Annoying Blogger Habits

As you can see by the time between posts, I haven't been blogging here often. Mainly, because I've been working on my book, creating videos for www.learniting5.com and writing at ASCDEdge. Today, I had some spare time to read some blogs, add some comments and find some new people to my Twitter PLN.

Photo credit: Comstock

After about an hour of surfing the blogosphere and Twitterverse, I became thoroughly annoyed and decided I needed a place to vent. Now Role Reversal is typically where I write about best and worst practices in education, but these are educators sharing online, so I figured this was as good a place as any for this post.

So, here I go with some venting.

 

Things that annoy me about bloggers

 

1 - Comment moderators: Do you really think that I'm coming to your blog to fill the comment section with expletives? I understand if it's a classroom blog, but I'm not reading those. Open up your comments, for crying out loud. If your audience is teachers, you might try trusting them to do what's right.

2 - Captchas: You know, those squiggly little letters you can hardly see at the bottom of your comment. Type them in wrong, and you are denied. Can't see them? Try listening to them.You'll have a better chance translating Klingon, spoken by a two-year-old. I tried to post a comment to a blog seven times today. That's right, 7!. Each time, what I typed was denied. As a blogger, don't you want comments? Turn off the captchas.

3 - Research taken out of context: Validating your points with research is an admirable practice. Too often, though, bloggers grab a quote and throw it into their blog post, with as much consideration as a four-year-old trying to pin the tail on the donkey. If you're going to quote a source, be sure the researcher supports your position, instead of just grabbing a sentence located in a random Google search.

4 - Private Twitter accounts: Nothing gets my blood boiling faster than a teacher with a private Twitter account. I was looking for people to follow recently, so I went to a trusted Twitter friend. As I scrolled the page of the people she was following, I found someone with an interesting profile. I clicked the follow button, only to be greeted with a message that the person must approve all followers. Twitter isn't Facebook. If you want to be a professional and share information, then unlock your account.

5. Twitter accounts with no profiles: Are you a secret agent? Again, if you're on Twitter, and you can easily be located, why didn't you take two minutes to tell me why I should follow you? Even one sentence would suffice. How about a word, Educator! Better yet, how about going to your account and hitting one key -- Delete!

The list could go on, but I feel better, so I'll stop here. So what do bloggers do that frustrate you?


Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Amazing Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, due February, 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

Best Education Blogs webmix

I love the webmix creation tool, Symbaloo. Not only do I use Symbaloo as my primary computer's home page, I am now creating amazing webmixes that make my Internet experience easy and enjoyable. Take a look at my favorite new webmix, Best Education Blogs. Here's a screen shot:

Get the Best Education Blogs for your webmix now at this link.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

The Common Core Monster

Cross posted at ASCD EDge

The education blogosphere is rife with posts about the Common Core State Standards. This monster is approaching fast, and it's scarier than any of Spiderman's evil foes (pick your movie version).
Think I'm overstating? Check out what one blogger says:

"Ultimately, state leaders—educators among them—need to decide what expectations students across the state will be held to."

This perspective underscores the danger that the monster presents. Why should a state leader, who has never been in my classroom, who has no idea of the needs of my students, decide what the expectations are?

This arrogant notion CCSS authors have -- that they know what's best for my students -- is as bad, perhaps worse, than the monster we currently have.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in February by world education leader, ASCD

Can we be this bold?

Brilliantly bold ideas about education from consultant Will Richardson. Thanks to Lisa Nielsen for sharing this.

So, can we be this bold?

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

Use the app, Evernote, for formative assessment

The web site and mobile app, Evernote, is a powerful collaboration, content management and formative assessment tool. Check out how one school uses Evernote in a 1:1 computer environment. 

Evernote offers the sort of technology integration that helps create a Results Only Learning Environment. 

You can learn more about Evernote here.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

Formative assessment in action

While browsing YouTube, I ran across this insightful video on formative assessment. Listen for keywords, like conversation and feedback. This is definitely worth 5 minutes.




Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

Why do we need classroom rules?

An article I posted at ASCD EDge, Top five reasons to eliminate classroom rules, has gotten plenty of attention (1,000 views in two days). When EDge promoted the article to its Facebook page, comments from teachers poured in.

Some people can't grasp the idea of a classroom devoid of rules and consequences. One skeptic writes, "Good luck with that." Another more emphatically states, "You've got to be kidding."

Others see the concept as easily as I do. "It's about relationships," one teacher comments. Another discusses the value of a student-centered approach.

Still, the discussion fascinates me. I'm curious what you think about rules and consequences. Do we really need them?


Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

When students and teachers collaborate

One of my Twitter friends (pictured above) tweeted this at me, in response to an article I posted at the ASCD EDge blog, called Top five reasons to eliminate classroom rules. She later amended "rules" to "expectations." Here is my response to her tweet.

Collaborating with students on creating a learning community

Any classroom will run smoothly, when students see that their teacher values their input. This doesn't mean using assertive discipline, in order to manipulate students into creating your rules. In fact, there's no place for the word "rules" in a high-functioning results-only classroom.

