Epiphany in Baltimore

The BCPSS teacher contract, one year later

2011-12-01T15:36:00.001-05:00

I was just interviewed by the Baltimore Sun for an article about the implementation of the new teacher contract. My take on it: one year into a three-year deal, the fact that there is no AU system in place yet for anything beyond credits (which already were rewarded on the old contract) makes it a big disappointment. Many aspects of it are a good idea, but it's been terribly implemented (or, just, not implemented). It would not pass today.

Baltimore teachers were promised a system that would reward hard work. I thought I would be given credit for going to conferences like the NCTE or for running my athlete study hall. None of this has occurred, making the contract a failure at this point, more than a year later.

It's a bummer, because I like the idea on paper, still. Should have been more cynical, I suppose.

I might change my mind a bit once I hear how many of my colleagues are rewarded as Model Teachers. I'm going for it as soon as I hear when the next cohort is.

Fertile Concrete

2011-11-29T20:03:00.001-05:00

Back in the day when I was a good blogger, I wrote about a young man named "Bobby," my most memorable student ever. I taught this enigmatic young man as a 9th grader way back in 2003, then as a 11th grader in 2005. I also went on several Outward Bound trips with him, and we became close. I became familiar with his tragic story -- no father, a mother dead to drug addiction, an older brother shot on the streets in a drug-related murder, the responsibility of keeping the lights on at his house through his own burgeoning drug trade -- all the while trying to be a student and athlete in high school. I became so close with Robert that when he was struggling his senior year with homelessness, he stayed in my house in his waning high school days as he awaiting his matriculation into the University of Maryland (on an academic scholarship).

Robert, now 23 years old and a father, has written a moving and raw memoir (Fertile Concrete) about his experiences growing up in Baltimore and dealing with the issues described above. The book is a great read, not only to read about the experiences of this tough young man who has been through more than most people three time his age, but also as a window into the world of poverty and drugs that so many of our students have to live in. Ultimately, though, it's a story of redemption and hope, which makes me all the more happy.

(I also have a real nice section in the Acknowledgements.)

Buy the book here: http://www.thefcmovement.com/

You can hear Rob talk about his book on the 11/11 & 11/12 show of "The Signal" on WYPR here: http://www.wypr.org/stationprogram/signal

(I'm so proud.)

Obliblog II

2011-11-21T22:16:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to be a good blogger, but I haven't even had a Facebook Status update since Friday, and that one was just asking if we had the "Works" sessions on that Saturday. I'm a big FB updater, so this is weird for me.

I have a lot going on in my head right now. It's the kind of stuff that I should be writing about, but not in a public space. It's good stuff and it's bad stuff, back and forth, up and down.

My classes are going well. I wish we had Wednesday off, or at least a half day, but that's not new. Maybe someday.

Lame blog entry, I know. This month of blogging (which I've been pretty good about) is mostly reminding me that blogging, at least the way I like to blog, isn't very useful for me or fun to read in a non-anonymous setting. Blah.

AUs = Leprechaun Gold

2011-11-19T15:45:00.001-05:00

Today, I attended the 3rd of 10 AP English "Works" sessions conducted by the BCPSS. I like it -- it's a group of teachers sitting around talking about how to teach rigorous skills and texts to urban kids, sharing materials and discussing strategies -- and probably would have done it even without the carrot of an "AU." But an AU is what I'll be getting.

If you remember from around this time last year, Baltimore teachers ratified a new 3-year contract that placed teachers on different pathways instead of steps. We're moved up by receiving 12 AUs, and 12 AUs are received via a proficient evaluation. In addition, we were told that AUs would be available for any college credit courses, as well as for anything above-and-beyond that connected with student growth or learning - for example, attending a conference or running an academic student group.

The NCTE conference is occurring this week in Chicago, and, upon hearing about AUs, I thought it would be worth it, financially, to pay out of pocket to attend. The cost of this would be well over a thousand bucks, but if I could more quickly get a raise, it seemed like it'd be worth it. However, there is not yet anything in place yet for AUs except for credits.

Yes, we're over a year into the contract and the system hasn't figured out how to reward teachers with AUs, even though that was a major selling point of the contract.

Therefore, the AU has turned into this sort of nebulous unit that teachers have begun to feel like we're being bribed with, but not many are actually trusting they mean anything. "What am I going to do with all this leprechaun gold," one of my colleagues asked today, "after the contract runs out next year?" AUs are kind of like unicorns -- no one really believes that they exist.

Dumb It Down

2011-11-18T22:16:00.001-05:00

I think, if I get between units and the time to do it, I'd like to give my 9th graders -- particularly the ones in the afternoon, the ones really rough around the edges -- the chance to dig into a hip-hop song like this. I bet this one could really catalyze a great Socratic Seminar. Very literary (plus this interesting thing he does with a stereotypically white voice interjecting itself between the verses) and the ideas are profound -- plus relatable for the kids. I think there are versions I could find without so many n-words.

[Verse 1:]
I'm fearless
Now hear this
I'm earless
And I'm peerless
That means I'm eyeless
Which means I'm tearless
Which means my iris resides where my ears is
Which means I'm blinded
But I'm gonna find it I can feel it's nearness
But I'm gonna veer so I don't come near
Like a chicken or a deer
But I remember I'm not a listener or a seer so my windshield smear
Here, you steer, I really shouldn't be behind this, clearly cause my blindness
The windshield is minstrel, the whole grill is roadkill, so trill and so sincere. Yeah, I'm
Both them there
Took both pills, when a bloke in a trench coat and the locs in the chair had approached him
Here
And he clear as a ghost, so a biter of the throats in the mirror
The writer of the quotes for the ghosts who supplier of the notes to the living
Riveting is rosy, pockets full of posies, given to the mother of the deceased. Awaken at war,
'til I'm restin' in peace

[Chorus 1:]
You goin' over niggas' heads Lu (Dumb it down)
They tellin' me that they don't feel you (Dumb it down)
We ain't graduate from school nigga (Dumb it down)
Them big words ain't cool nigga (Dumb it down)
Yeah I heard Mean And Vicious nigga (Dumb it down)
Make a song for the bitches nigga (Dumb it down)
We don't care about the weather nigga (Dumb it down)
You'll sell more records if you (Dumb it down)

[Verse 2:]
And I'm mouthless
Which means I'm soundless
Now as far as the hearing, I've found it
It was as far as the distance from the earring to the ground is
But the doorknockers on the ear of a stewardess in a Lear
She fine and she flying, I feel I'm flying by'em 'cause my mind's on cloud nine and I'm a mime
At the same time
Pimps C the wings on the underground king
Who's also Klingon
To infinity and beyond
Something really stinks, but I Sphinx like Leon
Or lying in the desert
I'm flying on Pegasus you're flying on the pheasant
Rider of the white powder, picker of the fire flowers, spit hot fire like Dylon on Chappelle's
Skit
Yeah, smell it on my unicorn, snort the white horse, but toot my own horn (sleep)

[Chorus 2:]
You've been shedding too much light Lu (Dumb it down)
You make'em wanna do right Lu (Dumb it down)
They're getting self-esteem Lu (Dumb it down)
These girls are trying to be queens Lu (Dumb it down)
They're trying to graduate from school Lu (Dumb it down)
They're starting to think that smart is cool Lu (Dumb it down)
They're trying to get up out the hood Lu (Dumb it down)
I'll tell you what you should do (Dumb it down)

[Verse 3:]
And I'm brainless
Which means I'm headless
Like Ichabod Crane is
Or foreplay-less sex is
Which makes me stainless
With no neck left to hang the chain with
Which makes me necklace-less
Like a necklace theft
And I ain't used my headrest yet
They said they need proof like a vestless chest 'bout the best, fair F-F-jet in the nest
Who exudes confidence and excess depth
Even Scuba Steve would find it hard to breathe
Around these leagues
My snorkle is a tuba, Lu the ruler around these seas
Westside Poseidon, Westside beside'em, chest high and rising
Almost touching the knees of stewardess and the pilot
Lucky they make it flowered
Personal floating devices, tricks falling out of my sleeves
David Blaine
Make it rain
Make a boat
I make a plane
Then, I pull the plug and I make it drain
Until I feel like flowing and filling it up again..(Westside)

[Chorus 3:]
You putting me to sleep nigga (Dumb it down)
That's why you ain't popping in the streets nigga (Dumb it down)
You ain't winning no awards nigga (Dumb it down)
Robots and skateboards nigga? (Dumb it down)
GQ Man Of The Year G? (Dumb it down)
Shit ain't rocking over here B (Dumb it down)
Won't you talk about your cars nigga? (Dumb it down)
What the fuck is goyard nigga (Dumb it down)
Make it rain for the chicks (Dumb it down)
Pour champagne on a bitch (Dumb it down)
What the fuck is wrong with you? (Dumb it down)
How can I get on a song with you? (Dumb it down)

[Gemini: talking]
Look B, here's my man, my two way, (hey) uh, what should I - ah here take this (hey) that
Right there, fuck what my boys talking about nigga, (hey) nigga you hot to me, I like you (Dumb
It down)

[Lupe:]
Bishop G, they told me I should come down cousin, but I flatly refuse I ain't dumb down nothing

Obligablog

2011-11-17T22:02:00.001-05:00

I don't know much about Daylight Savings but I know that I leave when it's dark and I get home when it's dark this time of year.

It's been an exhausting week, but mostly pretty good I guess. I came up with an interesting idea to practice commentaries with my seniors and I'm excited about replicating it. A "Network" person from North Avenue came in to watch one of my classes and was very complimentary. Took my 9th graders to an assembly; they were pretty good, especially considering how hard it is to hear in there.

Not bad. I don't have much in me to blog tonight.

Made It through Hump Day

2011-11-16T21:48:00.001-05:00

A few randoms:

1. Tomorrow, my students will be debating the merits of Muslim women wearing the veil. Strange lesson for English class, maybe, but fits right into Persepolis.

2. Today was a better day with the 9th graders. It's really up and down. They want to do well.

3. I've been exhausted lately. It's probably waking up at 4:30. I'm good about going to bed at 10, though.

4. My seniors are having more problems with James Baldwin than I remember previous classes having.

5. Five more school days until Thanksgiving. I really wish I worked in a district that gave Wednesday off, or at least a half day.

It's only Tuesday

2011-11-15T22:54:00.001-05:00

I have some of the roughest 9th graders I've ever taught this year. And, by "rough", I don't mean they're mean, or bad, or not smart -- they're just rough around the edges. Really unprepared for high school. Really loud. I have good days and bad days with them, but the bad days are making me think that I need to not teach 9th grade for a little while.

Today was one of those days. Nothing in particular happened, but yesterday was just about the best day of the year with them, and, then, today, which featured kids giving only about 10 minutes of total engagement and then slow devolution into almost no engagement by the time the bell rang at the end. And I had a great lesson for them. On days like these, I just think to myself, "When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear. When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear.When the..." I repeat this old Chinese Proverb to myself like a mantra. Because, today, I didn't appear.

So, yes, it wasn't a great day. I left after Coach Class to work my frustrations out at the gym, and stopped at 7-11 for some coffee. A middle school aged kid was in front of me in line, so I set my coffee and my car keys down on the counter while I fished for my $1.33 in my pocket for the coffee refill. The kid ordered some pizza, right in front of where my coffee and keys were, so he sort of shoved himself in the space between me and my keys, not even taking notice of his total violation of my space. Then, he got his pizza, and left, and I left right behind him. Then, right on 33rd street, he took his piece of pizza out of the square cardboard pizza box and tossed the box on the street, and ran across to the Waverly Library. He didn't appear to have a care in the world. Absolutely no shame in throwing a big piece of trash on the street in the middle of rush hour.

It was the punctuation mark on a bad day, one full of disappointment. And it's only Tuesday.

***

I'm also supporting the other Baltimore Education bloggers who are also blogging every day this month. Check out their blogs!:

http://survivingthesystem.blogspot.com/

http://bmoreschools.org/

http://www.thesmallesttwine.blogspot.com/

http://nyates314.wordpress.com/

A Socratic Seminar during a 45-minute period

2011-11-14T21:23:00.001-05:00

I'm struggling with the 45-minutes class period, which is new this year.

I thought 50 minutes was short, and struggled with it. But 45 minutes? Crazy short.

A typical class with my seniors is this: I will give them a passage from what we are reading. They will have 20 minutes to mark it up according to the passage's purpose and the author's techniques. (This replicates the 20 minutes of preparation they will get for the IB Oral Commentary). Then, they will have 15 minutes to discuss the passage in a graded Socratic Seminar. Then, there will be 10 minutes of feedback from the outer circle.

However, the discussion doesn't usually get good until about Minute #12, so I usually cut it off when it's going well. And it the timing is as good as I can make it, but doesn't account for moving seats, explaining any new instructions, assigning roles in the outer circle, etc. Today, we got 4 minutes of feedback and I totally didn't feel like we got into the meat of the discussion. I could get this discussion done last year. If I had 90 minutes, I'd really be able to dig deep.

I'm thinking of having the students prepare their passage at home the night before, but that takes away some of the pressure. We'll see how I can improve.

Persepolis and Its Connection to Fahrenheit 451

2011-11-13T20:36:00.001-05:00

Persepolis remains one of my favorite books to teach. The kids -- the same kids who struggled through Fahrenheit 451 -- can take a whole page and make inferences like crazy about author's purpose and how her techniques create meaning. At the same time, I love how its ideas match so well with F451... we had the kids mark for three motifs in F451: ignorance vs. knowledge, rebellion vs. conformity, and the influence of technology and, even though we didn't ask for it, they're naturally using those three motifs as springboards for their analysis of Persepolis. "Oh", they might say, "That's another example of conformity, isn't it?" and me, taken aback because it wasn't what I had asked them to do but, somehow, they're synthesizing the themes in Bradbury's dystopian futuristic novel with Satrapi's non-fiction memoir. It's actually quite wonderful.

I've finally written the rest of my unit plan, which sees us completing more analytic assignments this week and, next week, watching the excellent film adaptation. We're going to use a film review at the end -- perhaps Roger Ebert's, perhaps Slant Magazine's-- to work in another informational text into the unit.

Feeling good about it all...

Grading

2011-11-12T09:02:00.001-05:00

After all year hearing about the changed grading system for BCPSS -- that, from now on, grades will be reported as letter grades instead of number grades -- all report cards had NUMBER grades on them when they were handed out yesterday. Ugh. I kind of liked the announced change to letters, not having to worry if a kid got a 93 or a 94 and have them comparing report cards. An 'A' is an 'A'. And it didn't happen. Oh well.

As for Power Teacher Gradebook, though, apparently passwords have been sent home because I'm starting to get questions about grades that parents (and their students, through their accounts) are accessing. Of course, I can't find the directions on either http://www.baltimorecityschools.org or our school website about how to access. I think this system could be a great boon for parents, and I hope the system starts rolling it out better than it has thus far.

Observation

2011-11-10T21:38:00.001-05:00

I think my observation went pretty well, though, during observations, I tend to go a little slower and don't get through everything I'd like to get through. I had assessments built in during the lesson, but the summative assessment ended up being homework.

Also, I usually try to have the observer come in after I'd timed the lesson, and this one was fresh during 1st period. It became a bangup lesson by the afternoon. Such is life. I don't think I'm ever going to get used to 45-minute periods. Drive-thru teaching that I feel like allows us to generally achieve the analysis level of Bloom's Taxnomy but not quite to Synthesis. I thought about cutting out drills this year to accommodate for the short class periods, but I just can't: that's how I teach grammar. So it's rush, rush, rush.

I'm confident enough in my teaching and planning that I would be fine with anyone coming in and observing at any point ever, and genuinely wish I was watched more because I like getting feedback (from knowledgeable folks). This year, though, since our observations linked to our evaluations, which are linked to our AUs, which are linked to our payscale, the observation becomes stickier. I always try to do well with it, but, with financial gains tied to it, you hope nothing bad comes of it.

I'm also supporting the other Baltimore Education bloggers who are also blogging every day this month. Check out their blogs!:

http://survivingthesystem.blogspot.com/

http://bmoreschools.org/

http://www.thesmallesttwine.blogspot.com/

http://nyates314.wordpress.com/

2011-11-09T19:31:00.001-05:00

Censorship lesson went well. Get observed tomorrow. I'm planning a lesson on interpreting images in Persepolis and then having the students synthesize that information into making a statement on Satrapi's view on imperialism.

This is a lame entry, but it's all I got.

2011-11-08T23:11:00.001-05:00

Big censorship lesson in the library with the 9th graders tomorrow.

We just finished Fahrenheit 451 and have moved onto Persepolis, and students are concurrently reading a book commonly banned in the U.S. Tomorrow, with the help of our librarian, students will be discussing different manifestations of censorship in the world (from Nazi Germany to Egypt to banning of The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things in Howard County).

Wish me luck. That's all I got for a blog entry today. It was an impossibly beautiful autumn day in Baltimore today, and I got tons done.

2011-11-07T17:28:00.000-05:00

My internet problems seemed to be the result of an automatic update that changed my security settings and proxy settings and I was eventually able to figure out my problem by googling on my phone. woo-hoo!

Grades were due on Friday, until our union cried foul (Friday is the last day of the quarter, giving absolutely no turnaround time), and now, I think, they're due on Wednesday so kids can have their report cards printed out for Friday. I wish I had kept up better with grades and learned PTG a little bit more in September, because now I'm really backed up. It didn't help that I had a wonderful day in DC on Sunday (saw the new MLK Memorial... awesome) and left the grading on my desk here in Baltimore. I'll finish tomorrow, I hope.

I have playoff softball tonight, but just wanted to get a quick update on here since I'm now two entries behind the blog-every-day-of-November thing.

Week in Review

2011-11-05T09:27:00.003-05:00

I didn't blog yesterday. I'll try to write three entries this weekend to make up for it.

I just got home after happy hour and was too tired after this week. Here's what happened:

1. I woke up at 4:30 am every day and made it to the gym every day, except for Friday, when I just woke up at 4:30 but realized I was too sore and behind in work, so just went into work early.

2. I've figured out Power-Teacher Gradebook, and love it, because it means I can do grades at home without worrying about saving a version of EasyGradePro and e-mailing it to myself. I'm a luddite, so this is impressive that I was able to figure it out so quickly. But grades are do Monday and I still have much to enter. Each night this week, a significant chunk was spent grading and entering assignments.

3. Two pre-season workouts with the baseball team. It's mostly 9th graders and a few returners who aren't playing other sports, and I'm making them pretty sore, plus myself pretty sore. In fact, if I don't say so myself, I feel like I'm getting in pretty great shape.

4. Finished up a break-neck (10 class days) teaching of Richard III, and tried to order the Baldwin collection of essays (total cost each: $22.65) when I'm completely broke. I'm still hurting from the summer, so ordering these books on different credit cards is the way I've got to go. Stressful, to be sure.

5. Watched my colleagues turn in their Model Teacher Pathway applications. When the signups were happening, I didn't have power or the internet, and I thought I'd get in for the spring cohort instead. I'm kind of regretting this decision, but we'll see if I can figure things out or not when the new cohort opens up. I also want to see how many people actually get it. Frankly, I think National-Board certified teachers (there are only 40 or so of them in the system, I'm one of them) should have been grandfathered in anyway. I think it's much more indicative of being a good teacher than the grandfather rule they did use (10 years of experience, Masters plus 30 - I had the 10 years and the Masters but not quite "plus 30").

