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[ silence ] [ applause ] >> adam gray: thank you. i'm going to hit thelights just a little. is that okay, maybe,if i hit a light? okay, that'd be great. try not to fall asleep. that'd be great. maybe that right there.
okay, so if you can see whati'm going to talk about today. it's a talk that i'vegiven several times to prospective teachersand other teachers working in struggling schools. it's called the beautyof believing -- positively transforming schoolculture one day at a time, increasing student engagementand motivating students. so, while i am amathematics teacher, i -- this applies to all teachers,
regardless of whatsubject you teach. i will use some mathexamples in here. but really it applies to anyone. so, the objectives for today,because i'm big on objectives, number one is to use datato pique your interest about education policy and hopethat those data points will lead to meaningful conversationsabout the teaching profession. so not just what'shappening in your classroom, but what's happening at yourschool and at the district
and the state level andthe federal level as well. so i'm hoping that someof the data that we look at today will lead toconversations between you guys after this talk and after -- you know, after class and afterschool and on the weekends and all that kind of good stuff. second objective -- i'mgoing to share my experiences as a math teacher workingin an underperforming school to shed light on some
of the daily challengesthat you may face. you may not face them. it just depends on whereyou're going to be teaching. different schools facedifferent challenges. i'm going to share mine today. the third is to try to provideyou with some tips on how to handle these said challenges. before i get started, i just will show you alittle bit of my year review.
it's been prettycrazy in a good way. and i used to sit rightwhere you guys are sitting, assuming that -- forthe undergrads in here, i was sitting right whereyou guys are sitting, probably five or six years ago. so this is where -- this is kindof what my last year has been. and five or six years ago, iwas sitting right where you are. i had dinner withmichelle rhee in october at the boston speaker series.
she was in town giving a speech at the boston symphonyorchestra. she invited me to havedinner with her and some of her other peoplein the community. and i sat right next to her. it was a pretty interestingconversation. whether you agree with someof michelle rhee's tactics -- she's the former chancellorof the d.c. public schools and the current ceoof studentsfirst --
whether you agree with herleadership ability or not, she is someone, i believe,that is well-intentioned. and so, we had lots of interesting conversationsat dinner. this is arne duncan. he's the secretary of --u.s. secretary of education. this is at the internationalsummit on the teaching profession,where labor and management from 28 countries acrossthe world came together
in new york city to talk about how we could elevate theteaching profession globally. so, this is secretaryduncan and me. this is president obamaand me at the white house. i was one of 54 teachers of theyear that met him on that day. you might be askingyourself, 54? you're not making us look goodhere, adam, coming to uga. there can't be 54teachers of the year. there's only 50 states.
american samoa, department ofdefense, the virgin islands and washington, d.c. -- so, that was the four additionalones besides the 50. this is, again, secretaryduncan, at the white house, and me. the lady on the right, hername is celine coggins. she's the ceo of a non-profitorganization called teach plus, and her compadre, alice cain,who's the vice president of policy at teach plus.
so this is kind of crazy. i got invited to be -- tostanding on the field at fenway, which, i believe, isthe oldest baseball -- the oldest park in baseball. it was kind of cool, andlike, you know, six years ago, i was just sitting rightwhere you guys are, and then, in the spring, i was standingon fenway field, pretty wild. this guy, for theprofessors in the audience, he's a pretty well knownguy named michael fullen.
he's a canadian guy who is justfantastic, and has great ideas about how we can elevatethe teaching profession. we have bieber feverhere in the u.s., and we need fullenfever, if you ask me. and then, these aresome clowns -- okay, i don't know wherethis picture came from. this is halloween. anyway, i don't know how igot that picture in there, former roommates and worstwingmen ever [laughter].
so, the outline forthe today's talk -- i just wanted to go throughthat to show you, you know, kind of the cool yearthat i've had, guys. and i was sitting right whereyou were five or six years ago. so, great thingsare on the horizon for all of you, i'm sure. the outline for today is, we'regoing to use these clickers to respond to audienceresponse questions and collect somedata from you guys.
then i'm going to talkabout some leading and lagging indicatorsfrom the high school where i used to work. then i'm going togive you two anecdotes about my teaching experience. the first one, i liketo call humble pie. the second one iscalled you damn right. and then fifth, we'regoing to talk about tips for some behaviormanagement, if that's something
that you find yourself,maybe, struggling with or thinking a lot about. and then, numbersix, we're going -- i'm going to give you somesuggestions for moving forward. some terminology thati might use today that you may notbe familiar with. the first one is, student-to-staffconstructive feedback form -- you may be familiar with it.
you may not. if you look at the form that igave you guys, i think this -- oh, i won't tell you how i feelabout it, because i don't want to sway you one way oranother when i'm trying to collect data herein a little bit. but this is a form used bystudents to provide feedback to teachers on howthey can improve. so you're asking studentshow you can improve. it's a pretty interestingconcept.
the next one is leadingand lagging indicators. so, socioeconomic, ethnic,special education, etcetera., makeup of the studentbody, and then, attendance, suspension, graduation. and then, of course,student growth based on high-stakes test. and then, the last one is mcas. i can't remember whatthe georgia equivalent of a high-stakes test is.
but we have something called themcas, which our students take in public education,grades three through eight and grade 10. and they can't graduate from high school unlessthey demonstrate proficiency in their grade 10. so this is our high-stakes test. and i'm going to be showingyou some data today from that. so, before we really divein -- i know, here we are.
i would like to kind of knowwho is in the audience today. so, you can take yourclicker, and i want to know which of the followingbest describes you today? is it a prospectiveteacher, a current teacher -- so you're a paid currentteacher, is it a principal, a teacher of teachers --so are you a professor, or are you support staff -- someone in the collegeof education that happens to maybe find this interesting?
>> teacher of teachers? >> adam gray: teacherof teachers. teacher of teachers couldalso be a mentor teacher. and if you have to changeyour -- you can change it. yes, ma'am? >> you had formerly taught, but you're back [inaudible]full time. >> yeah, that's what i'm saying. >> adam gray: i would say...
>> teacher of teachers. >> adam gray: teacherof teachers, yeah, okay. >> etcetera [laughter]. >> adam gray: yeah,so then, that's good. i can take that back forthe next presentation. i should have revised that. so, it looks like 69%are prospective teachers, and you can see thebreakdown there. and there's a little thingthere, if you just want
to jot some of thesedata points down, you're more than welcome to,because we might refer back to them a little bit later. i want to know this data point, just to see whatyou guys think here. which country below -- unitedstates, finland, south korea, japan or not sure --spend the most time -- direct instructional time-- in front of students. that's that stand-and-delivertime, time where a teacher is
"in front of students." which country do youbelieve spends -- asks its teachers to spend themost time in front of students? so, we have 30 people withclickers -- or, 32, okay. [ background conversations ] okay, 33. need two more, folks. okay, so it looks like 44%say the u.s., 19% finland, 16% south korea, and12% are not sure. interestingly enough, there wasa report in "the atlantic" --
in the october issueof "the atlantic." the u.s. spends 500 more directinstructional hours, on average, per year, than bothfinland and south korea, 500 additional morestand-and-deliver hours than both finlandand south korea. let's take a look at this. which country below doyou believe performed best on the mathematicsportion of the 2009 pisa? it's an international testthat's given to students,
and it stands for the program for internationalstudent assessment. so you can say unitedstates, finland, south korea, japan or you're not sure. remember, 12% were notsure in the last one. 44% were u.s. yes, ma'am? >> how did they determine whichstudents were taking this test? >> adam gray: how didthey determine the... >> like, what studentsactually took this test?
