Hello Stranger...

Clearly I have indulged in a three-month hiatus from my blog. No time like the present to start fresh.

Picking back up on the strengths mentioned from the previous post. How am I going to use these as I proceed with the school year? In particular, how am I going to use them to accomplish my goal: pushing my highest achieving students to meet their potential.

The students I'm talking about are achievers...just like me. That's a good start. They are motivated to succeed, to be the best, and that motivation is often enough to shape their academic goals. These students won't be satisfied with mediocre growth, just as I am dissatisfied with mediocre growth. I will definitely need to have individualized data conferences with the students. They need to know exactly where they stand, how they can improve, and help create an individualized plan of action.

Then there was that weird strength: input. When I think about input, I think "sharing" and "collaboration," not collection. All of a sudden, however, I realized that one thing I do like to collect is data. Not just the data the state gives me, but data that comes from my own teaching and assessments. This data can guide how I motivate and enrich my students.

Learning is another my strengths. Targeting a specific demographic will force me to turn to the research. What have others done to motivate their brightest kids? What works? What doesn't? There is no need to recreate the wheel. Instead, I can tap into my passion for learning. Hopefully, I can bring my findings back to my collegues and allow for school-wide development.

My final strengths were focus and determination. While I know that these are strengths, they have been challenged as of late. I find it harder and harder to stay focused on the bigger goals. The school year seems to be slipping away too fast. I have also caught the MLK Magnet procrastination bug...if it isn't due tomorrow, don't start working on it yet! Seriously?? Not how I want to be as a teacher or leader. So the challenge in front of me is having the determination to stay focused on my goals...nothing like the New Year to start fresh.

My strengths (according to Buckingham and Clifton)

For my leadership institute, we were given a copy of the book Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. The book comes with a secret code to take an online, strength-finding assessment. Here are my results:
1) Achiever: Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

Yeah...I see that. Not that I achieved anything today other than updating my blog. But in general, I like to keep moving forward.
 2) Input: You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.
Mmmm...no. Not me. I am more of a compulsive thrower-outer. I don't collect knowledge very well either. In fact, if I don't use it almost every day, I don't remember it for very long. I am, however, inquisitive. Maybe I will become a collector in the future??

3) Learner: You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”
One of the reasons I love teaching English. There is so much to learn. It isn't static. Each year, I can select different texts, which keeps me engaged as a teacher.

4) Focus: “Where am I headed?” you ask yourself. You ask this question every day. Guided by this theme of Focus, you need a clear destination. Lacking one, your life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass, helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. Your Focus is powerful because it forces you to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help you move toward your goal. Those that don’t are ignored. In the end, then, your Focus forces you to be efficient. Naturally, the flip side of this is that it causes you to become impatient with delays, obstacles, and even tangents, no matter how intriguing they appear to be. This makes you an extremely valuable team member. When others start to wander down other avenues, you bring them back to the main road. Your Focus reminds everyone that if something is not helping you move toward your destination, then it is not important. And if it is not important, then it is not worth your time. You keep everyone on point.
Sometimes.

5) Discipline: Your world needs to be predictable. It needs to be ordered and planned. So you instinctively impose structure on your world. You set up routines. You focus on timelines and deadlines. You break long-term projects into a series of specific short-term plans, and you work through each plan diligently. You are not necessarily neat and clean, but you do need precision. Faced with the inherent messiness of life, you want to feel in control. The routines, the timelines, the structure, all of these help create this feeling of control. Lacking this theme of Discipline, others may sometimes resent your need for order, but there need not be conflict. You must understand that not everyone feels your urge for predictability; they have other ways of getting things done. Likewise, you can help them understand and even appreciate your need for structure. Your dislike of surprises, your impatience with errors, your routines, and your detail orientation don’t need to be misinterpreted as controlling behaviors that box people in. Rather, these behaviors can be understood as your instinctive method for maintaining your progress and your productivity in the face of life’s many distractions.
This is the nicest explanation for my OCD that I've ever heard.

I can't say that I am entirely surprised by these answers (excluding the input category). However, I suppose I feel affirmed in my perception of myself.

Food for thought...

A poem we studied in class...A sad reflection on some students' experience in school. To my teacher friends who read this, remember how influential we can be in our students' lives.

