Stand up. Speak out. Fight Back.

I know I have flooded your newsfeed with many articles and links about Common Core and Standardized Testing. I'm sure I have worn out my welcome with many of you. However, I must say that this is an issue that I feel very passionate about. I entered teaching in my mid-late 20's after working in a few other professions (retail, volunteer coordinator, restaurant, etc). I was passionate about my "calling" as I felt that I was meant to be a teacher. My first years were spent in Second Grade and then I was placed in a First Grade. I have made First Grade my home since 1996. In the nearly 18 years that I have taught First grade, I have seen many changes. Early on, we taught Whole Language, then came a more balanced thematic approach. My students and I explored learning through themes, hands-on activities, and play balanced with developmentally appropriate school assignments and a lot of joy. Then came NCLB. That seemed more targeted to 4th-8th grade and still we enjoyed learning and creating in a developmentally appropriate way. We used reams of construction paper, gallons of paint and glue, glitter, paper with red & blue lines so we knew where to write, sentence strips, big books, and free play. NCLB demanded "disaggregation" of scores and we had literacy blocks and math blocks and writing workshops. And yet, we played on and learned and laughed and smiled. First grade was fun and I loved everyday of my job. Next came Race to the Top... also known as NCLB on steroids. And curriculum became more and more demanding. Free play was now only 3 days a week, student behaviors became more challenging as developmentally inappropriate demands and expectations were placed on my students by people who had no business writing curriculum, standards and policies. Now, we have APPR, which ties students scores to teacher evaluations, developmentally inappropriate curriculum and expectations, multi-lingual classrooms, high poverty rates and stressed out kids and teachers. I no longer go through reams of construction paper as there is no time for crafts. I haven't bought glitter in 2 years, nor glitter glue. My first graders are expected to write essays that support their opinions (without handwriting instruction -- no time for that), create research projects and work out complicated word problems. I spend hours searching the internet for activities that align to common core that will bridge the gap between the outrageous garbage that is EngageNY and CC and what I know works with kids. Free play is once a week on a Friday afternoon. Everyday, we try to find moments of joy (cosmic yoga, 30 second dance parties, funny stories in place of non-fiction text...shhhh... don't tell). And what is the point of this rant, you ask? The point is that our Federal Gov't and State Gov't and Big Corporations (Pearson, Microsoft, Wal-mart, et al) are systematically destroying public education. And we are letting them. By being silent, we are being complacent. By not fighting back, we are allowing them to dismantle one of the best things about our country... Public education for all children. We are allowing them to destroy childhood by not valuing developmentally appropriate instruction and expectations. So even if you don't have children in school, please take the time to read and to become aware of what is happening in our country. It is not on the news. The propaganda is strong, so don't be swayed. STAND UP. SPEAK OUT. FIGHT BACK. For our children and our childrens' children. Thank you.

#evaluate that

From the Week of April 1st:

This week marks the end of the NYS ELA testing and because of the controversy surrounding it; these tests have made the local and national media. This year, many students and parents have refused the test. They are making a statement. They are trying to take back education. Their education. 

I have been teaching for 20 years. Over the course of those years, I have seen many changes, some good, and some bad. I remember saying to my (now) husband, six years ago…. “It’s April, I feel like I have a target on my back”. You see, it is testing time and it is budget time. It is when people pay their taxes and then go vote on the school budget in May. Usually, this season lasted for about two weeks of May. Then it became late April and May. Now it is all year long. I feel like I have a target painted on my back as a teacher. I’m sure you have read and heard all the rhetoric: schools are failing, teachers are failing, US students are not performing as well as the rest of the world. Unions and tenure and pensions are the root of the economic recession and the downturn in the economy (certainly not the banks and mortgages) and on and on and on. Teachers are an easy scapegoat. As a group, we are nice people. We work with children. We are accommodating and flexible. We know that things come and go and we can ride the tide.

Everyone thinks they know what teachers do. After all, we all went to school. We had lots of teachers and we know what it is like to be in a classroom. Trust me, if you don’t teach, you have no idea what it is really like. If you did, you would vote yes on every school budget and you would be outraged about what is happening in education today.

This morning, I went to school. Notice I say “I went to school”, not “I went to work”. I rarely say, “I went/go to work”. I go to school. I go to school because I am a learner. I learn something new every day. I go to school, where I am a teacher, a learner, a helper, a coach, a guide, a supporter, a role model, a symbol of security and yes, a mother. I help my children to learn. And yes, they are my children. I never say, “They are my students”. They are my children. From the moment they enter my classroom, they are my children… even when they come back 20 years later. They are my kids. I help them, love them, guide them, coach them, cheer them, encourage them, and correct them. They are my children.

Today, in our classroom, we learned about the importance of water on our planet, we learned how to access information online (Thanks Jill!), we learned about fractions and symmetry, we learned about being kind to each other, we learned to accept differences and we learned about being 6. Today, we read, we wrote, we danced and we played. We learned. Today, 16 of 18 students that came to school today, chose “Lunch Bunch” (Lunch with me) over any other prize on the cart or in the room. Today, we put on Pharell Williams and danced for 4 and half minutes straight to “Happy” just because we are kids. Today we had “free time” During that time, 2 of my boys wrote a story because “We are GREAT writers”, my ELL student practiced telling time, my speech student practiced her sounds with my phonics cards and other students either “played school” or read to each other. Today we were a family.

