JRussellTeacher Blog

The Real Power of Apologies

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 14:43:00 +0000

As teachers we are inundated with apologies. I have students apologize because they threw this, or they didn't turn in that. It happens ALL THE TIME.

In my mind, however, there are two real purposes for apologies - purposes that make them useful - and then one that is false or fraudulent.

Real purpose #1 - This one focuses more on students, but can apply to anyone. It is the purpose of showing your intention to learn from the mistake that was made. I can't count how many times a 7th grade boy has thrown something across my classroom, directly disrupting the work of his fellow students. The worst part though is that he will apologize when confronted, but do the same thing the next week. No learning, just doing.

Real purpose #2 - Showing the person or group that was wronged that their feelings and your relationship with them matter. Teachers are always trying to maintain this sparkling professional appearance. We are the conduits of content that feed our students knowledge. Admit fault and we create cracks in that image. But, students, and all people, need apologies to remind one another that we care and that we all matter.

Now for the fraudulent reason - Social custom. Apologies are thrown out at people out of habit because they are expected. Even further, when students apologize to me, it is typically so I will absolve them of their crime so they can feel better.

Bottom line - if we want our classrooms, our schools, our communities, even our world to be a better place, then we can't just apologize like we mean it, we actually have to MEAN IT. We show this through our actions and through our intentions. Use apologies to make someone else feel better (not yourself) and show that the apology matters by learning from the mistake.

Writing is Personal and Always Changing

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 13:55:00 +0000

There is a huge difference between writing and grammar.

I'm trying to teach my students to write. Writing is personal. People develop their own style, voice, personal interests, and mistakes. But, because of the personal nature of the medium the mistakes are interpreted and misinterpreted differently between different people.

Grammar is not personal - it is a set of rules and regulations. You always do this here and you never do this here. If this happens then this happens. Grammar is meant to be algorithmic - once you figure out the secret formula you are set.

But, that's not writing. When do I use a contraction? Sometimes you avoid them to sound more academic, but a the same time you use them to avoid the sound of self importance or even arrogance.

Students need to develop voice and personal style. Those things make people want to continue writing. Grammar develops obedience to rules.

If anything, the concepts, or rules, of grammar should be taught so people can learn how to bend and break them in their own styles.

All Teachers Should Be New Teachers

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 21:03:00 +0000

I have not written a blog post in a while - working hard in the theater and just not having a ton of inspiration.

But, I have been working with an intern during January and it has me thinking about teaching.

All teachers should be new teachers. Every year I feel like I completely change what I do with my classes - new things to read, new interpretations, new lesson plans. Don't get me wrong, I do a lot of the same too, but I change so much!

I don't change things because I want to torture myself or my students, I change things because I know I'm not doing everything right.

I love how I teach writing now - my students learn to be proactive with their work and they work with me through every piece of it. This is beneficial in multiple ways - the students get grammar and writing feedback from me, almost in real time, they get grammar instruction from me, but within their own writing and in their own work process. This method also benefits me because I don't take their work home anymore.

There are other issues though - because I teach grammar in this "Non-Traditional" way it under prepares my students to learn their grammar in the more "Traditional" way (worksheets, workbooks, etc.).

The real problem - from my perspective - is that more teachers need to second guess themselves, take the risk (both emotionally and performance-wise) to suggest that they are wrong, I know I am all the time.

I want to figure out how to better encourage my students to work more independently and to use that independence to create things that are interesting, creative, useful, and purposeful.

Where do we go from here? I'm not sure, but that's kind of the point. I know that things will change and I'm hoping that I will change. But, I'm dedicated to the change and to the unknown. That's what really matters.

Drill and kill won't teach writing skills!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:40:00 +0000

If you've read a decent amount of my blog posts you should hopefully realize a few things about me as a teacher:

1. I don't like drill and kill work
2. I don't like tests - I prefer performance based evaluation
3. If something is not working - I want to find a new way to approach the issue

I can only speak for ,y school, but I am wondering if it is like this in most places. We have an extreme overemphasis on drill and kill, prescriptive grammar instruction. Students in almost every English class are given pages and pages of grammar worksheets as well as test after test on their memorization of the parts of speech and writing conventions.

The problem is that memorization is not internalization - it's not functional knowledge. The students do not become better writers because they can underline the subject of a basic sentence, double underline the predicate, or cross out any
prepositional phrases. They become better writers by writing, then revising, then getting revisions (and explanations for those revisions) from a more skilled and educated writer.

