M. Shannon Hernandez's Blog, page 10

12: 7 Tips and Strategies for Surviving the End of the School Year

In this episode, I discuss seven tips and activities that are sure to keep both you and your students happy and productive as school comes to a close. Teachers know that this can be a very difficult time for students–so it is best that you have some tried and true activities in your back pocket!

Tips from this episode:

Understand why you must continue teaching until the final day, no matter what!
Discover engaging activities and projects that will keep your students happy
Learn how to maintain a positive learning environment when everyone has already “checked out” for the school year

Listen to this episode:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/tpeduc/Ep12_surviving_end_of_school_year.mp3

 

The Deliberate and Intentional Lie About the Disappearance of Elective Courses in Public Schools

I am honored to feature D.A. Russell on the blog today. Don is exposing more of the truth about what is really happening in urban public schools around the country. Through years of research, Don has collected the data and published a book called, Lifting the Curtain: The disgrace we call urban public education. 

Today, Don is sharing the lies about electives and why they are disappearing from public schools. It has nothing to do with funding–although that is what the “media” and career bureaucrats continue to report. In the end, the teachers of electives and the students are the people who are suffering. It’s time to start speaking the truth so we can offer a well-rounded education to our public school children.

The decline in music and arts courses in our schools is shocking. Even the most stressed-out classroom teacher will admit music and arts teachers have it worse than the rest of us. All teachers face the constant pressure of mandates that force us to dumb down education and teach to the test. All of us work in an environment of cronyism where teachers who speak out on the real problems in education are the target of intimidation and bullying to be silent. Teachers across the nation cringe when we see an administrator change a failing grade to passing, because we know how much that hurts the child.

But on top of all this, music, arts, and electives teachers have to face the constant threat of eliminating their courses entirely — and the worst part is knowing that cancellation is almost always based on two deliberate and intentionally misleading lies by school administrators covering up the real reasons for cancelation.

The big lie – cancellation is a school funding issue

In the urban high schools I researched over three years before writing Lifting the Curtain, almost all of them had eliminated arts and music electives. In each case it was under the patently false pretense that it is due to a “…lack of funding.” The truth was, in each case that additional funding, if given, would always be applied to programs other than arts and music – because no matter what the funding level, there was no room in the curricula for these courses anymore.  The elective class periods had all been preempted for standardized test prep. And non-teaching mandates take up so much urban high school classroom time that teachers are prevented from the level of teaching that would make prep classes for standardized tests totally unnecessary.

Look at a typical 5-course freshman or sophomore day in school 20 years ago when today’s parents were in school:

Math
English
Science
History
Electives

The electives slot was the joy for children.  Here is where we painted, crafted, and learned about music (other than Elvis and the Beatles!).   Here were study halls and gym (more than just one day per week).  But look at the same 5 course schedule today:

Math
English
Science
History
Standardized test preparation

The real reason for canceling arts and music now becomes clear.  Disingenuous administrators claim it is a “budget” issue. But their real reason has nothing to do with budgets – it’s that there are no open freshman or sophomore open course slots for electives, because all are being used for test prep.

In almost all urban high schools, there are no electives, music, or arts courses in the freshman and sophomore years! All available course slots are used for prepping for the standard tests that occur in those two years. Only in the last two years of high school, after the standard test are over, does a period become available for electives. But sadly, those electives that require continuity and a progression of skills, like music and the arts, are no longer possible. It is akin to a football program – you sometimes get a freshman star, but the heart of a good team is the seniors who have been in the program for four years of development. A two-year football program will not be very good. A two-year band will have a hard time marching with John Philip Sousa.

The little lie – music and arts are too expensive

The second lie is one that sounds reasonable – music and arts are far too expensive for today’s school budgets. After all, it is true that equipping a large band or orchestra is expensive.  But school administrators intentionally leave out an important factor in their effort to hide the need for test preparation classes. Today’s children dearly want low-budget music appreciation courses, not the high cost performance courses administrators use as a false red herring.

So, we have hit upon yet another unintended consequence of mandates (standardized testing and penalties to schools with low results, and non-teaching mandates in the classroom) that shortchange our children. In every urban high school I researched, the freshman and sophomore children had at least one class each term dedicated to helping pass standardized testing – often one for both English and one for Math. All but two had no freshman or sophomore courses for any electives such as art and music.  Literally hundreds of emails and Facebook posts I have received confirm the same situation in schools nationwide. Many schools are even starting to look at adding more such “test preparation” classes for bio, chemistry, and history as those topics become part of standardized testing. After all, the sanctions on a school that does not meet mandated test results can be very severe.

