Scoring the Regents

Here we are: It's June, Regents Exams are over and graduation is coming next Tuesday. However, there are no scores for the Regents. We do not know who graduates and who goes to the Summer school. It's a mess.

Why do politicians have to make politics even where it does not belong? Why do we always have to find somebody to blame when we run into a problem?

We have a mess with the Regents scoring only because the new system is coming to schools and the system is not completely ready to be used to all exams. It needs some adjustments like any new car need the parts to start working together and rub on each other.

We need this new system because it's efficient to use computers for scoring, not because the "scores were inflated" by teachers. What a bull....

We need the new system because we entered the 21st century and we do everything on the computers and on-line, shouldn't we score the papers on-line too? Of course we should!!!!

I scored Chemistry in January online. It was great experience. Fast, efficient, no paper cuts or paper dust. Old tests were recycled and I got the disk with my students' exams for storage. I love everything about the new system. It's coming and it's almost here.

Unfortunately, there are problems: politics and money. Naturally!

Politics, because they have to blame somebody for everything, so this change is blamed on the teachers who can't score their students' papers, but by some mysterious reason can score other teachers' students work. Same people, same students, same papers. I scored them the same way I always did. I do not care if the student is mine or somebody else's. Other teachers are like that too. It's our job to grade papers, we've done this for years. I like the new system, I hate being lied to.

With the new system a "for profit" corporation comes into the old public system. Now we have to share our tax payers' money with the company which scans and converts all exams into digital form. How much is too much? How much is enough? Who do we have to blame if the computer freezes?

Should Schools be Profitable?

The "School reform" which politicians promise everywhere is in full swing in NYC. Schools are being closed other schools are being open. Some teachers are laid off, then hired again. More principals got more jobs: that's for sure, to rule higher number of smaller schools. Some say it works, others say it fails. How do you know? Who can understand what's going on? Why one school is chosen over another?

You can't find the answers in the Medea. I tried. The information is twisted, one-sided, and always blames the teaches for all the problems in education. Teachers are bad. Fire them all. Teachers are too lazy. Teachers have it easy. Teachers have a shorter day. Teachers have longer vacations. Remove tenure from teachers. Retest the teachers. Take their licenses away. They are doing nothing when nobody's watching.

The last one is my favorite :):):):) We have 34 times 5 pairs of eyes watching us everyday for 6 hours and 40 minutes. When they are not around we have meetings, workshops, or professional assignments. We can't use the bathroom when we need it. We can't drink coffee, or have our phone on. Every minute of our school day is measured, scheduled, and accounted for. This is why we have to grade the students' papers at home, plan out lessons at home, go to the bathroom at home.

I am not winning, it's my life, it's normal, just do not tell me that I have it easy. I am an experienced teacher who loves the job. I do need my 2 months in the summer to rejuvenate and bring my energy back. We start in September, in October I have my first nervous break down, feeling that they learn too slowly. By December I am back because they did learn something and show some progress. In January we have State Tests which usually change some students' standing on their way to the high school diploma. By February I develop a second breath and start new term very enthusiastically. March and April are always filled with a lot of learning and growing, but by May I can't remember what I am saying and have to start every sentence at least twice. Thank god we have State Tests in June or I would go crazy. In July I can only lay in my bed without any thoughts or plans because in September I have to start all over.

Now back to the reform: as I usually suggest, let's start with definitions. What is a good school? According to our current politicians in the city and in the country: a good school is a school that has the highest number of students who passed the State Tests and received the high school diploma. That's it. Simple and easy to check. Good teachers are those whose students pass the state exams, and bad teachers are those whose students do not. Again easy to define and easy to check. Maybe they are right, those current politicians?

I am working at a very prestigious school at this time after working for 20 years with the poorest population. This is a very pity place for kids: Teachers talk in quiet classrooms, write notes on the boards. Students memorize everything and pass all the exams with flying colors. They are all obedient kids, most of them are introverts, they got to this school by passing 3 hour written test and an interview. Are they real? Can we make all of them like that?

I wrote the above 3 years ago, but it was stored on Google as a draft. My life changed, I am not working at this school any longer, but I still feel the same about that place. So I'll finish this blog and publish it now.

The reform I was talking about converts public schools that use the taxes into charter schools that also use taxes. The difference is that public schools use all the money they received, but charter schools work for profit so they must have some of our taxes left for their own profits. And the other difference is that we take care of all and any children that come to us, but charter schools can refuse some "difficult" children their services.

I started this blog by describing my working conditions as one year cycle. The same happens in the charter schools. The teachers are as busy and as exhausted as we are. I know teachers from charter schools, they are great people and I know teachers from public schools they are absolutely great and I am proud to be one of them. Should the business model be applied to schools or not is for your, the public, to decide. Do you think that it is a good idea to make profits out of our tax money spent on our kids? I know I put this question in an unfair way, my opinion is too obvious :)

A letter to my metamorphosis class

I know you will be wonderful adults. I know many of you will become professionals in the fields of your choices. I know many of you will be still dancing and screaming and clapping even later in life. I also know that all you successes will come to you harder than to some other people; you will have to do more in order to get the same. Why? Because it seems that those people who can show self-discipline and self-control get it with minimal effort and when they work hard they become unstoppable.
Nature or gods give you your talent, but then you have to apply self-discipline and self-control to develop your talent and achieve your real heights. You already heard a lot about how hard you have to sit at the table and study and read, and solve problems. Today I want to talk about what if you have a talent that requires strong muscles and cool head?
This video is about modern dancers. How much do you think they had to practice and how much sweat was poured before they became this good?

What about this guy? How much self-sacrifice and self-discipline did he have to apply? Now guy like him teach you a step-by-step process, was there somebody for him? I really think he developed all these tricks by falling getting up and moving on.

This one is called mountain biker: Did he ever fall?

How much self-discipline and self-control these guys had to apply to achieve these heights? Was it easy?
Maybe yes maybe no. They found their passion and their purpose. And then through pain and sweat they defined gravity. There are physics teachers who use these examples to study Newton’s Laws. There are scientists who work with this people to study human physiology. Can you imagine how strong their muscles must be?

To achieve a success it’s absolutely necessary to stop singing and dancing and start working from time to time. I love the fact that you are so happy and jolly, now I want to see you concentrated on your goals and achieve them. By the way, setting your goals is a hard work too, especially at your age. What do you want? What do you want for yourself? I am not talking about what your parents want or what your teachers want for you. What do you want? Let’s go and get that.

Do you see how much they enjoy the strength of their bodies. They also enjoy unbelievable view from up there.
Am I becoming an inspirational speaker? Ha

Who are the Judges? And Where are the Rubrics?

For those who do not know what Rubrics are - it's a new term in teaching, parameters for grading your creative work. It is a list or a chart that shows the students what they will be graded on as they hand in their work.

Recently I read an article about teachers. In that article american teachers were compared to the teachers from other countries and were given a very disappointing low grade. The teachers from other countries were so much better, they even had better grades when they themseves were students. I was reading and thinking: who are those superbeings? How do they know who is a good teacher and who is not a good teacher? Where did they place the Rubricks to compare us with each other?