>> adam gray: you know, thatdata point, i'm not quite sure. the oe - it's the organization of economic-somethingdevelopment. the oecd is... >> cooperation? >> adam gray: cooperationof development. they're the ones that kind ofadministrator this test, and so, one of your professors mightbe able to better answer that question than me.
okay, so it looks like mostpeople think [laughter] -- okay [laughs] -- 0%for the united states, okay, good, good, good. hopefully, this doesn'tparallel our confidence in moving forwardas a profession. so, 47% for japan,and then finland and south korea get the otherones, and i'm not sure is 3%. okay, interestingly enough,for math, south korea, again, and finland, which spend500 less instructional hours
in the u.s., they performat much higher levels than the u.s., whichranks 30th on the pisa, just an interestingdata point there. how about this, guys? what percent of teachersnationwide do you think have 10 or fewer years ofexperience in the classroom? talking k-12 here -- whatpercentage of teachers -- there's 3.9 millionteachers nationwide based on a study in 2008.
what percentage of those 3.9million teachers do you believe have 10 or feweryears of experience? okay, i must have done somethinga little funky on this one. that's okay, we've still got... okay, so everybody's voted. so it looks like36% say 50% -- 52%. and that's actually correct. 52% of 3.9 millionteachers, based -- that was published in a reportin 2008 had 10 or fewer years
of experience, whichis a major shift -- a major shift inthe demographics of the teaching profession. okay, so just a couplemore questions here, guys. how many years have you beenteaching or plan to teach? how many years doyou plan on working? and this -- yeah, thisapplies for everybody. so, if you're a teacherof teachers, if you're a grad student,how many plans do you --
how many years doyou plan on teaching? >> in the k-12 setting? >> adam gray: this'll --so this -- you can call -- you and dr. wilson[assumed spelling] and other people can planon -- teachers of teachers. this applies to everybody. yeah. >> count college. >> adam gray: yeah,college as well.
teachers of teachersalso teaching, right? okay. three more to go. two more to go. you guys are justlike my students. there's always one personthat waits until like the -- like the six, five,four, three, two -- gets it in at the last second. okay, so more than20, fantastic. okay, interesting.
so, i've worked in a -- in an underperformingschool in boston. and so, 50 percent ofteachers leave the profession. they don't just migrateto another school. they leave the profession,i believe, after just three yearsin the classroom. it's pretty highturnover right, there. what do you think is mostinfluential factor affecting student achievement?
most influential factoraffecting student achievement? is it socioeconomic background,class size, teacher quality, education of parents orquality of life at home? couple more questions. couple more questions here. okay, so 42% sayteacher quality. 26%, which is second, issocioeconomic background, and education of parentsranks last at 10%. okay, now the student -- i don'tknow if you've had a chance
to look over it, but this -- i just want to ask acouple questions about this. the first one is, do you think that student-to-staffconstructive feedback forms could be useful for teachers? >> did you give theanswer on that one? >> adam gray: maybe i didn't. what's the... >> what were the factor...
>> adam gray: yeah, okay. >> which one was... >> adam gray: let me answerthat after this, okay? well, let me give my opinion. i don't have an answer for it. >> [chuckles] oh, okay. >> adam gray: thankyou for that. and if you guys answer onceon the clickers, and you feel like you have tochange your answer.
if you change it, it'lljust change up here. it's not a big deal. okay, so 88% say yes. now, before we move tothe next question -- before we move tothe next question, i'm going to addressthe last one. the last question said, what doyou think is most influential factor in student achievement? now, i asked that questionthat way, because i left
out a really important word,which was "school-based" or "non-school-based." i guess left outboth of those words. and i was basically just trying to see what you thought wasthe most influential factor, whether it was school-basedor non-school-based. i believe there'sresearch out there that says the most influentialschool-based factor is teacher quality.
and non-school-basedfactor would have been one of the others ones -- educationof parents or quality of life at home and so on and so forth. but i asked that question, notbecause i have an answer to it, but just because ilike to see what folks in the audience believe, okay? next question here, and this iswhere the profession is moving. this is where theprofession is moving here. at least it is in massachusetts,and because we're a leader
in the nation in termsof k-12 education, i feel like it'll bemoving elsewhere as well. do you think should be part of ateacher evaluation? yes, sir? >> just part of the evaluation? or is it -- let's say,like teacher pay is going to be based off of this? >> adam gray: justpart of the evaluation.
>> part of the evaluation. >> adam gray: that's allwe're talking about right now. mmm hm. now, whether ornot teacher pay is linked to evaluation isanother question. this is just, should itbe a part of evaluation. good question, though,really good question. remember that 88% saidthat it would be useful. okay, 58% say yes,really interesting, really interesting, okay?
12% say no, 21% say maybe. they just need a littlebit more clarification. and then, i'm not sure. okay, good. so, what i'm going to get intotoday, i'm really going to kind of start talkingabout my experiences at the underperforming school. and i'll be happy toemail you this data if you'd be interested.
maybe it could, you know, kind of spark someconversations later on. this was a word cloud. have you guys, bya show of hands, have you ever seena word cloud before? okay, you have. so basically, the -- i was atthis professional development with all the teachersof the year across the country in dallas.
and, a former national teacherof the year asked us to text in words that we thought of whenwe thought of effective teaching and effective teachers. so, the words that appear thebiggest appeared the most. the words that appear thesmallest appeared the least. so, those three wordsare passionate, dedicated and relationships. so, i've been kind of usingthis as a go-to slide all year to really kind of tell thestory of teachers at the school
where i used to work,and the kids that used to attend the schoolwhere i worked. so, i'm going to spend thenext little bit talking about how we used passion,dedication and relationships to overcome some of thechallenges that we faced at the struggling highschool in south boston, okay? before i get that, thisis now kind of the leading and lagging indicators, isjust to paint a little bit of a picture of what it waslike to work at the school
that i worked at insouthie for five years. so, this data thatyou see up here, it's going to be a littleconfusing, but i'm going to highlight just a few areasthat you need to focus on. this data is of students that i taught during their10th-grade year in 2009, but the data is about themduring their freshman year, okay? so this relates totheir attendance,
their socioeconomic makeupduring their freshman year. but these are students i taughtduring the sophomore year, okay? leading and lagging indicators. i taught 83 10thgraders in 2009. 30% of them were studentswith disabilities. 70% of them were classified ascoming from low-income families. this bottom part righthere talks about attendance of those students duringtheir freshman year. if we look closely atthis, we can see that 24%
of those 83 10th gradersmissed 20 to 36 school days in their freshman year. we can see that 22%, or 38to 54 of those sophomores -- or, 22% of those 83sophomores missed 38 to 54 days duringtheir freshman year. and 18% missed morethan 54 days. altogether, approximately65% of my students missed at least 20 days of schoolduring their freshman year. that's a lot.
