Teachers get the Summer Off!

So what exactly DO teachers do in the summer?

I think people understand that teachers work hard and that the school year is very intense. Many people also understand that teachers reflect on the school year during the summer, but there is a general misconception that teachers don't really WORK at teaching during the summer. So - for those of you curious about what happens during the summer.......

I took about two weeks to clear my head of schedules, lesson plans, and weekly updates on Race to the Top, Home Base & Power School, summer reading assignments, webpage maintenance and all else school related. It's kind of like going from cruising at 80 on the interstate to 35 on a winding mountain road. The reverse will happen as I gear up for the next school year in August. The transition is important because it allows me to meander through what I have learned from my students. It's a funny thing - the last few weeks of school. Somehow everyone becomes more relaxed (once testing is over) - communication becomes clearer - students talk more openly. Why can't it always be like that?!

So the next phase - the meander through lessons learned - becomes the planning which I never have enough time to do properly during the school year. This year in particular I have so much to sort out from my first year of teaching physics (oh - and I must have my curriculum outlined, explained and submitted by July 15th). I've lost track of the hours spent on professional development: reading resources from other physics teachers, searching the web for activities & ideas, watching online lectures from an MIT physics professor, looking at information from a math teacher at my school so I can coordinate my expectations with his syllabus..... you get the picture. I love learning and this is what I want to take with me back into the classroom next year. It is so easy to become negative, but the summer allows me to rediscover how INCREDIBLE the world around me is! Sometimes as a teacher I feel sucked dry - summer is when I become re-filled.

For those who do not think that is enough of a reason to be out of the classroom during the summer - there are a vast array of "work" type things I could list.....summer reading assignments, webpage maintenance, meetings, curriculum updates.... but I think that really misses the point.

Class of 2013

If you're an educator then you know every year you'll hear students, principals, and other speakers trying to find their own way to wish the graduating class best of luck. It's always a joyous time for me  to see the whole group together cheering each other on, but it is also a sobering moment. As I watch them cross the stage I think about how they were as sophomores in my class and realize just how little we know each other.

I teach many academically gifted students and they are not what you might think. Many bright students have done the calculus and know when a class or a teacher is not really worth their time. They usually crave stimulation and if they are not getting it academically watch out - that's when the truly creative become an incredible handful. I enjoy these students for the most part because they challenge me too. A few of them even submit themselves to additional classes with me as juniors or seniors. I really like seeing where they are headed next, but I know they could have made it into Chapel Hill without me. My hope for them is that I showed them a way to look at the world just a bit differently.

The group of students that always get me fired up at graduation are those hard luck cases. I am really drawn to the misfits - both the gifted and the challenged. The gifted ones are smart, but have already closed the door on education in some way. Perhaps they've been bored so long they've just given up - or they are too socially awkward to develop into a class clown and withdraw. It gives me great joy to find that idea or activity that wakes them up a bit so I feel I've touched them both academically and emotionally. The biggest joy is seeing the kids who are challenged walk across the stage. I don't just mean intellectually - there are so many challenges out there. I realize I only have a glimpse of the hardships teenagers face in my rural area and they know nothing about my life.

Nothing has changed and yet so much is different for these teenagers. I can't even imagine cell phones with cameras and Facebook and all that "enhances" the social experience of these students. You can read about all the annoying behaviors somewhere else, my point is that I had a difficult time getting through high school so the pressures these kids face put me in awe - especially given the small town everybody knows you community where I teach. But I didn't grow up here and I don't even live in the same county as where I teach, so what they know of me is limited and every graduation ceremony touches me deeply. Best of everything class of 2013!

Time to Learn?

North Carolina is in the middle of a monumental shift in the way we educate and we all know change is painful. As a teacher, my biggest issue is always time. There's the usual stuff like time to grade, time to talk to each student, time actually in class which varies with the weather. What gets to me the most is time to really think about what we are doing & teaching & learning. There is a big push to use "data driven instruction" based on not just test scores, but "formative assessments". I am supportive of this of course because I am a science teacher and data is always welcome in my classroom, however the time factor complicates actually making this happen.

What kind of data? I haven't really seen any except what I collect personally and test scores. Consider what data driven instruction would look like in a perfect world. I'd be handed a portfolio of information for each student on the very first day. It could be modeled after those report cards you get in elementary school.... "plays well with others", "mastered the multiplication tables", etc.... a checklist of academic skills documenting progress from kindergarten on. I would know at the very start of my class who has trouble reading. But other information is important too: "has trouble with authority", "gets easily frustrated", etc..... a checklist of social skills would be just as helpful. In theory, students cumulative folders are supposed to have lots of this stuff, but all I've ever seen is a list of test scores.

Test scores are not very helpful for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that there is no breakdown of trouble areas. If a student scores a 3 on their algebra EOC, that tells me that they have average math skills. But what does that mean? I learned the hard way this year that the seniors in my Physics class were not comfortable re-arranging algebraic equations (what I consider basic algebra) even though they are currently enrolled in Pre-Calculus. So next year I'll have to take the time to give my own math assessment before we even begin to talk about Physics. Not all data is useful and the stuff I've seen so far is a waste of my time. That's why we teachers grumble with new state initiatives. It's not because we don't want to change - it's that we want to make better use of our time because we have so little time to make a difference already.