Super Scoop

Clutter

Parenting magazines, teaching journals, and scholarly articles all agree, “mess causes stress,” yet many wear their clutter like a badge of courage.  The number of piles correlate to how busy we are and the amount of disorganization to how hard we work.

A recent Facebook post from Parenting Isn’t Easy [available online at https://parentingisnteasy.co/messy-home-anxiety/] provides tips for getting cluttered homes under control and cites an article from Psychology Today by Sherrie Bourg Carter Psy.D. [March, 2012] that explains why clutter and disorganization increases stress. According to Dr. Carter, extra stimuli from clutter causes our minds to work overtime, distracts us, makes it difficult to relax, causes anxiety and guilt, inhibits creativity and productivity, and frustrates us by making it difficult to locate what we need.   

Can the same be said about classroom clutter?  Apparently so, and I’m not the first to write about it.  19,700 hits result from a Google search for “classroom clutter.”  There are Pinterest boards on the topic, websites, YouTube videos, and products designed to reduce the problem of clutter.  

There are also urban legends among teachers who believe that community members will criticize schools and individual teachers who throw anything out that was purchased with taxpayer money.  Stories about members of the community dumpster diving to find items of value among the garbage lead some to believe that nothing should be thrown away. Junk piles up in classroom closets and supply rooms, taking up valuable storage space.

In a former district in which I worked, a library task force set out to improve district libraries.  Their first task was to cull old books from library shelves. The entire school community – students, teachers, and parents alike – marveled at the improvements to the library environment before any money was spent.  Books that were removed were outdated, age-inappropriate, raggedy, and culturally insensitive. At a primary school serving grades PK-2, the section on sports heroes included books on Babe Didrikson, Pete Rose, and Wilt Chamberlain. A book about the future was titled, “2010.”  A book about George Washington Carver was subtitled, “negro scientist.” One book of poems included the following, about a prostitute:

Some suggested that we should dispose of the old books in the dark of night.  Really?

Believing that our community understands the value of clutter-free classrooms and updated instructional materials, we will be clearing out closets and classrooms of old and outdated materials before the end of the school year.  We now have a clear policy about school properties disposition (https://policies.smithfield-ps.org/home/dn) and for most classroom clutter, the value of what may be disposed doesn’t meet the criteria for this formal process.   Administrators can answer any questions teachers may have about what can be thrown away without documentation. For some items, including old books, we divert materials from landfills by donating items to Kiducation and other sources.

So begins OPERATION CLEAN!  

My Favorite Teachers

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, a week-long opportunity to recognize teachers and their contributions to our community and the lives of our students. Here in Smithfield, our School Committee will recognize Smithfield’s Teacher of the Year (name to be announced Monday evening) at the School Committee meeting and administrators, parents and students will show appreciation to all our teachers in a variety of ways throughout the week.

In addition to expressing my gratitude to the teachers that serve our students, I want to take the time to reflect on the teachers that have made a difference in my life.  These individuals didn’t simply teach a certain subject; they shaped my interests and the direction I would later take in my career.

I went to Classical High School, in Providence. The school continues to have a great reputation. Although teaching quality varied from classroom to classroom, students had to pass a test to enroll at Classical and were generally attentive students. In many ways, the students made the school what it was. I had some good teachers and not-so-good teachers. I sometimes learned quite a bit in classrooms of teachers that I didn’t like so much but I both learned quite a bit and was inspired by teachers I thought were great. Of all those great teachers, Mr. Paradis stood apart.

Mr. Paradis taught math and, yes, I did like math but what made his class heads above the rest was his attention to learning. When students weren’t getting it, Mr. Paradis tried something new. He didn’t simply plow through content. He could have done that and many teachers did. Classical students knew that if they didn’t succeed, they would be sent to another city high school and most didn’t want to do that so they taught themselves, if need be. There weren’t consequences for teachers when significant numbers of students failed because they actually expected failure. “Look to your left and look to your right,” the principal said at the opening assembly, “one of those two people will leave Classical at some point before graduation.” (This may be quite different, now that we’re in the 21st century!)

Mr. Paridis made us explain our thinking as we worked through problems, not because it was expected on the state test (there weren’t any state tests) but because in doing so we deepened our understanding and provided feedback that he used to decide what to challenge us with next. He identified math as one of my strengths and his acknowledgement of that strength gave me confidence to take more difficult math classes, both in high school and college.

