Different Learners.

For my topic this week, I chose to address special education at Hillcrest. This school offers a wide variety of support, from full inclusion classrooms to a separate life skills class for those students with more severe disabilities. On the surface I think this school has a great special education program. The particular class that interested me was life skills. These students come to music twice a week; once a week with the rest of the life skills students and once integrated into a grade level. As a teacher, I often feel that aspects of these students’ music education are limited. In the life skills classroom, the class is run at about the level of a kindergarten class. My issue, however, revolves around the fact that nothing new is ever introduced to these students. I do realize that repetition can be very beneficial with these students, but they have the same five or six songs and same instrument activity they do every week. To me, it leaves a lot to be desired. When these students are integrated into a regular classroom music class, I feel they can become “invisible.” One of the life skills aides agrees with me. She says, “Sometimes teachers will tend to overlook my students and that's a challenge. They will automatically assume the students can't do it. They will not include them in things.” I have noticed this even in music class—life skills students are simply “there,” there is little to no effort to adapt activities to meet their needs. For example, the other day our forth graders were reviewing the string family of the orchestra and were going over answers. One of the life skills students kept calling out right answers (which is something above and beyond what was expected of her). However, she was never acknowledged as having the right answer and was never called upon to provide an answer for the class, even though she clearly had an understanding of what the class was discussing.

With this being said, I have noticed huge support of these life skills students from others at Hillcrest. The same teacher says, “The regular ed. students are usually wonderful and very helpful. Even that has to be monitored because sometimes they want to do everything for our children and of course our main goal is independence.” I think this relationship is important for both students. Life skills students are provided with a safe environment and understanding from peers. The “regular ed.” students are provided with the opportunity to see and appreciate different types of learners.

parent teacher conferences

I had parent teacher conferences last night. It was really interesting to see what everyone's parents had to say. It was also kind of kewl to be able to talk to them about their child. Has anyone else had the change to go to one of these?
Also is anyone else going to the region chorus festival in chatham on december 4th?
For my topic this week I did change, and I asked a bunch of people within the school if they would be willing to make change, and most of them werent willing tobe the person, they would jump on the bandwagon but they wouldnt create the change. I know that I would be willing to make change and waves. But I was wondering would anyone else? Like I know that we talk alot but at what point will we stop talking and act?

I've found in many of the conversations I've had with teachers that I am frustrated with the answers I get. I feel this because there seems to be a negative trend in how people view the future of education. For the last week I tried to go around to everyone I talked to, to see what they feel is future of education. I'm not sure if they think I'm looking for a negative answer, or whether they truly feel the way they do, but they all, with the exception of two very young teachers, predicted very negative futures for education. One teacher said that teaching today is "not the profession she entered into." Another said that she worries whether she'll even have a job in ten years with the way technology is "interfering" with our lives. From the conversations throughout the semester I arrived at the conclusion that they all felt that the role of a teacher was insignificant now, and from these conversations I deduced that they feel these roles will only worsen. I'm not sure whether to agree or disagree when so many people complain about the state of education, and then predict poor things in the future. Isn't that kind of giving up on the future?...kind of saying we can't do anything about it?

Topics

Trying to determine my topic for this weeks discussions was actually more difficult than I expected. I kept tossing ideas back and forth, but I just couldn't really decide on something that I liked. I originally thought I would want to write something on grades, because personally I hate them, but then I thought that we covered that topic in a round about kind of way before. I wanted to pick something more controversial, something that I knew I could get people to really talk about.

The first person I spoke to was my co-op. She was actually the one who suggested that I should write about tenure. She said, "tenure is good if it does what it's supposed to do. It was established to allow teachers to have some freedom: freedom to push issues or to do further research in their classrooms. However, this isn't what always happens. Instead tenure has allowed many teachers to become lazy and to slack off in their teaching." After speaking with my co-op I realized that I actually didn't know a lot about tenure for teachers, so I decided to do some research. I found that " Most of America's public school teachers (58 percent) believe tenure protects teachers from district politics, favoritism, and the threat of losing their jobs to newcomers who would earn less, according to a new survey, titled Stand By Me, from Public Agenda, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research organization. Yet a majority (58 percent) of teachers also admit that being awarded tenure does not necessarily mean such teachers have worked hard and proved themselves to be very good at what they do. One union official admitted to defending tenured teachers "who shouldn't even be pumping gas."(School Reform News, 2003)

