What did I accomplish this summer?

Speech to text – not yet edited

This week I performed a humbling task of asking if I could get paid a little bit more for my summer work. I was supposed to work 15 summer days and I've already work close to 30. 

 but that isn't the point of this little article. the point is that when I look back at what I've done this summer there are many days where I know that I worked all day but I can't specifically describe exactly what I accomplished. and it was at that moment that I thought of the idea of a reporter a reporter on some sort of assignment where they have to collect a lot of information before they can eventually write a story.

 in the movie spotlight Michael Keaton's character explains to the new editor that they spend a lot of time looking around for stories and often will take months or years to develop a story That's how I feel about my summer there are lots of days where I was just searching around to figure out what I knew and what I didn't know and how it can make things work and at the end of all my work there will be a one-page report card that we're calling a progress report. there will be a way to enter Behavior information. and there will be a way to analyze data.

 but in the case especially over the report card it is very similar to working for a long time on an article eventually it will go out to about 1500 students each of whom will receive all progress report and that progress report will be one to two pages long and it will be useful to them and to their family but the idea that I have spent most of the summer working to make that happen is well I don't know what it is.

 PowerSchool – a Model of How Not do do PD

Speech to text no editing.

In my more than 10 years working with PowerSchool I have referenced that the training that is given even at the highest level at PowerSchool University can most charitably be described as similar to explaining how the New York Times newspaper works by saying this is the header this is the part where news goes if you turn to page two this is where we put this on the last page we put weather all the pages in between we fill with blah blah blah whatever now you understand the New York Times right?

 or another example of I used is if you bought a brand new John Deere tractor and they the seller brought you out to the Tractor and without letting you ever touch the tractor said and describe what every single part of the tractor did. and then said now you have been trained on the tractor. you've never been able to practice using the tractor you have no guidance on how to use the tractor and you may have never used other tractors in the past. you politely ask as I start to use the tractor am I allowed to ask questions. no, the training is over now 

I have no idea why I remain hopeful that training related to anything power school can be helpful I remember going on a trip with my wife to PowerSchool University in the year 2012 Summer of 2012 and I booked several meetings with individuals because I wanted individual help about how to use our PowerSchool system with hours our dude and when I went to these individualized meetings they said well no go to this training go to that training. and then when I went to those trainings they explain how every single button worked every single click work but they never explained how do you do it for your school.

 so today I do not know why I was surprised to go to yet another PowerSchool related training that was booked for 2 hours on using a behavior plugin and even though it was from Marcia Brenner Associates the trainer used the exact same Power School model that I have been bludgeoned with for now a decade. I happen to look down at one point and it was 41 minutes into the 2-hour training and he was still telling us about how each button worked on the setup.

 I asked a question at about an hour and 20 minutes and said will we see what it looks like for the teacher and I had to log off at exactly 2 hours and I had never yet seen what it would look like for a teacher to enter discipline.

 this seems to me to be something broken within PowerSchool and all of the little satellites the remora fish that feed off of PowerSchool that they somehow lose sight that it isn't administrators who need to understand PowerSchool. administrators do technical operatives do they need to set it up but to always save the user experience the teacher experience until the very end of every training or to not get to it is infuriating.

 another fun part of this training is that I made the mistake of not asking the gentleman for his email. during the training he repeatedly said let me know if you have questions but then when I went back to his email inviting me to the training it was one of those do not reply so I don't know his email. I am 100% certain that if I had asked him for his email he would have given it and I'm 100% certain that he would have responded if I had emailed him but that's not how PowerSchool the system is set up it is not set up to be helpful to the end user 

The Fish

 The Fish

I'm at my desk and looking at this beautiful purple fish made from a 3D printer. I actually have three versions: the Prototype that my daughter made, the second prototype and finally the one that worked. The purple fish is a flat piece of plastic that allows you to wrap old fashioned headphone cords and keep them organized. I asked my daughter who was in 9th grade in the year 2022 as part of her participation in a tech class to maybe make them for me if she had time.

Looking at them now almost brings me to tears because I didn't realize how long it would take her to make them and I only learned after the fact how much effort she had put into making them. 

As our kids get older and I know they won't care about us as much I feel like this was one of the last times that she really did something for her daddy knowing that she could say no but choosing to not. I feel like an important part of growing up is the fact that if I ask her this when she's an 11th grade she'll say I have other priorities and I will totally think that's awesome and I will totally respect her for prioritizing what she needs to do. do my new line the reason that this purple fish nearly brings me to tears is it seems like it is a bridge between my beautiful little daughter Amelia and the young woman that she's becoming.

Standards Report Cards

A long article about education and assessment in math.

http://www.maa.org/saum/articles/wigginsbiotwocol.htm

Grading Discussion in Science from 2008

Grading System Discussion

I think we as a science department should be on the leading edge of this conversation about how we grade. We are in a unique position because by our training we have both the conceptual and mathematical skills to understand grading well. As I listened to conversations on Thursday I realized that many of the statements people were making were simply bad math. Truly just gut feelings draped over a poor understanding of math. And I don’t want to beat up on anyone here—I hope that we can lead on this issue by finding gentle ways to explain how the mathematics of grading work. In addition I think that we can influence the discussion, not to change all grading, but to reexamine why we grade.

Goals:
Review the research on grading (both assessment and evaluation).
Engage in professional conversation to understand the purpose of grading.
Make decisions on a grading system that is “tight” enough to make student and parent understanding easy and “loose” enough to allow flexibility for individual teachers.

Marzano’s Complete Scale Adapted from 0-4 to 1-5
Traditional Grade Conversion (Recommended by Marzano)
I have tried here to faithfully represent Bob Marzano’s recommendations from his books and from a recent conference. He very much approves of the complete scale (see his book Classroom Assessment and Grading that Work) but realizes that in the real world conversions need to be made. So when pushed he said you could convert to the A, B, C type grades. He was even more reluctant to convert further to percentages grades (because his whole approach circles around the idea that 101 categories is not the way to go) but when asked he advised a conversion that included standard intervals.

The second table is one possible way of grading in a competency system. (My idea.) INC until competency is met. The INCs however would only appear at the end of a marking period. Up until then students would see their point scores—so they could keep track of where they were. Point Conversion (reluctantly recommended by Marzano)
5.0
A+
100
4.5
A
95
4.0
B+
89
3.5
B
85
3.0
C+
79
2.5
C
75
2.0
D+
69
1.5
D
65
1.0
F
55

Marzano’s Complete Scale Adapted from 0-4 to 1-5
Traditional Grade Conversion (Recommended by Marzano)
Point Conversion (reluctantly recommended by Marzano)
5.0
A+
100
4.5
A
95
4.0
B+
89
3.5
B
85
3.0
C+
79
2.5
INC
INC
2.0
INC
INC
1.5
INC
INC
1.0
INC
INC

To be clear Marzano’s complete scale does include 9 categories. But just because you are seeing .5s it does not mean that there are other decimals available. In his system there are only 9 categories. His book enumerates each category and the simplicity is that all rubrics can be built from this system.

An Example of Understanding

From 2009. I wonder why I never finished this. It is a pretty good start.

I haven't done a very good job this year of explaining to teachers what real understanding is. With all kinds of distractions professional and personal I haven't done as a good a job teaching my adult students as my teenage students. So here is an example of the true meaning of understanding and what it means.

Let's begin with Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's premise of a heiracrchy starting at the bottom with acquire and moving from there to meaning making and eventually to transfer.

Acquire--B is not D, kicking a soccer ball is best done not with the toe but with the instep.

Meaning Making--putting letters together into words, many combinations are available, rules change, the instep isn't always the best way to kick the ball.

Transfer--all of those letters can make thousands of words and they can be combined in innumerable ways, knowing all the shots in soccer doesn't necessarily equal a soccer star.

But let's look at an example that might be more helpful. Consider how you learned history. Even if you were in one of those progressive schools think about "traditionally taught" American history.

When you have hit the point of acquisition you know things like:

• Washington never told a lie and cut down the cherry tree.


• Lincoln freed the slaves and was assassinated.


• Jefferson was a great man that lived at Monticello, was a great president and a great Virginian.


• Going to moon was all about going to the moon.


