No cops?

I'm wondering where the throngs of police are! I'm in Center City and I see dozens and dozens upon dozens of teen, twenty, and thirty-something year old people at Suburban Station. They are loud. They are carrying boxes of beer. Some have these noise makers. And all of them are dressed in green! What I don't see is what speaks volumes. Not a police officer to be found. Not one in sight! No news cameras covering the "violence" or "flash mobs"! No press conferences by the mayor or any other public official about how they are not going to tolerate this in Philadelphia!

Maybe if everyone's skin tone was a darker hue, we could get a cop around here! Surely because all these young people are gathered and are loud, they MUST be up to no good and need the heavy arm of the law to come down on them!

Geez, the things we have to do to get cops around here!

Oh Freedom! - The Golden Gospel Singers (Lyrics in Description)

Showed this to one of my classes today. You cannot talk/teach about American History without talking/teaching about Black History! African American History IS American History!

Help Wanted in 215!!!!!

This whole submitting lesson plans thing....OLD!!

Today's view from 105 is centered on the main office and the bins for lesson plans! I'm sitting here plotting out a general outline for the week, complete with where I hope to go and how I plan on getting there. Real teachers know that lesson plans are working documents; ever-changing, adjusting, amending, working documents to guide the teaching and learning continuum.

Submitting plans is really starting to get a bit old, especially since what we submit and when may be the farthest thing from what will actually occur.

Here's a solution. Put in place, principals who are well-versed in "classroom", well versed in teaching and learning, one who knows what teaching/learning looks and sounds like (including the differences in teaching/learning styles among the faculty and students) and those who can demonstrate the same at the drop of a hat! If those types of leaders are in place, then random spot checks of plans are in order.  This tired way of submitting plans in a bin or basket on a given day for instruction a week or two away and the funny looks when a walk-through occurs and the plans are different from the reality, that has to go!

The Greatest PDs

In my opinion, the greatest professional development sessions are those that come early in the morning over coffee at the xerox machine. They're the ones that are held during lunch in another colleague's classroom. They sneak up on you at casual nights out for a random dinner at a local spot. They're on twitter, facebook, blogs, and at events prepared by and for real teachers, active or retired!

Real and useful professional developments end with teachers having the very real and practical tools necessary to improve upon one's classroom practice or try out a new and exciting idea, game, website or book the very next day!

If you've never taught, or it's been a month of Sundays since you were last in the classroom, or you are a 5-week trained/2 year old "experienced" teacher, you need to get somewhere and sit down! Let the real teachers do the work!

No Test for you...

So, today I gave a test on early battles and conflicts of the Revolutionary War and their root causes. We've been reading a grade-apprpriate book on the history of the Revolutionary War.

There were a few who I felt were not ready for the test for a variety of reasons including but not limited to grade level reading proficiency.

It actually felt good to run my classes my way (even though I do that anyway) and to put those students in a position to succeed! There is no hard and fast rule that says I HAD to give those students that test on this day! Even with two different sets of tests prepared to meet the "zone of proximal development" needs of my students, there were a few who I felt weren't even ready for that!

It felt good to put them to work, reading materials on the war much more suitable to their level of proficiency at this time (with the expectation that they will grow and move forward as we work together).

It's this type of teaching, the philosophical aspects of the profession that reformers don't understand. Teaching is not a simple algorithm! It can't be "gotten" in five weeks!

I'm not going to end writing about "them". Rather, I'll celebrate in advance the success these students will have this year. I'll take some progress over no progress at all!! The journey of a thousand miles, someone said, begins with the first step.

Grandmom

As I'm preparing for work this morning, I'm reflecting on a conversation I had with the grandmother of one of my students. She was very pleasant and pleasantly pleased with the education her granddaughter is receiving at her very public school.

She spoke of her granddaughter's excitement when she comes home from school and how excitedly she relays what she learned on that particular day.

She also spoke of how she felt that for the first time her granddaughter was being challenged and really learning.

She ended the conversation by being thankful for me and her other two teachers and how she wished that her granddaughter could stay at the school next year.

Uhhh, #evaluatethat!