6. Banged my head against the wall about one of my afternoon classes, which has the distinction of being the class I've taught in my career that has the most problems controlling themselves. I really need to reboot next week for the 2nd quarter.

7. Every day this week was a 12-hour day, and some stretched to 14. I need to get out of this cycle of work, work, work, time suckage, time suckage, time suckage.

***

I'm also supporting the other Baltimore Education bloggers who are also blogging every day this month. Check out their blogs!:

http://survivingthesystem.blogspot.com/

http://bmoreschools.org/

http://www.thesmallesttwine.blogspot.com/

http://nyates314.wordpress.com/

Beginning Research with Satrapi's Persepolis

2011-11-03T20:50:00.003-05:00

Starting Persepolis tomorrow.

Beyond reading it and using it as part of our 'Coming of Age in an Unjust Society' curriculum -- this year, we're connecting it to Fahrenheit 451 and emphasizing the governmental suppression of books/information (along with the students reading a commonly banned book in the U.S.) -- we also use the text as a jumping off point for research.

Much of my teaching career has been spent without a librarian, and so my formative years as a teacher were spent without doing much research. And my own generation -- graduating from high school in 1995 -- seemed to be int he middle between using books and using the internet, and I never did much research on databases or things like that in college. In other words, I don't know how to do it very well, at least in an academic setting. That, plus not having a librarian for the first five or six years of my career, got me set in my ways.

The last couple of years, though, I've been tentatively trying it, and got pretty excited about having the students -- in their international literary circles unit -- form their own research question and do a little bit of database research last year. This year, we have a new librarian who is a good friend of mine, and today, along with another 9th grade teacher, we discussed our goals for this particular research assignment.

Last year, with Persepolis, we did a cool, but very unwieldy and confusing, research assignment on antiquated computers. Most of our computers are still antiquated, but we'd like to tighten up the assignment while still making it as authentic as possible. At our students' 9th grade skill level, their computer literacy is not great. They can text really well, but research on databases, or even on websites other than wikipedia? Not so much.

So we discussed our goals for the assignment. Is it researching - forming a research question, seeking sources, even when there's going to be confusion and maybe even failure in finding information, etc.? Or is it reading and evaluating sources (which fall under the "informational texts" umbrella that the system is really gung-ho about this year)? Or a little bit of both? And, then, when they find some information that helps them illuminate the text, what do they do with it? Powerpoint for the rest of the students? Something else?

So many decisions, and we haven't made them yet. Lots swimming around in my head and I think I need the weekend to let it stir around...

***

I'm also supporting the other Baltimore Education bloggers who are also blogging every day this month. Check out their blogs!:

http://survivingthesystem.blogspot.com/

http://bmoreschools.org/

http://www.thesmallesttwine.blogspot.com/

http://nyates314.wordpress.com/

The long-winded story of why I voted for Jody Landers

2011-11-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

I didn't vote for Stephanie Rawling-Blake during the primary. It's not the I don't like her -- I think she's alright, and actually think she's done some good things. In fact, I have a bit of a crush. I appreciated her arrival on the scene in the middle of the blizzard of 2009, as I think she did a great job managing resources during that time. And I don't have any big issues with how she is running the city. In fact, one of my favorite former students campaigned for her and I had a sign in my yard until someone stole it.

However, sometime in August, I attended a meet-and-greet with her at a private residence in west Baltimore. It was myself and around 12 others, having a conversation with the mayor. I had a great time and Ms. Rawlings-Blake was both effervescent and kind, while also being business-like and professional. I was asked there along with another teacher so we might bring some education discussion to the table. Indeed, we did, and that was the moment that turned me a bit.

When we asked Rawlings-Blake about education issues, and she mentioned two things her administration has done: that she has quadrupled (could have been tripled) funding for Teach for America, and that she has championed another program that brought senior citizens into the classroom. I'd never heard of the latter, so I dismissed it, and my feelings on the former are decidedly mixed. Ultimately, Rawlings-Blake's insufficient answer made her seem out of touch with the schools, and made me realize that I didn't want to excitedly vote for a candidate that seemed to have this sort of distance from her school system.

Now, I mentioned earlier that my feelings on Teach for America are decidedly mixed, because they are, and that's ultimately what this post is about. Now, I think the program itself is great in many ways. But the way it works in Baltimore City Public Schools makes hiring anyone else impossible.

You see, the way things are set up, because BCPSS has some sort of exclusive contract with TFA, that schools are not allowed to hire any new teachers except if they are (a) TFA or (b) castoffs from another school. A teacher like me, who wanted to be a teacher since I was a freshmen in college, and worked hard in my Education courses and made into a competitive College of Education at my university, and then received my certification before I got my first job, would be ineligible to be hired by schools. Is this not crazy? We can only hire young teachers straight out of college who weren't trained to be educators in college.

In addition, if a great 6-year veteran from another district moved to the area, she would also be ineligible to be hired. She might as well put her application into the county because, unless a principal can convince the higher-ups to get around the rules and the talent pool, she won't be getting a job in the schools that might need her the most.

Part of this is budgetary and because jobs aren't available for all, and because teachers who have been excessed from other schools have to go somewhere. But the exclusivity deal with TFA (which, apparently, even charter schools are held to -- Dr. Alonso told principals who balked to "take me to court") really ties the hands of schools.

This is not an anti-TFA post. We've hired one per year in our department the last two years and they're both doing great. But a hiring system that doesn't allow the hiring of teacher with teaching certification and education degrees can't be getting the best and brightest in the system. We need a wide net.

And that's the story of why I voted for Jody Landers. That, and he cleaned up on the debates and I knew Rawlings-Blake was going to walk away with it anyway.

By the way, I'm supporting the other Baltimore Education bloggers who are also blogging every day this month. Check out their blogs!:

http://survivingthesystem.blogspot.com/

http://bmoreschools.org/

http://www.thesmallesttwine.blogspot.com/

http://nyates314.wordpress.com/

Power Teacher Gradebook

2011-11-01T21:17:00.001-05:00

One of the changes this year is that the BCPSS has adopted Power Teacher Gradebook, a new program that allows us teachers to record student grades online.

I believe the goal was for all teachers to be using it by October 15th, but I was going to let someone hold my feet to the flame in order to start using it. I had heard it was probably someone at North Avenue's pet projecs, and that it wasn't as user friendly as the grade program most of us use -- Easy Grade Pro. Most annoyingly, the program could not be used at home, so I couldn't use it at all how I wanted to. That recently changed, though, and we began being allowed to use the program at home (it was on the internet instead of the intranet, or something like that).

Once we were allowed to use it at home, I've shaken off my cynicism and jumped right in -- and I kind of like it. The program seems as easy to use as Easy Grade Pro (except for the lack of seating charts) and I've been busily taking all my grades from Easy Grade Pro and entering them into PTG. It's so nice not to have to deal with saving my current version of Easy Grade Pro and e-mailing it to myself, so I could work on it at home and at school. Instead, it's right online for me at either place.The only annoyance right now is that the students cannot access these grades and, as of now, neither can parents (or, at least, I have no idea how parents can access them, and no one I've spoken to in the school knows either... I think this is coming).

For this program to be as useful as it should be, students will need to be able to access their grades at any time, as well as parents. That doesn't seem like it'd be hard to do, so hopefully it happens soon. As of now, though, I'm excited, and am hopeful it can make the monitoring of progress a little more in the hands of the student and parent, and make overall grades a little more transparent. All of this would be good for the student, so hopefully BCPSS does as the tech guy at my school says they need to do (just "check a box", he says) and allow student access to their own grades as well as parents.

I'm liking what I've seen of it so far, though.

Public Jeer to MARC train for raising group rates

2011-10-31T19:46:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, I was lucky enough to be able to take all of my Seniors -- 61 of them -- to the Folger Shakespeare Library to see their production of Othello. I decided on the field trip back in the spring and chose the play as part of my curriculum when I saw they were producing it.

The play itself was tremendous -- great production on an intimate setting, an interesting (but not overpowering) theme of redemption and Christianity since it was set during the Crusades. I loved how the production made Bianca a more central character than productions normally do; her character adds to the 'outcast' nature of the play. The acting was tremendous by all the principle cast members.

And the students loved it. Almost universally, they commented on how powerful the production was, on how it helped them understand the play better. On Friday, we had a great discussion about the choices the directors made and what themes these choices emphasized. Once again, I was reminded how important it is to see Shakespeare live, and how beneficial it is for the students. I was able to bring my students to the Folger two years ago to see Much Ado About Nothing, and had a similar experience.

The one bad taste in my mouth is the cost for the students. $20 for the seat was okay, but a $14 round-trip MARC train ticket skyrocketed the per-student cost to $34/each. This was a surprise, since just two years ago, the MARC train offered a group rate of $7 for students on trips such as these. In the two years since then, they have changed the policy so group rates apply to Mondays and Fridays only. In addition, there is a group rate for students, but it only applies to college students with an Advantage card -- not high school students.

This really burns me up, since I work at a school with a high poverty rate and many of these students had never experienced anything quite like this trip before. A nice woman interacting with me from Maryland Transportation Authority apologized profusedly, but couldn't/didn't change the price back to group rates, despite the fact that matinees for shows such as these are never offered on Mondays or Fridays.

So, a big 'boo' to the MARC train. This isn't about crowded trains; it's about money. The end result isn't that we didn't take the train; the end result was, rather, that a bunch of students, many of them poor, had to pay much more for a field trip than they would have under the old policy. Boo to MARC train folks who changed this policy. Flat and simple.

Empowering my 9th graders

2011-09-27T18:52:00.004-05:00

"I could go through this whole book, page by page, and tell you what I noticed and inferred, but that's not going to help you be a better reader, will it? So, right now, turn to your partner and share your text-marking you did last night in your reading."

And, with that, I was off, walking around the room, listening to the kids talk, and finally feeling good about this class of 30 (18 boys and 12 girls) that I teach in the afternoon. I'm hearing ideas flying around, and some clarification points addressed, and it's exactly what I want to hear: conversations abotu reading. I was struggling with the class until I started doing the gender math. The fact that this class was full of boys -- who I usually do well with -- made me put the blame squarely back on myself. I can teach male students, I knew it.

We're reading Fahrenheit 451, a difficult text, but I got so excited about the prospect of teaching it (the book burning stuff? it's an English teacher's dream) that I greenlit it for the curriculum. And I think it will work. It's preachy at times, and a lot of it is internal, but we're going slow and, of course, I'm instituting as much scaffolding as I think is necessary. Today, we worked on the 'Ladder of Questions' (culled from a Pre-AP Vertical Teams Guide I got a few years back), and, if all goes well, they'll come in with Literal, Interpretive, and Experience-Based questions on Thursday, and use that to drive discussion.

We have a new principal this year, and she's made it a goal of our school to have more inquiry-based teaching. Less teacher-focused, more kid-focused. I was never a lecturer, or anything like that, but, still, this year, I'm making a more-conscious effort to empower the kids in their learning as much as I can. It's sometimes a tough task because they like to be silly (oh, those 9th graders), but on days like today, I feel really good about it.

I'm really excited about things happening in my classroom this year. As I am every year, I bet. But hopefully I'll blog again a little bit more. I like the reflection that comes from this public unspooling of my day.

The 10-year goal, put to the test

2011-08-17T22:11:00.003-05:00

I'm friends with many of my former students on Facebook. Today, one of them posted this note, tagged with my name:

"I'm reading "The Help". Its an awesome read. I honestly am enjoying every second of it...and everytime i come across a word i don't know, i define it and write it down so I'll remember to use it later. Thank you for that Mr. (EpiphanyinBaltimore). Your lessons are still with me, even after all these years. That, is truly a gift. (:"

You have no idea how happy it made me.

It's been ten years or so since she was in my ninth grade class. I always teach books with the "ten year" goal in mind, asking myself what will this kid remember in ten years? I hope some of the themes -- all about injustice, doing the right thing and growing up -- are part of their blueprint. And I want them reading. I want to run into them on the street and be able to talk to them about what's on their bookshelves, and what they're sharing with their children, because this is what I want them to take from my class: some sort of passion for reading, and the strategies that go along with being a critical reader. This is what gives us an educated populace necessary for a democracy.

As cheesy as this all sounds, I'm sure, this is why I teach, and why I still am as excited now as I was a eleven years when I started this (if you don't believe me, check out the photos of my classroom library I tweet-pic'ed this week already... I've been in my classroom a week early every day this week, setting up).

End of Summer

2011-08-12T23:13:00.003-05:00

I was offered a Summer School position this year, but declined, instead deciding to teach "Summer Enrichment" Reading and Writing at my school. It would give me a chance to hopefully work with higher-level skills than what is required by summer school, plus let me meet some of the kids in my classes.

I'm happy I made the choice, except that BCPSS has not paid me for it yet. It's been a month, and no word. It's so disheartening to work a summer school and not be paid for it in the summer, when teachers need the money. This summer, I budgeted with my Summer Enrichment pay in mind in order to get through August, which is the toughest month to endure.

I'm so thankful that BCPSS is finally offering 12-month pay starting next year, for the first time. I signed up for it the first day I could, and am looking forward to next summer very much for that reason.

The lack of money has made me revert to waiting tables a bit this past week or so. It's Baltimore Restaurant Week, so the restaurant was anticipating some big crowds -- which haven't come, so I haven't made much money at all. I'm feeling a bit bitter about it all, because, if I had my druthers, I'd be back in Michigan, helping out with the new nephew. But the lack of $$, as well as back pain that has vacillated from really acute pain that prevents me from doing much, to a dull achy pain that is just annoying, brought me back to Maryland. Here, I've been working mostly non-stop, or going to doctor appointments, as I struggle to find some respite from the pain before the school year starts. I'm seeing a chiropractor I really, really like, and I think it might be getting better. My social life is on hold while my funds are refilled and my back is hurting.

The new school year looms in the horizon. I'm vaguely excited because, as anyone who reads this blog knows, I genuinely love my job, but this is going to be a hard year. Most of my class sizes are near capacity and my class load is up near 160 -- both look to be the most in several years -- and seeing my stressed self three weeks from now is enough to make me happy it's still the summer even though I'm a bit broke and bitter now. I'm hoping for another trip to Michigan before the school year starts to assuage the guilt I'm feeling about leaving back for Baltimore earlier than I wanted to, and that will make me feel a bit better, I'm sure. So will more regular gym trips, which I've been unable to do for a bit because of the bad back.

The "Landmark" contract in practice

2011-08-09T08:33:00.004-05:00

When the new contract was voted for by Baltimore City teachers, I was really wavering whether I should vote for it. On paper, the contract looks great, but, in practice, I had some reservations: North Avenue has never showed itself to be very efficient with paperwork or availability, so putting an office there in charge of AUs (Achievement Units, for going above-and-beyond or taking credits) was disconcerting.

I ended up voting for the contract, because (a) I thought the old system, that gave raises every year regardless, was broken; and (b) I liked the thought of being rewarded for doing good work that helped kids. However, the problem with certification of AUs is certainly occurring. Until June 30th, teachers were encouraged to submit necessary paperwork (online) for any credits attained previously that did not create any salary increase for yourself.

I submitted 18 credits:

3 MSDE credits for having a student teacher (I've received no $$ for this at all, and was scheduled to receive $85 from the college... it's never came to fruition)

6 credits from Coppin State University (Reading classes that renewed my certification, but didn't create any salary increase)

9 credits I purchased for doing National Board Certification (I was unsure if a stipend was a salary increase, but thought I would submit just in case)

Each of these submissions was rather involved, and required getting transcripts and paperwork and submitting online along with written descriptions. They were also all done separately, as was required. It was not a very easy or user-friendly process.

About 6 weeks after submitting all of these credits, last week, I received an e-mail last week that says simply this:

*******************************
From CPSC Team
To (My name)
Sent 01-Aug-2011 23:50:56
ID 3463092
Rejection Reason Credits are not eligible for AUs.
Last Approver CPSC Team
User Name PQH_ROLE:66
Copyright (c) 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.
*******************************

That's it. No explanation, no description of which credits were reviewed, just that "credits not eligible for AUs" - don't even know which ones. Clearly, as described by the contract, at least 9 of the 18 should be eligible. When the Union (and the Union people that the Union brought in from NYC) was selling the contract to us teachers, this is how they sold it -- that the AU system would allow excellent teachers to move up the ladder quickly. One lady even gave her name and said to personally e-mail her if there were any problems with submissions, because, if so, she was selling something that wasn't valid. She really believed in the contract and kind of made me believe, too. I'm going to look up her name (she's a Spanish teacher at Western).

I replied to the e-mail from the system, and have yet to hear back (of course). North Avenue is such a difficult-to-navigate place, that I don't know what my next step should be.

So, I'm left with a contract that gives me a pay cut.

I was at Step 13 on the old contract, with a Master's Degree. The salary was $63,340 (Link).

With the new contract, I have been placed on the Professional Pathway, Interval 2. The salary is $60,881. Huh?

The dollar signs in my eyes when I signed the new contract have not materialized at all. Is there a screw up? What happened?

I'm still hopeful the process for becoming a Model Teacher can be fruitful for me, because that represents my real desire for the new contract. It seems like I should be in the running (National Board, mentoring new teachers, high test scores), but I'm not optimistic that it will work out, especially given how the rest of the contract has shaken out for me so far.

Bringing the Common Core into Summer Reading & Writing Program

2011-07-11T22:08:00.003-05:00

I am currently working a 2-week Reading & Writing seminar for our incoming 9th graders.

I was a little bit daunted by the prospect of creating skills-based 2-hour lessons for the two weeks. During the school year, I have a curriculum that I work through. It is skills-based as well, but the content is mostly pre-determined.

I decided to base the writing we will do on the Six Common Core Standard Writing Assignments that we, as a department, came up with at the end of the school year. Throughout each year, students will be primarily focusing on six writing tasks:

1) Timed Literary Analysis (Students have to write about an unseen passage or poem, about how the author's techniques create meaning.)
2) Untimed Literary Essay (Traditional 3-part essay)
3) Timed Argument Essay (such as the SAT essay)
4) Untimed "Moral Dilemma" Essay (something connecting the literature to life, using textual evidence from a text, such as, "Should Catcher in teh Rye be taught in school?" and "Is Okonkwo guilt of murder?"
5) Narrative Essay (connected to literature in some way, for example, we'll read Eugenia Collier's "Marigolds" and then students will write about their own epiphany.
6) Research

So, in these sessions, I figure we can practice assignments #1, #2, #3, and #5.

We started with #1 today, as I gave students the Gary Soto poem "Saturday at the Canal". This is a great poem, though, in hindsight, perhaps a bit dark for the first day of high school instruction. Or maybe it was perfect, because that's more what it felt like. I gave them 20 minutes and the question, "What figurative language, imagery, and details does Soto use to describe the speaker's unhappiness with school and his place in life?" (the 9th grade prompt for this type of writing will always get a little bit of direction, like this - by the time they're upperclassmen, they'll get no question).

After 20 minutes, most students had produced 2-3 paragraphs that basically listed a few metaphors or images in the poem. Not much analysis or depth, not much attention to tone, very few seemed to understand the poem.

So after they wrote about it independently, I had another handout ready, one that divided the poem into its ten or so sentences. I paired them up, and had them write inferences for each of the lines, using the Tone Words list I handed out to them. They identified any literary features, but I was more concerned with them identifying the tone and readign between the lines. That's going to be more of my focus this year: tone. Sometimes I get so focused on the identification of literary devices that I realize they don't know what the text is about. This was one of my focuses with the seniors last year, especially towards the second half of the year, trying to create that vooomp moment where they "get" a piece of literature and then go back and find the techniques that create it.

