November 2011 Archives

"It's no cop-out to acknowledge the effects of socioeconomic disparities on student learning. Rather, it's a vital step to closing the achievement gap." Richard Rothstein

In our present economic climate, where it seems that politicians are completely disconnected from the people who voted for them, schools have a serious issue with poverty. It doesn't matter whether it is a rural, urban or suburban school district; the number of students living in poverty is rising, which can be devastating to their education.

There is a great deal of research which indicates that poverty can severely effect a child's education. Poverty has an effect on the social, emotional and physiological make-up of children which all directly effect the academic progress a student can make in school.

"Children growing up in poverty demonstrate lower academic achievement because of their exposure to a wide variety of risks. These risks, in turn, build upon one another to elevate levels of chronic (and toxic) stress within the body" (Evans et al. 2011, p.22).

Given an increase in mandates and the increased pressure from high stakes testing, children who come from impoverished households are held to the same standard of their wealthier peers. Considering these students begin school, not to mention life, at a disadvantage, holding students to the same standard when they lack the same experiences and resources seems unfair. If we are going to hold these students to the same standard than we must provide them with better resources for learning.

"Social and economic disadvantage contributes in important ways to poor student achievement. Children in poor health attend quality schools less regularly. Those with inadequate housing change schools frequently, disrupting not only their own educations but those of their classmates. Children whose parents are less literate and whose homes have less rich intellectual environments enter school already so far behind that they rarely can catch up" (Rothstein, "A Nation At Risk" Twenty-Five Years Later).

Although there are students being raised in impoverished households that may be able to perform at a high level; educators know that there are far more students who cannot compete and those teachers in the trenches are working hard to make sure that their students do not get left behind.

Some schools lack resources such as paper and pencils and they have a high concentration of impoverished students which puts them at the greatest disadvantage. If a student living in poverty happens to attend a school with great resources, they are a bit more fortunate because the school may have the means to help them. However, many students living in poverty are at risk to move to different schools because they are transient, which negatively affects any school experience.

Given this sad reality, what can schools do to help meet the needs of this impoverished student population? Is poverty one more element working against schools? When children are unsure where their next meal is coming from it is very hard to make school the priority. Many educators are empathetic to the needs of this at risk student population and understand they are still responsible for their education.

How Poverty Effects Academic Performance
"On average, professional parents spoke over 2,000 words per hour to their children, working class parents spoke about 1,300, and welfare mothers spoke about 600. So by age 3, children of professionals had vocabularies that were nearly 50% greater than those of working-class children and twice as large as those of welfare children" (Rothstein, 2004, p. 28).

Many children who come from impoverished homes have a serious disadvantage from their wealthier peers. Without books at home, these students are lacking enriching literacy experiences. They lack exposure to educational experiences such as trips to a museum or cultural events. If they are attending a high poverty school they are less likely to be exposed to any of these important educational opportunities.

High stakes testing was always viewed as a way to help highlight the inequalities in education. However, high stakes testing has not helped these students. Educators in poor schools already understand that their students are not afforded the same education that their wealthier peers are receiving. This information has been around longer than high stakes testing has been in existence.

In order for impoverished students to be given a fair chance in education, they must be exposed to high quality health care, high quality child care and a high quality education (Rothstein). Many educators know that many of these at risk students do not go to the doctor because they cannot afford it, or their parents cannot take the time off of work to bring them. Therefore, these students who come to school sick are often sent to the nurse's office, because that is the only health care they may experience.

What Can Educators Do
"One of the tragedies of the ideology of public education is that educators only think of themselves as educators. There may not be a lot that administrators and teachers can do in their roles as administrators and teachers but nobody understands these problems better than educators and I think because of that they have an obligation to be more active in the public realm." Richard Rothstein (DeWitt. Vanguard. P.16)

The reality is that educators are in the trenches seeing more and more students come from impoverished households. They work hard to meet the needs of their students regardless of the circumstances working against them.

However, educators cannot do it alone. They need to speak up and speak out about the growing number students that are living in poverty. Clearly, public protests such as that of Occupy Wall Street is a perfect example of people who are tired of seeing the unemployment rates rise and the inequalities in wealth and how it is distributed from school district to school district.

Educators need to be able to tell the story of their students who seem to lack a voice. Parent groups, educators and politicians must find ways to help impoverished parents find better resources for their children. Standing up and speaking out is difficult but it is the only time the voices of the students may ever be heard.

DeWitt, Peter (2009) Class and Schools: A Conversation with Richard Rothstein. Vanguard Magazine. School Administrators Association of New York State.

Evans, Gary W., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Pamela Kato Klebanov (2011). Stressing Out the Poor: Chronic Physiological Stress and the Income-Achievement Gap. Pathways. Stanford University.

Rothstein, Richard. (2008). Whose Problem is Poverty? Educational Leadership. Volume 65/ Number 7. Arlington, VA.

Rothstein, Richard. (2008) Essay: A Nation at Risk 25 Years Later. Cato Institute. Washington D.C.

Do Something

Outreach International

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

If educators are not promoting a respectful climate in a creative learning space, then they're just moving furniture.

Today, I saw two first graders working together to open a thermos. Although this is a situation that happens every day in schools across North America, it was nice to watch them figure the situation out together. I was standing next to them but they did not ask me to open it for them. First graders think I'm pretty strong! Instead, one held the thermos while the other one turned the top. A great thing happened...it opened and they did not need adult intervention to accomplish the task.

As I looked around the cafeteria, I watched students talking to one another. Some students were helping each other out with a problem. Perhaps it was tearing off one of those pesky seals on cheese and crackers, or handing a friend a napkin. I realized that I was witnessing an environment of learning, which did not involve teachers. Students were learning from one another and working collaboratively.

Classroom Environment
Every summer before the school year begins, teachers work hard to make sure that their classrooms look perfect for when their students arrive. They hang up posters, arrange the desks or tables in a way that will inspire cooperative learning, and create bulletin boards that will motivate students to think.

It is important to create spaces that make our students wonder. Day dreaming every once in awhile isn't a bad thing if good ideas come from it. A great classroom environment is so important to the educational process. With an increase in testing and performance, a creative classroom environment is one of the only areas left where teachers and students have freedom.

As much as the summer may be the first opportunity to get the classroom prepared, it is certainly not the last. The quest to make sure a classroom is student-centered is never ending. When spending a year with students, classrooms should be rearranged on a monthly basis. Physically moving furniture sends a symbolic message to students and colleagues that classrooms are a place that should never remain stagnant.

Collaboration should be a part of every day instruction. 21st century skills ask students to be able to work with others and educators need to understand that collaboration is a skill that all students need, regardless of the path they choose for their future. With so many connections happening for us on the internet and in person, working with others is a necessary skill.

Many teachers organize the classroom to allow for both whole group instruction, as well as small instructional spaces, where students can work alone or in small groups. However, one thing teachers should do is make sure they get student input into where the physical classroom space is concerned. This collaboration between students and teachers helps students understand the important part they play in the classroom experience. Where do students think the tables or desks should be placed? Where would they like to see those small creative spaces where they can work alone or with a partner?

A creative classroom environment begins with making sure the class is inviting to students. It should be a place that will inspire imagination. Whether it's incorporating a rocking chair for students to sit in while they are reading or using ball chairs to create a creative place to sit as well as a place that will promote good posture, the classroom environment is one of the most important aspects to any classroom.

In addition, the classroom environment is about so much more than just the physical space. If teachers are not promoting a student-centered learning environment where thinking and respect are some of the key ingredients, it doesn't matter what the space looks like. If educators are not promoting a respectful climate in a creative learning space, then they're just moving furniture.

Classroom Climate Starts from the Top Down
Students should feel engaged when they walk into their classroom. It's a challenge that every teacher should be prepared to meet. It should be a challenge for principals as well because the building environment is what inspires each teacher to want to create that space within their classrooms.

Principals, in addition to teachers, should want to create a space where every student, teacher and parent feels that they can enter. Although there will always be parents who do not want to enter the school, part of the quest to create an inviting school environment is to try to get those parents to change their minds about schools.

Creating a creative learning experience takes a great deal of work but it also takes a team to complete the task. Students are an important part of that team. If teachers are not inspired when they walk into their classroom, their students probably are not inspired either. We are fortunate in education because we have the opportunity every day to make an impact on students. Being an educator offers us a reciprocal benefit because our students definitely make an impact on us and that is easily done when we create a respectful and creative learning environment.

Follow Peter on Twitter.

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Great teachers know that they don't have to know it all. They just have to know their resources.

Many times when we're struggling with the issue of meeting the needs of our students or those of our teachers, we search for great websites. Websites from experts can help inspire us to make the necessary changes in our classrooms or schools. However, many times they may require a membership or fee, which can limit the amount of help they provide.

Through our searches we may find free sites. After negotiating our way through the sites we find resources to use with the population we're trying to help. Other times we are not as fortunate and end up wasting our time and come up empty handed. This can be a frustration for our colleagues who do not find the internet very user friendly, which prevents them from wanting to go on-line to search for resources.

When the internet is not user-friendly to the teachers, they are less likely to want to use it with their students. It's easier to open a textbook at work from that. Unfortunately, when this happens everyone in the classroom loses out because students find technology very engaging. They should not have to sit through numerous schools days without the opportunity to use it.

Conversation with Our Colleagues from Afar
These days, it doesn't matter whether we are educators in a suburban, rural or urban setting; we are seeing students with diverse needs. Many students are not exposed to real-life experiences at home because their families lack the means necessary to pay for these experiences. Their parents work several jobs, and the opportunities for true learning experiences are minimal. Other times we have students who cannot read or are homeless, which makes school a constant struggle.

On days when I am trying to figure out how to help my students, whether they're in elementary school or the graduate course I teach, I turn to the experts. I'm not referring to the people who we see at conferences where we pay a conference fee to be inspired for an hour. I am referring to our colleagues who are only a password away on Twitter.

If you can set aside an hour or so (be careful because time flies on Twitter), go to Twitter and you will be met by colleagues from all over the world who are not only willing to help you find great resources, they will set you up with groups who can expand your content knowledge. These interactive chat sessions can be very beneficial to us as practioners.

