Dan Bozzuto explores the difficulties to replicate great teachers, the inherent problems with standardized testing, and some great ideas on how to address both.

Part 1/2, featuring Dan Bozzuto, award winning educator and inspired classroom teacher. Dan considers my question, “are good teachers replicable?” which takes him to standardized tests and other obstacles to student learning, including to question the very purpose of modern education.

This podcast is just a start to the essential questions of modern education, which Dan and Michael will carry forward in an upcoming Part 2 interview with Dan Bozzuto.

Student Success Podcast No. 27, published July 19, 2016 (recorded on Aug 9, 2015).

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Resources:

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) – Dept. of Education site

Common Core – Common Core States Initiative home page

See also:

Kirkland College – Hamilton College page (relevant text reads: “Kirkland brought women to College hill along with a more diverse lifestyle and an innovative philosophy of teaching.“)

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011-2016) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Massive snoring by Stella in this episode!

Uhm, it’s 6:00, where’s our supper? The dogs have impeccable inner clocks!

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

 

 

 

 

SHOW NOTES

Michael: Thrilled tonight, I’ve got Dan Bozzuto. I’ve long wanted to have him on the podcast. He and I have conversations about these about this stuff all the time, but I just never recorded it. So, Dan, now you’re on the record, dude.

Dan: The pressure’s on.

Michael: No, no, its just on the record. We will of course hold this against you, and perhaps resent you, but you’re free to say anything you want, and I will note the things that you do not say.

Dan: I look forward to saying everything, then, because I don’t want you taking note!

Michael: Dan and I taught together back in my teaaching days, and we grew up as teachers together, so I’m thrilled to have this conversation with him on the record!

Dan: I stayed in the teacher profession, whereas Bromley decided to go a different route. I teach at a Charter school in Washington DC.

Michael: And, can I say this, you’re on track to become an administrator.

Dan: Working towards it. Got some work to do, but working to it

Michael: Thus my contention that we can, one, hold this against you, and two, resent it.

Dan: Right, no visual cues, I’m shrugging my shoulders.

Michael: But you’re going on the dark side!

Dan: Let’s see where this goes before you hold this against me.

Michael: So to clarify, you could become an administrator?

Dan: I could become an administrator, I can not become one today.

Michael: And you are studying to become an one. That is possible. But you are a classroom teacher now.

Dan: Correct.

Michael: What I want to clarify here is, do we cloud this discussion through your potential future administrative career.

Dan: Well, if you want to understand the bias of the conversation. My experience as a classroom teacher has been largely as a classroom teacher that existed as an island.The success and failures that I have had existed entirely with what I have done. And I have very seldom come across w/ an institution that facilitated and supported teacher success in an institutionalized way.

Michael: So you are not replicable?

Dan: I don’t know if you can make a cookie-cutter effective teacher. I feel fundamentall there are some characteristics of personality, rapport, relatability that cannot be taught, acquired.

Michael: So if you, again, conjecture here, if you were ever to become an administrator, you would accept the fact that great teaching is not replicabble?

Dan: If I were to become an administrator[...]

Oh, no, Shakespeare? English teacher Mike Cahir explains why learning Shakespeare matters and how parents can encourage their child to engage in the enormous benefits of learning from the Bard.

Featuring Mike Cahir, high school English teacher and Department Chair.

This podcast began when I asked Mike for his advice to one of our A+ Club students on why he should care about “Othello.” As usual, Mike goes well beyond the obvious and delivers a powerful lesson for students, parents, and teachers on the power and benefits of learning Shakespeare.

Mike reviews the skill sets required for comprehending Shakespeare and how to develop them, including his use in the classroom of “active reading,” “front loading,” and “visualization.” Mike builds student engagement by teaching them how to break down difficult text into component parts, how to make sense of the text through imagery and other clues that Shakespeare uses extensively and how he uses Yoda to teach kids old English.

Mike’s advice is great for students and teachers, but we especially offer it here for parents to empower them to engage their own child with these difficult but magnificent and rewarding texts – and to get a better grade in English class!

Student Success Podcast No. 26, published Jun 6, 2016 (recorded on Feb 2. 2016).

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes

Resources:

Mike Suggests:

No Fear Shakespeare from Sparknotes

Folger Shakespeare Library

See also:

Why you shouldn’t be scared of Shakespeare!

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011-2016) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Just a little snoring from Stella in this episode, while Puck and Artemis took it easy!

Puck, Artemis, and Stella enjoy a lazy day on the National Mall with Terry and Michael

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

 

 

 

 

SHOW NOTES

Bromley: Welcoming back Mike Cahir, my English teacher friend, great teacher!

