Assessing & Parents

Assessment in school is used to check how much the student is "learning." It seems to be a common misconception that how a student performs on a test or assignment is how much they have learned. Really, a student can be learning about a topic and be very knowledgeable about that topic but they may not find the assignment or test meaningful, and therefore they receive a poor grade because they do not see the purpose of the assignment or test. Also, the opposite can be true. A student might only be memorizing the answers or methods to get a good grade on the assignment or test, and then once it is done with, they cast it aside and do not care about the information. It seems like when we focus on performance for assessment we miss the true purpose of the education system: learning. Teachers, parents, administrators and government officials keep telling us that test scores, GPAs, and assignment performance are the proof of learning. I know personally that this isn't true. I have taken classes that I did not perform well on the homework because the assignments didn't promote learning, or I did not like the style of the assignment and how I was graded. I am not very creative, nor am I gifted at art. When teachers include creativity and artistic style in the rubric for an assignment (i.e. posters, PowerPoint presentations, 3D models, hand drawn pictures) I would score very low and it would throw off my overall score. Yet, when it came time to take the test, I would score above 90 percent. My grade would only average out to around 83 percent because of several assignments that incorporated creativity or artistic talent. All the other scores were generally above 90 percent, but because those projects were weighted heavier, they would drop my grade. If I'm doing well on the tests and bookwork assignments/papers but struggling with creative assignments, wouldn't that suggest that I perform better with bookwork and research papers rather than trying to be the next Rembrandt? Why should I be penalized for not being creative when I have the necessary information and grammar in the assignment to receive an A if it didn't include the creativity and/or artistic talent? When I was assigned more creative assignments I started to just do them so I got it done because I wasn't going to get an A and my grades suffered even more because of it. If teachers would look at the individual student's talents and weaknesses and have other options for them based on their strengths students would be able to choose what fits them and receive the grade they should get based on just the information and grammar without the creativity and/or artistic design aspect.

This, of course, assumes that grades are the reasons for assessment. Assessment in the Rochester School District is based on the performance of students in class.
It happens to be the district that I went to school both for my education for my K-12 education and my cooperative teaching assignment. The school district still holds on tightly to performance on tests and assignments. It even stratifies the different levels of how students are performing. If a student is struggling in school they get put into a lower level class. If students are performing at an acceptable level they get placed in the standard level class. If students are performing exceptionally well they are placed in a higher level class at the high school or at the local community college. I see this as a problem for the students that are struggling because they know if they are in the lower level class because either their friends tell them they are in the lower level class, other students pick on them for being in the lower level class, or the student is told they are being put in a lower level class. When they hear this, they become less motivated to do well because they know they are in the lower level class. I saw this in my classroom because many students in CORE History would not try to do well on their assignments because they either thought that they weren't smart enough or they thought since it was a lower level class that they did not need to try as hard to get a passing grade. When there was a discussion about a topic that they were learning about in class they would say the correct answer or give a response that would be acceptable on a critical thinking question on a test or assignment. But, when asked to write it out in paragraph form or even just write the answer they just said verbatim on a piece of paper, they rarely did it. I worked with some students and I know some have learning, physical and/or mental conditions that reduced their ability, but there were some that just flat out did not do the work. I don't know if it was because they thought since the class was a lower level that they did not need to do the work, or if they were just being lazy, but often it took several days to receive the completed work after multiple reminders to work on and finish the assignment.

What this tells me is that we need more than just a paper or rubric style of assessment of learning. Having a personal conference and asking the student what they know about a topic or answer questions verbally may be another method that would work better, especially in the classroom I was in for CORE History. It might not give the best set of numbers for a teacher, but I don't believe in the numbers as much as "do they know how the topic fits in with and/or affects their daily life?" A worksheet or a paper might help show them what the information is, but what good is information if you can't use it? I'm not going to be put in a situation where I need to know when the Constitution and its amendments were created, but I do need to know how they affect my daily life. Can I pray in a public school, can I publish a story about teen pregnancy, do I have to testify against myself? These are things that people are faced with every day. Not only should assessment be about if you know the answers to these, but do you know why these came to be? It is harder to assess this, but I'd rather assess an individual's opinions and beliefs and their reasoning behind them than see if they memorize some information and bubble an answer on a bubble sheet.

