0 Children First: What Does That Look Like?

I work in a school where educators consistently put children first. All around me I see evidence of that each day as staff members greet students with warm hugs, console with care, teach with creativity, and advocate with heart.

What do we need to consider as we plan to put children first in our schools and classrooms this year?

Time
How is most of your school time spent?  When you put children first, most of your time is spent responding to their needs and interests by planning engaging learning experiences, analyzing student work and effort, listening to students' stories and requests, and working with colleagues to maximize your shared efforts for students.

Response
Your program becomes a "students-first" program where the curriculum takes second place to students' primary academic, social, emotional, and physical needs.

Energy
School work invites educators to get involved in all kinds of initiatives. What's important here is to make sure that your time is well spent not wasted. Hence with every invitation you have to consider whether it is time well spent for children or not.

Support
School structure needs to support educators' best work when it comes to serving children well. In this regard, educators need to reach out and ask for what they need to support their best work. Streamlined schedules, reliable assistance, helpful tools and materials, planning time, transparent expectations and schedules, regular communication, and healthy, clean environments are some of the structures that support good work.

Putting students first and above all other matters in school creates a warm, caring, and successful learning environment--the kind of environment all educators are ready and willing to support.

0 A Summer of Study: Implications for Structural Shift

I didn't expect this summer to include so much study. Yet the preparation to run a class well takes significant time and effort particularly in light of many, many new initiatives, structures, and research. Teaching has changed a lot, and like many educators, I've been working overtime to learn the new information, approaches, and tools that hold wonderful potential for student learning today. The changes in education point to a need for structural shift--schedule, role, and responsibility change that will better support the work we do with children.

Preparing the Learning Environment
For example, the room set up alone takes multiple days when done well. My room was used for summer camp so that means when I set up I'll have to move all the furniture and arrange all the supplies.  I'll also have the job of emptying numerous new supply boxes, sorting the materials with colleagues, and putting the supplies away. And now that I'm moving towards greater differentiation, independence, and tech integration, I will need to spend a lot of time finding space for the many tools and supplies, and arranging those supplies carefully so that they are labeled and accessible.

Collegial Collaboration
Another change that requires considerable time is the shift towards greater collegial collaboration, hence there will be significant time spent coordinating the schedule with the multiple educators that serve my class including content coaches, interventionists, special educators, guidance, ELL, and therapists.  Each of these professionals will service my students in specific ways that require regular collaboration. Making the time upfront to discuss that collaboration will set the stage for optimal student service.

Team Planning
The start of the year finds us working as a grade-level team on a number of planning efforts too. We will plan the field trips for the year, arrange schedules that affect any teaming and share that we do, and focus on the many new curriculum initiatives in place with regard to scheduling, professional learning needs, and materials.

Student Analysis
Student analysis is another task that takes considerable time at the beginning of the year. Test results from last year will be reviewed, IEP's read, and early year assessments given and analyzed in an effort to plan a responsive, student-centered learning program. Student files and portfolios will be created, and many one-to-one student conferences and meetings will be held. Curriculum Night preparation and execution happens in the first weeks, and a number of family meetings also occur to respond to specific matters.

Professional Evaluations
Self analysis and goal setting is also an expectation today. One that I also support, but one that now exists as part of new evaluation systems which require teachers to analyze their craft, set goals, meet with evaluators, and collect evidence. These efforts also add to the start-of-the-year expectations and efforts for good practice

Lesson/Unit Planning
Finally, there's the need to plan the first month's lessons and learning activities. The learning content and routines that you establish early in the year greatly impact the rest of the year.

Truly to teach well today requires that classroom teachers spend about one to two weeks time of thoughtful preparation and planning. Typically this comes from the teacher's summer days as most schools only offer one or two days of prep, and much of that time is spent at system-wide or school level meetings.

As a teacher of 28 years, I know the expectations for the classroom teacher have grown significantly.  Many new initiatives are at play, initiatives I mostly support.  However, there's been little structural change to make room for those initiatives, and that's a concern.

In summary, a summer of study creates the need for substantial time and effort to prepare the learning environment for an optimal year. It is my hope that as schools evolve time will be set aside for the important efforts related to early collaboration meetings, classroom setup, supply organization, professional learning, and student analysis--all efforts that contribute to a terrific learning year.

0 Considering Your Education Direction

What is your direction in education?

Where are you headed with regard to your professional learning, efforts, and collaboration?

How are you navigating the multiple professional opportunities available today?

As you begin to reach out and connect with educators throughout the world, you will find that multiple opportunities to develop your craft and engage in innovative projects will come your way. And as a couple trusted colleagues noted yesterday, you don't have to say yes to all of them.

