The Principal's Page

Children and Sports

2011-06-16T14:36:00.000-04:00

The other day I was talking to a student who was heard by a teacher swearing during a recess game. I asked him why he was swearing, and he said, "Because I got out." I pointed out that getting out was part of the game, and asked again why he was so angry. As we talked, it became clear to me that he thought getting angry and swearing was an appropriate response to getting out and didn't understand why I thought there was a problem.

This incident made me think again about the modeling that our children are getting from the adult world. Obviously, as one of our teachers pointed out to his class, most of the professional athletes are behaving appropriately, congratulating the winners at the end of a game, respecting the referees and the other players, and generally showing good sportsmanship. Unfortunately, the media choose to highlight the bad examples, and the result is more and more children who think the only important thing is winning, who think it's appropriate to get angry when you don't win, and who don't respect the decisions of a game ref. (A physical education teacher I talked to told me that more and more kids are arguing and questioning her decisions during games.)

Earlier this week, I used the following quote (from Project Wisdom) as our quote of the day and asked students to think about it:

You may have heard the story of Armando Galarraga (GAL-a-RAGA), the Detroit Tigers’ pitcher who threw a perfect baseball game but was denied that recognition because of an umpire’s bad call. Armando showed strong character and good sportsmanship by accepting the call with respect and dignity. The umpire later acknowledged his mistake and apologized to the pitcher. We can all learn a lesson from the good sportsmanship of both men.

Listen to this:
When circumstances are unfair, you can show good character by continuing to do the best you can do.*

We don’t have to be athletes, though, to show good sportsmanship. Whether we’re competing in the science fair or playing a board game with our brother, we can play fairly and show respect for our competitors. And if we lose, even unfairly, we can still win by showing strong character and knowing that we’ve done our best.

If you can, it might be a great idea to talk with your children about good sportsmanship, about enjoying a game but not making it into more than a game, about losing gracefully and appreciating your competitors. Not only will this help our children grow into mature adults able to handle things well, but it will also improve our world.

Deep and Rich Learning

2011-04-24T09:49:00.000-04:00

One of the things I always notice when observing excellent teaching (something I fortunately have lots of opportunities to do) is the skillful interweaving of multiple strands of learning. This creates a rich and varied learning experience that engages students and allows for success and challenge at all levels. Recent examples of this kind of learning experience in the context of a major project include the 4th grade Invention Convention and the 5th grade Colonial Day projects.

In 4th grade, a student working on a project for the Invention Convention first learned about simple machines and participated in locating the simple machines in the school and making a video describing their use. The student then learned about innovation and participated in it by creating an invention which incorporated a simple machine and met an identified need. Students also documented their inventions, and developed business cards, brochures, and other marketing materials. This is a project with obvious real-world connections that incorporates science and technology concepts, literacy work, and business and economics, and is certainly one the students won't soon forget!

In 5th grade, the Colonial Day projects incorporate historical learning, reading, writing, and research skills, artwork, and critical thinking. I was particularly impressed by the "flip books" describing particular historical characters because the thinking and analysis went way beyond the factual. Each one was different and showed good critical thinking on the part of the student. Art and music were also incorporated into the experience, and on the day itself students were immersed in Colonial times, engaging in hand sewing, tinsmithing, butter-making, and a variety of Colonial games. Again, a rich learning experience, and one that students won't forget!

During the course of working on these projects, students also learn planning and time management skills, as well as the patience and persistence to pursue a long-term goal, all of which are important life skills. Now, of course, although I intended to write a simple post describing my excitement about these projects, I just have to ask -- how can any standardized test measure these things or measure the skill of a teacher who makes a difference for a child by helping him/her to develop these life skills or discover a passion or a new motivation? Children learn many different things from these projects -- for one, it may be finding a new confidence in her artistic skills; for another, it could be discovering his passion for history; for yet another child, it could be learning how to plan and complete a large project and feeling the pride of accomplishing that.

The best and most accomplished teachers consistently weave multiple strands of learning into their teaching -- learning about content, learning skills, learning attitudes, learning confidence, persistence and competence. This is learning that no child should miss. I am delighted to see this happening throughout our school, and hope we can continue to provide and value these rich learning experiences for our students.

Critical Thinking & Analysis -- An Essential 21st Century Skill

2011-01-22T11:46:00.000-05:00

One of the real joys of my job is the opportunity to observe exciting teaching and learning; this past Friday I was fortunate to observe two wonderful social studies lessons, both of which pushed 5th graders into greater critical thinking and analysis. Unless you are lucky enough to be in today's classrooms, you probably are not aware of the extent to which teaching and learning has changed. Students are no longer simply memorizing and regurgitating names, dates, and conclusions; rather, they are thinking hard about historical situations, analyzing the different interests of the parties involved, and working toward their own analysis and understanding using primary sources from the time. This kind of analysis is frequently mentioned as a 21st century skill, and I completely agree that all of our students need to develop this ability and to become excellent critical thinkers. Seeing what's happening in our classrooms is wonderful; students are indeed being taught these skills, and they are responding with engagement and learning.

Sometimes, though, I am puzzled by what appears to be a lack of critical thinking in some of the media reporting today about educational issues, and it seems to me that everyone could use the lessons I saw last Friday in the two 5th grade classrooms. Recently, for example, newspapers reported the results from the international PISA testing, pointing out that the overall U.S. results were in the middle of the group, and using this to again say that our schools are failing. Interestingly, though, this year's PISA results were reported somewhat differently, in that the U.S. data was provided disaggregated by schools at different poverty levels. When you look at the disaggregated data and take the U.S. schools with a poverty level of 10% or less those schools outscored every other nation except Shanghai. The newspaper articles I saw did not mention this, though -- they were fine with simply reporting what they saw as yet another failure of U.S. schools, and didn't think it important to point out that our schools in affluent areas outscore the world, while our schools in poverty-stricken areas come in last. Drawing on what they learned last Friday about propaganda, and about presenting information to achieve a particular purpose, I think our 5th graders might now ask what the intent or purpose is of those who wish to paint all our schools as failing, and hopefully as adults they will continue to ask these kinds of questions, delving deeper, and demanding thoughtful answers to important questions. (You can find the disaggregated PISA data on-line, if you are interested, and/or read a related article by Gerald Tirozzi in the NASSP Newsleader -- http://www.principals.org/NewsLeader.)

