From New Math to Common Core

So, here we go – a new and improved silver bullet that’s going to save education, revolutionize education: Common Core. My reaction to this reform has been different than my reactions to other ideas. I’ m more frustrated, more angry. I am suspicious.

When I surprise myself like this, I set about watching myself – I analyze my responses, listen to my words. I often learn why, and I think I have.  I think I’m tired. I’ve responded the way a good teacher does to reform after reform for over 35 years. I’ve found the good in each and been ready to move ahead, adopting whatever the flavor du jour happens to be.

My first year of teaching in Indiana, in a sixth grade, self-contained classroom , the state had just legislated New Math to be taught in all elementary classrooms. My teaching math was bad enough (I WAS an English major, teaching on an emergency certificate), but New Math? The gimmick was that each grade would teach the ‘base’ that corresponded with their grade. My mother-in-law was lucky: she taught 2^nd grade. Binary! 1 and O. But sixth grade got to teach base six! I was so excited to have a job I did everything I could to prepare and teach, even though I did not understand the underlying philosophy. Didn’t matter – it was new and improved! I would persevere.  I did, New Math did not.

I left elementary the next year, but I knew from my mother-in-law, Indiana’s experiment with New Math was short-lived. As was our flirtation with metrics…we all rushed to understand just enough to stay a few days ahead of our classes. But never fear. Metrics went the way of New Math.

Then there were the Reading Wars…phonics? Whole language? Why not use it all and see what works with each child? I have two children…one learned phonetically and is now a musician. The other, like me, can’t sound out, and she learned using sight words and whole language. But the political landscape in schools didn’t want compromise…we had to declare ourselves in one or the other camp. Now, I hope reading education has found the balance.

Later, Outcomes-Based Education was going to save us. Until it became a political hot-potato. I remember coming back from a field trip with high school kids who asked me what OBE was…their parents were sure it was the first step to Perdition. When I explained it required me, before each unit,  to know what I wanted my students to know and be able to do at the end of each unit, they looked around and shrugged. How was that subversive?

Curriculum Mapping and  4MAT came and went. I found so much positive in both and I’m still using those principles. Technology in the classroom…I’m forcing my old self to use as much as I can, and I’m actually letting my students teach me.

Learning Styles, Multiple Intelligences, Flipped classrooms, online learning…the list seems endless. And the good in each is undeniable.

Now comes Common Core – Standards for English Language Arts that will coordinate learning standards around the country. Standards will deepen understanding, allow for creativity. Assessments will be more authentic. This will free teachers and students up to teach and learn. It’s just for me, the last. I’ll be retiring before I see teachers adopt, respond, revise lessons, and then be told, “Oh, here’s the next new thing! That isn’t any good.”

Color me tired. CCSS isn’t the first reform touted by non-educators. Legislators and governors have always had these great ideas to ‘save’ education. It isn’t the first with good and bad elements. It’s not the first to promise more than it can ever deliver. It’s just the last for me.

So, in a few years, the short attention span of reformers will have another silver bullet, and teachers will do what teachers always do…they’ll learn, revise, teach, assess, and repeat.

More than angry or suspicious, I have discovered I’m just fatigued. Tired of people who’ve never been in the classroom deciding they know my job better than I, they know my students better than I. 

I started my career with New Math, and I’ll end it with Common Core. 

It’s been a ride, but I’m tired.

Never Too Old to Learn

One of the toughest school years is over. We lost two teachers, long-time friends, my daughter’s teachers within a month of each other. Each was planning to retire this year. We celebrated graduation with 400+ seniors stepping confidently into their futures. We lost students, and students lost beloved family members. We raised over $130,000 together as a school, to aide others. We endured our state policymakers’ continued attacks on our profession. We survived.

Along the way, I had nearly 300 students in my class – thousands of books were read, close to a million pages. I kept track of my extra hours (not finished yet reading and analyzing final exams) and am over 450 hours donated to my students and school.

I read over 150 books, most recommended by my students, and carted home fifty or so more to try to read over the summer.

One of my students is the daughter of two former students, connecting all the schools in Norman at which  I’ve taught.