Always keep in mind that these experts are often providing their opinion, and sometimes are not research based. If you are a proponent of research-based practices, you will have to use your own media literacy to make sure that they are offering practices that are up to your standard. However, they can provoke you to think outside the box, which will lead you to better research based practices.

Students
One of our biggest issues these days is trying to understand how to embed technology into our classrooms so that our students are engaged. They need to be given the opportunity to explore their own learning, and teachers can help them a great deal by teaching them media literacy.

When I want to learn more about social and emotional learning, technology or media literacy in the classroom I read blogs and posts by Sean Slade, Lyn Hilt and Shawn Blankenship. Or I join the #elemchat session on Saturdays at 5 p.m. eastern time and talk with Judy Brunner. In the 21st century, technology should not be something extra on your plate, it should be the plate.

However, not all educators and students are fortunate enough to have technology in the classroom. Bruce Lesley, Diane Ravitch and Larry Ferlazzo (the latter two blog for Education Week), all of whom understand how poverty can negatively affect a student's academic progress, offer insights on how we need to stand up for these students. These chat sessions help us get a better understanding of the issue of poverty which inspires us to stand up for more equity for these students who do not seem to have it at home or school.

Regardless of whether we have the benefit of technology or not, our students need to be at the center of their own learning, and sometimes I struggle with this issue. I often hear about the "Sage on the Stage" and the Guide on the Side." As an educator, I want to make sure that I am doing it correctly. Conversations with peers, whether they are in our building standing next to us, or a password away on the social network, help us make sure we are on the right track. By going to a social network like Twitter we are surrounded by people who are experts in the area of student-centered learning and they are a helpful resource as we negotiate our way through this process.

Teachers
Great teaching isn't about knowing it all. Great teaching is about knowing how to help our students find the resources they need so they can dive deep into their own learning. Many people feel that public schools do not do that enough, and as much as it pains me to admit it, I agree with them. We need to listen to people who will force us to look at the other side and try to find some common ground.

Education is a work in progress. For those of us who are fortunate enough to have the technological tools at our finger tips that can help keep our students engaged, we should work hard to make sure we are using them. Too many of our colleagues in poorer schools do not have the luxury of 21st century resources.

One person who inspires me is Todd Whitaker. Todd often says, "The best thing about being a teacher is that it matters. The hardest thing about being a teacher is that it matters every day." Every day we have the opportunity to have educational conversations that can change the lives of our students, and we do always need technology for that, because those conversations are the ones we have with our students. Those teachable moments can inspire them...and us.

However, when we need help or inspiration we can turn to our colleagues, and the greatest thing about being an educator is that those colleagues do not even have to be people we know. They can be people within our profession that we have never met. Educators are great that way. They want to help their students as well as their colleagues. Perhaps that is why I find Twitter to be so helpful. It is a place to connect with the very people who share our same passion for learning.

Follow Peter on Twitter

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Later on, I found my niche. It wasn't baseball; it was school, and running and art and music. Dad and Mom had taught me that life is special. It doesn't always work out the way you want--sometimes it works out better.

A few years ago I wrote a story entitled Catcher's Mitt for Grief Digest. Unfortunately there are not enough books on the subject of grief for children and publishers like the Centering Corporation, which publishes Grief Digest, are one of the few organizations that focus on the topic of grief. There are so many children affected by this subject that we are fortunate that organizations like the Centering Corporation exist.

When going through old stories, I came upon Catcher's Mitt. I even went down to my basement and found the glove that inspired the story. If we're fortunate, we all have times in our lives when we can look back on our childhood and smile. As a small boy, playing catch with my dad is one of those times of great importance.

Dad and I had promised to play catch outside when the snow melted in upstate New York. The way we used to play in our big front yard on Pinewood Road, throwing high above the telephone wire that led from the road to our antenna that sat on top of our modest, green house.

My dad was good at pop flies that flew way up in the air as if they would never come back down. He had strong arms, big hands, and he would toss them up and over. I'd smile widely when I ran to catch the baseball on those warm summer days, except for the balls my brother Jody would catch. He was three years older, much faster and looking to catch my dad's attention. Nothing beats playing catch with your dad and brother on a warm summer day, where you run and catch and laugh a lot.

I asked for the catcher's mitt on my Christmas list. The list was long, but the mitt was number one. I wanted to be the one the pitcher counted on. I could throw from home plate to second base without much effort, but I needed the proper glove to catch the strikes the pitcher threw to me.

Then Dad got sick, and for awhile he was forced to leave all of us and go to a hospital far, far away in Burlington, Vermont. Mom would leave in her fire-engine-red Subaru to go see him, but most every night she came back. My older sister, Trish, baby sat us--not that we were babies. I was eleven, Jody was fourteen.

A few months later, Dad came back just like he had said he would, but strong arms had turned weak. Still, we all worked for his attention. Sitting in the stiff wooden chair that supported his back, he would watch sports in the living room. Watching sports was not my favorite thing to do, but you'll do anything to have a little time with your dad.

Christmas was coming, a time to be together and a time when your dreams come true. We got pounded with snow outside of our northeast home. I dreamed of baseball--not with a team, but with my dad, and maybe my brother, Jody, too.

That Christmas morning, five siblings devoured gifts piled high. Some big, some small, wrapping paper strewn all over, but the catcher's mitt wasn't among those. Mom brought it out, unwrapped. No wrapping paper would have been colorful enough for this handmade glove. No need for packaging; leather was the wrapping for this present. The glove was all leather, handmade, unique. No other baseball glove looked like this. It was stuffed and padded around the edge, with an invisible bulls-eye in the center and a tough exterior. The leather was stiff, I would have to work it in.

Dad was sitting in the wooden, kitchen chair in the corner of the living room with a panoramic view of all the kids. He wore his new brown tweed winter hat that covered his ears to keep him warm on cold, northeast-winter days. It resembled a baseball hat, his favorite sport. Excited about my gift, I jumped up to hug Dad and wrapped my arms around him, but not too tight. He was fragile, and I didn't want him to break.

Christmas night I spent hours in the bedroom that I shared with my two brothers, lying awake in the top bunk. I couldn't sleep, so I held my glove close to smell the leather. Finally, I fell soundly asleep with the glove on my right hand.

For months after Christmas, snow fell, blanketing the ground, so I waited eagerly for my time to use my left-handed catcher's mitt--with my dad. Finally, March came and everything was growing, but not my father. He went away, never to come back. But I knew he'd always be there watching as my brother Jody and I play catch in our front yard.

I decided to play baseball even though Dad wouldn't be there. I didn't have him anymore, but I had his gift, the left-handed catcher's mitt. In the fourth year of little league, there was more competition. But I was only interested in one spot on the diamond, behind home plate. To give the signal, to control the speed, to direct the pitcher's pitch: the heat, a curve, knuckleball, a slider maybe, depending on the batter.

Another Saturday during spring, another game, minus one fan in the crowd. I wasn't a catcher anymore. Coach Joust had favorites, and I wasn't one of them.
Left field was my position, but not the one that I wanted. There were two outs. The opponents were up by one run and it was the last inning. The pop fly came to me, just like Dad's had over the telephone wire. My hands were up, reaching for the ball. All eyes were on me; even the batter's eyes watched the ball before he ran to first base. It was coming down, toward my mitt. The ball fit perfectly in my glove. Too bad it was the wrong glove. Three outs, our time for bats, last ups, last inning.

We could win. It was my turn to bat, but I was a catcher, not much of a hitter and the coach knew it. It was my time to learn about life. All of it was enough for me. It was time to move on to other things.

Later on, I found my niche. It wasn't baseball; it was school, and running and art and music. Dad and Mom had taught me that life is special. It doesn't always work out the way you want--sometimes it works out better.

I may not have played baseball since that day I lost the joust. But I still have my left-handed catcher's mitt. Not because I love baseball, but because, it's the glove my dad gave me for Christmas the year before he passed away.

Follow Peter on Twitter

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In late July I decided to join Twitter. To be perfectly honest with you I had no idea what I was supposed to do when I got on there but I heard so much about it I thought it would be a worthwhile experience. The only concern was that we have so many distractions already in life that I wasn't sure that I needed to add one more the list.

I consider myself fairly technological, and given the amount of time I spend checking e-mail I know that I am "connected." I have a "Smart" phone, IPod, IPad, laptop and I created my own website. For a long time I thought Twitter was a venue for celebrities to Tweet their every move, so it wasn't anything that interested me but I figured I would give it a try.

Lynn, the Director of Technology in the school district where I am a principal, kept telling me that Twitter is great because it streamlines the information you receive. She is a "techie" and knows about all of the latest 21st century tools and I trust her judgment. I did however, like the idea that Twitter offered "one stop shopping" for all of my educational needs.

Too many times in the 24/7 media we are hit with images we would rather not have to see. As I get older I have less of a need to hear most of the news that come on the television. She assured me that with Twitter, you choose to follow people that have your common interests and when they Tweet information, you will be exposed to articles, blogs, videos, quotations and information that you find valuable. She certainly made it sound interesting.

Every month I made new connections but wasn't really into the whole experience. Then, in early November something amazing happened. I actually understood what Twitter was all about. All of Lynn's advice came rushing at me when I found an elementary education chat session happening on a Saturday evening. I have to admit that I wasn't sure what #elemchat meant but I saw a few of the people I was following add that phrase to what they were posting. I decided to click on #elemchat and I found educators from all over the world posting advice and resources for elementary education.

That was the moment I became hooked on Twitter. Connecting with people from around the world who have similar interests and understand your passion for education can be inspiring. Although educators get accused of accepting the status quo and not wanting to move forward, Twitter is a place where that accusation is proven wrong. Educators, who do not know each other and have never met, and may never meet, share their best practices, wisdom or advice.

Why Educators Should Join Twitter
We live in the 21st century where our students don't just "do" social networking; it is a part of who they are as digital citizens. To us, it's a big deal to get on Facebook or Twitter, and to our students it is something they cannot fathom living without. Understanding their connection with those sites will increase an educator's connection with their students. Being able to talk their language may even provide an opportunity to breakthrough to a hard to reach student.

