Commencement

by Lawrence Cherry

Tamiko had been going over her latest round of assessments during her prep period. There had been some improvement in the children’s progress, but it still wasn’t on par with what other teachers at her grade level had been able to produce. She knew she was going to be roasted at the next assessment meeting, but Tamiko wasn’t worried about that anymore. She now realized she had to focus on her students and think about each of them deeply, and what they needed to succeed. Thankfully the workshop Rosalyn had suggested had provided her with a lot of ideas on how to differentiate her instruction for all of her students’ needs. They even gave her all kinds of classroom materials that she could use with her students. Tamiko was looking over her assessment spreadsheet when Rosalyn came in.

  “Hi, Tamiko. How are assessments going?”

  “Everyone has been assessed, and I’ve done all the write ups and entered the information into the database. I just printed out the spreadsheet. Not a lot of improvement, in spite of everything that I’ve been doing.”

  “It’s going to take time, Tamiko. Don’t get discouraged.”

  “I know. Oh, and I went to that workshop you suggested.”

  “Great! I was hoping to see you there, but we must have missed each other. Did you find it to be helpful?”

  “Yes. You were right, I got a lot of great materials that I’m going to use with the children.”

  “But you have to know your children really well if the materials are going to be effective. Knowing your students is key. Some one can give you a tool, but if you don’t know your students you won’t know how you can use it.”

  “I know that now. That’s why I’ve been really pouring over this grid to see how I’m going to plan the next week.”

  “And don’t just limit yourself to the data. Think about their personalities, their likes and dislikes. For example when you’re choosing a guided reading book, don’t just think about the target words they’ll have to decode or the strategy your going to teach. If you choose the kind of book a particular child likes to read, anything you teach will be made just that much clearer to them.”

  “I see. And I’ve even been thinking of the kind of learners they are. Like I’ve noticed that I have quite a few students who are kinesthetic learners like Jinelle, Sandra, and John: they have to move around and use their bodies. So I’ve been adding more opportunities for children to move during lessons. For starters, I’ve been using skywriting during word study and math, using dances and acting to explain concepts, choosing Shared Reading books that are more rhythmic and adding movements, and even just using more manipulatives in my lessons. It’s even helped my ELL students who are learning English because it helps them to connect the words they are learning to concepts.”

  “That is wonderful! See! This is what I’ve been talking about. Your best teaching is going to come from what you learn about your students, not from some pre-packaged program.”

  “I’m starting to see where you were right before. Rosalyn, I’m sorry about the hard time I gave you at our last meeting.”

  “It’s okay. I understood where you were coming from. This place can be crazy sometimes. If there’s anything I can do to help, you let me know.”

  “Actually, I would love to see how you do your writing lessons. I know you use multisensory techniques, and with all my kinesthetic learners, I figured you could show me something that might help them.

  Then maybe you could come and watch me to see if I’m on the right track.”

  “Of course. I’ll talk to Nettlenerves and Booker so they can put it in the schedule.”

  “And can I ask you a question? I hope it doesn’t seem odd. That first day that we were setting up classrooms, I came in to say hi and you were sitting in the dark on the floor…”

  “Oh, that. I’m sorry. I have migraines. I know it’s no excuse for being rude but I was in the midst of a horrible migraine and I wasn’t feeling well at all.”

  “That’s a relief. Wait a minute… that didn’t come out right. What I mean is, I thought you were upset with me or that you didn’t like me.”

  “Don’t be silly. I try to make my decisions on a person’s character after I’ve had a chance to get to know them. And now that I’ve known you for a while, I happen to think you are an intelligent and caring young woman.”

  “Thanks. And I’m finding out that you’re definitely nothing like I’ve heard.”

  “And I can imagine that you’ve probably heard some things.”

  Both women giggled. At that moment Booker entered the room in a frantic hurry with some memos.

  “Glad I caught you ladies before the period was over. Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Nettlenerves wanted everyone to be served with these personally”, said Booker as she barged into the classroom.

  “What’s the big deal?” asked Tamiko.

  “We’ve just heard from central. Our quality review is going to be early this year. We always used to be reviewed in late March or early April, but this year it’s going to be in February. All the details are in the memo. We’re going to have an emergency staff meeting about it during the lunch periods”, explained Booker.

  “I wonder why there’s such a fuss. We’ve always done well on the Quality Review. At least for the past two years”, wondered Rosalyn out loud.