I took a misstep off a school bus and face-planted on our way home from volunteering at Special Olympics. I used ‘closed head injury’ as an excuse for all my mistakes for a week before students told me it was time to give it up.

I know the lessons I hoped to teach, but I know every teacher actually teaches many lessons in unintended ways, but the way we address the class, grade and respond to papers, handle classroom conflicts…

But what did I learn?

·         Time is precious and plans are just that – plans. I learned sometimes we may hold on too long…

·         Young people will rally together for a cause.

·         I can still stay in a dorm (one night only) with a bunch of teen agers.

·         Introduce a volunteer to Special Olympics, and they’re hooked for life.

·         Some hugs are earned only after years of trying.

·         The supreme joy and pride of being a ‘teacher guest’ of an Academic All State scholar. Irene Lim is still perplexed by the fact I burst into tears when she invited me.

·         Most policymakers don’t care what citizens think – we are easy to ignore when ALEC money seems to fuel their campaigns.

·         Schools, in the search for elusive test scores, will sacrifice kids’ artistic lives – my daughter-in-law, a music teacher at a Title I school, was laid off, leaving her students with no one to care for their musical talents.

·         I still love to read students’ Reading Logs and final exams – I pore over them to make next year better.

I learned – relearned – I am in the exact spot I’m meant to be – in S216, surrounded by books and teddy bears and kids. Surrounded by bulletin boards with more kids, and kids of my students…Home.

Next year I’ll graduate with the class of 2013…fifty years after I graduated from high school, I’ll graduate again. Next year will be its own combination of bitter and sweet – I think I’m ready.

Final Exams Can Be Fun

Students will rise to our expectations; we all know this. I expect my students to be deep thinkers, insightful readers and writers. I expect them to predict, make connections, ask questions. I never thought of expecting them to write their own final exam, but that’s what we did last week.

My class, Reading for Pleasure, is a successful English elective at Norman North. For over five years, this is the only class I teach…five sections a day. Another colleague, Kathy Woods, teaches one section. So, in our school of about 2400, we offer 12 sections of R4P a year. Most of the classes are at or close to capacity. Currently mine are 28-31.

I love the freedom to create self-reflective assignments for students – reading memoirs, midterm self-assessments, Reading Logs. I love the fact I can’t give my students a multiple choice test with only one answer. 150 students, all reading different books, reading at wildly different reading levels (this semester 2^nd grade level to post-high school), makes it impossible to test kids with the same narrow questions.

In the past I’ve written open-ended, self-reflective questions for my take-home final exam to encourage insights and self-knowledge. I’ve read their work all semester and know the level of thinking to expect of each student. I love reading students’ answers and I often glean hard and soft data about the value of my class from their answers.

Finals are coming and I looked at the different versions of my final. Honestly, I was bored with those questions and knew I needed new ones. I decided to let my students try their hands at writing. I told them by now they know what I value, how I ask questions…they should be able to compose great questions for their final.

I asked each student to write one question on his or her Log to bring to their small group…then with three or four more, they composed two group questions and wrote a rationale for each. With five sections, there were lots of duplicate questions, and many could be combined, making even richer questions. We ended up with 13 strong, interesting questions – interesting for them to answer and interesting for me to read.

The next day I gave students a handout with their 13 questions. We all agreed there were too many questions for students to answer fully, and we decided there would be five required questions, and five they would choose to make their exam ten essay questions long.

They voted on the questions they thought were the most fair, given our semester, and the ones they wanted to write about. They voted on the five they thought should be required for all students to answer. I did explain I would be slipping my favorite question into the mix…prerogative of the ‘oldest person in the room!’ It’s a wonderful question requiring students to read quotes about books and reading, and to connect one quote to a book they’ve read this semester.

More than a week before our finals my students and I already have ours written!  And it truly is ours. Students wrote the questions, collaborated on them, prioritized them. They've already begun thinking of how they'll answer the questions. I posted our final exam on our Moodle website so my early-birds can start working.

My friend, Lisa Hunt, talks often about authentic assessment, and we have hopes that Common Core will expect teachers to find multiple, authentic ways to assess student learning. I think a project like this shows clearly what students have learned, what they value, what they know I value.  The answers I’ll be reading soon won’t be canned answers, playing the ‘game’ of school, trying to figure out what the teacher wants to hear. The answers I’ll be reading will be rich, deep thinking. They’ll be individualized and meaningful. 

