Super Teacher's Job is Never Done!

Super Teacher's Job is Never Done!
Photo courtesy of DiscoveryEducation.com

Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions. ~ Author Unknown

My goal is to reveal one teacher's humble journey of self-reflection, critical analysis, and endless questioning about my craft of teaching and learning alongside my middle school students.

"The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'." ~ Dan Rather



Friday, June 29, 2012

To Pass or Not to Pass, that is the Question....

Every June, high school teacher Colette Marie Bennett faces the same philosophical question—whether to pass or fail astudent who understands the material but has not completed the assigned work.

To Pass or Not to Pass? The End-of-Year Moral Dilemma


Elena is a beautiful 16-year-old who blithely drifted in and out of my English II classroom this year without any materials. She seemed surprised to find herself in the class every day. She is pleasant, friendly, and well liked by her peers; we have a cordial relationship. Unfortunately, Elena achieved a 31 percent in English for the first quarter, which seriously damaged her grade point average for the remainder of the 2011-12 school year. Over the course of eight months, Elena continued to leave assignments incomplete and did little class work, choosing instead to text or to socialize with the students sitting around her. She lost study guides, lost materials, and lost interest in editing and revising her work. She once sent me an email telling me she "could not get online to see the assignment."
This week, I will enter her final grade. After four quarters of assigning, collecting, correcting, and returning work, I am looking at a failing grade (just below a 60 percent). Her grade must be a reflection of her academic ability. ... Or is it?
I am in the Groundhog Day of academics, in which every June I experience the same philosophical dilemma: Do I pass a student who understands the materials but who has not completed the assigned work, or do I enter a failing grade? Over the course of the year, I am careful that the work I do assign is critical to assessing student understanding. Assigned work should be meaningful and assessed accurately, a process that should result in plenty of data (tests, projects, quizzes) that determine student progress. However, and perhaps more importantly, there is also anecdotal information to consider; classroom performance is the "third leg" to the footstool of data collection.

A Capable Student

While class was in session, and Elena was engaged, she made contributions. I recently overheard her explain the complicated allegorical ending of Life of Pi to a fellow student ("The author is saying you have to decide which story is the true story…"). In March she made connections to the Kony 2012 campaign after we watched Hotel Rwanda as part of our unit on Elie Wiesel's Night. During another lesson, she casually suggested that over time Lady Macbeth "developed insecurities and should have taken a little Valium to settle her nerves." She equitably included fellow students in "tossing" the plush witch doll when the class was reviewing important lines from the play, and she decided that the witches should be assigned 70 percent of the responsibility for Duncan's death but only 20 percent of the responsibility for Banquo's death. She noted that Macbeth was deteriorating as a "human" as his guilt increased. She empathized with Oliver Twist ("If I was an orphan, I might have been a pickpocket too … ") and suggested that the aviator in William Butler Yeats' "Irish Airman Foresees His Death" had a "need for speed." She understood an author's purpose, tone, and use of literary devices. I anticipate she will have a passing grade on the state-mandated assessment that she took in February.
On the rare occasion when Elena turned in work, she demonstrated that she was capable of writing on grade level. Numerous common assessments taken in class indicated that her reading comprehension was also on grade level. She remained blissfully unconcerned as I cajoled, teased, chided, scolded, and threatened her into completing work. Calls home were unproductive, and other teachers indicated that English was not the only cause for academic concern. The school year was maddening.
Now, as the grades are totaled in June, I wonder: Do I hold her accountable for work left incomplete? Can she be exempted from the assignments that all her classmates completed? What is the minimum number of assignments that are the most important to determining student performance? If I exempt her from less important assignments, am I reinforcing her lack of responsibility? Finally, is passing her fair to the students who did complete the assigned work?