NCLB Measures vs. Actual Student Achievement

2011-01-02T11:52:00.000-05:00

I recently read a very interesting paper from the Center on Education Policy entitled "How Many Schools and Districts Have Not Made Adequate Yearly Progress? Four-Year Trends" (available at http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/consolidated/index.html). Aside from the obvious fact that over time more schools and districts are failing to make AYP (inherent in the definition of AYP, which requires equal increments of progress, in all subgroups, toward the goal of 100% proficiency by 2014), the paper contained some fascinating comparisons and illustrated huge discrepancies in NCLB performance among the different states.

But do the differences in NCLB performance really reflect actual comparative student achievement? In 2009, in Massachusetts, 79% of school districts did not make AYP -- a huge percentage! -- and these districts are thus subject to federal sanctions, which could include replacing principals and teachers, paying for private tutoring for students, and/or transporting students to other schools and districts, all of which are costly. In addition, the publicity about the NCLB "failure" of Massachusetts schools decreases parental and community trust and support for the schools. By comparison, in the same year, 2009, in Alabama, only 2% of districts did not make AYP -- thus, only 2% of Alabama districts are subject to federal sanctions and 98% of Alabama districts are regarded as doing well. Are Alabama schools really that much better than Massachusetts schools? Well, on the last NAEP testing, Massachusetts schools were 1st in the nation on the 4th and 8th grade math tests, while Alabama schools were 50th. (The other NAEP test results show similar, although less dramatic, differences.)

This comparison raises many questions for me -- among others, why are we in Massachusetts setting ourselves up for failure, criticism, and compliance with expensive and detrimental sanctions when our schools are doing well on the NAEP national tests and are doing better than other states where the schools are not subject to the sanctions? The federal sanctions seem almost designed to be detrimental to good schools (and there are many good schools and districts in Massachusetts that did not make AYP). There also is no evidence that any of these sanctions is effective in improving schools. So. . . why are we in Massachusetts setting ourselves up for federal sanctions and loss of local control and support for our schools when other states are not? Is there a political agenda being served here? And, if so, whose agenda is it? I think these are important questions to think about and to answer, before we end up doing serious damage to our public school system. . .

The Nature of Community

2010-12-05T13:05:00.000-05:00

I have recently been reading a very interesting book -- Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam. In this book, Putnam chronicles the decline of participation in community organizations during the past decades and raises the question of the impact of these changes on our society. Reading this book makes me care even more strongly about the development and maintenance of community and the importance of placing community goals first in many instances. This conflict frequently appears in schools, as, for example, in making placement decisions for students, when the best interests of the students as a whole may require a different decision that a parent would prefer for his/her child. It also appears in discussions of budget, at all levels -- local, state, national -- when individual interests (for example, in lower taxes) may conflict with the needs of the community (for safety, for example).

As we all know, our country has a long tradition of individualism and a strong emphasis on individual freedom. However, along with the emphasis on everyone's right to pursue happiness in his/her own way there has also been an equally strong tradition of cooperation and community. (Think, for example, of the individual freedom of the "Wild West" coexisting with the cooperation and community of barn raisings, quilting bees, and sharing resources to survive a difficult winter.) I think there is an important balance here, and I think that we need to consider that balance very carefully in making decisions. Take, for example, charter schools. Charter schools are very popular with many people, and many parents prize their ability to send their children to schools that they choose. However, when charter schools, particularly in urban areas, end up enrolling primarily the children whose parents are motivated and involved, do not have learning disabilities, and whose first language is English, and when they eliminate from their student bodies students who have behavioral difficulties or who are unable to keep up with the pace, the children who are still enrolled in those charters may benefit from attending school with other motivated students without disabilities, but the public schools in those communities end up having the most difficult students to educate with fewer funds available to do it with. Is that what's best for all of us, as a community? Or is it an example of some people profiting at the expense of others?

As everyone knows who knows me, I am a passionate advocate for public schools, for the American common school described in the works of Lawrence Cremin, and for the philosophy expressed so well by John Dewey, when he said, "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys our democracy." I am currently very worried about the future of American public schools; I see our excellent public schools (which, in Massachusetts, lead the nation and compare favorably in international comparisons) in danger of being destroyed by short-sighted policies unsupported by evidence (for example, those required by the so-called "Race to the Top", and the increased emphasis on standardized testing to the exclusion of other measures of student achievement).

Getting back to Bowling Alone, I also think that we may need in general to think about moving our current individualism-community balance back a bit in favor of community in all areas, and to remember that we are all in this together. If you read it, and/or if you read Diane Ravitch's recent book on the American school system, let me know what you think!

School Climate Update

2010-11-07T14:48:00.000-05:00

At this point, we are moving into the third month of the school year, and I am happy to report that we seem to be making progress toward developing the kind of safe and accepting school climate that we want to have for our students. We are using a multi-faceted approach, including work in Open Circle sessions, weekly school meetings, integration into curriculum, lunch and social group meetings, work with individual students, and work in partnership with parents. Our weekly school meetings, first thing on Monday mornings, help to set the tone, and are designed to provide a positive beginning to the week. (This coming Monday morning's meeting will feature a patriotic skit written and performed by three 5th grade girls -- it's wonderful, and I'm excited about including more student performances at school meeting!)

As you also know, we are working with students on specific ways of stopping teasing and bullying. One approach is one which we refer to as "Step 1, Step 2." Step 1 is a difficult, but very important, life skill -- being able to assertively and politely ask another person to change their behavior when their behavior is hurtful to you. Doing this is even difficult for us as adults, but I am hopeful that if we work on it with our students they will be able to develop their communication skills in a way that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. If Step 1 doesn't work, or if a student is unable to do it, we ask them to do Step 2, report the problem to an adult and ask for help -- again, I believe this is an important life skill. Finally, along these lines, we are also talking with students about what they can do to help when they are bystanders, when they see someone doing something mean or hurtful to another person. We have suggested three different actions that students can take in this situation: (1) tell the person to stop ("Step 1" for a bystander); (2) take the target out of the situation (for example, inviting the target to come with them to do something); and (3) report the situation to an adult (the bystander's "Step 2"). We are asking students not to simply watch and do nothing, but to take one of these three actions.

We are hopeful that parents will help and support us in this important work so that our school community will be safe and comfortable for every one of our students. There are two essential ways that parents can help -- first, by modeling kind, courteous behavior themselves, and, second, by talking with their children when they see bullying by others (for example, in the media). Children learn powerfully from their parents, particularly by watching parents' actions and behavior. If parents consistently treat others kindly and comment negatively on examples of unkind behavior, children will learn kind behavior. If, on the other hand, parents treat others unkindly, children will learn that behavior, or if children are continually exposed to the many examples of bullying behavior demonstrated by too many adults in our society (e.g., politicians, sports figures) without parents explaining why that behavior is not acceptable they will come to regard it as acceptable.

