While teachers’ first responsibility is to their students, we spend a significant amount of time working with parents. Students are best served when their parents and teachers are partners working for the same goals. However, sometimes finding common goals can be challenging.
Recently, lauded teacher Ron Clark wrote a strongly worded column on CNN.com asking parents to work with, rather than against, teachers, administrators, and the educational system. He laments parents who make excuses for their children, treat teachers poorly, or refuse to hear anything but positive things about their children. He states that, “Today, new teachers remain in our profession an average of just 4.5 years, and many of them list ‘issues with parents’ as one of their reasons for throwing in the towel.”
My experience as a parent and a teacher supports Mr. Clark’s contentions. However, there is a surprising flipside: many parents are afraid of contacting teachers! As a parent, I have been shocked at some of the things that have happened in my children’s classrooms and stunned that no one has said a word! Likewise, I fully understand why some teachers would prefer to send an email or do nothing at all rather than directly speak to parents.
Once we have had a negative experience with a parent or teacher, we are less likely to reach out again. Once that teacher (or coach) has said to our child, “We don’t want your parents making a fuss again, so could you please tell them what we did today?” The parent is less likely to call any other school staff member. If a parent overlooks all the time, effort, patience, and care a teacher has given and refuses to acknowledge what that teacher sees in class, that teacher is less likely to pick up the phone and call any parent or guardian.
And the experience need not be first hand. Parent or teacher experiences spreads through the school and community. Teachers find out which families are difficult and parents know which teachers will take it out on the kids. The walls go up around these people and no one wants to deal with them.
Then there is the fatalistic factor. How many calls to the teacher or parent will it take to effect change? If calling the teacher or principal isn’t going to change anything, why bother? If calling the parent is only going to get you beat up, what’s the point? Parents and teachers can easily rationalize themselves out of talking to each other.
Increasingly, parents and school personnel have more communication vehicles. We have email and online grade books, websites and blogs, newsletters and social networks – and we still have difficulty talking to each other.
I have excellent conversations with the vast majority of parents. Most of the time, when I have contacted teachers, the response has been professional and appropriate. We are really talking about that not-so-apocryphal twenty percent.
Do teachers need additional training in communicating with students’ homes? Do parents need help learning how to partner with schools? Could we do this together? Almost every school has an organization that is called, in some form or fashion, a Parent-Teacher organization. But they aren’t. My experience has been the PTO is a mostly moms club.
It is time to leap over the walls between school and home. It is time to create ways to bring parents, students, and educators together for more than a crisis phone call or intervention meeting.
Mr. Clark’s column is asking for parent cooperation. I am asking for collaboration. It is not enough to be nice. It is not enough to be professional. We need to be innovative, inclusive, and indefatigable! It is in our children’s best interest!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The College Search Process: Part 2
Now that we are neck deep in the college process, my family and I are learning a great deal about not only what colleges might be a good match for our daughter, but how this process works.
During the past year and a half, we have visited large state schools, tiny liberal arts schools, colleges in the country, cities, and suburbs. We have seen stretch and safety schools and colleges in between.
As an educator, I encourage families to fit colleges to students like a tailor fits clothing. However, competitive colleges seem very desirable to many families. Some students only want to go to schools that are just out of their reach. While I understand the lure of prestige, I can’t understand why parents would want their children to be the kids with the lowest grades or scores on campus? Although most parents believe that their children will be able to succeed under such circumstances (and sometimes they are right), my experience is that students do better when they attend schools that are a good academic and social match. Finding that match has been the focus of this part of the process.
It would be easier if we simply said to our child, “You are going the big state school.” Many families make this choice and there are many good reasons to do so. Our state universities are not only excellent and less expensive, but offer students an outstanding education. As a family, we have chosen to both spend more money and time and explore smaller private colleges.
It was wonderfully validating for me that the school with which my child fell in love was one to which she has a good chance of being admitted. While she liked several schools that are more selective and academically competitive, she “connected” more with schools who usually admitted students whose grades and test scores look like hers.
As we visited campuses, talked to students and college admissions counselors, a much more clear set of criteria developed. She figured out what characteristics were important to her. She was able to see more subtle differences between schools and connect those differences to her educational and personal needs.
By the end of the summer, the process shifted from search and select to evaluate and research. My daughter started drafting college essays and looking over the Common Application (commonapp.org). She researched a few more schools that appear to meet her criteria. We are making plans to visit two or three of these schools but we believe the list now has a clear end to it.
My daughter is doing focused research on a handful of “finalists.” She is reading their newspapers, looking more closely at their course and club offerings, and using guidebooks to hear about others’ views of them. Chances are we will make second visits to two or three of them.
Many colleges ask students to write about why they want to attend. The process of answering this question has required additional research and reflection. As she starts to fill out applications and supplements and write essays, she has to slow down and really think critically about each school.
While I would not say that picking a college is no big deal. Yet, I believe that my daughter would have a great experience at any of the schools on her short list. However, the flavor of that experience would vary. And figuring out how these schools will feel, with a little taste from visits and good research, requires digging far more deeply than glancing at glossy books, surfing websites, or taking tours.
During the past year and a half, we have visited large state schools, tiny liberal arts schools, colleges in the country, cities, and suburbs. We have seen stretch and safety schools and colleges in between.
