At The Confluence

Aside from a dog that rambled out of the brush, looked us over, and trotted off like he was expecting to find someone else, we had the river bank to ourselves.  My daughter, who threw a pole and tackle box in the car at the last minute, searched the rip rap for anything that would serve as bait. I stared at the river, considering the swirling eddies that quickly popped up and disappeared like frustrations and anxieties that make a morning spent in a canoe so appealing.

"Dad you won't believe it! Look at this!"

No one else I know has the luck of my daughter. When I turned around she was holding a white carton of night crawlers that had washed up or been abandoned.  We spent the morning watching her tight line and snacking on fruit and summer sausage on the dry bag that served as our table cloth.

The Missouri was at eleven feet that morning and we decided to briefly test our strength against the 72,000 cubic feet of water that flowed downstream each second. We paddled out and then looped back into the creek to begin the mile long trip back to the ramp where we parked.

A breeze at our back allowed us to fish and float back without paddling. Almost too quickly. As we loaded up, both of us wished we were still at the confluence of Perche Creek and the Missouri River.

A Morning On Devil's Backbone

I don't know who was more restless, my four year old son or me, but with temperatures in the seventies on Labor Day morning ,we decided it was a perfect time to make like Christopher Robbin and go on an explore. 

Our destination: A portion of the Cedar Creek Trail known as Devil's Backbone.

If Lord of the Rings had been filmed in Boone County, Missouri, much of the action would have been shot here. The ridge, not more than thirty feet wide, with vertical drops on both sides, slips quickly down to Cedar Creek below. Not many places in Central Missouri feature as many rocky outcrops split by gnarled tree roots. We didn't battle any Wargs on our journey, but we did have a show down with a blood thirsty horsefly.

At the base of The Backbone we snacked on an orange while resting on an abandoned steel bridge before making the return trip up the steep trail. Before getting back in the van, we paused and dangled our feet off a limestone ledge two hundred feet above the creek bottom. It was a good moment for both of us. 

Nothing cures restlessness like an explore.  

A Few Thoughts On Assessment

Hattie's research demonstrates the importance of feedback. All of the individual techniques that yield high effect sizes do so because they are avenues for feedback. Because the quality of feedback depends on the quality of the assessment, time spent considering assessment practices is valuable. Rick Wormeli's Fair Isn't Always Equal provides guidance in this area.

Purpose
A core belief communicated by Wormeli is that the main purpose of education is to promote mastery. Most teachers embrace this concept in regards to instruction. However, remembering to extend the emphasis on the promotion of mastery to assessment is difficult. Often assessments are treated with finality. All teachers are forced to operate within fixed time frames for courses; the most thoughtful teachers extend the opportunities for mastery as much as possible within those parameters.

Differentiation
When teachers see assessment primarily as a tool for promoting mastery, they see the need for differentiation more clearly. Because all students are at different stages in the journey toward mastery, it is necessary to adjust assessments accordingly. If the goal is mastery for each student, the act of extending a deadline, allowing a second chance, or providing extra scaffolding becomes the most pragmatic response. If treating a student exactly the same as a peer does not move the student closer towards mastery, then alternative practices should be employed.

Three Practices Worth Scrutinizing
Wormeli identifies ten practices that do not lend themselves to differentiation or the promotion of mastery. I'll briefly discuss three. Assigning grades to homework or quizzes given immediately after a concept is introduced does not respect differentiation or mastery learning. This does not mean that feedback should not be given when a student has not mastered a skill. Students need feedback, but it should not come in the form of 4 out of 10 points. Similarly, forbidding second attempts on assessments limits mastery. If the goal is for the student to demonstrate knowledge and skill, it should not matter how many opportunities they take advantage of. Lastly, is the practice of assigning grades to behaviors. Behaviors should be addressed, but averaging in grades for "showing up to class prepared," will result in final grades that do not accurately communicate the student's mastery of the content.

Perspective
Wormeli acknowledges that differentiation is not easy. When teachers are asked to process grades for over 100 students a cycle, precise calibration for each one is impossible. Wormeli also grants that there are times when students will not perform without the threat of a grade penalty. The "ten practices to avoid" could perhaps be deemed "ten practices to minimize."

I won't take a dogmatic approach to specific practices; however, I believe the healthiest classroom cultures will be visibly influenced by the values of mastery and differentiation.

Questioning Growth Models

"Next month many administrators will spend valuable time explaining growth models to first year teachers. There will be a temptation to take a reductionist approach."

Growth model. I prefer the term to most conceivable alternatives: stagnation model, death model, plateau model. It is important; however, to pause and critically consider growth models, particularly in teacher evaluation.

Next month many administrators will spend valuable time explaining growth models to first year teachers. There will be a temptation to take a reductionist approach.

