July 21, 2009
It’s not enough to intend to do good. I mean, it just isn’t. What doctor is excused from killing a patient because that doctor cares?
The saccharine myths that I tell myself and others about my sacrifices, my work ethic, my own academic prowess, my caring, my love, do not ensure that my students learn.
There’s only one thing that comes close to doing that. Informed, multi-measured, reflective, corrective practice.
July 19, 2009
July 16, 2009
It’s this, finished about fifteen minutes ago:
Star Teachers of Children in Poverty
Clocking in at a slim 94 pages, this book is no bigger than a DVD case. It’s now underlined, dog-eared, and annotated nearly worse than my Ed Deci, and if you’ve been following the blog, you know what that means.
Written by Dr. Martin Haberman out of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, it compounds two decades of work, true multiple measures of achievement, and qualitative interviews to identify an easy handful of characteristics– I mean, seriously, like, fifteen?– of successful teaching in the ultimate test of fire, urban schools in poverty. It marries the acerbic cut-through-the-crap voice of Jonathan Kozol and Alfie Kohn with an equally compelling research base, if not more (IMHO)– along with a much larger dose of genuine compassion and insight into the beginning teacher’s mind.
As a result I cannot understand why this man’s voice is not front and center in the ever-louder clamor over the definition of successful teachers, but I think I can guess. For example, a large part of his analysis identifies superb teachers as having figured out how to actively tame and protect themselves (and more importantly, their students) from “the mindless bureaucracy” of public education– and indeed supports them positively in their lack of any desire whatsoever to reform that mindlessness. I imagine it’s the rare administrator or teacher trainer who will step out on a similar limb.
Many others of the characteristics, such as “physical stamina,” strike me as equally unconventional in typical discussions of teacher success. When was the last time a mentor told you you’d need to jog some more to do well in the inner city schools?
So there’s a teaser for you, and if I can manage it without pulling my hair out, I’m going to try and blog out all Haberman’s “functions” of successful urban teachers in a short series of posts over the course of the summer. It seems to me that getting these straight in my own head will go a very long way towards both the micro-preparation of my classroom, and the meta-conversation involving the burning questions which I posed here– and continue to wrestle with every single day.
Yep, even on summer vacation. Geeks unite.
July 1, 2009
Not PBS, but rather this.
I mentioned it in my last post, stating (prematurely, as it turns out) that I was going to join the committee to help implement this program in our building next fall. After doing some reading on the website, though, I sent this email to our vice-principal today.
Thanks for being so thoughtful and generous with your time and information regarding PBIS. Unfortunately I have to go with my gut on this one and decline participation, for a couple of reasons.
First, in looking closely at the PBIS website, it’s clear the research-based evidence supporting the efficacy of this model is in its infancy. I’m quoting the PBIS documentation verbatim there. (On a side note, I mistrust how the site creators have buried this actual fact such that you have to sift through several webpages and a 16-page Word document to figure it out.)
Secondly, exactly because the model is not yet supported by robust research, it is my strong feeling that it’s going to be very important to our higher-ups to do it “by the book,” without modification. And as you know from our conversation, my own research reading on democratic schooling and intrinsic motivation leads me to believe that significant modification is already called for in PBIS in order for it to work in the long term. In otherwords I’m not convinced that any suggestions to change or examine the implementation of PBIS from a critical perspective will be supported by the district.
I wish you the best of luck. There’s many positive aspects to the program and I hope they play out. I will do my best to support them as a teacher in the building.
Sincerely,
Dina
I hope I’m being pessimistic, reactionary, and ill-informed. I really do. Anyone out there willing to comment on this program or his/her experiences with it?
