Contests and Competitions

If the ancient proverb is correct and "Competition is the whetstone of talent," then there appears to be much opportunity for honing talent this fall; my mailbox is brimming with announcements for contests and competitions. Whether you're a teacher or a student, an artist, a videographer, a comic strip aficionado, a geek, a patriot, an avid reader or a rabid environmentalist, or even just a member of a perennially needy school community, as long as you possess the spirit of competition, someone, somewhere is sponsoring a competition for you.

Are you an educator who's making a difference technologically? For the 23rd year, Tech & Learning is honoring K-12 administrators, technology coordinators, and teachers who are using technology in innovative ways. Nominate yourself or a colleague for the 2010 Leader of the Year, but do it soon -- the deadline for nominations is October 15.

Perhaps you're a talented new teacher at the beginning of -- or about to begin -- a career teaching high school math or science? If so, you'll want to check out the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation's KSTF Teaching Fellowships. Renewable for up to five years and valued at up to $150,000, the highly competitive fellowships are awarded annually in the areas of the biological sciences, physical sciences, and mathematics. Applicants should have received their most recent content degree within five years of the start of the fellowship. (Those in the final year of their degree program might also be eligible.) The deadline for submitting applications for these fellowships is January 12, 2011.

Not a techie or a newbie? Check out all the Teacher Awards and Competitions at TeachersCount. Among the Art Teacher Awards; Character Education Awards; English and Language Arts Teacher Awards; Foreign Language Teacher Awards; General Teacher Awards; Math, Science, and Technology Teacher Awards; Regional Awards; Social Studies Teacher Awards; and Special Education Awards, you're bound to find something on which to hone your considerable talents.

But what about your students? Whatever grade you teach, there's certain to be a contest or competition to add fun to their days and engagement and motivation to their education. Check out some of these contests (in no particular order):

Scholastic's Lexus Eco Challenge offers middle- and high-school students across the United States the opportunity to make a difference in the environmental health of their community. Student teams, working with a teacher, choose from a list of environmental topics one issue that affects their own community. Teams then develop a plan to address that issue, and submit that plan in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. Three separate challenges, involving three broad environmental topics, will be available this year. The deadline for Challenge 1 (Land and Water) is November 3.

The Being an American Essay Contest, now in its fifth year, is the largest high-school essay contest in the country, attracting more than 50,000 entries and awarding nearly $115,000 in prize money. The contest, administered by the Bill of Rights Institute, asks students to answer the question, "What civic value do you believe is most essential to being an American?" The contest deadline is December 1.

The MakeBeliefsComix Comic Strip Contest is an ongoing competition that students can enter again and again. Each month, students can submit by email their best comic strip created with MakeBeliefsComix comic strip creator. A selection of the comics will be posted to Make BeliefsComix Facebook Wall and the best of the selection will receive a book on comic strips written by Bill Zimmerman, founder of MakeBeliefsComix. This strikes me as a great opportunity to showcase the talents of those artistically talented students who don't always shine in the academic arena!

The New York Times Show Us Your City Video Contest isn't designed specifically for teachers or students, but what a great way to help students get to know -- and share -- what's special about their own home town! Even if you're not a videographer, Times' experts provide lots of simple tips and examples to help you guide your students to write and create a tour of your community. There's no deadline for this contest. The Times will "keep the submission form open as long as you keep sending videos!"

The Book Jam Digital Book Report Contest is another interactive competition -- and one that gives new meaning to the oh-so-ho-hum term "book report." Students pick a book -- either one of their favorites or one from your curriculum -- and create...well, just about anything but a traditional book report. According to the people at Recorded Books, who are sponsoring the contest, "we'd love to see rap songs about grammar...interactive presentations highlighting setting and symbolism...plays about conflict...and whatever else you and your students dream up." What can you dream up by October 28?

If you're looking for something a little less time-intensive, you might check out the Fall 2010 Shmoop High School Essay Contest. In this "Know Your Poe" themed competition, students are asked to decide whether the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" and/or the speaker in "The Raven" are insane -- and then to defend their verdicts with hard evidence. Appropriately enough, the deadline for this contest is October 31.

