My comment to: “Make Way For Awe” on NBC’s Education Nation:

Your description, I’m guessing, takes place in a school that is not “at risk” and/or “inner city.” I teach in a very “at risk” elementary school where students in 6th grade don’t know the difference between a lake and the ocean – WHY? because their curriculum has been narrowed to only math and literacy. The scene described above would fill them with wonder and start to open their eyes to what is really out there beyond the confines of their neighborhood and a curriculum devoid of those things that spark imagination. Many of us try to explain why that narowed approach does not achieve the desired outcome for many because part of reading is having the schema, the reference to understand what is, and what is happening.

Enter the “reformers” most of whom have very little to no experience in education, but do have either fame, fortune or are in politics. I hope unwittingly, but I’m afraid not, they spread their uninformed opinions, like they have the holy grail of education in their hands just because they are successful. Anyone that tries to express an alternate view is quickly labelled a whiner or a member of the status quo society. The real truth is that these reformers are the status quo. They push a reform vision that is really a return to education 100 years ago. “Sit up straight! Listen! Show you are paying attention! Ask questions when appropriate!” But don’t learn how to learn … only learn to be taught … to be reliant on the purveyor of knowledge behind the curtain … I mean in the front of the room. Don’t use 21st century tools, the old tools were good enough for us, they are good enough for you. Teachers and students are not the experts – listen to us and relegate them to a pat on the head and a little encouragement.

Yes this trip to the stars would be great for my students. I might even take them there. But don’t tell Bill Gates or Brian Williams or the others that get to form our opinion of schools by having the most voice, they might not let me. Their kids wouldn’t be subjected to this pathetic, anti-septic curriculum … but they get to feel good that they are helping “those kids” by subjecting them to it.

Let’s allow ALL our children to look to the stars this way! They will all thank you later.

An old acquaintance showed up on local TV this week. Well, more than just an acquaintance really. They played a clip from our well known video and the rest of the story comes full circle. As a cancer surviver in complete remission, Celest now helps others with cancer. Watch the clip, she is one great kid. Sorry – you do have to watch a short ad.

I left the following comment on Oprah’s FaceBook page:

Oprah: I’m thrilled to hear that you are planning a follow-up show to today’s about education. We all knew you wouldn’t have a show about education and not include actual educators – teachers, parents and students that might have a different take on things to discuss the issues facing schools and our students. You are well known to do shows like today’s where you show only one narrow side, in this case, voiced by wealthy people with little to mostly no experience in education between them other than, um … that … well they are wealthy. We are all very pleased that this next show will feature award winning teachers from all over the country to share their successes and concerns and, well, even the failures. And I’m sure you will include students and parents too. What a great way to allow people to hear the issues from people who are dedicated to America’s children and have made this their calling. I understand you don’t have an exact date for the show yet but your staff is working on it so it will be easily contrasted to today’s show. Someone suggested that they heard it might even be a 2 part show that will span 2 days in order to really do justice to this crucial topic. That’s great!

Oprah, thanks again so much for your insight and passion in allowing your viewers a chance to really learn ALL about this important issue facing our country. Please feel free to contact me if I can help your producers make contact with insightful and articulate educators, parents and students to participate in your follow-up show about education in America.

Thank you again for your support!

I’m sure Oprah would be very happy to hear from others about her upcoming follow-up show! (wink-wink)

Learning is messy!

So it is the start of the school year and perhaps you have just started your trek into this new pedagogy, this new network of learners. I think it is kind of like that first step into the lake to swim. BUT, at least you stepped in:

OK, so the water looked a little intimidating. But you got your feet in and you can tell the temperature is going to make this a slow process before you are fully immersed (although there will be those that decide, “What the heck!” and jump right in). You also know you want to get all the way in and swim around like those that jumped right in, or those like you that got there earlier and already made it through the slower little by little immersion process you just started. Just know that you will get in, and you will end up swimming around like everyone else … and once you make it in and get more and more used to it, you are so glad you are fully immersed and able to fully participate with everyone.

That is what this PLN process will be like. You have great people, supportive people to help you and give you encouragement to keep going.

Here was the response I received today from NBC. I have removed the name of the person that sent it (No it wasn’t straight from Brian Williams):

Hi Brian,

Thank you for reaching out to Education Nation-we appreciate your interest in the event and improving education in our country. The Education Nation team is working very hard to make sure that teachers, students, and parents are represented at the summit. As you already know, MSNBC will be airing a live Teacher Town Hall on Sunday, September 26th where teachers will be able to express their views and opinions in a teacher-only environment. We have chosen to air the Teacher Town hall on Sunday, instead of a weekday, so that real teachers can watch and participate. Note that this is one of only a few events that NBC will be airing live and in its entirety. In addition to the teacher voice, we are working hard to include students and parents in the summit. There will be an entire panel dedicated to discussing the importance of parents and the community in improving our education systems.

