The Restroom Pass.

I was lurking this past weekend in a Twitter conversation about restroom passes in schools.

It is a fairly common pet peeve among teachers. We all have the correct restroom policy, and everyone else is wrong. We all know that kids use  “I have to go to the restroom” as code for “I am bored and need to get out of here” or “I need to call someone.” Rarely does it mean “I have to pee.” But still we give passes.

I teach high school. Up until this year I would tell the kids “if you have your big boy pants on you don’t need to go to the restroom. I have never had a high school student wet their pants.” Well, this year it happened. Someone wet their pants. I had to get a new policy. So I started paying closer attention.

Mine is a small high school, with about 250 kids. But there is only one restroom for each gender. During the passing period the restrooms are really full of kids; they are changing clothes for PE and making phone calls. They have to change in the restroom, it is required. So there are 15 to 20 kids in a three stall restroom changing for PE. It is crowded. Then their are the phone kids.  The restroom is the only place kids are “allowed” to use their phones, or at least it is the only place they can openly use their phone without risk of confiscation.  So what do you do if you have to, you know, pee? You go during class, because thats the only real option.



So THATS what good teaching looks like.

This year I have been spending one day a week at an elementary school as part of my administrative credential program. At first I was a bit apprehensive; I am a high school teacher, I have no interest or knowledge in the k-8 world. I have found the experience to be very interesting. I am learning a lot about elementary schools, and I am learning a lot about younger students. It turns out that they are not so scary after all. 

Last week a math teacher asked me if I would please come by her room and observe her lesson because she wanted to hear my feedback. So this week the Principal and I dropped by the room for an observation. I realized that in 18 years of teaching I had never sat in another teachers classroom to specifically look at teaching, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was stunned. Not only had I never seen teaching like that, I had never even imagined this level of good teaching! I had a hard time taking notes because I was so fascinated with how she was managing the class. Strategy after strategy being employed without so much as a moments pause. It was like the whole hour was perfectly planned, scripted, and rehearsed. I had never seen such a thing. 

I left the school that day not feeling very good about myself. In comparing my teaching with what I had seen in the math classroom I could only come to one conclusion; I suck. I consider myself a very reflective teacher. I think about how every lesson goes, and how I can improve the lesson next time. I do a lot of professional development, almost all of it on my own dime. I go to conferences and workshops, I use Twitter and G+, and yes, I read blogs. So how is it I could go this long without ever seeing really really good teaching?

When I started teaching (yes, it was actually in the last century) the profession was really one of individuals. We went in our rooms and closed the door. We did not have high standards for our performance. My first Principal told me on my very first day in the classroom “If no one bleeds you are doing good.” We did not collaborate, and we NEVER acknowledged that  another teacher was better than oneself. In the last few years we have started to collaborate and we have some levels of accountability. But we don’t have a system of identifying really good teachers, and learning from them. Until this week I didn’t realize we needed one.

Is Our School Safe?



We had an incident at school this week that made the news. It first glance it wasn’t a good thing. A kid brought a gun to school. A loaded, semiautomatic 9mm Ruger. I am not a gun guy, but I hear that is a serious piece. I was not on campus when it happened so I missed the whole lock down series of events, but due to the marvels of modern technology I was able to follow the events from another campus.

I do not know why the student felt the need to bring a gun to school, but it is becoming a less than unusual event. This was the third time in less than a month this has happened in our district. Our city has been experiencing a tremendous growth in violence, with a record number of homicides this year. Budget cuts have brought a reduction in police officers, and that I am sure has at least some impact on the violence levels. The police have actually warned people to not wear jewelry in public because of the threat of robbery. Its a dangerous place, and these kids live there.

The day after the incident there were a lot of kids who wanted to talk about it. They wanted to know that they are safe at school. I have to admit it was hard to tell someone they are safe at school when we go on lockdown as often as we do because of gun shots in the neighborhood.  Or when a student had a gun on campus. But the reality is students saw the gun, and told the right people. The police were on scene very quickly, and the student who brought the gun was in jail before lunch was over. We may not have armed guards or legions of police guarding the campus, but yes, I think our school is a safe place, because it is full of good people. Thats what I learned this week.

Fall CUE

This weekend was the 2012 FallCUE conference. First a huge tip ‘o the hat to Jon Corippo for the ride to the conference.  I wouldn’t have been able to attend on Friday at all without Jon’s generosity. Another tip ‘o the hat to  Wayne Stagnarro for pushing me to attend. 

FallCUE has only been around a few years. There are some old timers who talk about a Northern California CUE conference, but that is ancient history in my book. The modern version of the conference is held at American Canyon High School in Napa County. Yes, THAT Napa. It wasn’t really that difficult of a decision to attend; fall in wine country is not exactly a tough sell! It is one of the few conferences I can actually get my wife to accompany me to, imagine that.

