The Cornerstone Accolades: March 2009

This is a special "Voices from the Classroom" edition of The Accolades. (View the original post here for an explanation of how the accolades work.) In past months, I've noticed a big disconnect between the blog topics of out-of-classroom bloggers and those in the trenches. There is value in both, and a rightful place for each, but this month's accolades are for the teachers.

Here's what educators have been grappling with in classrooms across the nation during the month of March:

Administering standardized tests...
Test Day: DUM! DUM! DUM! by Learn Me Good. Really, you can't make this stuff up. I once had a student whip out a PURPLE MARKER to take her standardized test. When I saw her bubbling with that stupid grape-scented thing I went momentarily blind with rage. Literally.

Looking for new ways to review material now that testing's done...
Revision by It's a Hardknock Teacher's Life. Miss Profe's trying out some review games from England.

Anxiously awaiting (or enjoying) spring break...
Wild Animals by Elbows, Knees, Dreams. You can guess what the title of the post refers to, no?

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day...
St. Patrick's Day First Grade Style by Elementary, My Dear, or Far From it. Jenny's got super cute photos of the activities her kids did.

Grappling with lay-offs and cut backs...
District Spokesperson Impacting the Lives of Students (as much as teachers do, according to an interview witnessed by Ms. Teacher)! Ms. Teacher responds: "We crave the energy and the enthusiasm that they [teachers] can bring to a classroom and yet, we repay them by allowing them to be faced with the possibility of being laid off every single year for the first five or so that they teach! Why would anyone go into teaching at this point in time with all of its uncertainty?"

Creating a safe haven for kids stuck in bad situations...
Smiley by PO'd Teacher. The Quality Review people may not like what's happening in her classroom, but PO'd is doing what's best for kids who are in desperate places.

Rehabilitating the kids who create bad situations...
The Good News and the Bad News by Regurgitated Alphabits. This a follow-up post about what Edna Lee did when one of her students mocked and bullied a...wait for it...blind child.

Recounting our successes to pull through the failures...
Let the Games Begin by My Own Personal Piece of Doom Cake. The encouragement in this situation came from a heart-warming student letter. Aww.

Enjoying our students' quirks and funny personalities...
"And Guess What, Teacher?" by Don't Put Boogers in Your Neighbor's Cereal. You may have guessed it...the boy in the drawing isn't wearing any underwear!






Wishing our (female) students could learn to tolerate one other...
Ah, the Girl Drama! by Bluebird's Classroom. Mrs. Bluebird writes: "As someone who came to education after 15 years in the corporate world - 15 years spent working, at times, with complete idiots that I didn't particularly like or enjoy working with but I sucked it up because it was my JOB - it drives me nuts when a kid comes up and asks for a seat change or a schedule change because 'I don't get along with so and so'."

Trying to prevent burnout when "everybody has serious issues"...
On Success, Part 4: I Still Want to Teach Forever! by I Want to Teach Forever. This is part of a great series of reflections on personal success and failure. I also recommend On Failure, Part 5: It's Not About You.

Dealing with blame and the issue of personal responsibility when students fail...
Holding Teachers Accountable by A Teacher's Education. Mrs. Chili is an English professor, and her stories are scarily similar to those of us working in PreK-12. [Edited to include: Mrs. Chili is looking for more insight on the topic from you all. Please leave her a comment with your thoughts!]

Confronting unreasonable expectations for teachers...
Boundary Issues by Confessions of an Untenured Teacher. The blogger asks, when is enough enough?

Getting angry at how some parents behave so inappropriately on campus...
Are You Kidding?! by Adventures in Super Teaching! Oh boy, can I relate. If my blog was anonymous, you'd get an earful from me on this topic. From parents cursing out students to making death threats against them, I've seen it ALL. And it's infuriating.

Leaving conferences feeling helpless and overwhelmed by family problems...
Parent-Teacher Therapy Sessions by Peace in the Classroom. This teacher makes an excellent point: For many parents, conferences are the only time where they can talk about their issues in a private and confidential place. And on a semi-related note: Can you teach resiliency?

