Since my first year as an educator, I have taught the Teacher Cadet classes at my high school, classes which spurred me to become a teacher at this very high school when I was a teenager. Although I celebrate the fact that fifteen of my former students in these courses are currently studying to become public school educators in North Carolina, a recent revelation on how I approach the class makes me believe that I can increase this number tremendously.
Each semester, students in Teacher Cadet come in with a vague understanding of what teaching really entails or how what happens in their daily classes relates to a larger, global picture. Many are stunned when I show graphics and quote statistics about how far behind our country is in terms of educating our citizens. While it may appear that the only reason I would do this would be to deter their eager ambitions about becoming teachers so that they will drop the course and thus lower the number of students I am responsible for on a daily basis, this is absolutely not the case. For the past three years, I have used this information as a springboard for motivation. Coming from a family who wanted me to pursue something besides teaching because I was "too smart" for such a low-paying profession, I want my students to know that this challenging career demands creative, passionate, brilliant individuals to serve our nation's youth and work towards overcoming our obstacles. However, I realize now that I have been completely selling our great nation and the teachers who tirelessly serve it short.
Insulting statistics about our nation's schools and teachers are every where, and have been for decades. Even twenty years ago, critics were so disgusted with our school systems that they tenaciously questioned the effectiveness of public education in America. A columnist for The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, one of the oldest and most respected journals of liberty in America, wrote, "We not only fail to hold individual students accountable for poor performance, we have also failed to hold the entire government-controlled school system accountable for its performance since at least WWII. Public education is itself a failure. Why shouldn't individual students follow its example," (Hood, 1993).
A year ago, a contributor to The Atlantic, in an article entitled, "The Failure of American Schools" wrote, "While America's students are stuck in a ditch, the rest of the world is moving ahead. The World Economic Forum ranks us 48th in math and science education" (Klein, 2011). In December, USA Today reported that, "Nearly half of America's public schools didn't meet federal achievement standards this year, marking the largest failure rate since the much-criticized No Child Left Behind Law took effect a decade ago," (Jones, 2011).
Who would want to pursue a career in education with such disheartening information on the table? What teenager or college student wakes up one morning and decides his or or dream is to work for a failing company or outdated industry? None that I know of. Maybe the number of students who wanted to become teachers in my classes would increase if I stopped painting such a dismal picture of the career.
The mistake I have been making for the past three years as a novice teacher is that all of the studies and statistics which deem our nation's education system as falling behind completely leave out the fact, for the benefit of the general public, that we are the only country on earth who requires that all of our children will be educated to a certain point. This includes our disabled, our poor, our homeless, our speakers of other languages, and perhaps most importantly, our unwilling.
Many critics of American public schools constantly compare our "scores" with those of Finland, a country which boasts consistent teacher retention and high student achievement. But, those critics fail to mention that Finland has one of the highest gross domestic products in the world, and a much lower rate of diversity (racial and socioeconomic) among its citizens than the United States. We should applaud and research their strategies for achieving a 100% literacy rate among their people; however we should also recognize that the needs of our country's citizens are different than those of Finland's. Just as teachers disservice their students by not differentiating instruction to suit their individual needs, critics disservice the American public school system by dryly comparing the United States of America to other countries and assuming our educational needs are the same.
Is "falling behind" a fair price to pay for shooting for the moon? For being determined to educate our entire nation, despite how impossible it may be? To give each child an equal chance to achieve the American Dream? To care enough about our children to make sure they don't end up begging on our streets? Yes, it is, one million times over, and anyone who values "achievement" over equity need not be working in or criticizing public education as this value epitomizes the very beliefs on which our great nation was founded.
Ironically, as I have an epiphany on how to develop pride within the eager, energetic hearts of my pre-service teachers, I find something equally disheartening; funding for the Teacher Cadet program was removed from our state's budget for the upcoming fiscal year. While my district's superintendent and school board members have personally assured me that if this program must be cut from our curriculum because of a lack of funding that it will be one of the "last things to go," I still fear that North Carolina's dream of "growing our own," that is, current teachers developing the next generation of teachers, will die; I may not have many more chances to help change the misconceptions of education in the United States to the most important audience of our nation's future, our next generation of educators.
At the beginning of each new semester, I assign my English students to describe or illustrate their individual writing processes. After explaining my way through confused stares, I grade their assignments, and they never shock me; I have yet to have a student do anything but regurgitate the steps to writing a five paragraph essay; a result of them being drilled for past NC writing assessments. Until we discuss it in class, most of my students show little evidence of understanding audience, and many even leave out the publishing and sharing elements.