This is really hitting a sore spot for me right now because I have students who will have taken my class in the 6th grade come to me the next year and accuse me of teaching them nothing. Why? Because they have gone to a teacher who believes that learning is the preposition song as opposed to sitting by me - literally - as we pick through their writing to improve it. They are being inundated with worksheets as opposed to doing a research project that is synthesized into a documentary film and then a research paper.

The worst part of it all is that the standardized tests that I HATE back me up on all of this. Our school is the highest performing middle school in our district - I Think our API was a 908 the last 2 years - and the English department has plateaued at 88%. Our biggest area of need? Grammar - across the board - not just my classes.

Obviously something needs to change.

I would love any input on what the world out there thinks about my grammar debate and if you believe that I am right or wrong. Some clarity on the matter is greatly needed.

Transitioning from the Lone Nut

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 14:00:00 +0000

I showed my wife one of my favorite TED Talks yesterday. It is Derek Sivers and he is explaining how you start a movement. He uses a video of a shirtless guy dancing like a lone nut in a park. By himself he looks crazy. But, he has his first follower join him; he embraces him like an equal and nurtures him. Then, that follower's friends see him dancing and having a good time and a couple of them join. This becomes the tipping point. By the end of the video they have a huge crowd.

What does it mean? You need a couple things to start a movement.
1. Someone brave enough to do something different that may bring them ridicule.
2. That first follower that let's the rest know that what is happening is not merely lunacy, but either a good idea, or just plain fun.

Right now I feel like the lone nut with grammar. I cannot, in good conscience, prescriptively teach it - especially with the use of out of context worksheets. But, that's what the department is demanding of me and of my students. Why? Because they still see the best demonstration of grammar skills and knowledge is their score on a test.

I have a different idea. My students need to write. Once they have written something significant (at least a paragraph) they need someone, likely myself, to go through it with them to explore their strengths and deficits in their writing. They need to be shown THEIR GRAMMAR MISTAKES and then how to fix them.

It takes a lot of time, but will make them much more effective in writing. It will also teach them to seek out help when necessary - another important skill.

But, as I have mentioned, I am still the lone nut. Where do I go from here?

Student Goals (Part 4 of updating my practice this year)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 13:53:00 +0000

Over the years I have learned a lot about goals. I LOVE watching TED Talks that relate to goal setting.

Shawn Achor basically says that goals serve a deceiving purpose. We set goals for ourselves to define our level of success. The problem with that is when we accomplish something we reset the goal to something seemingly bigger and better. Therefore, that feeling of success gets pushed over the cognitive horizon. We never really get that mental reward of achievement. You get a B, it needs to be an A. If you get an A it needs to be an A+. If you get an A+ there will be another test/paper/project in the future, etc.
You can see his amazing talk here - Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work #TED : http://on.ted.com/hjVd

Derek Sivers says that you need to keep your goals to yourself. Just by telling some done what you are set out to accomplish you feel a sense of accomplishment. In sharing the goal you receive the gratification of that other person admiring your goal. Because you feel like you have done something already, you are less likely to actually do anything.
You can see his TED Talk here - Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself #TED : http://on.ted.com/jjXZ

Daniel Pink probably has the most widespread TED Talk regarding motivation. From that I learned you cannot build an if, then reward system. I can't just tell my students what to do in order to be rewarded with admiration and grades. It doesn't even work if they set their own goals and I do that. If there are any effective rewards they have to come unexpectedly. Things need to be done because they have an internal desire to do them.
His talk can be found here - Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation #TED : http://on.ted.com/rMPe

So...how do we get students to create meaningful, but reasonable goals that will encourage them to learn and then demonstrate that learning? Will the goals still be effective if they share them with me?

One of the things that Sivers says to do is to share your goal as a list of what you still need to do to achieve it. Instead of saying that I'm going to write a paper, explain what you need to do still to get that paper done. Does it become then an issue of shifting the goal language paradigm?

The last talk that I wanted to share is Simon Sinek's on how great leaders inspire action. More important than how we do something,or what we are going to do is why. His focus is on for profit companies like Apple Computers and TiVo. But,the ideas easily play into education. The success of Apple Computers has been their desire to change the world. As opposed to selling us computers, they figured out that they needed to sell us on why we need their computers. Students need to not only understand why they are learning a subject or am skill, but they need to have a reason for their own goals. They need their peers and their teachers to understand why they, as individuals, need to achieve their goals.
Simon Sinek's TED Talk can be found here - Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action #TED : http://on.ted.com/chiW

There is a lot to think about here. I like to think that I have a lot of insight, but at the same time, I have few answers. I want my students to create realistic, relevant, and effective goals. But, given all of these obstacles, how do we accomplish that together?

