Working Woes...Twitch-Twitch

Our district is coming to the realization that the money is not there anymore to run business as usual. We are looking at drastic changes which will impact everyone in our schools and communities. It is hard for some to deal with change, which is leading to denial and avoidance. Sadly, neither will work in these tough times. We are going to see building (systems) restructured to house different students, or lose a building altogether. We may have to tuition kids and we will CERTAINLY lose teachers and other personnel. It is just such a sad prospect. But I think what frustrates me the most is the lack of understanding that is out there about how kids learn and how the system works because it will lead to decisions made on false or uninformed assumptions. (twitch)

The Daily Bulldog posted an article on the subject, but the responses are the same as usual. There are teacher bashers such as "Captain Planet" who don't understand that teachers aren't eliminated on performance, but rather by seniority and others who read a suggestion like Joe Haines' and think it is doable, when Mt.Abram can't house the number of kids they are talking about. I might also note that it will cost MILLIONS of dollars to get MTA up to code when the other buildings are relatively new and in good condition. There is so much to be considered and yet the favored response is to shut down a school (never their own towns') and combine the elementary grades. I don't pretend to know what is best, but I do know that this is going to be a huge shift for kids and their families. Some kids are going to be bussed farther and someone are going to be unhappy, but once they get there, we will do our best to educate them and help prepare them for life.

I can see so many benefits to combining schools. Teachers will have more support per content area. They can have more informal meetings with their colleagues. As it is now, we only meet once or twice a year, and even then there is usually some other agenda to follow. When we were able to meet this year, we were able to come up with a new unit for "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins to be taught across the district. We were even able to purchase shared books! It is just amazing what the opportunity for collaboration yields.

I can also see it being a great opportunity for middle school kids. They will have more opportunities socially. They won't be competing against their future classmates and might even develop relationships where there once was animosity. Personality conflicts with teachers and other students will be more easily dealt with because they will finally have CHOICE about whose class they are in. It is hard for kids to be stuck with the same teacher for four years. As great as we all think we are as educators, we have weaknesses and the kids are stuck with them for four years.

I can see so many more opportunities for shared resources too. Every time a guest speaker is made available to one school, all kids would benefit. This is a huge difference. So far this month, PES has had Ralph Fletcher, but the other schools didn't get to engage in his workshop and KES had Barry Dana, but none of the other schools were able to benefit. This is a real problem. It costs money to have these people come and yet we are never truly able to get the bang for the buck because we are separated by so many miles. What if the miles weren't an issue any more?

I see the issues too. Kids would have to be bussed long distances, parents might have kids in many different schools at once, and communities might feel a loss of connection to their schools. But there are many issues with our systems now, and we have learned to adapt. Kids are bussed great distances to get to Mt. Abram and Mt. Blue for Foster Tech. I don't see kids from Stratton NOT going to Foster Tech. because of the ride. I also don't see parents having fits about having kids in both an elementary school in their town and a high school somewhere else. Also, communities will still have kids attending some sort of school, so hopefully they will not let the child's residence make that much of a difference in their willingness to support them. So would it be an adjustment? Yes. Would it take time to work out the kinks? Yes. Is it necessary? Yes. The time has come for real shifts, but we are resourceful people and we will make it happen.

Reflecting on Ralphie...

So I was anxious to have Ralph Fletcher visit our school and thought his workshop might lend some new suggestions for engaging kids (particularly boys), but apparently he sticks pretty tightly to his books and even in those there is little research of value twitch. "Boy Writers" did offer some interesting things to ponder about our tendencies as educators, but it wasn't especially eye opening. In fact, I was unimpressed by his whole visit twitch twitch.

During the day that he spent with the kids, he engaged them in summaries of his books rather than real writing activities. The one group he did write with (6-8 all in one room) loved it purrr, but it involved a five minute poem exercise. I felt frustrated as the promises of real interaction that I had made were falling by the wayside. The kids spent months reading all of his books, but I don't think it made much of a difference. If we had read a particular one, he summarized one we hadn't read. It was less about the things he preached in his book on writing and more about getting books sold.

Before the community night opened up to the public, my Girls Talk and Teen Voices group invited him to have dinner with them and discuss his book that we read. Well, I made the mistake of also inviting the B.E.L.C.H (Boys Engaging in Literary Conversation Heartily- yes, I made it up) group that is a much smaller group for reading "boy stuff". When he saw the table of boys he practically ran to it twitch, which left the girls that have been reading ALL YEAR feeling a bit neglected. All in all, I was just DISAPPOINTED! So purrr for the boys who felt more than honored and twitch for the girls who felt slighted. But he really did connect with the boys and got them excited about writing and sharing their writing that night. His one writing activity of the night was a name reflection. The boys took to it and felt proud to share- they even got their "leader" to share. So it wasn't all a loss.

