This posting is based on a segment on parent involvement airing on Colorado & Company October 1, 2007, at 10:00 (KUSA - NBC Denver - Channel 9).  I spoke as an educational expert on this topic.

It's that time of year - when your children's schools offer you the opportunity to visit and meet their teachers. 

The following simple tips will help you make the most of the parent-teacher conference:

1.  Go!  Nothing shows a teacher that you care more than your presence - and indication of your willingness to work TOGETHER with him or her in the best interest of your child.  If you need to bring siblings - GREAT!  As a teacher I loved meeting the siblings of my students for many reasons - not the least of which was that the younger ones knew to look for me when they got to high school!

2.  Come prepared with questions, concerns, etc.  These can be garnered during the in-depth, ongoing conversations that you have with your child about what's going on in school.  For example, if your child comes home from school telling you that he or she is being bullied, bring that up with the teacher at the meeting.  It's important to make your concerns known so that the teacher and/ or school principal has the opportunity to help you resolve the issue.

3.  Ask your child's teacher how you can support his/ her efforts at home.  Supporting by supervising homework is great - teaching new concepts or "helping" with homework that appears to be too difficult or that introduces new concepts/ skills/ topics is frustrating for all parties involved.  If you feel your child's homework is too time-consuming or difficult, let your child's teacher know.  It's possible that he or she just hasn't gotten feedback about the homework, and might need some help understanding what to send home.

4.  If your concerns are not addressed in the short period of time that you have to meet with your child's teacher, ask for an appointment to come back for more at-length discussion.  If you don't think the teacher can help you resolve your concerns, go to another school professional you feel might be able to help.  Keep notes about conversations - who you spoke with, about what, when, etc.  These can come in handy later when you need to explain what you have done to resolve such conflicts.

5.  Follow up.  Keep those conversations with your child and his or her teacher going.  Remember;  you, your child, and your child's teacher are a team focused on the goal of your child's academic success.  The more involved and respected everyone feels, the better.

Here are some more links to advice about how to get the most out of parent-teacher conferences (I apologize in advance for all the ads for ADD medications - medicating children with ADD is a serious matter, only to be undertaken under close medical scrutiny; I'm bothered by the push for medication but think the content of these sites is, otherwise, very informative):

http://www.nea.org/parents/ptconf.html

http://school.familyeducation.com/parents-and-school/parent-teacher-conferences/38584.html

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/parent-teacher-conferences

http://www.familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-6631,00.html

Contact me with questions, concerns, needs, etc.  And good luck!

heather@heatherboylanphd.com

Today I'm kind of at a loss for a topic, so I thought I would share one of my favorite teaching moments.  I actually re-connected with this student recently and happily report that his English - five years later - is flawless (not because of me!)

The Importance of the Teacher’s Spoken Word

“Ms. Boylan – what mean this word, ‘gonna?’” Anatoli asked.

“Huh?” I probably replied, although I’m ashamed to admit it.

He gave me a puzzled look, undoubtedly mirroring my own.  “’Gonna.’  What it mean?  How you use it?”

The question broke our stride.  My ESL II (second year high school English-as-a-second language) students and I had just finished going over some vocabulary words together and I couldn’t figure out where he had come up with this word, or what this word even was.  However, moments like this, addressed to the class as a whole, tended to help everyone.  So I was okay with interrupting “the plan” to address it to the whole group.

“I’m happy to try to explain, but what word are you talking about, Anatoli?”

“Gonna.”

“Could you please write it down for me the way you hear it?”

He wrote it on the margin of the paper in front of him, the same paper upon which he was writing his vocabulary.  I approached his desk and read the word – which he had written in impeccably neat handwriting - silently.  It didn’t make sense to me at first, even written down.  I had to whisper it softly to myself. 

“G – U – N – N – A.”  Oh geez.  The gravity of this situation was overcoming me.  He didn’t even spell it right?  Oh, wait – why would you ever spell it in writing in the first place?

To make sure I was interpreting his question correctly I asked, “Where did you hear that word?  How was it used?”

“You just say it,” he replied. 

My mind raced.  Did I really just say that?  Really?  And why?