Even though I currently practice the traditional secondary English teacher strategy of having students compose daily journal entries to reflect on life as well as course content, I am considering shifting to one of two other models of daily writing instruction as the new school year approaches; should my students compose daily blogs, or should I have them write hard copy diary entries like Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers? The ramifications for my decision could reach farther than non-English teachers realize. Labeling an assignment as a "diary entry" suggests privatization and deep introspection, while blogging requires organized reflection and publication. My students are used to and prepared for the former, but I find that many do not know what blogs are or how to use them.
I want the most bang for my buck when it comes to writing instruction. I value the paradigm that all students should write every single day. However, some experts believe that a balance between the number of writing assignments (quantity) and the length of time spent on editing, conferencing, revising, and rewriting an assignment (quality) is essential. "Excessive quantification of written words diminishes the quality of both the writing and the writing experience, just as too much qualification in literary assignments diminishes the quantity of material produced and the thought given to producing it" (Lipson, 2010). Can one of two strategies I am currently considering help provide balance between quantity and quality so that my students are better served?
In a recent tweet, Carol Jago, former president of National Council of Teachers of English, current professor at Western Michigan University and well-known expert in English education, questioned whether or not blogging is replacing the diary and what this means in terms of understanding audience. Hopefully, students understand that what they publish to the Internet instantly becomes public knowledge, so how honest can they be, and does this hinder responsible composition? Having an immediate, random audience of readers may inhibit them from experiencing some of the benefits of keeping a daily diary where their reflections can be completely honest and private; when writing a diary, students can write free of judgement.
However, a teacher cannot objectively grade assignments such as these, particularly if the student chooses not to let the teacher read such a private reflection (an option which Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers allowed in her classroom). Thus, an instructor cannot ensure that academic writing skills, such as correct grammar usage, effective argumentation and persuasion, vivid description, and clarity and cohesion are being developed since grading is primarily judgement of one's assignment. This makes me question whether or not grading my students' daily writing assignments is that important afterall; perhaps the main purpose of having them write regularly should be to help them develop into mature adults with efficient coping strategies. According to a recent article in The Guardian, keeping a daily journal can make people happier. The article describes a study conducted by psychologists who had volunteers visit a lab for a brain scan before asking them to write for 20 minutes each day for four consecutive days. 50% of the participants wrote about a recent emotional experience while the other 50% wrote about a neutral topic. "Those who wrote about an emotional experience showed more activity in the part of the brain called the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which in turn dampened down neural activity linked to strong emotional feelings" (Sample, 2009). High school is such an emotionally-charged time for so many of my students, so one could conclude that daily diary writing could possibly help many of these teens through the trials and tribulations of adolescence. But should student happiness and emotional comfort be so much a part of my course that twenty out of ninety minutes each school day are dedicated to it? Perhaps so, especially if clearing the emotional air could make room in their brains for new course material. But what about the "real" standards we have to meet?
Despite the introspection and happiness writing a private diary can promote, blogging may be better suited for our classroom needs. Today's new Common Core English Standards require that students develop college and career ready and twenty-first century learner skills, and that they also publish their work. Blogging would come in really handy for this! My students could personalize blog spaces and reflect upon current events, literature and nonfiction, their learning processes and collaborations, and their own ideas about the world. In fact, classrooms all over the country are approaching blogging as literacy. Many teachers are turning to blogging to help students enjoy writing and develop confidence in their voices. Educators across all subject areas see blogging as the answer to our nation's literacy problems. Because students publish their content, they are held accountable by their blog readers; writing more and better becomes an intrinsic value as teachers, students, and the public comment on their posts.
Of course, my students and I will have to spend time understanding that publishing information online is permanent and wide-reaching. And, I will have to ensure that whatever blog tool I choose to use is safe and is compliant with the requirements of my school district's acceptable use policy. Parents will want to know that their children are safe from Internet predators, but maybe they would enjoy spending a few minutes on their lunch breaks checking out their students' thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr.'s"Letter from Birmingham Jail", or Henry David Thoreau's"Civil Disobedience"- two readings we explore extensively. What a great way to incorporate families into my students' education, a difficult task for many high school teachers!
In a book titled Cohesive Writing, Carol Jago maintains that writing cohesively "...means doing many things at once- wrestling with ideas, balancing form and function, pushing words this way and that, attending to syntax and diction, and employing imagery and metaphor until a coherent message emerges" (Jago, 2002). As long as my students are engaging in each of these activities, perhaps it does not matter which strategy I use for writing instruction. While I am leaning towards using a combination of both, I plan on soliciting the advice of my more experienced colleagues once the school year begins; perhaps we can work together to create our own new system of writing instruction for English students at Bartlett Yancey High School which combines both strategies. Perhaps teachers of other subjects will adopt our strategies, thus fostering cross-curricular instruction and writing across the disciplines.
