Mr Ferguson’s Classroom

Long time no blog. Spring has come and with it new projects, vacation, baseball season, the new school year, and the blooming of the sakura, or cherry blossoms. Every year when this happens, people gather wherever there are trees and eat and drink. I would be doing this today if it wasn’t raining, so instead I’ll try to catch up on what’s been happening. 

In Japan, the school year begins in April, with little break between it and the end of last year. So during March, I wrapped up English lessons with my 5 year olds. At each school, we planned cooking activities, preparing sandwiches, soup, and pizzas using recipes the children wrote.

During this time, we also collected eye movement research on about 20 children reading a picture book in Japanese. There were a lot of exciting moments documented during children’s reading, the analysis of which is my priority for April. 

And just after collecting the data for our eye movement study, I took a week off while my parents came to visit me for one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. We managed to visit two of my schools and meet all my coworkers, watch a sumo tournament in Osaka, go to a Spring festival in Kyoto, spot the Hiroshima Carps baseball team, be included in a wedding photo, eat wild boar. 4 major cities, 2 islands, and just about every mode of transportation available, all in one week. Being able to connect my family with my life abroad is certainly the highlight of my time spent here. 

And just after my parents left, and much sooner than I wanted, two of my schools held graduation ceremonies for the 5 year students. The largest part of my job here has been with these children, and I wasn’t ready to see them go.

Both ceremonies were very formal and emotional events, really unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed. Parents and teachers all wore dark suits. Children walked in one-by-one and sat in the front seats. The ceremony included a number of speeches where teachers, principals, and parents fought back tears to finish their message. 

After the children were handed their diplomas, the 5 year class sang a song to the incoming 5 year class. This really hit everyone pretty hard, including the elementary principal who came to say a few words to his new students. 

Last, the 5 year teacher spoke to her class, little of which I could understand but can only imagine was incredibly passionate and heartfelt, based on the increase in sniffles during her speech. During the year, the teachers and I talked a lot about pedagogy, and what kind of activities and methods are best for children’s learning development, etc. But really, anything that can produce that much love and care for the school, the teachers, and the children must be doing something right in my opinion.

I remember at the ceremony thinking about an article I had read recently about the U.S. Dept. of Ed. considering merit pay for teachers. Below is part of an editorial on the subject. 

 

Public-school teachers should have their pay tied to performance, Hobbs [Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens] told Seattle Weekly.

Because merit pay has worked so well in the corporate world.

The times are schizophrenic, aren’t they? Just as we go ballistic over bonus pay in the financial world — even blaming it for causing the meltdown — President Obama and many lawmakers locally are pushing the same premise in the educational world.

There are a zillion versions of merit pay. But the basic idea is to link a person’s pay with some measure of whether they’re good at their job.

For Wall Street bankers, the gauge was profits or stock prices. For classroom teachers, it’s usually student test scores. Those who get higher profits or test scores earn more cash. Those who don’t are left behind, and eventually weeded out.

Simple, efficient, Darwinian. 

Except on Wall Street it was a disaster.

Setting aside the practical questions raised by how you measure performance, I thought about what it would be like, after Mika the 5-year teacher spoke at the ceremony, to tell her that she would get paid more if next year her students did better. How insulting that idea is to teachers like her that put their heart out and work hard because they love children. What an insult. 

Sorry for that tangent. Anyway, the best part of the ceremony for me was learning that 4 of the graduates were going to begin a private lesson with me in the afternoons, which I’m very much looking forward to. 

If the sun comes out, I’ll be sure to get pictures of the cherry blossoms posted, hopefully sooner than later. 

This entry was posted Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Blog. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.