As an educator, I encourage families to fit colleges to students like a tailor fits clothing. However, competitive colleges seem very desirable to many families. Some students only want to go to schools that are just out of their reach. While I understand the lure of prestige, I can’t understand why parents would want their children to be the kids with the lowest grades or scores on campus? Although most parents believe that their children will be able to succeed under such circumstances (and sometimes they are right), my experience is that students do better when they attend schools that are a good academic and social match. Finding that match has been the focus of this part of the process.
It would be easier if we simply said to our child, “You are going the big state school.” Many families make this choice and there are many good reasons to do so. Our state universities are not only excellent and less expensive, but offer students an outstanding education. As a family, we have chosen to both spend more money and time and explore smaller private colleges.
It was wonderfully validating for me that the school with which my child fell in love was one to which she has a good chance of being admitted. While she liked several schools that are more selective and academically competitive, she “connected” more with schools who usually admitted students whose grades and test scores look like hers.
As we visited campuses, talked to students and college admissions counselors, a much more clear set of criteria developed. She figured out what characteristics were important to her. She was able to see more subtle differences between schools and connect those differences to her educational and personal needs.
By the end of the summer, the process shifted from search and select to evaluate and research. My daughter started drafting college essays and looking over the Common Application (commonapp.org). She researched a few more schools that appear to meet her criteria. We are making plans to visit two or three of these schools but we believe the list now has a clear end to it.
My daughter is doing focused research on a handful of “finalists.” She is reading their newspapers, looking more closely at their course and club offerings, and using guidebooks to hear about others’ views of them. Chances are we will make second visits to two or three of them.
Many colleges ask students to write about why they want to attend. The process of answering this question has required additional research and reflection. As she starts to fill out applications and supplements and write essays, she has to slow down and really think critically about each school.
While I would not say that picking a college is no big deal. Yet, I believe that my daughter would have a great experience at any of the schools on her short list. However, the flavor of that experience would vary. And figuring out how these schools will feel, with a little taste from visits and good research, requires digging far more deeply than glancing at glossy books, surfing websites, or taking tours.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Don’t Let Dialogue Die
As I witnessed the ugly and inflexible discourse surrounding the recent federal debt crisis, I wondered if dialogue was dead. Legislators, commentators, and agitators were screaming at each other but no one was listening. No one had any interest in “finding common ground” or “moving toward the center.” It was a publicity game and the one who yelled the loudest longest was going to win.
So the rest of us lost. Since our representatives were so intransigent and inflexible, their game of brinksmanship took all of us off the brink. More and more, that is the tone of political rhetoric: we won’t back down! We won’t back down means we’re unconditionally right. We won’t back down means that my view is the only view worth discussing. We won’t back down means we won’t even entertain the possibility that we might be even a little bit wrong. We won’t back down means that the views of those who disagree with me, democracy be damned, should be disregarded.
There are things about which we do not compromise. But they are very few and they should be extremely clear. Every issue cannot be the line in the sand. If the non-negotiable list is too long, then the real message is that if you don’t play the game my way, I won’t let the game be played.
We all have encountered bullies and prima donnas who must have their way on even the finest points. This point of view seems to have infected our political process and is in danger of destroying one of the most important features of our representative democracy: the crucible of debate and discussion.
If I don’t get my way, says the two year old, I am going to kick and scream and raise such a ruckus that you will do anything to make me quiet. I will cause you so much pain that you will give in to my unreasonable views. We’ve all witnessed this: the panicked parent with the tantrum throwing two year old in the check out line. Perhaps we have all given in to that but we know what happens when giving in to tantrums becomes the primary parenting strategy. Our job as a parent is to get our children to use their words and listen to us. Perhaps we need to parent our politicians.
But this was THE issue. This was the issue worth throwing a tantrum. This was the BIG one! Baloney! That is a politician’s (or toddler’s) excuse for saying what I really wanted was to get as much attention as possible and thus get my way. If you ask your friends, family, and neighbors what are the areas that, if under attack, they would yell and scream, it would not be the debt ceiling or the budget. It might be free speech, the right to vote (which too many people neglect) or issues of choice and self-determination. Maybe it would be taxes, but even there I doubt it. Ask them when they have called or written their representatives.
When the person at my door says, “ You are going to hell if you don’t practice religion my way,” or the salesman on TV says, “The only way to be healthy (or popular) is to use my product,” we should be suspicious. When we are threatened with doom and gloom because people are so sure of themselves, it is a warning of small minded thinking and a lack of listening. There are always multiple solutions. There are always multiple “right” points of view. To dismiss that reality is to see the world through a narrow tunnel and miss the more important and larger view.
Doubt is a good thing. It indicates that the thought, “I might be wrong” has checked ego and arrogance. Compromise isn’t capitulation; it is collaboration and the creation of community. It is coming together through listening. Those who will not listen, those who insist they are right without reservation, are more dangerous than any polarizing issue. Because if dialogue dies, democracy goes with it.
So the rest of us lost. Since our representatives were so intransigent and inflexible, their game of brinksmanship took all of us off the brink. More and more, that is the tone of political rhetoric: we won’t back down! We won’t back down means we’re unconditionally right. We won’t back down means that my view is the only view worth discussing. We won’t back down means we won’t even entertain the possibility that we might be even a little bit wrong. We won’t back down means that the views of those who disagree with me, democracy be damned, should be disregarded.