-Using this Kagan strategy will increase the probability of scoring above a five out of seven for this indicator.

-Read this excerpt from Teach Like a Champion, watch the accompanying video clip, and implement the strategy in your classroom for successful evaluations.

Administrators have a responsibility to clearly communicate expectations while consistently implementing policy. But there must be an appreciation for context and a few questions.

-Teaching, more importantly learning, is challenging. Sometimes very challenging, and rarely tidy.

-Whose growth is the priority?

-Can numerical systems stand without authentic reflection and conversation?

-Will authentic reflection and conversation take place without accountability systems?

-When we define growth narrowly how much do we restrict it?

Teacher evaluation is a necessary element in our schools. Students and teachers will be best served in environments where it exists with high levels of mentoring, coaching, and evaluation of student performance on tasks other than state assessment. 

On Leadership: Details

"It's important to me because it's important to them."

Attention to detail is an area where I must focus my energy through discipline.

I easily embrace the idea that leaders must be able to see the big picture and be able to adjust appropriately to shifting variables. Broad strokes and creativity are spaces that I move most naturally; however, I realize that the best leaders are the ones who discipline themselves to attend to the small, yet important, tasks that confront them everyday. Deadlines, advance planning, proof reading, and follow through are not difficult when they are part of a highly visible project that is a priority to me, but the real test is the attention to detail devoted to a task that doesn't excite me.

Often leadership involves participating enthusiastically, though not always visibly, in projects that are important to others. These are opportunities to truly demonstrate servant leadership to the organization.

An important mantra in these moments is, "It's important to me because it's important to them."

New Orleans Food, Oxford Ghosts, Memphis Blues

From Bourbon to Beale with Kids

New Orleans

Morning was the perfect time to visit the French Quarter with the kids. The crowd and heat hadn't kicked in, and for breakfast we love beignets from Cafe Du Monde, a short walk from the public parking on Decatur, which is easy to find from I-10. After shopping the French market and exploring St. Louis Cathedral, we ate po' boys and alligator before cruising Bourbon Street in the mini-van. At Ursulines we hung a left and then took Dauphine toward the Garden district, where we finished the trip by exploring Lafayette Cemetery.

Oxford

Demanding that your children read "A Rose for Emily" at bedtime may or may not be good parenting, but that's how I introduced Faulkner to my daughters before visiting Rowan Oak, on July 6th, the anniversary of his death. The girls were thinking of the story as they walked up the steps to the door and whispered, "This place looks haunted."  Our son reached the door first and knocked. When the door sprung open by itself all three mouths dropped.  For a moment we thought they were going to run. The attendant, who watched their approach, paused before stepping out from behind the door. He had the same mischievous eyes and smile as our son, and made us feel welcome. In the study, we examined plot diagrams on the walls, written for the books that rest on our living room bookshelf. In a photograph upstairs we searched  for the mysteries held in Caroline Barr's eyes. Outside we shared the grounds with the ghosts of Yoknapatawpha County.

Memphis
For our family, learning about Blues Music is an important window into American history. The Rock 'n' Soul Museum was a perfect classroom for all of us. Every minute we spent was a valuable investment of time. Feeling inspired, we crossed the street to the Gibson gift shop where I was able to grab an ax and pick a little.

The kids weren't impressed with my amateurish attempt, so we headed one block over to Beale where we met real blues men and enjoyed great ribs and live music at Flynn's. After lunch we made a quick visit to the ducks at the Peabody before jumping back in the van, which was parked just across the street on South Third.

First Salt Water Catch: Fishing Bay St. Louis

It wasn't long before my daughter felt the familiar tug and I heard, "Fish on, Daddy."

We walked through chest deep troughs carefully holding the rod and reel high. One hundred yards from shore we found a sand bar. There the water of Bay St. Louis gently lapped against us at our knees on its way to the beach where the rest of the family played.

My oldest daughter and I surveyed our surroundings. To our left the bridges carrying cars and trains to Pass Christian arched into the air. To our right the coastline worked its way toward New Orleans where we spent the morning shopping and dipping beignets in cafe au lait. Behind us the sun began to set over multicolored beach homes on South Beach Boulevard . All around us small fish made double leaps over the surface. Sea gulls and pelicans patrolled above.

A plastic crawfish on a .5 circle hook dangled on twenty four inches of leader below a large popping float. My daughter was excited, and though I tried to feign confidence as I assembled the rig, I was too. We grant ourselves expert status in our canoe at home where we bass fish, but this our first experience together fishing salt.

We began working the next trough out, and though our first few casts yielded no result, it wasn't long before my daughter felt the familiar tug and I heard, "fish on, Daddy."

As we waded back to shore to show off the catfish, all of ten inches, she had a smile and the confidence to ensure this wouldn't be her last catch from the bay.