I went on to Rhode Island College and majored in chemistry, due in no small part to three great teachers I had there: Dr. Charles Marzacco, Dr. Jim Magyar, and Dr. Elaine Magyar. I had gone to RI College initially hoping to become a special education teacher, specializing in teaching the deaf and even learning sign language. When I took college chemistry, I was hooked. All three of these professors loved their subject, planned instruction, used formative assessments as feedback to adjust the pace of the course, and made personal connections to students. While I had inspiring and smart teachers at Brown in graduate school, none could compare to these three educator-scientists.

As an administrator, my primary responsibility is to create conditions, including environment, resources, and training, to help each and every teacher become for each and every student what Mr. Paradis, Dr. Marzacco, Dr. Magyar, and Dr. Magyar were to me. Anything less is simply not good enough.

Assessments FOR Learning

With state assessments underway, it’s important to step back and reflect upon the purpose and focus of the assessments we ask students to take throughout the year.  While I don’t prescribe to the simple “take-it or leave-it” debate over standardized testing, I do believe that we need to apply such testing and testing results in a responsible, balanced manner.

Individuals on both sides of the debate share some basic tenets, including:

• The purpose of education is to not simply to prepare students for college and career but to also prepare them for purposeful lives that contribute to society.
• Instructional and curricular decisions should be in the hands of educators.
• Education should be developmentally appropriate.

Another idea that is not well understood by the general populace is that standardized tests must, by design, measure what can be easily measured, rather than what is most important.  That being said, there’s also significant value in assessments, since their content is correlated to other important academic skills and, when used as part of a number of measures of school success, can help a school district monitor ongoing efforts at improvement.

Standardized assessments are also not limited to a school setting, since the licensure or employment in many occupations rely upon tests.  Just prior to taking a position in Smithfield I had to take a standardized exam to renew my Rhode Island superintendent license. This month I’m attending the National Advisory Committee (NAC) meeting for the School Superintendent Assessment for the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to assist ETS in reviewing a draft copy of the new test framework to determine the knowledge and skills that are important for a beginning district-level administrator.

While many standardized assessments serve to rate or qualify test takers, there’s been a philosophical swing in recent years in the educational community that has shifted the purpose of assessments from assessment of learning to assessment for learning.  Richard Stiggins has been writing about assessment for over 20 years, arguing that to improve student achievement we must pay more attention to classroom assessments and the use of such assessments for instructional decision-making.  Over fifteen years ago Stiggins, in an article in Kappan (2002, PDK), warned us of the increasingly inappropriate focus on standardized testing at the expense of quality classroom assessments.

When assessments, such as the RICAS tests, are used for judging schools, efforts are focused on ensuring that the standardized assessments are valid and reliable.  It takes months for such tests to be processed and by the time teachers get access to their students’ results, the students have moved to the next grade. Moreover, when some students do not take the assessment, school and district results are skewed, often negatively.  Assessments results are important measures of school improvement efforts only when used together with other measures and when scrutinized for both validity and reliability.

Classroom assessments, though not standardized from school to school or teacher to teacher, can be used to make instructional decisions to improve student learning since they can be quick, in the moment, and focused on concepts recently taught.  We call assessments used for making instructional decisions “formative” while assessments used for final judgments about student learning “summative. As Stake (2004) puts it, “when the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative, when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative.”  Despite their value, however, states are putting little efforts into improving teachers’ assessment practices that improve student learning since much of the time and resources are spent on designing assessment systems for use on everything BUT student learning.

While parents in Rhode Island are thoroughly familiar with the use of standardized tests to judge schools, we additionally are putting our efforts into designing assessments that are used to judge teachers.  For most eductors, the Rhode Island Evaluation System requires the use of Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) as a measure of teacher effectiveness. To be sure, no one can argue that results matter; well-designed lessons and good instructional approaches are not enough.  If the students of one 2nd grade teacher all improve in reading fluency and comprehension while few of another teacher’s students meet their learning goals, the first teacher is most likely more effective than the second.  

When you think of the many types of teachers making up a school system – from primary school teachers to art teachers to chemistry teachers – you realize that there’s  no one measure that can be used for all. An essential question becomes, how do you ensure fairness among different teachers? Additionally, since SLOs are educator-determined by district,” the next question is: how do you ensure fairness among all 39 Rhode Island municipalities?