Thank you to all the many wonderful parents who are working with us to eliminate the problem of teasing and bullying and to create a community in which everyone is accepted and valued -- I believe that helping children grow into good, caring people is the most important work there is and I appreciate working with everyone in our community toward that goal.

School Opening Plans

2010-08-29T12:36:00.000-04:00

Welcome back to a new school year! I don't know about everyone else, but for me the beginning of the school year is the time for hopes, dreams, resolutions, and new beginnings. It's a time to start afresh, with goals and plans.

At Neary, we have many new initiatives and plan for this year, and we hope it will be the best year yet for our students. We will begin the year next Wednesday, September 1st, with a whole-school assembly, with music provided by the 5th grade band (!!! -- I know they'll be great!) and a welcome for all of our students. On the first day, there will also be another assembly for each grade, as well as time for reminders of playground rules and time to play.

During the first week, our students should be coming away with two primary messages -- one about developing and implementing goals and plans, and another about treating each other respectfully -- and I'm hoping that parents will work with us as partners in helping students achieve both of these goals.

On the first day, our grade-level assemblies will feature Margot Rutledge, of KidsWin, speaking to students about goals and planning, and helping them to think about their own goals and how to "Make it happen!" Thinking about who they are, writing about their dreams and goals, and making plans to move forward toward those dreams and goals, can be wonderful for kids! As they develop a sense of purpose, they also accomplish things, and then feel competent and proud of themselves. This is the beginning of a solid sense of self and of purpose that will provide the foundation for our students to achieve.

On our second goal, helping students learn to treat each other respectfully, we will be emphasizing with students a two-step process, politely but assertively asking someone to stop a hurtful behavior, and telling an adult if the person does not stop. This plan is intended to help students learn how to effectively assert themselves, provide feedback to those who need it on their behavior, and develop and maintain a safe, respectful atmosphere in our school. Parents will be receiving a letter with more information during the first week of school, and we hope that you will join us in this work.

I am excited about these plans and about beginning a new year! Here's to a great one for all of our students!

Most People Do Include Others

2010-06-13T13:31:00.003-04:00

I have written and spoken a fair amount this year about bullying -- as we all know, bullying is an important topic these days. I wanted to share with you, though, a letter I recently received from a student describing the ways in which most students work to be kind and to include others, as I think it gives us a good perspective and speaks well for what kids are learning. In the note, this student says:

"I know how you have been talking about including everyone and if you see someone bullying or excluding you should tell a teacher. I have seen the opposite. I am writing this note to tell you that I have seen kids including everyone and being nice to everyone. The other day I sat down at a table with only one of my other friends. My friend had to get her water bottle so I was sitting alone at a table while she went to go get her water bottle. When some people saw me sitting alone, they invited me to their table. There were around 5 people, both boys and girls, who invited me. I felt happy that people noticed that I was sitting by myself. Also the other day at recess I noticed a girl sitting alone on a bench. Then I saw a group of friends invite the girl to play with them. The girl smiled and told them that she was just waiting for her friend. I just wanted to tell you that I have seen kids being very friendly and including each other. Thank you for taking time to read my note and I hope you realized that most people do include.

As is often said, we all need to work together to make things work for everyone, and I am glad to share the positive side of things that can sometimes get missed in all the concerns -- as this student notes, most people do include others.

School Improvement Plan

2010-05-16T12:03:00.002-04:00

This past week, the Neary School Council presented accomplishments from this school year, as well as our School Improvement Plan for next year, to the Southborough School Committee meeting. To present our plan, we used a glog, which is an interesting multimedia presentation tool. There are two websites for creating glogs -- the one for use by educators, which includes management tools for teachers such as the ability to create templates for use by their students and the ability to keep the glogs private, is found at www.edu.glogster.com. The following is a link to the glog that was used in last week's School Committee presentation: http://wordsmith23.edu.glogster.com/neary-sip1/

It was fun working on the glog, and I am very excited about all the wonderful things happening at Neary this year!

Bullying 24/7 (Cyberbullying)

2010-03-11T15:21:00.005-05:00

I was thinking about kids and cyberbullying this afternoon. I had spent all day at a conference, and thus had not checked my email since early morning. As I was sitting down to log onto my email, I realized that I was feeling somewhat tense, because I was thinking about a couple of emails I had recently written where I was not sure how the recipient would react, and I was worried about that. This train of thought led me to thinking about kids and online activity, why cyberbullying is such a huge change for children, and why it can be so destructive for kids.

In my childhood, if you had a problem with another kid, or someone said something mean to you, that evening at home you could think about what to do about it the next day, or talk to your parents about it -- but home was a refuge, nothing further could happen that evening, and you didn't have to worry about what people were saying about you online at that moment. Nor did you feel that you had to go online to read what had been said. Having conversations online (via email, IM, Chat, Facebook, texting, or whatever) means -- aside from the public nature of the conversation and the number of people involved -- that there is something going on 24/7 that you have to think about and stress about. Functioning socially is normally at least a little bit stressful for almost everyone, as you think about the messages you receive from others and respond with an eye to your position in the group. Rather than participating in the social arena only during the day and being able to simply be yourself at home after school and in the evening, kids are now "on" all day, all afternoon, and all evening (and for some students, well into the night). If we adults feel the need to check our email constantly, find it hard to limit our checking to certain times of the day, and feel stressed about the messages that we might find, it's no wonder that this is huge in the lives of kids.

I don't know what the answer is to this dilemma. Some parents have eliminated online socializing entirely from their children's evening activities. Others try to closely supervise it, and coach as needed to help kids function in the online world. I do believe that social networks, used appropriately, can be very positive. At the conference today, one of the presentations featured a high school student whose teacher was using a ning in his AP government class, and was enthused about the exciting conversations that he and his classmates were having about government and political affairs, including "on the run" conversations as they learned something new about a campaign or breaking news, and another student spoke about using a ning and glogs in her video class. Both talked about the sense of community that had developed in their classes, the connections they had made, and the high level of learning they had experienced. But the same technology can be used for bullying, or simply can magnify what would otherwise be normal developmental social difficulties into problems too big for a child to deal with.

Comments? Thoughts about what works best to help kids find their way in the online social world? If you have a good idea or solution, please do share it!

Models of Bullying?

