Trying Some Food

Checking Our Sources

I spent the first part of my weekend helping chaperone our school's cross country team for their first meet of the season. The meet to place in Quinhagak (quin-uh-hawk) which is a short 20 minute plane ride for us. The boys did well with our middle schooler placing first, and I even participated in the village's annual Salmon Run - a 5K marathon. I didn't run the complete course though, nor did I run. I walked about half of the course and decided that the amount of rain that was coming down on us made it more of a swimming marathon than a running marathon. It was fun though, and it was nice to get to know the students who came with us.

I got back to Eek at around 2:00 pm, and decided to head to the school and relax. I started using Pinterest recently since it has a lot of cool images for me to use with my lessons, and it's also just a cool site to browse for ideas. I recently started a board for poetry and was browsing through some poetry quotes when I ran into this quote which is attributed to Alfred Lord Tennyson - the Victorian poet whom you may know for poems like In Memoriam or "Crossing the Bar."

"Awwwww," you might say. "What a cute thing to say to a loved one." I thought the same thing, too. In fact, I had already added it to my repertoire of cute things to say to ladies when I started to wonder where this line came from. I not only studied Tennyson in a few of my collegiate classes, but I also studied him on my spare time. So, I was a little miffed with myself when I couldn't remember where this line came from. Doing a quick Google search, I came up with a BBC article that attributed the quote to him. Wonderful! I thought. Now I don't have to do anymore searching. However, I noticed the article didn't attribute the line to the poem it came from, or any work of Tennyson's for that matter. The English teacher in me didn't like that. Not. One. Bit.

Digging a little deeper, it turns out that a lot of websites attribute this quote to Tennyson, but don't tell you where it comes from. Finally, I found a website that attributed the quote to a poem Tennyson wrote called "Flower." Well, it actually turns out that it's not in that poem, nor any other version of the poem I can find. In fact, Quote Investigator traces the first use of the quote back just a short 30 years, well after the life of Alfred Lord Tennyson. The phrase was used as a popular Valentine's day message in the 80's, and I suppose attaching the name of a well known poet made the gesture more grand.

This is the part where my students would ask me, "So what?" or "What's the point, Jake?" and I can only imagine you are asking the same thing. Well, what I'm getting at, folks, is that we need to be sure what we're posting on the internet for everyone to see is true, backed by facts, isn't supported by just one credible source, and doesn't just end up being a phrase you took from a Valentine's day card. 

People are starting to get heated up about political candidates with the 2016 election coming up next year, and I'm glad to see that people are willing to participate in the election. However, please please please please please take nothing at face value. Do the research. Google, Youtube, Fact Check, talking with other people and listening, and relying on more than one news source are great ways of making sure you're getting what you're voting for. Unfortunately, I see our society becoming more and more dependent on the news articles our friends post on Facebook rather than doing the research ourselves. And, it's just so darn easy to hit that share button for things you totally agree with despite whether it's true or not.

In the end, I'm just advocating for a smarter, more intellectual approach to political discourse. I'm advocating for researching both liberals and conservatives. Know the good, know the bad, and know the ugly. Chances are, you are going to want to know what they are before you vote.

Let's Talk Assessments

Part of the way I'll be assessed as a teacher in Alaska this year is how well my students do on two tests. They take a test in the early fall, then they'll take a different version of the same test in the spring. The school then takes the two scores and compares them to see whether growth occurred for the student. If I'm an effective teacher, the student grows at a rate that is at the 50th percentile [that means the student learns at the national average]. If I'm an ineffective teacher, they are below that line. If I'm a super, awesome, every-teacher-in-every-feel-good-teacher-movie-you-ever-saw-combined kind of teacher, then my students will be well over the 50th percentile. Simple enough, right?

It turns out that it really IS that simple. The problem is the fact that it took me two inservice days and a district wide class (over 12 hours total) to figure that out. And I think the reason for that gets at the real core of the problem with using assessments the way we are using them today: we actually don't really know what we're doing with them.

One of the trends I see in education today - especially at the political level where the decisions are being made - is that we're often times looking for a silver bullet: a quick fix to our terrible situation in education. And in case you aren't aware, there is no quick fix. If we are treating education as a serious science, we need to stop assuming that one idea, or a new test, or a new way of teaching will have an enormous effect on education in just one year.

