"Do-Now"s, Reflections and Exit Tickets

At the high school where I previously taught, a student could easily have sleepwalked through four years with serious reflection on his or her education, goals, mistakes and successes.  Not so at the middle school where I have been teaching for the past six months.  I think part of the school's success can be attributed to the school's policies intended to raise the students' consciousness about what they are doing, why, and what their goals are.

At the beginning of each class, the students line up outside at the classroom door unless the weather is so bad that they need to be inside before entering the class.   They file in, each one greeted by the teacher, often not just with a "Hello.  How are you today ?" but with a handshake, too.  Inside the door there is often a selected student passing out the class's "Do Now."  The students have two immediate tasks before them.  The first is to look on the board and copy into their planners (the school gives each one of them a planner so they can write homework assignments under the appropriate day).  This is the first order of activity.  Once this is done, they are then to turn to their "Do Now," usually a half sheet of paper with questions or activities on it and with blank lines to fill in answers.

The "Do Now" may be devoted strictly to academic matters.  Perhaps it bears several questions such as "Was Lincoln motivated by humanitarian reasons when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, or do you think he was motivated by strategic military considerations.  The second question might be something like, "Why ?  Explain your answer to Question #1."  Another question on the same "Do Now" might be something like, "Explain the effect of the Missouri Compromise.  What was it and who liked and disliked it ?"

On the other hand, the "Do Now" might have some less academic questions or requirements on it.  For instance, it might ask, "What was the most interesting thing you saw on the field trip to the Technical Museum, and Why ?"  Or perhaps, "What remains for you to do in your preparations for your EXPO exhibit ?"  (More about EXPOs in another entry.

Sometimes there may be questions such as "What skill(s) do I have to improve in order to get a better grade ?"   "What is the most interesting thing I have discovered in my research about ancient Egypt ?"

In other words, there is a considerable inward focus on some of these "Do Now"s.

A few minutes after the students have finished their "Do Now"s, their attention is drawn to the board where a "Learning Target" has been written.  One student is selected to go up to the board to read this learning target.  It is read twice.  The first time, the student simply reads it straight through.  It is written in marker in two different colors.  The second time the student reads, he or she stops before each word in a color different from the main text, and the students all read together aloud that word or words.  Usually they shout them.   In other words, expectations such as "I will read and understand pages 12 - 22 and be ready to discuss them" are clearly understood.  The key, of course, is that students are given very clear expectations about what they are to study and understand.

Occasionally in class the teacher will pass out a "Reflection" handout, a sheet of paper with questions on it about personal study habits, goals, successes and failures.  These are not so much academic in nature, but serve to buttress the student's thinking about how well he or she is managing their study responsibilities, and how they can do better.  Sometimes there may be pointed questions about study habits:  "I watch TV too much and should devote more time to my reading.  True or false and why ?"  "I need to find a quiet place to study because there is too much noise and too many people at home."

I recall one student whom I tutored here, one who cut her name in the skin on her arm, who told me she lived in a one-room apartment with her mother, several sisters and a dog, and it was very difficult for her to concentrate on studies there.

Many classes have what is known as an Exit Ticket requirement.  This is similar to the "Do Now," but is phrased as something that must be done before one walks out of the class.  Perhaps it will be three math problems based on what was taught in class that day.  Or it may be material about climate change or ancient Egypt or the Dred Scott Case that a student should by the end of class know about or have mastered.  The important point is, I think, that the Exit Ticket is an indication of what is expected of the student.  Expectations at this school are never unclear.

Rewards and Recognition

One of the wonderful practices at this middle school is that students are given frequent recognition for the good things they do.  Today, on the last day of the school year, our sixth graders had an assembly in which all of their teachers recognized outstanding students -- students who had made the most progress, students who did excellent work, students, who had  outstandingly positive outlooks.  One of the sub-headings of the school is the quotation: "scholars, artists, warriors."  The artists, of course, are recognized for their superior artistic work.  The scholars are recognized for their high grades.  The warriors are recognized for their efforts.

In addition, students are sometimes asked to "give an appreciation" of something in the class or of people at their table who have helped them be productive in their studies.  Occasionally these are written and passed in to the teacher.  More often they seem to be verbal, uttered to the other three students seated at the table.  At times classes have what are called "circles."  During these sessions, which last from a half hour to the entire period, students are asked to comment on a number of things.  They have the option of opting out and simply not joining in the discussion, and many of them make this choice.  But sometimes participation is very high, as it was just after the end of the shooting incident on campus that I have described elsewhere in this blog.  At times during these circles they are also asked each to give an appreciation of someone or something that they like.  This topic stimulates a great deal of participation.

