A Passion for Teaching and Opinions

I had to administer state tests to my Seniors and it was terrible

2018-04-20T20:05:00.001-07:00

About a month ago the History Department was notified that the State of California wanted high school Seniors to partake in the California Science Test. Since English and History were the only classes that all Seniors have to take, and English was already giving tests next week to Juniors, I got to be a part of the joy and happiness that is the state testing program.

Let’s be really clear, these scores are going to be terrible and the only thing anyone cares about is meeting the minimum number of Seniors necessary to take the test to get the state off our backs. An unannounced test to Seniors near the last quarter of their high school career about a subject that most of them haven’t taken for two years; I’m sure everything will work out great.

I haven’t administered a test in about a decade since the only test I prep for is Advanced Placement and I’m not allowed to administer the test because AP teachers can’t a do the tests for obvious reasons. This experience was not fun. A couple of observations:

-There was no incentive for the students to do anything but not take the test. When students asked why they should take it I told them that if they don’t do well it could impact funding which could impact elective programs which could impact student inspiration which could impact a student earning a good wage which could impact payment into Social Security which could impact their Social Security. It wasn’t a lie.

-I didn’t tell them that they could legally exempt from the test. This has consequences because if 95% of Seniors don’t take the Science Test, the school gets punished by the state. Yes, even with exceptions.

-A vast majority of my students took the test.

-The test was on Chromebooks and the number of questions and how tough they were varied. Some students had to answer around 50 questions while others answered 65.

-I would have bombed the test, both in high school and now.

-I was able to monitor student progress on my computer. I also walked around and about 3-4 students in every class were done in 15 minutes and would answer questions with “Go fuck yourself.” This included Advanced Placement students. None of these students had ever written anything like “Go fuck yourself” on work handed in to me.

-Most students tried and most students were frustrated. The classes were two hour blocks and the test lasted almost the entire two hours for most of the students. Most made a genuine effort and some looked exhausted.

And it was depressing waste of time. There was zero benefit in taking the test and it wasted two days of valuable face-to-face time. The rest of this week was block scheduling for make-ups while next week is testing for Math (with my colleagues in the History department) and English. This means two hour block scheduling for continues and I ask you to think about your favorite classes and not so favorite classes in high school.

That’s what I thought.

Did you know there was a walk-out on April 11th?

2018-04-12T21:22:00.001-07:00

Julianne Benzel teaches AP U.S. History at Rocklin High School outside of Sacramento, California.

On the day of the walk-out she asked a question in her classes;

“And so I just kind of used the example which I know it’s really controversial, but I know it was the best example I thought of at the time—a group of students nationwide, or even locally, decided ‘I want to walk out of school for 17 minutes’ and go in the quad area and protest abortion, would that be allowed by our administration?” she said.

She was placed on administrative leave due to parent complaints “during a civic engagement activity.”

When Benzel returned she was not punished but it does bring up some very interesting dilemmas for Social Studies teachers or teachers in general.

Can parents control teacher lives based on disagreement of pedagogy?

Can parents control the risk factor of content in class?

Is there actually a double standard in public schools regarding political protest?

Your mileage may vary depending on your school but this case pretty clearly shows a bias (and cowardice) in Rocklin’s administration. The was a public relations move that bent over for parents that didn’t like student paradigms challenge which is one of the pillars of a solid Social Studies program. And now the overreaction by the administration has caused a test case. On April 11, protestors are planning to walk-out at Rocklin High School again. Only this time….

“….to promote nationwide awareness about abortion, especially the “cruel injustices taking place at Planned Parenthood,” and he is encouraging students across the country to join him, using the hashtag #Life on social media.

A group of students is going to the school principal about wanting the same treatment as the Parkland observance walk-out and Rocklin can thank themselves for putting themselves in this corner. Sure, the turnout and the teacher reaction on campus is going to not nearly have the buy-in but a public school is not just gateway for some ideas, it’s a gateway for all ideas including those you don’t agree with.

One student has already objected to the walkout, saying that unlike the country’s school-shooting epidemic, abortion has nothing to do with school or Rocklin’s students.

“They have their First Amendment, they can go protest about that anytime anywhere,” said Naeirika Neev, editor of the school newspaper.

Yeah, pretty sure abortion has something to do with Rocklin students and the country as a whole. While not in the spotlight that school shootings hold, abortion has been a hot topic since the 1970s and never really went away, and now conservative states are pushing against Roe v. Wade and bring it back to the forefront.

For the record I’m pro-choice, I think Julianne Benzel is probably pro-life and knew when to throw it out into conversation, and I still believe that an anti-abortion protest should be held in the same standing. Ukiah High School has plenty of teachers that bring politics into the classroom one way or another and while I consider that fairly reprehensible, I’m pretty certain that controversial topics equate to punishing teachers and that groups that desired to exercise their 1st Amendment right would be allowed to do so.

Rocklin blew this one. They can make it up by promoting Free Expression on all sides.

The Philando Castile and Stephon Clark cases should really concern people.

2018-04-08T08:10:00.001-07:00

In July 2016, Philando Castile was gunned down in his car in St. Anthony, Minnesota after he told a police officer that he was a registered gun owner and was reaching for his ID. He was shot point blank range five times with his girlfriend and 4-year old daughter in the car. The police officer was found not guilty of manslaughter and dangerous discharge of a firearm.

Two weeks ago, Stephon Clark was gunned down in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento, California while holding a cell phone. The two police officers fired twenty total shots at the unarmed Clark with seven hitting his body. Six of those bullets entered through his back.

When police related shootings come up in class I’m always the first one to say “we need to make sure we know what happened before we rush to judgement.” My father is an ex-cop, many of my former students are cops, and I’m very aware of the kinds of stress and pressures that police officers have to deal with every minute of every day on the job. But when students start to question whether or not there is a problem with race and local authorities, I go back to the data. Based on percentage of the population police are much more likely to use violence against black males, shoot black males, kill black males, and one in four black males will be incarcerated at some time in their life. It’s quite impossible for an economist to look at the data and say that race isn’t involved in interactions between police and black men.