Later another thought came to me. Again I was reading an article, but this time somebody tried to tell me which chocolate chip cookie was the best. And again I marveled about this superbeing who knows what I like in my cookies. But then I thought that my Rubrics for my favorite cookie is very different from somebody else Rubrics for the same cookie. I love them chowy and soft, others love them cranchy and hard. How can we put those things in the same Rubrics. No we need different cookies. I love the fact that I can be in a different mood and get a different cookie. Nobody can tell which cookie is the best.

This is why competitions do not work any longer. They do not work at a work place, they do not work at schools. Competitions still work in sports and only for entertaining the fans. They still help the organizers to collect a lot of money. But then those fans go home and go to work and they do not compete there they cooperate. They help each other. They brainstorm together to achieve even higher heights, some that were not achievable by one competing individual alone.

Back to poor bad teachers of America. I know these people, I work with them for many years, I know how many really bad teachers I met in my 23 years of teaching. The numer is 3. Out of these 3, 2 left the job, and the third one already retired.

If we are so bad, why is that every country is sending us their teachers and researchers to learn our methods? If we are so bad, why do they want to learn how we do it? If we are so bad, why do we have Classroom 2.0 and Future of Education, and Ning, and Wiki, and Google - all are here, the headquaters are located in the United States.

But the main thought I want to deliver here is that nobody is good for everybody. I might be a great teacher, but there are always some students with who my methods do not work. I am bad with those who need my instructions at all times and has no initiative. I try to teach my students how to be independent learners and once in a while I meet a kid who watches me and wants me to tell him or her what to do all the time. I give them less and less instructions as they grow into their independent routine. So here I am a bad teacher, because I didn't tell the kid what to do and was surprised when he asked. I am hard and cranchy with a kid like that, but chwoy and soft with those who jumped in and started to create.

So again, who is the judge? and who writes the Rubrics?

Find your passion

Here is another TED idea worth spreading:

Sir Ken is right, of course, but how? How can we help the children to find their passions?
When I think of my own life, what was the hardest thing to do? Finding my passion and recognizing it was the hardest and took the longest. And I am one of the lucky ones who did find it. So, now as a teacher, I believe that the earlier we start bringing the topic of the passion the better chances the kids have.
On the other hand, we do bring the topic early, we always ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up. Some lucky kids just know, like this firefighter, but absolute majority has no idea of what can be their passion. That is why we still have to show them what's there to choose from. This is why the school has to have some basic curricula to help kids in finding their passions. We just have to allow them to choose and quit subjects that obviously are not their passion.
And, again, to some people some struggle is a necessity in becoming.
This is the beauty of the problem. There are as many solutions as there are people.

Being a teacher

Average person in America has an image of a teacher who reads a newspaper in a classroom in front of a class full of students, then collects the papers and grades them at home, isn’t it. How many movies did I see delivering this picture?

In reality we are being watched, all the time, non stop, those students are alive, young and very energetic human beings.

Number one problem is overload. Of course, all working people experience this these days. We all are overwhelmed with responsibilities and assignments we can’t even complete. I am a teacher, I will talk about teachers’ overload. When you come to the point that you are standing in front of the class and don’t remember why you are there, it’s overload. You must do something about that.

Number two problem is complete ignorance and disrespect from the society to your profession and your problems in spite of the fact that everyone is, was, or will be attending a school for 12 years of their lives and then take the kids there too. The job of everyone else is recognized and respected, but teachers and hospitality workers. Not everyone will use a hotel very often though.

Number three problem relates to the fact that the education system involves a LOT of money. No, teachers don’t have high salaries, but there are millions of us. Plus there are millions of students and schools get money for every kid. Every politician, every felon, everyone whose relatives are politicians or felons want a piece of that money. This is why the kids do not get computers, calculators, books, art supplies, and the teachers buy, bring, borrow, steal, or just forget to return stuff we need to use with our students. The money does not get to the classrooms, it’s spent long before it can be even seen here.

We, teachers, know that we can always close the door and just do this thing, called teaching and learning. It is a talent which each of us has.It is different for each teacher as well as it is different for each kid. Some of us are good readers; they inspire reading in their students. Some of us are actors, they will teach the subject matter through role playing. Some of us are artists and they will inspire learning through drawing and sculptures. Unfortunately, fewer see the beauty in Math which is one of the most elegant subjects to my taste. If we are ready for the reform in our education system let’s start with recognition of each teacher’s talent as well as every kid’s gift to learn and then we have to do our best in matching those. Those two have to work together without much homework for either of them because at home they both have many more different things to learn and many more people to meet.

Teaching is ART

I have a Diploma; it’s hanged on the most Southern wall of my house as required by Feng Shui. The Diploma says that I am a Master of Art in Teaching Science. At first I was laughing at it; how can a person be an artist and a scientist at the same time. It took me almost twenty years to understand and really feel it. The job that I am doing IS ART. It requires inspiration and can inspire. I think about how I can make it better all the time. Some ideas can come in my sleep. I deal with people and their emotions all the time. I can affect many lives. Yes, my job is ART.
Many of these conditions are true for science too, but science itself has no emotions, it deals with the world around more than with the people. People are affected only when the scientist discovered and explained something that would trigger the technology to move to the next level. In most cases the science affects all people in the same way. “Good” science brings more useful technology; “bad” science brings more harmful and destructive technologies. This is a traditional view, in reality there is no “good” or “bad” science they both at different stages of their development can bring us useful or destructive technologies, sometimes at the same time. For examples, batteries that are so good for the environment when new and working are extremely poisonous to the landfills when dead.
Art is like people it also is affected by technology not the other way around. Each artist has different effect on different people. One piece of art can turn your life around, the other you’ll pass without even noticing. And, of course, Art causes turmoil of emotions on both sides: the artist who creates it and the viewer who is affected by it. In reality it can be a viewer, a listener, an observer, a reader, a pupil.
I think I do understand it now. I am an artist who works with live human beings, not paint or ink. The result of my inspiration will affect many of my students. Without an inspiration I will not touch them at all. If I allow my sadness, or anger, or hate control my teaching I can affect those young lives in a negative way like nobody else. No parents or friends can affect those lives as I can.
I must be kind and forgiving to teach these qualities by example. I must be understanding and caring to be able to help them grow. I also must treat each of them as an individual, recognize and respect their differences even when the state requires them to pass the same test. Each of them has different needs in order to pass the same test. My art is to find this little something that will help this one student learn what he or she needs to learn and pass this next exam, sometimes without them even noticing what I did for them. And then I have to repeat the process of the search with each next student in each next class.
Of course, there are tricks and strategies that work with more than one student. This is why it is possible to teach how to be an artist. There are rules of perspective and the color wheel. But like any other art teaching can give you this moment of inspiration when you know that you created a masterpiece, when all little parts fell in place, and you affected this person life forever, and he or she will be a happier human being from this moment on. Like I remember I became a happier person when I first saw how the fishes in the Matisse’s aquarium started to move;or when the pink sand on Gauguin’s Hawaiian beach turned alive and vibrant.

Open Cover Letter

To whom it may concern:

I am an ATR (Absent Teacher Reserve) in New York city 2009-2010 school year.

