live from the guillotine

Band Queers

I didn't coin the phrase and as a member of the band you can bet your bippy I didn't like it, but there it is. Those of us in band took a beating. I offer up this post from my public school source on a damn fine band that I was proud to be a part of. And need I say "Go Angry Red, Nuff Said!"

Friday night I attended our high school football game. As primary teachers, we are always asked to talk to our students (k-3) about behavior at the football games. I will be honest, I am not a good fan and do not attend the games. I was ask to go with the youth group from our church and agreed. Our seats were next to where the band students sit during the game.

I teased the kids that I was going to have to root for the other team since it was my high school team. They informed me that I could not do that. After the other team scored 2 touch downs in the first 5 minutes, they were ready to join me on the other side.
This is a testimony that expectations as educators means everything. As I witnessed some of the things that go on at our high school, I was amazed at the acceptable behavior of students. Is this the norm? It may or may not be.

As I gazed across the field at the students from the opposing team, whose parents I probably went to high school with, all the students were in their seats. They were still, watching the game, and not moving around. Granted I was across the field, but I noticed very little movement.

This was not the case with the students from the high school my child attends. I will remind you we were sitting next to the band. To begin with they were dressed in Halloween costumes. They had hatchets coming out of their heads and blood dripping from their mouths. It does not get any better, the drum major was dressed in drag. Yes, he stood on the platform in a dress. Their instruments were scattered all over the bleachers as they danced, ran around, jumped, and sang dirty songs. Their favorite was one about smoking dope.

Remember the good old days when we said, "I've got spirit, yes I do, I've got spirit, how about you?" They were saying, "I'm getting some bootie, yes I am, I'm getting some bootie, how about you?" The most amazing thing was that the principal was standing at the bottom of the bleachers. I saw very few primary students misbehaving.

Well, in the tradition of my home town, the band got out and gave a marvelous performance. They could have stood toe to toe with any college band around. The parents on our side gave them a standing ovation. Well they should have let our team go first, maybe we would not have looked so bad. Yes, we got out there in our Halloween costumes and did a song from Austin Powers. It was a disgrace.

There is something to be said about discipline.

School Daze

This is a weekly feature from a source in the public schools who doesn't mince words and keeps me informed about what's going on at the local P.S. 139.

There is something that puzzles me about education today. Why are we pushing our children so hard to do things that they are not developmentally ready to do?

I have 4 students that are reading on a Kindergarten level, 12 on first grade level, and three that are able to read second grade material. My job should be to teach these children to read and teach them basic math concepts & facts.

This is not the case, although I try very hard to do so. We are told that we must teach on grade level and have high expectations. I do have high expectations, but how can you teach children to read with material that is 1 to 2 years above their reading level. Fortunately I have the time to teach both to their ability level and with grade appropriate material.

I am required by the state to teach certain skills. Many of these skills I learned in 5, 6 or 7th grade. In language, we teach parts of speech. When did you learn this? In math, we teach addition and subtraction with re-grouping, fractions, solving word problems, algebraic thinking, and probability. In reading students are expected to tell you the plot of a story and do summarization. We teach them how to read graphs and charts.

All of these skills require that a student be able to read. In my class this year, we are not there yet.

It always amazes me how much of this they actually learn to do. We teach all this to prepare them for a state assessment that is the "most difficult yet." Even in 2nd grade we are giving them practice tests to get them ready for the third grade.

Some research show that children become developmentally ready to learn to read beginning at the age of 5 and ending at age 9. At age nine, they are expected to read the state assessment and do well. Somehow we always get there. We always have at least 90% of our students pass this test.

Are we pushing them too hard? There is a lot of debate about this. I just go home in the evening and think: My students are 7 years old.

~ The Source

School Daze Update

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This is a weekly feature from a source in the public schools who doesn't mince words and keeps me informed about what's going on at the local P.S. 139.

My year is going pretty well. Teaching is truly the favorite job I have ever had. Although my students are not angels, I am not complaining. I am saying my thankful prayers every day. Remember the "Classroom from Hell lives across the Hall from Me."

The State of Texas has finally done something positive for our schools. They have made a mandatory "moment of silence" for 1 minute each morning. We are not allowed to tell our students that they may pray, but I do pray for our day & each student. It has done a wonder of good. I should have been doing this all along.

We had parent conferences last week. All but 3 of my parents showed up. This is a record for me. They really care. The parent that strangled her child 3 weeks ago even showed up after the counselor turned her into CPS. I wanted to jump across the table and strangle her in the effort to leave big bruises around her neck. After that I wanted to hit her across the side of the face & leave a big bruise. Then she would look just like her child.

