This is stealing paychecks

I'm tired of it.

If a teacher can't or won't develop rapport with his students, he's not teaching. And he's stealing his paycheck. We all know one like this. Maybe you had one. And there are mean women out there who think they're doing the world a favor by turning their classrooms into gulags. Nobody wins on this one. ( I saw a picture of this woman math teacher once on the cover of an educational journal. She was sort of a cross between Rod Stewart and a female wrestler on steroids. Yikes. And she had this pasty-faced perma-growl stuck on her face. Is there a law against smiling! Cripes.) In addition, many of these teachers want to turn these little ones into little Miss Duplicates, never thinking kids are uniquely designed for a purpose.

Everyone knows that kids need structure and discipline to thrive. Nobody is denying that things can unravel quickly if expectations aren't laid out. But if you're a teacher who went into the profession only because you "..love the content", do us all a favor and quit.

You have to have the ability, or possess the desire to acquire the ability to interact successfully with your students. It's your software. Find it, please.

21st Century Success

In Tough Choices or Tough Times, the report of the new commision on the skills of the American workforce, it is stated that the difference between those 21st century workers who will meet with success and those that meet with failure comes down to something everybody should wrap their arms around. I think everybody should wrap their arms around them...now.

Here's what it all spells...the successful workers of the 21st century need creativity and innovation, the facility of the use of ideas and abstractions, the self-discipline and organization to manage one's own work and drive it through to a successful conclusion, and the ability to function well as a member of a team.

Parents, ask yourselves if your son or daughter is getting enough of this training. Teachers, ask yourselves if you're providing these opportunities in your school. Administrators and bureaucrats, are you too busy lowering the standardized testing benchmarks so it appears that students are getting smarter?

Students, don't sit around and wait to be told what to do. The problem with waiting to be told what to do is that too many people are willing to oblige you. There is no shortage of people who are more than willing to take charge of your life. Find opportunities to develop the qualities that will make others take note of you. Ask your parents or find a trusted teacher or counselor to help you!

Uncork the Imagination

I love teaching.

Although, I have an expired interest in teaching what I call "school math". I am, however, always maintained by my fascination for capital M Mathematics and all of its flavors of phenomenal beauty, magic, and wonder. For me it's like looking at the Milky Way, the grand design and backbone of Mother Night.

But I could do without the "school math", and its accomplices.

What saves me are the kids themselves: a sundry gathering of delightful creatures not yet stained with spills from the cups of adulthood. God bless these people-like beings. They created me.

I was thinking the other day if there was one thing I could show them, just one thing, it wouldn't be the distributive property, or how to perform better on the SAT. What could possibly be better than that? I'll tell you.

Belief. That's what.

So for all you middle schoolers out there, let me tell you something. In the many cases of the people who made a difference in our world, the many talented contributors, did you know that often their belief in themselves emerged before any outward sign of talent? That's right. Maintaining a belief that you can do something, or be something, or have something will often precede any characteristic you may have that would allow you to acquire it, like a learned skill or even a "God given" talent. Maybe what we're really born with is the ability to change our beliefs, to create our own prophecy to fulfill.

It's not enough to just accept this. You need to be shown how to believe or how to change a limiting belief about yourself. I will do this in later posts.

In the meantime, you have permission from Mr. Powell to daydream, and to stare out the window. And contrary to what you hear from most teachers, I think daydreaming is underrated. So uncork that imagination. Untie it, and let it drift away from its moorings.

According to Robert Sternberg, a leading authority on intelligence, there are three ways a kid (or anyone) can be intelligent. (And by the way, this would be good for all those kids and their parents who never pass an opportunity to announce how smart they are...which, uh... really isn't that smart of a thing to do.)

1) Be a practical problem solver.
2) Be verbally active.
3) Be socially competent.

I wonder how many of the kids identified by Johns Hopkins University as gifted have number three listed as their strength. More than I think, I hope.

Okay folks...maybe you've seen my t-shirt, "I used to have an imagination. Then I went to school." Here are some others. Critique them if you wish.