I am looking for a position of a Science or Math teacher at a New York City public middle or high school. I have two NYS and two NYC licenses to teach Chemistry and General Science and Mathematics. My licenses allow me to teach students from 7 to 12 grades.
I am a veteran NYC teacher with 22 years experience working at two South Bronx public schools: one was Martha Neilson School (Bronx site of the Program for Pregnant and Parenting Teens) and the other New Schools for Arts and Sciences. I am out of job for no other reason than closing of my schools by current city administration. I am one of those bad teachers who worked at those bad schools and who deserve to be out on the street without pay according to the city proposed new contract.
Let me tell you how bad I am and how bad were the closed schools.
I was the only science teacher at my school, so I taught all science courses required by the state. I can teach and I was teaching all of the following: Living Environment, Earth Science, Regents Biology, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Physics – all Regents high school courses, in addition Foundation of Science and Physical Science for 8th Graders, Foundations of Math, Math A, Math B. I also taught science and math for special ed. students. After being in my classes the students were passing State Tests, but more importantly they had more positive attitude towards learning and education in general. Many of them were first generation in their families with a high school diploma. I am very proud of each and every one of them.
I am also very proud to be a colleague of so many other bad teachers who worked at my bad schools. They all were and are devoted to the job and the kids. They are my heroes. I love them and I am one of them. We really made a difference in so many lives. We were not just people who delivered some info for the test; we delivered a better life, sometimes in a form of food or clothes, sometimes in a form of shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen. We helped to file job and college applications. We took them to museums and theatres, to parks and to Washington D.C. Yes, our students talked to the congress people and to the senators, to superintendents and judges.
All our students were computer literate. They could, of course, type a paper, but they also could create great Power Point Presentations, Publisher Brochures, Blog online, make glogs, take tests and quizzes online, search Internet, and get around the city blocking (the latter they did on their own). Our students kept their work in virtual portfolios in digital format. The same applies to the teachers: all bad teachers were computer literate, all teachers used either Dell or Apple computers or both for the instructions, and all of us used Smart White Board.
Yes, I am one of these bad teachers from the bad schools that deserved to be closed.
I am looking for a job. I want to continue teaching for another 3 or 4 years. I know I can do a good job teaching for the test because I have nothing against the tests. I know that new schools will be open to replace the closed ones and new young teachers will be as bad as we were. I also know that the city students didn’t suffer too much when I lost my job. I am nobody special, just a bad teacher from a bad school.
I am looking for a job for me. I don’t want to lose my house – I love it. I want the security of a twice a month paycheck so I could do something I love – teach the kids science and math. I want to keep doing the bad job.

Respectfully,

Business Model

I have been very lucky. I have been working in 2 very good schools in the last 22 years. First school, The Program for Pregnant and Parenting Teens, was closed because of the tightening budget in 2007. The other school was closed in June 2009 by Bloomberg-Klein administration.

Why am I saying that the schools were good? It’s because we really served the kids well. The teachers, guidance counselors, social workers, community services, nurseries for the babies, clinic – all of us helped the kids find the way out of difficult situations and become independent and self-reliant human being. In both schools we had great stories to tell. In both schools we had kids who needed help in breaking the cycle and being the first generation in their families to graduate from a High school, move on to a college and achieve a new level of success.

In both cases the schools were closed because the city was trying to save some money. They say they use a “business model” of accountability. They say our numbers were not good: either attendance was low or Regents Tests scores didn’t measure up.

My question is: why would you use the failing “business model” that brought the entire country into an economic recession to schools and replace some more humane model that worked for those kids?

I really don’t understand, why somebody would proudly say that they use this “business model” when everybody knows that the model makes rich richer and poor poorer. Would you use this model if you were poor? Bloomberg became richer when he closed our schools, the city became poorer.

Because of this “business model” the greedy executives, who would make profits even if their clients lose money, got so much that banks do not have any money to lend any longer. Would you use this model if you were not this executive? Bloomberg and Klein are those executives who make those decisions.

I have been lucky, in the last 22 years I made a difference in so many lives for the better future. I hope the kids in the new schools get as much help and understanding from young and new teachers and principals as we were giving to our students in our “bad” schools.

Piaget and Standards

My daughter wrote this paper, when she was in college. I think she makes a good point: Is there any sense in our NYS “standards”?

It has been found that the American school system is not as strong as the rest of the worlds in math and science. There have been articles written on this subject across the country for the last few years. In June of 2005, in Ohio at a national PTA meeting, Margaret Spellings, the education secretary said that “poor attitudes and low test scores nationwide continue to plague the system and limit progress.”(p.08.A) Shortly before this meeting Spellings had made a trip to Japan, where “the Japanese are investing in math and science courses while Americans are worrying about the ink color teachers use to grade papers—preferring purple rather than the ‘angry red.’(p.08.A) American children score lower on average on performance assessment exams. An article from a newspaper in Colorado reported in December of 2004 that a comparison held by the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study found that of 29 countries, America came in 24th. “The usual pattern with international comparisons is that American students do worse the longer they’ve been in school.”(p.7.E)

Everyone is pointing fingers, and trying to figure out why are American students failing in math and science? Some argue that teachers are not proficient enough in their fields. Some say that courses are too hard. Some even say that children just aren’t able to learn.

How has this happened? How have we come so far and now see that children are just not able to learn? Isn’t it in their nature to be curious, to explore, and isn’t it this characteristic that drives children to learn, to walk, and to talk?
I remember when I was young (4-7yrs.) and my parents would take me to camp on the weekends and through summers. My sister and I would make friends with other children our age while we chased small animals through the woods, or caught frogs by the water. We brought back any specimen we could find and interview our parents to get every bit of information we could about these animals. We would compare them to other animals we caught, big frogs versus little frogs, fish, which we couldn’t catch by hand but could catch using bait, and lizards that ran away while we still held their tails. These things are all parts of science, and at that age when I was still learning through physical contact, these are easy concepts to understand. I could categorize big, small, green, furry, fast, etc. These are elements we use in studying science, and they’re fun and easy for kids to understand. It is impossible that children are unable to learn.

It may be that teachers and supervisors aren’t proficient in math and science. It may be that standards and teaching methods are not corresponding, complementary or unified. It may be that courses are hard, but are they too hard or are they mismatched according to the stages of cognitive development?

Piaget is a star in the childhood developmental field because of his discoveries in how children understand and explain their worlds as they learn. Jean Piaget is a Swiss theoretician who discovered that children make similar mistakes on IQ tests according to their age. Using this information Piaget designed four distinct stages of cognitive development starting at birth going on through adulthood.
The first stage, birth until two years of age, is the Sensorimotor stage during which an infant and toddler learns to “organize activities in relation to the environment through sensory and motor activity.”(p. 30) It is during this stage that children learn that just because they can’t see something or someone doesn’t mean it has ceased to exist. Children learn that their actions have reactions and practice and repeat actions to test results.

At age two children move on to the Preoperational stage. This stage lasts until about seven years old. At this stage children are fascinated by everything around them and use play and language to correspond to the things they see and experience, but do not think logically yet. This is the age when language acquisition is extremely rapid. During this period children imitate everything they see and here. They start to ask questions about what is happening around them, although these questions are usually absurd or unscientific, but they are still reaching to understand. Children ask questions like “how do dogs get married,” and “why is the moon following me.”

