Aaron Johnson’s Neighborhood

No, it doesn’t have to. No matter how constrained a teacher is, I’ve determined that school does not have to be a creativity killer. To apply some ancient, wise words (2 Corinthians 4:8-9): “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; … struck down, but not destroyed.” In other words, NCLB and the obsessive, accountability-driven administrative directives it begets cannot single-handedly kill creativity in the classroom. Sure, state tests “stigmatize failure,” as Ken Robinson states. Teachers, though, do not have to stigmatize failure.

Take a measure as simple as rewarding students for non-academic feats, for instance. Awarding Student of the Month to the most spirit-lifting comedian in the classroom validates him as much as a good grade. Teacher-initiated rewards address and negate Robinson’s contention that school only the intellectual successes at school are the winners. He contends that “the whole purpose of public education …is to produce university professors. … We shouldn’t hold them up as the highest form of achievement…they live in their heads.” Nay! The purpose of school is to make something productive out of young peoples minds and hours. Sure, there are ugly class wars circling around how those minds and hours are spent. But ideally, school is for producing more productive (emotionally, spiritually, vocationally --- not merely intellectually) members of society. School is where students have training wheels for how to function as adults. It’s a mini-society. I think Robinson would be a huge fan to Rousseau’s anti-social, child-centered vision of education. Unfortunately, as pastoral and sweet as this vision is, it falls short of what humans were created for: to serve and better each other.

No, schools do not “squander” the innate creativity in children wholesale, as Robinson overconfidently asserts. Schools are the environment in which time is set aside for creativity to be required. Without the structure of school, creativity wilts. Robinson is right to point out the paradoxical nature of creativity, such as that we do not mature into creativity, but rather we outgrow it, but he misses this important paradox about it: creativity needs structure just like fire needs oxygen. Without the push and the constraint to fuel creativity, or the probing questions of the teacher, or the small encouraging remarks along the way to the final creative product, a child’s creativity will be stifled. Also, in a school functioning properly, in which reading aloud and extolling reading should be a daily activity, the imagination will find no lack.

As to Robinson’s allusion to Picasso’s quote that we grow out of creativity, neither do I fully agree with this. Older children (teens) can use colors, tweak words, arrange sounds, plan projects and papers and speak more eloquently and purposefully than their younger counterparts. Who has the authority to say that creativity with more direction and eruditeness is somehow weaker than the innocent creativity that streams from a little mind? Classifying creativity in an hierarchy (eerily akin to what NCLB test standards do—classify schools and student achievement) and judging creativity as “the production of something both original and useful” (paraphrase) is rather utilitarian itself. Robinson defines creativity to uptightly, I’m afraid. 

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

The Tunica River Park affords a host of opportunities for people who are seeking to understand the historical importance of the Mississippi River's usage from its beginnings with the Native Americans and conquistadors up through it's present-day significance as a major channel for transporting goods and individuals through the American midwest. In an ideal world my students would be able to visit the park and take advantage of the plethora of exhibits and time periods featured at the museum. However, structuring this time to maximize my students' learning must be undertaken carefully so that my students get the full effect of the academic experience of the Tunica River Park and do not simply view the excursion as pointless field trip.

Some of the before school activities that I could have my students complete are:
            1) Completing a KWL chart to document students' knowledge prior to visiting the Tunic River Park
            2) Researching the history of the Mississippi River and how it has been used in the past by disparate groups
            3) Visiting a local river (i.e. the Yazoo River) and having students read about its historic regional significance

Some of the activities I could have my students complete while they are at the Tunic River Park are:
             1) Creating a timeline to document the settling of the area around the Mississippi River
             2) Describing the work of major figures who settles or worked along the Mississippi River
             3) Formulating a schedule for other groups of students to complete a walking tour of the park on their own visit

Some of the activities I could have my students complete after their visit to the Tunica River Park include:
             1) Finishing their KWL chart by filling in five things they learned from their visit to the Tunica River Park
             2) Developing a community service project to spread the word throughout the Delta about the river's import
             3) Writing a persuasive letter to a member of Congress urging them to allot money for sharing the river's history

When teaching in the districts that MTC places us in, tangible success is often hard to come by. Failure seems to be what is constantly in our face as we think of all the things that our students are doing besides learning, all the places that our students will likely end up besides college, and all the classroom management issues we face that make us want to roll over and call out sick. Every. Single. Day. Still, it's in the little things that teachers anywhere but especially in "critical needs" districts must focus on to maintain drive and focus and continue doing what too many others have deemed highly improbable or flatly impossible for centuries: educating poor Blacks.