Is there a teacher anywhere who has enough classroom technology for every student to participate in every valuable tech activity he or she would like to offer? I doubt it -- but you could be one teacher who does if you're the winner of the Global Classroom Makeover Video Contest. Sponsored by einstruction, the contest invites teacher and students to create a music video showing how they envision using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Three classrooms can win up to $75,000 worth of technology tools. Contest deadline is November 2.

The lure of contests might be the spice of competition, but the sugar of competition is, of course, the reward. One of this fall's biggest rewards is being offered by BING, Microsoft's new search engine. Our School Needs, a user-generated content competition, asks schools to share what they need -- from a gym to a library to a school store -- for the chance to win up to $100,000 toward fulfilling that need. Students write an essay describing what their school needs, take photos showing the need, and maybe even make a video dramatizing it. Then they ask everyone they know to rate their entries. The competition ends October 22.

So...what does your school need?

No More Pencils...

Ah, the smell of impending summer! Although it's not so much a smell, is it, as a feeling...an aura...a vague lightness of spirit that seems to expand and swell like a deep cleansing breath as the month progresses? Whatever it is, there's nothing quite like the approach of Memorial Day to make a teacher feel like a kid again.

For most of the year, teaching is a job like any other, and days spent in the classroom evoke in teachers only the same momentary nostalgia felt by other grownups unexpectedly returned -- by a memory, a reunion, a foraging in the attic -- to their own school days.

For most of the year, teachers feel pretty much as removed from their own school days as those grownups who don't spend their working hours between bulletin-board covered walls in a stuffy paste-and-peanut-butter-overlaid-with-ammonia-scented classroom.

For most of the year, teachers feel like real grownups whose office building just happens to be a school; whose office just happens to be a classroom.

But then comes the end of May...

And no matter how old they are, or how many years it's been since they've moved from the front row of desks to the desk in the front of the room, on the last day of school -- and this I promise you is true -- there's not a teacher alive who doesn't run or skip or bound down the schoolhouse steps without silently -- and joyfully -- singing, "No more pencils. No more books. No more students' dirty looks..."

As we wrap up another school year, I leave you with this thought...The only other day of the year that can make a teacher feel like a joyful kid again is the first day of school. We'll see you then!

I Love it on the Internet

I love the Internet. I don't know how I lived so much of my life without it. All that information -- vital information; trivial information; useless information; misinformation; fabulous, fascinating, conversation starting (and stopping!) information -- right at my fingertips. Can there be anything more exciting, more fun, more stimulating than the Internet for those of us who are writers -- or readers or thinkers or information junkies or Jeopardy wanna-be's or lifelong learners or...especially, most especially...educators? I don't think so.

Oh, I hear you leery luddites out there muttering among yourselves. "What's so great about the Internet?" you say. "It's dirty and dangerous and overwhelming and unreliable and underregulated -- and it's impossible to tell the truth from the lies, the art from the porn, the facts from the propaganda, the chaff from the wheat." Common complaints, I know -- and not without some truth to them. But the good stuff -- oh, the great stuff! -- makes even sorting through the other stuff oh-so-worth the effort! Check out these great new sites, for example....

Ranger Rick on the Great Oil Spill: This website, developed by the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools team, provides lots of information and activities parents and teachers can use to help kids understand the implications of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Admongo.gov: Live the Adventure: Designed to help 'tweens ages 8 to 12 become more discerning consumers, this FTC website includes an advertising game, a curriculum tied to national standards in language arts and social studies, a library of fictional ads, and activities for parents and kids to do together.

History and the Headlines: The Enduring Legend of Robin Hood: Are your students studying folklore -- or just off to see the new Robin Hood movie? Either way, this site from ABC-CLIO's free collection of online resources provides primary source documents and images, discussion questions, and thought provoking essays by noted scholars. A great -- and highly engaging -- teaching tool!

Discovery Education has just announced the launch of Explore the Blue, an online initiative designed to encourage youth participation in summer water activities and Aquatic conservation efforts. The website includes such activities as model boat building, research projects, journal writing exercises, and map reading activities.

