Great news today!! I was just notified that my most biggest writing project ever, was named a Finalist for the 2010 Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Awards in the category of Reading and Language Arts.

I really only started writing educational curriculum for one reason: I hated the fact that I was a perpetual complainer about all the junk that was out there being peddled to my school and my students.

And living in a world where I saw my school – and so many others – get, pardon my French, “fleeced” by educational publishers that weren’t providing what I felt needed to be provided in order to 1) effectively reach our modern students and 2) smartly empower today’s teachers with the tools they really needed to be effective professionals was driving me bonkers.

And the prices that these folks were charging? Jeez, it made my head spin. (Thus the French term above). I always felt it could be done better.

But then I had to face the facts. If I really thought it could be done better, I would have to prove it. It’s easy to talk and complain. It’s harder to actually do something about it.

And so I decided to take a run at educational publishing myself.

When publishers found out that I was going to put together a curriculum of best practices from my own classroom that pretty much used all the strategies, methodologies, insights and tools I had developed over the years and years I’d spent as a classroom educator (and as avid student of schooling itself) it landed me a bunch of meetings. Everyone was interested in working with me on this endeavor.

My literary agent, however, thought I was a bit nuts.

“Why take a detour off of a great – and growing – career as a YA novelist to go write material for teachers? The work is going to be three times as hard and the money a lot less?”

Now my agent is great. Best professional partner I have in many, many respects. However, when he heard my reasoning (i.e. I wanted to “give back”, I thought I could make a real difference, people asked me all the time for materials as to how I do what I do to reap the results I get with my kids) he said, “Ya know what, you won me over. I can see you feel passionate and think this is going to be something meaningful and special. Let’s do it! Let’s see if we can’t change, or at least try to change a world that has become fossilized.”

And so, of all the publishers available to me, I struck a deal with a young and hungry group over at Haights Cross and Recorded Books. What they lacked in tremendous size, they made up for in desire, smarts and talent. They let me captain the ship, they worked hard to provide all the resources I’d need to produce something smashing, and they put the pedal to the metal from the boardroom on down. Essentially, they gave me their full support. (And who doesn’t want/need that?)

What I was able to publish with them is, what I feel, the best teaching I have ever done. The BookJam is my response to my own complaining.

And though it’s still less than a year old – and there are more phases planned in the project (I just finished the Poetry Jam and The Classics Jam meaning 7 BookJams are already out while 4 more BookJams are being written by me this summer for release in the next 6-8 months) well… how cool is it that the Association of American Publishers just gave me a little love for my efforts.

So what’s the lesson? (I am always looking for lessons.) As teachers, we are not as disempowered as we think we are to bring about change. I rolled up my shirts sleeves and got to work.

Our schools are starving for more of us to take the lead. Science teachers, math teachers, history, PE, art, music, Special Ed and on and on and on.

We can do better.

Or kids deserve better.

The status quo is not working.

Being named a finalist for such a prestigious award, what’s it really mean? It means I now have the credibility to encourage other educators to quit looking to politicians and administrators with political agendas for the classroom answers you need.

Take the reins and have at it folks… you have no idea where it will lead.

I didn’t.

So I have no problem with people of faith. However, I do have a problem with extremists who morally get on their high horse and quote the bible in order to defend their point of view as being entirely beyond question or reproach.

The following is a letter I wish I was clever enough to have written. This is a real tickler:

In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant person of deep faith, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and, as such cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, penned by a university professor. It’s funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination … End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness – Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I’m confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan.
James M. Kauffman, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia

(It would be a damn shame if we couldn’t own a Canadian

Why is it that the higher up one rises in terms of being an educational decision maker with real power to wield, the further one is distanced from actually working with real kids on a day to day basis?

Kinda weird, huh?

I mean, by this logic — wacky as it is when you really think about it — the ratio works out so that those who make the most influential decisions are the folks that spend the least (if any… and I literally mean, if any) time with real kids in real classrooms.