There are things about which we do not compromise. But they are very few and they should be extremely clear. Every issue cannot be the line in the sand. If the non-negotiable list is too long, then the real message is that if you don’t play the game my way, I won’t let the game be played.
We all have encountered bullies and prima donnas who must have their way on even the finest points. This point of view seems to have infected our political process and is in danger of destroying one of the most important features of our representative democracy: the crucible of debate and discussion.
If I don’t get my way, says the two year old, I am going to kick and scream and raise such a ruckus that you will do anything to make me quiet. I will cause you so much pain that you will give in to my unreasonable views. We’ve all witnessed this: the panicked parent with the tantrum throwing two year old in the check out line. Perhaps we have all given in to that but we know what happens when giving in to tantrums becomes the primary parenting strategy. Our job as a parent is to get our children to use their words and listen to us. Perhaps we need to parent our politicians.
But this was THE issue. This was the issue worth throwing a tantrum. This was the BIG one! Baloney! That is a politician’s (or toddler’s) excuse for saying what I really wanted was to get as much attention as possible and thus get my way. If you ask your friends, family, and neighbors what are the areas that, if under attack, they would yell and scream, it would not be the debt ceiling or the budget. It might be free speech, the right to vote (which too many people neglect) or issues of choice and self-determination. Maybe it would be taxes, but even there I doubt it. Ask them when they have called or written their representatives.
When the person at my door says, “ You are going to hell if you don’t practice religion my way,” or the salesman on TV says, “The only way to be healthy (or popular) is to use my product,” we should be suspicious. When we are threatened with doom and gloom because people are so sure of themselves, it is a warning of small minded thinking and a lack of listening. There are always multiple solutions. There are always multiple “right” points of view. To dismiss that reality is to see the world through a narrow tunnel and miss the more important and larger view.
Doubt is a good thing. It indicates that the thought, “I might be wrong” has checked ego and arrogance. Compromise isn’t capitulation; it is collaboration and the creation of community. It is coming together through listening. Those who will not listen, those who insist they are right without reservation, are more dangerous than any polarizing issue. Because if dialogue dies, democracy goes with it.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
My Week as a Downtown Commuter
Time is my most valuable commodity. Which would you prefer, at the end of the day or year or later: a few more dollars or a few more minutes? If someone has a half hour drive to work each day, that means at least an hour a day in the car. So commuting takes almost an entire day each month. Each year, this commuter would spend almost two weeks going back and forth to work. And a half hour is a very reasonable commute. That is a great deal of life to spend. That is expensive.
I am very fortunate to live next door to the school at which I teach. My commute is a six-minute walk, even in the worst of weather. However, this past week, I got a taste of a very different routine. I signed up for a seminar being held on Northwestern’s Chicago campus.
I could have driven downtown. That would have taken about an hour in the car each way and then finding and paying for a place to park. My other option was to take public transportation. This would mean I would need to leave about a half hour earlier and give up my flexibility to come and go as I please. However, it would make the ride time usable time. I could read, write, or relax. It was also less expensive. Since I drive all the time, I decided to take the train and bus and see what it was like.
On a normal school day, I get up around 5:30 am and get to school around 7:30. My train left at 6:44, so I needed to get out of the house no later than 6:30. My train ride to the city was the most relaxing part of the commute. Once I arrived at Union Station, I needed to find a CTA bus to take me to campus. That ride took about twenty minutes. I usually arrived in the classroom about twenty minutes before class starts.
Of course there were a few glitches. One day, I exited the train and got turned around. I ended up on the wrong side of Union Station and struggled to find my bus stop. I sometimes had difficulty finding a bus to take me back to Union Station.
Sometimes, I was afraid I was going to miss my bus or train. I was worried I would get on the wrong bus or train. Once, I had a very large (and smelly) man sit next to me. However, as the week progressed, I got accustomed to the routine.
I read on the train; I wrote letters to my children at camp. I wrote this blog posting on the train. It was safer to make phone calls (quietly) on the train. I realized I could actually get tasks done on the train. The work I did on the train gave me more time when I got home. And once the train or bus left and I calmed down, I really began to enjoy the ride. This was especially true on the bus. I was like a tourist, appreciating the great beauty of the city. I people watched. Once the tension of catching the train or bus was gone, it was a far more relaxing trip than any drive downtown.
If I had to commute a long distance, I think I would take the train much of the time. But I am not willing to spend my time that way. A friend once said to me, "You are so lucky to live so close to your job." There is no luck involved. It was a very conscious decision. I know that not everyone can make that choice. I am very grateful that I could.
I am very fortunate to live next door to the school at which I teach. My commute is a six-minute walk, even in the worst of weather. However, this past week, I got a taste of a very different routine. I signed up for a seminar being held on Northwestern’s Chicago campus.
I could have driven downtown. That would have taken about an hour in the car each way and then finding and paying for a place to park. My other option was to take public transportation. This would mean I would need to leave about a half hour earlier and give up my flexibility to come and go as I please. However, it would make the ride time usable time. I could read, write, or relax. It was also less expensive. Since I drive all the time, I decided to take the train and bus and see what it was like.
