It Must Be Nice

Tonight after dinner, I sat on a lawn chair in the garage and watched the kids color the driveway with chalk. They were quite absorbed in the activity, so I decided to use the time to catch up on some work. Here's a quick summary:

First I emailed the school secretary regarding a lost textbook. I received a call earlier today from an embarrassed parent who had accidentally donated it to Goodwill.

I followed that up with a reply email to the parent. Since I had my contacts up, I emailed a few other parents to give a heads up on final averages and the upcoming report cards being mailed home.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am using Edmodo to facilitate online book clubs over the summer. I logged into my account, replied to a few kids' questions, then posted links to book excerpts courtesy of Google Books. I also did a few quick comparisons and posted links to sites where the books were most affordable should they wish to purchase a copy.

Next, I realized supply orders were due today. I headed over to Staples.com, ordered pens, pencils, folders, and other supplies for my students, and sent out another email confirming the order.

I still had more to do - a parent letter to be sent home regarding Edmodo, final averages to be entered into the school data software and a mix cd I had promised to a student who had bonded with me through our shared interested in punk rock music - but at this point, our neighbor interrupted my progress. She called out a greeting from across the street and asked if I was done yet with school. I told her this was my last week but there was still a lot to do before wrapping up. She shouted back, "it must be nice only working nine months out of the year."

It would be nice. But don't ask me about it. I wouldn't know.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

I'm Just a Teacher.

This morning, I returned a phone call from a mother of one of my students. The child’s father answered and was less than pleasant with me. After introducing myself, he tersely asked, “Are you someone important, or just another teacher?” I remained professional and politely deflected the aggressive statement, but below is what I would have liked to have said.

Yes, I am just a teacher. I just teach:

social skills
collaboration
self esteem
responsibility
civil duty
ethics
pride
humility
sensitivity
critical thinking
problem solving
drive
peer relationships
community building
leadership
trust
conviction
overcoming adversity
support
analysis
organization
public speaking
professional discourse
manners
honesty
character
focus
independence
perseverance

Oh, and I also teach your child how to read and write.

You're welcome.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

Police Pepper Spray 8-Year-Old Boy

ABC News reported yesterday an incident involving 8-year-old Aidan Elliot, a second grader who was shot with pepper spray by police after teachers were unable to de-escalate his explosive behavior. Immediately following, angry mom, Mandy Elliot, took to media outlets across the country to defend her son's behavior and condemn the actions of the police. Despite repeated previous altercations at school where police had to be called, and young Aidan admitting to fashioning a makeshift shank from a piece of wooden molding, Ms. Elliot found the pepper spray to be excessive. She added that she also wanted police to get special training in dealing with children. Hmm... Or maybe, I don't know, she could work on improving discipline at home. Aidan (admittedly) has behavior and aggression issues, but that's no excuse to allow these kinds of events to happen. If anything, children with these problems benefit from more structure, not less. Take a look at the video below. Watch it closely, and then scroll down to see if you noticed what I did... (Direct link here if embedded video doesn't load.)

Her son - the boy who had to be physically removed from school for threatening to kill students and teachers - is sitting in his room playing video games. I'll ignore the obvious irony of the game being a violent first person shooter to focus on the fact that there was clearly no consequence at home for his actions. I just don't get it.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

This is not really about cookies.

I had a unsettling revelation the other evening: Cookies are not as good as they used to be.

Don’t get me wrong – I still enjoy cookies, but I remember them being better when I was a kid. Cookies from the past are what all present-day cookies are judged by, and to put it frankly, they just aren’t measuring up.

My first impulse was to blame the process that was used in preparing the recipe. But after close inspection, it was clear that this was not the source of the problem. Sure there are changes – electric beaters instead of hand mixers, fancy convection ovens instead of Grandma’s ancient oven – but the job gets done all the same.

What about the bakers? Are they not as good as the bakers of yester-year? I don’t think that’s the problem either. They love to bake and wouldn’t be in the profession if there wasn’t a desire to do so (or a desire to produce delicious cookies, either).

So why aren’t cookies as good as they used to be? Cookies are a big part of my life, and I simply could not abandon such an important question. It’s not because of the recipe and it’s not the fault of those who bake the cookie, so what could it be? Then it hit me.

The ingredients.

Perhaps the reason bakers cannot produce a high quality cookie anymore is because they do not have access to quality ingredients in which to bake with.

But this is an even bigger problem. Bakers can only control what goes on in their kitchen. They cannot control how ingredients are prepared before being packaged and shipped to them. All they can do is bake with passion and desire – and make the best cookie they can with the ingredients that are sent to them.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

8 Suggestions for a Successful Open House

Exactly one year ago, I shared this brief anecdote explaining why I was intimidated by presenting at Open House.

For reasons not glaringly apparent, I went into this year's Open House without these reservations, and -belief it or not – even a little excited to speak with my students' parents. After, I got to thinking about what makes for a good Open House experience. Here's my list of suggestions.

