My colleague is one of the walking dead. (See the March 26th post.) Her zombie status has created much discussion among the living and the dead. She is a first year teacher and her score came in under the number the district had used to define proficient. Proficiency has been defined as 2.72 and above. My colleague received a 2.70.

These are social science numbers, the opinions of observers. In one professional development I attended, an auditorium of teachers was asked to determine Charlotte Danielson rubric numbers for teaching as they watched videos. I vividly remember one video that broke down with about 1/3 of the auditorium giving a “2” and 2/3 giving a “3” for the same video. A scattering of teachers bestowed a “4” on that video. These numbers are in the eye of the beholder. That missing 0.02 has zero statistical validity or reliability. But a first year teacher just lost her job based on that number. The Danielson group would never support using their numbers in this fashion; they will tell you that first year teachers naturally will have lower numbers. Teaching proficiency is learned on the job.

I worked with this teacher all year. She busily created new materials for her students. She adapted materials. She shared. She worked extremely hard.

Here is the saddest email I am likely to see all year, sent in the middle of spring break:

I know I should be relaxing, but of course I am thinking about work. I have 2 five hour long train rides this weekend, so I will have time to get something done…hopefully.

I know that you were starting the new vocabulary. I didn’t get to it last week, I was trying to get kids caught up on grades and such. If you know the vocabulary, send it to me? Please and thank you.

Also, what else are we covering? Possibly Monday we meet after our PLC? I just need to make sure I am prepared for an IEP meeting after school Monday.

Well I hope both of you are relaxing over break!!!!

My young colleague is more professional and forgiving than I am. I would give the administration that canned me over that nonsensical 0.02 about 0.02 minutes of my time over spring break. I don’t think I’d give them an adapted lesson plan, either, whether I adapted the materials (she will) or not. I trust my colleague to do her best for her students and I’ll be at those meetings she wants, helping her figure out what we are teaching next. I’ll also send her a recommendation and list of possible districts where she should put in applications. Our loss will be someone else’s gain.

In another world, first-year teachers get mentors. My colleague finally received that help more than halfway through the year, but that help came after the first of her two major evaluations. She received little help navigating the evaluation process regardless. My colleague made a mistake I have seen other young teachers make: She worked days, nights and week-ends to provide quality instruction for her kids while neglecting politics. Politics can take the best of teachers and administrators down.

Eduhonesty: That young woman worked so hard. She did a great job, too, which is why many district teachers are talking about this injustice. The guy across the hall was livid when we discussed the 0.02 fiasco. But I tried to calm those waters with an observation that I still believe: Losing this job may be one of the best things that will ever happen to my colleague. The job that our administrators were waving in front of her all year, amid threats about underperforming reflected in invented numbers — nobody in their right mind would want that job. With luck, she will be making much more money next year — in a much kinder and supportive environment.

Sit up straight.
Listen.
Ask and answer questions.
Nod your head to show you are listening.
Track the speaker.

I’m not sure where SLANT came from, although I’ve heard that the acronym came from KIPP schools originally. I decided to blog SLANT because it works. In particular, SLANT gets the heads up off the desk. We avoid discussions about how Hector can listen with his head down and, honest, he is paying attention even if he sometimes shuts his eyes. We avoid discussions about how the absence of eye contact and questions does not mean the student has tuned out. We have a simple set of rules, expressed in a one-word command which comes down to sit up, look at me and show me you are listening.

Eduhonesty: If I say, “Sit up straight!”, I may have to fend off discussions about why posture matters. I know that when I tell students they need to listen, the great majority will respond that they are listening, no matter how intently they are staring out the window. All of these discussions and comments suck up time. If I say, “SLANT!”, I don’t seem to have these problems. No one chooses to debate the different aspects of the acronym, a word that is easy to teach and easy to remember. I have the steps posted on my wall too. SLANT has been a professional development win.

“Hinsdale D86 investigating teachers who ‘liked’ Facebook post” the headline reads.

Eduhonesty: This post is for aspiring teachers, especially those with names like “Juwan Roquemore.” The “Maria Gomez’s” are harder to find, lost in the sea of Marias. Watch what you post. Watch what you like. School districts will dig into your past. As with other employers, this digging has become increasingly easy as social media proliferates.

No push pins. No tooth picks. No sharp,pointy objects.

A first-year teacher was helping us plan an art project today. She suggested putting push pins into the project before we all leapt in to explain the foolhardiness of the plan. If I build my atom out of marshmallows, I will use spaghetti for connectors. I may still hear a yelp or two, but I won’t have to send people to the nurse.

Eduhonesty: Some first-year teachers will try those toothpicks or push pins before they learn. Why does the research suggest first- and second-year teachers underperform more experienced colleagues? In part, teachers have to learn to think like kids or adolescents. That’s not as easy a process as one might guess.

I had to write up a student today who threw her pencil across the room and then dived out of her chair across the room, sliding on her belly to pick up the pencil. It so would never, ever occur to me to slide across a dirty, schoolroom floor on my stomach. She wanted attention. She got some. I had to write up the behavior, even though it was kind of funny. You let one funny go, though, and the next thing you know you have a bunch of pencils that have suddenly become home plate.

I called and spoke directly to dad. Dad was at work, laboring at one of his two jobs. He apologized for his son, noting that working both days and evenings was making parenting difficult. My phone call produced the desired results. “Horatio” came in at lunch today to get all his back work. His behavior has been top-notch for over a week now. I don’t know how long the magic will hold, but Horatio listens in class and has been turning in quality papers.

Eduhonesty: Calling moms and dads can be a real win. In the end, the luck of mom and dad is huge. I understand that sometimes marriages fail, and sometimes girls have accidents or make single-parenting choices, but two parent households are a win for teachers. Overall, the children from these households work harder, are more reliable and do better academically. This may not always be true, but it’s true in many, many cases.

We spend so much time trying to figure out what’s wrong with some of our inner-city schools. What are the teachers doing wrong? Pundits ask. Let me offer up the possibility that when most of the school comes from a broken or forever single-parent home, the problem may not be the school or the teachers.

To quote a half-remembered line from a long ago newspaper article: “What are you to do when a parent has never taken a can of peas and said, “peas, green, round”?

An hour and half of math is simply too long. We have research that suggests our kids can’t stay focused on math for that long. A few can, of course, but most wander off mentally if the lesson goes on too long.

I like block schedules. I’ve had too many lessons that I could not finish because I needed extra time. I like to finish what I start in the same class period.

Eduhonesty: Nonetheless, I try to work a break into the middle of any block, something physical if possible. I am experimenting with Yoga right now. The kids welcome the break. They are usually much more attentive when we resume class.

Too often nowadays, in the work world as well as the classroom, our sense of urgency seems to lead us to flog the horse until it’s ready to drop. We might do much better with music, carrots and water breaks.