When a student comes into each class. they enter from outside, from the recess ground.  The practice is that the instructor stands by the doorway and greets each one of them, often shaking hands with each student as he or she enters.  In the morning "boost" and "crew" periods in the classroom where I have been working, either the students greet the instructor at the door or they go over to him at his desk or wherever he may be and say hello to him.  Unlike the high school where I substituted, there is no such thing as anonymity at this school.  At the high school, which had several thousand students, it was possible -- and probably still is -- for a student to attend classes, not participate or participate minimally, and have no relationship with one's teachers.  You would become known by face and name to your teachers primarily if you either were such an outstanding student in papers and exams that you had to be noticed or if you misbehaved so badly you disrupted the class.  At my middle school, however, most of the staff knew you by name.

When a substitute comes into a class in high school, at least in a high school with a thousand or more students, the students feel more or less rightly that since the teacher cannot identify them by name, they can carry on and misbehave with impunity.  The setting in my middle school was quite the opposite. After a few months, having worked numerous times in most of the classes, I began to know most of the students.  This made all the difference.

But just to be sure, yesterday I got a copy of this year's yearbook, which has pictures and names of every student in the school.   True, the eighth graders will be off in high school -- and will probably learn very quickly that they can misbehave without consequences -- but this year's sixth and seventh graders will have been promoted, and will still be there.  I'll know more of them better, and that will help.

We Shall See What We Will See

Yesterday the principal made an announcement to the students which alarmed a few of them and probably delighted a few others, too.  Buoyed by the success of the changes he had made and the new practices he had instituted at our school, he had accepted a higher position in our school district where he would have the opportunity not only to remain in touch with our school, but also to institute many of the practices he had instituted at our school in other schools.

My paperwork appears to be fine, I was told in an email I received yesterday from the personnel office, and it appears that my application to work in the same school again next year will be accepted.  A new principal, a woman, has been appointed for our school's coming year.  Our departing principal spoke of her in glowing terms.  She visited our school twice in the last two days, and no one has sounded an alarm.  She seems to be very competent and well-liked according to every indication I have seen.

But will our school remain as good next year, or will it get even better ?  Or will its quality decline ?  As the heading of this entry states, since I will be there on the spot and will report, we shall see what we will see.

At first, a cultural question came to mind.  Since the present principal of our school, a man, has had such close relations with students' families, will our new, female principal be able to maintain these relationships?  I know very little about Hispanic culture, but I suspect that a man automatically has an upper edge, more of a respected and commanding position than a woman might have.  Upon reflection, I don't think this is going to make much of a difference because the interface between our school and parents is usually with the mothers of the students' families.

In the wake of this announcement, another came to me this morning in private between the teacher I have been working with in our morning boost and crew periods and myself.   He, too, is leaving our school for a better position in San Francisco.  He has been enrolled in an elite course of study at U.C. Berkeley, recently finished his thesis, and saw an opportunity to move up more into administration, which is what he has been aiming at for a number of years.

I cannot blaming him for wanting a better situation for himself and his family.  Our school district, like most these days, would happily keep an extraordinarily talented teacher at as low a salary and as low a position as possible.  But here is an extraordinarily gifted teacher who commands great respect from both other faculty members and the students, and he is going elsewhere.

I feel totally comfortable around this teacher for I know him to be extremely intelligent, gifted in human relationships, brilliant in his teaching.  His loss may well be a greater loss to next year's students than the loss even of the principal.  And I, a minor cog in a bunch of much larger wheels, know that I almost certainly have a job at this same school next year, but that I will be working with some other, at the moment unknown, teacher.  What's that going to be like?

As I have learned in life, all things are temporary.  Sometimes we do not understand how good they were until they are gone and we look back.  For instance, we do not remember what pleasure it was to sit and drink coffee with one's wife until she has passed away.  Then we look back at the memory with sadness and appreciation.  As for next year at school --  we shall see what we will see.

The students I am dealing with on a day-to-day basis comprise an interesting mix.  If you have ever surveyed humanity and felt that you'd already seen it all, you have to be wrong.  I learned that when I acted as tour manager in a travel business years ago.  Now in school, however, I am exposed to a constant variety of different student personalities.  They challenge any teacher trying to teach effectively.