2010-02-21T11:31:00.001-05:00

Bullying, obviously, is a hot topic these days, and it certainly should be. No child should feel sad, afraid or unable to learn because of bullying behavior by others. Unfortunately, though, I think some of the proposed solutions are too simplistic, and I'm feeling discouraged about current efforts to solve the problem. In my view, bullying is a complex problem, and one that will take all of us working together to solve. Let's begin with models of bullying -- as a society, we provide kids with models of bullying 24/7. As Derrick Jackson noted in his Boston Globe column on February 2nd, 2010, with the trash talk by professional athletes, "we adults have made it almost impossible for adolescents to know when they cross the line." He points out, "We glorify loud athletes, handsomely pay barking talk show hosts and accepted Presidents Bush and Clinton taunting military, political, and media enemies." Talk shows, blogs, and commentary on newspaper websites are rife with personal attacks and put-downs. (I'm feeling discouraged about those conversations, too, these days. Reasonable people can certainly disagree, for example, on whether a new police car is needed, but I'd love to see everyone treat others with respect, avoiding personal attacks and expressing disagreement in a manner that demonstrates respect for the other person and for his/her opinions.) Advertising, both print and media, frequently contains some sort of put-down or meanness played for shock value or for laughs. Then, let's look at television shows and movies, which, again, use disrespect, put-downs, and meanness for shock value and for laughs. Finally, if one reads the news, much of it is reporting who said what about whom, and much of that is "mud-slinging" or blaming someone for something -- again, disrespect and put-downs. All in all, kids are provided daily with a wide variety of models of bullying.

When kids see disrespect, put-downs, and personal attacks as models of public discourse, they will naturally assume that this is an appropriate way to talk to people outside their family. Hopefully, parents are providing good modeling of appropriate responses to others and are insisting on respectful interactions at home with family members, but kids may still conclude that what they see outside their family is the way it is with people other than family and close friends.

How do we -- parents, community, schools -- counter this and help kids learn to treat each other respectfully? My thoughts would be something in the nature of a major public education campaign, both inside schools and outside, and including broad participation -- either voluntary or mandated, if necessary -- by all organizations involved in any way in communication. For example, sports teams could explicitly model good sportsmanship and provide consequences for trash talking and other inappropriate behavior. Newspapers could require (as NPR does) full names on their online forums, and actively monitor and eliminate comments that include personal attacks. The media could be required to broadcast an example of appropriate respectful talk for each example of disrespect. Along with all of this would be a public education campaign and a school campaign for students. In his February 2nd column, Jackson opined that "legislation needs to coincide with a national crusade," and I completely agree. What a wonderful improvement would result from that!

Instead, unfortunately, we have some wonderful efforts on the part of schools and parents, coupled with new legislation that is being lauded as the solution to bullying, but which appears to me to fall far short of what's needed. My understanding is that the pending legislation would simply make bullying a crime and would require additional reporting by schools. As far as I can tell, that will only make it more difficult for schools to deal with bullying, both because making something a crime inevitably leads to focusing on definitions (is it bullying or isn't it?) rather than on helping students learn good behavior, and because adding more reporting requirements takes time away from working with students, teachers, and parents, and does nothing to help schools deal with the problem.

I hope that we will soon have a major public education effort that focuses on respectful interactions among people. Meanwhile, however, thank you to parents for your hard work with your children on this front, particularly in helping kids learn not to be bystanders but instead to find the courage to object to bullying and teasing, and we will certainly continue and strengthen our efforts in the schools to help kids learn to treat others with respect and have the courage to intervene when appropriate.

Bread Baking!

2010-01-16T16:57:00.002-05:00

This past week, we had what I thought was a wonderful event at Neary -- our 4th and 5th graders participated in the life skills bread baking program sponsored by King Arthur Flour. This past Thursday, King Arthur sent a representative to Neary, along with 700+ bags of flour, packages of yeast, dough scrapers, recipe books. . . all the materials the kids will need to bake two loaves of bread. During the assembly, the students learned how to make bread from scratch, as well as how to use bread dough to make breadsticks, pretzels, braided loaves, cinnamon rolls, and pizza crusts. The students were wonderful -- they listened attentively, and seemed to enjoy the program. Each student went home with a bag containing two 2-pound bags of flour, a package of yeast, a dough scraper, a recipe book, and a plastic bag, so that each student can make a loaf to share with his/her family, as well as a loaf to bring back to school and donate to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. What a wonderful project! I think this connects well with both the 5th grade study of colonial America and our whole-school commitment to community service and this year's partnership with the Southborough Food Pantry. I hope that students will not only learn something about the art of bread baking, but also enjoy sharing their new skills with their families and feel good about being able to donate something they made to help others. Thank you to 5th grade teacher Mr. Stubbart for organizing this program and making it happen for Neary students!

Race to Where?

2010-01-09T09:30:00.001-05:00

By next week -- January 13th -- every school district in Massachusetts is being asked to sign and agree to a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the state pursuant to which each district promises to take certain actions, including, among other things, tying teachers' compensation to student performance on standardized testing. This project is part of Massachusetts' proposal to the federal government to obtain part of the federal funding for what is being called the "Race to the Top." (See the Massachusetts DESE website for more information -- www.doe.mass.edu)

In my view, the "Race to the Top" epitomizes everything that is wrong with the current wave of mandated "education reform." Now, please don't misunderstand me -- I am passionate about continuous improvement, and convinced that we can make all of our schools wonderful places of excellence and growth for our students. But I think there are two fundamental things wrong with current legislation relating to education -- the goals, and the methods for reaching those goals.

With respect to the goals, in a previous post I noted that many of the nations whose students test better in international testing comparisons are working to reform their systems of education to be more like ours, and that we may be going backwards in emphasizing solely test results. Education is broader than test performance -- I believe that we should care about the development of caring, thoughtful, intelligent citizens, who have a broad background of understanding, know how to use their minds well, appreciate the arts, and have engaged in thoughtful and critical thinking about current issues. In addition, productive citizens in the 21st century will need to know how to learn independently, work cooperatively with others, problem-solve effectively, and be creative in developing solutions to new and unexpected problems. Focusing instead on the very narrow goal of improving performance on standardized tests could very well destroy the innovation, creativity, and thoughtfulness that are now characteristics of American learners.

Another excellent question is how these goals were decided upon. In a recent book by Stanford professor Nell Noddings, When School Reform Goes Wrong, Noddings points out the discrepancies that exist between available evidence of a problem and the sweeping, one-size-fits-all, solution:

"We might also ask why if the problem to be solved lies mainly in schools attended by poor children, the solution promoted by NCLB has been laid on all schools. Why are we not concentrating on the identification and analysis of problems in the schools where the problematic situations exist? Policymakers respond to this reasonable question by admitting that the achievement gap is not their only worry. 'Our schools are failing,' they say. All of them? What is the evidence for this charge?"