We will continue to work hard to involve these very important voices at Education Nation. We hope you will tune in to NBC News to watch the summit, stop by and visit the Learning Plaza if you are in the area, and check out EducationNation.com to learn more about the summit and get involved in the online discussions happening there. Thanks again for getting in touch!

NBC News Education Nation

Dear NBC News and Brian Williams:

I see NBC News is providing a broadcast forum called “Education Nation.” NBC is billing it as: “Education Nation is a nationally broadcast, in-depth conversation about improving education in America.” As I look over the list of, “confirmed participating speakers” I see finance people, mayors, various other politicians, news people like yourself, business people, union representatives, current and former US Education Secretaries (none of whom were teachers), sponsors that paid money to get a seat at the table, and other “experts.” What I am not seeing represented in this “In depth conversation,” are teachers and students and parents.

I know, I know, you are having a “Teacher Townhall” where teachers can apply and might be chosen if their “…one major change that you think could help to transform education in America,” happens to be chosen. Mr. Williams, can we see the application the “experts” had to fill out to get their much more prominent voice? What questions did they have to answer to “get” to be part of the conversation? Why isn’t there a teacher, and student, and parent group that will have more than one question or opinion or voice “if” they are lucky enough to be chosen?

Do you see any irony in the fact that none of the “experts” (speakers) are teachers, students or parents? (Much less many of them?) Could that be part of the problem in American education that “sponsors”, corporations, news people, administrators and others have a prominent voice in education, but all the REAL stakeholders are, “thrown a bone” so that they can participate if they are lucky to be chosen based on their “application” so they can talk during a show at noon on Sunday during football and baseball playoff season? Gee thanks.

And understand that teachers, parents and students actually have differing and well thought out positions on what education could and should be, so to just have a few representatives from each of those stakeholders isn’t good enough. If this is really meant to be an “… in-depth conversation about improving education in America,” give real voice to those that should be MOST prominent in this discussion. Otherwise frankly, it is of little real value. Mainly only those that always have voice because of their wealth and connections will be major parts of this important conversation.

I would be happy to provide you names and contact information of quality participants for your discussion.

Thank you,

Brian Crosby, Teacher

Scott McLeod asked me to contribute (he didn’t offer cash as I recall) to his, “What do teachers need from administrators?” week of posts. His blog is much more widely read than mine, so don’t miss it there or you might miss the comments left there. Here is the post:

Hi, my Name is Brian Crosby. Scott has asked me to kick off his week long series, “What do teachers need from administrators?” You can learn about me on the “About”  page on my blog, Learning Is Messy, and about my students here.

The short version is that I have taught for about 30 years. I currently teach in a very “at risk” elementary school – almost 100% free lunch and almost 90% second language learners. I usually “roll” a class for 3 years. I get them as 4^th graders and keep them through 6^th grade. Poverty causes a high rate of turnover, so I usually end with a little more than half of the students I started with after 3 years. Some years I have 20 or more changes in my classroom. I have the only 1:1 elementary laptop classroom in a school district of 63,000 students. My state (Nevada) funds education 50^th in the country.

I’m not going to pull any punches on this topic, and because it is focused on what teachers need from administrators, I’m sticking to that. Just know that administrators need plenty from teachers too, so don’t take what I share here as dumping this all in administrators’ laps. They need our support and guidance as much as we need their’ s.  Remember I teach elementary, so my feedback will be shaded by my experience.

I’m pointing my post at all school administrators not just principals. What do teachers need from administrators?

– Give us, and advocate for us, more time to plan.  Effective teaching requires, more than ever, effective planning. I would love to have as much as 2 weeks (not including a day or two to set up my classroom) at the beginning of the school year.  Time to plan as a staff, unit (for example – upper elementary grades), grade level and self. I know this costs money … might be some of the best money spent.

– It’s the 21st century – let’s go there with our schools! If a teacher from 100 years ago, or even 50 could pretty much move right in, that’s not good. Would that work in medicine or business?

– Teachers should have the most say in the professional development they receive – some of that 2 weeks time at the beginning of the year could be PD teachers planned to help drive their teaching and their plan for the year.

– We are glad you get to attend conferences during the summer. Don’t make us adopt, adapt and integrate the great thing you saw or heard about there at the beginning of each school year. We don’t get enough planning time as it is – see above (in my school district we get 1 day and have to set up our room too), it usually just adds to the stress and have you noticed they are usually a bust.

– “Research Based” does not necessarily mean good, or right for our situation, great, effective, or proven over time.

– There are many, many powerful, important, effective, innovative, sometimes transformative pedagogies that are NOT research based. Maybe we should try some of them too.

– “Not everything that can be counted (tested) counts, and not everything that counts can be counted (tested).” – Einstein
Please, please, please – remember that when you are making decisions that narrow the curriculum for our neediest students (or any students). And yes, I know you’ve seen that quote before.

