What Birds

We are currently talking about light and color. I say to the class:

"White light is composed of all the different colors of the rainbow. Each color has it's own unique wavelength. Each waves carries is own unique amount of energy. Different materials, like fabric, absorb differrent wavelengths of visible light. The fabric kicks the others out. A "red" shirt absorbs orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple and kicks out the red we see. So if you think about it, the red in that shirt is the only color that this shirt isn't"

.....pausing for effect here.....

And BAM! my students turn into What Birds. Their swish their heads and bodies side to side in their desk and say


"What?"...."Wait"...."What?"...."What?"....

It just cracks me up to see 7 or 10 kids doing that all at once....

Life is good

Today was testing day at my school. Each grade takes some type of predictor test. We stay in class for several hours. Luckily I have my best class then. The Principal came over the loud speaker to let us know we would not be saying the Pledge of Allegiance because of time constraints. I said to my students, "It feels funny not to say the Pledge." One of my students stood up and said, "Let's do it anyway." All the rest of the students stood up very quickly and said it pretty much in unison.
Made me proud....

Bears

We are covering osmosis in my biology class right now, much like any other biology class in my state right these days.

We do a lab with gummy bears. Students take measurements, color, volume, density, mass, etc. then place the bear in water over night- if you don't drown the little guy, you will end up with a HUGE GUMMY BEAR that has soaked up most of the water. This shows then that water travels from where there is less of it to where there is more of it, in short- osmosis.

So one boy, a senior, who is smart and lovable (I would adopt him....) licks the back of a gummy bear and places it over his heart, and I think, That's one weird kid, but, hey, he's not hurting anyone, so....whatever....and I go back to my work.

He comes in today, takes the gummy bear our of his pocket, and puts it back over his heart. And then says......


"When I was a kid I had a bear that I loved, a teddy bear. It went everywhere with me. Until I went to 1st grade. Then He had to stay home. I didn't like this and had a hard time with it. So my mother got me gummy bears. And every day for the whole 1st grade I wore a bear on my heart to help me get through the day. I loved that bear."

I could see him back in the past 12 years, needing his bear, and his mother, who should win an award for that by the way, trying to make it better.

What a great story. Gave me hope for the wretched masses, it did.

writing of a different sort

What I've been doing....( if you read this with a Southern Twang it sounds better. Of course, I think everything is better with a little Twang.)

....This (differentiation) might be the toughest challenge for all teachers, especially at the high school level. Secondary teachers have many demands on them in the classroom already. High school classes cover a wide array of topics through the course of a school year, and students can be proficient in some areas and weak in others.
Having to determine the proficiencies and weaknesses for 120+ students every few
weeks and then providing individualized instruction is a daunting task even for
a seasoned veteran. Asking a novice teacher to do this almost seems cruel.
Collegial planning is a prerequisite,then, for making a differentiated classroom a
success. Novice teachers look forward to this process, while some veteran
teachers think of it as too much....

She must have missed that day in math...

Heard in the classroom today:

Sally had the following answer on her paper:

47.32325666 (or something like that)

I said, "You only have to go to two decimal places, then stop."

Sally says, "Which side?"


Good grief, it's going to be a loooooooooooong year.

Much to do about everything

Wow, so much to do....

Some days I wonder if 14 year olds even have a brain....

green beans do not pick themselves, but red bugs with black legs love tomatoes...

My first college class was tonight, lots of really good ideas....I'm stoked

trying to figure out how to go to Dublin, GA in September for two days...

Pete has hit middle school running and has been labelled "The Hot Dog Clarinet Player"

Re-Pete is loving 1st grade, learning her addition rules...

Yes, I am on two committees and a class sponsor, and in charge of a fund-raiser, and going to college, don't I look like I need another beer, uh, I mean, coffee?

As long as I keep my sense of humor and my iPod, I should be okay....

We're Back!

