The classroom environment I would like

This week is about classroom environments. Bill Ayers talks about the things he has in his classrooms to encourage exploration and learning. As I read his descriptions of some of his classrooms, I thought of my childrens' preschool. My three youngest went to a co operative preschool, and I was very involved and loved it. I actually thought about going into early education because I did love it so much, and loved the children so much. I think that is why I would like to teach kindergarten.

He talks about having a paint easle out, and an art area, a sensory area, a cozy book corner with lots of pillows, an area with blocks and other building materials, a dress up/imaginative play area, and a sand or water table. He talks about displaying the childrens' art work. He talks about cooking in the classroom. These are all things that perfectly describe the preschool environment. I think it is because of these things that I loved preschoolers and thought about teaching them. I have never really seen a classroom set up like that for elementary students, and yet he talks about continuing this basic set up, with adjustments, through high school.

In the preschool my kids went to we emphasized learning through play. We didn't have the worksheets and flashcards that some preschools do. We didn't focus on the academic that many parents want today. When I took parents on tours I had to constantly explain to them why we did things this way, and how they translated into academic success in later years. I would tell them that children are only young once, they have playful spirits and learn best at their own pace. That hands on learning sticks longer than rote learning and flashcards or worksheets. Not every child is going to be reading when they enter kindergarten, and that's ok. We had many parents who chose other options because they were conditioned to want a "strong academic" preschool for their child's future success.

Now my children are all past preschool age, and I look at their classrooms, and even the kindergarten classroom is a bare echo of this environment. Sure there are kids' artwork in the hall. Yes, they have a shelf with books on it. There are some math manipulative blocks in the tubs below the window. They pull out the art stuff once a week-- and the older kids sometimes less than that. Many schools have parents who volunteer to be Art Docents and come in to teach a lesson once a month, and for some classes, that is all the art they get.

Cooking in the classroom? They don't even allow homemade treats anymore. They have to be storebought in a sealed package. And with so many allergies, even that is sometimes discouraged. The preschoolers loved cooking. We made all sorts of stuff tied into what we were doing at the time. When we read The Gingerbread Baby we made gingerbread cookies, when we read Stone Soup, we made soup. We had pancake breakfasts, fruit salad, gorp, and muffins. While I think it would be wonderful, I can see the school saying no, for safety reasons, for health reasons, for allergy reasons, for sanitary reasons. It is hard in today's environment to do things like this because people are so afraid of the worst case senario. " What if someone gets food poisoning?" Sad, but true. And cooking is such a great way to tackle math - especially fractions, and culture, and science, and reading, and .. well the list could go on.

I would love to have a classroom environment like the one that Ayers described, like the preschool environment. I just don't know if it is possible today. With so many schools going towards set curriculum -- as Perlstein wrote in Tested -- even a bank teller could teach some of these lessons. I look at my children's classrooms over the years, and think about how they have changed. They have gotten more sterile. When I was young, and even when my daughter was younger, the teachers would change the decorations for each upcoming holiday. No more. More and more holidays are getting transferred to the do not celebrate in school list. There was talk this year at my kids school about Halloween and Thanksgiving celebrations being eliminated. Even day to day classroom decorations have been limited. One of the teachers said it was considered to be a fire hazard to have too much paper on the walls, so they had to limit the amount of posters, art, letters, charts, maps, etc. on their walls to comply with fire safety guidelines.


I like the idea of projects for kids to work on. I think they are wonderful and engaging, and capture the kids natural enthusiasm. I hope to include lots of projects in my curriculum when I am a teacher. I have watched my own kids, and other groups of kids I have worked with get so involved and excited about projects. When I was a Girl Scout Leader, I had a wide variety of girls in my troop; some very book smart, some who struggled in special ed. Every year we would do a project for Thinking Day. This is a special celebration the Girl Scouts have where the girls learn about the world, have special get togethers, and each troop usually does a project to share with the other troops. They each have a country and research food, traditions, geography, dances or songs. The girls all worked together, and did really well, regardless of where they were placed in school.


