The proper way to address a teacher

The time has come for parents to start calling and e-mailing teachers with the sudden realization that their child has spent the year lying about their grade. It is also the time where teachers that deal with Seniors are now put in the situation of put-up-or-shut-up in terms of grades and graduation. Were my standards all talk, or does the diploma really mean something?

I would say that a good 70% of all parent contact is actually fairly cordial; often parents are unhappy, but more with the effort of the student. Many parents understand that the child is not putting forth the full effort and feel more frustrated about that than a teacher's grading. However, it's the 30% that end up taking up all the time and effort and eroding my patience. Today I'm here to brief parents about the correct way to address teachers, at least this teacher. Now, you might find this to be arrogant, but I think that many parents see the teacher as an obstacle in the way of the kid's success, and I'm just here to tell you that it isn't true. So here are a couple of tips:

1) I really want what is best for your kid. So you ask, "Is not graduating high school what is best for my kid"? If the child did not earn the diploma, yes it is. Trust me, they don't want to learn this lesson when it could cost them their job, their credit, or some other thing that is immensely valuable. I understand that some kids are not used to being told "no", but that isn't how the real world works. You have to work to earn something.

2) Address me as a professional. No matter what the media portrays me as, no matter what you have seen in movies, no matter what preconceptions you might have, I am a professional. What that means is that I'm taking this job very seriously, and you shouldn't think for a second that I'm not aware of the consequences of decisions. While you think that I should let up "because we are talking about kids here," I don't agree, the state government doesn't agree, the federal government doesn't agree, and society won't agree when I allow substandard students to pass my class.

3) Don't vent. Two years ago an administrator told me that you never ever walk out of a meeting with a parent. He then took me and two other teachers into a room with two parents and a child and allowed them to hammer on us (yelling and the whole deal) for 90 minutes. I will never allow that to happen again. If you call me and get in my face, I'll simply say, "we're done here." If you e-mail me with "I refuse", "I insist", or "I demand", then I'll write back with a simple "here's the situation" and be done. I don't have the time nor will I waste energy on you venting on me; I have other students to teach.

4) Understand that some problems will not have the solution that you want. In the end, the student needs to want to pass high school more than the teacher or their parents want them to. If that isn't present, I can't come a solution that results in graduation.

5) You need to understand that I am my own worst critic and therefore consider myself right almost all of the time. Yes, that sounds so, so bad. However, I think that I am a pretty good teacher and that I know what I am expecting out of my classroom. Add to that the confidence I get from past students that have come back time and again to call my class "tough, but fair". Also add to that the fact that I just spent nine months with your kid. Now top it off with the realization that I have a half dozen safety nets there for the student, and that I give students tremendous benefit of the doubt throughout the year. Like I say at the beginning of the year, "You need to work to get an A, and you need to work to get an F."

Now, I might seem petulant and stubborn, but understand that I relate the above to my classroom, not the outside world. Of course I take other variables into consideration (counselors, IEPs, reading levels, on and on...), and they are always involved in the end result. But if my boss comes to be and says, "This student is failing and won't graduate without your class. How confident are you that your choice is correct?" I'll say 100%. I'll have reviewed it over and over, looked at every possible reasoning, and I'll come to that conclusion. Sorry. The F was earned.

Parents need to understand that I really like many kids that fail my class. It sucks to have a kid work so hard until April and then collapse. It's wrenching to watch a kid participate so much.....in the 3 out of 5 days that he/she shows up in class. Do you think that I want to see kids in pain? I took this job because I care about kids!

In the end, remember that the people that are dealing with your kids really do care. Treating them like the problem will not make the problem go away, it will just make the end of the year more miserable for everyone involved. Also remember that the time to work on a kid's work habits and academic skills is not March of their Senior year, it's in Kindergarten.

Vote for Coach Brown or another good blog.

I've been nominated on the Best of Blogs for one of the 10 Best Small Education Blogs. That's kind of cool, so if you want you can head on over to Best of Blogs and leave a comment vote for Ukiahcoachbrown.

Then again, I also read most of the other nominees on a regular basis. Standard Deviation, Polski, CalTeachGuy, and Shrewdness are some of the first that I read on my Bloglines daily. If you don't vote for me, hit them up.

Better day

Nothing gets the juices flowing like a good review of the AP Comparative course with a game of Jeopardy.

Seriously, they want blood. I have four groups in a tiered format where students of similar academic levels end up facing each other, and tearing each other apart. I had about 18 catagories and the 1-5 point amounts took a very quick 90 minutes. In the end the kids left with a smile on their face and, hopefully, confident about the AP test.

Speaking of my first AP experience, I heard second hand from a decent student that the CompGov test "wasn't too bad". It was also a reliable student that would give a pretty fair evaluation. Tomorrow I should get a copy of the FRQ's, which I will probably over-analyze for next year's class.

Anyone get early wind of the questions?

Bad, Bad Week

I haven't written because I had a miserable week.

I mean seriously miserable.

I wasn't about kids at all. In fact, kids saved the week.

I can't talk about it because I would be discussing people I work with, not the best idea.

