Teachers for the Accountability of Parents (TAP)

No Child Left Behind was the biggest shift in trying to legislate good teaching in my opinion. I'm not against holding teachers accountable for educating children. Many of our kids have no power or control over the situations they find themselves in; addict parents, poverty, custody battles, parents battling cancer and other health issues. It is the adults in their lives that do have influence over these conditions. Those adults with the most influence are their parents. The educators in a child's life have very little yet they are the only ones being held accountable through legislation. 

In extreme cases there are laws protecting children from abuse and neglect. There are organizations (like CPS) who can remove a child from these conditions. We have social programs like food stamps, WIC, and public housing to help support families in financial crisis. We have Pell Grants and student loans that offer parents the opportunity to go to college and end the cycle of generational poverty. I understand that it is not an easy task to improve ones situation but there is help. 

Let's be real for a moment. How many teachers have gotten the brunt end of an angry parent of a child who is failing because they are choosing not to work in class. I get there are many reasons why a student may not work. I personally know many educators who have tried everything to help; giving up family time to stay after and personally tutor students, accommodating assignments, giving multiple opportunities to improve on a test, etc. Yet the parents don't provide a quiet place to work at home, have no consequences at home for their students lack of work in school, take them on vacation or hunting when the student is suspended, buy them expensive cell phones as if they are required to provide them.  Do parents not understand that when they blame the teacher they remove all accountability from their children and set a lifelong precedence of blame everyone and everything else?

Now before anyone decides to lambaste me for calling out parents let me put on my parent hat for a moment (I have five kids, three of them, in college). I work hard as a parent and I teach my kids responsibility and hold them accountable. I take away their privileges when they aren't doing what they are supposed to in school. Yes, they can survive without a cell phone. There was a time when parents made arrangements for rides home from after school events before cell phones. It can be done! I check my childrens'  grades regularly and if I get busy and haven't checked I don't blame the teacher if my student has missing assignments or is failing. I blame my kids and kick myself for slacking in MY job as a parent. 

So why aren't we calling for the legislation of good parenting? As I see it there are three stakeholders in a child's success; the parent, the student, and the teacher. In that order! Parents have the most influence in holding students accountable and supporting their success. Yet there is no legislation requiring that they do so. That is absurd!  And that, my friends, is what's wrong with the education system. 

Rather than tapping out and leaving education, which many teachers have done or have considered, why aren't we collectively calling for holding parents accountable? Where are the parent evaluations? The pendulum is constantly moving in education. Maybe the next move will be in the direction of parent accountability. Maybe we teachers need to speak out and give it a little push. 

Flipped Update: Meeting the Needs of Advanced Students

Many times I find myself focusing on how to help students who are struggling.  It's the main reason I decided to flip my 9th grade math class a few years ago.  However, I have had an interesting situation develop with my advanced students.

After trying flipped mastery at the beginning of the year and realizing it wasn't working (read Week 3 Reflection: Regrouping) I returned to the flipped format I was using last year.  Prior to our winter break we gave students an assessment over the Linear Functions unit.  Unfortunately, the results were extremely disappointing.  Most students failed, so after break we regrouped, reviewed, and re-assessed.  However, I had 13 students (out of about 100) who scored 80% or higher.  I just couldn't stomach the thought of making them review and reassess when they clearly understood the concepts.  So I gave them a choice; you can review and reassess with the rest of the class OR you can move ahead and work at your own pace.  ALL 13 students took me up on the idea!

Luckily I have most everything ready from last year's flipped Algebra 1 class and only need to tweak a few things and stay ahead of the most eager student.  I have them sitting in a group together, helping one another and coming to me when they have questions.  After they check the practice assignment for each concept against the answer key they must meet with me briefly.  From time to time they will pause (of their own free will) and be my "classroom experts" and help other students.  I have a few who are very eager and will be ready for the final exam for this trimester in the next week or so.  The trimester doesn't end until the beginning of March!

