What did I learn?

Some people have asked me what I think about the process of running for office.  All I ever come up with is, it was interesting.  I should probably say, "It was unbelievable."  That could go either way...good or bad.  And parts of it were unbelievable.

I had a hard time believing that the union lied to me...well, not directly to me.  Rather, they lied about me when they told a News Tribune reporter (who then relayed it to me) that they had called me to participate in the endorsement interview process when they had not.

Now I appreciate that preparation--it wasn't so unbelievable when they lied to a colleague (in a similar pattern--about contacting him) regarding district business.

I have also had a hard time believing that the union endorsed Dexter Gordon when he stands for so many things that they oppose.  Aligned with Stand for Children and Vibrant Schools Tacoma, Gordon supports "getting rid of bad teachers"--words he spoke at the News Tribune endorsement interview--by way of administrative fiat determined by test score-based teacher evaluations.

I'm generally skeptical of such arguments, but my skepticism of the union is compounded by the fact that  they endorsed a candidate who has these views.

I also have a hard time believing the News Tribune.  I found some of the things they did and said to be rather strange.

An explanation by way of a recent e-mail exchange with one of the editors.

From me to the editor:


Back in June, when we had the endorsement interview at the paper, I was brand new to the whole business of electoral politics.  So when we sat down for the interview I didn't really know what to think or expect.  While I enjoyed myself in the conversation, a couple things struck me as odd.

Scott Heinze was not present.  While at the time I was 'glad' for the extra exposure that he didn't get, it seemed odd that one of the candidates didn't get to participate.  (I understand that Scott had a previous and unbreakable commitment.)  I guess I wondered why we hadn't all tried to find a mutually agreeable date, since the endorsement choices were going to made at later date anyway.

I found it equally odd that a friend of Dexter Gordon's got to sit in on the interview.  [You two editors] greeted him warmly, and I chose not to make an issue of it, wondering if doing so might seem petty....Again, I was a neophyte in all this, and only discovered that our TNT interview was unusual when other groups specifically said that the only the candidates could be present in those activities.

Well, all that to say, have you given any thought to having another interview with Dexter and Scott--to start on an even playing field for the new election round?




The editor responded thusly:


I appreciate your interest in our pages and especially appreciate the fact that you ran for school board.

Candidates often perceive our endorsement interviews as being more important than they actually are. I learned a very long time ago not to judge a candidate on the basis of how well he or she comes across in a single meeting. Some of the most impressive-seeming people I�ve met in interviews have turned out to be frauds or incompetents on closer inspection.

We don�t endorse people on the basis of a dazzling show. We have conversations with people we respect in the community, we read our own news coverage, the candidates� literature, and other sources of information.

In this case, we wound up with a very favorable impression of you, Scott Heinze and Dexter Gordon. We felt comfortable that any one of you would make a fine member of the school board. Six members of our editorial board all had their reasons for recommending Gordon (I don�t remember any dissent about it). I personally was influenced by watching his public advocacy - over a period of years - for more successful ways of educating disadvantaged students.

It was very unfortunate that Heinze couldn�t be there. Schedules conflict, and sometimes it�s all but impossible to get everyone in the room at the same time. But in this case especially, the meeting was not a dominant factor in our decision.




I have tried to believe this, but I have not been able to...not in its entirety, anyway.  Dexter Gordon is flashy.  Everyone agrees, he's a stirring speaker.  Many add that they never quite know what he's saying.  That's flash...and Dexter has it.


I do believe that the meeting was not the dominant factor in the editors' decision--they'd made up their minds already.  You know, after Dexter's years of advocacy.  At the interview, he explained that advocacy in this way.  "When I came to Tacoma nine years ago, I met with the leaders of the communities of color, and agreed with them that if they would fast-track me to leadership, I would speak their needs in the community."


Some might call it advocacy.  Others might call it ambition.  Just as some might call me skeptical while others might call it sour grapes.  The latter might be more substantiated for you by my disappointment that the News Tribune never did post my Letter to the Editor (after two attempts on my part).


So, sour grapes it may be...but it is what I learned.

New model for school?