Let’s break it down in a broad overview…

–Real classroom teachers who work with between 100-200 kids per day. Immense exposure to real kids. Infinitesimal influence over matters of educational policy.

–Principals, Vice Principals and other admins. They see lots of reals kids but all too often it’s from their office windows. (And I question whether or not 50% of America’s administrators could identify, by name, 100 specific kids on campus.) They certainly dictate some policy, but big, big stuff is out of their hands in most cases and they are henchmen for bigger puppet masters in a great many cases.

–District Office Personnel. A healthy amount of power… but many of them go whole weeks at times without talking to any kids at all.

–School Board Members. Also a healthy amount of power. Do they know 50 kids by name? I genuinely wonder.

–County Offices of Education. A bureaucratic jungle where their are more cubicles than actual children.

–State Departments of Education. Now you are talking influence. This is where policy gets made. Kids are talked about every day — but real, live ones made of flesh and bone? Well, at least there are pictures on the walls.

The federal government. (Congress, the U.S. Department of Ed. TheWhite House.) Spectacular influence but they lean heavily on their political aides to give reports (in order to relay salient pieces of information inside 863 page reports such as, “Kids like snacks.”). They believe in kids. They fight for kids. They are the champions of kids. (That should lock up the parent vote, right?)

Thing are outta whack! And why? Cause the higher they rise, the further they are from what they need to see.

Earlier this week I flew up to the Department of Education in our state’s capital, Sacramento, to get formally introduced to the new 2010 California Teacher of the Year Award winners.

Let me tell ya, it was ROCKIN’!!

In attendance: Jack O’Connell, the state Superintendent of Education, former Teacher of the Year Award winners from days gone by (that’s how I got an invite; it’s like the only real Skull and Bones Society to which I belong… and it’s WAY COOL!) and a host of other big kahuna CA. Dept. of Ed. staff… the really “high-ups” who make so many of the school wheels spin in our state (a state which, btw, serves MILLIONS of kids).

All and all I can’t tell you how invigorating a meeting like this can be. I mean how often do regular ol’ teachers get access to the folks who sit up at the highest levels of the food chain in public ed?

What never fails to amaze me, too, is how bright some of the minds in that room every year are. Truly, when you are kickin’ it with folks like that, even water cooler dialogue can turn into an epiphany. Without a doubt talking turkey with folks like this is just so informative/challenging/absorbing/confrontational/invigorating/fantastic and on and on and on.

If only more people could have a seat at this table. At least, that’s one of the big thoughts I had while sitting there (I even wore a tie so you know it’s got to be big) and so, with this post, here a few of the random thoughts/highlights from the day in no particular order:

– Kelly Kovacic will represent the State of California in the 2010 National Teacher of the Year competition. (I was the 2007 state rep… didn’t win the National, though — but the person who did – Andrea – was an amazing choice. Kelly, however, is one to keep your eye on. She is OFF THE CHARTS! Kelly teaches at The Preuss School, a charter middle and high school dedicated to providing a rigorous college prep education for motivated low-income students. Essentially, 100% of her students will be the first in their families to ever attend college. Talk about the front lines of The Achievement Gap, breaking the cycle of generational poverty and on and on… Kelly is doing WOW work… and doing it really damn well!

–We had good, deep chats about the P-16 counsel. I am not going to go into all the ins-n-outs but here’s a link to P-16 and let me tell ya, if we could pull this off, our state would be MUCH better off.

How to implement the recs cited above was a hot topic of discussion, though. And trust me, I spoke up big and bold about how our schools have devolved into the unfortunate circumstance of their raison d’etre now being — at least in too great of a measure — about how “the bubble tests are the tail wagging the dog.”

