tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149032492024-03-16T04:11:13.324-05:00A Shrewdness of ApesAn Okie teacher banished to the Midwest.
"Education is not the filling a bucket but the lighting of a fire."-- William Butler Yeats"Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.comBlogger1144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-43797735005643263912012-03-19T16:42:00.002-05:002012-03-19T16:52:41.696-05:00I am shocked-- SHOCKED!-- to find that cheating is going on here!So apparently, to make sure we don't get shocked, let's just <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/missouri-fails-to-check-for-standardized-test-cheating/article_bba8c338-1763-5883-b6c2-7bdac952328d.html">NOT LOOK.</a><br /><br /><blockquote>One case accuses a teacher of filling in bubble sheets of her students who should have been taking state exams. Another says administrators called pupils into the office so they could have a second chance at questions they missed.<br /><br />All told, more than 100 reports of standardized testing irregularities, including cheating, poured into the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2010 and 2011, according to documentation obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.<br />Thirty-two of those were from the St. Louis area.<br /><br />And yet, the Missouri education department does nothing on its own to seek out cases of test fraud, despite the availability of effective statistical tools that could weed out potential abuses. Of the $8.4 million the state spends to administer the Missouri Assessment Program, nothing is spent on test fraud detection services.<br /><br />Failure to invest in the integrity of Missouri's test scores has continued even as schools face rising pressure — and in some cases, incentives — to improve under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. And it has continued in the face of test cheating scandals across the nation — from Atlanta to Washington to Philadelphia to Los Angeles.<br /><br />Critics suggest it's simply easier for states to look the other way. "If you don't look, you don't find," said Bob Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing. "You are void of embarrassment by not asking tough questions."<br /><br />Missouri education officials rely on a system of self-reporting that assumes teachers and administrators will come to the state when they know of possible abuse. Under this approach, even when allegations of testing irregularities are reported — as they were 41 times in 2011 — the state and school districts rarely engage in the kind of rigorous statistical review many say is needed.<br /><br />The state has also dismantled a program due to funding reductions that had sent inspectors randomly into schools to ensure tests are administered properly.<br /><br />State education officials say looking for red flags would add thousands of dollars to the testing contract at a time when the state has cut department funding. "There is a cost to that," said Sharon Hoge, an assistant commissioner at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. "We have tried to rely on self reports in our districts in Missouri. I'm not telling you that means there are not things possibly that are going on that we don't know about."</blockquote><br /><br />Read the whole thing. It's fascinating.<br /><br />I think our state legislators need to realize there's a cost to not checking on reports of cheating. And that is that... excuse me if this is obvious... schools and principals and teachers and students will cheat because there is so much riding on the outcome of these tests."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-88897160341293037672012-02-07T05:21:00.000-06:002012-02-07T05:21:00.711-06:00Idaho teachers push back against mindless implementation of technologyIs technology the solution to problems of student motivation and learning? <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/technology/idaho-teachers-fight-a-reliance-on-computers.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all">Some Idaho teachers are pushing back</a> against the blanket assumption that the adoption of technology will make everything better:<br /><br /><blockquote>Last year, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law that requires all high school students to take some online classes to graduate, and that the students and their teachers be given laptops or tablets. The idea was to establish Idaho’s schools as a high-tech vanguard.<br /><br />To help pay for these programs, the state may have to shift tens of millions of dollars away from salaries for teachers and administrators. And the plan envisions a fundamental change in the role of teachers, making them less a lecturer at the front of the room and more of a guide helping students through lessons delivered on computers.<br /><br />This change is part of a broader shift that is creating tension — a tension that is especially visible in Idaho but is playing out across the country. Some teachers, even though they may embrace classroom technology, feel policy makers are thrusting computers into classrooms without their input or proper training. And some say they are opposed to shifting money to online classes and other teaching methods whose benefits remain unproved.<br /><br />“Teachers don’t object to the use of technology,” said Sabrina Laine, vice president of the American Institutes for Research, which has studied the views of the nation’s teachers using grants from organizations like the Gates and Ford Foundations. “They object to being given a resource with strings attached, and without the needed support to use it effectively to improve student learning.”<br /><br />In Idaho, teachers have been in open revolt. They marched on the capital last spring, when the legislation was under consideration. They complain that lawmakers listened less to them than to heavy lobbying by technology companies, including Intel and Apple. Teacher and parent groups gathered 75,000 verified signatures, more than was needed, to put a referendum on the ballot next November that could overturn the law.<br /><br />“This technology is being thrown on us. It’s being thrown on parents and thrown on kids,” said Ms. Rosenbaum, 32, who has written letters to the governor and schools superintendent. In her letters she tells them she is a Republican and a Marine, because, she says, it has become fashionable around the country to dismiss complaining teachers as union-happy liberals.<br /><br />“I fought for my country,” she said. “Now I’m fighting for my kids.”<br /><br />Gov. C. L. Otter, known as Butch, and Tom Luna, the schools superintendent, who have championed the plan, said teachers had been misled by their union into believing the changes were a step toward replacing them with computers. Mr. Luna said the teachers’ anger was intensified by other legislation, also passed last spring, that eliminated protections for teachers with seniority and replaced it with a pay-for-performance system.<br /><br />Some teachers have also expressed concern that teaching positions could be eliminated and their raises reduced to help offset the cost of the technology.<br /><br />Mr. Luna acknowledged that many teachers in the state were conservative Republicans like him — making Idaho’s politics less black and white than in states like Wisconsin and New Jersey, where union-backed teachers have been at odds with politicians.<br /><br />Mr. Luna said he understood that technological change could be scary, particularly because teachers would need to adapt to new ways of working.<br /><br />“The role of the teacher definitely does change in the 21st century. There’s no doubt,” Mr. Luna said. “The teacher does become the guide and the coach and the educator in the room helping students to move at their own pace.”<br /><br />Many details about how students would use their laptop or tablet are still being debated. But under the state’s plan, that teacher will not always be in the room. The plan requires high school students to take online courses for two of their 47 graduation credits.<br /><br />Mr. Luna said this would allow students to take subjects that were not otherwise available at their schools and familiarize them with learning online, something he said was increasingly common in college.<br /><br />The computer, he added, “becomes the textbook for every class, the research device, the advanced math calculator, the word processor and the portal to a world of information.”<br /><br />Idaho is going beyond what other states have done in decreeing what hardware students and teachers should use and how they should use it. But such requirements are increasingly common at the district level, where most decisions about buying technology for schools are made.<br /><br />Teachers are resisting, saying that they prefer to employ technology as it suits their own teaching methods and styles. Some feel they are judged on how much they make use of technology, regardless of whether it improves learning. Some teachers in the Los Angeles public schools, for example, complain that the form that supervisors use to evaluate teachers has a check box on whether they use technology, suggesting that they must use it for its own sake.<br /><br />That is a concern shared by Ms. Rosenbaum, who teaches at Post Falls High School in this town in northern Idaho, near Coeur d’Alene. Rather than relying on technology, she seeks to engage students with questions — the Socratic method — as she did recently as she was taking her sophomore English class through “The Book Thief,” a novel about a girl in a foster family in Germany during World War II.<br /><br />Ms. Rosenbaum, tall with an easy smile but also a commanding presence, stood in the center of the room with rows of desks on each side, pacing, peppering the students with questions and using each answer to prompt the next. What is an example of foreshadowing in this chapter? Why did the character say that? How would you feel in that situation?<br /><br />Her room mostly lacks high-tech amenities. Homework assignments are handwritten on whiteboards. Students write journal entries in spiral notebooks. On the walls are two American flags and posters paying tribute to the Marines, and on the ceiling a panel painted by a student thanks Ms. Rosenbaum for her service. Ms. Rosenbaum did use a computer and projector to show a YouTube video of the devastation caused by bombing in World War II. She said that while technology had a role to play, her method of teaching was timeless. “I’m teaching them to think deeply, to think. A computer can’t do that.”<br /><br />She said she was mystified by the requirement that students take online courses. She is taking some classes online as she works toward her master’s degree, and said they left her uninspired and less informed than in-person classes. Ms. Rosenbaum said she could not fathom how students would have the discipline to sit in front of their computers and follow along when she had to work each minute to keep them engaged in person.<br /><br />Some of her views are echoed by other teachers, like Doug StanWiens, 44, a popular teacher of advanced history and economics at Boise High School. He is a heavy technology user, relying on an interactive whiteboard and working with his students to build a Web site that documents local architecture, a project he says will create a resource for the community.<br /><br />“I firmly believe that technology is a tool for teachers to use,” he said. “It’s time for teachers to get moving on it.” But he also spoke last year on the capital steps in opposition to the state’s program, which he said he saw as a poorly thought-out, one-size-fits-all approach.<br /><br />Half of teachers, he suspects, will not use the new computers. And the online learning requirement seems to him to be a step toward cutting back on in-person teaching and, perhaps eventually, on not having students congregate in schools at all.<br /><br />“We can just get rid of sports and band and just give everyone a laptop and call it good,” he said.<br /><br />Stefani Cook, who teaches accounting and business at Rigby High School in southeast Idaho and was the state’s 2011 Teacher of the Year, also teaches a modernized typing course to 32 online students after-hours. A contractor for the state pays her to teach the course and also to help other teachers shape and present their online lessons.<br /><br />Ms. Cook is a believer in classroom technology and generally supports the state’s plan. She is on a 38-member task force that is working out the logistics of deploying computers to teachers next fall and, eventually, to 80,000 high schoolers. The group will also organize training for teachers. Ms. Cook said she did worry about how teachers would be trained when some already work long hours and take second jobs to make ends meet.