Mike: Doing well, great to be back!

Bromley; Have been wanting to have you back, but what spurred this conversation was a student having trouble with Othelloa and iambic pentameter.   Does that ring familiar to you?

Mike: Of course it does!

Bromley: really, I guess it’s important to someone teaching English?

Mike: it is but more often the primary reaction you get when you tell students you’re doing Shakespeare is a collective groan, because a lot of students have been forced to memorize passages or fight their way through a complicated language they don’t relate to. Half of them think it’s not even English. They consider it as a different language. That’s a significant hurdle you have to overcome

Bromley: I suppose their parents probably had the same experience?

Mike: a lot. I teach in a very diverse school, so a lot of them haven’t ever been exposed to Shakespeare, and a lot of the parents’ language skills are still below that of my Juniors and Seniors. Even with regular reading, they’re not always a lot of help, so when you bring something like Shakespeare into the picture, then it’s really the students on their own.

Bromley: So why do you still teach it?

Mike: because it’s awesome! There are a lot of reasons for that. Critics and scholars have pointed out that with Shakespeare, very seldom he came up with his own stories. He always stole stories from other playwrights. He was a voracious reader and spent his money on books which were expensive at the time and found ways to adapt and manipulate those stories to fit his time and place and his audience, but in doing so, tapped into universal themes that all authors try to get to do but very few can actually capture.

Bromley: Thus the persistence of Shakespeare.

Mike: Right. Let’s be truthful, if you’re getting kids ready for SATs or in Virginia, state testing, i[...]

Megan Rocks! Megan and Michael discuss how the A+ Club helps students, parents and teachers.

Featuring Megan Schneider, Office Manager at School4Schools.com LLC

Megan manages the A+ Club service that provides assignment, grades and missing work updates and notifications, essay review and all-round student help with homework, due dates, studying, grades to build academic awareness and relevancy.

Student Success Podcast No. 25, Jan. 22, 2016

See also Megan’s interview clip

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011-2014) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Just a little snoring from Stella in this episode, while Puck and Artemis took it easy!

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

 

 

 

 

SHOW NOTES

Michael: thought we could talk on a podcast so anyone can listen in to you and I discuss the things we do and to hear what Megan sees in kids in their academics and struggles. What do you do?

Megan: the main thing I do is look at school resources.. posted by school Learning Management Systems (LMS) to look for assignments, maybe an upcoming test, study guides… if I find anything I send it by email to students and parents and their moderator.

Michael: Moderators are?

Megan: educational professionals who are assigned to students to talk to them once a week or more if they feel they need it to go over what’s happening in school, what they’re focusing on,

Michael: and you also review those conversations, log them and see what’s important and send to parents and students and log for follow-through.

Why would someone come to us for this, especially assignment tracking? Why would they need this?

Megan: it’s really helpful for them to have a daily reminder about what’s going on… It’s really easy when you come home from school and let the day slip away. But if you see the email, the reminder, oh yea, I have to do this or this… it’s a reminder. It forced the kids to pay attention, to think about what school work they have to do.

Michael: that’s the essential piece… the whole point of the program that I developed in the classroom, that kids compartmentalize their days, 1st, 2nd, etc. period… often times only think about that class when they walk in the door and stop thinking about it when they leave the door.

So we break that compartmentalization with these reminders… bring it to kids anyway they need it, email text… any way to get to the kids. Next piece is to get it to the kids to track their work themselves.

I hear from educators, well, if you’re doing it for the kids, they’re not going to learn how to do this. What’s your reaction?

Megan: well, they obviously already don’t know how to do it, so doing nothing isn’t going to help them!

Michael: I can’t tell you how often I hear this! You teachers and schools, you administrators, you give kids so much, planners, websites… but no matter what you give them, you could give the functional kids anything.. give them nothing, and they would track their work on their own… but you can give the kids who don’t have that skill set– executive function – or more imp;orantly relevancy… you could give them any system and they won’t use it.

You don’t know it, but I hear all the time, “Megan saved me!” So, the question is, do kids become dependent on these updates? Are we creating dependencies on Megan?

Megan: I don’t thinks so. I don’t see dependencies , they take our emails and with the whole system, the whole service, helps them realize that school work is important, something of value, something thinking about and investing their energy in.

Michael: Yes, it’s part of a larger process. Why can’t kids have this information delivered to them? We’re engaging kids in a process, part o[...]