Anyhow, the discussion after the chunking of the poem and pairing of the students went splendidly. They now realized what they should be doing when they get a type of question like that. Tomorrow, we'll see what they've learned when we do Stephen Dunn's "The Sacred".

IB English - students do well

2011-07-08T18:21:00.002-05:00

This week was honestly one of the best of my career. I received word that 100% of my students -- I teach our entire load of seniors taking IB English -- passed the IB English assessments. 100%.

The reason I like the International Baccalaureate English program so much is that it really assesses everything about English class that is important. Unlike AP, which is just multiple choice (ugh) and timed writing, IB assesses not only timed writing (thankfully no multiple choice), but also untimed writing, untimed-preparation oral presentations, and timed oral commentaries. These six assessments, I feel, really prepare a kid for college and for life. Add in a curriculum that has plenty of teacher choice and international focus, and we have a great program. I really want to teach in the IB program the rest of my career. It's not about advanced kids -- IB is designed to work for any regular kid -- but it's about a great program with a worldly focus and rigorous, but authentic, assessments.

This year, for Part II, I taught two Shakespeare plays (Richard III and Much Ado About Nothing), James Baldwin's essays (for the non-fiction component), Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. This is the more classicist part of the curriculum, but it's not that classicist -- James Baldwin is one of my options. He's been the biggest revelation to my teaching the last couple of years; his non-fictions essays brim with passion and fury, and the kids really like him.

For Part III, with comes from a list of writers that is more broad than Part II, I taught the Australian novel Cloudstreet (Tim Winton), the Indian novel The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga), the Antiguan-American novel Lucy (Jamaica Kincaid), and the South African novel July's People (Nadine Gordimer). This was my first year teaching most of these novels, but they worked well. Cloudstreet is a beautiful, soaring novel, one that is hard to describe but really got me in the gut. Lucy is a small and bitter little book, but Kincaid's writing is gorgeous; my more vocal students complained about this one, thinking the narrator was too self-absorbed, but, for me, she was a typical teenager, and many kids liked it. I thought it was about perfect. I didn't enjoy July's People, but Gordimer's style lends itself so well to analysis of structure and language that it would be hard to take out. It's not really meant to be an enjoyable read, either; the protagonist's disorientation mirrors the reader's. And The White Tiger, my one repeat teach, continues to be one of the favorites of the year for the students. It's a funny and dark page-turner that most of the kids love. I brought these four books together under the theme of economic disparity, but we found a lot more themes as we read - the effects of parenting, the repercussions of colonialism, master/servant dynamics. The kids went along for the ride with me and, obviously, did well.

Anyhow, I'm pretty happy, and very proud of my students. The only problem is, the only direction to go now is down. :)

Review: Once Upon a River

2011-07-05T09:57:00.003-05:00

I bought a Kindle last week, finally, and my first book was from an author that has intrigued me for a few years, primarily because Bonnie Jo Campbell (National Book Award finalist last year) comes from the same southwestern Michigan corner of the world as me. She hails from Comstock, a small town right outside of Kalamazoo, which is the biggest city near my hometown of South Haven. I grew up next to the Black River, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River about which Campbell writes in this text. Besides the geography, the book has gotten some bang-up reviews, and I had to read it.

I wasn't disappointed. Once Upon a River recounts the journey of Margo, a tough 15-year old girl who is left alone after her mother leaves her and her father dies. She takes off in her beloved late grandfather's boat, and journeys on the river, mostly fending for herself but developing relationships along the way.

Told in 3rd person limited narration, with the focus squarely on Margot, I was sometimes frustrated by the character. "Talk," I'd want to say, or, "Don't you see what he's doing to you?". But then I remembered that, despite her self-sufficiency (with her hunting, she rivals Katniss from The Hunger Games), she's a lonely and pained 16-year old kid.

In interviews, I've heard Campbell eschew the Huckleberry Finn comparison a bit in favor of The Odyssey, but they're both there. There were some passages -- such as ones in which Margot reveals her distaste for society and for organized education, or the ones in which Margot discovers her only peace while floating on the river -- that were strikingly similar to something a modern Huck would say. I understand the odyssey comparisons, too; the novel's journey structure is episodic, but the episodes are punctuated by relationships Margot has, rather than monsters she must conquer or outsmart. The lonely men on the river that she meets -- the book is divided into four major relationships she has -- see her as a river goddess, seemingly not a part of their dingy world. Finally, with her last relationship, she meets someone who sees her as a person, and not some sort of mystical creature.

Like with Huckleberry Finn, and The Odyssey, the episodic structure leads to some natural stops and starts in the narrative. In between her relationships, as Margot escapes one painful situation to find her next one, things slow down, like water flowing around a bend in the river. At these points, we are left with some harsh and beautiful descriptions of the natural world, in spare and poetic language that often reminded me of Steinbeck. The men in the novel, who could have been drawn as stock villains, are, surprisingly, often more sympathetic than the narrator (particularly the character Michael, not so much the college professor character). Don't get me wrong; I often ached for the protagonist, so the fact that the more minor characters of the men came off as sympathetic as they were is a testament to Campbell's characterization skills.

The ending of the novel is stone beautiful, a melding of the natural and human imagery that recalls Mary Oliver's poetry. Margot has survived, somehow, and she will be alright.

Someday, when this novel goes into paperback, I think I'd like to teach it to 9th graders alongside The Odyssey.

New novels and the Common Core Curriculum

2011-07-04T21:23:00.001-05:00

We are currently seeking our 9th grade novel for next year.

When I came to the school ten years ago, the 9th grade novels were Potok’s The Chosen, Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. As our instruction has shifted more from covering so much content to imparting skills on students, our focus on the novel has diminished a bit. Our current curriculum includes one short graphic novel, a modern play, a Shakespearean play, an epic, and two novels – one ‘classic’ and one more contemporary.

I got rid of Potok right away, and Their Eyes Were Watching God got moved up to the 10th grade, and in the past few years, we have done To Kill a Mockingbird, then A Lesson Before Dying, and, last year, The Catcher in the Rye. However, all three of these novels are taught in middle schools in the city - so much so that nearly 100 kids will have read one or more of them by the time they reach us. I love all these books, but 9th grade kids made to read the same book again sometimes do things to hurt themselves -- things like try to remember things from the previous year, for example, and not re-read. And, since our curriculum also includes Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey, I want the "classic novel" section of our curriculum to be as fresh as possible.

The curriculum looks like this (all built around the theme of 'Coming of Age in an Unjust Society'):

I. Persepolis (Satrapi)

II. Fences (Wilson)

III. The Odyssey

IV. (insert classic novel)

V. Literary Circles Novel (students choose from a list of 6-8 international novels tha the teacher generates - this past year, I did Zak Mda's Ways of Dying, Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, Natsuo Kirino's Real World, Alina Bronsky's Broken Glass Park, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, Naomi Shihab Nye's Habibi. The idea here is that they've learned to read a novel critically in the previous unit, and now they read it with a bit more independence in a small group.

VI. Romeo & Juliet

So it’s that fourth slot that needs a book.

My colleague who I’m teaching the class with is a bit more of a classicist than I am. She believes that our students are put at a disadvantage on some national tests – such as the open-ended literature question on the AP Lit exam – because they don’t have enough ‘classic books’ taught to them. Now, I feel like our curriculum has three confirmed classics on it already – R&J, The Odyssey, and Fences. I know the latter might be debatable, but it’s appeared on the AP open-ended question a few times in recent years. Still, I see what she’s saying, and, while I don’t want to be a gatekeeper in my career as an English teacher, I see some value in the cultural capital that comes with reading class books. At the same time, though, the single most important thing that I believe my job as an English teacher is to give some books that they will love, that will make them lifelong readers. Sorry, but The Odyssey (especially our crummy Fitzgerald translation) just doesn’t do that. So it’s a balance.

We’ve also become big fans of the Common Core Standards. Personally, I love it – it’s higher level thinking, unlike what we go for with the kids passing the HSA – and I’ve spent some considerable time already aligning my big writing assessments with the Writing Standards of the Core. I look forward to working more and more with it.

The Common Core offers some suggested “exemplars” for the curriculum for each of the grade levels, and here are the texts they suggest for Grades 9 & 10:

Homer. The Odyssey

Ovid. Metamorphoses

Gogol, Nikolai. “The Nose.”

De Voltaire, F. A. M. Candide, Or The Optimist

Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons

Henry, O. “The Gift of the Magi.”

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis SubjeCtS

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451

Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing.”

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart

Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird

Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club

Álvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief

Now, I think this is a great list, one that combines classics from the canon (The Odyssey, Steinbeck) with superb more modern texts (Alvarez, Zusak).

The one that jumped out the most at me is the latter, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. It’s one of the most powerful reads I’ve experienced in the last few years, and I’d love to teach it to 9th graders. I don’t think my classics-loving colleagues would be very excited about it, but then I thought that it might be a great idea to combine it with the short classic Fahrenheit 451. I read it in an afternoon this summer (I love summer vacation…) already, and it seems to fit right alongside The Book Thief, in both obvious ways (the book burning), to more important thematic ideas (resistance to injustice, the importance of literature, dealing with censorship). Wow, this was pretty amazing to me, and I got really excited.

Then I realized The Book Thief was 500 pages. Even though some of it is pictures and it reads quickly, that’s still a long book. Doable, though? Maybe. As we’ve become more focused on skills, though, it seems harder to fit stuff in. I mean, you would think that Perspolis would fit in September, Fences in October, The Odyssey in November, Fahrenheit 451 in December, The Book Thief in January, Literary Circles in February, and Romeo and Juliet in March, but that’s almost the schedule we planned for this year, and stuff happened, and we ended up getting just 14 class periods on Romeo and Juliet when we wanted quite a bit more. Things never seem to go as planned, time wise.

I haven’t presented the idea to my colleague yet, which is part of the reason for the blog entry – I wanted to think it out in writing. Maybe something like The Joy Luck Club would be better.

I’m not sure. Bottom line, though, I wish The Color Purple didn’t have the word “pussy” on the first page. That would be a great choice.

Greek and Latin roots

2011-06-20T21:45:00.002-05:00

Today was Day 1 of the Creating Fluent Readers Institute for Baltimore City teachers. I'm being paid for the professional development (I had to apply for the PD, including writing a few essays), but I was really excited to go. Out of all the things I'm interested in, I'm most interested in turning kids into lifelong readers.

Much of the material I learned about today seems to have been aimed at middle school teachers, but it was still interesting. I got really excited at the end, though, when the Professor started talking about Greek and Latin roots. He had this simple method of word generation that I totally think I could do with my students and teach them hundreds of words next year. I'm concerned with getting kids to learn words, but more concerned with giving them the strategies they need to attack words that they don't know. This would do that and, even though I've tried with varying degrees of enthusiasm to integrate Greek and Latin roots into my classroom instruction, I think next year I can bring it in more. Ever Tuesday, perhaps? We'll see.

Looking forward to another day of it tomorrow. Tomorrow will be an even longer day, as I'll be interviewing a teaching candidate directly after the PD day. We have high hopes.

Admin I

2011-06-19T08:04:00.000-05:00

My tenth year of teaching is over. It was a good year. Next year, I think I want to start on my Admin I certification. No interest in being an Assistant Principal or Principal, but it would be good to have some administrative credentials for other jobs in the future, perhaps, that will keep my in the classroom but do more leadership and mentorship of newer teachers.

I'm choosing between Towson's online course and probably Hopkins. I need to do some research on BCPSS's Emerging Leaders program, if that is still happening.

I know this entry isn't much, but it's at least a small return to blogging...

LostNMissing, Inc: Rodney Goggins, 20 Missing Fire Cadet from East Ba...

2011-05-31T22:12:00.000-05:00

LostNMissing, Inc: Rodney Goggins, 20 Missing Fire Cadet from East Ba...: "East Baltimore, Maryland MISSING: Sunday, May 29, 2011 Height: 5'6' Weig..."

Rain, rain go away

2011-03-21T18:24:00.002-05:00

Baseball is frustrating this year because of the weather. Despite practicing every day since March 1, we have been on our infield *once*. The field does not take water at all; we're in desperate need of diamond mix and dirt; the city doesn't fix up the fields at all. It's terrible.

What is probably more terrible, though, is that the Stadium Place YMCA has a new baseball field behind it (in the old Memorial Stadium location) that Cal Ripken donated. I thought it was going to be a baseball field for the community, but, so far, I've only seen lacrosse on it. I decided to call them and see if our team could ever use it if our field was unplayable... it's $300/hour, with 2 hours minimum! No wonder I've only seen county lacrosse teams on the field so far! What a disgrace.

*****

I've never been so busy.

I hid my twitter feed mostly because I've gotten myself into some sticky situations lately with twitter. Not from anything I've posted, but from searching my own (unusual) last name. I see the kids tweeting about me or my colleagues all the time, most of the time wildly inappropriate things. I can't handle it any longer, and my response to students, at the end of our discussion, is "hide your feed." It seemed appropriate for me, too. You can always follow me if you want to. I'm still tweeting a lot.

Becoming a Model Teacher

2011-02-21T12:35:00.003-05:00

The big news this week for Baltimore City teachers was that we received, via snail mail, our new 'Career Pathway'.

For me, it meant a raise of about $100 (much less than a step increase would have been on the old contract), but also a guarantee of $1750 stipend next year because I'm not getting (much of) a raise.

With that being said, though, my real interest -- and why I voted for the contract -- was the possibility of becoming a Model Teacher. This was vaguely described in the literature of the contract, but it was to be determined by a group of peers, both from North Avenue and the union. For me,

According to Sun education reporter Erica Green, 281 teachers in Baltimore City became Model Teachers on the new pathway. At first, I was perturbed (why wasn't I? I'm National-Board certified and that's all about documenting student learning), but then I remembered the clause in the literature about the contract that if teachers had ten years in the system plus a Masters plus 30, then automatically they became Model Teachers. This is my 10th year in the system, but I don't have plus 30, so I wasn't eligible. Oh well.

As soon as there are clear instructions about how to apply, though, I'll be there. So far, no clarity, though. We'll see. A model teacher makes about $20K more than a 'Professional' teacher.

State cuts threaten education-please act now

2011-02-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

I thought this was a good use of this space for a few days:

February 15, 2011

Dear City Schools Colleagues, Staff, Partners and Friends,

For Baltimore City Public Schools, the state budget for education now being debated in Annapolis is a matter of fundamental importance. Any change in the state method for funding education that reduces our funding at a time of growing enrollment is a grave risk to the progress and momentum that is now underway in City Schools.

This year, the submitted state budget is proposing to change the education funding formula under Maryland’s Thornton law by reducing the base amount of funding for each student. As a result, even though City Schools’ enrollment went up by more than 700 students, state funding for City Schools is slated to decrease by more than $15 million. Meanwhile, many of the costs of doing business—in things like health benefits, utilities, pre-k programs—keep going up, by about $58 million next year.

For City Schools, this means a reduction in spending power from last year of about $73 million—about $870 for every student. We have already cut the central office by 34 percent over three years and devolved the bulk of our dollars to schools, so it will be more difficult than in the past to protect schools from such a reduction in spending power. For a typical school of 600 students, that means a real drop in spending power of about $522,000—almost 10 percent of the school’s budget. To accommodate these cuts, schools will have to cut priorities that are critical to school success. Whether we do this by reducing teachers and increasing class size, by slowing down our expansion of career and technical education programs and the creation of new schools, by halting our expansion of pre-k programs, by eliminating art and music or after school programs, or by getting rid of field trips and other enrichment, our kids will lose out. We already fail miserably at the upkeep of our buildings, due to lack of funding. Our kids only get one chance to get an education and it is essential that our schools are equipped to prepare them to succeed. Our history as a city shows that.

But now, as a city community that cares deeply about its children, it is essential that everyone—parents, educators, students, partners and friends of City Schools—communicate with great clarity and urgency that, during tough budget times, our commitment to our children must take top priority. The Thornton promise to our kids must not be broken. The Baltimore Education Coalition, a network of organizations concerned about education in Baltimore, is sponsoring a Rally and Action at Lawyer’s Mall in Annapolis at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, February 28. To find out more or to sign up for a bus, please contact your school or the Baltimore Education Coalition as soon as possible at www.becforourkids.org. Buses need to be reserved by Monday, February 21. Last year, more than 600 City Schools' advocates, parents and community members were present in Annapolis to defend cuts to our state funding—successfully. This year, our community must be present in even greater force. In the meantime, please call or email your legislators and our state leaders right away to urge them to guard against cuts and advocate for increasing revenues as needed to keep our promises to our kids.

Some have said that cuts are inevitable in difficult budget times and that education has been “spared”. But, these proposed cuts come on top of significant cuts already made in 2008 to the Thornton formulas for state educational funding. In 2007, a special session of the Legislature made significant reductions to the funding called for by those formulas—changes that with the additional proposed cuts to next year’s budget mean that City Schools will have received about $244 million less over fiscal years 2009-2012 than we would have received under the original formula. In this sense, the budget axe during this economic downturn fell first and very seriously on schools. And, because Baltimore City receives 67 percent of its funding from the state, more than other counties with larger local tax bases, the impact of these cuts has been felt keenly by our schools. In October 2007, shortly after arriving in Baltimore City, I testified in special session against those proposed cuts. Every word I stated then holds now, with even greater force, because the past has been forgotten so quickly.

Moreover, the additional cuts in the formulas proposed this year would have an impact in years to come. The legislation would put these lower levels in place until 2015. This reduction in the base amount per student represents a departure from the Thornton law’s commitment to the fundamental constitutional promise of a full and adequate education for every child, a promise which Maryland’s courts have affirmed as a legal requirement in the Bradford v. Maryland State Board of Education case. Since 2008, in extraordinarily tough times, the leadership of the state has held to its promise to hold education harmless, and we are grateful for the opportunities which that commitment has made possible for our students, and the progress that they have made as a result. We ask that our leaders hold to their commitment now.

One of the most encouraging aspects of the reform of the past several years has been the support of the entire community for our kids—a support communicated in tangible terms by our willingness as a community to invest in their future even during difficult economic times. Our professionals have responded with concessions in labor negotiations that have been all about a commitment to better outcomes for kids. Our parents and partners have supported schools as never before. And our kids have responded with improved performance at every level, and by staying in school in record numbers.

Some say education should now feel the pain. We say our kids should never feel any pain. They should feel the embrace of a community that believes in them.

Thank you again for all that you do for our great kids and great schools.

AAA

Teacher blogging

2011-02-05T20:30:00.002-05:00

I have some really interesting stories but none that are general enough to report on this blog, unfortunately.

Follow me on twitter if you're wondering where I am.

It's kind of a bummer, but teacher blogging just seems too risky these days.

Making inferences

2011-01-23T21:31:00.004-05:00

I'm busy lately, and every blog topic that comes up in my mind I have to eliminate because I feel like I couldn't write it without identifying features of my students. Lots of interesting stories, but inappropriate for mass release.

It's been a strange and busy week since I last updated. The students are doing fairly well on their oral commentaries, but it's very hard work for the teacher. Each student has a 40-minute time slot, and they all overlap, with the last 15 minutes in a room with me recording and questioning. Even though last week was only a three day week because of the snow day, the week was a tough one, with near-constant commentaries delivered to me in that tiny room set off the library. The snow day made me fall behind, and I'm not even finished, which is even more problematic.

