Annoying Blogger Habits

As you can see by the time between posts, I haven't been blogging here often. Mainly, because I've been working on my book, creating videos for www.learniting5.com and writing at ASCDEdge. Today, I had some spare time to read some blogs, add some comments and find some new people to my Twitter PLN.

Photo credit: Comstock

After about an hour of surfing the blogosphere and Twitterverse, I became thoroughly annoyed and decided I needed a place to vent. Now Role Reversal is typically where I write about best and worst practices in education, but these are educators sharing online, so I figured this was as good a place as any for this post.

So, here I go with some venting.

 

Things that annoy me about bloggers

 

1 - Comment moderators: Do you really think that I'm coming to your blog to fill the comment section with expletives? I understand if it's a classroom blog, but I'm not reading those. Open up your comments, for crying out loud. If your audience is teachers, you might try trusting them to do what's right.

2 - Captchas: You know, those squiggly little letters you can hardly see at the bottom of your comment. Type them in wrong, and you are denied. Can't see them? Try listening to them.You'll have a better chance translating Klingon, spoken by a two-year-old. I tried to post a comment to a blog seven times today. That's right, 7!. Each time, what I typed was denied. As a blogger, don't you want comments? Turn off the captchas.

3 - Research taken out of context: Validating your points with research is an admirable practice. Too often, though, bloggers grab a quote and throw it into their blog post, with as much consideration as a four-year-old trying to pin the tail on the donkey. If you're going to quote a source, be sure the researcher supports your position, instead of just grabbing a sentence located in a random Google search.

4 - Private Twitter accounts: Nothing gets my blood boiling faster than a teacher with a private Twitter account. I was looking for people to follow recently, so I went to a trusted Twitter friend. As I scrolled the page of the people she was following, I found someone with an interesting profile. I clicked the follow button, only to be greeted with a message that the person must approve all followers. Twitter isn't Facebook. If you want to be a professional and share information, then unlock your account.

5. Twitter accounts with no profiles: Are you a secret agent? Again, if you're on Twitter, and you can easily be located, why didn't you take two minutes to tell me why I should follow you? Even one sentence would suffice. How about a word, Educator! Better yet, how about going to your account and hitting one key -- Delete!

The list could go on, but I feel better, so I'll stop here. So what do bloggers do that frustrate you?


Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Amazing Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, due February, 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

Why do we need classroom rules?

An article I posted at ASCD EDge, Top five reasons to eliminate classroom rules, has gotten plenty of attention (1,000 views in two days). When EDge promoted the article to its Facebook page, comments from teachers poured in.

Some people can't grasp the idea of a classroom devoid of rules and consequences. One skeptic writes, "Good luck with that." Another more emphatically states, "You've got to be kidding."

Others see the concept as easily as I do. "It's about relationships," one teacher comments. Another discusses the value of a student-centered approach.

Still, the discussion fascinates me. I'm curious what you think about rules and consequences. Do we really need them?


Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

Five reasons I hate the Common Core

It seems that educators and bureaucrats nationwide are putting every spin possible on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), in an effort to get teachers to accept the idea that the common core movement will revolutionize education. I, for one, am not buying this. In fact, I'll give you five reasons I hate the common core.

5 -- Common Core State Standards discourage creativity. Teachers have been teaching X + Y = Z forever. However, the way a teacher in Ohio teaches it will, in most cases, be far different from how a teacher in Florida teaches it. Isn't this what makes education unique and interesting?
4 -- Common Core State Standards discourage reading fiction - By 2015, the goal is that 70 percent of what students read will be nonfiction. A love of reading helps students learn. My 105 students read over 3,000 books this school year. Eighty percent of those were novels.
3 -- Common Core State Standards narrow the curriculum - It's difficult to explore the nuances of a subject, when you are chained to a book of standards that administrators say must be taught in one 9-month school year.
2 -- Common Core State Standards are poorly written - This is a second-grade standard:

"Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section."

