Why is Collaboration Almost Non-Existent?

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Monday I had another wonderful opportunity to conduct professional development at Central Michigan University on Informative writing as suggested by the Common Core Curriculum. I was very impressed how the conference was set-up and the number of people from all over the state of Michigan that attended. There were even administrators present.

As my writing project partner and I were giving our presentation we had several questions surrounding informative writing and the Common Core. We discussed with our audience about the unique opportunity we have as educators when it comes to the Common Core. What we were echoing from our director Troy Hicks is how we, as teachers and school districts, can decide how to assess students based on the Common Core. If teachers don’t look closely at the Common Core and make these type of decisions, they could be made for us from the powers up on high. The biggest idea we preached was collaboration with colleagues about creating units and assessments and implementing 21st century tools such as Google docs, cell phones, Glogster, etc. and making sure those assessments and tools that teachers choose to use tie back into the standards.

One question we had was from a teacher who virtually was on an island by herself in high school. She taught language arts for grades 9-12. She wanted to know how she was going to be able to collaborate with other colleagues when she was the the only high school L.A. teacher. Other teachers talked about how they didn’t gave any collaboration time at her school and she wanted to know how to get that time. We even had a principal say he was going to go back to his school and figure out how to develop time for his teachers to collaborate on the Common Core.

To answer the 9-12 teacher’s question along with the other teachers, we simply encouraged her to collaborate with the middle school staff and the elementary staff within her district. We even told her to email or call other teachers in surrounding districts.

What I have been absolutely amazed by all week is how many districts were not collaborating. And not just on the Common Core either, in general it was appearing teachers weren’t collaborating on much at all? Why is this? After talking with teachers this past Monday, I feel spoiled about how much time is available to me and my staff to meet. Not only do we have common planning time in my middle school, but we also have something called “early release” district wide. This is where once a month we meet as departments and discuss what is going on in our classrooms, textbook selection, teaching strategies, etc. Most of the time it is just building wide, but on occasion we meet district wide K-12. Recently our principal implemented meeting times in different areas such as literacy and transition. These meetings are also conducted once a month. Again, I feel more fortunate then most districts because it appears they aren’t getting the same opportunities.

Even if you aren’t in a district where you should be collaborating, the bottom line is you need to be, especially when it comes to the Common Core. Schools will be required to start assessing students in 2014 and if these conversations are not taking place, it is going to be more difficult to implement the Common Core Standards.

What can you do? If you are a teacher, start by talking to your administrator and your colleagues. Discuss a time you can all discuss the CC. Yes, this may mean you have to sacrifice time after school, particularly if you don’t have a common planning time. Second, attend professional development on the national standards. Educate yourself and become the “expert” your school district may need. Finally, email, call, or Skype with teachers and professionals in other districts to help you get off on the right foot. After all, teachers teaching teachers is powerful and everyone involved can benefit. For the most part, we are all in this together and we need to be willing to work together. It is exciting to think of all of the creative and amazing assessments that can come out of the the new standards laid before us!

Cheers!

Middle of the Road and Self Reflection

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With the weather outside finally looking frightful, I figured I could do more good writing my blog than spending time outside like I have the last couple of days.

Today was very interesting in a number of different ways. I can’t tell you how much I have been really enjoying our staff meetings this year that are led by our principal. He truly is trying to think outside of the box and make changes in a positive direction. His leadership is excellent and I always feel really good when I leave our meetings.

