Sharon Krasner's Blog

Posted by Sharon Krasner

We've had a spell of cold weather here in Michigan and, as always, cold weather finds me in the kitchen baking. Don't know why-it just does. So what does that have to do with teaching and technology? For some reason, I started comparing baking cookies with teaching. Somehow, the analogy worked.

As I began gathering my ingredients and utensils, I started thinking about what goes in to planning my lessons. How I spend hours, and sometimes days, finding just the right mix of information and activities to interest and engage my students, whether it's in a sixth grade computer class or a 9th grade literature class. How the quality of the materials I find, just like the quality of ingredients, can make or break the end product.

Following the recipe brought me to the step of lesson planning. Due to the the schedule I have this year, I am writing two lesson plans a week. Balancing these two diverse curriculums is similar in my mind to writing quality lesson plans, plans that cover a variety of benchmarks and standards as required by my state and my curriculum director.

Next comes the measuring of ingredients. I thought back to my previous week of school, thinking of my successes and my failures, of the things that worked and of the things that didn't. Of students I reached through structure and humor, and students that were totally out of my reach, caught up in their own lives and totally not interested in anything I had to say or offer to them in terms of support.

Mixing the ingredients: a blending of ideas, thoughts and material to create. So much like education itself and the day to day needs of what we as teachers bring to our classroom. How everything is better with a little bit of humor, and why it's sometimes necessary to add heavy ingredients into something to make the mixture blend well.

Baking was next. How like the final product-whether we are talking about written or oral testing, projects, or the like. How much time and effort is put into that final effort by both the teacher and the students is what shows at the end-are the goals met? Does the cake rise?

When the finished product is out in the open, either on the table or in the classroom, the final test is given. Assessment begins. Did the student meet the rubric criteria set out in the classroom? Does the food present well and taste good?

The proof is in the pudding.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

I'm having a crisis of faith, of sorts, as regards my career.

Like many teachers, I came to education as a second career. After receiving a bachelors degree in journalism, and working in the public relations field for several years, I left the work force to raise a family. When my youngest began school full time, I finally followed in my family footsteps and began pursuing a degree in education. I've worked full-time for the past 6 years in the teaching field, and I'm tired.

It's not the kids. Let me say that again-it's not the kids. I actually enjoy working with the students, although for some reason all of the schools I've been in have plunked me down in the middle school and won't let me out. Until this year, I've taught 6th, 7th and 8th grade exclusively. This year, I have what can best be described as the schedule from hell. My charter school, in its infinite wisdom, decided not to hire a high school literature teacher because, after all, Mrs. Krasner can teach the three 9th grade lit courses and still teach two 6th grade computer classes. So what if they're in two different wings of the school, on two different floors? She's got a whole five minutes between classes, and she really does need the exercise.

Actually, I'm enjoying teaching such a diverse curriculum. And, even if I don't hear it often from my administration, I'm a darn good teacher. The kids respect me, they perform well for me, they trust me. My colleagues have learned to appreciate my odd-ball sense of humor, the fact that I know my way around the Internet fairly well, and I'm a good listener. My principal actually slipped a few weeks ago and told me that I was awesome, in front of other people. Be still my beating heart!

So what is the problem? I'm not sure, but I have a feeling there is more out there. Like the song from the musical 'Sweet Charity' says: There's gotta be something better than this. But what? I don't want to go back to a 9 to 5 office job. At least in a school the kids are chronologically supposed to act like children, not be adults who haven't grown up yet. Selling real estate is out-that's why I left journalism: no killer instinct. I know I want to stay in an area working with kids, and I've got background in social services/religious organizations, but the pay sucks, the volunteers all think they know what they're doing when in actuality they know less than the people running things, and there is very little gratification involved.

So, I'll continue what I'm doing, praying and hoping to revive and continue to receive satisfaction in knowing that I'm making a difference in children's lives, even though I may never actually see the results.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

As we get closer to M-Day (also known as MEAP testing) here in Michigan, the pressure is on to prep our students to the ultimate level. But how do you do that with limited time, limited resources, and kids who have had it with standardized testing being rammed down their throats?