<br /><br />“I’m excited about it,” she said. But some teachers, she said, “think it’s just another thing that they’ve got to do.”<br /><br />Mr. Luna, the superintendent, said training was the most essential part of the plan. He said millions of dollars would be set aside for this but that the details were still being worked out. Teachers will need to learn how to use the new devices and how to incorporate them into their lesson plans, which could involve rethinking longstanding routines.<br /><br />For his part, Governor Otter said that putting technology into students’ hands was the only way to prepare them for the work force. Giving them easy access to a wealth of facts and resources online allows them to develop critical thinking skills, he said, which is what employers want the most.<br /><br />When asked about the quantity of unreliable information on the Internet, he said this also worked in favor of better learning. “There may be a lot of misinformation,” he said, “but that information, whether right or wrong, will generate critical thinking for them as they find the truth.”<br /><br />Mr. Otter said of a teacher like Ms. Rosenbaum, “If she only has an abacus in her classroom, she’s missing the boat.”<br /><br />Some of the state’s politicians disagree with that message. State Senator Dean L. Cameron, a Republican who is a co-chairman of the senate budget committee, said there was no proof that the technology improved learning. He said he felt the legislature was “dazzled” by presentations given by lobbyists for high-tech companies — who also gave generously to Mr. Luna’s re-election campaign.<br /><br />(Mr. Luna said that $44,000 of his $300,000 in donations to his last campaign came directly or indirectly from technology companies, but he said that was because they supported his agenda, not because they shaped it.)<br /><br />Mr. Cameron said of the law: “It’s almost as if it was written by the top technology providers in the nation.” He added: “And you’d think students would be excited about getting a mobile device, but they’re saying: not at the expense of teachers.”<br /><br />Last year at Post Falls High School, 600 students — about half of the school — staged a lunchtime walkout to protest the new rules. Some carried signs that read: “We need teachers, not computers.”<br /><br />Having a new laptop “is not my favorite idea,” said Sam Hunts, a sophomore in Ms. Rosenbaum’s English class who has a blond mohawk. “I’d rather learn from a teacher.” </blockquote><br /><br />The other thing that makes me annoyed here is that Ms. Rosenbaum feels that she needs to tell her legislators that she is a Marine and a Republican in order to be taken seriously since she is a teacher. When can we get to the point where our legislators feel they need to try to listen to all of their constituents, and not just the ones with whom they agree?<br /><br />But, furthermore, if technology is the solution to all of our problems, why do schools still have students who know so little about the world around them, much less the basics of an education? What I see happening all around me is that the schools put thousands and thousands of dollars into buying technology, but in my district they are actually discussing laying off our technology specialists and demanding that teachers implement the new software system on their own time while we already have overloaded servers, iffy electrical systems, and antiquated printers-- not to mention that the broadband in our district is so slow it ought to be called "narrowband."<br /><br />But, hey, giving every kid a notebook computer or tablet will make us look ever so cutting-edge! And of course, they will never be broken, misused, pawned, stolen, sabotaged, or hacked-- ever ever.<br /><br />Right."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-80770493025517217772012-02-03T06:09:00.000-06:002012-02-03T06:09:00.450-06:00As Sam Cooke sang, "La da da da da da da- history!"Yep, <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18180446">knowledge of US history</a> has seldom been demonstrated so poorly by so many, including those who claim to be patriots:<br /><br /><blockquote>AMERICAN history is in vogue, if not well understood. American revolutionaries are reincarnated as tea-partiers. Pocket editions of the constitution are a must-have accessory for politicians. Last month Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman and tea-party favourite, told Iowans that America’s Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly until slavery was no more”. Never mind that this was untrue. It sounded nice.<br /><br />History teaching is far from the biggest crisis in American education. But it is a problem nevertheless, and a neglected one. A broad effort to create voluntary national standards does not include history. No Child Left Behind, George Bush’s education law, tests pupils on maths, reading and science. On February 14th Barack Obama stressed the importance of teaching science, technology and 21st-century skills. Meanwhile America’s schoolchildren score even more poorly in history than in maths: 64% of high-school seniors scored “basic” on a national maths test in 2009, but only 47% reached that level on the most recent national history test.<br /><br />One problem, a new report argues, is that states have pathetic standards for what history should be taught. Good standards do not ensure that students will learn history. But they are a crucial guide, according to Chester Finn of the Fordham Institute, a conservative think-tank. A study from Fordham, published on February 16th, grades each state for the quality of its history standards. Twenty-eight states received a “D” or an “F”.<br /><br />Many states emphasise abstract concepts rather than history itself. In Delaware, for example, pupils “will not be expected to recall any specific event or person in history”. Other states teach children about early American history only once, when they are 11. Yet other states show scars from the culture wars. A steady, leftward lean has been followed by a violent lurch to the right. Standards for Texas, passed last year, urge pupils to question the separation of church and state and “evaluate efforts by global organisations to undermine US sovereignty through the use of treaties”.<br /><br />Some states fare better. South Carolina has set impressive standards—for example, urging teachers to explain that colonists did not protest against taxation simply because taxes were too high. Other states, Mr Finn argues, would do well to follow South Carolina’s example. “Twenty-first century skills” may help pupils become better workers; learning history makes them better citizens.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />Why is it that many of our nation's educational leaders, including politicians with no education experience, feel that our citizens and future voters do not need to understand our nation's history? Sometimes I get paranoid and wonder if it isn't deliberate. Then that freaks me out."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-82779309055896620192012-02-01T22:02:00.002-06:002012-02-01T22:06:52.394-06:00School suspends student over hair grown for donation<a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120201/SCHOOLS/202010428/School-insists-suspended-student-must-trim-restyle-hair-return?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE">This is absolutely moronic</a>:<br /><blockquote>The board of a Flint-area charter school refused Wednesday evening to relent on its insistence that a high school student cut or restyle his long hair before allowing him to return to classes.<br /><br />Instead, the board of Madison Academy offered four options to 17-year-old J.T. Gaskins and his mother, Christa Plante, during a meeting with the pair.<br /><br />The options: Gaskins could trim his hair as originally requested; he could braid it, get a perm or any other styling to help him comply with the rules; he could transfer to another school; or organize a fundraiser for the charity.<br /><br />"We would like to have J.T. return tomorrow," board president Nicholas Mihailoff said. "We feel like we're presenting four very reasonable options."<br /><br />Plante said after the meeting she was exhausted and needed time to evaluate her options to "make the best decision for everybody."<br /><br />She told board she would let them know if Gaskins will be attending class Thursday, Mihailoff said.<br /><br />Gaskins, a senior at the school, has been suspended for more than a week for violating the school's dress code. He has been growing his hair out since the holidays to donate it to Locks of Love, a charity that helps make wigs for cancer patients.<br /><br />The academy's policy requires male students to keep their hair clean, neat and off the collar.</blockquote><br /><br />Read the whole thing.<br /><br />If he was a girl, of course, there would be no issue. Apparently, this charter school wants to be excused from exercising charity, compassion, good judgment and empathy."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-50754887528377423682012-01-03T23:27:00.003-06:002012-01-04T00:02:54.655-06:00Iowa is like a reef, and ships just keep crashing into it.Wow, looking at the preliminary results from the Republican caucuses tonight, and I gotta say: Really?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2012-iowa-caucus-primary-campaign-ends-with-candidate-attacks/2012/01/03/gIQAN2taYP_story.html">Santorum and Romney in a virtual tie, with Ron Paul chasing third.</a><br /><br />I have to admit that the voters in Iowa are just completely incomprehensible to me. Well, no that's not true. I mean, have you ever been to a caucus? <br /><br />I have. <br /><br />There you are shut up with a bunch of strangers for hours. The set-up is meant to draw only the most dedicated (or the morbidly curious-- it WAS kind of like watching an overripe pumpkin get hit by an aluminum bat in sheer messiness), which of course, skews the reliability of the results.<br /><br />And then there's the demographics of Iowa itself, <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/19000.html">courtesy of the US Census Bureau.</a> It's got a little less than one percent of the US population, and its population has grown at less than half the rate of the country as a whole over the last decade. It's 91% white. Just under 3% of its population is African American, and 1.7% of its population is Asian. Its Hispanic population in 5%. Less than 4% of its population is foreign born. Its percentage of people who report speaking a language other than English in the home is one-third that of the United States as a whole. Its high school graduation rate is slightly higher than the national average (good for y'all!) but its percentage of those holding a bachelor's degree is slightly lower (aww).<br /><br />I am sure it's a lovely state. But it certainly is not representative of the US as a whole. Is that why the national parties cater to it by allowing it to seize the hopes and dreams of politicians every four years far out of proportion to its actual relevance as a testing ground? I mean, this place is so bland it makes mayonnaise look like a spice.<br /><br />And now, we see Rick Santorum tied with Mitt Romney (speaking of mayonnaise) as the preferred candidates out of the field, although by what appears to be the lowest percentages and the lowest turnout in quite some time, even by Iowa standards. And then libertarian Ron Paul, the guy who redefines the phrase "rope-a-dope" in my mind, follows the Yin and Yang Brothers.<br /><br />I am... bemused? concerned? confused? by not only the field of candidates the Republicans have managed to cobble together, sure, but also by this refusal to consider anyone with any interest (not talking experience, but just interest, here) in foreign policy while we've got some pretty serious stuff going on in the world. Now of course the economy is a vital concern, and it should be. But I don't see Santorum or Paul having a dog in that hunt either. Santorum's thinly veiled social and racial warfare just has to be on the verge of collapse. Ron Paul's naked gospel of anti-social selfishness and self-centeredness makes the 1970s seem like a Salvation Army campaign. And Romney, poor Romney, if only we didn't feel like this guy will say or believe anything (and therefore nothing) in order to get elected (Sound familiar? You could say this about Barack Obama, the winner of the 2008 Iowa Democratic caucuses, with some credence, as well). So I have a question directed to Iowa:<br /><br />WHAT IN TARNATION ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING???<br /><br />Thank you. That is all. I must go lie down now."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-29217440586501491282011-12-11T19:29:00.002-06:002011-12-11T19:40:50.316-06:00What can you deduce from these clues?1. Kid asks if she can start staying after school with me every day of the week so I can personally fix all of her test-taking problems.