Category: Teacher Improvement

Vulnerability – Teacher Report Card 2016

Dear Claire,

You and I haven’t ever talked about the use of the Teacher Report Card as a way to get feedback from students, but lemme tell ya; it’s one of my favorite things I do.

Every students’ face lit up when I mentionedbbefore giving them the test on Wednesdayb”After the test, you’ll be given a link. That link takes you to a Teacher Report Card where you will gradeB me.”

“Whaaaat? Awesome! That’s weird. You get straight A’s, Mr. Vaudrey! I’ma fail you.”
image: Viewminder

“Listen, though. I want to be the best teacher I can be, so I’m asking you howB you think the class is going because you know best. Be honest with me. You will not hurt my feelings, I can take it. Here’s your test.”

And they were honest, as only teenagersB could be. Here’s what happened:

Good Stuff First

Quite proud of my top six.

Stuff toB Ignore

In previous years, makes me feel importantB also been my lowest-scoring question. It’s notable that most students in the latter half of myB careerB feel that I respect each student (#2), praise good work (#4), and try to see the students point of view (#5).

Yet I still don’t make them feel important.

Let me get developmental for a moment; I thinkB teenagers will always have a need to feel important, one that we should encourage and affirm as long as it doesn’t encroach on the importance of others. This is a life stage where the identity is forming, which is why haircuts, hair dye, piercings, changes in handwriting, changes in clothing, changes in language, love interests, sexuality questions, and asking their teacher if he smokes weed…

…will always be natural parts of being a teenager. It’s developmental.

So that question will probably always be my lowest.
(If you also give the TRCB to your students, affirm or disprove my theory in the comments.)

Stuff to Improve

Yes, my lowest is still 85% positive.
Yes, I still want to be the best I can, so I’m looking at the bottom.

The questionsB above that I’ve shaded … what color is that? … copper?… The shaded items are my focus for the second half of my long-term sub assignment. Plenty of free-response comments affirmed that my classroom management is frustrating the compliant students, especially when it comes to covering the material.

Rick Morris, one of the first to dramatically impact my classroom culture, had a clear and consistent classroom management (which he modeled for us in full day workshop). As we debriefed, he said something that has stuck with me for years.

Shelter and protect the compliant

Claire, in 6th period, thereB are two students. One consistently arrives on time, completes all her assignments, and volunteers to answer questions. The other students made nothing but negative or disparaging remarks for the first two weeks of school. (He’s better now.)

When the compliant student asked to move seats, I did. She deserves to be sheltered and protected more than the knucklehead needs an elbow partner.

Other Stuff

On the list of “Ways Teaching is Different in 2016 than 2013” is the obsession withB phones. About 25% of students mentioned “phone” in their response,B and we use them for calculators sometimes and that’s pretty much it.

Also dabbing is new and kinda fun.

Then, 7th period taught me how to dab.

So, yeah. It was a good day. https://t.co/7wBJEnL21v

b Matt Vaudrey (@MrVaudrey) September 14, 2016

On Wednesday, students gave me their opinions. On Monday, I was more …B demanding… with the class following instructions quickly. Sixth period (of course) felt my wrath first, but quickly fell in line.

Nobody likes hearing their teacher use the Grumpy Voice.

Claire, I’m not saying I’ve solved the issue that students mentioned; I’m saying I’m improving.

Next up, content. Teaching RSP 8th grade in the hood requires a different skill set (and a differentB pace) than teaching these students.

~Matt “Farther Up and Farther In” Vaudrey

P.S. Notable in the student responses is the preference toward math class feeling like it’s always felt. A few students mentioned a preference for the typical math class; one even sat me down yesterday and asked why we don’t take notes and do practice like math class is supposed to. Change is hard. Math reform can’t be done on an island.

The yellow paper that students mentioned is a handout we use to tackle Appetizers as bellwork everyday. That one student who complainedB can suck it up; it’sB an important part of building number sense and it’s friggin’ fun.

If you’re interested in giving the TRC to your students, click here to make a copy of the Google Form.

Andbin the name of vulnerability and transparencybhere are all the student responses.

October 7, 2016
Classroom Management

After Fawn’s recent post about Jerks and some of the earnest frustration and heartache coming from the Classroom Chef book club on Voxer, I had a chat today with one of our administrators about some struggling teachers.

These teachers have unruly classes that don’t cover the required content and regularly send students to the office for discipline issues.B Obviously, I won’t name those teachers or give any hints, but my chat with the Admin was meaningful, so I present portions of it here for your feedback.

“If I had to boil it down to one thing,” Admin leaned back in her chair, “it’d be Classroom Management.”