So that you don’t think I’m not open to a rigorous evaluation system, I firmly believe that more frequent observations and feedback resulting from a well developed evaluation system are essential for continual improvement.  Additionally, this type of work results in engaging dialogue about instruction within a school. My criticism stems from the effort required to develop SLOs that are both useful for instructional decision-making as well as appropriate for judging the effectiveness of educators.  To develop common assessments focused exclusively on student learning is, itself, difficult enough, but to also develop such assessments with an eye toward using them for teacher evaluation adds another layer of difficulty. Using assessments for teacher evaluation means that we must focus more on reliability, validity, and standardization, than on usefulness for student learning.

That being said, our goal is to ensure that the focus in Smithfield is on using assessments for instructional improvements and to gauge student learning.  If we can focus on developing SLOs and all assessments that will add value to our students’ learning, our efforts will be fruitful.  Our success, as well, can be measured if each educator in Smithfield feels that the use of an SLO for their evaluation is fair and that they find their use valuable to their growth as teachers.  When we administer state assessments, we also are obligated to use them responsibly, along with other measures, to gauge individual student progress and student improvement efforts. We hope, additionally, that parents will find the use of these same assessments, along with other measures, provides information that allows them to monitor their own child’s growth as well as the school’s progress.

Stake, R. cited in Earl, L. 2004. Assessment as learning: Using classroom achievement to maximize student learning.  Experts in Assessment. Corwin Press Inc. Thousand Oaks, CA.

Stiggins, R. 2002. Assessment crisis: The absence of assessment for learning. Phi Delta Kappa. Available online:  http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0206sti.htm.

Learning Personally and Professionally

Thanks to the generosity of Kati Machtley, 10 SHS students and 3 adults were able to attend the 2018 Women’s Summit at Bryant University.  The Summit is designed to inspire participants, “personally and professionally” through sessions focused on innovative thinking, communication, finance, diversity, entrepreneurship, and health.  It is a privilege to attend, since year after year, the Summit sells out within 8 or so hours. Appreciative of that privilege, I will share my learning in a variety of ways, starting now.

In the opening keynote, Jennifer Hyman, the co-founder of Rent the Runway, described the evolution of her billion dollar company, from conception to execution.  Participants learned about entrepreneurship as well as about the disruption, a radical change, in the way we are living and consuming products. The movement from ownership to access has transformed every industry on Earth in a relatively short time.  From taxis to Spotify, Blockbuster to Netflix, telephone to Instagram, hotel to Airbnb, we do everything quite differently than we did 20 years ago. Certain cultural movements, including urbanization and social media ubiquity, have established a rental disposition whereas ownership had previously been of high importance.

Other key ideas introduced by Jennifer include:

• In the development of Rent the Runway, the idea contributed 1% while execution contributed 99%.
• Helping young people discover their passions is essential because that is where they will be great.
• Only 4% of venture capital monies is given to women and more money is needed for success.  If success is secured for a homogeneous group, what drives our society are homogeneous ideas.
• Hiring for culture is more important than hiring for skills.

Several workshop options were provided for both the morning and the afternoon.  I attended “The Art of Cultivating Lasting Professional Relationships” with Kim Miles.  Much of the content, although already known, reminded me about the importance of teaching high school students basics of business etiquette.  Handshakes, networking, listening, and follow-through are important in any career. What I found most helpful was Kim’s recipe for a successful follow through.  After meeting individuals who may be important partners for future work, we sometimes neglect to follow-through. A note including the connection point, acknowledgement of a common interest, a specific ask, and a “give” is crucial for ensuring a next step.

The plenary speaker was Jodi Urquhart, the author of All Work and No Say… Ho Hum, Another Day, discussed techniques for fostering professional satisfaction among employees in a humorous way (consider this line: I recently met a couple in the airport that had no children.  What they did have was money.).

Other key ideas introduced by Jodi include:

• Humor makes you 40% more productive.
• We learn to ignore our own voice and focus instead on what other people think.
• Technology gives us options.  If you don’t like your job, your house, your spouse… go online! [can be both good and bad]
• When in survival mode, people stay self-focused, rather than else-focused.
• We need to make it a goal to have as much fun as we can while at work.
• Every time you laugh or smile you increase endorphins to the brain.
• When we lift each other we all rise.

The luncheon speaker, Nely Galan, a “media mogul,” producer, and former contestant of The Apprentice, reminded everyone that “fierceness is cultivated” and that we can all think entrepreneurially.  Making fear and failure your best friends and and “doing it anyway” when faced with fear leads to success — most of the time.