Conveying the heartbreaking news to strugglers that they've made zero growth...
Investment Fail by Miss Bennett in the Bay. This is a crushing story of a little girl who just can't keep up with her peers. We all have at least one student like this, and it's painful to see.

Lamenting the lack of a unifying vision in our schools...
And where is the VISION? from Peace in the Classroom again. Clearly I love this blog. This post focuses on those little daily occurrences that undermine learning and simply should not be tolerated.

Wondering why we're so tired all the time...
Exhausted by Ranting Teacher. This anonymous UK teacher has a theory: "By the time I leave work, I feel like I've lived 3 days in one."

Feeling like teaching is torture sometimes...
Could It Get Any Worse? by They Call Me Teacher. This post is brutally honest: "I'm scared I'll forget how much I love teaching." It inspired a response from Adventures in Super Teaching! called It Gets Bad Sometimes.

Validating our students for who they are in a system that doesn't...
The "Right Way" by This Brazen Teacher. This is a beautiful, reflective narrative that addresses the issue of a one-size-fits-all "fix".

Struggling to integrate technology (and not giving up during the learning curve)...
Trying to Make Podcasting Relevant by Happy Chyck Wonders. Kudos to Happy Chyck for trying podcasting and blogging about it: collectively, we can figure out how to make this stuff meaningful.

Retrying those teaching methods we've been told are outdated...
Is 'Lecture' a 4-Letter-Word? by Leading From the Heart. Tracy says: "I’m amazed at how my assumptions continue to be challenged by my daily practice".

Experiencing the frustrations of 'best practice' when implemented in reality...
The Experts vs. The Teachers by Organized Chaos. How often do teachers enter into professional development feeling hopeful and leave feeling jaded and frustrated?

Committing to better our schools, one small act at a time...
Spring Forward by My Many Colored Crayons. Seeing that morale was in the toilet, Jane took it upon herself to redecorate the teachers' bathroom. (How's that for a metaphor?) What a commendable decision to improve her "little corner of the world". Love it.

Join me on Facebook!

A lovely reader suggested that I create a fan page for The Cornerstone on Facebook. As it turns out, that was a fabulous idea, because there are LOTS more of you on FB than Twitter. Although the 'fan page' is not technically a personal profile, I'm using it as such: Facebook, to me, is a place for making personal connections with people. If we've interacted at all online (or if you'd like to), please check out the conversations at The Cornerstone For Teachers fan page.

Newsflash: Kids Enjoy Learning!

My students haven't seen a multiple choice question in 6 days. I think we're all delirious with joy.

Yes, state testing is over. I apologize once again for terrifying those who read My Worst Nightmare, but fortunately, the actual administration of the FCAT was relatively painless and full of amusing moments. The kids are so cute when they're really concentrating and trying to psych themselves up. It would have been fun to live-blog it, but anything I wrote would have resulted in a debacle suspiciously similar to, well, my worst nightmare. I did, however, receive a hilarious email from a coworker in another school, who wrote "One of my students who finished early is so bored he is CHEWING ON HIS CHAIR." Sorry you had to miss out on the good times.

Since testing ended, I've obtained permission to restructure our day. We now have 120 minutes in the morning for interdisciplinary instruction in reading, science, social studies. That's right, folks, I'm no longer isolating the content areas but actually using them to--gasp!--drive reading instruction. I created a world history unit a few years back (which I haven't put on my Cornerstone website, but part of it can still be viewed here at the old site, Ms. Powell's Management Ideas for Teachers. You can also find some resources for the American History unit I created and a huge page of ideas on making social studies instruction exciting and relevant, even if you hate the subject yourself or have no time to teach it).


As you can tell, I am passionate about getting kids to fall in love with history, and the enthusiasm of my students is quickly starting to match my own. They're making real connections with their learning and asking absolutely amazing questions that require the services of Google. (They love when I connect my laptop to the LCD projector and let them watch as I search so we can discover the answers together.) We've actually been researching the continental drift, since one of my kids speculated that the continents might have fit together. Yep, these are the type of discussions that third graders are capable of when their teacher doesn't constantly interrupt them with reminders that "we need to move on now, we have eight more questions to do".

