Lectures by iPod

Students in Hutchinson Kansas will be able to view classroom lectures on their iPods this coming school year.

The high-tech lessons will be part of a new project in which teachers make their lectures available as podcasts.

Using newly purchased digital video cameras, teachers can record what happens in class so students can later upload the material on their iPods and watch it again at their leisure...

...Teachers will start recording their lectures when the school year starts. The podcasts—digital media files that can be either audio or video—will cover reading and math material to correspond with No Child Left Behind education standards.

The podcasts will be added to computers, televisions and the district's new 80-gigabyte iPods. In all, the equipment for the podcasts, including six computers, cost more than $25,000.

The money came from a bond issue passed several years ago, school board member Jeff Nichols said. Each year, the district spends about $1 million to keep up with changing technology, he said...

This from Teacher Magazine.

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I love the iPod. But I predict they will best serve auditory learners and students who are already well-motivated to learn. I have trouble imagining many poorly-motivated students getting excited about reviewing a class lecture...just because it is portable and can be viewed on a 2 X 2 screen. Stay tuned.

Achievement Gap? Generation Gap!

Teaching veterans have remarked to me recently about a new (or perhaps they are just now noticing it) generation gap showing itself in the teaching profession.

Recent years have seen turnover increase as a number of teachers have come and gone, changing the landscape in the school. Some think the outward appearance of teachers is changing too. Apparently young (and blond) is "in."

One Gen Y'er offered her students "bootylicious" as a bonus word on a spelling test.

But if you happen to be the young blond...there are challenges too.

This from Erin Reed, a first year teacher in Texas in Teacher Magazine:

Old Enough to Teach

My favorite teacher was my high school English teacher. She was as hip and cool as she could be for an “old person.” It was fun just being in her classroom. Quirky and eccentric, she had an extensive collection of “Got Milk” and “Absolut Vodka” ads that was sure to raise eyebrows. We completed some of the most interesting projects in her class, including the time she had us explain the classic novel Siddhartha by finding similar themes in popular music. She was the one teacher I could relate to, but I wonder if her colleagues saw her as young and inexperienced. This was a concept I could never have understood until I became a teacher this winter, five years after being in her class.

I began my first full-time teaching job on January 22, 2007, two months shy of my 23rd birthday. I had just graduated with a B.A. in education and a great thirst to change the world. I thought I could enter my teaching career before the ink was dry on my diploma and that I would be applauded for my drive. I quickly found out this would not be the case. On a college campus, being over 21 is considered old and wise. When I hit the teaching profession, however, I heard a different tune. At 23, I was still a kid.

No one wants to take a 20-something teacher seriously when she acts her age. While my elementary students appreciate my age, my colleagues don’t. My pigtails and flip-flops don’t fit into this new world. Just when I was sure that I could be myself and my students could relate to me, I was shot down.

In college, no one warned me about this parallel universe. No one told me that I would spend the first months of my teaching career defending myself. I felt like everything I was doing from lesson plans to grading was held under a microscope with someone waiting for me to make a mistake.

I discovered I would have to work twice as hard as others on my team to be seen as competent. I began coming in early and staying late to prove that I, too, could join the ranks of “Super Teachers.” I worked extra hard on my lessons and tried my best to be at every parent function so that my commitment could never be questioned. Nevertheless, parents seemed apprehensive to leave their children in my care. Teachers seemed annoyed by my ever-present enthusiasm. I was even told by one of our secretaries that she owned undergarments older than I was.

Walking into my classroom puts a smile on my face. I don’t have much (a shelf of books and 6 posters), but my room does not feel empty. Some walls are dedicated to sports teams, carefully picked by my students; others are covered with students’ artwork. We have a small area with free movie posters that I snagged from the local grocery store. (I was once told that my classroom resembled a college dorm room, which I mistakenly took as a compliment.) I let the kids have free reign of the classroom climate. I listen to the same music, shop at the same clothing stores, and watch the same shows and movies as my students, but this doesn’t always go over well. Don’t get me wrong, I go in everyday and try to do the best job I can, but I don’t see why school can’t be fun.

I often think some people feel I have been given a chance I do not deserve, but I would ask those of you who doubt younger teachers to remember the joy you felt when the district called to say you were hired. Remember when you thought that your paycheck was a huge amount of money. Remember how much fun you had at first, how you loved doing things that pushed the envelope just enough to feel rebellious, yet still stay within those district mandated parameters. Remember how it felt to be young and innocent.

Generation Y is growing up. We want to influence the world like generations before us did. We are transitioning into the “adult world” and we need to be heard. We are full of knowledge and desperately trying to make an impact. We should not be discouraged.

Dad Faults Teacher for Showing Pirated Film

He doesn't want to be an ogre about it, but the father of a fifth-grader thinks teachers are wasting time when they show movies in class—and if the film is a bootleg, he says, "That's a really terrible lesson."