Many educators have students that they cannot seem to reach. Sometimes those educators do not feel comfortable reaching out to their immediate colleagues, so they reach out to people they follow or to the people who follow them on Twitter. Many times those colleagues on Twitter can provide really valuable resources that can help educators meet the needs of their hardest to reach students.

In addition, there are millions of people on Twitter, including organizations that have great resources around such issues as homelessness, bullying, special education and gifted education. Socially and emotionally many of our students are dealing with issues that many educators never had to deal with, and a social network like Twitter, and the organizations that are on there, can help educators help their students and parents by connecting them with many valuable resources.

Professional Development
Many educators are intrinsically motivated to find their own professional development. They read websites and blogs and are members of organizations that send them journals. They read more educational material than they read books for fun. Twitter is one resource they should add to their list because they will find blogs, articles and videos that they would never be able to find on their own. There is just too much out in cyberspace to be able to find these resources through regular search engines.

Many times, there are educators who ask for help from their followers and the people they follow. Those questions are quickly answered and resources are often provided as well. Other times, when visiting Twitter educators will find conversations and read thought- provoking quotations and blogs on topics that may become a new interest for them.

Many schools no longer have a great deal of money to pay for professional development, which is unfortunate because those experiences can be very educational. The budgets that those school districts do have are earmarked for the best possible professional opportunities that will tie into district goals. Although conferences and one day trainings are always beneficial if educators put into it what they get out of it, Twitter offers daily professional development in the privacy of your own home.

Connecting with colleagues from all over the world who have similar interests is really amazing. As much as we may think we have it difficult in our present circumstances, which we do, connecting with educators in other countries helps to put things into perspective. Sometimes those educators have it much harder and need our help, and other times there are educators who are in schools that we find inspiring and give us something to work toward.

The following are some suggestions regarding Twitter:
• Although there are privacy settings, be careful what you write. Everything you post has a way to be public. Keep it respectful, as if your students or your grandmother was reading it.
• Make sure you watch the amount of time you spend on it. Hours can pass by you rather quickly when you are on Twitter. Don't forget to check in with your loved ones every once in a while!
• Twitter should never supplant professional development but it can supplement it during difficult financial times.

In the End
Connecting with likeminded educators from around the world can help lift us out of our present situations and give us something to strive for because some of these resources teach us how to live creatively within our parameters. Those likeminded educators can also help us meet the needs of our students. When we have exhausted all of our other resources that are within close proximity, Twitter provides us with resources that we may never knew existed.

Our students enter our classrooms coming from diverse backgrounds and they have been exposed to diverse experiences. Those experiences may have been helpful to their development, while other experiences may have been detrimental to their development. All of that diversity makes it hard to meet the needs of each and every student.

Although Twitter cannot solve all of the problems that our students have, it can provide educators with ways to help those students. In addition, it may help inspire educators to try new things in their classrooms. Who knows, it may even create a relationship where educators and their students can connect with other educators and students from across the globe, and open up new experiences for everyone involved.

Follow Peter on Twitter.

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

"Textbooks should be used like a dictionary, not a novel." Unknown

For the first time in our educational history a majority of the states across the U.S. will have the same teaching standards, which many educators have wanted for decades. Many of those states are doing a great job building curriculum maps for teachers. Some states are doing something really unique; they're actually getting teacher and administrator input in the process.

School districts, and the teachers and administrators within those districts, like what the common core offers to students. It focuses more on depth than breadth. Over the years as our society changes the Common Core Standards are supposed to be fluid enough that they will change in order to help educators best meet the needs of their students.

I am fortunate enough to have a staff that is open and honest with me, even when I may not like the answer. After having countless conversations with them, I feel as though many of the teachers like the standards because they will have time to go deeper with curriculum. We have discussed the idea of selectively abandoning some of the curriculum they have always taught so they can focus on going deeper with the new curriculum they need to teach. We are trying our best to move forward with this new initiative as positively as possible.

New Parameters
It has always been my goal to look at the parameters in which we live and figure out how to build creativity within those parameters. Many schools try to meet those creative goals given the parameters of high stakes testing time and are definitely trying to meet that goal during the implementation of the Common Core Standards.

As much as schools are trying to rally behind the Common Core, there is still one question that needs to be answered. How are schools going to pay for it? Adopting Common Core is the easy part. It's the heave lifting that comes with it that causes difficulties within our districts. Every new initiative, no matter how big or small, comes with unforeseen costs.

It is when schools dig deeper into these unforeseen costs that they end up frustrated. For example, will school districts need to adopt new textbooks that are aligned to the common core? Does that mean that the thousands of dollars school districts have spent on textbooks in the last few years are no longer relevant to what teachers are teaching? Are there better resources than textbooks that schools can use to support them during the implementation?

Although textbooks should always be used as a guide to help teachers during instruction, it will seem irrelevant to use textbooks that were published five or ten years ago. Many would suggest that textbooks are archaic and should no longer be used. I certainly agree with that philosophy.

However, many school districts continue to use textbooks and the Common Core is radically different enough that schools will be forced to buy new textbooks, which should be concerning to educators. Was all of this a way for textbook publishers to get more money from schools?

There are also numerous others costs that school districts will have to endure during this whole process. The following are some of the additional costs that will burden school districts in the coming years.

Substitute Teachers - Schools have to send teachers to be a part of the curriculum mapping process for Common Core Standards. These trainings will be over multiple days which will take teachers out of the classroom and they will be replaced with substitutes. There is a cost to have a substitute teacher in the classroom for multiple days.

New Textbooks - Textbooks are outrageously expensive and to properly choose one for a school district takes time and collaboration between teachers and administrators. In an elementary building, teachers from numerous grade levels have to find the best fit for their students.

I understand that textbooks should act as a guide, and schools always look for on-line supplements, but textbooks continue to be the reality that many schools need. Until there are better alternatives, and schools can break the textbook habit, this continues to be a huge cost. In addition, even if we do find internet options, the publishers who created those options are certainly not offering them for free.

The Cost of Time - Teachers spend a great deal of time trying to educate themselves on the changes from their old standards to those of the Common Core. That training is done through professional development, after-school grade level meetings, training during the contractual school day (which requires a substitute) or time after-school when teachers study the Common Core alone. The cost of time is a big reality for schools.

Training Teachers - Bringing in outside experts or consultants is very expensive. In order to properly train teachers, school districts must offer professional development in order to ensure that educators can master the Common Core Standards. These trainings are not a one-shot deal and will cost school districts money.

In the End
All of these new costs come at a time when districts have to cut budgets and are receiving less funding from state and federal governments. We have seen class sizes rise and are provided with less time to prepare for our present situations. As always, educators work hard to move forward and educate their students.

There are always opportunity costs when districts have to purchase new textbooks, internet licenses, supplies and pay for training teachers. Schools will have students who see more substitute teachers in their classrooms and districts will have less money for other supplies such as upgrades to technology.

Many educators welcome the Common Core as a way to meet the needs of their students. Many teachers are suffering with large class sizes, less prep time and are concerned about high stakes testing being tied to their evaluation. However, they find Common Core Standards to offer a glimmer of hope during, what seems to be, a dark time in education.

Our only hope is that school districts are given a proper opportunity to prepare for these new standards or the whole situation will just be another mandate that school districts cannot afford.

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

"Good people know that high stakes testing has limited value and they keep operating anyway. They don't let testing get in the way of doing the good work they want to do to get kids prepared for life." Todd Whitaker

In education we have a habit of using terms so often that we push staff to a place where they do not want to use them anymore, which means they are in jeopardy of not being engaged in the process. We have seen it with terms such as "differentiated instruction" and "hands-on learning." If we're not careful it will happen with a very important term which is "21st century skills."

The tendency to dislike a term after it is used too often happens because many educators are concerned that it's merely a new twist on an old idea. We have all heard countless staff and administrators say that if we spend enough time in education we will see old ideas recycled with new names. Too many times those "new" terms are used in sentences that begin with, "You're not using enough...differentiated instruction or hands-on methods of learning."

The race to nowhere is paved in countless mandates and new ideas. We can become overwhelmed with the amount of educational information that we see in journals and cyberspace. New ideas are being proposed all around us. Some of which are just creative advertising on the part of textbook publishers, while others are creative ideas that will help us keep up with our younger generation.

However, are they really new ideas? 21st century skills are critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. For those of us who have been educators for a long time we have always taught our students how to think critically, communicate with others, collaborate on projects and be creative. Long before the 21st century, that was the basis for education for many years.

In addition, one of the best 21st century skills that we can teach students is the art of reflection. Through reflection students can assess their critical thinking skills and creativity. They can also work in collaboration with other students to reflect on the work that they completed. Reflection is an additional 21st century skill that would be beneficial for all students, staff and administrators.

Social Network Generation
As adults, we grew up in a time when we had to work as a team, think critically and communicate with others, at the same time that we were all being creative. We all had to do it during a time when we did not have computers. To make life more difficult, we had chalkboards and lacked many other resources that we have in modern times. Although our opportunities to be creative were limited, we tried our best to engage our students and we did not have to worry about the distractions we do today.

Back then, we worried more about what television programs students were watching, which distracted them from doing their homework. Today's students are surrounded by many more distractions than we ever thought were imaginable. Those new tools that educators often see as distractions need to be used to positively engage the social network generation.

With an increase in handheld devices, does the social network generation have the same communications skills that we do? Or do they just communicate differently? Many times I hear adults say that students do not know how to talk with one another because they spend too much time texting, using e-mail and Facebooking each other. Whether we like it or not that is how students communicate with each other these days. They actually thrive on connecting with their peers in numerous ways.

One time I wrote a blog about the social network generation and someone posted a comment that they thought it was ironic that I cautioned people about social networking and then asked people to follow me on Twitter. I actually found some irony in the situation as well! The truth is, I have become a huge fan of Twitter and I'm inspired by some of the tools that my students have in our schools.