• Dropping the atomic bomb on Japan saved lives and ended a terrible war quickly.

Meaning making

Education and Science from 2008 Never Published

The whole purpose of these posts is to talk about science and education so the week in politics makes for a convenient chance to talk about both.

I'm no fan of No Child Left Behind. But if you try to take the glass if half full approach the program/policy did shine a light on the fact that is is embarassing if all white kids are doing well and all of your poor black kids aren't. The penalties and labels that get associated with schools, in my view, don't help the sitution but helping those students that are already facing and uphill road is a great goal.

That's why I was so happy to read the following quote in Paul Tough's book about Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone.

"The philosophy behind the project is simple. If poverty is a disease that infects and entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we cuan't just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have to heal that entire community. And we have to focus on what actually works."

Obama also is quoted in the book as saying, "the first part of my plan to combat urban poverty will be to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone in twenty cities across the country. We'll train staff, we'll have them draw up detaild plans with attainable goals, and the federal government will provide half of the funding for each city, with the rest coming from philathropies and businesses."

And Geoffrey Canada himself said, "If the stars align, there could be a real conversation developing in America about a new strategy on poverty. If it happens, I think it would give Americans a belief again that not only can you do someting, but we should do something--that there's a self-interest involved in helping these kids. In the end, it's going to make America a stronger country."

NCLB pointed out and highlighted the problem. Canada and hopefully Obama are talking about a soultion. I hope for the best.

Science

With the appointment of Steven Chu Obama immediately separated himself from 8 years of terrible behavior toward scientists. And his recent quotes seem to support these views:

He says, "that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology." And he has pledged to do what our scientists have to say even when its inconvenient--especially when its inconvenient.

Timeline of a Job I didn't get

January 2010
My wife saw an ad on EdJobs NH for a position at Souhegan High School. They requested a new Dean of Faculty who could help them continue their mission. They asked for all the traditional things but also a values statement and most interesting--a document explaining how the candidates strengths met the Souhegan mission. It was the most interesting job posting I had seen and the only one in 10 years that I was even mildly interested in.

My mantra throughout my Concord career has been that I would like to advance but I would also very much like to stay in Concord. My wife grew up near Concord, we go to church in Concord, we would like our kids to be educated in Concord. We are currently moving to Concord from nearby Barnstead. So even though the Souhegan opening was interesting I left it alone.

The Non Snow Day Snow Day
In February there was a snow day where it didn't actually snow. This was the day my annual review was scheduled so I decided to drive to town for it. I had worked really hard during the year and my hope was that my assessment job could be turned into a full time one rather than a part time one. The review of my performance was good but there was no way the job could become a full time one.

At this point I began to consider the Souhegan position. I was committed to staying in Concord but I was also interested in obtaining a full time position. I like working all year round. I enjoy using the summer, time off from students to consider how to to help them in a more effective way. Just like

From 2011 on Khan

All,

For the last 2 weeks I have been investigating the Khan Academy. They offer online mini lessons on tons of concepts in math and science. Kim Marshall in his weekly memo brought this to my attention.

Sal Khan, the creator, originally began making videos to help his cousins. The videos were so popular that he eventually gave up his job and formed a non-profit company to work on these videos full time. At this point there are over 2100 videos. Khan's thought is that providing traditional lecture material online allows students to go at their own pace. His model actually turns education all around and posits that students would watch the lectures for homework and then come to school and do what used to be called homework. He is also very interested in the idea of pacing. Students working at their own pace is a key to his ideas about education.

In some circles Khan and his academy have been criticized because they don't teach critical thinking and problem solving. The videos focus more on the acquisition of knowledge than on the transfer of it. But Khan doesn't claim that his videos do any more than that. His hope is that the videos will allow more time for teachers to teach problem solving and critical thinking.

I'm still not sure how I will use these in my own teaching. But at this point I feel like it is worth all of us taking a look at.

`1

Link to the materials.

TED video of Khan presenting his work

Enjoy the weekend,

Tom

I must respond--Competencies

Much to say this week. Here is the first commentary on Competencies. There was an episode of Laura Knoy's The Exchange on NHPR. Here is the link so you can listen for yourself.

Very old. 2009. Could turn into something. 

http://www.nhpr.org/node/27325

One comment:
Competency Based Ed is a new name for Outcome Based Ed. Google Peg Luksik/ you tube/ and she will explain what OBE is all about. It's snake oil folks.

No, wrong. Outcome based education was an excellent idea that we implemented in a poor way. Outcomes were excellent ideas. Measuring how students get to outcomes was not done well. In the outcome based education model a student was told that they met the outcome if they answered a certain %age of questions correctly. This is not understanding.

Competencies are an advancement of outcomes because it means that students must prove that they know a certain amount of material.

In the program Knoy asked if there would be 22 students requesting to do civics a different way. This is NOT what is going on.

Brennan makes sense.

Khan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk

The Khan school has been getting some good and bad press. The positives:

--homework is watch the videos.

--classwork is the old homework.

start with the building blocks

learn math the way you learn anything. do it as long as it takes until you get to mastery

everything that can be taught in this type of a framework--this is key--he is not claiming critical thinking.

red blue green

time--did we benefit because we are fast

His argument is that using Khan Academy frees up time for the teachers to teach the critical thinking--he is clear that his system can only do certain things.

--

Interview

An old one from 2011. Partially done.

I had the chance to interview for the Assistant Principal job at Concord High School the other day. It was a short interview and I was over-prepared. So I wanted to lay out why I think I would be helpful to CHS.

Overall Focus--Student Learning

• Curriculum--I feel that we need to make sure to continue (as a school) to focus on competencies and to focus revising and refining the existing competencies. And where possible we need to examine how we can do this in a collaborative way.
  
• Instruction--The teachers at CHS are excellent but there are always new strategies to consider and especially new ways of planning instruction in teacher groups. It is also has become more and more important to be clear about the goals. Real world skills are being stressed more and more by teachers and politicians and other leaders.
  
• Assessment--How can we increase student assessment of their own work? Not evaluation (grading) but creating a system where students regularly look at the work that they have created and compare it to the goal. When a person is working on re-doing a roof they should regularly look at other roofs that are well installed. Or when working on a writing sample writers might look at exceptional writing samples.
  
• Climate and Culture
• Administration and Support
  

Kahn Mathematics Experiment

Never published. Started in 2011.

Tonight your homework assignment will be to watch an mathematics lecture online. Tomorrow we will work problems related to the lecture.

This is what mathematics teacher Tim Beaulieau of Concord High School in Concord NH told his students one day this spring. He had read about the work of Sal Kahn and had decided to use Kahn's web lectures in his class. Kahn rose to national prominence when Bill Gates introduced him at the 2011 TED talks and supported him with a 2 million dollar development grant. Kahn is a self described hedge fund manager who began making web tutorials for his young cousins so they could learn the math that they were having trouble with. At this point he has created over 2000 YouTube videos in the areas of math and science and there have been more than 50 million page views of Kahn's content.

Kahn uses a simple approach. Simply put he uses an online blackboard and his voice to give the lecture on a particular subject. It is nothing special but he advocates a topsy turvey approach to education that involves his videos. The thought is that student's homework would to be to watch the lectures--the current norm of during the day math teaching. Then when they returned to class during the day the teacher would have the time to work on basic problems related to the lecture and then on problems where students would transfer their learning and apply what they had learned. The idea being that the math teacher no longer provided the lecture--they would provide the context and the application of the learning.

Tim began by asking a group of Algebra students to view a Kahn Academy video for homework. During the school day class he had explained to students where to go to access the site and how they could complete the assignment if they did not have home internet.

Thoughts

 A very simple one. These should be put into a bigger and better article someday.

Thoughts from Tom

Read The Souls of Black Folk by WEB DuBois.

Listen to David Blight’s semester class from Yale on the causes of the civil war.

Read Self Reliance by Emerson.

Read Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Read some Calvin and Hobbes.

Have kids write more and create fewer powerpoints.

Don’t be an over-delegator.

Don’t be an under-delegator.

Tell people, clearly, what you want to see from them. 

Use a style guide like Brian Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage but don’t be an asshole about it.

Eschew Buffalo wing analogues.

September 11

 9/11/2001

Minus Post 1

I didn’t feel well. I was up at four AM and considered calling in sick for the day. I’m not sure what made me decide to go.

On the way to school I bought something, a beverage or something, at Cumberland Farms. Leaving the store I walked between two dumpsters without noticing they were being picked up. If the operator had moved the dumpster forward I could have been crushed.

My morning of teaching was uneventful. I taught what I needed to teach for my chemistry class and when the bell rang at 9:15 the class was dismissed. I don’t know who told me to turn on the TV during the passing time but I did. They were already replaying the video of the first plane hitting the towers. At first I thought it was a Cessna that had gotten off track. Then as I realized what was going on I realized that the scale of a cessna to the towers was off. This was a big plane.

It was such a beautiful day. I went on a bike ride with a friend of mine and the silence, after a day of TV, was surreal. It was such a beautiful day.

In the days after I thought: “What if we had the balls to send peace?” Could we, would we be bold enough to execute the greatest turn the other cheek in the history of the world? Instead of attacking as everyone said we must, why not send people and love and friendship. For the first time in the world a country would not fight war with more war and -- and here I got a little crazy even for this crazy notion -- the world would follow and there would be peace. (I learned -- only this year -- that Stanley McCrystal was reflecting on the US response after 9/11 and said that he would have like to spend a year doing nothing military. A year to teach 10,000 Americans Dari/Farsi and Pashto and Arabic. A year to better understand what just happened and plan the response.)

In Star Trek First Contact, the captain explains to the people of earth’s past that after humans realized that they were not alone in the universe they stopped all wars and came together. Could 9/11 be something like that for the real humans instead of the fictional ones of the Star Trek franchise? No.

No, it could not. And as time wore on I began to think that maybe the human race won’t ever get to peace. Our ability to solve problems with one another amicably and peacefully is not only lacking -- it seems to be getting worse. On 9/11 I was in my late 20s. Now, nearing 50, I have started to think about what I have accomplished in my own life and what humans will have accomplished during my brief time here. I’m hoping for a lot more.

Dinner at Mo’s July 2023

I wanted to take advantage of being in Baltimore, so I really wanted to get either some really good crab or some fresh oysters. Before Amelia's lacrosse games on Saturday we scouted out some places. The night before we were casting about for places and walked through a spinning door and were deposited into an ice cold black tie only lobby that was clearly not for a sweaty, shorts wearing, dad and his daughter. Saturday we walked around a little bit in the sweltering boiling heat of a Baltimore Summer and found a place called Moe's that looked pretty good and looked like you know sort of a working place. There were people there for lunch so forth and so on.

We came back after her games. She took a shower. I drank a beer and we went over to Mo's. I was a little nervous because it was 7:30 and I didn't know if they would have a wait. It seemed like the type of place that really could get hopping with locals as the evening progressed. But they had a table for two and sat us right away. The place was bustling. Three round couples who seemed to be from Indiana came in. The impressively bellied men wore trucker hats and conservative themed t-shirts and the pear shaped wives all had the same short economical hairstyle that you can find at SuperCuts. They were enjoying life and having a great vacation. They were very happy to be led to their seats upstairs.

I like dive bars. Dive bars are not shitty or dirty bars. They are small, well-run, and well loved by their patrons. My sense in the morning and my initial sense after my first 10 minutes of observation was that I was in the presence of a wonderful dive bar style experience. The first little twitch that something was off was when they delivered our drinks. Amelia's soda was fine. I had ordered a dirty martini and it appeared a little bit lime green and cloudy. Imagine a frog pond. 

The very pleasant server came back and she asked us what we'd like. Amelia doesn't eat meat but we had looked at the menu ahead of time and she picked out some things that she would like. She asked for macaroni and cheese. The server said, “Oh you don't want to order that here but it's on the menu so I'll bring it if you really want.” to that I said well my daughter is a vegetarian so are there other things that you might recommend. the server then recommended chicken chicken tenders or a hamburger. everything was moving too fast and I only realized later that what she had wondered was or what you thought about Amelia was can I get you something that is not fish. so Amelia gave up on the mac and cheese and ordered a Caesar salad which she usually Likes I ordered oysters a dozen and we waited for our food to come out.