Then it dawned on me:  I had just told the students that they would have a vocabulary text the following Monday, and I must have said, “You’re gonna have a test on these words on Monday” while I wrote the assignment – to study for the test – on the board.

He affirmed my thought, “You said, ‘you gonna have a test Monday.’”

Oh no – did I really just say that?  And to one of the most linguistically vulnerable groups of students in the school?  I had to think fast, attempt to repair the damage.  I laughed nervously, something I frequently do while teaching to dispel tension.

“Um…. (caught myself again)… well, this word ‘gonna’ is short for ‘going to’ or ‘will’ (future tense is a ‘subject’ taught and presumably learned in second year English) – you know, future tense, something that’s gonna happen in the future.”  Oh my goodness.  I said it again.  “I mean, something that will or is going to happen in the future, tomorrow or the next day.”  I always used hand signals when talking about time (tense), pointed with my thumb behind my back for past, with pointer finger way out in front of me for future.  Just a natural reaction to the need to communicate the idea of time to students who are new to the country and language.  So while I said this last sentence, I pointed way out in front of me, meaning the future.  Was I really explaining this?

“How you say it?” he asked.  I assumed he meant “how do you use it?” 

Oh, geez.  How do you use it?  I turned to the white board and wrote my usual first, second, third person singular and plural matrix in large green letters for all to see.  A matrix I deferred to when answering this kind of question – a matrix I have since learned, means little to English learners.  I conjugated, both aloud and in writing.

“I’m gonna.  You’re gonna. He/ she/ it’s gonna.  We’re gonna.  You all are gonna. They’re gonna.”   I then wrote proper conjugations of “will” and “going to” alongside the “gonnas.”  What a mess!  Was I really doing this?

It was appalling once it was written on the board; the absurdity of my spoken language illustrated right there in bold green on white board for of the eager students to digest.  I laughed again, feeling even more tense.  And stupid.

“What’s so funny?”

“Well, Anatoli, I’m really glad you asked me this question, because it showed me that I sometimes use incorrect language when I’m talking with you and your classmates.  Actually, gonna is not really a word, it’s slang.  You hear it used a lot (by ME! I thought).  It’s okay to use a word like this when you’re speaking to friends or family, but you wouldn’t want to use it when applying for a job, or around someone you were trying to show a lot of respect, or from whom you wanted something important.”  This was not a great explanation of slang, or why one wouldn’t want to use the word “gonna” in all situations, but it was the best I could come up with at the time, and one the students had heard from me before.  He and the others seemed satisfied, though I did notice that no one copied down my little matrix.

I have thought about this incident a lot that day and since, and have learned much about why it was such a big deal to me and to the student.  Slang and other forms of English are everywhere in children’s lives:  television is certainly full of them, as is the language their friends and family members use.  English learners (as well as pre-literate native speakers and those developing literacy – literally all children) depend on the native, literate English speakers around them to model the language they are attempting to master and utilize in all contexts.  Though we who teach them don’t always realize it, students are listening – always – and frequently for things or in ways that are beyond our immediate grasp.  Other of my students’ questions involved the words “dog” (dawg), “nigga,” “potty” (party – took me a long time to figure out this one!).  The list goes on and on. When students heard, in the various communities of their lives, words they didn’t understand or didn’t know how to use, they wanted to know – needed to know – what their peers/ elders were talking about, and how to talk like them.  Because I learned to teach ESL by doing it (not in a traditional teaching program) I hadn’t understood the profound importance my own language use and how I modeled speech for students.   Sadly, I didn’t realize how my use of slang could affect students’ acquisition of the kind English that would get them where they aspired to go in the world (duh!).  Anatoli’s question slapped me in the face – holding a mirror to the language I modeled for my own students.  And at times that language was extremely colloquial or even blatantly incorrect.

That said, much of our identities is expressed through our language, and teachers cannot put aside their identities when they walk in the classroom door.  As a white female raised and educated with many middle-class privileges, I understood how to speak in a job interview, to my elders, or when giving a presentation to a respected group of people.  I learned this at home, being “charged” 25 cents every time I said “shut up,” and I learned it at school, by being taught and corrected and listening to my teacher correct my classmates when they spoke “incorrectly.”  However, when I “relaxed” and spoke in a way that felt most comfortable, much of the slang and many of the colloquialisms I grew up speaking to friends and family found its way into my vernacular – at times, much to my horror, even with my English language learners.   “Linguistically vulnerable” or impressionable students have the right to learn the kind of language that will serve them to be most successful in every kind of life situation.  My colloquial English is decidedly NOT that kind of language.  Now that I had been called on my use of this word, I would certainly think more about how I spoke to my students – as well as how I spoke in all contexts.