Students will tell me how our semester together has changed them as students and readers.

Asking students to write the exam questions already gave me a glimpse into what they’ve learned and what they value, even before they take the test.

I can’t wait to grade my finals!

"Special Olympics is my life"

That statement was made by a young man who won the Oklahoma Special Olympics Athlete of the Year. His greatest thrill was to meet Barry Switzer, the honorary coach of SOOK (Special Olympics Oklahoma). My own involvement began in 1980 when I attended a track and field event as an observer. I quickly saw all the fun was on the infield, so I sneaked across the track and have been deeply involved since then.


For the past 20 or so years I've taken student volunteers to the State Summer Games in Stillwater, OK. This year will be no exception. The Norman North volunteers are exemplary in all ways, and several of my former volunteers are now special education teachers. Working with SOOK IS my life, has changed my life, has enriched my life.


This is my favorite story of an opening ceremonies several years ago.

Silence. The blond boy smiled shyly, stepped to the microphone, and raised his violin to his shoulder. The man behind him patted his back for luck and stepped back.

With a bracing breath, he placed the bow on the strings. Clear, soft notes. “Oh, say can you see….” His face mirrored his growing confidence and his determination. Each note strengthened him. I watched in bemusement, trying to remember if I had ever heard “The Star Spangled Banner” on solo violin. Pep bands, jazz bands, full orchestras, rock musicians, yes. But one lone violin simplifying this melody to its very essence? No.

The young boy continued. The audience recognized the song. The melody rang clear and true. I had never heard it so pure and clean. No harmonies or chords. Only the crystal notes of the melody.

A voice joined, singing softly, singing the words we all know. Another. Voices singing in unison. More voices. What began as a murmur rose into a chorus. No embellishments, no vocal fireworks, no mad virtuoso flights of fancy and conceit. Just a solo violin and enthusiastic voices, many far off-key.

The young boy smiled as he heard the reflecting voices.

The song built to its conclusion. Nearly 10,000 voices sang reverently, thoughtfully, never overpowering the single instrument.

I wasn’t singing, caught up in the sounds and the faces. I looked around at these beautiful Special Olympics athletes singing from their hearts—many didn’t know all the words, or the proper melody. They didn’t care, and neither did I. They were participating. They were honoring their country and their fellow athletes here, in this place, for Open Ceremonies of Oklahoma’s Summer State Games. Their sounds were not the skillful work of professional performers, here to be seen and to be heard. They were joining this chorus in love and a sense of togetherness only Special Olympics affords them.

The audience carried the soloist to his last note, held for a long moment.

Then silence. The shared experience echoed in the silence.

The young boy lowered his violin, smiling in relief, only then aware of the size of his audience as they had joined him singing, and now applauding. He bowed once, again, beaming with the pride that only comes with accomplishment.

His guide gently turned him, took his elbow, and led the sightless boy from the stage.

Values can't Hide from Wordles, Thank Goodness!

I love wordles – these word clouds reveal the author’s purpose in visual ways that help both the author and reader make new value judgments about the piece.

You copy a text (I’ve used my own writing, political speeches, passages from the Bible) into the wordle website and the site analyzes word frequency. The more often the word is used, the larger it will appear in the wordle. The site lets you play with color and font and layout, and most of us know the moment we’ve found our favorite.

Recently I wordled two documents, one, in deep frustration. I studied the state of Oklahoma’s State Department of Education’s new A-F School Grading rules and wanted to see what the SDE valued. I’ve already written about my finding…

I always assign students a self-reflective midterm, and this semester most of them turned in their reflections. They’ve set goals that need to be revisited, they need to observe patterns in their reading choices and record and analyze the books and pages they’ve read so far in the semester. The last question I asked on the midterm was, “Tell me something that makes you proud of your work in Reading for Pleasure.” I wanted them to have the opportunity to think about what they'd accomplished through the nine weeks we've been together.

I went through the papers and copied all the statements, cleaning up grammar as needed. Then, I took that seven page document and wordled it.