<br /><br />2. Work from absences three months ago is just randomly left on my keyboard-- sometimes, along with bribes of my favorite candy.<br /><br />3. Parents suddenly start checking Precious's grades online every five minutes.<br /><br />4. Parents have placed a call block on all numbers from the school district.<br /><br />5. Parents unleash avalanches of emails questioning all 43 grades in the gradebook.<br /><br />6. Parents and kids claim that they cannot comprehend my classroom website, particularly, that they can't find the list of deadlines ANYWHERE (it is under the tab called, strangely enough, DEADLINES).<br /><br />7. Parents and kids start asking if kids can retake tests.<br /><br />8. I start getting emails from aunts and grandmas.<br /><br /><br /><br /><center>Well? Have you guessed????</center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLB_UdtOFwHavoenf2a1KkJE95fLhlcxkTkPHYl4IljmJNo0Db8Iduc_yrvZw57406eYIzVUJHDQB4dT8O34t043AOcZEQf8nZz63Vb_UY51AOnO2j4UYPy0vhpojijvxy5-WC/s1600/ss10.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 322px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLB_UdtOFwHavoenf2a1KkJE95fLhlcxkTkPHYl4IljmJNo0Db8Iduc_yrvZw57406eYIzVUJHDQB4dT8O34t043AOcZEQf8nZz63Vb_UY51AOnO2j4UYPy0vhpojijvxy5-WC/s400/ss10.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5685050391208655762" /></a><br /><br />It's the end of the semester fast approaching!!!!"Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-65042369507592032772011-11-19T16:21:00.005-06:002011-11-19T16:54:18.671-06:00Testify!Hooray! Evaluation time again! This time my administrator came in on the day I had a raging sinus infection, but c'est la vie. I really didn't care because frankly, the Cornelius door is ALWAYS open.<br /><br />Anyway, the kids tried their very best to make me look good (bless their little hearts!), we had a great discussion, and I showed up the next day for my post-observation conference.<br /><br />She was very complementary. Very. She actually said that she believed I was the best teacher in the department (which isn't true, but is still very nice to hear). But she was pretty insistent about it and cited numerous examples. For well over half an hour, and I was pretty embarrassed, let me tell you. She said she actually stopped scripting because she got lost in the lesson and was actually learning.<br /><br />But...<br /><br />(There always is one, isn't there?)<br /><br />The reason I mention the complements is to discuss what was written down.<br /><br />Nothing.<br /><br />Boilerplate language: "Ms. Cornelius is competent in her knowledge of subject matter." "Ms. Cornelius works with other staff members."<br /><br />If she really thought that my teaching was that awesome, it would be nice to see her testify to that. And you know the etymology of the word, "testify," don't you?<br /><br /><br />( In the ancient world, men swore the truth about something by putting their hand on their testicles. Thus, they were "testes- fying.")<br /><br />Our administrators have apparently been completely warned against saying anything complementary NO MATTER HOW STRONGLY the administrator believes that complements are in order). The top ranking on our evaluation forms is "meets expectations."<br /><br />So, in other words, our evaluations are NOT actually supposed to indicate any real evaluation.<br /><br />Yes, and Arne Duncan wants me to roll the dice on merit pay, right? I can already tell you what would happen if that were instituted in my district. Either NO ONE would get merit pay and raises would actually disappear except for the superintendent and his staff, OR the nattering nabobs of nepotism that haunt the office and the eight-legged administrators (those with a staff member so far up their administraors' keisters that they look like they have eight legs).<br /><br />I know I am a good teacher. But I would like my written evaluations to honestly reflect my strengths. The administration has been instructed to write these non-evaluations so that they can later fire us at will with no evidence that we were ever anything but "adequate."<br /><br />It's actually insulting."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-77857593942993429792011-11-11T18:27:00.000-06:002011-11-11T18:27:00.561-06:00The (Mis)adventures of Yo-yo BoyOne of the things the Petty Bureaucrats Who Think They Know All don't get about teaching-- among many, many, many, MANY things!-- is the emotional care and guidance teachers expend upon their students. This part of the student-teacher relationship has very little to do (in an obvious way) about test scores and yet it cannot be ignored.<br /><br />One of my students is Yo-yo Boy. Yo-yo Boy's dad and mom are not in the picture, but YYB does have a cousin and her husband. YYB has some issues: he will lie absolutely to your face, he will steal anything not nailed down, he has a trillion excuses and a healthy self-pitying martyr complex for any failures on his part, he is absolutely mesmerized by the presence of female persons without having the minutest idea of how to appropriately interact with them. Worse, he is a victim of the rankest social promotion on the part of a neighboring school district that I have ever seen-- to the extent that he was (non)functionally illiterate when we first got him in our high school. Yo-yo Boy has bounced around from home to home, school to school, suspension to suspension.<br /><br />It is my happy duty to teach this young fella. It is also my happy duty to impart the following wisdom, in the order in which it occurred:<br />1) Ms. Cornelius does NOT want to know the color of your underwear, and neither does anyone else.<br />2) Grabbing the derriere of a young lady you do not know does NOT enamor her of you and will indeed get you suspended.<br />3) The secret to passing a class is to... get this!-- do the assignments, study for tests and quizzes, and pay attention in class.<br />4) The preliminary secret to #3 is to bring a pencil, your assignments, and a book to class every day. Without fail.<br />5) Dudes do not carry purses in our neck of the woods, so having one in your possession will cause you to get jugged for stealing.<br />6) Do not mouth off to the people providing you with shelter or fight with their own children, or you will get thrown out of the house, even if they love you.<br />7) You are not a bad enough mamma- jamma to make it on the streets for even five seconds, so pay attention to #6.<br />8) You will get fired from your job if you do not show up on time, so yes, Ms. Cornelius counts tardies. Plus, you do not be engaging in #2 or #5 so that you then violate #8.<br />9) Ms. Cornelius will cross-check every single thing you tell her, so don't even bother to lie.<br />10) If you do not understand, ask.<br /><br />Sadly, Yo-yo Boy violated #6 one too many times. I do not know if I will see him again. <br /><br />Or he could turn up tomorrow. <br /><br />That's just part of the teaching life in a real public school, where testing is sometimes the least measure of our worth."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-11792608490210154032011-11-09T21:13:00.002-06:002011-11-09T21:20:10.507-06:00This is amazing.How would you like to be a teacher for 55 years?<br /><br />How would you like to be a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/nyregion/madeleine-brennan-principal-of-dyker-heights-is-honored.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share">principal of a middle school for 48 years?</a><br /><br /><blockquote>Madeleine P. Brennan maintains Dyker Heights Intermediate School 201 in Brooklyn as something of a time capsule.<br /><br />Female secretaries, guidance counselors and assistant principals are asked to wear dresses or skirts; teachers may wear slacks, but not dungarees; men all wear ties. The marble staircase shines; the hallways are painted a classic pale blue. Each year before Christmas, there is Rhinestone Week, in which Mrs. Brennan encourages staff members to rummage through their grandmothers’ things for old costume jewelry to wear.<br /><br />But the prize artifact of the past is Mrs. Brennan herself, who has been principal of the school for 48 years, longer than most of her teachers have been alive — longer, experts believe, than any other principal in the country. When she first arrived to work at this imposing brick building in March 1963, John F. Kennedy was president, ZIP codes were not yet in use, and the nearby Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was still under construction.<br /><br />She has outlasted more than a dozen schools chancellors, who made what she described as “little changes here and there,” and watched a student body dominated by the children of Italian immigrants transform into one that is 45 percent Asian-American and 18 percent Hispanic.<br /><br />But as the city embarks on an overhaul of its middle schools, Mrs. Brennan believes that what works remains the same. Consistent rules and consequences. A dedicated, hard-working staff. A calendar stuffed with activities like a Shakespeare fair and an annual musical. Sincere care for your charges.<br /><br />“Teenagers fascinate me,” Mrs. Brennan said in an interview in her pin-straight office. “They are peculiar ducks, neither fish nor fowl. And you have to love them to really work with them. If you don’t love them, you are up a tree.” </blockquote><br /><br />Read the whole thing."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-62103144968033530932011-11-07T13:01:00.003-06:002011-11-07T13:20:00.584-06:00The Herritage Foundation thinks I'm overpaid.According to <a href="http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/shocker-teachers-make-50-more-than-private-sector-workers/">this report</a>, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, et al., teachers are overpaid.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/money-education-problem-paying-teachers-less-092402072.html">Here</a> is an analysis from Time magazine via Yahoo News that summarizes the report. The claim that teachers are overpaid is based upon the following assumptions:<br />1) Teachers have lower cognitive ability-- or to put it another way, IQs.<br />Really? I'll put my IQ up against that of Joseph Coors (one of the original founders of the Heritage Foundation) any day. And I know plenty of mentally negligible people who work in the brewing industry. <br /><br />2) Public school teachers get paid more than private school teachers.<br />Right, and private school teachers also are often not certified, or many of them would teach in the public schools.<br /><br />3) People entering teaching from other fields get an average 9% raise over the pay from their previous job.<br />How does this prove anything other than the fact that people indeed usually try to move into a new profession in order to make more money than in the profession they are leaving behind?<br /><br />Apparently, they also calculated "vacation" into the benefits that makes teachers over paid. There's always that misconception hanging out there. So let me try to explain this simply: Teachers get NO paid vacation. Part-time UPS drivers get more paid vacation than we do. We have unpaid summer breaks, during which times many teachers work second jobs or work for free on planning and preparation for the upcoming school year.<br /><br />The whole thing is laughable."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-30863261859603204342011-11-04T21:08:00.005-05:002011-11-04T22:38:56.099-05:00The soundtrack of my life, after SteveTransitions playlist<br /><br />Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs. You helped me fill my life with music. All Things Must Pass.<br /><br />Greg Laswell, <span style="font-style:italic;">How the Day Sounds</span><br />George Harrison, <span style="font-style:italic;">All Things Must Pass</span><br />John Martyn, <span style="font-style:italic;">May You Never</span><br />Gillian Welch, <span style="font-style:italic;">Dark Turn of Mind</span><br />Imogen Heap, <span style="font-style:italic;">Wait It Out</span><br />Iron & Wine, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Boy With a Coin</span><br />The Civil Wars, <span style="font-style:italic;">20 Years</span><br />Joni Mitchell, <span style="font-style:italic;">A Case of You</span><br />Jude Cole, <span style="font-style:italic;">Right There Now</span><br />Fountains of Wayne, <span style="font-style:italic;">All Kinds of Time</span><br />Ingrid Michaelson, <span style="font-style:italic;">All Love</span><br />Madeleine Peyroux, <span style="font-style:italic;">Dance Me To The End of Love</span><br />The Jayhawks, <span style="font-style:italic;">Tampa to Tulsa</span><br />J. D. Souther, <span style="font-style:italic;">Faithless Love</span><br />Jackson Browne, <span style="font-style:italic;">Fountain of Sorrow</span><br />Jonatha Brooke, <span style="font-style:italic;">No Net Below</span><br />Jennifer Warnes, <span style="font-style:italic;">It Goes Like It Goes</span><br />Jane Siberry, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Life is The Red Wagon</span><br />Kate Bush, <span style="font-style:italic;">This Woman's Work</span><br />Joan Baez, <span style="font-style:italic;">Simple Twist of Fate</span><br />Fleet Foxes, <span style="font-style:italic;">White Winter Hymnal</span><br />k. d. lang, <span style="font-style:italic;">Simple</span><br />The Antlers, <span style="font-style:italic;">Shiva</span><br />The Wailin' Jennys, <span style="font-style:italic;">Calling All Angels</span><br />Jane Monheit, <span style="font-style:italic;">Somewhere Over the Rainbow</span>"Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-17222970763313112702011-10-27T17:27:00.000-05:002011-10-27T17:27:00.600-05:00Add this to the list of things that bureaucrats don't understand about teachers' lives.So here's a situation.