But where do we draw the line between speaking only sterile, “formal/ academic English” to students and fully expressing our identities through our use of other more social, culturally relevant and accepted forms of language?

This is not an “either or” or “right or wrong” situation.  We don’t always speak in perfect English, but we also don’t always speak in the kind of language that we embrace as part of our identities.  If we are members of the rare (maybe non-existent?) group that embraces “formal” or “academic” English as a part of our identities, we tend to enjoy the requisite social rewards our society holds out to those who do.  If we do not, we don’t necessarily “automatically” enjoy those rewards.

When working with children who come from ethnic, cultural, and economic groups traditionally not granted full access to all which our society has to offer, it’s imperative to model formal/ academic English, but it’s also important to model and/ or expose students to the kind of language they need to acquire to be embraced by all groups within their community – in particular, social, colloquial, and informal forms of language.   Further, beyond exposure, students need to be explicitly taught when we use certain forms of language and for what purposes.  Clearly, it’s inappropriate to teach children to use formal or academic language to order a cheeseburger at McDonald’s, or when talking to their friends or families.  Conversely, the teacher who allows her student to walk into a job interview using colloquialisms associated with non-work, non-school social life and activities (by not teaching the difference) is as surely setting that student up for failure as she would be if she failed to teach basic math.  It’s not that one way of speaking is right or wrong; rather, that one is appropriate in certain settings and situations, while another is appropriate in other, different settings and situations.  It’s not our job as teachers to frame the kind of language people use in different contexts as “right” or “wrong,” “correct” or “incorrect” but rather to enable students to make choices about their goals and to develop the repertoire of language, and knowledge of when to use it, to help them reach those goals.

After our little diversion from vocabulary, we were ready to move on to some reading.  Anatoli requested my attention again.

“Ms. Boylan?”

“Yes?”

“What we gonna do tomorrow?”  he asked with the funny little grin he used when making a joke.  I looked at him and we both started to laugh.  Anatoli was a bright young man, and the fact that he was starting to make jokes in English, I knew, meant he was in the process of turning a major corner in language development.  Really, the fact that he had asked me this rather sophisticated question about usage of a colloquial future tense verb was also an indicator of his growth as an English speaker, listener, reader, and writer.

Thank goodness for what we can learn from our very own students – especially when they point out our follies and mistakes.  Anatoli taught me a very important lesson, one that fully informed and still informs much of my teaching. 

Part of the new DPS teachers' proposal for district reform, "Promoting School Success" includes a plan that would retain students at certain "landmark" grades if they are performing at an "unsatisfactory" level on certain now "high stakes" assessments. 

http://www.denverpost.com/education/ci_6906674

This proposed policy also limits the amount of power parents would have in retention decisions.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5699458,00.html

I have personally seen the dilemma of "social promotion" or promoting students merely because they have "completed" a grade and find the practice appalling for too many reasons to list.  However, research into the long-term effects of student retention tells us that the negative effects such as social stigma, boredom, age-inappropriate grade placement, etc., FAR outweigh the positive effects.

Imagine this scenario:  your child is in third grade.  S/he fails to perform satisfactorily on these particular assessments.  Nothing the teacher or you say about your child's developmental, academic, or social growth is taken into consideration in the decision to place your child on a "watch list" and to require him/ her to repeat third grade.  So, back to third grade s/he goes, where the curriculum is largely the same and includes everything the child already knows PLUS the same kind of instruction s/he received last year in areas in which s/he has deemed to be needing development.   Along with the skill-building necessary to develop towards the passage of these assessments, your child must REPEAT curriculum and assignments that are identical to what she or he did and mastered the year before.  What a waste of time, expense, and energy!  And if your child has a tendency to, um, balk at being required to do things he or she deems as "boring" or unmeaningful, the negative consequences (poor behavior, discipline issues, etc.) right away start to erode at his or her engagement in school (this is contrary to the opinion of Kathy Christie, vice president of the Denver-based Education Commission of the States - Post, p. 27A, September 16, 2007).  Not to mention the fact that last year's second graders are this year's classmates.  This is a recipe for disaster.