I can't say that I blame the kids. Although I always enjoyed the standardized tests that I took as a student, I don't remember the kind of pressure to succeed that they are facing. AYP has replaced 'do your best'. When I questioned my 9th graders, who will be taking the social studies MEAP in mid-October, as to how many of them simply 'bubble' in answers without reading the question, almost 90% of my students raised their hands. Their reasons varied: questions were too hard (I agree), answers made no sense or were similar enough to cause confusion (again, agreed), just don't care. Even the knowledge that the test was worth money ($2,500 for doing well on the 11th grade test, with bonuses for both 7th and 8th grade) just don't seem to be enough incentive to do well, especially for children who aren't even sure they'll make it to college.

Is there an answer? I definitly think that MEAP test, and tests like it, are weighted against the urban students that I teach. As a history teacher in Detroit, a group of fellow social studies teachers and I took the high school social studies test, and failed! The test is written in archaic language, and in many cases has no relevance to our students. Perhaps not having the test written by people in the state who haven't been inside a classroom in 20 years would help. Or, maybe having students on the committee that designs the test might make the relevance of the test more immediate. I do know this-the students will not succeed if the deck continues to be stacked against them.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

It's too early in the year to want to throttle a student. So why am I not looking forward to my last hour literature class?

Let me explain. In their infinite wisdom, my school didn't hire enough teachers to cover all the high school classes. So, those teachers who are endorsed in more than one subject area, like me, are doing double duty. A colleague of mine, who had taught high school math for two years but also has an art background, was pulled from the majority of his math classes and is teaching middle school art. I have been pulled out of my middle school computer position, except for two 6th grade classes, and am teaching the 9th grade literature classes. Does your head hurt yet? Mine does-my feet, too.

So how does all of this equate to wanting to harm a student? Well, many of the 9th graders had me for literature when they were 7th graders, had me again for computers their 8th grade year, and now have me for 9th grade lit, a class that few of them want to take in the first place. And the worst offenders are two boys in the sixth hour class, my last class of the day.

Now mind you, separately, these two boys aren't horrible. They are both bright, capable students-just lazy as all get out. Not to mention the fact I don't think either of them has ever heard the word 'no' in their lives. But put the two of them together and it's like watching two thirds of the Marx Brothers. They are constantly disrupting class, asking inane questions, trying to get attention. They've been separated, talked to, sent to other people to be talked to. No go-they just are there to have a good time.

And if that's not enough, they belong to the 'rules are for all but me' club. One of them had the nerve to ask what would happen if he didn't turn in the Parent Letter, a requirement in my class. And he asked not once, but three times, before I finally read him the riot act.

When talking to the middle school dean, I mentioned these two boys and that they were in the same class. I thought the poor man was going to have a heart attack on the spot. With his blessing, I went to the high school principal, respectfully requesting that the two boys be separated due to their previous record of non-compliance when in each other's vicinity.

Here's hoping!

Posted by Sharon Krasner

It took me a while to decide what to write about today. Maybe it's the fact that my brain is tired and my feet hurt-after all, I've been back in school for a week. Having been informed two days before school began that what I thought was going to be a year spent teaching just middle school technology had evolved into two middle school technology courses and three high school literature classes-in two different buildings-moving every hour. No wonder my brain isn't functioning!

But somehow, today's lesson for my 9th grade literature classes wrote itself. You see, I vividly remember 9/11-it was my very first day of teaching in an inner-city school in Detroit, with all the chaos and confusion attached to that horrible day. The first attack on American soil since December 7, 1941. And every year, an opportunity-not to teach about the horrors of the day, but to teach the lessons left behind. The lessons of heroism, the lessons of tolerance, the lessons of peace in a world that my students will never find peaceful again.

Interestingly, when I questioned my 9th grade students what they remembered of that day, very few of them had personal memories of the day. Sure, they remember watching the planes flying into the World Trade Centers, remember the debris and the buildings collapsing. Only a few remember the strangeness of the day, the being released early to go home with parents who watched dumbfounded as the world seemed to come apart.