this is a -- kindof a doughnut chart that represents howthey performed in their core subject areasin their freshman year. okay, 44% did not pass a singlesubject the year before they came to me. 17% passed one. 16%, two subjects. 77% failed at least half of their classes duringtheir freshman year, okay?
now, this is the mcas part --our kind of high-stakes test that we gives in grades threethrough eight and grade 10. on the mathematics portion of the massachusettscomprehensive assessment system, we can see that 14% passedat the proficient level or higher during theireighth-grade year. so, those 83 10th graders,when they were eighth-graders, only 14% of them wereproficient or higher. and more than half ofthem failed the exam.
a couple years later,after they came to monument and had their ninth-gradeteacher, and then they came to me, and after they hadme, we increased that to 45% at proficient or higher, and we decreased thefailure rate by 40%. so you know -- you guys aremath and science people, and even if you're not, you canmake data really say anything, so that's prettyphenomenal, what you just saw, those two slides right there.
and massachusetts is a -- we have a prettyrigorous assessment. so, students can --students can pass -- you know, maybe in mississippi, they can pass their high-stakesexam with a really high score. and then they can goto massachusetts and, because it's a lot -- wehave much higher standards in massachusetts than we do ina lot of places in the country, they could potentially notdo well on that assessment.
so, the fact that we were able to move the achievementneedle based on this high-stakestest is pretty great. but you should beskeptical of it, because you can makedata say anything. so, you should bethinking about, you know, how did you do that? did you teach the test? and i'm going to get into thathere in a little bit, okay?
you should always beskeptical of the data. all right, so i startedmy career in boston public schools shortlyafter i graduated from here. i moved up, i was 23 yearsold, and i moved up in may and started living withmy brother and commuting to southie on the red line. if you guys have everseen "the departed," then you've seen thered line go right there through park street station.
and in the first month of work,i lost 15 pounds on what i like to refer to asthe hypertension diet. wasn't a -- wasn'ta very healthy diet, and i don't recommendit for anybody. and i remember that, everyday that i would wake up in the morning at 5:30,my first thought was not, what was my hair going to looklike today, it was, uh oh, i wonder if the photocopymachine is going to work. you know, am i going to be ableto make photocopies for my kids?
and my students usedto make fun of me -- i mean, every day, every day. and i thought, you know, atfirst i was kind of going along with it, because i thoughtit was hip, and i was going to be cool, and i wasgoing to be their friend. and they used to ask me,every single time i would hand out a worksheet, would you likea quarter pounder and cheese, or, you know, wouldlike fries with that, or all this kind of stuff.
and i didn't really get it,but it was kind of funny, and everybody was laughing. until i finally figured out thatthey had noticed the widow's peaks on my forehead had formeda pair of beautiful arches and had nicknamed meronald mcdonald [laughter]. so again, i thought this was-- i thought this was funny. but look at that clown. it wasn't funny. it wasn't funny at all, right?
they were not tryingto help put -- help me put thathealthy weight back on. they were, like,terrorizing me, okay? so now i'm going tomove to the next slide so you don't keeplooking at that. and so in any case, iremember in late september of that same year, i'mwalking down the hall, and one of my good friends -- he was kind of agood friend at first.
i didn't know how close wewould grow over the years. but he was a colleague of mine. he taught on the samegrade level team. he was our 10th gradeenglish teacher. his name's jamie dougherty[assumed spelling]. he was a ninth-year vet. and i was just walkingdown there, and i think i had maybea planning period. i was going to use the bathroom.
and i decided to kindof peek in his window to see how the studentsthat terrorized me -- i was like, curious, like, how were they wereterrorizing jamie? were they callinghim ronald mcdonald or some other clown's name? and i kind of turned my head,and i looked through the window, and every single kid inthat class was in a seat, just like you guys are rightnow, they were writing something
down or they were engaging insome kind of rich discussion. and i knew at that moment,that it wasn't their fault. they didn't value education. they came from poor homes. they didn't get it. they didn't respect adults. the problem wasn't theirs. the problem was mine. he was showing me thatit was my problem.
and i took a big oldbite out of humble pie. big old bite out of humble pie. so, in the weeks andthe most that ensued, i started talking to jamie. i had unwaveringhigh expectations. you know, they were rough. i probably quit in my head,not every day, every period. every period -- hotdamn, i'm not doing this. i'm going back to georgia.
it's starting toget cold up here. it's september already,you know [laughter]? these kids don't respect me. i'm going back. the problem wasn't boston. the problem wasn'tmassachusetts. the problem wasn't the kids. the problem was me. okay? and i say that,and i'm standing here
as the 2012 massachusettsteacher of the year, so, big old -- big oldbite out of humble pie, and it's the bestthing that ever -- one of the best thingsthat's ever happened to me. that's my humble pieanecdote right there. and i'll get a little bit intohow i became more effective here in a just a little bit. i started -- i know, you guysare kind of starting to froth at the mouth, and thensome of you guys are like,
what the hell isthis [laughter]? so i started a mathhonor society to try to dangle a carrot in frontof the students at the school. i remember, i emailed dr. wilsona couple years ago about that. we were on cnn. we got some coverage on cnn, andi was trying to keep some people in the loop here about that. it was kind of cool. and basically, what i toldthese kids, i said, listen,
come to school every day. don't cuss at your teachers. and get a 3.0 gpa. this is not harvard. this is monument high school. you can do this. if you do that, i will take you on an all-expense-paid fieldtrip at the end of the year. now, i had to look and see, ofthe upper classmen that were --
because to be eligiblefor this math group, you had to be a junioror a senior. i looked at all thestudents' behavior, right? i looked at their grades. i looked at their attendance. how many of the approximately189 to 200 students qualified to be in this honorsociety right off the bat? there were 11. 11. only 11.
so i took those 11, andbrought them to my classroom, and i said what i just told you. i'll take you on anall-expense-paid field trip. they thought i wastotally full of it. "how much money you got, gray?" i don't even have enoughnickels to rub together. i don't know. i don't have any money. i said, but trust me.
keep coming to school. keep being leaders. and i'm going to take you onan all-expense-paid field trip. so, in any case, i'm not hereto tell you that anecdote, although it's a great one,basically, cold-called tons of companies and raised$15,000 in three months to take these kids on anall-expense-paid field trip. and the next year wewent to chicago with 16. and in the third year wetook 30 to d.c., all right?
so, here, what iwas trying to do -- what you see up hereis four scatter plots. this is 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. and i'm not -- i'm not a --i'm not the best math student. professors here wouldtell you that, all right? but i'm well-intentioned, and i'm passionate,and i'm hard-working. and i thought that these wouldbe the right metrics to use. and they may not be.
they may not have been. but i was trying to figureout, what metrics can i use to measure the influenceof the math honor society? so i took, basically, gradepoint average of each student at the end of their 10thgrade year, and measured that against theirscaled math mcas score. so this is what i thoughtis, when students do better in class, they'regoing to do better on a high-stakes assessment.
