Every Winter Break for the past three years I have been been lucky enough to attend Limmud Conference at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. Billing itself as a "carnival of Jewish learning," Limmud (translation: learning) means more to me than just that: it is an educational gathering with social and voluntaristic undertones. Through dynamic sessions from traditional text study to lecture to film to performance, art, and more, Limmud provides a context for me to rejuvenate (or re-jew-venate) my spirit while having the time of my life. 

The first year I attended was a carrot - when I agreed to chair the LimmudPhilly conference in 2011 I was sent here and immediately fell in love. The last two years I have attended because I truly believe in the values the movement inspires. The passion of an all-volunteer run event that brings together 2500 people from all over the world is inspiring. So much so that I would love for students, parents, educators, and administrators would take a page out of their book. 

More people need to be invigorated by learning for learning's sake - not just for the grade or the test score. The fact that millions of dollars worth of support is being dangled in front of schools and districts (including NYC very recently) is anathema to the values we want our future children to espouse. 


I am not saying the federal, state, and local governments simply provide carte blanche to schools - I think evaluation of effectiveness is an important piece of data when comparing programs. That being said, what is happening now with evaluation is a great lesson in how to demoralize a huge group of people and make it clear they should do something else for a living. 

The mantra of Limmud is, "wherever you find yourself, Limmud will take you one step further along your Jewish journey." Perhaps the nation's education system should follow the same model and meet students, teachers, parents, and administrators where we are and help us get to our next step without holding us back.

We all know mobile phones and electronic devices are more ubiquitous than ever; what some might not know is the extent. 

On the other hand, maybe we do know - which is why many school districts are banning their use outright without leaving enough wiggle room for teachers to learn and teach how to use them wisely for educational purposes. Knowing that one half of local searches are performed on mobile phones must mean something about their value to the educational process.

Yet, the School District of Philadelphia has an official policy (adopted a number of years ago) of restricting everything related to electronic devices. School webpages reflect this policy across the spectrum: in elementary, middle, and high schools alike.

Here is the official policy excerpted from the 2011-2012 Code of Student Conduct. 

Let me be clear: I whole-heartedly support the emphasis on school-related materials to be used in the classroom. To that end, I do not think searching YouTube for the latest music video is a valid use of class time.

That being said, denying students the use of a device that could be a powerful educational tool (in many respects) seems unnecessary and contrary to our mission as teachers. Instead of banning and restricting, we should educate and innovate. Just some possible uses I've read about are easy for students to comprehend:

1) Using calculator functions
2) Photographing important information (like homework assignments or finding geometric shapes in the building to analyze)
3) Using an App for an online management system like Schoology

Following the letter of the policy suggested would demand detentions or suspensions for almost every student across the District. Rather than relegate our children to a holding room, can't we support them in understanding proper use for these devices? In the long run it would probably create better karma when they are the ones running things.

I know I have posted about the Critical Friends program before but a recent experience brought it back into the front of my mind (and blog). So here we go.

Last week I had numerous conversations with colleagues across the School District regarding how to effectively give and receive feedback at all levels in corporations and schools alike. What amazes me about it is that there are so many simple ideas to adhere to that parents teach their kids before even getting to school. Sayings like "listen before speaking" and " if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all" have gone through my mind so much recently. Unfortunately, the type and amount of feedback is often incorrectly applied so that the receiver feels becomes more defensive than ever.

In my belief, critical feedback is the backbone to improving oneself in any profession. Teaching, while often viewed as a job with so much interaction, can be strangely isolating. I do get to speak to children on a daily basis but in between classes, preparing materials, grading tests, and tutoring, I do not always have the kind of adult conversation I seek. Without it, I am left to my own devices to improve (or not improve) my practice.

To that end I spent time this past week in three of my colleagues classrooms and re-learned a number of important things:

1) It is fun to watch others do what they do best
2) There are resources I don't know about and should be exposed to by getting feedback
3) Other people want feedback too

"Professional development" almost seems like an anachronism of another time. Our official system is set up that all the "development" is provided to us instead of with us or by us. I proudly take part in programs like the New Teacher Network and EdCamp Philly that try to flip that on its head, but I should not have to constantly leave my building to better myself inside it.

I hope more teachers take time to visit their colleagues classrooms to see what's going on. Without doing that, how are we going to collaborate on bigger things in the future?

I recently had the opportunity to visit the building in which I spent my 7th and 8th grade years - Bala Cynwyd Middle School. While it was a warm and welcoming place then, it is even more so now after their years-long renovation was completed a year or so after I left. I walked the hallways and marveled at the student work on the walls; I looked into the windows and noticed the laptop carts peaking out of the corners; I even spoke to a former teacher of mine about how the school is running - she said it was splendid.

