The Core War

This week I prepared a power point explaining the Iowa Core and its impact on student learning for a presentation to a group of five Tea Party members.  The group was small due to predicted poor weather, however, there was great discussion in our two hours together.  It appears there is a great deal of misinformation out there, and it is always good to dialogue about trends in education.  I know that we all have the best interest of students at heart even if we don't agree on best directions.

The greatest misinformation is a confusion of Core being a curriculum which it is not.  Decisions about curriculum are made locally in each school district.  There are Core aligned curricular materials on the market, but that is up to each and every school district to determine the materials and resources they will use to implement the Core standards in classrooms.  Local control is maintained over curriculum decisions.

Core consists of standards K-12 in the areas of English Language Arts (ELA) and Math.  In the book PATHWAYS TO THE COMMON CORE by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman, the authors describe the importance of the ELA Core Standards in the following ways:  (Calkins, 2012)

• Provides an urgently needed wake-up call because reading scores have flat-lined
• Places a stronger emphasis on higher-level comprehension skills
• Places an equal weight on reading and writing
• Stresses the importance of critical citizenship
• Emphasizes reading complex texts
• Has a clear design with a central goal and high standards
• Calls for proficiency, complexity, and independence
• Supports cross-curricular literacy teaching
• Emphasizes every student needs to be given access to this work
• Puts every state on the same measuring stick

The authors also emphasize, "We can learn what they value by what is repeated throughout the standards."  Those repetitions include:

• Close, attentive, and critical reading
• Reasoning and use of evidence
• Comprehending, evaluating, synthesizing
• Understanding precisely
• Citing specific evidence
• Evaluating other points of view critically
• Reading independently and closely
• Demonstrating understanding of the text, referring explicitly to the text
• Referring to details and examples in the text
• Determining…describing…explaining…comparing and contrasting…analyzing

Those of us involved in literacy can see the depth to which the standards push our students.  We have always tried to get our students to think deeper on issues of importance.  The ELA standards provide an outline of spiraling skills from K-12 that encourage our students to be critical readers who examine text closely to analyze the validity in fact, power of word choice, and intended purpose of text.  In this information age, we are bombarded with information at the touch of our fingers.  It is now more important than ever to be able to critically examine the text that comes our way to determine the real message behind the words. It is at this time in our history with access to extensive amounts of text, we need standards that encourage us to unpack the meaning of words, make inferences that are supported by valid sources, and analyze meaning behind the words - in other words, read critically to create an understanding of our world and our experiences.

Are the standards perfect?  No.  But they are one step in a positive direction towards reading progress for our students.  My advice to those who oppose the Iowa Core, please study the issue.  Explore both sides via videos and assorted articles.  Examine closely the Core standards. Read text that both supports and opposes the Core.  That is what I am doing, and I have yet to be convinced that the implementation of common standards is harmful to our students.  Within my classroom, I can see how students are unpacking meaning, supporting inferences with reliable text, and examining word choice and its effect on the reader.  It's a great time to be in the teaching field as we move students forward to be critical readers in this information age.

"Words are things, a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, producing that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think."             - George Gordon Byron

WORKS CITED:

Calkins, Lucy, Mary Ehrenworth, et al. Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2012. Print.

Why Teach?

February 18, 2014, presentation at Blades Hall at the University of Dubuque for pre-service teachers.

It was a joy to spend 1 1/2 hours with pre-service teachers at the University of Dubuque.  The topic was, "Why Teach?" and was focused around the following characteristics of effective teachers:

1. Passion - loves to teach;
2. Organization - excellent communicator and proactive rather than reactive;
3. Content Knowledge - understands the content and knows how to explain it so the students understand it;
4. Relationship building - cares about students and challenges them;
5. Classroom environment - thinks outside the box;
6. Lifelong learner and strives for continuous improvement.

Additional advice included:

1. Never stop learning!
2. Develop a support system!
3. Sharpen your skills!
4. Stay focused!
5. Take joy in what you do!
6. Eat healthy and exercise!

 We looked at HOT BUTTONS in today's education world:

• Common Core
• Assessment
• Performance-based evaluations
• MTSS/RtI
• Early Literacy - Third Grade Retention

 Those in education are reminded:

• We are letters to our students written not on tablets of stone but on human hearts.
• As educators, we do not merely fill a bucket but we kindle a fire.

