Student teaching fun, the prequel

17 July 2007 / posted in Me, Teaching / No Comments

So, I have to get a physical before school starts in August to prove that I won’t give the kids TB or some other disease. I understand that, and I don’t mind doing it – they even have a form to take with us to make it easier to get proof and make sure everything gets done. Hooray for the student teaching physical.

Of course, I wait until the last two weeks of summer school to schedule that appointment – *cough*procrastinator*cough, cough*. I call, today, to schedule (just got off the phone, actually), and she actually knows what I’m talking about when I say I need a student teaching physical – which surprises me, because they didn’t last time I did this (remember, I was supposed to do my student teaching in 2004, but became temporarily retarded and dropped out of school) and it took me forever to get the appointment right. This excites me.

For about ten seconds.

UNFORTUNATELY, they only do appointments in the MORNINGS.

Sounds like I’m being a whiny bitch, right – “oh, wah, I don’t wanna get up in the morning, boo-hoo”. While that is entirely possible, my main problem is that I have class from 8am-1pm all summer – wouldn’t you know it, the exact times they have appointments. *grumble* And I have to come in on two separate days, 3 days apart, due to the TB test.

I don’t fault the woman making the appointment. She even said at one point, “I don’t know why they do this – they need to have afternoon openings…” after I told her I have class every day from 8-1 (as is the nature of summer school). She was very sympathetic, and I (luckily) had time free during the reading day before exams, and during what is supposed to be the end of my tennis final (we have a take-home, so I should be fine).

Some people might wonder why I didn’t go in the beginning of the summer, before I had class. Well, my friends, UNC student health only covers you for the semesters/sessions in which you are enrolled full-time. Thus, since I was not enrolled in classes last summer session, I would have had to pay $50 just to get an appointment. So, it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d called at the very beginning of the summer to schedule an appt, the only time I could have come in would be next Wednesday at 9 and next Friday at 10:15.

I’m just glad they weren’t closed on the reading day… lucky me, I suppose.

Oh, and a PS – I really hate needles and physicals, what with the pain and the stupid questions and all. At least with a tattoo, I get something pretty to show off later. The only thing I’ve ever gotten from a vaccine is a scar that everyone assumes is a hickey… *sigh* (Oh, and maybe protection from bygone diseases…)

Head shaking and apologizing

14 July 2007 / posted in Teaching / No Comments

First, the apology: it’s been quite a while since I’ve made a post. That makes me a bad, bad journal-writer. I’ve been busy with work and summer school – there is no shortage of things I want to post about, rather a shortage of time with which to prepare decent posts. I hate the idea of slapping half-assed, unresearched posts up here just for the sake of posting. So, I do hope that you will forgive the lull. I’m hoping it will start picking up.

Now, for the subject at hand.

Last night I went to a low-key party at a friend’s house. Before you get all excited, there were board games involved – I suppose a more appropriate term would be “get-together”, but none of this is truly important. One of my friends, K, is a teaching assistant (elementary school), and something she said to me struck me as odd and frightening at the same time.

We were talking about summer school, and she says, “Oh, yeah! My teacher from last year is teaching summer school this summer, and I ran into her, yesterday. I asked her how it was going and she says, ‘I have seventeen kids and none of them are on medication!’ All I could think was, ‘Should they be? You had 22 last year and none of them were on medication, either…’”

K also found this teacher’s statement odd, and just kind of ended the conversation with her. She went on to explain that this is a first year teacher, who was inconsistent and never really handled discipline or communication with families her entire first year of teaching. K, the teaching assistant, did all of that for her.

Because of things like this, and other reasons, K left that school and will be a teaching assistant at a very small (80 kids) elementary school next year.

This caused me to react in several different ways:

(1) What are they teaching people at East Carolina University (from where the teacher graduated) about special needs kids, classroom management, and family communication? (I’ve heard great things about ECU’s school of education from many different people, and am guessing that this person is an exception to her peers.)

(2) Why do people still assume it’s their students that are the problem when they have issues in the classroom? And why is the hoped-for outcome medicated students? What ever happened to thinking, “Hmm… my students aren’t doing well and going crazy… perhaps I should change what I’m doing.”