As I noted in a previous post, Massachusetts scored first in the nation on the most recent NAEP testing, and was up with the top in the world on the 2007 TIMSS testing. Schools like Southborough's test in the top 10% of Massachusetts schools, so I do wonder what the problem is that we are trying to fix. One thing I have learned in my years in leadership and management, both in business and in education, is the importance of first accurately identifying and carefully analyzing the problem before trying to develop a solution. Without that step, there is a very real danger that implementing a new "solution" may simply be a step backward. In this case, I don't think the problem has been accurately identified or analyzed, and the "solution" has the potential to destroy our system of public education. Having lived through many years of increasing regulation and tightening of controls on schools, and fighting to try to maintain quality education in the face of these restrictions, I can tell you that with each new regulation it becomes more and more difficult to spend time on what matters most in making schools good places of learning for kids.

The so-called "Race to the Top" federal regulations have many problems, too many to extensively describe here. Two of the major problems, though, are the requirement that states allow unlimited charter school development and the requirement that teachers' compensation be dependent on student test performance. On the surface, these appear to many people to be good ideas. But both have significant problems and the potential for a serious detrimental impact on public schools.

Briefly, charter schools would be no problem if (1) funding for them were not taken from local public schools, (2) they did not "push out" students who have behavioral or learning issues, (3) they enrolled all comers rather than being able to limit the size of their student bodies, (4) they enrolled the same cross-section of students as the public schools, including students who are English language learners, students who have special needs (including the most severe special needs), and students whose families are not capable of dealing with applying to charter schools. See the Massachusetts Department of Education website for statistics and compare charter school enrollments with local public school enrollments. (http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/selectedpopulations.aspx) For example, this report lists AMSA, a local charter school, as having 0.0% students who are English language learners and 3.3% students with special needs, while other local school districts have substantially higher percentages (Southborough - 2.8% & 13.4%; Northborough - 3.5% and 15.0%; and Marlborough - 11.4% & 21.6%, respectively). The problem with charter schools, as they are now structured, is they foster a "two-tier" educational system and undermine public education in surrounding schools. Substantial reform is needed in order for charter schools to be a positive innovation.

On the second requirement, tying teacher compensation to student test performance has multiple problems and the potential to create many more issues. As I noted, to many people, this appears to be a good idea -- if salesmen sell more cars when they're working on commission, why shouldn't we have teachers paid differently depending on how their students do on tests? But let's do a more thoughtful analysis than that. Aside from all the logistical problems with measurement (which teachers should be responsible for which students' results, how to deal with teachers who teach subjects for which there are no tests, which teachers should be assigned students with learning difficulties, etc.), how valid is the theory behind this proposal? Is tying teacher compensation to student test performance an effective method for increasing student test performance? In order to conclude that it is, you have to make one of two assumptions: either (1) teachers are not working hard, need to work harder, and contingent compensation will give them an incentive to do so, or (2) teachers are not teaching effectively because they either do not know effective methods of teaching or are not applying what they know, and contingent compensation will cause them to learn new methods and/or to apply what they know. There is no evidence for either of these assumptions. In my own experience (admittedly limited to high-achieving suburban school systems), neither of these is true -- most teachers are working very hard, and most are taking courses and workshops and spending vacation time refining and improving their instruction. So -- if neither of these assumptions is true, tying compensation to student test performance will not accomplish anything other than further demoralizing teachers and setting up some perverse incentives for unethical behavior by some (cheating, angling to avoid assignments teaching students with learning difficulties, not sharing ideas with colleagues, and the like). A recent study on contingent compensation for teachers found either no effect or a negative effect on student performance, and some thoughtful papers have suggested that developing a good system would be complex and would need to be tailored to each particular district's needs -- so why this is being mandated by law -- as a solution to an ill-defined problem -- is difficult to understand.

Given the lack of accurate identification of the problem, the questionable nature of the goal, and the invalidity of the proposed "solutions", my question about all this is, "Race to where?" I don't think it will be to the top. We need to demand a complete, well-defined analysis of the problem, and well thought out, well-defined solutions before going off on a tangent that will be damaging to public education.

Thoughts on Bullying

2009-12-06T10:13:00.004-05:00

Probably everyone knows that an anti-bullying bill is currently pending in the Massachusetts legislature, and I'm sure they will probably pass some version of it this session. Obviously, I am against bullying!! The bill, though, seems to assume that schools -- teachers and administrators -- simply are not bothering to do anything about bullying, as its primary mechanism seems to be to require schools to keep data and write reports about bullying incidents. If one assumes that schools are working to prevent bullying, the requirement to collect data and write reports doesn't change the tools available to schools but simply takes time away from time actually working with students (which is what I fear the main effect of the law will be); thus, the assumption of the law must be that schools need to be forced into addressing bullying. In my experience, this is not accurate. My observation, at least in our district and in the districts in which my friends work, is that teachers and administrators are working very hard with students to help them improve how they treat each other.

Bullying, though, is a complex problem. First of all, much of the time the students who are bullying don't necessarily see themselves as bullying others, at least at the younger ages -- whenever I talk with a student who has been engaged in this behavior, he mostly sees himself as responding to something negative from the other student, and/or "just teasing" or "just fooling around." Frequently, too, students are not able to see their actions from the other student's point of view and understand that what they said was hurtful (seeing something from another point of view is developmentally a fairly abstract skill, as any teacher knows who works with students on being able to read their own writing from a reader's point of view). In addition, students regularly see put-downs and insults in movies, on television, and on the Internet portrayed as humorous and a normal part of the way people talk to each other, so sometimes they are simply modeling what they are seeing elsewhere and trying to be funny in front of their peers. Finally, both students and parents are often reluctant to "tell" when students are being bullied, both because students have learned that they should not be "tattle-tales" and because they fear that it will get worse if they tell.

I think there are a number of things that are important in working on this issue. First, in working with students I usually avoid using the label of "bullying" and simply try to convey the idea that saying something "mean" to another student is never acceptable. Second, I talk with students and parents about the whole process of stopping bullying, which sometimes involves more than one intervention. If, for example, I intervene in a situation and the bullying stops permanently, that's wonderful! Sometimes, though, it stops for a while and then starts up again. At that point, it is essential that the student being bullied or her parents let me know, so I can move to the next level of intervention; if they don't, that reinforces the idea for the students that "no one will do anything" about it. On the other hand, we have found that if students and parents work with us and we persist through however many levels of intervention we need to, we have had great success in stopping bullying.

