My autistic son is lost in a sea of standards.

I am not a special education teacher, nor do I have any autistic students in my classroom.  That letter, however, hit a nerve with me because it seems that more and more the things which students need the most are being pushed further and further from classrooms.  They are being crowded out by the emphasis of standards and testing that has become over-important in public education today.  My heart went out to the educators working with Jackson because I know how easy it is for educators to lose sight of the big picture.  It seems that teachers are being bombarded with ever changing strategies at improving student achievement on standard x, y, and z.  Every department meeting is filled with talk of student strengths and weaknesses, according to “data”.  How are we going to assess student growth in applying the Pythagorean Theorem in a real-life situation?  How can we get students to analyze data and display the results in a box and whisker plot?  I recently asked my math department if we could all make a push for all of our students to learn their times tables by the end of the school year.  It’s amazing how many of our students grades 6-8 do not know their times tables and have given up on ever learning them.  My eager proposal was met with “I don’t have time to teach that.”  Not all of my colleagues felt that way, but some did.  The discussion quickly changed gears and there still hasn’t been much follow-up on my proposal.

Has the emphasis on test scores, standards, and grades reduced the quality of learning in our classrooms?  Has it reduced the quality of teaching?  Armed with an optimistic view, consider what our students could be doing in classrooms that were liberated of the demands that standards and testing place on teachers.  Consider what skills you’d like to see your child learn that aren’t in the curriculum.  What about empathy?  Tolerance?  Perseverance?  Drive?  How about the ability to teach themselves?  To create?  To explore?  To pursue their own interests?

I’ve wrote before about how unprepared I am to prepare my 8th grade students for the world they will enter after high school.  I’m unprepared because I can’t even begin to define the skills and tools that will be most necessary in the world of 2018.  Here are a few of the breakthroughs in technology in the last 5 years:

• Android (2008)
• Tablets (2010)
• Next generation electric cars (2008)
• Motion Sensing game consoles (2010)

I believe the most important skills students can learn in school is undergoing a tremendous shift.  To be competitive and successful in the world our children are entering they are going to need a skill set that few are learning in many public school classrooms.  That doesn’t mean the standards and testing need to disappear completely.  I do wonder, though, just what our students could do if their teachers were relieved of the demand to cover the entire curriculum by the end of the school year, often at the expense of the students.  I wonder what our classrooms would look like if more emphasis was placed on the skills that are tougher to measure.  Could students create portfolios, collaborate with their peers, and pursue their interests?  These things can be done in classrooms today, but I fear that most educators are too ill prepared to lead students through a journey of schooling that isn’t based on time, or standards, or analyzing test scores.

I never intend for my writing to bash the very institution that I chose to make my career.  I hope that doesn’t radiate from my posts.  I love what I get to do and I work with amazing students.  I can’t see myself doing anything else.  I see the potential they hold if given the opportunity to release it.  I consider myself one of those educators that are ill-prepared to lead students down a path that will best prepare them for what is ahead.  It has taken some time, but little by little I feel myself letting go of the pressures of test scores and standards, and narrowing my focus to learning.  Not everything in my classroom is easily measured, but I see it.  I see students persevering, problem solving, and leveraging the power of technology to shrink big problems into small ones.  But there is so much that my students are still missing out on and that’s why I engage other professionals in my spare time.  Without the aid of my network of peers pushing their students in the same direction I’m pushing mine, I would be shooting at a blank target.   I’m not alone, there are others.

What are your thoughts?  My daughter is not quite 2 years old, so I can admit that my perspective of schooling is restricted to being a teacher.  Leave a comment about what came to your mind while reading this post.  Thank you.

The training and structuring that has developed in my classroom is the best it’s ever been.  I’d like to share with you some of the ways I’ve developed a positive classroom culture with no rules, no D-halls, no reminders, and no zeroes.