Remember your audience
Some days when I come home from work and start a conversation with my wife, she'll interrupt me to remind me that I'm not at school and the teacher voice can be put away for the night. All teachers have this voice, although it's difficult to describe – it's somehow a combination of volume, speed, emphasis, and diction. During Open House, don't forget that you are talking to adults, not the kids that are usually sitting in front of you. Speak professionally, but save the teacher voice for their children.

Don't try to prove yourself
I had a first year colleague one year begin her Open House speech by explaining to parents that she had a master's degree in mathematics so her teaching should not be questioned since she was considered an expert on the subject. While her intentions may have been good – to establish herself as a competent and intelligent teacher – the result was a room full of parents thinking she was a pompous ass. Don't go out of your way to try and prove you are an exceptional teacher. If that really is the case, parents will realize it when their children are successful in your classroom.

Establish contact

Use Open House as an opportunity to establish some form of contact between yourself and parents. Make sure your phone/email is available. Parents who are dedicated enough to come to Open House will be the ones who are willing to contact you with a problem before it inflates to a major issue. You may also want to collect their contact info as well by using a sign in sheet with columns for an email address and phone number.

Classroom Feng Shui
I remember a conversation I had years ago with my own mother as I prepared for my first Open House as a teacher. I asked her what she wanted to get out of open houses back when she attended them for me and my brothers. She said simply that she wanted to see what a day in our shoes was like – where our lockers were, how long it took to get from one class to the next, and of course, what each room looked like. I try to keep this in mind when preparing for Open House. Make your room look nice – straighten up your desk and shelves, and maybe hang up some exemplary work. Remember that your room on Open House will be the mental image in parents' heads whenever your class in brought up at the dinner table.

Handouts
Make a handout for parents, but keep it brief. Contact information, teacher website address (if applicable), general curriculum outline, etc. I knew of a teacher who made sure one of the points addressed on her Open House pamphlet was the importance of remembering to bring a writing utensil. Open House is not really the time or place for this, and it certainly does not need to to printed somewhere for parents. If you aren't sure about a handout, write an outline of what you'd like to talk about on the front board and parents can jot down whatever they think is important.

Brevity is the key

Keep the recitation to a minimum. Parents are looking for a generalized understanding of your classroom experience for their child. You don't need to be very specific to do this sufficiently.

Time to Explore
If my school's Open House schedule gives me 15 minutes with each group of parents, I make sure that I wrap up my presentation with at least 5 minutes to spare. I then encourage parents to walk around the room and look at some student work, or I put out textbooks or novels that we will be using during the year, or I call up the class website/blog on a few of the computers. This gives the parents a few minutes to explore the classroom on their own.

Avoid conferences
Open House is intended to be a time for parents to get general information about their child's classes, however, some parents try and use it as a opportunity to sneak in a quick parent-teacher conference. This is an all around terrible idea, and should be avoided at all costs. If little Jimmy's mom starts discussing his poor test grades, two things will happen. You will be stuck talking with Jimmy's mom for far longer than you'd like, and you actually run the risk of possible legal trouble because it is unethical to be discussing one child when other parents are milling about within earshot. If a parent wants to talk specifics, encourage them to schedule a conference at a later time.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

When Parents Put Sports Before Education

A student came to me this morning asking if he could turn his homework in late. I asked him why it wasn’t done, and he responded by giving me a scene-by-scene rundown of his evening.

After school he had practice for the school's modified lacrosse team. He went home, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then was driven over to the ice rink to practice with the town’s hockey team. After that practice, we immediately went to another hockey practice, this time for a travel team he plays for.

This boy left his house for school at about 7am and, other than a hasty dinner, didn’t return home until about 10pm. No wonder my essay didn’t get done.

Sure, I could have reminded him that I gave two days in class to work on it. I could have also told him that school should come before sports. I could have done a lot of things, but instead I gave him a pass to come up to my room and work on the assignment during one of his free periods. Why? Because it isn’t wrong (or abnormal) for a middle school boy to desire nothing more than living and breathing sports. What’s wrong here is the fact that his parents are letting him do it.

I don’t know all the details, and I’m certainly not going to put myself in the lose-lose situation of trying to explain to someone how to raise their kids, but this boy’s schedule just screams poor decision-making.

My students are reading Todd Strasser’s The Wave, and there’s a cautionary line in the book that we are discussing today in class. Interestingly enough, it fits this scenario nicely.

"This experiment involves young, impressionable kids. Sometimes we forget that they are young and haven’t developed the judgment we hope they’ll have someday.”

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

Take Time to Be a Dad Campaign

Last night my wife and I loaded our kids into the van so that we could surprise my mom and brother at the airport on their return trip from a week’s vacation. Never to be without a treasure, my 2-year-old daughter, Sophie, asked if she could bring something along for the ride. My wife told her she could take one special toy with her. She chose the painted noodle necklace she and I made together last week during an impromptu craft session at the kitchen table. I couldn’t help be feel a little proud that my craft beat out her usual picks - an Abby Cadabby doll or her pair of plastic flower-rimmed sunglasses.