Writing Feedback and Record Keeping (Part 3 of updating my practice this year)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 16:01:00 +0000

My approach to teaching writing has changed heavily, much like everything else, through my last 6 years. But, if there is one thing that I have come to fully understand about it, it's that writing has to be taught by having students write. This sounds like an overly obvious statement, but practice would suggest otherwise.

Let's start with one of the most basic tenets of teaching and student teaching: I do, we do, you do. Or, model the skill, practice with students, then they practice alone. Logically, from the outward appearance, this makes sense. That's how we teach writing in the western world as well as math. But, it doesn't work. It teaches the skills in a vacuum with no personal meaning.

If you want to get students to build a skill set, then they need to practice the skill, at first badly. But, then you give them feedback on their performance of their personal work, pushing them toward mastery of their skill, not your skill.

Baseball is a great analogy - though a physical skill, hitting a moving ball with a bat takes practice, nuance, and a lot of practice. Then, getting that ball to fly or roll as you desired takes a newer and higher skill set. Then, hitting one that is flying 50, 60, 70 miles per hour is its own test of skill. But, you have to start somewhere.

WRITING IS THE SAME

Here's the thing though, I am not working one on one with 5-10 batters, I'm trying to work one on one with, last year, 37 students in one class. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of record keeping.

Here's the plan -

I use a great online LMS system named Schoology. One of their newer features is the ability to track changes in submissions. I have to strive to look at a student's writing ONLY once they have submitted a new version to Schoology so I can keep track of their progress in writing that assignment.

Then, as their writing is turned in from 1st draft through 10th(?) I can update their grade on the assignment accordingly.

So, here's my questions - Does this approach seem realistic? I'm not sure if I will be able to keep myself on track for all of those updates. Also, does that put the student in a more negative point based situation as opposed to writing and editing to learn how to write and edit better?

Grading Major Assignments (Part 2 of updating my practice this year)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 13:41:00 +0000

I have been a proponent of going gradeless in the classroom. It makes sense to me to learn without the stigma of being judged for your successes and failures. However, I have also come to realize that it's not that simple.

I can write out as many evaluations of my students that I would like and have my students do the same, but the expectations of grades still looms.

I need a fast reference point to see how an individual is doing on an assignment, a project, a unit, or even a skill.
Students need the same thing.
Parents need the same thing.
School administration needs the same thing.
Their future teachers need the same thing.

What I would like to change is how assignments and what assignments are graded.

I believe that students should be graded on their individual merit and effort. They are not being judged head to head like horses about to race. They are learners who should be encouraged to accept mistakes as learning opportunities. As an English teacher I need them to see that they spelled a word wrong or misplaced a comma, not so they can be punished with a grade for it, but so they can correct that mistake and similar ones in the future.

What I want to grade are the major assignments. I have no interest in pouring my time into entering grades for piles of grammar sheets or having students take notes on a skill they are going to need for a project and then delving out points for turning in the notes. Whether or not they took notes well and paid attention will be determined by their project. Then, if they didn't do that, or they don't learn that way, it will give me opportunities to re-teach them.

I am not interested in cutting corners, though my time, like I'm sure most teachers', is precious to me. What I'm trying to do is to emphasize and focus on what really matters. My students will demonstrate their knowledge and skills through the completion of projects and units of study. Those need my time and attention. If their work is not what it needs to be, then their grade - yes grade - will be lowered while I give them feedback and guidance as to how they can improve their work. Once that happens, the grade goes up.

So, how do you feel about grading? My beliefs and practices in this area have pretty much been a rollercoaster ride. From grade every little thing to grade nothing. What do you believe are our responsibilities and how does our grading factor into learning?

Comments, as always, are appreciated.

20% Time (Part 1 of updating my practice this year)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 13:48:00 +0000

My plan is to write a short blog series about the things I want to explore, try, and experiment with in my teaching this school year. The goal is to personally explore the topics and to hopefully gain some feedback from my PLN, both online and face to face.

20% Time

This is a concept that, like so many other things, is turning into another education buzz word. I don't know if the concept is gaining a real foothold, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't intrigue me.

What is it?

80% of time, whether in a business or education setting, is used on the assigned work and expectations of the organization. In education that would be the curriculum, standards, learning goals, and performance/product expectations.

