Freewrite: Track Season So Far

Well, I'm learning what it's like to be the head coach of my own team. Yes, it's middle school track, but there is so much legwork that has to take place on a daily basis. I spend my planning periods calling coaches and sports supply stores. Making new contacts and building a coaching network for a program that has been non-existent is so hard. Athletic Directors and Coaches are so hard to track down. I also have a lot more classroom distractions with deliveries, notes from the office, etc. I feel like I'm doing the athletic director's job and my job. I am pretty sure that there are some things that I shouldn't have to handle during the school day. But, I'd rather see the task done myself than to wait for someone else to get it done. The other thing is making sure I have a practice plan for everyday...just like my classroom. I am enjoying the experience thoroughly. Mostly, I love being in charge and running my own show.

After tryouts (and weedouts) we are down to a solid squad of 13. I figured that I wouldn't have many kids in this first year because they aren't used to a coach like me. Going in, I knew that if I could just get a core group that would work everyday and push themselves, we would be fine. We went to a practice meet on March 3rd at Oxford Middle School. I didn't really know what to expect because none of my kids have ever been in a track meet. We did very well at the practice meet though. We won the 3200m and the 300m hurdles. We placed 2nd and 3rd in a few events as well. I was most proud of my 4x400 relay team because we came from 4th place to 2nd place on the last leg. Our performance encouraged the kids because they knew that Oxford has one of the best middle school programs in the state. Our performance there will catapult us through the rest of the season. We have 5 meets scheduled for the rest of the season. I'm optimistic that we can definitely win some meets and perform very well. The next update will come soon!

What Will I Do Differently In My Class Next Year?

   As a first year teacher, I know that I've operated at a level of ineffectiveness that's not fair to my students. Now, I don't think that level is necessarily high, but any level of ineffectiveness is unacceptable. There are so many things that I've learned over the course of this year that I wish I knew in August. Class structure, questioning techniques, and subtlety are probably at the top of the list of things I wish I knew. Nevertheless, I do feel like I have done a good job of conveying the merits of accountability, work ethic, and a thirst for daily acquisition of knowledge.

   I don't know how many first year teachers feel as confidently about their abilities as I do, but I know that I have made a positive difference. Growing up in a family of teachers, I understand that operating with a certain heir of confidence is important. Conversely, I also know that in order for me to be the most effective teacher possible, I must remain reflective, and be open to change and adjustment. Through reflection of my classroom, I've found the thing that troubles me most.  I HAVE NOT DONE A GOOD ENOUGH JOB OF FINDING ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES FOR MY ADVANCED STUDENTS!!!

   We focus so much on the kids who chronically fail, chronically get in trouble, and have a daily express of apathy for school. Oh, and I don't want to forget the "bubble students." This is one of the most ludicrous things I've ever heard. "Let's focus on the bubble students--the one's who are at the cusp of moving from minimal to basic, basic to proficient, or proficient to advanced." I know that we are driven by the state test, but the acronym QDI drives me up the wall. I could care less about a QDI, only because it's not a measure of school effectiveness...and it definitely does not give an accurate measure of intelligence! What's the point of having kids score advanced on the MCT and they still read on a 2nd to 3rd grade level. Congratulations! You figured out the Mississippi State Test! Whoo, hoo! I am sick and tired of having conferences and meetings to figure out how we can put more of our time into kids (and parents) who find the educational process to be worthless unless it caters to their unimportant wants. There are so many emails, memos, and announcements that direct teachers to figure out more interventions for these kids. I am not saying that kids who fail or get in trouble should be forgotten. I know that it is the school's responsibility to provide guidance and help to those students. I mentor a few students, I tutor, and I give multiple chances for work to be made up and behavior corrected. So, I don't want to be seen as one who only cares about the "good kids."