That brings me to my last point on this -- I believe that it is essential for parents, teachers, and administrators to work in partnership on this problem, and to persist in conveying the message to kids -- over and over and over again -- that it is unacceptable to "say mean things" to other kids. Equally important, I think we need to begin emphasizing to students that they should also not be passive bystanders and let bullying happen. If something suddenly changed tomorrow so that everyone who saw bullying happen (at either the kid level or the adult level, actually!) intervened and objected, the world would become less safe for the bullies and more safe for everyone else. So I think communication (encouraging kids to tell, parent-school partnership, encouraging kids to object to bullying when they see it, conveying the message that "saying mean things" is not acceptable) and persistence are the keys to solving this problem. And in our spare time we can certainly also write reports about it, but let's have parents, teachers, and administrators spend most of their time and energy working together to help the kids!

Writing, the Internet, Reading Development. . .

2009-11-08T19:07:00.010-05:00

I had an interesting but strange event occur last week -- I learned that a superintendent in New York has been plagiarizing my writing, copying from my newsletters at Trottier and, a couple of weeks ago, from a posting on this blog, and passing it off as his writing in the newsletter that he sends to parents. I have a copy of one of his recent newsletters, the one that uses part of my previous blog entry, and it feels strange to see my writing in that context. I guess it's a compliment, in a way, but certainly a backhanded one. It's also a reminder that I think is a good one for everyone -- possibly particularly for young adults -- that the kind of Internet presence you establish is important, and that hiding and subterfuge are becoming less possible with the increasing "publicness" of life in the age of the Internet. For an insightful comment on the way in which posted material spreads rather than disappears, see last Sunday's Doonesbury cartoon (Sunday, November 8th) -- http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html. A very interesting book that I would recommend on this topic is Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, about the ways in which the social media are changing our lives; Shirky points out that the costs of group organization have in some contexts simply collapsed, and continues with a fascinating discussion of the results. Meanwhile, to the New York superintendent, if you are reading this -- thank you for the compliment, but please stop plagiarizing my work!

On a related topic, I have been thinking about reading a lot this fall. One thing that has been fascinating for me in my new role at Neary is to see the process of literacy development in children at an earlier stage, prior to middle school, and I have loved what I've been seeing in the classrooms that I've been in during the past couple of months. In the reading classrooms, students are learning and practicing reading strategies, instruction is tailored to the needs of particular students, and students are choosing their own books, spending time reading, and excitedly talking about the books they are reading. Teachers are using a variety of strategies to help students learn, including modeling strategies during read-aloud time, work with groups of students who are working on the same strategies, individual work with students, and providing time for students to practice. I'm talking every day with kids who are excited about reading, and having great conversations with them about the books they are reading!

To support what our teachers are doing in the classroom, I have a couple of suggestions for parents on the reading front, although you're probably already doing both of them. First of all, do read aloud to your children, as much as possible, and while you're reading discuss the story and occasionally talk through and model what you do as a reader to understand what you're reading (maybe you don't remember a character, so you go back and reread part of the previous chapter; maybe you don't know a word so you look at the context and think about what would make sense). The other suggestion, also emphasized by Dr. Ilda King, a reading consultant who gave a presentation on reading development last month (sponsored by the Northborough-Southborough Parent Advisory Council), is that kids develop into better readers by reading many easy books, so do encourage your children to read books that they understand and love to read. And your modeling is excellent -- if you are reading, and kids see that you enjoy it, they will, too. Obviously, I love reading -- and I hope that all our kids will come to love it and find it a source of lifelong pleasure!

Some Thoughts about MCAS and NCLB

2009-10-18T15:37:00.007-04:00

This past week, there was an interesting discussion at the Southborough School Committee meeting about the MCAS scores from this past spring, including the fact that we are no longer able to use these scores effectively to analyze our students’ performance because the state is no longer releasing most of the test questions, thus making the tests much less useful for school improvement efforts. There are many other things about these scores as well, though, that I’m not sure everyone realizes, and I want to mention some of the things that I see, for others to think about and respond to. For the most part, educators’ voices have not often been heard in the conversation about standardized testing – the groups discussing, initiating, and designing the testing systems have included very few K-12 educators, and comments from educators are sometimes dismissed by the media as defensive and self-serving, so some of the questions and criticisms of the tests are not well known. To me, there are many aspects of both MCAS and NCLB (the federal law, titled “No Child Left Behind”) that are a bit like the story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and I have kept waiting for the media to dig behind the press releases and official statements to understand the real effects of these programs. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet, so I thought that I would share some things that I wonder about as I look at education policy these days.

•• In last year’s NAEP testing (NAEP stands for “National Assessment of Educational Progress” and is a test that has been widely regarded as a valid national assessment since 1990 (http://nationsreportcard.gov/)), Massachusetts 8^th graders led the nation in mathematics achievement, and Massachusetts 4^th graders tied with two other states for first place. (See the October 14^th, 2009, press release from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education – www.doe.mass.edu.) But in the same year, on the MCAS, 80% of Massachusetts middle schools were regarded as failing to make “adequate yearly progress” for at least one subgroup under NCLB (see data on the DESE website).

•• In 2007, Massachusetts results on the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) testing were separated out as if Massachusetts were its own nation. The results, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education (http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?id=4457), were that:

“According to the results of the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Massachusetts 4th graders ranked second worldwide in science achievement and tied for third in mathematics; the state's 8th graders tied for first in science and ranked sixth in mathematics.”

What’s interesting to me about this is that this is the Massachusetts average score for 4^th graders and for 8^th graders – when you look at the MCAS results, Southborough and other similarly situated communities score much higher than the state averages, so our students must in fact be scoring with the best in the world. Yet MCAS and NCLB and the media slant on those results would have us believe that our students are not achieving as well as they should.

•• A recent Boston Globe article reported on the 2009 NAEP results with a concerned headline indicating that NAEP results have not increased significantly since the beginning of “education reform” efforts, and implying that the NAEP testing results should have shown an increase. Aside from the possibility that adding testing may not be the best method to improve our children’s education, a question I have about this is the following: how do we “know” that students can in fact achieve at higher levels than they are currently reaching? If, for example, we compare this year’s 4^th graders to last year’s 4^th graders, which is what we are doing, and we expect that the scores should be continually rising, the assumption behind that expectation is that 4^th graders are capable of achieving much more than they are currently achieving and that schools are doing a lousy job. But how do we know that and how much do we think they can achieve? 4^th graders are generally nine years old. Probably everyone would agree that we would not be able to achieve a goal of having most nine-year-olds understand calculus, and probably everyone would also agree that most nine-year-olds should know their basic math facts. But where in between these two extremes is the appropriately challenging standard that is reasonable to expect of nine-year-olds? And, when our nine-year-olds lead the nation in math achievement and are 6^th in the world among nations, how is it that we are deciding that developmentally they can do more, particularly in our highest-achieving communities?