The Procrastination Primer Podcast

 

Part 2/2: Tools & Strategies on How to Avoid and Overcome Procrastination

So what’s the harm in a little delay?

Student Success Podcast No. 24, March 20, 2015

Click here for PowerPoint presentation of Pt 1 & 2 (not narrated).

** Not For Distribution **

Click here for Procrastination Primer Pt 1 (Podcast no. 23)

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011-2015) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Dogs don’t procrastinate! For them, it’s mood repair all day long!

Snow dog! Puck loves chasing snow balls and digging into the snow!

 

 

 

 

 

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

The Procrastination Primer Podcast

 

Part 1/2: What is procrastination?  Why does it happen? How does it work?

So what’s the harm in a little delay?

Student Success Podcast No. 23, Feb 27, 2015

Click here for PowerPoint presentation of Pt 1 & 2 (not narrated).

** Not For Distribution **

Click here for Procrastination Primer Pt 2 (Podcast no. 24)

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes 

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011-2015) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Dogs don’t procrastinate! For them, it’s mood repair all day long!

Puck, Stella, and Artemis, engaging in serious mood repair. Stella is snoring away!

 

 

 

 

 

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

Welcome back to the late work game!

First semester is up and teachers and students across the country are recovering from that last minute freak out: get that missing work in!

Stressed kids near collapse trying to dig something out, anything to get the grades up. Desperate teachers giving up all pretense of syllabus rules and pushing, pulling, and excusing the kids across the finish line. Vice Principals peering over their shoulders, demanding mounds of paper work to justify failing this and that kid. Now into the new semester and it’s starting all over again.

Zero Tolerance (& no summer school)

There’s a simple solution: no late work. Period. But that means failing kids — and, unbelievable as it is, even with dumbed down expectations, kids still fail. Heh, why do it now when you can just show up for a few classes in the summer which has no homework, no real expectations of learning, and passing is guaranteed by showing up?

Solution: no late work, no grade adjustments, no excuses, and no summer school. Just do your work or repeat the year. Accountability would be complete for adminstrators, parents, and students alike.

And we’d have hell to pay for about five years while pushing 25 year olds through to graduation or herding 9th grade dropouts into tech school or to figure out life on their own. Sorry, that’s not happening, but if it did, it would raise accountability on teachers to fulfill their pieces more thoroughly and on time (more on that below).

It was that way when I grew up and there were regularly kids in class who were repeating the year. Sure there was a stigma, but at least some standards were being upheld. Somewhere down the line, summer school replaced repeating grades, which then replaced learning for kids who would have otherwise had to repeat. Here for a couple articles on it:

Summer School – Remediation, Enrichment, Extended-Year for Students with Special Needs, The History of Summer School, Funding  – a broad review of historical reasons in agrarian society for summer vacations and an interesting section on Sputnik and another great American panic over education.

Repeating a grade: The pros and cons – more about the cons than the pros, but worth a look for defense of the “self-esteem” argument against “grade retention.”

Even summer school isn’t enough, so now we have a latest escape for learning called “credit recovery,” in which students are given an extra class during the school year to make up a failed course.

My experience with that came when I was about to fail some 20% of my students in a semester course. The school demanded “a solution,” which was what I called, “period 9,” essentially a credit recovery after-school session. Most of the kids who showed up passed, but only because I was both their regular and “credit recovery” teacher, so the afternoon sessions reinforced the daily classroom lessons and gave opportunity for the kids to get work in they wouldn’t otherwise have completed.  My salary, though, stayed the same.

Stuck in the Middle Again

So we fudge it. We call summer school “enrichment.” We reduce expectations on independent work and call it “safety nets.”  We “invert” or  “flip” the classroom (see wiki article that offers no critical view of the practice) , in which independent work is performed in the classroom while instruction is to take place at home by Xbox,  I guess.

It all adds up to less responsibility by students and more dumbing down of expectations. Don’t believe me? We had a student in the A+ Club whose school provided 1.5 hr “pre-exam” periods every day before finals. Yes, it can get that bad.

Here’s an inventory of some current solutions employed by teachers and schools to get kids through, aka, why it’s such a mess:

“Credit Recovery” and summer[...]

Today’s podcast, Bromley discusses the key ideas behind the blog post:

How do I get better grades?

Five easy steps to improve your grades

The key to goal setting and improvement is breaking it down into little steps that can be accomplished and measured every day.

Student Success Podcast No. 21, Jan. 7, 2015

 

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011-2014) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Just a little snore from Stella in this episode, otherwise she, Puck and Artemis listened in happily!

