Tinkerings

This morning I got in the car at the Starbucks on Sand Lake Road in Orlando, FL and set my GPS Navigation system to see how well it did to show me the way home.  It was about 6 AM.  By the time I got on the road, it had estimated my arrival time to be 3:15.  Not bad.

As I drove across the Florida Parkway toward Interstate 75, I noticed that the estimated time of arrival kept decreasing.  When I made my first stop some 3 hours after starting, the arrival time was down to 2:20.  I had cut nearly an hour off my expected time!

Immediately my mind made the leap to TVAAS and using the gain in time as a method of evaluating my effectiveness as a driver.  (Who wouldn’t, right?).

In education, Value Added is a statistical attempt to demonstrate the impact a teacher has on a student’s learning over the course of the year.  A number of variables are taken into account in order to compensate for them (age, sex, socio-economic status, last year’s test results, etc).  The idea is, that any improvement demonstrated by TVAAS is directly correlated to the impact of the teacher.  So, if the student does what was “expected” by the model, that scores a ZERO (as a baseline).  If the student does better than the model predicted, the teacher gets a positive number.  Likewise, if the student scores less than predicted the teacher gets a negative number.  And these numbers are part of what is used to determine if the teacher is effective or not.

No pressure, right?

So, I thought that if I arrived BEFORE my predicted time, that should be a positive number directly related to the driver.  If I arrived LATER THAN my predicted time, then that would be a negative for me.

Positive : Effective.  Negative : Ineffective.

But then it hit me.  In order to arrive early, I would have to give up a couple of fun things I planned to do as part of my trip.  I had planned on stopping at High Falls State Park and taking some pictures of the waterfalls.  I also planned on stopping in Atlanta for lunch.  Those things would bump my arrival time later than the prediction.

So I had a choice.  I could concentrate solely on the numbers and making sure I was “effective” as a driver.  This would mean limiting stops to bathroom breaks and pumping gas.  I would have to scout out locations for both that were easily accessible from the highway to limit my downtime away from the car.  Driving from point A to point B would be the only thing I had time to do!

Or… (and this is huge)… I could choose to both drive from point A to point B AND add my own value to the drive.  I needed the rest I would get from walking around at the park.  It was actually better for my own health to do so.  And, I could find a place to eat that would expand my horizons, get me out of my own little world, and make me a more complete person in the process.

Teachers are faced with this choice every day.  Because TCAP is so important for rating schools, students, and now teachers, it is the end-all of education.  We don’t have time for cultural diversity.  We don’t have time for field trips.  We don’t have time for visiting speakers.  We have these standards to cover.  We have to test the kids to see if they are ready for the test.  Point A to Point B.  That’s it.

But what if I chose the second option in my classroom?  What if I chose to be less concerned with TVAAS and more concerned about creating a well-rounded individual who would be prepared to go out into the world upon graduation?  What if I did emphasize those field trips?  What if I did attempt to expand cultural horizons?  Would I be willing to be considered professionally less effective in order to be individually more effective?

These are the thoughts that went through my mind as I wandered through the woods of the state park.  I thought about them again as I enjoyed lunch at one of my favorite places in Atlanta (the OK Cafe, in case you were wondering).  I chose Plan B.

I arrived at home at 3:55.  Some 40 minutes later than the test data should I should have.

I guess I have to be considered an ineffective driver.

But I was able to put joy back into the journey.  And that, as they say, is that.

With few exceptions (Will Ferrell and Darrell Hammond come to mind), Saturday Night Live has never been as funny as when it first started in the ’70s.  I was an instant fan.  Of course, back then I was young enough to stay up late enough to watch it without relying on re-runs on the montage of clips that outline the Best of Saturday Night Live series.

No one made me laugh more than Gilda Radner.  She had such a large cast of characters in her head, and they will all hysterically funny.  One I looked forward to more than most was that of Emily Litella.  Emily Litella was an elderly woman who did opinion pieces on the Weekend Update skit with Chevy Chase.  She would start with a classic question like, “What’s all this fuss about having too many violins on television?”  For the next three or four minutes she would go off on a rant only to be interrupted by Chevy.  “Miss Litella, that’s violence.  It is too much violence on television.  Not violins.”  Radner would look at him in bewilderment and then say, “Oh!  That’s different!”  And then look straight at the camera, smile, and in her crackly old-woman voice give her signature line.  “Never mind!”

This weekend I must have been channeling Emily Litella.  I had spent a couple of days in Nashville listening to and testifying before the House Education Committee about teacher evaluations.  I’ll admit I’ve been pretty worked up over the fact that we have this great evaluation tool from TAP, but our state has decided to use it in such a way that makes it cumbersome, time consuming, and somewhat meaningless.  Teachers and principals alike are frustrated.  Yet we continue to work through the kinks in hopes that we can, over time, morph this tool into something meaningful.

