0 Boston Marathon Aftermath: Building Communities of Peace and Love

Yesterday as my family drove back to our home in the Boston area from a weekend trip, we listened intently to the news related to the Boston Marathon tragedy. As Massachusetts' residents the Marathon has always been a signature event on the calendar.  Friends, family members and neighbors have run the Marathon over the years, and we've spent time along the sidelines cheering for them.

At first, we felt an anxious sadness as we listened to the news reports.  We worried about friends and family members wondering if we would know any of those hurt by this event.  Today, the sadness turned to anger. Why do people spend time planning, working and carrying out plans to hurt others? How could anyone focus their efforts on killing people and wrecking a positive, happy event?  Now many are contributing substantial time, effort, money and tears to clean up the mess, investigate the crime and heal the physical and emotional wounds--time, effort and money that could be spent on bettering lives, neighborhoods and schools.

My heart breaks for the Dorchester family and so many more who have experienced the loss of a loved one, pain and suffering.  I am also sad for those whose dreams were dashed after months of planning and preparing for the Marathon run. How does one react to senseless acts of hate and violence like this one?

For the time being, those like me who are removed from the situation can contribute by working to build more peaceful and loving communities. We can do this by looking for ways to lift our practice, effort and direction to that which serves to better what we do each day.  We can also work to support positive agencies of change, safety and healing--organizations that work to react to and rid our world of these kinds of criminal acts. Yesterday's Boston Marathon tragedy will stay with us for decades to come, and hopefully we can use this sad memory to energize our collective efforts towards greater good and care. This is one way that we can honor the lives of those who died and those who still suffer.

0 An Education Optimist Goes to Washington

It will be an incredible honor and immense responsibility to appear this Tuesday morning before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for a hearing about college affordability. I am especially happy that the focus of this hearing is on the perspectives of students and families, since they view policy as enacted, not policy as intended.

The hearing will be webcast here beginning at 9 am Central/ 10 am Eastern.  My written testimony has been submitted and will be posted on the website following the hearing-- it is substantially longer and more detailed than my oral testimony, since I only get 5 minutes for that.

This committee is chaired by Senator Tom Harkin, and (be still my heart!) includes both Senator Tammy Baldwin and Senator Elizabeth Warren. I'm told they will both be present, and that Senator Baldwin will deliver my introduction.

I will be joined by a representative from the U.S. PIRG and two students. I look forward to this important conversation, and hope that you'll join me in it by tweeting to me @saragoldrickrab
I'll post some reactions and talk a bit about this uncommon experience after the hearing.  After my heart stops pounding, of course.

0 The Last Leg of the School Year

Spring vacation begins today and then we embark on the final leg of the school year.  We'll spend the first couple of weeks back prepping for the math test, and then we'll embark on our project base learning chapter of the year.

The advantage to the last leg of the year is that you know your students well.  You've accomplished a lot together, and now is the time to solidify the essential skills introduced and synthesize the year's learning in worthy project base endeavor including guided research and question driven research/presentation.

Hence it's time to rest up a bit, enjoy family and friends, and then finalize the year with strength.

0 Spread the Good News and Share the Challenge!

Teachers want to know what's working. We want to hear the success stories--the ways our colleagues are positively impacting individual students and whole classes. We want to know what makes a difference.

At times leadership and teachers are reluctant to share the good news. Perhaps they fear competition or discouragement if they share best practice and resulting student engagement, happiness, or success. If done well however, sharing the good news can serve to lift the entire learning community.

The good news cannot be culled from a walk-through or observation as those are more staged.  Yes, you can pick up some ideas that way, but you really can't understand whole story in that way.  The best way to learn the story is to hear the beginning-to-end tale of how a teacher or team took a teaching/learning problem, strategized, implemented, and revised repeatedly until that teacher or team reached success with a student or class.

As you think about this teaching year what would you regard as a significant success, and what would you regard as an area where there's still room for growth.  For me, the significant success lies in teaching the students "learning to learn mindsets and habits" as that effort served to empower and lift the quality of student investment, effort, and outcomes.  The area where there's still room for growth is differentiation in math instruction.  Due to the varied rate of math concept, knowledge, and skill attainment as well as time constraints we are still challenged by this issue. I would like to work with others to utilize RTI and other efforts to more strategically and consistently meet the needs of all students with regard to math.

I hope that educators in my school and educators in my PLN will share their good news often as I'm eager to grow from their successful research, investment, and efforts.

0 New Ideas That Matter

Yesterday there was a sense of excitement as our PLC worked together to finesse our RTI English language arts program.  As I sat there I realized how far we had come as a community and team in the past few years with regard to the program including the use of data, the collaboration of curriculum director, reading specialist/coach, special educators and classroom teachers, and our student-centered strategies and efforts.

I was also excited because everyone in the group was supporting the use of technology and other great tools and strategies to build students' skill. Together the group discussed and problem solved around the goals of using a tech tool for differentiated homework and attaining a new tech tool to build students' fluency skills in an engaging way. In many ways this was the first time that the entire group was embracing tech with a sense of excitement and promise rather than caution and fear.

This aspect of our PLC and RTI is working very well for the following reasons:

• Data collection is streamlined, targeted and scheduled.
• Data reports are clearly reviewed, shared and discussed by all in the group.
• There is a sense of routine and pattern to this effort, yet there is also room for student-centered innovation and creativity.
• Our reading specialist/coach is an expert in the subject matter who both works with students and shares important research and knowledge on a regular basis.
• We keep students center stage.
• The Director is open and willing to help us attain helpful materials and entertain new ideas.

There have been a number of bold new ideas, growing pains, and tremendous work and effort by many that have made our ELA PLC efforts successful.  Overall this is an idea and effort that matters. 

0 Support The Teacher of the Future

I have a futurist in my midst.  That teacher is spending hours researching and employing new strategies, tools and intent to engage and motivate her students.

I am watching. I am happily challenged.  I see promise. Research supports her efforts.

Some worry--they check the scores, compare old teaching and new, and fear we won't make the standards.

I say give the futurist a small budget and time each day to weave her modern magic and teach others about the learning to come.  We're lucky to have this teacher in our school. Let's not kill the spirit or suffocate the possibility--instead let's feed this wonderful path of innovation, engagement and change.

Then, when it comes to the scores, let's do that too.  Perhaps I exchange teaching times so the innovator can share her craft with my students while I share some tried and true standards-base lessons with her students--I'm an "old" teacher; I've been around for a while and can do that.  And, even though I'm a great advocate of all that is new and wonderful, I'm not as passionate as this vibrant teacher next door.

Schools today can be win-win as we weave new and old, traditional and modern, tried-and-true and innovative together to create a positive, multidimensional, vibrant path towards the schools of the future.

0 Lesson Revision

Yesterday I presented a well-crafted lesson only to find that there were many unexpected holes in the flow and organization.

Earlier I rushed through a supporting concept assuming most had grasped what seemed like a simple concept: coloring clock/circle models to show benchmark fraction amounts. Then I moved on to an activity where students compare fractions with models and numbers.  Many were stuck and frustrated.

Usually that's when I get frustrated too, but I had to realize that it was a lesson undone--a strategy that jumped too fast for the majority of the class.  So as soon as the assistant arrived to take the students out to recess, I revised the activity on the computer adding the missing pieces and structuring the flow more explicitly while the lesson's challenges were clear.

Today, I'll present the lesson again.  I'll explain to students that I had not anticipated the problems they faced yesterday and hopefully today the learning strategies and goals will be easier to grasp and learn.

Teaching is a "give and take," responsive, organic process that begins with a learning goal, proceeds with strategy choice, revision and personalization, and ends with successful learning. Today's lesson will still be quite challenging, but hopefully I've organized the presentation, practice and coaching in a way that will give students access and learning success.  We'll see. This is the aspect of teaching that both delights and challenges me.

0 Imperfect

Accepting that perfection is what we reach for, but will never attain is an important step in living and learning.

The world constantly evolves. New ideas sprout continuously. Change happens.

The key is to walk the road with intent, vision and respect.

On the path there will be times when we're impatient and frustrated; times when we want to blame others for the slow movement, hindered change or challenge.  Yet, the hurdles are part of the path; they serve to strengthen our resolve, detail rationale and finesse our direction.

Find your pace, identify your destination(s) and walk gently down this road of life.

0 Speaking Up!

I'd rather not speak up.  I'd rather be quiet, smiling and unaware, but as a teacher if I don't speak up when I see promise and possibility then a child loses out.

As teachers we're working with people that matter--children, and if we speak up we can make a positive difference.

This doesn't mean I'm always right.  As an educator I am constantly faced with new situations, problems and events, and I respond with my experience, research and the best interests of the child in mind.  Often I agree to disagree with a parent or colleague in that regard, but even when this happens I keep thinking about the situation and wondering about the best course of action to serve the child well.

I've made a decision to respectively speak up when I see room for positive change and development.  I'm also willing to sit down and debate the best course of action.  I've decided to speak up because I want to look back at my career someday and be able to say that I did what I could to teach children well with action, voice and the best of my understanding and knowledge. I welcome your response in this regard.

0 Consultants?

There are many consultants available to me at an arm's reach to help me plan, assess my work and give me advice as to how to teach my 25 fourth graders well.

I read a lot; I try new ideas, and I creatively think plan the curriculum in targeted and personalized ways that are informed by assessments, observations and student/family discussion.

What I really need is more hands on deck--I need some professional, experienced support, to further lift the work I'm doing with students.  For example, one consultant wants to help me better differentiate so I can meet the needs of all ability levels well.  I keep my classroom humming--everyone is busy with tailored work, but there are some students who need that one-to-one and small group help to meet the targets.  They are students who present in such a way that I know from my twenty-seven years of teaching that no matter how you restructure the class activity with 25 students, these students still need that teacher next to them coaching and helping, and often these students need that teacher in a separate setting--not a setting surrounded by 24 others. These students require skilled professionals too as their learning needs are complex. I know how to teach these students well, but I simply don't have enough time in the day to pull these students aside in this kind of caring, targeted setting.

Hence, I'd love to have the consultants come in, take a group and work their magic on the students.  Then I could learn from seeing their work in action and the smiles on children's faces as they reach results in areas where they struggle.  These consultants could email me about their approach, send me articles and tell me about their plan.  Also while they work with one group,  I could work with others.

I'm the first one who will seek out professional advice and coaching via the Internet or in person when I have a teaching problem to solve.  For example right now I'm trying to lift fluency scores for a select group of students.  I have the time; the students are willing, and I've tried a number of approaches.  The students made good gains in the fall and now they've plateaued.  I consulted with a specialist that works with children.  She gave me great advice via email and will soon meet with our entire PLC to discuss that issue.  After that I'll redesign the intervention and effort.  I have time and space to do that since that specialist/consultant meets with our students regularly giving us the chance to serve fewer numbers and target our efforts with greater effect.

Hence, getting back to my original idea, consultants can be very helpful, but what some teachers need most are extra hands, people willing to come in, roll up their sleeves and work with students along the side of teachers.  That approach creates a teaching team or community rather than the boss-worker relationship where a consultant comes in, watches, advises, but never really gets in there and makes a difference.

Thanks for listening, and know that I'm open to listening to other points of view as well.