Questioning the Data

I have been teaching for over 20 years, and I still wrestle with the emphasis placed on grades. Do grades really reflect student ability? There are students in the class who have completed all of the work I assigned. Does their "B" grade mean they really understand 85 percent of the material? Does Elena's failing grade mean she understands less than 60 percent of the material in grade 10 English? Will enrolling her in another year in 10th grade English bare a different result? Is she prepared or unprepared to meet the rigors of 11th grade English?
These philosophical questions become more complicated as education is increasingly driven by data. Student performance is quickly aggregated and evaluated using collective (vs. class) and individual (vs. self) bits of data. Mean scores and t-tests are recorded, spreadsheets are created, and reports are generated to create "smart goals" that target instruction. Ultimately, assessment data will be used to evaluate teacher performance. Unfortunately, Elena's overall 10th grade performance in English has been measured by a lack of data.
Ultimately, I need to make the decision that relegates Elena to summer school, requires her to repeat sophomore English, or allows her to move to junior English. Every year I am in the same philosophical dilemma with a student who defies the conventions of assessment. This year it is Elena; last year it was Joshua. Every year I wonder how I can make this objective data-driven decision when the subjective experience in the classroom informs me so differently. My professional experience as an educator encourages me to see Elena as more than a unit to be measured. Finally, while I am painfully aware that the decisions she has made directly impact the decisions I now must make, she remains characteristically, blithely unaware.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Pushing for New Immigration Laws


Below is the link to an interesting article in the Washington Post, thought I would share since it was such a "hot topic" on Edmodo.  The second picture in the show is pretty powerful.

Click here:

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Need new books for summer reading?

Want to finally focus on YOU and not your students when choosing a book? Check out the recommended list below:


The Imperfectionists: A Novel

The Imperfectionists: A Novel

Tom Rachman - 2010 - Language Arts & Disciplines - Limited preview
Preoccupied by personal challenges while running a struggling English-language newspaper in Rome, an obituary writer confronts mortality, an eccentric publisher obsesses over his basset hound and other staff members uncover the paper's founding ...
The Good Doctor

The Good Doctor

Damon Galgut - 2010 - Fiction - Limited preview
When Laurence Waters arrives at his rural hospital posting in a former homeland of the new South Africa, Frank, a fellow doctor there, is instantly suspicious. Laurence is everything Frank is not – young, optimistic, and full of new schemes. The ...
Anthill: A Novel

Anthill: A Novel

Edward O. Wilson - 2011 - Limited preview
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author presents the adventures of Raff, a modern-day Huck Finn in Alabama, whose love of ants transforms his life and those around him as he fights condo developers intent on destroying an endangered tract of land ...
Lord of the Flies: A Novel

Lord of the Flies: A Novel

William GoldingEdmund L. Epstein - 1954 - Fiction - Limited preview
The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of a group of schoolboys marooned on a desert island.
By Nightfall

By Nightfall

Michael Cunningham - 2010 - Fiction - Limited preview
Peter and Rebecca Harris have settled into a comfortable mid-life--with their careers as an art dealer and editor, respectively, blossoming and their son in college--until Rebecca's look-alike brother with a history of drug problems shows up and ...
The Quarry

The Quarry

Damon Galgut - 2010 - Fiction - Limited preview
Damon Galgut stepped prominently onto the international stage with the publication of The Good Doctor He has been compared to J.M. Coetzee, Graham Greene, and Joseph Conrad, but his voice is truly his own. .The Quarry written ten years ago but ...
Tumble Home: A Novella and Short Stories

Tumble Home: A Novella and Short Stories

Amy Hempel - 1998 - Fiction - Limited preview
A delightful anthology features the long-admired short story writer's first novella, as well as her latest collection of stories, which address the ironies of life with her trademark quirky intelligence. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Junot Díaz - 2008 - Fiction - Limited preview
Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and believes that a long-standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness. A first novel by ...
Come to Me: Stories

Come to Me: Stories

Amy Bloom - 1994 - Fiction - Limited preview
This fresh and stunning National Book Award nominee is a collection of stories that takes the reader deep into the heart of the most alarming and joyful human relationships. "Amy Bloom considers the complicated dynamics of families with insight ...
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories

A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories

Amy Bloom - 2001 - Snippet view
These stories are about the uncertain gestures of love, about the betrayals and gifts of the body, about the surprises and bounties of the heart, and about what comes to us unbidden and what we choose.








