SBAC: Blowing Up the Arena

Friday afternoon, after indoor recess and a long week of heavy instruction on ordering fractions, writing autobiographies from the point of view of someone from history, and composing opinion pieces with substantial evidence, my 24 25 kids (I got another one this week) were plopped in front of  a computer screen for an entire hour to take the SBAC English Language Arts test, (one out of 8 total testing sessions). The experience was like something out of a novel. And, although the Common Core State Standards don't like us to make connections based on personal experiences, I will dare to do so because the works of J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins were the only way my brain could process the scene that was occurring in front of me.

Dementors. They literally feed off the goodness, the happiness, the joy within a person. They suck every last bit of positive energy out of a soul, not only leaving it withering, and dry, but also full of darkness. I watched students who smile all day, lead group discussions, create, imagine, and dream, get the life absolutely sucked out of them. Colin (8) is one of those kids who takes school very seriously. He's like a 30 year old man trying to get tenure. "So Mrs. Banville, how long exactly should this homework be? I'm thinking about 5 sentences, one for my main idea, three really good pieces of evidence, and then one more for my concluding sentence. Is that right?" But he's got a great sense of humor and wonder about him- he's always eager to tell me about his independent reading book, and tells me with gusto his shock at something hilariously outrageous the main character has done that day. Needless to say, Colin took the SBAC VERY seriously. Midway through the assessment block, I went to check on him. His face was red and his hair was ruffled because he had been tugging at it. His eyes welled up as he said, "this is really hard Mrs. Banville." The dementors had sucked him dry. No amount of encouragement from me (the test doesn't matter, we don't get student scores, it's just a field test...) would be able to fill the emptiness left by that test.

I looked around the computer lab at my incredibly diverse group of kids and noted their bodies. Even in swivel chairs, I noticed the kids had managed to get their bodies in the strangest positions. One girl was slouching so far down, her body was like a stiff diagonal ramp, her head on the back of the chair was the only thing that was keeping her from sliding to the floor. A boy I have with very slow processing speeds, went from a squatting position on his own chair (like a sumo wrestler ready to attack the screen), to his legs extended onto the chair next to him (like he was lounging at the beach). Another boy had wrapped his headphone wire completely around his wrist and arm, fingering the wires like he would a baby blanket.  Another boy gripped the desk in front of him tightly as he read, and swiveled his body back at forth in the chair, working his core muscles to stay focused. I gave all of my kids gum, because I am a firm believer that it helps children to focus, and so, the computer lab sounded like it was housing a bunch of cows chewing loudly on their cud. All of these things were clearly coping mechanisms to deal with the amount of mental stress they were under. As I stood back and watched the dementors suck the life out my class, I wondered, what on earth are we doing to our children?

Enter Suzanne Collin's novel Catching Fire. There is a scene in the book where Katniss is facing a moral dilemma. She's angry because she thinks her ally's plan to kill off the others in the arena has been foiled by Finnick, who she thinks has killed her ally, and she sees him coming towards her. She's so angry she just wants to kill him. She even raises her bow to do it.

The CCSS and the weight the SBAC places on teacher evaluation makes us all crazed killer trapped in an arena. We're all fighting to come out on top. We're all fighting to keep our jobs.

As Katniss raises her bow to kill Finnick, she remembers words from her trainer Haymitch before the games began. He told her to "remember who the enemy is." In that moment, she  chooses not to kill Finnick, but to cast her arrow, which is armed with electricity, to the top of the arena, blowing it up, and leading to the eventual uprising, the downfall of the Capitol, a Revolution. If she chooses to shoot Finnick, nothing changes, the games go on, the Capitol wins.

We, the public education community, are, in this moment, aiming our arrows at Finnick. It's time we remember who the enemy is. It's time we blow up the arena.

Finian's Rainbow: Keeping Our Heads Above Water

I'll never forget that moment. She was up on stage speaking slowly and purposefully and articulating her lines with carefully crafted  annunciation. Her performance was going well, although her eyes seemed to be scanning the crowd  unnaturally. Finally, her eyes locked with mine- her face exploded with joy, she knew I was there. Maddy had been a 5th grade student of mine several years back, and, like most of her classmates, she had kept in touch with me over the years via e-mail, updating me on everything from who's dating who, to what books she's reading, to how draining homework has become. Naturally, when she, and several other of my former students were performing in the middle school play, I was invited. This put me in a slightly awkward position as I had not been hired by Maddy's district permanently- I had moved on to neither bigger nor better things, just different things. Third grade things. It would be weird to walk back through the doors of the school that I had loved so much. It would be strange to brush shoulders with former colleagues, and the principal who had promised me a job, but who was unable to produce one. Never-the-less, I showed up, and the look on Maddy's face made all of my silent debates and inner awkwardness worth it.