   What I care about is finding more enrichment activities for the kids who have a thirst for learning. The ones who are as sick of hearing about the state test as I am. The ones who actually have internalized the idea that they are competing against every other 12 or 13-year old in the world. When I have intervention days in my class, I don't want to just give the advanced kids questions that are deemed as advanced on the MCT2. I need to pull ACT materials into the classroom, challenging books, mind games--things of that nature. I must guide more intellectual conversation, keep them abreast of national and international developments, and invite more original and organic thought. This has been my biggest failure. I've let the students down that who are overcoming the letdowns of the educational system they're in already. I have one grading period left to make sure that I am a part of molding the minds of great thinkers. They will be able to get "advanced" on the state test because they know how to think. That'll be the easy part. But I want them to be able to get 30s on the ACT. Or get 1300s on the SAT. When I can be the teacher who does more to help my students reach that end, then I will be able to take away that level of ineffectiveness that I've been operating at this year.

Freewrite: The Battle I'm Fighting in the Reading War

“Mr. King, I don’t know that word!” I hear this so much during the day. My response is always the same…”Sound it out!” I always get blank stares because my students aren’t used to having to recognize the sounds that make up words. I was drilled on phonics from pre-school until second grade. It was definitely an integral part in my development as a reader, and speaker of English. The whole-language phenomenon was absolutely foreign to me until I was in college. While in college, I taught at a high school in Memphis. It was there that I found out that students had been taught to recognize familiar words and word groupings. It was absolutely appalling because there were so many “familiar” words that they did not know.

Now that I teach seventh grade, I am really seeing how stifling the whole-language teaching techniques are. I am basically retroactively teaching phonics on a daily basis. Reading this article has given me more insight into the debate, and it has affirmed my stance on the importance of phonics.

Page 129 referenced psychology research. I was a psychology major in college, and when I did research in Cognitive Psychology, I learned that we gather information in a very systematic way. We learn phonemes (sounds) as bits—then we put those bits together to make chunks (words). Eventually, we develop cognitive schemas that help us synthesize all of the information. That is exactly how phonics instruction works. Whole-language theory sounds good when it argues for “unstructured immersion.” Nevertheless, it skips essential developmental stepping-stones and jumps directly to developing broad schemas. It is like having the roof for the house without having the foundation. Whole-language learning is supposed to be humanistic, but there’s nothing humanistic about not a theory that doesn’t take human development into consideration. Even with large classes, it is important for the students to wrestle with the material. I always tell my students that the best learning happens when you struggle with the material first. That initial struggle helps the student figure out what’s wrong, and then teach themselves the steps to solving the problem (i.e. sounding the word out!).

It is very sad that politics and business are still the driving forces of education. Textbook sales, educational consultations, and professional development have crippled children all over America, and specifically in California. I was surprised to learn about how personal agendas (political and social) have such a large effect on how school systems are run. I now wonder how much these same things have hurt the children of Mississippi. What are the political, social, and economic agendas that have only hurt the children in the end? I’m not one who delves into the political arena, but I would be interested to see the legislation that has shaped the educational system in Mississippi. How many of the current policies were constructed to benefit the children and not to appease the powerful? How much insight was taken from the people who work at the grassroots level of education? These are the pertinent questions--questions that need to be answered in order to fix the pervading education problems.

The study referenced on Page 133 that talks about the reading comprehension test was refreshing. It gave us empirical evidence that phonics instruction works! In the age of “data-driven schools,” it presents a strong argument for teaching phonics. As the article concluded, I was happy to read that no one in the wider public seems to be actively promoting whole-language instruction. The next step is to develop a curriculum that fully integrates phonics instruction into the elementary schools. The very basis of reading must be taught, correctly, when the children are at the very early stages. Explicit phonics instruction is the key to reading. If students can master the sounds of the language, then they will not have to worry about struggling with them when it is time to move up to more advanced words. They can then focus on comprehension, analysis, and synthesis of information. Even then, there were no developmental steps skipped. Build a strong foundation, and your house will be beautiful!