Is it just the times we live in that have made it impossible for these children of post-9/11 America to have hope? For not one of them mentioned the future and how it had changed for them. Only when I dragged it out of them did they admit to being concerned about their future world. Most shrugged their shoulders, wanting to know why it was even being discussed. A reminder of my favorite saying 'Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it' was met with eye rolls. And yet, hisotry has shown us time and again how human nature is just that-human. And because of that very humanity, I will discuss this day on all future September 11ths. So we can learn and so we can remember.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

I'm probably not going to earn a lot of friends from this blog entry.

As I grow older, I've begun to think that having school year round might not be a bad idea. I know that sounds revolutionary, especially to those teachers who work in an actual school system, with a union and everything, but I truly believe we are doing are kids a diservice by sticking to the old "School starts in the fall" routine. I'm dreading walking into my classroom for the first day of school tomorrow. My reason? Over the 2 1/2 months that my students have been on 'vacation' it's going to take at least a week before their brains return to keep their bodies company.

Think about it. For the past 2 1/2 months, my students have set their own time schedule. They've gone to sleep when they wanted to, gotten up when they wanted to, and pretty much got out of any kind of routine. Although some of them were in summer school, even that is a false sense of routine, with classes only four days a week, and only until noon. Now, we are requiring them to return to school at 8:00 a.m., go through an hourly rotation, eat lunch when we say,not chew gum or snack when they want, until they are finally freed from jail at 3:00.

While that routine wouldn't really be solved by year-round school, the year-round routine would at least allow for less time to get used to an unstructured schedule. Most year-round schools are 6 weeks on-2 weeks off, much more conducive to retaining information and routine than 10 weeks of free time. As for the teachers, it would allow us more manageable blocks of time, within which we could do more structure lessons and learning would be done in easier to digest chunks, rather than having to cram it all in over a 9 month period.

Just something to think about.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

With one week to go until the official start of school, I've begun looking for ideas to put into my lesson plans. I know that I have certain standards to cover, but I don't have a clue, at least in some cases, about how to teach them. I teach some fairly squirrely middle school students in an urban, at-risk setting. These are not the type of children who will sit quietly while I patiently explain to them how the computer works. I know from experience that the activities need to catch their attention and teach what I need them to know in the shortest time-frame possible, or they will shut down, in some cases, literally.

I am a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel. Ever since I started teaching six years ago, I looked to other, more experienced teachers, for counsel and advice. And it's no different now. Maybe I'm just lazy, but if someone has a way to teach about how to use an Excel spreadsheet in a way that will capture the attention of 120 middle school students, who am I to argue with their success?

So yes, I borrow lesson plans. Notice I said 'borrow'. Stealing doesn't sound appropriate. Neither does appropriating. I look at it as if I just sat down with a friendly neighbor who suggested a new recipe that her family just loved, and why don't you give it a try? I have made adjustments to the borrowed lesson from time to time, taking into account student ability levels and age, but I have found some great ideas on the Internet that have helped my students learn a skill that they may have only thought they knew.

Who am I to argue with success?

Posted by Sharon Krasner

As I mentioned in my last blog, the dream of a 9 month job is just that-a dream. I'm already back to school!

Working in a charter school means 3 weeks at the beginning of the school year where, from 8:30 until 3:00, all techers take part in various professional development activities. For those of you uninitiated in the terminology, charter schools are public school systems, overseen by universities who have written their charter, but separate from regular school districts. No, we are not the devil incarnate, although most teacher's unions see us as such. No, we aren't staffed with unqualified teachers-state law, at least in Michigan, now requires that all teachers in these schools have the proper credentials. As a matter of fact, the school I am at has only three uncertified teachers (an art teacher, a Spanish teacher and a music teacher). The rest of us are all highly-qualified professionals.

So, what kind of professional development goes on for three weeks before the school year begins? Well, this year, our school, working with a representative from the university that charters us, has the entire teaching staff working on curriculum mapping. Basically, we are getting together with our 'teams' and mapping out the entire school year. This is the first year we've tried this. It's confusing, it's time-consuming, it's a pain in the butt. Guess what? So is everything new. I feel good about this piece of our PD. One of the complaints I've always had has been that one hand doesn't seem to know what the other hand is doing. That's a real problem. The goal of this activity is to get teachers thinking about what they are teaching, and how that teaching will best benefit the students.

