Great Blogging in the Classroom Activity
Posted onJuly 16, 2008
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This is a great practice round for blogging, called “Paper Blogging.” I found it on the Progressive Educator network. This is how lesson plans should be shared. It is evident and students are 1. active 2. engaged 3. learning skills applicable to technology literacy …..all without a computer at hand. Lovely.
Thoughts?
The Perfect Novel
Posted onJuly 14, 2008
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This question in posed in MANY ways and I am a sucker for it each time. I struggle to define what the perfect novel is.
We all read for different reasons.
To gain information, to laugh, to ignore, to pass the time, to get obtain an opinion, to become more informed, to be entertained to be persuaded, to get lost in someone else’s world, to fulfill an assignement, to please a friend who told you about a novel, to become a better person.
Regardless of the reason, tell us two things:
1. Title of your Perfect Novel
2. Why you read it, what you got out of it and why you consider this the Perfect Novel.
We are our own experts when it comes to opinion. I will consider yours to be golden.
Edublogs Rox my Sox
Posted onJuly 7, 2008
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I like to quote 7th graders sometimes by using their lingo. They laugh at the thought of it; I relish in my youth.
That aside. I am thrilled to share with you Edubloggers out there about edublogs.tv. For those of you who have loaded your coveted videos to Youtube or TeacherTube and suddenly have dead links, blank boxes and sub-par-videoless posts, there is a solution.
After combing the forums in the last week, I came upon a solution via an email request.
Check out edublogs.tv. Upload away. Of course, it’s free! The great thing is that you can even upload directly from YouTube. So, if you have your heart set on avoiding links (so yesterday) and want the real deal, sign up!
I have already uploaded a “test” post/video via Edublogs.tv. Check me out 
Happily reunited,
Laura
Remedial Academia is no Laughing Matter
Posted onJuly 1, 2008
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I realize some of my anecdotes from my Summer School Sagas minimalize the value in remedial summer school, but my true feelings are closely tied to making such remedial opportunities real, applicable and supported.
In my years of teaching summer school and Saturday school, I’ve found each program to be quite ineffective in format. Essentially, our job as teachers of remedial sections is to provide a packet of materials that students presumable missed duirng the school year. In addition, our job is to provide a structured, quite space where students can get the one-on-one help necessary in order to “catch up” from the year previous. Anyone with a pulse and a backbone can do what I am paid to do. There are more discipline cases to deal with rather the cases who “just don’t get it.”
This brings me to the breakdown of summer school students:
Student A: Failed 4 or more semesters of core subjects, disengaged from classroom duties for reasons related to behavior (behaviors is a loose term which umbrellas over a. little home support b. little ambition c. little self-value d. immaturity)
Student B: Failed 4 or more semesters of core subjects, disengaged from classroom duties for reasons related to NOT GETTING IT.
Student B is the ideal customer for summer school. He is suited for this simply because he could benefit from one-on-one attention, quite space, and few other distractions outside of the ticking clock and snack break.
Student A is still slated for the same non-success once she puts in her 6 weeks and undoubtedly moves on to the next grade.
This is specific to my district, I know. Another specific to my district is that few students are held back in primary grades. Thus, when Student A or B gets to middle level, he or she may be given the disservice of not being retained when learning is far more critical (reading skills, math facts, problem solving). I am not convinced that ours is the only district with remedial programs that need remediating (more like reconstructing) themselves.
There are solutions out there that take time, $much money$, and staff who are just as dedicated to the cause during the summer as they are the other nine months of the year. Cost factor, someday, will have to take the backseat to propelling students when they need it. One district added “about $2,000 per child, in a district whose average general-education spending per pupil is about $13,000 — “; which is a testament to investing in students. I know that varying factors like taxbase, socio-economic make up of student population, and overall needs in a district are going to dictate remedial programs. The Gift of Time program at Hempstead Elementary in Spring Valley, N.Y is controlled and seemingly producing desirable results. It works for them. However, can a program like Gift of Time work for every school, every struggling student?