What make a child think you are mean? This is first year I have ever had parents tell me that their child thinks I am mean. Is it the kids? Is it me? I am not sure. I just know in the past, the students that I was the hardest on because they were the most challenging, love me the most. The still come up & hug me. Is this because I expect the best from them and no one else does? I truly do not know. This week, for the first time this year, I took a student to the office. I let him have it & so did the principal. Well the next morning he came up and hug me & said "I am so glad I am in your class." Are they kissing up or do they really know I care about the best for them?

I will never completely figure kids out.

The source

School Daze Update

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This is a weekly feature from a source in the public schools who doesn't mince words and keeps me informed about what's going on at the local P.S. 139.

My class is finally settling in for the most part. They are following the rules and doing what I expect. They are still talking too much, but as much as I complain, I was the child that always got the box on "Talks too much" checked on my report card. After my students start to settle in, I return to loving my job and the students I teach.

Teaching is the best job I have ever had. The trouble is, I wish I could shut my door and do my job. That is not the case. We are constantly confronted with more "political" paper work & delegated jobs that are not our own. We are paying administrators big bucks to do things they are delegating to us. Teachers have chose, do it at school when your should be teaching or take it home. Unfortunately for my children at home, that is where I do it.

We are preparing to get one of the delinquent children from across the hall. Why they put all the delinquent children in one class room is still puzzling to us all. At the end of the year we rank our students on behavior from 1 to 5 so the problems can be distributed evenly. Do they look at this? Evidently we are wasting our time? We also rank them academically for the same reason. This year all the GT students & top readers are in one class & I have 16 kindergarten readers in second grade. Someone is dropping the ball.

We received our first pay check for the year 2003-2004 today. Due to the rising cost of insurance, we all got at least a $500.00 raise. It always amazes me that I get a raise and I bring home less money. This seems to be the consensus on our campus. In the past the State of Texas has supplemented us $1000.00 per year to cover the rising cost of insurance. They did away with that this year.

I know times are tough. These are the things is wonder about:

Why are we providing a car for the superintendent to drive?
Why is the superintendent getting $120,000 per year and I am buying supplies for my classroom?
Are they cutting administrator's salary's?
Why do I have $75.00 per year to run my classroom? (I provide everything else)
Are the people working in Austin taking $1000.00 a year out of their salary?
When will we have a state income tax & I start paying more of my salary than I am now?

The Source

School Daze Week 4

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This is a weekly feature from a source in the public schools who doesn't mince words and keeps me informed about what's going on at the local P.S. 139. Read the two articles below for an update.

THE CLASSROOM FROM HELL LIVES NEXT DOOR

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Things really went better in my classroom this week. The classroom across the hall is a place you don't want to go into at night alone. The teacher is a very good teacher. She is a good disciplinarian. She is in charge of her room & her students do what she expects. She is very good to stretch their brains and make them think and discover things on their own. Her students made her cry at least 3 times this week.

Why they put all those children in one room is beyond me, other than our vice principal is the stupidest woman you will ever meet. Everyday was a bad day but Thursday a little girl cut her hair, two boys were fighting with scissors, and another was stabbing holes in his glue bottle with his pencil. These things happened while she was in the hall reprimanding another student in the proper way, not in front of other students.

Friday she had a workstation set up to make seed collages. We have been studying plants and seeds. While she was in the office with one student who told her that he did not want to do his work and was not going to, her class was having, not a food fight, but a seed fight. There were seeds all over her room. The sad thing is there are 12 other students in her classroom that are being cheated out of learning.

Should students like this be allowed to keep others from learning? The answer should be no.

The Source

RETENTION DOES NOT HELP & MY TEACHER IS MEAN

Research shows that retention does not help. The children retained do not progress & they have a very high drop out rate. In fact there have been years that we are required to beg to have a child retained. I would like to see some research on the drop out rate of the children who are not retained but sent on without being able to read. There is no research in this area. In some aspects I agree with this theory. If a child has a low IQ, it does not help to retain them. They could repeat 2nd grade twenty times & they would still not get it. Where I disagree is when a child is immature. Retention does help.

I have a child in my classroom this year that repeated first grade. No, it did not help. He is still reading on a kindergarten level. To compound this problem he is a twin, they are statistically lower academically than other children. He also has a helicopter mom who claims it is everyone else’s fault. The child does not want to do anything & the Mom blames it on the teacher. Thus, I am a mean teacher. She has complained to the principal several time about my being mean and "not helping my students." I DO help my students, but I will not do it for them. I have two stories about this child.

Today, he said something about last year. I asked who his teacher was. He replied, "Ms. Smith. She was so nice. She gave us jelly beans." "Why?" "When we were on green or blue (good & excellent) on our behavior charts she gave us jelly beans." I do not think he liked my reply, of course I am mean. This was my reply: "Well, I will never give you jelly beans for good behavior. I believe that you should behave because it is right thing to do, not because you are going to get a jelly bean. When you grow up and are trying to decide whether to break the law there is not going to be anyone to give your a jelly bean. Are you going to break the law because there are no jelly beans?" I am sure he reported this jelly bean theory to his helicopter mother.

