the Black and White cookie

My first year of teaching was the year of Columbine.
Of all the things I anticipated explaining to students I had never considered explaining how a safe place like a school made such a desirable target and could be so easily accessed.

While I was sad to hear about Virginia Tech today, I was not surprised.  In fact, I assume that before I retire I will teach in a school that has a school shooting.  You may wonder why I would think such a morbid thought.  It is not based on statistics; it is not an idea to start my retirement early.  It is a feeling that since the general trends are understood and ignored that eventually the number & frequency of such events will increase and as years continue I have a greater probability of being involved in one.  The CDC has an interesting fact sheet on school violence:
The CDC states that “50 percent  of the homicide perpetrators gave some type of warning signal ,” and “20% were known to have been victims of bullying and 12% were known to have expressed suicidal thoughts or engage in suicidal behavior.“

As an educator I see the public ignore the obvious, lament the incident and move on without any intervention.  As school becomes a dumping ground for more social and less educational activities the stakes will only increase, and tools to stop these events will only decrease.

If a teacher feels that way don’t you wonder how students feel?

The title sounds like something NO ONE could possibly disagree with, “Bonus Pay for Teachers,” which reminds me straight away of No Child Left Behind.  Which is supposed to make you cringe.  Sure, sign me up for a bonus, why not?

The catchis that this story that aired on national news tonight glossed over the real point of contention, standardized test scores do not equal an education.  I made a few hundred extra my second year teaching in FL by completing a ‘Pay for Performance’ goal, documentation and then submitting FCAT scores.  Because this money is administered through the states the instrument chosen to report gains are state produced tests, criterion referenced - not norm referenced (criterion means to criteria the state sets and writes the instrument for / norm meaning comparing kids to all other kids taking this test, putting everyone on one huge bell curve).  State tests are written by the state DOE and are a product of people policing themselves, interested in gains, educational inbreeding as it were.   The instance reported in TX showed Houston schools increasing scores on standardized tests by ten points over two points state wide.  By just looking at that data you realize there is always gain on standardized tests as teachers and students learn the test (you get negative growth overall usually only when a test is revamped/changed). 

Aren’t there any other quantitative OR qualitative measures to judge by, let’s say the standards, the curriculum, whatever your local school boards calls it that they deem essential for students to learn?  That would be authentic, valid work to assess growth upon, but that would take time which is money and states are just looking to appease teachers and pat them selves on the back in the same motion. 

When those large companies ,that were trotted out for this comparison on the point of bonuses, want to attract the best they PAY better and offer better benefits.  You could find some bad teachers out there, but mostly you will find teachers that want to do better, but are shackled by Lunch/Recess/Bus Duty, playing nurse/secretary/referee and spending their personal money on supplies/treats/science materials for their students.  Based on that type of multitasking I’d bet we could increase test scores if we just alleviated all non-teaching tasks from teachers lives!

A new federal initiative will give bonus pay to teachers in certain states if students’ test scores improve.

A Poll from ABC News:
Should teachers get merit pay?

They should just get better pay overall.

63

No way. It’s their job to help kids succeed.

17

Definitely, they deserve a bonus for their good work.

9

Total Vote: 89

6th grade science  - - - we are studying soil and I introduced two days ago (outloud, honest) that microbes and worms are at work in the topsoil and they benefit the plants in the topsoil.

I asked a question today and this is the answer:
STDT: “The micro-bees…..”
*this is me NOT laughing*
TCHR: “Microbes.”
*this is me keeping it together, barely*
STDT: “Yeah, the microbes…..”

Ah, original content, that almost makes the whole gig worthwhile!

All this past week has been a mind-numbing standardized testing week. 
* all the teachers sigh in unison *
Sixth graders take instructions from the book the teacher reads.

While bubbling in * sigh * this exchange took place:

Teacher: “Are there any questions?”
             “Joe?”
Student: “Do they want my whole first name?”
Teacher: “Yes, write down the name your mother put on your birth certificate.”
Student: “How do you spell Joseph?”