<br /><br />A parent requested a conference with a teacher I know during conference time. This parent began yelling and gesticulating wildly during the conference, until the teacher asked the parent to leave. By the way, the teacher in question is so calm, he's practically a reincarnation of the Buddha. Parent stormed off and went to an administrator and made a bunch of wild claims about the teacher and then stormed out of the administrator's office.<br /><br />So far, not all that unusual, right?<br /><br />Here's where it gets interesting: the parent's kid approached the teacher a few days later, accused him of threatening the mother, and then threatened to attack the teacher. This was done IN FRONT OF WITNESSES.<br /><br />Wow. Makes Race to the Top seem kind of insignificant and out-of-touch, doesn't it?<br /><br />The assumption that students are all here to learn, that students are all cooperative, sane, and non-violent, is just not a part of the reality of teaching in a public school. That goes for parents, too.<br /><br />And it's certainly true that the majority of students and parents do not behave this way. But this kind of family is becoming ever more common. There have been more assaults or threatened assaults on teachers of my acquaintance this year that any year that I can remember since I started teaching school back in the 1980s.<br /><br />Now, luckily, the student has been suspended from school for the maximum allowed time, which is good, since it is known that the family has guns in the house. It is good to know that the administrators took this seriously.<br /><br />So maybe Arne Duncan has some advice about this situation from his vast well of educational experience? If so, I'd like to hear it."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com67tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-22986406453180595002011-10-24T05:18:00.000-05:002011-10-24T05:18:00.088-05:00Open thread: the late great assignmentQuery submitted for your approval: Do you accept late work from students? If so, how much, how often, and at what consequence?<br /><br />What is your district policy on this?<br /><br />Inquiring minds want to know...."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-42825531302181806352011-10-18T17:05:00.002-05:002011-10-18T17:15:31.068-05:00Selling ad space in the classroomDoes <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090325/school-advertising/">this</a> cross a line?<br /><blockquote>Last month, New Jersey became the first state in the northeast to allow districts to display advertisements on their school buses, noting that districts could earn up to $1,000 per bus by selling ads, The Star-Ledger reported. Other states like Ohio, Utah and Washington had also considered a similar move.<br /><br />Two years ago, Idaho high school teacher Jeb Harrison started selling ad space on his tests and handouts -- by striking a deal with a local pizza shop.<br /><br />Florida's Orange County Public Schools have adopted an advertising program that allows marketing in areas including online, on lunch menus, play sponsorships and a parking garage billboard. In about 18 months, the district had made about $270,000, according to the Orlando Sentinel.<br /><br />While these districts have implemented programs, others are still venturing into the field. Late last month, North Carolina's Guilford County schools discussed at its school board meeting proposals to permit marketing, ranging from ads inside schools to selling naming rights for school stadiums and buildings, WGHP-TV reported.</blockquote><br /><br />And there's more to read at the link.<br /><br />What bothers me is that school district residents who refuse tax increases seem to want something for nothing. They may think that they may never have to support their schools again if schools can just sell ads. On the other hand, I wonder about how much my students really pay attention to ads every where else in their lives they encounter them. I have gotten pretty good at not noticing ads online just because they are so ubiquitous. I guess this also touches upon my earlier rant about PTA/PTO fundraisers.<br /><br />Have schools ever really been ad-free zones, at least in the last twenty years? Shouldn't they be?<br /><br />A while back, one of the neighboring school districts cut back on transportation for after school activities. Perhaps, during the last weeks they ran the service, they could have painted along the sides of each bus, "This bus's cancellation provided by the taxpayers of District X." But I guess that would be too bitter, even if true.<br /><br />What do you think? Are ads in the classroom a harmless way to raise funding?"Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-20532396824468786792011-10-11T06:18:00.003-05:002011-10-11T06:34:17.697-05:00Unrestrained greed sows class warfare and unrestSo <a href="http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/186397-rep-ryan-obama-sowing-class-envy-and-social-unrest">Representative Ryan is criticizing</a> those who are protesting the excesses of Wall Street?<br /><br />Not nearly as surprising as Sarah Palin criticizing "crony capitalism." In the words of Inigo Montoya in one of my favorite movies of all time, "I dunna think that word means what you THINK it means." <br /><br />But back to the criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Rep. Ryan stated in the link above, "We shouldn’t be picking winners and losers in Washington either through spending or the tax code."<br /><br />Amazing. What does he think happens under the unrestrained, excessive business atmosphere of which he is such a fervent acolyte? With no regulation, with government geared to protect the wealthy against the needs of the many, with democracy subverted in the name of wealthy oligarchs who graciously invest in campaign coffers as a easy means to secure their privilege at the expense of the wellbeing of the great mass of citizenry, Rep. Ryan, you policies promote nothing BUT class warfare. When you decry the protesters as "pitting American against American," well, that what your vision of capitalism is, after all.<br /><br />In unrestrained capitalism, there must always be winners and losers. When are politicians are enlisted in promoting the good of the wealthy rather than the good of the country, there will be millions of "losers" in the name of protecting the handful of "winners."<br /><br />You keep talking about "job creation," yet under the policies of you and your ilk we have seen job LOSS even with the financially irresponsible promotion of insanely low tax rates which were supposed to produce job growth. You cannot reasonably make a case that all the corporate welfare you and your cronies have promoted has "promoted the general welfare."<br /><br />Apparently, it's completely acceptable for corporations, who may be persons but are in no way CITIZENS, to exercise free speech, but completely unpatriotic and dangerous for CITIZENS, who are not corporations, to do likewise in the dusty corners of your mind, Representative Ryan.<br /><br />Interesting. And Orwellian."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-24150140605119500462011-09-24T15:17:00.001-05:002011-09-24T15:20:06.789-05:00National Punctuation Day!Now we need to invent National Spelling Day....<br /><br />In honor of this day, a small poem I found:<br /><br /><br />The period is a busy man.<br />A small round traffic cop.<br />He blocks the helter-skelter words<br />And brings them to a stop.<br /><br />The question mark's a tiny girl,<br />She's small but very wise;<br />She asks too many questions<br />For a person of her size.<br /><br />Of all the punctuation folk,<br />I like the comma best.<br />For when I'm getting out of breath<br />He lets me take a rest.<br /><br />Quotation marks are curious.<br />When friendly talk begins<br />You'll always find these little marks<br />Are busy listening in.<br /><br />The exclamation mark's an elf,<br />Who is easily excited.<br />When children laugh or cry or scream<br />It's then he's most delighted.<br /><br />Whenever you come to the end of a thought,<br />You sign it off with a polka dot.<br /><br />Beatrice Schenkde Regniers"Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-23635078725650929262011-09-18T19:05:00.003-05:002011-09-18T19:36:56.965-05:00I'm your teacher, not your friend, but this law is still pointless.As you may have heard, Missouri passed a law known as the <a href="http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?BillID=4066479&SessionType=R">Amy Hestir Student Protection Act,</a> a few weeks ago making it illegal for teachers to have <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_048b2b2f-04b4-576f-b878-b8080800e94e.html">contact with their students via social networking sites.</a> This law immediately faced challenges about its lack of common sense as well as its constitutionality, so much so that a right-leaning teacher group in Missouri (the MSTA) won the race to challenge it in court. <br /><br />Little more than two weeks after its UNANIMOUS passage in the Missouri legislature (the Missouri legislature being basically as much an embarrassment as most state legislatures are), the law's implementation was <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/127007/judge-blocks-missouris-teacher-student-facebook-law.html">stayed by court order.</a><br /><br />So, on Friday, September 15, the law was revised by the Missouri Senate, although it has not been passed by the House nor signed by the governor, so the lawsuit continues.<br /><br />Here's the question: would this law have prevented some horrible people from using their positions of trust and authority as teachers from contact their students for illicit purposes? <br /><br />No.<br /><br />I am adamant about NOT friending my students on Facebook until they are out of college, which in my book means they have to be 24 years old. Then, and only then, if they really want to read about Ms. Cornelius' battles with the neighbors' Satanic dogs or my weird snippets of 70s rock songs, then be my guest. They must really have liked me to want to connect after all those years. Hopefully, also, by then, I will not be treated to pictures of their inebriated selves at some fraternity kegger showing off their new nipple ring, which would be deeply traumatic for me (and one would also think for them, but, y'know, c'est la vie).<br /><br />I also do not give out my phone number, nor do I have a Twitter account, nor do I stay in my room alone with a student without the door open and at least fifteen feet between us.<br /><br />BUT, disgusting creeps will be disgusting creeps, no matter what. This law would could easily have been read to make my classroom blog illegal, since it was not created under the aegis of our school district's creaky, misbegotten, twitchy, unreliable technology department, of whom I have previously written. If someone in state government REALLY wants to make a difference on this issue, how about making it illegal for districts to cut deals with miscreants who have crossed the line-- for instance, in exchange for a resignation, the district writes a neutral recommendation, merely pawning off creeps onto the next unsuspecting school district faster than you can say "pedophile." At the very least.<br /><br />But this law? Unconstitutional as written, and also unproductive."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-1143815228945786672011-09-02T18:16:00.000-05:002011-09-02T18:16:00.528-05:00That'll be two boxes of kleenex, please.The Big Giant Head, the name I assign to whoever it is who sets our department budget, has spread the word that we have fifty bucks apiece to spend on school supplies for the year. We can only spend it on materials ordered through This Special Catalogue.
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<br />This Special Catalogue has prices about 150-200% the prices at Office Max.