The other day I was on Twitter and happened upon an elementary chat group. It was inspiring to talk with educators from around the world through Twitter. My favorite leadership expert Todd Whitaker joined into the conversation. We built an instant community of learners and ended up creating our very own professional development session that lasted about an hour. I had the opportunity to follow up with some educators in one-to-one conversations. They sent me blogs that I never would have found on my own. If you're an educator who loves education and connecting with other educators, you should seriously consider joining Twitter.

Great conversations force us to think deeper. They inspire us to put in some extra effort to reach a goal. Won't students benefit from the same kind of experience? If social networking provides such a great learning experience for adults, can't we find ways to engage students the same way? The answer is yes! However, just like any tool, students need to understand how to use it properly.
Social Networking...The New Way to Collaborate
Not only do we have the opportunity to teach students how to interact with peers sitting next to them. We have a great opportunity to teach students how to interact with peers that are all around the world. For students who are growing up in a non-diverse area, this ability offers students a great experience.

Using these amazing resources allows us to really teach students to think critically, communicate with others, collaborate on projects and be creative. In addition, students will see that we are not behind the times because we are suing tools that we know students enjoy and use every day. It also provides us with the opportunity to educate students in a teacher-centered and student-centered way, which will increase collaboration between students and teachers.

In education, the biggest concern is whether our present situation of high stakes testing and test prep diminishes our opportunities to focus on 21st century skills. When students are taking an exam, they are not fully engaged in the process. They are not showing their critical thinking skills, collaboration techniques and creativity because they are simply picking up a pencil and filling in bubbles on a test.

However, there are all of those other times when our students do not have to take tests and practice test-prep. Those are the times when students could be fully engaged in using 21st century tools and learning 21st century skills that have really been around for a very long time.

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Recently there was a story in Education Week entitled Push is On to Add Time to School Day, Year (Fleming). Some schools are adding time to their school day and school year. If done correctly, this will allow teachers the time to focus on great instructional tools like Project-Based Learning (PBL) and perhaps offer students the time to create service learning opportunities within the school district.

In the Washington Post, there was a story about schools that are researching the idea of a four day school week (Layton). Four day weeks are created by schools in order to cut costs (i.e. heat, energy, etc.). The positive side to a four day week is that it would provide high school students the opportunity to participate in internships where they can get real-life work experience.

Both ideas offer a great deal of flexibility in instructional practices. Unfortunately, there are many times when these ideas are not done in order to offer innovative practices to students. They are done in order to meet increased mandates, make budget cuts or increase test scores.

Doesn't it seem that we are all moving in opposite directions?

Time and time again we hear from people who believe that schools are an institution that are too far behind society. I would venture to guess that there are many households, not just schools, that are struggling to keep up with the 24/7 media, cell phones for everyone including kids in second grade, quick fix society.

Unfortunately, those brick and mortar comments are said by people who expose their children to great experiences such as museums, the arts and sports. We know as educators, that there are many parents who do not know how, and do not have the means, to expose their children to such experiences.

How can schools be innovative and focus on 21st century skills when they can't afford to buy computers, Smartboards, IPads and netbooks? Although 21st century skills means changing the way we all think and not just incorporating technology, many schools are ill-equipped to meet that demand. In the long run we have millions of students who lack exposure to quality experiences at home and school, and are their schools are forced to look into cutting the academic week down to four days as other schools increase their school day and school year.

Happy Medium
I love the idea of students being exposed to real-life experiences in the outside world. In my own school, we are on multiple acres of land where students go outside every day except on days when it is raining or below 20 degrees. Teachers bring their children outside so they can learn about nature through hands-on experiences. Students are truly exposed to some great examples of real-life experiences.

Unfortunately, I also understand that we are fortunate and not all students, teachers and staff have the luxury to bring their students outside every day. It would be wonderful if we were able to go to a four day week with a fifth day that focuses on outside experiences for younger children and internships for high school students. However, how will schools be able to monitor those experiences?

It's not that schools always need to have control (although some would argue that point); it's that schools are mandated to prove that students are learning. Teachers and administrators are being evaluated based on those mandates and giving up a day each week and trusting that all students are being exposed to great experiences is more of a risk than a reality for schools.

What's Best for Kids?
Although both ideas have benefits for high school students, they have major drawbacks for elementary and younger middle school children. Elementary students do not have the luxury of working internships and parents will have a major issue with the lack of childcare.

The reality is that schools provide an education and child care to parents, so the four day school week idea will put a deeper wedge between parents and schools. You need not look any further than comments after a blog to see adults who add comments about how much teachers and administrators make and the lack of twelve month employment.

Educators who work in schools that only have four day weeks will be forced to hear comments about how disruptive the new schedule will be to the family unit. This will cause a rift between the school and home and will work against what so many parents and schools work hard toward, which is a home-school community.

Extended days can be very exhausting to students who are between the ages of five and eleven. Schools would have to make sure that they are incorporating breaks into the school day to allow for students to get up and move. The whole child initiative is not from the neck up, it's the whole body.

In The End
The reality is that there will always be schools that can be innovative and offer students what they need to be successful in society. There will also be schools that lack the means necessary to prepare students for the 21st century, even though we are eleven years into it. These same students live in households that do not prepare them for the 21st century. With 21.6% of our students affected by poverty, providing 21st century skills takes a back seat to teaching students how to survive.

If we are forced to go through all of these cuts in order to change the institution to become more 21st century, we really just seem to be forced to once again prove that our society is caught between the "haves" and "have nots."

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Every student should be able to get lost in their imagination from time to time. As we grow older there are so many times that we are too busy to retreat within ourselves to imagine bigger ideas. We need to encourage students to do that when they are younger so they can strive for something new in their lives.

Students should be exposed to experiences that provoke thought and inspires them to want to find a path to follow in life. Sometimes they do that by surrounding themselves with good friends and play games on whatever the new hot item is these days. Other times it's through experiences that teachers or parents expose them to through conversations and other engaging activities. And some students find it on their own through books.

To some students, a book takes them away from a painful life for a few hours and brings them to a life that is much more interesting and adventurous than the one they are living. Through books, they may realize that their life does not have to stay the same and that through hard work they can change the course of where their life is heading. Great books inspire change.

Books teach us a lot about the world around us and can help prepare us for the evil that lurks around every corner. A heroic character, especially one that seems ordinary, can teach us that during any circumstance we can find something extraordinary within ourselves. Perhaps it's the writer in me, but words can be very powerful.

The Harry Potter series is the epitome of that kind of book. When the reader cracks open the first page, they get transformed into another world, where anything is possible. Children and adults watched Harry Potter grow up. Through his challenges, readers learned how to approach life. As they read the book, they went on-line and found ways to connect with other readers from around the world who were looking to figure out life by following the plot created by J.K. Rowling.

Harry Potter
It seems farfetched that a book could do that to so many people, but you need only to look on-line to see the far reach of the magic of Harry Potter. Every time I happen upon a Harry Potter movie I find myself unable to turn the station. J.K. Rowling is a genius for so many reasons, not just because she was able to write books that brought children of all ages out at midnight in order to buy them. She inspired millions to pick up a book, and she brought families closer together because they wanted to read together, visit the theme park together and see all of the movies together.

I remember when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out, I was teaching third grade and we got permission from the assistant superintendent of curriculum to use the book. Along with my students, we transformed our classroom into a mini-Hogwarts and one day the students came dressed up as their favorite characters. They even re-wrote chapters and added different endings to the book. As a teacher, it was an amazing experience to watch students get absorbed by a book.

Growing up, I was never much of a reader. I struggled with academics and only remember reading a handful of books. Although my mom always let me buy books through book clubs in class, I would typically get very excited when the book came in and the teacher handed it out, but I never brought myself to the point where I felt the need to actually read it. I would venture to guess that many of our students feel that way.

Perhaps that is part of the reason that I cannot help but watch Harry Potter when it comes on television. J.K. Rowling gave millions of children the opportunity to read books that were twice as long as any book they had ever seen and they seized that opportunity and were thirsty for more. That feeling of creativity and imagination is inspiring.

I wonder how we could take those ideas and actually bring them to our schools. Dumbledore and the rest of the Hogwarts staff had to worry about the Ministry of Magic. They are surely more difficult to work with than the federal education department? If they can teach the way they want, can't we teach what works best for our students?

What Harry Potter Teaches Us
I understand that some of this seems bizarre. I know that we do not teach in castles and Harry Potter is fantasy but I also believe we can learn some valuable lessons from Harry, Hogwarts and J.K. Rowling. If millions of students voraciously read 700 page books within a few hours of buying them, surely there must be a lesson in there for us.

I began to think about all of the lessons we could learn from the series. If students who struggle with reading can overcome that struggle to read the whole series, we should take the time to figure out how we can bridge the gap between the fantasy of Harry Potter and the reality of our present situation.

Lessons Learned:
Take risks - Harry never felt extraordinary but he took risks because he thought he was the only one who could get rid of evil. Normal students, even those who have humble beginnings, can do extraordinary things in life

Take ownership over your learning. Sure, taking a class in spells may not seem like it will be beneficial, but down the road when Harry needed it most, what he learned in school saved his life.

Peer Relations - Surround yourself with good peers because you never know what evil lurks around the corner. When the going gets tough, your friends may be the ones who get you through those tough times.

Education should be an adventure - sometimes teaching and learning is hard, but most times it should be an adventure. Many teachers have an amazing opportunity, because they get to expose students to something for the very first time. As a first grade teacher, I was given the opportunity to teach students how to read. Nothing I have done since then seems to compete with that.

Learn from your mistakes - Learn from your mistakes and do something great with what you have learned. Harry made mistakes at school with friends and teachers, but he was able to learn valuable lessons that helped him move forward.

In the EndThis whole blog may seem strange that a school principal would write about Harry Potter but it was a risk I thought was worth taking. If we want to engage our students, we have to be willing to get to their level and listen to their voices. We may not be educating the next great wizard but we are working with, what should be our greatest hope for the future.

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Posted by Peter DeWitt at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

As much as we should try not to leave students out of the parent-teacher conferences (Student-Led Conferences), we should also make sure we are not leaving parents out either. As educators, we communicate with parents daily or weekly, not just at parent-teacher conferences. We need to make sure that we are providing them with the opportunity to give input, because they know their children better than anyone.
Every time that we meet with parents we have an opportunity. We can show them we understand them by listening to their concerns and opinions or we talk our own language during a meeting and loose that opportunity because they feel as though they are not being heard.

