Sub Vision: Those cafeterias...

Many schools give little or no importance to their cafeterias, especially to the part that serves teachers and staff members.

Students – sure! They receive breakfast in class, free; precious learning time lost, and expensive food wasted. On average, half of the food distributed in the morning ends up in hands of questionable storage keepers, or worse – in the trash can…

Students get free lunch too, on which consumption I know less, but judging from the look of the luncheon area after the break, a lot of food is thrown away too…

When it comes to feeding staff members, however, schools are less concerned, a lot less! There are very few schools that keep a vibrant, fully stocked, cafeteria, catered for the adults who serve the juveniles. Teachers, whose lunch break time is limited to 30 minutes, carefully divided between closing one class and prepping for the next, visiting the bathroom, and eating, often reach the promised cafeteria just to watch the food packed away, longed-for coffee poured (literally) down the drain, and closed cashiers. I can’t count the times when I badly needed my cup of coffee to sustain me, and it was gone, consumed or, worse, drained to the sink…

Those blessed cafeterias that prepare salads and sandwiches, keep supplies available and always have a fresh pot of coffee are friends of the teaching profession. They understand the need of a working adult not only to be fed, but also to rest for few minutes. They are ready to answer to the needs, even if it means running between the students’ window, the kitchen, and the teachers’ lounge.

I don’t know what separates a good cafeteria and a mean cafeteria. They must have budget and resources limitation, but I can tell for sure – every time I encountered a nice cafeteria, there was a nice, generous, person running it. A mean manager translates to bad cafeteria, even if some of its employees are nice and helpful.

I always head to the cafeteria during my breaks, and have seen many lunchrooms. The good ones provide a choice of selections, with a smile and helpful attitude.  Over the years I have seen good cafeterias turning bad, bad ones getting better, good cafeterias staying good even after management change, and mean managers ruining one school, then moving to a different school and ruining it too…

One thing seems obvious to me. The blame is on schools’ administrators. Good and happy schools have good and happy cafeterias. Those who let cafeterias shut services to their staff indicate poor leadership and negligence, preventing this bit of luxury, few minutes of relaxation and adult conversation with peers. This small indulgence sustained me during times I worked at difficulty schools. The knowledge that once or twice a day I would spend few minutes with adults who face the exact same experience was invaluable. Administrators that do not understand that, don’t deserve to be managers of any type, let alone of school staff.

I had one of many experiences at a middle school that used to be a pleasant place, and became unbearable… Students’ bad behavior and administrators’ lack of support are only part of the problems. The school’s cafeteria has not served teachers and staff for years, and knowing that I try to avoid it, not always successfully. Cafeteria with cold coffee, no lunch service, air-conditioned to a freezing point, with outside broken chairs… At the end of one working day there, the office manager made the mistake of asking me how my day was. I told her that it would have been OK had the cafeteria served teachers at lunch. To my surprise an argument had erupted. She claimed I was wrong, and although she, herself, never goes to the cafeteria, lunch is being served! She suggested two possibilities, one, that I may not know where the cafeteria is, the other - that I am lying. No kidding!

Well, not all substitute teachers are very smart… or trust worthy…   

Sub Vision: Those schools that have changed and those that have not…

As the pressure on schools’ performance is intensifying, educators are struggling to find the winning combination that will turn their school a success over night…

Schools are trying all kind of tricks to make it happen. Whatever the new criteria for ‘success’ will be, now that standardized testing is fading from the educational landscape, a new, brilliant, idea eventually will redefine a success …

As a substitute teacher, I visit many schools, and have seen the changes over the years. The most dramatic modification is usually at middle schools, as they go from bad to good, or vice versa, by merely hiring (or dismissing) discipline dean…

High schools are more complicated and their ‘success’ is determined by a combination of measures.

However, no matter what the definition of a good school is, its implication is vast on students, school reputation, neighborhood desirability, but also on the career path of teachers and administrators.