All too often, high school administrators mistake quiet classrooms for those in which authentic, meaningful learning is taking place. Unfortunately, it is common to do a walk through in any given high school, peek into a lecture, and assume that the neat, silent rows of teenagers are absorbing the teacher's every word. By the time adolescents reach high school, they have become experts at "playing the game" and looking like they are listening just to get through their mundane, meaningless fifty or ninety-minute long courses.
Who can blame them? Current brain research states that the average length of the human attention span has decreased from twelve seconds in 2000 to just eight in 2012 ("Statistic brain," 2012). This means that during a traditional lecture-style lesson on a block schedule, the typical teenage brain shifts thought and loses focus 675 times! Surely some, if not most, of the material being taught leaks through that many cracks. To avoid this ineffectiveness, teachers need to use creativity and innovative techniques, particularly those related to collaboration and discussion, to build student-centered, interesting, and engaging classrooms; tools and resources for making this imperative pedagogical transition abound.
Even in school districts with limited financial means, teachers need only to check their supply closets and workrooms to productively energize their lessons and students. Using large chart paper, tape, markers, and prodding questions or statements relating to relevant topics, teachers can engage students in a silent discussion activity; to participate, students move around the perimeter of the room to a set timer, informally recording their responses to questions and comments and contributing to someone else's "posts". They may not speak during the rotations, but they may draw arrows from the original question or another's contribution and add their own thoughts, pose a new pertinent question, agree or disagree with an opinion, or expound upon an idea. When students have contributed to each statement or question, they go back to the one at which they started and evaluate their classmates' answers. After a few minutes of analysis, they report on the best or most interesting comments to the class; this generates verbal discussion if done correctly.
For teachers who don't mind researching new techniques and approaches, The National Paideia Center maintains a wealth of information about classroom discussion strategies. During a classroom Paideia discussion, the teacher assumes the role of a facilitator, and the students fill the roles of the participants. Unless students are not following directions, the facilitator must not contribute to the class discussion. His or her only responsibility is to pose a question or an agree/disagree statement to the class, and then let them talk about the issue. During the "roundtable-like" class conversation (the desks or chairs should form a complete circle), the facilitator maintains minimal eye contact and listens closely to record the contributions of each student. Participants are not allowed to raise their hands; instead, they practice authentic discussion formats and good manners. Each participant earns points by making frequent contributions, following the rules, refraining from dominating the discussion, and engaging more reluctant peers. At the end of the activity, which according to experts can last for an entire class period with teenagers, participants compose a journal entry response to the day's discussion not only documenting what they learned, but also evaluating themselves and their classmates on the quality of discussion itself. This serves as an effective formative assessment to check for student understanding (The National Paideia Center, 2012).
Teachers with access to class sets of classroom computers and the Internet may find Collaborize Classroom to be an excellent tool for getting students to apply essential questions and information through debate and dialogue. Through this free, web-based resource, teachers can pose thought-provoking, relevant information to students through articles, images, videos, or even simple questions. Students can not only respond to the teacher's prompts and peer comments and questions, but they can also research their own discussion prompts and interesting material to pose to their peers. Because the teacher controls who participates in and views this virtual classroom, there is no threat to the students' Internet safety.
Instead of nodding in approval of boring, sedentary, disengaging lessons through the windows of high school classroom doors all over the United States, secondary principals and administrators should celebrate the dynamic, energized, productive organized chaos of student-centered lessons and applaud teachers and students willing to try new engaging learning techniques; that is when and where real learning takes place. Perhaps principals can even find time in their busy schedules to step in and participate in a discussion about Romeo as a petrarchian lover, global warming as a threat to humanity, the platforms of candidates for political offices, or the currently unsolved Goldbach Conjecture . Who knows what their students can teach them?
Each semester, students in Teacher Cadet come in with a vague understanding of what teaching really entails or how what happens in their daily classes relates to a larger, global picture. Many are stunned when I show graphics and quote statistics about how far behind our country is in terms of educating our citizens. While it may appear that the only reason I would do this would be to deter their eager ambitions about becoming teachers so that they will drop the course and thus lower the number of students I am responsible for on a daily basis, this is absolutely not the case. For the past three years, I have used this information as a springboard for motivation. Coming from a family who wanted me to pursue something besides teaching because I was "too smart" for such a low-paying profession, I want my students to know that this challenging career demands creative, passionate, brilliant individuals to serve our nation's youth and work towards overcoming our obstacles. However, I realize now that I have been completely selling our great nation and the teachers who tirelessly serve it short.