A year later, another student, Max, invited me to his play, Finian's Rainbow. Max was a student who was shy and quiet and oh-so-intelligent. I was elated he had taken the risk of trying out for the play, and was even more excited that he made it! The day of the play, my third grade teammates and I got some of the worst news we could have gotten right before standardized testing (SBAC) was about to begin. We were getting three new students, one for each of us, in our already "capped" classrooms. This would put two of us over our contracted student capacity, and this was a tough group. We all left school that day feeling defeated. Between the implementation of the Common Core,  new curricula, a new co-teaching model that wasn't exactly going swimmingly, the looming start of SBAC, Teacher evaluation, and in my personal world, let's just throw in our state's new teacher program (TEAM), as well as my final semester of graduate school. Now you're giving me more kids? It felt like the straw that broke the camel's back. I was done. Defeated. You win.

But as I squeezed in with Max's parents in the small cafeteria audience, and the raspy voices of middle schoolers began to sing about leprechauns and rainbows and pots of gold, I forgot all about the load I was carrying. I watched some of my former students take the stage with ease and confidence. I chatted with parents about their successes, and I saw their smiles as they updated me on the ins and outs of middle school life. I remembered then that nothing else really matters. Common Core, reading levels, math scores, class size, SBAC, Teacher Evaluation, TEAM, research papers... Those things don't matter to my students. What matters to my students is that I care about them, that I support them, that I am always there to guide them. I realized that I was being tricked by data and paper work; people were making me think that quantitative data was what mattered. But let me tell you, there is something about a 7th grade boy leaping around the stage in tights, singing about getting back his "pot of gold"- that serves as a mighty reminder that in the end, none of the things we're worried about, matter. Kids go on, they grow up, they persevere, and they become leprechauns. It's our job to keep swimming, to keep our heads above water, and to hold on to the wreckage floating around us and not to abandon it for some seemingly "save-all" lifesaver float thrown hastily our way. We're teachers. We're improvisers. We're trailblazers. And even if we're not Olympic swimmers, we'll doggy paddle, and we'll do just fine.

Class Collaboration, a Natural Curricular Extension...

Week 2 of my classes new writing blog began with a new addition to our blog family. This week Miss Montambault approached me about having our classes connect via kidblog, and I was hesitant. I was just dipping my foot into this whole blogging thing, and wasn't feeling ready to branch out. Miss Montambault echoed my concerns though, her kids, she said, had only really blogged once so far. Even though we both had reservations, we made the connection anyway.

On Wednesday, I shared the connection with my class, who thought it was "really cool" that big 4th graders would be reading our stories. When I pulled up their blog, we were surprised to see that they had made some new posts, and they were all opinion pieces! Guess what unit we had just begun in our classroom? Persuasive writing through opinion pieces! We were elated to learn that they were studying the same things we were, and we eagerly dove into a few of Miss Montambault's students' posts. Sara had posted a persuasive piece on why we should have school on the weekends. We had a hard time supporting that argument, and were unable to help her come up with more reasons to back up her opinion. However, we were able to provide some excellent counter-arguments!

Next, we pulled open Joey's post- Why we should have extra recess. Joey had three solid reasons, but my students' feedback was that: #1- Joey needed a topic sentence before jumping into his reasons. One of my students suggested he should start with a question, like, "Do you ever feel like recess is too short?" #2- Joey had 3 reasons, but he didn't have details to back them up. Why was exercise and fresh air important? We put ourselves in the point of view of the teacher, who might say that exercise is important so that kids can get out their energy and be able to focus in school better.

After leaving some feedback for Joey and Sara (and giving them praise for things they did well) I asked the students if they wanted to go to the computer lab to make some persuasive posts of their own. After an overwhelming "YES!" we hustled down to the lab, and kids got busy, posting their own pieces and leaving comments for Miss Montambault's class.

Topics my students posted included:
- Why we should have ice cream at lunch
- Should kids be allowed to bring pets to school?
- Why we should have a longer lunch time
- Should the driving age be 16?
- Should kids be allowed to participate in the Olympics?
- Should the US get rid of the penny?
- Why you should play hockey

But equally impressive were the kids comments to one another:

"i also love how you had the beginning sentence"
"I think you should add more to why hockey is a good sport"
"i agree with you valli, kids should be able to compete in the olympics"
"I agree it would ripping apart history" (regarding getting rid of the penny)
"I always buy so I completely 100% agree with you" (regarding ice cream at lunch)
"nice reasons but there’s a lot others"

Talk about knocking down the classroom walls to connect to others and to extend learning! Our ability to connect with Miss Montambault's class this week did more than that, it allowed us to dig deeper into our curriculum in an authentic, meaningful way that students genuinely enjoyed! Thanks Miss Montambault!!! We're looking forward to more collaboration!