Here are a few simple guidelines for involving students and building a successful learning community:

1. Begin with collaboration: Tell your students that you want their help. "We need a successful learning community, free from disruption. Let's brainstorm some guidelines for this kind of environment." Now, get out of their way and let them work.
2. Listen to all suggestions -- even the crazy ones: Don't easily dismiss seemingly-wild ideas. Something like "Let us go to the bathroom anytime we want to" can go a long way in building the class that you want, when all parties agree on how to make it work. I did this once, and the students created a remarkable policy of signing out, taking the classroom pass and leaving whenever the urge hit them. They loved and respected the policy, because they created it.
3. Remember the ultimate goal -- learning: When ideas are unreasonable, simply remind students that, "We are setting guidelines for a successful learning community." There can be chaos, but it has to be good chaos. There are times for movement and noise, and there are times for quiet contemplation. Discuss how to distinguish between the two.
4. Emphasize mutual respect: Be sure to discuss what this means (let them talk about it with each other first). You can always fall back on respect, when something goes awry.

Start your year this way. Revisit the conversation often, and you can throw out the rules and consequences.


Don't miss ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by ASCD, the world's top educational leadership organization

An excerpt from ROLE Reversal

“Teachers tend to have control issues in their classroom. We have a paradigm of what teaching looks like. This paradigm usually includes teachers in front teaching students who are at their seats” (Jenkins, 2011). Without turning this into another book on classroom management, I want to clearly illustrate how I gave up the kind of control Jenkins describes and what I’ve replaced it with.

For a moment, consider the rules and consequences listed at the beginning of this chapter. I used to live by these. In the my-way-or-the-highway days, a student caught chewing gum more than once was asked to come after school and clean gum off of desks – a revolting punishment that I stood firmly on, even when challenged one time by an angry parent. Entering my room in pants with holes in the knees was grounds for dismissal to our Student Management Room. If a cell phone rang, it was immediately taken and turned into the office. Disruptive students were shouted at and told to see the principal. Notes were sent home, parents were called, and formal referrals were written and placed in permanent records.

Today, I have no rules and I don’t raise my voice. Students chew gum if they like, wear jeans with holes and use cell phones and iPods regularly. My bathroom policy is simple: students go when the need arises. I talk to those who leave too frequently and explain the value of being in class. “I don’t want you to miss any important discussions, reading or time you might be working on a project,” I say. “Remember, your group members are counting on you.” The key is emphasizing the value of class – not admonishing a kid who may legitimately be answering nature’s call.

Forcing students to ask for permission for natural acts like going to the bathroom or getting a drink of water is a further demonstration of teacher control. These are the kinds of teachers who are seen as authority figures, rather than as facilitators of learning. If you suggest that you want students to have autonomy, yet you enforce insignificant rules and policies, you risk undermining the freedom that you say you want students to have in a results-only classroom.

Consider just how powerful not enforcing silly rules is, when it comes to creating a comfortable learning environment. The majority of my students spend three-fourths of their school day being told “no” or “don’t” by adults. No gum, no candy, no cell phones, no torn jeans, no leaving your seat. Don’t go to the bathroom, don’t talk to your friend and don’t you dare walk in without a pencil. Then, they come to the results-only classroom and are met with an uncanny freedom. You might think they race in and start blowing bubbles, jumping up and down, shouting and sending text messages by the dozens. Quite the contrary.

There is a remarkable respect for the ROLE. Since I’ve spent so much time coaching intrinsic motivation, cooperative learning and community building, my students buy in. Believe it or not, almost all of them just want to do things right.

Jenkins, N. (Designer). (2011). Shut up and teach. [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from

http://prezi.com/j_wkwyalz-lx/shut-up-and-teach/.

Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, due in early 2013 by ASCD, the world's top educational leadership organization

A look inside ROLE Reversal, the book

The following is an outline of several chapters in the forthcoming book, ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom. Don't miss the remaining chapters, when the book is released in early 2013.

1. Rebelling Against Traditional Methods – A results-only learning system is one that is in direct contrast to a traditional classroom. Learn how the teacher becomes a rebel in his students eyes, which creates automatic support and respect for the results-only classroom from Day one of the school year.

3. Letting Go of Homework, Worksheets – A ROLE is about results. It is taking a learning objective and using a variety of methods to demonstrate meeting the objective. Gone are traditional in-class worksheets, homework and grades. This chapter demonstrates how the results-only system works, complete with project examples, activities and evaluation. Also, the chapter proposes a homework challenge that will encourage any teacher to rethink the usefulness of homework.

6. The Evolution of Evaluation – This chapter presents a Feedback Toolkit, which is filled with web-based assessment tools and other types of formative assessment. Each tool is explained and real-class examples are provided.

8. High Stakes Testing: No problem – One of the best aspects of a ROLE is that not only do students learn more than they ever have in a traditional classroom, they also pass standardized tests at a much higher rate than their traditional class peers. See how the author’s test scores skyrocket over a two-year period, even though he never teaches to the test, like his traditional colleagues do. Also, learn how minority students in a ROLE outscore minority students in the traditional classroom by substantial margins.