The 9th graders didn't do well on their midterm, with class averages in the 60s on the multiple choice in all my classes, as well as the other teachers of 9th grade. It's a bummer, and an annual reminder that our students struggle on multiple choice tests, and, again, I'm left wondering what to do. I spent some time analyzing the data from the 50 questions, and know some of the topics that I want to go over, but most of the test was questions about passages. Students need to read and make inferences. They don't. I teach that every day. I feel like they've learned a lot, bu not enough yet.

One sweet kid came to me before the exam and said, "You know those questions where you have a story and are supposed to answer questions about it?"

"Uhh, yes, I think I know what you're talking about."

"How do you study for that?"

We went to my computer and brought up PSAT practice website with some passage questions.

"Oh. Thanks."

"But, you know, the real way to study for that is to read challenging books and make inferences as you read, just like we've been doing all year."

"Oh, well, I don't like to make inferences as I read. I try to just turn off until I see the questions at the end. No inferences for me!"

"..."

She said it with genuine earnestness, too, without a touch of sarcasm or irony. What to do, what to do.

I'm so happy I teach both seniors and freshmen because daily I'm reminded of where I need to get the ninth graders and how far the seniors have come while here.

IB commentaries

2011-01-13T21:48:00.002-05:00

They will walk into a room. There, they will draw a 40-line passage from a book we have studied this semester (Song of Solomon, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, James Baldwin's Essays). They will take it into another room, and spend 20 minutes marking it up and planning a commentary about it. Then, they will come to me, and deliver it while I take notes and tape-record it. I will assess how well they know the book, how well they know and can analyze the style of the author, how well they can organize their thoughts, and how well they speak. I will listen to them for 12 minutes and then ask them questions about what they said.

And I will see if I've done my job this semester.

Wish me luck. Wish them luck. I can't imagine ever doing anything like this when I was in high school. These are your Baltimore City high school students.

Random FB chats that help keep you going

2011-01-12T22:46:00.003-05:00

Today
[Darrell ____]

10:38pm
Mr._____ how have u been
[You]

10:38pm
good man and how about you?
how is school?
[Darrell_____]

10:39pm
Its going great so far Excelling in English i would say but none the less great
are you still coaching baseball
[You]

10:39pm
glad to hear. yes, still coaching baseball and getting ready for the season
[Darrell_____]

10:41pm
thats great glad to hear that hope i can come back one day tell the students how you have helped me and others
[You]

10:42pm
I would appreciate that, it's always good for the younger kids to hear from someone who has gone out and done well for himself. Just had Kyle ______ ('07) talk to my baseball team the other day about college. You're always welcome
[Darrell _____]

10:44pm
ok will do def thanks for everything
[You]
10:45pm
You're more than welcome and I definitely appreciate that

Teacher intern tomorrow

2011-01-09T08:17:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow, I start with a teacher intern for the first time. I've wanted to do this for a while, and I'm glad I'm getting an opportunity. I don't see myself ever leaving the classroom and going into administration, except perhaps as a department head. However, being part of what helps guide new teachers in the classroom could be something I can see myself doing in the future. Perhaps as an adjunct professor in the summers at a local university. Or, being a mentor teacher. Seeing my own teaching through the lens of someone else is a daunting but exciting challenge.

Heading into the new year

2011-01-02T23:55:00.002-05:00

Upcoming challenges:

1) Getting my seniors ready for their IB Oral Commentaries. I feel like I they're not close right now, and they start it on January 15th. For the love of god that's close!

2) Teaching The Catcher in the Rye to 9th graders for the first time. Woah! I love the book (my dog's name is Holden) but have no idea how they'll react.

3) Going back to morning workouts before school. There's no excuse for me being as hefty as I am right now. Seriously, get it together, self.

4) I need to remove myself from my second job. That's coming, thankfully. It's just too much, at least on weeknights.

I'm looking forward to a good 2011. 2010 was pretty good for me professionally (NBPTS certification, beating longtime rival school in baseball, 91% pass rate on IB exams) but I'm looking forward to an even better, more balanced, 2011. I need to get myself healthy and stop burning the candle on both ends so much.

School Calendar = not good for students

2010-12-22T20:38:00.003-05:00

Dear Dr. Alonso:

As you work to reform the Baltimore City Public Schools, perhaps you can reform the calendar?

We're only given 180 school days a year. To force school-going until Christmas Eve, or other days like Thanksgiving Eve, really seems to undermine what you're trying to do. Attendance is horrible these days, and very little, if any, learning is going on. My school decided to hold its annual holiday assembly on today, Wednesday, primarily because attendance on Thursday was expected to be so poor. I'm sure the problem is throughout the district.

In addition, with our new contract that will attract the best and brightest from around the country, not affording teachers more of an opportunity to visit their far-away families is also problematic. This is not to mention the families of students in our district, who would appreciate their young kids home a little bit sooner than they are. Indeed, many simply keep them home.

All in all, I'd much rather go a bit later in the school year than be a babysitter to the half of students who will show up tomorrow. Seriously, this is not good for the kids.

Sincerely,
EpiphanyinBaltimore

What? The Cyclops raped the men's heads? on the floor?

2010-12-20T19:40:00.004-05:00

By the way, just so you know, if you create a cool Translation activity comparing and analyzing the same section of The Odyssey, one translated by Robert Fitzgerald and one translated by Robert Fagles - expect "Robert Faggies" to be called across the room. And not on purpose to be funny, but actually thought the "l" was an "i".

Also, be prepared that if the Cyclops is "rapping" the men's heads on the floor, that kids will think that Polyphemus is raping the men's heads.

"Marking"

2010-12-17T07:11:00.000-05:00

The Detroit State Poems: Marking (from http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/wayman/poem4.htm)

Tom Wayman
From: Did I Miss Anything? Selected Poems 1973-1993. Madeira Park, B.C. : Harbour Pub., c1993.

I begin each essay with a calm mind--
a fresh start.
But as I consider what they have written
I get angry: the most cursory of rereadings
would have caught this sentence fragment,
and here is a misused semicolon
after we spent more than an hour on that in class
and where I talked to this student individually
for another thirty minutes about this persistent mistake.
And instead of the simple structure of the expository paper
which we have also gone over and over
and which can be so helpful a model, a technique, a guide,
here again is a jumbled series of random observations:
trite, contradictory, obviously hurried
and spelled wrong.

My red pencil becomes enraged.
It stalks through the words,
precise, bitter, vindictive,
acting as if it is pleased to discover error
and pounce on it, hacking and destroying and rearranging,
furiously rooting out sloppiness and weakness
as though upholding some stern moral precept
against another, softer age.

But the hand gripping the pencil
begins to tremble with remorse.
It feels it has led the students on
to try to expresss themselves
and then betrayed them:
attacking what they have exposed
of their ideas and emotions.
What use is righteousness, the hand wishes to ask the pencil,
without charity?

I read the name at the top
and think of the young person whose effort this is.
Now all I see on the paper
is a face, crestfallen when I hand back what they attempted.
Eyes look up at me
apprehensively, as at a judge.
We both know my weighing of their skill
will be taken to be an assessment of themselves.

It is as though I have been asked to mark
not essays but their faces,
not sentences but who they are.
I raise my pencil, but my hand still shakes.
I want to show them what in normal English usage
is considered incorrect.
But I can not assign a grade to their eyes.

Trying to teach The Odyssey

2010-12-15T22:00:00.002-05:00

Right now, I'm attempting to teach The Odyssey to the most reluctant readers I've ever taught.

I came in at the beginning of the unit with a great plan. They would read short sections of The Odyssey at home and we would come in and do great and fun textual analysis activities and creative projects! A board game based on his adventures! A retelling of The Odyssey on the streets of Baltimore! I wanted students to see The Odyssey as a metaphor for the journey of life.

Instead, I'm finding that just helping them decipher a line like, "Poseidon set the world atremble" takes a few minutes. And after enough students are telling me, "I don't get it...", I'm finding I'm throwing my unit plan and reading plan to the side and doing things like recripocal reading and "read a sentence/summarize a sentence" activities in class.

The lesson from all this?

1) Don't give out a reading schedule if you're not sure how the kids will respond to, or "get", the book. I'll remember that next month with The Catcher in the Rye.

2) More reading strategies. More Cris Trovini stuff.

3) Stop rushing so much!

Classroom Library and SSR

2010-12-12T15:23:00.004-05:00

One of the goals of our 9th grade team this year is to create more of a reading culture in our school. Our students are definitely not readers, and they've become less and less readers in my time teaching. I'm not sure if this is nationwide or not, but it definitely seems that attention spans are shrinking and being able to commit to long and sustained study is just more and more of a challenge to students.

Our response this year is to incorporate Sustained Silent Reading into class every Monday. I've been pretty consistent with it, and I regret whenever I have vacillated or not given them much. I have created a classroom library with weekly trips to The Book Thing of Baltimore and students can find something to read, or they can bring something they want to read from home.

I can't say they are looking forward to Mondays yet, but they like picking out books and there are definitely kids who get lost in their reading. That's their assignment every Monday, and they're graded by it -- are they "lost" in their book, whatever it is they choose? I figure that reading is thinking and that even if the kid is reading R.L. Stine, they are still reading and thinking (actually, those books have a vocabulary that is just above most of my students' level, so it's a fine read for them) and developing both the stamina and thought processes associated with the rigor we expect from our students.

As I was through The Book Thing, I find myself pulling any book that I think any of my students might be interested in. When I was a 9th grader, I devoured John Grisham novels, and am hoping a kid who might want to be a lawyer (re: half of my kids) pick one of his up. I get sports books, young adult books, biographies, and whatever else I think they might want to pick up.

Today's impressive take of free books included the following:

Three Julia Alvarez novels

The Island of the Blue Dolphins (James O'Dell)

Two copies of The Kite Runner

Several John Grisham novels

Shiloh

The World According to Garp

Two Wally Lamb book

several classroom dictionaries

A YA book about Hitler's rise and fall

A courtside look at March Madness from a reporter with a lot of close access

Cold Sassy Tree

I got four boxes full, so that is only what I remember. This is my new Saturday or Sunday ritual, and my classroom shelves (from shelves lifted from random closets in my school) are getting full. Now I have to set up a system of checking them out or giving them away.

Returning to house concerts

2010-12-10T22:00:00.003-05:00

I'm having a house concert tomorrow night.

If I were writing a memoir about my life, the house concert would hopefully function as a symbol. You see, when I moved to Baltimore nearly ten years ago, this was one of my things. I lived in a pretty active house on Walther Avenue, with an assortment of roommates that came and went. I had tons of good friends that I hung out with all the time. I was in great shape; I was dating regularly; work and social life and exercise were co-existing in a symbiotic pattern. And, I did house concerts.

Every month, I did them, at least during the school year. Twenty or so people would come over, and we'd drink and laugh and watch great musicians as they stopped off on their tour through the mid-Atlantic to play a small space in Baltimore. I became friends with the musicians, some of whom I knew way back in my music booking days at Michigan State.

In the ensuing years, however, it just became harder. I don't know why; it's not one thing in particular. The eye surgeries hurt my mojo a little. So did being phenomenally broke and working two jobs. So did moving out of the Walther Avenue house, a little bit too late, a little bit too long after the revolving door of cool roommates stopped.

It's probably no secret that my life right now is a paradox. Professionally, I've never been better. I'm a National Board-certified teacher; I just got a big raise; I feel I've taken a bit of a leadership role on in my school. I feel like I'm doing a good job in my classes. Not good enough, but good. (Teaching is still a job that never quite feels fulfilled; there's always something to do, always something you can be doing better.)

But my personal life? It's the opposite. I get home in the pitch dark and find myself, almost nightly, sinking into a cocoon of exhaustion, lesson planning, websurfing, and TV-watching until too late (teachers should not watch The Daily Show; we simply just shouldn't be up that late. It's not healthy.) I love my job but crave the weekends, if only to catch up on sleep, but by Sunday night, I'm waiting tables and stressed out. I'm waiting tables again, not really for the money, but for the social aspect, to get away from thinking about school all the time and meet some new people. At the same time, I crave talking about school, because (a) I can talk about it easily; and (b) hanging out with teenagers all day makes you crave adult companionship to share these stories with. I'm out of shape (4 times to the gym this week notwithstanding... we'll see how I keep it up) and feel stuck in a rut. To top it off, I'm kind of sick of Baltimore.

So, yes, the house concerts, starting that up again? Maybe it's a symbol of my return and my escape from the rut. Let's hope so.

You should come: Holden's Lair House Concerts

"Getting through" the play

2010-11-20T22:07:00.003-05:00

My teaching of Richard III didn't feel as good as it did last year. I'm still trying to figure out why, but, for some reason, it just didn't feel like the kids "got it" like they did last year. I did the same kind of cool Folger activities -- film comparisons, performance, etc. -- that I did last year, but something was missing.

One issue that I have, and have had for a while, is figuring out the best way to "get through" the play, or, really, any work of literature. This is a pretty basic need to figure out in an English classroom, but I still play around with it. One option is to assign a text, provide some pre-reading activities to open up understanding, and then come back together at the end for activities that will deepen understanding. That's pretty much how you do it in college classes. The polar opposite is how I do the literature with the 9th graders - a lot of hand-holding as we go, and we go through the literature very slowly (sometimes too slowly) to make sure they "get it".

I feel like I went too slowly through Richard III, stopping every day for a cool activity, and then assigning some more, and then stopping again for an activity. I don't know why it felt so slow this time, but I'm taking the opposite approach with Much Ado About Nothing -- a break-neck pace, reading through an act a day in class until Thanksgiving. It's worked so far; we discuss it a little bit as we go, but mostly we're just up and acting it out. Literally, we finished Act I on Thursday and Act II on Friday. We'll be done by Thanksgiving, and then return to do some real work with the plot.

I'm loving it, and the "getting through" the book seems to be working. One kid told me yesterday that my class was the only reason he came to school, because he wanted to act so bad. And he's playing hapless Claudio, too. Another girl has taken to calling herself "Don Pedro" all day in all of her classes, since that's her role. I'm loving it.

"Gifts" by Peter Davison

2010-11-20T21:17:00.000-05:00

When I was a child, a heartstruck neighbor died

On her birthday. Dying was strange enough,

But what a way to choose to spend your birthday,

I thought, and what sort of a gift was this?

From time to time, people have done it since--

Dying in the environs of a celebration

As though they had picked out the day themselves.

Perhaps they had, one way or another,

Prayed for something to happen, and prayed wrong.

Sophocles, when old enough to die,

Suspected prayer and entered a caveat:

'Zeus, act kindly whether or not I pray;

And, though I plead for it, turn harm away.'

I keep a wary silence on my birthdays,

Make up no lists at Christmas, lie low

When asked what I really want. How should I know?

Best ask for gifts as though I had none coming.

Now it's National Board-certified Epiphanyin Baltimore

2010-11-19T21:15:00.002-05:00

I am now a Nationally Board certified teacher.

Scores came out today and I made it.

I definitely recommend it for anyone looking at some hard reflection at their teaching.

Reason to like new contract?

2010-11-18T21:47:00.000-05:00

One reason why I like the new contract. This year, unlike last year, I'm not at the NCTE, something I kind of would like to go to every year if I could, to better my teaching practices and all that. However, I just couldn't justifying spending the thousand bucks out of pocket every year to attend. Next year, though, if I get AU credit, it might make financial sense to attend and I could probably afford to go then.

Contract, NBPTS, etc.

2010-11-18T20:29:00.002-05:00

1. I'm glad the contract passed. I've written about it enough so you can track all of my feelings about it over the last two months, so I don't think there's more to say. I hopeful that it won't be abused more than the current contract is abused, and I'm hopeful these offices that are put in to track AUs and approve model teachers will be much more efficient than anything else that has come out of North Avenue.

2. Tomorrow, National Board scores will be reased. It's the only thing on my mind right now. I've been starting with mentoring of candidates for the upcoming year, but its all been kind of silly because I don't know if I have it yet. In fact, I'm not feeling very good about it. Scores will be released mid-morning and I don't remember ever being so nervous about something like this. Okay, okay, I was definitely more nervous about my students' IB scores this summer. But this is comparable.

3. Open House tonight. Busy, but I sure love my students.

Voting day tomorrow

2010-11-16T20:16:00.003-05:00

I've been teaching the hell out of Richard III and Fences lately. Sorry I haven't been writing. I have some posts forming in my mind about teaching Shakespeare, about vocabulary, and about teaching the first essay for 9th graders.

Right now, though, I just to get through this week. Tomorrow is Take-your-parent-to-school day, plus PTA meeting, plus Coach Class, plus the superintendent in our building (!!) plus... it's VOTING DAY!

We have a 10-minute drive or so to the voting site, plus finding parking and voting (will there be a line?), so a 50-minute class planning period will make it difficult. I'm at school until really late tomorrow, but I'm going to vote. I'm even organizing carpooling for my school.

I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that it will pass.

Irked by vote

2010-11-10T19:10:00.003-05:00

The fact that Voting for the New Contract runs only from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 17 -- without early release or any sort of time consideration -- is a complete disregard for the actual schedule that (good) teachers keep.

Seriously.

I will do my best to re-arrange my schedule and vote, but it will be difficult. My school is holding Take-Your-Parent-to-School Day, plus a PTSA meeting. That's been long scheduled. I'm sure parents will understand if we have to go vote, but still... it shouldn't be a choice.

If my planning period was longer than 50 minutes, I would chance leaving the building to wait in line to vote. But the voting site is a 10-minute drive away, and finding parking (it will be busy) and getting in line to vote within 25 minutes or so is too risky.

I hope I'm wrong. But this has made me and a lot of teachers at my school pretty annoyed (I heard, with my own ears, that Alonso said he would support an early-release date, so I'm blaming the BTU for this one), If the contract doesn't pass this time (I'm voting for it), we have a reason -- I really doubt there will close to the turnout as there was at the first vote, and only the people who hate the contract (they are vocal and their word is spreading) will be turning out in droves, not the ones who sorta like it like me. And I don't know any teachers jumping up and down about it, just ateachers (like me) who see a lot of good in it but have our reservations still.

Oh, 9th graders

2010-11-10T18:51:00.003-05:00

Me: "So, what character traits does Troy exhibit on the first two pages of the play?"

Girl: "He is outspoken, because he goes to the boss about all the black men lifting the trash and all the white guys driving."

Boy: "Wait, wait, real talk, though: Black people are stronger than white men."

Me: "Uhhhh. Aren't you stereotyping?"

Boy: "No. Real talk."

Me: "Really? I can bench press 225 pounds. How about you?"

Boy: "..."

This is the same kid who answered "white people" during a pre-reading questions for this poem about what kind of people would expect a beach to be combed free of footprints every morning.

He's actually one of my new favorites -- he's totally engaged for each of the fifty minutes of class periods, paying me the ultimate compliment of 100% attention -- but he sure says some goofy things.

Kate Hooks benefit a success

2010-11-06T19:07:00.006-05:00

On Friday night, the Kate Hooks Benefit at Ze Mean Bean Cafe was a huge success. Kate, a teacher at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, is an 11-year veteran of Baltimore City Schools. Her progressive form of multiple sclerosis has confined her to a wheelchair and forced her to hire a caretaker to help her get ready for work in the morning. Insurance doesn't cover the cost of this, which is upwards of $20,000 a year.

Through the event, we were able to raise $2100 for Kate's care. If you would like to donate yourself, please visit Katehooks.Blogspot.com.