I found this very interesting. I remember having a professor in high school who was a horrible teacher. He probably should have retired 5 years before I had him, but yet he was still there teaching. I was so frustrated with him that I even complained to my principal and they did actually re-evaluate him. However because of the law, there was little that they could do.
"How expensive is it? A 1994 study by the New York State School Boards Association found that dismissing a tenured teacher in that state takes an average of 455 days and costs $177,000. If the teacher appeals, costs can approach twice that amount. Preparations for the required due process hearings take as long as six months, during which time suspended teachers in states such as Connecticut receive full salary. In addition, there are costs for substitute teachers and costs for the hearings. The process often ends with the school district either paying off or transferring the bad teacher. Like the fox guarding the henhouse, the unions have taken over attempts to reform the tenure system. Their solution is an experimental "peer review" process that involves teachers evaluating teachers instead of principals evaluating teachers to determine who is incompetent." ("Why Bad Teachers Aren't Fired", 1998)

So because I decided to make my topic tenure in education, I decided I would get the principals perspective on tenure, this time as a teacher and not a student. I spoke with on of the vice-principals in my high school. He took a while to think about what he was going to say and then he simply said, "I believe tenure is absolutely necessary in education." I thought that this was really interesting, especially coming from an administrators perspective. I asked him why and he said, "Think of it like this, as a teacher you see, on an average, 125 'clients' a day, and one of them is bound to not be pleased with you. If there wasn't something there to protect you (or teachers in general) the turnover rate of teachers would be ridiculously high!" He said, "of course there are downsides, as there are with anything, and there are teachers who become lazy, but there are things that can be done." I was really surprised at his view. I told him about my high school situation and he asked me how many "bad teachers" I may have had while in high school. I said maybe about 6, and he said, "out of how many?!" I understood his point. He then said, "I'd rather err on the side of teachers being good. I think without tenure in education, it would actually harm more good teachers than, without it bad."

I wanted another perspective, so I went and spoke to the art teacher again. She said, "well that is an issue! I believe there are issues, however, I think a lot of it also has to do with the teacher's personality. See me, I'm one who tends to want to stay neutral. However, honestly, in my department, I would have to say that the teachers that are going through the tenure process right now who actually deserve it, probably won't get it. Because of their personalities and their teaching ideas, they're not getting along with the supervisors and administrators, and they're they ones doing the evaluations. If you really think about it, the government are the one's who are regulating and running education, but what do they know about education?! We are never going to be able to fix education while the government is still running the show."

I guess were back again. All of the issues seem to come back to the government, and this idea of education being "schooled-up". I would say that out of anything I learned through this entire experience, you need to pick and choose your battles, and to pace yourself so that you don't become burnt out! I'm the type of person who wants to solve every problem and answer every question. However, I've realized that a teacher's work is never done, and that you really need to do you're research and to fight for what you believe in. And to always remember that we are teaching kids. That's what education is all about, and that's our job!

Theory Comment

So there are 24 kids in the theory class and it started out with only a few kids talking all the time, but now every single kid talks. It doesn't help that they are on different levels of musicianship too. On Friday they were so bad that they wouldn't even quiet down for my co-op. I've moved around their seats but that doesn't do anything because they all talk, not just one person. The other music teachers in the department have observed this to and they all think that the class should have been split into 2 seperate sections, but that's simply not going to happen this year. I get them quiet for 5-7 minutes but then it just starts back up again. They're all good kids and a good handful don't mean to cause trouble, but they don't realize that the talking echoes in that room and how loud it gets. The schedule that I'm on is a rotating block schedule so the class doesn't meet at the same time every day. So, I used to think they were the rowdiest when the class met right after lunch or during last period. I've come to find that they act the same way no matter the time, though. I really don't know what to do and it's getting worse and worse. My co-op is worried about how he is going to teach the class after December because he won't have the extra hand there to help. My co-op and I have devised a system for this class that we split it up (he takes half and I take the other). The talking is just as bad when they are split, though. Any suggestions on how to keep them quiet for more then 5 minutes? I've tried to give them multiple things in order to keep them focused but they still talk.

