“I Believe in You”: The Teacher’s Role of High Expectations

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Education, Education Policy, Elementary, Life in the Classroom

High expectations. The phrase has been bouncing around the education ether with increasing regularity over the years. As practicing educators, we know the “why” behind high expectations, but it is often easier said than done. Take my story. It is probably not unique, and other teachers may have buried away similar stories in their proverbial shoebox of “not-so-proud” teacher moments.

I share this story not as an omission of guilt or a way to vent, but as a window into the challenges that a multitude of novice (or not so novice) teachers encounter when trying to navigate the new territory of cultural competency in our practice. 

In my first year of teaching 1st grade I did not hold all of my students to high expectations and one of my English Learner students suffered the most.

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Prep for Success?

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Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom

I was a few years into my teaching career when found myself in a line outside of thick conference doors waiting to get into a session entitled, On the Verge of Burnout? I was curious, who were all these people, burning out? Teaching was great!

Finally, after waiting a few minutes, I touched the shoulder of the young woman in front of me and asked if she knew what the hold-up was, why weren’t they opening the doors? She replied that indeed they had opened the doors and this line was the overflow for standing room.  Overflow? I should have seen the writing on the wall then—things were not looking good for teachers’ mental health. That was over a decade ago and it seems things have only gotten worse.

Fast forward fifteen years in my teaching career. Honestly, we are barely a month in and I feel the weight of an entire school year upon my shoulders. There is just too much; too much to teach, too much to manage, to juggle, to collect data on, to make fit. I am feeling the burn of being a candle lit at both ends.

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Institutional Inertia vs. Diverse Literature

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Uncategorized

Like any English department across the nation, the English lit programming in my district has its list of essentials.

At the ninth grade level, the anchor works we are required to teach are To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, and Romeo and Juliet. Tenth grade: Lord of the Flies, Into the Wild, and Julius Caesar. Eleventh: Fahrenheit 451, The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, The Crucible. Twelfth: The Things They Carried, Hamlet, Catcher in the Rye. These are the published core. The non-negotiables, the must-dos, the anchors.

In summary: One female author. No non-white authors. Only one author still alive.

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The Care and Feeding of the Twice Exceptional Child, Part One

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Assessment, Education, Education Policy

“Twice-Exceptional” (2E) is a term used to describe a student who is both gifted and disabled. These students may also be referred to as having dual exceptionalities or as being gifted with learning disabilities (GT/LD). This designation also applies to students who are gifted with ADHD or gifted with autism.

Last year, at the end of the school year, I overheard one of my mothers talking to other parents, telling them how hard it had been to get her child admitted into the Highly Capable (HC) program at our district because “no one in the district understands twice exceptional children.”

I didn’t say anything. It wasn’t the time or place. But her child was not the first 2E child I’ve had in my class. He certainly won’t be the last.

Yet I am sure every parent of a 2E child feels the same frustration she felt.

First of all, it can be hard to identify 2E children for any of their needs. They are intellectually advanced enough to devise coping mechanisms to help overcome some of their disabilities. At the same time, those disabilities are like anchors that weigh them down, not letting their intellectual giftedness shine. They can look bright but unmotivated, advanced but lazy. They can look too high to qualify for special ed services but too low to qualify for HC services.

In truth, they may need both.

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Gifted Ed—Elimination or Equity

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Current Affairs

At the end of August Mayor Bill de Blasio got the recommendation from his School Diversity Advisory Group: desegregate New York City schools by eliminating most gifted programs.

I teach a self-contained class in our district’s highly-capable (HC) program. The news from NYC certainly caught my attention.

“The panel recommended that the city replace gifted and screened schools with new magnet schools — which have been used in other cities to attract a diverse group of students interested in a particular subject matter — along with enrichment programs that are open to students with varying academic abilities.”

Understand, NYC has the biggest school district in the country. They also occupy a reasonably small geographic area with absolutely amazing public transportation running all day long. (When I lived in upstate New York, students could attend any school in the area and ride public transportation for free.) Moving to magnet schools all across their district is more feasible for them than in many districts.