I posted it on Facebook, and Christie Paradise, a great friend, found the SDE wordle and posted it alongside the students’ wordle. Differences popped out at all of us.

Often when I see something developing in my work that interests me, I turn it over to my students so they can observe and comment. That’s what I did. I shared both wordles and asked them to copy the words that popped out at them – and then simply write their observations.

Nearly every student saw the difference in what was valued…they identified the warm emotions of their own list and the emphasis on scores and grades from the other.

Several students’ responses are worth sharing.

“It’s kind of jarring, the difference between the two lists. Not that I expected a school-board generated policy to have the words ‘love’ or ‘proud’ in it.”

“The goals we set for ourselves are so much more genuine.”

“I don’t want to be standardized. I want to be proud of my achievements and love what I do.”

“The R4P wordle invokes a sense of discovery.”

R4P: “Students have learned to read at home, to pursue…discoveries. Most importantly, students have grown…This is awesome.”

OK A-F Grading wordle: ” means to an end, empirical, mechanical parts of a machind that creates unhappy, unmotivated puppets.”

OK A-F: “There was one word I was looking for but could not seem to find: teachers. Nowhere to be found. Their complete absence suggests they are independent of this formula…that means they ought to be independent of its consequences, of its inevitable fallout. But something in my gut tells me this is not the case.”

OK A-F: “Learning is about the numbers and not the kids.”

My kids get it. They understand setting personal learning goals and monitoring progress. They know how to take pride in achievements, even if it’s finishing, as many do, their first book read for pleasure. They know learning (and achievement) occur when both the head and the heart are fully engaged. They know joy and achievement should be partners.

What am I proud about? I’m proud my students strive for their personal learning. I’m proud they come to class with books, and read and write and talk about books. I’m proud they care about their work and are eager to share it with me.

How can we share this pride with our State Department? How can I help them sustain that pride as we turn students into test-taking automatons? How can we tell the State Department we’re preparing ourselves to be life-long readers, to be parents who read to their babies when they become parents, to be adults who can always talk about the book they’re reading at the moment?

Another grab for power by the State Department of Education

*Sigh* I look forward to the time I'm not spending time and energy writing to legislators, some of whom have steadfastly ignored my every word for over a year now. I'll also say every letter I've ever sent or delivered or mailed to the Superintendent has likewise been ignored. But here's another.


Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation has a singular political history in our state -- I don't pretend to understand, but I DO know it has been the guardian of the National Board program in the state since its beginning. Education Leadership Oklahoma has supported over 6000 Oklahoma teachers as they attempted certification, and boast of nearly 3000 NBCTs -- 10th in the nation! Now, again, the State Department wants to take over OCTP and control the funds generated. No word of the fate of ELO under this new world order, but I shiver in fear. 


My latest letter -- which will probably be ignored again.

Recently, while reading an OEA legislative message, I read a disquieting remark by Joel Robinson,  actually a post on Facebook…I’ll return to Facebook later in my letter: ““With legislation now moving through the Legislature that will shift responsibility for the NBCT program from the Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation to the State Department of Education, the agency will continue to work to make the verification process quick and efficient,” Joel Robison commented via Facebook” So, he’s confident enough of SB1797 that he’s announcing on Facebook?

I understand that almost every year the SDE makes a power grab to take over  the professional development funds administered by OCTP, but I was surprised at how very, very confident Mr. Robinson appeared…’Legislation moving through,’ just tripping along to gut one of the most successful agencies in OKC to give the SDE more money?

I am closely aligned with one of the offices at OCTP – ELO. I can tell you ELO, Education Leadership Oklahoma, with its unwavering dedication to our state’s premier National Board Certification program, has changed the face of education in our state.  This year has seen a fierce struggle to reinstate this program back to a reflection of its glory days; nearly 3000 NBCTs in our state are serving students in public school classrooms every day. The training and support candidates and NBCTs receive from ELO makes a difference in schools all over the state.

