School League Tables?

Growing up in England I was an avid soccer fan and would check the league tables every Sunday after the Saturday soccer games to see where my team, Bristol City, stood in the league.They were usually in the Second Division, one of four divisions, at that time. I'm still a soccer fan and frequently watch Premier League games on the Fox soccer channel. I also still avidly check the League tables although they have changed somewhat since the latter part of the last century.

The football league tables, however, have now been joined  by the England school league tables. Remarkably, schools are ranked in tables according to the success of the students on a number of different criteria all of which seem to involve exam results of some sort. There are different tables for primary (elementary) schools and secondary (high) schools.  In the Primary League Tables, the equivalent of US elementary schools, success is measured by student performance in just two areas of the curriculum, Maths and English. This makes one wonder just what type of incentive there is for teachers to spend time teaching science, social studies, music and art. I'm sure these subjects are probably taught but since they play no part in the measurement of a school's success one must wonder about the enthusiasm with which resources and time are devoted to learning in these subjects.

In the US we have No Child Left behind and Race to the Top which, although suspect in their motives and application don't seem anywhere near quite as demeaning as reducing a child's  education to the instant self-gratification of seeing where one's school is in a league table. 

Global Differences in Math: an Example

Since this blog seems to be read in over 30 different countries from time to time I thought I would see if anyone would like to share how they complete simple arithmetic activities.

For example, the image on the left shows two different ways of doing a simple subtraction activity. The one to the left is labeled the equal addition method while the one on the right, the one currently used as a "standard algorithm" in US schools, is labeled the decomposition method. (The use of the term "borrow" in this one is an error as we will see) If you are familiar with the one on the right and still use the term "borrow" you might have wondered why the "borrowed one" was never paid back.

The "borrow" language actually originated with the method on the left which was used in the US prior to the 1950s. This method is still used in Bosnia and many other countries. The way it works is like this; 9 from 5 you can't so borrow 1(1 ten) to make the 5 into 15. Since you "borrowed" 1 from the tens you have to "pay it back" by putting a 1 next to the 3 (or changing the 3 into a 4 in this example). You now take 9 from 15 to get 6 and 4 from 6 to get 2 (actually 40 from 60 to get 20). It was called the equal addition method because you added ten ones to the top number (5 +10 = 15) and one ten to the bottom number (3 tens + 1 ten = 4 tens). The word "borrow" just stuck even though it didn't really make any sense.

In the method used in the US today, the one on the right, we decompose (or regroup) 65 into 50 plus 15. This is still frequently and erroneously referred to as "borrowing 1". In the decomposition method there is no "payback" so it really should be "steal 1".

To use the word "borrow" today is to use it as a metaphor. The correct conceptually-based language is "regroup 65 into 50 and 15". I learned the equal addition method of subtraction growing up in England and still use it today, but only for my personal math calculations, and only when no-one is around. Let me knowif you do something different.  

Student Teaching; an Ending and a Beginning

For my student teachers this semester, the experience marks an end to their college life and a beginning to their careers as elementary school teachers. It's a time of great growth and development, a time to take risks and also a time to finally find out if teaching is the right choice of career. For the vast majority of students the student teaching experience affirms this choice and is a culmination of all the hard work of the previous semesters. For a very, very small number, perhaps less than 1% it is a time of great anguish and soul searching for everyone involved when the prospect of failure looms large. Thankfully I have been involved in very few such situations but when it does happen it takes a long time to recover both mentally and emotionally because one cares so deeply about one's students' success.

No such problems this semester. All four of my student teachers are off to a great start and already there are some great stories of things children say or do. Things like the third grader  who ignored what the teacher was asking about how balls bounced during a science lesson because he thought she had said Beyonce and couldn't understand why she would say that.

The same student teacher also relayed a story about students thinking about how they could make the world a better place. One student said they could help animals while another student said they should help the elderly. Together they decided that they would help "old people's animals".

I observe my student teachers every week for the first 4 or 5 weeks of the semester so I can act as a resource for them as they develop their whole class teaching skills and come to terms with the myriad demands of running a class of twenty-something students. The most rewarding part of the job is seeing the joy on a student teacher's face when everything goes to plan and the students learn. 

Three Men in a Classroom

With apologies to Jerome K. Jerome.

For the first time in my professional life, at least since I started supervising student teachers in 1977, I am supervising a male student teacher in a classroom with a male cooperating teacher. Since less than 10% of elementary school teachers are male the likelihood of this happening again is pretty slim. At least three of the elementary schools where we place student teachers have only one male teacher and I have a sense that most of the elementary schools in Chittenden County where we place most of our students for classroom experiences have fewer than the national average of 9%. I have one male student in my two teacher education classes this semester. Why are there so few men in the nation's elementary schools and teacher education programs?

My first teaching job was as a 4th grade teacher in a Primary (Elementary) school in my native England. I was part of about 40%
of all primary teachers in England in the  1970s who were male. During the past twenty or so years there has been a similar decline in the percentage of male teachers in UK primary schools as in the US elementary schools  as this Daily Telegraph article illustrates.

