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Middle School Teacher Challenges Nation to Take a Stand Against Shorthand

3/29/2016

Los Angeles middle school teacher Heather Shotke is fed up with all the LOLs, OMGs, and IDKs appearing in her students’ formal essays -- so much so that she has banned such acronyms in her classroom. And she is daring America to join her.

Shotke, a veteran middle school teacher with a Master’s degree in Education and a Communication degree from the University of Southern California, has become increasingly disturbed by “text lingo” migrating from students’ smartphones into their formal papers.

Slang and abbreviations have become “the unapproved norm in the classroom,” says Shotke, “blurring the lines between formal and informal communication.” To draw attention to the issue, she launched a 31-day grammar challenge. For the entire month of March, those who accept the challenge can only write using proper grammar, type out full sentences, and use entire words in their school work, formal writing, and, in what is sure to be the most vexing aspect of the contest for many teens, in text messages and Snapchats. In a bit of irony, Shotke has even given the challenge its own easy-to-text moniker: gramMARCH.

What follows is my lightly edited conversation with Shotke on her passion for teaching, what led her to launch gramMARCH, and why she believes we should all take a step back to pause, ponder, and prose.
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Monica Gray: You’ve been a middle school teacher for over a decade. What is it about this age group that keeps you coming back?

Heather Shotke: Middle school is an age group that you love or you hate, and I love it. I think it’s that you’re still able to reach them. They’re not too cool for school yet. They think they’re grown, but at the same time you can still connect and make a difference.

MG: Breaking through to a middle schooler seems like it could be tough. How do you reach them?

HS: As a teacher, you’re always trying to relate to these kids. You kind of have to play this game where you’re an authoritative figure, but you have to still be relevant and cool. So, you know, you have to stay in touch with the music and the fashion but at the same time you’re helping to mold them so that they’re successful in society, by, for example, knowing when to use informal versus formal language.

MG: What do you mean by “informal” versus “formal” language?

HS: I’ve been teaching 14 years now, so I’ve seen the evolution of technology in the classroom. At first, more and more kids started getting cell phones. Then they were getting smart phones. And at the same time that this technology started becoming so readily available, I started seeing for the first time that my students would draw a little happy face :) in their writing. Or, they’d write “OMG” next to a sentence that they really wanted me to notice. Or put an “LOL” when they were trying to be funny. At first, I thought, “This will pass. I’ll just mark it up with red. Talk to them about it.” But over time, I saw it happening more and more and more. As a teacher, I was thinking, “What am I doing wrong? They’re not listening to me.

MG: Were other teachers seeing the “OMGs” and “LOLs” in formal writing assignments, too?

HS: They were; I even spoke to some some admission advisors at Cal State and USC who said they were seeing this text lingo in admission essays! That blew me away. I see students working so hard on their admissions essays, and you would think that they would take the time to write out “you” rather than “U,” or type out “easy,” rather than “EZ.” But these people said it was becoming more and more prominent.

MG: Avoiding shorthand in a college essay probably seems like common sense to a lot of adults, but I guess we forget that we weren’t texting when we were in middle school. It would be confusing to know which “language” to use if you’d never been taught.

HS: Exactly. We teachers didn’t grow up with a phone in our hands. They have! That’s what they’re familiar with, so it’s tricky for them to know when to switch and go back and forth between the two. We have a “no cell phone” policy during the school day, but I swear their hands are in their pockets all day, making sure it’s there, even though they can’t even bring it out. Now the thing is SnapChat. They’re on it 24/7. For me, technology has become a gift and a curse. Although it has made the world a much smaller place, it’s led to brevity and this constant shorthand. It can really diminish quality writing.

MG: So you decided to get creative and do something about it…

HS: Yes, in 2014, I decided to try to meet my students where they were: on their phones, in their texts, on their social feeds, and in their games. I started something called the gramMARCH Challenge. The idea is that for the entire month of March, everyone is expected write in proper grammar, in full sentences and use entire words no matter the medium. No emojis. No text lingo. All correct punctuation for the entire month, whether writing on Instagram or writing an English paper.

MG: In your ideal world, would text lingo and emoticons be banned forever?