The correct answer is vague. The correct answer is not a one-size-fits-all. The correct answer meets the needs of both Student A and Student B while presenting a cost-effective, student centered remedial program that any district invests time, brainpower, and teacherpower into. Whew.
Conclusion not available here. Additionally, I am left with a few more questions.
*is there value in middle level students being held back?
*do middle level students deserve a second chance if they are Student A or Student B?
*when is the best time to run remedial programs?
*should core teachers be the remedial instructors?
*why are remedial programs that worked in the past, not working for students today?
Stuck in the Closet
Posted onJuly 1, 2008
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Sometimes we wonder where our parents went wrong. However, this question comes to mind deep into adulthood, rather than during the times when you are literally locked in a closet.
This closet is not your ordinary clothes closet littered with hangers, shoes, scarves and belts. No this closet is parked, more like bolted, on the back wall of the summer school classroom B107. What typically is filled with teaching supplies and a teachers’ personal affects was filled numerous times today with 6th and 7th graders. Even though I was not in the room to see, I am confident no summer school customer who is avoiding going to high school would put himself in the closet, much less allow some other semester science flunkee shove his own being in.
Where the parents lost control:
*when a large hormone rolled out of bed one morning instead of their loving son
*when they stopped checking his assignment notebook for homework
*when they decided to cut the umbilical cord
*when they chose the bowling league instead of family game night
*when they said, Son, you are growing into a young man soon (insert head-swelling teenager here)
Having only one child who says a mere 40 words, I may not be at liberty to make such claims about where the parents went wrong. However, I believe that in my four years of knowing students who range in various degrees of success, I can make this call. That experience alone, as my colleagues would nod furiously in agreement, is the reason I make this judgment from my roll-ie chair.
Young teens are expected to be shallow, weak, followers and a plethora of other insulting adjectives. Young teens are also expected to be setting the stage for who they want to be in life. Are you telling me that guy-who-got-shoved-in-the-closet is slated to be guy who sleeps in the closet because his roommate doesn’t want him around when he comes home wasted? On the other hand one could argue that closet-kid was allowing the closet routine for entertainment purposes. Then guy-who-got-shoved-in-the-closet will be the guy who scales a two story building in his underwear for a mere $5.
Either way guy-who-got-shoved-in-the-closet is doomed.
Bubble Gum and Vanity
Posted onJuly 1, 2008
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I’ve never claimed to attach myself to anything to girlie, but I am reminded two days in a row now of what it is like for young teenage girls. Keep in mind that my sources for this imprisonment period that I refer to as Summer School are limited in math-skills and seemingly brain capacity.
I have acquired a cling-on who will cling-on to another lucky female, no doubt, come fall when she stretches into 7th grade. B, let’s call her, is hopefully not named after the malt liquor that her parents enjoyed around time of conception. Rather, B’s name reminds me of the very type of girl she is. Full of herself, defined by her cute-in-a-baby-fat-way clothes and reeking of bubble gum each day. She dons on her hand today and “I love” claim of some poor boy who maybe doesn’t even know that she took the time to pen on her hand today.
Who really knows what 12 year olds do these days during the summer? I really feel that I once was in tune with the likings of these middle school creatures. However, I find myself recalling on my young teen years spent begging for a ride to town and a reason to NOT unload hay. I look back on my summers watching The Young and the Restless as a great time, thankful I knew my math facts well enough to have swimming lessons be the only reason I was required to attend summer school.
Anyways, my subject’s obnoxious chewing (saliva filled rhythm inserted in your brain now, not only mine) has driven me to pretending that she doesn’t exist. Normally, this is quite easy. But since she got up the courage to come and sit inches behind my laptop screen I have had to resort to other means of tuning out the Trident chomping. What concerns me the most about this B, is that her math facts are so poor that when asked, she doesn’t know how to mentally solve 7 minus 6. Honestly, she had to use a calculator to divide 200 by 2. What has changed SO much in our student population/approach to teaching that has left this girl in the dark? I mean her lack-luster math skills are going to be necessary some day when the cash register that she is tending powers down and someone is demanding change for a twenty. Who or what has she leaned on SO much that the crutch is no longer able to withstand the numbness that exists between her ears?