I have worked at a school that had every desirable element: Good teachers, good programs, vocational subjects and a group of dedicated administrators, including a principal who worked tirelessly toward achieving suitable academic performance. There was one thing, however, that stood in the way of success, the student body. Had you transformed this institution to an affluent neighborhood, the results would have been unquestionable, but at that neighborhood no matter how hard the faculty worked, pace of improvement was not fast enough for the education ‘police’…

Few years into the internal effort to turn things around, and despite the fact that there was improvement (even if slow), the city took over, replaced the principal, administrators and staff, and a major revolution had started… within one year none of the previous top faculty had remained. Outside educational ‘specialists’ were brought in, and the few teachers who stayed were put under a tight scrutiny of the new education elite… Another sign of severe change was the bell schedule…

I see my past colleagues, those who were not driven to early retirement, in every school I work now. They were dispersed all over the district, and they all share the same sadness of a community broken up. The principal who was never given another chance at a different school got a position at the district headquarters, and not long afterwards had retired, feeling, probably, a complete failure…

And the school? I was called to replace a teacher that I know. At first sight I was quite impressed, smaller class size, clean and polished floor, new seating arrangement and well enough behaved students. My thought was, well, things have improved. Maybe all those changes were made for the best after all…

It took me two more visits to the same classroom, and an additional visit to another classroom, to realize that nothing had changed… Teachers are still good and dedicated, students are still lazy, with bad attitude and proud ignorance… I realized that when I tried to teach and found out the gap between the attempted level and the real knowledge. Of course I could have blamed the teachers, but I know better, I have been at that school, had the same students, in the same failing education system, and I had the same level of frustration…

And then, there are those schools that don’t worry that much about improvement. They do have a body of students who come from an affluent neighborhood, and they can count on their success to pull school’s scores higher. Yes, they do have the other type of students too, the ones that don’t perform, and they try their best to help them, but they don’t lose sleep over it. The good students are their buffer. These schools don’t displace teachers, shift their assignments, or change bell schedule. They let teachers stay to full retirement age and beyond. They know that unmotivated, unprepared, student body is a fact of a public school life, and they count on the other segment of population to balance out the ‘success’ measure, whatever the current measure is... 

Sub View: Testing: One step forward, two backward

We are leaving behind the ‘No Child Left Behind’, and trying to find other ways not to leave behind anyone. Teachers, at last, will be able to teach what needed, and students may be able to learn something beyond the mandated standardized tests.

However, the tricky part is not that the standardized tests are the enemy of education, but how they are applied, and what they are used for. For years, now, students had been told not to worry about those tests since they are not used to evaluate them, but their teachers and their school. I have written pages over the irony in how we are so surprised that students don’t take these tests seriously then...

There is, however, one valid test in all this ‘testamania’, that does make, at least, some sense, the California High School Exit Exam (aka CHSEE). This is a standardized exam that proves that a high school graduating student possesses some basic knowledge. It is, in no way, a sufficient measure of skills since it represents eighth grade level, yet, it is one-step toward accountability in education.

Unfortunately, with the wave of repealing everything, this valid criterion is caught in the net too… Hello!!! This is exactly the type of test that is essential. It evaluates success of the individual and has a direct effect, the kind of motivator we need... 

There is only one way to assess what students learned, and more important, what they really knows - an independent, objective test. We don’t keep kids in schools just to make them busy, or retain teachers and administrators for employment. The purpose of school is to teach, and for students, to learn. How do we verify that we fulfilled our mission? By reliance on each school? By trusting each teacher? By believing that all students are created equal and thus acquired the same information?

Schools, districts, teachers, are as different from each other as individual students. We can’t assume that a graduate of one school has the same skills and knowledge of a graduate from another school… Yes, they may have gone through the exact same program, text books, guideline, but does it mean they are equally educated?

The reason why the answer is ‘absolutely not’ is not only because students and teachers are different, it is because every element of the education system is different. Does it mean that we have to give in and say ‘oh well, we cannot fight those differences?’ No! we cannot fight the differences but we have to make sure that the end result of education is similar, despite the differences…

The only way to make sure that no (capable) child is left behind, is to set unison, clear goal for every child, and encourage them to move toward it. A stable target that is not realigned by schools, or teachers, to accommodate slackers who wait for the target to move toward them, but to force them to move toward the target.

The only way to do so is by instituting standardized graduation tests, matriculation tests as in other countries, where passing exams constitutes true graduation, while occupying a desk for twelve years results in receiving a matching certificate…

Sub Vision: A College-student Teacher

From time to time, I have the opportunity to see education from a prospective of a student, not a teacher.

Over the years, I have taken many classes at the local community college, during preparation for teaching credentials; refresher math classes, prerequisite, or classes for enrichment and fun.