The third stage starts at age seven and is called the Concrete Operations stage. It is during this stage that children start to think logically. They can apply all the things they learned earlier in more areas because now they can recognize a logical pattern. During the Preoperational stage a child will say a pound of bricks is heavier than a pound of feathers, because bricks are heavier than feathers. It is during the Concrete Operations stage that a child given the same example will realize that a pound of anything is equal to a pound of anything else.
Another example was my mother’s experience in first grade; she grew up in Russia and the system is different, she was seven years old and practicing cursive lettering. My mother remembers that they had been in first grade for a while now and she knew how to write the entire alphabet, and when her teacher asked to right a row of ten little “u’s” my mother was ready for the challenge. She looked down at her paper and started to imagine how she could write the smallest “u” in the class. She wondered for a minute and realized that this request is not possible only one of the students can write The smallest “u” and this is the second that it dawns on her the teacher wants a lower case “u” not a little “u.” She realized her misunderstanding and was about to start her lettering when the student next to her excited by his achievements nudged her to look and see he had managed to write a row of ten of the smallest “u’s.” This story illustrates that transition, how normal it is for children to think this way up until around 7 years of age, and how their thought processes evolve into logical assessments. Although children are able to think rationally they cannot yet think abstractly, which is the ability they gain after the age of eleven when they move from the Concrete Operations stage to the Formal Operations stage.

The Formal Operations stage is the last stage in Piaget’s model of cognitive development. During this stage, children, adolescents and adults learn to think abstractly and philosophically. They no longer need to experience learning “hands on.” Students can now discuss possibilities, create and plan hypothesis and experiments. Earlier children were experiencing and testing their surroundings based on what they could see touch and hear, now based on that information they can understand things they have not yet seen, touched or heard.

Many have argued that Piaget’s model is defective because he underestimates children’s abilities. Some theorists say that cognitive development is continuous opposed to Piaget’s rigid stage theory. These criticisms may be true but do not affect the validity of what he says. In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development children start without any knowledge except that which they can experience, they repeat actions to see if they get the same reactions, they observe their surroundings and ask questions based on these findings, eventually they learn logic and can delve into solving more complex problems eventually solving problems using abstract theories. This model needs to be introduced into the American learning system to make standards that match Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. If children are practicing and learning material appropriate to their age group they would not have problems acquiring and demonstrating their achievements, and especially will not lose their eagerness to learn.

The nation does not have set standards that must be met for children at various stages. Each state develops their requirements for each grade or school level. Very often it is only the teacher that plans what the students will learn. There are, although, nationwide tests given to assess children’s overall academic development. I have the standards from New York State printed and given to teachers in 1999. These books are now seven years old but the system standards have not changed; these are the current standards.

These Performance Standards list what is required of students at Elementary, Middle and High school levels. There are many sets of standards in different areas of the subjects, so I have chosen two sets that have the most general approach to Math and Science teaching and learning. Mathematical Skills and Tools, and Scientific Connections and Applications are the categories I have chosen you can find in the appendix below.

I have labeled each standard with a p, c, or f; these labels are according to the Piagetian Cognitive Development model and so p stands for Preoperational stage, c stands for Concrete Operations stage, and f stands for Formal Operations stage. I categorized the standards as Physical contact/tactile learning (p), Physical contact/ tactile with logical/critical thinking (c), and abstract/theoretical thinking (f). Now my goal is to create an academic system that learns the same material that is required above but in an order that matches Piagetian theory, hoping to maximize the students ability as they learn meanwhile encouraging cognitive development.

Since in the first, Preoperational, stage children do not think but are able and even enjoy collecting data I would start their mathematical and scientific educations using these inclinations. We would not discuss topics too complex to understand without being able to see and touch the matter being studied. Anything labeled p would be studied and mastered before finishing second grade (at which time most students turn seven).

Math could be practiced counting sides and naming shapes, (i.e. Octagon has eight sides) since language acquisition is very rapid at this stage of development this is the perfect age to practice math vocabulary of observable materials. Measuring can be used to learn to add, and multiply as students learn about length, area, volume, weight, etc. Measurements do not require logical or critical thinking, and would be easy for preoperational children to stay on task with. Children can practice reading clocks (i.e. what time is it now? What time will it be in 20 minutes? In one hour?)
In science children can learn the physical aspects of science. They can practice reading thermometers, and show what is cold and warm. The can watch the weather. Leaves turn colors in the fall; snow always falls in the winter, and during the spring flowers bloom, and leaves grow back on to branches. They can go to zoos and botanical gardens with identifying books to label animal and plant varieties. Students can find their way to a prize using a compass. Science that children can physically experience is best during this stage because their appetites are already whetted and their thirst will grow through their discoveries.

After second grade, more complex problems can be introduced. The teacher can go on to the next step in all subjects introduced earlier. Our weather corresponds to our seasons which define our climate, but in Arizona, in the desert, their climate is different and so is their weather. The animals that live in New York are also different from those that live in Arizona, or Africa, Russia, etc. Students can study Biomes, Food Chains for each Biome, Life Cycles for many plants and animals. Human Anatomy can also be studied, this is when we can introduce the organs, and eventually nutrition and drug effects on the body.

Math can also become more complicated. Before students were measuring to find length, width, height and weight, now the teacher can explain how to learn volume, area, and circumference, through measurement meanwhile also explaining the formulas that find these answers faster. The point is to learn that the formulas are logical and easier than measuring the entire block over and over again. At this age children understand logical and spatial realities and these new abilities should be put to use right away so students can further the development of these skills. Higher levels of previous problems can continuously be introduced. If a student has problems understanding a problem, go over an earlier version of the problem to show how similar the work is and that only the numbers vary in each of the problems.
By the time students are in high school, when they are entering the Formal Operations Stage, they will understand that the numbers are a small part of the subject of math, and will be able to discuss it in abstract ways in which there could be days that no numbers are mentioned. Students wouldn’t have to discuss shapes or areas anymore since they will be committed to memory as well as formulas with which to describe them with.

Science in High school can also go further to explain the theoretical. Students can study cells, atoms, DNA, complex abstract problems and speculations in fields from Biology to Chemistry to Physics and Astronomy.

According to Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory students need to learn in order or observations, logic, and then lastly theory. In the New York System now children are expected to learn “big ideas and unifying concepts” from an elementary school level, before they even know of the possibilities in their own classrooms. In math children are given problems that are easy at first, but math does not evolve from the calculations they had to go through in first and second grade. They are ready to learn the reasoning of math but are denied and forced to study shapes and computations over and over again.

In America people blame teachers, supervisors, parents, and even children for not learning math and science as well as the rest of the world. The explanation to why in America students don’t learn these subjects as well is buried beneath layers or politics, funding and red tape. Anyone can explain how teachers aren’t able to teach their subjects; supervisors can set rules against any creativity; parents might not be available to answer all their children’s questions. There are many issues at hand here. I am only posing a question: Why do we study Piaget in Childhood Development if we don’t apply his theory to our children?

