The schedule lists the days we have readers workshop and what each student should be doing during the work period (guided reading with me, reading on a computer, or reading independently with paras rotating).

Oh my goodness, the bliss that this schedule has created!! (Yes, I used two exclamation points!!) The students’ independence has elevated the culture of the room about 100 notches.

In readers workshop, in just one day, students went from saying, “Where do I go?” and, “Can I use the computer?” and, “When will you do a running record for me?” to “I’ll get the computers for my group” and “I’m coming over for guided reading.”

It is amazing how a simple piece of paper can influence a classroom so positively. It saves me the aggravation of dispatching and answering the same question multiple times, too.

The next schedule that’s going up is one for beanbag use! No more fighting over the beanbags! We do what the schedule says! And in other independence news, I began teaching a small group of students how to use an editing checklist to review their writing and their peers’ as well. Yeah for growing up!

This week, I invited the math coach in to teach a couple of lessons. Watching a master teacher work is an opportunity for me to be reminded just how far I have to go.

(Since someone on Twitter asked me to clarify what a math coach is in this context, I will do the same here. The math coach’s roles are many and are not limited to: modeling lessons, observing lessons and making suggestions, joining teachers on intervisitations, providing ideas and resources, and serving as a planning partner).

Here are some takeaways from the lessons modeled in my classroom this week:

• Math needs to be made as concrete and relevant as possible. In teaching perimeter and scratching the surface of area, the coach began with a story about her backyard fence being broken and her dog escaping. The story set up a problem she asked the students to help her solve: Based on the size of her backyard, how much fencing would she need to buy at the store?

• Manipulatives are great for manipulating, and there needs to be time to allow exploratory and free use of them. The coach used geoboards and rubber bands and allowed the students three minutes to use them in any safe way they desired before moving on to a more structured use. She also used the geoboards as response cards of a sort, checking for understanding of the properties of a rectangle by asking students to make one on the geoboard and show her.

• It is important to slow down – as calmly as possible – when the students show resistance. My students all have disabilities and are English Language Learners, too, so it is important to really think about the most basic knowledge that they need to have before progressing to the more complex. In this case, it became clear to me and the coach that we had to really break down the use of the geoboard and how to properly count (rather than begin at 1, begin at 0) for accuracy’s sake.

• Love the Earth, save the paper! The students used geoboards and the SMARTBoard for about 55 minutes before transferring their knowledge to paper. By then, they were solid and able to make the transition from concrete to abstract.

It is always beneficial to see others teach, especially those with all the years of experience. If you don’t have a coach, try to set up an intervisitation with a colleague! You won’t regret it.

We teachers are professionals. We want to improve our craft because we want our students to be successful. We have strong beliefs based on our experiences in classrooms with various populations of students.

A simple plea:

We’re in it for the kids. If you, the policymakers, are, too, then please just listen to us.

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Without a detailed plan, you may — if you’re lucky — deliver a lesson that turns out to be pretty good. More often, though, a poorly planned lesson is going to be a clunker. Our students suffer when we fail to appropriately plan for them.

Planning a lesson is not as simple as referring to a curriculum map, the next page in the textbook or standards. These resources all have their place, and you should use them — but as guides, not the law. You will find they often don’t account for students’ deficiencies. You have to account for them, or else your teaching becomes meaningless.

Lessons don’t occur in a vacuum. What you see, hear and read from your students today should be directly reflected in what you teach tomorrow. Let the students dictate where you go with your planning. If you are too married to what “needs” to get done, students will fall behind quickly, quite frankly because they don’t get what they need.

“Data” is a four-letter word that strikes fear in many teachers. It shouldn’t. You collect data everyday when you observe your students and take note of what they are doing well and where they need support. Data comes from conversations (between or with students), exit slips, quizzes, questions, journals and more. Use it to figure out what your students still need to learn, and therefore, what you need to teach.

Some people like to plan a whole week at a time. I’ve even heard of people who plan all their lessons over the summer. I question these practices. Planning should be reactive. I generally plan only one or two days in advance. That way I make sure I’m not getting too far ahead of my students.

A lesson plan does not need to be scripted to the letter. However, it should have certain components to facilitate delivery. (These are my suggestions. Your school or district may require a certain format.)

1) Objective Your objective is what you want the outcome of the lesson to be. You might write, “At the end of the lesson, students will be able to _____.”

2) Materials Your materials are the list of resources, articles or manipulatives you need. This helps you organize everything prior to the lesson.

3) Procedure The bulk of the lesson, procedure includes, among other items: your activation or assessment of prior knowledge; teaching and learning activities; and questions to guide student thought.

4) Assessment How do you know they “got it?” You can use various forms of data to see. Remember, though, assessment happens throughout the lesson (so you can see what your next steps might be within the lesson) and at the end (so you can see if the objectives were met).

Lesson planning is pivotal to positively impacting student achievement. My rule for planning: always let your students be your guide!

On this one anecdote, Kristof bases his assertion that teachers of the poorest, most disadvantaged students, on the whole, stink:

To me, the lesson is that while there are no silver bullets to chip away at poverty or improve national competitiveness, improving the ranks of teachers is part of the answer. That’s especially true for needy kids, who often get the weakest teachers. That should be the civil rights scandal of our time.

I tweeted this article with a warning that it was grossly oversimplified and overgeneralized. It is too simple to equate leaving books for a student with being the means of breaking the chains of poverty. It is too general to say that such an experience for every student would help them loose the bonds of being poor.

It is also too simple to assume that Mrs. Grady is unique in her approach and impact. That, in fact, is insulting to the thousands of teachers who make similar impacts everyday.