FIRST PERIOD (Kevin M. Derrig)

half way through first period

dust accumulated on the sweaty palm of my

            raised hand

must be a centimeter thick by now

as the chicken-legged teacher goes around the

            room

defacing students’ homework from last night

with red pen graffiti

that focuses more on missed commas than the

            content of the sentences

he finally decides to acknowledge me

“Mr. Derrig, why do I have a feeling that this is

            another one of your dumb

comments.  You constantly waste my time. Why

            don’t you just drop out or something?”

why don’t I just drop out

why don’t I just drop out!

and it was at that moment that all statistics

            began to make sense to me

statistics of children whose mouths water more

for the many taste of

society corner slanged penicillins

than the cardboard textures of diplomas

with pipes more important to fill

than class requirements

statistics of classes cut

to avoid battlefields full of aggravated shrapnel

from teachers with exploding tempers

teachers with magnifying glasses at the end

            pointers

who feed off the brightness of surrounding

            students

to singe holes in the esteems of those who need

            just a little more help

than

others

I wanted to turn my shot-down hand into a fist

I wanted to hit him ‘til he was incapable of

            speaking anymore

but I didn’t want to become another number in

            overflowing manila folders

of children arrested in school

and we wonder why a gun seems to fit perfectly

            in the hands of this generation’s adolescents

ladies and gentlemen

I’m writing this poem to highlight that which has

            been stuck like gum

underneath wobbly desks

free from parental eyes

only to mess the hand of those who have to sit

there

I’m writing this poem to speak for all the rows of

            children before me

who remained voiceless in the cracks of school

            and its soundproof textbooks

I’m writing this poem for all the children who

            have not yet been named

the ones that will one day have to fill these rows

            I’ve been struggling in

only to enter classrooms where they’ll be shot

            down for what they feel

ladies and gentlemen

the future of America is being crushed between

            the molars

of power-hungry tyrants who think class rooms

            are boot camps

and if we have any teachers in the audience

I urge you to understand that the hand you grab

            the chalk with

the hand you grab those red pens with

the voices you speak with

are oversized chisels

and you must proceed to teach with caution

for what you say and what you do is written in

            stone

and if you chisel too hard these minds can crack

“So what don’t you understand now, Mr. Derrig?”

I just wanted to know if I could go to the bathroom

Techno.

How am I using my iPad so far?
1)Socratic circle "outer circle" notes. Have one student record his or her notes on the big screen. Other students can keep up with what questions were just asked and there is a record for students who are absent.
2)Teaching theme. Define theme for students. Have students brainstorm abstract nouns that relate to the novel (fear,love,isolation, etc.). Pass the iPad around and have students add one noun to the group list. From there, have students turn the words into themes (isolation results in savagery). Again, pass the iPad around to share the themes. From there, have students write a theme paragraph...
3) Magnet/found poetry. Touchwords,poetrymagnets, verses poetry, and poesy are all FREE apps. The first three lend themselves to found poetry...very much like the magnet poetry you find on fridges. The last could be used as a team game/review/assessment?? Place students in groups of three. Each team must put the words in the correct order, identify any literary devices, and provide an explanation of meaning/significance.
4)Stickpick. Mix up the students you call on to ensure equal participation. Includes Bloom's taxonomy question stems.
5) Doceri. NOT FREE. Install on both your iPad and desktop. This will allow you to control your DESKTOP from your iPad...WIRELESSLY! You can also annotate documents on the projector. Want a free version? Teamviewer. Its functions are more limited, though.
6)Prezi viewer. View your prezi's on your iPad. What is a Prezi, you ask? A free, web-based presentation thing-a-mabob. It is somewhat like PowerPoint, but it utilizes zooming instead of switching slides. Check it out.

That's all so far.

Ideas I have for further use...active reading/annotation, thesis creation & review, peer review, research on the fly, ??? Suggestions???

If you have ideas or cool websites, post them!

When it rains, it pours

People have most often associated me with the following terms: OCD, obsessive, perfectionist, reliable, organized, punctual. This week, the first week of school I might add, I have broken every preconceived notion that might be associated with my name.

We started the week with a printer meltdown that had me using my favorite four letter words before 7:15 in the morning. As the day progressed, I was informed that I made the most significant of all grading errors...an error that will required 120 hand-filled forms and hours of computer updating. Surely it can't get worse. But it does. Why? Because when it rains, it pours. Next, our ninth grade volleyball coach quit a few days before tryouts. Guess who gets to help cover tryouts AND have her own practices? Yep. Me. To top it all off, on the fourth day of school I told multiple students to "back off," "leave me alone for a minute," and "stop talking to me right now." Nice first impression.