So, when I read an article in the Tennessean that the Tennessee Board of Education had made a change that would allow principals to double up on classroom observations in-between conferences, I definitely had my Emily Litella moment.

I immediately posted the article on Facebook.  I talked to leadership in our district.  I talked to people at the Professional Educators of Tennessee.  I talked and talked and talked.  I even sent out an email to our local members outlining what the paper said and calmly explaining why this was a bad idea.

Thankfully, on Sunday two or three people channeled Chevy Chase to me.  The Tennessean had it wrong.  Like so many others, the paper obviously does not understand the TEAM Model and wrote a story that was totally inaccurate.  It was suggested that I look at the Board of Education’s website and read the policy change for myself.  And I did.  And I blushed with embarrassment.

The Board of Education had approved allowing principals to do a totally separate observation (like that on the Environment rubric) while also doing the Instructional Observation.  This would, indeed, save by principals and teachers time in the model.  It appears to be a win-win for everyone.

And my immediate response was, “Oh! That’s different!”

And so to those who read my Facebook post, or received an email from me, or sat through rants I must have had over the weekend….

Never mind!

Imagine I’m a classroom teacher and you are the parent of one of my students.  Stop reading for a moment.  Close your eyes.  Be the parent…

I have taught my students a few SPIs over the last couple of weeks and its time to give them a test.  I send a note home to let you know that there is a 100 point test coming up and it counts 1/4 of all their test grades for the year.  Its huge.  So you help your child study (in between times of muttering about what an idiot I am as a teacher for requiring something so simple to count so much).  And you can tell that your child is probably not prepared to get an A, but with some feedback from me, perhaps a parent conference or after school tutoring, your child can improve on the next few tests and that will help his or her average in my class.

Your child takes the test and comes home with another note from me:

Dear Parent:

I have graded the tests from today.  I hoped I would have time to go over them with my students before I have to give another test.  However, there are a lot of other things I have to do besides teach your children.  I have meetings to attend.  I have to plan our next field trip.  And I need to get ready for the next RTTT day at school.

As a result, I have found that I do not have time to go over the test results with your children at this time.  Instead, I’m going to wait until after the next 100 point test and talk with the students about both of them at the same time.  It will also count 1/4 of their total grade for the year, so it is very important that they come to school prepared.

Unlike the first test, this next one will be unannounced.  Your child will need to be prepared every single day.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.  Please understand that I am totally committed to helping your child learn and improve in my class this year.

What is your gut reaction having imagined getting that letter from your child’s teacher?

That is probably the same reaction I had when I read this article in the Tennessean this morning.

Sigh.

This week I was invited by the Professional Educators of Tennessee to share the concerns of teachers (and myself) about Tennessee’s new evaluation system with the House Education Committee in Nashville.  It was an honor to do so.  You can see the video of the 30 minutes Bill Gemmill and I got to spend in front of the committee below.  My thoughts continue after that.

Originally, we were told that we would be first on the agenda, so I thought we would go up on Tuesday and get a feel for the place.  On Tuesday, the entire afternoon was taken up with a discussion on school vouchers (more on that in another blog post).  Finally, when they took a break just before 4:00 PM, we decided to leave.  We missed the statements by Commissioner Huffman, but he was mainly introducing some of his new staff, so I didn’t think it would hurt anyone’s feelings on the committee if we didn’t stay. LOL

We arrived early on Wednesday morning.  I was still under the impression that we would be first on the agenda, and I would be on the road home by noon.  However, when that version of the agenda rolled out TEA had not yet decided to address the issue.  Once they joined the conversation, it appears that the committee put both professional organizations at the end of the testimony time to serve as an anchor of sorts for the conversation.  As a result, we were there well into the afternoon.

Director of Schools, Johnny McDaniel, and School Board Chairman, Charlie Rose, were in the audience observing the proceedings on Tuesday and Wednesday as well.  Talk about a little added pressure!  However, other matters caused Mr. McDaniel to head home after lunch.

Several principals and Directors from across the state had asked to speak to the issue of evaluations.  Some were there to wholeheartedly support its use.  Others were there to blast it.  And a few were in the middle.  They believed the system could work, but had been poorly implemented from the Department of Education.  I would cast myself in that last category.