The Known World

The Known World

Edward P. Jones - 2004 - Fiction - Limited preview
When a plantation proprietor and former slave--now possessing slaves of his own--dies, his household falls apart in the wake of a slave rebellion and corrupt underpaid patrollers who enable free black people to be sold into slavery. Reader's ...
A Gate at the Stairs

A Gate at the Stairs

Lorrie Moore - 2010 - Fiction - Limited preview
In the Midwest just after the September 11 attacks, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin comes of age amid such challenges as racism, the War on Terror, and cruelty in the name of love, as she leaves her family's farm to attend college and takes a part ...
Room: A Novel

Room: A Novel

Emma Donoghue - 2010 - Fiction - Limited preview
A 5-year-old narrates a riveting story about his life growing up in a single room where his mother aims to protect him from the man who has held her prisoner for seven years since she was a teenager. 125,000 first printing.
The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway - 2002 - Fiction - No preview available
The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a ...
White Teeth: A Novel

White Teeth: A Novel

Zadie Smith - 2000 - Fiction - Limited preview
Set in post-war London, this novel of the racial, political, and social upheaval of the last half-century follows two families--the Joneses and the Iqbals, both outsiders from within the former British empire--as they make their way in modern ...
The Gate to Women's Country

The Gate to Women's Country

Sheri S. Tepper - 1989 - Fiction - Limited preview
In a futuristic society where the sexes are separated, men are warriors, and women cultivate the arts, Stavia disobeys the group's prohibitions by loving a man forbidden to her, setting the stage for a momentous decision.
The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Francis Scott Fitzgerald - 1993 - Limited preview
Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the "roaring twenties", and a devastating expose of the "Jazz Age". Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the ...
Come to me: stories

Come to me: stories

Amy Bloom - 1993 - Fiction - Snippet view
A first collection of short stories features tales of psychiatrists crossing professional boundaries, a small girl in need of love, a frightened father in need of redemption, and wives who become mistresses.
Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe - 1996 - Limited preview
THINGS FALL APART tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives ...
Another Marvelous Thing

Another Marvelous Thing

Laurie Colwin - 2001 - Fiction - Limited preview
Another Marvelous Thing is perfect for anyone who knows firsthand that opposites actually do attract. These spare and unsentimental stories display how two very different people -- a tough-minded and tenderhearted woman and an urbane, old ...




The White Tiger

Aravind Adiga - 2008 - Fiction - Limited preview
Aravind Adigawas born in India in 1974 and attended Columbia and Oxford universities. A former correspondent forTimemagazine, he has also been published in theFinancial Times. He lives in Mumbai, India.
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

Amy Hempel - 2006 - Fiction - Limited preview
A complete collection of short works offers insight into the progression of the writer's work throughout a thirty-year period and features, among other tales, the complete texts of At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, and The Dog of ...
Robot dreams

Robot dreams

Isaac Asimov - 1987 - Fiction - Snippet view
This collection of 21 of Isaac Asimov's short stories spans the body of his fiction from the 1940s to the 1980s--exploring not only the future of technology, but the future of humanity's maturity and growth.
Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro - 2006 - Fiction - Limited preview
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Dayand When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human. Hailsham seems ...
Little Bee

Little Bee

Chris Cleave - 2009 - Fiction - Limited preview
The Somerset Maugham Award-winning author of Incendiary presents a tale of a precarious friendship between an illegal Nigerian refugee and a recent widow from suburban London, a story told from the alternating and disparate perspectives of both ...
Sonny's blues

Sonny's blues

James Baldwin - 1995 - No preview available