Visiting Beacon - What I Liked School Wide

School wide, three things stick out that I'd love to see more of at BLS:

• There is student art work everywhere. Now we at Bronx Lab have hallways filled with work from art classes. However, what blew me away about Beacon is that every class room I went to was covered with content-related, student produced visual art. Sure, I typically have student work up on my walls, but it is almost entirely text-based (which is representative of the work I assign). Not only is this beautiful to look at, but it is indicative of a strong integration of the visual (and from the sounds of it, also performing) arts into the academic curriculum. I don't know how to do this. I need to do this.
• I got the chance to talk to a handful of seniors about their experiences at Beacon. For all of them, they talked first, and most, about their experiences in clubs and sports. I have a VERY bad habit of forgetting that my class is only one of six my students takes, and that even if I taught all six, I would still only occupy a very small portion of what my students saw as the important part of their lives. In terms of the school portion of many students' lives, it is the after-school club and athletic portion that is most important to them, and probably in a good many cases, the most worthwhile portion as well. I know looking back on my high school experience, the most rewarding, engaging, and memorable experiences I had were all related to the time I spent working on our student newspaper, particularly when I was Editor-in-Chief. I am wondering how we can provide more of these opportunities to our students. I am well aware one of the trade-offs involved with a small school is that it limits the variety of extracurriculars we can offer. However, I feel that our limited after school resources are geared almost entirely to what we call Electives. These resemble classes more than a typical extracurricular. For one thing, our electives at BLS are almost all teacher run. Clubs tend to be student run and teacher sponsored. Are we providing our students with the after school experiences they want? How can we get closer to what our students would be excited to do, like the students at Beacon?
• All three history classrooms I spent time in were filled with course-relevant non-fiction books. I WANT! I WANT!! I WANT!!! One 10th grade class I observed saw students researching major 20th Century figures who opposed imperialism. This is nearly identical to a project I tried to do at the beginning of my year. The difference is the Beacon students were able to conduct real research using a variety of sources in their classroom on a person of their choosing. In our case, students read about an assigned person (since I had to prepare materials in advance) using the one or two sources I provided for them. I think it's a very safe conclusion that the students at Beacon were far more engaged in their work. Having a decent mini-history library at my disposal would open up a ton of possibilities and really transform the experience of my students. And I don't think I have it in me to write about the differences in our libraries. It is simply injustice. Beacon's library has at least three times as many resources as the library we share with everyone else at Evander Childs (Bronx Lab is a small school in a much larger building), yet we have three times as many students.
  

Visiting Beacon

I was scheduled to take a little road trip today down to Philadelphia to visit Chris' SLA with my principal. And while unfortunately that trip had to be rescheduled, since I already had my classes set for me not to be there and the sub had already been called, my principal sent me down to visit the Beacon School on the Upper West Side to learn what I could from observing their social studies classes, and also paying special attention to their 12th Grade classes, as we at Bronx Lab are in the process of planning our first 12th Grade Experience for next year.

Not that I didn't know this walking in, but the first thing I noticed is that Beacon is a different world from Bronx Lab. Bronx Lab is 98% Black and Latino, with 86% of our students getting free lunch and 47% of our entering 9th graders reading at grade level; Beacon is 53% White and Asian, with only 24% getting free lunch and 70% of their entering 9th graders reading at grade level (statistics from insideschools.org). Add that onto the fact that one has to go through an extensive interview process to even be accepted to Beacon, they have their own building, have been around ten years longer than we have, and have most of their students exempted from the history and science Regents exams, and some might think that there is little to be learned for a teacher in my situation from a place like Beacon. But from all I have previously heard, and saw today, Beacon is a different world not just from Bronx Lab, but from most other high schools as well. It is a special place - the type of place that, as a left-learning-middle-class-white-guy, I would dream of sending my kids (if I ever have any).

My principal sent me with three questions:

1. What do I like about Beacon school-wide that we could bring to Bronx Lab?
2. What do I like about Beacon that I want to bring into my classroom?
3. What can we learn from their senior year?
   

For the sake of readability, I'm going to address these questions in three separate blog entries.

New Year's Resolution: Do Less, Better

Over my (way too short) break, I thought a lot about what I learned in my first 4 months at BLS. This isn't my first year teaching, but in many ways it has felt like more of a first year than my actual first year did. I find myself working harder than I ever have before wearing more hats than I had in previous teaching jobs. I knew this coming in, but I didn't really understand just how many different ways I'd be pulled.

I came to a relatively new school (we're in our third year) because I wanted to chance to be a part of building something permanent that will serve our community. I was eager for the chance to be a part of creating something new and getting opportunities for leadership that I never would have had at a larger school. And I bit off more than I could chew.

All teachers at my school are both classroom teachers and advisers. So I had my 12 new advisees and my four sections of Global History II. I decided to create a Global curriculum from scratch (reinventing the wheel). My first trimester teaching load left me with some extra time obligations to the school, so I also became one of the technology people at the school. Eager to demonstrate the great potential uses of Web 2.0, I tried to start some sort of pilot of blogging in advisory. While the initial idea of doing this with two other teachers fizzled out, I still began it with 3 of my advisees (1 of which has yet to post 2 months later). I also began exploring implementation of moodle and elgg into our school. As the first Trimester moved on, it was clear 3 days of Global was not going to get our students ready for the NY Regents exam in June. So we added an extra period a week, moving my teaching load above a typical full load. And though I was off the tech team officially, I still had/have people coming to me for help. Around the same time, the 3 Social Studies teachers at my school decided we weren't benefiting from the Humanities Department meetings, so the 3 of use started running our own weekly Social Studies Meetings (in the 1 free period we all have off). And I also jumped at the chance to join the committee planning our schools Twelfth Grade Experience for next year (and soon set up a blog for that). Meanwhile, back in my history class, I am preparing my students to participate in the National History Day contest, part of which will mean holding a first ever History Day Fair at BLS in February. In order to support the research, I'm giving all my students e-mail accounts through the newly registered bronxlabstudents.org, which means piloting a major new initiative and worrying about worst case scenarios on that front. And oh yeah, I have a lesson to teach Monday morning...

I do too much. And by doing too much, I'm not doing anything that well. Which is why my resolution for 2007 is to do less, but do it better. I need to do less in my global class, but do it better (I have over-planned every unit so far this year). I need to do less outside the classroom, but do it better (12th Grade Experience, or bust). I need to do less with technology, but do it better (I think blogging in advisory has to go, though good quick uses in class has a place - check out my students' blogs from our recently completed unit).

I loved Dan's post about his Important Ratio #1 (Worth of Instructional Decision = Instructional Value / Minutes Expended). It's a great post, and an even better discussion of it in the comments. The philosophy major in me thinks of this less as a ratio, than as a philosophical set of questions:

1. By making this time commitment to Activity A (instructionally, professionally, personally), what activity B ( and C, etc.) am I not spending time on?
   
2. Is the time not being spent of activities B of lesser value than the value added by committing time to Activity A?
3. Do I have the time and energy to sustain activities A & B?
4. Will doing activity B better be less valuable than doing activities A & B with less than a full effort?

Conclusion: Unless the answer to questions 2-4 are all "Yes", activity A is not worth doing.

So here's to a year of doing much, much less, but hopefully doing something exceptionally well. Happy 2007 to all!

Great Student Quotes

My students are beginning a project where they take on the identify of a historical figure and create a blog for that person (sometime next week there should be a few different versions of Leonardo Da Vinci's Blog floating around). As a warm up Friday, I asked my students which teacher most reminded them of their historical figure and why. Some of these are too funny and thoughtful not to share:

• _____ is a person who reminds me of John Locke. John Locke was a philosopher and _____ talks and acts like a philosopher. _____ has a deeper meaning to any question. If you say "Oh, I'm going to get food," _____ would start talking about what that would do to your body in 5 years.
• The BLS staff member who most reminds me of their person we are doing our project on [Marie Antoinette] is probably _____ just because she's young and pretty.
• _____ reminds me the most of Issac Newton because he got long hair and he is light skinned.
• _____ reminds me of Napoleon because he's mean and tries to take over everything.
• _____ reminds me of Napoleon because he's always changing the rules.
• _____ because he talks a lot and Galileo sounds like a man who loves to talk about what he does like _____.
• _____ and Mary [Wollstonecraft] because they both like to voice their opinion and want to be treated as equal.
• _____ reminds me of him. Issac Newton was a rebel always getting in fights with other people like rivals.
• The BLS staff member that reminds me of Issac Newton is _____ because _____ and Issac both studied science and they're both brilliant.
• My person is Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the BLS staff member that reminds me of him is _____. _____ has influenced me in the way that I think and that has helped me quite much. Just as my person has influenced many, _____ have influenced me so much more than anyone I've met.
• I would say _____ reminds me of John Locke because _____ is trying to change the school into the best high school preparing every student for college with the best teachers. John Locke made a change focusing on equality of human rights.

The Things That Make it Worthwhile

For a week that could have been a low point in my teaching career due to the stress of a new schedule, an expanded teaching load, new class sections (same students, new arrangements), teaching in a new room, not to mention getting grades done and having parent-teacher conferences -- my students came through time and time again this week. Some thoughts:

- Monday, ten of my students stayed after school with me to help me move all teacherly belongings down the hall to my new room. They took all the graded work I had from the end of the previous Trimester and filed them according to our new section groupings. Because of them, we didn't miss a beat in the classroom. I honestly have no idea how I would have gotten through the week without them.

- Sections take on a life of their own, often with some less than desirable habits. With the new sections groups, I saw students from sections that had better habits ensuring that the students from sections not always as pleasant or productive did not continue to have a negative impact on the class. Many of my students stood up and took control of their classmates, laying the groundwork for a successful new beginning.

- Though I dread parent-teacher conferences every year, I left them this year refreshed. They filled me with hope. Either I spent 5-10 minutes praising wonderful students, or I had genuine problem-solving conversations with parents and/or students who genuinely wanted to see improvement in their children or selves. So much of my time and energy feels like it is spent on managing problems, that it was wonderfully invigorating to be able to take some time and focus on the positive. Most of my students due much that deserves praise, and it was wonderful to be able to focus on that for awhile.

Finding Time, Finding a Voice

Just finished up my first trimester of teaching in the Bronx Lab School. I'd like to think I've made some progress -- though I'm only really sure that I've made progress recognizing how much progress I have to make to be the teacher I want to be. I know this is the biggest challenge I've ever faced, and I know that in order to serve my students I need to be much, MUCH better than I am now.

Extra time, unfortunately, seems to have disappeared from my life. I wish I took more time to stop, think, reflect, and write; but it doesn't often happen and I can't imagine it will get any better with the start of the second trimester. My day to day technology responsibilities are officially ending as I will be seeing my students one extra day per week in order to gear up for the New York State Global History Regents Exam in June. I'm glad my mind can be in one place more often, but with four extra hours of class per week, I can't imagine time becoming more available.

I feel like I've posted a half dozen times right now about not being sure what role this blog plays in my teaching. I know I want to model for students (and hopefully, eventually, for other staff members), but I have no idea what that looks like. I'm not sure where I find the voice to keep this going on a consistent basis. I'd be curious if anyone has any recommendations for other teachers/administrators who are blogging without a focus on the intersection of technology and pedagogy (which is already done so well by so many others). Inspiration is always helpful. I am thankful for Chris and Doug each time I see a new post in my Google Reader account to remind me how valuable of a tool this can be.

To end on a more optimistic note, a few of my advisies just published their first pieces on their reading blogs. I want to give them a chance to find their voice (and the spell check tool) before sharing their writing with the world, but I am happy to share the link to My Reading Blog , which should hopefully have student comments on it within the week.

Also, this week, I am eager to be starting a mini-project with my history students inspired by BionicTeacher. My students will be putting together a brief page My Space-like page (unfortunately not actually on My Space, which is blocked even from our administrative computers by the NYC DOE, though no similar services are blocked) for a Renaissance, Reformation, or Enlightenment figure. I'll post to these when they're live in a couple weeks.

BLS Featured in Washington Post

Very interesting and balanced article in the Washington Post today about DC's consideration of the NYC model of mayoral control of schools. I'm certainly benefiting from Bloomberg and Klein's two biggest policy initiatives (small schools, and the autonomy given by the Empowerment Zone), though I would like to see more information and data on the seemingly valid criticisms raised in the article in regards to the overcrowding of schools before wholeheartedly putting my hat in the Bloomberg cheering section.

But of course the real reason I'm posting this is because my school is featured in a very positive light in the article. I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Nakamura and welcoming him as a guest in my classroom and was very happy to see his positive portrayal of BLS.

Proposal - Blogging in Advisory

Since I won't be blogging as part of my Global History course, we're started having some conversations about where it makes sense to integrate Blogging into our curriculum. Until we have time to set up/test/teach some sort of Moodle and/or Elgg on a school wide basis (which realistically, may not be until the start of the next school year), we are looking for smaller environments to establish a prototype which (in theory) can be copied by other teachers.

I mean this post to serve as a first draft of my thinking in terms of the proposal I will bring to our staff along with Chris, our Tech Team leader who will be joining me in this endeavor.