And reprehensibly, many of the schools that still claim to have music and arts programs treat them as second class citizens with little support.

In every one of  the urban high schools I studied, I found administrators focused only on protecting their positions and the school’s status by concentrating curricula on passing the tests, rather than helping teachers be freed up from micromanaging mandates so those same teachers could teach again in their classrooms, making test prep classes unnecessary.

So do the math – who loses when one or two classes each day are tied up with remedial test prep training? A typical school has just 5-6 classes per day. If two (and soon to be more than two) are for additional Math and English training to help with passing standardized tests, where is there room for electives anymore? Where is there a space for creative writing? For law? For small business issues? For psychology? For that matter, where is there a slot for band, art, home economics, study hall, or carpentry?

Once again, the real reason for the loss of arts and music in our schools is simple – too many mandates trying to compete for too little time. The career bureaucrats, year after year, do not understand something as obvious as that 7-8 classes cannot fit into a 5-6 class day – and our children are the losers.

This post is part of the WOW! Women on Writing Book Tour series for D.A. Russell’s book. You can read a full interview about Don and his book here.

 

11: Self-Care Tips for Teachers with educators Brandon Rennels and Elli Weisbaum

In this episode, mindfulness educators Brandon Rennels and Elli Weisbaum discuss the importance of self-care for teachers. They share several tips for taking care of your mind and body so that you can be the best teacher possible for your students each and every day.

Tips from this episode:

Learn why you, the teacher, are the hidden curriculum and how your mental state affects your students and instruction
Discover how to lower your levels of stress–which lead to teacher burnout–on a daily basis
Understand why having a healthy body and healthy mind make you a more compassionate teacher

Listen to this episode:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/tpeduc/11_Brandon_and_Elli_interview.mp3

 

10: Rethinking Parent/Teacher Conferences

In this episode, I reveal what parents really think about the time they are spending in parent/teacher conferences, as well as what this means for you as a teacher. I share many of the answers parents submitted when I asked the question: “What do you enjoy about parent/teacher conferences, and what suggestions do you have to make this a better experience?”

Tips from this episode:

Learn why parents are upset because conferences are focusing more on data and test scores, rather than if their children are good citizens
Discover how you can make the parent/teacher conference a more positive and productive experience
Understand why leadership teams should be thinking very carefully about how they are structuring parent/teacher conference night and the impact that structure is having on the overall school community

Listen to this episode:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/tpeduc/episode_10_conferences.mp3

 

Podcast Episode [10]: Rethinking Parent/Teacher Conferences

In this episode, I reveal what parents really think about the time they are spending in parent/teacher conferences, as well as what this means for you as a teacher. I share many of the answers parents submitted when I asked the question: “What do you enjoy about parent/teacher conferences, and what suggestions do you have to make this a better experience?”

Tips from this episode:

Learn why parents are upset because conferences are focusing more on data and test scores, rather than if their children are good citizens
Discover how you can make the parent/teacher conference a more positive and productive experience
Understand why leadership teams should be thinking very carefully about how they are structuring parent/teacher conference night and the impact that structure is having on the overall school community

Listen to this episode. 

NY’s Governor Cuomo Starts Education War: Teachers and Parents—Let’s Prepare For Battle

As a public education activist, who focuses most of my efforts on local school-based, student-centered reform, I have literally been sick to my stomach since the New York State Legislature approved a budget, complete with education “reforms” proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on April 1st. It wasn’t a joke—and I am angry, upset, and devastated, to say the least.

If you read my blog posts, either on my own blog, or over at The Huffington Post, you know a few things generally ring true:

I don’t tackle politics often.There are people who are far better versed in this type of education reform writing than I am.
I seem to write posts generally weighing in over 1200 words. I want to provide value and insight into a new way of thinking about education reform—through the lens of compassion, love, and gratitude.
I rally teachers, students, and parents to take action.

Well, today, I am tackling a political issue, rallying teachers, parents, and students, and going to try and keep this rather short.

As if the NY State Teacher Evaluation System wasn’t already a huge burden on teachers and their students, Cuomo has just made it worse. I’m not even sure how this was a possibility—I worked under his brutal evaluation system just two years ago.