Having been in these teachers’ classes before, I cocked my head sideways and said, “Yeah… but that deficit looks different in each of these classrooms. I think–generally–effectively managed classes have three things.”

High Expectations

“Kids are smart,” I explain. Admin nods from her seat. “Kids will figure out exactly what the teachers expect them to do, and will rise (or fall) to meet the bar we set.”

Admin exhales slowly, “Yeah, I’ve seen a few who truly don’t think their students can learn. It’s a real bummer.”

Teachers who struggle with high expectations might say:

“Ugh. It’s one of those years. I’ve got someB low kids this year.”
“I don’t know what those <one year below> teachers are doing; these kids don’t knowB anything. They’reB so unprepared for <this grade>.”

High Expectations is first on my list; it’s theB entire reason we are teachers. Why on Earth would you sign up to help students expand their minds if theirB instructor believes they can’t?

That sounds exhausting.

Conversely, the best classes I’ve seen have teachers who are excited and energized by students’ ignorance. Huzzah!B these teachers cry,B I’ve found another place I can help my students!

A class where the teacher expects miracles will likely garner a few.
A class where the teacher expects “little monsters” will have dozens.

Respect for Students

“Why do you say it like that?” Admin asks me.

“I taught in low-income, gang-affiliated neighborhoods and those students taught me quite a bit about authority and respect,” I said, closing her door. B “A common mantra among students was, ‘You gottaB give respect to get it.’ It was often just an excuse to be little turds to the teachers who treated them like… well… like little turds.”

Admin laughed, “We have a few kids like that.”

“But that same kid then comes to my class, puts forth effort, and speaks to me with eye contact in full sentences.” I paused, thinking about Eddie, who had his Mexican hometown tattooed on the back of his neck.

I smiled, “And he only rarely asked stuff like, ‘Where the fuck is the Y= key on this thing?’ ”

Teachers who struggle with student respect might say:

“*sigh* Well, I kicked Fernando out again. He’s just soB defiant.”
“I had a parent conference for Erika from 3rd period on Tuesday. Surprise, surprise; her mom’s a hoochie, too.”

Effective Use of Instructional Time

“Omigod, yes,” Admin nodded fiercely. “There is so much wasted time in these classes.”

“This is the big one,” I agreed. “A class where students go from task to task, bell to bell, is least likely to have those issues we talked about earlier. That doesn’t mean they’re wasting time doing boring work, the ‘effective use’ has to be based on high expectations and delivered with respect.”

Admin leaned forward and pointed at my paper, where I’d sketched our conversation. “And all three of these go hand in hand. A really strong set of high expectations won’t be enough if there isn’t respect and good use of time.”

I nodded, “Yep. Even a medium amount of all three is better than a bunch of one and none of the other two.

Teachers who struggle with effective use of instructional time might say:

“It’s so hard to get them motivated.”
“Frank calls out, ‘Boring!’ right in the middle of class. What a little shit!”
“They’re just so disrespectful.”

Light to Drive Out Darkness

Classroom Management is my favorite example of the duality of discipline; focus on decreasing negative behaviors doesn’t work. Focusing on increasing positive behaviors drives out the negative behaviors.

It’s easy to find stuff to hate when visiting classrooms or describing particular students. The challenge is finding what my psychologist sister calls the “positive opposite” and focusing on that, instead.

When my 3-year-old daughter hits her brother, instead of saying, “Don’t hit!” we say “Use nice touches.”

This morning’s podcast from Cult of Pedagogy had an excellent list of 10 Ways to Sabotage your Classroom Management, and #6 hints heavily at the focus above. It’s a clever twist that I’ve come to expect from Jennifer Gonzalez, the author.

Click the image for a link.

Your feedback is–as always–welcome.

~Matt “The Y= key is next to the WINDOW key, and watch your language, please.” Vaudrey

P.S. Unfortunately, all of those quotes are from real teachers. Thankfully, I haven’t heard them in years, and thankfully, my professional circles now include several times as many awesome teachers as miserable ones.

UPDATE 9 JUNE 2016: David Butler shares the new-teacher perspective on those three items, with some honest frustration and helplessness.

These are all great points, but I think there are some (possibly a whole group of) teachers who they miss. When I was a teacher, I really really struggled with classroom management and Ibd say my big three issues were (based on your list):

High Expectations of Myself
Looking back, I did not have high expectations of my own ability to help all the students learn, or to help them manage their behaviour when they needed help to do so. It quickly became a vicious circle as the less success I had with classroom management I had, the less I expected myself to be able to do it.

