35 posts tagged “classroom”

Its not working out as well as i had hoped.

...... that I am tired of the current trend in education that if we just rearrange how we figure grades that children will appear to be learning more and therefore, they did - all without any further effort on the part of the kids, or the teachers?

Formative assessment, the walking around the room and working with students until you know that everyone "got it" before you give a quiz or test is and always has been a part of my style.  Letting a kid do 3 extra problems to make up for the ones he bombed on the last test but now knows well how to do is something that most of us have done at one time or another.  Assigning a "group grade" just because we are too lazy to let each kid show what he knows has never been part of my practice.  I take late work when there's a reason - even if the reason is, "I didn't quite understand this so could you help me after school and I can turn it in tomorrow."

I cannot in good conscience let a kid have the same high grade when he turns something in 4 weeks after his classmates turned theirs in on the deadline (see above for late work).  I cannot give a kid 50% when he did not make any attempt to submit an assignment.  Every assignment, yes EVERY assignment that is scored in my classroom demonstrates a student's mastery of science standards or building goals as stated in our School Improvement Plan.  For me to mark off an assignment as half-done when in fact the student showed no mastery of a standard being measured is just not valid. The student did not "half-way" master something when there is no evidence.

This takes us full cycle to the late work issue.  If a kid does not complete something, should I mark it with an I and give him extended time to show that he can meet the standard?  How much time?  My principal doesn't have a problem with a student carrying an I in a sophomore class until the week before graduation, when he suddenly realizes that he needed to submit that photosynthesis lab to get credit for 1st semester biology.  The kid should be able to come to me and do the lab at that time, for full credit.  What?  I would have to spend a few hours re-teaching the concepts and helping him do a prelab write-up including safety,  procuring materials, making the sodium bicarbonate and bromthymol blue solutions, help him set up, hang around each day for a week while he records a daily measurement, and then help him through the data analysis and conclusion.  Oh, he could just do some lame simulation or alternative lab, maybe online?  I should have a video copy of the lab available for cases just like this (made with my own videocamera because my building does not have one)? 

Which brings us to the issue that we already face by taking late work when students choose to do it - our time.  When I assign something to be due on say, Tuesday, I usually have blocked 1-4 hours off that evening to grade/assess/give feedback.whatever the assignment.  When I get only 70% (on a good day) of those assignments, that means the rest will come in the week grades are due because someone's parent decides they need to pass (get a C, a B, whatever.)  Forget that I might have had a committment on my own time that week. I get to score the work and make sure the grade is recorded before the onnline gradebook closes up at the stroke of midnight.

My solutions:
1.  All assignments not submitted on time automatically revert to the alternate assignment.  This is either something more difficult for the student but simpler for me to assess, or a simple textbook worksheet packet that the student comes in after school and corrects himself.  Little or no time on my part. 
2.  We will take photos of all labs in progress and keep a sample set of reasonable data.  The procrastinator can then do the normal write-up, look at teh pictures, and use the data to do an analysis.  As I see it, the standard for lab technique would not have been met, so there will be some kind of grade penalty for not meeting that standard.  The assessment-for-learning purists would argue that this is a performance or behavior thing and should not be assessed at all, but I will disagree.  Perhaps they would be pleased with a dental hygenist who's never actually worked on a live person, but who's watched lots of movies about cleaning teeth. 
3.  No summative assessment (test or quiz) will be given until a student has completed the "formative," practice, or whatever.  On test day, the student will work on making things up while the others take the test.  He can then take the test on his own time, later.  Whenever is fine.  It will be an alternative test, possibly essay.

whew.  Do I have a plan here, or what?  I'm all for fair assessment and have been during all of my 20 years in the classroom.  I also insist on a reasonable dose of accountability and the effort to learn from my students.  Is that wrong?  

 

So here I am at a workshop last week with my principal, AP, and 3 colleagues. They are all scrambling to fill out their clock hour forms and grumbling while I am sipping a nice cup of coffee and reading my email. "You know you need to do this clock hour form, Luann," my principal said to me.
"Thanks. I really don't need them, " I replied.
She looked shocked. "How can you not need them?"
"I renewed my national board certificate so in Washington, I'm good until June 2019."
"You mean all you had to do was sign something instead of doing clock hours?"

My principal continued to be enraged that when I arrived in Washington from another state, I was immediately granted a professional certificate in Science. Only Science, mind you, even though my out-of state certificate has an old Comprehensive Science which was the equivalent of one major science field and an academic minor in 3 others (Earth and Space, Chemistry, Biology, Physics are the 4 fields) each individual cert endorsement, and all math 7-12, and that I have countless hours in both education and the sciences, at the graduate level, 20 years in the high school classroom, a few years teaching at 2 state universities, and am completing a doctorate in science education in a program that required original research in both a science field and science education, and a dissertation with more rigor than I've seen completed by doc students at UW.  I did go take the Praxis II in Chemistry ( I didn't miss any questions) and Biology and Physics ( I got the overachiever certificate thingy.) 

