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August 12, 2008
August 7, 2008
Have a high schooler? Here’s a few helpful hints for parental units
Written while wearing my “teacher” hat, I’ve listed several suggestions [in no particular order] for parents of high school students…
1. Some kids think whatever they wear the first day of school will mark them for high school life. Probably not, but unless Princess wants to wear spike heels and a tube top and Prince has chosen drop-butt jeans, allow them this wardrobe decision. Feeling good about themselves that day is important.
2. Students at our high school do not wear uniforms. Pity. The beginning of the school year is B-quadrupled (boobs, butts, and belly buttons). Please be aware of your high school’s dress code, and-not that I would ever question your child’s integrity-you can always check the school/parish/county website online for validation.
Some of the regulations may seem silly to you; I may even agree. I don’t think Larry Low Pants learns more when he’s wearing a belt. Do you know WHY I think this? Glad you asked. Because if Larry Low Pants was actually already interested in learning, he’d already be wearing a belt because he follows instructions and does not want to lose valuable class time sitting in the discipline office waiting for his parental unit to drop off clothes. And notice this isn’t an issue of Larry’s IQ; it’s his I WILL.
One of our rules is that skirts and shorts (for girls) have to be fingertip length. I’m waiting for a few Princesses to undergo elbow-ectomies so they can wear shorts that would fit my three-year-old granddaughter. Seriously, I see these girls bend over. It’s not pretty.
Every year I tell students who don’t like the dress code to stop whining and volunteer to be on the student committee for dress codes and/or run for a Student Council office and effect change. You might want to suggest this if your student is unhappy about clothing regulations.
3. Attend the school Open House. If your student claims to have absolutely no recollection of advance notice of this event, call the school. Get the date. Go. At one time I had five children attending four different schools. Plus, I had to attend my own Open House as teacher. An exhausting school year. I know it’s difficult after a long day at work to drag yourself out and parade through your child’s school schedule or however it’s conducted in your universe. Please do it anyway.
It’s not a night to find out Paul Procrastination’s every quiz grade. It’s an opportunity for you to be in your student’s world, sit in her desk, and look over the classroom and the teachers. I do understand that circumstances may hinder your participation. If they do, let your student’s teacher know that. When kids and teachers know you care, it makes a difference. Two years ago, I saw two parents the entire night. I taught 130 students.
4. Do you know the eight busiest days for the library copy machine? The day progress reports and report cards are issued. I’m just saying….
5. Schools issue report cards….they are hardly ever lost, issued to the wrong student, delayed because of computer glitches, mailed to the wrong house….I know some of these could happen. But not every grading period, and not always to your student.
6. If your student comes home with tales of woe about his teacher being mean and hateful, refusing to teach, always giving too much homework…smile. Then please call or email the teacher before going over his/her head to administrators. Are there times when these complaints are valid? I’m sure; every profession has its share of people who did not attend school on career day and, consequently, chose the wrong one. But, again, it’s unlikely that your student was selected for this particular torture, and six of her seven teachers are waiting for their prison guard applications to be approved.
And when you do call or email the teacher, being nice goes a long way. Since email as become a communication tool, I’ve received some of the most vitriolic venom from parents, and usually it’s their first communication with me. They’ve disparaged me as a teacher, as a person, questioned my professionalism, my standards, and my integrity. I’ve been held responsible for a student’s hair falling out from stress, having to go into therapy, and staying awake over 24 hours to finish a project [not all the same student].
If you wouldn’t say it to the teacher personally, don’t say it in an email. And if you want to call the teacher, please attempt to do so during school hours. I’ve had phone calls at 10:30 at night, during supper, and on Saturdays. If we’d mutually agreed on this time, no problem. If not, problem. Also, if the teacher did not distribute his/her personal phone number, do not call another teacher or someone you know who’s friends with the teacher for the phone number.
It’s important for your student, when s/he complains of unfairness, to witness you making an effort to hear both sides. Schedule a conference with the teacher, but be sure to have Sally Sigher sitting there with you. It eliminates he said/she said conferences, and it helps the student understand the concept of problem ownership.
7. The stereotypical after-school conversation:
“Hi, darling. How was school?”
“Okay.”
“What did you do today?”
“Nothin’.”
“Do you have homework?”
