"Ranking teachers"

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/24/teacher-data-reports-are-released

So these were released. The state evaluations on teachers were made public despite many thinking it was a terrible idea to release them. Why would you not want to release data? Is it because it undermines the collaborative nature of teaching? Is it because creating competition between teachers is a bad thing for students? Nah. It's because the results of the rankings have a margin of error between 33% and 53%! Fifty-three percent.

That's not even in the ballpark of accurate. Yet, they're still released, and the plan is still to use these numbers as a basis to develop merit pay. Can anyone tell me on what planet this makes sense?

"Accountability"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=relmfu

This is another RSA animate discussing the research about merit pay. It's more than worth a look. The simple fact that we see more and more pushed for this paradigm is incredible.

Bully

I managed to watch Bully a few weeks ago, and was pretty blown away. Going off my last post about recording in schools, this movie makes a strong case for the protection of the students. Even WITH the cameras running, what these kids endured was despicable. I can scarcely imagine what they deal with when the cameras are off... Actually. No, I can relate. I'm going to share a story.

Last semester I was required to write an autobiography. It's a bit on the personal side, but whatever. My life is an open book. It's a little on the long side, but this movie really reminded me about much of it.

                "I remember my last day of high school. As I approached the large green doors that led into the hallways of Paramus Catholic, I could feel the hesitation of the coming day overflowing the emotional barriers I had long since erected in my mind. Looking through the windows I could see the other students’ excitement as they marched down halls dressed in their tacky green and blue uniforms. It was as if all the nervousness the school’s walls were capable of holding was absent from the classrooms and had taken residence in my stomach. I suppose anxiety is a normal reaction to one’s last day of school, but that assumption is based on the standard closing event of the average person’s secondary school - an event I would not experience that day or any other. Unlike most students who end their high school careers in the summer months of their senior year and celebrate it by partying with friends and family, I was entering Paramus Catholic on the Halloween of my freshman year. This was not my graduation day. It was not a day filled with lavish parties or overwhelming pride; it was the day I dropped out of school.

                The bullying began in kindergarten. I’m still not sure why exactly; the fragmented memory of a five year old boy is hardly the best log for any critical events that may have opened to door to my torments. If I were forced to guess however, it was the enormous size of my ears that drew the unwanted attention of any young alphas that may have been eager to establish their social superiority. It was in that small classroom in the south-east corner of St. John the Evangelist school that the snowball of my educational agony began to roll downhill.

                Compounding the issue, my father bought a vacation home in the summer of 1985. Though it was initially built as his retirement home and summer vacation getaway, it quickly became a weekend getaway location. From 1985 until 1991 my family visited our “vacation home” every single weekend and vacation period. The slow pace of life in such a rural area was torture for my sister and I. There was little to do, and fewer places to go. A weekend now seems short, but a child’s sense of time is an interesting thing. Time moves slowly for the young minutes feel like hours and days feel like weeks when there is so little to do.  However, the most insufferable aspect of having a weekend home are the opportunities that require weekends to enjoy. Things like sports, boy-scouts, trips with friends – These things were absent from my childhood. While my would-be friends were socializing and taking advantage of the free time on the weekends, I was in the Poconos. Even the one activity I was allowed to do, playing piano, was not an option in the Poconos.

                What few people understand is that the average person is not continually bullied for the same reason over the course of their educational journey. In my case, the initial abuses stemmed from my physical appearance. The continued exploitation of my inequities came as a result of the social ineptitude I had been burdened with as a result of the first year of bullying. My personal retreats in kindergarten had only widened the social gap between myself and the rest of my class, and exacerbated the situation far beyond that of my introductory year of school. I had traded physical anomalies for social abnormalities. Having been ostracized as long as I was, I was actively trying to avoid being educated. From my experience, the potential of a child to learn is directly proportional to his or her ability to feel comfortable and safe in class. My academic history is teeming with uncomfortable experiences filled with anxiety and uneasiness. This extreme discomfort in the classroom was the primary reason behind my lifelong struggle with truancy.

It would not be until fourth grade that a teacher would finally catch the students in the act of bullying me. I don’t recall what I did or did not do, but I do remember being lowered head first into a garbage can by two of the other students from my class. They were laughing as they held my ankles and lowered me into the basket. I only wish I could have seen the terrified looks on their face as the teacher returned to the room just in time to see me descend into the garbage can. The school policy of punishing all students involved in a bullying incident only added to the irony of my life as I was also reprimanded. I believe this was the event which began eroding my faith in the education system.