Once again, this bill was bundled into the budget, signed off by our lovely legislators, and no one asked educators to weigh in on the issues. Cuomo demanded that student test scores comprise 50 percent of a teacher and principal’s evaluation. It passed.

But worse yet? Neither did the legislature, nor governor, stop here. They also included into the law that lesson plans, student feedback, and parent feedback can NOT be included in teacher evaluations. This means that no longer will teachers be evaluated on the relationships they are building with their students, the families they serve, and the communities they are enriching.

This is ludicrous and it’s time to mobilize and take action.

What if…we all decided that we had had enough of the bullying and pushing around, and that we are going to get creative in how we respond to government officials who continue to demoralize our profession, our students, and our schools?

What if… every teacher in this state said “NO” and called out sick on all testing days? It would be quite hard to evaluate teachers based on test scores, wouldn’t it?

What if…every parent in this state got behind the teachers, and said “NO” and didn’t send their children to school on testing days? It would be quite hard to continue the false narrative that our students are failing the tests—because they wouldn’t be taking them.

What if…every administrator in our public schools said “NO” and began opting their school out of state testing? It would be quite hard to rate a school as “failing” if there wasn’t any data to prove it.

It’s quite clear to me that we must start thinking out-of-the-box. As educators, we’ve stayed in this box for too long. We are boxed in by scripted curriculum, tests that are NOT measuring student growth and progress, and top-down education reform where we continue to be called “the problem”, rather than the solution.

So, let’s come up with solutions. Radical solutions that get attention, like those proposed above. Solutions where we take a firm stand, as a nation of educators. It is certainly hard to reprimand an entire state of educators who band together and begin saying “NO.”

No more bullying.
No more hurting our students with useless tests.
No more calling us the problem.
No more ludicrous bills signed by legislators who don’t know what has been bundled into them.

The time to start protesting, objecting, and becoming vocal is now. The Governor started this war, and it’s time we band together and fight for our profession and our students.

Public School Teachers Have Had Enough!

I’ve been watching my social media feeds. Teachers are banding together like never before on Twitter and Facebook and using their voices to speak the truth about what is happening in our public schools. We are organizing ourselves for demonstrations and rallies, and we are forming advocacy groups, at the local, state, and national levels.

We have realized that there is strength in numbers.

We have realized that if an entire nation of teachers speaks, it’s hard to pin-point one or two “trouble-makers”.

We have realized that we share the same concerns and struggles from state-to-state, and that talking about it, publicly, educates the public.

Teachers have had enough. The evidence can be seen across the nation, as teachers stand up to the unrealistic demands that are being handed down to them from education policy makers and corporate reformers.

We’ve had enough of the testing, the scripted, fake curriculum, and the crowded, underfunded classrooms.

We’ve had enough of the lies—being told that our students can’t do the work, aren’t proficient, and don’t have what it takes to succeed in public schools.

We’ve had enough of the bullying—being told, over and over again, that we are “bad” teachers, and that the students are failing because we aren’t doing our jobs.

And now, it’s time for change. Because we know some things…

We know that our nation’s youth deserve the countless hours we invest, outside of our classrooms, to fight for what is theirs—a public school experience that exceeds their needs, and one that is filled with love and compassion, and is built on engaging, meaningful, and passionate instruction.

After all, we are the professionals. We are the people walking into our classrooms, day in and day out, building relationships with students, and inspiring minds to reach higher and think bigger. We are the very individuals who know exactly what our schools need so we can continue doing the work we have been called to do.

And yet, most often, teachers are not asked about the topics being debated across the nation. How is it that the very professionals who have been trained to work with a variety of learners, are never asked, “What do you think will make the greatest impact in our schools?”

And now…for the truth…

The truth is that our voices do matter in public education reform. We are seeing the results when we use social media to organize ourselves, begin blogging on our own websites, opt-out of the testing madness, or voice our concerns at the faculty meeting. There are numerous ways that we can continue fighting for our public schools.

I invite you to join another platform where your voice matters, big time. The Transforming Public Education Podcast is a weekly show which highlights all the wonderful things happening in public schools. It is a place where educators, parents, and students have a voice in what is working in our schools—and what isn’t. It is a show about public education which is rooted in solutions, inspiration, and above all, compassion and love.

