ABQ/ La Raza Cites Work with Pre-K Latino Kids by Youth Development Inc.
By Elaine D. Briseño
ABQ Journal
October 11, 2012
A national civil rights organization has recognized Youth Development Inc. for its work with young Latino children.
The National Council of La Raza has highlighted four groups around the country, including YDI, for their "success in working with pre-K Latino children."
- The council recommends that pre-K programs across the nation replicate the models used at these four locations for professional development, student assessments, family engagement and language instruction.
The council, according to its website, works to unite and coordinate local grassroots movements on behalf of Latinos.
Debra Baca, vice president of YDI's early childhood division, said YDI has hosted visits from the council over the past five years and worked with the organization to improve aspects of the YDI pre-K program. Still, she said, the recognition came as a surprise.
"We are thrilled," Baca said. "We did not even know we were in the running."
Among other things, the council has praised YDI for its dual-language program.
- The nonprofit group runs the Head Start programs in Bernalillo, Taos and Rio Arriba counties, serving 1,600 children.
- Baca said 76 percent of those children are Latino.
- A third of the children, she said, speak only Spanish.
"We believe in preserving their home language but also prepping them for kindergarten," Baca said. "We know they need to be proficient in English to keep up with their peers. "
Children in centers that have a dual-language program are taught in Spanish the first half of the day and English the second half. YDI structures the class so that 50 percent are Spanish speakers, and the other half English speakers. Baca said having children help each other is an effective environment for learning a new language.
- "The children know their classmates are struggling with a foreign language," she said. "There is no judgment. They help each other. The English speaker helps the Spanish speaker with English and vice versa."
The council also recognized YDI for its professional development and training.
- YDI has two mentors visit classrooms to observe and to offer suggestions and help, Baca said.
- Many of the instructors are parents of former students, and that makes them committed to doing a good job, she said.
- Also, teachers are offered about 120 hours of professional development a year, including workshops and online courses, and most have at least an associate's degree, said Carmen Secatero, training manager for YDI.
She said children are given assessments throughout the year to see if they are improving.
Baca said engaging families is a big part of the program, which is why many parents are recruited to become Head Start teachers. Head Start is a national pre-K program for low-income children that is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2010, the department designated YDI's Head Start program as one of 10 Centers of Excellence nationwide for early childhood education.
"The major challenge these children are facing is poverty," Baca said. "Most are from single head of household families. We work with mothers and fathers to find better employment and help them go back to school."
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Carlsbad/ Puckett Elementary School Awarded an "A" by PED
By Natalie Gross
Carlsbad Current-Argus
October 10, 2012
It's been six weeks since Puckett Elementary School was awarded an "A" by the New Mexico Public Education Department, but Principal Deborah Beard is not yet over the initial pride of receiving a tangible reward for her school's success.
- "It shows that we are doing things right," said Beard during a walk-through of her school building yesterday. "We're doing something correctly. We are the first and only school in Carlsbad to receive an 'A.'"
Beard has been the principal at Puckett for the last 14 years, and she admittedly has a passion for the students, the staff members, and the surrounding Carlsbad community. "It's my home. This is just a nice place to be, and the kids like it too," she said.
Third-grade teacher Kyle Martin agrees.
- "We have a wonderful staff. We all get along and support and help each other. It's also a great group of kids. They come to school every day. Even with some of the problems that they have, they still come and they learn and they do their best. That's why we're an 'A' school." This is Martin's fourth year at Puckett, and Beard bragged that he has produced excellent results in his classroom.
Beard believes Puckett's Guided Reading program, led by reading coach Denice Peterson, contributed to the school's success.
- The program allows for students who have fallen behind in reading to catch up with their classmates during the year.
- "One of the many strategies is getting them (the students) in a small group at their reading level. You work on independence so that you have kids reading to themselves or reading with a partner," said Peterson. "It's a great program. We've seen a lot of growth."