I'm in elementary and mostly teach 1st-3rd, and some 4th and 5th grades, and its interesting how wide the range is in the kids in terms of their fears. My 1st graders will do anything because most of them haven't developed fear in the classroom of, "What if I'm wrong?" and, "What will my friends think of me?" My 3rd graders seem to be just starting to feel intimidated and sometimes it takes just a little more encouragement to get the kids to participate. The 4th and 5th graders seem to really be at the point where they're developing a sense of themselves and how they fit in and tend to be very conscious of their grades, and possibility of being wrong, and what their friends think of them, that many of them tend to be silent in class. They're still at the age where mostly they want to be pleasing to others. So with the older kids, when I ask a question and am met with silence, I try to encourage them by telling them to take a guess and congratulating them when they take that chance, even if they are wrong.

With the younger kids, somtimes I use this same form of encouragement, but I guess I'm afraid that they are too young to understand that its ok to be wrong, so more often then not, I find myself telling kids that something was 'good,' or 'I like the way you're thinking,' even when it wasn't even close to the right answer. I'm afraid that if I don't sugar coat or twist my responses, that they'll stop taking chances in class, but I'm also afraid that I'm not doing the kids justice with my sugar coated responses.

Community and Fear

I thought the ideas in the “Culture of Fear” article were easily applied to any classroom situation. I know that as a student, I often have to be comfortable with a group of people before I willing to share my ideas and opinions. It is important to remember that our students may be no different. Students can be afraid of a variety of things, for example academic failure or being thought stupid or uncool by peers. I have come to realize that I also have fears as a teacher. For example, I worry that my students won’t feel comfortable in my classroom or that they will not understand/care about what I am teaching them.

These fears relate directly to a type of community. Many different communities exist in each student’s life—classroom, school, and town/wider community. In terms of classroom community, it is important to make sure students feel welcome and comfortable with each other and you as a teacher. Although this will not necessarily eliminate all fear in the classroom, it is an important step. This idea can be extended into the wider community. As students become aware of different people, groups, and community activities they become less likely to avoid them because of fear.

Community/School/Fear

"But there is a deeper reason for our blindness to our students' fears, and it is more daunting: we cannot see the fear in our students until we see the fear in ourselves" (Palmer 47).
As student teachers I feel like we almost have twice the fears, we still have our fears as students and we have our fears as teachers. Although mostly now it revolves around graduating, not looking stupid, and growing in a productive way our fears really do rule who we are. Surprisingly many of the students in my school when I asked what they were afriad of in the classroom did not mention being made fun of for the wrong answer first, but rather death. This kind of scares me, because here we are in America a wonderful country...but they are afraid of being blown up, or of being killed by a shooter. Perhaps this will be more prominent at my school which has had many bomb threats this year. "We were all afraid that this one might be the one, or that there would be a shooter on the roof. You never really know, we just have to trust each other, which is near impossible considering how much fear lies between all of us. This is an education defect in the community, some parents encourage this behavior, and the rest of the community could not care less. I think that the only way to stop this is to make it not cool. Tell the community the problem; educate the parents and townspeople that if they see this type of behavior it is not okay, just like on Halloween it is not okay to egg another person’s house. There are sick people out there that encourage this. They scare me as well, but maybe if we educated them they could be reformed, changed" (Anderson).
But the later reasons were the ones I was expecting. Any time that they have to express themselves, they all lack confidence...except for those few students who I think have more going on behind the scene. They also have so much more going on in their lives. I cannot begin to tell you all the stories I hear about drinking parents and such. If we were to educate the community maybe we could bring up these students qualities of life. Maybe get the community more involved in the school, let everyone feel comfortable. But then, maybe this is just too idealistic, to solve all the problems of the world...but perhaps maybe the dream of world peace is not too rediculous just not planned out well enough. I turn back to my own fear as I click the publish post button for this blog, because truely we are all afraid of what we think and of what we say.
"In unguarded moments with close friends, we who teach will acknowledge a variety of ears: having our work go unappreciated, being iadequately rewarded, discovering one fine morning that we chose the wrong profession, spending our lies on trivia, ending up feeling like frauds" (Palmer 48).

FEAR!