Spicy conversations to say the least because, as we all know, the bubble tests are on one hand foolishly backing our schools into a dysfunctional corner as if the entire world is about “how to correctly choose answer choice C” when presented a series of A-D answer choices (as if these are the most critical skills life will require our kids to possess. However, no one — not even me — is going to claim that we don’t need accountability and assessment in public education. It’s a complicated issue to say the least (How about another shout out for GROWTH MODEL ASSESSMENTS!?) and easy answers are nowhere to be found. PLUS, with dwindling resources, there are less people able to really look for them.

–Of course, Jack talked about the budget cuts. Let’s face it, what section of education has not been ravished? His own staff, his efforts, his ability to manage the demands of his position, and so on… the nuclear fiscal landscape has left no one unscathed (and most certainly not our State Superintendent). Publicly, Jack said this a few weeks ago… and this quote very much reflects the spirit of the meeting: “I am extremely proud of all teachers, here in California as well as across the nation, who in the past year, have had to endure devastating cutbacks in funding and programs as well as layoff notices and elimination of positions,” O’Connell said. “It is more important than ever to honor people who chose to become teachers and to celebrate this most noble of professions.”

See, recognition of excellence matters. There are so many folks in our state and nation that are doing INCREDIBLE work and with the way the media has tirned to bashing educators as if we are all a bunch of dirt-bag, newpaper reading, worksheet distributors who hide behind tenure and the unions day in and day out, it’s more important than ever to shine a light on who we truly are.

We are America’s educators. And we are proud of it. And we are proud of the work that we are doing. And we are working hard to do better work despite the incredible challenges, obstacles and political buffoons impeding us.

That room is one of smiles and positive energy and people who just absolutely LOVE being teachers.

And so, if there is one thing you take from this post, know that, Illegitimi non carborundum.

That’s latin for, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down!”

Why? Because there are a heck of a lot of people working their tails off right now who simply are going all out to make a difference in the lives of kids and teachers everywhere.

And without a doubt, they are being successful. Now it’s all about increasing our rate of success. And for many people in that room, that aspiration is their/our life’s work!

Makes me proud to do what I do.

NOTE: Here’s a pic of me and the State Supe givin’ and gettin’ some love for the Teacher of the Year Foundation.

This article in Education Week calls attention to potential “conflict of interests” between educational publishers and those that are behind the scenes of the national standards push.

Essentially, here’s the thrust of the article…

The Literacy Research Association sent a letter Oct. 21 to the groups overseeing the development of common standards that, among other points, expresses concern that many of the authors are “representatives of multiple commercial entities that stand to profit enormously from selling curricula, instructional materials, assessments, and consultancies as the standards are rolled out.”

On one hand, can you really be surprised? When billion of dollars of government money is on the line, there are going to be commercial wolves salivating for the cash. (It happens in defense, construction, telecommunications and so on.)

On the other hand, the people who are authoring the national standards are some of America’s foremost thinkers and experts on students, achievement and blah, blah, blah. I mean where else would the Dept. of Ed turn for this authorship? And the educational publishers need these type of people to author their materials as well… so where do you think they are going to turn?

To the same people.

The conflict of interest was inevitable.

The solution seems kind of obvious to me. Make the contract read, if you write the standards you can’t author/consult/and so on for commercial educational publishing/testing materials for say, 5 years. (Or, if you have accepted money for authoring/consulting educational publishing materials, you are automatically excluded from national writing standards.)

Either way, should we be shocked that some people want to set it up so that “the folks in Congress get to vote on their own pay raise” (cause it’s kind of analogous)?

In parts of school and educational policy these days, all you have to do is follow the money.National standards means national standardized testing… and who will profit off of the implementation and administration of that I wonder?

The chumminess is troubling — even more so when it gets obfuscated behind closed doors, through back channels and what-not. But, hey, Joe and Jane parent… whadda they know. After all, they are entrusting both their kids and their tax dollars to us so that we can, as professionals, make these “best decisions” for them..

Hard to make a best decision for somebody else’s kids when you are staring at 10 figure contracts on the line.

That’s right BILLIONS are hanging in the balance.