My children are more than a score. They are more than a number on a test. They are more than what a test can evaluate. Honestly, I could care less if they can “close read” or “use multiple strategies to add or subtract”. I am growing people here. What teachers do is so complex; it cannot be quantified into a number. Neither can people, especially children.

At the end of every day, I take my “walkers” to their parents and then walk back down the hall to my bus line. I am always in awe of the amount of children coming down the hall. There are literally hundreds of them. Usually there are less than 50 adults to monitor what is happening. Children are laughing and happy. Parents have entrusted their children to us. It is awe-inspiring. THEY ENTRUSTED THEIR BABIES TO US. And those babies are growing. They may not be growing as fast or in the way NYS would like them to, but they ARE GROWING. It is amazing. We are growing people. Not numbers. Not test scores. Not data points. If that is not humbling, then I don’t know what is.

Fighting for Finn

Saturday morning I had the privilege of spending time with my three-year-old nephew, Finn.  Finn and I headed off to the “train store” which is really our local Barnes & Noble. For a good hour I watched him play with the trains, play with the Legos, listen to a story and look at books. He's a really independent little guy. He has an unbelievable spirit. He talks to everyone and he is quick to introduce himself. He kept up a running chatter the entire time were together, narrating and commenting on everything around us.

As I sat and watched him, I thought about all the things are going on today in education and how sometimes I am so upset I feel like I'm screaming inside my head. I thought about how I'm so angry at what's happening. I thought about why.  And I thought about my own kids. I thought about what is happening to them in this age of “reformy” education.

My son is almost17. He will be out of high school in a year and for the most part, he will have escaped Common Core. He will get out just in time, although he is not unscathed. For you see he grew up during NCLB, which means that over the years the curriculum has become narrower and narrower due to the regulations, initiatives and budget cuts. Throughout his entire educational experience, the focus has been on ELA and Math and, as a result, he doesn't really see much beyond that. We talk about college but he doesn't see there is nobility and success in learning a trade.  In reality, he has not been exposed to anything other than reading and writing and math. Sure, there's some history and science in there but everything involves reading and writing. Even his gym class and his art classes have involved reading and writing. And while that's not a bad thing, in some ways it hasn't been a good thing either.

My daughter is 13. Because I am so enraged what is happening in education, my response has been to remove her from public school and register her for private school in the Fall. I am hoping the private school experience will help mitigate some of the effects of common core.  There's nothing like a group of nuns to ensure excellence in education I guess. At least I hope so. However, her educational experience is even narrower than her brother’s as she is just that much younger. With the focus so heavily on non-fiction and on “rigor”, there is less opportunity for her to be as creative as she is naturally.  You see, my daughter is a poet, she's an artist and she expresses herself in ways that do not play well on standardized tests or really any tests for that matter. My daughter has a different way of looking at the world.  She is not a kid who performs well on tests although she is super smart and gets good grades. She works hard and I hate to see what common core is doing to her.  It's going to suck the love of learning out of her and that is so sad.

So, back to this morning, sitting and playing trains with my nephew. Finn personalizes this fight for better education for me. Because he is three, if Common Core is allowed to continue he will be the one who is most affected by it. He makes this personal for me. Finn has a spirit like no other kid I've seen and common core will make his educational experience at best, boring for him. At worst, it will make it painful. Finn is not the kind of child who will be able to deal with the rigor of Common Core (read: sit silently and do worksheets). Finn is a boy. He's ALL boy. Finn experiences the world physically.  He likes to dance his way through his day. Finn will not do well with common core. It will take his learning down to such a narrow scope that it saddens me. It is for Finn that I fight. It is for Finn that I want to see education be developmentally appropriate and creative and diverse. It is for Finn, that I don’t want education to be common.  It is for Finn that I want to see the world be a better place. Because no one should have creativity stifled or their spirit quelled. No one should have to do an art project and then write an essay about it.  No child should have to read an essay with no background knowledge and then try to figure it out what it means. No eight-year-old should have to sit for 90 minutes at a time doing a test that means nothing to him or her. No six-year-old should have to practice filling in bubbles. No 13-year-old should have to read the same literature passage over and over and over again line-by-line for no reason. That's not reading. That's not writing. That's not learning. I'm sure that everyone has a little Finn in their life or at least I hope they do. And for that reason alone everyone should get educated about what's going on, get informed and start fighting back. Americans are complacent in a lot of ways. We have short attention spans and the news cycle is very short. We believe a lot of what we read and a lot of what we see. And we don't stand up, at least not for long. But we can't afford to be complacent here, as the so-called “reformers” are counting on that. They are counting on the fact that we will get bored or that we won't inform ourselves and we won't keep up the fight long enough. They think we are going to get bored and go away. Guess what?  I'm not going away, I'm not going to stop fighting. I'm not going to back down. I’m staying strong.  For Finn.