Today, we first discussed the idea of “tracking” students. What this would mean for our school district is students would be put into classes based on abilities. For instance, higher achieving students would be placed in one class and the lower achieving students would be placed in another class. Though we didn’t place a concrete definition of “low achieving”, the conversation revolved around students who were C, D, and F students. Furthermore, the low achieving students tend to be more chatty, and have difficulty turning in their homework. During the conversation, the term “middle of the road” students reoccured. With the idea of tracking being discussed, curriculum itself would stay the same. However, the higher achieving students would be able to move at a faster pace and essentially do extra “work”. Now, if you think about the lower achieving students, they still need to meet the same standards set by the curriculum. If these lower achieving students are supposed to meet the same standards how are they going to achieve this feat if they are not moving fast and we are tracking them in a lower level class. My counselor put it best when she said we pay so much attention to the lower achieving students and and on occasion we will help higher achieving students reach new heights, but what about the students who are in the “middle of the road” who are not doing well with the curriculum or meeting our expectations? Too me, this is a great question. In reality we need to think about how we approach these two group of students. As my brain was soaking all of this in, I wanted to say we need to stop being selfish and realize we all need to make changes with the way we teach and approach the students. If we open our minds to new ideas, we may have an impact on more of the student population.

The second part of our meeting was about teacher evaluations. The state of Michigan is supposed to have an evaluation piece in place in April. This evaluation piece will let school districts know how teachers are supposed to be evaluated by an administrator. Our principal today shared how he will do non-formal evaluations and it was very intriguing. He found an application for his Ipad and it looks like a very informative assessment tool. I really like what my principal said about having evaluations done. He told us that evaluations are tools for us to help us be better teachers. They are not tools in which to ridicule our teaching style. We need to be able to handle constructive criticism and be able to change things about our teaching to help the students. These past few weeks I have been considering ways I can improve my own teaching. I know I am not reaching every student and I know I need to work on being better organized in certain areas. Furthermore, I need to look at different ways to assess certain standards in the curriculum. I think we need to self evaluate ourselves to be successful in addition to our more formal evaluations. We need to be willing to change what doesn’t work in our classroom. I sense big changes coming for me second semester as I evaluate myself and I sense some heated discussions that will lead to making more of our students reach success.

Cheers!

Public Education Versus Parochial Education

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I hope all went well with everyone during Christmas. I know it was an incredible year for my family and myself. As with any family functions, there are always lots of topics being discussed around the plethora of food and drink that engulfs our homes.

A topic that arose from my family this past Christmas was parochial education. I have two nieces that attend catholic school, my wife still has a niece in catholic school, my mother-in-law was a principal at a parochial school for numerous years until her retirement, my sister-in-law teaches at a parochial school now, and to be very honest my wife and I are still discussing whether to have our children attend catholic school. Now, I am a teacher at a public school and am an advocate for public schools. Throughout the discussion, there were some very valid points brought up. My sister and brother-in-law don’t regret sending my nieces to parochial school. Standardized test scores are well above the public schools where my nieces live. Technology is used, though they only have computers once a week, which still proves to me the teacher is still the most important tool in the classroom. Where my sister-in-law teaches they have smart boards and a Mac lab for students.

Going back to the standardized test scores mentioned earlier, the teachers must be doing something right. In parochial schools religion is taught along side the normal state mandated curriculum. So, to me it seems the teachers do have a bit more on their plate curriculum wise compared to public school teachers. Okay, I can hear the grumbles now from public school teachers. I understand we have a lot to do too. I am not saying the teachers at parochial schools are better. I strongly believe there are exceptional teachers in schools everywhere. I think a big factor is the class size a parochial school teacher has compared to a regular public school. When you are working with 10-15 students compared to 20-30, that has a huge impact on more one on one time available for each student.

Besides curriculum, other issues were discussed. For example, the cost of attending parochial school and the hours a parent is asked to volunteer. To me, I feel parents are asked to volunteer no matter what school your child attends. In addition to cost, where is my child going to be safer? Are children bullied less at a parochial school? Do I need to worry about the problems the catholic church has had in the past with children? Some would say I am comparing apples to apples. I will leave that up for my readers to decide.

Realistically, in the few catholic schools I am comparing to public school, I am not sure what is better. I feel I am in a unique situation because I am not only a parent, but a public school teacher who needs to make a decision on where to send my child. At this point, I just want my children to have the best education possible. Next fall, my child is scheduled to attend a school where the teacher to student ratio is higher that 1:25. I am not sure that is the best place for my child.