Additionally, she contends that true empowerment requires a financial base.  There is no Prince Charming, no magic bullet. Rather than buying shoes, women (or men for that matter) should be buying buildings.

For an afternoon workshop, I attended “The Power of Style” with Jill Marinelli, a personal stylist.  In addition to discussing dressing for success, she introduced the idea of “decision fatigue” whereby the 35,000 or so decisions we make per day lead us to poorer and poorer decisions.  Eliminating the mundane decisions by eating the same breakfast and lunch each day or by wearing somewhat of a uniform helps to put the energy into more important decisions.

While I had previously understood that what you wear affects people’s judgment about you, I hadn’t thought that an outfit might affect your actual performance.  In a study she shared with us, individuals who were given a lab coat, an article of clothing associated with attentiveness, performed better on tasks requiring attentiveness than a control group.  Moreover, when one group wore a lab coat that was described as a doctor’s coat and another group wore a lab coat described as a painter’s coat, the former group performed better on cognitive tasks than the latter group.  Thus, the idea of “enclothed cognition” was born — your performance is affected by both the symbolic meaning of the clothes and the experience of wearing them.

Brigid Schulte, the closing keynote speaker, is the founding director of the Good Life Initiative and a former Washington Post reporter.  She is the author of Overwhelmed:  How to Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time.  She reminded us of the Aristotle quote, “the end of labor is to gain leisure.” Our modern life, however, includes contaminated time when one can be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  Busyness has become a status symbol or a badge of honor to the point that we have to create it. The richest lives, however, make time for work, love and life.

Some may think, what does all this have to do with being a superintendent?  Quality professional learning, spending time listening to people who make us think deeper, focusing on self-development, all result in inspiration that affects our performance at work.  For me, I came out of the Summit thinking about:

• Applying entreupeneourship our efforts to improve the athletic facilities at SHS by investigating alternative funding sources, remembering to follow-up with potential partners.
• Encouraging a focus on basic business etiquette for all CTE programs.
• Cleaning out my closet of clothes that do not represent who I am or what I want to be.
• Developing ways to bring the fun into work for our employees.
• When confronted with fear, doing it anyway.
• Applying the art of polite persistence to all that I do.
• When networking, spending 90% of time listening and only 10% talking.
• Hiring for culture, rather than for skills.
• Balancing work, love, life.

And, most importantly, I will remember that our job as educators is to help our students discover their passions because that is where they will be great.

In Kendra’s Shadow

In so many professional journals, articles on the disengagement of high school students, most often attributed to the teacher-centered, depersonalized, outdated, standardized, and downright boring instructional practices of American teachers has become so typical as to be cliche.  What the day must feel like to these poor victims of our educational system can only be imagined. Rather than leaving it to the imagination, I decided to experience it myself spending the day shadowing Kendra, a 10th grade student at Smithfield High School. I hope you can get a glimpse of the day as well to make your own judgment about the high school experience here in Smithfield.

The day began in English 10, Kendra’s favorite class.  After a quick whip around the class to share current events, the period began with some students reciting their poetry and students sharing their thoughts about their peer’s work.  Students showed their appreciation by snapping their fingers – a tradition at poetry readings, which a little Internet research revealed began in the 1950s in Greenwich Village where Beatniks gathered to read their own poetry. [http://youarecurrent.com/2012/05/14/applause-for-poetry-its-a-snap/]  A solitary poem about the companionship of a dog stood out among poems of love found and love lost.  Everyone had a good laugh when, after the heartfelt canine poem, the teacher asked if he was writing about his own dog and he replied that he didn’t have a dog!  

In addition to poetry, students were reading an independent book from the banned book list.  Kendra was reading The Color Purple.  Students were also finishing Haroun and the Sea of Stories and would be discussing the book tomorrow.  Ms.Carty scanned the room for input on the choice of a large group Socratic seminar or small group book talks for tomorrow’s discussion.  

During the last third of the period, students had independent reading time so I picked up a copy of the novel and began reading. Who couldn’t be drawn in by a story set in Alifbay, “a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name.  It stood by a mournful sea full of glumfish, which were so miserable to eat that they made people belch with melancholy even though the skies were blue.”

Today, in academic advisory, students did course selections for next year.  Lots of choices! Courses in computing, architectural design, and engineering were not available in high school in the 20th century.  