That being said, a recent Education Week article summarized a Harvard study on the topic of the impact of Middle Schools on future achievement that found the transition from Elementary School to Middle School so impacting that it produced negative results in 10th grade achievement scores. Specifically, the study found that student who entered Middle School performed comparably to those who remained in K-8 Elementary Schools for a time, but after that time the scores dipped, leading the researchers to conclude that Middle School has a negative effect on learning.

Walking down those hallways reminded me of the good times I had in Middle School - the teachers, friends, parties, and dances. After reading this article, however, it made me think of the knowledge I had supposedly gained while there. To be honest, I cannot remember specifics aside from my Algebra class in 8th grade (insert current math teacher bias here) and a few major projects I completed for other classes. What I remember more often was feeling awkward and out of place, much like many of my peers (and perhaps the same in our parents' generation). 

I spent a year volunteering twice a week at Lea Elementary School in West Philadelphia during my last full undergraduate year at Penn and can totally understand why it might be better for 6-8 grade students to stick our elementary school: if done right, K-8 schools can provide leadership opportunities and transitional learning to these kids while in a comfortable environment with familiar faces. I worked with the 7th and 8th grade students there and found them to be a little crazy at times but overall quite an amazing bunch of kids. I remember a conversation I had with a student-teacher there wherein I asked her why she wanted to work with such a strange age of student, where hormones and glands get in the way of learning. Her response was simple: she remembered herself in the same situation and wanted to make sure these kids felt better about it.

While I don't agree with a lot of the School District of Philadelphia policies, the Facilities Master Plan does discuss eliminating middle schools and reforming the grade levels in various schools, perhaps for the better. I cannot speak from specific experience with any of those schools, but if we take this study to heart then we should take a serious look at what our Middle School students are doing once they get to high school and ask, "do we want them doing something different?"

Over the past few months I have had tremendous success with a standards-based grading system. Students have recognized when they have deficiencies in their knowledge and come get help during tutoring or by organizing with a friend to study over their material. There have been a few snags (like kids throwing out graded quizzes so they have nothing to study from) but overall it has definitely changed the dialog around learning. 

Last night I attended a small panel session for some students at Bryn Mawr College that made me cement my decision to convert and I may even go farther in the future. I met some students and two staff from the Watershed integrated learning program at Radnor Middle School. For their entire 7th grade year, 40 students conduct experiments on local streams (leaving on field trips at least 40 times), come up with questions to ask and research, learn all they have to learn about English, History, Science, etc under the banner of this program. With the small exception of taking their Math and World Language classes outside this room, they are immersed in a program that defies logic: it fosters intelligence in its students without grading.

While I don't think I'm ready to make that leap (especially in the strict environment of the School District of Philadelphia), it is an amazing thing to see a bunch of middle school-aged kids talk about biological material at the bottom of a stream and trying to understand where it comes from. We even touched on calculus when they were discussing the flow rate of the water! 

One of the major things I got out of this experience was a peak at their Sketchbooks: they keep a log of new organisms and sketch them, read about them, research then, and keep it all in one book along with history, english, and other assignments. It was note-taking to the extreme! Additionally, the teachers actually commented on their work! With 160 students I would find this impossible - but with two staff and 40 students, it becomes much more doable. The feedback they received was worth way more than grades - the students even said so.

I endeavor to provide that kind of feedback on class assignments but find it difficult with the sheer number of students I have. The standards-based grading system is a compromise that is working well for now, but could work better in the future. I hope to streamline my procedures so students view grades as feedback for learning and not the end grade. 

Yesterday was a half day at my school so I decided to do something small but meaningful in each of my classes. At the moment my Algebra 1 students are embarking on my Data Representation unit so we are looking at many different graphs/charts/plots and asking questions about them to see if interpretations are valid. At the same time, I am having them create their own plots by gathering data from their classmates (i.e. asking questions with numerical answers). It's a great time and often spurs a lot of conversation.

I started by showing them these two graphs using Google's new Public Data Explorer. I just wanted to find out what they could ask/tell/explain without me prompting anything. I got some fantastic results, summarized here:

• The x-axis (unlabeled) is the year.
• The dotted line is an estimate for the future.
  
• Why does the Chine line dip? Maybe there is some epidemic/war/famine/birth decline. 
• Time vs. population is a direct relationship.
• What about the baby boom? How does that affect this (disclaimer: I explained what it was and they were fascinated to find out there is a connection between history and math)

Overall, I'd say that is pretty fascinating stuff. I am hoping to have them explore things on their own much more often once I get a bunch of computers in my room regularly. They come up with great ideas and thoughts without being prompted. One of the topics I plan to research is how to teach more by talking less. The more the students are doing/discussing, the less they are relying on me for all the answers.