Creating Mental Space for Learning through Responsibility

Sometimes I think the most important learning space a teacher can create is the one that comes first, in the teacher's mind, when s/he first allows for the possibility of what could happen when the children are given real responsibility.  This occurred of necessity in Rosenwald schools, because the children played important roles in the actual running of the school.  Boys brought in firewood and kept the stove going.  Girls raked the yard and polished the floor.   The older children were expected to help the younger children with their lessons, many of which involved recitations.  So here we see an interesting juxtaposition of rote learning and the creative initiative the older students had to take to make sure their younger charges were on track.

Now our academic expectations are more complex and conceptual, but on the other hand I think our respect for the children's ability to make meaningful contributions has diminished.  It is as if we are always saying, tomorrow there will be time for that.  Next year will be the time when they are ready to practice adult roles and make real contributions.  Yet, when next year comes, there is always some other reason to delay responsibility.  For example: We just adopted the Common Core standards, and the teachers themselves have to get used to planning with the new objectives, so how could the students possibly help?  It wouldn't be practical to have students help clean the school, and anyway parents would get angry.  Grade levels are segregated, so older students don't intersect that often with younger students except for the occasional "Reading Buddy" program.

So the signs and practice of maturity are continually put off, until we arrive at the situation we have today, in which the majority of Americans polled believe that one is not an adult until at least age 25.  To be fair to schools, our elongating concept of maturity must be mostly influenced by our life spans, which have increased by decades.  But the situation of prolonged adolescence amazes many of my elderly friends, who in their teens were doing such things as working full-time and getting married and having children.  (Not in a reality show, "Teen Mom" style, but actually establishing stable households of their own.)

Certainly I am not advocating that we all return to teen parenthood, but I do think that schools create more learning when students have real responsibility.  This begins with a simple conviction on the part of teachers and administration that students are capable of making real contributions.  Within the classroom, it means the students pitch in.  Many times they will do so spontaneously, if we allow them.  Sometimes I don't even know how a student might help until s/he has actually jumped out his/her seat, come over to where someone is struggling (for example, I might be having trouble with the LCD projector, or another student might have lost his/her place in the story) and fixed the situation.  That is why I am slow to reprimand the children.  Is he out of his seat so he can go bother someone else?  Or is he out of his seat to help?  I wait until I can see their intentions.

In order to have the potential benefit of children taking initiative, you have to be open to children making decisions, which inevitably will sometimes lead to chaos.  However, I have found that the more trust I have in them, and the more I allow them to practice making small decisions, the better things go in the long run.

An example on a larger level:  One year, there was an issue with students getting too boisterous at assemblies, to the point where the administrators suspended whole school (800+ students) assemblies.  However, in the spring the student government wanted to have a pep rally in preparation for EOGs (End of Grade tests), and they wanted to include all the grade levels at once.  The student government made a plan, persuaded the administration, and pulled it off.  All of the students were well behaved; in fact, teachers remarked that they were almost subdued!  To me, the fact that this assembly was planned by students and went better than the others was no coincidence.

Curriculum goals may differ from state to state or from school to school, but everyone gives lip service to the idea of having children grow as problem solvers.  Yet many school environments undercut their decision-making in the name of discipline or of covering material.  To me, however, the question is simple:  If we don't allow them to make decisions now, then when?  If we don't even trust them to help choose a lesson activity or decorate a classroom, how will they grow into adults who can vote and solve problems on a job?

Accountability: A View from the Trenches

I adore my students, but by the end of the fall semester I was feeling discouraged.  Sometimes I can't go to sleep, thinking about what I am doing and how much more they need.  It was in this context that I had my first observation for this year.  I was teaching reading to a young lady who never attended school before last year; she really has made remarkable progress for someone who missed so much early schooling.

Mid-way through teaching this lesson, another student of mine, one who needs a lot of physical assistance, came to school tardy.  I had already sent my teaching assistant to the library with a group of EC students who were taking a test (most of them have 'separate setting' written into their IEPs, meaning they have a right to take quizzes and tests in a small group separate from the larger class).  So there in the middle of my reading lesson I began assisting one student with eating his breakfast while I taught the young lady... all while the principal did her observation.

Fortunately for me, everyone took this in stride, and the lesson went well enough that my principal gave me positive feedback.  During our conference I asked her about the new software the state is using that is supposed to rate our individual impact as teachers-- in other words, that is supposed to be a measure of individual teacher accountability.  We have been told that this software will "automatically populate" (complete) the section of our online evaluation that addresses a teacher's impact on student achievement (i.e., test scores).

