Remaking Education...do we need to do it?

So I saw this article recently in the Washington Post about how Governor McAuliffe in Virginia has proposed a potentially radical plan to state board of education.  Essentially he's looking to allow students more opportunities to become prepared for the workforce and more opportunities at earning college credit.  It's an interesting take, one that doesn't seem that odd actually if you're in your mid-30s or older to be honest I think but it brings up a big no-no word in education; tracking.  Yes the dreaded tracking which of course brings up images of scenes from Waiting for Superman.

Now I know I'm not really addressing the merits of tracking and data and all those lovely things that keep teachers up at night.  But the plan does essentially put students onto two different tracks if you will, the workforce or university.  Which if we're honest as teachers, is kind of the point for us.  We talk about molding the minds of tomorrow, but what we're really hoping for is that the kids that we teach can grow up and find their role and niche in the universe and be happy, productive and all that jazz.  And while we'd love to send students to the Ivy League, that's not going to happen with the vast majority of our students (sorry if any former students read that.  You can totally make it to Princeton or Harvard if you want, its just those couple of students that sit by you, you know the ones.  They may not make it).  And that's totally fine.  I don't need someone with a degree from Cornell when my transmission craps out, or when the HVAC unit stops pumping out hot air in the middle of winter.  Most students have a decent clue about what they want to do by the time they're 15-16 years old.  Why should I force kids to take trigonometry or chemistry if they want to go into the workforce and into jobs where that's not necessary.  Guess how many times I've used cosine, sine, or tangent since high school?  Yeah that's right, a whopping zero times, and in all likelihood, you haven't either.  And I pick on math but I kind of like this plan by Gov. McAuliffe.  Two core years, and then let students decide their course from there.  I swear that we had several students when I was in high school that spent at least half the day taking classes for the more technical skills they'd need because they weren't sure they could afford, or more importantly, even wanted to go to college.  I'll bet that a student that is choosing courses because they know it this could be useful for them in the immediate future is going to be far more serious and engaged about the material than a senior being forced to take world history for the second time to check the box and say they did it.

It goes to the TED Talk spoke of last time by John Green, comparing learning to cartography.  Shouldn't we hope that for all of our students.   I know many out there pull out all the stops to make class fun, interesting, engaging, relevant, etc.  But even we can admit that for some (especially at the secondary level) it's checking a box for these kids.  If I have a student that wants nothing more than to grow up working on a farm and would be happy if they never have to leave the state in their lifetimes; why do I need to force feed them world history.  Is learning about the world important, absolutely.  But not everyone thinks it's as important as I do.  Why not put some of the power and responsibility on these young men and women to make the best decision for themselves.  Isn't that what we complain about anyway, that these darn kids are freeloaders and don't work hard, and won't get off our lawn.  How about instead of just pushing them through a obstacle course they don't want to do, we let them have some say.  Maybe this isn't such a radical idea after all.

My life is a Reel Big Fish song

A tribute to Turn the Radio Off  turning 20 this year, which is crazy and makes me feel kinda old.  And no I'm not selling out, my wife isn't leaving me for another girl, and nothing to do with beer.  The song is "Everything Sucks."  Now that's fairly melodramatic of me, but this is my space to vent, bitch, and complain if I want.  So we're trying to sell a house, which is extremely stressful and sucks.  The trailer on the family farm is becoming more and more expensive to make livable which we of course didn't plan on, and spending money on a temporary home where we were supposedly going to save money sucks.  And we're confined in this tiny 2 bedroom box during the winter in a place we don't have outlets to go like the gym/pool, neighborhoods to walk around, and that's stressful causing everyone to be a little more on edge.....and that sucks.

And I'm well aware that my life is still better than 95% of those around the world, so to some extent I need to just suck it up.  But one aspect that sucks that I really am struggling with is transitioning of schools.  I feel I'm really struggling to "fit in" and move on from Northern.  The people I work with are nice, I don't see eye to eye with some as far as methods and teaching practices, but it's nothing major.  I've talked about some of the other challenges like going to block and the 1:1 stuff, and I have change up my routines from teaching AP World to just world history.  But two things are really getting to me.

1) I feel I've lost an edge by losing AP.  I watched John Green's TED Talk about learning and he used a great analogy comparing learning to cartography.  AP World did that for me, it wasn't just the teaching, it was the learning for me as well.  Bettering myself and finding a community and network that would really push me to be a better teacher, and also a better person.  I've lost that somewhat.  I don't have students with the same drive and curiosity and so I don't feel like I have that same push to be at my best.  I'm settling a bit.  I'm not sure this is a place or environment (even if I get a chance to teach AP again) that is going to offer me that same drive which is unsettling too.  But it's tough, I feel I can too often just give assignments and sit back, and while it's easy to say just change how you do things, it's another thing to intrinsically motivate yourself to do it.  Like I said, I'm settling too often I feel like, and I really don't like it.  It's not fair to my kids even though they probably have no idea or clue.