However, both of the New York panel’s recommendations, for magnet schools and enrichment programs, are just vague outlines thrown out there. They are lacking in any details. (Gut what exists. Replace with something. Eventually. Design details to follow.)

First, I want to point out how NYC schools operate differently from what the Washington State Coalition for Gifted recommends and what our state requires. In New York City, they test kindergarten students using a standardized admission exam. “At the elementary school level, students can qualify for the Department of Education’s gifted and talented programs by taking a single standardized exam, starting in Kindergarten.” Students can be in the gifted program permanently based on that one test!

Parents who can afford it pay tutors to prepare their preschool students for the test. Of course, many parents can’t afford tutoring. And thus, the segregation begins.

Also, New York City parents nominate their child for testing. “Savvy parents” are more likely to do the work of filling out the nomination forms for testing their child for gifted programs, paving the way for their child to have opportunities that other children might miss.

In Washington the Gifted Coalition has fought long and hard for universal testing “by the end of second grade” when the test results are far more likely to be valid. And our state law now requires an identification process that uses multiple data points. Our districts aren’t allowed to rely on a single test. By the way, the Coalition also got the state to change the law so we no long talk about “nominations” in Washington. We talk about “referrals”—just like referrals to Special Ed or any other student support. Parent or teacher referrals might be considered as one of the multiple data points in the identification process in our state, but they are not the gatekeeper, allowing or denying entrance.

Best case scenario? Each district in Washington observes and monitors K-1 students, identifying truly high-fliers (not just early readers). By the end of second grade, the district does a universal screening (at school and during the school day) so every student in the district is reviewed by the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT). Then the MDT looks at additional data from every child who scores high on that initial screening, including (potentially) referrals from parents and/or teachers, before making decisions about placement in Highly Capable programs. Finally, the MDT should also review data of students entering middle school to see if there is anyone who might have been missed at a younger age.

Second, let’s just take a moment to acknowledge the vast difference between meeting the needs of exceptional students and providing enrichment. The first and most important need for truly gifted students is quality time with their intellectual peers. Second, they need increased depth and complexity. Third, they need a faster pace.

Here is what is being suggested as on alternative to that type of holistic gifted classroom in NYC:  “For younger children, that could mean setting up small groups of students who are pulled out of their classrooms to learn the basics of photography.”

I wholeheartedly support enrichment options—like photography—being offered to all elementary students. Who wouldn’t love that? But don’t confuse that with a rigorous program of advanced academics.

My fifth graders have to complete a Classroom-Based Assessment in social studies, just like any other fifth grade students. But I model their projects on a 7th grade CBA and on National History Day projects (NHD is open to students in 6-12th grades). They learn to follow MLA format guidelines for their written work, including their “List of Works Consulted” for their CBA. (You might have used the MLA handbook in high school or college.) My goal is to start preparing them for the kind of writing they will do in high school and college.

Enrichment class? Not quite.

The goal of the School Diversity Advisory Group was desegregation. May I suggest, a better goal would be equity. By that, I mean every student gets the education they need.

Some fifth-grade students need extra help in learning how to read. Some fifth-grade students need extra help in answering specific questions about integers or even quadratic equations.

Some students need small group work on phonics.

Some need large group discussions on topics like geopolitics in the American colonies or economic theories in the 20th century.

Give students what they need. Including robust gifted education programs.

Rethinking What I’ve Always Done

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Books, Education

It started with a Facebook conversation last winter.

Someone posted a New Yorker article from December 2018 questioning the novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the character Atticus Finch’s place in literary and cultural history. It sparked quite a conversation about this fictional character who I have so enjoyed exploring with my 9th graders for the last 16 years.

[Quick recap: Mockingbird is narrated by Scout Finch, who recounts her early childhood as she and her brother Jem are faced with the dark realities of race in 1930s Alabama when their lawyer father, Atticus, chooses to defend a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.]

The social media conversation wandered into the why and how behind our teaching of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I casually commented that “TKAM is much more about Jem’s coming of age rather than Scout’s… I feel like Jem is really the main character even though Scout is the narrator.”

A reply from a fellow English teacher opened my eyes to a new perspective:

“That’s exactly the problem!” She wrote, “Even when we teach books with girls as narrators they are still focused on the lives and experiences of boys!”

