Living the Dream

New Year’s resolutions came early for me this year, just like they have for the past thirteen years, actually. When the first semester of the school year comes to a close, I begin my annual two week period of introspection about what’s working in my classroom and what’s not. I have been teaching long enough to develop an ever-growing bag of tricks; however, since students change every year, finding that perfect balance of the right activities and the right time is quite challenging. That’s why good teaching is both a science and an art.

Over the break, I finished reading a pedagogy book, Visible Learning for Literacy: Accelerating the Practices that Work Best to Accelerate Student Learning, which I highly recommend to any K-12 literacy teacher. I am proud to say that I am already incorporating many of the things mentioned in the book, but I realized that there is room for me to do them better. For example, students’ reflection over their work is the number one most effective learning strategy. In my gradeless classroom, student reflection is a vital component of the process, but I need to do a better job of providing my students with clear learning targets so they have an increased understanding of where they’re going before they get there. This should result in my students’ reflections being more authentic which, in turn, should increase their retention of the material.

I also watched a webinar during my break about the purpose of homework. Over the years, I my position about homework at the high school level has certainly wavered. According to my pedagogy book, research shows that homework is more effective for student learning the older the student gets, but only if the homework is something that the students can do quickly and independently. Alice Keeler, an education goddess who conducted the webinar, took the position that homework is rarely, if ever, necessary, regardless of the grade level. She made the argument that what teachers spend time on in class is what students will regard as the most important information, and that parents should not be expected to help their children with their homework because they are oftentimes too busy or unable to help, and they’re not necessarily masters of the content that the student needs to learn.

Approximately half of the work my students received during the first semester was homework. Their completion rate began very low and only meagerly increased during the course of the semester. I took quite a bit of time to contemplate the homework that I assigned. Were they capable of doing it on their own? Was it purposeful? Did they see the benefit of doing the work? I came to the conclusion that almost all of them were capable of doing the work, and it was purposeful, but I was missing buy-in. When it came down to doing homework in my class versus doing homework in another class, rarely was the the work in my class done first. Further, I learned from talking to my students that after school jobs combined with the length of my homework contributed to their low response rate. I plan on continuing to assign homework during the second semester, but I need to change nature of the work, make it more time-efficient for them to complete, and help them understand how completing the homework will make them better students and better people.

The opportunity to reflect on my teaching practices and rework how my classroom operates is one of the things that I truly enjoy about being a teacher. How many professions exist where the employee has so much autonomy over day-to-day operations? Since seventh grade, it’s always been my dream to be a great public school teacher. In fact, I want to be one of the best teachers that my students have ever had; however, in order for me to accomplish that dream, I need to continue to be introspective and adaptive to their needs. Each class period inside of each school day within each school year is an opportunity for me to experience my dream. The new calendar year and the new semester offers a great opportunity for my students and myself, and I can’t wait to get started.

Going Gradeless: My Q2 Reflection

At the beginning of the school year, I wrote about the necessity of throwing out grades and how that will improve my students’ ability to learn the objectives of the course. I then wrote a reflection at the end of the first quarter. Now that the first semester is over, it is time once again to reflect on how well this process actually unfolded.

As I mentioned previously, this is my first year of going completely gradeless after trying it with only my honors classes last school year. The process is amazingly simple: Instead of grades, I provide feedback on assignments, telling students how well they have mastered the purpose of that assignment. Because I am operating a gradeless classroom within the confines of quarterly report cards, I ask for my students’ input for their report card grades. At the end of the first quarter, I had my students write reflections over their assignments and what they had and had not mastered. This time, I had my students reflect on specific questions that I asked them in an online Google Form, and then I sat down and conferenced with specific students who I felt had inflated their averages. In all but one of those ten cases, students cited external factors (i.e. getting in trouble at home or maintaining a specific GPA) for why they admittedly inflated their grades. In the other case, the student had turned in some work online in Google Classroom that I did not realize was there.

