Let's Make it easier

 Let’s make it easier

 

There is a considerable shortage of teachers all across the country.   In Maryland, the larger counties are scheduled to end the school year with still well over 200 vacancies.  Baltimore County is taking the approach of just eliminating those positions.   

Both the State Department of Education and the State Legislature are taking a different approach.   Right now, in order to get a license as a teacher, an individual must pass an exam called the Praxis I, which is a national exam to measure basic skills in reading, writing and math.  The Educational Testing Service has established cut off points for passing.  Many teacher candidates, especially candidates for elementary teachers, fail the math test.  On the one hand, you would think that a college graduate should be proficient in basic academic skills, yet failing parts of the test once or even twice is not out of the ordinary.

Under proposed new guidelines these tests would be gone.  Instead, school districts would develop their own onboarding requirements which the MSDE would need to approve.  Will that get more folks interested in becoming teachers?  We don’t know.  But the corresponding question is do we want people who can’t pass a test of basic academic skills teaching our kids basic academic skills?  

The teacher shortage is serious.  There is no disputing that fact at all.  What does appear to be in question is just what is the best way to address the shortage.

The Maryland Blueprint for Education will raise starting salaries to 60K within a few years.   Will better salaries attract more teachers?   What happens when people discover that in order to afford the higher salaries, school districts are doing away with the customary year 2 and year 3 longevity increase steps?  

Teaching is a hard job.   And teaching is one of the most important jobs in our society.  Maybe we should work at giving teachers the professional respect they deserve.   Let THEM decide when their students are ready to move on in the content rather than the pacing guide.  Let THEM come up with creative ways to deliver the content instead of cookie cutter lesson plans.  And most importantly, let THEM develop relationships with their kids rather than keeping them long distance.  In the old days, that is what attracted teachers.  It was hard, but there wasn’t a shortage.  Will making it easier work? 

Are you happy yet?

 Are You Happy Yet?

 

Really, right now, are you happy?  Well maybe not happy, maybe just ok, just fine.  We seem to have entered into a period of preoccupation with being happy.  We worry that our kids are not happy.  And if they are not happy somehow it is within the power and responsibility of someone else to make them happy.  Along the way we have lost the notion that each of us is in charge of our own happiness.   And while we are there, “happy” is not a permanent state.   It is mostly an elusive moment. 

Most recent research has shown that emotions are highly reactive to the attention that is paid to them.  Yet we have apps on our phone to check in on our happiness, there are articles online of how to check on your happiness, we worry children to find out if they are happy.

All this attention to happiness seems to forget that what we want our children to be in resiient.  Remember the old Timex watch commercials.   “Takes a beating and keeps on ticking.”  That’s what we want for our kids.  Because in truth, into each life a lot of rain will fall.

Evidence shows that the more people value happiness and the more they chase it, the less happy they tend to be.  Asking students to continually reflect on their feelings belies the fact that how they feel right now may not be anything like what they will feel in an hour or maybe even 15 minutes.   Asking kids how they feel tends to amplify the negative feelings and ignore that these feelings may well be fleeting.  

In the past, when a child was complaining about what had gone wrong and her life in general, we would often encourage the child to manage, life will get better.   Today we rush the child off to be evaluated for meds or therapy.  We are in a period where it is hard to find someone who is not in counseling or therapy because they are not “happy” with their lives.  

Psychologists have noted there are people who adopt an “action orientation”, they  are able to focus on the task at hand without getting distracted by their emotional state.  On the other hand, those folks who have a “state orientation” can get so far down the rabbit hole of how they feel, that the task at hand doesn’t get done.

How successful in life will our kids be if their own feelings are always front and center?   How will they manage to complete a day’s work if they are consumed with how they are feeling in the moment?  Teaching kids to overvalue their own emotions sets them up for failure.

So, are you happy yet?  Truthfully, that’s not my job.  Suck it up buttercup.

 

Take a message, I'll get back to you

 Take a message, I’ll get back to you

 

Cell phones are taking over.   A chemistry teacher in California complained that kids were watching Netfix on their phones during class.   A teacher in Maryland says that students are using gambling apps during the school day AND placing bets.

In almost every classroom, students are sending Snapchat messages, listening to music and shopping online.  Many parents are not aware of the almost addictive like behavior kids have with their phones.  Maybe that’s because parents are behaving the same way.  

Most schools have rules regarding cell phone use.  The problem is that those rules are only sporadically enforced.  It’s too much trouble. Teachers don't want to get into the fight, especially since they don't feel supported by admin. Some teachers out and out admit that when a student is using her cell phone, she isn’t causing any behavior issues.

Governors and state legislators are getting into the act.  The Governor of Utah is urging all school districts to ban cell phones in school.  Last year, the Florida legislature passed a law that requires school districts to ban student cell phone use during class time and to block social media access on district WiFi.  Some districts like Orange County are banning phones altogether during the school day.

Nationally 77% of school districts prohibit cell phones for non-academic use.

But sort of like the speed limit on roads, enforcement and adherence are slim.

One teacher in Maryland bought a 36-slot cell phone caddy for students to store their phones.  But few students comply and some say they don’t have their phones, even if they do.  So he has given up and figures as long as they are quiet…

Students and parents push back saying they need to be in contact with their kids.  Kids need to be able to call parents.   REALLY- How did kids and families stay in touch before cell phones?   Amazingly, folks managed.

Students will tell you enforcement varies from teacher to teacher.   Teachers will tell you that enforcing the cell phone ban should be an administrators’ responsibility. Often students are calling their parents to complain about a teacher, but that's a story for another day.  The best working systems are those that require students to check their phones at the door with the assumption that every kid has a phone.   That system seems to work.

Next up to distract, are air pods under hoodies and hair  and smartwatches.  Students might need an administrative assistant to take their calls so they can have time to learn.