On a normal school day, I get up around 5:30 am and get to school around 7:30. My train left at 6:44, so I needed to get out of the house no later than 6:30. My train ride to the city was the most relaxing part of the commute. Once I arrived at Union Station, I needed to find a CTA bus to take me to campus. That ride took about twenty minutes. I usually arrived in the classroom about twenty minutes before class starts.
Of course there were a few glitches. One day, I exited the train and got turned around. I ended up on the wrong side of Union Station and struggled to find my bus stop. I sometimes had difficulty finding a bus to take me back to Union Station.
Sometimes, I was afraid I was going to miss my bus or train. I was worried I would get on the wrong bus or train. Once, I had a very large (and smelly) man sit next to me. However, as the week progressed, I got accustomed to the routine.
I read on the train; I wrote letters to my children at camp. I wrote this blog posting on the train. It was safer to make phone calls (quietly) on the train. I realized I could actually get tasks done on the train. The work I did on the train gave me more time when I got home. And once the train or bus left and I calmed down, I really began to enjoy the ride. This was especially true on the bus. I was like a tourist, appreciating the great beauty of the city. I people watched. Once the tension of catching the train or bus was gone, it was a far more relaxing trip than any drive downtown.
If I had to commute a long distance, I think I would take the train much of the time. But I am not willing to spend my time that way. A friend once said to me, "You are so lucky to live so close to your job." There is no luck involved. It was a very conscious decision. I know that not everyone can make that choice. I am very grateful that I could.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Traveling with Children
As my family and I got on the last leg of our almost twenty-four hour journey home, we heard the all too familiar wail of a crying child. My father joked that every plane is equipped with one. If you have a flight without a crying kid, you will get two the next time.
The child was screaming, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” Her father was visibly frustrated. If their journey had been anything like ours, I understood how tired that child might be. However, as soon as the child got mommy, she started to scream, “Daddy! Daddy” Daddy!” That clued me in that this tantrum might be more than common fatigue.
For the next three and half hours, this toddler screamed, often in pitches that I could only detect by feeling the windows vibrate. Her parents walked her up and down the aisles, offered her crayons, toys, and treats. Nothing worked.
I was traveling with my two children, who were considerably older than the screamer. Yet, they have been on planes since they were infants. We are fortunate enough to have the means to travel a few times a year and my kids have become wonderful travelers.
There is a trick to it. My wife and I were very deliberate about how we handled traveling with the kids. We found that the keys were good planning, balancing adult and child needs, practice, and a lot of backbone!
We learned this the hard way. When our daughter was about nine months old, we took her to Quebec. It was awful. I remember quietly huddling behind a screen in a tiny hotel room praying that she would go to sleep and exiting a restaurant with our food in bags because my child could no longer sit still in the high chair.
Taking an infant on a vacation is strenuous. I have changed diapers on laps, in airplane lavatories, and the open spaces near doors. I have schlepped diaper bags that weighed more than my checked luggage. And who could forget dragging car seats and strollers through the narrow aisles of an airplane!
We learned the travel tricks. When our kids were young, I planned for the travel like I was putting together a lesson plan. I had videos (long before there were laptops or portable video player; I rigged my camcorder to work in reverse and put Sesame Street into it!), books, music, treats, games, and more ready to go. Diaper changing (and later potty breaks) were part of the schedule. I had spare clothes, extra diapers, pull ups, and always a wrapped surprise. They never knew when it would come, but it was a great motivation to stay with the program.
Someone had suggested giving our daughter Benadryl on the plane, so she would sleep. I called the doctor and she wisely suggested a test run first. To my child, it was rocket fuel. Drugging kids on the plane may be tempting, but if your goal is to help your kids become good travelers, it defeats the purpose.
As the kids got older, the key was to give them more responsibility for the planning. My children would pack their own bags (and carry them) that contained their favorite activities. I still brought little extras and surprises. I hit upon travel and card games and those became the focus of our longer journeys. Yes, my kids would also bring movies and music and those were great. The real saviors were books! My kids would read through very long journeys. It was profoundly ironic when, on a four-hour car ride through the Arizona desert, I stuck my head in the backseat to say to my kids, “Put down the darn books and look at the beautiful scenery!”
The journey may be half the fun, but the other half must be child friendly too. When our kids were young, we picked travel spots that had kid appeal. Quebec did not. There had to be a kids club or kid activities at resorts or kid friendly attractions when we were touring. Our schedule revolved around their home schedule. When they were young, we always stopped for nap-time. Kids travel better when they aren’t tired. We stayed in places that had kitchenettes or rented condominiums and prepared many meals in or took out from places to avoid the long waits in restaurants and the $16 grilled cheese sandwiches! We loved hotels with buffets because they provided everyone with choices and moved quickly. All hotels had to have a pool!
Our entire family (including grandparents) just returned from a tour of Alaska. We had many new experiences and getting home took almost an entire day. My kids were great! I remember an old Plugger cartoon that showed two weary parents walking away from the baggage claim with suitcases and kids under their arms. The caption read, “After the trip, pluggers need a vacation.” I can honestly say that traveling with my children may sometimes be a trip, but it is always a vacation!