HS: No, I don’t want to come across as this grammar grandma. The gramMARCH Challenge is about awareness. There is a time and place for everything. I have no problem with the text lingo. It’s just a matter of being aware of audience and knowing when to differentiate whether it’s appropriate or not.

MG: How did your students first respond to the idea of the gramMARCH Challenge?

HS: The way I presented it to my class was: “I really don’t know if you can do it?” They were definitely intrigued, and said: “Ok, we’ll accept that challenge.” Each day had a different theme. For example, we have a Simile Day, a Rhyme Day, a Hyperbole Day, an Irony Day. At first I got questions from other teachers, like: “How are you going to monitor if students are sticking to the rules?” But the kids got really into it and monitored themselves! They are always checking each other on it. Then my kids started challenging their cousins at other schools to join in too. We started handing out stickers and working together to brand the idea. We created a website and started an Instagram account, and it took off from there.

MG: Who can join the 2016 gramMARCH Challenge?

HS: Anyone! It’s for adults, families, and classrooms everywhere. It’s a fun way to get people to think about what they’re writing and to consider their audience. Everyone wants to get information out so quickly they don’t always pause to think what impression the information might be making on others. Through gramMARCH, we are challenging America to just slow down and consider language, so that thoughts and words are given respect. My students and I really hope the whole country will join us on throughout the month of March to pause, ponder and prose.

Interested in joining the gramMARCH Challenge? Sign up here to join the movement.

Monica Gray is co-founder & president of DreamWakers, an edtech nonprofit. Reach her via email or Twitter.

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Teachers need to learn, too

3/17/2016

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Even with months of extensive preparation working with a coach before becoming responsible for a class of students, there is no substitute for teaching full-time. New teachers also need a support system as they tackle the challenges of managing their own classrooms.

We would never let a new doctor treat children unless he or she had extensive training, was under the watchful eye of an expert, and received ongoing professional development in state-of-the-art practice. With the continued guidance of a coach, beginning educators have someone to ensure they are setting appropriate goals, planning meaningful lessons, and building productive classroom environments in their first years on the job.

It’s not enough to be passionate about serving students. School needs educators who have the skills to push 100% of their students to meet their learning goals. Coaches provide the feedback that develops our teachers’ abilities to do this. This continued on-the-job support in the early years can ensure new teachers are successful and stay in their schools.

This work takes significant time, but if we invest in building our future talent, we can develop the career teachers that our hardest-to-staff schools need: teachers who are confident and capable in their craft and who can effectively respond to the ever-changing needs of their students. We can stem the tide of teachers rapidly leaving the classroom and ensure a better quality education for all of our students.

We should take as few risks as possible with the education of our most vulnerable students. Let’s give teachers – who will impact the lives of thousands of students over the course of a career – the support they need to be successful. If we do, we will ensure that our children in the highest-need schools who aspire to become doctors, astronauts, CEOs, or anything else will be able to realize their dreams.

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Are teachers just a table decoration, or do they have a seat?

3/16/2016

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YEP-DC's fourth annual policy-to-practice conference is this weekend on Saturday, March 19 at Cardozo Education Campus. This year's conference is called Our City as a Learning Lab for Urban Education Reform. We're previewing conference presentations and panels on the blog this week. Today's post was written by Charlie Cummings, Senior Director of the America Achieves Fellowship for Teachers and Principals and Founding Partner of Educator Voice Strategies. He will lead a session at the conference on how teachers can successfully engage with policymakers. Follow him on Twitter @mr_cgc.

In February, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) announced sweeping changes to its teacher training and evaluation systems. As I read the Washington Post’s coverage of the policy changes, I was left wondering, “How deeply did DCPS engage its best teachers and principals in the conversations that led to these decisions?”

Teachers and principals—education professionals who work in schools every day—have an enormous amount of experience when it comes to the ways that new policies impact teaching and learning in their schools.

Unfortunately, school system leaders often fail to consult with teachers and principals before making new policies or revising old ones. And this failure may not be a simple oversight; multiple state and district leaders have told me that taking the time to include these important stakeholders slows down the decision-making process and introduces complexities to it that they would rather avoid.