End of Individualism. Restart or Clique to Exit.
Would it cost more if Bob flew, drove, or explained the answer in
detail?
Property of Public School Intelligence Dept. Size XXXS
Is conformimg to non-conformity still non-conforming?
Not my fault. I'm with a numbschool.
Just because you're disruptive doesn't make you a genius.
Unattended brains will be ticketed and towed.
Disturbed. Please do not test.
Hey smart kid. You're pants are unzipped.
Hey smart kid. Why aren't you practical, verbally active and socially
competent?

More "Pop Culture vs. Mr. Powell" Headlines

I'm feeling feisty today. Here's more of my feist as my battle continues...

Pop Culture digs in, ruins Mr. Powell's debut

Pop Culture sweeps Mr. Powell

Mr. Powell remains stuck on defense

Pop Culture blazes its way past Powell

Pop Culture muzzles Mr. Powell

Like a two-story outhouse

Once upon a time, a very well-known man commented on his radio program that to be a teacher requires being an absolute master in his area.

He was absolutely right, divided by 2.

That same teacher also has to possess and master the ability to interact successfully with kids. If a teacher can't do this, his attempt is going to go over like a two-story outhouse.

"Dropout Factories"

I'm not a guy who really likes to complicate things any more than they have to be. So here's how I'm going to pitch it to you: If you have a window that is losing expensive, valuable warm air from your house in the middle of the cold season...what do you do? YOU CLOSE THE WINDOW.

"1 in 10 High Schools Are Dropout Factories"

This was the title of an AP story by Nancy Zuckerbrod, and AP Education Writer. According to the article, a school is a "dropout factory" if they have 60% or fewer of their entering freshman not graduating after four years. Granted, some of the kids had transferred by that time, but most had dropped out.

It's also true that in many of these areas, education and traditional schooling are not valued by the culture. Apparently many of these kids dropped out because of a necessity to support themselves and/or their families with jobs such as millwork. I understand this sentiment. And I also understand that this has changed.

Turning people's beliefs around and the culture in which they live is not easy. But we (the school community) absolutely must change! We must make education relevant, fun, innovative, novel and challenging to prepare our young people for their futures, which is our country's future. Cripes...it has to be turned around from the inside! We can't afford to waste people! It's immoral, it's stupid, and it's dangerous.

That being said...I need to point out that we train students in my school starting in Kindergarten, that they must take control of their own learning and exert effort! That anything short of that will not affect any positive change! You can't sit around and wait for life to happen to you. To do so is also a stupid and dangerous waste!

Let me remind you that in order to get muscles to grow, or any physical conditioning to take effect, an overload on the system is necessary which may include temporary muscle failure or exhaustion. Anything less than this will not work. And we're way beyond the at-least-it's-better-than-nothing approach.

But standing in our way, is our fragile sense of self and our egos.

For starters, let's change what we can...from the inside. Close the window, stop the loss, and start valuing kids and learning from the inside!

Dr. Rudy Crew has cornered the animal

I just finished reading Only Connect by Dr. Rudy Crew...an interesting read. The man definitely has ideas. He suggests that schools concern themselves not just with academic proficiency, but workplace literacy, civic awareness, and personal integrity.

This, folks, is what I call barking up the right tree. This man has the animal cornered! I don't necessarily agree with his method of paying for it all, but...

He sees shaping people with these traits as a way to foster competence and comptetitiveness on a global stage, and he's right. I welcome the idea of completely re-envisioning schools to turn out people, not pupils. I think he would agree with my idea of maximizing the potential of all kids...not just the college bound.

One of the most dependable, competent, socially capable, and trustworthy students I ever had...was mentally retarded. He had most of the traits that Dr. Crew offered as guidelines and it breaks my heart that most people won't get to know him well enough to recognize this. My question is: What are we going to do about it?

Start with reading Only Connect.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Here's something that will perk you up. In his book Only Connect by Dr. Rudy Crew, Education Week reported that all the states spend around $500 million per year on versions of the same test, which still vary widely in their ability to differentiate actual skills from simple memorization.

And you already know how I feel about memorization.

One of the worst feelings that gnaws away at me because of this is that there are kids who "graduate" and still remain somewhat to completely dysfunctional contributors to society. This is what I mean when I say we are barking up the wrong tree. Yikes.

Aren't Schools Learning Centers?

