Why We Need Character Education

You won’t find character education on the state tests in NY.  It doesn’t appear on the SATs , either. But…

When one in three teens who own cell phones admit to using those phones to cheat on tests (Belkin), when 53% of secondary students report being cyber bullied at some point in their school careers (Van Dusen), when 83% of teens say they have lied to their own parents in the past twelve months and 72% confess to lying to a teacher (Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics), we need character education.

To be successful in academics, in business, in relationships, our students will have to navigate a minefield of ethical explosives.  But our students, like those teens cited above, struggle daily with virtue. Students spend about six and a half hours a day, five days a week for one hundred and eighty days in school, with us.  If eight hours of their week-day, home-time is spent sleeping,  that makes us—school staff–  among their primary caretakers, their academic sources, and for many, their moral examples.

This is why we must continue efforts to provide character education in schools.  Character education–implicit as well as explicit– forces kids to see themselves as members of a larger community: the human community.  Character education reinforces the notion that individuals are mutually responsible for one another and demands that kids be responsible for their actions and their learning.

NY Cheating scandals at Stuyvesant High School and Great Neck High School should be red flags. In order put up numbers that will give them a competitive edge, kids at our highest performing schools are willing to sacrifice personal integrity. If they’ll cheat on Regents exams and on the SAT’s, will they also cheat in the workplace, in relationships?   Are we teaching them that self worth is defined by the scores they earn?   This is what happens when education becomes more about stats than about discovery. This is what happens when “the test” supersedes learning.

As districts make the academic shift to the Common Core focused on reading and writing, we must also make the moral shift to learning communities centered on virtue. Just as reading and writing are no longer just assigned in English, character ed cannot be just the health teacher’s job or the guidance counselor’s domain, either. Self discipline, civility, kindness are not  isolated lessons in an isolated context.  These values have to be on the instructional agenda everyday, in every class.

Everyone knows teachers can’t do it alone.  But if, across the curriculum, we re-culture schools to reflect and celebrate good character, that’s a start. Villains in literature and lessons in history are low hanging fruit for character education, there for the picking.  Informational reading in science and even in math pose questions about the implications of technology and tactical manipulation of numbers.

I know, I know.  Our instructional in-boxes are already full of stuff we haven’t even processed yet, stuff like the Common Core, stuff like standardized tests, stuff like publishable teacher evals.   But kids who have no self-discipline and don’t get why cheating and bullying are bad for them–and bad for everyone else–will never be truly successful.

References:

Belkin, Lisa.  Motherlode: Adventures in Parenting.  “Using A Cell Phone to Cheat.”  New York Times  Blog. 30, June 2009.  http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/?s+cell+phones+and+ cheating.

“Ethics of American Youth—2008 Summary. “ Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics. http://charactercounts,org/programs/reportcard/index.html. 23 July

 Van Dusen, Allsion. “How to Stop Cyber Bullying.”  Forbes. com.     http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/15/bully-school-cyber-forbeslife-cx_avd_0915healthhtml.  14 July 2009.

One Lovely Blog

Huge thanks to theroommom, a fellow blogger who nominated my blog for this award.  It’s a big boost for a novice blogger!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you with a link to the site (see above).

2. Write seven things about yourself that other bloggers don’t know.

3. Nominate 15 other deservings blogs with links to the sites.

Other bloggers may not know that I…

1. …..love family and friends above all else
2. … believe in childhood sweethearts: I met my husband of 32 years in h.s.
3. ….once worked as a news reporter writing obits and doing cop checks with local PDs.
4. …like to cook complicated recipes from Bon Apetit, always with the hopes of a positive result
5. …like to listen to Yankee games on AM radio
6. …consider one good tee shot a great round of golf
7. …think we should hold a job fair for helicopter parents

Like theroommomwho nominated me, I am new to blogging, so my list of fellow bloggers is similarly limited, but here are the blogs I have enjoyed and think deserve acknowledgment:

1. Phait on Food   My son and his girlfriend’s blog featuring Boston restaurant reviews and video cooking class; read with a tabblespoon of humor and find great places to get a bite
2. racetothetopdannas educational leadership and reform
3. Hot Mess Mom this will make anyone who has been on the mommy track in any capacity laugh
4. Phil DiMartino my son’s blog and I love his tribute to one of his journalism professors, the late Jack Falla

Thanks again to theroommom and to all the people who have been reading my blog since May.