– Changing course constantly is very bad. Teachers that are constantly put in a position of dealing with changing rules, curriculums, programs, principals, other colleagues, your pet project from your summer conference  (and the assistant supes too), “We have dealt with the new reading adoption for a year and I see us struggling with it. And so even though we were told (as we always are) that we need 2 or more years to adjust and make this new program work, lets change things up some – oh, and remember this year we ALSO have a new science adoption to start-up,” – “Oh and our writing scores dropped some so we are going to try this new writing approach …” – “Now let’s go out there and be the best dang teachers and school ever! – BTW please have your discipline plan, school improvement plan (sorry, the school district requires that), and back to school night plan to me before you leave today.”

– Don’t tell us that teachers are “the salt of the earth” and that we are the best darn teachers and staff that was ever assembled, and then explain to us all the “top-down” decisions we have to implement that we have little to NO real voice in. We, mostly, have master’s degrees, years of experience and current experience (you, as an administrator, don’t have current full time classroom experience). Let us use ours – trust us and hold us accountable for that. Hold us accountable for our planning, lesson design, creativity (and the results of that planning time you are advocating for).

– You can’t hold us accountable for student learning by making us use a program – and use it strictly – if we really follow the program. How come we never blame the textbook/program companies that “promised” 5% or 10% 0r 20% or more percent increases in student test scores if we followed their program (that we paid big $ for) ????? Do you ever mention that?

– Are the tests (assessments) we give students to decide if they have learned what they are supposed to learn actually good, valid tests? Do we REALLY know if a student passes them (or not) they are a good or poor student? If you are not sure – please speak up.

– Don’t have meetings or set-up committees or trainings unless they are a REALLY valuable, powerful use of teachers’ time.

– This is harsh, but – If you have been an administrator for more years than you taught full-time in an actual classroom, you are probably disconnected from what it is like to be a teacher. If you taught for less than 4 or 5 years … sorry, but you probably don’t know what it is like to be a full-time classroom teacher (there are exceptions).

– This might be the most important – Be open to creativity and innovation. No, BEG for creativity and innovation from your teachers and students. Then support what obviously works, and ask for changes and tweaks to what doesn’t. Then hold us accountable. (But remember the planning time!)

– Please help teachers have voice, and ask us to help you have voice. There is too much education bashing going on, partly because we tend to take it and don’t push back. Our kids pay the price (and it isn’t fun for any of us either).

Lastly, where are the great examples of what works, what is awesome that happens in your schools with your teachers and students and parents!? Do you have some examples to share? Then shout out about them in every way you can think of!!  Right now only others that have a different agenda seem to have a voice so they are the only ones being heard. Where are your “Working, breathing, reproducible, intriguing models!?” Tell the world about them – better, have your teachers and students and parents tell about them.

OK, I actually have more, but I’ve challenged you enough, and there are more educators this week to challenge you more. Remember, I was asked to share. Thanks for your time,
Thanks Scott!

Brian Crosby

Learning is messy!

I’m about to begin my 29th or 30th year as a teacher (I’ve lost count), and I’m pleased to say that I’m raring to go. There are just so many exciting possibilities. Having said that, I also see many barriers that continue to muck things up. I decided to look back at posts I’d written at, or near the beginning of the school year. This post comes from 2006, (You might want to check out Doug Noon’s comment on the original) and I couldn’t believe how much of it still pertains to today. I also had to fight off the urge to edit some of my usage and wording … I can tell that mostly my writing has improved … at least in part because I’ve been writing and also reading with more of a writers eye I think – I’m not saying I’m a good writer,  just that I can tell I’m doing better when I have the time and not posting on the run. Oh, it’s my 30th year teaching I just realized. Hope you find this interesting being 4 years old (and the links still work too … amazing! : )

Before about 8 years ago some of us recognized that a student raised in poverty (both of money and/or spirit) or in an environment of fear and upheaval was probably just not going to be focused on school, and would very often be a negative, distracted, distractive member of the classroom. I was lucky enough to teach at a school that had an underlying theme of dealing with these kids in a way that would hopefully lead them to realize it was their situation – not themselves that was bad, and realizing the rest of us were not like the people that had “messed them up“ we were not the ones to take it out on. (“We” being students and staff.)

Teachers and administrtors saw that they got counseling of one form or another, made sure they knew the rules and norms of behavior AND we took the time in our classrooms to have class meetings and teach lessons on how to treat one another and discuss issues and point out why some kids acted the way they did and role played how to deal with different situations etc. We had some major successes  – note these successes were not about test scores directly (but indirectly to the max), they were about changing peoples lives for the better. The time we took to do this was even partially “made-up” because overall student behavior was better, so there was less class time taken up by disruptions – it was more than worth it – and you felt like you were really helping to make a difference.