These are just a few things to ponder, not a blog post to cause an uproar. Making the choice on where to send your child for a great education can be difficult and should never be decided quickly. The choice shouldn’t be made based on wanting your child to be a status symbol. An individual is not “better” than his classmate because he attended a parochial school. I know I will continue to research the topic and see what is best for my children.

Cheers!

Book Project for Christmas Break

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Friday was the kick off for my students to begin their Christmas vacation book project. This is the first year I have had any of my students do the project while on a break. To begin, my students have to choose a book that is at least 100 pages long and the book can not be related to a movie in anyway. In addition, I ask the students to not read something they have not already read. At the conclusion of their reading they must choose to do 1 of 2 projects. They need to either make a 6 sided three-demential cube or create a glog on glogster.com. The three-demential cube is related to a math unit they covered in their math class dealing with surface area and three-demential shapes. The choice of the glog comes from the technology standard that comes out of the CCSS. Overall, my main goal of the project is for my students to be engaged with reading on their own and for them to explore some new genres. Furthermore, my requirements the students are meeting for the project are covering some of the reading standards for the Common Core. For example, tying theme or the central idea to the characters, setting and plot. Also, I don’t want my students being bored with a traditional book report. If you are attending the Michigan Reading Association(MRA) conference in March, I will presenting some student examples in my session.

So, to get them ready for this project, I have taken the 7th and 8th graders down to the library and the book fair for the past two weeks and I have had some interesting conversations with my students and I have witnessed some miraculous transformation with my students. As always I received a few grumbles and groans about the project. Little did my students know, most of them would be engaged in a book outside of class. I am orally reading The Hunger Games by Susanne Collins with my students and we are just about finished. My students are begging me more and more each day to keep reading. With the book project, I have several students reading the second book in the series and I am seeing students read in the hallway. These are 7th and 8th graders I am talking about. It has been amazing. The math teacher approached me last week and said she was having great conversations with students about books and what they are reading. She has enjoyed it. I think she has even had to get after kids for reading in her class.

Just the other day I had several boys ask me if they could read Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. I said sure why not. I am in full support of graphic novels. Nevertheless, they were really surprised by my response to their answer. I clarified to them I am pleased they are taking an interest in reading something. Hell, I remember growing up spending hours in my local library reading Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side.

After the boys and I talked, I approached a young man who was struggling with finding a book. I asked him his interests and after discovering he liked the outdoors and hunting, I pointed him to the author Gary Paulson and a book by a different author called Touching Spirit Bear. Great author and great book. After he made his decision, he was asking me about what the big deal was about reading. He was struggling with why people talk about books and form book clubs. I asked him if he felt left out. He responded by saying he could never understand what they were talking about. I worked this conversation to the fullest and told him it isn’t so much fun feeling like you don’t belong or know what people are talking about. He is definitely one of the popular kids and he never did respond, but I think he got the point of what I was saying.

The final thing I noticed was how much my students opened up and responded to me when I actually did take a vested interest in them and asked them about books they have read and what they they like to read. I have been forming more solid relationships with my students all because of reading. Who says reading isn’t powerful? I beg to differ and I can’t wait to see what kind of work my students produce over Christmas break.

Cheers!