Now, research shows that parent involvement with their student's school and school community is the number one factor in student success. First, do we know the research is accurate, and second, what is the standard measure of success? Well, I'll assume that the research is accurate and there is a standard measure of success. Still, how do we get parents involved in the school community? Aside from requiring parents to be involved, there isn't much that can be done to get the parents involved. Sure, we can send them information by email, school newsletters, and phone calls, but we cannot make them come unless we require it for their child to be enrolled. But, I believe that when we are forced to do something, we tend to do just the bare minimum we need to get by. If all the parent needs to do is show up for a PTA or PTSA (parent teacher [student] association) meeting once a month, then that is all they are going to do: show up. I really don't see how we can get the parents to be involved besides requiring it. Also, some parents just don't have the time between work and getting their family members to where they need to be, plus cooking and shopping time. I suppose we could lie about their student's performance and say we are concerned and have them come in and make a general statement about how their child is performing (without revealing the actual grades) and suggest to them that if they become more involved with school events and organizations that students tend to perform better, but that is deceiving and manipulating the parents. The Rochester School District sends out newsletters, emails, phone calls, and handouts to the students and tries to inform the student's parents about school events and organizations that they can join or help set up. It isn't required that the parents be involved and it is more o a passive effort than an actively sought effort. I believe the school district realized that the parents that want to be involved will get involved when presented the information, and that parents that don't want to be involved won't be involved. I can agree with their view because that is generally how parental involvement in school organizations and events happen (from what I have observed by my and my friends' parents). We can try to have parents involved with the school, but really I see it just as a glittering generality (sounds good but really ends up being empty or unsuccessful) that we have no control over, even if we tell the parents that if they are involved with the school community that their student will perform better. So, even if the research is accurate and success has a standard measurement, we still have little control in parental involvement.

Teacher Development

During the course of my observations and teaching I have been to several different meetings that are to promote teacher development. Every Monday during first hour, the teacher of Core History, Core Science and Core English meet and talk about what they are doing, offer suggestions about how to improve the course, discuss their curriculum and note any students disrupting class, skipping class, or performing poorly in class. Surprisingly, this has been the most useful teacher development session that I have been to. The teachers help each other build their curriculum to help meet the needs and the diversity of the students currently enrolled in Core. If one teacher notices a certain method of doing an assignment results in better participation and higher scores (had to include that, especially because of NCLB) then that teacher states it and the other teachers try to figure out if they can do anything in a similar way. Sometimes it's hard to find something that works in English, History and Science, but just the fact that trying something new works is a great discovery if it helps the students out. They encourage and support each other when things get tough or if they want to go on field trips that they feel promote what they are doing in class. I will try to promote this at my school because it is good to know what is working and what isn't with the students.

There was an early release day for the students while the teachers went to a speaker. Unfortunately this wasn't the best use of the time. The speaker talked about his battle with physical and mental problems in his life. The goal was to promote the issue of mental disorders and diseases and awareness of them. The problem was that we got more story than information.
We may be more informed about the issue of mental illness and the effects on students because of them, but we didn't learn about what to look for in students. The speaker talked about how he felt and what it was like to have depression, MS and loss of vision over the course of his life. It was informative and told the staff how damaging these diseases are, but it lacked on how to identify and/or prevent the symptoms of mental illness. I talked to my teacher about the presentation briefly and she agreed that the speaker told an interesting story and explained clearly how damaging mental illness can be, but there was a lack of information about how to spot a student that may have a mental illness and how to approach the student, the administration and the student's family about the issue. If I have amazing ideas but lack the ability to communicate them clearly, I might as well know nothing about those ideas. That is what the presentation felt like to me. I felt that we could have spent the 2+ hours differently and either learned more about how to identify mental illness in a student and how to report it so the student receives help, or received information about a new teaching method that was showing promise. I felt like the staff was being paid to listen to a story more than being taught how to identify mental illness in students and how to report it so it is handled properly and the student receives care.

During our lunch hour we went to an empty classroom and watched some informative videos with several other teachers about how to obtain effective control of a student without being controlling. Basically the message of the video was to give the students as many choices as possible and have the result of any of the choices be acceptable to you. The supervising teacher clarified it by giving an example of getting a child prepared for bed. Ask the child if they want a glass of water before bed. If they say yes or no its fine because it still leads to the overall goal of going to bed and you can accept either answer. If they want water, you ask if they want bathroom water or kitchen water. Again, either answer is fine. If the child is small enough, ask if hey want to be carried up the stairs or if they want to walk up. Either answer is acceptable. Does the child want to be read a story? The answer doesn't matter because you don't mind reading them a story but you won't mind not reading one either. Then, if the child asks if they can still stay up, you tell them that he or she has made all the decisions lately and now its time for the parent to make the decision. This was an interesting concept, and I haven't seen an appropriate place for a choice in the classes yet, but we were told that giving the student the control as much as possible when either answer is acceptable and reasonable to you. Asking if the students want tomorrows notes on an overhead or PowerPoint slide show was an example of how this idea could be used in class. While not exactly useful so far, I could see it being used in the future.

