In case you needed more reasons why teachers need a raise...

Ok so the first time I posted this story the video wasn't working too well. Here's for round 2. Here are 2 high school teachers who are trying to make a point in that if you had to live on just $30 a month for food, you find that it's really hard to eat healthy nutritious food. However in their blog they have been able to not only do this but also provide reciepes as well as updates on their upcoming book project.

The point being is that some of our students are also living on tight budgets and might not be abel to afford to eat healthy food. It's no wonder obseity is at a rapid rate now in school age kids. Parents are simply finding it difficult to afford foods that are not only affordable but also full of proper nutrients.

3 things I believe...

This post is in response to linnic post on what she believes students can achieve. I found this post to be really thought provoking...so I took the time to add it to my blog. Here's the general idea:

Marth Thornburgh of Opening Doors to Digital Learning was asked the question “Do you believe all students can meet standards?” Please read about her response on her blog. The “All Students Meme” came about as a result.
1. Share three things that you believe about all students.

2. Reflect on your thoughts in your blog. (If you do not have a blog, you can share your ideas in a comment from this post.)

3. Be sure to link to this post and to where you were first tagged.

4. Tag your response with AllStudentsMeme

5. Invite others to join the conversation by tagging them to be a part of the meme.

Here is what I believe:

1) All students need to be taught in safe and secure environment in order to maximize their learning. No student enjoys being bullied, and when we as teachers can create a peaceful climate the disruptions with decrease throughout the year.

2) I belive that all students need to be fluent in the language of technology by the time they finish. With so many jobs asking for applications online, we need to start teaching our students how to become familar with the tools in order to have a successful career.

3) All students have some kind of motivator....it's our job as teachers to find it. Once we find out what drives them, the learning will eventually kick in full speed.

Drug testing teachers.....?????

Apparently, teens and the youth of america are not alone when it comes to the enjoyment of a little recreational mind stimulation of the narcotic sense. Within the last month, HISD has arrested 9 employees after a drug sting operation.

I can't imagine anyone who works with children would even think about bringing in their drugs on campus. The thought really does baffle my mind. However, I wouldn't also be surprised if there was a student who might have been so upset at his/her teacher that they just decieded to call the cops as an aynmous tip. What a crazy world we live in, where both of these scenarios are very possible.

Now it would apprear that HISD is considering the plan of drug testing employees and also doing random parking lot searches with drug dogs. I hope that this whole mess works out for the best, and that the students will be able to weather this crazy storm and get some good teaching.

Weeding out the teachers...

Houston Independent School District has been under fire lately for many reasons with this latest one taking the cake. Houston Independent School District Trustee Natasha Kamrani supports the method of identifying "great" teachers and rewarding them, while also identifying "bad" teachers who, after training are still not improving, will be terminated. This theory is very similar to what Michelle Rhee is trying to pass in Washington D.C.

Gayle Fallon, the president of the Houston Federation of Teachers aims to fight this measure. Here are some points that she makes in an article in the houston chronicle:

The proposal to terminate teachers based on value-added scores ignores numerous glitches in the system that the district has yet to solve, including but not limited to:

• HISD only has value-added scores on 3,700-4,200 teachers, or about one-third of the instructional staff.• Many teachers are in non-tested subjects, such as pre-kindergarten through second grade, special education and non-core subjects.

• Middle- and high-school-content core courses in the sciences and social studies generally do not lend themselves to a growth measure. There is no accurate measure of what the student knew entering the class, so growth is almost impossible to measure.

• The HISD value-added scores are largely based on the TAKS test. TAKS is a criterion-referenced test and is not a growth measure. Consequently, if a child enters a class reading four levels below grade level and a teacher raises him two levels, he still fails the TAKS test and his score counts against the teacher in spite of the extraordinary growth in the student's learning.

• HISD, like many urban districts with a high level of poverty, has a very high student mobility rate, with students arriving and leaving throughout the year, often in large numbers. The value-added formulas do not account or control for student mobility.

The "best" teachers that HISD claims to want to keep and reward already resent the current narrowing of the curriculum and the de-emphasis on creativity and teaching students to think and apply knowledge. A move to evaluate them solely on their standardized test scores may have the unintended consequence of driving the strongest teachers into districts that allow them to teach children rather than simply teaching a test.

I agree that it is going to be extremely hard to create a justifiable formula that will evaluate all teachers on all grade levels. However, this should not stop us from trying. Teachers should be evaulated solely on their student's test scores however they should be included in a larger mix. Allow room for error as well as creating a working growth chart so that teachers can be effective with their teaching styles. Those are my two cents....

What do you think about this new measure? Do you think it's justifiable to terminate a teacher's contract if they are not effectively teaching to their students?