Thirteen Things I have GIVEN UP ON 1. Trying to explain the good in the ACLU to some people. (my mom knows what I am talking about here…) 2. Extrinsic Rewards for kids…that does not mean I am not out-voted by collegues….often. I don’t work with Alfie Kohn. 3. Asking my DH to make the bed. 4. Expecting others to be at least as smart as me. 5. Hoping people “get” how important my job is, or at least how much I care about it. 6. Getting my DH to read a book. 7. Applying logic directly to middle school students, or humans. 8. Expecting technology people at my work to be even 1/10 as useful as technology people anywhere else on the planet. 9. Grammatical Issues, including: went/gone, using ‘they’ when the pronoun should be singular, and I/me (I was a mess over #4 & #5, please take out your red pen if you must). 10.My in-laws ends sentences in “with.” I am slowly going insane from this…..”Do you want to go with?” 11.Being paid for my efforts. 12.running, “I choose not to run.” The whole world is my Duncan….. 13.It is possible Jerry is talking about me in The Cartoon Episode (although I was not, in fact, Susan Ross’ old college roommate): “Kramer: Oh! Yeah your old college roommate huh? Jerry: No , It’s Susan Ross’s old college roommate; she moved to New York a few years ago . she’s trying to become an actress. Kramer: Hmmm,, Dramatica comedia heh!Jerry: Untalented, She’s always inviting me to see her in some bad play in tiny room without ventilation. It’s really depressing. Kramer: Euh.. We don’t go to enough theater. Jerry: She should just give up.”Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1

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From The Water is Wide:

“I saw the necessity of living and accepting bullcrap in my midst.  It was everywhere.  In the teachers’ manuals, in the platitudes muttered by educators, in schoolboards, in the community, and most significantly in myself.  I could be so self-righteous, so inflexiblewhen I thought I was right or that the children had been wronged.  I lacked diplomacy and would not compromise.  To survive in the future I would have to learn the complex art of ass-kissing, that honorable American custom that makes the world go ’round.  Survival is the most important thing.  As a bona fide ass-kisser, I might lose a measure of self respect, but I could be teaching and helping kids.”

First day of school with the kids yesterday.  The kids were coming to the Middle School for the first time.  Three elementary schools merge into our school and for the first year any parent that has a student attending a non-AYP school can send their child to an AYP school, which is us.
Being a new teacher to the school, along with three other brand new teachers to the profession, I was given bus duty. 
Have you been outside in America lately? 
How about in Georgia?  In the parking lot?
So….it’s the first day of school and the major NFL camp literally across the road is having a free publicity day.  Spectators were parked in our bus loop, parents had the road jammed picking their kiddies up and fans were trying to get in and out of the football training camp.  Accordingly the duty took longer then usual.
I walked to the bus ramp at 3:30 and left at 4:30.  I had been dressed nice for the first day of school.  I swear I seriously thought about taking of my bra.  It was soaked along with everything else of course. 
When I finally got into the car to drive home (fun because of all the traffic) the thermometer read 103* after I was driving at a pretty good clip.

I have to do something about “Bus Duty” before I die next week.

The kids bussing in from other schools also gave me the queems.  I wonder if this is what the original desegregation looked like (minus the pro-team across the street)?

I spent $30 in the teacher store yesterday (and made mental notes for Thurdsay’s shoppping) and $12 in the office store (with more to go).

Georgia’s governor Sonny Perdue has decided to ‘give’ teachers $100 to spend anyway they want on their classroom in this election year.  The spending can only happen on the tax free holiday of Aug. 3rd-6th however.  Ever the cynic, doesn’t it just stand to reason that with a captive audience retail establishments will just stop the back to school sales, or worse yet jack up their prices to accomodate the loss?  And couldn’t the school system just let us use purchase orders to avoid taxes to begin with?  These purchases will be auditted through the state after we use our prepaid visa cards, so no one’s buying shoes….

Gimmick, worse yet, gimmick that will make shopping for B to S unpleasant.

Did I mention that in my classroom, and apparently every classroom in the building is a framed, color, patriotic picture that says “In God We Trust” and goes on to tell when it was added to The Pledge. *sigh*  I told my husband & several of my old co-workers that I would show up & actively try not to run my mouth / swear right off the bat…….. ARGH…..then why is that in my public school classroom?!?

Curriculum planning today anyhow, as we were going through the standards one of the other teachers started talking about “Soul Formation.”  What the Heck?  I mean how much can a public school teacher be expected to take?  Again, I was trying to keep my mouth shut & eyes and ears open … I couldn’t wait to see what this was about! 

 She was saying “Soil Formation” and that ladies and gentlemen is something I am comfortable teaching.

Every classroom I have every left I always leave saying outloud “I love this place.”  Because all I can see when I look around is the students that I have loved in that room.  All the real change that has happened over the year(s) there….

So is it any surprise that when I saw my classroom for the first time I was shocked that I didn’t love it yet?  After all, I haven’t taught any children in there, I haven’t fallen in love with my subject yet.  Whiel I am sure there will be success, I can’t believe how clinical and empty and dead it looks in there right now.

*sigh*