Many years ago Dr. Stephen Covey provided habits that everyone should have in order to lead a successful life (1989). One of those habits was to "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." As we meet with parents we need to ask ourselves, are we talking at parents, or are we talking with them? Are we providing them the opportunity to talk with us or are we trying to get the meeting over?

Too often educators find themselves pressed for time, so they want to get to the heart of the issue and find ways to move forward. Parents need time to process the situation. Provide parents with a warming up period because many parents walk down our hallways and get transported to when they were in school. If they had negative experiences in their own education, they may bring that baggage with them when they meet with us.

Educationalese
Have you ever been a part of a conversation with non-educators and were lost in the conversation because they were using "work terms?" I know that many of us try our best to hang out with people who are not in education so we can take a break from talking about school. While we are all in our chosen careers, we speak a different language.

One of the easiest ways to lose a parent in a conversation is to begin speaking in acronyms. In education, just like many other professions, we speak in educationalese where we use acronyms to explain how we are educating their child. Many parents do not ask us what we mean when we drop different acronyms, which means that they do not understand the whole conversation.

Educators need to understand what it feels like to not know what someone is talking about. We all have friends that work in other professions who use acronyms that we do not understand. We find ourselves smiling through conversations while we try to figure out what the acronym must be so we can rejoin the conversation.

Before educators use an acronym they should provide the full phrase and then provide the acronym that goes with it. "We would like to recommend your child to the Child Study Team, which we call the CST. We usually recommend children for CST when we want to brainstorm other ways to engage them in their own learning." When we easily fit it into the conversation we are less likely to exclude our parents from the conversation.

Bad News
Many years ago when I was teaching, I had a student who had a notebook that was used for daily correspondence between the parents and the teachers who worked with the student, which included me. The first time I opened the notebook I realized it was carried over from the previous year which meant it included correspondence from the previous year's teacher and although I tried not to look, I did.

Every day the teacher wrote something the child did wrong. As I took more time to read some of the passages, there were only a few days when they wrote that the child had a good day. The passage actually said, "She had a good day," and nothing else, which was very sad to read.

However, on the days the child had a bad day, the teacher wrote their own version of War and Peace about why the child was wrong. And then I saw it. A few months into the school year, the parent wrote that they did not just want to read bad things about her child. I completely understood why the parent wrote the comment, and made sure that I limited comments that focused on negative behaviors.

Educators can write comments about how a child had a bad day without making it negative; they just have to make sure that they are proactive from the very first day. Covey calls this the "Emotional bank account." Educators can make deposits by focusing on the positive behaviors of child. There are times when educators need to focus on a negative behavior of the child which may result in a withdrawal from the emotional bank account.

E-mail
One last pitfall we all fall into, no matter if we are the educator or the parent, is the dreaded e-mail. We have all been on the receiving end of some horrible e-mails, and it literally takes our breath away when it happens. We need to always keep those experiences in mind, especially when we are sending a parent an e-mail.

In the past decade we have fallen into the trap of sending an e-mail to explain a situation because it is "easier" and we are pressed for time. All too often those e-mails require a phone call to clarify, which means that we could have saved time and heartache by just picking up the phone.

Not every situation requires a phone call but educators (and some principals too!) need to think before they press send. My secretary, who I respect greatly, tells me to put it under my blotter and take time to think before I press send. If I receive an e-mail that is negative, she looks at me and simply says, "Put it under your blotter and go down to see the kindergartners. Answer the e-mail later." I usually listen, and after I calm down I am able to resolve the situation.

Always keep in mind that the simplest of statements can be misread in e-mail. Think of all the different ways the following statement can be read. "Your child had an issue today on the playground that I need to talk with you about." Read it any way you like, e-mail has a habit of taking on a tone that is not there. Even worse, e-mail can take on the tone that you wanted it to.

In the End
In the end, relationships matter. In my spare time I present at conferences for the International Center for Leadership in Education, and they focus on Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. I find that the most important first step for any educator is to establish positive relationships with students, parents and colleagues.

Whether we like it or not, on days when we are exhausted from repeating the same direction over and over or are tired from seeing yet another politician say that we are failing, we need to remember that we are in the business of working with people. Some of those people are parents, and some of those people are the small ones that walk in our doors every morning. How we communicate with them matters.

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Acronyms that we use (there are many more than this but it's a good start):
CSE - Committee of Special Education
IEP - Individual Education Plan
SPED - Special Education
AIS - Academic Intervention Services
CST - Child Study Team...also known as Individual Study Team (IST)
G&T - Gifted and Talented
HAL - High Ability Learners

Covey, Stephen. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Simon & Schuster. New York, NY.

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Although, we have always been a close staff we have had open and honest discussions about testing, NCLB and how we can move forward in a time with so many mandates.

As adults, we can all remember the stress we felt when taking an exam. It didn't matter whether it was a chapter test created by a teacher or the SAT's, we know what it feels like to worry that we may not do well on the test. For one week, I want students to feel what is like to not have to worry about a test, which is why I asked my staff to participate in our very own, No Testing Week.

We all understand that it would be nice to go a month without tests. We also understand that at some point in their lives students will have to take an exam. However, even in elementary school we have seen an increase in the mount of testing that is being done to our students. In an effort to collect good data on how well our students will compete with other nations or how well are teachers and administrators are doing at their jobs, testing is the new normal for all of us.

Staff Reaction
"What kind of activities can we do during the week?" I do have a small part of me that likes to control situations but I have a great deal of trust for my staff, so I know they will do outstanding things with our students. "Do we have to do the activities you suggested?" These are all the questions our staff asked when we met to discuss our No Testing Week on Monday afternoon.

I pride myself on being a fairly good communicator, but I know that I do not always do a good job of explaining myself. In the past few weeks since I wrote the blog "No Testing Week" I have been asked numerous questions from staff, students and parents at school, as well as my graduate students where I am an adjunct.

As much as we were all getting excited about the event, there were still many unanswered questions. I sent out a clarification e-mail but that did not completely answer all of the questions. In my defense, we did meet a couple of times already. However, the best ideas and questions come from reflecting after the meeting. Two of my teachers suggested a third face-to-face meeting, which was a great idea.

We all met as a faculty and worked out some of the kinks. The week I designed is called No Testing but it does not mean that we can't grade certain projects. We still can achieve the goal of finding good authentic data. The data we collect from No Testing Week will include every type of learner. It also doesn't mean that we throw away all parameters. No matter how fun a week looks, everyone including staff and students need parameters.

National Education Association
I received a phone call from a senior writer at NEA Today. The writer had contacted a few of my staff members to make sure that I was "walking the talk," which is always a great idea. No one knows whether I was really planning on doing a No Testing Week except for the parents, students and staff. Some of the teachers assured the writer that we were planning the week to go from November 28th through December 2nd.

We are doing No Testing Week because of two reasons. The first is that we are overly concerned about the amount of testing that is happening in schools. Besides the local assessments we can create, we are being inundated with state assessments that are archaic in nature. They may ask modern questions but they do it in a format that is far behind the times that we are living in.

Secondly, we are doing a no testing week because it is the week of our Scholastic Book Fair and we have an outstanding children's author named Matt McElligott coming to present at our school on Friday night. Matt writes about many topics which can be included in math and science studies. However, our students love him because he writes about pirates! On Friday during the day and the night when Matt presents, we will be dressing like pirates. The parents, along with their children are excited about the week.

Before NCLB...Previous to when we were hit with NCLB, elementary schools were (and still should be) a place that is creative and fun. We had less parameters, and we were less concerned about a daily focus on textbooks. We had a better balance of education and fun.

The point of No Testing Week is to go back to a time before NCLB and all of our mandates. We will focus on educating our students in diverse ways where they will be exposed to more hands-on and inquiry based lessons, and will not have to worry about the pressures of passing a test. Besides giving a test, there are so many ways to assess what they are learning which will have a positive impact on our students instead of a negative one.

In addition to the benefits of a less stressful week and focusing on creativity, we have seen an increase in the sense of community within our school. Although, we have always been a close staff we have had open and honest discussions about testing, NCLB and how we can move forward in a time with so many mandates.

Schools That Will Participate
Something amazing happened after I posted the blog in October. I heard from educators from across the country and around the world. Although I can't wait for No Testing Week, I found that there are many educators like us who want something more for their students. They want a week where they can focus on student-centered topics and expose students to different types of learning.

Yes, many of these lessons can be used during our present situation, but the reality is that more educators feel insecure about teaching outside of the "textbook" box because they will be evaluated based on old principles. As these past few weeks have progressed I have offered less parameters for that week and have found that teachers are coming up with more creative ideas every day.

Many of the teachers have taken Matt McElligott's books home over the weekend to begin planning creative lessons for students. In some cases, teachers are not going to tell students what they are doing that week. In addition to student-centered activities, some of the teachers are surprising students with a new adventure when they enter their classroom. Every child should have the chance to go on an adventure in the classroom.

It is my hope that many schools will create their own "No Testing Week" and allow their students to have a week that is free of the stress from testing.

Things to keep in mind when planning a No Testing Week:

• Set up multiple meetings with staff
• Communicate with parents. Many of them feel schools test too much and will support you.
• Try to plan one whole school event a day, even if that means that the students will not have to leave their classroom (i.e. Announcements, videos).
• If your school has a Scholastic Book Fair, plan your No Testing Week during that week. Bring in an author!
• Make sure you clearly articulate your goals for the week.

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Posted by Peter DeWitt at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Everyone uses worksheets but it can be very depressing to see a pile of dittos on a teacher's desk waiting for students as they enter a classroom to begin the day. Although there is always a time when worksheets may be appropriate, dittos can be a symbol of a lack of creativity. We must try to limit there use in classrooms.

As class sizes rise and high stakes testing pressure increases we are running the risk of boring students to tears by using death by ditto. Death by Ditto is the overuse of using dittos to educate students. The overuse of dittos leads to lower student engagement, higher cases of boredom and an increase in discipline issues because students would rather do anything than another coloring sheet.

