Are you a new teacher? If so, those theoretical characters in books are about to be replaced with living human beings, teachers, students and administrators who are living in a time when “the terrible tyranny of the majority,” to quote Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, is creating and fostering a mounting onslaught of standardized testing and government intervention with the best of intentions, but little understanding of the myriad unintended consequences I have seen unfolding as a result.

If you are lucky, you left school and landed in a district that has been mostly passing or even walloping state tests. In those districts, the landscape has not shifted under teachers with the same titanic force that is being felt in urban and academically-struggling districts. Where the students are not defined as broken, the administration does not have to doggedly attempt to fix everything and everyone. They can still teach drama for the sake of drama and orchestra for the love of music. They can hold spirit assemblies that sacrifice academic minutes, and sign off on field trips that add breadth and breath to education.

But maybe you got the first job that many teachers find, that position in an urban school with a high turnover rate. Where are the jobs? What districts have high vacancy rates? Those districts where resources are scarce and/or working conditions are challenging. Maybe you are stacking up falling tiles from your ceiling in a corner somewhere, while you buy supplies for all your students and borrow an overhead projector from your stepmother-in-law. Poor districts often lack flashy technology and supplies, unless they have lucked into grant money.

Wherever you are, you likely are about to run the gauntlet of our time, as you attempt to please students, parents, colleagues, administrators, Charlotte Danielson or whoever designed your system of evaluation, the greater public and even state and federal governments. You will succeed and you will fail. Nobody can keep the whole crowd happy. You will have to be resilient.

Eduhonesty: Well, I guess this is what happens when the Blog of Occasional Gloom and Doom attempts to write tips for new teachers. I ought to add, “And then the Zombie Apocalypse will wreck your field trip to the forest preserve!”

Sorry if this post lacks cheer. Honestly, my students and classes have mostly been joys for me, and in some districts, you won’t even catch a whiff of those zombies. You might walk in the door and discover supplies, a budget for more supplies and all the help you could ever need. I hope so.

But if you just started in Detroit or Flint, if you just started in that rural county where the mining industry has been collapsing, or if you are in a school that has been losing the No Child Left Behind Game for a decade and more, then I have a tip for today for you:

Tip #4: You MUST differentiate.

If this tip seems silly to you, I understand. But districts threatened by lower test scores sometimes script out the curriculum in fine detail. I lived through a year in which all students in my school were required to receive exactly the same math tests and quizzes, whether they were in special education, bilingual programs or regular classes. More and more often, you will be given a script to follow, a script that may not match your students.

A few years ago, I discussed this with a colleague who said, “I just make my own plans and ignore that stuff.” She was getting great results and administrators left her alone. You might luck into similar, smart administrators who will let you deviate from the script as long as you can prove your choices are working.

But if you are told to stay on the group track and the group track does not seem to benefit some, most or even all of your students, then you will have to rescue your kids. Be prepared to do morning, lunch and afternoon tutoring. I added week-end tutoring and I will strongly recommend readers try this. Meet students in a local McDonalds or Taco Bell or anyplace with a cheap breakfast and acceptable coffee/tea/caffeine. My usual time was 10:00 AM on Saturdays.

Buy the kids breakfast if you can. You can feed your students for a couple of dollars apiece at Taco Bell. O.K., I admit that nutritionists reading this post are cringing right now, but kids on the fence may get up to go to tutoring if you toss breakfast into the deal, and most teachers can’t afford to buy restaurant fruit plates for everyone. The majority of your kids would rather have that breakfast burrito anyway.

Then prepare to differentiate. Teach adding to Sadie, multiplication to Drew, and the order of operations to Katrina. Teach your kids the NEXT thing they need to know. You are the only one who can do this. You are the one grading the homework and listening to individual students.

Administration may try to get you to prepare everyone for identical tests all year. If you do that, you cheat your students. Some students will be far from academically ready for that test’s content, while others will have understood the same content years ago,

Your job as a teacher is to meet your students academically where they live. “You got what you got,” as a presenter said to me long ago in a professional development seminar. In these times of all-inclusive classes, that may mean you have six or more years difference in understanding of subject matter within a single class.

Forget the theory where the theory does not seem to be working for you. Try to at least sideswipe all the administrative demands, but don’t get trapped by those demands. Teach your kids in a rational order. Don’t throw algebra at them until they understand their exponents. Don’t bypass the elements of a plot if students’ quizzes show they are fuzzy on plot elements just because plot “ended” and metaphors “start” this week.

Teach smart. Teach kids what they need to know. That requires differentiating. whether you receive support for your efforts or not.

(Readers, please pass this on. I cannot remember reading this useful bit of advice in any of the many blog posts and articles I regularly read.)