•• NCLB defines “adequate yearly progress” as increasing test scores in equal increments, from a 2002 baseline, until 2014, in which year all students are to be proficient or advanced. Everyone who really thinks about that regards it as an impossible goal – we have many students with severe disabilities for whom proficient or advanced scores on a paper-and-pencil standardized test are simply beyond their capabilities – yet politicians, government bureaucrats, and the media continue to speak as if this is possible, the law applies sanctions to schools that fall behind, and more and more schools are regarded as being in need of improvement. On the one hand, this doesn’t seem like a serious problem, if everyone realizes that it’s an impossible goal (and many legislators will admit this to you in private) – BUT – the negativity about schools and educators that their public discourse reflects is damaging to public trust in schools, to parents’ trust in educators, and ultimately to educators’ ability to do their best work with kids.

•• NCLB also defines “adequate yearly progress” as meaning that each subgroup – including low-income students, different ethnic groups, “limited English proficient” students, and students with disabilities – makes sufficient progress so that each group will achieve proficiency by 2014. This standard is one thing as applied to low-income students and members of defined ethnic groups, but completely another thing as applied to English language learners and students with disabilities. “Limited English proficient” students, by definition, are students who are not yet proficient in English. As soon as students become proficient in English and no longer need special services, they are removed from the group, and new students, who perhaps have just come to this country and don’t yet speak English, are added to the group. So what the law requires is continuous progress, to a goal of complete proficiency by 2014, in a group whose members move out of the group and are no longer counted in it as soon as they make progress and which is continuously adding new members as new students who do not yet speak English move in. The subgroup of students with disabilities is similar in some ways. This group is made up of students with disabilities who are not able to “make effective progress” independently because of their disabilities. As previously noted, some of them may simply not be able to achieve proficiency as defined by NCLB because of their disabilities. Others do make progress – BUT – once they make enough progress that they can “make effective progress” independently without services, they are removed from the group. So the group, as defined, is students who are not able to independently “make effective progress,” yet NCLB requires continuous progress toward complete proficiency for this group. Most schools that do not make AYP fail to make AYP because of the performance of one or both of these subgroups, which by definition are students whose progress is lower than others.

•• With respect to the MCAS itself, there has often been much concern expressed about student performance in grades 3-8, in particular criticism of student achievement in middle schools, along with praise for the higher achievement of 10^th grade students across the state. When I look at this in more detail, however, one of the things I wonder about is the threshold scores set by the state for the various levels of performance. In 2009, on the MCAS math test, the 7^th grade “cut scores” were 93% for “advanced,” 74% for “proficient,” and 48% for “needs improvement,” while the 10^th grade “cut scores” were much lower, at 67% for “advanced,” 45% for “proficient,” and 27% for “needs improvement.” (The threshold scores for grades 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 are similar to the 7^th grade.) I understand that the tests are different, and there are complicated explanations of how they calculate the threshold scores, but I do wonder about this discrepancy. . .

I have recently finished reading an excellent book entitled Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization, by Yong Zhao, a professor at Michigan State University, analyzing and comparing the American education system and the Chinese education system, and explaining the reasons that China is working to make its education system and philosophy more like the American system was in the past, before the recent push toward standardized testing. Some of the points he makes, unfortunately little noted in the American media, are the following:

> In a 2008 study by the National Science Foundation, U.S. students scored highest among nations on “science literacy,” or understanding scientific concepts (as opposed to standardized test-taking). Zhao notes, “Chinese students may test well in science, but their science literacy remains low.” (Zhao, p. 84)

> Education “that is oriented solely to preparing students to achieve high scores on tests can be harmful to both individuals and the nation it is supposed to serve. Professors Sharon Nichols and David Berliner (2007) documented the potential damage of high-stakes testing to public education in the United States in their book Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America’s Public Schools. The damage. . . in China is much broader and has been proven because the whole education system is test oriented and all that matters is to prepare test takers. . .” (Zhao, p. 85) [Note: the Nichols and Berliner book is also an excellent analysis of the damage being done by the current standardized testing efforts in the United States.]

> Zhao also documents rates of student suicide, obesity and other health issues in China, as well as the “creativity gap” resulting from the standardized testing system. (Zhao, pp.85-95)

Zhao continues with an analysis of the skills and knowledge that our children will need for the future, concluding that:

“. . . schools should offer a comprehensive, balanced curriculum that includes opportunities for students to explore and develop both R-directed thinking and L-directed thinking; to learn math, science, technology, history, economics, geography, government, reading, literature, music, foreign languages, and art; to develop global awareness and appreciation for differences; to develop understanding of and ability to interact within the digital virtual world; and to develop a healthy body and mind.” (Zhao, p. 155)

The following are excerpts from his concluding chapter, entitled “Catching Up or Keeping the Lead: The Future of American Education”:

“I have used the previous chapters to show how the current reform efforts [in the U.S.] are the result of a history of flawed reasoning based on incomplete information, driven by unfounded fear, and influenced by politics. . .”

He explains how China is working to move away from a test-driven system and expand its definition of success, and then continues: “How we define success for students, teachers, and schools determines how students, teachers, and schools are evaluated, and it directs their energy, efforts, and resources to what are considered indicators of success. This effect has already been seen in the U.S. reform efforts of the past several years. As a result of No Child Left Behind, many schools have narrowed their curriculum to focus only on what is tested – math and reading – and teachers have been pushed to teach to the test. . . expanding the definition of success should be one of the first changes we make in our efforts to ensure a bright future for our children. . .”

“Expanding the definition of success first means that we need to elevate the status of other subjects, abilities, skills, and talents to the same level as math and reading. . . Expanding the definition of success also means changing how we measure success. Many of the valuable skills, knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and perspectives one needs and schools cultivate do not have widely accepted standardized tests. Some of them may never be easily measured through standardized tests. Thus we need to adopt a broad range of indicators to assess student learning, including student products, teacher observations, classroom performances, and some psychological measures of student motivation, creativity, and perspectives that have not typically been part of mainstream educational assessment. . .”