The evening finished with a story about "Anthony," as they were reminded that sometimes we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes.  Hope I can share it with you sometime.  It involves a student and a broken dog.  Ask me about it - it's a story I love to share!  This dog sits on my window sill every year, a constant reminder of a student who taught me a very important lesson!

Optimist at Heart

When my boys were in middle school, they decided to do a practical joke that turned into a serious matter resulting in a visit by public safety officials to our farm.  You know how serious something is when these men in their black sedans and black suits flash their IDs and begin asking questions.  From our mistakes, we can learn some of the most lasting lessons that truly “stick.”  My boys and our entire family learned from this joke gone wrong where nothing or no one was seriously injured, just our pride.  As a teacher I have had my share of victories, but it is from the “defeats” that I have learned my greatest lessons.  It is through defeats that I dig deep and will not allow them to define me.

As a member of the Maquoketa Optimist Club, each meeting we say the pledge which includes some of the following lines:

Promise Yourself
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them…
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future…
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

We in education know that just saying the positives will not make them happen.  Only hard work and common focus will affect change.  We must take lessons from which we have failed and learn how to move forward.  There is much in our world around which to be concerned – test scores that make us question our ability to compete globally, reduced funding that causes us to scale back on resources or supply more for our classroom from our own pockets, arguments over Common Core standards and best practices in today’s classrooms, keeping up with technology and the place for social media in the classroom.  The list goes on.  But we must not lose sight of the fact that what we do has a significant impact on the future of our world.

We need to remind the public and legislators that no matter what their opinion may be about the current state of education, teachers and administrators are the ones in the trenches moving forward and striving towards excellence for all students.  We are the ones on the firing line everyday as we combat the trials that are set up before us.  But we also are the ones willing to work together and help solve the problems because so much is at stake.  Together we must “forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future” being “too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.”  Our focus must always continually be looking towards bringing out the best in our students and in ourselves,  learning from our defeats and capitalizing on our successes.  It is what teaching is all about; it is what life is all about; to work only for the best and to expect only the best.  As we all work together – teachers, administrators, public, and legislators - we can make the best happen.  Of this, I am optimistic.

Meaningful Mentoring

 

A Word About Mentoring

A word of guidance - when there are questions

A word of laughter - when things are sweet

A word of praise - when there is victory

A word of encouragement - when there is defeat

A word of sharing - when there is a need

A word of advice - when there is concern

A word of  correction - when there is a mistake

A word of knowledge - as together we learn

One of my personal joys in the last decade of teaching has been to mentor teachers new to the profession.  In our district all first and second year teachers are assigned a mentor.  I have been one of the teachers fortunate to have been asked to do this.  As with anything, it takes time to develop a successful stride when stepping into a new job.  Mentoring a new teacher takes commitment and the art of developing relationship.  I am in my fifth year of consecutive mentoring with three different teachers - special education, French, and 8th grade literacy.  Each has brought a new perspective to me both professionally and personally.  Mentoring has challenged me to become a teacher of teachers and to learn from someone new to the profession.  Today I met a previous mentor for breakfast - something we frequently shared at a favorite restaurant throughout our two years as mentor and mentee.

My current mentee is fresh and excited about the profession.  She constantly strives for self-improvement.  She and I plan our lessons and units together as we share how to implement and assess Iowa Core standards.  We spend hours pouring over lesson plans, assessing student progress, integrating technology.  She is a digital native; I am a digital immigrant.  She drags me along, she pushes me forward, she brings out the best in my teaching.  She will hand me a lesson plan and then say, "Okay, I can't wait to see you work your magic on this one."  Even though I am her encourager, she is the one who encourages me.  Even though I am her guide, she guides me.  Even though I can share experience, she shares a fresh perspective. 

With each of my mentees, we have shared ideas, observations, effective instructional techniques, ideas for student engagement, and a friendship - young one with veteran sage, Luke Skywalker with Yoda, Karate Kid with Miyagi.  No movie will ever be made about our mentoring journey; the only movie will be the one that runs through our minds as we remember our time of sharing and growing professionally and personally into the teacher we all continually aspire to be.