9. Who Needs Discipline? Throw out Rules and Consequences – A results-only classroom is a community of learners. The intrinsic motivation that grows in students throughout the year creates an environment of mutual respect and trust. The Do’s and Don’t’s of a traditional classroom and the carrots and sticks that accompany them are not necessary in a ROLE. This communal environment and how to facilitate it are carefully examined in this chapter. Creating this no-nonsense, discard-the-rules classroom is clearly illustrated in this chapter, along with a snapshot view of how to incorporate this problem-free atmosphere into any classroom.


Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, due in early 2013 by ASCD, the world's top educational leadership organization

ROLE Reversal book summary

Imagine a seventh grader asked to evaluate her production over a single grading period. She is told she must give herself a letter grade. After several minutes of consideration, she tells the teacher that she deserves an F. Sound farfetched? In a Results Only Learning Environment, this is the sort of self-evaluation that happens daily.

In a time when education reform is prevalent, bureaucrats across America believe they have the answers to improving America’s schools. The problem is that most think that high stakes testing, homework and a grade-it-and-move-on-to-the-next-unit approach are at the center of successful reform, but this is not reform at all.

Changing Education

 

Real change in education must include a complete transformation of the methods that teachers and students use for learning. This takes bold measures – a complete overhaul of a broken system. It means creating a Results Only Learning Environment that removes the emphasis from traditional worksheets, direct instruction, multiple choice tests, grades and the old style of education that most teachers use today. A results-only system makes learning a shared responsibility between teachers and students. A ROLE is student-centered and project-based. Rather than pressuring students to practice rote skills for two hours nightly, a results-only classroom provides a combination of individual and cooperative learning activities, completed in class and over extended time, with constant feedback from teachers and peers and the opportunity to change and improve any activity, in order to demonstrate learning.

Results-only learning is the type of reform that will forever change American education.


Don't miss ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by ASCD, the world's top educational leadership organization

Teach students how to choose the right books

With a little help from Nancie Atwell's The Reading Zone, I started teaching my students how to categorize books, and it's been great for them. Teach your students the 5-finger test and book categories, and watch them flourish.

Learning for learning's sake

Photo credit: The Learning Institute

Several times, I've commented on posts at Joanne Jacobs' blog that a teacher's ultimate goal should be to create a love of learning in students.

Students should want to learn for learning's sake -- not because I tell them to learn something and certainly not for a grade.

My contention that creating a lifelong love of learning is paramount is often a point of contention in the blogosphere.

"Why should creating independent learners be the ultimate goal in education?" one inquisitive reader recently asked.

This seems so easy that I'm amazed by the question.

Is there another, better, goal for teachers?

Why can't change be this easy?

This video by my friend, Angela Maiers, will clarify the question asked in the title of this post.




So, why can't it be this easy?

Am I an awful teacher or a great one?

The new trend in public education is to measure teacher accountability, based on standardized test results. Using this year's results, the state of Ohio must deem me an awful teacher. Wait a minute, Ohio must think I'm a great teacher. Hmm., which am I?

The list of problems with this ill-conceived system is far too long to place in one blog  post, so I'll discuss the one issue that would top the list that makes teacher accountability based on a test impossible.

I call this issue, uncontrollable factors.


For example, one of my students who failed the reading test -- solely my fault, according to the state of Ohio -- had many personal problems that severely minimized her interest in language arts and other subjects. She missed 25 days of school. She was suspended from school four times. She received 14 grades of D or F on her report card throughout the year. Her parents never responded to any of my innumerable calls during the second half of the year.

While my average student read 28 books during the school year, she read two.What could possibly motivate this child to put in her best effort on a two and a half hour reading test?

Conversely, I have many students who scored close to perfect on the reading test. They are avid readers, scholar-athletes, student government leaders and have marvelous parents who encourage a love of  learning both in and out of school. According to the state of Ohio, I am solely responsible for their fine efforts on the achievement test.

I have little, if any, control over the out-of-class lives of either the poor students or the excellent ones.

So, am I an awful teacher or am I a great one?

Race to nowhere touts new homework policy

This remarkable video will be presented by the organization Race to Nowhere to the National PTA. Readers here know my feelings on homework, but this video does a remarkable job of summing up my opinions on the deleterious effects of homework on our children.

Five reasons I hate the Common Core

It seems that educators and bureaucrats nationwide are putting every spin possible on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), in an effort to get teachers to accept the idea that the common core movement will revolutionize education. I, for one, am not buying this. In fact, I'll give you five reasons I hate the common core.

5 -- Common Core State Standards discourage creativity. Teachers have been teaching X + Y = Z forever. However, the way a teacher in Ohio teaches it will, in most cases, be far different from how a teacher in Florida teaches it. Isn't this what makes education unique and interesting?
4 -- Common Core State Standards discourage reading fiction - By 2015, the goal is that 70 percent of what students read will be nonfiction. A love of reading helps students learn. My 105 students read over 3,000 books this school year. Eighty percent of those were novels.
3 -- Common Core State Standards narrow the curriculum - It's difficult to explore the nuances of a subject, when you are chained to a book of standards that administrators say must be taught in one 9-month school year.
2 -- Common Core State Standards are poorly written - This is a second-grade standard:

"Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section."