I hope that I can make a welcoming environment for my students. I had in my head that the things Ayers described were for preschool. Period. After reading that he carried these things through his classrooms, all the way up to college, I would really like to include more of these things in my own classroom.

Palmer High School

So we have had quite a few readings about disadvantages that minorities face in education, and then we wrote an educational biography last week as well. The two things combined have had me thinking a great deal about the high school I went to this week.

My parents moved into a neighborhood primarily because of the new high school being built, unfortunately many other families did the same thing, so it was overcrowded before it even opened. ]= While I could walk to this high school in 15 minutes, I spent 20-25 minutes on a bus each way every day to attend Palmer. I don't know if we were sent over there simply because our area was overcrowded and Palmer wasn't, or if they were trying to integrate the school more. At the time it didn't matter to me. I enjoyed my high school years. My parents hated my high school, and my younger brother and sister went to a different high school. They drove them, until they were old enough to drive themselves, just so they wouldn't have to go to Palmer.

Palmer had a diverse population, but it was still segregated. It was self segregated. The hispanics, we called them low riders because of their cars, all hung out at the Vocational Tech building. Their souped up cars parked over there, and they didn't come much to the main building. We had the African American gangs who hung out in the courtyard. I don't know which gangs they belonged to, I wasn't in the know about the politics of gangs, I just know that the smokers had one corner of the courtyard, the cowboys another, and two separate groups of black students divided the other two corners and no one crossed between them. We did have racial tensions.

The main road out front of the school was where everyone cruised on Friday and Saturday night. It was also rumored to be where the hookers hung out, although I don't think I ever saw one. The park across the street had homeless people, and it was rumored to be where the drug dealers were too. We all used to joke that Acacia park was the safest place in town because of all the undercover cops in it. My senior year there was a big fight on Nevada Ave outside the school, between some black students and some hispanic students- no guns, but someone got stabbed. It didn't happen during school hours, and while I was aware of it, it didn't affect me.

Now, I look back at all of this and think OMG! No wonder my parents didn't put my brother and sister in that school. At the time, it was normal. I wasn't afraid of going to school, I wasn't afraid of the other groups or cliques or gangs, I just didn't interact with them, our paths never crossed. I didn't feel scared to go to school every day. I was proud of my high school. I was involved in many extracurricular events.

I had all the honors and advanced placement classes, and the same group of people in all of the classes every year. There were two minorities in our classes - one whose father was African American and her mom was from Germany, the second girl whose father was caucasian and her mother was from Korea. Both of their fathers were retired Air Force, and had met their mothers while stationed overseas, married and brought them back to the USA. Melinda and Rita happened to be two of my best friends. They were minorities, even among the minorites. We were the good kids, we didn't get into trouble, we studied and we wanted to be there. We had the best of the teachers, and equipment. I can remember pulling out microscopes for Biology -- the "good microscopes"-- that were kept locked up. There were other microscopes out. I don't know if other classes used the good ones sometimes too, and I can't remember if we only used them for certain things, and used the regular ones for other things.

We were in a separate little world from the rest of the school. We didn't interact with the other students at all really. Even with our electives and non-academic requirements like PE, we didn't cross over much. Since we only had a couple of free periods, we were still all together for those too.

For us, the tracking, the separation of classes by skill level, or intelligent level, or whatever it is called, was advantageous. But for the other groups? I have never really thought about what happened to them. There were 333 people in my graduating class. I only remember because I was 33rd out of 333, so I just barely made the top 10%, which among my immediate classmates was a big deal. I wonder now how many others didn't graduate. I wonder what happened to those who weren't in the honors track, or what would have happened to them if they had been. How would my life have been different if we were all mixed together.

On one hand I think it was an advantage to be in classes together with the best and brightest, but then I felt dumb in those classes because I wasn't the smartest, ever, among them. I was the bottom of the top. If I had been in mainstream classes with others, would I have had more self esteem? Or would I have been pulled down and rested on my laurells, perhaps not have strived to compete as much?