and if they don'tdo well in class, they're probably notgoing to do that well on the high-stakesassessment, right? so, i was -- i figuredthat, you know, the r-squared value would getstronger over time, you know, as we started to gain momentum and have a strongerpresence at the school. so this was 2007, 2008, 2009. just to give you guys a littlebit more about what this means.
it's a 1.58 gpa and262 on the math mcas. 280 is a perfect score. and again, we have a rigorousassessment in massachusetts. it's a floor, not a ceiling. it's not what it needs to be. but it's a fairlyrigorous assessment. and so that's interesting,right? a 1.58 gpa and a 262. why is that?
what we can see -- well,this bottom tier is failing. this is kind of thatneeds-improvement area. this is proficient,and this is advanced. and what you see is that,as time passes on, right -- 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010-- we're moving kids up. but we're not movingkids to the right. kids are doing better ona high-stakes assessment, but that doesn't necessarilytranslate to an increase in grade point average.
so they're not doing as well asthey should be in their classes. so we're having alittle bit of influence, but if we're not gettingthem to graduate and walk across the stage and becollege-bound and college-ready, you know, the successis debatable. so i want to talk alittle bit about my -- one of my former students,chanel [assumed spelling]. chanel -- oh,anti-establishment, often had a scowl on herface, really thick --
you know, really kind of tough. but, beneath allthat, beneath all that was a softie-- was a softie. but she was anti-establishment. she was stubborn. and i'm kind of like thatmyself, so i kind of was like, i -- we kind of gotalong a little bit. so, chanel had thisproblem where she would come to school 15 minutes latepretty consistently, okay?
pretty consistently, andmr. gray had this thing where i would just be a nicelittle thorn in anybody's side if they did things like that. nice little thorn, not amean thorn, a nice thorn. so, at the end of every day, i'd make a little yellow stickynote, and i'd write kids' names that were late, theywere absent, they didn't do theirhomework, misbehaved. also on that list,which i'll get to later,
were kids that did well,that came to school on time, but had historicallynot done that. so, you know, you're notonly calling for bad things. you're also callingfor good things here. so, chanel, unfortunatelyfor her, was on that little yellowpost-it a little bit more often than she would have liked. so, there was a stretchwhere chanel was late to school 15 days in a row.
15 days in a row -- 15 minutes. so, let's just --let's take it back. on the first day,chanel walks in. she's 15 minutes late. okay, her name makesthe yellow post-it. on the way back to southstation, i'm going back to -- maybe it was central -- no,it wasn't central square. it was porter square at thetime in summerville, mass. i call her mom, and hermom's name was linda.
ring, ring, ring. hey, linda, how's it going? my name is adam gray. i'm chanel's high schoolmath teacher at monument. chanel is a beautiful person. she's got a lot of energy. she's a little stubborn like me. i can see that. i don't want to know whather room looks like at home.
i'm sure she never cleans it. i just want to let youknow, chanel was late today. she was late by 15 minutes. and chanel's not comingto me at grade level. so, if i'm going to get her tothe 11th grade, the 12th grade, and to be college-bound andcollege-ready, i need chanel to be at school everyday with her butt in a seat and ready to learn. you think you cantalk to chanel?
"yeah, mr. gray. she's just as --you're just as crazy as she says -- asshe says you are." okay, okay, linda. but she was laughing, you know, because she knows i'min the same corner. i developed a rapport, andi had a reputation for that. so she talks to chanelthat night. next morning comes around,
and i had chanel firstperiod during the day. chanel walks in 15 minuteslate, 15 minutes late, okay? got a scowl on her face, ooh,like you've never seen before, so she comes in, she walks down, she sits with herbook bag in the seat. she doesn't take anything out, doesn't write a singlething down. okay, take note of that. not the first timei've seen that.
not the last timei've seen that. bell rings, second period. chanel, come talk tome for a little bit. let's try to workthis out a little bit. i can see that you're upset. take chanel outside. she's still got thatscowl on her face -- won't make eye contactwith me at all. i told her, listen, chanel,you're 15 minutes late.
you're not coming tome at grade level. if i'm going to get you to 11thgrade, 12 grade, college-bound, college-ready, i need youto be here every single day, ready to learn, right, on time. okay, so are you going tobe here on time tomorrow? she said, "yeah, i'llbe here tomorrow." i said, okay, okay. chanel walks down to mybuddy jamie dougherty's room for english.
so, chanel was late that day. she made the yellow postie note. on the way home, walkingtowards south station to go back to porter square, i call. linda picks up. hey, linda, how you doing? "good, mr. a. good. how's everything going with you? is chanel okay?"
yeah, yeah, she's all right. she's all right. but linda, i thoughtthat -- did you talk -- did you get a chanceto talk to chanel? i know you're busy. i know you work a couple jobs. you know, did you get achance to chat with her? "yeah, i chatted withher for a minute. i chatted with herfor a minute."
and i was like, okay, okay. well, linda, chanelwas late again today. she was 15 minutes late, justlike she was the day before. so, we got to figure this out. we got to come together. we're all on the same team here. we're in her corner. we got to convince her of that. we got to get chanelhere on time every day.
"okay, i'm going totalk to her tonight. she's going to understand thatshe needs to be in math class, ready to learn, tomorrowon time." yes, ma'am, lookingforward to it, okay. next day rolls around. what do you think happened? chanel's 15 minutes late. 15 minutes late. and she was more po'd thanshe was the day before.
i didn't even knowthat that was possible. i didn't even knowthat was possible. i mean, they even make masks -- scary masks and sell themin spencer's that look like chanel's face that day. she was so upset. so, she walks in, puts her -- sits down in a seat with a bookbag, doesn't take anything out. doesn't take any notes, anythinglike that, okay, seen this --
not the first time, not the lasttime, bell rings, second period. everybody's going to jamiedougherty's class down the hall. chanel, come and talkto me a little bit. come and talk tome a little bit. chanel doesn't make eye contact. she wears that scowl the wholetime, maybe even the whole day. she keeps walking, goesdown to jamie's class. okay. well, chanel's15 minutes late. her name made theyellow post-it.
so, i'm on the waydown to south station. i give linda a callagain, ring, ring, ring, hey, linda, mr. gray. "are you going to call everysingle time chanel's late to school?" can you rememberfrom the outline? do you know what i said? you're damn right i am. damn right i am.
because chanel's not coming tome at grade level, if i'm going to get her to the 11th grade,12th grade, college-bound, college-ready, i need chanelto be here every single day, with her butt in aseat, ready to learn. do you think you cantalk to her again? "yeah, yeah, yeah. she'll be there tomorrow." okay, linda, that's all i want. i'm in your corner.
i'm in her corner. don't get hostile, please. okay. next day rollsaround, guess what happened? chanel's 10 minutes late. she's 10 minutes late. now, don't be too happywith the progress. she's still late now [laughter]. she's still late. in fact, chanel was latefor the next 12 days.