Sign on a local high school: Barker High School and Learning Center.

Shouldn't one assume that if it's a high school, it would follow that it is also a learning center? Not additionally a learning center?

Mr. Powell vs. Pop Culture

I get a kick out of people who claim to be so "connected". They have internet, mobile internet, laptops, tv, cell phones, ipods, downloads, wireless, brainless, im this, text message that, satellite, cable, radio, microwave, space modulators, mother load boards, card boards, really boreds, and all the other ones I can't name. It's a scream.

Then there is me.

My wife and I haven't had "television" in twenty years. Twenty years folks. And people ask how we manage. Imagine what else we go without. Some people think I'm Amish. This is probably the reason that I see things from an entirely different perspective than most of my colleagues in the teaching world. It clarifies for me one of the biggest battles I face in teaching everyday: Mr. Powell vs. Pop Culture.

I want you to check out www.realityparents.com and look at their slogan. Look closely. This phrase dials it right in for me: "Unplugging from pop culture..." Some of our kids and adults in our schools stand in their own way because they don't see what we see: It's not what we're unplugged from, it's what we're plugged in to.

I take actual sports headlines from newspapers and substitute Mr. Powell and Pop Culture in various places, and it sums up my results as a teacher:

Pop Culture Eliminates Mr. Powell
Mr. Powell Out for the Season
Pop Culture's Attack Puts Strain on Mr. Powell's Defenses
Pop Culture Stuns Mr. Powell
Pop Culture Pulls Away From Powell in 3rd Period
Mr. Powell Falls to Pop Culture Comeback
Top Ranked Pop Culture Prepares To Play Unranked Mr. Powell
Pop Culture Dumps Mr. Powell
Mr. Powell KO'd in First Round

But here's the only headline that matters:

Pop Culture Going Unbeaten? Mr. Powell Says It Won't Happen

Sponge Bob, Schwarzenegger, and Jack Assery

So I did this imitation of Patrick from Sponge Bob one time in front of my middle school kids. (I'm really good at it! Actually, I can do Schwarzenegger even better.) Anyway, as I was ranting through this riff of Patrick, another teacher had walked through my room behind me, unbeknownst to me. She was great, but apparently she stared at me like I was pulling a knife on everybody. After she left the room the kids erupted and had a tremendous laugh (at my expense of course) at the effects of my jack assery. Then a kid stated: "You don't get along with adults very well, do you Mr. Powell."

She had no idea how close she came to hitting the ball out of the park.

It's not that I don't get along with other adults; It's that I get along better with kids. I don't know what I'm doing. I never know what I'm doing when I'm in the zone. But I do know that I use my instincts, and I feel that propellant and that signal coming from the inside.

Not only that, I trust it.

I could rarely tell you what teaching technique I use, or what strategies I'm employing, or the best practice for this or that. All of that language that teachers come up I find dull, sterile, uninteresting, and irrevelant to my teaching.

Anyway, I'm reading (for the second time) The Power of Mindful Learning by Ellen J. Langer (1997), and she points out, and has conducted a body of research that actually somewhat supports my "practices." In one particular study, she noted that students who learned new material in a traditional manner tended to recall less information and showed less improvement than kids who received the new material in a "mindful" method that involves variety, creativity, and novelty. And she also stresses that these students learned more regardless of whether or not they knew they were going to be tested. They showed more improvement in their intelligence and creativity in their writing about what they learned.

I'm not saying Patrick is going to save the world. Frankly, he's a symbol of glorified stupidity, along with Bart Simpson and many other characters that pop culture jams down our throats. But I will say that I teach from my core, and my instincts. I use my instincts and try to deliver from my authentic center. Something that was never taught to me in "teacher school". I had a teacher friend tell me once that this is all because I teach from another "plane". No doubt about it. I'd jump out of any other. :)

Next up will be my Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy done as Schwarzenegger. That should go over like a two story outhouse with the high school teachers.

Don't pee in your shoes

I've been asked by a couple of readers (mostly a couple of teacher friends, and Teri out in Colorado) what I actually did when my daughter came home with the "memorization assignment" that I recently wrote about. Well...after I convinced her that peeing in her shoes would probably go over like a hand grenade in a bowl of oatmeal...we danced.