Science is the process of making observations, making a hypothesis, making more observations through controlled experiments, analyzing data, and then moving forward by communicating results. A lot of times, testing companies suggest that their tests are backed by statistics or don't even suggest that there is scientific research to back what they're doing. Even when testing companies say they have research and statistics to back what they're doing though, we rarely see what exactly the statistics and research are. However, departments are paying loads and loads of money for these tests simply because they're aligned to the national standards. Hold on, this sort of reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies...

   Dr. Ian Malcolm: Gee, the lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, uh... staggers me. 
   Donald Gennaro: Well thank you, Dr. Malcolm, but I think things are a little bit different then you and I had          feared... 
   Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, I know. They're a lot worse. 
   Donald Gennaro: Now, wait a second now, we haven't even seen the park... 
   John Hammond: No, no, Donald, Donald, Donald... let him talk. There's no reason... I want to hear every    viewpoint, I really do. 
   Dr. Ian Malcolm: Don't you see the danger, John, inherent in what you're doing here? Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet's ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that's found his dad's gun. 
   Donald Gennaro: It's hardly appropriate to start hurling generalizations... 
   Dr. Ian Malcolm: If I may... Um, I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now 
[bangs on the table] 
   Dr. Ian Malcolm: you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Well... 
   John Hammond: I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before... 
   Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should. 

We have a long way to go in education when it comes to finding standardized testing that works. You see, I'm not totally against standardized testing; we have to have a way for keeping teachers accountable, and I don't see many other options for doing so. I am against bad standardized testing though, and that's what we have nationwide. I have hope that, eventually, someone will listen to what teachers, students, and parents are saying. I also hope we have things figured out before the velociraptors figure out how to open doors. That just wouldn't be a fun day.

Let's Talk Common Core

There's a lot of outrage now these days about education, and a lot of it seems to stem from a hatred of Common Core. From Jon Oliver to Kasich's decision to outlaw PARCC after just one year, there is a lot of unrest when it comes to this topic. People aren't happy, and I admit that they do have something to be unhappy about. However, I'd say the blame is misplaced. A lot of people think all of the problems in education stem from Common Core: the federal standards that many states have adopted. If you believe this, please, go read the standards yourself. From what I've gathered, Common Core has had a very positive impact on education, and teachers (most anyway) have welcomed it with open arms. I myself have accepted the standards. Then again, they're really the only standards I've had within my short career, but they're good.

"But, Jake," you might say. "What about that video that shows how dumb Common Core math is?" Well, of course it's going to look silly to us; we learned math using rote learning. For those of us not savvy with teacher talk, rote learning is equivalent to memorization which is considered the lowest form of learning nowadays. We learned early on that 8+5=13 because we used blocks (real learning), then learned by writing over and over again what x+5= (rote learning), then took timed tests that tested our ability to recall that information (recollection of rote learning). We've sort of evolved from that in education. Now we're looking at getting deeper with learning. Watch the video again. Did you see some deeper learning that was taking place? Notice how those second graders are not only learning different strategies for adding, but they're learning ALGEBRAIC CONCEPTS?! WHAT?! Yup, it's kind of cool once you break it down. Now there are some concerns with this: are second graders ready for this kind of thinking? Can they really understand what it is they're doing? Yeah, they actually are. Granted, it takes a while, but with a good teacher they can make it. Considering my father was taught algebra in elementary school, I think they're up for the challenge. The question is: do we have teachers who are up for the challenge?

It's the same way with English teachers. I think now more than ever the language arts field is calling for teachers who - dare I say it? - write along with their students. I myself write poetry at least once a week in order to keep my writing skills sharp (I'll share that on another post). Whenever I have students write journals, I write a journal entry along with them - it's great for getting discussions going. With the English Standards, writing has more of a presence in the class which is phenomenal for the teachers who are ready to dig down and teach from their own writer's toolbox.

"So, Jake" you ask, "where should we put the blame?" Just as I'd direct one of my students, take a look back at the sources I linked early on in the article, the ones about Jon Oliver and "King" Kasich. The problem doesn't lie with the standards, but rather in our attempts to interpret what we should be assessing and how to assess it. So, to be clear, the standards are okay: it's the assessments that I have a problem with. I'll have more to talk about on that tomorrow after my first day of examining student data though. We'll see how that goes first.

Taking Charge of the Curriculum

This past Sunday, I had an experience that was strangely similar to going down the massive hill of a roller coaster. Except it felt like I didn't have any of the safety harnesses on, and I was gripping on to the one bar of sanity right in front of me for dear life. All of this was because I was lost in the district's various class curriculums, and I had no idea what I was going to be doing for any of my classes the next day.