Other activities are more in the nature of housekeeping. Practical advice for new teachers such as schedules, classroom rules and policies, meeting with the deans of students about what is acceptable in the classroom and what isn't. Human Resources information such as health insurance policy changes. Who gets the reimbursement forms when you go to workshops and seminarts?

It's a great way to start the year.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

I want to know where the myth of 'teacher's have an easy job' came from.

You see, I always had heard that teaching, while a time-consuming job, was also the easiest in the world. After all, what other job allows you hour and a half long breaks, gets out at 3:00, takes two week paid vacations in December, another week in February, another week in April, and then three months in the summer? Heck, sign me up!

But as teachers know, that is a misconception. True, while we get an hour and a half break during the day, the half hour is usually only 20 minutes, with 10 minutes spent getting kids into the lunchroom without incident, while the hour is either spent fighting with a copy machine or making phone calls to parents. While some teachers do get out at three, that is really just the time that the students are dismissed. Many teachers, myself included, find that 3:00 is when the second half of the workday begins, with meetings, tutoring, or other school-related activities, not to mention personal obligations, like car pools for your family or classes that you run to in an effort to earn the really big bucks in administration or the like.

Those vacations? If only... Like most teachers, my vacations are spent looking up resources, attending workshops, writing lesson plans, or, if it's been a really rough year, collapsing. I find my vacations to be even busier than the work year, trying to make up time not spent doing many of the things that need to be done, such as doctors appointments, attending to chores around the house, etc., in addition to work-related activities.

So why do it? Personally, I do it for the feeling I get when a student 'get's it'. I do it for the sense of accomplishment I feel. I do it for the look of joy in my student's eyes when they see me. OK, the truth is I also do it for the occasional look of hate and distrust in a kid's eyes (alright,I'm a bit of a masochist!). I do it because I absolutely love what I'm doing. It's wonderful to wake up in the morning looking forward to going in to see students and colleagues who bring contentment to my life with their warmth, their humor, and who honor me by allowing me to take part in their lives.

Not everyone agrees. I've taken to avoiding teacher's lounges and certain colleagues because I absolutely cannot stand their constant complaints, whether it's about the students, the administration, or the state of their pension funds. I avoid colleagues coming down the hall with a look of fire in their eyes and a sheaf of paper in their hands, heading for the main office. I've ducked parents who are gunning for me because I had the nerve to place my hands on their child while breaking up a fight. I've been injured by students who have so much anger in their hearts that punches, or chairs, have been thrown.

But in my heart, I know that this is where I belong, and I accept the challenge.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

I've never liked the concept of technology for the sake of technology. What I mean by that is that I've never liked using technology on a reward/punishment system, as in "When you finish your work you may use the computer". For one thing, kids today are way to tech-savvy to fall for that. So they don't finish their work-so what? They've got I-Pods, MP3 players, video games, etc. If I can't use the technology now, I'll use it later-big deal!

The 21st century skills our students have to learn should not only include how to turn the computer off and on, and how to hook up to a couple of game sites that the kids can use to keep them quiet when they finish the lesson of the day. Our students will be competing with kids around the world, for whom technology is a part of their daily life. They need to learn not only how to turn the computer on, but what makes the computer function. I have a sister who is from the beginning of the baby boom generation who is still convinced that the computer has a squirrel on a treadmill that makes it work! She won't even learn how to use it, allowing her husband and son-in-law to send the family updated e-mails and stay in touch. If it's not a telephone, it's suspect.

Another problem that I have with the technology being a reward issue is the fact that many schools still look on computer usage being reserved for the computer lab class. Wake up, people! If we want our students to know how to use computers, so they can compete with others, we have to take the computer lessons our kids learn out of the lab setting. Computers have to stop being a lesson taught in isolation. Until school districts start integrating computers into all areas of education, and start showing students all of the things that computers can do, across the board, students are the losers in the education race. Science lessons on Leonardo da Vinci can't be complete without seeing his work from the Louvre and other venues. You can't study space without NASA space simulations. History has to include actual on-line visits to places like the Acropolis or Dachau, places students can go on-line. Wouldn't Thoreau's Walden Pond take on new meaning in the literature classroom if students could visit the actual Walden Pond and feel the serenity there?