We've all heard it, time and again, "there's nothing to fear except fear itself", however, have you ever really thought about it? Until this past week, I have to admit no! What exactly is fear, and why do we fear it?In the dictionary, fear is defined as "A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger." So then we could say that this feeling of fear is always brought upon by something else. I would say that one way of overcoming fear is to determine what is causing the feeling in the first place. It would be to determine the "danger".

As far as teaching goes, the idea of fear exists, yes, but what are the "dangers" that teachers face? There are so many that it would be impossible to list them all, however, perhaps by categorizing them we would be able to have a better understanding of where they come from and how to deal with them. In Palmer's article, he labels different kinds of fears. He divided them into four categories: 1. The fear of live encounters 2. The fear of conflict 3. The fear of losing identity 4. The fear of transformation/personal change. We each deal with these dangers within our own classrooms, almost on a daily basis. However, just as Palmer has said, "My fear that I am teaching poorly may be not a sign of failure but evidence that I care about my craft. My fear that a topic will explode in the classroom may be not a warning to flee from it but a signal that the topic must be addressed. My fear of teaching at the dangerous intersection of the personal and public may be not cowardice but confirmation that i am taking the risks that good teaching requires." So maybe, the fact that we are able to either label or categorize our fears means that we are being "good" teachers. It all goes back to that! I would say that if we are unable to notice and face our fears then are we ever able to become GOOD teachers? Probably not.


My co-op and I talk about our fears a lot, and I never really thought about how seriously they affect my teaching or the community environment that exists in my school. Palmer mentioned, "In a culture where fear is the air we breathe, it is hard to see how deeply fearful our education is - let alone imagine another way to teach and learn." So often I think about my fear of only being able to teach the way I was taught. I know that we've talked about this a lot, but yet I'm always worried that if during my lesson something doesn't go well, what will I do? Will I resort to the ways I was taught?

Another interesting thought that my co-op and I have discussed is actually brought on because of our lunch duity. As we stand there everyday watching the kids eat their lunches, making sure that they stay in the cafeteria and that other students that don't have that lunch stay out, we've talked about what would happen if the kids decided to rebel? How would we stop them? In all reality, we couldn't. If they all decided to get up and stamped out, there is no way physically possible that we could actually stop them. So what's keeping them in their seats? What's stopping them?! Their own fear!

Choir

So I'm about two weeks away from the holiday concert and four weeks away from my Messiah concert. With the holiday concert fast approaching all the music needs to be memorized. Does anybody have any helpful tips on how to help a choir memorize the songs? The song I am conducting is "Do You Hear What I Hear" and the kids are having a hard time remembering the correct order in which the characters are introduced. The song also switches from "do you hear what I hear" to "do you see what I see" and the kids are having a difficult time with that change. When I conducted this on Wednesday, I would point to my eyes when the chorus sang "do you see what I see" and my ears when it was "do you hear". I can't act out the characters though of course. I suppose that practice makes perfect, but I'm figuring there are other solutions. Any ideas?

there is no try.

My co-op. hangs lots of 'inspirational' quotes, etc. all over her room. The most recent addition is a quote from Star Wars' Yoda, stating, "Do, or do not. There is no try." Some of our 6th grade students asked her about it today, and she explained it along what was to me the "just do it" line of thinking. She said that sometimes we don't succeed at things but it is no big deal. To me, this quote sends a negative message. It seems to say, "Sometimes your best isn't good enough, so don't bother trying at all." Especially at the young level where we are requiring all students to sing, play recorders, listen to music, etc. how can we expect our students to excel at everything they do? I know as a teacher, I do expect all of my students to at least try. I just thought it was interested and wondered if anyone had any thoughts

Choir question

I am teaching the "Amen" section of Worthy is the Lamb in Messiah. This is definitely the hardest chorus for the students to learn. Each voice section knows their part, but putting it together SATB is a completely story! I have tried count singing and that helps just a little. But even when they get it somewhat correct on count singing, when we switch back to words, the whole thing falls apart again!!! The kids are so good, and they are really trying, its not a question of being lazy, its a matter of what strategy will work the best. I tried having them sing on sticcato, and that helped them to not slow down, but it didn't help "hold their own part" when they are all singing together. I have tried sectionals, and that helped them learn their part individually but it didn't do anything to help the choir as a whole. I am really stuck, and I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions. My co-op says not to worry about it and it always comes together before the concert, but that doesn't make me feel any better right now!!!