The child was screaming, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” Her father was visibly frustrated. If their journey had been anything like ours, I understood how tired that child might be. However, as soon as the child got mommy, she started to scream, “Daddy! Daddy” Daddy!” That clued me in that this tantrum might be more than common fatigue.
For the next three and half hours, this toddler screamed, often in pitches that I could only detect by feeling the windows vibrate. Her parents walked her up and down the aisles, offered her crayons, toys, and treats. Nothing worked.
I was traveling with my two children, who were considerably older than the screamer. Yet, they have been on planes since they were infants. We are fortunate enough to have the means to travel a few times a year and my kids have become wonderful travelers.
There is a trick to it. My wife and I were very deliberate about how we handled traveling with the kids. We found that the keys were good planning, balancing adult and child needs, practice, and a lot of backbone!
We learned this the hard way. When our daughter was about nine months old, we took her to Quebec. It was awful. I remember quietly huddling behind a screen in a tiny hotel room praying that she would go to sleep and exiting a restaurant with our food in bags because my child could no longer sit still in the high chair.
Taking an infant on a vacation is strenuous. I have changed diapers on laps, in airplane lavatories, and the open spaces near doors. I have schlepped diaper bags that weighed more than my checked luggage. And who could forget dragging car seats and strollers through the narrow aisles of an airplane!
We learned the travel tricks. When our kids were young, I planned for the travel like I was putting together a lesson plan. I had videos (long before there were laptops or portable video player; I rigged my camcorder to work in reverse and put Sesame Street into it!), books, music, treats, games, and more ready to go. Diaper changing (and later potty breaks) were part of the schedule. I had spare clothes, extra diapers, pull ups, and always a wrapped surprise. They never knew when it would come, but it was a great motivation to stay with the program.
Someone had suggested giving our daughter Benadryl on the plane, so she would sleep. I called the doctor and she wisely suggested a test run first. To my child, it was rocket fuel. Drugging kids on the plane may be tempting, but if your goal is to help your kids become good travelers, it defeats the purpose.
As the kids got older, the key was to give them more responsibility for the planning. My children would pack their own bags (and carry them) that contained their favorite activities. I still brought little extras and surprises. I hit upon travel and card games and those became the focus of our longer journeys. Yes, my kids would also bring movies and music and those were great. The real saviors were books! My kids would read through very long journeys. It was profoundly ironic when, on a four-hour car ride through the Arizona desert, I stuck my head in the backseat to say to my kids, “Put down the darn books and look at the beautiful scenery!”
The journey may be half the fun, but the other half must be child friendly too. When our kids were young, we picked travel spots that had kid appeal. Quebec did not. There had to be a kids club or kid activities at resorts or kid friendly attractions when we were touring. Our schedule revolved around their home schedule. When they were young, we always stopped for nap-time. Kids travel better when they aren’t tired. We stayed in places that had kitchenettes or rented condominiums and prepared many meals in or took out from places to avoid the long waits in restaurants and the $16 grilled cheese sandwiches! We loved hotels with buffets because they provided everyone with choices and moved quickly. All hotels had to have a pool!
Our entire family (including grandparents) just returned from a tour of Alaska. We had many new experiences and getting home took almost an entire day. My kids were great! I remember an old Plugger cartoon that showed two weary parents walking away from the baggage claim with suitcases and kids under their arms. The caption read, “After the trip, pluggers need a vacation.” I can honestly say that traveling with my children may sometimes be a trip, but it is always a vacation!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Who Wouldn’t Want To Be A Teacher?
I am delighted that teaching is now the most sought after profession in the United States. In the twenty-six years I have been a professional educator, teaching has become a more and more attractive profession. Of course, a majority of the best students at the most elite college are interested in going into the classroom and who can blame them? The way that we treat teachers in the United States is the key to the success of our educational system.
Of course, as everyone knows, teachers have really easy hours. Although class often starts around 8am, teachers get to come in an hour or more earlier to prepare for the day. However, class days often end between 2:30 and 3:30. What a great workday! Of course, most teachers stay after school to work with kids, sponsor clubs and coach sports, call and meet with parents, and attend meetings. Even with all that, most teachers might leave school no later than 6 or 7. And when they get home, they get to take a little bit of school with them and grade student work for a few hours and plan future lessons. What a fantastic daily schedule! And you get summers off to design curriculum, take college courses, and have fun extra jobs to supplement your income and experience!
Many students are attracted to teaching for the status, which may be the wrong reason. Everyone loves teachers. They are praised in the press and lauded in the halls of the legislature. Some college students are only in it for the prestige and teacher training programs must address that. Sure, other countries recruit teachers by paying their way through college and giving them high salaries, but we don’t need that in the United States. The joy and praise heaped on teachers is payment enough.
Teachers not only contribute to society by working with the young, their retirement dollars help ailing state governments. Teachers can feel good that the retirement money taken from their paychecks will be borrowed by the government to pay for many needed projects. Teachers have faith that it will be repaid when they are ready to retire. Since, for many of our younger teachers, that isn’t until age sixty-seven or perhaps older, the whole retirement question might not even matter at all! Besides, who would want to retire from teaching anyway?
Just like the high status, many young people want to go into teaching to strike it rich! The Chicago Sun Times recently reported that some teachers make around $100,000. After teaching for thirty years, students want to make those big bucks. In what other professions can long time veterans with advanced degrees say that they are earning almost six figures?