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<br />Who is getting the kickbacks in this situation? That's what I want to know. We are not allow to turn in receipts from an outside store for the school supplies we purchase-- much more cheaply-- ourselves.
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<br />Oh, and back when I worked in my first teaching job in a school formerly staffed by nuns, some thirty years ago, guess how much I was allowed to spend on school supplies?
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<br />Yep. Fifty bucks.
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<br />But those bucks went further, back then. After all, they were in doubloons, because paper money had not been invented yet."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-62447657726372346212011-08-31T18:58:00.004-05:002011-08-31T19:11:46.105-05:00There are no words.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAhbm0T6xQ4D7eWVfpUMDXVXyZU-kZQx5BXN6jsma-PEiMWLXAuXs88UGpi9bsffb2KvKvqJ4XwNunRPhyB1s8DnwzIV9tPlzWr3jY4s_7nizRmjWOh_oleNbfxObti8DwaMNa/s1600/date-due-1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAhbm0T6xQ4D7eWVfpUMDXVXyZU-kZQx5BXN6jsma-PEiMWLXAuXs88UGpi9bsffb2KvKvqJ4XwNunRPhyB1s8DnwzIV9tPlzWr3jY4s_7nizRmjWOh_oleNbfxObti8DwaMNa/s320/date-due-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647175057220109122" /></a>That late great author Douglas Adams once said, "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
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<br />My colleagues in the special education department were supposed to get me all the IEPs for my students who have one last Friday. I just got another one today, and several were emailed, dated 11:59 pm, on Friday evening.
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<br />So, nearly half of the kids in my regular classes have IEPs that allow them to turn in work late.
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<br />All their work. All the time.
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<br />Some of these kids are seventeen and eighteen years old.
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<br />Discuss. I'll be back after I wash my mouth out with soap."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-11574977407513642522011-08-28T15:22:00.005-05:002011-08-28T17:45:19.078-05:00Run for the hills! It's PTO fundraiser time!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgApqLfIAoHU2SGplI3Lkvb7jJOSKxnOC7oej2reLnyHn5zV3aNMXRM03mjkDxqyVMZ_4Tq0n0jGZ734ZQv1JGCaAR5CwqnjmoLGIXP7rNc4KDfXL6iZZcS6sVEhHl7zXebiq71/s1600/fullerbrushman.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 244px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgApqLfIAoHU2SGplI3Lkvb7jJOSKxnOC7oej2reLnyHn5zV3aNMXRM03mjkDxqyVMZ_4Tq0n0jGZ734ZQv1JGCaAR5CwqnjmoLGIXP7rNc4KDfXL6iZZcS6sVEhHl7zXebiq71/s400/fullerbrushman.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646020510492991346" /></a>
<br />Well, the school year is barely born, and yet, here comes a darling middle-schooler with loads of fundraising materials for the PTO.
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<br />I'll be honest: I asked the kid if she would just take a sawbuck and not sell me anything. When that didn't work, I asked the kid what was something in the catalogue that she would like, and I bought it for her. I mean it's not the poor little tyke's fault that the adults associated with her school would rather see their kids taking time away from more important activities to shill out on the streets. As a taxpayer in this district, I am willing to pay for things outright rather than through the sleight-of-hand of school fundraisers which I believe are not beneficial to children. Besides, I would have just not answered the door, but there is a CRAZY neighbor down the street who curses and threatens people, and I felt I had to warn her not to knock on that person's door.
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<br />I am deeply troubled by PTA/PTO fundraisers for a variety of reasons.
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<br />Firstly, there is the safety issue of sending a kid out to flog their wares to a variety of strangers. I mean, really. Even if the parents are with their kids, this is just not safe behavior in this day and age. My kids are urged to call their aunts and uncles and grandparents to sell, and most of my relatives do not have money to waste on the stuff that is sold in these campaigns. Which leads me to objection number 2....
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<br />Second is the awful, overpriced crap they sell. Be it frozen pizzas, cookie dough, candy, wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions, silver-plated jewelry, educational books, or whatever, this stuff is repugnant from an aesthetic as well as a pecuniary standpoint. Fourteen bucks for eleven ounces of ersatz Reese's peanut butter cups? You have to be kidding. Some of this stuff is so kitschy even my mother, a dewy-eyed collector of big-eyed kittens and little girls in prairie dresses with face-obscuring bonnets if ever there was one, would wrinkle her nose in disgust. I like my friends, and I am not willing to try to guilt them into buying this stuff for my kid, either. I'm not so sure I would sell this stuff to my worst enemies.
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<br />Third is the ridiculous goals set and prizes promised. Once again, the prizes are predominantly a collection of crap so cheap they would have been in the rejection pile of the rankest Chinese gewgaw factory, and a kid has to sell a couple of hundred dollars' worth of Pile of Crap #1 to receive a trinket from Pile of Crap #2.
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<br />Fourth is the reason why these kids are sent out to sell this schtuff in the first place. It is because the PTA/PTO doesn't charge adequate dues for membership in the first place. Two dollars for an individual membership or five dollars for a family is less than what my parents paid in the early seventies when I first entered school. Now I understand their rationale here. I just vehemently disagree with it.
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<br />Fifth is the percentage of these fundraisers that actually stays with the school. The majority of the funds from this fundraiser of course went to the company that shills this crap in the first place. They usually have some red-white-and-blue name like "All-American Fundraising" or "Great American School Promotions" but the last I checked, child labor is not really considered all that desirable, much less patriotic.
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<br />The rationale for low PTA/PTO dues (which necessitates these fundraisers to begin with) is that some parents can't afford more. That may be true at many urban schools, and I have all the sympathy in the world for that situation. In that case, fine, charge two bucks, and understand that the ADULTS need to realize that they are going to get what they pay for. But the school districts around me are middle- to upper-middle class. If those kinds of parents can't afford 10 bucks for a PTA/PTO membership, it is primarily due to prioritization of resources within the households in a majority of cases. If a parent can't afford it, really and truly, then he or she is not going to buy a membership whether it is two bucks or ten. Why not GIVE memberships to those truly below the poverty level and then charge other parents 10 bucks? You'd still make money. My guess is that this ridiculously low figure is set where it is simply to inflate the membership numbers to make it seem like the PTA/PTO is more influential than it really is. I'm not happy to think that, but rather resigned to the reality of a sizeable chunk of parents who just aren't that invested in their children's educations. They'll pay a thousand bucks a year for a cell phone but claim to not be able to invest ten bucks in their PTA/PTO. They'll pay fourteen bucks for eleven ounces of peanut butter cups rather than simply invest in their PTA/PTO in some cases, too, which just shows how illogical this all is. It's all about priorities.
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<br />And it is not a reflection of this current recession. This fundraising gambit has been in place where I reside for the last thirty years at least, in my experience.
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<br />In the case of my own children's introduction to this middle-school misadventure in merchandizing, I simply called up the PTA president. I asked her what percentage the PTA got to keep from each dollar raised (which by the way, is also ridiculous. These companies are making money off the backs of our children, and I don't like it one bit. So I just offered to write a check straight to the PTA, as long as it was understood that my kids wouldn't be selling so much as a stick of gum. Then I bought them their own little Spongebob radio as a surprise the next time I caught them doing something nice for someone, and we were done.
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<br />In short, joining the PTA/PTO should mean something. It shouldn't mean that our kids are now the equivalent of Fuller Brush Men."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-35590127930780369452011-08-09T22:35:00.000-05:002011-08-09T23:11:16.666-05:00Reprise: New Teacher Advice and Tricks of the Trade<i>This is a reprint of a post I originally wrote in June of 2006. It's been pretty heavily searched the last few days, so I am reposting it again. We wrote this FIVE YEARS AGO! Jeesh.</i>
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<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7644/1363/1600/KT-223.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7644/1363/400/KT-223.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<br />I imagine that there are at least a few people out there in the world who have gotten the happy news that they have been hired for the upcoming school year. There are more hopefuls who are currently undergoing that agony known as interviewing as they search for their first teaching contract.
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<br />Therefore, I feel that it is my duty as an official Wizened Veteran of the Classroom (I prefer this term to Ancient Hidebound Broad) to share the knowledge I have gained through sweat, toil, and personal peril lo, these many years, as a <strike>lion-tamer</strike> pedagogue. Several of my edusphere friends have also generously contributed their insight. This post has now become a kind of "Carnival of Classroom Survival," in fact!
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<br /><b>First, oh paduan, consider classroom management.</b>
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<br />Have only the rules you are willing to consistently enforce, and consistently enforce the rules you have. Have general classroom expectations written up in a succinct style, avoiding "Don't"s, and hand them out the first day of school. Try to keep the expectations to five.
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<br />Post the learning goal and agenda for the day on the board every day. Include homework to be assigned and due date.
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<br />Never threaten a consequence to a student unless you are actually willing to follow through with it. This is vital in making your life easier for the rest of the year. You must be a person of your word.
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<br />Write referrals only after you have attempted lesser consequences, including privately conferencing with the student and calling the student's guardian. If the student is displaying certain kinds of emotional outbursts which seem "over the top" or otherwise unwarranted, you might also consider a non-discipline referral to the counselor, if you have access to them. You will earn the disdain of your administrators if you write up students without following these steps first. Furthermore, some administrators will use your "failure" to attempt to deal with the situation yourself as an excuse to refuse to act upon their part. <a href="http://rightasusual.blogspot.com/">Linda</a> adds: "Read the student discipline code, and frame any disciplinary referrals in EXACTLY those words. I failed to do this last year, in a new school, and didn't realize that the magic word (level 2 offense) was "disrespectful". When that word was used, the administration acted."
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<br />Keep track of each attempt you have made to deal with a difficulty. When the Wizened Veteran was starting out, she began to keep a binder divided by class period, with a sheet for each student she had had to discipline. I have also used a computer, but a binder is more portable. Whether on paper or on computer, this is an easy reference to use, but keep it secure. I did not fill this out in front of the students.
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<br />Don't be afraid to call guardians. If you call a guardian and only get an answering machine or voicemail, leave a message for the guardian asking him or her to call in a pleasantly neutral voice and record when you did this. Don't get into the gory details in a message.