Seriously? Did a second-grader write this?

1 -- Common Core State Standards are unnecessary - The notions that accountability is necessary and that students are achieving less than in past years are created by bureaucrats and encouraged by the publishing lobby. College enrollment was at an all-time high in 2009 and is holding steady in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fewer students are dropping out of high school now than they did prior to No Child Left Behind. So, why do we need Common Core State Standards? Could it be to build the coffers of the publishing companies, who create the "teach-to-the-test" tutorial programs?

This is cross posted at ASCD Edge

Top 5 reasons I won't teach to the test

The conversation about standardized test preparation is a popular one at my school. Of course, most of the discussions stem from district mandates to constantly give practice material. Unlike new teachers, I don't have to cower behind an achievement test workbook, assuring principals that I'll drill my students into submission daily. Having tenure, though, isn't why I choose never to teach to the test. Here are the top 5 reasons I refuse to do it.

5 - Standardized tests fail to measure learning. In the long run, this thing isn't much more than a glorified guessing game.

4 - Why on Earth should learning be standardized? Shouldn't it be unique? If learning is the same everywhere, students should just stay home and read web-based texts.

3 - Practicing for standardized tests steals time from far more valuable learning experiences. I plan exciting, interactive lessons and projects for my students. We read, write and collaborate daily. I can't afford to give this up. Plus, my students wouldn't forgive me if I did.

2 - Standardized test practice isn't fun. If you've ever read anything I've written, you know I am a firm believer that learning should be fun. When it stops being fun, it's not learning; at this point we should all just go home.

1 - I have a responsibility to my students to be better than this. Spending class time on drill-and-kill standardized test practice makes teachers nothing more than mindless automatons, which is exactly how the bureaucrats are labeling us. If I spend most of my time on standardized test practice, not only will they be right, but I'll be guilty of the greatest injustice of all -- failing my students.

Top 5 reasons you need project-based learning

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A Results Only Learning Environment is built on project-based learning. We collaborate daily in my classroom, and students work on year-long projects.

Here are the top 5 reasons you need to convert to a project-based class, if you haven't done so already.

5 - Project-based learning eliminates rows of desks. Pods of desks invite cooperation, which helps build a community of learners.
4 - Students take ownership of projects. Have you ever seen a student take ownership of a worksheet?
3 - Projects make it easy to throw out homework. Students enjoy projects, so they will choose to work on them outside of school. So, there's no need for useless homework.
2 - When students collaborate, discipline issues vanish. When students are actively working on an important project, in which they take pride, they become too engaged in the related activities and classroom management is never an issue.
1 - Projects help students develop a thirst for learning. Enough said.

Top 5 reasons I don't give grades

One of the focuses of the ROLE Reversal blog is the elimination of grades. Like homework, there are many reasons that grading is detrimental to learning. Here are the top 5 reasons I don't give grades.

5 -- Grades are always subjective. Since the teacher decides how material is taught and assessed, it's subjective. You can argue that many activities and test questions are either right or wrong, but if you don't give students a variety of ways to show what they know, as well as chances to relearn lessons, then objectivity is compromised.

4 -- A points and percentages system discriminates. Students who are motivated by grades complete assignments. They always turn them in, earn their points and, consequently, get high grades. Students who don't see any value in the activities that garner points don't complete them. They, in turn, receive zeroes and failing grades. Hence, the grades create a culture of "good" and "bad" students. The high achievers are promoted to advanced classes, while the low achievers are placed in remediation. This sort of academic discrimination can scar a child for life.

3 -- Poor weighting of activities punishes some students while rewarding others. Most teachers struggle with weighting activities (another practice that should be banned). I've seen teachers whose tests are 75 percent of a marking period's grade, while others value homework at 50 percent or higher. Consider the student who does all of his homework but is scared out of his wits on test day. In Mr. 75 Percent's class, this kid fails. Conversely, an intelligent student, who wants to manipulate a bad system, will ignore all of the activities and projects, ace the tests, and easily pass.