so she made that yellowpost-it for the next 12 days. and so, i called lindafor the next 12 days. but you know what's funny? ring, ring, ring, ring,ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, linda never picked up again,never picked up again. but the cool partabout this story, guys, is that chanel was10 minutes late. next day, she waseight minutes late. next day, five minutes late.
got to a point where chanel wastwo minutes late every single day, even thoughshe got to school on time, just to piss me off. i respect that. that's okay. she's going to go farin life [laughter]. she's just showingme who's in control. i don't have kids, butfor those of you that do, know that that'sprobably a natural --
you know, a natural reaction. that was fine. i had dinner with chanelbefore i left boston. i'm currently onsabbatical this year. and i had dinner with her. she graduated from monument,and she's now enrolled in a program -- she's nota northeastern freshman. she's enrolled in a programthat, if she does well, she's going to be enrolledin northeastern next year.
and i will tell you, asthe massachusetts teacher of the year, that isnot because of me. that is because there area lot of people that worked at that school thatwere like me, right? it's not just me. so, people always say,"oh, thank you, mr. gray. you know, you're the one that -- you know, i'm herebecause of you." now, maybe i went theextra mile a little bit.
but there were a lot of peoplethat contributed to that -- a lot of people thatcontributed to that. and it sounds like alot of effort, guys. sounds like a lot of effort. you write a name on a post-it. you got it in your cell. you make the phone callon the way to the train. not that much effort. and who knows, had we not takenthe time to do those sorts
of things at monument, who knows where her trajectorywould be right now, okay? who knows where it would be. so, what we have to realize is,both teachers and mathematicians and people that are goingto engage in this -- in these policy discussionsin the future, because that's what youguys are going to have to do if we're going to keep thisprofession, you know, healthy -- or get it healthy, i guess ishould say, is that, behind each
and every single data point isa living, breathing human being, living, breathing human being. so, the data's important, butwe also have to know the faces and the challengesthat come with them. and what i tried to tellchanel was something i try to live every single day. 15 minutes early is on time. on time is late. and late is unacceptable.
and that's the kind of, like,intensity that you guys got to bring to the classroomevery day. whether you work ina challenging school like monument, or you workat a really fine institution that is hitting onall cylinders. that's the kind of intensitythat you have to bring every day to the classroom, okay? oftentimes, the studentsthat you do have will come on the lower levels ofmaslow's hierarchy of needs.
they're going to belooking for safety. they're going to be lookingfor love and belonging. they're going to belooking for a prom date. they're going -- allkinds of teenage chaos, or little kid chaos, isgoing to be going on. and it's our job to notonly meet them here, but get them hereto self-actualize. so that means, we have to havehigh expectations for them. we have to have rigorouscontent.
okay, and we have to get themto a place where they can -- they have the skills andthe tools that they need that will open doors for them that otherwise wouldnot be open, okay? behavior management -- numberone, build relationships. i'm not going to spend anytime on this, because i feel like the last anecdote basicallysheds light on the kind of commitment that you have tohave, both to your colleagues and to your students, okay?
build relationships, number one. so, these students, your problemchilds, more times than not, they have absolutely alwayshad teachers call home and say bad thingsabout them, right? we've all made thosephone calls. and if you haven't,you will, okay? so, what i would suggest,the very first day of school, you can identify someof those problem childs. they're not problem childs,but, you know, they're --
they just might not beinto your class yet. they might not be academic. make a phone call home early,and just say something like, hey, i'm going to channelthis young lady's energy. i'm really excited to watchher develop both academically and personally over thecourse of the year, right? and then you might be the firstteacher that's ever called home, and said somethingpositive about that student. and then, all of the sudden,that student's going to walk
through your door withtheir chest poked out, and their chin up, andthey're going to be able to -- eventually, what they'll do, ifthey know you're going to run through walls for them, they'llwalk through walls for you. you got to buildthat relationship. second one -- and this doesn'tget talked about enough. all right, and this isextremely important. and i'm glad that i'm talkingto you guys, because i know, dr. wilson, you guys are reallytalking about content in here
and how you're goingto deliver this content in a way that's rigorousand engaging, okay? content connectionswhich will lead to curiosity, that's a big one. how many kids do we teach thesedays that are naturally curious? naturally leaders? they just want todo the problem, where do i plug thisin, and then move on -- go to the next class, right?
this is also a tool forbehavior management. let me tell -- let megive you an example. and again, this is not somethingi did early in my career. this is something thati'm still working on. i have a lot of roomfor improvement. but it's something thati've learned the last couple of years. i came up with thisfictional nike case study. we were studying surface area.
and rather than saying, oh,4 pi r-squared in the formula for the surface area ofa sphere, let's just -- given a radius, calculatethe surface area, given the surface area,calculate the diameter, all this kind of stuff, which -- you know, isolatingvariables is important. how am i going to apply that? how do people applythat in their real life? so i made up this kind offictional nike case study.
and you can make upyour own case studies, too, which are fun. nike -- beaverton, ohio, right? how many people know that --kids are going to know that? so basically, what isaid is, you are -- split up my class into thirds. let's say this third are goingto be people that work for nike. okay? this third are goingto be people that work in bangalore at a factory.
and then the back third aregoing to be people that work at -- i guess that'sguangzhou, i guess. i don't know how -- necessarilyhow to pronounce that. but these are -- theseare places in the world where nike has factories. and we want to basicallymake basketballs. so i took a basketball, i tooka knife, and i cut it open. and i said, let's see what'sinside of a basketball. there's rubber on theinside, or lining.
there's leather on the outside. and we talked aboutwhat it takes to actually make a basketball. this is roughly spherical,right? and you use a lot ofmath to make this. then, we eventually gotto financial statements. so we're dealingwith surface area. god, i'm hitting the standardfor surface area here. i'm teaching surface area.
but i'm teaching a heck of alot more than surface area. i'm teaching it in a waywhere kids are thinking about, how does surface area evenapply to me besides, you know, painting a house thathas windows and a door, and you're not paintingthe floor, right? something a littlebit sexier than that. so we talk aboutfinancial statements. we talk about shipping costs. we talk about labor costs.
i threw a curve ball at my kids-- i've only done this twice, and it's been -- it'sgetting better over time. labor costs right here. so basically, i said, oh, inchina, you know there's a lot of people that arekilling themselves because of poor laborconditions. so they're talkingabout unionizing. and what does -- what isthe history of unions? so, this surface areaconversation can lead
to so much more -- so muchmore than just surface area. and it really gets kids tothink about the global economy and their future role in it. unions and working conditionsand things like that. so again, i think as teachers,it's really important for us to deliver content in a waythat does the following. that does the following. it leads to conversationsbetween students after class. and this would be greatif you can do this.
it leads to conversationsat the dinner table at home. if you can teach content ina way where kids are psyched, and they're ready to run throughyour door instead of running out of it, that is whenyou are doing a great job. now, i'm sitting here, massachusetts teacherof the year. there are plenty of times,even in the last year, kids wanted to runout of my door. so, i'm not perfect.
