Now is the Time for Creative, Smart People to Become Teachers

Last weekend Nancie Atwell was announced as the first winner of the $1 Million Global Teacher Prize in Dubai.  She is an amazing teacher, and incredible woman, and a wonderful choice. Her message of student choice, her service to her students, her approach to literacy, and her representation of the profession are inspirations to the rest of us that work with students every day.

After winning the Prize, in an interview with CNN, Nancie made a comment that has gone viral.  I'm sure you've seen it now.  When asked if she would advise kids to become teachers, she said:

"Honestly, right now, I encourage them to look in the private sector.  Public school teachers are so constrained right now by the Common Core Standards and the tests that are developed to monitor what teachers are doing with them. It's a movement that's turned teachers into technicians, not reflective practitioners.  If you're a creative, smart young person, I don't think this is the time to go into teaching."

And, as much as I admire and respect Nancie, I disagree with her on this.

She's not wrong about the fact that teachers have been turned into technicians.  She's not wrong that the culture in public education makes it difficult for teachers to do what's right for students.  She's not wrong that the way the Common Core Standards are being implemented is forcing teachers to value the content to be covered more than individual student needs.

But, it is the perfect time for creative, smart people to go into teaching.

People choose teaching because they want to make a difference.  They want to help students reach their potential.  They want to create a future that is better than the present.  They want to pass their gifts on to future generations.

People become teachers because they want to change the world.

No teacher I ever met went into teaching because they wanted a easy career. If they did, they are a fool. Teaching isn't easy. It's insanely complicated and hard. The most important things always are.

It's especially hard to be a public school teacher right now for all the reasons Nancie talked about. That's why we need creative, smart young people to flock to the profession.  And, it's all the more reason that we, as teachers, should be encouraging them to do so.  If we don't have an optimistic vision that we can overcome the profiteering off education, the political strife hurting our students, and the short sided view that numbers matter more than children, then who is left to fight for our kids?

Are things bad right now?  Absolutely.  But, the pendulum is swinging.  Parents are objecting to oppressive testing all over the country and opting their children out.  Students are organizing sit-ins and walk-outs all in brilliant displays of civil disobedience because they recognize what's being done to them.  Teachers are organizing to fight against anti-student policies. Just like so many other times in history, passionate people are affecting positive change.

The tipping point is coming.  And when it does, teachers will be in a position to help define what education should be and what learning will look like in an age of information abundance and connectivity. We will be part of the conversation about how education can be a tool to create a better world instead of creating higher corporate stock prices.

When that time comes, we need the most creative, passionate, visionary teachers speaking for us - teachers like Nancie and the other top-10 finalists for the Global Teacher Prize.

If you are a creative, smart young person who wants to be a teacher now is your time.  There's never been a better opportunity to change the world.

"College and Career Ready" is the Wrong Goal

Anyone having anything to do with education has been bombarded lately with information about how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are going to fix what's wrong with American Education.  This national curriculum is supposed to ensure that every student who graduates from an American high school will leave prepared for either college or a career.  On the CCSS website, this idea is clearly written into the mission statement for the standards:

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.

The problem is that focusing on "college and career readiness" is the wrong goal.  Worse, it's a goal that will ensure that less students are prepared for college and/or careers. 

Let's break down that mission statement.

• The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.

This sounds great, but it's founded in a false belief that anybody can predict what stuff kids will need to learn to do the jobs of the future.  We don't know that.  Nobody does.  Our current elementary students will graduate seven to thirteen years from now in the years 2020 through 2026.  Think about this.  Seven years ago, smartphones like the iPhone and tablets like the iPad didn't exist.  Could anyone back in early 2007 have envisioned how mobile technology would change the workplaces we have today?  What makes us think that we can predict what the workplace of 2020 will look like? 

In December of 2012 Forbes Magazine came out with a list of the top 10 skills that 2013 employers were looking for in employees.  Almost all of these qualities were not content based.  They were not skills that could be neatly written into standards.  These are traits like "critical thinking" and "complex problem solving" that require experience with solving real world problems.

And proponents of CCSS will tell you that those standards are designed to do just that.  But they aren't.  They can't do that.  Because CCSS are designed to be used to judge children, schools, and teachers on standardized tests.

So, here's what's really happening instead of that experience with solving real problems.  School districts are rushing to buy textbooks that are aligned to CCSS so that students can pass those tests.  Teachers are being told not to stray from teaching the lessons in those textbook programs so that students pass those tests.  Students are being taught how to pass those tests.  Nobody ever solved a real problem in their community by working out of a textbook or workbook. 