On to the conference. There were really a number of workshops that helped me with things I have been struggling with. Alice Keeler brought her spreadsheet magic and filled in a huge hole in my teacher student feedback loop. She showed us how to use a Google Drive form to gather student assignments, and then use a mail merge script to send feedback to the student via email, directly from the form spreadsheet. Very slick, and even I can do it! As if that were not enough, she then showed us how to use a pivot table in the same spreadsheet to keep track of the student assignments. 

That alone was worth the price of admission. But wait, there is more!

I also got to sit in on a session by Ramsey Musallam talking about how and why to “Flip” a classroom. There is a lot of buzz out there about flipping a classroom, and mostly I have been unimpressed. My thinking is that replacing a boring lecture with a YouTube video of a boring teacher lecturing doesn’t do anything to engage more students, or help students be more engaged. But that, Ramsey explained, is not what it is about. I am not going to pretend to articulate what I now understand, because I don’t think I can. Not yet. But I do have a few ideas about how I can implement what I learned this week. 

I left that workshop with my head spinning, but wait, there is even more!

Another highlight of the conference was the closing keynote by Vicki Davis, aka Cool Cat Teacher. I have followed Vicki on the Internet in a number of platforms for a couple of years, and she often dumps my cheese cart over.  She talked about telling kids “you are good at something and it is my job to find it.” I need to get back to the classroom and find some kids’ talent.

The teacher desk

The Saga of My Teacher Desk.

At the close of the last school year the decision was made that I would change rooms. The old room I was in was a computer lab with rows of fairly new tables designed for computers. It looked really nice for the casual observer; nice straight rows of tables, comfortable rolling chairs with a computer in front of each one. It looked great, but it didn’t work great.

The tables themselves contained conduit for all the cables for the computers. It made managing cables easy, but it meant the tables were locked in place. They couldn’t be moved to make a more convenient layout. When the kid in the far corner had a question, I could not get there to help. Literally. I couldn’t fit down the row with all of the students sitting at their work stations. You  can imagine what it means to class management, much less instruction, when the students know the teacher can not get to a particular part of the room! So I jumped at the chance to move to a new room with tables that I can put anywhere I wanted.

I took the first step by sending my students to the new room to decorate it. They sorted through mountains of student work to come up with good exemplars, and arranged them on the walls to their liking. I kept authority over where the tables went, but the kids did everything else. They wanted me to tell them where the teacher desk needed to be. “Over by the phone” some said. “No, by the window would be better” said others. Finally I said to put it right where it is, in the old room.

I left the desk in the old room because I found that I spent too much time sitting at it. If I am sitting at my desk I am not helping kids with their work. To do that I need to be near their work, at the students’ work stations, not mine. It has been 7 weeks of being desk-less, and I can say my classes are much better. Kids are more engaged, in part I think, because I am more engaged. I do not have a desk to retreat to, so I am teaching by wandering around. I don’t miss the desk, but my feet are sure more tired! 

Pro Points


I was working on an assignment today for the school culture class I am taking as part of the Admin Credential program at Teachers College of San Joaquin. I was supposed to be writing  a vision statement. Researching that brought me to the web site of Minarets High School in O’neals, California. Minarets is one of those schools that appears to be doing it right. I see them doing amazing things in amazing ways. I thought I would find their vision statement and “borrow” it. You know, use it for inspiration. I was disappointed. I couldn’t find their vision statement. I did find this though. A grading policy that really got me thinking about my own grading policy. 

I really struggle with my grading policy. I change it every year. I want to to measure and reflect what my students are able to do, not how well they sit in their chairs for an hour, or find the right answers in the text book. I also want them to be able to see where they are at, grade wise, all the time. I hope to someday have this figured out, but I know I am not there yet.

One of the things that stood out to me in the Minarets policy was the way they reward quality work that is done early:

“One of the most important lessons for life: Being done ahead of time. You can’t be good at something if it’s always last minute.”

My students need this lesson. So I decided I need to adopt “Pro Points.” My new Pro Points policy is here. I will be springing this on the students on Monday. Now I need to get back to that vision statement I was doing.

Back to School

About a year and a half ago I was notified by my school district that  269 of my fellow teachers and I were no longer needed. My district had to cut 28 million dollars from the budget, and layoffs were necessary. I am very grateful that I was among the first to be rehired and did not miss a single day of work. I was rehired before we went on summer break, so I was able to focus on doing my job, rather than finding a job.

Going through the whole process I realized that in a district of more than 1,600 teachers I am the only one with my particular credential. I learned that I can not sit back and rely on tenure to protect my job.  While I have a piece of paper that says I have tenure, it only matters if there are people below me on the seniority list who I can “bump” when layoffs come. There is no one below me, and there is not going to be anyone below me. I have no tenure. I have seen enough district politics to know that I my job security is only as strong as my relationship with district higher ups, and district higher ups come and go. Worse, there are very few jobs out there for a guy with my particular credential. Very few.