From then on, school was a caustic wasteland slowly corroding my emotional foundations. By sixth grade any of the childish naivety that I had sworn to maintain like a perpetual lost boy had been replaced by my harsh cynicism of an education paradigm that was either incapable or unwilling to address my problems. In my experience, the social Darwinism which existed in the classrooms was not limited to the student population; it extended to the administrative offices which were far more concerned with outward appearances than internal success. Those students who were emotionally stable and surrounded by friends would excel. The rest of us were forgotten.

Having been truant for years, the school insisted I be tested for any mental deficiencies. Several doctors later, I was diagnosed as having ADHD and placed on Ritalin. My first experiences with the little yellow pill were traumatic at best. What should have mellowed out my manic states of extreme education-related anxiety only exacerbated them. I was emotionally heightened in my aversion to schools and the medicine seemed to do no good. Upon consulting with the doctor, we were told to increase the dosage. Within 6 months I had gone from 5milligrams a day to 60 milligrams a day, and had only gotten worse. It would not be until several years later before we learned that Ritalin had the opposite effect for anyone misdiagnosed. Instead of being a “downer” to mellow out a patient, it becomes an “upper” similar to cocaine. By the end of sixth grade, everyone in my family and all of the few friends I had made had become afraid me and my bipolar side effects of the medication. The sheer embarrassment of the ordeal left me very uncomfortable returning to that school and once again I changed.  The damage however, had already been done. I had lost an important year of social development.

When the bullying followed into high school, I decided I was out. I had had enough of the system and its students. On Halloween, after being singled out and made fun of yet again, I left school and never returned. For the next few years I enrolled in Catholic home schooling and eventually obtained my GED and was accepted to college. Accomplished as I should feel given the journey, there are some regrets I still feel and some effects that have lingered on long into my adulthood.

At the same time as I rebelled against school, I rebelled against my father and our “vacation home.” I began to refuse to go to the Poconos anymore and was determined to build the social life I had missed all those years growing up. My second home became my local parish. Having grown up in a religious family I felt very connected to the church and spent an inordinate amount of time there.  It was during this time that I met one of my best friends of that era of my life, Valerie.

                In the summer following what would have been my freshman year, Valerie invited me to come with her and audition for a summer musical. Guys & Dolls reignited my love for music, a feeling I hadn’t had since 2^nd grade. I began singing every day and found the first real solace of my adolescence. That musical passion would spread to the guitar and bass, and would ultimately redefine me and my direction in life. By the time I was 18 I had performed in over 10 shows and even sung in a professional opera. I had played in bands, made some friends, and come to terms with what I was meant to do.

                At the age of seventeen I began singing with a local choir. Their director, Lawrence Constance, took me under his wing and offered me free vocal lessons to prepare for a college audition. By this point I was sure of what I wanted to do. I was determined to become a music teacher. For 3 months Mr. Constance and I worked on my first ever foreign language solo songs and arias. And with his help, I was lucky enough to be accepted to Montclair State University as a Music Education major with a concentration in voice. I was very excited to go to college, it was the first educational accomplishment I was every truly proud of. However, I had no idea what it would be like.

Having been socially maladjusted all these years, college was a serious challenge. It was, in effect, my high school. I was years behind everyone else in terms of social skills, making the transition extremely difficult.  As my classmates threw parties and instinctively understood basic body language and social signals, I felt alien and alone. I was lucky enough to make a few friends, but even around them I would feel inferior. By the time I reached college, the small snowball which began to roll downhill in kindergarten was now a large enough to have its own orbit. Awkward situations seemed to gravitate towards me, and in my naivety I did not know how to respond. Approaching graduation, I eventually left college, feeling more like a recent high school graduate than an adult on the cusp of academic achievement and genuine responsibility.

I’m now thirty one years old. It took me several years of time away from school to rebuild my social skills enough feel like a confidant adult. I blame no one for the unorthodox and profoundly uncomfortable journey of my academic life. However, I do often wonder what might have been if things had been different. If the ball had never started rolling, if I grew up with normal social skills, would have been more successful? Would I be a happier person? But the most important question still remains, will these accomplishments I am now nearing fill me with far greater pride knowing the price I will have paid for them? Only time will tell."

Watch the movie. Look for the signs. And when you get into the classroom, don't pass judgement on a bullying incident on the spot. Find out what really happened.

Teacher recorded bullying student

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/26/11395270-autistic-boys-father-why-hasnt-teacher-been-fired-over-bullying?lite

You may have all heard about this a couple weeks ago, but it's worth a bit more discussion I think. Rather tan discuss bullying, which is something I pay to talk about separately, I'd rather discuss the ethics of recording in a school.

No-one wants big brother watching, and I fully understand that. But schools are public buildings. As a teacher, I'd actually feel MORE comfortable, not less, if I was recorded in class. MY worry would be cherry-picked words or phrases taken out of context, but with the device recording constantly, contest could easily established. It would go a long way towards protecting both student and teacher.