In the case of these changes to its teacher training and evaluation systems, DCPS officials stated that educators were included in a task force that recommended these changes, but it is unclear just how involved they were.

Policymakers need to see engaging educators as more than a box to check. Teachers and principals are too often asked to sit on commissions that are formed simply to give decision-makers a rubber stamp for their pre-determined plan, or invited to meetings for the photo op but not given a speaking role, or are spoken for by their union, which may not represent their perspective at all.

Even though it adds time and complexity to the process, engaging directly with great educators is in the best interest of the school district – as well as teachers, students, and parents – for two important reasons.

First, high-performing teachers and principals have unmatched expertise about what works in schools and classrooms to promote student learning – and what doesn’t work. Decision makers would be wise to consult with these on-the-ground experts to uncover the answers to questions like: “Would the proposed change in policy enable teachers to better support student learning?” “Would this policy change affect some students more than others?” Great teachers and principals are committed to the success of their students, and they work more closely with these students every day than anyone else. As such, they are an invaluable source of insights about how to reform the system for the better.

Second, states and school districts rely on teachers and principals to implement policy changes. For any reform to be implemented with fidelity, leaders need the buy-in of in-school personnel. If educators feel like a decision was made without their input, they are less likely to support the rollout of the new policy. As the Washington Post reports, teachers in DCPS are feeling burnt out by the rapid, continuous policy changes over the past 10 years.

One DCPS teacher stated, “No one ever asks us what we need to do better. They just tell us.” This mood is prevalent across the country; when I was a first year-teacher in St. Louis, I was instructed by a colleague not to pay much attention to new district policy directives since the policies would probably change again in a few months.

When districts engage their best teachers and principals, the system’s educators are more likely to feel that their perspectives are represented and that decisions are being made in the best interest of their students. When teachers and principals are included in the decision-making process, they are also more likely to understand the purpose of policy changes, which they can communicate to their colleagues. Savvy states and districts utilize the educators they’ve engaged to educate their peers – via op-eds, newsletters, public meetings, and other means – about the purpose of and plan for policy changes.

I’m no expert on teacher evaluation policy, so I don’t know how much more effective the new IMPACT system will be or whether the new LEAP initiative will be better than the professional develop program it replaces. But based on conversations that I’ve had with America Achieves Fellows – teachers and principals who work in districts all over the country – I am skeptical that these policy changes will result in better teaching and learning in DC’s public schools.

For example, I doubt that giving principals responsibility for formally observing their teachers will result in better observations. Principals have conflicting demands that may prevent them from making objective decisions about their staff’s performance.

An outstanding principal in New York has told me that she gives all of her teachers good marks in their observations because she is more concerned with their working relationship and the culture in the building than she is with making observations for her district’s teacher evaluation system.

Had DCPS leaders spent more time engaging with their teachers and principals before making this policy change, they may have decided to go with independent observers.

DCPS has extremely smart leaders who are passionate about doing what’s best for the students. Their ambitious policy changes over the past decade have enabled DCPS students’ performance to improve faster than any other large U.S. city. Now DCPS is a beacon for education reform.

Engaging its best teachers and principals in conversations about the next phase of reform could help DCPS enact even better policy, ensure that the new policies are implemented by in-school personnel with fidelity, and set an example for stakeholder engagement that other districts would likely follow; it could do more to improve student achievement in DC than any of the individual policy changes that DCPS leaders make.

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Knowledge alone is not enough - teaching Civic Leadership as a tool for empowerment and success

3/14/2016

4 Comments

As a teacher, I hung a large banner in my classroom that said, "Knowledge is Power." I used the banner as a motivational tool for my students in order to help them understand why it was important to take charge of their learning.

What I have come to understand, after years of working in public and alternative education, is that knowledge alone is not enough. It is the application of knowledge in the real world that truly allows individuals to overcome obstacles in their path and lead independent and empowered lives.

With skyrocketing student loan debt, a shortage of jobs for college graduates and a changing economy and job market, what matters is that students graduate with the ability to apply their knowledge creatively, and innovatively, in order to successfully navigate their way through the world.

That means adapting to the real world as it is: students have to be able to use technology effectively; they have to be able to relate what they are learning in school to the world around them; they have to be able to think critically, communicate effectively, and collaborate with others.