Advisory was extended to 9:18 but Kendra was done by 8:40, giving her more time for finishing her reading for English tomorrow.  Teachers and parents had previously signed off on chosen courses so, for some, the task involved simply registering online. Other students needed more guidance.  One student commented, “I’m so confused. Why did we need teacher’s signatures if we just put our courses on the computer?” suggesting, perhaps, that trust wasn’t something taken for granted or that recommendations, indicated by a signed form, were more than simply that — recommendations –decisions made with students, not for students.  

Next, we proceeded to the science wing.  Mr. Brochu’s biology class had recently taken an assessment and essays were not meeting his expectations. Today, students paired up to work through the prompt together.  Their task was to create a diagram and explain the processes of photosynthesis and respiration. Students talked through the details of the Calvin cycle during photosynthesis, creating a diagram to show the steps.  Mr. Brochu collected papers to compare how students did alone vs. with a partner.

Nutrition was the focus of health class where students reviewed their food logs noting what changes they might make for a more nutritious diet.  Ms. Correnti discussed each of the major food groups then talked about common fad diets. She asked students to use their phones or Chromebooks to identify which exercises burn the most calories per hour.  

Admittedly, I was looking forward to math class, as I enjoy testing out my math memory.  Although determining whether or not triangles are congruent and determining the sizes of angles and sides of triangles and rectangles aren’t skills practiced regularly, it’s really all about ratio and proportion – the most commonly applied skill in chemistry, a subject I taught for many years, and in life; students who don’t grasp these concepts are challenged in many applications of mathematics.  The class began with a warm-up using Quizizz, an online quiz forum that tracks answers for every individual in the class.

Meatball subs were on the menu today for lunch but I opted for the buffalo chicken sandwich with fries.  It was surprisingly good! After lunch, it was back to math class where students were assigned to one of three groups and worked on problems at a station then rotated to another station.   In the third station, Mr. Stone snipped out SAT problems that have to do with the current unit. Problems were presented in a novel way so the class flew by. I got a chuckle from a student who was befuddled by my efforts to work through all the problems.  “Why are you doing problems when you don’t have to?” he questioned. I thought about how challenging it is to instill a love for learning in each and every student for each and every subject. Compliance is the least of what we should be aiming for in schools.

In engineering design, the last class of the day, students used Solidworks, a 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) program, to re-create a shape.  The task was on the test that had recently taken but they were challenged to do it again with the least number of steps.  There was definitely a different part of the brain being exercised! Again, the class period, along with the entire school day, was over before I knew it.

I briefly felt a little envious about the students who streamed out of the school building as I had an afternoon meeting then a School Committee meeting at 7pm but then I remembered that Kendra still had track practice, rehearsals for Fiddler on the Roof, and some homework to complete before school reconvened in the morning.

Here’s my thoughts on the day…

Teacher-centered?    Not at all.  A well-planned math lesson actually minimized the role of the teacher during the lesson and focused instead on the students.

Depersonalized? Far from it.  Students in English chose their independent reading novel as well as the topic for their poetry.

Outdated? Just the opposite.  New techniques are integrated into instruction each year.  The use of Chromebooks, Google Classroom, Quizizz, SolidWorks, poetry readings, Socratic seminars, and new course choices are components of a modern, educational system.  

Standardized? Not quite.  Though based on standards, class periods are varied.

Boring? No way!   Though perhaps not always entertaining, the opportunities to talk to peers, the variation in lessons, and the use of technology kept me, and from what I observed, most of the students, interested.  

Teaching is a complex function that demands continual improvements and some lessons observed were technically better structured than others BUT… relationships among all teachers and students were strong.  Teachers had heart – something no amount of professional development can instill. I hope you share my conclusion that Smithfield students are far from disengaged and Smithfield teachers are far from boring.  

Thanks Kendra and all the SHS teachers who had one extra student this week.

School Safety, Relative Risk, and Sleeping Giants

As an environmental studies major, I learned much about relative risk.  Environmental issues cannot be solved completely but, instead, risks can be minimized for the benefit of the greater population.  When RI jewelry companies were required to reduce the metal content of their water waste, a hazardous sludge was generated and required disposal in special landfills.  The risk of exposure, for both wildlife and people, was reduced, even though the waste material remained. Laws governing a variety of environmental concerns has reduced, yet not eliminated, our overall exposure to contaminants.