"Reading is so important to us. We test to see where they are when they come to us," explained Beard. "We know where they need to be. But if we start where they are and grow them up, then we've accomplished what we need to do."
To help students further sharpen their thinking skills, Puckett School also offers extracurricular activities such as a chess club and an American Sign Language class after school hours. "We provide this ASL after-school class so that our student who is hard of hearing may have a peer group that is able to communicate with him. It's been a good experience for a lot of people," said Beard.
But besides the reading focus and extracurricular activities that Puckett School provides, Beard also attributes the school's "A" to the good behavior of the students.
- "Another reason we have a lot of success is that we have an anti-bully program that we've had for the last seven to eight years. By the time kids are in third and fourth grade, they are so ingrained with what they should and should not do. We really have good behavior here," she said.
Beard is also grateful for parental and community support, and she knows that the "A" was not earned without help from them. "I think the support that Puckett has had from the school district and from the actual school community is a big part of our success here. And supportive parents. They support the school, and that makes a big difference."
But Beard is choosing not to direct her focus on what the "A" means for her school alone. She wants the community to understand what this means for the whole school district. "You hear on the news, you see in the newspapers not so nice things about schools," she said.
"I wanted the community to know that this school is on the right track. We provide quality instruction to our students, and that's happening throughout the entire district. I just want the community to have confidence and faith in the school district because we really are working hard to do what's best for kids."
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Clovis/ Marthella Lewis' Diversified instruction Fosters Literacy in Students
By Benna Sayyed, Staff Writer
Clovis News Journal
October 10, 2012
Marthella Lewis' eighth-grade English students at Yucca Middle School say the first-year teacher's innovative, hands-on classroom techniques facilitate learning.
"Over the years I've just observed all the teachers who taught me in Muleshoe," said Lewis, 34. "I kind of brought some of their old-school techniques and knowledge I picked up in my undergrad and graduate courses and just combined them."
Instead of endless papers and worksheets, Lewis prefers to diversify classroom learning with activities such as reading stories and acting them out. Lewis said this is a great way to measure students' comprehension of a story.
Lewis also has students do group reading and lets them choose their characters to share ideas and views about a story.
Lewis said the ultimate purpose of her teaching style is to bring essential literacy into the classroom to get students prepared for high school and college.
Lewis said in the start of the school year students thought she was tough but now like her class and are comfortable with her.
"I've always been a good student in English but now having Ms. Lewis as a teacher is helping me a lot," Lance Lowder said.
Lowder said Lewis' methods of instruction are different because he has an easier time getting into the lesson.
Payton Bombarger said she likes Lewis' teaching because she does interesting activities to ensure students understand.
"I've never been really good at English but I've kept a B in this class because she does more hands-on than anything," Bombarger said.
She said Lewis is excellent at helping students understand the material.
Sarah Koss said she likes being able to get away from textbooks and worksheets, working in groups and being able to move around to various work stations.
"You always understand what's going on because you're doing so much with the material," Koss said.
Jonathan Griego said he feels comfortable around Lewis.
"When I'm around other teachers I get real nervous but not her," Griego said.
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Taos/ Taos News Citizens of the Year: Educators Jim and Mary Gilroy
By Joan Livingston
Taos News
October 10, 2012
Education is clearly a passion for Jim and Mary Gilroy.
And no wonder since teaching has been at the core of their life's work in Taos and elsewhere.
The Gilroys speak enthusiastically about the educational opportunities available locally and their impact on the people of Northern New Mexico.
Jim Gilroy marvels at the students who earlier missed out on college now finding excitement learning at the University of New Mexico-Taos. He talks about the three mother-daughter teams who graduated one year and an 83-year-old Taos Pueblo woman who took courses.
For Mary Poirier Gilroy, there are the students with dyslexia she taught to read and the teachers she's trained in her specialized field of learning disabilities.
"We talk education all the time," Mary admits.
- Jim taught biology at Taos High for two decades and retired this spring as the dean of instruction at UNM-Taos, where he is credited with expanding offerings in science and building dual-credit programs with area high schools.
