Let's Teach Them The Way They Want Kids To Learn



I have come up with a way to convince Bloomberg and all these other politicians, businessmen and other know it alls that class size matters.

They should sign up for a class in a field they have no aptitude in and no previous knowledge.  It should be a class required to not only pass, but to excel in.  And, I would make sure the class had 40 students in it, each student needy of individual help and some with attention problems.  I would assign a teacher with a reputation of being a master and with VAM to back this up.

Maybe then, would these individuals who know nothing about education realize just how important small classes are to student achievement.

Even A $20,000,000 Bonus Wouldn't Have Helped



Hard work and a desire to do well are just not enough to be a success at some things.  If I didn't believe this before, I would believe it now, after completing my first Zumba class. 

I'm looking for activities to fill my days.  While I am enjoying not working, I need to be in motion.  There is a limit to the amount of time I want to spend on the computer or reading.  My friends are doing mahjong and bridge but card games are just too sedentary for me.  When Living Social came up with a $20 coupon for 6 classes, I grabbed it, not knowing what I was getting myself into.

Being born with two left feet, and being extremely unathletic, I worried about looking the fool.  But, I learned I had nothing to fear.  The class had people from 20 to 70 years young, in all physical conditions and with varying levels of talent.  Everyone was so busy doing their own moves, no one had time to look and laugh at me.

The leader was a young man.  He demonstrated the moves and kept us going for an hour.  As we gyrated, he kept his eyes on the mirror, moving around the room and offering individual guidance to many of the needy students.  With 30 students in the class, it was impossible for him to give the individual attention I was desperate to have.  Oh, he tried all right but one teacher cannot successfully guide so many students.  Five minutes was the most time he could give me.

This was a fun class, no one was graded and really, the goal was to keep moving and get lots of exercise, which we all did.  The teacher really did a great job.  I don't know what he is paid, I'm willing to bet it is not very much, but he worked like a dog.  A huge bonus wouldn't get  him to do more.  If the class was smaller and he could have spent more time with me, I know he would have and I might have gotten a tad better.

I get why my Zumba class is big.  This is a business and profit is important.  Kids, on the other hand, are not a business.  They need smaller classes so they can get the attention they need to succeed.  Teachers, even the best, cannot give them what they need with class size as big as they are.  And, just like the Zumba teacher, public school teachers won't be able to do any more, even with the promise of a $20,000 bonus, something most will never see.

On Being Back



Today was my first day back at Packemin.  In case you are wondering, I didn't rescind my retirement.  The community college gives a course to high school students on the Packemin campus (campus in the loosest sense of the word possible) and I have been teaching it for years.  Since change is not something I am good at, I figured keeping the class would be a good way to ease out gradually.

I had mixed feelings walking into the building today.  A couple of people were surprised to see me so I had to explain why I was back.   I loved my class, but I always love that class.  Walcott should  know, but won't admit that part of its success is its cap at 25 students.  The kids, while motivated, are not always the brightest and some have to be prodded to make it on time to period 1.  But, with 25, it is easy to keep tabs on all of them.  And, since we don't have any uniform exams, it is easy to let the kids lead the way, spend more time on the things that interest them and just let them enjoy learning the math.  It is always a class in which fun and learning go hand in hand.

Last year's dysfunctional algebra kids, surprised to see me, gave me the warmest greeting ever.  K, who did not pass hugged me so hard I thought I would break.  (Last year, she let no one touch her.)  A proudly told me he is taking intermediate algebra.  I was so proud of him for working hard and overcoming his math deficiencies and I told him the new class would help prepare him for college.  T came by to bitch, something she does well, and to hear my latest comments on her recent weave.  (Last year I let her know every time it was tacky.)  H told me about her new sister.  I lived through her mom's pregnancy and was happy to hear all went well and the baby was female, as H had more brothers than she wanted.

The best part of the day was saying goodbye at 8:30 when the class ended and leaving for the day.  I don't have to carrying the world on my back anymore.  I don't have to worry about statistics or behavior problems or administrators peering in my room.  I don't have to listen to someone who doesn't know the first thing about teaching telling me how to teach.

I have a feeling I am going to really enjoy being back in this way.

The Corporate Whore



I recommend listening to last night's South Bronx podcast of Leonie Haimson and Matthew Chingos on class size.  Leonie is fantastic.  She had her facts and used them to push  for smaller classes, something she knows is necessary for the children everywhere, particularly children from the inner city.