  “But this year they’ve changed everything: the process of the review, the criteria for the Well Developed rating. It’s really a big shock to all the schools”, continued Booker.

  “This is crazy. Why would they change everything on such short notice?” asked Tamiko.

  “There’s not a lot in this system that makes much sense”, sighed Rosalyn with an air of resignation.

  “I’ve got to be going. I still have seven more classes to hit before lunch. Everything is in the memo. Just make sure you report for the meeting either 11:30 or 12:30 sharp in 415.” said Booker backing out of the classroom with her stack of memos.

  “Rosalyn, you probably know more about this more than anyone. What happens during a Quality Review?” asked Tamiko full of apprehension as well as curiosity.

  “An educator from some consulting firm all the way over in England comes to our schools and judges us based on a set of criteria. They meet with the administration, some of the teachers, do a walk through of the school and visit certain classrooms. It’s really intense.”

  “How do they decide whose classrooms to visit or which teachers to interview?”

  “The principal has always chosen the classes. She’ll just choose her favorite people as usual.”

  “That takes a lot of pressure off me. I’m probably the last teacher she wants them to see.”

  “But even if they’re not in your room, you still have to be on your best. The reviewers watch everything. You never know what they’ll notice and criticize.”

  “I just hope I don’t turn out to be the ‘weak link’.”

  “Don’t worry about it Tamiko. You just keep focusing on your students. Teachers who get in trouble are those who aren’t doing their job, and then try to fake it during the review. Those kind of teachers are very obvious because the children always give them away.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, I remember this teacher a few years back named Mrs. Bowen. She’s not here any more. Her classroom was a train wreck. No order, no discipline, and no learning. All the teaching was lecture based, very little independent work. Then the reviewers come and she tries to put on this act. Big fancy lesson with lots of manipulatives and time for student directed work. It totally blew up in her face. The kids weren’t used to using the manipulatives and some of them were playing with them instead of using them in the way they should have been. Then one of the kids tells the reviewer that and I quote ‘Today is fun. We always do workbooks, but today we get to play with the toys.’”

  “You’re kidding! That had to be priceless!”

  “The reviewers had a field day on Stone. It was our first quality review and we only got a score of proficient because
of that incident. The reviewers citing the fact that administration didn’t seem to know what was going on in their own classrooms.”

  “Mrs. Stone probably wanted a rock to crawl under.”

  “And you know what made it even more embarrassing? She was one of Stone’s top protégés. You see, she knew all of the jargon of the business and could talk a great deal. Stone and Nettlenerves thought she could do nothing less than walk on water. After the review, she ended up transferring to another school.”

  “If I were in her shoes, I think I’d want to transfer to another country.”

  “Then there’s the other end of the spectrum. There was another teacher who was good at these “hands on” lessons, but she wasn’t providing the children with a conceptual framework for their learning. The kids worked well with the tools, but they had no idea why the activities were important. Like the kids could play a rhyming game with onset and rime, but they didn’t see how they could use onset and rime to help them decode words. They could play the “Get to 100” game with the hundreds chart, but couldn’t explain where the tens place or the ones place was in a number. They couldn’t solve addition or subtraction problems without manipulatives. And these were third graders! All the “hands on” stuff made it look like the children were learning, but they really weren’t.”

  “I guess it takes a balance of things.”

  “And that’s what a lot of people in our field don’t get Tamiko. Everyone’s caught up in how things look, and putting on a show for these educrats who are wedded to some new fad or ideology. And with every change at central there’s a new ideology. I remember when readers were the rage and phonics was the key. Then they threw out the readers for the “cloze” method. Now it’s balanced literacy and “hands on” learning. Here everyone has fancy charts all over the place, tons of student work on the walls, all these ‘manipultives’ and ‘centers’, but at the end of the day if it’s not helping them to learn, then what good is it?”

  “You’re so right. And like you said, we can use a method or technique, but it will only be useful if it is effective with the student you’re working with. And I’m beginning to see that there’s no one method that’s going to work for everybody.”

  “Exactly. But one thing that can’t be denied no matter what, is good teaching. I do what I do regardless. If any administrator or whoever wants to question me about whatever is going on in my classroom, I’m always ready to answer based on what I know about my kids. And my kids prove me right, because in the end they’re learning.”

  “I wish I could be so confident.”

  “Tamiko, I’ve seen a lot of teachers over the past two decades of my career. Believe me when I say you have nothing to worry about.”