Now, I know I sound judgmental and brutal, but honestly, I thought kids just hated to write in Language class I normally teach. When in fact, students like B are lacking all around. What she isn’t lacking is in the aforementioned bubble gum and super-cute clothes. In addition, she has the skills to paint her nails tacky pink and mousse her streaky highlighted hair every day.
I am by no means a religious person, but I pray for girls like B to overcome vain customs and jump-start parts of her brain that have yet to be moved. I hope she can shake out the cob-webs and acquire skills vital to things like gassing up the minivan, grocery shopping and maybe, just maybe, filling out a job application.
Enrichment Sucker
Posted onJuly 1, 2008
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First day of teaching summer school enrichment class. No, this is not a required class by any means, but an alternative to babysitting fees for a 7th grader. Or it is, an alternative to leaving a “to-do” list to serve as a distraction from pulling the hair of a younger sibling (and without a doubt, a myriad of phone calls including bickering and whining of who is at fault, while at work) at home for your teenager. I like to think that middle school enrichment classes are pure in nature. I feel that students can really connect with what interests them. Now, the gamble is that Underwater Basket Weaving, Kitty Kat Crocheting, or Computer Parts and Hardware are all of interest to your teenager. At the risk of sounding too realistic, let’s leave out the first two mentioned selections and pray that no one has ever offered either (much less had a kid sign up in hopes of attending a class that would offer such life skills?). The third, CP&H is the most promising and thus, lucrative for the instructor.
This fine man stepped up to a classroom full of a mere five eager CP&H learners on the first day of summer school. Now, as an instructor, he is in an elite crowd, having students actually sign up for his section. One doesn’t know the intricacies of attaining the title of “summer school enrichment class instructor.” Let me digress for a paragraph or two to describe the rigor that is applying for s.s.e.i.
One has to print of the cry for help email that is highlighted as urgent. Now, seeing there is not category in the email system for “desperate,” the secretary chooses the urgent label as appropriate for the content. If one is lucky enough, he can print off the form (or pick one up in the office, staff workroom, lunchroom, bathroom, car windshield, under your pillow at home, in your cereal box, etc.) and propose a course to enrich the young people in our district. Though the form can be quite daunting with the large grinning sun character at the top, a veteran can see beyond such distractions to fill it out and get it to the office ASAP. Why ASAP? Because everything seems much more important once those four letters are tagged on.
As I return from this digression I am reminded that I am able to produce such musings because I signed up to instruct (mainly poke at smelly teenagers to keep them awake in hopes of them not being retained next year) remedial math; a subject I have little to no instructional experience with or passion for. Yup, I teach summer school math.
Alright, so instructor of CP&H shows up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on day one of summer school sporting his khaki Dockers, buttoned-up long sleeve tucked in. Eager, to say the least. The mystery remains whether this cat is community member, college student, or some other outsider. What is known for sure is his clientèle. Let me describe a few of the litter.
B.S.
Her initials, by no means, describe her personality. As the lone female in the motley crew she remains clueless about her changing body. The poor thing likes puppies and things that are shiney. No kidding, that’s what she told me at the beginning of her grade 7 career. Puppies and things that are shiny. Does that give you a clear picture yet? Need more? Well, her family life is less than desirable and I figure that she decided she got Charlie’s golden ticket the day summer school forms were handed out. She was the only one in the hallway after school bragging about what she is signing up for. She even voiced her excitement regarding her summer school
prospects as she was walking toward me nearly slipping on the other 7th graders’ abandoned and discarded summer school registration forms on the tile floor. I guess attending anything at summer school is better than dealing with the demons at home.
