I guess there used to be a time when my forefathers would run into problems and actually have to solve issues themselves. Like let’s say my great-great-great-grandfather’s fence became damaged in a cataclysmic storm and now his cows were at risk of being eaten by predatory wolves with an affinity for grass fed organic beef. What would he have done?

p: Enokson via photopin cc

Fixed the fence. What would, moi, his great-great-great-grandson do? I’d call a fence fixer—and proudly, too.

I simply don’t have the time or the wherewithal to actually go fix my own fences. However, what makes this matter worth blogging about is that I personally hold almost no shame about the fact that I wouldn’t hesitate to offload this job to someone else. (Besides, I shop at Whole Foods for grass fed organic beef; even though their prices are a tad high, the quality is consistently top notch.)

Indeed, my great-great-great-grandfather might be rolling over in his grave at the notion that his kinfolk can’t or won’t grab his own tools and go deal with the problem himself. But me, I don’t see it as a matter worth getting anyone’s dander up about. (Like I do when people end sentences with prepositions, I might add.)

Big point: I outsource where prior generations didn’t and while it might cause consternation in the hearts of the elders, it doesn’t rankle me one bit. As The Who would say, “I’m talkin’ bout My Generation.”

Now, fast forward to Google. When I ask youngin’z about dates of historical importance, moments of nation-shaping salience, tremendously significant touch-n-go incidents that underpin the modern foundations of all that we say and do as modern Americans, what’s the response?

Y U askin me? Jst google it. (They even talk in text these days.)

Of course, this is where I get self-righteous. Okay, not remembering the exact date of when, say, the The Declaration of Independence was signed (that would be July 4, 1776… It’s, like, why we have the holiday with hot dogs and fireworks, dude) is, I admit, not too big of a deal. But understanding the significance the event had on the way we conduct society today—and how our society will continue to conduct itself in the future—is fairly important.

Or so I happen to think. But just because I think that way doesn’t mean everyone thinks that way.

“But, dude, I can Google that, too,” is what I hear in response. And indeed, this is also true. Google provides pages and pages of thoughts, opinions, ideas and so on the subject of interpreting the Declaration of Independence and extensive analysis on what ratifying the Constitution meant—and still means—today. Pages and pages on this subject exist. From the left, from the right, from the center, scores of erudite ideas as authored by scholars, people who are well-versed in the nuances, claims and counter-claims have weighed in on the matter

“So why do I need to swim in these waters?” asks the modern kid.

Of course, this is when I go into diatribe mode about not outsourcing to Google when you can and should be able to think for yourself because the importance of being able to fix your own fence instead of merely outsourcing the issue to…

Whoa. Hold on a minute there. Has what I think just happened really happened? Did I just turn into my great-great-great-grandfather? I’m not even a member of the AARP yet.

• It doesn’t interest me to fix a fence.
• It doesn’t interest me to reflect on the impact of the Declaration of Independence.



• But what happens when you can’t find a fence fixer and you have to do the work for yourself or you’ll lose all your cows?
• What happens when Google becomes inaccessible and you have to find the answers for yourself or you won’t be able to sustain our democracy?



• But I am teaching you a skill you need to know.
• But I am teaching you a skill you need to know.



• There’s un-quantifiable life value—especially in terms of self-sufficiency—to knowing how to make and fix things with your own two hands without having to turn to someone else to do the hard, heavy work for you.
• There’s un-quantifiable life value—especially in terms of self-sufficiency—to knowing how to think about things for yourself without having to turn to someone else’s thoughts to do the hard, heavy work for you.

Then, in a fit of frustration I exclaim, “YOU CAN’T JUST COUNT ON GOOGLE!”

But yes, we kinda can. If we are asking questions to which we already know the answers, that is. But if we are asking questions to which the answers are not yet in hand (i.e. How do we eradicate cancer? Can we heal the damage to our planet that industrialization has wrought? Can peace on Earth be delivered to all in a manner which all people actually feel peaceful towards one another?), perhaps therein exists our answer.

• The square root of 64? Who needs to know it? Just Google it.
• The capital of every state in the nation? Who needs to know it? Just Google it.
• What river borders both New York and New Jersey and what are the various options I have for crossing it via land, sea or air? Who needs to know it? Just Google it.

The answer is literally in our collective pockets (presuming you own a smart phone). Yet…

• The cure for the common cold? Can’t just Google it.
• Smartly assessing teacher performance in the classroom in a manner that demonstrates fairness, efficacy and balance? Can’t just Google it.
• Forecasting natural disasters in a way that can mean much less loss of life while also saving billions of dollars worth of property? Can’t just Google it.

But once these riddles are cracked, we will be able to “just Google it.”

My great-great-great-grandfather might have been right for his time, but my own feeling is that he’s wrong for mine. Question: Is this now true for our generation of educators? Are we dwelling on kids knowing skills that society has already rendered passé? After all, in modern times we plan on Google being here as much as we count on electricity being here, and I don’t hear anyone nagging kids to learn the art of candle making in case the lights go out.