Respect for Myself
I didnbt give myself the permission to change the classroom environment for my own teaching purposes. I didnbt respect myself enough to ask the students to stop or do other activities. I didnbt trust that the things I was choosing to do were necessarily the right things to do. When I did feel passionate about something that didnbt match with other teachersb way of doing things, I didnbt have the confidence to do it anyway. I didnbt respect myself enough to ask for help from other teachers or my superiors (partly because in my first school I learned no-one was willing to give me help). Without this respect for my own place in the classroom, how could the students respect me?

Skills to make effective use of time
I didnbt have a good feel for how much time an activity might take or how engaged students might be with it. I didnbt have a big enough repertoire of different activities to fall back on if my first choice fell through. And I didnbt have a list of routines I could fall into to help me and the students know what to do next. Often I felt over pressured to make my own resources rather than find out what existing resources were there or ask others to use theirs. (It didnbt help that at my first school I was explicitly told there were no resources and that I did have to make them myself.)

If someone had told me to have higher expectations of my students, respect them and make more effective use of instructional time, I would have thought internally, bYes but how? I have to be in there tomorrow and I donbt know how.b What I needed was guidance in the day-to-day and a friend to help me learn, which for some teachers in some schools is not the easiest thing to find.

May 31, 2016
How Different Are Classrooms?
This gem ambled across my Twitter feed this morning.

Just wondering, from those who visit a lot of classrooms. How diff are they? Can you tell about T’s pedagogical beliefs from visit? #MTBoS

b Andrew Gael (@bkdidact) January 11, 2016

Oh, baby. What a great question.

How different are classrooms?

There are nearly 500 classrooms I can visit on the clock. I’ve probably set foot in half of them, and I regularly hit the same 100, because as the onlyB EdTech Coach serving 13 K-12 schools, I go where I’m called.

Three things are observable whether my jaunt in a classroom is 30 minutes or 30 seconds:

Noise
Productivity
Mood

Regardless of age, demographic, or ability, those three things let me infer something about the class.

Noise

The door closes behind me and the class is noisy, yet calm. The talk I hear as I weave between student desks is littered with vocab terms mixed in withB casual language.

“Yeah, but what about … theorem … mad at Mrs. Frizzle … Prussian independence … monksB built them to trade … article after the subject… no idea why… centered on the page … son las diecinueve de diciembre… the fuzzy part on the line.”

Noise in an effective class is fine; it rarely rises above a hum when focused on the material. Seasoned teachers can tell when it gets too loud, and it’s usually due to one group that isn’t focused.

Rather than yelling over the din, “Hey, I need you all to bring the noise level down!”, seasonedB teachers mosey over to Francisco’s group and just stand there.

Conversation drops off asB all students silently stare at their desks. Maria picks up her pencil as the teacher asks, “Whatcha guys talkin’ about? Sounds fun.”

The girls avoid eye contact and Francisco grins, “We’re talking about how the verb in the sentence is jumping and we’re thinking about how to make a new sentence.”

“Sounds great! Carry on,” and the teacher leaves.

I’ve watched fantastic Kindergarten teachers herd a whole room of 5-year-olds to the carpet and read through a book, unbothered by their noise along the way.

Teacher: On Monday, he ate one apple, but he was still hungry…
Students: I don’t like apples. I had an apple for lunch yesterday!
Teacher: On Tuesday, he ate through two oranges, but he was still hungry. Marco, keep your hands to yourself.
Students: My gramma has an orange tree in her yard. My favorite car is orange. I’m wearing orange socks today.
Teacher: On Wednesday…

Noise is not the enemy, which leads me to number two.

This class is very quiet.

Productivity

There are loud classes that are hard at work and there are silent classes bored out of their skulls and doing nothing.

I walked through four classes this morning.
1. Silent, diligently working on a computer assessment
2. Loud chattering about a Twitter war between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton
3. Light chatter, grading a sample student’s performance task in pairs*
4. Cacophonous covers of Justin Bieber in “Modern Music” class
Four very different noise levels, all with students focused on the task at hand, productive.

Those four classes differed greatly in the Mood, though.

Mood

For the classes above, the mood was palpable in each case.
1. Entered silently in a single-file.
2. Tumbled in, got right to their seats, and took out their notebooks.
3. Stumbled through the door, stopped at their friend’s desk to say hello, and ruffled the hair of their crush on the way to their seats.
4. Digging out their song lyrics and iPods before they even entered the bandroom.
The mood of a class is the toughest to quantify, but the easiest to notice.

Teachers who had militant, Draconian mentors early in their career might have a mood that is subdued and frightened.

Teachers with youth-ministry training might attempt to be “the nice teacher,” and get their ass kicked for the whole first year.

But teachers who value student voiceB tend to be unbothered by noise.

The Lesson

Here is where many teacher preparation programs fall short. Pre-service observations focus on “noise level” and “students on-task,” but the third category directly informs the other two, and a focus on the classroom mood naturally leads the teacher to discover how much noise they prefer.