Enjoying the Christmas season with a lap full of dogs!

 

 

 

 

 

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

Building up the house: in-school student oversight with Gabriella Carbone

Student Success Podcast No. 20, Sept 4, 2014 (recorded July 11, 2014)

Today’s Guest: Gabriella Carbone.

In this interview, Gabriella discusses her Academic Coaching work with high school student athletes during the 2013/14 school year. Focusing on athletes, Gabriella helped them track work, build executive function and interpersonal skills. She served as their counselor, mentor, advocate and friend.

Gabriella highlights key contributing pieces of student success, including:

building student ownership

parental involvement

teacher and counselor inputs

what success looks like

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes

Guest Biography:

Gabriella is currently Librarian and Religion teacher at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, DC. Her student coaching program was part of her graduate studies with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. She graduated from Providence College, Rhode Island with a degree in Public and Community Service.

Topics Discussed

How to mentoring students

Building academic accountability

How to approach teachers

Working with teachers and counselors

Advice for parents

Advice for teachers

See below for detailed Show Notes.

Resources

Providence College

Providence College Feinstein Institute for Public Service

Jesuit Volunteer Corps

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011-2014) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Just a little snore from Stella in this episode, otherwise she, Puck and Artemis listened in happily!

Puck & Artemis on the hunt: sniffing out a bird!

 

 

 

 

 

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is dedicated to helping students across the U.S.A. meet their goals and find the academic success the want and deserve. Contact us here or call now to (703) 271-5334 to see how we can help.

SHOW NOTES

Gabriella

worked as mentor and ran community service while in college

job last year was to hold athletes accountable for their academic success

prior work was with middle school students

organized volunteer tutors, had someone every day… work on h/w and have some fun, spend time w/ them and talk about why school important

Bromley

how to establish a relationship as a mentor not as authority figure

our A+ Club program works w/ students as agents on their behalf, their advocates for their own goals, which we want them to express

Gabriella

agree: get on their level and get them to reach out to their potential

Bromley

what is academic accountability?

Gabriella

we checked their grades every two weeks

focused on failures and why

tried to develop a partnership w/ teachers, counselors and students for holding them accountable

Bromley

accountability = ” to speak”

(my Stella snoring now… )

have kids “account” for themselves

then scaffold processes for improvement

Gabriella

students improved and teachers responded well

athletes were coming to them a lot more

one teacher asked her to work w/ all students b/c only athletes were coming for help!

could go through hallways after school and see them w/ their teachers

reminded the kids that they were improving

Bromley

so important to communicate success

most athletic academic oversight is proforma, coaches don’t have time, they don’t understand… great to have a person focused on it

What did not work, what struggles?

Gabriella

GPA were still below new NCAA standards

and kids who improved fell back on that improvement and didn’t continue to improve

brining up from Fs, they relaxes

hard to get them not to settle for less

still trying to figure that piece out

tried different accountability measures: could have been more consistent

difficult to bring all parties on board, coaches, teachers, parents, students

so many snow days were dif[...]

Encouragement from Mischa Beckett: empowering yourself & your college experience

Student Success Podcast No. 19, Apr. 17, 2014

Today’s Guest: Mischa Beckett, Ph.D. Political Science and college lecturer.

In this interview, Mischa discusses her work with high school students in the A+ Club program. Mischa brings the view of a college teacher to the high school experience and discusses how all students of all levels and struggles can use encouragement and help in raising their self-awareness.

Mischa then offers excellent advice to high school students and parents as they head into college. Mischa suggests that students and families be discerning consumers of this very expensive and important educational experience. She suggests that scheduling and course selection should follow student strengths, and that students should be very aware of the expense they or their families are facing. Big name schools are great, she says, but we often over-emphasize their experience when there are great colleges with great teachers all over the country.

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes

Guest Biography:

Mischa has taught history, philosophy and political science at Simmons College, Wheelock College, and Boston College. She has received numerous grants and fellowships and is a National Merit Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Mischa began working with A+ Club students while on a sabbatical from college to start her family. She loves working with our students, and she has become a valuable, positive force in their academics and in their lives.

Topics Discussed

High school students & the difficulties they face

Encouragement: we can all use it!

Importance of self-honesty & reflection

Learning styles and awareness

College advice from Mischa on college selection, scheduling and courses, and choosing a good advisor.

Also some ideas from Bromley on pre-course learning

See below for detailed Show Notes.

Resources

t.b.a

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011, 2013) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

Some snoring from Stella in this episode, as she happily sleeps through the recording. Puck and Artemis kept quiet!