In these days of 24/7 connections and 7 year olds with their own smart phones, we need to lower the use of worksheets to educate our students. Although I do understand that it prepares them to take a state exam because those are about twenty years behind the times, the overuse of worksheets does nothing to help build our case that the public school system is an academic institution.

Dittos do not allow students to build language skills. In addition, working on pieces of paper minimizes the time that teachers can spend building relationships with students through authentic conversations. Dittos are one-sided, impersonal and allow for very little student engagement.

Authentic examples of work such as maps made out of clay, longhouses made out of wood or movies created on Animoto are authentic examples of work that students and parents hold onto for a long time. They remain in the memory of a child until adulthood.

Home-School Partnership

When students go home and their parents ask them what they did during the day, they certainly do not say that they did a bunch of really creative and engaging worksheets. Parents who open up their child's book bag and see a pile of corrected and uncorrected dittos day after day become concerned that their children are not being challenged, and most times the worksheets get thrown into the garbage.

The work the child brings home acts as a public relations piece between a school and the home. What work the parents see is the symbol of what work is being done in the classroom. If children are bringing home projects or are completing blog assignments on the internet at home, parents will feel that there children are receiving a quality education. If children are only bringing home dittos, the message to parents is that their children are not being properly educated.

One example, from countless other examples, is one that my third grade teachers do every year. In the spring they have a "Travel Expo" where students choose which country they want to study and they take about a month to research their chosen country. The teachers work closely with our librarian and the students learn how to do research. At the end of the research project our cafeteria is transformed into the Travel Expo and students dress in clothing from their country and bring authentic food.

As I walk from student to student I am always amazed by how much they know about their country. Students stand by their display boards and answer questions about the country's landscape, people, food, clothing and famous destinations. The students take pride in their work and their parents beam when they see their child explaining their country. The whole event ends with the third graders singing some really creative songs that were written by our teachers and taught by our music teacher.

Whole Child
There needs to be a balance between worksheets, technology, inquiry-based, project-based, teacher-centered and student-centered work being done in school and sent home. No matter if a child is gifted or struggling, they are bored after completing a number of worksheets.

During these tough economic times, increased mandates, declining budgets and increased pressure due to testing, we still need to find ways to educate our students and get them career or college ready. There will always be times when we feel as though we manage a classroom rather than inspire it. However, we need to work to make sure that we engage the classroom just as much as we manage behavior.

If we, as educators want parents to support us during these troubling times, we must give them quality instructional practices and engaging educational opportunities to support. We must find a balance between worksheets that make sense, and other types of hands-on inquiry based learning practices.

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Posted by Peter DeWitt at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

"Educators are now used to data being used as a hammer rather than a flashlight." Jonathan Cohen

On Saturday morning I went out to breakfast at a small café near my home in Albany, NY. When I was sitting at the high top table waiting for my order, I overheard two older men talking about bullying. They were probably in their late sixties or early seventies.

One of the guys was talking about a show that he saw that focused on bullying. He said that there was a teenage boy who was small in stature and he spoke to the host about all of the bullying he had endured over the first year of high school. The gentleman telling the story said, "What's wrong with schools that this is allowed to happen?"

Bullying is very complicated and there are numerous reasons why it happens (We're all Responsible for Bullying) and just as many reasons why it will never end and it all ties into social and emotional health. From a school leadership perspective, one of our most important jobs is to create a safe and engaging climate for our students, staff and parents.

One leading organization in the area of school climate is the National School Climate Center (NSCC) which was formerly known as the Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE). The following is an interview with one of NSCC's founders, Dr. Jonathan Cohen.

Interview with Dr. Jonathan Cohen
PD: What is the National School Climate Center?
JC: The National School Climate Center (NSCC) is the world's leading school climate improvement organization. We work with schools, districts, State Departments of Education, foreign educational ministries and the UN Children's Fund to support students, parents/guardians, school personnel and community members learning and working together to promote even safer, more supportive, engaging and helpfully challenging schools that foster school - and life - success. Our vision is that all children will develop the essential social, emotional, civic and intellectual skills to become healthy and productive citizens. Our mission is to understand, assess and improve the climate for learning in schools to help children realize their fullest potential as individuals and as engaged members of society.

PD: How do you assist schools?
JC - The National School Climate Center, with the help of a number of educational and mental health professionals, as well as an extraordinary Board of Trustees and a National School Climate Council has developed policies, school climate measurement systems and improvement strategies and programs that support school leaders preventing drop outs, reducing violence, improving student/teacher interactions, improving the classroom and school building conditions and positive youth development.

PD - What kinds of policies?
JC - In partnership with the National School Climate Council, we have developed National School Climate Standards (http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/standards.php).
These standards are benchmarks that promote effective teaching, learning and comprehensive school improvement. The five standards support each school community addressing three essential questions: (1) What is our vision for an ideal school? Or, when our students, sons and daughters graduate, what are the skills, knowledge and dispositions that we most want our students to know and embody? (2) Given this shared vision, what are the rules and policies that we need to support it? And, (3) given this vision, rules and polices, what are the instructional and school-wide improvement practices that our school needs to focus on to insure that - truly - no children will be left behind? A number of States are now in the process of adopting or adapting these standards.

PD - what is involved with measuring school climate?
JC - We suggest that schools initially use a reliable and valid survey (that can be completed in under 20 minutes) to poll students, parents/guardians, school personnel and ideally, community members about the quality and character of school life. School climate measurements assess four major areas: safety; relationships; teaching and learning; and, the institutional environment.

The Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) that our Center has developed over the last ten years is an example of a scientifically sound survey. The CSCI includes a community scale that supports middle and high school students being leaders learning about what community members feel and to what extent they are willing to actively support the school's improvement plans. And, the CSCI is yoked to a series of web-based portals and resources that support effective administration as well as guidelines to support school communities understanding how to use this data in helpful ways.

School climate measurement can be used as an invaluable social, emotional and civic accountability measure. It can also be used to foster engagement: students, parents/guardians, school personnel and community members learning together about the school strengths and needs and creating a plan - together - to reduce bully/victim/bystander behavior and/or to make learning and teaching more engaging for students and/or whatever goal emerged from the school climate assessment process.

PD - So, is school climate measurement the first step in your work with schools?
JC - School climate improvement is a continuous process of planning, assessment, understanding the school climate finding and action planning, implementation the (instructional and/or systemically informed) action plans; and, beginning the cycle anew.

We have developed an implementation strategy to support schools furthering an effective school climate improvement process. For example, we always support schools planning and preparing for the actual school climate measurement process. Building on the work of James Comer, Tony Bryk, Michael Fullan and many others, we know that it is essential that school leaders take steps to engage all members of the community, and promote professional learning communities that foster more trusting and collaborative problem solving abilities and inclinations amongst the professional staff before measurement.

PD - What else characterizes your implementation strategy?
JC - Our implementation strategies is characterized by a series of suggested roles and responsibilities, formative assessments that support school leaders considering "where are we now?"' and what are "possible next steps"; collaboratively developed plans to build capacity from "day one" of our work together through an on-line School Climate Resource Center (http://scrc.schoolclimate.org/) as well as face-to-face professional developing; and, ongoing action research/professional learning communities.

PD - What are the most common school climate findings that your Center has discovered?
JC - In our work with thousands of schools across America, the single most common findings is that the adults - school personal and parents/guardians - believe that safety is a "mild" to "moderately severe" issue for students. But, students almost always rate this a "severe" problem. The second and third most common findings are that (i) everyone in the community believes that disrespect for diversity is a major problem; and, (ii) educators often report that they believe that they are doing a very good job being intentional and helpful social, emotional and civic teachers. But, parents and students often rate learning in these critical areas as not being intentional and/or helpful.

PD - When you say that safety is a common problem, do you mean bullying?
JC - Yes, bully-victim-bystander behavior is a national epidemic. IN fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that bullying is a national health problem. However, it is important to appreciate that bullying is not simply an individual act of one person (or group) being mean and cruel to another person (or group). Acting in mean, cruel and/or bullying ways is also always a social act: there are virtually always witnesses who act as (active or passive) bystanders or what we call Upstanders: students or adults in act in socially responsible ways.

PD - Do you work with schools to prevent bullying?
JC - Yes. As safety is so often the most important school climate findings, we are often asked to support schools preventing bullying and promoting Upstander behavior.

Too often schools and/or states believe that if we punish the bully and/or institute a new bully prevention curriculum that this will actually be helpful. Our recent national scan of bully prevention laws and educational policies (http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/database.php) shows that too many laws/polices are still focused on identifying and punishing the bully. This does not help.

Effective bully prevention efforts are -- necessary - a long term, comprehensive efforts that needs to be led by the principal and engage all members of the school community to both prevent mean, cruel and bullying behaviors as well as promote social responsibility. We have developed comprehensive school climate improvement strategies that do just this (http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/toolkit.php). Engaging students to be leaders in both raising awareness about bully-victim-bystander behavior and transforming the culture of the school from a 'bystander culture' to a community of Upstanders is one of many important helpful strategies. We have just released the (free) Upstander Alliance Tool Kit to promote student engagement, leadership and service learning in this area: http://www.schoolclimate.org/bullybust/upstander.

PD - Do you think that there is growing interest in school climate.
JC - Yes. This is due to a growing body of empirical research shows positive school climate is associated with and/or predictive of increased academic achievement and student learning, positive youth development, effective risk prevention/health promotion, decreased student dropout rates and increased teacher retention rates. As a result of these findings, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends school climate reform as a data driven strategy that promotes healthy relationships, school connectedness and dropout prevention. An Institute of Education Sciences (IES) practice guide on dropout prevention included recommendations for schools to intentionally address school climate. The U.S Department of Education and the US Secret Service have recommended school climate reform as an evidence based strategy to prevent violence. And, the U.S Department of Education has funded eleven State Departments of Education to develop school climate assessment and improvement systems.

PD: Where do you think schools have a breakdown in that process?