I realized a year ago that I need to do something to beef up my marketability. I love my job, and I love working where I work, but I need to be prepared for something else. After looking at a number of options I decided I should get an administrative credential. If I were to loose my job I reasoned I could always start that school I have been thinking about in the back of my head.

In California there are two options to obtain an administrative credential; pass a test, or take a series of classes. I have heard the test is fairly easy if you prepare, and it is comparatively inexpensive. The classes take a full year, cost a good deal of money, and are well, graduate level classes.

I opted for the classes.

So this fall I find myself sitting in a classroom three nights a week learning about school administration. On the upside, the school is only about 2 miles from my classroom. I have to stop at two stop signs on my way to class, and I don’t leave the neighborhood my students live in. On the downside, the school is over an hour from home, and it is a long drive after a full day at work plus a class on top. I think I see a lot of taco bell bean burritos in my future this year.

This time next year I should, if all goes as planned, have an administrators credential. I won’t have to worry nearly as much about loosing my job. Hopefully I will also have a better understanding of how to be a good administrator running a great school. Stay tuned.

Stuck in a Rut.

Another Chevy



This year has seen a dramatic change in my professional development. I made the decision last summer that I need to take more control of what I was learning and I needed to share more as a way to learn more. I really felt stuck in a rut. One of the manifestations of that decision has been that I have attended more conferences this year than I have attended in many years combined. It started with the Rock Star Teacher Camp at Minaretts High School. Talk about getting out of a rut!  I also attended CUE in Palm Springs for the first time in a really, really long time. Most recently I attended the SVCUE event last weekend in San Jose. (That is a really good way to get to attend for free!) This year I also attended or presented at events in Monterrey, Napa, Modesto, and North Hollywood. And I am not done yet. 


The results? I am  much more comfortable presenting to other professionals  than I have been. I think this is an important ability for an experienced teacher. I think it important to be able to discuss what I do, and why I do it. Presenting at conferences forces me to really think about this. It holds me more accountable.


I also am much more aware of how many really awesome teachers there are out there who have their students doing amazing things. If I hadn’t gone to these conferences I simply wouldn’t know. I wouldn’t know what I should be expecting of my students. I wouldn’t know what I should be expecting of me. But I do know now. I know even more awesome teachers. I have more ideas for awesome things my kids can be doing. 


Prepare for awesomeness.



Student accomplishments



Last weekend I took some of my students to the SkillsUSA California Regional competition. I was particularly confident in my students’ abilities. A few students were in individual competitions, but most were in team events where they were presenting the different projects they are working on. I brought 21 students, and all 21 advanced to the state conference in April. Thats the largest number of kids I have brought to regionals, and thats the largest number I will have brought to state. 


After the event one student commented that was the first gold medal she had ever won in anything. Another asked if they get to keep the medals, or do they have to give them to the school.  Some students wore them to school all week. I am very proud of the work and accomplishments of these kids, and I am really looking forward to the state conference.


During the event one of the students told me “Mr. Hall I’m not going to lie. The only reason we took this project on is because we didn’t want to do all those other stupid projects, we’d rather do this. It’s easier to do something real.”  I told him that I knew that. One reason I do Skills is it is a lot easier than grading all those other silly projects. It really is easier to do real world projects than “busy work” projects designed to “fill the year.” It is way more rewarding to.

Restructure Me.

A week or so before winter break our Principal challenged the teachers at my school to come up with a new vision for our school. We have a very small school that has only been around for a few years, but because of budget cuts and serious staff turn over we are at a place where we really need to reconsider who and what we are. The Principal wants the mission to be grass roots and organic (my words), and come from the staff.


I have less patience than that. I want a plan. I want a direction. I want someone to tell me what the direction is and what the mission is, so I can go do it. I have a fear that if a decision is left to us, we will decide to keep doing the same old thing, and I don’t think that is either good or enough. 


I spent the first part of break doing a lot of thinking, and a lot of writing. We are a school of choice; we have no attendance boundaries, students have to choose to come to our school. We have to give them a reason to come to us. If we do not have a certain number of students we loose teachers. It is real cut and dry- if kids come to school we exist. If kids do not come, we close down. So I made lists of what is good about our school, and what is not so good. I made lists of what other schools are doing, and looked for areas of opportunities; what things can we do that no one else is doing. I looked at mission statements. I looked at ESLR’s. I looked at master schedules, I looked at reform models. And I wrote.


I came up with what I thought were some really good ideas. Some great plans for what would be a real fun school. But I realize what my Principal is worried about. I cannot make other people adopt my plan. I think it is a great idea, but that doesn’t mean other people will, and if they do not “own” it, they probably will not do a great job at it. And the whole thing will fail.


So that leaves me with a problem. The Principal wants a new vision. I can’t give him one. But I can give him guiding principles for my classroom. I can show him what I am doing in my room that no one else in the district is doing. And I can work really hard at making sure that kids are engaged in appropriate and relevant activities during the hour a day I have them. So that is what I am going to do.