Just Jazzed

We visit the American Jazz and Negro Baseball League Museums tomorrow.

I have NEVER been so excited for a field trip! 

First of all, this trip ties in so well with our social studies curriculum! We've been studying influential figures in Kansas City's history. This is the first year we've focused on a specific time period (1920-1950) and group of people (Jazz musicians and Negro League Baseball players).

I'll be honest, I didn't know much about this part of Kansas City's history before we started this unit. Sure, I've been to 18th and Vine to listen to a friend play at the Blue Room. I've attended performances at the Gem Theater and even danced at the Rhythm & Ribs Festival behind the two museums. But I'd never spent a Saturday afternoon at either museum.

Well, that's just what I decided to do. 

I spent two hours on a Saturday morning at the American Jazz and Negro Baseball League Museums with my teaching partner. We decided to preview the museums to prepare ourselves--and in turn, our students--for the upcoming field trip.

We armed ourselves with notebooks and pens, ready to record all of the information we'd learn along the way. There was so much to see, I couldn't write fast enough. There were so many objects, facts, pictures, and displays to connect to the information we've learned in social studies class. We were practically pressing our noses against the display cases, hoping to absorb as much jazz and baseball as possible. We wore headphones, pressed buttons, and whispered, "Hey, over here! Wouldn't they like this?!" to one another. Partially through our self-guided tour, we wandered into the Blue Room, a traditional-style jazz club that is part of the museum exhibit. We ran into a maintenance staffer--Elliot, I believe, was his name--and he imparted so much knowledge about the Historic 18th and Vine District, I thought I was going to run out of pages in my notebook. I mean, the man lived this history--he was there, he saw it, he knew the very people we'd been studying in class. For goodness' sake, his own sister married the son of one of the baseball players we're studying! Needless to say, this preview trip fired me up about bringing my students to the museums.

As if I needed more of a reason to be excited, my very own mother, a talented artist and poet, will be part of  American Jazz Museum's "Beyond Words: A Fusion of Poetry, Visual Art, and Jazz" exhibit. My students will actually get to see my mom's work at the museum--how's that for a tie-in, eh?

During lunch, we'll walk stop by the Mutual Musicians' Foundation, a spot that I just recently discovered over the summer with some of my musician friends. Talk about history, this place has been around forever and has housed some of the world's most famous musicians. Now, this is still a working establishment, so there's no way I'd bring my kiddos inside, but we'll stand on the steps and just imagine the jazz goin' on in that place.

I swear, just thinking about tomorrow's field trip gives me teacher goosebumps. But you know what, that's because we planned this field trip the right way. We taught the information before the field trip--that way our students will engage in the material on a much deeper level. Because they've heard the stories and studied the facts, they'll have answers--not guesses--to the guide's questions. Their eyes will light up when they see Charlie Parker's plastic saxophone because they know what it's made of and what it's worth. They know to look for the neon signs hung in the museum; they know these signs belonged to just a few of the 50+ jazz clubs that covered a four-block area of the jazz district.

Oh, did I mention that in addition to all that, my students will get to participate in a Jazz Storytelling session before their tour? Just go ahead and add it to the list of amazing things we're doing tomorrow.

Multi-Taska

If I could give myself a cookie award, it would be for multi-tasking. And I'm not the only teacher who deserves that award...

                  

Teachers are tremendous multi-taskers.

And truth be told, I never realized it--I always thought of my multi-tasking abilities as normal. That is, until two years ago when I served on jury duty. I spent a full week at the courthouse listening to a trial and boy, was I shocked. Sure, the trial was interesting, but I was more intrigued by the amount of time we spent on breaks and lunch. We started around 8:30 am  and by 10:00 it was time for a 15 minute break. We had an hour for lunch at 12:00 and then another break by 3:00. We wrapped for the day around 5:00 pm. This dragged on and on for a very long week. 

I remember thinking "Um, was that it?" every day as I walked to the car. I couldn't believe that we had two full hours of down-time between a late start, a lunch, and two breaks. I mean, sheesh. Teachers work non-stop! And it's not because we've got someone looming over our shoulders--it's because if we don't, kids don't learn. Nothing lights a fire under your seat like a child's well-being. 

I'd sit through the prosecution's cross examination of the witness, taking notes and discerning the facts of the case (I was thoroughly interested, both as a citizen and a lawyer's daughter). But during the breaks I'd imagine all the things I could do in fifteen minutes at school: 

• Prepare the room for the day
• Take attendance and lunch count
• Greet each student at they come in the door
• Collect homework, forms, and parent notes
• Answer emails from colleagues and parents
• Help students get on the computer, start seat work, spell a word, read a hard word
• Write down a few notes or ideas to improve the day's lessons

Normal? Sure, in a teacher's world. I mean, that's fifteen minutes! Imagine what we do in a day! I think that teachers develop this multi-tasking skill over time--I can remember being overwhelmed as a first year teacher. It was difficult to juggle my daily responsibilities and remain calm. Now, I enjoy the fast-paced gait of my day--it doesn't phase me to do two, three, or ten things at once. Of course, there are days--like in any other profession--that seem to get the best of me, but I understood after the jury duty experience that I enjoy and value splitting my energy, my attention, and my creativity twelve different ways. 