- Mary's specialty has been working with those who have learning disabilities, particularly dyslexia. Retired from the Taos Municipal School District, she volunteers at the UNM-Taos Adult Learning Center and continues to train teachers.
And, for their leadership in education and the positive effect they have had on countless Taos County students, Jim and Mary Gilroy have been selected Citizens of the Year.
'Lasting impact'
Jim and Mary Gilroy - he was raised in Arizona and she, in California - met in 1974 at the University of California-Berkeley.
Jim had traveled through the Western Hemisphere, teaching at a high school in Arequiapa, Peru, for several years and Chile, during that country's military coup in 1973.
Mary was working on a graduate degree in journalism and was set to do an internship in Peru for a Latin American press agency.
While there, with free time on her hands, she volunteered in a Catholic school system.
"I worked in the mornings in the slums where there were 400 kids in the school, one outhouse, no windows, 70 per classroom," she said.
They married after Mary returned that fall. Inspired by her experience in Peru, she decided to pursue a career in education.
The Gilroys went for their masters at the University of Arizona. Jim studied agricultural sciences and Mary, learning disabilities with an emphasis on dyslexia.
In 1978, they came to Taos County, where Jim worked as ranch manager for the San Felipe del Río children's home in San Cristóbal. Mary was the educational liaison.
Then, an opportunity sent the Gilroys to Mexico, where they assisted rural communities with projects that promoted economic development such as drilling wells, establishing farms and starting a high school. Jim was hired as the international coordinator for the programs. Mary volunteered to write grants and keep the books.
Jim said they discovered on a return visit years later to Mexico that the one project still thriving was the high school they helped establish.
"It was a region where no one went to high school," he said. "Looking back I told Mary that was the best project we created down there in terms of lasting impact in a rural community and I feel the same way here."
Rewarding
After four years in Mexico, the Gilroys returned to San Cristóbal, where Jim began teaching biology and earth science at Taos High School. That was in 1985.
Jim says he felt conflicted at first because of his other interests such as the economic development work he did in Mexico.
"Mary finally told me one day 'you know the happiest I see you is when you come home from teaching'," he said.
Jim recalls the camaraderie of Taos High's science teachers, working with them to build the biology department. He said the school's exceptional science program led to great results at the annual science fair, with many students going on to state and international competitions.
Following a model he learned attending a Jesuit high school, he says he was a demanding teacher at the start of the school year, lightening up a little bit as the year went on. He was formal, addressing his students as sir and ma'am.
"By the end of the year, you really had a community there," he said.
Jim worked closely with UNM-Taos, becoming its first dual-credit faculty member. In 1999, he was asked to help start a science department at UNM-Taos while still teaching at Taos High. He remained at Taos High until 2005, dividing his time between the two educational institutions, heading to the high school at 6 a.m. to teach an AP biology class before going to UNM-Taos in the afternoon.
UNM-Taos hired Jim to teach biology full time in 2004, and shortly afterward he was named dean of instruction, overseeing a significant growth in student population, faculty and program development, including its highly successful nursing program.
Kate O'Neill, executive director at UNM-Taos, shared a telling story of a student bringing her heavy biology textbook on a family trip during Christmas break. The girl's reason? "I didn't want to let Mr. Gilroy down."
O'Neill spoke of the effort that went above and beyond that Jim Gilroy made for his students, treating each one with the same amount of respect and encouragement. She says he worked hard to guide students through the educational process so they could achieve their goals.
"He is definitely one of my role models," she said.
So what is the most rewarding part of being an educator for Jim Gilroy? "It's funny that you want to say your students that have gone on to be very successful," he says. "But I honestly find it very rewarding when you walk into the grocery story or you're at the gas station and a student comes up to you, and says, 'I remember your science class Mr. Gilroy. I enjoyed it very much.' "
'Work with these kids'
When Mary Gilroy started teaching at what was then called Arroyo Seco Elementary School in 1986, she faced a familiar situation: bright students who had difficulty reading.