Many of our most troubled students were now able to focus enough to begin to learn the academics they had missed while they were beating themselves up inside (and some of us on the outside). Realize the really, really troubled students had missed (and still do) not just most of the curriculum (since preschool) that they were supposed to be learning, but also how to do school at all. They were much more ready to learn these things now, but it takes a long time to retrieve 5 or 6 or more years of school you missed – missed because you were there in class in body, but not in mind or spirit. That’s a ton to catch-up on. Not just the reading, writing and math, but the when to sharpen your pencil, and how to borrow something, or be a member of a group, etc. etc. etc. (One of the rubs with NCLB is that these kids that are just now able “to do school” – their test scores are taken as a failure because they are not at grade level – they don’t look at improvement, if they grow at least a year in a year that should be adequate growth – I feel schools that turn these kids around should be given an award not basically reprimanded for helping kids and families)

One of the pieces of fallout from the testing craze has been the time to do this kind of work with children. And because its not a focus, many teachers now have little experience working with kids in this way – “the non-conformist students just screw up the test scores” that’s how they are seen too often because we don’t have the time or resources to deal with them positively. It just takes too much time.

Remember this?:

All I Really Need To Know I learned In Kindergarten – Robert Fulghum 1986

Share everything.
Play Fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon …

Do they still have time to teach this in kindergarten?

Doug Noon over at Borderland writes:

When we looked at the test scores of our students, I noticed that all of my below-proficient-scoring students had histories of domestic abuse. I raised my hand and asked, “Will the administration allow us to include Domestic Abuse as a demographic category?” because it seemed like a significant variable. The whole staff was silent. My principal waited a moment for the question to sink in and diplomatically replied, “No.” The meeting continued.

How many of us are “using data to drive instruction” these days? I see some hands up out there. I propose we add some categories to the data so that we get a truer picture of ALL the remediation we might need to apply: Poverty level, parents’ educational level, home situation(s), number of times a student has moved during their school career, nutrition, health – you get the idea.

Stephanie at Change Agency chimed in on Doug’s post with this:

If we are to achieve the stated goal of leaving no child behind, then the effort has to become a community-wide goal that involves everyone – and simply analyzing test scores to death is not the solution.

I am optimistic overall that we might be starting to see the light and realize that relying so much on testing, and therefore reading and math only instruction might not be the way to make a difference for our students. (2010 update – Boy was I wrong here!) My current principal seems to really, really get this – this is one of the reasons I am so looking forward to this, my 26th year teaching.

Doug supports my optimism by pointing us to an article in the New York Times – It Takes More Than Schools to Close Achievement Gap – By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, Published: August 9, 2006

Check it out – it brings hope!
Learning is messy!

– This post is actually a comment I left on the “Taking Note” blog. The author, John Merrow wrote about his support of the LA Times plan to publish student test scores as a way to “out” teachers:

Face it. They did this story because it was mostly easy to do … the data was already there, there are always people available to interpret the data and draw conclusions, and the conclusions drawn had shock value, made great headlines, and drew national and probably international attention. Most people don’t understand test results, issues schools deal with, the difficulties with evaluating “good teaching,” and more. Our journalists and press have abandoned us – they do what is easy and shocking because it is cost effective and won’t ruffle too many feathers. Let’s do some deep stories on the other issues that hold back students, teachers, administrators, schools and education in general. What are the other big issues? How about all these large textbook companies that continually promise huge test score gains if their series is purchased for millions of dollars. Are they part of the problem? Is societies reluctance to change a model of school that is over a century old because change is hard part of the problem?

We have decided that education issues are easy when they are not. So instead of investing in finding the best answers we can, we rely on assessments that everyone agrees are poor at best (but they’re what we have), and because dealing with issues like poverty, indifference, language, teacher effectiveness and more are hard, very hard, we develop an education plan that attempts to step around them. President Kennedy, when he spoke about going to the Moon, talked about doing so because it was hard. Look what breakthroughs came from the work and research that went into that endeavor – in computer science, science in general, nutrition, health, materials and so much more. We have the money … those billions of dollars that are earmarked for a very flawed and narrow RTTT.

Let’s re-purpose some of that money to do the R&D necessary to REALLY make a difference. Let’s fund many approaches instead of mainly KIPP clones when no one associated with KIPP will send their own kids to the schools they advocate. What breakthroughs in pedagogy, health, psychology, family/parent involvement, art, math, reading, science and so much more will we discover? They would be exciting times that just might rival the space race. What implications might that have for the rest of the world too?

Do we need to find and deal with the poor teachers in our ranks? Yes! Do we need to make our schools the best they can be for now and our future instead of just making another tweak of a 100 year old + model for schools that we hang onto because it is what we know and change is hard? Hell yes! So let’s do that instead of wasting time on bandaid, easy approaches.

Learning is messy!