Every teacher has moments in their career when they feel as if their students aren’t motivated.  A teacher feels that no matter how hard they try, they just can’t get the students to buy in and express any concern for what is being done in the classroom.  In fact, some may feel that way all the time.  Can you imagine how it must feel walking into a classroom with 20-30 students looking at you that could seemingly care less about what you’re about to ask them to do?  I can say it’s miserable!  Never has there been an effective teacher that didn’t like their job.  All effective teachers are happy teachers, and it’s difficult to be a happy teacher when your students appear to lack any motivation or concern for what you’re trying to teach.

I have dedicated a considerable amount of resources, energy, and most importantly, time, to creating a class that students enjoy, but one in which they are challenged.  Challenging students and motivating students are not an easy task.  Every day I’m reminded of how directed my students are, and how aware they are of what they’re learning well and what they’re not learning so well.  Does this describe every student?  Not yet.  But it does describe most of them.  Below you’ll find some techniques I’ve found to be successful in motivating and engaging my own students.  Most of these efforts are also intended to develop more personal relationships with my students.  All of these efforts are accomplished without rules, D-halls, reminders, or zeroes.

• @Celly: I use celly with my students and parents as a means to communicate.  This also allows my students and I a safe place to exchange comments, positive reinforcement, and questions. You’d be surprised at what a simple text broadcasted to students and parents will do for my class the following day. One evening I texted a list of names who had been working hard online that evening. The next evening I had twice as many students working hard from home.  If you don’t know about Celly, definitely check it out!
• Email is still effective.  I make an attempt to email personal messages home to at least 2 students each week.  At the beginning of the year I made a strong attempt at gathering an email from all homes represented by my students. I used a simple Google form to accomplish this. Sending a positive, personal message home bragging about a student requires about 5 minutes.  This has been a high – yield strategy for me this year.  I’ve received great feedback from students and parents.  One student came in the next day and said “Mr. Oldfield, will you send another message home?  I got my phone back last night and I’m not grounded anymore!”
• We have Blennerhassett Bobcat cards at my school. They’re postcard sized, with a spot to write a short note. These have become an amazing tool and they require very little time. In 30 seconds I can write a positive, encouraging note to a student. I try to hand deliver the notes too. Since I started doing this I’ve heard from other teachers telling me that a student stopped by their room to show them the card he/she received from me. The students are so proud of these cards.
• I have a wall of fame in my room. Students appear to be working hard to gain recognition on my wall. I admit, I need to invest more into this attempt at improving student motivation in my classroom.  I have not publicized what is required to gain a spot on the wall.  I find that doesn’t restrict students to only doing what is required. 
• I have also made a strong effort this year to leverage the power of social media to connect with my students at the place where they spend a ton of time.  I’ve broadcast my Twitter name to my classes and my parents.  Twitter has provided me the opportunity to share student success in a place that is important to students.  I imagine most students would prefer I praise them in front of their peers, rather than in private to their parents.  How strong is your voice?
• I use Khan Academy with my students. Thankfully, it allows me to monitor student use/activity extremely effectively. It takes me about 5 minutes to access Khan Academy and check to see which students have been active.  If I stopped there, I’d be missing out on a tremendous potential.  Checking on students activity allows me to touch base with them, either via Celly, Twitter, or face to face the next morning.  Even a simple “Hey I saw you working really hard last night, how did it go?” sends a strong message to my students that I care about what they’re doing.  Is there a stronger message to send?  One morning I perched myself outside my door, waiting for a young lady to come around the corner because I noticed she finally passed adding and subtracting negative numbers the night before.  She completed a total of 234 problems over the course of the 9 weeks grading period.  This was a skill that presented her with a ton of difficulty.  I had exhausted myself with scaffolded support, working 1:1, researching interventions and strategies, etc.  That morning she came around the corner, I just pat her on the back and said, “Congratulations!  I see you passed last night!”  She started crying tears of joy over me acknowledging her hard work and success.

There are, no doubt, many effective ways to improve student motivation, show students that you care, and broadcast student success.  These are a few of the things that have affected my classroom tremendously!