Appendix: NYS Standards:

The state requires that at the Elementary school level a student should be able to “demonstrate fluency” in basic math concepts and use appropriate methods of solving problems as follows:
* Adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides whole numbers correctly; that is; (c)
i. knows single digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts;
ii. adds and subtracts numbers with several digits;
iii. multiplies and divides numbers with one or two digits;
iv. multiplies and divides three digit numbers by one digit number

* Estimates numerically and spatially (f)
* Measures length, area, perimeter, circumference, diameter, height, weight, and volume accurately in both the customary and metric systems (c & p)
* Computes time (in hours and minutes) and money (in dollars and cents) (c)
* Refers to geometric shapes and terms correctly with concrete objects or drawings, including triangle, square, rectangle, side, edge, face, cube, point, line, perimeter, area, and circle; and refers with assistance to rhombus, parallelogram, quadrilateral, polygon, polyhedron, angle, vertex, volume, diameter, circumference, sphere, prism, and pyramid (p & c)
* Uses +, -, x, /,$,%, and decimal point, correctly in number sentences and expressions (c)
* Reads, creates, and represents data on a line plots, charts, tables, diagrams, bar graphs, simple circle graphs, and coordinate graphs (c)
* Uses recall, mental computations, pencil and paper, measuring devices, mathematic texts, manipulatives, calculators, computers, and advice from peers as appropriate, to achieve solutions; that is, uses measuring devices, graded appropriately for given situations, such as rulers (customary to the inch; metric to the centimeter), measuring cups (customary to the ounce; metric to the milliliter), and scales (customary to the pound; metric to the gram) (c & p) (p.168)

The state requires that at the Middle school level a student should be able to “demonstrate fluency” in basic math concepts and use appropriate methods of solving problems as follows:

* Computes accurately with arithmetic operations on rational numbers (c)
* Knows and uses the correct order of operations for arithmetic computations (c)
* Estimates numerically and spatially (f)
* Measures length, area, volume, weight, time, and temperature accurately (c)
* Refers to geometric shapes and terms correctly (p)
* Uses equations, formulas, and simple algebraic notation appropriately (f)
* Reads and organizes data on charts and graphs, including scatter plots, bar line, and circle graphs, and Venn diagrams; calculates mean and median (f)
* Uses recall, mental computations, pencil and paper, measuring devices, mathematic texts, manipulatives, calculators, computers, and advice from peers, as appropriate, to achieve solutions (c) (p.168)

The state also has requirements for High school level students to be able to “demonstrate fluency” in math as follows:

* Carries out numerical calculations and symbol manipulations effectively, using mental computations, pencil and paper, or other technological aids, as appropriate (c)
* Uses a variety of methods to estimate the values, in appropriate units, of quantities met in applications, and rounds numbers used in applications to an appropriate degree of accuracy (c)
* Evaluates and analyzes formulas and functions of many kinds, using both pencil and paper and more advanced technology (f)
* Uses basic geometric terminology accurately, and deduces information about basic geometric figures in solving problems (p)
* Makes and uses rough sketches, schematic diagrams, or precise scale diagrams to enhance a solution (p)
* Uses the number line and Cartesian coordinates in the pane and in space (c & p)
* Creates and interprets graphs of many kinds, such as function graphs, circle graphs, scatter plots, regression lines, and histograms (c)
* Sets up and solves equations symbolically (when possible) and graphically (c)
* Knows how to use algorithms in mathematics, such as the Euclidean Algorithm (f)
* Uses technology to create graphs or spreadsheets that contribute to the understanding of a problem (c)
* Writes a simple computer program to carry out a computation or simulation to be repeated many times (f)
* Uses tools such as rulers, tapes, compasses, and protractors in solving problems (p)
* Knows standard methods to solve basic problems and uses these methods in approaching more complex problems (c) (p.168)

A New York state has separate standards for “Scientific Connections and Applications.” These standards require a student to produce demonstrations in understanding as follows in Elementary school:

* Big ideas and unifying concepts, such as order and organization; models, form and function; change and constancy; and cause and effect (f)
* The designed world, such as development of agricultural techniques; and the variability of technological designs (f)
* Personal health, such as nutrition, substance abuse, and exercise; germs and toxic substances; personal and environmental safety (f)
* Science as a human endeavor, such as communication, cooperation, and diverse input in scientific research; and the importance of reason, intellectual honesty, and skepticism (f) (p.202)

In Middle school the standards for the same category are:

* Big ideas and unifying concepts, such as order and organization; models, form, and function; change and constancy; and cause and effect (f)
* The designed world, such as the reciprocal nature of science and technology; the development of agricultural techniques; and the viability of technological designs (f)
* Health, such as nutrition, exercise, and disease; effects of drugs and toxic substances; personal and environmental safety; and resources and environmental stress (f)
* Impact of technology, such as constraints and trade offs; feedback; benefits and risks; and problems and solutions (f)
* Impact of science, such as historical and contemporary contributions; and interactions between science and society (f) (p.202)

Finally, the High school standards of scientific connections and applications are as follows:

* Big ideas and unifying concepts, such as order and organization; models, form and function; change and constancy; and cause and effect (f)
* The designed world, such as the reciprocal relationship between science and technology; the development of agricultural techniques; and the reasonableness of technological designs (f)
* Health, such as nutrition and exercise; disease and epidemiology; personal and environmental safety; and resources, environmental stress, and population growth (f)
* Impact of technology, such as constraints and trade-offs; feedback; benefits and risks; and problems and solutions (f)
* Impact of science, such as historical and contemporary contributions; and interactions between science and society (f) (p.202)

Old Things: trash or treasure?

Every spring and fall I go through my closets and decide what I keep and what I donate. Every time I find something to keep and every time there is something to pass on to others. There is a saying: one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. That saying made the new rules of Green Living possible: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. I can give away some of my old things so somebody else could reuse them and we together will reduce the content of landfills.

In spite of the saying the idea is new for America. More traditional view is that everything new and young is good, strong, energetic, enthusiastic, and brings money; and everything old is really a trash and a waste. Old things must be replaced by new ones; old surfaces must be resurfaced, old houses rebuilt, old furniture thrown out. Same is true about people: the old should just disappear, so they do not bother the gentle eye of an observer. I know, I know, written by an old person ;) But I am not as old as you think.

On the contrary, some old things never become trash, they become classic and antique. Unfortunately, this thought is not a happy one, because so many things do become garbage with age and overuse, and only a few become classic and chic if taken care properly. How many old people are thrown out of our lives? And how many of them become respected authority on a subject? Alas, even the most brilliant of us often become classic only after death. Often we take better care of the things than of the people.

Remember last year, when this old and experienced pilot landed on the Hudson River? I was thinking that he showed to the world that we are not dead yet. We are at the peak of our ability. At this age the experience is already there and the energy is still there. We are supposed to be the most valuable people at our jobs. 50 years old is not old even for Hollywood any longer. Some of us are living classics.

You, Mr. Bloomberg, just don’t know who. You are afraid to waste your money on what you think is old trash, so you are throwing out all experienced teachers when you close our schools. But remember this: you are one of us and in a couple of years you’ll become the same society trash, like you just made of me and others.