Ten years ago, I would have probably brushed off this comment…or worse, leapt to argument: So what if Jem (a boy) is the main character? What’s the big deal?

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The Equity of Alternatives

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Assessment, Education, Education Policy, Uncategorized

Offering alternatives to students is, ostensibly, a great thing to do. We can all agree that individualized learning that inspires every student to meet their own potential is ideal. However, it is wrong to assume that we can legislate such alternatives and extra options into existence, especially in small, rural schools.

As an educator in a rural district, I have spent many years observing how our students often have less access to the options that are readily available in larger and urban districts. For instance, in addition to fewer electives, we offer few opportunities for students to take AP or dual credit courses, forcing many of our best scholars to travel forty miles to a community college as Running Start students. Additionally, where other districts had classes to support students who failed the state assessments in math or language arts, we did not have the resources or staff to offer such dedicated courses. Instead, because we are committed to our kids, our staff has worked outside of the regular schedule to support them and create Collections of Evidence or prep for test retakes.

The fact is, in small schools, it is most likely that everyone gets the same offerings, and individualization can be difficult, because it is expensive. Granted, many small schools have gotten very creative to offer programs to their students that go above and beyond the core offerings. There are online programs that support individuals as they explore their interests, and many great educators in small schools offer outstanding and creative programs that would be the envy of the larger districts. Such enhancements in rural schools depend on administrators and teachers with extra energy and creativity to spare.

So, now we have the ultimate in alternatives- an alternative to passing the Smarter Balanced Assessment. New legislation rather vaguely outlines how the state assessment is no longer directly tied to high school graduation. Almost everyone is celebrating this change and hailing the final victory against high stakes testing. I am less enthusiastic.

You see, what happens next is still a mystery. House Bill 1599 (summary on page 31) effectively delinked the statewide assessment from graduation requirements, BUT it did not let anyone off the hook for proving mastery in language arts and math. Students will still take the test, and passing it is the easiest and clearest way to prove mastery. The bill also added a lot more to the High School and Beyond Plans that students must have. Districts will all have to determine what is meant by “graduation pathway options,” and they will have  to adopt academic acceleration policies for high school students. It sounds like we will have more requirements, but not more money.

In small rural districts, that means figuring out how do the most with the least support. And who misses out? Students do.

When the state steps back and puts more on the districts, it can be a benefit. However, look at it through the lens of a small district educator. I predict that determining mastery of core subjects will become the responsibility of local entities. In large districts, that will still require a level of accountability. It is possible that the people in charge of determining the students’ mastery of a subject in a larger district could be both qualified in the subject and not the direct instructors of the students in question. In a small district, when a department has so few people in it, who makes that call? Who has the expertise? Who is accountable for the instruction received by the student? Is it the same person?

So, what if we are allowed/expected to offer courses that replace the assessment? We implement the instruction. We score the work. We make the determination. It sounds great, if you are ethical, equitable, and without bias. But, are you? And that doesn’t even address the issue of how small districts will have the funds to offer such a class for a small handful of kids.

I know, I know… the test has problems with equity and bias, too. I’m just saying that these are ongoing issues, delinking the test or not. And, more importantly, solutions to these problems are very different in small districts, and small districts have very little pull on the legislature.

Having common requirements for students can be limiting, but, in many ways, it ensures that all students get the education our public schools promise to provide. All districts have their challenges, and small, rural districts have some extreme challenges when it comes to offering a variety of courses. When we loosen up the requirements for schools and give way to local control, we are going to see problems with equity. Where is the oversight for this? How do we pay to support it and monitor it? How can we ensure that students in every district in Washington are still getting the skills they need to be successful?

I know that the one thing a small district does have is the opportunity for all players to sit at the same small table and come up with common solutions. Our staff will do what’s best for our kids, and I imagine it is the same all over Washington. I sincerely hope that it is.

I would love to hear some other views on the subject. Are you seeing only positive outcomes from the change? Does anyone else worry about the consequences? Let’s talk about it.