The Transforming Public Education: Creating REAL Reform Through Compassion, Love, and Gratitude podcast was inspired by the many conversations I’ve been having with teachers, since releasing my memoir, Breaking the Silence: My Final Forty Days as a Public School Teacher.

It was inspired by passionate educators who know that we have the knowledge and skills and passion necessary to create positive learning environments.

It is a podcast show which demonstrates that many of our public schools are working and aren’t broken at all—but also recognizes that there is always room for improvement. It is a show which highlights that educators, parents, and students already have the solutions, and we will use this platform, as yet another way, to voice our concerns, share our expertise, and band together to fight for our public schools.

09: Differentiation For All Students in the Classroom with consultant John McCarthy

In this episode, consultant John McCarthy discusses what a differentiated classroom looks like, and how teachers can implement differentiated instruction to reach all students. John offers very practical and useful tips to help you get started!

Tips from this episode:

Learn why differentiated instruction is so important to your students
Discover how to implement several types of differentiated instruction and transform your classroom
Explore new ways to differentiate process, product, and content in your classroom

Listen to this episode:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/tpeduc/Episode_9_John_Interview.mp3

Podcast Episode [09]: Differentiation For All Students in the Classroom with consultant John McCarthy

In this episode, consultant John McCarthy discusses what a differentiated classroom looks like, and how teachers can implement differentiated instruction to reach all students. John offers very practical and useful tips to help you get started!

Tips from this episode:

Learn why differentiated instruction is so important to your students
Discover how to implement several types of differentiated instruction and transform your classroom
Explore new ways to differentiate process, product, and content in your classroom

Listen to this episode. 

Teaching is an Affair of The Heart by John Thompson

I am honored to feature educator John Thompson on the blog today. He and I met via Twitter, and he is a huge advocate of student-centered reform. More than that, he too believes that more compassion, love, and gratitude in the classroom will make a huge difference in schools across this nation.

John shares a little bit about his early days as a teacher below, as well as his view on teaching with open hearts, open minds, and open arms. 

During my first semester teaching in a neighborhood school, I recognized that it had already become a calling. Davina (as I will call her) did not ask permission to interrupt when I was in the middle of a sentence; she just got up and walked across the room. I kept talking, I wondering what was in her mind as she went to the far back corner. This class leader acted as if she owned the place, but then again, there are worse things than students taking over their own room. She took a seat next to the only white kid in the room, a new transfer. Davina put her hand on the girl’s hand and said, “Honey, you look scared. Don’t worry. You will be alright.”

Over the next two decades, I learned that the first rule of schooling should be: Listen to the students and they will teach you how to teach them. The kids also taught me that if we build on our kids’ moral consciousness, our democracy will be alright. 

When I attended public school, my teachers debated whether their job was to “teach the subject” or “teach the student.” Those who sought to “teach the student” often argued that education was an affair of “the Heart,” as much as of “the Head.” It was inconceivable that this perennial debate would ever produce a clear-cut winner, much less an outcome where all teachers must define the job in one way or another.

Today, too many educators have settled on the simple answer that their job is to “teach the subject” in schools devoted to “the Head.” Teaching to the intellect is important, and we must welcome educators who love to teach skills and facts. Schools cannot afford to exclude the talents of adults who see instruction in subject matter as their way of demonstrating their commitment to students. In my experience, though, the better rock on which to build our schools is “the Heart.”

We cannot trick kids into concentrating and learning for mastery. Teachers should heed historian David McCullough’s advice and show students what we love. And we must pay equal attention to what they love. The rocks upon which real learning can be built are the moral impulses and the values that are loved by both adults and students.

Early in my career, as our lessons approached closure, the kids knew what was about to happen, and often I would hear from around the room, “Here comes the Jesse Jackson speech.” As Reverend Jackson became less omnipresent, the phrase changed, and the students’ new response was, “Preach, brother! Preach!” I didn’t enter teaching with a plan to create classroom traditions of call and response. The students co-created the institution of teach and preach. Once they had been treated with the respect due to a student, the kids demanded more of it.

I must emphasize that it took more than my exhortations and my students’ openness to build our classroom culture. It takes a village to raise a child. Similarly, teaching is a team effort. Virtually every day of my career, somebody unexpectedly walked through the classroom door to contribute something of value. So, even this veteran teacher who aims for incremental change still has a faith in the transformational power of being open to the contributions of other adults and students. Together, we must create a school culture where it is possible to teach with open doors, open minds, and open hearts.