Years earlier when she was a full-time substitute teacher for a Bureau of Indian Affairs school outside Gallup, Mary worked with several Navajo boys in high school, intelligent and very aware of the world, but who could only read at the second-grade level. She encountered similar learning problems when she taught at a school with a multi-racial student population in south Tucson, Ariz.
In Taos, she found students who were graduating even though they read at a third- or fourth-grade level.
Charlene Gonzales, then head of special education for Taos schools, allowed Mary to go for specialized training in the field of learning disabilities. Gonzales supported Mary's idea to launch a pilot program for dyslexia.
Mary's aim was to teach older students. "I said 'I think we can work with these kids'," she said.
From 1986 to 2011, when she retired, she worked with students in small groups at Taos' middle and high schools.
Mary Gilroy said Taos schools have been ahead of other districts when it comes to addressing dyslexia. As of 2010, state law mandates schools do more for students with this learning disability. But Gonzales and later Jeanelle Livingston, when she headed the district's Exceptional Programs, didn't wait for a law, she said.
Jeanelle Livingston, now superintendent of Peñasco Independent Schools, said Mary Gilroy has given hundreds of students the gift of reading.
"In the beginning, many of her students had given up hope in ever learning the precious art of reading," Livingston said. "Her dedication and hard work made reading a reality for her students, all along giving them restored self-esteem and pride in their achievements. Some of her students have gone on to successful careers and college when before they were told they would never graduate high school.
For the past 15 years, Mary has trained teachers in Taos and elsewhere through the Multisensory Language Training Institute of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She is also involved as a volunteer with the Southwest Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, where she is the Taos regional representative.
Connie Fernández, a teacher in the Taos district's Exceptional Programs, is one of the many educators Mary Gilroy trained to use a multi-sensory approach to teach reading. Fernández calls her longtime colleague a tireless advocate for people with dyslexia.
"She is extremely focused to what the students' needs are," Fernández said. "That's what makes her so effective."
Now, Mary Gilroy volunteers at the UNM-Taos Adult Learning Center. She and Nanette Valle, of Taos, were named teacher and student of the year, respectively, by the Coalition for Literacy and gave a presentation at the group's annual conference at Santa Fe in June.
Continue serving
O'Neill, of UNM-Taos, said Jim and Mary Gilroy have humbly and quietly dedicated themselves to the purpose of education in the truest sense of the word. The Gilroys' form of inspiration and motivation really sticks with people, she said.
"I think both Jim and Mary exemplify the qualities we admire and aspire to in educators," O'Neill said.
The Gilroys may have retired, but they don't plan to leave the area, where many of Mary's family have settled. The couple have three children: David 34, Julia, 31, and Peter, 27, who all live in New Mexico.
Jim has taken over as the water operator for the San Cristóbal Mutual Domestic Water System and is studying for his certification. Mary volunteers with adult learners and works with teachers so they better understand dyslexia.
Jim says he and Mary plan to stay connected to the community, serving in whatever way they can.
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Anthony/ EDITORIAL: Anthony Elementary School Teaches Lesson to NM
ABQ Journal
October 11, 2012
At Anthony Elementary, almost all of the 420 students come from low-income families. Almost all entered the K-6 school speaking Spanish as their first language. And apparently someone forgot to tell them, their parents and their teachers at the schoolhouse door that poverty and having English as your second language are insurmountable roadblocks to learning absent huge new injections of taxpayer cash - which carry no guarantee of positive results.
Apparently nobody told them - because poverty and ESL don't result in poor student performance at Anthony.
APS Superintendent Winston Brooks, teacher union boss Ellen Bernstein and legislative naysayers should take note. Anthony Elementary, with its low-income, Spanish-speaking students, puts statewide and APS reading and math proficiency rates to shame.
For 2011-2012:
- 70 percent of Anthony Elementary students tested as proficient in math;
- 62.4 percent tested as proficient in reading.
