Substitute teaching

One of the occupational hazards of being an administrator is getting called on to sub on short notice, when no other sub can be procured. The likelihood of this increases dramatically during the winter months, when various colds and flues have a tendency to strike. In the last three days, I have twice stepped in to teach in these circumstances.

Last Friday I subbed in 8th grade Spanish. Students were giving presentations in English and Spanish on culturally-based subjects of their choosing; one group presented on Selena (the famous Tejana singer), another on Shakira, and a third on Pan Dulce, Churros, and Horchata. In each case, the students spoke in front of a powerpoint presentation first in Spanish, and then in English, using note cards only for reminders about the order of their ideas and the occasional difficult word to remember or pronounce. At the end, other students asked questions, and applauded the hard work each classmate put into the activity.

Today I subbed in 6th grade Spanish. Students were working on combining sentences, a grammatical activity that teaches students to write compound-complex sentences and increase the complexity of their writing. Students first analyzed a model sentence for its component phrases, and then took three or four or five new sentences and combined them in a way that mimicked the underlying grammatical idea of the original. For example, one model sentence read "The children, shouting and screaming, came running into their homeroom." The three sentences that followed, which were meant to be combined into a new single sentence following the model, read "The ponies were neighing. The ponies were pawing. The ponies went barreling into their barn."

In both cases, what was so wonderful - besides helping the teachers feel ok about missing their class - was the opportunity to delve into student thinking, to ask them questions about their work, and come to know their understanding of the topics at hand. This is the magic piece of teaching that motivates all teachers; there is little as satisfying as being able to connect with a student's intellectual state, and to subtly advance his/her understanding to the next level of complexity. It was a little holiday gift that reminded me, paradoxically, of the importance of the job I have now in supporting teachers to have the time, resources, skill, awareness, motivation, and pedagogic tools to do the same.

Social dynamics

Today I watched a 4/5 class struggle with resolving a difficult issue - exclusion during play and recess. One student had brought up the issue of exclusion through the notebook that serves as a place to log topics students want to discuss in class meetings. The class gathered in a circle, and using a koosh ball as a talking object, systematically gave everyone the chance to speak on the topic (only a few chose to pass). The class generally fell into two camps - a small group of students, perhaps four or five, who are concerned that exclusion occurs regularly during playtime, and a much larger group that wanted to protect their rights to play with whomever they chose during recess and free time. The conversation, while not a back-and-forth dialogue because of the speak-once mechanism of the meeting structure, still traced an arc of movement; the first group acknowledged and agreed with the view of the second group, but was still able to point out that having to ask to be included, as had been suggested, led to hurt feelings when the answer was "no". Going around the circle once took 15 minutes; they agreed to continue the conversation at a later time. There is no easy answer to this topic, of course, which is why I was so pleased to see them wrestling with the hard answer - to process different perspectives and experiences, and experiment with the modes of their peers.

NY TIMES: Rethinking teacher evaluation

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times, in which researchers are attempting to develop a model for teacher evaluation that uses a multi-faceted scoring system, rather than the "value-added" model in which only the impact on standardized test scores for students in each class is calculated. The work is being funded by the Gates Foundation, and spearheaded by Educational Testing Services - the publishers of many of those same standardized tests - with a focus on using videos of teachers in the classroom to create scoring norms. Watching videos and conducting critiques, either in groups or in a self-reflective manner, has been an aspect of faculty evaluation for some time - just last week, the TBS faculty study group looking at student conferencing within the Positive Discipline framework used a video that Jed had shot of himself as the basis for their conversation - and to hear about an attempt to create a broad platform for using it is exciting (even if the article is a little short on specifics about what the criteria are that are being applied to develop the scoring rubric).

"When we stop playing, we start dying." - Dr. Stuart Brown

Mitch, Andrea, Paula and I are reading a wonderful book about play right now by Dr. Stuart Brown called Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, as part of our preparation for the second preschool director luncheon we will be hosting this year, in January. The book is based on a huge body of original research by the author, including over 6000 "play histories", as well as research by zoologists, neurobiologists, pediatricians, and scientists in a range of other fields. He begins by defining play, why it occurs, and its role in human development. He then examines how play differs for children, adolescents, and adults; the relationship of play and work; how play fosters social relationships and connections; if there is a "dark side" to play; and concludes with a chapter of advice for living a play-full life. A few of my favorite quotations so far - either for their strikingness, or for the implications for our work.

"I don't think it is too much to say that play can save your life."

"...active play selectively stimulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (which stimulates nerve growth) in the amygdala (where emotions get processed) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (where executive decisions are processed)."

"As children, the reward for play is strong because we need it to generate a rapidly developing brain."

"The work that we find most fulfilling is almost always a recreation and extension of youthful play."

"...during play, the brain is making sense of itself through simulation and testing. Play activity is actually helping sculpt the brain."

"Sometimes running is play, and sometimes it is not. What is the difference between the two? It really depends on the emotions experienced by the runner. Play is a state of mind, rather than an activity."

"When we stop playing, we start dying."

If this has caught your fancy, you might also be interested in this video, and this website.