To Whom it May Concern

This past Friday was the day teachers have come to dread.  The day that makes good teachers second guess their instructional practices, and even their career choice.  Teacher value-added ratings were posted.

Talking with my colleagues, I have again come to the realization that the education system is going about this whole education thing all wrong.  As I sort my thoughts, I figure the best way to express them is in an open letter to the Ohio Department of Education and all others who feel these reports will improve the quality of education in our state.  As well as some other amazing educators who need a little confidence boost right about now. Here it goes...

To Whom it May Concern:

I am currently in my 4th year teaching at the middle school level.  My dream as a little girl was always to be a teacher.  I never even thought of any other career option.  In my early stages of my career, I fear it is not the career I imagined due to the expectations and assessment styles put on teachers and students alike.  I am lucky enough to be in a district where we are on the cutting edge of innovative, authentic, and technology-integrated instructional practices; however, I am afraid that even though this is what we want in our schools, this is not the way we are assessing our schools and/or students.

To me, there is a very clear irony in the current educational system.  We are increasingly told that best practice includes ongoing feedback, authentic/alternative assessments, opportunities to allow for problem solving, implementation of stations and ePortfolios, use of 21st century skills, and tracking student growth.  I am no expert at all of these, but I can honestly say I put an earnest effort forth to attempt to be the best teacher I can be and address all my students' needs, even those non-academic ones that we all know have a huge impact on their education.  However, these very best practices are not used when assessing our schools, teachers, and students.

We are told to rely on many formative and summative assessments to track progress; however, the state uses one assessment to track progress.

We are told to offer creative, unique, and alternative assessments to allow for students to show what they know; however we assess our students using a 3 hour, paper and pencil, bubble in the circle, "google-able" question test.

We are told to assess using written feedback on each standard, yet the state assesses our schools using the traditional A, B, C, D grading system.

We are told to reach students on their level, meet their needs, and create relationships, but none of that comes into play when they are tested on a day when they just weren't themselves.

And what human being would be okay with their child's teacher choosing ONE test and weighting their grade book where that child's learning for the whole year was based 50% on that ONE test?  I am not a parent yet, but I know I would not agree with that methodology.  

I have a hard time understanding this paradox.  I also have a hard time understanding how some teachers can go from most effective to least effective to approaching average all while only improving their instructional practices.  Why such the large discrepancy?  Perhaps, we are still failing to acknowledge the human factor that largely comes into play.

I am in no way trying to come off as a whiny teacher who does not want to be held accountable.  PLEASE hold me accountable.  Please.  I want that ongoing feedback that is considered best practice.  That's what I rely on to improve my instructional practices.  And I will accept any rating thrown at me.  But I still do not feel this is the best assessment style.  Sure, we need some sort of quantitative data, but why weight that ONE source of data as 50% of our evaluation? We need to be breeding learners who think critically, who solve problems, who come up with creative and innovative ideas.  That theory is largely supported in the educational realm, yet we still spend large amounts of money on creating an assessment that goes against every grain of the 21st century learner theory.

My fear is that teachers will understandably become nervous and anxious about their potentially public value-added rating, that they will abandon all "best practices" and adhere to the test-taking instructional methods.  I am a teacher with a household to support, and I fear this is what the educational assessment system is forcing us to do.

My final plea.  Please rethink your methods.  I work with amazing educators, who on Friday were all feeling completely and utterly defeated.  Please think about the students with open, bright futures.  Please let us give them the educational experience they deserve.  The one that will make a difference in this world.  Otherwise, don't expect anything to change.

Sincerely,
A concerned educator

Stop, Reflect, and Continue Forward

Going into this school year, I knew I would be experimenting with new teaching strategies.  With the ultimate goal of creating a more student-centered classroom with real world learning experiences.  Being a perfectionist by nature, I wanted it all to happen perfectly from day one.  With much reflection in PLC, GLM, and nights with my fellow teacher husband, I have learned that it is important to stop, reflect, continue forward.  Before I continue forward, I wanted to stop (and breathe) and offer a reflection on the year on some of my experiments' successes and failures.

Genius Hour
I find such value in the theory behind Genius Hour that no matter how many obstacles I am faced with, I will never give up on the idea of giving 20% of my instructional time to let their students explore their passions and curiosities.  I am by no means an expert on implementing Genius Hour.  This year I find myself wading the waters and seeing what will happen.  With just one grading quarter under our belts, I have students starting campaigns for clean water in Africa, as well as fundraising for childhood cancer.  These are the moments that make me feel connected and proud of my students.  These ideas sprouted from their minds with no prompting of mine.  How can one ever turn away the idea of Genius Hour when the products make such an impact on our world.  On an even smaller scale, I had a student already make connections with beauticians she found on YouTube via Twitter.  She did this all on her own...at home.  Real life learning and self-motivation.  Again, how can you say no?  As their facilitator to Genius Hour, I need to work to expose them to more readings and technology tools relevant to their projects.  I also need to work with some students on honing in on their passions, but I truly feel the students who struggle are not used to an educational system that lets THEM choose versus the teacher.  I see great things coming from all of the students once they jump over that hurdle.

Donate to Colin's Clean Water Fund for Africa

Blended Learning Centers in Middle School 
My 7th graders and I are going on a journey this year of a new learning experience with the implementation of technology, mobile furniture, and a flexible learning space.  One of my goals has always been to implement elementary type learning centers into a middle school classroom, but I have always found the scheduling to be a hinderance.  I am happy to say that my PLC partner and I have made great strides in planning student-directed learning stations in the form of choice boards, and now we are attempting actual physical learning spaces in our rooms that the students will rotate through each day for a period of 5 weeks or so (with the hopes of making it a more permanent classroom structure).  Students will be utilizing their iPads to supplement the learning process, as well as provide clear-cut assessment data each day so I am able to plan my small group instruction accordingly.  Creating learning centers has provided some obstacles as well, but we are working on cleaning up the management of the centers with the use of Google Forms and rubrics for students to self-assess each day.  We will also post unit checkpoints in the form of "I can" statements around the room for students to track their progress. I have also found the Google Script titled "Doctopus" to be extremely beneficial in giving immediate feedback for writing assignments.  Again, I feel it is a transition for students who are used to a traditional type classroom setting, so as we continue with this structure, we will continue to see growth in the student work and progress.  One main thing to remember, obstacles are NO reason to give up, just reasons to grow.

Bringing Social Studies Alive
Ask any student (or even adult) what their most boring class was in school.  Social studies.  My goal as a social studies teacher is to bring the content alive.  Even though adults say social studies was a boring class, they always say it would be their favorite subject as an adult.  I would like to change this culture of a social studies classroom.  No more simply reading from textbooks.  Through the use of simulations, gamification, and role-playing, I have had some great feedback from my students on social studies class.  Instead of reading about government types, we brought them alive by treating class as different forms of governments.  My next step is to "gamify" our economics unit.  Why not turn the classroom into different nations dealing with trade?  Or how about a marketplace battling supply and demand?  I have made some great connections with experts in this field, and I am excited to see where it goes.  MinecraftEDU is also on my agenda for 2nd semester to supplement ancient civilization units.

Phew.  This is why reflection is a good thing.  Sometimes educators are so entranced in the day to day that they forget to look at the big picture.  Success to me is hearing kids say "See.. this is why social studies is my favorite class".  Or reading a blog about students enjoying a unit because "they could work at their own pace".  And even better, working with a student today on setting up a campaign to bring clean water to Africa.  That's what it's about.

Stop and reflect.  Then continue forward.  Because odds are, you ARE doing amazing things.