What determines good teaching?

On Wednesday we were given an article about Michelle Rhee (the chancellor running the District of Columbia Public Schools). She has a very tough approach to battling the District of Columbia. She believes that creativity is nice, but if children can't read, the teachers aren't doing their job. I agree that teachers need to focus on reading for sure, but teachers should be creative in their ways of teaching. Creativity becomes a problem when it interferes with the content the students should be learning.

Rhee also believes that good teachers should be paid more based on test scores. I actually really like this idea. I get frustrated with teachers who are protected by ten year but are really unmotivated. If I knew that there wasn't job security and I could get paid more, I would be extremely motivated to be a better teacher. There has been a lot of controversy over her measure of evaluating teachers and what makes good teachers. A lot of people say that there is more teaching than just test scores. I tend to agree with this; however, if teachers are doing a good job teaching (not teaching to the test), test scores will improve. Yes, there will be the few students who do poorly because they are not good test takers, but there should be an overall improvement in scores. Rhee brings up a good point that most districts evaluate teachers before they even start teaching. They want teachers who are certified, who have a master degree and many other pieces of information that can't really predict how one will do as a teacher. Rhee explains that teachers should be evaluated after two years to determine who are the good teachers. I like this idea because it allows the teacher to reflect over the past years, and also will allow districts to keep good teachers and lose the ones who aren't.

There will continue to be a constant struggle to determine what makes good teaching. It will be interesting to see what is to come for the district of Columbia Schools.

Dots and Oreos?

This past Monday night, I walked into the lecture hall and was told to close my eyes along with my fellow students. A dot was place on our foreheads. We were then told to get with our groups without using sign language or speaking. After we found our groups, Oreos were handed out. The group with the most people (and who were sitting in the back), got the least amount of Oreos. The group with the least amount of people (sitting in the front) were given the most amount of Oreos. There was a middle-sized group (sitting in the middle of the lecture hall) with an average amount of Oreos. We started to wonder if we should eat the Oreos or save them until we were told we could eat them. Our group (the mid-sized one) decided we each can eat one. The activity proceeded with a small group of people from the other class giving a lecture. I still didn't get what was going on.

The last half of the class we spent discussing about what this activity was about. When we were told to get in our groups, we automatically assumed that our groups were supposed to be based on the dots on our foreheads. We weren't told to get in our groups with the same dot color, we just have been conditioned to do so. Also, why did the group with the most Oreos not share with the large group with the least amount of Oreos? The thought never occurred to them.

The main point to this activity was to point out that we as teachers need to be careful how we assess our students. It is often said that within the first week teachers know what their students will be getting in their class, but how? Better yet, how do we prevent this? It is so easy to grade based off of how we expect them to do (or want them to do). There are times where teachers make excuses for their students: oh they must have had some troubles, I know they can do better so I'll just give them an A anyways. I've seen this done before.

As a future music educator, I will have to be extremely careful about my grading. I will have to pay attention to not favor one student over the other because of the musical abilities. I'll have to grade them based on other factors which doesn't necessarily include how well they sing. I know I will struggle with this when I first begin teaching, but I will eventually come up with a consistent way of grading.

Chalk part 2

I found "Chalk" a very entertaining movie. It was a humerous, but accurate interpretation of what issues teachers face. I especially noted Mr. Stroope as he struggled through his first year of teaching.

I am happy to report that Mr. Lowrey learns to manage the classroom. It just goes to show that the first year of teaching is a learning experience (as is any year). He started off the year not being respected, having troubles with classroom management, and ended the year with an overall good relationship with the students. I learned a lot about how to establish a good relationship with my students from watching Mr. Lowrey struggle. One way that he did this was to find a way to relate to his students. He let the students help in study for the "Spelling Hornet." The students cheered him on and wanted him to win. He also went and visited a parent. I don't think it was the best idea to get drunk with a parent, but he did try to a establish a good parent/teacher relationship to improve one of his students' behavior. He took the parents advice to be more firm and it worked. He was able to gain control of his classroom and he seemed rather pleased with himself.

The Last Lecture

After reading Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture," I felt very inspired to not only follow my own dreams, but to enable the dreams of my students. I guess that is my main dream: I want to be a teacher who inspires her students, let them know that nothing is out of reach. In his book, Randy Pausch gave advice on how to overall be an effective teacher.

