School of Blog

Ninth Grade = Awesome

2009-11-08T20:47:00.003-06:00

I'm starting to realize that I LOVE being an advisory teacher. In a job that makes me miserable almost all day every day, it's the part I look forward to most. I love having daily routines, I love seeing little moments of progress week by week. I love independent reading time with our awesome new classroom library. I don't even mind the part where I have to call home because Matthew has been touching girls inappropriately again.

Aaaahh.

Ahem.

2009-11-01T19:55:00.002-06:00

Allow me to indulge in a rant.

What is the deal with the new Harry Potter movie?!?!

I don't mind a few changes for the sake of brevity and plot simplification. I've even gotten over the fact that the actors don't remotely resemble how I think the characters should look and behave (particularly LeStrange and Snape). But what they did to HP and the Half Blood Prince was just WRONG.

First of all, they invented a whole new scene involving the Burrow burning down. What are they going to do when they have to have a wedding there in movie #7?

But the worst offense, to me, was the scene near the end inside the cavern. In the book, Dumbledore, nearly lifeless, begs Harry for water. When Harry is forced to scoop it from the lake, the Inferi become animated and start to attack. Dumbledore manages to make a fire and Harry gets them both to safety. The best line in the whole book is when Harry says to Dumbledore "Don't worry," and D replies, "I'm not worried, I'm with you."

In the MOVIE, first of all, the Inferi look like thousands of Gollums, one of which drags Frodo, I mean Harry, under the lake. Fortunately ~~Gandalf~~ Dumbledore magically comes back to life, casting a magnificent fire spell that vanquishes the Inferi and saves Harry.

The key difference here is that in the book, Harry realizes he no longer needs Dumbledore to protect him, just in time for Dumbledore's exit. In the movie, once again, the adults have all the power and wisdom, and the teens are just along for the ride.

One thing that bugs me about the movies is that the adults are too grown up, they have all the answers - they don't have the faults and flaws that make the characters in the book so great.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

If only this were true ...

2009-10-29T19:04:00.000-05:00

State Of Minnesota Too Polite To Ask For Federal Funding | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

"Minnesota should just take the spending money, already," Department of Education Undersecretary Edward McPherson said. "It's not like it's a special handout—all schools were allocated extra money under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. But they refuse to accept their extra federal funding on the grounds that their schools 'don't need to be fancy.'"

"Frankly, they're just being stubborn and I'm not going to stand for it any longer," McPherson said. "They're gonna get some more funding by the end of the year if the federal government has to airdrop in school lunches and forcibly place new teachers in the classrooms with the help of the National Guard."

Sigh. Or should I say, world-weary sigh.

On Luck, part II

2009-10-22T22:56:00.001-05:00

Some useful perspective from Jon Katz:
Bedlam Farm Journal: What Positive Thinking Means to Me, cont.

I don't really know to what extent we determine our fates. I think our attitudes do have something to say about it. Recognizing our own worth. Building confidence in our ability to navigate difficult times and bad and sad things.

Unkindest cut

2009-10-22T21:51:00.002-05:00

Recently Larry Ferlazzo linked to a London Telegraph story about a study on "lucky" vs. "unlucky" people.

It's seeming relevant today, since I was informed my position is being cut to half time to fix our budget shortfall.

I'm trying to count myself lucky, since I was offered an additional 50% position as a special ed paraprofessional. It's actually a great deal - I will be able to keep my full salary and benefits. It's not clear at the moment what the position would involve, but 50% of my salary would be reimbursed by the state/district.

Meanwhile I have been scouring the job listings every day. I am trying to feel lucky that I have a job at all, because there is absolutely nothing out there for social studies teachers.

This is N.P.R. (Northern Pacific Railway)

2009-10-15T05:35:00.002-05:00

Some incredible old photos of Duluth, Minn. at Shorpy.

Readers point out some fine details on this one, including children on top of train cars, two dudes carrying baritone horns, and what appears to be a horse standing on a roof.

Touch me baby

2009-10-15T04:17:00.002-05:00

Yay, MEA break. Boo, waking up early.

I had a weird memory of seeing a TV show at a childhood friend's house that involved non-actor parents and children. Near the end, the host said something like, "Now let's all put on our 'kid gloves,'" miming putting on a pair of gloves. The parents then started touching their kids - like patting them and caressing them. Definitely Good Touch, not Bad Touch, but I remember being a little creeped out by it even then.