Seriously? Did a second-grader write this?

1 -- Common Core State Standards are unnecessary - The notions that accountability is necessary and that students are achieving less than in past years are created by bureaucrats and encouraged by the publishing lobby. College enrollment was at an all-time high in 2009 and is holding steady in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fewer students are dropping out of high school now than they did prior to No Child Left Behind. So, why do we need Common Core State Standards? Could it be to build the coffers of the publishing companies, who create the "teach-to-the-test" tutorial programs?

This is cross posted at ASCD Edge

Promotion with honors

Today, the eighth graders at the junior high where I teach participated in a promotion ceremony. The band  played, students delivered speeches and everyone paraded up to the podium to greet teachers and administrators when their names were announced to a capacity crowd.

I  had the distinct pleasure of calling the roll, a simple task, as long as you don't miss the designations of "M" and "H" at the end of many surnames.

A student with an "H" is promoted "with honors," meaning her GPA was 3.5 or higher. The "M's" are "with merit."

As I announced the names, in my best emcee voice, I wondered what inflection I should use for an "average" student (no H) and an "Honors Student." Should I use a monotone voice for the riffraff that dared to march with student royalty? Perhaps a pregnant pause, prior to shouting "With Honors," in my best vibrato.

In the end, I decided to use the same voice for all students. After all, I couldn't see a difference in them, before the medals were handed out.

Homework rants

As one school year ends and talk of another begins, I'm already wondering how I can convince my colleagues that assigning traditional nightly homework is a waste of time and a practice that has absolutely no effect on achievement.

Thought I'd begin here:

• Anti-homework movement
• My dad won't do homework
• Top 5 reasons I don't assign homework
• More bad homework
• Merry Christmas; now do your homework
• What is the logic of the homework pass?
• Exposing bad homework research

 Don't worry, if this doesn't sway them, I've got more.

Why are reluctant learners better at self-evaluation?

The school year is ending, and we're completing our final self-evaluations for a report card grade. Throughout the marking period, I conference with students about their activities and projects and leave plenty of narrative feedback. There are no number or letter grades. At the end of the grading period, I ask students to complete a self-evaluation, reviewing their work and assigning an appropriate report card grade.

Although most students come remarkably close to the grade I would have provided, some are so conditioned to the value of grades that they overvalue their work and give themselves inaccurate grades.

Surprisingly, my most reluctant learners almost never do this.

They are the most honest, when it comes to self-evaluation, while honors-level students are the ones who may tend to "stretch" the grade. There is something strange about this. Most people who know I allow my students to grad themselves believe that students who have suffered through years  of D's and F's are the first to give themselves A's and B's. This is not the case at all, according to my own experience.

So, why are reluctant learners better at self-evaluation.

Do you apologize to your students?

Photo credit: Chicago Theater Beat

I was a bad teacher today. I lost my cool, which rarely happens in a student-centered classroom, especially near the end of the school year.

A student got a little loud, and before I knew it, I had moved his seat and engaged in a war of words that left the rest of the class in shock.

This awful scene started when I put the student on the spot for something extremely insignificant. This was not a proud moment for me, as it could have easily been avoided, had I dealt with things as I've done all year -- with patience and collaboration.

Upon further consideration, I tried to pardon the act by telling myself that it's the end of the year; it's hot, and all teachers are starting to lose it. This didn't help.

I did, however, feel better when the student came to me after school and apologized. I was happy that he admitted to his own wrongdoing.

I was even happier that I got a chance to apologize to him for my own role. It felt good to do it.

So, have you ever apologized to a student? What happened?

Do you use Free Voluntary Reading?

USC Professor Emeritus and literacy expert, Stephen Krashen

Stephen Krashen, arguably the foremost expert in language acquisition and literacy, promotes in numerous books, papers and talks what he calls, Free Voluntary Reading (FVR).

The FVR strategy, also popularized by Nancie Atwell and Donalyn Miller, among others, encourages students to select books of interest -- books that are not too difficult for the reader. In The Power of Reading, Krashen says of Free Voluntary Reading that there are:

"No book reports; no questions at the end of a chapter. In FVR, you don't have to finish the book if you don't like it."

I have had remarkable success with FVR in my 7th and 8th grade language arts classes. The autonomy in this program fits beautifully with the philosophy of a results-only classroom. When students read books that they choose, they read more often and soon begin selecting more challenging books.

So, do you use FVR? How does your program work?

Why can't administrators figure out assessment?

Many of my colleagues understand me. They don't agree with all of my methods, but the logic behind results-only learning is clear.

Why, then, can't administrators get it?

I've made it clear in many places, that narrative feedback is far more objective than grades. The SE2R method I use, eliminates the subjectivity that comes with numbers and letter grades. I tell a student what she did, explain how it matches learning outcomes, redirect her to a prior lesson if necessary and request a resubmission of any changed activity. Simple and objective enough, right?