Tech or No Tech

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Yesterday we had a staff meeting and to be very honest, I felt it was our most productive staff meeting we have had thus far. I am blessed with some pretty remarkable colleagues. For the past two months there has been some major issues with the technology in our building. A majority of the complaining was justified, especially when teachers couldn’t access their grade books to input grades or show students reports. My principal, who is an amazing administrator, advocates repeatedly for us, and has our backs. Today our school counselor sat us down and discussed with us how we need to stop being so dependent upon technology. She referred to a bit that was on Nightly News with Brian Williams broadcasted Wednesday, November 30th. It discussed a school that thrives on Not using technology in the classroom and throughout the whole school. Now, this was a hard pill for me to swallow because I love using technology. Another colleague and myself were just given the green light to look at smart boards and I am excited. On the other hand, as I watched this video clip and listened to what my counselor had to say, I decided I needed to make some immediate changes in my classroom and how I was instructing my students and what I was truly using technology for in my classroom. Our counselor gave us a message, and that was to remember we are the experts in our classroom, not the computers we are so desperately wanting to work. She talked about how technology should be an extension of our teaching, not let the technology do our job. Yes, this makes sense to me, I am not going to argue the point she is trying to make. I am guilty of whining and trying to spend 20 minutes getting my computer to work (now I have one that is pretty close to brand new). In addition to her discussing how technology needs to be extension of our learning, she also talked about how if we focus too much on trying to rely on technology, we lose touch with our students and the valuable relationships that need to be built with our students. Again, it makes sense, I hear the message loud and clear.

Now, the message may be loud and clear, but I love using the online tools that are available and I am not an educator that “relies” on technology to make my lesson plans, but I want my students to get with the 21st century. It is hard to believe, but I do have students who don’t have a computer or the internet at home. Is it not going to be essential for my students to be able to work with computers? Ummm, of course it is, a lot of jobs are revolving more and more around computers. I also know my students have a great deal of difficulty with problem solving skills. Could their lack of problem solving skills be due to the fact they have a lot of information right at their fingertips? Nevertheless, I won’t completely change my philosophy on using technology in the classroom, but I know I want to do a better job of reaching out to students who are hungry for an adult to have a relationship. I need to spend more time having in depth conversations and giving my students the necessary skills they need that a computer or any other piece of technology can’t give them. So, I encourage all of my fellow teacher friends to use technology to enhance your learning and not replace it. Furthermore, try and reach out to your students and build a valuable relationship with them and let them know they have someone they can trust.

Cheers!

Grammar, My How You Perplex Me

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So it has been a few days since any real thoughts came across my brain concerning my teaching or my classroom. Besides being really bummed about not attending NCTE this year, I have been critically thinking about grammar and how to teach it with meaning in the classroom. Grammar and how it should be taught has been an ongoing discussion in our monthly department meetings. Last Spring we took action and ordered Jeff Anderson’s Mechanically Inclined. Over the summer we met and had our own book club with our department. Anderson’s book is written really well and if you haven’t heard him speak, you need to make it your first choice the next conference you attend where he is speaking. I love his sentence strip activity, the idea of bringing mentor text into the classroom to show students how writers use appropriate grammar in their writing, and how he has students set up their writers notebook. My favorite idea is AAAWWUBBIS. The idea behind this bizarre but adequate saying is to help students remember subordinating conjunctions and for students to have a way to remember different ways a complex sentence can be formed. There are many other ways Anderson explains how grammar can be taught efficiently in the classroom. I really liked the fact he said that students will show you what they need to work on. I agree with this and I also think that students need a certain amount of practice too. With the Common Core being implemented this year into my district it is pretty well spelled out what needs to be taught at each grade level when it comes to grammar. It isn’t set in stone, but it is much more definitive than what our State curriculum presented to us in the past.

However an English teacher looks at it, there probably isn’t a magic method to teach grammar. I use some methods introduced in Anderson’s book and I try other strategies that I have picked up in the past. Regardless of what I do, or what anyone does, I think it truly does depend on the group of students you have from year to year. I love my students this year; both my 7th and 8th graders. They have made it easy to try new teaching methods in my classroom. One of my 8th graders today said, “Mr.Hyler, this is the first time this year you have given us a worksheet!” I smiled and replied, “Yes, and I am sorry.” Believe it or not, it was a grammar exercise. Though I don’t pride myself on delivering worksheets to my students and I never will, it was necessary for them to have some practice today to make sure they were brushed up in their skills.