Of course, the biggest draw to teaching is the kids themselves. Remember what it was like back in high school or middle school? Imagine that all the time! And, for no extra charge, teachers also get to know and love their parents!
The fact is that anyone can be a teacher. After going to the doctor’s office, I performed surgery. I cooked a gourmet meal after eating at a French restaurant. A few visits to the salon and I can do wonders with my hair! If you have been a student, you can be a teacher! No problem!
Teaching isn’t really that hard because there are a battery of tests that tell teachers what students need to learn. Legislators and educrats have made teaching one of the easiest professions around. They have laid out targets in each subject and at each grade level. All teachers have to do is get the kids to score well on the test. What could be easier?
It is no wonder that today’s college students are flocking to be teachers! The way our country promotes teachers is the real reason that America has the best education system in the world!
Of course, as everyone knows, teachers have really easy hours. Although class often starts around 8am, teachers get to come in an hour or more earlier to prepare for the day. However, class days often end between 2:30 and 3:30. What a great workday! Of course, most teachers stay after school to work with kids, sponsor clubs and coach sports, call and meet with parents, and attend meetings. Even with all that, most teachers might leave school no later than 6 or 7. And when they get home, they get to take a little bit of school with them and grade student work for a few hours and plan future lessons. What a fantastic daily schedule! And you get summers off to design curriculum, take college courses, and have fun extra jobs to supplement your income and experience!
Many students are attracted to teaching for the status, which may be the wrong reason. Everyone loves teachers. They are praised in the press and lauded in the halls of the legislature. Some college students are only in it for the prestige and teacher training programs must address that. Sure, other countries recruit teachers by paying their way through college and giving them high salaries, but we don’t need that in the United States. The joy and praise heaped on teachers is payment enough.
Teachers not only contribute to society by working with the young, their retirement dollars help ailing state governments. Teachers can feel good that the retirement money taken from their paychecks will be borrowed by the government to pay for many needed projects. Teachers have faith that it will be repaid when they are ready to retire. Since, for many of our younger teachers, that isn’t until age sixty-seven or perhaps older, the whole retirement question might not even matter at all! Besides, who would want to retire from teaching anyway?
Just like the high status, many young people want to go into teaching to strike it rich! The Chicago Sun Times recently reported that some teachers make around $100,000. After teaching for thirty years, students want to make those big bucks. In what other professions can long time veterans with advanced degrees say that they are earning almost six figures?
Of course, the biggest draw to teaching is the kids themselves. Remember what it was like back in high school or middle school? Imagine that all the time! And, for no extra charge, teachers also get to know and love their parents!
The fact is that anyone can be a teacher. After going to the doctor’s office, I performed surgery. I cooked a gourmet meal after eating at a French restaurant. A few visits to the salon and I can do wonders with my hair! If you have been a student, you can be a teacher! No problem!
Teaching isn’t really that hard because there are a battery of tests that tell teachers what students need to learn. Legislators and educrats have made teaching one of the easiest professions around. They have laid out targets in each subject and at each grade level. All teachers have to do is get the kids to score well on the test. What could be easier?
It is no wonder that today’s college students are flocking to be teachers! The way our country promotes teachers is the real reason that America has the best education system in the world!
Friday, June 3, 2011
A Very Tweet School Year!
Classes are over and finals are around the corner; it is time to look back on the 2010-2011 school year. At the end of each class period, my students write a short statement that communicates something important about what we did that day. We publish these statements on the social network site Twitter. Here is a not-so-brief but still edited version of my school year in my students’ tweets:
• First day of high school writing and “My Name.”
• Listen to Sesame Street, discuss and journal.
• Today, we read some OF MICE AND MEN and got our papers back.
• Show don’t tell
• Write a great college essay…be you!
• Dashes, dos and don’ts.
• This video didn’t work, I believe.
• We annotated on our knees.
• Better to start applications sooner than later.
• Bloom Taxonomy questions
• Jigsaw and a blackout!
• We wrote bad essays.
• University of (insert name here).
• We talked about chapter 3 in double circles. Quiz! Balanced book on head.
• Revise! Revise! Revise! The key to a “perfect” essay is the R.R.R. criteria.
• Quizzes make us tired.
• Started ANTHEM in a shortened period and had some time for the Sunday Puzzle.
• Twinkle, Twinkle, little star.
• DISC and your clickers.
• We took a quiz and learned about pronouns, commas, and copyright.
• Talked about Equality’s qualities.
• For every pleasure, there is a pain.
• Learned about quote sandwiches.
• Memoir and looking back.
• “Third and Final Continent” was splendid!
• Swap!
• Analyzed essays and, surprise, a phone went off in a locker outside.
• Discussed graphic novels: comical day.
• Shopping for essays.
• Hodge podge.
• “Thebes is dying, look, her children stripped of pity…”
• Oedipus loves his mother.
• We had an awesome day! Talked about similarities.
• Thesis work: I Want It That Way, YouTube - Backdorm Boys.
• Cucumbers and sweater vests.
• Solved the murder mystery!
• Majors and minors – not chords!
• A bridge to where? To Antigone.
• MAJOR research.