The San Diego Zoo Education website isn't new, but the people at the zoo provide so many excellent resources -- and so often add more -- you should never go too long between visits. Their latest free resource is the Elephant Odyssey Curriculum that provides information and activities about the animals that roamed Southern California 12,000 years ago -- and their living cousins found all over the world today. A Mammoth resource!

Are you looking for an end-of-year activity to inspire your students to do their best? Invite them to (virtually) follow 13-year-old Jordan Romero as he attempts to become the youngest climber ever to scale Mount Everest. Before they begin the climb, kids can read Jordan's story at Will Jordan Romero Make It to the 'Top of the World'?

Still sceptical of the value of Internet resources -- or of your students' ability to distinguish the good from the bad? Invite them to complete Hoax or Not, a terrific WebQuest on Internet Hoaxes.

And please share your favorite websites with us!

It's a Mystery

Who doesn't love a mystery book? Only readers who haven't yet discovered the fun. This year, Gallopade International is introducing mysteries to young people by declaring 2010 The Year of the Children's Mystery Book and offering parents and teachers some interesting activities to get kids reading mysteries this summer -- and all year through.

First, during the month of May, Gallopade is encouraging students to snap a picture of themselves -- or a friend or family member -- reading their favorite mystery book, and then to e-mail the photo (along with parental permission to post it) to pr@gallopade.com. Pictures will be published in the site's Photo Gallery of mystery readers -- a lineup any student will want to be part of!

Looking for some summer reading fun? Check out the site's thermometer template and encourage students to make their own thermometers to track their summer mystery reading. Readers can color in one degree on the thermometer for each page read; the "hottest" reader of the summer will be honored as the site's top Summertime Sleuth.

What about the rest of the year? All year long, The Year of the Children's Mystery Book Mystery Challenge is inviting young readers to achieve Mystery Mastery by reading at least six mystery books during 2010. There's even a Reading List to help get them started.

There are lots more mystery book resources at this fun site. Check them out with your students -- and then check out a few mysteries for yourself. After all, who doesn't love a mystery?

Studies show that it doesn't matter much what children read -- as long as they do read. Even your reluctant readers won't be able to resist a good mystery, so why not take the opportunity to help all students get ahead next year by encouraging them to read during the summer months?

I've already put aside for my vacation Roadside Crosses (Deaver), The Shadow of Your Smile (Clark), Shutter Island (Lehane), and This Body of Death (George). What will you be reading this summer?

Trends in Teaching?

The National Education Association, in recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week, issued a statement Monday highlighting five trends the association says paint a picture of today's U.S. public school teachers. Those trends are:

Trend #1: America’s public school teachers are facing massive layoffs.

What I Found: A recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators reported that 9 of 10 superintendents expected to lay off school workers for the fall, a number that's up from two of three superintendents last year. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan estimates the number of jobs likely to be lost at the end of this school year at 100,000 to 300,000.

Trend #2: America’s public school teachers are the most educated, most experienced ever.

What I Found: According to the latest figures from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), about 53 percent of teachers have at least 10 years of full-time teaching experience, and 52 percent of teachers hold at least a master’s degree.

Trend #3: Public school teachers’ classes, workloads and hours are increasing while their pay is not keeping up with inflation.

What I Found: According to NCES figures, the number of public school teachers rose by 12 percent between 1999 and 2009, resulting in a decline in the pupil/teacher ratio from 16.1 pupils per teacher in 1999 to 15.3 pupils per teacher in 2009. The average salary for public school teachers was
$53,910 in 2008–09 ($53,168 in 2007–08 dollars). After adjustment for inflation, teachers’ salaries were 8 percent higher in 2008–09 than they were in 1970–71.

Trend #4: Public school teachers come to the profession, and remain dedicated to their careers, for their students and the importance of education.

What I Found: About 8 percent of the more than 3 million public school teachers in the United States leave the profession every year, and another 8 percent move to a different school. Overall, about 25 percent of teachers leave within the first 5 years; 50 percent leave within 10 years.