20% of the time is given to the employees (business setting) or students (education setting) in order to explore and work on projects of their choice. They can work individually or in groups of their choosing. They can choose the time frame of project completion, its subject, its method of presentation, etc.

Why do it?

It is an opportunity for students/employees to explore their passions and to work on projects that their superiors with their limited individual vision may never consider. It also gives these people an opportunity to dedicate themselves to something that truly interests and engages them. The payoffs come in multiple ways - innovations that would not otherwise be seen, individuals feeling a greater sense of dedication to their work since their work is demonstrating a greater dedication to them, a level of collaboration that is built out of choice instead of requirement. There may be other benefits, but these are what come to mind.

What worries me?

Students taking advantage of the time and producing little to nothing, or producing something that has no actual value - even to them.

Taking time away from curricular studies, leaving students unable to complete course requirements.

Students wanting to collaborate with others, but being marginalized by their classmates.

Some possible solutions:

Project proposals - not just to myself as the teacher, but to the class as a whole. Groups, or individuals will need to do a formal proposal in front of the class before engaging in the project. It would include a glimpse of what the final product would be, an estimate of how long it should take to complete, its purpose, and the resources needed for its completion (including the human element).

The class would then be used as a think tank to look for issues with completing the project and volunteers could be found to participate, as necessary.

Other than that, I'm not sure how to solve my other worries/issues. I do believe that the experiment with the class is very well worth the risk of time lost on curriculum. Students need to be able to explore their own interests in school and have those interests respected and valued. This seems like a great way to do this.

What are your thoughts?

Teaching English through Entrepreneurial Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 13:44:00 +0000

I had one of my flashes of seeming insight this morning and wanted to share it with the world. What if we ran an English class as an entrepreneurial think tank? Here's what I'm thinking...

The students would develop a product or service that they believe the world needs. It could even be a clear improvement on an already existing product or service.

They would then need to create a product/service description - informational writing.
They would need to convey why this product/service would either be necessary or wanted in the market - persuasive writing.
They would need to learn the legal requirements or ramifications of making this product/service available - research.
They would need to find out why it has not been offered in the past - counter arguments.
They would need to show the community/investors/buyers how the product/service fits into peoples' lives - narrative.

It feels as though I could go on and on. Should we be supporting this entrepreneurial spirit? Couldn't these ideals serve in all manners of lives, jobs, and interests?

What do you think?

WWAD? (What Would an Administrator Do?)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:48:00 +0000

With the fail of California State Senate Bill 441 I am very much up in the air on my stance on teacher evaluation. I don't think that 441 was the answer - it was too vague in too many ways for my taste. But, it did get me thinking and discussing with friends and colleagues. I am really trying to take a step back and not become overly polarized or overly passionate (it can cloud my judgment).

Teachers are constantly wanting more say and control in how we educate students and then assess them. That makes sense - we are the experts. We spend the most time educating, planning, and even learning how to educate in new ways. But, there is a flip side - I am NOT an expert in evaluating teachers. I could evaluate a student's performance in reading, writing, and acting (English and theatre teacher), but that is what I do.

What Would an Administrator Do? They are the trained and experienced experts in evaluating teachers - for better or worse. On the outset we need to approach this with the mindset that administrators are looking to congratulate good work and then to help promote growth in teachers. Growth could be for the sake of growth - we all have a lot to learn and things are constantly changing. Growth could also develop out of a need - the teacher is ineffective - they may be unaware of the situation, they may be tired, their methods may be outdated, or they may just be disconnected from their students. Nonetheless, administrators - principals, vice principals, deans, directors, head masters/mistresses (some schools have those) know their teachers and should and I believe typically are there to help them.

So, I ask, with as much humility as possible - What Would an Administrator Do if they could choose the criteria and time table for evaluations and what effectual weight would they put on them?

Comments would be AMAZING.

I don't even know what I'm saying

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:38:00 +0000

I have loved teaching 6th grade since day 2? I say day 2 because day 1 I was terrified. I couldn't even remember what it was like to be a 6th grader. But, by day 2 I realized that they were fun, non-judgemental, and genuinely interested in learning - for the most part (there are always exceptions). However, I have begun to take that for granted. I have started to let my remarks stream out of my mouth - good naturedly - but, those thoughts and remarks have hurt some of my students.

After teaching 6th graders for almost 6 years now I still do not fully understand that their good nature and their capacity for positive vs. negative interpretation is still forming right along with their self images and I become a big part of that.

