60% is the new 0% but are we really changing things?

The LEA where I work has proposed a new policy for all teachers/classes that 0's can no longer be given to students for any assignment or assessment (turned in or not). Instead, a 60% will become the new 0. I have very mixed feelings about this proposed policy. I've read various things the past few years on this new trend, and right now, my PLC is doing a study on Rick Wormeli's book Fair Isn't Always Equal. I've heard the mathematical arguments for giving a 60% instead of a 0% but when I get down to it, I'm still not convinced 100% that this is a good policy. I think what's bothering me the most is what is driving the policy or rather, what's not being said that may be driving the policy. We know that many students spiral out of control, ending up in failure. That being said, it makes sense that in order to get out of that place, students will have to spiral up and that's easier said than done. That requires among other things teachers helping to scaffold and support the student as he/she tries to come up from an F. It requires first and foremost intrinsic motivation on the part of the student. I like to think I can do many things as a teacher, and I'm pretty willing to do most things (whatever it takes) in order to motivate and help a student achieve success. But, that in and of itself is not enough. The student has to want to succeed. This leads me back to the policy. Will giving a 60% create that motivation for that student to succeed? Is the policy really trying to address teachers who do not scaffold and help the student spiral back to success? If that is what this policy is aiming to do, then is making a mandatory "60% instead of 0%" the answer? Aren't we just treating the symptom instead of the root? And that is what bothers me the most. I feel like it's another move of taking the power and control out of an individual teacher's hands. Why do we have these mandated, everyone follows policies instead of dealing with the individual problems? I know from 15 years of personal experience that when a student makes up his/her mind that he/she wants to be successful and is going to work for that success, motivation is strong. From the first year I taught, I pulled students aside after the first grading period who did not pass and offered to raise their grades to a 65% for the first grading period if they made a C or higher the next grading period. I've had a lot of success with that method and have felt good about my decision-making in those matters. Interestingly enough, the two years I decided to go ahead and report the failing grade as a 65% for those who did not make it the first grading period, I had noticeably fewer students who really changed things around and worked hard to raise their grades. Instead, giving the 65% seemed to create a sense of entitlement for many of the students in that category. It's actually easier on me to go ahead and give the 65% so that I don't have to deal with the paperwork at a later date of raising the grade, but after seeing the results for those two years, I went back to my original system. And it's worked. And it's been ME making that decision as a qualified and reflective practitioner; not a 'one size fits all' policy mandated by an lea, state or nation.

Now, if this policy is passed, I will no longer have that individual authority (or the satisfaction of using that authority to help students be successful). And the policy won't address the underlying issue (at least as far as I can tell since there's not a dialogue going on about it) of what do we do to help students turn things around when they are not being successful. Already some teachers are talking about how they can compensate for the 'new 0's' by grading harder or giving fewer assignments or giving more, and so on. And once again, it looks like we're headed for another policy that's being passed in an effort to address all, but it turns out the choir only is once again getting the sermon. As one of those in the choir, I'm tired and discouraged. When will the messages start targeting those not in church?

Is "New Beginnings" Redundant?

I'm back. Word constipation has been a challenge since early December but hopefully this post will get things moving again. Lately, I've thought a lot about new beginnings. This morning, it occurred to me that instead of trying so hard "to fix" things, perhaps I should focus on just starting over. Throw in the towel and know when it's time to say "Enough!" As a teacher but even moreso as a human being, I yearn to be able to look a difficulty in the face and see the growth right there and then that I hope is happening as a result of me facing the obstacle. Alas, that doesn't usually happen. It's usually on the other end that I can look back and say, yes, that was a hard time, but I grew as a result. I guess with the harbingers of spring lately and spring break, I'm ready for rebirth and new life. To say I've lost my English teaching mojo the past five months is putting it mildly. I've found it impossible to focus on reading and writing. I've not even been able to read for pleasure much less read student papers and do much beyond the day-to-day absolute necessity. In short, the path I've walked these last months has been very hard. My mother was diaganosed with cancer last December on my 41st birthday, but even though it was initially very overwhelming, I never would have predicted that news would have impacted my teaching the way it has. I've been stuck and getting further and further behind, but this morning, I decided I will not go back and try to cover all the ground. Don't get me wrong: I'm not a quitter, but sometimes, I think the best thing is to realize the current race you're lagging behind is not the race you're supposed to be in at that point. Time to find a new race. This path I've been on is coming to an end. So, I'm ready for a new beginning. I learn from the past, but I am ready to face the future. What the future holds, I don't know. But this I do know: the new path will be full of more challenges and adventures.

Style Happens

I've never been particularly interested in pursuing the sweetest deals at 4:00 am on Black Friday, but yesterday, my sister Tiffany and I ventured out in the afternoon to see about finding me a pair of jeans. We wandered into Lane Bryant, but I was ready to leave in a few minutes. Seems they have completely revamped their traditional sizing. All pants now come in sizes 1 to 9 and in blue line, red line or yellow line. Too much for my head. I just knew I wanted a simple pair of jeans with straight legs. I've never been a fan of flaired or boot legs, but my sister insisted it was time for me to move my style into the 21st century. After the sales lady measured me, she insisted I try on a size 5 in the blue line. I was very conscious about the fit, but my sister and the saleslady didn't feel it fit tight enough, insisting I go to a size 4. "You want jeans to fit you tight and show off your booty," the sales lady kept insisting to which I replied, "Mam, if you haven't noticed, I don't have a 'booty' on my behind; mine is in front if you haven't noticed my belly." I was rather concerned that the jeans might be vulgar looking. Then, we shifted to another color. Another sales lady insisted I was not blue line at all but rather red line. So, somehow I ended up in a size 6 red line pair that were tighter than the blue line size 5. Go figure. And no, they are not straight line jeans. They are boot cut. Seems the good old straight line has gone out of style and is not available. Not that I care about this, but although I may come kicking and screaming, I am now a little more stylish in my red line jeans. Seems like there are a lot of shifts happening these days whether it's technology or style. I'm just trying to keep up, booty and all.