JC: There are several overlapping major challenges to school climate improvement efforts today: current accountability systems; few road maps; and

Public education is being driven by what is now measured: reading, math and science scores as well as rates of physical violence. These current measurement systems are problematic for several reasons: the data is being used as a "hammer" (to punish or praise individuals) and not a 'flashlight'; as important as reading, math and science scores are, they do not recognize the essential social, emotional and civic aspects of learning that, in fact, provide the foundation for school - and life - success. And, the relentless focus on these scores contributes to educators feeling that they do not have time to do almost anything else other than teach to the test.

There is an even larger, systemically informed challenge. As Michael Fullan, David Tucker, Tony Bryk, James Comer and others have been writing about recent, America is now using four 'drives' to positively shape school reform efforts: (1) accountably systems; (2) a focus on the individual teacher or principal; information technology; and, "evidence-based programs".

As important as all of these drivers or goals are, they have never been successfully used as primary drivers of school improving efforts. On the other hand, there is a growing awareness that the countries that have shown the most dramatic and educational significant gains i.e. Norway, Korea, Singapore, Shanghai's, etc.) are using the following four, overlapping drivers as primary 'change agents": (i) engaging everyone in the community - students, parents/guardians, school personnel and community members - to learn and work together to create an even safer, more supportive, engaging and helpfully challenging school; (ii) engaging students and teachers in a meaningful and continuous process of instruction and learning; (iii) supporting educators being able to work together as a more trusting and collaborative problem solving team, or what Jim Comer described almost 30 years ago as 'no fault' framework; and, (iv) insuring that our improvement efforts affect all teachers and students: in other words creating a meaningful community to learners/teachers. School climate reform uses all of these drivers as primary agents of change (End of Interview).

NSCC is an organization that helps schools integrate crucial social and emotional learning with academic instruction. In doing so, they enhance student performance, prevent drop outs, reduce physical violence, bullying, and develop healthy and positively engaged adults.

For more than a decade NSCC has worked together with the entire academic community--teacher, staff, school-based mental health professionals, students and parents--to improve a climate for learning.

NSCC help translate research into practice by establishing meaningful and relevant guidelines, programs and services that support a model for whole school improvement with a focus on school climate.

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Report cards have long been the focal point of the first parent-teacher conference of the school year. In the mind of the teacher, as well as the parent, it always made sense to have the report card sitting front and center as they discussed the academic progress of a child. However, instead of making grading the focus of the conversation, many school districts are making the student the center of attention by having parent teacher conferences without the report card.

Over the past few years some school districts, including the one where I am a principal, are taking a new approach to parent-teacher conferences by leaving the report card out of the conversation. To some educators this may sound like an odd way to approach parent-teacher conferences but there are more benefits than drawbacks.

School districts are trying to focus on student work, portfolios and social emotional issues. Some teachers and principals may find this approach uncomfortable but if they teach in grades 3-8 they still have plenty of other data through the use of pre-tests, post-tests and progress monitoring to discuss if they need numbers to back up their conversation. More importantly, without the report card looming over the conversation, parents and teachers can truly take time to focus on the whole child.

What Do We Discuss?
The parent-teacher conference does not have to focus on the report card. Report cards symbolize grades and successes and failures. When grades are printed on a paper and handed to a parent, the conference takes a shift. As a teacher you may not always want to hand out a paper to students before you give the directions because you understand that the students are paying attention to the paper and not to you. The same issue can happen in a conference.

If a parent sees a bad grade before the teacher has the opportunity to get the conference started, the conference has already begun at a disadvantage. The focal point becomes the bad grades and not the learning that the student is experiencing. We all know that school is about so much more than grades.

At the conference, teachers can have great discussions with parents regarding the self-esteem of the child or their social interactions with peers. In addition they can focus on the reading level of the student or whether the child has great skills in math.

A parent-teacher conference without the report card requires a shift in thinking for parents as well. Most parents attend meetings expecting to see the dreaded report card in the middle of the table. It would be a great time to ask the parent how they think their child is doing in school as well as ask if there are any questions that they need to ask of the teacher.

I realize that not all report cards provide bad news. There is a great deal of good information written on the report card as well. However, most adults focus on the areas of improvement before they focus on any of the strengths. A good conversation about the whole child outweighs any conversation about a report card.

Holding the Report Card Hostage
I once worked with a teacher who would hold report cards and not give them to students if their parents did not attend the parent-teacher conference. Although I understand the importance of discussing a child's academic progress, many times the teacher would have the report card for many months because the parents would not schedule an appointment.

Holding the report card hostage seemed to be more of an issue for the teacher than the parent. The parent didn't really care about getting the report card, which infuriated the teacher even more. I often wonder if the relationship between the teacher and the parent, therefore the student, would have been different if the report card wasn't a part of the conference. Did the parent think they were only going to receive bad news?

How many parent-teacher conferences are the first meetings between a parent and teacher? Sometimes parents cannot attend Open House and take a night off from work so they can attend the parent conference. Does the first meeting have to include the conversation about grades? Does this conversation help or hurt the parent-teacher relationship? How many conferences could focus on the whole child instead of the grades of a child?

In the End
Report cards are clearly important. Our parents kept our report cards for decades and hand them down to us when we reach adulthood. However, how early is too early to focus solely on the report card? Do we, as educators, focus on the report card and discuss low grades too early?

I worry that we give grades to students at a young age which can be very discouraging. A student in first or second grade knows what a 65 on a spelling test means. Does the low grade get them to work harder in pursuit of a higher grade? Or does it make them feel defeated?

Having conferences without report card requires a shift in thinking for educators and administrators but it is a worthwhile pursuit. We should not teach students at a very young age that school is all about report cards and grading. We should teach them it's about learning experiences that help us find our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses.

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Posted by Peter DeWitt at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Recently, New York State test scores were released to the public and showed that students scored lower in the areas of ELA and math than in previous years. The results were quickly announced by the media. Even the national news chimed in to report the devastating results of the high stakes tests.

News stories appeared about how our students are doing worse in reading in math than ever before. The New York State Education Commissioner put out the following statement.

"Student outcomes have been stubbornly flat over time. The Regents reform agenda is designed to change that, by driving long-term gains in student performance. Better tests are only one part of the reform strategy" (SED, 2011).

What if it is not the student outcomes that have been stubbornly flat? What if it is the constant focus on high stakes testing that has remained stubbornly flat? Is it possible that our students really do have 21st century skills, and it is not reflected on the state assessments?

Stubbornly Flat Issue
Truth be told, high stakes testing is not new to New York State. It began in the mid-90's where they were given to fourth and eighth grade students in the areas of ELA and math. Many of our young teachers have never known what it is like to teach without the pressure of the state exam. To many other educators, the days of not using high stakes tests are a distant memory.

In addition to high stakes testing we have been under the watchful eyes of NCLB for well over ten years. Considering NCLB and state testing, hasn't better tests always been the reform strategy? What makes this new reform strategy better than the largest non-partisan reform strategy that came before it?

We have new and improved house cleaning supplies. We also have new and improved cereal, yogurt and drinks. There is new and improved cat and dog food! Is this the marketing version of new and improved testing?

"We're also moving forward in our efforts to ensure better training and better support for the teachers and principals in our schools; to provide more transparent and useful data; and to help our lowest performing schools take the necessary steps to turn around their performance or replace them with innovative alternatives" (SED, 2011).

What are the innovative alternatives? How is this training going to take place? New York State is suffering from major budget cuts in education. All school districts have seen a cut in funding from the state and federal levels, and now a 2% property tax cap is on the way. We also have the new teacher and administrator evaluation that will cost districts astronomical amounts. Who exactly will pay for this new training and better support?

As for "support", evaluation is being tied to a point scale which has many new punitive measures. The training process for districts along with the approved evaluative methods that they need will cost a great deal of money. Who is "supporting" schools as they deal with new mandates with little help (or relief) on the old ones? Throwing new mandates at us while we are still trying to deal with the old ones is pushing us into a corner, which is most likely the ultimate goal.

Maybe we're not doing a bad job after all
All of these discussions and press releases about lower test scores and new support made me start thinking about one simple idea. What if our students are not getting a poor education? What if our students, and the 21st century skills we have taught them in the past decade, make them ill-prepared to take the archaic tests that states are offering?

What if our students have so many 21st century skills that they can no longer do well on a test that was created for them before they were ever born? We always say that we are educating students for jobs that have not been created yet, but we leave out the fact that we are using tests that were made before our present students were ever created.

"Many students think deeply and score well on tests, while many others do neither. But, as a rule, better standardized exam results are more likely to go hand-in-hand with a shallow approach to learning than with deep understanding" (Kohn, 2001).

Our schools are provoking students to think deeper. We always ask inquiry-based questions and have multiple conversations that take a topic and go deeper. Perhaps they look at the multiple choice exams and think that more than one answer is possible because they can read into how each answer might work as a solution.

The tests are not keeping up with our students' level of thinking. "What is true of a student's thinking is also true of a teacher's instruction. A rise in scores may be worse than meaningless: it may actually be reason for concern" (Kohn, 2011).

In the End
Educators have spent so much time thinking that they are not teaching 21st century skills because students are not doing well on state exams, when teaching may not be the issue. Perhaps the state tests are the issue because they are paper and pencil when we teach through the use of inquiry-based and interactive models of teaching.

One innovative solution is to stop spending so much money on testing and put in other areas where there is a great deal of student need. Educators see students who come to school with a lack of sleep, undernourished and unloved.

If we really want to get to the heart of the issue than we need to take the millions of dollars that we spend on testing and put it toward high quality pre-schools, child care, and health care for our students. If we fix some of the social issues (i.e. student homelessness, poverty, nutrition, etc.), then we can truly make an impact on a stubborn problem that has not been fixed. Perhaps a few years without testing and paying major money for evaluative tools will allow us to truly measure how our students are learning and may even allow state education departments to really "support" schools.

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Kohn, Alfie (2001) Fighting the Tests: A Practical Guide to Rescuing Our Schools
PHI DELTA KAPPAN

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Most days, Robert walks into his elementary school with his head down. It's not that he doesn't like his teacher or school, it's just that is how he likes to walk. Students quickly walk past him on the sidewalk and the hallway because he walks so slow. They smile, laugh and talk with one another as they pass him one by one. They're not laughing at him but they're not inviting him into the conversations either.