Kicking off a Writing Blog

Last weekend, my husband and I went to a play, and long story short, the authors of the book that inspired the play, revealed via an article in the play bill that they wrote the Times best seller by collaborating online. They ping-ponged back and forth, adding chapters, editing, revising,  debating things that mermaids would "really say." It got me thinking about the importance of #1- opportunities for free writing #2- opportunities to partner write, and #3- technology- it allows us to over come hurdles like miles of separation.

Naturally, I told my class about my thoughts, and they whole-heartedly agreed. Experienced bloggers by now (we have a book blog students use to blog about their independent reading books, and this is rigid, with very specific expectations) they were eager to begin another one, and thrilled that I would be giving them full control. I asked them what they wanted it to be like, what they wanted to post on it, and I capped it off by telling them: It's not a requirement, I won't grade it, and they can write whatever they want (school appropriate!).

DAY 1-Following our discussion and the creation of the book blog "rules," I sent them off to partner write while I sat at my computer and immediately threw together a new blog and added it to my website. 10 minutes later, it was up and running. I showed the kids how it worked, showed them how to get on from our class website, and that was it. That night, 5 kids posted stories to blog, covering topics from Incredible Me minions, a Harry Potter spin-off from a girl's point of view, and a story about pie people.

DAY 2- I showed the kids the blog again, and took them all to the computer lab to try it out. I was impressed at how my "comic book" writers (my boys who typically "draw" their stories like Diary of a Wimpy Kid) were able to transfer their ideas into words, and Diary of a Wimpy COW was born! Many kids (10) posted that day in school, because I had given them time in class. Others simply left comments and helped to "build on" to stories. I e-mailed several teachers in our building asking them to leave comments, and did't tell the kids.

DAY 3- Today we didn't have writing time due to an assembly (my principal made an announcement appreciating my class for their work on the blog, did I mention it's only day 3?). Any posts on this day were done in the kids free time (indoor recess, waiting for buses to be called, after morning work, after school, etc). My kids discovered that our reading interventionist, and principal left comments on their stories (I tried to act surprised, how on earth did that happen?) 17 kids posted stories today, out of my 24.

DAY 4- This is a Saturday, today, a non-school day, and I've had 4 kids who posted new stories today, and 6 posted comments. We also had our first international visitor today, from Mumbai, India! Three parents left comments today! I am shocked that kids are using their weekend time to write, and thrilled! To date, 22 posts were made by girls, 17 by boys. Girls are using the blog more, I have 11 girls and 13 boys, so ideally, I'd like those numbers to be flipped, but hey, they're writing! I'm also impressed that one of my choice students from the city has been on this weekend and made some posts.

We studied Malala Yousafzai this week and began to state an opinion and back it up with details. Many of my students started posting about what they believe, everything from educational equality and whether or not cell phones should be allowed in schools. How neat to see them advocating for something they believe in!

I can't wait to see how this blog continues to evolve! Check it out here: http://kidblog.org/WRITINGBLOG-7/

Am I fired yet?

Here is an Animoto I made in an attempt to share a rather awkward situation I recently PUT MYSELF IN, by opening my mouth on Twitter.

Losing my job in 140 characters or less.

Overall, I found using Animoto to be challenging (especially the free version). It was like using Windows Movie Maker, but with less options. I hated how I couldn't change the length of each frame, because it took me a lot of re-configuring to get the "picture" frames to be long enough for the audience to actually read them. At first, the text frames were way too long too, and there is no easy way to fix that like there is in movie maker.

HOWEVER! The limitations did force me to really condense what I wanted to say- leaving out the fun things I might say for suspense and craft, and to really just cut to the chase- right to the nitty-gritty of what I wanted to communicate.

As a teacher, I found it frustrating, but I think students would enjoy using Animoto. It would force them to be brief and to include things that are the most important (you should see my kids with Powerpoint, animations, slide transitions, image rotations... it's incredible).


In terms of my awkward Tweet situation, we'll have to see what the department head of social studies says when he sees it. YIKES! I was only speaking the truth. They purchased this (very) expensive program that no one at my school has even used because we have no clue how to use it. Maybe my Twitter faux pas will lead to some additional PD. It's an unorthodox way to go about it, but none-the-less...

Cyberbullying… an adult perspective

I took a course last semester that really focused on the importance of creating digital citizens, kids who are responsible and kind and who use technology for the greater good! It seemed like such common sense to me, and like something that would be really easy to integrate into my districts’ 4 tribes agreements: mutual respect, attentive listening, right to pass, and appreciations/no put downs. How easy it would be to transfer these 4 agreements online!

Well, a strange medical issue led me to a forum where women could post questions and express their feelings about the issue. I had “lurked” on the forum for years, and knew a lot about the community. They were harsh posters, and extremely hyper-sensitive. But, being desperate for an outlet, I decided to post anyway. Knowing my audience, I tailored my first post on the forum carefully, walking on eggshells to not upset anyone. I simply expressed my anger about the condition and the frustration I was feeling. I was looking to connect with others who had experienced what I had been through and who could relate, I was looking for company.