Special thanks to Ze Mean Bean Cafe (a great little restaurant and wine bar in Fells Point) for donating its space and selling food at cost. And a big thanks to Caleb Stine for donating his performance and donating all CD sales to the cause.

Below are photographs of the event, which was a lot of fun and an amazing moment of the community coming together for a good cause!

Welcome to Baltimore

2010-11-06T17:03:00.029-05:00

He called me name as we passed each other at the football game, and then the tall, goateed, brown-skinned young man grabbed me and gave me a big bear hug, eschewing my outstretched handshake. I only recognized him a little and he must have noticed my confusion, because he asked if I remembered him. I could hear disappointment.

This kind of experience is both the best and the worst for teachers. I love to see my old students, but I've now taught or coached nearly 2000 kids -- give or take -- and my mind can barely remember where my keys are. I recognize their faces, but the names don't always come.

And then he grinned. I asked him what year he graduated, and he told me '04, and then it became clear - "First base. Taylor _____" and I had it! Take away the goatee and add some braids to his hair and this was my first baseman the first and second years I was the Assistant Coach of the baseball team. When I became head coach, his senior year, he was injured, so he never officially played for me as head coach. But I remembered him well -- his tall and lanky frame, his quick left-handed bat, his excitement over my opening speech as head coach, when I asserted that we would beat our big rival school (I was right, although it took us six years from that point to do it).

So he's doing great, with a degree in Civil Engineering from Morgan State and a good job in DC, plus some real estate development in Baltimore. A success story. After hearing about him, I told him about the story I remember most about him. I think about this almost almost every time I'm at this intersection of Cold Spring and Falls Rd:

His Junior year, when I was still Assistant Coach, he had a test last period and couldn't make the team bus. I volunteered to drive him over to the game after his test; he would still be able to make it by around 3:30 (game time is at 3:45) if we did it this way. On the way, stopped at a stoplight, someone approached his side of the car. Neither of us were suited up in our uniforms yet. He asked him a couple of questions and I didn't really understand what was happening (I would know now, after close watching of The Wire, what it was). As we drove up, he broke out laughing, then got a little annoyed. "That man was trying to buy weed from us!" He added, "Yo, just because a kid got braids and is with a white man doesn't mean he's a drug dealer!"

And that was one of my "Welcome to Baltimore" moments.

He didn't remember the story at all. LOL.

All in all, it was a great day -- saw lots of former students, all of whom seem to be doing well. I guess this is why I do what I do, to see what they all end up becoming.

Fences and the Rolly chair

2010-11-03T19:39:00.005-05:00

I love teaching August Wilson's Fences. The Persepolis unit is over, and it was largely successful; however, our school's lack of technology really made the last project I attempted pretty difficult to make go well. Now onto Fences, though, and, hopefully, no attempts at technology other than YouTube videos in my classroom. Taking the students down to an antiquated computer lab just makes my life too stressful and I don't believe has the rewards for the students.

Anyhow, I've been having a tougher time than normal with my 9th graders this year, it seems. I have kids who are really reluctant readers (about three-quarters are not reading at grade level, and many are down in the 5th or so grade reading level or even lower) and that reluctance manifests itself into disruptive behavior.

Plus, even though I've now been teaching for a decade, I still feel like I forget things about classroom management.

I'll give you an example. I have two rolling chairs in my room -- a chair at my desk, and a chair I put off to the side and use when I'm at my laptop presenting something on the LCD projector to class. I rarely do the latter, but like to have the chair there for when I do.

One day, about a month into the school year, a 6'3" 9th grader that I have sat in the chair. He didn't ask, but when I looked at him funny, he did, and told me how uncomfortable the regular chairs were for his long limbs. "Do you mind if I sit here when you're not using it?", and I didn't.

Then, about a week later, kid #2 took it, claiming he had terrible back pain from football practice. Kid #1 and Kid #2 are friends, and they worked out an arrangement to take turns with the chair every other day. It was fine.

A couple of weeks later, Kid #3 wanted in on it. The three of them worked out a rotation. I don't really care. I'm fine with this sort of thing. I got it when I needed it.

Then, kid #4 asked about it. And he got into the rotation. And, at that point, it was utterly ridiculous. I realized I was giving up small amounts of class time and copious amounts of energy listening to discussions about a rolly chair and then watching kids push it around the stationary desks and chairs to their respective desks. Suddenly, I just didn't want to deal with the migrating chair anymore. I have too much to think about every day without that. So, after school that day, I took the chair down the hall into the closet and put it there. Now none of us get it.

What is perhaps even funnier is that not one kid has even asked about it. That's how important it was to them. LOL. (Save for one smart girl who stayed after class and said, "You took that chair away because you didn't want to deal with it anymore, didn't you?" and I admitted she was right.)

Why didn't I just say "no" at first? I will never know. Give an inch, take a mile.

The point in the long story is that now that we've started Fences, an instantly likable play that the kids love the cursing on the first page, that classroom management stuff has gone away. They're enthralled. I'm teaching the hell out of it and loving every minute of it.

Now I'm trying to get those kids to take turns playing Troy and Rose, though, and that's tough. It'll be the chair thing all over again, and I can't go and throw it in a closet to forget.

And now I'm going to spend my Saturday night in front of the flicker of the computer screen in my quiet Baltimore house, adding comments and grading essays that the students have e-mailed me. Today was good motivation.

It's making my head hurt. And, honestly, all I want to do is teach.

2010-11-02T18:26:00.004-05:00

The BTU came to our school again on Monday, and gave another presentation about why we should vote for the new contract.

I like the woman who presented to us. She is a veteran of the system and is obviously passionate about the contract, which she helped negotiate. However, I asked her this question:

"The contract seems like it could have some good things for teachers, but you're asking us to put our faith into a system that none of us have very much faith in. Almost everyone in this room can tell you stories of paperwork lost by North Avenue or certification issues because of gridlock up there. You say there is a contingency plan by the union if North Avenue cannot keep up their end of the contract and that the union can get out of the contract if that is the case. But... who decides if the system is working or not? I've found Ms. English to be unresponsive to my concerns; she hasn't answered the numerous e-mails I've sent her requesting a 12-month contract, for example. BTU didn't hear teachers' concerns about the contract going too swiftly until we voted it down. If my AUs aren't counted expeditiously, when does this 'contingency' plan come into effect? As a veteran of the system, what is giving you this faith in the system?"

Her answer was basically for me to e-mail her if I have problems and to get more involved in the union if I want more responsiveness. Hmmm.

Basically, the way I figure it, the contract will give me a nominal raise. By the old contract, I was going to make $1300 more in each of the next two years. With this contract, my step increases $200 or so, but I get a 1-time signing bonus of $1500 for this year. Next year, I get a $1750 bonus. So, there is a small raise, of around $400 or so from the previous contract. However, I don't believe the few hundred dollars would have been more than a cost-of-living increase on our old contract, so I'm not jumping up and down about it.

There's a chance that I could become a model teacher, but that has still been left so undefined by the revised contract that I feel like wishing for that might be an exercise in futility. But, maybe... that raise is $20,000 or so, so it would be awesome. I wish there was a National Board stipulation in there.

When asked how the system was going to sustain this contract with the rising salaries, her answer was just as vague as any I've heard: "apparently there has been some grant money found," she said, and that was kind of all. When teachers asked her what happens when the grant money runs out, she didn't have any answer. It's all so weird, and disappointing. I want to love this contract, to have faith in it.

All in all, the whole thing is making my head hurt.

Basically, I believe:

1) that I'll be fine with the new contract. I'll make basically the same amount of money and there's a chance this "model teacher" thing could work out. It's not the great, it's not that bad, it's... eh...

2) teachers will be on annoying AU chases and it could very well end up hurting their performance in the classroom. As a teacher who has taken 6 credits at a time during the school year, I know it severaly affects classroom effectiveness.

3) sometimes, however, the AU will make me do things that I normally wouldn't do. For example, I spent a thousand bucks out of pocket to go to NCTE last year. I can't afford it this year, but, perhaps, if I know it will count for 1-2 AUs, I would be willing to do it. That's not in the contract (they can't even define AUs that nominal amount), but everything that I hear is that it will be. Though I don't know who to trust.

4) the new contract could alleviate some of the unfairness I feel about the teachers who do the least work making the most money in our system

5) The new contract seems ripe for the same type of disparity and unfairness that I now see with the simple every-year thing. Maybe more cronyism, though. But there's always going to be that, I guess. One thing that bugs me is that it seems like the teachers who already have low teaching loads are the ones who will be able to rack up AUs easier, because they're not overburdened with 5 classes and 150 students. Imagining how the AU thing will work in my school, for example, kind of makes my head spin.

It all kind of makes my head hurt. And I'm tired of the rhetoric from both sides.

From the pro-contract side, I'm most sick of the whole "the evaluation-being-set-by-performance is coming anyway, from the state" thing. That's, to me, not a big deal. It was a necessary product of Race for the Top. What we're doing here is tying that untested evaluation system to our salary, which is a whole different thing. Teachers have a real right to be concerned. We have known evaluations to be done unfairly. Some of us teach classes that have no easy test to evaluate how the students learn. We get no say in how a school is run (schedule, class size, especially), so we our hands are tied in many ways regarding student performance. So, yes, we're concerned. But the BTU's insistence that this is coming from the state, when it's not, is really grating on me. Evaluation is. Tying evaluation to pay isn't. That's a huge difference. So many teachers don't understand that because the rhetoric from the pro-contract people has been so effective.

From the anti-contract side, I'm tired of the mixed messages. It's so hard to be unified on anything, agreed, when you're against something. It's like the Republicans now. They're being voted into office because they are the Party of No, and now we will really see what they have to offer in terms of actual governance. But the anti-new contract side has so many different stances on the issue that there is no clarity at all. You have the guy (who I really like, actually) who says this is a war contract, a move to standardize national curricula and indoctrinate youth for whatever the government might need. You have the guy who thinks we need a 7% raise over the next two years and that young teachers who want change are the bane of his existence. Then there are others, who just want to hold out because it would set a possibly worrisome precedent. I respect these people, but their message is being muddled, I think.

As for me, it could be a worrisome precedent, but it also could be a good one. The old system was broken. And I'm not worried for myself. I don't buy that this is merit pay that will encourage competition between teachers. Therefore, I'm a probable yes. I wish the contract was better defined, still, but I don't want to keep hearing about this, honestly. I wish we would wait a year seeing how the state develops the evaluation system before we blindly tie it to pay, but it doesn't appear this is happening. It all makes my head hurt. And all I want to do is teach, honestly.

Click here to vote for my blog ... early and often

2010-11-02T18:24:00.000-05:00

Click here to vote for my blog ... early and often

Benefit Happy Hour for Kate Hooks, BCPSS teacher with MS

2010-10-27T23:13:00.005-05:00

What: Happy Hour & Concert to Benefit BCPSS teacher Kate Hooks

Where: Ze Mean Bean Cafe, Eastern European Fusion & Wine Bar, 1739 Fleet Street, Baltimore, MD, 21213 (Corner of Fleet & Ann in Fells Point), 410-675-5999, facebook.com/zemeanbean

When: Friday, Nov. 5, 4 - 6:30 p.m.

Admission: $20

Please spread the word

Kate Hooks, a History teacher at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (and former teacher at City), has been living and teaching with multiple sclerosis her entire 9-year career in the Baltimore City Public Schools. The progressive disease has confined her to a wheelchair, and, in order for her to continue her passion of teaching, she must hire a caretaker (not covered by insurance) to help with various tasks, including assisting her in getting ready for work in the mornings.

Please join us in this benefit event for Kate on the night before the annual City/Poly football game, as Kate's current and former colleagues and former students from Teach for America, Poly, and City (and whomever else would like to support the cause, including the general public) toast to her well-being and raise money for her assistance and continued dedication to teaching the youth of Baltimore.

Roots Rocker Caleb Stine will be performing, Ze Mean Bean is offering pierogies for just a quarter each, and there will be drink specials (and the bartender will donate all tips to the cause).

We are asking for a $20 donation for the event and the goal is to raise enough money for Kate to be able to afford a caretaker and continue teaching her 9th graders into the new year. Thanks so much for your support and please spread the word. All are invited.

RSVP Here: http://new.evite.com/#view_invite:eid=00F1AARBSZI3CILM2EO7356SQP7BHQ

More Information:

Kate's Plea for Help (there is also a link there to donate if you cannot attend the event)

Kate's Stoop Storytelling Story

Article in Baltimore magazine about Kate

ne w contract out

2010-10-27T22:30:00.003-05:00

My first reactions to the New Tentative agreement:

I don't have that many just yet.

I like that a few more things have been defined. It's just better written. I like the colors.

I want a few more things, like a revision of the grieving procedure. However, they've added some language about keeping administrators in check.

I haven't had a chance to pore over it like I want to, but what I like this time is that both sides appear to...

1) want to have actual open dialogue about it (though the attempts to shut down a guy against the contract at the Building Rep meeting was pretty crummy... they were unsuccessful, though)

2) not want to rush it (thankfully, there is no vote scheduled yet, but plenty of open meetings)

I still think this contract has potential. I'm as open-minded as they come. I want to continue to hear about it and pore over it myself before I decide for sure. Marietta English is leaving me a voicemail nearly every day these days, so they see it's pressing, too.

The Wrath of October

2010-10-27T22:25:00.003-05:00

For the love of god, this is a hard job to do well and feel effective sometimes. When I started my career, I was on a block schedule and taught three 90-minute classes a day. I had 80 kids or so (no, class sizes weren't crazy small) but really was able to dig into issues and didn't feel like I had to rev myself up and down so often throughout the day. I also got to know the kids much better. I now pine for those days. I feel so overwhelmed right now with grading and planning that I'm at school late and barely feel like I make a dent, then I come home and grade/plan some more. I don't know why it's feeling so especially hard right now, but it is. Oy.

In other news, I'll be playing the Cowardly Lion in our department's dressup as Wizard of Oz on Friday.

Snippets

2010-10-25T20:57:00.004-05:00

I am undergoing a radical transformation of how I teach IB Oral Commentaries. I am doing this mid-stride. It's hard. Struggle. Struggle. For teacher and students. Trying to eliminate formulaic analysis and trying to merge ideas they learned last year with new ideas this year.

Starting Fences with the 9th graders this week. So ready for it. I'm also creating yet another poetry analysis sheet. Another year, another acronym. oy.

Benefit Happy Hour for Kate Hooks, BCPSS teacher with MS

2010-10-23T15:58:00.005-05:00

What: Benefit Happy Hour and Caleb Stine concert for Kate Hooks, BCPSS Teacher with MS

When: Friday, Nov. 5, 4-6:30

Where: Ze Mean Bean Cafe, 1739 Fleet Street, Baltimore, MD, 21213

Evite (to RSVP): http://new.evite.com/#view_invite:eid=00F1AARBSZI3CILM2EO7356SQP7BHQ

Kate Hooks, a History teacher at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, has been living and teaching with multiple sclerosis her entire 9-year career in the Baltimore City Public Schools. The progressive disease has confined her to a wheelchair, and, in order for her to continue her passion of teaching, she must hire a caretaker (not covered by insurance) to help with various tasks, including assisting her in getting ready for work in the mornings.

Please join us in this benefit event for Kate on the night before the annual City/Poly football game, as Kate's current and former colleagues from Teach for America, Poly, and City (and whomever else would like to support the cause, including former students or the general public) toast to her well-being and raise money for her assistance and continued dedication to teaching the youth of Baltimore.

Roots Rocker Caleb Stine (www.calebstine.com) will be performing, Ze Mean Bean (www.zemeanbean.com) is offering pierogies for just a quarter each, and there will be drink specials (and the bartender will donate all tips to the cause).

We are asking for a $20 donation for the event and the goal is to raise enough money for Kate to be able to afford a caretaker and continue teaching her 9th graders into the new year. Thanks so much for your support and please spread the word. All are invited.

More Information: A Plea for Help (there is also a link there to donate if you cannot attend the event)

Kate's story at Stoop Storytelling

Story about Kate in Baltimore Magazine

Why I'm glad the new contract did NOT pass

2010-10-23T08:44:00.003-05:00

I attended a meeting of 'Teachers Very Angry about the New Contract' the other day. I was asked to by my Building Union Rep (who wanted to go, because he is similarly ambivalent to the contract as I am), as well as this big gun in from NYC (the BTU has apparently hired a union firm from NYC to try to get this thing passed). They've tracked my thoughts on this blog, and on InsideEd, and knew I was someone who was kind of 'convinced' of the merits of the contract throughout the 2 week timespan. However, I talk about the contract all the time, and also see and discuss its deficiencies. Privately (until now), I'm kind of glad I didn't have to make up my mind and vote for it last Thursday.

So I went to the meeting. There, I felt a little like a spy, until I got there, and realized that the vast majority of the teachers there were like me -- people with solid reservations about the contract, but see some merits in it. One guy even announced that he'd been sent there by the union, like me. I'm sure there were more.

Still, I quickly didn't feel bad about being there because, even though I'm an optimist, as were many of the people there, I still recognize that this thing has some holes in it. It needs to be fixed before I'll vote 'Yes'.

On this blog, upon making the decision I liked the contract, I said I would have voted for it; however, now I'm not so sure. First, rewarding the union and North Avenue for presenting a poorly-defined and rushed contract by voting it in in 2 weeks just doesn't seem like good precedent. It's good to be suspicious of things done in a rush like this. As it is, I am now happy that the contract did not pass. I like that both sides seem to be trying to define the terms of the contract (which, as it's written, seems ripe for corruption) more.

Here is why I am glad it did not pass:

1) AUs (Achievement Units) still aren't defined at all, except for taking courses. If these are the check against getting a Satisfactory evaluation, or the tool a teacher gets to move to the next salary level, they need to be defined more before I sign off on the contract.

2) "Model Teachers" aren't defined at all. The carrot of being a "model teacher" is the only benefit of the contract for me (otherwise, I get a tiny raise of $200 or so, plus the signing bonus), and I want it - bad. It would mean a significant raise. Since this is pretty much the only benefit of the new contract for a good teacher in the middle of his career (and, don't get me wrong -- it's a significant one), this needs to be defined.

3) The way that principals will get teachers now that they couldn't do before would be to give lots and lots of 'Satisfactory', instead of 'Proficient', evaluations. Currently, 11 of 14 of the teachers in my department, for example, get 'Proficient' evaluations every year. I think they probably all deserve it. I feel like the new contract, which will put principals in effective charge of a raise or not because a 'Satisfactory' means only 9 AUs instead of 12 (the raise), allows them more of a chance to mess with teachers who, for example, confirm to a parent that, yes, he did threaten to beat up your kid in front of me, yes, your kid is telling the truth (yes, that happened to me, and, yes, my life was turned into a type of hell for a couple years after). Therefore, there needs to be language in the contract about being able to grieve a Satisfactory evaluation if one is handed down. Currently (I believe), teachers can only grieve unsatisfactory evaluations.

4) In the new contract, Building Reps can be transferred at the CEO's will. According to someone at this meeting, Marietta English didn't even know this was in the contract when he confronted her about it. This seems a pretty big deal (the building rep at our school, plus the rest of the union chapter committee, was involuntarily transferred from our school about 4 years ago because they were calling the principal to task... Dr. Alonso came into the that summer and re-instated them after a swell of protest), and I'd like to see this (yes, relatively minor) clause out of the contract to provide the union building rep more protection. I see the union building rep as an important check against administrator power in the new contract.