i'm not a 10 every day. my effort, my commitment,is always a 10. you have to be -- you know, work towards beingconsistently effective. and it starts with beingrigorous, which can also be used as a behavior management tool. also, something reallyimportant, guys, if you're talking aboutbeaverton, ohio, and china, india, please emphasize thatthis is not drawn to scale.
if they're thinkingthat ohio and india are about the same size,that's problematic. so just be cautious of that. you guys have seenthose geometry problems where things arenot drawn to scale. okay, another one --"the tipping point." have you guys ever heardof malcolm gladwell or read "the tipping point"? okay. so, malcolm gladwell,i mean, he's not the person
that came up with this, butwrote a really cool book called "the tipping point,"and he talks about crime ratein new york city. so in my algebra classlast year, we were talking about polynomial regression. had a bunch of data points,and let's fit a curve to it to make future predictionsand predictions -- you know, interpolate --we were interpolating -- well, a little bit.
so, instead of just doing that,right, on a ti-83 or a ti-84 -- instead of just doing that,i thought, okay, well, let me just get some real data. so we looked at the number ofmurders, or the crime rate, in new york city between,like 19 -- well, we -- i just got this pictureoff the internet today. we only looked from1960 to, probably, 2005. and what you notice, there'sa major tipping point here, right at about 1989, 1990, wherethe crime rate just plummets.
and so this guy namedwilliam bratton, who was hired as the head of the new york citytransit police during rudolph giuliani's early years, had implemented this thingcalled the broken windows theory, where he basicallysaid, we're going to focus on the small things, andthe big things are going to take care of themselves. so, we're going to arrestpeople for peeing in public. we're going to arrest them
for jumping turnstiles,vandalizing trains. and when they did that,what they noticed is, everybody that they arrestedfor doing those small things, maybe one in five had awarrant out for their arrest. they had weapons on them. they had drugs on them. so, they focused onthe small things, and they started gettingall the big people, right? the broken windows, i believe,is named for this reason.
if you walk into a neighborhoodthat has broken windows, and you don't fixthem, people will think that they can justbreak windows, and it's no big deal, right? so, if you walk intoa neighborhood that has broken windows, andyou fix them every single time that they're broken, peopleare going to walk around, and they're goingto, like, "well, i can't break windows here.
they're just goingto get fixed." okay? so that's kindof where the -- i think, where thetheory comes from. but it got the kids talking. we're not only doingpolynomial regression, but we're applying it to things that are being talkedabout in real life. but then, we threwthis in there. i threw this in there.
steve levitt, who's theauthor of "freakonomics," he has his own opinions aboutthe tipping point of crime rate, not only in new yorkcity, but nationwide. he's an economist. he's graduated from mitand now works at u chicago. and he said that it's notbroken windows theory, you know? we like that kindof american story. the cowboy comesin, he cleans things up with this great theory.
instead, what is -- thereason for the tipping point and the decrease in crimerate is roe v. wade, which is really controversial,right -- abortion, 1973. and what he pointed to is,basically he said, okay, crime rate not only decreasedin new york, but if you look at the crime rate in boston,chicago and los angeles, and a lot of differentkind of cities -- not megacities, but citiesacross the u.s. during that time, they all had tippingpoints at around the same time.
so, guys, we're sitting here, we're hitting thestandard big time, man. we are hitting it big time. kids know how to graphit on their calculators and interpolate and extrapolate. but you know what, this isleading to conversations after class, on weekendsand at home. kids would come to me and say,hey, mr. gray, i was talking about this with myparents, and they disagree.
or, they agree, and kidsstart looking at each other and talking to each other. so, this is a -- this is abehavioral tool, because kids that are bored aregoing to act out. and if you can hook them andengage them with something like this, you know, youcan't do this 180 days out of the year. i'm not pretending that you can. but, the more oftenyou can do it,
the more kids aregoing to be engaged. tips for implementation, ifyou're curious about this, i would say, allow your studentsto present their solutions to problems routinely, even iftheir solutions are incorrect. have students reflecton what they've learned and communicate through writing. i mean, this is somethingi learned last year, and you know hadalready been selected as the teacher of the year.
and it's great tolearn these things, because i have somuch room to grow. get your kids writing about themathematics that they're doing. get them to really reflect onwhat they're doing in class, not just solving andisolating variables. not just calculatingthe area of a circle when that circle's notreally attached to something that they're going tohave to use in real life. get them to write.
be the ultimate facilitator. interestingly enough,ladies and gentlemen, this has been my experience-- the less you talk, the more students learn. the less you talk, themore students learn. get them to look at eachother when they are speaking, and student engagementwill increase. be the guide on the side, notthe sage on the stage, okay? now, i get it -- theseare just my opinions.
i'm not an expert in this. but this is what i havefound to be successful in my classrooms, okay. be the guide on the side andnot the sage on the stage. other suggestions -- howwe doing on time here? doing okay? all right. other suggestions, i'vealready talked a little bit about building relationshipswith parents
and students and colleagues. let's see. is this clock right, dr. wilson? >> [inaudible responses]. >> adam gray: whattime is it, guys? >> 5. >> it's 5 o'clock. >> adam gray: it's 5:00. okay, so we got 15minutes, maybe?
>> yeah. >> adam gray: okay, good. i don't know if i want totell this anecdote or not. we'll just -- we'llkeep going here. collaborate. you're going to learn -- thisis kind of unfortunate, i think, in our profession thesedays, is that veterans, who, by definition these days,are teachers with more than 10 years of experience.
unfortunately, these teachershave been labeled as lazy, or they're not willing toimprove, or, you know -- especially, i feel like, innew england, where we have -- we have strong unions up there. and that's not the case. i mean, i have very rarelymet veterans that didn't want to improve in theirown practice. i've met -- most veterans i knoware skeptical of new policies. that's true.
but they're certainlywell-intentioned and committed, and they want to continuegrowing and learning. invite your colleaguesinto your classroom. invite them into theclassroom, and here's why. because my experience hasbeen, when you ask to go into a colleague's classroom,it can be threatening. you're the young folks. all you guys lookreally young in here. you know, it feels awkward.
it feels awkward. but if you invite veterancolleagues into your classroom, here's what's going to happen. they have lots of experiencethat they can share with you, and give you tips on how toimprove your own practice. and they probably have deeperrelationships with the kids, unless you've beenthere for a long time. but unbeknownst to you,they're going to learn from you. they're not going to tell you.
but they're goingto start taking some of the great practices thatyou have in your classroom, and they're going to start going and implementing intheirs, all right? and that's going to-- and then you -- once you start to develop thatstrong bond with colleagues, then you're going to startto openly discuss pedagogy and other things like that. ask for constructive feedbackfrom colleagues, so that kind
of goes to that same thing. these student feedbackforms have been some of the most valuablefeedback i've ever gotten. i mean, my administrators haveevaluated me over the years -- i mean, very nice,well-intentioned, really smart people with ph.d.sfrom bc and all over the place. but it's really hard to kindof figure out where a teacher's at in terms of quality ofteaching, if you're only in a classroom four times ayear, right, and it's announced.