The thing that stuns me the most about both of these cases is that civil libertarians should be going bananas about both of these young men. Castile was a registered gun owner who did everything right at the traffic stop and it got him killed by the local government. If that’s not an ACLU or NRA case, I don’t know what is. Clark was shot in the back, totally unarmed, on his private property! Only now am I noticing some of the more conservative elements of society realizing that the government is using an amazing amount of force against fundamental civil liberties.

The Stephon Clark case occurred while I was on Spring Break so I’m assuming it will be a topic of conversation when we return. I’ll do what I do; present the facts of the case as they currently are and let the students decide for themselves.

The facts are pretty damning.

The Arrival

2018-04-04T07:26:00.001-07:00

Saw The Arrival this week.

-Amy Adams is quite good and I’m of the opinion that almost every scene without her is pretty weak.

-For a film that’s mostly about how communication is established between two unknown entities, it’s actually a pretty solid movie.

-The language aspect of the film is the most intriguing part, especially how dialogue develops in different patterns.

-The military angle of the film is too overblown and actually a bit thin and shallow.

-Forest Whitaker is fine in the film but his talents are a bit wasted.

-The film’s development is around the language and then is rushed whenever the military issues come up. The pacing isn’t Close Encounters (which is fantastic) and that’s unfortunate.

-I’m happy that I viewed the film but I don’t see any real repeat viewing value.

Solid 8/10

Thoughts on the March For Our Lives

2018-03-29T13:55:00.001-07:00

On Saturday of last week I watched the Washington D.C. protest speeches and then walked downtown for a view of the local March For Our LIves presentations and the march to the court house. The entire event had been set up by two of my Seniors (might as well count that as a Senior Project) and would include speeches from local government officials, the Ukiah Unified Superintendent, and other students. Then the march would take place and upon return there would be a more festive atmosphere with music and local organizations promoting voter registration and fairly typical Democratic policy angles.

I attended the event more for curiosity than participation. I like to see the empowerment of my students and their desires for positive political change, even if I might have some disagreements about the message (see below). I stayed in the background for the most part but was eventually recognized by one of my former colleagues and a couple of current students. I stuck around for the speeches and the march. Then I grabbed a March For Our Lives sign for the classroom and walked back home.

A few thoughts:

This is Washington D.C. speaker Naomi Walder. She’s eleven. Her speech was amazing for an adult, much less an eleven year old.

This is Ukiah speaker (and one of my students) Indigo Funk. He’s a Senior. His speech was given without notes and with a calm yet passionate articulation that was encapsulating. It was the best speech I heard from any location yesterday.

Parkland student David Hogg is probably not the symbol that the movement wants to follow and his portrayal of politicians as child killers and out for “blood money” (along with his tirades) is probably counter-productive.

4. The National Rifle Association’s leadership seems to have decided to signal to the lowest common denominator and move significantly towards the alt-Right. However there are millions of members of the NRA that promote safe gun use and could probably be swayed into agreeing with increased background checks and mental health provisions. But generalizing the NRA is making their membership seem like gun-toting Oakies that don’t care about children. The 2nd Amendment is a fundamental civil liberty that is engrained in our heritage and culture. It’s ok not to like it, but to condemn the amendment and it’s supporters is casting a very wide net.

5. It’s really difficult not to get behind some of the basic ideas of the March.

-Universal background checks.

-Longer waiting periods.

-Mental health screening.

-Banning assault weapons.

I’ve asked a variety of gun owners about these regulations and a vast majority of them support the ideas. Those that don’t usually drift into the “tyranny of government” opinion, which is hard to legitimize when the government owns nuclear weapons, tanks, and drones.

Part of me wants to see a generation of youth finally engaged in positive governmental change if only because their ownership seems to have waned in the last forty years. Now they have a cause to latch on to bring forth a bit of much needed energy.

A rumor leads to a half empty school.

2018-03-26T08:21:00.001-07:00

There are about 1,650 students that regularly attend Ukiah High School on a daily basis.

On Friday only about 800 showed up, thanks primarily to massive social media hysteria in a small town.

My class attendance on Friday ?

1st Period – 10 out of 30

2nd Period – 19 out of 28

3rd Period – 14 out of 24

4th Period – 16 out of 32

5th Period – 11 out of 30

“There has been talk of a school shooting threatening the high school. So, don’t go to school for the rest of the week.”

On Tuesday a student created a SnapChat post that made that statement. The comment eventually made it to a parent on Facebook and that parent somehow let it be known that the Friday before Spring Break was going to be the date of a mass shooting at the high school. Basically a SnapChat created a rumor and that rumor spread like wildfire and this last week has been taken up by a combination of useless panic and presentations that have already been dealt with due to the shooting at Parkland in Florida. On top of that were the usual rage posts that the tiny minority of Facebook drama fans relish creating to garner the attention of the school district. About a dozen grown adults went on virtual rampages about the ineptitudes of administrators and teachers in not making the high school seem like a panic stricken prison that needs to be constantly drilled in the art of chaos management. It was no win situation for the school. If we don’t react to the hysteria then we seem like we don’t care. If we do react to the hysteria then we perpetuate an atmosphere of reactionary fear in over-preparing for an incredibly unlikely event.

Yes, there it is. You can’t really say it because it makes you seem uncaring but a mass shooter event on a school campus is still insanely rare. Not only is it insanely rare but it is actually happening less than 20 years ago.

“The U.S. Department of Education Education reports that roughly 50 million children attend public schools for roughly 180 days per year. Since Columbine, approximately 200 public school students have been shot to death while school was in session, including the incident in Parkland, Fla. That means the statistical likelihood of any given public school student being killed by a gun, in school, on any given day since 1999 was about 1 in 614,000,000.”

Ukiah High School’s students were in danger on Friday but not from an active shooter. There was a much greater likelihood that they would die from:

-Driving to and from school

-Catching a disease at school

-Riding a bike to school

-Participating in school athletic events

Hell, the kids were much more likely to die from playing under the Friday night lights every week in the Fall.

And they were much more likely to die from gun violence off campus than on it.

