Amazing what you can do with a whole day
Today, for the VERY FIRST TIME of the entire school year, I had my students for the entire day. No assemblies. No mind-numbing religion class or soul-sucking so-called art class. Today, they barely even left for the bathroom.
This day was a milestone because for the last two weeks, there has been an interminable series of major disruptions to our schedule. Halloween/'Harvest Festival.' All Saints' Day Mass. Picture Day. Mandatory once-a-year Sex Ed classes with the Pope-tested, Diocesan-approved nurse. Another Mass, just for general purposes. A 'celebration of Joy' to support our school's Fruit of the Spirit theme. Three half-days for so-called 'professional development' and one day off for Parent-Teacher conferences. And then I did some stupid stuff like take the kids to see Rosa Parks and visit the National Museum of the American Indian.
Anyway the religion teacher is out this week and I don't have any other plan-periods on Tuesdays, so today it was just me and kids, bell to bell. It was really amazing how much we accomplished. I got in a lesson in *every* core subject, even science. I taught a really kick-ass lesson in expository structure, with all the little bells and whistles that literacy instructors love such as graphic organizer and small-group work. I even broke out the Cuisenaire rods to demonstrate how authors "build" and organize a nonfiction informational piece. We took a practice math test, and everyone who didn't get 100% got the reteaching they needed. I read a chapter of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. We extended it with a minilesson on Michelangelo. The kids chose picture books on Native American cultures and got a good start on reading them. And at the end of the day, the kids created demographic maps of poverty indicators in DC.
'Time on task' in class is a major predictor of student success. I've got the make-the-kids-to-do-their-work part of the equation under control. The part that's out of my control is the amount of time I actually have the kids in my room. My school, like many other schools, is in need of some serious soul-searching and schedule-analyzing if we are to get down to really teaching. Theodore Sizer advocates 'essential' schools, ones where every school activity has to pass the litmus test of "does this really matter?" Plain old effective schools find ways to give teachers planning time while also maximizing kids' learning experiences; I just read about one where classroom teachers have all day Wednesday off--and the kids go to 'specials' such as art, music, and gym. This gives teachers common plan time on their 'off' day and uninterrupted teaching time on their on-days. Sounds idyllic to me...
posted by ms. sweetland @ 9:54 PM
4 Comments:
Totally interesting post. You sound like a kickass teacher, but if the administration is such a mess, I hope you'll be an administrator someday. Would you have to become a nun, first? That'd be funny. :)
-L
this year has really brough home to me the power of the principal. my previous principals were either really really good or positive-neutral--meaning they didn't really help me become a better teacher, but they created an environment where i could do my job. this principal is bad, bad, bad, and the school is really dysfunctional. i'm just struggling to keep my eyes on the prize, as they say...
Another insightful post... the useless "conventions" (the name we had in public school for holiday stuff and presentations) wasted just as much time as the mass/religious stuff at your school.
However, I'm sorry to hear you be dismissive of art class. Not only can art class be the ONLY TIME in an entire week for someone who is creative to let that side out, but it is good for wholistic brain processing (so i've heard), can build confidence in kids that have limited talents in other areas, and can lead to careers -- real, accessible careers such as book illustrators, graphic artists, computer graphic engineers, etc. Also, perhaps one of your kids could best express frustration with the state of the non-state of DC with a political cartoon... Art is NOT useless!
...likewise, for that matter, music class. Though for both art and music, 50 minutes once a week just isn't going to cut it. I like the idea of "specials Wednesday", too, because a block of at least 2 hours each is appropriate to these non-RRR subjects.
I didn't mean to be dismissive of art and music in theory. I agree that they are important, and not just as a release for the kids who don't experience success in traditional academic areas but for their own sake.
However, at my school, it's not as if the kids are getting quality art experiences..unless I do the lesson myself, which I do when I can. I also integrate music into the literature and social studies curriculum. I've already mentioned the gym teacher who can't run. I hadn't yet gotten around to dissing the art teacher because it's a more complicated story...but trust me, the kids would be better off not getting art at all than going to that class bc they are learning to hate it!
Now, the music teacher is another story. Her name, and I swear I am not making this up, is Ms. Medley. She's a classically trained musician but has zero experience in elementary teaching...so she's got the smarts but isn't doing the best job of translating it into achievement for all kids. Her, I can be patient with.
Post a Comment
<< Home