Now, once again, from another direction, it looks like we’re fighting for our lives again. I use the pronoun ‘we’ because for over ten years I’ve been a proud part of the ELO family. I’ve been a trainer at the Summer Professional  Development Institute, I’ve  created writing workshops for candidates. I’m the Regional Coordinator for the Norman area and hold twice-monthly support meetings. These meetings are the most amazing examples of true professional learning communities, and we all benefit from coming together and working. I’ve been a member of the Selection Committee and have read applications for the scholarships that the OK Legislature has generously provided to give teachers an opportunity to go through the National Board process. I have been to national conferences with other NBCTs and have always been proud of the work OCTP and ELO does to nurture and support NBC candidates, and celebrate NBCTs once we’re certified.

I’ve read the summary of SB1797 – have yet to plow through all 53 pages, and see no mention of ELO…only OCTP. What’s to come of ELO and the National Board program in our state? Why would you think about handing ELO over to the SDE? We saw what happened last year when we trusted the SDE and the State Superintendent to do the right thing for our NBCTs. She cut the funding and threw the responsibility of her job back on your shoulders. Her contempt could not be more clear.

We are now in the middle of verification processes to finally pay our NBCTs the stipends we were promised by law by no later than January 30. The SDE has known for months a process of verification would have to be invented, and it seems to have waited until the last minute to pressure districts and teachers for proof of NBC, and employment as full-time teachers in public schools. The SDE’s lack of planning has, indeed created an emergency upon our parts.

Districts scrambled to verify the employment of their NBCTs, and to send that information to the SDE as quickly as possible. The SDE, in turn, was to contact every NBCT within the district to inform him or her of the next part: teacher verification online through the certification website. I can tell you my unofficial poll is showing about half of us are being informed by the SDE. In my building, with over 20 NBCTs, about half of us got any message from the SDE. On my hall, only one of the four NBCTs received the email from the SDE – I was one of the three that got nothing. Instead, we’ve had to rely on email, word-of-mouth, and Facebook to learn we have until May 1 to log on and verify our information. To add to the stress, May 1 has been given as our deadline. No word that we were supposed to verify, but May 1 is our deadline. Think of this – professional educators must rely on social networking for the communication of something as important as verifying our NBC status!

After we’ve gone to the website, created a profile and walked through the verification process, some NBCTs receive an email in response telling them they were successful. Some saw a pop-up window that said the same. Some, like me, got no response, so I can only pray I did everything right. Again, a break-down in communication that has us all on edge.

I tell you this story to ask you why in the world would you give OCTP and ELO into the hands of the SDE? OCTP has proved its efficiency, its dedication and professionalism over time. The SDE has created chaos that may very well result in an NBCT not being paid because he or she didn’t know the procedures.

Might I also remind you, all this NBCT furor is happening at the height of the testing season in every school in the state? Teachers are already stressed and distracted and truly don’t want to have to spend the kind of psychic energy we’ve been force to, on ourselves. We would rather be focusing on our students and their performance.

And this is the agency you’re going to put in charge of OCTP, and I assume by default, ELO? You’re going to give OCTP and ELO to an agency that has shown over the last two years it has nothing but contempt for teacher preparation, teacher development, teacher training, teacher learning. Teachers.

Please, defeat SB1797 and give OCTP and ELO your vote of confidence. They’ve earned it every day, with every teacher in our state.

A thank-you letter to Legislators

In Oklahoma we have enjoyed one of the most forward-looking support systems for National Board in the country. Education Leadership Oklahoma has been given the charge of selecting candidates for scholarships, for training and support of the candidates, and for continuing the work of networking for NBCTs. As a result of all this dedication, Oklahoma is a national leader.

For the past few years we have seen the public support erode and the political rhetoric heat up. The State Department of Education Superintendent shorted payments as one of her first official acts, and the next year failed to request any funds to pay the $5000 stipends to the nearly 3000 NBCTs. It literally has taken an 'act of Congress' to reinstate the stipends.

This year, the Legislature has considered several bills, and one, SB1879, is still alive, in a third or fourth iteration. For me there were always two sticking points: a fixed amount of money was to be allocated each year for stipends and any left over would revert to the SDE, the very leaders who tried to kill the program, for its teacher merit pay scheme.

The other issue I had with the original bill was while there were scholarships (100, down from 400), none of these new candidates would be eligible for a stipend when he or she attained NBC. 

