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?

I absolutely hate the phrase “teacher accountability.”

Don’t get me wrong–I’m not in favor of protecting bad teachers. What I am in favor of is systems which make teachers better. That, to me, is what people think they mean when they talk about “teacher accountability.” But that’s not how “teacher accountability” actually manifests. 

It manifests in only one way which can be summed up in one word: “punishment.” 

And the theory that punishment makes me better at my job is more than a bit misguided.

A recent Edweek.org article by James Stigler begins by making a similar point. He explained that the current push toward “accountability” through only end-product evaluation and levying of punishment is actually proven to harm productivity and effectiveness:

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By Tom

I’ve been following Congress’ “passive decision” to draw the line on deficit spending just when there was a $23 billion education bill in the works, designed to bridge the gap between the $100 billion given to education last year and some time in the future in which education is fully funded. Sponsored by Senators Harkin and Miller, both Democrats, it received tepid support from Obama and even tedider support from Congressional Democrats. By all accounts, it is isn't going anywhere, and will probably be dead by the time you read this.

But I still feel like talking about it.

We’ve bailed out God knows how many banks and investment firms in the past two years, along with a car company, but when education asks for some emergency money to keep a couple hundred thousand teachers in the classroom for another year, suddenly it’s time to count pennies.

Fine; I get it. We can't just put everything on Visa for the next ten years. We need to draw the line somewhere, and start paying for stuff, even education, with real money. But what we don’t need is nonsense like the recent editorial in the Seattle Times by Lynne Varner. Read it yourself, if you want, but she makes two bold points that I can’t ignore:

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By Mark

This time of year is filled with platitudes and pats on the back. Many scholarship dollars have been awarded, certificates of achievement handed out, and now that June is here, cute little embossed diplomas in little padded booklets are being divvied out all across the nation to folks in awkward gowns and cardboard hats. Kids who no one thought would make it will, and scores of teenagers will be the first in their entire genealogy to accomplish the feat of completing a high school education.

We high school teachers will always say that graduation is a bittersweet time. It is a familiar rite of passage wrought with (of course) pomp and ceremony. Each ceremony across the nation likely follows a similar pattern: a few songs from young musicians, a few words from the top scholars, a guest keynote speaker who reminds the robed young'uns just how very very special they are before they march proudly across the stage, shake a few hands, and cross that critical threshold into adulthood.

I have a few wishes for the class of 2010, some typical, others perhaps not so.

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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 Rena

 Last week I received a phone call from the local reporter.  She wanted my reaction to the grant that Washington state was going to receive that teachers statewide would benefit from.  I hadn't heard anything about this, so she filled me in.

Recently U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) applauded the announcement of a major investment to improve education throughout Washington state by giving educators the resources they need to use data to improve student outcomes.  Washington state will receive a grant of over $17 million to further develop the state longitudinal data system (SLDS), funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which will be used to develop data systems used to give educators insights into their teaching practices.  Senator Murray led the delegation in sending a letter to the Institute for Educational Sciences in support of Washington State Research and Data Center, a unique organization that was created to integrate education and workforce data systems.

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  by Brian

Our high school graduation is two weeks away, and it looks like Jake (not his real name) will make it. Jake is in my Algebra class this year, and he needs to pass it because he did not pass the state math test.  The rules say that he can graduate anyway as long as he has taken, and passed, additional math classes in his junior and senior year.  Whether or not he passes those classes is a decision that the teacher makes, based on his own standards and knowledge of his students.  Two weeks ago Jake quit coming to school.  It looked like he was going to drop out, a month before graduation.  Then last Thursday his girlfriend talked him into coming back and trying to finish. He came into my room after school and asked me if there was any way he could still pass.  He said he knew he could catch up in his other classes, but Algebra was the one he was worried about. It was why he got discouraged and quit coming to school.  I could say yes, you can pass, because it is still my decision to make.  

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 By Mark

The education blogs lit up recently about a technologically-botched conference call between a group of accomplished teachers and USDE bigwigs (including Big Arne), and Duncan's subsequent personal calls to Anthony Cody and Marsha Ratzel, two of the educators who lead the outreach from teachers to the USDE. After reading Cody's descriptions of the conference call and the follow up phone call from Arne, I came to the same conclusion that many other teachers have:

They may be hearing us, but they're certainly not listening.

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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 Tom

I went for a bike ride recently in Eastern Washington. It was a pleasant, sunny day and I was riding alone on a quiet, country road into a scenic canyon. After an hour or so of gently rolling hills, I began to notice that the canyon walls were steadily closing in around me, and the lazy river that I'd been following was starting to take a more active attitude. Things were getting steep. Now, anyone who's ever ridden into a canyon can tell you that there's only two ways out: the way you came, or up the hill at the end of the canyon. And what a hill it was; steep switchbacks as far as the eye could see. I could have turned back; there was no one around to impress, and there were plenty of flatter roads to choose from.

I decided to go for it. It was difficult, grueling and painful. But I eventually made it, and when I got to the top I was exhilarated. I had successfully done something difficult. I also found that the rest of my ride was defined by my decision to take the climb. I got to spend the next two hours going generally downhill, and the slopes I did encounter paled in comparison to the monster I had climbed earlier. It was well worth the effort.

As I was coasting along, I began to reflect that this experience was not unlike how it is in education today. For the first 25 years of my career, things have been going relatively smoothly. I've felt respected and supported by the press, the policy-makers and other stake-holders. But things right now are as discouraging as I've ever seen. We've got climbing class sizes, RiFs, lower funding, program eliminations, heightened accountability, ridiculous merit-pay schemes, wholesale faculty firings; not to mention climbing healthcare premiums and retirement account statements that we don't even want to look at. And to top it all off: copy counts! We're getting in trouble for producing the very materials we need to do our jobs. An outrage!

I feel like we're at that hill at the end of the canyon. Some of us are tempted to turn around and ride back out. Most of us, however, are plodding on, even accelerating, despite the slope. Why? because we know we're supposed to. We know we're doing something important. Something that needs to be done, no matter how difficult it seems.

And we'll do it. We'll get over this hill. Not right away, but eventually. The funding will return, the pressure will ease and class sizes will come back down. The good teachers that got Riffed will come back and we'll get to use the copier when we need to.

And just like my bike ride, we'll find that the next decade or so will be defined by the way we deal with things right now. If we quit on each other, quit on our students and quit on ourselves, we'll have lost; we'll have taken the easy road out. But if we stick together, focus on our students and stay true to what got us into this wonderful profession in the first place, we'll be fine. We'll look back on this period knowing we took the tough way out. We'll know we climbed the hill at the end of the canyon.

I'll end with a line from Winston Churchill, who was talking to a far more discouraged group during a far bleaker period of time:

"When you're going through hell," he said, "Keep going."