5) There needs to be language about Total Class Load in the new contract. Let's hold administrators and Dr. Alonso accountable to getting enough teachers in the classrooms and lowering the numbers. Show us that you're willing to give something, too, something that will be good for the students.

6) How about we make the negotiations more transparent? Some school systems have negotiations televised. Let's see/hear what is happening.

I do not question Dr. Alonso's motivation for this new contract. I sincerely believe that he wants what is best for the students. However, he does not control the money. When he first came to the city, he said he would have a book in every kid's hand. I've still never had enough textbooks. It's not Dr. Alonso's fault, but I worry the new contract (with, if done fairly, will increase many teachers' salaries significantly) will make schools lose teaching positions (which is why the Total Class Load is important). If that clause is not possible, there needs to be guarantees that teacher positions are not eliminated because of the new contract.

Define some parts of this vague contract, tweak a couple parts, and I'll vote Yes.

Feeling like Sisypheus

2010-10-20T18:16:00.003-05:00

October is the roughest month for teachers. There are no breaks; it's the month the kids start acting bad; it's the month where the well-restedness of the summer is gone and you feel like you're running on fumes. It's the month where you realize that, no matter what, you'll never catch up on the grading you have to do.

I feel like I'm barely holding it together this week, professionally and personally. I was at school until 6:15 tonight when I realized I said I was going to bring in my car for bodyshop service at 5:30. I rushed out and, the bodyshop was closing. They still agreed to take the car, but then I realized the rental car place was closed, so I had to re-schedule for tomorrow. But I left my car key on the desk in the place, and almost was left stranded. Thankfully, they let me back in to get my key. But that's the sort of thing that I'm doing.

Lessons today were decidedly mediocre. I forgot characters' names. I got flustered by different versions of Shakespeare. I seem to have forgotten how to teach 9th graders because they certainly have forgotten how to act this week since I last saw them last Tuesday. Bad all around.

I will try again tomorrow.

A few more questions about the contract

2010-10-18T21:50:00.002-05:00

This is what has been swimming around in my head:

1. I understand that it is, as Dr. Alonso said, "short sighted" to want to know exactly how the evaluation will be tied to student performance before these things are brought forth by the state. But why is it impossible to define the AUs better? One union rep in on negotiations told me it could be collaboration after school, but this seems fishy. And why is it impossible to define, better, what a "model teacher" is?

2. I've heard that the actual elections was absolutely terrible, with waits of hours. If you're trying to convince people that you're going to be able to manage this new system of AUs and credits and that there won't be tons of red tape as there is now, things like elections need to be done much better. This sort of shortsightedness is why it's clear the vote is as much against the union as it was the contract.

3. Why haven't I heard any conversation about class size or class load in this?

4. There needs to be better definition between a 'satisfactory' and a 'proficient' evaluation, with less possibility of subjectivity and opportunity to grieve if subjectivity creeps in. Now that the evaluation is connected to salary, it only makes sense so corruption does not creep in.

Good News: Access to Technology Increased in BCPSS

2010-10-18T21:31:00.003-05:00

I've spent a lot of time complaining over the years about the blocking software in the BCPSS computer system. Therefore, I need to share the good news, probably a bit tardily: last spring, the system incorporated a quiz that teachers could take to get sites unblocked, and now we can access sites such as YouTube on our school computers.

It hasn't been a big deal for me -- yet -- but tomorrow it will be for the first time. I plan on showing three different 3-minute version of the opening Richard III soliloquy, and have students take notes on the choices the performers and directors make and how it conveys the meaning of the text. They'll be doing the same thing as they read the rest of the play.

In the past, I would have to fiddle with DVDs that I purchased myself on a laptop that I purchased myself on an LCD Projector that I purchased myself. Now, I can just hook up my computer to the LCD Projector and show the video.

Free flowing access to information -- just what we needed!

This is the YouTube I'm using:

(Now it would be nice to let the kids have just a bit more access. Last week, almost all googlescholar sites were blocked for the kids' Iranian research project, and the accessible databases were all pretty terrible.)

Contract defeated: My thoughts

2010-10-14T22:47:00.003-05:00

I blog from southwest Michigan where, today, I spent the day decorating the South Haven Moose Lodge with my family as we prepare for my little sister's wedding on Saturday.

Part of me wishes I could have had my voice heard in the new contract vote, which took place back home in Baltimore. However, the vote really wasn't very close: it was soundly rejected by a count of around 1540 to 1100.

Here are my thoughts:

1) First off, straight up: the contract vote should have been delayed. A couple hundred teachers, including me, signed an online petition asking for more time before the vote took place. At first, I felt this way because I wanted more explanation. After I got that more explanation, I wanted it delayed because I wanted all of my colleagues get all the information, too. I finally felt fine about the contract on Monday, three days before the vote. I know all the teachers in my building couldn't make that meeting, and, basically, the word just spread badly. How anyone could think that a 2-week turnaround time on the new contract -- especially one as "historic" and "groundbreaking" as this -- was enough is beyond me. Especially a 2-week turnaround time without any public forums until the week of the election. The communication was terrible, which magnified the need for a delay.

2) That's the most important piece. Most teachers I know do not believe that the BTU represents them, and are a bunch of disconnected previous-generation types who do little to help good teachers. The way they handled this contract -- one that I believe was a good one -- is a good example of that. They rushed it through, acting as if there were something to hide. I do believe the BTU has the best interests of teachers in their hearts, but I believe the time has passed them by on how to be solid communicators of that information. The communication of this contract -- especially in the wake of pronouncements that it was "historic" and such (honestly, I don't think the contract would have been that "historic", and that sort of language just scares off folks). Their website is terrible, they allow InsideEd to be overrun with extremists (Marietta English should have her ass on InsideEd every day, commenting, and that's years overdue), and they allow everyone else to dictate the information. I couldn't believe the sort of fliers we got at the school, fliers worthy of Fox News, with scare tactics and fact-twisting and flat-out lying. BTU, who no one really trusts to begin with, was hidden. It wasn't until I met a real teacher who worked on the negotatiating team that I felt confident about the contract. I wanted this contract to have people out there defending it, and it wasn't until Monday when I felt like I could even do it.

3) Dr. Alonso's side isn't blame-free, either. If you want teachers to take a leap of faith for you, don't do crap like not give us our steps on our old contracts in the next school year. Be more transparent. Both sides agreed to a framework, and I could live with the framework, but many couldn't. Why was there no definition -- ever -- of what a "model teacher" was? Most teachers have had experiences with horrible red tape at North Avenue with regards to certification or tuition reimbursement; and now we're supposed to trust that our contract, which is dependent on undefined AUs and undefined ability to move to different pay scales, will be handled by North Avenue, without those assurances from you? The BTU tells us that if they (you) can't handle the red tape, that the contract could be voided. But we needed you out there, making clearer how this would all be done. When I bring up these concerns, people tell me I'm being too picky -- "More time wouldn't give any more information about that, because the committees wouldn't be formed yet" -- but why? Why can't that stuff be determined?

4) How in the world is the turnout only 2600 out of 6500? Seriously? For our new contract? I did hear the voting was a huge mess, a portrait of how disfunctional our union is. Everything about this, in fact, was.

5) The timing on this, in the wake of Waiting for Superman's publicschool-hating propagineering, in the wake of Rhee's resignation, in the wake of Obama and Duncan slamming teachers, in the wake of the state changing the laws so 30-50% of the teacher evaluations must be via student performance, was also shitty for the contract.

Anyhow, I thought it was a cool contract. But I am generally an optimist and a trusting person. And I hate the current contract and think it is full of loopholes and disparity. With those things in its favor, though, it took me a while to come down firmly on the side of this thing. I don't think most of my colleagues had this experience.

I can't wait to see what happens now. More transparency, more information, more time -- hopefully. But the basic ideas of the contract, I hope they stay the same.

I might also suggest the following: Class Load limits and a 12-month contract. Both would be awesome.

Assigning historical fiction

2010-10-11T22:11:00.003-05:00

Right now, with the 9th graders, we are using a modified version of this lesson as our closing project. In the project, students are asked to view images from modern Iran, answer the question "How has modern Iran been affected by the events of the Iranian Revolution?", conduct research, and write a piece of historical fiction based on their research and their photograph.

Somehow, this has turned into just about the most complex piece of writing I've ever assigned. And it's the 9th graders' first writing assignment.

In it, we are...

1) conducting research (one of the first time I've actually done this in our technology-starved school)

2) incorporating details into historical narrative

3) writing and planning a historical short story (exposition, main character, dialogue, problem, climax, resolution) with accurate details

It's a crazy complicated assignment and I'm really wondering what this are going to produce on Monday when they're due.

I spent Sunday afternoon writing a piece of historical fiction based upon a Great Depression photograph, so I could show them a model. We'll see if that helps.

Why I like the new contract

2010-10-11T19:04:00.006-05:00

I've been hemming, hawing, and debating the new contract, and finally have a little bit of confidence in it. It's still a bit of a cautious confidence, but I like some things about it. The BTU representative, plus a high school teacher on the negotiating committee, visited our school today and I feel quite a bit better about things.

My personal take:

1) My salary will remain almost exactly the same (a $195 raise) except for the one-time raises this year and next year. However, if I get a bunch of AUs -- 12 -- I can move up an "increment," which is about a $2500 raise.

2) No one knows what an AU is or how to get them -- exactly -- except that if you take classes, you get one AU per credit. They're "saying" there will be other ways to get them, and there will be a committee set up that is half-union, but this is still a bit of a worry. However, it also seems we can get them (12) if we get a Proficient evaluation, so that's good, and 9 if you get a satisfactory.

3) What made me excited about the contract initially was the ability to become a "Master Teacher," which would mean a $20,000 raise. There is no word on how this might happen, though, so that leads me to believe it will be very difficult. Which I suppose it should be, with all that money. Of course I will go for it right away but I'm not sure if it's possible.

The question of student performance is a state law. I was turned off by the union representative's repeated assertion that the contract and the student performance piece are totally disconnected, because, while it's true it's the state law, the contract will tie it to our evaluation and thus our salary. This ups the ante on it from it just being a state law. This, of course, is disquieting, because we have no idea how this will be measured, particularly with non-HSA courses. Still, I think I will still be able to get my usual Proficient evaluation. I hope so, at least. I never really cared about evaluations before or found them to be very meaningful; now, I suppose, it will really matter.

My fears:

1) That the offices set up at North Avenue to handle all the AU-certification and all peer review panels will be a bundle of red tape. The union rep assured us that if this happens, there are contingencies to escape the contract.

2) That teachers will be on AU-snatching crusades all the time instead of doing actual teaching. The union rep today discussed planning after school "collaboration" as a possible AU. This seems fishy as hell to me.

3) That no one will actually become 'Master Teachers' because of red tape or because the specifications will be nearly impossible to meet.

However, these fears are being outweighed by excitement. Most importantly, I was able to hear from an actual teacher in a high school who had been part of the negotiating team. There's a real passion in what she says and I needed to hear that. She was kind of pie-in-the-sky, but that's okay; we need optimism and the current system clearly isn't working.

I'd be voting for it if I could, wasn't going out of town for my sister's wedding.

I worry that this will not pass. If it doesn't, it stems from the BTU's uniquely bad communication. Today, for example, we get an e-mail at 1:00 p.m. about an informational meeting at the BTU headquarters about the contract. The meeting was at 5:00 p.m. They give us four hours notice. What a travesty, truly.

The BTU website is unattractive and, while it has the jargon-y and difficult-to-understand contract documents, it is not very helpful. They're letting the entire education conversation in Baltimore City to be dominated by Inside Ed, which has its own share of problems (slow, dominated by complainers, lack of presence from all sides of issues). If it fails, it's on BTU, which will be a bummer.

Today, we had inflammatory and inaccurate fliers in our mailboxes saying the new contract will give the principals all the power. That's the sort of thing BTU is meagerly fighting, not very well.

Spirited defense

2010-10-10T22:41:00.002-05:00

Someone took me up on the 'spirited defense' request of the contract and I think he convinced me, again. He puts a lot of faith in the "committees" that will decide many of the practices; however, he reminds me that the state is already moving forward with these policies of evaluating teachers by student performance, and that it's better to have the city creating precedent about how this is done instead of the state.

One thing that he brought up about Mr. Bleich's comments that I posted below: his quoting of the $60 million figure may not be accurate. Someone in the negotiations did say it to the Sun, but that's the only documented place where it's been put thus far.

I'd type up more if it weren't so late. I just felt the need to get this up here in case anyone is looking at this page for different sides of the issue.

I'd still like a delay, though much of that is the ulterior motives of me not being able to vote because I'm out of town on Thursday.

An eviscerating view on the proposed new BCPSS contract

2010-10-10T13:16:00.004-05:00

I sent the e-mail described in my last post to all the staff at my school on Friday and, a couple hours later, a grizzled veteran saw me in the hallway and chuckled. He's a great teacher, one of the best in our school, and always chooses to pick the "regular" (not advanced) 9th graders and does a great job with them. "Delaying the vote, huh? That's just delaying my $1500." He went on to say that things will pretty much be the same: "If they like you, you'll get good evaluations, and look at the good stuff; if they don't like you, they'll notice every little bad thing you do. It'll be the same. I'll just make more money in my retirement."

And, that, folks, is the most spirited defense of the new contract that I have heard. I'm offering my own defense of it -- I'm generally an optimistic and believe people to be good, and this contract kind of excites me in some ways -- but not even our BTU building rep is defending it much, because he's too uncertain. I know we need more information, and I think the information dissemination has been pretty bad, so I'm really interested in how this vote (on Thursday) will go. I believe it will pass, but I believe for the wrong reasons -- I believe it will be people looking forward to getting that $1500 check right before Christmas. But it might not pass. I don't know. If it doesn't pass, teachers are going to be portrayed as whiny and not wanting change, but that won't be the case, necessarily; the contact was rushed and it's disappointing, to say the least, how it has been handled, at the very least its speed without any public forums.

I want someone to give a spirited defense of the contract, because I don't think I've heard that yet. I've heard some people who will vote for it -- and, truth be told, if I were in town on Thursday, I probably would, too, at this point I'm probably at 51% yes -- but no one has poured any sort of passion of words into defending the contract as the following writer has. Poly rep Bill Bleich's look at the numbers for funding the contract are simple, effective, and convincing -- his views on war education not as much (in my view). Still, it's powerful, and definitely provoked my thought.

Anyhow, this is worth a read. I post it not as an affirmation of everything he says here, but to get more words and discussion out there. (I cut and pasted the comments from the InsideEd blog here - Views on Baltimore Contract:

CRITIQUE OF THE PROPOSED BTU CONTRACT

COMPETITION INSTEAD OF HELPING EACH OTHER

“Merit” pay - more money for a relatively small percentage of teachers who get top evaluations - will encourage rivalry among teachers. Now, without merit pay, it’s different. Currently, we help each other all the time. We share pedagogical insights. We share teaching materials. We share effective lessons. For most of us, our support for one another is a reflection of our profound concern for maximizing the intellectual growth of the young people for whom we’re responsible.
With “merit” pay, there will be pressure on teachers to be less helpful, and act in a more self-centered way. The goal of “merit” pay is to get more money for oneself by outshining others, especially since the number of high-earning “model” and “lead” teachers will be strictly limited. “Merit” pay is counter to mutual support and collegiality among teachers.

Think about it. We are modeling the adult world to our students. Do we want our young people to learn - from observing our behavior - that rivalry, withholding assistance, and backstabbing are the best ways for humanity to conduct itself? Isn’t it better to show, by example, that humanity is better off when we are mutually supportive? Shouldn’t our goal be to uplift all of humanity, not just a small portion of it?

FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF TEACHERS - NO MATTER HOW EFFECTIVE - MAJOR MONEY IS A MYTH
The proposed contract talks about increased “career acceleration,” but in reality, those gains will be for a relatively small percentage of us. Linda Eberhart - who participated on the CEO’s side in negotiations for the new proposed contract - “said the cost of the contract over three years would be a maximum of $60 million” above and beyond the cost of the current contract (Sun 9-30-10). Let’s take a careful look at the implications of this.
The total budget for the Baltimore City Public Schools is currently $1.23 billion. About 54% goes to salaries, with about $360 million of that going specifically to teacher salaries. Of the $60 million MAXIMUM that the school board may add over three years, here are costs that would have to be deducted from that amount:
1) The one-time $1500 bribe (signing stipend) x 6,000 teachers = $9 million
2) 2% increase in 2010-11 (to be included again in next 2 years) = $21.6 million
3) 1% increase in 2011-12 (to be included again in the next year) = $7.2 million
4) 1.5% increase in 2012-13 = $5.4 million
5) Cost of one “Lead Teacher” at each of 191 schools in 2nd & 3rd year of contract, assuming this means an average of $20,000 additional per person = $7.6 million.
This adds up to $50.8 million. In other words - not counting the single lead teacher at each school - only $9.2 million remains to fund all other “increased career acceleration.” If we assume that the average “Model Teacher” would earn $25,000 extra - compared to salaries in the current contract - and if we assume they would be paid that rate in the second year and again in the 3rd year of the contract, that means at the most that about 184 teachers will be allowed to become “Model Teachers.” In other words, if the quote by Linda Eberhart is accurate, and $60 million is going to be the MAXIMUM amount of new money spent on this contract, then the CEO will have to guarantee that 94% of us are not allowed to achieve either “Lead” or “Model” status!
Keep in mind, according to the new contract, that achieving “Model” status will require the highest possible rating (now called “Proficient”) for at least 2 out of 3 years. This means, to limit the number of “Model” teachers, all the CEO has to do is tell principals that they can only give top-rated evaluations to a small number of teachers. The CEO could easily mandate, for example, that only 5% of the teachers at each school can get the top evaluation. In fact, according to the numerical analysis in this critique, the CEO will probably have to do something like that, to stay within budget (if the proposed contract is adopted).
The numbers used in this section of the critique are as accurate as could be determined, but even if they’re off by a bit, the general conclusion would be virtually the same. Maybe instead of 94% of teachers being blocked from “Model” and “Lead” status, if the numbers aren’t exact, perhaps just 90% of teachers would be prevented from the “increased career acceleration,” which is roughly the same thing.
The Sun, in its glowing reportage about the proposed contract, argues that “Pay could go up quickly for effective teachers” (9-30-10). Are we to assume that 90% or 94% of Baltimore’s teachers - whose pay won’t go up quickly - are ineffective?
We don’t need a star system. We need to continue working together as equals, helping each other to best serve our students’ educational needs.

