Jacqueline’s Blog

Well, there was a lot about this chapter that seemed familiar to me.  Maybe it was because as I was reading, I thought about what kinds of classrooms that I spent my time in.  As an elementary student, I do remember the Assertive Discipline approach.  I remember reading that I could get my name on the board and a check meant time out at PE.  I remember that four checks meant that you went to the Principal’s office.  However, the principal also was allowed to paddle.  I remember thinking that I would do anything to avoid that.  But, I had also had many conversations from my parents that if I got sent to the Principal’s office, the punishment would be so much worse when I got home.  I knew what that meant.  That pretty much stayed with me through high school.  I also remember boys being willing to take a paddling from the assistant principal in order to avoid getting suspended. 

    However, when I started my undergraduate degree at Alabama, I remember hearing the phrase “Withitness” all the time.  It was a trait that all good teachers had.  The ability to have eyes in the back of your head.  So, when I left my degree program, that’s what I thought I should do.  However, I quickly realized that “withitness” helps, but that isn’t all you need to succeed in quality classroom management in the classroom.  When I started teaching in Cobb County nine years ago this month, I was hired as a Boystown Model Replacement Teacher.  I was a glorified substitute.  However, I was trained in the Boystown behavioral model.  This was what I think back on, still a way to socialize students to act in a manner that was “appropriate” for schools.  It involved teaching students how to get the teacher’s attention, how to disagree appropriately, how to introduce yourself, as well as many others.  I was glad to have a framework when I first started teaching, however, it wasn’t a very flexible model.  It did involve rewards and extras for students who really struggled.  Looking back, I would put it in with many of the early models that I read about in this chapter.

Then, I went on to read about Jane Addams’s settlement houses.  I wonder if we are going back towards that in a way. Some of our students participate in the dental program where they bring a RV and perform dental services to the kids there at our school.  I kind of like the idea.  It allows the kids to get the services they need without imposing on the parents to get off from work and doesn’t take too long away from instruction.  I kind of wish that doctors or optometrists could come occasionally for the same kinds of things.  They could get their eyes checked and get immunizations done at school.  I wonder if this is what Universal Healthcare would look like.  I know there are some schools that have even more services available.  But, how does this really impact classroom management?  I’m not real sure.

I liked the part on page 269 in discussing caring teachers.  They talked about a study done with a homeless population at a school.  They explained that many students were hostile, aggressive, and distrustful.  They go on to explain that the way to counteract that is to consistently offer your help.  It is also important to express your belief that these children are worthy of your affection.  They went on to talk about the Resistance theory.  I have clearly seen these kinds of behaviors from a student that I have worked with this year.  He has been homeless for a time.  His Dad is in prison and the former school told us that the Mom was on drugs.  I don’t know that…I just know that I have never met her.  I have spoken on the phone with her once.  She knows that her son is angry and aggressive.  We began to think that it was because his sister who has a different father gets to see her father on a regular basis.  I thought I would be helpful and encourage him to write a note to dad.  So, while he and I were working on his reading and writing, we would also work on composing a letter to his dad.  We found out his address at the correctional facility and after getting permission from mom, we mailed it off.  After a couple of weeks, he asked whether we had gotten anything from his dad.  Nothing has returned.  His behavior has gotten steadily worse.  He no longer practices his reading at school or at home.  He says they have moved into an apartment and have new furniture.  But, now, he is a lot more oppositional.  He stomps his feet, screams, and just won’t work.  I have tried to maintain the caring respectful, relationship; but I no longer meet with him on a daily basis either. Because he just refuses to work sometimes, I’m not really sure how to proceed.  I know that I need to continue to offer my help.  I also think I need to continue to express my belief in him and his work.  But, I also think I will need to occasionally meet with him individually to try and get past the “resistence”.  It may be caused for another reason than I know.  I know that it is hard to establish a willingness to try hard when it seems hard to believe that the circumstances will change.  But, if this child maintains his stubborness, he can achieve anything he wants.  I just have to get him to believe that…

       As I read this chapter, one major theme stands out.  I think there will always be the battle between skills instruction and those who feel that math must be taught in a meaningful context.  As an elementary teacher, I believe that it should all be taught within a meaningful context.  This is what is going to excite the students to want to go on and learn more.  I know that for me, by the time I got to high school, things had definitely shift towards a more skills approach.  That really didn’t bother me.  I guess that’s why I think that the meaningful context at an early age was so important.

        Each year, we would always have a career day.  Each year, I would choose something different.  I would always choose something based on people that I encountered in my life.  As a third grader, I was going to be a landscaper.  I had my overalls, my shovel, etc.  I had learned this from a guy that worked on people’s yards in my neighborhood.  By the time I was in sixth grade, I was going to be a stock broker.  I loved the idea of money and I wanted to make a lot of it.  I understood that all the birthday money I had gotten from my relatives had been put into mutual funds and that excited my interest.  All that time, I would flip-flop about what occupation I was going to have.  But, then, in college, I could sit through a boring Economics class, thinking about the stock broker and knowing this would be something that he would have to do.  I think it is very important to have learning occur within a meaningful context to start that imagination going at an early age.

          However, I do agree that the curriculum was created for the dominant culture at times.  I realized this when I married my husband.  I grew up in Alabama.  I learned about Alabama history and as I read the section about Social Studies I thought I was reading the Alabama history book.  I learned how the white man helped the Indians so much.  Then, when my husband and I started dating, we had many discussions about how things were quite different from what was portrayed.  My husband comes from a Native American background.  He lacks a trust of the government that I can’t understand.  However, when I consider his family heritage, I understand why.  Many Native Americans had their land taken from the “government” at the time.  These stories were verbally passed on for generations.  Regardless of what the textbooks said, my husband’s understanding was very different.  Do I think that both sides need to be better represented in our curriculum?  Yes!  But, I also understand Mrs. Cheney’s point that it can’t be by taking out other important elements of our history.  If we add information about famous Native Americans, it doesn’t mean that we take out Ulysses S. Grant or Robert E. Lee.  Both sides of every argument must be presented.  I think this is the only way to prevent some of those mistakes in history from happening again.  I hope that I have made sense.  I do think our country has some fine moments.  However, probably ALL of those moments have a dark side to them as well.  Both sides need to be presented so that our students know they have a choice.  They have a choice to work for good and justice, or they can work for a side that can be deceptive and corrupt.  When they see both sides of the coins throughout history, they will know that these decisions that our country faces every day must be made with care!

     This was a difficult article for me to read at times.  I agree with many of the things that Ken Goodman talks about.  However, I think his tone is a bit radical. He comes across as a conspiracy theorist and I hope that his message isn’t lost due to his tone.  He refers to many programs that I worry about.  I know that Open Court and DIBELS can and do take some ideas to an extreme.  However, I do understand the concern that people from the other side of the argument express.  We implement Open Court and hear from our intermediate teachers about how our kids can’t decode.  I also hear from other teachers at different schools about how “thorough” the DIBELS assessment is.  However, I know that for me, neither of these programs are necessary.  Would I have said that ten years ago?  I’m not so sure.  Why do I express hesitation?  Let me explain.

     When I started teaching, I thought the world was out there for me to conquer.  I didn’t think there was any problem that I couldn’t handle.  However, when I actually got into a classroom, I was a little bit overwhelmed.  I knew that I could do an okay job teaching the curriculum.  And then after a few years, I would get better.  That’s where Open Court came in.  It provided a framework for me in one subject area.  Then, I could focus my efforts on learning the math curriculum and mastering it.  That Open Court framework was a relief to a new teacher who wanted reassurance that I was doing at least one thing right!  Now, I look at that same curriculum and think a little differently.  However, it provided a safety net for me.  However, in today’s schools, I’m not sure that new teachers have a few years to get their feet under them.  That’s where I understand the battle.  Which curriculum must be mastered first?  I don’t think that we need programs like Open Court or DIBELS IF teachers would go out and take more staff development classes that could help them teach phonics in a different way.  However, I’m not sure how many of the teachers would go out and do that.  And then I go back to the question of, if they haven’t taken any classes about phonemic awareness or phonics instruction, then how are they teaching phonics and what exactly are they teaching?  I think if we visit some classrooms, we will find that what teachers aren’t comfortable teaching, doesn’t get taught.  The one thing that I can say for our school is that the majority of teachers are very uncomfortable teaching phonics.  Therefore, I cannot assure anyone that phonics is being taught in EVERY classroom.  That’s where Open Court comes in.  It is the county’s quick fix to making sure that something is being taught.  Is it a good program?  Not really.  But, will we see this change?  I’m not sure we will.  I think we might see it change if the level of  from all teachers changes.  ALL teachers would need to be willing to take more classes about how to teach subject matter in general.  We are learning new things every day about how to better teach our kids.  Until we feel the obligation to stay on top of the current research and practices, I think we will continue to see these programs encouraged.  Sure, the publishers will continue to advertise them.  Why?  It has already been created!  They don’t have to change anything!  However, the publishers are also getting wiser to changes within education as well.  Rigby sells about 12 titles of books with 6 copies of each for about $300.  When you are trying to stock a guided reading book-room, those costs add up.  Even if they did et rid of programs like Open Court and DIBELS, I think you would find more publishing companies branching out into other areas like guided reading books.  They will always find a way to make a buck.  I hope that teachers will begin to take a more active role in curriculum design.  I would love to buy materials from someone who taught in a classroom like mine…  I know the materials would look a lot different!

This was an eye-opening chapter because there are times where this is exactly what I think I do.  I let the fear of what is difficult paralyze me.  I think back to the IRB proposal process in the fall.  Fear would paralyze me at each step of the process.  I would send in a draft and when I got it back, I waited a day or two to read comments and remarks.  I was too scared of what I might read.  Once I read the comments, I would wait another day or two to make the revisions out of fear about how long those revisions would take.  Looking back, I wasted a lot of time.  I should have just pushed through the hard parts like so many other people in the class did.  I think the reflections that the professors shared with me will help for the next group.  I was more fearful about the process than actually doing the task.  I know that it has been suggested that people do group projects.  I think this will help with the fear of the project.  I also think that Caitlin talked about being there when we are completing the IRB proposal online to answer any questions about wording.  I think this is a good idea since many have not been through a process like that.  It would be a less anxious process if we could ask questions as we were constructing the proposal online.

The next idea that Freire talks about is how to approach reading for studying purposes.  One thing he talks about is being careful not to proclaim that we understand any knowledge without putting the knowledge to the test.  I wonder about how many teachers do that with some of the instructional strategies that are taught.  I find that in the area of balanced literacy.  Many people understand the premise of guided reading, and have that under control.  But, when you ask them about another part like the difference between shared writing and interactive writing, many get confused.  I think this could be because people get so secure in the guided reading portion that they don’t go on to experiment and try the other portions of the balanced literacy approach.  Then, after a few years pass, they can tell you basically what it is, but not much more.  I think if we can continue to encourage people to try and improve an area of instruction that they feel is weak, we may be able to get on a more common playing field with our colleagues.  When we take on the role as learners within a group, we can move our understandings forward and feel more comfortable in putting that new learning to the test.  When we can put this learning to the test, we can better understand the concepts and provide feedback to colleagues about pitfalls that might occur during the initial implementation.  I think this should improve the integrity of instruction as a whole and lift the progress of our students.

I thought Freire’s comments about imagination during reading are so true.  I can’t tell you how many times, I have found my thoughts wondering and had to go back and reread to really take in the text. He also takes about an open-mindedness that needs to occur to “co-author” the text.  I wonder how many of us miss out on good reading because one phrase or idea has turned us off. There were times initially in the program where I allowed that to happen after reading a text.  Now, I think I am alot more comfortable in my questioning and can express that in class. Towards the end of the chapter, my mind wondered towards the children.  How many of our children have teachers that don’t teach them how to truly interact with a text.  I think that is how our children gain a misunderstanding that reading is word calling.  When we as teachers fail to facilitate the interaction that must take place with a text, we teach the wrong concept of reading.  I think that is what happens when we focus too much on phonics.  Reading is about making meaning of text.  I think we have to start shouting that important idea from the roof top.   We also have to speak up if we see a pattern of that occurring within our schools.

     This was a hard article to read, because I feel that I have been in this woman’s position before.  And the struggle comes when you are trying to balance the need to speak out for the children and the possibility that you might push too far and lose a job that you really feel is most beneficial to those children.  As I said in class the other night, I have had an experience with an administration like this, and because it is beginning to happen more and more frequently, it is very scary.  I will take a minute to give the background on this situation and when I felt the need to speak up.  I feel this will happen to more and more people and if people think about what they will do ahead of time, they will be better prepared to speak out when it does.

       I teach at a large school.  A few years ago, after Columbine, the school district thought some of the elementary schools were too large.  So, to make the schools more personal, they came up with a school within a school model.  Two schools under one roof.  Two sets of administration and office staff, however, the student ratios in classes would remain the same.  There would be a primary K-2 school and an intermediate 3-5 school.  When the administration was hired, they immediately needed to hire additional personnel.  They asked me and another teacher to sit in on interviews and provide feedback.  We both provided feedback on the candidates which included the wife of our area assistant superintendent.  We both felt like other candidates were stronger, not to mention, we thought it was a violation of ethics laws to have a spouse hired in the direct line of your supervision.   However, the wife of the area assistant superintendent was hired.  Why did they even have us sitting in on the interviews?  Later, I found out that I was to act as a pawn to carry our the administrations’ agenda. 

They also hired a PhD. with a specialization in reading.  The school year started and they wanted me to list 11 students that would be pulled out for reading.  This teacher kept them the whole time and I never received feedback about the progress of the students.  I expressed concern that this teachers was suppose to act in a suuplemental instructional manner, not to be the sole instructor of their reading.  The administration believe that she was the only one that needed to teach them reading.  I didn’t need to “worry about it.” I was very upset. My first administrator had taught me that I was ultimately responsible for my kids. Now, someone else teaches my kids and they will still be on my class role? I needed to be able to talk with the kids and parents about what improvements needed to be made in their performance. If I didn’t instruct them in reading, how could I do that?  Then, when I completed their report cards for the first nine weeks, the party began.  I was approached by the “Reading Specialist” and administration to change how I had marked my students on their report card.  I had marked most of the students that she was serving as on grade level based on county guidelines. I didn’t change the grading on the report cards.  That was an ethics violation!  However, the response given to me was that we couldn’t justify the Ph.D. teaching those kids if they were on grade level.  I expressed concern about this situation anytime someone asked.  One time, the district superintendent came to a faculty meeting to talk to us about our concerns.  As the teachers spoke out, the “Reading Specialist” was on the floor of the meeting taking notes on who said what. I spoke out and felt like I was punished because of it. Needless to say, the principal was removed in January.

Just last week, a paraprofessional approached me at school.  She was in need of one staff development credit.  The  county told her that a staff development class was taught while the previous administration was there.  She was signed up for the class, but didn’t receive final credit.  I told her to talk to the instructor and see why…she then told me that I was listed on the paperwork as the instructor.  What????  I didn’t teach any staff development that year.  Why would someone have put my name on that class?  Who else was listed?  The wife of the area assistant superintendent, the “Reading Specialist”, and me.  That’s when I learned that I was just a pawn in carrying out the agenda.

I think about what would have happened had they not taken out that principal.  As much as I had already spoken out, I knew that I would have to leave the school.  I couldn’t continue to argue with  someone who didn’t share the same values as mine.  I was violating my own integrity to continue to participate in activities that I didn’t agree with and was illegal to even ask me to do.  Not everone had a bad experience with that administration.  They don’t understand how I got on her “bad list”.  However, if that situation had happened to any one of those other teachers, I don’t think they would have gone along with it either. 

I value that fact that this woman spoke out.  She did the right thing.  But, when teachers leave in great numbers, sometimes that gets the county’s attention as well.  Maybe there will be more impact after she is gone.  Now, she has the ability to speak out.  I’m sure the county won’t like the publicity that will come along with her story.  She can go back to that type of school after the county level administration changes.  It will…