The typing habits of Big Fabes.

Writing and reporting used to pay my bills.
Teaching is my new passion.
Trying to make education better in increments.
My diet soda consumption is far too high.
Sometimes, I write things here.
Solidarity forever.

Jul 25

Realities of SY 11-12.

In the coming school year, I will teach a self-contained elementary class for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. I will be expected to teach curriculum across all subjects at four different grade levels.

The class will be twice as big as when I started two years ago. In the same time, the special education support staff has been cut by 33 percent.

Many of my students will take a new state assessment that is more difficult and allows for fewer accommodations than before. Additionally, less than a month before the school year starts, I still have not seen a sample test or received any training on it. And, my student’s scores on this test will count for 50 percent of my annual evaluation.

Class sizes all over my school will be larger. There will be fewer ancillary classes. I will take on an additional role as department chair to help make sure our special education students get the support they need. As of now, however, there is no speech pathologist or educational diagnostician assigned to our campus for this year. There has never been a counselor assigned to the campus since I’ve been there.

Despite all of this, I intend to succeed for my students this year. They will learn, make improvement and grow. They will have opportunities to rejoin general education classes. I’m not leaving any child behind.

But, if education is in such a crisis now, why does it seem “the system” is throwing up as many roadblocks as possible to tamp down good and great teachers? Why, if education is so important, is everything seemingly aimed at making it harder, not easier, to teach our most at-risk youth?

Posted at 1:32pm

Comments (View)
Jul 22
Let’s call this a requiem for a retail friend. Oh, Borders, I’ll remember you. I remember buying an anthology of literary journalism from your store in Evanston as a freshman at the renowned Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. I greedily read the writings of Calvin Trillin, Susan Orlean, Tracy Kidder and others. I was convinced I would follow in those paths, creating amazing, long-form narrative non-fiction that helped explain the world to my readers.  As a senior in college, I picked up a copy of John Gardner’s “The Art of Fiction” from one of your establishments in Cincinnati while I was working an intern for a writing magazine. I was still going to be a writer, but, now, I was going to write a great American novel, possibly about the threat of the corporate American to the identity of the individual. I never even finished reading the book. It turns out writing, especially fiction, requires a lot of discipline. Shortly after starting my first newspaper job in Aurora, I picked up a copy of “The Golden Bough” by Sir James George Frazer. See, I had started to study socio-cultural anthropology during my final two years of college. I was convinced I could still read the classics of the field while working as a journalist. Maybe I’d chuck it all to go back to graduate school to really study the field. I was wrong. Instead, video games, the Internet and bars were far more attractive than 100-year-old theories on the meaning of culture. A few years later, I was living in the Milwaukee ‘burbs and I picked up a copy of “The Boys of Summer” by Roger Kahn. Then I was freelancing as a preps writer while working for a magazine publishing house. Maybe I could get back into newspapers as a sports reporter. I was still young enough to start over and, someday, cover the NCAA tourney or the Super Bowl. Still haven’t read that book. Finally, in Houston, I picked up a copy of what are considered the canonical texts of Tai Chi. I had a job with stable hours. I had just finished an introductory Tai Chi class. I was convinced that I’d get my mind and body in harmony. This book, I actually read, but I haven’t been to a Tai Chi class in four or five months. So, Borders, goodbye. I can chart the things I’ve always sort of wanted to do through what I purchased inside of your amazing stores. Sure, none of those worked out as I imagined. I’m OK with that. I had fun vicariously living potential dreams through your texts. And, even though you’re shutting your doors forever, I’m pretty good with how things have turned out for me.

Let’s call this a requiem for a retail friend.

Oh, Borders, I’ll remember you.

I remember buying an anthology of literary journalism from your store in Evanston as a freshman at the renowned Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. I greedily read the writings of Calvin Trillin, Susan Orlean, Tracy Kidder and others. I was convinced I would follow in those paths, creating amazing, long-form narrative non-fiction that helped explain the world to my readers. 

As a senior in college, I picked up a copy of John Gardner’s “The Art of Fiction” from one of your establishments in Cincinnati while I was working an intern for a writing magazine. I was still going to be a writer, but, now, I was going to write a great American novel, possibly about the threat of the corporate American to the identity of the individual. I never even finished reading the book. It turns out writing, especially fiction, requires a lot of discipline.

Shortly after starting my first newspaper job in Aurora, I picked up a copy of “The Golden Bough” by Sir James George Frazer. See, I had started to study socio-cultural anthropology during my final two years of college. I was convinced I could still read the classics of the field while working as a journalist. Maybe I’d chuck it all to go back to graduate school to really study the field. I was wrong. Instead, video games, the Internet and bars were far more attractive than 100-year-old theories on the meaning of culture.