Here's the truth:  Focusing and measuring what students know will always prevent you from focusing on what students can do.  And they can do amazing things if we'll let them.

• With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.

I don't think anyone can argue with this.  I just don't believe that CCSS is the best way to prepare students for the future.  And I certainly don't agree that this is should be the end-goal of education.

Instead of focusing on preparing students for "college and career", we should be preparing them for life.  Heaven knows, there are plenty of people who were successful in college and/or are successful in their careers that are miserable.  How many times have we heard about wildly "successful" people who, when we define success as more than "how much money you make", aren't? 

We're missing the forest by focusing on the trees.

So, instead of preparing students for college and career, I propose that we prepare students for life.  Teach them how to think for themselves.  Teach them how to solve real problems in society.  Teach them to come up with creative solutions, to make a difference, to experience the joy of being kind to others, to leave their communities better, and to advocate for the things they feel passionate about. 

Instead of discussing a list of things our students need to know that was lobbied for and developed with money from large profit-driven corporations (that may or may not have our children's best interests at heart), imagine if teachers all across the country spent professional development time discussing project, inquiry, problem, and service based learning projects that allow our students to learn content while also learning the very things that will help them succeed in an unknown future.  Imagine if our focus was on student learning instead of "standards implementation".   

The beauty of this goal is that, along with leaving students prepared for life in ways that our increasingly narrowed curriculum cannot, it will also prepare our students for their futures in every way possible.

Teach them to think for themselves, to love learning, to problem solve, to innovate, and to connect with others, and there will be nothing they cannot accomplish.

They'll even be prepared to be successful in college or their future career.

The Fight Against Common Core Irrelevance

We've been told again and again that the Common Core Standards are being put into place to prepare our students to be ready for college & career when they graduate high school.  These standards are supposed to better prepare students for life.

So why are schools buying textbooks to implement them?  If these standards are supposed to prepare our kids for life, wouldn't it make sense that the best way to teach them would be through life simulations?

Shouldn't every one of these standards have a real-world application?  And if so, why aren't we giving students the opportunity to use them in real-world settings?

The more we make a separation between the "real world" and the "fake world" of school, the more students will realize that we are irrelevant.  And they'll be right.

Friday's Five - How to Talk About Math

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Friday's Five is a feature every week where I pick a new topic and list five items that I think fit best.  Then I ask you, my readers, to share your thoughts in the comment section.  For an archive of past topics, check the Friday's Five Page.  If you'd like to make suggestions about future topics or discuss topics I bring up on the blog with others, make sure you click the "like" button on the right hand side of the page to join A Teacher's Life for Me on Facebook.  Don't be shy about sharing the blog and Facebook Page with others.  Each post has a "Tweet" button on top and buttons on the bottom that allow you to share in several ways, including e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter.

Duke TIP/ Flickr

I spent a lot of time thinking about teaching math this week.  Our district is struggling to develop an action plan for transitioning to the Common Core Curriculum from the current Pennsylvania Standards, and I've been reading a few books on elementary math teaching.  While some of those thoughts are fresh in my mind, I wanted to focus this week on ways teachers (especially elementary teachers) can promote mathematical discussion in their classrooms.

Too many times our classrooms resemble ping-pong tables.  We ask a question. (Ping)  A student gives and answer. (Pong)  We tell them whether they are correct or not. (Ping)  Then we repeat the cycle over and over again.  There's a lack of in-depth discussion about math.

After all, math is not about numbers or right answers.  We've got calculators and computers for that.  Math is about thinking and solving problems.

The books I've been reading are from a company called Math Solutions (Full disclosure - Math Solutions sent me these materials for free, but I do not currently have, nor have had in the past any kind of financial  agreement with them.)  Their mission is to help K-8 teachers teach math in a way that promotes understanding rather than focusing on using procedures to get a correct answer.  I really like what I've learned about them so far and the fact that they aren't a textbook company or a program that's being touted as the answer to your standardized test score problems.  Some of five suggestions below were influenced by what I've read.