I believe grammar will continue to perplex even the most brilliant language arts teacher and I also believe we will continue to not only develop new ways to teach grammars in our classrooms, but we also revisit some old methods as well. After all, I taught my students to diagram sentences last year and I know one our high school teachers did the same earlier this year.

Cheers!

Finding A Male Mentor; Is it Possible?

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Fifteen years ago I decided to become a teacher and I have never regretted my decision. A majority of my decision was based on wanting to be a mentor to students and athletes who do not have a positive male role model in their lives. Today male mentors are becoming more increasingly difficult to find. I have had my fair share of positive male role models in my life. Besides my father, I can distinctly remember both my grandfathers, a handful of teachers I had, and my high school basketball coach. On the other hand, I could also discuss a few male role models in my life that were complete dirt bags and were hypocrites. I won’t waste my time discussing them here.

With all negativity aside and tomorrow being Veteran’s Day, I want to tell you about a mentor in my life that is exceptional. He is my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law is a former Marine who served in Desert Storm. Besides wanting to extend a big THANK YOU! to him for serving our country, I thought discussing why he is such a great mentor would be be more appropriate and meaningful.

My brother-in-law is one of the most unselfish people I have met. He is always willing to open his home to other people and not just family. He sets time aside for his family before himself. In addition, he is willing to help out someone in need, even if the job may seem too big. I witnessed him working 3 jobs because he felt it was his duty to support his family. He is a reader, which never hurts when it comes to his own children and other children he comes into contact with, including my own. His work ethic is without a doubt superior! He works very hard at whatever he is trying to accomplish. One of the most important aspects about my brother-in-law is that he listens. He always has an open ear and is willing to give a different perspective on situations. Sometimes, that one quality is all someone needs.

I want to thank my brother-in-law for serving our country and making sacrifices for me while I could sleep better at night. Thank you for being a great family member and always wanting to sped time with my children and my family. I love you!

Quality male mentors are difficult to find, but they are out there. Perhaps if you are a male, you can take a minute to just listen to a student, or player. Most of the time boys need to learn how to handle themselves emotionally as well, and that can be very tough without another male role model in their life that can show them.

Colby Sharp discusses in his blog http://sharpread.wordpress.com/ about how there are increasingly less and less male protagonists that are STRONG male protagonists. Is this the trend we are going to see? Check out his blog!

To all of you positive male mentors out there, thank you!

Cheers!

Being Productive

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Today’s 8th grade class was rather interesting. I began class by reading orally to them and then we did our writing into the day. I don’t have a lot of rules for my students when we do writing into the day. First, they must write the entire time. Second, I tell them they need to not worry about spelling, grammar, etc. Third, they can write about anything and not just the given topic for the day. Finally, they need to ignore the critic in their heads. My 8th graders generally write for 7-10 minutes per day. We then take time to share our writing. We share many different ways in class. Some days students just stay in their seats and share. Other days, we get into a circle on the floor and share. In addition, I sometimes have students share with two or three other students.

My focus for the first 9 weeks was to try and build a community of writers where students can trust one another when it comes to their writing. Today, something told me it must be working. After the students were given the allotted time to write, I decided to let the students just share from their seats. I figured since it was Monday the students wouldn’t be too motivated to share. After all, the topic was about experiences with public transportation. In both of my 8th grade sections we spent about 20 minutes sharing our writing. Yes, I write with my students too. Some teachers grade papers, I write with my students. My intentions for each class period was to simply take no more than five to seven minutes to share, not take 20 minutes. Let me tell you, it was worth it. I loved hearing the student’s tone in their writing and seeing their genuine excitement to share out loud. Furthermore, the gasps of disappointment when I didn’t call on a student first or right away. This did not leave me with a lot of time to discuss our next formal writing assignment. As a matter of fact, we got as far as discussing topics for the compare/contrast paper and that was it.