And students will work hard in a room where they feel safe.

~Matt “The Nice Teacher…Usually” Vaudrey

*Yes, grading a sample performance task. So they know how performance tasks are graded, so they know how to score highly on the performance tasks during the SBAC test. It was a real bummer.
January 12, 2016
Tough Questions
After dinner, taking a swim in the Atlantic, stopping by the Carnegie debrief dinner, and strolling on the beach with some of the staff, I returned to the bar on a Thursday night after giving the keynote address that morning a few weeks ago.

Around the table are some folk I’d met at the conference earlier that day.B One of themB had asked for some of my time, so I was glad to catch him in a social setting.

After several minutes of me listening and nodding, the group finally asked me some hard questions.

Questions that nobody in my current circle is asking me and questions that I won’tB likely answer how they expect. Questions that made me pause and write them down in a Google Doc titled “Questions to ask myself later.” Questions like:
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- You just spoke toB a room of 150, how will you get to a room of 500? A thousand?
- Do you want a drink? We have a tab open.
Vision and Math

My initial responses headed down the usual, paved path of most of the country’s educators:

“In five years, I’d like to be in progress on an Administrative Credential. I could go for an Assistant Principal job, but probably not a Principal. Of course, I’d be happy to return to the classroom. I really love teaching; in fact, I may return to the classroom and retire from there.”

The director-type on the end shakes her head and pounds her drink on the table. “Bullshit. You’re eyeing the classroom because it’s easy and you know you’d be awesome at it. Think bigger. What are some goals that scare the shit out of you? Get outside your comfort zone.”

Boy, she pulls no punches.

Am I scared of big goals?

I don’t think so.

The classroom is a comfortable place for me, but that’s where student relationships are the closest. Relationships are far more important to me than math.

After attempting to communicate this, it becomes clear that they aren’t buying it.

Next to me, a guy says, “You may have impacted… fifty teachers in the room? Let’s say fifty. Each of those teachers have, what… 150 students? Think of that impact; think of how many students you’ve impacted today.” He raises his eyebrows.

From the end of the table, one of them says, “What would you do if you could impact aB million students?”

“Look at it this way,” I clarify. “I may have impacted 50 teachers today to change something. That’s probably… at the most, a 5% impact on fifty teachers times 150 students. If I impact 40B teachers in my districtB at, say, 80%, that’s likely still a greater net impact than if I am a full-time speaker.”

We debated for a while longer until IB noticed my flight was due to leave in 7 hours. I decide to leave on a high note.

“Okay. The dream that scares the shit out of me; I’d like to start a Teaching School in the same vein as a Teaching Hospital, like a lab where pre-service teachers could observe, learn, and practice alongside veteran teachers in cohorts. Glass walls in the back of all classrooms and it’d be paired with a nearby university, just like a Teaching Hospital. The teacher candidates get tons of classroom experience and observation hours. Plus, it draws teachers and students to the school, who are certain that it’s a great place to be.”

The director-type on the end raises her eyebrows. “Fuck. I would love that.”

I strolled back to my fancy hotel room, my head spinning with new questions and new ideas for my own career, wondering if I could steal director-type to run this kind of school.

There’s a lot to think about.

Days Later

I realize that there’s an easy way to compare the impact of various careers.

I made a spreadsheet.

It’s clear that there’s no contest. Even after adjustingB the numbers to be crappy curriculum vs. mediocre coach, it’s tough to argue against a curriculum writer impacting the most students.

Still not enough to make me pursue that route, though. While “student impact” is a strong enough statement for a business card or a grant proposal, I’m not convinced that it’s specific enough goal for me.

Do More of What You Love

This week at Twitter Math Camp 2015, keynote speakerB Christopher Danielson encouraged the attendees to figure out what we love, then do more of that.

I love personal growth.

Students slowly buildingB their risk-taking muscles.
Friends having tough conversations that will strengthen a relationship.
Teachers plucking up courage to try new strategies.
SpousesB learning more about what makes each other tick.
A group of pre-service teachers figuring out their own classroom management style and defining a classroom culture.

I love these things because I love personal growth.

AndB itB can be done with only one person; I don’t need a million.

~Matt “Teacher of Teachers… of Teachers” Vaudrey

P.S. A few of these “lab schools” already exist. Some other dreamers and I are buying bricks to build one in Southern California.

If you’re interested, let’s talk more about it.
July 27, 2015
Keynote, Carnegie, and Credibility
Last week, I spoke to 170 teachers in Florida about Reaching the Unreachables.

I really wanna talk about it.