It is not that I want to walk on egg shells all the time, but I do need to understand that words can hurt, especially from people who are out only in positions of authority, but the people you really want to love and respect. It is not only my responsibility to make learning fun and interesting, but to make it feel safe and students feel respected.

I am no saint and I am not perfect. I am still learning, just like the rest of the teachers out there. This is just another lesson of humility to get under my belt, maybe one of the most important.

Learning based on Mutual Respect

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:57:00 +0000

Right now my life is all but consumed by directing our school's musical. Don't get me wrong, I love producing musicals. They are by far the most fun and interesting part of theatre. But it has me thinking about respect - how I feel and express it as well as how my students feel and express it.

The musical we are working on was cast through open auditions and is rehearsed after school on my time and on the students' free time. They are not being paid to do this and neither am I. But, they are just as dedicated to the project as I am, even if it doesn't seem that way sometimes. Our engagement is based on the somewhat distant goal of being part of something amazing.

The real truth of it though is that the whole thing is a house of cards balanced on an important level of mutual respect. I always need to treat the students in the show in a way that makes it obvious that I respect them. I call them on their big and sometimes thoughtless mistakes, but I also am quick to praise them for their hard and very often difficult work. On the other hand, they do the same for me and I expect people to point out when I've done something wrong, especially when it is something potentially damaging to the show.

This idea of mutual respect has me thinking about my practices in the classroom. Am I always taking the time to understand my students' struggles evenly with their successes? I know it's easy as a teacher to be focused on the negative, or what needs correcting - as opposed to highlighting what they are doing well. It is important to do both. Doing both is a way that students can know I respect them.

Once students and teachers reach an authentic feeling of mutual respect, then you have created a truly healthy and productive learning environment.

Student privacy - will it exist in the future?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:59:00 +0000

There are a lot of things happening in education that are making me not just ponder, but really worry about this question.

As I work with students in our online learning environment, which we use as an enhancement to our face to face classes - I am constantly trying to remind them of their online personas. Students absolutely need to understand that what happens and is said online is as and sometimes more important than what happens in real life. It only becomes more important because of its wide reach and permanence.

However, are we handing too much of their information and data over to the "Education Industry"?

Our district is moving to PowerSchool for attendance - owned by Pearson Education. Should Pearson have that kind of data access? Then, our district is pushing support for us to use My Big Campus - another Pearson product - for out LMS system.

Is it just my paranoia, or are there real ethical issues with their direction?
Should I be worried how the textbook and standardized test publisher is going to use this data, whether we know it or not?

I would love some comments on the topic.

A thought about Common Core and why I'm not worried

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Common Core is the new all powerful being in the education world. One in which many feel unprepared for, but I don't feel that way. While I remain cynical as ever (not my fault, it's how I was raised) I am also not worried.

From what I can tell and the ridiculous amounts of reading that I've done on the subject, there are two things that the Common Core State Standards have educators worried.

1. The push from a focus on factual knowledge to a focus on skills and creative and critical thinking.
2. The levels of creative and critical thinking that are going to be demanded, even at lower grades.

The first one is a no brainer for me and has been said by many teachers in the blogosphere and Twitter world. If you are an excellent teacher and pushing your students to do their best, you are already teaching and encouraging creative and critical thinking. These skills should already be built into your teaching every day in the class.

There has already been a decently sized movement of teachers who are moving away from differentiation to customization. Instead of the teacher doling out information in realistically sized chunks for each individual student, they have allowed and then guided those individuals to do so for themselves. Students should have the power to work at their own level, at their own pace, and in their own fashion. There will always be common things that students must do together, but being able to hack the system and make those commonalities work to the individuals' strengths has never been more apparent.

The other issue - creative and critical thinking that goes above and beyond reasonable expectations - is almost a non-issue. If we are going to treat the standards as they have been described, then we need to treat them as goals as opposed to expectations. Every single conversation that I have had about the CCSS focuses on how they are going demand more and more from students. But, that is the goal, to want and then expect more. We never want to find ourselves in a place where students have met some sort of "proficiency" and find themselves at the end of the road. I don't know necessarily about the rest of the world, but when my students are "done" we are always looking for extension, new directions, new approaches.

The Common Core State Standards may be described as a standard for learning, but their language, in many cases, lends them toward being standards for teaching. We need to have high expectations of students in that we need them to realize that they can do more (quality, not quantity, though both sometimes apply) and that if they really want to "get ahead" in life, that it's what will be expected. How else will they prepare themselves for their world of the future that technically does not yet exist?