“Expanding the definition of success of schools should not be limited to only outcome measures, because many factors affect student learning. . . It is simply misleading and wrong to use students’ performance on tests to judge the degree of a school’s success. A more just and useful way to judge the quality of schools is to assess the quality of input and hold schools accountable for providing the best educational environment for all students. . .”

In my view, we need to value and encourage our students’ abilities and skills in all areas, and not to regard or make a student feel like a failure if, for example, he has difficulty in reading but is a brilliant trumpet player (of course we should help him with his reading, but if we eliminate music to focus more on high achievement in tested subjects, we do this child serious harm), and we need to be careful about allowing the current mania for standardization and measurement to destroy the public education system that has resulted in our country leading the world in innovation. We also need to understand and appreciate the excellent job that most of our schools are doing with our students, and not undermine educators’ efforts and energy through the constant negativity and criticism in the media. I am still hopeful that journalists and politicians will eventually begin to investigate, look deeper into the many questions surrounding NCLB, and realize that not only is the emperor wearing no clothes, but that the standardized testing movement has the potential and is beginning to seriously damage our public schools.

Music, Art & MCAS

2009-09-28T13:51:00.004-04:00

It's been an interesting week! This week, waiting for the buses at the end of the day, I have loved watching the fourth graders with their new instruments! Having just had their first lesson, they can't resist opening the case, looking at the shiny, beautiful instrument, and showing it to their friends. It's an exciting time for them, an opportunity to begin something that can give them a lifetime of joy. Meanwhile, inside the school, appearing on the bulletin boards and walls, are more and more wonderful contour drawings of backpacks and jackets, part of an art project related to Andrew Clements' book The Jacket, which we are all reading as part of this fall's "One School, One Read" project. Our students are studying the illustrations in the book, thinking about how they relate to the story, and learning to produce beautiful drawings themselves -- another beginning of something that can give them a lifetime of joy. Whether our students become proficient musicians or artists, or simply learn to appreciate it and enjoy it, the arts I believe are a fundamental part of a good education for a good life, and I love watching our students exploring, learning, and enjoying music and art.

Also this week we received our students' MCAS scores from last spring, which focus primarily on two areas of learning -- math and English language arts. (Fifth graders are also tested on science knowledge.) As always, our students did well on the tests, but there have been some changes this year which make it more difficult to use the tests as a diagnostic tool. The most significant change is that the state is no longer releasing all the test items. This is understandable in these days of budget difficulties, but it makes it difficult to use the tests to help students or our school improve. An example from this past week was a question I received from a parent asking why her child received a "needs improvement" on the 3rd grade ELA test despite answering all items other than one correctly. After investigation, I found that most of the child's incorrect answers had been on items that were not being released. To make it even more confusing, the parent report includes only the 13 released items, and does not indicate the 29 unreleased items. Unfortunately, we cannot look at the questions that this child answered incorrectly and analyze what help, if any is needed. It's also worth noting that changes in the "cut scores" this year have also changed the percentage of students in the "needs improvement" category, particularly on the 4th grade math test. Please do call if you have particular questions, and please also be aware that these tests are difficult and are intended primarily as benchmarks or diagnostic tools in the years prior to high school.

Looking back on the week, and thinking about the opportunities we provide for our students, I would say, as always, that we need to pay attention to the results of the testing, but make sure that we maintain a balance, and continue to provide those elements of an excellent education, such as the arts, that may not be tested, but that nevertheless are important parts of a well-rounded education.

A Good Beginning

2009-09-20T15:05:00.008-04:00

As you know, we've now been in school for about two weeks, and last week was the Neary School Curriculum Night. We had an excellent turnout for that, as we did for the Welcome Back Ice Cream Social during the first week of school -- thank you to all of you who attended, and a huge thank you to the Neary SOS for their work on making both events go so well! It seems to me that we've had a good beginning of school, both in terms of the work that our teachers are doing with our students and in terms of the home-school partnership between parents and teachers. I truly do think, as I said on Curriculum Night, that there is no problem that we can't solve if we work together. Whatever the issue, if we talk to each other, and listen with the intent of understanding, we can find a solution.

Along these lines, one of our goals this year is to work on helping students treat each other well, and we have a variety of approaches that we are using to help them learn good communication skills, treat each other well, and stand up for what they know is right. One new project this year that I'm sure you have heard about is our "One School, One Read" project in which all students and teachers are reading Andrew Clement's book The Jacket. We began this project last Thursday (September 10th) with a "reader's theatre" presentation of the first chapter for the whole school, which I think the students enjoyed. Every student received a copy of the book, and teachers are continuing to read the book in their classes. On September 30th, we have another special event, Community Read Day, during which readers from the community come into classrooms and read to our students -- this year, they will be reading a portion of The Jacket. If you haven't yet talked to your child about the book and asked his/her opinion, I would encourage you to do so. One important theme in the book is standing up for what one believes is right, and students will be discussing this theme in their classes. Finally, on October 14th, Andrew Clements is going to be visiting both our school and Woodward (Woodward students are reading Frindle this fall), and our students will have a chance to hear his thoughts about the book. This is an exciting project, and one which I think will further our students' growth in many different ways. As an aside, I have been reading many of Andrew Clements' books recently, and two others that I have particularly enjoyed and would recommend are No Talking and Extra Credit.

Finally, speaking of our students, I have to note that this past Friday (Sept. 18th) I did congratulate them on their before-school behavior on the playground. I have seen our students playing and having fun, but in an appropriate manner, including others and playing in a way that's safe. That has certainly contributed to our good beginning, and I hope it continues.

Looking Forward to the First Day of School

2009-08-15T11:11:00.001-04:00

As the new principal of the Neary School, I'm very much looking forward to the beginning of school this fall, and to meeting all of our new 4th graders and returning 5th graders. For me, the new year always begins in the fall, and September is always when I set my own goals for the year. Several years ago, standing in the lobby on the first day of school, I watched a father come in with his son. He checked to make sure his son had everything he needed, and then said, "Give me a high five for a great year!" Every year, on the first day, I remember that scene. The beginning of the school year is an exciting time, full of hopes and dreams and possibilities. In a book titled The First Days of School, authors Harry and Rosemary Wong recommend celebrating that new beginning and we are planning to do that at Neary this year with a day that includes a whole-school welcoming assembly, as well as orientation and community-building activities and time for our students to reflect on the coming year and how we can work together to make our school the best possible place for everyone. I'm looking forward to it and I hope you are, too!