Before this class I have always been in favor of separating students by ability level, or learning style. I thought it would be good for all involved. If you pull the higher achieving students out, then the ones who are left have a better chance to shine. They are grouped with students who are learning at the same pace, who have a similar learning style. The higher achieving students aren't held back and since they are usually more independent learners they can have a larger class size, therefore making the other classes smaller, which would mean more teacher attention for those other students. It seems to make sense.

But then I read the articles stating that while it helps the middle and upper class, college bound whites, it doesn't help minorities. So then the question becomes, what can you do to help ensure the future of everyone. How to make sure everyone gets the best education possible, the best chance for the future. I don't know. Is it fair to hold back some for the good of the many? Or to run the risk of holding back what may be the brightest of the future generation in the hopes they will help pull everyone else along?

Will the brightest really pull the slower learners along and mentor everyone else, or will they just make the others feel bad about themselves? Make them feel inferior because they don't learn as quickly or in the same way. I remember the taunting and teasing and anger and meanness that came along with the teenage years. I see if happening to a smaller degree in the elementary school, but it is there. The kids that get pulled out for extra help are usually alone on the playground. Is it because they are different to begin with, or because the extra help singles them out as different? Even if they are all in the same classes, will they still self-segregate, like attracting like?

Myth 5 revisited

April 12, 2008
Revisiting Myth 5 - Good Teachers begin with the curriculum they are given and find clever ways to enhance it . I have been thinking about this one all week, and I think I have to disagree with it. I have thought back over my own teachers and the ones that really stood out for me. I made a top ten list of my favorite teachers. It is funny to me that 4 of them I had when I was in ninth grade. At the time I didn’t think that year was anything spectacular, but looking back it turned out to be a real turning point for me. I was at Horace Mann Junior High. At the time I had no idea who Horace Mann was, and when I asked, didn’t really understand what he did to deserve to have a school named after him. Maybe his name on the building did something to inspire the teachers there. Of course the teachers I had in seventh and eighth grade didn’t really do anything special that has stuck in my head.

The four teachers I had in ninth grade that have stuck in my head were Mrs. Ferrarini- Geometry, Mrs. Sutton – English, Mrs. Ryan – Civics, and Mr. Crumb – Science. I feel like each of these teachers took what was outlined for them, then built upon it, went above and beyond what would be standard. Because of them, I think they really helped forge who I am today.
Mrs. Ferrarini was a crazy, brave woman, who thought Geometry was fun, and tried to make it fun for everyone else. I can still hear her little song for A squared plus B squared equals C squared. And the copy dot flip dance when dividing fractions. She was fighting cancer that year, and going through chemo therapy, and losing all her hair. As a fourteen year old girl, the thought of losing my hair was unimaginable. I would have stayed home and never left my room. Mrs. Ferrarini showed up every day, with loud colored head scarves covering her patchy scalp, and never acted like it was any big deal, or that there were any worries in her life at all. Again, as an adult looking back, I have no idea how she did it. I know now all the pain, fear, sickness and uncertainty that goes along with cancer and chemo, but at the time I was blissfully unaware of her struggles. Even though I was terrible at proofs – I couldn’t prove my way out of a paper bag with a pair of scissors—I still remember many of the formulas she taught. Her class was never boring, and she taught us many “tricks” for remembering things. I had another teacher who said that tricks and songs were not the “real” way to learn. All I know is that 30 years later I can still figure out the area of a square.

Mrs. Sutton was my English teacher. Her encouragement of my writing gave me a sense of pride and a love of literature. I had always loved reading, but she introduced us to many “classics”, like Shakespeare, Thoreau, Hardy and others. She also told us that just because a book wasn’t a “classic” didn’t mean you couldn’t enjoy it. While I can’t think of any specific things that she did that went above and beyond, her quiet confidence in me is still with me many years later.