Yes. Dan Powell, the teacher on the edge, took his daughter into the living room and did a Baryshnikov: We put together a little dance that had specific moves for each and every one of those pesky prepositions. Gross motor movements united in one two minute dance. It looked a bit like we were swatting at bees. I thought my daughter was going to choke, she was laughing so hard. It's a great way to burn those fifty-plus little things into her muscle memory.

The fun didn't begin until she told me that while she was taking her test at school, she was jostling around in her seat so much doing the dance, that her teacher thought she was going to wet her pants. I told her as long as she didn't pee in her shoes, it would've been fine with me!

So next time you need to memorize, you need to make it meaningful, or kinesthetic, or both.

Denver's "Best" High Schools

In the August 2007 issue of 5280, "Denver's Mile-High Magazine", the cover article targeted Denver's best high schools. I was intrigued, as I always am, at these ratings not because I want to see which schools are the "best", but to see what criteria they used to make the determination. I saw it coming from ten miles away: the criteria was heavily weighted to the college bound, forsaking all of the young entrepreneurs, interns, trade school candidates, apprentices and the like. As if college bound equals firm ground.

Let's be straight. A college education can do no harm. But generally we get results for what we produce, not for what we know. And I for one want to maximize the potential for all learners, not just the college bound!

Here are the seven criteria for the Denver ratings: Student-Teacher Ratio(not a bad one for starters, unless you have teachers who couldn't get a ripple on an EEG); Lowest Number of Disciplinary or Safety or Safety Problems Per Student; ACT Composite Score (college entrance test); SAT Critical Reading+ Math Score(again, sterile college entrance material); Percentage of Teachers With Advanced Degrees (some current research has shown this to be clearly irrevelant); Number of Advanced Placement Classes (courses where students can earn college credit if they pass an exit test); and Dropout Rates.

In addition, some of the comments from the top seven schools read like this: "4.2 million dollars in (college) scholarships...", "85% of students attend four year colleges", "100% of students attend four year colleges", "...academic rigor...", "...largest number of AP offerings...highest AP scores in the region.", "94.6% of graduates attend four year colleges...", and so on.

It's fascinating, because I've read that landing a job is overwhelmingly (up to 85%) a function of one's personality, attitude, desire, and flexibility.

So what do we learn from this? If you want to be a chef and make a six figure income in your own mobile business and perhaps consulting or coaching on the side, don't worry about being stuck in one of the "loser" schools. In fact, in a related article about a Denver area school that won't be on the (elite) list, one students says "People don't know anything about (us)...They don't know how to overcome adversity...The teachers and staff at my school are wonderful...they teach us more than what we need to know...they teach us life lessons to help us survive."

Enlightening, huh? I'm with that kid!

Do not leave your brain unattended

Fall is wiping its feet on the doorstep. The air has become a bit more crisp. And the anesthetizing has begun in schools all over the country. One of the first assignments my 6th grade daughter came home with was a list of fifty prepositions she had to memorize in one week. Yikes. I didn't over-react to it, but we had a good laugh when I told her I would have stood up on the desk and peed in my shoes if I had that task in front of me. Dr. Mel Levine, M.D. writes in A Mind at a Time

"Vastly more extensive and strenuous use of memory is required for school success than is needed in virtually any career you can name. Students must store and retrieve mounds of facts, skills, and concepts across unrelated subject areas and topics...In creating this demand, education imposes an ever-growing burden on the neurodevelopmental functions that together make up memory capacity."

All I want toknow is this: Is there a better way to learn? Are there better things to learn? Do ways exist to engage a brain while holding its owner accountable?

Welcome back to school. Please do not leave your brain unattended. It will be ticketed and towed.

Is the value of failure underrated?

As the last days come to an end in my school this year, I can't help feeling lucky. I know it's easy to say this at the end of a school year, but it's always a bit depressing when things gear down so much.

I know. I should have my head examined.

I did and it didn't work. I even came up short on Google: "No definitions were found for Dan Powell". I don't care. I love what I do. I get to be in a place where I can create, explore, learn and grow. I work with other teachers as a "crew" in my school. Nobody gets left out, and we all have a common purpose: to develop our kids as people. I just told the kids at an assembly today that I see them as people, not pupils or test scores.