In many of these districts MTC teachers teach in standardized tests are seen as foreboding signs of eminent doom and embarrassment. In these places, teaching "to the test" is often resorted to as the means through which educational salvation is reached. Teaching to the test is one thing but when you're in a school environment where, from day one, what's communicated to teachers is that teaching to the test is the ONLY thing, well then you're at KIPP. On some level this is understandable as testing determines so much at charter schools like KIPP from our enrollment to our ability to woo private funders to the very renewal of our charter with the state of Arkansas. However, I cannot help but shake my philosophical belief that I have more important life skills to teach my students than finding equivalent fractions and answering multiple choice items using process of elimination.

In any event, our big state test in Arkansas is called the ACTAAP or the Benchmark Exam. KIPP Delta in Helena has some of the highest test scores in the state at the middle school and high school levels. Last year, 94% of our 7th graders at KIPP Delta scored proficient or advanced on the mathematics Benchmark Exam compared to 66% of 7th graders statewide and only 33% of students in Helena-West Helena's regular public school system. What makes this even more remarkable to many is that our school is 99% Black, 99% free/reduced lunch, and in the heart of dilapidated downtown Helena close by local housing projects, gang territory, drugs, and prostitution. Last year's 7th grade math teacher who got these results was so successful that she has been given the green light to found her own school which will be opening in Blytheville, Arkansas in the fall of 2010 as a new KIPP middle school. She's only a year older than me. The venerable 7th grade math slot was thus available when I applied to KIPP this past spring and who teaches this course with the districtwide spotlight on it now?: me. The Black, hood guy from Harvard with two years of (social studies) teaching experience who's a few credits away from a master's degree in education.

Anyway, to my success story. In preparation for the end-of-the-year Benchmark Exam we take practice Benchmark Exams every month. We chart the progress of our students and use the practice Benchmark Exams to target particular students and skills for remediation and re-teaching. Results are scrutinized for hours on end at the individual, school, and district levels. It is highly nerve-wrecking to see where your students are at month-by-month and to know that the results will be known almost immediately by your peers and superiors and reflect your quality as a teacher. Lovely. In any event, the first practice Benchmark Exam we took was in late September. We took a second one two weeks ago in late October and although the success or failure of my students on the September exam could largely be attributed to what my students came into 7th grade knowing, my school director was clear in communicating that the October exam's results would be all my own.

Much to my surprise and the surprise of many a colleague, I'm sure, not only did my students' scores increase from the first to the second practice Benchmark Exam but these were the only scores that increased in any grade level, in any subject area at the entire school. Fifth, sixth, and eighth grade math scores went down. Fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade literacy scores went down. Fifth, sixth, seventh, and eight grade reading scores went down. Fifth and seventh grade science scores went down (we don't do sixth and eighth grade science testing). ONLY 7TH GRADE MATH SCORES WENT UP!!! I was elated when I saw the numbers displayed on the dry erase board at our faculty meeting the night we stayed at school until 10 p.m. grading exams and inputting results on our district network for more scrutiny. When looking at the individual students and their performances from the first to the second practice Benchmark Exam, I also noticed that most of the students whose scores increased were taught by me and not by the more experienced and better respected 8th grade math teacher who takes 15 of my 7th graders into his algebra class each day.

That's wassup. Right? 

Reflect on a success you have had so far this school year.  How has this success changed you as a teacher/person? 

This is probably the toughest time to find a jewel in the rubble. For the past few weeks I have been exhausted, demoralized and impatient. It seems as though all my hard work is reaping havoc and chaos, rather than success. Therefore, I am really going to have to stretch to think positively about my classroom at this point. 

My success story for this year is that my fifth period class is finally under control! I used to dread this class at the beginning of the year. First, third and fourth period were all preparation for what was to come in fifth, and consequently my sixth and seventh periods were my recovery. I tried to mix things up this week by doing some El Día de los Muertos (Day of the dead) activities. I took a risk and decided to read some Mexican short scary stories with my class on Thursday, affording them the fair opportunity to not doze off and not pay attention. Surprisingly, my fifth period responded well to this activity. We turned off the lights and used the overhead projector as my spooky flashlight. I read them scary stories as they acted out what was going on. We then compared these stories with scary stories in our culture. 

Yes, this activity was elementary, but I often find that I have to do silly and childish things to capture my students' attention. We have now officially made Thursday throw-back Thursday, when we review elementary grammatical structures in English (nouns, pronouns, subject-verb agreement) because they need it. My scary story time was a fun way to review the elements of a short story as well as introduce them to a new aspect of Mexican culture. I'm glad that I now can enjoy my fifth period, rather than dreading it. 