Mrs. Ryan taught Civics. Prior to ninth grade I was a quiet, insecure girl, who tried to blend into the walls and stay out of people’s way. In fourth quarter of ninth grade the three Civics classes came together in what they called “Mock Congress”. We chose parties, elected majority and minority leaders, and a Speaker of the House. It was one of the scariest things I ever did, but I ran for Speaker of the House. I thought there was no chance I would win, since I was running against a member of the popular click. Mrs. Ryan told me it didn’t matter, to base my speech on my experience, and stay away from the popularity issues. I did, and was so surprised when I won. We spent the quarter writing pretend bills, debating them in committees, introducing them on the House floor, and voting them into law, or defeating them if they didn’t get enough votes. While many would say( and did) that spending a whole quarter pretending to be the House of Representatives was a waste of time that could be spent studying real stuff, it was a fun learning experience for all of us. The actual doing of what Congress does really made it clear, and made it more real for all of us. Mrs. Ryan and her cohorts could have spent the quarter lecturing and testing us about what the House and Senate did, sticking with the district basic curriculum, but it wouldn’t have been as fun, wouldn’t have been as meaningful, and wouldn’t have stuck with us so long. I have run for several offices now, Chair of the Co-op Preschool where my children went, Vice President of the PTO, Manager when I was working, participated in the two Snohomish School District Bond elections, and other smaller political and social offices. I don’t think I ever would have had the courage to do any of that, or the belief that what I did could make a difference, without having participated in our “Mock Congress”.


Mr. Crumb was the head of the science department. His great love was Earth Science. He did all the cool science stuff that makes you go wow, and instilled his students, or at least me, with a love of science. Before that science was ok, but nothing I really got excited about. I don’t remember doing science in elementary school at all. For Spring break that year he took a group of students to the Grand Canyon. I was one of the lucky 30 to go. I spent many months attending car washes, selling candy and other stuff to everyone I could find to make enough money to go. I had never gone camping before, and the idea of hiking and camping in the Grand Canyon –without parents- was exciting. We had trip homework. We had to walk three miles every day, we had to practice hiking with a pack, we had to make sure our pack didn’t weigh too much. We had to buy good hiking boots; I still remember spending $103 for my boots. My mother was flabbergasted at how much they were. I earned the money on my own to buy them, and then wore them every day for months to break them in. I lovingly coated them over and over with waterproofing spray. I had these boots for years – they went hiking across England with me, hiking in Mexico, all over Colorado, New Mexico, Washington and Montana. I finally got rid of them a few years ago, when my feet grew out of them after my third kid. They still looked pretty good. But I digress again. We took a bus from Colorado to Arizona. We then spent 6 days hiking all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with heavy packs on our backs. We talked about how the canyon was formed, we looked at the layers which indicated the passing of time as the sand and soil were laid down and turned into sedimentary rocks. We found a few fossils, had a run in with a rattle snake, and cooked marshmallows over the campfire while we tended our blisters. My major in college was Geology, and I am a total science geek through and through. I don’t think I would have had the same appreciation for rocks, science or the great outdoors if I had just learned earth science straight out of the textbook with nothing more.

So while Ayers says the good teachers don’t have to build upon the curriculum they are given, I think that good teachers do go above and beyond what the basics are. Or at least find a unique hands on way to help their students learn and remember what they are teaching. Perhaps my teachers didn’t vary from the curriculum them were given, perhaps it was all in the presentation, or perhaps I was just at a good age to soak in the way these teachers were teaching that year, but for me, they made a difference.

Twelve Myths of Teaching

As I read the 12 myths of teaching in Ayers I found myself nodding at some, and wiping my brow in relief at others. Some of these I have seen myself working in my own kid's classrooms, or have learned from being a parent, but it is always reassuring to see it from someone else as well.