The most common concern most people have when they hear that I operate a gradeless classroom is the fear that students will inflate their averages. The data that I have collected throughout the first semester clearly indicates that nothing could be further from the truth. I have four regular English classes and one honors class. For the second quarter, among all class periods, 28% of students have an A, 17% have a B, 24% have a C, 13% have a D, and 19% have an F. Here is a grade breakdown by class period. The above percentages are remarkably similar to the first quarter, except that the failure rate dropped by 13%. Instead of one-third of my students failing, one in five students are failing. I’m still not happy about the failure rate being so high, but it is a clear sign that my students made progress over their prior performance. They experienced growth.

I need to keep this momentum going. If I’m being completely honest with myself, then I would have to admit that most of my students are not prepared to take TNReady, Tennessee’s end of the year summative assessment. My shift from a completely paperless classroom to a hybrid one has definitely helped. I still need to work on increasing student engagement, even though I saw an increase in that from the first nine weeks. I also need to continue working on providing more timely feedback. Personally, it was a rough nine weeks for me, and my personal life interfered somewhat with my concentration level.

Looking forward, I continue to be energized by the difference that this gradeless classroom is making for my students. I plan on spending a significant amount of time during Christmas Break thinking about how I can make the classroom experience better for my students. With only three-and-a-half months until my students take their TNReady exam, this is not the time to be complacent. What my students do in the classroom, and how they do it, need to push them forward in a monumental way. I am confident in my abilities as a teacher and in my students’ ability to learn material that is presented to them in an interesting way.

Life Happens

The great John Lennon once said that “Life happens while you’re busy making plans.” As a teacher, my life is almost entirely composed of making plans. I have to turn in weekly lesson plans to my school, and outside of school, I have to plan out my afternoons and evenings--often times weeks in advance. Then, when I least expect it, life interferes with my plans, and monitoring and adjusting becomes a survival tactic.

It’s been a rough month for me. We all, at times, go through spells where one bad thing after another happens to us. For me, this includes the unexpected passing of my father-in-law and a recent diagnosis that my dog has a bone tumor in her leg that will require amputation. Both of these events have dealt an enormous emotional and financial blow to my family. I have never done anything like this before, but I have set up a GoFundMe account to cover the expenses of my dog’s pending amputation. If you care to donate, the website is https://www.gofundme.com/save-trinitys-life.

In times like this, being a teacher is both a blessing and a curse. While I’m in my classroom, my job requires that I be present, in every form of the word. I owe it to my students and they deserve nothing less. Therefore, I mentally tune out everything that isn’t important to the lesson. School provides me with a sanctuary where I can compartmentalize. Likewise, my family deserves the same when I am at home--especially now, with these two unfortunate events. The last thing that I want to do at home is provide feedback on student papers and take time away from them. I have been doing what I can while at school, but it’s not enough; the papers have been snowballing in a horrific way.

The home/work balance is difficult for most teachers, and it’s something with which I have always struggled. I realize that part of my job requires me to evaluate my students’ papers. This is also important to my students so that they know how to improve their performance on future assignments and, ultimately, grade themselves at the end of the nine weeks in my gradeless classroom environment. At the same time, when I’m not physically in the school building, my head and my heart have recently been veering away from my responsibilities at work.

I remember some advice that my principal, Dr. Joey Vaughn, gave to the entire school system during our opening day convocation at the beginning of this school year. His advice was, when times get tough, just remember: “Left foot, right foot, breathe.” Teachers are among the most stressed individuals that you will ever meet--especially in this age of accountability and the overemphasis on standardized testing. Add to that mix stressful situations that happen outside of our job, and it’s almost too much to handle.

Cliches are cliche for a reason--they’re oftentimes true. To those who are also experiencing high levels of stress in your life right now, regardless of whether you’re in the education field, just remember to breathe. You are strong, and you will make it through this, and ultimately, I will, too.

In the meantime, I have paperwork, a family, and an ailing dog that all need my attention. With progress reports coming out this week, my focus will be on my students’ papers. I have never really looked at progress reports as being a particularly accurate representation of my students’ progress, but many parents do. I hope I can finish everything in time, and I will give it my best effort because I really hate missing deadlines. If not, I hope that my students and their parents will understand.

Going Gradelless: My Q1 Reflection

At the beginning of the school year, I wrote about the necessity of throwing out grades and how that will improve my students’ ability to learn the objectives of the course. Now that the first quarter is over, it’s time for some self-reflection on how well this process actually unfolded.