(3) Why is it okay to abuse your teaching assistant by letting/making them do all the classroom management? This teacher is going to be in a world of trouble next year, when she has to do all of that stuff herself.

(4) Speaking of that, why don’t school of education programs mention teaching assistants? I just realized that I have not once learned what a teaching assistant is actually supposed to do. I can guess, based on prior experience, but isn’t that kind of important? Shouldn’t I be learning how to properly utilize my teaching assistant, if I get one? They’re kind of a mystery to me.

Anyway, just some observations… some of which have been rolling around in my head for some time, but came to the surface last night. I hope to develop a more detailed, researched post about students on medication in the future, but didn’t have time to do that, tonight.

I hope you are all well.

You’re all gonna die — SIKE!

14 May 2007 / posted in News, Teaching / 1 Comment

When I first caught this story through MSNBC, I was taken aback.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

Now, I remember doing fire drills and tornado drills in school… and even lock down drills in high school. We had bomb threats, and once we went into lock down because there was an armed suspect in a neighborhood adjacent to campus that the cops were after. Lock down lasted about an hour, until he was arrested, and then normalcy resumed. Even during that lock down experience, we were never told “there is a gunman on the loose – hide under your desks!” As a matter of fact, there was just some vague code announced, and all the teachers closed the blinds and closed and locked their doors. We weren’t allowed to leave the room without a teacher, and then only in emergencies (like going to the bathroom). Teachers continued teaching, even. Nobody said what had happened until after the guy was arrested, to prevent us from panicking.

We were never told we were in danger when we weren’t. And even when we were in possible danger, our teachers and administrators were sure to stay calm and keep us that way. Sure, we wanted to know what was going on, but we truly didn’t need to know until it was over. It only would have made the situation worse.

This situation is horrible for several reasons, not the least of which is that students were made to feel that they were in danger when they weren’t.

During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on a locked door.

Now, of course the media sensationalized this a bit, but let’s think about this. These students are 11 or 12 years old… do they really need to know there’s a man with a gun on the loose, even if it’s true? In a real situation, should they have told these kids details that would just scare them and put them into panic, or could they have been more vague?

And the teacher pulling on the door? That’s going way too far.

I understand what they were trying to do – I’m a teacher, I can see the importance of being prepared for a situation like this – but they handled it horribly. Scaring students unnecissarily only erodes the trust they have in you, and doesn’t really prepare them for a similar situation in real life. And, truly, it’s not the students who need to be prepared for this, it’s the teachers.

I seriously doubt any of them would be laughing had this stunt been pulled on them in a staff meeting.

However, a lot of people are saying that these teachers should lose their jobs – I don’t agree with that. I do think they should be educated on how to handle emergency situations, particularly away from school, and possibly disciplined for their lapse in judgement, but I think losing their jobs is more than harsh.

Shay [one of the sixth graders involved] and her mother, Niki Morris, said they forgave the teachers and wanted to move on. It “went too far because it was too gruesome,” Shay said. “You’d think a teacher wouldn’t do it, but they did. But they’re great teachers. If (the assistant principal) loses his job, I will break into tears. He’s the best assistant principal I’ve ever had.” (source)

There’s a response on the school’s website, as well:

Clearly, there are many versions of this situation and the coverage has been sensationalized. Regardless of the versions, this prank crossed the line in what would be appropriate to tell young children, especially in light of recent incidents.

It goes on to say that the incident is being investigated and that proper action will be taken, I just hope they are balanced in their discipline. There are a lot of teachers who have no idea what to do if such a situation was to happen for real, and that’s the real tragedy, here.

Let’s use this as a sign that we need to educate our teachers, not just punish them.

I’m interesting!

12 May 2007 / posted in Me, Teaching / No Comments

Something I meant to write about a while back, but the craziness of the semester prevented it:

Last semester, there was a grad student in one of my classes. She is really interested in social justice, and led a few lessons on the topic (some of which were enlightening) – I really enjoyed having her in the class.

Because she is a grad student, she had a research paper to write. She interviewed all of us about our perspectives on social justice: how it affects our lives, our teaching, where our opinions originated, etc. It was an interesting interview, and I should be receiving a copy of the paper soonish. It’s all anonymous, of course, but I really want to know what the some of my other classmates had to say about some of their experiences/opinions on the topic, as I think my views often differ from my peers.

In any case, she asked me (and other students, I presume) if I would mind her following me next year when I get into my student teaching and possibly my first year of teaching. I have to say, I am extremely flattered that she would find my views on social justice and teaching interesting enough to follow me, but I’m also incredibly curious about what she discovers in her research. I think it’ll be a really good experience for me, and will get me thinking about the issues. I mean, we all consider issues of social justice, but I think being part of her research will help me think about topics before they come up in my classroom, and perhaps allow me take a more proactive approach to such issues with my students.

I’m sure there will be more about this in the future, but I wanted to mention it for those who might be keeping up with the blog somewhat regularly.

All year long…

12 May 2007 / posted in News / 2 Comments

Lately, I’ve heard quite a bit about year-round school vs. traditional calendar school in the local news:

Superior Court Judge Howard E. Manning, Jr. ruled Thursday that the Wake County school system can not force students into year-round schedules.

Which leaves a lot of people wondering – where are these kids going to go? They can’t build schools fast enough, and the students keep coming. According the article, they’re trying to come up with all kinds of options, but the only other one that seems possible is splitting the day – having an “early shift” (approx. 7-12:30) and a “late shift” (approx. 1:30-7) for students.

Parents don’t want that, either.

So perhaps a little background is important. Year round school is generally nine weeks on, three weeks off. This means that students and teachers would be in school for nine weeks (already the typical grading period), with three-week breaks between. For a lot of families, it’s hard to find childcare every two months for a month. I can see the issue there, though don’t a lot of parents typically have to find childcare for three months once a year, anyway? Seems like that would work itself out (highschoolers looking for babysitting jobs, camps that would cater to year-round school schedules, etc). And, I would think that typical family vacations are three weeks or less, anyway.

There are always exceptions, but on the surface, year-round schooling doesn’t seem to be a problem. There are a lot of opinions as to the actual benefits regarding retention, but nobody seems to think academics are suffering due to year-round schedules.

However, Wake County and a lot of other overcrowded school districts are using the year-round scheduling on a track system to help maximize the number of students that can learn in a given building. It sounds like a good idea, but it becomes a clusterfuck when you realize that parents with multiple children will sometimes have kids on different tracks. Teachers have to share classrooms – moving out of their room every nine weeks and moving into a new room three weeks later.

As a future teacher, the notion of moving all my crap every grading period does not make me happy. I’d rather have it all there, organized, where I need it. Part of the appeal of teaching is having my own classroom… it just seems so temporary…

But what are these school systems supposed to do? This is a lose-lose situation for everyone, and compromise isn’t coming easy. I know that Wake County is doing everything it can to accommodate these kids, but there are just too many.

Tempers are flaring on both sides of this issue, as parents fight for both sides, school systems struggle to come up with a good plan, teachers worry that they’ll be shuffled around…

The saddest part is, it’s the kids who are caught in the middle.

This is a pretty good resource for the pros/cons of year-round school… it appears to be fairly balanced.

Semester completed…

9 May 2007 / posted in Me / No Comments

I turned in my last final exam, yesterday – I am now, officially, a senior.

Rock on.

Immigration and education

3 May 2007 / posted in News, Politics / 2 Comments

Immigration is a hot political topic, lately – specifically dealing with the Latino population, more specifically Mexican immigrants, and even more specifically undocumented Mexican immigrants.

So many people want to do away with immigrants – send them back to their home country to fix their own problems. What if we’re causing some of those problems? Yup, that’s right – the United States is selling our cheap corn to Mexico, and wondering why the 1.3 million Mexican farmers that have been priced out of work are coming up to the States for work.

Oh, and those dirty Mexicans don’t pay taxes, right? They come up here and make all that money, and then give it to their fat families in Mexico and don’t even have to pay taxes… wait, what? You mean that’s wrong, too? Most of them don’t even make minimum wage, but a good portion of them pay taxes, and even file federal returns. Also, most states have sales tax – every time they buy something, like food, they are paying taxes. Do they get tax refunds? Or the same benefits that legal US citizens get? Nope.