Maybe I'm just paranoid. I spend an inordinate amount of time in New York City, and I tend to listen to NPR pretty regularly. Daily in fact. Over the past few months there have been several teachers in NYC brought up on charges for, shall we say, "inappropriate relationships" with their respective students. I have no intention on speculating on their guilt, but I find myself now really judging both sides of issue. What if one of the accusations is false? How much damage did that really do? Whether or not the teacher is guilty (again, no speculation here), his career is over the second the accusation came out. That kinda terrifies me.

Could my career, or any of ours for that matter, instantly end at the whim of a slighted or attention seeking student?

Of course the argument can rightfully be made that such situations are extremely rare, but rare =/= non existent. Years ago, when I was still a churchgoing uber-catholic, I knew a priest in a nearby parish who was accused of inappropriate contact with one of the alter servers. Disgusting really. But what is your first, most visceral reaction to that accusation? It's outrage, and rightfully so. Your first instincts are to protect the youth. And that's exactly what happened. The church got inundated with hate mail and threats, as did the priest. There was a full on police investigation...

...Once the pressure turned on, the kid recanted. He was mad at being passed over for an honor in the parish, and immaturely lashed out with the accusation. He admitted it openly. But damage done. Career over, respect lost.

Would cameras prevent these things from happening? Probably not. People with that compulsion are pathological. But would there be any benefit from it? Is it ethical? Would you want it in your classroom?

I've been on a music tech kick lately. I finally dropped the money and bought a copy of Sibelius 7. Wow. What a difference from the previous version. There's a few issues with it though - For one the line on the playback is never in sync with the music, and a lot of the tools that were once immediately on the screen are now tucked away in the ribbon a la MS Office. It's quite different from Finale, but I still find it to be a better program. Do any other music majors have any experience with these that could offer any insight?

Also, if you want an educators discount on Sibelius 7, you can get on by simply buying the ed version and submitting a copy of your student ID and a bill or something from the school to show that you're currently enrolled. Drops the price from $600 to $295. Totally worth it!

I stumbled across this a while back, never got a chance to post it. But please take a look at it. It really highlights a lot about education and the system we're working in, as well as the fundamental problems with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Interactivity #5

We’ll call her Mrs. Smith. She teaches music in Peekskill, New York. I contacted Mrs. Smith through a mutual friend in the area, and she agreed to talk with me about her district. Not surprisingly, Mrs. Smith has heard little about NETS, so I sent her a link to iste.org and began my interview.

I started by asking Mrs. Smith about the use of technology in her own classroom. Did she know if her school met any of the NETS standards without realizing it? Surprisingly, she had. Several years ago, her school began a program using Garage Band – a computer program by Apple which allows users to record, mix, and compose their own music using existing sound samples, MIDI interfaces, or live recording. Although she did not teach that particular class herself,  she was familiar enough with it to elaborate.

Students at her school are offered the chance to use Garage Band as a “general music” class as an optional replacement for traditional performance classes such as choir or band. The students begin by learning the basics of sound mixing, using the sound samples provided with the software. They are taught to copy, paste, loop, master, mix, and equalize each of the tracks within the interface. Over the course of the class, the students also learn how to input new sounds into the computer through a MIDI interface, as well as basic recording techniques for live musicians. Their final project is to create a 3 minute audio recording using looped samples, MIDI input, and a recorded vocal track – either sung or spoken.

When I asked Mrs. Smith about the rest of the school, she had no idea. As a “special area” teacher, she explained that there was a disconnect between her department and the rest of the school. In part, this was based on pull-out lessons, and the stress this put on other core subject teachers in math and English.

It’s not surprising to me that NETS is an unfamiliar area for music teachers. Technology has only recently become affordable enough to become useful in the subject area. Prior to the availability of inexpensive technology like digital recording, classes like this would be unthinkable. Hardware alone would take up an entire room, not to mention the expense.  The fact that music technology has finally progressed enough to exist on a home computer is what allows these standards to even be approached today.

It’s hard to imagine, given the current social trends, that technology would not be considered an important tool, even in music education. And the speed at which technology progresses strongly implies that there should be little trouble bringing up these standards with administrators. In fact, I would assume that by the time I graduate and get a teaching job, schools should have at least started to address the NETS-S and NETS-T standards. This is only speculation though.

To be honest, as interesting it was to speak with a teacher about this, I think it would have been far more interesting to interview an administrator. I would assume they would have a far better understanding on how their school was functioning under this standards over several departments.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvCJC2ZFtwqqdG5uaHZtNW0wSnJqdFBsLW5IQ3MyaVE&pli=1#gid=0