Interviewing for your Job

JobBy Mark

Unlike too many schools, we are in a position to hire. Last week, we interviewed candidates for two positions in my department–one replacing an irreplaceable veteran moving on to retirement, the other filling a new position resulting from enrollment growth. 

In total, we had over 70 applications submitted. 

We narrowed it to the interview pool, and each interview was impressive enough to warrant an offer. That's a good problem to have. 

In a break between candidates, my administrator, fellow humanities teacher and I started talking about how we would answer the questions we were posing to these candidates. We were asking them to deconstruct their lesson planning process, evaluate their own teaching, outline not only their management philosophy but also the practices that they find successful or challenging. We asked about standards, technology, collaboration, pedagogy, parent relationships, discipline…and more.

Obviously, when looking for a job a good candidate will expect to have to put all this on display. A well prepared candidate will have already anticipated this kind of scrutiny and be ready with details about his or her own practice.

And in the past, the reality has been that after the job interview, most teachers are never asked to do that depth of thinking about their own practice. Ever. Again. The interview was the gate, we said the magic words, and we passed through into our classrooms where we could shut the door and be the professionals we proposed ourselves to be in that interview.

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The Problem

AbaacusBy Mark

I've been having a bit of a problem lately in my classes. 

My students were tasked to create a visual metaphor of the allegory represented in George Orwell's Animal Farm, do research about the "factual" side of their allegorical connection, and assemble this all into an end product that showed their skills at a whole slew of the Common Core State Standards in ELA-Reading-Lit and ELA-Reading-Informational Texts, with each standard accompanied by a proficiency level scale that clearly defined what achievement of the standard would look like.

My problem is that too many of them are earning A's. Even the kids who aren't supposed to. 

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Student (and teacher) Engagement: Increase the drama!

Photo May 11, 2013, 4:04 PM

by Maren Johnson

The audience will not tune in to watch information. You wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. No one would or will. The audience will only tune in — and stay tuned in — to watch drama.

~David Mamet, playwright and screenwriter

I don't usually get my teaching tips from television screenwriters, but I thought the above quote was worth some thought. If drama has a wide definition–let's say drama is a story resulting from human interactions–then adding drama to our teaching is definitely a way increase student engagement–the "tuning in" that David Mamet talks about above.

Our students often aren't here for the information, they're here for the drama. The students frequently find that drama in the actions of their peers. One of our jobs as teachers? Try to create that drama in our subject matter and class activities. Is drama necessary for learning? No, but it sure can help. Some ways to create that drama? Building teacher-student relationships, and including stories about content matter and school.

Last week at my school, a teacher sent out a link to an inspiring (and dramatic) Rita Pierson video on teacher-student relationships. Some teachers discussed it at lunch, a few other teachers commented by email. Teachers engaging other teachers, all right.  Another example: also last week at my school, a teacher announced "Staff Spirit Day" with the theme of "Hey, I went to college!" We were to wear our college sweatshirts and tell students positive stories about our college experiences.

No college sweatshirt being handy, I donned my high school FFA jacket–yeah, that's right, vocational agriculture all the way. I was part of an amazing high school FFA team–we competed in nursery landscape contests across the state and even made our way to nationals in Kansas City.

The FFA jacket I wore last Friday prominently featured the name of my high school, a neighboring school district to the one in which I now teach. As I was sharing stories of high school and college, one of my current students reminded me, "Ms. Johnson, my grandpa was your high school biology teacher!" Sure enough, which meant that my teacher-student-teacher relationship with this family now spanned two school districts and several generations! Good, we've got some human drama.

This high school biology teacher, as I described to my class, was a colorful character, a former Marine who was able to do push-ups with one arm while suspending himself between two student desks. He brewed coffee in his science prep room and gave us worms to dissect. He retired with the graduating class: the students proclaimed him the "Senior senior."