Not all theatre students are created equally

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:27:00 +0000

They don't all have the same drive. They don't all have the same buy in when they walk through the door. They didn't all sign up for the course for the same reasons. But, I've been treating them that way for a long time (or as long as I've been the theatre teacher at my school).

It's funny that this has become a problem. In my English classes I've always been the one who has heralded the idea that we need to let students customize their learning. We need to let them take the lead and show us what they can do and then figure out how to do what they can't...yet.

Theatre classes have been different. I've expected everyone walking through the door to turn it into a career. But, I've been blinded by the idea that not everyone who signs up for theatre really wants theatre. Sometimes, they just had nowhere else to go. Just another reality paradigm shift that I've had to make in my journey to being a better teacher.

The current issue is that we are working on two projects right now. One is a 3 dimensional set design model, built to quarter inch scale. The other is the production of the school's musical. We are doing the School Version of Grease - I am also a middle school teacher - it's an interesting balance. At first I believed that every student in the class should be engaged in both projects. Everyone needs a crew job, everyone needs to be putting together an amazing set design model. But, it just isn't working out that way.

I'm glad that I realized this early enough and now I'm having the majority of the class focus on their set models. It's something where they do the work and they can see it come together right in front of them, for their benefit alone. Other students will be working on that as well as doing production jobs for Grease. Instead of being frustrated with the disinterest of quite a few students, I'm going to allow them to opt out of something that they really have no reason to care about - especially if they are not theatre people.

Sometimes you just have to accept that your students don't love the work like you do and some never will.

Dilemma of dedication in Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:47:00 +0000

I am in a constant struggle with students. This is an odd thing to say, but they want to do everything and it doesn't work.

As a theatre teacher I have learned this lesson over and over again - when you try to do more than one thing at once, each thing you are doing suffers for it. The more things you pile on, the more each individual thing suffers.

My students want to play soccer, do Boy or Girl Scouts, star in the school Musical, be involved in a singing group, AND maybe get their homework done. We, as people, can't do it all. I really don't like using that word, I like to overcome it regularly, but this is one instance where it fits.

Every once in a while I will have a student who wants to do an after school show. But, once they see the rehearsal schedule (three days a week for four months) they think k twice. Nothing makes me happier. They have made the conscious decision to balance their lives and to help our show by not committing to something for which they have no time.

How do we make this issue of over commitment clear to students. Also, how, do we as teachers try to balance what we ask of them with the rest of their world's demands?

Opinions Matter

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:45:00 +0000

The Common Core Standards are an opportunity to remake education in the 21st century. But, that opportunity seems to have been missed. It could be blamed on its writers making back room decisions. It could be blamed on the lack of real teacher input. But, when it really comes down to it, it's all about interpretation.

David Coleman, the new president of the College Board, has been identified as the architect of the Common Core. He has been quoted directly as saying that the world doesn't care about your opinions.

Opinions matter.

If they didn't matter then companies wouldn't spend so much on advertising. If they didn't matter, then I wouldn't vote. If they didn't matter, then people would be unable, or uninterested in making decisions.

Analyzing facts is absolutely important. We use facts to better inform and support our opinions. But, opinions will always be at the beginning of the process, starting us on the journey from belief to knowledge.

I am a theatre and English teacher. Everything that I teach my students is based on opinions that are then supported with an analysis of information, much of which should not be described as facts. As soon as we analyze and interpret anything, whether it be statistical data or anecdotal evidence, our interpretation of that information is formed based on our opinions and our ability to argue those opinions.

Common Core is going to be a roller coaster. It will raise us up and let us fall. It will be an opportunity, in many ways, to gain salvation from our overloaded and poorly designed state standards. But, no matter what, it should never come at the sacrifice of our opinions, or our constitutionally guaranteed freedom to express them.

But, that's just my opinion.

To do your best, do it again

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Over and over I come back to the same conclusion in my teaching - students are trained to complete an assignment, then drop and run.

If I described it metaphorically, they would be running a race. It could be a sprint, like a timed test, or it could be a marathon, like a long term project. Either way, once they hit the finish, it's over. Whether they came in first or dead last, they can't take the race back, they can't change how they finished. Maybe the next race will be better, or worse, but this one is set in stone.

School should not work this way. Students should be traversing a long journey that has an end which is almost never in sight. We almost never know where our studies and our learning will take us. Sometimes we end up on the wrong path, we make a wrong turn, we trip and fall down, but that doesn't stop us. We always keep going, keep trying.