Y'all send happy thoughts my way- it's back to work I go. I know, most of you guys have been toiling away all summer. I enjoy a summer break from my job, if you call three weeks a summer. I'm not whining, I can't stand sitting home all summer.
I'll be back in college in a few weeks as well. One of my classes, Human Development, sounds good. From what I gather, the class is all about developmental theorists, people who propose that we interact with our environment and mature and grow from that experience, but have a predetermined set of genes or what-have-you's that influence that growth and experience. As opposed to learning theorists who believe everything comes from our environment. Basically, we all come with "pre-sets" that determine how we perceive the world, as well as how we learn and how much we can learn. Now, of course, having good teachers and a positive home life goes far in helping a person go farther in life. My mother used to say, "Monkey see, monkey do." It's true with your children, by and large. Knowing how to help kids learn is the biggest part of my job. Sometimes it is very easy, sometimes not so much. At least this class will help me be a better teacher. We hear this stuff at the beginning of Teacher School, but I think we will go it much more detail this time.
At least I'll start the school year off with the proper state of mind.

Science teacher attacks students, almost kills him

Seems like this teacher was having a bad day....

I seem to remember getting angry at students my first year teaching, and maybe through my 4th year. But, really, they are just being teenagers. You know it would be all over the news here, 24/7 if a teacher brained one of his/her students.

Damn....

finger licking nasty

Imagine, if you will, a teacher passing out a worksheet to her eager students. Her fingers are dry, she can't get the papers in the stack to separate. What to do? Yes, shesticks out her tongue and licks her finger, then parses out stacks of papers, enough for each row. Each row has its own "finger-lick". Which is nasty beyond discussion.

Yes, I confess, I did that up until a few years ago. When it occured to me how nasty that action is. And I enlisted my student's aide- every time I licked my finger in preparation to pass out papers, the kids were to say, quite vocally I insisted, "EWWWWWWW!"

It did not take me long to break myself of that habit.

Fast forward to this week, I'm sitting in a classroom as a student, increasing in depth my understanding of electricity...electric pressure... color coding pressure changes throughout series and parallel circuits.. feeling like the class had some pretty good moments... laughing with my co-workers.. getting some good ideas.
But...
Every time that professor went to pass out papers... EWWWWWWW!!!... she had to lick her finger to get the papers going... at first I didn't notice, I sat in the back. Then she rearranged us and then I sat in the front of a row... fuck.

It was like listening to talented singer sing your favorite song...with spinach in her teeth...

Making a difference

I have had the opportunity to tell new teachers to take care with their words, theirs might be only kind voice that student hears all day. Over the course of the last decade I've had a hand full of students come back after graduation to tell me how much I meant to them. It makes my heart glad, truly, but I am always a little bewildered. Why me? I'm just not that special. But I am happy that I made a difference. I try at least to do no harm. I had a student once many years ago who checked out of school one day, right after my class, and went home to commit suicide. That weighs heavy on me. I'm pretty sure I had nothing to do with it, but....
I have a student in one of my classes who moved in several months ago from Very Far Away. She has had a lot to deal with and has not dealt with it well at all. She has been very angry. Her mother has tried to help her her, even had her hospitalized for a few days until she could regain control. She came to my class to make up some work before school began, and then stayed to help me with some work, and she did a great job. I asked her if she could be my girl, Friday. She has come back several mornings, even one morning that she had a doctor's appointment and was missing the first part of the school day. Her mother emailed me that day to thank me and to tell me that the girl was finally starting to feel like she belonged and had really improved at home. Wow.

It is awesome to see her go from this angry chick to a funny, sweet girl who doesn't want to disappoint her teacher. And I am honored to be a part of it.

Duty

We all have our duty. Sometimes we shirk, sometimes we excel. Duty can take many forms- it is our duty as humans to care for each other, because we have that ability. I tell my kids that having a ability gives you a responsibility to use it well. We are kind to each other, treat each other with dignity and respect, not because someone is watching (like God or Santa Claus) but because of the merit in Doing Right because it is Right. We have a duty to keep our word. Say what you mean and mean what you say and all that. Keep your promises. Now, is it me, or does it seem like people aren't keeping their promises anymore?



I struggle these days keeping my hope for the future alive. I've becomes jaded. If people tell me something I often wonder if they are being truthful. I especially don't believe any of the talking heads I see on the boob tube (which is one reason why I don't watch the news).