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<br />Before calling, find out what the name of the student's guardian is, and what relationship that person has to the student. Don't assume that they share a last name or that they are necessarily the mother or father. Loads of kids are being raised by grandparents, aunts, and even older siblings. In fact, as <a href="http://learnmegood2.blogspot.com/">mister teacher</a> relates, don't make assumptions based on appearance about guardians upon meeting them, either. Everyone used to think that my mother was my grandmother, for instance, because she was older than the other parents. Another teacher adds, "Not all teachers have to worry about this, but in addition to finding out who lives at home, etc, I have to find out what language they speak so I can have an interpreter ready if the need be." This is also something which is a consideration more often than you might think. Of course, I once had a kid whose parents spoke Russian, so there wasn't much help there. For that problem, I have two words for you: <a href="http://www.babelfish.altavista.com/">Babel Fish.</a> You can type text in and get a pretty reasonable translation back in all kinds of languages. I have used it with great success.
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<br /><a hrf="http://shmoo2.blogspot.com/">Aprilmay</a> also has an excellent suggestion: "Find the adult who has the most influence on the child when you need to deal with serious issues. It can take some work, but oftentimes a "Nana" or favorite auntie can work wonders when it comes to motivation!" I have had hardened thugs who quaked in the face of a harsh word from Gramma.
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<br />Start your conversation by expressing your faith in the student to resolve the issue. Try, "Hello Mrs. Pzzlethwt? I am Junior Pzzlethwt's math teacher at Extraordinary High School. How are you today?"
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<br />Then, remember, a gentle word turns away wrath, as <a href="http://weeklyscheiss.blogspot.com/2005/12/old-rotten-potatoes.html">this lovely lady</a> once demonstrated. Euphemisms are your friend! "Junior has some exceptional verbal skills, and I was hoping you could help me in persuading him to use them at the correct time." (This means Junior never shuts up.) Always remark that you know Junior has the potential to do better, and thank the guardian for their help in advance.
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<br />Don't ever get into a contest of wills with a parent or a student. They don't have to agree with you-- as in, your attitude should calmly be, "You don't have to agree with me, but this is what will happen..." And sorry to say, guardians get to be rude to you with few consequences, but you will be nailed if you are rude to them.
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<br />Script the basic gist of what is said during the phone call, and keep that in your binder, along with time and date of call. I once pulled this out when a parent insisted I call her from the principal's office, and very mildly read back to her her own words which she was denying. She had been insisting that I had never contacted her about her darling's difficulty. When she saw that I had a record of every conversation, complete with time and duration of call, she gave up. As our friend <a href="http://nyceducator.blogspot.com/">nyc educator</a> points out, this also helps cover one's posterior with one's administrators.
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<br />Emails, if you have the means, are even better, but still be diplomatic in your wording, because, remember, emails can be forwarded a million times over without your knowledge. And keep a copy of the email you sent-- I printed them out and saved them in the binder.
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<br />Start the class on time. Do not cheat the students who are on time in the name of stragglers who stumble in tardy.
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<br />Model good behavior. I personally say please and thank you to my students. I somehow have difficulty hearing students who do not extend the same courtesy to me. It's a very strange form of deafness.
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<br />Try to get the students on your side when it comes to classroom management. It is actually much more effective if a student knows that his peers will not tolerate his goofing off or disrupting class.
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<br /><a href="http://graycie5198.blogspot.com/">Graycie</a> has another good point: "Walk out amongst 'em. Sometimes just standing next to a kid and smiling without breaking the flow of what you are saying to the whole class will stop her dead in her tracks." Slowly move around the room, if your instruction permits it. It will keep all the students on their toes, encourage participation, and keep heads from drooping.
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<br /><a href="http://teachersparadise.blogspot.com/">Mr. Lawrence</a> makes an excellent suggestion to which I personally adhere. Consider placing your desk at the backs of your students. This enables you to see what is going on unobtrusively. Students will realize this and they will stay on task with much less prompting. Our district has laptop computers that the students can use. With my desk behind the students, I can view screens easily to see what exactly they're looking at on the 'net- whether they're actually doing research or if they're trying to IM their friends or access Facebook.
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<br />Keep the students engaged until the bell rings. Remember, you-- NOT the bell-- dismiss the class. Otherwise, each day the students will knock off a bit earlier. If you need to, introduce a small quiz at this point rather than at the beginning of class.
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<br /><a href="http://educationintexas.blogspot.com/">Mike in Texas</a> reminds us, "Trust, but verify." When a child claims that she has done the technicolor yawn, tossed his cookies, ralphed, whatever-- make sure she has. Oh, and watch for the finger-down-the-throat trick before a quiz or test.
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<br />And seriously, if a student feels ill, goes to the restroom, and doesn't come back in four or five minutes, send a trustworthy kid of the same gender to go check on her. She may have passed out in there, or she may be scamming and roaming the halls. In either case, you want to know.
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<br /><a href="http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/">Darren</a> adds: "'Without' is a powerful word. When giving instructions, simultaneously tell students what you want them to do (using concrete terms) and what you don't want them to do. 'Please open your textbooks to page 73 without talking.' Telling students to "be quiet" doesn't work; telling them what to do (take out your textbooks) and what not to do (without talking) does. Give it a try!"
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<br /><b>Now, let us consider supplies.</b>
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<br />Part of your job as a teacher is to reinforce a burgeoning sense of personal responsibility in your young charges.
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<br />If you keep pencils or pens on your desk, they will disappear. If you can afford this, fine. However, a word of warning. If you consistently give out pencils or paper or whatever, expect your students to regularly come to class without them, knowing that you will remove this responsibility from their shoulders. Your choice. I use very bizarre novelty pens for myself, and anyone trying to cadge one of these would be busted immediately.
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<br />Same thing with textbooks. If you give out textbooks to those who do not bring theirs, soon no one will bring their texts to class. If you want to distribute ten of them every class period and lose five minutes of teaching time, that's your choice, but plan accordingly. Make sure you take them up at the end of the period (another five minutes lost there) or you will be missing a whole slew of books by the third week of school. And while you're managing this distribution, what are the other students doing?
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<br />I like keeping a little box of golf pencils in my desk for those who cannot master their writing utensil management skills. Students tend not to want to borrow these more than once. You can also keep a cup of used pencils you have found in the hallway for distribution. I personally also like to have my dog or a convenient toddler to put chew marks on them so they won't be so appealing to those who seem need some assistance from <a href="http://www.catholic-forum.com/saintS/sainta01.htm">St. Anthony of Padua</a> in this regard.
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<br />On the other hand, be on the lookout for a student who cannot afford supplies. I often claim to have "found" spirals or pencils for these students lying around unclaimed in my classroom, and privately let them know what a favor they would be doing me if they could possibly put them to use instead of forcing me to harm the environment by discarding them. These items are often found for sale in bulk at the end of July through the first few days of September. You can often buy spirals for a dime-- those that are sold this way are called "loss-leaders" because the supply stores take a beating on them to get you into the store. I buy about thirty for myself each year, and those I don't use, I donate to a needy school affiliated with my house of worship.
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<br /><a href="http://qspersonallegend.blogspot.com/">Q's personal legend</a> has a neat system: "I also have a station in the room for stuff the kids can use: stapler, hand sanitizer, hole punch, kleenex, etc. And, (you will laugh), I made large magic marker outlines of these things on the table. It looks funny, but the kids always return it to its 'home,' and I don't have to keep saying, 'Where is my stapler?!'"
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<br />And, since teachers are often klutzy because we are rushed, and kids are just klutzy in general, I suggest you keep the following things on hand in your desk in a little box (one of my students made one for me): Shout wipes, plug-in air fresheners, odor neutralizer spray, antiperspirant, a needle and some thread, safety pins, peppermints, lotion, astringent, cotton pads (like the ones used by the nurse), latex gloves, bandaids, and a flashlight with working batteries. I once had the power go out for TWO HOURS in a room with no windows. And we were instructed to keep the kids in the room while they tried to fix it. Fun.
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<br /><b>Now, let's deal with presentation and attitude.</b>
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<br />Boy Scout motto? Be prepared. Teacher motto? OVERPLAN. Always have more activities on hand than you can possibly use in a class period.
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<br />Have a sense of humor. Be willing to laugh gently at yourself. Self-deprecation goes a long way to establishing a sense of rapport with your students.
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<br />Keep a folder on your desk in case you ever need a sub. I label it "SUB FOLDER" in really large, bright letters. Include in it your classroom expectations, UPDATED seating charts, complete with pronunciation guides if needed, and an emergency lesson for each class in case you get hit by a runaway oxcart on the way to work and have no chance to send in real lesson plans. Make it simple, but interesting. <a href="http://teachersparadise.blogspot.com/">Mr. Lawrence,</a> who works as a substitute, echoes this advice. You cannot expect the students to read quietly for two hours for a sub. (There are all kinds of books in the bookstore or classroom supply stores that have suggestions for cute little activities, if your brain is befuddled.) I usually include at least one activity which must be turned in by the end of class to keep the students occupied. Once again, OVERPLAN, leaving the sub the option of granting the students a reprieve on a deadline or on an assignment if they behave superbly. Carrots and sticks, people, is better when you've need more carrot rather than more stick. In the classroom expectations, you would be wise to spell out your policies on quizzes and tests, such as "All quizzes are to be done individually by the students, not as group work or in 'Jeopardy' format." I have had subs who have allowed students to use their books on unit tests or to do them as a group. No kidding.
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<br />Always err toward joking rather than bitching with your coworkers. You make a first impression only once, but you can ruin your reputation over and over.
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<br />Spangles, one of our colleagues, notes, "Eat lunch with your colleagues. It builds bonds, lets you form a friendly relationship, and gets you out of the classroom for at least a few minutes. You might give it up later, but it's a worth a start. I was a young new teacher and I formed a strong bond with my older, wiser team members because I ate lunch with them each and every day. It made it easier to laugh at myself and my students." Excellent advice. Your colleagues are your lifeline.
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<br />However, unless you have the metabolism of a three-year-old, avoid cafeteria food and bring your lunch. Cafeteria food includes a percentage of fat and amount of calories geared toward growing young bodies. If you don't want a widening older body, stay away from the ersatz nachos and mystery meat chili and the turkey burgers. But don't skip lunch.
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<br />Do not get angry, and strive not to take things personally. If the kids know they can provoke you, they will try to do it at every opportunity. Remember the scene in <i>Finding Nemo</i> when Bruce gets a whiff of Dory's blood? Avoid tempting your students in this fashion. I personally get quieter when students are crossing the line. Work on developing a "look" which strikes wrongdoers dumb. Works wonders.
