Thursday, September 20, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
school starts...
hi everyone,
School started last week. I was nervous about it, because in June when it ends I'm always tired and disspirited and convinced I'm unfit to be in a classroom, but so far it's going much better than I remembered. The genius 8th graders have graduated, making me suddenly the best player in the school again. I had not realized how intimidated I had become.
I also did a lot of prep over the summer, and that's meant I've felt on top of things, even when I have to juggle nine classes and multiple learning groups in each class. I've also become better about automating homework, so 4 classes have a standing assignment of 20 correct chesstempo.com problems per week, which makes my grading life 10 times easier. I've pre-made a unit on the (advanced) characteristics of each piece, and so I just turn on the projector, click the forward arrow, and start talking. I'm using Johan Hellsten's Mastering Chess Strategy for my 8th grade class, and it's going beautifully. Greg says he disagrees with much of the book, accuracywise, but I don't care.
My early morning class is awesome this year: 20 kids, all rated between 500 and 1450, totally enthusiastic, and I have them all 5 periods a week, and most of them 8. If we don't win the k-6, I'm a total failure as an educator.
I destroyed them all at bughouse this morning. (Friday mornings, 7:30-8:20 is the only time that bughouse is ever allowed in my room, but I agree it's really fun.)
The funny thing is that Greg's team, Masterman, will probably be our main competition this year, as we'll probably both choose a section to avoid the unstoppable-looking Cameron Wheeler team. We were talking last night about sharing a team room and coaching each other's kids through the tournament, which would be hilariously strange, and only conceivable with Greg, or possibly Matan. :)
I'm managing the New York Knights, which is fun. So far, we seem to be underperforming, but I don't care, so it's fine.
I saw my sister recently, and she took me to a Chinese supermarket near her house, where I saw things I had never seen before:
If I had brought a backpack, I would have gone shopping-crazy, but I did not.
I have been thinking about teacher evaluations recently, what with the Chicago strike and all. These are my conclusions:
1) Cheating is an enormous problem. A freakonomics podcast looked at elementary schools in Chicago and found 3-5% percent of teachers cheat. Let's say it's 4%. In general 5th grade teachers are more likely to cheat, because if 4th grade teachers cheat, they penalize their friends, the 5th grade teachers in the same building. But when 5th grade teachers cheat and the kids go on to other middle schools, the teachers don't directly deal with the consequences and are also less likely to get caught because classes are broken up and the kids are dispersed more randomly. The kids that these 4% teach are scattered into different middle schools, so lets say an average of 2.5 dispersal rate, or 10% of 6th grade teachers are affected.
Let's agree that it is absolutely impossible to raise the score of a child who has been helped. I had a girl in my homeroom last year who had a perfect score on her 5th grade ELA test. Then she scored a 2 (out of 4) in 6th grade. She was a nice girl, but slow. There is no way she was not helped (also she told me she was), and there is no way her 6th grade teacher will not be judged a failure.
This means that the top 4% and the bottom 10% of teachers are not accurately rated. In fact, the best teachers are probably cheaters (nothing is more effective than a teacher taking the test for you) and the worst teachers are probably victims. That means that evaluating, rewarding, and punishing teachers based on test scores is probably 100% counterproductive.
2) Ok, let's say you could fix that, I'm prepared to accept that evaluating math teachers on a standardized test is reasonable. But evaluating English teachers on a multiple choice test is silly. There is no way to measure good reading and writing instruction on a multiple choice test. It just doesn't make any sense.
3) Aside from that, the tests are terribly written. The first time I took the 7th grade ELA test, I scored abysmally, almost failing, despite getting a 1560/1600 on the SAT and a 2340/2400 on the general GRE. So many questions were ambiguously worded or totally nonsensical that I could not understand even what answer the test writer wanted me to give.
English teachers should be evaluated on aggregate student work. If you can get a class of 30 kids to write 8 good essays each, 1 per month, you are doing a fine job. There should be someone in every school who spends one period a week reading the writing that each class produces and grading the teacher on the results, taking into consideration, obviously, the background and ability of the class. Stop paying Houghton Miflin billions to write nonsensical tests, and hire some retired ELA teachers to give their professional opinions. That way, if a teacher helps her kids, it's actually instructive teaching, not cheating.