Sitting in these classes is not much different from being in high school. Most of the students are barely over 18, just graduated, and are not much more eager to learn then when they were few years younger. College professors are struggling to get them interested, alternatively promising, on one side, and threatening, on the other. Students are being students, trying to get away with doing as little as possible…

I have watched different professors dealing with students’ attitude in different ways. There were teachers who proposed endless ways to get an extra credit, offering extra homework, extra tests, extra projects… I saw teachers declaring that they will drop the lowest tests’ score. Other teachers changed the rules as we progressed into the semester, and as they realized, I guess, how poorly their students are doing. I don’t know if college professors have to show some reasonable students’ passing rate, if their reputation is on the line with the college authorities, or with students using web sites like ‘grade my professor’. Whatever the reason is, demands are much more flexible than, in my mind. should be.

One main problem that constantly spoils the K-12 education system, and not present in college, is unruly behavior... What a relief! If you want to be here, you are welcome, if not - just hit the road… It is not to say that college professors don’t have to shush students from time to time, reminding them why they are there, but the everyday struggle of a school teacher to get students’ attention, in the best case, or stop purposely disruptive behavior (with varying levels of worse…), is just not present. Students who don’t want to learn don’t come, and if signed on to the class it is up to the professor to retain or dismiss them.

Yet, what surprises me most as a college-student, who has a prospective of a teacher, is how much college professors are bending their rules to accommodate students' bad habits, brought from high school, and how they enforce them by being so careful not to enrage their learners.

A typical situation that makes me lough, yet angered me as a symbol of the education system’s failure, is highlighted by encounter I had with a fellow students. Although the teacher had stressed time and time again not using a pen, a student came to class without a pencil. I offered him one, he thanked me and returned it at the end of the class. On the following meeting he had no pencil again and I offered him my extra, that he returned at the end of the class. On the third time, when he still had no pencil I gave him mine again and said, half-jokingly, that he might as well keep it. He didn’t attempt to return it this time, and for the next several classes he seemed to be well stocked, although I realized that he was not using my pencil anymore… So guess what happened on Finals day? Of course, he came to the final test without a pencil. What did I do? Offered him yet another pencil… And at the end of the exam? He left, not returning it, not thanking me; he just left...

Now, here I am, a student who happened to be also a teacher, guilty of the very same wrongdoing that I am so critic of… I am just another enabler who helps students neglect their simple, basic, responsibilities… 

Substitute Teaching: …And take attendance!

Schools are crazy when it comes to recording attendance. I have had frantic office clerks calling me every 10 minutes to check on attendance. No one cared that my trials in the unruly class were in vain. The only thing that mattered was entering attendance in a timely manner. Some schools would not release me at the end of the day unless I obtained a certificate from the attendance office that I achieved my main duty. Sometimes it means wondering through five different offices to find a willing staff member to issue the release form, after begging them for help.

At one middle school, a good school turned bad, I had an unruly 6^th period. Students didn’t bring books on purpose so that they can go to their lockers. They were continuously talking rather than working. All of a sudden, an administrator walked in. I was quite relieved to get the unexpected help, and told him about the misbehaving cases. The administrator listened to me politely but seemed to be completely unconcerned. He was not there to help me with misbehaving students. He came to reprimand me for not entering attendance yet!

It feels like nothing that you do in the classroom matters as long as you have taken care of the roll, and yes, entered it to the computerized system. You are measured only by this ability to enter attendance promptly! And maybe with good reason… Maybe it is an amazing accomplishment after all. Finding a functioning computer is a challenge, and figuring out how to operate it is even a greater challenge.

First, not all computers are created equal. The power bottom can be hidden below the desk, under the monitor, behind the screen. Some schools have laptops, some have apples, some very old computers covered with dust, and it is always an adventure. Once you figure out how to turn on the computer you have to be creative about how to log in. sometimes it follows a certain pattern, sometimes not.

Next, you have to find the site, and enter the code to the attendance system. It is made out of 8-10 characters, numbers, and upper and lower case letters. When you see ‘I’ it might be ‘1’, upper case letter ‘I’, or lower case ‘l’. ‘0’ can be a zero or upper case letter ’O’. After three attempts, the system locks you out for unspecified time period, before letting you renew your trials, hopefully with more success this time.

And then, unexpectedly, you are kicked out of the system and you have to start all over again…

No wonder then, that your main test as a sub is entering the attendance…

Substitute Teaching: Tips for substitute teachers

Substitute teaching is hard, but it has the advantage that at the end of the day you don’t have to stress over tomorrow. Even if committed for a long term, there is always a way out without breaking a contract or much attention. I worked at a school for four years, with assignment ranging from one month to a year long, and although never used the option to withdraw, I had a peace of mind knowing that it is available. Lately, with only few exceptions, I take only one-day assignments.