Can anyone corroborate this, or did I make it up?

Money ...

2009-10-10T19:06:00.002-05:00

Not the sexiest topics, but I wanted to check in with some of you big-picture charter folks to see how common some of our budget woes are around the country:

School funding hold-backs: In July the state legislature passed a budget that changed the funding formula: Previously, the state held back 10% of our per-pupil funding - now, they hold back 27%. That means that this October we will receive funds amounting to 10% of the 2008-2009 per-pupil funding from the 2008-2009 school year, but we won't receive this year's held-back funding until October 2010.

Typically a school would borrow money to fill in that gap, but since we are in Statutory Operating Debt, we are legally required to be paying off debt, not incurring new debt.
Property taxes: I recently found out we have a "triple-net lease," which means we pay all maintenance fees as well as property taxes, which come to around $50K each year.

To help with this, we are going to try to appeal to the county tax commissioner -- some MN schools have had success doing this since as schools they are not supposed to have to pay property taxes. But they have had to keep at it for years before making any headway.
Stimulus Funds: Our school applied for - and got - federal stimulus funds this year. However, it turned out to be a wash since the state just subtracted the stimulus amount from our state funding.

On a related note, we informed teachers on Friday that the board had directed the school leaders to cut $60,000 from salary/benefits. Needless to say it was not a good start to the weekend.

You're Fired

2009-10-10T10:30:00.005-05:00

From NY Times: Lawsuit over the release of documents from the NYC Board of Education about a chilling chapter of Cold War history, when nearly 400 city teachers were fired for "affiliation with the Communist party."

Board blues

2009-10-08T22:26:00.003-05:00

It's quite an experience to be on the board of a school that's in serious danger of being shut down. (I don't have qualms about publishing this because a) I haven't identified my school, and b) it's all in the public record anyway.)

Our board had a visit today from a guy from the state who basically told us to cut $60,000 in salaries/benefits or face the possibility of closing as soon as January.

So what else can we do? The board authorized the administrative team to make those cuts however it deems best. The cuts are for THIS YEAR, not next school year.

Let's call the whole thing off

2009-10-01T22:51:00.002-05:00

Today a few of my juniors and seniors were going to a college fair. To prove that they had actually been there, and hadn't been off somewhere doing naughty things, I asked them to bring me back some of the freebies that the exhibitors were handing out -- more specifically, I used the word "shwag."

Apparently, the word "shwag" (also?) refers to low-grade marijuana. My students were like, "uhhh ... you want us to bring you back some WHAT?"

Duh, this is what i meant.

Amusingly enough, this is not the first time the students have had to correct me about this kind of thing. How fondly I remember the time in debate class when I suggested they choose as a topic the legalization of "cah-NOB-is."

Larnin'

2009-09-30T21:20:00.003-05:00

I kept meaning to send something to Mr. D, but never did - so now that I have a sec, here's a lesson I'm doing this week in my early American history class:

Background:

We are in the middle of studying early American societies, and have just finished learning about Mississippian (mound builders) and Taíno societies
This lesson introduces students to early Mesoamerican societies (Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, Olmec, Aztec)

Instructions:

The students will visit the website of ImageBase (http://www.famsf.org/fam/about/imagebase/index.asp)
I have assigned several students to each Mesoamerican society (Maya, Mixtec, etc.) In the "Search" box at ImageBase, the students in the Maya group will enter "Maya," which will generate images of artifacts.
The students will choose one artifact to analyze.
The students will complete a worksheet that will help them analyze their artifact. The point of the analysis is for students to understand what "stuff," or material culture, can teach us about the people that used it.
Once they finish the analysis, they will bring what they've learned and "jigsaw" it with the other students. Next steps include a more general discussion of those societies, trade networks, etc.

Discussion:
I've found that this type of activity is great for kids with language processing difficulties and English language learners. If I'm delivering content day after day through English-language documents, films, and discussions, it's nice to take a break and have students learn history by examining an artifact.

Committee to Reeducate the Public

2009-09-27T07:53:00.003-05:00

Good example to use when kids ask "why study history." From TPM, a new Kreep out to undermine a Democrat using bald-faced lies.