(Video coming soon)

Honesty Time
- Hitching an Uber to the airport while carrying a suitbag still feels very Metropolitan. I hope it always does.
- It was a boost to my ego to have people recognize me from the bulletin while we sampled the open bar and seafood appetizers.
- In jeans and sandals, I look like a 19-year-old undergrad hoping to pick up a few pointers at an ed-conference.¹ Despite that, everyone I met was delightful, and they let me show pictures of my kids.
And I sureB love pictures of my kids.
Way more than my kids love pictures.

Work

6:20 AM Eastern: Wake before the alarm to get dressed and have a quick bite before heading downstairs to meet with the sound guys. I have two hours before my keynote address and I want everything to go well. Also, I’ve been adjusting my sleep schedule to Eastern time all week, so my body doesn’tB feel like it’s 3:20 Pacific.

7:45 AM: Everything is looking good, so I have time to fill a plate with fantastic breakfast.

7:50 AM: Nobody’s touched the fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. What a shame. I’ll remedy that.

8:00 AM: Three time-zones west of me, my wife wakes before her alarm. She tunes in to the live webcast and texts me that she’s watching. I’m comforted by the thought.

8:30 AM: After a brief introduction, we’re off and running. A Lady-Gaga mic is taped to the hair on the back of my neck and I’m pacing back and forth like a chain-smoking fiction writer. My palms are sweaty and I note that my phone (from which, I’m running the slideshow and reading speaker notes) has a subtle shake.

In my head, the roomB was smaller and more intimate. In reality, they’re crammed eight to a table in a room the size of my dream home. Centuries of teaching experience stare back at me and I stutter a bit.

But I quickly hit a stride and am impressed by the room of nearly 200 presenting their undivided attention.

Nobody is texting, nobody is murmuring in the back or eating more breakfast. They actually… they actuallyB want to hear my message.

That surprising fact steels my nerve and I slow down, speaking in a slow, even tone that belies the speed with which I’ve rehearsed. It helps that I know only half the time is me speaking, and the rest is “standB and talk” reflection for the room.

[[NOTE: I’ve been promised access to the footage, which is fantastic. B I’ll add my slides and post it here when I have it.]]

10:00 AM: Right on the downbeat of my 90 minutes, I close with the words of my mentor, Dr. Kimasi Browne, and give a room full of teachers this charge:

All success is the product of thousands of failures, none of which matter after the success.
Go forth and change the culture of your math classroom to make math meaningful.

A round of pleasant applause and I’m done.

10:11 AM: Several handshakes later, at least three attendees admit to paying closer attention to my deliveryB than my content. As P.D. Specialists–they point out–they recognize that teachers are a tough crowd and they picked up a few things from me.

Cool.

A few others are simply blown away by my use of my phone as a slide clicker. My quick scanB of the room at 8:15 noted that nobody brought a device and my crowd-sourced effort at note-taking may have been a flop.

10:30 AM: The attendees trickle off into the first workshop. I hide in the lobby to make sure all my materials are ready for second and third period, where I am to give workshops. The note-taking doc has six pages; some people even googled images to go along with my content. Sweet.

12:00 PM: Lunch with Rich and April, who both independently asked about an online math community. Luckily, that community organized itself into a system, so it took very little time to show them the hashtag, the directory, and the landing page for TMC. They also watched as I crowd-sourced the finding of a crowd-sourced movement. Very meta.

@MrVaudrey https://t.co/b8RQf9NMD5

b David Griswold (@DavidGriswoldHH) July 8, 2015

1:00 PM: Thirty-five math teachers file into Salon 5 to discuss Appetizing Warm-ups. Essentially, it’s the first course of La Cucina Matematica, andB a great conversation spawned after this Would You Rather task.

After a teacher attempted to explain the method she used to choose one fraction of pie over another, she murmured, “I don’t know, that’s just how the trick works.”

In a room full of math teachers, that’s like saying, “I think Star Wars was just okay.” or “Birkenstocks are so uncomfortable.”

What followed was a great discussion about teaching students atB every level theB why behind the tricks, so that they carry meaningful math skills with them, rather than a tool box full of metalB they don’t know how to use.

Cathleen, I did the best I could to keep our colleaguesB civil, andB it appears you learned your lesson. For more on how tricks are harming our math students, read this.

2:45 PM B I’m suddenly and acutely aware that I’m about to do a Google Drive workshop to a room that has a variety of devices and ability levels. That dude in the corner is making a Google account right now.

On an iPad.

At work, I do this workshop in the computer lab. Forty identical computers, all with Google Chrome.

We move at a glacial pace through my Google 101 workshop, leaving nobody behind and I accidentally use some foul language as I describe the use of GAFE in the classroom. Not my best work, but the attendees were pleased, so a great day ends with a C-plus workshop.