• We worked on grammar, learned about the Joneses, and got the best project!
• Anthology of pros.
• Watched HAMLET Scene 1!
• A regular Monday always has a puzzle.
• Majors aren’t important and mock interview.
• Reverse thesis and the bests for research.
• “I would be fine living in a box on Adams if I am making a difference.” Is there a major for that?
• Fear not thy major, ‘stead search thee as a forest ranger.
• “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
• We wrote about Chris Creed, researched the best and danced (according to Mr. Hirsch).
• End your relationship with Hamlet!
• “Go on.”
• New student, malapropisms, and Chris Creed
• Billy Crystal was meant to play the grave-digger.
• Course Fair!
• Watched the blood bath!
• Theses slips and Yorik!
• Today we played with the talk tix for the first time and discussed the Chris Creed book.
• It’s snowing!
• We need to make a Facebook page for Renee.
• We survived the essay test!
• Santa is not real.
• Explication!
• We tweet to the beat of the poem we roam.
• Memorize, remember, repeat…repeat, remember, memorize…
• Good job (we discussed the end of Chris Creed).
• Bright the sun, shone on this fateful day, poetry recitation.
• Purely Christopher Creed (and puzzle…but that doesn’t count)
• Poetry out loud!
• Stop looking at Twitter and study for your finals!
• We read a poem (together), hacked Infinite Campus, and learned about third quarter.
• Late! Starting our book circles.
• Poems, poems, poems! And final essay rubrics.
• Proposals give us wings and let us soar!
• Started TWELFTH NIGHT.
• Our tweets are better than yours.
• Snow day tomorrow; halls in a frenzy.
• Ken Kesey’s acid bus!
• We wrote in Shakespeare’s language and talked about the book.
• How has this Twitter stream affected our relationships among fourth period English? 250-500 words.
• We made ransom note poems.
• Another snow day. See you on Friday!
• We performed translated versions of Shakespeare.
• Pop tart!
• Studied quotes on note cards, learned about upcoming quizzes, and how Shakespeare coined words.
• Bad, bad, grad speech.
• Found out that the oddest things can be turned into poetry (even articles from newspapers).
• Two roads diverged in a wood & I –I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. Be sure to put that in your speech.
• Three volunteers. Yeah for bravery!
• Today we summarized Act 4 in comic form and watched TWELFTH NIGHT.
• Ten years from now, I may be in jail.
• Quiz on Act 5, “stock” characters, the Globe and Carmelo Anthony.
• Where is everyone?
• Puns and project work.
• Simon says ...
• Essay contest, no puzzle.
• My apostrophe/Stop being used so wrong/For this angers me #grammarday
• Speeches, screeches, smeaches, beaches, leeches, bleaches, breaches, peaches, niches, squenches,
• Studied the anatomy of TWELFTH NIGHT.
• Puzzles, murder, thesis, oh, my!
• We’re having a fun time starting A TALE OF TWO CITIES.
• No homework over spring break.
• TALE OF TWO CITIES is recalled to life!
• When you don’t know the answer…google!
• Reenacted TALE OF TWO CITIES.
• StageWrite!
• Research, smearsearch (due Friday).
• Qook a tuiz, puzzle, and quoting the Beatles.
• Cantaloupe, antelope. :)
• Post not working, oh the irony!
• We learned about the French Revolution and got our first TALE quizzes back.
• Senior project, day 247
• Mysteries finally being solved in A TALE OF TWO CITIES.
• What’s a place of power that’s nine letters?
• Today was all about Tale and Mr. Hirsch got invited to karaoke with a student!
• Work or freak out…
• We read essays and revised essays.
• If you have less than 100 points, I will be calling home.
• We keep each other safe, so trust your instincts. Don’t forget about senior project!
• Done swapping essays and we got our new assignment.
• Who’s watching you…you will never know.
• Bush pigs in America.
• Don’t text and drive!
• Slaved all period making pictures.
• Products - done. Presentations - video problems. And then there was that hockey incident.
• A fantastic presentation on white privilege!
• Presentation and thank you notes!
• It's TALE OF TWO CITIES day!
• College transitions.
• TALE finished, end of the year is near, only need finals and we are done.
• Course and teacher evaluation. Thank you for flying Senior English.
• Watched some STAR TREK today.
• Working on finals!
• Last day of class, have a sreat gummer!
If you want to see all of my classes’ tweets, go to SeniorEngpd1, SeniorEngpd4, and FroshEngpd2 on Twitter.
• First day of high school writing and “My Name.”
• Listen to Sesame Street, discuss and journal.
• Today, we read some OF MICE AND MEN and got our papers back.
• Show don’t tell
• Write a great college essay…be you!
• Dashes, dos and don’ts.
• This video didn’t work, I believe.
• We annotated on our knees.
• Better to start applications sooner than later.
• Bloom Taxonomy questions
• Jigsaw and a blackout!
• We wrote bad essays.
• University of (insert name here).
• We talked about chapter 3 in double circles. Quiz! Balanced book on head.
• Revise! Revise! Revise! The key to a “perfect” essay is the R.R.R. criteria.
• Quizzes make us tired.
• Started ANTHEM in a shortened period and had some time for the Sunday Puzzle.
• Twinkle, Twinkle, little star.
• DISC and your clickers.