Alright, so perhaps I should get to the education connection before I get shoved down off of my soapbox. North Carolina has one of the fastest-growing Latino populations in the country – 393% over ten years from 1990 to 2000, according to the 2000 US Census. I’ll be teaching in North Carolina for at least four years, and have lived here my entire life.

As a teacher, it is illegal for me to ask the immigration status of my students or their families, according to Supreme Court Case Plyler v. Doe.

In the eyes of a school, there is no difference between legal or illegal immigrants. They are entitled to the same education as American citizens.
The 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause does not allow public schools to ask about immigration status. Source.

Personally, I agree with this decision – why should children suffer because of the disagreements of adults?

Also, the Supreme Court says that “sink or swim” education is unconstitutional, according the the case Lau v. Nichols – this means that if a student does not know English, schools and teachers are required to adapt their instruction and/or supplement the student’s learning to help them succeed.

I agree with this, too – ignoring them doesn’t make the problem go away, and creating ignorant citizens makes it worse.

So, why all this ranting? Because I feel that our nation’s views on immigration – illegal or not – are generally founded out of ignorance and misunderstanding, and that most United States citizens cannot be bothered to learn the truth.

I intend to brush up on my weak Spanish over the summer, and hopefully I’ll be conversationally fluent by the time I’m teaching, in a year. And I wish people would stop trying to tell me that I’m wrong because I’m “catering to the illegals”. Would it really hurt to do some research and give some support to our neighbors? Really?

School refuses to award teaching certificate, hates pirates

2 May 2007 / posted in News / No Comments

So, despite the amusing title, this story has me pissed off. According to Lancaster Online, in an article dated 27 April:

A 27-year-old Millersville University graduate filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the college for denying her an education degree and teaching certificate after a controversial Internet photograph surfaced last year shortly before graduation.

The picture shows Stacy Snyder of Strasburg wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic “Mr. Goodbar” cup. The photograph taken during a 2005 Halloween party was posted on Snyder’s MySpace Web page with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” [...]

Stacy Snyder, drunken pirate

[...] “The day before graduation, the college confronted me about the picture,” Snyder said Thursday. “I was told I wouldn’t be receiving my education degree or teaching certificate because the photo was ‘unprofessional.’ ”

[...]

[Dean] Bray met with Snyder May 12. She accused Snyder of “promoting underage drinking through her ‘drunken pirate’ photo. Bray then stripped Snyder of her education degree and teaching certification, according to the lawsuit.

Snyder graduated the next day with an English degree.

This irritates me for several reasons. First of all, Snyder was 25 when the photograph was taken. Even in Pennsylvania, the legal drinking age is 21. How, then, does this photograph promote underage drinking? Why are educators often held to a higher “moral” standard? And, really, what the hell does that mean, anyway? Moral clauses are so very vague, because morals are different from person to person. Professionalism is the same way – ten different people will give you ten different definitions of professionalism.

If education programs and school districts want their students and teachers to hold themselves to some standard, then we need to know what that standard is.

However, I have the need to know everything about everything, so I dug deeper. While I don’t feel she should lose her degree or certification for this, I did wonder – did they ask her to remove it? Was she showing this to her students? Who found the picture and why?

My questions were quasi-answered in a second article, dated 2 May:

[...]Snyder was given a poor evaluation based on her performance while teaching at the high school and was warned not to direct students to her MySpace page, which contained the questionable photographs, [school district solicitor Howard L.] Kelin said.

Despite being warned to maintain a professional relationship with her students Kelin said, Snyder continued to direct students to her Web page.

“Snyder required ‘significant remediation’ as a teacher, and her evaluation reflected serious performance problems,” Kelin said.

[...]

Kelin also said the photograph released along with the lawsuit was not the same one Buffington and Reinking submitted to the university.

The photograph they submitted, Kelin said, shows Snyder holding a plastic cup and making a hand gesture while wearing the pirate hat.

Snyder mentioned on her Web site that she had been warned about posting online messages to students, Kelin said.[...]

Alrighty, so the picture is different, but that’s really not the issue. And, while I still think she should be awarded her degree, she also should have listened to her superiors. While I don’t feel that communicating with students through your MySpace is necessarily unprofessional, I do think she should have been smarter as to what she shared about herself with her students. If they gave her warning, it was poor judgment for her to continue to do it.

And, according to this second article, she kind of screwed herself over with the apology she wrote in response to finding out they were going to refuse her degree:

“This incident has caused me to open my eyes and realize that I am the only person to blame. I have to take full responsibility for my actions and live with the consequences determined by the administrative staff from Conestoga Valley High School and Millersville University.”

She’s suing for her degree and money, but given the fact that she pretty much said she would deal with what the university did to her, I’m not sure she’ll win.

“I dreamed about being a teacher for a long time,” Snyder said. “When I was growing up, I spent more time with my teachers than my own parents, and it inspired me to someday make a positive impact on children.”

Such a shame, I bet she would have been a really great teacher, too. Guess we’ll never know.

While I still think a majority of things like this are a result of holding teachers to a faulty system of professionalism for which we don’t know the rules, this case seems to be a result of a student teacher knowing the rules, disagreeing with and disregarding them, and being punished for it. It sucks, but she should have known better. So, future teachers, be smart about what you tell your kids about yourself. It might ruin your career.

Teaching advice from fourth graders:

29 April 2007 / posted in Me / 1 Comment

As a lovely parting gift, my fourth graders put together advice they have for new teachers. Some of it is surprisingly good advice, though I loved it all. (* are next to the ones I really liked):

“Don’t give homework on Fridays.”

“Don’t YELL at your students, or they won’t like you!”

“Treat your children nicely.”

“Try to give secret words on the board so the kids can earn prizes.”

“Do funny activities with your kids.”

“Get class pets, like hamsters or snakes or fish.”*

“Do something really, really special once every month, like having a picnic outside the classroom.”*

“Pick up trash every week outside.”

“Don’t make up really stupid rules.”

“Even if they haven’t earned all the letters for a prize, maybe give them a little treat one time every two months.”*

“Learn very exciting lessons.” (by one of my ESL students)

“Have longer recess time. Like 40 minutes.”

“Make two rules that kids hate. Like not having any F-U-N.”

“Don’t let your kids make announcements.”

“Pay your kids to learn.”

“Do a funny dance once a year in front of the class.”*

“Torture your kids with a song every day.”

“Make learning F-U-N-N-Y… minus the N-Y.”

“If your students aren’t listening, threaten to hang them up by their toes.”*

“Don’t kiss your students.”

“Let your students have free time.”

“At the end of the year, take a picture with your class to remember them by.”*

“Make some puppets and let your class make an interesting play.”

“Sometimes, give homework that they will look forward to.”*

“Have a pizza party at the end of the year.”

“Give your kids jobs to do like teacher’s helper and messenger.”

“Read a book to your students.”*

“Pay attention to your kids.”*

“Give this homework: Play two video games designed by the same person, and compare them.”*

“Let your kids learn a lot.”

“Play with your kids at recess.”*

“At the end of the year, have a dance contest.”

“Tell your kids that even when it’s too hard, to never give up.”*

“The class pet should be a cockatoo.”

“Have show and tell each week.”

“Don’t let your kids go to the bathroom in the middle of class.”

“Torture your kids by talking about water when they have to go to the bathroom.”

“If kids aren’t paying attention, whack them in the head with a marker!”

I’m gonna miss these kids.

A brief update:

26 April 2007 / posted in Me / No Comments

I feel bad for not keeping things up around here, lately. School is coming to a close, and due dates are flying at me like crazy monkeys. It’s just as scary as it sounds. truly. I just finished the big project for the semester, and have a few papers to write and two take home exams to complete by the end of next week. I can do it, but goodness knows it’s been frustrating and exhausting.

I also have my student teaching information – I’ve been placed with 1st graders at the same school at which I student taught this semester. I met my teacher on Tuesday, and she seems amazing. I truly can’t wait!

I have so much more swimming around in my head, but it is late, and I’m so ready to go to bed. More soon, I promise – there is never a shortage of things to say!

Side note: I’ve been checking up on the search terms that are leading people to my journal, and it’s kind of an entertaining little mix of things, now. It used to be mostly about sex and little girls (gross times infinity!), because of my post about the sexualization of little kids. Now, people are finding me for good things – some have even searched specifically for my journal. It makes me happy. That is all.

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