Most teachers or individuals would see my class time as being unproductive and what I did a waste of class time. I, however, feel it was one of my most successful class periods yet. Why? My students engaged themselves when it came to writing today and they were confident enough to share their writing with their classmates. They were excited about their writing. Productivity doesn’t have to be measured in quantity, but rather in the quality. Here’s to a productive day in anyone’s classroom!

Cheers!

Follow me on twitter @Jeremybballer

Your Not That Talented and it’s Okay

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While my car was getting an oil change at the Volkswagon Dealership this evening, I was reading about the generation of students we are teaching today and was enlightened by what I read. First, I read about a young man who had a bedroom full of trophies from all the sports teams he had participated on. The trophies weren’t for all the championships he had won or any scoring records that he broke. They were trophies for just participating. The author explained how this child and a lot of children today don’t understand there has to be winners and there has to be losers. Furthermore, the author discussed how we as teachers, parents, and coaches are afraid to tell the children we interact with they may not be that talented at a sport they play or that they may need to work extra hard at math because they aren’t that great at it. If we give students this false sense of confidence and help lend them to believe they can do anything, we are setting them up for failure.

We want kids to be confident and that isn’t a bad thing. However, we can’t paint a picture of false hope. My experience as a coach has brought me to the conclusion that parents don’t want a coach telling their son or daughter that they suck. I have let players know in the past what their role was going to be and these players may not have liked me for saying it, but I guarantee I received more respect from those players in the long run because I was honest with them.

Recently I had parent-teacher conferences and I took a very up front approach with parents and told them, when needed, their child needed to work extra hard at working in my classroom. At times, I had to tell parents their child wasn’t going to be a great writer and they needed to spend more time finding something they liked to read.

On another note, why can’t we tell students there may be a certain number of them not cut out for college? Not everyone is wired to go to college. There are plenty of success stories about Individuals who did not attend a 4 year college.

My point and the author’s point is we need to stop sugar coating everything for today’s students and we can’t be afraid to tell students they aren’t good at something whether it is a sport or a subject in school. It is okay not to be good at something. I can’t balance a check book to save my soul and my wife doesn’t have me do and tell me I am the next billionaire. She doesn’t let me touch the ledger in the checkbook.

Cheers!

E-normously Big Technology Woes

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Technology has become such a huge component in my classroom. Students have already contributed to the Wikispace I created for my classes, they have learned about Celly, Edmodo, and Google Docs. Throughout the year they will be creating an e-portfolio. The amazing thing, we still have one week left in the marking period. My hopes are to introduce them to Glogster, Toondoo, kidblog, as well as many other digital tools.

I am running into some snags in my school however when it comes to using technology. How does a 21st century teacher supposed to work with with 20th century technology. I am not going to beat around the bush, I am frustrated on a daily basis. My middle schoolers are using E-macs. Seriously? Students in the graduating class of 2001 were using those machines. Our projectors look like giant VCRs from the 1980s. By no means is our school made of money, but how can we make the claim as a district we integrate technology into our student’s learning when we don’t even have somewhat up-to-date technology. Let me make it clear that I am not bashing my district, I love where I teach.

This year we implemented power school a new online grade book and attendance program. It takes at least 5 minutes to get the grade book to load onto our machines. I have a colleague that hasn’t been able to get into his grade book all marking period. Now, my principal is well aware of the problem. As a matter of fact, him, another colleague, and myself are working together to get mobile labs, smart boards, elmos, and new projectors into our classrooms. I have already completed a grant, requested money from a major corporation, and we are exploring other avenues. The last thing we want to do is coordinate a fundraiser.

Plain and simple, we are struggling. In addition to our problems in the middle school, I know there are teachers in the high school who are struggling with tech issues as well. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get our school the 21st century tools it needs for our students to be better learners. If anyone knows of any possible avenues we could explore, feel free to tweet me @Jeremybballer or email me at almaballer@gmail.com.

Cheers!