School started last week. I was nervous about it, because in June when it ends I'm always tired and disspirited and convinced I'm unfit to be in a classroom, but so far it's going much better than I remembered. The genius 8th graders have graduated, making me suddenly the best player in the school again. I had not realized how intimidated I had become.
I also did a lot of prep over the summer, and that's meant I've felt on top of things, even when I have to juggle nine classes and multiple learning groups in each class. I've also become better about automating homework, so 4 classes have a standing assignment of 20 correct chesstempo.com problems per week, which makes my grading life 10 times easier. I've pre-made a unit on the (advanced) characteristics of each piece, and so I just turn on the projector, click the forward arrow, and start talking. I'm using Johan Hellsten's Mastering Chess Strategy for my 8th grade class, and it's going beautifully. Greg says he disagrees with much of the book, accuracywise, but I don't care.
My early morning class is awesome this year: 20 kids, all rated between 500 and 1450, totally enthusiastic, and I have them all 5 periods a week, and most of them 8. If we don't win the k-6, I'm a total failure as an educator.
I destroyed them all at bughouse this morning. (Friday mornings, 7:30-8:20 is the only time that bughouse is ever allowed in my room, but I agree it's really fun.)
The funny thing is that Greg's team, Masterman, will probably be our main competition this year, as we'll probably both choose a section to avoid the unstoppable-looking Cameron Wheeler team. We were talking last night about sharing a team room and coaching each other's kids through the tournament, which would be hilariously strange, and only conceivable with Greg, or possibly Matan. :)
I'm managing the New York Knights, which is fun. So far, we seem to be underperforming, but I don't care, so it's fine.
I saw my sister recently, and she took me to a Chinese supermarket near her house, where I saw things I had never seen before:
 |
| live frogs (?) |
 |
| no idea what this is, some kind of seafood |
 |
| assorted Chinese fishballs |
 |
| ?? |
 |
| super-long beans |
 |
| a green vegetable I am totally unfamiliar with |
 |
| I do not know what this is |
I have been thinking about teacher evaluations recently, what with the Chicago strike and all. These are my conclusions:
1) Cheating is an enormous problem. A freakonomics podcast looked at elementary schools in Chicago and found 3-5% percent of teachers cheat. Let's say it's 4%. In general 5th grade teachers are more likely to cheat, because if 4th grade teachers cheat, they penalize their friends, the 5th grade teachers in the same building. But when 5th grade teachers cheat and the kids go on to other middle schools, the teachers don't directly deal with the consequences and are also less likely to get caught because classes are broken up and the kids are dispersed more randomly. The kids that these 4% teach are scattered into different middle schools, so lets say an average of 2.5 dispersal rate, or 10% of 6th grade teachers are affected.
Let's agree that it is absolutely impossible to raise the score of a child who has been helped. I had a girl in my homeroom last year who had a perfect score on her 5th grade ELA test. Then she scored a 2 (out of 4) in 6th grade. She was a nice girl, but slow. There is no way she was not helped (also she told me she was), and there is no way her 6th grade teacher will not be judged a failure.
This means that the top 4% and the bottom 10% of teachers are not accurately rated. In fact, the best teachers are probably cheaters (nothing is more effective than a teacher taking the test for you) and the worst teachers are probably victims. That means that evaluating, rewarding, and punishing teachers based on test scores is probably 100% counterproductive.
2) Ok, let's say you could fix that, I'm prepared to accept that evaluating math teachers on a standardized test is reasonable. But evaluating English teachers on a multiple choice test is silly. There is no way to measure good reading and writing instruction on a multiple choice test. It just doesn't make any sense.
3) Aside from that, the tests are terribly written. The first time I took the 7th grade ELA test, I scored abysmally, almost failing, despite getting a 1560/1600 on the SAT and a 2340/2400 on the general GRE. So many questions were ambiguously worded or totally nonsensical that I could not understand even what answer the test writer wanted me to give.