I reread my last post and realized I ought to emphasize one point: Don’t plan a fun activity for after the test, especially one that can be done independently. That test that will be placed in a child’s cumulative folder, that test that will follow a child through the rest of his or her academic career? A seven-year-old, ten-year-old or even fifteen-year old may rocket through the test to get to the fun activity. Kids don’t have perspective. They will bolt down dinner to get to the chocolate cake.

An academic puzzle should work well, but art projects need to be avoided. Free time needs to be avoided. These rewards for finishing are too tempting. You don’t want kids socializing after the test anyway; you want to keep the room quiet.

Even when everyone is done, you will benefit from a calming activity. Some kids become highly stressed, tense and/or excited by tests. These kids should receive a version of quiet time after they finish exams, a time to slow down and decompress.

I want to do the classroom tips for August. Readers liked last August’s tips, and many teachers who are getting started can use advice from someone who worked in “disadvantaged” classrooms through the years. Education courses seldom provide much help in finding one’s footing in urban and financially-hungry districts. Courses teach aspiring teachers how to make spiffy lesson plans in a time when those teachers may not even be allowed to make lesson plans because all the plans have been scripted in advance by curriculum committees who are matching lessons to the Common Core, rather than actual student learning levels.

My problem with the tips will be that I am simultaneously trying to write a book out here. Why am I writing a book? In part, because if I do not write this book soon, I may never write it. The years have rolled by and my indignation has faded, replaced by a stunned fascination, as I watch the Common Core unrolling around me. Tests created to go with the Core, such as the PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests, appear to have failed a frightening percentage of the students who took those tests.  Yet we continue to create and trumpet new, harder standards and tests, as if those standards and tests will themselves somehow solve the educational problems besieging America’s inner cities and other scholastically-challenged playing fields.

Exactly HOW these new, harder tests will cure America’s educational ills receives little or no discussion, probably because details of this “plan” have never been thought out. For one thing, detailed consideration might result in the realization that the educational leaps demanded require additional funding — a realization that our leaders have been ducking since No Child Left Behind attacked schools with a huge, unfunded mandate that unsurprisingly failed ignominiously Government leaders and educational administrators seem to have been on a “Field of Dreams” marathon. If we raise the bar, students won’t necessarily jump that bar. Our problems have reached levels that standards themselves can never address. The Common Core seems to me to be another No Child Left Behind — another attempt to find a simple solution to a set of complex problems, many of which have nothing to do with where we set bars. I can put the bar anywhere I like for Javier, but if he reached middle school unable to read, he won’t manage to jump that bar.

Unfortunately, we teachers are often our own worst enemies, as we adapt, adapt, adapt. New mandates come down from above and we make do. Teachers keep making do. Another test? Quick! Find me #2 pencils! Find me computers! After the first wave of horror, we begin developing our survival rules. Rule #15: Feed them the free Apple Jacks and make sure they have pencils and/or laptops for the test. Rule #34: Seize water bottles before they leave the room since the bottles make great squirt guns; Seize bottles with holes in the lid immediately. Rule #62: Never sit Jenny next to Marisol.

Well, I suppose I should give my tip for the day. I apologize to newbies who find this post lacking in cheer. I still love teaching. I still love the kids. In many districts, especially districts with money, teaching remains a creative and rewarding field, filled with happy moments and enthusiastic students.

But testing really has spiraled out of control, as newbies will discover.

So here is Tip #2: Lay in a supply of word searches and crossword puzzles. Look up http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/ or other sites that allow you to create targeted puzzles. Start creating your post-test library of activities to use to keep students occupied and quiet after they have finished their latest test. You can also buy activities from Teachers Pay Teachers. Some activities at this site are free.

The toughest part of a test comes after students began finishing. Some kids will take the whole time period. Others will blast through that test in less than half a period sometimes.

You need work for after the test. You also need to spell out the rules for after the test. Tell students directly that they cannot talk. Make sure they have pencils for the “Bridge to Terabithia” crossword puzzle, and know exactly where that puzzle is located if you are not passing out the crossword yourself. Have a back-up wordsearch, too, or another puzzle of your choice. The idea is nobody runs out of work — nobody, nohow, never.

I suggest avoiding artsier projects like those in the picture above after tests unless your classroom functions exceptionally well independently. You are trying to avoid questions and interruptions. You also don’t want kids to rush through the test so they can cut construction paper and use the glitter glue.

Readers: Please do me a favor and pass these tips on to teachers who are gearing up for the new year. Or anyone else who you think might benefit from a post.

My bracelet says, “JUST BREATHE.” That’s today’s tip for teachers new and old. I suggest creating a meme for yourself that you can post in the classroom. Or buy yourself an affirmation bracelet.

Depending on what you teach (or not), you might want to talk about breathing with your classroom. Deep, abdominal breaths are calming. We can all use a dose of calm every so often.