In the four weeks since Parkland we have had six separate meetings regarding active shooter situations at Ukiah High School. We have been trained in “Run, Hide, Fight.” We have sat down as a building and noted every potential weakness, every potential exit (including the roof), every potential situation (that we can imagine), and my classes have had three (two from me, one from admin) presentations about active shooters and lockdowns. The results are fairly simple; we have whipped ourselves into a frenzy over an extremely unlikely event that even if it happened has so many potential variables that practicing for anything other than a lockdown would basically be an exercise in public perception control.

I spent much of the week telling kids they would be ok. I had to tell foreign exchange students that this isn’t really who we are; both the school shootings and the hysterical fear of the improbable were unusual situations. I would much like to not have to go through this week again.

My #CUE18 experience, Part Two

2018-03-24T05:28:00.001-07:00

I was up Friday really early trying to post my classroom instructions on Google and getting Flipgrid ready for verbal FRQs. After a nice omelet, I was ready for Day Two!

The Google You Might Not Know About

Leslie Fischer again, this time about some of the hidden tricks and stories behind Google. And…………….nope.

Me and a colleague got there ten minutes early and the doors were shut because all seats were taken and no standing or sitting was allowed. For some reason CUE had put one of the most popular presenters in a smaller room and person after person was turned away. And a line was already forming for Leslie’s next session…….90 minutes later. I wasn’t going to miss that one so I sat down and waited. I was not happy that I was wasting the session but I wasn’t going to miss a potential gold mine.

The Web You Might Not Know About

Only about 20 people left Leslie’s previous presentation and this meant a made rush for seats. My colleague and I nailed two next to each other and settled in waiting 20 minutes for session to start. Leslie was clearly annoyed as a Convention Center official ushered people out of the room without a seat. She actually confronted a CUE official and asked if they could be moved to Oasis 4 (could hold 2,000 people) or if she could present on Saturday as a method to catch people up. We didn’t move rooms and to my knowledge a Saturday session never happened.

And it was a gold mine. About 30% of the presentation was tools I already knew about, and then the exciting moments started to happen. It was the “Oh my god, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!” moments. It was like someone out there was researching ways to make my job easier and more engaging for students at the same time! I ended up so focused on a couple of items that I probably missed some things that were relevant. Not to worry, I still have her presentation. What I found especially useful: Weekly Maps, Deepl Translator, Aviary Photo Editor, and Knight Lab JS from Northwestern University.

101 Hyperdoc Hacks

I walked two blocks down the street to the Hilton for my next two sessions.

I’ve been interested in the concept of Hyperdocs for about two years but the work involved in creating them makes me hesitant to pull the trigger. Lisa Highfill (the Hyperdoc creator) did an earlier presentation I could not attend and the two ladies conducting the session were the next best thing. Once again, packed. And once again, the Internet was spotty at best. The presentation was less about hacks and more about the basics of how to create them, which helped me out since I was struggling spinning my wheels to get started. I downloaded their presentation just in time though as the Internet went out. It’s a bit difficult to do Hyperdocs with no Internet. The room was getting warm and the people slammed shoulder to shoulder were getting testy so I snuck out about 60% (the presenters basically told people to converse while they tried to make adjustments) and headed to another session about Problem Based Learning. There was no Internet there either. Now totally aggravated, I sluffed back to the Convention Center and caught the tail end of Martin Cisneros’ presentation on Blended Learning strategies for English Learners. Note to me; find his full presentation next time.

Developing the Ecosystem to Support High Quality Project Based Learning

I missed Buck Institutes big Project Based Learning session on Wednesday afternoon as my flight arrived too late but this was a nice substitute. I was really looking for some lesson design ideas within the concept of Problem Based Learning but this was more in the realm of an overall atmosphere that engages in Problem Based Learning. I got a couple of nice ideas that might create more engagement within the class but I’m not entirely sure I’m up to creating entire Project Based Learning units. It’s a significant time commitment to create a good size unit.

Overall CUE was a net positive, although Internet connectivity issues and being constantly turned away from sessions can not be acceptable for the amount of money school districts are paying to attend. The conference also allowed for time to get to know colleagues outside of my building; a very good thing since one starts to realize that some of the issues that I’m facing are prevalent in other departments as well. There were ten of us at the conference and there was an overwhelming desire to see significant structural changes within our school in regards to everything from pedagogy to attendance to discipline. Those interactions are net positive.

When we return from Spring Break, the ten of us are supposed to each give a five minute presentation to the rest of the staff regarding a pedagogical approach or Ed Tech item to improve the classroom experience. I’m thinking of showing the staff some ideas from Jon Corippo’s presentation but I’m going to need more than 5 minutes.

I least I know I’ll have Internet.

My #CUE18 experience, Part One

2018-03-21T07:37:00.001-07:00

Frustrating, inspiring, tiring, enjoyable…..maybe I’m just becoming an old curmudgeon.

All these feelings came out this weekend when I attended Spring CUE 2018 in a cool (65ish degree) Palm Springs. As usual there were sessions that were not great and sessions that were fabulous but I’m becoming less tolerant of the not fabulous things and the logistics of the Palm Springs Convention Center were handled really poorly.

Most of my colleagues arrived in the desert mid-morning Wednesday while I chose to teach most of my classes and leave for the airport at lunch. The SFO experience was smooth, the flight in was pretty standard desert bowl landing (bumpy), and I was settled down by about 9.

Thursday sessions:

Google Form on Steroids:

Not what I thought it was going to be. I was hoping for some new and magical applications for Forms and it was mostly different templates and a couple of methods of data aggregation that are already done by programs like Aeries. One idea I liked was using forms to document parent communication.

As I left the session I noticed some serious grumbling outside the doors. Apparently the Palm Springs Fire Marshall was not allowing any attendees to stand our sit on the floor during sessions. This meant that if you didn’t have a chair, you were not in the room. This was going to be a theme all weekend.

Climbing the SAMR Ladder: Designing Engaging Lessons for 21st Century Learners:

Substitute - Tech is direct substitute.

Augmentation - Tech is substitute with some improvement.