 

On Leveraging Technology—Part Seven

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Education, Social Issues, Web/Tech

Well, it is June. I’ve been writing about technology all year (for the most part) and I hoped to have come to some conclusions by this time. All I know for sure is technology is here to stay, and I can hope we begin to use it, and implement it, thoughtfully. Or, for those who already do so, to continue thoughtful implementation.

Often I worry I’m making a bigger problem out of this than it really is. I mean, technology has always advanced over time and humans and societies adapt. But this technology seems to come with specific and deeply problematic long term issues both for cognitive and physical development of children. I tend to be affected by my environment in moderate ways. Therefore, too much screen time leaves me bleary and with headaches. I know this is not the case for everyone. Though this week, I’ve had two conversations leaving me confident that I’m not the only person with these concerns. My child’s ophthalmologist said that since the school district moved to 1:1 implementation, her office is selling more and more glasses to kids who do not have a stigmatism, but need glasses with blue light filters to prevent headaches from extended screen exposure.

I’ve also heard students discussing in class, hallways, and in their final papers how concerned they are about government, the environment, and society in general because they see their own generation as one so distracted and ignorant they feel no sense of hope for positive change. That seems dismaying. It seems a rite of passage to me for teenagers to feel their generation will improve on the faults and errors of the previous generation. To be misanthropic as a seventh grader or a junior in high school, seems problematic.

My juniors were given a final research paper under the theme, “the language of social media.” No one has a positive take on this theme. There are some balanced perspectives. My favorite phrase so far is, “the conundrum of constant connection,” read by a student who delivered her paper via reading it off of her phone. She stood before us and criticized the medium while utilizing it. A perfect visual of the benefit while presenting thoughtful questions of concern. Some have humorous explorations on how the language is used, or has changed. One student is writing a wonderful exploration of slang, and catch phrases. It is funny and engaging. Most are writing about how social media causes isolation, depression, a sense of time wasted, and—yes—a misanthropic view of the world.

I don’t really know how to help them. How does one change the larger habits of a society? Especially, pleasurable habits. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell keep being called upon in their papers. One student said, “if in Huxley’s day a citizen was handed a smartphone and told, ‘here, this will allow you to be in contact with anyone you want all the time, but will record everything and monitor your location—the citizen would decline in a split second.’” These students seem convinced we are the frog, in the kettle, the stove on, and the water warming without our awareness. But they also seem to feel, that there are some frogs who know the water is warming and are fine with it. And some who feel the pot’s sides are so steep, escape is impossible. Though there are some resisting this. Some are grabbing on to Clay Shirkey’s wonderful ideas about accepting everything from the internet. We get amazing things (Wikipedia, genius, go fund me, kickstarter, improved research abilities, citizen reporting from previously closed societies, etc.). This is just our cultural moment.

I want to offer them hope, because I believe it is possible. The hope comes from them. From people. From our ability to stop, look at someone we are working with and to see them. To see their humanity, despite differences of any kind. Hope comes from the “civil conversations,” of Krista Tippet. Comes from the student who reads books in their spare time in classes, rather than hopping on social media. From the student who uses their phone mindfully as well as for distraction.

Last week, I participated in an international literary festival. I met writers from Greece, Ireland, New York, Florida, and Spain. We were a diverse group—different ages, languages, skin colors, sexual orientations, life experiences. By the end of the week, we were old friends, for the most part. Mutual respect, the ability to listen, and a focus on language brought us together. Now technology will keep us in touch, email, facebook, etc. I see these same qualities in many of my students. I hope I’ve cultivated their desire to engage with these things in their life now and in the future. That’s where my hope lies—there, and in the belief that they will see it within themselves and their peers in the not so distant future.

Going Global, Revisited

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Education, Professional Development, Teacher Leadership, Travel, Uncategorized | , , , ,

Last September, I wrote a blog as I was just starting a 10-week course with the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms program. As I wrote that blog, I was just learning about global competencies for myself and my students. It has been eight months since then, and it feels like a lifetime. I’m not the same teacher I was at the beginning of the year. I’m better.

Rabat, Morocco

Let me explain how it happened. In December, after my 10-week course, I was assigned to a cohort destined for Morocco.  It was stressful finding out that I was in the cohort scheduled to leave the earliest, as they are spread out over the spring and summer months, with Morocco being the first of the five cohorts to go. We had just over two months to prepare to be out of our classrooms for three weeks.