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MSP Reflections

ImagesBy Tom
White

It's over. My students have prepared for and taken the 2013 fourth
grade Measurement of Student Progress. It's now behind us. Let me offer a few
observations and reflections, based solely on my students' experiences:

-The adults seemed a lot more anxious and stressed out than the
students. Maybe it's because they were so well-prepared. Or maybe because their
evaluations aren't riding on the results. Or maybe it's because they're just
kids and they haven't learned to take everything seriously yet. Whatever the
reason, my students simply came in, sat down, listened to the directions, did
the work and read quietly until everyone was done.

-For some reason the narrative writing prompt was the same as one
of the released prompts from a few years ago. That was weird. In a good way, at
least for my students, since we used it as a practice exercise a few days
earlier. I'm not sure if the test writers goofed up or just ran out of ideas.

-Watching kids take an hour-long test is really boring. I'm used
to being incredibly busy for seven hours straight when I'm at work. Boredom is
something I only dream about, but when it finally came, it was horrible.

-I find it insulting that teachers aren't allowed to look at
student tests to see how they did. There's a lot of useful information in there.
I have no intention of changing any answers; I just want to see what the
answers are.

-While reading the directions for the math test, I noticed that it
listed protractors among the approved, supplemental materials. I stopped the
proceedings and sent someone down to the office to get a class set of
protractors. I didn't see anyone using their protractor for any constructive
purpose, and after the test, I asked my students if they actually needed them.
They didn't. Well played, OSPI; well played.

-And finally, this: Like most schools, we did everything we could
to maximize our students' testing performance. We rearranged schedules to
provide for long, uninterrupted blocks of time, we sent home letters to the
parents, asking them to make sure their kids got plenty of sleep, exercise and
nutritious food. We provided snacks during the tests, to make sure they weren't
hungry. We even ensured that there were no intercom or phone calls in the rooms
where kids were testing.

We did it all.

Which made me wonder: why don't we take learning as seriously as
we take testing? Why don't we make sure our kids are rested and well fed when
they're learning? Why don't we post signs on the doors saying, "Quiet!
Learning in progress!" Why don't we make sure kids aren't having recess
right outside the windows when we're teaching? And why don't we make sure
phones and intercoms don't interrupt our lessons?

I have no idea.

 

A Fool and His Money…

Early_care_and_education_page_condensed_arrow_updated_gears_411By Kristin

You don't have to have a lot of money to have a lot of sense about money.  Say your car is an older car.  If you have good financial sense, you take care of it.  You replace the brakes before you also need to replace the calipers because you know that will save you $500.  You take it into the shop at the first sign of malfunction, because you know that dealing with an early problem is cheaper than dealing with a big problem.  You make sure your tires have tread, because sliding on wet pavement and crashing is expensive.

People with poor money sense end up spending more because they're reluctant to spend.  They go from crisis to crisis, spending more than they can afford and more than they need to.  Our goverment at both the state and federal level is demonstrating a terrifying lack of money sense when it comes to early learning.

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Inappropriate Jokes and Student Teacher Evaluation

I had an outstanding student teacher this year. It was a positive experience for both of us: some lucky school in our area will be very fortunate to have her as their new science teacher. Hard working, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, she makes the future of the teaching profession look bright!

We don't often get student teachers in our school because of our relatively rural location somewhat distant from college or university teacher education programs. When we do get student teachers, they frequently are completing online certification programs. For prospective teachers in rural areas, or for those who move during their education or need to continue working to support themselves, online learning is often the only option. My student teacher completed an accredited online program with a strong presence in our state.

My student teacher excelled in the classroom. Her clinical supervisor, a retired teacher from our area, provided helpful and supportive feedback, and was definitely an asset to the student teacher's development. The online program's student teacher evaluation system, however? More than a little funky.

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One of Our Own!

AR-130429800By Tom White

For over half a century the Council of Chief State School
Officers (CCSO) has chosen a National Teacher of the Year from among the state
Teachers of the Year. After meeting the president and getting a large glass
apple, they get to spend the year traveling around the country representing the
teaching profession to large and small audiences.