It's amazing how the use of authentic learning materials can fix even the worst behavior problems. I introduce the cave paintings we'll be replicating in our own hallway and my ADHD kids suddenly have an attention span! I show a sample of the cuneiform writing we'll doing on clay tablets and voila, the off-task side bar conversations vanish! Even the kids who can't. get. along. with. anyone. are suddenly developing rudimentary social skills in an attempt to collaboratively build a model of a ziggurat. Astonishing.

I'll be honest. There were mornings when I dreaded having the school announcements go off, because I knew I'd have to get up and teach. Ugh. Summoning enthusiasm for another main idea worksheet was hard work and required substantial acting skills that I haven't fully developed. Now? I'm still tired sometimes, but as soon as I stand in front of the kids and see how they all hang on my every word, I'm energized and ready to go the extra mile.

I'm so proud of my babies for being great THINKERS. I wish I could teach like this all year.

ASCD Summary Part 1: Observations and Analysis

This is the first post in a two-part summary of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's 2009 annual conference. My personal reflections on learning will come in part two. I also have a few interviews and session summaries (for those presentations I didn't live-blog) that I'll be incorporating into blog content later on.

The ASCD conference was held this year at the Orlando Convention Center, which is a facility of astronomical proportions and completely devoid of moving walkways. The journey from the parking lot to the exhibition hall is a good fifteen minutes at a very brisk pace, and it could easily take that long to get from one session to another if you don't understand the building's layout.

I think my car was parked on the other side of that lake.
At least, that's what the soles of my feet said.

During the first few hours of the conference, I found myself wandering a bit, trying to get my bearings and figure out how to get from point A to point B. I would have liked an ASCD rep or volunteer to be stationed on each of the three floors to help participants find rooms and locations in the building, at least for the first morning of the conference. (There was an excellent and well-marked information booth, if you knew how to find it.) Because of the vastness of the facility, it would have also been helpful to have conference doors labeled with the name and time of the current session. I noticed many attendees squinting around as they wandered into rooms, trying to determine if they were in the right place. And since there were many sessions that overlapped, not having marked doors made it difficult for participants to try to catch the last forty-five minutes of a different session without consulting the massive program book.

There were an astounding number of concurrent sessions at almost any given moment during the day, and all of us carried those program books around like they were the ASCD Bible. A CD-ROM was included this year (which was a very welcome addition, despite the fact that it did not run properly on Macs) and of course the guide was available online. One highly notable presenter admitted to me that she was a bit ticked off that the guide was not searchable by presenter name (you could find the names of those presenting in an index, but there were only session numbers, no page numbers, days/times of sessions, or session titles). I am confident that her session would have been standing-room-only if participants had realized who was presenting. In addition to featuring the presenters more clearly, I also think it would have been helpful if the program book had labeled certain sessions (especially tech workshops) with icons to specify the level of expertise so participants could find sessions with a good personal fit.

I spent an hour and a half on Saturday night with my new best friend, the ASCD program book, trying to plan where I wanted to be on Sunday. My intense micro-management was ludicrous but effective: 2:15 stop by this room to meet a favorite author; 2:25 talk with rep at publication house about collaborative work; 2:45 check out the beginning of one session and live-blog, 3:15 duck out and catch the end of another before interviewing a presenter at 4:45. Every moment was filled with the opportunity to interact with and learn from some of the greatest thinkers in the field of education, and I didn't want to waste a second. This was especially true since 2009 was the first year that non-traditional media (i.e. influential bloggers) were given press passes, and I wanted to take full advantage of ASCD's gracious invite.

My hot date on Saturday night.

I sat in on at least 16 sessions, and all provided genuinely useful information in a polished, professional way. Participants pay a lot of money to attend ASCD events: they expect high-quality professional development, and in my observation, they got it. (You can read some of my session notes here at In Practice, the blog I was representing at the conference.)