Not to a principal. Today, I was asked to share my "grades" on a particular student with a principal. After one quick glance at the lengthy, detailed narrative feedback left on our online grade book, she said, "So, it's just all of these subjective comments?"

Of course, I quickly explained that my feedback was not subjective at all. In fact, I proclaimed, my feedback is far more objective than any points or percentages would be. The principal persisted.

After reading feedback that ended in 'You have demonstrated mastery learning on this activity,' she looked at me quizzically and wondered aloud what the points on that activity would be. "I  assume it would be 100%," she stated.

When I persisted that there are no points, percentages or grades, she strode off shaking her head.

I started shaking my head, too, wondering when, and if, administrators will ever figure out 21st-century assessment.

The power of daily goals

When students are working in a workshop setting -- both individually and collaboratively, on computers and in books -- there can be many distractions. Although proper coaching from the beginning of the year helps students understand the value of efficient work, it's easy for the chaos to get out of hand, especially when the year is coming to a close.

What I always fall back on that quickly reels my students back into solid engagement is daily goal setting.

Teachers often help students set yearly, perhaps even quarterly, goals. Sometimes the daily goal can be even more powerful.

I don't have students set daily goals all year -- next year when working in longer blocks I intend to do so -- but when I notice less engagement, I know it's time to return to this, as I did today.

The process is simple. We use my classroom message board, but this can easily be done on notebook paper or an index card. I instruct students to tell me what they'll accomplish in a specific amount of time. So, a goal might look like this:

"In 40 minutes, I will read two nonfiction articles, bookmark  them on Diigo and annotate both. I will also post a reflection  letter on the novel, The Hunger Games, on KidBlog."

What makes this truly effective is saving five minutes at the end of class and asking students to complete a self-evaluation, in which they now write down exactly what they accomplished and see if it matches the goal. If not, ask them what they could do differently next time to meet the goal.

What do you think? Can daily goal-setting work for you?

Academic teams improve teaching and learning

Next year, my school is returning to academic teaming for the first time in many years. Not surprisingly, some teachers have reservations. I think this is mainly because they don't know the benefits of teaming.

Hoping to allay their fears, I created this presentation on teaming and working in extended blocks of time.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement.

One good day keeps you coming back

An old golf expression says, "One good shot keeps you coming back." I suppose this is true, since one good one is usually all I can count on. I think teaching is similar.

All it takes is one good day, occasionally, to keep you coming back. Recently, I had that kind of day.

A student wrote on our classroom web site's message board that she had read 15 books, falling short of the 25 that I challenged my students to read. "25 is just not realistic for me," she explained.

I called her to my desk and asked her to consider her whole life as an independent reader. "What is the most books you have read in a single year, prior to this one?" I asked.

"Probably three," she said.

"You didn't read 25," I said. "So what? Consider what you've accomplished, while reading 15." She had become an avid reader in one school year -- something, I told her, that is pretty special.

As she walked away smiling, I smiled too and thought, Now, this is a day that will keep me coming back.

No common sense to Common Core

I found this in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts:

Certain measures are less valid or inappropriate for certain kinds of texts. Current quantitative measures are suitable for prose and dramatic texts. Until such time as quantitative tools for capturing poetry’s difficulty are developed, determining whether a poem is appropriately complex for a given grade or grade band will necessarily be a matter of a qualitative assessment meshed with reader-task considerations.

Huh? If you can explain it, please do so, because I can't make sense of it.

In case you missed it: recently popular

Here are a few links to some recent posts that are gaining in popularity here at the results-only learning blog. Please add your opinion by commenting on any that get you thinking.

• Anti-homework movement is growing
• Where do you go for project-based assessment ideas?
• Rubrics fail students as much as grades
• New classroom abandons rules and consequences
• Hey teacher, my dad won't do any more homework

Teach kids how to text and drive

Thanks to @eschoolnews for sharing this humorous, albeit educational, video about the dangers of texting and driving. Worth sharing with your new drivers.

What does National Teacher's Day mean?

Today might be the first time I've ever really considered National Teacher's Day -- likely because I read about it on Twitter.

I wondered what it's all about. When I Googled it, I came to a National Education Association site. The news from the NEA was grim.

I was surprised, because I thought an NEA site about National Teacher's Day would be a place of hope. Then, I was faced with these statements, among others:

Teachers themselves are less positive today than in the past about the education and training they have received.

Forty-five percent of new teachers abandon the profession in their first five years. 

Teachers’ salaries still lag behind those for other occupations requiring a college degree, and the pay gap is growing larger.

I hate to be negative, but this day seems more like a bummer than a celebration.

Where do you go for project-based assessment ideas?

Next year, my school will be moving from 46-minute teaching blocks to 60-minute blocks. This scares a lot of people.

"What will we do with all of that time?" they ask. "The students can't sit still for 40 minutes, much less 60."

Of course they can't, I think. And why should they? Who wants to sit around listening to teachers talk for two-thirds of an hour?