One of the reasons for the original difference in male teacher percentage between the two nations can, perhaps be traced  to the origin of public education in the two nations. In the UK public education, part of which was primary education grew out of the "Public" schools such as Harrow and Eton, Sunday Schools and the industrial revolution. At this time all teachers in all types of schools were men. In the US, public education developed, especially at the elementary level from the one-room school house where the teacher was always a young lady, unmarried and of great virtue (or so history tells us). So there could be a cultural reason for this original imbalance.

The topic is a popular one for the national press and a quick Google search will bring up many newspaper articles with associated blogs through which writers share a myriad of reasons as to why elementary school teaching does not appeal to men. Women are more nurturing, men cannot cope with the demands, children only really play in the elementary school, it's just like babysitting - not a "man's" job and so on..

More serious research projects and articles, however, begin to highlight some of the real reasons why men do not choose to become elementary school teachers. Here's an interesting perspective about male teachers in early childhood education : an Austrlian perspective and a research proposal with a great list of references.
It would appear that the issue is far more complex than one might expect but one that should probably be addressed. The question is how?

Yes, There Are Fun Math Tests

The first day of class in a new semester is always a time of great excitement and nervousness for the students and especially, for me. No matter how many times I teach a class I am always nervous with anticipation during the first class.

As part of the ice-breaking process I give the students a fun math test to complete while I am setting out the math materials. It has a serious side to it too because I want the students to begin the semester with the sense that math really has dynamic, creative, and aesthetic qualities as well as being a "useful" subject. Math is also the "science of pattern", a theme we celebrate and develop throughout the semester.

Now here's the fun math test we did. The letters stand for words that are related to the numbers. For example the first one is "Wheel on a Unicycle".

1 = W on a U ………………………………………………..

3 = B M (S H T R)…………………………………………..

4 = Q in a G………………………………………………….

5 = D in a Z C………………………………………………..

7 = W of the W………………………………………………

8 = S on a S S…………………………………………………

9 = P in the S S……………………………………………….

11 = P on a F T ………………………………………………

12 = S of the Z……………………………………………….

13 = S on the A F…………………………………………….

16 = O in a P…………………………………………………

18 = H on a G C …………………………………………….

24 = H in a D…………………………………………………

26 = L of the A……………………………………………….

27 = C F in a C Y…………………………………………….

29 = D in F in a L Y………………………………………….

32 = D F at which W F………………………………………

52 = W  in a Y……………………………………………….

54 = C in a D ( with the Js)………………………………….

57 = H V …………………………………………………….

64 = S on a C B………………………………………………

88 = P K …………………………………………………….

90 = D in a R A……………………………………………..

200 = D for P G in M……………………………………….

212 = D F at which W B……………………………………

1000 = W that a P is W…………………………………….

1001 = A N ………………………………………………..

Let me know if you need help.

By the way, one of the students in class yesterday suggested that the perfect way to pour a bottle of Heinz 57 sauce is at 57 degrees! 

Kindergarten Blog

One of the wonderful things about about having my students complete their student teaching experience at the Williston schools is the level of technology used by the teachers and students at the two schools. From their very first days in kindergarten students get to learn how different forms of technology can be used to improve both the quality of education and of life itself.

Jen Canfield, an amazing kindergarten teacher at Allen Brook school, keeps a wonderful blog about life in her kindergarten class. Just imagine what it must be like as a parent of one of Jen's students to be able to see what goes on in your child's classroom from day to day. The picture is of my student teacher, Ali McHenry who is completing her student teaching experience in Jen's classroom this semester.

In the last couple of years of the last century I was employed as the Science Education Professional Development specialist at the two Williston schools, Central and Allen Brook. I loved every minute I was there and it's always a neat experience for me when I return to work with my former colleagues.

It's Triad Time

A triad, according to the dictionary is 1) a set of three, 2) a musical chord, 3) an atom with valence of 3, 4) a U.S. strategic missile force, or 5) a Welsh literary form. In the world of teacher education it is the meeting, held three times a semester, between the student teacher, cooperating teacher and college supervisor during the student teaching semester. Since I have four student teachers to supervise in local area schools I have four "Initial Triad Meetings" during the first two weeks of the semester.

I always find the first meetings a time of great hope and excitement as the student teacher looks forward to putting into practice all the things she/he has learned in the courses they have taken in previous semesters. We talk about the expectations for the semester, the lesson plans and instructional unit  the student will need to complete, their commitment to student teaching as a full-time activity for the semester, the expertise the cooperating teacher will share them, and the need to make sure that they let the students they are working with know they care about them.

My four student teacher span the elementary grades from kindergarten to fourth grade this semester which is a wonderful experience for me. I often think it would be neat if public school teachers got to share this wonderful experience I have of working in so many different classrooms with so many inspirational teachers.

A triad in music is an "implied harmony". I can't think of a better metaphor for the student teaching experience.