Bob and Bob are coming to PISD

PISD has decided to spend more of our tax dollars (well, not mine, I guess) to invite the prestigious firm of Bob and Bob to do a little house cleaning. Actually, they've already done their initial investigations, and we found out the results in our meeting today:

• The motto is "Less Rigor; More Relevance"
• Elementary schools at PISD are providing too much rigor. They should let the kids color more and express themselves creatively. Leave reading and writing to the middle schools.
• Middle schools have too little rigor. They are focusing too much on playtime in the classroom and not enough on teaching fundamentals. Good failure rate, though--0%!
• High schools--the failure rate is too high, especially at Dobie (my school) in the English department (mine, too) and particularly among Freshmen (oops, my fault, as well). Our failure rate of fish is 30%
• Relevance is only relevant (ha) when one takes into consideration the generation being studied. This generation, for instance, has been raised on video games and television. Therefore, we must change our stance in the classroom.
• This generation only has a 30 second attention span for media. When using video technology, show it only at 30 second intervals with a break in between to assess knowledge and comprehension. This means that if I'm showing a documentary on Shakespeare, for example, I need to stop the dvd every 30 seconds to ask the kids questions.
• Furthermore, only teach for 7 minutes at a time. The kids (high school included) can only hold 7 minutes of information, so you need to give their minds a break after 7 minutes. Therefore, if you are showing a video, show it in 30 second intervals for 7 minutes and then stop for awhile to let their brains relax. "7 is the magic number." (I thought 3 was the magic number!)
• Information in the classroom must be relevant to the generation. If it is too old, throw it out.

So here's my take on this. I agree that we can't keep teaching the same old way--pointer in one hand, chalk in another. I also agree that kids need a change up in routine--whiteboards, video, groupwork, powerpoint, etc. I even took a class in technology so that I could use the latest tech in the classroom (which they won't let me use because they say it doesn't have any educational value. Maybe bob and bob will change that). I also think that you need to make the work accessible and relevant to kids. Make the stories come alive for them. Connect it to real life. Have them connect it to their lives or to something on TV/Movies.

What I don't understand is this magic number bullshit. If they only have 30 second attention spans for media, why is it, then that they stay glued to a hip hop video from start to finish? It is longer than 30 seconds. Furthermore, if the timeframe is correct, then why do we think it is a good thing? Why don't we teach our kids to have longer attention spans. Think in the long term here, folks. How many corporate meetings do you know of that last for 30 seconds or 7 minutes and then take a break? College classes? SAT tests? Seriously, we're doing them a disservice here.

I left PBS right at the time when they were talking about revamping Sesame Street. CTW did the same bob and bob survey and found out that preschoolers through 1st graders (not highschoolers, you notice) have 30 second attn spans, so they drew out plans to make 30 second segments on SS like Elmo's world and Cookie's world or whatever and take out the ongoing, segmented story. They felt that kids wouldn't be able to remember the story from start to finish because there were too many interruptions. Isn't that the point--to test their memory, to strengthen it? Shouldn't a 3-6 year old learn to follow a story from start to finish even if there is a break between? If you take it out, they will never learn. More alarming, this CTW study was done 6 years ago, so those kids are now 9 to12 and essentially the beginning ages that they are studying in the PISD Bob and Bob survey. Has the new SS system helped or hurt?

Of course the biggest Bob and Bob complaint is our practice TAKS scores. They're upset that we're giving them timed tests in the classroom since TAKS is not timed; kids can take as long as they want. Having observed classes, they find that too much emphasis is given to teaching research, grammar, novels, and poetry, since none of those things appear on the TAKS. Our one goal is to get those scores up, and for that reason, all freshmen teachers are going to be required to start teaching earlier in the summer (with no extra pay) in order to get these kids TAKS ready, at 7 minute intervals while having fun with little rigor.

Blaaaaaaaaah