In fact, I just erased a huge post that I made about how angry and bitter I am. Posting it does nothing but create more problems. I'll just say this; I think that I'm a very good, not great, teacher. I can name the "great" teachers at the school and I'm not there yet. I will be because I know my weak spots. However, I do my best to be a professional team player. I'll come to campus tomorrow ready to work hard. Work with me, not against me.

STARnival

STAR testing time was given the name STARnival by one of my colleagues. It is pretty aptly named since the entire process is a horrid little joke that schools suffer in so many ways.

For instance, a rumor went around this week that today was National Ditch Day. Who the hell knows if it was true or not, except that it's one of those things that the NCLB idiots really don't take into account. Some teachers suffered major attendance issues, even in other schools around the county. I did not, but I don't teach students that take the tests.

Instead my students (four Economics classes and one AP Comparative Government class) are parceled out to other teachers for three hour testing blocks today, tomorrow, and Thursday. I needed to make lesson plans for these blocks, which included computer lab work on stock projects (power points and written reports), a Frontline video on Wal-Mart, and some textbook work on Market Structures. The teachers taking my classes are more than competent, so the information will easily get passed onto the students. Still, it becomes a challenge when some students look around in confusion because they didn't pay attention when I assigned the work. Then the panic sets in when they run to me at lunch and request a full explanation of the work, only to have me say, "Read me the directions".

"I don't have the directions."

"Where can you get the directions?"

"On the Moodle", stated in the smug 'I already know that' voice.

"Ok, go print out a copy of the directions. It will take five minutes and I'll be here when you get back."

"Can't you just give me a copy now? I need help with.....", any number of things that I've explained a half dozen times.

I then give the unamused stare. "Get the directions. I'll be here".

Believe it or not, some students will in fact print the instructions and come back for help. In my eyes, it is the sign that the student (even though it is late in the game) has come to focus on the task at hand and is open for learning. This is good. Unfortunately, some students simply go off and don't take the five minutes to print off the instructions, leaving them just as clueless as before because they want the answers given to them. Remember, they need to want it more than you do. I make myself available, but we are talking about Seniors in high school that are well aware about their position in class. In the end they make choices. It is that simple.

So more STARnival is coming this week, and then a couple of days next week are block to assist with more fun and games. Wonderful.

A good Giants game and a Critical Mass of Asses

My cell phone went off as I walked out the door of the admin building on my way home. Apparently, someone gave my wife four tickets to the Giants-Reds game in the Club Level at AT&T Park. Two friends and my wife and I crowded into the car and raced down to the ball game for some nice hardball action. The game was great. Jonathan Sanchez struck out 10 and the young Giants flew around the bases in the late innings to secure the victory. After the game we enjoyed Mojitos, Margies, and the best late game snacks in the world at Palominos under the Bay Bridge. It is still, by far, the best deal in post-game snackage that you can get in the city. We ended up back in the not-so-bustling Ukiah at around 2:15 in the morning.

The only drawback was getting to the game in the middle of the 2nd inning because we ran into the idiots of Critical Mass. We were making excellent time going against the rush hour traffic until we reached the corner of Bush and Market, where we ended up stuck in an intersection as hundreds of cyclists rode en masse down Market Street. Critical Masses is a monthly, sometimes weekly, protest against the city for the "unfriendly" environment that the city provides for the biking population. They do this by breaking laws and tying up traffic on the busiest street in the city, while making no one sympathetic to their cause. In fact, my guess is that most drivers were in the same thinking mode as I was, "I wonder how many I could scatter if I just punched it". Having went to college in Chico, where cycling idiots bitch about similar issues, I must say that I have absolutely no sympathy for the cause of Critical Mass. In fact, I think cyclists are some of the most hypocritical morons in society, bitching about bike rights as the fly through 4-way STOP signs, run red lights, and constantly scream at pedestrians that they own the road. My wife wondered if the cyclists were going to be held to the same standard as cars, as they flew through the intersection of Bush and Market without a care, and be cited for a red light violation.

But Critical Mass of Idiots couldn't dampen our spirits this night as the Giants ended victorious, and for some reason, my wife and I have the luck of the Irish in nailing free seats at some nice games.

Comments on teacher pot charges

For those of you that aren't local, or that are local and live under a rock, a teacher at my high school was arrested for an indoor marijuana grow that was around 156 planets. You can read about it in the Press Democrat. Instead of going into a long diatribe, how about I answer the top five questions that I've been asked in the last week.

1. Did you know the teacher?

-Barely, and not in a good way. He was one of the group that tried to toss the entire athletic program a couple of years ago,so I have no love lost for him. In terms of actually "knowing" him, I might have said five words to him in the last seven years at the school.

2. What do you think should be done?

-Simple. Like any citizen he should be given his right to due process. If found innocent he should be let go. If found guilty then the judge should throw the book at him.

3. Why hasn't he been fired from the school?

-Because you can't just fire someone for being accused of something, that's why. In this country there is a process of finding the accused guilty of a crime, and if the school just hauled off and fired an employee with no just cause, it wouldn't work out very well for the school. If he's found guilty, he'll be fired immediately, I would guess.