Here is a list I have comprised about advice he gives to teachers:
1) He mentioned that we need to look for the best in everyone, we just have to wait longer. He quoted his hero from Disney Imagineering saying that "If you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you." I might have to be patient with my students and colleauges to discover what positive contribution will be to the class.
2)"If at First you don't succeed ....try a cliche" He said that students don't always know them, and are greatly inspired by them. I plan to read some inspirations to my students whenever I can fit it in (hopefully daily).
3)Teach your student that "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted" I need to let my students know that it is okay to make mistakes. Mistakes and failures are learning opportunities and we should present them as such.
4)Make every moment a learning opportunity. After receiving ten year, Randy took his team to Disney World and along the way they topped at universitied to visit computer reseatch groups. Just goes to show that we can incorporate learning with entertainment.
5)You cannot give your students self-esteems "it's something they have to build.....You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just repeat the process."
6)"Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something." We want our students to succeed, but sometimes we have to go through a lot for this to happen.
7) Manage your time wisely and pass this on to your students.
8)"In the end, educators bes serve student by helping them be more self-reflective."

Chalk

After watching the first half of Chalk, I fell in love with the movie. It mixed realistic situations that teachers go through with humor. Although I was laughing through the majority of the movie, I found myself analyzing all of the characters and their situations.

Mr. Stroope is the teacher wanting "teacher of the year," but he faces difficulty differentiating between the students being his friend and being a disciplinarian. Thus far, the movie depicts that he struggles with organization, preparation (turning in lessons plans on time) and disciplining his students. The strange thing is that he reminds me of some of my teachers in high school. They were fun, but I didn't learn a whole lot because they weren't very prepared.

Coach Webb is considered to be the "pushy" one. She seems to engage her student well and offers a wide variety of activities. However, she seems to cross the line when it comes to co-worker relations. She pulled a teacher out of her classroom to point out that the teacher was not enforcing the 'tardiness' rule. This is not her place. If she notices that a teacher isn't enforcing a rule, she should speak to a principal, who can talk to the teacher. I think it was demeaning to pull that teacher out of her classroom. The students notice what goes on and they will pick up on what teacher is well-respected.

Mr. Lowrey is the history teacher who doesn't have a teaching degree and does not have classroom management skills. The good thing is that he knows this. It is good that he is attempting to get better at managing the students. I look forward to see if he becomes one of the better teachers at the school.

These are my thoughts on Chalk right now. More is to come as a watch the ending.

The Panel

For the past couple weeks, we have had a panel of different groups of people (Administrators, Teachers, Board Members and Parents) at our Monday night class. We have asked them very similar questions from week to week, one being about their feelings about No Child Left Behind. I found it particularly interesting that the significance of No Child Left Behind seemed to deteriorate as we moved down the "Totem pole." The board members seemed to believe that No Child Left Behind is a good thing. They are able to use the results from the test scores and evaluate how the schools are doing. The Administrators thought that it was also a pretty good thing. They could use it to see how their particular school is doing, how they have improved and perhaps look at how well a teacher is doing. The Teachers didn't seem to care to much about it. They are hands-on with their students. They believe that if you are doing a good job teaching your students, the test scores will reflect that. Yes, there will be students who aren't good test-takes and what-not, but overall if you are teaching well, it will be reflected.

The parents. This was my favorite panel. They seemed to bring in an outside perspective. They did not like the idea of No Child Left Behind, because all of this data is thrown at them, and they don't understand it. It's important as a future educator that we realize that sometimes we are speaking a different language. We know how to read the data and other educational terms, but parents don't necessarily understand. One parent even said that he stopped going to parent-teacher conferences because he was just being told data. How sad! Parent-teacher conferences about data doesn't tell a parent anything. Parents want to know how they can help their child, how their child is socially, etc. Not data!

So what can I take away from all of this information? 1. The importance of No Child Left Behind depends on if it is useful to that group of people involved with the schools 2. Don't worry too much about teaching to the test. If I am doing a good job teaching, test results will reflect that 3. Create a good parent-teacher relationship. Talk to them about what is important to them as a parent.

Midterm Exam

This past midterm exam created an example of how we should not test our students. We were given exactly what was going to be on the test, and we had to memorize it, then write it on the test. Being that I took that test a few weeks ago, I highly doubt that I could take that same test and do well. Why? Because the information wasn't in my long-term memory. I studied for hours, but that doesn't mean I learned the information. I could simply repeat it. Learning is: "the process through which experience causes a permanent change in knowledge or behavior." (I had that memorized for the test, but I had to look it up just now). So, did I learn anything? Probably not a whole lot. There wasn't a huge permanent change in knowledge and there definitely wasn't a permanent change in behavior. The funny thing is, is that I've taken so many tests like this. I memorize the information, and then just have to repeat it on the test. As a teacher, I want to try different ways of testing. I'm not sure what I want to do, but I want my students to have to think and show me that they understand the informationt that was taught, not jus be able to repeat the definition.