This is my first year of going completely gradeless, after trying it with only my honors classes last school year. People told me that this would never work with “regular” students, but I also kept in mind that these same people are deeply ingrained in the antiquated cogs of an education system that is desperate need of grassroots reform. The process is amazingly simple: Instead of grades, I provide feedback on assignments, telling students how well they have mastered the purpose of that assignment. Because I am operating a gradeless classroom within the confines of quarterly report cards, I had students write a reflection of what they have mastered this nine weeks and then I sat down and conferenced with them at the end of the grading period.

The conferences were enlightening. Students told me what grade they should have on their report card, and they defended that grade with evidence from the assignments they completed over the course of the grading period. In talking with students, I learned about their successes and failures, what’s working for them in my class and what’s not. I learned more about their home lives. In several cases, changes in their home lives impacted their academic performance. I learned that students were occasionally clueless about what grade they should have on their report card, but they were almost always brutally honest.

For those who think that students choosing their report card grades would inflate them, nothing could be further from the truth. I have four regular English classes and one honors class. Across all class periods, including honors, 24% of students have an A, 17% have a B, 26% have a C, 1% have a D, and 32% have an F. Here is a a grade breakdown, by class period. Yes, nearly one-third of my students not only failed themselves for the nine weeks, they admitted to me during the conference that they haven’t mastered very many objectives because they have been lazy and need to try harder. It is refreshing to know that the students know exactly what they need to do to improve.

From my perspective, I have learned a great deal from operating a gradeless classroom. What I am currently doing in my classes is working in various degrees for two-thirds of my students, but the one-third that are failing are unmotivated. Some of the reason for this is out of my control, like hectic home lives and chronic absenteeism, but I also need to do a better job of building enthusiasm and increasing engagement. Additionally, I need to do a better job of providing timely feedback. As an English teacher, this is a monumental challenge, and it is something with which I have always struggled. Still, this is an essential component of a gradeless classroom, and my students need more feedback from me. I have also learned that this year’s students are struggling more than last year’s students with the paperless classroom concept. This has lead me to collect more work on paper than I would like, but my goal is to get the most out of my students, and the online coursework is a literal impossibility for some of my students to complete.

Going forward, I am energized by the difference that this paperless classroom is making for my students. Time will tell how much growth students will demonstrate during the second quarter, but, so far, it looks very promising.

It's Time to Throw Out Grades

My primary objective as an educator is to do my absolute best teaching my students so that they are prepared to be successful in society once they graduate. I know that this statement is probably overly simplistic, but this creed keeps me going on days when I’m exhausted and struggle to find motivation. I am blessed to have the opportunity each year to improve how I do things. For my students, on the other hand, this is a one shot deal. I owe it to them to bring my best every class period, every day.

My drive to continuously improve my craft also leads me to read professional books in my free time. I seek out new ideas that challenge my current educational philosophy and, if I am lucky, I will find an idea that will shatter it. This moment happened when I read Mark Barnes’ book Assessment 3.0: Throw Out Your Gradebook and Inspire Learning.

Basically, the concept is that in lieu of putting number and letter grades on their assignments, students will receive feedback on how well they mastered the objective of the assignment. It’s not fundamentally different from how most people learn new skills. For example, when I watched my 5-year-old daughter during swimming lessons this summer, she was given immediate feedback on what she was doing well and what she needed to improve. Similarly, I gave feedback to my now 11-year-old daughter several years ago when she was learning how to ride a bicycle.

Given that feedback is how students authentically learn the best, Barnes’ book caused me to question why this feedback model isn’t used more frequently with students in a school setting. After all, if this method works for teaching someone how to swim and how to ride a bicycle, then wouldn’t it also work in my class for teaching someone to write better summaries and how to read more deeply? There are likely many reasons why this concept isn’t more commonly used. It’s a relatively new idea in the educational landscape and many teachers are not familiar with it. Also, giving grades for assignments and on report cards is the way things have seemingly always been done.

