Implementing New Programs - Move Slowly

Observers of the American education scene over the last five or six decades are familiar with the fanfare surrounding the introduction of a new program or methodology. School boards and administrators sing its praises, and teachers attend seminars at which they redesign their lesson plans to correspond to the new pedagogy.

Wave after wave of "something new" has washed through the educational community in the United States. Some good, some bad, some unremarkable, these innovations recede quickly at the advent of the next novelty.

Given that our system is currently structured as a K through 12 matrix, any proposed change should be given, at a a minimum, a thirteen-year trial before any conclusion is drawn about its merits or lack thereof.

The wise reader will quickly chuckle at such a notion. The idea of a thirteen-year trial period goes so against the current of the political establishment that it would be almost incomprehensible to any elected or appointed educational bureaucrat.

While America's educational system has done much to harm itself, it, or at least the public portion thereof, is also at the mercy of the larger social framework in which it exists. Nobody's interested in thirteen-year studies. Even outside of education, researchers find it difficult to garner support for longitudinal studies. Quick projects, with the hope of instant gratification, find more support. Perhaps in some quiet corners of the private sector someone would be willing to engage in a long-term trial of a method or pedagogy.

With great ceremony a new program is placed into the school system, but administrative dynamics will not leave it in place long. Its introduction will be an important item on some agenda, but its demise will take place almost without notice, as it is moved aside for the next new thing.

The reality being what it is, we will continue to lurch from one initiative to another every few years.

[Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Teacher Andrew Smith currently teaches at both Huron High School and Pioneer High School. He teaches History and German. For the 2014/2015 academic year, he has two classes every morning at Pioneer and three classes every afternoon at Huron.]

STEAM in the AAPS

The acronym STEM, denoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, has become popular in educational bureaucracies across the nation. In Ann Arbor, administrators use a variation, STEAM, which indicates the addition of Arts to the emphasis. STEM and STEAM are, by themselves, not programs, but rather expressions of content areas which educators turn into programs. The following is not meant to be a comprehensive overview, but rather is a sampling of facts and anecdotes which illustrate what STEAM can do for students:

• To get AAPS students ready for what they'll encounter after graduating from high school, we can look at examples like these:
• The University of Michigan's program in Cell Biology and Molecular Biology informs students (on its website as of February 2014) that they should have some exposure to French, German, or Russian.
• The U of M's program in Physics and Astronomy likewise informs students (on its website as of February 2014) that they should have some exposure to French, German, or Russian.
• The U of M's Chemistry Department (on its website as of February 2014) informs undergraduate majors that they should have a reading knowledge of German.
• The U of M's School of Engineering teaches, in conjunction with the U of M's German Department, technical vocabulary and writing in German; the School of Engineering sends undergraduate interns in large numbers to countries like Switzerland and Austria.

For more information about the study of the German language can accelerate your career in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics, ask your local high school German teacher!

[Andrew Smith is a German teacher at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.]

Managing ASD

For those working in educational, or other management, settings, it is not necessary or appropriate to discuss the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder, or any treatments or therapies which may be prescribed or given for it. In schools and businesses, the questions about ASD are applied and practical.

One potential starting point is cognitive therapy. One hypothesis is that the expected behaviors, the mysterious unwritten rules of society, need to be taught in the way one teaches mathematics or history.

Under this hypothesis, an individual with ASD should be instructed about everything from eye-contact and shaking hands to polite phrases and self-censorship. By objectifying this content, the affective filter can be reduced. A neutral presentation and mastery of this knowledge might be a reasonable approach.

A different approach is that of behavior modification and operant conditioning. The former is sometimes called ‘applied behavioral analysis.’ This approach hypothesizes that a clear incentive or motivation is needed for individuals with ASD, in order to produce behavior toward which they have no inclination, and which they may find distasteful, but which society expects.

To be sure, these remain hypotheses, and it remains to be seen whether either, neither, or both of them will be ultimately found helpful.

Perhaps some blend of the two is possible.

The type of society in which an individual lives is also a variable for consideration. Does a society have relatively clear, if unspoken, rules? Does the majority of that society produce behavior which approximates those rules? If so, such a society will be more navigable for an individual with ASD than other societies.

[Andrew Smith is a German teacher at Pioneer High School.]

Pioneer's German T-Shirts!

Get 'em now! Pioneer High School is producing its annual German t-shirt. But you must order by Fri., Feb. 13, 2015! After that, it will be too late.

Interested? Talk to a German teacher. There are three of them at Pioneer: Robert Lederer, Andrew Smith, and Astrid Tackett.

If you get one of these shirts, you can wear it when we take our annual field trip to the German Day event at U of M.

Andrew Smith - Pioneer High School

During the 2014 / 2015, Andrew Smith is teaching German III and German IIIAC at Pioneer High School. These classes use room C-204. The textbook for the class is Deutsch Aktuell, fifth edition.