The only significant flaw I noticed with some of the sessions was the disconnect between the title/description and the actual content of the presentation. Because proposals must be submitted 10 months in advance, it's logical to presume that presenters will modify and improve their work prior to conference time. However, some presenters seemed to change the content and delivery to such an extent that the original topic was barely discernible. A few may have written the proposal that ASCD wanted, and then proceeded to implement whatever they felt like doing (sound familiar, classroom teachers?). This was a concern with nearly every participant I spoke with. An attendee from Ohio told me, "It was disappointing to waste time with something that wasn't what I thought, when there were so many other options." Many presenters did not have enough handouts for every participant, which made it even more difficult to track the sessions' focus and direction.

Nearly all of the sessions included multi-media presentations, and about half of the trainings I attended included short video clips from YouTube and other video sites. Sometimes this added value to the session; many times it served only to give participants a break from lecture. There was a wide variety of teaching styles amongst the various presenters, and the program book helpfully specified what percentage of interaction each presenter would include. In the highly interactive presentations, participants were required to talk about what they were learning. Most people were amiable about this, but some around me were irritated. At one point, I was sitting near a curriculum specialist from Texas who rolled her eyes and said, "I paid money to hear [the presenter] speak, not to hear myself talk. I want to know more about this topic, but I don't want it to be so interactive." Personally, I felt the same way: I like presentations to be fast-paced, hard-hitting, and full of information. I don't like a lot of jokes, asides, activities, or pauses for reflection and interaction.

Wait, which room am I going to again?

But my experience was markedly different from that of non-bloggers: I didn't have to wait for a presenter's prompt so I could actively construct knowledge. During most sessions, I was doing the following things concurrently (listed in the order of priority):

1) listening to/watching the presentation
2) live-blogging
3) scanning Tweetdeck
4) following #ASCD and #ASCD09 hashtags on separate twitter searches
5) tracking other ASCD live-blogs/Ustreams and commenting
6) viewing wikis from other sessions

This is in addition to responding to email, moderating blog comments, posting Facebook updates about the conference, etc. So naturally, a directive to "stand up and raise your hand if..." was a bit of a distraction for me. I'm sure those activities (which were perfectly valid and research-based) were more valuable for those participants who were attending solely to the presenter.

Live-blogging was an amazing experience that fit well with my personal learning style. It was so valuable that I can't help but consider how much deeper the learning would have been for other (like-minded) participants if they were synthesizing while learning, instead of sitting passively until commanded to interact. Taking the initiative to interact on one's own, at a level of engagement appropriate to the individual, seems like a more beneficial practice. Of course, there is something to be said for focusing deeply on one thing at a time, and some people don't learn well when their attention is divided. But I believe there are many people who process information the way I do; they just haven't been shown how to incorporate online communities into their current learning habits and processes. I hope that in time, as educators become more comfortable with technology, professional development will move down this path.

Imagine a workshop in which participants don't have to raise their hand and wait to be acknowledged by the presenter in order to share an idea or ask a question. Picture a session in which both literal and virtual participants are reflecting constantly with one another and collaboratively making connections to their own understanding. Because of social media, I had a glimpse of this experience at ASCD09, and it was absolutely exhilarating.

The association went to great expense to offer wireless Internet service throughout the conference facility, and we techies absolutely RAVED about this provision in a meeting with some of the organization's leaders. I am thrilled to know that ASCD has every intention of providing wireless service at future conventions, because I am confident that with each gathering, more and more educators will be engaging online.

It took HOURS for me to visit every vendor in the exhibition hall.
Newsflash: Teachers will take anything that's free. A paper clip? I'll have two!

In the meantime, I am acutely aware that the experience of those who were offline (the vast majority of participants, at least during sessions) was vastly different from my own. I viewed the conference through the lens of someone connected to the online community, and it enhanced my experience of this conference tenfold. Like many participants, I attended the conference by myself. But I was able to connect with new people at ASCD by following their tweets, then arranging to meet within the convention hall. What about the 98% of attendees who weren't doing this? What about those who attended the conference with their co-workers, staying in their own little cliques and conversing mostly with people they already knew? They didn't have any method (that I'm aware of) for casual networking, and as a result, I missed out on connecting with them. We were ships passing in the night: unless we struck up a conversation randomly (which is hard for a lone individual to do when approaching a group), a real connection was difficult to make.

What if there was some sort of forum for participants to interact informally with one another outside of the sessions? A social networking place, a Twitter in real life? Or, as another attendee suggested, what if there was more of an effort to draw the off-line attendees in, a blogger cafe similar to the one at NECC? This would help bring more educators into the 21st century fold, familiarizing them with and helping them implement the instructional technology ideas they can learn in the conference.

The dilemma of how to connect participants to one another so they can share in learning isn't a new one, nor is it an easy concern to address, but it's certainly worth considering. I believe that the Internet will play the primary role in this advancement. And the best part is, ASCD is totally on board and excited to be doing whatever they can to promote social media amongst educators.

Does a drawing of a paper airplane really connote learning beyond boundaries?
I'm just saying.

The participants, presenters, and exhibitors as a whole were were an amazing group of people. It was inspiring to be surrounded by so many incredibly accomplished and knowledgeable educators. The type of thinking that goes on at an ASCD conference is truly astounding, and it will take much longer than two days for me to really absorb and process everything that I learned. There was a intense meeting of the minds at this conference, and the exchange of ideas we've experienced has the capacity to transform our educational communities in a powerful way.

I've been thinking a lot about my big take-away from the conference. I've definitely come back with some new understandings that influenced my teaching the moment I stepped back into the classroom...and I've seen immediate results in my students' behavior and depth of understanding. Even more than that, I've experienced a shift in what I see as my personal vision and plan for mastery. There's been some cognitive dissonance this weekend, and that's resulted in some deep shifts in what I believe and how I plan to influence others.

It all comes down to this: I'm asking better questions, and I'm more connected to people who can encourage and inspire me to discover the answers. I don't think I could gain anything more important from a conference.

(This post was cross-posted at In Practice.) Please check back for part two of the ASCD summary, in which I'll explore what I've learned personally from attending the conference and how I'm changing my perspective and instruction.

Live, from the ASCD!

It has to be a special occasion for me to be coherent, much less posting a blog entry, at 8:00 on a Saturday morning. And special it is. I'm at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's annual conference in Orlando. It's much more interesting than it sounds.

I'm covering the event as a member of the press for the blog In Practice. I'm excited to be part of the blogging team, which is comprised of a small group of outstanding teacher-bloggers working in inner city classrooms throughout the country:

Alice Mercer of The Blog of Miz Mercer: Reflections on Teaching
Brian Crosby of Learning is Messy
Doug Noon of Borderland
Jennifer Orr of Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It
Jose Rodriguez of The Wooden Nickel
Larry Ferlazzo from Larry Ferlazzo's Website of the Day for Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL)
Matthew Needleman of Creating Lifelong Learners
Michaele Sommerville of Kindergarten's 3 R's: Respect, Resources, and Rants

And then...there is me. Wow. I'm truly honored to be part of this group.

The blog In Practice is the result of these writers' combined efforts at capturing the reality of education in the 21st century: theory is nice, but we're working in practice. And because of the blog's outstanding reputation, its contributors were invited to attend the ASCD conference as members of the media. So in a wonderful stroke of providence, I have the opportunity to represent the blog and cover the event as a journalist. Ahh, the benefits of living three hours from the conference location.

I'm currently in a rather dull general session (which, so far, has been only a bunch of awards and acceptance speeches). I understand the New York Times #1 bestselling author Greg Mortensen (3 Cups of Tea) is about to speak, so I'm sticking it out.

HOWEVER this morning I attended an amazing presentation about counteracting the effects of poverty in the classroom. I live-blogged the event using it Cover It Live, meaning that readers can follow along with the conference session as it happens. And because most of you have more relaxing ways to spend your weekend, each live-blog event is archived so you can peruse my notes at your leisure. It's unedited, so you can read exactly what I was learning and thinking as the session progressed.

The preview you see below is NOT my session. Click it to view my actual notes.