5:20 PM: Sara and Lisa meet me in the lobby to find some local dinner. The Village Eatery, a few blocks away, serves a sublime, mood-altering B chicken sandwich as we discuss the integration of technology into their classrooms. It was a fantastic meal with fantastic comrades; I’d be thrilled to work with either of them.

7:04 PM: The entire staff of Carnegie is chatting and dining as I walk by, on the phone with my lovely wife. I weasel a chair between Janet and CassieB and B pepper them with questions.

Putting my Prejudice Aside

Teacher confession:

We have regular discussions on Twitter, Voxer, on blogs, and at conferences aboutB The Dark Side of teaching.

The scorn we visit upon non-teachers who talk about education is paltry compared for the ire we reserve for teachers who leave the classroom.

For better or worse, there’s a hierarchy in the field of Education. It looks like this:

AtB every conference I’veB ever attended, there’s at least one Educational Company in the exhibit hall B with a plucky, well-groomed twenty-something asking me if I’m interested in reaching more students.

OfB course I am. I’m giving up my Saturday to attend a conference.

And yet, here in Fort Lauderdale, I’m surrounded by Carnegie staff and they’re all… knowledgeable. And friendly. And competent. And they like students. And love teaching.

I was baffled.

These two ex-teachers bookending me on the patio weren’t the first Carnegie employees to impress me, and now I’m curious about the textbook they produced.

(Which I’ve never seen. That surprised a few people, considering I’m speaking at their national annual conference. It shows me that we agree on some stuff.)

Leaving the Field

Later that night, somebody pointed out that many charismatic ex-teachersB make a living doing keynote speeches for educational conferences, and are you interested in doing that?

Despite a fantastic day, meeting new people, and getting questions that challenged and intrigued me (more on that next week), that profession strays too far away from the classroom for me.

I’m not so much worried about how myB Ed Cred appears to others, it’s how credible IB feel.B

So I’ll probably never go work for Carnegie.

No hard feelings.

~Matt “Keynote to Quicktime to Final Cut with iTunes to Quicktime to Keynote” Vaudrey

^{1. As a white, straight, middle-class male, I’m not about to complain about the one area where I’m occasionally maligned. It’s not anything close to “oppression”, it’s just a bummer.b)}
July 19, 2015
Two Schools of Math Teachers
Today, I witnessed an excellent old-school lesson. The teacher was engaging, funny, and had play-doh on the desks with toothpicks to demonstrate angle relationships to the sophomore Geometry students.

Students inserted a Cloze Notes-Style handout into their plastic dry-erase sleeve and followed along, filling in words to define the vocabulary in sentence frames. By the end of class, all the students were giving the correct hand signalB for Adjacent Angles, Vertical Angles, and more.

But something… just didn’t feel right about it.

No… not right… something didn’t feelB complete about it.

Earlier this week, I was chatting with John Stevens and Jed Butler on Voxer.

Voxer – group texts, but with voice messages instead. It’s awesome.

We had just gotten our issue of CoMmuniCator (the monthly publication of CMC) which featured two-page descriptions of lessons, like visual patternsB and drawing the ideal polygon.

It occurred to me, those are two things that prominent math educators have doneB extensive work with online, yet CMC has no idea, nor do the teachers who are submitting these articles.

We appear to have two schools of math teachers.

The first school is the Math-Twitter-Blog-o-sphere (affectionately and mercifully abbreviated #MTBOS).

Hundreds of math educators across the world weigh in on blogs, twitter feeds, and Voxer channels to inform best practices on teachers thousands of miles away that they’ve never met. The focus is professional growth that helps students learn mathematics in a meaningful way.

The second school is the CoMmuniCator crowd.

They spend hours writing a two-page description of visual patterns in their math classroom, include a worksheet, and submit it to the local Math Education journal, feeling satisfied: that their environment is full of opportunities like this.

To these, I insist; there is so much more than your pond.

Outside the pond, there is a wide large world full of dynamic educators whose students aren’t just learning the standards, they’re learning to wrestle,

to challenge,

to critique,

to debate,

to seek meaning out of chaos.

In short, there is an ocean of educators growing children into little mathematicians while others are makingB really cool photocopies in their pond.

I’m not saying that they’re bad teachers. Not that they’re boring.

Just that they’re missing out.

I’ve had dozens of conversations with math teachers since my recent job change to EdTech Coach. Less than half have heard of Dan Meyer or Desmos.

Evelyn Baracaldo, a representative of NCTM 2015 – Nashville, sent out a few emails to teachers (including me), inviting us to present on “Emerging Technologies”. Some digging on my part revealed:
- The deadline to submit proposals is 15 months before the conference date. (Proposals for a conference on “emerging technologies”.)
- There will be no wireless internet available.
What?