Now, I have no problem with teacher accountability, but I do think it's fair to ask that I be judged by the growth (or lack thereof) of the students I actually teach.  However, it turns out that this is not the case.  As often as I have been in meetings where scores from EC students were identified and measured as a group (often broken down by grade level), I learned that somehow these data cannot be used to evaluate my performance.  My rating will be a reflection of the average growth of the entire student body.  So my rating in the "teacher accountability" section will NOT be based on EC students' growth at our school, much less the growth of my actual group of students.

This was disappointing to me, given the gains many of my students made last year.  One boy had never before scored above a level one on his EOGs, and he scored a level two on both Math and Reading.  Granted, it's not the stuff of fairy tales, there is still room for improvement.  However, I was excited for him, and he is a much better student this year after feeling it is possible for him to succeed.

One other issue I have with the software the state is using is that it is based on EOG scores, but it doesn't take into account students' retest scores.  In the past if a student took an EOG test and scored a level two, that student was automatically retested to see whether s/he could achieve a level three. This is not commonplace, but it does happen.  However, for some reason the software the state is using does not take retest scores into account-- so the report from that system might indicate that a student did not score at the proficient (level three) level the previous year, when in fact that student did achieve proficiency when retested.  This oversight will doubtless also have a small but meaningful impact on measuring teacher effectiveness.

Then again, it's hard to know what is coming, since NC joined the Common Core movement and the EOGs are being completely rewritten.  We are told there will be no retests given this year and that EOG scores from May 2013 will not be available until the fall.  The EOG test scores have to be "normed."  In other words, it is an entirely new metric, based on a new test, but we will carry on with the idea that the scores are somehow comparable to the old EOG scores.  DPI does not pretend to know where the cutoffs for proficiency will be, they are waiting to see how the test goes.  I have been told they will use, among other things, their expectations of how certain schools will perform as one means of setting the scoring levels.  In other words, they will get what they expect.  Rogue students or schools who break out of an underperforming mode don't fit well into this model.  In my bleaker moments it seems to me as if the state is saying "Yes, we're holding you accountable, but we're not going to take the trouble of trying to measure your actual, individual impact."

Still for me, next to my own children, the sun rises and sets over my students.  We'll carry on.

Schools as Targets: How Can We Respond?

It is a difficult year to say "Merry Christmas", haunted as we are by the children and adults who lost their lives in the senseless shooting in Newtown.  I have been praying for the families of the victims, as I think most of us have.  Praying that God will envelope them with His healing love.  As for the victims themselves, we know God is holding them in the palm of His hand, with infinite love and care.  Their souls He has doubtless already healed.   It is the ones who are left behind who suffer and mourn.  

It is not enough to say, this time, that this event only leads us to appreciate our own families all the more.  It is not enough just to take this occasion to be grateful for our own children.  It is not enough because the murders struck at the heart of all that is good and orderly, in the only place where we still come together as a society, the one place where we should be able to assume that children are safe.  For many people school is the only common civic endeavor we undertake.  Perhaps that is why schools have become a target (although it's difficult to know, because it's difficult to understand the twisted motivations of a mass murderer).  

As a teacher in a title one middle school, I am acutely aware of all the possible pitfalls that happen inside of a school-- perhaps a jacket is stolen, or a rumor starts that makes a child cry.  A fight may even erupt.   One thing we don't expect is for an armed person to come in and create mayhem and tragedy.  Even while we're adjusting to this threat, we need to ask ourselves what what we can do to counteract the spiritual chaos that created it.  Yes, we need protective measures, increased security, heightened awareness.  Yet what are we doing to counteract the root cause, the sense of isolation and hopelessness that young people may develop?

It's not enough just to excise the cancer, we need to strengthen our whole civic body.  Volunteer your time at your house of worship, in a local school, or be a part of a mentoring program.  If you garden or care for animals, pull children into your activities.  Don't allow your own children to be isolated.  Reach out to families you know who are stressed by circumstances.  Encourage children and teenagers when they do good and creative things.  Help your town to expand arts programs and recreational sports facilities.  Even in these tough fiscal times, encourage your legislators to vote for increased mental health and youth program funding.  

Most of all, I think, we need to seek God's guidance in this and all things.  Early each morning, before I pack my kids' lunches and begin the whole hectic morning routine that lands them in one school and me in another, I pray "God, help me to know Your will for me, and help me to do it.  Bless those who suffer, Lord, and bless those who mourn.  Enfold them in Your peace.   Help me to be a blessing to my family, my students, and my community.  Make me a channel of Your love and Your peace.  Amen."