In February the Fulbright TGC fellows attended a symposium in Washington D.C. where we learned more about global education and met teachers from Morocco and other host countries. We had security briefings and cultural trainings in preparation for our trips. I met with my cohort face-to-face, while other cohorts for other destinations (Peru, Indonesia, Senegal, Columbia, and India) met to learn the specifics of their journeys. It was exciting and overwhelming, especially since there were only two weeks between the symposium and our departure!

During the time between the symposium and my trip, I frantically scrambled to prepare my classes for my absence and myself for this otherworldly experience. I began a dialogue via WhatsApp with my amazing host teacher, Rachid El Machehouri, an English teacher in Tangier. As he built an agenda around my interests, it became exciting and real. I was on my way to Africa to visit teachers and students.

Junior high students, Tangier

 

And so it was that for three weeks in March I traveled to Morocco with my Fulbright TGC cohort. The experience was life changing. Any trip abroad, especially for a fairly inexperienced traveler, can feel like the whole world is finally opening up to you. But, this was more. I got to experience classrooms and teaching in another country.

In my first blog about Global Ed, I introduced elements from ASCD’s Global Competent Learning Continuum, a rubric that measures a teacher’s global competencies. You can explore the full continuum here.  

 

Now I would like to connect these ideas to the new teacher I am becoming. Likewise, if you are a teacher with the opportunity to bring the world into your classroom, either virtually or through your own travel experiences, I commend you. Your students are definitely better for it. Measure yourself by the same rubric. We all have room to grow.
Teacher Dispositions
1. Empathy and valuing multiple perspectives
2. Commitment to promoting equity worldwide

FEELING: I felt that I was strong in teacher dispositions from the start, but I have a whole new metric now. What can top the experience of being in a room full of Muslim students on the day of a massacre in a New Zealand mosque? Do you think I had the chance to value a different perspective from my own? When those students showed me compassion as the outsider, how did that impact my own idea of empathy? My commitment to teaching compassion and promoting equity grew tenfold.

Teacher Knowledge
3. Understanding of global conditions and current events
4. Understanding of the ways that the world is interconnected
5. Experiential understanding of multiple cultures
6. Understanding of intercultural communication

KNOWING: With travel and the learning that accompanies it, a teacher’s knowledge cannot help but grow. I learned so much about North Africa, about Muslims, and about Moroccan people. I learned about how we are all essentially alike, despite our differences. I witnessed the way a multilingual culture gracefully moves between languages, valuing linguistic diversity and encouraging communication of all types. Moroccans openly communicate verbally and nonverbally. They don’t shut out strangers. It is shocking and illuminating, as it contrasts so starkly with how Americans are often cut off from others. Continue reading →

Thrilled about a new mandate? YES!

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Current Affairs, Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, Professional Development |

On May 9th, Governor Inslee signed a law that surely will affect our most vulnerable of students deeply. This new law reads: “Beginning in the 2020-21 school year, and every other school year thereafter, school districts must use one of the professional learning days funded under RCW 28A.150.415 to train school district staff in one or more of the following topics: Social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, using the model plan developed under RCW 28A.320.1271 related to recognition and response to emotional or behavioral distress, consideration of adverse childhood experiences, mental health literacy, anti-bullying strategies, or culturally sustaining practices.

I cannot believe it. This is such an incredibly positive step in the right direction! I am especially excited to see trauma-informed practices included in this new law.

Last month I wrote about the importance of teaching students self-regulation skills, especially in regards to how they would like their lives to play out. The challenging part is having the insight as a teacher into the impact of trauma on students to help these students regulate. Often their regulatory behaviors are counter-intuitive it would seem and only when you know the motivations driving them do they begin to make sense. Insights are not always enough though. You have to be able to act on this knowledge. An equally difficult aspect of helping students of trauma is to have the skills required to respond to emotionally laden situations in a healthy manner. Up until now, access to this knowledge and these skills have been limited. This is the case no long. Now, the question becomes, “Can this knowledge and these skills truly help, and if so, how?” Continue reading →