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<br />Our colleague Tree_Story adds: "Your best friends can be the custodians and front office secretary. Be courteous and always say thank you and they can make your year soooo much nicer." <a href="http://happychyckwonders.blogspot.com/">Happychyck</a> includes the building or district tech person in this golden circle of demigods, and rightly so.
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<br /><a href="http://graycie5198.blogspot.com/">Graycie</a> reminds us: "Never be afraid to say, 'I don't know. How can we find out?'" Then have the students actually find the answer. The goal of teaching students is to enable them to get along without a teacher. Don't just abandon questions they've asked to which you do not know the answer-- these are the questions which have sparked their interest, and a good teacher wants to fan that spark into an inferno.
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<br /><b>And finally, consider health maintenance.</b>
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<br />Wear comfortable shoes with some support. Teachers have some of the worst back problems of all professions because we spend so much time on our feet. Avoid heels. You will rarely sit down.
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<br />Keep yourself hydrated.
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<br />You've heard of GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out)? Remember WIWO (Water In, Water Out). Yes, since what goes in must come out, also try to avoid the common teacher pitfall of not going to the can until 4 pm. You will get kidney and bladder problems, and with your insurance, you can't afford that.
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<br />Offer students a couple of points of extra credit to bring in two good boxes of tissue at the start of the school year if your school does not provide the good stuff. You'll thank me during flu season.
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<br />Have two trash cans in your room: one for student use, and one for you. You'll see why this is health related in a second.
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<br />Have two boxes of tissue out at any one time. One box should be hidden away for you, and the used tissues go into your personal trash can, which I stash behind my desk. The other box is for the students, and should be placed away from your desk or where you stand most often in the room. The student trash can goes under this box of tissue, and away from you. You will avoid a LOT of colds this way. Trust me. With your insurance, you can't afford that either, not to mention that it takes FOUR hours to write lesson plans for a seven hour day.
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<br />Keep disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer in your desk. Wipe down the surfaces of your desk regularly, including phone, particularly if Mary Typhus, who is hacking up a storm, has just used your phone to talk to her mom. Clean the student desks and the doorknob every once in a while, as well.
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<br />Finally, if you are really sick, don't go to school. You will make yourself worse, and end up using the princely number of sick days you have been allotted in one mad swoop.
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<br />Well, those are some of my sure-fire, handy dandy tips. If anyone has any others, I'd be glad to add them on with credit given.
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<br />Now, go get 'em, Tiger."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-16568571222185140702011-07-29T09:00:00.003-05:002011-07-29T10:22:42.949-05:00Killing Pell Grants to Save Them?Basketball Buddy and Education Secretary Arne Duncan went before the Senate Appropriations Committee this week to talk about the increased funding that the Department of Education has requested in next year's budget. You can read all about it <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/arne-duncan-defends-education-funding-policies_n_911322.html">here</a>.<br /><br />One part of the discussion with Alabama Senator Richard Shelby caught my eye. No, it wasn't the criticism of Race to the Top,which certainly is a flawed program. It was the discussion of Pell Grants, which are grants of federal money to help economically disadvantaged students afford college and break out of the cycle of poverty.<br /><blockquote>Pell Grants, at risk in the ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations, figured prominently in the conversation. Duncan and Harkin said that cuts to the program have already been made, but expanding its funding its necessary. Increasing poverty and the recession have created greater demand for Pell Grants, making them key to eliminating college entrance barriers among underprivileged students.<br /><br />"If we scale back on Pell access, we'll simply have a lot less people going to college," Duncan said.<br /><br />The proposed spending plan calls for a $5.6 billion discretionary spending increase in Pell Grants.<br /><br />Shelby had harsh words for Pell Grants' increasing cost to government, which he said has doubled since 2008.<br /><br />"We are on the brink of breaking our commitment to students who wish to attend college because the Pell Grant program is on a fiscally unsustainable path," Shelby said. He said that new laws that expanded eligibility coupled with the recession made the program more costly. "We cannot continue to throw money at this problem," he said.<br /><br />When Harkin repeated his maxim that cutting Pell funding would be "like turning a chainsaw on yourself," Shelby responded that no policymakers "want to chainsaw any program that's going to sustain our education system."<br /><br />But, he argued, the reality of the country's financial situation means "we're all taking a chainsaw to our budgets right now."</blockquote><br /><br />I don't know, Senator Shelby, I think the last thing to do to demonstrate our commitment to students who wish to attend college is to gut or kill a program designed to make that possible.<br /><br />Although I grew up in a working class home, I did not qualify for Pell Grants by basically "thismuch" but I was able to cobble together a great education through scholarships, loans and work-study funds. But Pell Grants serve a growing population-- from 1999 to 2008, the number of high poverty public schools increased from 12 to 17 percent of all US public schools, and the number of poor students increased. Since that time the real effects of the current recession has really kicked in, so I am afraid that those numbers are probably higher by now. Students who graduate from these schools will need a substantial amount of financial support in order to be able to afford college, especially given that state funding cuts to post-secondary schools has merely accelerated the already dizzying yearly increases that colleges have made since the 1980s.That is a reality that Senator Shelby apparently does not want to face as to why the funding for the program has been-- and should continue to-- increase.<br /><br />College graduates earn more on average than high school graduates. Our society receives a return on its investment hundreds of times over when it invests in a better educated work force-- and helps create a more stable democracy and just society, as well. Funding for college education especially is an investment in our future.<br /><br />Cutting funding to Pell Grants is crazy."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-26643298795544711072011-07-25T12:26:00.003-05:002011-07-25T12:33:45.113-05:00I like this blog title.<a href="http://www.jesusneedsnewpr.net/">Jesus Needs New PR.</a> And the pictures this guy finds are fascinating/weird/thought-provoking/disturbing. Like this one:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQQEaNuh7-lHvoBzwHybgXZVY2xQG6IXh1N2Rj4h5r3BxVgAgSbSLSc08aUSCCkpAiAlYCQo37la4dl642_fw-ZV3JIQwSCf21bWk8HaRhHCg2FwgguFZKB8eNxUPHdwp-23Zi/s1600/tumblr_lokuufPym01qbqba5o1_500.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 290px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQQEaNuh7-lHvoBzwHybgXZVY2xQG6IXh1N2Rj4h5r3BxVgAgSbSLSc08aUSCCkpAiAlYCQo37la4dl642_fw-ZV3JIQwSCf21bWk8HaRhHCg2FwgguFZKB8eNxUPHdwp-23Zi/s320/tumblr_lokuufPym01qbqba5o1_500.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633344015926455746" /></a><br /><br />Apparently some church actually used this in an advertisement. I'm not too sure about the message being sent here, especially as people who see it might just crash into the building trying to figure out what the heck it means."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-4427524434004081312011-07-25T04:28:00.004-05:002011-07-25T04:28:00.733-05:00When corporations are rotten citizens<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKd_bkepMghqFzBuKa-9-uab_2rT0lGho0wV2REXOF9tU_8w37SMaCJVBJAfA0HNZpFUtilEjxt7JDOEnLIMgHXPzqZw1JdOU4yGVqeBMQlh_VluWa4CVodqhH7ZVBkIvMrSSH/s1600/The-Real-Robber-Baron.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKd_bkepMghqFzBuKa-9-uab_2rT0lGho0wV2REXOF9tU_8w37SMaCJVBJAfA0HNZpFUtilEjxt7JDOEnLIMgHXPzqZw1JdOU4yGVqeBMQlh_VluWa4CVodqhH7ZVBkIvMrSSH/s400/The-Real-Robber-Baron.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632647385149449874" /></a><br />Corporations often like to promote PR about being great citizens. But hidden in <a href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/mobile/?type=story&id=2015701733&">this news item</a> is an example of bad corporate citizenship, as well as stupidity:<br /><blockquote>Strong second-quarter earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Caterpillar on Friday are just the latest proof that booming profits have allowed Corporate America to leave the Great Recession far behind.<br /><br />But millions of ordinary Americans are stranded in a labor market that looks like it's still in recession. Unemployment is stuck at 9.2 percent, two years into what economists call a recovery. Job growth has been slow and wages stagnant.<br /><br />"I've never seen labor markets this weak in 35 years of research," says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.<br /><br />Wages and salaries accounted for just 1 percent of economic growth in the first 18 months after economists declared that the recession had ended in June 2009, according to Sum and other Northeastern researchers.<br /><br />In the same period after the 2001 recession, wages and salaries accounted for 15 percent. They were 50 percent after the 1991-92 recession and 25 percent after the 1981-82 recession.<br /><br />Corporate profits, by contrast, accounted for an unprecedented 88 percent of economic growth during those first 18 months. That's compared with 53 percent after the 2001 recession, nothing after the 1991-92 recession and 28 percent after the 1981-82 recession.<br /><br />What's behind the disconnect between strong corporate profits and a weak labor market? Several factors:<br /><br />• U.S. corporations are expanding overseas, not so much at home. McDonald's and Caterpillar said overseas sales growth outperformed the U.S. in the April-June quarter. U.S.-based multinational companies have been focused overseas for years: In the 2000s, they added 2.4 million jobs in foreign countries and cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States, according to the Commerce Department.<br /><br />• Back in the U.S., companies are squeezing more productivity out of staffs thinned out by layoffs during Great Recession. They don't need to hire. And they don't need to be generous with pay raises; they know their employees have nowhere else to go.<br /><br />• Companies remain reluctant to spend the $1.9 trillion in cash they've accumulated, especially in the United States. They're unconvinced that consumers are ready to spend again with the vigor they showed before the recession, and they are worried about uncertainty in U.S. government policies.<br /><br />"Lack of clarity on a U.S. deficit-reduction plan, trade policy, regulation, much needed tax reform and the absence of a long-term plan to improve the country's deteriorating infrastructure do not create an environment that provides our customers with the confidence to invest," Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman said.<br /><br />Caterpillar said second-quarter earnings shot up 44 percent to $1.02 billion — though that still disappointed Wall Street. General Electric's second-quarter earnings were up 21 percent to $3.76 billion. And McDonald's quarterly earnings increased 15 percent to $1.4 billion.<br /><br />Still, the U.S. economy is missing the engines that usually drive it out of a recession.<br /><br />Carl Van Horn, director of the Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, says the housing market would normally revive in the early stages of an economic recovery, driving demand for building materials, construction workers and appliances. But that isn't happening this time.<br /><br />And policymakers in Washington, D.C., have chosen to focus on cutting federal spending to reduce huge federal deficits instead of spending money on programs to create jobs: "If we want the recovery to strengthen, we can't be doing that," says Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.