For the sake of my students, neither of these are valid reasons to prevent me from throwing out grades. I want my students’ focus to be on the objectives of the assignment, and not on getting a good grade. Numbers and letters say very little about what a student has actually learned. All of us have experienced times in school when we received good grades on assignments when no actual learning occurred. Research indicates that measuring learning with numbers, percentages, or letters is an inadequate way to assess learning.

Therefore, learning in my classroom will be assessed differently from a typical classroom. My students and I will evaluate learning together using an ongoing dialogue. I will provide written and/or verbal feedback about what they have accomplished and what may still need to be learned. They will then spend time reviewing what they learned from their completed activities and we will discuss how this fits into the letter grade world that they and their parents are accustomed to using. After this evaluation and our discussion, the students will provide input on what their final report card grade should be. If a student assigns a grade that is not compatible with my assessment of his/her performance and quality of work, I will provide my viewpoint based on the feedback that I had given on their assignments as well as on their standards-based assessments. The student will then be asked to reevaluate his or her response to encourage deeper thinking.

This feedback approach to assessment leads to self-evaluation and ultimately to mastery of learning. It will also help students become self-critical, independent learners, which are essential attributes for them to succeed after high school.

Measuring the Unmeasurable

Last week, I attended a convening of Hope Street Group teacher fellows from across the state. There are 30 of us who are all dedicated to elevating teachers’ voices in this state. On the first day of the convening, I was blessed to participate in a listening session over state testing with Dr. Candice McQueen, the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE). She will travel around the state and conduct more of these listening sessions so that teachers can tell her directly how the state can improve its system of evaluating students.

Many great ideas were expressed in this listening session, the details of which I don’t want to publicize at this time because education policy is a tricky thing. Nothing is ever changed solely in isolation without affecting something else. I don’t know how many of the good ideas that we expressed are actionable, but I left that session feeling confident that Commissioner McQueen listened to them intently.

Lunch quickly followed this listening session, and at my lunch table we continued to discuss the weighty topic of evaluation, which veered into a discussion on how teachers and schools are evaluated.

Most teachers across the state are evaluated using the Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model, or TEAM. In a nutshell, this model that is used for classroom observations uses a rubric that lists characteristics in several different domains on a 1, 3, or 5 level, with 5 being the highest. After the teacher’s lesson is evaluated, there is a post-conference where the teacher meets with the evaluator (usually a principal) and the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson are discussed. Classroom observation(s) comprise 50% of a teacher’s overall evaluation score for that year, which is also on a scale of 1-5. According to TDOE, the TEAM evaluation model improves the quality of education and teachers feel more positive about it than ever. Anecdotally, no one at my table--nor any other teacher that I have ever talked to about the TEAM model--could support that notion. The way teachers are evaluated in this state is ridiculously flawed.

Schools have been graded using a school report card for a number of years now. New to this report card (thanks to the state legislature) will be grades that range from A to F for every school. These grades will be based primarily off of how well students perform on state tests as well as national tests like the ACT. This raised a series of questions during our lunch discussion. What performance levels signify an “A” versus a “B” or “C”? Are schools who obtain an “A” on the school report card actually graduating students who are well-prepared for college and the “real world,” or are they better at preparing their students to test well?

The larger issue here is that in education, we constantly strive to measure the unmeasurable. For example, on a student’s report card, a grade of 75 is a “D” and a grade of 85 is a “B.” As a teacher, how on earth can I honestly say that the “B” student has mastered 10% more of the knowledge than the “D” student? I can’t, because it’s it’s not quantifiable. Likewise, is a teacher who is considered to be a level 5 significantly better than a level 3 teacher on the TEAM rubric? On the school report card, will an “A” school be significantly better than a “B” or “C” school?

I greatly appreciate Dr. McQueen taking the time to listen to a group of teacher leaders from around the state. Without question, there are areas of improvement for TNReady. Because the law requires state testing, our students deserve to have the best evaluation system that we can provide. Hopefully, the state’s ensuing discussion over how to improve TNReady will boil over into other areas of evaluation that correspondingly have glaring areas of improvement. There are more organic methods of evaluating teachers and schools than subjectively grading them. When we figure this out, Tennessee educationally will be a model for the nation and the positive change will be precipitous.