DomDom
A name earned because of his demeanor and desire to be productive. DomDom’s mom is a force to be reckoned with. Apparently, she is not only a skilled dentist office lady, but also a whiz when it comes to all of DomDom’s core subjects. Aside from the umbilical cord still attached, DomDom has redeeming qualities. He is kind, has shiny braces for BS to look at, and loves to do boy things, like disassembling computer parts. The last of those qualities makes him a prefect candidate for CP&H. DomDom is happy-go-lucky and is annoyed by normal things like homework and little sisters. He even wears the quirky shirts that support his annoyance like “It’s my sister’s fault.” How cute. Lastly, DomDom spends his hard earned pennies daily at the snack-cart (a phenomenon in middle school that produces a metaphorical “moth to the flame” affect on 12 year olds). He didn’t blow his cash on trivial snacks like granola bars and juice boxes. No, he spent upwards of $2 on a large strawberry milk and even larger pickle daily. The combination is enough to make any sane adult throw up a a little; this culinary delicacy is the only thing that helped DomDom through my 7th hour Language Arts class.
Now that you’ve had a sample of the kiddos that are taking CP&H, take some time with me to reflect on what is going through CP&H instructor’s mind. Here are some suggestions:
“I am never having children.”
“Is someone messing with me?”
“Why does she keep pointing out the shiny parts?”
“Why did I bother ironing anything today?”
“Who would notice if I don’t show up tomorrow?”
“Clearly, there has got to be something better to do with my summer.”
“Reminder to self; drink more.”
Alas, I feel that CP&H instructor (apparently missing his pocket protector) is, in fact, having fun. He has actually given out prizes for their skills and knowledge attained and continues to smile (not to mention, return every day). Upon talking to him at the fire drill, I’ve concluded that he is more than an Enrichment Sucker. He probably once attended Underwater Basket Weaving, Kitty Kat Crocheting in his youth and wanted to share something cooler, something that appeals to kids these days. I remain optimistic about his s.s.e.i status, assuming he likes the kids, wants to share his passion for content and need for some summer cash-flow like the rest of us.
NYM and the Can
Posted onJuly 1, 2008
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Nice Young Man (NYM) who has been sick for a day, returns and starts working.
NYM has his head down twice and is reminded that one more head-down event, he will promptly be sent home.
NYM asks me “can I go to the bathroom?”
I reply with normal summer school emotion,”yes.”
Tick tock Tick tockTick tockTick tockTick tockTick tockTick tock….
Time passes quickly to nearing 10 minutes. Pencil, packet and calculator sit idol. NYM is MIA.
I send a fellow male to check the bathroom to assure the NYM did not fall in.
Whew, crisis averted as I get the report that NYM did not fall in. However, NYM is nowhere to be found, bathroom-wise.
Few more minutes pass and I report to my colleague that I am going on a NYM hunt. I search every unlocked, dark room simply because I fear NYM has taken the opportunity to steal a cat nap in an empty room.
Yet another crisis averted and one more arises. No NYM to be found upon scanning rooms and checking with secretaries.
I return to my room with curiosity circling in my head. Where has NYM gone? What possibly could a NYM want to do besides complete his remedial grade 7 summer school packet on this sunny day?
Ring, ring! Ring, ring! My colleague shuffles to the phone to have a fine conversation with NYM’s mom. Turns out NYM didn’t want to be in summer school today and told his mom quite the fabrication of a lie.
According to NYM’s mom, NYM came home claiming that he stated he had a stomach ache and thus, his kind math teacher told him to go home.
Minutes later NYM is returned by his flustered mom. We part our ways as we agree to allow NO bathroom breaks outside of the ritual that is 10AM snack.
Chart of Summer School Supplies
| Pencil | the thing student sharpens over and over without reason |
| kleenex | The reason he gets up to walk in the room |
| eraser | the thing he picks to shreads daily |
| calculator | the shiny thing with buttons that doesn’t make video game noises, why not? |
| lump | the thing that we call 6th graders who have remedial math work to do |