Trend #5: The teaching corps in public schools does not reflect the diversity of the student population.

What I Found: In 2007–08, according to the NCES, the teaching force in public elementary and secondary schools was 76 percent female, 83 percent white, 7 percent black, and 7 percent Hispanic. The student population was 56 percent white, 21 percent Hispanic, and 17 percent black.

All in all, these figures paint a bleak picture for teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week 2010. It appears that there are many challenges to face and many problems to solve in the year (and years) ahead -- and few resources to apply to finding those solutions. Of course, as my father used to say, "Figures don't lie, but liars figure." And even true figures often can paint a broad picture that fails to represent specific circumstances. How many of these trends are evident where you teach? What is the state of teaching in your school today?

Education World just completed a survey in which we queried educators about the climate in their school. We'll let you know soon what they said.

Raise Your Hand if You're a Teacher

A recent study conducted by researchers at Florida State University's Center for Reading Research evaluated the oral literacy of more than 800 pairs of racially and ethnically diverse twins in first and second grade classrooms across the state. The study was designed to determine "the importance of teacher quality as a specific school environmental influence on reading achievement."

The use of twins allowed researchers to eliminate such factors as genetics or home environment that might affect a student's academic growth, and to assess more accurately a teacher's influence on students' natural abilities. The study found that...

..."the magnitude of genetic variance associated with twins’ oral reading fluency increased as the quality of their teacher increased. In circumstances where the teachers are all excellent, the variability in student reading achievement may appear to be largely due to genetics. However, poor teaching impedes the ability of children to reach their potential."

In other words, students in classrooms with excellent teachers did better in reading than their twin siblings who had less accomplished teachers. And students with excellent teachers were more likely than students with less effective teachers to reach their full potential -- whatever their genetics determined that potential to be. So...the better the teacher, the better the teaching.

Raise your hand if you're surprised at those results. No one? I thought not. There are no surprises in this study for those of us who have ever taught in a classroom -- or had a child in school.

Raise your hand if you can't tell the difference between an excellent teacher and a teacher who's just taking up space at the front of the classroom. Do I see a hand there in the back? No? Sorry! Someone's just stretching. The fact is, excellent teachers just aren't that hard to spot, are they? We all know who they are.

Now, raise your hand if you're an excellent teacher. Don't be shy. Raise it high and keep it up there, and while it's up there, reach over and give yourself a pat on the back. You're making a difference -- and isn't that why you became a teacher in the first place?

May 3-7 is Teacher Appreciation Week. Take yourself out to lunch. You deserve it!

Is Teaching a Profession or a Craft?

This morning, I received an invitation to the college graduation of the daughter of a friend. Melanie is a brilliant and bubbly girl with great enthusiasm for life. Her dream, for as long as I've known her, has been to study the relics of early civilizations, with an eye toward better appreciating modern culture. Melanie will graduate in May with a degree in anthropology.

In the last year or so, however, Melanie has fallen in love with a young man. And while her love for archaeological exploration has not diminished, the practicality of fieldwork now seems incompatible with the plans she's making for her future. So Melanie -- reluctantly and very regretfully -- has decided to put away her trowel and her brushes, and get a master's degree in elementary education instead. It is, she believes, the sensible choice.

I cannot tell you the number of young people I've known who've given up a vocational dream or -- lacking a dream -- given up the search for one, and "settled" for teaching. Teaching (like writing : ) apparently is one of those occupations that everyone thinks anyone can do -- or, at the very least, that everyone thinks anyone can learn to do. Most people -- although not, I think, most teachers -- probably would agree with Melanie that any reasonably intelligent person can learn to teach.

But are they right, I wonder? Is teaching a profession -- or is it a craft?

A profession, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.com, is a vocation requiring specialized knowledge and academic preparation; a craft is a vocation requiring specific knowledge and specialized skills. What does it take to be a good teacher? And does Melanie -- does everyone -- have what it takes?

If you're going to be a teacher, shouldn't teaching be your vocational dream?