From left to right, Artemis, Puck and (snoring) Stella, all fluffy just after a bath.

 

 

 

 

 

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is dedicated to helping students across the U.S.A. meet their goals and find the academic success the want and deserve. Contact us here or call now to (703) 271-5334 to see how we can help.

SHOW NOTES

t.b.a., below for draft:

asdf

Bromley: Mischa taught Bromley’s daughter who recommender her to work with A+ Club students

Mischa:

High school kids interesting, but not that different from college kids. More similar than not, especially the 12th graders that she is working with

Bromley

Taught 9th graders, and always reminded them that they made it that far.

So 12th graders have made it even further: = success

Mischa:

all kids need encouragement

it’s true of all kinds of kids, struggling, not struggling, high school, college

Bromley

Wow, we don’t hear that word “encouragement” very frequently

Kids are living what we already experienced, but they don’t know what’s coming next. It’s easy for adults

Mischa:

remembers high school & college fondly, but has idealized it.

It was tough at times

Sense of perspective lacking when there.  As adults we forgot how tough it can be

so difficult at time, and they can always use help

Bromley:

thus that word “encouragement”

remind kids that it will be okay

but you could use some tools, you could do a few things to improve

Mischa:

Hope that has helped them problem solve

hope that has helped kids learn how they learn and raise self-awareness and taking control of how [...]

Liddy Allee-Coyle on teaching as a two-way street: the power of honesty & respect for students

Student Success Podcast No. 18, Mar. 19, 2014

Today’s Guest: Liddy Allee-Coyle, Master Teacher, Ithica City School District

In this interview, Liddy discusses her work as a teacher coach to champion the student-first classroom in which students have trust with their teachers and their learning and  “choice, relevancy, and a reason” for learning.

As Liddy says, “Every kid wants to know why… if we answer that ‘why’ we get more buy-in.” Liddy’s ideal of relevancy for students is learning any lesson as practice for further learning and not necessarily that particular lesson, “to be life-long learners.”

We explore ideas about engaging students and why some students start early education in curiosity and end up in high school without any.  Keeping kids inspired takes trust and clarity from teachers and schools.

 

Subscribe to Student Success Podcast RSS or find us on iTunes

Guest Biography:

A Master Teacher in the City of Ithaca School district, Liddy has taught 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grades as well as to work as a reading specialist and special education instructor. She graduated from William & Mary College and has earned graduate degrees from Elmira, Old Dominion College, and Teachers College of Columbia University.

Liddy is an inspiring teacher, colleague and administrator, and in her work with children and schools, she carries forward her family legacy of education and serving others.

Topics Discussed

Need for honesty and relationship with students, especially to develop relevancy in learning

Teachers to create student-centered learning

Developing intrinsic learning in students

Compliance versus Engagement

Need for teachers to explain things differently from the way they normally do, and for students to ask for different explanations

See below for detailed Show Notes.

Resources

Ithica City School District

Liddy Allee Coyle: Teacher on Special Assignment blog post

For paper clips & young v. older student imaginations, see Education As a Roadblock to Creativity?

Compliance v. Engagement: Liddy references work by Phillip C. Schlechty. Here for “Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work” on Amazon.com and here for the Schlechty Center

on committing to five minutes of work, see the Heath Brothers: “Switch“

Credits

Host: Michael L. Bromley

Original Music by Christopher Bromley (copyright 2011, 2013) Background snoring by Stella.

Best Dogs Ever: by Puck, Stella, & Artemis

No snoring from Stella in this episode, but she got some good sleeping in downstairs.

Stella sleeping and snoring on top of Artemis, happy both!

 

 

 

 

 

Here for Puck & Stella slideshow

The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is dedicated to helping students across the U.S.A. meet their goals and find the academic success the want and deserve. Contact us here or call now to (703) 271-5334 to see how we can help.

SHOW NOTES

Liddy background

recently completed degree at Teachers College at Columbia

innovative program

master educator at Ithica City school

pre-K to 5th grade curriculum instruction

also instructional coach: teachers working with teachers to improve instruction to meet the needs of students

student-centered coaching model

Bromley: seems that schools come first

students understand this

pedagogy as a teacher secret: no one tells the kids

Liddy:

teachers use strategies from someone else

but don’t include students in their own plans

need to let kids in on it & that it’s for all of us

two-way street between teachers and students

Bromley: never did anything without telling the kids why

explaining that we do warmups so I can take role = better than just telling them to shutup

Liddy

kids need to know, and they need us to be honest with them

ex.:[...]