2 -- Grades turn even honest kids into cheaters. In the study hall that I supervise daily, I see a shocking amount of cheating. I've often asked students copying a peer's work why they do it. The answer is always some version of the same thing: "It's due next period, and I'll get a zero, if I don't hand it in." In a class with no grades, students never have a reason to cheat. There's no punishment awaiting them, if something isn't done.

1 -- When students perform for points or letters, they lose any interest in real learning. Grades are nothing more than the carrots and sticks of education. They reward the "good" kids, whose parents browbeat them nightly to complete all activities, study hard and get those A's. Promises of Honor Roll, Merit Scholar and other elite badges await those cunning enough to maneuver the flawed system of grading. They may even get to the Ivy League, having learned very little about learning. Meanwhile, their counterparts, many of them likely impoverished, hungry and struggling to comprehend the value in the assignments and tests they see daily, face a life of remediation, retention and ridicule.

Sadly, some of these kids are the brightest of them all, but they are doomed by letters, the numbers and the grades.

Top 5 reasons I don't assign homework

The homework debate is one that may plague educators for decades -- even centuries -- to come. It perplexes me, because the research is so overwhelmingly against homework's effectiveness.

After much consideration and exhaustive research, I stopped assigning homework a few years ago. Homework simply doesn't fit into a Results Only Learning Environment.

Although I could write endlessly about the deleterious effects of homework, I'll get right to the top five reasons I don't assign homework.

5 -- Virtually all homework involves rote memory practice, which is always a waste of time. In the age of the Smartphone, who needs to remember by rote?

4 -- Homework has nothing to do with teaching responsibility (HW advocates love this claim). Not only is there not one reliable study to prove that homework builds responsible children, based on what we know about responsibility, the assertion is illogical. Responsibility implies autonomy, and homework offers none of this. Students are told what to do, when to do it, and when it must be returned. Where does responsibility come into play?

3 -- Homework impinges upon a student's time with family and on other, more valuable, activities -- like play. As Alfie Kohn states in The Homework Myth, why should children be asked to work a second shift? It's unconscionable to send children to work for nearly eight hours a day, then have them go home and work for 2-5 more hours; we don't live in 19th century London.

2 -- I can teach the material in the time I'm with my students in the classroom. The endless cry of "I can't teach all of the standards without assigning homework" is a tired excuse used to hide ineffective methods. Creating engaging activities in place of lecture and worksheets, along with less testing will eliminate the need for homework.

1 -- Students hate homework. I want to help  my students develop a thirst for learning. I want them to read for enjoyment and exploration. I want them to extend their learning when they choose, because they are interested in what we do in class. If I force them to do activities that they don't choose, they will hate them. If I penalize them for not completing something they see as valueless, they not only don't learn, they get a bad grade and hate learning even more.

My colleagues often attempt to persuade me that homework is an integral part of teaching and learning. I'm simply  not buying. So, what's your take on the debate?

Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, due in February 2013 by ASCD, the world's top educational leadership organization

Five reasons I don't give quizzes

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In my days as a traditional teacher, I loved the quiz. I informed students and parents that the quiz was a valuable tool, because it held students accountable. The "pop" quiz was an even greater weapon, as it kept students in a constant state of anxiety, always wondering when they'd be caught unprepared and their grade would be doomed.

When I converted my class to a Results Only Learning Environment, I eliminated all testing, including quizzes. Here are five reasons that quizzing doesn't work.

1. Most quizzes are made up of multiple choice items, which provide inaccurate results, because you never really know when a student guesses.
2. Many students simply don't test well, so they may know the material but get the quiz questions wrong.
3. There are many activities that engage students and are conducive to formative assessment, which is far less threatening than a quiz and provides much better feedback.
4. Quizzes create anxiety and tend to hurt students' grades.
5. Quizzes are designed to make students accountable for learning. Accountability makes students hate learning.

Do you know any reasons I left out?