Compare that to the math averages of 51 percent statewide/43 percent at APS and reading averages of 43 percent statewide/51 percent at APS.
Anthony is the only school in the Gadsden district to get an "A" from the state and one of the top five schools in New Mexico, according to the Public Education Department, based in great part on the progress its students have made over three years.
And that progress is based in great part on culture - one of success. Principal Linda Perez has the halls lined with college pennants and named for area universities. The school motto is "No excuses! We're a College-Bound Campus!" The faculty has set a goal to improve test scores by 10 percent each year, and students are tested quarterly so teachers know where they are and where they need to focus.
Short term and long term.
Perez and her teachers are entrusted with educating 420 K-6 students in southern New Mexico. But their approach, teamwork and success provide a lesson for every school in the state.
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Clovis/ COLUMN: "A Day Made Better" Program Aims to Fund Classrooms
By Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy [Instructional technology coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools]
Clovis News Journal
October 1o, 2012
Last week I had the opportunity to attend an event at James Bickley to honor one of its teachers. "But...SSHHH!! It's a surprise!" Upon entering the cafeteria/gym with their pullout wooden bleachers, I found a seat in the midst of a sea of students.
Carlos Carrillo, principal at James Bickley, came out, settled students into their seats and explained the reason for the occasion, along with Shalei Bennett, instructional coach for James Bickley/Lockwood, who assisted with the event.
James Bickley had been selected to receive a surprise visit on behalf of a nationwide event called "A Day Made Better."
Dave Taylor, OfficeMax store manager, along with T.J. Reed and Joseph Kemery, also from our local OfficeMax, were at the school to award the nominated winner with prizes, which included $1,000 worth of classroom resources and supplies.
- "A Day Made Better" is "working to erase teacher funded classrooms," and James Bickley was selected by our local OfficeMax, in conjunction with "Adopt A Classroom.org" to receive this honor.
The teacher nominated to receive the award was sixth-grade Suzanne Dickinson, who has been teaching at James Bickley since 1992. The beginning of her career in education, however, started in 1975, as a teacher aid at Cameo, Barry and James Bickley elementary schools, ultimately spending eight years at Cameo as the school librarian. Encouraged by then Cameo principal, Danny Mitchell, to get her teaching certificate, Dickinson attended Eastern New Mexico University, where she completed her bachelor and master's degrees in education.
- "I love what I do and could never find a career more rewarding than teaching," Dickinson said. "The Clovis Schools is a wonderful place to work, and I could not possibly do the job I do without all the support and encouragement from my fellow teachers at JB or our central office staff. It takes the whole village to educate the child, and my village is the best in the state!"
In addition to a new office chair and certificate of appreciation, Dickinson received two giant boxes filled with loads of OfficeMax goodies, including a digital camera, thermal laminator, label machine, and lots of other teacher and student classroom resources and supplies.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Dickinson had been chosen at the beginning of the year as CMS 2012-13 Teacher of the Year for the district.
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Washington DC/ Civic Education Found Lacking in Most States
By Nora Fleming
Education Week [Edweek.com]
October 10, 2012
The 2012 presidential election and many other state and local races are only a few weeks away, but schools are not doing much to promote student interest in the elections or provide civic education more broadly, says new research.
According to a report released today from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, CIRCLE, only eight states have standardized tests specifically in civics and U.S. government at the high school level, and Ohio and Virginia are the only two that require students to pass them in order to graduate. (Civic education is defined as coursework in civics, government, and U.S. government.)
CIRCLE, a nonprofit that performs research on youth participation in politics and civic education, based at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., also found
- only 21 states require students to take a social studies test (a broader category that includes U.S. history and economics), and
- only 9 require the test be passed to graduate.
- That number is down from 34 states in 2001 that conducted regular assessments.
Not only that, say the findings, but even in states requiring testing of the subjects, the assessments are primarily multiple-choice and often weakly linked to corresponding state standards, which all states have in social studies.