so, really, what ihave found, personally, is that the best evaluatorsof me, the best judges of me, are the students. and if you look on this -- you guys just look onthis for a second -- flip it over to the back. on the front side, what'sreally cool about this is that students have toevaluate themselves first. do i come to school on time?
rarely, never, always, whatever. do i pay attention in class? rarely -- you know, theyevaluate themselves first, i wouldn't even callit evaluating. but then they give youfeedback on the opposite side. don't -- please donot implement this by letting them giveyou feedback first and then evaluate themselves. you make them reflecton themselves first.
because, you know, johnnymight have been there one day out of five for the whole year. if he's only there20% of the time, what does he know about you? he doesn't know anythingabout you. so, you get them toreflect on themselves first, then get them togive you feedback. what's awesome -- onething that has helped me out with this -- cani just grab this?
thanks. there is a partat the bottom here. number 17 -- what are somegood practices you observed in another class that you wouldrecommend for this teacher? i mean, goodness gracious. kids will not lay into you. kids will say, in ms. wilson'sclass, this is what they do, and it really works for me. or, it really worksfor the class. and you will -- you know,maybe ms. wilson is --
and, i know, dr. wilson,you're not like this. but maybe ms. wilsondoesn't invite a lot of colleagues intoher classroom. but here you are, you'relearning about ms. wilson's -- kind of her bestpractices, through the kids. and they're sayingit's working for her. you know what i mean? so, you're getting good feedbackfrom the kids, and this is -- has been a reallygood tool for me.
feel free to use it, andobviously, constructive feedback from administrators,recognition. lead by example. i'll just keep going here. have high expectationsfor yourself, for your students or colleagues. here's some great suggestions. teach to the standards,not to the test. guys, our profession ismoving in a direction
where we are starting to incorporate value-addedmeasures into our evaluations. now, i'm not going to get in -- maybe during a q-and-asession we can talk about it, but you know that canbe a really scary thing. that could be a reallyscary thing. but i advise you notto teach to the test, but to teach to the standards. so like i was talkingabout with surface area
and polynomial regression, whenyou do that, kids are going to knock the assessmentsout of the water, all right? don't teach themprocess of elimination. that's not good forthe profession and not good for students. there's a great professor -- i don't know if you guys haveever read about this guy, richard elmore, who'sa professor at harvard. he has this kind of theory-- task predicts performance.
students will do whatyou ask them to do. low-level assignments won'tequip students for complex, demanding high-level workon tests or later in life. so, you know, wheni wrote objectives at the very beginning, theyweren't rigorous objectives, because this isn't a lesson. but, you know, ask your studentsto do a lot, and they will more than likely produce a lot. where do your daily assignmentsfall on bloom's taxonomy?
map out your entire year,and let your students know when you will covering what. so, i would even put a mapon the wall and say, hey, you know in september, here'sabout where we're going to be. october, about wherewe're going to be. and this is kind of how we'reprogressing throughout the year. and it allows kids to reallymonitor their own progress. i'd map out the wholeyear, guys, and just say, these are the -- these arethe days that i'm going
to hit these particularstandards. organized, organized, organized. know where the ship is headed,and let your shipmates know where the ship is headed. and your shipmates areyour students, right? greatest suggestions. how many guys in here havenot been teaching full-time? raise your hand if youhave not taught full-time. great, so you guys need totake note of this, okay?
you're going to beworking real hard. real hard, okay? and you know, i may be --i'm up here, and i'm like, call, post-its every day. you don't have to havethat level of intensity. but regardless, you'restill going to be working reallyhard doing lesson plans and different things. so, it's going tobe hard to have much
of a personal lifefor a little bit. i recommend work-lifebalance, definitely, but it'll be challengingat first. so, i recommend, like, okcupidand match.com [laughter]. eharmony is a great website that my roommate hashad success with. this is one i'm not yet qualified for,millionaire match. i hope to in -- someday.
and for some of you guys,sugardaddy.com is the one that's up and coming, ihear, but anyway. suggested readings -- this istwo more slides right here. suggested readings, a book that-- a book that really helped me out that not only learned --that kind of helped me learn how to be a more effectiveleader in my classroom, but a more effectiveleader at the school level, and even a leader in my ownrelationships with people -- friends and partners,is a book called
"leadership and self-deception." if you have time in between,you know, messaging people on match.com, you might pickthis book up and read it. it's a book thatbasically talks about a guy who thinks that he's a leader. he's working in isolation. he's working. he looks around, he'sjudgmental to people around him. they don't do this.
they don't do that. he's not really communicatingwith these people, or his wife at home --excuse me, his wife at home. and he's lucky in that he getsa mentor who starts teaching him about what real leadershiplooks like -- genuinely caring forthose that you work with. and when i say work with, i mean both studentsand colleagues, okay? so, that's a good read foryou guys if you're interested.
another read -- you know,you guys are going to -- you know, you're thefuture of our profession. you're the new majority. teach plus is a non-profitorganization that i'm affiliated with -- opportunitiesfor teachers and results for urban students. they have a greatnewsletter that you can read, just to be up to dateon education policy, not only in urbanschools, but nationwide.
so, it's something i would checkout, because guys, you know, there's a lot of --i mean, there's a lot of ed reform going on out there. some of it's good. a lot of it is -- you know, a lot of it's scary,is what i'll say. and so it's on us toreally start being engaged in the policy discussions. and i know it's hard,because i'm a teacher, too.
and we work in isolation. but it's really --it's really up to us to start engaging both district,state, union, federal people and these types of things andletting them know how we feel, even if we feel differently. so teach plus is agood way to do that. last quote i'll leave you withis, the greatest danger for most of us is that that our aimis too high and we miss it, but that it is toolow, and we reach it.
so have high expectations foryourself, for your colleagues and your students, and youguys are going to be great. and it's great to be here. if you guys have anyquestions, more than -- i'm more than welcome to stay, and we can have a greatconversation with all of us, and if you want toreach, or connect out, my email'sadamgray2012@gmail.com. thanks for having me.
and all questions, buti won't answer okcupid or match.com questions. i'm sorry [laughter]. those are questionsi will not answer, or respond to, iguess i should say. i don't have a lot of -- i don'thave answers to a lot of things. >> do you have the timefor questions, too? >> adam gray: yeah. >> it seems like, when you'replanning a lot of these lessons,
there needs to a be asignificant amount of time for the discussion of, i don'tknow, say, the global economy and that kind of thing. when you plan, howmuch do you -- do you think leavingtime for discussion versus content development? >> adam gray: oh,i'd say, probably -- you know, it's somethingthat's kind of changing, because i'm growing so much.
i think, you know it used tobe where i would lecture for, probably, 70% of the class. then we would do a fewproblems, then we would talk about a few problems at the end. and kids would go home -- maybethey got it, maybe they didn't. so, to answer your question,i would say, i probably budget about 20% of every classopen for discussion. now, what that meansis the following. i have dry eraseboards in my classroom.
so, even if, you know,we're talking about -- let's just say we're talking about a regular oldsurface area problem, right, of a composite solid. you know, i'll give dry eraseboards throughout the class, and i'll say, okay,you got number five. you got number six, and yougot number seven, right? and at the end of class,20 -- last 20% of class, you'll come up, andyou'll do your problem.