With no mac and cheese coming for Amelia I encouraged her to eat all of the rolls that came out.

My oysters were served traditionally on a bed of ice but the first one I ate was lukewarm. I thought about just getting up and going but there was nothing overtly wrong with the oysters they just weren't ice cold which is the way I prefer eating them. I looked to Amelia and she said that the lettuce was okay the dressing was bad and the croutons and cheese were bad. so not a very good Caesar salad. I ate most of my oysters we ask for the check there was no line to give a tip I ask the server if there was a way for me to give a tip and she disappeared we did not see her again. so I signed the bill and we left.

 My friend Alex shot himself 6 years ago and he died four days later. I had been feeling down for a long time. Maybe a year maybe two years before he died but sadly his death or his death sadly was a turning point where I said I have to confront why I'm feeling bad because I know I don't want to get to where he got.

After he died I contacted a therapist and started meeting with her and it was one of the best things that I've ever done. I'm sure that most people say the exact same thing going to see a therapist or something most important thing they've ever done or the one of the best things they've ever done and what's interesting is when people say why don't or why doesn't everyone have a therapist and that's a great question.

 As you can imagine with therapy it wasn't all about my friend Alex, and it wasn't about all about me but it was about why I felt the way I did. There were a couple things that emerged. I had previously had a superintendent and a principal that believed in me and trusted me completely I was now working with a superintendent and a principal who did not have that feeling. An example is that I had written a teacher evaluation under the previous superintendent that had been held up as an example of how to do evaluations by the previous superintendent and when I submitted a teacher evaluation that was identical the new superintendent talk to me about it being a perfect example of how not to write evaluations 

I just never got off on the right foot with the new superintendent she was wonderful as a person and as a superintendent just our working relationship never really gelled. the new principal I'm not sure what happened I don't know if you didn't trust me or still thought of me as a brand new teacher even though I had been a teacher of her 12 years and and it's system principle for five by the time he started.

The more important point about all of this is taking care of oneself if this doesn't happen and if it isn't allowed in your organization or is an encouraged in your organization that is something that needs to be addressed if you don't have the power to be the one who addresses it then you need to speak to someone with a little bit more power who can help address it. 

The other thing that I learned in the process of working with therapists eventually being diagnosed with major depression or severe clinical depression is that the right step to take are to contact your supervisors and the people in human relations as soon as possible so they do not think that you're taking sick days with no reason and instead they understand that you have an actual situation going on and that they can support you I have since advised many fellow Educators to do the same thing when they have come to me in distress with depression or other issues I always say to them talk to a trusted administrator about what is going on so that that administrator knows and can be a proactive supporter of what's happening with you

Unforced Errors

 Unforced Errors

• It is time to put away your summer clothes and put on collared shirts, ties, dresses, and professional footwear.
• Parent-teacher conferences will be online again this year but teachers are required to be in the building to conduct them. This will avoid possible disturbances from pets and children.
• Make sure to sign in when you get to the faculty meeting.
• Turn in your certificate of participation for the conference or you will not get professional development hours.

School administrators make mistakes all the time. They are tasked with making hundreds of decisions every day. They might be told that there are no paper towel in the 4th floor girls bathroom and in the next moment be told that there is a bullying and sexual harassment situation that involves ten students. Confronted with the sheer volume of decisions large and small it is inevitable that administrators will make mistakes. Given that mistakes will be made it is crucial that administrators work to eliminate unforced errors.

Unforced errors in tennis are the ones that are not caused by your opponent but by you. Unforced errors in administration occur when administrators insert themselves where they are not needed OR decides to create or enforce a rule that doesn't do anything to improve student learning.

        Don't wear jeans, etc. These type of edicts are dead on arrival and immediately turn everyone against you the administrator. The people who wear jeans all the time don't change their behavior and the people who have never thought about wearing jeans to work feel that you don't appreciate them as professionals. Instead of delivering a message to all teachers that they shouldn't wear jeans talk to the teachers who you feel are dressing a bit unprofessionally. I did this with two teachers and the both responded positively. They asked if wearing shorts was prohibited. I said no, but I thought it was not appropriate for high school teachers. They didn't agree but both of them stopped wearing shorts.