Modification - Tech allows for task redesign.

Redefinition - Tech allows for brand new tasks previously inconceivable.

This had a whole lot of promise but I ended up wishing for a little more depth. There were two parts to this presentation. First, the presenters were from San Francisco Unified and want to make two things very clear; they are a technically integrated next-gen institution that has a mission for social justice, and that Salesforce was very philanthropic. There were easily a half dozen mentions for San Francisco-based cloud giant. The second part of the presentation was using the SAMR model to look at different lessons and move them “up the ladder”. It was fine but while some teachers were oohing some of the ideas, “making campaign presentations and bringing up awareness of community issues using technology” isn’t really ground breaking. This session made me think a bit but left me unfilled.

Oh, and the Internet went down for about 15-20 minutes. Yep, at one of the biggest ed-tech conferences in the country, the Internet was down. This was also going to be a theme all weekend. Oh, and once again people were turned away due to space. Grumble, grumble.

Tools You Can Use Tomorrow

Leslie Fischer is a goddess. Somehow it doesn’t matter what is going on in previous sessions because Leslie is going to bring the plate full of legitimate technology ideas AND show them how they can be incorporated into the classroom. Oh, and Leslie can present. She is a natural ham and can charm the hell out of audiences. Top Edu-apps I liked: Instant Learning, ClassroomScreen, PDF Candy, and for Elementary or Science teachers, Merge Cube ($1 at Wal-Mart)!

Iron Chef Protocol + UDL

Jon Corippo is a mentor to many Edu-tech types and is probably one of the founding teachers in creating classes around Problem Based Learning. I’ve followed Jon online for many years getting small scale ideas to implement in my classes and I was really excited for this opportunity to engage with him. People lined up a good 15 minutes prior to doors open and I was #22 of the 35 that got in. The rest were turned away. The session was collaborative and engaging. It took simple tech tools (in this case Google Slides) and created a quick yet effective set of lessons that focus on process more than content. I liked the idea of “Protocol” instead of “Lesson” and Corippo really did a nice job of focusing on how to slowly change to incorporation of the Protocols. Yes, I should use one this week and the basics are so simple and efficient that it is very workable. By the beginning of next year an overall redesign seems very doable. Yes, I bought a more detailed book on Amazon.

One problem, Corippo left for a sound check halfway through the session. His partners were not quite as engaging and this was a tad bit of a let down.

Overall it was a plus day as I let inspired to make positive changes in my classes. I’ll post the last two days of CUE 2018 later.

The 17 minute walk-out

2018-03-19T22:35:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday’s walk-out to memorialize the students shot in Parkland, Florida started with a student coming to me and politely letting me know that she was going to be leaving my class early to protest gun violence. I nodded and said that I appreciated the heads-up and class went on as normal.

The protest had been discussed and planned to coincide the Break Time at school, thus limiting the overall interruption. Student would miss the last five minutes of 2nd Period and then execute the protest over break. Teachers had been notified a week earlier by the District Office regarding three things:

1. Do not stop the students from leaving class. Simply note who left and mark attendance accordingly.

2. Do not leave the class with the students unless everyone leaves, then help with supervision of the event.

3. Do not help the students plan the event.

The teacher’s union also notified us that leaving class could result in serious consequences that would not be protected by the union.

At five minutes before Break, 24 out of my 28 students calmly stood up and walked out. One student really didn’t care about the protest and three students didn’t agree with the message about the protest. We had a small discussion over the five minutes about what they thought about the protest and their feelings were perfectly legitimate and their concerns had merit. When the bell rang I headed out to the Tri and found most of my students standing in black; some with signs containing the names of the Parkland victims, some with black balloons behind them, some of mixed with the rest of the crowd. In all there was about 250-300 students. For 17 minutes they did not say a word. Then, at the end of the 17 minutes, they popped the balloon and calmly laid down the names of the victims at Parkland, and then walked back to class. It felt extremely effective and powerful.

Consequences for my class?

I didn’t bother marking students that left early because this is a government class and they were engaged in trying to influence public policy. I had no question that they were serious with their intent so I had no problem calling it content-relevant activity. However, the agreement was that they get back to class at the beginning of 3rd period. Some were late so they received tardies (which wasn’t a big deal because they are almost never tardy) and some were so late that they missed a quiz at the beginning of the period and won’t be able to make it up (the tardy was unexcused). At the margin, it’s still a fairly minor impact.

The most unfortunate part of the event was when a student in 3rd period stated “What the hell are they trying to prove with the protest? What message are the trying to send anyway?” Well, we literally had a Socratic Seminar about guns about two weeks ago and there was a significant amount of answers to be mined within those debates. And when I asked that same student, “Have you walked up to a protester and asked that question”, the response was “No”. I’m afraid both sides are still talking (or shouting) by each other.

Also, while there were 250-300 kids at the protest, it should be noted that there are about 1,600 kids on campus. My class included many Leadership students and those that were directly involved with the protest. Some teachers said that they had no walk-outs simply because the students didn’t know the protest was occurring. That is a message problem.

April 20th is the next planned campus protest and already the questions become complex. Earth Day workshops are being held that day and the concern is that the work being put into that event will be missed if there is a walk-out. Mix that in with the perception of Mendo kids walking out on “4/20” and outlook around the community could be that the kids are simply leaving to get high.

We’ll see.

Live from Spring CUE 2018

2018-03-17T08:51:00.001-07:00

I’m in Palm Springs for the National CUE conference. It’s my second time here.

What is CUE?

“CUE inspires innovative learners by fostering community, personalizing learning, infusing technology, developing leadership, and advocating educational opportunities for all.”

They are really into integrating Educational Technology and have moved more and more into the new wave of individualized instruction, no homework, and greater creativity.

I’m not all into where they are headed but the ideas that come out of the workshops are often extremely useful. The tools presented can be integrated to instruction from a spectrum of pedagogies while some of the new wave philosophies can be manipulated into methods of instruction that can make slow, marginal changes to the classroom.

That’s my task.

I’m looking to continue to be a better teacher.

