Cory Roush: Journal

Piling On: Teachers Hate Creativity, Supposedly

2012-01-03T00:58:23Z

A study published in 1995 is being dragged out of storage to create all new incendiary headlines for the upcoming weeks, which will undoubtedly prove once again that teachers are awful. Right?

The study itself is not at fault, of course (and rarely is). I did take issue with the researchers putting teachers in the uncomfortable position of actually choosing their favorite and least favorite students and describing them. Sure, we all play favorites, but I'm already wary of these teachers' disposition toward education if they can readily name their least favorite student in the classroom. I'm willing to bet that you'll find little Johnny in the back of the classroom, possibly facing the opposite direction of his classmates and working on uncompleted homework from the day before. But I'll get back to the point.

The results of the first part of the study showed that these teachers described their least favorite students as more creative (as defined by a list of characteristics deemed creative). Their most favorite students, on the other hand, were described as less creative.

At this point, the study could go in a few different ways, analyzing the elements of the classroom and our nation's schools that might lead to such results.

But that's not what the headlines are going to say.

The First Sign That You Are a 21st Century Teacher...

2011-11-29T02:53:10Z

People love buzzwords. I suppose that makes sense, given the defintion of the word, but each year it seems like every professional field gets a whole new batch of them. Politicians love to spew them in 30 second soundbites, and corporations are always eager to add new and exciting words to their marketing campaigns (see: artisan-baked everything, including potato chips and pizza). And for those of us who are interested in the latest technology news, you're probably familiar with Web 2.0, gamification, content discovery, and 4G, 5G, and LTE wireless access. If it gets people interested in what you are trying to sell, where's the harm?

It's fine if you choose to eat more Domino's pizza just because you think it's suddenly more healthy for you. Go right ahead and subscribe to the belief that any discontent with the ever-widening gap between the upper and lower class in America is socialist thinking. And please, spend a few hundred bucks more on a smartphone that you think is going to download YouTube videos faster than yours does now. There's no long-term harm in any of that, besides alienating your more liberal relatives during the holiday season.

The field of education, however, needs to avoid adding any more buzzwords to its repertoire. And if there's one buzzword that really rubs me the wrong way, it's this one: 21st century learning.

How do you know that you are a 21st century teacher? Simple.

You live in the 21st century, and are a teacher.

My Philosophy of Education

2011-08-10T16:57:02Z

As one of my last assignments before I begin student teaching in the fall, I was asked to revise the philosophy of education that I submitted when I entered the program in 2009. I dusted it off (digital dust collects faster than real dust, you know) and started thinking about how it has changed in two years. In 2009 I was young(er) and (more) naive than I am now and I felt that the purpose of education was less about the individual child and their development, and more about the strength and quality of the students a school pumps out into the community. That's not entirely a bad thing - in fostering all domains of development in children, we are basically ensuring that they leave our classroom and go out into the world with strength, resiliency, self-respect, and a compassion for others that transcends all society-driven barriers between us. But it's not the only reason that we teach. Effective teachers are able to bring a classroom's test scores up a few points on average, and if they're lucky, they'll get by without any conflicts with the families of their students. Effective teachers look at a full classroom and see several distinct groups forming, often based on ability, age, and sociability. Effective teachers don't harm children and they aren't bad teachers. But they could do better. And I want to do better.

The Growth Mindset

2011-05-31T21:42:37Z

2011 has been quite the year for Cory Roush. If you knew me in 2010, you’d probably still recognize me now and you might not notice anything different about me, but my life has turned inside out and upside down since December of last year. On the inside, I feel like an entirely different person.

The Paradoxical Commandments, by Kent M. Keith

2011-04-12T12:13:49Z

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

The Terror of Not Being Able to Teach

2011-01-26T10:50:00Z

Easily one of the most uncomfortable moments of Race to Nowhere came when the audience met a young woman teaching at a school in Oakland, CA. I wish that I had thought to write down her name, but her story sticks with me. I immediately related to her lifelong desire to become a teacher and her eagerness to get out of college and into a classroom of her own. I watched as she moved around her high school English classroom, excitedly reading excerpts from A Midsummer Night's Dream and engaging her students in a discussion about. And then, I watched as her on-screen testimony went from joy to sadness and bitterness in just minutes.

"Race to Nowhere": Where do we begin?

2011-01-26T08:30:13Z

I recently had a chance to attend a screening of Race to Nowhere at COSI (Center of Science and Industry) in Columbus, OH, and the experience was, as I described on Twitter, uncomfortably inspiring. Whereas watching Waiting for Superman immediately put me (and many others!) on the defensive, I felt like this documentary found a happy medium between causing alarm, pointing out some of the problems, and then offering up the reassurance that A) there is hope, B) there are stakeholders in education who truly have the best interests of our students at heart, and C) there is no one person or group in particular at blame. Davis Guggenheim's documentary scolded public school teachers and parents who refused to endanger their children's well-being in order to get into a "good" school; Vicki Abeles' documentary held up a mirror to society itself and asked the honest question that we all need to ask ourselves: how did we let things get this bad?

Students First, Michelle Rhee?

2011-01-22T15:16:10Z

Michelle Rhee. She's been a polarizing figure for years, but I've always tried to avoid making her the villain of the increasingly dramatic conversation taking place around education reform. I cheered for her as she stood up to status-quo administrators, parents, and teachers who focused more on job security and convenience than effective teaching. I cringed as her attacks became less accurate, landing blows upon effective teachers who also wanted their paychecks to be based on more than their students' scores on a flawed assessment system. I held back my disgust as she appeared on Oprah with John Legend and starred in "Waiting for Superman", triumphantly praising teachers in charter schools and Finland while chiding American public school teachers already facing media criticism. I didn't call her the Boogeyman because I was confident that, deep down, every action she took was for the benefit of the children in her schools. Well, now she's really made me angry.

"Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar" - What Can We Learn?

2011-01-11T11:55:43Z

"School is temporary. Education is not. If you want to prosper in life, find something that fascinates you and jump all over it. Don’t wait for someone to teach you; your enthusiasm will attract teachers to you. Don’t worry about diplomas or degrees, just get so good that no one can ignore you." - James Marcus Bach, "Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar"

An aspiring public school teacher, posting such heresy? A product of the public school system, appearing to endorse the idea that diplomas and degrees are somehow unnecessary? That's right, and I'm warming up to the idea that this is perfectly acceptable and not at all hypocritical. Why? Because it's not our job to protect the public school system, at least not in its current form. No matter how old your students are, your devotion to promoting a lifelong love for learning is paramount to everything else.

Teachers, We Know More Than You Do. (Or so we think.)

2010-11-24T09:10:04Z

I've recently heard a few friends remark on the futility of participating in the current educational system. These are bright young men and women who are capable of things that I only wish I could do. As an obvious proponent of public education, it's becoming clear that the most popular model of schooling is failing not only the bottom tier of students, but also those who would normally be performing at the top. And I think I know one reason why: Teachers, we know more than you do. Or at least we think that we do.