NCTM, the largest group of Math Educators in the nation, is missing the point.

EDIT: Shortly after posting this, I had lunch with Robert Kaplinksy, who convinced me that NCTM reaching out to blogging, tweeting teachers like me is a step in the right direction,B and I should lighten up.

He’s correct. Afterward, I applied toB give a workshopB at NCTM Nashville.

This feels like the keynote addressB at Twitter Math Camp (which I didn’t attend this year, though I heard whispers and elevator summaries). Those of us in the ocean have a vested interest inB theB thousands of ponds across the country.

Some of those ponds are excellent and need no help.

This year, I’m excited to show the pond-fish just how big the ocean is.

UPDATE 3 MARCH 2015: The California Mathematics Council continues to borrow blog posts in print form,B with three-acts and visual patternsB in the March issue. I have mad respect for Brad Fulton, butB surely he’s aware of Dan Meyer’s work on the three acts of a mathematical story.

Also, it’s cringeworthy that CMC appears unaware of Desmos andB still uses Comic Sans.

~Matt “The Sand Shark” Vaudrey
September 25, 2014
Open Letter to Tom Torlakson, California Superintendent
Mr. Torlakson,

Good morning, you’ve no doubt heard that theB existing tenure situation was ruled unconstitutional yesterday.

I myself was tearing up as I read the brief. For my entire career, I’ve felt what the court realized yesterday, and my relief and joy nearly made me weep during my meeting.

Mr. Torlakson, you’reB currently “farther up” in the education chain of command than I–a lowly teacher–so it’s been a while since you’ve sat in a staff meeting or observed stinky teaching by a tenured “permanent” teacher.

It’s probably been even longer since you watched a stinky teacher make more money than you. For me, that memory is fresh.

Anyway, let’s talk about education.

In the court briefing:

“… teachers themselves do not want grossly ineffective colleagues in the classroom.” (page 13, line 1)

If I were in your position, posed for reelection,B I would be tempted to please the California Teacher’s Association (one of my biggest supporters) in order to secure my seat in November.

I’m asking that you focus on the students instead. Our students deserve great teachers, and as State Superintendent, you’ll have the proper pull toB drive the design of a system where great teaching is rewarded. This would helpB flush out the dummies and keep the hard-working professionals.

I hope you see that, by encouraging teachers to be our best, we place the students first.

In short, I’m a teacher, and my right to a job matters less than my students’ right to a quality education.

Mr. Torlakson, please support this court ruling in the next few months and continue to reform teacher tenure after your (probable) reelection in November.

~Matt Vaudrey

UPDATE June 25, 2014:

P.S. No doubt that by now, you’ve read the highly polarized brief fromB the CTA website, you’ve heard complaints that the “1-3% of teachers are grossly ineffective” statistic is unfounded on any data or studies, and you’ve seen that Students First is hailing the decision as an important step, with many more to address going forward.

Two things:
1. As a classroom teacher, the “guesstimate” of 1-3% of all teachers are grossly ineffective is not only statistically likely, but it sounds pretty generous based on my anecdotal experience.
2. The CTA press releases are full of negative language and the Students First releases are full of optimism and urgency. Why do you think that is?
June 11, 2014
Teacher Pay

I’ve been out of the class for about a month.

My co-workers and new bosses in the District Office have led me to many new conversations about Education (on and off the clock).

If you don’t mind, fill in this anonymous form so I can make a graph of (what is probably) an inverse correlation. I’ll share it when I’m done.

UPDATE: Also, if you know the pay of anybody else, feel free to enter it as well. It just occurred to me that very few District Administrators are on Twitter or read my blog.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”forms/d/1y3mVBjS5bXR6dwT03AtklLKplSzuaiqQQ1OihDMomL8/viewform” query=”embedded=true” width=”760″ height=”900″ /]

May 6, 2014
So… What Do You Do Now?

Before Spring Break, I cleaned out my classroom and left.
This week was my first week as Professional Development Specialist. In my district, we don’t actually “specialize”, but rather support teachers across all contents. I’m hoping to specialize in Tech Integration, something that our district sorely needs (and I’m assuming that’s the reason I was hired).

“Welcome aboard! Can you carry that case of soda to the fridge in the other room?”

Here are some observations:
1.) While I’m a “specialist”, I don’t actually give specialized trainings. After walking through five schools, all five mentioned a need for EdTech Integration; good news for me.

2.) Nobody working in education outside of the classroom isB in a hurry. Everyone seems to stroll between events and walk between buildings at a leisurely pace. My orientation meeting with my new bosses lasted nearly three hours, and not onceB did anybody look at the clock and wonder when 2nd period was going to end.