Robert has a hard time getting his schoolwork in the right place, so his teacher has to remind him where to put his homework and point him in the right direction so he can do his morning work. Every so often he drifts off and occasionally he makes awkward noises. This makes him stick out a bit in third grade because most students are mature enough not to do that, especially when the teacher is talking. Robert, however, cannot help himself.

Over the past few years there have been numerous conversations with Robert's parents. Robert hasn't been invited to anyone's house to play, and he certainly isn't on the guest list for birthday parties either. The school has a policy that students cannot hand out birthday invitations during school unless all students in the class are invited, so most parents look at the parent directory and mail the invitations. Although the boy parties don't usually include girls, they don't include boys like Robert either.

The Great Wide Open
Robert's lack of friends worries his parents and teachers, so they involved him in a friend's group with the school psychologist. The school psych tries his best to pull Robert out for the group when his peers are not around but this is not always easy to do. As much as his peers don't invite him to sit with them during lunch, they know when Robert isn't there either.

Through his group, Robert learned how to get along with others and fit in socially. The school psych gives Robert some suggestions for finding friends and what to do when he plays with them. Robert is always eager to try the suggestions as much as he knows that he will not always be given the opportunity. Unfortunately, the kids who do not speak to Robert do not have to go to a special group and they are not learning strategies to get along with others.

Recess is the worst part of Robert's day and it is the best part of his day as well. It is the worst part because when he goes out to the large field, he is all alone. As much as Robert has teachers to help him negotiate his day, they are not there while he is outside. Sure there is a recess aide, but her job is to make sure students don't hurt each other while they play.

Robert loves recess as much as he hates it because it is the one place where he can float off into his own mind and not get into trouble for daydreaming. As he walks like a shadow from one end of the playground to the other, he imagines he is a pirate, a superhero and sometimes his principal. All of whom seem to have more power than him. When he comes back to reality he hears the ringing of the bell which means that recess is over and it is time to go back to class.

Students Don't Understand
Peers found Robert's behavior odd and they were never sure how to understand him. A few times some students tried to befriend him but Robert would make noises so they would quickly turn away and go back to their comfort zones. They just didn't understand his behavior, although they thought he seemed nice.

Other students were not as kind. Robert was often the punch line of jokes and some of his peers called him names. Even worse, they told other students not to hang out with him which only ostracized him more. The parents didn't really want their children hanging out with him either because they were more concerned about making sure their children hung out with the popular kids.

Besides being disciplined these students were counseled. Many students who always fit in have no idea what it is like not to fit in. They have no idea what it is like to not be invited to a friend's house, and many times their parents are thankful that their child is not considered the "odd" child. Unfortunately, the students who pick on the perceived weaker link need to understand that they are a big part of the problem.

In the End
Ultimately, Robert did find peers to hang out with who were more like him. They enjoyed the same activities and had him over to their house. Although he still has issues with peers, he has more friends at the end of third grade than he did when he entered. Not all students are as lucky as Robert to find like-minded peers.

The reality is that there are many students like Robert who enter our buildings. Our job is to find ways to get them to fit in and highlight their differences instead of making those differences seem like a weakness they should hide. When we take into account the idea of the whole child, part of that initiative is to get students to understand that being different is a gift to cherish and not something to be ashamed of, which is not an easy task.

These students like Robert are the ones who face the highest risk of being bullied. They are an easy target for students and the adults around do not always know how to help because they see the "different" behavior these students may display and do not know how to deal with it either, which is why professional development is important. Adults need to learn how to embrace unique children as much as other children need to learn how to embrace unique children.

Do schools really do enough for these students? Are we helping those students negotiate their way through their day to find success? Are we helping other students who always fit into to social norms understand those students who do not? Regardless of the answer we can always do a better job. When one student feels as though they are not safe or are not valued by educators we are not doing our jobs. We need to find unique ways to help all students feel as though they are an important part of our school culture, which is a lofty goal but one that is certainly worth our time and effort.

• As a school system, participate in events like No Name Calling Week (GLSEN)
• Character education programs are only as good as the adults who support them. A canned program is great but creating a respectful school culture is better.
• Staff needs support in dealing with children who do not fit in. Many times they say, "Go play with someone else." They can't because they do not know how.
• If your child is not fitting in discuss the issue with school staff including the principal.
• As a parent, ask if your child can be recommended to the Child Study Team (CST). The CST involves different stakeholders from the building who will brainstorm ways to help the child fit in with peers. The actual meeting does not involve the child. The teacher meets with the child separately.
• Make sure that the school building fosters a culture of respect for all children, even the ones who are not "popular." This can be done through assemblies, daily conversations with teachers and incorporating high quality children's books that focus on social interactions and differences.
• Children watch the adults around them. If the adults are respectful, children will learn to be respectful.
• Social stories are a way teachers can work one on one with a child who is having an issue. The social story can be found on-line or can be teacher created and they focus on the specific issues that the child is having in school.
• Be proactive, not reactive. If you start to see an issue, don't wait until the issue gets out of control.
• Please offer other suggestions for readers in the comment section.

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Posted by Peter DeWitt at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

We take the mystery out of learning because we have a habit of talking at children and not to them.

As many schools prepare for parent-teacher conferences they should consider involving the students in the process. It sounds like a radical concept to involve the student in the process of discussing their academic progress but it is an approach that many schools use and it has been around for decades. It's called Student-Led Conferences.

For a long time schooling has focused on one to glow on, one to grow on and one to go on. During the conference, teachers tell parents an area of strength, an area of weakness and an area that is improving. If you are a parent, you may feel that conferences are a time when a teacher is telling you what is wrong with your child, which is not the goal of the teacher but some parents walk into a classroom and are instantly transported back to when they were a kid. Parent-teacher conferences can be very intimidating.

I remember the fear of my mom leaving our house to go meet with my teachers when I was in elementary school. I watched out the living room window as she backed down the driveway. I worried that she may never return again or if she did, she would be angry when she walked in the kitchen door. I was fearful because I wasn't sure what she would hear. Was I doing something wrong? Would they only focus on the math tests that I failed? Would the speech teacher attend the meeting and tell my mother that I could not say the R sound? If I lived in Massachusetts my R would sound fine!

The truth is, to a child the idea of their parent meeting with the teacher is a frightening experience. Children still think that teachers and the principal live at school, and they are surprised when they run into us at the mall or the grocery store. So when their parent meets with the teacher, students worry about the conversation because they know it is all about them.

Parent-Teacher Conferences Have Not Changed for Decades
In the past, students were left out of the conference because teachers and parents were trying to watch out for the self-esteem of the child. It was easier to talk about their need of improvement if the child was not present. In addition, it was not considered important to have the child present for the conference.

As adults, we do a very good job of telling children what they need to do differently. We do not always do a good job of asking them what they think they need to do differently. We take the mystery out of learning because we have a habit of talking at children and not to them.

However, there has always been one flaw with leaving the child out of the conference, which is that the child knows what they can and cannot do. Telling a child who can't read well that they cannot read well is something they already know because they listen to their peers read and understand they have a weakness in reading. We can change the names of the groups to reflect happy animals like Lions, Tigers and Bears, but children know that the Bears are the great readers!

One other reason that conferences tend to be the same as they have been for the past few decades is that the teachers are under time constraints. They have one day or maybe one night and a full day to meet with twenty-seven parents. Collecting all of that data that needs to be discussed as well as making sure that the meeting starts and ends on time is stressful.

The key to any successful meeting between parents, children and teachers is time-management and organization. It takes a great deal of proactive work to make sure that everyone is set for a student-led conference.

How Do Student-Led Conferences Work?
Preparing for student-led conferences really begins at the beginning of the school year. As the quarter or trimester goes on, students begin collecting their favorite pieces of work and add them to a portfolio. More technologically advanced schools may incorporate on-line portfolios instead of hard copies in folders.

Great writing assignments, art projects, or anything that focuses on the strength of a child can be added to a portfolio to be used during a student-led conference. Depending on the age, children need to know what makes a good addition to their portfolio because they may want to add everything they do, which would be overwhelming.

As the conference time approaches the teacher spends time with the class discussing what the best pieces would be to include in their portfolios. Students decorate their portfolio and add a table of contents so that everyone who views the portfolio knows what is in it.

During the conference time the teacher usually sets up a 30 to 40 minute conference with the parents. The first 15 to 20 minutes of the conference is between the child and their parent. Parents sit in a designated spot with their child and they are lead through the portfolio. This is an important time for parents to have questions for their children and be fully engaged in the process. When parents can't attend or do not show up for the conference, perhaps another teacher (librarian, reading teacher, music teacher, etc.) or the principal can meet with the child during a non-conference day to go through the portfolio.

After the parent and child work through the portfolio the teacher meets with the child and parent. The teacher may discuss the portfolio and talk with the parent about the work that was good as well as areas where the child can improve. The purpose of the conference is to provide children with a full picture of how they are doing in class. It helps to build maturity with the student as well as give them an opportunity to discuss their own learning.

Student-led conferences need to be done in an age-appropriate way. K-2 students could choose the work that is included in their portfolios but might not be able to lead a conference with their parents. Students in third grade and above are certainly capable of leading their parents through a conference.

In the End
In order to properly engage students in their own learning we must allow them the opportunity to be a part of the conference between a teacher and parent. Allowing them to choose their own pieces for a portfolio adds to the concept that the child is the center of the learning process.

As students get older they are at risk to become less engaged in school and student-led conferences allows them to be fully engaged in the process. It also helps parents communicate better with their children, and perhaps can even help parents feel more engaged in their child's academic progress as well.

Student-led conferences may be something that teachers cannot do presently because of time-constraints but they could consider doing it in the future. It would make for a great goal for a spring conference or the next school year. The time devoted to student-led conferences is time well spent.

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Pierce-Picciotto, Linda. (1996) Student-Led Parent Conferences. Scholastic. New York.

Posted by Peter DeWitt at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend