Reflections on Fifth Grade Division (That Sounds So Sad)

 I have experienced a few pendulum swings over the years.  When I first started teaching in Hawaii, we had homogenous classes for language arts and math. I had the remedial class and used a skills-based curriculum in which they could progress at their own pace. For the past 7 years, I have been a math and science specialist in classes that include several English Language Learners in heterogenous classrooms, with a wide range of abilities from being at grade level to several years behind grade level. Because our school keeps all the gifted and talented and many high achievers in one class, we rarely have students who are above grade level.

   When I first entered teaching, we taught math pretty much how we were taught. I call it, "just do it" math. You don't have to understand it, you just have to follow the steps like I tell you to, and you will get the right answer. About eight years ago, our school chose a method of teaching math in which the point was conceptual understanding. The program itself was called Investigations, and I became an avid proponent.

 My math education was a result of the "just do it" approach and I blame that approach on my math phobia, my Ds in Algebra in high school, and my general hatred of math. The trainer, Gail P., opened my mind, exercised my math muscles, guided me to understanding. I was sold. There were some problems with this curriculum, admittedly. It didn't align well to Hawaii standards. This didn't  mean our school was necessarily on the wrong track, but we didn't test well; standardized tests don't assess conceptual understanding well. It was also inefficient, and perhaps too free-flowing. We want kids to develop understanding, but we want them to be disciplined thinkers. It didn't emphasize fluency so much, and many kids just did not have their "facts" down. We ended up having to do a juggling act, to include all the different components and expectations into our program. 

And now comes Common Core. The PR on it claims to be about critical thinking and conceptual understanding. But when it comes down to it, it really goes back to the "just do it" math. This is what I am experiencing as we implement our new GoMath curriculum that is aligned with the CC. I believe there was a conflict among math educators about computational fluency versus conceptual understanding. It seems as if elements of both got into the CC, but what side is going to rule supreme? 

I just discovered that the CC standard does not specify the use of the traditional algorithm in division until 6th grade. This is somewhat good news, as my students, who have been developing conceptual understanding, are having a hard time making the leap to "just do it" math. I can go back to school on Monday, and tell them what I have found. This will relieve some stress, I hope. It's strange because the GoMath curriculum includes the traditional algorithm in division. The writers were probably on the side of computational fluency in the math wars.  

I have several students who have transferred from other schools or even other countries. When we were working on conceptual strategies (distributive property, inverse operations, partial quotients, using models), they struggled. Now that we have moved on to the traditional algorithm, they are so happy, because they have already been taught this and know it by rote. 

My other students, most of whom I have had since 4th grade and have been in our school since kindergarten, are reacting the opposite. They don't understand it because it doesn't make sense. They are right. It doesn't make sense. It only makes sense to mathematicians and maybe math teachers, because they understand how it works. When you try to explain to a 5th grader how it works, it is very abstract and leads to confusion. If you teach the "just do it" way, there is no expectation to understand how it works, so it was easier for students to learn it. 

But it contributed to the prevalence of rote thinking. So what? you may say. They'll get the right answer and that's all that matters. And therein lies the question. Is getting the "answer" the most important thing? You see how the math wars went?

 In the end, a math teacher has to take a stand one way or the other. This is my process for deciding my stand:  (1) Why is math important to the average person? Math helps you to understand the world. If you have a sense of numbers and what numbers mean, you have a better sense of your place in the world. (2) So what method is better for an average person to make sense of the world? Conceptual math, I believe. Anyone can compute any problem on a calculator. No one really NEEDS to learn how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide. But an educated person needs to have a sense of what the numbers mean in order to make sense of the world. Learning to do computation is a good mental exercise because it develops an understanding of what numbers mean. But computation at the expense of thinking leads to rote thinking, surface thinking. It does not pass the litmus test of helping you to understand the world. 

There may be some students who will not go into the deeper areas of conceptual understanding, who will only do the "just do it" way, and they will generally be fine, calculator in hand to subtract 123- 12. But my goals for my students are more than that. My goals for my students are for them to be so comfortable with their sense of numbers and how they work, that they will see a scam right away, they will see mistakes in computations,  they will be able to identify when something just doesn't make sense, they will be questioners and thinkers, they will feel confident in the world and in what they can do in it. 

So, if you wonder why I am so uncomfortable teaching kids to "just do it," that's why. 

 Keeping track of their division progress. It was a bad day for the beginners. 

One Quarter Down, Three to Go ...

On this, the Sunday before returning to work after a week break, I am taking a moment to reflect on my vision, the reason I started this blog. Am I the teacher I want to be? 

The answer is no, I'm DP, developing proficiency. Implementing a new curriculum with the Common Core standards was a huge bear on my pathway.  The Common Core expected them to have mastered a lot of skills last year, that we didn't expect them to have mastered until the end of this year. That doesn't mean we haven't been doing our jobs, and it definitely doesn't mean the CC are better than our current standards. It just means the standards are higher, for better or worse. (That is a topic for another blog piece).

So, because I perceived that the students are way behind where they "should" be, I was in panic mode trying to catch them up. It was always like this. The Hawaii standards were not easy. It was always about getting the students to meet standards, and they didn't all meet them. All along from kindergarten up to us in 5th grade, you have students at all levels. There are a few who do fine, who meet standards, who go on to middle school and beyond, and do well. Because of our focus on standards, they do fine. Even the average students eventually catch up, with effort. The struggle was always on the ones who are well below the standards. And now, it is even more difficult. I am trying to cram into them learning in one quarter that used to take the whole year. And it is not possible. The only way cramming is successful is if everyone - teacher, parents, student - participates in the cramming. And they don't. 

Here is the dilemma: There is more content to learn because of the higher standards. The higher standards are pretty much rote learning, despite what the PR sell is on how the CC is about critical thinking and problem-solving.  I want to be the Teacher that makes learning engaging, relevant, and meaningful. Can there be a synthesis? A compromise? 

I think if I stick religiously with the curriculum materials that we are using, then I will never be the Teacher I Want to Be. I need to be able to use the parts that will be the most useful, and then let the rest go. I need to look at what works in my classroom that most takes kids from where they are - to get to the next level. I need to identify the math content that is the most challenging and impactful, and finds ways to break it down so that all of my students can find their entry point from which to proceed. I need to use science as the venue for critical thinking and problem-solving. I need to have a balance between math practice and skill-building and science. 

So, I have, on paper (digital), come up with a plan to do this. More differentiated projects and structures for skill-building. More science to develop those 21st century skills - collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem-solving. Am I full of it, am I blowing air? Well, change starts with an idea, becomes developed with a plan, then it's a matter of making it a reality. Step by step. Idea by idea, plan by plan. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Why Take a Stand on Marriage Equality? Because of Love ...

A friend colleague of mine asked me why HSTA (Hawaii State Teachers Association) made a statement recently supporting marriage equality. She said she has heard people will quit their membership over this. Though I am no longer on the Board, I can only guess at what the debate may have been. First of all, I know that the National Education Association, our parent national union, is at it's core, all about social justice. The roots of the NEA are intertwined with civil rights history, including the abolition of slavery, gender equality, and racial equality. One of their strongest departments is the Human and Civil Rights departments. As a national organization, it is not surprising that they be on the forefront of pushing for equality for all. As a union, we find resonance with the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) quote, "An injury to one is an injury to all. " 

But going from the big picture to the small, from the abstract to the concrete, we know that our membership, like any cross-section of society, includes people who happen to love members of their own gender. These are my colleagues, these are my friends, my very dear friends. When it comes down to that  - away from what is being said at the pulpit or conservative media - how can you not want your friends to have the same rights as you have? 

I don't know what their argument is. I am a die-hard liberal, a progressive Christian and perhaps as set in my ways as they are. It is an effort for me to see it from their point of view. Could it be the same argument that was put forward by those who advocated for slavery way back when, that the slaves were not to be considered human, so they did not deserve human rights? Or those who tried to keep women and non-whites from achieving voting rights, that women and non-whites did not have the capacity to vote intelligently, and so it would not serve society to give them the right to vote? Or those who thought a woman's place was in the home and if granted equal rights, the fabric of society, the home, would be destroyed? I can imagine that it is along those lines - something about the fabric of society and the decline of civilization.

But once you know and love a gay person, how in the world is it possible to maintain those beliefs about them? How can you not want them to have equal rights? How can you not want them to marry a person that they love and want to be committed to for their lifetime? More love will make the world more loving, a better place. In this world of petty politics, of abuse and hatred of all kinds, let there be love! 

Strengthening my Stand: Thanks to Diane Ravitch's new book, Reign of Error

When I started speaking up against high-stakes testing in the era of No Child Left Behind, one of the common reactions I got from veteran teachers was, don't worry, this too will pass. They knew not to take anything seriously because of the pendulum swing of so-called innovation. I couldn't help but think there was more to what was going on than that, and I did worry. When I started to articulate that it's about the destruction of public education - they must have thought I was a paranoid conspiracy theorist. But with Diane Ravitch's new book, Reign of Error, subtitled "The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools," I feel validated. It is not a matter of a pendulum swing, it has been a planned takeover, a hoax. 

Ravitch is a historian. She documents her claims with evidence. She carefully lays out the hoax, how the corporate reformers, or privatizers, have deliberately and stealthily misled the public and politicians to perceive a crisis, so that they can claim their ultimate prize - control of public education and thereby it's destruction. She documents how the corporate reformers have taken some originally well-intended ideas, like charter schools and Teach for America, and managed to distort them to meet their needs, to make them fit into the plan to destroy public education. 

This is not a partisan effort. Bush's No Child Left Behind policy caused more than it's fair share of the harm, but the abuse became intensified with Obama's Race to the Top, and his administration's other programs that over-emphasized testing and a solely economic justification for education. 

This is all meaty stuff - depressing and negative. But it is negative in the way that bad news is negative. It's bad, but it's still news. We must face the facts, so that we can do something about it.

This is what I love best about the book. Throughout the book, there is a thread of hope as she contrasts the corporate agenda to what it's supposed to be, what it should be, what it can be.  I highlighted those silver threads whenever I saw them, here are a few, with positive solutions underlined:

"Once upon a time, education reformers thought deeply about the relationship between school and society. They thought about child development as the starting point. "(P.19)

"The reformers define the purpose of education as preparation for global competitiveness, higher education, or the workforce. They view students as "human capital" or "assets " one seldom sees ... the importance of developing full persons to assume the responsibilities of citizenship." (P. 34-35)

"Children who are poor receive less medical attention and less nutrition, and experience more stress, disruption, and crises in their lives.... That is why por children need even more stability, more support, smaller class sizes, and more attention from their teachers and others in their schools, but often receive far less, due to underfunding." (P. 36)

"Of course we can do better. Students should be writing more and reading more and doing more science projects and more historical research papers and should have more opportunities to engage in the arts." (P.54)

"If we were serious about narrowing the gap ... schools ... would have a stable, experienced teacher, a rich curriculum, social services, after-school programs, and abundant resources to meet the needs of their students." (P.59)

Regarding teacher evaluation based on student test scores: "If by great, we mean teachers who awaken students' desire to learn, who kindle in their students a sense of excitement about learning, scores on standardized tests do not identify those teachers." (P.113) 

"...there remains the essential question of why scores on standardized tests should displace every goal and expectation for schools: character, knowledge, citizenship, love of learning, creativity, initiative, and social skills." (P.114)

"Also forgotten is that public schools were created by communities and states for a "civic purpose." In the nineteenth century, they were also called "common schools." They were a project of the public commons, the community. They were created to build and sustain democracy, to teach young people how to live and work together with others, and to teach the skills and knowledge needed to participate fully in society." (P.207 )

The last thirteen chapters focus on solutions and a brighter future, which have also been woven within the text of the previous chapters which define the many faces of the hoax and the many-pronged efforts to privatize public schools. So, reading this book, you come away empowered - you feel Power because you know the truth, and you know what to offer as an alternative to what is happening now. 

I am a product of regular public schools as is my now-grown daughter and most of my family. I may not ever have grandchildren (I cannot lie, I hope to) but I still want to fight for public schools as a great cause. I believe in public schools like I believe in democracy. In fact, the two are intertwined.

If we envision a future society rich in culture and arts, thriving businesses, satisfied workers, happy and healthy families, a society peopled by good citizens who help each other, who vote, pay taxes to support the commons, and serve on juries to ensure the carriage of justice, then we must have schools that reflect that. Right now, if society is a reflection of the schools, there would be a shortage of music and art, chaotic physical activities, little science, poor health and nutrition, and little sense of history and no knowledge of what it means to be a citizen in a democratic society. 

I hope there are bright lights out there. More and more instead of less and less. I want my experiences with my students be more a reflection of this healthy society. That's the teacher I want to be. Thank you Diane Ravitch for strengthening my stand. 

Where Do You Stand?

Read a brilliant article,  http://cloakinginequity.com/2013/09/27/taylor-v-dewey-the-100-year-trickle-down-vs-pedagogical-debatefight-in-education-reform/.

It is a somewhat satirical, but very serious piece about education reform, that got me thinking about conflicting philosophies, behaviors, and leadership in general. On the one hand, there are imposed standards, uniformity, codes, and control. On the other hand, there is thinking and respect for the individual. Both have education and student success as the goal. 

In organizations, such as unions, there should be unity of purpose, even though some may have problems with the managerial aspects. How does one decide what is right, what is pono? In the classroom, though I want to maintain control, I can appreciate when students call me on inconsistencies, even though it unsettles me, and few students have the gumption to do so. I try to provide a safe environment for them to tell me anything and I hope that I do. I try to make corrections based on the feedback I get from my students, either in their communication to me,  in their work, from feedback from colleagues, or upon my own self-reflection. 

For me, it's about consistency, honesty, and relationships. But I can only strive to be honest with myself and my core beliefs. I can not make others agree with me, but I want to be able to identify what the core belief is. If there is no way to agree on that core belief, then we need to just respect each other and honor this diversity of thought, peacefully and respectfully. I guess the idealist in me believes that the bottom line is, we are all one human family, and that there are very few exceptions of embodied evil. 

For example, in politics, I am a liberal and a Democrat. But I am disappointed in my party, and especially in my president's education policies, as well as other policies, such as drones, and too much cooperation with the 1%. I am disappointed in the National Education Association's support of the Common Core. I am disappointed that the largest union in the country has not been strong enough to fight the massive attacks on public education. I am disappointed because my party's and my union's stands are in conflict with my core beliefs, that liberals should be more compassionate, more about caring for the common good, more about addressing inequity and injustice, and less about serving the corporate machine, which is what the so-called education reformers are doing. 

In this crazy, mixed-up world, how can you be at peace? You have to stand up and speak up. You don't have to be mean and nasty, but you can stand up and say to people who want to bully you into compliance, this is not right. We must all do what we can to maintain consistency and authenticity with our values, and what is being demanded of us, even if it is not signing something that we don't believe is appropriate. Every time we give in, we diminish ourselves. When we diminish ourselves, we do not serve our students, and on a spiritual level, we do not serve our souls. 

Inspired and Energized by GLADness

How many teachers say this? "I'm glad I went to GLAD training." I earlier asked to decline the training because of the amount of time I would be out of the classroom. The first two-day introduction training was held last week and there will be another 4-day in December. My principal said that I was required to go, and that the trainings and the substitutes were funded by the state. So I went, leaving my students with a new, untried substitute, hoping this disruption would be worth the disruption of not being in the classroom. 

It was. This one, I like. This one, I don't put on my list of onerous mandates. Out of all the mandates being placed on us, this one seems to come from a good place - a place of respect for teachers and true concern for student learning and engagement. 

GLAD stands for Guided Language Acquisition Design and comes from Orange County, California. It was developed out of research-based practices of what works for English Language Learners, which turns out to be strategies that are appropriate for all students, in some way or another. One of our trainers was a real classroom teacher, who works in a year-round school, and on break. The other trainer also honed her skills in the classroom, but has moved on to higher education. Whatever the recipe for the training, I came away inspired and energized. 

It is not new nor ground-breaking, but it is new in today's context of high-stakes testing. The training reminds me of the time before No Child Left Behind and even before the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards. There was a time when we were told that social-emotional development was all-important. We had trainings on Spencer Kagan's Cooperative Learning strategies (I even had a job for a short time, training teachers on those strategies), and schools statewide were adopting the TRIBES program. I loved that time. 

         When I first took college courses in education at the University of Guam many years ago, when my now 30-year old daughter was a toddler, we were all about developing integrated cross-content units. I loved that time. It matched the way my mind works, needing context and connections in order to make sense of learning and teaching. It turns out, according to research, most minds work this way. 

So what I experienced with GLAD was like coming home. It was a refreshing validation of my core beliefs about teaching and learning. Though the research is not new, if this is the direction we are expected to take, it is a new chapter. If we only did this in our efforts to transform education, we would be doing a lot. Having been inspired and validated, the ideas are at the forefront of my mind when I plan or face blank looks of my students when I ask them a question. Instead of calling out names, I now more automatically say, "heads together." 

On Friday afternoon, it was hot, and the natives were restless. I looked around the room, with about 20 minutes left, and wondered if I should try to teach another math lesson. The answer was no, and luckily I had written a song, inspired by the training, about a science concept we have been studying. I quickly wrote it on my Promethean board, and we sang. What a great way to end a hot, restless, Friday afternoon.

Knowing that these strategies are encouraged, helps me to be the teacher I want to be. 

Is Unrest Brewing? Is it just me?

This past week's faculty meeting / EES (educator evaluation system ) training may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, or the spark needed to light the bonfire, or the tax on tea. I hope you get the idea. It's been piling on and piling on. And we are now feeling the weight of it. It's not that everything is so bad, it's that there is so much of it. And, like a box of chocolates, if you eat it all at once, you will be sick to your stomach. 

          So, though I am no longer on the Board of Directors of the state teachers union, I  find myself drawn into teacher advocacy, not from a union point of view, but from a teacher point of view. 

The latest training had to do with the Tripod Student Survey, which I had written about earlier on this blog. This past week, we were given a schedule in which we were assigned to "proctor" the survey for other teachers' students, for each other's students. There were many concerns brought up, having to do with special education students, and English Language Learner students, losing instructional time for this, and confidentiality concerns. 

My biggest concern is that we are being asked to do this, to play a part in carrying out this survey, that no one who I know really wants.  When we ratified, we agreed to the Joint Committee of HSTA and DOE, who finalized the parameters of this new evaluation system in the summer. That was a total leap of faith. I am not sure that the current form of the system really was an equal collaboration, or if it was a sell-out, a result of being bullied into it, a result of them getting their way, after all, as laid out by the Race to the Top application. 

I want to believe the Joint Committee did fight and will fight for us. I have written to several people I know are on the Joint Committee, and one staff person has graciously responded to me. I expressed to him my concern about the fact that we are being asked to proctor each other's students. One of our members, a counselor, was even asked to make the schedule. I asked if the Joint Committee had agreed to proctor each other's surveys. He said no. I suggested that there should be a cease and desist order to stop the employer from requiring us to do this. He did not respond to that. I told him that unrest was brewing and he asked me to explain what I meant by that.