maybe it's right. maybe it's wrong. maybe you got it wrong, butwe're going to see something in your -- in your --in your thought process. and we get to number six. and we don't getto number seven. or, we lead with numberseven the next day. we'll lead with numberseven the next day. in terms of the globaleconomy and stuff, like i said,
this is not something that ido 180 days out of the year. this is probably somethingi would do once a term. now, i would like toactually increase that. i would like to start flippingthe classroom a little bit. now, i've never tried that,so i don't know if that's kind of like this new, sexy thingthat actually doesn't work. but i like the ideaof it, right? so, let's derive,on a video, the -- you know, the formula forthe surface of a sphere.
let's derive that. then, let's show yousome practice problems. why don't you gohome and watch that. we'll talk about it alittle bit in class. but then, for the rest ofclass, we're going to work on some stuff that'sa lot better on the bloom's taxonomyscale, you know what i mean? but right now, i'dsay i budget about 20% of conversation per day,for even regular problems.
but it's only aboutonce a term where i get to those global economy orbroken windows theory projects. but if kids know they're on the-- on the horizon, you know, they get pretty excited aboutit, that answer your question? okay. and what's cool aboutthat, too, is i'm no -- i mean, i'm not an expert. i'm not -- i wouldn't even saythat i'm an expert in math. and i'm sure as heck not anexpert on the global economy. so you have to do alot of homework, right?
and when kids ask you questions,you just have to be -- have the courage tosay, i don't know, and we're going tofind out together. yes, ma'am. >> do you collaboratewith teachers in those other subjectareas when you're... >> adam gray: so, that's-- so, the answer's no. and part of that isbecause there's -- the school where i worked,all the data that i showed you
up here, did not have built-incollaboration time during the day. the school where iworked last year did. but it was my teacherof the year year, so i was working full-timeand kind of doing stuff like this almost full time, andi was, like, kind of a hot mess. i wasn't -- we hadcollaboration time in place, but i wasn't doing alot of collaborating. i was working on otherthings, like presentations
and speeches andthings like that. but it's one of the things -- there was a recent studythat came out by teach plus, that i was in washington,d.c. talking about just a couple weeks ago,and they were comparing ideas for both new majority teachersand veteran teachers on how to elevate the teachingprofession. and they had areasof high agreement and areas of low agreement.
areas of low agreement wouldbe people that have grown up in the era ofaccountability are more open to having test scores as apart of their evaluation. they're more open tocompensation reform and pension reform and allthese things that are, you know, in the news these days in thepolicy discussions at least. two areas of high agreementwere the following -- that i talked about infront of congress -- congressional staffers --were, we need an increase --
we need to increase the amountof school day time that we have to collaborate, butwe don't want to necessarily lengthenthe school day. right, talk -- look at thatdata point earlier where finland and south korea spend 500hours less than we do, right? i mean, that's a lot. and yet, they do somuch better than we do. now, i'm not saying -- youknow, there's a lot more than just time thatgoes with that, but,
you know, anyway, yes, ma'am? >> if -- what isyour normal, like, typical class period look like? >> adam gray: my classperiod would be -- so basically, kidscome in, and we have -- we'll do a couple ofhomework problems. so, in boston, we havea thing called do now. do you guys havesomething like that? it's like where, you know,
we have this blackboardconfiguration where you have theobjectives, and the homework, and the do now and stuff. what i do like about the do now, and i don't know how myadministrators feel about this. i don't even -- i'm stillgrowing as a teacher, if this is good practice, but i don't give rinky-dinkproblems for homework, right? i mean, i give prettychallenging problems
that make kids think. so i know that kids are goingto, you know, really struggle with number six or number seven. so, we'll either start goingover number seven the next day. or, i know kids are goingto trip up on these, and we'll have kidscome up and solve them. right, the less i talk,the more they learn. because kids will say, well,i got a different answer. well, let's now seeyour answer, right?
and let's not pretendthat there's one way to solve one problem, right? there's lots of ways. so, i would say -- one second, because i haven'tanswered the question yet. i would say, you know, studentsare up at the beginning. then, if there's any kind oflike lecture, or like, you know, discussion about --i say discussion -- really, if there'slike a lecture,
and we're talking about, youknow, pythagorean theorem or something, we'll derive it. and then we'll doa couple examples, and then kids willdo practice problems. and then kids will getthe dry erase boards, and we'll do them at the end. that's pretty consistent. and i use these clickersin class. so, for example, i never usemultiple choice in class,
so what i'll say is, i'll givea really complicated problem, or maybe a medium problem, and kids will generatetheir own solutions. and then i'll throw a slideup on the -- on the -- on the powerpoint screen. it'll have five options. it'll be like, a-2, b-4, c -- like, 6, d will be got adifferent answer, and e will be, i did not understandthe question.
so they're not processof elimination. they're not doing that. they're generatingtheir own answer. they're clicking it in. and if they don't know, they'reshowing you they don't know. so i didn't do a greatjob communicating that. or, if they got a differentanswer, let's see that. and i don't always put theanswer in a, b or c, right? some -- i oftentimes put theanswer in -- not up there.
so the kid that got thedifferent answer probably got it -- maybe have gotten it right. so, that's what i do every day. >> so, i know that a few of us here just finishedour student teaching. >> adam gray: okay. >> last week. >> adam gray: congratulations. >> we're excited about it.
but, i guess ,while we studenttaught, a lot of us struggled with motivating students, andit's still kind of a struggle. so, what did you face duringyour first year of teaching in terms of motivating students,and how did you overcome those? >> adam gray: what did i face? kids skipping my -- i mean, interms of, like, some of the -- kids skipping my class, kidscoming late, kids swearing at me, kids threatening me. you know, and -- youknow, oftentimes,
first-year teachers can beset up for failure, right? set up for failure. you're not givena mentor teacher. you're not given theresources you need to excel. you know, and so you just haveto make do with what you have. how i eventually got past that was building thoserelationships, right? and then you get --basically, what you have is, you have older people thatare selling you their cousins
or their brothers orother people coming up. you know, they're like, oh,you know -- what's your name? >> my name? >> brian pigeon [assumedspelling]. >> adam gray: so, mr. pigeon,man, he's doesn't play -- or, you know, wait untilyou get to this project that he's doing, you know. they start to sell you. but you have to buildthat relationship.
because they said, mr.pigeon, he is a jerk, you know? and then, those --you know, i mean, at least where i was working. i don't know whereyou'll be working. but, you know, those werethe challenges that i faced, and overcoming thosewas becoming more consistently effective. effective is a crazy word,because does that mean that you're a 10 every day?
i don't even knowthat that exists. but consistently effective, and that you buildrelationships with students. and that's how i overcame it. i wouldn't even say overcame it, because i don't even thinki -- you ever overcome it. >> adam gray: that'show i've dealt with the challengesi continue to face. >> well, it's about the...
>> adam gray: great. >> ...end of our time here. if you have morequestions, please email. >> thank you verymuch for coming in. >> adam gray: sure, yeah. thanks, guys.