2) I still too often think and worry about my students at Northern.  And I know it's probably normal.  And some may say, just move on; it's not that easy for me.  With AP, I feel like you're selling the class to the students too.  We grew that class by nearly 50 students and a lot of that came from the experiences my first crew had and my own sales pitch talking about how I was going to safely help all these students navigate one of the most challenging AP courses there is.  And after half a year, I'm leaving.  And I see them post stuff which I can only assume is about the class, and I get hints about how quickly (or not I fear) the class is moving and I'm extremely concerned and can't help but feel guilty.  I gave the teacher all my stuff but it's not my class anymore even though I feel like I put my heart and soul into revamping it.  And I love that some of my students still reach out to ask for help or just to say hi, but I wish I was there for them daily.  I try not to compare Northern to here, but it's no contest really.  Sure there are a couple things I like a bit more here, but all the things that mattered most don't even stack up.  Most notably the connections I made with co-workers and my students.  I hate I can't be senior advisors for some (although I still have one that may petition for that and I hope the school allows it) and I feel responsible when I see some of the frustrations my current crew has.  I'm sure they posted negative things about me and the class when I taught it, but the frustrations I sense are tough because I feel helpless and responsible.  I doubt this will get easier either until the year ends.  I hope and pray that I never have to change schools midyear again, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Is too much tech making me a lazy teacher?

So as I've chronicled the past couple posts, I've switched schools and about everything is different; traditional to block, full year to semesters, AP to basic level classes. on and on.  Some changes are nice, others not as much, but one that has been both positive and negative for me has been our use of technology here at new school.  Every student has a laptop, so we're 1:1 and certainly I'm trying to maximize these new tools.  I think more than a few teachers here see them as just a distraction for the students, I'm hoping to have them be more than just something they can watch netflix, youtube, or play video games on.

For some things, it's been great.  I really like the Canvas program that we use.  The entire class is on the website and it links into our gradebook tools to, so I can export their grades directly into the gradebook.  All of the assignments, projects are linked there, it's easy for me to use programs like Kahoot and Socrative for quick quizzes or exit tickets.  But, I feel like I'm spending more and more time behind my desk or standing aimlessly around while they work (or pretend to work).  And while I know this is gearing them more towards the real world, where their employers will give them a task/job/whatever and expect them to get it done.  And not that I want to be the "sage on the stage" at all times (or much at all); I'm not sure how much I'm really teaching.  I don't know if I'm really doing much different than I did before with a traditional hour long class, and maybe the extra 30 minutes just makes it seem like I'm sitting on my butt more.  I think the balance is just harder to achieve and with so much being new, this is another thing I'm still trying to figure out.  At least these exit tickets and Kahoot quizzes allow me to check to see if the students are grasping things (and for the most part they are).

I just can't help but feel a bit lazy.  Maybe that's more a "me" issue than a 1:1 issue though.....

In need of some tweeking

So I'm a week or so in at the new place and the transition is going alright, but there is one thing I'm certainly having to figure out, and that's teaching block scheduling rather than just traditional 60 min classes.  As I do this, I really am trying to make sure that I don't just find and give busy work as filler, but it's challenge now as I have some that fly through work and others that never have enough time.  I think I need to do more and more creative things with their laptops since we're 1:1 too.  Lots of things to explore, but this seems to be my new challenge.  I don't have that constant drive that AP gave me to learn as much as possible since I know this course is not ramped up as much and doesn't have the writing aspects but I have to find something to drive and push me.  I've had a couple classes already were a majority of the class is finished well before the bell, so I'm needing to find something to compete with the desires of youtube on their laptops.  Next week we'll have our first project, our world religion travel itineraries which I'm excited about and hoping that can be something to push them to learn something new and spark some creativity as well.  I also think I'll need to try something I saw from the great Alice Keeler (Google tech guru) and that's have the students create something on thinglink (or really any new website) without really giving them the parameters or rubric and really allow them to work independently or collaboratively to figure out this new site and learn to create their own project how they want it to be rather than be confined by what the teacher wants.  It's a bit scary since we teachers like to have a certain amount of control, but I'm excited to see how it goes.

Any ideas for good digital tools, etc let me know.  I'll let you know how the adjustment goes and how the thinglink idea goes.  Thanks for reading as always.