          If I were to have done this blog on time, I'm sure my response at the time would have been much different for me. As of two or three weeks ago, my classroom management was somewhat decent. However with homecoming, the attitude and impatience in my classroom  really came home. I'm hoping that the past few weeks have been the ordinary October lull. My students have been as equally enthused to learn as I have been to teach. 

As it stands right now, I have no real classroom management plan. I used to do the whole writing the name on the board, warnings and writing assignments. Initially this was effective , particularly for good students who stepped out of line on the rare occasion. However, after a while it became the same students who were accumulating writing assignments. Of course ,my students refuse to make my life any easier than possible, so I often have to get an administrator to talk the student into even doing them. Then once the student has finally attempted the assignment, they do it half heartedly, misspelling words, using poor penmanship, and in some cases just overlooking entire sections of the copying assignment. Instead of teaching my class or breathing, I waste my time looking over the assignments for errors and skipped words, sentences and whole paragraphs. Then again I have to fall into the circle again of finding an administrator to make them do it again. 

What I've found is that it is very hard to be consistent with my old classroom management method. When my class breaks out into laughter or talking, I can't possibly write all of their names on the board.  Moreover, I found that I began to identify the same "troublemakers" every time, which is unfair. As it stand right now, it is everyman for himself. I no longer beg my students to do what they need to do. They have the choice to do their work and do well, or sit idly and fail. They can either behave and stay in class, or piss me off and get sent to the office.  For example, the other day my fourth period class got out of control. Not only did half my student show up late because there was a fight in the hall, but once they arrived they wouldn't shut up about it. I even gave them a one minute grace period to get all their feelings and opinions out. I tried starting class, yet they would not stop talking! So I continued with my lesson. Then, they all decided to put their head down in unison and make snoring noises. I continued with my lesson. When I was done with my set, I gave the whole class a writing assignment. I ignored their complaints. They started I went to my phone and demanded that someone come to my class immediately. For the first time all year, I yanked my ring leaders out of the classroom and firmly requested that they be suspended. 

Provided that my administration continues to be supportive, I will continue to send my students to the office to let my principal manage the issue. Often she will call the student's parents for a conference. While these conferences are often slow and interrupt my class time, so far they have been effective. I'm also hoping that their grades will begin to reflect their efforts or lack there of in my class. My classroom management plan has merged with my instructional plan. Very few student failed the first nine week. In fact, a very significant amount of students got A's in my class. This is mostly due to the fact that Spanish I is inherently easy, and partly due to my own leniency. Therefore,  a lot of students did not bear the academic consequences of their poor behavior. Now the choice is theirs, because I've already started handing out some F's. 

I wish I had one amazing success that really stood out. Sadly, having thought about this impending blog for a long time, I still haven't come up with one of these. I do, though, have a series of smaller successes. Among the top of these is the mix of opinions that has grown around me among the children of my school: "mane, he makes us work--all we ever do is work up in here" juxtaposed against "you're my favorite teacher". I've managed, though not perfectly, to create an atmosphere that is both rigorous and lax--hardworking and yet without the aspects of "professionality" that I believe are less appealing. I let my kids peak their minds, even if negatively about me, I laugh, and I play...and we friggin work.

My success, like it took us all a little while to learn, turns up most in the small victories.  This success, the one I think has most changed me as a teacher, is a very recent and very small victory, but one I take with me every moment of the day. 

My greatest success in the classroom has not come from anything that I, myself, have accomplished, but my success has to be attributed to one thing, a new hire. The 1^st nine weeks I was struggling with keeping the attention and focus of every single student, my smallest class had 27 kids and I felt like I would lose a lot of the kids during my lessons, especially by the end of the day when I was tired of saying the same thing over again. I found that my 6^th and 7^th periods were always struggling to get through the whole lesson that my other classes easily got through. Thankfully, this situation has now changed.

I now have smaller classes because of a new English teacher being hired, in the second week of the 2^nd nine weeks. My class sizes have shrunk by half and my lessons have gone so smoothly because of this. I wish that I could explain how beneficial smaller classes are and there is one student, in particular, that the size reduction has really helped. In the larger classes he hardly did his work and would fight with me when I asked him to participate. Now, he is one of 12 in the class, and he has become one of my hardest workers. He asks questions all the time and participates in ALL class activities. I am so thankful that he was able to have the opportunity to be a part of a small class because he has done a 180. This student is, and hopefully will continue to be my success.  

The first thing that came to mind when I set down to compose this blog is the ever-enduring, all too popular pageant question, "is success a destination or a pathway?"