Here are few tips on how to tolerate the job:

What to carry: Take a bag that is big enough to include a light sweater (classes are always over air-conditioned), water bottle, and a lightweight book or magazine, but not too big or heavy in case you move between classrooms. Having something to read or be occupied, will keep your sanity. In most cases, you are not expected to teach, and being busy will make time go faster, and irritation level minimal. Using a cell phone might look unprofessional, but a good book or magazine will do.

Also, bring some basic supplies; papers to write notes to the permanent teacher, the office, or to yourself, extra pencils, a red pen, and even some dry-erase markers.

What to plan: Plan an activity for a worst-case scenario when teacher had not prepared a lesson plan and the class is unruly; happens often enough. My favorite students’ individual activity is Sudoku. I draw it on the board, let students copy it (keeps them busy for a while), and explain the rules. Other activities can be fun problems solving, or if you have a good control of the class, you may create groups to compete against each other. My favorite subject is geography or general themes.

Tools to control the class: The most critical tool for keeping a class in order is a seating chart. Nothing is more powerful than mastering names. Unfortunately, many teachers do not have one, and thus a hard copy roster is critical. Over the years, I have developed methods to create my own charts. If seating is in rows, I mark student’s seat on the roster with a letter and a number (e.g., row A, seat 4). Otherwise, I draw a simple map and mark seats with student’s serial number; makes locating names easy. If none possible, I wait few minutes before taking a roll, observe students to locate potential troublemakers, and mark them as I take role. Calling a student by name, or better, writing it on the board is very effective.

Tool to keep them busy: Responsible teachers prepare work to keep students occupied the entire period, leave extra work for the over achievers, and instruct to collect papers at the end of the period. Some schools demand emergency lesson plans. Less organized teachers (and schools) do not have plan or clear instructions. For these situations I keep a red pen to mark students’ progress. I may give them a check or a star after the first 10 problems, and another star (stamp, sticker), after the next 10. This way I can control their progress, and motivate them to stay busy.

Other motivators: Some substitute teachers walk around and distributing stickers, prices or candies. I don’t. Partly, because I don’t want to carry stuff with me, and partly, because I don’t believe in rewarding behavior that is part of being at school.

You can choose your own way… but, most important – when things get rough remember – you don’t have to do it again tomorrow! 

Substitute Teaching: The school that had not changed

I worked at a high school for two years, as a volunteer, teacher assistant, and then a full time math/special ed teacher. I was offered to stay as a special ed teacher, but my goal was to become a general ed math teacher, so I left.

As a substitute teacher, I was rarely sent to that school. Being on the lower end of the food chain, I was sent to middle schools, and not the better ones. Then all of a sudden, more than ten years later, I started to get assignment at that school.

During my first few visits, I was very excited. I studied every staff member’s face and, surprisingly, recognized many. I saw my, then, assistant, who helped me become a better teacher, and other assistants and teachers with whom I worked.

What surprised me was that nothing had changed. Same bell schedule (many other schools had tweaked it with the hope to improve students’ performance). Same long (un-heard of) 20 minutes nutrition break, 35 minutes lunch (you can actually finish a whole salad ball), and, yes, 20 minutes of silent reading (long abandoned by all other schools, replaced by useless advisories, or breakfast in class).

At least as surprising, was to see the same teachers, at the same classroom! Wondering around trying to locate my old classroom, I discovered that the teacher next door, who was my mentor, but also my son’s Spanish teacher, was still there. Another of my son’s teachers, then a young and charismatic teacher, I located at the same classroom where he was twelve years earlier. Teachers did not even aged that much, and the ones I thought were, back then, quite old, don’t look any older.

I have marveled over this phenomenon every time I talk to someone who knows that school, until one day a lady who worked there pointed that something had changed dramatically - the main office!

She was absolutely right! Back in the days, there were two office personnel there, with the same first name, both pretty, both with a bright smile that welcomed you every morning, no matter how stressful the morning was. One had retired, the other was let go during one of the district’s unreasonable reorganizations. Replacing them is a new office manager who may be very efficient, but also very unpleasant.

A public school’s “main office” has enormous effect on school’s environment; it is the gate to the school, the first experience…

It has changed! And not for the better…