But you do have to say yes to some since that's what keeps you fresh and invigorated for your students and the profession. Hence, what will you say yes to?

As you consider options, you have to consider the following points:

• Does the compensation equal your efforts?
• Will someone else own or profit from your professional experience, artistry, and creation?
• Are you taking something of value away from the project--value to you as an educator and/or value to your students and learning community?
• Will the collaboration benefit you by challenging you to take risks and grow?
• Is this an ethical, promising contribution to the educational field?

As I meet educator after educator this week at the MTA Conference, it is clear that many are asking themselves questions about their next steps in education--they see promise and potential for the work they can do in education.

Summer is a good time to ponder these questions, a time before the business of the typical school year begins. 

0 UVA: Poster Child for Empty Promises and False Hopes

Just a few years ago, we the people of UW-Madison were hearing quite a bit about the flagship university of another state -- the University of Virginia.  Our Chancellor at the time, Biddy Martin, is from Virginia, and lauded UVA's efforts to gain autonomy from the state while also increasing affordability through its "Access UVA" program.

I vehemently and repeatedly disagreed with Martin's assessment of UVA and its "successes" at the time, but to little avail.  She managed to convince most of the university that a semi-divorce from the state would allow for financial flexibilities that would help to make college more affordable. While some of her plans were thwarted by the rest of Wisconsin, she got the vote of the Faculty Senate and to this day, many students and faculty speak of her efforts as if they made UW-Madison more affordable.

In point of fact, they did not, and today even the poster child she commended-- UVA-- fell to pieces. Access UVA will no longer be a grants program, instead it will be scaled back and shifted to include a sizable amount of loans.  Students from low-income families will graduate with $14,000 in debt (if they escape after just 4 years--unlikely) and other students with up to $28,000.

Access UVA, said President Teresa Sullivan, wasn't "sustainable."  There's an end-stop to her statement that makes you wonder if she and the school recognize that the result was not inevitable but rather stemmed directly from the political and policy choices made over the last decade.  Now UVA must face facts: its costs of attendance are high, its support from the state of Virginia is low, and it is going to ask students from poor families to graduate with debt amounting to a third or more of their families' annual income.  These things don't just happen.

High-tuition high-aid models of financing higher education were formulated and evaluated at a time when college students were on average wealthier, whiter, and smaller in number.  It was perhaps possible to feel proudly progressive about taking tuition from the top 75% and redistributing aid to the bottom 25% (or even 90/10).  No longer.  Today about 80% of students feel college is unaffordable, and yet they have to pay high tuition to make the top 20% happy in their glorified teeny-tiny classes, lush campuses, and elitist environments. Only a fraction of that 80% gets any significant grant aid, while the rest carry debt.  In this model, 80% of the students bear the brunt of the education of the top 20%, who escape from their college party years with debt that Mommy and Daddy pay off on graduation day.

The student leader at UVA who objected to these changes perfectly described the real underlying problem when he said "[but] there are increasingly few places left to streamline or cut back on to make these ends meet without impacting the quality of education or student experience.”   There it is-- we need to spend a lot to have high quality.  Affordability be damned.

Anyone who's taken a stroll across UVA's lawns knows that it would be perfectly possible to have a darned good college education for the students of the state at a fraction of what they are spending now. Sure, it wouldn't be the same-- but times they are changing. And it is far less tenable for colleges and universities to throw up their ivy-covered walls and say "sorry you cost too much" to poor students than to insist that they take action to lower their costs for all students, to make college opportunities for all Americans the realities they should and must be.

0 Who Do You Follow?

Who do you follow?

This seems to be a central theme for me at this year's MTA Summer Conference.

Who do you follow with regard to decision making, lifestyle, financial choices, professional work, and quest?

How do you determine who you follow? There is limited time and multiple people online and off available to lead?

What are the attributes of those that you follow?  Where do you hope they will lead you?

It is important to stop now and then and consider those that you follow.  Do they share a message you believe in, and do they practice the kind of work and play you value?

As I consider those I follow today, I have the following thoughts.

• On Twitter I follow educators and others who post their image, describe themselves, and share their honest thoughts, questions, and ideas.  I follow a lot of people on Twitter and I look forward to the multiplicity of ideas they bring to my life. 
• I follow a number of blogs written by people who inspire me with their work, words, and challenge.
• I follow many by observation and discussion.  I watch what they do.  I consider how they navigate life. I learn from their words and actions.
• There are some that I follow simply because I've always followed them--that's not necessarily a good reason to follow someone or something.  So I need to reconsider in that regard.

We follow people because they bring something to our life that we look forward to. They may bring insight, challenge, comfort, play, or compassion. 