Likewise, there is no one law or practice that keeps us safe when we get in a car and drive out onto our nation’s roadways.  We are required to pass a test, reach a certain age, use safe vehicles, and adhere to a myriad of laws governing the use of motor vehicles.  When a new law is proposed, no one argues that it won’t keep us 100% safe; of course it won’t!  Every effort, however, contributes to our overall safety that, data shows, has been increasing steadily since the 1960’s.  The Center for Disease Control hails motor vehicle safety as “A 20th Century Health Achievement” (see  https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4818a1.htm).

We need a variety of approaches, as well, to achieve the same improvements in safety related to gun violence.  School districts, including Smithfield, have created safety plans, devising steps to be taken for a variety of threats.  We have practiced drills, including A.L.I.C.E. (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evaculate) training, which prepares participants for active shooter events and empowers them to make their own life-saving decisions. We employ a school safety officer – a trained member of the Smithfield Police Department.  Most importantly, we work to create a school culture where every student is known well by at least one adult in the building and where mental health issues can be addressed and treated.

This is not enough.

We need laws related to background checks before gun purchases.  Laws prohibiting semi-automatics are also needed.  While automatic rifles are illegal, one can make a semi-automatic rifle automatic with a few simple tools.  We need a minimum age for purchasing a gun and rules for keeping guns secured.  We need a comprehensive approach toward mental health.  None of these steps, themselves, will stop gun violence but, taken together, they will reduce our risk for experiencing a tragic event involving a gun.

To achieve any of this, we need politicians who devise laws in the best interest of our nation’s most precious resource — our children.  The second amendment is not an excuse (please read it!).  People who want guns can still have them but under definied conditions, so that risk is reduced.   A donation from the NRA is not an excuse.  The fact that the particular law will not solve 100% of the problem is not an excuse.

I call upon the adults in our community to demand change.  If we can’t or won’t do that, I have confidence that our children will do it for us.  When I heard the impassioned speeches from the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland I thought, The sleeping giant has awoken.

50 Years Later: A Modern Struggle for Civil Rights

Each January, we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights activist who is known for his use of nonviolent methods in addressing racial inequality.  When we talk to school children about his work, it’s a good thing that these children, born 40 years after his death, can’t imagine that people of color had different bathrooms, couldn’t sit at the front of the bus, or went to different schools.  We’ve come far.

Some may argue that a holiday in mid-January is not needed; the weather is never good enough to take advantage of the time away from work and between snow days and the December holiday, it’s hard to get any traction for learning.  I don’t think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a holiday.  Instead, it’s a time for reflection on race and equality.  

While we have come far, each year, at this time, the news includes some topic relevant to race and discrimination.  Just last year, headlines included a proposed registration of Muslim citizens.  Some may think that we need not worry about such rhetoric. We have the Constitution and Bill of Rights as protectants of religious freedom and basic rights, but these documents were mostly in place in the 1960’s as well and racial equality was still a hard won fight that some may argue is not yet won.  As American citizens, all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, have a duty to safeguard these American ideals.  

This year, the press is responding to remarks made by our president, Donald Trump.  While not all present at the meeting agree on exactly what was said, there has been a consistent approach from the president that values white and Christian countries and peoples above those of color and those practicing the Muslim faith.  Putting politics aside, such rhetoric should be condemned by both Democrats and Republicans alike.  In a report from the Today Show just yesterday (Ken Bufa, available online at www.nbcwashington.com), worshipers at a Sunday service at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church “called the president’s remarks racist and divisive” and plan to “pray for his soul and our country in a national call to conscience.”  

Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a prominent civil rights leader, was interviewed multiple times over the weekend to remark on the President’s statements.  He repeatedly reminds us to study the words and actions of Martin Luther King, Jr., who espoused all of America’s people “as one people.”  Labeling someone as “racist,” he explains, is not helpful since it assumes the person cannot change with education.

Most discrimination, as well as bullying, stems from a lack of knowledge. Schools have an important role in educating our youth about other genders, religions and countries so that they are less likely to exhibit sexist, discriminatory or ethnocentric behavior.  

I close with two important quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr., which I hope will awaken a call for action to safeguard our American ideals and to ensure our schools are bully-free, not simply by punishing the bully but through education, for it is through ignorance that the bully is empowered.  

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

 

 

 

 

 

Who’s Doing the Intellectual Work?