• Myth 1 - Good classroom management is an essential step toward becoming a teacher- This was a "whew" for me. One of the examples he used was the "don't smile until Christmas" philosophy. That is so totally not me. I have seen teachers at both ends of the spectrum. I have enjoyed them both, and so have the kids. I think it is important for kids to have many different styles of teaching. While I don't think my own style will be as chaotic as one teacher I know at the far end of the chaotic spectrum, I am not going to be the most rigid and organized I have ever come across either. I like organization, but I also think learning should be fun, and that the classroom should be comfortable for the kids.
• Myth 2 - Teachers learn to teach in colleges of education- I think you learn every day how to be a teacher, and you started when you were a baby. You absorb parts of every teacher you have ever had, from your parents to your college professors. I think my own children may have been my greatest teachers in this path I have chosen. I have had to learn many different ways to teach each of them every day. None of them learn the same way I do, or the same way as each other. I joke that as soon as I figure out how to teach them something, they change all the rules and I have to learn a new way.
• Myth 3-Good Teachers are always fun- This was another whew for me. I am a little too serious of a person to always be fun. I do think learning should be fun, but I am by no means a stand up comic.
• Myth 4- Good Teachers always know the materials- Another whew. While I consider myself a well educated, intelligent person, I,in no way, think I know everything. I had images of myself cramming the night before a lesson, like when I was in college the night before exams. One thing that I have learned from a teacher I am working with this year is that it is ok to admit you are wrong and you make mistakes in class. She was working a math problem on the overhead, and got to the end and realized it didn't match the answer in the book. One of her kids pointed out she had multiplied something wrong earlier on. She laughed it off, said she sure did, thanks for catching it, and this was a good reason why everyone needs to double check their work. I have a tendency to get defensive and embarrassed when I make mistakes, and I am too much of a perfectionist to handle mistakes I make well. Watching her handle this really gave me some thing to strive for when I make mistakes.
• Myth 5- Good Teachers begin with the curriculum they are given and find clever ways to enhance it- This is one that I thought was true. I am not sure I am ready to give up on this one. I will have to ponder this one some more, and watch the teachers I work with to see how I feel about it. My gut tells me that it is true, but so far I have agreed with his myths. hmmm....
• Myth 6- Teachers are good performers - Another whew. I am a pretty shy person most of the time, and don't see myself as a center stage person, so reading this made me feel better about the future in the classroom.
• Myth 7- Good Teachers treat all students alike- This is one I found myself nodding as I read it. I have four kids, and I entered into parenthood thinking I would treat my children equally. I found that each has different needs at different times, and that it is okay to spend extra time with one while they need it. In the long run, it is more important that they all feel loved.
• Myth 8- Students today are different from ever before - I agreed with his arguement on this one too. While each decade may bring changes in focus of education, or new challenges in environmental impacts, children are children.
• Myth 9- Good Teaching can be measured by how well students do on tests- I know that this one is false. Many kids do poorly on tests because of nerves, or time or language or attention constraints. Unfortunately, we are a very test centered society. There is alot of emphasis on tests and their scores. As a future teacher it is something I need to come to grips with.
• Myth 10- A Good teacher knows what is going on in the classroom - While a teacher may know some of the things that are going on in their classroom, no one is able to see, hear, or know everything. That is an impossibility. As Ayers said, even when a teacher thinks she knows what happened, there may be 30 interpretations of what happened. The best you can do is try to keep your eyes, ears and mind open at all times.
• Myth 11-All Children are above average -I admit this one has me a bit baffled when I read his explanation. I immediately thought, well of course not- the definition of average is some above and some below. His arguement about there being no such thing as an"ideal third grader" hasn't really sunk in fully to me either. I need to ponder this one some more as well.
• Myth 12- Kids today are worse than ever before - This is another myth I found myself nodding over as well. I loved his quote from Socrates. " The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect for adults, and love to talk rather than work or exercise. They no longer rise when adults enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter in front of company, gobble down food at the table, and intimidate their teachers." The fact that it was written 2,400 years ago shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The first day of class -April 2008