Last week, in the House Appropriations Committee, two amendments were offered: one limits stipend payment for the original ten years of NBC, and the second offers the stipends to new NBCTs. 

This is my letter that I sent the Appropriations Committee members involved. I will revise and send to all the Education Committee, my own Representative, who's stopped talking to me. Then, I will send it to the Appropriations and Education Committee members in the Senate when it goes back to those Committees.

The fight is not over; the fight is not won. But there is hope, and I've had precious little of that for the past few years.

Here is my letter:

I am a teacher…a National Board Certified Teacher…a trainer of National Board candidates, a proud Regional Coordinator providing support for candidates. I have spent over ten years immersed in the world of National Board, and Education Leadership Oklahoma. I have attended national conferences and seen that other states don’t measure up – to our system of professional development, and to our level of legislative support of candidates and NBCTs. I have been so proud to be an NBCT in Oklahoma. Until recent developments put our entire program in terrible jeopardy.

I was excited by much of what I read in the original SB1879 and saw the Legislature's sincere intent to solidify and strengthen the ELO program, a true national leader in NBC. There were areas I had grave concerns about as well. I wrote to Senator Ford and shared my support and my concerns. As I've watched and listened to the discussions, I'm more and more excited about the product you're finalizing.

All along my support hinged on continued support of new NBCTs: scholarships to go through the process and stipends when teachers attain National Board Certification. The scholarships are the first gesture of support, an initial investment in strong teachers who want to become even stronger. The NBC journey is arduous and challenging for a teacher; the financial burden of paying his or her own way adds more stress. So, scholarships will insure the continuation of our program.

But, in the initial versions of 1879, these teachers would not have received a stipend after attaining NBC, and I could not support a bill that would deny recognition to new NBCTs – a $500 ‘pat on the back’ is not the same support  NBCTs have enjoyed for the past ten years. I want the NBC and ELO program to flourish in Oklahoma, and it won’t until our new NBCTs also earn the same stipend. In our program we focus on the elements of equity, access and fairness. In every lesson, in every Entry, we need to address these concerns in our classroom. The way this bill was originally written, new NBCTs would be afforded NONE of these, and I could not support the original SB1879.

Another troublesome element in the original bill was the fact that any funds left over from paying stipends would revert to the SDE. Believe me, the TLE program in no way resembles the NBC process, and investment in TLE over NBC and ELO was a slap in the face of all NBCTs around the state. I was grateful to see that provision of the bill is gone.

But I still had deep issues. With your continued work this week, you've addressed my exact concerns, and I'm feeling so much more hopeful about this legislation.

Rep. Coody, I met you at the NBCT reception and sent you a couple of emails with some suggestions for revising this bill.

At the NBCT reception, I learned about a study by the Gates Foundation – a study that looked into the effectiveness of NBCTs in improving student test scores. While NBC does not narrowly focus on just test scores, an NBCT in a classroom can make that kind of impact. I'm including the link to the chart for you to use in discussions with skeptics. NBCTs DO make a difference – even Bill Gates sees this.

 http://nbrc.illinoisstate.edu/Newsletters/2012/February%202012/Hillborough%20Summary.pdf

With Rep. Dorman's amendment, extending stipends for new NBCTs, I can now whole-heartedly support SB1879. Rep. Denney's amendment limiting stipends to the original ten years is also a concept I agree with. To continue to provide Oklahoma's students with the very best teachers, having new, younger teachers cycled into the NBCT family, bringing their enthusiasm and expertise, will energize our profession and our schools. Experienced NBCTs would be there to mentor and guide, and Oklahoma will profit.

I often talk about the 'happy teacher dance' when describing those moments in the classroom when a student 'gets it' or exhibits deep learning or makes a connection I've been working on. The 'happy teacher dance' is that payoff for all the hard work, the long hours, the belief in teachers' and students' partnerships.

I am doing the 'happy teacher dance' right now! You've strengthened this bill, you've shown us NBCTs that we are valued, that the work we do is valued. You've shown us all you believe in our power to educate.

I will personally, publicly support this bill as amended. I will write and speak whenever I can, giving my approval of your work.

I want to know what else you need from me, from my fellow NBCTs.