Shift Happens

Last week, a colleague/friend and I attended the NCTE National Convention in San Antonio, Texas. The focus of the convention was "Shift Happens." I went to a lot of sessions and heard a lot of speakers talk about the learning impact technology can and does indeed have on the 21st century student. As I've continued to chew on all I took in, a couple of moments of clarity have risen to the surface. One, the biggest shift is the mental one I as a teacher am and must continue to make. I have to change my attitude as that is the biggest obstacle sometimes to my teaching journey. I'm an immigrant to technology so there is always going to be that learning curve for me whether we are talking wikis, blogs, podcasts, googlelit trips. digital narratives, voicethread, etc. At my school, a lot of discussion has centered on technology. What's acceptable, what's not, how do we protect students from the dangers lurking on the net without completely censoring them, how do we get daily access to the tech in order to have students CREATE and PRODUCE learning instead of just having information delivered to them using technology. It can be overwhelming and yet I know I must dive in.

I told my friend Alisa that I feel I'm one of the teachers on the sideline of this great rapidly moving river. You know the ones. We're talking about whether or not technology is dehumanizing us and whether or not students need to have their ipods at school and why the devil they constantly want to text and shouldn't cell phones be banned completely from the school, yada, yada, yada. We're still questioning whether or not technology is right for us and meanwhile that river rages on by. It's going my friends, whether or not we're in it. At the conference, I realized I need to stop putting my feet in the river and instead just dive in, whole body and all. The only way I can hope to have an impact on my students is if I get in that river of technology with them and swim along beside them. Change my mindset. That truly is a paradigm shift. It's the biggest one. So, bring on the podcasting and the googlelit trips. I know I will have to rely on my students a lot to give me the lay of the land and orient me. But I hope that we will be learners together as we navigate our way down the constantly shifting river of technology.

The 12 Days of Christmas Grammar Challenge

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas music. I'm such a freak about it that yes, I confess, I've even secretly listened to it as early as August and sometimes into late January. But Thanksgiving signals the official okay that Christmas music is acceptable, so I've been uploading Christmas music onto my ipod. Thanks to Amanda, I've learned how to download songs from iTunes onto my computer and then to my ipod. (Hey, Amanda, I still need help putting the songs from cds I already have onto my ipod. Call me if you see this over the Thanksgiving weekend. :) As I sit here writing this, I'm listening to some of my favorites. My brother-in-law Greg is not a big fan of the "whiney Christmas songs" so he's given me his Bose headset to listen, sparing him from the music which is okay since I'm afterall a guest in my sister and his house this holiday. We arrived tonight to kick off our Thanksgiving with our annual roasted oysters. Yummy, nothing better on a cold November night than a fresh oyster on a saltine cracker topped with a jalapeno and some of my dad's delicious sauce. But I digress. Back to the grammar idea.

For several past years, I've had the idea of designing a mini unit on troublesome grammar issues using traditional Christmas carols and holiday songs. For instance, the rule about lie versus lay tangles up many a student, so why not design a game that features the carol "O, Little Town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie . . ." and use it during the month of December? I've decided to make this idea a reality this year, so I'm spending this weekend (at least a portion of it between the turkey meal, the family movie outing and the holiday shopping) working out the details of this unit so that I can start it next week with my students. I'm making a collection of the songs I'll use and figuring which grammatical concepts I'll teach/review with each one. If it turns out well, I'll post the results here. Happy Turkey Day, folks! Enjoy your time with families. And sing a few holiday tunes. It's good for you. :)

The Joy of Giving

Today students in my first bell and Beta Club students packed and wrapped shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Shoebox. I really enjoy seeing the generosity of these students who relished the opportunity to make a difference. By the end of the day, there were 50 shoeboxes, and I suspect there will be a few more turned in tomorrow. Thanks to a gracious Beta parent, the shoeboxes are on their way.

A Pizza in the Box and a Bag in the Hand

So today's mandatory faculty meeting was the ubiquitous one where the insurance guy comes and attempts to persuade us to buy more health insurance, his rhetoric peppered with expressions like "Folks. . ." and "My (insert family member here) is a teacher and I know how hard . . ." and "We send you a check directly" and "Now, I heard this is a stress-free school but . . ." and so on. This speech comes after he ironically serves us all free greasy pizza before citing all the scary statistics about heart attacks, diabetes and strokes. He ends with a drawing. He chooses one of the names out of his bag and that person wins $50.00. Why is it that I always get depressed, listening to the doom and gloom warning of these insurance folks? Why do the jokes and one-line platitudes sound so cliche? Why do I look around at the dull pepto bismo color on the walls and think thoughts like "Oh my gosh, I'm stuck in an institution" and "this is the future I can look foward to if I stay and retire in teaching?" Perhaps it's just me, but I feel like a cow being fattened for the slaughter as I'm herded into the corral, forced to listen to this used car salesman. I despise the annual insurance lecture. I just can't get past the idea that it's planning for the "glass is half-empty" scenario. I know I'm jaded but my faith in the insurance business is zilch.