Why Teaching in NC is Starting To Feel Like I'm Married to an Abuser.

'Cause I am.

Year 21. Yet another year of not getting the step - forget a raise, just the step - that was promised me when I signed my contract. I'm losing $3,000 in pay, this year alone. While it won't affect me personally, Master's pay is being eliminated. The school board for which I work is suing the county for underfunding both the operating and capital budgets, while the county sits on millions beyond the required Rainy Day money.

 I can almost deal with that. Seriously.

Charlotte's a banking town, and the 2008 mess hit particularly hard around here. People who still had jobs held their collective breath as Wachovia was swept away, Wells Fargo swept in, and B of A held on. The real estate market here still hasn't recovered. It's been a rough few years. Believe me; I get it.

Here's what I can't deal with - the attitude. Why the smear? Why the attack?

I could live with, "Y'all, we know this sucks. We know we're doing you wrong. If you just hang in there, it will get better, eventually. Promise. Until then, thank you for putting up with it"

Instead what we get is - and I'm not putting words in someone's mouth - this was said - "If they don't like it, they can leave."

Got that right, buddy. Market economies work both ways, and I live near the border. Driving 15 minutes in the other direction will net me $12,000 more annually. I'll be taking my metaphorical ball and going home. Next year.

What?

I know. I know. I know.

I applied late to said county, and haven't got it in me to pursue a job which would leave kids in a community I love in a lurch. Can't do it. Which, of course, is how we are kept in line. If we pitch a fit and stand up for ourselves in a way that will force the media and the public to deal with us, and so, put real pressure on the state, kids will suffer. So we don't.

Instead, I'll focus on all of the things, and there are many, I love about my job, my colleagues, and my children. I will teach my tail off, and the public will not get what it pays for; it'll get a helluva lot more. And, though I'll hate myself for it, I'll forgive, yet again, the fact that I'm not just undervalued, I'm reviled, and my abuser doesn't mind crowing out to the world that I continue to sit there and take it,  because, surely, I deserve it.

So, NC and I will stay together, just one more year, for the sake of the kids.

I'll Be Less of a Loser Thanks to Remind 101

I'm a high-strung hot mess, a trait that has actually worked for me in the classroom, but it tends to get in the way of one thing, in particular. Parent communication. I am not good at finding time to sit down, write a cogent newsletter, get it to the copier, and finally, into folders. Too bloody many steps, so it doesn't happen. I can cut out a couple of said steps by sending emails; and I'm better at that, but I still need something for those quickie reminders that I always mean to give, but don't quite.

Enter Remind101.

I can text from my computer, and I can even schedule texts ahead of time, While my dumbphone gets texts just fine, it won't run the app, but my tablet will. That means that I can compose texts wherever I am when I think of it. In my untreated-adult ADHD world, that's useful. Useful and free. Good combo.

There are several lengthy tutorials on YouTube to help  you get started. I didn't think it was all that complicated, so I slapped together another of my odd stream-of-consciousness overviews

Click here to visit the Remind101 website.

Why Sophia Is My New Bestie

I've worked pretty hard this summer putting together math (and a few science) video lessons to flip the instruction in those subjects. No, I'm not the Khan, but I'm reasonably pleased, at least for now, with how they turned out.

Now what?

They're cool and all, but how do I know who did and didn't watch? Don't tell me to get the parents to sign for it. I sign for stuff A.J. says he did pretty regularly, without backchecking it. Every once in a great while, when he was in elementary school, I'd sign for reading that never happened. We were busy; we'll make up for it this weekend. Really.

I've solved most of that by requiring examples and notes in the math notebook, but that doesn't mean the kid didn't just copy from someone else, and while that's not the end of the world, copying a notebook and missing a whole lesson is a bigger deal than copying the answers for a random worksheet.

Compound that with this - Video lessons aren't meant to teach to mastery; they're to prepare kids for the doing that will get them to mastery. Still, how will I know when I've left them completely clueless? Shouldn't I know that before the math session starts? I'd think so...