I wonder what all the Ed. Reformers will say about Shanghai's success.  I hear that our governor (not an Ed. Reformer) is proposing to close some of the budget gap by cutting 5 school days.  I'm sure that if we just find the right curriculum and do enough things on the top of Bloom's Taxonomy and align our EALRs appropriately and  do 'what works' and emphasize Marzano's 9 high-yield strategies and all that, then we'll be able to close the gap between our now 175 6-hour days and Shanghai's 12-hour days.

If we have to cut school days, let's at least do something sensible.  Close every third Wednesday--don't lengthen the weekend and make the first day back all that much less productive.  That's about 12 days, so add a week --or 4 days on the end and 3 on the beginning?--so that we cut a little bit into that summer drop-off problem.

Try to find some way to make something good out of this bad situation.

Physical Literacy - A True 21st century Skill

 Schools spend a lot of time working with students around literacy. Most people understand literacy to have something to do with books or reading, but really it means much more. In its broadest terms literacy has to do with competence and knowledge in a specified area. There is a growing awareness that schools need to consider more than just the academic development of their students; that attention needs to be paid to students physical well being as well. More than ever students should be physically as well as academically literate.

Physically literate individuals consistently develop the motivation and ability to understand, communicate, apply, and analyze different kinds of movement. They demonstrate a variety of movements confidently, competently, creatively and strategically across a wide range of physical activities. Their skills enable individuals to make healthy, active choices that are beneficial to and respectful of their whole self, others, and the environment. These skills also translate to other aspects of their schooling and help develop a healthier, happier and more competent student. There is definitely truth to the phrase "Mens sana in corpore sano -a sound mind in a healthy body.

PHE Canada (Physical Health and Education Canada) is an organization, made up primarily of educators, that has been promoting physical education programs for the generation of healthier citizens for 75 years. PHE Canada believes physical literacy is about developing student attitudes so that children can engage in a variety of physical activities with poise and confidence. PHE Canada believes schools can be the drivers to engage and condition students to see physical activities as fun and necessary aspects of daily life.

Spend some time on an elementary playground during break time and you can easily see that younger students are willing participants in physical literacy. The energy and effort that goes into a recess break is truly inspiring. Move to a middle school or a secondary school and the energy levels seem to drop. At some point schools become serious places dedicated to academic pursuits and physical exercise starts to be more like work than fun. Ask a group of fourth graders to race the length of a play ground and you'll likely get left in the dust. Ask a group of grade 10's and you'll more likely get ignored or be met with reasons not to. 

Physical literacy is not about creating elite level athletes. It's about keeping people active. Isn't it ironic that in a world that seems fixated on body image and waist line watching, more attention and resources aren't dedicated to the sort of positive preventative maintenance that physical literacy represents? Any adult who has tried to drop a few pounds can easily attest to how hard it is to correct the situation after the weight has gone on. How much better would it be to develop generations of students who view physical activity with confidence, enthusiasm and as a necessary part of daily life?


Its not like schools are unaware of the issue. Quality DPA - daily physical activity has been part of the BC Curriculum since September 2008. The ministry requirements, guidelines and resources can be found at http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dpa/dpa. Its one thing to set out the expectation however, and completely another to make it happen. Physical Literacy needs to be legitimized, promoted and profiled in positive ways. Ministry definitions of DPA don't help this cause. DPA is described as "endurance, strength and/or flexibility activities done on a daily basis".  Webster's dictionary defines endurance as " the ability to sustain an unpleasant or difficult process without giving way". The whole concept of sweat equity makes all exercise sound like an unpleasant investment.

Physical literacy should not be about enduring. It needs be about enjoying processes that are seen as fun, not difficult! The whole point of physical literacy is to give students the confidence to try, learn and master skills that will sustain them for a lifetime. As schools move towards developing 21st century learners it will be increasingly important to include physical literacy on the learning agenda. Valuing physical activities and keeping them fun and accessible for all will engage students more than many more "serious' academic initiatives. Since a bi-product of active energized students is a greater receptiveness to learning, physical literacy might be a better route to literacy in other areas as well. Perhaps Descartes got it backwards. Surely there's got to be more to school than just being there, Instead of "I think therefore I am"  21st century learners need to declare "I move, therefore I think!"

High Stakes Testing

This line in a recent EdWeek piece about grants caught my eye:


"...awarding bigger grants in return for greater evidence of program effectiveness..."