Thanks but no thanks, Harry Wong

2009-09-25T21:57:00.002-05:00

Recently I've been re-reading a few pages of the Wongs' The First Days of School each day over breakfast. The book has a lot of great suggestions for classroom setup and management. But I think it's corresponded with a steadily dwindling confidence in my effectiveness as a teacher. When the Wongs say "Effective teachers do ..." one thing and "Ineffective teachers do ..." another, I generally fall in the ineffective category.

What I need to do is read more things like this, remind myself that kids actually do learn in my class, and try not to hold myself to impossible standards. There has to be some middle ground between "effective teachers" and "ineffective teachers."

Plus, I'm sorry Mr. Wong, but you would never get away with a name like that in high school.

Why teachers have unions

2009-09-22T21:06:00.003-05:00

Don't want to get specific, but a couple of things have happened to staff at my school recently that confirm my belief in the need for teachers' unions.

Suffice it to say that with a union, a teacher who wasn't meeting administrators' expectations would be entitled to due process.

What happens at the schoolhouse door

2009-09-17T21:54:00.002-05:00

A great companion story to the chili pepper incident.

Today a student who has strong atheist views taped a sign to his shirt that read "GOD DOES NOT EXIST." When I asked him to have a chat with me about it, he said "It's my first amendment right to wear it, and there's a Supreme Court precedent."

I asked the Spanish teacher involved in the chili pepper incident to get in on this conversation with me. Then I asked the kid if he'd ever heard of the concept of the social contract. He hadn't, so I explained that when we decide to join a community, we give up some of our rights so that we can get the benefits of being in that community. In this case, we give up some of our free speech rights if they take away from other people's ability to learn.

The Spanish teacher jumped in, and it was amazing to hear her spouting back the exact same arguments I'd made against the mustached, sombreroed chili pepper. "Our school's policy is that if it offends one person, we don't allow it," she said, "and as a Christian, I am offended by your sign."

The student then said that our policy was unconstitutional. I said that there have been court precedents on both sides of the issue. But that if he was concerned about the policy, he should put together a case and come to a board meeting.

Fired up, ready to go!

2009-09-13T11:47:00.003-05:00

While some other gathering was taking place at the Capitol, the School of Bloggers went to Target Center for my first pep rally since I was in high school. Except this time, instead of the class president, the person up on stage was the President.

It was AWESOME!

Nothing to say but ...

2009-09-13T11:38:00.004-05:00

... wow. Still blown away by Shorpy. And by these "prep-school gymnasts from Orange, Virginia." Can you imagine how still they must have been to keep the image that sharp back in 1910?

Fight or Flight

2009-09-01T20:37:00.003-05:00

I'm not quite getting what all the chatter is about re: this "new" way of teaching reading reported in the New York Times. This method has been around for so long, I thought it was basically standard operating procedure.

To me it makes perfect sense: You can't teach Hamlet until students get to that reading level. Students won't get to that reading level until they have practiced enough on easier material. And why not give them books that they will actually enjoy while they practice those skills? Why stick to dusty old "classics" just because we read them when we were in school?

Today I had a conversation with a parent who was upset about my choice of book for a read-aloud. The book I chose was Flight by Sherman Alexie, one of today's most highly regarded writers, winner of numerous prizes and honors. The parent was upset because her daughter had reported that the book contained profanity. She felt that I was setting a bad example for the student by using this language, even in the context of reading it out of a book.

I explained that I had chosen the book because of its utility in teaching independent reading skills. I told her that my high school teacher had taught Cather in the Rye, which similarly used strong language to make a point. She said, "Are you saying that the only way you can connect with your students is to use bad language???"

What could I do? I'm a 28-year old teacher. It's not a battle I had the energy to fight. Most of the class loves the book, but I will make it available for them to finish on their own if they choose. I will pick a more appropriate read-aloud and learn my lesson for next time.

Memories of Teddy

2009-08-26T19:37:00.003-05:00

Today is a day to remember Teddy Kennedy, so I thought I'd add my own moments.

I was an intern at the American Federation of Teachers during the 2004 presidential campaign. The AFT was visited by all of the Democratic candidates. At some point, Ted Kennedy came by to give a pep rally about the importance of the national union's work in the campaign. He brought along his dog, who I believe is the same breed as Bo Bama? The effect was electrifying and animating.