A few years later, I was living in the Milwaukee ‘burbs and I picked up a copy of “The Boys of Summer” by Roger Kahn. Then I was freelancing as a preps writer while working for a magazine publishing house. Maybe I could get back into newspapers as a sports reporter. I was still young enough to start over and, someday, cover the NCAA tourney or the Super Bowl. Still haven’t read that book.

Finally, in Houston, I picked up a copy of what are considered the canonical texts of Tai Chi. I had a job with stable hours. I had just finished an introductory Tai Chi class. I was convinced that I’d get my mind and body in harmony. This book, I actually read, but I haven’t been to a Tai Chi class in four or five months.

So, Borders, goodbye. I can chart the things I’ve always sort of wanted to do through what I purchased inside of your amazing stores. Sure, none of those worked out as I imagined. I’m OK with that. I had fun vicariously living potential dreams through your texts. And, even though you’re shutting your doors forever, I’m pretty good with how things have turned out for me.
Posted at 2:58pm

Comments (View)
Jul 11

I'm not alone in my love for SodaStream.

Posted at 8:00am

Comments (View)
Jul 9

Thoughts on standardized tests and special education.

The link goes to a very thoughtful article by New York special education teacher Michael Loeb arguing for standardized tests for special education students. He missed out on tenure because his students didn’t show adequate growth in English and mathematics on said tests.

That led to me reflect on the situation in my district and with the tests. For special education students to succeed on these tests, they need access to proper instruction, accommodations and modifications. My district, last year, moved the standardized test primarily responsible for measuring student growth to about one week after the standardized test primarily responsible for school accountability.

The two tests could not be more different. The accountability test is basically un-timed. Special education students have access to a series of accommodations and modifications, ranging from oral administration to supplemental aids (100s charts, multiplication charts), blank graphic organizers, frequent breaks, individual administration… You get the idea.

The growth test is timed, with very short time windows. The test does not allow for any of the accommodations listed above. Sure, the students might be able to take the tests in small groups, but none of the things they were used to in test taking are allowed on the growth test.

How, then, does a special education student, whether they are Autistic, have an emotional disorder or a specific learning disability, react when they get used to one set of supports for test taking only to have those ripped away a week later for a series of quickly timed tests? I have no data to drive my opinion, but, I’d wager that they feel frustrated or confused by the change.

Given the sequence of the two tests and the incredible differences in how the two tests are administered, do the growth tests actually measure accurate student growth given changes? And, if they don’t accurately measure student growth, is it fair to use these tests to evaluate teacher effectiveness?

Posted at 2:13pm

Comments (View)
Jul 7

Thoughts on the Atlanta cheating scandal.

Cheating on high-stakes tests was apparently rampant at dozens Atlanta public schools in the past few years at the same time as the superintendent was lauded for success in turning around test scores.

My response: Is anyone really surprised by this? Given the sanctions places on teachers and administrators when schools, of course they acted to save themselves. As long as educational policy is defined by punishments for those teachers and administrators willing to teach in the most at-risk and highest need schools, there’s always a chance that the fervor and idealism about making a difference will morph into a life-or-death scramble to meet arbitrary testing goals that have no bearing on the educational reality of the school.

What is the advantage of good teachers trying to work in schools that are filled with struggling students? It doesn’t matter if you’re teaching in a rich suburban school or a crumbling, inner-city school. Both require the same percentage of students to pass to meet federal requirements and keep funding. The punishment for failing at that inner-city school? Less money and fewer resources going forward to attempt to turn around student education.

Do I condone the cheating? If course not. It is a terrible, shameful action. Do I understand why some teachers and administrators might have turned to it as a last resort? Yes. When it comes to pass or lose your job, I can see why some people will do everything they can, ethical or not, legal or not, to keep that job.

Posted at 5:24pm

Comments (View)
Jul 2

Pure joy.

There are few better examples of pure joy in the human experience than a 3-year-old playing in a swimming pool.

I had the chance to experience this joy vicariously when some friends brought their kid over to our apartment pool today. He could have stayed in the pool, jumping from the side, playing in a tube and twirling around, for hours.

Posted at 9:54pm

Comments (View)
Jul 1

Daniel Goleman on the awesome benefits of scaled-up social-emotional learning programs. This is what, I believe, is missing from serious educational reform discussions.
Posted at 4:17pm

Comments (View)
Jun 29

My next fitness fad -- swimming.

I’m five lessons into my private swim lessons. Right now, I have a reasonably functional front crawl; a passable, if often non-straight backstroke and the nascent stages of a breaststroke.

And, given the issues with my knees and ankles, combined with the terrible summer weather in Houston, swimming might be the perfect cardiovascular exercise for my location and lifestyle. I just have to get myself gym pool on a regular basis.

There are plenty of great health benefits, as the link illustrates. Maybe this time, swimming will stick. Here’s hoping.

Posted at 10:17pm

Comments (View)