Hmm, big question troubling me today: Can’t we/should we just outsource it?

It’s an ever-growing question.

Alan Sitomer was named California's 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and former professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Alan is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English, the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy, the 2007 Educator of the Year award by Loyola Marymount University and the 2008 Innovative Educator of the Year from The Insight Education Group. He’s the author of six young adult novels, three children's picture books, two teacher methodology books, and a classroom curriculum series for secondary English Language Arts instruction called THE ALAN SITOMER BOOK JAM. A Fun Look at Our Serious Work appears quarterly on the Engage blog.



Alan Sitomer recalls his first IRA Annual Convention

New Year, New Appreciation for the Common Core

Father Time has turned a page in his calendar again and the New Year is upon us. I, for one, am excited—especially because we have inched that much closer to the adoption of the Common Core State Standards.

I spent a lot of time during my break thinking about the new standards. Re-reading them, listening to and contemplating tons of commentary, unpacking and then re-mixing ways to approach them (and so on), and the more I dive in—the more I reflect, the more I internalize and absorb them—the bigger fan I am of adopting Common Core.

Perhaps I could list 20 reasons why this is the case if I truly wanted to make the effort, but instead I’ll focus right now on a lean and pertinent two.

#1: The death knell for weak multiple choice tests has been sounded. Hooray, I say! The fact is, I’m not really sure who amongst us isn’t happy to hear this chime begin to ring throughout the national educational kingdom.

As so many of us know, No Child Left Behind brought us a plague of poor assessments (perhaps the peak of it can be found here), and over the past decade standardized tests have become the unfortunate tail that wags the schoolhouse dog. Principals have been fired over poor test results, teachers have been publicly ostracized—and terminated—over poor test results, and the underground resistance which has vociferously been shouting from the rooftops, “Your tests stink as student performance measures and are actually doing more harm than good to our schools” is about to see the notch of victory be etched into their collective belts.

photo: albertogp123 via photopin cc

Common Core is too complex, too rich, too demanding and too forward-thinking to be captured in a mere A, B, C, or D form of student assessment. In fact, our nation is seeing a bold new series of groups (namely, this one and this one) build better student evaluation mousetraps. Some of the ideas I’ve seen kicked around have me smiling at the notion that, “Hey, this ain’t your momma’s rote memory, lower-level Bloom’s type of test anymore.”

The coming assessments are going to be adaptive, multi-layered, trans-media, technology-based (of course) and far more insightful in terms of actually getting to see what a student really knows than anything we’ve poured billions into over the past ten years.

And yes, they are going to be much more challenging, as well. Which leads me to my second cause for celebration.

#2: The overall academic challenges our students will face will be much more demanding, but also more relevant as well.

The Common Core will raise the bar, and though there are skeptics—some of whom make some credible points —on the whole, I believe that Common Core is an elevation.

• Common Core puts a premium on writing unlike any we’ve ever had before.
• Common Core puts a premium on re-reading and close reading, unlike anything we’ve ever had before.
• Common Core recognizes the interdependent relationship between reading and writing and places a premium on students being able to read well and then write (cogently) in response to what they have read… unlike anything we have ever had before.
• Common Core places a premium on all of the aforementioned occurring in an interdisciplinary capacity—across all disciplines, across all grade levels—unlike anything we’ve really seen before.

This is “life tools beyond the K–12 classroom” stuff. After all, as so much data shows, people who read well and write well attain a sense of success in America that transcends mere income.

Highly literate people:

• Vote more.
• Are incarcerated less.
• Play a more active role in the community.
• Live longer lives.
• And so on…

See, Common Core isn’t shying away from asking more of many, many American students than our classrooms have been traditionally asking of them. “Raising expectations” used to be an empty buzz phrase that admins would casually toss around at their cozy little district offices. With Common Core, expectations have actually been raised and for some folks, the actual sight of this is terrifying.

Being somewhat afraid is a good thing. In a way, American schools have become somewhat stale and those butterflies we’re all feeling in our bellies are a sign, to me, that BIG CHANGE is coming. I’m not alone in thinking that the United States has become too comfortable, too filled with a sense of self-entitlement, and this sense of national hubris could very much be the trigger which precedes a great fall.

Our schools can certainly be more demanding. Common Core plans to tackle this issue head on.

Ultimately, I guess I don’t really have a problem with higher expectations. However, I do have a problem with unrealistic expectations. If the right PD and the resources aren’t provided for the Common Core, and policymakers take a page out of the NCLB playbook and merely want to shame teachers with dubious data without actually making a genuine effort to help them improve their craft, then this column is going to have a different tenor a few years from now.

That’s a promise.

But as the old saying goes, “Don’t fall before you are pushed.” We haven’t not risen to new heights yet, so why pre-suppose that we are not capable of doing so?

Common Core, you hold the promise of a new tomorrow—and it’s the time of year when thinking about new tomorrows excites me.

[The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the International Reading Association or its Board of Directors.]