Tim Trewhella, 46, said his 10-year-old daughter reported that her class watched the animated movie "Shrek the Third" on Tuesday and recognized it as the fairy-tale hit still showing in theaters.

"A friend hooked me up with it," teacher Lovell Quiroz said, according to the girl.

Peekskill schools Superintendent Judith Johnson issued a statement saying administrative approval is required before a video is shown in elementary school and "if a pirated video was shown it is in violation of district policy." An investigation was under way, the statement said.

This from Teacher Magazine.

Role of Teacher-Coaches Grows

Eager to help more students pass the state's standardized math test, some school districts are turning to instructional coaches to give teachers real-time advice as they try to sharpen students' skills.

It seems to be working for Brian Coffey, a first-year science teacher at Seattle's Aki Kurose Middle School who was assigned to fill in for a math teacher who recently went on maternity leave.

Two math coaches, one based at the school and another who travels the district, regularly sit in on his classes and offer tips on how to connect better with students.

This from Teacher Magazine.

From Coast to Coast: Teachers dropping out

A study blames working conditions.

As a mid-career professional with a doctorate in chemistry, Maurice Stephenson appeared made to order for the Los Angeles Unified School District, especially because he was eager to teach at a high-poverty campus in a system woefully short of qualified science teachers.

But the honeymoon ended abruptly after less than two years. Fed up with student insolence and administrative impotence, he stalked out of Manual Arts High School on March 12 and never went back.

Few teachers quit so dramatically, but leave they do. In California, teachers are departing the profession in alarming numbers — 22% in four years or fewer — but simply offering them more money won't solve the problem, according to a report released Thursday.

The real issue is working conditions, which are the flip side of a student's learning conditions, said Ken Futernick, who directs K-12 studies at the Center for Teacher Quality at Cal State Sacramento.

The central findings were:

81% of teachers who participated in our survey said they entered the profession because they wanted to make a difference for children and society. This overwhelming number indicates that teachers want above all to be effective teachers.

Many teachers leave schools long before retirement because of inadequate system supports such as too little time for planning, too few textbooks, and unreliable assistance from the district office.

Bureaucratic impediments (e.g., excessive paperwork, too many unnecessary meetings) were cited frequently by leavers. The data also showed that teachers were not asking to be left alone but instead wanted efficient and responsive bureaucracy that supported their teaching.

Better compensation matters to teachers, but unless their classroom and school environment is conducive to good teaching, better compensation is not likely to improve teacher retention rates.

Teachers willingly stay because of strong collegial supports and because they have an important say in the operation of the school; they also seek strong input in what and how they are allowed to teach.

Special education teachers are most likely to leave special education because of inadequate system supports as well as an all-too-often hostile teaching environment created by parents and student advocates. In addition, they leave because of too little time for the complex and constantly changing IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) they are required to write.
Many leave because of dysfunctional professional relationships with their colleagues in general education.

Many teachers (28%) who have left teaching before retirement would come back if improvements were made to teaching and learning conditions. Monetary incentives alone would be less effective in luring them back.

And from Teacher Magazine:

Why Teachers Quit
By Kimberly Palmer
Palmer, K. (2007 May/June). Why teachers quit. Teacher Magazine, pp. 45

It wasn’t her teenage students who drove Meghan Sharp out of teaching—it was the crippling inflexibility of her administrators.

All the innovative curriculum ideas and field trips she proposed to engage her 10th grade biology students were promptly shot down, and she left the profession after just two years.

“I still enjoyed teaching, but it was a constant battle with the administration,” says Sharp, who worked in an urban district in northern New Jersey.

According to a recent report on teacher attrition by the federal National Center for Education Statistics, her predicament—and her departure—are common in the profession. Among former teachers who took noneducation jobs, 64 percent said they have more professional autonomy now than when they taught. Only 11 percent said they’d had more influence over policies at school than in their current jobs.

The survey, based on interviews with more than 7,000 current and former teachers, also found widespread problems with workloads and general working conditions, and it notes that the percentage of teachers abandoning the classroom continues to grow. Among public school teachers, that proportion reached 8 percent in the 2004-05 school year—up from 6 percent in 1988-89.

The problem, experts say, is that teaching has gotten harder.

“As states have increased their reform orientation and their standards and accountability, a good chunk of that falls on the shoulders of teachers,” says Margaret Plecki, an associate professor in educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. Those changes, she notes, add up to increased pressure to perform.

In such a climate, teaching may not feel as rewarding, says Barry Farber, professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “My sense is that these numbers reflect the fact that many teachers are still struggling to feel consequential—to feel that their efforts are making a difference.”

The NCES study also showed that less-experienced teachers were particularly at risk of fleeing: 20 percent of public school teachers with no prior full-time teaching experience left during 2004-05—more than double the overall rate.

65% Proportion of former public school teachers who say they're better able to balance work and life now that they're working outside the education field.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education; National Center for Education Statistics Teacher Follow-up Survey.