The news may be interesting to some, especially in an era of heightened testing and accountability pressure on schools, and a push for states to implement the common standards in English/language arts and mathematics, now adopted by nearly every state.
According to Peter Levine, executive director of CIRCLE, the center attributes the decline in assessments in civics, and even social studies more generally, to a lack of mandated testing in the subjects under No Child Left Behind, passed in 2001. That, combined with federal grant programs like Race to the Top geared to other courses, and no requirement to measure knowledge of subjects like history, government, current events, and geography, most states have let these requirements and assessments slacken, he said.
- "The standards in most states include some high aspirations, but typically have nothing to do with assessments.
- The standards are miscellaneous, the assessments are lacking, and when they are high stakes, they are trivial," Levine said.
- "I think in a big, deep way, civics and preparation for citizenship has been left out by policymakers, who think in terms of preparation for college and for a difficult labor market but don't think of civics as part of this."
That is a mistake, he added, as the growing conversations about "21st-century skills" and "21st-century workforce" mention civic engagement and peer collaboration as necessary skills to have in the future.
With findings of the report, especially how students are assessed when states actually do test them, it's unlikely students will have those skills if something does not change, he said.
According to W. Lance Bennett, a professor of political science at the University of Washington, in Seattle, and director of the Center for Communication & Civic Engagement, students need to be taught civics in a more modern way that is engaging and appropriate to the world they live in.
- "The main problem with civic education, when it happens, is that it tends to reflect civic values that young people seldom embrace-the old 20th-century model of dutiful citizenship," Mr. Bennett said. "Since most teachers, policymakers, and curriculum developers grew up with that model, they often do not appreciate the gap that is created with more peer-oriented, experiential, and digitally mediated forms of engagement preferred by young people."
There are some bright spots, however, with the latest news.
- 39 states require high school students to take at least one course in U.S. government and civics to graduate; it's just that performance in those courses is linked to grade point average (tied to the teacher), and general knowledge base is not measured by statewide assessments.
- And while Georgia is slowly phasing out an assessment in social studies,
- Maryland and Florida will be implementing them in the future.
- Tennessee also just passed state legislation last year aimed at promoting students' deeper interest and understanding of public policy and government.
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Boston MA/ Libraries Reinvent Themselves as Labs of Creativity
Local libraries are becoming centers for creativity and innovation - not only places to borrow stuff, but also places to make stuff.
By Cat Johnson, Shareable.net
CSmonitor.com
October 10, 2012
From their inception, libraries were designed to be hubs of information. What that looked like for a long time was that they housed books and other media including music, film, and historic documents.
These days, being a hub of information looks rather different.
- In addition to lending traditional media materials, libraries are becoming community centers for creativity and innovation.
- By providing patrons access to emerging digital and manufacturing tools, libraries are reinventing themselves as laboratories that help bridge the digital divide and move projects from the idea stage into the production stage.
Recently, the Online Education Database published a round-up of the 10 Most Amazing Library Laboratories. Among those featured were some well-known projects:
- the NYPL Labs at the New York Public Library and
- the FabLab at the Fayetteville Free Library in Fayetteville, N.Y., as well as some lesser-known labs that are helping to move libraries into the center of future-forward communities.
Through book publication, digital media workshops, "makerspaces," and even organic gardens, these laboratories are demonstrating that libraries aren't just places to borrow stuff, they're also places to make stuff.
- Catering exclusively to teens, the YOUMedia Lab at the Chicago Public Library offers young people a way to create, edit, and produce podcasts, recorded music, blogs, film, photographs, and more. By providing access to digital tools of all kinds, the library gives voice to the teens and nurtures a new generation of creators.
- Providing a way to write books and to publish them on-site, the Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library's I Street Press turns readers of books into makers of books. Using the Espresso Book Machine, patrons can print their own material or access one of thousands of out-of-print titles. The library also offers writing classes for budding authors.