[insert mumbling here]
Since I’ve sat on both side of the desk, I’ve had this enthralling conversation with my own children. Don’t be afraid to dig a little. Sometimes they need time to unwind from their school day just like adults unwind from their work day. Maybe the first ten minutes they’re home isn’t prime time for this conversation. But try again later. Ask to see any handouts they received that day, look at what they’re reading in class. Talk about what they’re learning, not as a means of testing them, but as a way to engage them in conversation. What did they hear that day that surprised or annoyed or confused them? Did they laugh that day?
8. Encourage your students to join a club or clubs. Activities aren’t limited to those with athletic ability. Our clubs range from Paint Ball to Archery to Agape to Student Council plus another fifteen or so. Club memberships offer opportunities for students to be involved in school beyond academics. It also provides students chances to meet people they may never see during the course of their regular school day. And having club memberships and office prove important when completing those college applications.
9. Just because Connie Computer spends three to four hours every night “on” the computer, doesn’t necessarily mean she’s completing school work on the computer. More than likely it’s 2.75 hours of IM, and fifteen minutes of homework. Many of my students spend more time IM-ing one another about the assignment than they spend actually completing it.
Once again, I droned on much more than I’d intended. I have more to share about this, but the night is almost morning.
Do you have any questions?
August 1, 2008
New agenda, new school year, old me
Note to those of you who subscribe: Sorry about the blooper half-post! Arrived home later than I’d anticipated. Here’s the real thing:
Over a week ago, I wrote about the necessity of organizing my blog life. Ever-awesome website designer Natalie Jost linked Fictionary, my blog tour/book review/author interview blog, to this site. That smoothed another wrinkle in my needs-to-be-ironed life.
The new line-up will begin Sunday. Like everything else in my life, of course, it’s subject to change. But for now, here’s what it looks like:
Saving Grace Sunday Exploring my relationship as a child of God who sometimes pouts, has temper tantrums, is stuck in the terrible twos, but has the potential for being a truly nice kid.
Maternal Musings Monday Insights and outsights of being a wife of one, mother of five, grandmother of two, sister, aunt, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, and that’s it for now.
Naked Teaching Tuesday This title by popular vote, though I may need to change if salacious spam clogs the blog wheels. My goal here is to be “transparent” as a teacher, which some days may actually mean being trans (as prefix) parent, but most days sharing teacherly things.
Word Game Wednesday Any of you eleven or so people who read my blog on a regular basis are welcome to send in word games!
Think or Thwim Thursday I have no idea what that means…
Fiction on my Fanny Friday The ongoing saga of Christa in Writer Land seeking publication plus writer musings.
Sashay on Saturday I had to find a way to include sashay! Lagniappe.
Yesterday I met one of my BTFF (T is for teacher, of course!) Shelley at school because, even though it doesn’t start until next week, we’re getting ready to get ready. She’s a princess in the Nerd Kingdom. It’s her own fault, really. She’s as excited about pens as I am, and our idea of the edge of nirvana is planning a lesson on writing introductions to essays.
Thursday, though, we met so I could help her paint a wall in her classroom. Notice, WE are painting the walls. I’m not sure how many of you corporate types paint the walls in your office because they’re dingy. We teach in modular classrooms. When you link to the site, you’ll see a picture of one. Our classrooms resembled those pictured for about five weeks and two days. If you imagine our school as a neighborhood, our classrooms would be considered the low rent/subsidized housing area. The actual brick and mortar building houses the high rent district. The modulars are supported by concrete blocks and are basically squares with three windows and a door. “Walls” is a terms we use loosely for the plastic pebbled surface that separates us from the outside. The faux-walls were originally white. Now they’re just gross.
Shelley used a paint that actually transforms the wall into a chalkboard. Very HGTV. We’ll attack my wall later.
I spent the rest of the morning schlepping across campus to carry empty boxes to my room to pack 150 textbooks. Since only six books fit in a book, you do the math. And don’t underestimate the logistics of a 59″ tall person carrying empty book boxes in 200 degree heat.
After packing all the books, I vacuumed the “carpet” (think thick felt, with a design of sorts) with the vacuum I brought from my house so I could use the hose and suck up the two million staples on the floor and all the little creatures in the corners.
Then, I put up temporary blinds because, otherwise, there’s nothing to cover the windows.
Monday and Tuesday I’m going back to dust, rearrange desks, clean the walls, hang up some artsy/motivational stuff, and pray my computer and printer still work.