The Mary Beth Tinker webinar

2018-03-14T04:59:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I live streamed a webinar from the Newseum featuring Mary Beth Tinker, the women behind the landmark student free speech Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines. Around 140 people were in the room which included students from a variety of classes from around the school, and teachers and staff.

Thoughts:

-Mary Beth Tinker clearly has a passion for the Civil Rights, student activism, and the First Amendment.

-She started by listing off some events that impacted her family and her own activism, including the death of the children on Birmingham Sunday and the involvement of young people in Freedom Summer.

-Something I did not know: Tinker and her family had their lives threatened because of the arm band protest.

-Mary Beth Tinker is a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.

-While a strong supporter of student activism, Tinker is also a supporter of taking the consequences of civil disobedience.

-There was a bit of discussion about the controversy of lowering the voting age to 16. I still don’t know how I feel about that.

-Lata Nott, the Executive Director of the Newseum’s First Amendment Center, was also on stage. She was asked by a student about how hate speech and hate groups infringe on other people’s human rights and how the First Amendment protects that speech. I was happy to hear Nott discourage hate speech while defending the protections on that speech by the First Amendment.

Students were talking about it in my class and around campus (as reported by teachers) so I would consider the webinar a success. Mary Beth Tinker is clearly a promoter of student activism and is passionate about kids voices being heard in the policy making process.

You can view the enter webinar on Youtube.

The Tony Hoffman Assembly

2018-03-12T17:06:00.001-07:00

I’m not a huge fan of “motivational speakers” type assemblies for both teachers or students. Most I’ve heard are boring and ineffective at making connections with the audience, and thus a waste of money and class time.

Last Friday we had Tony Hoffman, BMX champ and former addict, come give a speech about his life and trials revolving around the choices he made.

Thoughts:

-It was less than an hour and the gymnasium was engaged the entire time.

-Tony had a story that was relatable to students.

-Some students had problems with the content and had to step outside where they received extra support from staff.

-Tony’s style was to stand in the middle of the gym and then continuously walk around to different sections of students. He would then stand on the middle podium when a moment needed greater effect.

-There were moments of lightness but most the presentation was serious although still engaging.

In a marijuana seeped culture like Ukiah I would guess that the presentation probably did not create the connection from weed to higher order drugs, even if the point wasn’t physiological in nature. The idea that marijuana has any kind of gateway impact is very taboo here and there is a strong population that will insist that marijuana addiction is a myth and the properties are beneficial.

I hope that Tony’s overall story of addiction made an impact because the town is clearly struggling with the same opioid and meth problems happening all over rural America.

I got on my economic soapbox this week.

2018-03-06T07:56:00.001-08:00

I think I do a good job being non-partisan when it comes to politics in the classroom. I like using evidence, devils advocacy, and hitting as many sides of an issue as possible.

But this tweet made me climb aboard the Soap Box Express to Crazy Town. There is no evidence, as in zero, that a trade war has ever benefited any party involved in the dispute, nor is there evidence that trade wars are “winnable” with any ease at all. Every day I read economists that represent all bands of the spectrum and I have yet to read one opinion piece pushing for trade wars. It’s flat out nuts.

This isn’t the first time I’ve called out Presidents for lying but the machinations are usually revolving around politics.

This is dangerous.

Gun Debates

2018-03-03T09:28:00.001-08:00

On Friday all five of my classes participated in Socratic Seminars about Gun Control. That’s roughly 140 students.

Highlights:

-It was unanimous that there needed to be stricter adherence to current laws.

-It was nearly unanimous that universal background checks should be required.

-Mental health issues were a little more sticky. Some students had concerns that someone that might have had depression is the past would be denied the ability to purchase.

-About ten percent of my students wanted to ban all guns and repeal the 2nd Amendment.

-It was unanimously agreed to that teachers should not be armed in a classroom.

-However there was support for more campus police officers and/or arming campus supervisors.

-Some students did not realize that our current campus policer officer is armed.

-A majority of students seemed to have no problem banning assault weapons while seeming more divided in regards to handguns. Most students seemed to not have a problem with ownership of rifles and shotguns.

-The discussions were positive, never really contentious, and showed that the major sticking points revolve around why people are engaging in gun violence and at what point to limit or eliminate access to certain types of weapons.

-The most intriguing quote of the day was from one of my Norwegian exchange students; “It doesn’t do any good to compare statistics between the United States and other countries because in the United States, people like guns.” It wasn’t said as a negative statement, simply a matter-of-fact statement.

A high school girls soccer team lost their minds.

2018-03-01T04:58:00.001-08:00

In Northern California when a soccer team makes it to the Section Finals they are basically guaranteed a spot in the state championship tournament with the winner hosting a home game and loser going on the road in the first round.

The Analy High School Girls Soccer team made it to the North Coast Section Finals ranked number one in the Section. They played the number two ranked team, Campolindo, and lost. Both teams have a ticket to win the state title.

However…..

“Surprisingly, the team held a postgame vote on Saturday and two-thirds of the players voted not to participate in the NorCal tournament and, thus, Analy’s season is now over…… (Analy Coach) Briones said she thinks the decision by the 14 girls who voted not to attend NorCal was based on obligations to club teams, injuries and the disappointment of losing in the NCS championship game. ”

This is a fairly disgraceful turn of events.

My initial feeling is that Coach Briones should tell the team that the season is not over, apply for NorCals, and take the members that are dedicated to the team to the game. Those that choose not to attend are making the choice to quit so they receive no recognition as varsity athletes; no letter, no awards, nothing. They quit before the season was over.

A much stronger feeling is that this is another sad result of “Briones said she thinks the decision by the 14 girls who voted not to attend NorCal was based on obligations to club teams….”. There is a perception that AAU Basketball is the most invasive club program in Northern California and I would argue that club soccer is much, much worse. Club soccer is the reason why an outdoor field sport had their season moved from Fall and Spring to season of November to March.

Here’s a nice cost/benefit from the Sacramento Bee. Scroll down to the list of positives and #1 is:

-It reduces conflicts with club soccer…

Too bad.

And the Analy Girls Soccer team should be ashamed.