That's the ideal version. That is the education setting where wrong answers and mistakes are clues and guides that lead us toward the places that we are supposed to be moving, even if we don't know what that is yet.

So, if you want to do your best, then you need to be willing to do your worst and then try and try again.

Teach grammar, expect perfection?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:02:00 +0000

A hot button issue in the English department at my school is the teaching of grammar.

Let me be clear - the issue is on the expectation of prescriptively and directly teaching grammar to students via lecture and worksheets.

To be up front about this - I do not agree with it on any level. There are many reasons why, which would make for another blog post all in itself, a lengthy one at that. But, to sum it up, hopefully, it's because not all students need all grammar and learning it through direct instruction makes no clear connection or transfer to their work.

But, I think there is another huge issue with this. It seems from my perspective, based on the conversations that the department has had surrounding ideas like accountability and expectations, that we are expecting our students to stop making mistakes.

It comes down to the idea that if I've taught my students something, then they are accountable for that knowledge or skill and they are expected to demonstrate or perform it perfectly from now on.

This may or may not be their true and actual expectation, but it has to say something if that's what is coming across to me, at least.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I make mistakes all of the time. I even make mistakes when I'm doing something that is ridiculously simple and something that I have done over and over already. But, I'm also human.

At the same time though, if I make a mistake, or if any of my students make a mistake, the accountability that they should feel and the expectation that they should have should be that they should look over their work, find their mistakes, and correct them. We need to learn from mistakes and fix mistakes, not be punished for them.

Bottom line - it is my belief that grammar should be taught as needed, when a clear pattern has arisen in a class or in an individual student's writing that necessitates the lesson. It should also be learned on a case by case basis through the student editing and revising their own writing. It should ALSO be learned through the student reading the works of other writers and absorbing through those experiences all that writing has to offer.

If you want students to write and write well then they need to do two things - read and WRITE.

Why don't we do better? Because we don't...

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:22:00 +0000

http://morguefile.com/creative/jdurham

There are many things that bother me in education. The one thing that bothers me the most is when my students have lost the will to do better.

This particular post is coming directly from some experiences that I've had in drama classes lately. Most of the time my blogs are about English class and the general landscape of education. However, this one is directly tied to my drama class.

Currently we are doing a unit on scene studies. Students get into groups, they choose a script, they block it (plan their stage movements), they rehearse it, they work on characterization, they perform it. But, that cannot be the end. They need feedback, they need to know what went well in the scene and what did not. Then, when they get more input and information, they need to do it again. It's a chance to wind time back and, with the use of 20/20 hindsight, do it better.

They don't want to.

My students seem to be so burnt out on projects, assignments, homework, tests, and grades, that they no longer have the energy to put into something that has no high stakes. The purpose of a scene study is to learn to be a better and more effective actor. You can't do that if you only perform your scene in front of an audience one time.

Can this be expanded out into other subjects? The one time you take a math test and move on? The one time you submit your essay to your English teacher, get your grade/marks on it and move on? There are so many opportunities for us to circle back and learn from our mistakes, but we ignore them all too frequently.

I do not grade student work in my classes. I do that to take the pressure off of my students to kill themselves over performing whatever task they are assigned or undertaking perfectly the first time.

But, how do I energize them and get them interested in self improvement and multiple attempts? How do I make them realize that things get better when we make them better and that ideals and being idealistic really do matter?

Freedom to learn AND Freedom to work

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:31:00 +0000

It is my strong belief that students need as much freedom as they can possibly be given to explore their learning. But, I'm realizing that this freedom doesn't always look the way you would imagine it.

Most times when you think of freedom you see in your mind conversations, exploring new knowledge online, or through books, or through trial and error. You want students to try as many things as possible and fail as many times as necessary to achieve a goal. It's a spectacular thing.

However, this week I realized through observing my best teacher friend/co-worker/complaint sounding board, Jean, that sometimes freedom means having the right situation for productivity to happen.

If you think about a writer and their process it is both social AND anti-social. They need time to brainstorm topics, characters, settings, conflicts, etc. They need time to talk to other readers and writers and to see what new thoughts may develop from those conversations. But, they also need an appropriate time and environment to write.

You can't sit down and write when people are talking to you. If the rough ideas are already there, then you just need a quiet, non-distracting place to write.

Therefore, my classroom is silent today. My students are working on their stories and I'm realizing that they haven't received enough of this structured time.