The best thing out of his visit, for me, was the workshop presentation he gave on his new book "Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing". It went along with many of the educational philosophies that promote the element of play in the classroom. He suggested a number of fabulous opportunities for word play and playful instruction. I will definitely pick up a copy when it comes out. My final thought on this matter is that I am Ralph Fletchered out. My hopes were just too high, but it was great for the kids to get the opportunity to meet an author. In fact, they are now bugging me to get Brandon Mull- their favorite "Fablehaven" author to come and speak with them. I love how they think it is so easy....purrr.

Purrrrusing Ralph Fletcher

In an effort to promote conversations around literacy in our district, our literacy coach was able to arrange for the visit of Ralph Fletcher at our district workshop and for a day long writer's workshop with the kids in our school. Along with many fictional works, Ralph Fletcher has written many books for teachers on writing conferences and one focused particularly on bridging the gender gap for males entitled, "Boy Writers".

At first I did just as he noted I would, I denied that there was such a problem and took offense at the suggestion that I would have to take away from the girls to give to the boys. Of course this is not the case at all. He offers great suggestions to improve our curriculum, teaching styles, and environments in order to make them a bit more boy friendly. He also brought up some issues that I did not realize I had.

I found myself slightly embarrassed when he mentioned our bias against poor handwriting. I was mumbling to myself about how ridiculous this was until he wove in two paragraphs of handwriting within the rest of the typed text. I didn't mind the neatly scripted letters complete with perfectly curved loops, but the chicken scratch that followed it literally twisted my face into a scowl. I thought, "God, why can't they just type it so I don't have to try to figure it out." I fear that I discriminate against answers based on this repulsion of the handwriting. This is certainly an issue when it comes to the gender gap. According to his research, males are proven to have less control over their fine motor skills. So I marched into school the very next day and started investigating. I asked the father of one of the worst offenders whether he had noticed decent penmanship at home or what circumstances affected it, and low and behold, he mentioned that unlike his daughters, his son's handwriting had always been atrocious. So we started chatting about the brain research and we agreed to start making some allowances for the poor writing and that we would start helping him to find alternative ways of scribing his assignments. We might have to rely a bit more on the computer, but he obviously wasn't doing it on purpose, and it was obviously going to remain a problem for him. I never knowingly scored him harder or wrongly, but his handwriting was having an affect on the way I even approached his assignments. I was saving them for last or viewing them with irritation. I had not even realized it.

Ralph Fletcher brings up several other points that should be taken into consideration, including the use of violence and styles of boy writing. Often, female teachers are put off by the very topics that excite the male writers. It was mentioned that teachers might want to work in graphic novels to engage them as well as allowing more freedom in the writing topic selection. I was most impressed with his comparison to more classic writers such as Shakespeare and Hemingway. Truly, they wrote for the masses with violent descriptions of war and often crass humor.

So I took a great deal from the book. It really made me consider my own biases, however unintentional. I look forward to meeting him in person and getting some time to practice his techniques. I will post more after his visit.

The Homework Conversation

I have been holding some conversations with students around the issues of homework. I think they are being very serious in their concerns, yet I have some nagging 'teacher issues' as well. Many refer to the hours that it takes them to do their math alone. Some of the kids are responsible for many chores as well. I know that parents rely on them to tend animals, take care of wood, care for younger siblings and the like. I can see these legitimate issues and the stress that a nightly reading assignment can cause, but I also know that those kids aren't necessarily the ones that aren't completing it. This past Friday night I sat with a girl until 6:15 at night (when I finally had to tell her it was time to go) because she was failing English for not having completed her homework and hoped to squeeze in a few last minute make-ups to pass. Her problem clearly related to homework. She did not complete the reading assignments of 10 pages or less a night, nor did she complete the guided reading questions when she did do the reading. This is a girl with no chores, only older siblings, and supportive parents. Are the issues with homework completion an issue of not enough time or is it an issue of downright laziness? This girl still seemed unconcerned. She is a sweet kid- funny and good-natured, but homework was not a priority. Nothing is really a priority. This kid is not responsible for anything at home. Why would I think that I could break this? Who am I to assume that by assigning better or more engaging work that it would get done? As you can see, I am still grappling with this issue. One teacher, who I stumbled upon through various blogs, has an interesting answer- he is eliminating failure as an option. Maybe this is the direction I too need to head.