In the dark of the night, I wonder what's wrong with me... have I lost some important piece of me- the ability to believe in people? And when, oh when, did I lose the ability to believe in myself?

//end whine



We have duty stations where I work. For 9 weeks we stand in a certain area of the compound and make sure there is no he-ing and she-ing or fights, our presence is mostly preventative in nature. If you are lucky enough, you have something to lean on and can grade papers... I was not so lucky this time. We have 1500 kids at my school and a community area that used to have grass. In the morning, the kids mill around there like sheep (that's where they learn to be sheeple I guess) while we act like those cute dogs and bark at them every now and again. There are usually a lot of kids there i nthe morning- several hundred. There are 5 teachers assigned to the area, supposedly spread out to the 4 quarters to watch them. Usually it was just 2 of us.

Now I ask you, what do you think 2 teachers can accomplish if something starts to go wrong in that area? Which it can- in a flash. And somehow whenever trouble is brewing, there is some secret teenage communications network that we can't tap into into, because suddenly, instead of three hundred kids, you have six hundred. And in this day of Jerry Springer Reactionary-ism, you can guess what a total fuck up a fight can turn into.

Anyway, yesterday was my last day there, and about 10 minutes before duty was over 2 of the teachers who almost never show up finally did, a minute or so apart. The first is a coach, very even keeled, pretty laid back. So I say, "Nice of you to show up for the last day." I've been giving him shit about it for weeks and he just laughs it off, taking the ribbing good-naturedly. The second lady shows up and I repeat my witty line, "Nice of you to show up."

Now, folks, I was kidding. Really. Not being bitchy or anything.

And then she gives me the classic "Fuck Off and Die" look, smiles and walks off.



Which of course, made the whole thing hysterical and got me laughing pretty hard.

Heh, joke her if she can't take a fuck.

Just a little focus

I feel compelled to write tonight. My inner voice has a definite twang tonight. She sounds like a Southern woman about to rip someone a new ass. So as you read this, remember to add extra syllables to the words and draaaaw them out.

First. I love teaching. There is nothing finer than having a student say "Aha, so that's why that happens!" or " man, Mrs. {Holder} you know everything!" (I assure you I do not). Or having them come back to me after a few years and tell me how much they learned. But I don't just teach science.
Now, I'm passionate about this.

High school is more than just facts.

It's about learning to do right because it is right. And as cliche' as that is, it is a truth that still stands as firm as it did 200 years ago. I believe it is my duty to help these kids take responsiblity for their life. To take ownership of it. To decide which beliefs are theirs and true, and which ones belong to others and should be discarded. We don't say "weird" or "stupid" in my class room. We do not belittle others if they are different from us, or even if they are, for that matter. I will not, will not! abide by a bully. We focus on the task at hand. We do not keep others from learning. We have the right to clean, working materials. We have the right to learn in peace. We have the right to be unafraid to express an opinion.

Pete had her first belt test last week and the ceremony was last evening. The Grand Master said that the best martial artist is a smart martial artist and what we really need is Cho Chum: Focus. Of the mind, body, and spirit. I really like that. I think I need some Cho Chum.

So, here's what I'm doing- remembering my purpose. Why I teach. Why I think I am the person who can do it. What skills I have to fulfill that purpose. What my goal is for each student and how I'm going to achieve my goal.
I cannot change the rest of it- the meetings, the paperwork, the frustration, the endless uphill battle, reluctant parents who don't care or think they have to be their child's "friend", parents who aren't there, meetings, paperwork. I will have cho chum.

I just needed to say that.

A Boy needs his Daddy

So I have this student. I vent about him to my family a couple of times a weeks, easy. He's smart. But he gets his way by pushing people away and pushing people's buttons. He lies, cheats, bullies, smarts off and is, in general, a pain in my ass.

Of course, I only have one set of rules in my class room- my way or the highway. And he regularly gets himself in trouble.
This kid brings a whole new meaning to the word "cheating". And lying. I'll tell you what, that boy would rather climb up a tree and tell you a lie than stand on the ground and tell you the truth.