“I still have to pass a note to my friend and go to the bathroom and walk allthewayacrosscampusHURRYUP!”

3.) After said meeting, we went to the district office so my Director could introduce us. I immediately realized that I hadn’t had lunch yet. No bell had rung to instruct me that it was lunchtime, so I didn’t eat. As the clock rolled pastB 1:00 and marched toward 2:00, I was grumpy, faint, and didn’t enjoy parading through every cubicle in the damn building, but I managed to smile anyway.

“Everything is fine, I’m just… woo… a little light-headed.”

4.) There are three of us just hired, one was brought in a few months ago to serve as interim coordinator (my immediate supervisor) but her first official day was Monday, with me and Chris. Chris and I are the only men in a building full of women, both youngest by… we’re the youngest by about 12 seasons of the Bachelor.

Remember this guy? Season three? I was still in high school.

5.) I stayed “late” until 4:10. It’s likely that I’ll leave most days around 3:15 and have no lessons to plan, working out of my car at my school sites, asking teachers what they need to teach their best. That’s awesome.

6.) One of the line items on my orientation agenda was “Student contact is minimal”. That is not awesome, but I got to prep three elementary classes for the state test yesterday.

7.) Director said that our job descriptions for the next 10 weeks are “ambiguous”. That might be awesome.

8.) Everybody… everybodyB B mentions how young I am. Eventually, my colleagues will note that I’m skilled in EdTechB because I work hard, not because I was born after 1970. Perhaps my babyface willB grease the wheels on getting me into an EdTech training role, so I’ll keep grinning and saying “Thank you”.

If only IB actually looked like Babyface.

9.) The secretary in my department is Eve, a tiny lady in running shoes with a thick accent who is excited about everything. I love her immediately. Her cubicle is covered with paper fans from all the places she’s visited around the world, and she goes for walks during her lunch break.

10.) The storage area for all the specialists is un-interesting-ly called “The Brick Building”. There’s a big “8” spray-painted on the wall. My goal is to have everybody calling it “The Ocho” before summer. Also, it’s in total disarray and my “ambiguous” job description can hopefully include “making The Ocho into usable space and clearing out a decade’s worth of old textbooks”, which would be awesome.

11.) I’m the youngest, greenest, and tallest teacher in this building. While I may know a lot about some things nobody else does, I know very little about things that everybody else does. My attitude is one of seeking to understand new ideas and help others, not preach and inform everyone of stuff I learned on Twitter.

I’m the new kid on the block, and polite will win more friends than smart.

To show I have “The Right Stuff” and keep “Hangin Tough”.

~Matt “What’s a Specialist?” Vaudrey

April 16, 2014
The First Question

#CaEdChat is going on right now. I’m no doubt missing dozens of witty, hastily-typed tweets to type this, but I think it’s important.

Tonight, #CaEdChat is discussing questions, and I heard this one kicked around a lot, and I want to share my response to it.

This isn’t about the question that gets teachers the most excited.B It’s also not the boringest question we get all year.

It’s not the easiest question to answer, nor is it the hardest (though many teachers seem to think it is).

It’s the question that new teachers fear, but veteran teachers still wince when we hear it.

This question is one that drove us to become teachers in the first place, and it’s still being asked now, decades after we asked it toB our teachers, and our children and grandchildren will ask their teachers:

Why do we need to know this?

I usually get this question about 3 weeks into the year. If not, I pull it out with the first really abstract Math topic that we get. This year it was Classifying Real Numbers.

I got through the meat of the lesson and said,

Okay, put down your pencils, fold your hands and look at me. You’re probably wondering by now when you will use this in real life, yes? I’m going to tell you.

You won’t.

Odds are that most of you will go to jobs where you don’t need to do this [point to the board] in your career. However, it’s still important. Here’s why:

When I was in college, I used the same workout room as the football players. One day, I was lifting weights across from thisB huge guy. He picked up these massive weights and did this:

I was surprised, so I asked him, “Bro. Why are you doing that? Shouldn’t you practice sprints or throwing a football or something you’ll actually use?”

He responded, “Dude-ski, I may not use this motion in the game, but I use this muscle in the game, fo shizzle*.”

“I’m so glad I did those calf raises!”

Students, the math you learn in this class will work out your brain in ways that you will use. You will likelyB neverB need to classify real numbers in your profession, but because you worked out your brain, you’ll be smarter. You’ll be a better boyfriend, girlfriend, boss, employee, and friend.

Is that a fair answer?

So far, that answer has satisfied every class in my teaching career.

~Matt “Honest Abe” Vaudrey

*If the slang terms wasn’t clue enough on the decade when I was in college, here’s a picture of me and my roommates.

December 1, 2013