Domestic migration is not favoring California.

2018-02-27T06:07:00.001-08:00

The State of California released data that shows that more people are leaving California than are migrating to the Golden State.

Highlights:

-California lost one million residents in the last ten years.

-The state lost double that amount the previous decade, so this isn’t alarming.

-Cost of living seems to be the primary reason for people leaving the state.

-People coming into the state are usually young, college educated, and have higher incomes.

-People leaving the state are usually young, high school educated, and have families.

-Texas is the where people are moving to the most. New York is where people are coming from the most.

One of our new teachers from back East left mid-year and returned home after finding California unlivable. Apparently it was a combination of the extremely high cost of living and the very open drug culture that is accepted in Ukiah.

My wife and I have discussed leaving California many times but the states we have looked at (Montana, Utah, Arizona, and Idaho) are all very unfriendly to teachers. We will probably be leaving when we retire.

It’s now Emma Gonzalez’s world

2018-02-25T08:41:00.001-08:00

It’s been a week that I didn’t really want to have. I don’t like the atmosphere of nervous tension around campus. I don’t like that I have to give directions about what to do about an active shooter to children. I don’t like that the community is (somewhat justifiably) in a constant state of panic over every single hint or rumor of a problem with a child. I don’t like having to deflect questions from kids about whether or not I want to be armed. The whole week has just been lousy.

Emma seems to be the bright spot. She’s now the symbol of a what I’m hoping is a political awakening from this generation. Emma is probably best known for her passionate yet articulate speech she gave after the Parkland shooting but if you listen to interviews and read about her convictions you’ll notice that she’s the kind of person that you want to symbolize a movement. Emma seems to be driven, engaging, and very clear about what she is trying to accomplish. Regardless of whether or not you agree with her, Emma is someone you want leading the charge at positive change. Will my students follow? I’m seeing the initial rumblings about change but Mendocino County activism is notorious for being shallow and localized. High school activism is usually a way to blow off steam and then it dies down as people get back to the routine of being in high school. Those that are passionate for change are usually smaller groups that can’t manage to rile up the rank-and-file student because it’s a known fact that activism is often seen as a hobby, not an outlet for change.

Parkland seems to have sparked a little change in the attitude. Questions are now being asked and the walk-outs during March and April are being planned but I’m hoping for a Ukiah Emma Gonzalez to step up.

Notes from the 2017 Glacier Road Trip, Day Eight

2017-10-28T07:36:00.001-07:00

-With my ankle sore and my wife’s injury flaring up we decided to make an adjustment to flatter terrain. We headed to Many Glacier Valley again.

-The plan was to hike the Swiftcurrent Pass trail to the head of Bullhead Lake and return. It was a fairly well traveled trail so we left expecting a mellow day.

-Note about Glacier; postings for bear frequenting don’t mean bears aren’t in other areas of the park that are not marked. We are well aware of this and started the noise even on a well traveled trail.

-Near the head of Red Rock Lake we came upon ten people looking along the shoreline and about 30 yards away was a bear. The bear was moving away from the crowd with no aggressive behavior and even took time to take a short swim to cool off.

-It did perk up when a group of hikers ran down to the shore to shoot pictures when it entered the water. It immediately turned to face them and the ears went straight up. Normally bears don’t really care unless they are startled or cubs are around. It watched for about 15 seconds then calmly wandered away around a peninsula.

-I couldn’t tell if it was a or a black bear and neither could the rangers we visited later to report it. The picture is inconclusive. If you asked everyone watching it they’d tell you it was a grizzly without a shadow of a doubt because that’s what they want to see.

-We wandered up to the top of Red Rock Falls and then the crowds got sparse. We paired up with another couple and walked through a ton of forested brush up to Bullhead Lake and eventually to the beginning of the ascent up to Swiftcurrent Pass. They started up and we turned and went back.

-The nice thing to do when hiking is to tell people down the trail that a bear is around. People coming up from Red Rock said the bear was around for about an hour and then wandered up a mountain.

-The lake closest to Swiftcurrent Lodge is Fishercap Lake and it’s a tad off the trail. As we passed the Fishercap Junction a man told us that a moose was in the lake so we adjusted and went down along the lake.

-According to every ranger we have talked to, a moose is more dangerous than a grizzly. This was a female calmly eating near the shore and people (probably a half dozen) were politely giving it a lot of space. Apparently a calf was somewhere nearby in the woods (we never saw it) and earlier in the morning a bull was fairly aggressive to morons that got too close. We enjoyed the show for about 15 minutes and hiked back to our car.

-We walked back with a couple that had pulled their kids out of school for the last quarter and were taking a five month trip across the U.S. to show them the country. I don’t know how I feel about this.

-It was a mellow hiking day but the animal sightings were great! We hiked about 8.5 miles.

Teaching in a disaster area

2017-10-23T05:04:00.001-07:00

I woke up the morning of October 9th and did my usual routine; woke up at about 4:30, made my coffee, and opened up Twitter to check out any late breaking news.

It was immediately apparent that something was wrong.

There was a fire in Napa.

There was a fire in Santa Rosa.

There was a fire in Redwood Valley, a small valley about eight miles north of Ukiah.

Dominos fell so quick that it made my stomach sick.

The fire roared across the northern part of Santa Rosa and destroyed Cardinal Newman High School, many of the commercial businesses in north Santa Rosa, and two major neighborhoods that equaled hundreds, maybe a thousand homes.

Another fire roared in Napa and threatened my cousin.

Another fire started in the hills between Sonoma and Rohnert Park and was threatening both communities.

Another fire was in Clearlake Oaks in Lake County and had destroyed many homes already.

Another fire was east of Geyserville and was threating Geyserville, Healdsburg, and Cloverdale.

There were more fires in Butte and Yuba Counties. My father briefly evacuated Paradise as a fire started in Butte Creek Canyon and sprinted up Honey Run Road.

It was the firestorm that we always anticipated but could never really be prepared for.