On the way to the airport, I spotted something upsetting. There was a billboard depicting a man and his son bouncing happily across a grassy knoll. Above them was a simple directive – Take time to be a dad today.

Maybe it was the fact that my daughter was sitting directly behind me playing with her cherished daddy-daughter necklace, but this billboard offended me.

The display gives the over-generalized message that fathers don’t spend enough time with their kids. And to make matters worse, the organization that commissioned the ad, fatherhood.gov, is government sponsored. My taxes went to a billboard announcing that I was insufficient in my role as a dad!

Maybe I’m blowing this a little out of proportion. I understanding that nuclear families aren’t exactly the norm these days, and many times it’s the male figure that’s absent. But nonetheless, maybe there’s a better way to facilitate father-engagement than erecting large sweeping statements on Rt 33 heading toward the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

It’s also surprising that a campaign of this nature hasn’t been faced with more opposition. Motherhood.gov doesn’t even exist, but if this fictional organization decided to promote a Take time to be a mom campaign, you can bet that the uproar would be earth-shaking.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

Eat Dinner with Your Family!

When my wife and I first got married (it'll be four years in April!), my mom gave us one simple piece of advice – never eat dinner with the television on. She reminded us that dinner was a time to catch up with each other's lives; a time to ask How was your day? We've followed her advice, and I feel our lives are better for it.

Today (while not eating a meal), a commercial for Stouffer's caught my attention. They had taken my mom's words of wisdom one step further by suggesting that kids who eat dinner with their families are destined to do better in school, be more successful, and stay out of trouble. Wait a minute, Stouffer's, I think you're manipulating data here.

Am I arguing that eating dinner every night as a family is important? Absolutely not – I wholehearted agree that it's important to establish that as part of the daily routine. But I'm having a hard time swallowing the assumption that sitting down to a sodium-delicious Stouffer's meal will improve a kid's work habits at school. I remember a similar scenario appearing in an Educational Psychology course I had to take in grad school. It went like this - If wealthy families tend to own small dogs, then can it be assumed that small dogs are an indicator of wealth? I don't remember the exact term – some form of causation or correlation – but the same applies to families who eat dinner together. It's not the meal that causes the kids to do well, but the fact they come from a family who has it together enough to know that it's important to share in the lives of the people you love.

I'd like to know the percentage of families who still eat together. I'd assume it's lower than we expect. But in the end, if it takes a commercial campaign to make it happen, I'm okay with that. It's not quite as sentimental as your mother sharing her advice on your wedding day, but the message is clear. It's important to eat as a family, share as a family, and listen as a family.

Here's the commercial, or you can visit the commercial campaign site (dubbed "Let's Fix Dinner") here.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

Is it Possible for Teachers to Have an Anonymous Online Life?

A colleague came to me this morning asking if some of our students had tried friending me on Facebook; she had three requests last night.

Earlier this year, a few giggling kids approached me to ask about something I had posted on my Twitter account. They had found it while Googling the names of their teachers.

Even this blog has been discovered by inquisitive students who spotted its title in my list of favorites.

Is the concept of online anonymity gone? Is it a myth – something people claim to have, but can’t confirm (like spotting a Sasquatch, Chupacabra, or the Loch Ness monster)? Are we experiencing the 21st century equivalent of looking up a teacher’s phone number in the white pages and pranking the daylights out of him/her?

The optimist would say that this issue can be resolved by becoming completely transparent. Share everything; show you have nothing to hide. This does have some merits, like sharing your blog with students so they can see firsthand the rewards of writing for pleasure. But all it takes is one comment, taken out of context, and there’s a problem.

But shutting everything down and denying the existence of a web footprint is just as incriminating for a teacher. If you don’t want kids to know something, it’s probably bad, right? Maybe, maybe not – but that’s how the adolescent mind works.

So how do teachers deal with a loss of online anonymity?

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users

Why I'm Intimidated by Open House

In 8th grade, my math teacher was a nice man who – judging by outward appearance – was rather well-fed. The buttons on his dress shirt made a puckered vertical row where each side of the shirt struggled to contain the incredible weight straining against it.

And then, one afternoon as the teacher leaned against his desk, one of these buttons failed. It shot off his shirt, soaring over the heads of the astonished students, and landing somewhere in the back of the room.

It was a wardrobe malfunction only to be trumped by Janet Jackson’s tassels some 10 years later. And you can bet every kid in the school couldn’t wait to share the story with their parents that night at dinner.

It makes me wonder what wonderful tidbits the parents of my students know about me. Despite having a good group, I doubt my students go home and share stories of an excellent lesson plan or in-depth group discussion with their parents. Most likely, they know of a time when I inadvertently taught class with my fly down, or a day when I had a cold and sneezed enough times to get a nosebleed.

This is the reason why Open House intimidates me so much.

I don’t have a problem speaking in front of people, or even discussing a child’s progress with a parent. I’m uncomfortable with the fact they know something about me, but I have no idea what it may be (or in what way it may have been taken out of context). It’s like playing poker with your hand facing out. Everyone can see your cards but you.

Save to delicious Saved by 0 users