Our kids are cultured differently...they learn to value each other and their own strengths. They also get chances to test their limits and possibly fail. (I remember a teacher a long time ago told us in an "inservice" to never, ever tell a student that they failed. And then she shuddered at the thought.) I could never figure out what the hangup is so many teachers have with failure. I learned so much from it personally.

Yet, maybe it's that other schools stop at failure and never teach their kids how to manage it, or learn from it, or make it work for them! The crew of teachers at our school are fearless this way. And it gives me confidence to be more creative and exploratory. And that's what I do best. I live to create, explore, and even fail once in awhile. What do you think? Is the value of failure underrated?

The Wild Green Yonder

In the last year I've raised the blade of my mowers a bit because I've discovered that it's healthier for the grass to be a bit longer. I've also become less of a grass nazi when I'm trimming around things with the whacker. Why? Because grass likes to be grass. Grass likes to grow and express itself. And the result is my lawn actually looks better. I'm even going to extend that and say that it is healthier.

So while these thoughts are churning through my mind while I'm on the riding mower out in my wild green yonder, I can't help thinking that it applies to kids as well. I wonder how we can let them do more of what comes naturally to them, and to turn it into some kind of advantage for eveyone involved. It doesn't mean that we have to nurture a Lord of the Flies culture; That would be stupid and dangerous for everyone involved. I'm just wondering, that's all.

In the meantime, I am trying to come to grips with all the disorders that are slapped on kids today. (I was listening to a radio ad describing the symptoms of a stroke and I thought, I have that everday! I'm having a stroke teaching school!) In fact, I listen to the "interventionists" describe the disorders that they saddle the kids with, and I show 80% of the symptoms that the kids have. They could care less about me, though. They think I'm joking.

And then I think about this: why is it called attention deficit disorder? Kids don't have attention deficit disorder. They have attention surplus disorder. Everything that comes across their field of vision needs attended to. I do this often, too. Wouldn't attention deficit disorder look more like a catatonic stupor? That's what they look like after they've been given the meds. This seems wardback to me. It's just something to think about.

Our schools spend a respectful amount of energy trying to get kids' behaviors and classroom characteristics to look and be the same, and at the same time we "celebrate diversity". I'm really slow with this. Maybe I am learning disabled too. I need to get back to the wild green yonder to think this one through.

People, not pupils

People, not pupils! This is what I like about the school I teach in...we treat them like people, not pupils. Even the middle school kids look more like people than...well, whatever.

Schools spend a tremendous amount of time separating the "smart" kids from the "dumb" kids. This group goes over here, that group goes over there. This group qulaifies for this, that group doesn't because of the "numbers". This leads me to statistics. For all the abstract qualities we find in statistics, doesn't it seem odd that we call it hard evidence? Yet, in the tentacles of public education (and in many privates programs) if scores say the kids' learning is "up", assumptions are made that the kids really are learning. But are they really?

Sometimes I think the word "learning" should be replaced with "performance capability", except now it sounds like I'm talking about a sports car. We need to re-think how we educate/train kids for the future. Kids need to be treated as complex, dynamic, potential-filled, creative-thinking leaders, not as somebody who's below the mean on some sterile assessment that no one will give a hoot and a holler about in two days. What do you think?

Sit down, shut up and listen!

Sit down, shut up and listen!

If you're ever interested in demoralizing teaching and learning and turning a school experience into a disaster for everyone invloved, this is the formula that I want you to apply because it works. Ask Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. They disappeared from school faster than free beer at a hockey game. (Actually, they ended up with a much more thorough education than their peers...and more wealthy.)

In a time when brain research shows that kids actually need more time to run, breathe hard, and express themselves physically (see Enriching the Brain by Eric Jensen), we actually have schools across America cutting recess time so teachers can raise standardized test scores! I know, because my own kids' school is one of them. This would actually be okay if standardized test scores were worth more than they really are...but they're not! I can't tell you how much this makes me scream. We have schools that care more about their clock/bell schedule than real learning! It's like having all the busses on time and ready to go, but nobody knows where or why they're moving. It's very "corporate" to me. (I don't know why I say "corporate". Maybe I mean to say it has a very cold feel to it, which is what I think of when I hear "corporate".)