- A digital media laboratory for teens, the StoryLab at the Tacoma (Wash.) Public Library is a production center for digital illustration, filmmaking, photography, music production, and the like. Boasting tools that range from MIDI controllers to tablets (as well as classes on how to use the tools), the lab is an incubator for a variety of projects.
- Proving that space doesn't have to be an issue when it comes to library laboratories, the Allen County Public Library Maker Station is located in a trailer right behind the library in Fort Wayne, Ind. A makerspace open to library patrons, the Maker Station features laser-cutters, 3-D printers, digital sewing and embroidery machines, saws, vinyl cutters, and more. As methods of production become increasingly available to the public, spaces like this will become necessary elements of communities.
While access to digital tools is imperative these days, so is access to healthy food.
- A community hub of a different kind, the Library Farm at the Northern Onondaga Public Library in Cicero, N.Y., encourages patrons to use its organic garden as a laboratory. Patrons can "check out" a small plot of land and learn from master gardeners how to grow organic produce on it.
There's also a community area, for those who don't want a plot to themselves. The stated purpose of the project is to teach food literacy, preserve the knowledge that our grandparents had, and to provide food to local pantries.
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Washington DC/ COLUMN: How Long One Teacher Took to Become Great
By Marion Brady ]From Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet daily column]
Washington Post
October 11, 2012
In today's education world, young college graduates accepted by Teach For America get five weeks of summer training and are considered by some to be "highly qualified teachers." Here's a different sort of story, from veteran educator Marion Brady, who explains how long it took him to become a good teacher.
By Marion Brady
A few weeks ago I flew into Buffalo, New York, rented a car, and drove down to northeastern Ohio for a high school class reunion - the 55th - for students I'd taught when they were 9th graders in 1952.
They told me stories about myself, some of which I wish they'd kept to themselves, but what they had to say got me thinking about the teacher I once was.
I have a lousy memory, but it's good enough to tell me that, notwithstanding assurances that I was their favorite teacher (what else could they say?), I hadn't really been a good one.
I certainly wasn't a good teacher in 1952. No first-year teacher is a good teacher.
I wasn't a good teacher in 1958 either. Some people thought I was; they had spoken sufficiently highly of me to prompt a superintendent from a distant, upscale school district to come and spend an entire day in my classes, then offer me a considerable raise if I'd come and teach in his district.
I did. But I can clearly recall leaning against the wall outside my room during a class change and saying to Bill Donelly, the teacher from the room next door, "There has to be more to it than this."
The "this" was what I was doing - following the standard practice of assigning textbook reading as homework, then, next day, telling kids my version of what the textbook had covered. Pop quizzes and exams told me how much they remembered. (According to reunion attendees, not much.)
I still wasn't a good teacher in 1963, but some people thought I was. I'd again been recruited, this time to teach in the "demonstration" school on the campus of a big state university.
Maybe I'm a slow learner, but I didn't start to feel good about what I was doing until about 1970. What helped make that happen were a few, almost casual, words.
Once again, I'd been recruited, this time by a textbook publisher. They'd contracted with a husband and wife team to produce a series of textbooks, and the team had run out of steam about halfway through the project. The publisher hoped to salvage the series, thought I could do it, and offered to pick up my salary if I'd take a leave of absence and work on it.
I hedged. I wasn't sure I could deliver, so we agreed that, with my brother's help, I'd produce something. If they liked it, and an independent panel of their choosing liked it, then we'd talk about a contract.
Three months later we submitted our stuff. It was good enough. But someone on the outsider review panel wrote a comment that pushed me around a corner. Permanently.
Referring to a particular activity, he or she said the student was being asked merely to, "Guess what's on my mind."
I think the main reason I was recruited to ever-better positions was the degree to which I fit the "good teacher" stereotype. I looked and acted the part. I could hold a class's attention. I liked kids. I had useful, non-school, "real world" experience. The only things I'd really enjoyed when I was in high school were the extra-curricular activities, so the kids and I had in common the feeling that much of what we were doing was something to be endured.