Give it a try and tell me what you think.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

In the July 2006 issue of T.H.E. Journal, editor-at-large Geoffrey Fletcher talks about the third annual State Educational Directors Association providing a direct response to the Bush administration decision to pull funding of the Enhancing Educatiaon Through Technology (EETT) section of No Child Left Behind. In the article, Fletcher mentions that the administration has pledged zero dollars to this part of the NCLB, deeming it as "not performing". The unofficial comment from congressional staffers on the subjuct is that the EETT's job is done, because there is now plenty of technology in the schools.

Plenty of technology? That is not the point. Having the technology is only part of the battle. Out of the eight purposes expressed by the legislation, only two address access to technology. They include "improving student academic achievement through the use of technology in elementary and secondary schools, making sure all students are technologically literate by the end of their eighth-grade year, and establishing research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented as best practices". The other six points of the EETT include using technology to foster a comprehensive system, technology integration, professional development, distance learning, rigorous evaluation, and parent and family involvement.

So why is the Bush administration cutting these crucial funds at this juncture? No Child Left Behind, with its almost impossible goals, is doomed to fail if the funding for EETT isn't brought back to its original funding level of $700 million, allowing states and schools to continue using technology to aid in bringing children forward in the reading, writing and mathematics goals it originally set, while allowing children to gain the skills needed to send them out into the 21st century workforce.

Want more information? Go to the T.H.E. Journal site at www.thejournal.com.

Posted by Sharon Krasner

This past week, the state of Michigan Department of Education released a report that MEAP scores,the standardized tests given every fall in Michigan, are falling across the board. All kinds of fingers are being pointed. So, who, or what, is to blame.

First of all, let me say that I don't believe that these tests are worth the time, money or effort that is put into them. Some children just don't test well. Others just don't care enough. In my opinion, the tests aren't about what the students learned, but more about putting teachers on the spot. That said, something has to be done to put a stop to the brain drain occurring in our public schools.

I don't teach to the test. Michigan, in it's infinite wisdom, changed the date of the test last year from February to October, which probably accounts for at least some of the reason why the scores fell-the kids just weren't ready. In my classes, the skills are what are taught-how to comprehend questions so the answers can be found, how to write a literate essay, etc. It needs to be taken into account that some schools, such as the one I teach in, have children at-risk in various areas-academically, emotionally, physically. Trust me, if you've had no heat, and nothing to eat for a few days, doing well on this test is not at the top of your priority list.

Another thing: I wonder how many of the so-called experts who write these tests have ever sat down and completed one? A few years ago, my colleagues and I, all of whom had teaching certifications and several of whom had advanced degrees in their subject areas, took the High School social studies test. Guess what? We didn't do very well. The questions are ambiguous and confusing, at best. Some of the questions could have several different answers. The answers given, all multiple choice, are not always clear.

So now what? How about going back to the old-fashioned notion of not only holding the teachers accountable, but holding parents and students accountable as well? I'm tired of being the whipping girl for school boards and newspapers. I work hard at what I do-why aren't the parents and students working as hard to make sure that they achieve. And instead of making me the sole responsible person, how about those administrators who don't seem to understand that until teachers get more support in the classroom, chances are that things won't change.

Any thoughts out there?

Posted by Sharon Krasner

OK, so I got the loans, finished the coursework, did the portfolio, and graduated. Yeah! Now could someone please explain why the state will accept my MS from an accredited online university so I can get my professional certification, but is insisting that I take another $7,000 worth of classes so my certification will have a technology endorsement?

Let me explain. I did my masters degree in integrating technology in the classroom at Walden University, an online, accredited school. I checked before taking out the large amounts of loans to make sure it was comparable to getting an MS in Michigan, where I live. None of the local universities had what I was looking for-a totally online program that would allow me to work full time, take care of husband, children, in-laws-you know, life? I completed the program in August of 2004, but had to wait to apply for my professional certification until I had five years under my belt, which was this past school year.

When I contacted the state Department of Education, I was told that they would accept the recommendation from Walden so I could pay them my $125 for my Professional Certification, but that if I wanted an endorsement saying I was qualified to teach technology, I had to take more classes at a state approved university.

Any suggestions, people?