No, I am not depressed; I am at a fork on the road of my life. Which way to go?

What is science?

Recently I received an email with the following questions. I decided to post my reply here and send this student a link:

1. How has science change throughout history??
To start we first must agree on the definition.
Science is an observation of the world around and an attempt to find explanations to the phenomena observed.
If we all agree on the definition then we can say that science changed through history thanks to the new tools for observation.
It was science that explained to the ancient people that the sun went around the earth. That was the only possible explanation to the observation of the sun going up and down every day. Technology allowed people to build high ceiling cathedrals that allowed Galileo to observe the daily change in the swinging of the pendulum which in turn allowed him to come up with an explanation that its the earth turning on its axis made the sun seemed to go around the earth. Our days we have planes and satellites flying up there and observe and record how the round earth going around the sun.
You can say the science changed through out the history, I would say that technology changed, but the science stayed true to its definition.

2. Is science based on facts or opinion??
Science is based on objective observations, measurements, and records available at the time.

3. Why are there so many different meanings of science??
I am not aware of any different definitions of science. If you do, recite them and put your references.

4. Is it possible to really prove anything with science??
If it is not proven it is not science.

5. How would you answer the question “What is Science” to a high school student??
I respect high school students enough to tell them the same thing I tell you here. Why should the definition be different for the high school kids?

6. What could be done to minimize the misunderstanding of science??
Nothing. If you don't want to understand you will never understand. The latter apples to everything in life not just to science or math. People "understand" whatever they want or choose to "understand".

7. Can you formulate a theory of how will science change in ten years??
Even more computers and robots will be in use for observations and recording.

8. What is the difference between Chemistry, Biology, and Physics??
You really can use a glossary of a textbook or a wikipedia? Chemistry is a study of matter, Biology is a study of life, and Physics is a study of forces in the world around us.

9. In order to understand science, how important is it to understand the past.?
Some people really need to see how the invention happened, but not all of us. Many people can learn science without memorizing the name of the person, who first explained the phenomenon and the circumstances around it.

10.Is science strictly based on theory?
Not at all. It never is based on any theory. Science is based on observations and measurements. Theory is an explanation for the observation, many theories changed as our observation abilities changed. I mostly admire those geniuses who could predict some of the explanations before the obvious observation was available for the general public. One example I already showed you above how Galileo explained the earth's rotation before any plane flue around.

Another example from biology: the word germ appeared in our vocabulary in 1644 almost 10 years before the word microscope was added. That means some genius while observing some phenomenon around predicted the existence of microorganisms before we could actually see them.

I'll post this now, but I will edit it later.

About Discipline

I do agree that kids need rules and discipline, they respect you more if you know the rules, follow them yourself, and enforce them, but they will be the first to curse you out and break all the rules if you apply negative reinforcement or if you do not apply the same rule to yourself. Even if they obey you and pretend that they follow the rules you are enforcing, they will break them the moment you turn away. So before using positive reinforcement you must use your own example for every rule you want to set. Too many people still think that to enforce the rules you have to be mean. The reality often is right opposite. The nicer you are the more kids will try to abide. Research shows again and again that positive reinforcement works much better than negative reinforcement, which only provokes and encourages resistance. I want to share my personal experience on this topic :) It happened in June 1982. We just started our Group for Establishing Trust between USA and USSR (peaceniks). The KGB and the soviet authority could not decide what to do with us. All we were saying was that we wanted peace, like everybody else in the country, but we wanted it independently. We never criticized the powers, but we made suggestions for building step by step atmosphere of trust between the people of these 2 countries. To decide what to do with us the KGB needed to talk to us, get the info of what it was all about. So they picked a few of us and brought to different militia precincts “for conversations”. I was one of those few people. I found myself sitting in front of a nice intelligent man who tried to make a conversation. I, in turn, did not want the conversation, I wanted to stop talking. But he was so polite and nice; my tong could not turn and say something rude. I was sitting making short abrupt answers and thinking how can I tell him that I didn’t want to talk to him. Suddenly, he decided to change his tactics: he raised his voice and started to scream at me. We looked at each other, and we both knew, that whether he wanted or not I got what I wanted. I got the reason to stop talking to him. My entire posture changed: I set back, relaxed in my chair. I started to breathe deeply and freely. I think my eyes smiled. I did not need to talk to him any longer; he was not polite nice man any longer, so I didn’t have to do as he said either. The rest of that hour was not important. He was saying some stupid things like: calling for peace during cold war could be punished by capital punishment and other stupid things like that. I didn’t listen. I was fine. This story, just shows how hard it is to be rude to nice and positive powers. Same happens with my students every day. Very often they do not want to follow my instructions, but I never give my instructions in a command-like manner. I just ask them politely to do something and they just follow. Very often they find the assignment interesting. Sometimes they try to rebel anyway. The best thing is that their rebellion is also quite polite and we usually can find some compromise when I do not make them complete the whole assignment, or I make a variation that best suits their taste and interests. You see, with positive reinforcement everybody wins: you have your rules in place and the kids learn.

Are we all the same?

Two days ago I switched from Cable company to Fios. I have to learn all about my new channels and services. So two days in a raw I am waking up to watch Pilates and Yoga. I love my new possibilities :) Today I am watching "What's the Alternative?" about treating different people with the same conditions using different methods. They discuss the natural ways to treat skin condition using household products. The doctor explained that different people develop similar health problem, but cannot be treated the same. They cannot even have the same diet or exercise routine. This broadcast made me thinking about the other areas of our lives. The same idea I heard from the financial consultant yesterday. She said: Trust your gut, do not listen to what other people tell you to do, only follow the advices if your gut tells you it's good advice or it is good for You. There is an entire field of research. Their advisers, after testing, tell you what kind of a job will make you happy and complete person. Some really good guidance counselors in high schools test the students before helping them to apply for a college. Most woman's magazines give you advices on how to listen to yourself and be different. Now I am thinking of our education system :( and realize again and again that as always we are behind the rest of the areas of our life. Even worse. If the rest of the world is rushing forward with new individualized technology, new individualized testing and treatments, and exercises, and financial portfolios, and cars and houses. Everything in our lives is individualized except what you are doing at school. The funniest thing is that they tell you that they prepare you for a job place and then make you do everything opposite to what you will be required at any job place. Ha-ha-ha-ha. You will chose a job you want to do - at school you have to learn what the State requires you to learn. You will be able to quit if you are not happy at work or ask for a raise at least - if you decide to quit school before a specific age the court will make you go there and police will escort you to your classes or threaten you parents with neglect charges. You have rights at any work place: if you are sick you can take sick-day, you have meetings where you voice you concerns, there is a procedure to make complaints and grievances - school has such powers over the children that even parents are not able to fight for their kids rights. I do not want to go into details here, but those who experienced that know what I am talking about. And at the end the students are required to take all the same tests at the same time and excel in all areas of their study. This one is the worst because it takes the individuality out of the question completely. The politicians are preparing new regulations to strip any individuality off of our kids in the future. They call it higher standards. They don't even try to pretend that they will take individual needs of a student into consideration. Everybody has to fit the "Standard". I want to ask you, where are standards in the chaos of life? How do we prepare the kids to their adult lives by making them to fit the "standard"? How can we bring up happy individuals by suppressing individuality from such a young age? How can they become independent individuals if they are only taught to be like the rest of the class? You see, this new channels I have on my Fios really made me thinking :) and they say that TV is not good for you :) I'll never agree to that hahahahahaaaaaa