1. Stop being scared of math. - The biggest thing we can do to promote mathematical discussion and understanding in our classrooms is to stop treating math as if it's something hard to understand and difficult for most adults.  It's not if it's taught correctly.  Why is it acceptable for an elementary teacher to say that they couldn't possibly pass an 8th grade math test, but not acceptable for that same teacher to claim that they can't read on an 8th grade level?  They are both unacceptable.  
2. Focus on the meaning, not on the procedure. - For example, when teaching division, stop trying to get kids to memorize that they should divide, multiply, subtract and bring down.  They're going to forget it anyway (ask any 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th grade teacher and they'll back me up on this).  Instead focus on what it means to divide.  Explain that you are putting things into groups.  Ask them to come up with a story that fits the division problem. Those discussions will promote your students' understanding infinitely more than a cute story about how Dead Monkeys Smell Bad, or any other memorization of procedure you push upon them.  
3. Give students problems that don't have a simple answer. -  "What's the healthiest vegetable?" is a much better problem than "Carrots have x calories per serving.  How many calories are there in 8 servings?"  The first problem promotes a lot more thinking, discussion, research, and debate.  It also will lead to a whole heck of a lot more math, and it's a lot more interesting.  You won't find questions like that in a textbook, which brings me to #4.
4. Get away from your textbook. - Textbooks are often a crutch that holds us back in elementary schools.  There are a plethora of real problems out there in the world that both require math and have relevance to our students.  Work towards solutions to those problems.  Discuss them and demand that your students discuss, debate, and research them.  Your students will gain skills they'll need in life, motivation, and a sense of purpose in addition to learning math. 
5. Make the question "why?" the one you ask all the time. - I wrote a whole post on this, so I'll keep it brief here.  Students must know that they will have to understand math well enough to explain their thinking to others and not just spit back a correct answer.  When our classroom expectations rise to this level, students will rise to meet them.  There is no more important question to ask.

Now it's your turn.  How do you promote math discussion in your classroom?  There are certainly more ways than the five I listed.  What barriers do you see in implementing the ideas I'm suggesting?  Why do elementary teachers seem to view math so negatively?  How can we get them to change that view?  Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below, and pass the post on to others who feel strongly about math.  I'd love to hear their thoughts as well.  

ISTE 2011 - Day Two

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As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I am fortunate to be attending my first ISTE conference this year in Philadelphia.  Yesterday was my first full day, and I wanted to share some of the insights, resources, and information that I learned as a way to "pay it forward" to those who aren't attending.  The volume of information that came my way was so overwhelming that I cannot possibly share all of it, so I'm passing on what I found most illuminating.  If you want more info from the conference, those attending and tweeting the conference are using the hashtag #ISTE11.

• My first session was on the Common Core (CC) and Project Based Learning (PBL).  We all know the CC is coming in a few years, and I've been heavily involved in my district's integration of the CC math standards into our curriculum.  At the same time, PBL is a philosophy that I believe in strongly.  The presenters were from the Buck Institute for Education.  They shared some great student work and their website seems to have some decent resources for PBL.
• I really enjoyed browsing the poster sessions throughout the day.  There's great information there, and I love being able to talk shop with the presenters instead of just listening.  One of the highlights of the day was when a 3rd grade student from Alabama came up to me shaking with excitement, handed me a beaded necklace to put on, and asked me to come over and see how her school uses Web 2.0 in their classrooms.  Her enthusiasm was contagious, and it made me think of how incredibly powerful engagement and passion can be.
• I learned some new tools for creating bibliographies:  EasyBib, BibMe, Noodle Tools, and Zotero.
• A flash mob broke out in the afternoon near the Blogger's Cafe.  That was fun.  
• The Follett software company put together an amazing panel during their reception that resulted in some great conversation:  Kevin Honeycutt, Dean Mantz, Diane Cordell, Steven Anderson, and Shannon Miller.  The topic was "Rethinking Education."  There were so many points that were made that resonated with me.  Here's the one that hit me the hardest - If you have a blog, you have a voice.  Those of us who understand the devastation that the culture of standardized testing is bringing to our children have a responsibility to make others aware of it.  It's our moral imperative to do so.  This blog is my voice.  Please help me make it louder by passing it along to others, whether they be educators, parents, legislators, businesspeople, or anyone else.
• I went to my first "Digital Jam" last night, and it was a great experience.  20-30 teachers singing at karaoke together at the top of their lungs, playing every kind of instrument from tambourine to xylophone on their iPads, and showing how technology and music can inspire people (and students) to find their passions.
• Spending time with members of my PLN, meeting new educators, and being surrounded with people who are as passionate about the need to change education in ways that put our students first has been simply incredible.  I can't wait to see what Day 3 brings.