Because I visit classrooms often, I can focus on different things each time, hoping to better understand the needs of the students and teachers I serve.  Often, I go in with a simple question, such as, Who is doing the intellectual work?  

While I value teachers’ thinking, I don’t want to see them doing all the thinking and students idly standing by, perhaps answering a random question or two.  Classrooms where students do the intellectual work have structures in place to make this so.  For example, when a teacher uses a method to randomly choose a child to answer a question, all students need to be on their toes because they don’t know when they will be called upon.  Writing students names on Popsicle sticks and pulling out a random stick after a question is asked is a low-tech method for randomizing student responses while there are many online random student generators that can be used as well.  

Teachers can also employ both low-tech and higher-tech methods to have all students answer the question at once, rather than calling on an individual at a time.  Students could write responses on individual white boards to share concurrently or they could type their answer into a program, such as Kahoot!  

When reading articles in class, there are lesson structures that can be used to actively involve every student.  A favorite of mine is a reciprocal questioning method sometimes referred to as “ReQuest,” or “reciprocal questioning.” ReQuest requires that students interact with text while building their skills to generate good questions about their reading.  Teachers can also help students understand the difference between simple, informational questions and questions that require analysis or evaluation.  What I love most about this structure is its simplicity; there’s little prep work (teachers work hard enough!).

There are many versions of ReQuest but I’ll share a version that worked well for me.  At the start of the lesson, it’s important for teachers to explain to students all the steps of ReQuest because the students who are more reticent to answer questions will quickly realize that it’s to their advantage to volunteer questions during the first part of the process.  Here’s how it works:

Both the students and the teacher silently read the same portion of the text. The length of this portion varies by age and with text density but generally, 2-3 paragraphs at a stretch is sufficient.  After everyone has read the passage, students have an opportunity to ask questions about the reading. These questions may be questions the student has about the reading or questions that are designed to “stump” the teacher.”  Because they can be either, students are less afraid to expose their lack of understanding through their questions.

The teacher then responds to each student question, being transparent about the thought-process employed.  Additionally, reporting on whether or not the question is a simple recall or a question requiring analysis, is beneficial. I’ve seen some descriptions of ReQuest suggesting that the teacher should model to students how to refer back to the text, but I’ve always kept the book closed.  Students love to try to stump me!  After 3-5 questions, the teacher can then ask students to close their books and reverse roles. As the teacher questions the students about the same text, the teacher should also refrain from calling on students who volunteered questions in the first part.  This gives students an incentive to participate. It’s best if the teacher’s questions dive deeper into the content of the text, both to model to the student the development of higher order questioning and to build their comprehension of the contents.  

On completion of the round of questioning, the students and teacher then proceed to the next segment of the text and repeat the round.  There could be multiple rounds within a lesson. It’s often suggested that the closing include asking students to predict the contents of the rest of the chapter or section though I have found this to be impractical for nonfiction reading, which I think works well under this structure.  

I’ve kept only one text from the courses I took leading to teacher certification.  My instructor for the course instilled in me a belief that every teacher (I was a chemistry teacher) is a teacher of reading and writing.  Manzo and Manzo’s Content Area Reading (1990) includes ReQuest, along with several other reading strategies and lesson structures that have withstood the test of time and that made me put more of the intellectual work on the capable shoulders of my students.  

Procrastination

While attending a workshop on writing, a colleague shared that there’s never a time when her house is cleaner than when she has something to write; rather than initiating what she sees as a challenging task, she cleans.  Initiating a task, whether it is writing, cleaning out the garage, organizing a training, shopping for Christmas, completing college applications, or researching plane ticket prices for a potential trip, is anxiety-provoking.  It’s often the case that once begun, projects proceed quite nicely – paragraph by paragraph, inch by inch, present by present, or hour by hour.  

Governor Raimondo has called to the state’s attention the condition of Rhode Island school facilities.  A study completed by Jacobs Engineering forecasts a statewide cost to bring all RI school buildings to standard at about $2.2 billion.  This is procrastination at a colossal scale.

It’s easy to play the blame game.  Blame the state for not having a dedicated stream of funding for school facilities (Massachusetts dedicates 1 penny of the state’s 6.25% sales tax). Blame towns for not funding capital projects adequately.  Blame districts for inadequately budgeting maintenance in deference to budgets for salaries and supplies.  It’s too complex an issue to hold any one person or institution accountable for the place we now find ourselves.  Rather than play the blame game, let’s cry a collective call for action while concurrently reflecting on our past shortcomings so that we don’t again find ourselves with this issue.  