Kristof is as qualified to write such things as anyone else who writes similarly, though, because he has never taught. Therefore, I’ll make my own generalization: If you’ve never taught poverty, you probably don’t know what it’s like to teach poverty.

I have, though, even if for less than four years.

Every year of my career has been spent in a school in which 100 % of the students receive free lunch. I’ve had about 80 students in my career; over 30 of them have had IEPs. All but one was at one time in his school career classified a an English Language Learner. So I think I have at least some kind of grasp on what it means to be a teacher of “needy students.” I have had kids come in hungry, dirty, tired, sick, scared, distracted, and unhappy.

Pardon me, but at the risk of sounding immodest, they’ve been lucky to have me. I am not a “weak” teacher.

Ah, Mr. Kristof. He perpetuates the ignorant myth that politicians and media members peddle: we have too few great teachers and too many awful ones. How idiotic.

Sure, there are teachers who are ineffective in their classroom management and pedagogy. Are most ineffective? I really think not.

Kristof didn’t focus on those qualities, though. He focused on the one thing that I believe all teachers have when they enter the field wearing their rose-colored glasses: a desire to impact change in the lives of young people.

Show me a teacher who doesn’t have that and I will show you a teacher who is a hopeless cause.

But show me a teacher who struggles to move the class along in a safe, efficient manner, and I will show you a teacher who can learn how to do it. Show me a teacher who struggles to deliver a lesson and impart knowledge, and I will show you a teacher who can learn how to do it.

Kristof makes the same damaging, erroneous assumptions that seemingly everyone has about teachers nowadays: they are selfish, money-hungry unionists who care nothing for the students they are paid to teach.

In my school, kids who arrive brand new to the country in the middle of the year, having never attended a day of formal schooling anywhere, are welcomed and embraced. These kids are who Kristof would call “needy.” You think it’s easy? I have some colleagues who would argue that opinion. They care, though. They treat each child with the respect and sense of importance they deserve. They care.

I’m part of a group of special educators that meets weekly before school starts (on our own time, that is) to talk about ways we can continue to modify curricula so our students can access grade level work in an appropriate way. We care.

Many others in my school are similar to me. They go above and beyond what is expected by families, administrators, and even students all because they want their students to do well and feel good about themselves.

You think my school is unique? It isn’t. All around this country, teachers are doing the same kinds of things we are.

Mrs. Grady did a great thing for Olly Neal, but I think she is much more the rule than the exception. Don’t believe what the mainstream media tells you: there are many more great teachers out there than they’d have you think.

My newsletters alert parents of important dates that they need to remember. They remind or inform them of school and classroom policies that may need to be refreshed in everyone’s minds. I also try to include photos from the previous month to show the fun things happening in our class. I print them on neon paper and they have been a big hit with the kids since I started sending them.

There are many easily downloaded newsletter templates online. If you’re looking for a way to build a better community and communicate more regularly with families, try a newsletter.  It’s a fun way to reflect and keep families updated.

Here is a sample page from my most recent one. Click the image for a larger, easier to read version:

Only Rhee knows great teaching? HA!

Inspire children by taping mouths shut.

The proof is in the data.

I know what’s best. You’re fired.

Now, we have a computerized system in NYC for handling all IEPs. It is a web of many options for all manner of people involved in the IEP – psychologists, service providers, teachers, administrators, funded and cluster teachers, etc. Since it’s just over a year old, the system still has several kinks that need to be worked out.

At her school, my sister is the point person for the system. She probably has a better handle on it than anyone in her building because she has used it and studied it so much. She compiled a handbook for her colleagues and provided me a copy.

Sorry, Sis, but I haven’t read it yet.

So when I have an issue with the system, as I did on Thursday, I usually go to someone who knows it better (like the speech therapist two doors down or the school psychologist in the middle of the hall). They usually provide me quick answers and teach me how to solve the problem, and since they’re so reliable, it is more efficient to go right to them than try to puzzle it out myself.

Surely I could take the time to try to figure out my problems on my own – as I encourage my students to do – but it is just so much easier to consult with the experts around me. Does this make me a hypocrite? Am I a lesser being because I seek others rather than try myself to crack the code?

It may seem trite, but I actually have been thinking about this, and wondering whether my students knowing I rely on others for assistance would inhibit their own attempts at independence.

• teach content in a multitude of ways; reteach it until it is learned.
• communicate regularly with parents via e-mail, phone, in-person conferences, and newsletters.
• assess papers and tests to inform next instructional steps.
• balance the demands of schedule changes and conflicts.
• regularly provide and receive feedback to colleagues who work with the same students.
• provide data of various forms at various intervals to administrators.
• read professional literature.
• attend conferences and professional development.
• write and direct plays and other performances.
• lead charitable endeavors, including reaching out to the community and managing donations.
• scout and book field trips.
• collect appropriate materials from a variety of sources, such as stores and the library.
• collect money for trips, book orders, and more.
• work with colleagues to better their pedagogy or understanding.
• hold meetings with a variety of professionals in the school who can assist in various roles (ie. psychologist, administrators, parent coordinators, etc.)
• participate in union activities.
• remain calm and make decisions in the event of a medical or other emergency.
• coordinate with guidance counselors to address various issues in students’ lives.

As we headed into the room after lunch, I asked the students to get their desks into rows. One boy who has shown a lot of personal and academic growth this year said something along the lines of, “Oh man, the test is so important.”

Of course, the content is way past the level of most of my students, and it frustrates them (try though they might!), so I try to downplay that kind of talk. I said, “Listen, we know you’ve done very well in school this year. That’s important, too.”

He agreed.