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

Today I had the most awkward situation that I have experienced yet as a teacher. I was working with a student with his reading when the school sectratary came in and asked if I had called this student's mom. When I told her no and she left, the student said "I want to slap that woman in the face". I was shocked and had him go and apologize to the sectratary. As I was walking him to the office to write an office referral as I see his mom sitting up in the front already. She was waiting to speak to the principal so I just simply explained what happened and I went in to finish my report. When I came out the mom asked me to explain to her again what happened. Then she asked if he went ahead and did hit her. When I told her that it was him just simply using words, she got upset and mad At ME....for "making a big deal out of nothing". She went on to say that students should be allowed to say what they need to say, as long as they don't go ahead and follow through with it. (I know....I was shocked too).

Really at this point, there was nothing I could say that would make any sense to her. Clearly she was stuck on her point, and made it clear that teachers are wasting their time with these little issues. Now what really made me a little upset, was during this whole speech, her son was right there listening to the whole thing. It's no wonder these kids are where they are today.

Let me just go ahead and whip out my magic wand from my back pocket and fix all of these problems in a single wave. I'm sure that would make everything allright. Well...seeing as how i don't have one of those handy...i do however have a clip that i found off of youtube of a parent yelling at what seems like a pta conference. The picture quality is not that great, but you get the jest of what's going on. Enjoy.

Is this the future of education???

Michelle Rhee is making a lot of big changes in the Washington D.C. area. In her short time she has already fired over 300 teachers, principals and administrators and is making waves amongst the teacher unions.

With hopes of paying teachers in the upwards of $100,000 a year she would expect to have a higher demand on teacher accountability and also to let go of the weaker teachers. The teacher unions, ofcourse are not crazy about this and are fighting her every inch of the way.

I am watching how she's going to handle this whole situation and I don't think I'm the only one. Can you imagine how your job might change if her philosphy becomes more widespread? Would you like to work for someone as radical as this?

I hope things turn out for the best for Michelle since she is one of the most forwarded persons yet in our education system. Very little attention has been brought to education and hopefully she'll be able to start more discussions about this.

How about this schedule for teachers....???

I'm not sure about everyone else, but right about now things are moving super fast. It's hard to stop and reflect on how things are going. Report cards, progress reports, writing samples, reports, running records, and these are just for starters. Don't even get me started with life outside of school (what's that). I have a new baby that's just about to be delivered, and that's a whole other job all by itself. Sooooooo my question is what sort of schedule would best fit a working teacher and the students as well?

How about working an hour earlier and an hour later 4 days a week which would leave friday off? Most companies that you really need to deal with are usually off during the weekends or off on sundays which would usually leave you moving around on Saturday. With having Friday off teachers are able to get an extra day to take care of errands which would leave more time for planning and getting the lessons prepared for the comming week.

Other districts are doing this with the aim of saving money. My primary concern would be to take care of the teachers....who are too often over worked and stressed out. I know other professions work on similar schedules and they seem to enjoy it. Do you think changing to this kind of schedule would be more or less productive?

Instant coffee, instant grits, and now instant blogging....

Ok, maybe i'm not breaking ground here with this post. But for those of you who are already planning on watching the final round of the presidential debates, you might want to consider checking out this site to watch and share others comments in real time. There is no fee, no software to download, and no passwords or registration. Just go in, and then you're in.

Real time blogging is not anything new, but the concept is very cool to the education field. Imagine doing a class report on the elections, or any news related event and having your whole class on-line talking and sharing ideas in real time. Instant anaylizing of data which would simply lead you to answer who comprehends what's going on. Try this out and let me know how this works for you.

Update - Hair Today Gone Tomorrow!!!

Adriel Arocha, the Native american 5 year old, was told by Needville I.S.D. that he was not able to attend classes with his peers because of his long hair last Aug. Thanks to U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison, http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/6038942.htmlAdriel is now allowed to attend classes who ruled against the district's strict dress code policy. Let's hope that this ruling stands and that Adriel can finish the year with his classmates. After hearing this update, how does this make you feel now?

The future is now here.....

Technology has once again upgraded and outdated itself in a huge way. Last year Microsoft unvield it's new software/technology called microsoft surface. Imagine a coffee table with an interactive monitor that can transfer wireless files from one machine to another without the need of wires. Imagine also being able to simple touch the monitor and manipulate any photo or video as easily as you would a mouse. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Now imagine what you can do with that techonology in the class rooms? Active and smart boards are fairly new techonolgy for the classrooms, yet after watching this video I'm sure you'll want to wait in line with me when this becomes open to the public. How would you use this in your classroom?