WAR
The proposed contract is being lauded as a cutting-edge contribution, on a national level, to school reform and Race-to-the-Top strategies. However, the real centerpiece of these trends, though it’s not discussed extensively, is actually a national curriculum. In all probability, in upcoming years, the MSA and HSA tests will be phased out and replaced with new high-stakes tests aligned with that forthcoming national curriculum. For the first time, powerful forces will have centralized control of what gets taught in all U.S. schools.
Let’s consider the international situation. The main conflict in the world, which profoundly influences all other developments - even at the local level - is the intense rivalry for control of cheap labor and natural resources - especially energy - by the world’s major powers. Two wars are currently raging because of this, and more war is on the horizon, including the threat of a world war, once another world power is militarily capable of challenging the U.S. empire, a situation that could develop, perhaps, in as little as 25 years.
Exxon/Mobil, along with the other major oil and gas giants - and the big banks who provide them with financing - are key players, behind the scenes, in running the United States. The continued and expanding profits of these institutions require war. They need millions of young people who are willing to fight and die for them. To accomplish this, the ruling class needs the schools to teach a particular set of beliefs and “facts.”
Picture the situation, perhaps just 5 or 6 years from now, when a devoted teacher wishes to encourage the consideration of a more accurate, balanced set of facts and analytical thinking.. But the new high-stakes tests require - for students to score well - that particular answers, favorable to the world-view of Exxon/Mobil, must be given. And any teacher, whose students haven’t been duly habituated to giving those responses, will be evaluated poorly - and denied raises - because his or her students didn’t make the appropriate “progress.” This sort of scenario is where Race-to-the-Top is headed. And this is another reason why we should not support the proposed contract.
It must be acknowledged, however, that the proposed contract does have some positive aspects. And, if we do vote to reject the proposed contract, the positive aspects can, of course, be included again in a newly-negotiated, second version of the contract.
One positive aspect of the contract is its insistence that teachers at Charter schools (and at other, similar types of schools) must be paid in accord with our contract. The proposed contract also insists that larger salaries must be paid at schools where the hours are longer, or where the school year includes more days. Maryland is almost unique in this regard. In most other states, teachers in the Charter schools are not covered by the union at all, and they are generally paid significantly less than unionized teachers.
In fact, one reason for the national push to have more and more Charter schools - as part of Race-to-the-Top - is to lower the cost of public education. And this too relates to war. The current military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan require hundreds of billions of dollars. Lowering the cost of education is one way that the Exxon/Mobil loyalists want to free up resources, and then direct those resources toward ongoing and new wars in their desperate effort to preserve their lucrative and blood-soaked empire. Fortunately, this cost-cutting aspect of the charter-school movement is not part of the proposed contract.

ENCOURAGING COWARDICE INSTEAD OF WHOLE-HEARTEDLY SERVING OUR STUDENTS’ NEEDS
The current contract stipulates that a Building Rep cannot be involuntarily transferred out of a school (except for very limited exceptions). However, the proposed contract says that a BR can indeed be reassigned, and all that’s required is written approval by the CEO.
Picture this. A Building Rep has helped to organize teachers at a school to fight hard for racial and socio-economic equality in class size so that all classes - whether advanced or regular - have the same average size. Imagine it was an effort to significantly improve learning for the majority of students at that school, who are in the regular classes, but who were - for years - treated as stepchildren and thrown into overcrowded classes which are much less conducive to educational progress. Imagine that the Building Rep and many of the teachers had to ruffle some administrative feathers to finally win this campaign. Imagine that other bold efforts - requiring some opposition to the principal - are also being pursued in the interests of parents, teachers, and students. The proposed contract would allow a principal, with the CEO’s written approval (probably not too hard to get) to get rid of that Building Rep as a way of trying to undermine those
social-justice campaigns for better education.
Similarly, any teacher who speaks up boldly - trying to advance the learning situation for his or her students - may, at times, have to oppose the policies of a principal. If that principal, under the new contract, has the power - through evaluations - to have a major and direct effect on a teacher’s salary, then highly devoted teachers may hesitate to do what’s truly in the best interests of their students.
Think about it. Not infrequently, the motivation to become a principal is based on wanting to: 1)Make more money, 2)Distance oneself from the students, 3)Do less work, and 4) Eventually advance one’s career to a higher-paid, cushy, school-headquarters position.
With this in mind, it’s reasonable to argue that, often, teachers are more highly motivated than administrators to serve the educational needs of our students. The self-serving, careerist attitude that motivates some people to become principals causes them to focus their time on administrative courses and personal advancement, while a dedicated teacher, instead, may devote his or her time to being a voluntary Club advisor, helping to organize social and academic events for the students, getting to know parents, and spending large amounts of time revising personal teaching strategies and materials to become more and more effective each year.
But the proposed contract gives principals tremendous power to choose which teachers to advance, and which to sideline. Won’t that lead, in many schools, to a situation where favorites are cultivated and rewarded, but anyone who opposes the principal on any matter at all - even when doing so for the benefit of the students - is excluded from advancement?

NO TEETH IN PROVISION TO INVESTIGATE PRINCIPALS WHO WRITE UNFAIR EVALUATIONS
The proposed contract has a provision for investigating a principal who “significantly changes” the proportion of teachers receiving lower evaluations than the year before. That sounds good. However, the proposed contract only stipulates an investigation.. It does not stipulate any consequences. And it does not stipulate, even if the investigation finds wrong-doing, that the evaluations must be changed.
In fact, in our current evaluation system, observations and evaluations cannot be grieved in regard to their content. Only procedural violations can be grieved. In the proposed contract, the consequences of an evaluation will be much more significant. In particular, a teacher can be held - indefinitely? - at a particular interval (which is the proposed contract’s new name for a salary step).
The proposed contract, like the old one - and like the Performance-Based Evaluation System - has no provision allowing teachers to grieve the content of an evaluation. Let’s be clear. Principals are not elected. They are primarily accountable to higher authorities, not to teachers, students, and parents. The proposed contract has the potential to allow principals to become quite dictatorial. And such principals won’t necessarily be “benign” dictators. They could readily be dictatorial in regard to teachers and simultaneously contemptuous in regard to the educational needs of our students.

INCREASING CLASS SIZE
This is not certain, because many aspects of the proposed contract are not stipulated with much detail. However, it sounds as if “Lead” teachers will be given some leadership responsibilities that may prevent them from having a full teaching load. Similarly, the “Joint Governing Panel” - in the proposed contract - is tasked to “designate the roles and responsibilities that Model Teachers will assume, consistent with the strengths of the Model Teacher.” This too sounds as if these teachers will be partly removed from the classroom. In addition, it sounds as some staff members will be spending time outside the classroom as AU (Achievement Unit) coordinators.
If several people in a school - who each used to have a full teaching load - will be partly or completely taken out of the classroom, all the students that would have been taught by those individuals will have to be added to the classes taught by other teachers. This means that classes will grow in size.
Class size matters. If it didn’t, why are the classes - in advanced programs like Ingenuity - deliberately kept significantly smaller than other classes. It’s simple. Smaller classes are better for teaching and learning. However, it seems that the proposed contract may well lead to larger classes.

CONCLUSION
The writer of this critique urges you to vote NO when the ratification vote is held on October 14th.. We can do better than this for our teachers and for our students.

More on contract - I signed the petition to delay the vote

2010-10-09T10:41:00.003-05:00

After signing, I sent this in an e-mail to all staff at my school yesterday:

The big concern I have with the contract is the speed with which we have been expected to approve it. There is an online petition that I wanted to pass along that asks the BTU to delay the vote:

http://teach2010.epetitions.net

Ms. English was quoted by the Baltimore Sun as being willing to delay the vote if enough BTU members wanted a delay.

****

In my opinion, the BTU spent months and months negotiating and that expecting us to approve the contract in a matter of a couple of weeks isn't reasonable.

Frankly, I am pretty excited about the contract, which I think could bring a lot of good with it to the BCPSS, but I have some dissonance about the concerns that we all are raising about the equity of any contract that attaches a higher salary to student performance. For example: What assessment tool will be used? Will teachers have any voice in the assessment tools? How does class load / class size factor into this? What about teachers who teach students with lower skills coming into the class than other teachers? Will this create any competition between collegues? If IB, AP, and HSA test results are used to assess teachers for their salary, how exactly does that work when scores do not come out until well into the summer? What about classes without external tests? What happens when the "Race to the Top" money runs out? How will the panel that decides teacher raises be chosen?

There are too many questions right now, and, while a union rep is visiting our school a couple days before the vote to answer questions, I still think we're being asked to make the decision too swiftly. The petition referenced above asks for a delay to the vote, so that more information can be disseminated, and I think this might be prudent.

***

A few more thoughts (I thought too pointed to put in the e-mail):

1. Why is the only public forum on the new contract on the day of the vote? This is just utterly ridiculous.

2. And, so many want the teachers to take a "leap of faith" on this, but why should we trust the people we're being asked to leap for? Dr. Alonso has had a mixed tenure, in my opinion. I love some of the changes he has brought (more charter schools, making schools smaller, ushering out a lot of the dead weight in the system), but I pointedly disagree with some of his philosophies, especially regarding what responsibility kids have in the process of learning -- a philosophy I think hurts the kids. I think the actions he's taken with my particular school have been way slooooooowwww and I don't think his oversight on principals with their new independence has been particularly effective. So I'm not hook, line, and sinker for everything Alonso offers.

And, then, our union. Oh, our ineffective union. I e-mailed Marietta English a number of times during negotiations and didn't hear back from her. I think, in general, the union does more to protect bad teachers than to help student learning.

So, the fact that the boards will be half North-Avenue people and half-Union people does not necessarily make me feel the safeguards are in place. I have issues with both sides.

Again, the contract excites me. But the lack of information is a concern, especially as the teachers' collective voice was listened to in the negotations of the big pieces of the contract.

Lastly, for full disclosure: I will be out of town for my sister's wedding from Wednesday - Sunday, so I will not be able to vote either way on the contract on the scheduled date. A delay is the only way I would be able to vote.

I think the vote is going to be extremely close. We'll see. I'd vote for it right now, I think, and the BTU rep coming to my school on Monday has the capacity to win me over.

Dog tries to bit man in school parking lot, man jumps on teacher's car, insurance company screws over man

2010-10-07T20:29:00.004-05:00

Here's the situation:

In August, I went in early to school to set up my classroom. The JV Football team was practicing. During practice, I heard a dog outside barking at the kids. I looked outside and saw a couple of adults chase the dog away - but the dog did seem genuinely nasty.

I thought it was over, but when I went out to my car several hours later, I had a note on it, from a parent of a student in my school. The man, when picking up his son from practice, had jumped on the hood of my car to escape this stray dog and dented it. He left his name and number. I called him, and he apologized profusely, and agreed to pay my deductible.

After several weeks of poor service from my insurance company (Erie Insurance, by the way), finally I have been mailed a check for the repair, which costs nearly $1000. I've got the repair lined up for next week, when I'll be out of town.

The thing is, I got a call from the guy today, and my insurance company is going after him for all the money (minus my deductible of $250). "I feel like I'm being punished for being an honest guy," he says. "I had to escape the dog; it was attacking me. And I left my name and number and now this is happening."

And he's absolutely right.

I don't know what to do.

I remind you this is a very nice guy, doing the right thing, an involved parent of a nice kid, escaping for his life because of a stray dog on school property.

He doesn't think his car or his home insurance will cover this, or what the deductible is - could be very high.

Any thoughts?

Checking in with how the year is going

2010-10-06T20:39:00.004-05:00

I've taken a Sick Day this week, the result of a bad cold that I can't seem to shake. I went back today, but it was probably too early, because I left with a fever up over 100 in the afternoon after my last class. I'm not sure if I'll make it in tomorrow; my dept head tells me I shouldn't, but I don't want to be charged for another "occasion" (an instance when you're out) for the same illness just because I tried to go back too soon. Plus, I'll be out next week for my sister's wedding (non-instructional days, though), and I don't want to develop some sort of reputation for being out too much.

Persepolis is coming to a close with the 9th graders. The book has been a great teach, and this has been the best time I've had teaching it. This is perhaps because I'm actually, really teaching it this year, when I feel like in the past, because it was at the end of the year, I spent more time assigning it and making sure they read it. It turns out, it's a pretty tough book, a perfect text for figuring out literal versus inferential and making students get inside the mind of the author. Just like, say, To Kill a Mockingbird, the kids have to analyze what a child is thinking about complex issues, and this is challenging. We are so quick to assign books with child narrators because it might be 'easier', but it's not -- there's a whole new level of understanding and analysis the kids have to break down.

Now we're onto research, which is hella frustrating in a school without much technology. That's a drawback with working so lockstep with colleagues on the same courseteam - the lack of resources. We basically have one computer lab available, so we clearly can't all use it at the same time. So, my research might be done with... I don't know. And that's what it feels like too often. I have never figured out a good way to do research, especially when 350 9th graders (100 of them mine) are working on similar research projects at once.

With the seniors, we are finishing up James Baldwin. I veered away from my schedule a little bit towards the end of the unit but am doing a good job of getting back on track. On Friday, students will be turning in their essays written in the style of James Baldwin. Next Friday, they'll be turning in their 1500-word analytic essays tracing an idea of Baldwin's through three of his essays. We studied Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, and The Fire Next Time, so we covered about ten years of Baldwin's work, and, again, I'm amazed he's not taught more in U.S. schools. Frankly, I think I will teach his work every year from now on. It's that visceral, that good, plus that approachable and analyzable for high school students. (By the way, that last sentence, with all its anaphora, was written in the style of Baldwin.)

Petition to wait on the new contract vote

2010-10-04T22:57:00.003-05:00

I feel like this is a link worth sharing regarding the new contract:

http://teach2010.epetitions.net/

The lack of details is disconcerting to say the least.

I haven't signed the petition yet; I want to reflect a little more. But as someone who is excited about the new contract in a lot of ways, I am certainly starting to wonder at the lack of information.

The vote is Oct. 14th. There are no public forums scheduled until that date. That, alone, should throw some red flags in the air.

Doubts starting to creep in

2010-10-04T22:44:00.004-05:00

I'm beginning to have some doubts about the contract.

Evaluation; We haven't heard what the new evaluation systems will look like. There are some tested areas that are externally assessed, but the scores don't come back until the summer. How can that determine your salary for that year? That means, perhaps, the district will have to heavily invest in some testing, and, generally, the materials we have gotten from North Avenue for these purposes have been poor. Could my salary is going to be determined by tests that has questions without right answers? That's what I hear happened in the summer programs. And, of course, what about non-traditional subject areas? How about courses, like IB English IV, that have external assessments - will we have to stop instruction (we have not a moment to spare) to give internal city-wide tests just to determine teacher salary? Seems counterproductive.

I'd love it if teachers could develop their own benchmarks to demonstrate student achievement, but there would need to be plenty of oversight on that, and I don't know how that could happen.

Basically, we've heard few details and we're being asked to vote for this on Oct. 14, just ten days away. Where are the public forums? (There's one scheduled, on Oct. 14, the date of the vote.)

Also, how is this going to be paid for? Also worrisome.

I'm all about the bullet pointed big ideas but worry about the devil in the details. I figured we would start to get some information by now. Nope.

New contract

2010-09-30T20:40:00.002-05:00

First off, I haven't decided for sure that I like the new contract. I'm going to write about it and think about it and talk about it for the next several weeks until the ratification vote. But, so far, so good. I like it more as I hear more about it.

I'm tweeting a lot more than blogging these days (140 characters easier than a thoughtful blog post with my load), but I think -- think -- I like the new contract.

I have had horrible administrations before, administrations that are vindictive, bullying, etc. I have been the object of said bullying. So, I understand the need for protections to guard against needless firing, bullying tactics, etc. It can be really bad.

But, I also have been the victim of what I see as unfair salary structures. I have worked alongside teachers who leave everyday 5 minutes after the bell ring and miss 20 days a year and make more money than me because they have a Master's Dgree (I have mine now) or because they have been in the system longer. They ditto the kids to death as their lesson plans.

This is frustrating to me and any good teacher. I did not go into teaching for the money but to see colleagues over the years pull in huge salaries for teaching a couple of classes is detrimental to morale. I have craved for a system that rewards good teaching.

The rub, of course, is how to measure that. But the details of the new contract that I've heard suggest that the ways the new contract will do it will be fair. This is what I heard from my union rep today:

1) It's not about achievement; it's about growth. Kids aren't being compared with previous year's kids, but with how they come into your classroom with how they leave it. That's what teaching is.

2) I'll now actually be encouraged to do things like go to national conferences to better my teaching. I was already intrinsically motivated to do this, and, for example, dropped a thousand bucks last year to go to (and present at) the NCTE. With this new contract, I could use that as a point to move to the next salary level.

3) I'll now have some financial incentive to be involved in more extracurricular activities and mentorship. I was already motivated, but I see no reason why there isn't financial incentive as well. Contributing to the school community is what good teaching is.

4) No one's salary will drop. And we all get a pretty substantial raise.

My fears:

A) I haven't heard what the student-performance instrument is yet. Teacher-developed? System-developed? Course specific?

B) Who is this 'panel' that will decide whether you have gone to the next salary level?

C) What red tape will there be for having these review-boards meet?

D) In general, what happens to non-tested areas? I don't teach an HSA class. What happens to my Theater teacher friend? Health? That needs to be spelled out.

There seems to be plenty of opportunities for disparity, cronyism, etc. But I like the ideas and look forward to the debates about it over the next few weeks. I hope some checks and balances will be in there, and won't vote for it if there aren't. But I like thinking outside-the-box. I like a lot of what I hear about.

And we'll be getting paid.

Day in the library

2010-09-20T22:08:00.003-05:00

I am loathe to complain too much, so let me tell you about a great day with my 9th graders today:

We've made a commitment to offer Silent, Sustained Reading every Monday, as well as a visit to the library once a month. During library visits, students may read the assigned readings, but they also may explore other books they might be interested in. Our library is big, beautiful, and under-utilized, and we want students to have the experience of getting lost in a book there.

I was worried. A big area, where I can't see all of them? 33 ninth graders? Monitoring their engagement and their adherence to the rules (no socializing, no electronics, no homework) No way that would work.

But, folks, it was amazing. Some kids found a comfortable place to read and then read Persepolis, their assigned books. Others looked at the Young Adult section, picking up titles by Walter Dean Myers or Sharon Draper. Others read books about College Scholarships or Russia. I can honestly say I had just about 100% engagement at points, and my last class was so wonderful that I got to sit down myself and read for pleasure for a few minuts while the rest of the class did the same.

Great day.

Vocabulary

2010-09-18T17:20:00.003-05:00

"I bet that made you feel morose," Kevin commented on my Facebook page a few weeks ago when I had made some sort of innocuous Facebook status update. Kevin was from the class of 2007, I think, and he remembered a vocabulary word he learned way back when was a Freshman.

This comment is ringing in my ear now, as I ponder vocabulary instruction in my class. This year, our team decided to teach the 9th graders 4-6 new words a week, all having to do with the literature we were learning. To learn 160-200 new words a year is a pretty amazing feat, I think. To actually teach them and have the students learn them: that's an important facet of English instruction.

However, the directive from the principal was, "Four words a week is not enough". Apparently, when my department head brought it up at the instructional leadership team meeting, several other department heads poo-pooed the idea, saying things like, "_______ Middle School does 10 a week".

However, is "doing" ten words a week what we want? How do we know that "doing" them means they're learning them? With four words a week, we were practicing flashcards and actually learning the words. This wouldn't happen with ten. So what is the goal here? The kids learning the words or the kids doing the words?

It's a strange place to be in, to be directed to do more of something that you just barely felt you were doing well. What's best for the kids? English teachers have writing skills (timed writing and planned writing), grammar, vocabulary, oral expression skills, and reading skills to cover. How is it that we're not doing enough vocabulary when I already felt we were a little too much spread out? It's something we'll deal with all year, and, in the meantime, we will increase the vocabulary and see what happens. But I always believed that teaching wasn't about throwing a bunch of things at the kids and hoping some of it sticks. If I teach something, I want to teach it well. This doesn't feel like it.

Persepolis, Year 3

2010-09-16T21:47:00.002-05:00

In previous years, I did Persepolis at the end of the year, quickly, in between HSA tests, and after the 9th graders had gained some literary analysis skills.

