By Tom

It looks like we'll have to accept a new reality next year. There will be fewer teachers, teaching more kids, for less money and with less support. There's no other way to look at it. It's grim, bleak and discouraging.

Many of us tried to mitigate what's happening right now. We blogged, lobbied and wrote to our representatives, trying to protect what was precious to us. And to some extent we were successful. The National Board bonus, for example, seems to have survived. But overall, this legislative session was a horrible disaster for education in Washington. Things will be different next year. And beyond. And by different, I mean worse.

So what do we do?

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First year teachers tend to avoid it. It typically takes a
veteran teacher to pull the newbie from their fortress of solitude, clutching
piles of paper, screaming, “I have so much to do!” Thank goodness there was a
veteran teacher who pulled me out of my room 13 years ago.

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By Tom

I took my third graders on a field trip the other day. We went to all the important buildings in our community; the fire station, recreation center, city hall, public library and police station. It was fun, especially when everyone got to go into the holding cell at the police station. And when we got back everyone chose their favorite place and wrote a paragraph about it. The paragraphs were fine. Each one of them had an adequate topic sentence with three to five detail sentences. Exactly what I asked for.

Then we went on another field trip. This time we went to the local sewer treatment plant. When we got back to school we did some more writing. But this time the writing was incredible. There was far more elaboration and an incredible amount of authors' voice in their writing.

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By Guest Blogger John

“I was really hoping to be able to meet with Senator Roach—we were ready!”  Kristy said, disappointed after getting a chance to advocate for new teacher support with her two other legislators, Reps. Christopher Hurst and Dan Roach, but finding Sen. Pam Roach out for the day with a health issue. 

In the Governor’s proposed budget, support for new teachers through the Teacher Assistance Program (TAP) would be eliminated for the first time in more than 20 years…..

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By Tom

Homework's making headlines. After enjoying a heady period as a great way to boost test scores, it's starting to take some heat, most notably on the Today Show by the authors of an anti-homework blog and companion book. According to them, homework is hurting our children.

Where were they when I needed them?

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By Tom

A new report, commissioned by CSTP, was just released on science education in Washington State's elementary classrooms. It was conducted through interviews with 34 experienced teachers, many of whom are NBCTs.

The title speaks volumes: Science Education in Washington's elementary Schools: A System at Risk. Among the findings:

• It takes time and money for school districts to build a strong science program in the early grades.
• Most districts are investing in kit-based curriculum and providing appropriate professional development.
• Literacy and math instruction trump science education, in terms of both district and teacher priority. Teachers spend as little as 45 minutes per week teaching science.

I wasn't personally involved with this survey, but I see evidence of the findings all around me. After a huge literacy renaissance two years ago, my district adopted a new math curriculum this year, and the two subjects seem to be consuming everyone's attention. In many classrooms, science is the first "horse thrown off the ship."

So what?

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Washington State is taking a serious look at the way schools are funded. In fact, the "Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force" is currently discussing five separate proposals, each of which would dramatically change our state school system.

I like the proposal put forth by the Full Funding Coalition a lot. I think it's pretty good for a number of reasons. I don't care so much for the status quo. I think it's bad. And there's one proposal on the table that just plain frightens me. That's the one proposed by the chair of the Task Force, Dan Grimm.

Before I get all specific with you, I need to claim a caveat: my experience has not prepared me to pass judgment on all aspects of these five very detailed proposals. But I do know what I'm talking about on certain topics, including teacher professional development time, class size, and performance pay. So I'll stick to those.

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By Tom

I got a new kid this week. I first spotted him in the office. He was sitting there next to his mom, who was filling out the new kid forms that we use in our school. So I started up a conversation, asking him where he was from, how old he was; the usual things adults ask kids when they don’t have anything to talk about.

Turns out he’s a third grader, and he’s assigned to my class. He started the following day, after I got to learn about him from his file. And from the CPS field officer assigned to his case.

I’ve been thinking about the task ahead of me. And I’ve also been thinking about apples, our profession’s ubiquitous icon.

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By Tom

I've only had to use it once, and man was I glad it was there.

It was parent conference time, a fall tradition since before chalk. I was setting the stage; grown-up chairs, regular table, student files, notepaper, pencils, and of course the obligatory Box of Kleenex.

The first conference that afternoon was with Anthony's mom. Anthony wasn't doing well. He was behind in reading, math, writing, science, everything. He even had trouble with lunch. In fact, the only thing Anthony was doing well at was art. In art he was amazing. The rest of the class would line up at his desk to get him to draw the people in their pictures. I had to put an end to it, because it got to the point where he was doing most of everyone's art.

So my plan was to begin the conference by telling Anthony's mom what a wonderful artist he was and then move from there to the trouble he was having with everything else. The old Good News/Bad News device.

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It’s about time someone finally looked at our state’s constitution (or at least the preamble) and then looked at how we actually execute the "paramount duty" of educating our children.

And then explained how to make up the difference.

That, in a nutshell, is how I view the plan by a new task force on school funding. It’s quite a document (Thirty pages! With no pictures!) and it goes a long way towards describing what this state needs to do. It doesn’t tell how we’re going to pay for it, but that’s probably a topic best tackled after the election.

The part of the plan that particularly caught my attention was about how teachers would be assessed in order to receive additional compensation commiserate with improved classroom skills.

As I read this I recalled one of my earliest evaluations.

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