So I was in a bit of a quandry. Then I went to camp.

At EdCamp Forth Worth, Texas, Todd Nesloney, @TechNinjaTodd on Twitter and his sidekick @TechNinjaStacey (Yes, you should follow them.) taught a session on flipped classrooms. They introduced us to the platform they use, Sophia. (Cue sunshine parting the clouds and angels' singing.)

You will find this free tool here at sophia.org  It allows me to integrate my video lesson, links to more practice, more audio or video files, a multiple-question quiz, and more on one screen. It also gives me a stats page so I know who watched, for how long, and how he or she did on the attached quiz, if I made one. It also runs on a Sophia screen, so even though the video is on YouTube, a kid isn't technically on YouTube while watching, which may make parents less scared of the whole thing.

I couldn't find a video about Sophia's teacher features, so I slapped this one together:

I'm relieved! I was starting to feel like I was pulling at straws, but now everything feels tied together. 

An Aura-gasm, or How I'm Jazzing Up Open House with Augmented Reality

At the end of a session at EdCamp Forth Worth, TX, a young, attractive teacher burst in to find a friend of hers, all in a dither and going on about something called Aurasma and Augmented Reality. At the time, she wasn't really making sense, but now I get it.

She was having an Aura-gasm.

Poor young thing couldn't handle it.  Now, I haven't been a twenty-something for a good twenty-something years, but I know a revolutionary thing when I see it, and figured this was worth checking out. I wasn't disappointed.

Cool, right? But does it have practical applications?

Imagine a worksheet that can be self-, peer-, or parent-checked by hovering a tablet over it. Take that same worksheet and imagine a tutorial linked in by hovering a smartphone. Got some difficult words (or words from another language) on a page of text? Link in an audio file to pronounce those words or a pic with a definition. How about video vocabulary? A.gif that pops up over an unfamiliar word to add meaning? Maybe some kind of mnemonic? That'll stick in their heads even better. Lower grades, can you say, 'Sight Words' and 'Place value blocks'?

Of course, there's always going for the gimmick, which I'll do with Open House. I'm going to hang some pictures of last year's kids working and place QR codes next to them so that parents can see their online projects. Some will also have auras added, and I'll post a sign inviting families to come in, grab a tablet, and explore. That should space out the entries into the room and the competition for my attention. Better yet, it should create some buzz and excitement for what goes on in my room.

I'd set you up with a tutorial on getting started with Aurasma, but the gentlemen at Two Guys and Some iPads have already done a bang-up job with that. You'll find it here.

Then get others on the bandwagon. Everyone knows that Aura-gasms are best when they're shared. ;)

The One-Rule Classroom

An interesting thought, huh? Yesterday, @mattBgomez, a Texas kindergarten teacher and EdCamp organizer, posted "Be Brave: The Only Rule in My Kindergarten Class" (You can read it here.) and after I got past, 'that's probably a good rule for kindergarten teachers', I started thinking. There are layers of school and district rules. How many classroom rules do you really need? If I adopted just one rule, what would I choose?

 I think this is it: Live By Questions.

 It comes from Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi, in which Bear claims that to live by questions will keep you living, but living by answers is a form of death. Later in the chapter Crispin asks, "If I were to live by questions, what questions would they be?"  The philosopher Voltaire charges us to judge people by their questions, rather than their answers, and in the upper grades, the questions a kid asks is what separates a bright kid from a gifted one.

I'm still a firm believer in the Eight Great Habits, and will continue to incorporate them into classroom life. One rule doesn't mean no-holds-barred, but it gives light to what I think is most important.

Question Everything.

Flippin' Out

It came! It came! It came!

Yesterday (I love Amazon Prime!) I ordered a Bamboo Splash Tablet and set of headphones so I can work on some video lessons that will allow me to Flip my math and science lessons.