I think Michael Bennet said it best:  "Unless you've got a very serious set of interventions in place, all retaining a kid does is drive the drop out rate up" (ibid).

As a teacher I take the achievement of all children as seriously as the teachers who wrote this "Promoting School Success" plan.  But where are the interventions research tells us are necessary to truly promote school success? 

Several states and school districts have adopted similar policies with mixed results.  Those that implement innovative, extensive intervention plans tend to help children "bridge the gap;" those that don't - don't.  Officials in Texas estimated that each child retained cost the state an additional $5000.  Is this a financial burden DPS can afford to take on (see previous blog about smaller class size)?

It's clear that socially promoting students is not a good thing, but it's also clear that retaining them in a "traditional" classroom setting without further intervention also doesn't work.  When are we going to dive in and REALLY tackle these issues with far-reaching, innovative reform?

Today's Denver Post reports that last night DPS superintendent, the president of the teacher's association, and an assembly of teachers met to discuss a teacher-generated plan to improve the achievement of the district's students.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6856508

Among other research-proven reforms, the group of teachers calls for the district to decrease class size.  Research confirms, time and time again, that decreased class size does in fact improve student achievement, especially in the primary (early elementary) grades.  This is a sound recommendation.

However, the school board asserts that decreasing class size is just too expensive for the district to afford right now. In fact, this is the most expensive of the teachers' current recommendations.

I know that decreasing class sizes, especially in a district this large, is an extremely expensive endeavor.  To the teachers' discredit, the article also reports that teachers chose pay raises over decreased class sizes in previous salary negotiations.
 
I also feel that if the district is truly serious about improving student achievement, class sizes MUST be smaller.  A couple of years ago I observed a second grade classroom in one DPS school that had 32 students - all packed into a space that could barely hold them, their teacher, and the minimal amount of supplies needed to teach them.  The teacher was marvelously skilled, patient, well-planned, and obviously cared deeply for her students.  But how was she to supervise these 32 energetic pupils on a small-group - let alone individual - level, especially when physically she was tripping over desks, books, students, and supplies to "work the room"?

In large urban districts, school boards and administrators have tough choices to make about funding - and the way schools are funded ultimately reflects the underlying values of school, community, and distrcit leaders.  Hopefully this discussion will continue, and teachers and school leaders will find a way to shift funding priorities to enable children to attend classes in which they have more time to interact with each other, course content and activities, and their teachers.

This publication for parents by the National Education Association offers lots of great tips for parent involvement in their children's education and school life. 

http://www.nea.org/parents/index.html

One point made in this publication that particularly stands out to me is about reading support at home.  Reading to your child, and talking to you child about books and reading, are two important contributors to your child's literacy growth.

When I taught English as a Second Language at Summit High School I emphasized reading with my students, and we spent a lot of time reading aloud and silently together.  We were fortunate to have a classroom library of high-interest books written at reading levels appropriate for those learning English.  One student who developed English literacy more rapidly than most of her classmates actually told me that her parents MADE her read at home, both in her first language AND in English.  Clearly, she was learning things about the English language outside of my classroom, and after hearing her talk about the importance her parents placed upon reading, it made sense to me that she had progressed so quickly.  She did not look at reading in a negative way at all - in fact she asked me for book recommendations regularly and realized how important her independent reading was to her own growth. 

Future blogs will focus on specific reading strategies parents can use with their children at home. 

Last night on NBC Nightly News Denver Public Schools' "ProComp" teacher compensation system was in the spotlight.  This new program, seven years and $25 million in the making, is meant to link teacher pay raises with, among other things such as professional development, student performance.  The Eagle School District has been utilizing such a system to determine teacher pay for several years, and a handful of other Colorado school districts are either in the exploration or early implementation of similar programs as well.