Creating home

“Sometimes it is hard to believe we raised two kids in this space,” my husband has said more than once.

He’s right.  By modern Westchester standards, our house is tiny. Before we carved out a bedroom in downstairs space that was once a garage, our kids shared one of the two main floor bedrooms and one bathroom, share being the operative word.  The “yard” is a mini lawn, too small for real sports, but big enough for a sprinkler and a sandbox, though not at the same time.  With some sidewalk chalk, however, the driveway–the steepest bane of our winter existence–became a pastel canvas, a new gallery with every rainfall.  We nurtured a family botanical garden that, over the years,  yielded roses, tomatoes, sunflowers,  marigolds and spices.

What our house lacked in square footage, we more than made up for in warmth.  Our kids agree that as children, they never felt deprived. Our house was truly a home where family and friends–theirs and ours– felt welcomed.  The dining room table was the hub of activity: dinners, homework, snacks, holidays meals, games. Yes, everyone adapted to share the space–a lesson not always easily learned–but generally, we were–and still are– happy.

OK, fine.  But what does this have to do with teaching?

Only everything.

Like a house, a classroom doesn’t have to be decked out with the latest and greatest gadgets to be a home for kids. The best educational toys–at home or at school– mean nothing if all we do is throw them at kids, expecting results.  An effective classroom, like a comfortable home, does have to be a safe environment where it is OK to make a few mistakes and take some risks.  There should be structure and routine and there should be humor and kindness, none of which are available in stores or on line.

Learning communities are built around the human elements in the room, not the space, not the accessories.  Instructional bells and whistles are like 4th of July fireworks: loud but ephemeral. Smartboard  lessons and technology can be engaging, but it will always be  teachers who nurture curiosity and confidence–with or without iPads – who create classrooms where kids will see learning as a life long adventure.  Scholarship is embedded in the culture of these classrooms.  So are self-esteem and pride and dignity.

Families–in homes, in classrooms–evolve out of people.  When kids feel loved and safe, the sky’s the limit.

Andy’s List

If you believe the TV ads, satisfied subscribers use Angie’s List to hire reliable contractors and even find health care providers.

NY teachers wonder what Andy’s List list will look like. The courts have said parents statewide can access teacher evaluations.  Concerned parents will consult Andy’s List to find “the best” teachers for their children .  I am a teacher, but I am also a parent; parents should be able to trust the numerical calculations evaluating their children’s teachers.

But there’s a rub.

What does “best” mean?  How will “best”  be measured?   Will a teacher have to have a good beat and be easy to dance to in order to score big on the Instructional Hit Parade?

Unlike a plumber whose work is appraised by the end result–do your pipes leak? does your heat work? – a teacher’s labor is not so simply evaluated.  It’s not that the job a plumber does is less complicated.  A plumber has to diagnose the problem, use the right materials, keep destruction/disruption to a minimum, leave the home as he found it and keep the cost to the customer manageable.  It’s just that in education, there are intangibles even the best mechanisms for evaluations can’t account for.  Truancy.  Poverty.  Affluence.  Violence.  Adult substance abuse.  Youth substance abuse. Hardly a comprehensive list, but daunting even in its brevity.

That APPR goddess, Charlotte Danielson, offers districts evidence-based teacher evaluation consisting of four domains, each with a rubric, each with an assigned point value.  60% of a NY teacher’s Andy’s List assessment will be derived from his/her standing on the Danielson Scale.  And in theory, Sweet Charlotte’s system should work.  But hush, hush!  Everyone knows what is meant by ”in theory.”  The practice often fails to measure up.   Even with these scoring rubrics, there is room for inconsistency, for inaccuracy, for dishonesty.