So teachers, if I could bake you all cookie awards for multi-tasking, I would. Cheers! 

If I Had a Dollar...

So, I'm having a normal evening conversation with a dear friend from college--the usual "What'd you do today? How's work? What're you eating for dinner?"--and I mention that the last day of school is right around the corner. Cue the most cliche statement teachers deal with this time of the year:

And then you get 3 whole months off!

Puh-leeze. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say that, I'd have enough to treat you to a fancy dinner and fill up your car at the gas station! Of course, I know that my friend meant well, but it got me thinking about a few of the misconceptions about teachers I've heard over the years: 

Miconception: Teachers have three months of summer vacation time. 

Truth (according to Miss Boyd): Many teachers elect to teach summer school and others attend professional development seminars/conferences over summer vacation. Additionally, teachers may catch up on reading the newest educational book, work a second job, or plan/reconstruct/write curriculum for the upcoming school year. I spend my summers coaching, working on my classroom, retooling my instructional practices, and meeting with colleagues. I think the bottom line here is that teachers work all 12 months. We just have students for 9 of 'em.

Misconception: Teaching the primary grades (K-2) is easy.
Truth (According to Miss Boyd): This is a tricky one for me. Most of my friends say, "Oh, I could never teach a primary grade! I don't know how you do it--I don't have the patience." I'm sure that sounds like they empathize with my job, but I think it makes me sound like a baby-sitter. I've never had a friend or family member ask me, "Wow, so how do you teach the basics to a young student? I bet it's really difficult to help them understand something that seems so simple to an adult." The truth is, teaching a primary grade stretches your mind--not your patience--to the limit. Teaching a small child is like putting pieces of a puzzle together. Each piece gets me closer to creating a picture of how that child thinks, processes, feels, and behaves. While I'm concerned about maintaining a behavioral "status quo," I feel that if you address academic needs first, the behavior often falls into place. Baby-sitting, shmaby-sitting.

Misconception: Young teachers are inexperienced.
Truth (According to Miss Boyd): It's all about how we define "experience." Does experience mean you've taught at least 10 years? Does experience mean you've taught a diverse group of students in a wide variety of schools? Does experience mean you've been trained in an array of methodologies and instructional practices? Or does experience mean you know how to do something cool I don't even know about yet? Personally, I think it's impossible to judge a teacher's experience solely on his or her chronological age. We're always searching for a way to quantify a teacher's experience to reassure ourselves that a teacher knows his or her "stuff." And, of course, I think that the aforementioned criteria is important but points to even more important standards--Does the teacher understand his or her craft? Does he or she adapt well? Can he or she confidently make decisions based on best practices? A definitive "yes" to these questions overrides any doubt about quantitative experience.


...of course these are only a few of the many misconceptions I hear from non-teacher acquaintances, but they are some of the "greatest hits." Happy Summer!  

Teach Me Somethin' Tuesday

This week we begin learning about what I consider to be the "underdog" of math curriculum: probability. Talk about a concept that's often pushed aside, watered down, and forgotten about! It always seems to be the last on the list of math items to teach, it's rarely assessed in standardized tests, and goes little beyond the "colored marbles in a bag" realm. But I'm here to tell you that even though I'm teaching about it in the last part of the year, probability holds the top spot in my math heart!

As a student, I loved probability because it didn't seem as cut and dry as the other math concepts. Numbers and operations, geometry, measurement, they appealed to the kids who were satisfied with applying a formula to arrive at the right answers the first time. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated getting a correct answer just as much as the next kiddo, but there was something so intriguing about probability. I totally dug the idea that while I could predict the most likely outcome, there was a small chance that it (whatever "it" was) would go the other way. For me, probability was the "wild child" or "rogue" of the math world--it appealed to my brain. (Disclaimer: With progressive movements in the educational field, however, I do feel that all mathematical concepts can be just as intriguing with the right instructional approach). 

I still feel the same way about probability as an adult and I don't think I'm the only one. Our culture is crazy about probability. It comes up more frequently in conversation than the other math concepts I teach about. I mean, look at all the hysteria over the Mega-Millions lottery...We couldn't go five minutes without hearing that we were more likely to be struck by lightning than win the lotto. But people still bought tickets, didn't they?

So I thought I'd search the Khan Academy website to polish up on my probability knowledge. Of course, I got hooked on their entire probability section. I've attached the first video from the probability series. It's super easy but the videos start to get reeeeeallly tricky after the first few.

