My Opening Gambit

21 July 2006

I'm still working out all the details of this schedule, but it's what I've been thinking about so I figured I might as well make it into a blog.

The first three to four days I think I will dedicate mostly to class procedures and rules. In these classes, the students will decorate their work folder (which will contain their tests/quizzes/projects), rehearse all of the classroom procedures, and later I might use a journaling activity to demonstrate how I expect the class to run on a daily basis.

More specifically, in my math classes I want to talk about asking questions/giving answers in terms of problem solving. I want to let my students know upfront that I will not be giving them as many answers as they may be used to; Plato's Meno might help me focus this lesson on classroom structure. In Reading, I want to talk about rules in terms of Calvin Ball (although I may do this in all of my classes). I also might stretch this to five days and read either Du Bois or Booker T. Washington (an idea of Ms. Hill's) and use that to talk about the value of education. She reads Washington, but I'm a Du Bois man myself so I might find a relevant passage from his works.

After these four days, I'm planning to jump into some review. I'll give a diagnostic test (now that, hopefully, most of the role issues are taken care of) and plan some review accordingly. In math, it's a little easier to envision this in advance. I'll do a week to two weeks of review just to get people on the same page, then jump into the first lessons in my not-yet-developed curriculum. In Reading, I'll probably just jump into work that looks like the regular curriculum but assess them not so much as a means of documenting progress, but as a way of helping them learn what they need to do to meet my expectations.

After that, it'll hopefully be a matter of just unmooring the curricular ship and embarking on our adventure. I can't pick the crew, but, hopefully, I will have instilled my worthy shipmates with a sense of respect and responsibility for our humble sloop. Avoiding the early (and late) mutiny is a big priority and I'm downright nervous/anxious/scared about how that'll all work out. I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

TEAM Self-Evaluation

17 July 2006

I think a lot of the criticisms I have of this lesson are pretty similar to those of the lesson I taped at Holly Springs, which is understandable and a little discouraging. I still want my lessons to move at a quicker pace when I'm at the board. I need to get what I want said out there and stop dancing around what I need to say. The longer I'm up there, the more restless the students will get. I shouldn't be wasting any of the time I'm up at the board.

That said, I don't think I was up there for too long before the class split into groups. Obviously, group work in this setting is a whole different species than what I will have to face in the Delta, so it's hard to glean much from that either.

I have to do a better job of making sure all my directions and instructions are clear and given before I hand out any of the papers or allow the students to move into groups. In this case, I got away with it. In the real thing, I would've been floundering about repeating myself and wasting everyone's time. I'll work on that I suppose.

What I think a lot of this boils down to, and a lot of what I've been thinking about recently, is KISSing. Keeping It Simple, Silly/Stupid/Suffering-Succotash. I think I've come to accept that, yes, I can't do everything from the beginning. You're right (Ben and others, cough, Battery, cough) I won't be able to have 12" voices and group work and fun and whatever else I have envisioned in my little head. (I don't mean for this to steer too far from evaluation, but I think the video was so woefully unrealistic that watching it didn't really gain me much other than focusing these most recent thoughts).

So, maybe I will have to take it for the team here and be a little militant to begin with. I'll still make incessant jokes and smile but all while dishing out warnings and copying assignments like lollipops at the bank. What I can't do, is let go of the socratic/inductive bent in my teaching. I would get too bored and, ultimately, feel like I was lying to the kids about Math and English. So, I think my classes will all be about building. Building the math/reading basics that the kids probably don't really have yet while building a classroom climate where we can get work done. Maybe neither of those will never make it much into the hands of the students, but that'll be the implicit aim.

The MTC School

15 July 2006

So Leeward and I had a bit of a discussion/day-dream session last night over meatloaf and a burger (separately, would I eat meatloaf?) at Ajax last night. We were pondering a comment Ben had mentioned in the past with respect to summer school, but that we have both thought of before and after Ben brought it up.

What if MTC had its own school?

When Ben brought this up he dismissed it as an impossibility. After all, schools don't just suddenly have openings for 20-30 teachers (and a principal). But, is a sudden influx of teachers into an already existing school the only way? Yes (and sort of no). Before we deal with these specifics, however, let's look at the vision itself. So, is a MTC School something we even would want?

Leeward and I, at the time, seemed to agree that yes, probably, it would be a good idea. Now, we were unabashedly excited about the prospect of working at such a school, but is it best for the students? Leeward brought up the good point that we would serve fewer students at a single school. I think I waved some funny math in his face at the time to dismiss this point, but its definitely true. Even a big school in the delta would probably only serve close to 800 students (say, 7-12). So, we'd have 30-40 teachers seeing 800 students everyday, whereas spread out in different schools these teachers would see (if we assume on average, 3 teachers per school seeing roughly the same kids but 120 of them), the same teachers would see anywhere from 1200-1600 as a conservative estimate. So, we'd see only half the students in our own school.

At the same time, think for a second how ridiculous this school would be. We would have a school full of energetic, committed individuals willing to put their all into after school programs, their teaching and these kids lives. The inter-staff interactions would be out of this world, as would everyone's support network. I'm not optimistic about making a lasting impact on the lives of my students. I'm going to have probably 80% ninth graders (although that also means I will have like 75% of the ninth graders twice a day. hahahaha, they're going to be soooo sick of me by the end of the year.) But, at this MTC School, if you get this kids in 7th grade and have them until 12th. Man, I think you'd have the opportunity to really do something. Not just give these kids an hour or two of sanity, but actually give them something.

Leeward and I discussed some other concerns. Would this school have more of an image of outsiders coming into the community and changing it? Moreover, would it have the added image of a largely white teaching force coming in and giving education to these poor African-American kids? I think it could, but I don't think it would have to. There's already a big population of MTCers living in Leland next year, and an even bigger population in the surrounding area. For the time being, I'll have to leave this question mostly open though. I have the least experience with community involvement and my image as a carpetbagger, so I'll have to way in on this later.

There were other concerns, but I'd rather just lay out my vision for this school. We can think about it in the mold of a teaching hospital. Right now, I picture the head of each department as an experienced teacher who acts as a mentor for the first- and second-years as well as a full- (or maybe half-) time teacher in his/her subject area. After the two year commitment MTC could encourage teachers to stay in the delta at other schools, but none of them could teach at the teacher's school for more than two. At the same time, since MTC now looks like it'll be 60 strong with two 30 person classes, we could still send 20-30 people into other parts of the delta who didn't want to work at the MTC school or just got picked to do so. This would alleviate some of the criticisms that the new program doesn't reach enough students.

But what about that Yes (and sort of no) answer to Ben's point that we'd have to take over a school by hoisting the pirate flag and sporting peg-legs? The answer is Yes because MS has one of the most pathetic charter school laws ever. The state only allows for 6 schools, and only has a single operating charter school which serves fewer that 380 students (k-6, in Merigold). In addition, all charter schools must be converted public schools and their approval is contingent on local school boards. It also looks like it only allows for a single charter school in the delta, which make the Merigold school the only legal one. So, MTC couldn't actually start its own charter school. But, if the law were to change, somehow, MTC might be able to get outside funding. Louisiana got $21 million dollars, according to the Heritage Foundation (although agreeing with the Heritage foundation on anything, for any reason, makes me very queasy), in order to improve their charter school movement. So, with the right political pressure, this too could change.

So, if it were to change, what do you think? This wouldn't be the first alternative, regional school to bus kids an hour or so to school. It seems like education reform down here might need something drastic and this seems pretty drastic to me.

Think about it. The Greater Delta Charter School: Enthusiastic for Success.