These classes continue an aligned curriculum with German II, German IIAC, and German I. Grammar, vocabulary, conversational patterns, and idioms are practiced in the modalities of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

One highlight of the school year was the annual trip to Chicago's Christkindlmarkt, which took place in December. The class is also looking forward to participating in the University of Michigan's annual German Day event, which will be held on Friday, March 13.

IB and AAPS

Readers are aware that the Ann Arbor Public Schools is not only considering the creation of an International Baccalaureate Program, but is even beginning to take concrete steps toward that end. What is an IB program, and what would it mean for AAPS parents and students?

The materials provided to date by the official IB organization contain mainly broad language about vision and mission, but are short on the specific details of how an IB program would be different than what is currently operating at Pioneer High School or Huron High School. There are, however, a few details which are beginning to emerge.

First, there is an extended research and writing project which seems to be a centerpiece of the student’s senior year. Second, there is an emphasis on close reading and textual analysis in the foreign language (‘world language’) curriculum.

To the latter point, it seems that students are to read one or two pieces of literature in the target language and create analytical essays, in the target language, about what they’ve read. A German teacher, for example, might assign Goethe’s Faust and Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and the student might compare the two in an essay written in German.

Money is, naturally, an issue. An IB program will cost something: fees must be paid to the International Baccalaureate organization, e.g., for the administration of standarized IB tests. The AAPS will need additional materials for classrooms.

Beyond those costs, a different sort of cost will be incurred in terms of which programs will have to give way in order to make room for IB. If Huron High School and Pioneer High School stay at approximately their present size - students bodies of around 1,600 - certain courses and curricula currently offered may disappear upon the arrival of IB.

The district is currently holding community meetings to gather remarks and comments from parents and other stakeholders. One comment which has already appeared several times questions whether the district will be able to continue to offer the wide range of AP courses which it currently maintains. Another remark questions whether or not retaining AP courses is, or should be, a high priority.

At this early stage, and in this continuously changing set of economic and political variables, it would be inappropriate to speculate about the exact details of a future IB program in Ann Arbor. Indeed, the purpose of the next year or two is to carefully investigate precisely that question.

Written IB materials include frequent mention of ‘philosophy’ in the International Baccalaureate curriculum. The AAPS will need to discover exactly what the IB means by that word. Teachers currently in the district who hold a State of Michigan teaching certificate in the content area of philosophy are few in number; one of them is Andrew Smith. Teaching certificates in that subject matter are rare.

To what extent does an IB certification indicate a “raising of the bar” in terms of how an outside governing body will examine the district?

The district has long been subject to accreditation audits, first by the North Central Association (NCA), and then by its successor organization, ‘AdvanceED.’

The State of Michigan has also monitored schools districts, and over the decades has done so with increasing levels of scrutiny.

Will the IB program bring more rigor to external reviews of the AAPS program? If, this would greatly serve the district’s purpose of attracting more students: being able to demonstrate that the AAPS offers a program strong enough to withstand IB scrutiny would be a feather in the district’s metaphorical cap.

By contrast, the examinations by the NCA and AdvancedED have been easy enough that passing them is no great achievement - after all, thousands of other high schools pass those same reviews. Likewise, the State of Michigan’s oversight is nearly meaningless, with constantly changing and irrelevant metrics which yield letters of reprimand precisely to those schools which are doing a good job of educating students, while allowing mediocre schools to pass.

(The letter of reprimand and threatened disciplinary action handed to Pioneer High School and Huron High School was based on bizarre statistical calculations; in reality, the average - mean, median, and mode - students in both schools were above the statewide averages on all relevant metrics.)

What remains to be discerned: more concrete and precise details about how an International Baccalaureate program would play out in the classroom, and whether the scrutiny of the IB organization is rigorous enough to ensure that passing IB reviews is something about which the AAPS can truly brag.

Over the coming months, a disciplined inquiry will, one hopes, yield this information.

[Andrew Smith is a German teacher at Pioneer High School and Huron High School.]

Final Exams - January 2015 - Getting Ready!

To help students get ready for final exams, volunteers from the U of M will be at Huron High School, in room 4315, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, on Monday, January 19, 2015, to work with small groups or with individuals reviewing for their tests.

This event is open to all Huron High School students.

We’ve offered this type of study session in previous years, and received many positive remarks and comments from parents and students. This type of feedback indicated that reviewing with the student volunteers from the university is helpful in the process of getting ready for final exams.

While it would be inappropriate to promise that everyone who attends the review sessions will get excellent grades, it is definitely helpful to study in this way. You can study for:

History (US, European, World), Government, Psychology, English, Philosophy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, Calculus, Pre-Calc, Algebra, Geometry, German, and Trigonometry

Other subjects may be available as well. These sessions, along with some disciplined review at home with flashcards and textbooks, are an excellent way to get ready for final exams!

If you have any questions about the review sessions, or would like to make a comment or remark about your experience at the review sessions, please talk to Andrew Smith.

[Although Andrew Smith is a German teacher at both Huron High School and Pioneer High School, this event is for Huron High School only. Similar events will be scheduled for Pioneer.]

Huron High School (HHS) and Pioneer High School (PHS) are part of the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS).