A Passion for Teaching and Opinions

All my fault

2012-01-15T21:24:00.001-08:00

Eleven years in and you’d figure that I’d have learned by now that leaving things to the last minute is not good for sleep patterns.

I can’t say that I don’t have late nights because I actually don’t usually get to sleep until around 10:30. Sometimes I go over when I find something interesting for kids; some lesson plan or activity that gets the mind whirling and the blood flowing. Then you realize it’s late and you are bummed that you have to stop and interrupt the excitement with sleep. Well, this week did not have one of those nights. See, I pretty much did nothing in terms of grading during my two and a half weeks off during Winter Break. Sure, I did the usual planning for the week and bounced around blogs looking for ideas. But the grading part of my educational duties took a back seat to family, driving, the holidays, basketball, reading, and most importantly, resting. I did this with full knowledge that grades were due on the Wednesday of my return. Oops.

I figured that between my prep and my time between the end of school and basketball (3-4:30 pm) that I’d be able to grade essays, grade projects, input scores, and still do everything else that I usually do. Well, Monday was full of basketball crisis and parents wondering about grades. After hardly a handful of essays, basketball practice was there and then a glass of wine at home and my bed. Tuesday involved cramming and cramming and cramming, and it took longer than I thought. In fact, I came home and immediately started the long process of imputing three classes of exams. By the time midnight rolled around I was done with the grading but need the wine unwind time. Bed was around 1:30 and 5 a.m. came really fast. Short-day Wednesday could have saved my rear end if it wasn’t for the belt that broke during lunch (had to scream home and replace), the faculty meeting during PLC time, or the basketball game. Grades were due at midnight. I was actually at a decent clip when the second to last project’s online links decided not to work. I couldn’t finish the last two sections I wanted to grade! A furious Facebook post and within ten minutes the new links were in my hand but it was time to head to the gym to watch the freshmen. I ended up reading the project parts and adding in the grade from my phone during the game and then coached while my JV Boy’s lead us to a victory over Montgomery High School of Santa Rosa. Hyped up about the game I didn’t calm down and get to bed until 11:30, at which time my cats decided that play time was in effect. Needless to say I got about 8 hours of total sleep in two nights so this weekend is a godsend.

However the stress could have been alleviated by grading during my break, which is sounding more and more wrong these days. That’s one of the two things I’m reflecting on with this post. Yep, I’m getting more and more bitter not about planning and exploring at home, but grading at home is just something that is really grating on me. The second thing I’m reflecting on is the simple idea of grades, which I’m finding more and more idiotic. Not the grades themselves, just the folly of actually having to input stuff over and over again only because I need something to justify to parents. Here’s a tip for all parents out there; I know how well your kid knows the subject and all the quizzes and bullshit are basically there because you really don’t want a true college experience. Give me five or six assignments in the semester and I’ll know. Earlier this semester a student was freaking out because a few make-up assignments had not been computed into the grade, which at the time was a B+. In the conversation it was obvious that the student was gravely concerned about the A so I just stopped the conversation and said, “Jon it is totally clear to me that you know your stuff. Barring you punching me in the face or falling off the planet, you’re getting the A.” That put the student at ease even though grades weren’t coming out for over a month. Surprise, the student got the A. Know how I knew that?

Because I know my stuff.

Do teachers dislike creative students?

2012-01-07T09:11:00.001-08:00

Marginal Revolution is my favorite economics blog on the Internet. It brings forth some really interesting theories that combine practical economics and current affairs.

One of the truly interesting posts was a little under a month ago and asked the question “Do teachers really like creative students?” The comments on the post are even more engaging than the post itself. They show a real disconnect with society and education. Many of them seem to be created by adults that felt like teachers absolutely crushed their ability to be creative. Teachers had rules and standards, those rules and standards did not involve creativity, those same rules and standards bored the students to death, and public education is screwed up. Much of their support comes from a Ken Robinson TED talk about the current public education system being designed for disciplined and orderly, factory like learning. According to the argument creativity needs to be promoted, individualized, and students need to be assessed according to true output, not necessarily grades and tests.

Let’s first off get rid of two types of teachers before we start this discussion; bad teachers (who won’t be good, never mind creative) and beginning teachers (who need to learn how to survive first). Then let's look at the ideas behind “creativity”, which seems to have evolved to the point of “hey, if I can’t do what I want, when I want to, then my creativity (or freedom to do anything for that matter) is being censored.” How about a little definition.

“the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”

For one to be creative, one must actually know the traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, and the like that exist in the world. Meaning one must actually be educated on what exists now before they can create meaningful new ideas. This isn’t stifling creativity, it’s creating the foundation in which creativity can evolve. Often when a student or parent complains about a school’s lack of creativity, they use the argument that the knowledge presented is not useful or a waste of time. Yet often the problem is that the student has not shown that they actually have mastered the concept or the activity, whether it be from rebellion, boredom, or simply not knowing it. That’s called maturity and discipline. Creativity without some maturity and discipline is just some child drawing outside the lines and calling himself creative.

Let’s take a simple definition like democracy. You don’t know how many kids scoff at needing to read articles and text about democracy, insisting that they already knew the basic, fundamental concepts of the theory. The problem is that they really don’t. They know “rule by the people” and how good it must be because the United States practices it. Breaking down basic theories makes students have to dig deeper and actually find other styles of democracies. Boring? Well, sometimes it is, as with many things in life. This “anti-boredom” campaign has created the excuse that details don’t matter as long as some vague semblance of the objective is completed. It might end up being creative work but it is often not meaningful, not practical, or simply wrong.

Often comments in Tabarrock’s post refer to teachers marking down students for getting answers right in a paper but not doing something as simple as typeset, margins, or citations. Well, then the student is not only not being creative, the student is being lazy. You might have understood the concept but you failed to address a simple part of the assignment. Details, regardless of how much you know, matter. Think of that when you are flying a in a plane, undergoing surgery, paying your bills, or when your nation is fighting in a war.

The blog’s author has a simple “personalize education” approach to creativity, which makes me question how much his parental instinct got in the way of his economics fundamentals. I would love to personalize every one of my student’s education except for one problem; it is totally inefficient. Public education is a never-ending exercise in marginal cost/marginal benefit. And while I’ll agree that those that claim to lead public education are often wrong in the approach, it also needs to be understood that the job of public education is to educate the masses with the scarce resources available. Individualized education is not practical in any sense of the word and to be perfectly honest, that type of education should be done by the parents. After all, the kids learn much more from Mommy and Daddy than anything they will learn at school.

Corporate sponsorships and the Easter Bunny are dangerous to students

2011-12-30T09:44:00.001-08:00

In a time when school budgets are getting slashed and extra curricular programs are being slowly destroyed it would make sense to reach out to the business community for a little support. You know, make connections, build relationships, open opportunities for students, provide some revenue enhancements…..

Wait a minute. Revenue enhancement? Do you mean corporate sponsorships at a school? HOW DARE WE EXPOSE LITTLE JOHNNY TO A COCA-COLA LOGO!

In a recent study by the National Education Policy Center, it was stated that corporate sponsorships limited a student’s ability to engage in critical thinking. In the brief it explains that Johnny’s value judgments will be corrupted by the one place advertising is not common (which is untrue) and that simply marketing a product sends a message that the school is willing to sell out aspects of higher level thinking to promote a consumer culture that doesn’t want you to think. Basically the mission of the school is to educate and the mission of the corporation is to enhance their profit margin, and the two missions conflict.

There are two problems with this hypothesis. First is the idea that children are somehow exempt from marketing when they step on a school campus. Never mind that every textbook, pencil, and many school posters show corporate names and logos (Scholastic or Pearson or Prentice Hall), the students themselves are the most influential billboards for corporations. It is not a coincidence that the most marketed to demographic is the American teenager since in just takes one opinion leader to create a trend that could involve thousands of potential customers. That kind of marketing has been around for decades and there hasn’t been much movement towards clamping down on that aspect of consumerism.

The second problem is the continued perception that schools are somehow spineless to create contracts with corporations that benefit students. If the school’s fundamental concern is education then why not create a sponsorship policy that reflects that? Demand that the contract reflect opportunities for kids that goes beyond money for advertisements. Some school districts are doing that now and colleges have been doing it for a long time. And while some corporations might try and play hard ball, insisting that the marketing has to be this way or that, the school always has a real neat option. No. But if the corporation is smart and realizes that hundreds or thousands of potential customers (and employees) are there, they’ll work with a school district to create a plan that benefits everyone.

In the end the main reason why many tear into corporate sponsorships is political. School boards are made up of people that often show political bias in decision making. The lone negative vote when Santa Rosa dealt with sponsorships was going to vote “no” regardless of the benefit to the schools. Wal-Mart could cure cancer, solve the national deficit, and film a better ending to the X-Files and that vote would have still been “no”. So much for common sense public policy.

Avoiding the Terrible Teacher

2011-12-27T18:15:00.001-08:00

I hit more “Read Later” buttons for Instapaper on Cool Cat Teacher’s blog than any other. Take away the fact that she works towards integrating technology and what you have is a woman who could probably be considered one of the more competent Master Teachers to anyone that cares to listen. Ms. Vicki Davis (Cool Cat’s real name) has the gift of taking something intricate and complex (like teaching), and simplifying it down to its basic thought. In the whole edublogsphere her words could be considered downright profound because teachers often miss the more basic ideas of running a classroom.

It was Cool’s post on the Terrible Teacher that got me today. In it she describes the ten things that a teacher does that could classify them as “terrible”, ranging from monotonous instruction to teachers who take cell phone calls in class. They ten things are simple in theory but I find that I observe them time and again in my own setting, and it is a clear sign that teachers are still a big part of the problem. In the past couple of weeks I’ve seen a teacher instruct from behind a desk, a teacher take cell phone calls during class, and I was told by a student that multiple teachers regularly say that they hate their job. All of that enrages me because it not only hurts the kids of those teachers, it kills the image of the profession.

Check and see if you do any of Vicki’s Terrible Teacher Ten. If you find yourself straying into any of the categories, change it. Yes, it really is that simple.

Um, next time gift me some real estate.....please..

2011-12-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

I have to be honest. I completely forget about gifts from students at Christmas time.

But when they show up I get a really big smile because it's kinda one of those time honored traditions that is a one of the perks of being a teacher. You know, the apple on the desk kind of thing that shows some appreciation from either the student or the parent of the student (who knows).

Unless you live in Alabama, where if you are an illegal immigrant giving a gift to a teacher, apparently both can be charged with high crimes and executed on New Years Eve. Yes the season of giving has been toned down in the Heart of Dixie because some in the legislature feel like teachers should be equal to lawmakers; even though teachers have no political power, make less money, have worse health benefits, and don't get the opportunity to sleep around with college aged interns. The state of Alabama has instead listed the acceptable gifts for the teaching profession.

1) Fruit baskets, homemade cookies, etc.

2) Christmas ornaments of little intrinsic value

3) Coffee mugs filled with candy or of a holiday nature.

4) Any item that the teacher may use to assist him/her in performing his or her functions as a teacher, such as notebooks, school supplies, etc.

5) CDs or books of a nominal value, scarves, etc.

Maybe "homemade cookies" needs to be looked at with more scrutiny, because in Mendocino County all homemade products have the potential of making you see monkeys on ceiling. Christmas ornaments of "little intrinsic value" is interesting. "Any item ......to assist a teacher in his/her....functions". Well, I use a laptop more than any other item. That would really help. "Books of nominal value" sounds good. But since this law is supposed to discourage gift cards it means that my Amazon card or Mendocino Book Company gift certificate might be in Jeopardy. And why the hell are books and scarves in the same category? I find it funny that teachers and students are being put in the same relationship as politicians and lobbyists. Ok, I don't find it funny. Instead I find that gives me more validation on why I will probably never visit Alabama, and why the North won the Civil War. Any state that makes a law this stupid doesn't deserve its own historical social status.

This year less than five percent of my students left me a gift. The most gifted items were homemade goods (I have yet to see monkeys) and little nick-nacks. I have to admit that my favorite was a gift certificate for the local book shop, which clearly shows that I'm a nerdy teacher because I also teach sons and daughters of winemakers. I'll let you think about that for a second.

I have yet to see an attempt by a student to buy off grades, even during the holiday season. This isn't to say that I haven't tried. Being an Economics teacher I regularly remind students that I can be bought for the right price. Since I would probably be fired and my reputation tarnished for life, and I would need to be comfortable for a long time, I tell students that somewhere in the tens-of-millions range would be appropriate for whatever grade they deem fit. They scoff at the number and call me unreasonable. From now on I can say "Hey, you can always move to Alabama."

Merry Xmas

2011-12-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

I really didn't know an appropriate title for this post other than Merry Christmas, partially because apparently it's not politically correct to say "Merry Christmas" any more. Seems like those of other faiths or none (or my infinitely sensitive Jedi faith) are routinely offended by a day that is supposed to celebrate the birth of a carpenter (that most don't care about) instead of celebrating what most Americans should be celebrating; buying useless gifts for people that will probably return them and dreading family get-togethers. So if the title happens to offend you this holiday season, just wait until you open your gifts from Wal-Mart.

I'm in the midst of the yearly Christmas Road Tour, coming this morning from Ashland, Oregon. We'll be heading back home via Chico to visit more family, briefly hang out with our beautiful cats at home, and then hoof it out again for more family. Since I just got out of school two days ago and have been basically driving ever since, I could use a day to do, well, nothing.

The end of school brought a smile to my face when about half the students that came to me with Short Term Independent Study contracts chose instead to delay their trip until Finals were complete. That makes me happy. Very happy. They instead participated in Mock Congress, were very involved, got the Finals review, and completed the Final with a much better chance of success than if they were to have left for a month and taken it upon return. Those that left? Well, I can't say that I'm very optimistic about not only the end of Government, but also the beginning weeks of Economics that they will miss. One out of the half dozen has remained in contact via the Internet. One. And she's trying her ass off to keep up while being out of the country. I totally admire that.

I had my first Finals cheat this year. Initially I thought it was a phone but it ended up being a cheat sheet. How to did I deal with it? I stepped to a corner of the classroom and asked the student if cheating was taking place. After initially denying the allegation, a confession was made and the student retrieved the paper. I calmly went back to the desk and allowed the student to finish the Final. Afterwards I told the student that the Final would be scored a zero. You might ask "Why have the student Finish? Why not make the consequence immediate?" With the Final about a quarter over I had to ask myself if I wanted the incident to be a complete distraction to the other 30 students. The measure was taken for the good of the class and the minor debate about whether or not a zero on the Final was "fair" was done when class was over. I think it was the right move.

I have two and a half weeks off, which really aren't weeks off of basketball (which resumes in a week) and are not timed very well with my wife's school district (which returns in a week). Maybe I'll catch up on some blogging.

By the way, our basketball team is 10-2. Kinda cool.

Overnighters

2011-12-16T21:39:00.001-08:00

Taking kids on regular field trips is exhausting for me. I worry like a mother and watch like a hawk. As mellow as some people tell me to be I always come back to the fact that I’m responsible for someone’s child and that my job could very well be on the line if something goes horribly wrong.

Now take that feeling and start multiplying it, because that’s where I’m at tonight. I’m doing my annual basketball overnight tournament trip to Napa…….well the tournament is in Napa while we stay in Fairfield. It’s stressful and contains little in the realm of sleep. Mix teenagers loaded up on junk all packed into little rooms and the recipe that comes out can be, interesting.

I’m always considering taking students on weeklong excursions, either with some travel organization or creating something that I can do to go to Washington D.C. The problem is that I can’t possible see myself enjoying the time because I would constantly be concerned about someone else’s child. And not to sound like a crotchety old man but manners are not high on the priority list these days when dealing with many kids. That means either I need to constantly remind them what good manners are about or enact consequences when the rules are blatantly broken. It’s work. A lot of work.

But at the moment I have a rare pause in my responsibilities. A group of parents came down and everyone went their separate ways for dinner, which is a good and a bad thing. Coaches probably know what I mean when I say “went their separate ways” and that’s never a great thing for a team sport. But it gives me a breather to blog and check out the Net. What I really want to do is sleep. I’m flat ass blasted tired. But I’ve got a couple of hours yet to make sure that all the kids are accounted for and down for the night, even with the plethora of parents here at the hotel.

They are, after all, my responsibility.

A tad bit greedy

2011-12-11T07:15:00.001-08:00

Know what I’ve noticed about colleges over the last few years? They have a nasty habit of accepting students who are clearly not ready to attend their campus. As acceptance letters role in I’m noticing that students with “decent” grades are being selected by by private colleges and major out-of-state institutions. Sure, maybe entire body of work is worthy of consideration (sports, community service, making really spiffy Homecoming floats) but when colleges bitch that students are not prepared for college-level work and then saddle them with tens-of-thousands of dollars in debt, part of the problem must be the process at which students are selected.

I’m also noticing that Advanced Placement courses may not be holding as much weight in the selection process as I’m watching students that decided to forgo AP classes their Senior year get into the same colleges as those that decided to push themselves. Granted, the AP students will be better prepared for college level work, but it sends the message that doing the extra leg work doesn’t necessarily equate to earning a spot in a great institution. Hell, a student that got a D in a college prep Economics class and still got enrolled in a good out-of-state-institution. Kind of hard to send the “not ready” message to colleges if all they seem to care about is the tuition.

Holidaze

2011-12-10T22:46:00.001-08:00

December is an interesting month.

College applications are usually finished by now, so many of my more proficient Seniors are more focused. The end of the semester is also only a few weeks away, and that ends up making everyone stand up a little straighter and listen. But along with the increased engagement comes a myriad of other challenges as Winter makes its appearance.

In what can only be called unprecedented, eight students came to me last week with a Short Term Independent Study form. Two were going somewhere for an increased vacation (one actually said “Disneyland”) and six were head to Mexico, all looking to miss 2-3 weeks total one either side of Winter Break. At this point I’m fairly exasperated with family members that pull kids for month long vacations, and that’s where Edmodo has come in handy. Students must have the organizational fortitude to stay with the class and be prepared to take the quizzes and Finals upon return. The problem is that almost none of them do and that creates a line of F’s that create more problems down the road. I’ve talked to the counselors about it and they are just as frustrated. After everyone and the Easter Bunny telling them that it’s a bad idea, the parents are putting their foot down and saying “I don’t care what you say, they are going”. This is why I tell all of my Short Term Independent Study students that most of my kids that leave for that length of time fail the course. They nod of course and I rarely hear from their parents. The one time I heard from the parent was a mother that went off the hook when I refused to assign packet work. Afterward she yanked the kid out of class, put her on permanent Independent Study and that’s the last I heard of her. So much for educational priorities.

The good news is that those students in my classroom are starting to create some excellent work. Government Mock Congress bills look really nice with students branching out in much more thoughtful directions than the usual lowering of the drinking age, and legalizing marijuana. This year includes bills about doctor-assisted suicide, requiring schools to have solar panels for football lights, creating stronger laws against the ownership of exotic pets, and the taxation of ammunition. My Economics students are creating solutions to economic problems in and around Ukiah. It’s called the Ukiah Economic Development Project and it has replaced my old Economics Expo project where students created a business plan. Instead students must answer the question “What can we do to make Ukiah a more desirable place”? They then create an entire online report (paperless) around the problem, the solution, and a description of the town. Students are working on local employment, increasing tourism, what to do with vacant buildings, and the economic impacts of banning plastic bags. I’m really proud of the effort because the students must relate the problem to the economic concept of scarcity. The group that is dealing in the plastic bags originally did so for environmental reasons but are now really pushing themselves by addressing scarcity and positive/negative externalities to all parties involved.

Week-and-a-half left as I prep for Finals and ready the team for a tough tournament in Napa. Christmas vacation, and all the driving that comes with it, is just around the corner.

Coaching Situations

2011-12-10T22:45:00.001-08:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talking basketball on my blog isn’t the safest thing these days. Out of all the things I’ve ever discussed on this thing, basketball has gotten me in more trouble than anything else. Funny how that works.

Certain things have made me reflect on basketball, again. One is the forced resignation of Maria Carrillo High School girls’ coach Steve Azevedo. I didn’t know Steve personally but I gathered he was a coach of the old school order; mentally, physically, and emotionally demanding. Well, it looks like the old guard of coaches is being forced to change their ways or risk the wrath of parents who are angry that their darlings are not getting the playing time. Parents of players actually hired an attorney to look into whether they had a case against the girls basketball coach, prompting Azevedo to leave his position and prepare a response to the allegations.

It’s a sad situation. I’ve dealt with these things in the past and it’s often a cross between weak coaching and weak administration. There’s been times when I’ve probably been too much of an aggressive blowhard and there have been times when certain admirations have capitulated to parents that have nothing better to do hunt for coaches. Thankfully things have changed over the last few years. Since I took the JV position, I’ve become much more in tune with teaching basketball than simply “coaching” it. I’ve also mellowed in terms of letting things that are being said bother me; I’m basically at a point at which I think I’m a pretty good coach and confident in my abilities. But I think proactive parent relationships are a big, big help. Parents who have kids coming into my program already know that I’m intense, demanding, and require things like dedication, hard work, and a shirt-and-tie on game days. I also have a parent meeting early in the year in which I explain that I’m loud, direct, and will constantly push their child. I tell them that I will never talk about playing time and team management, but that everything else is totally transparent and that without them we can’t be a successful program. I think we have established an excellent core of parents who really go the extra mile on driving kids, staffing the snack shack, and just attending every single game. It’s made the last six years pretty dog-gone enjoyable.

I think the main reason I’m having so much fun is because at this point in my life I can live without basketball. I know, it sounds weird. But I’m very content with my job as a teacher now and basketball is just as important as APUSH or Comp Gov or Econ. If one goes by the wayside, I still have a massively fulfilling job working with kids. Winning is fun (and lord knows I detest losing) but the whole thing is learning. And that’s pretty cool.

Saturday in Willits

2011-12-10T22:26:00.001-08:00

Well it’s that time of year. On the second weekend of December for the last eleven years I’ve spent this Saturday in Willits, playing a game early in the morning and then again in the evening. I don’t bother taking the 30 minute drive down the hill back home because it forces me to find wifi and sit and do homework, unless I blog.

I’m currently in what could be considered the typical Mendocino coffee house hangout. Counter-cultural feel with “organic” stuff on the menu that is fairly overpriced, ok taste wise, and wholly unreliable. Right now I’m trying to down an organic chocolate milkshake which tastes more like a protein shake and is the consistency of cough syrup. I won’t be posting this at the coffee place because the “free wifi” (the reason I came here) is out. It would have been nice to have known this before I spent $6.50 on a chocolate shake. At least the Ray Charles in the background is nice. And the people (like most in mellow Mendo hangouts) are really nice.

We won our first game last night and our morning game, which puts us in the championship game at 7:30 tonight. It’s nice to also hear that the varsity Wildcats are playing championship ball in Healdsburg tonight as well. Hopefully we can bring some hardware home for the school this weekend!

#Occupy Davis pepper spray incident only half the story

2011-11-27T08:22:00.001-08:00

I am intrigued by a post on Darren’s blog about the events that occurred at U.C. Davis before the now infamous pepper spray incident. In a clip from the Rush Limbaugh-of-the-Left’s Democracy Now, a Davis student admitted to surrounding the police officers and insisting that they were not going to be able to leave unless they went through the students.

Interesting.

Last night I ran into a collection of my former students that now attend U.C. Davis and I asked them if they had any reaction to the pepper spray incident. I figured that they might be wrapped up in the whole revolutionary ferver of the event and would provide some insight in the thought process of the students. Boy was I wrong. The students had attended the rallies to see what they were about and were very not very sympathetic to the pepper sprayed students. My former kids stated that around 800 students surrounded the police officers and told them that they were not going to leave the protest unless they went through the students. My former students also said that the police had warned the kids for a real long time and had the pepper spray out for over twenty minutes before the small clip that has gone viral occurred.

I’m not going to justify the police reaction at Davis, but many in the media are comparing the incident to the fire hoses used on civil rights protesters in the 1960’s. The analogy is grossly false and the Occupy protestors are again seeming more like spoiled brats than the next generation of civil revolutionaries.

National Anthem in Espanol in Ukiah. Updated 11/26

2011-11-26T14:00:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, when I heard Nuestro Himno play on the loudspeaker on Friday at Ukiah High School, I grinned. The smile on my face was because I knew the Spanish rendition of the Star Spangled Banner was going to rangle teachers and students at the high school. Sure enough, a couple of teachers were not amused and a few students went storming to the admin building to express their displeasure at the song being sung in Spanish. My students? Well my students class that listened to the rendition were laughing because the copy of the song sucked. I mean, seriously, the song sounded like it came off of a transistor radio broadcasting A.M. radio in the Seventies.
Apparently it caught the attention of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, because by lunch it was common knowledge that the Democrat had called the school district wondering why groups of students were so against the National Anthem in Spanish. Sure enough, the Press Demo has an article out explaining that the issue wasn’t that big of a deal. A few people were offended, some complained, and the whole thing was highly exaggerated. Thank God for Thanksgiving Break.
Since it is nearly impossible to literally translate anything in a foreign language from its original context, much less Francis Scott Key’s description of the bombing of Fort McHenry, I figured I’d show you the literal translation of the Spanish version.

“It's sunrise. Do you see by the light of the dawn
What we proudly hailed last nightfall?
Its stars, its stripes
yesterday streamed
above fierce combat
a symbol of victory
the glory of battle, the march toward liberty.
Throughout the night, they proclaimed: "We will defend it!"
Chorus
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?
Verse 2
Its stars, its stripes,
Liberty, we are the same.
We are brothers in our anthem.
In fierce combat, a symbol of victory
the glory of battle,
(My people fight on)
the march toward liberty.
(The time has come to break the chains.)
Throughout the night they proclaimed: "We will defend it!"
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?

Sure, it’s not word-for-word. But if we have people singing the praises of the United States through its national anthem, even if it slightly off, isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t it make sense that out of all the days that Spanish speaking students stand for the National Anthem in English, that one day we introduce it in a different language? What’s the problem with respecting the United States in any language?
Again I’ll have to admit that the song was too long (it was getting close to Jimmy time) and that the quality totally lacking. But you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that it wouldn’t be a good thing that the Star Spangled Banner be spoken in every language around the planet. Defending the Stars and Strips, in any language, is pretty damn cool.

Updated 11/26

More interesting reports of anthem and pledge cases that should anger citizens a hell of a lot more than singing our National Anthem in Spanish. Huffington Post has two cases that are outragous. One involves a teacher in Texas requiring students to recite the Mexican National Anthem, and another where an idiotic federal judge in San Francisco said that a principal in Morgan Hill, California was correct in telling students to remove their American flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo. Both of those issues have far more serious repercussions. Oh, and props to the state of Michigan for a logical law requiring pledges. The law requires that a U.S. flag be in every classroom and that the pledge be repeated every day. But it also states that students are not compelled to participate, as reinforced by the United States Supreme Court. Look at that; true values of patriotism and individual liberty on clear display!

When animals attack

2011-11-26T11:08:00.001-08:00

Woke up Thanksgiving morning to my house egged and a dead fish on my doorstep. No, I’m not trying to create an allusion to something. I actually had eggs and fish on my house.

It was the first time in five years that I’ve had problems with students and eggs. The eggs weren’t that big of a deal. In a small town, if you piss the wrong person off and everyone knows where you live, it’s a potential problem. The main issue was the dead fish. It sorta freaked my wife’s family out. Even enough to where we called the police and filed a formal report.

My guess is that it was former students back from college that partook in the activities, and my guess is that they were drunk. We have some evidence collected and I rattled off names of potential suspects, but not expecting much to come out of it. The police officer was a former student at the school and actually expressed shock that my house got nailed. It happens but the officer said that my reputation didn’t seem like one that got the attention of those that throw eggs. Of course, one student that feels wronged can change that.

Does it really bother me? Not in the slightest. A small power washing and a couple of games of football to ease the mind and it impacted nobody’s holiday. And I’m pretty damn secure in my teaching to start to let doubt seep in this far into my career. Oh, and the fact that for every negative thing that happens, I get a many more of these:

A current student tagged me in a Facebook post about my AP U.S. History class, and then a former student responded about the value of the Free Response Question essays we did in class. I smiled big to say the least.

That, and I had free fish fillets for Thanksgiving that went excellent with a light Pinot Noir!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:42:00.001-08:00

Not a holiday full of useless gifts, Hallmark cards, and the constant pressure to be cheerful simply because it is a holiday; Thanksgiving rank number one on my list for what a holiday is really supposed to be about.

So here’s a Happy Thanksgiving to all out there in the blogosphere. Hopefully you are hanging out with family, eating, drinking, and being merry. Talk, reminisce, and laugh. Ah, now that’s a holiday worth having.

My conflicting attitudes about #Occupy

2011-11-22T10:33:00.001-08:00

Like many, I was fairly sickened by the use of pepper spray on the protestors at U.C. Davis, and the bizarre overreaction of force last week at U.C. Berkeley. Actually, sickened might not be the word because I’m not that surprised about either incident and the reaction it is invoking in the media. Maybe I’m more strongly concerned than sickened. I don’t know. It’s like I want to support the overall message that the Occupy is trying to convey, but at the same time I think this generation is getting a dose of something that it wasn’t taught when it was younger. A dose of reality.

And this is where I’ve become more and more conflicted with the Movement. I think Fareed Zakaria said it best when he stated that the Occupy Movement was about social mobility. The concern is that the ability to progress upward in class status is starting to erode in society and the Movement is drawing attention to that, albeit rather poorly. The research shows that they have a huge point. Social mobility has become really difficult since the 1980’s, as the ladder has been clogged with debt, false promises of equality, and a lack of genuine work ethic. Has Wall Street exacerbated the problem? Sure. But by no means is Downtown Manhattan the primary force behind this problem of moving up in America. In fact, I think the main problem is the protestors, and that’s why you might hear a whole lot about Berkeley and Davis in the press, but main-street America is strangely silent.

One of the most interesting comments of the Oakland march to the Port was from a longshoreman who declined to give his name. He said, “How in the hell does a person who hasn’t worked a day in his life call for a strike?” It’s a good question, and I think it’s more indicative of the attitude of most Americans towards the Occupy protestors. Yes, Americans agree that the build-up of economic inequality is hurting the country. However it becomes very hard to get behind protestors with a $1,000 worth of tattoos on their body, who carry a $500 iPhone, and demand that their student loans be forgiven. The quizzical look from Main Street might hide the realization that parents put their children into this entitlement mode; where it’s a right to have an education, a MacBook Pro, and drive a Prius to the latest Occupy movement in the middle a blue collar business district. Yesterday one of my former students announced that people that shopped at malls were selling out to Corporate America. Yet her Facebook photo looked straight out of a Macy’s catalog, and included plenty of indications of an upper-middle class upbringing that included plenty of help. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that hard working mainstream society doesn’t look too kindly at people demonstrating about how hard live is when they haven’t really worked that hard.

So I continue to watch with interest while letting kids form their own opinions and holding back from commenting on Facebook posts from former students. I can’t really blame them for the occasional “fuck the police” and “mic check” and “We are the 99%”. They are, after all, still teenagers.

Long, long week

2011-11-13T22:29:00.001-08:00

The first week of November is one of my longest weeks of the year. It’s the beginning of student panic for the first semester, the beginning of the student exodus for Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations, and the true beginning of basketball.

-Everyone is sick. It seems like the flu bug has hit early this year with more than usual cases of pneumonia and lots of days absent by students. This is also the time when the term “sick” comes to test with how much the students really want their education. There is “I can’t come to school because I’m really sick” sick. And there’s “I don’t feel well” sick, which can happen multiple days a week for Seniors. It’s starting to happen now.

-The best in class are starting to pull away from the average, and those that haven’t figured out that I’m serious on accountability have realized that a failing grade is upon the horizon. I’ve told classes that if they need help they can contact me in a variety of ways for that help, but usually the contact comes from a counselor. It’s also the time of year where parents call the counselor to have the counselor explain to the parent why the student isn’t succeeding. I have some parents that e-mail me regularly, but not one parent has called, and hardly a handful of students have came to me for help. Note to parents; the counselor has not spent one day in my class and has little clue while your kid is ~~flaking~~ failing in class.

-What’s really the point of having vacation week when parents continue to pull out kids for longer periods of time? This week I signed a half dozen short term independent study contracts that had students spending extra weeks on either side of Thanksgiving Break. Some have already warned me that the same will occur at Christmas. Fine. Better enjoy studying online.

-This is one of the longer weeks of the school year for me. After school is practice until 7:30, then at least an hour meeting with the coaching staff to discuss rosters, and I’m home around 9:15 every night. And try-outs always seem harder than other practices because you are dealing with variables that aren’t in regular practices, and by the Junior Varsity level it is becomes very evident who doesn’t have the passion for basketball in their belly. It’s a different style of dedication. Then there are the kids that just aren’t athletic enough for competitive basketball but have the passion to play it. That’s the hard one. That’s the one you look at and wonder which could handle a season of tough competition, little playing time, and still be a good teammate. Well, I have until Wednesday for final cuts.

Go ahead and check out silvabrown.blogspot.com for my students’ projects about Ukiah Economic Development. Comment if you like. It’s something I created to replace Economics Expo (a business plan simulation). I figure that with all the brain power in the classroom, why not have it benefit the town? So give it a look and report back to me if you can.

Wall Street Journal says teachers are overpaid

2011-11-13T15:28:00.001-08:00

I don’t get the Wall Street Journal delivered any more. I used to be a daily reader of the WSJ until Rupert Murdock took the rag over and nearly every op-ed column sounded like a running stock ticker of GOP blabbery. I’m also not at all surprised that a recent article published by the Journal takes shot at teachers by stating that comparable skill sets show that teachers are drastically overpaid. Interesting. And this is coming from the same newspaper that constantly demands merit pay (otherwise known as a pay increase) for the teaching profession. Too bad the Wall Street Journal goes Governor Kasich on teachers and seems to forget the fundamental principles of Economics.

First of all, I’m don’t regularly go on teacher pay tangents. Do I think I’m underpaid? Yes. Drastically. Not really. Do I have it better than a lot of people? Absolutely. But if we’re being serious about whether or not teachers have an economic value to society then we better be realistic about looking at the true value of a teacher, and not all that fluffy stuff either.

“Good teachers are crucial to a strong economy and a healthy civil society, and they should be paid at a level commensurate with their skills.”

I always enjoy the critical teacher articles that start off “teachers are crucial to society…”, then tell the reader that they are actually not that crucial. A statement that says that teachers are necessary to a “strong economy and a healthy civil society” already creates an assumption that society values teachers. If this is true, the skill set that teachers have are in fact valuable enough to warrant a high wage. And before you come up with the excuse that “anyone could be a teacher”, note that teacher turnover is atrocious in public schools, and even worse in private sector education. Take Teach for America. Coming from the best universities is not keeping teachers in the classroom. Teach for America will happily say that a high number of teachers stay in the education profession. What they fail to mention is that is almost never the classroom. They go where the real money is in education.

“Public school teachers do receive salaries 19.3% lower than similarly-educated private workers, according to our analysis of Census Bureau data. “

And as the article states, it isn’t in teaching. While still having to take on the same debt load as a private sector worker, a fresh teacher from California will not only have less pay to start with (around $34,000), but also need to deal with living in a state with a high cost-of-living. And forget about teachers living in the city. That kind of salary makes it impossible for a teacher to live in San Francisco or New York City. On top of that, public school teachers also has a cap on the maximum wage increases. At my school, I will never make over $70,000, while a comparable skill set in the private sector has six-figure salaries, stock options, and doesn’t have to pay for supplies for their work.

…….a majority of public school teachers were education majors in college, and more than two in three received their highest degree (typically a master's) in an education-related field.

Education is widely regarded by researchers and college students alike as one of the easiest fields of study, and one that features substantially higher average grades than most other college majors. On objective tests of cognitive ability such as the SAT, ACT, GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and Armed Forces Qualification Test, teachers score only around the 40th percentile of college graduates.

This is a juvenile argument often brought about by arrogant, insecure people that think they work harder than everyone at everything. Here’s the deal; I’ll bomb the Math portion of the SAT and GRE. So probably would most elementary teachers and secondary teachers that don’t teach math. Oh, and so would many college teachers. Give us time to study and we’ll do fine. I dare a Physics major to take an AP Comparative Politics exam. Right now. How about an Advanced Placement U.S. History exam? In fact, how about those Physics students sit down and get testing on Special Education requirements regarding 504’s, IEP’s, and Manifestation Determinations. That’s a pretty damn important skill set to have. Good teachers know their shit. I don’t worry about knowing Calculus as the measure of making me a good teacher. By the way, I graduate with a History Degree, and so did all my colleagues. You know what graduates with Master’s in Education degrees? Administrators who make a lot more than I do.

“………..fringe benefits push teacher compensation well ahead of comparable employees in the private economy.

……data on paid leave for teachers count vacation days only during the school year, omitting summer and long holiday breaks. A valid pay comparison should include this extra time off, in which teachers can enjoy longer vacations or earn additional income.”

Teachers do have more secure retirement than private sector employees, and I would consider that the trade-off society decided to make when government capped wages at $70,000 a year and refused to allow public teachers to take back payments made to Social Security when they worked in jobs that did not involve public education.

And I don’t even bother to argue the point of my “longer vacations” any more. First of all, they aren’t vacations if it involves professional development, lesson planning, taking courses (and paying for courses) required by government mandate, and working another job to make ends meet. And I’ll make a deal with the WSJ. I’ll even let you count the summer weekdays as vacation, if you incorporate numbers that show the actual working hours of teachers. I’m one of hell of a productive, efficient deal.

“ In short, combining salaries, fringe benefits and job security, we have calculated that public school teachers receive around 52% more in average compensation than they could earn in the private sector.”

Then something is wrong here. If public sector workers have mammoth fringe benefits, higher salaries, and fantastic job security, then why does the profession have an average turnover rate of 50% within five years? That’s an insane rate for a job with such glorious job wages.

I’ll happily amend the Wall Street Journal’s argument to say that there are bad teachers that are very overpaid, administrators that don’t work towards firing bad teachers, and not enough collaboration between teachers, administrators, district officials, and politicians towards making education more productive and efficient. But this articles article is just plain bad economics.

Student “Debt Trap” is often self imposed.

2011-11-06T10:08:00.001-08:00

In the summer before my Senior year in high school I was sitting in my mother’s living room in San Jose discussing my future. She was going to give me some help to get through college but she insisted that I had a plan. I told her that I planned to be a history teacher. She wasn’t unsupportive, but not entirely thrilled either. See, my mother went from being a housewife and retail clerk at Mervyns' to getting a Master’s in International Business and making six figures at Toshiba and Hitachi. Along the way she worked in Intel and AMD just as the computer revolution was taking off in the 1980’s. She made this statement as we sat at the table.

“Well, you can teach and not make a whole lot of money, and constantly take your work home with you. Or you can work in Silicon Valley in Computer Science, make a ton of money, and not take your job home with you.”

I chose the former and pretty strongly. I could have made it in the Computer Age. I was programming in 8th grade and was a computer nerd long before computer nerds became popular. But I wanted to teach. I was passionate about it. That statement by my mother was the last time she questioned my future. It was also made clear that I would get a set amount every month, that I had to be enrolled in school and doing well, and that I was cut off once I got my degree.

I have student loan debt. I walked out of college with about $25,000 in debt, which is higher than it should be because I took my sweet ass time getting out of junior college. I picked a profession that was in demand (teaching) but a subject that was not (Social Studies). I knew this to be true before I got into college and worked with kids to build up a resume; I coached, worked in church youth groups, and become extremely knowledgeable about my subject matter. I was passionate about History but actually majored in Social Science; meaning I had to pass groups of classes in Government, Economics, and Sociology as well as History. Why did I change my emphasis? Simple, it made me more marketable. I immediately began looking for jobs as soon as I graduated from college. I substitute taught, continued to coach, and in the summer I worked in a clothing factory hauling boxes. I applied to nearly every position from little Hayfork to West Sacramento to Santa Rosa and points in between.

I’m due to be done paying off my debt in about three years. I pay about $250 a month. In the beginning I sacrificed other things to afford that payment. I say all of this because I’m noticing that the student debt issue is becoming front and center in the economic debt raging right now (paywall). My personal opinion is that it is partly the fault of the student and the parents. Here are some brief thoughts and then I would appreciate your comments.

-College has become too expensive. If there is a system that needs a serious audit, it’s the college system. States need to take over the system and find out where to cut done costs. First place to look it upper management, who make an insane amount of money working for the government.

-College professors have become lazy. Sure, Math and Science are hard. But innovation isn’t simply in a lecture hall with 300 other students and a professor’s assistant conducting a droning speech. So much focus has been on primary and secondary institutions. How about a look at post?

-Kids don’t go to college to prepare for society. Sorry, but almost 90% of kids that go to universities from my school don’t go to prepare for the future. They go to party, to please their family, and to follow friends. Right now about a dozen former students are accruing student debt while getting drunk on a street corner in Isla Vista in Santa Barbara. Think most went to SB for their fantastic International Studies programs?

-Those that are passionate about learning something usually go to expensive liberal arts colleges. Creative learners are spending massive amounts of money going to Smith or Sarah Lawrence with no idea what they will do in life. You might say, “they don’t need to know at this point”, and I’ll respond by saying that they better not protest about no jobs being available when they graduate with a degree in Philosophy and eighty grand in school debt. Congrats, you have a degree from Sarah Lawrence! And now you can play the banjo in front of the 12th Street BART Station in Oakland while spending nights cursing Wall Street for not gifting you a job.

And a note to (relating to the above Time article) Lyndsey, who managed to accrue $170,000 in debt while graduating with Honors at NYU. When did it become apparent that your debt load was becoming the size of a small house? Where you seriously working towards becoming employed while at NYU, or where you just “going to college”?

Rain. Cold. Basketball.

2011-11-05T21:18:00.001-07:00

Yeah, this week was better than last. The simple fact that Winter has appeared in her full glory is enough to make me smile. I love the rain. It’s a sign that many things are now upon us; basketball, hot tea, Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday), and days of simple hibernation in a warm house with cats purring on your lap.

The week began with Halloween. I dressed up as I always do; as the Angry Monk. I have a simple monks outfit with a rope cord belt and make really biting comments towards student outfits. It’s really great for a laugh. I have to admit that my main target is the females that think Halloween has somehow become an Erotic Holiday. I stand outside my classroom and in a thick Irish accent I give out lectures on self-respect. Eventually word gets around that a crazy teacher is yelling lectures on morality against public nudity and some students don’t come the direction of F-Building. That’s fine. Parents might want to monitor their 15 year old child that looks like an ad for Victoria’s Secret. It’s an embarrassment and they aren’t even my kids.

Ever get that feeling when an idea pops up and then the river of positive thinking just flows on a paper that’s not nearly long enough to contain it? Yeah, I’ve had that feeling twice about my Advanced Placement classes this week. It’s made me really excited about the potential of high level thinkers. You know what you really need to do with intelligent students? Let them be intelligent. Reinforcing reading with lectures equals a student that’s not being allowed open up their full potential. I’m making more realizations that A) Students need to be more responsible for basic information, and B) I need to provide the structure to make them innovate and expand their universe. Think of it like a mix of traditional and Montessori style, sort of.

Here something that was reinforced this week. Teachers are part of the education problem. Two things were made abundantly clear; some teachers have cashed it in and need to be fired, and no, not everything should be part of a collaborative process. We manage our classrooms. Managing a school or a district is totally different. If you want to try it, go for it.

Basketball starts up officially on Monday. From now until early March I will be owned by a large round, orange ball and a gym full of kids with really squeaky shoes. I’ve now been doing this basketball thing for about 23 years; coaching it for almost 20. I’ll be the first to admit that it is a joy and a curse all at the same time, and those that have coached will probably admit to it. It’s a blast to coach kids and see immediate improvement. Think teaching is fun? How about watching an assessment twice a week that the kids love to do. But it owns my life. Holidays don’t really exist much because games surround them. I’m now responsible for the lives of twelve young men, and that becomes really interesting when we do overnighters. Oh well. If the sport of basketball treats these kids like it’s treated me, a combination of pure ecstasy and sweet misery, then it’s totally worth it.

Dear Week: Go Away……love, Me

2011-11-05T20:48:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago I took a slurp of coffee after a three hour sleep night and got hit by the feeling of my heart doing a backflip. The arrhythmia caused me to be lightheaded for a short amount of time (in the middle of class mind you) and scared the living shit out of me. Those that read this blog know that I had heart issues three years ago that were looked at extensively and ruled fine. I’m not nearly as freaked out as I was back then. But still, it ain’t fun.

This had a negative affect on my teaching last week. I played it calm and safe, spending much of my time worried and monitoring my body early on, then crashing because I was so worried later in the week. By Friday I felt better but exhausted. This created an environment that was lower energy and a lot lecture, only I was so stressed about my health that on Tuesday I was making mistakes left and right. My APUSH lecture was full of missed dates and semi-accurate information. How did I know? Well, when you have a well read AP class, they will tell you that you are off.

One good thing that occurs when you have a rough week is when you realize that you can’t possible teach like that for any reasonable length of time. I’ve already had my nose in my lesson plans finding tweaks to make the week work better. Engagement will be up next week. Count on it.

It wasn’t just me this week either. Teachers had the flu, pneumonia, deaths in the family, and a variety of those things in life we just can’t really prepare for. One of the messages in our faculty meeting was to care for each other. This week was a rough one and needs to just be done.

One very bright spot occurred on Friday afternoon. I did my usual Friday night announcing of the JV football game last week. But instead of working in the classroom, I grabbed an article on Basketball Practice outlines and headed out to the football bleachers. It was beautiful weather and the bleachers were nearly empty with an hour before kickoff. Then my boss showed up. What occurred over the next 40 minutes was thought provoking and exciting. Questions, ideas, and concerns were exchanged in a manner that reminded me that really good conversations usually don’t take place in crowds of people. Sometimes good ideas just come about in the bleachers.

Merit Pay for attendance

2011-10-30T16:44:00.001-07:00

I got this from Joanne Jacobs (check the Blog Roll).

At Wendell High School, teachers will receive merit bonuses based on the percentage of parents who show up for the conferences.

Teacher bonuses, which will be distributed for the first time in 2012, can be based on a variety of factors, such as test scores and average daily attendance rates. Both district and state goals must be met.

Wendell Superintendent Greg Lowe said his district decided to base teacher bonuses on parent participation in high school conferences because it’s been a problem in the past.

So it looks like it’s time for to start offering extra credit for kids that get their parents to show up in Idaho.

I’m trying to figure out how this would be measured in my case. So in my Advanced Placement courses I’ll probably get near or over 50% attendance, while I’ll only get about 20% attendance (at the most) for my college prep courses, and I’ve had none show up when I taught Introductory level courses for struggling learners. Hmmmmm…..

Economists call this a perverse incentive. It will be another example to slap on the counter of why experienced teachers don’t want to teach classes with struggling learners. On top of the fact that Intro level classes have more discipline issues, less support, increased likelihood of Second Language Learners (therefore, more scrutiny), and increased risk of personal loss (IEP implementation), now you throw in the radical idea of basing a person’s pay on whether or not a parent who might not be living up to their end of the education bargain will take a seat in your classroom.

Thank God my wife and I decided against moving to Idaho.

Coaching profanity

2011-10-30T13:51:00.001-07:00

Profanity has no place at all in sports. Respectable coaches never use profanity and those that do are simply reverting back to some semblance of egotistical Neanderthalism where male dominance can never be disputed. Players don’t respect coaches that use profanity and never find motivation in swearing tirades that more-often-than-not tear down a kid’s precious self-esteem.

Ok, now that the politically correct answer is complete, and I’m done smirking at it, the reality can be discussed. Nobody should be spewing f-bombs left and right, but this idea that Shawn Abel should lose his job coaching football because he went ranting at half-time in the locker room is a tad bit ridiculous. For those not in the know, Abel was recorded by a player and his comments were put up on YouTube for the world to witness. The fake outrage is nauseating. People are condemning the coach for damaging the frail sensibilities of high school students, as if he called them the worst names in the universe while talking bad about their mom. Most of the complaints are coming from people who can’t believe someone would use that kind of language in an educational setting.

Reality is that most athletes will tell you that they have heard this before. Coaches sometimes use profanity because it further emphasizes a point; and no it doesn’t mean the coach is either bad or uneducated. I don’t condone using profanity because of two reasons. First, the political climate is so idiotic about being “correct” that every little thing that you say is analyzed. Second, I felt like when I did use profanity during my younger years that it wasn’t effective in promoting my message. That’s not to say it doesn’t work for someone else, it just doesn’t really work with me. So I work really hard not to use swearing as a way to convey my message; although I have to admit that I might whisper a couple to things on the sideline when I’m away from everyone.

I think profanity has become too much of a big deal overall in society today. Those faux offended care so much about what words are being used that they fail to actually listen to the message. And while Coach Abel might have been wise to tone it down a touch, there has to be something else to the situation because profanity in high school locker rooms should shock, well, nobody. In fact it is often ignored and occasionally rewarded. I just got done watching Prayer for a Perfect Season, an HBO documentary about Kevin Boyle’s 2010-11 basketball team at St. Elizabeth High School in New Jersey. In the documentary you hear Coach Boyle swear at practice, in the locker room, and absolutely go Eddie Murphy style on the sideline and in game huddles (right in front of fans). And you know what the coach from St. Liz gets for using profanity? A $125,000 pay raise, a car and a new home in Florida (all paid for), and the distinction of being 2011 Naismith High School Coach of the Year.

Now that’s profane.

Not easy teaching gay

2011-10-23T18:04:00.001-07:00

The Los Angeles Times is not the only one to report it. Looks like the new California law that requires teaching Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender studies in the classroom is meeting some resistance, and not because teachers are anti-homosexuality either.

“…..teachers and administrators are flummoxed about how to carry out a new law requiring California public schools to teach all students — from kindergartners to 12th graders — about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans in history classes.
……Educators across the state don't have much time to figure it out. In January, they're expected to begin teaching about LGBT Americans under California's landmark law, the first of its kind in the nation.”

I addressed this back in July when the law first made headlines and I’ll say it again; this is politically correct crap. Lower primary grade teachers are right to be concerned about teaching sexuality with kids and secondary history teachers are right to ignore this law and teach history. When history involving gays and lesbians is important (Stonewall, Reagan’s treatment), then it gets included. Otherwise, why give it so much thought? By the way, I’m not speaking from a Grace “homosexuality is a destructive lifestyle” Callaway perspective either. She’s clearly an idiot. I’m just saying, if you want particular historical items addressed in the California Standards, put them in there. Or, let the historians decide what’s important.

Oh, and I’m still waiting for that transgender historical figure that I should include in my history class. I asked for it in July and have received no response.

Because Art and Music don’t pay da bills, that’s why

2011-10-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

I really appreciate what Art, Music, and Foreign Language bring to the table in terms of a complete education. It addresses needs to the soul and in some instances can create things often seem other-worldly and beautiful.

And with the exception of some foreign languages, it is fairly worthless in terms of income.

So California is passing AB 1330, a law that has Artists, Musicians, and language junkies enraged. According to the San Jose Merc:

A new law that enacts a seemingly small change, allowing students to count one vocational class as credit toward graduation, has both supporters and detractors predicting a major shift in high school education.

Backers depict AB 1330 as a start toward teaching students job-market skills, through courses such as keyboarding, medical assisting and metal shop. The law goes into effect for the 2012-13 school year.

So what we are doing here is adjusting the requirements to graduate high school to actually mean something to students that don’t see relevancy in “college prep” liberal arts classes like art and music. While these teachers might be right in being concerned with funding for arts and music, I think it is quite disgusting the amount of arrogance shown by some that assume being “educated” means you need to take German, ceramics, and learn how to play the trombone. The state has shown no doors for those that won’t go or graduate from college (you know, the other 75% of the population) and that needs to change, now. The demand for workers is out there, but we are continuing to show students the areas of demand.

And don’t get me wrong. Students should be guided into learning Spanish if they live in California because it makes you more marketable. But we continue to push this idea of “do what you love” without being honest about the job prospects of those about to enter the work force. Theater Arts are fantastic, but it is one of the worst paying degrees over the lifetime of the degree holder. And check this out by Fareed Zakaria in Time Magazine:

“Perhaps the most crucial measure of our ability to compete in a global economy is our educational attainment, especially in science, math and engineering……In 2004 only 6% of U.S. degrees were awarded in engineering, half the average for rich countries. In Japan it’s 20%, and in Germany it’s 16%. In 2008–09 there were more psychology majors than engineering majors in America and more fitness-studies majors than physical-sciences majors.”

I’m not against Art, Music, and Foreign Language, but we need a serious reality check if we are truly going to meet the needs of those simply graduating from high school. Often these are the same teachers that complain that students are “dumped” into their classes because there is nowhere to put them. Well, now we can bring relevance to their high school day and when they come to Art class, it’ll be because they want to be there.

Fury, and a retest?

2011-10-23T14:16:00.001-07:00

The last AP U.S. History test was a disaster. The highest grade was in the low 80s and the class average was a cool 66% percent, with absolutely no chance for damn A. Not even close. This test should have had a ten percent higher rate. It was pre-Revolutionary War through the ratification of the Constitution for Christ sake. Some of these questions had information that was not only from the textbook, Hippocampus, and my notes (that we go over in class and online), but should have come from the good old 8th grade history class (Shot Heard Around the World? Hello?).

After investigating some students notes two things are evident. First, many students are simply not taking the time to read. And second, those that are reading are not taking the time to take notes from that reading. Both of those things are absolutely necessary for students to succeed in class. Unfortunately some students fail to do these things which creates an immediate drop in quiz and test scores. If you were excellent in standard U.S. History and only read, you’ll struggle to get a B in APUSH. That’s what many of my students are finding out.

That’s another interesting note; only half my students in APUSH are actually from the 10th grade AP European History course. That’s a good thing and a bad thing. When asked, prior AP students said that they could only take so many AP courses and that Math and Science took priority over APUSH, which by-the-way has a reputation of being very difficult. I have no problem with that. Life is about making decisions and priorities need to be set. But the interesting part is the number of kids who are taking AP classes for the first time or are taking an Advanced Placement Social Studies class for the first time. It can seem quite overwhelming for someone to jump from something so focused on easy, standardized test questions to a mammoth course that requires extensive knowledge and analytical skills.

I’ll keep working on them of course. But sense report cards come out Monday I’m expecting my class to continue to shrink. One transferred out of the school last week and I’m looking at two not being very satisfied with their grades and possibly leaving fairly soon. That’s what happens with open enrollment.

Breaking News: Missouri finds Facebook creates pervert/pedophile teachers. UPDATED 10/23

2011-10-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

In a move that will surely end inappropriate relationships between criminal teachers and under-aged students, the State of Missouri took the totally logical step of banning any kind of “social relationship” of the Internet kind. Named “The Amy Hestir Student Protection Act”, the law has a very interesting passage that contains the following:

Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and the child's legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian. Teachers also cannot have a nonwork-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student.

Whoa. I would be so illegal in Missouri. Not only do I have students and former students as “friends” on Facebook, I have a domain name and website, plus my Edmodo account that the administration has no access to. Ouch.
The law was named for Amy Hestir, a girl who was molested by a teacher in Junior High School. While I can’t imagine what Amy went through, I’d like to note that Amy is now 40, and the incident took place before the Internet was a public entity. And Facebook, MySpace, and the idea of social networking was somewhere in the ether waiting to pop into the head of an unborn Tom Anderson. Yet the State of Missouri seems to think that having the same professional relationship online is somehow different than in person. Hey, are there any KIPP schools in Missouri? If so, doesn’t this sort of kill the idea of teachers giving students their cell phone numbers, because we all know that it can lead to inappropriate relationships…right KIPP?
Hopefully you could sense the dripping sarcasm in the first paragraph, because this stipulation of the Hestir Student Protection Act is pretty simply bad law. In fact, the law is incredible anti-teacher, as if the profession has reached some kind of ugly status of pervert. It’s another example of society not having the respect for education that is necessary for success. There are over seven million teachers in the United States and a couple of bad apples do not represent educators’ ability to keep professional relationships with the students they teach. But Missouri has decided to take the easy way out by trying to dictate the lives of educators who might want to use every tool possible to be a good teacher. Hell, who needs to punish the criminals when we can simply attempt to leash everyone.
And how does the state of Missouri enforce this law? If my Facebook is private, the public isn’t going to have any idea who my friends are, that is of course if the Missouri state government is going to hire China-esque online watchdogs to hunt for inappropriate student-teacher contact. And what of sites like Edmodo? Those are designed for education, but are controlled by the teacher. Are those illegal? And “former students”? Seriously? So I can’t have online contact with a former student (who could be in their 30’s) on the off chance that I might have an inappropriate relationship? I wonder who will be the first one to march up to the federal courthouse in Kansas City with a letter that says “Hey Missouri, mind your own fucking business”, and then proceed to use the Constitution completely destroy the word “former”.
In a time when government needs to do more to support teachers, Missouri has jumped on the bandwagon to vilify them. It’s just another example of society not taking the education of children seriously.

Updated 10/23
Apparently the law that originally had online contact banned has now been adjusted to let school districts develop their own protocols in dealing with teacher-student online relations. The Kansas City Star reported that Governor Jay Nixon signed the new bill on Friday. This doesn't necessarily change much, since nothing in the law prevents school districts from banning all online contact. Expect lawsuits, only now expect a lot of them.

Missing higher thinking

2011-10-22T08:07:00.001-07:00

I miss college.

This week allowed for plenty of higher thinking for my students, but relegated my position to facilitator since I’m not interested in engaging into political debates with 17 year olds. It’s really good for them. But for the old teacher that enjoyed the stimulating political debates, it creates an ache to go back to the academic environment that pushed my thinking and writing. Alas, I’m confined to discussing the occasional political issue on Twitter. Not that it’s bad or anything, but nothing really beats being in the room with people who are engaging each other in the art of conversation.

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I want to eventually gain a Masters Degree, preferably in subjects I’m very passionate about (History, Poli Sci, maybe Ed Tech). But I’m looking at the financial cost/benefit of doing so and it looks fairly impossible. If schools really want teachers with advanced degrees (and not this ‘buy your Masters of Ed’ crap) then the amount of pay sure doesn’t show it. My school district offers something like an extra $700 a year for a Master’s Degree, and I believe $1,000 a year for a PhD. That’s a joke. That means if I spend the $20,000 it would cost to get a Master’s Degree, I wouldn’t even break even by the time I’m retired. I’d be doing it for my own satisfaction, only I can’t justify spending that kind of dough on a piece of paper that says I’m supposedly smarter than the next guy. I can just watch and follow along with Yale or Stanford’s open courses and bada-bing, I gain knowledge at no financial cost. Not that it helps my finances though, because I can advance my skill set as far as I want and the school district isn’t going to do much to compensate me for it.

Oh well. Guess I’m going to have to continue my journey of self-study with my books, my Kindle, and the Internet.

Here’s the problem with “Social Justice”, UPDATED 10/18

2011-10-16T17:00:00.001-07:00

According to Wikipedia:

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being…..Social justice is based on the concepts of human rights and equality and involves a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution.

There is a misunderstood idea that only “Progressives” believe in principles of equality and values associated with human rights. That social justice can only be promoted by those that are actively engaged in trying to rob Peter to pay Paul, whether it is by regulation, taxation, or some combination of policies that target groups of people that have become economically successful. This is factually incorrect. In fact throughout history nothing has brought forth more egalitarianism than the ideals of the free market. While the rage of the anti-corporatists is felt in the United States, we need to remember that places like China, Brazil, and India have actually established stronger economic equality, and maybe even the seeds of strong democratic movements. Are there winners and losers? Sure there are, just like there are winners and losers in every economic and political system. But which system has done better for a greater number of people? Seriously, take a long historical look.
I bring this up because of this article by an “ed activist” that insists that social justice be taught in the classroom because it is empirically correct, and it is not the classical “conservative” doctrine that is regularly taught in education. In fact, he goes so far as to basically blame political conservatism for just about every negative thing to ever happen in history, including quite possibly the creation of Rebecca Black. It bothers me that this person brings their politics into a classroom, politics that are so tuned to the plight that Zinn or Marx or Chomsky bring up that the overall perspective of history is lost. His perception is that kids already have a skewed vision of history (most do) and that it is his job to pick and choose what is right and what is wrong. Now, most logical historians can agree that there are absolute wrongs in things like the American slave trade, the Holocaust, and the lack of equal rights throughout history. Question; why do we have to prove to kids that those events are wrong? If we show kids primary source evidence, and we do our jobs to create critical thinking human beings, then doesn’t it compute that kids will come to that sane conclusion on their own?
Then we move on to harder questions. I would disagree with the blog post author that Columbus is an easy point for a genocidal maniac, or that the atomic bomb was murder, or that the Equal Rights Amendment was necessary. I think students need to research that and come to conclusions themselves. That way when complex political and economic issues are presented, the real social justice comes in the form of intelligent citizens, not from people that insist that their political spectrum is more intelligent than everybody else’s.

Update 10/18:
You can check out this guy's response to this blog post here. Look, it's obvious that the guy is passionate, but the guy is not passionate about kids and that's the number one thing to teaching. You eat your agenda and teach critical thinkers, and if someone decides to follow a path that is opposite of your own political beliefs you are happy that they found something that THEY are passionate about. I'm not about to get into a flame war with an activist because (as you notice) compromise doesn't exist, the other opinion must be wrong, and nothing should get in the way of fighting the power. Note; this was Tea Party speak for the last two years. So read up and enjoy. I respect opinions and don't judge people because they believe in Marx or Smith or capitalism or socialism or some arrogant notion that their method of social justice is absolutely correct.

Yes I teach about #Occupy. No, it is not earthshattering. Calm down.

2011-10-16T10:44:00.001-07:00

It started with a simple question on the #sschat feed on Twitter from a teacher in Washington D.C.

I think we at #sschat should be just as fired up about #OccupyWallStreet & #Occupy in general as we were about Osama Bin Laden. Why quiet?

I mentioned that at this point it was really unknown if the Occupy Movement was going to become more than just another disgruntled “I’m pissed off at the world” protest. It was at that point that a New Jersey teacher at the Occupy Wall Street protest chimed in and railed me for not supporting the movement of the 99%. He blasted me that the movement was a moral imperative and he compared it to the Arab Spring, slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement. When I mentioned that I was teaching the Occupy protests from a neutral position, he called me out for supporting evil and then told me he wept for my students. Believe it or not I did not get that offended because I’ve heard the rantings of activism many times. People get so wrapped up in what they believe that anything less is considered flat wrong. That’s what an activist does, and that’s why it takes one hell of a cause for me to become an activist in anything.

For those that are wondering what history thinks about the Occupy Movement, history will tell you later whether or not it matters. History has a funny way of doing that. It’s not my job to tell my students that the Occupy Movement is on par with slavery because it’s not. It’s not my job to tell students that Occupy is on par with the Civil Rights Movement because it’s not. History hasn’t decided yet. And far be it for me to tell any 17 year old kids that Occupy is a just cause, or that the protests are simple outrage at nothing in particular. My job is beyond simple activism for a simple agenda. My activism is developing critical thinkers. My activism is presenting as much information as possible and if the kids are passionate about Occupy they will join in and affect change. If they aren’t, they’ll ignore it. Last week we looked at a PBS Newshour focus story on unemployment, and then turned right around and watched man-on-the-street interviews of Occupy Wall Street protesters. Kids were interested not only in the protest, but the economics behind it. And while we do talk about the increasing income inequality, the current economic crisis is much more complex than that. In Government class we talk about populism and the growth of large movements, and how policy is connected to economics.

The closest thing the Occupy Movement relates to seems to be, oddly enough, the Tea Party Movement. Both are angry at economic conditions, both blame government policies that they say enhance the bad conditions, and both contain mostly middle class, affluent people. Neither is bad, neither is good, and eventually both will be history. How much either matters is yet to be determined.

Negative Interaction

2011-10-15T15:17:00.001-07:00

“What’s your name again?”

“Mr. Silva-Brown. I teach Gov/Econ and AP Social Studies.”

“Oh right! I’ve heard of you.”

“Which Government teacher do you have?”

“Oh I don’t have one. I’m on Independent Study.”

“So….do you mind if I ask you how that’s working out?”

“Oh I love it! I don’t have to wake up in the morning and everything!”

“That’s why you got on Independent Study?”

“Yeah. I don’t do well waking up in the morning. I mean, I get all cranky and stuff. Plus I don’t focus because I’m on my phone all the time and I’m so into the social thing that school just doesn’t do it for me.”

“Oh.”

“I still come to my electives though. I mean, I like those. I don’t like regular classes so why show up? So I’m more on a hybrid Independent Study.”

This was not how I wanted to end my week, and this conversation occurred thirteen hours into my work day and three hours before I would leave campus. Even though I shouldn’t be bothered by this after eleven years, it still makes me bristle. And it made the parent next to me also bristle, and while I didn’t say anything, the parent made a comment about whether or not the kid felt ready to enter the real world for a job. The question was never answered.

To get into Independent Study a student needs a “legitimate” reason that goes through the counseling department and I believe might contain one administrator. I can’t see the group simply giving away Independent Study for a “I can’t get up” excuse, so that leads me to the conclusion that the student or the parent or both lied. And it is a scary thought to think that a parent would actually capitulate to social media and teenage hi-jinks instead of trying to prepare this kid to be successful in all of society. What you enjoy in life is all that is worth doing; Homecoming, Shop, Arts, Theater, Choir, Band, Facebook, SMS, football games. That other stuff that disciplines you for the future, you know, accountability, is crap. This is the perverse nature of Independent Study, a program that I’ve lost about ten Seniors to this year.

I have a solution for students that are in Independent Study, including those that are in the totally idiotic “hybrid” Independent Study. Don’t give them a diploma. Since the education they are getting in Independent Study is not even close to the education they can get by actually being at school, why present substandard students with a full standard diploma? Present them with a Certificate of Completion with a notation that the student did not fulfill their total educational requirements but will graduate at 18 because society allows it. I think that’s a great idea. Then I think employers in town should ask to see the diploma of a potential hire, because God knows that the last thing an employer needs is a person that can’t get to work or stay off their phone while on the job. A real diploma means at the very least a student is disciplined enough to show up.

In the meantime as long as we have cop out programs like Independent Study, I’m pretty much going to ignore anyone putting the blame on classroom teachers for not providing a rigorous education.

Sometimes it needs to be said

2011-10-06T22:00:00.001-07:00

Curmudgeon has a little conversation with the rest of society about the state of Education. It’s biting, off color, and completely and totally necessary reading about how passionate teachers are about changing the way things are going in the profession. But don’t expect the pollyanish, faddy solutions to the problem. Curmudgeon is more concerned about actually solving the problem to make education work, not making people feel all fluffy with useless banter.

By the way, I’m hiring both Curmudgeon and the great Mamacita to lead my movement for Education reform. Only after you address their primary concerns about Education will you get real reform in the system. Everything else is just weak filler.

Steve Jobs owns you.

2011-10-06T19:45:00.001-07:00

Wow.

I have to admit that I was slightly sad that Steve Jobs died. I mean, he was one of those inventors that I grew up with in the rise of the generation of the computer and the Internet. It’s been Jobs versus Bill Gates for decades with one or the other seemingly looking for one-upmanship in computing, peripherals, and software. It seemed like the end of a pretty marvelous era. Then I closed my laptop and went to in to help my wife with dinner. I didn’t weep. I didn’t “RIP Steve Jobs” on Facebook, and I didn’t contribute to the multitude of tweets that made it seem like Gandhi had just passed into the next life.

Steve Jobs won. That’s pretty much the only way you can describe what happened to Apple since the mid-1990’s and the near collapse of the company…to right now. Steve Jobs managed a corporation not only by creating innovative products, but by marketing the company to near perfection to a group of people that believe that Apple is somehow the antithesis of a corporate entity. It is the company that perfectly caters to David Brook’s famous Bobo; a combination of bourgeois and bohemian. The fairly new upper-middle class that combines the liberal idealism of the 1960’s with the self-centered attitudes of the 1980’s. Apple is the icon of the post-materialist; a company that is more than the money. It is an experience, a lifestyle, a symbol of what a company can be to a new and vibrant age of information and optimism. And Steve Jobs crafted that image very, very well.

It’s funny because I think that Apple users seem to forget that Jobs was really at the forefront of running the corporate side of the company for a long time. It was Jobs that was out there reassuring shareholders at meetings. It was Jobs that was out there insisting iTunes was going to prevent Internet piracy to protect digital copyright. It was Jobs who instituted Digital Rights Management on music, refused to let go of his coding to open source networks, and would often get on Twitter and e-mail to blast critics of this product. It was Steve Jobs that approved for Foxconn to manufacture the iPhone, and it was Jobs that had to deal with public relations problems around the multitudes of suicides at the factory in China. Tasks by-the-way that were off-shored to an international location depriving American workers of employment. In short, Steve Jobs and Apple were just as corporate as Microsoft, General Motors, Exxon, and Alcoa; only Jobs knew how to market to a public that was starving for a positive corporate image.

In a few weeks I’ll wander into my AT&T Store and retire my iPhone 3G for a brand spanking new iPhone 4GS. I’ll do so knowing full well that Apple will be making a profit from the fact that I am purchasing something I desire. I’ll also know that I will receive major satisfaction from this good, just like I’ve received satisfaction from Bill Gates, Howard Schultz, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Henry Ford, and J.D. Rockefeller. Know what Steve Jobs had in common with those six corporatists?

A whole hell of a lot.

Raining

2011-10-04T21:13:00.001-07:00

No other way to say it; summer’s over. The air conditioning has been permanently turned to off, as have the sprinklers. The patio furniture is tucked in the shed and chill of the morning makes for longer showers. Yep, it looks like Fall is upon us.

That means Homecoming, again. I tried to be nice about Homecoming this year, I really did! But last week the half dozen, half asleep students who were working on floats, backdrops, and skits were only a taste of what was to come. On Monday a full three quarters of my students were exhausted from staying up until three or four in the morning to work on the parade float. Today that exhaustion was only tempered by a dress up day as pirates and cowboys, except for my fifth period class who was out of it because of the energy expended during the day. I’m watching grades plummet, and I fully expect some Advanced Placement students to make an exit when Progress Reports come out in two weeks. It’s unfortunate. When I asked kids about how they can justify staying out until 3 a.m. on a school night, almost all of them said their parents make Homecoming Week the exception to the rule. Well, ok. We’ll see what happens when that exception takes a toll this week, and next week. Then all the sugar, energy drinks, lack of sleep, and heavy Friday/Saturday partying catch up and you have days of sick kids who get further behind. Yeah, as usual, this is going to be ugly.

You’d figure I’d be more accepting of it as I have aged. But the reverse has been happening, and more and more of my colleague tire of the yearly event that ruins a good two to three weeks. With all the pressure teachers are under to perform, how can we constantly justify such a massive distraction? And yes, Homecoming has been pared down in terms of events. But it hasn’t changed the fact that this school still takes a large vacation from academics in October. And no matter how fun it is, it makes teaching a whole lot harder.

The Bless You Controversy

2011-10-02T11:40:00.001-07:00

Back in the day, when students came home saying they got into trouble the parents would usually ask “what did you do wrong.” Now when kids come home from schools not only are parents narrowing their eyes toward the teachers, some are actively looking at tearing down educators because their own boring, pathetic lives are tremendously unsatisfying.

This brings us to the current controversy at Will C. Wood High School in Vacaville, California, about 90 minutes south of Ukiah. The story goes that teacher Steve Cuckovich was conducting a test in class when he ended up having to discipline his freshman students for repeatedly disrupting class by responding to sneezes with an overenthusiastic chorus of "Bless you." The sneezer would then thank each giver of the blessing individually. It was obvious that the students were distracting the class. Even students within the class admitted that when they were interviewed. Apparently the teacher then gave a small history lesson on the use of “bless you” in relation to sneezing and then the whole shebang spiraled right out of control.

Without really talking to the teacher or the principal, a parent of one of the students called the local Fox News affiliate, who instead of conducting some semblance of journalism, parked outside of Will C. Wood High and treated the issue like Jesus himself was being crucified by the school. The issue went viral and the faith in public education in Vacaville went down the toilet because of some bored parent had nothing better to do than believe their teenage kid. In actuality the problem was a class of adolescents being a pain in the butt. Every teacher has had one of these group issues at one time or another. Someone coughs and then the entire class goes on a coughing spree. Someone’s phone starts to ring and the class hums or clears their throats in unison to protect the technology violator. With freshmen it is more common, although there is no excuse at all for it to happen during a test. 25 points off? Not a chance. Distractions during an exam are an automatic zero on the exam and that is made plain and simple from the very beginning of class.

This is the kind of stuff that steers the best and brightest away from teaching. It isn’t the pay or the long hours, it’s the fact that society has a problem with respecting education. Obama can repeal No Child, and Brian Williams can hold a hundred town halls. But nothing will change until parents have faith that educators are professionals. This should have been a non-issue that was turned into a viral mess because a bored parent gained more traction than the teachers and administrators at Will C. Wood High School. There is something seriously wrong with that.

Parties that don’t know each other

2011-09-29T22:46:00.001-07:00

One thing was very apparent from EdCampSFBay, people have extremely high hopes for the future of technology and education.

Either that or they were totally naïve. Part of that is because tech people were at a conference with teachers.

I got the same feeling at the first District Technology Meeting only it wasn’t necessarily bright and cheery because the money clearly shows that iPads are not coming to a classroom near you in Ukiah. In fact, simple wi-fi seems to be years away at Ukiah High School. Funding is clearly preventing technological progress within Ukiah Unified, although that’s not what I gathered most from the meeting.

What resounded with me more than anything was the assumption that teachers know tech. With districts pushing technology more and more I’m finding that teachers that have not grown up with it are not necessarily finding it as acceptable as many might think. It’s not only new, it’s time consuming, sometimes unreliable, and often “trendy”. And while those of us who grew up with technology have no problem adjusting to the culture surrounding technology, some who don’t constantly work with it create a cost/benefit mentality that veers into the negative, which in turn makes any implementation more difficult. Teachers want to know how to make their classrooms more efficient, not trendy. They want stuff that works all the time. Working most of the time means back up lessons which means more prep time which means lessons don’t flow as well. And while we see wikis and Glogsters and Twitter hashtags, a huge population of teachers are still seeing Microsoft Word, EZ Grade Pro, and e-mail. And no, you can’t assume that teachers know even half the functionality of THOSE tools. Contrary to popular belief, most teachers were NOT taught how to use technology in almost any capacity when doing teacher training. To put it plainly; they are too old.

That’s not a knock mind you. Let’s remember that started teaching in 2001. A teacher five years out from me would have hardly had Internet in their college classes, and a teacher ten years out would have probably had none. It’s not simply changing the tools, the culture of technology needs to change within classrooms and that’s not an easy thing to do. Techies need to realize that the number one priority for teachers is student based, and teachers need to realize that the technology does not just appear out of thin air and work. Technology takes massive amounts of time and work, often without borders of the punch card or time clock. And Ukiah Unified is massively understaffed for technology (as in everything else) allowing for more potential for small hiccups. It’s amazing that everything runs as smoothly as it does, and teachers are quick to forget that.

I intend to attend more District Tech meetings in the future and I’m still very interested in bringing Ukiah Unified more up to date in the realm of technology.

Week Sauce

2011-09-24T09:44:00.001-07:00

This week ended with a Ukiah versus Willits football game. That wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it wasn’t for the fact that Ms. Coach Brown is a Willits teacher and roamed the sidelines for the Wolverines, while Coach Brown roamed the sidelines of the mighty Ukiah Wildcats. We were victorious (of course) and thankfully my wife and I are not the type to rub it in. Still, it’s fun to watch the kid’s reactions when they see us rooting against each other’s school.

Homecoming is upon us again, although this year I have yet to see the demanding focus on the activities that I’ve seen in years past. Only one or two students are coming in with energy drinks and red eyes from their post-midnight float fixings. But the signs are there that Homecoming Week will be as “spirited” as ever, and I’ll be in the thick of it trying to sell my loyalty to the highest bidder. Hey, a brotha’s got to eat.

And hopefully a brotha doesn’t get sick. The first round of absences from cough n’ cold is now in full effect and I’m starting to wake up with the scratchy throat that is the sign of my immune system getting attacked. Part of it is that I’m only pulling five to six hours of sleep at night because my brain won’t shut down. If I can get back into a normal sleep pattern I should be fine.

Speaking of sick, here is a sure way to annoy a teacher. Pull a kid out for a week due to injury or illness. At the end of that week, call the school and demand six weeks worth of work because the student is apparently too sick or injured to attend to his education. Oh, and it needs to be done by tomorrow. Then get mad at the teacher when the work isn’t what mom or dad was expecting. Then top it off by having that poor sick or injured kid (who can’t attend school) go to the football game to frolic with friends. Sympathy level from teacher equals zero.

The San Francisco Giants are done. Time to keep an eye on Arizona Fall Ball and wait for Pitchers and Catchers.

QR

2011-09-18T22:53:00.001-07:00

This is a QR code. For those educators that are now getting the urge to take their laptop to a self check-out station at Safeway to scan it, I say to you “you are not far off”. It is in fact a type of bar code that when scanned takes you to some sort of Internet media. If you look at many magazines, you’ll see them featured next to advertisements. If you scan them using a smart phone app (I use Scan for iPhone) a video or website will pop up. It’s cute technology, though not really that new.

I got a couple of ideas for QR Codes from EdCamp San Francisco Bay. A session revolving around Flipped Classrooms had excellent ideas for incorporating QR’s by having them on a projection screen linking to videos that progressively help students solve a problem (this was for AP Chemistry). Students could work at their own pace and the technology was already in their hands (smart phone), technology that is constantly getting a bad rap in the classroom. I could see something like this with students engaging in analyzing multiple documents in progression or something similar. Scavenger hunt style document quests that could incorporate media are not a stretch either. In a perfect world students would take the work home simply by scanning the code and, viola, it’s on the device they use the most in life. Problem? Only the super-motivated will even bother.

Like most pieces of technology, there are people that are overboard and people that are detractors. Techno-maniacs get so worked up about the value of the gizmo that they start to lose the aspect of the tool being the tool, and actually assess value on something that is massively overblown. On that “overboard” link there are ideas that don’t need QR codes, or that become more complex if QR codes are introduced. Detractors refuse to believe that technology will make a bit of difference in the overall pedagogy of their classroom, and therefore call anything new a “fad”.

I plan to use my first QR with APUSH students analyzing Paul Revere’s “Boston Massacre” engraving. I’ll stick the picture on the white board and put up the QR code linked to the public picture file within Dropbox. Students can then scan it to their smart phones or tablets (some have them) and zoom in for a more through look at the document. Yes, it is worth it for them to look real hard. There are some very interesting things in Revere’s engraving. We’ll see if the little extra work is really worth doing.

Whooping Cough, another way to lose money

2011-09-18T12:52:00.001-07:00

For a year the state of California has been warning parents to immunize their children against Whooping Cough or they would be held out of school. Well that day is now upon us. Those students not immunized by this Wednesday will be told to stay home, and those that come to school will be pulled out of class and sent home.

Besides the obvious problem with kids missing their studies, consider that schools are looking at losing out on state funding because districts get their money based on Average Daily Attendance, the number of days a student attends their classes. As of right now, Ukiah Unified is looking at losing $45,000 A DAY if all the current students that don’t have the vaccination are told to stay home.

Ouch.

Once again the schools are going to get punished for something parents need to be responsible for. And in a time when money is at an absolute premium, Ukiah High School could lose a year’s worth of their site budget in a total of two days. Something doesn’t seem to ring correct with that statement, but I’m assuming that when the law was passed, the politicians failed to see that not everyone in the state was going to follow their mandate. Now the schools are looking at taking another financial hit.

Wonderful.

Almost Progress Report time

2011-09-17T12:41:00.001-07:00

It’s nuts how quick time passes. Progress reports are here and the end of our first month in the classroom has passed. Pretty soon the dreaded Homecoming will take shape, then basketball season will be here. Holy cow I’m getting old.

This is probably the best start I’ve had in a couple of years, not that I’m looking to jinx anything. For some reason this year has the feeling of a fresher start. Looking around the district, that’s not necessarily true in all capacities. This week included a couple of meetings with groups and people that gave a “state of the district” report and it is seeming more and more like we are all teaching while Rome burns down in flames. Part of the discontent is towards the district, part is towards the Union (which raised my fees again), and a whole lot of it is towards the state. I’ve realized that my mood is significantly better when I don’t think to the crap that is outside of the classroom and remain focused on kids. That’s why I quit being a rep for the union. In fact, that’s why quite a few younger high school teachers quit the union. I think we had a choice; put our energy towards our profession and kids, or put it towards liars and politicians. Easy choice.

Classroom management has been no problem. Couple of hyperactive kids that occasionally need the “calm down” glare, and the few cell phones is all I’ve been dealing with. My attendance is ok but not great. My “I won’t hassle you until I see a consistent pattern” tardy policy seems to be working ok except for six students. Those students were warned that the next tardy gets an attendance contract. We’ll see how that breaks the vibe of the class because Seniors hate to be treated like little children. But my relationship with the kids is actually quite good.

Class attitudes are starting to develop. One class is so mellow that it borders on freaky quiet. Two classes are completely engaged. One class seems like they are disinterested then nails out really good work. And my APUSH class has a group of students that are focused, pleasant, and full of outstanding potential; not only as students but also has people.

Fall is just around the corner and we’ll see what happens when Homecoming kicks in. Yay.

Reflected for 9/11

2011-09-11T19:00:00.001-07:00

I’ll be honest, I didn’t even think of breaking stride to discuss a lot about September 11th. I’ve been so wrapped up in hitting objectives, staying on the calendar, and prepping using differentiated techniques that I lost perspective of the whole point of teaching the Social Sciences; to teach what has happened and learn from it. So I stopped everything on Friday and taught the very abbreviated story of September 11, 2001.

I talked about the Soviet-Afghan war, Bin Laden’s rise to fame, the planning of the “Planes Operation”, the reasons Bin Laden used for the attack, and then the story of the day itself, from the World Trade Center to the Pentagon to United Flight 93. Then I discussed the aftermath; the chirping, “The Pile”, the line at the Armory, and how the world changed on that day. Every period ended up being pretty powerful, and the first two times I tried to explain the families lining up at the Armory I had trouble maintaining complete composure. Those memories are raw and rough.

You’d be amazed at the number of students who didn’t know the “big deal” or haven’t seen the footage. Many don’t know what’s behind Middle East anger or the past practices of Bin Laden and the Taliban. Many don’t know that a lot of Muslims have died at the hands of Bin Laden, and that his crusade was a disgusting combination of sick egotistical zeal and a dislike of societal evolution. Some cried, many thanked me, and I think everyone will have no problem that I stopped the class to discuss a very important day.

You should talk about September 11th with your kids. But remember to also focus on those shining moments of true courage. The passengers on United 93, the first responders and fire fighters at the World Trade Center, the men and women that ran into the fires of the Pentagon, and the many single souls that offered a hand to those in need on that fateful day. The kids need to hear those stories too. Because when the story is told down the road, their kids are going to have to remember that even the worst days hold moments of great humanity.

New Flip, same result

2011-09-06T22:11:00.001-07:00

I assigned the Flip assignment (see previous post) on Friday and the only notice I received that there was any technical problem was from a student who couldn’t find the video that was right in front of them. That was on Monday night. On Tuesday morning I watched four students attempt to bring up the video on the school’s eleven year old computers 15 minutes before class was to start. Some students didn’t follow the directions and simply gave up fast fowarding to the right part of the video. In the end the usual happened; those that really wanted access to the assignment did it. Those that didn’t care that much, didn’t. Remember those four students? Yeah, they pretty much do the same thing with text reads too.

The engagement was there still. I had them do an group collaboration with questions and did some exchanging, and it was obvious who was carrying who. In the end, those that were going to be engaged were, as usual, engaged. Those that chose not to be weren’t. Realize that I didn’t expect some monumental change or some spike in engagement simply because I assigned a seven minute video clip. However I did watch the concept mastery objectives for some reinforcement of the theory of Production Possibilities Curves. Nope. Not there either.

So the result was the same as giving any other assignment to students to do outside of the classroom. I realize that the atmosphere and tone of the class need to be more consistent for it to really work, and I also realize that it can’t hurt to mix up the work that students do outside of class. But at the same time we need to make sure that when we talk ed tech, the “sage on the stage” is always going to matter more than the technology we use as the tool. And that student motivation might increase with engaging lessons, but that’s more than tech.

Learning styles may be overrated

2011-09-05T22:01:00.001-07:00

Ok FYI, studies like this are not new. And while NPR’s story about “learning styles” has sparked the discussion of audio/ visual/tactile learners to a new level, much of it is hype by people that like to make kids feel real good.

I’ve always had a problem with the idea that all kids somehow learn differently. In fact, I’d go so far to say that the learning styles issue came about more as a crux for children that happened to not like their teacher and were too lazy to sit and focus. “Oh, you can’t simply instruct my kid for ten minutes. He’s a learner by touch.” “My child is not a visual learner. You need to get him an audio book or a recording of the book.” Uh huh. And have we investigated the real reason why his reading skills are down, like pulling your kid’s ass away from World of Warcraft? In my own reflection on my favorite teachers, I found that all of them had different teaching styles that had one thing in common; they were damn good teachers.

This is not to say that I don’t think that varied learning styles shouldn’t be used in the classroom. Mixing it up gets students interested, introduces them to new ways to addressing problems and finding solutions, and promotes higher levels of thinking. Variety is not only the spice of life, it is the sign of a good learning environment.

the idea that every kid needs a learning style tailored to meet their every need is not practical and does little to prepare students for a world that could care about learning styles. I can’t say that I’m sad that this convenient excuse is finally getting some legitimate detractors.

Gonna Flip it (Updated 9/3)

2011-09-01T23:00:00.001-07:00

So this weekend I’m going to Flip my classroom.
For those of you not totally in the Educational Technology game (or the Ed Fad game for that matter), “Flipping” the classroom is creating or linking of videos for kids to watch in short snippets outside of class, then making your entire class time full of hands-on-activity and engagement. It’s what Khan Academy is supposed to be all about; direction at home, concept engagement and mastery at school. I’m going to give it a try.
This weekend I’m assigning a seven minute portion of this video from Economics USA regarding the overall increase of a Production Possibilities Curve related to the Great Depression and World War One (10:17 to 17:00 if you are dying to know). It’s old but effective, explaining the basic principals while guiding you through history, and doing it in a short period of time. On Tuesday I’ll get them into groups and have them break down the video, then attempt to get them to try and increase a PPC for the current Great Recession. Then we’ll come back together and discuss.
It doesn’t take much for me to buy into good educational technology. If I find a tool that works in the classroom, I use it. I don’t screw around. The concept of “flipping” is niggling me in an odd way though. Something is just seeming too faddy and almost techno-elitist in how people are espousing its virtue. Here’s four questions I have for the currently active “flippers”.
1. It is insisted that constant student engagement is better than the “sage on stage” method of direct instruction. Then how to you justify the generations of students that have successfully been instructed by good teachers through some direct instruction? We’ve all had teachers that have the gift of the spoken word and have been effective at teaching students necessary content. And the teacher “knows” that content is being taught to a student instead of guessing through self-directed learning.
2. Speaking of bad power points and lecturing; isn’t a video the student watches at home basically the same thing? What’s the difference between my 15 minute power point at school and the 15 minute power point at home? I mean besides the fact that I’m right there to help answer questions. Isn’t that direct instruction?
3. What not reading? Flipping classrooms seems to be all about the video experience while seemingly totally ignoring reading. Is this a wise course of action? I saw a comment on Twitter that insisted that no reading should ever be assigned without something interactive attached to it. Aren’t we downplaying the importance of the read word?
4. And finally, what happens when students don’t have Internet? I’ve asked this a dozen times and I either get ignored or I get “well all children need to have Internet to be successful in the 21st Century environment. The government needs to make Internet penetration in this country a priority for all students or we are doing them a massive disservice.” Yeah, thanks for the public policy message but that still fails to answer my question. How do you flip a class when half the kids don’t have online access?
Now the one class I’m flipping is full of AP students, a vast majority of which are middle, upper class students that I’m very sure have some access to the Net. The concepts are not difficult, the video won’t be long, the class side of the lesson is engaging. We shall see.

(Update 9/3)
So there was no initial blow back from my demanding of an outside video online. We'll see out Monday works out. In the meantime, check out Robert's discussion around the perils of "Flipping" a classroom. He states my worries in a much more eloquent way with excellent questions about everything from technology to testing to support. It's more than worth a read.

College Board report says that teenagers still think like teenagers

2011-08-31T22:25:00.001-07:00

So I’m reading a variety of blogs that are looking at this report from the College Board; the “One Year Out” report. 1,500 “year out” kids were polled about their high school careers translating into college or work. Some analysis is critical of what high schools are providing for students because of a few statistics:

-Those who went on to college found the courses were more difficult than expected (54 percent), and 24 percent were required to take noncredit remedial or developmental courses. Of those taking remedial programs, 37 percent attended a two-year college and 16 percent did not make it through the first year of college.

-To succeed, 44 percent of graduates said they wished they had taken different classes in high school. Among those, 40 percent wished they had taken more math, 37 percent wished they would have taken more classes that prepared them for a specific job, and 33 percent wished they had taken more science courses.

Not totally surprising in my eyes. But then check out Curriculum Matters’ attempt to manage the teenage mind.

“…graduates who enrolled in college clearly had a reason to say they wish they'd taken tougher courses in high school; half reported that their college courses were more difficult than they'd expected, and one-quarter got stuck in remedial classes. But here comes the confounding piece: two-thirds of the students still report that their high schools did a good job of preparing them for college-level work.

High schools got mixed reports about how well they did preparing students for work, too. Four in 10 students said their schools fell short in that regard. Students' voices showed more discontent with the way their schools prepared them for work than with the way they prepared them for college, suggesting that high schools are more accomplished on the college-ready side of the coin than they are on the work-ready side.

Students also complained that they got too little help mastering everyday life skills, like managing their finances, and in making a smooth transition to college life.

When you roll all of that up together, it's interesting to learn that 82 percent of the students still look back on their overall high school experience and report that they are satisfied with it. (This at the very same time that 80 percent of the students said they would change something about their high school years.)”

By the way, the title of the above blog post is “High School Shortchanged Us, Students Report”. I find it amusing that the tone of the post seems so astounded at the vacillation of the teenage mind. Let me help translate some of this.

Student: “Mr. Silva-Brown, I’d like to take your AP U.S. History class. It’s said to be rigorous and does a good job preparing you for college. Only I want to remind you that I will be gone about six weeks during the year. I have to go to my cousin’s wedding, my family Christmas in Southern California, a ski trip in February, and I need to visit a few college in April. Oh and I golf too so I might miss a few Thursdays and Fridays in the Spring. And make sure this class isn’t in the mornings either because I’ll miss a few because I enjoy the sleep. Oh, and do you have a lot of reading? I have a lot to do in the afternoon what with working with little kids and hanging out at Starbucks. And during the two Homecoming weeks I need to work on the float and the skit and the…. Wait. You know what? This class really isn’t for me.”

Fast forward to a year later.

Student: “Fucking high school didn’t prepare me for this college shit.”

Fast forward to another year later when they take the poll.

Student: “Yeah, high school didn’t really do a good job preparing me for the workload of college.”

Pollster: “So you didn’t enjoy your high school experience?”

Student: “No way! I loved it! We won the Spirit Bell. I played some fantastic golf courses. I had an active social life. Learned some calculus. Hung out with family. I probably could have worked a little harder, but damn if I was going to let essays interfere with Homecoming.”

I’ve had a dozen students bail out of two AP classes this year and take less rigorous courses. Some even brought their parents into my classroom to give a spiel about how tough their kid’s schedule was and that I shouldn’t even think of challenging the drop. I didn’t and they left. It’s their choice.

Look, kids that want to go to college are told over and over about the rigor of college, and only people that haven’t been on a campus would think they have been someone duped that college is easy. We work and work with kids to push themselves inside and outside the classroom. Many do. The average kid does not. The average kid finds the greatest benefit through the path of least resistance until he/she realizes that they’ll have to work to get a piece of the pie of life. Want to know why kids have a tough transition to college? Because a huge swath do not visit the campus, rank academics as a lower priority than social life, and totally forget that they are even going to college until August. Or did you totally forget about Senioritis.

Want more insight about how teenagers are thinking? Before you analyze statistics give a really honest look at how you were in high school. The answers might make more sense.

Do better than maintain

2011-08-30T22:06:00.001-07:00

The students are now a week and a half into the school year and for all intents and purposes the honeymoon is over. Yep, the Juniors are being blasted by their toughest year ever while the Seniors just hunker down and try to get by, unhappy that the same old is probably going to happen for the fourth year in a row.

This is why you will change things. You won’t be normal, you won’t be average, you won’t maintain. While other teachers are starting to fall into the groove of doing things they way they have always been done, you are going to remain spiced up. Oh sure, you spent a lot of energy engaging kids attention during the first week. Well so did everyone else. The question is whether you will maintain the creativity, the accountability, and the engagement.

Change the littlest things. Bring your energy level up. Have students wander while doing something engaging. Stop your presentations at twenty minutes and do something else. SMILE! Do those things that many have decided to skip because “it just works better the way it’s always worked”. Find the energy.

The kids will thank you for it, just probably not now. Even if some of the faces are tired, some of the attitudes are rough, and some of the work is just “eh”, you must maintain the enthusiasm because the students do appreciate it, they just aren’t impressed by the other 4,5, whatever number classes. The little differences will resonate with them at this point and for the rest of the year. And by the end of the year the kids will flood you with praise, even if they spent the entire year acting like, you know, teenagers.

So don’t try it, commit to it. Don’t be satisfied with maintaining.

Hello #EdCampSFBay

2011-08-29T22:35:00.001-07:00

My final professional development opportunity of the summer was on the Saturday before school began and was located at Skyline High School in Oakland, California. The idea of EdCamp is that you have no prepared sessions at all when you arrive. Then sessions go up a board that are directed by whoever is there; teachers, professors, ed tech professionals, software developers, any interested parties. Then the unconference (as edcamps are named) visitors vote with their feet and attend a session for a little over an hour.

Though not totally about technology, almost all the sessions are somehow geared towards engaging students through the use of all sorts of hardware, software, or Internet goodies. Presentations are conducted using this technology so the whole presentation is not a lecture, it’s an engaging experience. Everyone in the room has an iPad, laptop, or a netbook, and everyone is constantly on it. Twitter backchannelling is active and strongly encouraged. People share thoughts online while in the same room or in other rooms. You get comments from other sessions while you are in your own. Don’t like the current one? Leave and go to another. It’s encouraged. So what did my day look like….I mean after I got there and was given a swag bag full of goodies from Edutopia and Collaborize? Oh, did I mention that almost all the tech at EdCamp is free to use. Hello? Anyone there?

-First session was dealing with Disturbing the Class. Basically it was ideas about becoming a “disruptive” force against the norm. It included conversation stretching from how to bring schools into a new attitude towards technology, to trying to shift environments to engage student learning. I've already used part of this when dealing with assignments that could have been done in the classroom. Instead of doing a museum art walk in-doors, I took it outside in the open. In response the students were more engaged and more interested in the task at hand, simply because of environmental shift. Very good first session.

-Second was titled “Turn your School into a Tech Center”. It was more geared toward networking for an entire school system, so I left and went a workshop that dealt with testing and techniques. It was well done but kept going back to complaining about high-stakes testing. You can only complain so much about testing. Eventually people have to accept that right now it’s a way of life. It was interesting to hear ideas though.

-Third session was how to develop kids into good “digital citizens”. This session was all about the impact of the Internet on students and the interaction with students/teachers online. It was interesting to hear the different policies and feelings about things like “friending” on Facebook. The ranged spanned from open communication to absolute paranoia. It was a excellent free flow of conversation and ideas. I was done a tad early and went over to watch information on Flipped Classrooms, where I found out how to us QR codes to make more technology mobile. That ten minute session worked. I’ve already used QR codes in my class this year.

-Fourth session dealt with a simple discussion on technology and engagement related student issues. The breakouts included social network interaction, the value of home, merit pay, and the future of the technology classroom. Teachers have all kinds of views on this controversial topics, although I noticed that a lot of traditional verbiage (like “homework”) has been locked into a negative context. That needs to change.

-My final session of interesting. A woman had come back to the Bay Area from India with the idea of creating a network that connects students with community figures/projects/resources. Her justification was that the best way for kids to learn was to engage directly with local issues and she was working to facilitate that. It was very informative.

Here’s the thing. I can’t really express the massive amount I gained from sessions I never attended, from people with a willingness to share, and during conversations that sometimes started from nothing in particular. The vibe of EdCamp is so relaxed and collaborative that the slightest little thing sets off a torrent of ideas. Then the ideas are on Twitter and the backchannels light up. That’s when the real magic happens. I wanted to attend the Live Binder session, the QR code session, the mobile tech session, and another few that I didn’t get to see live, but got enough of a taste to arouse curiosity and explore those options in my classroom. It made me want more, so I’ve started to look for it. Quite the liberating and energizing experience. And it makes you want more EdCamps.

A note for those that are considering attending an EdCamp; don’t allow the naivety of some of the participants to discourage you. Not all the people that attend are classroom teachers. You have a large gambit of people all with the intent on using tech to engage students. But these people sometimes speak as if Utopia can be found through the use of technology. That five years from now every kid will have Internet, an iPad, and all of the sudden become self actualized, life-long learners. And while some of the higher end schools can afford iPads in the hands of every child, most California schools can’t. That’s when the standard classroom teacher steps in and says things like “funding”, “socio-economics”, “standards”, “reality”. And guess what, there were plenty of us there. But after we keep people grounded, we then explore the methods that we COULD use in our classrooms to engage students. Between Utopia and Reality is progress, and we are all stake holders in making students succeed. Fine, “flipping a classroom” is not going to work in most of California. But instead, we should ask how we can get more information to kids in different ways outside the classroom while increasing engagement and critical thinking during class time. Fine, so only 20% of my students have “smart phones”. But we can create lessons where those 20% can be divided into groups and have QR codes to primary source documents students need to analysis for a DBQ. And the documents can be structured orderly in terms of analytical rigor which allows students to work at their own pace……….I mean the potential is nuts.

And in the end, the one comment that resonated with me is that if we do not try to engage students using this technology we have before us, we are doing a monumental disservice to the next generation of students we are preparing to succeed in society. That is why I’ll be going back to EdCamp.

Week One, 11-12

2011-08-28T21:46:00.001-07:00

This could be one of the better starts to a year of teaching in recent memory. My classes seem very mellow to manage and engagement is pretty darn high, something I attribute to my experience at EdCampSFBay and some ideas I gained from the sschat hashtag on Twitter. The good start also might have to do with the fact that I reevaluated what was really important and actually dropped some things. I declined a nomination as a site rep to my local teacher’s union because I don’t need the aggravation involved in groups that will probably get little done in the end. During our district meeting I counted at least three times that our feature presenter mentioned that there seemed to be a “lack of trust in this district”. Look if a complete stranger is saying that in front of the entire population, it ain’t changing. And I don’t need to waste energy from my classroom on a situation where only serious change from every angle will accomplish anything.

I’m also doing much better (or worse if you look at it different) at choosing not to fight battles that waste my time. My absences are starting to pile up with students leaving for extended periods. Not going to worry about it. They have the information. Students not showing up because they are waiting for an Independent Study spot? Not my problem. Either they are here learning or they’re failing. And I’m not resisting students leaving my AP classes at all. Can’t handle the workload? Bye. It’s nothing personal and I’m not angry about it at all. For some reason I’ve been programmed or allowing myself to get all wrapped up into whether or not my AP program can sustain itself when students bail for easier classes. No more. I get good results, it’s a great class to prepare for college, let’s do this.

This apathy towards those things I can’t control is making me a better teacher this year. I’m more focused on the “now” and meeting more needs to those that care, creating more lasting relationships with kids that need the help here. I may pay for that when I hold those not here accountable, but I’m willing to fight that battle when it comes down the road.

Never walking into Mulligan Books again

2011-08-27T10:54:00.001-07:00

9/11 conspiracy theorists are the worst kind of losers. It really takes a low-life kind of person with LSD inducing paranoia to attempt to gain some kind of Kim Kardashian slime status in society by capitalizing on the deaths of 3,000 people. Ever since The X-Files ended, those idiots have needed another bandwagon to jump on because when the Cigarette Smoking Man died, the Clinton era black-ops helicopters didn’t fly as well with the American public.

I guess these nuts can take any shape or form. It’s just too bad that a local used bookstore, Mulligan Books, has decided to promote the “new” evidence that shows that the Twin Towers and World Trade Center #7 came down due to a controlled interior explosion; meaning they were actually intentionally brought down by, probably, our own government. I watched the trailer on Mulligan’s blog and found it sickly amusing that everyone seems to keep saying “I’m not wrapped up in conspiracy theories”, even if they are.

I guess the used bookstore business just isn’t the business it used to be. I guess you need to kick in some paranoia to drive up sales. I vow never to set foot in said establishment ever again. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that Mulligans and the rest of those nuts have a right to their opinions. But I also have the right to disagree and I believe this town should express their opinions by not shopping there.

Seriously?

2011-08-24T22:11:00.001-07:00

Oh yeah, as you read in my last post, I had some odd testing statistics presented to me today. Check this out.
In 2010 I had 21 students in AP U.S. History take the STAR test. Out of the 21, 17 scored Advanced. All the students that scored Proficient (the next level down) were within ten points of scoring Advanced. None of the Proficient scores passed (some didn’t even take) the AP U.S. History test.
Fast forward to 2011. I had 22 students in AP U.S. History take the STAR test. Out of the 22, only 13 scored Advanced. And out of the 9 that scored Proficient, four passed the AP U.S. History test! One of them even scored a “4”! How in the hell do you pass one of the harder Advanced Placement tests, and (in a few cases) barely pass into the Proficient category from Basic on a test that isn’t anywhere near the rigor?
Anyone?

A decade in.

2011-08-24T21:57:00.001-07:00

This week I started my eleventh year of teaching. It’s been pretty smooth and for the most part the classes are much more mellow than last year.

Now, I could go into a whole “decade of teaching” retrospective, but it really wouldn’t serve a purpose since my whole blog is a retrospective. I have some feelings after my ten years that are in the now.

First is the question I’m always asked about how much longer I’m going to “last” in teaching. I had a relative ask me if I’m already looking forward to a nice administrative job recently and I looked at him and said “I don’t plan on leaving teaching”. That gained me a surprised look. Here’s the deal; barring something totally unforeseen I plan on teaching high school forever. College doesn’t interest me. I like teaching high school students. And administration? Don’t even get me started on why I want to avoid that.

I do want to get my Master’s Degree. The problem is that I don’t intend to use to gain more salary, therefore the whole issue becomes rather cost prohibitive. Still a Political Science MS is available online from Virginia Tech, and my ultimate dream would then go on to Stanford for a History Education PhD or get a PhD in Political Science online at the London School of Economics. Too much? Bah. Why shouldn’t I attempt to raise my bar? The secondary tract involves a multitude of Educational Technology Master’s Degrees that are available for about half the cost of the standard degree. But I’m not as passionate about Ed Tech nearly as much as History or Political Science. We shall see.

I think I’m a pretty good teacher. After ten years I think I get good results, I get lots of positive feedback from graduated students, and my classroom management almost never attracts the attention of the administration. Some could respond saying that if I had real confidence I’d call myself “fantastic”, but I’m still searching for what “fantastic” really is. Education is not in an optimal state right now. Today I found out that two kids that passed last years AP U.S. History exam nearly scored only Basic on the California Exit Exam on the U.S. History section. They were proficient by only four points. Oh, and one of those students had a 4 on the AP exam. Do either of those scores reflect my teaching ability? Does any standardized test?

I think that part of the reason I’m a good teacher is that I’m constantly working to get better. While state (and now Common Core) standards are a good outline, nothing is as good as engagement. I’m doing more and more to incorporate technology into my classroom while still making sure that the ed tech is just the tool, not the solution. Things that don’t work, don’t last, and I’m still often one of the first that arrive and one of the last to leave. So I still love my job, and I have no problem with doing another ten more years.

“Actually, I’m only ‘this’ stupid”

2011-08-18T21:27:00.001-07:00

I’m lucky. I haven’t had a raise in over five years. Yes, that’s lucky….because compared to the millions that have lost their jobs during the Great Recession, having a steady income is pretty damn fortunate.

And it is beyond reason that University of California President Mark Yudof would even hint at a raise. This is especially true with all the scrutiny of public institutions misusing funds. Sure, we would all like to attract and retain the top talent, but let’s take out the fact that we are currently in the biggest economic crisis since the 1930’s and what we find is that enrollment in the UC’s is soaring, especially from students that are coming in from overseas. Knock in the fact that the UC system continues to kick up tuition and what you get is a guy that is basically acting like a corporate asshole, only he’s doing it with public funds and rubbing it in the nose of people that need to get his institution’s education to get a reasonable standard of living. Jesus, what a worm.

Dear private sector, the feelings of Mr. Yudof don’t represent those hard working primary, secondary, and community college teachers that are struggling right along with you. Marky is the worst kind of corporate whore; one that steals from kids to pay for his pension. If reports are accurate, and if Mark Yudof remains the President of the UC system through 2015, his pension earnings will be $350,000 a year for the rest of his life.

That’s as good of reason as any for not only a college revolt, but a statewide ejection campaign.

First Three Days

2011-08-17T23:10:00.001-07:00

I’ve actually been back more like six days. But I don’t count the 2 to 3 hours I spent last week tiding up the classroom, getting my technology all set up, and general preparing my work space for my arrival.

So I arrived on Monday, which is called a Buy-Back Day. Essentially a Buy-Back Day is a non-student day where the teacher shows up and spends seven hours in professional development. I use it for prep for two reasons. First, the professional development offered by my district has been, oh, less than substantial for my tastes. And that leads to my second reason I use it for prep; I need the time to prepare, not to learn about something I will hardly ever use in class. Now, the problem with not attending a Buy-Back Day is that you get your pay docked unless you attend seven hours of unpaid professional development, off your contract hours, some time during the year. Please. In the course of this summer alone I can afford years of Buy Back Days. FED Meet the Experts, AP Annual Conference, EDCampSFBay…..EZ!

So I’ve been prepping for three days now, focused on the task of getting AP U.S. History more engaging primarily. It’s working pretty good, although I’m looking at it and praying to God that I have no distractions so the course will run smoothly. Of course, that ended today when I was introduced to Common Core Standards. Now my AP students will be tested three times this year on content they will not have studied because the Common Core Standards only address Reconstruction onward, while the AP course demands the entirety of U.S. History. Sigh.

I’ve also got Economics done, also with increased engagement. I’m trying to work in a way for students to go over the City of Ukiah’s budget while looking at Opportunity Cost, Trade-offs, and concepts of Choice. But every time I look at the budget I get the sudden urge to slit my wrists because I’m a Social Science major. I tell people why they need the stuff, not how much everything is going to cost and probable revenue. So I’m working on a slightly simplified budget, if such a thing exists. Then it’s on to college prep American Government, which needs minor tweeking and less overhaul.

Got a new school phone that plugs into the ISBN hole in the wall. Kinda of cool new toy with my own phone number. Other than that the technology has changed little, although the district is really touting technology advances. However I still see my eleven year old, 512 mb ram desktop computer on my counter and when it told me that my operating system would not allow me to download Chrome, I realized I was still driving my 1989 Honda Accord on this technology superhighway.

It’s meeting time over the next few days with prep in the afternoons. If you are going to EdCampSFBay this weekend, I’ll se you there!

Meet the Experts at the FED

2011-08-17T22:14:00.001-07:00

I honestly believe that Economics is one of the most feared classes to teach and one of the most wrongly taught. History teachers fear the class because it really has nothing to do with history, although it has everything to do with how history has progressed. Thanks to No Child Left Behind, many teachers can’t teach the course because they are not “highly qualified”; a degree in History does not require anything above General Ed Economics. Many that teach the subject often do it incorrectly. People see it as an opportunity to flaunt political agendas and go on mini-crusades while completely ignoring the fundamentals of the subject. A colleague and I went to an Economics institute a few years ago and found that half of the two dozen teachers didn’t even teach opportunity cost, many not even knowing the definition. I like teaching Economics. It is the perfect complement to Government and History while forcing you to look at both subjects much more pragmatically. My credential is in History-Social Science, meaning about 60% of my upper division was History while 40% was Government, Economics, Anthropology, etc.

I’ve been going to the San Francisco Federal Reserve for years and if you teach Economics, especially in the current economic climate, I don’t know how you can’t attend a teacher focused session. Last week I attended Meet the Experts, a day long workshop where FED professionals, including the President of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, discussed the role of the institution with high school and college teachers. Couple of bullet points:

-The Federal Reserve really wants to work with teachers. I started attending workshops about six years ago and their interest in informing teachers and students has grown ten fold. They want feedback about what works. In fact the last hour of the workshop was on focus groups about power points, social media, and a video series, and the teachers were very involved in giving opinions about what does and doesn’t work in the classroom.

-Don’t ask me about recent FED policy because the President had just been to the Federal Open Market Committee meeting and there was a one day black out on passing out information. Too bad.

-Speaking of the President, my wife and I got to sit at the head table with Mr. John Williams during lunch. Here’s the deal, Mr. Williams, along with all the speakers at the conference, seem genuinely interested getting teachers to understand the FED. And they are well spoken too. Each presentation was about 15-20 minutes with about the same time for questions. It was done professionally, but in language that a high school Economics teacher could understand. And if you didn’t understand it, you didn’t feel ignorant when they explained it.

-So remember when Ron Paul stated that all the FEDs information was secret? Yeah, I looked at the FEDs balance sheet and all that other stuff that people don’t know a damn clue about. Sure, the FED was in the background for many years, but it is very obvious that it wants to be out in the open and transparent. The information about the FED is on the website if you really want it. In fact, Economics teachers should be bookmarking the Federal Reserve Research site and downloading the FRED iPhone app from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Ron Paul should do that right now.

-It was downright embarrassing to hear about high school teachers not having access to social media at their schools. Actually it was doubly embarrassing because college teachers grinned and working professionals raised eyebrows at the Internet restrictions placed on secondary education instructors. When a Los Angeles FED liaison started to shoot off methods to communicate with teachers, from Facebook to Youtube, the answers constantly came up “That’s blocked”, “Nope, filter prevents it”, “We don’t have access to that”. Wow. I feel thankful that I have a password that allows me access to those forbidden sites because many teachers are just denied. And that is truly absurd.

By the way, Rick Perry’s recent comments on the Federal Reserve show him to be one of the dumbest bastards on the planet.

Is it the school or something more?

2011-08-12T13:27:00.001-07:00

In a time when Education is under the microscope, Gallup has released a poll that shows that Americans have less and less confidence in the public school system. While it’s easy to simply say “it’s public education stupid”, I’m more interested in looking at all variables that might be complementing societies growing disillusionment of schools.

The 1980’s are more interesting that historians give the decade credit for. Usually the focus revolves around the “Conservative Revolution” and the fall of the Soviet Union. But there are lots of things that impact education and the social order of the United States that occurred in the 1980’s, or the foundation was poured in the 1980’s. Here’s a list:

-Women became active participants in the workplace. This created empty homes that children came home to and beginnings of “guilt money” (spoiled children) and the “ever-busy-child” (packing the schedule so the child is constantly doing something).

-Income inequality becomes stronger. The Gini Index (used in AP Comp Gov to show income inequality) shows clearly that the United States started having issues with a wealth gap in the 1980’s. The cause is irrelevant in this argument. But the result was that two parents had to work to maintain a reasonable standard of living.

-Media presence has grown. I actually almost never go off and blame Fox News or MSNBC for the problems of the world. And I’m not about to now. But the constant 24hr news cycle has brought to the front problems that have always been there, just not hyped up into a media brew frenzy. Then politicians have easy access to assess blame because they have an outlet willing to do the work for them.

-The Internet. Like it or not, the Internet and video games have changed the way kids deal with school. So many kids are connected online late at night or scoping their cell phones in class that school has become the secondary entity, and parents are pissed. But noooooooooo…..can’t take away that cell phone. “I need it for work”. My ass.

-Misinformation about charter schools. The panacea of the Republican Party is one of the most misunderstood organs of education. Most don’t realize that charters play on a different field yet yield no more successes and often worse failures. Yet charters continue to be touted as the replacement for public education, although they are supposed be a part of public education, even though they won’t tell you that.

-General distrust of government. As the article stated, the American people have become more and more wary of government programs while become more and more demanding of their existence. Watergate and Vietnam started the distrust and the growing income gap (along with a seething media) have only widened it.

I don’t see public perception of public schools changing until society steps in and gives itself a good shake-up. I teach Seniors in high school and believe it or not, many parents aren’t interested in educated kids as much as graduated kids. When teachers throw down the hammer, schools become “uncaring” and “inflexible”, and society sends a mixed message of increased accountability, but only when it best suits the individual.

AP Annual Conference: Was it worth it? Part 2

2011-07-31T14:59:00.001-07:00

Hey, if you intend to enhance the lives of the next generation of teachers, let me make a small suggestion. Wifi. The fact that there was no wifi on the second floor of Moscone West made the sessions maddeningly incomplete due to the fact that most had Internet links to visit for lesson plans, unit plans, and primary source documents. Exchanging materials with other teachers was impossible because of no wifi. Presenters had Internet and displayed some excellent sites……that I could only dream of visiting. So, note to College Board, wifi please. Especially at Moscone Center, home of some of the most innovative technology conferences on the planet.

Session 5- Writing Historical Arguments. Now here’s a session that has it figured out. The presenters consisted of a past AP U.S. History teacher and a current AP English Language teacher. What’s better than one AP teacher? Why, one that deals in content and one that deals in writing of course. It was a very informative and reinforced my idea that focus needs to get away from the boredom of content while reinforcing historical skills.

Session 6- Making Connections in U.S. History: Great Awakenings Across the Centuries. I was really looking forward to my textbook author, James Henretta, “suggesting innovative methods for teaching religion in the classroom.” When I watched a man with notes approach the lectern, I started to wince. Then the lecture started. I lasted about eight minutes and then realized that a Great Awakenings lecture was not going to hold me for the next one hour plus. So I walked out and went over to the AP Comparative Government room and sat in on a presentation about international public policy. The discussion was interesting, but the online information presented was totally vital to Comparative Politics. I furiously wrote down information and got excited for my other AP class, and then cursed the College Board for once again, no wifi.

Lunch Break: Judy Woodruff. The former CNN and current Newshour politico was fantastic. She’s funny, whitty, and has excellent insight on what is going on in Washington. If you ever have an opportunity to catch Judy, go for it.

Session 7- Reconstructing Reconstruction: Using Primary Sources in History Classes. This was a combo primary sources and historiography class that was fine. Yes, just fine. I’ve been to lots of workshops that use Reconstruction so I really didn’t need primary source help. Why go? Because the other session was a presentation on the whiteboard software I already have and I’ve been through the presentation before.

Post Conference APUSH Session. This was Sunday, and this one actually made me angry. It wasn’t the presenter. Bill Shelton obviously knows his stuff and his insights into the test were interesting. But he admitted that the College Board basically asked him to do the session at the last minute, like when he was boarding his plane in Texas. Therefore he had a small packet of 5-6 ideas to go along with the basic APUSH handouts, and that was it. Most of the day was talking about the AP test and debating the revision. There might have been 30 minutes for actual classroom strategies. When about a third of the group did not come back after lunch, I knew the afternoon was not going to be productive.

So was it worth it? Well if your playing with your districts money, what have you got to lose? They feed you, the guest speaker could be pretty good, and a few sessions could help you in your classroom. But if you’re spending your own money…..no way. Basically I paid over $50 for a session that ran one hour and fifteen minutes. Some, that’s “some”, sessions were effective. Some gave out materials. Some tried to sell something. And none of it even came close to addressing current generation Classroom 2.0 standards (wifi hello?). Then I paid $180 for a post-conference session that gathered me AP materials that will eventually be online, and about six lessons for my class that involve worksheets. Oh, and we had a lively debate about the revision. In summation, I feel horribly ripped off when looking at the money spent versus the final result.

Oh well. It is what it is.

AP Annual Conference: Was it worth it? Part 1

2011-07-27T17:38:00.001-07:00

It’s really not bitching.

I only say that because I can see already that complaining about the AP Annual Conference is going to seem like needless bickering, except that I paid my own money to go and so I think a realistic review of the conference is perfectly in order. Yep, I paid for it. My wife’s school district paid for her registration to the AP Annual Conference this year in San Francisco and we agreed that part of my AP reader stipend would go towards my registration fees. So I forked over $550 to go to a conference that was very hyped as valuable. My intent was to find things that would work in my classroom. Period.

Here’s the thing. For $550 a participant should have some basics at an education convention/conference. First would be an idea where to go. After paying my fee in May, I heard nothing, notta, zilch from the College Board. I got a receipt by e-mail, but the only idea I had about my destination was that it was at either Moscone Center or the Marriott Marquis nearby. A couple of days prior I started asking the #APAnnualConf hashtag on Twitter if anyone had information. Everyone kept saying “just go to Moscone Center. Ok, but Moscone Center and the Marriott Marquis consists of four huge buildings that span many city blocks. My wife and I eventually walked from our hotel to the corner of 3rd and Howard, and waited. We eventually followed people with AP Conference badges to Moscone West and headed to our sessions.

I judged each session based on usefulness to my class and by how many times I checked Twitter from my iPhone.

-Session 1: Classroom Simulations and 21st Century Learning: A Constructivist Approach. Exactly what I’m looking for. Presenter dealt with the simulations from Eric Rothschild and how you need to make students do more of the work. The first time I heard “let it go” in relation to AP tests. “Focus on being a great history teacher and let the AP test go.” Exactly what I needed to hear, and the lessons were great for classroom use. Twitter checks: Very rare.

-Session 2: Contextualizing Colonial America Using the Atlantic World as a Framework. Used varied primary source documents to focus on the Atlantic Slave Trade. Really didn’t address anything else, and the primary source documents game from text that I had little or no access to. This was going to take a lot of work. Basically, this was a discussion on early slavery that would probably take too long to implement and instruct. Twitter checks: Often.

-Session 3: Teaching Historical Thinking Skills: Trends in Income and Wealth Since 1945. Political, Economic, Demographic evidence is presented that shows that income inequality has risen since 1979. Some country comparative information is also presented. Very interesting discussion between us teachers, but absolutely nothing I can use in the classroom. Plus, the evidence is basically weighted towards the presenter trying to justify conservatism as being the reason why income inequality has risen over the last 30 years. Twitter checks: Rare

-Session 4: Previewing the Revised APUSH Course: Excellent information about the revised AP U.S. History Course. I already explained it all on Twitter. To summarize: revise will be 2014-2015, focus will be on historical skills, AP exam is looking to eliminate all multiple choice questions. It was really good. Twitter checks: None.

I’ll post days 2 and 3 later.

The Confessions of an AP Comparative Government Reader. Final thoughts.

2011-07-21T15:31:00.001-07:00

I liked grading Advanced Placement tests. In fact, I think every teacher should grade these tests to get a true sense of what is in the head of those not only grading the test, but those making the test. I’d go so far as saying that it could be mandatory, even if your scores are fabulous. You could take that knowledge and maybe it could dribble down to the test.

Some final thoughts.

-My table was flat out awesome. I was one of two rookies and the collaboration on the question was fantastic. Sure, we had to keep pace on getting things accomplished within a certain time frame, but the feeling was open and honest. We would ask each other if an answer seemed right, and then would challenge each other to justify the score. One of the comments from the Table Leader stuck with me. On the last afternoon I thanked him for his patience and guidance, and his response was “hey, it was fantastic collaborating with you.” That answer was exactly what you want to hear in that environment. It makes you realize that the grading was a job, but also a deeper process.

-Everything you have ever heard about the grading room being cold is absolutely true. I love a cool environment, but I spent over half the time wearing a hoodie.

-As you might expect there were some interesting answers that I read in those little books. Yes, there were a fair amount of blanks, let’s just get that our of the way right now. In fact, there were too many blanks and they came in groups. However those with creative answers also showed up once in awhile. We had to read them because sandwiched between the garbage could be an actual answer to the question. The normal drivel was usually a letter to the reader explaining how their life was doing. 99% of these letters were totally harmless and the student usually explained how they weren’t ready for the test and had got into the university they wanted anyway. I read a few love stories, a few songs, and looked at random artwork that was actually quite good. I was pretty sure that there was an attempt to artistically answer the FRQs, but I couldn’t prove it therefore it didn’t cut the mustard. Oh yeah, and quite a few tests had letters stating that they had to take the test and didn’t want to. Interesting.

-According to readers, every year has a theme from those that don’t answer the questions. This year the theme was “swag”. Swag is basically how someone holds themselves and their self-image; usually revolving around confidence and demeanor. Well, there was plenty of swag talk in the FRQs. Some people wrote about how President Putin had major swag while Prime Minister Cameron had little swag. Others wrote how their life was full of swag, from chillin with homies to getting the ladies and playing hoop. Still others would actually write rap lyrics dedicated to swag. But the ultimate was when one reader suddenly stated “Look! It’s a complete treatise on swag!” Sure enough, a student had taken the time to write what could be considered the definitive Wikipedia post on swag. It really had us rolling with laughter.

The experience was good, I highly recommend it, and I want to go back. We’ll find out next year if I’m back to Kansas City.

Obama gets drunk in Rose Garden, screws up White House itinerary.

2011-07-19T13:34:00.001-07:00

At 1:05 yesterday afternoon, Obama was hanging out in the Rose Garden. His Presidential itinerary stated that he was making an announcement, however some other activities might have taken place while he perused the White House grounds. We know that Barack likes his booze. Hello, Beer Summit anyone? And being drunk is the only explanation for the agenda and attendees at his 1:35 meeting:

The President hosts an education roundtable with business leaders, Secretary Duncan, Melody Barnes, and America’s Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell and Founding Chair General Colin Powell.”

The invitees include:

· Marguerite Kondracke, president & CEO, America’s Promise

· Alma Powell, chairwoman, America’s Promise

· General Colin Powell, founding chairman, America’s Promise

· Craig Barrett, former president & CEO, Intel

· Glenn Britt, CEO, Time Warner Cable

· Steve Case, former chairman & CEO, America Online

· Brian Gallagher, president & CEO, United Way Worldwide

· William Green, president & CEO, Accenture

· Fred Humphries, senior vice president, Microsoft

· Rhonda Mimms, foundation president, ING

· Kathleen Murphy, president, Fidelity Personal Investments

· Ed Rust, CEO, State Farm

· Randall Stephenson, chairman & CEO, AT&T

· Bill Swanson, chairman & CEO, Raytheon

· Laysha Ward, foundation president, Target

· David Zaslav, president & CEO, Discovery Communications

· Former governor Bob Wise, president, Alliance for Excellent Education

· Anne Finucane, chair of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Bank of America

“I mean, thatsh ish one hellofa edshucation brainztruss right there……..*hiccup*”

Actually, that’s not an education brain trust at all. In fact, there are enough Presidents and CEOs in that room to wonder if it was a conference dealing with jobs and the economy, not education. And the thing is, that’s exactly what it was. Business leaders come in and complain about lack of American labor while enticing government with half-ass grants that push agendas. Microsoft is pledging $15 million to push computer-related education materials in an attempt to keep children in the classroom. Note to Microsoft; your innovation will not keep children in the classroom. In fact, I’d point to X-Box as doing the complete opposite.

It’s hard to have en education roundtable without people that are involved in education. None of what they are doing is going to benefit my classroom. It’s showmanship, corporate suck-upism at it’s best. When the election comes up, Obama has a business money connection and in the end, education doesn’t change.

Or maybe it was all a mistake, and a tipsy Mr. President mislabled this sham an “Education Roundtable” by accident.

Thanks to Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post for letting the public in on this story.

If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.

2011-07-17T17:19:00.001-07:00

So being an economist means that I look at the world a lot more pragmatically than those that massively overreact in a “honey, the world shall end tomorrow” fashion.

Take the Atlanta public schools cheating scandal.

If you haven’t heard, the Atlanta public schools were a tad bit negligent in being honest about how they were testing their little lads and lassies. Nearly 200 teachers have been implicated in doing things like giving answers, having high end students help low end students with the test, and having “erasure parties”, weekend get-togethers where tests were changed. Funny, I thought Erasure parties would have “A Little Respect.” (laff)

The cheating was pretty much all-inclusive (allegedly). Teachers, principals, high end administration, it looks like one serious headache that is now considered the biggest cheating scandal in American history. Now, I’m not about to justify cheating and I’m totally into making sure those that cheated are properly dealt with. But we need to step back and ask ourselves about the incentives, or disincentives, we are creating with high stakes testing. Teachers deal with cheating in their classrooms not only by swiftly punishing the cheaters, but also by creating an environment that doesn’t promote cheating, and by eliminating the incentives to cheat. The higher the stress, the greater possibility to engage in cheating. My Advanced Placement classes have my highest cheating rates and it isn’t even close. The stakes for test takers are high and the risk starts to come into play when students feel enormously pressured. How do I solve that? Consistency and reputation is one method. However the most successful method to contain cheating involves students feeling they actually have a chance at succeeding on the test. When students feel prepared, they don’t feel the need to cheat. Those that don’t feel like they have a chance, whether it’s their own fault or no fault of their own, are much more likely to engage in dishonest activities.

So while the cheating is wrong, the reasons behind it can’t be ignored and it needs to be looked at whether or not teachers feel like there is actually an incentive to cheat. Do teachers feel like the extra money or monetary penalties are so great that the cheating might be worth it? Or do teachers feel like so many variables are out of their control that the cheating is simply for survival’s sake? As much as society might want to say “stupid, greedy public schools”, they would be smarter to actually analyze what is going on and see if the current way of doing things is best practice. The cheating scandals are popping up everywhere; Atlanta, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Houston, and they are not relegated to the great metropolitan areas either. Locally, problems for El Molino High School in Forestville have placed pressure on its staff for more success, and may or may not have led to irregularities.

So are these tests really achieving the results that the Federal government initially hoped when No Child Left Behind was signed into law? Are we really seeing more accountability? Or are we watching a law (100% proficiency within the next three years) turn education into a lesson in cheating or passing, not learning?

The Cultural Inclusion Bill

2011-07-16T20:04:00.001-07:00

I can’t tell whether I’m sad or irritated about the new SB 48 bill from the California Legislature. The bill deems to “prohibit discriminatory content” when teaching about cultural groups, people with disabilities, and people’s sexual orientation. My sadness comes from the idea that necessary information would not be taught in schools because of people’s ongoing prejudices. Take Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com. He feels that teaching about gays in history will “sexually brainwash” children into becoming interested in the gay lifestyle, whatever the hell that means. It’s crap of course. If a teacher isn’t being all inclusive with teaching history, then the instructor isn’t being a teacher, the instructor is being an agenda driven idiot.

However, my irritation stems from how the law is written.

Instruction in social sciences shall include the early history of California and a study of the role and contributions of both men and women, Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, persons with disabilities, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups, to the
economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.

Wow,pretty inclusive group. Sounds like the state wants me to teach about the history of California and the United States. You know, things I’m already doing. And the real problem here is that the law is actually pushing that you spend more weight on gay and lesbian contributions to the United States, instead of actually spending time on people contributing to the United States. For instance, do we actually give a shit that Walt Whitman was gay? Do we say, “his contributions to American literature and humanism make him one of the most important figures in our history……..oh and he was gay too.” That’s idiotic. I thought sexual preference should not be a contributing factor in how we view people. And when you find someone who’s primary contribution to American society was that they were transgender, and that it is seriously worth mentioning in a basic history class, let me know. That’s not a knock, that’s a serious request.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t address gay rights either. I spend about half a day on the Stonewall Riots, Harvey Milk gets a mention, and we talk about the issues with Reagan and gay rights in the 1980’s. But I’m not about to go “hey, this person is famous simply because he/she is gay”, because that’s not history.

CTEN shows leg to Michelle Rhee in lame attempt to flirt with Mayor’s wife

2011-07-10T23:29:00.001-07:00

Here’s the thing, I actually like the California Teacher’s Empowerment Network. They do a nice job explaining to teachers the rights that the local and national labor unions don’t want you to hear. They make clear the idea of Agency Fee Payer, how to associate with professional organizations, and generally become a thorn in the side of labor organizations that have little interest in education. But with a recent post about the lack of value of class size, CTEN President Larry Sands has decided to jump into the education reform arena while making a blatant attempt to hit on Sacramento’s newest hot politico, Michelle Rhee. Larry, Michelle is married to Kevin Johnson and he’ll so kick your ass.

Arguing about class sizes is kind of like arguing about raising taxes right now. People put up half-ass statistics from small sample sizes while jumping up and down trying get the attention of people who have no damn clue about what is being talked about. When a Republican (I’m a Republican by-the-way) says that we can’t raise a single cent in taxes because of the horrible burden it puts on society, reasonable people just look in pity and say “Jeez, you really are a sorry little fuck” because the truth stares them in the face while they rant. When someone writes about the uselessness of class size reduction the reaction by teachers is much the same, especially when the writer (Mr. Sands) is a former teacher. Michelle Rhee we can blame on lack of experience. She taught for five minutes in Baltimore and then went on to bludgeon people into submitting to her ideals (even if I liked some of them). Larry Sands has been teaching for decades, which leads me to think that either he’s in position to be on somebodies campaign in the future, or he got one hell of a wink from Rhee at some “Why Charter’s Will Cure Aids, Solve the Deficit, and Bring Freedom to Syria” conference.

The City Journal article written by Sands does the opposite of empowering teachers, it makes them out to be union lackeys who are more interested in union money than good education. Yeah, so when I talk to my school board about class size reduction I’m really thinking “Hmmm, I wonder how I can fill the fat belly of my CTA boss”. Sure, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. How about reality.

I have a class of 25 and a class of 35. Question; will the quality of education drop with increase in class size? The answer is, of course it will. It won't be intentional and it won't be for a lack a trying, but struggling students are not going to get the time for help, signs of distress will be overlooked, and teachers are going to have to create lesson plans that put more focus on managing a classroom and less focus on essentials. Now you might say, "Well a good teacher should be able to manage a class of 35 and focus on essentials". Yes and no. I can manage a class of 35 with no problem. But do you think that I'm going to assign more essays during the year with more kids per class? I'll tell you what, those extra 10 students per class equal 50 more essays to grade during my weekend, and that takes a toll on my ability to teach with maximum output and efficiency. Lesson plans will suffer, classroom instruction will suffer (when a teacher actually has a restful weekend, they teach better the next week), and burn out will be right around the corner. And that's for the experienced teacher. Good teachers take years to develop. Think about the new teacher with 35 students per class and the management and work that goes with that situation, compared to 25. The difference is HUGE! I'm telling the new teacher "No, don't make an essay test. Keep it multiple choice" or "Instead of the essay, do a reading and Socratic Seminar" in a class of 35. We are talking about survival here!

In the end, there will always be pundits that don't see the value of class size because they see it as a crutch for bad teachers. Note to pundits, it won't change the bad teachers and it will make life more difficult for good ones. And stop giving stupid ass statistics that make classrooms out to have 20 kids.

“ If we……dismiss the lowest-performing 5 percent of teachers without hiring replacements, a class of 20 would then increase by just one student. Ask any parent if he’d rather have his child in a class of 21 kids with a high-performing educator or in a class of 20 with a mediocre one.”

I’ll tell you what the parent will say. He/she will wonder if his/her kids are Special Education eligible or in super high Advanced Placement courses because those are the only classes I know of that are anywhere near 20/1. I’ve looked at my numbers for this year. I have one class just over 30, three classes at 35, and one class at 37-38. I don’t mind the numbers but don’t insult the intelligence of educators by saying 20 students is a class norm.

And writing nutty reformist posts about class sizes is not the way to Michelle’s heart, bro! Kevin will not be amused. Dude, he knows Charles Barkley! Do you really want the Round Mound after ya?

We interrupt the regular program for a small chronic break

2011-07-10T22:23:00.001-07:00

Snoop Dogg can rest easy now because the Federal Government has decided that weed is not an acceptable cure for various medical ailments including headaches, splinters, hangnails, dealing with everyday life, and bouts of extreme boredom. This allows the Doggfather to continue rapping about how cool it is to toke up and get down. Because what the hell fun is it to rap about something that is legal?
At the same time most of California will go on having no real clue how they feel about marijuana. It seems like their sensibilities feel so much better when someone says that legalization is for medical use; which pretty much flies in the face of the massive amount of high school and junior high students who bong rip on the weekends. Unless there is a massive amount of cancer and glaucoma that I don’t know about, medical marijuana pretty much continues to be a massive joke here in Ukiah. Yes, that’s Ukiah, or as I had a tell people at my AP Reading in Kansas City, “Yes, we are that town you saw on CNBC that is ruled by a stupid little plant. Aren’t we fucking stupid.”
The federal statement means basically zilch here on the North Coast where neighborly grows are the norm and much bigger concerns are the environmental disasters taking place in local forests due to illegal crop plantations, or the fact that you can’t hike in the local hills any more because you might run into a Mexican national carrying an Uzi trying to protect the precious bud. It will still be an issue in schools and those idiots that promote the local drug culture will continue to insist that our town will be better to embrace the God granted weed. Never mind that ever since marijuana was legalized crime has increased nearly four fold, people are fleeing the town, and Ukiah has been a national joke on 60 Minutes, the PBS Newshour, and CNBC.
Take a hit on that.

A hot, sweaty, stressful delight

2011-07-08T19:06:00.001-07:00

Those that played high school basketball know that there are really four different basketball seasons; Tournament season (Nov-Dec), League season, post-season playoffs, and Summer. Mid-June through late-July are filled with team camps, tournaments, classes, and a myriad of hoops related events that allow those with the passion to develop individual skill while playing with potential teammates. It used to be one of my favorite seasons because you played constantly. I remember my Junior year playing at an eight hour basketball camp all week, then playing three games Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday at the Chico State gym. The gym was over a hundred degrees and it was my first real experience with Icy Hot. Soreness, sweat, and glory were the themes of those times, and now it travels on to those that I coach.

My job is a tad bit different than the typical varsity coach. I’m the JV coach, and therefore I take the young talent to Junior Varsity tournaments (which are pretty rare) or small school varsity tournaments (which are much more common). I usually take a combination of incoming freshmen and incoming sophomores to the competition; locally that means small school varsity teams that can range from pretty good to downright poor. We compete. Some years we compete enough to win. Last year we were even in the Willits Tournament and came out on the plus side in the Mendocino College Summer League. This year we are 2-1 in the summer league and went 1-3 in this weekends tourney. But it’s not like the wins really matter at all. The summer is about bringing in new blood to work with the vets and getting kids to play, play, play. Four incoming frosh and three incoming sophs spent hours in the Willits High School gym last weekend working on their craft, and the result was promising. Number one mission was accomplished; they consistently worked hard. They learned the offense and started to adjust to things on the court. I was proud of them. We are talking about over half my team playing eighth-graders from Clear Lake a couple of months ago now sparring with 17 year old young men who have three years experience under their belt. I was proud.

So let the heat of summer bother those that hide in air conditioning, while the men of hardwood seek to hone their skills in the warmth of a fine gymnasium. Or something like that.

God created Charter Schools and blessed them good

2011-07-08T18:57:00.001-07:00

I respect my fellow brothers and sisters that are teachers and administrators at Charter Schools. We all fight the good fight within the classroom, striving to prepare the next generation of students to tackle the problems of society and keep this country, this planet, a positive and productive place to live. I say this because I’m about to go on the romp about charters, again, and charter school teachers often get upitty because while it is perfectly ok to go after public education, charter schools are blessed by the Holy See and are therefore beyond criticism.

Those of you that have read this blog for awhile know my contempt for the Ukiah Daily Journal. With the exception of Joe Langstaff (the Sports Editor), the paper has a blazingly good time pointing out every single negative about public education within the town, while only giving positive reporting about useless endeavors such as Homecoming. Charter schools on the other hand have become darlings of all media, including the local paper. That brings us to a recent Mendocino Grand Jury report which finds, among other things (according to the Ukiah Daily Journal);

The grand jury found that dropout percentages in charter schools are much lower than traditional schools. They attribute student success to parent, teacher, and community involvement in charter schools.

This statement annoys me for a couple of reasons. First, there are Mendocino County charters that have a significantly lower graduation rate than Ukiah High School, even with the advantage of having a charter. Then I’d point to three factors that represent a fallacy in the Grand Jury report, centered on a comparison with Ukiah High School and it’s primary competition, Redwood Academy.

Special Education %- Redwood: 3.9 Ukiah: 11

Second Language Learners %- Redwood: 5.1 Ukiah: 25%

Academic Removal- Redwood: “ The Principal is authorized to remove from school any student who is not demonstrating adequate academic progress at any time.” Ukiah: Mandated to teach all students based on state and federal guidelines

It’s a misrepresentation of the facts to ignore these items and to simply say that a school is better because of parents, community, and teachers; as if Ukiah High School doesn’t have good teachers, involved parents, or support from the community. The point is that I can make Ukiah’s stats go up this year if I’m allowed to dump any students that don’t perform academically, with a special emphasis on those with special needs and Second Language Learners. Hell, I’ll look like a genius. I won’t be teaching everyone, but then again, nobody sees to be caring about that anymore.

This isn’t about the people that work in charters. The are as dedicated and passionate as every teacher in this country. But the statistics continue to show that charters create little to no difference in the academic lives of students, and that the worst charters are in fact far worse than bad public schools.

When society demands reform of the entire system then we’ll all get somewhere.

Clovis High School rocks my socks

2011-07-03T23:07:00.001-07:00

Yeah, this makes me like Clovis High School a lot. The only drawback is that it’s near Fresno, which contains only two decent things; Clovis High School and the Fresno Grizzlies. Otherwise, Fresno is kind of the colon of California.

Still, when people talk of teachers looking for positions that really support learning, this is what they are talking about. Tell me you wouldn’t want to work here. It’s a fantastic promotional video for inclusive learning.

And it’s from Fresno!

The LAUSD ate my homework

2011-07-02T21:39:00.001-07:00

You know what’s funny about the new Los Angeles Unified Schools’ homework policy? It’s the right policy for the wrong reason that will get the correct results and still piss people off.

Get it?

So L.A. is now stating that homework can only be worth 10% of a student’s overall grade. The idea comes from the complaints that students have other things to do; and while the excuse seems to revolve around the image of a 15 year old meeting the needs of a single parent family with six siblings, the reality is usually that a 16 year old is too busy playing World of Warcraft to actually attempt to do math problems. Regardless, now the debate has began. Teachers are angry that they are being micromanaged and students are celebrating by inviting more people to play Black Ops on XBox 360.

So the policy is idiotic and it does reek of micromanagement. What a fantastic way to attempt to appease lazy parents that don’t lord over their kids to do homework; just make the homework actually hold less value. That way you can create the illusion that the kid needs to do less and that the teacher will somehow use the same class time to teach more. But wait a minute. For some reason this policy seems to assume that the homework is “busy work”, a daily assignment that is meant to reinforce material or waste the time of the student (based on your point-of-view). So I have a question. What if your homework is that you have to know “x” concept? What if you have daily quizzes that demand that you have mastered the knowledge necessary? Is that homework? It’s not, and the result is that you’ll see grades probably drop because real data is going to become exposed.

Tests and quizzes represent nearly all my Advanced Placement grades and probably 3/4 of my college preparatory grades, projects and in-class work representing most of the rest. “Homework”, in it’s classical design, is a very small percentage of my overall grade. Guess what? Most of my parents hate the fact that homework is not much of a factor. Advanced Placement parents don’t mind because the value is possible college credit, but many college prep parents just want their Senior darlings done with their high school careers. They want the busy work to create grade inflation and often frown upon the necessity of their kid to actually know something. More than half of parents often use test anxiety as an excuse for poor performance. By the time they are high school Seniors, that doesn’t fly very strongly with me. Quizzes are three times a week and they are not difficult. More often than not, test anxiety is simply code for “just get them out of high school for Christ sakes”.

I don’t think the LAUSD is going to like what is going to happen with grades when the 10% Rule is applied, and I think teachers need to protect themselves by documenting everything. I also think that teachers need to use this opportunity to reevaluate their classroom instruction to focus on what they need to know and if necessary, make the practice problems voluntary while making the primary concept mandatory. Put the onus of learning on the student.

Mind back in motion

2011-07-01T23:36:00.001-07:00

I’ve been on vacation with my wife. A few days in San Jose, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and now I’m back and ready to give my next few weeks to the Gods of Hoop.

I contemplated a few things while I was gone, most of them trivial like “the San Jose Giants are in a second half suck-fest” and “dolphins in the wild seem so much happier”. But school did cross my mind on many occasions. It revolves around the same topics as before; changing Gov/Econ, adjusting my focus for AP Comparative Government, and which direction to find success in AP U.S. History.

One thing have noticed is that social media has evolved into something that is actually more intrusive than reflective. Maybe intrusive isn’t the right word….or maybe it is and I’m not as negative as it might sound. Ok, it is negative but not negative like a Joe Pesci “Goodfellas” beat down. I started this blog and Twitter as reflection and collaboration. Twitter the same. It’s amazing how quickly everything becomes an avalanche of “hear me” and “use me”. This group and that group, everyone has a theory or software or apps or sites, and it easily becomes all-encompassing. Therefore, the filter is going up on new educational ideas around technology. I’m not closing anything, but the toolbox has turned into a garage full of ideas and I’m coming to the point where I’m buying more tools without a clear idea how they will be useful. Time to calm down, reassess, relax, and plan.

And if you happen to be on Twitter, I’m at @ukiahcoachbrown. Yes, I’m active. No, I’m not all about education, and what I talk about in terms of education is a lot like this blog. That means sarcasm and the real world. My main hashtag hangout is #sschat, a dedicated Social Science feed where us History geeks figure out ways to manipulate little children to get them to do what we want in our quest to conquer the planet. It’s very alive and if you are a Social Studies tweeter, you should follow. Otherwise, I talk a lot of things that are away from the ears of my students and make smart ass retweets of things that interest me. If you don’t like the San Francisco Giants, you shouldn’t follow me. If you think that it’s inappropriate to wish that Matt Latos ends up in a cell with Suge Knight, don’t follow me. In fact, if you are a Dodger fan you should follow that elevator to the cellar of the National League West, dig a hole, and lie in it until Sarah Palin becomes President.

That works.

The Confessions of an AP Comparative Government Reader. Part 2.

2011-07-01T19:15:00.001-07:00

Let me make two things perfectly clear about the AP test reading. First, they want high school students to succeed. That much is very obvious. Two, they want the course to be rigorous. That is also very obvious. How well that is balanced is the subject of my post today, and it could be the post that doesn’t allow me back to grade. But it needs to be discussed because, and I mentioned this on Twitter a few times, there is a serious disconnect between high school and the college teachers that create the test.

The reading opened my eyes to how the process of creating an Advanced Placement test works, and prevailing attitude among many readers was that high school teachers have little say about it. On the day that the test creators fielded questions, the lone high school teacher made a couple of supporting comments, but the bulk of the commentary was from a group of college professors. Before and after this session, much of the attitude revolved around “oh, it’s the usual ‘for show’ thing that really won’t change anything”. That’s unfortunate because if half of the best students are failing nearly every subject in the Advanced Placement curriculum, is that a sign of rigor or is it a sign of unreasonable expectations? This year the Microeconomics AP had a Free Response Question that over half the students received a zero on; that’s no points. Sorry to burst the ego of college professors, but that’s not a student problem, that’s a test problem.

AP Comparative Government is supposed to represent an Introductory Course in Comparative Politics at a four-year institution. Fair enough. But here are the inconsistencies I found with that statement:

-First of all, the test creators remarked that they take tests themselves and they seemed to find it amusing that even they struggled on some parts of the exam. If the test is designed for a first-year undergrad to take, yet a PhD professor struggles with any part of it, isn’t that a problem?

-While it would be nice that all the kids find interest in subject that they are taking, the test creators seem to assume that we are dealing with individuals that are passionate about, in this case, Comparative Politics. It seemed taken for granted that we are talking about high school students here, and not people that plan to achieve overall mastery in these subjects. And the College Board sends a contradictory message about that. Students are supposed to have equal access to Advanced Placement classes, regardless of status within the institution. That was preached during a meeting I went to. However the subject matter is assuming that student is going to master Calculus, or Biology, or U.S. History. And I’m not talking about the best students, I’m talking about those that just want to pass.

-I brought up that the overall rubric needed to be created at the inception of the question. A rough idea of the rubric is created when the question is created, but much of the details are hammered out at the AP Reading. I have a major problem with this. When you create a question for any major exam, you need to have a very specific idea what you are trying to get the student to understand. If you don’t, you leave it up to others to figure out your interpretation of concept. For instance, my question was regarding economic globalization; a very broad concept. But the minutia of the details in the answer were more left to the interpretation of the leadership over a year onward from the development of the question. Who knows what the intent of the question creator was because it wasn’t terribly explicit. In the end, I felt like students that understood the concept were not given the points simply because they used a wrong word. Sure, the student understood the concept, but they used bad (not necessarily wrong) verbage.

And from the meetings I attended, this problem is not going away any time soon. In fact, it looks to be getting worse. Apparently colleges are questioning the rigor of Advanced Placement courses in award college credit. It’s a completely asinine thesis that reeks of academic elitism. But to remain in business, the College Board seems to be leaning well towards producing tests that are increasingly more challenging, which is defeating the real purpose of the tests. I love the idea and the premise of Advanced Placement, but it has some problems.

However, I do believe that the vast majority want to see students succeed. My “leaders” really wanted to collaborate on questions and answers while having a genuine smile when good answers passed under their pencils. It’s this attitude that needs to permeate AP’s. Let’s push without discouraging achievement.

The Confessions of an AP Comparative Government Reader. Part 1.

2011-06-19T11:28:00.001-07:00

Kansas City is a nice city. It was something that I wasn’t totally prepared for since I come from the San Francisco Bay Area and the image of the Midwest is, well, not entirely upgraded. Ok, call it snobbery. But the over two million people that live in Kansas City metro have a city they should be proud of. Downtown has the feel of Portland, small and quaint, while having the architecture of a much bigger city. The one thing the city is missing? Light rail. With all the railroad history of the city, it is sorely lacking an efficient method of getting from downtown to the ‘burbs.

Our hotel was a tad over a mile from the Kansas City Convention Center (another fantastic structure), and walking it wasn’t tough except for the fact that part of the area was a tad seedy, and it was often humid. My day started at 6 a.m. By 8 I was reading questions, and by 5 p.m. I was done. We had two 15 minute breaks and one hour long lunch.

The process started with a group of us, one table leader and eight readers, going over the rubric of the question. We worked through language, potential stumbling blocks, and then we practiced on exams graded earlier by some of the higher ups. Once that was taken care of we started grading the real things, but we would grade and then switch with people and they would grade the same work. We would compare grades and then work out dissimilar answers (which were rare). By the second day we were in the full throes of grading, which were checked a variety of times by different people. When we finished on Friday, we were then debriefed on the question and then went on our way.

The Kansas City grading involved over two thousand graders attacking nearly 3/4 of a million tests. No, that’s not a misprint. My AP Comparative Government group was one of the smaller groups. Other subjects included Chinese, Japanese, Biology, and Calculus. Each subject had other events including socials, a “professional day” where an expert would talk about a certain area of your subject (we had a woman talk about Russia), an AP subject day where changes within your overall subject would be discussed, and an AP test day where the test creators would field questions.

I highly recommend that AP teachers attend at least one reading. I’m going to keep going back because the more I can get into the head of the College Board and the test creators, the better opportunity I have to get my kids to succeed. It is that very topic that I will address in the next post.

New Gov/Econ Approach Brainstorm

2011-06-09T18:41:00.001-07:00

Total brainstorm. Read if interested. Otherwise move along.

-New idea for Gov/Econ: Don’t break class into semesters. Establish overall guiding question: How to improve the community.

-Not nearly as easy as you might think to integrate the two. Gov not focused at all on state/local gov. Does it really matter?

-I’m not tested at all. No “accountability” to state testing. Could go completely PBL and no one would care because I have the reputation of being rigorous and thorough. Could I redefine what learning is and still have the support?

-How to deal with assessment? How do I justify to parents if there are less grades. Many want busy work/lots of little assignments.

-If I integrate the classes together, how do I deal with transfers to other teachers. Traditional way of teaching is not leaving any time soon. Standards based assessment really pushed…..except in Gov/Econ, which could be my savor.

-Gov points need to address: Foundation of Gov, Federalism, The Constitution, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, Political Parties, and deeper looks at each branch. Some of that can easily be integrated locally. Some will take a lot of work. Incorporating the 7th Amendment? Should I even bother? (and don’t you dare say the amendment really matters)

-Guiding prompts are needed for each unit. But they need to relate to the overall theme of the community.

-Resource issues. Local field trips: City council, local businesses, the golf course (7th tee overlooks the entire valley), Skate Park. Can’t require, but it will be really necessary for success.

-More resource issues: Tech, computer lab, access to online material that is free online but cost printed.

-What is the culminating assignment? Present to?? Should I let the students make the call on the assignment? Grading? I can tell you that I can establish a grade, but it is the parental and administrative justification that’s the problem.

Your thoughts on my initial thoughts?

AP Conference: Day One

2011-06-09T17:45:00.001-07:00

First of all, don’t even bother inquiring about the AP Readings themselves. There is a serious Fight Club mantra towards any discussion, therefore I’m steering well clear of the whole conversation.

I’m sitting in the mezzanine of the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, under a Tornado Watch that frankly scares me a bit. It’s the usual adage that Californians are terrified of tornados and hurricanes, but we can easily deal with the concept of the earth shaking violently. Oh well. I’m only staying in a 25 story building that is covered in glass.

There is an interesting mix of teachers here. I’m actually finding it hard to mix with people for two reasons. First of all, I’m really not all that outgoing. I sit down at a table and people watch or read the Twitter feeds. It’s not that I won’t talk to people that come up and start a conversation. I’m just not a very good instigator. I’m a little shy at the start. The second reason is the mix of teachers. There are a lot of college teachers here and there seems to be a little disconnect between the attitudes of college staff and high school staff. It’s not necessarily bad, but young Master’s and PHD college grads looking to go into academia or teachers that are already there have a very strong air of confidence about them. It’s hard to relate to. I love Comparative Politics and International Relations (both common majors here), but while the subject matter conversation is very stimulating, there is little I can take to my school. So I try and gravitate to other high school teachers, even if they are other subjects. This evening I had a very nice conversation with teachers from Colorado, Idaho, New Jersey, and New Mexico. It was really nice because we relate much better.

Here are some common themes I can gather (having nothing to do with AP) from educators here:

-The college professor job market sucks just as bad as the high school one. The International Relations and Comparative Politics market sucks even worse.

-How states are dealing with budget cuts is scary. We furloughed in California. But some states are basically cutting teachers and increasing class sizes to around 40, which in my mind is complete insanity.

-And budgets are the main topic of conversation everywhere. For some reason people look at California as one of those in the worse shape. Interesting perception.

-By the way, I’m constantly told how beautiful it must be where I live. I do take it for granted. I live where the Wine Country ends and the Redwoods begin. How cool is that?

-Online classes seem to the answer to everyone’s educational dilemmas and a lot of teachers are frightened. Some states are apparently asking to require online classes for some high school Social Studies classes instead of replacing teachers. Is this true? Here’s the deal; if you really believe that online classes are the answer to how to better educate our students then you are absolutely not serious about fixing the education issues within our country.

Well, I’m off to a social and then I need to weight the cost/benefit of staying up to watch the Giants play. Damn time difference.

Live from 35,000 feet, or thereabout….

2011-06-09T05:35:00.001-07:00

Jesus God.

I mean seriously. I’m blogging from the plane and only because some yuppie chick has decided to piss off my 6’2” frame. Before we were even in the air, this bratty little snot reclined her chair nearly straight into my lap. I wasn’t nervous about take-off because I was trying to figure out if this beast had a 6’5” NBA boyfriend, because if she didn’t then I was very likely going to smack the headrest of her seat.

She could have made it right by shutting up and falling asleep, pretty much the only reason you should recline. But no. The played on her iPad and stuffed her fat face with Oreos while smugly teasing her beau across the aisle; a Larry David look-a-like that was in dire need of a can of spray-on hair. There is etiquette to flying, simple respect to other passengers. You allow the middle passenger extra room. You make sure you don’t slam people in the head. And you at least turn around and see who is going to be the victim of a reclining drive-by.

I hope her luggage ends up in Quaddfi’s palace in Libya, and her granny panties end up on one of his wives.

Dude, I so gotta pee……again

2011-06-06T12:40:00.001-07:00

It’s funny what they don’t teach you in the Credential Program that is actually important in the classroom. Take for instance, bathroom policy. So what happens when a new teacher comes upon a collection of students that want a revolving door to the bathroom? Believe it or not, I don’t think the situation was brought up one time in my tenure as a student teacher.

San Francisco Unified, the school district that is notorious for making stupid ass choices (banning the Junior ROTC), has found the solution. Let the kids roam. Yes, what better way to protect the rights of a 13 year old than to allow them to make one bathroom trip after another until all the satisfaction in the world is taken care of within a few school periods. Oh forget the potential problems this could cause, as the author C.W. Nevius pointed out, just realize that if we simply treat kids like adults, they’ll act like adults……….and, you know, they’ll remember to use a condom when rocking a bathroom stall. This policy has all kinds of problematic consequences that teachers will ultimately be blamed for. It is, simply put, an idiot policy made by people that haven’t a damn clue about a classroom.

My policy is quite simple and didn’t take long to make. Students are allowed to use the restroom one at a time. They take a little piece of paper and put their name, the time, and “Bathroom Pass” at the top. I tell them that regardless of what I’m doing, come up and I’ll sign it. I don’t break the flow of the presentation, I simply glance at the time and their off. Additionally, I don’t allow students to leave with ten minutes left in class. Students that want to go within ten minutes of class starting have the option to wait or take a tardy. 99% of students follow this without a problem. So a student texts between my room and the bathroom. And? That’s really going to impact the educational process? Sure, I have chronic “users” of the potty, regularly going once a day. But they get in and get out quick enough to have my trust. Oh, one other thing to male teachers especially. You have to be much more flexible to girls. Want to create a really interesting situation? Tell a menstruating girl that she can’t use the restroom. Just about every female including the Alien Queen Mother will have you in a lack-of-compassion death match that you have no chance at winning. Just sign the pass and let the chips fall where they may. No, you don’t know if it is true or not. Guess what, the question is not worth asking.

Or go work in San Francisco and enjoy the possible parade to the potty. Then you really won’t have to worry about it.

Is college too EZ?

2011-06-06T11:57:00.001-07:00

Joanne Jacobs and Darren from Right on the Left Coast (both daily reads of mine and on the blogroll) came across an article in the Los Angeles Times with an interesting thesis. College is too easy.

Colleges have abandoned responsibility for shaping students' academic development and instead have come to embrace a service model that caters to satisfying students' expressed desires.

That’s a pretty scathing remark for an institution that seems to have gotten off light in the world of EduReform. The authors of the article found that most students were not being academically challenged in reading, writing, and did not seem to have a real need to study for the classes they had. In short, students were not being prepared for the “real world” and not being introduced to the concept of rigor.

Eh, I don’t know. I’ve seen both sides of the equation and I’ve watched a large population of students go to school and do wonderful things and I’ve seen plenty go to four-year institutions and waste vast amounts of money. In fact, I think that it’s the money that allows many students to underachieve and still remain at an institute of “higher learning”. Let’s face it, there are private schools that just about anyone can get into when you pony up tens-of-thousands a semester. A student attends, you string them on while they underachieve, and eventually you might have to let them go or they transfer down to a “lower level” school because they weren’t prepared for the “rigor”.

I say plenty of rigor while attending Chico State, and I keep trying to tell my students that it is a misconception that you need to go to a U.C. or Stanford to get a great education. Most of my professors at Chico were rigorous and excellent. Some sucked, but I figure that’s the same for every school. I learned a ton while in college and I wasn’t allowed into the Teacher Credential program until I passed a verbal examination in front of two professors of the History Department and got a letter of recommendation from of advisor (also a history professor). I wrote a ton. I read a ton. My final “Capstone” paper was explored the motivations of Constantine the Great in bringing Christianity to the Roman Empire. Was it political or was did he honestly see a sign from God? I ended up loving researching and writing the paper which ended up nearly sixty pages long.

I think a lot of this revolves around society’s hypocrisy about what is perceived as important (self-esteem, creativity) replacing things that are still vital (hard work, focus, follow through). For some reason we shy away from discussing integrating all these things and insist that when everyone can tap their creative potential, all the world’s problems will be solved. College seemed like the last bastion of rigor. And while I think that it most colleges still try to push out the best, Darren is correct that if this lackadaisical attitude takes root in our upper echelon institutions, we are screwed.

One-upped on the Field Trip meter

2011-06-05T22:53:00.001-07:00

Oh I get it. THAT’S what they mean by a more “engaging” educational experience. See, when I plan a field trip I look at places like the U.S.S. Hornet, the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, and even the Chabot Planetarium. Apparently I got it all wrong.

In the end, what the kids really want is wings.

Apparently some of Berwick Middle School’s eighth graders had a parent who felt that the best dining experience in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was the local Hooters. Using the excuse that there were no other places that could handle 15 kids (ESPN Zone anyone?), the parent chose to expose the little tykes to a variety of wings, some of which might have been bolder in flavor or may have been a tad spicy. Yummy.

In all seriousness, this is one of the risks of parent drivers in an era of budget cuts. I’ve been lucky in dealing with basketball drivers since I know most of them personally, and those that I don’t know have reputations for being pretty upstanding people. Nobody will be making a pit stop in Cloverdale to grab a couple of forties to drown a loss to Cardinal Newman. But I’ve had some parents on class field trips that can be a little difficult to handle. One of the last things a teacher needs is another kid to baby sit, especially if that kid makes decisions that you are responsible for. And what makes it more interesting, almost none of the parent volunteers are vetted for issues that could concern a teacher. Add on to that the fact that I live in Mendocino County, a place where many people can get into drug and alcohol problems, and the cost/benefit of a field trip becomes a serious issue.

I love giving the kids an experience of a good field trip. But most educators need to realize that it is often little fun for the instructor during the trip because you are responsible for those in your care.

That includes side trips to Hooters.

Mr. Silva-Brown's Report Card, Part Four "Analyzing the data" 2011 edition

2011-06-05T16:04:00.001-07:00

What should I take from the data that the students presented me?

-First thing that comes to mind is the issue of quizzes and homework. My interpretation of what students, and parents, want regarding “homework” is essentially “busy work”. It is work that is fairly mind-numbing to do, easy to grade, and presents little or no opportunity to learn a damn thing. It is why so many kids are now entering the Independent Study program. It’s packet work. I don’t do busy work, though many parents call and complain that too much of the student’s grade is based on tests and quizzes. Well, a good 80% of a student’s grade is in fact based on assessment, and I have no problem with that. The argument could be made that it favors those that don’t have test anxiety. I’ll argue that test anxiety is more often than not a very convenient excuse for lazy asses who don’t want to do the work. A teacher can look at trends of a student and see obvious test anxiety. But what 2-3 quizzes a week show is that the student is learning, and retaining, information. Many questions on quizzes are reused from previous quizzes. I did some homework that was engaging and most of it was turned in half-assed or not turned in at all. I’m not about to engage in busy work now or in the foreseeable future.

-AP U.S. History has every right to want more hands on activities and less lecture. However, until the College Board figures out how to have more depth and less breadth, than I need to make decisions that get info across quick. If any other APUSH teachers have ideas, I’m all ears.

-As you can see, the issue of hands-on activities varies from response to response. Some say I don’t do enough, others say I do plenty. I’m not about to get rid of Direct Instruction (using Power Point mixed with multimedia), and I loath the argument that it doesn’t have a place in Education. Many students want lecture, just good lectures. Not those that last an entire class period and bring forth nothing engaging. Still, I want to find a more meaningful question for each section. I’m lucky to teach a very relevant topic, and a good quest for an answer is missing from each unit.

-The ego question is interesting. I think I could come off as having an ego in my classroom because I’m very clear and consistent with how I want things done within that class. The class is not closed to thought and debate by any means, and those that say so (a couple of evals did) either were not in class enough to really care or are lying. The line between a totally open environment and one with boundaries is interesting. There are some teachers that have so few boundaries that the kids basically rule the class, essentially dictating policy that often is counter to the best practices of educating young adults. I think this creates an interesting dynamic when those types of students come into my classroom with the “I’m the boss” attitude and all of the sudden realize that they aren’t. Yes, I’m the boss. Yes, I expect that you prove to me that you can get the job done. And yes, it won’t be the last time someone will tell you to do something.

-I care for my students. But sometimes caring for Seniors means that if they want to dig, you ask nicely why their digging and then step back and let them go. Most will figure it out. Others won’t. That’s part of growing up, even if it means they might not graduate high school. This year I had many students that wanted to dig. While many parent conversations were good, some hinted that I didn’t care for students because I didn’t allow them to do what they wanted. “My kid wants to play sports, give blood, be the student body president, take three AP’s, party on the weekends, be in a half-dozen clubs, cut class, and have all those rights beholden to Seniors. Why don’t you just let them get an A and enjoy their last year in high school?” Well, the answer is that I don’t have any control over the rest of it so I don’t prevent them from doing anything. The thing is, very few students can engage in all those activities and do well in my class. However, the best do figure it out. They make good choices. Most don’t, and they make bad choices. Giving blood or coming to my class, which is the better choice? I never say one is better than the other, I tell the student to make the choice. They might not like the fact that they have a B because they didn’t get all the instruction they could, but that’s part of the consequence. It is something that we as a society need to take a closer look at.

What do you think about the student responses? Your thoughts….

Mr. Silva-Brown's Report Card, Part Three "What were things that Mr. Silva-Brown did well?" 2011 edition

2011-06-05T12:11:00.001-07:00

And finally, we end on a good note. These are all the things, word for word, that the students thought that I did well.

-Good examples

-power points and news

-kept class moving

-Made sure that students fully understood before going to next task

-quizzes

-Was always able to understand what was covered when I left class

-Straight up about life will be after high school, how we needed a plan. Loved Barbie and Elmo. (Used Barbie’s Prom Date to discuss Opportunity Cost, and Elmo to discuss scarcity. Remember the late 1990’s Elmo craze? Thanks CCEE!)

-Everything

-Speech and getting everyone involved

-Multiple learning tools (video, slide shows, pictures, etc)

-Lectures were enjoyable, power points were entertaining, Jeopardy was crucial to knowing what to study for tests.

-Making it fun with all the knowledge we had to learn.

-Made us laugh while staying on topic.

-Stayed on the focus of the AP Test and provided us with the materials needed to pass the test.

-Makes every class fun and interesting.

-Well organized and treated everyone equally.

-Gave us the information needed to succeed in class and answered questions completely.

-Power-points and Jeopardy

-Good at teaching in class

-Lectures were fun and taught class well

-Made learning amusing

-Power points, videos, facts, humor

-Hit the major points and taught the class to be successful

-Kept History interesting, clear understanding, multiple examples to visualize history, not just read it.

-Sarcasm, power points

-Helping everyone understand, especially hands on

-Teaches very well

-Fair to all students when it comes to the rules.

-Didn’t lecture all period which made it easy to stay awake.

-Kept things fun while not letting it get out of hand and distracting.

-Made sure people understood what he was teaching.

-Had strict policies so that there was no room for confusion.

-Answered all their questions and had good notes.

-Explained things in a way we understood.

-Good lectures and slideshows

-Gave straightforward facts/info

-Organized plans with very good examples and understandable tasks

-Kept our interest/attention and kept us from falling asleep

-Most things went well

-Kept class motivated and excited to learn.

-Always had cool facts about modern stuff.

-I liked the lectures

-Made learning fun. It was a no-brainer to show up to class.

-Presented information smoothly and interestingly

-Made good power points and would answer all our questions

-Answering questions and going over material

-Made class funner

-Getting your attention and making things memorable

-Pretty funny and well prepared. You knew a lot about what you were teaching.

-Managed to make lectures interesting with colorful power points and video.

-Class activities helped make the class enjoyable while being educated.

-Very loud. Made be pay attention. Power points very well done and very organized.

-Planned ahead and had us prepared for the AP exam.

-Got info across and clearly described stuff.

-Power points. Fucking smart.

-Gave good examples while teaching the lesson

-Talking in front of class with notes.

-Yes

-Power points were really good and helped me learn the material.

-The lectures were were really good.

-Told us when assignments and quizzes were before hand. Lectured well and was well organized.

-Power points, explained things well while not being one-sided.

-Use good analysis, sometimes we took longer to go over subjects so we good understand better.

-Explained things well and made it fun.

-The Internet clips

-Power points, getting the students attention and teaching.

-Helping us make our own decisions and always staying moderate

-Lecture and videos

-Made the class fun

-Prepared slides for notes

-Lectures

-Jeopardy

-Taught

-Note taking and studying for the tests which were easy

-Made me laugh. I liked having all the power points for notes.

-Taught well with a good sense of humor

-Your lecturing would explain some things well. Using different activities so we wouldn’t be bored.

-Horrified looks

-Very interested and well put together for learning. Power points were great. Students were interested in learning. Lots of stuff online.

-Did a great job at explaining things and making them more understandable

-Give students a choice

-Explaining presentations with great notes

-Got information out there to a point where it was easy to understand

-Made class enjoyable with humor

-Teach, sarcasm, showing news

-Gave whitty responses quickly, but upheld a standard with rules that helped the class

-Finishing notes and making sure everyone understood them

-Giving Econ examples that allowed people to get a better view of the subject.

-Showing the news and actually letting us talk about it afterwards.

-Very good speaker. Great job explaining things. And made us laugh!

-Spoke well to the class and made things easy to understand

-Electrified the class environment.

-Great speaker. Outspoken, but kept class moving and busy. Great power points and news.

-Get your attention and argue

-Didn’t drag class on. Showed us video clips to keep us focused instead of huge lectures and we wouldn’t pay attention to.

-Teaching

-Gave good examples and did good activities

-Spoke in a loud and clear voice. Power points were organized and easy to follow.

-Took charge of the class and we reviewed well for tests.

-Power points and the way he explained things.

-Being able to make fun of people and himself

-Loved Econ simulations and the slideshows were extremely helpful.

-Explained information well and answered questions thoroughly and clearly.

-Showed interesting videos that related to the class and gave us a better understanding of the material. Kept students engaged with humor.

-Lecturing, slide shows

-Tests that came from AP’s, FRQ/DBQ practice, extra resources, Lectures and power points, connecting with students, made history enjoyable

-Explained how history impacts American even to this day and keeps class interesting while being unbiased towards politics

-Lecturing while keeping student attention

-Made it easy to remember with little sayings and funny stories. I always left laughing and wanting to come back.

-Teaching. If everyone paid attention and attended class every day then there was no reason not to do well.

-Interacted with the class well and hammered facts into you with weekly quizzes.

-Jeopardy

-Notes were well prepared and easy to follow, serious but when it mattered and comical when it was appropriate.

-The way he taught. Power points were great.

-Did everything well overall

-Made things interesting which caused me to pay attention in class. I learned more.

-Kept everyone interested and awake in class.

-Well, basically everything was done well. I really liked the videos that we watched that backed up notes and the textbook.

And there you have it.

Mr. Silva-Brown's Report Card, Part Two "What recommendations would you give Mr. Silva-Brown" 2011 edition

2011-06-05T10:01:00.001-07:00

Here are all my recommendations, live and uncut, from my students. I'm leaving none out, however some students did not fill out every category, which is why the numbers will not be the same. My comments are in italics.

-Don’t try and be a college professor, give us high school.

-Don’t put people down, tone down your ego, get new jokes.

-Don’t always try and be better than everyone else and be more understanding.

-Give all students an equal voice and GIANTS SUCK.

-No quizzes and more homework.

-More movie quotes and references to Pulp Fiction.

-Nothing

-Keep up the sarcasm. Everyone has fun with it.

-Be a little light on the sensitive ones…..but keep being Brown.

-Don’t be mean to the people delivering passes. (I’m a noted pass hassler. People that come into class blasting music or that interrupt what I’m doing do so at their own peril.)

-More interactive games.

-I liked the debates and wish we did more of them.

-Cut down a little on the jokes and bantering.

-Textbook is terrible.

-More projects and less lectures.

-Better website. Edmodo sucked.

-More Per-Say Courts (Small APUSH debate sessions. As the year went on, time became an issue and the Court sessions vanished)

-Not that they’re bad, but a little less lecture.

-Put the test questions on Edmodo.

-Better jokes

-Better commercials

-Keep up the sarcasm, it’s fun!

-Add a category to Jeopardy that is not about the subject matter. That way all students can answer it. (Jeopardy is the review for the tests. It is wildly popular. Interesting thing that someone is basically telling me to review for something useless because some people don’t bother to study)

-I don’t know

-Don’t talk so damn loud

-Point out the work due and coming up. (This annoys me to no end. I have the work on a white board in class and online. Apparently Seniors in high school need their little hands held to do everything. This is who we are creating for society?)

-Make sure and tell students about quizzes and don’t rely on them to look at the board or online. (see?)

-More hands on for stocks (I eliminated my stock project this year and focused more on economic choice, cost/benefit analysis, and personal finance. We were very brief about stocks while other classes did the project).

-I got nothing.

-Pick on people more equally.

-Meh

-Easier quizzes and more homework

-Do supply before demand. I think that would have helped me more.

-Don’t do credit stuff. It’s not that interesting.

-Go a little slower on power-points so I can take better notes.

-Nothing

-Make quizzes less tricky

-Less lecture, more interaction, and announce quizzes

-Don’t lecture so much.

-More APUSH Saturday review sessions.

-Less lecture and more hands on stuff like Jeopardy

-Aren’t many, maybe a better textbook

-A variety in teaching styles would be nice.

-Less notes

-Less hard on grading

-Try and get things back quicker

-Less power-points and more hands on

-Less quizzes, more homework, and allow extra credit.

-Let us eat in class

-Make sure you wear matching shoes to class.

-???

-Make clear when tests and quizzes are.

-Don’t grade the quizzes so high.

-Don’t pick on people.

-Can’t name any because he is tough, but for the right reasons.

-Don’t assume people are sleeping.

-None, very good.

-More homework, less quizzes

-Help Seniors that are struggling and actually try and care if we graduate (Note to Seniors: You must care more than I do that YOU graduate.)

-Less quizzes and more Jeopardy

-Do other things so grades are not so based on quizzes

-Let us eat in class

-Put extra credit in the grades sooner

-little less notes and little more activities

-New jokes

-Less slideshows and more interaction.

-Teach a little slower

-Make questions on quizzes and tests clearer

-More homework

-Less quizzes

-None

-Stay in touch

-Keep teaching how you do

-None

-None, it is run well

-Keep up the sarcasm and keep showing video clips.

-Grow a beard

-Read then power point then test

-Comment more on FRQ’s and DBQ’s. Don’t just comment at the end of the paper. And grade them more quickly.

-Sing less. Please.

-Teaching wise? Nothing.

-More 1-1 debates

-Nothing. Good as is.

-Don’t change.

-Stress the importance of good grades and keep reminding kids about your make-up work policy.

-Make stocks more interesting.

-Stay your funny, sarcastic self.

-More class activities revolving around subject.

-Get a better baseball team.

-Really nothing. Well done.

-Nothing.

-None that I can think of.

-Keep teasing people. Hassle your TA.

-None. You are wonderfully unique and fun.

-Small stuff

-Right on the bulls-eye

And there you have it.

Mr. Silva-Brown's Report Card, Part One "Ratings Game", 2011 edition

2011-06-05T09:25:00.001-07:00

I present to you, part one of a three part series that looks at the "graded" Mr. Silva-Brown. At the end of each year I give out a report card with about 15 questions about my performance during the year.

The questions are:

-One a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being excellent), rate Mr. Silva-Brown's teaching this semester.

-Was I well organized?

-Did you understand what was going on?

-Do you think I have improved since September?

-Did you feel safe?

-Were students treated equally with respect?

-Was Mr. Silva-Brown’s sarcasm detrimental to learning?

-Describe your overall experience in the class

-What did I do well?

-What recommendations can you give?

-Give one piece of advice for next years students.

Today, I'll give you the numbers rating. The rating is first, followed by how many students rated me at that level. One note, my AP Comp Gov class did not have the opportunity to fill out the surveys because the Finals schedule was too tight. I asked them to come in and pick up an evaluation to fill it out. Only a few did.

Here are the results:

Ten- 30

Nine- 33

Eight- 24

Seven- 11

Six- 2

Four-3

Two-1

My average is an 8.5, a straight B. Up from an 8.2 (my lowest) a year ago, and not my highest from three years ago (8.9).

The 2 was all about wanting busy work and banning the use of quizzes. One of the 4’s was from a Dodger fan that insisted on giving me a 4 because I liked the Giants. The other two 4’s mentioned that my ego was too big and the class was too dictatorial. And one of those mentioned that the reason why she was absent for many days was to stick it to me and my ego.

The Graduation Conundrum

2011-06-04T09:57:00.001-07:00

This is why I will never able to be an administrator.

June in Ukiah has failed to arrive. I don’t know what exactly California did to deserve this kind of weather, but it can’t be good. I realize that Maria Shriver comes from a powerful family, but daaaaaammmn. Not that I don’t mind this February style climate that permeates the Ukiah Valley. I’m big into listening to the rain and reading a good book, sipping on a coffee and waiting for the first pitch of a Giants game. But in June?

The climate plays hell on graduation. We knew the weather was set to be miserable earlier during the week, and the preliminary plan was to hold it in the gym. Because the gym can only hold a set amount, each student would be given three tickets to give to family members. The reaction was very similar to Lebron James telling Cleveland to screw off. It was visceral, and a tad bit amusing. I did see a couple of “I REFUSE TO GO TO MY GRADUATION IF IT IS INSIDE” tantrums. So the decision was made that, barring lightning, it was going to be held outside on the UHS football field, a muddy pit that might contain some kind of creature that probably swallows annoying graduates. That’s going to go over real well with the people in attendance. Either way the administration is probably going to catch hell. I think they made the better choice though. You give people the choice to sit through the weather. If people came across the country to watch Joe Bob, they will be satisfied with the outcome or they won’t, but it will be their decision.

Me? I woke up this morning to the sound of a falling branch hitting my fence. Luckily the small tree that toppled fell the other way, but a sizable limb ended up on my lawn, a good 15 feet from the tree. I’m not going to graduation either. The wind is howling and it’s raining, and standing in this weather for ninety minutes is a great way for me to get sick, something I don’t need when I’m three days from leaving to grade AP tests. They’ll just get my best wishes from the comfort of my living room.

Thank you Jim Lehrer

2011-05-30T21:51:00.001-07:00

Jim Lehrer announced his intention to step away from the news desk a couple of weeks ago. The epitome of excellent journalism, Lehrer had been the driving force behind the PBS Newshour, which had begun as the McNeil/Lehrer Newshour when I started watching it in 1992.

My first exposure to the Newshour was by Paradise High School Government teacher Carol Kirk. We would not watch it all the time, but as the year went on we became more and more used to the “du-du-du” theme song and the Independent Television News reports from around the world. When I did my student teaching, my job was to prep the tape that contained the Newshour, checking the focus stories to see if any were relevant to U.S. Government or Global Studies, and then to write down their point on the tape so it was easily accessible later in the class period. Something I learned while working for Rex Moseley (my Master Teacher) was that at minimum the Newshour created a heightened level of curiosity, and that often led to discussions about relevant events and their connections to our subject matter. I deemed it necessary for my classroom when I started teaching in August 2001.

Students love it. It takes awhile for the “inside politics” to make sense to the kids (like most of us). But when the students learn some of the in’s and out’s of the political game, something as simple as a Sarah Palin book signing in Iowa starts to make perfect sense to them. International events come alive and appear in context with the history I teach. Finally all is presented talking up; meaning the Newshour avoids Lindsey Lohan crap and speaks to you like you are smarter than the average yahoo. Students become connected to Jim Lehrer and when he was gone for an extended period of time in 2009, students became concerned. Ray Suarez is nice, but he’s just not Jim. This year’s kids have barely seen Jim, so their allegiance is pretty much non-existent. Now that honor goes towards the rookie of the Newshour, Hari Sreenivasan. Oh, and the new loyalty is very strong. When Hari took off for two weeks earlier this year, my students insisted that Tweet the Newshour complaining that the substitutes were inadequate. It was pretty funny.

And now Jim Lehrer is off to do other things. Sure he’ll be on occasionally on certain segments (Mark Shields and David Brooks), but the news desk on PBS just won’t be the same without him. Jim brought us the news while making sure that we thought at a higher level for at least a few minutes each day. I’m taking that and running with it.

Thanks Jim!

WTF, I’m supposed to teach???

2011-05-30T10:14:00.001-07:00

R. Barker Bausell must have been born under a weird sign or something because he offered up a thesis to the problems of education that makes too much damn sense.

Teachers don’t teach enough.

“….efficient teachers hewed closely to the curriculum, maintained strict discipline and minimized non-instructional activities, like conducting unessential classroom business when they should have been focused on the curriculum.”

In an absolutely shocking study, teachers that were efficient with class time actually had students that did better on standardized tests. Apparently not wasting the student’s time might actually help the student become more focused, more engaged, and in the end, possibly more learned. Wow. What an incredible surprise.

I’d like to say that I’m efficient with my time, that I use it with purpose and that the time is valuable to student’s needs. With Seniors, that becomes incredible tough to gauge. They can look at you with disgust while at the same time believing that your class holds value. It’s just the whole concept of high school that no longer holds value in their minds. And some people might perceive classroom banter as useless and unnecessary. I call it building relationships, and those relationships can get you through tough times during the year.

Bausell also makes interesting recommendations to implement such a program.

A focus on relevant instructional time also implies several further reforms: Lengthening the school day, week and year; adopting a near-zero-tolerance policy for disruptive behavior, which classroom cameras would help police; increasing efforts to reduce tardiness and absenteeism; and providing as much supplementary and remedial tutoring (the most effective instructional model known) as possible.

I like the ideas, but from the point-of-view of Ukiah High, some would have a near impossible time coming into practice. For instance, we have shortened the school year because of budget cuts. That kind of hurts the increased weeks and year argument. And while I have no problem teaching more, I do have a problem teaching more without my specialization being appropriately compensated. And tardiness and absenteeism is rampant at the present time; much of it willfully ignored by parents that think children are immune to the costs of wanting to do too much. And we can’t hammer on attendance too much because they’ll end up going to a charter school where they get credits for simply showing up. That’s one argument that Bausell seems to have missed. Some charters are dogshit. That leaves the near-zero-tolerance policy for disruptive behavior. Ask any teacher. We’d love it, but the climate of parents opinions of the teacher would make it look like we were picking on poor Oliver.

In the end, it goes back to something that is missed in the Edu-Reform argument; does the community really want their kids in school longer. Look at the evidence behind attendance and you might be quick to find that the tide is actually rolling against more instructional time, regardless of the public face put on the argument.

Coach Brown will not be chaperoning dances

2011-05-29T17:04:00.001-07:00

Count me in with the group that pretty much refuses to have anything to do with high school dances. In fact, I’m to the point where I laugh-out-loud at the very question of chaperoning a dance, even if it is asked by my students. It’s kind of like asking, “Mr. Silva-Brown, would you mind putting your hand in this bowl of scorpions while Death Eaters come down and suck the soul out of you?”

This years MORP, PROM backwards, had the theme of Woodstock 1969. MORP is traditionally the dance where people dress up and act goofy while trying to get in a dance. As a historian, I was wondering what get-ups would classify as Woodstockesque. On Saturday the pictures started to show up on Facebook. I’ll take some of the failure as a History teacher for the outfits, I guess, because I don’t quite remember seeing rainbow colored get-up’s that made the girls look like they should be bringing people drinks in the Bahamas. If they were really serious, everyone would have not showered or shaved for a week and the dance would have taken place in the rain on the football field. Now that would be a real Woodstock dance.

Mixed with the highly sexualized atmosphere is the constant “pre-gaming”, the act of drinking before going out for a night on the town. Only students are pre-gaming before going to an event where they are actively looking for drinking. This creates tension, needless game playing, and a much more dangerous situation for adults than is necessary for a Friday night. Why deal with the risks? Instead I can go eat sushi and kick back with my wife while watching a good flick. Much more reasonable after a long week.

Just saying

2011-05-22T07:13:00.001-07:00

So now that the media has picked up on the Superintendent survey, let me comment on what’s going on. A few weeks ago, a survey was handed out to the staff that asked loaded questions about the job of the Superintendent. The point of the survey was to show the school board that the teachers were frustrated with a variety of issues regarding our boss. I didn’t fill out the survey for two reasons. First, I don’t like the idea of anonymous surveys. They are full of snarky comments that make teachers look like a bunch of old hags bitching about the quality of the soup at the rest home. Second, there is no real legitimate political force behind an anonymous survey. When the survey was first brought up, I dismissed it and recommended a simple vote of no confidence. I won’t say how I would have voted, but I will say that a vote of no confidence holds a lot more weight by counting legitimate votes and making a simple, yet poignant political statement. But I was ignored and this survey went out against the better judgment of many.

I can’t tell you if the count is accurate or not. I was not responsible for the survey and unlike a standard vote, it was not viewed by many responsible parties. However I can say with strong confidence that Dr. Lois Nash is not entirely accurate with her statements in the newspaper.

“Nash also questions the accuracy of the anonymous survey mailed to district teachers and feels it doesn't represent most teachers, but rather a small few in leadership within the California School Employee Association (CSEA) and the UTA.

"I think there is a small group who promote an adversarial environment within the district," said Nash. "I think most teachers are working hard to try and promote the highest achievement of our students."

That may have been true in the past, but it becoming increasingly apparent that a whole lot of teachers have passed beyond simply putting their heads down and trudging through a bad environment. After we sacrificed over and over again, teachers now have a bad feeling that they are totally disengaged from the process of decision-making within the district. And we aren’t talking about financial decision-making, we are talking about being a part of something that is so important that we have dedicated our lives to making it right. And this is where Dr. Nash is might be mistaken. I think the reason why this hasn’t come up earlier is because teachers were “working hard to try and promote the highest achievement of our students." We were professionals that battened down the hatches and did our job in a rough environment. Now even the most patient teachers are saying, “I can take the pay cut and the extra work, but I can’t take not being a part the conversation of what is good for students.”

This week the district “found” one million dollars. Apparently an accounting error has left a substantial amount of money on the table that will go towards, well, I have no idea what it will go towards. I do know that money issues have created a massive amount of consternation within our district. Some teachers think that the district is hiding money intentionally; along with the body of Jimmy Hoffa, the tapes of the fake Moon landing, and the evidence that Nancy Pelosi had an affair with John Boehner. I am not one of those people. However I watched my department scrounge for paper this week. I bought my own scantrons this year because we had no money. In fact, I’ve spent over a thousand dollars of my own money this year on my classroom. I’ve had to tell my students “no” when they wanted to print in the computer lab many time. I watched freshmen sports get cut, our consolers get overwhelmed with 500 plus students, and a request to replace out-of-compliance Advanced Placement textbooks denied. I’m just saying…..

I usually stray away from local school politics for obvious reasons. But when people start going to the paper and telling them how I think things are going, I get cross. Want to know how things are going within our school district? Ask a teacher.

Why I didn’t not get involved in California’s “State of Emergency”

2011-05-22T06:51:00.001-07:00

Last week was protest week for the California Teacher’s Association. Around the state and at the Capital Building, protests sprang up to protest the absolutely absurd budget cuts that are coming our way if the California Legislature does not get its head out of its ass and vote to extend state taxes. I did not attend a rally, create a blog post, or hardly even talk about the week’s activities. Here’s why.

1. AP testing, Comparative Government Final, teaching Seniors about investing and credit, spending entire prep on the phone with parents of potential Senior failures, preparing Economics finals, teaching Modern U.S. History in depth with APUSH, and basically, you know. working. Who has time to drive down to Sacramento and get thrown in jail?

2. Some of the protestors are crazy. Yes, even Cindy Sheehan has brought her circus to Sacramento and don’t wish to be lumped into a group that includes people calling for the abolishment of capitalism and the rise of anarchy.

3. Part of me really, a very small part of me, wants to see this happen. I want to see what happens when districts are forced into cutting 20 days off the school year. I want to see how parents are going to react to the need for more child care, for less services for kids to get into college, and for the overall bad temperament of the teachers that will have taken a further 10% pay cut. That would mean an overall 20% pay cut on my household, and that’s after a pay cut I just took this year. No matter what you might think, teachers are human. We’re asked to do more for less and spend our own money to teach your kids. Eventually, teachers are going to get very resentful.

In the end, people in California (and around the country) are going to have to answer a simple question; how much are you willing to pay for the services you want? Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Economist, and nearly every Sunday morning politico have stated that Californians have a habit of wanting exemplary government services at no financial cost. In Education, that creates 35 students per classroom, 500 students per counselor, and an overall atmosphere that has many constantly looking over their shoulder. You could say “deal with it”. And I can say “Ok, but I’ll have a lot more concern about paying my mortgage than trying to get your kid to pass the Advanced Placement test.”

Who’s fault is the F?

2011-05-15T10:24:00.001-07:00

Much of my time these days is having conversations with parents about failing students or students that might have college aspirations put on hold because of a D. I have yet to have a conversation that has been nasty. All are cordial. However, all also follow a pattern.

1. First question is about extra work. Somewhere along the line the system has created a safety net that allows students to fail for 3/4 of the semester and then allows them to make up that work within a couple of weeks. I don’t play that. The kids learn nothing and I get extra work. I won’t work harder because the student spent most of the year on vacation. About a quarter of the parents will then tell me that I’m the only teacher in the school that does not offer extra work. I say ok. What else is there?

2. At this point the conversation delves into why the student is failing. Nine out of every ten failures has to do with attendance. I do very little homework. I quiz like a madman. In my class you have to show good knowledge or you haven’t earned the grade. Upon explaining to the parent that their kid has missed chunks of my class, most immediately make an excuse. “Yeah, but they are all excused.” What the parent is saying is that either they excused the student’s absences or the student is 18 and can therefore sign themselves as excused. What I say is that it doesn’t matter. Parents immediately get defensive and accuse me of grading based on attendance. I calm them down by inviting them to see their child’s grades online, where they will notice that I have no attendance related grades. Students with poor attendance either miss quizzes and tests and don’t make them up, or don’t study while they are gone and fail them consistently.

3. At this point I have navigated the excuse waters and we come to the question of “what can they do to graduate”. My answer is A) Show up to class every day, B) Do all the assignments and do them well, C) Come to me if help is needed, D) There are no guarantees. The last point creates temporary aggravation but it has to be said. Otherwise it is assumed that a warm body that turns in crap will be enough. It’s not. And this is where I try to make it very clear not graduating high school is a reality.

4. Then comes the phrase “I need to get him/her to graduate high school.” It is almost always part of the conversation. It takes the responsibility away from the student and drives it into the hands of the parent.

5. The final part of the conversation is the venting. Frustrations come out. Family issues come out. Lots of information that puts the students progress into context takes center stage. Well over half the things I hear that students are telling parents is a lie. That’s not new. But the fact that parents are more apt to believe the teenager and not the teacher is a disturbing trend. I’ve had parents insist that my attendance was wrong because they watched their kid walk out of the house every morning. As if that’s a clear indication that the came to class.

6. The final piece is the necessity for constant updates. Some call twice a week. Other’s e-mail me for updates just as often. Grades and attendance are available online, but they hardly get checked. I don’t mind giving updates, but parents often want magical results in a few days. I have to tell many that we won’t really know about their status until after the final. It usually ends cordially.

Some will go over me to the student’s counselor and attempt to exude pressure from that end. Rarely does the issue go to the vice-principle, and when it does it is usually from a parent that has complained before.

By the way, this attitude towards grade inflation and the mistrust of the teacher are both primary reasons why students are not making academic progress. I’ve watched, with my own eyes, teachers capitulate under pressure to graduate a kid that clearly had not earned a passing grade. It’s the easy thing to do and at the end of the year, who really needs the aggravation? Well, I do I guess. I’m about teaching kids about life, and this problem is not going to be excused in college or out in the workforce.

The Parade of the Vendor Trucks

2011-05-14T09:02:00.001-07:00

One of the most annoying things I constantly hear regarding the health of students is that it is school food that is that is making kids obese. It’s as if school districts around the country turned on some kind of fat switch in the late-1990’s that made the typical American child inflate to twice the normal size. This method of thinking is idiotic of course. The amount of healthy choices at school are far more numerous than when I was being educated in 1992, and yet we seemed to maintain a physique that did not involve rolling out of the cafeteria door. The fact that Americans have become more stationary and reliant on computers might, just might, have something to do with the obesity epidemic in this country.

That and ice cream trucks.

Novato, California seems to have slaughtered the deadly sins of culinary salaciousness by eliminating those delights that tempt juniors sweet tooth.

The district has eliminated the sale of candy, soda and other junk food on school property, and has removed chocolate milk, beef and even juice from its elementary school menus.

The problem is that Adam Smith’s theory of self-interest has trumped the fat ban of the nanny state, and students have simply walked across the street to the waiting ice cream trucks and taco wagons for their meals. Sensing an opportunity, the vendor trucks have now made it a daily ritual to park on the street and serve those that have chosen to spend their hard earned Marin County money (laff) on ice cream sandwiches and taquitos. This infuriates the administrative legions of Novato city schools to no end.

"Allowing ice cream trucks to side step (education) code and NUSD board policy by parking next to the sidewalk where students are allowed to go makes a mockery of the wellness policy."

Let’s be perfectly honest. The mockery IS the wellness policy. In fact, the whole trend towards only focusing on food is a complete travesty to the illusion that public education is serious about getting healthy. Requiring four years of PE in high school would be a huge step towards getting healthy. As would required PE classes (by actual PE teachers) in elementary school. And strict focus on engaging and sustained physical activity in PE classes would also be nice. Half the kids sitting in the bleachers texting their significant others is not sustained activity, no matter how sore your thumbs get. It should be no surprise that the enabled Internet generation whose schools focus on Math and English are suffering from an obesity epidemic. The desire to hit the computer games and the Internet seem to be so attractive today that it is tragic to watch even talented athletes lose the desire to do something else. Over the last few years I’ve watched potential go down the drain as Xbox takes hold during the offseason.

According to the state of California, sixty percent of 9th graders could not meet the minimum requirements of the state fitness test. It was worse at seventy percent for 5th graders. The number one reason for obese kids is parents, pure and simple. They control what kids eat, how often they are sedentary, and the habits that nurture good nutrition. When I was a kid my diet sucked, but I was outside constantly. We biked everywhere, hiked everywhere, and played games around the neighborhood. Doesn’t anybody play football in the street anymore? The risk of scrapes and bruises too much for the little kiddies these days? Maybe a little the blame needs to shift to that entity that engages in this constant educational hypocrisy. Society.

And certainly stop blaming the taco wagon.

Real Edreform

2011-05-09T07:02:00.001-07:00

This is from the great Mamacita. It is not my post, but it needs to be said, now more than ever.

-----

Most teachers who leave the profession leave because almost all of the attention, most of the perks, most of the privileges, and most of the allowances are given to the students who least deserve it: the disruptive kids. In other words, these loud, bratty, obnoxious kids are being rewarded for their disgusting behavior, so why should they clean up their act? I wouldn’t. Not if doing my own thing meant I’d still get to have and do everything little goody two-shoes next to me got to have and do.

Secondly, many of the parents who are involved with the school are the parents of these same brats. School administrators fear negative PR, and to a principal or superintendent, negative PR is when a loud-mouthed parent with a shitty kid calls the newspaper office. Entitlement is the bane of our society’s existence, and it’s alive and well in our public schools.

“You WILL accept my child and you WILL give him/her a special lunch and you WILL treat him/her on a different level than all these other peon kids and you WILL hold his/her hand and you WILL allow him/her to break any rules we as a family do not believe apply to us. . . .” Lovely mentality, yes?

Or this:

“Trailer for sale or rent, or possibly just someone else’s the family is mooching, no phone, no pool, lots of pets, chain smokin’ beer-guzzlin’ shacked-up, in and out of jail, booze, grass, if that damn school tries to call me one more time I’m goin’ down thar and kick me some ass. . .” Lovely mentality, yes?

Or this:

“My kid will play in that basketball game tonight and I don’t CARE that the rules say a kid who’s failing any subject is ineligible. Your rules are stupid, because that game is more important that a stupid subject like English or science, and I’ll go straight to the superintendent and school board if I don’t get my own way with this issue.” Lovely mentality, yes?

What’s even worse is the fact that more often than not, going over the heads of the teacher and principal will all too often give these people their own way.

Me, personally, I think that if there are any perks to be handed out, they should go only to students who have earned them. No earn? No get. Ever.

Why should a student bother to behave himself if he knows he’s going to get a limo ride and a Pizza Hut lunch for bringing a pencil three days in a row? I wouldn’t.

Why would a student exert himself to do any work, or allow anyone else in the classroom to do anything either, if he knows he’s going to be passed to the next grade anyway? Yes, I am a firm believer in holding back any student who can’t do it, won’t do it, or any combination thereof.

I don’t want my tiny second-grade-size daughter seated next to a hulking ballistic cursing disruptive 15-year-old, but if everyone is REQUIRED to behave properly, there wouldn’t be any problems even then, now would there? Because while a student can’t help the “hulking,” there are no viable excuses for being ballistic, cursing, or disruptive. EVER. Any person of any age who behaves in such a way should be removed immediately, not at the end of the day but IMMEDIATELY, escorted out by the police if the parent can’t be reached, and locked away where he/she can no longer deny other children their right to an education. That our schools have lowered themselves to becoming daycare centers for kids who are not required to behave themselves is a national disgrace. The schools who allow it are a disgrace, the parents who allow it are a disgrace, and the kids themselves are a disgrace. That’s right; I’m labeling children. After a certain age, they know how nice people behave. Life is full of choices. CHOICES. Door #1: Thank you for being a nice person who behaves properly. You may stay and be educated, that your life’s choices might increase. Door #2: Are you sure you want this door? Absolutely sure? Very well. Get out and do not set foot near the school grounds ever again. You are bringing down the entire population of students. Good riddance. Billy Madison speech. Door #3: Whine. Scream. Curse. Threaten. Hire a lawyer. Make promises. We don’t care. Get out. And take your obnoxious kid with you.

If only.

In other words, disruptive bratty obnoxious kids are mostly a product of their home.

Teachers who say things like this are few and far between. Not because they aren’t thinking such things 24/7, but because it’s dangerous to speak out. Ethnicity, race, gender, and social levels have nothing whatsoever to do with this issue, but teachers who recognize the actual problem and try to do something about it are often accused of being racist, sexist, un-PC, heartless, “in possession of inappropriate knowledge,” etc. And often the biggest brats belong to the parents with the most political pull. Just as often, the biggest brats belong to. . . . nobody. In either case, brats are brats.

In other words, somebody screams “prejudice,” when the truth is, these teachers are speaking truth.

Until the bullies and the disrupters and the violent and the kids who have no respect for learning are removed from our schools, our schools can not be what the free public schools were meant to be: places where all who wish to learn, may learn all they wish.

It’s hard to learn when 25 of the 38 kids in your classroom have important Letters of the Alphabet in their files, prohibiting the teacher from requiring any work or proper behavior. It’s hard to learn when it’s so loud you can’t hear yourself think, and that awful boy next to you keeps stealing your stuff and hitting you on the arm and laughing. He can’t help it, poor thing, it’s in his IEP that nobody may do anything that would lower his self-esteem. I do not believe that ANY child who is disruptive or violent for any reason should be allowed to prevent other children from learning. Inclusion will only work for students who work at it.

On the first day of school, let the few simple rules be known and let the penalties for disregarding the rules be known. Let there be no exceptions to these penalties. Require a signed document from every family, admitting understanding of these policies. Require an additional signature under the paragraph that spells out the “no exceptions” policy. From Day One, Period One, expect and require good behavior from all students. Instantly remove any kid that chooses to be an ass. Ass-behavior is always a personal choice.

No document from home? No privileges for the kid. Not until it’s signed and filed in the office. Several copies, and one to the superintendent. Why should the child be penalized because the parents can’t get their act together for thirty seconds to sign a damn paper? Because that’s the only way some people can be persuaded to do much of anything. Life is hard. What if some parents don’t LIKE some of these rules? Enroll your over-privileged kid somewhere else then, losers.

Where should these kids be removed to? To be perfectly honest, I don’t care. Just get them away from the good kids. Don’t good kids have rights, too? I’m sick and tired of disruptive kids having the most rights. SICK AND TIRED of it. It’s long past time to give the majority of attention and all things positive to kids who choose to behave properly and kids who want to learn.

This is why most teachers who leave while still young, leave. If you are not a teacher, it’s hard to comprehend the heartbreak these teachers feel: they love their students; they love teaching; they love every single thing about their jobs. . . except for the fact that they are required to endure what nobody else in any other profession would ever consider enduring. They’re required to watch the bright and promising students injured and taunted and threatened by “other kinds” of students, and they’re required to see those “other kinds” of students rewarded for things the nice kids do daily. They’re required to give exceptions to the undeserving and nothing to the deserving. After a while, their nerves are shot and their own self-esteem is in the dirt. Decisions they make are overturned, their authority is questioned and shot full of holes. Daily. They’re not paid enough to put up with this crap. Nobody is. This kind of thing should not even EXIST in our public schools. In the olden days, students were expected to behave and required to behave, and any kid who chose to “act up” got punished at school and punished again at home for disgracing the family. Kids who continued to “act up” were expelled. Life is full of choices.

I taught public school for 26 years and my salary peaked out at 49,300. After 26 years. It became sooo not worth it. A hundred thou a year would not have been worth it. The constant disruptions, the constant expectations that certain kids would not be held accountable, the constant accusations of favoritism and wrongdoing and the 23-minute lunch at 10:30 a.m. and the study hall with 48 non-participatory boys, many of whom had to sit on the floor because the room was too small for that many desks, the indignant parents who demanded. . . actually, demanded ANYTHING. Nice people do not DEMAND. And if someone is DEMANDING an exception, he/she is not a nice person. Teachers don’t leave because of the money. People don’t become teachers for the money. People become teachers because of the dedication and the love, and teachers leave because there is absolutely no support any more.

When teachers walk out the door, they don’t usually do it because they hated teaching. They do it because the peripherals made it impossible to be a teacher. In some schools, administrators don’t even call their instructors “teachers” any more. It’s “facilitators” now. That’s because we are no longer allowed to really teach. We spend most of our time trying to maintain order in overcrowded rooms full of disruptive kids who don’t want to be there and don’t want to learn and don’t intend to allow YOUR child to learn, either. Why do we put up with it? WHY?

I make not quite 16,000 now, and even though we’re one sheet of cardboard away from living in a cardboard box under a bridge, I’m far, far better off. Why is that? Because teaching is what I love, eager students are who I love, and now I can do what I was meant to do without putting up with disruptive students or parents who demand exceptions. And when a student gives us any kind of disruptive behavior at this level and refuses to leave, we call the cops.

It took me almost a full year to ‘catch on’ to the fact that I no longer had to ‘deal’ with that kind of behavior any more. It comes as quite a surprise to some students that after a certain level, disruptive behavior is no longer allowed. After a certain level, the facilitators no longer allow it on the facility.

Perhaps if our students were taught that lesson in fourth grade, we wouldn’t have any obnoxious hoods keeping our good kids from learning in any of the higher grades.

In a perfect world.

Yes, I mean every word of this post. Some of you will find fault with the fact that I do not believe our nation’s schools and our nation’s children should be required to put up with disruptive and violent behaviors. After all, some of those kids can’t help it. And so they can’t. Get them away from the other kids because frankly, anything that prevents the good kids from learning doesn’t belong there. Tolerance? I’m all for it. How about some of that for the good kids, too!

I do not believe that all of the disruptive students are Special Education material, either. Our Special Ed programs are usually excellent, taught by the most dedicated teachers of all, overcrowded, underappreciated, and too full of kids who don’t belong there, which takes those teachers’ time and attention away from the kids who DO belong there.

An IEP does not take the place of discipline. Sure, it’s easier to claim that your child has Authority Defiance Syndrome than to require good behavior and enforce the rules yourself. Quick fix for Mom and Dad, huh. These people are taking time and attention away from kids who genuinely need and deserve special treatment.

We as a nation had better be very, very careful about what kind of behaviors we tolerate and even encourage with stupid reward systems for behaviors that ALL students should be practicing daily, because it’s already happening that many people are trying to enter the workforce without the necessary skills. Some of these people were busy texting and checking their email on their cell phones instead of paying attention, sure; I hate those people, too. But some of these people graduated with good grades that mean almost nothing because their teachers were so busy trying to corral the wild animals in their classrooms and keep them from actually harming the good kids, so busy trying to placate parents who expected the schools to not only feed, clothe, and babysit before and after hours but also to teach the behaviors and manners that are actually the responsibility of the parents, that at the end of the long, long day, there simply wasn’t time to teach anything. The schools should not be responsible for teaching your child to behave properly. If that is what you’re counting on, forget it. It’s not going to happen, parents. That’s YOUR job. I know you’re busy, but if you’re too busy to raise your child, perhaps you’d best be thinking about letting somebody else do it, not the school.

I’ll say this again: If an adult can afford cigarettes and beer and DOG FOOD, that adult should be able to buy socks and jeans and a hot lunch for his child. I’d say, the child should come before ANY of those other things. When those free-lunch, free books, free before-and-after-school-care parents would stand before me, reeking of smoke, whining with their beer-breath that they just plum couldn’t afford no shoes for the child, cough cough cough reek, it was all I could do not to tell them off for being just generally bad, bad people. Bad people who bought cigarettes, beer, dog food, and shoes for themselves instead of taking decent care of their child.

There are no exaggerations in this post. If your child’s classroom is a place of calm, peace, cool, and learning, please fall on your knees and thank God or your lucky stars, whichever one rows your boat, because your child’s school is an exception.

I’m not kidding, either. I only wish I were.

PLEASE do not assume that I am attacking special students here; that is NOT the case at all. I am merely saying that no student who keeps another student from learning should be allowed placement in a regular education classroom. Our public schools, bad as so many of them are, are still one of the main reasons many immigrants come to our country; it’s too late for them, but they have hopes for their children. Without education, there can be no hope. Without education, people are easily fooled, easily led, and somehow less of a person. Educated people are the hope of everyone’s future.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure that our public schools are places where students can be educated, without disruption, without fear, without “putting up with” anything that interferes with that education. That so many students fear for their very lives when they go to school is a sad commentary on our society. That those who give other students just cause to be afraid are tolerated is a disgrace. Those who sanction it are the biggest disgrace of all.

Are we really so afraid of harming the self-esteem of a thug, or a bully, or anyone who puts another at risk or in any way prevents another from advancing forward in knowledge, that we have shunted the deserving to the back burner, and expect them to be content with the dregs of our energy and resources?

Apparently we are.

#apush is trending right now

2011-05-08T21:33:00.001-07:00

With my Advanced Placement U.S. History students tucked nicely into room R-10 and the passing period between first and second period in full sway, I popped onto Twitter to take a look at what teachers had done for a final review for the APUSH test. What I saw was a massive #apush hashtag that was full of announcements of what was on the exam, DBQ and all. While it shouldn’t have impacted test takers on the West Coast, I can imagine that Hawaii and Alaska must have enjoyed an advantage that had potential to skew the APUSH curve. For the money and the time taken on preparing for the exam, this could annoy me a little.

The College Board is very explicit that students are not to discuss the questions on the test for days after the examination. I wonder how organization that brings about some of the most important tests of a person’s high school career is going to deal with the ramifications of social media.

The Death of Basic Know-How

2011-05-08T20:16:00.001-07:00

“Did you see that test?”

“Yeah man. Mr. $#(@*@*!&^" does that kind of thing on occasion, putting basic algebra equations on the test. It’s totally annoying.”

“He better knock that shit off. If he starts putting algebraic equations on test I am fucked.”

The two students engaged in this conversation outside of my classroom have passed the High School Exit Exam and are in a Calculus class. That’s right. We aren’t talking about Second Language Learners getting their first exposure to the Devil’s Code (also known as ‘Math’), we are talking about the best-of-the-best not having a basic understanding of the concepts they learned that are supposed to act as a foundation for the information they are learning right now. It doesn’t seem to be working out.

I reflected on this conversation and others I’d had been overhearing while reading the tweets from EduCon in Philadelphia. EduCon is my kind of conference. It focuses on Education issues around teaching, then throws in the integrated technology component instead of the other way around. It’s refreshing. It’s also maddening to watch the casual toss-away of basic components of education in such a flippant manner. Plenty of conversations pop up about ending the use of textbooks, simple calculators, even changing the name “classroom” into something more learning oriented, whatever the hell that means. All of the conversation has a certain “waldorfian” tone to it (Waldorf being a more ‘humanistic’ and inclusive education, so they say), which is scary because many of those students that come from such an ‘alternative’ method of education frequently can’t do basic theorems because someone didn’t have them focus on fundamental processes. It creates a student that is so attached to his Ti-85 calculator that when the student is asked to do a problem with parenthesis, said student goes pale and starts to mumble that life isn’t fair.

The same can be said for those advocating the death of the textbook. Never mind that there is no way that a student in my school should be responsible for a $500 iPad (they have trouble with a $4 paperback), the main issue here is the continuing push to ignore the importance of academic reading. Don’t get me wrong. I’m totally in the camp that the academic textbook is pretty close to worst thing that can possibly be read. But that doesn’t mean you ditch it for technology. It means you actually create a textbook that becomes useful to students in pursuit of their academic goals down the road. Dumping the text doesn’t prepare them for the reading they are about to do down the road, unless they are planning to skip the undergrad work and pay hundreds of dollars for primary source packets in graduate school.

Finally there’s the academic writing. Being an active participant in the Twitterverse and Blogosphere is not easy, especially when people become such technocrats that they simply pass foundations and build their educational houses on “engagement” and “love of learning”. I actually heard the quote “the era of the five paragraph essay is over” recently. What’s the new literary format? Blogging. That’s right. The tried and true “write how you feel” approach has apparently been put on the throne of writing. Not only that, but we are going to accept it as a blogged format. Let’s realize that “blogging” for a 16 year old is not David Brooks columns about Compassionate Conservatism in the New York Times. It’s a text messaged laced tirade about why Justin Bieber should not date Selena Gomez. LOL! In the meantime you have eighteen year old Advanced Placement students still using text speak and first-person in a paper trying to analyze income disparity in China. Kids need to write more and more, and more “traditionally”, if that’s what you want to call it.

Technocracies aren’t meant to replace, they are meant to enhance and supplement a student’s learning environment. When I see a Bill Gates supported school getting so much publicity because they use complex technology, but can’t really explain what their doing with a coherent thought, it makes me question if Edtech Reformers really understand what they are doing.

Bin Laden is dead

2011-05-01T23:31:00.001-07:00

I was one of those Americans that hung a flag from his fence after September 11th, 2001. I’ve cursed Osama Bin Laden’s name a few times and have thought of the number of ways I wished he’d been caught.

Well, he was finally caught, and he was finally killed.

I’ll admit that my first reaction was “got you, you little fucker”. That was the enraged part of myself that remembered his taunts on the videos post-9/11, where the Sheik Osama basically stated that he would stop his attacks if Americans gave up their democratic government and way of life. After a minute the rage went away and, like 9/11, I wanted to know what happened, how it happened, and what the future repercussions were going to be so I could discuss it with students tomorrow.

Two things disturbed me irked me about this evening. One was the mood of celebration at the White House. Something just didn’t feel right about it. People were partying like Japan had just surrendered on the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay. In reality it’s more like Yamamoto was shot down somewhere over the Solomon Islands and the war is long from over. The vision on Pennsylvania Avenue didn’t seem right at all. Neither did the teacher channels on the Twitterverse. It was the exact opposite from educators; instead of any jubilation at all, everything was “it is fairly meaningless” and “we just caused more trouble”, as if the event was just another soldier in the chain bad guys. Morale victories mean something, especially when it is the symbolic leader of something so nasty.

So I remain fairly level headed about the whole thing, although I must admit that I grin at the fact that the bad guy got what was coming to him tonight. I’ll let Mark Twain close it out.

“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”

A bizarre week

2011-05-01T22:52:00.001-07:00

Projector bulbs are expensive. We are not talking “hey, that sushi is actually $15” expensive, we are talking “how the fuck is this light bulb actually $400” expensive. My first bulb lasted two and a half years. It might have been worth the cost. The second bulb lasted this last four months. I would say that the benefit did not outweigh the cost for the second bulb. I would say that it was a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride when the red projector light started blinking and my screen didn’t start up. I calmly called our on-campus tech guy and offered up anything from single malt scotch to tickets to the next Final Four for a projector bulb, and I got one. In fact, the man came down and replaced it within five minutes, something that very well deserves consideration for a bottle of Glenfiddich.

This was also the week were some Seniors got to feel the pinch of what the real world was going to be like, and some did not like it at all. With Prom, AP tests, social lives, and the end of school breathing down their throats, the school became a haven for the dramatic, with anything setting off those that are now realizing that they can’t do everything they want. Some fight. The beginning of the warm weather brought forth a very active week of confrontations between the local Reds and Blues, something we’ve been dealing with over the last few years. Some get anxious to the point of not being able to deal with school, or at least the academic part of school. It’s amazing how parents are suckered into “I'm too stressed for school”, but their kid manages to get to a baseball game, a class election meeting, and Prom. Finally some kids simply break down from life getting tough. I’m often the recipient of some student anger because I often say no. While I’m often a little more flexible about students in exceptional situations, I still want kids to see the importance of making a choice. I’m still hammering them on attendance. I’m still insistent that they maintain organization in terms of knowing when things are due, and I’m still running my classes with the understanding that they are there to learn. That conflicts with the “we’re Seniors, let’s rage for the last quarter” attitude. In return, I get a little blow back in the form of snarky comments, indigent looks, and sometimes outright tantrums. This is where experience steps in; take it all in stride, remain calm, offer support, don’t overblow a small explosion, and remember that 80% of the students are doing just fine. I am much better at dealing with the last throes of Senioritis.

Alas, the final problem was money. I found that we have no money for next year, which is not a whole lot less than the little money we had this year but enough to make you hang your head a little. We’ve been told to cut more from our budget, although that pretty much leaves counselors and custodians as the only ones left. Already our counselors are at over 500 student caseloads, and already our campus is down 2-3 custodians, but apparently we are looking to trim at something and the only thing left if either cutting “programs furthest from the students” (like safe/clean campus and counseling don’t impact students") or creating new forms of revenue.

But the week’s over now and we move on to Advanced Placement tests and the real downhill run to the end.

Two hours is too long

2011-04-26T22:14:00.001-07:00

It was STAR testing block today and I had to come up with a two hour, five minute engaging exercise that was going to keep Seniors that were already resentful before they walked into the classroom, interested and educated. How did I do it? Variety and intelligence.

-Students enter and I explain the schedule. I crack a couple of jokes and make the mood light, then I explain that students are allowed to eat in class this period. Students relax a bit.

-I talk about a Freakonomics podcast about the poor savings rate by Americans. We talk about the cost of emergencies, the necessity of cash on hand, and making sure to pay yourself every month.

-We watch the daily news and I answer questions.

-Our current lesson is about Business Organizations and we discuss the statistic that 85% of restaurants fail in the first two years. Students write down attributes to successful restaurants. Students then discuss their favorite restaurants and why they work.

-We watch a quick video about Next Restaurant in Chicago. What seems to work and how much might one be willing to pay?

-Then we read the BusinessWeek Magazine article about Next and analyze the business model. How will the model work with consumers and the owners? Will the business model work?

-Give the students a break. By this time an hour has passed and if we are truly modeling college, a super long class will have either breaks or we get out early. I give them seven minutes to use the restroom, go to the vending machines, or just lounge outside in the sunshine. The only thing I ask is that they don’t disturb the other classrooms at all. I’ve never had a problem and they always return on time. One hour left.

-We briefly touched on Business Organizations last week (Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, Corporations, Franchises, Cooperatives). I hand out an Econ Edlink situational regarding perspective clients wanting to start a sweets business and wanting organizational advice.

-Students get into groups of 3-4 and write a recommendation for each of the four clients including justification.

-We come back together as a group and analyze the answers. We do a little compare and contrast and debate.

-We then begin about 20 minutes of notes on the advantages and disadvantages of certain business organizations, starting with sole proprietorships.

-We get to around the disadvantages of sole proprietorships when the bell rings and off they go.

It was perfectly manageable but not really the perfect conditions for learning to occur. Then again, those idiotic tests that force the block scheduling aren’t really for learning either.

Mamacita speaks….

2011-04-25T22:33:00.001-07:00

She’s on my blog roll and she’s a bad ass.

Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School

Rule #1. Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teenager uses the phrase “it’s not fair” 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule #1.

Rule #2. The real world won’t care as much about your self-esteem as your school does. It’ll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain that it’s not fair. (See Rule No. 1)

Rule #3. Sorry, you won’t make $50,000 a year right out of high school. And you won’t be a vice president or have a chauffeur, either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn’t have a Gap label.

Rule #4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait ’til you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he is not going ask you how feel about it.

Rule #5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren’t embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.

Rule #6. It’s not your parents’ fault. If you screw up, you are responsible. This is the flip side of “It’s my life,” and “You’re not the boss of me,” and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it’s on your dime. Don’t whine about it or you’ll sound like a baby boomer.

Rule #7. Before you were born your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents’ generation try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

Rule #8. Life is not divided into semesters, and you don’t get summers off. Nor even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don’t get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on.

Rule #9. Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or as polite as Jennifer Aniston.

Rule #10. Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.

Rule #11. Enjoy this while you can. Sure, parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. Something or someone is always annoying you. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be kid. Maybe you should start now.

Rule #12. If your generation behaves itself better than your parents’ generation, maybe the example will inspire the next generation to behave itself altogether.

You’re welcome.

Best end message ever!

2011-04-24T21:36:00.001-07:00

The title of the graphic is incorrect. It’s pretty much something that happens every year to all teachers, not just those that are in their first year. However I can say that my slopes would be a tad different. My energy is strong until about early October when all the beginning year distractions come about. Then the irritation and disillusionment set in, although my valley is significantly less steep. Basketball helps because the dedication and work ethic of the players helps alleviate the problems of the holidays. Students missing weeks on end for holiday vacations are out of my control, but players successfully mixing athletics and academics make-up for the feelings of frustration. The end of February is my hardest time. By then basketball has worn me out, Seniors realize that they will have to work their final semester in high school, and AP U.S. History starts to become a series of cram sessions. Spring Break can’t come quick enough. Post Spring Break breaks forth rejuvenation and major anticipation for next year. I’ve already started planning ideas for next year and part of me is actually looking forward to August.

Cool Cat Teacher (blog roll) has a fantastic message to all teachers as we roll out of testing and towards the end of the year. It’s a simple pep talk, but one that is vitally important as some of us become victims of our marathon runs. While many things in her post are poignant (“Teachers are on the front lines of a war against the decivilization of society”), the most important message I can see is to be yourself. In dealing with Seniors it is often easy to become very detached from the students because they have one foot out the door already. Don’t play that game and keep being you. While others have cashed it in, finish the year strong and maintain that consistent passion for the profession. Hold kids accountable and make sure that those that are about to head out into the real world are adequate prepared to the best of your ability, even if it means saying “no”.

Pointless tests and fantastic reviews

2011-04-24T17:16:00.001-07:00

It was a positive/negative week for Ukiah High School and my kids.

First of all, it was STAR testing week. Due to a variety of reasons that I won’t get into, we probably won’t pass. Ok, I will get into one. Attendance sucked this week. Kids reactions to the test sucked this week. In fact, the whole week was best represented by a single phrase that I saw on many of my underclassmen student’s Facebook pages.

What is the fucking point of this test?

From a kid’s point of view it’s a very good question. It has no impact on the kid’s near or long term future and offers no real insight into the student’s learning. What it does do is create a school culture that people hate. Administrators become stressed on test implementation. Teachers get hopeful, and then defeated when they realize that they have no control over a student that doesn’t care about the test. Students become empowered when they realize that everyone is panicking over a few hours that mean nothing to the students progress. And everyone becomes a used-car salesmen. Everything from money to Giants tickets to hollow threats of exile are used as incentives to students that don’t fill out the magic bubbles with focus. It’s not teaching, it’s an embarrassment.

However I don’t have to do much interaction with test-takers because I used the testing time to prepare students for Advanced Placement tests. Well, those that wanted to show up anyway. I offered my Senior Comparative Government students review sessions during AP testing and over the three days and six hours of testing, nobody came in and nobody bothered to accept my offer to Skype a review. On Thursday I had a 120 minute class review and 16 students showed up. It was a fantastic review session that addressed many issues while keeping students engaged, focused, and inquisitive. Not only did we review information, but students were thinking and asking questions at a higher level of learning. THAT is what teaching is really about. The two hour session finished quick, or so it seemed. The only negative of the review session was that there are 32 students taking the test. That means that half never showed up.

I had another good review this past Saturday. The two hour session was focused on early AP U.S. History, something we went over during the first two months of school. Out of 25 students taking the test, ten showed up. Again the learning was great, but my concern over the passage of the AP tests continues. That’s the way it will be for another few weeks.

Either way, the best of times and worst of times, this attendance issue must be addressed. It’s killing funding, morale, and for students it’s going to impact their future. Some of my students will not graduate because of attendance. Others may get a double-take from their college or risk losing college scholarships. Worst off is that the future of the school is going to decided not by the bright and willing learners that deserve success, but by the lazy dregs that care nothing about an eight hour test named STAR.

Qualified…….dammit…

2011-04-20T21:54:00.001-07:00

Every year the State of California produces a list of schools that seem to be having trouble paying their bills. Every year that list grows. This year, like last year, Ukiah is on the list. The primary list is called Negative Certification, meaning the school district will not be able to meet it’s financial obligations this year. Locally, Cloverdale and Cotati-Rohnert Park fit into this column. The second list is called Qualified Certification, meaning the school district may not be able to meet it’s financial obligations within the next two years out. Local school districts include Geyserville, West Sonoma Union High School, Kelseyville, Round Valley, and Ukiah. Officially, if you can’t pay your bills then the State comes in, takes over your district, and tosses anything and everything around like a hurricane while accomplishing absolutely nothing (see Oakland and Vallejo). In all, over 10% of California schools sit somewhere on these two lists, and that ten percent teaches 30% of California’s students.

What are the apparent problems and how can we fix it? Well, let’s do a little revenue and spending look at Ukiah, and maybe we can see some trends or solutions!

Spending Problem: Become more efficient and cut waste.

-One good thing that the state clamp down has down is make schools take a serious look at cutting down waste. Paper is the number one waste product in our school and we have eliminated paper attendance, have copier limits, and have pretty much banned student printing in computer labs. We’ve also gone way down on assigning worksheets, using materials, and have energy conservation measures. Has it worked? Well, copy costs are by far the most expensive item, and while cutting back on energy makes sense, begging for paper, pencils, markers, and other items seems a little idiotic. Throw in that our computers and many textbooks are over a decade old, and diminishing marginal utility starts to take a serious toll on effectiveness.

Revenue Problem: Cuts and deferments in state money.

-The state continues to make cuts in K-12 education, even when they say they don’t. During most years, some kind of cut comes straight to the monies that are supposed to be delegated to Education; a reminder that all parties must feel the pain of budget sacrifice. However, K-12 education constantly has cuts because of reductions on categorical funding and overall payment deferments. While general education monies “stay the same”, funding for transportation or for school lunches or for Special Education, or for any number of programs we are required to provide get slashed. This means that the “uncut” basic funding ends up going to all these categorical holes. That is of course, if the money gets to us on time. Every year in recent memory has the state deferring money until the next fiscal year, creating not only fiscal tensions, but also real budgetary deficits. Budgets still have to be met and districts begin borrowing money from financial institutions to do simple things like meet payroll. Then that money must be paid back, with interest, causing more financial headaches.

Spending Problem: Special Education.

-I don’t think the general public has a clue about how expensive Special Education is. Federal and State mandates for the care of students with special needs is a massive encroachment on the general funds of a district, and that’s not even including the man hours dealing with discipline and Individualized Education Plans. Like most programs that deal with people with special needs, public schools are underfunded to meet the needs of the students as it is. The problem is that schools continue to be liable regardless, and teachers can even lose their jobs over simple alterations to student instruction. Simply put, the school can’t cut Special Education because it is the one program that parents will file a lawsuit towards its non-implementation.

Revenue Problem: Attendance.

-Hundreds of thousands of dollars could be made by simply getting kids to show up to school more. The problem? It isn’t happening. Attendance is sliding more and more as the years go by and the message that parents are sending is that they don’t really care. There are more excused absences than ever; from simple sign-offs on “sick days” to vacations in Hawaii to shopping for Prom Dresses. It all adds up in the grand scheme, although the message that the district sends towards attendance is almost non-existent. The high school seemed to have terrible attendance this week. Why was that important? STAR testing.

Spending Problem: Athletics.

You’d be amazed at how many times I’ve been told that budgetary problems could be solved by simply cutting athletics. This suggestion reeks of ignorance and is usually made by either a half-stoned art teacher that insists that there is no creativity in sports, or some tight-ass liberal elitist that is still pissed off at the football player that gave him a wedgy in seventh grade. Athletics are some of the most cost-effective programs in existence and the entire set of programs at Ukiah currently cost less than the wages and benefits of one full time teacher. It’s kind of like idiot Congressmen cutting a fraction percentage program that actually works instead of addressing the multi-trillion dollar problem.

Revenue Problem: Creativity.

There is a question about the school district becoming creative in finding ways to obtain revenue. I’ve heard talk of the corporate route; allowing more branding around the school as a method to driving up revenue. Grants and foundations exist with money except that they often come with strings attached that either interfere with student achievement or that actually increase costs in the long term. President Obama’s “Race to the Top” would be a good example of that. Parcel taxes are all the rage in Northern California theses days. However many studies show they only work in affluent areas and increasing taxes during tough Economic times is always hard. What’s left? Well, I’ve heard a couple of things that I’m not positive is for public consumption. They are creative and bold, but talk is cheap. Unless it’s not.

All of these things add up to very bad things on the horizon if the State of California does not get its house in order. Bankruptcy is a word used often in district meetings and state receivership now looms like the Bell City Council over the whole situation. Can you believe that when the state takes over the school, they actually force you to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars extra for the use of state “advisors”? Very cost effective.

And like the rest of this situation, very scary.

Because I got high

2011-04-20T21:24:00.001-07:00

It’s April 20th. You know…4/20, which is or used to be code for getting high. Where did the code come from? Most people out of puberty believe that it is simply an urban myth that caught hold, although a group from San Rafael High School in Marin County stated they they made the term back in the 1970’s when they skipped school to smoke out. The importance of the date has fluctuated in and out of the trendiness of high school, and this year was a down year. Only two references, light giggles, and a pronouncement that April 20th was not the only day to smoke pot was heard in my classroom.

I will fully admit that I’ve started to change my stance on marijuana legalization, mainly because it’s basically already legal here. I used to be totally against legalization until the crime element started to destroy the forests and create four times the normal level of crime in Ukiah. You can’t hike in the hills any more because you just might run into a Mexican with an AK-47 or a Bulgarian with nail gun. However I don’t really see legalization solving a whole lot because it would have to be nation-wide and the whole taxation situation is totally overblown. Seriously. It’s supposed to be illegal now and people still grow it and no taxes are collected. All of the sudden you demand taxes from growing weed and people will be willing to pay?

My main concern is the problems with youth in the community, and many youth have a serious problem. Like alcoholism, weed has become a huge part of student lives. It’s engrained in the culture and accepted as normality, except that many students can’t handle the normality of a marijuana laced life. While many argue the similarities between booze and blunts and fail to see a problem, I see a problem with youth constantly using booze and blunts. Worse, the town sees nothing wrong with it. The population is so enamored with legalizing marijuana that it totally ignores those that let it run their life. It’s depressing and pathetic.

But it’s also Ukiah. This is far from a “just say no” town and dealing with growing families, drug dogs, and card carrying medicinal user students is the norm. It does a lot for restaurants, hardware stores, and hydroponic shops. It does nothing positive for anything else in the community. Salon.com has a nice article about some of the issues surrounding Ukiah and the drug culture. We live in a beautiful area. Too bad many are too high to notice.