Lesson for the day: If my mom is a helicopter bitch, I do not have to follow the rules and mean teacher get some jelly beans!

The Source

Show Me The Money

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John Hawkins at Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views) is also asking where our education dollars are going:

I also find it fascinating that countries like Japan, South Korea, Finland, & Britain, who we outspend by anywhere from $3000 to almost $6000 per pupil, can consistently put up higher test scores than our students do in math, science, & reading.

Excellent point. The fact is we are NOT spending $10,240 per child because the money either isn't getting to the classrooms or the money isn't being spent in ways that help kids learn.The story has several links and a comparison chart of spending vs. teacher's salaries.

School Daze Update

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While I am not a fan of public or private school, I am a huge fan of many hardworking, excellent teachers. I do realize that the vast majority of American children will continue to be educated in those venues. Our children deserve the best education in the world and we certainly pay a fortune toward that end. Yet we know that far too many lag behind a host of nations in critical areas. As a citizen it is my duty to inform myself about the real issues teachers are facing and the possible solutions.

The purpose for my school daze topic is two-fold. The first purpose is to allow my readers a view into a typical classroom and find out the true nature of teacher's problems and frustrations. My source is an excellent teacher who genuinely cares about her students and wants them to succeed. She makes them work hard and she has great success in raising the test scores at a low-income, disadvantaged elementary school. Amazingly, she must buy many of her own supplies. Where exactly are our education dollars going?

The second purpose is to foment discussion on these issues and questions. I welcome email and comments from anyone who can shed more light on the problems. In my opinion, the most obvious problems are:

1. Undisciplined, lazy children
2. Indulgent or uninvolved parents
3. Inability to immediately get rid of bad teachers
4. Money spent on wasteful bureaucracy instead of actual classrooms and teachers

Discuss among yourselves.

School Daze: Week 3

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I had 3 weeks of emails before I started this feature, so here's another update. This is a weekly feature from a source in the public schools who doesn't mince words and keeps me informed about what's going on at the local P.S. 139:

Remember my mentioning walking into a first grade classroom last year during "reading" time. Children were crawling on the floor, talking, painting their nails, and doing anything but reading. That was my classroom today. During AR (silent) reading time, I was having flashbacks of walking into that first grade classroom. As we were lining up for lunch right, after that, and I was chewing them out, we walked out of the classroom and a parent was outside my door waiting to take her darling to lunch. Upon returning from lunch we practiced "silent" reading.

In addition to crawling & painting of nails, I have several children that STILL believe they can "out stubborn me." Need I say more.

I have the group that believe that when I say "please quit talking" I am talking to everyone but them. They are the special people that do not have to follow the rules. During recess today, they were allowed to visit and talk about anything they wanted while the other children swang, ran, and did whatever was safe for them to do on the playground.

I have a noise maker. He makes noise all the time. He is sitting by himself, but he still makes noise. We were trying to start language but he was still making noise. I bent down into his face and softly said, "I want you to practice not making noise all the time." He looked me in the eye and never stopped. I repeated softly, "I want you to practice not making noise all the time." Yes, you are right, he looked me in the eye and never stopped. At that point I lost my mind. I slammed my hand on his desk and screamed, "I said to STOP!!!!" He did stop, but he was the only one in the class that did not have their chins on their toes and their eyes popping out of their heads. The teacher next door is one up on me. She threw a workbook at the wall yesterday. She had the same results with the chins & eyes.

Next is my most special stubborn child. He rates right up there (or maybe above) with my family. I will not give in to his stubbornness. (does this surprise you?) Instead of picking my battles, I must pick my punishments for his crimes or I would be punishing all day. Nothing he does is all that bad, just defiant. This week he has been walking very slowly in baby steps like a penguin. I also yelled at him. At recess he was allowed to walk in slow baby penguin steps back and forth between two trees. Mrs. George came out and laughed. Who's is he? I proudly said, "mine". She wished me good luck. She had him in kindergarten.

At the end of my marvelous day ( that is our vocabulary word for the week), I told my marvelous son about my day.

This is what he said:
You are going to be one of those teachers kids talk about for years. "Remember Mrs. Source? Boy was she mean. Do you remember when she yelled at me and slammed her hand on my desk." "Yes, I remember her. She is the teacher that made me walk back and forth between the trees."

On a lighter note, the teacher next door actually has the worst student. Wednesday she sent a child to the office and on the way out the door he turned around, looked her in the eye and said "F--- You." He was in ISS yesterday. Today he told her, "When I grow up I want to be a police man. That way I can shoot people in the head."

The joys of teaching in public school.