Another 20% of a NY teacher’s rating on Andy’s List will be computed using student scores on standardized tests. Is data from testing reliable?  When tests are flawed, test results will be skewed.  When kids are truant, test results will be skewed.  When districts can’t provide appropriate support for at-risk kids, test results will be skewed.  When kids don’t have enough to eat or a place to do homework, test results will be skewed.  Should a teacher’s professional reputation be evaluated using skewed results?  Probably not. But will most parents know this when they consult Andy’s List?  Probably not.

Then there is what is being called “the local 20.” These teacher designed tests should illustrate student growth, but since the minds behind Andy’s List have provided so little in the way of actual guidelines, the concept of “the local 2o” varies from district to district and reeks of inconsistency.

Teaching is a profession and as such, practitioners should be required to uphold standards of competence. This is a prerequisite toward reclaiming the respect that a career in education once promised.  However, for evaluations to be worthwhile and accurate, the system has to be both manageable and reliable.

Albany wants the public to embrace Andy’s List the way subscribers rave about Angie’s List, but unless the reviews prove trustworthy, this might be a tough sell.

I Read It Somewhere

You can do it on the train, at the beach, on the couch. If you use the library, you can do it for free. You can do it the old fashioned way or you can can do it electronically.

I can’t imagine not reading.

I know what you’re saying: she’s an English teacher; she has to love reading. But even before I was an English teacher, I was hooked.

I discovered early on that kids in books led excting lives in exotic locales. Me? Right, I went to school, played outside til dinner and did my homework  (well most of the time) and if there was something on that my parents approved of, I might watch a little TV.

But the book kids solved mysteries, blasted off into outer space, shook hands with presidents, went to sleep-away camp.

One summer –I can’t remember exactly how old I was–I read Harriet the Spy.  Harriet was an independent city kid eavesdropping with a purpose.  I got a steno pad and a blue Bic pen and wrote down everything I saw, just as Harriet did.  I dreamed imaginary circumstances to jive with the random tid-bits I observed.  So what that it was made up? While the other kids played kickball or jumped Double Dutch , that summer,  I ”secretly” recorded their actions, recreated their dialogue. As the street lights came on, I read aloud from my pad to a critical, but interested, audience.  Though I didn’t know it, that was the start of my writing career.

As teachers, we know reading is at the core of academic success. Through reading, we acquire vocabulary and internalize grammar and usage.  Avid readers amass layers of prior knowledge about science and history and people that supports reading comprehension on standardized tests.  Even left brainers have to read directions, word problems, and mathematical theorums.

But the best thing about reading?  The pure pleasure of a good story.  Wondering. Anticipating. Rejoycing. Sighing. It’s murder and mayhem, adventure and victory, love won and love lost.  It’s flawed heroes and an unresolved ending.  It’s being simultaneously happy and sad about turning the last page.

So help!  How do we– teachers–get kids to buy into reading for pleasure?  How do we get them to put down the X Box controllers and step away from the HD/LED TVs and pick up a book?

I have gotten kids excited about school reading.  Over the years, my students have willingly read The Crucible and To Kill A Mockingbird and The Outsiders. Some have even read ahead. But completing assigned reading does not always translate to  reading for pleasure and that is where I feel I could, should do more to inspire kids.

Any ideas?  Suggestions?

Old School 2

It’s an unscientific sampling, agreed.  But reader responses to Old School confirms it.  Our earliest school experiences do stay with us.

As we boomers age, nostalgia is in.  Everything old is new again, from the Converse sneakers we wore for gym class to 70s comfort foods like meatloaf and mac and cheese now on the menu in upscale eateries.

It’s no surprise, then, that readers responded to Old School with memories of their own. Whether it is a convent school in Maryland or a red brick building gone coporate, there is nothing more nostalgic than a visit to your elementary school.

Our second grade teacher was Mrs. Carlson.   She taught us to work independently and to add columns of numbers by carrying tens and ones.  She helped us get library cards and when one of the boys showed up with a couple of tadpoles in an empty milk carton, she did her best to create an environment where they could–and did–grow into tiny tree frogs.