So, rather than the obligatory "step" or "cost of living" increases in pay that have characterized teacher salary raises, accountability for students' success will now hit teachers directly in the paycheck.

While I recognize that systemic change is difficult and sometimes fraught with unforeseen consequences, I think moving towards a "pay for performance" type salary structure for teachers is long overdue.  As a former teacher and professor, it was disappointing that no matter how hard I worked and how much I could prove my students had learned I would still receive the same pay raise as the (rare) colleagues who put forth less effort and frankly didn't seem to care too much about what their students achieved.   Bad analogy, but are we serving time here, or helping kids?

DPS has bitten off a lot with its new program, but I have seen the action research some of its teachers have done and frankly, I'm impressed.   This program gives teachers the opportunity to grow in pay as they grow students - a win-win situation bound not only to increase student performance, but to also increase teacher morale. 

It's great to see DPS in a positive light on national television!  Here's the story:

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=1afdcc10-33c2-474a-8e71-644a81041c4b&p=Source_Nightly%20News&t=m5&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619&fg=

The beginning of the school year can be the cause of anxiety in parents and children of all ages.  "PBS Parents" provides some great resources to help parents of younger children ease their child's transition back into school. 

http://www.pbs.org/parents/goingtoschool/first_days.html

The American Academy of Pediatrics provides tips that apply to children of a wider range of age groups:

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/augschool.htm

About.com's parenting and family site offers tips for parents of middle and high school students:

http://parentingteens.about.com/od/middleschooljrhi/a/middleschool1.htm

http://parentingteens.about.com/od/education/a/back_to_school.htm

I tend to think about the first days and even months of a new school year as being about "communication and organization."  Communicateregularly with your child about what's going on at school.  These conversations need not only focus on the teacher-student relationship and academics, but should also attend to students' relationships with other students, extra-curricular activities, and other concerns.  Take your child's cues about where these conversations should go, and listen carefully.  Remember what your child tells you from day to day, and follow up by asking him or her specifically about things s/he has mentioned in previous conversations. 

Organization is also key to a good start back to school.  If the school does not provide an "agenda" or planner book, help your child choose one that will meet his or her needs, help them learn how to use it, and follow up every day with it.  Older children and teens might be interested in learning a new computer program, such as Outlook, to help them stay organized.  Whatever system they choose, keeping the planner updated and referring to it daily are keys to success that will serve your child for a lifetime.

Hello, and thank you for viewing my website.  This site is just one part of my new career venture - to move from a being cog in the wheel of the educational bureacracy to a more pro-active role in which I can help children and families navigate the muddy waters of that sometimes unfriendly system.  After years of invaluable experience and countless challenges in the world of education, I feel that being on the "helping families" end of things is going to be a pleasant change!  I'm excited to get started and hope that you will find something of use to you here.

This blog is meant to help you get to know me as an educator and to see if my services might be of use to you and/ or your children.  The philosophy guiding this new business venture and blog is that parents and children already face myriad challenges in their educational lives - I'm here to help.

Every once in a while I will post a tip - a "did you know....?" meant to help parents understand their children's rights at school.  Most parents know quite a bit about their children's rights and how to advocate for their children, but occasionally are paralyzed by a new situation that might have dveloped in their child's school life.  Hopefully you will find these tips useful. 

Occasionally I will also blog about local, state, and/ or federal education issues.  I do not pretend to be an expert on every educational topic, nor do I expect every reader to agree with my  analyses or opinions.  However, I do think that there are many educational topics that just need more public thought, discussion and debate.  For example, today's Denver Post highlights the disparity of educational opportunity school children in Colorado face depending upon their home school district.  A group of local lawmakers is now attempting to close the educational gap between Colorado's "have" and "have-not" schools.  I think this is yet another interesting event in our country's debate about equal educational opportunity.  In a state where it's common knowledge that we don't fund education well IN GENERAL, it is also difficult to imagine how rural schools continue to thrive if they are the poorest of the already under-funded.  It will be interesting to watch this issue play out in our state legislature - and it see if it changes how parents decide to educate their children.  The article may be viewed by clicking the link below:

http://www.denverpost.com/education/ci_6788369

Again, thank you for taking the time to view this site.  Please be in touch with comments and let me know if you think you might benefit from my services.