After my father was confirmed ok, my focus went to Redwood Valley. It’s been almost an entire week of bad, bad news and constant Internet presence has been exhausting. I’ve relegated myself to something I’m good at for this disaster and that was Facebook feeds and tweets regarding disaster information for my students, ex-students, and colleagues. Information (filtered for rumors) is tremendously powerful and I felt like I would be best served taking as many sources as I could and feeding out through Facebook and Twitter. I think I was actually somewhat of a help to people because I received positive feedback from colleagues and ex-students.

But man was it rough.

Students have lost their homes. Ex-students have lost their homes. Families that worked with lost their homes. Friends lost their homes.

And now we are back at it. Life moved on this week as schools ceased to be evacuation centers and got back to their primary task, although nothing is real normal.

There is a delicate balance between the concept of moving on to create normalcy while keeping in mind that around 300 of our kids were evacuated for over a week, many by having to drive through a firestorm with little or no warning. Some of those kids also returned last week to homes that were burnt to the ground. It was quite obvious that most of the students wanted to be back in school and most wanted to move on to something that was less about the fire. In class we did a brief check-up on each other, looked at the fires across the state from the outside looking in, and then moved on. The students seemed to appreciate that.

The community has really come together to support the victims of the Redwood Valley fire. But my main concern is a month or two down the line when the passion for helping those that need it starts to ebb. While we all have normal lives to return to there are many people that won’t have normal lives for months and years. Guidance staff has already alerted us to be vigilant in the long term and to keep looking out for signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in kids that have been impacted from this disaster. The holidays are right around the corner and expressions of Christmas cheer are going to be difficult for some.

Notes from the 2017 Glacier Road Trip, Day Seven

2017-10-05T05:33:00.001-07:00

-With my wife and I both injured we decided to stick with what we knew so we drove up to Sun Point and caught the shuttle up to Siyeh Bend.

-Yes, we hiked Piegan Pass again but this time we wandered and looked into alpine meadows. They are all over the upper sections of the forest along this trail and while we had to be more bear aware (bears like alpine meadows too) the flower displays and nooks and crannies of nature were worth it.

-We met and hiked with a nice couple from Georgia and chatted about our travels. One thing we have noticed is that a lot of people are taking long trips this year. Maybe there is a significant economic recovery. Maybe we are harkening back to the popularity of parks from the Fifties and Sixties.

-Already the ice is more pronounced on Piegan Glacier from a few days ago. The snow is melting quick.

-The Glacier Shuttle system works if you aren’t in a hurry. If you are in a hurry, drive.

-Sun Point was empty at around 9 a.m.

-You can take the shuttle from Apgar to Logan Pass, and from Logan Pass to St. Mary’s. If you want to go to Bowman Lake on the North Fork, too bad. If you want to go to Many Glacier from St. Mary, pay a $10 fee fro the Xanterra shuttle.

-We shuttled down from Siyeh Bend to the St. Mary’s Falls trail and walked to the falls, then to Sun Point.

-I guess we are getting old because the families jumping off the bridge at St. Mary’s Falls were really annoying us. We left quickly.

-The walk along Upper St. Mary’s Lake to Sun Point was enjoyable but totally exposed. It was pushing mid-eighties and the it looked like many of the tourists did not come prepared with water or a hat.

-Did about 9.5 miles today and my body hurts a bit.

Showing up, on time, is a problem

2017-10-03T05:40:00.001-07:00

My wife and I have a common problem; 1st period tardies.

Somewhere down the line or somewhere at home students are being told that arriving a little late isn’t that big of a deal and the enforcement of a consequence for not being at a designated location at a specific moment has not been given. We both hear the same excuses; “it’s just 30 seconds”,” it’s not that big of a deal”, “stop being so serious you fascist” (ok, my wife doesn’t usually get that one) and the ever popular “none of my other teachers care”. It’s a month in and already it is an epidemic.

My tardy policy is quite simple and has evolved over the years to meet reasonable expectations while hold them accountable. In my class policy it says:

“Students that are tardy will be marked tardy on the roll sheet. I do not have a consequence for tardies unless they become a consistent problem, at which time you will be put on contract.”

If a student is tardy once a month I’m not going to be that concerned. What I’m looking for is the student that habitually can’t make it by the (now 45 minutes later) 8:15 start time. I pretty much ignore the first tardy. At the second tardy I check in with the student and make sure that everything is ok; do they take siblings to school, do they have some kind of disability, do they get caught in traffic at Starbucks. 99% of the time the student will simply admit that they hate mornings and that justifies the lateness. After the third tardy I warn them that they now have a consistent pattern of tardiness and that the next one results in an Attendance Contract from the school. The fourth results in an Attendance Contract which includes detentions, campus beautifications, and Saturday Schools for every subsequent tardy. It also requires me to send a student out for every tardy, thus making it a pain in the ass to miss my class (something I want).

A month in and I have a half dozen students on the Attendance Contract with another half dozen well on their way there. Almost all of them come in with a drink of some kind from Starbucks or McDonalds, and the expectation still remains that teachers will probably, with enough time, ignore the transgressions. Parents that I call are usually understanding but will then clear the tardies instead of enforcing a penalty. Graduating high school without incident matters more than the lessons learned at this point it would seem.

I’ve ran into many teachers over the last ten years that bristle at keeping up on attendance. It’s not the point of school, they say. It’s the wrong priority, they say. Some will even question the validity of tardiness at all because “nothing happens to a teacher when they occasionally arrive a little late.” Seriously, I’ve heard that a few times. But ask small business owners about young employees and you’ll get attendance right at the top of the list. The culture of the constant safety nets has created a social norm that showing up one time is secondary to showing up whenever. It’s frustrating them and frustrating me.

Notes from the 2017 Glacier Road Trip, Day Six

2017-09-27T04:48:00.001-07:00

-Left early for Many Glacier, my favorite part of the Glacier National Park. We arrived at 8 a.m. to lots of empty spaces.

-That didn’t last long. Later in the afternoon they enforced the “One Car Out, One Car In” rule at Many Glacier (and Bowman Lake) due to massive traffic in Many Glacier.

-If you come to Glacier National Park you must do the Iceberg Lake trail. It’s a ten mile trail but the only real “up” is the first 1/3 of a mile. Everything else is gradual.