"If the students work on projects, you'll see that 60 minutes isn't really that long at all," I say. Many reply not-so-sheepishly that they have no idea what that looks like. Admittedly, they don't know where to begin, and the notion of shifting from a traditional lecture-worksheet-test style to a student-centered project-based class is frightening.

There isn't a lot of good, detailed blueprints for projects in various subjects, so I understand their fears, even though I use project-based assessment in language arts all year.

So, where do you go for helpful ideas for creating good projects in different subject areas?

How dare you chew gum in my class!

photo credit: viewzone.com

Our student discipline handbook is jam-packed with rules, designed to keep students from running amok. It is, after all, critical that order be maintained.

One such rule is "no gum chewing."

Many of our would-be learners are dismissed from classes for this awful breach of the school's judicial system. These destroyers of education are often banished to our Student Management Room (a euphemism for detention center). And why wouldn't they be? How could any teacher be expected to engage students in a place filled with these bubble-blowing, lip-smacking, eye-rolling miscreants?

Imagine your child missing an opportunity to learn, because she was jettisoned for chewing gum. Would you expect anything less? I mean, how dare she chew gum in an institution of learning?

I keep wondering, is there anything that merits more consideration in the world of education than this insidious gum-chewing? Something has got to be done!

The new classroom abandons rules and consequences

Photo credit: ShareTv

If you are a product of Teach for America, you likely have all sorts of rules and consequences posted around your classroom. Your students may routinely write their names on the board -- branding themselves as troublemakers on the verge of doom.

Subscribers of assertive discipline allow their students to think they are part of creating the discipline system -- a subtle manipulation. Teachers in these classrooms may be caught lavishing praise on the do-gooders and giving gentle reminders of punishments to the offenders.

In a classroom based on results-only, there are no posted rules, and there is no praise when Sally brings her materials or Johnny comes  to class on time. This new classroom disdains these embarrassing methods, completely eliminating rules and consequences.

A rule and its accompanying consequence is  nothing  more than a crutch for a teacher, who struggles to provide effective guidance within a learning community. Rules and consequences give a teacher a perceived sense of control.

If you are skeptical about eliminating rules and consequences, try it for a while, even if you don't announce the experiment to your students. Replace reminders of rules with one-to-one discussions about the mutual respect that makes a learning community successful.

For specific ways to eliminate rules and consequences, refer to this post.

So, what do you think? Is a classroom with no rules and consequences possible?

Do you evaluate yourself?

In a Results Only Learning Environment, students are taught that reflection and self-evaluation are far more important than the judgment of a teacher. I want my students to be as hard as themselves and I am on myself.

I remind students constantly that I spend time daily reflecting on what took place in my classroom. "I evaluate myself, just as I evaluate you," I tell them. I often discover things that didn't go as I had planned. Sometimes this means presenting them again another day in a different way. Other times it means discarding a lesson or activity completely.

I firmly believe that this reflection and self-evaluation are the most important parts of making teachers better.

So, do you evaluate yourself? What does your reflection help you discover about teaching? Please share your thoughts.

Bye-bye honors, Bye-bye cheating

Lots of people around the blogosphere are rankled over a lawsuit parents filed on behalf of their cheating son.

The Sequoia High student was unceremoniously jettisoned from his honors class after copying homework, which violated the honor code he'd signed.

Fearing that the ejection  might interfere with his ability to qualify for an elite college, mom and dad are suing the school district.

Sure, this sounds petty and ridiculous, but what if we eliminated the "honors" tag on classes? Maybe the pressure to get higher grades might dissipate and the enthusiasm for cheating might quickly vaporize.

Do we really need honors classes?

Even math people get results-only learning

Thanks to David Wees for sharing this on his blog. It's not just about math though. See if you can find the ROLE strategies in the presentation.

Can you explain this worksheet?

My son brought home a math worksheet with this problem on it:

Clue 1: I am greater than 15 and less than 40.
Clue 2: If you double me, I become a number that ends in 0.
Clue 3: 1/5 of me is equal to 5.

This might be a fun group game, but I'm not sure of the value of this worksheet. 

So, math people, help me out. Why would my son or anyone else ever need to know the answer to the above problem?

Put away that electronic device, or else!

Today was one of those days that made me wish I worked some place else.

Photo credit: InMagine

I work at a grade 7 and 8 middle school that is filled with wonderful teachers, counselors, administrators and support staff, many of whom will stop at nothing to help students learn. Some of them are quirky; some are funny. Some have marvelous ideas about how to make education better; some just wear a never-ending smile that always makes your day.

Sounds great, right? So why would anyone complain about a place like this?

The problem, you see, is that while these marvelous people are willing to go the extra mile for kids, many of them think the best way to do this is to control students.

As I watched students work cooperatively, independently, quietly and noisily in my results-only classroom, an e-mail landed in my inbox, quickly followed by another and several more -- all on the same subject.

"This place is out of control, and it has to stop," was the gist of the lot. The students, it seems, are listening to their Mp3 players and iPods in the hallways, and the safety of the school, perhaps even that of the entire civilized world, is at stake. (Okay, that was poetic license run amok.)