The conference was a great learning experience for us as we are beginning to implement standards-based grading.  Of course I want to "grade" my students in the most fair way, a way that shows everyone's alignment with standards,  in the most accurate and reliable way possible.  In reality, I've embraced many of the philosophies presented at the conference in a more informal way.  I've not "graded" homework for many years, as such.  Given a few token points for completing it, because this gives students confidence and a sense of accomplishment, but not ever demonstrated a technique on one day and expected students to hand me a perfectly completed problem set the next day. I've said to a kid, "No, you are not ready to take a test today.  Let's do yours tomorrow after we talk."  I've taken late assignments with no penalty because of some circumstance, like, "I just didn't get this one - may I have a little longer to work on this?"  I don't give a rip about tardies or attendance so long as the kid can do what's expected and don't disrupt class by making a grand entrance (yes they have to come in on their own to make up labs.) I've marked different assignments "no count"when completing the assignment didn't seem to impact the student's real learning and mastery of a standard. I could go on .......

We can't fix what's going on in education right now just by changing our assessment methods.  It takes a deeper approach, beginning with the engagement of students and holding them accountable for their learning.  The learning certainly takes place at a different pace for different students, each student benefiting from different approaches to the standard to be mastered.  Although I saw in almost every presentation at the conference that it was important for students to know their learning targets,  where they are in the progression of that learning, and how to get to mastery level for each target standard, I don't think my principal saw that.  I think she truly believes that if we just allow late work into infinity and don't include a mark of zero, ever, that grades will look good and students will be "successful."  I wholeheartedly disagree.  Fair assessment is essential and as with my entire teaching practice, I am always looking for a better way  - but if there is no learning, what is there to assess?

Apparently, although we as NBCT's attempt to educate our administrators about the certification process and how valuable it is in shaping our practices in ways that lead to above average gains in student learning, we still have work to do. We've talked and are not sure that we like the direction our administrators are taking - administrators who were not strong educators and who have no real clue what good teaching IS - and are going underground with our efforts; grassroots, if you will.  My plan is to get together a group of NBCT's in my district for some discussion, and I have a few plans in mind.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

There are 70 guppies.  I found 3 more the day after I moved the rest. I added 6 Glolight Tetras a week ago and they are doing fine too.  Today, a school board member is donating a tarantula.  I am beyond excitement.  Best of all, TTFH, Princess, despises spiders. 

I would post updsates to the room appearance, but it really does not look any differently.  I am doing lesson plans for my FIVE classes, 1 of which is new this year and 1 of which was new last year so really has no curriculum yet as I designed the course, so I am busy.... meanwhile Princes TTFH is fluffing about making things look nice and hoping I am sure to scab the Biology lesson olans I will eventually have to create.  I've put that class off till last for that very reason.  She usually likes to have things done ahead, and it makes her crazy when I have procrastinated ( i have the first month roughed out on a little paper calendar but have not yet put it on the web) so she ends up doing her own.

It will be too noisy for me to do any work requiring thought today so no doubt the room will gert put together and I will have photos.  In any case, I will have photos of the tarantula.

All 67 guppies are moved into their new tank.

There are 11 babies in the nursery that you can see at the top left of the tank.  I swear the yellow fantail was giving birth to them as I was moving everyone.  I don't remember seeing those babies when I first looked into their old tank this morning before I started moving them.

They really are happy:

um well - the red male fantail was in the photo as I was clicking........  They were a little freaked at first, swimming everywhere frantically, but they seemed to be settling into swim patterns throughout the afternoon.  They have their same plants and their same big plastic rock-thing that they like to swim around, so I'm sure that was comforting.

If only it were that easy for us, when we move.  Just keep doing your daily stuff until someone scoops you up and puts you somewhere else, where you just start doing your daily stuff again, but in a new place.

I didn't get everything quite filed today.  I will spend 1 hour, no more, on Sunday night, tidying up, and then start on Biology lesson plans first thing Monday morning.  New to my curriculum this year is the Understanding by Design approach. I've always sort of designed lessons backwards, from the perspective of, what do kids need to know about this?  How will they learn it? How will I know that they are learning it?  UbD just takes al this to a more specific level.  Add in the differentiation I need to do in my 2 Bio classes and especially in the Intro to Science skills class, and my curriculum will take on a very different look this year.  Intro to Science has 17 students.  7 of them are Life Skills students, meaning they take no academic classes but spend their school days learning to make toast, launder their clothes, walk across the street without being hit by a car, dress themselves, and some even learn to handle money.  These students are not enrolled in any other academic classes.  Some are in PE or adaptative PE, and some are in Choir, but none of the 7 are in any type of social studies, math, or language arts.  One is in a wheelchair, is blind, and as far as I know she does not speak.  I have absolutely no idea how to share science with this child. She can't even see the guppies.   