-I’ve mentioned this in the past and it bears (pardon the pun) repeating; bear bells don’t work. The rangers on this hike stated again that they are too high pitched and the sound doesn’t travel enough. Stop wearing them.

-My wife and I both wear bear spray when we hike. We have had two trail encounters with bears, both grizzlies. One was from 20 years on the Hidden Lake Trail (solo grizz) and one was from about 40 yards on the Grinnell Glacier Trail (Mama and two cubs).

-An adult and baby mountain goat were hanging out above Iceberg Lake and I watched them for about ten minutes or so.

-I twisted my right ankle about 2/3 of the way down the trail. Sucker hit a rock buried in the dirt and turned right over it. Ouch.

-Parking was insane on the way out of Many Glacier. I’ve never seen this many people in the area.

-10 mile day today.

It’s a new thang

2017-09-24T08:49:00.001-07:00

My classroom hasn’t changed a little, it has changed a lot.

After 16 years of rows I requested a new set of tables (which ended being desks) that would create a greater collaborative environment for my students. The end result has been this, a set of six desks that come together to form a sort-of-table. Our school’s Woodshop is investigating the viability of getting some kind of middle table for each pod with the utopia of having power run through the table being the utopian view.

So how did I get here.

I’m not one of those wanna-be progressives that insists that no learning takes place in rows (I’m looking at you teachers I met at CUE in Palm Springs) and that tables was the only way to go. I needed to find evidence that it would not only work but work within my classroom.

About a quarter of my work is group based anyway and last year I really noticed that the room was cramped and fairly non-functional for multiple Chromebooks trying to work on assignments. Desks could be moved but the time it took to move them and then put them back took away from actual instructional time. I played around with moving desks into separate positions and found that the table style worked better anyway.

There is more and more Project/Problem Based Learning potential out there and with basketball done and my brain more refreshed, I think I’m ready to explore the potential. I’ve pulled out the old Buck Institute binders and tried to incorporate a guided practice without a problem for most units. It won’t be every unit at this point but changes are being made.

My school sent me to the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) conference in San Francisco in July and I experienced two things; effective strategies for engaging and teaching English Language Learners (for a different post), and the effective use of groups for not just one lesson but for an entire unit. A schema building format was created within those groups that opened my mind to something collaborative that wasn’t just kitschy, it was actually better.

Finally, I’ve been doing this for sixteen years and I’m too comfortable and I want to find something different. But I’m also pragmatic enough to realize that change for changes sake is not necessarily good so I want the change to be worth something. So I’m ready to go forward.

What has been the result four weeks in?

-I have quite a bit more room in my classroom and I can get more access to more students. The rows didn’t allow me to have a physical presence with a large amount of the class because the rows were too tight. Now I can wander much easier and the middle of the classroom is fairly open.

-You can see the projector so that is the front of the classroom but the concept of “front” is sort of gone. This is ok in that more interaction exists within the tables and the focus becomes other students, not just me.

-I have greater visibility in regards to cell phones. The open format of the room allows me to have a greater view of violators, although cell phones seem less of a problem this year as opposed to last year.

-Student discussion and collaboration is better (obviously) and it makes it easier to see who is not engaged in group activities.

-Some students have to turn all the way around to watch the news. Seems to be a minor inconvenience and no students have complained about doing it.

-Space between the students and the outer walls is less and it makes it a tad difficult to get to the doors from the outside.

-My podium is where I do my paper attendance and I really have no place to put it. I like the podium and want the podium but where does it go in my classroom, unknown.

The experiment shall continue and I’m overall satisfied with the results so far.

Notes from the 2017 Glacier Road Trip, Day Five

2017-09-10T15:35:00.001-07:00

-Made it to Siyeh Bend for our hike to Piegan Pass pass around 8:30 in the morning. By 9 there was limited parking.

-Dory was our ranger for the hike and she noted that grizzlies were hanging out in Siyeh Pass, about a mile and half from where we were hiking, and that it was always smart to be safe.

-The Piegan Pass trail was active but not busy. The bear grass was on the entire trail to the treeline and Preston Park (near the treeline) was filled with wildflowers. It’s an underappreciated location in Glacier.

-We saw Blackfoot, Jackson, and Piegan glaciers on the hike. There are 26 glaciers in Glacier National Park. There were 150 in the late 1800s.

-Between 2005 and 2015, the glaciers in the park lost over 10% of their ice mass.

-Qualifications to be a glacier? Be at least 25 acres, be at least 100 feet thick, and be moving.

-We ended up turning around early due to an small injury to our party and only did a bit over six miles again today.

-Too many people were in the park today.

-We ended up hiking about six and a half miles today.

Notes from the 2017 Glacier Road Trip, Day Four

2017-08-24T05:48:00.001-07:00

-Flathead Lake is massive and beautiful and a fantastic prelude to Glacier National Park. We got an early start from Polson but didn’t feel we needed to rush.

-Visits to Glacier National Park increased 22% for the month of June year to date, and a ranger told me today that no one in the park was ready for it.

-Avalanche Lake was beautiful (as always) but packed full of people. We arrived at the parking area around 9 a.m. and had to park a half mile down the road.

-The worst people in the world are: 1) People that smoke in parks. 2) People that play music on bluetooth speakers while walking in parks. 3) Trail runners on dusty trails in bear country.

-People also have a problem dressing for National Parks. People were hiking the two miles up the trail to Avalanche Lake in full maxi-dresses and dress sandals, while complaining that it’s dirty.

-Someone died near at Haystack Creek on the Going-to-the-Sun Road when he got on the rocks in the creek, slipped in his flip-flops, and fell into the culvert and eventually down a 100 foot cliff to his death. I’m so sorry for the loss for his family but I don’t know how many times parks need to warn people that the outdoors is dangerous.

-That message didn’t get to the woman in her underwear doing yoga on the stone wall on the cliff of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

-The bear grass is nuts this year.

-The crowds are nuts this year.

-We are still happy with our cabin at Johnson’s of St. Mary.

-6 miles hiked today.