It's No Wonder

Like so many, drive-time, regardless of traffic, has become my think time. It's practically the only place where I find enough peace to reflect on my day. Today my focus was on my new career. You see, I've only been practicing 13 years. Most professionals would consider themselves as seasoned, experienced, or tenured (Oh yeah, teachers get tenure), but in my world of work, I consider myself new because the rules keep changing.

When I entered the classroom, I brought with me experiences from the 'outside world;' experiences I believed our leaders of tomorrow could use. Consequently, my first two years in the classroom were phenomenal. I introduced and taught lessons that convinced my students' of their capabilities. One miracle I brought into fruition for many of my students who could careless about it, was a love for reading. How did I do it? I bargained with them: If they read what I assigned on Wednesday's, they could read whatever they wanted on Friday's. By means of accountability, my students were responsible for writing a perfect summary of what they read, but not on Friday's. As part of the bargain, they had to 'sell' their story to the class by presenting a "fun"sales pitch, which may have included elements of plot or compare and contrasts of possible view points by the author and reader, for example. Not surprisingly, I expected reading scores to increase, but as an added bonus, our writing scores began to show equal promise. I was proud of my students, and their obvious successes; I knew what I proved in my former world would work inside of my new career: simply put; by applying principles of real life into the classroom, learning became relevant.

Prior to my 'teacher life,' I heard from those already there, that society clearly blamed educators for the continual down swirl of student achievement. I listened politely as my mind sing-songed, boo-hoo-poor-baby, knowing full well that they could be doing their jobs better. After all, as a parent, I had to teach my child to read and write - something educators were suppose to do. Not until I became an educator did I realize that as a parent, I did what I was suppose to do; teach my child to read and write. I also learned something else. Teachers are not to blame for all our country's ills, but they are to blame when it comes to the frenzy of what to do next for our kids.

I remember when it happened. A parade of people, administrators mostly, came tromping into my classroom to observe my methods. Concise language skills were still being murdered by passive verbs, so my lesson that morning included the use of creating logos and bumper stickers. I knew that my company was to arrive any minute, so I hurried my students along so that they could show off their finished products. Long story short, my students had a wonderful time while they learned; they were productive; however, apparently...I was not.

"Rather than instructing, you seemed to be mostly watching the kids give presentations of their work" was scribbled on a sticky note strategically placed on my computer screen. After I held my breath, fanned my face, and reflected, I had to agree with her. I did watch my students give their detailed explanations of their logos and bumper stickers to their peers. I watched my students asked each other politely, how or why they came up with that idea. I watched as 8th graders almost flawlessly presented their work to a room full of their peers and grumpy faced strangers. (Something else I watched was two of those grumps were crummy teachers 'back in their day.' How do I know? I remember them. In fact, they are two reasons I strive to be my best whether I'm in the classroom working or at my kitchen table correcting papers.) Ms. "All you did was watch," was absolutely right, but what she failed to observe is how my students got to a place of presenting a finished product with all the objectives met! Along with many elementary and middle school teachers, I was doing my job. To bad she couldn't see that.

The plan was to teach teachers how to teach. Silent Reading and some school wide projects were now deemed ineffective and quite possibly a waste of time. "Too many kids just stare at the pages!" claimed a newly anointed teacher of teachers. "You must make them accountable by instructing them to snap their fingers every time they hear you read a vocabulary term," said another. But my favorite quote is one I will always remember - "While the student is 0% accountable for his or her learning, Educators are 100% responsible for a students' education or learning."

"Huh?"

The rules continued to change. The State marched on with their check lists with "it's only a snap-shot" mentality. No longer were our students allowed to listen, contemplate, and discuss their emotions as Jonas asked the Giver about sameness and release; or why Guy Montag struggled with his secret stash of Shakespeare, Emerson (and oh my gosh), The Holy Bible! No. Students shouldn't learn by listening because they may not be listening! No. They must snap their fingers, choral a response, do a jig (that's my term for 'Responding Through Physical Representations'), write with different colored markers, or read aloud to a peer so the other 8th grader can assist them with the correct pronunciation, inflection, and tone. (Actually, I have always used these methods; just not within a 20 minute space of time as required by the parade of people that tromp through classrooms checking off their lists.)

When I started teaching, our students were tested for three whole weeks. Two were district tests, one given in August and the other in the spring to measure growth. The third test was the Standard 9. In order to simplify our testing efforts and give teachers added time to teach and students added time to learn, our state combined our new test, the AIMS, (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) with the Standard 9. Our district test was eliminated altogether. I don't know how it happened, but in doing away with too much testing time, we managed to increase district and state testing from 3 weeks a year to 9 weeks a year.

It's no wonder our educational system is in crisis. Every year is a new year with new requirements, revamped Bloom's, school-wide this and school-wide that. Last years curriculum requires a new text that wasn't ordered so we'll order it this year. Every classroom will have this book or that book with the latest scientifically proven method of how to teach...It's no wonder...