Another development meeting during our lunch hour was about creative writing projects. We met with an English teacher that was promoting creative writing at all three public high schools in Rochester along with several other teachers from the high school that were learning about new teaching methods as well. The acronym for the creative writing style we learned was RAFT, standing for Role, Audience, Format and Topic. The role is who you are supposed to be; like a slave, a certain celebrity, a friend, etc. The audience is who you are writing for, like congress members, the president, a friend, readers of a newspaper, etc. The format is what the project could be. Possible formats are letters, a ship's log, a diary, a slogan, a commercial/campaign ad ,a top ten list, a newspaper page, etc. The topic is what you want them to write about. This creative writing template is useful because it can help students create their own project for a certain topic in class. If the teacher allows them to create their own creative writing assignment in their own style and from the perspective of their choice it gives the students a greater range of choice while still having a structure they can follow. I like the idea but our classes have not had the time for a writing assignment because finals are this upcoming week and here have been other projects that were due, so we did not want to overwhelm the students. I was allowed to keep a template and I will try this in the future, because I can see this working better than asking them to write a paper about a certain stance about an issue or a topic. If students want to they can choose a format that would closely resemble a "typical" paper, like a letter or editorial in a newspaper if they prefer the standard paper format.

So I have witnessed some beneficial and not so beneficial teacher development. It seems like when teachers interact with other teachers it helps promote development, and when the staff all listen to a speaker they more or less get paid to listen to someone talk. Sure, this was only one instance, but if the others are similar, then the development is more like a two hour break from teaching, grading, and preparation for future class lessons.

Interactions with Diversity

I had a few interesting experiences. For the Core History class a Paraprofessional is in the classroom to help keep students on task and to talk to for help on assignments and notes. One day she was absent and the substitute was very interesting to talk to. He talked about the current and recent politics since one of the discussion topics of the day was the political primaries and caucuses. When one student supposedly hit his head the Para escorted him to the nurse and when they came back he told me that the student was interested in finding out about the Para because they were both the same race and the student was intrigued by the Para and asked about his personal life while they were traveling to and from the nurse's office. I will admit he did not look like a "typical" teacher. He had gold teeth and was rather short. He told me he is a hip-hop DJ in his spare time, and it looked like he would fit the part. I also understood why the student was so interested in talking with the Para and the Para said it happens a lot because he knows he doesn't fit the typical teacher "mold."

During some computer lab time later in the week I was assigned by the Para to help a specific student because he was farther behind on an assignment than the majority of the others. I've noticed during class that he does not take notes very often even though he sits in the front row. The Core History class was assigned to write a paragraph explaining why the Americans won the Revolutionary War. While I was helping him I noticed that he had a difficult time turning audible directions and hints into written words. When I asked him what his reasons were he responded with what he had written down before. But when I helped him explain why those reasons helped the Americans, he would say an adequate answer but would not write down what he said without a prompt. This happened for all the details he was writing for the paragraph. I noticed this and tried something different for the final sentence. I told him that he final sentence should be similar to the topic sentence. He looked at the topic sentence then told me what the topic sentence was, and i told him to write it again but in a slightly different way. Then he mumbled to himself and got into a writing position and had his hand and pencil where he would need to write the final sentence down, but he froze. This was similar to the other sentences that he had written, so I told him not to worry and just write down a sentence stating the main reasons the Americans won the Revolutionary War and then I would look at it. He finally wrote on his own without me helping him focus on the sentence. It was very close, and he stated a reason that he didn't use and left out a reason he did use. I pointed this out to him, and he started to revise his own work instead of me doing the word smithing.

This, along with how the Core History class has been overall has helped me realize how students learn differently. I wouldn't change anything with my interaction with the specific student because I was able to see his difficulty with writing. He loses focus very rapidly, sometimes seconds after hearing a direction or suggestion. Students with this difficulty will be a problem in my content area, because history and government are topics that require a focus on not only the specific issue or topic but how that issue or topic relates to other issues or topics because history and government often build from the past and future events are based on or changed by those past events.

