Rich's Other Pages
Mandated Testing
Today our district completes the mandated testing required by the state in order to satisfy the NCLB. It takes three hours a day for three days, so I haven't seen my ninth graders in class since Monday. In addition, my district has the students take diagnostic reading tests three times during the year to gauge students ability to pass these tests. So that's over a week of school lost to this mandate.
This of course doesn't include all the teaching to the test that is done to keep a building out of "school improvement," the state coming in and usurping local authority and dictating what the curriculum will be. Amazing, isn't it--the administration that preaches less government regulation comes up with more and more ways to yank authority away for the local population, and that states that kids' education is lacking (after all, our President had to ask us "is our children learning"), puts in effect a system that makes us drop everything educational for days at a time.
Getting some love from Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert has been doing a great job in the past few weeks promoting donorschoose.org, a site that allows people to donate directly to help fund programs in Pennsylvania public schools. Because of his efforts, the site raised more that $100,000 in just a few weeks. That alone puts him on my "what a great guy" list, but tonight he went over the top. He plugged the site once again during his build up to his own trip to Philly for the upcoming primary, and this time he mentioned a couple of the programs seeking funding. The first one took me by surprise because it was from my own district. Yes, he did joke concerning a request from Titusville Middle School's band program. Here's the bit:
Thanks, Stephen!
Getting love from Stephen Colbert, part II
How can such a great presentation make me feel so lousy?
Yesterday was an in-service day in my district, and rather than the usual meetings and rigmarole those days normally entail, we had a guest speaker, Dr. Willard Daggett of the International Center for Leadership in Education. Dr. Daggett is an impressive speaker who has the ability to hold an audience's attention through a presentation over five hours long (well, we had lunch in the middle).
The problem is that it was one of those presentations that contained information that I'm sure will keep me up nights if I think about it too much. I'm not going to go into details here just yet, as I am still sorting through all of it in my mind, but in essence he spelled out in very real terms the challenges to education in the United States that will be occurring in the next decade or so, and by extension he outlined the challenges to the country as a whole as well. And, to me at least, it's not pretty at all. Don't get me wrong, he did give numerous ways to help improve education here, but I think an unintended byproduct was that he made me feel that in a lot of ways, it would be rearranging the deck chairs on The Titanic.
Teachers carrying guns? Are they #%&$@ SERIOUS?
Hey, I’ll admit it; I have had students over the fifteen years that were so frustrating, so grating, so disruptive that I’ve momentarily considered picking them up by the scruff of the neck and shaking them like a dog will shake a rat until its neck snaps.
I’m not the first teacher to feel that way. I remember when I was back in seventh grade. My homeroom teacher had enough of the loudmouth punk who sat behind me. This kid was three years older than me because he liked grade seven soooo much he refused to leave. After about three months of trying to discipline the kid, sending him to the office, and suspending him. This guy’s luck ran out. He mouthed off to the teacher, and I swear I think I saw steam coming from the man’s collar—about ten seconds before he leaped over the top of his desk (literally) and pulled the kid from his desk by his throat. He dragged the kid out the door, and those of us left in the class heard the Bang! Bang! Bang! of what I assume was him bouncing the kid off lockers all the way down to the principal. I never saw that particular student in class again, and to this day I don’t know what happened to him.
Homeroom was very well behaved for the remainder of the school year.
I’ve not seen anything like that in the years that I’ve been working in the schools, but believe me when I say that while I emphatically think that teacher was flat out in the wrong for what he did, I certainly empathize with the feeling. Every teacher has them.
So what the hell is Texas doing by allowing teachers to carry guns in school?
I’m sorry, but that’s just plain, friggin’ stupid, and simply saying “well, it’s Texas” just doesn’t cut it.
How will this make the schools safer? I don’t care how “responsible” the gun totin’ educators are reputed to be, if there is a situation in a school with an invader that would warrant them pulling their weapons, all this would do is put more bullets in play that might find an innocent student. Teachers aren’t trained in the same techniques that cops and SWAT members are.
Worst case scenario, you may end up with a guy like my seventh grade teacher who, rather than leaping over the desk, decides to put one between an obnoxious twit’s eyes.
My grades for the upcoming year
After a week of in-service, school starts in earnest tomorrow, and as I do every year, I have big plans for doing things differently and better than I've done before. Sadly more often than not, I've allowed the deluge crap paperwork and mind numbing interference from the government (thanks, No Child Left Behind Act!) to create inertia that has me doing pretty much the same thing over again.
This year I'm going to put myself on the line a bit. I'm going to grade myself on the same schedule the kids are. I'm going to post how I think I'm doing right here in my blog four times this year at the end of each nine weeks period. I'll give myself a grade A to F in the following areas:
- Originality- I honestly believe I do what I do very well, but as the saying goes, "very good" is the enemy of "great." I'm going to try to incorporate new techniques, new assignments and new works where I can.
- Interactivity- I'm a great lecturer, but I need to work on getting the kids to do more hands-on work.
- Response Time- I have to admit I have a tendency to take as much as a week and a half to get tests back to students sometimes. I need to focus on cutting that turn around time down.
The end of the first quarter is November 4th, so that week I'll report back how I feel I've done so far. Whether I've done well or poorly, I'll give what I feel my reasons are.
I'm hoping the added accountability will keep me on my toes.
Changing Jobs
I love being in the classroom. I love standing in front of a classroom full of students and watching their faces as they think about something we're covering in a way they've never thought of before. I also like to think I'm fairly good at my job. I've had numerous students come back to me over the years to thank me for something I taught specifically or for our class in general.
It's these things that have made this weekend a rough one for me. On Friday I was offered a new job, and I've pretty much decided I'm going to take it.
Our school district got a HUGE grant this year from the PA state government called "Classrooms For the Future" (CFF). This grant gives the high school a ton of new technology for educational use in an effort to keep our schools competitive in the global arena. We're getting mobile laptop computer labs, laptops for teachers, overhead computer projectors, and Smart Boards. And in order to make certain that the tech is actually used properly, the grant also pays for a "technology coach"; a teacher whose job is to help the rest of the faculty learn to use the tech efficiently in facilitating learning. I put in my resume for the job early in the month, and Friday my principal came up and said I got it if I want it.
It's a totally lateral move. There's no more pay involve, and I wouldn't be an administrator. They'll get a long term substitute teacher to finish out the school year for me starting in early October. It's technically only a year long position as that's all the grant covers, so at the end of the year I'd go back to the classroom. However, many schools who already have the grant have kept the tech coach on, so there's the possiblity I would be asked to continue in that position next year. Even if the position disappears after the year is up, I don't lose any contract steps or seniority, and I step right back in with no penalties.
I'll miss being in the same classroom all day, especially this year. I really enjoy ALL my classes this year, something I haven't always been able to every year. And I'm not looking forward to announcing to them I'm leaving. But I will still be in the same school and I'll be in and out of the classes across the school, meaning I'll still be seeing and interacting with all of them. One of the best things about the position for me is that while I love teaching, I'm looking forward to NOT spending the hours grading papers.
I figure that even though I don't plan on going anywhere, this is a good resume padder, and quite frankly how many folks are offered the opportunity to try something completely new for a year with no financial risk?
It's going to make for an interesting year.