We are fortunate to live in a time where there are countless ways to find mentors, guides, and colleagues--we can look for these individuals online and in real time. Sometimes we find these people on our own, and other times we discover these leaders through connections and events. 

"Who do you follow?" is an important consideration, a consideration worth the time. 

0 Thoughts About the Future of UW-Madison? Please Share!

We are welcoming a new chancellor to UW-Madison this fall, along with many other new leaders.  I have been receiving many emails from colleagues and students expressing feelings (both positive and negative) about campus life and the direction it is taking, and in response I will soon begin to host Room for Debate- style forums on key topics. The intention is to provide our community with a sense of the array of opinions, and share insights with our administrators-- including Chancellor Rebecca Blank.

I welcome your participation. Please email me at srab@education.wisc.edu with suggestions as to what questions the forums should be asking, and who you'd like to hear from.   This is open to anyone in the UW-Madison community, very broadly defined-- including community members, people working at other institutions, etc.

In addition, please email me if you are willing to contribute your opinion to the forums.  If you have a compelling reason to write anonymously (and there are many) I will be happy to publish you that way.

The first several forums will address these topics, so please let me know right away if you want to write about any of them:

1. How should the UW-Madison community work to ensure that its relationship with the people of the state of Wisconsin improves over the next 10 years?

2. What rules of conduct or guidelines should govern the interaction of private philanthropy, including UW Foundation, with UW-Madison?

3. What role should academic deans play with regard to academic departments moving forward?

4. How should UW-Madison work to create new leaders to fill administrative positions at the university in coming years?

0 MTA Summer Conference Notes 2013

The following is a host of short posts that depict MTA's summer conference.  I will continue to add snapshots of the week's event as a way of sharing the wonderful leads and information presented as well as providing an incentive for educators to attend this conference in the future. 

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Today was another busy day of new people, new learning, and challenge.  One thing you realize when you go to a conference like this is that there is a big world of education out there--a world with many ideas, processes, and structures you have never even considered before.  There's also countless educators involved in many, many initiatives to better education for all children and teachers.

I learned a lot about the evaluation system today and the ways that the MTA is available to serve as a resource  Tomorrow I'll present and then I'll return home to relax before the school year begins.


More about Tuesday

I spent the day Tuesday at the unconference.  We spent a lot of time talking about structures that support successful practice and teaching students well.  We also shared many stories, strategies, and information related to the new teacher evaluation system.  Some of the many tools shared were Stanford's free online math education course, How to Learn Math, Concord Consortium's science models and activities, Explain Everything's platform for making short videos to explain your thinking and share information, and DragonBox, an engaging game for learning algebra.


Tuesday, August 5, 2013

Day one at the MTA Summer Conference reminded me once again why I make this trek out to the beautiful town of Williamstown. Beauty is everywhere as you wander about on the Williams College campus which is nestled in the center of countless hills. Plus, this year's weather is perfect--crisp, cool, fall-like weather.

Yesterday's events first brought me to Laura D'Elia Beals workshop, "Report is a Four Letter Word, Building a Better Elementary Research Project." The workshop was a perfect jumpstart to the work we need to do to boost our research efforts with children to meet new Common Core Standards and teach children well in this age of ready access to information and tools. If you and your team are working to rewrite and revise curriculum related to nonfiction study and research, I recommend hosting Laura at your school for a workshop. This is a link to her wonderful presentation, a presentation that answered many of my questions related to research organization, process, standards, and tech integration.

After a terrific lunch with friends and colleagues under the tent next to the main quad, I helped out with the Ed Talks. The Ed Talks, similar to Ted Talks, give Massachusetts educators a chance to share their passion, projects, and advice related to teaching children well. This year's theme was teaching the whole child.  As I watched each presenter practice and the tech crew at work, I realized how much effort goes into the Ed Talk presentations both on the personal and organizational levels. After a great dinner with the presenters, I was able to relax with the audience and enjoy the presentations--inspiring talks that will be available to all on the MTA's You Tube channel soon. After the talks there was time to connect with colleagues. One great advantage of this conference is that you're not rushing home to care for family or take care of errands, instead you have the time to share ideas, stories, and laughter with educators from all over the state.

The conference continues to become more and more tech-savvy.  This year MTA has made it easy to follow all the learning with your smart phones or tablets as the MTA has a conference app that includes all pertinent information to help you choose events that match your interests and make connections to educators with similar questions, interests, and responsibilities.

Today's events will find me at the day-long unconference event led by the Burlington team of Diana Marcus, Laura D'Elia Beals, and Dan Callahan.  Similar to edcamps, the unconference provides a structure for question-driven research, connection, and project work.