Working with the student I felt slightly frustrated because after the first detail he still needed to be reminded to write down what he had just told me. I didn't let this show and I took it in as a specific difficulty he had and it also helped me understand that other students had difficulties that made class difficult for them. Looking at it now I know I shouldn't feel frustrated with a student. They are trying to learn (or at least remember the answers for the test) the subject and
look to me (or the teacher) for help.

When I look at the Core History classes I am able to teach and observe students that are several reading levels below their current grade level (10th and 11th graders at approximately a 4th grade reading level). Using a discussion lesson is not very effective because they cannot formulate critical thinking responses like the other classes can. This is rather difficult for me because I believe that critical thinking is where true learning is. Who fought in the Revolutionary War and when it was fought isn't as important to me as why the war was fought. Sure, the class knew that the Americans were fighting for freedom from England, but they couldn't create an answer for a question about why freedom was important and what it meant to be free. Compare this to the Sociology and Government classes, the Sociology and Government classes could interpret and analyze the Constitution and generate and defend reasons why certain actions were or were not Constitutional in certain landmark Supreme Court cases. It is interesting to see that all the classes can learn from a lecture format, but Core History needs repetition and guidance to retain the information. I find the teacher I am observing saying information several times and asking students at the end of the class about certain key points that she wants the students to remember. Compared to the Sociology and Government classes, she only says the information once and moves into a discussion or activity that requires critical thinking of the information just presented.

I've learned that not just student to student, but even in general class to class the students can learn and complete different tasks differently. The Core History classes need more guidance and repetition of information to retain information and create answers to questions while the Sociology and Government classes can receive information and critically think about it in a matter of seconds. This will be very valuable to know in the future.

Managing Space

As I observe the classroom I have been assigned to, I have noticed a few positive and negative aspects of this particular classroom. The desk layout is a line of desks in 6 rows consisting of approximately 6 desks each.

Front White Boards
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| _ _ _ _ _ _ |<--- teacher's desk
| _ _ _ _ _ _
| _ _ _ _ _ _
| _ _ _ _ _ _
| _ _ _ _ _ _
| _ _ _ _ _ _
Back

This minimizes the tendency to copy other students' work but increases the possibility of students in the back talking during lecture and not giving their attention to the teacher. This also decreases the amount of space available for activities that require movement around the classroom. There has not been any activities so far that require this, but there could always be an idea that would in the future.

The back wall of the room and around the top of the walls all around the room are covered in Time Magazine covers. I have found this to be distracting because during prep and professional time in the room I have a desire to look at the covers and read them. Also, the ceiling is covered with lawn signs for candidates that have run for elected office currently and in the recent past. This adds to the distraction because it is visual noise. The teacher's desk is off to the side so she is not the focus of the students, the white boards are. The front podium is off to the side as well so when she is lecturing or giving notes on the overhead she is still not the focus, the notes are.

There are windows on the left side of the room with adequate curtains to prevent or allow light in. There is not much to look at out the windows, another building and a chain link fence is all you can see from looking out the window from the desks.

Overall this setup is a common setup (besides the Time Magazine covers and election lawn signs) and the students are familiar and comfortable with it, which I believe helps them be able to focus more on the teacher instead of their friends and the layout of the desks.

What Educators Do

Being an educator is one of the most important things anyone can do today. Not because humans need to learn to survive, (because survival instinct comes naturally) but because humans need to correct their past mistakes and influence the future of mankind. Teaching students well is the goal of an educator, and it does not happen often.