Our typical path for students is Algebra 1 in 9th grade, Geometry in 10th, Algebra 2 in 11th and a senior math class (either Trig, Stats, or Consumers Math).  If students were identified in 7th grade as advanced they took Algebra 1 in 8th grade which put them on course to take AP Calculus their senior year.  I have spoken with a few of the most advanced students who are progressing rapidly about the possibility of not only finishing the Algebra 1 curriculum this year but getting started on Geometry.  This gives them the opportunity to advance through our curriculum and be able to take AP Calculus their senior year (Geometry, Algebra 2, and Trig are only 2 trimesters, Algebra 1 is 3).  Thus far the several students I have spoken with about this opportunity are excited for the challenge!

Finding Myself, Defining Myself

Over the last few months I have taken an unannounced hiatus from this blog.  Recently I've come across a couple of articles that seem to articulate the impetus for my silence.  I decided it was time to write again.

Reflecting 

When I began teaching I was idealistic, eager, and very focused.  Admittedly to my own detriment.  If standards were supposed to by my guiding force, well then, I would know them inside and out and have them drive everything I do in the classroom.  If my evaluation was to be based on student achievement I would pour over that data and use it to guide my instruction.  If creating engaging lesson plans meant sacrificing time with my family then I would make the sacrifice.  The result?  I got burned out.

I recently began to realize that I wasn't happy with my career choice anymore.  Being a teacher used to feel like my calling.  Now it just feels like a job.  One in which rules and regulations are decided by people who have no experience teaching, assessments of my abilities are quantified when in reality much of what I do is qualitative, and what qualifies as true learning has been dissected into a laundry list of standards I must cover rather than an environment of opportunities I'm allowed to create based upon my own experience and the true needs of my students.  I can relate to a veteran teacher in the article I Would Love to Teach But  who states that;

To pursue this calling, I worked hard to earn the title of “classroom teacher,” but I became quickly disillusioned when my title of teacher did not in any way reflect my actual job.

 And the public's perception of my job is no more positive.  From the article In What Other Profession David Reber states;

If a poverty-stricken, drug-addled meth-cooker burns down his house, suffers third degree burns, and then goes to jail; we don’t blame the police, fire department, doctors, and defense attorneys for his predicament. But if that kid doesn’t graduate high school, it’s clearly the teacher’s fault.

Although he's using sarcasm the unfortunate reality is that there is much that is made a teacher's responsibility that is clearly student/parent responsibility.  At least is should be clear.

Recently I had coffee with my father and we discussed the articles our superintendent writes in the local paper.  He wondered why there has not been a letter addressing parents' responsibility.  There have been articles addressing student achievement, curriculum, and state mandates so why not parent responsibility.  I also wonder why there are no state regulations mandating parent responsibility.  After all parents have more control over their students than we do as teachers.

Reacting 

I decided that I needed to somehow change the direction I was going in.  I started teaching late in life (I turned 40 my first year of teaching) and our financial situation requires me to keep working toward my pension and health benefits.  It was time to pull back and focus on myself and my family.  In essence, it was time to find myself separate from my position as a teacher.  I scaled back the time I spent on work from home and spent that time with my husband/children and on my own hobbies.  Magically, lesson plans still got done as did grading.  But I became a better mother, better wife, and better me.  I began to delve into my creative side again.  I began to knit, crochet, and sew again.  Something I haven't done in years.  I started to find myself.

Most importantly, I began to realize that I didn't have to be the "best" at what I do to still be happy with the job I do.  The perfectionist in me thought the only way to be satisfied with a job well done was to be the absolute best at it.  The perfectionist in me was wrong.  There is a critical balance that needs to be created and maintained for me to happy.  There is a lot about the politics of teaching that I have come to despise.  I have had to learn to define myself and the job I do outside of that political arena.  It means that I let go of evaluations, standards, and the like.  It means that I concentrate on supporting children in transitioning to adulthood.  It's high school after all.

I teach.  It's what I do not who I am.  Who I am is a caring, empathetic adult who enjoys helping children become the best adult they can be.  And THAT makes me happy.