It is actually raining right now (which is nice since I haven't watered my flowers or garden since Sunday). But what I noticed is that it wasn't pouring; it was more of a light sprinkle. As I trudged down 440, I started to think about my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. Maybe it isn't pouring after all. Sure, things are not going smoothly. That doesn't mean, however, that it is all bad. Case in point, the 250 minutes spent watching my students work together to answer this question: "what does it mean to be human." It was awesome. They were arguing, collaborating, stretching their minds. Sure, there were some dark clouds (cough, cough *grade change forms) hanging over my head. But I seemed to forget about those worries when I was listening to my 15 year-olds struggle with the most difficult question ever asked.

Moral(s) of the story: no one is perfect; learn to value what really matters; Saturday is always right around the corner :)

Leading like the great conductors

Talgam uses the conductor as a metaphor for leadership in general. He suggests that the most effective conductors do not lead directly, but rather allow the artists to collaborate and create...to lead themselves. In his first clip, we watch a joyful and energetic man flailing his arms on stage. Be forewarned, I know absolutely NOTHING about classical music (or any music for that matter). When the clip is over, Talgam asks the audience, "who should we thank for this success?" Should the players be thanked? The audience? The conductor? Or perhaps all parties involved warrant thanks for the success of the performance. Talgam mentions that the conductor, the joyful arm-flailing man, is responsible for enabling other people's stories to be heard at the same time. To allow each player, audience member, symphony hall worker, etc. to come together in one moment of musical bliss. The next clip has a dark-haired, eyebrow-furrowing conductor (he must be German). His arms are not quite flailing, more of a precise pounding of each note. To my ear, the music sounds just as nice. In fact, Talgam confirms this suspicion, arguing that this conductor elicits equal performance from his musicians. His musicians, however, wrote him a lovely letter asking him to resign. Why? They felt as if he treated them like instruments, not musicians. His leadership style was centered on direct control. Missing from this leadership, according to Talgam, is the "listening of each other that is needed for the orchestra to function." A few clips later and we are left with the original conductor "doing without doing." In fact, he is just standing there listening. Yes, his face is alive with expression, but he is not conducting. Moral of the story? Isn't that where we all want to be as leaders. Where we have trained those around us how to lead themselves. How to communicate, how to listen, how to make independent choices, how to create and inspire on their own?

Let's take our metaphor to any high school in America. In the orchestra, you have your flutes, and oboes, and tubas, and whatnot. In our high school, we have our science teachers, math teachers, English teachers, etc. We all have different parts to play (ha, ha...so hokey. but it's true. we do.). However, we must be able to come together for the benefit of our students. My class cannot exist in isolation from the other classes. There is no English solo in the concerto of learning (ok, this music metaphor is wearing on my nerves). While we have different tools, different styles, different content, we should have the same goal: educating our students. Some schools sound a little like the middle school band. They are technically all playing at the same time, but they are definitely not playing together. Other schools might sound like our wind ensemble. Their individual skills have improved and they are aware of the fact that other orchestra members do, in fact, exist. But how do we get our schools to sound like the New York Philharmonic? Leadership.

I'm sure we have all had leaders who lead with furrowed-brows and pounding fists. While those schools might be high functioning, they aren't pleasant places to work. How can I grow as a professional when I spend my entire career following orders? The type of leadership described by Talgam is how you create a school that, after much hard work and collaboration, isn't just high functioning, but also a great place to work. A place where your individual voice is heard. A place where teachers grow in their craft. A place where different methods are embraced, not shunned. A place where 60 artisans can come together to do something transcendent. Now the cynic in me wants to leave you with a "when you find that school, let me know." But no one just "finds that school." We have to decide to be a part in making that school. So this year, let's start working toward creating, communicating, and collaborating to reach our common goal: educating our students.

Surprises

TVAASS scores were released today. While we don't have our individual teacher report, I am pleased to announce that both of my teams made gains this year! The English II team made it into the green: as in good to go, ahead of the pack, my principal and department head will smile, we don't have to hide during the back-to-school data reveal.

After playing around on the website, I was able to find lists of my students that had their predicted and actual scores. It is so surprising to see who I under-served, who was listening even though I didn't think they were, and who just glided along as usual. I loved my ninth graders this year. I thought I was doing everything right. We had an amazing in-class connection, their work was stellar, and I just knew their scores would shoot through the roof. SURPRISE. I let a lot of freshmen fall through the cracks. It was my bright ones; the ones I sometimes forget about because "they got it." My tenth graders, however, were making incredible gains. SURPRISE. I felt like I kept putting them on the back burner of my pedagogical oven (that was a really awkward metaphor; I apologize). If I could only figure out how to serve ALL levels of my students--low, middle, and high. I know how to differentiate as far as learning styles go, but how do I differentiate for learning levels? Especially in an honors class. Next year, I have to raise the bar for all students and put supports in place for those who aren't quite ready for the challenge.