The presenter was absolutely amazing, deeply grounded and focused on her vision and helping others create their own. We had an immediate connection, and I am thrilled to have secured an interview with her tomorrow morning! I'll post info on that later.

Be sure to check out the In Practice blog for lots of live events, summary recaps of conference sessions, and more as the weekend progresses.

My Worst Nightmare

So it's finally the big week: we are administering the FCAT. This is the test: the stakes are high for fourth and fifth graders, and our poor third graders can't get promoted without a passing score. Our funding, our reputation, and to an extent, our very employment are all resting on how well this group of nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds answer a set of 45 comprehension questions. Budget cuts have eliminated the primary alternative assessment, so everything is riding on today's outcome.

All the kids are in the cafeteria. Some are uncharacteristically quiet, while others fidget nervously in their seats. A few are being purposely disrespectful and antagonistic in hopes of opting out of the test and spending the day enjoying internal suspension. A girl I taught last year is sobbing because her pencil broke. She's not a crybaby: she's just on edge because things are already going wrong and she hasn't even gotten her answer sheet.

I, along with a dozen other teachers and administrators and district officials, are preparing to disseminate the test booklets. The tests seem bit thicker this year, and for some reason, are not sealed shut with that little plastic tab the kids can never seem to rip with their trembling fingers. I flip one open and glance through.

You've got to be kidding me.

"There are ads in here! Look at this!" I sputter. Sylvan Learning Systems, the Discovery Channel, and Cheerios have all purchased advertising space inside the FCAT booklets! I squint, not believing that the ads are really there, buried between comprehension questions. Everyone is staring in horror. "It's just like that teacher who purchased ad space on the top of his classroom tests, I read about it on somebody's blog! I guess the state figured that was a good way to make money. How could they have neglected to share that information with us?". Most of the teachers have no idea what I'm talking about (Hello! You need to be following education blogs!) but I'm too angry to explain. "I don't believe this! The kids can barely read the stupid passages, and now they've got advertisements messing up their comprehension! Look, this one runs right into the answer choices for question 17! Unbelievable. They've totally sold out the kids in order to make a quick buck."

There's really no opportunity to discuss this now, because the test must begin in eight minutes or else we won't finish on time. A fifth grader starts vomiting from anxiety and a few of us exchange looks. This happens every year, so fortunately, a custodian is standing ready with buckets of that weird sawdust they use to soak up fluids. The children sitting near the puker are screaming, and now kids all over the cafeteria are standing up to get a look at the greenish puddles on the table and floor. The teachers disperse to calm the vomit-induced riot that's threatening to erupt. I shake my head and turn to put the test booklets back in their protective plastic container.

That's when I notice there are advertisements on rip-out cards, too--the annoying kind you see in magazines. I start muttering to myself. Oh, come on, this is ridiculous! I'm ripping these out. They're pointless, and a huge distraction. I start yanking out the cards and piling them up on the cafeteria table.

A small cardboard insert falls out of a booklet. It's encased in plastic, similar to a Happy Meal toy. I realize it's a light switch cover, with a slogan on it from Florida Power and Light. Something about turning off the lamps when you leave the room to save energy. I pick up another test booklet and a light switch cover falls out of that one, too.

It dawns on me that this is going to happen every time a kid opens a test booklet. There will be the crinkling of plastic, giggling, whispering, trash making...this is a disaster. At the same time, I can't prevent the kids from having the light covers: they're issued by the state, and I can't use my own judgment to determine what's best for my students. Fortunately, we have a whole bin of office supplies with us, and I find a glue stick. I start pasting the light switch covers to the inside of the back covers so they won't fall out.

I've completed this process for a large stack of booklets when my principal walks over. She stares at me. "Angela, what are you doing?"

"Look at these dumb product placements in the test booklets! I'm gluing them to the back page of the booklets so the kids don't notice them until the end."

She stares at me. "Angela. You cannot alter the test booklets in any way. You certainly cannot take a GLUE STICK and ATTACH a light switch cover to the back!!!"