Earlier that year there was a rally outside the Department of Labor (under Secretary Chao). My intern buddies and I were sent with our AFT paraphernalia to increase the presence on a cold, rainy day. We happened to be standing a few feet from the podium, behind the speakers. With no warning, Ted Kennedy walks out of the Department of Labor building, strides up to the podium, and delivers an eloquent speech based on nothing but a few notes on a paper napkin. (I was close enough to read them!) He said, "If you work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, you should not have to live in poverty in the United States of America!"

His vision was compelling, and his way of expressing it simple and clear. I feel lucky that I had the chance to be so inspired by him, at least for those moments.

2009-08-18T22:04:00.002-05:00

First day of staff development before school starts, therefore my first day as "lead teacher." Can't express how woefully underqualified I feel for the job. Exhausted from leading sessions today and trying to get things in order. Trying to figure out strategies for managing stress better BEFORE school starts - if today's any example I have a long way to go.

Came home and was cheered up by this:

We can't afford to ignore it.

2009-08-14T10:51:00.002-05:00

A district not far from my school was just ordered to award $25,000 to a student as a settlement in a case of harrassment by a teacher. She had been making repeated comments about his perceived sexual orientation.

Most disturbing part:

Despite his complaints, and a resulting investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, the district recently rejected a local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) advocacy group's offer to help train staff in the district's recently revised policy on discussing sexual orientation. Until February district policy directed staff members to refrain from discussing homosexuality "as a normal, valid lifestyle" in health education classes.

"There are so many advocacy groups out there that you could have one for every social concern there is," said Michelle Langenfeld, associate superintendent of the district, which is the state's largest with more than 40,000 students. "What we've tried to do is create policy around a neutral stance, focusing on respect, appreciation of diversity, responsibility, integrity and compassion."

I could see some of my coworkers saying something just like that. We've had serious issues with students who are gay or perceived as gay at our school, and some of our staff members don't seem to think that it's a problem. The students need a lot of guidance, but what kind of message do they get when their teachers make comments about the way certain students dress? How is a student supposed to react when their teacher tells them they think gay students are receiving special treatment?

When I brought this up with my school leader yesterday, suggesting we take it seriously, she was offended at the suggestion that it could happen in our school.

Is college for everyone?

2009-08-12T21:29:00.004-05:00

One of the most commonly searched phrases that ends up sending people to this site is "college isn't for everyone." I guess it goes to one of Chris's posts about his experience in an after-school program.

Edutopia now has a poll up on the question "Should all students go to college?" As of this minute, 63% of 176 respondents answered "No. College is just one of many paths students can take after high school, and is by no means the only road to success."

I was actually one of them. But I hope I don't send the same message to my students that the teachers in Chris's school did.

As the career coordinator, I try to put college on the agenda of every student - particularly those who'd be the first in the family to go, and who haven't really considered it. I do all I can to keep the possibility open: I have them take the PLAN test in 10th grade; I arrange college tours and bring in speakers as often as I can. I offer college and FAFSA workshops throughout the year.

I do my best to help kids make an informed decision. But I would not push college on a kid if it wasn't his or her choice. I believe kids when they tell me they don't believe college is for them. And I let them know that after they graduate, if they ever do decide to go, they can always come to me for advice and a recommendation - I will always be their career counselor.

I try to send the message that any of them could succeed in college (given the proper support), but that I believe and trust their decisions.

Does that make sense?

Don't Panic

2009-08-11T11:23:00.003-05:00

Dwight D. Eisenhower Radio and Television Address to the American People on the State of the Nation

Sometimes you feel, almost, that we can be excused for getting a little bit hysterical, because these dangers come from so many angles, and they are of such different kinds, and no matter what we do they still seem to exist. But underlying all of these dangers is one thing: the threat that We have from without, the great threat imposed upon us by aggressive communism, the atheistic doctrine that believes in statism as against our conception of the dignity of man, his equality before the law--that is the struggle of the ages. ...

I don't mean to say, and no one can say to you, that there are no dangers. Of course there are risks, if we are not vigilant. But we do not have to be hysterical. We can be vigilant. We can be Americans. We can stand up and hold up our heads and say: America is the greatest force that God has ever allowed to exist on His footstool.

I'm waiting for Obama to make this speech.

Among the thugs

2009-08-10T22:25:00.003-05:00

The word "thug" needs to be eliminated from the English language.

A Google News search of the word shows why.

When I did it, stories about Michael Vick came up first ("thug" is usually used in connection with African Americans), then stories about teabag protests allegedly encountering (working-class) union "thugs," then more stories about black athletes.