And when you bust him on it- as I always do, he just smiles. And then we get to spend ten minutes explaining to his mother why, yes, indeed, her son did do that, and he's not worming his way out of it (no offence to worms, mind you).

So we have a great project we do every year. To protect this asshat's privacy (he deserves that) I won't give out too much, but it's so cool, the rest of the teachers in my department do it too.

Anywhats, he photocopies another student's work and turns it in as his own. Dumbass. It's not even a good photocopy. His mother wants to know if I saw the one he did at home.

Get this- I just had a conference with his mom this week. I told her, "Your son is a liar and a cheat. If he spent a fraction of the time actually doing his work that he spent getting out of it he would be passing. If I stopped teaching every time he did something wrong I'd never get anything done. Besides that, I have 25 other kids in that class room that deserve an education and he does not have the right to keep it from them. And that from then on, every time he caused a disruption in my classroom he would be sent to the office. period."

I felt terrible saying those word to her. I was disappointed in myself that I had not been able to reach him. I felt bad for her as a mother. Imagine being told those things about your own flesh and blood.
Who was a teenager.
These character traits usually don't just pop up (unless there are some chemicals mixed in). So this has happened before, been said to her before.

This boy, whose piggy toes she kissed as a baby, whose 1st steps are cherished memories, the boy she taught to ride a bike. He has brought him self to this place. It must break her heart.

Now, I ask you. How would you react?

I can garan-damn-tee you that I would check my child out of school right then and then proceed to beat the every-living shit out of him/her. In front of God and country.

You know why he acts like that? He didn't have a daddy to beat his ass when he needed it.

I know there are plenty of kids who do right because it is right, but there are times when a boy needs a spanking from his Daddy. Straigtens 'em out every time.

Time and Roots

A couple of days ago I saw the "community service" guys walking down the road cleaning up trash. My brother used to call them the"little people" since they looked tiny outside my father's truck window. Of course, two, maybe three, of them were former students of mine. Nice to know they're doing their part to keep the community clean.
See, drugs can have a positive impact on a community.
The night before one of my fellow teachers told me one of our former students had just been arrested, for raping little kids. Nice. I'm sure he'll have a good time in prison. His nickname in school was Li'l Juvie or something like that. I guess we didn't realize it wasn't a moniker so much a statement of sexual choice. Maybe he'll get to keep that nickname in prison.
What bothers me, though, is that people don't have those urges unless they, too, were subjected to them. I guess I could be wrong. I would have liked for him to have gotten some help sooner... now it might be too late.Kinda sad, he is only 18 or so...

But not all of my students end up in prison... one of former students is waiting tables at one of our fav restaurants in town. I taught her 9 years ago. She quit school, got pregnant, (not in that order) and was living in a trailer park with her illegal alien boyfriend. I tried to talk her out of it, but what did I know? I was just a teacher and she was in love. But she has finally gotten away from Loser-Boy, got her high school diploma, is married and has 3 1/2 year old twins, plus a five year old. (Wonder what happened to the pregnancy, the numbers don't add up)

It was a goose bump moment- in a good way. Teachers tell each other that you never know how you will touch a student's life, but we don't talk too much about how they touch our lives. How we worry about them and hope they don't fall into the abyss of time, drugs, hopelessness, poverty. It was good to see her.

It was these thoughts that were twirling around in my head when I walked in to the Doc's office (for routine maintenance) and saw a grandmother holding her infant grandson in her lap, staring face to face with him. She'd coo something and he would wiggle, never taking his eyes off her face. Remember those days? I said, "I bet you could just do that all day" she smiled and went back to cooing.

And I felt the rightness of the world.

Then the boy's mother came back into the waiting room. A former student of mine, of course. She was Special Ed. Very Special. Emotionally and mentally. She was always one extreme or another. Happy, furious, introverted, extroverted, modest, whorish, willing to learn, or totally shut down. In the end, I think she ended up in all self-contained classes. I would see her, from time to time, over the next few years and wonder if she ever got her life together.