• We took a quiz and learned about pronouns, commas, and copyright.
• Talked about Equality’s qualities.
• For every pleasure, there is a pain.
• Learned about quote sandwiches.
• Memoir and looking back.
• “Third and Final Continent” was splendid!
• Swap!
• Analyzed essays and, surprise, a phone went off in a locker outside.
• Discussed graphic novels: comical day.
• Shopping for essays.
• Hodge podge.
• “Thebes is dying, look, her children stripped of pity…”
• Oedipus loves his mother.
• We had an awesome day! Talked about similarities.
• Thesis work: I Want It That Way, YouTube - Backdorm Boys.
• Cucumbers and sweater vests.
• Solved the murder mystery!
• Majors and minors – not chords!
• A bridge to where? To Antigone.
• MAJOR research.
• We worked on grammar, learned about the Joneses, and got the best project!
• Anthology of pros.
• Watched HAMLET Scene 1!
• A regular Monday always has a puzzle.
• Majors aren’t important and mock interview.
• Reverse thesis and the bests for research.
• “I would be fine living in a box on Adams if I am making a difference.” Is there a major for that?
• Fear not thy major, ‘stead search thee as a forest ranger.
• “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
• We wrote about Chris Creed, researched the best and danced (according to Mr. Hirsch).
• End your relationship with Hamlet!
• “Go on.”
• New student, malapropisms, and Chris Creed
• Billy Crystal was meant to play the grave-digger.
• Course Fair!
• Watched the blood bath!
• Theses slips and Yorik!
• Today we played with the talk tix for the first time and discussed the Chris Creed book.
• It’s snowing!
• We need to make a Facebook page for Renee.
• We survived the essay test!
• Santa is not real.
• Explication!
• We tweet to the beat of the poem we roam.
• Memorize, remember, repeat…repeat, remember, memorize…
• Good job (we discussed the end of Chris Creed).
• Bright the sun, shone on this fateful day, poetry recitation.
• Purely Christopher Creed (and puzzle…but that doesn’t count)
• Poetry out loud!
• Stop looking at Twitter and study for your finals!
• We read a poem (together), hacked Infinite Campus, and learned about third quarter.
• Late! Starting our book circles.
• Poems, poems, poems! And final essay rubrics.
• Proposals give us wings and let us soar!
• Started TWELFTH NIGHT.
• Our tweets are better than yours.
• Snow day tomorrow; halls in a frenzy.
• Ken Kesey’s acid bus!
• We wrote in Shakespeare’s language and talked about the book.
• How has this Twitter stream affected our relationships among fourth period English? 250-500 words.
• We made ransom note poems.
• Another snow day. See you on Friday!
• We performed translated versions of Shakespeare.
• Pop tart!
• Studied quotes on note cards, learned about upcoming quizzes, and how Shakespeare coined words.
• Bad, bad, grad speech.
• Found out that the oddest things can be turned into poetry (even articles from newspapers).
• Two roads diverged in a wood & I –I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. Be sure to put that in your speech.
• Three volunteers. Yeah for bravery!
• Today we summarized Act 4 in comic form and watched TWELFTH NIGHT.
• Ten years from now, I may be in jail.
• Quiz on Act 5, “stock” characters, the Globe and Carmelo Anthony.
• Where is everyone?
• Puns and project work.
• Simon says ...
• Essay contest, no puzzle.
• My apostrophe/Stop being used so wrong/For this angers me #grammarday
• Speeches, screeches, smeaches, beaches, leeches, bleaches, breaches, peaches, niches, squenches,
• Studied the anatomy of TWELFTH NIGHT.
• Puzzles, murder, thesis, oh, my!
• We’re having a fun time starting A TALE OF TWO CITIES.
• No homework over spring break.
• TALE OF TWO CITIES is recalled to life!
• When you don’t know the answer…google!
• Reenacted TALE OF TWO CITIES.
• StageWrite!
• Research, smearsearch (due Friday).
• Qook a tuiz, puzzle, and quoting the Beatles.
• Cantaloupe, antelope. :)
• Post not working, oh the irony!
• We learned about the French Revolution and got our first TALE quizzes back.
• Senior project, day 247
• Mysteries finally being solved in A TALE OF TWO CITIES.
• What’s a place of power that’s nine letters?
• Today was all about Tale and Mr. Hirsch got invited to karaoke with a student!
• Work or freak out…
• We read essays and revised essays.
• If you have less than 100 points, I will be calling home.
• We keep each other safe, so trust your instincts. Don’t forget about senior project!
• Done swapping essays and we got our new assignment.
• Who’s watching you…you will never know.
• Bush pigs in America.
• Don’t text and drive!
• Slaved all period making pictures.
• Products - done. Presentations - video problems. And then there was that hockey incident.
• A fantastic presentation on white privilege!
• Presentation and thank you notes!
• It's TALE OF TWO CITIES day!
• College transitions.
• TALE finished, end of the year is near, only need finals and we are done.
• Course and teacher evaluation. Thank you for flying Senior English.
• Watched some STAR TREK today.
• Working on finals!
• Last day of class, have a sreat gummer!
If you want to see all of my classes’ tweets, go to SeniorEngpd1, SeniorEngpd4, and FroshEngpd2 on Twitter.
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