By Tom

Last summer I was part of a panel discussion with several other teachers. As it was winding down, the moderator asked us one final question. “What would you say is the most important factor impacting student learning?” Each panelist said something about class size, funding, standards, blah, blah, blah.

I got to go last. “The most important factor, as far as I’m concerned,” I said, “Is the extent to which we as teachers are able to work effectively with our students’ families.”

I still think that’s true.

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By Kristin

My school, a middle school, has been implementing standards-based grading.  It's a big deal for us, but elementary schools have been doing this for years. That means that when parents see an A on the report card, they can assume their child has met and is exceeding grade-level standards in that content area, even if he was the most disruptive child in the class and one who rarely did homework.  The standards we're using are the Common Core standards, and we've moved to consistency within grade level content areas.  

This transition means we've had to move away from things like marking down for late work, averaging a quiz's grade with a retake, or offering extra credit. 

There has been much respectful compromising.

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By Mark

It is wonderful when businesses offer ways to support effective teaching. People can speculate about the advancement of agendas, but anything that can offer opportunities to help teachers hone their craft and thus increase student achievment is a good thing.

I'm sure you've seen these commercials from Exxon Mobil about supporting science and math education:

Let's solve this: I like that. However, one piece of rhetoric is more troubling: "Let's raise academic standards across the nation" (00:15).

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By Mark

An opportunity arose about two months ago. It would have meant less work, more pay. It would have meant not losing evenings and weekends to grading papers and planning. When I sat to do my pro/con t-chart to help my decision making, the list of reasons why I should take the new job was longer than the list of reasons why I shouldn't.

Sometimes quality outweighs quantity, though. More money, more time, less "work": those ought to have been very appealing.

There was but one reason I chose to stay in the classroom and stay in education…and it is a selfish reason:

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By Tamara

So my dad asked me the other day what on earth would be the
benefit of dismantling the Department of Education. His question was prompted
by an article he recently came across. My response was,” have you heard of X,
Y, Z testing/educational publishing companies?”

If we did away with the Department of Education and public
schooling as we know it, these companies as well as private on-line schools are
poised to make bank. Along with their politically connected supporters (note I
did not single out a particular party-gains will be on both sides of the
aisle).

The New York Times not too long ago chronicled the gaffe
about a prompt regarding a pineapple on state exams. The testing company
responsible for the item in question holds the sole contract for standardized tests
not only for New York City public schools, but the entire state of Texas.
Apparently anti-trust laws don’t apply when annual testing has been legislate-
thank you NCLB.

The fact is privatization of our education system is a very
real possibility. Either through the dismantling of federal departments or the
lure of click-for-credit on-line programs. The question is, how is public
education going to respond and deal with this reality? And will our children
benefit or suffer from the outcome of the debate?

By Tamara

I experienced a huge learning curve this year. One of the
most significant I’ve had in some time. I jumped into the world of virtual
education and taught a course form my district’s on-line credit retrieval
program.

Now there are numerous and vastly divergent views in our
world of education when it comes to on-line learning programs. Here is what I
learned from dipping my oar in it:

• By offering virtual courses in addition to
  traditional classes, my district was able to keep a significant number of
  students enrolled who otherwise would have left for private on line programs.
• On-line “learning” is NOT a silver bullet for
  failing/struggling students: if a kid can’t read at grade level, is not a self
  starter, and struggles to with attendance; what is essentially virtual
  independent study is likely not the best solution.
• But….virtual classes do offer those kids a fresh
  start and blank slate with a virtual teacher who knows nothing of behavior
  issues, poor attitude, etc…Students also get one-on-one attention through
  email, instant messaging, and the feedback given for every submitted
  assignment. It caters to their comfort with and preference for digital
  communication. I also noticed (and was blown away by) how many of my students
  requested reading strategy support and help with organizing their writing who
  took my suggestions and ACTUALLY PUT THEM TO USE.
• If we educators put the kind of time and energy
  into the weekly progress reports, emails/instant messages to kids “where are
  you? Why haven’t I heard from you?” and parent/guardian contact the program
  requires, I bet over half these kids would have never failed in the first
  place.

The concept of blended virtual and traditional classes is
going to be the norm-with all the good and bad that brings. If we in public
education can’t find a way to embrace that and work within that reality, the
private sector is more than ready and willing to take it on. Along with all the
funding attached.

By Mark

I do believe that ADD and ADHD are real. However, I do not believe they are as prevalent as the diagnoses suggest. A recent article in the New York Times (online) took this concern to a new dimension, for me at least, with the revelation that students, in response to the high stakes and pressures for academic achievement, have taken to abusing the stimulants typically prescribed for ADD/ADHD.

As troubling as this drug use is, it is a symptom of a much larger problem in our society and our education system: we are test obsessed and we have created a subset of society for whom there is prestige and glory in being over-scheduled and over-stressed rather than in being intelligent.

So here's the question: who is it that makes school so hard that kids turn to these measures?

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By Tom

I was teaching my third graders how to solve division problems the other day. Specifically, we were solving story problems which involved division, and the students had to figure out what to do with the remainders.

The first problem involved brownies. There were three people sharing sixteen brownies, and we figured out that each person received five whole brownies and one-third of the last one. Simple enough.

The next problem involved balloons. Again, three people had to share sixteen balloons. Balloons, of course, don’t lend themselves well to fractions; a third of a balloon is essentially worthless. For this problem, we decided the best answer was five balloons each, with one balloon left over, to be popped. For some reason, third graders always prefer to pop the leftover balloon, rather than let one of the five people have it. Maybe it’s greed; maybe it’s the thrill. Who knows.

We practiced several of each type of problem, until they got pretty good at deciding whether a problem was a brownie problem, where the remainder gets turned into a fraction, or a balloon problem, where the remainder is left alone.

Then I introduced a new problem. Sixteen people were going on a boat ride. They had to rent rowboats, and each boat held three people. How many boats would they need?

“Five and one-third!” said Ronald. He saw this as a brownie problem.

“So Ronald, you think they should rent five whole boats and then get one-third of another boat?”

“Of course!” He was adamant.

Let me explain about Ronald.

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By Mark

I'm not quite ready for the paradigm shift to year-round-school. However, like many teachers, I am concerned with that "summer brain drain" that inevitably happens when younguns are separated from the oppressive tyranny of teachers for the months of July and August… I don't know about you, but the "three month summer vacation" is long gone where I live. June is for school.

It struck me yesterday (as my ninth grade students were having one of those so-good-it-gives-the-teacher-goosebumps discussions of how various literary elements and author's decision making influence the manifestation of unversal themes) how incredibly far my students have come as critical thinkers. With four days of class before the final exam–then a long stretch with no regular exercise of that mental muscle–my worry crystallized sharply.

Of course, I encourage my students to always have a book they are reading for fun–fiction preferably, but a good biography or nonfiction tome is equally wonderful. In my close-of-the-year parent mailer, I encourage small bites of learning: car-ride discussions of books, online free math games that actually involve computation not monkeys shooting darts at balloons, setting up routine family trips to the library. As we might assume, the students who get this kind of family support and structure are not necessarily the ones who need it most.

What do schools do, or what can they do, or what should they do to keep the minds of students growing over the summer?