Isn’t this how every professional prepares for a new year?
July 28, 2008
Summer is its own school
Whatever invaded my body for the past 48 hours took leave sometime overnight. I woke up this morning feeling almost human, which is how I feel most mornings, so that would mean that we’re back to business as usual.
Just for the record, I have NINE days before school starts. NINE. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. That’s counting today, so that would mean 8.5 days really. There’s simply not enough cheese for the symphony of whining that will resonant in the Allan home over the next 8.5 days.
I love teaching. It’s just that 150 students show up for almost nine months.[insert laugh track here] Honestly, that’s 150 attitudes a day, not counting administrators, peers, or parents. Some days it’s like being in a reality show for personality disorders….and that’s generally just mine. After weeks of lazy mornings, bonding with my laptop, chatting with friends, schlepping around in my jammies, lounging on the sofa with the husband–reading while he’s watching something noisy, and generally slug-ness, it’s a challenge to wind myself up for a 4:30 wake-up call, teaching six classes, a 26 minute lunch, conferences, meetings, and grading papers.
Once I meet my darlings, I’m fine. My feet hit the ground running, and I’m stretching my arms out wide enough to scoop them all with me and push them along. They energize me, frustrate me, motivate me, and fascinate me. And nothing delights me more than, years after they graduate, when they find me on Facebook to tell me they’re parenting, building, lawyering, doctoring, nursing, accounting, and contributing members of Planet Earth. In fact, recently I ran into one at the grocery (no, not a cart-driving issue) who handed me his business card (!), and told me he’s writing magazine articles (because he wants to, not because of his job). Amazing. Not that he’s doing it, but that I could stand back and witness the yound man he’d become.
Several of my former students are now teachers themselves. Their enthusiasm fills me with gratitude for the choice they’ve made to step into the classroom and dare to believe in the goodness of their students.
So, am I whining because the wave of school is overtaking the summer beach? Yes.
But riding the wave is the only way in.
July 24, 2008
I’m just saying. . .
Random musings….
1. According to The Daily Mirror, new mommie Angelina Jolie will have to gain 28 pounds for her lead role in the upcoming The Thomas Crown Affair. A moment, please, while I go celebrate with a pint of Chubby Hubby.
2. Michael Savage said that 99% of autistic children are simply brats who aren’t properly disciplined by their parents. From an AP story: “On his radio show last week, he said: “What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, you idiot.”’ Perhaps Mr.Savage might consider that, based on his own definition, he might be autistic. Severely so.
3. You might want to check out Facebook to see if your doctor has a profile there. According to an AP article on www.msn.com: “Erick W. Black, one of the[Univeristy of Florida] researchers, said he found pictures of [medical]students grabbing their breasts and crotches, posing with a dead raccoon and multiple photos of residents and medical students drinking heavily.Many students had joined Facebook groups that could be considered sexist, racist or downright nasty, with many using vulgar language. Some of the tamer groups included “Physicians looking for trophy wives in training” and “PIMP” (Party of Important Male Physicians).”One of Black’s favorite groups, which has 5,700 members nationwide, is “I’m a doctor and I hope my patients don’t see me on Facebook.”
4. The Lamar County school board in Mississippi is “concerned that casual contact between students and teachers would be unprofessional,” so they’re prohibiiting teachers from communicating with students via any Internet social networks.
“The only intent is to limit the personal communication between teachers and students,” Superintendent Ben Burnett told The Hattiesburg American newspaper. “We don’t need to let it cross the line between professional and personal communication.”
Horrors! Teachers and students having casual contact in writing? Crossing THE LINE between professional and personal? Are teachers going to be allowed to cheer at sporting events? Talk to students when they’re chaperoning dances? Oh, my, what about those after-school club meetings? Conventions?
By all means Superintendent Burnett, just think of the consequences if teachers and students personally communicated. They might l-i-k-e talking to one another; they might l-e-a-r-n information that could lead to s-u-c-c-e-s-s. Because, I’m sure, all those teachers and students who were truly engaged in extra-curriculars arranged their trysts on Facebook or My Space first.
S-T-U-P-I-D.
July 10, 2008
Never Lecture in Class Again (subtitle: Making students’ dreams come true!)
more about “WeberTube – Never Lecture in Class Again“, posted with vodpod
Thanks to Vickie Davis@CoolCatTeacher, self-proclaimed tecno-geek, for this!