As I post today, I realize that this year's conference is engaging me with many collaborative learning experiences, hence I imagine that my posts will take on more of a summary quality--snapshots that may serve to give you great leads and perhaps entice you to this wonderful conference next year.

Monday, August 5, 2013

In a short while I'll leave home for the MTA Summer Conference. In a sense this annual event is a micro-sabbatical or retreat, a few days in beautiful western Massachusetts to share ideas, read, reflect, and learn with colleagues throughout the state.

I'm looking forward to the week's events including focused learning related to math, research, and technology, inspiring Ed Talks, and time to work with state-wide colleagues as we look for ways to support teachers with the new educator evaluation system in Massachusetts.

As the conference progresses, I'll share updates, links, and images on this post. I look forward to sharing the event with you.

0 Lessons for Higher Ed from Health Care

The New York Times has been running a terrific series helping to illustrate why costs of healthcare in this country are so incredibly out of control. Today's story is masterful in the way it breaks down the cost of an artificial hip replacement in the U.S. versus Belgium.  The cost in the U.S. is over $78,000, while in Belgium it is $13,660.

The main cost differences lie in variation in the surgeon's fee (about 16 times higher in the U.S.), the implant cost (more than 8 times higher in the U.S.) and the hospital room cost (about 8 times higher on a per-night basis).  These differences helped direct the reporters towards a story that unpacks the reasons for variation in impact and hospital costs, while unfortunately saying little about the differences in surgeon's fees.

Imagine what we could learn from similar analyses of the costs of higher education in this country versus in others.   Time and again I hear that costs of education students at the postsecondary level are higher here than anywhere else, and it is very hard to believe that those costs explain our high (yet declining) ranking in terms of quality.

This quote in the Times article stood out to me as precisely the sort of thing we need to explore.  When an American traveled to Belgium for a far less expensive hip replacement, he entered a hospital and was initially concerned: I was immediately scared because at first I thought, this is really old.  The chairs in the waiting rooms were metal, the walls were painted a pale green, there was no gift shop. He flashed back to his recent visit to New York Presbyterian Hospital, which has comfortable waiting rooms, an elegant lobby and newsstands -- along with much, much higher prices. But then I realized everything was new. It was just functional. There wasn't much of a nod to comfort because they were there to provide health care.

Think about the last private college or public flagship campus you visited, and then think about your local comprehensive university or community college.  They are all there, purportedly, to provide education.  Yet the former are all about "comfort"-- and their influence is leading other institutions with far fewer resources to follow that path.  The question is, at what cost?

Take a look at this recent transformation of Madison Area Technical College -- which now calls itself Madison College. What if this happened to two-year colleges across the nation, most of which rely on underpaid college instructors for the actual educating? At what cost, and at what consequence?  Of course it's always wonderful to spend your days learning new things in beautiful places, but what if it means your neighbors can't afford an education at all?

Last year

This year

Sure, buildings and amenities aren't the whole story-- we really need the Times to unpack those discrepancies in surgeon fees.  We have to get to the bottom of our American obsession with equating amenities with quality in fields and services where the amenities are immaterial to the purposes.  And then we need to engage in appropriate comparative analyses to look for better solutions to our American higher education challenges.

0 Inspiration: School Year 2013-2014

This is a new collection of posts. Posts I want to savor as I reflect on my professional practice during 2013-2014. I will add to this post as the summer continues.

Go Your Own Way
Who is the Teacher
Systempathy
Maker Stations

0 So Much Repetition, So Many Posts! Why?

I repeat.
I post.
About similar topics again and again.

Why?

I know schools hold tremendous promise for better lives.

I am no longer satisfied with schools that serve purposes other than students.

Our students hold tremendous potential for a positive, peaceful world.

We are capable of building schools that nurture, transform, and strengthen culture.

Children can learn with happiness.

Childhood is a precious time, and we need to embrace, support, and nurture children.

None of us know it all, and we benefit from working together, sharing our wisdom, and integrating our strengths.

The status quo does not fit the present need. Schools of old served some well, but not all.  I believe we have the potential to serve all if we see schools as learning communities and embrace a broad definition of "school."

So, I will continue to repeat, post, and think because I believe it matters--I believe we hold potent potential in our hands as educators today--we are fortunate to be in the business of making things better, nurturing students' strengths, and building positive communities.

Hence, I want to support educators who care, and educators who are seeking answers, avenues, and inspiration.

I also want to reap the benefits of connecting with so many others who share this energy for positive change and growth, making life fulfilling and meaningful for children from all walks of life throughout the globe.

That's why I write; that's why I repeat, and that's why I'm passionate about this work.