Now, I know people change. Good grief, look at how far I've come. I hope, for her son's sake, she does too.

A Yo-Yo kind of day

I have a student, whom I'll call Tim, in one of my morning classes. Good-looking, dresses in expensive clothing (albeit 10 sizes too large and no belt), but doesn't really like being told what to do, especially by adults. You know who they are- the first sign of confrontation (to them, anyway) results in them digging their heels in deeeeep and becoming total asses. In front of the whole class. They might even be thinking to themselves at the time, "Now how do I get myself out of this situation I've created?" But their pride and self-image prevents them from stepping away. As the adult, it's my job to recognize this behavior for what it is and not make matters worse. Too often, though, adults don't or won't recognize it, and push ahead. I admit it. I've done it. But calling a kid out and embarrassing them in front of their peers doesn't work.

Tim decided to test my limits last week. And when ever there is a confrontation I know I will win. But not embarrass them. So I took the student out in the hall and tried to reason with him: these are my class rules. They are here for your safety. You will follow them, there are no ifs, ands, or buts. I want you to be able to get the most out of my class, please do as I ask.

We go back in the room and he proceeds to continue his behavior. He gets sent to the office.
He comes back in the the next day and continues the behavior. He immediately gets sent to the office for corrective action. When he gets back I explain I will be calling his house and talking to his mother.
So I'm dreading 170 odd days of show down that will undoubtedly escalate to much worse than passive aggressive behavior.

Today he comes in and he's a new man! He was pleasant, he greeted me, he shared stories of his life with me. Told me a story about seeing transvestites as a small boy and thinking they were "Pretty". Which earned him the nickname "Fruit" by his older brother.

He was so different, and the experience in that class was so different that I still get goosebumps.

That class might just end up my favorite.

Oh, and the Yo-Yo part? My last class has turned into boneheads.They spent so much time being argumentative that they did not get to do the lab. That's the second time it has happened. I'll be spending my planning period calling parents tomorrow...

phlogiston what?

I'm still reading my Scientist Book, about the history of science seen through the lives of Scientists. both willing and unwilling. Some of the earliest scientists were just trying to prove what the Church was saying. Some were just really curious and never published their works. Some were power grabbing men. Some were down right hateful. Not much has changed over the centuries, huh?
The study of chemistry had a slow start. The technology to control variables (heat, mass, etc) was just not there for a while. Chemists used candles to heat things, or special "spirit lamps" to heat their solutions. If the wanted more heat they added more candles. But having a steady, adjustable heat source just wasn't there. But they had some interesting ideas about heat. There were two schools of thought- Caloric and phlogiston. (Both were horribly wrong, since they thought heat was a Thing)
Phlogiston refers to a compound that everything has- and is given off during burning. It's what makes burning possible (according to those who believed). Remember this is during the 1700's. Phlogistated air (carbon dioxide) was made when things were burned (true) and non-phlogistated air could not be burned (nitrogen compounds) (I don't know if you can burn nitrogen).

People still had this idea of the caloric theory- that all matter had a finite amount of caloric, also a substance that came out when objects rubbed together or where burnt or in any way heated up.

You gotta give these guys props for trying to figure out what heat is, though.

It took over 100 hundred years for some one to notice that metals and other materials actually gained mass when they burned, instead of losing caloric or phlogiston. Not that scientists were stupid at that time, but that they had other things to discover first. All of these experiments were really trying to find out the nature of heat.

Finally, after many years, well into the 19th century, scientists were able to figure out that heat is really the transfer of energy.

Reading this makes me think of my own attempts at explaining heat to my students. The study of heat is usually very confusing- I get The Empty Stare at first. Followed by "What? What?" (Reminds me of little birds when they do that) And then they start to get it (most of them any way)
I tell them there is no such thing as cold- only less hot. (That always gets them. I have to explain to them that we had the terms "hot" and "cold" before we had an understanding of the nature of energy) If heat is the transfer of heat (and it is) , then what is temperature? What is the concept of hot and cold? Temperature is a measure of the transfer of energy. Hot means a transfer (in one direction) of energy, but cold might just as easily be a transfer of energy (in the opposite direction).