Eduhonesty: I love affirmation bracelets. They make some bracelets with sayings etched inside, too. Short phrases act as reminders. They also define you. You will never be the worse for wearing a phrase like, “LOVE MY STUDENTS” on your sleeve.

I recently talked with a preschool special education teacher. Kids who need extra help often start public school at the age of three. “Maria” had been placed in special education in the public school system. Her teacher loved her. She was a sweet kid, a kid who did not seem slow as much as English-challenged.

Her teacher had not tried to remove her from special education, despite a strong suspicion that Maria’s learning problems resulted from the fact that English was her second language. No services for English as a Second Language existed for children under five within her district. If Maria went home, she would be immersed in Spanish, and the teacher believed academic work in English would benefit Maria.

As a former bilingual teacher, I discussed the issue that leapt out at me. What if Maria ended up stuck in special education? I believe many placement mistakes have been made on both sides of this equation. Distinguishing between language and cognitive issues can be tough — especially if the evaluator(s) don’t fluently speak the language of the child being tested. Once tracked, students can’t always easily step off those tracks.

Eduhonesty: Why can’t Maria talk? Why has Maria fallen behind? Students learning a second language often go through a silent period when they are afraid to talk for fear of making embarrassing mistakes. That silence can easily be mistaken for lack of comprehension. Conversely, a lack of comprehension may be confused with inability to speak English.

What interested me most was the rescue underway. Since no bilingual services existed, the teacher decided that special education should be used to help Maria. I suspect Maria may have gotten lucky. Her teacher claims their district aggressively attempts to exit students from special education.

But then I think of students from my own past, slow learners spending years and years in bilingual programs that may have been mistaken placements. When a child can never pass the English-language exit test used now in most of the country, we ought to quickly consider the possibility that that child’s academic problems do not stem from language confusion. I have seen students spend their whole lives in bilingual programs. That’s both abusive and absurd.

Maria’s teacher is working around the system. I hope her efforts benefit Maria. I wish the system worked more cleanly and efficiently for our Marias. Maria may have been misplaced. If so, she lucked into a fine teacher to help prepare her for elementary school.

I just hope Maria gets exited out of special education quickly if special education proves not to be where she belongs.

Picture from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

I got back to the Chicagoland area and found my Sunday paper, the one weekly paper that gets tossed onto the driveway outside my stolid, gray brick house. The lead story is titled, “Leaderless gangs vex efforts to stop killing.” The article’s complex and I don’t want to oversimplify what has been happening. The rising Chicago death toll cannot fit into a blog post. The fact that police are making fewer stops due to greater paperwork and accountability demands affects crime statistics a great deal, for example, but I don’t wish to go in this direction today.

A big idea stopped my quick read and connected me to education briefly: At least part of the current crisis was blamed on the lack of leadership and leadership structure within current gangs. The gangs have become diffuse, dispersed organizations with no obvious head, and consequently have become much more difficult for police to address in an organized fashion.

To quote the Chicago News Tribune:

“Two federal law enforcement officers who regularly work with Chicago police on gang violence said that, among the black gangs, the old hierarchical rules of engagement ‘ are nonexistent.’ One of the officers said he traces the change, in part, to the dismantling of public housing high-rises in Chicago.

Without those buildings, the officer said, there was no infrastructure around which to rebuild the gangs the way they used to exist.

‘Public housing scattered,’ he said. ‘You used to have a hierarchy of people who had to live together. You have this big housing event, and GDs are living with Four Corner Hustlers.

They are also going to school with each other. I vividly remember the death of a gang member who had once gone to my school. The community spent a few anxious days waiting to find out if gang activity had been involved, specifically if the Four Corner Hustlers had been sending a message to the Latin Kings. The school spent those days on high alert, ready for lockdown at any time.

Eduhonesty: I recommend this front page Tribune article. I am probably not headed in the directions readers expect, however. I suppose those high rises had to come down. Too many beaten-down people had too many terrifying stories of life in the Cabrini-Green high-rise hallways. But I do not see that the situation seems any less frightening today. Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq and many other newspaper stories headline a neighborhood violence problem that has long since spiraled out of control.

We knocked those high-rises down., Are we better off? We may be worse off.

I’d like to draw an analogy to No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. Mandating change without providing support works poorly — when it works at all. I believe No Child Left Behind might have produced much better results if the government had actually provided additional funds to keep struggling schools open longer, allowing those schools to provide more desperately needed remedial tutoring for our lowest students. Absent that tutoring and more schooling, however, the program was destined to fail. In the meantime, putting a whole bunch of gang members in low-rise housing scattered throughout neighborhoods seems to be having about the effect I would have expected — those gang members are still selling drugs and shooting people. What did we do to stop the drugs and that violence? We moved people, who took all their guns, drugs and problems with them.

Simple solutions to complex problems hardly ever work well.