At first, I thought the district's plan was streamlined to the point where all I would have to do is go through the steps and plan some activities for the students in order to build some depths of knowledge. Planning shouldn't take very long I thought to myself. I'll just wait until Sunday. Then I noticed how many resources the curriculum called for. It got to the point where I was wasting time looking for books I didn't even know the school had, then wasting more time looking through the book for that one work sheet the district plan called for. Looking back, I was spending about 30 minutes of planning for just 10 minutes of class time. I'm not much of a math person, but that ratio didn't sit well with me.

My first response was to give up and chant "Woe is me" straight into the next morning. I eventually picked myself up though, took a little walk around the school, and I got in contact with the head of the English curriculum for the school district. It turns out she was making a trip out to my site within the next couple of days; and when she arrived, we talked a little bit about the curriculum, how she went about teaching it when she was still teaching, and some general pointers for me. What it really came down to though is shifting my thinking about what and how to plan. She told me that, in the end, I'm the professional. I work with the kids day in and day out. I know what they need to know. I'm the one who decides what gets taught from the district's curriculum. If there is a worksheet that I'm having difficulty finding, then forget about it. Often times there is a portion of the class book the students use that can be used to test student comprehension with what is going on in class. Before I knew it, the district's curriculum became less of a code that needed to be followed, and it became more of a guideline. As it turns out, that's what I needed to know.

I've now taken charge of the curriculum. It's no longer the district's curriculum, but rather it is what I decide to teach. Of course, I still look at it to sort of lead me the way, but that's all it is doing. I can't depend on a virtual plan made by someone else to blaze the path in front of me. I have to blaze my own path.

Sorry for the Delay on Pictures!

Busy, busy, busy, busy. That's pretty much been me ever since I landed in Eek. Of course, I will definitely be posting some pictures and videos of where I'm staying at and my school. If all goes well with planning, I should have something for all of you tomorrow. Thanks for reading so far though, and thanks for the patience!

Being a Team Player

I graduated with a degree in Integrated Language arts, which means I'm qualified to teach 7-12 language arts. I don't have much experience with teaching anything else except using firearms, rules for board games, and writing poetry. Then, this conversation took place about four days ago:

Principal: Hey Jake, I have the schedules done for the High School.

Me: Oh! Cool! What courses do you have for me?

Principal: Well, you'll be teaching Physical Education, British Literature, Language Arts II, Health I, and two US History courses. 

Me: Wow. That's quite the day.

Principal: Yup. You okay with it?

Me: Yup. Challenge accepted.

Was I surprised by the fact that I'd be teaching and prepping for five different courses? Yeah, a little. However, it was pointed out to me very early on in the hiring process that I would be teaching other courses besides my English courses. So, I can't blame my principal at all, and I actually don't want to. I'm actually surprised that he already has that much trust in my ability despite the fact I just met him last week.

Of course, there were many ways I could have reacted to our conversation. I could've said, "ABSOLUTELY NOT! ARE YOU INSANE?" or I could have grumbled on about how I'm not much of a health kind of guy and how I would rather not teach anything but my English courses. That's not how it works though, not here at least. We are short a high school teacher, and these kids need the courses my principal gave me in order to graduate. Why would I deny them that? Sure, it'll be hard work, but I didn't get into the teaching business because it's easy.

At our staff meeting, my principal talked about choosing our attitudes. The comment brought me back to the fact that, as teachers, we have personas for teaching. In a way, teachers are actors and actresses. No matter how we feel when we wake up in the morning, no matter how much we dread the day, and no matter how much we want the day to be over with, we put on a smile and we teach. This is why I figured out early on that the people who have a background in some form of theatre - like myself and some of my peers - will become very strong teachers in a shorter amount of time. Sometimes, you really do have to fake it to make it; you just can't let anyone know that you're faking it.

In short, we all struggle. Or as the teachers here at Eek would say, we all have a fabulous struggle. You can choose to grumble on about how hard that struggle is, and how much you don't want to do it. I get it. It's easy to take that route. But we eventually have to do the work, so why not do it with a smile on your face and a look in your eyes that says "get out of the way"?

EDIT: I found out today that I'm also teaching Introduction to Culinary Arts. My attitude? It's still positive. I even have my first lesson planned out already!