I say that, and I wait a few moments to let that sink in.

And then I tell them that you can add heat, but you can't add cold. Cold is the removal of energy.

And then I wait a few moments.
I must say, it's one of my favorite things to teach. I know, I have a place waiting for me in the Hallowed Halls of Geekdom.


I just love reading this book. It's like snapshots into the past. It gives you the sense that these guys were out there looking for answers (sometimes at great personal risk) to find answers and order in the natural world. The books tells the story of their lives. Some of these guys were just in it for the science, some wanted glory, some were lying cheating spies.



More later.

Ack!

The day started out quite well, no blood or whining, we left on time, got to work on time. Then a teacher told me about a new policy- "credit recovery". Students with a 65-69 average can come in during post planning and complete an assignment to get those extra points.

I have a twitch in my right now.

It doesn't matter all the other stuff that we have offered and the student hasn't taken advantage of- in the last 15 and a half weeks of school.: extra credit, extra time, retake quizzes for full credit, correct tests for half credit, tutoring, progress reports, Saturday school. We are only supposed to give work for excused absences. But now we are required to give this recovery work.

I know- I'm taking Thursday and Friday off, but I'm coming in on Saturday for 14 hours to make up the time- I won't lose and sick leave that way, I can "recover" my hours.

At what point are students held responsible for their own actions?
God, I am so sick of this.

Checkit:

Students will rise to your level of expectations. If you lower your expectations, students will not have so far to rise. Kids are kids. It is total BS to give them yet another chance. I don't even want to hear about that "one student who'll pass" That kid will pass anyway, because he/she will do the work all along.


And while I'm at it, at some point in your life you figured out that you are part of a community, and that there are acceptable behaviors and unacceptable behaviors. Like, don't spit on a sidewalk, people walk there. Or, you can't solve all of your issues with violence. You have to learn to use your words, and to hear the words of others. I have a junior who has really gone off half-cocked over some horse-playing. The horse playing had been fine for several days, then Bam, it's not and the Junior is charging the freshmen and won't back off until the freshmen gets hit and pushed. Both students got the same consequence, but the Junior just won't stop. To the point where there will be more consequences. Freakin' Drama Queen. Go ahead and hit the kid so we can send your ass to jail so we can finish the year in peace, fer' crying out loud.

Today started so great, the girls were in a good mood, even singing. We left on time, a rarity. I listened to some good tunes on the way to work, got to my duty station on time, even had a few kids greet me as they passed by. One of my more bubble-brained student told me she was "getting much better at driving" (one of the many reasons I like to get to work early is I get to avoid the student drivers).

so then it just went to shit. At the end of the day, I am just left feeling very disappointed in the administration, a parent, and several students.

So, I'm off to continue working on my time travel machine. I think today needs a do-over.

A slip of the Freudian tongue

I had the students in my class conduct a scavenger hunt of sorts on covalent compounds in the class room. There are clues and questions on the worksheet and the answers are taped around the room, answer side down. The kids seem to enjoy this as it invovles movement along with their minds working, along with a little socialization.
There were questions like find 4 objects in this room that are covalent compounds (any thing with water, paper, or wood)
Some of the "answers" are duds and say
"I am not a clue"

One of my students, a sweet girl, comes up to me yesterday and wants to know why her sign says
" I don't have a clue"

Heh, been chuckling over that all evening.

All in a days work

One of the policies at our school is that we call the parent of any child with a failing grade before the report card comes out. Which is indeed a good idea.
They also want:
-Weekly teacher meetings per subject area and content area
-Intervention strategies implented and documented for students who are not passing
-plan for a least a week ahead with a new set of standards, that don't match the book or its resources
-Hold tutoring sessions
-Go to extracurricular activities
-eat lunch in the lunch room, not our classrooms,
-have 1-2 9week duty stations for 25-30 minutes daily
-mentor new teachers
-mentor 2-5 students
- and teach 55 minutes every day.
-grade papers
-post grades to the grading program


I think I'm gonna need two Geritols a day...