My first class in the Teacher Certification program was last night. I have to admit to a small case of nerves, coupled with excitement. It is strange being back in school after so long away. I took American history the past two quarters at EVCC, which helped ease the transition, I think. It was exciting to be in a group of people who share the same goals and outlook on life.
One of the first slides that was put up was very thought provoking. It listed the lenses to view children and education through: developmental, psychological, pedagogical, politically, historical, social, economic, cultural, and ethical/moral. I found myself nodding at many of them because they are things I have seen in classrooms and with kids I know. I have been thinking more about how much and how little control a teacher has over their classroom. On the one hand they are with the kids in their class for so many hours each day, 5 days a week, 9 months out of the year. In my own children I see how their views, habits, actions are influenced by their teacher’s views, thoughts and actions. It is an amazing amount of power invested in a single person. I can remember teachers I had, and things they said to me that are still with me 30 years later. It is a daunting thought that you can have so much influence and that you can make such a difference in a child’s life -- if it is done the right way. It is doubly daunting that it is so easy to misinterpret something and possibly cause much damage to a child unintentionally.
On the other hand, despite the amount of time spent with their students each day, there is also a great deal that is out of their control. I am aware of all the district, state and federal requirements that teachers must follow. I am torn about whether these things are needed or not. By having these requirements, the goal is that every child, no matter where they live, no matter what their background, they should receive the same basic education. It sounds good in theory. In practice, it is much more difficult to enact. There are too many variables in children for it to be easy to follow through on.

April 2, 2008
Last night I started reading William Ayers book To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher. One thing that jumped out at me was the paragraph about being asked why you want to be a teacher, with the implication being that it is beneath your skill or intelligence. That really hit home for me because that is exactly what my father’s reaction was. Especially when I told him my ideal age to teach would be kindergarten. His response was something like “why can’t you at least teach high school and put your brains and degree to use.” He also doesn’t understand why I would work somewhere that doesn’t pay as well as much as I could be making elsewhere, or what the appeal of working with young children are. All you do is “ talk baby talk and wipe noses all day” .
I don’t know that I will ever be able to sway his opinion of teachers and schools. He is very negative about his view of both. He feels that they are not part of the real world. He argues that teachers pay should be tied to their students test scores, and that tenure should be done away with all together, and that the parents should pay for their own children’s education rather than his taxes paying for it. I love my father, I respect my father, and disagree with him on just about every political issue there is. I tease him that he is so far to the right that he is in danger of circling back around the left. I am unsure of how many of his comments he really believes, and how many he just tosses out there to get my sister and I stirred up and debating with him. I suspect the latter in some instances, but the very fact that he tosses some of these comments out there is evidence that people are thinking about them.
When my sister, brother and I were young, of course he didn’t feel that taxpayers shouldn’t pay for everyone’s education. He benefited from that, as I have pointed out to him. I have also pointed out that it is in his best interest to have a well educated youth because their taxes will be supporting him in his old age, and they will become the doctors, nurses, bankers, shop keepers and upstanding society members he will be relying on in the years to come. The money issue is a definite problem in schools. It is hard to run a school without the proper funds.
My own children’s school district, Snohomish, just had a bond fail. I was the citizen representative for our school, and so I coordinated parents from our school to send postcards, make phone calls, educate and encourage people to vote. It was very frustrating when it got 57% of the vote, yet it still failed because it didn’t get the super majority needed to pass. We were asking for money to build new schools and update some old ones, improve technology and set up a fund for capital repairs (roofs,etc). I don’t know if I have the energy –both physically and emotionally, to start all over and try again, and I am a small cog in the machine to get this passed. I can imagine what the large cogs are going through. We have to try again, but how to convince people it is important. We have a middle school that was built for 500, currently has 850 and is projected to hold over 1200 in 3-4 years, just based on the current students in the district. It is obvious that we need to do something, yet no one wants to part with their money to support this.
People complain about the test scores not improving enough, but don’t realize that the physical comforts of the school, the environment of the school and the safety of the school is all part of the students being able to learn. Overcrowding of schools is something that needs to be dealt with.

But I digress.