But the internet makes for an amazing watchdog, does it not? People with hands in cookie jars… they gotta be more careful than ever, don’t they?

Okay, I had to take Halloween weened off to digest everything. (Plus, a pumpkin’s worth of candy. And my daughter thought I was making her look all cutesy for her sake. HA! It was a ruse to dupe my unsuspecting neighbors out of their chocolate! Worked like a charm, too.)

Anyway, so what have I learned?

Well, we gotta lotta pink elephants.

Pink Elephant #1: When an admin makes the master schedule it seems they pretty much go along with the following playbook. They…

1. Identify the best teachers and cherry pick the classroom placement of these folks.
2. Identify the Lemons and try to put them in a location where they’ll cause the least amount of damage. (OWCH!)
3. Slot in all the other teachers primarily basing this placement on what that person taught the prior year.
4. Fill in all additional holes. (This is where the newbies come in… new hires usually get the “leftover classes” in case anyone is wondering why the first year teachers often get 4 different preps at 3 different grade levels with kids who often are the most academically and behaviorally challenged.)

I think point number 2 about how admins often identify the Lemons and then try to put them in a location where they’ll cause the least amount of damage (to test scores, that is — it’s not even kids they fret so much about… it’s their own butts!) is the most damning of all the “placement of teacher” practices. And it’s why teacher tenure is under such fire. The Lemons are being protected in ways that seem unnatural and all the solid educators I know wish the Lemons would move on more than even the regular public does — cause these Lemons are tarnishing all of us and doing crazy damage to our kids.

However, the way the newbies get tossed into their assignments also is cause for alarm. Like an alarm that should have been pulled 25 years ago because it seems like this practice began long before I was at the front of my own classroom. But I still see it going on around the country all the time.

Too bad the teacher education programs can’t stand up for their own students more, huh? Or the veteran teachers who know what awaits these newbies? Or the admins who make these schedules in the first place? Or the districts that do the hiring? Of the folks at the State Dept of Ed. Look, we are all complicit when lambs are tossed into the lion’s den for am I not my teacher’s keeper?

Not in most American public schools, you’re not… or so it seems.

Like I said earlier… OWCH!

For those who wonder why we need Sex Ed taught in our schools, I offer this story, the tale of the teens who mistook a woman’s lovemaking cries for assault and promptly beat the crap out of the man with whom she was amorously copulating.

But the question arises as to which school personnel are qualified to handle such a delicate, senstive class. Good thing we have teachers such as this person, the elementary educator who “accidentally” spliced in a few seconds of her own sex adventures in a take home DVD of school memories for the kids to relish.

You gotta wonder what the summer project was, dontchya?

At the end of the day, all I know is, it’s a good thing we have stable leadership in this country — as this person clearly personifies. Otherwise, who knows where we’d be.

(Caribou Barbie… where do they make this stuff up?)

But sex ed wouldn’t just be about the birds and the bees. We could teach hygiene, personal responsibility and how to properly circumcise yourself, a lesson most obviously needed as this man proves when he uses a set of nail clippers to do a job most certainly requiring shears.

Is this not a textbook definition of the old saying, “Never send a boy to do a man’s job.”

Procreation: We need the pros.

Today is my first day of summer vacation. My school was one of the last to close in the state of California which means that I am fried, frazzled and freakin’ spent.

On one hand that’s good because to me it means I left it all on the table. I gave sweat, blood and tears this year. I also laughed a lot. And as I reflect upon my recent blog posts, I realize far too much of the joy of what I do day in and day out is NOT evident in my writing.

That’s sad. Therefore, I decided to insert a fart joke right here.

Fart joke.

See, they always work. (I really shouldn’t be giving away the keys to my writing techniques but hey, I have more… like booger picking references and belly button lint allusions.)

But alas, I digress.

It’s SO HARD to keep a sense of joy about things these days when so much of the news about schools is so raw and salty. Though I am still pretty young (I graduated high school in 1985… you do the math) I have never seen the mood so dour. And it’s cause of our finances.