For instance, there is the kid in one of the classes I usually work in who clearly has gang aspirations.  I'll just call him Jose.  Yes, like almost all the other students in school, he is Hispanic.  He has dark black hair, cut relatively short, a light-skinned complexion that shows just a hint of swarthiness, and handsome features,  He walks like a gang member, a sort of manly swagger that projects self-assurance and might even project a little bit of threat except that he's still too young -- 11 ? --  to threaten anybody.   He doesn't wan't to do his class work.  He sits at his place and stares off in space.  We have a custom in our classroom as kids come in of greeting them, either shaking hands or giving what I call the Black fist bump.  When I was new, this kid refused to say "Hello."  He didn't keep it a secret that he disliked me.  This reminded me of the way kids in high school often greeted new substitute teachers with a cheery smile and a comment that, "You know, we hate substitute teachers."  To that one I learned an immediate counter:  "If I wanted love, I'd get a dog."

So the hostility of this kid, though surprising at first, made me wonder what kind of issues he had at home.   In classes like these, kids bounce all kinds of emotional hangups off the teachers.  And once you let them know that they are getting to you, that they are successfully pushing your buttons, its all over.  They will do their best to torment you in every way they can imagine.  Hard as it is, you must keep your cool, be both firm and understanding, and insist that they follow the rules.

In the roughly six months I have been at this middle school, I have had highs and lows in the esteem of the students.  At least three of them, in different classrooms, probed openly hostile when I was assigned to me to help individually in a particular class.  When the teacher asked me to sit down at their table, I was told openly and bluntly within 15 seconds, "I don't want you to help me," or "I don't want to work with you."  My reaction has been to say, "No problem," get up, and go to other students in the class who need help.  There is no shortage in this school, which is primarily Hispanic, of students who need help with a variety of subjects, especially English.

I get asked all kinds of questions by the students.  The most common one is, "How old are you?"   I have been asked if I was alive during World War I,  or during the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln.  The most hopeful thing about these questions is that at least they have heard of World War I and Abraham Lincoln.  I am by far the oldest person at the school.  I think the next oldest person is about 55, twenty years my junior. This coming Wednesday is "Wear a Funny Hat Day."  I think that instead of wearing something from the South Pacific, where I lived and worked in various countries for many years, I shall wear my baseball cap that says, "Don't Forget My Senior Discount."

Washington, D. C. for Middle School Students

One of the amazing programs our middle school has is a trip to Washington, D.C. for about ten selected students.  The students must go before a panel in order to be chosen for this trip.  Funds come from a variety of sources, but very little comes from the students or their families themselves.  A few months ago we started CafeUPA, in which students make coffee in the teachers' lounge and then deliver cups top faculty members in their classrooms early in the day.  Each cup costs $2, and the wake-me-up in the morning is well worth it if you are a caffeine addict like myself.  Proceeds, which are modest, go to help finance the trip.  Corporate donations and other funding help pay for airfare, hotel accommodations and transport within Washington, D.C. itself.

Students do a fascinating variety of things.  They visited about half a dozen different museums this time, and ALL the major monuments.  They had a private meeting with our Congresswoman during which, it was reported, they asked a lot of very intelligent questions.  These kids are being taught at an early age to think.  They are probably doing better than most high school students would do.  We are very proud of them.  I was told by a faculty member the other day that they have the highest math scores of any middle school in the city.

I Made a Student Cry Today

I made a student cry today.  It wasn't intentional, and I certainly didn't expect it.

M is a kid who is always horsing around and carrying on.  But I think his problem is that he is so intelligent that he gets easily bored and causes an uproar because he wants something interesting to do.  He does it cleverly, just coming up an inch short before he gets a referral to the office.  But if you sit in one of his classes and watch, you discover that most of the time he isn't paying attention.

I have had interactions with this kid for the last 5 or 6 months, so I feel I have gotten to know him well.

We were talking about climate change.  We are having a 5th and 7th grade EXPO this coming Wednesday, and he is supposed to be able to stand up and explain to parents (including his own, I hope) what climate change is and what causes it.

We went over just what climate change is and what some of the causes are, and what some of the results will be.  He asked a number of very intelligent questions and understood immediately what I was telling him.  Based not just on that, but other conversations we have had, I said to him, "You know, you are not just an intelligent kid.  You are a VERY intelligent kid.  I think your problem is that you are so intelligent that these classes bore you. You have to realize that with your intelligence, there is nothing you won't be able to do or achieve later in life, if you study hard and get good grades."

As I was talking to him, I noticed tears welling up in his eyes.  I have a feeling no one ever told him before that he is intelligent and can achieve things.  Maybe a few years down the line he will still remember our conversation.