The first few responses were understanding, compassionate, and inquisitive. And then SHE spoke up. “Uh, I’m kind of offended by how you phrased that,” she wrote. She was referring my feelings of anger about the condition. Of course my intentions were not to offend anyone, so I apologized for making her feel that way, but said that everyone has a different coping mechanism and that mine, at that time, was anger. Well, the flood gates opened. How dare I come onto THEIR forum and make such offensive comments! I was mocked for my comment about coping mechanisms, and one user even said, “oh, denial and stupidity must be a coping mechanism too.” I was heated. My pulse was racing. I couldn’t believe what was unfolding! I had been so careful! I explained my feelings and I apologized for unintentional offensives and was kind in my replies even though I didn’t want to be! Here I am, an educator, working on my master’s degree, being mocked and ridiculed by stay at home moms with nothing better to do. It was both addicting and embarrassing; the back and forth dialogue of their accusations and my defenses.

Eventually I logged off of the forum and vowed to never return. But, the interaction stayed in my head for days. How immature I was to care what a bunch of bullies said over the internet! How ridiculous I was to let it bother me!

But it did bother me.

Not because I cared what they thought, but because I had let keystrokes on a screen affect me. I had apologized for my FEELINGS. I can’t control how I feel! I was angered that I spent much of my time working with kids about not being a cyber bully, and had completely neglected to talk about what to do when you’re the victim. How do you let those words on a screen go? How do you remove yourself from an otherwise addicting debate? How do let it NOT affect you?

I was angry at how uneducated the other posters were on kindness and general politeness, even for people in their mid twenties and thirties. Was this a generational gap of people who were never taught about online courtesy?

The whole interaction, though embarrassing, really made me think about how important it is that we teach kids what to do as victims in an online bullying situation. I needed to contact the administrator for the website. The people being so unkind (though they had freedom of speech) needed to be stopped. The culture of the vicious forum needed to be changed to not award posters for their “honesty” (a contest that turned into brutal and unbridled honesty at the expense of others) and to award them instead for their kindness. It was supposed to be a place for people to discuss the issue in peace and comfort, not a place to be ridiculed. If contacting administrators doesn’t work, well, we need to teach kids to CLOSE the browser and walk away. Find another forum that has a nicer culture. Talk to a friend face to face instead!

Online bullying is a big issue that everyone needs to be educated in whether its’ the bully, or the victim, a college student, a grandmother, or a child.

There's Always Something About a Jacob

            There's always something special about a Jacob. I have had many throughout my career, and each one has been incredibly special to me. Perhaps then, I selected the name purposefully when I was asked to select a "blog pal" for my graduate course. Jacob's blog reflected his minimalist nature- simply and vaguely answering the questions or prompt his teacher asked him to write on any given day. I responded to him in a typical teacher-friendly way, asking probing questions, prompting the use of punctuation because I was "so out of breath" from reading his post. I could imagine the eye rolling from all the way over here in CT.
           Imagine my surprise then, when Jacob responded back to my comments, not just simply thanking me, but fixing his punctuation and enthusiastically asking ME questions back! Did I try the app yet? He wanted to know. I had told him I would try it, and I hadn't yet. I was doing my typical teacher talk. Yep. Yep! Sounds really cool. I'll have to check it out. That's what I always tell the kids when I'm secretly trying to move on to something else. I had to own up to my word. I had to check out this app. Popplet he called it. Something about connecting pictures and being able to add captions and yada, yada, yada. Well, I downloaded it.
           In my real life teaching job, my face-to-face teaching job, I had a PPT today. The student has diagnosed ADHD and no documentation of it, and was really struggling with non structured time, like lunch, recess, specials, etc. As I was talking about him, I began to reflect on the AWFUL experience he had on our first field trip last fall. He was all over the place, talking a hundred miles a minute because he had tuned out the speaker. I was really worried about our up coming field trip this fall, knowing that this trip, which tends to be a little boring, would be difficult for him.
         "What if you give him a job?" My principal suggested.
         "He uses an I-pad," I chimed in, "maybe he can be the photographer for the trip? Like, a journalist, and he can put together a newsletter for parents, all about the trip!" It sounded like a great theory, but I had NO idea how it would be put into practice.
        Enter Jacob and his Popplet app. Was it meant to be? This app was a picture taking app that allows the user to caption and manipulate pictures for a presentation in a format similar to a comic book. It was easy to use and the potential for educational experiences was absolutely there! It was PERFECT for my student's journalism project on our field trip! Who would have thought that a 5th grader from Nebraska could motivate me to download a new app that would impact my instructional practice? Technology rocks!