The past two years have brought lots of change to my professional life, that had this blog go from being about my educational technology practice, to being more about school reform from a first-person point of view.

This year will different. I have moved out of the computer lab, and back to the elementary classroom. Fifth grade to be exact. I have moved from a school in the bottom 5% on test score performance, to one that while not at the opposite end of the bell-curve, has been on the “right” side of it.

My classroom

I’ve been taking pictures as I put my classroom together which you can see above. Here are some things I have planned:

Doing integrated units based on social science curriculum, instead of our mis-aligned, and rapidly aging language arts texts. Unit one will be on the first Americans (pre-Columbian America), with an focus on the influence of climate (the science standard is related to weather).  I’ll mix in the opening unit of language arts, cooperation and competition, because it fits well with the climate adaptation part of the unit.

Continuing to use technology in the classroom. There are a number of changes going from the lab. I have fewer students all day long instead of 30 at a time for 45-minute periods. That is a bigger change than the lack of computers for every student. First, we have both a lab, and a Macbook cart available for checkout. You’ll see a bank of five desktop computers in some of the pictures. These are “sub-optimal” and I’m looking into getting some with more than 240Mb of RAM. Okay, now that many of you are done picking yourself up from off the floor, wipe the tears of hysterical laughter from your eyes, and keep reading. I will be doing Skype and will start looking for a partner class soon.

Having a classroom ecology based on building relationships. I’m no Larry Ferlazzo, as I tend towards focusing on procedures and behavior. But, procedures work better when kids have buy-in. Behavior improves when kids understand why they are being asked to do things. Everyone feels safe when there is a system for resolving conflicts that is effective. While I go through expectations, it will be critical that I convey that I respect them. This is not something that can be done in a single week (although you can blow it with a some mis-done words and actions in that time).

My new school

I’ve come in at a critical time at my new school. A neighboring school was closed and merged with them two years ago. There were some differences in demographics. This is changing the environment of the school a little, but the biggest impact is in the realm of testing. The school had some Title One funds left over from the school it merged with, and so was subject to NCLB provisions, and at the same time, experienced a slight dip in test scores to below the ~70% pass rate required by NCLB, so we are in Year One PI. The site is concerned about the score drop, and thankfully is not blaming the kids, but trying to take a look at their practices. In addition, since they no longer have Title One monies, unless our free-reduced lunch numbers go up, we won’t be subject to NCLB, although I imagine the site will be concerned about score drops as it affects state ratings (API).

A former co-worker who landed at one of the best schools in the district talked about the tension at schools that are in testing trouble, and how that was missing at her school. I am unfortunately feeling some tension at my new site (BTW, this is something I’ve noted to co-workers). Still, folks have been very welcoming, and extremely friendly and professional. I have great hopes for this year.