I met most of the standard, "good teacher" criteria well enough, but I eventually concluded that when I played that role there wasn't much real learning going on. Whoever tossed off that short comment almost 20 years into my teaching career had put a finger on my problem: What was in my head wasn't important. What mattered was what was going on in kids' heads.
I changed. In fact, I changed so much that if I were still teaching in a high school of the sort most policymakers seem to think is good and an evaluator came in with a checklist to evaluate me, I'd probably soon be looking for other work.
I moved my desk to the back of the room and shoved it into a corner, with no room to get behind it. I traded student desks for easily moved tables and chairs. I stopped using textbooks. I told the principal my classes might be meeting elsewhere than in my room. I protested administrative insistence on lessons plans for the week ahead, arguing that I couldn't know what to do on Thursday until I saw what had happened (or not happened) on Wednesday. I gave a one-question test at the beginning of the year, and asked the same question at the end of the year.
But the single biggest change: I shut up and sat down, which is where today's evaluator would be most likely to find me. I came to believe that my most successful classes were those in which I felt no need to talk at all. I gave tough assignments - tough not because they required a lot of work but because they required a lot of thought, no less from me than from the kids. And because I felt I needed to know about the quality of that thought, I put them in small conversational groups where they were comfortable "thinking out loud." I either just listened, or became just another group member. The really good days were those when the groups challenged each other's thinking, and I just sat and watched them have at it.
The work hung together and built toward an aim everyone clearly understood. In journal articles I wrote at the time, I often summed it up with some version of this:
"Each of us has acquired from our society a conceptual model of reality. The most important task of a general education is to help us understand that model, the models of those with whom we interact, and the range of alternative models from which we might choose."
That, I believed and believe, is true "basic education."
In the 1960s, in high contrast to today's top-down mandates, federal education policy encouraged educators to think and dream. And they did, coming up with some wonderful ideas that quickly found their way into classrooms.
And bombed. Looking back, the reason was clear - failure to heed the biblical warning about putting new wine into old wineskins. For example, the university at which I was teaching at the time developed kits of hands-on materials that helped kids figure out for themselves certain principles of physics. They peddled them to commercial manufacturers of educational materials, who packaged them beautifully, wrote glowing (and true) sales pitches about what kids could learn from playing with the equipment, and sold them.
Most of the materials ended up on shelves in schools across the country. Some of them are probably still there under layers of dust, artifacts of a genuine revolution that never happened.
Because, when it comes to change, you can't do just one thing. Switching from passive to active learning - which is what that 1960s effort was all about - had, at the very least, implications for classroom furniture, textbook use, length of class period, student interaction, teacher understanding, learner-teacher relationships, methods of evaluation, administrator attitudes, parental and public expectations, bureaucratic forms and procedures.
Those didn't change, so the new teaching materials, not being "system friendly," were rejected. Worse, when system inertia caused the new materials to fail, there was a "back to basics" swing of the pendulum, and the seeds of today's simplistic reading and math grind were sown.
Some random questions prompted by reminiscing: Why won't the teacher effectiveness fad meet the same fate-change nothing because it tries to change just one thing? Might that not explain the supposed failure of the Gates Foundation "small schools" initiative? Is the present fixation on teacher characteristics reinforcing teacher-centered education rather than student-centered education? Are "effective" teacher qualities the same from kindergarten through 12th grade? Are the walls being erected by present reform efforts so high that real improvement is even farther out of reach?
And what explains the fascination with and faith in data and quantification that's driving education "reform" in America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand? The Gates Foundation is spending $45 million on a project titled Measures of Effective Teaching (MET). MEASURES of Effective Teaching! Is there something in our shared cultural heritage that causes us to think that everything can be measured and a useful number attached to it?
The new big thing in reform circles is that every education-related decision must be data driven. Why do we resist the fact that, more often than not, the inherent complexity of quality makes it impossible to quantify it? Is resistance to that fact a crippling cultural trait?