What-huh? My science time is perpetually pinched and my math, despite my best effort, remains middle-oriented and too teacher-centered. I want to change that:

Here's a bit on the why of a Flipped Classroom:

And a bit on the 'how'.

I'm looking forward to developing some videos... I'm already creating my own ActivInspire flipcharts. They can be recorded as video lessons using Screencast-O-Matic (Which is a free .com! Google it!) and see about adding some more interactive elements through eduCanon, like a quick quiz.

First things first, gotta get the box open and play inside. Get ready for a nerdy girl SQUEEEEEE!
(I'm such a dork. It's a wonder my husband puts up with me. He's learned to just smile approvingly and walk away...)

The Offseason

Any teacher worth her (or his) salt knows that summer vacation isn't vacation. It's the offseason! You know, that time we spend reassessing our performance last season, setting goals to improve our game - good stuff. I start looking forward to it about the beginning of May and spend a fair part of the tedious hours stalking my classroom as children test considering it.

Here we go: Clarke's Semi-strategic Plan to Up Her Game and Have a Little Fun...

1. Weakness: Focus on Answer. Game Changer: Ask more and better questions. (Duh.)
I'm not awful that way; I know to answer a kid's question with, "Well, what do you think?" and wait. I need to script myself more purposeful questions on which to center instruction. I'd like to "live by questions and not by answers" as Bear puts it in Crispin. Much more engaging.

2. Weakness: Math instruction, aside from tutoring, is still largely whole-group and heavily teacher-paced.  Game changer: Invent PPPPPPPPPPPPPDSA
In other words, create a way for kids to develop individual work plans for meeting learning goals. These plans should allow kids to largely pace themselves through units and choose methods and materials. Done correctly, this won't become a free-for-all, since regular reflection should help kids understand which methods and materials helped and which didn't. I'll also need to put together some flipped-classroom videos for those that can master work more quickly.

3. Weakness: Nonfiction reading is some crap we have to do before we can get to the actual good stuff. Game Changer: More smoothly incorporate relevant nonfiction into everyday reading instruction.
I don't know if it's because I'm a girl or because my drug of choice is fiction, but I largely suck at nonfiction reading instruction. I need to bring more relevant-to-what-we're-doing nonfiction in and get excited about it. #1, above, should help. Watch out, Beth and Carol. I'm coming after your stacks!

This also includes finding a better means of teaching vocabulary,

4. Weakness: When kids grade their own work, they tend to focus on aesthetics, rather than content. Game changer: Explicitly teach what a good project includes.
This revelation alone made allowing kids to grade themselves worth the time. They really do think that pretty projects are best. Now, I can't argue that attractiveness isn't a component of a well-done project, but it's a much smaller component than what's said within it. I'll need to create a few lessons on what makes a strong project to use during our launching-the-year sessions.

5. Weakness: The second round of FedEx projects involved a lot of reading Wikis from the screen. Game changer: Tweak the planning and presentation criteria.
FedEx Day is definitely worth the time, so I'm adding two days next year for a total of four. The go-round this past week involved kids linking a bunch of things that they read to us from the board.. That's not good. I need to add in that they are knowledgeable enough to become the primary source of information and use links, etc. as their secondary. As in, "I linked in this page so you could learn _____________. It basically tells you ____________________."

6. Weakness: After a strong first semester, Poetry Workshop instruction tends to peter out. Game changer: Plan a better second half. (Duh, again.)
'Nuff said.


... and one more:

Attend an EdCamp!
These are teacher-driven and led one-or two-day workshops with topics on innovative teaching strategies.. The big cities have them, and it just happens that Fort Worth, TX will be having one the week I'll be there, visiting my parents. Surely, it's fate.

Have I mentioned that, best of all, I can do (almost) all of this in my jammies? While eating what I like and using the bathroom whenever I please? Yes! I love the offseason!

Have a fabulous last day,
Lizzie (I even get my first name back!)