I'm still putting stuff away.  Of course it would have helped had I not, each year for the past 4, gotten tired of filing as school let out and just left the last several inches of stuff to file in a box under the front desk........ so now I have taken it upon myself to weed that all out and file the stuff that I still need.  The recycle box in only half full.  Does that mean I threw away most of the stuff I needed to, or does it mean I am still keeping too much stuff? Tomorrow, by the time I leave, it all will be put away so that I can start lesson plans.  I will take 1 day for Biology, 1 day for AP Biology, 1 day for Physics, and 1 day for Science Skills. Then I will take next Friday off.  OFF.  I will NOT go in, I will NOT.  And I will just hope that TTFH is not in next week, or I will have to stay in my classroom with my door closed and my AC on.  Yes, I have certainly taken what others felt was a lemon of a room and made it into a lovely margarita.  Others will want to teach there.  They already want to come and sit at my desk and look at the mountain :-) 

I'm going to be much more gentle with last year's new hire.  I'm just now seeing how much help he truly needed.  I think that since the last new science teacher I worked with was TTFH, my perspective on what new teachers need is a little slanted. SO, we are back to square one with him, now that he has had his year to make every mistake inthe book.  I picked spitwads and gum off the ceiling in his classroom as I was moving in, for pete's sake.

After 6 days, including yesterday with 3 kids doing much of the grunt work, here is my new classroom/physics lab:

And my desk, now in the back corner so that when kids aren't there I can work in privacy from the hall traffic and not have to look directly across the hall at Princess, TTFH:

Getting it all to fit was a project.  Along the back wall to the left of the desk and then the adjacent window wall are 4 moveable cabinets with the physics equipment 4 groups ( I have 18 this year) will need for Physics, and an 8-foot table for each group.  The aquarium, sans fish, is at the opposite corner of the room.  It got fresh water yesterday and needs to cycle awhile before I move the guppies.  I will move most of their current water with them so that will be helpful -  but I think the filter pump that was in their new tank that we moved is shot, so I have the huge filter in their right now.  I'll move the actual filter with them as that's where all the good bacteria are.

And the view from my window while sitting at my desk is not bad........  At least I'm not having to look at someone who irritates me while I am trying to work.  And when I lock my door at night, she can't come steal my stuff. 

I will go back today and try to find the 4 missing desks that I stored with a sign saying "Belong in Room 206, please don't take without asking."  I had 5 lab stools for overfow kids but now have no lab stools.  I had 5 stools made for both of our labs 2 years ago.  Do you think there was even a "thank you" from TTFH?   Hah.  Not even to the kids who made them as a shop project.

I know that she was unwilling to give up her lab because she feels that it makes her look important to be in there. I know that it's just an insecurity thing, and I know that she will use it to make herself feel very important in the eyes of the kids.  I only wish that the kids thought she was important.  They truly don't like her. I'm sure that some of them learn something, but they sure don't learn to like science and they sure don't learn that they are good at it, even when they are.

On another note, the dissertation is getting there, too.  It seems the more I run, the more motivsted I am to write.  Interesting thought.  I have a bit of data analysis to do before I go back to school today, and a bit of laundry to put away as well.   

Out of nothing at all.

(cut to Meatloaf tune playing in the background)

The TFH had thrown me lemons, and so I will promptly create margaritas.  Photos to follow.  

I sucked up and did it.

When I sought teacher certification in Washington, the PTB surveyed my Ohio professional certificate for any science and any math in grades 7-12,  my Indiana cert for the same things, noted my National Board certificate, and promptly awarded me Washington's general science cert.  This cert allows me to teach all the same stuff in WA that I taught in Ohio.  The cert only says, though, "science."  Washington also has individual certs for biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science which are apparently held in higer esteem than simply "science" whereas in Ohio,
"Comprehensive Science," which hasn't been issued for at least several years now, was the revered cert.  The TFH has, over the years, alluded to the fact that her cert is better because it says science AND Earth Science. Additionally, although I was asked to sit on the committee to re-write the Physics teacher exam for Washington, it could not be added to my own certificate.  Another member of the committee was admanat that he would never hire a teacher with onle "science" on their cert no matter what their transcript said or what their qualifications and experience and successin the subject were.  So, I scurried off to the testing centers and took the stupid Praxis tests for biology, chemistry, and physics.  And of course I passed them all, with excellent scores and have sent off my WA cert to have these 3 areas added and to have it renewed for the life of my renewed NBcert as well, so I'm good until June 2009 at which time I could retire.  Yippee. 

Now interestingly enough, should I move to another bordering state that shall remain nameless, there is no recoprocity.  47 states would honor this list of credentials, but not the state in which my spouse is currently living and working.  I will have to go into most districts at 8 years experience, not 20, and with an initial 18 month certificate, and will take additional coursework.  Nevernime that I already have 400+ quarter hours (190 or so are a BS degree) including 200+ graduate hours mostly in the sciences, I need MORE.  And I will get to take the methods courses again, courses I have taught in 2 different states at 2 different state universities.  Oh please. 

I'm through venting now and will return to work on the dissertation, not that it will help my certification issues in this other state.  Thanks for listening.