This year, I'm teaching it at the beginning. I love it, but it's a much harder text than one would suspect. It's often subtle, and, like To Kill a Mockingbird, the protagonist doesn't really get it so we as readers have to step away and examine her from a different perspective. It takes some skills. Add in the fact that we are analyzing pictures as well as words, and this is a challenging text.

I'm teaching the hell out of it and I hope it's getting through. We'll see how the quiz goes tomorrow.

State of Being

2010-09-15T19:57:00.001-05:00

Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy BusyBusy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy BusyBusy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy

Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids Working harder than the kids

Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop Needs to stop

Mary Oliver

2010-09-11T22:32:00.003-05:00

Mary Oliver's work has been speaking to me lately. I've been ho-hum about this poem before, but it's because I've never really understood it like I understand it now. This bowls me over.

"Wild Geese"

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Or this one:

"The Journey"

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

the only life you could save.

Disappointed in Mfume, Cummings for appearing for Jessamy

2010-09-11T08:52:00.000-05:00

I am saddened and disappointed by the appearance of Mfume and Cummings at the rally for Jessamy yesterday. This tacit approval of the way violent crime has been handled in Baltimore by Baltimore's old guard is disgusting.

Vote Bernstein on Tuesday!

First couple of weeks going well

2010-09-10T22:23:00.002-05:00

Not too much time to blog lately. I feel like I'm working 14-hour days these days, every day, if not more; I'm at school until at least 5 or 6 and then I'm home to sit at my computer and plan. It feels good -- this year, so far, I am really liking these kids -- but I cannot maintain this pace. Part of the issue is that I spend plenty of moments wasting time or energy. My classroom gets horribly messy, for example, by the end of the day and it's probably because I haven't worked out the systems that I need to work out to avoid spending so much time picking up at the end of the day.

Still, this shouldn't be a negative post, because, despite the work, the year feels like it's going to be a great one. The 9th graders are a somewhat tough group, but they are wonderful, earnest little sponges that really want to do well. I am trying plenty of new things with them this year -- Daily Grammar Practice that I write myself, using sentences from the literature, with a follow-up analysis questions as our daily drill; beginning the year linking Persepolis and Fences and a Humanities unit about how trauma creates character; weekly timed writings and (purposeful) silent sustained reading time. Our 9th grade team has two new teachers, as well as the department head and an administrator-type, so we are working together as a team more than I ever had. It's slightly more stressful this way, worrying that everyone is basically doing the same thing every day, and trying to differentiate instruction for different kids in the classes, but the reflection that comes with working with skilled educators and being able to articulate that with new educators has been valuable.

With my seniors, we are jumping right into James Baldwin right now, and he's become one of my favorite writers to teach. It's only my second year teaching his non-fiction, but the kids connect with it right away, as his writing is just so powerful and moving. One of my favorite assignments this unit will be to have the students write a personal essay in the style of James Baldwin.

So... great first couple of weeks. I really need to reboot this weekend, but I'm working the Ukrainian Festival tomorrow, schilling pierogies, and again on Sunday night at the restaurant. Oh well. The Tuesday off-day will be nice. Busy busy.

Being a better reading teacher

2010-09-07T20:09:00.003-05:00

Last year, I was so overwhelmed creating curriculum and units for IB English IV that I felt like my 9th graders got a bit of a short shrift. I can coast through the 9th grade classes; I know the literature well that I can almost recite it in my sleep. Some real teaching did occur with them, in the second semester, as we did a Literary Circles unit and then, of course, with Shakespeare. But, otherwise, I felt like I was being too pedantic and penalizing in my instruction.

We're getting a different sort of 9th graders these days. They're less readers than before. I don't know if this is a city-wide or a nation-wide issue with the advent of technology, or if I'm just teaching classes with lower-skills level than, say, five years ago. But the change is real and I have to adjust accordingly.

This year is six days old but, for the first time, I wish I had a specialization in Reading Instruction. I'm already digging out my Cris Trovani books and reviewing what I need to be to be a good reading instructor for these kids who are coming in reading with extreme difficulty.

Today, I had the students read silently for fifteen minutes, shut their books, and then answer four questions based on the Ladder of Question (Literal, Inferential, Experiential). Some students, literally, got through just a page and a half, and still couldn't tell me what was happening. I was so happy to have one such young man come for Coach Class after school, and we slowly went through the story, meticulously, stopping after every sentence, summarizing, defining. He's perhaps the toughest kid I have so far this year, but he came after school with a dramatic new attitude and, well, it really just made me so happy. But also concerned, once I heard his reading skills up close. Someone has done him wrong. I'll work to right it.

Anyhow, here are some of my goals for being a 9th grade teacher this year:

1) Less assigning, more teaching. Less is more. Teach these kids how to read.

2) Focus more on the way we read, not about soaking up the content. Sometimes I'm so in love with the literature that I focus primarily on this, without teaching them how to take meaning from it like all good readers do.

3) Be less penalizing, more positive.

So far, so good -- except #3 is the toughest.

"Either they don't know, it don't show or they don't care about what's goin' on in the 'hood." -- Dough Boy from "Boyz n da Hood"

2010-09-01T18:16:00.003-05:00

Today it was 87 degrees in my classroom at 7:02 a.m. when I arrived and heated up throughout the day. At around noon, the principal was out in the hallway and I expected her to start telling teachers that they had received notice from the system that because of the inhumane teaching/learning conditions, we were being sent home early. Nope. The news soon swept through that the County -- most of which are air-conditioned, I thought -- let out early. After all, we did have Code Red (dangeorus) Air Quality along with the high temperatures.

So we slogged through the day, and this teacher was feeling increasingly light-headed.

This is starting to seem, for me, to be a social justice issue, a haves and have-nots issue, between the county and the city, and between people making decisions in air-conditioned offices versus the people working in conditions suitable to miners.

The other part of me is less certain, though. I grew up in Michigan, and I'm certain we had temperatures in the 90s in school, and we weren't let out. But we started after Labor Day and the heat was never coupled with the sort of humidity we see here in the mid-Atlantic. Plus, there, or at least where I was, there is more land, and my school was one floor. Our schools sits high and has four stories, and each story gets hotter and hotter.

So, yes, we should have been let out.

That being said, I can't believe how good the kids are being. I hope it's not like that scene in The Wire, where they turn up the heat so the kids are more docile, and that they're just polite and wonderful kids that I'm teaching this year. I'm sure the latter! :)

Year 10, Day 2

2010-08-31T21:49:00.003-05:00

Day 2 was alright. Most of the first period was spent in the auditorium, listening to the principal's address. It was easily the best principal's address I had heard in my career -- succinct but clear, and full of high expectations for the students. I loved hearing about strict adherence to school policy, but also emphasis placed on such things as the use of Standard English and forbidden use of electronics, even for parents calling during the school day. Lots of stuff about honor, which I definitely dug. I loved it.

The rest of the day went well, as I got my students more and more used to the routines and systems I will be using in class. A few of my 9th graders are developing personalities and I've learned about a quarter of their names. Six of them walked in late today to 8th period; much lateness this early can be attributed to getting lost, but I still laid the disappointment on thick. One kid who thinks he will play baseball this year even said, "Sorry, coach."

The heat is unbearable, though. It hit 93 in my classroom today, and that, coupled with the humidity and a room chock full of kids, just doesn't make for a good learning environment. I do my best, but it's hard not think it's pretty inhumane not to offer a/c in every school when it gets this hot. At noon, I was feeling okay (I didn't wear a shirt/tie today), but, by 2pm, I could barely move. Kids were ornery and/or sluggish. I really wish there a way to get more humane conditions in all of our schools. I'll be on my 3rd sweat towel tomorrow.

E-mailed introduction

2010-08-30T17:47:00.004-05:00

Instead of having my students fill out an information card this year, I'm having them e-mail me information. They're to send me a little introduction with information about where they went to middle school, what they liked about English class last year, and what their academic, social, and academic goals are for the year.

I'm making them make their own academic e-mail address. No more 9th graders with e-mail addresses like "sexykitten69@yahoo.com" or "sk8brdr4life@gmail.com", but, rathe,r e-mail addresses that area variation on their names and that show up as their government names in my inbox.

You should read the ones I'm already getting. Very cute.

A Hot First Day

2010-08-30T17:28:00.003-05:00

Great first day, except for the heat. The sweat started as I carried a new fan (bought at Target yesterday for $24.99, my 3rd classroom fan I've purchased for my room... ironically, I hate fans while teaching) and didn't stop until I left the school. Felt like I was going to pass out at times. This is probably the most intensive day for teachers -- all focus is on you, and you're talking all the time -- and I earned that sweat.

Seems like a lot of great kids.

We brought the post-first day happy hour (& pizza) to Ledo's Pizza, the location of the former favorite Rocky Run. Love the new place. The serves are great.

Putting finishing touches on summer reading quizzes now... hope tomorrow it gets a little cooler.

It's going to be a great year!

2010-08-29T22:07:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow I begin my 10th year of teaching. I'm so excited! And nervous! If ever it does not feel this way, I guess it's time to retire.

The forecast is 97 degrees and humid, and I am not looking forward to that. Traditionally I wear a lot of polos and, during baseball season, our baseball uniform jersey. But in the first semester, I try to dress nicer. The first day, always a shirt and tie. Tomorrow I'm worried about that. I will definitely maintain my crowd as the Sweatiest Teacher in the School!

Curriculum draft

2010-08-23T18:55:00.002-05:00

I'm ready to divulge what I'm thinking about for the IB Seniors this year:

First Semester (chosen from a pretty restrictive IB list of authors):
Richard III: A returning text from last year. It's a great teach (Richard is quite the gangster), funny and morbid, and the Al Pacino film Looking for Richard makes it even better.

Much Ado About Nothing: Another returner. I'm someone who's never really liked Shakespeare comedies but I liked this one. The kids seemed to like it last year, too. It's light and funny and there's plenty to analyze in passages.

Essays by James Baldwin: After the lightness of Much Ado, we'll read the bleak but beautiful essays of James Baldwin. Once again I'll have them get the Library of Congress collection, which covers his entire career. I'll probably lighten the load of essays this year, but still get enough to get a picture of his career.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton: A new text this year. It's a beautiful and amazing novel, and something that I think will push the kids out of their comfort zones a bit. I'm excited for the challenge.

Second Semester (chosen from a less-restrictive list of authors):

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga: Bar none the favorite book of my students last year, a funny and inventive read that sets up the semester theme of class struggle.

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison: One of my top-5 favorite novels of all time, and a book that has been a consistently good teach over the last 5 years or so.

July's People by Nadine Gordimer: I don't love this book, but it fits the theme well and is short. Gordimer does some interesting things with style here. I found it labored and overly mannered, but I like the idea of the plot and think some kids will like it. Plus it's short.

Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid: The least sure thing, mostly because I haven't finished it yet (read the first couple of chapters online and waiting for it to arrive in the mail). But the plot fits well and Kincaid's language is rather beautiful. I think it will work well.

The weekend before year 10

2010-08-20T23:14:00.003-05:00

On this weekend before the start of my 10th year of teaching, I'm excited. I sort of wish I had another couple of weeks to get everything done (I'm only on page 150 of Wild Swans, which is reading like required reading, which it is for my senior students in a text we chose in conjunction with History class), but my room is pretty much set up and the year is about to begin.

We've done some re-vamping to our 9th grade curriculum, and I'm rather excited about. In the first quarter, while the 9th graders are learning about Psychology in Humanities class down the hall, we will be studying two texts that look at the psychology of how people end up how they are, specifically how trauma and conflict make us into the people we are today. We'll be linking Persepolis and Fences, and I'm so excited; students will write their Psychology essay at the end of the unit about one of the two characters, and turn in the essay to both teachers.

Our second unit will be about the Journey, and we'll be linking Catcher in the Rye and The Odyssey. I haven't taught Catcher in the Rye since I was student teaching in Lansing ten years ago, and I'm excited to pick it up again to teach. I obviously like the book a lot, as my dog's name is Holden! We unfortunately don't have enough textbooks to send home The Odyssey, so I'm less excited about that.

Third quarter will see students reading a Literary Circles novel, with choices from such authors as Yann Martel, Julia Alvarez, and Shyam Selvadurai. Fourth quarter will see us return to the staple of Romeo and Juliet.

I feel like I was so concentrated on the new course of the seniors, along with National Board, that my freshmen last year didn't get as good of an experience as I would have liked. I want to re-focus on them a bit more this year.

That being said, the seniors will be a huge part of my year as well. I'm still tinkering with the curriculum -- I'm teaching Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, James Baldwin essays, Song of Solomon, and The White Tiger, all for sure, and considering adding Tim Winton's Cloudstreet and Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. Those two are close to being definites, and the last choice will either be a repeat of Oryx and Crake from last year, or a novel by Roddy Doyle or V.S. Naipaull. I have about a week to decide for sure.

In all, though, I'm very excited for the year, and hoping it's one of my best yet.

Man escapes dog by jumping on my car while in the school parking lot

2010-08-18T23:15:00.003-05:00

Recent events have made me more excited than ever about the upcoming school year, and I saw myself visiting my classroom to set things up every day so far this week. Sadly, I'm not nearly actually ready for the year to begin (I'm only about a third of the way through my summer reading book, the one the History department and I chose together for our students to share, and still need to read more and finalize my second semester) but am still excited for it to begin. My classroom is looking good (I never have the same room arrangement for consecutive years) and I'm going to swap out some posters by the end of the week.

On Monday, a pit bull was running around our school and a father picking up his son from football practice jumped on the hood of my car to escape an attack. It dented. Thankfully he left a note and will be paying the deductible. I spent much of the day today getting estimates. I feel kind of bad about having him pay the entire $250 deductible and might split it with him (it wasn't his fault a pit bull was attacking people at my school, after all). Anyhow, that was an exciting start to the school year, I guess.

Defeating Jessamy

2010-08-16T21:27:00.002-05:00

I feel like the crime has gotten more and more sickening in Baltimore this summer. If it's not a star basketball player gunned down right near my school, it's a Hopkins researcher stabbed to death while walking home from Penn Station in Baltimore. Sickening and scary.

It's time for a change and Bernstein must be voted in and Jessamy defeated. The primary election for the State's Attorney is September 14th; please cast your vote for Gregg Bernstein.

A well-written summary of why you should vote Bernstein is here: http://pallas-athena2.livejournal.com/15595.html.

The 6 Best Food Items in Baltimore

2010-08-11T23:09:00.003-05:00

It's been a while, so I thought I would re-post. I believe I have remained somewhat consistent with these choices but recently added a #6.

1) Crab Hash at The Waterfront Hotel's Brunch (Fells Point)

2) Hriby Dip at Ze Mean Bean Cafe (Fells Point)

3) Hearts Afire salad at The Dog Pub (Federal Hill)

4) Rosemary Garlic Fries at The Brewers Hart (Mt. Vernon)

5) Mushroom Reuben* at Joe Squared (midtown)

6) Veggie Burger at Hamilton Tavern (Hamilton)

These are all pretty inexpensive, too.

It's my 33rd birthday this weekend, and I hope to enjoy several of the above items, and maybe discover a new one, plus maybe a beer or two. Happy Hour Friday, a Bar Trivia Race and Scavenger Hunt on Saturday, and Brunch on Sunday, followed by a visit with my personal trainer (as I do every Sunday) and a shift waiting tables Sunday night. I could have gotten out of waiting tables on my birthday, certainly, but I enjoy it and could really use the money after the "Great Wallet Loss/Theft of 2010" that I'm sure you've read about. What, you haven't? Yup. Lost my wallet, probably at the BP on Greenmount/33rd after a particularly tough workout. Had to get everything replaced and had quite a bit of $$ in it. Ugh. It will be a good weekend, though.

* Note: This is not on the menu, though it should be.

The Curious Incident of the First Day of Summer Bridge

2010-08-09T20:28:00.003-05:00

Social Studies chose The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as its 9th grade summer reading book (their first quarter's unit is dealing with Psychology) and our English department hopped on board. We have another book as well (a choice of three), but Curious Incident is the book that all students read, so it's the one we probably will spend the most time on in the opening days of school.

I love the book, and as I re-read it this summer, I got very excited about how I thought 9th grade students would respond. It's kind of an easy read, making it a good summer read, but its concepts and tangents are difficult, though, so I was a little nervous with how the students would respond. How would they deal with the inferences they would have to make, in order to figure out what exactly happened with the marriage of Christopher's parents. We're hearing it all from Christopher's perspective, of course, and he doesn't quite get it. Would the students "get" that? What would their experience reading the book be like?

The first day of Summer Bridge was today and I finally got to satisfy my curiosity with how the students responded to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I created an 8-page handout about all the summer reading, including a couple of passages from the novel for which students had to text-mark for the IB Learner Profile. We're doing the activity, though, and finally I needed to say it: "Can I ask you guys something? What was reading this book like? I tried to put myself in your spot as I was reading it... you had to read the book without a teacher around, and you probably understood that Christopher had some sort of condition, but how well did you 'get' what that was? Can you share what your experience was?"

Hands shot up. They wanted to talk about it.

"At first I was confused by this boy, but when he started explaining his behavorial problems I got it more."

"I liked it but got confused when he went off and started talking about things that didn't seem to fit, like ice cream."

"Christopher was such a visual learner and drew stuff out but I didn't like that and it confused me. I liked the book overall though."

"My uncle has Asperger's and he kind of flips out when he's around a lot of people or is touched so I understood what Christopher was talking about."

And on and on. It was a great conversation and I could tell that the students were meaningfully engaged in the text as they read it. Is there anything else I can really ask for regarding summer reading?

I continued the lesson. From The Autism Society of America and as website about Asperger's, I provided a list of characteristics of both autism and Asperger's (and I realize that the latter is just a high-functioning type of the former) and the students discussed a diagnosis for Christopher. Websites identify him as both, and we decided that his autism is probably functional and specialized enough to be Asperger's. Students identified elements of each diagnosis and provided evidence from the book that Christopher exhibits. We went on to discussion questions in small groups and tips on how to succeed in the first days of class.

I loved it. What a great day. They're into the book and these kids are excited for the year to start. What a great read.

Dan Bern - Black Tornado

2010-08-06T01:39:00.000-05:00

There's a black tornado, a black tornado spinning around in my body sometimes.

God, I love this song.

Summer Bridge lesson

2010-08-06T01:24:00.002-05:00

Next week, in the sadly shortened (was that a BCPSS decision? or a school-based one?) High School Prep, I am charged with teaching a 55-minute session on high school reading to every one of our school's incoming 9th graders. I'll be focusing on Summer Reading, which involves the reading of the curious incident of the dog in the night time (Hadden) and their choice of The Book Thief (Zusak), Does My Head Look Big in This? (Abdel-Fatteh), or A Long Way Gone (Baeh).

I'm going to focus primarily on the Hadden text because (a) all the kids are reading it; and (b) it's the text that I think they'll need the most help with. It will be challenging because I know about half the kids will have already read the book and completed the assignment, and probably the other half haven't even gotten the book yet.

I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to come up with a bang-up lesson because (a) I feel that since High School Prep is shortened this year, I have to cram a lot more learning/preparation into one session than I normally would have; (b) I really want to have a great year with these 9th graders and that starts with summer reading; and (c) I have to teach the same lesson 15 times, so if it's not a great lesson, I'll be bored to tears.

Wish me luck. It's been marinating for a few weeks, and, this weekend, I'll have to put it together. Monday at 8:30 a.m., I'll be back at it.