I blink, not comprehending, and she continues."Do you realize what you've done? You've just invalidated 80 test booklets! We are going to be investigated for fraud, we won't earn an 'A' for our school grade, and we'll lose thousands of dollars! We'll have to cut teaching positions! The kids won't have any promotion criteria and will ALL have to be retained! You're gonna have to answer for this before the school board." She smacks her hand to her forehead. "This is going to be front page news on every paper in the country! How could you do this?!"

I don't know what to say, so I just stand there looking at the disappointment on my principal's face. Other teachers begin gathering around, gasping and clucking and trying to figure out what in the world I was thinking. I hear one of the new teachers whisper, "Didn't she write that book for teachers? I thought she was National Board Certified. I thought she was GOOD." I can't respond. I can't even move.

I'm devastated that in my quest to help the kids, I violated the sacred rules of testing. In my attempt to give them a fair chance at being accurately assessed, I have destroyed everything. A lump forms in my throat as I realize the way I have let down my beloved principal and hard-working colleagues. Everything we have worked for all year was resting on this one test, and I single-handedly FAILED it for the entire school.

When my alarm goes off, I wake up, but it takes a full hour before I can register the fact that none of this actually happened. I just can't shake the feeling of nausea. A few years ago, I stopped allowing myself to get stressed and worry about standardized testing, but I am always surprised by an FCAT nightmare of some variation every year. This one was the most vivid, and it threw me off kilter for much longer than I'd like to admit. Even now as I recount the dream sequence, my stomach is twisting itself into tiny, hard knots.

There is something absolutely terrifying about the possibility of screwing up the one test that your entire future rests upon.

I have failed, in one very real sense: I have participated in and perpetuated a culture of fear and anxiety in place of meaningful learning. Maybe that is the real nightmare, and I still haven't woken up.

The Top 10 (Harmlessly?) Unprofessional Behaviors

There are seriously unprofessional behaviors, like coming in late everyday or not having your lesson plans prepared. And then there are...those things. The ones that don't REALLY impact the kids or instruction in any substantial way. Those behaviors that are, ahem, frowned upon?

There's been a ongoing discussion on our campus about whether it's okay for teachers to wear those velour sweatsuits that were popular a few years back. Some of us are passionate: They're sweats! Absolutely not! Others of us say: Hey, what's the difference between that and the jeans we're allowed to wear on Fridays?

My opinion on each for our school: No (logos are tacky); No (sloppy, and more importantly, ugly); No (although it'd be easier to get parents in for a conference); Yes (occasionally on a Friday).

The whole thing got me thinking about the subtle and trivially unprofessional behaviors that we as teachers sometimes engage in:

1. Giving an assignment mainly because you want to write about it on your blog. Heh.

2. Positioning yourself towards the sun during recess to darken your tan.

3. Talking on a cell phone while walking the class to lunch.

4. Eating in front of students.

5. Setting up a book buddies routine (or other combined class activity) so you and your colleague can chat while the kids work.

6. Always scheduling book fair visits, guest speakers, and other classroom diversions into the time slot of the subject or class you least enjoy teaching.

7. Turning off the classroom lights after dismissal so no one will knock on the door while you're grading papers.

8. Wearing house shoes or slippers in the classroom [this was huge in D.C.].

9. Having a student fetch your sweater, phone, or keys from across the room.

10. Setting up a classroom behavior system that involves pizza party rewards because you love Papa Johns.

In the interest of full disclosure, my personal weakness is #2. At least it was last year, when the assigned third grade recess slot was 1:45 p.m. This year, our time was suspiciously changed by administration to 8:15 a.m. Coincidence or conspiracy? I think the evidence speaks for itself.

Are any of these things a pet peeve of yours? What wouldn't fly at your school? And, what's YOUR (harmlessly) unprofessional behavior?

The Cornerstone Accolades: February 2009

We're back with the second edition of The Cornerstone Accolades, in which I recognize some of the most outstanding recent posts in the edublogosphere. There is no tagging involved: it's simply a celebration and commendation of the reading that's challenged me over the past month. (You can read the first edition of The Cornerstone Accolades here and find out more about how the award works.)