Every institutional arrangement (in this case, the program development that is stimulated by grant money availability) creates both opportunity and constraint, as well as both intended an unintended consequences.

It shouldn't take a PhD in organizational leadership to know that if we incentivize people with the promise of big grant money for big results, they will try to create programs that show big results.  And unless we are completely sure that the big results on the standardized test correlate well with what we really want to accomplish in the education process, some of those programs created in response to the grant money incentive will simply be for the sake of showing results in order to get the money.

Oh, I don't mean people will intentionally be quite so instrumental (though some will).  More, I mean that such an arrangement creates a culture and climate that subtly encourages people to focus on test scores so emphatically as to make them a kind of shibboleth.

After all, the stakes are quite high...for the adults.  It means jobs and prestige and so on.  For the students, though, the stakes are actually quite low.  In Washington state, at least, the state test really has very little impact on a child's educational route until the 10th grade round.  A student must pass the 10th grade test in order to graduate.  They can have several tries at it, and if they don't succeed, there's an alternate route to the same goal--at least there was, or has been, or is talked about it.  We've been changing our test every other week, it seems.

So, every institutional arrangement creates a set of expectations, guidelines and parameters that people have to work with and in.  Clearly, the direct intention of the high payoff for high performance is to stimulate achievement of students in school.  But every institutional arrangement generates more than we intend.  When those who are being so incentivized figure out just what measures of "high performance" are going to be rewarded, they will target their programs at that.  And in the nature of the case they will target other things less emphatically.

We are assuming, in other words, that the grant money for performance actually translates down to outcomes that we actually want students to have.  Since students are not a group of monoliths with monolithic goals, hopes, aspirations and needs, we should understand that no institutional arrangement will meet every goal we value.  That's been true since the first relationship was entered into.  Not so sure that throwing big money around helps this.

To be specific, see here and there and everywhere.

Oh, if we really want students to pass tests, why not transfer all this financial incentive to them?  You think students wouldn't have a little more enthusiasm for the test if there were a monetary payoff involved?  Just asking...

Oh, and don't get me started on how the article uses the word "innovation."  Talk about shibboleths!

Heresy

From the heart of computer land, a school without any computers at all.  I don't understand....They must not recognize all the benefits of the technology they produce and distribute.  They don't understand that computers are "where education is headed."  This article must have been in The Onion, not the New York Times.  That's what it was...I just know it.

Movies In The Classroom: The Sequel!

PBS's long running series Masterpiece Theatre has weighed in on the debate over film use in classrooms. The series, known best for bringing classic literary works to the screen, has its own learning resource page and offers teachers the advice reproduced below:

PBS Masterpiece Theatre - Learning Resources For Teachers
Why Study Film in the Classroom?
Anyone who has ever watched a movie with a classroom full of teenagers knows that students are comfortable with film and understand its power. By high school, they have watched thousands of movies and television shows and unconsciously understand the basic tools and conventions of the medium. Although they may still treat it chiefly as passive entertainment, they can often be sophisticated interpreters of the interplay of sound and image. They know -- often without knowing they know -- that the close-up on an actor's face signifies something different emotionally from a long shot of an actor across a distance. They know that certain kinds of music indicate that a dramatic event is about to happen, and they know that "fuzzy" camerawork can signal a dream sequence or flashback in which we are inside a particular character's mind or point of view.

In fact, students may know how to interpret film better than they know how to interpret literature -- especially the classics. Some teachers feel this is the very reason not to use film in the language arts classroom: isn't showing movies a waste of time when students have such a reading deficit already? Yes -- but only if students watch film passively.

The goal is to encourage English teachers to see film not as a guilty pleasure -- not as just the "reward" at the end of reading a book -- but as a legitimate means to enhance literacy. Contemporary thinkers on media literacy have argued that the same habits that a good reader brings to a written text are those that a critical viewer brings to a visual text; enhancing one effortlessly enhances the other. In both, a critical thinker predicts, makes connections, infers, asks questions, and interprets. In both, meaning is made through the details of character, theme, plot, mood, conflict, and symbolism. For both, we must guide students to be active interpreters.