Still, a steady stream of loud complaints cascaded throughout teachers' email, demanding a change. By the end of the day, the change was announced by our principal. If only we could get an important decision made this quickly.

As you may have guessed, my take on this was quite different. Sadly, my suggestion to teach the students appropriate use, rather than take the devices away, was met with criticism.

It makes me wonder, will we ever join the 21st century digital age? Or, do I need to look for a new place to hang my hat. . . and my iPod.

Difference Maker: Richard Byrne

Because ROLE Reversal is about the transformation of education, it's important to recognize the true change agents around the world, so this series is dedicated to the Difference Makers.

Richard Byrne
You may know him as the creator of the amazing web site, Free Technology for Teachers. Although this is what Richard Byrne is most popular for in education circles, he is also a well-known presenter, consultant, writer and a true difference maker.

Image credit: Sarah Sutter

Byrne has taught social studies and language arts in a high school in Maine for eight years. In this brief tenure, Byrne has done what it takes many teachers full careers to accomplish.

While teaching, Byrne started Free Technology for Teachers a few years ago, as an online library of resources he might use for teaching. This became his personal and professional obsession. "I spend many hours every day reading tech blogs and trying out new tools," Byrne says.

The payoff is a site that now has over 44,000 e-mail subscribers and has led to numerous other education consulting opportunities for Byrne, who is also a Google certified teacher and a columnist for the School Library Journal.

Inspirations

Like most successful teachers, Byrne has had numerous inspirations that helped him succeed as a teacher. Steven Ray and Stephen Butcher were teachers who taught Byrne in his words "to focus more on developing relationships with students, rather than worrying about covering all of the minute details of US History."

Byrne's personal inspirations are Olympic archer, Butch Johnson, and Mount Everest climber, Ed Webster. "Neither has had wild financial success from their efforts, but they have great stories to tell from having pursued their passions throughout their lives," Byrne says.

Advice

In a profession that is becoming more and more driven by technology, Richard Byrne is a true difference maker. His advice for teachers, using technology: "Don't be afraid to push buttons," and maybe more important, "don't be afraid  to let the students help you."

Learn more

To learn more about Richard Byrne, visit Free Technology for Teachers and follow him on Twitter. Byrne's Twitter handle is @rmbyrne.

Keep an eye out for future installments of this series by clicking the "Difference Makers Series" category to the right.

One thing is certain: teachers are passionate people

I have thoroughly enjoyed the debate started by Michael Lopez over at Joanne Jacobs' blog. More to the point, I suppose I started it with a comment I made about grades being punishment for students.

From there, Lopez wrote this blog post, which has sparked over 80 comments -- many of my own responses to teachers who are in an uproar about my declaration that grades are subjective and punitive and should be eliminated.

Take a look at it, and join the conversation, if you like

That sounds good, but. . .

Let me begin by warning you that this is going to be a rant. It's a rant about the naysayers -- educators who interrupt every suggestion with "That sounds good, but. . . ."

It's clear to all who know me that I teach in a progressive, student-centered classroom. This doesn't make me unique; it just means I'm in the minority in the education world. I get that, and I'm doing all I can to encourage  more teachers to leave the traditional world and do what's right by their students.

Many traditional teachers are willing to make the change. I get dozens of e-mails, tweets and comments on this blog weekly from teachers who share heartfelt stories about transforming their classrooms, as I did a few years ago.

Ah, but I digress. Back to the naysayers. I simply don't understand why so many educators, who purportedly teach students to be open-minded, can't even consider the possibility that there might be better strategies than homework, worksheets and tests.

No matter what research I quote or how much personal success I share, all too often, the response is, "That sounds good, but. . . ." Then comes an endless stream of excuses as to why they can't abandon their traditional practices.

The conversation that garners the most "buts" is about feedback over grades. Ironically, I find many teachers who understand the deleterious effects of points and letter grades. The second I bring up replacing them with narrative feedback, though, I get, "That sounds good, but I don't have the time;" or "That sounds good, but they won't do it if I don't grade it."

Ridiculous.

My students never wonder about points or letters. They relish the feedback they receive. I know, because they actually thank me for it. Does feedback take time? Sure. If you're afraid of work, I'd suggest a profession other than teaching.

So, as you can see, all of the "That sounds good, but. . ." is driving me crazy.

Any suggestions?

Progressive, collaborative, dynamic social learning

Why haven't the traditionalists figured this out?

Could you stop grading for one unit?

What if you stopped grading, just for one unit of study? Don't put a number, percentage or letter on an activity, project, quiz or test.

How would you evaluate your students? Is it even possible?

What would replace the grading?

Would you speak to your students more? Could they evaluate each other? Themselves? One unit.

Three or four weeks.

Change what you do.

What's holding you back?

Could it be a fear of learning that you never needed the grades in the first place?

Are you making the most of Google Docs?