So, uber- props to colleagues who work with our youngest students. Their days are devoted to helping kids construct essential foundations for future academic and social success. They teach sight words and sharing, numbers and patience, phonics and fair play.

But wait, there’s more. Forty years from now, those kids will remember story hour and that time they got to be first in line, holding the teacher’s hand on the way to the art room.  They will remember who they sat next to and where the pencil sharpener was located.

No pressure there, right?

Talk to kindergarten teachers. Ask them about their work.  I did.  It’s not all fun and games in those primary classrooms. Though one of my NYS certifications that says I could do what they do, I could never do what they do. Never.  In addition to the academic demands these teachers and their kids face,  there are the intangibles, the emotional attachments that evoked the instant nostalgia among Old School readers.

That’s why we remember singing with Mrs. Beatty. That’s why we remember jumping jacks with Mr. Danzig or spelling with Mrs. Lutri. That’s why we remember Mr. Kanze walking to school every day right along with the kids.

Those of us teaching secondary students manage unique challenges to be sure, but we also depend on our colleagues’ hard work, setting the groundwork for all future learning.  Middle schoolers may be in hormonal turmoil and may sometimes assert their independence in ways we would rather they didn’t, but they come to us with the academic and social skills essential for success.

Initial this…

First it was NCLB.  Now in New York, we face APPR, RTTT, AYP, CCCS, SLO, RTI….should I keep going? Because there are more.  Lots more.  The feds and Albany have us treading water in instructional alphabet soup.

I hate acronyms.    Not just because I teach English and the point of reading and writing is clear communication.   I hate acronyms because I hate  pretentious malarkey and scams.

At content area conferences and at faculty meetings, presenters are all about the initials. Makes you wish you had a secret decoder ring to keep up as the people in the know dole out new clues leading to the next pit stop on the amazing race to instant instructional success.

Using acronyms sounds impressive, though.  It puts pedagogy right up there with NYSE or NASCAR, two big institutions of American muscle and know-how.  Politicians can roll out a statewide APPR with SLOs and CCCS, assuring the public it will pin point failing schools and weed out ineffective teachers.  All those initials sound pretty official, right? Besides that, it’s fast and translates for instant tweeting and texting, a quick fix to a very challenging problem.  But what does it mean?  Nevermind.  Boom. Problem solved.  Now vote for me.

Acronyms are a distraction

But obsession with initials reduces complex issues to a bureaucratic sleight of hand and that’s really what I hate about acronyms. While people on all sides of education–parents, teachers, administrators– try desperately to decipher the scrabble tiles on the table,  who is scrutinizing the substance or even the feasibility of these proposed panaceas?   It’s a new take on an old con and Americans–educators and parents alike– concerned about the country’s future, are the suckers, students the shills.

What acronyms don’t address

One thing is for sure: improving public education in America should be a national priority. History tells us that only an educated populace can sustain a functioning democracy.  The problems plaguing our schools are multi-layered, though, involving economic and social issues that none of these acronyms seem to acknowledge.  As long as there are families putting hungry kids to bed at night, we will have students who will struggle. As long as we have families living in cars or in daily fear of foreclosure, we will have kids for whom the immediate need of shelter trumps homework and state tests.  As long as we have kids who emulate role models who “win” by circumventing the rules or through violence, we will have pupils who don’t respect the hard work needed for academic success.

No matter how badly we would like to believe in what the initials stand for, acronyms aren’t the answer.  America needs someone to speak plainly, to tell the truth: teaching and learning are hard work.  Boom. It takes more than initials to raise a child.

Old School

I recently was in the old neighborhood (people who know me will find this mildly amusing) and stopped to admire my old school.  This is what I found:

The red brick building still stands and from the outside, it looks at least a little like an old-school school. The Amoco station next door where we pooled lunch money to buy candy and gum (and later tried, unsuccessfully, to buy cigarettes) is now a full service BP station with a mini mart in place of the automotive bays.  The municipal bus still stops in front and the hot dog/ice cream shack is still across the street serving up fries and cones.