Over thirty years ago, media education pioneer John Culkin argued that "We live in a total-information culture, which is being increasingly dominated by the image. Intelligent living within such an environment calls for developing habits of perception, analysis, judgment, and selectivity that are capable of processing the relentless input of visual data.... [Because] schools are where the tribe passes on its values to the young, schools are where film study should take place." Three decades later, Culkin's assertion resonates more than ever.

Using Film to Interpret Literature
Written texts can be  inaccessible to students. For many, the settings and historical context are foreign to them, the complex language hinders fluent reading, and the scale of books can seem intimidating. Where the camerawork between Portia and Shylock in the courtroom scene of The Merchant of Venice makes their mutual animosity clear, students might not register the same emotional intensity in the written dialogue. Even contemporary classics such as The Road from Coorain and Almost a Woman often prove challenging, particularly for reluctant or unenthusiastic readers. And yet, we want them to understand these works because they have something important and enduring to say. Using film is a way to help them do this, whether with the filmed version of the same story, in whole or in part, or a companion text that complements the themes, characters, setting, or conflicts of that story.

Activity
Film teacher John Golden suggests beginning to think critically about film by starting with a personal film inventory of one's own viewing history. First, have students make a list of ten films they have loved. (You might want to make a master list on the board of everyone's "best picks" when the class has finished.) Then have students choose a partner and take turns talking about one film each, telling each other a little about the characters, plots, settings, points of view, themes, and moods that made these films so effective. Compare and contrast the selections students made. What are the most memorable scenes from their films? Why?

Teacher Tips
Consider these ideas, suggested by teachers, for new and different ways to use film.

1. Consider showing the film version of a literary work first, rather than last, or begin your reading with short scenes from the film version. Because students are so visually oriented already, having them analyze character, look for themes, make predictions, and make observations about the film first can help them see these elements more easily when they turn to the literature.
   
2. Use film as a mini-lesson, to highlight a skill or literary element you want your students to practice. For example, let them make predictions from the opening scenes of a film, then ask them to practice predicting while reading.
   
3. Don't feel you have to show an entire movie; clips of key scenes can be enough. Be sure to prepare well in advance when showing clips. You may want to show just one (from two to ten minutes long) or make a tape of clips that show a range of film techniques or plot and character development.
   
4. Instead of showing the film version of a work of literature you are reading, consider choosing a companion film. This can be a work with similar themes, protagonists, characters, or settings; a film of the same genre; or a film version of another work by the same author. For instance, a coming-of-age story about a young man might be enhanced by showing The Road from Coorain or Almost a Woman, two stories about a young woman's coming of age. (See the rest of the site for more ideas).
   
5. Begin class the day after viewing a film by having students write about or discuss which images or scenes stayed with them most strongly. Help students constantly ask themselves, "How did I feel during that scene, and how did the filmmaker make me feel that way?"
   
6. If you are showing an entire film, use pre-reading strategies beforehand. Having students do a simple K/W/L exercise works as well with film as it does with literature for "activating schema," or prior knowledge, and for setting expectations.
   
7. Try assigning small groups or individuals in the class just one cinematic or literary technique to track as they watch a film. For instance, one group might observe characterization or mood; another might watch for camera angles or lighting.
   
8. Have students write before, during, and after viewing a long film. They can do this with a by using sentence starters such as "I wondered.... /felt.... /thought.... ," or by writing to a prompt specific to that film.

 The commentary and ideas above were copied from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/learningresources. I recommend you to visit the site yourself for links to other resources and further advice as to how films might be appropriately used to support student learning.

TNT Letter?

I submitted the following to The News Tribune on Sunday, but so far they have not posted it.

The Tacoma school district is in disarray--broken trust abroad in the community, a board that alternates between abdicating authority during the strike to brazen assertions of power to jerry-rig the Superintendent selection process, and more.  In this election we have a chance to say something about this, and the best mechanism for doing so is a vote for Scott Heinze.  

Mr. Heinze knows the issues, understands the policy process, works well with and in the community, and attends to financial realities.  More importantly, he listens--you can have a real conversation with him in which he�ll engage you and respond to what you say and think.  

As a school board candidate last summer, I heard all the candidates many times and in various settings.  Of the four remaining candidates, Mr. Heinze has consistently maintained a sharp focus on the important issues before the school district.   He is not flamboyant, but he is what we need--knowledgable, reliable and committed to the success of our schools.