reading and were making good progress.  The other student was a slower reader because he “thinks too much” while he reads.  I wasn’t too worried about him not meeting the fluency standard, as he has the most important part of reading down – the comprehension.  I’ll have to admit that I was pleased to get these scores.  All the green highlighted names looked pretty good.  But, let’s not be fooled.  Jordan and several others still can’t decipher the main idea of a paragraph, many of my ELL students don’t have the vocabulary to understand the meaning, and over-confident, yet creative Savannah is still making up her own story to parallel the one written on paper.  I had some struggling readers in this group. 

As I reflect on my year, the year I began blogging and the year even more decisions about my classroom were made for me, I’ve come to appreciate dialogue.  More than once I’ve tried to engage in dialogue about the importance of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension, and each time I’m met with a mantra from our literacy specialist about the research that links oral reading fluency with success in math and reading tests. OK. I don’t discount that there’s a link, but maybe a dialogue about why my fluently reading students aren’t comprehending what they read might be worth our time?  But, as mantras go, the statement is repeated.  There’s no discussion.

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I’m supposed to write on Jordan’s report card that he is promoted to sixth grade.  He shouldn’t be promoted to sixth grade.  He hasn’t done the work at fifth grade.  He reads at a third grade level.  He’s not ready for sixth grade.  Yet, I’m not allowed to make the decision that this child needs a second chance at fifth grade.  I have to promote him because it might hurt him emotionally to not be with his friends.  

I’ve had other students like Jordan before – students who miss a third of the school year, students who don’t try because they’re so far behind as it is, and students who never do the assignments. I feel the same way every time- dread mixed with worry.  I dread having to write the next grade level in the section that reads, next year’s assignment with my signature below, and I worry Jordan will be dropping out of school in the next few years.

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By Tracey

Yesterday I took my students to the beach at low tide. I participated in the Ocean Science grant with the Seattle Aquarium – a wonderful program if you ever get the chance. We have been learning about ecosystems, food webs, plankton, and our dependence upon the ocean. The students had a terrific time. And, they were interested in the animals. They were even kind and gentle with them. It was one of those proud moments you sometimes have as a teacher where you see some of your hard work pay off. The docent even complimented me. She said that in her job she sees a lot of classes and teachers, and she could see that I was a good teacher because of the way that I handled my students. I got that warm fuzzy feeling you get. I’ll take a compliment. But, don’t let her see my students’ test scores. 

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By Tracey

I was sitting in a professional development training with my principal, learning about one of those 90/90/90 schools.  You've heard of them:  90% of the students receive free or reduced lunch, 90% of the students are from ethnic minorities, and 90% are passing state tests.  This one, like all of them was also very impressive. The video we watched featured the principal and her approach to turning the school around and making it a
success.  They interviewed the
teachers and showed their collaborative approach to improving instruction based
on student data.  My principal
wants desperately to achieve the third 90 at my school.  She raised her hand and asked, “I want
to know how many of the teachers did the principal hire?  And how many did she inherit?”  My mouth dropped like they did in
cartoons where the cartoon character had to peel his jaw off the ground and
hold it in place to make it look normal. 
I turned to my principal, holding my jaw in place, and we shared an
awkward laugh because she had just revealed to me what I had long
suspected.  I knew what she meant
by “inherited” and I knew which teachers she felt were slowing her down.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t one of them,
even though she “inherited” me.

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 By Tracey

 I want to applaud the school librarians.  You've got to hand it to them for being resourceful.  Have you heard about A Nation Without School Librarians?  It's a collaborative GoogleMap created by a school librarian named Shonda.  Each blue mark represents a place in the country where a certified librarian position has been eliminated.  The red marks places where a librarian is responsible for two or more school library programs.  This project was launched almost a month ago, and as word spreads, more blue and red marks appear.  As our legislature goes home for the 2010 session, our school boards and administrators are meeting to discuss what next to cut.  Is your school library safe?  This map doesn't make me feel hopeful.  I fear that in the next few weeks, as tough decisions about next year's budgets are made, we'll see more red and blue marks appear over Washington.

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By Tracey 

I’ve always been taught that a healthy dose of competition
is a good thing.  It can motivate
you and help you to set and reach goals for yourself.  We value it in the marketplace as it can encourage
innovation and lead to better products and services.  But does it have a role in education?

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 By Tracey

Have you seen new technology standards? They're not actually "new".  They've been around since December, 2008; but most teachers I talk to don't know about them.  They're pretty remarkable. They emphasize collaboration, innovation, investigating, problem solving, creativity, and responsible digital citizenship.  The picture you see is a Wordle I made from the standards, which takes all the words and displays them, with their size relative to the frequency they occur in the document.  Digital, learning, and technology certainly do stand out.  But so do the words use and district.  What are your districts doing to encourage the use of technology?  I'm curious because in my district we're lucky in that we have technology, the problem is that we don't use it.  

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 By Tracey

I got another email from my principal.  This time, it said, "FYI" and included a link to Randy Dorn's statement about the senate's budget proposal.  Both the house and senate released their supplemental budget proposals for these hard economic times.  They released them with apologies, recognizing the sacrifice we all must make when faced with deep cuts to social services during a time when cuts have already been made.  

Dorn's statement is sobering.  He lists some startling facts, one of which is that the state would fund $3,815 per student, which is just $108 shy of what we provided our students more than 16 years ago.  $650 million would be cut from K-12 education, bringing class sizes up just a touch below what's legal for K-3 students and at the legal limit for 4th-12th grade.  2,500 teachers would lose their jobs, not to mention the huge loss of para-educators, janitors, and other important people who help make a school run smoothly.  The cuts are severe; and the impact would be huge in classrooms across the state.

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 By Tracey

Do you every get emails like this from your principal?

I would like to find time to visit with you and Mr. P (the other 5th grade teacher) about your desire not to send students to the specialist for math interventions. I would like to understand your rationale and to hear your plans for addressing the needs of your students. It is my expectation that when teachers aren’t happy with how things are going, then a team approach to addressing specific concerns makes more sense, especially when it comes to math. By team, I mean the math specialist, math coach, assistant principal and myself.

I got one of these just last week.  In fact, I got this exact email.  I'll admit I was a bit jittery when it first arrived in my inbox.  As I read it again now, I see the professionalism and concerned tone of my principal. I like my principal, and I think we have good rapport.  But the fear of being called down to the principal's office has never quite gone away.  

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