Alan Sitomer was named California's 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and former professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Alan is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English, the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy, the 2007 Educator of the Year award by Loyola Marymount University and the 2008 Innovative Educator of the Year from The Insight Education Group. He’s the author of six young adult novels, three children's picture books, two teacher methodology books, and a classroom curriculum series for secondary English Language Arts instruction called THE ALAN SITOMER BOOK JAM. A Fun Look at Our Serious Work appears quarterly on the Engage blog.



Alan Sitomer Asks for More Than Common Core Army Chow

Alan Sitomer recalls his first IRA Annual Convention

October is National Bully Prevention Month in our schools but somehow there seems to be a grand irony lost in asking educators to try and step up to stop bullying when I am not sure if there is a professional group of people being more bullied these days than teachers.

“We want you to stop the name calling and eradicate all bullying behaviors in the halls of your schools (you no-good, greedy, low-test-score-delivering louts).”

“We want you to teach respect and civility (you abhorrent, why-can’t-you-just-do-your-job worm lickers).”

“We ask that you reach down deep and instruct our young people in the noble ways of civility, kindness and respect (you detestable, how-dare-you-ask-for-health-care-benefits cretins).”

I’m paraphrasing, of course, but I do think the subtext of so, so many national conversations that take place in the media in regards to the world of teaching and teachers (as instigated by the voice box of agenda-driven politicians, reformers and business folks) is laced with a cocktail of contempt, disappointment, antagonism and good ol’ fashioned anger at those in our collective profession.

What happened to teachers being considered an admirable and necessary pillar of society who deserve support, respect and encouragement? Am I simply being naïve, or have those things merely gone the way of Blockbuster Video storefronts?

Truly, to hear our peers in the world of education be mentioned on the nightly news is to know that, uh oh, it’s time once again to cringe…’cause here it comes.

To wit.

To wit.

To wit.

I swear all this “to witting” is going to make me lose my wits. And the more I think about it, the more I believe that all this railing against those in our profession is being done by nitwits.

Sheesh, to hear the mainstream media tell it, one would think that those of us in education are actually members of Congress.

Yet, to be fair, we now live in a land of polarized news—so to mention the mainstream media is to connote that the media wing (which claims to be fair and balanced and/or proudly right leaning) cuts teachers a bit more slack and delivers a bit more appreciation for their service.

Bzzp.

Bzzp.

Bzzp.

Well, there goes that idea.

From the left, from the right, from up on high and even from within, we are taking a public hammering. We’re being picked on.

We’re being bullied.

And who is our champion? The unions? Boy, is that a mixed bag. The parents? Heck, it’s hard enough for them to rally for back-to-school night and let’s face it, they have their own problems. Well, perhaps it’s the Secretary of Education?

Does he like us? Loathe us? l can’t tell.

Now, to be fair, we deserve some of this criticism. Of course we do—but who doesn’t? Can we count a few of us in our ranks as despicable and horrifying? Yes, I believe we can.

But is that who “we” are? Is that the lion’s share of our constituency? How come there’s so little pushback against this insane stereotyping of teachers as malcontents who are actually overpaid underperformers that are doing more harm than good in our community?

I’ll tell you why—it’s because most educators are too nice and too dedicated to the work and too tired to fight the outrageousness.

Photo: BlueRobot via Photopin cc

As professionals, we’re not really all that combative by nature. To spend a great amount of our energy battling the nattering nabobs of negativity feels like a waste of time to most of us. Instead of waging a collective counterattack against the propaganda which seeks to paint us as low-performing and under-delivering, many of us simply absorb those messages, feel demoralized by the incessant abuse, and try to believe that better days will one day soon come and society will once again return to its senses.

Does anyone who is profiteering off of bashing and bullying teachers really see the long-term ramifications of such actions? They may think they are a “force for change,” but what’s really happening is that fewer people are aspiring to be teachers (in a time when we are facing a teacher shortage in the coming decade) and less respect is being accorded to teachers, which undercuts an educator’s ability to actually do the job society asks of them (and needs them to do). I mean, the last time I checked, pretty much every lawyer, doctor, engineer, software salesperson, Internet billionaire and venture capitalist began their career in the hands of a caring, concerned, knowledgeable teacher.

Teaching is the job that precedes all other jobs, and to tear the profession and its people down for short term glory (i.e. ratings or political gains) is to participate in a circular firing squad. Eventually, all of us will fall.

Bully away folks. But know that you do so at the expense of our collective future.

And never forget—it’s much easier to tear something down than to build something up. That’s a critical point to remember.

It’s also a point relayed to me once upon a time by a teacher.

Alan Sitomer was named California's 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and former professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Alan is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English, the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy, the 2007 Educator of the Year award by Loyola Marymount University and the 2008 Innovative Educator of the Year from The Insight Education Group. He’s the author of six young adult novels, three children's picture books, two teacher methodology books, and a classroom curriculum series for secondary English Language Arts instruction called THE ALAN SITOMER BOOK JAM.