Wow, What a Day!!!

Spent the day touring the Algona Community School District. I was treated to walk through tours of all the buildings, discussions with staff on programs and philosophies, and great opportunities to watch teachers in action. It was so interesting and reminded me of why I do what I do. Everyone in education should have the opportunity to do the same. Thankyou Algona School District!! Now to bring the conversations back to staff...

My Grama Has A Dog With Three Legs

I really do not have to time to write another post for this blog...but sometimes you just have to do this.

Reflect on the pure joy of teaching children of all ages.

Time to enjoy and hope you do also!!!

A beautiful pig tailed 5 year old student waved her had back and forth during breakfast at school last week. This usually means she has to go to the bathroom and wants permission to leave her tray and then come back to eat. Not today. With a look of concern she said," Mrs. K. my Grama has a dog with three legs." of course my response is "I hope that the dog is okay". She nodded yes and then said, " Grama says two legs got ran over Mrs. K.". Okay what to say next? I could not think of anything, my mind was busy with the thought process of ... does that mean it only has one working leg? ... or it had five legs to start with and now only has three?. I am going with the five legs to start since that is what I think a five year old might think. What fun to think like a 5 year old.

Switch age levels....

Same day a tenth grade boy walks into my classroom/office with a huge smile on his face. "Mrs. K. he says did you hear about my ticket?" I said no of course and asked about what happened. He told me he was pulled over for speeding 93 miles per hour in a 55 MPH area. I wanted to ask a couple of more questions to see if he had learned anything about the experience (teacher in me). I asked "What did you say to the officer when he came up to your car? The student replied "The officer asked me if I knew how fast I was going and I told him yes of course, I had my cruise control on!" Enough said...
Now add to my list of stories and of course I will too.....

Let the other Team Score!!!

My son had his last basketball game of the season. It went really well and I can say he played his heart out. Second game the team stepped on the floor and the crowd could tell they were no match. Okay 3rd grade are in it for the experience so play. That being said my son is a good 12 inches taller than most 3rd graders and for this game maybe even more than that. When the game was getting ridiculous his coach (generous man that he is ) told many of the players (my son being one) to play only outside the zone. Okay I did agree with that. Our team has been on whipping end of the game before and at 3rd grade I think that was appropriate. My sons comment after the 2nd game was "I thought basketball was supposed to be fun, what fun was that?" He has trained the entire season to rebound and shoot and the two things that he does well he does not get to do?
So how does this blog relate to education?
Well think about it. How much money is spent on struggling schools when schools that are successful go without? How much time and tax money is spent on legislation that concerns low achieving school districts. How much federal money is put into states that have failing educational systems. How much work goes into working with a poor teacher and not towards an innovative idea a successful teacher is trying to implement. How much time and money is put towards a drop out when the student in the middle keeps swinging and the student at the top just watches.
Now I am not advocating 'educational survival of the fittest" but I do know that is how China and India get the test scores that make the USA look bad.
What I am advocating is how can this be more balanced?
I am searching for more ideas... as always

Bartleby Project 2011: Do not take your state tests!

Standardized Testing-Get er Done!!!

I have been fortunate this year to get an upclose and personal view of standardized testing

TK-12.

Yes I said fortunate...

The experience has helped me to see so many levels of testing process that it boggles my mind. I used to think testing students was pretty basic.

School districts have to do it, and that was it.

Now I wish it was that simple.

It goes like this...

1. Set testing dates the spring of the year prior.

2. Order all testing materials.

4. Sign up for all test meeting updates.

5. Organize staff training and updates.

6. Familiarize yourself on test results from previous years.

7. Start testing the second week of school. (Yes and in a small school district this means you have to give many of the tests)

8. Continue testing through out the year. (This also involves working with technology to make sure the tests can be taken on the system your school has. Remember to visit classrooms for pre-testing lessons so students know what is expected.Oh I forgot you have to box everything up,inventory everything, sharpen no. 2 pencils, listen to staff complaints, hope for no snow dates, and find all the students who were sick during the testingdates or out of district.)

9. Gather test results and analyze.

10. Organize test results for the superintendent, school board, principals, staff, parents, students, community, and the most important... the state.

11. Enter all testing data into the state sites.

12. Try to rationalize what tests are valuable to students and staff instead of just required by the state.

Now all these testing activities have usually been completed by the school guidance counselor... but in the times of budget cuts and staff RIF's it falls on who ever might be around.

Now listen to this Youtube video on testing called 'The Bartelby Project" (located on my blog site)

So what do you think about standardized testing?

What do I think?

More to comments to come....

What do you think?

Tri-District Communications

Rural school districts are islands . They have miles and miles of fields between and fewer and fewer students and resources. They also have top notch teachers, talented students, and supportive communities. These school districts have accepted the idea that sharing 'scarce resources' is a must. These resources may be transportation, text books, teachers, and support staff. Now the difficult part of school district islands sharing 'scarce resources'...communication. It can be very similar to the game that is played in an elementary classroom, called telephone. Whether it is using the telephone, email, or face to face; communication often gets lost in the shuffle. If a telephone call is made it needs to be relayed verbatim to several sources or small details like location of meeting or starting time gets left out. After making calls all morning it is difficult to remember what was said to whom. E-mail sounds fantastic but be careful with that assumption. Email messages get sent to the wrong address, tech issues happen, and who got left out of the instant forward list. Face to face is great but remember the island and miles of fields part of this post. So my solution. I have a couple but would like to hear how this issue is handled by others in other school districts.

Technology the answer and the question...

Working with on-line educational resources has been a real learning curve for me this year. I have had to look at teaching students in an entirely new way. The students have had to look at learning in an entirely new way. Some of the learning has been great but a larger percentage has been nothing but pure frustration for students and staff. The same can be said about any new teaching technique or concept. I remember the frustration of learning how to teach 'Guided Reading'. The frustration left after a couple of years and now the technique is accepted as every day teaching practice. So I do feel positively that on-line learning will eventually become something everyone accepts as common teaching practice.

Until then I have the following questions:

1. Curriculum staff select curriculum when will they review and select on-line learning services.
2. On-line classes work great to open schedules for flexibility but what can you do if students do not have computer or wi-fi access.
3. Working with services that are not compatible because each school has it's own service installed... when will schools all join the same compatible program.
4. What are the staff needs for on-line classes...certified staff (student ratio), non-certified staff (qualifications)
5. Standard rules for reporting on state mandated information such as Carnegie Units and coding for Easier reporting.
6. When technology goes down what should staff and students do with the down town.
7. What grade level should start on-line classes?
8. What kind of parent information is needed?
9. Who and how can cheating be monitored?
10. Should parents and or students be able to find courses and if so how does the school embrace that type of self learning?

Some of these questions seem simple some will take time. Start the conversation....