Here's what I mean: the heavy lift of this new system is causing a lot of anxiety and stress. It will soon turn to anger if they believe that the union is either party to this mess, or not fighting for them. The Tripod survey is not the only thing that is feeding the fire, it is one of many incendiaries.      Those of us who are in tested grades will have 25% of our evaluation based on student test scores. But because it's growth rather than a cut score, it's supposed to be fair. I know my students grow in the time I have them, but now I find out student growth is in comparison to other students "like them," whatever that means. If they found a way to compare students who are not fluent in English, who live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 families, whose parents work 2 jobs, who are cared for by grandparents, whose parents have rough marriages and eventual divorces, then wow, what a tool they have. But if you are comparing us to Asian/Pacific islanders in other more stable communities, then it's definitely not fair. 

We also have new standards (Common Core - CC) and a new curriculum, so there is the stress and learning curve associated with that. I will keep writing about my experiences with the common core. I have only touched the surface. For now, suffice it to say, I am skeptical that it is going to "transform" education; it has not been field-tested, and there are a lot of inconsistencies, not to mention departures from common sense and tested, professional practices. A lot of spin is circulating, disappointingly from our parent union, the National Education Association, who got big bucks from the Gates Foundation to promote it. 

Then there's the Student Learning Objectives, which gives a way for all teachers to be evaluated, not just the teachers of the tested grades. And is it simple, like IEPs for Special Education teachers, or basic goals, p like ability to do multi-digit multiplication and division. No, it has to have Big Ideas, and Higher Order Thinking, and all kinds of bells and whistles that will take time to develop and document. I am a big lover of Big Ideas and Higher Order Thinking. I think big and high all the time. Like I said, what we are going through is not all bad, it's just too much.

Then there's the issue of equity, why is it fair that my evaluation has a test score component and a kindergarten or computer teacher doesn't? I don't want them to, but I want what they have. I want to set my own goals, to work on my own portfolio, include things in it that are evidences of my professionalism, that I have control over. I don't think it's fair that we are weighted differently. 

Then there is the PDE3. Again, not a bad tool, but more on our plate to learn to navigate this online portfolio to which we are responsible to input all this data regarding our evaluation. 

Oh, and the there's the observation, which I haven't done yet, but is coming up shortly. I have seen my colleagues, who are good teachers, agonize before and after the observation, trying to fill out those online forms. The main complaint is the "paper" work (online forms). Teachers are not afraid of being observed if the observer is fair and trustworthy. So the observation itself is not a problem, but the unintended consequences, like agonizing over the questions for the pre-conference, and the lost instructional time when out of the classroom for the pre and post observation conferences, which are now to be done twice a year. 

The main effect of all of this is what is lost to our students. There is lost instructional time for tests, for the surveys, for observation conferences. There is lost planning time in the amount of documentation that we will have to keep up with. There is stress and anxiety over the weight of this that does not make us better teachers but feeds the bureaucracy.  

I am not afraid of evaluation. I love chocolate, but I can't eat the whole box in one sitting. What I am voicing is a human dilemma. There comes a point, like on a hot Friday afternoon, that you know you can not try to teach a lesson on solving story problems and instead you have to sing. Even brain research teaches us about the need for time to consolidate learning. Too much is too much. 

The teachers at my school want to do a petition drive and letter-writing campaign. They want their voices heard and want to know if the union is going to help. I sent a few letters, but if I'm the only one speaking, they will not listen to me. We need thousands of voices, thousands of emails. Is it just me? Is it just my school? I don't think so. Please give your input when asked and even when not asked. Sign petitions. Write letters. Share your thoughts and feelings. Send them to Rhanda Vickery, a teacher at Waikoloa School and on the Educator Effectiveness System Advisory Committee (lotus), your Uniserv directors, your chapter presidents, and Wil Okabe (wokabe@hsta.org). The focus for now is making sure HSTA hears us.