4. What surprises you the most about this matter?

-The shock. A school is a microcosm of the community it resides in. You think that the largest employer in Ukiah would be totally immune to the same ills that are pervasive to the rest of the town? If you are shocked then you are a fool.

5. Do you think that teachers should be drug tested?

-Yes, and I'll be the first one in line to take the test.

If only I was able to send this out

Thanks to Scheiss Weekly (check the blogroll).

Dear Parents, Siblings, Friends, Neighbors, Spouses, Fiancees, and Ex-Fiancees of my students:

While I appreciate the concern all of you feel, from time to time, about the grades, attendance, and overall class status of the students in question, please allow me to remind you that the law prohibits me from giving you the slightest detail of his/her standing in my class.

No, I cannot tell you whether or not a student was present on any given day.

No, I cannot tell you whether or not a student is passing or failing.

No, I cannot tell you what assignments a student is missing, and even if I could it wouldn't matter because at the college level, there are no make-ups.

No, I cannot give you the assignment due next Monday.

I can give this information only to the student himself/herself, and I never do that over the phone because how, then, would I know it's not YOU instead of the student?

Thanks for asking.

Sincerely,
Insensitive Professor

P.S. Yes, I understand that you are paying all of this student's fees, tuition, and books, but I still can't tell you.

P. P.S. I work really hard to make my lessons as interesting and memorable as I possibly can, but if a student is not there, how can he/she benefit from it? Yes, we covered Chapter 28, but we did far, far more than that. I guess you had to be there. . . .

Maybe the best way to help high school students is start actually start treating them like college students. Maybe the same could go for parents too.

Ukiah is still about marijuana

The county is only 80% of normal and may enact mandatory water restrictions as early as May. But it isn't that important.

The school district has sent lay-off notices to 70 teachers in Ukiah. Even with the protest, it has hardly gone noticed.

Jobs are flying out of the county and Ukiah is worried that it is going to be the victim of a box store economy. Hardly a whisper in the community.

Nope, all the hype in Mendocino County is a measure to limit the growth of marijuana, not eliminate it, limit it. In 2000, the voters of Mendocino County passed Measure G, an initiative that attempted to decriminalize the cultivation of marijuana. Basically, it said this:

The Ordinance will:
(A) Instruct the County government to support all efforts toward the decriminalization of marijuana.
(B) Instruct the County Sheriff and District Attorney to make marijuana enforcement their lowest priority with respect to other crimes.
(C) Establish a maximum limit of plants and weight for cultivation and possession of marijuana for personal use in Mendocino County, and prohibit the expenditure of public funds for enforcement of marijuana laws against cultivators and users in possession of quantities below that limit.
(D) Remove the fear of prosecution and the stigma of criminality from people who harmlessly cultivate and/or use marijuana for personal medical or recreational purposes.
(E) Extend police protection to those growing or possessing marijuana for personal use.
(F) Provide for the continued enforcement of marijuana laws against those who cultivate, transport and possess marijuana for sale.
The Board of Supervisors shall use its budgetary authority to ensure that the Sheriff’s Office makes no arrests and issues no citations for violations of the above State Health and Safety Code Sections in any single case involving twenty-five (25) or fewer adult flowering female marijuana plant or the equivalent in dried marijuana.

Basically the police have had their hands tied in dealing with marijuana crimes, which by the way, have gone up dramatically since Measure G passed. Home invasions, gun related crimes, assaults dealing with drugs, all have gone up. Students constantly complain about the problems with drug dealing in neighborhoods and the stench of skunky week with October and the harvest rolls around. Many in Redwood Valley say that they can't even leave their house because the smell is so overpowering.

Now there is Measure B, an initiative that is on the June ballot and will repeal Measure G, sending the marijuana law back to the Prop 215 state mandate; 6 plants or 8oz of processed weed. The proponents of Measure B came to their senses that Mendocino County has quickly become a magnet for drug dealers and in terms of schools, basically legitimized the illegal drug trade. The opponents of Measure B insist that they need at least 25 plants (you get 25 per family member with a Medical Marijuana card) to take care of whatever ailment afflicts them. The so called "compassionate use" crowd seems to think that they should take care of not only their medical needs, but also the "needs" of all those in the county that would love to get high for any reason (ie kids, the homeless, the mentally ill, and whomever else they can poison). Basically, most "compassionate users" are drug dealers.

Thankfully we now have a county sheriff and district attorney that actually have the health and security of the county in mind. Both stated in a recent town meeting that Measure G created a suction of outside marijuana growers that have destroyed the environment and dramatically increased crime. Local law enforcement supports Measure B. Local doctors support Measure B. Most teachers support Measure B. Hell, K.C. Meadows supports Measure B.

Oh yeah, and 86% of all the money for the "No on Measure B" campaign is coming from out-of-the-county marijuana advocates. So much for "all politics is local".

Coming from a school teacher and a person that wants to see smart growth and success for the city of Ukiah, vote YES on Measure B.