Although there are many ways to provide students with detailed narrative feedback, web-based tools, like Google Docs, are often the most useful for two-way feedback that facilitates 21st-century learning, without the penalty of a number or letter grade.

This brief video demonstrates how Google Docs can be used to provide specific feedback on an ongoing writing activity, including a link to a presentation that immediately reinforces a prior lesson that the student can apply to his writing.



Are you using Google Docs, or other web-based tools, to provide meaningful narrative feedback to your students?

Difference Makers Series needs you

Photo credit: Art.com

Since results-only learning is a progressive philosophy, we recognize the work of educators who are willing to break, or at least bend, the rules of traditional education. These are the people who stare down the bureaucrats and say, "I'm going to do what's best for learning, regardless of your policies." They are education's Difference Makers.

You know these people from the blogs they write, the PD sessions they share and the messages they tweet.

But how well do you know them? Those of us at the ROLE Reversal blog would like to help you get to know them better.

Who are the Difference Makers?

The Difference Makers Series will seek out these remarkable educators and provide key information about them and how they got to where they are. Some of their best practices will be revealed.

So, who do you want to know about? Add a name of your favorite tweeter, blogger or anyone else to the comment box below, and we'll track them down.

Hurry, the Difference Maker Series begins soon.

Do you suffer from the Lemming Condition?

Award-winning actor and author, Alan Arkin, tells a brilliant tale in his young adult novel, The Lemming Condition. The story is an allegory on conformity, as Bubber, a lemming, is faced with following his entire race to self-induced extinction.

Bubber struggles to decide if he should participate in what appears to be an insane death walk, only to constantly be told by family and friends that this is just the way things are.

I won't ruin the ending, but let's just say that Bubber isn't your garden variety conformist.


Several conversations with colleagues have me wondering if Arkin's lemmings could have just as easily been today's teachers -- legions of people who conform daily to the principles of traditional methods and administrative pressure to teach to the test.

Like Bubber, we are constantly told this is just the way things are.
Bubber was faced with extinction. One must wonder, are we next?

Top 5 reasons I won't teach to the test

The conversation about standardized test preparation is a popular one at my school. Of course, most of the discussions stem from district mandates to constantly give practice material. Unlike new teachers, I don't have to cower behind an achievement test workbook, assuring principals that I'll drill my students into submission daily. Having tenure, though, isn't why I choose never to teach to the test. Here are the top 5 reasons I refuse to do it.

5 - Standardized tests fail to measure learning. In the long run, this thing isn't much more than a glorified guessing game.

4 - Why on Earth should learning be standardized? Shouldn't it be unique? If learning is the same everywhere, students should just stay home and read web-based texts.

3 - Practicing for standardized tests steals time from far more valuable learning experiences. I plan exciting, interactive lessons and projects for my students. We read, write and collaborate daily. I can't afford to give this up. Plus, my students wouldn't forgive me if I did.

2 - Standardized test practice isn't fun. If you've ever read anything I've written, you know I am a firm believer that learning should be fun. When it stops being fun, it's not learning; at this point we should all just go home.

1 - I have a responsibility to my students to be better than this. Spending class time on drill-and-kill standardized test practice makes teachers nothing more than mindless automatons, which is exactly how the bureaucrats are labeling us. If I spend most of my time on standardized test practice, not only will they be right, but I'll be guilty of the greatest injustice of all -- failing my students.

Talking narrative feedback at ASCD Conference

I'm heading to Philadelphia this weekend for the ASCD annual conference.

In my session, I'll be discussing results-only learning and how we can eliminate grades, which only punish students.

If you're attending the conference, I hope to see you at my presentation: Using Narrative Feedback to Replace Grades: One Step in Results Only Learning Environment (ROLE).

The session is Monday, March 26, 10:30-11:30 am Room 112A, Pennsylvania Convention Center, First Level.

How numbers and letters punish students

During our nine-week grading periods, I never put a  number, percentage or letter grade on any activity or project that my students complete. I supply detailed narrative feedback, asking students to return to activities and demonstrate mastery, if necessary.

When our quarters end, my school requires a letter grade for a report card. Instead of arbitrarily supplying a grade, I invite my students to participate in this evaluation process and tell me what their grade should be. Most students are remarkably accurate with this process. Some, however, are so stuck in the world of numbers and letters, that they can't comprehend how to come up with a grade, without the aid of points and percentages.

A powerful lesson
In an attempt to demonstrate the problem with grades, I tried a new approach, and we revisited the the points world at the end of the third marking period. I gave my students a list of all activities and projects and arbitrarily applied a point value (years ago, I never understood how strange this practice is). I then asked my students to put a point value on their production for each activity.

As the process ensued, there were plenty of sighs and groans around the room. Some students looked for ways to circumvent the system, because the math didn't provide any wiggle room. Fifty percent on a major project, crushed their overall grade. It didn't matter that they may have gone above and beyond in other areas. Many hated the process and literally begged to be "let off the hook."

Of course, in the end, seeing how clearly the numbers and letters punish students, we left the points world, returning to the comforts of the Results Only Learning Environment, where punishment is abandoned in favor of real  learning.