It’s a huge honor. And even though there’s obviously no way
that anyone could select the very best teacher in the country, given the
enormity of the task, they always seem to find someone who really does
represent the best aspirations and qualities of all of us in the classroom.

This year, for the fourth time since the program started, a
Washington State teacher has been selected. Jeff Charbonneau, a science teacher
from Zillah, joins Andrea Peterson (2007), Johnnie T. Dennis (1970), and Elmon
S. Ousley (1963) as Washington recipients of the top honor.

And it couldn'y happen to a better guy. Jeff teaches chemistry in the same small,
Eastern Washington community from which he graduated, but he does a lot more than that. He designs
on-line college courses, teaches robotics, coaches the baseball team and runs
the drama program. He earned National Board Certification a few years ago and
is also his union’s co-president.

And you thought you were busy?

It’s always fun to see someone from the profession take
center stage for a while; reminding the world of just how unique and important this
profession is. And to have it happen to someone from our state makes it
especially gratifying.

Congratulations, Mr. Charbonneau! You do us proud.

RESPECT

File0001899299486By Mark

When some new idea surfaces in education, it gets acronymized. A general rule: if you want to make a project die, give it a clunky acronym. When the acronym makes a word, it can have subtle positive power (I think of CSTP which comes out as "See-Step"… I look, I move forward) or less subtle negative power (as in the HSPEs–"his pees"–with which everyone has to deal eventually, as opposed to the opposite pronoun which it is best to avoid.) With Common Core on the way the HSPE's expiration date is already set.

That rumination aside, the U.S. Department of Education has released details of its RESPECT initiative which is ostensibly aimed at cultivating teacher leadership, collaboration and potential in an effort to transform the profession and therefore schools themselves. RESPECT is an acronym/acrostic built of the phrases Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching. Cute, a touch contrived, but that's only if you're cynical (which I apparently am, this Saturday morning before coffee).

Let's look at the meat of it. The opening line, "Every child in America deserves a high quality education…" reminded me of the "Don't you care about kids?" question I used to get when I'd vocally oppose our administration's newest trendy initiative. My cynicism started to wear off around page four, and by the end, my gears were turning. 

I see some potential in this. My interest is piqued but any gelling optimism is necessarily cautious. Take a read if you haven't already, (it looks like a 30 page .pdf, but skip the propaganda at the beginning and start around section II…the photos, citations and text boxes bulk up the pagination, so it is actually a fairly quick read).

What do you think? Like my students, I always learn more from the conversation.

Trust, Power, Change and Risk

File5172abe3badc9By Mark

Change is hard, and for change to happen, trust is critical.

I've been thinking often about trust lately–sitting in meetings with administrators as they strategize how to build trust within a staff. In meetings at the ESD and with OSPI, I hear about how cultivating a climate of trust is vital for evaluation to produce growth.

Thus, we have more meetings, use surveys to find the root of the distrust. Still, I have bosses I trust more than others. I have colleagues I trust more than others. 

And when I sit and listen to my fellow teachers, they likewise lament situations where they do not trust their administrator or evaluators. As a building union representative, I sit in meetings where we talk about erosion of trust, and that the climate of distrust needs to be fixed. We talk about it, point at it, discuss it, and then leave the table waiting for that trust to somehow repair itself.

If I don't trust my administrator to make good choices, there is an assumption about how that lack of trust is to be remedied: If I don't trust you, the only way for trust to be repaired is for you to change.

Bam. There it is.

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Carrots and Sticks

Carrot_stickBy Kristin

Last February a Senator from Tennessee proposed legislation that would reduce welfare benefits-  "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" (TANF) – by 30% if children weren't performing in school. 

"Performing" was defined by one journalist as “Advancing from one grade to the next and receiving a score of proficient or advanced on required state examinations in the subject areas of mathematics and reading/language arts."

The bill is dead, considered too punitive, misdirected, and begging for judicial action to make it out of the Senate debate, but it raises some interesting issues because I think we all saw this coming.  Everyone is desperate to find a way to help struggling students perform better, and various sticks and carrots are being designed to make that happen.

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