Chingos let it be known loud and clear that smaller classes were not worth the money they cost.  He discounted success stories with smaller classes as anectdotes that mean nothing.  He had no answer for why private schools and suburban schools have smaller classes. 

So, it all comes down to money and the children of NYC are not worth the money it would take to educate them properly.  Children learning in a smaller group has been proven to be effective but he would rather take the money that could be used for this and put it somewhere else.  Perhaps Chingos should try living in a house made of cardboard.  This will be much more cost effective than the brick and steel structure he probably resides in.  If it doesn't hold up, he can always try something else.  And, he did manage to save a few bucks along the way.

Class Size Matters

Nine kids showed up for tutoring this morning, not a big turnout, but a worthwhile one.  A group of ESL girls, girls who have only been in this country a little over a year showed up.  And, while I don't speak Chinese,  sitting with them, explaining with words and pictures and then letting them explain to each other made a big difference in what they knew coming in versus what they knew when they left.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking to Leonie Haimson from Classsizematters.org and I only thought about my lowest level kids and how smaller classes would benefit them.  Today I saw how smaller classes would really help all kids.

Millions of dollars are being spent on technology and methods to evaluate teachers.  Nothing is being spent to lower class size.  Thank goodness for people like Leonie who work non stop to try to get the children of NY what they really need.

No Survivors

The mayor and the chancellor claim class size should not matter and that a quality teacher is all that is needed. Boy, can I prove them wrong this year.

My geometry classes consist of 34 kids each. Out of the 34 kids, at least 28 of them have some sort of attention deficit and have trouble focusing. This is not a good combination. They feed off of each other and it doesn't matter how they are seated. I have kids that would make friends with the cobwebs if there was no one around to talk to.

Having these problems doesn't make these kids bad kids or dumb kids but it does make it hard to teach them and it is hard for them to learn. But, the majority of them do want to succeed, although you would never believe this if you walked into my classroom and saw the cell phones and i-pods that I am constantly yelling about and listened to the mouths that do not stop yakking away.

Since the AP exam is over and my college now class is over, I feel like I am on vacation and have been able to put all my effort into these two classes. I've been grabbing the kids wherever I find them and making them work, even if it is only for ten minutes at a time. In this one-to one or small group situation, they are learning and succeeding. I can get them to do more in this mini session than I can in class in 45 minutes. (I just marked their finals and almost all passed!)

The quality of my teaching is immensely better in the small group situation. That is the one thing that works. The Bloombergs, Kleins and Obamas of the world know this. Their own children attended or attend schools with small classes. The UFT knows this. They spend thousands of our hard earned dollars going on television talking about how they got smaller classes yet my classes and those of my colleagues are still packed to the gills. Charter schools know this and they do have smaller class sizes.

Years ago I had a big aquarium. I knew that number of fish that would survive based on the size of the tank. Too many and they would all die. NYC students are like the fish in the over stocked aquarium and they are dying by the minute.

Class Size

No matter what the Mayor says, small classes are the answer.

Last year 12 special education students were put in an inclusion class with 20 regular education students and a push in teacher. The kids were lost. The push in teacher worked non stop, giving up all her lunches and preps and got most of them to pass Math A and move on to Math B.

This year the push in teacher said she would be a push in no longer. She had the school create a Math B class exclusively for her special education students plus a few resource room kids. She goes as slow as she needs and gives her students exactly what they need now that she is in charge and not dealing with the Ms. Wannabe Suit that was the main teacher in the room last year. The kids, while all not passing, are doing much better.
A resource room kid was in my Math B class, a class with a register of 34. Although Boy was motivated, and working hard, he just could not get the hang of a proof. Push in and I worked together and got Boy transferred to her class. Boy just came to visit me to show me his latest test where he scored a 93. Boy is succeeding and feels good about himself.

So, the real question now is why is Boy doing so much better? Is Push in a better teacher than I am? She might be but she does not have my experience in either teaching or in math. Does she care more? I think we both care about the same (which is lots). Or, is it because her class has 15 kids in it as opposed to mine of 34? My guess is that class size is the answer.

Pissed off Mom goes on and on about class size and about how she had to pull her son out of a public school so he could get an education in small classes and how he could succeed now that class size was limited. Bloomberg and Klein say that a good teacher is more important than class size. Too bad he never met Boy or Pissed Off Mom's son.