Best Post on Why Kids Hate School:
A Taste of Honey by Dangerously Irrelevant. This is a short and to-the-point post which perfectly articulates my sentiments about why kids are bored in school, and why we CAN'T pry their cell phones and iPods away. (I also highly recommend The Game of School: Wrap Up which is a compilation of outstanding and mind-boggling quotes from Robert Fried's new book. Mr. Fried, if you've Googled yourself and found this post, I'd love to receive a copy of The Game of School to review here.)

Question of the Month:
Old, New, and Everything in Between: What Should Children Read? by The Miss Rumphius Effect. Are there certain books that every child should be required to read? Is there more value in classic than contemporary literature? Or should we be matching individual readers to specific books? Though the post is technically from January 29th, I decided to add it in here since it provides such an excellent springboard for discussion.

Best Essay on National Board Certification:
Teacher Leadership and the NBCT by The Tempered Radical. This article had me reminiscing on the "good old days" of the certification process (I had blocked most of that out, thank you very much). But I love the honest and insightful reflection on what it really means to be an NBCT: what exactly IS a teacher leader? I also really enjoyed reading another of The Tempered Radical's posts, Living With My Pedagogical Tension, which speaks on the same topic as the next accolade...

Best Reflection on Academic Pacing:
Anxiety Attack by Confessions From the Couch. Miss A. is worried that she's rushing through the curriculum. Thanks for bringing that topic up, because it's something we're ALL concerned about. A slightly different twist on this topic can be found at...

Best Post on Differentiation:
Teach to YOUR Students by Adventures in Super Teaching. This is a pretty amazing little blog: the posts are short and inspirational, but insanely practical, too. I like this particular post because TeachEnEspanol, as the author is known, addresses that little problem of sticking to the lesson plan vs. teaching to what your kids really need.

Best Post on Teacher Burn-Out:
What Happens When Overburdening Teachers Succeeds? by Thoughts on Education Policy. The controversial success of KIPP schools is having a wide-range effect on the perception of a teacher's role in the classroom. This post is an excellent exploration of whether excessive self-sacrifice is really desirable and sustainable on a long-term basis.

Best Response to Irrelevant Professional Development:
That Strange Noise You Hear? by Chalk dust makes me sneeze. This is hilarious. Imagine if every teacher refused to sit idly by when fed a bunch of useless information under the guise of staff development.

Satire of the Month:
Mamacita Says: Rant, Rant, Rant, Rant by Scheiss Weekly. Mamacita has revived the old accountability essay that compares teaching to dentistry. Sadly, the satire is just as relevant today as when it was first created: it's worth revisiting, especially within the context of Mamacita's own rant about the subject. Well done.

Funniest Student Work Sample:




A Twenty... by Teaching Kindergarten.












Best Post on Reading Specialists:
A Time and Place by Miss Brave Teaches NYC. Miss Brave's blog is full of thoughtful reflections on Not Being Allowed To Teach. This is one of my favorites, because she expresses just how much reading specialists hate when their groups are canceled. See, it's not just the classroom teachers who are frustrated with this. (Any ESE teachers want to address the subject?)

Best Post on 21st Century Learning:
Defining Creativity in the 21st Century Workforce by Mike Falick's Blog. Mike's found a really amazing survey that shows the difference between what employees consider to be creative thinking, and what school superintendents think it is. The discrepancy and Mike's commentary on it are both fascinating.

Most Brutally Honest Topic:
Call for Help: How Do We Get Boys to Respect the Restroom? by I Want to Teach Forever. There are some far heavier issues addressed on this blog, but I really like this post because it expresses a concern that nearly every teacher has to deal with. Elementary teachers, in particular, are faced with the never-ending problem of messy bathrooms and often downright disturbing behavior. It's a subject worth addressing, and I'm glad it's been brought to the table.

Best Blog Resource:
38 Great Ways to Find Edublogs at Blog by Carol (hat tip to Instructify). If you're tired of sorting through outdated blogrolls, check out this post, which lists some innovative ways to find new and quality reading.

So what did I miss? What blog posts made YOU think this month?