Today, educators and legislators are more focused on test scores and grades more than the actual benefit of information and what it could be used for. Educators that focus on grades and test scores are only teaching students that they should do what they are asked to the best of their possibilities, and, if their work isn't good enough, they will not succeed. This is teaching. Teaching well takes information from the subject and challenges the students to think about what they believe or what they aspire to do with the information and then apply it in their own lives outside of school assignments and tests. An educator shouldn't just give a student information and have them regurgitate it later. An educator should challenge a student's thoughts and beliefs about certain information and allow the student to develop their beliefs based on information and questioning. Then the student will not only know the information, but the information actually affects their decisions later on in life. Here is an example: Is the Revolutionary War important? Some argue it is because it was the war that allowed the United States of America to exist. But is that really what we should know about the war? No. It isn't the fact that we won the war, but the ideals behind the reason of the war. We fought for what we wanted, what we desired, what we demanded. The war showed us that humans can band together and fight for their future even if they aren't experienced in war, and outnumbered, and create a country where the people value having a choice of who leads their country and be able to change who leads them. That is what we need to know, and base our political process on that fundamental. But we should not just blindly follow it either, we should question it to every scrutiny. Does the process work, what are the potential problems, what if someone does not relinquish their position, what if our leader dies? It is how we interpret the past and answer them in the present that shapes our future. Not just for politics, but for every subject and topic known and unknown to mankind. Teaching like that is teaching well. Don't focus on grades. Ancient Greece developed many theories and improvements to living, and most of the teaching and educating came from philosophers lecturing and questioning current ideas and theories in public. We have developed from ancient Greece and have modern technology, but we have also grown away from this style of learning. We were able to advance in science, language, and politics from these philosophers lecturing and questioning others in the streets. If we were able to advance then, who says that we cannot advance from it today?

YouTube reviews

As I watched the YouTube videos I started to think about our concept of teaching, educating, and learning. I disagree almost entirely with two of the videos, and agree almost entirely with only one. Teachers are not necessarily mirrors. In my experience growing up in school and being in class doing some teaching, observing, and grading, teachers do not have as much influence as the video wants us to believe. Even with the most upbeat, caring, energetic teachers I have seen students be lethargic, apathetic, and negative within the classroom. This is evident in my current assignment with my teacher. She has a group of students that are in a slower curriculum called "CORE" that lumps together students that are not on par with the majority of students in the high school. She teaches the history section of CORE, and there are two other teachers: one for science and one for English. These students know that they are in the slower curriculum, and knowing so, they are less likely to "put forth the effort" like other students in my teacher's other classes do, even if they are on the border of failing. The teacher I am observing tries to generate interest by incorporating newspaper articles that the students read at the beginning of class into a discussion and she tries to instill some positive response from the class, but the students still do not respond like the mirror the video suggests.

The other video I disagree with is the "Do You Teach or Do You Educate?" video. My philosophy sees both as being the same. Teaching and educating both involve a teacher, mentor, or other leading figure to improve knowledge in a certain area, in my philosophy. There are many ways to go about this, and no single way is inherently more successful than another. The video argues that teaching is just filling information into someone's mind, and that educating is directing someone down a path to something, it does not say what, but I estimate that it is an answer or knowledge. I don't believe that is really any different than the video's definition of teaching because leading or guiding someone is still placing a philosophy of one person on another, the one thing my entire life philosophy, not just educational philosophy, tries to totally avoid. We should not be telling others what to believe or trying to guide them to an answer. We should do what one quote (the only part of the video I agree with) states: "Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." Guiding and leading someone is filling a vessel with a biased opinion. Sparking someones interest in a subject and asking questions about their interest and beliefs, that is what I believe is the objective of a teacher or mentor. Not leading someone in a direction or guiding them down a path, but opening new options and discoveries for them and letting them take in what they want and how they are going to use it in life. That is what I believe education should be.

The montage of clips from movies almost embodies my educational philosophy down to the letter. I have seen a majority of the movies that were used, and it shows the many different aspects of what a classroom can be like. Sometimes you have an unruly classroom that doesn't listen to the teacher, or even any school authority, sometimes you have students that don't want to be in school, and you even have students that aren't being challenged enough. You have the administrators that are out to get particular students, you have teachers that aren't sure about themselves, teachers that slack when it comes to grading, unorganized teachers, controlling teachers, and teachers that dare to defy curriculum and popular theories that don't work and inspire the students to look beyond what is in front of them and expand the views of their students. The second half of the video displays these teachers that inspire students to break free from what is in a book and learning it just for the sake of learning it and taking the information and finding their own way to use and interpret their new knowledge. This affects the future lives of our students and other people in the world. Whether it is calculating the physics of a rocket's trajectory, breaking free of the mold that society accepts without thinking, even inspiring and motivating a class to improve their schoolwork (because everyone knows grades are the most important, instead of shaping a new and better future by opening the doors to undiscovered results, ideas, and philosophies) or challenging the minds of students that could not pass basic math addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to shoot for passing AP Calculus and proving to them that the students themselves control how and what they do with the information that is given to them, teachers need to give their students the chance to explore new idea and concepts, not confine them to what a book says and what people consider "essential information" that everyone needs to know.