But the school property was sold soon after I was promoted to junior high and has since been reinvented as a commercial building.  The classrooms are now offices, some further divided into cubicles. The asphalt playground where we skinned our knees and picked teams for kickball is a parking lot.

None the less, this is what school looks like to me.  It’s where I first let go of my mother’s hand and joined a community larger than I was.  Even though I am a teacher now and have learned and taught in a number of other buildings, this is still school.

And school is so much more than reading and writing and arithmetic, isn’t it?   It’s learning to play the flute (How do those instrumental music teachers get kids to make music?).   It’s the annual gym show, performing calisthenics to music.  It’s the unmistakeable aroma of pencil shavings and poster paint and eating lunches at long tables with attached benches.  It’s flipping baseball cards by the monkey bars and holding back tears while handing over an Oakland A’s Catfish Hunter card. For me, it is–and always will be–that red brick building on Broadway.

If you ask a dozen people about school,  I think they will go back to their primary experiences–huge kudos to colleagues who make these memories for kids every day.  A child’s first years in school form the foundation for everything yet to come.   School is where the heart was when we were very young.

What does school look like or mean to you?

 

Top Ten Things About 2011-2012

The dust has settled.  So here are my top ten things about the 2011-2012 school year.

10. Not seeing my name in the New York Post

Back in March, our colleagues in NYC became instant celebrities when The Post published teacher rankings, yet another example of The Rupert Murdoch School of Ethical Journalism.  Recent court rulings seem to do more–though not necessarily enough–to protect teachers from future public stoning.

9. Contributing even more to the Charlotte Danielson retirement account

I am delighted to now own not one but two copies of Enhancing Professional Practice as well as the $65 companion workbook.   She’s one smart cookie, that Charlotte D.  You have to admire her entrepreneurial spirit.  She has taken what teachers do routinely and parlayed it into an APPR empire.  You go, girl!

8.  Acknowledging the therapeutic value of a carefully created project

Ah, the smell of paste and a new pack of crayons. Well-conceived projects let kids showcase understanding in ways that single dimensional standardized tests never will. Never.  ”Seeing” a summary via a storyboard or a chain of events graphic organizer helps kids articulate mastery.  It is also affirming to eavesdrop on productive kids as they problem-solve collaboratively.

7. Recognizing that teaching is like acting, only scarier and with no curtain calls

Take a bow. OK, the roar of the crowd is not always approbation.  Every period is a one-person production.  The teacher/usher/stage manager is responsible for the script, props, scene changes and is expected to “bring it” to every performance.  A big order for even the best among us, but the show must go on. Take another bow.

6.  Kids saying funny things.

What’s the funniest thing a kid said in your class this year?  You’re smiling, right?  You know are.  This is about the honesty kids bring to us every day, the uncorrupted ways in which they interpret reality that reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.

5.  Staying current on celebrities and fashion

One Direction and Drake, names I would not recognize on the evening news if not for the 7th and 8th graders. Flats and wedges.  Chuck Taylors in every conceivable color. Call Me, Maybe. It’s Always a Good Time.

4. Seeing my own content area through fresh eyes

The Pearl.  The Outsiders.  Parents sometimes ask if it gets old teaching the same literature from one year to the next.  That never happens.  How could I not love to read O, Captain!  My Captain! ?  Each year, these works are brand new to each class and each class brings its own unique chemistry to what they read.

3.  Harnessing the power  of some aspect of technology

Maybe I didn’t exactly harness anything, but with some false starts,  I made a few technological break -throughs with Microsoft Publisher and Movie Maker as teaching tools.  I took a couple of baby steps toward incorporating them into my instructional repertoire.

2.  Working with great colleagues

I am fortunate to be a member of an instructional team whose intelligence and professionalism is second to none. They are experts in their content areas and their day is always about the kids we teach.   Each day, my co-workers inspire me and challenge me to do my best.

And the best thing about 2011-2012 is:

1. Knowing it is all about the kids

The top thing about the 2011-2012 school year is what is the top thing about every school year: the students.  No matter what else goes on in the building, when the bell rings and the teaching begins, it is as if nothing else exists.  This is what keeps me coming back every day, every year.