Design a school with a kid in mind, find or design a structure that supports this and watch the kids learn. More on this later.

Please, don't let this happen!

Many years ago I remember this kid standing up in front of his classmates relaying some information to them regarding some rules for a contest on which they were embarking. He was informing them about the dimension allowance of one of the decorations. As soon as he confidently told the students of the permitted measurements, the kid next to him whispered in his ear that the measurements were actually changed to make them larger. The poor kid didn't know what to do and became flustered. What really did him in was that another kid on the other side of him confirmed this, along with his teacher/advisor. It was too much for the kid to announce the change, and he stuttered about and flaggled around, his ears got hot and his face turned red and finally he blurted out in the microphone, "Well, 36 inches is what's written down so it's 36 inches!"

Four legs good, two legs bad!

The kid was considered "gifted" by Johns Hopkins University. Yikes. As long as all he faced was the same pitch, he was "smart". But as soon as the curve ball came, as soon as anything out of the ordinary appeared, he freaked out like an autistic savante would walking into a library with one stinking book out of place. I'm surprised he didn't drop to the floor and convulse. I thought I would certainly have to storm the stage and make sure he didn't swallow his tongue.

I've got a couple of questions I use to shock these "gifted" kids out of this anesthetized state. Here's one you can try sometime but make sure a math teacher isn't within ear shot: Is it farther to Chicago, or by bus? This just drives them absolutely bananas. If it ain't gonna show up on the SAT, it is utterly alien to them.

Is it just me, or is the lack of flexibility in kids like this just plain disturbing? Can we foster something else, please?

Swirling Down the Toilet

Now that you mention it, I will tell you about it. The Captains of Education are wringing their hands at plummeting standardized test scores, and they have no idea why they may keep falling! I was thinking about this today as I was administering our own tests here in Washington State. All the public ever hears is that school teachers need to improve, schools are accountable, administrators are performing CYA feats of skill, and school district assessment coordinators need to inject more system into the system. Make no mistake about it...schools and teachers need to stop boring the drool out of their clientele! BUT...no where does anyone mention what the kids and the parents need to do. As long as all everyone hears is how the teachers need to teach better, and the schools have to do provide this, and the administration needs to provide that...as long as this continues, the kids (middle school age on up, at least) will slowly sink back in their seats, drop their materials, put their hands behind their heads, grab a handful of cashews and do nothing. As long as they see their success, and their future prosperity, and their goals and lifestyle choices and desires as a function of, and only of what the teachers do, they are not going to move on it. The entire variable of their own effort has been smeared and blurred out of the realm of reality. Many teachers like to boast that it is ultimately the teacher that is the most important factor in kids' success...and they are partly correct (though they shouldn't be boasting about it). But there is neuroscience research that demonstrates that a student's efforts edge out the importance of other factors (read Enriching the Brain by Eric Jensen). Look at it this way, what contributes more to the area of a rectangle...the length or the width? I thought so...and you're right. They BOTH do!Let's keep telling kids and parents that it is the school's fault for everything, and that they have no power in whether or not they fail or succeed, and we can continue to watch test scores drop like hints.

Buried somewhere in the bowels of documents of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Washington State reads a phrase akin to the following: these are standards that a well-taught, HARD WORKING student should achieve. (I added the capital letters.) Alas, schools and American human potential continue to swirl down the toilet.

Not That Gifted...

Okay. In a nutshell, if you're going to say you're "gifted", don't come cavorting down the school hall with your pants unzipped. And please, be able to properly staple two pieces of paper together. I just can't take it. And for all those out there who love to tell people how "smart" they are, remember it's not that smart of a thing to tell people how smart you are. Nearly every definition of intelligence that I've read has some phrase similar to "adaptive behavior" in there somewhere. (Not that anyone has settled on a definition of intelligence yet, and not that anyone has decided that it is a "thing" at all.) So start adapting, people.
And by the way, one of the most reliable, dependable, adaptable, and creative students I've ever had had a two digit IQ and could think circles around the elitists who searched for exclusive services for their "giftedness".

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare...and sorry you supposedly died today too.