English teachers should be evaluated on aggregate student work. If you can get a class of 30 kids to write 8 good essays each, 1 per month, you are doing a fine job. There should be someone in every school who spends one period a week reading the writing that each class produces and grading the teacher on the results, taking into consideration, obviously, the background and ability of the class. Stop paying Houghton Miflin billions to write nonsensical tests, and hire some retired ELA teachers to give their professional opinions. That way, if a teacher helps her kids, it's actually instructive teaching, not cheating.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
ear, ear!
well done to me for being called a good teacher in the NY Times!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
NY Knights lineups: you choose!
I'm excited about the upcoming USCL season! The NY Knights roster is below, as well as some of our possible lineups. Now's your chance to vote on who you'd like to see playing, in the poll to your right!
Watch our first match against the Manhattan Applesauce, on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 7 pm on ICC! I'll be online: kibitzing, trash-talking, and posting photos!
Thanks to our sponsor, ChessNYC!
 |
| Tamaz |
| 1. | GM Tamaz Gelashvili | 2720 |
| 2. | GM Giorgi Kacheishvili | 2681 |
| 3. | GM Alex Lenderman | 2665 |
| 4. | GM Pascal Charbonneau | 2565 |
| 5. | SM Matt Herman | 2394 |
| 6. | FM Michael Bodek | 2345 |
| 7. | NM Justus Williams | 2255 |
| 8. | NM Alexander Katz | 2222 |
| 9. | Isaac Barayev | 2027 |
| 10. | Nicolas Checa | 1942 |
Watch our first match against the Manhattan Applesauce, on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 7 pm on ICC! I'll be online: kibitzing, trash-talking, and posting photos!
Thanks to our sponsor, ChessNYC!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
IS 318 visits Jane St. Hedge Fund
Last Friday, I took a small group of kids to visit Jane Street Hedge Fund. Sandor Lehoczky, our kind host, gave us a quick but extremely informative lesson on stocks, currencies, and trading, and then took us on a tour of the trading floor.
Danny, Alexis, Miguel, Tommy, Anita
After the markets closed, we played bughouse with the traders.
On a quick break, near Battery Park City
A German Enigma coding machine from World War II.
more photos here
I finish last and go to Storm King
I am inordinantly proud of myself that I've started running. We bought a treadmill in June, and I am running 4-5 days a week. I like to run while watching 24 on netflix on Jonathan's ipad: I find the chase scenes very motivating.
On Wednesday I ran in a 5k at prospect park, and was proud to finished in 28:25, down two whole minutes from my two-week's-ago time of 30:36.
At least, I was proud until I saw the results page and realized I am on the very last page: last place (5/5) in my division of women 35-39. ouch.
Jonathan's time was 19:30. He finished 25th, and 5/17 in men 35-39. well done.
Today we went to Storm King Art Center, which is a easy day trip from NYC (njtransit). Below are a few photos, more on facebook here
Sunday, August 12, 2012
success, balance, comments
Paul Tough's second book, How Children Succeed, is coming out September 4. The third chapter is about chess, specifically the IS 318 chess team, James Black, Matan Prilleltensky, the Polgars, Gata Kamsky, and myself. You can read a fun excerpt here of me going over a game at nationals and being a bit psycho.
As you know, I love the Democracy in America blog, and I was especially struck by a recent article on balance in journalism:
The problem of balance is neatly explained by a British hack, Nick Davies, who wrote a seminal (and underrated) book on falsehood, distortion and propaganda in journalism called "Flat Earth News". Mr Davies does a bit of teaching, and he has his students imagine that they are asked to write a report on what the weather will be like tomorrow. They interview a woman in one room who says it will be sunny. Then they interview a man in another room who says it's going to rain. Your job, as a journalist, is not to simply write up what you have been told, he says. Your job is to look out the window.