<br /><br />For now, corporations aren't eager to hire or hand out decent raises until they see consumers spending again. And consumers, still paying down the debts they ran up before the recession, can't spend freely until they're comfortable with their paychecks and secure in their jobs.<br /><br />Said Van Horn: "I don't think there's an easy way out."</blockquote><br /><br />Even as flawed a human being and businessman as Henry Ford understood one fact that these corporations as a group have forgotten about our consumer society: workers are also consumers. Ford paid his workers an unheard of $5 a day starting in 1914 with the understanding that it would help retain his skilled workers and that it would also enable them to buy his own products, which at that time were beyond the reach of many working people. <br /><br />Corporations say they are reluctant to hire while the Consumer Confidence indices show that Americans are still fearful about their economic security, and a large part of that has to do with the weakness in the job market and lack of any sort of trust between worker and management that jobs and work conditions will be secure.<br /><br />Corporations are sitting on nearly 2 TRILLION dollars in cash and yet still claim that they can't afford to hire here in the US. If consumers aren't buying, how are corporations getting that cash? Through speculation in stock prices and through firing workers. This will lead to short-term profits. <br /><br />But since the economy is based on consumption, and corporations have forgotten that workers are also consumers, eventually all the cost-cutting measures in the world won't make up for a lack of sales. It will be up to the corporations to break this cycle and commit to hiring American workers in order to improve their bottom line for the long term, and they've got 2 trillion dollars worth of cushion to allow them to find the testicular fortitude to do it. <br /><br />Corporations got by with this counterproductive kind of personnel policy in the past due to the overuse of credit in place of wages in Americans' relentless pursuit of consumption. But credit also dried up in the Great Recession That Hasn't Ended In Any Way That is Meaningful. Real estate is still moribund due to the reset of credit policy, and some of that was long overdue. But those foreign workers corporate America is hiring in place of Americans aren't at the point in their standard of living where they can consume anywhere as prolifically as Americans can.<br /><br />Now unemployed people don't pay income tax. Meanwhile, corporations who fire people get rewarded for their economic and political misbehavior. And yet many of our politicians insist on handing out tax cuts and rebates and incentives to these same corporations.<br /><br />For forty years many Americans have been persuaded that taxes are legalized theft against them personally, and some sort of oath was taken by conservative pols to never say the word "taxes" unless the pejorative adjective "job-killing" was appended beforehand. The implication, then and now, according to Speaker Boehner, is that decreased taxes therefore must CREATE jobs, right?<br /><br />Well, where are they? I could wait while you go turn over some rocks looking for them, but we've already discussed the reality in the article quoted at the start of this post. Cutting taxes, a lodestar of modern Republican economic policy, has not provided security for American workers nor created new jobs to support a robust middle class. All it has done is allow corporations and corporate executives to sit on obscene amounts of wealth, and income disparity, which also robs our society of stability as well as justice, has become worse now than it has been at any time since the 1920s. I hope we all remember what happened after the 1920s. <br /><br />We could wait for corporations to wake up to the box into which they have painted themselves. But we could also give corporations a nudge by not allowing them to legally move profits to their overseas components, and we should raise taxes on corporations that cut jobs. Taxes, besides paying for civilization and roads and schools and other great goods, have also been used historically to encourage good behavior and penalize bad behavior as a secondary purpose. <br /><br />Retaining the status quo is not an option, especially as we face the reality of our impending budgetary crisis. For too long we have encouraged corporations to be bad citizens as we have showered them with the benefits and privilege of operating within our great country. It is time to understand that they will not be good nor do good on their own, since they operate from a competitive paradigm that necessitates that far more people LOSE economically than win."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14903249.post-17013803413183153682011-07-23T09:56:00.010-05:002011-07-23T14:03:21.017-05:00You can't always get what you want, especially if you don't even know what you needAn anonymous poster (Hmmmm, really?) made the following points on my previous comment about the disenchantment of many, including myself, in the progressive camp with the administration of President Obama:<br /><blockquote>I never expected to like everything Obama did, even though I worked hard for him.<br />Ad [sic] I can't imagine either voting Republican or voting for a 3rd party candidate (same as voting Republican). Keep in mind, people, that only 15% of the country identifies themselvs [sic] as liberal, while close to 50% calls themselves conservative. And many of the rest lean conservative. We can't have an all-progressive President until we do a better job of educating and enlisting our fellow voters.</blockquote><br /><br />I am a big girl-- as I said, I certainly never expected President Obama to be able to do everything, and I don't think anyone else who is disappointed did either, if they are rational, adult people. I was hoping for some compromise and bipartisanship from our elected leaders, especially since we certainly didn't get that from the last administration, and I hoped that President Obama would use his surge of support to pressure out congresspersons to cooperate in this. I was massively disappointed by the failure to seize this golden opportunity, and now we as a country are in even more dire straits due to that failure. Our country can never win by having only one political side capitulate. Do we really want to live in a country that designs its government and economy so that there are more losers than there are "winners," even though we are all Americans? <br /><br />I also agree that there is a need to better explain what progressives and liberals believe, and why those beliefs are in the best interests of this country. And who better to help educate our fellow-citizens than our president, as I pointed out in my previous post?<br /><br />But something else "anonymous" said concerns me, and helps support my point. It's this part: "I can't imagine voting Republican...." It is this kind of thinking that marginalizes a voter and sustains and exacerbates our current political and economic situation.<br /><br />I certainly can imagine voting for a Republican. Of course I can! I've imagined it a LOT-- I've just never been able to do it very often. But I've always been willing to consider it, as I view each election on a case-by-case basis. As much as I joke about being a "yellow-dog Democrat" (pronounced "yel-la dawg" in my youth), I have voted for Republicans during my political life. They make great dog catchers. No, no, I'm kidding. Besides, "Republican" does not necessarily mean "conservative" as it is currently used, just as "Democrat" does not necessarily mean "liberal." Can't be repeated enough.<br /><br />Seriously, I believe it is the duty of a voter to be conversant with the particular positions of each candidate regardless of party, and then vote for the person who is the most rational, most reasonable, and the most likely to represent that voter's priorities. I did not vote for Senator McCain for president because he failed all three of those tests in his current political incarnation. His choice of a running mate who eschews any thought larger than a sound bite or a snippet of Scripture merely punctuated this for me. When he stopped being a principled politician who sought to reform corrupt politics and end government-sponsored torture merely for political expediency, he lost me-- after I had admired many of his positions for years.<br /><br />Our allegiance as voters must be to results, not rhetoric or labels. It is precisely the kind of thinking that refuses to consider any alternative outside one's alleged political party that has put us in the current mess in which we find ourselves. Democrats, through their failure to stick together over any issue-- ANY one! Pick ONE!-- have allowed the Republicans to peel off former Democratic supporters through scare tactics and sham social issues. Republicans have used populist rhetoric and rigid party discipline to stifle debate even within their own party, much to their detriment as well as that of our country in general, as they are now discovering. But further, as I tried to point out in my previous post: when President Obama and his advisors believe that they can count on the blind and unreasoning support of core constituencies to whom they are openly unfaithful and even contemptuous, those constituencies will be ignored. Republicans do the same thing through cynical class warfare, but no one seems to expose this.<br /><br />Now to the point about the alleged loyalties of the American electorate. It certainly takes an act of political bravery to openly proclaim oneself a "liberal" in this day and age, even though I would argue that loyalty to an identity or label is completely counterproductive. Progressives need to attack the idea that being liberal is being "unAmerican" or "elitist" and that what is passed off as "conservatism" is normative. I would argue that this paradigm is a kerfuffle merely designed to forestall examination of where one's best interests truly lie.<br /><br />Historically, conservatism (as an international political idea, not merely as an American phenomenon) has been, by definition, in favor of preserving the status quo. Its roots are in feudalism and preservation of the aristocracy. Modern American conservatives have at least outwardly turned this on its head, and for the last fifty or so years have told the electorate that the American government is unjust, that the American government is a form of oppression, that American government is corrupt. This is truly mind-boggling, since that is the exact same claim made by the extreme Left during the 1960s-- I mean, it's like the Yippies suddenly shaved and bathed and put themselves in suits with red power ties and declared common cause with their complete political opposites, if you think about it. But even more shockingly, these same people who hate the federal government have then been in charge of that same government for the past forty years! At this point, I think it behooves us to ask how these two facts can exist simultaneously.<br /><br />I think many people who are voting and self-identifying as "conservative" are actually strongly in favor of reform, and I think the Democratic party needs to capitalize on this, as well as on certain disconnects that would help awaken these voters from their knee-jerk allegiance to a label rather than their own rational self-interests. <br /><br />Let's just talk about economic well-being as a case in point. There are millions of people who have genuinely suffered during this current recession and indeed since the late 1960s, as the average standard of living for middle class people has actually slightly degraded in real terms. <br /><br />I would hope that we can all agree that the middle class is the largest cohort of citizens in this country, which means that they should be able to wield a numerically significant proportion of political power. And yet, no one would argue that those in the middle class have been able to hang together and exert their influence to any real extent. There is a basic disconnect between corporate policies and their impact on the middle class, and the support of the middle class for politicians who advocate these policies. This reminds me of a Rolling Stones lyric: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." In terms of the voting patterns of the middle class, one could rephrase our conundrum as, "You can't always get what you want, especially if you do not know what you really need." I will amplify this point at a later date.<br /><br />Nonetheless, as long as voters evince the kind of blind loyalty to party, as well as by that huge mass who claims to be conservative while being phenomenally ill-served by that philosophy, it does accomplish one conservative objective. This kind of division and illogical thinking certainly will maintain the status quo. And, really, with so much dissatisfaction being voiced in public forums from polls to mass media to town hall meetings, certainly we can agree that change is demanded if this country is to become strong again."Ms. Cornelius"http://www.blogger.com/profile/16970201479637588558noreply@blogger.com7