Freedom to learn is INCREDIBLY important. But, now I'm realizing that so is the freedom to get work done - even if it's not what you thought it was.

Humility is essential for teachers and students

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 20:25:00 +0000

One theme that has been coming up more and more in education is humility - being able to stand back and admit your shortcomings, your imperfections, and the things you know you want to work on. As John T. Spencer has mentioned many times, we don't need rock stars, we need jam sessions.

Teachers, for a couple centuries, have been put into the position of being the all knowing and infallible. Do not question me, I know what I'm doing. But, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we're figuring it all out. Letting students in on this big "secret" does not damage our reputations, it leads by a powerful example. We are all imperfect and are, hopefully, constantly on a quest for improvement and new ideas/learning. No one has it all figured out.

However, we also need humble students. We need students who want to admit to their shortcomings and faults. These students would actively seek advice and help when they needed it. These students would not turn in a finished product, but the next draft in a long string that would only end when they were satisfied with their own efforts.

What are the road blocks to this way of thinking?

One would be programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. It becomes impossible to be humble when, according to the government, every student has to be PERFECT by 2014.

Another reason is the common culture of education. We have boiled everything down to one right answer, one path to finding that answer, one letter grade for each subject to represent those things, and then a punishment for deviating. This sounds lie an oversimplification, but it is also realistic. We have created a system that punishes students for struggling and finding their own paths.

I don't know how to do everything and I don't know how to teach every skill to my students in the most effective ways possible. However, I won't sit back and give up on trying to find them.

I failed, but it's not the end

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:08:00 +0000

Last week I did something that I honestly hate myself a little for doing - I yelled at my students. But, that's not quite it. I placed my students in an unreasonable situation with unreasonable expectations. Then, when they failed to meet them, I got angry.

I am not proud, but I am reflective. After taking the weekend to think about what happened I realized that I was the one out of line. I realized that I genuinely and honestly needed to apologize. I realized that I should not send the emails out that I had threatened to send.

Today I apologized. I made no excuses, but rather admitted to my humanity and to my mistakes. The students seemed receptive. It doesn't take back what happened, but it does show them that I care more about them than just being right.

Teachers can't always say or do the right things. But, we can be humble and vulnerable, a lesson that needs to be taught by example.

We are missing the point of college

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Russell) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:05:00 +0000

This is something that has been eating at me for quite a while, so I am going to try to prevent myself from letting it turn into a rant.

Our school district, two years ago, decided that they were going to fully prepare students to go to college by changing our graduation requirements to match the entrance requirements for the University of California system. They are referred to as A-G requirements. Unfortunately, it is a short sighted fix to a problem that may never have existed.

The purpose of college is not only being missed, but misinterpreted. It's understandably easy to do this since its purpose has changed drastically over the years.

When my mother and definitely my grandparents were of college going age, having a degree meant that you would have a job. The purpose of college was to go there so you could leave and have a job waiting for you. It worked really well, at the time, for a number of reasons. The intellectual based economy was much more limited - we were still much more heavily driven by the industrial economy. Also, there was a much smaller population of college and university students, which made the degree a much higher worth.

It's not what it used to be. Our economy has been quickly transforming from an industrial based to an intellectual based economy. Especially with the invention of the internet, people are making money off of their ideas and not necessarily on what they can actually make in a physical sense.

Making things in a factory required training, but not college training. The college training was for the people who needed to know how to run a larger organization that owned a factory, and for the people who needed to manage and reinvest the money that was made by those large corporations. Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have changed the faces of both of those industries and have managed to carve their own niche into the world.

Where does this all fit in with school? Going to college is no longer a guarantee for a job - in fact, it never was, not for the job you necessarily wanted at least. If people want to be happy, and because of that happiness, be successful, they need to find their place in our new economy.

That economy has many different facets, but here are a few off the top of my head:

Entrepreneurs
Investors
Inventors
Teachers
Artists
Programmers
Mechanics
Engineers
Custodians/Janitorial Staff (More important than anyone ever gives them credit for)
Service industry
Food industry
Retail industry
Writer
Comic Book Artist

The list could go on and on, but what all of these things have in common is that they need varying levels and types of education. If you want to start your own internet company you nearly need some start-up capital (maybe a loan) and some know how that you can get almost anywhere.

Students need the freedom to explore what they are interested in doing - and what they are interested in doing is not necessarily going to college. We need to respect individuality and expecting the same goal of every student - A-G Requirements - does not do that.

(Photo courtesy of dreamstime.com images)