The economic meltdown has come to town. I mean no one has ever really held up the city of Los Angeles as a pillar of educational excellence (pockets, yes — on a large scale, no.) But when I see headlines like these in the L.A. Times, I just want to bury my head under the covers and pretend that the implications of this decimation to our school funding isn’t going to screw over tens of thousands of kids in the next few years. Not just a few, but tens of thousands of students are going to be negatively impacted in a very direct, very severe manner.

So trying to put a smile on my face — and the face of others — feels a little Pollyannish.

On the other hand, I am supremely optimistic because our schools are long overdue for immense change and I think that this destruction of the dysfunctional status quo can be the impetus to bringing in a host of new ideas, new energy and new opportunities. People are going to be forced to do things differently — and that excites me. And there are very few sacred cows right now that aren’t being severely scrutinized. From the Dept. of Ed having a “rename NCLB” contest because of its abject failure in so many regards to the Governator showing the hangman’s noose to the dead tree textbook publishers to unions having their feet held to the fire for trying so hard to protest the weakest links in the teaching chain at the expense of the professional reputation of the rest of us, so much good stuff is happening under foot right now.

And so, summer begins. Maybe I’ll take a break. A break from blogging. A break from writing new books. A break from developing new curriculum materials to help reinvent some of the fossilized, static, outdated materials currently being peddled to us in our modern-day classrooms. Maybe I’ll take a break from thinking of ways I can be of service to this field I so dearly love.

Then again, maybe not. When you avocation and your vocation are the same thing, you’re a lucky son of a gun.

And that’s why I have no problem making — and smiling at — fart jokes. We need them, now more than ever.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppppppppppp!

Spring Break was exceptionally rejuvenating for me this year because I worked so hard and so long and travelled so many miles across the United States speaking, signing books and the such in the weeks prior to my time off from Lynwood that the first few days were a virtual collapse of the mind, body, and spirit. And while the alarm clock was kinda jarring today (first buzz at 5:17 am) I drove to school feeling excited. Things to do, books to read, minds to stretch, and so on.

And then I was hit with the worksheets.

State standardized tests are coming and I was literally given hundreds of pages of worksheets to prepare for the days and days of bubble tests coming up in May less than 8 minutes into my first day back on campus.

I immediately became despondent, angry and frustrated. (Pretty much morphing into the stereotypical demeanor of most teachers in our country today, right?)

Then I looked at the worksheets. (Much to my credit, mind you. Usually, I just dump them in a cabinet til the year is over with before looking for a recycling bin. After all, hundreds of pages of material as taken straight from the website of the State Dept. of Ed is rarely, if ever, something worth taking notice of. True tree killing to the worst degree. Come to think of it, our school photocopier must have been groaning for hours to get all the English teachers in our department sets of this mess. No rest for the weary, Mr. Machine. We gotz bubbles to serve!)

Anyway, I looked at the worksheets to see with an open eye what they were all about. And what did I see, mind you? Was I wrong? Was I falsely assuming a reality which was not there? Nope. I saw absolutely what I expected to see, that using worksheets to teach any sort of material in this day and age is simply a terrible approach to education. The state wants us to teach dialogue so Worksheet A has practice bubbles on discerning the tone, meaning and impact of dialogue.

Mr. Alan has kids actually speaking to one another in different tones and tongues in order for everyone to see, live, breathe, hear, feel and taste how dialogue truly can impact the meaning of text.

Do you know how fun it is to do this with a group of kids?

Can you please pass the salt?
CAN YOU PLEASE PASS THE SALT?
Can you PLEASE pass the salt?

Do all three mean the same thing? With teens, it’s way more exciting, real, practical and academically effective to teach the impact of dialogue my way — so into the cabinet went the worksheets and out came the real art of teaching.

And until they put me in a cabinet, that’s the way it’s gonna be.