Let's get Real

I’ve been teaching for 22 years. I remember when I just started the job was “easy”: all I had to do, on my opinion of that time, was to transfer everything I knew onto the students. The roles of all participants were clear: teacher gives the students his/her knowledge and the students come to class to collect the knowledge. The image of a classroom was clear too: the students are sitting at their desks listening to the teacher. If the teacher asked a question the students had to raise their hands and the teacher would pick one person to answer the question. I don’t think there are many people who can see a different image of a school, but the number is growing and the time came for you to realize the defects of this fairytale image of a hypocritical pretense you still call a school. Kids are dropping out in record numbers and instead of thinking how to change and adjust to the kids' needs we are planning how to bring more police to schools. Many books are written and read about the fairytale of love and marriage. The “happily ever after” is the rest of your life and the wedding is just one day from your past or your future. Your task is to make it happy life with or without this one day. School is like that too. School is a part of everybody’s life. Some people chose to stay and live this life as adults by becoming teachers, but the majority will not stay and didn’t choose to be at school. Circumstances, like laws, parents, society made them to be here. So the role-playing that all kids come to school to learn and teachers come to school to transfer their knowledge onto the kids is falling apart just like the fairytale of “happily ever after” is falling apart for their parents. We are adjusting to the adults problem by getting used to divorce as a part of life and take each case as individual couple problem, but we still treat the kids as a group not as individuals; and we still are trying to make them stay in school instead of making school relevant to their real life. I am sorry that I started from something that seems negative. It is not negative, it’s an old fairytale. Fairytale is never negative it’s just not real. It’s a beautiful image of our great-grandparents of how they saw happiness. They had to work from early morning to late night. The labor was very hard: cut trees, break rocks, wash cloths by hand in cold water, dig soil, wax floors, plow, harvest, sew, weld, build, lay railroads and highways, etc. etc. etc… They wanted their kids to have a childhood, to play and learn. They fought for their kids’ right not to work until they become adults. For too many of them happiness associated with the time they did not have to work. Times changed. More and more people find happiness at their workplace. More and more people go to work because they love what they are doing. More and more people are proud of their achievements and want their kids to achieve even more. This is why educated parents push their children to go after higher and higher education. This is why uneducated parents want their children to be the first generation in the family with high school or college degrees. We have to thank technology for making that possible. Thanks to technology we do not have to dig soil or plow the fields with our bare hands. Thanks to technology we wash and dry our cloths with just a push of 2 buttons. Thanks to technology we can transport ourselves from one place to another without walking. Thanks to technology we build, sew, weld, plow, harvest, and even calculate by dialing, switching, and clicking. We don’t even have to cook every day any longer. We have new problems though. We got fatter, we poison out bodies with pollution, we react to a little pollen with an allergy like it is a bio-attack, we consume antibiotics and hormones with our foods, our air is filled with harmful invisible rays, we cover the constant noise of our environment with loud music or TV broadcasting. I am not complaining, I love every moment of my life and I would not exchange it to anything else. I am just trying to be real. For every need and every problem we, humans, got we have people who would take care of it. There are farmers to grow our food, there are cooks who will prepare it, there are vendors who will deliver it, there are drivers who will transport goods, there are sewing and knitting machine operators who will make out cloths, there are doctors and nurses who will take care of us when we are sick; there are entertainers and sportsmen and authors who will keep out minds occupied ;) There are lawyers and judges who will help us to solve a conflict. Unfortunately, there are also politicians who will deepen a conflict and journalists who will play on a controversy. But for them we have activists who will fight for our rights and create even more controversy :) There are scientists who are trying to answer our current questions and solve some of our problems. Of course, while they do that they create new questions and new problems for the future generations to search for more answers. For each of these occupations people have to learn, study, get education. For each of these occupations people will have to practice how to operate a specific piece of technology. The school is still very much needed, maybe, even more than ever before. What is the role of school in this circus of life? And what is my role as a teacher? Am I still required to transport my knowledge onto my students? What part of my knowledge is so valuable that worth to be transported? How do I know that the knowledge I give them is useful not just litter for their young brains? How do I know that they learned? Do tests measure learning? Too many questions, too few answers. Life is real, life is messy, life is unruly, life does not have all the answers to all of the questions and if school is a part of everybody’s life it should be as messy and as diverse as life itself. Your teacher should not give you the answers to all of her questions; she should help you to search for your answers to your own questions. Then and only then we’ll bring up generations of happy and content people. People who know themselves, can answer to their questions, and stand for their believes. A teacher is not a boss; neither is he/she a friend. I am a servant of the future. When I give my students a mark on the report card this mark reflects how well I served and how happy the future will be. Believe me, the students do not want an “A” for nothing. They will lose any respect for a teacher who gave them a good mark for nothing. They always know when they deserved a real “A”. Today I think that the role of school should be helping the students find their "calling". I know how hard, sometimes impossible this task can be for some people. I know that for majority of the students we will not find that "calling". But we’ll make the first step, we’ll help the young person to start learning about him or herself. The more they understand themselves and each other, the more excepting they are of themselves and each other, the happier beings they will be. Here, I will try to start a new fairytale for the school of the future. After a while it’ll become as hypocritical as the current fairytale is, so what. Its life and life never stays the same. I am surprised the current school survived for so long.

Back to Education Topics: PBL

PBL stands for Problem-Based or Project-Based Learning which has a potential to become the way people of the future learn and the schools of the future function. I do have some “half-thought-through phrases”; I would even say “a-quarter-thought-through” or maybe “not-thought-through” images. We often hear that the students can’t do this or can’t answer that, can’t find something on the map, or can’t explain something we can. We concentrate on what they can’t do instead of admiring what they can do. They can hear you and keep up with the conversation while typing their text messages and listening to their music. They can achieve a level on the computer game that we don’t understand at all; or if we do understand the game then their speed is unbelievable. Any kid when given any electronic device begins to push the buttons and gets results even if this is a new device s/he didn’t see before. Too often I am thinking that we are trying to hold the kids back to our standards from the last century instead of creating new standards that might hold some value in the nearest future. Imagine a fish in an ocean, the water runs through the gills, the fish gets the oxygen, but doesn’t slow down the flow of the water, and if needed moves to another spot and on and on. The ocean is the amount of information entering our consciousness all the time both kids and adults. We have to learn how to swim in it, catch what we need and leave what’s not. My generation was born into a lake, maybe even just a puddle of water, and it takes us time and effort to learn how to swim in the limitless ocean. The kids were born into the ocean; they have some kind of innate ability to filter the info and ignore whatever their sub-consciousness tells them is out of the area of their current interests. They naturally find the answers to their current questions fast and efficient. When I have a class in a computer lab the answers to my questions they find within first 2 minutes, the rest of the time is spent on creating the presentation. Of course, I am talking about the kind of questions that do not require “thinking”, like math problems often do. Creating the presentation does require “thinking”, but it is creative thinking, not math problem solving thinking. This is why the students love the creative part of the presentation, not the research part of gathering information which often is out of the area of their current interests. I, the teacher, brought the questions; they are my questions, not theirs. The last thought is about current projects. There are quite a few very good projects created for the elementary school level. There are even more topics which are even more appropriate and interesting for the kids of that age which are completely missed and forgotten. There are just a couple of good projects for middle school and there are no good projects for high school kids at all. I think I know why it is happening. We, adults, make those projects. They are artificial, do not come from children natural curiosity. The younger the kids are the higher level of curiosity is. It goes down because we do not help them to find answers to their questions, instead we bring our questions to them and make their questions less important. Do you see what kind of message we send to the kids? Their questions are not important. Important questions are not interesting. Learning is work, unpleasant thing, when you are forced to answer somebody else's questions. Of course, the teacher should help the kids with the questions as well as with the answers, but we have to learn how to trust the kids' instincts. Introduce the new topic and allow each kid study it only to the depth of his or her choice. For most of the topics you will see that the kids will learn and have fun getting familiar with new terminology, after that they will lose the interest and the teacher has to prepare next new topic. However, there will be a smaller group of kids who will develop their own questions about the topic, those should be allowed to go deeper and deeper in their search, while the rest of the class gets familiar with new and different topics. Only after work like that we can group the kids by their interests.

TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST

I am familiar with all tests we already use and the ones that are coming in the near future. The future does not look very promising. In the past I was always defending state tests. I really believed that in this old failing system of education test preparation had been the only working motivation and a class management tool. To control the behavior and outcomes I used to bring the topic of regents prep and everybody would start working.

Not any more. This motivation does not work at all. I always knew that the change would come from the kids, not from a new administration or politician. I could not imagine how exactly the new will grow out of this old and festered system. Now I see it. The kids do not care any longer if they pass or fail, they do not want to learn for the test, they do not want to learn abstract stuff we had obediently memorized and happily forgot as soon as the test was over. Our children refuse to play this hypocritical game of pretending that they are coming to school to learn something to pass a test.

In reality they learn something in spite of the school hindering.

There are too many adults though who are playing the game, pretending that they are doing something important, and using the taxpayers’ money for their own benefit. Because these adults need to prove all the time how their “job” is so important, they create more and more tests, and exchange one test with another one. The salary keeps on coming. They completely changed the job of a teacher as an educator into a babysitter.

There are still too many really good teachers who will move on into the future together with the kids. Those teachers will help the kids to learn what’s important for them. The English teachers will pick books to read that will be relative to the kids lives. The math teachers will bring problems relevant to real life too. History teachers will relate the past with the future. The Science teachers will help to understand how the surrounding world works. And all of them will use all kinds of art, games, sports, theatre, concerts, exhibitions, performances, technology and quiet time to just sit alone if the kid needs it.

What's wrong with K-12 approach?

I am a high school teacher. I love my job, I love the high school kids, I love the fact that my students are an everyday challenge, they are full of surprises, thinkers and doers. I love to trick them into learning something new. I love that they teach me a few things now and then. I can't imagine teaching kindergartners or elementary school kids. I don't want to describe why, I just can't. I know many great teachers who can't teach neither elementary nor middle school level. The job requires completely different set of traits in a person. I always get frustrated when hear all of us, teachers, put in the same pot of K-12 which ignores the specifics of both: the kids level of comprehension and the teachers' skills and talents. In our days you often hear complains about schools. Some even say that the education system is in crisis. Maybe. If we want to fix it, let's first agree that the elementary school teacher has to teach the kids just to read, write and count. They have enough responsibilities teaching everyone how to use a bathroom and how to clean their noses. They have to teach the kids the rules and how to be a student. They have to teach the kids about day and night, about seasons and weather. They have to teach the kids how to read time and find the length using a ruler. Are we sure that we want the elementary school teachers to teach "science" to their students? or any other subject that was not their major? I don't. I prefer to teach not reteach. Many good high school teachers will tell you how hard it is for us to reteach the mistakes made by an elementary school teachers. The subconscious always overpowers the new information we try to put their. Elementary school teachers fill in subconscious before we train the brain to think. I have to think about this. Continue later :)

Teaching Moment

I get up in the morning; make myself a cup of coffee. I don’t make my bed, never did. It’s nobody business if my bed is made or not. You don’t like it, don’t look into my bedroom.Nobody will suffer if my bed is not made. I have completely different attitude towards my garbage. My garbage is everybody’s business. The more garbage I produce the less space is there in the landfill for you.

How did it happen that I started to care about garbage? I started to teach Environmental Science class and the more I learned about the problems of today the more changes I made in my every-day life. I started as any teacher who has to teach this course with the balance in an ecosystem, and biomes, and food chain etc. But I got bored too soon because it was the same material I usually teach in Regents Living Environment class. Why should I do the same stuff with a different course? So I changed.

This time I did mention the information my students had learned in other science classes too, but this time I was building on top of what they already knew. Turns out other people concerned with the problems in the environment also made the same changes. You can find textbooks that rearranged the material around human needs for air, water, land, food and energy. This is the way to go. How do we use our land, or air, or water? How do we damage environment to get our needs met? What problems do we face that must be solved in order for the future generations to continue their normal life? This time I didn’t get bored. I learned a lot about today’s problems, more, than I would ever know if I didn’t teach this course.

Most of my learning was happening when I was reading my students projects. They learned and I learned with them. We learned about organic food and organic farming. We learned about the solar panels and the wind mills. We learned about cars that run on water, and the cars that run on compressed air. We learned the three principles of Green Living: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. That still didn’t feel enough. I had to change more.

My students are high school kids. They are almost adults. Many of them work. Many of them are taking some college courses. All of them without exception tell me that they want to recycle. OK. We placed recycling bins all over the school. Now I observe how my environmental science students who want to recycle drop their unfinished food into recycling container instead of garbage, but the empty bottles still go into regular garbage can. What is going on? I don’t understand.

I spoke to our school custodian, wise man, he told me not to worry, it takes time to change the people’s set of mind. We all know how to keep it clean by putting everything into garbage. The fact that it’s not clean at all is not common knowledge. One of my students had an “Aha” moment last week, he said: “So, when we clean we make it [Earth] dirtier!?!?!!!” Our landfills are full and New York exporting its garbage to other states. Just think about it: we pay our taxes to transport our garbage to other states.

What we have to start doing is: SEPARATE OUR OWN GARBAGE. Nobody can separate your garbage. The custodians will recycle what we separate. It is not in their job description: separate recyclable and reusable from the rest of the garbage to save space in the landfill. No, it is the responsibility of the person who throws the garbage. Stop for a second and think: where should MY garbage go? It turned out this step is the hardest to take. Like the addict’s first step to recovery is to admit that s/he is an addict, our first step to cleaner future is the realization that if we don’t separate our garbage our kids will live on top of a huge landfill.

So here I am every Friday morning with my cup of coffee, a large blue bad of recyclables, and mess in the bedroom :)

I have this blog posted in 2 different places. This problem really bothers me at the moment.