“Civic Leadership,” is the framework we use at Chavez Schools to deliver those skills to our students. Teaching “civic leadership” begins with instilling in our students the belief that they can make a positive difference in the world. One of the ways we do this is by exposing our students to the resources and opportunities that are available in the nation’s capital to make an impact on public policy, and by showing them how to use them.

In addition to our rigorous academic curriculum, we teach our students the skills they need to become civic leaders, and engaged citizens: the ability to communicate clearly; the vision that civic leaders must have; the relationships that leaders build; and the critical thinking skills they need for problem solving.

We do this primarily in two distinct ways – we engage students with technology from the time they enter the schools and encourage students to apply their learning in the world.

Our one-to-one laptop program ensures that every student is connected: to the school, to their assignments, to their teachers, and to each other, throughout the school day. Students’ use of technology is not discouraged at our schools, but it is channeled in directions that will lead to the most productive outcomes – classroom activities, independent lessons, classroom list serves, and message groups. In our Thesis Course, each senior has a Thesis Advisor. Through the use of technology we are able to have adults from all over the county are able participate via Google Docs and Google Hangouts.

We expose our students to the world outside of their neighborhoods and communities, through our community action, fellowships, and public policy thesis programs. We make sure our students have opportunities to follow their interests to their limits, even if it takes them out of their comfort zones, and introduces them to whole new worlds of possibilities. Recently our students testified in front of the DC Council on the importance of charter schools in the city and how they have personally grown from their experiences at Chavez Schools.

We use these resources and embed these programs and community opportunities on a foundation of solid academic support that emphasizes mastery of academic content as a step toward mastery over one’s own life. Empowering students to master their own lives, in turn, empowers them to make a positive difference in the lives of others around them.

The problem solving and critical thinking skills that are at the heart of our civic leadership curriculum shape our students to be the creative and innovative problem solvers that employers desire in a dynamic, technology driven economy.

In the years since I was a classroom teacher, I’ve learned that knowledge alone will not get our students to where they want to be in life. We must teach our students to believe in themselves, and in their personal ability to make a positive difference in their own lives and in the lives of others. The namesake of our school, Cesar Chavez, showed us that it takes a movement to lift everyone up. We teach our students to be part of that movement by applying themselves fully to their work, and to creating a more just, free, and equal world.

Beyond “knowledge is power”, it’s the “application of knowledge” that is the creative difference required to develop future civic leaders who will lead successful and fulfilling lives, while making the world a better place.

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about

YEP-DC is a nonpartisan group of education professionals who work in research, policy, and practice – and even outside of education. The views expressed here are only those of the attributed author, not YEP-DC. This blog aims to provide a forum for our group’s varied opinions. It also serves as an opportunity for many more professionals in DC and beyond to participate in the ongoing education conversation. We hope you chime in, but we ask that you do so in a considerate, respectful manner. We reserve the right to modify or delete any content or comments. For any more information or for an opportunity to blog, contact us via one of the methods below.

Bloggers

MONICA GRAY is co-founder & president of DreamWakers, an edtech nonprofit. She writes on education innovation and poverty.

LYDIA HALL is a legislative aide in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she works on education, civil rights, and other issues. Lydia is interested in helping to bridge the gap between Capitol Hill and the classroom.

MOSES PALACIOS is an advocate for student rights and works as a Research Manager for the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) - a coalition of urban school districts across the nation. He writes on issues regarding the children of immigrants and students learning English as a second language. His views are his own and not representative of CGCS.

PATRICIA RUANE is a
research associate at an education nonprofit. She is an editor of Recess.

LESLIE WELSH is a high school social studies teacher in DC. She is an editor of Recess.

﻿Middle School Teacher Challenges Nation to Take a Stand Against Shorthand

Teachers need to learn, too

Are teachers just a table decoration, or do they have a seat?﻿

Knowledge alone is not enough - teaching Civic Leadership as a tool for empowerment and success﻿

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Middle School Teacher Challenges Nation to Take a Stand Against Shorthand

Are teachers just a table decoration, or do they have a seat?

Knowledge alone is not enough - teaching Civic Leadership as a tool for empowerment and success