Background:
All our students participate in an Advisory class. Each teacher is responsible for 12-15 students, who they stay with throughout the students' four years at our school. The class meets 40 minutes, four times per week. Advisory is a very dynamic class that wears a lot of different hats. The two most relevant aspects of Advisory for this proposal are Silent Reading and Letter Writing. Two days per week students (and Adviser) participate in Silent Reading, where students spend the Advisory period silently reading a book of their choice. Letter Writing is a two step process. Once per month, I write each of my students a letter. The letter contains three parts: 1) an update on what has been going on in my life the past month (personally and professionally), 2) a summery of what I have read in the past month (analyzing/explaining plot, characters, and themes), and 3) response and questions regarding the students' previous letter to me. The students then write me one letter per month, following the same format.

Proposal:
Ideally, I would like to switch the whole letter writing process from a traditional hand-written letter to blogs. There are two limitations that prevent this from happening. First, computers are charging during the advisory period (and we would not have enough for all advisories anyway). Second, we do not want to loose the privacy and intimacy of the personal parts of the letters (where students often disclose very important personal information). Therefore, Chris and I have developed the following plan to pilot a blogging program in our advisories (I have a 9th grade advisory; Chris has an 11th grade advisory; hopefully a 10th grade advisory will join us).

• At least 2-4 students from each of our advisories will participate.
• Once the initial group of students are set up, this will be offered to the remaining students in participating advisories.
• Participating students will stay after school once a week (though perhaps only once every two weeks will be necessary) in order to have computer access and for Chris and I to help these students get their blogs started.
• Students will learn about blogging safety and the importance of anonymity as part of their blogging setup.
  
• All involved advisers and students will keep a "Reading Blog" which will replace the reading portion of the monthly letter. Their blog posts will consist of what was formerly Part 2 of the Monthley Letters. Part 3 will be replaced by comments left on blogs (adviser comments on students' blogs; students comment on adviser's blog initially, and eventually other students' blogs).
• Students will continue to write the personal part of the monthly letter directly to their adviser. However, the student will now have the option to submit this portion through e-mail.
• Initially, students will be required to publish one blog post and one comment per month, though will be encouraged to do more.
• Blog posts will be assessed by the same criteria that letters are assessed (which differs from advisory to advisory, and in some cases, from student to student)
  
• While non-blogging students are writing their letters in Advisory Class, blogging students will either read silently or write a paper draft of their blog posts.

Questions that need to be addressed:

• Is this open to any adviser who wants to participate? (Chris and I will not have the time to support additional advisories, so if it is open, how and when do other advisers get the necessary training to participate?)
• What is our school's policy on teachers' anonymity, or lack there of, online? (My first and last name are on this Blog - Is it okay for me also to be using the school's name? I will be setting up a separate blog to use for my reading - since students will be posting there [and I will likely be linking to student work] to I need to refrain from using the school's name and/or my last name to protect students?)
• What issues are I forgetting here?
  

In the interest of modeling the type of conversation that blogging makes possible, I have posted this here in order to get feedback from my coworkers and anyone else who has any advice to give. As always, all comments, questions, and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Outside [The Cave] 2.0

I upgraded to Blogger Beta the other day, and because of this, am still working out some kinks (my old comments are gone, for one). Hopefully this will all sort itself out shortly. Apologies to anyone who got 25 or so odd posts from me in their reader the other day.

New Job, New Roles

(I actually wrote this about a month ago, but never got around to publishing it)

In my last post, I talked about how I wasn't sure where this blog would fit into my teaching this year. That question as answered for me last week when I found that, since I am three classes short of a full load, I would be part of our school's tech team, with one of my main responsibilities being to help teachers integrate technology into their pedagogy and practice. So even though time constrains will keep me from usingblogs in my Global History 10 classes, I plan on keeping this going to set an example that I will (hopefully) get other teachers to follow. That is of course, once I get all out computers and new Smart Boards working (the joys of being at a young, small school).

With that added motivation and responsibility, I am excited to joining the community of Teacher Bloggers. I am eager to look at what others are doing to hopefully borrow some best practices to share with my staff. Thankfully, I have a supportive principal on this front. Funny story actually - when we first started talking about my new role he mentioned a friend of his who used to teach in the City and is opening a small school in Philli. When I responded, "Chris Lehmann, right? He writes one of my favorite blogs", I knew I would have a supporter on our school's path to Tech 2.0. (Though with that said now my principal talks about the wonderful ways Chris isusing tech at his school and is expecting me to do similar work here - which, at least at this moment, is far beyond the constraints of my time and knowledge).