Governor Raimondo has called Rhode Islanders to action:  “Every generation of Rhode Islanders has worked hard and made sacrifices so the next generation has more opportunity than the one before. But most of our classrooms and school buildings haven’t been improved in 25 years. We must make a once-in-a-generation investment in our school buildings to address immediate health and safety needs in every district, and to give our children the 21st century classrooms they need to compete in the world today.”

I am calling Smithfield town officials and residents to action.  We have spent 2 years studying the current conditions and potential solutions to our elementary school facility needs and have identified a preferred solution:  vacate Winsor Elementary School and renovate/expand each of our remaining elementary facilities.  A Stage 2 application to the RI School Building Authority is due on February 1, 2018 and as part of that application, we must show support by town officials for a bond request to town voters.  

At the same time, we cannot neglect the capital needs of our middle and high school facilities or, again, we will quickly find ourselves in dire situation.  The high school is now 50 years old and a recent gym renovation, supported through capital funds from the town, has brought that space to pristine condition.  The auditorium is in need of ADA access to the stage, a new acoustical ceiling, a new sound system, and new lighting.  The track and athletic fields, original to the high school, are in need of extensive renovations.  The middle school facility is 10 years younger but furniture there is in poor condition.  I will be working to presenting to the School Committee a modest FY19 school budget with the hope that some town revenues can be shifted to capital needs.

There is a athletic facilities capital committee that has been established to consider future athletic facility needs.  The Town Council and School Committee have met and plan to meet again in a joint session to discuss the elementary reconfiguration project.  Additionally, the town manager and I meet regularly to discuss common issues.  Working together, I feel confident that we can achieve more than working apart so that the needs of residents of Smithfield can be met in the most efficient way possible.  

To learn more about the elementary reconfiguration project, visit our website (https://sites.google.com/smithfield-ps.org/elementary-reconfiguration), which includes information about the many options evaluated prior to the configuration currently being investigated through our Stage 2 application.

Great Beginnings and Successful Endings

Good storytelling includes both great beginnings and successful endings.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who has ripped through an engrossing book only to be disappointed by a feeble ending.  Worse yet, I’ve abandoned otherwise worthy books after long, languid starts.  

Lessons, likewise, benefit from both great beginnings and successful endings.  When I first learned about lesson planning, way back when, the start of the lesson was called “set induction.”  I looked up “set induction” and found the following definition provided by Dr. Cheryl Grable:  

Set is a mental state of readiness
Induction brings it on
Set Induction gets learners thinking and ready for the lesson

As part of set induction, I had learned that at the start of every lesson we should let the learner know what it is we expect the learner to know and be able to do and to relate this to past and future learning as well as to something relevant to the student.  From what we now know about the brain, there is a reason for this; if we can help the brain to make neural connections we can ensure learning that is lasting.

​In Smithfield, teachers employ a variety of means to communicate the lesson objectives to students. Whether it is through posting essential questions; listing “I can” statements; or providing lesson goals, mastery objectives, or learning targets; our efforts to help students understand what we want them to know and be able to do following a lesson or series of lessons strengthens instruction for students in grade K to grade 12.  No matter what we call them, our goal is for students to understand what we expect and for those brains to put the new knowledge and skills in their place.  

It has long been understood that the end of a lesson is equally important.  First, our brains remember best what we learned last.  When we spend the last few minutes of the lesson recapping important learning, it is like taking a highlighting pen and underscoring what we want students to remember.  This can be done in a variety of ways including a simple recap, reviewing the lesson objectives, using an “exit slip,” or by other means.  A Google search of “ending a lesson” provides a number of links to many great ideas.  Ann Sipe of Grandview, WA suggests that the work during closure should be done by students.  She provides a list of ways this can be done (see link).

Providing a successful lesson ending requires good timing, especially in the secondary classroom where bells signal period endings sometimes well before we’re ready for the period to end.  Time has a way of getting away from us.  Appointing a student to a timekeeper role is one way to help ensure that time can be set aside for lesson closure.  

Teaching is a complex endeavor that requires continual efforts to hone pedagogical skills.  I have learned much about good instructional practices, including effective ways to start and end lessons, through my visits to Smithfield classrooms.  Spending time thinking about lesson beginnings and endings will enable every teacher to continually improve their instructional practices.