Writing a "balanced" version of this story would produce an article that reads “he says it will rain” but “she says it won’t”. You have all these quotes fluttering around like “butterflies in a jar”, going nowhere. But there is a bigger danger lurking. What if the man who says it is going to rain is lying? What if he is an umbrella salesman? Your options are to either make a judgment about the truth, or print what you have been told. But if you balance an article when you know that all the evidence points to a sunny day tomorrow, then you are participating in a denial of truth.And finally, is anyone else disturbed by the wildly inconsistent comment policy at the New York Times? Some articles allow comments; others don't, purely at the whimsy of the department editor, for reasons completely opaque to me. May I comment on a Science article? DON'T EVEN TRY IT. Racial profiling at airports? SURE! Assisted suicide? ABSOLUTELY NOT! A 17 year old Ambassador's daughter who falls to her death at a party in a high rise after drinking? NO PROBLEM.
someone explain it to me
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
adults and children
I am thrilled to tell you that my video, IM Greg Shahade vs. 10 year old chess master has over 50,000 views!
I am less thrilled to tell you that Chess in the Schools has kicked IS 318 out of their program (after fifteen years). I have no idea why. Their stated reason is that we are too successful. (?!)
In June, I had heard rumors from three different people (including one eighth grader) that this was going to happen, so I called my friend Shaun Smith, Chess in the Schools Vice President. He gave me his word, emphatically, insistently, over and over, that he had heard nothing about any plans to drop us and the rumors were completely unfounded.
One week later, after school is out, they sent us a letter saying we are out of the program.
Back to happy, I have been working hard on organizing my files and preparing some teachery materials for the Brooklyn Castle website. The first document, Advice for Teachers, has a number of google docs links within it that link to other word documents and chessbase files. The (much shorter) Advice for Parents has some ideas for setting up a club. I hope it is useful to you and appreciate any feedback you have for me!
I am less thrilled to tell you that Chess in the Schools has kicked IS 318 out of their program (after fifteen years). I have no idea why. Their stated reason is that we are too successful. (?!)
In June, I had heard rumors from three different people (including one eighth grader) that this was going to happen, so I called my friend Shaun Smith, Chess in the Schools Vice President. He gave me his word, emphatically, insistently, over and over, that he had heard nothing about any plans to drop us and the rumors were completely unfounded.
One week later, after school is out, they sent us a letter saying we are out of the program.
Back to happy, I have been working hard on organizing my files and preparing some teachery materials for the Brooklyn Castle website. The first document, Advice for Teachers, has a number of google docs links within it that link to other word documents and chessbase files. The (much shorter) Advice for Parents has some ideas for setting up a club. I hope it is useful to you and appreciate any feedback you have for me!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
olympics trivia
Which country has the fewest athletes competing in the London Olympics?
I had never heard of the answer-country, Nauru, which turns out to be a small Micronesian island with an unbelievably informative government website.
I had never heard of the answer-country, Nauru, which turns out to be a small Micronesian island with an unbelievably informative government website.
Friday, July 20, 2012
I love the DMV
So I lost my non-drivers licence. I went to a Counting Crows concert on Tuesday and wanted to bring as little as possible in my pockets, so I just had keys, my iphone, my non drivers license loose from my wallet. and of course I lost it.
I invented reasons not to go on Wednesday and Thursday (too hot) but on Friday, I went to the DMV on 34th st/Herald Square. As I stood in the introductory "information" line, where they direct you inside the cavernous room to the second, purpose-specific line, as I stood at least 7 twists away from the counter, only in that state of desparation did I think "maybe I can do this online?!"
I just ordered a replacement nondriver's license online in under 2 minutes for $8.
bravo, NY State government!
I invented reasons not to go on Wednesday and Thursday (too hot) but on Friday, I went to the DMV on 34th st/Herald Square. As I stood in the introductory "information" line, where they direct you inside the cavernous room to the second, purpose-specific line, as I stood at least 7 twists away from the counter, only in that state of desparation did I think "maybe I can do this online?!"
I just ordered a replacement nondriver's license online in under 2 minutes for $8.
bravo, NY State government!
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