ITBS: I Teach Beyond Standardized (testing)

Let's get one thing straight--I am reminded on a daily basis how lucky I am to be at my current school. But this week I'm grateful on another level: it's ITBS testing week.

Our school chooses to use standardized testing for exactly the reason it was created: to measure specific academic skills and to gain information about students and classes for instructional planning.

Trust me, this is an absolute rarity in the education world. In public schools, standardized tests are required as part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Without going into too much detail, NCLB requires that states carry out annual testing for public education and more importantly, that each classroom, school, and district within each state shows "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) toward a proficiency goal.

In Missouri, proficient means scoring an 80% on a standardized test--equivalent to a B grade. Each year the schools are required to meet a certain "goal" of proficiency. Last year it was 75%. Now, here's the rub:

That's not a 75% average, that's 75% of a class/school/district scoring proficient on a test. 

So 75% of my 24 students last year (18 kiddos) needed to earn a "B" grade on the state test. My class score was combined with the other 3 classes in third grade to determine whether we "met" or "didn't meet" our AYP goal.

I could argue that it's unfair, that our kids were behind one or more grade levels to begin with, or that the testing material was culturally and economically biased, but I'd really like to explore the level of anxiety teachers face about standardized testing:

Everyone, everywhere experiences some level of "on the job anxiety." I think it's just part of being an adult. But these days, many public school teachers fear for their jobs because of the NCLB testing. I remember starting my mandated after-school tutoring for the MAP test (Missouri's standardized test) in October....the test isn't until APRIL! I heard horror stories about teachers fired over the summer after their dismal test scores surfaced. Being the perfectionist that I am, I worried myself sick over the test. I knew that the two weeks in April meant more to keeping my job than the entire rest of the year. And trust me, I'm not the only one. This type of anxiety can make amazing teachers doubt their talents, change their methods of teaching to "fit the testing style," and greatly reduce instructional time for developing skills such as reading fluency and expression, which aren't measured through standardized testing.

That's why I am unbelievably grateful to teach at a place that celebrates real education and learning over a standardized test. Sure, it's a valuable measurement tool we use to gather information about our students. But we care about SO much more here. And truthfully, it shows. Our students are capable of so much more than performing well on a test!

The Power of No

Last school year I sat down for coffee with a parent of one of my most rambunctious students ever. Our conversation started out as a brainstorming session on behavior interventions for this particular student, but soon shifted to a philosophical dialogue on the power of language.

She told me that over the years, her student--often classified as a troublemaker--frequently heard "Don't do this, don't do that, stop it, etc." from teachers, administrators, and even family members. She argued that the word NO "just didn't work" for her student.

She continued on by explaining that as we speak, our brains create mental images to go along with the words we hear. For instance, if you hear, "She went on a bike ride today," your brain would produce an image of a bike, a woman on a bike, a bike trail, etc. When you use the word no (or any type of negative) in a sentence, your brain is unable to create an image of nothing. In essence, your mind goes blank. She explained that when we tell our children what not to do, they have no mental representation for the action. 

It blew my mind! It made total sense...what a simple way to look at classroom management. If I'm telling students "Stop talking, no pushing, or don't run," I'm negatively impacting their ability to carry out those tasks. However, if I replace the negative command with a positive statement, my students are able to create a mental image and carry out the task as they see it in their minds.

This goes beyond putting things into positive terms (which I'm all for, by the way). This means changing the way I think and speak to improve student achievement.

On a related note, I'm interested in reading the book Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives. That is, once I finish Awakened and Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Confession

Let me preface this blog entry (blentry?) by apologizing for the frantic tone--I'm writing this in the last fifteen minutes of my plan time right before the subject of my entry is set to take place. 

I am terrified of symmetry!

There seems to be one or two topics (especially in math) out there that a teacher gets really nervous about teaching. For me, that's symmetry. It's one of those concepts that seems really easy in my head but is mad difficult to explain to an 8-year-old. 

Like a rectangle, for instance. It has the vertical and horizontal line of symmetry, but explaining that a doggone diagonal line doesn't work as a line of symmetry...for me, it's like explaining rocket science. I don't know if I was sick the day my college professors taught "Symmetry: Revealed" or maybe I was just doodling "Miss Boyd," on the back of my notebooks, but somehow, I developed a nervous "tick" when it comes to this subject. Honestly, I think it's that we spent so much time in college talking about students' misconceptions that I worry about setting my students up to misunderstand concepts.  

Four years later I've developed a strong sense of confidence as a teacher, but I think the fear still lingers. It's silly, really, but I think a good educator should admit to weak spots in his or her instructional practices and learn from past mistakes. So in five minutes time, I'm ready to churn out the most rockin' lesson possible and make symmetry shake in its boots. 

Wish me luck!