I won’t bore you with all of the details of testimony.  The highlights for me were these:

• The Director of Schools and a Lead Teacher from Knox County began the day.  They both had nothing but praise for the system.  It was working great in their district.  They were questioned for two hours.  Soon it became obvious that Knox County had several TAP schools in the district prior to TEAM  (TEAM is built on the TAP model).  They had already worked through many of the kinks prior to implementing TEAM.  Of course it went smoother there than other places!  The Lead Teacher admitted that he gave up tutoring kids during his planning period in order to evaluate teachers and that he was paid a stipend for being an evaluator.  He later clarified that he had moved his tutoring to after school (before he had been helping math teachers with ESL students during math classes).
• Two principals from Rutherford County were more than just a little upset with the time and paperwork involved in the process.  They stated that TEAM was taking over 60% of their time during the school day.  Because they were tasked with observing both highly effective and less than effective teachers, the time they used to spend helping struggling teachers had been drained off to observe teachers who already knew exactly what to do.  They were the only witnesses to get applause from the audience.
• The Director of Schools for Putnam County and one of her principals also testified.  The most interesting point she made (in my opinion at least) was that she just decided on her own that this year’s scores would not count against any teachers as they work through the kinks of the model together.
• Another principal from Shelby County commented that he was having the best year of his career using the TEAM model.  He woke up every day actually looking forward to going to work.  He was learning just as his teachers were learning.

One of the recurring themes of the testimony was the excessive time involved with the TEAM model.  Another was that teachers who have demonstrated themselves to be highly effective should not have to be evaluated every year.  You will see in both my testimony and the answers given to questions that I would agree with both of these.

The “soundbite” of my testimony would be this: The Danielson Framework (on which TAP and TEAM were developed) is a framework of evaluation built in order to improve teachers over time.  It was never meant to just hand out scores of 1 to 5.  As a result, we are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.  We either need to change the statute, or change the model, because they don’t mix.

What are your thoughts?

Its time to bring a brief update about my weight loss.  I know you have all been dying to know how things are going since the shots have stopped.  So here goes…

I spent 2 weeks continuing to eat 500 calories a day as recommended by my weight loss program.  During that time I lost about 2 pounds, which took my total to 35 pounds lost.  After that, they told me to bump my calories up to 1,000 to 1,200 a day in order for my metabolism to start re-adjusting to more food.

Unbelievably, I spent 3 weeks eating 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day with no change whatsoever.  How can you try to so hard, eat so little, and not lose any weight? was the big question in my head.

This is the 4th week I’ve been at 1,000 to 1,200 calories.  It is also my 53rd birthday week.  So, to be honest, I haven’t counted many calories.  I’ve been afraid to!  While I’ve tried to be pretty good at most meals (I eat fish and chicken a lot more than steak and I almost always choose broccoli as my side dish with no fries or baked potatoes!), let me tell you what I know about how I’ve cheated:

• I have no groceries in the house, so I’ve eaten every meal and snack somewhere else
• I’ve had wraps and artisan sandwiches for breakfast at Starbucks.  Not high calories, but more carbs than I’m supposed to have.
• I’ve had a large portion of Chocolate Molten Lava Cake… with ice cream… twice!  And that’s just since Monday!
• Yesterday I had 1 1/2 donuts and two bite sized candy bars during our training sessions
• Let’s not even talk about lunch.

You get the idea.  So, today when I got on the scale I was expecting the worst.  I closed my eyes and stepped on.  I looked down.  Shook my head.  Stepped off.  Got back on.  And then did all that again.

I lost another pound.

And here’s what I bring from that.  While I concentrated so hard on losing weight, I didn’t lose anything.  When I concentrated on living moderately, I did.

And here’s my advice to teachers out of this little “life lessons 101″….

Forget about evaluations and rubrics and law changes and observations and…. well, you get the idea.

Just go into your classroom and teach.

I know you’ve got to write up lesson plans, and a lot of you haven’t done that in years.  I know you’ve got a rubric to follow when you are observed.  I know you’ve got umpteen hundred standards to cover.  I know you are judged on test scores.  I know you’ve got to adjust for rigor and relevance.

But the kids in your classes just want to look at you and know that you are connecting with them.  They want to know that you recognize when they are having a bad day.  They want you to talk to them even if they refuse to talk back.  They want you to put your hand on their shoulder as a connection to their soul even if they act like they don’t.  They want to feel that you are looking into them and not just at them.

And mostly, they want to learn.  They do.  Honest.

If all your time is spent stressing over “teaching right” to show gains you are going to be as disappointed as I was trying to lose weight by stressing over calories every meal.

Close your eyes.  Take a deep cleansing breath.  Open your eyes. Let your mind see your classroom as a place of learning more than a place of observing.

You won’t be disappointed.