June 21, 2008
Highly qualified, lowly-respected profession?
Thanks to Angela Maiers and Schools Matter for the heads up on this video.
the Teacher Project Trailer (long version)
June 10, 2008
Leaving on a jet plane
I’m at the airport, specifically in the Delta terminal, waiting for my flight.
Can I tell you that the person who named the waiting areas “terminals” needs undergo psychiatric evaluation? What kind of sicko makes you think about the end when you’re sitting around waiting for the beginning?
Too many rhetorical questions, I know.
Where am I going you ask?
Daytona, Florida. Year 4 as a reader for the English Language and Composition Advanced Placement Exam. Are you breathless yet? Well, this should push you over the edge. Starting tomorrow, about 600 or so of us will gather to start “the reading.” We assemble in an auditorium across the street from the hotel. In Daytona, apparently any street is a raceway. And more than a few of us still don’t understand the concept that CARS ARE BIGGER THAN PEOPLE and insist on attempting to outrun them.
After the yaddayaddayadda welcome back, we find the question to which we’ve been assigned. Students sit for the AP test in May. They answer 55 mutiple-choice questions written by borderline sadistic personalities, then have Then, they’re given two hours to answer three free-response questions, once of which is a synthesis question. Just fr fun, here’s the question WITHOUT the accompanying sources:
Directions: The following prompt is based on the accompanying seven sources.
This question requires you to synthesize a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay.When you
synthesize sources you refer to them to develop your position and cite them accurately. Your argument should be central; the sources should support this argument. Avoid merely summarizing sources.
Remember to attribute both direct and indirect citations.
Introduction
In 2001 United States Representative Jim Kolbe introduced legislation to Congress to eliminate the penny coin in most transactions. Although this legislation failed, there are still consistent calls to eliminate the penny as the smallest-denomination United States coin.
Assignment
Read the following sources (including the introductory information) carefully. Then write an essay in which you develop a position on whether or not the penny coin should be eliminated. Synthesize at least three of the sources for support. You may refer to the sources by their titles (Source A, Source B, etc.) or by the descriptions in the parentheses.
Source A (Lewis)
Source B (Kahn)
Source C (Safire)
Source D (Weller)
Source E (Harris Poll)
Source F (Press Release)
Source G (Penny Visual)
Keep in mind, these kids are generally juniors in high school. This is ONE question. I’ll save you apoplexy by not posting the other two.
So, we’re assigned to one of these, most of us praying it’s not the one above. Then, we’ll spend tomorrow through Tuesday of next week scoring the essays the kids wrote. We start at 8:30 and end at 4:30, with two 15 minute breaks and an hour for lunch (yes, they feed us…more about that later).
During the week, I’ll read about 1,200 essays.
But…gotta board…more later…
May 25, 2008
It really isn’t brain surgery
One of the bountiful blessings of the internet is site-linking, which can either provide endless hours of entertainment, education, or endless procrastination. A recent serendipity was finding Angela Maiers on Twitter, and that discovery brought me to her blog, Angela Maiers Educational Services. She had me at, “Teachers need to be great learners to lead great learners.” Pronto bookmarking there.
Anglea’s blog today features a slide show by Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen on Dr. John Medina’s book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.
His book should be required reading for every classroom teacher, school administrator, and school board. If you’ve been to as many workshops as I have where the presenter is reading, word for word, the power point presentation on the screen from the copy of the power point presentation slides that each participant was given on the way….well, no need to explain, right?
The Twelve Brain Rules according to John:
FROM DR. MEDINA’S SITE:
A sampling of the ideas you’ll encounter:
-For starters, we are not used to sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary perspective, our brains developed while working out, walking as many as 12 miles a day. The brain still craves the experience, especially in sedentary populations like our own. That’s why exercise boosts brain power (Brain Rule #1) in such populations. Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving tasks, and more. I am convinced that integrating exercise into our eight hours at work or school would only be normal.
- As you no doubt have noticed if you’ve ever sat through a typical PowerPoint presentation, people don’t pay attention to boring things (Brain Rule #4). You’ve got seconds to grab someone’s attention, and only 10 minutes to keep it. At 9 minutes and 59 seconds, something must be done quickly—something emotional and relevant. Also, the brain needs a break. That’s why I use stories in this book to make many of my points.
